Springs-based Simulation for Image Retargeting

In this paper an efficient method for image retargeting is pro- posed. It relies onto a mechanical model based on springs network. Each pixel displacement (compression or expan- sion) is given by the network response, according to the springs stiffness. The properties of the springs are deter- mined as function of the visual relevance of the pixels. Such model does not require any optimization, since its so- lution is obtained simply from a linear system of equations, allowing real-time application even for large images. The approach is fully automatic, though can be improved by interactively providing cues such as geometric constraints and/or manual relevant object labeling. The results prove that the presented method achieves results comparable or superior to reference methods, while improv- ing efficiency.