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US 6,636,635 B2Granted
Object extraction method, and image sensing apparatus using the method
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorMasakazu Matsugu
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AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorMasakazu Matsugu
Estimating the term…
This invention provides an object extraction method for performing processing for extracting and cutting out a specific object from a sensed image at high speed, and an image sensing apparatus using the method. In this invention, in a method of extracting an object by comparing a sensed image and a standard image, a focusing signal, focal length data, visual axis direction data, and illumination conditions are detected, and the initial size, initial position, or initial color of the standard image is changed on the basis of the detection results, and extraction is started under optical conditions.
An object extraction method for extracting a predetermined object from a sensed image, comprising the steps of:
An image information extraction apparatus comprising:
An image information extraction apparatus comprising:
The apparatus according to 14, wherein said image comparison means outputs image data when the similarity between the reference image and the image generated by said image sensing means is larger than a predetermined threshold value.
An image information extraction method for searching for a specific object by executing:
An image information extraction apparatus comprising:
A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means for extracting an object from a sensed image, including:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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Arrangements for image or video recognition or understanding: image acquisition
Image and video recognition
Term ended 31 Oct 2016 (estimated)
USPTO file history isn’t available for this patent, so only indexed dates are shown.
The present invention relates to a method of extracting a target object from an image sensed by an image sensing apparatus, a method of cutting out the object, a database structure used in extraction and a method of creating the database, and an image sensing apparatus or an image sensing system that can obtain object information using these methods. The present invention also relates to a storage medium which provides a program and data to the image sensing apparatus or image sensing system or stores the database.
As a technique for discriminating the presence/absence of a specific object in an image, or searching a database for an image including a specific object and extracting the image, a pattern recognition technique is used. Methods of applying a pattern recognition technique upon executing the pattern recognition include the following methods.
More specifically, in the first method, an image is segmented into a plurality of regions in advance and cutting processing is performed so that only a specific region to be recognized remains. Thereafter, similarity with a standard pattern is calculated using various methods.
FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing the arrangement of principal part of an apparatus according to the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a system block diagram showing an embodiment that realizes the functions shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a view showing an example of the format of an image data header portion;
<Example of Controlling Initialization of Standard Image>
An embodiment of an object extraction method and an image sensing device according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing the arrangement of principal part of an image sensing apparatus according to the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1, reference numeral A1 denotes an image sensing unit; B1, an image sensing mode extraction unit for detecting the image sensing state; C1, an image sensing mode storage unit; D1, an image storage unit; E1, a standard image storage unit; F1, a standard image initialization unit; G1, an image comparison unit; H1, an image cutting unit; and I1, an image output unit.