Digital image processing device involving processing of areas of image, based on respective contour line traces

Claim 2

An image processing device for writing into a storing means, a digital document image produced by image inputting means, for executing digital image processing with said digital document image stored in said storing means by image processing means to arrive at a processed digital document image, and for feeding the processed digital document image to image outputting means, said image processing device comprising a) area recognizing means including: 1) contour tracing means for tracing contour lines included in said digital document image to produce image contour information; 2) text/graphic discriminating means for determining whether said digital document image is a text image or a graphic image on the basis of the size of the contour of each portion of said digital document image represented by said image contour information; 3) inclusion relation determining means for determining, when said digital document image is a graphic image, an inclusion relation between an outer contour and an inner contour with each other; and 4) area extracting means for extracting areas each being delimited by a frame line on the basis of said determined inclusion relation; and b) selecting means for allowing an operator to select desired one of said areas and a content of desired processing.

Claim 3

A device as claimed in claim 1, further comprising fair image producing means, interposed between said image processing means and said outputting means, said fair image producing means including: vector converting means for converting frame line image forming said areas extracted by said extracting means to vectors; vector correcting means for correcting frame line data in the form of vectors produced by said vector converting means; vector drawing means for developing the corrected vector data in an output memory connected to the said image outputting means; image erasing means for erasing the original frame line image data in the form of vectors from said storing means; and image combining means for combining the image data from said image processing means and a frame line vector image from said vector drawing means.

Claim 4

An image processing device for writing into a storing means a digital document image produced by image inputting means, for executing digital image processing with said digital document image stored in said storing means by image processing means to arrive at a processed digital document image, and for feeding the processed digital document image to image outputting means, said image processing device comprising: a) area recognizing means including: 1) contour tracing means for tracing contour lines included in said digital document image to produce image contour information; 2) text/graphic discriminating means for determining whether said digital document image is a text image or a graphic image on the basis of the size of the contour of each portion of said image represented by said image contour information; 3) inclusion relation determining means for determining, when said digital document image is a graphic image, an inclusion relation between an outer contour and an inner contour to thereby associate said outer contour and said inner contour with each other; and 4) area extracting means for extracting areas each being delimited by a frame line on the basis of said determined inclusion relation; b) selecting means for allowing an operator to select the size of desired one of said extracted areas and a content of desired image processing; and c) area size determining means for determining the sizes of said areas to thereby identify said desired area entered on said selecting means.

Claim 5

An image processing device for writing into a storing means a digital document image produced by image inputting means, for executing digital image processing with said digital document image stored in said storing means by image processing means to arrive at a processed digital document image, and for feeding the processed digital document image to image outputting means, said image processing device comprising: a) area recognizing means including: 1) contour tracing means for tracing contour lines included in said digital document image to produce image contour information; 2) text/graphic discriminating means for determining whether said digital document image is a text image or a graphic image on the basis of the size of the contour of each portion of said image represented by said image contour information; 3) inclusion relation determining means for determining, when said digital document image is a graphic image, an inclusion relation between an outer contour and an inner contour to thereby associate said outer contour and said inner contour with each other; and 4) area extracting means for extracting areas each being delimited by a frame line on the basis of said determined inclusion relation; b) selecting means for allowing an operator to select the size of desired one of said extracted areas and a content of desired image processing; and c) area size determining means for determining the sizes of said areas to thereby identify said desired area entered on said selecting means.

Claim 6

A device as claimed in claim 3, further comprising fair image producing means, interposed between said image processing means and said image outputting means, said fair image producing means including: vector converting means for converting frame line image forming said areas extracted by said area extracting means to vectors; vector correcting means for correcting frame line data in the form of vectors produced by said vector converting means; vector drawing means for developing the corrected vector data in an output memory connecting to said image outputting means; image erasing means for erasing the original frame line image data in the form of vectors from said storing means; and image combining means for combining the image data from said image processing means a frame line vector image from said vector drawing means.

Claim 7

An image processing device for writing into a storing means, a digital document image produced by image inputting means, for executing digital image processing with said digital document image stored in said storing means by image processing means to arrive at a processed digital document image, and for feeding the processed digital document image to outputting means, said image processing device comprising: a) area recognizing means including: 1) contour tracing means for tracing contour line included in said digital document image to produce image contour information; 2) text/graphic discriminating means for determining whether said digital document image is a text image or a graphic image on the basis of the size of the contour of each portion of said digital document image represented by said image contour information; 3) inclusion relation determining means for determining, when said digital document image is a graphic image, an inclusion relation between an outer contour and an inner contour to thereby associate said outer contour and said inner contour with each other; 4) area extracting means for extracting areas each being delimited by a frame line on the basis of said determined inclusion relation; and 5) table recognizing means for recognizing a table structure on the basis of a positional relation of said areas to one another; and b) selecting means for allowing an operator to select desired one of said areas out of said recognized table structure and a content of desired image processing.

