Figure reading apparatus, method and program

A figure reading method for reading, recognizing and outputting a figure, the figure reading method comprising:

• an image input step of inputting a color image;
• a main color extraction step of extracting main colors contained in the color image and resolving the color image into main color images respectively of the main colors extracted from the input color image;
• a projection step of projecting points of extracted main colors on a three-dimensional space onto a plane by using a conversion expression;
• a candidate narrowing down step of removing combinations that need not be combined according to features of distance between main colors projected onto a two-dimensional space;
• and
• a combination generation step of combining images from candidates narrowed down and generating an image area candidate.

A figure reading program product embodied on a computer-readable medium and comprising codes that, when executed, cause a computer to perform a method for reading, recognizing and outputting a figure, the method comprising:

• an image input step of inputting a color image;
• a main color extraction step of extracting main colors contained in the color image and resolving the color image into main color images respectively of the main colors extracted from the input color image;
• a projection step of projecting points of extracted main colors on a three-dimensional space onto a plane by using a conversion expression;
• a candidate narrowing down step of removing combinations that need not be combined according to features of distance between main colors projected onto a two-dimensional space;
• and
• a combination generation step of combining images from candidates narrowed down and generating an image area candidate.