JP2008263593A - Image processing device, image processing method, program, and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To maintain good visual quality of content information included in image data even when supplemental information is embedded in the image data. <P>SOLUTION: An image processing device includes an area generation unit configured to generate a supplemental information-embedded area in image data having content information separate from an area occupied by the content information, and a data embedding unit configured to embed the supplemental information in the generated supplemental information-embedded area. Thus, good visual quality of the content information included in the image data can be maintained even when supplemental information is embedded in the image data. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, a program, and a recording medium for embedding additional information in image data, and more particularly to a method for embedding additional information in image data.

  In recent years, due to improvements in image processing technology, it has become possible to make faithful copying so that the original and a copy made from the original cannot be easily distinguished. For this reason, from the standpoint of preventing counterfeiting, there is an increasing need to prevent special manuscripts such as banknotes and securities from being copied at all, or to take measures not to copy them correctly. Yes.

  Against this background, various methods have been proposed for the purpose of restricting the copying of special manuscripts and confidential documents.

For example, Patent Document 1 proposes a method for restricting copying of image data by superimposing a dot pattern on the image data. In this method, when the same dot pattern as the copy prohibition pattern stored in advance is detected from the read image data, it is determined that the read image data is copy prohibition, and the copy control for the image data is restricted. To do.
JP 2004-274092 A

  Here, the problem of the method of superimposing the dot pattern on the image data as in Patent Document 1 will be described. In the method proposed in Patent Document 1, a dot pattern indicating output prohibition is entirely superimposed on image data including content information. Therefore, since the dot pattern is superimposed on the content information such as a document or a photograph in the image data, the appearance of the content information included in the image data is deteriorated (see FIG. 13).

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and even when additional information is embedded in image data, an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and an image processing apparatus that can maintain the appearance of content information related to the image data. It is an object to provide a program and a recording medium.

  In order to solve such a problem, an image processing apparatus according to the present invention includes an area generation unit that generates an embedded area for embedding additional information that does not overlap with the content information in image data including content information, and generation And an information embedding unit for embedding the additional information in the embedded region.

  Further, in the image processing apparatus according to the present invention, the area generation means may generate the embedded area in the image data and around the content information.

  Furthermore, in the image processing apparatus according to the present invention, the region generating unit generates a circumscribed rectangle of the content information and generates an embedding region for embedding additional information around the generated circumscribed rectangle. It may be a feature.

  Furthermore, in the image processing apparatus according to the present invention, the area generation unit may determine the range of the embedded area according to a distance between an end of the image data and the content information.

  Furthermore, in the image processing apparatus according to the present invention, the region generation unit is configured to perform the embedding based on a distance between the edge of the image data and the content information and a threshold value for ensuring reproducibility of the additional information. The range of the region may be determined.

  Further, in the image processing apparatus according to the present invention, the additional information may be at least one of type information indicating a type of the image data and history information which is an output history of the image data. .

  Furthermore, in the image processing apparatus according to the present invention, the area generation unit acquires and acquires drawing area information that is information about a range that can be drawn by an output unit that outputs image data in which additional information is embedded. The embedding area may be generated based on the drawing area information and the content information.

  The image processing method according to the present invention includes an area generation step of generating an embedded area for embedding additional information that does not overlap with the content information in the image data including the content information, and the generated embedded area And an information embedding step of embedding the additional information.

  Furthermore, in the image processing method according to the present invention, the region generation step may be a step of generating the embedded region in the image data and around the content information.

  Furthermore, in the image processing method according to the present invention, the region generating step may be a step of generating a region for embedding additional information around a circumscribed rectangle of the content information.

  Furthermore, in the image processing method according to the present invention, the region generation step is a step of determining a range of the embedded region according to a distance between an end of the image data and the content information. Also good.

  Furthermore, in the image processing method according to the present invention, the region generation step includes the embedding based on a distance between the edge of the image data and the content information, and a threshold value for ensuring reproducibility of the additional information. It may be a step of determining the range of the region.

  Further, in the image processing method according to the present invention, the additional information may be at least one of type information representing a type of the image data and history information which is an output history of the image data. .

