JP2000246975A - Image-processing apparatus, its method, and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent printing outputs of specific image data prohibited from being output without permission by judging whether or not input image data is a specific image, and selecting and outputting data of a hierarchy of a lowest resolution of the image data when the data is judged to be the specific image. SOLUTION: Copyright information stored in an extension property of FPX data as image data conforming to a hierarchical data format is obtained (S601), and whether or not FPX data to be printed is a copyrighted image is judged (S602). When the data is judged to be copyrighted, a noise overlap judgment part outputs a noise addition order signal to a noise overlap processing part (S603). Then, an FPX sub image as image data of a lowest resolution or the like is read out (S604), and whether or not all FPX sub images are read out is judged (S605). When it is judged that all FPX sub images are completely read out, the process is terminated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and method, and a recording medium, and more particularly to an image processing apparatus and method for controlling output of a specific image, and a recording medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As an output device of a computer, an information recording device using an electrophotographic method, such as a laser beam printer (hereinafter referred to as "LBP"), has become widespread. These information recording devices are factors that rapidly expand the field of desktop publishing (DTP) due to many advantages such as high quality printing results, quietness and high speed. Further, with the advancement of the performance of a controller or the like which is an image generation unit of a host computer or a printer, a color image can be easily handled as a processing target. Therefore, electrophotographic color printers have been developed, and printing of color images as well as conventional printing of monochrome images is becoming widespread.

In addition, there are increasing types of devices that output image data, such as outputting a photographic image input from an image scanner or a digital camera to a color printer or displaying it on a monitor. In this way, image data is used for various purposes,
Data formats that handle structured image data of a plurality of resolutions are becoming widespread. Recently, FlashPix (EastmanK, USA)
odak).

The file format of FlashPix will be described below in comparison with a conventional image format.

<Conventional Image Format> FIG. 27 shows an example of a conventional image format. As shown in FIG. 27, a conventional image file is roughly divided into an image header section and an image data section. In general, the header section stores information necessary for reading data from the image file and additional information explaining the contents of the image. In the example shown in FIG. 27,
An image format identifier indicating a format name in the image file, a file size, an image width / height / depth, presence / absence of compression, information on a color palette, resolution, image quality, an offset to a storage position of image data, and the like. Information is stored. On the other hand, the image data section is a section that stores actual image data sequentially.

As typical examples of such image formats, the BMP format of Microsoft Corporation and the GIF format of Compuserve Corporation are widely used.

<FlashPix format> Fl described below
In the ashPix format, image attribute information and image data stored in the image header section in the above-described conventional image format are further structured and stored.

FIGS. 21 and 22 show the logical structure of the FlashPix format. In the figure, each property and data in a file are accessed by a storage and a stream corresponding to an MS-DOS directory and file. In FIGS. 21 and 22, a portion indicated by a double line is a storage, and a portion indicated by a single line is a stream. Image data and image attribute information are stored in the stream portion. The image data is hierarchized at different resolutions. Images of each resolution are called Subimages, and are indicated by Resolution0, 1,... In FIG. For each resolution image, the information needed to read that image is
Image data is stored in mage Header, and image data is stored in Subimage data. A property set is a property set that categorizes and defines attribute information according to the purpose and content of its use. Summary Info. Property Set, Image Info. Prop
erty Set, Image Contents Property Set, Extension l
There is istProperty Set.

[Explanation of each property set] ● Summary Info. Property is not specific to FlashPix, but is an essential property set in structured storage of Microsoft Corporation. The title, title, author, thumbnail image, etc. of the image file Is stored.

[0010] The Image Contents Property Set is an attribute that describes a method of storing image data.
Shown in This attribute includes the number of layers of image data, the width and height of the image with the highest resolution, the width, height, and color configuration of each resolution image, or the quantization table and Huffman table when using Jpeg compression. Describe the definition.

The Image Info. Property Set stores various information that can be used when an image is used, for example, information on how the image is captured and how it can be used. . Image Info. Property S
Examples of information that can be stored as et are listed below.

Information on the method of capturing and / or generating digital data (File Source) Information on copyright (Intellectual Property) Information on the contents of images (persons, places, etc. in images) (Content description) Information about the camera used (Camera informa
• Information on camera settings (exposure, shutter speed, focal length, use of flash, etc.) at the time of shooting (Per Picture camera settings) • Information on digital camera specific resolution and mosaic filter (Digital camera characterization) • Film Information such as manufacturer name, product name, type (negative / positive, color / black and white) (Film description) ・ For scanned images, information about the scanner and software used, and the person who operated it (Scan device) ● Extention list Property Set This is an area used when adding information that is not included in the basic specifications of FlashPix.

The FlashPix Image View Object shown in FIG.
Is an image file that stores together viewing data and image data used when displaying an image.
The viewing parameter is a set of processing coefficients stored in order to adapt the processing of image rotation, enlargement / reduction, movement, color conversion, and filtering when displaying an image. Source / Result FlashPix Image Object is FlashPix
Source FlashPix Image Obje
ct is required and Result FlashPix Image Object is optional.

