JP2002223346A - Device and method for image processing, program for making computer perform image processing method and computer readable recording medium with the program recorded thereon - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily and surely prevent illegal copying by a third person and illegal reading by a reading means by extracting specified embedment information in the case of necessity. SOLUTION: This image processor is provided with an inputting means 111 for inputting embedment information to be embedded in image information such as a printed matter, a halftone dot angle information generating means 121 for generating angle information for a halftone dot on the basis of the embedment information inputted from the inputting means 111, a halftone dot image information generating means 122 for generating halftone dot image information in accordance with halftone information generated by the generating means 121, and a control means 120 for controlling information from the embedment information up to the generation of the halftone image information.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a method for inputting information,
An image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and a program for causing a computer to execute an image processing method, which generates dot angle information based on input information and generates dot image information according to the generated dot angle information, And a computer-readable recording medium on which the program is recorded.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, with the development of network infrastructure such as the Internet, the expansion of image databases typified by electronic libraries, and the spread of digital devices, copyrighted works of image information such as printed matter have been subject to copyright. Protection and the management of copyrighted work are becoming essential. As a method of managing the literary work, for example, there is a method in which it is difficult to copy or read the printed matter when printing the literary work.

As a specific example of such a copyrighted work management, a method using a digital watermarking technique, such as a method described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-191394 (digital watermarking method), and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. A method of embedding information in a print (halftone) image is disclosed, as in Japanese Patent Application No. 11-313206 (method of embedding machine-readable digital information in a halftone image).

[0004]

However, this type of copyright management method involves mixing information into a digital image by Fourier transform as in the digital watermarking technique described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-191394. And
In general, the number of processing steps increases, and the cost may increase. Further, in this digital watermarking technique, digital image data is targeted, and when converted into analog data by printing, mixed information may be erased and may not be applied to a printed image.

In the step of embedding information in a print image described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-313206,
It involves complicated arithmetic processing and differs from the known halftone printing method.
May not be used for general purposes.

[0006] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems in the conventional example, the present invention extracts dot angle information, author information, and printing permission / non-permission information in a commonly used dot printing as needed, and Provided are an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, a program for causing a computer to execute the image processing method, and a computer-readable recording medium on which the program is recorded, which makes it possible to prevent unauthorized copying and unauthorized reading other than the above. The purpose is to:

[0007]

Means for Solving the Problems The above-mentioned problems are solved,
In order to achieve the object, an image processing apparatus according to the present invention includes an input unit for inputting embedded information to be embedded in image information such as a printed matter, and a network based on the embedded information input from the input unit. Dot angle information generating means for generating point angle information; and dot image information generating means for generating dot image information according to the dot information generated by the dot angle information generating means. It is characterized by the following.

According to the image processing apparatus of the present invention, specific embedded information is input to the image information, and halftone angle information is generated based on the specific embedded information. Since the halftone dot image information is generated according to the angle information, the specific embedded information is extracted as necessary, thereby preventing unauthorized copying by a third party and unauthorized reading by the reading unit with a simple device. it can.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the image processing apparatus according to the first aspect, the embedded information input from the input means can specify the author of the image information. Author information, wherein the dot angle information generating means selects desired dot angle information from preset dot angle information and determines specific dot angle information. .

According to the image processing apparatus of the second aspect of the present invention, by extracting the writer information for specifying the creator of the image information as the embedded information as necessary, the unauthorized processing by the third party is possible. Unauthorized reading by copying and reading means can be reliably prevented.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the image processing apparatus according to the first or second aspect, the embedding information input from the input means is the embedded information of the image information. The information is information indicating permission or non-permission as to whether or not copying or reading by the reading unit is permitted.

