Patent ID: 8605783

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of generating a composite video sequence at a node in a communications network comprising a plurality of mobile video capture devices, the method comprising: receiving a plurality of video streams relating to a common event, each of the video streams comprising a sequence of frames and originating from a different one of the mobile video capture devices; time-synchronizing the video streams and selecting a frame set comprising a frame from each of at least two of the video streams, each frame in the frame set having a common capture time; forming a composite frame by stitching at least two frames in the frame set together, the stitching including: identifying previous alignment parameters used to align frames in a previous frame set; determining whether the previous alignment parameters can be utilized; when the previous alignment parameters can be utilized, geometrically aligning the at least two frames in the frame set according to the previous alignment parameters; and when the previous alignment parameters cannot be utilized: calculating new alignment parameters, calculating new alignment parameters including: extracting a plurality of interest points from the at least two frames; determining a plurality of orientations corresponding to the plurality of interest points; determining a plurality of descriptors corresponding to the plurality of interest points using the plurality of orientations; matching a first interest point of a first frame of the at least two frames to a second interest point of a second frame of the at least two frames using at least two of the plurality of descriptors; and determining a transform, the transform geometrically aligning the first frame and the second frame; and geometrically aligning the at least two frames in the frame set according to the new alignment parameters; and adding the composite frame to the composite video sequence.