METHOD, SYSTEM AND APPARATUS FOR DETERMINING A PROPERTY OF AN IMAGE

• US 20150063684A1
• Filed: 08/27/2014
• Published: 03/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Taylor, Geoffrey Richard, Mai, Fei
• Granted Patent: US 9,799,124 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/154
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20072 Graph-based image processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/536 from perspective effects, e.g. by using vanishing points
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/457 by analysing connectivity, e.g. edge linking, connected component analysis or slices
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/52 Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/647 by matching two-dimensional images to three-dimensional objects

Abstract

A method of determining a property of an image (176) captured by a camera (127), is disclosed. Vanishing points (320, 330, 340) in the image (176). Each pixel of the image (176) is associated with one or more of the vanishing points (320, 330, 340) based on an orientation of the image gradient at the pixel. The image is partitioned into a set of regions associated with a pair of the determined vanishing points based on the vanishing point associations for pixels in the image (176). Boundaries of the regions are aligned with the associated vanishing points. For at least one of the plurality of regions, a confidence value is determined for the property of the image based on pixels in the region. The property of the image is determined for one or more pixels within the image (176) based on the confidence value.

Claims

1. A method of determining a property of an image captured by a camera, the method comprising:

determining vanishing points in the image;

associating each pixel of the image with one or more of the vanishing points based on an orientation of the image gradient at the pixel;

partitioning the image into a set of regions associated with a pair of the determined vanishing points based on the vanishing point associations for pixels in the image, boundaries of the regions being aligned with the associated vanishing points;

determining, for at least one of the plurality of regions, a confidence value for the property of the image based on pixels in the region; and

determining the property of the image for one or more pixels within said image based on the confidence value.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising constructing a space partition tree by iterating the partitioning step.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of regions includes regions associated with another pair of the determined vanishing points.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said property is surface orientation supported by the associated pair of vanishing points.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said property is a semantic label based on the appearance of pixels within one of the plurality of regions.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of regions are reduced to a second set of regions by merging neighbouring regions according to a second property.

7. A system for determining a property of an image captured by a camera, the system comprising:

a memory for storing data and a computer program;

a processor coupled to the memory for executing the computer program, the computer program comprising instructions for;

determining vanishing points in the image;

associating each pixel of the image with one or more of the vanishing points based on an orientation of the image gradient at the pixel;

partitioning the image into a set of regions associated with a pair of the determined vanishing points based on the vanishing point associations for pixels in the image, boundaries of the regions being aligned with the associated vanishing points;

determining, for at least one of the plurality of regions, a confidence value for the property of the image based on pixels in the region; and

determining the property of the image for one or more pixels within said image based on the confidence value.

8. A computer readable medium having a computer program stored thereon for determining a property of an image captured by a camera, the method comprising:

code for determining vanishing points in the image;

code for associating each pixel of the image with one or more of the vanishing points based on an orientation of the image gradient at the pixel;

code for partitioning the image into a set of regions associated with a pair of the determined vanishing points based on the vanishing point associations for pixels in the image, boundaries of the regions being aligned with the associated vanishing points;

code for determining, for at least one of the plurality of regions, a confidence value for the property of the image based on pixels in the region; and

code for determining the property of the image for one or more pixels within said image based on the confidence value.