Device for creating image feature from image having any shape

• US 20040061842A1
• Filed: 08/06/2003
• Published: 04/01/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 02/19/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: Kasutani, Eiji
• Granted Patent: US 7,697,753 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 355/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5838 using colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/40 Filling a planar surface by adding surface attributes, e.g. colour or texture
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10024 Color image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20021 Dividing image into blocks, subimages or windows
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/00 Image analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/90 Determination of colour characteristics

Abstract

An apparatus is disclosed for generating image feature data from an image having an arbitrary shape for use in image search. The apparatus includes rectangular area generating unit (2); rectangular image generating unit (3); padded-pixel value selecting unit (5); and image feature data generating unit (4). First, rectangular image generating unit (2) draws a rectangular area around input image (1) such that input image (1) is included therein. Rectangular image generating unit (3) pads a pixel value in an area of the rectangular area generated by rectangular area generating unit (2) which does not include pixels associated with input image (1) to generate a rectangular image. Image feature data generating unit (4) generates feature data from the image generated by rectangular image generating unit (3).

Claims

1. An apparatus for generating image feature data from an image of interest for which the image feature data is generated, said apparatus comprising:

rectangular area generating means for generating a rectangular area which contains said image of interest;

rectangular image generating means for padding an average value of pixels of said image of interest into an area which does not include said image of interest, said area being within the rectangular area generated by said rectangular area generating means, to generate a rectangular image; and

image feature data generating means for generating feature data for the rectangular image generated by said rectangular image generating means.

8. The apparatus according to any one of claims 1-3, wherein said image feature data generating means includes image size converting means for scaling up or down the image generated by said rectangular image generating means to an image of a determined size, said characteristic amount being generated from the image generated by said image conversion size means.

9. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said image size converting means includes:

block dividing means for dividing the image generated by said rectangular image generating means into blocks;

block representative color calculating means for calculating a representative color for each of the blocks generated by said block dividing means; and

block representative color image generating means for generating an image composed of pixels in the representative colors calculated for the respective blocks.

10. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said block dividing means divides the image generated by said rectangular image generating means into 64 blocks.

11. The apparatus according to any one of claims 1-3, wherein said image feature data generating means performs a frequency analysis on the image generated by said rectangular image generating means or said image size converting means to use part or all of resulting coefficients as the image feature data.

12. The apparatus according to any one of claims 1-3, wherein said image feature data generating means performs a frequency analysis on the image generated by said rectangular image generating means or said image size converting means, quantizes part or all of resulting coefficients, and uses the quantized coefficients as the image feature data.

2. An apparatus for generating image feature data from an image of interest for which the image feature data is generated, said apparatus comprising:

rectangular area generating means for generating a rectangular area which contains said image of interest;

rectangular image generating means for padding a representative color for said image of interest into an area which does not include said image of interest, said area being within the rectangular area generated by said rectangular area generating means, to generate a rectangular image; and

image feature data generating means for generating feature data for the rectangular image generated by said rectangular image generating means.

4. The apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising:

area dividing means for dividing the area generated by said rectangular area generating means into sub-areas;

sub-area representative color calculating means for calculating a representative color for each of the sub-areas generated by said area dividing means; and

padded-color selecting means for selecting a padded representative color from a collection of the representative colors calculated for said respective sub-areas.

5. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said area dividing means divides said rectangular area into 64 rectangular areas.

6. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said sub-area representative color calculating means does not extract a representative color from a sub-area which has the number of pixels associated with said image of interest equal to or less than a predetermined threshold out of the sub-areas generated by said area dividing means.

7. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said sub-area representative color calculating means calculates a representative color only from pixels associated with said image of interest included in a sub-area which has the number of pixels associated with said image of interest equal to or more than the predetermined threshold out of the sub-areas generated by said area dividing means.

3. An apparatus for generating image feature data from an image of interest for which the image feature data is generated, said apparatus comprising:

rectangular area generating means for generating a rectangular area which contains said image of interest;

rectangular image generating means for padding a complementary color into an area which does not include said image of interest, said area being within the rectangular area generated by said rectangular area generating means, to generate a rectangular image; and

image feature data generating means for generating feature data for the rectangular image generated by said rectangular image generating means.

13. An apparatus for generating image feature data from an image of interest for which the image feature data is generated, said apparatus comprising:

rectangular area generating means for generating a rectangular area which contains said image of interest;

rectangular image generating means for converting the rectangular area generated by said rectangular area generating means and the image of interest included therein to an area and an image of determined sizes, respectively, and padding an average value of pixels of said image of interest into an area which does not include pixels associated with the image of the determined size within said area of the determined size to generate a rectangular image; and

image feature data generating means for generating feature data for the image generated by said rectangular image generating means.

20. The apparatus according to any of claims 13-15, wherein said rectangular image generating means includes:

block dividing means for dividing the image generated by said rectangular image generating means into blocks;

block representative color calculating means for calculating a representative color for each of the blocks generated by said block dividing means; and

block representative color image generating means for generating an image composed of pixels in the representative colors calculated for the respective blocks.

21. The apparatus according to claim 20, wherein said block dividing means divides the image generated by said rectangular image generating means into 64 blocks.

22. The apparatus according to claim 20, wherein said block representative color calculating means pads a pixel value selected by said padded-pixel selecting means for selecting a pixel value for padding into an area which does not include said image of interest, as a representative color for a block which includes the number of pixels associated with said image of interest equal to or less than a predetermined threshold out of the blocks generated by said area dividing means.

