Patent Abstract:
A method for providing a visual indication of a content of a video that reflects a likely intent of a user that acquired the video. The present method enables repurposing of a video into a variety of output forms that are adapted to the likely intent of the user and enables more efficient browsing of a stored video.

Full Description:
BACKGROUND  
       [0001]     A wide variety of video systems may include the capability of generating, acquiring, or storing a video. Examples of video systems include video cameras, computer systems, home video appliances, PDAs, digital phones, etc. For example, a video camera may include mechanism for acquiring a video and storing the video on an storage media. In another example, a computer system may include the capability of obtaining a video from an attached camera, recording device, or some other video source, and storing the video locally.  
         [0002]     A video system may include a mechanism for providing an indication of the content of a stored video. For example, a video camera or a computer system may include a display and rendering hardware for generating a playback of a stored video. In another example, a video appliance may include a display and a mechanism for rendering descriptive information, e.g. titles, file names, length of a video, data/time a video was acquired, etc. pertaining to a stored video. In another example, a video system may include a display and a mechanism for generating thumbnail images that depict portions of a stored video.  
         [0003]     Unfortunately, the mechanisms in prior video systems for providing an indication of the content of a stored video may not reflect an intent of a user that acquired the video. For example, descriptive information such as file names, date/time, etc., or thumbnail images randomly generated may not reflect the content in the video that was of interest to a user that acquired a video. As a consequence, a user of a video system may have to engage in a time consuming manual review of the entire content of a stored video in order to obtain useful evaluation on its content.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0004]     A method is disclosed for providing a visual indication of a content of a video that reflects a likely intent of a user that acquired the video. The present method enables repurposing of a video into a variety of output forms that are adapted to the likely intent of the user and enables more efficient browsing of a stored video.  
         [0005]     A video system according to the present techniques includes a processor that determines a likely intent of a user that captured a video by detecting at least one motion type in the video. The processor repurposes the video by generating a visual output that is adapted to the motion type. A video system according to the present techniques may also include a video index store for holding indices to video frames in the video.  
         [0006]     Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the detailed description that follows.  
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0007]     The present invention is described with respect to particular exemplary embodiments thereof and reference is accordingly made to the drawings in which:  
         [0008]      FIG. 1  shows a video system that incorporates the present techniques;  
         [0009]      FIG. 2   a - 2   c  illustrate a method for determining a relative motion among a pair of adjacent video frames in a video;  
         [0010]      FIG. 3  illustrates an arrangement of motion vectors that indicate a panning motion type;  
         [0011]      FIG. 4  shows an arrangement of motion vectors that indicate a zooming out motion type;  
         [0012]      FIG. 5  shows an arrangement of motion vectors that indicate a zoom in motion type;  
         [0013]      FIG. 6  shows an arrangement of motion vectors that indicate an object motion type;  
         [0014]      FIG. 7  shows an embodiment of a method for determining an intent by a user of a video camera to acquire an area or object of interest;  
         [0015]      FIG. 8  shows an embodiment of a method for determining an intent to acquire a close up of an object of interest;  
         [0016]      FIG. 9  shows a method for repurposing a video by generating multiple visual outputs that indicate the content of the video;  
         [0017]      FIG. 10  illustrates a motion type clustering step;  
         [0018]      FIG. 11  shows a set of visual outputs generated for a set of example segments;  
         [0019]      FIG. 12  illustrates the contents of a key frame store for an example set of visual outputs.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0020]      FIG. 1  shows a video system  200  that incorporates the present techniques. The video system  200  includes a video camera  210 , a video store  212 , a processor  214 , a display  216 , a printer  218 , and a key frame store  220 . The video camera  210  generates a video  12  that includes a series of video frames acquired by the video camera  210  under control of a user of the video camera  210 . The video  12  may be stored in video store  212  and/or provided directly to the processor  214 .  
         [0021]     The processor  214  repurposes the video  12  by generating a visual output that indicates a content of the video  12 . The visual output reflects a likely intent of a user that acquired the video  12 . The processor  214  renders the visual output using the display  216  and/or the printer  218 .  
