Patent Document ID: 9280719
Application ID: 14148404
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A computer-implemented method of segmenting a foreground portion from a background portion of an image having a plurality of image elements, each image element having an associated value, the method comprising: selecting a seed region in the foreground portion of the image; calculating, using a processor, a geodesic distance from each image element to the seed region using the associated values; generating a background seed using the geodesic distance from each image element to the seed region; calculating, using the processor, a geodesic distance from each image element to the background seed using the associated values; calculating an overall geodesic distance for each image element by combining: i) the geodesic distance from each image element to the seed region; and ii) the geodesic distance from each image element to the background seed; determining a subset of the image elements having an overall geodesic distance less than a predefined threshold; and labeling the subset of the image elements as foreground image elements.