JP2008017429A - Facsimile machine - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a facsimile machine in which a document image with a forgery suppression tint block can be used at a receiving side without floating a latent image even when the document image is transmitted. <P>SOLUTION: The facsimile machine, according to the present invention, which is capable of transmitting a document image including a forgery suppression tint block comprises: a document image reading means for reading the document image to generate scan image data; a low-pass filter means for loading low-pass filtering to the scan image data for excluding a high frequency component in a background part of the forgery suppression tint block included in the scan image data; a background skipping means for excluding the forgery suppression tint block from the low-pass-filtered scan image data; a forgery suppression tint block information extracting means for extracting information constituting the forgery suppression tint block to generate information for re-constituting the forgery suppression tint block in a receiving-side facsimile machine; and a scan image data transmitting means for transmitting the information re-constituting the forgery suppression tint block together with the scan image data from which the forgery suppression tint block is excluded. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention generally relates to a facsimile apparatus, and more particularly, to a facsimile apparatus capable of transmitting and receiving a document image including a forgery-suppressing tint block without raising its latent image.

  Conventionally, a pattern called a counterfeit deterrent pattern has been used for the purpose of preventing the use of unauthorized copies and psychological deterrence of illegal copy acts. The forgery-inhibited background pattern is a pattern in which characters and images such as “copy prohibited” and “copy prohibited” appear when electrophotographic copying is performed.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 08-223409 Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 09-305754 Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-091730 C MAGAZINE September 2004 issue T.A. Linde, A.M. Buzo, and R.M. M.M. Gray, “An algorithm for vector quantizer design”, IEEE Tran. Commun. , COM-28, No. 1, pp. 84-95, 1980 Richard O. Duda, Peter E. et al. Hart David G. Stork, “Pattern Classification”, Jon Wiley & Sons p. 528

  When copying using an electrophotographic copying machine, an image that cannot be seen before copying (latent image) will appear. The latent image is lifted in the same way as when copying with a machine. Forgery-inhibited tint blocks are used for “prohibiting the use of illegal copies” and “psychological deterrence of illegal copying”. When copying with an electrophotographic copying machine, an invisible image emerges. That is not a problem. However, it may be a problem that an image that is not visible due to transmission / reception by a facsimile apparatus always rises. For example, if you want to use a document image containing a forgery-inhibited tint block for "prohibition of the use of illegal copies" or "psychological deterrence of illegal copying" on the receiving side, a document image with no latent image on the receiving side Need to be sent. However, the current facsimile apparatus cannot be used on the receiving side because the latent image is lifted on the receiving side. In such a case, there has been no choice but to take measures such as mailing a document image containing a forgery-suppressing tint block.

  Therefore, the present invention provides a facsimile apparatus that enables a document image to be used on the receiving side without causing a latent image to rise even when a document image including a forgery-inhibited tint block is transmitted over a network such as a telephone network or the Internet. The purpose is to provide.

  In order to achieve such an object, the present invention provides a facsimile apparatus capable of transmitting a document image including a forgery-inhibited tint block, comprising: a document image reading unit that reads the document image and generates scan image data; A low-pass filter means for applying a low-pass filter to the scan image data in order to remove a high-frequency component of the background portion of the forgery-inhibited tint block included in the scan image data, and the low-pass filter From the scanned image data, the background removal means for deleting the forgery-inhibited tint block and the information constituting the forgery-inhibiting tint block included in the scanned image data are extracted, and information for reconstructing the forgery-inhibiting tint block is generated at the receiving facsimile device Together with the scanned image data from which the forgery-inhibited tint block information extracting means and the forgery-inhibited tint block are deleted, Characterized in that it comprises a scan image data transmitting means for transmitting information to reconstruct the concrete deterrent pattern.

  Further, the present invention is a facsimile apparatus capable of receiving a document image including a forgery-inhibited background pattern, together with scanned image data in which the forgery-inhibited background pattern is deleted from the scanned image data generated by reading the document image, Scan image data receiving means for receiving information for reconstructing the forgery-inhibited background pattern included in the scanned image data, and forgery-inhibited background pattern forming means for reconstructing the forgery-inhibited background pattern from the information for reconstructing the forgery-inhibited background pattern And printing means for printing the scanned image data and the reconstructed counterfeit copy-forgery-inhibited pattern.