According to the image processing apparatus of the third aspect of the present invention, based on the information indicating permission or non-permission as to whether or not image information can be copied or read by the reading means as embedded information. By extracting print permission / non-permission information according to specific halftone dot angle information as necessary, it is possible to easily and reliably prevent unauthorized copying and reading by a third party.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image processing method comprising the steps of: inputting embedment information to be embedded in image information; and a network based on the embedment information input in the embedment information input step. A dot angle information generating step of generating angle information of points; and a dot image information generating step of generating dot image information according to the dot information generated in the dot angle information generating step. It is characterized by.

According to the image processing method of the present invention, embedded information to be embedded in image information is input, and dot angle information for generating dot angle information based on the embedded information is generated. Therefore, by extracting halftone image information from the specific embedded information as necessary, it is possible to easily prevent unauthorized copying by a third party and unauthorized reading by a reading unit.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the image processing method according to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the embedment information input in the embedment information inputting step is a creator of the image information. Creator information that can be specified, wherein the halftone dot angle information generating step determines specific halftone dot angle information by selecting desired halftone dot angle information from predetermined halftone dot angle information. And

According to the image processing method of the present invention, the author information is extracted as necessary based on the author information specifying the author of the image information as the embedded information. Also, it is possible to reliably prevent unauthorized copying by a third party and unauthorized reading by reading means.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the image processing method according to the fourth or fifth aspect, the embedded information input in the embedded information input step is a copy of the image information. Alternatively, the information is information indicating permission / non-permission of whether or not reading by the reading unit may be performed.

According to the image processing method of the present invention, the permission of the image information is determined based on the information indicating whether the image information can be copied or read. By extracting the permission information as necessary, it is possible to reliably prevent unauthorized copying by a third party and unauthorized reading by reading means.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a program for causing a computer to execute the method according to the fifth or sixth aspect.

[0020] A computer-readable recording medium according to claim 8 records the program described in claim 7.

According to the computer-readable recording medium of the present invention, a program for causing a computer to execute the method of claim 5 or 6 is recorded, so that the program can be read by a computer. Thus, the operation of claim 5 or claim 6 can be realized by a computer.

[0022]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS With reference to the accompanying drawings, an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, a program for causing a computer to execute the image processing method, and a computer-readable recording medium storing the program are described below. A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail.

[Embodiment] First, an overall configuration of an image processing system including an image processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described.

(Configuration of Image Processing System) FIG. 1 is a block diagram functionally showing the configuration of an entire image processing system including an image processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
The image processing system 100 includes a data bus (line) 1
01, an image input unit 102, an embedded information input unit 103,
Control unit 104, memory 105, dot angle generation unit 106,
The rectangular division unit 107, the halftone image generation unit 108, the external storage device 109, and the data display unit 110 are connected to each other. Note that the control unit 104 to the external storage device 109 are connected to the data bus 101 so that signals can be transmitted and received in both directions.

The image input section 102 and the embedded information input section 103 are input means 111, the embedded information input section 103 corresponds to the embedded information input means 112, and the control section 104 corresponds to the control means 120. Further, the halftone dot angle generation unit 106 corresponds to the halftone dot angle information generation unit 121, and the halftone dot image generation unit 108 corresponds to the halftone dot image information generation unit 122.

Next, the image processing system 10 shown in FIG.
0 will be described. The image input unit 102 captures digital image data into the image processing system 100. An embedded information input unit 103 is used by an operator to input embedded information. As embedded information,
The information includes information for specifying the creator, and information about permission to copy or read image information.

The control unit 104 controls the image processing system 100
It is the center that performs various controls inside. The memory 105 temporarily stores digital image data, embedded information, programs, results, and the like from the image input unit 102 or the external storage device 109. The memory 105 includes a read-only memory ROM and a readable / writable memory RAM.

The dot angle generation unit 106 generates a dot angle (screen angle) based on the embedding information input from the embedding information input unit 103. In normal printing, halftones are expressed and halftone (screen) angles are used. In other words, image information looks more beautiful,
For the purpose of preventing moiré (a phenomenon that generates a striped pattern that does not exist originally and becomes very unsightly), color (usually cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), black (K in color printing) The screen angle is changed to 4 colors).

