Image processiong apparatus, image processing method, and recording medium

• US 20050226504A1
• Filed: 06/03/2005
• Published: 10/13/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hideo Nakaya, Hisakazu Shiraki, Tetsujiro Kondo, Yuji Okumura
• Original Assignee: Hideo Nakaya, Hisakazu Shiraki, Tetsujiro Kondo, Yuji Okumura
• Inventors: Kondo, Tetsujiro, Shiraki, Hisakazu, Nakaya, Hideo, Okumura, Yuji
• Granted Patent: US 7,340,097 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10016 Video; Image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20101 Interactive definition of point of interest, landmark or seed
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30196 Human being; Person
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/12 Edge-based segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/194 involving foreground-background segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/248 involving reference images or patches
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/10 Human or animal bodies, e.g. vehicle occupants or pedestrians; Body parts, e.g. hands

Abstract

An image processing apparatus includes an object extracting unit, a selecting unit, and an object storing unit. The object extracting unit extracts an object from a target image through a plurality of processing, and outputs the result of extracting the object. The selecting unit selects at least a part of the result of extracting the object which is obtained through the plurality of processing, in accordance with a user'"'"'s operation. The object storing means stores the result of extracting the object which is selected by the selecting unit.

Claims

1-21. -21. (canceled)

22. An image processing apparatus comprising:

object extracting means for extracting a single object from a target image through a plurality processing;

output means for outputting the results of extracting the object simultaneously;

selecting means for selecting one result out of the outputted results of extracting the object through the plurality of processing in accordance with a user'"'"'s operation; and

object storing means for storing the result of extracting the object, which is selected by said selecting means.

24. An apparatus according to claim 22, wherein said selecting means selects a part of one result out of the results of extracting the object through the plurality of processing in accordance with the user'"'"'s operation.

25. An apparatus according to claim 22, further comprising:

determining means for determining a plurality of processing methods by using said object extracting means,

wherein said object extracting means extracts the object from the target image through a plurality of processing determined by said determining means.

26. An apparatus according to claim 25, wherein said determining means determines a plurality of processing methods for extracting the object from the target image based on a designated position of the target image, which is designated by the user.

27. An apparatus according to claim 26, wherein when the user designates a position of the target image, under the control of said determining means, said object extracting means separates pixels in the target image into a plurality of components, generates edge images of component images, outputs areas, as the object, which are separated by edges of the edge images including a target pixel corresponding to the designated position which is designated by the user.

28. An apparatus according to claim 25, wherein when the user designates a rank of the results of extracting the object through the plurality of processing, said determining means determines the plurality of processing methods based on the rank.

31. An apparatus according to claim 25, further comprising:

processing history storing means for storing a processing history as a processing method corresponding to the result of extracting the object, when the result of extracting the object selected by said selecting means is stored in said object storing means,

wherein said determining means determines a plurality of processing methods for extracting the object from the target image based on the processing history of a before-image stored in said processing history storing means, which is processed before the target image.

32. An apparatus according to claim 31, wherein said object extracting means separates the pixels in the target image into a plurality of components,

generates edge images in component images of components,

binarizes the edge images by using a predetermined threshold and outputs the binarized image, and

outputs the result of extracting the object every binarized image,

said processing history storing means comprises:

designated position storing means for storing the designated position of the target image designated by the user;

history image storing means for storing, as a pixel value, an identifier associated with the threshold and the component corresponding to at least a part of the object selected by said selecting means; and

table means for storing therein the identifier, the component, and the threshold with a corresponding relationship thereof,

said apparatus further comprises motion detecting means for detecting corresponding coordinates of the before-image at the designated position by motion detection at the designated position to the target image, between the target image and the before-image, and,

said object extracting means detects the identifier of said history image storing means corresponding to the corresponding coordinates, and also detects the threshold and the component in said table means, corresponding to the identifier detected, generates the edge image in the component image of the component, outputs the edge image, as the binarized image, based on a plurality of thresholds generated from the threshold, and outputs the result of extracting the object every binarized image.

33. An apparatus according to claim 31, wherein when extracting the object from the target image based on the processing history of the before-image which is processed before the target image, said processing history storing means succeeds the processing history of the before-image to the object extracted from the target image.

34. An apparatus according to claim 22, further comprising:

display means for displaying the results of extracting the object outputted from said output means on a plurality of screens.

35. An apparatus according to claim 34, wherein said selecting means comprises a pointing device capable of designating a predetermined position of the object in the plurality of screens displayed on said display means.

23. (canceled)

29. (canceled)

30. (canceled)

36. An image processing apparatus comprising:

object extracting means for extracting a single object from a target image through a plurality processing;

output means for outputting the results of extracting the object simultaneously;

selecting means for selecting one result out of the outputted results of extracting the object through the plurality of processing in accordance with the user'"'"'s operation;

processing history storing means for storing a processing history as a history of a processing method associated with the selected result; and

determining means for determining a processing method for extracting an object from the target image based on the processing history stored in said processing history storing means,

wherein said object extracting means extracts the object from a target image based on the processing method determined by said determining means.

37. An apparatus according to claim 36, wherein said processing history storing means stores the processing history extracted by said object extracting means every object.

38. An apparatus according to claim 36, wherein said determining means determines the processing method for extracting the object from the target image based on the designated position in the target image designated by the user.

39. An apparatus according to claim 38, wherein said processing history storing means comprises designated position storing means for storing the position in the target image, which is designated by the user.

40. An apparatus according to claim 39, wherein said determining means determines a plurality of processing methods for extracting the object from the target image based on the designated position, of a before-image stored in said designated position storing means, which is processed before the target image.

41. An apparatus according to claim 40, wherein when extracting the object from the target image based on the processing history of the before-image, said processing history storing means succeeds the processing history of the before-image to the object extracted from the target image.

42-46. -46. (canceled)

47. An image processing method comprising the steps of:

extracting an object from a target image through a plurality of processing and outputting the result of extracting the object;

outputting the results of extracting the object simultaneously;

selecting one result out of the result of the outputted results of extracting the object which is obtained through the plurality of processing, in accordance with a user'"'"'s operation; and

storing the selected result of extracting the object.

48. An image processing method comprising the steps of:

extracting a single object from a target image through a plurality processing;

outputting the results of extracting the object simultaneously;

selecting one result out of the outputted results of extracting the object through te plurality of processing in accordance with a user'"'"'s operation;

storing a processing history as a history of the determined processing method;

extracting the object from the target image based on the determined processing method; and

determining the processing method for extracting the object from the target image based on the stored processing history.

49. A computer readable medium for storing an image processing program, wherein said program comprises the steps of:

extracting an object from a target image through a plurality of processing and outputting the result of extracting the object;

outputting the results of extracting the object simultaneously;

selecting one result out of the result of the outputted results of extracting the object which is obtained through the plurality of processing, in accordance with a user'"'"'s operation; and

storing the selected result of extracting the object.

50. A computer readable medium for storing an image processing program, wherein said program comprises the steps of:

extracting a single object from a target image through a plurality processing;

outputting the results of extracting the object simultaneously;

selecting one result out of the outputted results of extracting the object through the plurality of processing in accordance with a user'"'"'s operation;

storing a processing history as a history of the determined processing method;

extracting the object from the target image based on the determined processing method; and

determining the processing method for extracting the object from the target image based on the stored processing history.