Automatic color identification techniques

Abstract

AUTOMATIC COLOR IDENTIFICATION TECHNIQUES In some embodiments, a computer-implemented method for automatically determining harmonious colors is proposed. A computer system receives a color selection and uses the selected color to retrieve a cleavage surface in a uniform color space. The computer system presents one or more other colors of the cleavage surface as harmonious colors with respect to the selected color. Figure for the abstract: none

Description

Title of the invention: Automatic identification techniques for harmonious colors Summary

[0001] The purpose of this summary is to present a selection of concepts in a simplified form, which are described in greater detail below in the detailed description. This summary is not intended to identify key features of the claimed subject matter, nor to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

[0002] In some embodiments, a computer-implemented method for automatically determining harmonious colors is proposed. A computer system receives a color selection and uses the selected color to retrieve a cleavage surface in a uniform color space. The computer system presents one or more other colors of the cleavage surface as harmonious colors with respect to the selected color.

[0003] In certain embodiments, a non-transient, computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored on it is proposed. The instructions, in response to execution by one or more processors of a computer system, cause the computer system to perform actions for the automatic determination of harmonious colors, the actions comprising: the computer system receiving a selection of a color; the computer system using the selected color to recover a cleavage surface in a uniform color space; and the computer system presenting one or more other colors of the cleavage surface as harmonious colors with respect to the selected color.

[0004] In some embodiments, a system is proposed which includes circuitry for receiving a selection of a color; circuitry for using the selected color to recover a cleavage surface in a uniform color space; and circuitry for presenting one or more other colors of the cleavage surface as harmonious colors with respect to the selected color.

[0005] The invention relates to a system comprising:

[0006] - a circuitry for receiving a selection of a color;

[0007] - a circuit for using the selected color to recover a surface of cleavage in a uniform color space; and

[0008] - a circuit for displaying one or more other colors of the surface of cleavage as harmonious colors in relation to the selected color.

[0009] According to other advantageous aspects of the invention, the system comprises one or more of the following features, taken individually or in all technically possible combinations:

[0010] + the selected color is in a non-linear color space;

[0011] - the system further comprising color conversion circuitry selected from non-linear color space to uniform color space;

[0012] - in which the nonlinear color space is a CIELAB color space; and

[0013] - in which the uniform color space is an OSA-UCS color space (Optical Society of America Uniform Color Scales),

[0014] + the use of the selected color to recover the cleavage surface in The uniform color space includes:

[0015] - the determination of a desired subjective effect; and

[0016] - the use of the selected color to recover a cleavage surface having a shape associated with the desired subjective effect,

[0017] + the presentation of one or more other colors of the cleavage surface as harmonious colors in relation to the selected color include:

[0018] - the presentation of one or more other colors that are found on the surface of cleavage and are at least an integer value away from the selected color and from each other,

[0019] + the system further comprises:

[0020] -a data receiving circuitry identifying a set of harmonious colors in the uniform color space;

[0021] -a circuitry for determining a cleavage surface of uniform color space that includes the set of harmonious colors; and

[0022] -a circuitry for storing the determined cleavage surface, and

[0023] + the data identifying the harmonious color scheme in the color space uniforms include an image of a look and a textual description of the look; and in which the system further includes:

[0024] -a circuit for determining the harmonious color scheme from the image of the look;

[0025] - a circuit for determining the shape and location of a surface cleavage associated with the interplay of harmonious colors;

[0026] - a circuit for determining a subjective effect of the look based on the textual description; and

[0027] - a storage circuitry of at least the shape of the cleavage surface in association with the subjective effect. Brief description of the drawings

[0028] The foregoing aspects and many related advantages of embodiments of this disclosure will be more readily appreciated as they are better understood with reference to the following detailed description, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0029] [Fig-1] Fig. 1 is a schematic illustration of a determination system automatic harmonious color matching according to various aspects of this disclosure.

[0030] [Fig.2] The [Fig.2] is a functional diagram that illustrates aspects of a non-limiting example of an embodiment of a color harmony calculation computer system according to various aspects of this disclosure.

