Patent Application: US-4246302-A

Abstract:
method and arrangement to detect a picture repetition mode of film material with a series of consecutive fields , the arrangement having processing means and a memory , the processing means being arranged to carry out the following steps : identifying a plurality of different objects within the consecutive fields using a segmentation method , an object being defined as an image portion of the consecutive fields that can be described with a single motion model ; carrying out the following steps for each one of the plurality of objects , i . e . : establishing a motion parameter pattern for each one of the objects within the consecutive fields ; comparing the motion parameter pattern with a number of predetermined motion parameter patterns ; determining the picture repetition mode for each one of the objects using the result of the preceding step .

Description:
hereinafter , a method to detect a film mode of individual objects in a scene is proposed . to that end , first of all , a method is described to identify individual objects in a scene . individual objects are identified by motion estimation , i . e ., those portions of a scene that can be described with a same motion model are identified as belonging to a same object in the scene . motion estimators are known as such from the prior art , e . g ., from [ 1 ], [ 3 ], [ 4 ], [ 5 ], and [ 6 ]. of these references , [ 1 ] describes a motion estimator allowing to identify objects in a scene without the need to apply an image segmentation . for the present invention , a motion estimator is preferred that is designed to be suitable for picture rate conversion , with a computational complexity suitable for consumer electronics application , i . e . comparable to [ 5 , 6 ]. the most striking characteristic of the object motion estimator described earlier in [ 1 ], is that no effort is put in segmenting the image into objects prior to estimation of the model parameters , like in other prior art object motion estimators . basically , a relatively small number of interesting image parts is selected , and a number of parallel motion model parameter estimators is trying to optimize their parameters on this data set . as soon as one of the estimators is more successful than another in a certain number of interesting image parts , it is focused on those parts , whereas the remaining estimators focus on the other parts . in short : individual estimators try to conquer image parts from one another , dividing the total image into “ objects ”. this prior art object motion estimator allows a real - time object - based motion estimation and can advantageously be used in the film detection technique of the present invention . fundamentally , such an object - based motion estimator that wastes no effort in expensive segmentation of the image should be able to compete in operations count with a block based motion estimator , as one should expect less objects than blocks in realistic images . it is only in the assignment of image parts to objects that an effort is required comparable to the evaluation of candidate vectors on block basis . if the number of objects does not exceed the number of candidate vectors too much , the overhead of an object based motion estimator should be negligible . it is assumed here that the motion per object can be described with fairly simple parametric models . in the following subsections , we shall describe a preferred motion model used , an estimation of motion model parameters , a preferred cost function used , a segmentation process and a film mode detection for individual objects within a scene . to keep complexity low , the motion of each object o is described by a simple first order linear model that can only describe translation and scaling . more complex parametric motion models are known to persons skilled in the art , e . g ., models including rotation , and can indeed be applied in combination with the proposed algorithm , but will be disregarded here , as we shall introduce a refinement that makes such complex models obsolete . d → o  ( x → , n ) = ( s x  ( o , n ) + x   d x  ( o , n ) s y  ( o , n ) + y  d y  ( o , n ) ) , ( 1 ) using { right arrow over ( d )} o ({ right arrow over ( x )}, n ) for the displacement vector of object o at location in the image with index n . it is observed that x is associated with pixel locations . given a motion model , next its parameters need to be optimized for a given object in the image . as stationary image parts occur in almost every sequence , we assume the presence of an ‘ object o , o & gt ; 0 ’, for which motion is described by { right arrow over ( 0 )}, the zero vector . clearly no estimation effort