IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD

• US 20070140526A1
• Filed: 02/20/2007
• Published: 06/21/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/22/1997
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Image Processing Technologies, LLC (General Patent Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Image Processing Technologies, LLC (General Patent Corporation)
• Inventors: PIRIM, PATRICK
• Granted Patent: US 7,650,015 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10016 Video; Image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20104 Interactive definition of region of interest [ROI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30241 Trajectory
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/70 Denoising; Smoothing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/10 Segmentation; Edge detection motion-based segmentation G06T7/215
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/20 Analysis of motion motion estimation for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/43, H04N19/51
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/246 using feature-based methods, e.g. the tracking of corners or segments
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/70 Determining position or orientation of objects or cameras camera calibration G06T7/80
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/73 using feature-based methods
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/255 Detecting or recognising potential candidate objects based on visual cues, e.g. shapes
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/50 by performing operations within image blocks; by using histograms, e.g. histogram of oriented gradients [HoG]; by summing image-intensity values; Projection analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/52 Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/69 Control of means for changing angle of the field of view, e.g. optical zoom objectives or electronic zooming

Abstract

A method and apparatus for localizing an area in relative movement and for determining the speed and direction thereof in real time is disclosed. Each pixel of an image is smoothed using its own time constant. A binary value corresponding to the existence of a significant variation in the amplitude of the smoothed pixel from the prior frame, and the amplitude of the variation, are determined, and the time constant for the pixel is updated. For each particular pixel, two matrices are formed that include a subset of the pixels spatially related to the particular pixel. The first matrix contains the binary values of the subset of pixels. The second matrix contains the amplitude of the variation of the subset of pixels. In the first matrix, it is determined whether the pixels along an oriented direction relative to the particular pixel have binary values representative of significant variation, and, for such pixels, it is determined in the second matrix whether the amplitude of these pixels varies in a known manner indicating movement in the oriented direction. In each of several domains, histogram of the values in the first and second matrices falling in such domain is formed. Using the histograms, it is determined whether there is an area having the characteristics of the particular domain. The domains include luminance, hue, saturation, speed (V), oriented direction (D1), time constant (CO), first axis (x(m)), and second axis (y(m)).

Claims

1-50. -50. (canceled)

51. A process for tracking a target in an input signal, the input signal comprising a succession of frames, each frame comprising a succession of pixels, the target comprising pixels in one or more of a plurality of classes in one or more of a plurality of domains, the process comprising:

selecting a pixel of the target as a starting pixel;

on a frame-by-frame basis;

forming a tracking box around the starting pixel and for each pixel of the input signal in the tracking box forming a histogram of the pixels in the one or more of a plurality of classes in the one or more of a plurality of domains;

successively increasing the size of the tracking box and for each pixel of the input signal, in each successive tracking box forming a histogram of the pixels in the one or more of a plurality of classes in the one or more of a plurality of domains;

determining when the target is substantially within the tracking box;

stopping the size increasing of said tracking box; and

adjusting the center of the tracking box based upon the histograms.

52. The process according to claim 51, comprising centering the tracking box relative to the optical axis of the image.

53. The process according to claim 51, comprising calculating a histogram according to a projection axis in a region delimited by an associated classifier, between two points on the projection axis, creating a histogram of the same points with orientation and intensity of motion as input parameters and modifying the values corresponding to said two points of the classifier and calculate an anticipated next frame.

54. A process of tracking a target in an input signal, the input signal comprising a succession of frames, each frame comprising a succession of pixels, the target comprising pixels in one or more of a plurality of classes in one or more of a plurality of domains, the process comprising, on a frame-by-frame basis:

forming at least one histogram of the pixels in the one or more of a plurality of classes in the one or more of a plurality of domains, said at least one histogram referring to classes defining said target, and identifying the target from said at least one histogram.

55. The process according to claim 54 further comprising drawing a tracking box around the target.

56. The process according to claim 54, comprising centering the tracking box relative to the optical axis of the image.

57. The process according to claim 54, comprising calculating a histogram according to a projection axis in a region delimited by an associated classifier, between two points on the projection axis, creating a histogram of the same points with orientation and intensity of motion as input parameters and modifying the values corresponding to said two points of the classifier and calculate an anticipated next frame.