Patent Application: US-4321998-A

Abstract:
this invention provides a way of performing improved motion compensated interpolation of moving images , such as television , using motion vectors of variable reliability . by taking into account the reliability of the motion vectors , produced by a separate motion estimation device , a subjectively pleasing interpolation can be produced . this is in contrast to simple motion compensated interpolation , taking no account of motion vector reliability , which is often degraded by objectionable switching artifacts due to unreliable motion vectors . the invention can be used , for example , to improve the performance of motion compensated standards converters used for converting between television standards with different picture rates . the invention allows a gradual transition between motion compensated and non - motion compensated interpolation depending on the reliability of the motion vector used . this is achieved by modifying the temporal interpolation timing , using a look up table , controlled by a vector reliability signal produced by the motion estimator . effectively this adapts the motion trajectory of the interpolated output pictures .

Description:
the basic assumption underlying motion compensation is that the image comprises a collection of linearly moving rigid objects . in motion compensated processing image processing operations are performed in the frame of reference of the moving object rather than the frame of reference of the image . this avoids processing problems associated with temporal aliasing due to under sampling the pictures in time . motion compensation and the reasons for it are described in detail in many references for example 3 , 11 , and 25 . provided the assumption of linear motion is obeyed then the spatio - temporal trajectory of the objects can be represented by straight lines in space / time as illustrated in fig1 . despite the demonstrable success of motion compensated processing some images ( or parts of images ) do not conform to the underlying assumptions . violation of these assumptions will occur for partially transparent or translucent objects ( e . g . smoke ), changes in shape or lighting and cuts between different scenes etc . such violations occur often in typical moving pictures and therefore must be processed acceptably . small deviations from the assumptions are acceptably processed using motion compensation . as the deviations become larger motion compensated processing becomes less and less acceptable as it becomes increasingly difficult to find a representative motion vector . for large violations of the motion compensation assumptions the motion estimator will fail completely producing essentially random motion vectors . nevertheless it is still necessary to produce processed images even when the motion estimator has failed completely . in these circumstances perhaps the only reasonable interpolatian method is to make the output picture the same as the ( temporally ) nearest input picture . this is known as picture ( or field ) repeat in television terms and zeroth order interpolation in signal processing parlance . a motion trajectory for picture repeat is shown in fig2 . with motion vectors of intermediate reliability an interpolation method is required between the two extremes of full motion compensation and picture repeat illustrated in fig1 and 2 . one way to do this is to assume a motion trajectory between those for the two extremes . this is the basis of this invention . fig3 illustrates such an intermediate motion trajectory . to achieve an intermediate motion trajectory the time to which an interpolated output picture corresponds is modified depending on the temporal interpolation phase and the motion vector reliability . the temporal interpolation phase is the time in the input sequence at which an output picture is required . the temporal interpolation phase is most conveniently expressed in terms of input picture periods . for example , consider converting between television signals with 50 and 60 pictures / second . the first output picture ( at 60 hz ) may be required coincident with an input picture ( at 50 hz ) the second output picture 5 / 6 of the way between the first 2 input picture , the third output picture 4 / 6 of the way between the 2nd and 3rd input picture and so on . this would give a sequence of temporal interpolation phases of 0 , 5 / 6 , 4 / 6 , 3 / 6 , 2 / 6 , 1 / 6 , 0 and produce 6 output pictures for every 5 input pictures . this is illustrated in fig4 . note that the phase of each temporal interpolation always lies in the range 0 to 1 . strictly , the temporal interpolation phase is the fractional part of the output time for which an output picture is generated , expressed in input picture periods . the relative timing of input and output pictures is discussed in many texts dealing with digital sample rate changing , for example reference 7 . for full motion compensation output pictures are generated for time instants corresponding to the temporal interpolation phase ( see reference 3 ). this corresponds to the linear motion trajectory of fig1 . for picture repeat output pictures are generated corresponding to the time of the temporally nearest input picture , giving the motion trajectory of fig2 . intermediate motion trajectories can be achieved by generating