JP2018186434A - Image processing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image processing apparatus which respectively and automatically removes places of colors desired by plural users, from a document image.SOLUTION: A user identification part 23 identifies plural users corresponding to a document image, on the basis of user registration data 31 in a storage device 14. A specific color removal part 24 identifies specific colors corresponding to the plural users on the basis of color designation data 32 associated to the user registration data 31, and removes the places of the specific colors in the document image.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus.

  An image forming apparatus forms an image in which a predetermined color (red, etc.) portion of an original image is erased at the time of copying (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

JP-A-9-214782

  However, in the case of the above-described image forming apparatus, when it is desired to remove a portion of a desired color for each of a plurality of users, it is necessary to designate a color to be removed by a user operation.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to obtain an image processing apparatus that automatically removes portions of a desired color of a plurality of users from a document image.

  An image processing apparatus according to the present invention includes a user specifying unit that specifies a user corresponding to an original image, and a specific color removing unit that specifies a specific color corresponding to the user and removes the portion of the specific color in the original image With.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to obtain an image processing apparatus that automatically removes portions of desired colors of a plurality of users from a document image.

  These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an image processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the image processing apparatus 1 shown in FIG.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an image processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The image processing apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 1 is a copying machine, but may be a multifunction machine or the like.

  The image processing apparatus 1 includes a printing device 11, an image reading device 12, a processor 13, a storage device 14, a display device 15, and an input device 16.

  The printing apparatus 11 is an example of an output device, and based on image data that has been subjected to various types of image processing by the processor 13, an original image is generated using, for example, CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) toner. An internal device that prints in an electrophotographic process.

  The image reading device 12 is an internal device that optically reads a document image from a document and generates color image data of the document image as RGB (red, green, blue) data.

  The processor 13 includes an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) and a computer, and operates as various processing units.

  The storage device 14 is a rewritable nonvolatile storage device such as a flash memory, and stores various data and programs.

The display device 15 is a device such as a liquid crystal display that displays an operation screen or the like to the user. The input device 16 is a device such as a touch panel or a hard key that receives a user operation.

The processor 13 operates as a control unit 21, a login processing unit 22, a user specifying unit 23, a specific color removing unit 24, an image processing unit 25, and a color designation data registration unit 26.

  The control unit 21 controls internal devices such as the printing device 11 and the image reading device 12 and executes various jobs such as copy jobs.

  The login processing unit 22 performs user authentication processing based on user identification information (user ID, password, etc.) input to the login screen. If the user authentication is successful, the login processing unit 22 permits login, and the image processing apparatus 1 is in a state in which a job request from a user can be accepted.

  The user specifying unit 23 specifies a user corresponding to the target document image. For example, the document image is an image read from the document by the image reading device 12.

  In this embodiment, the user specifying unit 23 specifies a user who is permitted to log in by the login processing unit 22 as a user corresponding to the document image.

  If login is not required when using the image processing apparatus 1, the user specifying unit 23 displays a user list on the display device 15, for example, and selects a user from the user list based on a user operation on the input device 16. Select and specify the selected user as the user corresponding to the document image. Alternatively, in this case, the user specifying unit 23 specifies the user corresponding to the document image based on the user ID input by the input device 16 as text.

  The specific color removing unit 24 specifies a specific color corresponding to the user specified by the user specifying unit 23, and removes the portion of the specific color in the document image.

  The storage device 14 stores user registration data 31 and color designation data 32.

  The user registration data 31 includes user identification information (such as user IDs) for one or more users, and associates the color designation data 32 with the user indicated by the user identification information.

  The color designation data 32 is data indicating the specific color described above. Here, the specific color is a chromatic color.

  Therefore, in this embodiment, the specific color removing unit 24 specifies the color specifying data 32 associated with the specified user based on the user registration data 31, and is specified by the specified color specifying data 32. The color is specified as a specific color corresponding to the user.

  Here, in the user registration data 31, a plurality of color designation data 32 can be associated with each user. When a plurality of color designation data 32 are associated with the identified user, the specific color removal unit 24 assigns a plurality of colors respectively designated by the plurality of color designation data 32 to a plurality corresponding to the user. Are identified as specific colors, and the portions of the plurality of specific colors in the document image are removed.

  Further, in the user registration data 31, one color designation data 32 can be associated with a plurality of users. That is, one color designation data 32 can be shared by a plurality of users.

  When a plurality of color designation data 32 are associated with the identified user, the specific color removal unit 24 identifies a plurality of colors respectively designated by the plurality of color designation data 32 as a plurality of identification corresponding to the user. It may be specified as a color and a plurality of specific color portions in the document image may be removed.

  When a plurality of color designation data 32 is associated with the specified user, the specific color removal unit 24 assigns a plurality of colors respectively designated by the plurality of color designation data 32 to a plurality corresponding to the user. The specific color may be specified and a portion of the specific color selected by the user from a plurality of specific colors in the document image may be removed.

  Further, the color designation data 32 is data indicating color values (for example, RGB values) and image data indicating characters or figures drawn in the color specified by the color designation data 32.