23. The apparatus according to claim 22, wherein said block representative color calculating means calculates a representative color for a block which includes the number of pixels associated with said image of interest equal to or more than the predetermined threshold only from the pixels associated with said image of interest included in said block, out of the blocks generated by said area dividing means.

24. The apparatus according to any of claims 13-15, wherein said image feature data generating means performs a frequency analysis on the image generated by said rectangular image generating means to use part or all of resulting coefficients as the image feature data.

25. The apparatus according to any of claims 13-15, wherein said image feature data generating means performs a frequency analysis on the image generated by said rectangular image generating means, quantizes part or all of resulting coefficients, and uses the quantized coefficients as the image feature data.

14. An apparatus for generating image feature data from an image of interest for which the image feature data is generated, said apparatus comprising:

rectangular area generating means for generating a rectangular area which contains said image of interest;

rectangular image generating means for converting the rectangular area generated by said rectangular area generating means and the image of interest included therein to an area and an image of determined sizes, respectively, and padding a representative color for said image of interest into an area which does not include pixels associated with the image of the determined size within said area of the determined size to generate a rectangular image; and

image feature data generating means for generating feature data for the image generated by said rectangular image generating means.

16. The apparatus according to claim 14, including:

area dividing means for dividing the area generated by said rectangular area generating means into sub-areas;

sub-area representative color calculating means for calculating a representative color for each of the sub-areas generated by said area dividing means; and

padded-color selecting means for selecting a representative color to be padded from a collection of the representative colors calculated for said respective sub-areas.

17. The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein said area dividing means divides said rectangular area into 64 rectangular areas.

18. The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein said sub-area representative color calculating means does not extract a representative color from a sub-area which has the number of pixels associated with said image of interest equal to or less than a predetermined threshold out of the sub-areas generated by said area dividing means.

19. The apparatus according to claim 18, wherein said sub-area representative color calculating means calculates a representative color only from pixels associated with said image of interest included in a sub-area which has the number of pixels associated with said image of interest equal to or more than the predetermined threshold out of the sub-areas generated by said area dividing means.

15. An apparatus for generating image feature data from an image of interest for which the image feature data is generated, said apparatus comprising:

rectangular area generating means for generating a rectangular area which contains said image of interest;

rectangular image generating means for converting the rectangular area generated by said rectangular area generating means and the image of interest included therein to an area and an image of determined sizes, respectively, and padding a complementary color into an area which does not include pixels associated with the image of the determined size within said area of the determined size to generate a rectangular image; and

image feature data generating means for generating feature data for the image generated by said rectangular image generating means.

26. A computer program for causing a computer to generate image feature data from an image of interest for which the image feature data is generated, said computer program comprising:

a first instruction set for generating a rectangular area which contains said image of interest;

a second instruction set for padding an average value of pixels of said image of interest into an area which does not include said image of interest, said area being within the rectangular area generated by said first instruction set, to generate a rectangular image; and

a third instruction set for generating feature data for the rectangular image generated by said second instruction set.

27. A computer program for causing a computer to generate image feature data from an image of interest for which the image feature data is generated, said computer program comprising:

a first instruction set for generating a rectangular area which contains said image of interest;

a second instruction set for padding a representative color for said image of interest into an area which does not include said image of interest, said area being within the rectangular area generated by said first instruction set, to generate a rectangular image; and

a third instruction set for generating feature data for the rectangular image generated by said second instruction set.

28. A computer program for causing a computer to generate image feature data from an image of interest for which the image feature data is generated, said computer program comprising:

a first instruction set for generating a rectangular area which contains said image of interest;

a second instruction set for padding a complementary color into an area which does not include said image of interest, said area being within the rectangular area generated by said first instruction set, to generate a rectangular image; and

a third instruction set for generating feature data for the rectangular image generated by said second instruction set.

29. A computer program for causing a computer to generate image feature data from an image of interest for which the image feature data is generated, said computer program comprising:

a first instruction set for generating a rectangular area which contains said image of interest;

a second instruction set for converting the rectangular area generated by said first instruction set and the image of interest included therein to an area and an image of determined sizes, respectively, and padding an average value of pixels of said image of interest into an area which does not include pixels associated with the image of the determined size within said area of the determined size to generate a rectangular image; and

a third instruction set for generating feature data for the image generated by said second instruction set.

30. A computer program for causing a computer to generate image feature data from an image of interest for which the image feature data is generated, said computer program comprising:

a first instruction set for generating a rectangular area which contains said image of interest;

a second instruction set for converting the rectangular area generated by said first instruction set and the image of interest included therein to an area and an image of determined sizes, respectively, and padding a representative color for said image of interest into an area which does not include pixels associated with the image of the determined size within said area of the determined size to generate a rectangular image; and

a third instruction set for generating feature data for the image generated by said second instruction set.

31. A computer program for causing a computer to generate image feature data from an image of interest for which the image feature data is generated, said computer program comprising:

a first instruction set for generating a rectangular area which contains said image of interest;

a second instruction set for converting the rectangular area generated by said first instruction set and the image of interest included therein to an area and an image of determined sizes, respectively, and padding a complementary color into an area which does not include pixels associated with the image of the determined size within said area of the determined size to generate a rectangular image; and

a third instruction set for generating feature data for the image generated by said second instruction set.