Image Segmentation for Color Retention in Camera Preview
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing image processing methods in electronic devices often result in unnatural color retention of images, where parts of a region appear as color images while others are grayscale, leading to poor visual effects during photography.
Innovation Solution
The method involves image segmentation to identify regions containing specific objects or body types, retaining the color of these regions and converting other areas into grayscale, ensuring the entire region of a target object remains colored.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If color retention processing is performed based on a specified color, then pixel values matching the specified color are retained, but regions with multiple colors or gradual color variations become partially grayscale, resulting in poor visual effect
Solution Approach 1:
The image is segmented into multiple processing regions based on color similarity to the specified color. Regions are divided into: first processing regions (high color similarity) that retain full color, and second processing regions (low color similarity) that are converted to grayscale. This segmentation resolves the contradiction by applying different processing strategies to different parts of the image, ensuring both accurate color retention and natural visual transitions.
Solution Approach 2:
Different quality levels of color processing are applied to different regions of the image. The first processing regions maintain high color fidelity while the second processing regions are converted to grayscale. This local differentiation ensures that only regions with appropriate color characteristics retain color, eliminating the unnatural appearance of partially colored objects while maintaining overall visual quality.
2Reliability
If color retention processing converts non-matching pixels to grayscale, then the specified color is preserved, but the entire object may not be retained uniformly, creating mixed color-grayscale regions
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of applying a single threshold that may create mixed regions, the patent applies partial action by processing different regions differently. The first processing regions receive full color retention while the second processing regions receive grayscale conversion. This approach ensures that the specified color is reliably preserved in appropriate regions while avoiding the creation of unnatural mixed regions, thus maintaining both consistency and naturalness.
3Device complexity
If a single color threshold is used for color retention, then processing is simple, but objects with multiple colors or gradual color variations lose natural appearance
Solution Approach 1:
The processing is segmented into two distinct stages: identifying first processing regions with high color similarity to the specified color, and identifying second processing regions with low color similarity. This segmentation increases processing complexity but dramatically improves color retention naturalness by ensuring that only appropriate regions retain color while others are converted to grayscale, avoiding unnatural mixed regions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the processing parameter (color retention vs. grayscale conversion) based on the color similarity of different regions. By dynamically adjusting the processing applied to each region based on its color characteristics, the system achieves natural color retention for objects with multiple colors or gradual variations while maintaining manageable processing complexity through automated region classification.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed herein is a method for generating an image using an electronic device having a color camera, comprising: activating the color camera and a camera application on the electronic device; displaying, through the camera application, a preview image generated by the color camera; determining, automatically, whether the preview image includes an image of a first object; displaying, through the camera application in response to a determination that the preview image includes the image of the first object, a first image generated by the color camera, the first image including a color region corresponding to the first object and a grayscale region corresponding to objects that are not the first object; and displaying, through the camera application in response to a determine that the preview image does not include any image of the first object, a second image generated by the color camera, the second image is a grayscale image.