US 8,913,831 B2 · Perceptual segmentation of images

Abstract

Method and system embodiments of the present invention are directed to automated identification of regions within digitally-encoded images that correspond to objects and features of scenes captured in the digitally-encoded images, a process referred to as ‘perceptual segmentation’ of an image. Regions or segments within an image are first identified by any of various region-identifying or segmentation methods. For each region or segment, features of pixels within the region or segment are employed to compute one or more segment features. The segment features are used, in turn, to identify the region or segment as belonging to a particular type of region or segment, and the region is then accordingly labeled or tagged as a region or segment of the determined type.

Claims11

Dependent claims

A perceptual-segmentation system, comprising:

a computer;
and
one or more perceptual-segmentation programs, stored within the computer and executed by the computer, that
identify regions within an image;
for each identified region,
compute or access each of one or more pixel-feature values for pixels within region,
using the one or more pixel-feature values computed or accessed for pixels within the region, compute one or more region-feature values, and
using the one or more region-feature values, determine a region type for the region and associating the region type with the region;
and
store the associations of region types with regions for use in subsequent image-processing tasks;
wherein the one or more perceptual-segmentation programs, stored within the computer and executed by the computer, identify regions within the image by:
for each of a number of specific object-identifying methods,
applying the object-identifying method to locate occurrences of objects of a specific type in the image;
and
disambiguating any regions of overlap of two or more objects identified by the object-identifying methods.

12 more elements

A perceptual-segmentation system, comprising:

a computer;
and
one or more perceptual-segmentation programs, stored within the computer and executed by the computer, that
identify regions within an image;
for each identified region,
compute or access each of one or more pixel-feature values for pixels within region,
using the one or more pixel-feature values computed or accessed for pixels within the region, compute one or more region-feature values, and
using the one or more region-feature values, determine a region type for the region and associating the region type with the region;
and
store the associations of region types with regions for use in subsequent image-processing tasks;
wherein the one or more perceptual-segmentation programs, stored within the computer and executed by the computer, compute global statistics for the image;
wherein the one or more perceptual-segmentation programs, stored within the computer and executed by the computer, compute, for each segment or region of an image:
per-segment statistics,
a probability that the segment corresponds to a blue-sky region of the image, P(blue_sky),
a probability that the segment corresponds to a gray-sky region of the image, P(gray_sky), and
a probability that the segment corresponds to a snow region of the image, P(snow);
and
wherein the one or more perceptual-segmentation programs, stored within the computer and executed by the computer, identify and tag segments corresponding to regions of sky in the image using the computed probabilities P(blue_sky), P(gray_sky), and P(snow).

15 more elements

A perceptual-segmentation system, comprising:

a computer;
and
one or more perceptual-segmentation programs, stored within the computer and executed by the computer, that
identify regions within an image;
for each identified region,
compute or access each of one or more pixel-feature values for pixels within region,
using the one or more pixel-feature values computed or accessed for pixels within the region, compute one or more region-feature values, and
using the one or more region-feature values, determine a region type for the region and associating the region type with the region;
and
store the associations of region types with regions for use in subsequent image-processing tasks;
wherein the one or more perceptual-segmentation programs, stored within the computer and executed by the computer, tag segments within an image corresponding to regions in the image that represent foliage by:
for each untagged segment in the image,
computing a probability that the segment corresponds to a region of foliage in the image, P(foliage), based on a color model for foliage,
computing a probability that the segment corresponds to a region of forest in the image, P(forest), based on a color model for forest,
computing a probability that the segment corresponds to a region of ground in the image, P(ground), based on a color model for forest,
when P(foliage) is greater than one of P(forest) and P(ground) as well as greater than a threshold value, tagging the segment as foliage, and
otherwise tagging the segment based on a computed probability that the segment corresponds to a natural region of the image and not to an artificial region of the image, P(natural), by
when P(natural) is greater than a threshold value, P(foliage) is greater than a threshold value, and a computed intensity for the segment is less than a threshold intensity, tagging the segment as foliage, and
when P(naturel) is greater than a threshold value, P(forest) is greater than a threshold value, and a computed intensity for the segment is less than a threshold intensity, tagging the segment as foliage.

16 more elements

A method, executed by a computer, for perceptual segmentation of an image, comprising:

identifying regions within an image;
for each identified region,
computing or accessing each of one or more pixel-feature values for pixels within the region,
using the one or more pixel-feature values computed or accessed for pixels within the region to compute one or more region-feature values, and
using the one or more region-feature values to determine a region type for the region and associating the region type with the region;
and
storing, on a non-transitory, computer-readable medium, the associations of region types with regions for use in subsequent image-processing tasks;
wherein identifying the regions within the image is accomplished by:
for each of a number of specific object-identifying methods,
applying the object-identifying method to locate occurrences of objects of a specific type in the image;
and
disambiguating any regions of overlap of two or more objects identified by the object-identifying methods.

9 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Perceptual segmentation of images

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Perceptual segmentation of images

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Abstract

Claims11