Estimating an amount of color content in a document
First Claim
1. A method for determining a billing strategy for a document based upon an estimated an amount of color in that document, the method comprising:
- receiving a binary input color image of a document for which a billing strategy is to be determined, wherein each color plane of said binary color image is received at an offset of other color planes;
dividing each color plane of said binary input image into M×
N tiles;
examining said binary input image to determine an on-pixel count for each of said tiles;
aggregating said on-pixel counts for each tile to obtain a total on-pixel count for each of said color planes;
estimating an amount of color in said binary input image based on said total on-pixel counts for each color plane; and
determining a billing strategy for said document based upon said estimated color amount.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
What is provided herein is a novel system and method for estimating the amount of color in a document. In one embodiment, a binary CMYK input image is received. Each of the CMYK plane is received at an offset from the previous plane, i.e., the 4 planes are not received simultaneously. Each plane is divided into M×N tiles. Pixel values of all four planes are examined separately and the number of on-pixels is counted for each plane. The number of on-pixel counts for each tile are aggregated for each plane. Total on-pixel counts are used to estimate the total number of white, black, color, and gray pixel counts. The total counts for all planes are used to estimate the amount of color. A document is determined to be color if the amount of color exceeds a predetermined threshold. A color billing strategy is determined based on the estimated color amount.
17 Citations
15 Claims
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1. A method for determining a billing strategy for a document based upon an estimated an amount of color in that document, the method comprising:
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receiving a binary input color image of a document for which a billing strategy is to be determined, wherein each color plane of said binary color image is received at an offset of other color planes; dividing each color plane of said binary input image into M×
N tiles;examining said binary input image to determine an on-pixel count for each of said tiles; aggregating said on-pixel counts for each tile to obtain a total on-pixel count for each of said color planes; estimating an amount of color in said binary input image based on said total on-pixel counts for each color plane; and determining a billing strategy for said document based upon said estimated color amount. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A system for determining a billing strategy for a document based upon an estimated an amount of color in that document, the system comprising:
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a storage medium capable of storing data; and a processor in communication with said storage medium, said processor capable of executing a machine readable instruction for performing the method of; receiving a binary input color image of a document for which a billing strategy is to be determined, wherein each color plane of said binary color image is received at an offset of other color planes; dividing each color plane of said binary input image into M×
N tiles;examining said binary input image to determine an on-pixel count for each of said tiles; aggregating said on-pixel counts for each tile to obtain a total on-pixel count for each of said color planes; estimating an amount of color in said received binary input image, said estimation being based on said total on-pixel counts for each color plane; and determining a billing strategy for said document based upon said estimated color amount. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A computer program product for determining a billing strategy for a document based upon an estimated an amount of color in that document, the computer program product comprising:
a non-transitory computer readable medium for storing instructions that, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform a method comprising; receiving a binary input color image of a document for which a billing strategy is to be determined, wherein each color plane of said binary color image is received at an offset of other color planes; dividing each color plane of said binary input image into M×
N tiles;examining said binary input image to determine an on-pixel count for each of said tiles; aggregating said on-pixel counts for each tile to obtain a total on-pixel count for each of said color planes; estimating an amount of color in said received binary input image, said estimation being based on said total on-pixel counts for each color plane; and determining a billing strategy for said document based upon said estimated color amount. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15)
Specification