8226 results about "Image sequence" patented technology

An image conversion system for converting monoscopic images for viewing in three dimensions including: an input means adapted to receive the monoscopic images; a preliminary analysis means to determine if there is any continuity between a first image and a second image of the monoscopic image sequence; a secondary analysis means for receiving monoscopic images which have a continuity, and analyzing the images to determine the speed and direction of motion, and the depth, size and position of objects; a first processing means for processing the monoscopic images based on data received from the preliminary analysis means or the secondary analysis means; a second processing means capable of further processing images received from the first processing means; a transmission means capable of transferring the processed images to a stereoscopic display system.

A method of creating at least one depth map for an image sequence including the steps of receiving depth data for a plurality of points in the image sequence, utilising the depth data and a classifier to ascertain depth characteristics as a function of image characteristics and relative position and creating a depth map for at least one frame of the image sequence utilising the image characteristics.

The present invention discloses methods of digitally converting 2D motion pictures or any other 2D image sequences to stereoscopic 3D image data for 3D exhibition. In one embodiment, various types of image data cues can be collected from 2D source images by various methods and then used for producing two distinct stereoscopic 3D views. Embodiments of the disclosed methods can be implemented within a highly efficient system comprising both software and computing hardware. The architectural model of some embodiments of the system is equally applicable to a wide range of conversion, re-mastering and visual enhancement applications for motion pictures and other image sequences, including converting a 2D motion picture or a 2D image sequence to 3D, re-mastering a motion picture or a video sequence to a different frame rate, enhancing the quality of a motion picture or other image sequences, or other conversions that facilitate further improvement in visual image quality within a projector to produce the enhanced images.

The present invention provides a system (method and apparatus) for creating photorealistic 3D models of environments and / or objects from a plurality of stereo images obtained from a mobile stereo camera and optional monocular cameras. The cameras may be handheld, mounted on a mobile platform, manipulator or a positioning device. The system automatically detects and tracks features in image sequences and self-references the stereo camera in 6 degrees of freedom by matching the features to a database to track the camera motion, while building the database simultaneously. A motion estimate may be also provided from external sensors and fused with the motion computed from the images. Individual stereo pairs are processed to compute dense 3D data representing the scene and are transformed, using the estimated camera motion, into a common reference and fused together. The resulting 3D data is represented as point clouds, surfaces, or volumes. The present invention also provides a system (method and apparatus) for enhancing 3D models of environments or objects by registering information from additional sensors to improve model fidelity or to augment it with supplementary information by using a light pattern projector. The present invention also provides a system (method and apparatus) for generating photo-realistic 3D models of underground environments such as tunnels, mines, voids and caves, including automatic registration of the 3D models with pre-existing underground maps.

The present invention is a method and system for measuring human response to retail elements, based on the shopper's facial expressions and behaviors. From a facial image sequence, the facial geometry—facial pose and facial feature positions—is estimated to facilitate the recognition of facial expressions, gaze, and demographic categories. The recognized facial expression is translated into an affective state of the shopper and the gaze is translated into the target and the level of interest of the shopper. The body image sequence is processed to identify the shopper's interaction with a given retail element—such as a product, a brand, or a category. The dynamic changes of the affective state and the interest toward the retail element measured from facial image sequence is analyzed in the context of the recognized shopper's interaction with the retail element and the demographic categories, to estimate both the shopper's changes in attitude toward the retail element and the end response—such as a purchase decision or a product rating.

The method and device help avoid traffic accidents and violations through significant enhancing safety and convenience of driving by providing a far better rear and side observation including in darkness, and reliably prevent, if an accident / violation occurs, from misjudging, owing to an unbeatable legal evidence through recording the objective pattern of the accident / violation . It is accomplished by positioning into a vehicle an onboard digital camera having at least one lens with a photo-receiver, shooting permanently the surroundings at an predetermined frequency, showing images captured on at least one onboard screen, and making the running sequence of images through digital memory so that a latest image captured is recorded and stored in digital memory expelling an oldest one and the overall amount of the images and, hence, duration of time recorded does not change. When responding to an accident / violation, at the instant of occurrence plus a predetermined delay, shooting stops (either automatically by an impact of a collision, or manually), and digital memory retains the congealed sequence of images just before, during, and shortly after the event.