  According to the present invention, even if a document image containing a forgery-suppressing copy-forgery-inhibited pattern is transmitted over a network such as a telephone network or the Internet, the latent image does not rise, and the receiving side can also display the document image as “prohibit use of illegal copies” or It can be used for “psychological deterrence of illegal copying”. In addition, by combining with user authentication, a legitimate user can deliver a document image containing a forgery-suppressed tint block only to the legitimate user, and an illegal user is also passed an image with a latent image lifted. It becomes possible to do.

  FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a system that can transmit and receive a document image including a forgery-suppressing tint block.

  In this system, transmission-side facsimile apparatuses 1201 and 1204 and reception-side facsimile apparatuses 1202 and 1205 are connected via networks 1203 and 1206. The transmission-side facsimile apparatuses 1201 and 1204 are facsimile apparatuses that can transmit a document image including a forgery-inhibited background pattern. The networks 1203 and 1206 are networks such as the Internet and a telephone network. Receiving facsimile apparatuses 1202 and 1205 are facsimile apparatuses that can receive an image including a forgery-suppressing tint block. In this system, the facsimile machines 1202 and 1205 on the receiving side may be facsimile machines that are compatible with forgery-inhibited background patterns, or may be facsimile machines that are not compatible with forgery-inhibited background patterns.

  FIG. 12A is a configuration diagram of a system in which both the transmission-side facsimile apparatus 1201 and the reception-side facsimile apparatus 1202 support forgery-inhibited background patterns. On the other hand, FIG. 12B is a configuration diagram of a system in which only the transmission-side facsimile apparatus 1204 corresponds to forgery-inhibited background patterns and the reception-side facsimile apparatus 1205 does not support forgery-inhibited background patterns.

  In FIG. 12A, the transmitting side sends information on forgery-inhibited background patterns, and the receiving side generates a document image including forgery-inhibited background patterns. On the other hand, in FIG. 12B, the transmission side generates a document image including a forgery-inhibited background pattern, and transmits the forgery-inhibited background pattern to the receiving side as image data.

(Example 1)
In this embodiment, the description will be made on the assumption of the case of FIG.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a facsimile apparatus that can transmit a document image including a forgery-suppressing tint block. The facsimile apparatus includes a mode setting unit 0100, a scanning unit 0101, a low-pass filter unit 0102, a forgery-inhibited tint block information extraction unit 0103, a background removal unit 0104, a resolution conversion unit 0105, and a communication unit 0106. Furthermore, a user authentication unit 0107, a forgery suppression tint block setting unit 0108, and a reception destination determination unit 0109 are provided.

  The mode setting unit 0100 is a part for setting the operation mode of the facsimile apparatus. The operation mode is largely divided into the following three modes.

1. Normal A mode for general fax operations.
2. Manual A mode in which the user manually sets various parameters for forgery-inhibited tint blocks.
3. Automatic In this mode, the presence or absence of forgery-inhibited background patterns is automatically determined, and various parameters are set automatically.

  In each of these modes, not all of the elements constituting the facsimile apparatus described below are used, and the elements are used as necessary.

  In the automatic mode 3, a scanning unit 0101, a low-pass filter unit 0102, a counterfeit suppression tint block information extraction unit 0103, a background removal unit 0104, a resolution conversion unit 0105, a communication unit 0106, and a user authentication unit 0107 are used.

  In the normal mode 1, a scan unit 0101, a resolution conversion unit 0105, and a communication unit 0106 are used. These are all used in 3 automatic modes.

  In the manual mode 2, a scanning unit 0101, a low-pass filter unit 0102, a background removal unit 0104, a resolution conversion unit 0105, a communication unit 0106, and a forgery suppression tint block setting unit 0108 are used. The parts used also in the automatic mode 3 are a scan unit 0101, a low-pass filter unit 0102, a background removal unit 0104, a resolution conversion unit 0105, and a communication unit 0106. A portion not used in the automatic mode 3 is a forgery suppression tint block setting unit 0108.

A scanning unit 0101 is a part that scans a document and generates a multi-valued image.
The low-pass filter unit 0102 is a part that applies a low-pass filter to the multi-valued image (scanned image data) generated by the scan unit, and the processing performed here is preprocessing of the background removal unit described later. This filter is for removing the high frequency component of the background area of the forgery-inhibited tint block expressed by fine dots so that the same density is expressed in halftones.

