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US6711291B1
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Method for automatic text placement in digital images
Assignee: Monument Peak Ventures LLC
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Filing: 1999-09-17
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Granted: 2004-03-23
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Expires: 2019-09-17
Abstract
Abstract A method for placing a human understandable item, such as a caption, text or a figurative element, in a digital image includes the steps of (a) digitally processing the digital image to recognize and identify an optimal location in the digital image for placing the item and (b) modifying the placement of the item in relation to human understandable image content so as to minimally obscure such human understandable image content in the digital image. The recognition and identification of an optimal location further includes the identification of an optimal open space region and then finding an optimal location for the item within the open space region. The placement of the item may be done so as to minimally obscure human understandable image content either in other locations of the optimal open space region, or in regions of the digital image adjoining the optimal open space region. Placement of the image may further be based on evaluating the proportion of image pixels in the item that occlude pixels outside of either the optimal location or the optimal region. Moreover, one or more attributes of the item, such as the color, size or shape of the item, may be modified in relation to the human understandable image content in the digital image to enhance the prominence of the item in the digital image.
Inventors
- 👤 Peter O. Stubler
- 👤 Rajiv Mehrotra
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
US
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-09 12:20
CPC Classifications
G; G06; G06T; G06T11/00; G06T11/60; G06T7/00; G06T7/70; G06V; G06V10/00; G06V10/20; G06V10/25
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 38
Claim 1
Independent Claim
217 words
A method for placing a human understandable item in a digital image, said method comprising the steps of: (a) automatically analyzing the pixels of the digital image to recognize and identify pixel content indicating a plurality of candidate regions for placement of the human understandable item; (b) processing the plurality of candidate regions to exclude one or more regions based upon characteristics including at least one of size, shape and color which are indicative of image content that makes the region unsuitable as a candidate region for item placement, the remaining of said candidate regions comprising contiguous regions in the digital image that do not contain any significant or valuable human understandable image content and are sufficiently large to contain a substantial portion of the human understandable item; (c) automatically selecting one of the candidate regions as an optimal location in the digital image for placing the human understandable item; (d) modifying the placement of the human understandable item in relation to human understandable image content in the digital image so as to minimally obscure the human understandable image content in the digital image; and (e) rendering the digital image with the human understandable item overlaid substantially into the optimal location such that the human understandable image content is spatially unaffected by the overlaid human understandable item.
Claim 2
Independent Claim
217 words
A method for placing a human understandable item in a digital image, said method comprising the steps of: (a) automatically analyzing the pixels of the digital image to recognize and identify pixel content indicating a plurality of candidate regions for placement of the human understandable item; (b) processing the plurality of candidate regions to exclude one or more regions based upon characteristics including at least one of size, shape and color which are indicative of image content that makes the region unsuitable as a candidate region for item placement, the remaining of said candidate regions comprising contiguous regions in the digital image that do not contain any significant or valuable human understandable image content and are sufficiently large to contain a substantial portion of the human understandable item; (c) automatically selecting one of the candidate regions as an optimal location in the digital image for placing the human understandable item; (d) modifying the placement of the human understandable item in relation to human understandable image content in the digital image so as to minimally obscure the human understandable image content in the digital image; and (e) rendering the digital image with the human understandable item overlaid substantially into the optimal location such that the human understandable image content is spatially unaffected by the overlaid human understandable item.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
33 words
A method as claimed in claim 1 in which step (c) comprises identifying an optimal region comprising open space in the digital image and then finding an optimal location within the optimal region.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
44 words
A method as claimed in claim 2 in which step (d) comprises modifying the placement of the human understandable item in relation to human understandable image content so as to minimally obscure such human understandable image content in other locations of the optimal region.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
48 words
A method as claimed in claim 1 in which step (d) comprises modifying the placement of the human understandable item in relation to human understandable image content so as to minimally obscure such human understandable image content in a region of the digital image adjoining the optimal region.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
36 words
A method as claimed in claim 1 in which step (d) comprises evaluating the proportion of image pixels in the human understandable item that occlude pixels outside of either the optimal location or the optimal region.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
25 words
A method as claimed in claim 1 in which the human understandable items include at least one of a caption, text and a figurative element.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
48 words
A method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a step (f) of modifying one or more attributes of the human understandable item in relation to the human understandable image content in the digital image to enhance the prominence of the human understandable item in the digital image.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
39 words
A method as claimed in claim 7 in which step (f) comprises modifying one or more attributes of the human understandable item in relation to the human understandable image content in the digital image outside of the optimal location.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
39 words
A method as claimed in claim 7 in which the step (f) of altering one or more attributes of the human understandable item comprises altering at least one of the color, size and shape of the human understandable item.