A system and method for using cameras to download data to cell phones or other devices as an alternative to CDMA / GPRS, BlueTooth, Infrared or cable connections. The data is encoded as a sequence of images such as 2D bar codes, which can be displayed in any flat panel display, acquired by a camera, and decoded by software embedded in the device. The decoded data is written to a file. The system and method meet the following challenges: (1) To encode arbitrary data as a sequence of images. (2) To process captured images under various lighting variations and perspective distortions while maintaining real time performance. (3) To decode the processed images robustly even when partial data is lost.

A method and apparatus for capturing image data from multiple image sensors and generating an output image sequence are disclosed. The multiple image sensors capture data with one or more different characteristics, such as: staggered exposure periods, different length exposure periods, different frame rates, different spatial resolution, different lens systems, and different focal lengths. The data from multiple image sensors is processed and interleaved to generate an improved output motion sequence relative to an output motion sequence generated from an a single equivalent image sensor.

A system and method for increasing space or time resolution of an image sequence by combination of a plurality input sources with different space-time resolutions such that the single output displays increased accuracy and clarity without the calculation of motion vectors. This system of enhancement may be used on any optical recording device, including but not limited to digital video, analog video, still pictures of any format and so forth. The present invention includes support for example for such features as single frame resolution increase, combination of a number of still pictures, the option to calibrate spatial or temporal enhancement or any combination thereof, increased video resolution by using high-resolution still cameras as enhancement additions and may optionally be implemented using a camera synchronization method.

The method, system and computer program product generate online interactive maps linking tracked objects (in a live or pre-recorded video sequence) to multimedia content in real time. Specifically, an object tracking and link generation (OTLG) utility allows a user to access multimedia content by clicking on moving (or still) objects within the frames of a video (or image) sequence. The OTLG utility identifies and stores a clear image(s) of an object or of multiple objects to be tracked and initiates a mechanism to track the identified objects over a sequence of video or image frames. The OTLG utility utilizes the results of the tracking mechanism to generate, for each video frame, an interactive map frame with interactive links placed in the map frame at a location corresponding to the object's tracked location in each video frame.

An imaging system for imaging a fingerprint operates in at least two different modes to provide both finger recognition and finger navigation applications. A light source illuminates a swipe interface having an elongated sensing area upon which a user swipes a finger. Light reflected from the finger is captured by an optical image sensor as image data representing a sequence of images resulting from motion of the digit over the sensing area of the swipe interface. The captured image data is output by the optical image sensor for processing of the data in one of the at least two different modes.

A “Video Browser” provides an intuitive user interface for indexing, and interactive visual browsing, of particular elements within a video recording. In general, the Video Browser operates by first generating a set of one or more mosaic images from the video recording. In one embodiment, these mosaics are further clustered using an adjustable similarity threshold. User selection of a particular video mosaic then initiates a playback of corresponding video frames. However, in contrast to conventional mosaicing schemes which simply play back the set of frames used to construct the mosaic, the Video Browser provides a playback of only those individual frames within which a particular point selected within the image mosaic was observed. Consequently, user selection of a point in one of the image mosaics serves to provide a targeted playback of only those frames of interest, rather than playing back the entire image sequence used to generate the mosaic.

In a computerized system including a camera mounted in a moving vehicle. The camera acquires consecutively in real time image frames including images of an object within the field of view of the camera. Range to the object from the moving vehicle is determined in real time. A dimension, e.g. a width, is measured in the respective images of two or more image frames, thereby producing measurements of the dimension. The measurements are processed to produce a smoothed measurement of the dimension. The dimension is measured subsequently in one or more subsequent frames. The range from the vehicle to the object is calculated in real time based on the smoothed measurement and the subsequent measurements. The processing preferably includes calculating recursively the smoothed dimension using a Kalman filter.

