Abstract: A method of tracking an object across a stream of images comprises determining a region of interest (ROI) bounding the object in an initial frame of an image stream. A HOG map is provided for the ROI by: dividing the ROI into an array of M×N cells, each cell comprising a plurality of image pixels; and determining a HOG for each of the cells. The HOG map is stored as indicative of the features of the object. Subsequent frames are acquired from the stream of images. The frames are scanned ROI by ROI to identify a candidate ROI having a HOG map best matching the stored HOG map features. If the match meets a threshold, the stored HOG map indicative of the features of the object is updated according to the HOG map for the best matching candidate ROI.

Abstract: A vehicle occupant monitoring system, OMS, comprises an image acquisition device with a rolling shutter image sensor configured to selectively operate in either: a full-resolution image mode where an image frame corresponding to the full image sensor is provided; or a region of interest, ROI, mode, where an image frame corresponding to a limited portion of the image sensor is provided. An object detector is configured to receive a full-resolution image from the image sensor and to identify a ROI corresponding to an object of interest within the image. A controller is configured to obtain an image corresponding to the ROI from the image sensor operating in ROI mode, the image having an exposure time long enough for all rows of the ROI to be illuminated by a common pulse of light from at least one infra-red light source and short enough to limit motion blur within the image.

Abstract: A method at a first participant's client conferencing system in a videoconference comprises receiving, from a second client conferencing system, at least one first video frame of a first video signal including an image of the second participant looking at a third participant, and first metadata associated with the first video frame and including an identity of the third participant. The image of the second participant is modified in the first video frame so that the first video frame is displayed on a first area of the client conferencing system with the second participant looking at a second area of the first display configured for displaying a second video signal of the third participant identified by the first metadata.

Abstract: A decompression apparatus comprises a number of stages including: a first stage which always reads a binary symbol from a first stage indicator file for each symbol which is to be decoded; one or more mid stages which conditionally read a binary symbol from successive indicator files based on the value of the last symbol read from a previous indicator file; and a final stage which conditionally reads a symbol from a reduced file based on the value of the last symbol read from the last stage indicator file.

Abstract: An auto-exposure module determines a first set of exposure parameters to acquire a first image. The first image is acquired using the first set of exposure parameters. The module determines a target image histogram; calculates an image histogram based on intensity values of the pixels of the first image; determines an integral of the image histogram and of the target image histogram for a range of pixel intensity values; calculates a transfer curve for transforming the integral of the image histogram to match the integral of the target image histogram; calculates a slope of a line fitting at least a portion of the transfer curve; determines a correction factor based on the calculated slope; and adjusts the first set of exposure parameters according to the correction factor. A second image is then acquired using the adjusted first set of exposure parameters.

Abstract: A vehicle occupant monitoring system, OMS, comprises: an image acquisition device comprising an image sensor and a lens assembly having a varying transmissivity across a field of view of the image sensor; at least one infra-red, IR, light source disposed within a cabin of the vehicle and being configured to illuminate at least one occupant of the vehicle with varying illumination across the field of view of the image sensor; and an image processing pipeline configured to obtain and pre-process an image acquired from the image sensor in accordance with a lens shading map and a cabin illumination map in order to compensate for both the varying transmissivity and the varying illumination in order to provide a more uniformly illuminated image to a controller for further analysis.

Abstract: A vehicle occupant monitoring system, OMS, comprises an image acquisition device with a rolling shutter image sensor comprising an array of sub-pixels which are respectively selectively sensitive to: red and infra-red; blue and infra-red; and green and infra-red light. The device is configured to selectively operate in either: a colour mode where a multi-plane image frame corresponding to the full image sensor is provided, each plane derived from red, green or blue sensitive sub-pixels respectively; or a monochrome mode, where sensor information from sub-pixels is aggregated to provide a single image plane.