  The forgery-inhibited tint block information extraction unit 0103 determines whether or not the scanned image data includes a forgery-inhibited tint block, and uses information for reconstructing the forgery-inhibited tint block in the reception-side facsimile apparatus as the forgery-inhibited tint block pattern in the scanned image data. It is a part to extract more. Details of this part will be described later.

  The background removal unit 0104 receives the processing result of the low-pass filter unit, which is preprocessing, and cancels (deletes) the background, that is, the forgery suppression background pattern included in the scanned image data, using a special method of binarization. Part. As a special method of binarization, methods disclosed in Patent Literature 1 and Patent Literature 2 can be cited.

  The resolution conversion unit 0105 is a part that converts the resolution in accordance with the printing resolution of the receiving facsimile machine. Specifically, the digital image is enlarged / reduced based on the scanning resolution and the printing resolution so that the printing sizes are the same. As a scaling method, a nearest neighbor method, a linear interpolation method, or the like is used (see Non-Patent Document 1).

  The communication unit 0106 is a part that communicates with the receiving facsimile apparatus through a network such as a telephone network or the Internet. This portion is used together with a receiving destination determination unit 0109, which will be described later, when it is determined whether or not the receiving facsimile device is compatible with forgery-suppressed background patterns. It is also used when acquiring the print resolution on the receiving side.

  The user authentication unit 0107 is a part that determines and authenticates whether or not the user who performs the transmission operation of the document image including the forgery-inhibited tint block has the operation authority with the password. In this embodiment, for authentication, user authentication is performed using a password. However, an appropriate user authentication means such as biometric authentication can be used instead.

  The forgery suppression tint block setting unit 0108 is a part for manually setting various parameters of the forgery suppression tint block. The various parameters of the forgery-inhibited background pattern here correspond to information for reconstructing the forgery-inhibited background pattern extracted by the above-described forgery-inhibited background pattern information extracting unit 0103.

  The reception destination determination unit 0109 is a part that determines whether or not the reception side supports the forgery-suppressed background pattern. For this determination, T30 is used as the protocol, and information indicating whether or not the receiving side supports the counterfeit copy-forgery-inhibited pattern is defined in the DIS and DCS extension fields.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the forgery-inhibited tint block information extraction unit 0103. Details of the forgery-inhibited tint block information extraction unit 0103 will be described below with reference to FIG.

  The forgery-inhibited tint block information extraction unit 0103 includes a forgery-inhibited tint block presence / absence determining unit 0201 for determining whether or not the scan image data includes a forgery-inhibiting tint block, and a latent image information extracting unit 0202 for extracting a latent image. In addition, a camouflage information extraction unit 0203 that extracts information related to camouflage, a camouflage information storage unit 0204 that stores information related to camouflage, and a density extraction unit 0205 that extracts the density of the pattern of the forgery-suppressed background pattern are provided.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the forgery suppression tint block presence / absence determination unit 0201. The counterfeit suppression ground pattern presence / absence determination unit 0201 checks the frequency characteristics of the scanned image data to determine whether the scanned image data includes a counterfeit suppression ground pattern. For this purpose, the forgery suppression tint block presence / absence determining unit 0201 includes a dividing unit 0301, a feature parameter calculating unit 0302, a clustering unit 0303, a binarizing unit 0304, a dividing unit 0305, a stacking unit 0306, a pattern recognition unit 0307, and a determining unit 0308. Prepare.

The dividing unit 0301 is a part that divides the scan image data into a rectangular shape having a certain size and a lattice shape.
The feature parameter calculation unit 0302 is a part that calculates feature parameters in each rectangle divided into a grid. As the characteristic parameter, an amplitude spectrum after two-dimensional Fourier transform is used.

  The clustering unit 0303 is a part that generates the calculated feature parameters as a plurality of clusters using a clustering algorithm. As a clustering algorithm for examining the frequency characteristics, an LBG algorithm (see Non-Patent Document 2) or a k-mean method (see Non-Patent Document 3) is used.

  The binarization unit 0304 is a part that binarizes the scan image data with a single threshold value. The threshold is set from the histogram of the scan image data and the area ratio of the camouflage template. Specifically, the threshold value is a value at which the ratio of the integral value obtained by integrating the histogram with respect to all luminance values and the integral value from the luminance value indicating the brightest to a certain value is the same as the above-described area ratio. And

  The dividing unit 0305 is a part that divides the binary image in a grid pattern with the size of the camouflage template. The camouflage template here is prepared in advance with a plurality of camouflage patterns used for the background pattern, and the area ratio and size of the black pixels are constant.

