Image processing apparatus, image processing method and program product therefor

• US 20050157346A1
• Filed: 09/09/2004
• Published: 07/21/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 01/20/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujifilm Business Innovation Corp. (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fuji Xerox Company Limited (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Kitagawara, Atsushi, Hibi, Yoshiharu, Okutsu, Masaru
• Granted Patent: US 7,561,305 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/2.100
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/6005 with luminance or chrominance signals, e.g. LC1C2, HSL or YUV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/6075 Corrections to the hue
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/62 Retouching, i.e. modification of isolated colours only or in isolated picture areas only

Abstract

An image processing apparatus includes: a region recognizing unit that recognizes a region to be subjected to spot color processing in a digital image that is read from an image database in which a plurality of digital images are stored; a color information acquiring unit that acquires target color information to serve as a replacement target in the spot color processing; and a converting unit that converts color information of the region recognized by the region recognizing unit into the target color information acquired by the color information acquiring unit.

Claims

1. An image processing apparatus comprising:

a region recognizing unit that recognizes a region to be subjected to spot color processing in a digital image that is read from an image database in which a plurality of digital images are stored;

a color information acquiring unit that acquires target color information to serve as a replacement target in the spot color processing; and

a converting unit that converts color information of the region recognized by the region recognizing unit into the target color information acquired by the color information acquiring unit.

2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the digital image is a captured image, and

wherein the target color information is a color at least one of a corporate color and a commodity main color in the captured image.

3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the converting unit converts color signals representing the color information of the region into color signals representing the target color information.

4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising a color converting unit that converts the color information of the region recognized by the region recognizing unit into information in a color space that is defined by a lightness axis and color axes.

5. The image processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the converting unit retains a gradation signal of the region and converts color signals of the color information of the region into color signals of the target color information.

6. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the color information acquiring unit recognizes a spot color that is designated by a user, and reads out color information of the recognized spot color that is stored in a spot color database in accordance with the designated spot color.

7. The image processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the color information acquiring unit acquires, as the target color information, color information represented by a color sample designation number such as a Pantone number or a DIC number.

8. An image processing apparatus comprising:

an image input unit that receives a plurality of digital images that are read from an image database in which digital images are stored;

an object recognizing unit that recognizes a region to be subjected to spot color processing for each of the plurality of digital images received by the image input unit; and

a spot color processing unit that converts color information of the region recognized by the object recognizing unit into the same spot color for each of the plurality of digital images.

9. The image processing apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising a preprocessing unit that performs preprocessing on each of the plurality of digital images received by the image input unit,

wherein the object recognizing unit recognizes a region to be subjected to the spot color processing in the digital image on which the preprocessing has been performed by the preprocessing unit.

10. The image processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the spot color processing unit converts a color information of the region into the spot color while retaining a gradation information of the region recognized by the object recognizing unit.

11. The image processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the spot color processing unit replaces color signals representing the color information of the region with color signals representing color information of the spot color.

12. The image processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the spot color processing unit recognizes a spot color that is designated by a user, and reads out color information of the recognized spot color stored in a spot color database in accordance with the designated spot color.

13. An image processing method comprising:

reading a digital image from storing unit in which a plurality of digital images are stored;

determining a subject region in the digital image, the subject region subjected for a color replacement process;

replacing a color of the determined subject region with a color including at least one of a corporate color and a commodity main color; and

storing the digital image in which the color of the subject region has been replaced in the storing unit.

14. The image processing method according to claim 13, further comprising performing preprocessing on the digital image read from the storing unit,

wherein in determining the subject region, the subject region is determined in the preprocessed digital image.

15. The image processing method according to claim 13, further comprising converting the color of the determined subject region into luminance/color difference signals,

wherein in replacing the color of the subject region, color difference signals of the subject region are replaced with color difference signals representing the color including at least one of the corporate color and the commodity main color.

16. The image processing method according to claim 15, wherein in replacing the color of the subject region, a luminance signal of the subject region is retained.

17. The image processing method according to claim 13, further comprising:

reading, from the storing unit, a plurality of digital images in each of which the color of the subject region being replaced; and

outputting the plurality of digital images in a form arranged in a pattern.

18. An image processing program product for causing a computer to execute procedures comprising:

reading a digital image from storing unit in which a plurality of digital images are stored;

determining a subject region in the digital image, the subject region subjected for a color replacement process;

replacing a color of the determined subject region with a color including at least one of a corporate color and a commodity main color; and

storing the digital image in which the color of the subject region has been replaced in the storing unit.

19. The program product according to claim 18, further causing the computer to execute:

reading, from the storing unit, a plurality of digital images in each of which the color of the subject region being replaced; and

outputting the plurality of digital images in a form arranged in a pattern.

20. The program product according to claim 18, further causing the computer to execute:

recognizing a user instruction for replacing the determined subject region with the color including at least one of the corporate color and the commodity main color; and

acquiring color signals representing the corporate color or the commodity main color from a memory on the basis of the recognized user instruction.