Photo2Video—A System for Automatically Converting Photographic Series Into Video

A novel method for browsing and sharing a single and series of photographs is presented, which can be regarded as a system exploring a new medium type between photograph and video. The scheme exploits the rich content embedded in a single photograph, as well as in a photographic series. Based on studying the typical process of a viewer´s attention to variations on objects or regions in an image, a photograph can be converted into a motion clip by simulating camera motions on it. For a selected photographic series, an appropriate set of key-frames are determined for each photograph based on content analyses. And then camera motion pattern is selected for each photograph to generate a corresponding motion photograph clip. Finally, the final output video is rendered by connecting a series of motion photograph clips with specific transitions based on the content of the images on either side of the transition. Also, each motion photograph clip is aligned with the selected incidental music based on music content analysis. As the system, named Photo2Video, generates motion photographs in a fully automatic or semi-automatic manner, it can be used for increasing efficiency in many applications, such as automatic walkthroughs of photograph galleries, motion photographs on website, electronic greeting cards, and personalized Karaoke