The stacking unit 0306 is a part that stacks the divided binary images and generates a multi-valued image. Specifically, for all input binary images, a multi-valued image is output in which each pixel value is a value obtained by adding the pixel value to each pixel.
The pattern recognition unit 0307 is a part that calculates a matched filter between a camouflage template and a multi-value image, and performs pattern matching.

  The determination unit 0308 is a part that determines the presence / absence of a forgery-inhibited tint block from the result of clustering and the result of pattern matching. This part has a high possibility that the clustering result represents a forgery-inhibited tint block, and the pattern matching result has a high similarity to a pre-registered camouflage pattern. Judge that there is. The above-described clustering result is more likely to represent a forgery-inhibited tint block. More specifically, the cluster representative vector represented by the clustering result is a feature of the latent image portion and background portion of the tint block. This refers to the case where

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the latent image information extraction unit 0202.
The latent image information extraction unit 0202 includes a difference image generation unit 0401, a low-pass filter unit 0402, and a calculation unit 0403.

The difference image generation unit 0401 is a part that generates a background-only image by subtracting a document and an image from scan image data.
The low-pass filter unit 0402 is a part that applies a low-pass filter to an image of only the background, and extracts an area (latent image part) composed of large dots that floats after electrophotographic copying.

  The calculation unit 0403 is a part that generates a latent image from the extracted image of the latent image part. Specifically, a thickening process is performed on the image that has been subjected to the low-pass filter, and a calculation is performed to turn on between the dots in the latent image portion. Here, in the thickening process, the process of changing white dots in contact with black dots to black dots in the binary image is performed once or more. As a result, it is possible to fill in between the large dots in the latent image portion, and it is possible to generate an image corresponding to the original latent image.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the camouflage information extraction unit 0203.
The camouflage information extraction unit 0203 includes a binarization unit 0501, a division unit 0502, a stacking unit 0503, and a pattern recognition unit 0504.

The binarization unit 0501 is a part that binarizes the scan image data with a certain threshold. The binarization threshold value is obtained from the area ratio of black pixels of the camouflage template and the histogram of the scan image data.
The dividing unit 0502 is a part that acquires the size of the camouflage from the camouflage template, and divides the binary image into a grid pattern with the size.
The stacking unit 0503 is a part that stacks each of the divided binary images to generate a multi-value image.
The pattern recognition unit 0504 is a part that performs pattern recognition by taking a matched filter of a multi-value image and a camouflage template.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the density extraction unit 0205.
The density extraction unit 0205 includes a low-pass filter unit 0601, a histogram calculation unit 0602, and a tint block density calculation unit 0603.

The low-pass filter unit 0601 is a part that applies a low-pass filter to the scanned image data.
The histogram calculation unit 0602 is a part that calculates a histogram.
The background pattern density calculation unit 0603 is a part that calculates the density of the background pattern based on the histogram. Specifically, using the fact that the area of the tint block itself is relatively large in the document image, a portion corresponding to the density of the tint block in the histogram is extracted. In the histogram, the density in the vicinity of the portion corresponding to the density of the tint block is higher than that in the surrounding area and is considered to have a peak. Therefore, the density of the tint block is calculated by detecting the peak.

FIG. 7 is an operation flow chart at the time of transmission of the facsimile apparatus described with reference to FIG.
The facsimile apparatus shown in FIG. 1 first scans an original with the scanning unit 0101 (S0701), and generates a multi-valued image (scanned image data). Next, the mode setting unit 0100 determines a preset mode (S0702).

  When the mode is normal, the communication unit 0106 acquires the transmission destination resolution (S0704), the resolution conversion unit 0105 converts the resolution as necessary (S0705), and the communication unit 0106 transmits the document image (S0706). ).

  When the mode is automatic, the forgery suppression background pattern information extraction unit 0103 determines whether or not the scanned image data includes a forgery suppression background pattern (S0703). If the forgery-inhibited background pattern is not included, the process advances to step S0704 described above. If the forgery-inhibited background pattern is included, the reception destination determination unit 0109 determines whether the receiving side supports the forgery-inhibited background pattern (S0707). If the receiving side does not support the forgery-inhibited tint block, the process proceeds to S0704 described above, and the same procedure as in the normal mode is performed. If the receiving side is compatible with the counterfeit copy-forgery-inhibited pattern, the user authentication unit 0107 performs user authentication (S0708).

