Method and device for processing a sequence of video images

Information

  • Patent Application
  • 20070172057
  • Publication Number
    20070172057
  • Date Filed
    January 25, 2007
    18 years ago
  • Date Published
    July 26, 2007
    17 years ago
Abstract
The invention discloses a new modulation scheme to prevent illegal copy in movie theaters. None of the existing modulation schemes make the right assumptions to modelize a camcorder device. In such classical schemes, camcorders are always considered as sampling devices without taking into account the effects of shutter speed. The shutter of the camcorder is classically compared to a low-pass filter. As a result, modulation effects can be easily removed by setting up shutter speed to low values (low cutoff frequency). The right mathematical modelization of the shutter effect shows that, in the spectral domain, the behavior of the camcorder is close to a cardinal sine function with a main lobe and sidelobes. Consequently, according to the invention, it is proposed to select a modulation frequency that not only generates visual artifacts once recorded by the camcorder under shutter-free conditions, but that can also generate artifacts despite low shutter speed settings by going through sidelobe of the shutter spectrum.
Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Exemplary embodiments of the invention are illustrated in the drawings and are explained in more detail in the following description. In the drawings:



FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the flicker sensitivity of the human eye;



FIG. 2 is a couple of diagrams illustrating the uniform sampling of a function x(t);



FIG. 3 is a couple of diagrams illustrating the sampling process inn the time domain and in the frequency domain;



FIG. 4 is a couple of diagrams illustrating a sampling operation with a low sampling frequency;



FIG. 5 is a couple of diagrams showing the frequency bandwidth of a base band signal and an amplitude-modulated signal;



FIG. 6 illustrates the amplitude of the function sinc(πfT) for the frequency band 0-50 Hz;



FIG. 7 illustrates the amplitude of the function sinc(πfT) for the full spectrum;



FIG. 8 represents four diagrams illustrating the method of the invention;



FIG. 9 shows an example of warning message; and



FIG. 10 shows a circuit implementation of the present invention.


Claims
  • 1. Method for processing a sequence of video images represented by their video signals comprising a modulation step for modulating temporally the amplitude of the brightness of a set of pixels of each image of the sequence around a brightness value to be displayed for said image, wherein said modulation is chosen to be not visible to the human eye while simultaneously generating artifacts due to aliasing when said video images are captured by a digital video capturing device, wherein the modulation frequency is selected to be in a limited frequency range centered on a local extremum of the function sinc(πfτ), where the function sinc is the cardinal sine function and τ is the shutter integration time of the digital video capturing device.
  • 2. Method according to claim 1, wherein the shutter integration time τ is selected to be equal to the inverse of the sampling frequency fs of the digital video capturing device.
  • 3. Method according to claim 2, wherein the modulation frequency is selected to be in a limited frequency range centered on the frequency 71.5 Hz or 122.9 Hz when the inverse of the shutter integration time of the digital video capturing device is equal to 50 Hz.
  • 4. Method according to claim 2, wherein the modulation frequency is selected to be in a limited frequency range centered on the frequency 85.8 Hz or 147.5 Hz when the inverse of the shutter integration time of the digital video capturing device is equal to 60 Hz.
  • 5. Method according claim 1, wherein, for a given frequency F, the limited frequency range centered on said frequency F extends from F−Δ to F+Δ, Δ being comprised between 5 and 15 Hz.
  • 6. (canceled)
  • 7. Device for processing a sequence of video images represented by their video signals comprising a modulator for modulating temporally the amplitude of the brightness of a set of pixels of each image of the sequence around a brightness value to be displayed for said image, wherein the modulation is chosen to be not visible to the human eye while simultaneously generating artifacts due to aliasing when said video images are captured by a digital video capturing device, characterized in that the frequency used for the amplitude modulation is selected to be in a limited frequency range centered on a local extremum of the function sinc(πfτ) where the function sinc is the cardinal sine function and τ is the shutter integration time of the digital video capturing device.
  • 8. Device according to claim 7, wherein the shutter integration time τ is selected to be equal to the inverse of the sampling frequency fs of the digital video capturing device.
  • 9. Device according to claim 8, wherein the modulation frequency is selected to be in a limited frequency range centered on the frequency 71.5 Hz or 122.9 Hz when the inverse of the shutter integration time of the digital video capturing device is equal to 50 Hz.
  • 10. Device according to claim 8, wherein the modulation frequency is selected to be in a limited frequency range centered on the frequency 85.8 Hz or 147.5 Hz when the inverse of the shutter integration time of the digital video capturing device is equal to 60 Hz.
  • 11. Device according to claim 7, wherein the images computed by the modulator are outputted at a frame rate that is equal to or higher than twice the modulation frequency.
  • 12. Device according to claim 11, wherein the images computed by the modulator are outputted at a frame rate that is equal to a multiple of the frame rate at which the images are inputted into the modulator.
  • 13. Device according to claim 7, wherein the digital video capturing device is a digital camcorder.
  • 14. Method according to claim 1, wherein the digital video capturing device is a digital camcorder.
  • 15. Method according to claim 2, wherein the digital video capturing device is a digital camcorder.
  • 16. Method according to claim 3, wherein the digital video capturing device is a digital camcorder.
  • 17. Method according to claim 4, wherein the digital video capturing device is a digital camcorder.
  • 18. Method according to claim 5, wherein the digital video capturing device is a digital camcorder.
Priority Claims (1)
Number Date Country Kind
06290155.8 Jan 2006 EP regional