output pictures corresponding to instants intermediate between the temporal interpolation phase and the time of the nearest input picture . the extent to which the timing of output pictures is moved from the temporal interpolation phase towards the nearest input picture time would depend on the reliability of the motion vectors from the motion estimator . by changing the interpolated motion trajectory in a continuous way a graceful fall back from full motion compensation to picture repeat can be achieved . this is the basis of the invention which can thereby achieve an acceptable interpolation method for all parts of the moving image even if the motion vectors are unreliable . switching artifacts , due to changing between interpolation modes , are avoided by a continuum of motion trajectories between the two extremes . a generic motion compensated interpolator is illustrated in fig5 . the interpolator has three inputs , a stream of input samples corresponding to the sequence of scanned input pictures , a stream of output co - ordinates and a stream of motion vectors . the output co - ordinates are the ( spatio - temporal ) co - ordinates for which values of the output image sequence are calculated . they are generated by counters etc . as described in the literature , for example references 3 & amp ; 6 . the input stream of motion vectors provides the motion vector associated with each output co - ordinate . in each operating cycle a new output co - ordinate is presented to the interpolator which ( after a delay ) generates the value of the corresponding output pixel . the vector processor combines the output co - ordinates and corresponding motion vector to produce a set of input sample addresses and coefficient addresses for each output co - ordinate ( as described in reference 3 ). the output pixel value is generated by calculating a weighted sum of input pixel values . the sample addresses correspond to the integer part of the required input co - ordinate and are used to select the appropriate input pixel values , stored in the input store , and these are weighted by coefficients selected from a precalculated set of filter coefficients stored in rom . the filter coefficients are addressed by the fractional part of the input co - ordinate calculated by the vector processor . the output value is the sum of all the partial results presented by the set of multipliers . for brevity the diagram only shows two multipliers . in practice the number would probably be significantly more ; 16 being a typical number for a motion compensated interpolator . typically , the output pixel co - ordinate is measured in input fields and input picture lines . the motion speed is measured in input picture lines per field period . the size of the filter aperture is specified in terms of fields and lines , an aperture of 4 lines , therefore , corresponds to 8 picture lines . because the input pixel values are addressed by the integer part of the input co - ordinate , the filter aperture is motion compensated to the nearest integer number of field lines per field period . the remaining , sub - pixel , motion compensation is achieved by varying the filter coefficients . further details of both non - motion compensated and motion compensated interpolators can be found in the literature ( e . g . references 3 , 4 , 6 , 19 , 21 ). the motion compensated interpolator of fig5 can be modified to provide adaptive motion trajectories controlled by the reliability of the motion vectors . this is illustrated in fig6 . motion compensated interpolation is , in general , a 3 dimensional interpolation process . consequently it should be borne in mind that the output co - ordinates , presented to the interpolator , comprise a 3 component vector . the components are the horizontal , vertical and temporal parts of the output co - ordinates . to produce adaptive motion trajectories the temporal interpolation phase is passed through a lookup table whose transfer characteristic is controlled by the reliability of the motion vector . the lookup table could conveniently be implemented using a read only memory ( rom ). the temporal interpolation phase is the fractional part of the temporal output co - ordinate ; usually this is all that is presented to the interpolator . in general for each output co - ordinate there can be a distinct corresponding motion vector and indication of vector reliability associated with that motion vector . hence the motion trajectory can adapt on a pixel by pixel basis to obtain the best interpolation for each part of the image . different parts of the image can , therefore , have different motion trajectories even if they have the same motion vector because of the different levels of reliability of the motion vectors . thus , better processing of regions having low vector reliability can be achieved , for example , areas of revealed and obscured background . these regions would be interpolated using temporally nearest picture interpolation while other parts of the image might be fully motion compensated . the transfer characteristic of the look up table ( lut ) in fig6 is controlled by the vector reliability signal from the motion estimator and determines the interpolated motion trajectory . typical transfer characteristics for the lookup table are illustrated in fig7 . the original temporal interpolation