Computer Method and Apparatus for Processing Image Data

Abstract

A data compression method and apparatus that includes detecting a portion of a signal comprising a sequence of video frames that uses a disproportionate amount of bandwidth compared to other portions of the signal. The detected portion of the signal result in determined components of interest. Relative to certain variance, these components of interest are normalized to generate an intermediate form, which represents the components of interest reduced in complexity by the certain variance and enables a compressed form of the signal that maintains saliency. The detecting includes any of:(i) analyzing image gradients across frames where image gradient is a first derivative model and gradient flow is a second derivative,(ii) integrating finite differences of pels temporally / spatially to form a derivative model,(iii) analyzing an illumination field across frames, and(iv) predictive analysis, to determine bandwidth consumption, which is used to determine the components of interest.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 12 / 522,322, filed Jul. 7, 2009, which is the U.S. National Stage of International Application No. PCT / US2008 / 000090, filed on Jan. 4, 2008, which designates the U.S., published in English, claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 881,966, filed on Jan. 23, 2007. U.S. application Ser. No. 12 / 522,322 is also a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 11 / 396,010, filed Mar. 31, 2006, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 11 / 336,366 filed Jan. 20, 2006, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 11 / 280,625 filed Nov. 16, 2005 which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 11 / 230,686 filed Sep. 20, 2005 which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 11 / 191,562 filed Jul. 28, 2005, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,158,680. U.S. application Ser. No. 11 / 396,010 also claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 667...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent describes a method for creating a compact representation of video data that can be used in video compression algorithms, allowing for a higher compression ratio. The method also involves identifying and reducing components of video data that are important for encoding. This reduces the complexity of the video data and makes it easier to apply geometric data analysis techniques. The resulting video data is then encoded using a Discrete Cosine Transform and quantization, allowing for efficient storage and retrieval.

Problems solved by technology

In general, PCA cannot be effectively applied to the original video frames.

But, once the frames have been segmented and further normalized, the variation in the appearance of the pels in those frames no longer has the interference of background pels or the spatial displacements from global motion.

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