Patent ID: 7595841

Claim:
A method of stabilizing a video image of interest displayed in multiple video fields of a video sequence, the method comprising the steps of: subdividing a selected area of a first video field into nested pixel blocks including multiple levels of progressively smaller pixel block subdivisions, the area containing the video image; determining horizontal and vertical translation of each of the pixel blocks in each of the pixel block subdivision levels from the first video field to a second video field; and determining translation of the image from the first video field to the second video field by determining a change in magnification of the image from the first video field to the second video field in each of horizontal and vertical directions, determining shear of the image from the first video field to the second video field in each of the horizontal and vertical directions, and correcting from the first video field to the second video field the horizontal and vertical translations of each of the pixel blocks in the smallest pixel block subdivision for the chance in magnification and shear of the image due to an object being rotated toward or away from a camera, and averaging the corrected horizontal and vertical pixel block translations.