Methods and systems for automatically adding motion lines representing motion to a still image

Claim 3

The method of claim 1 , where adding the motion line to each of the at least one pixel in the first portion comprises: modifying one of the first and second portions of the video data signal to compensate for the characterized motion between the first and second portions of the video data signal; identifying at least one region of motion between the modified one of the first and second portions and the unmodified one of the first and second portions; identifying points of interest in the at least one region of motion; determining, for each identified point of interest, at least one of an amount of motion between the first and second portions and a direction of motion between the first and second portions; selecting pixels from among the identified points of interest; and adding, for each selected pixel in the first portion, a motion line extending from that selected pixel based on at least one of the at least one of the determined amount of motion and determined direction of motion corresponding to that selected pixel.

Claim 4

The method of claim 2 , wherein identifying points of interest comprises identifying, for each point of interest, at least one intensity gradient in image values between that point of interest and pixels adjacent to that point of interest.

Claim 5

The method of claim 3 , wherein identifying the at least one intensity gradient comprises identifying intensity gradients that are greater than a predetermined threshold.

Claim 6

The method of claim 2 , wherein selecting pixels from the identified points of interest comprises: identifying, for each point of interest, whether that point of interest lies along an edge; and selecting that point of interest only if it lies along an edge.

Claim 7

The method of claim 2 , wherein selecting pixels from the identified points of interest comprises: identifying, for each point of interest, whether that point of interest lies at a corner; and selecting that point of interest only if it lies at a corner.

Claim 8

The method of claim 2 , wherein selecting pixels from the identified points of interest comprises: examining, for each point of interest, a color of that point of interest and a color of each of a plurality of neighboring connected pixels; and selecting each point of interest having a number of neighboring connected pixels having a same color as a color of that point of interest that is smaller than a number of neighboring connected pixels having a color different than the color of that point of interest.

Claim 9

The method of claim 2 , wherein selecting pixels from the identified points of interest comprises: identifying, for each point of interest, whether that point of interest lies on a leading edge of the region of motion with respect to a direction of motion of the region of motion; and selecting that point of interest only if it does not lie on a leading edge of the region of motion.

Claim 10

The method of claim 2 , wherein selecting pixels from the identified points of interest comprises: increasing, for each point of interest, the determined amount of motion by a predetermined factor; identifying a pixel in the first portion based on the increased amount of motion; determining whether the identified pixel is in the at least one region of motion; and selecting that point of interest only if the identified pixel is not in the at least one region of motion.

Claim 11

The method of claim 9 , wherein increasing the determined amount of motion comprises adding a predetermined amount of motion to the determined amount of motion.

Claim 12

The method of claim 9 , wherein increasing the determined amount of motion comprises multiplying the determined amount of motion by a predetermined number.

Claim 13

The method of claim 2 , wherein selecting pixels from the identified points of interest comprises: determining an average amount of motion for the identified points of interest; and selecting only those points of interest that have an amount of motion that is consistent with the determined average amount of motion.

Claim 14

The method of claim 12 , wherein, for each point of interest, the determined average motion is a local average of nearby identified points of interest.

Claim 15

The method of claim 12 , wherein, for each point of interest, the determined average motion is an overall average of all identified points of interest.

Claim 16

The method of claim 2 , wherein identifying points of interest in the at least one region of motion comprises selecting pixels that are spaced from each other by at least a predetermined minimum distance.

Claim 17

The method of claim 2 , wherein determining, for each identified point of interest, the amount of motion comprises: comparing intensities of each pixel in a block of pixels surrounding that identified pixel in the first portion with a corresponding pixel in each of a plurality of blocks of pixels in the second portion, each block of pixels in the second portion located at a different position in the second portion; determining which of the plurality of blocks of pixels in the second portion has a minimum intensity difference relative to the block of pixels in the first portion; and determining an amount of displacement between the determined block of pixels in the second portion relative to the block of pixels in the first portion as the amount of motion.

Claim 18

The method of claim 16 , wherein determining, for each identified point of interest, the amount of motion further comprises low-pass filtering each of the blocks of pixels in the first and second portions prior to comparing the intensities.

Claim 19

The method of claim 2 , wherein adding the motion lines further comprises adding, for each selected pixel, a motion line extending from that selected pixel in the determined direction of the motion of that selected pixel.

Claim 20

The method of claim 2 , wherein a length of the motion line for each selected pixel is proportional to the amount of motion of that selected pixel.

Claim 21

The method of claim 19 , wherein the length of the motion line for each selected pixel indicates a magnitude of the amount of motion of that selected pixel.

Claim 22

The method of claim 19 , wherein the direction of the motion line for each selected pixel indicates a direction of the motion of that selected pixel.

Claim 23

The method of claim 2 , wherein adding the motion lines further comprises: determining a direction that is an average direction of the motion of all of the selected pixels; and adding, for each selected pixel, a motion line extending from that selected pixel in the determined average direction.

Claim 24

The method of claim 2 , wherein: characterizing the motion between the first and second portions of the video data signal comprises determining global motion between the first and second portions; and modifying one of the first and second portions of the video data signal to compensate for the characterized motion between the first and second portions of the video data signal comprises modifying one of the first and second portions to compensate for the determined global motion.

