Iterative selection of pixel paths for content aware image resizing

A system for content aware resizing of a digital image in an image processing system, the system comprising:

• a memory;
• a storage medium for storing data;
• and
• a processor in communication with said storage medium and said memory, said processor executing machine readable instructions performing:
• receiving an image having a plurality of pixels;
• defining a weighting function based on a resizing to be performed on said image, said weighting function generating a distribution as a function of distance;
• determining an importance value for each pixel in said image to generate an importance map for said image;
• and
• repeating until a target size of said image has been achieved:
• carving a plurality of pixel paths through said image, each path comprising a seam traversing said image;
• calculating an energy for each seam, said seam energy being based on importance values of pixels along a same path through said importance map;
• calculating a distance between each seam and a previously selected seam;
• calculating a weighting for each seam using said weighting function and said calculated seam distance and applying each weighting to said seam energy to produce a revised energy for each seam;
• selecting a seam based on said revised energy;
• revising said importance map;
• and
• resizing said image at a location of said selected seam.

A computer program product for content aware resizing of a digital image in an image processing system, the computer program product comprising:

• a computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform a method comprising:
• receiving an image having a plurality of pixels;
• defining a weighting function based on a resizing to be performed on said image, said weighting function generating a distribution as a function of distance;
• determining an importance value for each pixel in said image to generate an importance map for said image;
• and
• repeating until a target size of said image has been achieved:
• carving a plurality of pixel paths through said image, each path comprising a seam traversing said image;
• calculating an energy for each seam, said seam energy being based on importance values of pixels along a same path through said importance map;
• calculating a distance between each seam and a previously selected seam;
• calculating a weighting for each seam using said weighting function and said calculated seam distance and applying each weighting to said seam energy to produce a revised energy for each seam;
• selecting a seam based on said revised energy;
• revising said importance map;
• and
• resizing said image at a location of said selected seam.