Abstract: The concept of singing karaoke exclusively relies on audio based techniques. The invention consists of developing the concept of video immersion: the user will see his (her) image inserted into the video clip or movie at the place of his (her) favorite dancer, singer or player, and will therefore be able to play clip/song on video tape, and replace any famous star. More precisely, the invention relates to a karaoke system in which are provided successive means for picking up an image of the user and his/her voice, analyzing and processing the obtained signals, mixing the audio/video signals thus analyzed and processed and a pre-recorded material and displaying the combination signals thus obtained.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method and system for coding segmented pictures, and to corresponding decoding method and system. In the coding system, a first sub-system defines the time evolution of said segmented pictures, or partitions, and a second one encodes both contours and textures of the regions of the successive partitions. The time evolution definition leads to a partition tree (PT) from which regions are extracted during an analysis step (AS) in order to form a decision tree (DT). A decision operation allows to select during a choice step (CS) distinct regions R.sub.S from various levels of said partition tree, in order to construct an optimal final partition (BFP) and, simultaneously, to choose the coding technique (BCT) that is the best one for each region of said optimal partition. Reciprocally the decoding method and system comprise means for defining the coding strategy chosen for each of said regions and decoding correspondingly the coded information.