Patent Document ID: 9774793
Application ID: 14449351
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A computer-implemented digital image processing method comprising: receiving pixel data representing a current image frame, the pixel data including a pixel location within the current image frame and color channel information for each pixel in the current image frame; calculating a bias term representing a weighting of each pixel in the current image frame towards one of a foreground bias region and a background bias region based on the pixel location relative to each of the foreground bias region and the background bias region; automatically assigning a pixel label to each pixel in the current image frame, each pixel label representing one of a foreground pixel and a background pixel; automatically associating a feature cluster with each pixel in the current image frame having a particular color based on the color channel information, the feature cluster representing a non-local, color-based neighborhood of all pixels in the current image frame having the particular color; segmenting, by a processor using an energy optimization function, the current image frame into a foreground segment and a background segment based on the pixel data, the feature cluster, and the bias term such that all of the pixels in the current image frame having the particular color are in one of the foreground segment and the background segment, wherein the current image frame is segmented by optimizing an objective function, the objective function including all of the pixel labels in the current image frame combined with all of the feature clusters in the current image frame; generating a pixel mask corresponding to pixels in at least one of the foreground segment and the background segment; and displaying, via a graphical user interface, the current image frame and the pixel mask such that the pixel mask is superimposed over the respective pixels in the image frame.