The Source FlashPix Image Object stores the original image data and the Result FlashPix Image Obje
ct stores the image resulting from image processing using the viewing parameters.

The Source / Result desc. Property set is a property set for identifying the image data described above, and stores an image ID, a property set for which change is prohibited, a last update date and time, and the like.

[0016] The Transform Property Set is for rotating, enlarging /
An affine transformation coefficient for reduction and movement, a color transformation matrix, a contrast adjustment value, and a filtering coefficient are stored.

[Explanation of Handling of Image Data] Next, handling of image data will be described.

The FlashPix image format includes images of a plurality of resolutions divided into tiles. FIG. 23 shows an example of an image file composed of a plurality of images having different resolutions. In FIG. 23, the image of the maximum resolution has columns × rows.
X0 × Y0, the next largest image is X0 / 2 ×
Y0 / 2. Thereafter, both the column and the row are sequentially reduced by 1/2, and the process is repeated until both the column and the row have 64 pixels or less. As a result of the hierarchization in this way, the header information and the image data described in the section of the conventional image format are required for the image attribute information such as “the number of layers in one image file” and the image of each layer. Become. Information about the number of layers in one image file, the width and height of the image at the maximum resolution, or the width, height, color configuration, compression method, and the like of the image at each resolution is shown in the Image Contents Property shown in FIG.
Described in Set.

Further, the image of each resolution layer is divided into tiles of 64 × 64 pixels as shown in FIG. When the image is divided into tiles of 64 × 64 pixels sequentially from the upper left of the image, blanks may be generated in some of the right and lower end tiles depending on the image. In this case, by repeatedly inserting the rightmost image or the bottommost image,
Build a x64 pixel tile. In FlashPix, the image in each tile is stored in one of the JPEG compression, single color, and non-compression methods. Where JPEG compression is
This is an image compression method internationally standardized by ISO / IEC JTC1 / SC29, and the description of the method itself is omitted here. The single color is a method of expressing the value of a tile in one color without recording the value of each pixel only when all the tiles are formed of the same color. This method is particularly useful for images generated by computer graphics. The image data thus divided into tiles is stored in the Subimage data stream, and the total number of tiles, the size of the tile, the starting position of the data, and the compression method are all stored in the Subimage header. FIG. 26 shows an example of the Subimage header.

[0020]

As described above, the spread of formats such as FlashPix, which handles image data of a plurality of resolutions in a structured manner, makes it possible to take advantage of the characteristics of the image data, for example, by taking user-owned image data. Published on the Internet, a third party browsing the image displays low-resolution image data on a display device such as a monitor, and outputs the highest-resolution image data on an output device such as a color printer. In addition, it is possible to selectively output image data.

On the other hand, there has been a problem in that, for example, even if the image data has a copyright, it can be stolen by a third party without permission via the Internet.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and has as its object to provide an image processing apparatus and method for preventing printout of specific image data for which unauthorized output is prohibited.

[0023]

As one means for achieving the above object, the image processing apparatus of the present invention has the following arrangement.

That is, input means for inputting image data conforming to a hierarchical data format in which image data of a plurality of resolutions are structured, determining means for determining whether or not the input image data is a specific image, Output means for selecting and outputting data in the lowest resolution hierarchy of the image data when the image data is determined to be a specific image by the determination means.

For example, when the image data has a copyright, the determination means determines that the image data is a specific image.

An input means for inputting image data;
Determining means for determining whether or not the input image data is a specific image; output permission detecting means for obtaining output permission information of the input image data; a determination result of the determining means and the output permission information And image processing means for performing image processing for improving image quality on the image data in accordance with

For example, the determining means determines that the image data is a specific image when the image data has a copyright.

For example, noise is superimposed on the image data, and the image processing means removes noise from the image data.

[0029]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. In the following description, an example in which the present invention is applied to a color LBP of 600 dpi will be described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and a color printer having an arbitrary recording density may be used without departing from the gist of the present invention. And an image processing apparatus such as a color facsimile machine.

<First Embodiment> FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a color LBP according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, a color LBP 501 receives code data and image data described in a printer description language (PDL) sent from a host computer 502 as an external device, and stores color data on a recording medium based on the data. Form an image.

More specifically, the color LBP 501 includes a printer controller (hereinafter simply referred to as “controller”) 200 and a printer engine (hereinafter simply referred to as “engine”).
100). Controller 200
Based on data input from the host computer 502, one page of magenta (M), cyan (C), yellow
Create multi-valued image data of (Y) and black (K). The engine 100 forms a latent image by scanning the photosensitive drum with a laser beam modulated according to the multi-valued image data generated by the controller 200, develops the latent image with toner, and transfers the latent image to recording paper. Recording is performed by a series of electrophotographic processes of fixing toner on recording paper. The engine 100 has a resolution of 600 dpi.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration example of the engine 100. Hereinafter, the operation of the engine 100 will be described with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 2, the engine 100 rotates the photosensitive drum 106 and the transfer drum 108 in the direction of the arrow in FIG. Subsequently, charging of the roller charger 109 is started, and the surface potential of the photosensitive drum 106 is charged substantially uniformly to a predetermined value. Next, the recording paper 128 stored in the recording paper cassette 110 is supplied to the transfer drum 108 by the paper feed roller 111. The transfer drum 108 is formed by stretching a derivative sheet on a hollow support, and rotates in the direction of the arrow at the same speed as the photosensitive drum 106.

