Method for setting dominant color using spatial coherency

• US 7,079,683 B2
• Filed: 11/24/2004
• Issued: 07/18/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/18/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Kim, Hyeon Jun
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Phuoc
• Application Number:
  US10/995,285
• Publication Number:
  US 20050074166A1
• Time in Patent Office: 601 Days
• Field of Search: 382/162, 382/164, 382/165, 382/270
• US Class Current: 382/162
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5838 using colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10024 Color image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/90 Determination of colour characteristics
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 9/008 Vector quantisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/56 relating to colour

Abstract

A method is provided for setting a dominant color using a spatial coherency in order to improve performance of an image search function. The method includes describing an image region based on several dominant colors, a frequency of each dominant color, and a spatial coherency (SC) of the dominant color. In the method, the spatial coherency is non-uniformly quantized based on a predetermined threshold. For example, the spatial coherency (SC) may be ranged from 0 to 1 and the threshold may be set to 0.70.

Claims

1. A method for quantizing spatial coherency of a dominant color of an image region, comprising:

non-uniformly quantizing a normalized value for the spatial coherency responsive to a relationship between the normalized spatial coherency value and a prescribed threshold.

2. A method for quantizing spatial coherency of at least one dominant color of an image region, comprising:

normalizing a weighted sum of per-dominant color-spatial coherencies from 0 to 1; and

non-uniformly quantizing the normalized spatial coherency to a range from 1 to 31, wherein the normalized values of spatial coherency less than 0.7 are set to a quantized value of 1, and wherein the normalized values of spatial coherency from 0.7 to 1 are uniformly quantized to the quantized range from 2 to 31.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the weight is proportional to a number of pixels corresponding to each dominant color of the region.

4. A method for describing an image region by using at least one dominant color and a spatial coherency on said at least one dominant color, comprising:

describing a normalized spatial coherency of at least one dominant color using 31 bins by;

quantizing normalized values of spatial coherency less than 0.7 to a quantized value of 1, and uniformly quantizing the normalized values of spatial coherency from 0.7 to 1 to the quantized range from 2 to 31.

5. The method of claim 4, comprising assigning predetermined number of bits to the spatial coherencies by 5 bits, wherein the 5 bits is used to represent the integer of the range from 0 to 31.

6. The method of claim 4, comprising:

normalizing the spatial coherency from 0 to 1; and

assigning predetermined number of bits to the spatial coherencies by 5 bits, wherein the 5 bits is used to represent the integer of the range from 0 to 31.