Natural language color communication and system interface

• US 8,885,236 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2006
• Issued: 11/11/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Woolfe, Geoffrey J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Yang, Qian
• Application Number:
  US11/479,484
• Publication Number:
  US 20080007749A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,056 Days
• Field of Search: 358/1.9, 358/518
• US Class Current: 358/518
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5838 using colour
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/60 Colour correction or control H04N1/54 takes precedence

Abstract

A natural language color control system. The system includes a dictionary of ordinary language color terms, a working color space, wherein every portion of the working color space is mapped to at least one term in the color term dictionary, and an ordinary language command lexicon and syntax for use with the ordinary language color terms that correspond to transformations in the working color space. The dictionary of color terms may be created or chosen from pre-existing dictionaries. This system could be used to adjust colors in images as well as the meaning of verbally-defined color terms such as for searching a database.

Claims

1. A method for adjusting the color of a document using a natural language color control system, the method comprising:

receiving a document in an initial color space from an image input device;

mapping the document into a working color space;

receiving a natural language command from a user to adjust one or more colors of at least a portion of the document, wherein the natural language command the user specified one or more colors and an associated adjustment in natural language;

parsing the natural language command into (1) a description of a color property to be modified, (2) a magnitude of color modification, and (3) a direction of modification;

converting the parsed natural language command into a transform in the working color space;

applying the transform to the one or more selected colors of the at least a portion of the document in the working color space;

adjusting the one or more selected colors of the document based upon the application of the transform in the working color space; and

sending the document having the adjusted one or more selected colors to an appropriate output device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the color range to be modified is determined with reference to a natural language color dictionary.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising

generating a mask that includes only those colors to be modified.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the modification to be made to the color is determined with reference to a command language lexicon and syntax.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein converting the natural language command into a transform in the working color space includes selecting a basic form of the transform from a transform library and tailoring it based upon the natural command.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting one or more of the selected colors includes adjusting one or more of the following properties:

lightness, darkness, colorfulness, chroma, saturation, contrast, hue, redness, greenness, yellowness, blueness, orange-ness, pink-ness, brown-ness, purple-ness, and grayness.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of converting the natural language command into a transform in the working color space includes constructing a multidimensional lookup table.

8. A natural language color control system, comprising:

an image input device for inputting an image;

a color mapping device that maps the colors of the image into a working color space;

a parser that parses a natural language command entered by a user, where the command includes instructions to alter one or more colors in the image;

a transform generator that generates a transform corresponding to the command entered by the user;

a transform applicator that applies the transform generated by the transform generator to the one or more colors in the image; and

a modified image output unit that receives the image after the generated transform is applied to the one or more colors in the image.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising a color mask generator.