Abstract: The present invention concerns a method of encoding a media bitstream of a media content. The media bitstream comprises a payload portion for the media content, and an overhead portion, different from the payload portion. The method comprises the steps of: modifying a part of the payload portion of the media bitstream, the modified part representing a region of the media content; and inserting the said part, as unmodified, into the overhead portion of the modified media bitstream for later reconstruction of the unmodified payload portion, such that the modified part in the media bitstream can be decoded without decoding the part as unmodified from the overhead portion. The invention also relates to a method of decoding, to an encoder and to a decoder.

Abstract: The present invention concerns a method of encoding a media bitstream of a media content. The media bitstream comprises a payload portion for the media content, and an overhead portion, different from the payload portion. The method comprises the steps of: modifying a part of the payload portion of the media bitstream, the modified part representing a region of the media content; and inserting the said part, as unmodified, into the overhead portion of the modified media bitstream for later reconstruction of the unmodified payload portion, such that the modified part in the media bitstream can be decoded without decoding the part as unmodified from the overhead portion. The invention also relates to a method of decoding, to an encoder and to a decoder.

Abstract: A video surveillance system is disclosed which addresses the issue of privacy rights and scrambles regions of interest in a scene in a video scene to protect the privacy of human faces and objects captured by the system. The video surveillance system is configured to identify persons and or objects captured in a region of interest of a video scene by various techniques, such as detecting changes in a scene or by face detection. In accordance with an important aspect of the invention regions of interest are automatically scrambled, for example, by way of a private encryption key, while the balance of the video scene is left in tact and is thus recognizable. Such region of interest scrambling provides distinct advantages over known code block scrambling techniques. The entire video scenes are then compressed, by one or more compression standards, such as JPEG 2000. In accordance with one aspect of the invention, the degree of scrambling can be controlled.

Abstract: This invention describes a video surveillance system which is composed of three key components 1—smart camera(s), 2—server(s), 3—client(s), connected through IP-networks in wired or wireless configurations. The system has been designed so as to protect the privacy of people and goods under surveillance. Smart cameras are based on JPEG 2000 compression where an analysis module allows for efficient use of security tools for the purpose of scrambling, and event detection. The analysis is also used in order to provide a better quality in regions of the interest in the scene. Compressed video streams leaving the camera(s) are scrambled and signed for the purpose of privacy and data integrity verification using JPSEC compliant methods. The same bit stream is also protected based on JPWL compliant methods for robustness to transmission errors.

Abstract: A method for marking a compressed digital video signal by embedding a digital signature in the compressed video signal, the signal representing a series of at least two video images, each image being divided into a plurality of regions, the signal including movement vectors representing the movement of the regions between the first and the second image, characterised in that it consists in modifying at least one of the coefficients X or Y of at least one of the movement vectors.

Abstract: An algorithm for video summarization is described. The algorithm combines photometric and motion information. According to the algorithm, the correspondence between feature points is used to detect shot boundaries and to select key frames. Thus, the rate of feature points, which are lost or initiated, is used as an indication if a shot transition occurred or not. Key frames are selected as frames where the activity change is low.

Abstract: A video signal coding method and apparatus thereof and a video signal decoding apparatus of the present invention improves visual picture quality of a decoded image with higher compression rate than ever. A video signal (S1) is resolved into local luminance information composed of the smooth component, edge information composed of contour component, and texture information composed of component other than the smooth component and the contour component corresponding to each different visual importance. Then, the local luminance information is coded (S2) by a coding method which restores all of the local luminance information, the edge information is coded (S4) by a coding method by chain information and amplitude information, and the texture information is coded by a coding method having higher compression rate compared with the local luminance information (S2) and the edge information (S4).

Abstract: An encoder segments frames in a sequence of digital images into multiple regions of arbitrary shape each of which has a corresponding motion vector relative to a previous decoded frame. A hierarchical multi-resolution motion estimation and segmentation technique, which segments the frame into multiple blocks and which assigns a best motion vector to each block is used. Blocks having the same or similar motion vector are then merged to form the arbitrarily-shaped regions. The shape of each region is coded, and a decision is made to code additional image data of each region in one of three modes. In a first inter-frame mode, a motion vector associated with a region is encoded. In a second inter-frame mode, a prediction error for the region is also encoded. In an intra-frame mode, the intensity of each picture element in the region is encoded.

Abstract: An improved method and apparatus for prediction coding with motion estimation uses a hierarchical approach in which a motion vector updating routine is performed with respect to multiple levels of smaller and smaller regions of a frame. The motion vector updating routine updates the motion vector of a smaller region by assigning to it a best motion vector selected from among an initial motion vector assigned to the smaller region, motion vectors of neighboring regions, and a matched motion vector obtained by performing a block matching technique for the smaller region. The best motion vector for each region is selected according to a priority scheme and a predetermined threshold value. Adjacent regions having the same motion vector are then merged together, and a region shape representation routine is used to specify contour pixels that will allow the merged regions to be recovered by a decoder. A contour coding routine is then used to encode the contour pixels for transmission to the decoder.