Image processing device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10009507-B2
Application number	US-201715420401-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 31, 2017
Priority date	Mar 6, 2014
Publication date	Jun 26, 2018
Grant date	Jun 26, 2018

Abstract

An image processing device may judge whether to execute a first type of enlarging process or a second type of enlarging process based on M lines of letter strings in an original image, in a case of judging to execute the first type of enlarging process, generate a first type of processed image data indicating a first type of processed image by executing the first type of enlarging process, and in a case of judging to execute the second type of enlarging process, generate a second type of processed image data indicating a second type of processed image by executing the second type of enlarging process. A layout of the plurality of letters in the second type of processed image is different from a layout of the plurality of letters in the first type of processed image.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An image processing device comprising:
one or more processors; and
a memory storing computer readable instructions,
wherein the computer readable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the image processing device to:
acquire original image data indicating an original image, the original image including M lines of letter strings (the M being an integer of 1 or more) configured of a plurality of letters; and
generate processed image data indicating a processed image by executing image processing on the original image data, the processed image having the plurality of letters expressed in an enlarged manner as compared to the original image,
the image processing includes:
judging whether to execute a first type of enlarging process or execute a second type of enlarging process based on the M lines of letter strings in the original image;
in a case of judging to execute the first type of enlarging process, executing the first type of enlarging process on the original image data to generate a first type of processed image data indicating a first type of processed image including the M lines of enlarged letter strings configured of the plurality of letters enlarged, the first type of enlarging process comprising:
a process to dispose the plurality of letters in the first type of processed image equal to a layout of the plurality of letters in the original image; and
a process to enlarge the plurality of letters of the original image; and

in a case of judging to execute the second type of enlarging process, executing the second type of enlarging process on the original image data to generate a second type of processed image data indicating a second type of processed image including N lines of enlarged letter strings (N being an integer of 1 or more) configured of the plurality of letters enlarged, the second type of enlarging process comprising:
a process to dispose the plurality of letters in the second type of processed image in a different layout from the layout of the plurality of letters in the original image; and
a process to enlarge the plurality of letters of the original image.

2. The image processing device according to claim 1 , wherein
a number of letters in each line of the M lines of enlarged letter strings in the first type of processed image is equal to a number of letters in a corresponding line of the M lines of letter strings in the original image, and
a number of letters in a first line of the N lines of enlarged letter strings in the second type of processed image is different from a number of letters in a first line of the M lines of letter strings in the original image.

3. The image processing device according to claim 1 , wherein
the judging includes judging whether the M is 1, or 2 or larger,
the judgment to execute the first type of enlarging process is made in a case of judging that the M is 1, and
the judgment to execute the second type of enlarging process is made in a case of judging that the M is 2 or larger.

4. The image processing device according to claim 1 , wherein
the image processing further includes determining a space region encompassing a text region including the M lines of letter strings,
two or more letters align along a first direction in each of the M lines of letter strings,
the judging includes judging whether or not a predetermined condition is satisfied, the predetermined condition being that a first length, which is obtained by multiplying a length of the text region along the first direction by a target value that is larger than 1, is equal to or less than a length of the space region along the first direction, and a second length, which is obtained by multiplying a length of the text region along a second direction vertically intersecting the first direction by the target value, is equal to or less than a length of the space region along the second direction,
the judgment to execute the first type of enlarging process is made in a case where the predetermined condition is satisfied, and
the judgment to execute the second type of enlarging process is made in a case where the predetermined condition is not satisfied.

5. The image processing device according to claim 1 , wherein
the M being an integer of 2 or more,
the judging includes judging whether or not the M lines of letter strings are expressed in an itemized form,
the judgment to execute the first type of enlarging process is made in a case of judging that the M lines of letter strings are expressed in the itemized form, and
the judgment to execute the second type of enlarging process is made in a case of judging that the M lines of letter strings are not expressed in the itemized form.

6. The image processing device according to claim 5 , wherein
two or more letters align along a first direction in each of the M lines of letter strings,
a plurality of original pixels configuring the original image data includes a plurality of letter string pixels indicating the M lines of letter strings and a plurality of background pixels indicating a background of the M lines of letter strings,
the judging includes generating M pieces of projected histograms corresponding to M pieces of letter string regions including the M lines of letter strings by using the original image data, so that whether or not the M lines of letter strings are expressed in the itemized form is judged by using the M pieces of projected histograms, and
each of the M pieces of projected histograms is a histogram corresponding to a distribution of a frequency of the letter string pixels in a case of projecting respective original pixels configuring a corresponding letter string region along a second direction that vertically intersects with the first direction.

7. The image processing device according to claim 1 , wherein
the judging includes judging whether or not a specific letter is included in the M lines of letter strings,
the judgment to execute the first type of enlarging process is made in a case of judging that the specific letter is included in the M lines of letter strings,
the judgment to execute the second type of enlarging process is made in a case of judging that the specific letter is not included in the M lines of letter strings, and
the specific letter is a letter having a size larger than a threshold set in accordance with a letter size of the plurality of letters.

8. The image processing device according to claim 1 , wherein
the M being an integer of 2 or more,
two or more letters align along a first direction in each of the M lines of letter strings,
the judging includes:
calculating a blank space length along the first direction between one end of one line of the letter strings and a boundary of a text region including the M lines of letter strings, for each of the M lines of letter strings; and
judging whether or not a variation among M pieces of blank space lengths calculated for the M lines of letter strings is larger than a predetermined variation,

the judgment to execute the first type of enlarging process is made in a case of judging that the variation among M pieces of blank space lengths is larger than the predetermined variation, and
the judgment to execute the second type of enlarging process is made in a case of judging that the variation among M pieces of blank space lengths is equal to or less than the predetermined variation.

9. The image processing device according to claim 1 , wherein
a text region including the M lines of letter strings includes a background color,
the judging includes judging whether or not the background color of the text region differs from a background color of the original image,
the judgment to execute t

Assignees

• Brother Ind Ltd

Inventors

• Hasegawa Tomohiko
• Kondo Masaki
• Ozawa Ryohei
• Tanaka Yoshiyuki

Classifications

• H04N1/393 Primary

  Enlarging or reducing · CPC title

• G06T11/60 Primary

  Creating or editing images; Combining images with text · CPC title

• H04N1/00

  Scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, e.g. facsimile transmission; Details thereof · CPC title

• G06F40/103

  Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents (automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191) · CPC title

• H04N1/32128

  attached to the image data, e.g. file header, transmitted message header, information on the same page or in the same computer file as the image (for information embedded in the image H04N1/32144) · CPC title