As per patent office journal dated 15/10/2021, patent number 378766 has been granted to NCAM TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED which is titled A SYSTEM FOR MIXING OR COMPOSITING IN REAL TIME COMPUTER GENERATED 3D OBJECTS AND A VIDEO FEED FROM A FILM CAMERA.
The primary independent claim of this patent states a markerless system including a video camera, sensors including an accelerometer and a gyro sensing over six degrees of freedom, two stereoscopic witness cameras and a processor for mixing or compositing in real-time, computer generated 3D objects and a video feed from the video camera, to generate real-time augmented reality video for TV broadcast, cinema or video games. Further, the body of the video camera can be moved in 3D and the sensors in or attached directly or indirectly to the video camera provide real-time positioning data defining the 3D position and 3D orientation of the video camera, or enabling the 3D position and 3D orientation of the video camera to be calculated wherein the two stereoscopic witness cameras are fixed directly or indirectly to the video camera. Subsequently, the real-time positioning data is then automatically used by the system to create, recall, render or modify computer generated 3D objects and the resulting computer generated 3D objects are then mixed in or composited with the video feed from the video camera to provide augmented reality video for TV broadcast, cinema or video games. Further, the 3D position and orientation of the video camera is determined with reference to a 3D map of the real-world generated, at least in part, by using the real-time 3D positioning data from the sensors plus a video flow in which the two stereoscopic witness cameras survey a scene and software running on the processor detects natural markers in the scene (‘feature points’) that have not been manually or artificially added to that scene.
During the patent prosecution, the patent examiner objected to this patent under section 3(k) of the Indian Patents Act. The patent applicant responded to this objection by stating that if the present invention provides a technical solution to a technical problem and has a technical effect then the same cannot be considered to fall under the category of algorithm or computer program per se. In the light of such observation, the features of the claimed invention provide a technical solution to a said technical problem. According to the claimed technical solution, a markerless system for mixing or compositing in real-time, computer generated 3D objects and a video feed from the video camera, to generate real-time augmented reality video for TV broadcast, cinema or video games is disclosed. Moreover, the claimed technical solution results in the technical advancement that more accurate mixing-in or compositing of the computer generated objects with the video feed from the video camera is achieved. Further, the applicant also submits that the claimed technical solution clearly requires the presence of various hardware/structural features which include but are not limited to the interaction of various hardware units such as video camera, sensors, stereoscopic witness cameras, processor, etc. Therefore, the claims of the present invention do not fall within the scope of Section 3(k) of the Act.
This patent falls under the category of Communication. Overall, this patent covers a method of mixing or compositing in real-time, computer generated 3D objects and a video feed from a film camera in which the body of the film camera can be moved in 3D and sensors in or attached to the camera provide real-time positioning data defining the 3D position and 3D orientation of the camera, or enabling the 3D position to be calculated.
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