Image processing apparatus, and image processing method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10218877-B2
Application number	US-201415033585-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 29, 2014
Priority date	Oct 31, 2013
Publication date	Feb 26, 2019
Grant date	Feb 26, 2019

Abstract

An image processing apparatus includes an image acquiring portion, a pair generating portion, first through third determination portions, and an image combining portion. The image acquiring portion acquires an image for each page of a booklet. The pair generating portion arranges the images in order of the pages of the booklet, and generates pairs from the arranged images, each pair being a pair of adjacent pages in a spread state of the booklet. The first determination portion determines whether a drawn image is present in a band-like region including a boundary between two images in each of the pairs. The second determination portion determines whether there is drawing continuity between the two images. The third determination portion determines whether the two images have to be combined, on the basis of determination results of the first and second determination portions. If so, the image combining portion combines the two images.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An image processing apparatus comprising:
an image acquiring portion configured to acquire an image for each page of a plurality of documents composing a booklet;
a pair generating portion configured to arrange a plurality of images acquired by the image acquiring portion in order of pages of the booklet, and to generate pairs from the arranged images, each of the pairs being a pair of pages adjacent to each other in a spread state of the booklet;
a first determination portion configured to determine whether or not a drawn image is present in a region having a predetermined width and including a boundary portion between two images in each of the pairs generated by the pair generating portion;
a second determination portion configured to determine whether or not the two images are drawn images of letters, and when determining that the two images are drawn images of letters, determine whether or not the two images show, by successive letters of the two images, a string of letters that compose one word, then when determining that the two images show a string of letters that compose one word, determine that there is drawing continuity of the drawn images of letters between the two images, and when determining that the two images do not show a string of letters that compose one word, determine that there is no drawing continuity of drawn images of letters between the two images;
a third determination portion configured to determine whether or not the two images have to be combined to each other, based on a determination result of the first determination portion and a determination result of the second determination portion; and
an image combining portion configured to combine the two images, when the third determination portion determines that the two images have to be combined to each other, wherein
the third determination portion determines that the two images have to be combined to each other, when it is determined by the first determination portion that a drawn image is not present in the region and it is determined by the second determination portion that there is the drawing continuity of drawn images of letters between the two images, and
the third determination portion determines that the two images do not have to be combined to each other, when it is determined by the first determination portion that a drawn image is not present in the region and it is determined by the second determination portion that there is no drawing continuity of drawn images of letters between the two images.

2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the third determination portion determines that the two images have to be combined to each other regardless of the determination result of the second determination portion, when it is determined by the first determination portion that a drawn image is present in the region and it is determined by the first determination portion that the drawn image is an image other than a boundary image indicating a boundary between the two images.

3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising an image size adjustment portion configured to adjust an image size of a combined image obtained by the image combining portion to be same as an image size of an image which is not combined by the image combining portion.

4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the booklet is a saddle-stitched booklet formed by binding a plurality of documents folded in half in a stacked state at a folding line or in a vicinity thereof,
the image acquiring portion is an image dividing portion configured to divide an image, which is formed by reading each of a plurality of documents separated from each other by releasing a binding state of the saddle-stitched booklet and includes drawn images for two pages of the saddle-stitched booklet, into images for the respective pages of the saddle-stitched booklet, thereby to acquire the image for each page, and
the pair generating portion specifies each of division images obtained by the image dividing portion as a target of generating a pair.

5. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the booklet is a saddle-stitched booklet formed by binding a plurality of documents folded in half in a stacked state at a folding line,
the image acquiring portion is an image dividing portion configured to divide an image, which is obtained by reading the saddle-stitched booklet in a spread state and includes drawn images for two pages of the saddle-stitched booklet, into images for the respective pages of the saddle-stitched booklet, thereby to acquire the image for each page, and
the pair generating portion specifies each of division images obtained by the image dividing portion as a target of generating a pair.

6. An image processing method comprising:
a first step of acquiring an image for each page of a plurality of documents composing a booklet;
a second step of arranging the images acquired in the first step in order of pages of the booklet, and generating pairs from the arranged images, each of the pairs being a pair of pages adjacent to each other in a spread state of the booklet;
a third step of determining whether or not a drawn image is present in a region having a predetermined width and including a boundary portion between two images in each of the pairs generated by a pair generating portion;
a fourth step of determining whether or not the two images are drawn images of letters, and when it is determined that the two images are drawn images of letters, determining whether or not the two images show, by successive letters of the two images, a string of letters that compose one word, then when it is determined that the two images show a string of letters that compose one word, determining that there is drawing continuity of drawn images of letters between the two images, and when it is determined that the two images do not show a string of letters that compose one word, determining that there is no drawing continuity of drawn images of letters between the two images;
a fifth step of determining whether or not the two images have to be combined to each other, based on a determination result in the third step and a determination result in the fourth step; and
a sixth step of combining the two images to each other, when it is determined in the fifth step that the two images have to be combined to each other, wherein in the fifth step, it is determined that the two images have to be combined to each other, when it is determined in the third step that a drawn image is not present in the region and it is determined in the fourth step that there is drawing continuity of drawn images of letters between the two images, and it is determined that the two images do not have to be combined to each other, when it is determined in the third step that a drawn image is not present in the region and it is determined in the fourth step that there is no drawing continuity of drawn images of letters between the two images.

Assignees

• Kyocera Document Solutions Inc

Inventors

• Matsumae Keisaku

Classifications

• H04N1/2384

  for fitting data onto a particular reproducing medium without modifying the image data · CPC title

• H04N2201/0094

  Multifunctional device, i.e. a device capable of all of reading, reproducing, copying, facsimile transception, file transception · CPC title

• H04N1/233

  according to characteristics of the data to be reproduced, e.g. number of lines · CPC title

• H04N1/3873 Primary

  defined only by a limited number of coordinate points or parameters, e.g. corners, centre; for trimming · CPC title

• H04N1/393

  Enlarging or reducing · CPC title