Image forming apparatus and copy management system
First Claim
1. An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a first reading device for reading an image of a first document and producing image data representative of the image;
an inputting device for inputting additional data;
an embedding device for embedding input additional data into a portion of the image data of the first document read by said first reading device; and
an outputting device for outputting a second document having an image with the same appearance as the image of the first document, where the image of the second document includes the additional data embedded by said embedding device.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Additional data useful for the management of copies of a document for an image forming apparatus is embedded in a hard copy of the document. The additional data is embedded in an inherent image of a document as pixels arranged in a prescribed format, and, preferably, the size of the pixels is such as to not be easily recognized with the naked eye. The image data for embedding the additional data can be obtained by reading a document, or by receiving data sent from a computer or read from a floppy disk. Additional data embedded in a hard copy can be extracted from the image data on the hard copy, and the production of a copy according to the image data can be controlled according to the extracted additional data. For example, if the additional data means that the source of the hard copy is a secret document, copying thereof is allowed only for a legitimate user. Additional data generated for each copy is compiled and is used to manage copies of various sources systematically.
93 Citations
19 Claims
-
1. An image forming apparatus comprising:
-
a first reading device for reading an image of a first document and producing image data representative of the image; an inputting device for inputting additional data; an embedding device for embedding input additional data into a portion of the image data of the first document read by said first reading device; and an outputting device for outputting a second document having an image with the same appearance as the image of the first document, where the image of the second document includes the additional data embedded by said embedding device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
-
-
7. An image forming apparatus comprising:
-
a generating device for generating image data from a source, the image data including additional data embedded therein; an extracting device for extracting the additional data from the image data; and a managing device coupled to the extracting device for managing information related to copies of the source based on the additional data extracted from the image data. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9)
-
-
10. An image forming apparatus comprising:
-
a generating device for generating image data; an extracting device for extracting additional data from the image data generated by said generating device; a processing device for processing the image data generated by said generating device; an embedding device for embedding the additional data extracted by said extracting device into the image data processed by said processing device; and an outputting device for outputting image data with the additional data embedded by said embedding device.
-
-
11. An image forming apparatus comprising:
-
a first reading device for reading an image of a first document and producing image data representative of the image; an inputting device for inputting additional data; an embedding device for embedding input additional data into a portion of the image data of the first document read by said first reading device; and an outputting device for outputting a second document having an image similar in appearance to the image of the first document, where the image of the second document includes the additional data embedded by said embedding device and the additional data is indiscernible to a human observer, wherein the input additional data is independent of the image data of the first document. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14)
-
-
15. An image forming apparatus for forming an image from a document having a transmission device, the apparatus comprising:
-
a reading device for reading an image of a document and producing image data representative of the image; a receiving device for receiving a transmission of additional data from the document; an embedding device for embedding received additional data into a portion of the image data of the first document read by said first reading device; and an outputting device for outputting a second document having an image similar in appearance to the image of the first document, where the image of the second document includes the additional data embedded by said embedding device and the additional data is indiscernible to a human observer. - View Dependent Claims (16)
-
-
17. A copy management system, comprising:
-
a reading device for reading an image of a first document and producing image data representative of the image; an inputting device for inputting additional data; an embedding device for embedding input additional data into a portion of the image data of the first document read by said first reading device; an outputting device for outputting a second document having an image similar in appearance to the image of the first document, where the image of the second document includes the additional data embedded by said embedding device and the additional data is indiscernible to a human observer; and a management device for managing input additional data. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19)
-
Specification