JP2007142986A - Image processor and image processing method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem that it is difficult to embed color information of a color image in an output monochrome image so that it may be reliably detected when the monochrome output according to the color image is performed and further that it is difficult to reproduce the color image by reliably extracting the color information from the monochrome image in which the color information is embedded. <P>SOLUTION: Color image data is obtained by reading out a color paper document 110 by a scanner 101. Color information of each object of the color image data is embedded in image data which is composed of corresponding objects as digital watermarks by a color information embedding section 105. The image data is outputted in black and white for generating a monochrome paper document 112 by a printer 106. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and an image processing method, and more particularly to an image processing apparatus and an image processing method for attaching color information when a color image is binary output.

  Conventionally, when it is necessary to prepare a plurality of copies of the same material in, for example, a presentation, a plurality of copies of a document serving as the material are printed out or copied. At this time, if the document is in color, depending on the number of copies required, it may be printed or copied as a black and white material that can be output at high speed and is low cost.

  As described above, once a color original is output in black and white, a color image cannot be reproduced using the black and white image as an original. Therefore, for example, if a presentation participant who distributed black and white materials wanted to obtain the original color materials, he had to send the color materials again at a later date.

  In order to solve such problems, the following techniques have been proposed.

  For example, when converting a raster color image to a raster black-and-white image, a hatch pattern is prepared for each color, and the black-and-white image is converted while converting the color information at each address of the raster color image into a hatch pattern of the corresponding color. There is an image conversion method to generate. That is, if there is a blue square figure in the original raster color image, a square figure constituted by a hatch pattern indicating blue appears on the black and white image (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

In addition, when a monochrome image in which color information is embedded as an image pattern is read as an RGB luminance signal, the hue signal is extracted from the RGB signal, and the hue signal is converted into a specified color in the color coordinate space, thereby obtaining the color information. There is an image processing apparatus for restoring the image. That is, the read RGB luminance signal is divided into a luminance signal for the upper bits and a hue signal for the lower bits, and a KCMY signal is output from the hue signal based on a predetermined mapping table (see, for example, Patent Document 2).
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-101497 JP-A-11-284867

  Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 described above describe a technique for embedding color information in a hatch pattern or luminance signal and extracting the color information by raster scanning. However, according to such a method, it may be difficult to accurately extract a hatch pattern or the like depending on an enlarged / reduced document or depending on the reading accuracy of a scanner.

  Further, Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 described above do not suggest a method for generating a black and white paper document from a color electronic file and a method for regenerating a color electronic document from the black and white paper document.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problem, and performs image processing in which color information of a color image is embedded in the output image so that the color information can be reliably detected when performing monochrome output based on the color image. An object is to provide an apparatus and an image processing method.

  It is another object of the present invention to provide an image processing apparatus and an image processing method capable of reliably extracting color information from a monochrome image embedded with color information as described above and reproducing the color image. .

  As a means for achieving the above object, an image processing apparatus of the present invention comprises the following arrangement. That is, color information extraction means for extracting color information for each object constituting the color image data from the color image data, and color data extracted by the color information extraction means is image data constituted by corresponding objects. Color information embedding means embedded in the color information, and monochrome output means for outputting the image data in which the color information is embedded by the color information embedding means as a monochrome image.

  Further, the color information embedding means embeds the color information as digital watermark information in a corresponding object.

  Also, reading means for reading a black and white original image to obtain image data, object separating means for separating the image data in object units, and color information extracting means for extracting color information for the separated object from the image data And color image generation means for generating color image data by reflecting the color information extracted by the color information extraction means to the image data.

  Further, the color information extracting means extracts the color information as digital watermark information.

  According to the present invention configured as described above, when performing monochrome output based on a color image, the color information of the color image can be embedded in the output image so that it can be reliably detected.

  Further, it is possible to reproduce the color image by reliably extracting the color information from the black and white image in which the color information is embedded.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on preferred embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings. The configurations shown in the following embodiments are merely examples, and the present invention is not limited to the illustrated configurations.

