Image-based color palette generation

• US 9,311,889 B1
• Filed: 06/26/2014
• Issued: 04/12/2016
• 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): Caschera, Antonio A
• Application Number:
  US14/316,549
• Time in Patent Office: 656 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/001 Texturing; Colouring; Generation of texture or colour inpainting G06T5/77
• 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

A color palette can be a collection of representative colors each associated with a weight or other metadata. A computing system may generate a color palette 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 first color distance threshold and a second color distance threshold for use in generating a color palette, wherein the color palette is generated based, at least in part, on the color image;

identifying a plurality of representative colors and a plurality of color weights based, at least in part, on the color image, wherein identifying the plurality of representative colors and plurality of color weights comprises;

determining a popularity of a group of colors among a plurality of users;

selecting a color from a current color distribution corresponding to the color image based, at least in part, on the popularity;

identifying a first subset of colors in the current color distribution that have a color distance within the first color distance threshold from the selected color;

determining a representative color to be a color representing the identified subset of colors;

associating a color weight with the determined representative color based, at least in part, on a collective weight measure corresponding to the identified first subset of colors;

identifying a second subset of colors in the current color distribution that have a color distance within the second color distance threshold, from the determined representative color; and

generating a new color distribution from the current color distribution by removing the second subset of colors from the current color distribution; and

generating the color palette based, at least in part, on the identified plurality of representative colors and plurality of color weights.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the popularity of the group of colors among the plurality of users is determined by user votes.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein selecting the color from the current color distribution comprises selecting the color that has a smallest color distance to a popular color in accordance with the popularity of the group of colors.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first color distance threshold and the second color distance threshold are the same.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein identifying the plurality of representative colors and plurality of color weights further comprises defining a base color and wherein selecting a color from the current color distribution is further based, at least in part, on the base color.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the base color corresponds to a previously identified representative color from a previous color distribution and wherein the current color distribution is generated by removing, from the previous color distribution, a previous subgroup of colors affiliated with the previously identified representative color.

7. A system comprising:

a data store 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;

identify a plurality of representative colors and plurality of color weights from a color distribution corresponding to a color image based, at least in part, on a popularity of a group of colors among a plurality of users, wherein identifying the plurality of representative colors and plurality of color weights comprises;

selecting a subset of colors in the color distribution based, at least in part, on a popular color determined by the plurality of users;

determining a representative color to be a color representing the selected subset of colors;

associating a color weight to the determined representative color based, at least in part, on a collective weight measure associated with the identified subset of colors, wherein the collective weight measure is determined in accordance with the color distribution; and

generate a color palette based, at least in part, on the identified plurality of representative colors and plurality of color weights.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the popularity of the group of colors among the plurality of users is determined based, at least in part, on colors derived from the color distribution.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the popularity of the group of colors among the plurality of users is determined in accordance with one or more subjects depicted by the color image.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the popularity of the group of colors among the plurality of users is determined based, at least in part, on colors included in a plurality of color palettes.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the popularity of the group of colors among the plurality of users is determined in accordance with a temporal factor.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein one or more representative colors of the plurality of representative colors are identified in accordance with a color distance determination made by the plurality of users.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the color distance determination is based, at least in part, on votes by the plurality of users.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the color distance determination includes at least one of a determination of color distinction or color compatibility.

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

identifying a plurality of representative colors from a color distribution corresponding to a color image, wherein the plurality of representative colors are identified based, at least in part, on a popularity of a group of colors among a plurality of users;

associating a plurality of color weights to the plurality of representative colors based, at least in part, on at least one color distance criterion, wherein each color weight of the plurality of color weights is associated with a respective representative color of the plurality of representative colors and wherein the popularity of the group of colors among the plurality of users is determined based, at least in part, on palette color weights associated with a set of colors included in a plurality of color palettes; and

generating a color palette comprising one or more palette colors each associated with a palette color weight, wherein the one or more palette colors are selected from the plurality of representative colors.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the plurality of users includes at least one or more users of a social network site.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the popularity of the group of colors among the plurality of users is further determined based, at least in part, on metadata associated with the set of colors.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, further comprising causing association of metadata with the color palette based, at least in part, on the popularity of the group of colors.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the metadata associated with the color palette indicates a temporal attribute of the color palette.