[0031] [Fig. 3A] [Fig. 3B] Figures 3A and 3B are flowcharts illustrating a non-limiting example of an embodiment of a method for automatically determining harmonious colors according to various aspects of this disclosure. Detailed description

[0032] A common way of organizing colors for use in art, design, and other creative activities is a color wheel. A typical color wheel is the RJB color wheel, which is based on three primary colors (e.g., red, yellow, and blue), three secondary colors that are combinations of two primary colors (e.g., green, orange, and purple), and six tertiary colors that are combinations of one primary color and one secondary color.

[0033] Color harmony is a characteristic of a combination of two or more colors that are pleasing next to each other. Generally, harmonious colors can be selected based on their relative positions on a color wheel. For example, colors directly opposite each other (complementary colors), side by side (analogous colors), next to a complementary color of a key color (divided complementary colors), equidistant from each other (triadic or tetradic colors), and other arrangements on a color wheel are considered harmonious colors.

[0034] While color wheels allow the selection of harmonious colors from an RJB color space (or another nonlinear color space optimized for color reproduction), these color spaces can leave significant portions of the human color perception range uncovered. Furthermore, these color spaces are device-dependent—since they specify colors as varying amounts of primary color contributions, device-specific implementations of the primary color contributions result in absolute color differences produced by different devices.

[0035] In order to improve upon these deficiencies in device-dependent color spaces, various device-independent color spaces have been developed by testing color perception under laboratory conditions. For example, the CIELAB color space (also known as L*a*b*) is a device-independent color space that defines colors in terms of brightness value (L*), value on a green-red axis (a*), and value on a blue-yellow axis (b*). Since this color space defines the same color regardless of the device used to reproduce or capture the color, it is useful for measuring and comparing colors. However, although the CIELAB color space covers the entire range of human color perception, it has been determined to be not perceptually uniform across the entire range.Thus, the CIELAB color space cannot be arranged according to a geometry (e.g., a color wheel) that allows for the automatic identification of harmonious colors based on their relative positions within the geometry. We desire techniques that can take advantage of the wide gamut and inter-device compatibility of the CIELAB color space while still offering automatic identification of harmonious colors.

[0036] In certain embodiments, the present disclosure takes advantage of a uniform color space, such as the OSA-UCS (Optical Society of America Uniform Color Scales) color space, to automatically identify harmonious colors. A color specified in the CIELAB color space can be converted to an analogous color in the OSA-UCS color space, and a cleavage surface based on the analogous color can be used to identify harmonious colors. As with the various relationships between harmonious colors in the color wheel (e.g., complementary, analogous, etc.), a shape of the cleavage surface can be used to specify a desired subjective effect for harmonious colors.

[0037] Figure 1 is a schematic illustration of an automatic harmonious color determination system according to various aspects of this disclosure. The system 100 includes a color harmony computer system 102 that collects information from a variety of harmonious color sources 112. The harmonious color sources 112 are information sources that provide sets of colors that are considered harmonious, so that the color harmony computer system 102 can analyze these sets in the uniform color space.

[0038] Any suitable source of information concerning colors that are considered harmonious can be used as a source of harmonious colors 112. As illustrated, sources of harmonious colors 112 include one or more social media systems 106, one or more product catalogue systems 108 and one or more survey systems 110, although in other embodiments more, less, or different types of sources may be used as sources of harmonious colours 112.

[0039] In some embodiments, a survey system 110 can be used to present color combinations to observers and can collect feedback from the observers as to whether the presented color combinations are harmonious or not. When the feedback indicates that the color combinations are harmonious, the associated combinations can be provided to the color harmony computer system 102 as harmonious color sets. In some embodiments, the survey system 110 can also collect the observers' feelings about the subjective effects of various color combinations, and the subjective effects can be provided to the color harmony computer system 102 along with the harmonious color sets.

[0040] In some embodiments, a product catalog system 108 can be used to provide harmonious color schemes to the color harmony computer system 102. Generally, cosmetic products are organized into thematic groups, or palettes, which are arranged by a designer or other creative talent to be aesthetically pleasing in combination. As such, it can be assumed that the colors of the products within a palette are harmonious with each other, and information representing the colors of such products can be reused by the color harmony computer system 102. The palettes may also be accompanied by names, descriptions, or other information describing a subjective effect sought by the palette designer. This subjective effect information can also be consumed by the color harmony computer system 102.

