IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS

• US 20010014182A1
• Filed: 06/16/1998
• Published: 08/16/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/1997
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: KONYA, MINEHIRO, FUNAYAMA, RYUJI, HAKARIDANI, MITSUHIRO, TAKEZAWA, HAJIME
• Granted Patent: US 6,389,155 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/282
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20101 Interactive definition of point of interest, landmark or seed
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30201 Face
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/11 Region-based segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/507 Summing image-intensity values; Histogram projection analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/162 using pixel segmentation or colour matching
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/3872 Repositioning or masking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/62 Retouching, i.e. modification of isolated colours only or in isolated picture areas only

Abstract

An image processing apparatus includes a designating section for designating an arbitrary region or an arbitrary position of an image; a specifying section for specifying an object region which is present in the designated region or position, and which can additionally be in a vicinity of the designated region or position, from pixel information in the designated region or position; a determining section for determining an image region to be cut out from the image, based on the specified object region; and a cutting section for cutting out the determined image region from the image.

Claims

1. An image processing apparatus, comprising:

a designating section for designating an arbitrary region or an arbitrary position of an image;

a specifying section for specifying an object region which is present in the designated region or position, and which can additionally be in a vicinity of the designated region or position, from pixel information in the designated region or position and pixel information which can additionally be in the vicinity of the designated region;

a determining section for determining an image region to be cut out from the image, based on the specified object region; and

a cutting section for cutting out the determined image region from the image.

2. An image processing apparatus according to

claim 1

, wherein

the determining section includes a section for adjusting a size of the image region to a prescribed size.

3. An image processing apparatus according to

claim 1

, wherein

the determining section includes a correcting section for entirely correcting the designated image region or correcting only a part of the designated image region.

4. An image processing apparatus, comprising:

a designating section for designating an arbitrary region or an arbitrary position of an image;

an analyzing section for analyzing a color distribution in the designated region or position and in a vicinity of the designated region or position;

an adjusting section for adjusting a condition for specifying a face image which is present in the image, according to a result of the analysis;

a specifying section for specifying a face image region which is present in the designated region or position, and which can additionally be in the vicinity of the designated region or position, based on the adjusted condition;

a determining section for determining an image region to be cut out from the image, based on the specified face image region; and

a cutting section for cutting out the determined image region from the image.

5. An image processing apparatus according to

claim 4

, wherein

the determining section includes a section for adjusting a size of the image region, using the region or the position designated by the designating section as a reference.

6. An image processing apparatus according to

claim 4

, wherein

the specifying section includes

a section for applying noise elimination or labelling to the specified face image region to produce a face mask;

a section for vertically scanning the produced face mask to obtain a sum of vertical differential luminance values of pixels in the image corresponding to the face mask to produce a histogram; and

a section for detecting a central axis of a face from a profile of the produced histogram.

7. An image processing apparatus according to

claim 4

, wherein

the specifying section includes

a section for applying noise elimination or labelling to the specified face image region to produce a face mask;

a section for vertically scanning the produced face mask to obtain a mean luminance value of pixels in the image corresponding to the face mask to produce a histogram; and

a section for detecting a vertical nose position from a profile of the produced histogram.

8. An image processing apparatus according to

claim 4

, wherein the specifying section includes

a section for applying noise elimination or labelling to the specified face image region to produce a face mask;

a section for horizontally scanning the produced face mask to obtain a mean luminance value of pixels in the image corresponding to the face mask to produce a histogram; and

a section for detecting a vertical eye position from a profile of the produced histogram.

9. An image processing apparatus according to

claim 4

, wherein

the specifying section includes

a section for applying noise elimination or labelling to the specified face image region to produce a face mask;

a section for horizontally scanning the produced face mask to obtain a mean luminance value of pixels in the image corresponding to the face mask to produce a histogram; and

a section for detecting a vertical mouth position from a profile of the produced histogram.

10. An image processing apparatus according to

claim 9

, wherein

the specifying section further includes

a section for detecting a vertical eye position from the profile of the produced histogram;

and

a section for obtaining a middle position of a region between the detected vertical eye position and the detected vertical mouth position to detect a width of the face mask at the middle position.

11. An image processing apparatus according to

claim 4

, wherein

the determining section includes a section for adjusting a position of the image region, based on the face image region, a central axis of a face in the face image, a vertical nose position of the face in the face image, a vertical eye position of the face in the face image, a vertical mouth position of the face in the face image, and a width of a face mask of the face image.

12. An image processing apparatus according to

claim 4

, wherein

the determining section includes a section for adjusting a size of the image region, based on the face image region, a central axis of a face in the face image, a vertical nose position of the face in the face image, a vertical eye position of the face in the face image, a vertical mouth position of the face in the face image, and a width of a face mask of the face image.

13. An image processing apparatus according to

claim 4

, wherein

the determining section includes a correcting section for entirely correcting the designated image region or correcting only a part of the designated image region.