Patent ID: 7675543

Claim:
An automated method comprising: a user initiating the method in a processor, the processor arranged to receive video footage, the video footage having been previously recorded by a video camera, analyzing the video footage to derive motion information, and identifying portions of interest within the video footage by at least one of: (a) analyzing the video footage to identify features of the video footage indicative of the video footage having been taken using a hand held camera and identifying portions of the video footage within sections of the video footage having said features in which the motion information has characteristics indicating that the hand held camera was held substantially steady during recording; (b) identifying portions of the video footage in which the motion information has characteristics indicating that a camera used to record the video footage was moved or rotated to track a moving subject of interest by comparing a central region with a region outside the central region; and (c) identifying portions in the video footage in which there is an abrupt change in the characteristics of said motion information following a period of substantial continuity in said characteristics; and the method further comprising providing an edited version of the video footage including the identified portions of interest, in which identifying portions of the video footage tracking a moving subject of interest, includes: calculating a motion quantity representing an amount of camera motion in each frame and a direction quantity representing a direction of motion in each frame; and identifying portions of the video footage for which: (i) the motion parameter is above a first threshold, (ii) an average amount of change in the direction parameter is below a second threshold, and (iii) changes between successive frames within a central region of the frame are on average less than between successive frames outside the central area.