Identifying portions of an image for cropping

• US 8,249,388 B2
• Filed: 11/24/2008
• Issued: 08/21/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Xu, Lejie
• Primary Examiner(s): Chang, Jon
• Application Number:
  US12/277,203
• Publication Number:
  US 20100128986A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,366 Days
• Field of Search: 382/282, 382/289, 382/118
• US Class Current: 382/282
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/242 by image rotation, e.g. by 90 degrees
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/245 by locating a pattern; Special marks for positioning
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/3872 Repositioning or masking

Abstract

Cropping images while retaining the relevant portions of the images. The images are cropped based on an orientation of the images. For the images having a portrait orientation, the images are cropped outside a region defined by a parallelogram centered along a golden section line. For the images having a landscape orientation, the images are cropped outside a region defined by a parallelogram centered along a midpoint line. In some embodiments, the images are cropped into squares for display on a mobile computing device having a 16:9 aspect ratio.

Claims

1. A system for cropping images to create thumbnail images for aggregate display, said system comprising:

a memory area for storing a plurality of rectangular images, wherein each of the plurality of rectangular images has a short side and a long side; and

a processor programmed to;

create thumbnail images corresponding to at least two of the plurality of images stored in the memory area by;

determining an orientation of the image, said determined orientation comprising portrait orientation or landscape orientation;

if the determined orientation corresponds to the portrait orientation;

identifying a point along the long side of the image, said identified point corresponding to an approximate golden ratio measured from the short side of the image;

determining a golden section line spanning the image at the identified point and approximately parallel to the short side of the image;

defining a square within the image, wherein the determined golden section line approximately bisects the defined square; and

cropping the image outside the defined square to create one of the thumbnail images; and

if the determined orientation corresponds to the landscape orientation;

identifying a midpoint along the long side of the image;

determining a line spanning the image at the identified midpoint;

defining a square within the image, wherein the determined line approximately bisects the defined square; and

cropping the image outside the defined square to create one of the thumbnail images; and

arrange the created thumbnail images to be substantially adjacent for display.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the short side of the image corresponds to a bottom of the image if the determined orientation corresponds to the portrait orientation.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the arranged thumbnail images represents a mosaic of the plurality of images.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to arrange the created thumbnail images by arranging the created thumbnail images for display on a mobile computing device.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising means for cropping the images to obtain a relevant portion of the images.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising means for identifying a relevant portion of the images based on the orientation and for automatically cropping the images to obtain a letterbox ratio of the relevant portion.

7. A method comprising:

accessing image data for a plurality of images, wherein each of the plurality of images has a short side and a long side;

determining an orientation of each of the images based on the accessed image data, said determined orientation comprising portrait orientation or landscape orientation; and

cropping one or more of the images based on the determined orientation, wherein cropping one or more of the images comprises;

for each of the one or more images having the portrait orientation, approximately centering a shape within the image along an approximate golden section line and cropping the image outside the centered shape, said golden section line spanning the image and being approximately parallel to a short side of the image; and

for each of the one or more images having the landscape orientation, approximately centering a shape within the image approximately along a midpoint line and cropping the image outside the centered shape, said midpoint line spanning the image and being approximately parallel to a long side of the image.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein cropping one or more of the images comprises cropping one or more of the images to create one or more thumbnail images.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising arranging the created thumbnail images to be substantially adjacent for display.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein accessing the image data comprises accessing metadata describing the images.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein centering the shape within the image approximately along the golden section line comprises:

defining the golden section line to include a point corresponding approximately to the golden ratio, said golden ratio being calculated from the short side of the image; and

centering the shape within the image such that the defined golden section line approximately bisects the shape.

12. The method of claim 7, further comprising detecting a face within the images and centering the shape on the detected face.

13. The method of claim 7, further comprising detecting a plurality of faces within the images and adjusting a size of the shape to encompass each of the plurality of faces.

14. The method of claim 7, wherein the short side of the image corresponds to a bottom of the image for the images having the portrait orientation.

15. One or more computer storage media having computer-executable components, said components comprising:

a memory component for accessing a plurality of images;

an orientation component for determining an orientation of each of the plurality of images accessed by the memory component, said determined orientation comprising portrait orientation or landscape orientation;

a selection component for identifying a portion of each of the images for display based on the orientation of the images determined by the orientation component, wherein the selection component identifies the portion as a parallelogram which is approximately centered within the images along an approximate golden section line for the images having the portrait orientation, said golden section line spanning the image and being approximately parallel to a short side of the images, wherein the selection component identifies the portion as a parallelogram which is approximately centered within the images along an approximate midpoint line for the images having the landscape orientation, said midpoint line spanning the image and being approximately parallel to a long side of the image; and

a crop component for extracting the portion of each of the images as identified by the selection component.

16. The computer storage media of claim 15, further comprising an edge component for detecting one or more objects in the images, wherein the selection component centers the parallelogram on the objects.

17. The computer storage media of claim 15, wherein the selection component determines the approximate golden section line measured from a bottom of the images for the images having the portrait orientation.

18. The computer storage media of claim 15, wherein the crop component extracts the portion of the images without stretching the images.

19. The computer storage media of claim 15, wherein the parallelogram comprises a square, and wherein a length of the side of the square approximately equals a length of the short side.