  Next, various parameters (latent image image, tint block density information, camouflage information) of the forgery-inhibited tint block information extraction unit 0103 are acquired (S0709), and a document image is acquired in the background skip unit 0104 (S0710). . Next, the transmission unit resolution is acquired by the communication unit 0107 (S0711), and the document image resolution is converted by the resolution conversion unit 0105 (S0712). Subsequently, the communication unit 0106 transmits the various parameters of the forgery-inhibited background pattern and the document image to the transmission destination (S0713).

  When the mode is manual, first, user authentication is performed by the user authentication unit 0107 (S0714), and the user himself / herself sets various parameters of the forgery-inhibited background pattern using the forgery-inhibited background pattern setting unit 0108 (S0715). Next, a document image is acquired by the background removal unit 0104 (S0710). The subsequent processing is the same as the processing when the mode is automatic.

  FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a facsimile apparatus that can receive and print a forgery-suppressing tint block. The facsimile apparatus includes a communication unit 0801, a forgery-inhibited tint block configuration unit 0802, a printing unit 0803, a user authentication unit 0804, and a transmission destination determination unit 0805.

A communication unit 0801 is a part that communicates with a transmission source facsimile apparatus through a network such as a telephone network or the Internet.
The forgery-inhibited tint block forming unit 0802 forms a forgery-inhibiting tint block based on the document image sent from the transmission source facsimile apparatus and various parameters of the forgery-inhibiting tint block (latent image image, tint block density information, and camouflage information). Part. The forgery-inhibited tint block formation unit 0802 is the same as the tint block image generation unit disclosed in Patent Document 3.

  The correspondence relationship between the data input to the tint block image generation unit disclosed in Patent Document 3 and the data shown in the present embodiment will be described below.

  As input data of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image generation unit disclosed in Patent Document 3, an input background image, a latent image threshold pattern, a background threshold pattern, color information, processing region information, a latent image background region designation image, and a camouflage region designation image are included. is there. Among these, the input background image is a document image, and the latent image threshold pattern is a pattern obtained by binarizing a gray scale image based on a spiral dither matrix. The background threshold pattern is a pattern obtained by binarizing a grayscale image based on a Bayer dither matrix. The processing area information is the entire document image, the latent image background area designation image is the latent pattern information of the tint block configuration information, and the camouflage area designation image is the camouflage information of the tint block configuration information. Further, as the data output from the tint block image generation unit disclosed in Patent Document 3, there is a tint block composite output original image, which corresponds to a document image printed by the receiving facsimile apparatus.

The printing unit 0803 is a part that performs printing.
The user authentication unit 0804 is a part that determines and authenticates whether or not the user who performs the operation of receiving the document image including the forgery-inhibited tint block has the operation authority using the password. In this embodiment, for authentication, user authentication is performed using a password. However, an appropriate user authentication means such as biometric authentication can be used instead.

  If necessary, the transmission destination determination unit 0805 informs the transmission side that it is a facsimile machine that supports the forgery-inhibited background pattern, and determines whether the transmission side supports the forgery-inhibited background pattern and the received contents. It is determined whether or not various parameters of the forgery suppression tint block are included. For this determination, similarly to the above-described destination determination unit 0109 in the facsimile apparatus on the transmission side, T30 is used as the protocol, and information indicating whether or not the counterfeit suppression pattern is supported in the DIS and DCS extension fields. The determination is made based on the presence or absence.

FIG. 9 is an operation flowchart at the time of reception of the facsimile apparatus described with reference to FIG.
First, the communication unit 0801 starts communication (S0901). Next, the transmission destination determination unit 0805 determines whether the received content includes various parameters of forgery-inhibited background patterns (S0902). When various parameters of the forgery-inhibited background pattern are included, the user authentication unit 0804 authenticates the user (S0903), and the forgery-inhibited background pattern forming unit 0802 configures the forgery-inhibited background pattern (S0904). Next, printing is performed by the printing unit 0803 (S0905). If the various parameters of the forgery-inhibited background pattern are not included, the printing unit 0803 performs printing without performing the user authentication (S903) and the forgery-inhibited background pattern configuration (S904) (S0905).

  Note that both the transmission side and reception side facsimile apparatuses described above can be realized by a combination of a computer, a scanner, and a printer.

