VIDEO PROCESSING APPARATUS AND VIDEO PROCESSING METHOD

• US 20140225987A1
• Filed: 09/30/2011
• Published: 08/14/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Kataoka, Mitsuteru
• Granted Patent: US 9,407,897 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/43
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/128 Adjusting depth or disparity
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/133 Equalising the characteristics of different image components, e.g. their average brightness or colour balance
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/156 Mixing image signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/178 Metadata, e.g. disparity information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/183 On-screen display [OSD] information, e.g. subtitles or menus

Abstract

A video processing apparatus includes: an obtainment unit which obtains a stereoscopic video, a subtitle data item, and subtitle depth information indicating a position of the subtitle data item in a depth direction; a depth level input unit which receives an input of depth level information for adjusting a depth effect of the stereoscopic video; a depth adjustment unit which adjusts, according to the depth level information, the depth effect of the stereoscopic video and a depth effect of the subtitle depth information in association with each other; a subtitle video generation unit which generates a subtitle video from the subtitle depth information adjusted by the depth adjustment unit and the subtitle data item; a video combining unit which combines the stereoscopic video and the subtitle video to generate a combined video; and an output unit which outputs the combined video generated by the video combining unit.

Claims

1. A video processing apparatus comprising:

an obtainment unit configured to obtain a stereoscopic video, a subtitle data item, and subtitle depth information indicating a position of the subtitle data item in a depth direction;

a depth level input unit configured to receive an input of depth level information for adjusting a depth effect of the stereoscopic video;

a depth adjustment unit configured to adjust, according to the depth level information, the depth effect of the stereoscopic video and a depth effect of the subtitle data item indicated by the subtitle depth information in association with each other;

a subtitle video generation unit configured to generate a subtitle video from the subtitle depth information adjusted by the depth adjustment unit and the subtitle data item;

a video combining unit configured to combine the stereoscopic video and the subtitle video to generate a combined video; and

an output unit configured to output the combined video generated by the video combining unit.

2. The video processing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein, when the depth level information indicates that the depth effect is to be weakened, the depth adjustment unit is configured to

increase a font size of the subtitle data item to be positioned frontward, and

decrease a font size of the subtitle data item to be positioned backward.

3. The video processing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein, when the depth level information indicates that the depth effect is to be lost, the depth adjustment unit is configured to

overlay-display, out of a plurality of the subtitle data items displayed simultaneously, a subtitle data item to be positioned frontward on a subtitle data item to be positioned backward.

4. The video processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising

a biological safety determination unit configured to calculate a biological safety determination value indicating how much a viewer is influenced by viewing the combined video,

wherein the depth adjustment unit is configured to weaken the depth effect of the subtitle data item indicated by the subtitle depth information when the biological safety determination value is greater than a first threshold.

5. The video processing apparatus according to claim 4,

wherein the depth adjustment unit is configured to weaken the depth effect of the stereoscopic video when the biological safety determination value is greater than a second threshold that is greater than the first threshold.

6. The video processing apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising

a biological safety setting unit configured to obtain a biological safety set value indicating a state of a user viewing the combined video outputted from the output unit,

wherein the biological safety determination unit is configured to calculate the biological safety determination value based on the biological safety set value obtained by the biological safety setting unit.

7. The video processing apparatus according to claim 4,

wherein the biological safety determination unit is configured to obtain information indicating a genre of the stereoscopic video from the obtainment unit and calculate the biological safety determination value based on the obtained information indicating the genre.

8. A video processing method comprising:

obtaining a stereoscopic video, a subtitle data item, and subtitle depth information indicating a position of the subtitle data item in a depth direction;

receiving an input of depth level information for adjusting a depth effect of the stereoscopic video;

adjusting, according to the depth level information, the depth effect of the stereoscopic video and a depth effect of the subtitle data item indicated by the subtitle depth information in association with each other;

generating a subtitle video from the subtitle depth information adjusted in the adjusting and the subtitle data item;

combining the stereoscopic video and the subtitle video to generate a combined video; and

outputting the combined video generated in the combining.