Patent Document ID: 9704069
Application ID: 14642321

Base Claim:
1. An image processing method for classifying each of a plurality of regions in an image to one of a plurality of predefined classes using classification confidences, the method comprising: a confidence generation step for generating, for each of a plurality of regions of the image, a set of classification confidences, each classification confidence corresponding to one of a plurality of predefined classes and representing the probability of the respective region belonging to the predefined class; and a classification step for classifying the regions in the image wherein for each of the regions for which an obvious match with one of the predefined classes exists based on the classification confidences associated with the region, classifying the region to the respective predefined class based on the classification confidences associated with the region, the method further comprising: a fuzzy region extraction step for extracting and designating as fuzzy regions one or more regions of the plurality of regions, which do not have an obvious match with one of the plurality of predefined classes based on their set of associated classification confidences; and a confidence update step for updating the classification confidence for each such fuzzy region based on the sets of classification confidences associated with adjacent regions thereof, wherein the classification step further classifies the fuzzy regions to respective predefined classes based on the updated classification confidences.

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Claim 3:
3. The image processing method according to claim 1 , wherein the fuzzy region extraction step comprises: a confidence normalization step for normalizing the classification confidences for each region in the image; a confidence difference calculation step for calculating the difference between the maximum classification confidence and the second maximum classification confidence for each region; and a fuzzy region judgment step for judging a region, for which the calculated confidence difference is lower than a predefined threshold, to be a fuzzy region.