JP2007306090A - Image processing apparatus, image forming apparatus, copy inhibit code detection method, and image forming method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image processing apparatus preventing even a double-sided printed confidential original from being copied for a malicious use. <P>SOLUTION: The image processing apparatus is configured to include: a scanner section 2 for reading a front side image and a rear side image; a copy inhibit information detection section 5 for detecting a copy inhibit code from the front side image and the rear side image; and a control section 7 for stopping processing applied to a read image when the detection section 5 detects the copy inhibit code from at least one of the front side image and the rear side image. Since the image processing apparatus stops the processing when the copy inhibit code is detected from either of the front side image and the rear side image, the image processing apparatus can prevent even the double-sided printed confidential original from being copied for a malicious use. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for preventing unauthorized copying of a document image.

  In recent years, with the spread of image forming apparatuses having a copying function, such as personal computers, printers, and copying machines, it has become extremely easy to copy documents. In such a situation, a manuscript to which copyright has been granted, or a manuscript that prohibits unauthorized duplication such as “copy prohibited”, “restrict copying”, “confidential”, etc. (hereinafter collectively referred to as “confidential manuscript”) There is a drawback that copying is easily performed. In other words, it is a manuscript image containing character strings, figures, tables, graphs, etc., and it is necessary to prevent leakage of important information. The leakage of important information (confidential content) has become a problem. Therefore, it is necessary for an image forming apparatus having a copying function to have a function to prevent misuse and duplication of confidential documents.

  In Patent Document 1, a special pattern is printed on the back side of the document so as not to impair the readability of the document, and the special pattern on the back side is detected at the time of printing to determine whether the document is a confidential manuscript. Yes.

JP 2000-307857 A

  However, if a special pattern is printed only on one side of a double-sided printed document, copying the side on which the special pattern is printed can be prevented, but copying on the side on which the special pattern is not printed can be prevented. There is a problem that it cannot be prevented.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides an image processing apparatus, an image forming apparatus, a copy prohibition code detecting method, and an image forming method that can prevent abuse duplication even for a confidential document printed on both sides. The purpose is to provide.

In order to achieve such an object, the image processing apparatus of the present invention includes a double-sided image reading unit that reads a front image and a back image, a prohibition information detection unit that detects a copy prohibition code from the front image and the back image, When at least one of the front side image and the back side image detects the copy prohibition code, the control unit stops processing on the read image.
As described above, according to the present invention, when the copy prohibition code is detected in one of the front image and the back image, the process is terminated. Therefore, it is possible to prevent abuse duplication even for a confidential document printed on both sides.

The image forming apparatus according to the present invention is an image forming apparatus that generates an image in which a copy prohibition code is embedded. An image synthesizing unit that generates image data in which a copy prohibition code is embedded; and an image forming unit that reads the image data and forms an image.
As described above, according to the present invention, even when single-sided printing is set, the copy-inhibiting code is embedded on both sides, so that even a single-sided original can be prevented from being duplicated.

  The copy prohibition code detection method of the present invention includes a step of reading a front image and a back image, a step of detecting a copy prohibition code from the front image and the back image, and at least one of the front image and the back image. And a step of stopping the processing for the read image when the copy prohibition code is detected.

  The image forming method of the present invention is a method of generating an image in which a copy prohibition code is embedded, and when forming an image set to copy prohibition, copying on both sides is prohibited regardless of the setting of single-sided printing or double-sided printing. A step of generating image data in which a code is embedded; and a step of reading the image data to form an image.

  The present invention can prevent abuse duplication even for a confidential document printed on both sides.

  Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  First, the configuration of the image processing apparatus 1 of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. The image processing apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 1 includes a scanner unit 2, a scanned image processing unit 3, an image storage unit 4, a copy prohibition information detection unit 5, a copy permission condition information detection unit 6, a control unit 7, and a background. The copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image generation unit 8, the image synthesis unit 9, the print unit 10, the user interface unit 11, and the conversion unit 12 are provided.

  The scanner unit 2 includes a first reading system 2A and a second reading system 2B. The configuration of the scanner unit 2 will be described with reference to FIG. The scanner unit 2 according to the present embodiment includes a light source 6160, a mirror 61, a CCD image sensor 63, and the like as the first reading system 2A. The light is collected on the CCD image sensor 63 by the image lens 62. The second reading system 2B includes a second sensor 50. The second sensor 50 includes a glass 51, an LED 52 that passes through the glass 51 and irradiates light onto the second surface of the document, a lens array 53 that collects reflected light from the LED 52, and a light that is collected by the lens array 53. A line sensor 54 that is an image sensor for reading the emitted light is provided. As the line sensor 54, a CCD sensor, a CMOS sensor, a contact sensor, or the like can be used. In this embodiment, the image on the front side of the document is read by the first reading system, and the image on the back side of the document is read by the second optical system.

