Patent ID: 7039222
Filing Date: 2006-05-02
Classification: G06K,G06T,H04N

Abstract:
1. An automatic retouching method for enhancing an appearance of a face located in a digital image, wherein said face has hair in a skin region thereof, said method comprising the steps of: (a) acquiring a digital image containing one or more faces; (b) detecting a location of facial feature points in the one or more faces, including special feature points that are useful for identifying the location of a facial hair region; (c) defining a bounding box for the facial hair region by utilizing the feature points; (d) generating a plurality of feature probability maps within the bounding box; (e) combining the feature probability maps to generate a combined feature probability map for the facial hair region; and (f) based on the combined feature probability map for the facial hair region, using an enhancement filter to enhance at least the texture or the skin tone of the facial hair region while masking off the facial hair, thereby producing an enhanced digital image from the digital image.