JP2006080971A - Image picture input/output apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable the pseudo trace of pseudo-preventing additional information that an image before processing has, without depending on an original and electronic image data by constantly reflecting the additional information to an image after processing, when converting the original to the electronic image data, and when converting the electronic image data to the original. <P>SOLUTION: In a system wherein AddOn and an electronic watermark as the additional information used for the pseudo preventing measures are added to the manuscript copy and the electronic image data respectively, the AddOn and the electronic watermark are converted to each other, so that the additional information is reflected always on the image which has been converted and printed. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an image input / output device that converts additional information indicated by a visible dot pattern added to image data into invisible digital watermark information and embeds the information in image data.

  With the recent increase in image quality of color printers and copies, the importance of technology relating to measures to prevent forgery of securities and banknotes has increased. One of anti-counterfeiting technology is add-on (AddOn). An add-on is obtained by adding a specific dot pattern for identifying each printing apparatus to an image (see Patent Document 1). By reading the dot pattern of the add-on with a reading device capable of decoding, the device on which the document is printed out can be specified. Therefore, forgery tracking of securities and banknotes becomes possible.

In addition, electronic watermarks are attracting attention as a technique for preventing forgery of electronic images. Digital watermarking is a technique that enables embedding specific data without substantially affecting the image quality of an original image, and is applied to copyright protection and tampering prevention of an image (see Patent Document 2). . In recent years, the digital shift trend of color printers and copies is increasing, and digital watermarking technology has begun to be applied to prevent unauthorized printing / copying of securities and banknotes.
JP-A-10-285327 JP-A-9-191394

  However, when a document on which an add-on dot pattern is printed is read by a scanner or the like and sent to another device as an electronic image, the add-on dot pattern in the image may be decoded and intentionally removed There is. In this case, the anti-counterfeit effect by tracing the print output device is lost.

  Further, when an image in which digital watermark information is embedded is printed, since the digital watermark information is invisible, the role of the watermark for adding additional information to the image is lost. Therefore, the digital watermark information embedded in the image data must be extracted, converted from invisible data to visible data, and the visible data added to the original image must be printed.

  The object of the present invention is to change the image itself because the information indicated by the dot pattern is transmitted as invisible digital watermark information even if the electronic image data to which the add-on dot pattern is added is transmitted to another device. Unless it is destroyed, it is impossible to change / remove information indicated by the dot pattern. In addition, when digital watermark information is embedded in the image data to be output, by outputting the digital watermark information as visible information, the print output device can always be identified, and the add-on tracking effect inherent in the add-on is always demonstrated. It is possible to do.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention provides an input means for inputting image data by reading a document using a device such as a scanner or receiving it from an external device, and adding it to the input image data. Extraction means for extracting the added add-on dot pattern, generation means for generating the dot pattern extracted by the extraction means as invisible digital watermark information, and the invisible digital watermark information generated by the generation means based on the original A synthesizer for synthesizing the image data is provided, and a visible add-on dot pattern added to the image data is converted into invisible information and embedded in the original image data. When an add-on dot pattern is extracted by the extraction unit, the add-on dot pattern can be removed from the original image. In addition, the image processing apparatus includes a means for transmitting to an external device, and the image data in which digital watermark information is embedded can be transmitted to the external device. A second extracting unit configured to extract digital watermark information embedded in the image data; a second generating unit configured to generate the digital watermark information extracted by the second extracting unit as visible data; A second combining unit configured to combine the visible data generated by the second generating unit with the original image, and adding digital watermark information embedded in the image data as visible data; When the digital watermark information is extracted by the second extraction unit and the image is printed, it is possible to determine whether to add the digital watermark information as visible data using the second generation unit / composition unit. It is characterized by that.