  The scanned image processing unit 3 performs color correction, color space conversion, screen processing, and the like on the input front surface image data and back surface image data, and stores the image data after the image processing in the image storage unit 4.

  The image composition unit 9 reads out the image data from the image storage unit 4 and outputs it to the printing unit 10. In addition, when the control unit 7 is set to synthesize the background pattern image, the background pattern image data stored in the memory in the image composition unit 9 is synchronized with the reading of the image data from the image storage unit 4. , The logical sum (OR) composition is performed on a predetermined color plane of the image data, and the composite image data is output to the print unit 10. The print unit 10 records the combined image data output from the image combining unit 9 or the image data on a sheet.

The image processing apparatus according to the present embodiment is configured to read a control code embedded in a background copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image from a confidential document in which a background copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is embedded, and to print the confidential document only to authorized users. .
The following control codes are embedded in the background pattern image.
(A) Copy prohibition information (whether or not to prohibit copying)
(B) ... Copy permission condition information (information for permitting copying if the conditions are met)
For example, a personal identification number, a user ID number that permits copying (employee number, etc.), a date and time for canceling copy prohibition, a machine number of a copier that permits copying (C) ... latent image information (related to a latent image that floats when copied) information)
For example, latent image character string, font type, font size, latent image character string direction (angle), background tint image color

  Here, the background copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image will be described in detail with reference to FIG. The background copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image includes a latent image IP and a background pattern PB that covers the entire surface of the output image O.

  The background pattern PB and the latent image IP are different from each other. However, the output image O is formed with a pattern having the same pixel area and pixel color per unit area so that it can be seen by the human eye as a uniform gray background.

  The latent image IP is composed of finer dots than other portions so that the image appears to the extent that the latent image IP can be identified by human eyes in the copied document.

  The background pattern PB is composed of codes. The code is composed of a condition code CD representing arbitrary code data and a prohibited copy code CP that restricts copying.

  The code is composed of a hatched pattern PS representing arbitrary code data. In the oblique line pattern PS, the one represented by a half line inclined 45 degrees counterclockwise with respect to the scanning direction D represents bit 0 of the code data, and the one inclined 135 degrees represents bit 1 of the code data.

  The forbidden copy code CP is composed of a pattern in which the entire hatched pattern PS represents bit 0 and a bit 1. The forbidden copy code CP is used to determine that a copy is restricted when two or more types of forbidden copy codes CP are detected.

The condition code CD is composed of a synchronization code area AS and a data code area AC.
The synchronous code area AS is a code area in which the outer periphery of a rectangular area of a predetermined size surrounding the data code area AC is composed of a hatched pattern PS1 in which all bits 1 are represented.
In the data code area, a code number, a user ID number permitting copying (employee number, etc.), a date and time for canceling copying prohibition, a machine number of a copying machine permitting copying, etc. are encoded and embedded as a condition code CD. ing.

  Next, the copy prohibition information detection unit 5 will be described with reference to FIG. The image data output from the scanner unit 2 is input to the gray scale conversion unit 21 and converted from full color to gray scale. Thereafter, it is binarized by the binarization processing unit 22.

  The binarized image data is input to the noise removal processing unit 23, and noise removal processing is performed. Specifically, a pixel block in which black pixels are connected is obtained, and each pixel of the pixel block whose size (number of connected pixels) is not within a predetermined range is replaced with a white pixel. The predetermined range is set to an appropriate range so that the hatched pattern is not deleted, and other patterns (isolated dot patterns, characters and figures in the document, etc.) are deleted.

  The image data from which noise has been removed is input to the pattern detection unit 24, where two types of oblique line pattern detection processing are performed, and the result is output as image data of 2 bits per pixel. Specifically, the pattern shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B is applied at the position of each pixel in the image data, and detection is performed by template matching. Here, when the pattern (A) shown in FIG. 6 is detected, the pixel value 0 is output, and when the pattern (B) shown in FIG. 5 is detected, the pixel value 1 is output and the pattern is not detected. , Pixel value 2 is output.

