Using graph cuts for editing photographs

• US 20040008886A1
• Filed: 04/15/2003
• Published: 01/15/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Siemens Corporate Research Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens Corporate Research Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Boykov, Yuri
• Application Number:
  US10/413,974
• Publication Number:
  US 20040008886A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/2323 based on graph theory, e.g. minimum spanning trees [MST] or graph cuts
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20101 Interactive definition of point of interest, landmark or seed
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/11 Region-based segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/162 involving graph-based methods
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/267 by performing operations on regions, e.g. growing, shrinking or watersheds
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/7635 based on graphs, e.g. graph cuts or spectral clustering

Abstract

An image editing system comprises an input device for inputting an image, a graphical user interface for selecting background and object seeds for the image, and an image processor for editing the image. The image processor has various editing routines, including a segmentation routine that builds a graph associated with the image and uses a graph cut algorithm to cut the graph into segments. The user marks certain pixels as “object” or “background” to provide hard constraints for segmentation. Additional soft constraints incorporate both boundary and regional information. Graph cuts are used to find the globally optimal segementation of the image. The obtained solution gives the best balance of boundary and region properties satisfying the constraints.

Claims

1. An image editing system, comprising:

an input device for inputting an image;

a graphical user interface for selecting background and object seeds for the image; and

an image processor for editing the image, the image processor including a segmentation routine that builds a graph associated with the image and uses a graph cut algorithm to cut the graph into segments.

2. The image editing system of claim 1, wherein nodes of the graph represent portions of the image.

3. The image editing system of claim 2, wherein the portions of the image are one of pixels and voxels.

4. The image editing system of claim 2, wherein the edges of the graph represents neighborhood relationships among the nodes.

5. The image editing system of claim 2, wherein the graph includes a background terminal node and an object terminal node.

6. The image editing system of claim 5, wherein each of the non-terminal nodes of the graph is connected to both the background terminal node and the object terminal node.

7. The image editing system of claim 6, wherein the edges of the graph are each assigned a cost value.

8. The image editing system of claim 7, wherein the cost values are determined according to a cost function that is defined in terms of boundary and region properties.

9. The image editing system of claim 8, wherein the cost function uses the background and object seed positions.

10. The image editing system of claim 7, wherein the graph is cut such that the total cost value of severed edges is minimized.

11. The image editing system of claim 1, further comprising an output device for displaying the segmented image.

12. The image editing system of claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface allows additional background and object seeds to be input.

13. A method for editing an-image, comprising the steps of:

selecting background and object seeds for the image; and

segmenting the image by building a graph associated with the image and using a graph cut algorithm to cut the graph into segments.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein nodes of the graph represent portions of the image.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the portions of the image are one of pixels and voxels.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the edges of the graph represents neighborhood relationships among the nodes.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the graph includes a background terminal node and an object terminal node.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein each of the non-terminal nodes of the graph is connected to both the background terminal node and the object terminal node.

19. The method of claim 18, further including assigning a cost value to each of the edges of the graph.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the cost values are determined according to a cost function that is defined in terms of boundary and region properties.

21. The-method of claim 20, wherein the cost function uses the background and object seed positions.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the graph is cut such that the total cost value of severed edges is minimized.

23. The method of claim 13, further including the step of displaying the segmented image.

24. The method of claim 13, further including the step of selecting additional background and object seeds.

25. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable on the machine to perform method steps for editing an image, comprising the method steps of:

selecting background and object seeds for the image; and

segmenting the image by building a graph associated with the image and using a graph cut algorithm to cut the graph into segments.