The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 22, 2006
Filed:
Jan. 11, 2003
Dan Schonfeld, Glenview, IL (US);
Karthik Hariharakrishnan, Chicago, IL (US);
Philippe Raffy, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Fathy Yassa, Soquel, CA (US);
Dan Schonfeld, Glenview, IL (US);
Karthik Hariharakrishnan, Chicago, IL (US);
Philippe Raffy, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Fathy Yassa, Soquel, CA (US);
Neo Magic Corp., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
An object in a video sequence of frames is tracked by object masks generated for frames in the sequence. Macroblocks are motion compensated. Blocks matching entirely within a prior-frame object mask are used to generate an average object motion. When the average motion is below a motion threshold, frames are skipped at larger intervals, but more frequent frames are processed when high motion occurs. When the macroblock best matches a prior-frame block that has the object's boundary passing through the block, the macroblock is uncertain and is sub-divided into smaller sub-blocks that are again motion compensated. Sub-blocks matching blocks within the object mask in the base frame are added to the new object mask for the current frame while sub-blocks matching a block containing the object boundary are uncertain and can again be sub-divided to further refine the object boundary. Frame skipping and adaptive-size blocks on the object boundary reduce computational load.