Image processing apparatus, method of controlling thereof, and program

• US 8,064,710 B2
• Filed: 12/05/2005
• Issued: 11/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Mizoguchi, Shigeru
• Primary Examiner(s): LEE, JOHN W
• Application Number:
  US11/294,134
• Publication Number:
  US 20060120618A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,178 Days
• Field of Search: 382/255, 382/264
• US Class Current: 382/233
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30168 Image quality inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0002 Inspection of images, e.g. flaw detection

Abstract

An object of the present invention is to detect characteristics of images such as blurring and the like without expanding compressed and stored image data. And, the above-described detection is realized by detecting image characteristics on the basis of attached information of an image, such as relation between low frequency components and high frequency components of alternate current components and contents of a quantization table of image data compressed by a compression system for converting image data into spatial frequency components. In addition, for example, as a result of detection, an image discriminated to be in a blurred state is controlled so as not to be inserted into an album template or to be inserted into a small area inside the album template. Thereby, a user can omit work of picking and choosing images to insert into an album template while taking a look at a lot of images.

Claims

1. An image processing method of laying out a plurality of image data based on template data, which image data and template data are stored in a storing device, to output images, the method being executable by a computer, the method comprising:

an inputting step of inputting setting items, including a similar image detection, a blurring image detection, an image quality discrimination, and a number of images used for laying out the plurality of image data;

an obtaining step of obtaining the plurality of image data from the storing device;

a similar image detecting step of, based on the similar image detection setting item, determining whether an image from the plurality of image data is divided into blocks on a plurality of pixels basis, said blocks being compressed using DCT and having values of AC components, and detecting a degree of similarity of the image based on information relating to a file name and photographing information and the values of AC components in the image;

a blurring image detecting step, based on the blurring image detection setting item, of;

setting a quantization table for the image from the image data using the values of AC components of the image;

comparing a total value of the quantization table with a first predetermined threshold to set each blocks as a blurring candidate block or a non-blurring candidate block;

calculating a block ratio of the blurring candidate block and the non-blurring candidate block;

comparing the calculated block ratio with a second threshold to discriminate whether or not the image is in a state of non-blurring;

detecting a blurring direction for each block according to the values of AC components of the respective block with respect to vertical, horizontal, left-oblique, and right oblique directions;

determining a blurring state based on the detected blurring direction for each block;

a layout controlling step of controlling reading out results of the respective setting items and determining whether the image is inserted into a small area of the template data or not based on a level of the setting items of the image,

wherein the computer executes the inputting step, the obtaining step, the similar image detecting step, the blurring image detecting step, and the layout controlling step.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising an output step of outputting the images represented by said plurality of image data that are laid out in said layout controlling step.

2. An image processing apparatus for laying out a plurality of image data based on template data, which image and template data are stored in a storing device, to output images, the image processing apparatus comprising:

an inputting means for inputting setting items, including a similar image detection, a blurring image detection, an image quality discrimination, and a number of images used for laying out the plurality of image data;

an obtaining means for obtaining the plurality of image data from the storage device;

similar image detecting means for, based on the similar image detection setting item, determining whether an image from the plurality of image data is divided into blocks on a plurality of pixels basis, said blocks being compressed using DCT and having values of AC components, and detecting a degree of similarity of the image based on information relating to a file name and photographing information and the values of AC components in the image; and

blurring image detecting means, based on the blurring image detection setting item, for;

setting a quantization table for the image from the image data using the values of AC components of the image;

comparing a total value of the quantization table with a first predetermined threshold to set each blocks as a blurring candidate block or a non-blurring candidate block;

calculating a block ratio of the blurring candidate block and the non-blurring candidate block;

comparing the calculated block ratio with a second threshold to discriminate whether or not the image is in a state of non-blurring;

detecting a blurring direction for each block according to the values of AC components of the respective block with respect to vertical, horizontal, left-oblique, and right oblique directions; and

determining a blurring state based on the detected blurring direction for each block; and

layout controlling means for controlling reading out results of the respective setting items and determining whether the image is inserted into a small area of the template data or not based on a level of the setting items of the image.

4. The apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising an output device that outputs the images represented by said plurality of image data that are laid out in said layout controlling means.