  Further, in the image processing method according to the present invention, the region generation step acquires drawing region information that is information about a range that can be drawn by an output unit that outputs image data in which additional information is embedded. The embedding area may be generated based on the drawing area information and the content information.

  The program according to the present invention is characterized by causing the image processing method of the present invention to be executed.

  The recording medium according to the present invention is a computer-readable recording medium and records the program of the present invention.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to improve the appearance of content information in image data in which additional information is embedded.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In addition, this Embodiment demonstrated below does not unduly limit the content of this invention described in the claim. In addition, all of the configurations described in this embodiment are not essential configuration requirements of the present invention.

[First Embodiment]
The image processing apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. In this embodiment, an example of an image processing apparatus will be described using an MFP (Multi Functional Peripheral) 100 having a composite function such as copying, facsimile, scanner, and printing. Needless to say, application examples of the image processing apparatus include a facsimile apparatus, a printer apparatus, a personal computer, a game machine, a mobile phone, a car navigation apparatus, and the like, which are limited to the MFP 100.

  Here, the terms used in this specification are defined as follows. “Content information” means various contents such as characters, character strings, diagrams, tables, and photographs included in image data. The “background pattern” means a pattern for embedding information in image data, and means, for example, a dot pattern, a bar coat, a two-dimensional barcode (QR code), or the like.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of an MFP 100 as an example of an image processing apparatus according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the MFP 100 includes a controller 110, a communication interface 120, a scanner engine 130, a printer engine 140, a FAX board 150, a user interface 160, a portable recording medium reading device 170, an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) 180, a bus. It is constituted by a line 190.

The controller 110 controls the overall processing of the MFP 100.
The controller 110 includes, as its internal configuration, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 111, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 112 in which fixed data such as a program for controlling the CPU 111 is stored in advance, and an area for temporarily storing various data. Memory (main memory) 113.

  Communication interface 120 is controlled by controller 110 to communicate with an external device of MFP 100. The communication interface 120 can also be configured with an Ethernet (registered trademark) interface, an IEEE1284 interface, or other interfaces.

  The scanner engine 130 is controlled by the controller 110 and has a function of executing image reading processing.

  The printer engine 140 is controlled by the controller 110 and executes image forming processing (printing processing). The printer engine 140 can also be configured with a laser beam printer, an inkjet printer, or other printers.

  The FAX board 150 is controlled by the controller 110 and executes facsimile communication processing.

  The user interface 160 can display information sent from the controller 110 and can transmit information input from the user to the controller 110. That is, information is output (provided) to the user and instructions (information) are input from the user. The user interface 160 can be configured by, for example, a display (such as LCT or CRT), a pointing device (such as a mouse or a touch pen), or a keyboard. Furthermore, as another configuration, a touch panel, a voice interface, or the like can be used.

  The portable recording medium reading device 170 is controlled by the controller 110 and executes processing for reading recording information of a portable recording medium such as an IC card or a floppy (registered trademark) disk. Further, the portable recording medium reading device 170 accesses the portable recording medium according to an instruction from the controller 110, reads information from the portable recording medium, and notifies the controller 110 of the information.

  The HDD 180 has a function of writing and reading various data. The bus line 190 electrically connects the controller 110 to the communication interface 120, the scanner engine 130, the printer engine 140, the FAX board 150, the user interface 160, the portable recording medium reading device 170, and the HDD 180. For the bus line 190, an address bus, a data bus, or the like can be used.

  In MFP 100 having the above-described configuration, print job can be issued by selecting printer engine 140. Further, by selecting the scanner engine 130, a scan job can be issued. Further, by selecting the printer engine 140 and the scanner engine 130, a copy job can be issued. Further, by selecting the printer engine 140, the scanner engine 130, and the FAX board 150, it is possible to issue a facsimile reception job and a facsimile transmission job.

  Next, functions of MFP 100 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of MFP 100 according to the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 2, the MFP 100 includes an instruction input unit 210, an image data input unit 220, a size detection unit 230, an area generation unit 240, an additional information acquisition unit 250, a storage unit 260, an information embedding unit 270, and an image data output. Means 280 are provided.