Claim 25

The method of claim 1 , further comprising: capturing a third portion of the video data signal; and characterizing the motion between the first and third portions of the video data signal; wherein adding, for each of the at least one pixel in the first portion, the motion line further comprises adding the motion line to that pixel based on the characterized motion between the first and third portions corresponding to that pixel.

Claim 26

The method of claim 24 , where adding the motion line to each of the at least one pixel in the first portion based on the characterized motion between the first, second and third portions corresponding to that pixel comprises: modifying one of the first and third portions of the video data signal to compensate for the characterized motion between the first and third portions of the video data signal; identifying at least one region of motion between the modified one of the first and third portions and the unmodified one of the first and third portions; identifying points of interest in the at least one region of motion; determining, for each identified point of interest, at least one of an amount of motion between the first and third portions and a direction of motion between the first and third portions; and selecting pixels from among the identified points of interest; wherein adding, for each selected pixel in the first portion, the motion line extending from that selected pixel based on at least one of the determined amount of motion and the determined direction of motion corresponding to that selected pixel comprises fitting the motion line to a curve defined by at least one of the determined amounts and the directions of motion between the first, second and third portions corresponding to that selected pixel.

Claim 27

The method of claim 25 , wherein: characterizing the motion between the first and third portions of the video data signal comprises determining global motion between the first and third portions; and modifying one of the first and third portions of the video data signal to compensate for the characterized motion between the first and third portions of the video data signal comprises modifying one of the first and third portions to compensate for the determined global motion.

Claim 28

A motion line adding system that adds motion lines to a still image captured from a video data signal, the motion lines indicating motion in the still image, comprising: a video frame capture subsystem that captures at least a plurality of fields of the video data signal; a global motion compensation subsystem that removes global motion between pairs of captured fields or frames of the video data signal; a motion determining subsystem that determines motion between pairs of global motion compensated fields or frames of the video data signal; and a motion line adding subsystem that adds motion lines to the image, the motion lines extending from selected pixels of a frame of the video data signal, based on the determined motion.

Claim 29

A motion line adding system that adds motion lines to a still image captured from a video data signal, the motion lines indicating motion in the still image, comprising: a video frame capture subsystem that captures at least a plurality of fields of the video data signal; a global motion compensation subsystem that removes global motion between pairs of captured fields or frames of the video data signal; a motion determining subsystem that determines motion between pairs of global motion compensated fields or frames of the video data signal; and a motion line adding subsystem that adds motion lines to the image, the motion lines extending from selected pixels of a frame of the video data signal, based on the determined motion.

Claim 30

The motion line adding system of claim 27 , wherein the video frame capture subsystem comprises: a video data signal buffer that stores fields or frames of the video data signal; a current field/frame buffer that stores a base field or frame of the video data signal; a previous field/frame buffer that stores a previous field or frame of the video data signal; a field/frame selector that selects a field or frame from the video data signal buffer and that stores the selected field or frame in one of the current and previous field/frame buffers.

Claim 31

The motion line adding system of claim 27 , wherein the global motion compensation subsystem comprises: a global motion analyzer that determines, for each pair of fields or each pair of frames, an amount of global motion; and a global motion compensator that modifies, for each pair of fields or frames, one of the fields or frames based on the determined global motion.

Claim 32

The motion line adding system of claim 29 , wherein: the global motion analyzer further determines, for each pair of global compensated fields, an amount of local motion; and the global motion compensation subsystem further comprises a local motion compensator that modifies, for each pair of global motion compensated fields, the global compensated field based on the determined local motion.

Claim 33

The motion line adding system of claim 27 , wherein the motion determining subsystem comprises: a motion mask generator that generates a motion mask based on the determined motion between each pair of global motion compensated fields or frames of the video data signal; and a candidate point selection subsystem that selects candidate pixels from one of the pairs of global motion compensated fields or frames of the video data signal and that determines at least one of an amount of motion and a direction of motion for each selected candidate point.

Claim 34

The motion line adding system of claim 31 , wherein the motion mask generator comprises: a field/frame comparator that compares the fields or frames of each pair of fields or frames to generate the motion mask; and a motion mask buffer that stores the motion mask generated by the field/frame comparator.

Claim 35

The motion line adding system of claim 30 , wherein the candidate point selection subsystem comprises: a candidate point selector that selects candidate pixels from one of the pair of fields or frames based on the motion mask; a candidate point list buffer that stores the selected candidate pixels; and a motion estimator that estimates the at least one of the amount of motion and the direction of motion for each selected candidate pixel.

Claim 36

The motion line adding system of claim 33 , wherein the motion line adding subsystem comprises: a selected point extractor that selects pixels from the selected candidate pixels stored in the candidate point list buffer; a selected point list buffer that stores the selected pixels; and a motion line generator that generates a motion line for each selected pixel based on the determined at least one of the amount and direction of motion for that selected pixel and that adds the generated motion line to the frame of the video data signal.