Image Processing Method and Image Processing Apparatus

An image processing apparatus, comprising:

• a document scanning unit that scans respective pages in a document;
• an image data generating unit that generates respective pieces of image data corresponding to the pages;
• an image orientation identifying unit that identifies respective orientations of isolated images contained by each of the pages according to a result of character recognition for the image data;
• a mixture state identifying unit that identifies a mixture state that indicates whether or not the isolated images contained by the page have different orientations;
• an isolated-image separating unit that assigns respective ones of the isolated images to new pages according to the mixture state;
• and
• an image orientation modifying unit that sets respective orientations of the isolated images in the new pages as respective upright orientations of the isolated images.

An image processing method, comprising the steps of:

• scanning respective pages in a document;
• generating respective pieces of image data corresponding to the pages;
• calculating image density distributions in a primary scan direction and a secondary scan direction in each of the pages from the image data;
• determining whether or not each of the pages contains isolated images that have different orientations according to the image density distributions;
• assigning respective ones of the isolated images to new pages;
• identifying respective orientations of the isolated images according to a result of character recognition for the image data;
• and
• setting respective orientations of the isolated images in the new pages as respective upright orientations of the isolated images.

An image processing apparatus, comprising:

• a document scanning unit that scans respective pages in a document;
• an image data generating unit that generates respective pieces of image data corresponding to the pages;
• an image density distribution calculating unit that calculates image density distributions in a primary scan direction and a secondary scan direction in each of the pages from the image data;
• a mixture state identifying unit that identifies a mixture state from the image density distributions, the mixture state indicating whether or not each of the pages contains isolated images that have different orientations;
• an isolated-image separating unit that assigns respective ones of the isolated images to new pages according to the mixture state;
• and
• an image orientation identifying unit that identifies respective orientations of the isolated images according to a result of character recognition for the image data;
• and
• an image orientation modifying unit that sets respective orientations of the isolated images in the new pages as respective upright orientations of the isolated images.

An image processing method, comprising the steps of:

• scanning respective pages in a document;
• generating respective pieces of image data corresponding to the pages;
• calculating image density distributions in a primary scan direction and a secondary scan direction in each of the pages from the image data;
• determining whether or not each of the pages contains isolated images from the image density distributions;
• assigning respective ones of the isolated images to new pages;
• identifying sizes of the isolated images from the image density distributions;
• identifying respective orientations of the isolated images according to a result of character recognition for the image data;
• setting respective orientations of the isolated images in the new pages as respective upright orientations of the isolated images;
• and
• enlarging the isolated images in the new pages according to the sizes of the isolated images.

An image processing apparatus, comprising:

• a document scanning unit that scans respective pages in a document;
• an image data generating unit that generates respective pieces of image data corresponding to the pages;
• an image density distribution calculating unit that calculates image density distributions in a primary scan direction and a secondary scan direction in each of the pages from the image data;
• a mixture state identifying unit that identifies a mixture state from the image density distributions, the mixture state indicating whether or not each of the pages contains isolated images;
• an isolated-image separating unit that assigns respective ones of the isolated images to new pages according to the mixture state;
• and
• an image size identifying unit that identifies sizes of the isolated images from the image density distributions;
• an image orientation identifying unit that identifies respective orientations of the isolated images according to a result of character recognition for the image data;
• and
• an image modifying unit that sets respective orientations of the isolated images in the new pages as respective upright orientations of the isolated images, and enlarges the isolated images in the new pages according to the sizes of the isolated images.