| Patent application number | Description | Published |
|---|
| 20090033740 | VIDEO METHOD FOR GENERATING FREE VIEWPOINT VIDEO IMAGE USING DIVIDED LOCAL REGIONS - The present invention provides a method of generating a virtual viewpoint video image when the virtual viewpoint position is not located on a plane where a camera is disposed. In an environment in which a plurality of cameras having a horizontal optical axis are disposed in a real zone (for example, on the circumference) which surrounds an object, a video image of an arbitrary viewpoint on the circumference is generated. Further, by synthesizing video images photographed by a camera, a free viewpoint video image is generated from a virtual viewpoint (viewpoint from a high or low position) where no camera is placed. According to a method of achieving this, a travel distance of a display position is calculated by the local region synthesizing portion and this travel distance is reflected to the free viewpoint video image of a local region. | 02-05-2009 |
| 20090052776 | COLOR CORRECTION APPARATUS, METHOD AND COMPUTER PROGRAM - The present invention relates to color correction of video signals from a plurality of cameras. The apparatus has a correction order that defines a plurality of camera pairs and an order of the camera pairs, where each camera pair specifies a reference camera and a target camera. In the correction order, each camera is treated as a target camera at least one time, and the reference camera is treated as the target camera in a previous camera pair except for the first camera pair. The apparatus corrects a value of each pixel in a target image captured by the target camera based on a reference image captured by the reference camera, and replaces the target image by the corrected target image, for each camera pair in accordance with the order of the camera pairs. | 02-26-2009 |
| 20090110299 | APPARATUS, METHOD AND COMPUTER PROGRAM FOR CLASSIFYING PIXELS IN A MOTION PICTURE AS FOREGROUND OR BACKGROUND - The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for classifying pixels in each frame of a motion picture as foreground or background. According to the invention, the apparatus has a decision unit and adjustment unit. The decision unit classifies a pixel as a foreground pixel, a background pixel or an undefined pixel based on a first threshold, a second threshold and a distribution value of the pixel representing an occurrence probability of a pixel value of the pixel. The decision unit sorts each pixel into a foreground pixel or a background pixel based on the classification result of the decision unit. | 04-30-2009 |
| 20090219396 | CALIBRATION APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR IMAGING DEVICES AND COMPUTER PROGRAM - The present invention relates to calibration of camera parameters for converting a world coordinate system, which indicates a position in the real space, to a coordinate used in an image and vice versa. The apparatus according to the invention has a detection unit, which determines corresponding pixel pairs from the captured image and the model image and outputs corresponding data indicating determined pixel pairs, and a selection unit, which selects pixel pairs to be left in the corresponding data and removes data related to an unselected pixel pair from the corresponding data for generating selected corresponding data. The apparatus further has a calculation unit, which calculates camera parameters based on the selected corresponding data. | 09-03-2009 |
| 20100026788 | METHOD FOR GENERATING FREE VIEWPOINT VIDEO IMAGE IN THREE-DIMENSIONAL MOVEMENT AND RECORDING MEDIUM - The present invention provides a method for generating free viewpoint video image in three-dimensional movement capable of synthesizing the free viewpoint video image from a viewpoint which looks down on an object from above. This method includes a process of taking multi-viewpoint video images using a plurality of cameras located on an identical plane and a camera not located on the identical plane, a process of generating video image at a viewpoint having the same azimuth as a desired viewpoint and located on the plane from the multi-viewpoint video images of the cameras on the plane, and a process of generating video image at the desired viewpoint from video image of the camera not located on the plane and video image at the viewpoint having the same azimuth as the desired viewpoint and located on the plane. | 02-04-2010 |
| 20100074468 | IMAGE GENERATING APPARATUS AND COMPUTER PROGRAM - The present invention relate to an image generating apparatus for generating an image from a viewpoint specified by a user. According to the invention, the apparatus has a storage unit that stores data of a plurality of images, and a disparity map generating unit that generates a disparity map. The disparity map is associated with a pair of images including a first image and a second image, and indicates corresponding pixels in the first and second images. | 03-25-2010 |
| 20100253682 | IMAGE GENERATING APPARATUS AND COMPUTER PROGRAM - The present invention relates to an image generating apparatus for generating an image from a viewpoint specified by a user. According to the invention, the apparatus has a storage unit that stores a plurality of pre-images from viewpoints on predetermined lines and depth maps indicating a depth value of each pixel of a corresponding pre-image, and an image generating unit that generates a first image from a first viewpoint based on the pre-images and depth maps. | 10-07-2010 |
| 20100254627 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND C0MPUTER PROGRAM - The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus for compressing image data used in an image generating apparatus for generating a free-viewpoint image. According to the invention, the apparatus has a selecting unit that selects one image as a first image, and defines other images as second images, a projective transformation unit that generates a projected depth map of a second image from a depth map of the first image, a subtracting unit that creates a difference map of the second image, and a storage unit that stores the depth map of the first image and the difference map of the second image. Here, the difference map is a difference between a depth map of the second image and the projected depth map of the second image, and the depth map indicates a depth value of each pixel of a corresponding image. | 10-07-2010 |