The recording paper 128 fed to the transfer drum 108 is
The transfer roller 108 is held by a gripper 112 provided on a support of the transfer drum 108, and is suctioned to the transfer drum 108 by a suction roller 113 and a suction charger 114. At the same time, the support 115 of the developing device is rotated so that the developing device that first forms a latent image among the four developing devices 116Y, 116M, 116C, and 116K supported by the support 115 is opposed to the photosensitive drum 106. 116Y is yellow (Y), 116M is magenta (M), 116C is cyan (C), 1
16K is a developing device containing black (K) toner.

On the other hand, the engine 100 detects the leading end of the recording paper 128 attracted to the transfer drum 106 by the paper leading end detector 117 and sends a control signal to the controller 200. Upon receiving the control signal, the controller 200 outputs a video signal to the laser driver 102 in the optical unit 118.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a detailed configuration of the optical unit 118 shown in FIG. The laser driver 102 causes the laser diode 103 to emit light according to the video signal, and a laser beam 127 is emitted. The laser beam 127 is deflected by the rotating polygon mirror 104 driven to rotate in the direction of the arrow by a motor (not shown), and passes through the imaging lens 105 arranged on the optical path,
The photosensitive drum 106 is scanned on the photosensitive drum 106 in the main scanning direction.
Generate a latent image on top. At this time, the beam detector 107
Detects a scanning start point of the laser beam 127 and generates a horizontal synchronization signal.

After the latent image formed on the photosensitive drum 106 is developed by a developing device, the latent image is transferred by a transfer charger 119 onto the recording paper 128 attracted to the transfer drum 108. At this time, the toner remaining on the photosensitive drum 106 without being transferred is removed by the cleaning device 125. By repeating the above operation, a color toner image is transferred onto the recording paper 128. Recording paper 128 on which all toner images have been transferred
Is transferred drum by separation claw 121 through separation charger 120
It is peeled off from 108 and sent to the fixing device 123 by the conveyor belt 122. At this time, the surface of the transfer drum 108 is cleaned by the transfer drum cleaner 126. The toner image on the recording paper 128 is heated and pressed by the fixing device 123 and melted and fixed to form a full-color image. Then, the recording paper 128 on which the full-color image is recorded is discharged to the paper discharge tray 124.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration example of the controller 200. Referring to FIG.
Will be described.

Referring to FIG. 2, reference numeral 201 denotes a host interface (hereinafter, referred to as a “host I / F”) which communicates with a host computer 502 to print information such as code data and image data described in PDL. Receive. Here, in the present embodiment, image data (for example, having a structure shown in FIGS. 21 and 22) conforming to a hierarchical data format that handles image data of a plurality of resolutions such as flashPix in a structured manner is used.
Hereinafter, a case where FPX data is received from the host computer 502 as print information and is printed out will be considered.

Reference numeral 202 denotes a reception buffer, which holds input print information. Reference numeral 203 denotes a noise superimposition determination unit that acquires copyright information from extended property information included in the FPX data input from the host computer 502 and determines whether to superimpose noise on the FPX data image data. . Reference numeral 204 denotes a noise superimposition unit, and a noise superimposition determination unit 2
Based on the control signal from 03, noise superimposition processing is performed on the FPX data. The details of the noise superimposition process will be described later.

A color conversion mode setting unit 205 stores color conversion parameters corresponding to color conversion modes such as standard colors, high gloss colors, low gloss colors, and high definition colors input from the host computer 502. Select from section 206,
A color conversion table 208 is created and stored. 206 is a color conversion parameter holding unit, corresponding to each of the above color conversion modes,
For example, color conversion parameter 1 (206a), color conversion parameter 2
(206b) and color conversion parameter 3 (206c). A color conversion unit 207 converts the FPX data in RGB format input from the host computer 502 into CMYK format by performing interpolation processing with reference to the color conversion table 208.

Reference numeral 209 denotes an object generation unit, which outputs information (PD) such as FPX data input from the host computer 502.
Convert L) to an object. Here, the FPX data is converted into a CMYK format object converted by the noise superimposing unit 204 and the color conversion unit 207. An object buffer 210 stores one page of the object converted by the object generation unit 209. Reference numeral 211 denotes a rendering unit that performs a rendering process based on one page of the object stored in the object buffer 210 and converts it into a bitmap to be drawn. A bitmap buffer 212 stores the bitmap generated by the rendering unit 211 and sends the bitmap data to the printer engine 100.

