Abstract: A character region extracting apparatus and method which extract a character region through the calculation of character stroke widths are provided. The method includes producing a binary image including a candidate character region from an original image; extracting a character outline from the candidate character region; acquires character outline information for the extracted outline; setting a representative character stroke width and a representative character angle in each of the pixels forming the outline, based on the character outline information; and determining a character existing region in the candidate character region by confirming the ratio of effective representative stroke widths and effective angles as compared to the entire length of the outline. Accordingly, it is possible to efficiently determine whether one or more characters exist in the candidate character region.

Abstract: Provided is an apparatus and method for generating an image for character region extraction. Upon input of an original image, a candidate character image is generated from the original image and a plurality of binarization maps for similar colors are generated from the generated candidate character image. A binarization map including a background region is selected from among the plurality of generated binarization maps, and the background region of the selected binarization map is expanded. The expanded background region is inverted to generate an image including a character region, thereby generating an image for accurately extracting the character region without missing a boundary portion of a character.

Abstract: A character region extracting apparatus and method which extract a character region through the calculation of character stroke widths are provided. The method includes producing a binary image including a candidate character region from an original image; extracting a character outline from the candidate character region; acquires character outline information for the extracted outline; setting a representative character stroke width and a representative character angle in each of the pixels forming the outline, based on the character outline information; and determining a character existing region in the candidate character region by confirming the ratio of effective representative stroke widths and effective angles as compared to the entire length of the outline. Accordingly, it is possible to efficiently determine whether one or more characters exist in the candidate character region.

Abstract: Provided is an apparatus and method for generating an image for character region extraction. Upon input of an original image, a candidate character image is generated from the original image and a plurality of binarization maps for similar colors are generated from the generated candidate character image. A binarization map including a background region is selected from among the plurality of generated binarization maps, and the background region of the selected binarization map is expanded. The expanded background region is inverted to generate an image including a character region, thereby generating an image for accurately extracting the character region without missing a boundary portion of a character.