is required to make this available . the parameter vectors of additional objects o , o & gt ; 0 , are estimated separately , in parallel , by their respective parameter estimators ( pe m , m = 1 , 2 , . . . , m ), as shown in fig1 . [ 0056 ] fig1 shows a block diagram of an arrangement with a plurality of parameter estimators pe m ( n ) connected in parallel to the output of a data reduction unit dru . the data reduction unit dru is arranged to select a set of interesting image pixels that are to be used in the calculations made . inputs to the data reduction unit dru are the image at time n and said image at time n − 1 . each of the outputs of the pe m ( n ) is connected to a segmentation unit su . the output of the segmentation unit su is fed back to the parameter estimators pe m ( n ) since , preferably , they together perform a recursive operation as will be explained below . the end result of the segmentation process is formed by groups of pixels of a scene , each group of pixels belonging to a different object and having assigned to it a different motion vector . these output data are supplied to a processing unit pu that is arranged to detect the type of film source per object and to perform predetermined tasks on the different objects such as picture rate conversion . the processing unit pu is connected to memory m storing predetermined motion parameter patterns used to detect the type of film source as will be explained below . the memory m may be of any known type , i . e ., ram , rom , eeprom , hard disc , etc . the output of the processing unit pu , for instance , controls a television screen . it is observed that the data reduction unit dru , the parameter estimators pe m ( n ), the segmentation unit su and the processing unit pu are shown as separate blocks . these blocks may be implemented as separate intelligent units having distinct processors and memories . however , as is evident to persons skilled in the art , these units may be integrated into a single unit such as a general purpose microprocessor comprising a processor and suitable memory loaded with suitable software . such a microprocessor is not shown but known from any computer handbook . alternatively , the arrangement shown in fig1 may be implemented as a hard wired logic unit , as known to persons skilled in the art . preferably , the entire arrangement shown in fig1 is encapsulated as a single chip in a single package . such a single chip package can be easily included in a television apparatus . each pe m ( n ) updates a previously estimated parameter vector , after which the best parameter candidate vector , according to a cost function , is selected as the result parameter vector for that object . considering the four parameter model of equation ( 1 ), the parameters of object o , o & gt ; 0 , are regarded as a parameter vector { right arrow over ( p )} o ( n ): p → o  ( n ) = ( s x  ( o , n ) s y  ( o , n ) d x  ( o , n ) d y  ( o , n ) ) ( 2 ) and we define our task as to select { right arrow over ( p )} o ( n ) from a number of candidate parameter vectors { right arrow over ( c )} o ( n ) as the one that has the minimal value of a cost function , to which we shall return later on . preferably , the candidates are generated much similar to the strategy exploited in [ 5 , 6 ], i . e . take a prediction vector , add at least one update vector , and select the best candidate parameter vector according to an error criterion . candidate parameter set cs o ( n ) contains three candidates { circle over ( c )} o ( n ) according to : cs o ( n )={ { right arrow over ( c )} o ( n )| { right arrow over ( c )} o ( n )= { right arrow over ( p )} o ( n − 1 )+ m { right arrow over ( u )} o ( n ), { right arrow over ( u )} o ( n ) ε us o ( n ), m =− 1 , 0 , 1 } ( 3 ) with update parameter { right arrow over ( u )} o ( n ) selected from update parameter set us o ( n ): us o  ( n ) = { ( i 0 0 0 ) , ( o i 0 0 ) , ( 0 0 i 0 ) , ( 0 0 0 i ) } ( 4 ) given the motion model and some candidate parameter sets , we need to select the best candidate , according to a cost function , as the result for a given object . the cost function can be a sum of absolute differences between motion compensated pixels from neighboring images , with vectors generated with the ( candidate ) motion model . however , we need to know the area to which the motion model is to be assigned . the two issues , segmentation and motion estimation , are inter - dependent . in order to correctly estimate the motion in one object , the object should be known and vice versa . as a first step in the motion estimation process , we define a set with pixel blocks of interest . these form the set si ( n ) of “ interesting ” image parts that will be used as a basis for optimization of all parametric models . now , the focus of the individual parameter estimators has to be on different objects . to this end , each parameter estimator pe m ( n ) will calculate its cost function on the same set of interesting locations defined in set si , giving different locations a different weight factor , w o ({ right arrow over ( x )}). here , { right arrow over ( x )} is associated with a position of a block of pixels . the proposed algorithm is straightforward : the pixel values are multiplied with a first weight factor larger than 1 , e . g . 