Patent Document ID: 20140334676
Application ID: 14273181
Patent Status: 0

Claim One:
1. A method of masking part of an image of a scene captured by a camera monitoring the scene, comprising the steps of mounting a light source such that it illuminates a part of the scene with light having a predefined spectral content and a spatial verification pattern, capturing an analysis image of the scene by a sensor sensitive to the predefined spectral content, segmenting the analysis image, based on the predefined spectral content, to find a candidate image region, detecting a spatial pattern in the candidate image region, comparing a characteristic of the detected spatial pattern to a corresponding characteristic of the spatial verification pattern, and, if the characteristics match, identifying the candidate image region as a verified image region corresponding to the part of the scene which is illuminated by the light source, obtaining image data representing the scene, and hiding image data, corresponding to the verified image region, from being displayed, such as by blurring or substituting, and displaying remaining image data, thereby providing a privacy mask for the part of the scene which is illuminated by the light source, or displaying image data corresponding to the verified image region, and hiding remaining image data from being displayed, such as by blurring or substituting, thereby providing a privacy mask for the non-illuminated part of the scene.