Identification of regions of interest in images based on user defined regions of interest

摘要

The present invention provides a computer system (2) (fig.1) for determining regions of interest in a static digital image for display on a display device, the system comprising a processor (4) (fig 1) configured to compare parts of an image with characteristics of at least one region of interest specified by a user (19) (fig 1) and to determine at least one region of interest in an image based at least in part on the degree of similarity between parts of the image and the at least one user-specified region of interest. The claimed invention identifies similar regions of interest within the same image as that in which the user specified region of interest is specified. The user may specify a region of interest by defining a border of a region of interest, or by a user selecting a region of interest type from a plurality of available region of interest types. The invention appears to be providing a means of user definition of regions of interest within an image, said defined regions being used to produce a set of characteristics representative of that region. The characteristics are stored to provide a region of interest type for subsequent use within other images for identifying similar regions on selection of a region type.