Method For Manipulating Regions Of A Digital Image

• US 20090022394A1
• Filed: 07/17/2007
• Published: 01/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Smart Technologies ULC (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Smart Technologies Incorporated (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Leung, Andy, Kroeker, Wallace, Benner, Erik, Banerjee, Shymmon
• Granted Patent: US 8,238,662 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/164
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04845 for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text

Abstract

A method for dividing a digital image into regions comprises identifying potential region borders based on edge content in the digital image. The digital image is divided into regions based on user-selected ones of the potential region borders. A method of processing a region of a digital image comprises receiving gesture data for characterizing the region. A processing tool associated with the gesture data is automatically launched, and the region is processed using the processing tool.

Claims

1. A method of dividing a digital image into regions, comprising:

identifying potential region borders based on edge content in the digital image; and

dividing the digital image into regions based on user-selected ones of the identified potential region borders.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the potential region borders are identified at locations along rows and columns in the digital image that have a significant amount of edge content.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said identifying comprises:

calculating pixel intensity profiles for each row and column of pixels in the digital image; and

comparing adjacent ones of the pixel intensity profiles to determine where differences between adjacent pixel intensity profiles exceed a threshold level, thereby establishing row and column positions of the potential region borders.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the threshold level is fixed.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the threshold level is 0.125 intensity units.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the threshold level is calculated based on a measurement of intensity volatility in the digital image.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the intensity volatility is the standard deviation of pixel intensity values in the digital image.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a selection of a subset of the regions; and

removing the content of unselected regions from the digital image.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

scaling selected regions in response to user instructions.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said scaling comprises:

receiving a user selection of a region border; and

in response to user instructions moving the region border thereby to scale the region.

11. The method of claim 1, comprising:

modifying a position of at least one potential region border in response to user instructions.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

merging regions in response to user instructions.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said merging comprises:

receiving a selection of at least two adjacent regions to be merged;

removing a portion of any potential region borders that divide the at least two adjacent regions; and

merging the at least two adjacent regions to form a single continuous region.

14. A method of processing a region of a digital image, comprising:

receiving gesture data for characterizing the region;

automatically launching a processing tool associated with the gesture data; and

processing the region using the processing tool.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the gesture data defines a gesture shape that is a closed figure thereby to characterize the shape, size and location of the region.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the gesture data defines a gesture shape, the gesture shape associated with a shape of, and defining the size and position of, a closed figure thereby to characterize the region.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the gesture data defines a gesture shape, the gesture shape being associated with the processing tool.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the gesture shape is a closed figure.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the gesture data includes coordinates along the boundaries of the region.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein said automatically launching a processing tool comprises:

identifying a gesture shape from the gesture data;

searching a processing tool table to determine a processing tool associated in the processing tool table with the identified gesture shape;

automatically launching the processing tool; and

providing the gesture data to the processing tool.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein identifying the gesture shape comprises:

comparing the gesture data to a plurality of shape templates each representing a unique shape; and

determining which of the shape templates is the most similar to the region thereby to identify the gesture shape.

22. The method of claim 14, wherein the processing tool is selected from the group consisting of a zoom tool, a cropping tool, a highlighting tool, and a spotlighting tool.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the gesture shape is a rectangle and the processing tool associated with the rectangle in the processing tool table is a zoom tool.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein the gesture shape is an ellipse and the processing tool associated with the ellipse in the processing tool table is a highlight/spotlight tool.

25. The method of claim 14, wherein processing of the region by the processing tool is controllable by a user.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the processing tool is a zoom tool and the magnification level of the zoom tool is further controllable by the user.

27. A computer readable medium embodying a computer program for dividing a digital image into regions, the computer program comprising:

computer program code identifying potential region borders based on edge content in the digital image; and

computer program code dividing the digital image into regions based on user-selected ones of the identified potential region borders.

28. A computer readable medium embodying a computer program for processing a region of a digital image, the computer program comprising:

computer program code receiving gesture data for characterizing the region;

computer program code automatically launching a processing tool associated with the gesture data; and

computer program code processing the region using the processing tool.

29. An interactive display system comprising:

a touch screen that defines a touch surface on which a computer-generated image is presented;

a sensor assembly detecting pointer contacts on the touch surface and in response, generating gesture data for characterizing a region of the computer-generated image; and

processing structure receiving the gesture data and automatically launching a processing tool associated with the gesture data for processing the region.

30. The system of claim 29, further comprising:

memory storing a processing tool table associating at least one processing tool with a respective gesture shape;

wherein the processing structure identifies a gesture shape from the gesture data, and selects an associated processing tool from the processing tool table for processing the region.

31. The system of claim 29, wherein the processing tool is selected from the group consisting of a zoom tool, a cropping tool, a highlighting tool, and a spotlighting tool.

32. The system of claim 30, wherein the gesture shape is a rectangle and the processing tool associated with the rectangle in the processing tool table is a zoom tool.

33. The system of claim 30, wherein the gesture shape is an ellipse and the processing tool associated with the ellipse in the processing tool table is a highlight/spotlight tool.

34. The system of claim 30, wherein processing of the region by the processing tool is controllable by a user.

35. The system of claim 30, wherein the processing tool is a zoom tool and the magnification level of the zoom tool is further controllable by the user.