Importance

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Abstract

Apparatus and a concomitant method of identifying the direction of motion within a scene that is represented by a sequence of images, e.g., a series of frames in a video sequence. The apparatus contains a flow field generator, a flow field segmentor, and alarm detector and an alarm processor. The flow field generator processes the sequence of images and generates a substantially distortionless flow field representing the motion within a scene. The flow field is a vector representation of the motion of the scene that represents both the magnitude and the direction of the motion. The flow field is generated by correlating at least two frames in the sequence of images. This flow field is analyzed by a flow field segmentor to determine the magnitude and direction of motion with the scene and segment the motion information from the static portions of the scene. An alarm detector then processes the motion information to determine if an alarm should be generated based upon the motion information. The alarm processor activates an appropriate alarm response, e.g., illuminate warning lamps, sound a warning alarm, lock doors, and alert security personnel.

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First Claim