The present invention relates to color graphics image processing. It finds particular application in conjunction with detection and segmentation of sweeps in color graphics images, and will be described with particular reference thereto. However, it is to be appreciated that the present invention is also amenable to other like applications.
Content-based image classification has emerged as an important area in multimedia computing due to the rapid development of digital imaging, storage, and networking technologies. A reproduction system, such as a copier or a printer, strives for a pleasing rendering of color documents. Picture/graphics classifiers have been developed to differentiate between a picture image and a graphics image with high accuracy by analyzing low-level image statistics.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,767,978 to Revankar et al. discloses an adaptable image segmentation system for differentially rendering black and white and/or color images using a plurality of imaging techniques. An image is segmented according to classes of regions that may be rendered according to the same imaging techniques. Image regions may be rendered according to a three-class system (such as traditional text, graphic, and picture systems), or according to more than three image classes. In addition, only two image classes may be required to render high quality draft or final output images. The image characteristics that may be rendered differently from class to class may include half toning, colorization and other image attributes.
A color output device such as a CRT computer monitor, liquid crystal display, inkjet printer, xerographic printer, etc can display a limited range of colors (the gamut of the output device). If the colors in an image do not reside wholly with in an output device gamut, a gamut-mapping algorithm is often applied to map the image colors to colors that the output device can produce. A simple approach is to preserve in-gamut colors without alteration and clip out-of-gamut colors to the closest in-gamut color. More sophisticated techniques can be used. Ideally, the gamut-mapping algorithm used should be tailored to the image type. For example, a region of smoothly varying colors should appear smoothly varying on the output device. Were the colors of a sweep to exceed the gamut of an output device, the aforementioned clipping approach will show disagreeable artifacts. In fact, it may be desirable to sacrifice color fidelity within the gamut to achieve a smooth color transition. Thus knowing that a region is, or contains, a sweep aids in color reproduction. In general, coloring schemes (gamut-mapping algorithms) are tailored for specific types of images to obtain quality reproduction. Once an image has been identified as a graphics image, further identification of image characteristics can be used to fine-tune the coloring schemes for more appealing reproductions. The most prominent characteristics of a graphics image include patches or areas of the image with uniform color and areas with uniformly changing colors. This invention focuses on the identification of the second characteristic.
One example where areas with uniformly changing color can usually be observed is in the gradient backgrounds of color business presentation slides. These areas of uniformly changing color are called sweeps and are constructed in the three-dimensional color space as a line during the construction of the synthetic graphics. A sweep is constructed by a mathematical formula to cause adjacent pixels to change color in a smooth, predictable way. For example, one can use linear interpolation of two colors specified for the sweep and render the original image by plotting pixels of interpolated colors such that neighboring spatial regions are rendered with colors from neighboring color regions. One can contemplate other mathematical descriptions of curves that achieve like effects. If such a document is printed or scanned, the sweeps do not exactly contain the colors on the line due to halftone noise introduced. If a reproduction system can correctly identify and segment the sweep areas in an image, the original sweeps can be reconstructed in the color space and rendered. The sweeps thus rendered will be very smooth and the noise introduced by the halftone will not be reproduced. Secondly, if the extreme colors of the sweep can be automatically identified, the coloring schemes can be tailored to maximize the smoothness as well as contrast and differentiation among colors to render business graphics documents.
Further identification of the properties of the graphics image can be used to fine-tune the coloring scheme to obtain a more appealing reproduction. The detection of sweeps in a graphics image can be used to reconstruct synthetic sweeps that may otherwise be perturbed due to half toning, scanning artifacts, or aging of a document or for other reasons. The extent of the sweeps (i.e., the change from color 1 to color 2) may also be used to tailor the coloring scheme to achieve best smoothness, contrast and differentiation among colors in the reconstructed sweeps.
The present invention proposes a new and improved method for detecting and segmenting sweeps in a color graphics image that overcomes the above-referenced problems and others.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, sweeps in a graphics image are detected and segmented. The input image is transformed into an appropriate color space (e.g., CIELUV) and sweep segment information from one or more color channel histograms of the image is detected. Then the graphics image is segmented into sweep and non-sweep areas using the sweep segment information.
Still further advantages and benefits of the present invention will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading and understanding the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.
The invention may take form in various components and arrangements of components, and in various steps and arrangements of steps. The drawings are only for purposes of illustrating preferred embodiments and are not to be construed as limiting the invention.
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For this purpose, each detected line in the Hough space is rendered (e.g., drawn as a 3-pixel wide line) on the edge map using a standard scan-line-drawing algorithm 314. Typically, the rendering is performed using a particular gray value (e.g., 100) and the overlap between the edges and the line drawn are marked as “overlap.” The extremities of the pixels marked as “overlap” are also noted. These extremities define the line segments in the two-dimensional histogram images. As mentioned before, each sweep in the image appears as parallel line segments in the edge map. Hence, the pairs of parallel line segments in the edge maps are identified 316 and are considered for further processing while other segments are ignored. Each pair of parallel line segments correspond to a single sweep in the original image. Next, the mid segment of each pair of parallel line segments is computed 318 and recognized as a sweep.
The sweeps detected as segments in the H_UV, H_LU, and H_LV edge maps are projections of the original sweeps from the three-dimensional color space. Segment information consists of a data structure that indicates for each pair (u, v), (l, u) and (l, v) whether or not the pair corresponds to a sweep. To segment the input graphics image into sweep regions and non-sweep regions, the sweep segment information from the three projections must be combined. Referring to
Once the sweep segments in each of the H_UV, H_LU, and H_LV edge maps are identified and noted and the UV, LU, and LV projections are combined, the original graphics image is revisited. Referring to
For synthetic graphics this scheme for detecting and segmenting sweeps works well. However, for scanned graphics images, the result from this segmentation scheme may have an unacceptable number of errors. Often, for a liberal scheme, there are far more false alarms than false misses. A post-processing stage may be used to reject several types of false alarms. Referring to
Although the Hough transform is used to detect straight line segments in this embodiment, known variants of the Hough methodology can be used to detect parameterized curves, surfaces, and shapes. Other color spaces and sweeps may produce other curves or surfaces in the three projections and these can be detected with methods known in the art and are within the scope of this invention.
The invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments. Obviously, modifications and alterations will occur to others upon reading and understanding the preceding detailed description. It is intended that the invention be construed as including all such modifications and alterations insofar as they come within the scope of the appended claims or the equivalents thereof.
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