Image Generation with Restricted Areas for Stationary Person Privacy
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing privacy protection methods fail to adequately protect individuals whose images are reflected in background images of surveillance videos, particularly when they remain motionless for extended periods, as these individuals are incorrectly classified as background and their privacy is not safeguarded.
Innovation Solution
An image generation apparatus and method that designates areas where moving object detection is difficult as restricted, applies blurring or mosaic processing to these areas, and generates privacy protection images by overlapping silhouette images with background images, ensuring that motionless individuals are protected by masking their images.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If background image is generated from video in a state where a person exists, then the background image will include an image of that person, but the privacy of that person cannot be protected
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by designating restricted areas before background image generation occurs. By pre-defining areas where moving object detection is difficult and applying blurring or mosaic processing in advance, the system ensures that even if persons are present during background generation, their images cannot be clearly captured in the background, thus protecting privacy while maintaining detection accuracy.
2Duration of action of stationary object
If a person stays motionless for a long time, then a person area may be reflected in a background image as time passes, but that person area is not treated as an area targeted for protection
Solution Approach 1:
The patent resolves this contradiction by applying preliminary action through pre-designating restricted areas where blurring or mosaic processing is applied regardless of how long a person remains motionless. This ensures that even stationary persons in designated areas are protected from having their images reflected in background images, while non-restricted areas maintain normal background generation functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by implementing different processing qualities in different spatial locations. Restricted areas receive blurring or mosaic processing to protect privacy, while non-restricted areas maintain normal image quality. This localized differentiation allows the system to protect privacy in specific zones without degrading overall image quality or functionality.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If blurring or mosaic processing is applied to designated areas, then privacy of motionless individuals is protected, but the image quality in those areas is degraded
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the local quality principle by implementing blurring or mosaic processing only in specifically designated restricted areas where moving object detection is difficult, rather than applying it globally. This ensures that privacy protection is concentrated where most needed while leaving the majority of the image with full quality, thus minimizing the overall impact on image quality while maintaining effective privacy protection in critical zones.
Data Source
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AI summary
An image generation apparatus includes: a generation unit that generates an output image in which a foreground mask image overlaps a background image, the foreground mask image having been generated based on a moving object included in an input image; an update unit that executes update processing for updating at least a partial area within the background image based on the input image; and a restricting unit that restricts reflection of the update processing in a restricted area compared to other areas, the restricted area being at least a partial area in the output image.