         [0022]     The processor  214  generates a visual output that indicates a content in the video  12  by first detecting a motion type in the video  12  that may indicate an intent of a user that captured the video  12 . Examples of motion types that may indicate an intent of a user include a panning motion type, a zoom in motion type, an object motion type, a still motion type, i.e. no motion, and a complex motion type.  
         [0023]     For example, a panning motion type in the video  12  may indicate that the user of the video camera  210  that captured the video  12  had intended to capture a panorama using a panning movement of the video camera  210 . In response to a detected panning motion type in the video  12 , the processor  214  may generate a panoramic output using a portion of the video  12  that corresponds to the panning motion type. The processor  214  may render the panoramic output using the display  216  or the printer  218 .  
         [0024]     In another example, a zoom in motion type in the video  12  may indicate that the user of the video camera  210  had intended to capture a close up of an object of interest by zooming the video camera  210  into the object of interest and then holding the video camera  210  relatively still on the object of interest. In response to a detected zoom in motion type followed by a still motion type, the processor  214  may generate a photographic output using a portion of the video  12  that corresponds to the still motion type. The processor  214  may render the photographic output that depicts the object of interest using the display  216  or the printer  218 .  
         [0025]     In yet another example, a still motion type in the video  12  may indicate that the user of the video camera  210  had intended to capture an area of interest in a scene by holding the video camera  210  relatively still on the area. In response to a detected still motion type, the processor  214  may generate a photographic output using a portion of the video  12  that corresponds to the still motion type. The processor  214  may render the photographic output that depicts the area of interest using the display  216  or the printer  218 .  
         [0026]     In another example, an object motion type in the video  12  may indicate that the user of the video camera  210  had intended to capture a moving object of interest. In response to a detected object motion type, the processor  214  may generate a flipbook output or slideshow output using portions of the video  12  that correspond to the object motion type. The processor  214  may render the slideshow output using the display  216  or render the flipbook output using the printer  218 .  
         [0027]     The processor  214  detects a motion type in the video  12  by analyzing a relative motion among a series of video frames of the video  12 . The processor  214  may determine a relative motion among the video frames in the video  12  using a block-based motion analysis such as that associated with MPEG 1 encoding. If the video system  200  is implemented in a system that already includes MPEG functionality then the processor  214  may share available MPEG hardware and/or code.  
         [0028]      FIG. 2   a - 2   c  illustrate one method that may be employed by the processor  214  to determine a relative motion among a pair of adjacent video frames  60 - 62  in the video  12 . The processor  214  compares the pixel content of the video frames  60  and  62  and determines that a block  70  of the video frame  60  is substantially similar to a block  72  in the video frame  62 . For example, the processor  214  may determine a correlation metric between the blocks  70  and  72  based on the pixel data values in the blocks  70  and  72  to determine the similarity.  
         [0029]     The processor  214  generates a motion vector  74  that indicates a spatial relationship between the blocks  70  and  72  based on the video frame  60  as a reference frame. The processor  214  generates a set of motion vectors for the video frames  60 - 62 , each motion vector corresponding to a block of the reference video frame  60 .  
         [0030]     The processor  214  examines an arrangement of the motion vectors for pairs of adjacent video frames in the video  12  to detect a motion type. For example, an arrangement of the motion vectors for a pair of adjacent video frames may indicate a panning motion type, a zooming motion type (in/out), an object motion type, a still motion type, or a complex motion type. The motion vectors may be calculated over a number of video frames rather than a pair of adjacent video frames.  
         [0031]      FIG. 3  illustrates an arrangement of motion vectors  50  for a pair of adjacent video frames in the video  12  that indicate that the video camera  210  was panning while the adjacent video frames were being captured. The magnitudes and directions of the motion vectors  50  depict a relatively consistent and uniform pattern as the video camera  210  was moved to the right during video capture. The processor  214  recognizes an arrangement exemplified by the motion vectors  50  to detect a panning motion type in the video  12 .  
