Image-based color palette generation

• US 9,177,391 B1
• Filed: 06/26/2014
• Issued: 11/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Dorner, Charles Shearer, Sayre, Paul Barnhart III
• Primary Examiner(s): Hung, Yubin
• Application Number:
  US14/316,528
• Time in Patent Office: 495 Days
• Field of Search: 382/162, 382/166, 345/601
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/001 Texturing; Colouring; Generation of texture or colour inpainting G06T5/77
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/90 Determination of colour characteristics
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/02 characterised by the way in which colour is displayed details of colour display specific for CRTs G09G1/28; specific for flat matrix panels other than liquid crystal displays G09G3/2003; specific for liquid crystal displays G09G3/3607
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/644 using a reduced set of representative colours, e.g. each representing a particular range in a colour space

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for generating an image-based color palette based on a color image. A color palette can be a collection of representative colors each associated with a weight or other metadata. A color palette may be generated based on palette generation criteria, which may facilitate or control a palette generation process. Illustratively, the palette generation process may include image pre-processing, color distribution generation, representative color identification, palette candidate generation and palette determination. Representative colors with associated weight can be identified from a distribution of colors depicted by the color image, multiple palette candidates corresponding to the same color image can be generated based on various palette generation criteria, and a color palette can be identified therefrom.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for generating a color palette, the computer-implemented method comprising:

under control of a hardware computing device configured with specific computer-executable instructions,

obtaining a color image;

obtaining a plurality of palette generation criteria applicable to generating a color palette, wherein the color palette is generated based, at least in part, on the color image;

generating a plurality of palette candidates corresponding to the color image, wherein individual palette candidates of the plurality of palette candidates are generated based, at least in part, on distinct palette generation criteria of the plurality of palette generation criteria, wherein the individual palette candidates each include a plurality of palette colors derived from a plurality of representative colors associated with the color image;

identifying a color palette from the plurality of palette candidates based, at least in part, on a relationship between an attribute associated with each of the plurality of palette candidates to a criterion of the plurality of palette generation criteria; and

storing the identified color palette with associated metadata, wherein the associated metadata indicates a relationship between at least two palette colors of the plurality of palette colors as visually depicted in the color image.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the metadata is associated with the identified color palette based, at least in part, on palette generation criteria corresponding to the identified color palette.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the relationship between the at least two palette colors includes at least one of a colocation, shape, or spatial distribution of the at least two palette colors as visually depicted in the color image.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the metadata further indicates a relationship between at least one palette color of the plurality of palette colors and the color image as to how the at least one palette color is visually depicted in the color image.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the metadata includes information related to a subject depicted by the color image.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of palette colors are derived from a plurality of representative colors based, at least in part, on a weight associated with each of individual representative colors of the plurality of representative colors.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the attribute associated with each of the plurality of palette candidates includes at least one of a number of the one or more palette colors, a respective color value of the one or more palette colors, or a respective palette color weight associated with the one or more palette colors.

8. A system comprising:

a non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium configured to store computer-executable instructions; and

a hardware processor in communication with the data store, the hardware processor, configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to at least;

generate a plurality of palette candidates corresponding to a color image depicting a set of colors, wherein individual palette candidates of the plurality of palette candidates are generated based, at least in part, on a distinct palette generation criterion from a plurality of palette generation criteria, and wherein individual palette candidates each include a plurality of palette colors derived from the color image;

identify a color palette from the plurality of palette candidates based, at least in part, on a relationship between an attribute associated with each of the plurality of palette candidates to a corresponding distinct palette generation criterion of the plurality of palette generation criteria; and

cause association of metadata with the identified color palette, wherein the metadata indicates a relationship between at least two palette colors of the plurality of palette colors as visually depicted in the color image.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the plurality of palette colors are derived from the color image by selecting the plurality of palette colors from a plurality of representative colors identified from the color image.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the plurality of representative colors are identified by selecting a subset of colors from the set of colors depicted by the color image based, at least in part, on one or more color distances associated with the subset of colors.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the plurality of representative colors are identified by merging individual colors of the selected subset of colors with similar colors in the set of colors depicted by the color image, respectively.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the metadata indicates at least one of a format, semantics, features, or conditions corresponding to the identified color palette.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the metadata indicates spatial distribution of palette colors included in the identified color palette within the color image.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the metadata indicates at least one of the color image, a category associated with the color image, or a position in a taxonomy associated with the color image.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions that when executed by a processor perform operations comprising:

generating a plurality of palette candidates corresponding to a color image depicting a set of colors, wherein individual palette candidates of the plurality of palette candidates are generated based, at least in part, on a distinct palette generation criterion from a plurality of palette generation criteria, and wherein individual palette candidates each include a plurality of palette colors derived from the color image;

identifying a color palette from the plurality of palette candidates based, at least in part, on a relationship between an attribute associated with each of the plurality of palette candidates to a corresponding distinct palette generation criterion of the plurality of palette generation criteria; and

causing association of metadata with the identified color palette, wherein the metadata indicates a relationship between at least two palette colors of the plurality of palette colors as visually depicted in the color image.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise pre-processing the color image.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein pre-processing the color image includes designating an area of interest in the color image, wherein the plurality of palette candidates are generated based, at least in part, on the area of interest.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the metadata includes information derived from second metadata associated with the color image.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the second metadata associated with the color image corresponds to one or more factors related to color rendering of the color image.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the second metadata associated with the color image corresponds to at least one of an interrelation among color images, a subject depicted by the color image, a category of subjects depicted by the color image, or a source contributing to the color image.