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US 7,613,317 B2Granted
Image processing apparatus, image processing method, computer program and computer readable storage medium
AssigneeCanon Kabushinki Kaisha
InventorLing Lu
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
There is provided a message processing apparatus including an image inputting unit for inputting a document image, an extracting unit for extracting a character image from the input document image, and an embedding unit for embedding watermark message by correcting a density value of the extracted character image.
Claims6
An image processing apparatus comprising:
- an inputting unit arranged to input a watermarked document image, wherein the watermarked document includes a first area where density value of pixel data of characters has been altered in order to embed predetermined information bits, and a second area different from the first area where density value of pixel data of characters has been altered in order to embed a watermark message;
- a generating unit arranged to generate, for each character image, a density histogram indicating a frequency of a density value of pixel data of each character image in the input document image;
- a first most frequent value obtaining unit arranged to obtain, for each character image in the first area, a most frequent value in the density histogram generated by the generating unit;
- a minimum value obtaining unit arranged to obtain the minimum most frequent value obtained by the first most frequent value obtaining unit for characters in which an information bit 1 is embedded;
- a maximum value obtaining unit arranged to obtain the maximum most frequent value obtained by the first most frequent value obtaining unit for characters in which an information bit 0 is embedded;
- a reference value obtaining unit arranged to obtain a reference frequency value by averaging the minimum frequency value obtained by the minimum value obtaining unit with the maximum frequency value obtained by the maximum value obtaining unit;
- a second most frequent value obtaining unit arranged to obtain, for each character in the second area, a most frequent value in the density histogram generated by the generating unit;
- a comparing unit arranged to compare, for each character image in the second area, the reference frequency value obtained by the reference value obtaining unit and the most frequent value obtained by the second most frequent value obtaining unit;
- and
- an extracting unit arranged to extract a watermark message embedded in each character image in the second area based on a result of the comparison by the comparing unit.
7 more elements
An image processing method performed by an image processing apparatus comprising:
- an inputting step of inputting a watermarked document image, wherein the watermarked document includes a first area where density value of pixel data of characters has been altered in order to embed predetermined information bits, and a second area different from the first area where density value of pixel data of characters has been altered in order to embed a watermark message;
- a generating step of generating, for each character image, a density histogram indicating a frequency of a density value of pixel data of each character image in the input document image;
- a first most frequent value obtaining step of obtaining, for each character image in the first area, a most frequent value in the density histogram generated in the generating step;
- a minimum value obtaining step of obtaining the minimum most frequent value obtained in the first most frequent value obtaining step for characters in which an information bit 1 is embedded;
- a maximum value obtaining step of obtaining the maximum most frequent value obtained in the first most frequent value obtaining step for characters in which an information bit 0 is embedded;
- a reference value obtaining step of obtaining a reference frequency value by averaging the minimum frequency value obtained in the minimum value obtaining step with the maximum frequency value obtained in the maximum value obtaining step;
- a second most frequent value obtaining step of obtaining, for each character in the second area, a most frequent value in the density histogram generated in the generating step;
- a comparing step of comparing, for each character image in the second area, the reference frequency value obtained in the reference value obtaining step and the most frequent value obtained in the second most frequent value obtaining step;
- and
- an extracting step of extracting a watermark message embedded in each character image in the second area based on a result of the comparison in the comparing step.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.