  According to the present invention, even when electronic image data with an add-on dot pattern added is transmitted to another apparatus, the information indicated by the dot pattern is transmitted as invisible digital watermark information, so that the image itself is not changed / destroyed. As long as the information indicated by the dot pattern cannot be changed / removed. In addition, when digital watermark information is embedded in the image data to be output, by outputting the digital watermark information as visible information, the print output device can always be identified, and the add-on tracking effect inherent in the add-on is always demonstrated. It becomes possible to do.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of an internal configuration diagram of an image input / output apparatus according to claim 1.

  The image input / output device 101 includes an input / output unit 102 and a controller unit 107.

  The input / output unit 102 includes a network I / F 103, a scanner 104, and a UI (User Interface) 106, and optionally has a printer 105 that prints image data on a paper medium. The network I / F 103 transmits / receives data to / from an external device such as a PC / WS (Personal Computer / Work Station) 114 and other image input / output devices 115 via the communication medium 115. The scanner 104 reads a document as electronic image data. The UI 106 includes a liquid crystal screen and buttons, and accepts instructions from the user.

  The controller unit 107 includes one or more CPUs (Central Processing Units) 108, and control in the controller unit is performed using the CPUs. In addition to the CPU 108, the controller unit 107 includes an add-on pattern extraction unit 109 that performs data processing in the apparatus, a digital watermark information generation / combination unit 110, an image processing unit 111, an HDD (Hard Disc Drive) 112 that is a storage medium, a memory 113. The add-on pattern extraction unit 109 determines whether an add-on dot pattern exists in the image input by the input / output unit 102, and extracts the dot pattern if it exists. Further, in relation to claim 4, the add-on pattern extraction unit 109 optionally includes removing the extracted dot pattern from the original input image. Then, based on the extracted dot pattern, the digital watermark generation / synthesis unit 110 generates digital watermark information and combines (embeds) it with the original input image. The image processing unit 111 performs image processing including PDL (Page Description Language) interpretation, image compression / decompression, calibration, and the like. Of the HDD 112 and the memory 113 for storing image data and other parameters, the HDD 112 is optionally provided.

  FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of an internal configuration diagram of an image input / output device according to claim 2.

  The image input / output device 201 includes an input / output unit 202 and a controller unit 203.

  The input / output unit 202 includes a network I / F 103, a scanner 104, a printer 105, and a UI 106, similarly to the input / output unit 102 of FIG. However, the printer 105 is different in that the scanner 104 is optionally provided.

  As with the controller unit 107 in FIG. 1, the controller unit 203 includes one or more CPUs 108, and control in the controller unit is performed using these CPUs. In addition to the CPU 108, the controller unit 203 includes a digital watermark information extraction unit 204 that performs data processing in the apparatus, a visible data generation / synthesis unit 205, an image processing unit 111, an HDD 112 that is a storage medium, and a memory 113. The digital watermark information extraction unit 204 determines whether digital watermark information exists in the image input by the input / output unit 202, and extracts the digital watermark information if it exists. The visible data generating / synthesizing unit 205 generates the extracted digital watermark information as visible data, and synthesizes (adds) it to the original image. The visible data includes not only a character or image represented by a digital watermark but also a dot pattern corresponding to the information. Similarly to the controller unit 107, an HDD 112 and a memory 113 are provided as storage media for storing image data and other parameters, of which the HDD 112 is optionally provided.

  FIG. 3 shows an outline of a control program operated by the CPU 108.

  The control program 310 has a role of supervising and controlling operations of devices existing in apparatuses such as the network I / F 301, UI 302, scanner 311, printer 312, and image processing device 313. The protocol processing unit 303 performs data transmission / reception with an external device by processing protocols such as TCP / IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol) and FTP (File Transfer Protocol). The user command interpreter 304 interprets the user's instruction input on the UI 302 and transmits the instruction to the job controller 306, and the display unit 305 controls processing when displaying various information inside the apparatus on the UI 302. is doing. The scanner control unit 307 controls the scanner 311, the printer control unit 308 controls the printer 312, and the image processing device control unit 309 controls the image processing device 313. Similarly, devices such as the add-on pattern extraction unit 109 and the digital watermark information generation / combination unit 110 in FIG. 1 can be connected. In this case, a control unit for controlling these devices is added. The job control unit 306 controls and manages the processing of each connected device and the entire control program 310.

