METHOD FOR PARTIALLY OBSCURING CONTENT OF DOCUMENTS AND IMAGES

• US 20090060343A1
• Filed: 08/19/2008
• Published: 03/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Document Control Solutions (Konica Minolta Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Document Control Solutions (Konica Minolta Inc.)
• Inventors: Rosca, Andrew
• Application Number:
  US12/194,524
• Publication Number:
  US 20090060343A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/190
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30176 Document
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/20 using local operators
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/70 Denoising; Smoothing
• CPC Class Codes: G09C 5/00 Ciphering apparatus or methods not provided for in the preceding groups, e.g. involving the concealment or deformation of graphic data such as designs, written or printed messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/448 Rendering the image unintelligible, e.g. scrambling

Abstract

A method for partially obscuring part of a document (or image) for the purpose of hiding the content of that document while still revealing portions of the document so that the nature and validity of the content can be determined.

Claims

1. A method for partially obscuring an image or document file for verification purposes comprising the steps of:

using a filter to blur a first portion of the image or document file wherein the first portion of the image or document file may be partially distinguished but not clearly identified;

retaining a second portion of the image or document file as unchanged for verification that the image or document file is clear and contains a desired piece of information.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the first and second portions of the image or document file have a random size, number of pixels, number of words, position, and shape.

3. A method for partially obscuring an image, document, or audio file for verification purposes comprising the steps of:

overlaying a first portion of the image, document, or audio file with a pattern wherein the first portion of the image may be partially distinguished but not clearly identified;

retaining a second portion of the image, document, or audio file as unchanged for verification that the image, document, or audio file is clear and contains a desired piece of information.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the pattern is selected from the group consisting of opaque, semi-transparent, static, silence, and a combination thereof.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the first and second portions of the image, document or audio file have a random size, number of pixels, number of words, position, and shape.

6. A method for partially obscuring a plurality of text in a document for verification purposes comprising the steps of:

replacing a first section of the text in the document with a random sequence of characters so that the first section of the text of the document cannot be read.

retaining a second section of the text as unchanged for verification that the text is clear and contains a desired piece of information.