US 7,212,668 B1
Digital image processing system and method for emphasizing a main subject of an imageGeneral
US 7,212,668 B1
Digital image processing system and method for emphasizing a main subject of an image
Tech Center:
2600 Communications
Examiner:
Sherali Ishrat
Art Unit:
2624 Selective Visual Display Systems
Agent:
Inventors:
Jiebo Luo; Robert T. Gray
Assignee:
Priority:
08/18/00
Filed:
08/18/00
Granted:
05/01/07
Expiration:
07/13/22
Abstract
A system and method for automatically altering an image having pixels is disclosed. An image is segmented into regions and various features of the regions are extracted and used to calculate a confidence factor, or belief value, that a particular region is a main subject of the image. The belief values are assembled into a belief map that is used to define how pixel values are to be altered. Various color and appearance values of the pixel are altered in a predetermined way to emphasize the main subject of the image. The emphasis is applied in a binary fashion or as in a gradient of values. Either the main subject can be emphasized, or the secondary or background subjects can be de-emphasized. The system can be implement on a variety of computer systems.