Granted Patent B2

US 11,328,822 · App. 16/550,022 · Granted May 10, 2022

Inventor: Tami Robyn Ellison (Jerusalem, IL)

Assignee: Conflu3nce LTD

G16H50/30G06F3/011G06F3/0482

Abstract

Claims (124)

1. A system comprising:

a processor system including at least one processor; and

a memory system;

the memory system storing one or more instructions, which, when invoked, implement a method including at least

identifying, by the system, a ground position of at least an area of interest of an image by at least identifying a contiguity of the area of interest, the area interest including at least part of the image; the contiguity being a portion of at least the area of interest of the image, which when rendered is represented by a group of picture elements, where the group of picture elements are adjacent to one another and form a continuous image element, and the group of picture elements extends horizontally across most of the area of interest of the image;

determining, by the system, an ambiguity rating for at least a portion of the image, the ambiguity rating being a value that represents a degree to which the portion of the image has multiple interpretations; and

determining whether an element is associated with a ground position based on at least the ambiguity rating.

2. The system of claim 1 , the method further comprising:

determining, by the system, a relationship between elements of the area of interest of the image by at least determining that an element is in a figure position of the area of interest of the image.

3. The system of claim 1 , the image having multiple contiguities that have a hierarchical relationship,

the image having multiple contiguities that have a hierarchical relationship, and the method further comprising determining features of the area of interest of the image are based on at least the hierarchical relationship.

4. The system of claim 1 , the method further comprising:

the identifying of the contiguity including at least identifying, by the system, multiple contiguities;

associating, by the system, a contrast with each contiguity; and

the identifying of the ground position being based at least on a relative contrast of the multiple contiguities with respect to one another.

5. The system of claim 1 , the method further comprising:

identifying, by the system, a foreground element by at least identifying a disruption in the contiguity.

6. The system of claim 1 , the method further comprising:

dividing the area of interest of the image into a background and a foreground, wherein the contiguity separates between the foreground and the background of the area of interest.

7. The system of claim 1 , the method further comprising:

the identifying of the contiguity including at least determining an element to be within a ground position by at least identifying the element as being part of the contiguity.

8. The system of claim 1 , the method further comprising:

identifying another contiguity; and

identifying an element as being in a figure position by at least identifying the element as being within another contiguity.

9. The system of claim 1 , the method further comprising:

maneuvering a vehicle based at least on the identifying of the contiguity.

10. The system of claim 1 ,

the identifying of the ground position further including at least determining whether edges of the contiguity separate color sections of the image, and associating at least one of the color sections with a ground position and associating at least one of the color sections with a figure position.

11. The system of claim 1 , further comprising

an artificial intelligence module; and

invoking, via the system, the artificial intelligence module to analyze the image, based at least on a training set upon which the artificial intelligence module was trained, and a value associated with a figure ground relationship.

12. The system of claim 11 , the invoking of the artificial intelligence module to analyze the image including at least defining a relationship between objects.

13. The system of claim 1 , further comprising

establishing a color map that maps color to a spatial relationship associated with the image; and

associating a foreground with the color map.

14. The system of claim 1 , further comprising

establishing a color map that maps color to a spatial relationship associated with the image; and

associating a background with the color map.

15. The system of claim 1 , the method further comprising:

cropping the image prior to the identifying of the ground position, the cropping of the image resulting in at least the area of interest being contained within a cropped portion of the image, wherein the identifying of the ground position is performed based at least on the area of interest that is contained within the cropped portion of the image.

16. The system of claim 1 , the method further comprising: searching for the image.

17. The system of claim 1 , where the group of picture elements forms a patch of the image, which extends at least as much horizontally as vertically and which extends horizontally across most of the area of interest of the image.

18. A system comprising:

a processor system including at least one processor; and

a memory system;

the memory system storing one or more instructions, which, when invoked, implement a method including at least

identifying, by the system, a ground position of at least an area of interest of an image by at least identifying a contiguity of the area of interest, the area interest including at least part of the image;

the contiguity being a portion of at least the area of interest of the image, which when rendered is represented by a group of picture elements, where the group of picture elements are adjacent to one another and form a continuous image element, and the group of picture elements extends at least as much horizontally as vertically and that extends horizontally across most of the area of interest of the image; and

searching, by the system, for an image that will occupy a background position of a composite image by at least searching for an image with a contiguity.

