JPH04205272A - Image processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To facilitate speeding up of the device and simultaneous processing of plural specific originals by executing decision processing as to whether the specific original exists or not simultaneously with the execution of an image reading operation or processing operation. CONSTITUTION:A decision circuit 409 for the specific originals makes decision as to whether the plural specific originals are under reading or not. A decision signal H is outputted as 0 or 1. An OR gate circuit 410 ORs the 8-bit outputs of a density conversion circuit 408 respectively with the decision signal H which is the output of the decision circuit 409 and outputs V'. The output is eventually V'=FFH regardless of the value of the input signal V when the decision signal H:1, i.e., decision is made that the specific original is under reading. The part corresponding to the specific original is painted out black and the copying of the part of the specific original is eventually infeasible. The decision processing of the specific originals is thus executed simultaneously with the image reading operation or processing operation.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, and particularly to an image processing apparatus that detects a specific document.

[Prior Art] In recent years, with the improvement in image quality and color of copying machines, paper money, paper money, etc.
There are concerns that certain documents such as securities may be forged. On the other hand, in the recognition of a specific document in a copying machine or the like, methods such as pattern matching for the shape of an input image have been proposed. For example, in pattern matching, after correcting the tilt of an input document image, matching with a pre-registered image pattern is performed.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the conventional example described above, there is a limit to the processing speed, and there is a drawback that it is difficult to cope with an increase in the speed of the apparatus. Another drawback is that it becomes difficult to process multiple types of specific documents at the same time for the same reason.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned drawbacks of the conventional example, and an object of the present invention is to provide an image processing device that can perform a determination process for a specific original at the same time as an image reading operation or an image processing operation. It is in the point of doing.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems and achieve the objectives, an image processing device according to the present invention includes a processing means for electrically processing an input image signal, and a processing means for electrically processing an input image signal by the processing means. In parallel with the signal processing, means for determining the degree of similarity between the image represented by the input image signal and a specific document registered in advance is provided, and the processing content by the processing means is determined according to the degree of similarity. It is characterized by being different.

[Operation] According to this configuration, the processing means electrically processes the input image signal, and the determining means performs processing of the input image signal in parallel with the processing of the input image signal by the processing means. The degree of similarity with the specified original document is determined, and the processing content by the processing means is varied depending on the degree of similarity.

[Embodiments] Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In the following embodiments, a copying machine is shown as an example of application of the present invention, but it is needless to say that the present invention is not limited to this and can be applied to various other apparatuses. In addition, regarding counterfeiting, the target is specific documents such as banknotes and securities.

FIG. 2 is an external view showing a first embodiment of an image processing apparatus according to the present invention.

In FIG. 2, 201 is an image scanner section;
This is the part that reads the original and performs digital signal processing.

Further, 202 is a printer section, and an image scanner 2
This is a part where an image corresponding to the original image read in 01 is printed out in full color on paper.

In the image scanner unit 201, 200 is a mirror pressure plate, and an original 204 on an original platen glass (hereinafter referred to as a platen) 203 is irradiated with a lamp 205, and mirrors 206, 2
07 and 208, an image is formed on a three-line sensor (hereinafter referred to as CCD) 210 by a lens 209, and is sent to a signal processing unit 211 as full color information red (R), green (G), and blue (B) components. In addition, 205, 206
is at a speed of V, and 207 and 208 are moved mechanically at a speed of 1/2v in a direction perpendicular to the electrical scanning direction of the line sensor, thereby scanning the entire document surface. Signal processing section 211
Then, the read signal is electrically processed to produce magenta (M).
, cyan (C), yellow (Y), and black (Bk), and sends it to the printer unit 202. Also, for each document scan (scanner) in the image scanner section 201, one component among M, C, Y, and Bk is sent to the printer section 202, and one printout is made by scanning the document four times in total. Complete.

M, C, Y sent from the image scanner unit 201
Alternatively, the Bk image signal is sent to the laser driver 212. The laser driver 212 modulates and drives the semiconductor laser 213 according to the image signal.

The laser beam is transmitted through a polygon mirror 214. f-theta lens 21
5. A photosensitive drum 217 is scanned through a mirror 216.