Claim 8

An image processing device for writing into a storing means, a digital document image produced by image inputting means, for executing digital image processing with said digital document image stored in said storing means by image processing means to arrive at a processed digital document image, and for feeding the processed digital document image to outputting means, said image processing device comprising: a) area recognizing means including: 1) contour tracing means for tracing contour line included in said digital document image to produce image contour information; 2) text/graphic discriminating means for determining whether said digital document image is a text image or a graphic image on the basis of the size of the contour of each portion of said digital document image represented by said image contour information; 3) inclusion relation determining means for determining, when said digital document image is a graphic image, an inclusion relation between an outer contour and an inner contour to thereby associate said outer contour and said inner contour with each other; 4) area extracting means for extracting areas each being delimited by a frame line on the basis of said determined inclusion relation; and 5) table recognizing means for recognizing a table structure on the basis of a positional relation of said areas to one another; and b) selecting means for allowing an operator to select desired one of said areas out of said recognized table structure and a content of desired image processing.

Claim 9

An image processing device for writing into a storing means, a digital document image produced by image inputting means, for executing digital image processing with said digital document image stored in said storing means by imaged processing means to arrive at a processed digital document image, and for feeding the processed digital document image to image outputting means, said image processing device comprising: a) area recognizing means including: 1) contour tracing means for tracing contour lines included in said digital document image to produce image contour information; 2) text/graphic discriminating means for determining whether said digital document image is a text image or a graphic image on the basis of the size of the contour of each portion of said digital document image represented by said image contour information; 3) vector converting means for converting, when said digital document image is a graphic image, contour data of said graphic image to vectors; 4) characteristic point extracting means for extracting a point where the continuity of contour vectors produced by said vector converting means changes as a characteristic point; and 5) table recognizing means for recognizing a table structure on the basis of said contour vectors and extracted characteristic points; and b) selecting means for allowing and operator to select a desired area out of said recognized table structure and a content of desired image processing.

Claim 10

An image processing device for writing into a storing means, a digital document image produced by image inputting means, for executing digital image processing with said digital document image stored in said storing means by imaged processing means to arrive at a processed digital document image, and for feeding the processed digital document image to image outputting means, said image processing device comprising: a) area recognizing means including: 1) contour tracing means for tracing contour lines included in said digital document image to produce image contour information; 2) text/graphic discriminating means for determining whether said digital document image is a text image or a graphic image on the basis of the size of the contour of each portion of said digital document image represented by said image contour information; 3) vector converting means for converting, when said digital document image is a graphic image, contour data of said graphic image to vectors; 4) characteristic point extracting means for extracting a point where the continuity of contour vectors produced by said vector converting means changes as a characteristic point; and 5) table recognizing means for recognizing a table structure on the basis of said contour vectors and extracted characteristic points; and b) selecting means for allowing and operator to select a desired area out of said recognized table structure and a content of desired image processing.

Claim 11

An image processing device for writing into a storing means, a digital document image produced by image inputting means, for executing digital image processing with said digital document image stored in said storing means by image processing means to arrive at a processed digital document image, and for feeding the processed digital document image to image outputting means, said image processing device comprising: a) area recognizing means including: 1) contour tracing means for tracing contour lines included in said digital document image to produce image contour information; 2) text/graphic discriminating means for determining whether said digital document image is a text image or a graphic image on the basis of the size of the contour of each portion of said digital document image represented by said image contour information; 3) vector converting means for converting, when said digital document image is a graphic image, said graphic image to vectors; 4) vector correcting means for correcting vector data produced by said vector converting means; and 5) table recognizing means for recognizing a table structure based on the corrected vector data; b) selecting means for allowing an operator to select desired one of areas out of said table structure and a content of desired image processing; and c) vector image drawing means for combining said corrected vector data with image data produced by said image processing means.

Claim 12

An image processing device for writing into a storing means, a digital document image produced by image inputting means, for executing digital image processing with said digital document image stored in said storing means by image processing means to arrive at a processed digital document image, and for feeding the processed digital document image to image outputting means, said image processing device comprising: a) area recognizing means including: 1) contour tracing means for tracing contour lines included in said digital document image to produce image contour information; 2) text/graphic discriminating means for determining whether said digital document image is a text image or a graphic image on the basis of the size of the contour of each portion of said digital document image represented by said image contour information; 3) vector converting means for converting, when said digital document image is a graphic image, said graphic image to vectors; 4) vector correcting means for correcting vector data produced by said vector converting means; and 5) table recognizing means for recognizing a table structure based on the corrected vector data; b) selecting means for allowing an operator to select desired one of areas out of said table structure and a content of desired image processing; and c) vector image drawing means for combining said corrected vector data with image data produced by said image processing means.