  Instruction input unit 210 receives an instruction from a user who operates MFP 100. Examples of instructions from the user include input instructions for image data and output instructions for image data, as well as instructions for setting input or output conditions. It also accepts additional information embedding instructions. The instruction input unit 210 may adopt a configuration that presents options to the user and prompts the user to input an instruction. Here, the instruction input means 210 is realized by the user interface 160 shown in FIG.

  The image data input unit 220 inputs image data to be processed by generating or acquiring image data to be embedded with additional information, and stores the input image data in the storage unit 260. Note that the image data input unit 220 may be realized by the communication interface 120 or the scanner engine 130.

  The size detection unit 230 detects the size of the image data input by the image data input unit 220. As the size of the image data, a paper size such as A3 or A4 may be detected, or the size of the image data defined by the resolution may be detected. Note that the size detection unit 230 may be realized by the controller 110 illustrated in FIG. 1 or may be realized by the scanner engine 130.

  The area generation unit 240 generates an area for embedding additional information (hereinafter referred to as “embedding area”) in the image data based on the content information included in the image data. Here, the region generation unit 240 generates an embedded region around the content information. Note that the region generation means 240 is realized by the controller 110 shown in FIG.

  Here, the processing of the region generation unit 240 will be described in detail.

  The region generation unit 240 acquires image data to be processed from the storage unit 260 described later, and sets a circumscribed rectangle of the content information as a range where content information included in the image data exists (hereinafter referred to as “content region”). Generate. Here, the circumscribing rectangle of the content information can be acquired by specifying the background color of the image data and extracting the circumscribing rectangle of the pixels other than the background color. For specifying the background color, various methods such as creating a color histogram of the image data and determining the color with the highest ratio as the background color can be applied.

  Then, the area generation unit 240 generates an embedding area in a range that does not overlap with the generated first circumscribed rectangle and that does not overlap with the content information by designating the area within the range of the image data. be able to. Note that the size detected by the size detector 230 may be used as the range of the image data.

  Note that the content area is not limited to the circumscribed rectangle described above. A content area may be acquired by performing contour tracking processing on image data to generate an embedded area.

  Alternatively, a pixel value histogram may be obtained for image data, a content area may be obtained from the obtained histogram, and an embedding area may be generated based on the obtained content area. Specifically, a histogram of pixel values is obtained from the edge of the image data, and a location where the obtained change amount of the histogram shows a predetermined threshold value or more is determined as the edge of the content information. Then, the region from the end of the image data to the portion determined to be an edge is generated as an embedded region.

  Further, a differential value of each pixel of the image data is obtained, and an edge is detected based on the obtained value. Then, the area from the end of the image data to the detected edge may be generated as an embedded area. In addition, what is necessary is just to use well-known methods, such as an image filter, for calculation of a differential value.

  Here, when there are a plurality of acquired content areas (when there are a plurality of first content areas), an area including all the acquired content areas (hereinafter referred to as “second content area”). .)), And an embedding area may be generated by designating an area within the range of the image data that does not overlap with the second content area. In this case, it is possible to obtain image data in which no copy-forgery-inhibited pattern pattern exists between the content information, and thus it is possible to obtain image data that does not impair the appearance of the content information. However, the method of superimposing the tint block pattern based on the first content information can secure a wider embedding area, so that the amount of information that can be added to the image data is increased. FIG. 3 shows image data on which a ground pattern is superimposed based on the first content area, and FIG. 4 shows image data on which a ground pattern is superimposed on the second content area.

  Further, the region generation unit 240 adopts a configuration in which an embedded region is generated in consideration of a shape instruction (hereinafter referred to as “region shape”) related to the embedded region input from the user via the instruction input unit 210. May be. Specifically, by generating an embedded region corresponding to the region shape in the acquired content region, a tint block pattern can be added with a shape desired by the user. In the case of adopting such a configuration, the region generation unit 240 acquires a template according to the shape instruction input via the instruction input unit 210 from the storage unit 260, so that an embedded region having a user-desired shape is obtained. Is generated.