The rectangle dividing unit 107 divides the image input by the image input unit 102 into a plurality of rectangles. The halftone dot image generation unit 108 generates a halftone dot image based on the halftone dot angle generated by the halftone dot angle generation unit 106.

The external storage device 109 stores a large amount of data such as a result of image processing that cannot be stored in the memory 105, and executes a program stored in the external storage device 109 when the image processing system 100 is operated. This is a device for reading and smoothing the entire operation of the image processing system 100.

The data display unit 110 displays the data input from the input unit 111, the halftone dot angle information generated by the halftone dot generation unit 106, the halftone dot image information generated by the halftone dot image generation unit 108, and the memory. 105, external storage device 10
9 is displayed.

In the image processing system 100 described above, information is input, halftone dot angle information is generated based on the input information, and halftone image information is generated according to the generated halftone angle information. Invisible information such as author information and copy permission / non-permission is embedded as "watermark information" so that the copyright holder can easily extract such information as necessary. . In addition, it is possible to claim its own copyright or easily prohibit unauthorized copying by a third party or reading by a scanner.

(Contents of Image Processing) Next, specific examples of various types of image processing employed in the image processing system 100 shown in FIG. 1 will be described in further detail. 2 and 3 are explanatory diagrams showing an example of the screen angle of a monochrome halftone dot. With reference to FIGS. 2 and 3, how the information embedding process is performed in the case of a monochrome image will be described.

First, the image processing system 10 shown in FIG.
The screen angle generation unit 106 at 0 changes the screen angle according to the bit value of the embedded information. That is, as illustrated in FIG. 2, the bit value “0” is associated with the screen angle “0 °” 200, and the bit value “1” illustrated in FIG. 3 is associated with the screen angle “45 °” 201. ing. In this way, the embedded information can be converted into a bit string of “0” or “1”.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of rectangular division of an image showing processing in the rectangular division unit 107 in the image processing system 100 in FIG. A method of dividing an image into rectangles will be described with reference to FIG.

First, the entire image 300 is divided into a plurality of rectangles 30.
Are divided into 1, 302, 303,..., And the screen angle at each screen point in each rectangle is generated by the screen angle generation unit 106 in FIG. 1 according to the screen angle corresponding to the bit value to be embedded. . The halftone dot angle generated in this manner is embedded in the print image as a bit value “0” or “1” for each rectangle so that it cannot be visually determined (invisible).

Therefore, the copyright holder can easily extract the dot angle information as needed. In addition, it is possible to assert its own copyright or easily prohibit unauthorized copying by a third party or reading by a scanner or the like, which is reading means, based on dot angle information.

Next, FIGS. 5 and 6 are explanatory diagrams showing an example of the configuration of the screen angle of the color halftone dot for explaining the processing method for a color image in the image processing system 100 shown in FIG. . In the case of a color image, the color halftone dots are usually 400 shown in FIG.
As described above, the screen angles of the colors C (cyan), M (magenta), Y (yellow), and K (black) are shifted by a certain angle.

Specifically, the configuration 1 corresponds to the bit value “0”, the screen angle of C (cyan) is 75 °, the screen angle of K (black) is 45 °, and M (magenta). ) Screen angle is 15 °, Y
(Yellow) screen angle is set to 0 °.

Further, the angles of C (cyan) and M (magenta) are exchanged, and the configuration of the screen angle 401 as shown in FIG. 6 is made to correspond to the bit value “1”. In the configuration 2, the bit value corresponds to “1”, the screen angle of M (magenta) is 75 °, the screen angle of K (black) is 45 °, and the screen angle of C (cyan) is 1
The screen angle of 5 ° and Y (yellow) is set to 0 °.

By selecting these screen angle configurations according to the bit values to be embedded, the screen angles shown in FIGS.
As in the case of the monochrome image shown in FIG. 4, a color image can be invisible, and the bit value “0” or the bit value “1” is embedded in the print screen for each rectangle shown in FIG. Can be.

