Open Telecine, OpenCV, image processing

"This is the second post about an attempt to make an open source telecine. Telecine is the process of transferring motion picture film into video form. The preliminary goal of this project is currently limited to converting 8mm film to DVD using a digital camera, while levering other open source projects. Telecine has had much success in using flatbed scanners and ones that record from modified film projectors. The frame-by-frame projector use by this project will be built from scratch, by using: two stepper motors, an arduino board, an EasyDriver (from SparkFun), a MakerBot for printing 3D components, a LEDs, and optics. The software to convert the images into a movie is yet to be determined, but here is an attempt."

The first image processing restrictions that was added (to identify rectangles with the desired proprieties) is the angle off the X/Y axis. 8mm film possesses two desired rectangular geometries, a picture frames and the spool holes. Since the project will capture all images (in strictly a vertical or horizontal orientation), additional code was added (to the OpenCV example) to only identify horizontal and vertical rectangles. In the first set of images, notice the tolerance of rectangles up to a 2.5 degree from the horizontal axis, where the 15 degree rectangle was ignored.


A second image processing restrictions that was added (to identify rectangles with the desired proprieties) is the X to Y proportion. Some of today's media comes in a 16:9 or 4:3 rectangular format, whereas 8mm has it's own ratios. The next set of images show the acceptance of rectangles with the ratios possessed by a 8mm picture frame and the spool hole.

The project currently uses Ubuntu 11.04 (simular to Microsoft Windows), OpenCV, GNU gcc, and Eclipse. The photo of the pottery vase was taken with an Sprint HTC Evo (simular to iPhone).