IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND STORAGE MEDIUM THEREOF

• US 20110019029A1
• Filed: 07/21/2010
• Published: 01/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/23/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Inventors: Ichikawa, Erina, Matsumoto, Kosuke
• Granted Patent: US 8,446,485 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/223.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/611 where the recognised objects include parts of the human body
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/667 Camera operation mode switching, e.g. between still and video, sport and normal or high- and low-resolution modes

Abstract

An image processing apparatus, including: an image obtaining means that obtains an image; a color area detecting means that detects a predetermined color area from the image thus obtained by the image obtaining means; an area specifying means that specifies an area to be adjusted based on saturation and brightness of the color area thus detected by the color area detecting means; and a color adjusting means that adjusts at least one of a hue, the saturation and the brightness of a pixel in the process area thus specified by the area specifying means.

Claims

1. An image processing apparatus, comprising:

an image obtaining means that obtains an image;

a color area detecting means that detects a predetermined color area from the image thus obtained by the image obtaining means;

an area specifying means that specifies an area to be adjusted based on saturation and brightness of the color area thus detected by the color area detecting means; and

a color adjusting means that adjusts at least one of a hue, the saturation and the brightness of a pixel in the area to be adjusted thus specified by the area specifying means.

2. An image processing apparatus as set forth in claim 1, further comprising a face detecting means that detects a face area of a person from the image obtained by the image obtaining means, wherein

the color area detecting means detects the predetermined color area from an image of the face area thus detected by the face detecting means.

3. An image processing apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein

the color area detecting means detects, as the predetermined color area, a flesh color area having a color corresponding to a flesh color of the person included in the image, and wherein

the area specifying means specifies a pixel having saturation in the flesh color area that is no greater than a predetermined value and having brightness in the flesh color area that is no less than a predetermined value as the area to be adjusted.

4. An image processing apparatus as set forth in claim 2, wherein

the color adjusting means includes a flesh color information obtaining means that obtains flesh color information relating to a flesh color of a person included in the image, and

the color adjusting means adjusts each of the hue, the saturation, and the brightness of the pixel in the area to be adjusted based on the flesh color information obtained by the flesh color information obtaining means.

5. An image processing apparatus as set forth in claim 4, wherein

the flesh color information obtaining means includes:

a position information obtaining means that obtains position information indicating a position of a specific portion of the person included in the face area detected by the face detecting means; and

a setting means that sets an area from which the flesh color information of the person is to be obtained out of the face area as a flesh color obtaining area based on the position information thus obtained by the position information obtaining means, wherein

the flesh color information obtaining means obtains the flesh color information based on an image of the flesh color obtaining area set by the setting means.

6. An image processing apparatus as set forth in claim 5, wherein

the flesh color information obtaining means obtains first average value information and second average value information as the flesh color information, the first average value information containing average values of the hue, the saturation, and the brightness, respectively, of pixels in the area to be adjusted, the second average value information containing average values of the hue, the saturation, and the brightness, respectively, of the pixels in the flesh color obtaining area, and wherein

the color adjusting means adjusts at least one of the hue, the saturation, and the brightness of the pixels in the area to be adjusted based on a difference between the first average value information and the second average value information obtained by the flesh color information obtaining means.

7. An image processing apparatus as set forth in claim 6, wherein

the color adjusting means obtains the difference between the first average value information and the second average value information for each of the hue, the saturation, and the brightness, and obtains at least one of the hue, the saturation, and the brightness of the pixels of the area to be adjusted based on the difference value.

8. An image processing apparatus as set forth in claim 2, wherein

the color adjusting means performs adjustment so as to increase the saturation and to decrease the brightness of the pixels in the area to be adjusted.

9. An image processing apparatus as set forth in claim 8 further comprising an intensity calculating means that calculates an intensity of the saturation and the brightness in the area to be adjusted, wherein

the color adjusting means adjusts the saturation and the brightness of pixels in the area to be adjusted according to the intensity of the saturation and the brightness in the area to be adjusted thus calculated by the intensity calculating means.

10. An image processing apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein

the area specifying means specifies the area to be adjusted when the image obtained by the image obtaining means has been captured along with a flash light.

11. The image processing apparatus as set forth in claim 1, further comprising:

a setting means that allows one of a plurality of capturing modes to be set; and

an image capturing condition setting means that sets an image capturing condition for the image obtaining means according to the capturing mode that has been set by the setting means, wherein

the area specifying means specifies the area to be adjusted in a case of a capturing mode for capturing an image of a person has been set by the setting means.

12. An image processing method comprising the steps of:

an image obtaining step of obtaining an image;

a color area detecting step of detecting a predetermined color area from the image thus obtained in the image obtaining step;

an area specifying step of specifying an area to be adjusted based on saturation and brightness of the color area thus detected in the color area detecting step; and

a color adjusting step of adjusting at least one of a hue, the saturation and the brightness of a pixel in the area to be adjusted thus specified in the area specifying step.

13. A storage medium having stored therein an image processing program which causes a computer provided with an image obtaining means that obtains an image to function as:

a color area detecting means that detects a predetermined color area from the image thus obtained by the image obtaining means;

an area specifying means that specifies an area to be adjusted based on saturation and brightness of the color area thus detected by the color area detecting means; and

a color adjusting means that adjusts at least one of a hue, the saturation and the brightness of a pixel in the area to be adjusted thus specified by the area specifying means.