Claim 11
Independent Claim
240 words
A method for placing a human understandable item in a digital image so as enhance the prominence of the human understandable item in relation to human understandable image content in the digital image, said method comprising the steps of: (a) automatically analyzing the pixels of the digital image to recognize and identify pixel content indicating a plurality of candidate regions for placement of the human understandable item; (b) processing the plurality of candidate regions to exclude one or more regions based upon characteristics including at least one of size, shape and color which are indicative of image content that makes the region unsuitable as a candidate region for item placement, the remaining of said candidate regions comprising contiguous regions in the digital image that do not contain any significant or valuable human understandable image content and are sufficiently large to contain a substantial portion of the human understandable item; (c) automatically selecting one of the candidate regions as an optimal location in the digital image for placing the human understandable item; (d) modifying one or more attributes of the human understandable item in relation to the human understandable image content in the digital image to enhance the prominence of the human understandable item in the digital image; and (e) rendering the digital image with the human understandable item overlaid substantially into the optimal location such that the human understandable image content is spatially unaffected by the overlaid human understandable item.
Claim 12
Independent Claim
240 words
A method for placing a human understandable item in a digital image so as enhance the prominence of the human understandable item in relation to human understandable image content in the digital image, said method comprising the steps of: (a) automatically analyzing the pixels of the digital image to recognize and identify pixel content indicating a plurality of candidate regions for placement of the human understandable item; (b) processing the plurality of candidate regions to exclude one or more regions based upon characteristics including at least one of size, shape and color which are indicative of image content that makes the region unsuitable as a candidate region for item placement, the remaining of said candidate regions comprising contiguous regions in the digital image that do not contain any significant or valuable human understandable image content and are sufficiently large to contain a substantial portion of the human understandable item; (c) automatically selecting one of the candidate regions as an optimal location in the digital image for placing the human understandable item; (d) modifying one or more attributes of the human understandable item in relation to the human understandable image content in the digital image to enhance the prominence of the human understandable item in the digital image; and (e) rendering the digital image with the human understandable item overlaid substantially into the optimal location such that the human understandable image content is spatially unaffected by the overlaid human understandable item.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
34 words
A method as claimed in claim 10 in which the step (c) comprises identifying an optimal region comprising open space in the digital image and then finding an optimal location within the optimal region.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
39 words
A method as claimed in claim 10 in which step (d) comprises modifying one or more attributes of the human understandable item in relation to the human understandable image content in the digital image outside of the optimal location.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
35 words
A method as claimed in claim 10 in which step (d) comprises modifying at least one of the color, size and shape of the human understandable item to contrast with the human understandable image content.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
227 words
A computer program product for placing a human understandable item in a digital image comprising: a computer readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon for performing the steps of: (a) automatically analyzing the pixels of the digital image to recognize and identify pixel content indicating a plurality of candidate regions for placement of the human understandable item; (b) processing the plurality of candidate regions to exclude one or more regions based upon a color characteristic which is indicative of a flesh colored image content that makes the region unsuitable as a candidate region for item placement, the remaining of said candidate regions comprising contiguous regions in the digital image that do not contain any significant or valuable human understandable image content and are sufficiently large to contain a substantial portion of the human understandable item; (c) automatically selecting one of the candidate regions as an optimal location in the digital image for placing the human understandable item; (d) modifying the placement of the human understandable item in relation to the human understandable image content in the digital image so as to minimally obscure the human understandable image content in the digital image; and (e) rendering the digital image with the human understandable item overlaid substantially into the optimal location such that the human understandable image content is spatially unaffected by the overlaid human understandable item.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
227 words
A computer program product for placing a human understandable item in a digital image comprising: a computer readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon for performing the steps of: (a) automatically analyzing the pixels of the digital image to recognize and identify pixel content indicating a plurality of candidate regions for placement of the human understandable item; (b) processing the plurality of candidate regions to exclude one or more regions based upon a color characteristic which is indicative of a flesh colored image content that makes the region unsuitable as a candidate region for item placement, the remaining of said candidate regions comprising contiguous regions in the digital image that do not contain any significant or valuable human understandable image content and are sufficiently large to contain a substantial portion of the human understandable item; (c) automatically selecting one of the candidate regions as an optimal location in the digital image for placing the human understandable item; (d) modifying the placement of the human understandable item in relation to the human understandable image content in the digital image so as to minimally obscure the human understandable image content in the digital image; and (e) rendering the digital image with the human understandable item overlaid substantially into the optimal location such that the human understandable image content is spatially unaffected by the overlaid human understandable item.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
