Patent ID: 6965645

Claim:
A computer-implemented process for characterizing a sequence of video frames, comprising using a computer to perform the following process actions: deriving from the sequence of video frames a separate value indicative of the intensity of the motion depicted over the sequence in each of a plurality of frame regions, said deriving comprising, (a) inputting the next frame in the sequence that has not been input before, (b) extracting and storing motion vector data from the last-input frame, (c) computing a motion energy flux that takes into account all the motion vector data of all the inputted frames, (d) determining whether the motion energy flux exceeds a prescribed flux threshold, (e) whenever the motion energy flux does not exceed the threshold, determining whether there are any remaining previously un-inputted frames of the sequence containing motion vector information, whenever there are such remaining frames, repeating process actions (a) through (e), (f) whenever the flux threshold is exceeded by the motion energy flux, or whenever there are no remaining previously un-inputted frames of the sequence containing motion vector information, computing a mixture energy value for each of the prescribed frame regions, said mixture energy reflecting both object motion and camera motion components of the motion intensity, and (g) removing the camera motion component associated with each mixture energy value, thereby leaving just the object motion portion of the mixture energy value, to produce a perceived motion energy (PME) value for each frame region which represents said value indicative of the intensity of the motion in the region; and generating an image wherein each pixel of the image has a level reflecting the value indicating the intensity of motion, relative to all such values, associated with the region containing the corresponding pixel location.