SeamCrop for image retargeting

In this paper, we present a novel approach for the adaptation of large images to small display sizes. As a recent study suggests, most viewers prefer the loss of content over the insertion of deformations in the retargeting process.1 Therefore, we combine the two image retargeting operators seam carving and cropping in order to resize an image without manipulating the important objects in an image at all. First, seams are removed carefully until a dynamic energy threshold is reached to prevent the creation of visible artifacts. Then, a cropping window is selected in the image that has the smallest possible window size without having the removed energy rise above a second dynamic threshold. As the number of removed seams and the size of the cropping window are not fix, the process is repeated iteratively until the target size is reached. Our results show that by using this method, more important content of an image can be included in the cropping window than in normal cropping. The "squeezing" of objects which might occur in approaches based on warping or scaling is also prevented.