KR100295365B1 - image processor with object chase and method for the same - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention is connected to an image input unit and a public communication network that receives an image of a subject and converts it into an electronic signal, and transmits the image data acquired from the image input unit to the public communication network side and transmits the image signal received from the public communication network side to the display device side. The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus including an image data transmitting and receiving unit. In particular, an infrared tracking means for tracking an infrared signal generated by an infrared ray generating means worn on a subject, and a tracking position output from the infrared tracking means are received. A position determining means for determining a signal and an output signal of the image input unit according to the input control signal so that the resolution is at a predetermined level, and then converted into a digital signal. Digital signal as shaping And an operation control unit for receiving an object position data output from the position determining unit and providing an area for extracting a subject and a control signal to the image signal conversion unit. By providing the image processing apparatus and method according to the subject tracking characterized in that it is possible to accurately capture a large number of moving subjects, as in the prior art it is possible to suppress the unnecessary rise in the cost of production costs.

Description

Image processing apparatus and method for subject tracking {image processor with object chase and method for the same}

The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for photographing and transmitting a subject in a video conference or video lecture, and more particularly, to detect a movement of a subject, and to position the subject in the center of a transmission screen, and accordingly, to a video telephone, a PC camera, and a digital camera. The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and method for tracking subjects, which can be applied to a camera or the like to quickly transmit desired information and to minimize a storage area.

In general, telecommunications has generally been a system for delivering only voice, but as real-time image transfer is performed by the rapid development of electronic communication technology, image processing systems such as video telephones, PC cameras, and digital cameras have been provided. In the above-described image processing system, an image signal is input, stored through digital signal processing, or transmitted.

In the above-described video conferencing or video lecture, both callers connected to the public communication network (ISDN, optical communication, etc.) as shown in FIG. 1 are equipped with a camera, a speaker, a microphone, a monitor, and a data processing device. You can make a call while checking the appearance of the other party through the monitor.

In this case, referring to FIG. 2 attached to the schematic configuration of the image processing system for video conferencing or image lecture, the conventional image processing apparatus receives an image of a subject and converts the image into an electronic signal 10. ), And an image signal converter 20 for removing noise from the output signal of the image input unit 10 and converting the digital signal into a digital signal and performing digital signal processing after a predetermined level regardless of the change in the amount of light. A key input of the command input unit 30 receives an external command by the user, and controls the operation of the system according to the output signal of the command input unit 30 and is output from the image signal conversion unit 20 An operation control unit 40 which performs compression and restoration of an image signal or restores an image signal received from another system; and an image compressed by the operation control unit 40. And the image storage unit 50 for storing the emitter, an image signal is transmitted to another system, or consist of an image transmission and reception unit 60 for receiving image signals from other systems.

In this case, the image input unit 10 may include a lens 11 that receives an image of a subject and a charge coupled device (CCD) that performs a function of making light incident through the lens 11 into an electronic signal. And (12).

In addition, the image signal conversion unit 20 is a correlated double sampling (CDS) 21 for outputting only pure signal components by removing noise among the signal components output from the image input unit 10, and in the CDS 21 AGC (auto gain control) 22 for controlling the output signal to be a constant level irrespective of the change in the amount of light, and the A / D converter 23 for making the analog signal output from the AGC 22 into a digital signal And a digital signal process (DSP) 24 for processing a signal output from the A / D converter 23.

At this time, the DSP 24 uses the digital signal output from the A / D converter 23 to separate the luminance signal and the color signal, and to compensate the boundary, which increases the gain of the boundary portion, and gamma of the high luminance and high chroma portions. It performs general digital signal processing such as correction, special effects such as mosaic processing, gain and phase adjustment of color signal, encoding for conversion to NTSC / PAL standard, and D / A operation for analog output.

In addition, the operation control unit 40 analyzes the output signal of the command input unit 30 and accordingly controls the operation of the image input unit 10 and the image signal conversion unit 20 and digital, An operation unit 42 which compresses the processed image signal or restores the received image signal, and the image storage unit 50 according to the output signal of the command processor 41 based on the result of the operation unit 42. And a signal flow controller 43 for storing in or transmitting the image transmission / reception unit 60.

Briefly referring to the operation of the image processing apparatus of the prior art having the configuration as described above, when an image is input from the image input unit 10, the image signal converter 20 removes the noise and performs a level adjustment to the digital signal And digital signal processing is performed.

