Patent ID: 6931070
Filing Date: 2005-08-16
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. A method of generating a transition template suitable for insertion between an arbitary past reference picture and a future reference picture in a compressed digital data stream to produce, upon decompression of said compressed diptal data stream, a desired transition between said past reference picture and said future reference picture, the method including the steps of: generating a series of transition pictures including a first transition picture and a last transition picture wherein each transition picture includes a series of rows of macroblocks, each row including a first macroblock and a last macroblock; and designating at least some of the macroblocks within each transition picture as either first predefined transition macroblocks or second predefined transition macroblocks; and designating a boundary between any first predefined transition macroblocks and neighbouring second predefined transition macroblocks as part of a transition boundary; designating all or almost all of the macroblocks in the first transition picture as first predefined transition macroblocks; for each new transition picture: copying a previous transition picture to form the next synthesised picture; changing some of the first predefined transition macroblocks in the new transition picture to second predefined transition macroblocks so as to change the position of the transition boundary; and continuing to copy and change pictures until the most recently created transition picture consists entirely or almost entirely of second predefined transition macroblocks.