(Contents of Image Processing Operation) Next, the operation of this embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the information embedding process according to the embodiment of the present invention. In the following description of the flow, step 101 is described as step S101, and the description will be made accordingly. FIG.
This will be described with reference to the configuration of FIG.

First, the flow in FIG. 7 is started, and in step S101, the image input unit 10 in FIG.
2 or the digital image data from the external storage device 110 into the memory 105.

Next, in step S102, embedded information, which is information including author information and printing permission / non-permission information, is input from the embedded information input unit 103 in FIG. The processing so far is the processing in the input unit 111 in FIG.

When the process proceeds to step S103, the embedding information is developed into a column of bit values "1" or "0".
Next, in step S104, the entire image 300 is divided into rectangles 301, 302, 303,... As shown in FIG.

Next, in step S105, the screen angle information corresponding to the bit value "1" or "0" to be embedded is referred to with reference to the example of FIG. 2 for a monochrome image and with reference to FIG. 5 for a color image. decide.

Then, when the process proceeds to step S106, FIG.
The dot image information is generated according to the screen angle information determined by the dot image generation unit 108 in. Then
In step S107, control unit 10 in FIG.
In FIG. 4, rectangles 301, 302 and 303 in FIG.
It is determined whether or not the processing has been completed for all rectangles.

At this time, when the processing has been completed for all the rectangles, the processing is terminated. When the processing has not been completed for all the rectangles, step S105 is performed.
This is repeated until the processing ends.

According to the above processing, it is possible to embed arbitrary information in all halftone dot image data, and to generate the halftone image information according to the generated halftone dot angle information. By extracting as necessary, unauthorized copying by a third party and unauthorized reading by a reading unit can be prevented by a simple image processing system.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, specific embedding information is input to image information, dot angle information is generated based on the specific embedding information, and the dot angle information is generated in accordance with the generated dot angle information. It is possible to generate halftone image information and extract specific embedding information as needed,
It is possible to prevent unauthorized copying by a third party and unauthorized reading by reading means with a simple configuration.

Further, according to the present embodiment, the embedded information input from the input means is the writer information enabling the creator of the image information to be specified, and the dot angle information generating means is set in advance. Specific dot angle information can be determined by selecting desired dot angle information from the dot angle information, thereby extracting writer information specifying the creator of the image information as necessary as embedded information. However, unauthorized copying by a third party and unauthorized reading by reading means can be reliably prevented.

According to the present embodiment, the embedded information input from the input means is information indicating permission or non-permission as to whether or not the image information can be copied or read by the reading means. By extracting the print permission / non-permission information as needed, it is possible to easily and reliably prevent unauthorized copying and reading by a third party.

The image processing method described in the embodiment of the present invention is realized by executing a prepared program on a computer such as a personal computer or a workstation. This program is recorded on a computer-readable recording medium such as a hard disk, a floppy (registered trademark) disk, a CD-ROM, an MO, and a DVD, and is read out from the recording medium and executed by the computer. This program can be distributed via the above-mentioned recording medium or as a transmission medium via a network such as the Internet.

