I read the paper long time ago, but if I remember correctly, it does not remove objects, the way it works is it iteratively finds a "seam" - a pixel-level path

I read the paper long time ago, but if I remember correctly, it does not remove objects, the way it works is it iteratively finds a "seam" - a pixel-level path that goes perpendicular to the direction of resizing - that has the lowest "energy" and removes it. So objects are preserved and "empty space" is reduced.