Document segmentation system

An apparatus for segmenting a document comprising:

• a large text region identifier to identify large text regions of the document;
• an image region identifier to identify image regions of the document;
• a document segmentor to label pixels in the large text region and the image region of the document with a first label and to label each of remaining plurality of pixels in the document with a first one of a second label and a third label;
• a pixel sequence selector to select a sequence of pixels in the document;
• and
• a pixel label validator to apply predetermined ones of a first plurality of syntactic rules to predetermined ones of pixels having a first predetermined label in a pixel sequence selected by said pixel sequence selector, to validate pixel labels of pixels which satisfy the predetermined ones of the first plurality of syntactic rules and to change pixel labels of pixels which do not satisfy the predetermined ones of the first plurality of syntactic rules.

A color printing system comprising:

• a scanner having a scanner color space, said scanner having an input port to receive a mixed color document to be scanned and an output port to provide a stream of bits representing the mixed color document;
• a document segmentation system having an input port and an output port, said document segmentor for receiving on the input port thereof the stream of digital bits from the output port of said scanner and to provide at the output port thereof a segmented document bit stream, said document segmentation comprising:
• a large text region identifier to identify large text regions of the mixed color document;
• an image region identifier to identify image regions of the mixed color document;
• a document segmentor to label pixels in the large text region and the image region of the document with a first label and to label each of the remaining plurality of pixels in the document with a one of a second label and a third label;
• a pixel sequence selector to select a sequence of pixels in the document;
• and
• a pixel label validator to apply predetermined ones of a first plurality of syntactic rules to predetermined ones of pixels having a first predetermined label in a pixel sequence selected by said pixel sequence selector, to validate pixel labels of pixels which satisfy the predetermined ones of the first plurality of syntactic rules and to change pixel labels of pixels which do not satisfy the predetermined ones of the first plurality of syntactic rules;
• and
• a printing system, having an input port coupled to the output port of said segmentation processor, said printing system to receive at the input port thereof a stream of bits which represent a segmented mixed color document and to print a mixed color document in response to a segmented document bit stream fed thereto from said segmentation system.

A computer program product for use with a color reproduction system including a scanner, a processor and a printer, the computer program product comprising:

• a computer useable medium having computer readable program code to identify large text regions and image regions of a mixed color document;
• a computer useable medium having computer readable program code to label pixels in the large text region and the image region of the mixed color document with a first label;
• a computer useable medium having computer readable program code to label each of remaining plurality of pixels in the mixed color document with a first one of a second label and a third label;
• a computer useable medium having computer readable program code to select a sequence of pixels in the mixed color document;
• and
• a computer useable medium having computer readable program code to apply a first plurality of syntactic rules to predetermined ones of pixels having a first predetermined label in the selected pixel sequence.