A “Keyframe Stitcher” provides an efficient technique for building mosaic panoramic images by registering or aligning video frames to construct a mosaic panoramic representation. Matching of image pairs is performed by extracting feature points from every image frame and matching those points between image pairs. Further, the Keyframe Stitcher preserves accuracy of image stitching when matching image pairs by utilizing ordering information inherent in the video. The cost of searching for matches between image frames is reduced by identifying “keyframes” based on computed image-to-image overlap. Keyframes are then matched to all other keyframes, but intermediate image frames are only matched to temporally neighboring keyframes and neighboring intermediate frames to construct a “match structure.” Image orientations are then estimated from this match structure and used to construct the mosaic. Matches between image pairs may be compressed to reduce computational overhead by replacing groups of feature points with representative measurements.

Some embodiments of the invention provide a method that presents a preview of a set of images in a graphical user interface (GUI) of a device. The method presents a GUI element to represent the set of images in the GUI, where the GUI element is moveable within the GUI. The method then displays within said GUI element a sequence of the images in the set of images to provide a preview of the set of images.

A method for generating an index of the text of a video image sequence is provided. The method includes the steps of determining the image text objects in each of a plurality of frames of the video image sequence; comparing the image text objects in each of the plurality of frames of the video image sequence to obtain a record of frame sequences having matching image text objects; extracting the content for each of the similar image text objects in text string format; and storing the text string for each image text object as a video text object in a retrievable medium.

Systems and techniques are provided for tracking puts and takes of inventory items by subjects in an area of real space. A plurality of cameras with overlapping fields of view produce respective sequences of images of corresponding fields of view in the real space. In one embodiment, the system includes first image processors, including subject image recognition engines, receiving corresponding sequences of images from the plurality of cameras. The first image processors process images to identify subjects represented in the images in the corresponding sequences of images. The system includes second image processors, including background image recognition engines, receiving corresponding sequences of images from the plurality of cameras. The second image processors mask the identified subjects to generate masked images. Following this, the second image processors process the masked images to identify and classify background changes represented in the images in the corresponding sequences of images.

A method and system tracks objects using a surveillance database storing events acquired by a set of sensors and sequences of images acquired by a set of cameras. Sequences of temporally and spatially adjacent events sensed by the set of sensors are linked to form a set of tracklets and stored in the database. Each tracklet has endpoints being either a track-start, track-join, tracklet-merge or tracklet-end node. A subset of sensors is selected, and a subset of tracklets associated with the subset of sensors is identified. A single starting tracklet is selected. All sequences of tracklets temporally and spatially adjacent to the starting tracklet are aggregated to construct a tracklet graph. The track-join nodes and the track-split nodes are disambiguated and eliminated from the track graph to determine a track of the object in the environment.

A method of performing physiological gating in a medical procedure includes acquiring a sequence of images having at least a first image and a second image of a target region, determining a first composite image based on the first and second images, and gating a medical procedure based on the composite image. A method of performing a medical procedure includes providing a plurality of templates, each of the templates having an image and treatment data, acquiring an input image, registering the input image with one of the templates, and performing a medical procedure based on the treatment data of the one of the templates that is registered with the input image.

A system configured provided with a continuously captured image sequence forming means for continuously capturing side surfaces of rows of teeth to form an image sequence, a side surface tooth row image forming means for combining sequences of images which were formed by the continuously captured image sequence forming means as partial tooth row images from an image forming the center of the overall composite so as to form a plurality of partial tooth row images, and a side surface tooth row image combining means for linking and combining a plurality of partial tooth row images which were formed by the side surface tooth row image forming means based on images farming the centers of the overall composite so as to form overall rows of teeth. By configuring the system in this way, it is possible to use a handheld type intraoral video camera to form a panoramic image of the side surface tooth rows for display on a computer monitor and propose a broad range of dental diagnosis and treatment to a patient and to secure participation of the patient in proactive dental diagnosis and treatment.

