Registration of separations

• US 9,104,938 B2
• Filed: 08/25/2014
• Issued: 08/11/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/04/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AOL Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.), Warner Bros Entertainment Incorporated (Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Warner Bros Entertainment Incorporated (Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.)
• Inventors: Perlmutter, Keren O., Perlmutter, Sharon M., Wang, Eric, Klamer, Paul R., Cookson, Christopher J., Gasparri, Massimiliano
• Primary Examiner(s): Kassa, Yosef
• Application Number:
  US14/467,762
• Publication Number:
  US 20140363077A1
• Time in Patent Office: 351 Days
• Field of Search: 382/209, 382/260, 382/274, 382/275, 382/284, 382/294, 358/3.26, 358/3.27, 358/540
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10016 Video; Image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10024 Color image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20064 Wavelet transform [DWT]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20192 Edge enhancement; Edge preservation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/403 Edge-driven scaling; Edge-based scaling
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/4084 in the transform domain, e.g. fast Fourier transform [FFT] domain scaling
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/10 using non-spatial domain filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/50 using two or more images, e.g. averaging or subtraction
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/73 Deblurring; Sharpening
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/12 Edge-based segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/13 Edge detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/38 Registration of image sequences
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/24 Aligning, centring, orientation detection or correction of the image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/58 Edge or detail enhancement; Noise or error suppression, e.g. colour misregistration correction H04N1/62 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/15 Image signal generation with circuitry for avoiding or correcting image misregistration
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/262 Studio circuits, e.g. for mixing, switching-over, change of character of image, other special effects ; Cameras specially adapted for the electronic generation of special effects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/11 Scanning of colour motion picture films, e.g. for telecine

Abstract

Separations or images relating to film or other fields may be registered using a variety of features, such as, for example: (1) correcting one or more film distortions; (2) automatically determining a transformation to reduce a film distortion; (3) applying multiple criteria of merit to a set of features to determine a set of features to use in determining a transformation; (4) determining transformations for areas in an image or a separation in a radial order; (5) comparing areas in images or separations by weighting feature pixels differently than non-feature pixels; (6) determining distortion values for transformations by applying a partial distortion measure and/or using a spiral search configuration; (7) determining transformations by using different sets of features to determine corresponding transformation parameters in an iterative manner; and (8) applying a feathering technique to neighboring areas within an image or separation.

Claims

1. A method of processing component images, the method comprising:

accessing a first component image, the first component image being a spectral component image of at least an object and corresponding to a first spectral component, the object occupying a first portion of the first component image;

accessing a second component image, the second component image being a spectral component image of at least the object and corresponding to a second spectral component that is different than the first spectral component, the object occupying a second portion of the second component image;

transforming at least a portion of the second component image to generate a transformed version of the second component image, wherein the transformed version of the second component image is a spectral component image of at least the object and corresponding to the second spectral component, wherein the object occupies a third portion of the transformed version of the second component image;

aligning the transformed version of the second component image and the first component image; and

combining the first component image and the transformed version of the second component image into a composite image of at least the object.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

before transforming at least the portion of the second component image, determining that the first component image corresponds to the first spectral component;

based on determining that the first component image corresponds to the first spectral component, designating the first component image as a reference image, wherein at least the portion of the second component image is transformed based at least on the reference image.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein (I) differences in (i) at least one of size and position of the first portion of first component image with respect to the first component image, and (ii) at least one of size and position of the second portion of the second component image with respect to the second component image, are greater, respectively, than (II) differences in (i) at least one of size and position of the first portion of first component image with respect to the first component image, and (ii) at least one of size and position of the third portion of the transformed version of the second component image with respect to the transformed version of the second component image.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first component image and the second component image are component images of at least the object captured at a same time.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the first component image and the second component image are component images of at least the object captured by a same device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein aligning the transformed version of the second component image and the first component image comprises automatically determining an alignment vector for at least the portion of the transformed version of the second component image.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the composite image of at least the object on a machine-readable medium.

