Abstract: An image processing device is structured such that an appropriate judgement of an image, at which blurring or disappearance or the like will occur, is possible. When pixels, which form a line image at which there is the possibility that blurring or disappearance will occur at the time of printing by using a printing plate, are extracted, a line image warning function gives notice by displaying a warning message on a monitor of a client terminal. Thereafter, image converting and print setting are carried out such that an extracted line image is clarified. In this way, when a proof is prepared, an image, at which there is the possibility that blurring or disappearance will occur on a printed matter obtained by using a printing plate, is clarified, and appropriate proofing is possible.

Abstract: In a workflow management system for managing a workflow processing in which a processing object is document data read and digitized by an image reading apparatus, a technique to improve processing efficiency in the workflow processing is provided. The workflow management system includes a document data acquisition unit to acquire, as the processing object in the workflow processing, the document data made to correspond to reliability information as information indicating reliability of an image reading processing in the image reading apparatus, a reliability information acquisition unit to acquire the reliability information made to correspond to the document data acquired by the document data acquisition unit, and a processing execution unit to execute, based on the reliability information acquired by the reliability information acquisition unit, a specified processing relating to an approval processing in the workflow concerning the document data acquired by the document data acquisition unit.

Abstract: An apparatus includes: a reading unit that obtains image data by reading a document through a reading glass; a detecting unit that detects a dirty place on the reading glass; a determining unit that determines a type of each area in the image data; an edge enhancing unit that applies an edge enhancement to each area based on the type determined; and a control unit that controls, when the type of an area determined is a text area, and when the area overlaps the dirty place detected, an amount of the edge enhancement for the area.

Abstract: An imaging device includes an image sensor having a plurality of chromatic color pixels and high-sensitivity pixels having higher sensitivity to incident light than the chromatic color pixels arranged in a checkerboard pattern, a correlation detector that detects correlation of an imaged subject from a signal component of the high-sensitivity pixels and a signal component of the chromatic color pixels, a color judgment block that judges whether or not the imaged subject is of chromatic color from the signal component of the chromatic color pixels, and a pixel interpolator that switches between pixel interpolation methods according to the signal judged in the color judgment block that judges whether or not the subject is of chromatic color, the pixel interpolator giving high priority to interpolation using pixels showing strong correlation based on the information from the correlation detector when the color judgment block judges that the subject is of chromatic color.

Abstract: A caption detection system wherein all detected caption boxes over time for one caption area are identical, thereby reducing temporal instability and inconsistency. This is achieved by grouping candidate pixels in the 3D spatiotemporal space and generating a 3D bounding box for one caption area. 2D bounding boxes are obtained by slicing the 3D bounding boxes, thereby reducing temporal instability as all 2D bounding boxes corresponding to a caption area are sliced from one 3D bounding box and are therefore identical over time.

Abstract: A method of scaling a three-dimensional input model 100 in a three-dimensional input space into a three-dimensional output model 200 which fits in a predetermined three-dimensional output space 104 is disclosed. The scaling is such that a first input surface 106 in the three-dimensional input space, having a first distance to a viewpoint, is projected to a first output surface 110 in the predetermined three-dimensional output space by applying a first scaling factor and whereby a second input surface 108 in the three-dimensional input space, having a second distance to the viewpoint, which is smaller than the first distance, is projected to a second output surface 112 in the predetermined three-dimensional space, by applying a second scaling factor which is larger than the first scaling factor.

Abstract: Upon synthesizing objects, information bits indicating the types of objects are lost. To solve this problem, this invention provides an image processing apparatus having discrimination means for discriminating a type of object to be rendered, determination means for determining the presence/absence of synthesis of the discriminated object, synthesis means for synthesizing an object and information of the type of object in accordance with the determination result, and processing means for appending information indicating the type of synthesized object to a rendering result obtained by rendering the object to be rendered in units of pixels.

Abstract: An optical reading apparatus and optical character recognition processing apparatus operating in conjunction with a magnetic ink character reading apparatus reduce the time in reading a string of characters formed in a line on a processed medium. This is done in the optical reading and recognition operations by selectively using a broad recognition area that allows for variation in character positions and a narrower recognition area where the probability of the desired character string being present is high depending on past results. An extracted image containing the character string is acquired from scanned image data and the recognition process is run. If recognition succeeds, the next matching area is set to a relatively narrow predicted range and the recognition process is applied to the predicted range. If character recognition succeeds within a specified distance, the next matching area is set to a relatively narrow predicted range.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus which previews a read image is disclosed. The image processing apparatus includes a preview image processing unit in which a user is allowed to set a processing condition for the read preview image by operating on the read preview image and a preview image processed by the processing condition is displayed together with the setting of the processing condition on a displaying section.