Reference numeral 213 denotes a central processing unit (CPU).
In accordance with a control program stored in advance in 14, various processes of the controller 200 are controlled via a CPU bus (not shown). A ROM (Read Only Memory) 214 stores various control programs 214a including a program shown in a flowchart of FIG. Reference numeral 215 denotes a RAM (random access memory) which stores data for the CPU 213 to control various processes according to a control program stored in the ROM 214, a color conversion mode 215a, and the like.
Also used as a work area for U213. Reference numeral 216 denotes an operation panel, which includes a CRT, an LCD, and the like.The CPU 213 includes a display unit that displays an operation state and operation conditions of the device. ing. That is, the operator can directly perform various settings for the color LBP 501 by operating the operation panel 216.

Next, referring to the flowchart of FIG.
The operation of the controller 200 in the present embodiment will be described in detail. The control program for realizing the processing shown in the flowchart of FIG. 5 is stored in the ROM 214 as described above, and is executed by the CPU 213.

In FIG. 5, first, the printer status is initialized as initialization processing of the color LBP 501, and then the buffer is initialized (step S501). At this time, a color conversion table 208 is created and stored based on the initial value of the color conversion mode. Next, print data is received from the host computer 502 (step S502), and held in the reception buffer 202 (step S503). Then, data for one processing unit is fetched from the reception buffer 202 (step S504), and it is determined whether all data has been fetched (step S505). Steps
If it is determined in S505 that the processing has not been completed, it is determined whether the data processing for one page has been completed (step S505).
506). If it is determined in step S506 that the process is not completed, it is determined whether the print data is FPX data (step S507) .If the print data is FPX data, the copyright data is extracted from the extended property (step S507). (S508), the noise superimposing unit 204 performs a noise superimposing process based on the information (step S509). The FPX data subjected to the noise superimposition process in step S509 is subjected to an interpolation operation in the color conversion unit 207 with reference to the color conversion table 208, so that the RGB type FPX data is obtained.
The data is converted into CMYK format color data (step S510), and the process returns to step S504.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S507 that the print data is not FPX data, it is determined whether or not the print data is color conversion mode data (step S511). The setting unit 205 creates a color conversion table 208 based on the color conversion parameters corresponding to the color conversion mode (step S512), and
Return to 4. In step S510, if it is determined that the data is not the color conversion mode data, it is determined whether or not the data is mask data such as a character or a figure (step S513). If the data is mask data, an object of the mask data is created. I
(Step S514), returning to step S504. If it is determined in step S513 that the data is not mask data, data processing according to the type of data is performed (step S515), and the process returns to step S504.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S506 that the data processing for one page has been completed, the data is expanded into a bitmap based on the object held in the object buffer 210 (step S516). The data is transmitted to the printer engine 100 to execute the printing process (step S517). If it is determined in step S505 that all data has been completed, the printing process ends.

Next, referring to the flowchart of FIG.
The operation of the noise superimposing unit 204 in the present embodiment will be described in detail. The flowchart shown in FIG. 6 is the details of steps S508 and S509 shown in FIG. 5 described above.
Note that the FPX image data described in the present embodiment stores four types of resolution image data of a maximum resolution of 600 dpi, a standard resolution of 300 dpi, a low resolution of 150 dpi, and a minimum resolution of 75 dpi.
Images of each resolution are referred to as sub-images.

In FIG. 6, first, in step S601, the copyright information stored in the extended property of the FPX data is obtained, and it is determined whether or not the FPX data to be printed is a copyrighted image (step S601). Step S602). Step S6
If it is determined in step 02 that the image has the copyright, the noise superimposition determination unit 203 outputs a noise addition command signal to the noise superimposition processing unit 204 (step S603). Next, the FPX sub-image is read (step S604), and it is determined whether or not all the FPX sub-images have been read (step S605).
If it is determined that the sub-image has not been read, the noise superimposing unit 204 performs a noise superimposing process on the read FPX sub-image (step S606), and returns to step S604. On the other hand, in step S604, all FPs
If it is determined that the reading of the X sub image has been completed,
The process ends. On the other hand, if it is determined in step S602 that the FPX data to be printed does not have the copyright, the process ends without performing the above processing.

Next, the noise superimposition processing shown in step S606 will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS.

In the noise superimposing process of this embodiment,
An averaging process is performed for each N × M pixels using an averaging device. Figure
FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a detailed configuration example of the noise superimposing unit 204, which includes a selector 701 and an averaging unit 702. The selector 701 is a noise addition command signal from the noise superimposition determination unit 203.
Controlled by Det, the FPX sub-image is switched to be input to the averaging unit 702 when the noise addition command signal Det is true. FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the averaging unit 702, and shows FPX sub-image data output from the noise superimposing unit 204. In the figure, P (x, y) indicates each pixel. The range of P (1, 1) to P (N, M) shown in FIG. 8 is the minimum unit of the averaging process, and the average value Pave in the block is
It is obtained by the following equation.

Pave = ΣΣP (x, y) / (N × M) As described above, according to the present embodiment, the received FPX
When the data has the copyright, the noise superimposing unit 204 outputs an average value Pave in a predetermined block unit instead of the original image data, so that an appropriate noise is added to the original image. Therefore, it is possible to prevent a third party from printing and outputting the copyrighted image data without permission.

