US 7,403,211 B2Granted

Method and system for interactive region segmentation

AssigneeLumaPix

InventorsMichael Chilton Sheasby, A. Michael Mondry

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Abstract

A method and computer graphics program executed by a processor for interactively subdividing a region in a computer controlled graphics display system is described. The user directly manipulates a control object (or “handle”) using a pointing device such as a computer mouse with the result that the region exposing the control object is evenly divided into an array or volume of smaller regions. The distance from the position of the start of interaction with the control object (the “click”) is continuously monitored to interactively update the number of divisions in the horizontal and vertical directions. Example displays during this interaction phase include overlaid grids representing the actual position of pending subdivisions, or a matrix of abstract subregions representing the count of subregions that will be created when the user indicates that the interaction is complete by releasing the control object. Upon release of the control object, the previewed splits to the region are converted to real splits in the region.

Claims24

Dependent claims

A method for segmenting an initial region on a display into a set of at least two newly-created independent regions using an input device, the initial region comprising a bounded area or volume of the display, the display including one or more regions within a larger area or volume, the set of newly-created independent regions arranged into a matrix of equally-sized regions, wherein the equally-sized regions in aggregate equal the dimensions of the initial region, the input device being adapted to convert a user input into a two or three-dimensional position, the method comprising:

entering an interactive segmenting mode;
then
detecting the initial position of the input device at the time of entering the interactive segmenting mode;
continually performing the following steps until the interactive segmenting mode remains:
monitoring ongoing movements of the input device,
computing a number of equidistant horizontal and vertical splits to apply to the initial region as a function of the distance of the input device to the initial position, wherein segmentation of the region is computed by equally sectioning the region into rows and/or columns by dividing in both x and v directions the distance from the current pointer position to the position of the pointer as it was when the user entered the segmenting mode with a constant scaling factor applied to the distance and using the result to determine the number of equal sized horizontal and vertical splits;
and
indicating positions of the pending splits to a user;
leaving the interactive segmenting mode;
replacing the initial region with the set of newly-created independent regions at the positions previously indicated to the user.

7 more elements

A computer readable medium having computer instructions stored thereon for implementing a method for segmenting an initial region on a display into a set of at least two newly-created independent regions using an input device, the initial region comprising a bounded area or volume of the display, the display including one or more regions within a larger area or volume, the set of newly-created independent regions arranged into a matrix of equally-sized regions, wherein the equally-sized regions in aggregate equal the dimensions of the initial region, the input device being adapted to convert a user input into a two or three-dimensional position, the method comprising:

entering an interactive segmenting mode;
then
detecting the initial position of the input device at the time of entering the interactive segmenting mode;
continually performing the following steps until the interactive segmenting mode remains:
monitoring ongoing movements of the input device,
computing a number of equidistant horizontal and vertical splits to apply to the initial region as a function of the distance of the input device to the initial position, wherein segmentation of the region is computed by equally sectioning the region into rows and/or columns by dividing in both x and y directions the distance from the current pointer position to the position of the pointer as it was when the user entered the segmenting mode with a constant scaling factor applied to the distance and using the result to determine the number of equal sized horizontal and vertical splits;
and
indicating to a user positions of the pending splits;
leaving the interactive segmenting mode,
replacing the initial region with the set of newly-created independent regions at the positions previously indicated to the user.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.