Thomson Licensing

Thomson Licensing S.a.

Jobst Horentrup

Ralf Ostermann

Hartmut Peters

Dirk Gandolph

Axel Kochale

Markus Schlosser

Carsten Herpel

Harald Schiller

Dirk Adolph

Hui Li

Jorge Lacasa

A video processing apparatus and a method for detecting a temporal synchronization mismatch between at least a first and a second video stream of a stereoscopic video content are described. An eye blink of a creature that is imaged in the video content is detected. The temporal synchronization mismatch is determined by determination of a temporal offset between the reproduction of an eye blink in the first video stream and the reproduction of said eye blink in the second video stream.

Apparatus and method for detecting a temporal synchronization mismatch between a first and a second video stream of a 3D video content

Optical storage media often contain data structures for a menu suitable for selection of a title, a chapter, a parameter or others. Such menus usually comprise a number of buttons to be displayed, with each button having a state. Possible states of buttons are 'unselected', 'selected' or &#x201c;activated&#x201d;. According to the invention, the representation of a menu button may vary, depending on its state. An image or an image sequence, e.g. cartoon, may be associated to a buttons state, providing user animation. Further, a sound or sound sequence, e.g. melody or click, may be associated to a buttons state, and may be played back when the button enters this state. A data structure is disclosed which allows storage of such menu data e.g. on a Blu-ray disc.

Method for representing animated menu buttons

A method for determining an alpha value for a candidate pixel of an image in an alpha matting process and an apparatus configured to perform the method are described. A selecting unit selects two or more pairs of foreground pixels and background pixels. A calculating unit calculates for each pair of foreground pixel and background pixel an associated alpha value based on a color of the foreground pixel and a color of the background pixel, as well as a probability function based on the associated alpha value. The probability function is modeled by assuming two or more characteristics of the pixels as statistically independent. A determining unit determines the pair of foreground pixel and background pixel with the highest value of the probability function. A setting unit then sets the alpha value for the candidate pixel to the associated alpha value of the determined pair of foreground pixel and background pixel.

Method and apparatus for determining an alpha value

Multimedia content of exchangeable storage media, such as optical discs, may be extended by bonus content that is downloaded via Internet connection and stored on a local storage device. An improved method for integration of different menu items relating to on-disc content and downloaded content provides flexibility and a simple, low cost solution. The method for integration of downloaded bonus content into a menu comprises defining one or more placeholders within a menu, determining a storage location or naming convention for bonus content, declaring for each placeholder an attribute providing a unique association to a specific type of bonus content, providing a button image, detecting presence of bonus content data, replacing the associated placeholder by the associated button image and enabling an associated action to be taken when said button is selected.

Method and device for composing a menu

Subtitling aims at the presentation of text information and graphical data, encoded as pixel bitmaps. The size of subtitle bitmaps may exceed video frame dimensions, so that only portions are displayed at a time. The bitmaps are a separate layer lying above the video, e.g. for synchronized video subtitles, animations and navigation menus, and therefore contain many transparent pixels. An advanced adaptation for bitmap encoding for HDTV, e.g. 1920.times.1280 pixels per frame as defined for the Blu-ray Disc Prerecorded format, providing optimized compression results for such subtitling bitmaps, is achieved by a four-stage run length encoding. Shorter or longer sequences of pixels of a preferred color, e.g. transparent, are encoded using the second or third shortest code words, while single pixels of different color are encoded using the shortest code words, and sequences of pixels of equal color use the third or fourth shortest code words.

Growing community of inventors

Wennigsen, Germany

Jobst Horentrup