Seam Carving for Media Retargeting

Shamir and Avidan

image manipulation graphics resizing object removal content

@article{shamir:cacm2009,
  title="Seam Carving for Media Retargeting",
  author="Ariel Shamir and Shai Avidan",
  journal="Communications of the ACM",
  volume="52",
  number="1",
  month="January",
  year="2009",
  pages="77--85"
}

Primary application is changing aspect ratio of images and video, e.g., to retarget for smaller displays

Produces an energy field over the image/video

• Energy is contrast or other estimation of relevance/importance/detectability in the content

Removes or inserts seams along minimal energy paths to reduce or increase the image along an axis