Patent ID: 8280106

Claim:
A system for detecting a shadow region and a highlight region, the system comprising: a processor to control one or more processor-executable units; an image capturing unit to capture a new image; a background model unit to receive the new image and update a stored background model with the new image; a difference image obtaining unit to compare the new image with the background model and to obtain a difference image between the new image and the background model; a penumbra region extraction unit to extract a partial shadow region or a partial highlight region by measuring a sharpness of an edge of the difference image and expanding a background region by way of a horizontal and vertical scan of the background region, wherein a foreground pixel is determined as one of the partial shadow region or the partial highlight region when the foreground pixel is reachable from the background region without crossing a sharp edge; and an umbra region extraction unit to extract a complete shadow region or a complete highlight region based on the result of the extraction by the penumbra region extraction unit.