Up-sampling binary images for segmentation
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- receiving, by a computer, an image;
generating a modified image from the image, the modified image having a lower image resolution than the image;
segmenting at least a part of the modified image into a background portion and a foreground portion to create an initial binary solution, the initial binary solution comprising data labeling a plurality of image elements in the modified image as either background or foreground;
up-scaling and smoothing the initial binary solution to create an interim solution having a higher resolution than the initial binary solution and comprising a non-binary segmentation parameter associated with each of a plurality of image elements in the interim solution; and
based on a threshold, creating a final binary segmentation solution from the interim solution, the final binary segmentation solution having substantially the same resolution as the interim solution and comprising data labeling a plurality of image elements in the received image as either background or foreground.
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Abstract
A method of up-sampling binary images for segmentation is described. In an embodiment, digital images are down-sampled before segmentation. The resulting initial binary segmentation, which has a lower resolution than the original image, is then up-sampled and smoothed to generate an interim non-binary solution which has a higher resolution than the initial binary segmentation. The final binary segmentation for the image is then computed from the interim non-binary solution based on a threshold. This method does not use the original image data in inferring the final binary segmentation solution from the initial binary segmentation. In an embodiment, the method may be applied to all images and in another embodiment, the method may be used for images which comprise a large number of pixels in total or in single dimension and smaller images may not be down-sampled before segmentation.
232 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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receiving, by a computer, an image; generating a modified image from the image, the modified image having a lower image resolution than the image; segmenting at least a part of the modified image into a background portion and a foreground portion to create an initial binary solution, the initial binary solution comprising data labeling a plurality of image elements in the modified image as either background or foreground; up-scaling and smoothing the initial binary solution to create an interim solution having a higher resolution than the initial binary solution and comprising a non-binary segmentation parameter associated with each of a plurality of image elements in the interim solution; and based on a threshold, creating a final binary segmentation solution from the interim solution, the final binary segmentation solution having substantially the same resolution as the interim solution and comprising data labeling a plurality of image elements in the received image as either background or foreground. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. One or more tangible device-readable media with device-executable instructions that, when executed by a computing system, direct the computing system to perform steps comprising:
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accessing an image; and if a size parameter associated with the image is not less than a predefined threshold; down-scaling the image to create a modified image from the image, the modified image having a lower image resolution than the image; segmenting the modified image to create an initial binary solution comprising a binary parameter associated with each of a plurality of image elements in the modified image, the binary parameter assigning an image element to a background or a foreground portion; up-scaling and smoothing the initial binary solution to form an interim solution, the interim solution having a higher resolution than the initial binary solution and comprising a non-binary parameter associated with each of a plurality of image elements in the interim solution; and generating a final binary segmentation solution based on a threshold value of the non-binary parameter, the final binary segmentation solution having a higher resolution than the initial binary solution and comprising data assigning a plurality of image elements in the accessed image to either a background or a foreground portion. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A computer-implemented method of segmenting an image into a foreground portion and a background portion comprising:
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accessing the image; down-scaling the image to create a modified version of the image having a lower image resolution than the image; segmenting the modified version of the image to generate an initial binary segmentation, the initial binary segmentation comprising data labeling a plurality of image elements in the modified version of the image as part of a background portion or a foreground portion; generating an interim solution having a higher resolution than the initial binary segmentation by, for each of a plurality of image elements in the interim solution, computing a non-binary value by convolving an interpolation kernel centered on the image element with the initial binary segmentation; based on a threshold, generating a final binary segmentation solution having substantially the same resolution as the interim solution and comprising data labeling a plurality of image elements in said image as part of a background portion or a foreground portion; and displaying at least one background or foreground portion of said image. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
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Specification