Visualizing Wall Coverings Using Plane Detection and Mask Overlay
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Solution Overview
Problem
Online retailers face challenges in allowing customers to visualize flooring or other surface coverings in their home environments before purchase, as customers prefer to see products in person but brick-and-mortar stores are limited in displaying various options.
Innovation Solution
A method and system for visualizing flooring or wall coverings within an image captured by a smartphone, using computer processors to identify floor or wall planes, generate mask information, and overlay virtual flooring or wall tile patterns, incorporating techniques like neural networks for segmentation and alpha blending to create realistic visualizations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If brick-and-mortar stores display physical samples of flooring and wall coverings, then customers can see products in-person prior to purchase, but the store space required to display all product options increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses virtual copies (digital images) of flooring and wall covering products overlaid on captured images of customer spaces. Instead of displaying physical samples in a brick-and-mortar store, the system projects digital representations of products onto photos or videos of the customer's actual space, allowing unlimited product visualization without requiring physical display space.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from physical 3D product displays to 2D image-based visualization. By capturing the customer space as an image and overlaying product images onto the captured scene, the system eliminates the need for physical product samples while maintaining visualization capability across multiple product options.
2Quantity of substance
If online retailers provide product images only, then storage and distribution costs are reduced, but customers cannot visualize products in their actual space effectively
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces captured images of the customer's space as an intermediary between product images and the final visualization. The system overlays product images onto the captured scene, using the captured image as a mediator to provide spatial context and scale references, enabling customers to visualize products in their actual environment without physical samples.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges product images with captured images of the customer's space by overlaying them. This combination integrates the product visualization with the spatial context of the actual environment, allowing customers to see how products would appear in their specific space while maintaining the benefits of online retailing.
3Loss of information
If the system overlays product images on captured scenes, then customers can visualize products in their space, but accurate scaling and perspective matching becomes complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual measurement and physical scaling with automated image processing techniques. The system uses algorithms to detect surfaces in captured images, calculate scaling factors based on reference objects or surface geometry, and automatically adjust product image size and perspective to match the captured scene, eliminating the need for manual measurement and scaling.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent dynamically adjusts image parameters (scaling factor, perspective angle, position) based on the detected surface geometry and camera parameters. By changing these parameters automatically through image processing, the system achieves accurate product placement without requiring complex manual calibration or measurement procedures.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and apparatus for visualizing a surface covering on at least a portion of a surface in an image of a scene. The method comprises identifying, using at least one computer processor, a surface plane from the image of the scene, determining, for each pixel of a plurality of pixels corresponding to the surface plane, whether the pixel corresponds to at least a portion of the surface in the scene, and generating an updated image of the scene by overlaying on the surface plane, a visualization of a plurality of surface covering tiles on pixels along the surface plane determined to correspond to at least a portion of the surface in the scene.