Local color transfer using modified color influence map with color category

Local color transfer is the process of assigning a given color to a local region in a target image. The local region that contains the given color has to be segmented. Conventionally, the segmentation of the corresponding local region in a target image is based on the color distance. The region which is the closest in color distance is separated. However, since the close range of color distance separating a given color from target image is ambiguous and uncertain, color distortion is often generated around a separated local region. Therefore, this paper addresses the problem of segmentation in a local color transfer. To prevent color distortion, a modified color influence map is proposed with color categories. First, the target image is roughly segmented using a color category map, which groups similar colors in color space. It restricts the color transfer to a specific color category according to a given color. Second, modified color influence map assigning different weight to lightness and chroma, respectively, is used instead of Euclidian color distance. Then, by combining a modified color influence map and color category map filtered with anisotropic diffusion, a local region that contains a given color can be segmented more strictly than conventional method. Experimental results show that the proposed method has less color distortion in the resulting image.