Tools for selecting a section of interest within an image

Abstract

Some embodiments provide a method that provides a display area for displaying an image. Some embodiments provide a tool that when activated generates a deformable tunnel based on a cursor movement through the display area. The tunnel is for differentiating a region of interest of the image from the rest of the image. The method provides a moveable tool for determining a width for the tunnel region. The moveable tool is a slider tool in some embodiments. In some embodiments, the moveable tool is for determining the initial width at which the tunnel is generated. The moveable tool is further for modifying the width of the tunnel after the tunnel is generated in some embodiments.

1 - 17 . (canceled) 
     
     
         18 . A method for providing a graphical user interface (GUI), the method comprising:
 providing a display area in the GUI for displaying an image; and   providing a GUI tool for (i) defining a curvilinear border of the image, and (ii) automatically generating a tunnel transition region about the border as a pair of deformable curves, each of which are modifiable in the GUI by a user after generation of the tunnel transition region in order to define more precisely the transition region for the image.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the pair of deformable curves are parametrizable curves. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19 , wherein the parametrizable curves are bezier splines. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the pair of deformable curves are modifiable together with one user interaction. 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the user interaction is a modification to the width of the tunnel transition region. 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein each of the pair of deformable curves can be modified separately. 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein at least one point on a particular deformable curve can be selected with a location indicator and dragged to modify the tunnel transition region. 
     
     
         25 . A method for providing a graphical user interface (GUI), the method comprising:
 providing a display area in the GUI for displaying an image;   providing a first GUI tool for defining a curvilinear border of the image;   providing a second GUI tool that when activated generates a tunnel transition region based on the border; and   providing a plurality of discrete control points along the tunnel transition region for modifying the tunnel transition region to define more precisely the transition region for the image.   
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein the tunnel transition region comprises two curves bounding the transition region. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 26 , wherein the discrete control points are on the curves. 
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 27 , wherein the tunnel transition region further comprises selectable tangents to the curves at the discrete control points that are also for modifying the tunnel transition region. 
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 26 , wherein the discrete control points are not on the curves. 
     
     
         30 . The method of  claim 26 , wherein each curve comprises separate sets of the discrete control points for modifying each deformable curve separately. 
     
     
         31 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein the plurality of discrete control points are for modifying the tunnel transition region after the tunnel transition region has been generated. 
     
     
         32 . The method of  claim 25  further comprising providing a third GUI tool for adding user-specified discrete control points along the tunnel transition region at user specified locations after generation of the tunnel transition region. 
     
     
         33 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein when a modification is made to a first discrete control point, other discrete control points are automatically modified based the modification to the first discrete control point. 
     
     
         34 . A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program which when executed by at least one processor provides a graphical user interface (GUI), the GUI comprising:
 a display area for displaying an image; and   a tool for (i) defining a curvilinear border of the image, and (ii) automatically generating a tunnel transition region about the border as a pair of deformable curves, each of which are modifiable in the GUI by a user after generation of the tunnel transition region in order to define more precisely the transition region for the image.   
     
     
         35 . (canceled) 
     
     
         36 . The non-transitory machine readable medium of  claim 34 , wherein the GUI further comprises a selectable user interface (UI) item, wherein disabling the selectable UI item disables any ability to modify the pair of the deformable curves. 
     
     
         37 . The non-transitory machine readable medium of  claim 34 , wherein the pair of deformable curves are modified by a single user interaction causing a location indicator to move a particular point associated with one of the deformable curves. 
     
     
         38 . A system comprising:
 a set of processing units for executing sets of instructions;   a memory for storing a program which when executed by at least one of the processing units selects a region of interest on an image displayed on a graphical user interface (GUI), the program comprising sets of instructions for:
 displaying an image in a display area of the GUI; 
 defining a curvilinear border of the image; 
 generating a tunnel transition region based on the border; and 
 modifying one or more discrete control points of a plurality of discrete control points along the tunnel transition region to define more precisely the transition region for the image. 
   
     
     
         39 . The system of  claim 38 , wherein the program further comprises a set of instructions for displaying a UI tool in the GUI, wherein the width of the tunnel transition region is determined by a setting of the UI tool. 
     
     
         40 . The system of  claim 39 , wherein the UI tool is a slider.