When the image data having the copyright is printed out with the permission of the copyright holder, for example, in the copyright information stored in the extended property of the FPX data,
The information indicating the print permission may be added by the copyright holder. If the print permission information is added, the image data may be handled in the same manner as the image data without copyright in the noise superimposition processing of the present embodiment.

<Second Embodiment> Hereinafter, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.
Two embodiments will be described. In the second embodiment, the same components as those in the first embodiment described above are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted.

In the second embodiment, the noise superimposing section 204
The detailed configuration of this embodiment is different from that of the first embodiment. FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating a detailed configuration example of the noise superimposing unit 204 according to the second embodiment. The difference from the configuration shown in FIG. 7 in the first embodiment is that instead of the averaging unit 702, a low-pass filter (hereinafter referred to as “LP
703). The LPF 703 passes the low-frequency component of the image space and suppresses the high-frequency component. A typical example of a two-dimensional LPF is
There are a Butterworth filter, a Gaussian filter, and the like.

According to the configuration of the noise superimposing unit 204 of the second embodiment, that is, when the received FPX data has a copyright, only the low-frequency component is output instead of the original image data.

As described above, according to the second embodiment,
As in the first embodiment, the original image can be output after being appropriately degraded. Therefore, it is possible to prevent a third party from printing and outputting the copyrighted image data without permission.

In the first and second embodiments, an example has been described in which the noise superimposition processing is realized by averaging or LBP. However, the noise superposition processing of the present invention is not limited to this example, and the input data In the case where has a copyright, any method that does not substantially faithfully reproduce the input data may be used.

<Third Embodiment> Hereinafter, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described.
Three embodiments will be described. In the third embodiment, the same components as those in the first and second embodiments are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof is omitted.

In the third embodiment, the noise superimposing section 204
Is different from the first and second embodiments. FIG.
FIG. 21 is a block diagram illustrating a detailed configuration example of a noise superimposing unit 204 according to the third embodiment. 7 and 9 in the first and second embodiments.
The difference from the configuration shown in (1) is that data is added to the input FPX sub-image. In FIG. 10, reference numeral 704 denotes a memory in which image data to be added is stored in advance, and reference numeral 705 denotes a combining circuit that combines the image data output from the memory 704 with the FPX sub-image input from the selector 701.

The operation of the noise superimposing unit 204 in the third embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, in step S111, the noise superimposition determination unit 203 determines whether or not the noise addition command signal Det is detected. If the noise addition signal Det is true, the sub-image to be printed has copyrighted data. Is determined, and the image data stored in advance is read from the memory 704 (step S112). Next, the combining circuit 705 combines the image data read in step S112 and the sub-image (step S113), outputs the print data as print data, and ends the processing. On the other hand, if the noise addition signal Det is false in step S111, the process ends without performing the processing.

FIG. 12 shows an example of an image synthesized in the third embodiment. According to the figure, the original FP
It can be seen that the image “VOID” is added to the X sub-image.

As described above, according to the third embodiment,
A predetermined image can be forcibly added to the copyrighted image data and output. Therefore, it is possible to prevent a third party from printing and outputting the copyrighted image data without permission.

<Fourth Embodiment> Hereinafter, a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described.
Four embodiments will be described. In the above-described first to third embodiments, an example has been described in which noise superimposition processing is performed on all data of the FPX sub-image. the 4th
In the embodiment, when the FPX data to be printed is copyrighted image data, the FPX sub-image having the minimum resolution (75 dpi) is forcibly selected and printed. . Note that, in the fourth embodiment, the first
The same components as those in the embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted.

FIG. 13 shows a controller 2 according to the fourth embodiment.
It is a block diagram which shows the example of a detailed structure of 00. In the figure, reference numeral 217 denotes a determination unit that acquires copyright information from extended property information included in FPX data input from the host computer 502 and determines whether to perform normal printing on the FPX data image data. Judge and output the control signal Det. Reference numeral 218 denotes a sub-image selection unit that selects which resolution sub-image to output for FPX data based on the control signal Det from the determination unit 217.

Next, referring to the flowchart of FIG.
The operation of the controller 200 according to the fourth embodiment will be described in detail. In the flowchart of FIG. 14, the same processes as those in FIG. 5 described in the first embodiment are denoted by the same step numbers, and description thereof will be omitted. Further, a control program for realizing the processing shown in the flowchart of FIG.
It is stored in the ROM 214 and executed by the CPU 213.

In FIG. 14, if it is determined in step S507 that the print data is FPX data, the copyright data is extracted from the extended properties (step S148), and the sub-image selection unit 218 prints the copyright data based on the information. An FPX sub-image having a resolution to be selected is selected (step S149). The FPX data selected in step S149 is
After being converted to CMYK format (step S510), step S504
Return to

Next, referring to the flowchart of FIG.
The operation of the sub-image selection unit 218 according to the fourth embodiment will be described in detail. The flowchart shown in FIG. 15 is the details of steps S148 and S149 shown in FIG. 14 described above.