19. A system comprising:

a processor system including at least one processor; and

a memory system;

the memory system storing one or more instructions, which, when invoked, implement a method including at least

identifying, by the system, a ground position of at least an area of interest of an image by at least identifying a contiguity of the area of interest, the area interest including at least part of the image;

the contiguity being a portion of the at least the area of interest of the image, which when rendered is represented by a group of picture elements, where the group of picture elements are adjacent to one another and form a continuous image element, and the group of picture elements extends at least as much horizontally as vertically and that extends horizontally across most of the area of interest of the image; and

determining, by the system, a saliency value, where the saliency value is a value that represents a quality of at least a single pixel relative to surrounding pixels that is associated with attracting a visual focus within a chosen area of the area of interest of the image;

determining an element to be a foreground element based on at least the saliency value

the saliency value being a value that increases and decreases with increases and decreases in contrast between, or within, elements of the chosen area of the area of interest of the image;

wherein saliency values on one side of a threshold being indicative of a higher degree of the contrast between, or within, the elements of the chosen area of the area of interest of the image,

the saliency values that are on the one side of the threshold being indicative of the element being part of a foreground, and the determining of the element to be a foreground element being based at least on the saliency value being on the one side of the threshold that is indicative of the higher degree of the contrast between, or within, the elements of the chosen area of the area of interest of the image; and

saliency values on another side of the threshold that is indicative of a lower degree of the contrast between, or within, the elements of the image, the saliency values that are on the other side of the threshold being indicative of the element being a background element, and the determining of the element to be the background element being based at least on the saliency value being on the other side of the threshold that is indicative of the lower degree of the contrast between, or within, the elements of the chosen area of the area of interest of the image.

20. A system comprising:

a processor system including at least one processor; and

a memory system;

the memory system storing one or more instructions, which, when invoked, implement a method including at least

identifying, by the system, a ground position of at least an area of interest of an image by at least identifying a contiguity of the area of interest, the area interest including at least part of the image;

the contiguity being a portion of the at least the area of interest of the image, which when rendered is represented by a group of picture elements, where the group of picture elements are adjacent to one another and form a continuous image element, and the group of picture elements extends at least as much horizontally as vertically and that extends horizontally across most of the area of interest of the image;

determining, by the system, a saliency value, the saliency value being a combination of other values that characterize at least a chosen area of the area of interest of the image, the saliency being a quality of a group of pixels or a quality for a single pixel relative to surrounding pixels within a chosen area of the area of interest of the image; and

determining an element to be a foreground element based on at least the saliency value.

21. The system of claim 20 , wherein the other values include a contrast between elements within at least the chosen area of the area of interest of the image.

22. The system of claim 20 , wherein the other values include a value representing how many contiguities are in at least the chosen area of the area of interest of the image.

23. The system of claim 20 , wherein the other values include a value representing how many regions of different color are present in at least the chosen area within the area of interest of the image, where each region of a particular color has elements that are within one or more threshold values of a color value characterizing the particular color.

24. The system of claim 20 , wherein the other values include a value representing a distribution of blocks of color within at least the chosen area of the area of interest.

25. The system of claim 20 , wherein the other values include a value representing a comparison of at least

(1) a value representing how many contiguities are in at least the chosen area of the area of the image and

(2) a value representing how many regions of different colors are present in at least the chosen area of the area of the image, where each region of a particular color has elements that are within one or more threshold values of a color value characterizing the particular color.

26. A system comprising:

a processor system including at least one processor; and

a memory system;

the memory system storing one or more instructions, which, when invoked, implement a method including at least

identifying, by the system, a ground position of at least an area of interest of an image by at least identifying a contiguity of the area of interest, the area interest including at least part of the image;

the contiguity being a portion of at least the area of interest of the image, which when rendered is represented by a group of picture elements, where the group of picture elements are adjacent to one another and form a continuous image element, and the group of picture elements extends at least as much horizontally as vertically and that extends horizontally across most of the area of interest of the image;

the identifying including at least producing, by the system, a binary image to identify the contiguity, wherein pixels of the binary image have one of two values, and the pixels of the contiguity have the same pixel value; and

identifying, by the system, a foreground region based at least in part on the binary image.

