Apparatus and method for image processing

• US 7,119,923 B1
• Filed: 07/24/2000
• Issued: 10/10/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/23/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fuji Photo Film Co Limited (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Iwaki, Yasuharu
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, ANH-VINH THI
• Application Number:
  US09/624,161
• Time in Patent Office: 2,269 Days
• Field of Search: 358/1.9, 358/518, 358/1.15, 358/527, 358/504, 358/506, 358/523, 358/531, 358/537, 382/162, 716/4, 399/76, 345/22, 345/90
• US Class Current: 358/1.9
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/622 with simulation on a subsidiary picture reproducer

Abstract

There is provided an image processing apparatus including an image correcting amount computing unit for computing a proper amount of image correction based on image data of an image of an original delivered from an image input unit; an image processing unit for performing image processing based on the thus computed proper amount of image correction; and a display unit for displaying for monitoring a processed image. The proper amount of image correction automatically computed by the image correcting amount computing unit is evaluated for a degree of correctness and a warning is given when the degree of correctness is low. The image processing method which is implemented in the above apparatus is also provided. Images having a possibility of being erroneously identified during image processing are subjected to operator'"'"'s judgment whereby outputting of defective prints can be reduced.

Claims

1. An image processing apparatus, comprising:

an image correcting amount computing unit for computing a proper amount of image correction based on image data of an image of an original delivered from an image input unit by which the image data of the image of the original was input;

an image processing unit for performing image processing based on the proper amount of image correction computed by said image correcting amount computing unit to thereby produce a processed image; and

a display unit for displaying for monitoring the processed image obtained by said image processing unit;

wherein the proper amount of image correction automatically computed by said image correcting amount computing unit is evaluated for a degree of correctness and a warning is given when said degree of correctness is low;

wherein the evaluation for the degree of correctness is performed prior to the image processing.

2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said image input unit is an image reading unit for photoelectrically reading the image of said original as said image data, a readout unit for reading out said image data from a digital camera or an image data recording medium, or a communication unit for downloading said image data via communication lines.

3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an image for which the warning is given because of the low degree of correctness in the proper amount of image correction automatically computed by said image correcting amount computing unit, belongs to a group of images in which correction is performed in different directions for said proper amount of image correction,

said image processing apparatus further including:

a verification unit in which an operator performs an input operation for verifying said image belonging to the group of the images in which the correction is performed in the different directions for the proper amount of image correction.

4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the image for which the correction is performed in the different directions for the proper amount of image correction is a failure image and the group of the images in which the correction is performed in the different directions for the proper amount of image correction is a group that contains images taken with unusual types of light sources and images having a color failure, and a group that contains images taken with backlight and images taken with an electronic flash.

5. The image processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein images other than said failure image are not displayed on a verification screen in said display unit.

6. The image processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein, for said failure image, each image resulting from said image processing performed based on said proper amount of image correction in each of at least two of said different directions is displayed on the display unit to ask for the operator'"'"'s instruction for selection.

7. The image processing apparatus according to claim 4, further including:

an image storage unit for storing failure images, so that a batch of said failure images can be verified.

8. The image processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein, for the image for which the warning is given because of the low degree of correctness in the proper amount of image correction, each image resulting from said image processing performed based on said proper amount of image correction in each of at least two of said different directions is displayed on the display unit to ask for the operator'"'"'s instruction for selection.

9. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein images other than the image for which the warning is given because of the low degree of correctness in the proper amount of image correction are not displayed on a verification screen in said display unit.

10. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further including:

an image storage unit for storing images for which the warning is given because of the low degree of correctness in the proper amount of image correction, so that a batch of the images for which the warning is given because of the low degree of correctness in the proper amount of image correction can be verified.

11. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further including:

a unit for storing the processed image obtained by said image processing unit as the image data.

12. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further including:

a unit for outputting the processed image obtained by said image processing unit to an external unit as the image data.

13. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising a characteristic quantity computing portion for reading prescan data of the image to generate said image data, wherein the said image data is used to compute the proper amount of image correction.

14. The image processing apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the image data includes at least one of density histogram, average density, minimum density, maximum density, large-area transmission density, central density, and peripheral density.

15. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image data includes at least one of density histogram, average density, minimum density, maximum density, large-area transmission density, central density, and peripheral density.

16. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the proper amount of image correction is evaluated based on the image data of the image of the original.

17. An image processing method, comprising the steps of:

computing a proper amount of image correction based on image data of an image of an original input by photoelectrically reading the image of said original, reading out from a digital camera or an image data recording medium, or downloading via communication lines;

performing image processing based on the thus computed proper amount of image correction; and

outputting a processed image based on results of the image processing;

wherein the proper amount of image correction automatically computed in the step of computing the proper amount of image correction is evaluated for a degree of correctness and a warning is given when said degree of correctness is low;

wherein the evaluation is performed prior to the image processing.

18. The image processing method of claim 17 further comprising:

reading prescan data of the image; and

generating image data from the prescan data, wherein the image data is used to compute the proper amount of image correction.

19. The image processing method apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the image data includes at least one of density histogram, average density, minimum density, maximum density, large-area transmission density, central density, and peripheral density.

20. The image processing method according to claim 17, wherein the proper amount of image correction is evaluated based on the image data of the image of the original.

21. An image processing apparatus, comprising:

an image correcting amount computing unit for computing a proper amount of image correction based on image data of an image of an original delivered from an image input unit by which the image data of the image of the original was input by photoelectrically reading the image of the original, or reading out from a digital camera or an image data recording medium, or downloading via communication lines;

an image processing unit for performing image processing based on the proper amount of image correction computed by said image correcting amount computing unit to thereby produce a processed image;

a display unit for displaying for monitoring the processed image obtained by said image processing unit; and

a verifying unit in which an operator performs an input operation for verifying an image belonging to a group of images in which correction is performed in different directions for said proper amount of image correction automatically computed by said image correcting amount computing unit;

wherein the input operation for verifying the image is performed by the operator prior to the image processing, and the image for which the correction is performed in the different directions for the proper amount of image correction is a failure image and the group of the images in which the correction is performed in the different directions for the proper amount of image correction is a group that contains images taken with unusual types of light sources and images having a color failure, and a group that contains images taken with backlight and images taken with an electronic flash.