Image processing apparatus and method for using mark detection to combine multiple images present on the front and rear surfaces of a medium

• US 7,649,659 B2
• Filed: 03/08/2005
• Issued: 01/19/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/10/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PFU Limited (Fujitsu Limited)
• Original Assignee: PFU Limited (Fujitsu Limited)
• Inventors: Okumura, Yuichi, Nabemoto, Hideto
• Primary Examiner(s): Zimmerman; Mark K
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ramos; Javier J
• Application Number:
  US10/587,983
• Publication Number:
  US 20070127087A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,778 Days
• Field of Search: 358/1.12, 358/1.18, 358/450, 358/505, 358/538, 358/449, 358/474, 358/488, 358/453, 382/317, 382/284
• US Class Current: 358/538
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00358 Type of the scanned marks
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00374 on the same page as at least a part of the image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00681 Detecting the presence, position or size of a sheet or correcting its position before scanning H04N1/047 takes precedence; mode signalling H04N1/333; skew detection or correction in image signals H04N1/3878
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00708 Size or dimensions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00718 Skew
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00763 Action taken as a result of detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00822 Selecting or setting a particular reading mode, e.g. from amongst a plurality of modes, simplex or duplex, or high or low resolution
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00968 by scanning marks on a sheet mark-sheet input means H04N1/00355; sensing record carriers G06K7/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/0405 Different formats, e.g. A3 and A4
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/0437 Tilting an array with respect to the main or sub scanning direction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/203 Simultaneous scanning of two or more separate pictures , e.g. two sides of the same sheet refeeding a sheet for double-sided scanning H04N1/00572
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/2032 of two pictures corresponding to two sides of a single medium refeeding a sheet for double-sided scanning H04N1/00572
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/3876 Recombination of partial images to recreate the original image

Abstract

An image processing apparatus includes an image reading unit 3 that reads a front side image and a rear side image from a front side and a rear side of a medium, respectively, a mark detecting unit 42 that detects a combination instruction mark present in a predetermined position of at least one of the front side image and the rear side image, and an image combining unit 44 that combines, when the combination instruction mark is detected, a front side sliced image and a rear side sliced image sliced from predetermined positions of the front side image and the rear side image in a predetermined direction to obtain one image.

Claims

1. An image processing apparatus, comprising:

an image reading unit configured to receive a medium including a colorless and transparent carrier sheet that includes a combination instruction mark in a predetermined position thereon and holds an original therein and configured to read a front side image and a rear side image from a front side and a rear side of the original, respectively;

a mark detecting unit detecting the combination instruction mark present in the predetermined position; and

an image combining unit combining a front side sliced image and a rear side sliced image sliced from predetermined positions of the front side image and the rear side image in a predetermined direction to obtain one image when the combination instruction mark is detected,

wherein, when the mark detecting unit detects a predetermined non-combination instruction mark of a shape different from the combination instruction mark present in the predetermined position, the mark detecting unit neglects the combination instruction mark and sets each of the front side sliced image and the rear side sliced image sliced from the predetermined positions of the front side image and the rear side image as individual one image.

2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a tilt correcting unit correcting a tilt with a vertical reference line or a horizontal reference line present in the predetermined positions of the front side image and the rear side image as a reference when the combination instruction mark is detected.

3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image combining unit finds effective ranges in the front side image and the rear side image, selects a larger one of the effective ranges, determines a formal size larger than the selected effective range and closest to a size of the effective range as a size of images, and slices images of the determined size from the front side image and the rear side image to combine the images into one image.

4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the mark detecting unit sets each of the front side image and the rear side image as individual one image when the combination instruction mark is not detected.

5. An image processing method executed in an image processing unit having an image reading unit, a mark detecting unit, and an image combining unit, the image processing method comprising:

at the image reading unit, receiving a medium including a colorless and transparent carrier sheet that includes a combination instruction mark in a predetermined position thereon and holds an original therein and reading a front side image and a rear side image from a front side and a rear side of the original, respectively;

detecting, by the mark detecting unit, a combination instruction mark present in the predetermined position;

combining, by the image combining unit, a front side sliced image and a rear side sliced image sliced from predetermined positions of the front side image and the rear side image to obtain one image when the combination instruction mark is detected;

detecting, by the mark detecting unit, a non-combination instruction mark present on the carrier sheet; and

setting each of the front side sliced image and the rear side sliced image sliced from the predetermined positions of the front side image and the rear side image as individual one image when the non-combination instruction mark is detected.

6. The image processing method according to claim 5,

wherein the medium includes a vertical reference line defining a position of a reference in a conveying direction, and

wherein the vertical reference line is used as a reference for slicing of the front side sliced image and the rear side sliced image from the front side image and the rear side image and combining of the front side sliced image and the rear side sliced image.