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US 6,445,819 B1Granted
Image processing method, image processing device, and recording medium
AssigneeFuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.
InventorNaoto Kinjo
Life of this patent
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AssigneeFuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.
InventorNaoto Kinjo
Estimating the term…
An image processing method, image processing device and recording medium are provided in which the effects of erroneous extraction of a region assumed to correspond to a main portion within an image are mitigated. On the basis of image data of an image which is an object of processing, plural face candidate regions, which are assumed to correspond to faces of persons, are extracted. A degree of overlapping is computed for a pair of overlapping face candidate regions. A weight point is set for each face candidate region such that a weight point of a face candidate region which overlaps with another face candidate region is higher than a weight point of a face candidate region which does not overlap with another face candidate region, and the higher the degree of overlapping with another face candidate region, the higher the weight point. By comparing weight points of face candidate regions with a threshold value, a face region corresponding to a face of a person is extracted from the respective face candidate regions. A weighted average value, in which density values of the respective face candidate regions are weighted in accordance with degrees of overlapping, is computed as a face region density.
An image processing method comprising the steps of:
An image processing device comprising:
A recording medium on which is stored a program for executing at a computer a processing comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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No related US applications are recorded in the indexed filing history.
Human faces, e.g. facial parts, sketches or expressions: detection; Localisation; Normalisation
Segmentation; Edge detection: region-based segmentation
Human being; Person: face
Image and video recognition
Term ended 10 Sep 2019 (estimated)
USPTO file history isn’t available for this patent, so only indexed dates are shown.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing method, an image processing device, and a recording medium, and in particular, to an image processing method for extracting a region which is assumed to be a region corresponding to a main portion in an image, to an image processing device to which the image processing method may be applied, and to a recording medium on which is recorded a program for executing the image processing method at a computer.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 is a schematic structural view of an image processing system relating to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the contents of face region extraction/density computation processing relating to the embodiment.
FIG. 3 is an image diagram showing an example of processing results of face candidate region extraction processing.
Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 illustrates an image processing system 10 to which the present invention is applied. The image processing system 10 is formed by a scanner 12, an image processing device 14 and a printer 16 which are connected in series.
The scanner 12 reads a film image (a negative image or a positive image which, after photographing of an object, is made visible due to developing processing) recorded on a photographic photosensitive material (hereinafter referred to as “photographic film”) which is, for example, a photographic film (e.g., a negative film or a reversal film). The scanner 12 outputs the image data obtained by this reading. Light, which is emitted from a light source 20 and whose unevenness in the light amount has been reduced due to a light diffusing box 22, is illuminated onto a photographic film 26, such as a negative film or a reversal film, set at a film carrier 24. The light transmitted through the photographic film 26 is focused onto the light-receiving surface of a CCD sensor 30 (either an area sensor or a line sensor may be used) via a lens 28.
The film carrier 24 conveys the photographic film 26 such that the places on the photographic film 26 at which film images are recorded are positioned successively on the optical axis of the light emitted from the light source 20. In this way, the film images recorded on the photographic film 26 are read in order by the CCD sensor 30, and signals corresponding to the film images are outputted from the CCD sensor 30. The signals outputted from the CCD sensor 30 are converted into digital image data by an A/D converter 32, and are inputted to the image processing device 14.