<First Embodiment>
In the image processing apparatus of the present embodiment, when a color image is printed in black and white, the color information is embedded so that the color information can be reliably detected, and a black and white paper document is printed out. As a method for printing a black and white original including color information, there are a “method for printing a black and white paper original from a color paper original” and a “method for printing a black and white paper original from a color electronic file”. Hereinafter, each method will be described in detail.

Method for Printing Monochrome Paper Original from Color Paper Original First, a method for printing a black and white paper original from a color paper original will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration and processing outline of an image processing apparatus according to the present embodiment.

  First, the scanner unit 101 reads a color paper document. Next, the read original is separated into RGB signals by the RGB signal extraction unit 102, and color information is extracted in units of pixels. Hereinafter, the extracted color information for each pixel is referred to as “information 1”. At the same time, the object separation unit 103 separates the content on the document into object units such as characters, graphics, and photographic images. As a result, the type (character, graphic, etc.), size, and position (coordinate value) on the document are derived for each object. Hereinafter, the derived information for each object is referred to as “information 2”. The object separation unit 103 can easily divide in character units and graphic units by applying a technique such as block division or character division used in general OCR technology. That is, the “information 2” created by the object separation unit 103 is not a bitmap image, but has information such as size for each object.

  The color information matching unit 104 matches “information 1” and “information 2”. Hereinafter, this matching process will be specifically described with reference to FIG. Here, by comparing a total of four RGB images of “information 1” and object separation images on the document of “information 2”, a certain character is red and a certain graphic frame is blue Each object is associated with its color information, such as yellow in the figure. Here, since the color information is in units of pixels, a density difference may occur in the color of a graphic that is an object. Therefore, if necessary, it is also effective to create a density histogram, calculate an average density value, and select a color closest to the average density value.

  Next, the color information embedding unit 105 uses the information associated with the color information matching unit 104 to embed the color information in the object.

  If the object is a character, the color information is embedded in the character itself. For example, if the character is red, information indicating “red” or the like is embedded in the character itself. In this embodiment, a so-called digital watermark technique is used as a method of embedding color information. One method is to embed information by rotating or reducing characters, and another method is to form a character by repeating a predetermined dot pattern according to the information value.

  Here, in order to simplify the description of the present embodiment, in the following, red is an information value “1”, blue is “2”, green is “3”, and the information value “1” is a character once left. It is defined that “2” rotates the character 2 degrees to the left, and “3” rotates the character 3 degrees to the left. Therefore, in the case of a red character, the character is rotated once to the left, and if it is a black character, nothing is performed, and if it is a blue character, the character is rotated twice to the left. By performing such processing for all characters, color information can be embedded in the characters themselves.

  When the object is a graphic, color information is embedded in the graphic itself using an image digital watermark technique or the like. As a digital watermark technique for embedding information in a binary image, a method of embedding information by crafting a dither matrix used in binarization is known.

  As described above, the image in which the color information is embedded by the digital watermark technique is converted into raster data by the printer unit 106, and is printed as a black and white paper by black and white printing. Note that the present invention is not limited to the output of a black and white paper document, and the present invention can be similarly applied to a case where monochrome display is performed on a display or the like.

Method for Printing Monochrome Paper Original from Color Electronic File Next, a method for printing a black and white paper original from a color electronic file will be described with reference to FIG. Here, the file is data described using various description languages. For example, there are print data described in GDI commands, PDF (Portable Document Format) represented by Acrobat, page data written in a page description language (PDL) represented by PostScript, and the like.

  First, data to be subjected to print processing, for example, data generated using various programs such as application software, is input to the color information extraction unit 107. As described above, these are data created by PDL, and are data created by various description methods such as GDI type and PDF.

  The color information extraction unit 107 performs the following processing necessary for extracting color information. That is, the input data is sequentially analyzed to determine which description method is used for the file contents. Then, it analyzes according to the syntax of the description method, cuts out as a token, and further divides it into objects to perform necessary color extraction processing.