Abstract: A vehicle occupant monitoring system, OMS, comprises an image acquisition device with a rolling shutter image sensor configured to selectively operate in either: a full-resolution image mode where an image frame corresponding to the full image sensor is provided; or a region of interest, ROI, mode, where an image frame corresponding to a limited portion of the image sensor is provided. An object detector is configured to receive a full-resolution image from the image sensor and to identify a ROI corresponding to an object of interest within the image. A controller is configured to obtain an image corresponding to the ROI from the image sensor operating in ROI mode, the image having an exposure time long enough for all rows of the ROI to be illuminated by a common pulse of light from at least one infra-red light source and short enough to limit motion blur within the image.

Abstract: A method for reducing camera motion blur comprises, before acquiring an image frame for a video stream, a camera measurement unit measuring data related to a camera module motion during a time window; determining camera module motion based on the measured data and predicting a camera motion blur during acquisition of the image frame based at least on the determined camera module motion and the lens projection model; determining whether the predicted camera motion blur exceeds a threshold; in response to determining that the predicted camera motion blur exceeds the threshold, determining a reduction of the provisional exposure time determined to acquire the image frame so that the predicted camera motion blur reaches the threshold, determining whether a corresponding increase in the provisional gain determined to acquire the image frame is below a maximum gain value, adjusting the provisional exposure time and gain, and acquiring the image frame.

Abstract: An image processing system comprising a processer configured to receive a sequence of images frames from an image acquisition device and configured to: analyze at least a currently acquired image frame to determine if activity is occurring in an environment with a field of view of the image acquisition device; responsive to analyzing a subsequent image frame acquired after the currently acquired image frame and determining that no activity is occurring in the environment, retrieve an image frame acquired before the currently acquired image frame which has been analyzed and where it has been determined that no activity is occurring in the environment; analyze the subsequent image frame and the retrieved image frame to identify a state of one or more objects within the field of view of the image acquisition device; and responsive to a change in state of the one or more objects, notify a user accordingly.

Abstract: A method at a first participant's client conferencing system in a videoconference comprises receiving, from a second client conferencing system, at least one first video frame of a first video signal including an image of the second participant looking at a third participant, and first metadata associated with the first video frame and including an identity of the third participant. The image of the second participant is modified in the first video frame so that the first video frame is displayed on a first area of the client conferencing system with the second participant looking at a second area of the first display configured for displaying a second video signal of the third participant identified by the first metadata.

Abstract: A method for identifying a gesture from one of a plurality of dynamic gestures, each dynamic gesture comprising a distinct movement made by a user over a period of time within a field of view of an image acquisition device comprises iteratively: acquiring a current image from said image acquisition device at a given time; and passing at least a portion of the current image through a bidirectionally recurrent multi-layer classifier. A final layer of the multi-layer classifier comprises an output indicating a probability that a gesture from the plurality of dynamic gestures is being made by a user during the time of acquiring the image.

Abstract: A multi-camera vehicle vision system and method. In one embodiment a map is generated about a moving vehicle. Frames of image data are provided with a series of cameras extending along a surface of the vehicle. The image data frames are processed to identify an object of interest. An object of interest is classified among a set of object types and location of an identified object of interest is determined. Object type and location information is provided to a control unit spaced apart from the cameras via a data link. Road map data is generated to illustrate changes in position of the moving vehicle along a roadway based on data other than the image data provided by the cameras. A display of the road map data is generated with the object type and location information overlaid on the road map data to indicate object location relative to the vehicle.

Abstract: A method for generating a composite image comprises: detecting a color temperature of a background image; acquiring from a camera through an image signal processor, ISP, performing white balance correction of acquired image data, an image including a foreground region including face of a user; and detecting a color temperature of the foreground region. Responsive to the color temperature for the foreground region differing from that of the background image by more than a threshold amount, a color temperature for white balance correction of a subsequently acquired image is set which causes skin pixels within the foreground region of the subsequently acquired image to have a color temperature closer to the color temperature for the background image. Pixel values of the foreground region are combined with pixel values of the background image corresponding to a background region of the acquired image to provide the composite image.