When the above operation is performed, the operation control unit 40 compresses the image signal according to the output signal of the command input unit 30 to store the image signal in the image storage unit 50 or stores the image transmission / reception unit 60. To another system. On the other hand, when an image signal is received from the other system to the image transmitting and receiving unit 60, the operation control unit 40 restores and stores the image signal in the image storing unit 50.

However, in the image processing apparatus applied to the videoconferencing or the image lecture as described above, since the image input unit 10 is not free to move, the image input unit 10 reads only the image of the area fixed in the set position. If the movement of the subject frequently occurs, such as an image lecture, a problem arises in that the video message to be delivered cannot be correctly delivered as shown in FIG. 3.

In addition, as described above, when the subject moves frequently, unnecessary image transmission occurs, so that the image of the subject is not transmitted incompletely as shown in FIG. There is a problem in that the image is read or manually moved to the image input unit 10 in accordance with the movement of the subject.

As a technique proposed to solve the above-mentioned problems, there are a number of prior arts such as Korean Patent Application No. 96-48092 or 96-42343 as a dialog or target tracking technique.

The above-described techniques generally recognize a contour or a centerline of a subject to be tracked through image processing, compare the difference between the previous screen and the current screen, and move the camera centerline of the image input unit 10 accordingly.

Therefore, there is a problem that the image processing means is overloaded, and the resolution of the image message transmitted is not increased. That is, several problems occur because the same image processing is performed for the entire image except for compensation of the boundary, high luminance, and high saturation. Therefore, because the resolution is not high, the user may feel uncomfortable because the video message to be delivered does not appear clean, and in some cases, the user may misunderstand the video message.

An object of the present invention for solving the above problems is to detect the movement of the subject to place the subject in the center of the transmission screen and accordingly applied to a video phone, PC camera, digital camera, etc. to quickly transmit the desired information At the same time, the storage area is to provide an image processing apparatus and method according to the subject tracking to minimize.

1 is a schematic diagram of a general video communication

2 is a block diagram of an image processing apparatus according to the prior art;

3 is an exemplary diagram for explaining a problem of the prior art.

4 is a block diagram of an image processing apparatus according to the present invention;

5 is an exemplary diagram for describing an operation of the position discriminator illustrated in FIG. 4.

6A to 6C are exemplary views for explaining a process of extracting an image of a subject from an acquired image and performing image resolution compensation accordingly;

7 is an exemplary view comparing the prior art and the present invention using an image after digital signal processing is performed.

<Description of Symbols for Main Parts of Drawings>

10: image input unit 11: lens

12: CCD 20: image signal converter

21: CDS 22: AGC

23: A / D converter 24: DSP

30: command input unit 40A: operation control unit

41A: Command Processing Unit 42A: Operation Unit

43A: signal flow control unit 50: image storage unit

60: image transmission and reception unit 100: infrared tracker

110: position discriminator

A feature of the present invention for achieving the above object is connected to an image input unit and a public communication network that receives an image of a subject and converts it into an electronic signal, and transmits the image data acquired from the image input unit to the public communication network side. An image processing apparatus having an image data transmitting / receiving unit for transmitting an image signal received from a public communication network side to a display device side, comprising: infrared ray tracking means for tracking an infrared signal generated by an infrared ray generating means worn on a subject; Position determining means for receiving the tracking data output from the tracking means to determine the position of the subject, and converts the output signal of the image input unit into a digital signal according to the input control signal and then converts the output signal into a digital signal Partial Extraction of Subject and Surrounding Image After performing the digital signal processing such as to form the extracted image to a predetermined size, the image signal conversion means for providing to the image data transmission and reception unit, and the subject position data output from the position determination means receives the subject to the image signal conversion means It includes an operation control unit for providing a region and a control signal for extraction.

As an additional feature of the present invention for achieving the above object, the image signal converting means removes noise from the output signal of the image input unit and controls the gain to be at a constant level regardless of the change in the amount of light. A / D conversion means for making and receiving the signal output from the A / D conversion means in accordance with the control signal for the subject coordinates and the extraction area provided by the operation control unit to extract the image of the subject and the surrounding and then to extract the extracted image It's about including a DSP that's shaped to size.

As another additional feature of the present invention for achieving the above object, partial filtering of an image signal is performed between the DSP and the A / D conversion means according to a control signal for an object coordinate and an extraction region provided by the calculation control unit. It further comprises an image filter.