phase ( φ in ) presented to the lookup table is in the range 0 to 1 . assuming the reliability signal is also scaled to lie in the range 0 to 1 then a suitable transfer characteristic for the lookup table would be given by equation 1 . φ out = 1 2  ( 1 - tanh   ( arctanh  ( 2  φ in - 1 ) r ) ) equation 1 where φ in is the original temporal interpolation phase , r is the reliability of the motion vector and φ out is the modified temporal interpolation phase . other sets of transfer functions for the look up table are also possible . the technique described above can be applied to motion compensated temporal interpolators described in the literature . the improvement is achieved by making allowance for the reliability of motion vectors produced , by an external motion estimation device , for the interpolator . the invention assumes the availability of a motion estimator which provides an indication of the reliability of the vectors it produces . by taking account of the reliability of the motion vectors objectionable switching artifacts can be avoided , thereby improving picture quality . the invention allows the interpolation method used to change smoothly from full motion compensation to non - motion compensation . this provides graceful fall - back when violation of the assumptions underpinning motion estimation prevents the motion estimator measuring a reliable motion vector . graceful fall - back of motion compensated interpolation is achieved by modifying the motion trajectory of moving objects in the interpolated pictures . when the reliability of motion vectors is high a linear motion trajectory is used corresponding to full motion compensation . when motion vector reliability is low a stepwise motion trajectory is used corresponding to non - motion compensated interpolation . for intermediate vector reliability the motion trajectory used is intermediate between these two extremes . modulation of the motion trajectory is achieved by passing the temporal interpolation phase , supplied to the interpolator , through a lookup table whose transfer characteristic is controlled by the vector reliability . this invention can also be used in conjunction with a motion detector rather than a motion estimator . in reference 10 of the annex , a motion adaptive system is described in which interpolated images are produced using temporal interpolation by applying a temporal filter aperture between successive fields . to avoid unacceptable artifacts such as double imaging when there is gross motion between successive fields , a motion detector is utilised to alter the temporal aperture on a pixel by pixel basis . a motion adaptive system may be regarded as a motion compensation system in which a single motion vector ( zero ) is used . the present invention can be implemented in a motion adaptive system , therefore , with the motion detector giving an indication of the reliability of the zero motion vector . the invention is applicable in this case when the output picture rate is different to the input rate , for example , in standards conversion or slow motion replay . fig8 implements the invention in a motion adaptive system . the output co - ordinate processor in fig8 is substantially the same as the vector processor of fig5 and 6 except that there is no input for motion vectors as these are all notionally zero . the motion indication from the motion detector replaces the vector reliability indication in fig6 . in this embodiment , as the motion across the aperture increases the reliability of the zero motion vector decrease and the phase of the temporal interpolation is shifted towards the temporally nearest input picture . this system is an improvement over previous motion adaptive systems as there is a reduction in multiple imaging and an improvement in the spatial resolution . furthermore , the size of the coefficient stores can be reduced . if the temporal aperture is additionally varied with the change in motion , then , larger coefficient stores are required . the use of motion adaptive systems provides a cheap and convenient way of implementing the invention . whilst embodiments of the invention have been described , these are by way of example only and modifications will suggest themselves to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims . for example , the means of modifying the temporal coordinate of the output coordinates may be other than by using a look up table , for example , using suitable logic circuitry . this approach provides an efficient implementation of a piecewise linear transfer characteristic and could be embodied in field programmable gate array or custom gate array integrated circuit . modification of the temporal coordinate may also be achieved using a state machine which might , additionally , use stored values of vector reliability ( corresponding to spatially and temporally neighbouring pixels ). in this latter case , the modification of the temporal phase would depend on the vector reliability of neighbouring pixels as well as the current pixel . 1 . aggarwal , j . k . & amp ; nandhakumar , n . 1988 on the computation of motion from sequences of images — a review . proc . ieee , vol . 76 , pp . 917 - 935 , august 1988 . 2 . bierling , m ., thoma , r . 1986 . motion compensating field interpolation using a 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