Intelligent scissors for image composition

We present a new, interactive tool called Intelligent Scissors which we use for image segmentation and composition. Fully automated segmentation is an unsolved problem, while manual tracing is inaccurate and laboriously unacceptable. However, Intelligent Scissors allow objects within digital images to be extracted quickly and accurately using simple gesture motions with a mouse. When the gestured mouse position comes in proximity to an object edge, a live-wire boundary “snaps” to, and wraps around the object of interest. Live-wire boundary detection formulates discrete dynamic programming (DP) as a two-dimensional graph searching problem. DP provides mathematically optimal boundaries while greatly reducing sensitivity to local noise or other intervening structures. Robustness is further enhanced with on-the-fly training which causes the boundary to adhere to the specific type of edge currently being followed, rather than simply the strongest edge in the neighborhood. Boundary co...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1995
• Where: SIGGRAPH
• Authors: Eric N. Mortensen, William A. Barrett
• Keywords: Computer Graphics, Intelligent Scissors, Live-wire Boundary Detection, Scissors Allow Objects, SIGGRAPH 1995