According to another aspect of the present invention for achieving the above object, in the method of estimating the positional coordinates of a subject according to the movement of a subject, a method of setting an image acquisition area by mounting and fixing an image acquisition means for image acquisition in an arbitrary space; And a second process of wearing infrared ray generating means on the subject and tracking infrared rays generated from the subject located within the area set through the first process, and position coordinates of the subject tracked through the second process. And a third process of calculating the Pythagorean theorem on the basis of the central axis of the image acquisition means.

As an additional feature of the present invention for achieving the above object, the third process includes a first step of calculating the central axis of the circular-shaped image acquisition area set through the first process and the maximum length of the central axis; And a second step of calculating a proximity distance based on the position information of the subject tracked through the second process, and calculated in the second step based on the length of the central axis and the maximum central axis calculated in the first step. A third step of calculating the separation distance between the centers of the subjects according to the proximity distance; and calculating coordinate data of the image of the subjects separated from the center point of the screen based on the data obtained through the second and third steps. It includes the fourth step.

Another feature of the present invention for achieving the above object is connected to an image input unit and a public communication network that receives an image of a subject and converts it into an electronic signal, and transmits the image data acquired from the image input unit to the public communication network side. A method of transmitting an image of a subject moving in an image acquisition area in an image processing apparatus including an image data transmitting and receiving unit for transmitting an image signal received from the public communication network side to a display device side, the infrared generating means being worn on the subject. A first process of tracking an infrared ray generated by a subject after setting an image acquisition area by mounting and fixing an image acquisition means for image acquisition in an arbitrary space, and converting an image in the image acquisition area into an electronic signal Second process of removing and converting the signal into a digital signal; A third process of calculating the position coordinates of the subject tracked through the first process by the Pythagorean theorem on the basis of the central axis of the image acquisition means, and the second process according to the position coordinates of the subject calculated through the third process A fourth process of calculating the image coordinates of the subject in the image converted into the digital signal in the second process; and a fifth image of partially extracting the subject and the surrounding image from the entire acquired image based on the image coordinates of the subject calculated through the fourth process And a sixth process of enlarging the image partially extracted through the fifth process into a full-size image and compensating for and transmitting a high resolution of the subject.

The above objects and various advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the preferred embodiments of the invention described below with reference to the accompanying drawings by those skilled in the art.

First of all, the technical idea to be used in the present invention is briefly described. As the conventional image processing technique is used to track a subject, the overload of the image processing means (DSP) and the high efficiency image processing means must be applied. Since the rising problem has been proposed, the infrared generator is worn on the subject to be delivered and the infrared detector is provided on the image input unit, and then only the image of the portion of the acquired image is extracted, and then the resolution of the image is compensated for. We want to send it.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail.

4 is an exemplary configuration diagram of an image processing apparatus according to the present invention. The image input unit 10 receives an image of a subject and converts it into an electronic signal, and an output signal of the image input unit 10 according to the input control signal. After extracting the image of the subject and the surroundings, the image is converted to a predetermined size, the image is converted to a predetermined level, and then converted into a digital signal and performs digital signal processing, and a plurality of keys ( key input unit 30 for receiving an external command by the user, an infrared tracker 100 for tracking an infrared signal generated by an infrared generating unit worn on a subject, and an output from the infrared tracker 100. The position determiner 110 determines the position of the subject by receiving the tracking data, and controls the operation of the system according to the output signal of the command input unit 30. An operation controller 40A which receives the subject position data output from the discriminator 110 and provides a control signal for extracting a subject to the image signal converter 20; and an image compressed by the operation controller 40A. An image storage section 50 for storing data and an image transmission / reception section 60 for transmitting image signals to or receiving image signals from other systems.

In this case, the image input unit 10 may include a lens 11 that receives an image of a subject and a charge coupled device (CCD) that performs a function of making light incident through the lens 11 into an electronic signal. And (12).

In addition, the image signal conversion unit 20 outputs only the correlated doublesampling (CDS) 21 which removes noise among the signal components output from the image input unit 10 and outputs only pure signal components, and outputs the CDS 21. An AGC (auto gain control) 22 for controlling the signal to be at a constant level irrespective of the change in the amount of light, an A / D converter 23 for converting the analog signal output from the AGC 22 into a digital signal; In accordance with a control signal provided from the operation control unit 40A, the signal output from the A / D converter 23 extracts an image of a subject and surroundings, and then forms a extracted image with a predetermined size. process) (24).