  The additional information acquisition unit 250 acquires information to be embedded in the image data (hereinafter referred to as “additional information”). Here, the additional information includes security information such as information for indicating that the image data is copy-prohibited data, identification information of the device from which the image data is output, and information for managing the copyright of the image data. And image data related information (for example, a URL indicating the location of information related to image data). The additional information acquisition unit may adopt a configuration realized by the controller 110, the communication interface 120, and the user interface 160 shown in FIG. Further, a configuration may be adopted in which the additional information is acquired from the portable recording medium that is an external device by using the portable recording medium reader 170.

  Here, the additional information acquisition unit 250 may input the information specified by the user via the instruction input unit 210 as additional information, or add additional information corresponding to the setting instruction specified by the user, which will be described later. You may acquire from the memory | storage means 260. FIG. Some examples of the additional information corresponding to the setting instruction specified by the user are shown.

  A user desires to improve the usefulness and security accuracy of image data by adding various types of information according to the type and use of the image data to the image data. Therefore, when the user selects the confidential data output mode when outputting the image data, information for prohibiting the copying of the image data is set as additional information. When the image data to which such information is added is read for the purpose of copying, the reading device can recognize that the image data read by the additional information is copy-prohibited data, and take measures to stop a series of processing. It is possible to take.

  Another setting instruction includes a security instruction by the administrator of MFP 100. In the case of such a setting instruction, tracking information such as identification information of the MFP 100 that outputs image data, identification information of the user, and output date and time is added information to the image data. Here, by adding the identification information of the MFP 100 to the image data, it is possible to grasp when, by which apparatus, by whom, and by whom.

  Storage unit 260 stores various information necessary for processing of MFP 100. Specifically, information related to the embedded area (hereinafter referred to as “area information”) and information for converting the additional information input by the additional information acquisition unit 250 into a tint block pattern are stored. Here, the region information is information indicating the range of the embedded region. Note that the storage unit 260 is realized by the memory 113 in the controller 110 or the HDD 180.

  The information embedding unit 270 converts the additional information input by the additional information acquisition unit 250 into a tint block pattern using the information stored in the storage unit 260. Then, additional information is added to the image data by superimposing the converted tint block pattern on the image data (see, for example, FIG. 5). An example of processing of the information embedding unit 270 is shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, respectively. Here, the superposition of the tint block pattern is performed only on the embedded region generated by the region generating unit 240. Note that the information embedding means is realized by the controller 110.

  Here, the conversion from the additional information to the tint block pattern by the information embedding unit 270 will be described. The information embedding unit 270 acquires additional information expressed by a bit string, and converts each bit into a tint block pattern using information stored in the storage unit 260. Then, the converted tint block pattern is superimposed on the image data. Specifically, the additional information is acquired bit by bit, and the acquired bit string is rearranged into a two-dimensional array having a predetermined size (hereinafter referred to as “unit two-dimensional array”, for example, see FIG. 6). Next, the information embedding unit 270 generates a two-dimensional array having the size of the image data detected by the size detecting unit 230 by repeatedly arranging the unit two-dimensional array in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction. Then, of the generated two-dimensional array, each unit two-dimensional array that overlaps with the region generated by the region generating unit 240 is converted into a tint block pattern, and the image data is superimposed. In order to improve the extraction accuracy of the additional information, a bit string obtained by repeating the additional information several times may be converted into a tint block pattern.

Further, the information embedding unit 270 can convert the additional information into a tint block pattern according to the type of the tint block pattern input by the user via the instruction input unit 210.
A configuration may be employed in which additional information is converted into a tint block pattern according to the type of tint block pattern set in MFP 100 as an initial setting.

  The image data output means 280 outputs image data in which additional information is embedded. Here, the image data itself may be output to the outside via the communication interface 120, or a configuration may be employed in which printing is performed on a predetermined medium (such as output paper) using the printer engine 140. A configuration in which image data is displayed on a panel using the user interface 160 may be employed.

  Next, a processing flow in MFP 100 according to the present embodiment configured as described above will be described. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a processing flow in MFP 100 according to the present embodiment.

  First, the instruction input unit 210 receives an image data output instruction from the user (step S101). At this time, the instruction receiving unit 201 also receives an instruction to embed a background pattern in the image data and output it from the user.

