Foreground/background segmentation in digital images with differential exposure calculations
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A digital image acquisition system having no photographic film, comprising:
- (a) an apparatus for capturing digital images, including a lens, an image sensor and a processor;
(b) a flash unit for providing illumination during image capture;
(c) an analysis tool for comparing at least a portion of a captured image and a reference image of nominally the same scene, at least one of said captured and reference images being taken with flash, said analysis tool providing a measure of relative differences in illumination between regions of said captured image and said reference image of groups of pixels within said scene; and
(d) a classification tool for segmenting a foreground region from a background region within said scene based on said measure.
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Abstract
A digital segmentation method and apparatus determines foreground and/or background within at least one portion of a captured image. The determining includes comparing a captured image to a pre-captured or post captured reference image of nominally the same scene. One of the images is taken with flash and the other without. The system can be implemented as part of a digital camera acquisition chain having effective computation complexity.
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Citations
56 Claims
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1. A digital image acquisition system having no photographic film, comprising:
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(a) an apparatus for capturing digital images, including a lens, an image sensor and a processor; (b) a flash unit for providing illumination during image capture; (c) an analysis tool for comparing at least a portion of a captured image and a reference image of nominally the same scene, at least one of said captured and reference images being taken with flash, said analysis tool providing a measure of relative differences in illumination between regions of said captured image and said reference image of groups of pixels within said scene; and (d) a classification tool for segmenting a foreground region from a background region within said scene based on said measure. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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- 31. A computer readable medium having code embodied therein for programming a processor to perform a method of analyzing a captured image, the computer readable medium comprising an analysis and classification tool for comparing at least a portion of a captured image and a reference image of nominally the same scene, at least one of said captured and reference images being taken with flash, said tool providing a measure of relative differences in illumination between regions of said captured image and said reference image, and said tool for segmenting a foreground region from a background region within said scene based on said measure.
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44. A method of analyzing a captured image, comprising:
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using a processor; comparing at least a portion of a captured image and a reference image of nominally the same scene, at least one of said captured and reference images being taken with flash, providing a measure of relative differences in illumination between regions of said captured image and said reference image, and segmenting a foreground region from a background region within said scene based on said measure. - View Dependent Claims (45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56)
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Specification