Media handling system

• US 20060044446A1
• Filed: 11/28/2003
• Published: 03/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/29/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony United Kingdom Limited (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony United Kingdom Limited (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Porter, Robert Mark Stefan, David, Morgan William Amos
• Granted Patent: US 7,739,598 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/333.110
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/161 Detection; Localisation; Normalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/28 by using information signals recorded by the same method as the main recording G11B27/22 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/34 Indicating arrangements indicating means incorporated in magazine or cassette G11B23/046 and G11B23/0875; indicating measured values in general G01D
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23418 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics television picture signal circuitry for scene change detection H04N5/147; filtering for image enhancement G06T5/00; methods or arrangements for recognising scenes G06V20/00; arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/854 Content authoring

Abstract

A media handling system in which candidate video sequences are displayed on a display screen in schematic form for selection by a user comprises means for detecting human faces in the candidate video sequences; a display screen for displaying representations of the candidate video sequences for selection by a user, each representation including one or more images representing human faces derived from the respective video sequences; and a user control for defining a set of one or more of the video sequences.

Claims

1. A media handling system in which candidate video sequences are displayed on a display screen in schematic form for selection by a user, the system comprising:

means for detecting human faces in the candidate video sequences;

a display screen for displaying representations of the candidate video sequences for selection by a user, each representation including one or more images representing human faces derived from the respective video sequences; and

a user control for defining a set of one or more of the video sequences.

2. A system according to claim 1, in which the set of one or more of the video sequences is an ordered edited set forming an output media product.

3. A system according to claim 2, comprising means for displaying, on the display screen, a further ordered representation of a group of at least a subset of the video sequences forming the output media product;

the ordered representation including one or more images representing human faces derived from the respective video sequences in the group.

4. A system according to claim 3, in which the ordered representation is a timeline representation, providing an ordered representation of the group of video sequences forming the output media product along a generally rectilinear path on the display screen.

5. A system according to claim 3, in which the ordered representation may be scaled so as to vary the proportion of the video sequences forming the output media product which are currently displayed in the ordered representation.

6. A system according to claim 1, in which the detecting means is operable to detect a probability of a human face being present in each field or frame of the video sequences;

each displayed representation of a candidate video sequence including one or more images representing human faces which have the highest probability levels amongst the respective video sequences.

7. A system according to claim 1, in which the detecting means is operable to detect a probability of a human face being present in each field or frame of the video sequences and to weight at least some of the detected probability levels in dependence on the size of the detected face;

each displayed representation of a candidate video sequence including one or more images representing human faces which have the highest weighted probability levels amongst the respective video sequences.

8. A system according to claim 7, in which the detecting means is operable to weight the probability levels so that detected faces closer in size to a desired representation size are more likely to be selected to form a displayed representation.

9. A system according to claim 7, in which the detecting means is operable to apply the weighting over a subset of the fields or frames of a video sequence.

10. A system according to claim 9, in which the detecting means is operable to apply the weighting over an initial subset of the fields or frames of a video sequence.

11. A system according to claim 1, in which each candidate video sequence is a sequence over which a face has been detected.

12. A system according to claim 11, in which selection of a displayed representation by the user control causes the display of the corresponding video sequence.

13. A system according to claim 1, in which the candidate video sequences are selected from a video sequence captured by a surveillance camera.

14. A system according to any one of the preceding claims claim 1, comprising a user control for indicating that faces detected in two or more respective ones of the candidate video sequences represent the same person'"'"'s face.

15. A method of media handling in which candidate video sequences are displayed on a display screen in schematic form for selection by a user, the method comprising the steps of:

detecting human faces in the candidate video sequences;

displaying on a display screen representations of the candidate video sequences for selection by a user, each representation including one or more images representing human faces derived from the respective video sequences; and

providing a user control for defining a set of one or more of the video sequences.

16. Computer software having program code for carrying out a method according to claim 15.

17. A providing medium for providing program code according to claim 16.

18. A medium according to claim 17, the medium being a storage medium.

19. A medium according to claim 17, the medium being a transmission medium.

20. A media handling system in which candidate video sequences are displayed on a display screen in schematic form for selection by a user, the system comprising:

a detector to detect human faces in the candidate video sequences;

a display screen to display representations of the candidate video sequences for selection by a user, each representation including one or more images representing human faces derived from the respective video sequences; and

a user control to define a set of one or more of the video sequences.