(Example 2)
In the present embodiment, a case will be described in which the system configuration is as shown in FIG. 12B, that is, only the transmission-side facsimile apparatus corresponds to the forgery-inhibited background pattern and the reception-side facsimile apparatus does not support the forgery-inhibited background pattern. In the first embodiment, both the transmission-side and reception-side facsimile apparatuses are facsimile apparatuses corresponding to the counterfeit suppression background pattern shown in FIGS. 1 and 8, whereas in the present embodiment, the reception-side facsimile apparatus is a counterfeit suppression background pattern. It does not correspond to.

  FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a facsimile apparatus that can transmit a document image including a forgery-suppressing tint block. In FIG. 11, the same reference numerals as those in FIG. Hereinafter, differences from the facsimile apparatus of FIG. 1 will be described.

  The facsimile apparatus of FIG. 11 is different from the facsimile apparatus of FIG.

  The forgery-inhibited tint block configuration unit 1101 is a part that reconstructs the forgery-inhibiting tint block based on the printing resolution on the receiving side and various parameters of the forgery-inhibiting tint block (latent image image, tint block density information, and camouflage information). The details of this portion are the same as those of the forgery suppression tint block configuration unit 0802 of FIG. The forgery suppression tint block configuration unit 1101 is provided in an apparatus used in the automatic mode and the manual mode. As described above, since the forgery-inhibited tint block configuration unit 1101 is on the transmitting side, the transmitting side can draw a forgery-inhibiting tint block and transmit it to the receiving side. Therefore, even if the receiving side does not support the forgery-inhibiting tint block, It is possible to output the suppression background pattern appropriately.

FIG. 10 is an operation flowchart of the facsimile apparatus described with reference to FIG. 11 at the time of transmission.
First, the document is scanned by the scanning unit 0101 (S1001). Next, the mode setting unit 0100 determines a predetermined mode (S1002).
When the mode is normal, the communication unit 0106 acquires the reception side resolution (S1004), the resolution conversion unit 0105 converts the resolution (S1005), and the communication unit 0106 transmits (S1006).

  When the mode is automatic, the forgery suppression tint block information extraction unit 0103 determines whether or not the scanned image data includes a forgery suppression tint block (S1003). If the forgery-inhibited background pattern is not included, the process proceeds to S1004 described above. If the forgery-inhibited background pattern is included, the user authentication unit 0107 performs user authentication (S1007). Next, the forgery suppression tint block information extraction unit 0103 acquires forgery suppression tint block configuration information (S1008).

  Next, the resolution conversion unit 0105 acquires a document image (S1009), and the communication unit 0106 acquires the resolution on the receiving side and transmits it to the resolution conversion unit 0105 (S1010). Next, the resolution conversion unit 0105 converts the size of the document image in accordance with the resolution on the receiving side (S1011).

  Subsequently, the reception destination determination unit 0109 determines whether or not the reception-side facsimile apparatus is compatible with the forgery-inhibited background pattern (S1012). If it corresponds to the forgery-inhibited background pattern, the communication unit 0106 transmits the document image and various parameters of the forgery-inhibited background pattern (S1013). If it does not correspond to the forgery-inhibited background pattern, the forgery-inhibited background pattern forming unit 1101 forms a forgery-inhibited background pattern (S1014), and the communication unit 0106 transmits the image as an image to the receiving side (S1015).

  When the mode is manual, the user authentication unit 0107 performs user authentication (S1016), and the forgery suppression tint block setting unit 0109 sets various parameters of the forgery suppression tint block (S1017), and acquires a document image (S1009). Subsequent processing is as described above.

  Note that the facsimile apparatus of this embodiment can also be realized by a combination of a computer, a scanner, and a printer.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a facsimile machine that can transmit a document image including a forgery-suppressing tint block. FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the forgery suppression tint block information extraction part. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the forgery suppression tint block presence determination part. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of a latent image information extraction part. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of a camouflage information extraction part. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of a density | concentration extraction part. FIG. 2 is an operation flow chart at the time of transmission of the facsimile apparatus described with reference to FIG. 1. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the facsimile apparatus which can receive a forgery suppression tint block and can print it. FIG. 9 is an operation flowchart of the facsimile apparatus described with reference to FIG. 8 during reception. FIG. 12 is an operation flowchart of the facsimile apparatus described with reference to FIG. 11 at the time of transmission. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a facsimile machine that can transmit a document image including a forgery-suppressing tint block. FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the system which can transmit / receive the document image containing the forgery suppression tint block.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 0100 Mode setting part 0101 Scan part 0102 Low-pass filter part 0103 Forgery suppression background pattern information extraction part 0104 Background removal part 0105 Resolution conversion part 0106 Communication part 0107 User authentication part 0108 Forgery suppression background pattern setting part 0109 Receiving destination judgment part

