Patent Document ID: 5557339
Application ID: 08240881
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. In a system for compositing foreground scene and background scene video signals having red, blue and green components, said foreground scene video signals corresponding to a foreground scene and said background scene video signals corresponding to a background scene, each of said components having a corresponding video signal level, to obtain a composite video image wherein the foreground scene includes a foreground subject disposed between a colored backing and a camera, said colored backing having a luminance and visibility, said foreground scene video signals defining a portion of the colored backing area which is unobscured, an opaque foreground subject area and a transition area between said unobscured colored backing area and said opaque foreground subject area, wherein filtering is applied to portions of said foreground scene to reduce visual noise in the composite video image, the improvement comprising: a) means (101) for generating a control signal having a level proportional to the luminance and visibility of the colored backing; b) means (103) for adjusting the level of the control signal to match the video signal level of the red, blue and green color components of the video signal for the colored backing; c) means (104) for subtracting the level matched control signal from the foreground scene video signals; d) means (105, 106, 108, 109, 110) for processing the foreground scene video signals to identify said transition area; e) means (113) for applying a predetermined amount of filtering to said foreground scene video signals corresponding to a predetermined portion of said transition area prior to processing of said foreground scene video signals by said processing means.