Multiresolution object-of-interest detection for images with low depth of field

This paper describes a novel multiresolution image segmentation algorithm for separating sharply focused objects-of-interest from other foreground or background objects in low depth-of-field (DOF) images, such as sports, telephoto, macro, and microscopic images. The algorithm takes a multiscale context-dependent approach to segment images based on features extracted from wavelet coefficients in high-frequency bands. The algorithm is fully automatic in that all parameters are image-independent. Experiments with the algorithm on more than 100 low DOF images have shown results close to the human segmentation of these images. Besides high accuracy, the algorithm also provides high speed. A 768/spl times/512 pixel image can be segmented within two seconds on a Pentium Pro 300 MHz PC.