In compositing applications, objects depicted in images frequently have to be separated from their background, so that they can be placed in a new environment. Alpha mattes are important tools aiding the selection of objects, but cannot normally be created in a fully automatic way. We present an algorithm that requires as input two images—one where the object is in focus, and one where the background is in focus—and then automatically produces an alpha matte indicating which pixels belong to the object. This algorithm is inspired by human visual processing and involves nonlinear response compression, center-surround mechanisms as well as a filling-in stage. The output can then be refined with standard computer vision techniques.

Related Publications

Erik Reinhard and Erum Arif Khan, 'Depth-of-field-based Alpha-matte Extraction', Second ACM Symposium on Applied Perception in Graphics and Visualization, A Coruna, Spain, August 2005. [pdf]