Abstract: A method of editing a printed page comprises feeding a printed page into a multifunction printer with the printed page including text and at least one handwritten edit symbol. A first electronic printable file, which corresponds to the text of printed page, and at least one electronic edit symbol, which corresponds to the at least one handwritten edit symbol, are obtained via the multifunction printer. Via the multifunction printer, the first electronic printable file is electronically modified with at least one electronic edit instruction, which corresponds to the at least one electronic edit symbol, to create a second electronic printable file that includes the text modified according to the at least one handwritten edit symbol.

Abstract: In some embodiments, provided are procedures for processing images that may have different font sizes. In some embodiments, it involves OCR'ing with multiple passes at different resolutions.

Abstract: An apparatus for performing a layout operation on space includes a display with a touch panel for displaying space on which a layout operation is performed and controller for tracing a figure drawn by an operator on the touch panel of the display and determining, according to the figure, a field to be inputted and an input mode of the field. A method of performing a layout operation on space including the steps of displaying space on which a layout operation is performed on a monitor with a touch panel, tracing a figure drawn by an operator on the touch panel of the monitor, and determining, according to the figure, a field to be inputted and an input mode of the field. A program to perform the method.

Abstract: A system for determining the image resolution of a check image using MICR characters. The disclosed system includes an extracting system for extracting a magnetic ink code recognition (MICR) code line from the document image, wherein the extracting system provides coordinate values for each of a plurality of MICR characters in the MICR code line; a calculating system for calculating a set of resolution values based on the coordinate values of the MICR characters; and a statistical analysis system that calculates a representative resolution value from the set of resolution values.

Abstract: A method and a system for dynamically thresholding an image signal. The system comprises a computing block. The computing block receives the image signal and a minimum and a maximum within each of a set of windows centered on the current pixel in the image signal, and computes, for each of the windows, based on the current pixel and the respective minimum and maximum, a respective indicator representing the distance and direction of the current pixel relative to a respective threshold plane, and outputs a control signal based on the indicators.

Abstract: The present invention is a method of optical character recognition. First, text is received. Next all words in the text are identified and associated with the appropriate line in the document. The directional derivative of the pixellation density function defining the text is then taken, and the highest value points for each word are identified from this equation. These highest value points are used to calculate a baseline for each word. A median anticipated baseline is also calculated and used to verify each baseline, which is corrected as necessary. Each word is then parsed into feature regions, and the features are identified through a series of complex analyses. After identifying the main features, outlying ornaments are identified and associated with appropriate features. The results are then compared to a database to identify the features and then displayed.

Abstract: A substitute check is created for an original check which has an encode line printed thereon. Check image data which is representative of an image of the original check is received and analyzed to establish positioning of MICR characters within the encode line of the original check. An encode line of the substitute check is formatted based upon the positioning of MICR characters within the encode line of the original check such that the formatted encode line of the substitute check matches the encode line of the original check. The formatted encode line of the substitute check is printed to create at least a portion of the substitute check.

Abstract: A system and method for determining the image resolution of a check image using MICR characters. The disclosed system includes an extracting system for extracting a magnetic ink code recognition (MICR) code line from the document image, wherein the extracting system provides coordinate values for each of a plurality of MICR characters in the MICR code line; a calculating system for calculating a set of resolution values based on the coordinate values of the MICR characters; and a statistical analysis system that calculates a representative resolution value from the set of resolution values.

Abstract: A method and a system for separating an image signal into a set of image planes in accordance with a control signal. The system comprises a selector module, an edge processing module and a foreground/background separation module. The selector module receives the control signal and produces a selector signal. The edge processing module receives the selector signal and produces a decision signal. The foreground/background separation module receives the image signal and the decision signal, and outputs a foreground signal and a background signal, a representation of the current pixel of the image signal being included in at least one of the foreground signal and the background.

Abstract: Methods and apparatuses for determining a skew angle of text relative to an axis are disclosed herein. One exemplary embodiment of the method comprises locating a first portion of the text that has a spatial frequency greater than a first preselected value. The method continues with locating a second portion of the text that has a spatial frequency greater than a second preselected value. A line is fitted between the first portion of the text and the second portion of the text. The angle between the line and the axis is measured, wherein the angle corresponding to the skew angle.

