Patent Document ID: 9443162
Application ID: 14496544
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of segmenting an image using a computer, the method comprising: using a set of user input foreground markers identifying a foreground of an image to be segmented, defining N f foreground regions and N b background regions, where N f is an integer greater than zero and N b is an integer at least zero; for each respective border region that defines a border of the image and is not one of the N f foreground regions, performing a multi-level assessment of the respective border region to determine whether the respective border region is a possible foreground region, where each level of the multi-level assessment compares color similarity, with respect to a threshold that is specific for that level, between the respective border region and any of the N f foreground regions or of a region that satisfied the threshold of a previous level of the multi-level assessment; from the multi-level assessment and the foreground markers, classifying each region of the image to be segmented as one of a strong foreground region, a strong background region or an ambiguous region; classifying each of the respective ambiguous regions as a weak foreground region or a weak background region; and merging the strong foreground regions with the weak foreground regions and output therefrom, to a tangible memory or to a graphical display, a foreground image of the image to be segmented, separate and distinct from any region classified as one of the strong background regions or weak background regions.