Patent ID: 8077774

Claim:
A method for automated monitoring of rectangular visual artifacts (MBAs) in block-compressed digital videos presented as analog video, comprising the steps of: digitizing analog video into at least one digital image memory having a digital image size; estimating video and compression block formats from the digital image size, the at least one digital image memory, and video parameters; computing exclusion areas, of a digital image in the at least one digital image memory, that are excluded from further use based on the digital image size, the image memory, and the video parameters; determining horizontal edges and vertical edges of potential MBAs; locating a set of junctions where the horizontal edges and the vertical edges cross; deleting, from the set of junctions, close junctions; computing a score for each junction in the set of junctions based on neighboring junctions; creating an array of horizontal projections of the horizontal edges; suppressing peaks in the horizontal projections based on positions of the horizontal projections with respect to the horizontal edges, and based on amplitudes of the horizontal projections; storing locations of the junctions, the scores, the array of horizontal projections, and the unsuppressed peaks, in a temporal sequence of the potential MBAs of feature memories; applying a temporal filter to the temporal sequence to accept or reject the temporal sequence; and detecting MBAs in the temporal sequence using a decision network; and providing the MBAs by a computer signal.