JP2007251381A - Image processing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image processing apparatus capable of forming a ground tint image with less image quality deterioration while saving the capacity of a memory for the ground tint image. <P>SOLUTION: The image processing apparatus includes: a ground tint storage section for storing ground tint image data for generating a ground tint image comprising a ground tint and characters in a maximum printable size; and a source image storage section for storing source image data. Further, the image processing apparatus includes: an image forming section for forming an image on the basis of the source image data and the ground tint image data; and a control section for controlling the image forming section so that the ground tint image data in the ground tint storage section and the source image data in the source image storage section are overlappingly output. The control section extracts the ground tint image data by the size of the source image data and executes the overlapping. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, and more particularly, to an image processing apparatus that adds a character image to a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image and outputs the image.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, image processing apparatuses that overwrite and output various information on an original image have been developed (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2). In such an image processing apparatus, only one size of overlay image to be overwritten is prepared. For example, in the case of the image processing apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1, the overlay image is expanded or contracted according to the size of the original image. It is supposed to be overwritten.
In recent years, in order to prevent duplication of a confidential document, an image processing apparatus has been developed in which a word forbidden to be copied, such as “duplication strictly prohibited”, is overwritten on an original image and output. Some of such image processing apparatuses overwrite and output a combination of a word and a background pattern. If the word and the background pattern are output by overwriting the original image, when the output image is duplicated, the word “restriction of duplication” will appear. As a result, it is easy for others to recognize that the image is a duplicated image, and the leakage of confidential documents can be prevented.
JP 2004-289406 A JP 2005-27012 A

However, in both Patent Documents 1 and 2, as described above, only one size of overlay image to be overwritten on the original image is prepared. For example, in the image processing apparatus described in Patent Document 1, an overlay image is stretched and overwritten according to the size of the original image. However, when this technique is applied to a ground pattern, the image quality of the ground pattern is increased along with the stretching. There was a risk of deterioration.
On the other hand, for example, in the image processing apparatus described in Patent Document 2, the overlay image cannot be overwritten on the entire area of the original image, which is insufficient for the background pattern.
In order to prevent this, preparing copy-forgery-inhibited pattern data for all the sizes of the original image increases the memory for the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image.

  An object of the present invention is to provide an image processing apparatus capable of forming a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image with little deterioration in image quality while saving memory for the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image.

An image processing apparatus according to the invention of claim 1 is provided.
A copy-forgery-inhibited pattern storage unit that stores copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data for creating a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image composed of a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern and characters;
An original image storage unit for storing original image data;
An image forming unit that forms an image based on the original image data and the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data;
A control unit that controls the image forming unit so that the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data in the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern storage unit and the original image data in the storage unit for original image are superimposed and output;
The control unit extracts the tint block image data by the size of the original image data and executes the superposition.

The invention according to claim 2 is the image processing apparatus according to claim 1,
The copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data is formed so that the characters are arranged at substantially the center of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern,
The control unit is characterized in that the tint block image data is extracted by an amount corresponding to the size of the original image data with reference to a central portion of the tint block image data.

The invention according to claim 3 is the image processing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2,
The copy-forgery-inhibited pattern storage unit stores a vertical image copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data for storing a vertical image copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data having a maximum printable size, and a horizontal image copy-forgery-inhibited pattern print storage unit for storing horizontal image copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data having a maximum printable size. Have
The control unit determines whether the original image data is a vertical image or a horizontal image;
If it is determined that the original image data is a vertical image, the vertical image copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data is read out from the vertical image copy-forgery-inhibited pattern storage unit, and the vertical image copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data corresponding to the size of the original image data is read. And performing the superposition,
When it is determined that the original image data is a horizontal image, the horizontal image ground pattern image data is read from the horizontal image ground pattern storage unit, and the horizontal image ground pattern image data corresponding to the size of the original image data is read. Is extracted and the superposition is executed.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the image processing apparatus according to the third aspect,
The original image data is composed of a plurality of image data,
The control unit determines whether each of the image data of the original image data is a vertical image or a horizontal image,
For the image data determined to be a vertical image, the vertical image copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data is read from the vertical image copy-forgery-inhibited pattern storage unit, and the vertical image copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data is extracted by the size of the image data, Perform the overlay,
For the image data determined to be a horizontal image, the horizontal image ground pattern image data is read from the horizontal image ground pattern storage unit, the horizontal image ground pattern image data is extracted by the size of the image data, and the horizontal image ground pattern image data is extracted. It is characterized by executing superposition.

