Television – Image signal processing circuitry specific to television – Special effects
Reexamination Certificate
1998-02-09
2001-07-17
Eisenzopf, Reinhard J. (Department: 2614)
Television
Image signal processing circuitry specific to television
Special effects
C348S586000, C348S587000, C348S592000, C348S584000, C348S590000, C348S591000, C358S003050, C358S003050, C345S111000, C345S111000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06262778
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to an image processing system. More specifically the invention relates to an image processing system for processing foreground image data representing pixels that together form a foreground subject in front of a chroma backing and background image data representing pixels that together form an image of a background.
DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART
Image processing systems are known for producing data representing a composite image from data representing an image of a foreground subject in front of a matte or chroma backing and data representing an image of a background. For example European patent application EP-A-171829 describes a system for combining data representing two such images, in which systems data defining a range of colours is used to identify data corresponding to the chroma backing and to replace that data on a pixel-by-pixel basis with the data representing the background image to produce the data representing the composite image.
There are several problems associated with such systems. The image of the foreground subject and matte is normally captured by a camera in a studio with the foreground subject (typically a person) in front of a matte screen. The matte screen should be of a uniform colour (typically saturated blue) but often is not, for example because of an unevenly painted and/or illuminated screen. The foreground subject may contain colours or colour components corresponding with the colour of the matte, for example because of the clothes that the person is wearing or because light from the matte screen is reflected or otherwise spilled onto the foreground subject. The foreground subject may contain fine boundary details, for example stray hairs, which do not present a high contrast to the matte and which are replaced with the background image during creation of the composite image.
SUMMARY
The invention aims to overcome or at least reduce the above identified and associated problems.
According to one aspect of the invention there is provided an image processing system in which: foreground image data representing pixels that together form an image of a foreground subject in front of a chroma backing is processed to produce first processed foreground data representing pixels that together form a colour corrected image of the foreground subject in front of the chroma backing and second processed foreground data representing pixels that together form an image of the foreground subject in front of a null backing; the first and second processed foreground data is combined under the control of data representing pixels that together form a control image, to produce combined foreground data representing pixels that together form an image of the colour corrected foreground subject in front of the null backing; background image data representing pixels that together form an image of a background is processed to produce processed background image data representing pixels that together form an image of the background with one or more null portions at areas corresponding in position to that of the foreground subject in the image represented by the foreground image data; and the combined foreground data and the processed background data are added together to produce data representing pixels that together form an image of the colour corrected foreground subject in front of the background.
According to another aspect of the invention there is provided an image processing system in which: foreground image data representing pixels that together form an image of a foreground subject in front of a chroma backing is processed to produce first processed foreground data by varying the data to change the colour of pixels represented thereby so that the data represents pixels that together from a colour-changed image of the foreground subject in front of the chroma backing, and to produce second processed foreground data by offsetting the data so that the data for pixels corresponding to the chroma backing are set to a pedestal level and then varying the thus offset data so that the data represents pixels that together form a colour-altered image of the foreground subject in front of a null backing; and the first and second processed foreground data is combined, under the control of data representing pixels that together form a first control image, to produce combined foreground data representing pixels that together form an image of a combination of the colour-changed foreground subject and the colour-altered foreground subject in front of the null background.
The invention also provides an image processing system in which: foreground image data representing pixels that together form an image of a foreground subject in front of a chroma backing is processed by varying the data to change the colour of pixels represented thereby to produce processed foreground image data representing pixels that together from a colour-changed image of the foreground subject in front of a null backing; background image data representing pixels that together form an image of a background is processed to produce processed background image data representing pixels that together form an image of the background with one or more null portions at areas corresponding in position to that of the foreground subject in the image represented by the foreground image data; the processed foreground data and the processed background data are added together to produce added data representing pixels that together form an image of the colour-changed foreground subject in front of the background and the null background; keying data is generated representing pixels that together form a keying image defining one or more areas containing the foreground subject as represented by the added subject data; and the background image data and the added data are combined under the control of the keying data to produce combined image data representing pixels that together form an image of the colour-changed foreground subject in front of the background.
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Nonweiler Brian Robert
Rae-Smith Adam
Cooper & Dunham LLP
Eisenzopf Reinhard J.
Natnael Paulos
Quantel Limited
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