System for generating motion blur
A system for generating motion blur comprises: a frame camera, an event camera and an accumulator for accumulating event information from a plurality of events occurring within a window around the exposure time of an image frame in a plurality of event frames. A processor determines from the events in at least a first of the plurality of event frames, one or more areas of movement within the field of view of the event camera; determines from the events in at least a second of the plurality of event frames, a direction of movement for the one or more areas of movement; and applies blur in one or more areas of the image frame corresponding to the one or more determined areas of movement in accordance with at least the direction of movement for each of the one or more areas of movement to produce a blurred image.
1. A system for generating motion blur, the system comprising:
a frame camera configured to provide an image frame at an exposure time covering a field of view of the frame camera;
an event camera having a field of view overlapping the field of view of the frame camera and configured to provide event information for a plurality of events, each event indicating an x,y location within said field of view, a polarity for a change of detected light intensity incident at said x,y location and an event cycle at which said event occurred;
an accumulator for accumulating event information from a plurality of events occurring within a window around the exposure time in a plurality of event frames, the event frames having a temporal relationship with one another; and
a processor configured to:
determine from the events in at least a first of said plurality of event frames, one or more areas of movement within the field of view of the event camera;
determine from the events in at least a second of said plurality of event frames, a direction of movement for the one or more areas of movement; and
apply blur in one or more areas of the image frame corresponding to the one or more determined areas of movement in accordance with at least the direction of movement for each of the one or more areas of movement to produce a blurred image, wherein applying blur further includes:
filtering said events in said first of said plurality of event frames to provide a mask indicating said one or more areas of movement, and
calculating a blur kernel for each pixel of the mask according to at least said determined direction of movement.
2. A system according to claim 1 wherein the processor is configured to determine from the events in at least the second event frame, an extent of movement for the one or more areas of movement; and to apply blur in the one or more areas of the image frame corresponding to the one or more determined areas of movement in accordance with the direction and the extent of movement for each of the one or more areas of movement.
3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
compare the events in at least one of a second event frame for a previously acquired image and a successively acquired image to determine at least said direction of movement for the one or more areas of movement.
4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
cluster the events in said second of said event frames into one or more contiguous areas; and
track the relative movement of said one or more contiguous areas from at least one of the previously acquired image and the successively acquired image to determine at least said direction of movement for the one or more areas of movement.
5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
compare the events in an event frame including events accumulated in said window before said exposure time of said image frame, the events in an event frame including events accumulated in said window after said exposure time of said image frame and said second of said event frames to determine at least said direction of movement for the one or more areas of movement.
6. The system of claim 1 wherein a frame rate of said frame camera is greater than a frame rate of said blurred image and wherein said processor is configured to combine a plurality of successive image frames to produce a given blurred image frame.
7. A method for generating motion blur comprising:
obtaining from a frame camera an image frame at an exposure time covering a field of view of the frame camera;
obtaining from an event camera, having a field of view overlapping the field of view of the frame camera, event information for a plurality of events, each event indicating an x,y location within said field of view, a polarity for a change of detected light intensity incident at said x,y location and an event cycle at which said event occurred;
accumulating event information from a plurality of events occurring within a window around the exposure time in a plurality of event frames, the event frames having a temporal relationship with one another;
determining from the events in at least a first of said plurality of event frames, one or more areas of movement within the field of view of the event camera;
determining from the events in at least a second of said plurality of event frames, a direction of movement for the one or more areas of movement; and
applying blur in one or more areas of the image frame corresponding to the one or more determined areas of movement in accordance with at least the direction of movement for each of the one or more areas of movement to produce a blurred image, wherein applying blur further includes:
filtering said events in said first of said plurality of event frames to provide a mask indicating said one or more areas of movement, and
calculating a blur kernel for each pixel of the mask according to at least said determined direction of movement.
8. A non-transient computer product comprising computer readable instructions stored on a computer readable medium which when executed on a processor of a computing device are configured to perform the method of claim 7 .