8. A computer-implemented method comprising:

accessing a first image, the first image being representative of first spectral components of spatially-distributed signals captured by a sensing system at a first time, wherein a first portion of the first image corresponds to spatially-distributed signals associated with an object in the presence of the sensing system;

accessing a second image, the second image being representative of second spectral components of spatially-distributed signals captured by the sensing system at the first time, the second spectral components of spatially-distributed signals being different than the first spectral components of spatially-distributed signals, wherein a second portion of the second image corresponds to spatially-distributed signals associated with the object in the presence of the sensing system;

transforming at least a portion of the second image to generate a transformed version of the second image, wherein the transformed version of the second image is representative of second spectral components of spatially-distributed signals captured by the sensing system at the first time, wherein a third portion of the transformed version of the second image corresponds to spatially-distributed signals associated with the object in the presence of the sensing system; and

combining the first image and the transformed version of the second image to generate a composite image, the composite image being representative of third spectral components of spatially-distributed signals captured by the sensing system at the first time, the third spectral components of spatially-distributed signals being composite spectral components of the first spectral components of spatially-distributed signals and the second spectral components of spatially-distributed signals.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

before transforming at least the portion of the second image, determining that the first image corresponds to the first spectral components of spatially-distributed signals;

based on determining that the first image corresponds to the first spectral components of spatially-distributed signals, designating the first image as a reference image, wherein at least the portion of the second image is transformed based at least on the reference image.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein (I) differences in (i) at least one of size and position of the first portion of first image with respect to the first image, and (ii) at least one of size and position of the second portion of second image with respect to the second image, are greater, respectively, than (II) differences in (i) at least one of size and position of the first portion of first image with respect to the first image, and (ii) at least one of size and position of the third portion of the transformed version of the second image with respect to the transformed version of the second image.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein combining the first image and the transformed version of the second image, comprises automatically determining an alignment vector for at least the portion of the transformed version of the second image to align the transformed version of the second image and the first image.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising storing the composite image on a machine-readable medium.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the spatially-distributed signals captured by the sensing system at the first time comprise electromagnetic signals.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein the spatially-distributed signals captured by the sensing system at the first time comprise acoustic signals.

15. An apparatus for processing component images, the apparatus comprising at least one processor programmed to perform operations comprising:

accessing a first component image, the first component image being a spectral component image of at least an object and corresponding to a first spectral component, the object occupying a first portion of the first component image;

accessing a second component image, the second component image being a spectral component image of at least the object and corresponding to a second spectral component that is different than the first spectral component, the object occupying a second portion of the second component image;

transforming at least a portion of the second component image to generate a transformed version of the second component image, wherein the transformed version of the second component image is a spectral component image of at least the object and corresponding to the second spectral component, wherein the object occupies a third portion of the transformed version of the second component image; and

aligning the transformed version of the second component image and the first component image; and

combining the first component image and the transformed version of the second component image into a composite image of at least the object.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

before transforming at least the portion of the second component image, determining that the first component image corresponds to the first spectral component;

based on determining that the first component image corresponds to the first spectral component, designating the first component image as a reference image, wherein at least the portion of the second component image is transformed based at least on the reference image.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein (I) differences in (i) at least one of size and position of the first portion of first component image with respect to the first component image, and (ii) at least one of size and position of the second portion of the second component image with respect to the second component image, are greater, respectively, than (II) differences in (i) at least one of size and position of the first portion of first component image with respect to the first component image, and (ii) at least one of size and position of the third portion of the transformed version of the second component image with respect to the transformed version of the second component image.

18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the first component image and the second component image are component images of at least the object captured at a same time.

19. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein aligning the transformed version of the second component image and the first component image comprises automatically determining an alignment vector for at least the portion of the transformed version of the second component image.

20. The apparatus of claim 15, further comprising storing the composite image of at least the object on a machine-readable medium.