Image-based color palette generation

• US 9,741,137 B2
• Filed: 07/25/2016
• Issued: 08/22/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2014
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Dorner, Charles Shearer, Sayre, III, Paul Barnhart
• Primary Examiner(s): Caschera, Antonio A
• Application Number:
  US15/219,124
• Publication Number:
  US 20160335784A1
• Time in Patent Office: 393 Days
• 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

Systems and methods 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,

generating a plurality of palette candidates corresponding to a color image, wherein each palette candidate of the plurality of palette candidates is generated based, at least in part, on an associated palette generation criterion that indicates a threshold for generating the palette candidate, wherein each palette candidate includes one or more palette colors derived 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 an attribute associated with individual palette candidates of the plurality of palette candidates with respect to the palette generation criterion associated with individual palette candidates; and

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

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the color distribution is generated from a designated area of interest in the color image.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the color distribution is generated in accordance with a pre-determined set of colors.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising obtaining the palette generation criterion from at least one of an image source provider, consumer, vendor, designer, artist, or architect.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising automatically generating the palette generation criterion.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the threshold corresponds to a threshold of color distance in a defined color space.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising pre-processing the color image.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein pre-processing the color image includes at least one of format conversion, noise removal, image classification, or image normalization.

9. 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;

generate a plurality of palette candidates corresponding to a color image, wherein each palette candidate of the plurality of palette candidates is generated based, at least in part, on an associated palette generation criterion that indicates a threshold for generating the palette candidate, wherein each palette candidate includes one or more palette colors derived from a color distribution corresponding to 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 an attribute associated with individual palette candidates of the plurality of palette candidates with respect to the palette generation criterion associated with individual palette candidates; and

store the color palette in a data repository associated with the system.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the attribute associated with individual 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.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the respective weight associated with the one or more palette colors is 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.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the pixels in the color image are associated with individual palette colors based, at least in part, on the threshold included in the palette generation criterion.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein each palette color of the one or more palette colors is associated with a color weight.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the color distribution is generated by merging color values of the color image based, at least in part, on the threshold included in the palette generation criterion.

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, wherein each palette candidate of the plurality of palette candidates is generated based, at least in part, on an associated palette generation criterion that indicates a threshold for generating the palette candidate, wherein each palette candidate includes one or more palette colors derived from 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 an attribute associated with individual palette candidates of the plurality of palette candidates with respect to the palette generation criterion associated with individual palette candidates; and

storing the color palette in a second non-transitory computer-readable storage medium.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, 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.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the plurality of representative colors are identified from the color image based, at least in part, on one or more color distances.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, 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.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, 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.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the plurality of representative colors are identified based, at least in part, on at least one of a color name or color scheme name associated with the color image.