SMART MASKING TOOL FOR IMAGE PROCESSING

Smart selection and paste operations for image processing use a wide edge area for selection and masking of an object from a source image. The wide edge area, which can be designated with a brush tool, allows a user to select all of a desired object without requiring pixel-by-pixel identification of the objects edge. A masking unit operates on the edge area and designates each portion or pixel of the edge area as being foreground, background, or a combination of foreground and background. The mask unit constructs a mask and a pixel map for the selected object. The mask is an array of blending parameters, and the pixel map contains natural foreground colors generated by removing background contributions form portions designated as combinations of foreground and background. A paste operation uses the blending parameters from the mask to add background contributions from a target images to the portions of the object designated as combinations of foreground and background.