Automatic detection and correction of non-red eye flash defects

1. A method for detecting non-red eye flash defects in an image, said method comprising:

(a) defining one or more luminous regions in said image, each region having at least one pixel having luminance above a luminance threshold value and a measure of redness below a red threshold value;

(b) applying at least one filter to a region corresponding to each luminous region;

(c) calculating the roundness of a region corresponding to each luminous region; and

(d) in accordance with said filtering and said roundness, determining whether said region corresponds to a non-red eye flash defect.

2. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said defining comprises:

(i) selecting pixels of the image which have a luminance above a luminance threshold value and a redness below a red threshold value; and

(ii) grouping neighboring selected pixels into said one or more luminous regions.

3. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising correcting said non-red eye flash defect.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said at least one filter comprises

(i) a size filter for determining if said region is greater than a size expected for said non-red flash defect;

(ii) a filter for adding pixels to a luminous region located with said luminous region and which have luminance below said luminance threshold value or a redness above said red threshold value;

(iii) a skin filter for determining if said region is located within a region of an image characteristic of skin; or

(iv) a face filter for determining if said region is located within a region of an image characteristic of a face, or combinations thereof.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein calculating said roundness is performed by said at least one filter to determine if said region is a non-red flash defect.

6. The method according claim 1 , further comprising, for each luminous region, determining a corresponding aggregated region by:

(i) determining a seed pixel for said aggregated region within a luminous region; and

(ii) iteratively adding non-valley neighbouring pixels to said aggregated region until no non-valley neighboring pixels adjacent to said aggregated region remain.

7. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising applying said at least one filter to said luminous region.

8. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising calculating an intensity gradient of each luminous region.

9. A digital image processing device operable to detect non-red flash eye defects in an image, and comprising a controller arranged to:

(a) define one or more luminous regions in said image, each region having at least one pixel having luminance above a luminance threshold value and a measure of redness below a red threshold value;

(b) apply at least one filter to a region corresponding to each luminous region;

(c) calculate the roundness of a region corresponding to each luminous region; and

(d) in accordance with said filtering and said roundness, determine whether said region corresponds to a non-red flash eye defect.

10. A device according to claim 9 , comprising: a digital camera or camera phone, a general purpose, portable or hand-held computer, a printer or a digital scanner, or combinations thereof.

11. One or more digital storage devices having executable program code embodied thereon for programming one or more processors to perform a method of correcting a white eye defect in a digital image, the method comprising:

(a) acquiring a digital image;

(b) determining a luminance of pixels within the digital image;

(c) selecting those pixels having a luminance above a certain threshold as candidate regions for correction of a white eye defect; defining one or more luminous regions in said image, each region having at least one pixel having luminance above a luminance threshold value and a measure of redness below a red threshold value;

(d) filtering the selected pixels; and

(e) correcting the white eye defect for non-filtered pixels among the selected pixels.

12. The one or more storage devices of claim 11 , wherein the filtering comprises geometrical filtering of pixels based on a size or shape or both of a selected pixel region.

13. The one or more storage devices of claim 11 , wherein the filtering comprises geometrical filtering of pixels based on a size of a selected pixel region being above a threshold size.

14. The one or more storage devices of claim 11 , wherein the correcting comprising calculating a roundness of a selected pixel region, and correcting the roundness if it does not exceed a certain threshold value of roundness.

15. The one or more storage devices of claim 11 , wherein the filtering comprises checking whether an average saturation of a selected pixel region exceeds a certain threshold saturation, and correcting the selected pixel region only if the threshold is exceeded.

16. The one or more storage devices of claim 11 , the method further comprising:

(i) selecting a bright pixel as a seed pixel; and

(ii) aggregating outwardly from the seed pixel to combine those pixels that are not valley points with the seed pixel as an aggregated region until a minimum number of non-valley neighbors are left or a threshold size is reached, or a combination thereof.

17. The one or more storage devices of claim 16 , the method further comprising smoothing the aggregated region.

18. The one or more storage devices of claim 16 , the method further comprising computing an intensity gradient for one or more candidate regions.

19. The one or more storage devices of claim 11 , the method further comprising filtering a candidate region that comprises merely a glint.

20. The one or more storage devices of claim 11 , the method further comprising detecting and correcting a red eye defect within the digital image.