In FIG. 15, first, in step S151, FPX
The copyright information stored in the extended property of the data is obtained, and it is determined whether or not the FPX data to be printed is a copyrighted image (step S152). Steps
If it is determined in S152 that the copyright is held, the determination unit 21
7 outputs control signal Det to sub-image selection unit 218
(Step S153). Next, an FPX sub-image of 75 dpi, which is the lowest resolution, is read (step S1504), and the process ends. On the other hand, in step S152, the FP to be printed
If it is determined that the X data does not have the copyright, an FPX sub-image of 600 dpi, which is the highest resolution, is read (step S155), and the process ends.

As described above, according to the fourth embodiment, when the received FPX data has the copyright, the FPX sub-image of the lowest resolution is forcibly output, and other sub-images such as the highest resolution are forcibly output. Image output can be disabled. That is, since the copyrighted image data can be output only in a deteriorated state, it is possible to prevent a third party from printing out without permission.

<Fifth Embodiment> Hereinafter, a fifth embodiment of the present invention will be described.
Five embodiments will be described. In the above-described fourth embodiment, the process of selecting and outputting the FPX sub-image of the lowest resolution (75 dpi) when the FPX data to be printed has the copyright has been described. The fifth embodiment is characterized in that the selected lowest-resolution FPX sub-image is enlarged to the highest-resolution (600 dpi) image size and output. In the fifth embodiment, the same components as those in the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing the operation of the controller 200 according to the fifth embodiment. In the figure, first, in step S1601, the copyright information stored in the extended property of the FPX data is obtained, and it is determined whether the FPX data to be printed is a copyrighted image (step S1602). . If it is determined in step S1602 that the image has the copyright, the width WIDTH and height LEN of the sub-image are obtained from the FPX sub-image header information of the minimum resolution (75 dpi).
GTH is obtained (step S1603), and the number of repetitions in the main scanning direction XC
Calculate NT, sub-scanning direction repetition number YCNT based on the following formula
(Step S1604).

XCNT = YCNT = 600dpi / 75dpi = 4 Next, the sub-scanning direction counter Y is reset (step S160).
5), sub-scanning direction counter Y and FPX sub-image height LENG
The TH is compared (step S1608), and if the processing up to the height of the FPX sub-image has not been completed, one line of the FPX sub-image having the minimum resolution of 75 dpi is read into the line memory (step S1607). Next, the sub-scanning direction repetition counter YC is reset (step S1608), and the sub-scanning direction repetition counter YC is compared with the sub-scanning direction repetition number YCNT (step S16).
09) If YC is smaller than YCNT, the main scanning direction counter X is reset (step S1610).

Next, the main scanning direction counter X is compared with the width WIDTH of the FPX sub-image (step S1611). If the processing up to the width of the FPX sub-image has not been completed, the main scanning direction repetition counter XC is reset. (Step S1612) Main scanning direction repetition counter XC and main scanning direction repetition number XCNT
Are compared (step S1613), and if XC is smaller than XCNT, F
The one-pixel data DATA (X, Y) of the PX sub-image is output (step S1614), the main scanning direction repetition counter XC is incremented (step S1615), and the process returns to step S1613. If it is determined in step S1613 that the main scanning direction repetition counter XC is larger than the main scanning direction repetition number XCNT, the main scanning direction counter X is incremented (step S1616), and the process returns to step S1611.

If it is determined in step S1611, that the main scanning direction counter X is larger than the width FIDTH of the FPX sub-image, the sub-scanning direction repetition counter YC is incremented (step S1617), and the process returns to step S1609. In step S1609, the sub-scanning direction repetition counter YC
Is larger than the sub-scanning direction repetition number YCNT, it is determined that the processing for one line of the FPX sub-image has been completed, the sub-scanning direction counter Y is incremented (step S1618), and the process returns to step S1606. .

If it is determined in step S1606 that the sub-scanning direction counter Y is larger than the height LENGTH of the FPX sub-image, it is determined that all data processing of the FPX sub-image has been completed, and the process is terminated. Meanwhile, step
If it is determined in step S1602 that the FPX data to be printed does not have the copyright, the process ends without performing the above process.

As described above, according to the fifth embodiment, if the received FPX data has the copyright, the FPX sub-image of the lowest resolution is enlarged and output. That is, since the copyrighted image data can be output only in a deteriorated state, it is possible to prevent a third party from printing out without permission.

<Sixth Embodiment> Hereinafter, a sixth embodiment of the present invention will be described.
Six embodiments will be described. In the first to third embodiments described above, an example has been described in which FPX data to be printed is used as original image data and noise is superimposed on the original. In the sixth embodiment,
Noise is superimposed on the input FPX data in advance, and when the extended property information has the copyright information and the print permission information, the superimposed noise is removed by the noise removal filter and printed out. It is characterized by. In the sixth embodiment, the same components as those in the first embodiment described above are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration example of the controller 200 in the sixth embodiment. In the figure, reference numeral 219 denotes a noise removal determination unit which obtains copyright information and print permission information from information of extended properties provided in FPX data input from the host computer 502, and
It is determined whether or not noise is to be removed from the X data image, and a print permission control signal Permit is output. Reference numeral 220 denotes a noise removal processing unit that performs a noise removal process on the FPX data based on the print permission control signal Permit output from the noise removal determination unit 219.

