Abstract: A system for extracting and monitoring media tags within video content includes at least one server in communication with a plurality of content sources, the server receiving video content from the content sources, a recorder saving the video content, a detector receiving at least one frame of the video content, the detector detecting one or more unknown text within the frame and creating one or more images, each image associated with one of the one or more unknown text, the detector generating metadata associated with the one or more unknown text appearing in the frame, and an optical character recognition engine scanning the one or more images and converting the one or more images into one or more known text. The server further determines that the one or more known text is a media tag.

Abstract: A computer implemented method and apparatus for analyzing image content and associating behaviors to the analyzed image content. The method comprises accessing a digital image; determining one or more patterns in the digital image; associating, based on the one or more determined patterns, a set of pre-defined behaviors with each determined pattern; and storing interactions with the digital image, wherein the interactions are associated with the behaviors.

Abstract: In general, the disclosure describes techniques for creating and manipulating software notes representative of physical notes. A computing device includes a processor, an image collection module configured to receive an input image of an environment having a plurality of physical notes, an image processing engine configured to identify the plurality of physical notes in the input image and generate a plurality of digital notes corresponding to the plurality of notes identified in the input image, wherein the plurality of digital notes include information represented by the plurality of notes in the input image, and a graphical user interface configured to display the input image overlaid with the plurality of digital notes in place of the identified plurality of notes on a first portion of the graphical user interface and to display a set of one or more of the digital notes on a second portion of the graphical user interface.

Abstract: A region of an image on which a content aware fill operation is to be performed is identified by a device, the content aware fill operation replacing pixel values in the region based on pixel values from one or more other regions. The device generates a reduced-size version of the image by down sampling the image, and sends the reduced-size version of the image to a remote service. The remote service generates a mapping indicating which pixels in the reduced-size version of the image are to be used as the values of which other pixels in the region of the reduced-size version of the image. The mapping is compressed and returned to the device. The device decompresses the mapping and up samples the mapping. An output image is generated based on the originally obtained image, the up sampled mapping, and an indication of the region.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes an image-area separator that separates a character area from monochrome document data scanned by a scanner, a character pixel detecting unit that counts the number of pixels of a character in the main scanning direction and the sub-scanning direction included in a controller, a bolded character identifying unit that identifies a character as a bolded character in case the count result is larger than a predefined threshold value, and a color converter that converts the bolded character into color data.

Abstract: This disclosure discloses a printer comprising: a host communication device that performs information transmission and reception by wired or wireless communication for the functioning as a host device of a target device; and a target processing portion that performs predetermined processing in accordance with target device information acquired from said target device when said host communication device performs information transmission and reception with said target device.

Abstract: A key word detection device and a method for detecting a search key word from a target image in order to perform a search with a search engine on the internet, the key word detection device comprising: a processor configured to operate as a feature point detector configured to detect a feature point of a specific character string from the target image, the specific character string prompting a user to perform the search; a key word recognition unit configured to recognize a character string existing in surroundings of the feature point detected by the feature point detector as the search key word in the target image; and a storage for storing character information and data of the target image used by the processor.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method of providing online information using image, including separating each of a target image, received from a user terminal, and an original image, received from an information provider apparatus, into a text region and a graphic region; selecting an important text region from the text region; extracting features from the text region, the graphic region, and the important text region, respectively; searching for the original image corresponding to the target image using the features of the text region, the graphic region, and the important text region; and searching for supplementary information related to the retrieved original image and provided the retrieved supplementary information.

Abstract: Product images are used in conjunction with textual descriptions to improve classifications of product offerings. By combining cues from both text and image descriptions associated with products, implementations enhance both the precision and recall of product description classifications within the context of web-based commerce search. Several implementations are directed to improving those areas where text-only approaches are most unreliable. For example, several implementations use image signals to complement text classifiers and improve overall product classification in situations where brief textual product descriptions use vocabulary that overlaps with multiple diverse categories. Other implementations are directed to using text and images “training sets” to improve automated classifiers including text-only classifiers.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a method and arrangement for texture compression. An image block is divided into two half-blocks which are either living, also referred to as flipped configuration, or standing, also referred to as the non-flipped configuration. An estimate is generated for whether the flipped or the non-flipped configuration provides the best result for compressing a block. Compression is only executed for the configuration that is estimated to give the best result for the block.

