Segmented layered image system
First Claim
1. A document encoding system comprising:
- a mask separator that receives a document image and generates a mask from the document image, the mask being generated at least in part via merging regions by pairs of the document image based at least in pan upon minimization of pixel energy, the mask generated so as to reduce an estimated compression of a foreground image and a background image, the estimated compression comprising an energy variance computation; and
an image segmenter that segments the document image into a plurality of layers according to the mask, the plurality of layers represented in non-binary format.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Systems and methods for encoding and decoding document images are disclosed. Document images are segmented into multiple layers according to a mask. The multiple layers are non-binary. The respective layers can then be processed and compressed separately in order to achieve better compression of the document image overall. A mask is generated from a document image. The mask is generated so as to reduce an estimate of compression for the combined size of the mask and multiple layers of the document image. The mask is then employed to segment the document image into the multiple layers. The mask determines or allocates pixels of the document image into respective layers. The mask and the multiple layers are processed and encoded separately so as to improve compression of the document image overall and to improve the speed of so doing. The multiple layers are non-binary images and can, for example, comprise a foreground image and a background image.
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Citations
65 Claims
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1. A document encoding system comprising:
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a mask separator that receives a document image and generates a mask from the document image, the mask being generated at least in part via merging regions by pairs of the document image based at least in pan upon minimization of pixel energy, the mask generated so as to reduce an estimated compression of a foreground image and a background image, the estimated compression comprising an energy variance computation; and an image segmenter that segments the document image into a plurality of layers according to the mask, the plurality of layers represented in non-binary format. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A document encoding system comprising:
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a mask separator that receives a document image and generates a mask from the document image, the mask generated so as to reduce an estimated compression of a foreground image and a background images, the estimated compression comprising an energy variance computation; a retouch component that identifies spurious boundaries and/or extends the foreground and/or background image by way of the mask; and an image segmenter that segments the document image into a plurality of layers according to the mask, the plurality of layers represented in non-binary format. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14)
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15. A document encoding system comprising:
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a mask separator that receives a document image and generates a mask from the document image, the mask represented in binary format and generated at least in part via merging regions by pairs of the document image based at least in part upon minimization of pixel energy; and a foreground background segmenter that segments the document image into a foreground image and a background image according to the mask, the foreground image and the background image represented in a non-binary format, the mask generated so as to reduce an estimated compression of the foreground image and the background image, the estimated compression comprising an energy variance computation. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. A document encoding system comprising:
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a colorspace converter that converts a document image having a first colorspace to a converted document image having a second colorspace; a mask separator that generate a mask from the converted document image, the mask represented in binary format and being generated at least in part via merging regions by pairs of the document image based at least in part upon minimization of pixel energy; and a foreground background segnienter that segments the convened document image into a foreground image and a background image according to the mask, the foreground image and the background image represented in a non-binary format, the mask generated so as to reduce an estimated compression of the foreground image and the background image, the estimated compression comprising an energy variance computation. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32)
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33. A document decoding system comprising:
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a separator component that separates a bitstream into a foreground bitstream, a background bitstream and a mask bitstream; a foreground decoder that decodes the foreground bitstream into a foreground image; a background decoder that decodes the background bitstream into a background image; a mask decoder that decodes the mask bitstream into a mask, the mask generated so as to reduce an estimated compression of the foreground image and the background image, the estimated compression comprising an energy variance computation; and a combiner component that generates a document image as a combination of the foreground image and the background image according to the mask. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35, 36, 37)
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38. A document system comprising:
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a colorspace converter that converts a colorspace of a document image; a mask separator that receives the document image from the colorspace converter and generates a mask for the document image at least in part via merging regions by pairs of the document image based at least in part upon minimization of pixel energy; a mask processor component that receives the mask from the mask separator and to process the mask; and a segmenter that segments the document image into a foreground image and a background image according to the mask, the mask generated so as to reduce an estimated compression of the foreground image and the background image, the estimated compression comprising an energy variance computation. - View Dependent Claims (39, 40, 41, 42, 43)
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- 44. The system of daixn 43, the segmenter comprising a retouch component that analyzes the mask and the document image for spurious boundaries and extends a foreground mask and a background mask by a number of pixels across the spurious boundaries, the foreground mask and the background mask based on the mask, the foreground mask utilized by the segmenter to obtain the foreground image and the background mask utilized by the segmenter to obtain the background image.
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49. A method of encoding a document comprising:
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generating a mask for a document image at least in part via merging regions by pairs of the document image based at least in part upon minimization of pixel energy, the mask generated such that an energy variance of a foreground image, a background image and the mask is reduced, the energy variance being an estimate of compression; and segmenting the document image into the foreground image and the background image, the foreground image and the background image being a non-binary format. - View Dependent Claims (50, 51, 52, 53, 54)
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55. A method of decoding a document comprising:
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receiving a bitstream; separating the bitstream into a mask bitstream, a foreground bitstream and a background bitstream; decoding the foreground bitstream into a foreground image; decoding the background bitstream into a background image; decoding the mask bitstream into a mask, the mask generated such that an energy variance of the foreground image, the background image and the mask is reduced, the energy variance being an estimate of compression; and combining the foreground image and the background image according to the mask into a reconstructed document image. - View Dependent Claims (56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61)
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62. A computer readable medium having computer usable components for a document encoding system, comprising:
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a colorspace converter component tat converts a colorspace of a document image; a mask separator component that receives the document image from the colorspace converter component and generates a mask for the document image at least in part via merging regions by pairs of the document image based at least in part upon minimization of pixel energy; and a segmenter component that receives the document image from the colorspace converter and segments the document image into a foreground image and a background image according to the mask, the mask generated such that an energy variance of the foreground image, the background image and the mask is reduced, the energy variance being an estimate of compression. - View Dependent Claims (63, 64)
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65. An encoding system comprising:
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means for generating a mask for a document image at least in part via merging regions by pairs of the document image based at least in part upon minimization of pixel energy; means for segmenting the document image into a foreground image and a background image; means for encoding the mask into a mask bitstream, the mask generated such that an energy variance of the foreground image, the background image and the mask is reduced, the energy variance being an estimate of compression; means for encoding the foreground image into a foreground bitstream; means for encoding the background image into a background bitstream; and means for combining the mask bitstream, the foreground bitstream and the background bitstream into a combined bitstream.
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Specification