Methods and systems for segmenting multiple documents from a single input image

A multi-functional device for segmenting multiple documents from a single input image, comprising:

• a controller unit comprising:
• a processor;
• a boundary extraction module, coupled to the processor, to:
• receive an input image having multiple documents;
• identify potential edge pixels of the multiple documents using a computer implemented sum of absolute difference (SAD) based edge detection technique, wherein the technique comprises:
• segment each color separation of the input image into equal sized overlapped sub-images for each pixel, and for each sub-image;
• determine a maximum pixel value for each color separation in each sub-image;
• compute the SAD value between the maximum pixel value and pixel values in the sub-image for each color separation;
• determine average SAD value of the SAD values computed in the sub-image for each color separation;
• and
• based on the average SAD value, identify the pixels of the sub-image as the potential edge pixels;
• and
• based on the identified potential edge pixels, determine perimeter boundaries surrounding a region of interest corresponding to each of the multiple documents using morphological operations;
• and a segmentation module, coupled to the processor, to:
• generate an image mask representing the region of interest for each of the multiple documents;
• segment the multiple documents in the input image based on the determined perimeter boundaries and the generated image mask representing the region of interest for each of the multiple documents;
• and
• storing separate document image files for each of the segmented multiple documents.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions executable by a processing resource to:

• receive an input image comprising multiple documents;
• identify potential edge pixels of the multiple documents using a computer implemented sum of absolute difference (SAD) based edge detection technique, wherein the technique comprises:
• segment each color separation of the input image into equal sized overlapped sub-images for each pixel, and for each sub-image,
• determine a maximum pixel value for each color separation;
• compute the SAD value between the maximum pixel value and pixel values in the sub-image for each color separation;
• determine average SAD value of the SAD values computed in the sub-image for each color separation;
• and
• based on the average SAD value, identify the pixels of the sub-image as the potential edge pixels;
• based on the identified potential edge pixels, determine perimeter boundaries surrounding a region of interest corresponding to each of the multiple documents using one or more morphological operations;
• generate an image mask representing the region of interest for each of the multiple documents;
• segment the multiple documents in the input image based on the determined perimeter boundaries and generated image mask representing the region of interest for each of the multiple documents;
• and
• print separate document files for each of the segmented multiple documents.