  The image data output from the pattern detection processing unit 24 is input to the blocking processing unit 25. Here, the block size is set to a size smaller than half the size of the copy prohibition code and the condition code, and is set to a size such that one or more blocks are completely included in the code. The blocking processing unit 25 divides the input image data into blocks of a predetermined size and outputs them to the number calculation unit 26.

  The number calculation unit 26 calculates the number of pixels having a pixel value 0 and the pixel having a pixel value 1 in the block, and outputs the result to the ratio calculation unit 27. The total is output to the determination processing unit 28. The ratio calculation unit 27 calculates the ratio of pixels with a pixel value of 0 and outputs the result to the determination processing unit 28.

  The determination processing unit 28 performs determination processing based on the total number input from the number calculation unit 26 and the ratio input from the ratio calculation unit 27.

  Here, when the block being processed corresponds to a block in which a copy prohibition code of all bits 0 is written, a hatched pattern corresponding to a predetermined number of bits 0 or more is detected in the block, and bit 1 Since the hatched pattern corresponding to is hardly detected, the ratio of the hatched pattern corresponding to bit 0 should be high and almost close to 1.0.

  If the block currently being processed corresponds to a block in which all 1 bit copy prohibition codes are written, a hatched pattern corresponding to a predetermined number of bits 1 or more is detected in the block, and bit 0 is set. Since the corresponding diagonal pattern is hardly detected, the ratio of the diagonal pattern corresponding to bit 0 should be low and almost close to 0.0.

  If the block currently being processed includes at least a part of the condition code, a diagonal line pattern corresponding to a plurality of bits 0 and a diagonal line pattern corresponding to a plurality of bits 1 are detected in the block. The ratio of the hatched pattern corresponding to 1 should be much lower than 1.0 and much higher than 0.

  If the input image data is an image in which copy prohibition information is embedded, a copy prohibition code with all bits 0 in the block and a copy prohibition code with all bits 1 in the block are included in the image. There should be more than one embedded.

The following determination process is performed using the above characteristics.
If the total number> the first threshold value and the ratio> the second threshold value, the block is determined to be the copy prohibition code 0.
Total number> first threshold value and. When (1−ratio)> second threshold value, the block is determined to be copy prohibition code 1.
In cases other than the above, it is determined that the block is not a copy prohibition code. The first threshold value is set by adding a margin to the theoretical number of patterns included in the block based on the block size and the pattern size. The second threshold value is set to a value close to 1.0.

  The determination processing unit 28 separately counts the number of blocks determined to be the copy prohibition code 0 and the number of blocks determined to be the copy prohibition code 1. If the number of blocks determined to be copy prohibition code 0 is equal to or greater than threshold value 3 and the number of blocks determined to be copy prohibition code 0 is equal to or greater than threshold value 3, the image is determined to be a copy prohibition document; The determination result is output to the control unit 7.

  Next, details of the copy permission condition information detection unit 6 will be described with reference to FIG. The image data output from the scanner unit 2 is input to the gray scale conversion unit 31, converted from full color to gray scale, and then binarized by the binarization processing unit 32.

  The binarized image data is input to the noise removal processing unit 33, and the noise removal processing 33 is performed. The image data from which the noise has been removed is input to the pattern detection processing unit 34, where two types of oblique line pattern detection processing are performed, and the data of the processing result is stored in the buffer memory 35. In this image data, the pixel value at the position where the diagonal line pattern corresponding to bit 0 is detected is 0, the pixel value at the position where the diagonal line pattern corresponding to bit 1 is detected is 1, and other values are 2 The image data is 2 bits per pixel.

  The image data stored in the buffer memory 35 is input to the skew angle detection processing unit 36, and the skew angle is detected. Here, the skew angle of the input image data is obtained. As a specific method, Hough transform is performed on a pixel having only a pixel value of 0 or 1, and the peak of the projection distribution on the angle axis is obtained. The obtained skew angle is output to the code detector 37.

  Further, the image data stored in the buffer memory 35 is read out and input to the code detection unit 37, and the two-dimensional code is detected. Specifically, the image is scanned at the obtained skew angle to extract a pixel value of 0 or 1 (corresponding to 0 or 1 of the bit). The synchronization code is found from the extracted bit string. The synchronization code is defined as a code in which the outer periphery of a rectangular area having a predetermined vertical and horizontal size is entirely composed of bits 1. A bit array surrounded by the synchronization code is a two-dimensional code (condition code). This bit array is rearranged into a one-dimensional bit string and output to the error correction decoding unit 38.