  Next, an add-on dot pattern added during printing will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 4 shows a state in which an image 401 to be printed is printed by the printer 402, and as a result, a printed matter 403 is output. An area 404 in the printed matter 403 is an area to which an add-on dot pattern is added, and 405 is an enlarged view of the area 404. As can be seen from the enlarged view 405, the add-on is expressed as a predetermined dot pattern, which indicates that this dot pattern is a printed matter printed by the printer 402. In addition, a method of adding the add-on dot pattern with yellow toner so that it is not visible to human eyes as much as possible is used.

  Next, a procedure for generating / combining digital watermark information will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 5 shows a state in which a printed matter 502 printed out from the printer 501 is read as electronic image data 506 by the scanner 505. It is assumed that the printer 501 holds “Printer — 0123ABCD” as a device identification code for identifying itself. Similar to FIG. 3, an area 503 in the printed material 502 is an area to which an add-on dot pattern is added, and 504 is an enlarged view of the area 503. The add-on dot pattern added to the area 503 has a one-to-one correspondence with the device identification code “Printer — 0123ABCD” of the printer 501. That is, the printed matter in which the dot pattern is detected represents that printing is performed by the printer 501. Therefore, when the printed matter 502 to which the dot pattern is added is read by the scanner, the dot pattern is detected and information indicating that the printed matter is printed by the printer 501 is obtained. Then, by generating digital watermark information from this information and synthesizing it with the original image data that has been read, data embedded with digital watermark information such as electronic image data 506 can be created. FIG. 5 shows a state where an image in which a device identification code obtained from a dot pattern is described as electronic watermark information is generated and combined. The device identification code 507 in the electronic image data 506 is invisible. (* Visualized for ease of explanation). In this embodiment, the scanner 505 is provided with a means for removing an add-on dot pattern, and the electronic image data 506 removes the add-on dot pattern added to the area 503. Furthermore, it goes without saying that the device identification code of the scanner 505 needs to be added as digital watermark information as the device that has processed this image.

  On the other hand, when printing an image in which digital watermark information is embedded, such as the digital image data 506, with a printer or the like, data that visualizes the digital watermark information is generated and added to the image to be printed. The device that has been processed can be identified. When the digital watermark information is character / image data such as 507, the character or image may be visualized and added as it is. It also includes converting to an add-on dot pattern and adding it.

  Finally, the processing flow of the image input / output apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing of the image input / output device according to the present invention, and the left diagram (processing on the input device side) shows the flow of processing of the image input / output device according to claim 1. The processing on the output device side) shows the processing flow of the image input / output device according to claim 2.

  On the input device side, first, image data is obtained by receiving from an external device or reading from a document (601). Here, it also includes obtaining image data from a removable storage medium. Next, it is identified whether or not an add-on dot pattern is added to the image data obtained in 601 (602, 603). If added, the dot pattern is decoded (604), and the dot pattern is optionally selected. Remove (605). Further, information obtained by decoding the dot pattern and the device identification information of the input device is generated as additional information (606). Conversely, if no add-on dot pattern is added to the image data obtained in 601, device identification information of the input device is newly generated as additional information (607). The additional information generated in this way is converted into digital watermark information (608) and synthesized with the original image data (609). Then, the image data in which the digital watermark information is embedded is transmitted to the external device or the internal device.

  On the output device side, first, image data is obtained from the internal device or the external device (611). Here, it similarly includes obtaining image data from a removable storage medium. Next, it is identified whether or not digital watermark information is embedded in the image data obtained in 611 (612 and 613). If the digital watermark information is embedded, it is determined whether to print the digital watermark information (614). When printing the digital watermark information, that is, when visualizing the digital watermark information, it is determined whether to visualize it as an add-on dot pattern (616) or to visualize the digital watermark information as a character / image as it is (617) ( 615), and the generated visualization data is added to the image to be printed (618). Finally, an add-on dot pattern corresponding to the device identification information of the output device is added (619) regardless of whether or not the electronic watermark information is present or not, and the image to be printed is added. The processing is completed by printing (620) on a paper medium.

