SDK for real-time segmentation

Abstract

Segmentation of persons in front of the background is a common task in many fields of applications such as TV production, where blue screen technology is applied. In new videoconferencing applications the segmentation becomes important as the person has to be segmented out of the background and the segmented video is going to be integrated in a new virtual environment. The prototype system im.point immersive meeting point of Image Processing Department is an example application.

In such an application blue screen techniques may not be applicable as the customer will use the system in any arbitrary environment. We are presenting a software solution available as SDK, which fullfills the needs of a general segmentation task.

Features of the algorithm

• Based on an initialised static background (50 frames i.e. 2 sec. are sufficient), the person in front of it is segmented accurately.
• The segmentation is running on full TV resolution video (720 x 576 pixel) in real-time i.e. less than 20 ms on a standard PC.
• A background adaptation allows slight illumination changes during the session.
• An new shadow detection scheme removes shadows, which often occurs in the background or on the work desk.
• By using a texture-based feathering technique, the segmented object will have clear and still borders without any flickering (see second example). Especially fine structures such as hairs can be segmented very accurately.

Example

Segmentation and shadow detection scheme

Improved segmentation by using texture-based feathering technique, improved object (left) vs. simple segmentation (right)

References

Feldmann, S. Askar, N. Brandenburg, P. Kauff, O. Schreer:" Real-Time Segmentation for Advanced Disparity Estimation in Immersive Videoconference Applications" , Proc. of WSCG 2002, 10th Int. Conference on Computer Graphics, Visualization and Computer Vision, Plzen, Czech Republic, Feb. 2002. (Download as pdf)

O. Schreer, I. Feldmann, U. Goelz, P. Kauff: " Fast and Robust Shadow Detection in Videoconference Applications" , Proc. of VIPromCom 2002, 4th EURASIP IEEE International Symposium on Video Processing and Multimedia Communications, Zadar, Croatia, June 2002. (Download as pdf)

Our offer

• Provision of applications based on Windows XP
• Provision of Windows XP based SDK
• Adaptation of algorithms and interfaces according to the customers needs

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