Brochure

Applied imAge processing
Real-Time Image Stabilization
Many surveillance and targeting systems,
particularly those with narrow fields of
view, suffer from vibrations that can lead to
unstable imagery being presented to the op-
erator. These unwanted camera movements
can be a huge obstacle to interpreting the
video image, resulting in a significant detri-
mental effect on operator efficiency. While
it is possible to remove this motion using
mechanical inertial stabilization methods,
this comes at the expense of size, weight,
power consumption and cost, all of which
can affect the viability of a program.
The GE Intelligent Platforms real-time
image stabilization system will electroni-
cally remove unwanted global motion from
a video stream. It uses our SceneLock
*
algorithm to detect image rotations, scal-
ing and translations by tracking a large
number of points in the image and then
combining the motion estimates of each
point to determine the overall scene mo-
tion from one video frame to the next.
Commands can be issued to the camera
platform to pan and tilt based on this motion
measurement in such a way as to keep the
aimpoint at the centre of the image. In many
cases, this results in a stable image. In some
situations, the camera platform cannot take
out all of the motion due to data transmis-
sion and processing latencies or the frequen-
cy response of the platform. In these cases,
the image will not be held totally stable. Here
another technique can be employed.
To improve the stability of the image, the
output of SceneLock can be fed into an im-
age warping engine to electronically stabilize
the image by introducing shifts, rotations
and scale changes to cancel out the mea-
sured movements.
For example, if SceneLock calculates that
the image is moving to the right, the image
warping will be commanded to shift it to the
left, to cancel out the motion. The measured
motion can be filtered to remove unwanted,
high frequency jitter, but true pans and
zooms can be passed through if required.
This image warping technology from
GE Intelligent Platforms provides a low
latency, highly accurate warped video
stream. The stabilization process is robust
to small independently moving objects
within the scene.
Image Stabilization.
With real-time image stabilization, image quality
is markedly improved in the video stream.
Enhancing operational performance and reducing
fatigue by providing a clear, stable image.
VISUALIZATION