Capturing event information using a digital video camera

• US 9,241,094 B2
• Filed: 03/18/2008
• Issued: 01/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/18/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Adiletta, Matthew, Yang, Chengda
• Primary Examiner(s): Golabbakhsh, Ebrahim
• Application Number:
  US12/050,811
• Publication Number:
  US 20090238542A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,863 Days
• Field of Search: 348/143
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19606 Discriminating between target movement or movement in an area of interest and other non-signicative movements, e.g. target movements induced by camera shake or movements of pets, falling leaves, rotating fan
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19663 Surveillance related processing done local to the camera
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19682 Graphic User Interface [GUI] presenting system data to the user, e.g. information on a screen helping a user interacting with an alarm system
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/145 Movement estimation for video coding H04N19/51
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/77 between a recording apparatus and a television camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/782 on tape
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/188 Capturing isolated or intermittent images triggered by the occurrence of a predetermined event, e.g. an object reaching a predetermined position signal generation from motion picture films H04N5/253

Abstract

An event aware video system (EAVS) is to capture video frames during a first time period and process event portion of the video frames before transferring the processed data to a central computing system. The EAVS may establish a present no-event frame from the video frames, wherein a last frame of the video frames is marked as the present no-event frame if the difference between adjacent pair of frames of the video frames is less than a threshold value. The EAVS may establish an event frame, wherein a present frame captured after establishing the no-event frame is marked as the event frame if the difference between the present frame and a previous frame captured prior to the present frame is greater than the threshold value. The EAVS may generate the processed data by processing the event of the event frame.

Claims

1. A method in a video capturing device, comprising:

capturing a first plurality of video frames during a first time period;

establishing a present no-event frame from the first plurality of video frames, wherein a last frame of the first plurality of video frames is marked as the present no-event frame if the difference between adjacent pair of frames of the first plurality of video frames is less than a threshold value;

establishing an event frame, wherein a present frame captured after establishing the no-event frame is marked as the event frame if the difference between the present frame and a previous frame captured prior to the present frame is greater than the threshold value; and

providing event information to a central computing system, wherein the event information is generated by processing the event extracted from the event frame;

wherein processing the event comprises generating a real motion vector of a moving object in the event frame; and

wherein generating the real motion vector of the moving object comprises;

labeling the moving object;

pairing the moving object in the event frame with a moving object in the previous frame;

resizing a boundary of the moving object in the event frame to match a boundary of the moving object in the previous frame; and

computing the co-ordinates of the center of gravity of the boundary of the moving object in the event frame and the previous frame.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprises rejecting the present frame captured after the first time period if the difference between the present frame and the no-event frame is less than the threshold value.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the event comprises removing background information of the event frame before sending the event information to the central computing system.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein removing the background comprises:

identifying an area that excludes the event in the event frame; and

assigning a first color value to the pixels of the area, wherein assigning the first color to the pixels of the area removes the background information in the event frame.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprises computing motion error of the moving object.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein computing the motion error comprises:

generating an estimated motion vector by displacing the moving object in the previous frame using the motion vector; and

computing the difference between the real moving object image and the motion estimated moving object image.

7. The method of claim 5 further comprises:

performing motion refining if the motion error is greater than an allowable error threshold; and

performing motion error coding if the motion error is lesser than the allowable error threshold.

8. The method of claim 7 performing the motion refining further comprises:

sub-dividing the boundary of the moving object in the event frame into first, second, third, and fourth smaller rectangles; and

determining a first, second, third, and a fourth motion vector and error for the first, second, third, and fourth smaller rectangles.

9. The method of claim 7 performing the motion error coding further comprises:

generating transformation values by performing a discrete cosine transform on the motion error; and

performing compression of the motion error.

10. An apparatus, comprising:

an image capturing unit to capture a first plurality of video frames during a first time period;

an event aware video system enabled controller coupled to the image capturing unit, wherein the event aware video system enabled controller is to;

establish a present no-event frame from the first plurality of video frames, wherein a last frame of the first plurality of video frames is marked as the present no-event frame if the difference between adjacent pair of frames of the first plurality of video frames is less than a threshold value; and

establish an event frame, wherein a present frame captured after establishing the no-event frame is marked as the event frame if the difference between the present frame and a previous frame captured prior to the present frame is greater than the threshold value; and

a network interface coupled to the event aware video system enabled controller, wherein the network interface is to transfer the event information to a central computing system, wherein the event information is generated by processing the event extracted from the event frame;

wherein the event aware video system enabled controller is to generate a real motion vector of a moving object in the event frame; and

wherein the event aware video system enabled controller is to;

label the moving object;

pair the moving object in the event frame with a moving object in the previous frame;

resize boundary of the moving object in the event frame to match the boundary of the moving object in the previous frame; and

compute the co-ordinates of the center of gravity of the boundary of the moving object in the event frame and the previous frame.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 further comprises:

a frame buffer coupled to the event aware video system enabled controller, wherein the frame buffer is to store the first plurality of images; and

a no-event frame buffer coupled to the event aware video system enabled controller, wherein the no-event frame buffer is to store the no-event frame.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the event aware video system enabled controller is to remove background information of the event frame while processing the event frame.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the event aware video system enabled controller is to:

identify an area that excludes the event in the event frame; and

assign a first color value to the pixels of the area, wherein assigning the first color to the pixels of the area removes the background information in the event frame.

14. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the event aware video system enabled controller is to compute motion error of the moving object.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the event aware video system enabled controller is to:

generate an estimated motion vector by displacing the moving object in the previous frame using the motion vector; and

compute the difference between the real moving object image and the motion estimated moving object image.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the event aware video system enabled controller is to:

perform motion refining if the motion error is greater than an allowable error threshold; and

perform motion error coding if the motion error is lesser than the allowable error threshold.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the event aware video system enabled controller is to:

sub-divide the boundary of the moving object in the event frame into first, second, third, and fourth smaller rectangles; and

determine a first, second, third, and a fourth motion vector and error for the first, second, third, and fourth smaller rectangles.

18. A system comprising:

an event aware video system;

wherein the event aware video system is to establish a present no-event frame from a first plurality of video frames comprising two or more adjacent pairs of frames, wherein a last frame of the first plurality of video frames is marked as the present no-event frame if the difference between each adjacent pair of frames of the first plurality of video frames is less than a threshold value;

wherein the event aware video system is to establish an event frame, wherein a present frame captured after establishing the present no-event frame is marked as the event frame if the difference between the present frame and a previous frame captured prior to the present frame is greater than the threshold value;

a network to couple the event aware video system to a central computing system, wherein the network is to transfer the event information to a central computing system, wherein the event information is generated by processing the event extracted from the event frame; and

to generate a real motion vector of a moving object in the event frame, the event aware video system is to;

label the moving object;

pair the moving object in the event frame with a moving object in the previous frame;

resize boundary of the moving object in the event frame to match the boundary of the moving object in the previous frame; and

compute the co-ordinates of the center of gravity of the boundary of the moving object in the event frame and the previous frame.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the event aware video system is to:

detect the occurrence of events in a scene by marking the frame as the event frame; and

generate processed data by processing the event frame, wherein processed data is generated by removing background information from the event frame, determining the motion of the moving object in the event frame, determining a motion error, and coding the motion error.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the central computing system is to receive the processed data and reproduce the event information, wherein reproducing the processed data is to conserve the processing cycles of the central computing system.

21. The system of claim 18, wherein the network is to transfer the processed data to the central computing system, wherein transferring the processed data conserves bandwidth of the network.