Background Removal Tool for a Presentation Application

• US 20140300630A1
• Filed: 06/20/2014
• Published: 10/09/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/06/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Flider, Mark, Zimmer, Mark Alan
• Granted Patent: US 9,619,471 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/626
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4393 Multimedia presentations, e.g. slide shows, multimedia albums
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04845 for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20104 Interactive definition of region of interest [ROI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/11 Region-based segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/194 involving foreground-background segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/10 Indexing; Addressing; Timing or synchronising; Measuring tape travel
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/34 Indicating arrangements indicating means incorporated in magazine or cassette G11B23/046 and G11B23/0875; indicating measured values in general G01D

Abstract

A presentation application for masking portions of an object, such as the background of an image, is provided. The presentation application may provide a background removal tool that allows a user to define an initial point in the background of the object. The presentation application may establish an initial background color based on the initial point, and may compute and automatically adjust a color tolerance of the background color based on the distance that a user-controlled cursor is from the initial point. Using a seed-fill algorithm, the presentation application can select a contiguous portion of the object for masking that includes the initial point and surrounding pixels that are within the background color tolerance. To smoothen the edges of the contiguous portion, the presentation application can convert the portion to a vector graphic before making the object.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

in a presentation application executing on an electronic device;

selecting a portion of an object for masking;

creating a bitmap of the selected portion;

converting the bitmap to a vector graphic of the selected portion; and

masking areas of the object, corresponding to the vector graphic of the selected portion.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein creating a bitmap comprises:

converting the selected portion to a black bitmap object; and

converting unselected portions of the object to a white bitmap object.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein converting the bitmap comprises performing a tracing algorithm on the bitmap.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the tracing algorithm comprises a PO tracing algorithm.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein masking areas of the object comprises performing a Boolean addition of the vector graphic with the object.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the vector graphic is smoothened with respect to the bitmap.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising removing a portion of the vector graphic by combining the vector graphic with previously computed masks.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein masking areas of the object corresponding to the vector graphic of the selected portion comprises generating a new mask, and comprising

generating a masked object by applying a plurality of masks, including the new mask, to the object while leaving the object unchanged;

storing the masked object, by storing the unchanged object, and a plurality of masks; and

presenting the masked object on a display of the electronic device.

9. An electronic device comprising:

a processor configured to, during execution of a presentation application, carry out operations comprising;

selecting a portion of an object for masking;

creating a bitmap of the selected portion;

converting the bitmap to a vector graphic of the selected portion; and

masking areas of the object corresponding to the vector graphic of the selected portion.

10. The electronic device of claim 9, wherein creating a bitmap comprises:

converting the selected portion to a black bitmap object; and

converting unselected portions of the object to a white bitmap object.

11. The electronic device of claim 9, wherein converting the bitmap comprises performing a tracing algorithm, on the bitmap.

12. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein the tracing algorithm comprises a PO tracing algorithm.

13. The electronic device of claim 9, wherein masking areas of the object comprises performing a Boolean addition of the vector graphic with the object.

14. The electronic device of claim 9, wherein the vector graphic is smoothened with respect to the bitmap.

15. The electronic device of claim 9, the operations comprising removing a portion of the vector graphic by combining the vector graphic with previously computed masks.

16. The electronic device of claim 9, wherein masking areas of the object, corresponding to the vector graphic of the selected portion comprises generating a new mask, and the operations comprising

generating a masked object by applying a plurality of masks, including the new mask, to the object, while leaving the object unchanged;

storing the masked object by storing the unchanged object and a plurality of masks; and

presenting the masked object on a display of the electronic device.

17. A computer readable storage device encoded with instructions that, when executed by a computer system during execution of a presentation application, cause the computer system to carry out operations comprising:

selecting a portion of an object for masking;

creating a bitmap of the selected portion;

converting the bitmap to a vector graphic of the selected portion; and

masking areas of the object corresponding to the vector graphic of the selected portion.

18. The computer readable storage device of claim 17, wherein creating a bitmap comprises:

converting the selected portion to a black bitmap object; and

converting unselected portions of the object to a white bitmap object.

19. The computer readable storage device of claim 17, wherein converting the bitmap comprises performing a tracing algorithm on the bitmap.

20. The computer readable storage device of claim 19, wherein the tracing algorithm comprises a PO tracing algorithm.

21. The computer readable storage device of claim 17, wherein masking areas of the object comprises performing a Boolean addition of the vector graphic with the object.

22. The computer readable storage device of claim 17, wherein the vector graphic is smoothened with respect to the bitmap.

23. The computer readable storage device of claim 17, the operations comprising removing a portion of the vector graphic by combining the vector graphic with previously computed masks.

24. The computer readable storage device of claim 17, wherein masking areas of the object corresponding to the vector graphic of the selected portion comprises generating a new mask, and the operations comprising

generating a masked object by applying a plurality of masks, including the new mask, to the object, while leaving the object unchanged;

storing the masked object by storing the unchanged object and a plurality of masks; and

presenting the masked object on a display of the electronic device.