Patent EP0415648A2 successfully refreshed from Google Patents.
EP0415648A2
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EP
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Image processing apparatus
Assignee: Canon Inc
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Filing: 1990-08-23
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2010-08-23
Abstract
Abstract There is provided an image processing apparatus comprising: an input device to input an image signal; a processor for processing the input image signal and outputting an image reproduction signal; a detecting circuit to detect characteristics of the input image signal; and a control circuit to control processing conditions of the image signal by the processor by a fuzzy inference based on the characteristics of the image signal which were detected by the detecting circuit. The characteristics of the image signal include the kinds of images such as character, screen, and photograph. The optimum spatial filtering process can be executed for each of the character, screen, and photograph areas. A mixing ratio of the edge emphasis and the smoothing can be continuously changed for characteristic amounts of an original. Membership functions of a plurality of parameters are synthesized and a consequence is derived by the fuzzy inference algorithm. Thus, erroneous judgment for a vague image area is prevented and discontinuity which occurs at a change point of the image processes can be also eliminated.
Inventors
- 👤 Takashi C/O Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Kawai
- 👤 Kenichi C/O Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Outa
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-02 11:15
CPC Classifications
H; H04; H04N; H04N1/00; H04N1/46; H04N1/56; H04N1/60; H04N1/62; H04N1/40; H04N1/40062; H04N1/409; H04N1/4092; H04N1/58; H04N1/6072
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 30
Claim 1
Independent Claim
86 words
An image processing apparatus comprising: a) input means for inputting an image signal; b) processing means for processing the image signal which was input by said input means and for outputting an image reproduction signal; c) detecting means for detecting characteristics of the image signal which was input by said input means; and d) control means for controlling processing conditions of the image signal by said processing means by an inference based on the characteristics of the image signal which were detected by said detecing means.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
86 words
An image processing apparatus comprising: a) input means for inputting an image signal; b) processing means for processing the image signal which was input by said input means and for outputting an image reproduction signal; c) detecting means for detecting characteristics of the image signal which was input by said input means; and d) control means for controlling processing conditions of the image signal by said processing means by an inference based on the characteristics of the image signal which were detected by said detecing means.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
24 words
An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the characteristics of the image signal are kinds of images which are expressed by the image signal.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
22 words
An apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the kinds of images include a character image, a screen image, and a photograph image.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
41 words
An apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said control means controls the processing conditions by said processing means in accordance with either one of a character image likelihood, a screen image likelihood, and a photograph image likelihood of the image signal.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
34 words
An apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said processing means includes correcting means for correcting spatial frequency characteristics of the image signal and said control means controls the correcting condition of said correcting means.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
25 words
An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the characteristics of the image signal are color tones of images which are expressed by the image signal.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
37 words
An apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said control means controls the processing conditions by said processing means in accordance with either one of the skin color likelihood and the achromatic color likelihood of the image signal.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
36 words
An apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said processing means includes color correcting means for executing a color correction of the image signal and said control means controls the correcting condition of said color correcting means.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
98 words
An image processing apparatus comprising: a) processing means for processing a digital image signal and for outputting an image reproduction signal; b) extracting means for extracting a plurality of characteristic amounts with respect to the digital image signal; c) memory means for storing a plurality of rules with respect to the relations among the characteristic amounts and processing conditions of the digital image signal by said processing means; and d) control means for synthesizing said plurality of rules stored in said memory means with respect to each of the digital image signals and for determining the processing conditions.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
98 words
An image processing apparatus comprising: a) processing means for processing a digital image signal and for outputting an image reproduction signal; b) extracting means for extracting a plurality of characteristic amounts with respect to the digital image signal; c) memory means for storing a plurality of rules with respect to the relations among the characteristic amounts and processing conditions of the digital image signal by said processing means; and d) control means for synthesizing said plurality of rules stored in said memory means with respect to each of the digital image signals and for determining the processing conditions.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
28 words
An apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the characteristic amounts include an edge amount per unit area and the number of change points of a binary image signal.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
35 words
An apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said processing means includes correcting means for correcting spatial frequency characteristics of the digital image signal and said control means controls the correcting condition of said correcting means.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
28 words
An apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the characteristic amounts include a degree of similarity to an achromatic color and a degree of similarity to a skin color.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
35 words
An apparatus according to claim 12, wherein said processing means includes correcting means for executing a color correction of the digital image signal and said control means controls the correcting condition of said correcting means.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
18 words
An apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said memory means is constructed by a RAM or a ROM.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
83 words
An image processing apparatus comprising: a) input means for inputting image data; b) extracting means for extracting a plurality of characteristics of an image which was input by said input means; c) correcting means for correcting spatial frequency characteristics of the image data in accordance with the characteristics of the image which were extracted by said extracting means; and d) control means for enabling the correction characteristics by the correcting means to be continuously changed in accordance with the characteristics of the image.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
83 words
An image processing apparatus comprising: a) input means for inputting image data; b) extracting means for extracting a plurality of characteristics of an image which was input by said input means; c) correcting means for correcting spatial frequency characteristics of the image data in accordance with the characteristics of the image which were extracted by said extracting means; and d) control means for enabling the correction characteristics by the correcting means to be continuously changed in accordance with the characteristics of the image.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
43 words
An apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the characteristics of the image relate to a character image, a screen image, and a photograph image and said correcting means executes an edge emphasis to the character image and a smoothing to the screen image.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
83 words
An apparatus according to claim 15, wherein said correcting means is constructed by two kinds of spatial filter circuits of a same window size comprising an edge emphasis circuit to execute an edge emphasis of the image data and a smoothing circuit to execute a smoothing and is constructed by having coefficients such that a result which is obtained by adding both of said spatial filter circuits at a predetermined ratio is set to 0 for the pixels other than the central pixel.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
131 words
An apparatus according to claim 17, wherein said correcting circuit has a circuit to calculate a weighted mean of outputs of said two kinds of spatial filter circuits, said control means further has an image tone discriminating circuit to discriminate that a target area of the input image relates to which one of a character, a photograph, and a screen, if the result of the discrimination of said discriminating circuit is near the character area, a ratio of the edge emphasis in the weighted mean is raised, if it is near the screen area, a ratio of the smoothing is raised, and if it is near the photograph area, a ratio is set so that filter coefficients of the pixels other than the central pixel are set to values near 0.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
53 words
An apparatus according to claim 15, wherein said control means recognizes the plurality of characteristics of the image which were extracted by said extracting means as a plurality of functions which continuously change and can continuously change the correction characteristics by said correcting means on the basis of arithmetic operations using said functions.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
18 words
An apparatus according to claim 19, wherein the arithmetic operations are executed in a ROM or a RAM.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
23 words
An apparatus according to claim 19, wherein the plurality of characteristics are a degree of character image and a degree of screen image.
Claim 25
Dependent Claim
74 words
An image processing apparatus comprising: a) input means for inputting a plurality of color component signals; b) a plurality of correcting means for executing in parallel color corrections of the color component signals which were input by said input means; c) synthesizing means for synthesizing outputs of said plurality of correcting means at a predetermined ratio; and d) control means for enabling the ratio for synthesization by said synthesizing means to be continuously changed.
Claim 26
Dependent Claim
74 words
An image processing apparatus comprising: a) input means for inputting a plurality of color component signals; b) a plurality of correcting means for executing in parallel color corrections of the color component signals which were input by said input means; c) synthesizing means for synthesizing outputs of said plurality of correcting means at a predetermined ratio; and d) control means for enabling the ratio for synthesization by said synthesizing means to be continuously changed.
Claim 27
Dependent Claim
39 words
An apparatus according to claim 22, further having means for detecting color tones of the input color component signals, and wherein said control means determines the ratio in accordance with the result of the detection by said detecting means.
Claim 28
Dependent Claim
55 words
An apparatus according to claim 22, wherein said plurality of correcting means are a plurality of color masking circuits and have at least two kinds of color masking circuits such as circuit which includes a black signal as an input signal of said color masking circuit and circuit which does not include the black signal.
Claim 29
Dependent Claim
21 words
An apparatus according to claim 22, wherein said synthesizing means linearly couples and synthesizes outputs of said plurality of correcting means.
Claim 30
Dependent Claim
27 words
An apparatus according to claim 23, wherein said control means calculates the ratio by using membership functions on the basis of an output from said detecting means.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
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