Image processing apparatus, image processing method, and image processing system

• US 6,546,130 B1
• Filed: 07/14/2000
• Issued: 04/08/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fuji Xerox Company Limited (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fuji Xerox Company Limited (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Inoue, Takahide, Higashikata, Ryousuke, Ogatsu, Hitoshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Johns, Andrew W.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dang, Duy M.
• Application Number:
  US09/617,444
• Time in Patent Office: 998 Days
• Field of Search: 382/162, 382/167, 382/232, 382/166, 358/504, 358/518, 358/501, 358/519, 358/580, 358/530, 358/448, 358/296, 358/525, 348/391.1, 348/472
• US Class Current: 382/162
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/001 Texturing; Colouring; Generation of texture or colour inpainting G06T5/77
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10024 Color image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/90 Determination of colour characteristics
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/6058 Reduction of colour to a range of reproducible colours, e.g. to ink- reproducible colour gamut

Abstract

An image processing apparatus is disclosed which includes an input device that inputs image data, a color distribution recognition device that recognizes a color distribution in a color space and position information in an image space of the image data input through the input device, and a device that determines one or more color reproduction parameters of the image data based on the color distribution and position information recognized by the color distribution recognition device and a color reproduction range of an output device.

Claims

1. An image processing apparatus comprising:

means for inputting image data,

a multi-dimensional color conversion table for executing color conversion of the image data input through said input means based on present lattice point data,

color distribution recognition means for recognizing a color distribution of the image data input through said input means,

grouping means for grouping the color distribution recognized by said color distribution recognition means into one or more groups, and means for determining the lattice point data for said multi-dimensional color conversion table based on the groups into which the color distribution is grouped by said grouping means and the color reproduction range of an output device,

wherein said color distribution recognition means divides the color space into areas and counts the number of pixels belonging to each division area, and

said grouping means determines whether adjacent areas can be combined based on the counts of the adjacent areas provided by said color distribution recognition means, and groups the areas in response to the determination result.

2. The image processing apparatus of claim 1, wherein

said grouping means groups the areas except for color distributions of portions where no degradation of color discrimination is assumed to occur.

3. The image processing apparatus of claim 1, wherein

said lattice point data determination means determines a color compression method and color compression strength for the group based on a distribution form of a portion where a color portion space on the color space contained in the group is outside the color reproduction range.

4. The image processing apparatus of claim 1, wherein

said lattice point data determination means determines a color compression method and color compression strength for the group based on a distribution form of a portion where a color portion space on the color space contained in the group is outside the color reproduction range and a distribution form of the group.

5. An image processing apparatus comprising:

means for inputting image data,

one or more multi-dimensional color conversion tables for executing color conversion of the image data input through said input means based on preset lattice point data,

color distribution recognition means for recognizing a color distribution in a color space and position information in an image space of the image data input through said input means,

grouping means for grouping the color distribution into one or more groups based on the position information recognized by said color distribution recognition means, and

means for determining the lattice point data for said one or more multi-dimensional color conversion tables based on the groups into which the color distribution is grouped by said grouping means, the position information, and the color reproduction range of an output device,

wherein said lattice point data determination means comprises;

means for determining position mask information corresponding to the groups into which the color distribution is grouped by said grouping means, and

storage means for creating and storing a file of the lattice point data corresponding to the position mask information determined by said position mask information determination means for determining the lattice point data by reading the lattice point data based on the position mask information from said storage means.

6. An image processing system comprising:

an image input device for inputting color image data,

an image processing apparatus for performing image processing for color image data input through said image input device, and

an image output device for outputting the color image data for which the image processing has been performed by said image processing apparatus,

wherein said image processing apparatus comprises;

color distribution recognition means for recognizing a color distribution in a color space and position information in an image space of the color image data,

grouping means for grouping the color distribution into one or more groups based on the position information recognized by said color distribution recognition means,

means for determining a color reproduction parameter of the color image data based on the groups into which the color distribution is grouped by said grouping means and a color reproduction range of said image output device, and

conversion means for performing color reproduction processing for the color image data based on the color reproduction parameter determined by said color reproduction parameter determination means and the position information and outputting the resulting conversion color image data to said image output device, and

wherein said image output device outputs a color image based on the conversion color image data output from said image processing apparatus.

7. An image processing system comprising:

an image input device for inputting color image data,

an image processing apparatus for performing image processing for color image data input through said image input device, and

an image output device for performing image processing for the color image data based on an image processing instruction given by said image processing apparatus and outputting a color image,

wherein said image processing apparatus comprises;

color distribution recognition means for recognizing a color distribution in a color space and position information in an image space of the color image data,

grouping means for grouping the color distribution into one or more groups based on the position information recognized by said color distribution recognition means, and

means for determining a color reproduction parameter of the color image data based on the groups into which the color distribution is grouped by said grouping means and a color reproduction range of said image output device, and

wherein said image output device, performs color conversion processing for the color image data based on the color reproduction parameter and the position information output from said image processing apparatus, and outputs a color image.

8. An image processing apparatus comprising:

means for inputting image data;

a multi-dimensional color conversion table for executing color conversion of the image data input through said input means based on present lattice point data,

color distribution recognition means for recognizing a color distribution of the image data input through said input means,

grouping means for grouping the color distribution recognized by said color distribution recognition means into one or more groups, and means for determining the lattice point data for said multi-dimensional color conversion table based on the groups into which the color distribution is grouped by said grouping means and the color reproduction range of an output device,

wherein said color distribution recognition means divides the color space into areas and counts the number of pixels belonging to each division area, and recognizes pixel information, and

and said grouping means determines whether area can be combined based on the counts of the adjacent areas provided by said color distribution recognition means, and groups the areas in response to the determined result.