         [0032]      FIG. 4  shows an arrangement of motion vectors  52  for a pair of adjacent video frames in the video  12  that indicate that the video camera  210  was zooming out while the adjacent video frames were being captured. The directions of the motion vectors  52  point to the center of a video frame as the video camera  210  zooms out. The processor  214  recognizes an arrangement exemplified by the motion vectors  52  to detect a zoom out motion type in the video  12 .  
         [0033]      FIG. 5  shows an arrangement of motion vectors  54  for a pair of adjacent video frames in the video  12  that indicate that the video camera  210  was zooming in while the adjacent video frames were being captured. The directions of the motion vectors  54  point away from the center of a video frame as the video camera  210  zooms in. The processor  214  recognizes an arrangement exemplified by the motion vectors  54  to detect a zoom in motion type in the video  12 .  
         [0034]      FIG. 6  shows an example arrangement of motion vectors  56  for a pair of adjacent video frames in the video  12  that indicate the presence of moving objects. The magnitudes and directions of the motion vectors  56  vary locally as objects move within the video  12 . The processor  214  recognizes an arrangement of the motion vectors that vary locally to detect an object motion type in the video  12 .  
         [0035]     A set of motion vectors for a pair of adjacent video frames in the video  12  having magnitudes close to zero and the overall vector average of zero indicate that the video camera  210  was relatively still while the adjacent video frames were being captured. The processor  214  recognizes a set of near zero magnitude motion vectors to detect a still motion type in the video  12 .  
         [0036]     A set of motion vectors for a pair of adjacent video frames in the video  12  having a complex arrangement of directions and magnitudes may indicate a complex motion type. One example of a complex motion type is a panning movement of the video camera  210  while objects move in a captured image scene. Another example of a complex motion type is a movement of one or more objects in a captured image scene when the video camera  210  is relatively still.  
         [0037]     The processor  214  may determine an intent of a user of the video camera  210  by analyzing the velocity and/or changes in the velocity of a panning motion type in the video  12 . The processor  214  may determine a velocity of a panning motion type in response to the rate of acquired video frames in the video  12  and the relative motion between successive video frames. For example, a set of motion vectors for a pair of adjacent video frames that indicate a panning motion type and that have a relatively large magnitude indicate a relatively high velocity whereas a set of motion vectors that indicate a panning motion type and that have a relatively small magnitude indicate a relatively low velocity.  
         [0038]     If the velocity of a panning motion type is relatively slow and steady then it may be inferred that the user of the video camera  210  was intending to acquire a panorama. On the other hand, if the velocity of a panning motion type is relatively fast then it may be inferred that the user of the video camera  210  was intending to quickly move to an area or object of interest and that the user had little or no interest in the intervening areas. A relatively fast panning movement may be regarded as the equivalent of switching off image acquisition, moving the video camera  210  to the area or object of interest, then switching on image acquisition.  
         [0039]     For example, the processor  214  may determine an intent to acquire a panorama by detecting a panning motion type in the video  12  for a period of time (T s ) during which the velocity in the panning motion is relatively constant. The period T s  may be bounded by an initial video frame (F i ) and a final video frame (F f ) in the video  12 . The processor  214  may record indices for the video frames F i  and F f  in the key frame store  220 . The processor  214  may use the video frames F i  and F f  to generate the a panoramic output. For example, the processor  214  may use the video frames F i  and F f  as well as the intervening frames between the video frames F i  and F f  to generate a panoramic output.  
         [0040]     The processor  214  may generate a panoramic output by stitching together the video frames F i  through F f  in a known manner. For example, the processor  214  may determine motion vectors that indicate the relative spatial offset among adjacent video frames and then determine the overlapping areas of adjacent image frames in response to the motion vectors, and then combine the adjacent video frames so as to exclude the overlapping areas from the combination.  
         [0041]      FIG. 7  shows an embodiment of a method for determining an intent by a user of the video camera  210  to acquire an area or object of interest. At step  20 , the processor  214  detects a panning motion type in the video  12 .  
