Detection and enhancement of in-video text

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to methods and apparatus for detecting text information in a video signal that includes subtitles, captions, credits, or other text, and also for applying enhancements to the display of text areas in video. The sharpness and/or contrast ratio of subtitles of detected text areas may be improved. Text areas may be displayed in a magnified form in a separate window on a display, or on a secondary display. Further disclosed are methods and apparatus for extending the duration for which subtitles appear on the display, for organizing subtitles to be displayed in a scrolling format, for allowing the user to control when a subtitle advances to the next subtitle using a remote control, and for allowing a user to scroll back to a past subtitle in cases where the user has not finished reading a subtitle. Additionally, optical character recognition (OCR) technology may be applied to detected areas of a video signal that include text, and the text may then be displayed in a more readable font, displayed in a translated language, or rendered using voice synthesis technology.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.