Reference numeral 218 denotes a rotary developing device, which includes a magenta developing section 219, a cyan developing section 220 . It is composed of a yellow developing section 221 and a black developing section 222, and the four developing sections alternately contact the photosensitive drum 217 and develop the electrostatic image formed on the photosensitive drum with toner.

223 is a transfer drum, and paper cassette 224 or 2
The paper supplied from 25 is wound around this transfer drum 223, and the image developed on the photosensitive drum 217 is transferred onto the paper.

After the four colors M, C, Y, and Bk are sequentially transferred in this manner, the paper passes through the fixing unit 226 and is discharged.

<Image scanner> FIG. 1 shows an image scanner section 201 according to the first embodiment.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of FIG.

210-1, 210-2, and 210-3 are CCDs with red (R), green (G), and blue (B) spectral sensitivity characteristics, respectively, and have signals quantized into 8 bits from 0 to 255. be pressured.

Sensor 210-1.210 used in this example
-2 and 210-3 are placed apart from each other by a certain distance, so their spatial deviations are corrected in delay elements 401 and 402.

403, 404, and 415 are log converters, each of which is configured with a look-up table ROM or RAM, and converts a luminance signal into a density signal. 406 is a known masking
This is a UCR circuit, and although a detailed explanation will be omitted, Y, M, C, and Bk signals for output are sequentially converted to a predetermined bit length, for example, 8, for each reading operation based on the input three primary color signals.
It is output in bits.

A spatial filter 407 corrects the spatial frequency of the pressure signal. 408 is a density conversion circuit that corrects the density characteristics of the printer unit 202;
Similar to the log converter of ~405, it is constituted by a look-up table ROM or RAM.

On the other hand, reference numeral 409 denotes a specific document determination circuit, which determines whether or not each of a plurality of specific documents is being read, and outputs a determination signal H of 0 or 1.

Reference numeral 410 denotes an OR gate circuit, in which the 8-bit output ■ of the density conversion circuit 408 is logically summed with the judgment signal H which is the output of the judgment circuit 409, and as a result of outputting V', the judgment signal H= 1, that is, when it is determined that a specific original is being read, the output is V' = FFH regardless of the value of the input signal V, and when the judgment signal H = 0, that is, when it is determined that a specific original is being read, the output is V' = FFH. If no determination is made, the input signal (2) is output as is as the output V'.

<Timing Chart> FIG. 4A is a block diagram showing a thinning circuit according to the first embodiment, and FIG. 4B is a block diagram showing a frequency dividing circuit according to the first embodiment. FIG. 6 is a timing chart in the main scanning direction in this embodiment.

In FIGS. 4A and 4B, HSYNC is a main scanning synchronization signal, which is a signal for synchronizing the start of main scanning. C
LK is an image transfer lock and is a basic clock for various image processing in this embodiment.

On the other hand, CLK4 is a clock obtained by dividing the frequency of the CLK signal by 1/4, and serves as a basic clock in the determination circuit 409. The SEL signal is a timing signal used in the thinning circuit 301 described above, and is generated by a circuit as shown in FIG. 4B. That is, as shown in FIG. 4B, an inverter 451, a 2-bit counter 452. Inverter 45
3. It is composed of an AND gate 454. After the 2-bit counter 452 is cleared (initialized) by the HSYNC signal, which is a main scanning synchronization signal, it counts the CLK signal and presses the count value with 2 bits. (Do,
Di) The upper bit D1 is output as the CLK4 signal, and the AND of the inverted signal of the lower bit Do and the upper bit D1 is output as the SEL signal.

As a result, in the thinning circuit 301 shown in FIG. 4A,
Data is held using the CLK signal.

The thinning circuit 301 includes flip-flops 455 and 456.
, 457 and 461, 462, 463, selector 45
8,459,460, and flip-flops 464°465.466 that hold data using the CLK4 signal.

With the above configuration, as shown in FIG. 6, 1/4 of the R (or G, B) signals transferred by the CLK signal
R' is thinned out at a rate of , and synchronized to CLK4.
(or G', B') signals can be obtained.

<Determination Circuit> FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the determination circuit 409 according to the first embodiment.

301 is a thinning circuit as shown in FIG. 4A, which thins out data in order to reduce the processing load of the determination circuit. 3
02 is a color matching lookup table,
Performs matching of multiple types of target images and color tone, which is an image characteristic.