According to the present invention, since the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data of the maximum printable size is extracted by the size of the original image data and is overlaid, the initial copy of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data can be performed without expanding or contracting the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data to the original image data size. It is possible to superimpose the original image data while maintaining the image quality. As a result, a tint block image with little image quality deterioration can be formed.
Furthermore, if only the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data of the maximum printable size is stored, the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data corresponding to each printable size can be extracted. Therefore, the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data corresponding to each printable size is stored in advance. No need to remember. Thereby, it is possible to save the storage area for the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data.

  Also, since the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data is extracted by the size of the original image data on the basis of the central portion of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data in which characters are arranged at the approximate center of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern, the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data is extracted to any size , Can display characters.

If the original image data is a vertical image, the vertical image copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data corresponding to the size of the original image data is extracted and superimposed, and if the original image data is a horizontal image, Since the horizontal image copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data corresponding to the size of the image data is extracted and overlaid, the optimum copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data can be superimposed on each of the horizontal image and the vertical image.
Furthermore, in the original image data composed of a plurality of image data, each image data is determined whether it is a vertical image or a horizontal image. Therefore, an original image in which a vertical image and a horizontal image are mixed is used. Even for data, it is possible to superimpose optimum copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data.

  Hereinafter, the image processing apparatus according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a main control configuration of the image processing apparatus. As shown in FIG. 1, an image processing apparatus 1 includes a scanner unit 2 that reads an image and creates original image data, and a compression / decompression block 3 that compresses / decompresses the original image data created by the scanner unit 2. A read image storage unit 4 that stores the original image data compressed by the compression / decompression block 3, a formed image storage unit 5 that stores data used for image formation, and a formed image storage unit 5. An image forming unit 6 for forming an image based on the data thus obtained and a control unit 7 for controlling them are provided.

  When one image is read, the scanner unit 2 outputs the image data of the image as original image data to the compression / decompression block 3.

  The compression / decompression block 3 compresses the original image data input from the scanner unit 2, reduces the capacity, outputs the compressed image data to the read image storage unit 4, and compresses the original image data in the formed image storage unit 5. The data is decompressed and returned to the original capacity.

  The read image storage unit 4 stores original image data after data compression input from the compression / decompression block 3.

  The formed image storage unit 5 includes a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data for creating a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image composed of a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern and characters, and original image data, copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data, and original image data after being transferred from the read-image storage unit 4. Data such as superimposed composite data is stored. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a schematic configuration of the formed image storage unit 5. As shown in FIG. 2, the formed image storage unit 5 stores a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern storage unit 8 that stores compressed copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data, and the original image data after compression transferred from the read image storage unit 4. An original image storage unit 9, a restored background pattern storage unit 10 that stores the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data that has been decompressed and restored to the original capacity, and a composition storage unit 11 that stores composite data are provided.

  The copy-forgery-inhibited pattern storage unit 8 stores copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data of a maximum printable size that can be printed by the image forming unit 6 in a state where the data is compressed in advance. Here, the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data is for creating a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image composed of a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern and characters as described above. Specifically, a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image P as shown in FIG. 3 is created. The tint block image P is composed of a tint block P1 and a character P2, and the character P2 is arranged at the approximate center of the tint block P1. FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of the tint block image P. As shown in FIG. 4, the character P2 is formed with larger dots than the tint block P1. Thereby, at the time of copying, the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern P1 is deleted, and a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image P in which only the character P2 is raised is formed (see FIG. 5).

The background pattern storage unit 8 stores a vertical image background pattern storage unit 81 for storing vertical image background pattern image data of a maximum printable size and a horizontal image background pattern for storing horizontal image background pattern image data of a maximum printable size. A storage unit 82 is provided.
The original image storage unit 9 stores compressed original image data.

  Here, a vertical image and a horizontal image will be described. The image has direction information indicating the semantic top and bottom of the image on the header, and when the top and bottom indicated by the direction information is aligned with the observer, if the image is horizontally long when viewed from the observer, If it is a vertically long image, it is a vertical image. If the above-mentioned tint block image is described with reference to FIG. 3, the semantic top and bottom is the direction information indicated by the top direction shown by the arrow in the figure. FIG. 3 can be said to be a vertical image because the vertical image is slightly longer.

  The image forming unit 6 forms an image on the recording medium by ejecting ink or transferring toner to the recording medium.