8 , in case the pixel in si ( n ) belonged to the same object , i . e . the same parameter estimator , according to the previous image segmentation step . the pixel values are multiplied with a second weight factor smaller than 1 , e . g . 0 . 1 , in case the segmentation assigned the position to another parameter estimator and this estimator achieved low match errors . [ 0071 ] fig2 gives an example of a selection of pixel blocks of interest in an image with a single moving object , i . e ., a bicyclist , and a moving background . this selection is carried out by the data reduction unit dru . thus , the data reduction unit renders a set of most interesting pixel elements ( si ), resulting in a rather cheap ( few calculations ) and an effective parameter estimation . fig2 shows screen photographs illustrating a process of selecting points of interest on which the parameter estimators optimize their parameters . the temporal difference image , between two successive pictures , is not actually calculated , but it serves to understand why the high match errors of the vector { right arrow over ( 0 )}, i . e . the total set with points of interest , are at the positions shown in fig3 c . in fig3 d it is shown how , in this example , the focus of two parameter estimators is divided over the points of interest . i . e ., fig3 d shows that there are two different motion models detected . the two sub - sets are shown in a different brightness , i . e ., one in black and the other one in grey . the moving background of the image is object o = 1 , and the bicyclist is object o = 2 . there are two parameter estimators that are both optimized on the same set containing the blocks of interest , but as soon as one estimator is selected in the segmentation to be best in an area , the pixel block of interest in that area is emphasized in the cost function . after a while , this converges to the situation illustrated , where one estimator focuses on the grey blocks and the other on the white pixel blocks in si ( n ). ɛ  ( c → o , n ) = ∑ x → ∈ si  w o  ( x → ) ·  f s  ( x → , n ) - f s  ( x → - c → o  ( x → , n ) , n - 1 )  ( 5 ) where f s ({ right arrow over ( x )}, n ) is the luminance value of a pixel at position { right arrow over ( x )} in a sub - sampled image with index n , and { right arrow over ( c )} o ({ right arrow over ( x )}, n ) is the vector resulting from candidate model { right arrow over ( c )} o ( n ) at position { right arrow over ( x )}. the sub - sampling effectively reduces the required memory bandwidth . images are sub - sampled with a factor of four horizontally and a factor of two vertically on a field base , generating a sub - sampled image f s ( n ) from each original field f ( n ). in order to achieve pixel accuracy on the original pixel grid of f , interpolation is required on the sub - sampling grid . the segmentation is the most critical step in the algorithm . its task is to assign one motion model to each group of pixels . for each block , a block match error , ε o ({ right arrow over ( x )}, n ) corresponding to each of the estimated parameter vectors , { right arrow over ( p )} o , can be calculated according to : ɛ  ( x → , n ) = ∑ x → ∈ b  ( x → )   f s  ( x → + ( 1 - α )  d → o  ( x → , n ) , n ) - f s ( x → - α   d → o  ( x → , n ) , n - 1  ( 6 ) the temporal instance where this segmentation is valid is defined by α . we adopted a recursive segmentation method that closely resembles the strategy of a 3 - d rs block matcher , e . g . as disclosed in [ 5 ], i . e . use spatial and temporal predictions of the best pe m ( n ) and penalize choosing a pe m ( n ) that does not occur in the spatio - temporal neighborhood . formally , the segmentation mask m ({ right arrow over ( x )}, n ) assigns the object o with the lowest local modified cost function ε o ′({ right arrow over ( x )}, n ) to the block b ({ right arrow over ( x )}), where ɛ o ′ = ɛ o + p  ( x → , n ) while p ({ right arrow over ( x )}, n ) is a penalty chosen according to the following rule : p  ( x → , n ) = { p s , ( m  ( x → + δ → , n ) = o ) p t , ( m  ( x → - δ → , n - 1 ) = o ) p u , ( otherwise ) ( 8 ) δ → = ( i j ) , i , j = 0 , ± 1 ( 9 ) similar to what has been suggested for the 3 - d rs block matcher [ 5 ], p u is the largest penalty , p t just a small one , while there is no reason why ps could not just be zero . a fairly obvious simplification is to fix { right arrow over ( δ )} to the direction opposite to the scanning direction , and to alternate the scanning from field to field . fig3 a - 3 d give an example of a segmentation according to the object - based motion estimation method , with the original luminance image . fig3 a - 3 d show photographs taken from a television screen and illustrating the process of segmentation . fig3 a shows the original image whereas fig3 b - 3 d show consecutive segmentation results . clearly , the first image in fig3 a has a poor , almost random , segmentation . however , the focussing of the individual estimators to their area in the segmentation rapidly converges to a useful segmentation : fig3 d shows that two different objects can be distinguished , one relating to the bicyclist and one relating to the back ground . apart from the calculation of motion vectors for every object in the picture , applications in picture rate conversion require an indication of the origin of the picture sequence . more particularly , it is necessary to know whether the video originates from film material to optimally perform de - interlacing and film judder removal . moreover , it is necessary to distinguish between 2 - 2 pull down image material , 2 - 3 pull down material , and video from a video camera . as discussed earlier here , in prior art methods , this detection concerns a global decision , i . e . discrimination between video camera and the various film formats is done only for entire images . as an adaptation of [ 8 ], for the object based motion estimator , a reliable movie detector can be realized analyzing the motion described by the parameter estimator only that covers the largest area of the image , obviously disregarding the zero - vector ‘ estimator ’. let us define max ( n ) as the largest component of parameter vector p o ( n ) ( rather than taking the largest component of the parameter vector , it is equally well possible to use the average , absolute , or the summed absolute value of either or both of the parameter components ), i . e . max ( n )= max { s x ( o , n ), s y ( o , n ), d x ( o , n ), d y ( o , n )} ( 10 ) rh ( n )={ max ( n ), max ( n − 1 ), max ( n − 2 ), max ( n − 3 ), max ( n − 4 ), max ( n − 5 ), max ( n − 6 )} ( 11 ) which with adaptive thresholding is converted into a binary movie detection set md ( n ), that for 2 - 2 pull - down will gives something like : comparing the actual set with a limited number of known patterns stored in memory m , yields information on movie type and phase . in case of scene cuts , the detector yields the output unreliable , which indicates that motion compensation can better be switched off . the invention concerns a method to detect the film mode of individual objects in a scene . more and more , images from different sources are mixed during production . we , therefore , propose to adapt the object based motion estimator such that it , along with the motion parameter estimation of the objects in the scene , decides upon their origin . to this end , we analyze the motion described by all individual parameter estimators . let us define max o ( n ) as the largest component of parameter vector p o ( n ) ( rather than taking the largest component of the parameter vector , it is equally well possible to use the average , absolute , or the summed absolute value of either or both of the parameter components ), i . e . max o ( n )= max { s x ( o , n ), s y ( o , n ), d x ( o , n ), d y ( o , n )}. ( 15 ) we now assemble the recent history sets rh o ( n ) as : rh o ( n )=( max o ( n ), max o ( n − 1 ), max o ( n − 2 ), max o ( n − 3 ), max o ( n − 4 ), max o ( n − 5 ), max o ( n − 6 ) ( 16 ) which with adaptive thresholding are converted into binary movie detection sets md o ( n ), that for a 2 - 2 pull - down object will give something like : comparing the actual set with a limited number of known patterns stored in memory m , yields information on movie type and phase for every individual object . in case of scene cuts , the detector yields the output unreliable , which indicates that motion compensation can better be switched off for all objects . [ 1 ] g . de haan , r . j . schutten , and a . pelagotti , “ motion estimation and motion compensated interpolation ”, wo 99 / 16251 . [ 2 ] de haan , “ judder - free video on pc &# 39 ; s ”, proc . of the winhec &# 39 ; 98 , march 1998 , orlando , ( cd - rom ). 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