Claim 13

An image processing device comprising: image reading means for reading a document image for producing image data; contour tracing means for tracing contour lines included in said image data, to extract contour line loops; text/graphic discriminating means for determining whether said image data is a text image or a graphic image, by comparing each of said contour line loops with a predetermined threshold; inclusion relation determining means for determining, when said image data is a graphic image, an inclusion relation between inner and outer contours of said contour line loops; area extracting means for extracting frame line areas each being delimited by a frame line on the basis of said determined inclusion relation; designating means for designating a desired image processing; and image processing means for executing said desired image processing designated by said designating means to said frame line areas.

Claim 14

An image processing device comprising: image reading means for reading a document image for producing image data; contour tracing means for tracing contour lines included in said image data, to extract contour line loops; text/graphic discriminating means for determining whether said image data is a text image or a graphic image, by comparing each of said contour line loops with a predetermined threshold; inclusion relation determining means for determining, when said image data is a graphic image, an inclusion relation between inner and outer contours of said contour line loops; area extracting means for extracting frame line areas each being delimited by a frame line on the basis of said determined inclusion relation; designating means for designating a desired image processing; and image processing means for executing said desired image processing designated by said designating means to said frame line areas.

Claim 15

A device as claimed in claim 8, further comprising: vector converting means for converting frame line image data forming said frame line areas extracted by said area extracting means to vectors; vector correcting means for correcting said frame line image data in the form of vectors produced by said vector converting means; image erasing means for erasing said frame line image data in the form of vectors from said image data executed with said designated image processing; and image combining means for combining said corrected frame line image data and said erased image data.

Claim 16

A device as claimed in claim 8, wherein said designating means includes: means for designating the size of said frame line areas executed with said desired image processing.

Claim 17

A device as claimed in claim 10, further comprising: area size determining means for determining the sizes of said frame line areas to thereby identify said designated size of said frame line areas.

Claim 18

An image processing device comprising: image reading means for reading a document image for producing image data; contour tracing means for tracing contour lines included in said image data to extract contour line loops; text/graphic discriminating means for determining whether said image data is a text image or a graphic image, by comparing each of said contour lines loops with a predetermined threshold; inclusion relation determining means for determining, when said image data is a graphic image, an inclusion relation between inner and outer contours of said contour line loops; area extracting means for extracting frame line areas each being delimited by a frame line on the basis of said determined inclusion relation; table recognizing means for recognizing a table structure on the basis of a positional relation of said frame line areas to one another; designating means for designating one of said frame line areas out of said table structure and a desired image processing; and image processing means for executing said desired image processing designated by said designating means to said one of said frame line areas.

Claim 19

An image processing device comprising: image reading means for reading a document image for producing image data; contour tracing means for tracing contour lines included in said image data to extract contour line loops; text/graphic discriminating means for determining whether said image data is a text image or a graphic image, by comparing each of said contour lines loops with a predetermined threshold; inclusion relation determining means for determining, when said image data is a graphic image, an inclusion relation between inner and outer contours of said contour line loops; area extracting means for extracting frame line areas each being delimited by a frame line on the basis of said determined inclusion relation; table recognizing means for recognizing a table structure on the basis of a positional relation of said frame line areas to one another; designating means for designating one of said frame line areas out of said table structure and a desired image processing; and image processing means for executing said desired image processing designated by said designating means to said one of said frame line areas.

Claim 20

An image processing device comprising: image reading means for reading a document image for producing image data; contour tracing means for tracing contour lines included in said image data to extract contour line loops; text/graphic discriminating means for determining whether said image data is a text image or a graphic image, by comparing each of said contour line loops with a predetermined threshold; vector converting means for converting, when said image data is a graphic image, said extracted contour line loops to vectors; characteristic point extracting means for extracting a point where the continuity of contour vectors produced by said vector converting means changes as a characteristic point; table recognizing means for recognizing a table structure on the basis of said contour vectors and said extracted characteristic points; designating means for designating a desired area out of said table structure and a desired image processing; and image processing means for executing said desired image processing designated by said designating means to image data in said desired area out of said table structure.

Claim 21

An image processing device comprising: image reading means for reading a document image for producing image data; contour tracing means for tracing contour lines included in said image data to extract contour line loops; text/graphic discriminating means for determining whether said image data is a text image or a graphic image, by comparing each of said contour line loops with a predetermined threshold; vector converting means for converting, when said image data is a graphic image, said extracted contour line loops to vectors; characteristic point extracting means for extracting a point where the continuity of contour vectors produced by said vector converting means changes as a characteristic point; table recognizing means for recognizing a table structure on the basis of said contour vectors and said extracted characteristic points; designating means for designating a desired area out of said table structure and a desired image processing; and image processing means for executing said desired image processing designated by said designating means to image data in said desired area out of said table structure.

Claim 22

A device as claimed in claim 13, further comprising: vector correcting means for correcting vector data produced by said vector converting means; vector erasing means for erasing said vector data from said image data executed with said desired image processing; and image combining means for combining said corrected vector data and said erased image data.