Next, referring to the flowchart of FIG.
The operation of the controller 200 according to the sixth embodiment will be described in detail. In the flowchart of FIG. 18, the same processes as those in FIG. 5 described in the first embodiment are denoted by the same step numbers, and description thereof will be omitted. Further, a control program for realizing the processing shown in the flowchart of FIG.
It is stored in the ROM 214 and executed by the CPU 213.

In FIG. 18, when it is determined in step S507 that the print data is FPX data, the copyright data is extracted from the extended properties (step S188), and the noise removal unit 220 removes the noise based on the information. Processing is performed (step S189). FP with noise removed in step S189
After the X data is converted to CMYK format by the color conversion unit 207
(Step S510), returning to step S504.

FIG. 19 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration example of the noise removal processing unit 220. Hereinafter, the operation of the noise removal processing unit 220 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. In the figure, reference numeral 1901 denotes a selector, and a noise removal determination unit 219
When the print permission control signal Permit is true, the FPX sub-image is switched to be input to the filter circuit 1903. Reference numeral 1902 denotes a memory in which various filter coefficients for removing noise of the FPX sub-image are stored in advance. Reference numeral 1903 denotes a filter circuit, which performs a filtering process on the FPX sub-image using the filter coefficient read from the memory 1902 by the print permission control signal Permit.

Next, referring to the flowchart of FIG.
The operation of the noise removal processing unit 220 according to the sixth embodiment will be described in detail. The flowchart shown in FIG. 20 is a detail of steps S188 and S189 shown in FIG. 18 described above.

First, in step S201, it is determined whether the print permission control signal Permit from the noise removal determination unit 219 has been detected as true. If the print permission signal Permit is true, the sub-image to be printed is determined. Determines that the data is copyrighted and print-permitted,
The filter coefficients stored in advance are read from 1902 (step S202). Next, in the filter circuit 1903, the sub-image is filtered using the filter coefficient read in step S202 (step S203), output as print data, and the process ends. On the other hand, if the print permission control signal Permit is false in step S201, the process ends without performing the process.

As described above, according to the sixth embodiment, noise is superimposed on FPX data in advance, and
Only when the PX data has the copyright and the printing is permitted, noise can be removed from the FPX data and output. Therefore, it is possible to prevent a third party from printing and outputting the copyrighted image data without permission.

In the sixth embodiment, an example has been described in which noise removal processing is realized by reading out filter coefficients from a memory and performing filtering.
The present invention is not limited to this example. For example, it is also possible to record information for restoring the filter coefficients and the like in an extended property of FPX data and read the information to restore image data.

[0088]

[Other Embodiments] In each of the above embodiments,
Although the input data is described in the RGB format and the output in the CMYK format, the present invention is applicable to any color space representation such as L * a * b *, XYZ, and the like.

In each of the above-described embodiments, an example has been described in which the noise superimposition processing and the noise removal processing are performed on FPX data which is a file format in which a plurality of resolutions are structured. It is also applicable.

In each of the embodiments, an example has been described in which image processing such as noise superimposition is performed on image data having copyright. However, the present invention is not limited to a copyrighted image and an image for which unauthorized use is prohibited. In general, it is applicable. That is, when information such as unauthorized output prohibition is added to the extended property information of the image, the same processing as the above-described copyright image may be performed.

Further, it is needless to say that the present invention can be applied to a case where the above embodiments are achieved in combination.

The present invention can be applied to a system including a plurality of devices (for example, a host computer, an interface device, a reader, a printer, etc.), but can be applied to a single device (for example, a copying machine, a facsimile). Device).

Further, an object of the present invention is to provide a storage medium storing a program code of software for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or an apparatus, and to provide a computer (or CPU) of the system or apparatus.
And MPU) read and execute the program code stored in the storage medium.

In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiment, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

Examples of a storage medium for supplying the program code include a floppy disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-ROM, and CD.
-R, a magnetic tape, a nonvolatile memory card, a ROM, or the like can be used.

When the computer executes the readout program code, not only the functions of the above-described embodiment are realized, but also the OS (Operating System) running on the computer based on the instruction of the program code. ) May perform some or all of the actual processing, and the processing may realize the functions of the above-described embodiments.

Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written into a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, based on the instruction of the program code, It goes without saying that the CPU included in the function expansion board or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the processing realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments.

When the present invention is applied to the storage medium, the storage medium stores program codes corresponding to the flowcharts described above.

[0099]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to prevent printout of specific image data for which unauthorized output is prohibited.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a color LBP according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a detailed configuration of a printer engine.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a detailed configuration of an optical unit.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a detailed configuration of a printer controller according to the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the printer controller,

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating noise superimposition processing;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a detailed configuration of a noise superimposition processing unit.