[0041] In some embodiments, social media systems 106 can be used to greatly increase the amount of data available to the color harmony computer system 102, although additional steps may be required to extract the desired information from such harmonious color sources 112. In a social media system 106 (e.g., Threads or Instagram by Meta; BlueSky; etc.), a post, story, or other content unit may include an image of a "look," which includes a subject with a combination of clothing, accessories, hairstyle / hair color, skin tone, eye color, cosmetic product(s), and / or other notable features. The content unit may also include text describing the look. The color harmony computer system 102 can be configured to The system automatically detects colors of cosmetics, hair, skin tone, eye color, clothing, etc., in an image and can consider the automatically detected colors as a harmonious color scheme. The 102 color harmony computer system can also be configured to perform automatic sentiment analysis using natural language processing techniques to extract a subjective effect of appearance in the image and associate this extracted subjective effect with the color scheme.

[0042] Once the color harmony computer system 102 has collected harmonious color sets, the color harmony computer system 102 can convert the harmonious colors into a uniform color space such as the OSA-UCS color space, and then determine a cleavage surface associated with each harmonious color set. A cleavage surface is a surface defined in the coordinate system of the uniform color space, and which identifies a plurality of colors within the uniform color space by the coordinates through which it passes. In some embodiments, the cleavage surface may be flat, in which case it may be called a cleavage plane. In some embodiments, the cleavage surface may be curved, or may include one or more nonlinear plane segments.Since the cleavage surface encodes a certain similarity in the perception of the colors it represents, once a cleavage surface is found based on a harmonious color set, other colors found on the cleavage surface will also be harmonious with the harmonious color set, thus allowing for the automatic identification of additional harmonious colors.

[0043] Once cleavage surfaces that identify harmonious colors are identified, the color harmony computer system 102 can use them for any appropriate purpose. A non-limiting example is shown in [Fig. 1], in which an end-user computing device 104, such as a smartphone, displays a user interface provided by the color harmony computer system 102 (or based on information provided by the color harmony computer system 102). In the user interface, a user selects a first color and potentially a desired subjective effect.The 102 color harmony computer system can determine a cleavage surface within the uniform color space based on the first color and (optionally) the desired subjective effect, and can present one or more other colors of the cleavage surface as other potential harmonious colors with respect to the first color.

[0044] Figure 2 is a functional diagram that illustrates aspects of a non-limiting example of an embodiment of a computer color harmony system. according to various aspects of this disclosure. The illustrated Color Harmony 102 computer system can be implemented by any computer device or set of computer devices, including, but not limited to, a desktop computer, a portable computer, a mobile computer, a server computer, a cloud computing system computer, and / or combinations thereof. As described in more detail below, the Color Harmony 102 computer system is configured to automatically determine harmonious colors using a uniform color space and to provide the automatically determined harmonious colors for various purposes.

[0045] As shown, the color harmony computer device 102 includes one or more processors 202, one or more communication interfaces 204, a cleavage surface data store 208 and a computer-readable medium 206.

[0046] In some embodiments, the 202 processors may include any suitable type of general-purpose computing processor. In some embodiments, the 202 processors may include one or more specialized computing processors or AI accelerators optimized for specific computing tasks, including, but not limited to, graphics processing units (GPUs), vision processing units (VPTs), and tensor processing units (TPUs).

[0047] In some embodiments, the communication interfaces 204 include one or more hardware and / or software interfaces adapted to provide communication links between components. The communication interfaces 204 can support one or more wired communication technologies (including, but not limited to, Ethernet, FireWire and USB), one or more wireless communication technologies (including, but not limited to, Wi-Fi, WiMAX, Bluetooth, 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G and LTE), and / or combinations thereof.

[0048] As shown, the computer-readable medium 206 stores logic which, in response to its execution by one or more processors 202, causes the color harmony computer system 102 to provide a color space conversion engine 210, a cleavage surface determination engine 212 and a harmonious color determination engine 214.