27. The system of claim 26 , the image being a still image.

28. The system of claim 26 , the method not requiring the image to have portions associated with movement.

29. A system comprising:

a processor system including at least one processor; and

a memory system;

the memory system storing one or more instructions, which, when invoked, implement a method including at least

identifying, by the system, a ground position of at least an area of interest of a first image by at least identifying a contiguity of the area of interest, the area interest including at least part of the first image; and

the contiguity being a portion of at least the area of interest of the first image, which when rendered is represented by a group of picture elements, where the group of picture elements are adjacent to one another and form a continuous image element, and the group of picture elements extends at least as much horizontally as vertically and that extends horizontally across most of the area of interest of the first image;

searching, by the system, for a second image with a specified contiguity characteristic;

determining, by the system, a relative hierarchy between the first image and the second image found by the searching, the relative hierarchy being based at least on a value assigned to the contiguity characteristic; and

selecting, by the system, the second image based at least on the relative hierarchy; and

combining the first image and the second image into a composite image.

30. A system comprising:

a processor system including at least one processor; and

a memory system;

the memory system storing one or more instructions, which, when invoked, implement a method including at least

identifying, by the system, a ground position of at least an area of interest of an image by at least identifying a contiguity of the area of interest, the area interest including at least part of the image;

the contiguity being a portion of at least the area of interest of the image, which when rendered is represented by a group of picture elements, where the group of picture elements are adjacent to one another and form a continuous image element, and the group of picture elements extends at least as much horizontally as vertically and that extends horizontally across most of the area of interest of the image, the image being a first image; and

categorizing one or more images based at least on contiguity characteristics.

31. A system comprising:

a processor system including at least one processor; and

a memory system;

the memory system storing one or more instructions, which when invoked, implement a method including at least

identifying, by the system, a figure position of an area of interest of an image by at least identifying a contiguity of at least the area of interest of the image, the area of interest of the image including at least part of the image;

the contiguity being at least a portion of the area of interest of the image, which when rendered is represented by a group of picture elements that are adjacent to one another and that form a continuous image element that extends at least as much horizontally as vertically and that extends horizontally across most of the area of interest of the image;

determining, by the system, an ambiguity rating for at least a portion of the image, the ambiguity rating being a value that represents a degree to which the portion of the image has multiple interpretations; and

determining whether an element is associated with a ground position based at least on the ambiguity rating.

32. A method comprising:

identifying, by a system, a ground position of an area of interest of an image by at least identifying a contiguity of at least the area of interest of the image, the system including at least a processor system including at least one processor, and a memory system that stores one or more instructions, which when invoked cause the system to implement the method; and

the contiguity being at least a portion of the area of interest of the image, which when rendered is represented by a group of picture elements that are adjacent to one another and that form a continuous image element that extends horizontally across most of the area of interest of the image;

determining, by the system, an ambiguity rating for at least a portion of the image, the ambiguity rating being a value that represents a degree to which the portion of the image has multiple interpretations; and

determining whether an element is associated with a ground position based at least on the ambiguity rating.

33. A system comprising:

a processor system including at least one processor; and

a memory system;

the memory system storing one or more instructions, which, when invoked, implement a method including at least

identifying, by the system, a ground position of at least an area of interest of an image by at least identifying a contiguity of the area of interest, the area interest including at least part of the image;

the contiguity being a portion of at least the area of interest of the image, which when rendered is represented by a group of picture elements, where the group of picture elements are adjacent to one another and form a continuous image element, and the group of picture elements extends horizontally across most of the area of interest of the image;

determining, by the system, a saliency value, where the saliency value is a value that represents a quality of at least a single pixel relative to surrounding pixels, the quality being associated with attracting a visual focus within a chosen area of the area of interest of the image, where the quality is based at least on factors other than just geometric factors; and

determining an element to be a foreground element based on at least the saliency value.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (10)

Cited By (1)

US 12,412,293