  Next, the image data input means 220 inputs image data to be processed that is to be embedded with additional information (step S102). The input image data is stored in the storage unit 260 realized by the HDD 180 of the MFP 100 or the memory 113.

  Subsequently, the size detection unit 230 reads the image data stored in the storage unit 260 and detects the size of the read image data (step S103). The detected size information of the image data is stored in the storage unit 260.

  Next, the area generation unit 240 reads the image data including the content information stored in the storage unit 260, and generates an embedded area that does not overlap with the content information on the read image data (step S104). Then, the generated area information of the embedded area is stored in the storage unit 260.

  In addition, in order to improve the appearance, the area generation unit may generate a more limited range as an embedded area instead of all areas that do not overlap with the content information. However, in order to improve the extraction accuracy of the additional information embedded in the image data, it is desirable that the embedded region has a width (for example, 1 cm or more) that is equal to or larger than a threshold for ensuring the reproducibility of the additional information.

  Here, the additional information acquisition unit 250 acquires additional information to be added to the image data. Then, the acquired additional information is converted into a tint block pattern based on the information stored in the storage unit 260 (step S105).

  Further, the information embedding unit 270 reads the area information from the storage unit 260. Then, the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern converted by the additional information acquisition unit 250 is superimposed only on the position on the image data corresponding to the read area information (step S106).

  Finally, the image data output means 280 receives the image data on which the tint block pattern is superimposed, and outputs the received image data (step S107).

  With the above processing, the embedding of the additional information into the image data including the content information is finished.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the region generation unit 240 generates an embedded region in a range that does not overlap with content information. Therefore, even if additional information is added by superimposing a tint block pattern on image data, it is possible to reliably generate image data that does not impair the appearance of content information.

  The portable recording medium to be read by the portable recording medium reader 170 is not particularly limited. In addition to the SD card, a compact flash (registered trademark) memory card, smart media (registered trademark), memory stick ( (Registered trademark), a memory-type recording medium such as a picture card, and any other removable recording medium can be used alone or in combination.

  Each of the above functions can be realized by a computer-executable program written in a legacy programming language such as assembler, C, C ++, C #, Java (registered trademark), an object-oriented programming language, or the like. ROM, EEPROM , EPROM, flash memory, flexible disk, CD-ROM, CD-RW, DVD, SD card, MO and the like can be stored and distributed in a recording medium readable by the apparatus.

[Second Embodiment]
An image processing apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. In the present embodiment, when the output of the image data in the image forming apparatus is limited to a predetermined range, the appearance of the content in the image data in which the additional information is embedded is maintained, and certain additional information The image processing apparatus is different from the image processing apparatus according to the first embodiment in that the extraction accuracy is maintained.

  Here, an example in which the output of image data in the image forming apparatus is limited to a predetermined range will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 8 shows “image data”, “range that can be drawn in the image forming apparatus (hereinafter referred to as“ drawing area ”)”, and “content area in the image data” in order from the large rectangle. The problem that becomes apparent with reference to FIG. 8 is that the entire range of image data may not be included in the drawing area depending on the specifications of the image forming apparatus. In this case, even if an embedding area for drawing a tint block pattern is generated from the end of the image data, image data on which the tint block pattern is superimposed cannot be output unless the embedding area is included in the drawing area. In order to solve this problem, the present embodiment is characterized in that an embedded region that does not overlap content information included in image data is generated based on the drawing region.

  In this embodiment, an example using a PC (Personal Computer) 300 in which a printer driver is installed will be described as an example of an image processing apparatus. FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the PC 300 as the image processing apparatus according to the present embodiment. In the present embodiment, redundant description of components having substantially the same functional configuration as in the first embodiment will be omitted.

  The PC 300 includes a CPU 310, a RAM 320, a ROM 330, an external storage device 340, a communication interface 350, a user interface 360, and a bus line 370. The PC 300 is connected to the printer 500 via a network.

  The ROM 330 or the external storage device 340 stores software such as an operating system and a print data generation program. Further, the CPU 310 executes software stored in the ROM 330 and the external storage device 340, and comprehensively controls each device connected to the bus line 270. The RAM 220 functions as a work area that is a main memory of the CPU 310. The external storage device 340 stores a boot program, an operating system, various applications, and the like.

