Patent Document ID: 10096116
Application ID: 14766687
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for generating a depth-based segmentation of a three dimensional (3D) image data of a 3D image, the method comprising: determining a first set of local features within a first image data for a first view of the 3D image; determining a second set of local features within a second image data for a second view of the 3D image; determining a set of corresponding local features between the first set of local features of the first image data and the second set of local features of the second image data of the 3D image data; and segmenting each of the first image data and the second image data into a plurality of corresponding depth regions of the first image data and second image data for the 3D image based on: the set of corresponding local features within corresponding depth regions of the first image data and the second image data, and a depth map of the 3D image, wherein the depth map is made up of depth map elements defined by an image position and a depth value, wherein each local feature describes a patch of the 3D image surrounding a point within the 3D image, and wherein the segmenting comprises: identifying a set of initial depth regions, wherein each initial depth region is: a group of contiguous depth map elements, and formed from the depth map based upon the depth values assigned to individual ones of the depth map elements; computing, for pairs of corresponding initial depth regions in the first image data and the second image data, an average spatial displacement of corresponding local features within a pair of corresponding initial depth regions; and merging adjacent ones of the set of initial depth regions based on similarity between the adjacent ones of the initial depth regions as measured by a correlation value for the adjacent ones of the initial depth regions, wherein the correlation value is based upon both: respective depth values assigned to the adjacent ones of the initial depth regions, and respective average spatial displacement of corresponding local features within the pair of corresponding initial depth regions, computed during the computing, for the adjacent ones of the initial depth regions.