  For example, if the lexical analysis result is a “line drawing command character” conclusion, the file has a character code, a font ID, and coordinate matrix drawing color data. If the conclusion is “graphic”, a vector, a coordinate transformation matrix, a line attribute, It has drawing color data. Therefore, color data corresponding to each object can be extracted based on these data for both characters and graphics. If the lexical analysis result is “image of image drawing command”, the file includes source image data, source image header information (size, depth, color, compression, etc.), a coordinate matrix, and the like. Therefore, color information corresponding to each image object can be extracted based on these data.

  Next, the color information embedding unit 105 expands each object of characters, graphics, and images to generate a raster image for printing. At this time, for example, in the case of a red character, information indicating “red” is embedded in the character itself. However, as in the case of the monochrome printing from the color paper document described above, the document digital watermark technology and the image digital watermark technology are used. Use to embed color information.

  Then, the image with the color information embedded is converted into raster data by the printer unit 106 and output as a black and white paper document.

  As an additional function, information indicating which page description language (PDL, GDI, PDF, etc.) the original color electronic file was formed in, that is, the type of page description language, is converted into black and white paper using digital watermark technology or the like. It is also effective to embed it in a manuscript. In this case, when reproducing a color electronic file from the black and white paper document output here (details will be described later), if it is restored to the same type of page description language, it reproduces that the reliability of the extracted color information is high. It can be grasped by the side. Therefore, it is possible to recommend the user the type of the original page description language as a recommended page description language at the time of reproduction.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, when a color image based on a color paper document or a color electronic file is printed in black and white, the color information is embedded as digital watermark information on the printed monochrome image. The original color information can be held reliably. Therefore, even when the printed black and white image is enlarged / reduced, the original color information is reliably detected.

Second Embodiment
Hereinafter, a second embodiment according to the present invention will be described. The image processing apparatus of the second embodiment is characterized in that color information is extracted from the black and white paper document output in the first embodiment described above. As this color information extraction method, there are “a method of reproducing a color paper document from a black and white paper document” and “a method of reproducing a color electronic file from a black and white paper document”. Hereinafter, each method will be described in detail.

A method for reproducing a color paper document from a black and white paper document First, a method for reproducing a color paper document from a black and white paper document printed by any of the methods described in the first embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. . FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration and processing outline of the image processing apparatus according to the second embodiment.

  First, the black and white paper document 210 is read by the scanner unit 201. Next, the object separation unit 202 separates the content on the document into object units such as characters, graphics, and photographic images. Since this processing is the same as that of the object separation unit 103 in the first embodiment described above, description thereof is omitted. Then, the color information extraction unit 203 extracts the electronic watermark for the document and the electronic watermark information for the image, that is, the color information embedded for each object of the character, the figure, and the image. In addition, about the extraction method here, since the extraction method of a general digital watermark is applied, description is abbreviate | omitted.

  In the color document generation unit 204, the raster image read by the scanner unit 201, the size of each object separated and extracted by the object separation unit 202 / color information extraction unit 203, the position (coordinate value) on the document, and color information Is matched. As a result, a color raster image is generated. At this time, an RGB or CMYK image is generated according to the specifications of the printer unit 205. Finally, a color paper document 211 is output by printing this color image in the printer unit 205. Note that the present invention is not limited to the output of a color paper document, and the present invention can be similarly applied to color display on a display or the like.

A method for reproducing a color electronic file from a black and white paper original Next, a method for reproducing a color electronic file from a black and white paper original will be described with reference to FIG.

  First, the black and white paper document 210 is read by the scanner unit 201. Next, the object separation unit 202 separates the content on the document into object units such as characters, graphics, and photographic images. Since this processing is the same as that of the object separation unit 103 in the first embodiment described above, description thereof is omitted. Then, the color information extraction unit 203 extracts the electronic watermark for the document and the electronic watermark information for the image, that is, the color information embedded for each object of the character, the figure, and the image.

