Method for superpixel life cycle management

1. A method for life cycle management of superpixels associated with frames of a sequence of frames, the method comprising:

receiving a sequence of frames;

generating superpixels for frames of the sequence of frames;

in the event an area of one of the superpixels in one of the frames becomes smaller than a specified first value, terminating said superpixel;

in the event an area of one of the superpixels in one of the frames becomes larger than a second specified value, splitting said superpixel by replacing said superpixel with two new superpixels; and

processing the superpixels to transmit them to an image processing device.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising balancing a number of said terminations of said superpixels and splits of said superpixels in order to keep a number of said superpixels per frame substantially constant.

3. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

determining a similarity between an instance of a superpixel in a first frame and an instance of said superpixel in a later frame of the sequence of frames;

comparing the determined similarity with a threshold; and

in the event the similarity is below the threshold, replacing said superpixel in subsequent frames with a new superpixel.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein for generating the two new superpixels a global color center of the superpixel to be replaced is copied and two new spatial centers are determined by shifting a spatial center of the superpixel to be replaced in opposite directions along a biggest eigenvector of said superpixel.

5. An apparatus for life cycle management of superpixels associated with frames of a sequence of frames, wherein the apparatus comprises:

an input configured to receive a sequence of frames;

a processing unit configured to generate superpixels for frames of the sequence of frames, to terminate a superpixel in the event an area of said superpixel in one of the frames becomes smaller than a specified first value, to split a superpixel by replacing said superpixel with two new superpixels in the event an area of said superpixel in one of the frames becomes larger than a second specified value, and to process the superpixels to transmit them to an image processing device; and

an output configured to output the processed superpixels.

6. The apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the processing unit is configured to balance a number of said terminations of said superpixels and splits of said superpixels in order to keep a number of said superpixels per frame substantially constant.

7. The apparatus according to claim 5 , further comprising:

a determining unit configured to determine a similarity between an instance of a superpixel in a first frame and an instance of said superpixel in a later frame of the sequence of frames;

a comparing unit configured to compare the determined similarity with a threshold; and

a replacing unit configured to replace said superpixel in subsequent frames with a new superpixel in the event the similarity is below the threshold.

8. The apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein for generating the two new superpixels the processing unit is configured to copy a global color center of the superpixel to be replaced and to determine two new spatial centers by shifting a spatial center of the superpixel to be replaced in opposite directions along a biggest eigenvector of said superpixel.

9. A computer readable non-transitory storage medium having stored therein instructions enabling life cycle management of superpixels associated with frames of a sequence of frames, which when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

receive a sequence of frames;

generate superpixels for frames of the sequence of frames;

in the event an area of one of the superpixels in one of the frames becomes smaller than a specified first value, terminate said superpixel;

in the event an area of one of the superpixels in one of the frames becomes larger than a second specified value, split said superpixel by replacing said superpixel with two new superpixels; and

process the superpixels to transmit them to an image processing device.

10. The computer readable non-transitory storage medium according to claim 9 , wherein the instructions further cause the computer to balance a number of said terminations of said superpixels and splits of said superpixels in order to keep a number of said superpixels per frame substantially constant.

11. The computer readable non-transitory storage medium according to claim 9 , wherein the instructions further cause the computer to:

determine a similarity between an instance of a superpixel in a first frame and an instance of said superpixel in a later frame of the sequence of frames;

compare the determined similarity with a threshold; and

in the event the similarity is below the threshold, replace said superpixel in subsequent frames with a new superpixel.

12. The computer readable non-transitory storage medium according to claim 9 , wherein for generating the two new superpixels the instructions cause the computer to copy a global color center of the superpixel to be replaced and to determine two new spatial centers by shifting a spatial center of the superpixel to be replaced in opposite directions along a biggest eigenvector of said superpixel.