Image management

• US 20070030364A1
• Filed: 05/11/2005
• Published: 02/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Obrador, Pere, Yen, Jonathan, Wu, Peng
• Granted Patent: US 7,860,319 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/241
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0004 Industrial image inspection

Abstract

There is disclosed a method of processing a digital image, which includes assigning an image quality classification to the image on the basis of an analysis of at least a portion of the image to detect whether one or more defects exist in the image.

Claims

1. A method of processing a digital image, comprising:

assigning an image quality classification to the image on the basis of an analysis of at least a portion of the image to detect whether one or more defects exist in the image.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein, in the event that one or more defects are detected in the image, the assignment of an image quality classification is performed on the basis of one or more defect criterion.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the one or more defect criterion are set on the basis of at least one of the following factors:

the nature of one or more detected defects;

the extent of one or more detected defects;

the severity of one or more detected defects;

the extent to which one or more detected defects can be rectified; and

the availability of a tool to rectify one or more detected defects.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein, the method further comprises:

assigning a suggestive classification label to each image quality class for use when notifying a user of an images quality classification of the image.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises:

enhancing the image in the event that one or more detected defects can be rectified.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the method further comprises:

automatically deleting the image in the event that one or more detected defects can not be rectified.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the method further comprises:

determining a defect rectification process to be applied to the image on the basis of a detected defect; and

automatically conducting the defect rectification process on the image.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises:

generating a user interface configured to communicate the image quality classification of the image to a user.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein, in the event that one or more defects have been detected in the image, the method further comprises, guiding the user, via the user interface to enhance the image.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein, in the event that one or more detected defects in the image cannot be rectified, the method further comprises:

enabling the user to select, via the user interface, whether, or not, to delete the image.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein, in the event that one or more detected defects in the image can be rectified, the method further comprises:

communicating to the user, via the user interface, a suggestion of a rectification process to enhance the image.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein the method further comprises:

determining a nature of a detected defect in the image; and

enabling the user to assign the image to a group of images on the basis of the nature of the detected defect.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the method further comprises:

performing a rectification process on each image assigned to a group on the basis of a nature of the detected defect.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein, the method further comprises, appending non-image data to the image that is indicative of at least an image quality class assigned to the image.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein, the non-image data includes data indicative of at least one of the following:

the nature of one or more detected defects;

the extent of one or more detected defects;

the severity of one or more detected defects;

the extent to which one or more detected defects can be rectified.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein, the method further comprises, detecting whether an image is a duplicate of another image.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein if an image is a duplicate of another image, the method further comprises determining a comparable image quality rating for each duplicate image.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the method further comprises, assigning the image to a classification for duplicate images, if the image has a worse image quality rating than the other image.

21. The method of claim 19 wherein the method further comprises, automatically deleting the image, in the event that the image has a worse image quality rating than the other image.

5. The method of claim 5 wherein the suggestive classification label for each class is chosen to reflect a suggested image management process to the user.

6. The method of claim 6 wherein a suggestive classification label suggests one or more of the following image management processes to a user:

delete the image, enhance the image;

keep the image;

print the image;

crop the image;

re-take the image;

send the image;

or archive the image.