Patent · US Active

Background blurring for video conferencing

US7783075B2 · kind B2 · utility

29Cited by

3References

16Claims

0Family size

Assignee

Microsoft Corporation · US

Inventors

Cha Zhang · Sammamish, US
Li-wei He · Redmond, US
Yong Rui · Sammamish, US

Key dates

Filing date	Jun 7, 2006
Grant date	Aug 24, 2010
Priority date	—
Expiry date	Jun 17, 2029

Classification

Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
CPC primaryH04N7/147
WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Background blurring is an effective way to both preserve privacy and keep communication effective during video conferencing. The present image background blurring technique is a light weight real-time technique to perform background blurring using a fast background modeling procedure combined with an object (e.g., face) detector/tracker. A soft decision is made at each pixel whether it belongs to the foreground or the background based on multiple vision features. The classification results are mapped to a per-pixel blurring radius image to blur the background. In another embodiment, the image background blurring technique blurs the background of the image without using the object detector.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.