Abstract: A method and apparatus for determining an image compression format of a 3-dimensional television (3DTV). The method may include encoding a high-quality image and transmitting the encoded high-quality image through a first channel, determining an image compression format in which a resolution of the encoded low-quality image is higher than or equal to a reference value in comparison to the high-quality image, and encoding the low-quality image according to the determined image compression format and transmitting, the encoded low-quality image through a second channel.

Abstract: A tracking device includes an imaging part for repeatedly acquiring image data on a subject image, a tracking processing part for setting a tracking position based on first image data to perform tracking processing on a subject in the tracking position based on second image data, and a relative distance information calculating part for calculating relative distance information using (1) a determined information about a distance to the tracking position and (2) a determined information about a distance to a surrounding area around the tracking position. When the tracking processing part determines that another subject in the surrounding area is located at the closer range than the subject in the tracking position, the tracking processing part prohibits tracking processing.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method for deblocking filtering a macroblock (M1) on the basis of a coding standard for image information which is stored in macroblocks (M1, M2) which are arranged adjacent to one another horizontally in macroblock rows and adjacent to one another vertically in macroblock columns, wherein each macroblock (M1, M2) is formed from blocks (B) which are arranged adjacent to one another horizontally in block rows M and adjacent to one another vertically in block columns n and form block elements Mmn, where m=1 to 4 and n=1 to 4, of a first matrix M, wherein the blocks (B) have vertical edges (14, 15) and horizontal edges (18, 19), which each provide external boundaries for the blocks (B), and, starting with the block element MII, the vertical edges (14, 15) and the horizontal edges (18, 19) of the blocks (B) of a macroblock (M1, M2) are filtered, in which a context region (K1) comprising the blocks (B) of a first macroblock (M1) to be filtered is stipulated which is formed from blocks (B

Abstract: A video processing device includes a video processing unit that decodes a video input signal into a decoded video signal in accordance with a video compression protocol, based on uncompressed video frame data. A data object compression/decompression module generates compressed video frame data for storage in a compressed video frame buffer by compressing a plurality of video data objects into a plurality of compressed video data objects, wherein a first subset of the plurality of video data objects are compressed via lossless compression and a second subset of the plurality of video data objects are compressed via lossy compression.

Abstract: A video encoding apparatus includes an intra prediction error collector; a transform base generator; an intra predictor; and a transform encoder, the intra prediction error collector collecting prediction errors of blocks having an equal intra prediction mode from macroblocks in a regular unit, which are encoded prior to a current macroblock, the transform base generator generating transform bases for respective intra prediction modes based on the prediction errors collected by the intra prediction error collector. Accordingly, the intra prediction encoding performance can be significantly improved with adding no addition information by adaptively generating a transform base according to an image characteristic change and transform-encoding an intra prediction error. As a result, the compression efficiency of a video compression apparatus or the picture quality of a reconstructed image can be greatly improved.

Abstract: A relational tracking and recording method and apparatus can include: transmitting a signal from a beacon; detecting the signal with a first antenna and with a second antenna, the first antenna coupled to a tracking and recording element; determining a time of flight for the signal between the beacon and the first antenna; calculating a distance between the beacon and the first antenna based on the time of flight; determining a horizontal angle of the beacon; determining a vertical angle of the beacon; positioning an image sensor to face toward the beacon based on the vertical angle and based on the horizontal angle; focusing optics in front of the image sensor based on the distance; zooming the optics in front of the image sensor based on the distance; and recording an image with the image sensor.

Abstract: Systems and methods can facilitate identifying 2D content in media that is suitable for conversion into 3D content, and converting the suitable 2D content into 3D content. The identifying can be based on quality criteria applied to the 2D content. For 2D content converted into 3D content, a user can be offered a choice between viewing the content in its original 2D form, or viewing the content in its converted, 3D form. The systems and methods can thereby provide users with greater choice of content and an enhanced viewing experience.

Abstract: A monitoring camera arranged to monitor a scene and a method of controlling camera settings for a monitoring camera arranged to monitor a scene wherein images are captured of different parts of the scene by altering a field of view of the camera, wherein data defining a camera settings control area within the scene is accessed, and it is determined if there is an overlapping region between a current field of view of the camera and the camera settings control area, and if there is an overlapping region, camera settings are controlled based on the overlapping region.

Abstract: The present invention provides an automatic surgical lighting device and its lighting method. The surgical lighting device is located to face a target area and includes a supporting element that is connected to at least a moving element that is above the target area. A lighting capture module set on the moving element is used to illuminate the target area and capture the image of the target area in order to send feedback signal. Both the lighting capture module and moving element are electronically connected to at least one control unit. The control unit, base on the feedback signal received, moves the lighting capture module via the moving element till the whole image of the target area is obtained. By this method, the surgery quality is improved, the surgery time is shortened and the risk of cross infection and the consequent litigation is lowered.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes a first display control unit that causes a display unit to display a first 3D image, a receiving unit that receives, from a user, a message indicating whether an amount of parallax of the first 3D image being displayed on the display unit is within an allowable range, a determining unit that determines an estimated allowable range on the basis of the message received by the receiving unit so that if the message indicates that the amount of parallax of the 3D image being displayed is not within the allowable range, the amount of parallax is not included in the estimated allowable range; and a second display control unit that causes the display unit to display a second 3D image on the basis of the estimated allowable range.