  The communication interface 350 communicates with an external device of the PC 300 by being controlled by the CPU 310. For example, the communication interface 350 is configured by an Ethernet (registered trademark) interface, an IEEE1284 interface, or another interface.

  The user interface 360 can display information sent from the CPU 310 and transmit information input from the user to the CPU 310. That is, information is output (provided) to the user and instructions (information) are input from the user. Here, the user interface 360 can be configured by, for example, a display (LCT, CRT, etc.), a pointing device (mouse, touch pen, etc.), a keyboard, or a combination thereof. As another configuration, a touch panel, a voice interface, or the like can be used.

  The bus line 370 electrically connects the CPU 310 to the ROM 330, the communication interface 350, the user interface 360, and the like. The bus line 370 includes an address bus and a data bus.

  Next, functions of the PC 300 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram of PC 300 according to the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 10, the PC 300 includes an instruction input unit 410, an image data input unit 420, an output area acquisition unit 430, an area generation unit 440, an additional information acquisition unit 450, a storage unit 460, an information embedding unit 470, and image data. Output means 480 is provided.

  The instruction input unit 410 inputs an instruction from a user who operates the PC 300. Examples of instructions from the user include input instructions for image data and output instructions for image data, as well as instructions for setting input or output conditions. It also accepts additional information embedding instructions. Note that the instruction input unit 410 may employ a configuration that presents options to the user and prompts the user to input an instruction. Here, the instruction input means 410 is realized by a user interface 360 shown in FIG. 9 such as a keyboard or a display.

  The image data input unit 420 inputs image data to be processed by generating or acquiring image data to be embedded with additional information, and stores the input image data in the storage unit 460. The image data input unit 420 is realized by the communication interface 350. Alternatively, the image data may be acquired from a floppy (registered trademark) disk, a USB memory, or the like via the external storage device 340.

  The output area acquisition unit 430 acquires information about a drawing range (hereinafter referred to as “drawing area information”) from the printer 500 connected via the network. The output area acquisition unit 430 is realized by the communication interface 350. Then, the acquired drawing area information is stored in the storage unit 460.

  Note that the output area acquisition unit 430 may be configured by the CPU 310 instead of the communication interface 350. Furthermore, instead of acquiring the drawing area information from the printer 500, the drawing area information in the printer 500 may be acquired from the storage unit 460 configured by the ROM 330 or the external storage device 340. When the drawing area information is acquired from the storage unit 460, it is desirable that the storage unit 460 stores the identification information of the printer 500 and the drawing area information of the printer 500 in association with each other. This is because processing not only with the printer 500 but also with other image forming apparatuses (such as a printer and an MFP) can be handled. In such a case, the designation of the image forming apparatus is accepted from the instruction input unit 410, and the storage unit 460 is searched using the accepted designation as a key, thereby acquiring the drawing area information of the designated image forming apparatus. An example of the associated data in the storage unit 460 is shown in FIG.

  The area generation unit 440 generates an embedding area in the image data based on the drawing area information and the content information acquired by the output area acquisition unit 430. Here, the area generation unit 440 generates an embedded area around the content information and in the drawing area. The area generation unit 440 is realized by the CPU 310 shown in FIG.

  The area generation unit 440 acquires image data to be processed from the storage unit 460 and acquires a content area included in the image data. The acquisition of the content area is the same as the process of the area generation unit 240 in the above-described first embodiment, and thus description thereof is omitted here.

  Further, the area generation unit 440 reads the drawing area information from the storage unit 460 separately from the content area. Then, an embedded area is generated around the above-described content area within the range of the read drawing area information. The positional relationship between the two may be represented by the vertex coordinates of each region, or a logical operation may be performed after performing the overlay processing (overlay) of both regions.

  Further, the region generating unit 440 adopts a configuration that generates an embedded region in consideration of a shape instruction (hereinafter referred to as “region shape”) regarding the embedded region input from the user via the instruction input unit 410. May be. Specifically, by generating an embedded region corresponding to the region shape in the acquired content region, a tint block pattern can be added with a shape desired by the user. When such a configuration is adopted, the region generation unit 440 obtains a template corresponding to the shape instruction input via the instruction input unit 410 from the storage unit 460, so that an embedded region having a user-desired shape is obtained. Is generated.