35 words
A computer program product as claimed in claim 14 in which step (c) comprises identifying an optimal region comprising open space in the digital image and then finding an optimal location within the optimal region.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
46 words
A computer program product as claimed in claim 15 in which step (d) comprises modifying the placement of the human understandable item in relation to human understandable image content so as to minimally obscure such human understandable image content in other locations of the optimal region.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
50 words
A computer program product as claimed in claim 14 in which step (d) comprises modifying the placement of the human understandable item in relation to human understandable image content so as to minimally obscure such human understandable image content in a region of the digital image adjoining the optimal region.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
38 words
A computer program product as claimed in claim 14 in which step (d) comprises evaluating the proportion of image pixels in the human understandable item that occlude pixels outside of either the optimal location or the optimal region.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
50 words
A computer program product as claimed in claim 14 further comprising a step (f) of modifying one or more attributes of the human understandable item in relation to the human understandable image content in the digital image to enhance the prominence of the human understandable item in the digital image.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
41 words
A computer program product as claimed in claim 19 in which step (f) comprises modifying one or more attributes of the human understandable item in relation to the human understandable image content in the digital image outside of the optimal location.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
41 words
A computer program product as claimed in claim 19 in which the step (f) of altering one or more attributes of the human understandable item comprises altering at least one of the color, size and shape of the human understandable item.
Claim 25
Independent Claim
257 words
A method for automatically placing text or a figurative element within an underlying image area of a digital image so as to minimize the amount of visual image information obscured, the method comprising the steps of. (a) processing the pixels of the image to recognize and identify pixel content indicating a contiguous region in the digital image that does not contain any substantial presence of a characteristic indicative of significant or valuable human understandable image content, including a color characteristic indicative of a flesh color, said human understandable image content being part of the underlying image area, thereby identifying a suitable area for placement of the text or figurative element, wherein said text or figurative element is separate and distinct from said human understandable image content; (b) determining an optimal location in the digital image within the suitable area for the text or figurative element to be placed; (c) determining a goodness of fit within the optimal location for the text or figurative element; (d) transforming the text or figurative element based upon the results of step (c) to improve the goodness of fit for the text or figurative element without affecting the spatial location and integrity of said human understandable content; (e) determining an optimal color for the text or figurative element based upon the location of the text or figurative element in the image; and (f) rendering the digital image with the human understandable item overlaid substantially into the optimal location such that the human understandable image content is spatially unaffected by the overlaid item.
Claim 26
Independent Claim
257 words
A method for automatically placing text or a figurative element within an underlying image area of a digital image so as to minimize the amount of visual image information obscured, the method comprising the steps of. (a) processing the pixels of the image to recognize and identify pixel content indicating a contiguous region in the digital image that does not contain any substantial presence of a characteristic indicative of significant or valuable human understandable image content, including a color characteristic indicative of a flesh color, said human understandable image content being part of the underlying image area, thereby identifying a suitable area for placement of the text or figurative element, wherein said text or figurative element is separate and distinct from said human understandable image content; (b) determining an optimal location in the digital image within the suitable area for the text or figurative element to be placed; (c) determining a goodness of fit within the optimal location for the text or figurative element; (d) transforming the text or figurative element based upon the results of step (c) to improve the goodness of fit for the text or figurative element without affecting the spatial location and integrity of said human understandable content; (e) determining an optimal color for the text or figurative element based upon the location of the text or figurative element in the image; and (f) rendering the digital image with the human understandable item overlaid substantially into the optimal location such that the human understandable image content is spatially unaffected by the overlaid item.
Claim 27
Dependent Claim
18 words
A method as claimed in claim 22 wherein step (a) further includes finding open spaces within the image.
Claim 28
Dependent Claim
22 words
A method as claimed in claim 22 wherein step (a) further includes finding regions of the image not containing the main subject.
Claim 29
Dependent Claim
32 words
A method as claimed in claim 22 wherein step (b) further includes searching the image for the location where the text or figurative element occludes a minimum of significant visual image content.
Claim 30
Dependent Claim
18 words
A method as claimed in claim 22 wherein step (d) further includes scaling the text or figurative element.
Claim 31
Dependent Claim
21 words
A method as claimed in claim 22 wherein step (d) further includes splitting the text into multiple lines with various justification.
Claim 32
Dependent Claim
36 words
A method as claimed in claim 22 wherein step (e) further includes choosing white or black as the color of the text so as to maximize the contrast between the text and the surrounding image area.