Abstract: A method of tracking and reporting the velocity of a hand-held paint spray gun. The object to be painted is placed in a room having one or more fiducial walls. A camera is installed on the spray gun, with its field of view toward the one or more fiducial walls. As the object is painted, the camera detects fiducials, calculates their current position, and compares current positions to previous locations to determine movement and velocity. The current velocity is compared to a stored target velocity, and audible or visible feedback is provided to the spray gun operator.

Abstract: A video decoder includes an entropy decoding device that includes a first processor that generates first entropy decoded (EDC) data from a first portion of an encoded video signal and further that generates second EDC data from a second portion of the encoded video signal. A general video decoding device includes a second processor that generates a first portion of a decoded video signal from the first EDC data and that further generates a second portion of the decoded video signal from the second EDC data. The entropy decoding device and the general video decoding device operate contemporaneously in a pipelined process where the general video decoding device generates the first portion of the decoded video signal during at least a portion of time that the entropy decoding device generates the second EDC data from the first portion of the encoded video signal.

Abstract: A low latency streaming system provides a stateless protocol between a client and server with reduced latency. The server embeds incremental information in media fragments that eliminates the usage of a typical control channel. In addition, the server provides uniform media fragment responses to media fragment requests, thereby allowing existing Internet cache infrastructure to cache streaming media data. Each fragment has a distinguished Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that allows the fragment to be identified and cached by both Internet cache servers and the client's browser cache. The system reduces latency using various techniques, such as sending fragments that contain less than a full group of pictures (GOP), encoding media without dependencies on subsequent frames, and by allowing clients to request subsequent frames with only information about previous frames.

Abstract: An image decoding method is provided which includes a time information determination step of determining time information of a current picture, a first reference picture referred to by the current picture and a second reference picture referred to by the current picture; a scaling parameter calculation step of calculating a scaling parameter based on a time distance between the first reference picture and a second reference picture; a weighting coefficient determination step of determining two weighting coefficients based on the scaling parameter; a predictive pixel value generation step of generating a predictive pixel value of the current picture by scaling a pixel value of the first reference picture and a pixel value of the second reference picture using the two weighting coefficients determined in the weighting coefficient determination step; and a decoding step of decoding the current picture using the predictive pixel value.

Abstract: Apparatus, systems, and methods may operate to obtain an image of a consumer electronic device, the image comprising at least one visual indication of a first operating state of the consumer electronic device, and to transmit one or more commands to the consumer electronic device to change to a second operating state different from the first operating state, responsive to determining the first operating state by extracting information associated with the at least one visual indication from the image. The commands may be determined by accessing a database having control instructions associated with the consumer electronic device. Additional apparatus, systems, and methods are disclosed.

Abstract: A video processing device may generate a two dimensional (2D) output video stream from a three dimensional (3D) input video stream that comprises a plurality of view sequences. The plurality of view sequences may comprise sequences of stereoscopic left and right reference fields or frames. A view sequence may initially be selected as a base sequence for the 2D output video stream, and the 2D output video stream may be enhanced using video content and/or information from unselected view sequences. The video content and/or information utilized in enhancing the 2D output video stream may comprise depth information, and/or foreground and/or background information. The enhancement of the 2D input video stream may comprise improving depth, contrast, sharpness, and/or rate upconversion using frame and/or field based interpolation of images in the 2D output video stream.

Abstract: A digital photographing apparatus and a method of controlling the same to increase continuous shooting speed for capturing panoramic photographs. A provided method includes when a plurality of images are captured from an image pickup device during a predetermined period of time to generate a panoramic image, capturing at least one image from among the plurality of images by reading, from the image pickup device, image data corresponding to a predetermined region of a preview image displayed on the digital photographing apparatus, wherein a first number of the plurality of images is greater than a second number of images captured by reading, from the image pickup device, second image data corresponding to an entire region of the preview image during the predetermined period of time.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for encoding surveillance video where one or more regions of interest are identified and the encoding parameter values associated with those regions are specified in accordance with intermediate outputs of a video analytics process. Such an analytics-modulated video compression approach allows the coding process to adapt dynamically based on the content of the surveillance images. In this manner, the fidelity of the region of interest is increased relative to that of a background region such that the coding efficiency is improved, including instances when no target objects appear in the scene. Better compression results can be achieved by assigning different coding priority levels to different types of detected objects.

Abstract: A method and system for staggered parallelized video decoding system decodes a compressed video stream at approximately double the performance of conventional systems, and outputs the decoded stream to a video display device. Even and odd video frames from the video stream are identified and stored in a memory. A first decoder processes a first portion of a first even frame from among the stored even frames. After the first decoder completes processing the first portion of the first even frame, a second decoder begins processing a first odd frame from among the stored odd frames. The processing start times of the odd frames are staggered with respect to the even frames and vice versa, and the even and odd frames are simultaneously processed using first and second decoders.

Abstract: The invention presents a method for comparing the similarity between image patches comprising the steps of receiving form at least two sources at least two image patches, wherein each source supplies an image patch, comparing the received image patches by extracting a number of corresponding subpart pairs from each image patch, calculating a normalized local similarity score between all corresponding subpart pairs, calculating a total matching score by integrating the local similarity scores of all corresponding subpart pairs, and using the total matching score as an indicator for an image patch similarity, determining corresponding similar image patches based on the total matching score.