  The error correction decoding unit 38 performs a predetermined error correction decoding process on the input bit string and decodes it as condition information. The decrypted copy permission condition information is output to the control unit 7.

Next, the background pattern image generation unit 8 will be described with reference to FIG.
A copy prohibition code (copy prohibition information, condition information, and latent image information) is input from the control unit 7 to the background tint block image generation unit 8. Of these, copy prohibition information and copy permission condition information are input to the additional information encoding unit 42, and latent image information is input to the latent image generation unit 41.

  The latent image generation unit 41 generates a latent image based on the input latent image information. The latent image information is information indicating what kind of latent image character is embedded in the pattern image. Specifically, the latent image character string, font type, font size, and direction of the latent image character string (angle) ) Etc. Upon receiving the latent image information, the latent image generation unit 41 draws a latent image character string in the specified direction with the specified font type and font size, and generates a binary latent image image. The generated latent image is output to the additional information encoding unit 42. Note that the resolution of the latent image is a resolution obtained by dividing the resolution of the printer by the size of a pattern to be described later. For example, when the printer resolution is 600 dpi and the pattern size is 12 pixels × 12 pixels, the resolution of the latent image is 50 dpi.

  The additional information encoding unit 42 encodes the input copy prohibition information and condition information. First, when the copy prohibition information indicates that the document that has been printed out is not to be copied by the image processing apparatus, two types of copy prohibition codes shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B are generated. Here, the copy prohibition code shown in FIG. 8A is all bit 0 inside the code, and the copy prohibition code shown in FIG. is there. When copy prohibition information is not input, or when it does not indicate that a document that has been printed out is not to be copied by the image processing apparatus, two types of codes shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B are generated. Is not done.

  Next, when condition information is input, an error correction code is applied to the condition information to generate a condition code as shown in FIG. The code in FIG. 8C represents a bit string of the encoded condition information by the arrangement of bit 0 and bit 1. The outer periphery of the cord has a special bit pattern for facilitating the positioning of the cord.

  Next, a plurality of generated codes are repeatedly arranged as shown in FIG. 9A to generate a pattern number array having the same size as the latent image. Here, the hatched rectangle in the figure is the copy prohibition code of FIG. 8A, the vertical hatched rectangle is the copy prohibition code of FIG. 8B, and the dot hatched rectangle is FIG. 8C. This is the condition code. If a copy prohibition code is not generated, a condition code is placed in the copy prohibition code portion in the figure. If the condition code is not generated, a copy prohibition code is placed in the condition code portion in the figure. At this time, the value of each element of the pattern number array is 0 or 1.

  Next, referring to the latent image, the pattern number of the element of the pattern number array corresponding to the coordinates of the black pixels in the latent image is changed to 2. If this is performed for all the black pixels in the latent image, the pattern number arrangement is such that the latent image characters are drawn with the pattern number 2 on the background in which the copy prohibition code and the condition code are arranged side by side. This state is shown in FIG. The black “COPY” portion in the figure indicates a portion in which the pattern array number is changed to 2. The pattern number array is output to the pattern image generation unit 44.

  The pattern image generation unit 44 refers to each element of the input pattern number array, reads a pattern corresponding to the pattern number from the pattern storage unit 43 and converts it into a pattern image, thereby generating a background pattern image. The generated background tint block image is stored in a memory (not shown) in the image composition unit 9.

  When an image reading instruction is issued, the image processing apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment performs reading on both sides of the document even if the instruction is single-sided reading. When the copy prohibition information is detected on one of the surfaces, the printing of the image is stopped. If the copy prohibition information is printed on one side, the information printed on the paper may be a confidential document whether it is the back side or the front side. Therefore, in this embodiment, the copy prohibition information is detected on both sides of the document, and when this information is detected on either side, the job is stopped.

The processing procedure of the control unit 7 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.
When the document reading start button is pressed (step S1 / YES), the scanner unit 2 reads images on both sides of the document regardless of the settings for single-sided reading and double-sided reading (step S2).

  The image data read by the scanner unit 2 is output to the copy prohibition information detection unit 5 and the copy permission condition information detection unit 6, and the copy prohibition code and the copy permission condition code are detected, respectively. The detection result is output to the control unit 7 (step S3). In the following, a copy prohibition code detected by the copy prohibition information detection unit 5 will be described as an example to simplify the description.