  When the color designation data 32 is image data as described above, the specific color removal unit 24 identifies the color range of the character or graphic as the specific color based on the color designation data 32, and sets the color range in the document image. Remove the part of the color to which it belongs.

  For example, if the character or figure is drawn by hand using a pen or the like, the color (saturation, etc.) may change between writing and finishing the character or figure. A color belonging to the color range from writing to the end of writing is specified as the specific color.

  The image processing unit 25 performs predetermined image processing such as color conversion from RGB to CMYK on the original image from which the specific color has been removed by the specific color removal unit 24, and generates image data for printing. To do.

  The color designation data registration unit 26 registers the color designation data 32 by storing it in the storage device 14 in accordance with the user operation of the user. At this time, the color designation data registration unit 26 also registers the color designation data 32 in the user registration data 31 in association with the user.

  When the color designation data 32 is image data as described above, the color designation data registration unit 26 stores image data of an image read from the color designation document by the image reading device 12 as image data as described above. 14 for registration.

  At this time, if the background color of the image data is not white, the color designation data registration unit 26 may register the image data after converting the background color of the image data to white. .

  Next, the operation of the image processing apparatus 1 will be described. FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the image processing apparatus 1 shown in FIG.

  In the case of a copy job, first, the control unit 21 controls the image reading device 12, causes the image reading device 12 to read a document image, and acquires the document image (step S1).

  Next, the control unit 21 determines whether or not the specific color removal mode is set in the user setting or job setting (step S2).

  When the specific color removal mode is set, the user specifying unit 23 specifies the user corresponding to the acquired document image (that is, the user who read the document image) as described above (step S3).

  Next, the specific color removing unit 24 specifies a specific color corresponding to the specified user based on the user registration data 31 and the color designation data 32 (step S4). Then, the specific color removal unit 24 determines whether or not the pixel value of each pixel matches the specific color for each pixel in the acquired document image, and the pixel value matches the specific color. By converting the pixel value into a background color or the like, the specific color portion is removed (step S5).

  On the other hand, if the specific color removal mode is not set in the user setting or job setting, the processes in steps S3 to S5 are not executed.

  Then, in the specific color removal mode, the image processing unit 25 performs predetermined image processing on the original image after the specific color is removed, and generates print image data (step S6). The control unit 21 controls the printing apparatus 11 to cause the printing apparatus 11 to print an image based on the generated printing image data (step S7).

  As described above, according to the above embodiment, the user specifying unit 23 specifies a user corresponding to a document image. The specific color removing unit 24 specifies a specific color corresponding to the user, and removes a specific color portion in the document image.

  As a result, the desired color portions of the plurality of users are automatically removed from the document image.

  Various changes and modifications to the above-described embodiment will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Such changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the subject matter and without diminishing its intended advantages. That is, such changes and modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the claims.

  For example, in the above embodiment, the control unit 21 may display a preview of the document image before or after the specific color removal on the display device 15. In the preview display before the removal of the specific color, for example, highlighting of the portion of the specific color to be removed (framed display, blinking display, mark display, etc.) may be performed. Further, in the preview display after removing the specific color, for example, the highlighted specific color portion may be highlighted (for example, framed, blinking, or displaying a mark).

  In the embodiment described above, the color designation data registration unit 26 may delete the color designation data 32 registered by itself according to a user operation.

  The present invention can be applied to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a multifunction machine.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image processing apparatus 14 Storage apparatus 23 User specific part 24 Specific color removal part 26 Color designation data registration part 31 User registration data 32 Color designation data

Claims (8)

A user identification part for identifying a user corresponding to the document image;
A specific color corresponding to the user, and a specific color removing unit that removes the specific color in the document image;
An image processing apparatus comprising: A storage device for storing color designation data and user registration data relating the color designation data to the user;
The specific color removing unit identifies the color designation data associated with the user, and identifies a color designated by the color designation data as a specific color corresponding to the user;
The image processing apparatus according to claim 1. In the user registration data, a plurality of color designation data can be associated with the user,
The specific color removing unit specifies a plurality of colors respectively designated by the plurality of color designation data as a plurality of specific colors corresponding to the user when the plurality of color designation data is associated with the user. The image processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the plurality of specific color portions in the document image are removed.   The image processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein one color designation data can be associated with a plurality of users in the user registration data. In the user registration data, a plurality of color designation data can be associated with one user,
The specific color removing unit specifies a plurality of colors respectively designated by the plurality of color designation data as a plurality of specific colors corresponding to the user when the plurality of color designation data is associated with the user. 3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein a portion of the specific color selected by the user is removed from the plurality of specific colors in the document image.   The image processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the color designation data is image data representing a character or a figure drawn in a color designated by the color designation data.   The image processing according to claim 6, wherein the specific color removing unit specifies a color range of the character or graphic as the specific color, and removes a color portion belonging to the color range in the document image. apparatus. A color designation data registration unit for registering the image data indicating the characters or figures by storing the image data in the storage device;
The color designation data registration unit registers the image data after converting the background color of the image data to white when the background color of the image data is not white;
The image processing apparatus according to claim 6.

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