US 10,896,509 B2 · Processing digital image to remove unwanted portion

Abstract

An image processing method to sample the image to generate patches. Feature vectors are extracted from the patches, and the extracted feature vectors are partitioned into clusters, where feature vectors in the same cluster share a common characteristic. A portion of interest in the image is segmented. An aggregate bounding region creation process is carried out by finding the largest segment and creating a bounding box around it; determining which cluster contains the most patches within the bounding box of the segment; and adding the patches of the determined cluster to an aggregate bounding region for the portion of interest. The aggregate bounding region creation process is repeated for each other segment in order of size. The resulting aggregate bounding region contains all the patches associated with the portion of interest. The patches which fall outside the resulting aggregate bounding region are then removed from the image.

Claims18

Dependent claims

An image processing method for removing an unwanted portion of a digital image which contains a portion of interest, the method comprising:

sampling the digital image to generate a set of image patches representing the digital image;
extracting feature vectors from the image patches;
partitioning the extracted feature vectors into a plurality of clusters, the extracted feature vectors in the same cluster sharing a common characteristic;
segmenting the portion of interest of the digital image into a set of segments;
carrying out an aggregate bounding region creation process comprising:
finding a largest segment in the set of segments and creating a bounding box around the largest segment;
determining the image cluster which contains the most image patches within the bounding box around the largest segment;
and
adding the image patches of the determined cluster to an aggregate bounding region for the portion of interest;
repeating the aggregate bounding region creation process for other segments in the set of segments in order of size, the resulting aggregate bounding region containing all the image patches associated with the portion of interest;
and
removing from the digital image the image patches which fall outside the resulting aggregate bounding region.

9 more elements

An image processing apparatus for removing an unwanted portion of a digital image which contains a portion of interest, comprising:

an image sampler to sample the digital image to generate a set of image patches representing the digital image;
a feature extractor to extract feature vectors from the image patches;
a feature clusterer to partition the extracted feature vectors into a plurality of clusters, the feature vectors in the same cluster sharing a common characteristic;
an image segmenter to segment the portion of interest of the digital image into a set of segments;
a detector to carry out an aggregate bounding region creation process comprising finding a largest segment in the set of segments and creating a bounding box around the largest segment, determining which of the clusters contains the most image patches within the bounding box around the largest segment, and adding the image patches of the determined cluster to an aggregate bounding region for the portion of interest, the detector repeating the aggregate bounding region creation process for other segments in the set of segments in order of size, the resulting aggregate bounding region containing all the image patches associated with the portion of interest;
and
a data filter to remove from the digital image the image patches which fall outside the resulting aggregate bounding region.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Processing digital image to remove unwanted portion

Life of this patent

Processing digital image to remove unwanted portion

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims18