IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS

• US 20080231876A1
• Filed: 03/05/2008
• Published: 09/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Kyocera MITA Corporation (Kyocera Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kyocera MITA Corporation (Kyocera Corporation)
• Inventors: Harada, Hiroyuki
• Application Number:
  US12/042,400
• Publication Number:
  US 20080231876A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/1.9
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/41 Bandwidth or redundancy reduction by scanning H04N1/17 ; methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/6072 adapting to different types of images, e.g. characters, graphs, black and white image portions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/622 with simulation on a subsidiary picture reproducer

Abstract

An image processing apparatus has a display to display color images and a storage to store color image data. A first preview controller causes the display to display a color preview image based on stored color image data. A character-area extractor extracts a character area from the stored color image data and a color-designation acceptor accepts a designated color newly set in the extracted character area. A second preview controller changes a color of the extracted character area extracted in the preview image to the accepted designated color, and causes a display of the changed preview image. A decision-instruction acceptor accepts an instruction to set the designated color. A color-change processor responds to the accepted instruction by the decision-instruction acceptor to change information representing a color of the stored color image data to allow the color of the extracted character area to be changed to the accepted designated color.

Claims

1. An image processing apparatus comprising:

a display section adapted to display a color image;

a storage section adapted to store therein color image data;

a first preview control section operable to cause said display section to display a color image based on the color image data stored in said storage section, in the form of a preview image;

a character-area extraction section operable to extract a character area from the color image data stored in said storage section;

a color-designation acceptance section operable to accept a setting of a designated color which is a color to be newly set in the character area extracted by said character-area extraction section;

a second preview control section operable to change a color of the character area extracted by said character-area extraction section and included in said preview image, to the designated color accepted by said color-designation acceptance section, and cause said display section to display said changed preview image;

a decision-instruction acceptance section operable to accept a decision instruction indicative of a decision to set the designated color; and

a color-change processing section operable, in response to acceptance of said decision instruction by said decision-instruction acceptance section, to change color information representing a color of the color image data stored in said storage section, in such a manner as to allow the color of the character area extracted by said character-area extraction section to be changed to the designated color accepted by said color-designation acceptance section.

2. The image processing apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein:

said display section includes a touch panel adapted, in response to an operation of pressing a certain position of a display screen thereof on which said color image is displayed, to output positional information representing said pressed position;

said first preview control section is operable to cause said display section to further display a plurality of optional colors each allowed to be newly set in the character area extracted by said character-area extraction section;

said color-designation acceptance section is operable, when the positional information output from said display section indicates the character area extracted by said character-area extraction section, to set said character area as a target character area, and, when the positional information output from said display section indicates a specific one of said plurality of optional colors, to accept said specific color as a designated color to be newly set in said target character area; and

said color-change processing section is operable to change a color of the character area set as the target character area by said color-designation acceptance section, to said specific color accepted as the designated color by said color-designation acceptance section.

3. The image processing apparatus as defined in claim 2, which further includes a color-sample display control section operable to cause said display section to display the color of the character area set as the target character area by said color-designation acceptance section and the specific color accepted as the designated color by said color-designation acceptance section, in a side-by-side arrangement.

4. The image processing apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein:

said first preview control section is operable to cause said display section to further display a plurality of color-sample images created based on at least a portion of said preview image in such a manner that respective character areas of said plurality of color-sample images are set to have a plurality of colors different from one another at respective portions corresponding to the character area extracted by said character-area extraction section; and

said color-designation acceptance section is operable to accept a selection instruction indicative of selecting one of said plurality of color-sample images, and set the color of the character area in said selected color-sample image indicated by said selection instruction as said designated color.

5. The image processing apparatus as defined in claim 1, which further includes:

a current-color selection display control section operable to cause said display section to display respective colors of a plurality of character areas extracted by said character-area extraction section, in a selectable manner; and

a target area'"'"'s color acceptance section operable to accept a selection instruction indicating that one of said colors displayed on said display section by said current-color selection display control section is selected as a current color of a target one of said extracted character areas,

wherein said color-change processing section is operable to change the color image data stored in said storage section, in such a manner as to allow the color of the target character area having a color which is selected from the plurality of character areas extracted by said character-area extraction section according to the selection instruction accepted by said target area'"'"'s color acceptance section, to be changed to the designated color accepted by said color-designation acceptance section.

6. The image processing apparatus as defined in claim 1, which further includes:

a color-difference-value acquisition section operable to acquire information about respective color difference values of pixels in the character area extracted by said character-area extraction section;

a color-saturation-value acquisition section operable to acquire information about respective color saturation values of the pixels in the character area extracted by said character-area extraction section;

a color-difference-subrange storage section which stores a plurality of color difference subranges pre-defined by dividing an overall color difference range of zero degree to 360 degree into a plurality of subranges;

a chromatic-region determination section operable, when the information about the color saturation values of the pixels in the character area acquired by said color-saturation-value acquisition section fails to satisfy a preset determination condition for determining whether a character area has a chromatic color, to determine said character area as a gray region, and, when the information about the color saturation values of the pixels in said character area satisfies said determination condition, to determine said character area as a chromatic region;

a first color-difference-subrange assignment section operable, based on the information about the pixel color difference values acquired by said color-difference-value acquisition section, to assign any one of the plurality of color difference subranges stored in said color-difference-subrange storage section, to the character area determined as the chromatic region by said chromatic-region determination section; and

a representative-color setup section operable to set color information about a representative color of the character area determined as the chromatic region by said chromatic-region determination section, using an average of the pixel color difference values acquired by said color-difference-value acquisition section and included in the color difference subrange assigned to said character area,

wherein said first preview control section is operable to cause said display section to display the character area extracted from the color image data stored in said storage section and determined as the chromatic region by said chromatic-region determination section, with a color based on the color information set by said representative-color setup section.

7. The image processing apparatus as defined in claim 1, which further includes:

an image read section operable to read the color image data from a document;

a binarized-data creation section operable to binarize image data about the character area extracted by said character-area extraction section, so as to create character image data;

a character compression section operable to compress the character image data created by said binarized-data creation section, so as to create compressed character image data;

an image compression section operable to compress image data about the remaining area other than the character area in said color image data, to create compressed image data;

a combined-data creation section operable to combine the color information after being changed by said color-change processing section, the compressed character image data created by said character compression section, and the compressed image data created by said image compression section, together, so as to create combined data; and

a communication section operable to transmit the combined data created by said combined-data creation section, to an external terminal unit.