[0049] As used herein, the term "computer-readable medium" means a removable or non-removable device that implements any technology capable of storing information in a volatile or non-volatile manner for reading by a processor of a computing device, including, but not limited to: a hard disk drive; flash memory; a solid-state disk drive; random access memory (RAM); read-only memory (ROM); a CD-ROM, a DVD, or a other disk storage; a magnetic cassette; a magnetic tape; and a magnetic disk memory.

[0050] In some embodiments, the color space conversion engine 210 is configured to receive colors in a nonlinear color space and convert them to the uniform color space. In some embodiments, the cleavage surface determination engine 212 is configured to use harmonious color sets to determine cleavage surfaces within the uniform color space that include the harmonious colors, and which can then be used to determine additional harmonious colors. The cleavage surface determination engine 212 can store the determined cleavage surfaces in the cleavage surface data store 208.In some embodiments, the harmonious color determination engine 214 is configured to retrieve a suitable cleavage surface from the cleavage surface data store 208 when presented with an input color, and to output one or more other colors that are harmonious with the input color using the cleavage surface. A more detailed description of the configuration of each of these components is provided below.

[0051] As used herein, the term "engine" refers to the logic embodied in hardware or software instructions, which may be written in one or more programming languages, including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, COBOL, JAVA™, PHP, Perl, H™L, CSS, JavaScript, VBScript, ASPX, Go, and Python. An engine may be compiled into executable programs or written in interpreted programming languages. Software engines may be called from other engines or from themselves. In general, the engines described herein refer to logical modules that may be merged with other engines or may be divided into sub-engines.The engines can be implemented by logic stored in any type of computer-readable storage medium or device and be stored and executed by one or more general-purpose computers, thus creating a special-purpose computer configured to provide the engine or its functionality. The engines can be implemented by logic programmed in an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a user-programmable pre-broadcast array (FPGA), or other hardware device.

[0052] As used herein, the term "data store" means any suitable device configured to store data for access by a computing device. An example of a data store is a highly reliable and fast relational database management system (DBMS) that runs on one or more computing devices and is accessible over a high-speed network. Another example of a data store is a key-value store. However, any other suitable storage technique and / or device capable of quickly and reliably delivering stored data in response to queries may be used, and the computing device may be accessed locally instead of being connected to a network, or may be provided as a cloud service. A data store may also include data stored in an organized manner on a computer-readable storage medium, such as a hard disk drive, flash memory, RAM, ROM, or any other type of computer-readable storage medium. A person skilled in the art will recognize that separate data stores described herein may be combined into a single data store, and / or that a single data store described herein may be separated into multiple data stores, without departing from the scope of this disclosure.

[0053] Fig. 3A and Fig. 3B are a flowchart that illustrates a non-limiting example of an embodiment of a method for automatically determining harmonious colors according to various aspects of this disclosure.

[0054] Starting from a starting block, method 300 proceeds to block 302, where a cleavage surface determination engine 212 of a color harmony computer system 102 receives data identifying a harmonious color set in a uniform color space. In some embodiments, the data identifying the harmonious color set may be provided in a different color space, including, but not limited to, a nonlinear color space such as CIELAB or sRGB, and the colors from the nonlinear color space may be converted to the uniform color space by the color space conversion engine 210.

[0055] The data can be received by the cleavage surface determination engine 212 in any suitable format. In some embodiments, the data can directly identify the colors of the harmonious color set (for example, by providing coordinates in a color space). In some embodiments, the colors themselves can be identified. In some embodiments, cosmetic products or other objects can be identified, and the cleavage surface determination engine 212 can consult previously determined colors associated with the objects (for example, experimentally measured colors of the objects) to identify the colors of the harmonious color set.

[0056] In some embodiments, the data can indirectly identify the colors of the harmonious color set so that the cleavage surface determination engine 212 can extract the harmonious colors from the data. For example, in some embodiments, the data can Include an image of a look, such as a selfie. The 212 Cleavage Surface Determination Engine can use computer vision techniques to perform face detection on the image and identify facial features associated with cosmetic products (e.g., lips, eyelids, etc.). The 212 Cleavage Surface Determination Engine can then sample colors within these cosmetic-associated facial features to extract harmonious colors from the image.

