Identification, characterization, and segmentation of Halftone or stippled regions of binary images by growing a seed to a clipping mask
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method performed in a digital processor for identifying and processing halftone regions in a binary input image, comprising the steps of:
- determining whether halftone regions exist in the input image; and
only if halftone regions exist, constructing a representation of a separation mask by performing the substeps ofconstructing a seed,constructing a clipping mask, andgrowing the seed and clipping the seed, thus grown, to the clipping mask.
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Abstract
A method for creating a mask for separating halftone regions in a binary image from other regions comprises: constructing a seed image that includes pixels only in halftone regions and at least one pixel in every halftone region (67); constructing a clipping mask that covers in a connected manner all ON pixels in halftone regions (70); and filling the seed while clipping to the mask (72). Thresholded reductions and morphological operations are preferred.
74 Citations
25 Claims
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1. A method performed in a digital processor for identifying and processing halftone regions in a binary input image, comprising the steps of:
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determining whether halftone regions exist in the input image; and only if halftone regions exist, constructing a representation of a separation mask by performing the substeps of constructing a seed, constructing a clipping mask, and growing the seed and clipping the seed, thus grown, to the clipping mask. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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2. A method performed in a digital processor for processing halftone regions in an original binary image, comprising the steps of:
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subjecting the input image to at least one thresholded reduction at a low threshold value to provide a resulting image; subjecting the resulting image to at least one thresholded reduction at a high threshold level to provide a further resulting image; subjecting the further resulting image to an open operation to provide a seed; constructing a clipping mask; and growing the seed and clipping the seed, thus grown, to the clipping mask.
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3. A method performed in a digital processor for processing halftone regions in binary input image, comprising the steps of:
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constructing a seed; constructing a clipping mask; and growing the seed and clipping the seed, thus grown, to the clipping mask; wherein said step of constructing a clipping mask comprises subjecting the image to a set of operations that eliminates OFF pixels that are near ON pixels, said set of operations including at least one thresholded reduction to solidify textured areas.
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4. A method performed in a digital processor for processing halftone regions in a binary input image, comprising the steps of:
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processing the input image to construct a seed image, the seed image having the property that it contains pixels only in the halftone regions and that it contains at least one pixel in every halftone region; processing the input image to form a clipping mask, the clipping mask having the property that it covers all ON pixels in the halftone regions and that any part of the clipping mask that covers a non-halftone region does not touch a part of the clipping mask that covers a halftone region; and processing the seed image and the clipping mask so as to grow the seed and clip the seed, thus grown, to the clipping mask; whereby the seed, thus grown and clipped, provides a representation of a separation mask.
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5. A method performed in a digital processor for processing halftone regions in a binary input image, comprising the steps of:
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determining whether halftone regions exist in the input image; and only if halftone regions exist, constructing a representation of a separation mask by performing the substeps of processing the input image to construct a seed image, the seed image having the property that it contains pixels only in the halftone regions and that it contains at least one pixel in every halftone region, processing the input image to form a clipping mask, the clipping mask having the property that it covers all ON pixels in the halftone regions and that any part of the clipping mask that covers a non-halftone region does not touch a part of the clipping mask that covers a halftone region, and processing the seed image and the clipping mask so as to grow the seed and clip the seed, thus grown, to the clipping mask.
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Specification