  The color electronic file generation unit 206 converts the image data read by the scanner unit 201 into a color electronic file 212 in a specified page description language format represented by GDI, PDF, and PostScript. Specifically, the OCR technique is applied to the raster image read by the scanner unit 201 to extract the character type (meaning) and convert it into a character code. Then, by comparing this result (character code) with the size, position (coordinate value), and color information of each object separated and extracted by the object separation unit 202 / color information extraction unit 203, color electronic Generate a file. For example, if the object is a character, it is converted into character code, font ID, and coordinate matrix drawing color data, and if it is a figure, it is converted into a vector, coordinate conversion matrix, line attribute, and drawing color data. If the object is an image, it is converted into data such as source image data, source image header information (size, depth, color, compression, etc.), a coordinate matrix, etc., and a file is generated.

  As described above, according to the second embodiment, the color information is reliably detected from the black and white paper manuscript that has been developed as the digital watermark information and is generated in the first embodiment. It can reproduce paper manuscripts or color electronic files.

  Of course, it is desirable to combine the first embodiment and the second embodiment described above. Also, the image processing apparatus shown in FIG. 1 in the first embodiment and the image processing apparatus shown in FIG. 2 in the second embodiment can be realized as a single apparatus.

  Such a combination of the first embodiment and the second embodiment can be applied to the following system.

  For example, black-and-white copying is generally faster than color copying and has a lower printing cost. Therefore, when printing / copying from a color document, black-and-white output is performed to save time and printing costs, and if necessary The original color original is easily reproduced based on the black and white original.

  In addition, the photographs taken by professional photographers are distributed free of charge as black-and-white photographs, and only the paid members can extract the color information embedded in the black-and-white photographs. Possible systems are possible. As a method for permitting extraction of color information, there are a method of disclosing the extraction method, distributing a key, or sending plug-in software and a key for extraction to the member.

<Third Embodiment>
The third embodiment according to the present invention will be described below.

  In the first and second embodiments described above, a method has been described in which color information is not visible by embedding color information directly in content such as characters, that is, the color information is “invisible”. The third embodiment is characterized in that information is embedded in a background pattern such as a background pattern, or color information is embedded as visible using a two-dimensional barcode such as a QR code. This is realized only by changing the processes of the color information embedding unit 105 in the configuration of FIG. 1 and the color information extraction unit 203 in the configuration of FIG.

  That is, the color information embedding unit 105 shown in FIG. 1 embeds a list of color information associated with each object in the preceding color information matching unit 104 as a two-dimensional barcode in the document. It is also possible to embed the color information list as digital watermark information in the background pattern. Accordingly, the printer unit 106 outputs a black and white paper document with a two-dimensional barcode or a black and white paper document with a background pattern.

  On the other hand, the color information extraction unit 203 shown in FIG. 2 associates each object with the color information by reading the two-dimensional barcode attached to the black and white paper document or extracting the digital watermark information placed in the background pattern. You can get a list. Based on this list information, a color paper document or a color electronic file can be generated by the same processing as in the first and second embodiments.

  As described above, according to the third embodiment, color information of a color image can be made visible and embedded in a black and white paper document. As a result, the user can determine whether or not the original contains color information by simply looking at the black and white paper original.

<Fourth embodiment>
The fourth embodiment according to the present invention will be described below. The fourth embodiment is characterized in that the processing according to the first embodiment described above is executed by a computer. That is, in order to execute all the functions in FIG. 1 of the first embodiment in the computer, each functional configuration is expressed by a program and read by the computer, so that the computer can execute all the functions in FIG. 1 of the first embodiment. Function is realized.

Computer Configuration FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a basic configuration of a computer according to the third embodiment. In the figure, reference numeral 301 denotes a CPU, which controls the entire computer using programs and data stored in a RAM 302 and a ROM 303, and controls each process described in the above embodiments.

  A RAM 302 has an area for temporarily storing programs and data loaded from the external storage device 308 and programs and data downloaded from other computer systems 314 via an I / F (interface) 315. In addition, an area necessary for the CPU 301 to perform various processes is provided. A ROM 303 stores computer function programs, setting data, and the like.

  Reference numeral 304 denotes a display control device that performs control processing for causing the display 305 to display images, characters, and the like. Reference numeral 305 denotes a display that displays images, characters, and the like. As a display, a CRT, a liquid crystal screen or the like can be applied.