Abstract: An exemplary region growing method include at least the following steps: selecting a seed point of a current frame as an initial growing point of a region in the current frame; determining a background confidence value at a neighboring pixel around the seed point; and utilizing a processing unit for checking if the neighboring pixel is allowed to be included in the region according to at least the background confidence value.

Abstract: A video processing device (100) includes: an edge histogram generating section (141) and a noise reducing section (150). The generating section (141) generates an edge histogram of a decoded image obtained from a video signal. The noise reducing section (150) (i) determines whether or not a ratio of a sum of frequencies of classes higher than a predetermined class of an edge histogram to a sum of all frequencies the edge histogram is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold value and (ii) performs a smoothing process on the decoded image with a smoothing intensity adjusted in accordance with whether or not the ratio is equal to or greater than the predetermined threshold value.

Abstract: Some implementations disclosed herein provide techniques and arrangements to enable translating language characters in media content. For example, some implementations receive a user selection of a first portion of media content. Some implementations disclosed herein may, based on the first portion, identify a second portion of the media content. The second portion of the media content may include one or more first characters of a first language. Some implementations disclosed herein may create an image that includes the second portion of the media content and may send the image to a server. Some implementations disclosed herein may receive one or more second characters of a second language corresponding to a translation of the one or more first characters of the first language from the server.

Abstract: An image file editing method includes an analysis step of analyzing a compression format of each of a plurality of images included in a plurality of image files, a display step of displaying analysis results together with thumbnail images each of which corresponds to one of the plurality of images, a selection step of selecting images based on the thumbnail images, a determination step of determining, based on the results obtained in the analysis step, whether or not a compression format of each selected image is changeable, a compression step of applying a changed compression format, and an output step of collectively outputting selected images as a single image file.

Abstract: A method of printing a document using one of a plurality of print modes, the method comprising: (i) notionally dividing a digital image of the document into sectors; (ii) for each sector, comparing one or more properties of the luminosity of pixels within each sector with one or more threshold values; (iii) using the comparison of (ii) to determine whether each sector is likely to show an image defect if printed at a lower image quality print mode; (iv) selecting a print mode such that all sectors are determined not to be likely to show an image defect; (v) printing the document using the determined print mode.

Abstract: An image processing device performs: acquiring image data representing an image, the image data including a plurality of sets of pixel data each having a multiple-level gradation value, each gradation value falling within a predetermined range between and inclusive of a minimum gradation value and a maximum gradation value, a predetermined number of levels of gradation value falling within the predetermined range; setting a partial range of levels of gradation value, a first number of levels of gradation value in the partial range being smaller than the predetermined number; and determining that the image is a photograph image when the image meets a first criterion that a degree of change in distribution of gradation values is smaller than a reference value, the distribution of gradation value indicating a pixel number of sets of pixel data for each level of the gradation value falling within the partial range.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes: a communication unit for receiving unmodified data and modified data obtained when the unmodified data is modified; an image-reading unit for reading a confirmation document over which commentary has been written, and generating scan data; a storage unit for storing the unmodified data, the modified data, and the scan data; a comparison processing unit for comparing the unmodified data, the modified data, and the scan data, and recognizing confirmation places of the modified data, which are modified places that correspond to the commentary and have been modified from the unmodified data; and a printing unit for printing only those pages of the modified data that comprise the confirmation places recognized by the comparison processing unit.

Abstract: A computer implemented method and apparatus for identifying logical blocks of text in a document where document structure information is absent. The method comprises accessing a document, wherein the document comprises a plurality of words; identifying word information for each word in the plurality of words; creating a plurality of text lines based on the word information, wherein each text line in the plurality of text lines comprises one or more words in the plurality of words; and creating a plurality of text blocks derived from the plurality of text lines.

