Imagination Technologies Limited

Snell Limited

Grass Valley Limited

Snell Advanced Media Limited

Snell & Wilcox Limited

Imagination Technologies Limted

Jonathan Diggins

Michael James Knee

Paul Brasnett

Steven John Fishwick

Stephen Morphet

Charles S Meyer

Martin Weston

David Brooks

Gerard Phillips

Stephen Ives

A processor unit configured to identify blocks of a frame of a video sequence to be excluded from a motion-compensated operation, includes a frame processor configured to process pixel values of a first frame to characterise blocks of one or more pixels of the first frame as representing at least a portion of a graphic object; a frame-difference processor configured to determine difference values between blocks of the first frame and corresponding blocks of a second frame, and to process said difference values to characterise blocks of the first frame as representing an image component that is static between the first and second frames; a block identifier configured to identify blocks of the first frame as protected blocks in dependence on blocks characterised as: (i) representing at least a portion of a graphic object; and (ii) representing an image component that is static between the first and second frames, wherein the identified protected blocks are to be excluded from the motion compensated operation.

Excluding video frame blocks from compensation based on difference determination

In an example method and system, image data to an image processing module. Image data is read from memory into a down-scaler, which down-scales the image data to a first resolution, which is stored in a first buffer. A region of image data which the image processing module will request is predicted, and image data corresponding to at least part of the predicted region of image data is stored in a first buffer, in a second resolution, higher than the first. When a request for image data is received, it is then determined whether image data corresponding to the requested image data is in the second buffer, and if so, then image data is provided to the image processing module from the second buffer. If not, then image data from the first buffer is up-scaled, and the up-scaled image data is provided to the image processing module.

Upscaling lower resolution image data for processing

A processor unit configured to identify blocks of a frame of a video sequence to be excluded from a motion-compensated operation, the processor unit comprising: a frame processor configured to process pixel values of a first frame to characterise blocks of one or more pixels of the first frame as representing at least a portion of a graphic object; a frame-difference processor configured to determine difference values between blocks of the first frame and corresponding blocks of a second frame, and to process said difference values to characterise blocks of the first frame as representing an image component that is static between the first and second frames; a block identifier configured to identify blocks of the first frame as protected blocks in dependence on blocks characterised as: (i) representing at least a portion of a graphic object; and (ii) representing an image component that is static between the first and second frames, wherein the identified protected blocks are to be excluded from the motion compensated operation.

Image component detection

A data processing system for performing motion estimation in a sequence of frames having first and second frames each divided into respective sets of blocks of pixels, includes a vector generator configured to form motion vector candidates representing mappings of pixels between the first and second frames; and a vector processor configured to, for a search block of the first frame, identify a first motion vector candidate ending in a block of the second frame collocated with the search block and form an output vector for the search block which is substantially parallel to the first motion vector candidate and represents a mapping of pixels from the search block to the second frame.

Motion estimation using collocated blocks

A system is provided for converting image data from a first image format to a second image format that approximates a three-dimensional lookup table. The system includes an image processing operation database that stores image format conversion configurations; an image format conversion selector that selects an image format conversion for converting the image data from a first to a second format and that accesses, from the database, a corresponding image format conversion configuration for converting the image data to the second format; and an image processor that executes processing input operations on RGB components of the image data, a 3&#xd7;3 matrix, and processing output operations on the respective RGB components that are output from the 3&#xd7;3 matrix, such that the image data is converted to the second format, with the processing input and output operations comprising the accessed image format conversion configuration.

System and method for image format conversion using 3D lookup table approximation

An apparatus and method are providing for generating a hash in video in which a sample series of temporal difference are sampled in an image order. A temporal averaging is performed and a rate of change is detected to identify as distinctive events regions of high rate of change. Images having a distinctive event are labelled as distinctive images. For each image, the temporal spacing in images is calculated between that image and other distinctive images to provide a set of temporal spacings for that image; and a hash is derived for that image from that set of temporal spacings.

Generation of video hash

A data processing system for performing motion estimation in a sequence of frames comprising first and second frames each divided into respective sets of blocks of pixels, the system comprising: a vector generator configured to form motion vector candidates representing mappings of pixels between the first and second frames; and a vector processor configured to, for a search block of the first frame, identify a first motion vector candidate ending in a block of the second frame collocated with the search block and form an output vector for the search block which is substantially parallel to the first motion vector candidate and represents a mapping of pixels from the search block to the second frame.

A first sequence of video fingerprints at a first image repetition rate is compared with a second sequence of video fingerprints at a second, different image repetition rate. A converted sequence of fingerprints is generated from the first or second sequence of fingerprints by forming a combination of the values of a number of neighbouring fingerprints. The combination is a weighted average based on the temporal location of the respective neighbouring fingerprints in the first sequence of fingerprints with respect to the fingerprint in the converted sequence. A correlation is then performed between the converted sequence of fingerprints and the other sequence of fingerprints.

Comparing video sequences using fingerprints

A method of determining a quality measure for a processed video signal generated from an original video signal. A statistical metric for a value for a set of pixels of the original video signal is determined, and the statistical metric for the value for a corresponding set of pixels of the processed video signal is also determined. The quality measure for the processed video signal is then determined by comparing the statistical metrics for the original video signal and the processed video signal.

Determining a quality measure for a processed video signal

A system and method is provided for managing visual content. In one instance, an exemplary method includes receiving a stream of video fingerprints derived in a fingerprint generator by an irreversible data reduction process, from respective temporal regions within a particular visual content stream and at a fingerprint processor that is physically separate from the fingerprint generator via a communication network. The fingerprints are processed in the fingerprint processor to generate metadata which is not directly encoded in the fingerprints. Processing of the fingerprints includes windowing the stream of fingerprints with a time window, deriving frequencies of occurrence of particular fingerprint values or ranges of fingerprint values within each time window, determining statistical moments or entropy values of said frequencies of occurrence, comparing said statistical moments or entropy values with expected values for particular types of content, and generating metadata representing the type of the visual content.

Method and apparatus of managing visual content

To generate a warning that a stereoscopic image sequence has been synthesised from a 2D image sequence, a video processor correlates left-eye image data and right-eye image data to identify any sustained temporal offset between the left-eye and right-eye image data. A measure of sustained correlation between a measured spatial distribution of horizontal disparity and a spatial model can also be used to generate the warning.

Video processing method and apparatus for use with a sequence of stereoscopic images

A method of identifying an item of video content involves providing a spatial hash value and a temporal hash value for each image in a video collection. Each hash value is based on a measure of the entropy in differences between pixel values. A table of the pair of hash values against timecode is created and ordered according to one of the hash values. A search for a given pair of hash values can then be confined to that part of the table that matches the first value.

Hash-based media search

A first sequence of video fingerprints at a first image repetition rate is compared with a second sequence of video fingerprints at a second, different image repetition rate. A converted sequence of fingerprints is generated from the first or second sequence of fingerprints by forming a combination of the values of a number of neighboring fingerprints. The combination is a weighted average based on the temporal location of the respective neighboring fingerprints in the first sequence of fingerprints with respect to the fingerprint in the converted sequence. A correlation is then performed between the converted sequence of fingerprints and the other sequence of fingerprints.

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Lovedean, United Kingdom

Jonathan Diggins