Method and system for removal of red eye effects

• US 7,324,689 B1
• Filed: 07/05/2005
• Issued: 01/29/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/22/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Cedar Lane Technologies Inc.
• Original Assignee: KWOK CHU & Shindler LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Vide, Adolfo Pinheiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Alavi; Amir
• Application Number:
  US11/175,551
• Time in Patent Office: 938 Days
• Field of Search: 382/115, 382/117, 382/162, 382/167, 382/254, 382/275, 382/299, 358/1.13, 358/1.9, 358/500, 358/509, 358/518, 358/527, 396/155, 396/158, 348/370, 348/576
• US Class Current: 382/167
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/193 Preprocessing; Feature extraction

Abstract

A method of performing red eye correction in an image including storing a high resolution image on a server computer, transmitting a low resolution image derived from the high resolution image, from the server computer to a client computer, displaying the low resolution image on a display device connected to the client computer, receiving from a user an indication of a selected location within the displayed low resolution image, partially automatically defining an outline of an area in the low resolution image within which area red eye correction is to be carried out, by the client computer, based on the user'"'"'s selected location, carrying out red eye correction on the low resolution image only within the area, by the client computer, and transmitting parameters of the area from the client computer to the server computer. A system is also described and claimed.

Claims

1. A method of performing red eye correction in an image comprising:

storing a high resolution image on a device including memory;

transmitting a low resolution image derived from the high resolution image, from the device to a client computer; and

receiving at the device, from the client computer, parameters of an area in the low resolution image within which area red eye correction is to be carried out.

2. A method of performing red eye correction according to claim 1 further comprising carrying out red eye correction on the high resolution image, using the parameters of the area received from the client computer.

3. A method of performing red eye correction according to claim 2 wherein said carrying out red eye correction comprises modifying red color values of pixels identified as being reddish, based on green color values of such pixels.

4. A method of performing red eye correction according to claim 3 wherein a pixel is identified as being reddish if

2R>

3G+12, R>

B+12

where R, G and B comprise the values of red, green and blue color components of the pixel color, respectively, taking values between 0 and 255.

5. A method of performing red eye correction according to claim 3 wherein a pixel is identified as being reddish if

R>

G, R>

B

where R, G and B comprise the values of red, green and blue components of the pixel color, respectively.

6. A method of performing red eye correction according to claim 3 wherein said modifying modifies a red color value of a pixel identified as being reddish according to

$R^{\prime }$

= R - Δ

⁢

⁢

ⅇ

- 2 ⁢

( u 2 + v 2 ) 2 r 4 , ⁢

if ⁢

⁢

Δ

>

0 R , ⁢

if ⁢

⁢

Δ

≤

0 ,

where R and G comprise pre-corrected values of red and green color components of the pixel, respectively, and where R′

comprises the corrected value of the red color component, and where Δ

is given by

$\mathrm{\Delta <br><br>}=R-\frac{5}{4}<br><br>G.$

7. A method of performing red eye correction according to claim 1 wherein the area comprises a circle and the parameters of the area include the center and diameter of the circle.

8. A method of performing red eye correction according to claim 1 wherein parameters of the area are expressed in resolution-independent form.

9. A method of performing red eye correction according to claim 1 wherein the device comprises a server computer and the low resolution image is also stored on the server computer.

10. A method of performing red eye correction according to claim 1 wherein the device comprises a server computer and the low resolution image is derived from the high resolution image by the server computer.

11. A system for performing red eye correction in an image comprising:

a memory for storing a high resolution image;

a transmitter for transmitting a low resolution image derived from the high resolution image, to a client computer; and

a receiver for receiving from the client computer parameters of an area in the low resolution image within which area red eye correction is to be carried out.

12. A system for performing red eye correction according to claim 11 further comprising a red eye correction processor for carrying out red eye correction on the high resolution image, using the parameters of the area received from the client computer.

13. A system for performing red eye correction according to claim 12 wherein said red eye correction processor is to modify red color values of pixels identified as being reddish, based on green color values of such pixels.

14. A system for performing red eye correction according to claim 13 wherein a pixel is identified as being reddish if

R>

G, R>

B,

where R, G and B comprise the values of red, green and blue color components of the pixel color, respectively.

15. A system for performing red eye correction according to claim 12 wherein a pixel is identified as being reddish if

2R>

3G+12, R>

B+12,

where R, G and B comprise the values of red, green and blue color components of the pixel color, respectively, taking values between 0 and 255.

16. A system performing red eye correction according to claim 13 wherein said processor is to modify a red color value of a pixel identified as being reddish according to

where R and G comprise pre-corrected values of red and green color components of the pixel, respectively, and where R′

comprises the corrected value of the red color component, and where Δ

is given by

$R^{\mathrm{\prime <br><br>}}=\begin{array}{c}R-\mathrm{\Delta <br><br>}<br><br><br><br>{\mathrm{e<br><br>}}^{-2<br><br>\frac{{\left(u^2+v^2\right)}^2}{r^4}},<br><br>\mathrm{if}<br><br><br><br>\mathrm{\Delta <br><br>}><br><br>0\\ R,<br><br>\mathrm{if}<br><br><br><br>\mathrm{\Delta <br><br>}\le <br><br>0\end{array}.$

17. A system for performing red eye correction according to claim 11 wherein the area is to be a circle and the parameters of the area include the center and diameter of the circle.

18. A system for performing red eye correction according to claim 11 wherein parameters of the area are to be expressed in resolution-independent form.

19. A system for performing red eye correction according to claim 11 wherein the low resolution image is also to be stored in said memory.

20. A system for performing red eye correction according to claim 11 wherein the low resolution image is to be derived from the high resolution image.