         [0042]     At step  22 , the processor  214  repeatedly determines a velocity of the panning motion type in response to the rate of acquired video frames and the relative motion between adjacent video frames throughout the duration of the panning motion type. If the velocity of the panning motion type exceeds a predetermined threshold (V TH ) then the processor  214  at step  24  detects when a velocity of the panning motion type reduces to a relatively stable still motion type. If the still motion type is then maintained for a predetermined time period (T P ) the processor  214  at step  26  records an index to a video frame in the video  12 .  
         [0043]     The index recorded into the key frame store  220  at step  26  corresponds to a video frame of the video  12  that may have contained an area or object of interest to the user of the video camera  210 . The index recorded at step  26  corresponds to a video frame contained in the time period T p . The processor  214  may then use the index recorded at step  26  to obtain a video frame from the video frame store  212  and then use the obtained video frame to generate a photographic output or a thumbnail output.  
         [0044]     The processor  214  may determine an intent of a user of the video camera  210  by detecting a zoom in motion type. For example, a user of the video camera  210  may zoom in to obtain more detail of a particular object of interest. If a zoom in motion type is detected in the video  12  followed by a still motion type that lasts a predetermined length of time, then it may be inferred that the user of the video camera  210  intended to zoom in and record an object of interest, e.g. a person&#39;s face in a group scene.  
         [0045]      FIG. 8  shows an embodiment of a method for determining an intent to acquire a close up of an object of interest. At step  30 , the processor  214  detects a zoom in motion type in the video  12 . At step  32 , the processor  214  waits until the zoom in motion type stops and then detects a still motion type in the video  12 . If a still motion type is maintained for a predetermined period of time (Tz) then at step  34  the processor  214  records an index to a video frame of the video  12  into the key frame store  220 .  
         [0046]     The index recorded at step  34  corresponds to a video frame within the time period T Z . The processor  214  may then obtain a video frame from the video store  212  using the index from at step  34  and then use the obtained video frame to generate a photographic output or a thumbnail output.  
         [0047]     The processor  214  may determine an intent by a user of the video camera  210  to acquire a moving object by detecting an object motion type in the video  12  having a duration T o . The period T o  may be bounded by an initial video frame (F io ) and a final video frame (F fo ) in the video  12 . The processor  214  may record indices into the video  12  corresponding to the video frames F io  and F fo  into the key frame store  220 . The processor  214  may then use the recorded indices for the video frames F io  and F fo  to generate a flipbook output or a slideshow output. For example, the processor  214  may use the video frames F io  and F fo  as well as one or more of the intervening video frames between the video frames F io  and F fo  to generate photographs for a flipbook. The flipbook photographs may be printed on the printer  218 . Alternatively, the processor  214  may use the video frames F io  and F fo  as well as one or more of the intervening video frames between the video frames F io  and F fo  to generate a slideshow output on the display  216 .  
         [0048]      FIG. 9  shows a method for repurposing the video  12  by generating multiple visual outputs that indicate the content of the video  12 . The processor  214  performs a motion analysis step  40  on the video  12 , followed by a motion type clustering step  42  on the results of the motion analysis step  40 , followed by an output generation step  44  in response to the motion type clustering step  42 .  
         [0049]     In the motion analysis step  40 , the processor  214  analyzes the relative motion between adjacent video frames in the video  12  to detect motion types. The motion analysis step  40  may detect any combination of panning motion types, zoom in motion types, zoom out motion types, object motion types, still motion types, and complex motion types in the video  12 .  
         [0050]      FIG. 10  illustrates the motion type clustering step  42 . In the motion type clustering step  42 , the processor  214  subdivides the video  12  into a set of segments  80 - 94  each segment corresponding to a cluster of video frames having the same motion type. For example, the segment  80  is a sequence of video frames of the video  12  having a panning motion type and the segment  82  is a sequence of video frames of the video  12  having an object motion type. The segment  84  has a zoom in motion type, the segment  86  has an object motion type, the segment  88  has a still motion type, the segment  90  has a complex motion type, the segment  92  has a panning motion type, and the segment  94  has a zoom in motion type.  
