Method of image background replacement
View Patent ↗A method for background replacement. The method takes an input image of one or more frames of video, or a still image, and performs an initial classification of the pixels ( 14 ) as foreground or background pixels. The classification is refined ( 16 ) using one of several techniques, including anisotropic diffusion or morphological filtering. After the refined classification is completed, a feathering process ( 18 ) is used to overlay the foreground pixels from the original image on the pixels of the new background, resulting in a new output image ( 20 ).
1. A method for background replacement in image capture systems, the method comprising:
recording a background of an image with no foreground object with an image capture device, wherein the background is used as an input to a probability function;
using said image capture device to capture an input image having a foreground object;
classifying each pixel in said input image as a foreground pixel or a background pixel wherein classification results from calculating the probability function directly from a formula using chromatic component values and intensity values in the probability function for each pixel in the input image producing a classification and a probability map simultaneously;
refining said classification and probability map to ensure proper classification;
replacing said background pixels with pixels from a different background, wherein said replacing is performed with feathering using weighted values for pixel values of the input image and the different background determined by the probability map; and
producing an output image comprised of said foreground pixels and said pixels from a different background.
2. The method as claimed in claim 1 where refining is performed in the normalized RGB chromatic color space.
3. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein refining is performed in YCbCr color space.
4. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein said input image comprises one frame of video data.
5. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein said input image comprises more than one frame of video data.
6. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein said input image comprises a still image.
7. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said refining is performed with anisotropic diffusion.
8. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said refining is performed with morphological filtering.
9. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said output image is a video image.
10. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said output image is a still image.