Image processing method and apparatus
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsKiyoshi Kusama, Kentaro Matsumoto, Kunihiro Yamamoto
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Upon forming a mosaic image by combining a plurality of material images, an original image of the mosaic image is segmented into M×N areas. The image characteristics of these segmented areas are calculated, and a material image corresponding to each segmented area is determined on the basis of the calculated image characteristics while inhibiting a single material image from being repetitively selected for a plurality of areas. By generating the mosaic image in this way, an expected texture pattern due to a specific combination of material images can be prevented from being formed.
Claims41
An image processing method for forming a mosaic image by combining a plurality of material images, comprising:
- a segmentation step, of segmenting an original image into a plurality of areas;
- a calculation step, of calculating image characteristics including average luminance values, of each of the plurality of areas;
- a determination step, of randomly selecting an area from the plurality of areas and determining a material image corresponding to the selected area on the basis of a number of times of use of each material image and the image characteristics, wherein the determined material image has average luminance values closest to the average luminance values of the selected area;
- and
- a generation step, of generating a mosaic image by pasting the material image determined in the determination step to the corresponding areas.
An image processing apparatus for forming a mosaic image by combining a plurality of material images, comprising:
- storage means for storing the plurality of material images;
- segmentation means for segmenting an original image into a plurality of areas;
- calculation means for calculating image characteristics including average luminance values, of each of the plurality of areas;
- determination means for randomly selecting an area from the plurality of areas and determining a material image corresponding to the selected area on the basis of a number of times of use of each material image and the image characteristics, wherein the determined material image has average luminance values closest to the average luminance values of the selected area;
- and
- generation means for generating a mosaic image by pasting the material image determined by said determination means to the corresponding areas.
A storage medium that records a program code of image processing for forming a mosaic image by combining a plurality of material images, said program code comprising:
- a code of a segmentation step, of segmenting an original image into a plurality of areas;
- a code of a calculation step, of calculating image characteristics, including average luminance values, of each of the plurality of areas;
- a code of a determination step, of randomly selecting an area from the plurality of areas and determining a material image corresponding to the selected area on the basis of a number of times of use of each material image and the image characteristics, wherein the determined material has average luminance values closest to the average luminance values of the selected area;
- and
- a code of a generation step, of generating a mosaic image by pasting the material image determined in the determination step to the corresponding areas.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.