At this time, the DSP 24 uses the digital signal output from the A / D converter 23 to separate the luminance signal and the color signal, and to compensate the boundary, which increases the gain of the boundary portion, and gamma of the high luminance and high chroma portions. It performs general digital signal processing such as correction, special effects such as mosaic processing, gain and phase adjustment of color signal, encoding for conversion to NTSC / PAL standard, and D / A operation for analog output.

In addition, the operation control unit 40A analyzes the output signals of the position discriminator 110 and the command input unit 30 and controls the operations of the image input unit 10 and the image signal conversion unit 20 accordingly. The processing unit 41A, the calculating unit 42A for compressing the digitally processed image signal or restoring the received image signal, and the result performed by the calculating unit 42A according to the output signal of the command processing unit 41A. And a signal flow controller 43A stored in the image storage unit 50 or transmitted to the image transmission / reception unit 60.

A preferred operation example of the image processing apparatus according to the present invention configured as described above will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 5 is an exemplary diagram for describing an operation of the position discriminator illustrated in FIG. 4. The subject employs an infrared generator, and the infrared tracker provided in the camera for image acquisition includes infrared rays generated by the infrared generator. Will be tracked. In this case, an area indicated by a dotted line in FIG. 5 indicates an area where the camera can acquire an image.

Therefore, when the camera is first settled, an area in which the camera can acquire an image is set, and the image acquisition area is normally conical as shown in the dotted line of FIG. Therefore, the length of the camera central axis and its maximum central axis is calculated. As shown in FIG. 5, if the subject exists in the image acquisition area, variables X and Y are calculated by Pythagorean theorem.

By the operation of the position discriminator as described above, the operation controller 40A receives the position information of the subject as coordinate data according to the variables X and Y, and thereby recognizes the position and size of the subject in the acquired image. . In addition, the control signal is provided to the image signal converter 20 according to the recognized object position and size.

The image signal converter 20 extracts an image of a subject from an image acquired according to the order shown in FIGS. 6A to 6C and performs image resolution compensation accordingly.

FIG. 6A is an exemplary diagram of image data obtained simply, FIG. 6B is an exemplary diagram of region setting for extracting an image of a subject portion under the control of the operation control unit 40A, and FIG. 6C is a partial diagram of the partial region illustrated in FIG. 6B. It is an enlarged view illustrating the extraction.

Hereinafter, a process according to image data extraction as described above and an operation according to the present invention will be described in detail.

When the image of the subject is converted into an electronic signal through the CCD 12 and input, the CDS 21, the AGC 22, and the A / D converter 23 are sequentially passed to remove noise and adjust gain. Conversion to a digital signal is performed. Thus, an image as shown in FIG. 6A is obtained.

In this case, as shown in FIG. 5, the infrared rays generated by the infrared generator worn by the subject are tracked through the infrared tracker 100 and the current position of the subject is detected by the position determiner 110. .

Accordingly, when the position discriminator 110 outputs the position of the subject as data of the variables X and Y according to the principle shown in FIG. 5, the operation control unit 40A according to the input variables X and Y. An area for extracting a subject is set as shown in FIG. 6B attached to the coordinate data.

The extraction area data thus set is provided to the image signal conversion unit 20, and the DSP 24 in the image signal conversion unit 20 is supplied by the extraction area data input as shown in FIG. 6C. The image of the subject is extracted from the output signal of the A / D converter 23 as shown in FIG. 6A and enlarged to the size of the entire screen.

At this time, although not shown, since the image filter is provided between the DSP 24 and the A / D converter 23, partial filtering of the image signal is performed. In addition, according to the filtering result of the image filter, the operation of the DSP 24 is controlled to change the resolution of the part different from the subject part.

Thereafter, when digital signal processing is performed, the originally acquired image (see FIG. 6A) is partially extracted and generated in the form as shown in FIG. 6C, and the newly generated image signal is compressed by the calculating section 42A. The data is stored in the storage unit 50 or transmitted through the image transmission / reception unit 60.

7 is a diagram comparing the prior art and the present invention using an image after digital signal processing has been performed.

In the prior art, as shown in FIG. 7A, when the resolution is lowered, the resolution is reduced as a background and a subject, so that a clear image cannot be obtained. However, according to the present invention, as shown in FIG. 7B, the object part is recognized by measuring the distance to the subject through the position discriminator 110, and the resolution is partially changed accordingly. You can get a clear image by lowering only the resolution of the background without changing the resolution.