Abstract: The camera includes a sensor for sensing the photographer's iris image and registering the image in advance. The iris image is recorded in the image of a subject by a digital MCU at a timing different from that at which the image of the subject is captured. The recording timing is that at which the camera power supply is turned off, that at which a recording medium is ejected from the camera or that at which the iris image to be recorded is changed to the registered iris image of another photographer. The recording of the iris image is achieved by embedding it as a watermark or by appending it to metadata.

Abstract: There is provided a safe image display apparatus for projecting an image on a screen that can minimize a stimulus to eyes, retinae and optic nerves from projected light entering into the eyes directly. By comparing a displayed image captured by a camera with an input image signal, a changed area is detected as a difference area and, then, a projected image signal is generated wherein a picture area image signal in the input image signal that corresponds to this difference area is masked by a black signal. The obtained projected image signal is projected onto the screen.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method and apparatus for accelerated handwritten symbol recognition in a pen based tablet computer. In one embodiment, handwritten symbols are translated into machine readable characters using special purpose hardware. In one embodiment, the special purpose hardware is a recognition processing unit (RPU) which performs feature extraction and recognition. A user inputs the handwritten symbols and software recognition engine preprocesses the input to a reduced form. The data from the preprocessor is sent to the RPU which performs feature extraction and recognition. In one embodiment, the RPU has memory and the RPU operates on data in its memory. In one embodiment, the RPU uses a hidden Markov model (HMM) as a finite state machine that assigns probabilities to a symbol state based on the preprocessed data from the handwritten symbol. In another embodiment, the RPU recognizes collections of symbols, termed “wordlets,” in addition to individual symbols.

Abstract: A method and a system for separating an image signal into a set of image planes. The system comprises a min-max module, a dynamic threshold module and a separation module. The min-max module receives the image signal, searches for a minimum and maximum within at least one window centered on a current pixel in the image signal. The dynamic threshold module computes, for the window, based on the respective minimum and maximum received from the min-max module and the current pixel, a respective indicator representing the distance and direction of the current pixel relative to a respective threshold plane, and outputs a control signal based on the indicator. The separation module separates the image signal into the set of image planes in accordance with the control signal by including a representation of the current pixel in at least one of the image planes.

Abstract: A document image is often accidentally placed at an undesirable angle during image scanning. In order to correct the orientation of the image document, an angle must be determined based upon the document image. In determining the angle, the document image is processed to reverse the brightness as necessary.

Abstract: The image processing device 1 generates edge image data from input image data, measures the distances between edge pixels in the main and secondary scanning direction, and interpolates between the edge pixels where said distances are less than a specified number of pixels in order to generate connecting edge image data of a group of connecting edge pixels. Next, it extracts a rectangular area circumscribing said group of connecting edge pixels as a local area, extracts diagonal direction edge components of said input image data that belong to said local area, and identifies said local area if the content of said diagonal direction edge components is within a specified range. The image processing device according to the present invention makes it possible to identify character areas correctly even in case of character images on complex color area reproduced by a screen, etc., and also extract character areas without causing problems such as partially missing defective characters.

Abstract: An automated method and apparatus for assisting a reader to read a printed or scribed document that cites, directly or indirectly, other information. A camera focuses down on the document for generating video signals representing an image of the document in electronic form, and a processor linked to the camera processes the image of the document captured by the camera, the processor being configured to fetch information from a database when a user, by pointing to a position on the document, selects a position within the image. The document is placed within the field of view of the camera and finger or pointing implement is placed within the field of view of the camera to a selected position on the document. The camera captures an image of the document and of the finger or pointing implement overlying the document.

Abstract: Upon synthesizing objects, information bits indicating the types of objects are lost. To solve this problem, this invention provides an image processing apparatus having discrimination means for discriminating a type of object to be rendered, determination means for determining the presence/absence of synthesis of the discriminated object, synthesis means for synthesizing an object and information of the type of object in accordance with the determination result, and processing means for appending information indicating the type of synthesized object to a rendering result obtained by rendering the object to be rendered in units of pixels.

Abstract: A color conversion apparatus has an input section for inputting page information having both image information including color data and character information including color data, a color conversion section for practicing mutually different color conversions for both the image information and the character information of the entered page information, and an output section for outputting page information, which has both image information after the color conversion and character information after the color conversion.

Abstract: A document image processing device and method for extracting a title region and a mark attached by the user from a document image to use them as document tag information. A region with a region average character size larger then a predetermine extraction judging value is extracted as a title region by title region extracting means. As a result, title regions can be extracted from one document image. A mark that the user makes on an input image is extracted by mark extracting means, and characteristic value of the mark is found by calculating means. Document tag information to be imparted to the input image is selected from reference tag information according to the characteristic value and the attribute value of the reference tag information imparting means. Thus, document tag information is automatically imparted to a document image.

