Identifying intrinsic pixel colors in a region of uncertain pixels

• US 6,721,446 B1
• Filed: 04/26/1999
• Issued: 04/13/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Wilensky, Gregg D., Newell, Martin E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Jayanti K.
• Application Number:
  US09/298,872
• Time in Patent Office: 1,814 Days
• Field of Search: 382/100, 382/162, 382/164, 382/165, 382/167, 382/173, 382/181, 382/190, 382/194, 382/195, 382/212, 382/213, 382/282, 382/283, 345/308, 345/156, 345/164, 345/440, 345/443, 345/581, 345/589, 345/639, 345/634, 345/419-421, 348/578, 707/104.1, 358/500, 358/515, 358/518, 358/531
• US Class Current: 382/162
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/001 Texturing; Colouring; Generation of texture or colour inpainting G06T5/77
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20101 Interactive definition of point of interest, landmark or seed
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20104 Interactive definition of region of interest [ROI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/11 Region-based segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/143 involving probabilistic approaches, e.g. Markov random field [MRF] modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/187 involving region growing; involving region merging; involving connected component labelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/194 involving foreground-background segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/267 by performing operations on regions, e.g. growing, shrinking or watersheds
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/28 Quantising the image, e.g. histogram thresholding for discrimination between background and foreground patterns
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/56 relating to colour

Abstract

A digital image that includes first and second regions is processed. An intrinsic color of a given pixel located in an area of interest that is adjacent to at least one of the first and second regions is estimated by extrapolating from colors of multiple pixels in one of the first and second regions and multiple pixels in the other of the two regions.

Claims

1. A machine-based method for use in processing a digital image, the method comprising:

enabling a user to paint an area of the digital image to identify at least an area of interest adjacent to at least one of a first region and a second region, and to identify a location which is in one of the first and second regions,

one of the first and second regions comprising a foreground of the digital image, the other region comprising a background of the digital image, the area of interest being adjacent to one of the regions and including at least part of the other region,

after the user has defined the area of interest, automatically estimating intrinsic colors of pixels in the area of interest based on color information for pixels in the first region and the second region, and

extracting the foreground from the background based on the identification of the pixels.

2. The method of claim 1 in which the painting is done with a brush tool that can be configured by the user.

3. The method of claim 1 in which the painted area can be built up by repeated painting steps and in which portions of the painted area can be erased by the user interactively.

4. The method of claim 1 in which the user paints the area of interest and separately identifies a location which is in one of the first and second regions.

5. The method of claim 1 in which the user paints at least one of the first and second regions and the area of interest and separately identifies a color associated with one of the first and second regions.

6. The method of claim 5 in which the user identifies the color by applying an eyedropper tool to one pixel or a set of pixels in the one region.

7. The method of claim 1 in which the user designates one of the first and second regions by identifying a pixel location in that region.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising flood filling one of the regions based on the identified pixel location to designate that region as a foreground.

9. The method of claim 1 in which one of the first and second regions comprises a foreground in the digital image, the other of the regions comprises a background of the digital image, and the area of interest is between the foreground and the background.

10. The method of claim 1 in which one of the first and second regions comprises a foreground in the digital image, the other region comprises a background of the digital image, and the area of interest is adjacent to one of the regions and includes at least part of the other region.

11. The method of claim 1 in which the painted area may be modified by a user interactively and repeatedly.

12. The method of claim 1 in which the user is enabled to paint additional areas of interest between other pairs of first and second regions.

13. A medium bearing a computer program capable of controlling a computer to process a digital image by:

enabling a user to paint an area of the digital image to identify at least an area of interest adjacent to at least one of a first region and a second region, and

to identify a location which is in one of the first and second regions one of the first and second regions comprising a foreground of the digital image, the other region comprising a background of the digital image, the area of interest being adjacent to one of the regions and including at least part of the other region,

after the user has defined the area of interest, automatically estimating intrinsic colors of pixels in the area of interest based on color information for pixels in the first region and the second region, and

extracting the foreground from the background based on the identification of the pixels.

14. A system for use in processing a digital image, the system comprising:

enabling a user to paint an area of the digital image to identify at least an area of interest adjacent to at least one of a first region and a second region, and to identify a location which is in one of the first and second regions,

one of the first and second regions comprising a foreground of the digital image, the area of interest being adjacent to one of the regions and including at least part of the other region,

after the user has defined the area of interest, automatically estimating intrinsic colors of pixels in the area of interest based on color information for pixels in the first region and the second region, and

extracting the foreground from the background based on the identification of the pixels.