  The control unit 7 includes a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, and the like. The CPU expands and executes a control program in the ROM on the RAM, and controls each unit. Specifically, at the time of image reading, the control unit 7 stores the original image data generated by the scanner unit 2 together with the original image data compressed by the compression / decompression block as the header information of the vertical and horizontal size information. 9 At the time of image output, the control unit 7 calculates the aspect ratio of the original image data from the header information of the original image data read from the original image storage unit 9, and determines whether the original image data is a vertical image or a horizontal image. It is determined whether it is. If the control unit 7 determines that the original image data is a vertical image, the control unit 7 reads the vertical image copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data from the vertical image copy-forgery-inhibited pattern storage unit 81 and decompresses it to the original size by the compression / decompression block 3. And stored in the restored tint block storage unit 10. After that, the control unit 7 reads out the vertical image copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data in the restored copy-forgery-inhibited pattern print storage unit 10 and extracts and rotates the image by considering the top and bottom for the size of the original image data, and compresses and compresses the original image data. The data is expanded to the original size by the expansion block 3, and these are combined to create combined data, which is stored in the combining storage unit 11. Then, the control unit 7 reads the synthesized data from the synthesis storage unit 11 and controls the image forming unit 6 based on the synthesized data so as to create an image on which the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is superimposed on the recording medium. It has become.

On the other hand, when it is determined that the original image data is a horizontal image, the control unit 7 reads the horizontal image ground pattern image data from the horizontal image ground pattern storage unit 82 and restores the original size by the compression / decompression block 3. It is decompressed and stored in the restored tint block storage unit 10. After that, the control unit 7 reads the horizontal image ground pattern image data in the restored ground pattern storage unit 10, extracts and rotates the image by considering the top and bottom for the size of the original image data, and compresses and compresses the original image data. The data is expanded to the original size by the expansion block 3, and these are combined to create combined data, which is stored in the combining storage unit 11. At the time of extraction, the control unit 7 extracts the tint block image data by the size of the original image data with reference to the central portion of the tint block image data.
Then, the control unit 7 reads the synthesized data from the synthesis storage unit 11 and controls the image forming unit 6 based on the synthesized data so as to create an image on which the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is superimposed on the recording medium. It has become.

  Note that the above-described vertical pattern copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data and horizontal image copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data are to be extracted by the size of the original image data, where the size is the number of pixels in the vertical and horizontal directions of the image, Actually, a tint block image having the same number of vertical and horizontal pixels as the original image data is cut out from the entire tint block image data and extracted.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.
First, in step S1, an image is read by the scanner unit 2 to create original image data.
In step S2, the control unit 7 determines whether the original image data is a vertical image or a horizontal image from the aspect ratio of the original image data. If the original image data is a vertical image, the control unit 7 proceeds to step S3. If it is a horizontal image, the process proceeds to step S10.

In step S <b> 3, the control unit 7 reads out the vertical image copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data from the vertical image copy-forgery-inhibited pattern storage unit 81, expands it to the original size by the compression / decompression block 3, and stores it in the restored copy-forgery-inhibited pattern print storage unit 10. .
In step S4, the control unit 7 reads out the vertical pattern copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data in the restored copy-forgery-inhibited pattern print storage unit 10 and extracts and rotates the original image data in consideration of the top and bottom for the size of the original image data. By synthesizing while expanding in size, synthesized data is created and stored in the synthesis storage unit 11.

  In step S5, the control unit 7 reads the composite data from the composite storage unit 11, and controls the image forming unit 6 based on the composite data to create an image on which the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is superimposed on the recording medium. It is like that.

On the other hand, in step S 10, the control unit 7 reads out the vertical pattern copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data from the horizontal image copy-forgery-inhibited pattern storage unit 82, expands it to the original size by the compression / decompression block 3, and stores it in the restored copy-forgery-inhibited pattern print storage unit 10. Remember.
In step S11, the control unit 7 reads out the horizontal image copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data in the restored copy-forgery-inhibited pattern print storage unit 10, extracts and rotates the original image data in consideration of the top and bottom, and converts the original image data into the original image data. By synthesizing while expanding in size, synthesized data is created and stored in the synthesis storage unit 11, and the process proceeds to step S5.

  Thus, as shown in FIG. 7, for example, if the original image G1 has a maximum printable size, the background pattern image M1 based on the background pattern image data is not extracted, and the background pattern is superimposed over the entire surface of the original image G1. A character (for example, “Duplicate Prohibition”) is overwritten at the center, and a composite image C1 is formed. If the original image G2 is smaller than the maximum printable size, the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image M1 based on the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data is extracted by the size of the original image G2 with reference to the central portion, and the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern is overlaid on the entire surface of the original image G2. At the same time, a character is overwritten at the center to form a composite image C2.

As described above, according to the image processing apparatus 1 of the present embodiment, the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data having the maximum printable size is extracted by the size of the original image data and superimposed. It is possible to superimpose the original image data with the initial image quality without expanding or contracting to the size. As a result, a tint block image with little image quality deterioration can be formed.
Furthermore, if only the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data of the maximum printable size is stored, the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data corresponding to each printable size can be extracted. Therefore, the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data corresponding to each printable size is stored in advance. No need to remember. Thereby, it is possible to save the storage area for the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data.

