US6348953B1 — Device and process for producing a composite pict…

Claim 1

Independent Claim 278 words

Apparatus for producing a composite image from a foreground image (FG), showing an object or a scene with a substantially monochrome background, and a background image (BG) comprising a first processing unit (R 4 ) for producing a control signal (SEP) for each pixel of the foreground image (FG), reflecting whether an individual pixel of the foreground image is part of the object or part of the monochrome background, based both on the chromatic values of the pixel and on predetermined chromatic values, describing the color composition of the monochrome background, a selection unit (R 5 ) suffixed to the first processing unit (R 4 ), for calculating the chromatic values of an individual pixel of the composite image from, depending on the control signal (SEP), either the chromatic values of the corresponding pixel of the foreground image (FG) or the chromatic values of the corresponding pixel of the background image (BG), a second processing unit (R 11 , R 12 , R 14 , R 17 ) for calculating correction values for the chromatic values of an individual pixel of the composite image, based on the chromatic values of the corresponding pixel of the foreground image (FG) and/or of the background image (BG), in order to achieve a natural pictorial appearance, and an image processing unit ( 19 ) suffixed to the second processing unit (R 11 , R 12 , R 14 , R 17 ), for changing the chromatic values of an individual pixel of the composite image corresponding to the correction values, previously calculated by the second processing unit (R 11 , R 12 , R 14 , R 17 ) for this pixel.

Claim 2

Dependent Claim 278 words

Apparatus for producing a composite image from a foreground image (FG), showing an object or a scene with a substantially monochrome background, and a background image (BG) comprising a first processing unit (R 4 ) for producing a control signal (SEP) for each pixel of the foreground image (FG), reflecting whether an individual pixel of the foreground image is part of the object or part of the monochrome background, based both on the chromatic values of the pixel and on predetermined chromatic values, describing the color composition of the monochrome background, a selection unit (R 5 ) suffixed to the first processing unit (R 4 ), for calculating the chromatic values of an individual pixel of the composite image from, depending on the control signal (SEP), either the chromatic values of the corresponding pixel of the foreground image (FG) or the chromatic values of the corresponding pixel of the background image (BG), a second processing unit (R 11 , R 12 , R 14 , R 17 ) for calculating correction values for the chromatic values of an individual pixel of the composite image, based on the chromatic values of the corresponding pixel of the foreground image (FG) and/or of the background image (BG), in order to achieve a natural pictorial appearance, and an image processing unit ( 19 ) suffixed to the second processing unit (R 11 , R 12 , R 14 , R 17 ), for changing the chromatic values of an individual pixel of the composite image corresponding to the correction values, previously calculated by the second processing unit (R 11 , R 12 , R 14 , R 17 ) for this pixel.

Claim 3

Dependent Claim 43 words

Apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the first processing unit (R 4 ) is linked to a first input unit ( 6 ) to set the predetermined chromatic values reflecting the color composition of the monochrome background of the foreground image (FG).

Claim 4

Dependent Claim 52 words

Apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising by an input device for loading the chromatic values of an individual pixel of the foreground image (FG) and of the background image (BG), and an output device for outputting the chromatic values of the corresponding pixel of the composite image (KB 2 ).

Claim 5

Dependent Claim 97 words

Apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising an input device for loading a first data record representing the foreground image (FG), whose elements each contain the chromatic values of an individual pixel of the foreground image, and a second data record representing the background image (BG), whose elements each contain the chromatic values of an individual pixel of the background image (BG), an output device for outputting a third data record representing the composite image (KB 2 ), whose elements each contain the chromatic values of an individual pixel of the composite image (KB 2 ).

Claim 6

Dependent Claim 49 words

Apparatus according to claim 4 , further comprising a first storage matrix ( 1 ) for storing the first data record, and/or a second storage matrix ( 2 ) for storing the second data record, and/or a third storage matrix ( 21 ) for storing the third data record.

Claim 7

Dependent Claim 57 words

Apparatus according to claim 5 , further comprising a third processing unit suffixed to the first storage matrix and prefixed to the first processing unit (R 4 ), for calculating the predetermined chromatic values, which characterize the monochrome background of the foreground image (FG), as the average value of the chromatic values of the foreground image (FG).

Claim 8

Dependent Claim 77 words

Apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the second processing unit (R 11 , R 12 , R 14 , R 17 ) is prefixed to a fourth storage matrix ( 18 ) for storing a fourth data record, wherein each element of the fourth data record contains the correction values for an individual pixel of the composite image, calculated by the second processing unit (R 11 , R 12 , R 14 , R 17 ).