Claim 33
Dependent Claim
40 words
A method as claimed in claim 22 wherein step (e) further includes choosing a dominant color appearing within the image as the color of the text so as to maximize the contrast between the text and the surrounding image area.
Claim 34
Dependent Claim
31 words
A method as in claim 22 wherein step (e) further includes choosing a color of the text so as to maximize the contrast between the text and the surrounding image area.
Claim 35
Independent Claim
195 words
A method for placing a human understandable item in a digital image, said method comprising the steps of: (a) digitally processing the digital image to recognize open space regions in the digital image; (b) digitally processing the open space regions to exclude one or more open space regions based upon a color characteristic which is indicative of a flesh colored image content that makes the open space region unsuitable as a candidate region for item placement and produce a suitability map that indicates significant sized open space regions suitable for item placement and a user preference for placement of the human understandable item within the digital image; (c) digitally processing the suitability map to identify an optimal location in the digital image for placing the human understandable item; (d) modifying the placement of the human understandable item in relation to human understandable image content in the digital image so as to minimally obscure the human understandable image content in the digital image; and (e) rendering the digital image with the human understandable item overlaid substantially into the optimal location such that the human understandable image content is spatially unaffected by the overlaid human understandable item.
Claim 36
Independent Claim
195 words
A method for placing a human understandable item in a digital image, said method comprising the steps of: (a) digitally processing the digital image to recognize open space regions in the digital image; (b) digitally processing the open space regions to exclude one or more open space regions based upon a color characteristic which is indicative of a flesh colored image content that makes the open space region unsuitable as a candidate region for item placement and produce a suitability map that indicates significant sized open space regions suitable for item placement and a user preference for placement of the human understandable item within the digital image; (c) digitally processing the suitability map to identify an optimal location in the digital image for placing the human understandable item; (d) modifying the placement of the human understandable item in relation to human understandable image content in the digital image so as to minimally obscure the human understandable image content in the digital image; and (e) rendering the digital image with the human understandable item overlaid substantially into the optimal location such that the human understandable image content is spatially unaffected by the overlaid human understandable item.
Claim 37
Independent Claim
228 words
A method for placing a human understandable item in a digital image, said method comprising the steps of: (a) digitally processing the digital image to recognize a main subject in the digital image by (a 1 ) extracting regions of arbitrary shape and size defined by actual objects in the image, (a 2 ) extracting for each of the regions at least one structural saliency feature and at least one semantic saliency feature, and (a 3 ) integrating the structural saliency feature and the semantic saliency feature using a probabilistic reasoning engine into an estimate of a belief that each region is the main subject; (b) producing a suitability map from the belief estimate that indicates significant sized contiguous regions not containing the main subject and a user preference for placement of the human understandable item within the digital image; (c) digitally processing the suitability map to identify an optimal location in the digital image for placing the human understandable item; (d) modifying the placement of the human understandable item in relation to human understandable image content in the digital image so as to minimally obscure the human understandable image content in the digital image; and (e) rendering the digital image with the human understandable item overlaid substantially into the optimal location such that the human understandable image content is spatially unaffected by the overlaid human understandable item.
Claim 38
Independent Claim
228 words
A method for placing a human understandable item in a digital image, said method comprising the steps of: (a) digitally processing the digital image to recognize a main subject in the digital image by (a 1 ) extracting regions of arbitrary shape and size defined by actual objects in the image, (a 2 ) extracting for each of the regions at least one structural saliency feature and at least one semantic saliency feature, and (a 3 ) integrating the structural saliency feature and the semantic saliency feature using a probabilistic reasoning engine into an estimate of a belief that each region is the main subject; (b) producing a suitability map from the belief estimate that indicates significant sized contiguous regions not containing the main subject and a user preference for placement of the human understandable item within the digital image; (c) digitally processing the suitability map to identify an optimal location in the digital image for placing the human understandable item; (d) modifying the placement of the human understandable item in relation to human understandable image content in the digital image so as to minimally obscure the human understandable image content in the digital image; and (e) rendering the digital image with the human understandable item overlaid substantially into the optimal location such that the human understandable image content is spatially unaffected by the overlaid human understandable item.
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USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows
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| 3.5 Years (Year 4) | 2007-03-23 | 2007-09-22 | 2008-03-23 | $2000.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 7.5 Years (Year 8) | 2011-03-23 | 2011-09-22 | 2012-03-23 | $3760.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 11.5 Years (Year 12) | 2015-03-23 | 2015-09-22 | 2016-03-23 | $7700.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |