Hewlett-packard Development Company, L.p.

Compaq Computer Corporation, Inc.

Alta Vista Company

Digital Equipment Corporation

Frederic Dufaux

David E Kovalcin

Brian S Eberman

Michael Sokolov

Sing Bing Kang

Michael Swain

Arjen P De Vries

Leondias Kontothanassis

Eric Reed

Robert Alan Ulichney

Arjen P deVries

A key frame representative of a sequence of frames in a video file is selected. The sequence of frames is divided into shots, sequences of frames captured by a single continuous operation of the camera, by detecting shot boundaries. Shot boundaries are detected by measuring changes in motion activity between frames using measures of pixel intensity and histogram differences between frames. The most interesting shot in the sequence of frames is selected using measures of motion activity, spatial activity, skin pixel color and shot length. The key frame is selected in the most interesting shot using measures of spatial activity and motion activity.

System for selecting a keyframe to represent a video

A camera-based document scanning system produces electronic versions of documents, based on a plurality of images of discrete portions of the documents. The system compares each pair of consecutive images and derives motion parameters that indicate the relative motion between each pair of consecutive images. The system utilizes the derived motion parameters to align and merge each image with respect to the previous images, thereby building a single, mosaic image of the document. In the illustrative embodiment, the motion parameters are derived by minimizing a sum of squared differences equation on a pixel-by-pixel basis.

Camera-based document scanning system using multiple-pass mosaicking

A key frame representative of a sequence of frames in a video file is selected by applying face detection to a video to select a key frame which may include people and has particular application to indexing video files located by a search engine web crawler. A key frame, one frame representative of a video file, is extracted from the sequence of frames. The sequence of frames may include multiple scenes or shots, for example, continuous motions relative to a camera separated by transitions, cuts, fades and dissolves. To extract a key frame face detection is performed in each frame and a key frame is selected from the sequence of frames based on a sum of detected faces in the frame.

Keyframe selection to represent a video

A technique for organizing data information in a network having a plurality of network stations is disclosed. In one embodiment, the technique is realized by having a first processing device store a representation of data at an address of a first of the plurality of network stations. A second processing device then stores the address at a second of the plurality of network stations in association with an identifier of the data. A third processing device then stores the data identifier at a third of the plurality of network stations in association with an annotation of the data.

Technique for organizing data information in a network

A method and apparatus is described for encoding a video sequence of frames. Each frame in the video sequence is organized in blocks of pixels. A scene change is detected when a current frame in the video sequence is substantially different from a previous frame. When it is determined that the current frame is the change in scene, the current frame is coded to be an intra frame with each block of pixels of the intra frame is being an intra-coded block. Coding the sequence of frames produces a compressed bit stream having a coded intra frame at each scene change. Each coded intra frame provides an access point in the bit stream from which a storyboard of the scenes in the video sequence can be generated.

Coding an intra-frame upon detecting a scene change in a video sequence

In an coder for producing a bitstream representative of a sequence of video images, a previous image is registered with a current image using spline-based registration to produce estimated motion vectors. The estimated motion vectors are used to match blocks of the previous image and the current image to produce translation vectors. The translation vectors compensate for motion while encoding the sequence as a bitstream.

Combined spline and block based motion estimation for coding a sequence of video images

A technique for processing data is disclosed. In one embodiment, the technique is realized by receiving a first representation of data at a processing device, which then processes the first representation of data so as to generate a second representation of data. The second representation of data includes a plurality of dependent data representations and a plurality of independent data representations. Each of the plurality of dependent data representations is substantially aligned in time with a corresponding one of the plurality of independent data representations.

Technique for processing data

A method and apparatus is described for encoding a sequence of video frames at a target bit rate. A controller controls the bit r ate by providing values for a coding frame rate and quantization parameter to a frame encoder. A set of operating regions, including a first operating region and a second operating region, is defined. Each operating region includes a range of values for each parameter. These operating regions may intersect each other or be disjoint. The encoder codes the frame sequence with the value of each parameter being in the first operating region. During the coding, the controller determines to make an adjustment to the value of one parameter that would put that value out of the first operating region and in the second operating region. The controller makes the adjustment if a predetermined criterion is satisfied, otherwise the controller constrains the value of that one parameter to remain in the first operating region. In one embodiment, the criterion is that the value of that one parameter and the value of another parameter would be in the same operating region if the adjustment were made. In another embodiment, the criterion is that, when it is determined to make the adjustment to the one parameter, the value of another one of the parameters is in a predetermined region of the first operating region.

Rate control and bit allocation for low bit rate video communication applications

A technique for accessing an item of interest within a particular one of a plurality of stored representations of data is disclosed. In one embodiment, the technique is realized by having a processing device searching a plurality of stored annotations corresponding to different items within the plurality of stored representations to locate an annotation of interest corresponding to the item of interest. The annotation of interest has an associated search identifier and an associated location identifier corresponding to a location of interest within the particular one of the plurality of stored representations. The processing device then searches a plurality of stored search identifiers associated with the plurality of stored annotations to locate the search identifier and an address identifier corresponding to a location of the particular one of the plurality of stored representations within the plurality of stored representations. The processing device then accesses the item of interest at the location of interest using the address identifier and the location identifier.

Growing community of inventors

Chestnut Hill, MA, United States of America

Frederic Dufaux