  In generating the embedded region, it is desirable to generate the embedded region from the end of the drawing region. When an embedding area is generated from the end of the drawing area, the tint block pattern is superimposed on the end of the image data as the output result, and the tint block pattern can be detected quickly when scanning by a scanner or the like. It is.

  Here, when an image forming apparatus in which a range in which drawing can be performed is set is designated as an output destination and additional information is added based only on the content area in the image data, and in this embodiment The region generation means 440 is compared. When the additional information is added based only on the content area, the tint block pattern that is correctly superimposed in the drawing data may be lost in the output result that is actually output, and the additional information may not be correctly added. However, the area generation unit 440 according to the present embodiment superimposes the background pattern not only based on the content area but also based on the content area and the drawing area information. Therefore, it is possible to add the additional information to the image data without missing the tint block pattern in the output result, and without impairing the appearance of the content in the image data.

  Hereinafter, the additional information acquisition unit 450, the storage unit 460, the information embedding unit 470, and the image data output unit 480 will be described with respect to the additional information acquisition unit 250, the storage unit 260, the information embedding unit 270, and the image data in the first embodiment. Since the same processing as that of the output unit 280 is performed, description thereof is omitted here.

  Next, the flow of processing in the image processing apparatus according to this embodiment configured as described above will be described. FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing in the image processing apparatus according to this embodiment.

  First, the instruction input unit 410 receives an image data output instruction from the user (step S201). At this time, the instruction input unit 410 also inputs an output instruction from the user by embedding a tint block pattern in the image data.

  Next, the image data input means 420 inputs image data to be processed, which is to be embedded with additional information (step S202). The input image data is stored in the ROM 330 or the external storage device 340 in the PC 300.

  Subsequently, the output area acquisition unit 430 acquires information (drawing area information) about a drawable range in the output destination image forming apparatus (step S203).

  Then, the area generation unit 440 generates an embedding area based on the content area acquired from the image data and the drawing area information read from the storage unit 460 (step S204).

  Hereinafter, the conversion of the acquired additional information (step S205), the superimposition of the tint block pattern on the embedding area (step S206), and the output of the image data on which the tint block pattern is superimposed (step S207) in the first embodiment Since this is the same as the processing flow (steps S105 to S107), description thereof is omitted here.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the area generation unit 440 superimposes the tint block pattern based not only on the content area but also on the content area and the drawing area information. Therefore, it is possible to add the additional information to the image data without missing the tint block pattern in the output result, and without impairing the appearance of the content in the image data.

  In the first embodiment, the present invention has been described with the MFP 100 as an information identification device and the PC 300 as an information identification device in the second embodiment. However, it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to each other. .

  Further, the external storage device 340 is not particularly limited, and a memory system such as an SD card, a compact flash (registered trademark) memory card, a smart media (registered trademark), a memory stick (registered trademark), a picture card, or the like. These recording media and any other removable recording media can be used alone or in combination.

  Each of the above functions can be realized by a computer-executable program written in a legacy programming language such as an assembler, C, C ++, C #, Java (registered trademark), an object-oriented programming language, or the like. It can be stored in a device-readable recording medium such as EPROM, flash memory, flexible disk, CD-ROM, CD-RW, DVD, SD card, MO, and distributed.

  Further, the information identification apparatus is not limited to the MFP 100 or the PC 300 having the composite function of the above-described embodiment, and an image forming apparatus such as a server, a copier, a printer, a printing machine, or the like according to a specific application. Mobile information terminals such as mobile phones, PDAs and portable electronic gaming devices, image reading devices such as scanners, imaging devices such as digital cameras and digital video cameras, audio / video input / output devices such as televisions, HDD recorders and audio sets, Any device capable of exchanging information with a removable recording medium, such as an in-vehicle electronic device such as a car navigation system or a digital home appliance, can be configured as an example of the information extraction device of the present invention.

