Smart erasure brush

(54) SMART ERASURE BRUSH

(75) Inventor: Mark Hamburg, Scotts Valley, CA (US)

(73) Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated, San Jose, CA (US)

( * ) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 0 days.

(21) Appl. No.: 09/300,088

(22) Filed: Apr. 26, 1999

(51) Int. C I. G06K 9 00

(52) U.S. CI 382/163; 382/164; 382/274;

382/311; 358/537; 358/517; 358/464; 345/592;

345/639

(58) Field of Search 382/162-164,

382/173-176, 191, 199, 254, 274, 275, 276, 309, 311; 358/1.1, 1.16, 452, 453, 464, 538, 537, 517; 345/418, 581, 589, 592, 619, 629, 600, 634, 639, 620, 626

(56) References Cited

U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS

4,345,313 A * 8/1982 Knox 382/254

5,307,452 A * 4/1994 Hahn et al 345/592

5,347,620 A * 9/1994 Zimmer 345/592

5,469,536 A * 11/1995 Blank 345/594

5,630,037 A * 5/1997 Schindler 382/164

A method and apparatus for erasing a feature from a digital image. The method includes identifying a plurality of tip regions on the image each including multiple pixels of the image and each covering a portion of the feature and sequentially processing the tip regions to erase the feature. The sequential processing includes determining an erasure color, defining a color match function for the tip region, applying the color match function to each pixel in the tip region including determining a color match value for each pixel and completely erasing ones of the pixels in the tip region that have a color match value greater than a threshold value. For a pixel having a color match value less than the threshold, an erasure function is applied to the target pixel. A contribution of the erasure color is removed from a color associated with the target pixel where the effect of each action of processing a tip region is recorded in the digital image before any subsequent action of processing a tip region is performed.

46 Claims, 4 Drawing Sheets