Abstract: In techniques for category histogram image representation, image segments of an input image are generated and bounding boxes are selected that each represent a region of the input image, where each of the bounding boxes include image segments of the input image. A saliency map of the input image can also be generated. A bounding box is applied as a query on an images database to determine database image regions that match the region of the input image represented by the bounding box. The query can be augmented based on saliency detection of the input image region that is represented by the bounding box, and a query result is a ranked list of the database image regions. A category histogram for the region of the input image is then generated based on category labels of each of the database image regions that match the input image region.

Abstract: A text recognition server is configured to recognize text in a sparse text image. Specifically, given an image, the server specifies a plurality of “patches” (blocks of pixels within the image). The system applies a text detection algorithm to the patches to determine a number of the patches that contain text. This application of the text detection algorithm is used both to estimate the orientation of the image and to determine whether the image is textually sparse or textually dense. If the image is determined to be textually sparse, textual patches are identified and grouped into text regions, each of which is then separately processed by an OCR algorithm, and the recognized text for each region is combined into a result for the image as a whole.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes a selecting unit that selects a plurality of strokes from among strokes drawn in a plurality of display images displayed in a switching manner, in accordance with attributes added to the strokes, and a generating unit that generates an image in which the selected strokes are arranged according to an arrangement rule set in advance.

Abstract: An electronic device and method receive (for example, from a memory), a grayscale image of a scene of real world captured by a camera of a mobile device. The electronic device and method also receive a color image from which the grayscale image is generated, wherein each color pixel is stored as a tuple of multiple components. The electronic device and method determine a new intensity for at least one grayscale pixel in the grayscale image, based on at least one component of a tuple of a color pixel located in correspondence to the at least one grayscale pixel. The determination may be done conditionally, by checking whether a local variance of intensities is below a predetermined threshold in a subset of grayscale pixels located adjacent to the at least one grayscale pixel, and selecting the component to provide most local variance of intensities.

Abstract: An image processing device includes: a processor; and a memory storing computer-readable instructions therein. The computer-readable instructions, when executed by the processor, causes the image processing device to perform: a first separation to separate a target image represented by target image data into a plurality of regions that include a first region and a second region different from the first region; a second separation to separate the first region into a plurality of sub-regions and to separate the second region into a plurality of sub-regions; and generating a consolidated region by consolidating at least two sub-regions among the plurality of sub-regions separated from the first and second regions.

Abstract: A system for video monitoring a retail business process includes a video analytics engine to process video obtained by a video camera and generate video primitives regarding the video, A user interface is used to define at least one activity of interest regarding an area being viewed, each activity of interest identifying at least one of a rule or a query regarding the area being viewed. An activity inference engine processes the generated video primitives based on each defined activity of interest to determine if an activity of interest occurred in the video.

Abstract: In an image processing apparatus, regarding plural character areas in the character image of each color, an image compressing unit 6 includes one of the character areas from which a distance to another one of the character areas is either equal to or larger than a predetermined threshold value into a character image other than the character image in which the other one of the character areas is included, and compresses image data of the other one of the character areas separately from other image data.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus and method are provided. A control unit may divide input image array data into a plurality of sub-blocks, and a first arithmetic logic unit (ALU) may generate an integral image of at least one of the plurality of sub-blocks. The control unit may determine each of the plurality of sub-blocks to be included in any one of a first sub-block group and a second sub-block group, store the integral image of each sub-block included in the first sub-block group on the first memory, and store the integral image of each sub-block included in the second sub-block group on the second memory.