[0057] In block 304, the cleavage surface determination engine 212 determines the shape and location of a cleavage surface in the uniform color space based on the harmonious color set. In some embodiments, the cleavage surface may be flat (a cleavage plane). In such embodiments, if the harmonious color set has three colors, then the location of the cleavage surface can be uniquely defined by the plane that intersects the three colors of the harmonious color set. In some embodiments, the cleavage surface may be parallel to one of the natural cleavage planes of the uniform color space and may be moved in this orientation to find a better fit to the harmonious color set.

[0058] If the harmonious color set contains more than three colors, a regression analysis can be used to determine a plane that minimizes a distance to the harmonious color set. In some embodiments, the cleavage surface can be curved. In some embodiments, the cleavage surface determination engine 212 can determine a curved surface that passes through (or approaches) each of the colors in the harmonious color set.

[0059] In block 306, the cleavage surface determination engine 212 determines a subjective effect associated with the harmonious color scheme. In some embodiments, the data identifying the harmonious color scheme can be expressly labeled with the associated subjective effect (e.g., happy, moody, vibrant, subtle, etc.). In some embodiments, the cleavage surface determination engine 212 can determine the data based on the associated subjective effect accompanying the harmonious color scheme.For example, a social media post with an image that schematizes a harmonious color scheme, a catalog page with an image schematizing products with a harmonious color scheme, an advertisement with an image schematizing products with a harmonious color scheme, a product review representing a harmonious color scheme, or other data may include text that describes the associated image. The Cleavage Surface Determination Engine 212 can use natural language processing techniques, including but not limited to sentiment analysis, to extract a subjective effect indicated by the text.

[0060] In block 308, the cleavage surface determination engine 212 stores at least the cleavage surface shape and the subjective effect in a cleavage surface data store 208 of the color harmony computer system 102. The cleavage surface shape can be associated with the subjective effect. In other words, for a given color in the uniform color space, a cleavage surface of a first shape passing through the given color can identify colors harmonious with the given color that evoke a first subjective effect, while a cleavage surface of a second shape passing through the given color can identify colors harmonious with the given color that evoke a second subjective effect. As such, storing both the cleavage surface and the subjective effect determined to be evoked by the cleavage surface makes it possible to produce harmonious colors with desired subjective effects.

[0061] Method 300 then proceeds to a decision block 310, where a determination is made as to whether more harmonious color sets should be processed. If it is determined that there are more harmonious color sets to process, then the result of decision block 310 is YES, and method 300 returns to block 302 to process the next harmonious color set. Otherwise, the result of decision block 310 is NO, and method 300 proceeds to a continuation terminal ("terminal A").

[0062] From terminal A ([Fig. 3B]), method 300 proceeds to block 312, where a color harmony determination engine 214 of the computer color harmony system 102 receives a color selection from a nonlinear color space. In some embodiments, the selected color can be chosen from a Color Picker tool presented by a computing device, such as the end-user computing device 104. Typically, computing devices present colors using nonlinear color spaces such as sRGB or CIELAB, and the selected color would therefore be specified in the nonlinear color space used to present the Color Picker tool. In some embodiments, the selected color can be provided by a colorimeter or spectrophotometer configured to directly measure color in the nonlinear color space from a sample.

[0063] In block 314, a color space conversion engine 210 of the color harmony computer system 102 converts the selected color into a converted color in the uniform color space. There are techniques known to those skilled in the art for converting certain nonlinear color spaces, such as CIEXYZ, into uniform color spaces such as the OSA-UCS color space. In some embodiments, the color space conversion engine 210 can first convert the selected color from a first nonlinear color space (e.g., CIELAB) into a second nonlinear color space (e.g., by for example, CIEXYZ) for which a conversion to the OSA-UCS color space is available, and then from a second nonlinear color space to the OSA-UCS color space using known techniques. The conversion of the selected color changes the specified values ​​for the color in the nonlinear color space (for example, a perceptual brightness value (L*), a red-green value (a*) and a blue-yellow value (b*) for CIELAB) into values ​​for the color in the uniform color space (for example, a brightness value (L), a blue-yellow value (j) and a red-green value (g) for the OSA-UCS color space).

