Abstract: A system including a moveable camera adapted to obtain a sequence of video images of an object, a determiner adapted to identify an object border in a current video image of said sequence of video images, said determiner being adapted to determine an object area and a background area based on said object border; an estimator adapted to estimate a camera motion estimate of said moveable camera and to estimate an object motion estimate of the object, said estimator being adapted to generate a camera motion model from said camera motion estimate and being adapted to generate an object motion model from at least one of said object motion estimate and said camera motion model; a stabilizer adapted to adjust at least one video image within said sequence of video images based on said camera motion model; and a controller adapted to control said moveable camera to track the object based on said object motion model and said camera motion model.

Abstract: In a video processing system scene shifts are detected and the need for adjusting the brightness between pairs of adjacent frames of a video motion picture is assessed. The need for brightness adjustment is assessed and a possible scene shift is detected by identifying homogeneous pixels in at least one frame of a pair of adjacent frames of the motion picture. The brightness of one of the adjacent frames is then adjusted and a scene shift is detected based on the ratio of the number of homogeneous pixels undergoing a substantial change in brightness relative to the total number of homogeneous pixels identified. When a need for a brightness adjustment is determined the brightness of one of the frames is adjusted before estimating optical flow between the frames.

Abstract: In a system for displaying medical images, medical images are generated from views internally within a body by means of x-rays, CAT scan, or MRI. The images are spaced in time or are views of spaced slices through tissue or through an organ within a body. The spacing between the images is such that the display of the images as a motion picture would result in the motion being depicted as jerky in the motion picture. A video processor generates dense motion vector fields between adjacent frames of the original set of images and, from the dense motion vector fields, generates interpolated images between the images of the original set. The interpolated images are assembled into a motion picture set of images, which are displayed by a video display device.

Abstract: In the motion picture display system, successive frames of a motion picture are compared to determine the dense motion vector fields representing the change of position of image elements in the images represented by the frames. Interpolated frames are generated by scaling the vectors of the dense motion vector fields to a fraction of their original magnitudes and moving image elements in the corresponding frames to positions in the interpolated frames in accordance with the dense motion vector fields. The invention is used to eliminate jerky motion in low frame rate motion pictures and also to provide slow motion in high frame rate motion pictures.