Abstract: Apparatus for matching a query image against a catalog of images, comprises: a feature extraction unit operative for extracting principle features from said query image; a relationship unit operative for establishing relationships between a given principle feature and other features in the image, and adding said relationships as relationship information alongside said principle features; and a first comparison unit operative for comparing principle features and associated relationship information of said query image with principle features and associated relationship information of images of said catalog to find candidate matches.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for ranking object search results. In one aspect, a method includes providing an image to an image processing apparatus, the image defined within a first bounded region. Object search results are received from the image processing apparatus. Each object search result identifies an object belonging to one of a plurality of pre-specified object classes, and defining a respective second bounded region in which the identified object is located, the respective second bounded region being within the first bounded region. For each object search result, a respective rank score from characteristics of the respective second bounded region defined by the object search result is determined. The object search results are ranked according to their respective rank scores.

Abstract: An information reading apparatus of the present invention is an information reading apparatus which photographs an information recording medium having information recorded thereon and reads the information. This information reading apparatus includes a judging section which judges whether the information recording medium is in a two-page spread layout by analyzing a photographed image of the information recording medium, and a dividing section which divides the photographed image of the information recording medium into the pages of a two-page spread when the judging section judges that the information recording medium is in a two-page spread layout.

Abstract: A motion vector computing device according to one embodiment includes: a difference computing unit that computes inter-frame temporal difference value It, uses horizontal direction inter-pixel difference value Ix and vertical direction inter-pixel difference value Iy in a same frame, the current frame signal and the different frame signals when the pixel moves for a small-time, a variance matrix generating unit computes the variances of the gradient in the horizontal direction, in the vertical direction and in the temporal direction of the luminance value on the basis of the difference values Ix, Iy and It, a coefficient computing unit computes a coefficient of a flat plane formula by calculating a formula for giving a minimum with regard to the square error of the flat plane formula approximating the distribution of luminance gradients of the pixel and a vector computing unit computes the motion vector uses the coefficient.

Abstract: Audiovisual content presentation to users has evolved from users receiving hardcopy printed materials to their searching and retrieving information by accessing any of hundreds of millions of web sites and billions of web pages. User retrieval being performed on a wide variety of platforms from high performance PCs to low performance cellular telephones. Accordingly substantial limitations exist in initially displaying this audiovisual content as well as when users dynamically manipulate browser dimensions or move through the content. Further additional limitations exist for those authoring both online and traditional content to manipulate sourced content to provide the published content. As such a requirement exists for dynamically resizing images that respects the information content within the audiovisual content.

Abstract: A method for detecting and correcting skew in scanned vertical text includes identifying an image of vertically oriented characters, and identifying a plurality of vertical lines corresponding to character positions of the vertically oriented characters in the image. The method further includes generating an average slope of a subset of the plurality of lines, and causing the image to be deskewed based on the average slope.

Abstract: A computer system and method where text is recognized from a real world image, and this recognized text is used as input data for a processing program selected by a user. A computer system and method where text is recognized from a real world image, and contextual information is used in conjunction with the text to develop a semantic denotation of the recognized text. The contextual information may include GPS location data. The contextual information may include previous images, captured shortly prior to the image with the recognized text. A computer system and method wherein text is recognized from a real world image, then normalized to be in the plane of the image, then translated and then the translated text is made into an image that is anti-normalized and inserted into the original image (or an image similar to the original image). In this way, the translated text will appear realistically in place of the original untranslated text of the real world image.

Abstract: Embodiments of a method for providing documents, which may be performed by a system, are described. During operation, the system determines presentation information for content in a first document. Note that the content may include characters, and that the presentation information may specify relative positions of the characters in a framework of the first document. Then, the system generates a second document that includes the presentation information. Next, the system outputs a third document that includes the characters in the first document, where the characters can be presented in the framework based solely on the third document using an interpreter program.

