Automatically choosing source color images for coloring grayscale images

We introduce a methodology for adding color to grayscale images in a way that is completely automatic. Towards this goal, we build on a technique that was recently developed to transfer colors from a user-selected source image to a target grayscale image. More specifically, we eliminate the need for human intervention in the selection of the source color images, which can be regarded as a first step towards real-time video colorization. To assess the merit of our methodology, we performed a survey where volunteers were asked to rate the plausibility of the colorings generated automatically for individual images. In most cases automatically-colored images were rated either as totally plausible or as mostly plausible.