IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND METHOD

• US 20070127771A1
• Filed: 02/01/2007
• Published: 06/07/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Kato, Shinichi, Ishida, Yoshihiro, Ohta, Ken-ichi, Hayashi, Junichi, Iwamura, Keiichi, Eguchi, Takami, Tamaru, Jun, Kaneda, Kitahiro
• Granted Patent: US 7,536,026 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0028 Adaptive watermarking, e.g. Human Visual System [HVS]-based watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0051 Embedding of the watermark in the spatial domain
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0061 Embedding of the watermark in each block of the image, e.g. segmented watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32203 Spatial or amplitude domain methods H04N1/32309 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32208 involving changing the magnitude of selected pixels, e.g. overlay of information or super-imposition H04N1/32219, H04N1/32224 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32219 involving changing the position of selected pixels, e.g. word shifting, or involving modulating the size of image components, e.g. of characters H04N1/32224 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32251 in multilevel data, e.g. greyscale or continuous tone data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32261 in binary data H04N1/32256 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32299 using more than one embedding method
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32315 Selecting a particular method from amongst a plurality of methods
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3226 of identification information or the like, e.g. ID code, index, title, part of an image, reduced-size image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3233 of authentication information, e.g. digital signature, watermark

Abstract

It is required to protect the copyrights and the like of partial images which form respective parts of an image obtained by reading an image, exchanged using a print as a medium, by an image scanner or the like. Input image data is divided into a plurality of image regions having different features, digital watermarks, which are embedded in the detected image regions by embedding methods corresponding to the features of the image regions, are extracted, and the availability of the input image is checked on the basis of the extracted digital watermarks.

Claims

1-3. -3. (canceled)

4. An image processing method comprising the steps of:

inputting digital image information;

receiving information that designates a predetermined image region contained in the input digital image information;

compressing image information in the image region designated by the received information;

converting the compressed image information into code data wherein the image information in the designated image region can be reconstructed form the code data; and

replacing the image information in the designated image region with the code data.

5. The method according to claim 4, further comprising the steps of:

determining a type of the image information in the designated image region,

adaptively selecting a compression method used in the compressing step based on the determined type of the image information; and

appending information indicating the selected compression method to the code data.

6. The method according to claim 4, further comprising the steps of:

inputting authentication information required to reconstruct the image information before the compression from the code data; and

appending the input authentication information to the code data.

7. The method according to claim 4, wherein the converting step comprises the steps of:

determining a type of the image information in the designated image region; and

adaptively executing binarization or resolution conversion based on the determined type of the image information, so as to reduce a data size of the code data to be generated to a value not more than a predetermined value.

8. The method according to claim 4, wherein the code data is image data in a bitmap format.

9. An image processing method comprising the steps of:

inputting digital image information;

detecting a hidden image region included in the input digital image information;

extracting code data from the detected hidden image region;

reconstructing image information by expanding the extracted code data; and

replacing image information in the detected hidden image region with the reconstructed image information.

10. The method according to claim 9, further comprising the steps of:

extracting authentication information from the code data;

inputting authentication information; and

executing the expansion of the code data when the extracted authentication information matches the input authentication information.

11. An image processing apparatus comprising:

an input section, arranged to input digital image information;

a reception section, arranged to receive information that designates a predetermined image region contained in the input digital image information;

a compressor, arranged to compress image information in the image region designated by the received information;

a converter, arranged to convert the compressed image information into code data, wherein the image information in the designated image region can be reconstructed from the code data; and

a replacement section, arranged to replace the image information in the designated image region with the code data.

12. An image processing apparatus comprising:

an input section, arranged to input digital image information;

a detector, arranged to detect a hidden image region included in the input digital image information;

an extractor, arranged to extract code data from the detected hidden image region;

an expander, arranged to reconstruct image information by expanding the extracted code data; and

a replacement section, arranged to replace image information in the detected hidden image region with the reconstructed image information.

13. A computer-executable program stored on a computer-readable storage medium comprising program code causing a computer to perform an image processing method, the method comprising the steps of:

inputting digital image information;

receiving information that designates a predetermined image region contained in the input image information;

compressing image information in the image region designated by the received information;

converting the compressed image information into code data, wherein the image information in the designated image region can be reconstructed from the code data; and

replacing the image information in the designated image region with the code data.

14. A computer-executable program stored on a computer-readable storage medium comprising program code causing a computer to perform an image processing method, the method comprising the steps of:

inputting digital image information;

detecting a hidden image region included in the input digital image information;

extracting code data from the detected hidden image region;

reconstructing image information by expanding the extracted code data; and

replacing image information in the detected hidden image region with the reconstructed image information.

15-31. -31. (canceled)