  First, the control unit 7 determines whether or not a copy prohibition code is embedded on the surface of the document (step S4). The determination is made from the determination of the front image from the rare reading of the image on the front surface by the scanner unit 2, and may be performed from the determination of the rear surface when reading from the back of the document. If a copy prohibition code is embedded on the front surface (step S4 / YES), the read image data is immediately discarded and the job is aborted (step S8). If it is determined that the copy prohibition code is not embedded on the front side of the document (step S4 / NO), the control unit 7 determines whether the copy prohibition code is embedded on the back side of the document (step S5). . If it is determined that the copy prohibition code is embedded on the back side of the document (step S5 / YES), the read image data is immediately discarded and the job is aborted (step S8).

  When the copy prohibition code is detected on both sides of the document and it is determined that the copy prohibition code is not embedded on both sides (step S5 / NO), the read image data is output to the print unit 10 (step S6), and the image is displayed. Form. The above processing is performed on all the originals (step S7). When the processing is completed for all the originals (step S7 / YES), this control flow is ended.

  As described above, in this embodiment, since the copy prohibition code is detected on both sides of the document when the image is read, it is possible to prevent unauthorized copying on both sides of the document even if the copy prohibition code is embedded only on one side. .

  The control unit 7 prints the image data read by the scanner unit 2 or the image data acquired via the network. If the copy prohibition code is not embedded in the document, or the copy prohibition code is embedded. If it is set, control is performed so that a copy prohibition code is printed on both sides of the paper. That is, the image synthesizing unit 9 synthesizes the copy prohibition information on both sides of the original image under the control of the control unit 7. Also, a copy prohibition code is embedded on the side of the original that has no image even if it is a single-side printed document.

The operation procedure of this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.
When the start of printing is instructed (step S11), the control unit 7 controls the image composition unit 9 to read out the image data stored in the image storage unit 4. Further, when the control unit 7 is set to add a copy prohibition code, when it is determined that copy prohibition information is added to the read image data, the copy prohibition code is added to the image data received via the network. Is determined (step S12 / YES), image data with copy prohibition codes added to both sides is generated regardless of the settings for single-sided printing and double-sided printing. The image synthesizing unit 9 synthesizes the copy prohibition code generated by the copy prohibition information generating unit 8 as a base image on the surface where the copy prohibition code is not embedded (step S13).

  The image data combined by the image combining unit 9 is output to the printing unit 10 (step S14) and printed.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, regardless of the single-sided or double-sided print setting, a copy of a confidential document can be prevented by embedding a copy prohibition code on both sides of a document set as a copy-prohibited document.

  The embodiment described above is a preferred embodiment of the present invention. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of an image processing apparatus. It is a figure which shows the structure of the scanner apparatus which can read both sides. It is a figure which shows a background tint block image. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of a copy prohibition information detection part. It is a figure which shows an example of the image used for template matching. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of a copy permission condition information detection part. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of a background tint block image generation part. It is a figure which shows copy prohibition information and condition information. It is a figure which shows a pattern number arrangement | sequence. 10 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure when copying a document with a copy prohibition code. 6 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure when a copy prohibition code is embedded in a document.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image processing apparatus 2 Scanner part 2A 1st reading system 2B 2nd reading system 3 Scan image processing part 4 Image storage part 5 Copy prohibition information detection part 6 Copy permission condition information detection part 7 Control part 8 Background tint block image generation part 9 Image composition part 10 Print part 11 User interface part

Claims (4)

A double-sided image reading means for reading a front image and a back image;
Prohibition information detection means for detecting a copy prohibition code from the front image and the back image;
Control means for stopping processing on the read image when the copy prohibition code is detected on at least one of the front image and the back image;
An image processing apparatus comprising: An image forming apparatus for generating an image in which a copy prohibition code is embedded,
An image compositing unit that generates image data in which a copy prohibition code is embedded on both sides, regardless of the setting of single-sided printing or double-sided printing, when forming an image set to copy-inhibiting;
Image forming means for reading the image data and forming an image;
An image forming apparatus comprising: Reading the front and back images;
Detecting a copy prohibition code from the front image and the back image;
Detecting the copy prohibition code at least one of the front image and the back image, and stopping the processing for the read image;
A method for detecting a copy prohibition code, comprising: A method of generating an image in which a copy prohibition code is embedded,
Generating image data in which a copy prohibition code is embedded on both sides when forming an image set to copy prohibition, regardless of the setting of single-sided printing or double-sided printing;
Reading the image data to form an image;
An image forming method comprising:

Images