  Also, since the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data is extracted by the size of the original image data on the basis of the central portion of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data in which characters are arranged at the approximate center of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern, the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data is extracted to any size , Can display characters.

  If the original image data is a vertical image, the vertical image copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data corresponding to the size of the original image data is extracted and superimposed, and if the original image data is a horizontal image, The horizontal copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data corresponding to the size of the image data is extracted and superimposed, so that the optimal copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data for each horizontal image and vertical image is obtained while suppressing the size of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image to the maximum printable size. It is possible to superimpose.

It is needless to say that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment and can be modified as appropriate.
For example, in the present embodiment, the case where the scanner unit 2 reads only one image and creates original image data has been described. However, when a plurality of images are read, the scanner unit 2 reads image data for each image. Are created and output to the compression / decompression block 3 as a single original image data.
In this way, when the original image data is composed of a plurality of image data, the control unit 7 determines whether the image data of the original image data is a vertical image or a horizontal image. Then, the control unit 7 reads out the vertical image copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data from the vertical image copy-forgery-inhibited pattern storage unit 81 for the image data determined to be a vertical image, and extracts the vertical image copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data by the size of the image data. To execute superposition. Further, the control unit 7 reads out the horizontal image ground pattern image data from the horizontal image ground pattern storage unit 82 for the image data determined to be a horizontal image, and extracts the horizontal image ground pattern image data by the size of the image data. To execute superposition.
As a result, even if the original image data includes both vertical and horizontal image data, the optimum copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data can be superimposed.

  Further, in the present embodiment, the case where one image is formed on one recording medium has been described. However, in the case where a plurality of images are formed collectively on one recording medium, for example, as shown in FIG. Thus, after the images g1, g2, g3, and g4 and the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image m are superimposed to form the composite images c1, c2, c3, and c4, the composite images c1, c2, c3, and c4 are It is preferable to form the aggregated image A by being aggregated on a single recording medium.

It is a block diagram showing the main control structure of the image processing apparatus of this embodiment. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an image forming storage unit provided in the image processing apparatus of FIG. 1. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a tint block image formed by the image processing apparatus of FIG. 1. FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of the tint block image of FIG. 3. It is explanatory drawing showing the image produced by copying the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image of FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the image processing apparatus in FIG. 1. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a composite image created by the image processing apparatus in FIG. 1. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a composite image created by the image processing apparatus in FIG. 1.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image processing apparatus 2 Scanner part 3 Compression / decompression block 4 Storage part for read image 5 Storage part for formed image 6 Image formation part 7 Control part 8 Storage part for background pattern 9 Storage part for original image 10 Storage part for restored background pattern 11 Composition Storage unit 81 Vertical image tint storage unit 82 Horizontal image tint storage unit

Claims (4)

A copy-forgery-inhibited pattern storage unit that stores copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data for creating a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image composed of a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern and characters;
An original image storage unit for storing original image data;
An image forming unit that forms an image based on the original image data and the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data;
A control unit that controls the image forming unit so that the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data in the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern storage unit and the original image data in the storage unit for original image are superimposed and output;
The image processing apparatus, wherein the control unit extracts the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data by the size of the original image data, and executes the superposition. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1.
The copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data is formed so that the characters are arranged at substantially the center of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern,
The image processing apparatus, wherein the control unit extracts the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data by the size of the original image data with reference to a central portion of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2,
The copy-forgery-inhibited pattern storage unit stores a vertical image copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data for storing a maximum printable size vertical image copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data; Have
The control unit determines whether the original image data is a vertical image or a horizontal image;
If it is determined that the original image data is a vertical image, the vertical image copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data is read out from the vertical image copy-forgery-inhibited pattern storage unit, and the vertical image copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data corresponding to the size of the original image data is read. And performing the superposition,
When it is determined that the original image data is a horizontal image, the horizontal image ground pattern image data is read from the horizontal image ground pattern storage unit, and the horizontal image ground pattern image data corresponding to the size of the original image data is read. Is extracted, and the superposition is executed. The image processing apparatus according to claim 3.
The original image data is composed of a plurality of image data,
The control unit determines whether each of the image data of the original image data is a vertical image or a horizontal image,
For the image data determined to be a vertical image, the vertical image copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data is read from the vertical image copy-forgery-inhibited pattern storage unit, and the vertical image copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data is extracted by the size of the image data, Perform the overlay,
For the image data determined to be a horizontal image, the horizontal image ground pattern image data is read from the horizontal image ground pattern storage unit, the horizontal image ground pattern image data is extracted by the size of the image data, and the horizontal image ground pattern image data is extracted. An image processing apparatus that performs superposition.

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