Abstract
Art often provides valuable insight that can be applied to technological innovations, especially in the fields of image processing and computer graphics. In this paper we present a method to transform a raster input image into a good-quality mosaic: an “artificial mosaic.” The creation of mosaics of artistic quality is challenging because the tiles that compose a mosaic, typically small polygons, must be packed tightly and yet must follow and emphasize orientations chosen by the artist. The proposed method can reproduce the colors of the original image and emphasize relevant boundaries by placing tiles along edge directions. No user intervention is needed to detect the boundaries: they are automatically detected using a simple but effective image processing technique. Several examples reported in the paper show how the right mixture of mathematical tools together with time-tested ideas of mosaicists may lead to impressive results.
Similar content being viewed by others
Explore related subjects
Discover the latest articles, news and stories from top researchers in related subjects.References
Di Blasi G, Gallo G (2003) The Artificial Mosaic Creator applet www.dmi.unict.it/∼gdiblasi/mosaic/mosaic.html, JGimp plug-in and Java application www.dmi.unict.it/∼gdiblasi/mosaic/mosaic.jar
Dobashi J, Haga T, Johan H, Nishita T (2002) A method for creating mosaic images using Voronoi diagrams. In: Proceedings of Eurographics
Elber E, Wolberg G (2003) Rendering traditional mosaics. Visual Comput 19(1):67–78
Gooch B, Coombe G, Shirley P (2002) Artistic vision: painterly rendering using computer vision techniques. In: Proceedings of NPAR, pp 83–90
Haeberli P (1990) Paint by numbers. In: Proceedings of SIGGRAPH, pp 207–214
Haralick R, Shapiro L (1992) Computer and robot vision – vol 1. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA
Hausner A (2001) Simulating decorative mosaics. In: Proceedings of SIGGRAPH, pp 573–580
King S (2003) Mosaic techniques and traditions: projects and designs from around the world. Sterling, New Delhi
Klein A W, Grant T, Finkelstein A, Cohen M F (2002) Video mosaics. In: Proceedings of NPAR, pp 21–28
Kaplan C, Salesin D (2000) Escherization. In: Proceedings of SIGGRAPH, pp 499–510
Kim J, Pellacini F (2002) Jigsaw image mosaics. In: Proceedings of SIGGRAPH, pp 657–664
Marr D (1982) Vision. Freeman, New York
Meer P, Georgescu B (2001) Edge detection with embedded confidence. Trans Patt Anal Mach Intell 23(12):1351–1365
Nittolo F (2004) Il mosaico. http://www.ravennarte.it/rarte-ing/mosaico.htm
Silvers R, Hawley M (1997) Photomosaics. Holt, New York
Tumminello S (2003) Descrizione e tecnica utilizzata nei mosaici del Duomo di Monreale. http://www.parrocchie.it/monreale/sscrocifisso/italia/mosaici.htm
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Di Blasi, G., Gallo, G. Artificial mosaics. Visual Comput 21, 373–383 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00371-005-0292-4
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00371-005-0292-4