Segmentation of digital images
First Claim
1. A method for segmenting a digital image, the digital image comprising at least some mixed pixels whose visual characteristics are determined by a mixture of the visual characteristics of part of two or more portions of the image, the method comprising the steps of:
- selecting one or more pixels within a first portion of the image to define a first pixel selection;
expanding the first pixel selection to define a second pixel selection corresponding to a first portion of the image;
defining a third pixel selection comprising those pixels in the image which are not in the second pixel selection;
eroding the boundary of the third pixel selection one or more times to define a fourth pixel selection;
expanding the fourth pixel selection to define a fifth pixel selection corresponding to a second portion of the image.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and system for segmenting a digital image is presented allowing manipulation of an image, for example by extracting a foreground portion of the image and overlaying the extracted foreground onto a new background. The invention provides an automated process requiring only a single user selection of an area of an image from which two or more image segments are automatically derived. The image segments typically include foreground, background and mixed portions of the image. In this way the invention allows a single selection within one of the foreground or background portions of the image to be made to define foreground, background and edge image segments. The process uses a technique of expanding a selected area, determining a complementary region and eroding then expanding the complementary region so as to derive the desired image segments. An image mask based on the image segments may be generated by assigning opacity values to each pixel allowing blending calculations to be applied to mixed pixels.
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Citations
17 Claims
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1. A method for segmenting a digital image, the digital image comprising at least some mixed pixels whose visual characteristics are determined by a mixture of the visual characteristics of part of two or more portions of the image, the method comprising the steps of:
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selecting one or more pixels within a first portion of the image to define a first pixel selection;
expanding the first pixel selection to define a second pixel selection corresponding to a first portion of the image;
defining a third pixel selection comprising those pixels in the image which are not in the second pixel selection;
eroding the boundary of the third pixel selection one or more times to define a fourth pixel selection;
expanding the fourth pixel selection to define a fifth pixel selection corresponding to a second portion of the image. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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Specification