Method for manipulating regions of a digital image

• US 8,238,662 B2
• Filed: 07/17/2007
• Issued: 08/07/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Smart Technologies ULC (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Smart Technologies ULC (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Banerjee, Shymmon, Kroeker, Wallace, Benner, Erik, Leung, Andy
• Primary Examiner(s): Hung, Yubin
• Application Number:
  US11/779,006
• Publication Number:
  US 20090022394A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,848 Days
• Field of Search: 382/164, 382/173, 382/181, 382/209, 382/217, 382/174, 345/156, 345/173
• US Class Current: 382/181
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04845 for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text

Abstract

A method for dividing a digital image into regions comprises identifying potential region borders based on edge content in the digital image. The digital image is divided into regions based on user-selected ones of the potential region borders. A method of processing a region of a digital image comprises receiving gesture data for characterizing the region. A processing tool associated with the gesture data is automatically launched, and the region is processed using the processing tool.

Claims

1. A method of selecting and processing a sub-region of a digital image, comprising:

identifying potential region borders based on edge content in the digital image;

receiving border selection input data;

making at least temporarily visible for user selection at least a subset of the potential region borders in response to said received border selection input data;

receiving gesture data selecting a sub-region bounded by ones of user selected visible potential region borders, the gesture data being associated with a processing tool;

automatically launching the processing tool associated with the gesture data; and

processing the sub-region using the processing tool.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the gesture data defines a gesture shape that is a closed figure thereby to characterize the shape, size and location of the sub-region.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the gesture data defines a gesture shape, the gesture shape associated with a shape of, and defining the size and position of, a closed figure thereby to characterize the sub-region.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the gesture data defines a gesture shape, the gesture shape being associated with the processing tool.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the gesture shape is a closed figure.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the gesture data includes coordinates along the boundaries of the sub-region.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said automatically launching a processing tool comprises:

identifying a gesture shape from the gesture data;

searching a processing tool table to determine a processing tool in the processing tool table associated with the identified gesture shape;

automatically launching the processing tool; and

providing the gesture data to the processing tool.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein identifying the gesture shape comprises:

comparing the gesture data to a plurality of shape templates each representing a unique shape; and

determining which of the shape templates is the most similar to the sub-region thereby to identify the gesture shape.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the gesture shape is a rectangle and the processing tool associated with the rectangle in the processing tool table is a zoom tool.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the gesture shape is an ellipse and the processing tool associated with the ellipse in the processing tool table is a highlight/spotlight tool.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the processing tool is selected from the group consisting of a zoom tool, a cropping tool, a highlighting tool, and a spotlighting tool.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein processing of the sub-region by the processing tool is controllable by a user.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the processing tool is a zoom tool and the magnification level of the zoom tool is further controllable by the user.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein said identifying comprises:

calculating pixel intensity profiles for each row and column of pixels in the digital image; and

comparing adjacent ones of the pixel intensity profiles to determine where differences between adjacent pixel intensity profiles exceed a threshold level, thereby establishing row and column positions of the potential region borders.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least a subset of the potential region borders is at least temporarily made visible in response to a pointer being swept thereacross.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein each potential region border is at least temporarily made visible when the pointer is within a threshold distance thereof.

17. A non-transitory computer readable medium embodying a computer program for selecting and processing a sub-region of a digital image, the computer program comprising computer program code, which when executed by processing structure, causes a computing device at least to:

identify potential region borders based on edge content in the digital image;

receive border selection input data;

make at least temporarily visible for user selection at least a subset of the potential region borders in response to said received border selection input data;

receive gesture data selecting a sub-region bounded by ones of user selected visible potential region borders, the gesture data being associated with a processing tool;

automatically launch the processing tool associated with the gesture data; and

process the sub-region using the processing tool.

18. An interactive display system comprising:

a touch screen that defines a touch surface on which a computer-generated image is presented;

a sensor assembly detecting pointer contacts on the touch surface and in response, generating border selection input data and gesture data; and

processing structure configured to

identify potential region borders based on edge content in the computer-generated image,

receive border selection input data,

make at least temporarily visible for user selection at least a subset of the potential region borders in response to said received border selection input data;

receive gesture data selecting a sub-region of the computer-generated image bounded by ones of user selected visible potential region borders, the gesture data being associated with a processing tool;

automatically launch the processing tool associated with the gesture data; and

process the sub-region using the processing tool.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising:

memory storing a processing tool table associating at least one processing tool with a respective gesture shape;

wherein the processing structure identifies a gesture shape from the gesture data, and selects an associated processing tool from the processing tool table for processing the sub-region.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the gesture shape is a rectangle and the processing tool associated with the rectangle in the processing tool table is a zoom tool.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the gesture shape is an ellipse and the processing tool associated with the ellipse in the processing tool table is a highlight/spotlight tool.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein processing of the sub-region by the processing tool is controllable by a user.

23. The system of claim 19, wherein the processing tool is a zoom tool and the magnification level of the zoom tool is further controllable by the user.

24. The system of claim 18, wherein the processing tool is selected from the group consisting of a zoom tool, a cropping tool, a highlighting tool, and a spotlighting tool.

25. The system of claim 18 wherein said processing structure at least temporarily makes visible the at least a subset of the potential region borders in response to a pointer being swept thereacross.

26. The system of claim 25 wherein each potential region border is at least temporarily made visible when the pointer is within a threshold distance thereof.