Automatic Image Feature Embedding Using B-Spline Surface Interpolation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current image warping techniques, such as mesh warping, fail to enforce global smoothness on the output color field, leading to visually unpleasant results with potential discontinuities and a tedious, error-prone process for modifying image features to match specified shapes.
Innovation Solution
A method that generates a point-to-point correspondence between source and destination image feature outlines, calculates an interpolation surface, and reshapes it using B-spline surfaces to ensure C2 continuity, allowing for automatic resizing, reshaping, and blending of image features without color displacement, using iterative smoothing to minimize global Laplacian norms.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Shape
If mesh warping techniques are used to deform image pixels based on scattered input displacements, then the displacement field can be created smoothly by fitting continuous functions, but the output color field lacks global smoothness enforcement leading to visual discontinuities and torn appearances
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms the problem from 2D image space to 3D surface space by creating an interpolated surface Z=f(x,y) where pixel positions (x,y) map to height values Z representing color information. This dimensional transformation allows enforcement of C2 continuity constraints on the surface, ensuring global smoothness of the output color field while maintaining the desired displacement field smoothness through spline-based surface interpolation.
2Manufacturing precision
If manual point-by-point displacement is used with liquefy feature to achieve shape alignment, then shape matching can be achieved, but the process becomes extremely tedious and error prone requiring hundreds of clicks
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the image into a grid of patches and processes each patch independently by fitting local spline surfaces. This segmentation allows the complex global smoothness constraint to be decomposed into manageable local operations, automatically achieving shape alignment without requiring manual point-by-point displacement while maintaining both accuracy and efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the manual mechanical interaction (click-and-drag operation) with an automated mathematical system based on spline surface interpolation and C2 continuity constraints. The system automatically computes the displacement field and warps the image, eliminating the need for users to manually specify hundreds of control points while achieving superior smoothness and accuracy.
3Adaptability or versatility
If coordinate resampling with output accumulator is used to handle non-integer pixel mappings, then the displacement field can be applied flexibly, but the process lacks invertibility and global smoothness enforcement
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a third dimension by representing the image as a surface Z=f(x,y) where the height dimension encodes color information. This allows the system to enforce global smoothness constraints on the surface geometry while maintaining flexible non-integer pixel mappings through the surface interpolation formula, achieving both adaptability and precision simultaneously.
Data Source
AI summary
The invention features a method, system, and computer program product. A source bitmap image, a destination bitmap image, a source image feature outline surrounding a source region of the source bitmap image, and a destination image feature outline surrounding a destination region of the destination bitmap image are received. A point-to-point correspondence between the source image feature outline and the destination image feature outline is generated, such that the point-to-point correspondence defines a reshaping of the source image feature outline. An interpolation surface is calculated interpolating an area of the source bitmap image that includes the source region. The interpolation surface is reshaped using the point-to-point correspondence.