Claim 9

Dependent Claim 52 words

Apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a second input unit ( 20 ) prefixed to the image processing unit (R 19 ) for the input of weighting factors for the correction values calculated by the second processing unit (R 11 , R 12 , R 14 , R 17 .

Claim 10

Dependent Claim 15 words

Apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the primary colors are red, green and blue.

Claim 11

Dependent Claim 18 words

Apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the chromatic values are in the range between 0 and 255.

Claim 12

Dependent Claim 183 words

Method for producing a composite image from a foreground image (FG) showing an object with a substantially monochrome background and a background image (BG), comprising the steps of: calculating a control signal (SEP) for each pixel of the foreground image (FG) based on both the chromatic values of a given pixel and on the predetermined chromatic values reflecting the color composition of the monochrome background, which indicates whether the pixel is part of the object or part of the monochrome background, calculating the chromatic values for each pixel of the composite image (KB 1 ) based on the chromatic values of the corresponding pixel either of the foreground image (FG) or of the background image (BG), depending on the control signal (SEP), calculating correction values for each pixel of the composite image (KB 1 ), based on the chromatic values of the corresponding pixel of the foreground image (FG) and/or of the background image (BG), and changing the chromatic values of the composite image (KB 1 ) in each pixel according to the correction values in order to achieve a natural pictorial appearance.

Claim 13

Dependent Claim 183 words

Method for producing a composite image from a foreground image (FG) showing an object with a substantially monochrome background and a background image (BG), comprising the steps of: calculating a control signal (SEP) for each pixel of the foreground image (FG) based on both the chromatic values of a given pixel and on the predetermined chromatic values reflecting the color composition of the monochrome background, which indicates whether the pixel is part of the object or part of the monochrome background, calculating the chromatic values for each pixel of the composite image (KB 1 ) based on the chromatic values of the corresponding pixel either of the foreground image (FG) or of the background image (BG), depending on the control signal (SEP), calculating correction values for each pixel of the composite image (KB 1 ), based on the chromatic values of the corresponding pixel of the foreground image (FG) and/or of the background image (BG), and changing the chromatic values of the composite image (KB 1 ) in each pixel according to the correction values in order to achieve a natural pictorial appearance.

Claim 14

Dependent Claim 90 words

Method according to claim 11 further comprising calculating a transparency value for pixels depicting the object in the foreground image (FG), based on both the predetermined chromatic values characterizing the color composition of the monochrome background and on the chromatic values of the pixel, reflecting the transparency of the object in this pixel, calculating the correction values for pixels depicting the object in the composite image (KB 1 ) based on the chromatic values of the foreground image (FG) and of the background image (BG), depending on the transparency value.

Claim 15

Dependent Claim 94 words

Method according to claim 11 further comprising calculating a first luminosity value for pixels depicting the monochrome background in the foreground image (FG), describing the intensity of the shadows cast by the object on the monochrome background, based both on the chromatic values characterizing the color composition of the monochrome background on the chromatic values of the pixel, calculating the correction values for pixels of the composite image depicting the background image (BG) in order to reconstruct the shadows cast by the object on the background image (BG), based on the first luminosity value.

Claim 16

Dependent Claim 90 words

Method according to claim 11 , further comprising calculating a second luminosity value for pixels depicting the monochrome background in the foreground image (FG), describing the intensity of the illuminations on the monochrome background caused by reflections at the object, based on both the chromatic values characterizing the color composition of the monochrome background and on the chromatic values of the pixel, calculating the correction values to reproduce reflections in the composite image for pixels of the composite image depicting the background image (BG) based on the second luminosity value.

Claim 17

Dependent Claim 55 words

Method according to claim 11 , further comprising subdividing the background image (BG) in a plurality of sections and for each section calculating the average values of the chromatic values of the individual pixels, calculating the correction values for pixels depicting the object in the composite image based on the average values of all sections.

Annuity Stage	Window Opens	Payment Deadline	Surcharge Period Until	Estimated Fee	Status
3.5 Years (Year 4)	2005-02-18	2005-08-20	2006-02-19	$2000.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
7.5 Years (Year 8)	2009-02-18	2009-08-20	2010-02-19	$3760.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
11.5 Years (Year 12)	2013-02-18	2013-08-20	2014-02-19	$7700.00	Window Closed / Lapsed

Device and process for producing a composite picture

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