FIG. 8 illustrates an operation of an averaging device.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating a detailed configuration of a noise superimposition processing unit according to the second embodiment;

FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating a detailed configuration of a noise superimposition processing unit according to the third embodiment;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a noise superimposition processing unit according to the third embodiment;

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of an output image after noise superposition according to the third embodiment;

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating a detailed configuration of a printer controller according to a fourth embodiment.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the printer controller according to the fourth embodiment;

FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a sub-image selection unit according to the fourth embodiment;

FIG. 16 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a sub-image selection unit according to the fifth embodiment;

FIG. 17 is a block diagram illustrating a detailed configuration of a printer controller according to a sixth embodiment.

FIG. 18 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the printer controller according to the sixth embodiment;

FIG. 19 is a block diagram illustrating a detailed configuration of a noise removal processing unit according to a sixth embodiment;

FIG. 20 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a noise removal processing unit according to the sixth embodiment;

FIG. 21 is a diagram showing a logical structure of a FlashPix image file,

FIG. 22 is a diagram showing a logical structure of a FlashPix image file,

FIG. 23 is a diagram showing an example of a hierarchical image forming a FlashPix image file;

FIG. 24 is a diagram illustrating tile division of a sub-image of a FlashPix image file,

[Figure 25] Image Contents Prope of FlashPix image file
Diagram showing the logical structure of rty Set,

FIG. 26 is a diagram showing a logical structure of a Subimage Header of a FlashPix image file,

FIG. 27 is a diagram illustrating an example of a conventional image data format.

[Explanation of symbols]

 100 Printer engine 200 Printer controller 201 Host I / F 202 Receive buffer 203 Noise superimposition determination section 204 Noise superposition processing section 205 Color conversion mode setting section 206 Color conversion parameter holding section 207 Color conversion section 208 Color conversion table 209 Object generation section 210 Object Buffer 211 Rendering unit 212 Bitmap buffer 213 CPU 214 ROM 215 RAM 216 Operation panel 217 Judgment unit 218 Sub-image selection unit 219 Noise elimination judgment unit 220 Noise elimination processing unit 701 Selector 702 Averaging unit 703 LPF 704 Memory 705 Synthesis circuit 1901 Selector 1902 Memory 1903 Filter circuit

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page F term (reference) 2C087 AC08 BA03 BA07 BD05 BD06 BD24 BD31 DA13 5B021 AA01 NN18 5C076 AA14 AA21 BA02 BA07 BB42 CA08 CB04 5C077 LL02 LL14 LL19 MP08 NN02 PP01 PP20 PP65 PP66 PQ08 PQ22 SS

Claims (15)

[Claims] An input unit for inputting image data conforming to a hierarchical data format in which image data of a plurality of resolutions is structured; a determining unit for determining whether the input image data is a specific image; Output means for selectively outputting data in the lowest resolution hierarchy of the image data when the image data is determined to be a specific image by the determination means. 2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determination unit determines that the image data is a specific image when the image data has a copyright. 3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the output unit enlarges and scales the image data of the lowest resolution to an image data size of the highest resolution. 4. An input unit for inputting image data, a determining unit for determining whether the input image data is a specific image, and an output permission detection for obtaining output permission information of the input image data. And an image processing means for performing image processing for improving image quality on the image data in accordance with a result of the determination by the determination means and the output permission information. 5. The image processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the determination unit determines that the image data is a specific image when the image data has a copyright. 6. The image processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein noise is superimposed on the image data, and the image processing unit removes noise from the image data. 7. The image processing unit includes: a holding unit that holds predetermined data; and a conversion unit that converts the image data based on the predetermined data held in the holding unit. 7. The image processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein: 8. The image processing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the holding unit holds a predetermined filter coefficient, and the conversion unit performs a filtering process on the image data based on the filter coefficient. . 9. The image processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said image data is image data conforming to a hierarchical data format in which image data of a plurality of resolutions are structured. 10. The image processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said input means inputs image data transferred from an external device. 11. The image processing apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising an image forming unit that forms an image based on the image data on which image processing has been performed by the image processing unit. 12. An inputting step of inputting image data conforming to a hierarchical data format in which image data of a plurality of resolutions is structured; a determining step of determining whether the input image data is a specific image; An output step of selectively outputting data in the lowest resolution hierarchy of the image data when the image data is determined to be a specific image in the determination step. 13. An inputting step of inputting image data, a determining step of determining whether the input image data is a specific image, and an output permission detection for obtaining output permission information of the input image data. An image processing method, comprising: a step of performing image processing for improving image quality of the image data based on the determination result in the determination step and the output permission information. 14. A recording medium on which a program code for image processing is recorded, said program comprising at least a code for an input step of inputting image data conforming to a hierarchical data format in which a plurality of resolutions of image data are structured; A code for a discriminating step of discriminating whether or not the input image data is a specific image, and selecting data in the lowest resolution hierarchy of the image data when the discriminating step determines that the image data is a specific image And a code for an output step of outputting. 15. A recording medium on which a program code for image processing is recorded, wherein the program comprises at least a code for an input step of inputting image data, and whether or not the input image data is a specific image. A code of a discrimination step of discriminating the image data, a code of an output permission detection step of obtaining output permission information of the input image data, and a judgment result in the discrimination step and the output permission information. A code for an image processing step of performing image processing for improving image quality.