Abstract: An image cropping system utilizes memory, an object detector, and an image cropper. A set of digital data that defines a graphical image is stored in the memory. The object detector analyzes the set of digital data and automatically identifies a portion of the digital data that defines an image of a particular object. The image cropper then uses the identified portion to determine a position of the object image within the graphical image. Based on the position of the object image within the graphical image, the image cropper automatically crops the digital data. In this regard, the position of the object image within the graphical image serves as a reference for determining which portions of the set of digital data should be cropped.

Abstract: A method and arrangement (300) are disclosed for detecting the presence, appearance or disappearance of subtitles in a video signal. A very high reliability can be achieved, and a marginal processing power is needed, due to the fact that most computations are already done by circuitry of an MPEG encoder (101–113) or decoder. A subtitle is detected if the complexity of the image area in which subtitles are displayed substantially exceeds the complexity of at least one other image area. Examples of properties representing the complexity are (i) the products of bit cost (b) and quantizer scale (qs) in MPEG slices, (ii) the location of the center of gravity of the spectral DCT coefficients (c), (iii) the number of macroblocks in the subtitle image area having a small motion vector (mv) versus the number of macroblocks having a large motion vector, or (iv) the fact that scene changes are not simultaneously detected in the different image areas.

Abstract: A method and device for creating a notarized document from a document, comprising acquiring image data of the document; generating a document data file based on the image data, the document data file comprising a exemplar table and a block table; and appending the document data file to the document.

Abstract: The invention determines the correct orientation of text blocks being processed with an optical character recognition computer program. The method determines a recognition confidence of characters in a text block being analyzed by the optical character recognition computer program and evaluates an orientation of the text block based on the recognition confidence.

Abstract: There is provided a safe image display apparatus for projecting an image on a screen that can minimize a stimulus to eyes, retinae and optic nerves from projected light entering into the eyes directly. By comparing a displayed image captured by a camera with an input image signal, a changed area is detected as a difference area and, then, a projected image signal is generated wherein a picture area image signal in the input image signal that corresponds to this difference area is masked by a black signal. The obtained projected image signal is projected onto the screen.

Abstract: One embodiment of a method of performing a font operation involves receiving a set of font data identifying a font operation to be performed. If a first font data unit in the set indicates that a first coordinate should be a background color and transparent background is enabled, the method involves outputting an enable for a second font data unit in the set. The second font data unit indicates that a second coordinate should be a foreground color. The enable for the second coordinate is output instead of a disable for the first coordinate. If instead the first font data unit in the set indicates that the first coordinate should be a background color and transparent background is disabled, the method may involve outputting a disable for the first coordinate.

Abstract: A method for displaying data includes receiving an input image of alphanumeric characters appearing on first and second lines. The characters are concatenated into a single line so as to generate an output image in which the characters from the second line follow the characters from the first line substantially without interruption therebetween, while maintaining a visual distinction between the characters from the first line and the characters from the second line.

Abstract: A method of recognizing a character specifies a character in an image. Furthermore, the method of recognizing a character evaluates a symmetrical-ness of a shape of the character. Furthermore, the method of recognizing a character carries out an inclination correction process for the shape when the symmetricalness of the shape is detected.

Abstract: Composing image data representing an original image in an image processing device, the image processing device having an input device and a display device, including performing a block selection process on the image data to identify at least one image block and to determine a set of block attribute data for each identified image block, displaying a composite image on the display device, the composite image comprised of each identified image block superimposed on the original image, receiving a block designation command from the input device, the block designation command designating one of the identified image blocks as a designated image block, and displaying, in response to the block designation command, a function command list for the designated image block, the function command list containing a plurality of function commands based on the set of block attribute data for the designated image block.

Abstract: A reference line detecting step 4 assumes two reference lines dividing a character row image into three, i.e., upper, intermediate and lower areas to be quadratic curves independent of one another, and obtains parameters determining the two reference lines such as to best separate the length distributions of white runs in the three areas from one another. A reference line correcting step 5 corrects the character row image from the parameters and the same image such as to obtain two horizontal reference lines and predetermined values of area (i.e., height) ratios of the three areas, and feeds the corrected image back to a preprocessing step 2. A character row reading step 3 executes character segmentation, feature extraction and character recognition with the character row image from the preprocessing means 2. The means 3 executes selection of the character recognition results, and outputs a most likely read-out result.