303, 304, and 305 are color determination circuits, respectively, and integrators 306, 306, and 305 shown in FIG. Register 307. It is constituted by a comparator 308, and independently determines whether or not a specific image exists in a plurality of specific documents.

309 is an OR circuit, and color judgment circuits 303 to 305
If it is determined that the target image is present in one or more of the outputs, the output ゛1°゛ is used as the determination signal H and pressure is applied.

Integrator> FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the integrator 306 according to the first embodiment.

In the figure, 501 and 505 are flip-flops that hold data at the rising timing of the CLK4 signal.

502 is a multiplier that outputs two 8-bit signals (A, B).
is input, and the multiplication result is an 8-bit signal (AXB/2
55) is output. 503 is also a multiplier, which inputs a 1-bit input signal (A) and an 8-bit input signal (B), and outputs an 8-bit output signal (AxB) as a multiplication result.

504 is an adder that receives two 8-bit signals (A, B
), and the addition result is an 8-bit signal (A+B).
Output.

As a result, in this integrator, the 8-bit output signal y1 for the binary input signal XI is expressed by the following equation. That is, VI = ((E/255)3'!-1+βx1-1, where α and β are constants set in advance, and the magnitude of these values determines the characteristics of the integrator. Ru.

For example, α=247. In the case of β=8, examples of the input and output of this integrator are shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B.
In response to an input X l-1 as shown in Fig. A, an 8-power y1 as shown in Fig. 7B is output.

Here, inputs such as 701 and 702 that are "1" even though the surroundings are mostly "0", and inputs such as 703 where the surroundings are almost "1" are noise ( noise). Process this with an integrator, set an appropriate threshold value as shown in 704 in the register 307 of FIG. 3, and use this to binarize the pressure yl of the integrator to remove noise. be able to.

Processing Results> FIG. 8 shows an example of the processing results in this embodiment. In FIG. 8, reference numeral 801 indicates a document, and a specific document 803 to be determined by this apparatus exists in a part of the image. The output result when this is copied in this apparatus is 802. In the part corresponding to the specific manuscript 803, 804
As shown in the invalid part, the part of the specific document 803 that is filled in black cannot be copied.

As described above, according to the first embodiment, it is possible to perform the determination process for a specific document at the same time as the image reading or processing operation.

<Second Embodiment> FIG. 9 is a lock diagram showing the configuration of the image scanner section according to the second embodiment, and FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the determination circuit 409 according to the second embodiment. .

Components that are the same as those in FIG. 1 and FIG. 3 (first embodiment) are designated by the same numbers.

In the first embodiment, the judgment signal H output from the judgment circuit 409 is a binary signal of "Ooo" or "1", and the output signal is changed to FFH by the judgment signal. The embodiment has a configuration that is not limited to this.

That is, in FIG. 9, the determination circuit 409 outputs the degree of similarity between a specific document and the document as a determination signal H in multi-value, for example, 8 bits. This outputted multi-valued judgment signal H is sent to the masking/UCR circuit 406 and the spatial filter 407, and thereby the masking/OCR circuit 406
and the processing conditions in the spatial filter 407 are made different. Here, too, a configuration for preventing copying or forgery of a specific original is shown.

In FIG. 10, color determination circuits 303', 304°
, . . , 305° is the color judgment circuit 303, 304, .
In the configuration of . 350 is a maximum value output circuit,
Color determination circuit 303.304. . . . Outputs the maximum value of the outputs from +305 (that is, the degree of similarity with the specific document).

That is, when the value of the determination signal H is small (=similarity with all specific originals is small), masking/UCR processing conditions and spatial filter coefficients that provide the most faithful color reproduction to the original are selected.

On the other hand, if the value of the judgment signal H is large (= the degree of similarity to a certain type of specific original is large), the masking/UCR processing conditions are changed, the color tone is intentionally changed, and the spatial filter coefficients are changed. By intentionally applying strong smoothing to the image signal to reduce the sharpness of the output signal, processing is performed so that the original and the copy output look different.

