Image synthesis processor and image synthesis method

• US 9,129,184 B2
• Filed: 09/20/2013
• Issued: 09/08/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Takahashi, Jun, Iwanaga, Hiroshi, Kuraki, Kensuke, Nakagata, Shohei, Anan, Taizo
• Primary Examiner(s): Harandi, Siamak
• Application Number:
  US14/032,532
• Publication Number:
  US 20140023277A1
• Time in Patent Office: 718 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0028 Adaptive watermarking, e.g. Human Visual System [HVS]-based watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0201 whereby only tamper or origin are detected and no embedding takes place
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0202 whereby the quality of watermarked images is measured; Measuring quality or performance of watermarking methods; Balancing between quality and robustness
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32224 Replacing pixels of an image with other pixels from the same image, e.g. texture block coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32352 Controlling detectability or arrangements to facilitate detection or retrieval of the embedded information, e.g. using markers for decoding, detection or retrieval operations H04N1/32149 and subgroups take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44008 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in the video stream arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4405 involving video stream decryption
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44055 by partially decrypting, e.g. decrypting a video stream that has been partially encrypted
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/835 Generation of protective data, e.g. certificates protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10

Abstract

An image processor includes an image degradation measuring unit configured to compute a degradation level of block data with respect to each of blocks within an image, a degradation determining unit configured to select, with respect to each of the blocks within the image, the block data of a target block of one of a plurality of the images based on degradation levels of respective block data of the target blocks of the plurality of the images, and an image synthesis unit configured to generate a sheet of an image by synthesizing the block data selected with respect to the blocks within the image.

Claims

1. An image processor, comprising:

an image degradation measuring unit configured to compute a degradation level of block data with respect to each of blocks within an image;

a degradation determining unit configured to select, with respect to each of the blocks within the image, the block data of a target block of one of a plurality of images based on degradation levels of respective block data of the target blocks of the plurality of the images; and

an image synthesis unit configured to generate a sheet of an image by synthesizing the block data selected with respect to the blocks within the image;

wherein when the image synthesis unit synthesizes the respective block data, the image synthesis unit normalizes a size and a shape of each of the block data before synthesizing the respective block data to normalize the blocks for accurately stitching the blocks one to another by removing distortion while the image includes the distortion in accordance with imaging conditions.

2. The image processor as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

an image input unit configured to incorporate an image,

wherein when the sheet of the image generated by the image synthesis unit includes block data of a block having a degradation level greater than a predetermined degradation level, the degradation determining unit selects block data of a block having a degradation level less than the predetermined degradation level from one or more images newly input by the image input unit with respect to the block having the degradation level greater than the predetermined degradation level, and

the image synthesis unit regenerates a sheet of an image utilizing the selected block data of the block having the degradation level less than the predetermined degradation level.

3. The image processor as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

an image decoder configured to decode the sheet of the image generated by the image synthesis unit based on predetermined key information.

4. An image processing method, comprising:

computing a degradation level of block data with respect to each of blocks within an image;

selecting, with respect to each of the blocks within the image, the block data of a target block of one of a plurality of images based on degradation levels of respective block data of the target blocks of the plurality of the images;

generating a sheet of an image by synthesizing the block data selected with respect to the blocks within the image; and

when the generating synthesizes the respective block data, normalizing a size and a shape of each of the block data before synthesizing the respective block data to normalize the blocks for accurately stitching the blocks one to another by removing distortion while the image includes the distortion in accordance with imaging conditions.

5. The image processing method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the selecting includes

comparing a degradation level of the block data of a target block selected from a plurality of previous images and a degradation level of the block data of a target block of one of a plurality of current images;

and

determining one of the block data of the target blocks to be selected based on the compared result.

6. The image processing method as claimed in claim 4, wherein when the block data of the target block selected from a plurality of previous images indicates a degradation level greater than a predetermined degradation level, the selecting includes

comparing the degradation level of the block data of the target block selected from the plurality of the previous images and the degradation level of the block data of the target block of one of a plurality of current images;

and

determining one of the block data of the target blocks to be selected based on the compared result, and

wherein when the block data of the target block selected from the plurality of the previous images indicates a degradation level less than the predetermined degradation level, the selecting includes

selecting the block data of the target block selected from the plurality of the previous images without comparing the block data of the target blocks.

7. An image processing apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a memory which stores a plurality of instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the processor to execute;

an image degradation measuring unit configured to computing a degradation level of block data with respect to each of blocks within an image;

selecting, with respect to each of the blocks within the image, the block data of a target block of one of a plurality of images based on degradation levels of respective block data of the target blocks of the plurality of the images;

generating a sheet of an image by synthesizing the block data selected with respect to the blocks within the image; and

when the generating synthesizes the respective block data, normalizing a size and a shape of each of the block data before synthesizing the respective block data to normalize the blocks for accurately stitching the blocks one to another by removing distortion.