An image acquisition sensor of a digital image acquisition apparatus is coupled to imaging optics for acquiring a sequence of images. Images acquired by the sensor are stored. A motion detector causes the sensor to cease capture of an image when the degree of movement in acquiring the image exceeds a threshold. A controller selectively transfers acquired images for storage. A motion extractor determines motion parameters of a selected, stored image. An image re-constructor corrects the selected image with associated motion parameters. A selected plurality of images nominally of the same scene are merged and corrected by the image re-constructor to produce a high quality image of the scene.

A system and method for encoding a first picture sequence and a second picture sequence into coded pictures, with the first picture sequence and the second picture sequence being different, and with at least one coded picture of the second picture sequence being predicted from at least one picture in the first picture sequence. According to various embodiments of the present invention, signal element is encoded into a coded picture of the second picture sequence. The signal element indicates whether a picture in the first picture sequence is used for prediction of the coded picture of the second picture sequence.

A system mounted on a vehicle for performing vehicle control applications and driver warning applications, the system including a camera configured to acquire a plurality of images of the environment in front of the camera. The camera includes a filter wherein the filter is installed at the focal plane of the camera and wherein designated portions of the filter transmit selective light wavelength. The preferred filter has a checkerboard pattern. The system further including an image processor capable of analyzing in real time a plurality of respective image sequences acquired from at least one of the portions of the filter and is capable of detecting yellow lane markings on a concrete road surface.

A method for deriving accurate body size measures of a user from a sequence of 2D images includes: a) automatically guiding the user through a sequence of body poses and motions; b) scanning the body of said user by obtaining a sequence of raw 2D images of said user as captured by at least one camera during said guided sequence of poses and motions; c) analyzing the behavior of said user to ensure that the user follows the provided instructions; d) extracting and encoding 2D shape data descriptors from said sequence of images by using a 2D shape analyzer (2DSA); and e) integrating said 2D shape descriptors and data representing the user's position, pose and rotation into a 3D shape model.

Systems and techniques are provided for tracking puts and takes of inventory items by subjects in an area of real space. A plurality of cameras with overlapping fields of view produce respective sequences of images of corresponding fields of view in the real space. A processing system is coupled to the system. In one embodiment, the processing system comprises image recognition engines receiving corresponding sequences of images from the plurality of cameras. The image recognition engines process the images in the corresponding sequences to identify subjects represented in the images and generate classifications of the identified subjects. The system processes the classifications of identified subjects for sets of images in the sequences of images to detect takes and puts of inventory items on shelves by identified subjects.

A method for simultaneously recording motion and still images, includes the steps of: capturing a motion image sequence and accompanying audio of a scene with a digital video camera adapted to record both motion and higher resolution still images; simultaneously capturing a still image sequence having a higher resolution and lower frame rate than the motion capture sequence; compressing the motion image sequence using interframe compression and the accompanying audio and storing the compressed motion image and audio data; and compressing the still images using intraframe coding and storing the compressed still image data.

Systems and techniques are provided for tracking multi joint subjects in real space having a plurality of cameras. The field of view of each camera overlaps with at least one other camera. The plurality of cameras produce respective sequences of images of corresponding fields of view in the real space. A processing system is coupled to the plurality of cameras. In one embodiment, the processing system comprises image recognition engines receiving sequence of images from the plurality of cameras and generating corresponding arrays of joint data structures. A tracking engine is configured to receive the arrays of joint data structures and generate candidate joints having coordinates in the real space. The processing system includes the logic to identify sets of candidate joints having coordinates in the real space as multi-joint subjects in the real space.

A monocular motion stereo-based automatic free parking space detection system is disclosed. The system acquires image sequences with a single rearview fisheye camera, three-dimensionally reconstructs the vehicle rearview by using point correspondences, and recovers metric information from a known camera height to estimate the positions of adjacent vehicles thereby detecting the free parking spaces. By using de-rotation-based feature selection and 3D structure mosaicking the degradation of the 3D structure near the epipole is solved and it is not necessary to use the unreliable odometry due to its accuracy depending on road conditions.