Method and apparatus for detecting scene changes in video using a histogram of frame differences

• US 6,993,182 B2
• Filed: 03/29/2002
• Issued: 01/31/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Uniloc 2017 LLC (SoftBank Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Boroczky, Lilla, Yang, Yibin
• Primary Examiner(s): Johns, Andrew W.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Alavi, Amir
• Application Number:
  US10/109,772
• Publication Number:
  US 20030185442A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,404 Days
• Field of Search: 382/107, 382/165, 382/166, 382/168, 382/170, 382/172, 382/219, 382/220, 382/221, 382/236, 382/239, 375/240.01, 375/240.02, 375/240.16, 348/231.99, 348/155, 348/700, 386/46, 358/522, 273/440.1
• US Class Current: 382/168
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/40 in video content extracting overlay text G06V20/62; video retrieval G06F16/70; processing of video elementary streams in video servers H04N21/234; processing of video elementary streams in video clients H04N21/44
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/142 Detection of scene cut or scene change
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/179 the unit being a scene or a shot
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/61 in combination with predictive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/87 involving scene cut or scene change detection in combination with video compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/147 Scene change detection

Abstract

The present invention is directed to method of detecting a scene change in video. The method includes a difference being calculated between consecutive frames of the video producing a plurality of difference values. A histogram is taken of the difference values. A scene change is detected if a majority of the difference values in the histogram exceed a predetermined value.

Claims

1. A method of detecting a scene change in video, the method comprising the steps of:

calculating a difference between consecutive frames of the video producing a plurality of difference values;

taking a histogram of the difference values;

finding a characteristic value (Q) defining a predetermined range of the difference values; and

detecting a scene change if the characteristic value (Q) exceeds a predetermined value.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the difference values are the magnitudes of the difference between corresponding pixel values in the consecutive frames.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the difference between consecutive frames is calculated for a selected portion of the consecutive frames.

4. A method of detecting a scene change in video, the method comprising the steps of:

calculating a difference between consecutive frames of the video producing a plurality of difference values;

taking a histogram of the difference values; and

finding a characteristic value (Q) defining a range of the difference values; and

detecting a scene change if the characteristic value (Q) exceeds a predetermined value;

wherein the characteristic value (Q) satisfies the following equation;

$\frac{\underset{i=0}{\overset{Q}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br><br><br>\mathrm{His}<br><br>\left(i\right)}{\underset{i=0}{\overset{2^n-1}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br><br><br>\mathrm{His}<br><br>\left(i\right)}><br><br>\mathrm{T1}$

where His(i) is the histogram value at i, n is the bit precision used by each frame of the video and T1 is the predetermined value.

5. A computer readable memory medium including code for detecting a scene change in video, the code comprising:

a code for calculating a difference between consecutive frames of the video producing a plurality of difference values;

a code for taking a histogram of the difference values;

a code for finding a characteristic value (Q) defining a predetermined range of the difference values; and

a code for detecting a scene change if the characteristic value (Q) exceeds a predetermined value.