TELEVISION PICTURE STABILIZING SYSTEM

The disclosed picture stabilizing system detects and measures picture unsteadiness in recorded or live video caused by an unsteady television camera and automatically eliminates the unsteadiness without destroying intentional panning and tilting of the camera. This is accomplished by selecting camera motion references within the camera field of view consisting of one horizontal edge and one vertical edge of an object which will normally be stationary, such as a door, a window, or a piece of furniture. The stabilizer "locks" onto these edges, continually measuring their motion from field to field and utilizing a frame store, makes the necessary vertical and horizontal corrections to the overall picture to eliminate such motion. The system is able to correct for movement due to random unsteadiness without interfering with planned camera movement.