A non-hierarchical procedure for re-synthesis of complex textures

A procedure is described for synthesizing an image with the same texture as a given input image. To achieve this, the output image is built up by successively adding pixels selected from the input image. Pixels are chosen by searching the input image for patches that closely match pixels already present in the output image. It is shown that the accurate reproduction of features in the input texture depends on the order in which pixels are added to the output image. A procedure for selecting an ordering which transfers large complex features of the input to the output image is described. This procedure is capable of reproducing large features even if only the interactions of nearby pixels are considered. The procedure can be altered to allow specification of the placement of particular features in the output texture. Several applications of this are described.