Abstract: An image processing device identifies first pixels representing an object and second pixels representing a background in a target image; sets, in the target image, a target range of pixels in which at least one first pixel and at least one second pixel are included; changes, to a second pixel, a first pixel that is included in the target range and is adjacent to the second pixel, thereby classifying the plurality of first pixels into at least one changed first pixel and remaining first pixels, the changed first pixel being a first pixel that has been changed to a second pixel, the remaining first pixel being a first pixel that has been unchanged; and determines a characteristic quantity by using pixel values of the remaining first pixels, the characteristic quantity relating to a number of colors in the object.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to systems and methods for controlling 2-D to 3-D image conversion. The system and method includes receiving an image and masking the objects in the image using segmentation layers Each segmentation layer can have weighted values for static and dynamic features. Iterations are used to form the final image which, if desired, can be formed using less than all of the segmentation layers. A final iteration can be run with the weighted values equal for static and dynamic features.

Abstract: Aspects of the present invention are related to systems, methods and apparatus for determining the orientation of a text line or a page in a document image. According to a first aspect of the present invention, an image of text blobs may be generated from a text mask associated with a document image. From the text-blob image, pixel-wise horizontal differences may be accumulated and compared to accumulated pixel-wise vertical differences. Text line orientation may be determined as horizontal when the accumulated pixel-wise horizontal differences are less than the accumulated pixel-wise vertical differences. According to a second aspect of the present invention, page orientation may be determined by reconciling an estimated text-line orientation with document language information.

Abstract: Systems and methods for quantifying an image generate a grayscale histogram of an image, wherein the grayscale histogram includes a respective number of pixels for a plurality of histogram values; determine a respective percentage of pixels in each of the histogram values based on the numbers of pixels for the respective histogram value and a total number of pixels in the image; compare the respective percentages of the histogram values to a first threshold; add the respective percentages that exceed the first threshold to a total percentage; and compare the total percentage to a second threshold.

Abstract: In several aspects of described embodiments, an electronic device and method use a camera to capture an image or a frame of video of an environment outside the electronic device followed by identification of blocks of regions in the image. Each block that contains a region is checked, as to whether a test for presence of a line of pixels is met. When the test is met for a block, that block is identified as pixel-line-present. Pixel-line-present blocks are used to identify blocks that are adjacent. One or more adjacent block(s) may be merged with a pixel-line-present block when one or more rules are found to be satisfied, resulting in a merged block. The merged block is then subject to the above-described test, to verify presence of a line of pixels therein, and when the test is satisfied the merged block is processed normally, e.g. classified as text or non-text.

Abstract: Described herein are systems and methods for managing electronic documents. In particular, embodiments of the present invention are focussed on managing ingestion of documents into an information system, such as ingestion of documents generated by a device having scanning functionality. Embodiments include devices, software (defined by computer executable code), carrier media, and methodologies. In overview, a document is received from an ingestion source, such as a Multi Function Device (MFD) having a scanner. For example, the document is a scanned into an electronic form from a paper form. This electronic form is subjected to additional processing thereby to implement a predefined security protocol prior to the document (or a modified version thereof) being released into an information system.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present application relate to a form recognition method, a form recognition system, and a computer program product for recognizing forms. A form recognition method is provided. The method includes conducting a straight line detection of a form in a form binary image to acquire a plurality of form boundaries of the form and a plurality of positional relationships between the plurality of form boundaries, extracting a plurality of features from the form using the plurality of form boundaries and the positional relationships between the plurality of form boundaries, establishing a feature vector associated with the form based at least in part on the plurality of features, calculating similarities between the form and respective ones of a plurality of template forms based at least in part on the feature vector of the form, and identifying the form based on the calculated similarities.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes the following elements. A document-type determining unit determines what type of document a document is on the basis of read information obtained as a result of reading the document by using a document reader. A compression-format setting unit sets, on the basis of the type of document determined by the document-type determining unit, a compression format used for generating image data from the read information. A generator compresses the read information by using the compression format set by the compression-format setting unit so as to generate image data corresponding to the document.

