Setting an operating-system color using a photograph

• US 8,897,552 B2
• Filed: 08/01/2012
• Issued: 11/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Phillips, Joshua, Baker, Simon
• Primary Examiner(s): Allison, Andrae S
• Application Number:
  US13/564,515
• Publication Number:
  US 20140037200A1
• Time in Patent Office: 846 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 382/162
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/90 Determination of colour characteristics

Abstract

Disclosed herein are representative embodiments of tools and techniques for setting color settings of an operating system using one or more photographs. According to one exemplary technique, a photograph is received, and one or more pixel weights for one or more pixels of the photograph are determined. Also, using at least one of the one or more pixel weights, at least one dominant color of the photograph is determined. Additionally, using the at least one dominant color, at least one color setting of an operating system is set.

Claims

1. A method implemented at least in part using a computing device, the method comprising:

receiving a photograph;

determining one or more pixel weights for one or more pixels of the photograph using a measured distance from a location in the photograph;

using at least one of the one or more pixel weights, determining at least one dominant color of the photograph; and

using the at least one dominant color, setting at least one color setting of an operating system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more color settings of the operating system comprise a theme color setting or an accent color setting, and the method further comprises applying the theme or accent color to at least a border of a window or a background color.

3. The method of claim 1, determining a pixel-weight total for a color-range bin, the pixel-weight total comprising a sum of one or more pixel weights of one or more pixels of the photograph that are a color within the color-range bin;

and

determining that the pixel-weight total for the color-range bin is greater than one or more pixel-weight totals of one or more other color-range bins.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the at least one dominant color comprises:

selecting a dominant color-range bin from a plurality of color-range bins; and

using at least one or more pixels with colors within the dominant color-range bin, generating the at least one dominant color.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein generating the dominant color comprises determining at least one average color value using at least one of the color values of the one or more pixels with color values within the dominant color-range bin.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein selecting the dominant color-range bin comprises determining that the pixel-weight total for the color-range bin has a higher pixel-weight total than the one or more other color-range bins.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the generating the at least one dominant color further comprises using at least one or more pixels with color values within one or more color-range bins that neighbor the dominant color-range bin.

8. The method of claim 4 further comprising determining a second dominant color at least by determining a second dominant color-range bin.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the setting the one or more color settings of an operating system comprises changing a luminance of the at least one dominant color.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the photograph comprises receiving a user selection of the photograph or receiving a user selection to take the photograph with a camera.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the location in the photograph is a user-selected location.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising downsampling the photograph.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the setting the one or more color settings of the operating system comprises modifying the at least one dominant color.

14. A computing device that includes a processor and memory, the memory storing computer-executable instructions for causing the computing device to perform a method, the method comprising:

receiving one or more color values from a photograph provided outside of an operating system;

determining a dominant color-range bin of a partitioned color space;

determining at least one neighboring color-range bin of the dominant color-range bin, wherein the dominant color-range bin and the at least one neighboring color-range bin are divisions of a color space;

determining at least one dominant color of the photograph at least using a color within the dominant color-range bin and a color within the at least one neighboring color-range bin; and

using the at least one dominant color, setting at least one color setting of the operating system.

15. The computing device of claim 14, wherein the using the at least one dominant color comprises producing a refined dominant color;

and

based on the setting of the at least one color setting, displaying at least one visual element of the operating system using at least the refined dominant color.

16. The computing device of claim 14, wherein the using the at least one dominant color comprises producing a refined dominant color at least by changing a luminance of the dominant color.

17. The computing device of claim 16, wherein the refined dominant color has a contrast ratio within a predetermined contrast ratio range.

18. The computing device of claim 16, wherein the determining of the dominant color of the photograph further comprises taking an average of at least the color within the dominant color-range bin and the color within the at least one neighboring color-range bin.

19. One or more computer-readable storage media storing computer-executable instructions for causing a computing device to perform a method, the method comprising:

displaying a color settings screen of an operating system;

displaying a photograph selection option;

receiving a photograph;

determining one or more pixel weights for one or more pixels of the photograph, at least in part by using a distance of the one or more pixels from a point in the photograph;

determining at least one dominant color of the photograph;

modifying a luminance of the at least one dominant color to produce at least one refined dominant color;

setting one or more color settings of the operating system to the at least one refined dominant color; and

based at least on the setting the one or more color settings, displaying at least one visual element of the operating system using the at least one refined dominant color.