Determining a consistent color for an image

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9846951-B2
Application number	US-201615087382-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 31, 2016
Priority date	Mar 31, 2016
Publication date	Dec 19, 2017
Grant date	Dec 19, 2017

Abstract

A method may include obtaining an image that includes a connected component that includes a set of pixels, calculating a representative color for the set of pixels, mapping the representative color to an application color in an application color palette of an application, and generating an electronic document that includes a revised version of the connected component in the application color.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for generating an electronic document by processing an image, comprising:
obtaining an image comprising a connected component comprising a plurality of pixels,
wherein the image further comprises a writing board and the connected component that is drawn on the writing board with a marker, and
wherein the plurality of pixels comprise a plurality of colors due to noise factors associated with the marker;
calculating, by a processor, a representative color for the plurality of colors;
mapping, by the processor, the representative color to an application color in an application color palette of an application; and
generating, by the processor, the electronic document comprising a revised version of the connected component entirely in the application color.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein calculating the representative color comprises:
averaging a plurality of red values in the plurality of pixels;
averaging a plurality of blue values in the plurality of pixels; and
averaging a plurality of green values in the plurality of pixels.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein mapping the representative color comprises:
converting the representative color to a color space;
converting a plurality of application colors in the application color palette to the color space; and
calculating a plurality of distances between the representative color and the plurality of application colors in the color space,
wherein the application color has the smallest distance to the representative color in the color space.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein mapping the representative color comprises:
converting the representative color to a color space;
converting a plurality of application colors in the application color palette to the color space;
calculating a plurality of distances between the representative color and the plurality of application colors in the color space;
determining a smallest distance of the plurality of distances; and
adding the representative color to the application color palette in response to the smallest distance exceeding a threshold, wherein the application color is the representative color added to the application color palette.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein mapping the representative color comprises:
converting the representative color to a color space;
converting a plurality of input colors in an input color palette to the color space;
calculating a plurality of distances between the representative color and the plurality of input colors in the color space; and
determining an input color having the smallest distance to the representative color in the color space,
wherein the input color is linked to the application color.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein:
the plurality of input colors correspond to a plurality of markers for drawing on the writing board.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein:
the color space is hue, saturation, and lightness (HSL) space; and
the plurality of distances are weighted Euclidean distances.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining the plurality of pixels by generating a mask of the image.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the revised version of the connected component is generated by applying image character recognition to the connected component, and wherein the connected component is a hand-drawn text character.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the connected component is a component of an aggregate connected component in the image;
the aggregate connected component is identified by:
calculating a standard deviation of rgb values in the aggregate connected component relative to the representative color; and
determining that the standard deviation exceeds a threshold; and

the aggregate connected component is decomposed into a plurality of connected components comprising the connected component.

11. A system for generating an electronic document from an image, comprising:
a memory storing the image comprising a connected component comprising a plurality of pixels,
wherein the image further comprises a writing board and the connected component that is drawn on the writing board with a marker, and
wherein the plurality of pixels comprise a plurality of colors due to noise factors associated with the marker; and
a processor connected to the memory that:
calculates a representative color for the plurality of colors;
maps the representative color to an application color in an application color palette of an application; and
generates the electronic document comprising a revised version of the connected component entirely in the application color.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the processor maps the representative color by:
converting the representative color to a color space;
converting a plurality of application colors in the application color palette to the color space; and
calculating a plurality of distances between the representative color and the plurality of application colors in the color space,
wherein the application color has the smallest distance to the representative color in the color space.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the processor maps the representative color by:
converting the representative color to a color space;
converting a plurality of input colors in an input color palette to the color space;
calculating a plurality of distances between the representative color and the plurality of input colors in the color space; and
determining an input color having the smallest distance to the representative color in the color space,
wherein the input color is linked to the application color.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein:
the color space is HSL space; and
the plurality of distances are weighted Euclidean distances.

15. The system of claim 11 ,
wherein the buffer further comprises a mask of the image, and
wherein the processor further determines the plurality of pixels by generating the mask.

16. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer readable program code embodied therein that:
obtains an image comprising a connected component comprising a plurality of pixels,
wherein the image further comprises a writing board and the connected component that is drawn on the writing board with a marker, and
wherein the plurality of pixels comprise a plurality of colors due to noise factors associated with the marker;
calculates a representative color for the plurality of colors;
maps the representative color to an application color in an application color palette of an application; and
generates an electronic document comprising a revised version of the connected component entirely in the application color.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16 , wherein mapping the representative color comprises:
converting the representative color to a color space;
converting a plurality of application colors in the application color palette to the color space; and
calculating a plurality of distances between the representative color and the plurality of application colors in the color space,
wherein the application color has the smallest distance to the representative color in the color space.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16 , wherein mapping the representative color comprises:
converting the representative color to a color space;
converting a plurality of input colors in an input color palette to the color space;
calculating a plurality of distances between the representative color and the

Assignees

• Konica Minolta Laboratory Usa Inc

Inventors

• Grams Jason James
• Obrecht Douglas Walter
• Guarnieri Stuart

Classifications

• G06V30/18105

  related to colour · CPC title

• G06V30/18076

  by analysing connectivity, e.g. edge linking, connected component analysis or slices · CPC title

• G06T11/10 Primary

  Texturing; Colouring; Generation of textures or colours (retouching, inpainting or scratch removal G06T5/77) · CPC title

• G06V30/333

  Preprocessing; Feature extraction · CPC title

• G06V30/10

  Character recognition · CPC title