Method and/or apparatus for multiple pass digital image stabilization

A method for coding video comprising the steps of:

• (A) capturing an uncompressed video signal to generate a first series of sequential frames;
• (B) defining a plurality of search windows in each of said frames;
• (C) calculating a local motion vector for each of the search windows in each of the frames in response to a plurality of individual motion vectors within each of said frames;
• (D) calculating a global motion vector for each of the frames based on each of said local motion vectors in each of said frames;
• (E) generating a second series of sequential frames in response to (i) each of said global motion vectors and (ii) said first series of sequential frames, wherein the global motion vectors are processed in the temporal domain for the first series of sequential frames, and each of the second series of stabilized sequential frames is generated based on the corresponding global motion vector and the processed global motion vector;
• and
• (F) generating an encoded bitstream in response to said second series of frames.

An apparatus comprising:

• means for generating (i) a first series of sequential frames, (ii) a second series of stabilized sequential frames, (iii) statistics for said first series of sequential frames and (iv) statistics for said second series of stabilized sequential frames in response to (i) an uncompressed video input signal and (ii) one or more global motion vectors;
• means for generating (i) a plurality of local motion vectors and (ii) a plurality of rough motion vectors in response to one or more search window parameters and a control signal;
• means for generating (i) said one or more global motion vectors and (ii) said control signal in response to (i) said plurality of local motion vectors, (ii) said plurality of rough motion vectors, (iii) said second series of stabilized sequential frames, (iii) said statistics for said first series of sequential frames, (iv) said statistics for said second series of stabilized sequential frames and (v) encoding statistics;
• means for generating a stabilized digital bitstream and said encoding statistics in response to said second series of stabilized sequential frames and said plurality of rough motion vectors, and
• wherein the global motion vectors are processed in the temporal domain for the first series of sequential frames, and each of the second series of stabilized sequential frames is generated based on the corresponding global motion vector and the processed global motion vector.