System and method for image matting

Abstract

A method and system extracts a matte from images acquired of a scene. A foreground image focused at a foreground in a scene, a background image focused at a background in the scene, and a pinhole image focused on the entire scene are acquired. These three images can be acquired sequentially by a single camera, or simultaneous by three cameras. In the later case, foreground, background and pinhole sequences of images can be acquired. The pinhole image is compared to the foreground image and the background image to extract a matte representing the scene. The comparison classifies pixels in the images as foreground, background, or unknown pixels. An optimizer minimizes an error function in the form of Fourier image equations using a gradient descent method. The error function expresses pixel intensity differences.

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