Improved graph cuts for patch-based texture synthesis

In the context of patch-based texture synthesis, this paper presents an improvement to the graph cut, a technique to optimize the patch boundaries in overlap regions. Instead of implementing the traditional minimum cut to minimize the accumulated errors along patch boundaries, a non-scalar metric is introduced to measure the errors of the cutting paths. According to this metric, the low-cost cuts tend to steer clear of high cost regions rather than taking short cuts through them, as can sometimes happen in the traditional minimum cut. Moreover, the resulting cutting paths are more circuitous and difficult to perceive by the human eye. Accordingly, a fast algorithm is proposed to conduct this new minimum cut. Experimental results show that the improved graph cuts produce more seamless textures.