By providing the image processing apparatus and the method according to the subject tracking according to the present invention that operates as described above, it is possible to accurately capture a subject with a lot of movement, and to suppress the unnecessary rise in the cost of production cost as in the prior art do.

In addition, in the case of video lectures, if the instructor attaches the infrared generator to the learning baton or fan without wearing an infrared generator, the contents of the lecture are partially enlarged, so that the image transmission can be easily performed, and thus the delivery of the learning contents is easier. It is possible to suppress the case where the remote learner confuses the oning of the content.

While the invention has been shown and described with respect to particular embodiments, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the claims. Anyone can see it easily.

Claims (6)

It is connected to an image input unit and a public communication network that receives an image of a subject and converts it into an electronic signal, and transmits the image data acquired from the image input unit to the public communication network side and transmits the image signal received from the public communication network side to the display device side. An image processing apparatus including a video data transmitting and receiving unit, An infrared ray tracking means for wearing an infrared ray generating means on a subject and tracking an infrared signal generated by the infrared ray generating means; Position determination means for receiving the tracking data output from the infrared tracking means to determine the position of the subject; Digital signal such as converting the output signal of the image input unit to a predetermined level according to the input control signal, converting the output signal into a digital signal, partially extracting the subject and the surrounding image from the corresponding image, and forming the extracted image to a predetermined size. Image signal conversion means for performing processing to provide to the image data transmission / reception unit; And And an arithmetic controller which receives the subject position data outputted from the position determining means and provides a region for extracting a subject and a control signal to the image signal converting means. The method of claim 1, The image signal converting means includes: A / D converting means for removing noise from the output signal of the image input unit and controlling the gain to be a constant level regardless of the change in the amount of light and then converting it into a digital signal; And a DSP for receiving a signal output from the A / D conversion means according to a control signal for a subject coordinate and an extraction region provided by the operation control unit, extracting an image of a subject and a surrounding, and forming an extracted image to a predetermined size. The image processing apparatus according to the subject tracking, characterized in that. The method of claim 2, And an image filter for performing partial filtering of the image signal according to the subject coordinates provided by the operation control unit and the control signal for the extraction region between the DSP and the A / D conversion means. Processing unit. In the method of estimating the position coordinates of a subject according to the movement of the subject, A first step of setting an image acquisition area by seating and fixing an image acquisition means for image acquisition in an arbitrary space; A second step of wearing an infrared ray generating means on a subject and tracking infrared rays generated from a subject located within an area set through the first process; And And a third process of calculating the position coordinates of the subject tracked through the second process by Pythagorean theorem on the basis of the central axis of the image acquisition means. The method of claim 4, wherein The third process may include a first step of calculating a central axis of the circular image acquisition area set through the first process and a length of the maximum central axis thereof; A second step of calculating a proximity distance based on the position information of the subject tracked through the second process; A third step of calculating a separation distance between the centers of the subjects according to the proximity distance calculated in the second step based on the length of the center axis and the maximum center axis calculated in the first step; And And a fourth step of calculating coordinate data in which the image of the subject is separated from the center point of the screen, based on the data obtained through the second and third steps. It is connected to an image input unit and a public communication network that receives an image of a subject and converts it into an electronic signal, and transmits the image data acquired from the image input unit to the public communication network side and transmits the image signal received from the public communication network side to the display device side. In the image transmission method of a subject moving in the image acquisition area in the image processing apparatus provided with the image data transmission / reception unit, A first step of tracking an infrared ray generated by a subject after wearing an infrared ray generating means on a subject, setting an image acquisition area by mounting and fixing an image acquisition means for image acquisition in an arbitrary space; Converting an image in the image acquisition area into an electronic signal to remove noise and converting the image into a digital signal; A third process of calculating the position coordinates of the subject tracked through the first process by the Pythagorean theorem on the basis of the central axis of the image acquisition means; A fourth step of calculating image coordinates of the subject in the image converted into the digital signal in the second step according to the position coordinates of the subject calculated in the third step; A fifth process of partially extracting the subject and the surrounding images from the entire acquired images based on the image coordinates of the subject calculated through the fourth process; And And a sixth process of enlarging the image partially extracted through the fifth process to an image having a full size, and then compensating and transmitting a high resolution of the subject.