[0064] In block 316, the harmonious color determination engine 214 receives a selection of a desired subjective effect. In some embodiments, the desired subjective effect can be specified via a user interface. In some embodiments, the desired subjective effect can be selected from a list of subjective effects for which cleavage surfaces are present in the cleavage surface data store 208.

[0065] In block 318, the harmonious color determination engine 214 retrieves a cleavage surface from the cleavage surface data store 208 associated with the converted color and the desired subjective effect. In some embodiments, the harmonious color determination engine 214 can filter the cleavage surfaces stored in the cleavage surface data store 208 based on the desired subjective effect, and can search for a cleavage surface with the desired subjective effect that passes through a location of the converted color in the uniform color space.

[0066] In block 320, the harmonious color determination engine 214 presents an interface that includes one or more other colors on the cleavage surface as harmonious colors with respect to the selected color. In some embodiments, the uniform color space can be associated with a scale at which colors are considered distinguishable. For example, in the OSA-UCS color space, colors that are an integer distinct from one another are considered distinguishable. Therefore, the harmonious color determination engine 214 can present an interface that includes other colors on the cleavage surface that are at least an integer distance from the selected color, as well as an integer distance from each other.In some embodiments, the harmonious color determination engine 214 can display all colors within the cleavage surface that are at integer distances from the selected color and from each other. In some embodiments, the harmonious color determination engine 214 can display colors within the cleavage surface that are associated with cosmetic products, to help guide the selection of a cosmetic product of a specific color. harmoniously blending with the selected color. The interface can then accept a selection of one or more of the other colors, which can be used for any appropriate purpose (selecting a product with the selected color, etc.).

[0067] Method 300 then proceeds to an end block and terminates.

[0068] Although method 300 describes the presentation of automatically generated harmonious colors for a selection, this example should not be considered limiting. In some embodiments, the harmonious color determination engine 214 can, based on a starting color (e.g., hair color, skin tone, etc.), automatically generate a catalog of products (e.g., eyeshadow, lipstick, etc.) that harmonize with the hair color. In some embodiments, the harmonious color determination engine 214 could, based on a product having a known color, automatically generate palettes that harmonize with the known color with various subjective effects.The generated palettes (or the individual colors within such a palette) could be provided to a customized formulation and dispensing device for the manufacture of products with automatically determined harmonious colors.

[0069] Although illustrative embodiments have been illustrated and described, it will be appreciated that various changes can be made to them without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure.

Claims

Demands

1. System comprising: - circuitry for receiving a selection of a color; - circuitry for using the selected color to recover a cleavage surface in a uniform color space; and - circuitry for presenting one or more other colors of the cleavage surface as harmonious colors with respect to the selected color.

2. System according to claim 1, wherein the selected color is in a nonlinear color space; - wherein the system further comprises circuitry for converting the selected color from the nonlinear color space to the uniform color space; - wherein the nonlinear color space is a CIELAB color space; and - wherein the uniform color space is an OSA-UCS (Optical Society of America Uniform Color Scales) color space.

3. System according to claim 1, wherein the use of the selected color to recover the cleavage surface in the uniform color space includes: - the determination of a desired subjective effect; and - the use of the selected color to recover a cleavage surface having a shape associated with the desired subjective effect.

4. System according to claim 1, wherein the presentation of one or more other colors of the cleavage surface as harmonious colors with respect to the selected color includes: - the presentation of one or more other colors which are on the cleavage surface and are at least one integer value away from the selected color and from each other.

5. System according to claim 1, further comprising: - a data receiving circuitry identifying a set of harmonious colors in the uniform color space; - a circuitry for determining a cleavage surface of the uniform color space which includes the set of harmonious colors; and - a circuitry for storing the determined cleavage surface.

6. A system according to claim 5, wherein the data identifying the harmonious color scheme in the uniform color space include an image of a look and a textual description of the look; and wherein the system further comprises: - circuitry for determining the harmonious color scheme from the image of the look; - circuitry for determining a shape and location of a cleavage surface associated with the harmonious color scheme; - circuitry for determining a subjective effect of the look based on the textual description; and - circuitry for storing at least the shape of the cleavage surface in association with the subjective effect.

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