  The present invention is not limited to the one described in the above embodiment, and various modifications can be made. Moreover, it is not limited to what was demonstrated by 1st and 2nd embodiment, The method equivalent to these is also contained in the technical scope of this invention.

1 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of an MFP 100 as an image processing apparatus according to a first embodiment. 2 is a functional block diagram of an MFP 100 as an image processing apparatus according to the first embodiment. FIG. It is a figure which shows the example (the 1) in which the image processing apparatus in 1st Embodiment embedded the additional information. It is a figure which shows the example (the 2) in which the image processing apparatus in 1st Embodiment embed | added additional information. It is a figure which shows an example of a process of the information embedding means. It is a figure which shows an example of a process of the information embedding means. It is a processing flow figure in a 1st embodiment. It is a figure explaining the relationship between a drawing area | region and image data. It is a figure which shows the hardware constitutions of PC300 as an image processing apparatus concerning 2nd Embodiment. It is a functional block diagram of PC300 as an image processing apparatus concerning 2nd Embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the data which the memory | storage means 460 stores. It is a processing flow figure in a 2nd embodiment. It is a figure which shows the image data which superimposed the tint block pattern using the prior art.

Explanation of symbols

100 MFP
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 110 Controller 120 Communication interface 130 Scanner engine 140 Printer engine 150 FAX board 160 User interface 170 Portable recording medium reader 180 HDD
190 Bus line 210 Instruction input means 220 Image data input means 230 Size detection means 240 Area generation means 250 Additional information acquisition means 260 Storage means 270 Information embedding means 280 Image data output means 300 PC
310 CPU
320 RAM
330 ROM
340 External storage device 350 Communication interface 360 User interface 370 Bus line 410 Instruction input means 420 Image data input means 430 Output area acquisition means 440 Area generation means 450 Additional information acquisition means 460 Storage means 470 Information embedding means 480 Image data output means 500 Printer

Claims (16)

In an image processing apparatus that embeds additional information in image data including content information,
A region generating means for generating, in the image data, an embedding region for embedding the additional information that does not overlap with the content information;
Information embedding means for embedding the additional information in the generated embedded region;
An image processing apparatus comprising:   The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the area generation unit generates the embedded area in the image data and around the content information.   The said area | region production | generation means produces | generates the circumscribed rectangle of the said content information, and produces | generates the embedding area | region for embedding additional information around the produced | generated circumscribed rectangle. Image processing device.   The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the area generation unit determines the range of the embedded area according to a distance between an end of the image data and the content information.   The area generation means determines the range of the embedded area based on a distance between an end of the image data and the content information and a threshold value for ensuring reproducibility of additional information. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1.   The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the additional information is at least one of type information indicating a type of the image data and history information which is an output history of the image data.   The area generation unit acquires drawing area information that is information about a range that can be drawn by an output unit that outputs image data in which additional information is embedded, and includes the acquired drawing area information and the content information. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the embedded region is generated based on the image. In an image processing method for embedding additional information in image data including content information,
A region generating step for generating an embedded region in the image data for embedding the additional information, which does not overlap the content information;
An information embedding step of embedding the additional information in the generated embedded region;
An image processing method comprising:   The image processing method according to claim 7, wherein the region generation step generates the embedded region in the image data and around the content information.   9. The image processing method according to claim 7, wherein the area generation step generates an area for embedding additional information around a circumscribed rectangle of the content information.   The image processing method according to claim 7, wherein the region generation step determines a range of the embedded region according to a distance between an end portion of the image data and the content information.   In the region generation step, the range of the embedded region is determined based on a distance between an edge of the image data and the content information and a threshold value for ensuring reproducibility of the additional information. The image processing method according to claim 7.   The image processing method according to claim 7, wherein the additional information is at least one of type information representing a type of the image data and history information which is an output history of the image data.   The area generation step acquires drawing area information that is information about a range that can be drawn by an output unit that outputs image data in which additional information is embedded, and includes the acquired drawing area information and the content information. The image processing method according to claim 8, wherein the embedded region is generated based on the image.   A program causing a computer to execute the image processing method according to claim 8.   A computer-readable recording medium on which the program according to claim 15 is recorded.

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