Virtual Television Advertising A virtual image is an object that is not present at the shooting site and that is inserted in a television picture. With the help of virtual images, telecasts can be made more interesting and informative. In this way, a pro-gram’s ratings can be improved. The images of the advertisements present at the scene can be modified during the broadcast, offering organizers and sponsors the greatest possible benefit. Virtual images have appeared for a few years in con-nection with various sports events. In Canada, an infra-red system for tracking and highlighting ice hockey pucks has been tested. The image quality did not please viewers and the system has not come into wide use. In southern Europe, advertisements have been projected onto football fields in special situations such as penalty kicks. At the Sidney Olympic Games, broadcasts in-cluding virtual images were transmitted to many coun-tries. E.g., during the long-distance run, a virtual runner was shown moving at world-record speed. The viewers could actually see the difference between the world-record run and the current one. There are two major steps in the production of a virtual image. The place where the object is to appear has to be determined first, and then it has to be inserted. Deter-mining the location, size, and position of an object is a demanding task. In determining the location of fixed objects, the cam-era’s direction and zoom data is utilized. Visual ob-structions are dealt with by means of a standard back-ground. Moving objects can also be identified by means of the difference images of consecutive pictures. Identifying and following moving objects requires use of pattern recognition programs. The task becomes eas-ier if the operator points out the object that the system then begins to follow. The object’s shape and location change only slightly between consecutive images, and it is usually found in the immediate vicinity of the previ-ous location The use of infrared (IR) technology in ice hockey was mentioned.. Fixed IR cameras determine the puck’s lo-cation in the. The puck’s location in the TV picture is then calculated using the TV camera’s position and zoom data. Due to measurement inaccuracy, the location cannot be determined precisely. This is why the puck’s position is shown as a foggy object The new virtual image technology lets the same object look different on televisions in different areas, even in live broadcasts It has also been suggested to attach a tag that reflects radar waves and to localize the object with several re-ceivers. The object’s identification data and approxi-mate location can be calculated Virtual Advertising Systems VAS in Mikkeli, Finland, is developing and utilizing a new virtual image technol-ogy that exploits various properties of light such as po-larization and different wavelengths. By means of a spe-cial camera, all except a desired kind of light can be filtered out from an image, and the object can be deter-mined using the thereby obtained information. This method enables quick and precise calculation of an ob-ject’s location. The new technology enables
country-specific adaptation of on-site sponsor and other advertisements
in multina-tional TV broadcasts. For example, the advertisements along
the track at a Formula 1 race will simultaneously look different on TV
screens in America, Europe, and
Contacts: Mr. Vesa Viipuri, Managing
Director //General Man-ager //President
Mr. Erkki Rantalainen, Technical
Manager
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