Defocus Equipment for Image Sythesizing System

Abstract

We have developed Synthevision, which makes it possible to operate the foreground camera in image synthesizing by using the background image digitally processed according to foreground camera operation. This technique requires a defocus effect to give an out-of-focus effect images. It is also necessary : 1) to get a natural defocus effect, resembling optical out-of-focus ; 2) to change the degree of defocus smoothly ; and 3) to get a big enough defocus effect. To meet these requirements using little hardware, we developed defocus equipment using a Finite Impulse Response (FIR) digital filter with a recursive network.
This paper describes the method and evaluates the quality of its defocus effect. We have tested the equipment in program production using Synthevision, and we have confirmed the advantages of this defocus method.