Here, the degree to which the original and the copy look different can be determined by making the original and the copy look different as the value of the judgment signal H (=similarity with a certain kind of original) increases. It is possible to reduce problems caused by

<Third Embodiment> In the first and second embodiments, an example of a color copying machine including an image scanner section and a printer section was shown, but the present invention is not limited to this. Therefore, the first
FIG. 1 shows a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration according to the third embodiment.

That is, 1101 is an image scanner unit similar to 201, and 11o2 is a printer unit similar to 202. 1
105 is a determination circuit similar to 409, and 1103 and 1104 are OR gate circuits similar to 410. 1
106 is a path selector, and the image scanner unit 11
01, the printer unit 1102, and a communication line, and image data is transferred in the following three ways depending on the connection method.

(1) Image scanner section - printer section (copier operation) (2) Image scanner section - communication time! I (facsimile transmission operation) (3) Communication line - printer unit (facsimile reception operation) Here, depending on the determination result of the determination circuit 1105, the output image of the image scanner unit 1101 and the output image of the printer unit 1102
By processing the input image using the OR gates 1103 and 1104, it is possible to prohibit copying, facsimile transmission, and facsimile reception for a specific document.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, the image reading and output device performs the image reading or processing operation and simultaneously performs the process of determining whether or not a specific document exists. This makes it easy to speed up the device and process multiple specific documents simultaneously.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 shows an image scanner section 201 according to the first embodiment.
2 is an external view showing the first embodiment of the image processing apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the structure of the determination circuit 409 according to the first embodiment. 4A is a block diagram showing a thinning circuit according to the first embodiment, FIG. 4B is a block diagram showing a frequency dividing circuit according to the first embodiment, and FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an integrator 306 according to the first embodiment. , FIG. 6 is a timing chart in the main scanning direction in the first embodiment, FIGS. 7A and 7B are diagrams showing examples of input and output of the integrator according to the first embodiment, and FIG. 8 is a timing chart in the main scanning direction in the first embodiment. FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the image scanner section according to the second embodiment; FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the determination circuit 409 according to the second embodiment. , FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration according to the third embodiment. In the figure, 200...mirror pressure plate, 201.11.01...
・Image scanner section, 202.1102...Printer section, 203...Platen, 204,801...Original, 205...Lamp, 206,207.208...
-Mirror, 209...Lens, 210...3 line sensor, 211...Signal processing section, 212...Laser driver, 213...Semiconductor laser, 214...Polygon mirror, 215...f -θ lens, 216...
- Mirror, 217... Photosensitive tram, 218... Rotating developer, 219... Magenta developing section, 220... Cyan developing section, 221... Yellow developing section, 222...
- Black developing section, 223...transfer tram, 224.
225... Paper cassette, 226... Fixing unit, 210-1 to 21O-3... CCD, 301...
Thinning circuit, 302...Color matching LUT, 30
3~305, 303°~305°...color judgment circuit,
307...Register, 308...Comparator, 309...
...OR circuit, 310...frequency divider circuit, 350...maximum value output circuit, 401,402...delay element, 4
03-405...log converter, 406...masking/UCR circuit, 407...spatial filter, 408
...Concentration conversion circuit, 409.1105...Judgment circuit, 410,1103.1104...OR gate circuit,
451, 453... Inverter, 452... 2-bit counter, 454... AND gate, 455-45
7,461-466.501.505...Flip-flop, 458-460...Selector, 502,50
3... Multiplier, 504... Adder, 802... Output result, 803... Specific source O draft, 804... Invalid part, 1106... Path selector.

Claims (6)

[Claims] (1) A processing means for electrically processing an input image signal, and in parallel with the processing of the input image signal by the processing means, determining the degree of similarity between the image represented by the input image signal and a specific document registered in advance. An image processing apparatus, comprising: determining means, and varying the content of processing by the processing means depending on the degree of similarity. (2) Claim 1 further comprising: image reading means for optically reading a document and obtaining an image signal; and image output means for outputting the image signal processed by the processing means. The image processing device described in Section 1. (3) The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising means for inputting and outputting image signals to and from an external device. (4) The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for smoothing the signal indicating the degree of similarity and removing noise components thereof. (5) The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the means for removing the noise component is an integrator (low-pass filter). (6) The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determination means simultaneously performs determination on a plurality of specific documents.