         [0051]      FIG. 11  shows a set of visual outputs  100 - 114  generated at the output generation step  44  for the example segments  80 - 94  of the video  12 . The processor  214  generates the visual outputs  100 - 114  in response to the motion types assigned to the segments  80 - 94 .  
         [0052]     The processor  214  generates a panoramic output  100  for the segment  80  at the output generation step  44  because the segment  80  has the panning motion type. The processor  214  also records indices to a set of video frames for the panoramic output  100  into the key frame store  220 . Similarly, the processor  214  generates a panoramic output  112  for the segment  92  at the output generation step  44  because the segment  92  is the panning motion type and records indices for the panoramic output  112  into the key frame store  220 .  
         [0053]     The processor  214  generates a flipbook output  102  for the segment  82  at the output generation step  44  because the segment  82  is of the object motion type. The flipbook output  102  includes a set of photographs derived from a set of video frames in the segment  82 . The photographs for the flipbook output  102  may be enhanced over and above the resolution of a video frame. The processor  214  records indices to the video frames used to generate the photographs of the flipbook output  102  into the key frame store  220 . Similarly, the processor  214  generates a flipbook output  106  for the segment  86  at the output generation step  44  because the segment  86  is of the object motion type and records indices for the flipbook output  106  into the key frame store  220 .  
         [0054]     The processor  214  generates a photographic output  104  for the segment  84  at the output generation step  44  because the segment  84  is of the zoom in motion type. The photographic output  104  is derived from a video frame in the segment  84 , e.g. a video frame indexed at step  34  above. The processor  214  may perform a resolution enhancement step to increase the resolution of the relevant video frame when generating the photographic output  104 . The processor  214  records an index to the video frame used to construct the photographic output  104  into the key frame store  220 . Similarly, the processor  214  generates a photographic output  114  for the segment  94  at the output generation step  44  because the segment  94  is of the zoom in motion type and records an index for the photographic output  114  into the key frame store  220 .  
         [0055]     The processor  214  generates a photographic output  108  for the segment  88  at the output generation step  44  because the segment  88  is of the still motion type. The photographic output  108  is based on a video frame in the segment  88 . The processor  214  records an index to the video frame used to construct the photographic output  108  into the key frame store  220 . An enhancement step may be performed to increase the resolution of the video frame when generating the photographic output  108 .  
         [0056]      FIG. 12  illustrates the contents of the key frame store  220  for the example segments  80 - 94  of the video  12 . The indices (INDEX A through INDEX L) are pointers to corresponding video frames in the video  12  that are stored in the video store  212 . The key frame store  220  associates the indices INDEX A through the INDEX L with the corresponding visual outputs  100 - 112 . The processor  214  may use key frame store  220  to provide a user interface that enables a user to browse the significant content of the video  12 .  
         [0057]     For example, the processor  214  may generate a user interface by rendering the visual outputs  100 - 114  and generating a selection option that enables a user to individually select the rendered visual outputs  100 - 114 . In response to a user selection of the panoramic output  100 , the processor  214  obtains the INDEX A and the INDEX B from the key frame store  220 . The INDEX A points to the frame F i  in the panoramic output  100  and INDEX B points to the video frame F f  in the panoramic output  100 . The processor  214  may use the obtained pointers to replay the video  12  at the segment that contains the panoramic output  100 , i.e. the segment  80 . Similarly, in response to the user selection of the photographic output  108 , the processor  214  obtains the INDEX I from the key frame store  220  and replays the video  12  at that point in the video  12 .  
         [0058]     The methods disclosed above may be employed in any system that may generate, obtain, or store a video. Examples include computer systems, digital cameras, video appliances, e.g. video recorder/player, home video equipment, etc. For example, alternative mechanisms for acquiring a video that may be repurposed include mechanisms for reading recorded videos and mechanisms for obtaining videos via a communication network, e.g. Internet.  
         [0059]     The foregoing detailed description of the present invention is provided for the purposes of illustration and is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise embodiment disclosed. Accordingly, the scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims.

Technology Classification (CPC): 6