  Reference numeral 306 denotes an operation input device, which includes a device that can input various instructions to the CPU 301 such as a keyboard and a mouse. When manually inputting a latent image background area designation image or the like, these can be input via the operation input device 306. Reference numeral 307 denotes an I / O for notifying the CPU 301 of various instructions input via the operation input device 306.

  Reference numeral 308 denotes an external storage device that functions as a large-capacity information storage device such as a hard disk, and stores an OS (Operating System) and programs, images, data, and the like for causing the CPU 301 to execute processes according to the above-described embodiments. Writing information to the external storage device 308 and reading information from the external storage device 308 are performed via the I / O 309.

  A printer 310 outputs a document or an image, and output data is sent from the RAM 302 or the external storage device 308 via the I / O 311. Examples of printers for outputting documents and images include ink jet printers, laser beam printers, thermal transfer printers, and dot impact printers.

  Reference numeral 312 denotes a scanner for inputting a document or an image. Input data is sent to the RAM 302 or the external storage device 308 via the I / O 313.

  A bus 316 connects the CPU 301, ROM 303, RAM 302, I / O 307, I / O 309, display control device 304, I / F 315, I / O 311, and I / O 313.

Outputting a black and white paper original from a color original The following is a flowchart of FIG. 5 for a method of outputting a black and white paper original containing color information from a color paper original or a color electronic file using a computer having the configuration shown in FIG. It explains using.

  First, the CPU 301 determines whether the original document designated by the user using the operation input device 306 or the like is paper or an electronic file (S501).

  If the document is paper, the color document placed on the document table of the scanner 312 is read (S502), and separated into RGB three images to obtain color information in units of pixels (S503). Hereinafter, the color information of the pixel unit obtained here is referred to as “information 1”. Then, the content on the document is separated into object units such as characters, graphics, and photographic images (S504). As a result, the type (character, graphic, etc.), size, and position (coordinate value) on the document are derived for each object. Hereinafter, the derived information for each object is referred to as “information 2”. Here, by applying a technique such as block division or character division used in general OCR technology, division by character unit or figure unit can be easily performed. That is, as “information 2”, information such as a size is obtained for each object, not a bitmap image.

  Note that the order of the processes in steps S503 and S504 may be interchanged.

  Next, “information 1” and “information 2” are matched. Hereinafter, this matching process will be specifically described with reference to FIG. Here, by comparing a total of four RGB images of “information 1” and object separation images on the document of “information 2”, a certain character is red, a certain frame is blue, Each object is associated with its color information, such as yellow in (S505). Here, since the color information is in units of pixels, a density difference may occur in the color of a graphic that is an object. Therefore, if necessary, it is also effective to create a density histogram, calculate an average density value, and select a color closest to the average density value.

  Then, using the associated information, the color information is embedded in the character itself (S506). For example, if the character is red, information indicating “red” or the like is embedded in the character itself. In the fourth embodiment, a so-called digital watermark technique is used as a method of embedding color information. One method is to embed information by rotating or reducing characters, and another method is to form a character by repeating a predetermined dot pattern according to the information value.

  In the case of a graphic, color information is embedded in the graphic itself using an image digital watermark technique or the like. Finally, as described above, the image in which the color information is embedded by the digital watermark technique is converted into raster data, and is output as a black and white paper document by performing black and white printing with the printer 310 (S507). Note that monochrome output to the display 305 is also possible.

  If it is determined in step S501 that the original document is not a paper but an electronic file, the process proceeds to step S508, and the following processing necessary for extracting color information from the electronic file is performed.

  First, the lexical analysis of the data of the electronic file is performed to determine which description method is used for the file contents, the analysis is performed according to the syntax of the description method, the token is cut out, and further processed by dividing it into objects. Apply. Details of this processing are the same as those of the color information extraction unit 107 in the first embodiment described above.