Claims (14)

A facsimile apparatus capable of transmitting a document image including a forgery-suppressing tint block,
Document image reading means for reading the document image and generating scan image data;
Low-pass filter means for applying a low-pass filter to the scan image data in order to remove a high-frequency component of the background portion of the forgery-suppressing tint block included in the scan image data;
Ground removal means for deleting the forgery-suppressing background pattern from the scanned image data that has been subjected to the low-pass filter;
Forgery-inhibited tint block information extracting means for extracting information constituting the forgery-inhibited tint block included in the scanned image data and generating information for reconstructing the forgery-inhibiting tint block in the receiving facsimile device;
A facsimile apparatus, comprising: scan image data from which the forgery-inhibited tint block has been deleted and scan image data transmitting means for transmitting information for reconstructing the forgery-inhibited tint block. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1,
Mode setting input means for receiving the operation mode of the facsimile apparatus;
A facsimile apparatus, further comprising: forgery suppression tint block setting means for manually setting information for reconstructing the forgery suppression tint block when the operation mode received in the previous period is manual. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1 or 2,
A facsimile apparatus, further comprising user authentication means for determining whether or not a user who performs the document image transmission operation has an operation authority and authenticating the user. The anti-counterfeiting tint block information extracting means includes:
A forgery-inhibited tint block presence / absence judging means for judging whether or not the scanned image data includes a forgery-inhibiting tint block;
Latent image information extracting means for extracting information about the latent image;
Camouflage information storage means for storing information about camouflage;
Camouflage information extraction means for extracting information about camouflage based on the information stored by the camouflage information storage means;
4. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising density extracting means for extracting the density of the forgery-inhibited tint block.   The forgery suppression tint block presence / absence judging means creates a histogram of the image data obtained by applying a low-pass filter to the scanned image data, checks the frequency characteristics of the scanned image data of the portion expressing the density, and determines the presence or absence of the forgery suppression tint block. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the determination is made.   6. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the forgery-inhibited tint block presence / absence judging unit examines characteristics of frequency characteristics using a clustering algorithm. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the clustering algorithm is a k-mean method. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the clustering algorithm is an LBG algorithm. A facsimile apparatus capable of transmitting a document image including a forgery-inhibited background pattern to a facsimile apparatus that does not support the forgery-inhibited background pattern,
The forgery-inhibited background pattern forming means for reconstructing the forgery-inhibited background pattern from the information for reconstructing the forgery-inhibited background pattern, and the scanned image data in which the forgery-inhibited background pattern has been deleted, and the reconstructed forgery-inhibited background pattern as image data are transmitted. 9. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising scan image data transmission means.   The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information for reconstructing the forgery-inhibited tint block is a latent image, tint block density information, and camouflage information. A facsimile apparatus capable of receiving a document image including a forgery-suppressing tint block,
Scan image data receiving means for receiving information for reconstructing the forgery-suppressed copy-forgery-inhibited pattern included in the scan image data together with the scan image data in which the forgery-suppressed copy-forgery-inhibited pattern is deleted from the scan image data generated by reading the document image When,
Forgery-inhibiting tint block configuring means for reconstructing the forgery-inhibiting tint block from information for reconstructing the forgery-inhibiting tint block;
A facsimile apparatus comprising: printing means for printing the scanned image data and the reconstructed counterfeit copy-forgery-inhibited pattern. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 11,
A facsimile apparatus, further comprising: a user authentication unit that determines whether or not a user who performs the document image reception operation has an operation authority and authenticates the user.   13. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the information for reconstructing the forgery-inhibited tint block is a latent image, tint block density information, and camouflage information. A transmission-side facsimile apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 10,
A receiving facsimile apparatus according to any one of claims 11 to 13,
A forgery-inhibited tint block pattern transmission / reception system, comprising: a network that connects the transmission-side facsimile apparatus and the reception-side facsimile apparatus.

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