Image processing apparatus, image forming apparatus, image processing system, computer program and recording medium

• US 8,107,728 B2
• Filed: 09/18/2007
• Issued: 01/31/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Yamamoto, Haruo, Ohtsu, Makoto, Ohira, Masakazu, Hirohata, Hitoshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Liew, Alex
• Application Number:
  US11/898,988
• Publication Number:
  US 20080260260A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,596 Days
• Field of Search: 382/118, 382181-231, 382124-127, 358500-540
• US Class Current: 382/181
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5838 using colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/10 Character recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/18 Extraction of features or characteristics of the image

Abstract

An image processing apparatus includes a feature point calculating section for extracting two or more connected components from a document image of interest and calculating the feature point from the centroid defined in each of the connected components, a features calculating section for calculating the features of the document image from the distance between the feature points, a voting processing section for voting one of the registered images which is similar to the document image as reviewing the features, and a similarity judging process section for judging the similarity from the result of the voting, wherein the description of the processing to be executed for the output is determined from the result of the similarity judgment.

Claims

1. An image processing apparatus comprising:

an output processing section for executing an output process based on an image data obtained by reading a document image;

a storage section in which a description of the output process to be executed by the output processing section is stored in relation with a stored image; and

a controller capable of performing operations of;

determining whether or not the document image is similar to the preliminary stored image based on the obtained image data;

when determining that the image is similar to the stored image, reading out the description of the output process stored in relation with the stored image from said storage section; and

controlling the output process to be executed by said output processing section in accordance with the read out description of the output process,

the image processing apparatus further comprising;

a features storage section for storing features of stored images;

a features calculating section for calculating features of the document image based on the obtained image data; and

a comparator section for comparing between the calculated features and the features of the stored images, wherein

said controller is further capable of;

determining whether or not the document image is similar to the stored image based on the comparison by the comparator section, and

the image processing apparatus further comprises;

a region extracting section for extracting a plurality of regions composed of identical factors from said document image; and

a centroid calculating section for calculating the centroid in each of the extracted regions, wherein

the features of the document image are calculated based on the centroid.

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

a receiving section for receiving a modification of the description to be executed; and

an updating section for storing the history of the modification of the description and, in response to the history, updating the description of the process to be stored in said storage section.

3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the description of the output process includes a process of inhibiting the output of the image related to the obtained image data or replacing the image related to the obtained image data with another image before outputting the image.

4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein

said controller is further capable of selecting, based on the mode of the output process, between the process of inhibiting the output of the image related to the obtained image data and the process of replacing the image related to the obtained image data with another image before outputting the image.

5. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the description of the output process includes at least one of processes of modifying the resolution of the image related to the obtained image data, adjusting the gamma characteristic of the image related to the obtained image data, converting the color signal related to the obtained image data into an achromatic signal, and reproducing the half tone related to the obtained image data.

6. The image processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein

said controller is further capable of performing operations of:

displaying the description of the output process and the image processed according to said description and requesting a user to confirm the description; and

when the user rejects the description, modifying at least an item of said description rejected by the user before repeating said processing.

7. The image processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein

the description of the output process further includes at least one of processes of assigning the image related to the obtained image data with an electronic signature, assigning the image related to the obtained image data with a time stamp, encrypting the image related to obtained image data, and assigning the image related to the obtained image data with a result of character recognition on said image data.

8. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the features are represented by an invariant parameter which remains unchanged regardless of a geometrical change of said document image such as rotation, parallel movement, or scaling.

9. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the features are represented by an invariant parameter which remains unchanged regardless of a geometrical change of said document image such as rotation, parallel movement, or enlargement/reduction, and

said controller is further capable of:

voting the stored image of which the features are equal to the calculated features and comparing the result of the voting with a predetermined threshold value to judge whether or not the document image is similar to the stored image.

10. An image forming apparatus comprising:

the image processing apparatus according to claim 1; and

an image forming unit for forming an image processed by the image processing apparatus on a sheet.

11. The image forming apparatus according to claim 10, wherein

in case of converting the document image to an electronic data of a predetermined format which is then stored, a mode of the processing is provided for reading the document image as conforming to the format.

12. An image processing system comprising:

an image processing apparatus; and

a server connected for communication with the image processing apparatus, wherein

said image processing apparatus and the server comprise in a distributed manner;

a storage section in which the description of an output process to be used for subjecting image data produced by reading a document image to an output process is stored in relation with a stored image;

a determining section for determining from said image data whether or not said document image is similar to the stored image;

a reading section for, when the determining section determines that the document image is similar to the stored image, reading from said storage section the description of the output process stored in relation with said stored image; and

a control section for controlling the output process in accordance with the read out description of the output process,

the image processing apparatus further comprising;

a features storage section for storing features of stored images;

a features calculating section for calculating features of the document image based on the obtained image data; and

a comparator section for comparing between the calculated features and the features of the stored images, wherein

said controller is further capable of;

determining whether or not the document image is similar to the stored image based on the comparison by the comparator section, and

the image processing apparatus further comprises;

a region extracting section for extracting a plurality of regions composed of identical factors from said document image; and

a centroid calculating section for calculating the centroid in each of the extracted regions, wherein the features of the document image are calculated based on the centroid.

13. A non-transitory computer readable recording medium storing thereon a computer program executable to perform the steps of:

storing a description of an output process used for subjecting image data obtained by reading a document image to an output process in relation with a preliminary stored image;

determining whether or not said document image is similar to the stored image based on the obtained image data;

when it is determined that the document image is similar to the stored image, reading the description of the output process stored in relation with the stored image from the storage section; and

controlling the output process according to the read out description of the output process, the program further comprising the steps of;

storing features of stored images;

calculating features of the document image based on the obtained image data; and

comparing between the calculated features and the features of the stored images,

determining whether or not the document image is similar to the stored image based on the comparison,

extracting a plurality of regions composed of identical factors from said document image; and

calculating the centroid in each of the extracted regions, wherein the features of the document image are calculated based on the centroid.

14. An image processing apparatus comprising:

an output processing section for executing an output process based on an image data obtained by reading a document image;

a storage section in which a description of the output process to be executed by the output processing section is stored in relation with a stored image; and

a controller capable of performing operations of;

determining whether or not the document image is similar to the preliminary stored image based on the obtained image data;

when determining that the image is similar to the stored image, reading out the description of the output process stored in relation with the stored image from said storage section;

controlling the output process to be executed by said output processing section in accordance with the read out description of the output process;

extracting a plurality of connected components representative of characters or graphics contained in the document image;

extracting feature points from the respective ones of the plurality of connected components thus extracted;

calculating a plurality of hash values based on an arrangement of the feature points thus extracted;

comparing the plurality of hash values thus calculated with hash values which are calculated with respect to registered images which are registered in advance;

voting for the registered image having the hash value which coincides with each of the hash values calculated with respect to the document image;

based on the voting result, judging the similarity between the document image and the registered image; and

based on judging result, judging whether or not the document image coincides with the registered image.