  Next, the character, graphic, and image objects are expanded to generate a raster image for printing. At this time, for example, in the case of a red character, information indicating “red” is embedded in the character itself (S506). As an embedding method, a document digital watermark technique or an image digital watermark technique is used, as in the color information embedding unit 105 in the first embodiment.

  Then, the image in which the color information is embedded is converted into raster data, and is output as a black and white paper document by the printer 310 (S507).

  As described above, according to the fourth embodiment, the same processing as in the first embodiment described above can be realized on a computer.

<Fifth Embodiment>
The fifth embodiment according to the present invention will be described below. The fifth embodiment is characterized in that the processing according to the second embodiment described above is executed by a computer. That is, in order to execute all the functions in FIG. 2 of the second embodiment in the computer, each functional configuration is expressed by a program and read by the computer, so that the computer can execute all the functions in FIG. 2 of the second embodiment. Function is realized.

  Note that the configuration of the computer in the fifth embodiment is the same as the configuration shown in FIG. 3 in the above-described fourth embodiment, and a description thereof will be omitted.

Reproducing a color image from a black and white paper manuscript Hereinafter, using a computer having the configuration shown in FIG. 3, a color paper manuscript or color from a black and white paper manuscript including color information output in the first or third embodiment is used. A method for reproducing an electronic file will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  First, a black and white document is read by the scanner 312 (S601), and the content on the document is separated into object units such as characters, graphics, and photographic images (S602). As a result, the type (character, graphic, etc.), size, and position (coordinate value) on the document are derived for each object. Here, by applying a technique such as block division or character division used in general OCR technology, division by character unit or figure unit can be easily performed. Next, the electronic watermark for the document or the electronic watermark information for the image, that is, the color information embedded for each object of character, figure, and image is extracted (S603).

  If the user's designation is “generate color paper document” (S604), a color document is generated in step S605. That is, a color raster image is generated by comparing the raster image read from the scanner 312 with the size, position (coordinate value) on the original, and color information of each object extracted in steps S602 and S603. At this time, RGB or CMYK images are created according to the specifications of the printer 310. Finally, a color paper document is output by printing this image with the printer 310 (S606).

  On the other hand, if the user designation is “generate color electronic file” in step S604, the file is converted into a file in a designated page description language format represented by GDI, PDF, and PostScript (S607). Specifically, an OCR technique is applied to the raster image read by the scanner 312 to extract the character type (meaning) and convert it into a character code. A color electronic file is generated by collating this result (character code) with the size of each object, the position (coordinate value) on the document, and color information extracted in steps S602 and S603 (S607). For example, if the object is a character, it is converted into character code, font ID, and coordinate matrix drawing color data, and if it is a figure, it is converted into a vector, coordinate conversion matrix, line attribute, and drawing color data. If the object is an image, it is converted into data such as source image data, source image header information (size, depth, color, compression, etc.), a coordinate matrix, etc., and a file is generated.

  As described above, according to the fifth embodiment, the same processing as that of the second embodiment described above can be realized on a computer.

  Note that each of the above-described embodiments is merely a specific example for carrying out the present invention, and the technical scope of the present invention is not construed as being limited thereto. That is, the present invention can be implemented in various forms without departing from the technical idea or the main features thereof.

<Other embodiments>
Although the embodiment has been described in detail above, the present invention can take an embodiment as a system, apparatus, method, program, storage medium (recording medium), or the like. Specifically, the present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices, or may be applied to an apparatus composed of a single device.

  In the present invention, a software program for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied directly or remotely to a system or apparatus, and the computer of the system or apparatus reads and executes the supplied program code. Is also achieved. The program in this case is a program corresponding to the flowchart shown in the drawing in the embodiment.

  Accordingly, since the functions of the present invention are implemented by computer, the program code installed in the computer also implements the present invention. In other words, the present invention includes a computer program itself for realizing the functional processing of the present invention.

  In that case, as long as it has the function of a program, it may be in the form of object code, a program executed by an interpreter, script data supplied to the OS, or the like.

  Recording media for supplying the program include the following media. For example, floppy disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, MO, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, magnetic tape, nonvolatile memory card, ROM, DVD (DVD-ROM, DVD- R).

