Patent · US Expired

Method for detecting skin color in a digital image

US6690822B1 · kind B1 · utility

36Cited by
10References
15Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateOct 20, 2000
Grant dateFeb 10, 2004
Priority date
Expiry dateJul 25, 2022

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06T2207/30201
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method for detecting skin color in a digital image having pixels in an RGB color space generally includes the steps of performing statistical analysis of the digital color image to determine the mean RGB color values; then, if the mean value of any one of the colors is below a predetermined threshold, applying a transformation to the digital image to move skin colors in the image toward a predetermined region of the color space; and employing the transformed space to locate the skin color pixels in the digital color image. More specifically, if the mean value of any one of the colors is below a predetermined threshold, a non-linear transformation is applied to the digital image to move skin colors in the image toward a predetermined region of the color space. Then, depending on the preceding step, either the digital image or the transformed digital image is converted from the RGB space to a generalized RGB space to produce a gRGB digital image; skin color pixels are detected within the gRGB digital image; a first skin color image mask is formed based on the detected skin color pixels; a masked gRGB image is generated using the first skin color image mask; and finally the skin col…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.