Method and system for classifying image elements

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9256801-B2
Application number	US-201514660142-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 17, 2015
Priority date	Feb 1, 2001
Publication date	Feb 9, 2016
Grant date	Feb 9, 2016

Abstract

A method, system, and machine-readable medium for classifying an image element as one of a plurality of categories, including assigning the image element based on a ratio between an unoccluded perimeter of the image element and an occluded perimeter of the image element and coding the image element according to a coding scheme associated with the category to which the image element is classified. Exemplary applications include image compression, where categories include image foreground and background layers.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
identifying a first image element of an image as a background and a second image element of the image as a foreground; and
processing, via a processor, the image based on a relative occlusion between the background and the foreground, wherein the relative occlusion is determined using a color difference between the first image element and the second image element.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the color difference is calculated using a color differential between the first image element and the second image element, and wherein the color differential defines how closely a first color of the first image element matches a second color of the second image element.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the background is assigned to an occlusion category based on the relative occlusion meeting a threshold.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a shape of the second image element, wherein the processing of the image is restricted to a region based on the shape.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the processing of the image comprises processing the background only.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the processing of the image comprises processing the foreground only.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating an output image based on the processing of the image.

8. A system comprising:
a processor; and
a computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
identifying a first image element of an image as a background and a second image element of the image as a foreground; and
processing the image based on a relative occlusion between the background and the foreground, wherein the relative occlusion is determined using a color difference between the first image element and the second image element.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the color difference is calculated using a color differential between the first image element and the second image element, and wherein the color differential defines how closely a first color of the first image element matches a second color of the second image element.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the background is assigned to an occlusion category based on the relative occlusion meeting a threshold.

11. The system of claim 8 , the computer-readable storage medium having additional instructions stored which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
determining a shape of the second image element, wherein the processing of the image is restricted to a region based on the shape.

12. The system of claim 8 , wherein the processing of the image comprises processing the background only.

13. The system of claim 8 , wherein the processing of the image comprises processing the foreground only.

14. The system of claim 8 , the computer-readable storage medium having additional instructions stored which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising generating an output image based on the processing of the image.

15. A computer-readable storage device having instructions stored which, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:
identifying a first image element of an image as a background and a second image element of the image as a foreground; and
processing the image based on a relative occlusion between the background and the foreground, wherein the relative occlusion is determined using a color difference between the first image element and the second image element.

16. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15 , wherein the color difference is calculated using a color differential between the first image element and the second image element, and wherein the color differential defines how closely a first color of the first image element matches a second color of the second image element.

17. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15 , wherein the background is assigned to an occlusion category based on the relative occlusion meeting a threshold.

18. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15 , having additional instructions stored which, when executed by the computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:
determining a shape of the second image element, wherein the processing of the image is restricted to a region based on the shape.

19. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15 , wherein the processing of the image comprises processing the background only.

20. The computer-readable storage device of claim 8 , wherein the processing of the image comprises processing the foreground only.

Assignees

• At & T Ip Ii Lp

Inventors

• Bottou Leon
• Haffner Patrick Guy

Classifications

• G06F18/24

  Classification techniques · CPC title

• G06T9/00 Primary

  Image coding (bandwidth or redundancy reduction for static pictures H04N1/41; coding or decoding of static colour picture signals H04N1/64; methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/00) · CPC title

• G06K2209/015

  Physics · mapped topic

• H04N19/20

  using video object coding · CPC title

• G06K9/6267

  Physics · mapped topic