Abstract: A method for monitoring occupants of a vehicle comprises identifying a respective body region for one or more occupants of the vehicle within an obtained image; identifying within the body regions, skeletal points including points on an arm of a body; identifying one or more hand regions; and determining a hand region to be either a left or a right hand of an occupant in accordance with its spatial relationship with identified skeletal points of the body region of an occupant. The left or right hand region for the occupant are provided to a pair of classifiers to provide an activity classification for the occupant, a first classifier being trained with images of hands of occupants in states where objects involved are not visible and a second classifier being trained with images of occupants in the states where the objects are visible in at least one hand region.

Abstract: Embodiments of the invention provide a camera array imaging architecture that computes depth maps for objects within a scene captured by the cameras, and use a near-field sub-array of cameras to compute depth to near-field objects and a far-field sub-array of cameras to compute depth to far-field objects. In particular, a baseline distance between cameras in the near-field subarray is less than a baseline distance between cameras in the far-field sub-array in order to increase the accuracy of the depth map. Some embodiments provide an illumination near-IR light source for use in computing depth maps.

Abstract: An image acquisition system determines first and second sets of points defining an iris-pupil boundary and an iris-sclera boundary in an acquired image; determines respective ellipses fitting the first and second sets of points; determines a transformation to transform one of the ellipses into a circle on a corresponding plane; using the determined transformation, transforms the selected ellipse into a circle on the plane; using the determined transformation, transforms the other ellipse into a transformed ellipse on the plane; determines a plurality of ellipses on the plane for defining an iris grid, by interpolating a plurality of ellipses between the circle and the transformed ellipse; moves the determined grid ellipses onto the iris in the image using an inverse transformation of the determined transformation; and extracts an iris texture by unwrapping the iris and interpolating image pixel values at each grid point defined along each of the grid ellipses.

Abstract: Systems and methods in accordance with embodiments of the invention are disclosed that use super-resolution (SR) processes to use information from a plurality of low resolution (LR) images captured by an array camera to produce a synthesized higher resolution image. One embodiment includes obtaining input images using the plurality of imagers, using a microprocessor to determine an initial estimate of at least a portion of a high resolution image using a plurality of pixels from the input images, and using a microprocessor to determine a high resolution image that when mapped through the forward imaging transformation matches the input images to within at least one predetermined criterion using the initial estimate of at least a portion of the high resolution image.

Abstract: A method for calibrating a vehicle cabin camera having: a pitch, yaw and roll angle; and a field of view capturing vehicle cabin features which are symmetric about a vehicle longitudinal axis comprises: selecting points from within an image of the vehicle cabin and projecting the points onto a 3D unit circle in accordance with a camera projection model. For each of one or more rotations of a set of candidate yaw and roll rotations, the method comprises: rotating the projected points with the rotation; flipping the rotated points about a pitch axis; counter-rotating the projected points with an inverse of the rotation; and mapping the counter-rotated points back into an image plane to provide a set of transformed points. A candidate rotation which provides a best match between the set of transformed points and the locations of the selected points in the image plane is selected.

Abstract: A method for stabilizing a video sequence comprises: obtaining an indication of camera movement from acquisition of a previous camera frame to acquisition of a current camera frame; determining an orientation for the camera at a time of acquiring the current camera frame; and determining a candidate orientation for a crop frame for the current camera frame by adjusting an orientation of a crop frame associated with the previous camera frame according to the determined orientation. A boundary of one of the camera frame or crop frame is traversed to determine if a specific point on the boundary of the crop frame exceeds a boundary of the camera frame. If so, a rotation of the specific point location which would bring the specific point location onto the boundary of the crop frame is determined and the candidate crop frame orientation updated accordingly before the crop frame is displayed.