Portrait image processing method and apparatus

• US 20040161163A1
• Filed: 02/12/2004
• Published: 08/19/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Takamidoh, Kenya
• Application Number:
  US10/776,534
• Publication Number:
  US 20040161163A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/275
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00132 in a digital photofinishing system, i.e. a system where digital photographic images undergo typical photofinishing processing, e.g. printing ordering
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/0014 via e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00145 from a remote location
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00167 Processing or editing H04N1/00196 - H04N1/00201 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00196 Creation of a photo-montage, e.g. photoalbum H04N1/0019 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00244 with a server, e.g. an internet server fax-servers or the like for store and forward H04N1/324
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00307 with a mobile telephone apparatus constructional features of portable telephone sets H04M1/0202; mobile radio systems H04W84/00

Abstract

A portrait image processing method and a portrait image processing apparatus of the present invention extract a portrait image from an original image and composite the extracted portrait image and a background image prepared in advance to create a composite image. On the other hand, the method and the apparatus detect a boundary of a person and a background from the original image and judges whether or not the detected boundary is a true contour of the person for each part of the boundary. Then, the method and the apparatus apply correction processing (overwrite processing of a correction image) for concealing a boundary part, which is judged not to be the true contour of the person, to the boundary of the person and the background in the composite image. In this way, even in the case in which the portrait image is not extracted accurately from the original image, the method and the apparatus form an image, which is obtained by compositing the extracted portrait image and the background image, as a natural image.

Claims

1. A portrait image processing method comprising the steps of:

extracting a portrait image from an original image including a person and a background;

compositing the extracted portrait image and a background image prepared in advance to create a composite image;

detecting a boundary of the person and the background from the original image;

judging whether or not the detected boundary is a true contour of the person for each part of the boundary; and

applying correction processing for concealing a boundary part, which is judged not to be a true contour of the person, to the boundary of the person and the background in the created composite image.

2. The portrait image processing method according to claim 1,

wherein said correction processing is image processing for overwriting another image on the boundary part which is judged not to be the true contour of the person.

3. The portrait image processing method according to claim 1,

wherein said correction processing is image processing for shifting the portrait image such that the boundary part, which is judged not to be the true contour of the person, is outside a frame of the composite image.

4. A portrait image processing apparatus comprising:

a portrait image extracting device which extracts a portrait image from an original image including a person and a background;

a background image recording device which stores a background image to be a background of a portrait image;

an image compositing device which composites the extracted portrait image and the background image read out from said background image recording device to create a composite image;

a boundary detecting device which detects a boundary of the person and the background from the original image;

a judging device which judges whether or not the detected boundary is a true contour of the person for each part of the boundary; and

an image correcting device which applies correction processing for concealing a boundary part, which is judged not to be a true contour of the person, to the boundary of the person and the background in the created composite image.

5. The portrait image processing apparatus according to claim 4,

wherein said image correcting device performs image processing for overwriting another image on the boundary part which is judged not to be the true contour of the person.

6. The portrait image processing apparatus according to claim 4,

wherein said image correcting device performs image processing for shifting the portrait image such that the boundary part, which is judged not to be the true contour of the person, is outside a frame of the composite image.