Patent ID: 9672628
Date: 2017-06-06
CPC Classifications: G06K,G06T

Claim:
1. An area partitioning method for partitioning an image into a foreground and a background, the method comprising: a foreground designation step comprising causing a user to designate a part of pixels in an area in the image as a foreground designating pixel; an estimation step comprising estimating a foreground color distribution and a background color distribution based on a color of the foreground designating pixel designated by the user; and an area partition step comprising partitioning the image into a foreground area and a background area with the estimated foreground color distribution and the estimated background color distribution as a condition, wherein the estimation step comprises: wherein, in the area partition step, an optimum solution of the foreground area is obtained from a plurality of candidate areas that are of candidate solutions of the foreground area by evaluating identity of the foreground of a color of each pixel inside any of the plurality of candidate areas for the foreground color distribution and identity of the background of a color of each pixel outside the candidate area for the background color distribution with respect to the plurality of candidate areas.