Abstract: A book scanner includes a loading mechanism, a pickup mechanism, a page-turning mechanism, a page-pressing mechanism and an image capturing mechanism. The pickup mechanism is disposed at one end of the loading mechanism. The page-turning mechanism is disposed at the end of the loading mechanism. The page-turning mechanism includes a swing arm and a supporting arm. One end of the swing arm swings reciprocally and the other end of the swing arm is connected with the supporting arm. The supporting arm is capable of rotating into a gap between a ruckled uppermost page and the other pages of the book. The swing arm rotatably turns the ruckled uppermost page. The page-pressing mechanism is partially disposed above and facing the loading mechanism. The image capturing mechanism is disposed above and facing the loading mechanism.

Abstract: The present disclosure includes a system and method for symbol compression using conditional entropy estimation. One method for symbol compression using conditional entropy estimation includes approximating a quantity of symbol encoding bits for a number of symbols using a conditional entropy estimation. Dictionary entries are generated from the number of symbols so as to minimize a total bit-stream quantity. The total bit-stream quantity includes at least the approximated quantity of symbol encoding bits and a quantity of dictionary entries encoding bits. The symbols are encoded using the dictionary entries as a reference.

Abstract: Hybrid image format techniques are described in which multiple resolution images are concatenated to a standard bitmap image to create a hybrid image file. The hybrid image file is created through combining a relatively low resolution image with the additional images in a multi-frame format having higher resolution. The hybrid image file may contain data detectable to signal that higher resolution images are available in the hybrid image file. A hybrid aware application may be configured to detect and output a higher resolution image from the hybrid image file based on detection of the data. A legacy application that is not configured to detect the data may be unaware of higher resolution images contained in the hybrid image file, and accordingly outputs the relatively low resolution image.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes a smoothing processing unit which performs smoothing processing, a thinning processing unit which performs thinning processing, an edge direction determination unit which determines an edge direction with respect to each pixel of the image data and a blending processing unit which decides a pixel value of each pixel of when the thinning processing and the smoothing processing are realized at same time. In the image processing apparatus, the blending processing unit decides a pixel value of a target pixel of when the thinning processing and the smoothing processing are realized at the same time depending on a combination of whether the thinning processing is performed or not and whether the smoothing processing is performed or not on the target pixel.

Abstract: A method of detection of numbered captions in a document includes receiving a document including a sequence of document pages and identifying illustrations on pages of the document. For each identified illustration, associated text is identified. An imitation page is generated for each of the identified illustrations, each imitation page comprising a single illustration and its associated text. For a sequence of the imitation pages, a sequence of terms is identified. Each term is derived from a text fragment of the associate text of a respective imitation page. The terms of a sequence complying with at least one predefined numbering scheme which defines a form and an incremental state of the terms in a sequence. The terms of the identified sequence of terms are construed as being at least a part of a numbered caption for a respective illustration in the document.

Abstract: An information processing apparatus sets a plurality of reference locations of data in information as one reference location pattern and acquires a feature amount obtained from a value of data of one of the plurality of pieces of reference information in one reference location pattern for each of a plurality of reference location patterns and the plurality of pieces of reference information. The apparatus extracts data included in the input information according to each of the plurality of reference location patterns, selects the reference location pattern for classification of the input information from the plurality of reference location patterns based on a value of data included in the extracted input information, and executes classification of the input information by using the feature amount in the selected reference location pattern and data included in the input information at a reference location indicated by the reference location pattern.

Abstract: A method for creating a binary mask image from an inputted digital image of a scanned document, including the steps of creating a binarized image by binarizing the inputted digital image, detecting first text regions representing light text on a dark background, and inverting the first text regions, such that the inverted first text regions are interpretable in the same way as dark text on a light background. A method for comparing in a binary image a first pixel blob with a second pixel blob to determine whether they represent matching symbols, including the steps of detecting a line in one blob not present in the other and/or determining if one of the blobs represents an italicized symbol where the other does not.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide techniques for retrieving and displaying multimedia information. According to an embodiment of the present invention, a graphical user interface (GUI) is provided that displays multimedia information that may be stored in a multimedia document. According to the teachings of the present invention, the GUI enables a user to navigate through multimedia information stored in a multimedia document. The GUI provides both a focused and a contextual view of the contents of the multimedia document.