Image analysis – Color image processing
Reexamination Certificate
1996-07-01
2001-10-02
Tran, Phuoc (Department: 2621)
Image analysis
Color image processing
C382S165000, C382S218000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06298150
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention concerns an image processing device and an image processing method which determine whether a specified image can be found in an image which has been input.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Heretofore, copy machines have identified documents which may not legally be copied, such as bank notes, by finding a specified image on them (for example, a circle with the word “secret” in its center) or by determining the size and other features of the document.
With these types of existing methods, it sometimes happens that shapes similar to the marks that prohibit copying are found on an ordinary document, or the size of the document may be nearly identical to that of one which may not be copied. When this occurs, the document which one wishes to copy will be treated as non-reproducible, and it will not be copied. The method generally used to determine whether the document has marks on it cause the marks to stand out from the background by processing the image to separate the colors. However, when the marks and the design around them are printed in similar colors, it becomes difficult to separate and highlight only the marks and none of the surrounding image. As a result, some non-reproducible documents may not be identified as such.
Another problem occurs when the marks are of the same shape but different colors or when they are of different shapes and different colors. In these cases, we must provide as many determination processing circuits and binary memories as there are colors of marks in order to binarize the image by color separation.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
One objective of the present invention is to provide an image processing device which would not mistakenly determine an ordinary document to be non-reproducible, but would not fail to identify any non-reproducible document. Another objective is to provide an image processing device which would not need either a processing circuit to determine multiple colors of marks on the document or a binary memory.
With the existing method to identify non-reproducible documents, it is generally known that reproduction of the document is prohibited when a set of marks is recognized. This means that by adding a few extra lines to the marks, one can cause the image recognition device to fail to detect them, so one will easily be able to counterfeit non-reproducible documents.
Another objective of this invention is to provide an image processing device such that simple alterations of the document will not cause recognition errors.
The image processing device in this application determines whether a specified image can be found in an image which has been input. This device is equipped with: a device which receives an input image and performs one-color extraction on a number of colors; and a device which, based on the results of extracting multiple colors, determines whether a specified image can be found in the input image.
When this image processing device is used to find a specified image (the marks indicating that copying is prohibited) composed of several colors, a determination is made for each color, so the accuracy of the final determination will be high.
An additional function of the image processing device is that the aforesaid results of extracting multiple colors are consolidated into a single result, and the aforesaid determination is based on this consolidated result. Since this image processing device consolidates the results of extracting a number of colors into a single result, the configuration of the determination unit can be simplified.
Another embodiment of this invention has an additional feature that the aforesaid input image data are divided into a number of areas, a determination is made for each area separately, and a comprehensive determination is based on the determinations made for each area. Because this image processing device makes determinations for a number of areas consisting of parts of the image and then makes an overall determination, the accuracy of the determination is enhanced.
Another embodiment of this invention has an additional feature that the location of the portion of the image to be extracted is based on reference marks, and the aforesaid determination is made using the extracted portion of the image.
Another embodiment of this invention has an additional feature that the input image is divided into a number of areas, and a determination of whether a specified image can be found in the image is based on the number of areas which meet certain conditions and/or on their spatial relationship with each other.
Another embodiment of this invention has an additional feature that it has at least two determination algorithms, one of which can be used to make the aforesaid determination. Since this image processing device uses at least two different algorithms, if one algorithm will not function because the image has been tampered with, a correct determination can be made with another algorithm.
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Akagi Masahiro
Ohmae Kouichi
Senga Masahiro
Sonoda Shinya
Yanagida Masahito
Dickstein , Shapiro, Morin & Oshinsky, LLP
Omron Corporation
Tran Phuoc
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