Image Processing System for Digital Collage

• US 20070110335A1
• Filed: 12/12/2006
• Published: 05/17/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Taylor, Stuart, Rother, Carsten, de Boer, William
• Granted Patent: US 7,532,771 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/284
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2200/24 involving graphical user interfaces [GUIs]

Abstract

It is required to provide a framework for an automated process for forming a visually appealing collage from a plurality of input images. It is required to provide a framework for this type of automated process which is flexible and robust and which can easily be interfaced to a related software application. An image synthesis framework is provided with a modular architecture having a first module, a plurality of prior compute modules and an image synthesis module. The first module provides an application programming interface, the prior compute modules compute information about input images, and the image synthesis module uses the computed information together with the input images to form a digital collage.

Claims

1. An image processing system comprising:

(i) an input arranged to receive a plurality of digital images;

(ii) a first module providing at least an application programming interface arranged to be used by an application in order to control the image processing system;

(ii) a plurality of prior compute modules each having an interface to the first module and each arranged to compute information to be used in forming a digital collage; and

(iii) an image synthesis module, having an interface to the first module, and arranged to form a digital collage from at least some of the plurality of digital images on the basis of the information computed by the prior compute modules.

2. An image processing system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the first module is arranged to modify the dimensions of the received digital images to meet specified dimension requirements.

3. An image processing system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the first module is arranged to rank the received digital images on the basis of at least one metric.

4. An image processing system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the output of each prior compute module comprises a potential matrix, being a two dimensional array of values, each value being associated with an image block.

5. An image processing system as claimed in claim 4 wherein one of the prior compute modules is arranged to produce a potential matrix comprising weights according to a Gaussian distribution.

6. An image processing system as claimed in claim 4 wherein one of the prior compute modules is arranged to produce, for a given image, a saliency potential matrix comprising contrast values calculated from that image.

7. An image processing system as claimed in claim 4 wherein one of the prior compute modules is arranged to produce, for a given image, a face potential matrix comprising information about faces detected in that image.

8. An image processing system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the first module is also arranged to determine a region of interest for each of a plurality of the received images.

9. An image processing system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the application programming interface comprises a function to enable a particular received image'"'"'s calculated region of interest to be modified.

10. An image processing system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the application programming interface comprises a function to enable a rank of a received image determined by the first module to be over-ridden.

11. An image processing system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the application programming interface comprises a function to enable processing of any of the prior compute and image synthesis modules to be paused.

12. An image processing system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the application programming interface comprises a function to enable processing of any of the prior compute and image synthesis modules to be resumed.

13. An image processing system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the application programming interface comprises at least one function to obtain status information about progress of computation in any of the prior compute and image synthesis modules.

14. An image processing system as claimed in claim 1 further comprising an application arranged to control the image processing system, that application being arranged to display a user interface at a display, the user interface comprising items to control selection of prior compute modules and selection of relative weights to be used in association with results of the selected prior compute modules.

15. A method of image processing comprising the steps of:

(i) receiving a plurality of digital images;

(ii) at a first module, providing at least an application programming interface arranged to be used by an application in order to control the image processing method;

(ii) using a plurality of prior compute modules, each having an interface to the first module, to compute information to be used in forming a digital collage; and

(iii) using an image synthesis module, having an interface to the first module, to form a digital collage from at least some of the plurality of digital images on the basis of the information computed by the prior compute modules.

16. A method as claimed in claim 15 which comprises using the first module to modify the dimensions of the received digital images to meet specified dimension requirements.

17. A method as claimed in claim 15 which comprises using the first module to rank the received digital images on the basis of at least one metric.

18. A method as claimed in claim 15 which comprises using each prior compute module to produce a potential matrix, being a two dimensional array of values, each value being associated with an image block.

19. A method as claimed in claim 18 which comprises using one of the prior compute modules to produce a potential matrix comprising weights according to a Gaussian distribution.

20. One or more device-readable media with device-executable instructions for performing steps comprising:

(i) receiving a plurality of digital images;

(ii) at a first module, providing at least an application programming interface arranged to be used by an application in order to control the image processing method; and

also at the first module, computing a region of interest for each received image;

(ii) using a plurality of prior compute modules, each having an interface to the first module, to compute information to be used in forming a digital collage; and

(iii) using an image synthesis module, having an interface to the first module, to form a digital collage from at least some of the plurality of digital images on the basis of the information computed by the prior compute modules.