Abstract: In connection with the detection of an amount of movement of an image such as a document image having a small gradient of brightness, it has been difficult to detect the amount by a representative point method, and a block matching method requires much time. An image (F1) at a time (T1), which has been imaged by moving an imaging section (1), is taken into a memory (2) and a feature point extracting section (3), where feature points of the image (F1) are extracted, and an image (F2) at a start time (T2) of the subsequent frame is taken in the memory (2) and the feature point extracting section (3). A correlation operating section (5) operates feature points of the image (F2) and the image (F1) in an area designated by a search area deciding section (4) to output an amount of movement.

Abstract: A document image is often accidentally placed at an undesirable angle during image scanning. In order to correct the orientation of the image document, an angle must be determined based upon the document image. In determining the angle, the document image is processed to reverse the brightness as necessary.

Abstract: Characters of data on a document are recognized by automatically determining the definitions of characters of the data from the arrangement of character strings of the data. Character strings on the document are extracted by reading the document, and headers and data on the document are distinguished from each other by determining the positional relationship between the character strings. Character attributes of the data are determined by recognizing characters of the character strings of the headers using a header recognition dictionary. Characters of the character strings of the data are recognized according to the determined character attributes of the data. Since character attributes of the data are determined from recognized characters of the headers after the headers and the data are distinguished from each other from the layout on the document, it is possible to enter automatically the character attributes of the data.

Abstract: The image processing device 1 generates edge image data from input image data, measures the distances between edge pixels in the main and secondary scanning direction, and interpolates between the edge pixels where said distances are less than a specified number of pixels in order to generate connecting edge image data of a group of connecting edge pixels. Next, it extracts a rectangular area circumscribing said group of connecting edge pixels as a local area, extracts diagonal direction edge components of said input image data that belong to said local area, and identifies said local area if the content of said diagonal direction edge components is within a specified range.

Abstract: A character string retrieval apparatus classifies a plurality of characters following a prefix of a registration character string into a plurality of groups, and registers those following characters in an array structure using a different displacement amount for each group. The character string retrieval apparatus retrieves a given character string based on the displacement amount of a group corresponding to an input character.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus for preventing overlap of the region of an image of an original with the positions of staples is provided. It is determined if the positions of staples set through an operation unit overlap with the image of the original read by a reader unit. If the result of the determination is affirmative, the distance between an end portion of the image and the positions of staples is calculated. The input image is subjected to parallel movement by an amount of movement corresponding to the calculated distance. An image obtained by synthesizing an image after the parallel movement and an image indicating the positions of staples set through the operation unit is displayed on a display device.

Abstract: An iterative application of an optical object recognition method, such as an OCR method, with enhancements and modifications yields improved speed and accuracy. In the exemplary embodiment, after an initial pass of the OCR method on a document image, unrecognized blobs are grouped into unknown regions to which the OCR method is applied via an analysis window. If the contents of the analysis window remain unrecognized at a starting position in a given unknown region, the window can be moved within the unknown region to provide more opportunities to recognize the unknown region's contents. Recognized characters are recorded, and the portions of the unknown regions in which they appeared are removed. This pass of the OCR method recognizes characters in blobs containing multiple characters.

Abstract: A document image processing apparatus. A layout analysis section analyzes a layout structure of an input image. A layout information memory section stores layout information representing a relationship between the layout structure and a corresponding area in the input image. An image display section displays the corresponding area in the input image according to the layout information. An indication input section inputs an indication to modify the corresponding area in the input image displayed. A modification section modifies the corresponding area in the input image and the layout structure of the corresponding area in the layout information according to the indication.

Abstract: A pattern recognition system which includes an input device for inputting a pattern and a character code, an extractor for extracting feature data from the input pattern, a detector for detecting size data of the input pattern, and a register for registering both the features data and the size data in correspondence with the input character code to a dictionary for character recognition.

Abstract: It is an object of the present invention to appropriately extract areas for character recognition from a color image. It is another object of the present invention to separate and extract characters from a background color in a color image if the background of the manuscript is not white and if the characters are printed in a portion having a color that is not commonly used all over the image. To achieve these objects, this invention binarizes an input color image in a plurality of stages and extracts area from binary images obtained in each stage to enable areas and text sections to be appropriately extracted despite the unknown colors of the characters and background contained in the input color image.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method for the identification and interpretation of text captions in an encoded video stream of digital video signals comprises sampling by selecting frames for video analysis, decoding by converting each of frames selected into a digitized color image, performing edge detection for generating a grey scale image, binarizing by converting the grey scale image into a bi-level image by means of a thresholding operation, compressing groups of consecutive pixel values in the binary image, mapping the consecutive pixel values into a binary value, and separating groups of connected pixels and determining whether they are likely to be part of a text region in the image or not.