Composite Overlay Image Scaling with Alpha Dilation
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for scaling images with background and overlay images often result in distortion and artifacts, particularly when overlay images are scaled separately before blending, leading to thinner overlay lines and choppy shadows, and combining images after scaling the background can be computationally intensive.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that identify pixels with alpha values of zero in the composite overlay image, dilate the color channels of these pixels, and then scale the dilated composite overlay image, allowing for separate scaling of the composite and background images while avoiding distortion and artifacts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If overlay image and background image are scaled separately before combining, then scaling efficiency is improved, but image quality deteriorates with distortion and artifacts
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the scaling process into distinct phases: first scaling the background image, then scaling the overlay image with preliminary dilation of pixels having undefined color values. This segmentation allows efficient separate processing while maintaining quality through the dilation step that prevents distortion and artifacts in the final combined image.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies preliminary dilation to pixels with undefined color values in the overlay image before scaling. This preliminary action ensures that when the overlay is scaled and combined with the background, there are no distortion or artifact problems, while still allowing efficient separate scaling of both images.
2Loss of time
If overlay image is scaled separately from background image, then processing time is reduced, but visual quality deteriorates with thinner overlay lines and choppy shadows
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary dilation on pixels with undefined color values in the overlay image before scaling. This preliminary action maintains visual quality by preventing thinner overlay lines and choppy shadows, while still allowing the time-efficient separate scaling of overlay and background images to proceed.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies dilation selectively only to pixels with undefined color values in the overlay image, rather than processing all pixels uniformly. This local quality approach maintains visual quality where needed while preserving processing efficiency for the overall scaling operation.
3Manufacturing precision
If images are combined before scaling, then image quality is maintained, but computational complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the processing into separate scaling operations for background and overlay images, combined with selective preliminary dilation. This segmentation reduces computational complexity compared to scaling the combined image, while maintaining quality through the targeted dilation of undefined color pixels before overlay scaling.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the state of pixels with undefined color values through dilation before scaling, transforming them into pixels with defined values. This parameter change enables efficient separate scaling while maintaining image quality, avoiding the computational complexity of scaling the fully combined image.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method for scaling a composite overlay image, wherein the composite overlay image comprises a plurality of pixels and each pixel comprises at least one color channel and at least one alpha channel, and further wherein at least one pixel of the composite overlay image has an alpha value of zero and a color value that is not well defined. First, a set of pixels of the composite overlay image are identified as pixels to be dilated. The color channels of the identified pixels are then dilated to form dilated composite overlay image. Finally, the dilated composite overlay image is scaled.