Image analysis – Applications – Personnel identification
Reexamination Certificate
1998-06-16
2002-05-14
Mehta, Bhavesh (Department: 2721)
Image analysis
Applications
Personnel identification
C382S282000, C382S190000, C345S628000, C345S620000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06389155
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus for use in computers for conducting image processing, word processors, portable information tools, copying machines, scanners, facsimiles or the like. More specifically, the present invention relates to an image processing apparatus enabling a user to designate the coordinates of any point on the image by a coordinate input apparatus such as a mouse, a pen or a tablet, or an image processing apparatus capable of photoelectrically converting a printed image on a piece of paper or the like with coordinates being designated in a different type of ink so as to input the image and the coordinates, wherein the image processing apparatus being capable of cutting out an object image with an arbitrary size at an arbitrary position from the original image.
2. Description of the Related Art
When an image including an object or a person's face of interest is cut out from the original image, the image is cut with a desired size using a pair of scissors, a cutter or the like, in the case of a photograph. In the case of an electronic image obtained by a CCD camera or a scanner, however, the positions of two points are designated by a coordinate input device such as a mouse, using software for image processing (e.g., the image processing software “PhotoShop” made by Adobe Inc.), and a rectangle having a diagonal between the two points is designated as a region.
In order to output a part of the original image, which includes an object of interest, as an image having a particular size, a portion having the object of interest at a well-balanced position is first cut out from the original image, and thereafter, is magnified/reduced to a required size. In the case of a photograph, such magnification/reduction is conducted by, for example, a copying machine. In the case of an electronic image, magnifying/reducing the image to a desired size can be easily carried out. However, cutting out a portion having the object of interest at a well-balanced position must be conducted before such magnification/reduction.
Furthermore, in order to extract a region representing a person's face except for hair (hereinafter, this portion is referred to as a “face skin”) from the original image, a face skin region which is visually determined by an operator is painted out. In the case of an electronic image, a pixel is designated by a coordinate input device such as a mouse, and those pixels having a similar color to that of the designated pixel are combined to be extracted as one region (e.g., “PhotoShop” as mentioned above). There is also a method as follows: the color distribution of a face skin is analyzed in advance to set a probability density function. Then, the probability density of the input pixels is obtained using values such as RGB (red, green, blue) values and HSV (hue, color saturation, brightness) values as arguments, thereby designating those pixels having a probability equal to or higher than a prescribed value as a face-skin region (R. Funayama, N. Yokoya, H. Iwasa and H. Takemura, “Facial Component Extraction by Cooperative Active Nets with Global Constraints”, Proceedings of 13th International Conference on Pattern Recognition, Vol. 2, pp. 300-305, 1996).
Conventionally, in the case where a rectangle including a face-skin region in the image is determined, the rectangle is commonly determined visually by an operator.
Moreover, the central axis of a person's face has been commonly detected based on the visual determination of an operator.
Another method for detecting the central axis of the face is as follows: a skin-color portion of the face is extracted as a region, and the region is projected to obtain a histogram. Then, the right and left ends of the face are determined from the histogram, whereby the line passing through the center thereof is determined as the central axis of the face (Japanese Laid-Open Publication No. 7-181012).
Furthermore, respective vertical positions of the nose, the eyes and the mouth on the face have been commonly detected based on the visual determination of an operator.
Another method is to match an image template of the nose with an input image (*Face Recognition: Features versus Templates*, by R. Brunelli and T. Poggio, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, Vol.15, No.10, pp.1042-1052, 1993). In this article, a method for detecting the vertical positions by projecting a gray-level image or an edge image to obtain a histogram, and examining peaks and valleys of the histogram, has also been proposed.
Moreover, the width of the face has been commonly detected based on the visual determination of an operator.
Another method is as follows: a skin-color portion of the face is extracted as a region, and the region is projected to obtain a histogram. Then, the right and left ends of the face are determined from the histogram, whereby the distance between the ends is obtained as the width of the face (Japanese Laid-Open Publication No. 7-181012).
As described above, in order to output a part of the original image, which includes a person's face of interest, as an image having a particular size, a portion having the face at a well-balanced position is first cut out from the original image, and thereafter, is magnified/reduced to a required size. In the case of a photograph, such magnification/reduction is conducted by, for example, a copying machine. In the case of an electronic image, magnifying/reducing the image to a desired size can be carried out easily. However, cutting out a portion having the object of interest at a well-balanced position must be conducted before such magnification/reduction.
In the case of an electronic image, it is also possible for a user to adjust, in advance, the size of the face of the original image to an appropriate size, move a frame on the screen according to the visual determination of the user so that the face is located in the center, and output the image located within the frame. An apparatus achieving such an operation has been proposed in Japanese Laid-Open Publication No. 64-82854.
In order to achieve improved visual recognition of a person's face on a photograph or an image, the amount of exposure light for printing is adjusted in the case of a photograph. For an electronic image, there is software capable of conducting adjustment of contrast, tonality and brightness, edge sharpening, blurring processing and the like (e.g., “PhotoShop” as mentioned above).
When an image including an object or a person's face of interest is cut out from the original image, the image is cut with a desired size using a pair of scissors, a cutter or the like, in the case of a photograph. However, using a pair of scissors, a cutter or the like to cut an image is actually time-consuming. Moreover, cutting a portion including the object or the face of interest at a well-balanced position requires much skill. When software for processing an electronic image obtained by a CCD camera or converted by a scanner is utilized (e.g., “PhotoShop” as mentioned above), the positions of two points are usually designated by a coordinate input device such as a mouse, and a rectangle having a diagonal between the two points is designated as a region. In this case as well, cutting out a portion including an object or a face of interest at a well-balanced position requires much skill. Furthermore, in the case where an object or a face of interest is originally located at the edge of the screen, and a portion including the object or the face at a well-balanced position in the center is to be cut out from the image, it is necessary to first cut out the portion from the original image, and thereafter, move the position of the object or the face to the center of the resultant image.
As described above, in order to output a part of the original image, which includes an object of interest, as an image having a particular size, a portion having the object of interest at a well-balanced position is first cut o
Funayama Ryuji
Hakaridani Mitsuhiro
Konya Minehiro
Takezawa Hajime
Kassa Yosef
Mehta Bhavesh
Nixon & Vanderhye P.C.
Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
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