  As a program supply method, the following method is also possible. That is, the browser of the client computer is connected to a homepage on the Internet, and the computer program itself (or a compressed file including an automatic installation function) of the present invention is downloaded to a recording medium such as a hard disk. It can also be realized by dividing the program code constituting the program of the present invention into a plurality of files and downloading each file from a different homepage. That is, a WWW server that allows a plurality of users to download a program file for realizing the functional processing of the present invention on a computer is also included in the present invention.

  In addition, the program of the present invention is encrypted, stored in a storage medium such as a CD-ROM, distributed to users, and key information for decryption is downloaded from a homepage via the Internet to users who have cleared predetermined conditions. It is also possible to make it. That is, the user can execute the encrypted program by using the key information and install it on the computer.

  Further, the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the computer executing the read program. Furthermore, based on the instructions of the program, an OS or the like running on the computer performs part or all of the actual processing, and the functions of the above-described embodiments can also be realized by the processing.

  Further, the program read from the recording medium is written in a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, and then executed, so that the program of the above-described embodiment can be realized. Function is realized. That is, based on the instructions of the program, the CPU provided in the function expansion board or function expansion unit can perform part or all of the actual processing.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an image processing device according to a first embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram which shows the color information extraction process of the image processing apparatus in 2nd Embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the computer in 4th and 5th embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of an image handled by the color information matching process in this embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the color information embedding process in 4th Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the color information extraction process in 5th Embodiment.

Claims (19)

Color information extracting means for extracting color information for each object constituting the color image data from the color image data;
Color information embedding means for embedding the color information extracted by the color information extracting means in image data constituted by corresponding objects;
Monochrome output means for outputting the image data in which the color information is embedded by the color information embedding means as a monochrome image;
An image processing apparatus comprising:   The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the color information embedding unit embeds the color information in a corresponding object as digital watermark information.   The image processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the color information embedding unit embeds the color information as character watermark information in characters constituting a corresponding object.   The image processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the color information embedding unit embeds the color information as background watermark information in a background portion of image data constituted by a corresponding object.   The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the color information embedding unit embeds the color information as visible code in image data constituted by a corresponding object.   The image processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the visible code is a two-dimensional barcode. The color information extracting means includes
Whole color information extracting means for extracting color information of the entire color image data;
Object separation means for separating the color image data in units of objects;
Color information assigning means for assigning color information extracted by the overall color information extracting means to the object separated by the object separating means;
6. The image processing according to claim 1, wherein the color information embedding unit embeds the color information assigned to the object by the color information assigning unit into image data constituted by the object. apparatus.   8. The image processing apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising color reading means for obtaining the color image data by reading a color original image.   The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the color image data is configured in units of objects.   The image processing apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the color image data is described in a page description language.   The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the monochrome output unit performs monochrome printing on a recording medium.   The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the monochrome output unit performs monochrome display on a screen. Reading means for reading a black and white original image to obtain image data;
Object separation means for separating the image data into object units;
Color information extracting means for extracting color information for the separated object from the image data;
Color image generation means for generating color image data by reflecting the color information extracted by the color information extraction means to the image data;
An image processing apparatus comprising:   The image processing apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the color information extraction unit extracts the color information as digital watermark information.   15. The image processing apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising color output means for outputting the color image data generated by the color image generation means as a color image. A color information extraction step for extracting color information for each object constituting the color image data from the color image data;
A color information embedding step for embedding the extracted color information in image data constituted by a corresponding object;
A monochrome output step of outputting the image data in which the color information is embedded as a monochrome image;
An image processing method comprising: A reading step of reading a black and white original image to obtain image data;
An object separation step of separating the image data into object units;
A color information extracting step of extracting color information for the separated object from the image data;
A color image generation step of generating color image data by reflecting the color information extracted in the color information extraction step with respect to the image data;
An image processing method comprising:   A program that, when executed on a computer, causes the computer to operate as the image processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 15.   A recording medium on which the program according to claim 18 is recorded.

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