Abstract: A gradient domain compression system generates, from an input image having a high luminance dynamic range, an output image having a lower luminance dynamic range. The system comprises a gradient image generator module, a gradient compression module, and an output image generator module. The gradient image generator module is configured to generate, from the input image, a gradient image representing, for respective points of the input image, gradient values in the luminance of the input image. The gradient compression module is configured to receive the gradient image and generate a compressed range gradient image in which the range of gradient values are compressed. The output image generator module is configured to receive the compressed range gradient image and to generate therefrom an image, the image generated by the output image generator module comprising the output image.

Abstract: In a method and system for matting a foreground object F having an opacity ? constrained by associating a characteristic with selected pixels in an image having a background B, weights are determined for all edges of neighboring pixels for the image and used to build a Laplacian matrix L. The equation ? is solved where ?=arg min ?T L? s.t.?i=si, ?i ? S, S is the group of selected pixels, and si is the value indicated by the associated characteristic. The equation Ii=?iFi+(1??i)Bi is solved for F and B with additional smoothness assumptions on F and B; after which the foreground object F may be composited on a selected background B? that may be the original background B or may be a different background, thus allowing foreground features to be extracted from the original image and copied to a different background.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method and system for transforming a first sequence of video frames of a first dynamic scene captured at regular time intervals to a second sequence of video frames depicting a second dynamic scene wherein for at least two successive frames of the second sequence, there are selected from at least three different frames of the first sequence portions that are spatially contiguous in the first dynamic scene and copied to a corresponding frame of the second sequence so as to maintain their spatial continuity in the first sequence. In a second aspect, for at least one feature in the first dynamic scene respective portions of the first sequence of video frames are sampled at a different rate than surrounding portions of the first sequence of video frames; and the sampled portions are copied to a corresponding frame of the second sequence.

Abstract: Method and system for efficiently controlling animated smoke which utilizes a sequence of target smoke states to generate a smoke simulation in which the smoke is driven towards each of these targets in turn, while exhibiting natural-looking interesting smoke-like behavior. This control is made possible by two new terms added to standard flow equations: (i) a driving force term that causes the fluid to carry the smoke towards a particular target, and (ii) a smoke gathering term that prevents the smoke from diffusing too much. These terms are explicitly defined by the instantaneous state of the system at each simulation time step. Thus, no expensive optimization is required, allowing complex smoke animations to be generated with very little additional cost compared to ordinary flow simulations. The invention is also applicable to animation of other fluid flow phenomena.