USER INTERFACE TOOLS FOR SELECTIVELY APPLYING EFFECTS TO IMAGE

• US 20130235071A1
• Filed: 09/27/2012
• Published: 09/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Ubillos, Randy, Brunner, Ralph T., Cherna, Timothy D.
• Granted Patent: US 9,041,727 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/600
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04845 for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/16 Sound input; Sound output speech processing G10L
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2200/24 involving graphical user interfaces [GUIs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/60 Rotation of whole images or parts thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/3877 Image rotation

Abstract

Some embodiments provide an image editing application that edits an image. The image editing application assigns a mask value to each pixel of the image that includes several pixels. The mask value for a pixel is for using when processing the pixel. The image editing application displays the image in a display area. The image editing application receives several user inputs on a set of pixels of the image. The image editing application incrementally applies an image processing operation to the set of pixels by changing the mask values for the set of pixels each time the set of pixels receives a user input.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program which when executed by at least one processing unit provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for editing an image, the GUI comprising:

a displaying area for displaying an image; and

an image processing tool for (i) receiving a plurality of touch inputs on an area of the image while touch on the display area is maintained and (ii) incrementally applying an effect to the area each time the area receives a touch input.

2. The machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein image processing tool is further for receiving a selection of the effect.

3. The machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the image processing tool incrementally applies the effect only until the image processing tool receives a threshold number of touch inputs.

4. The machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein an amount of the effect applied to the area at a first time the area receives a touch input is different than an amount of the effect applied to the area at a second time the area receives a touch input.

5. The machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the effect that the image processing tool applies to the area of image comprises at least one of saturation effect, de-saturation effect, lightening effect, darkening effect, sharpening effect, and softening effect.

6. The machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the GUI further comprises a set of selectable user interface items representing different effects, wherein the image processing tool selects the effect in response to receiving a selection of a user interface item that represents the effect.

7. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program for execution by at least one processing unit, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

displaying the image in a display area, the image comprising a plurality of pixels;

receiving a plurality of touch inputs on a set of pixels of the image; and

incrementally applying an image processing operation to the set of pixels each time that the set of pixels receives a touch input.

8. The machine readable medium of claim 7, wherein the set of instructions for incrementally applying the image processing operation comprises a set of instructions for applying a different amount of the image processing operation each time the set of pixels receives a touch input.

9. The machine readable medium of claim 7, wherein the set of instructions for incrementally applying the image processing operation comprises a set of instructions for linearly changing an amount of the image processing operation each time the set of pixels receives a touch input.

10. The machine readable medium of claim 7, wherein the set of instructions for incrementally applying the image processing operation comprises a set of instructions for non-linearly changing an amount of the image processing operation each time the set of pixels receives a touch input.

11. The machine readable medium of claim 7, wherein the set of instructions for incrementally applying the image processing operation comprises a set of instructions for applying the image processing operation only until the image processing tool receives a threshold number of user inputs.

12. The machine readable medium of claim 7, wherein the program further comprises a set of instructions for assigning a mask value to each pixel of the image.

13. The machine readable medium of claim 12, wherein the set of instructions for incrementally applying the image processing operation comprises a set of instructions for changing the mask values of the set of pixels.

15. The machine readable medium of claim 13, wherein the set of criteria includes whether pixels have pixel values that fall within a range of pixel values.

14. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program which when executed by at least one processing unit provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for editing an image, the GUI comprising:

a display area for displaying an image comprising a plurality of pixels;

a tool for (i) receiving a selection of a set of pixels of the displayed image, (ii) determining a set of criteria based on a first subset of selected pixels, and (ii) applying an image processing operation only to a second subset of the selected pixels that satisfy the criteria.

16. The machine readable medium of claim 14, wherein the tool incrementally applies the image processing operation each time the area receives a user input.

17. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program for execution by at least one processing unit, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

displaying an image in a display area, the image comprising a plurality of pixels;

receiving a selection of an area of the image;

identifying, based on properties of a subset of pixels in the selected area of the image, a set of criteria for determining similarities of pixels; and

performing an image processing operation only on pixels within the selected area that satisfy the identified criteria.

18. The machine readable medium of claim 17, wherein the set of instructions for identifying the set of criteria comprises a set of instructions for converting pixel values of the pixels within the area from RGB color model values to LAB space values.

19. The machine readable medium of claim 18, wherein the set of instructions for identifying the set of criteria further comprises a set of instruction for determining whether a pixel in the area is within a predefined distance from a particular set of pixels.

20. The machine readable medium of claim 19, wherein the particular set of pixels are pixels that are selected before other pixels in the area are selected.

21. The machine readable medium of claim 17, wherein the user input is a touch input.

22. A method for providing an image editing application, the method comprising:

providing a displaying area for displaying an image; and

providing an image processing tool for (i) receiving a plurality of touch inputs on an area of the image while touch on the display area is maintained and (ii) incrementally applying an effect to the area each time the area receives a touch input.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the image processing tool incrementally applies the effect only until the image processing tool receives a threshold number of touch inputs.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein an amount of the effect applied to the area at a first time the area receives a touch input is different than an amount of the effect applied to the area at a second time the area receives a touch input.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein image processing tool is further for receiving a selection of the effect.