Abstract: Method for blending a foreground object of a first image into a second image in which the transition boundary region between the foreground object and the background comprises a linear color transition based on the colors of the foreground object and the background, respectively.

Abstract: A method and system for segmenting a digital image, the digital image comprising at least some mixed pixels whose visual characteristics are determined by a mixture of the visual characteristics of part of two or more portions of the image A method comprises the steps of: selecting one or more pixels within a first portion of the image to define a first pixel selection; expanding the first pixel selection to define a second pixel selection corresponding to a first portion of the image; selecting one or more pixels within a second portion of the image to define a third pixel selection; expanding the third pixel selection to define a fourth pixel selection corresponding to a second portion of the image; making a determination as to how close together the second pixel selection and the fourth pixel selection are; and indicating to a user whether or not the second pixel selection and fourth pixel selection are sufficiently close that the pixels occurring in between the second pixel selection and the fourth pixel

Abstract: A method and system for segmenting a digital image is presented allowing manipulation of an image, for example by extracting a foreground portion of the image and overlaying the extracted foreground onto a new background. The invention provides an automated process requiring only a single user selection of an area of an image from which two or more image segments are automatically derived. The image segments typically include foreground, background and mixed portions of the image. In this way the invention allows a single selection within one of the foreground or background portions of the image to be made to define foreground, background and edge image segments. The process uses a technique of expanding a selected area, determining a complementary region and eroding then expanding the complementary region so as to derive the desired image segments. An image mask based on the image segments may be generated by assigning opacity values to each pixel allowing blending calculations to be applied to mixed pixels.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus are disclosed for manipulating digital images. The methods comprise the steps of: providing input data including image data specifying one or more digital images and template data comprising one or more masks, each mask specifying a region of the images having a predetermined status; and modifying each image using the masks. The apparatus comprises at least one user interface element for providing input data including image data specifying one or more digital images and template data comprising one or more masks, each mask specifying a region of the images having a predetermined status; and a data processor for modifying each image using the masks.