[0054]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, specific embedding information is input to image information,
It is possible to generate dot angle information based on the specific embedded information, generate dot image information in accordance with the generated dot angle information, and extract the specific embedded information as necessary. An effect is obtained that an image processing apparatus capable of preventing unauthorized copying by three parties and unauthorized reading by reading means with a simple configuration is obtained.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the embedded information input from the input means is creator information that enables the creator of the image information to be specified. The halftone dot angle information generating means can select the desired halftone dot angle information from the preset halftone dot angle information to determine the specific halftone dot angle information, whereby the author of the image information can be used as the embedded information. An effect is obtained in that an image processing apparatus is obtained which extracts author information for specifying as necessary, and can reliably prevent unauthorized copying by a third party and unauthorized reading by reading means.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect of the present invention, the embedded information input from the input unit is obtained by copying the image information or reading the image information by the reading unit. Is information indicating permission / non-permission of whether or not the printing permission is acceptable. By extracting this printing permission / non-permission information as necessary, it is possible to easily and surely prevent unauthorized copying and reading by a third party. This provides an effect that an image processing apparatus capable of performing the above is obtained.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, embedding information to be embedded in image information is inputted, and dot angle information for generating dot angle information based on the embedding information is generated. It is possible to obtain an image processing method capable of extracting halftone image information from embedded information as necessary, and easily preventing unauthorized copying by a third party and unauthorized reading by reading means.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the fourth aspect of the present invention, the writer information is changed as necessary based on the writer information for specifying the creator of the image information as the embedded information. By performing the extraction, it is possible to obtain an image processing method capable of reliably preventing unauthorized copying by a third party and unauthorized reading by a reading unit.

According to the invention described in claim 6, in the invention described in claim 4 or 5, the information indicating permission or non-permission as to whether or not copying or reading of image information is permitted. The image processing method according to the present invention can extract the permission / non-permission information of the image information based on the information as necessary, and can reliably prevent unauthorized copying by a third party and unauthorized reading by a reading unit. To play.

According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, a program for causing a computer to execute the method according to the fifth or sixth aspect is obtained.

According to the invention described in claim 8, by recording a program for causing a computer to execute the method described in claim 7, the program becomes readable by a computer. Alternatively, it is possible to obtain a recording medium capable of realizing the operation of claim 6 by a computer.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram functionally showing the configuration of an entire image processing system including an image processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a method of processing a monochrome image applied to the image processing system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is another explanatory diagram showing a method of processing a monochrome image applied to the image processing system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of rectangular division of an image in the image processing system in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a processing method for a color image in the image processing system in FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is another explanatory diagram showing a processing method for a color image in the image processing system in FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an information embedding process according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 100 image processing system 102 image input unit 103 embedded information input unit 104 control unit 105 memory 106 halftone dot angle generation unit 107 rectangular division unit 108 halftone image generation unit 109 external storage device 110 data display unit 111 input unit 120 control unit 121 network Point angle information generating means 122 Halftone image information generating means

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI Theme coat II (reference) H04N 1/405 H04N 1/40 104 F term (reference) 2H034 FA01 5B057 AA11 BA02 CA01 CA02 CA07 CA12 CA16 CB01 CB02 CB07 CB12 CB16 CB19 CC03 CE08 CE13 CH18 DA17 5C076 AA14 AA27 AA40 BA06 5C077 LL14 MP08 NN07 NN19 NP07 PP23 PP33 PP66 PQ08

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. An input unit for inputting embedding information to be embedded in image information; a dot angle information generating unit for generating dot angle information based on the embedding information input from the input unit; An image processing apparatus, comprising: dot image information generating means for generating dot image information according to dot information generated by the angle information generating means. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the embedding information input from the input unit is creator information for identifying a creator of the image information. 2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein desired halftone dot angle information is selected from the information to determine specific halftone dot angle information. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the embedded information input from the input unit is information indicating permission or non-permission as to whether or not the image information may be copied or read by a reading unit. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1. 4. An embedded information inputting step of inputting embedded information to be embedded in image information, and a dot angle information generating step of generating dot angle information based on the embedded information input in the embedded information inputting step. A dot image information generating step of generating dot image information in accordance with the dot information generated in the dot angle information generating step. 5. The embedment information input in the embedment information input step is creator information enabling the creator of the image information to be specified. 5. The image processing method according to claim 4, wherein desired halftone dot angle information is selected from the halftone dot angle information to determine specific halftone dot angle information. 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the embedding information input in the embedding information input step is information indicating permission or non-permission as to whether or not the image information may be copied or read by a reading unit. The image processing method according to claim 4. 7. A program for causing a computer to execute the method according to claim 5 or 6. 8. A computer-readable recording medium on which the program according to claim 7 is recorded.