  It should be noted that the present invention is applied not only to a system constituted by a plurality of devices (PC / WS, scanner, printer, etc.) but also to an apparatus (multifunction device, etc.) comprising a single device. .

  The image input / output apparatus according to the present invention can handle multi-valued images and binary images, respectively, and selects an appropriate digital watermark information combining method according to the multi-valued images and binary images. The method for synthesizing digital watermark information of multi-valued images is a method that uses orthogonal transformations such as cosine transformation and wavelet transformation using frequency components, and a method that uses orthogonal transformations such as AMADAR transformation in a two-dimensional space. However, it is not particularly defined in the present invention. In addition, there are a density pattern method, an error diffusion method, and the like as a method for synthesizing digital watermark information of a binary image, but it is not particularly defined in the present invention.

  Further, the present invention is not limited to the configuration of the apparatus according to the above-described embodiment (FIGS. 1 and 2) and the program configuration (FIG. 3) executed in the apparatus. For example, in FIG. 1, the functions of the add-on extraction unit 109, the digital watermark information generation / synthesis unit 110, and the image processing unit 111 are realized as software, the program code is stored in the memory 113 and the HDD 112, and the CPU 108 stores the program code. The case of executing reading is also included in the scope of the present invention.

It is one Example of the internal block diagram of the image input / output device concerning Claim 1 of this invention. It is one Example of the internal block diagram of the image input / output device concerning Claim 2 of this invention. It is a schematic diagram of the control program which the image input / output device concerning Claim 1 and 2 of this invention has. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a state where an add-on pattern is added to a print image during printing. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a state in which digital watermark information is generated from an add-on pattern added to a document and combined with the original image when the document is read. 6 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing of each of the image input / output devices according to claims 1 and 2 of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

101 Image input / output device 102 Input / output unit 107 Controller unit 201 Image input / output device 202 Input / output unit 203 Controller unit 404 Add-on pattern addition area 503 Add-on pattern addition area 507 Invisible digital watermark information

Claims (8)

Input means for inputting image data; first extraction means for extracting visible additional information added to the image data input by the input means; and additional information extracted by the extraction means as invisible electronic data First generating means for generating watermark information; and first combining means for combining invisible digital watermark information generated by the generating means with image data,
An image input / output device, wherein visible additional information added to image data is converted into invisible information and embedded in the image data. Second extraction means for extracting invisible digital watermark information from image data; second generation means for generating invisible digital watermark information as visible information; and visible information generated by the second generation means; A second combining unit that combines the image data, and a printing unit that prints the image on a paper medium;
An image input / output device that, when invisible digital watermark information is extracted from image data to be printed, converts the digital watermark information into visible information and adds the information to the print target image data for printing. .   2. The image input / output apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the input means includes a reading means for reading a document image or a receiving means for receiving image data transmitted from an external device. A removal means for removing visible additional information from the image data;
2. The image input / output apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the additional information is extracted from the image data by the first extracting means, the visible additional information extracted from the image data is removed. Comprising a transmission means for transmitting an image to an external device;
2. The image input / output device according to claim 1, wherein the image data synthesized by the first synthesizing unit is transmitted to an external device.   2. The image input / output device according to claim 1, wherein the additional information is information for specifying a device that prints image data on a paper medium, and is represented as a dot pattern corresponding to the information on a one-to-one basis. .   Whether invisible digital watermark information is extracted from the image data to be printed by the second extraction means, whether the digital watermark information is converted into visible information and added to the image data to be printed for printing 3. The image input / output apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising means for discriminating between the two.   2. An image according to claim 1, comprising a plurality of methods for synthesizing digital watermark information and means for selecting those methods, and selecting a method for synthesizing digital watermark information according to a multi-valued image / binary image. I / O device.