Selective image encoding and replacement
AssigneeKonica Minolta Systems Laboratory, Inc.
InventorsPaul Cattrone, Hiroshi Tomite, Vlvek Pathak
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of processing a document is described in which selected area(s) of the document, such as areas containing sensitive information, with a barcode(s) that represents the information in the selected area(s). Selection of the area(s) may be done by a user or automatically. When the processed document is printed or electronically displayed, the selected area(s) is replaced with barcode(s) so the information in the area(s) cannot be visually discerned by a human observer. The intended recipient or reader of the document can decode it using a decoder to display the document, including the selected area(s), in the original form. The method may be implemented in a computer, a scanner/copier, a printer or the like.
Claims23
A method for processing a document comprising:
- (a) selecting at least one area of a source document;
- (b) processing data representing the at least one area in the source document to generate at least one set of barcode data;
- and
- (c) replacing data representing the at least one area in the source document with the at least one set of barcode data to generate a processed document.
A method of restoring a processed document that contains at least one set of barcode data in at least one area, the at least one barcode data representing original document data in the at least one area, the method comprising:
- (d) detecting and extracting the at least one set of barcode data in the processed document;
- (e) processing the extracted data to generate original document data in the at least one area;
- and
- (f) replacing the at least one set of barcode data with the original document data in the at least one area to generate a restored document.
A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having a computer readable code embodied therein for controlling a data processing apparatus, the computer readable program code configured to cause the data processing apparatus to execute a process for processing a source document comprising the steps of:
- (a) selecting at least one area of a source document;
- (b) processing data representing the at least one area in the source document to generate at least one set of barcode data;
- and
- (c) replacing data representing the at least one area in the source document with the at least one set of barcode data to generate a processed document.
A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having a computer readable code embodied therein for controlling a data processing apparatus, the computer readable program code configured to cause the data processing apparatus to execute a process for restoring a processed document that contains barcode data in at least one area which represents original document data in the selected areas, the process comprising the steps of:
- (d) detecting and extracting at least one set of barcode data in the processed document;
- (e) processing the extracted data to generate original document data in the at least one area;
- and
- (f) replacing the at least one set of barcode data with the original document data in the at least one area to generate a restored document.
A data processing apparatus comprising:
- a scanning section for scanning a hard copy document to generate a source document;
- a user interface section including a display device for displaying a source document and an input device for selecting at least one area of the displayed document;
- and
- a control section for controlling the data processing apparatus, the control section including a data processing section for processing data in the at least one area of the source document to generate at least one set of barcode data, and replacing data in the at least one area of the source document with the at least one set of barcode data to generate a processed document.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.