Image-based color palette generation

• US 9,401,032 B1
• Filed: 06/26/2014
• Issued: 07/26/2016
• 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:
  US14/316,483
• Time in Patent Office: 761 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: H04N 1/00 Scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, e.g. facsimile transmission; Details thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/46 Colour picture communication systems
• 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 plurality of palette generation criteria applicable to generating a color palette based, at least in part, on the color image, wherein the plurality of palette generation criteria indicate at least one threshold for generating a plurality of palette candidates;

generating the plurality of palette candidates corresponding to the color image, wherein each palette candidate of the plurality of palette candidates is generated based, at least in part, on a distinct palette generation criterion of the plurality of palette generation criteria, wherein each palette candidate includes one or more palette colors derived from a plurality of representative colors associated with the color image and wherein the plurality of representative colors are identified from a color distribution corresponding to the color image;

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

storing the color palette in a memory associated with the hardware computing device.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein each representative color of the plurality of representative colors is associated with a first weight.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the one or more palette colors are derived from the plurality of representative colors based, at least in part, on the respective first weight associated with each of the plurality of representative colors.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein each palette color of the one or more palette colors is associated with a second weight.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the attribute associated with 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 second weight associated with the one or more palette colors.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the color distribution is generated by binning color values of the color image based, at least in part, on the at least one threshold indicated by the distinct palette generation criteria.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein binning color values includes binning color values of the color image in accordance with a predetermined set of colors based, at least in part, on the at least one threshold.

8. 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;

obtain a plurality of palette generation criteria applicable to generating a color palette based, at least in part, on a color image, wherein the plurality of palette generation criteria indicate at least one threshold for generating a plurality of palette candidates and wherein the color image depicts a set of colors;

generate the plurality of palette candidates corresponding to the color image, wherein each palette candidate of the plurality of palette candidates is generated based, at least in part, on a distinct palette generation criterion of the plurality of palette generation criteria and wherein each palette candidate includes one or more palette colors derived from the color image;

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

store the color palette in the data store of the system.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the one or more palette colors are derived from the color image by selecting the one or more palette colors from a plurality of representative colors identified from the color image based, at least in part, on the distinct palette generation criterion.

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 further 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 9, wherein individual representative colors of the plurality of representative colors are identified by determining a dominance of the individual representative color among a plurality of colors depicted by the color image.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein individual representative colors of the plurality of representative colors are identified by determining a concentration of the individual representative color among a plurality of colors depicted by the color image.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the plurality of representative colors is identified based, at least in part, on at least one of a color name or color scheme name 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:

obtaining a plurality of palette generation criteria applicable to generating a color palette based, at least in part, on a color image, wherein the plurality of palette generation criteria indicate at least one threshold for generating a plurality of palette candidates;

generating the plurality of palette candidates corresponding to the color image, wherein each palette candidate of the plurality of palette candidates is generated based, at least in part, on a distinct palette generation criterion of the plurality of palette generation criteria and wherein each palette candidate includes one or more palette colors derived from the color image based, at least in part, on the distinct palette generation criteria;

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

storing the color palette in a data repository accessible by the processor.

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 attribute associated with 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 weight associated with the one or more palette colors.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, the respective weight associated with the one or more palette colors are determined based, at least in part, on pixels in the color image that are associated with individual palette colors of the one or more palette colors.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the pixels in the color image are associated with individual palette colors based, at least in part, on the at least one threshold indicated by the palette generation criteria.