Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.

Kenichi Ishida

Hiroshi Sekine

Masami Kurata

Masao Morita

Hiroyuki Kawano

Takeshi Kunimasa

Toru Hada

Takanobu Otsubo

Yozo Yamaguchi

Disclosed is an image processing device capable of recognizing a specific image such as an image which is prohibited from printing at high speed and, moreover, without being influenced by an image forming process. A drawing command analysis unit analyzes a drawing command received by a drawing command input unit and sends an analysis result to both an output image data generation unit and a recognition image data generation unit. The output image data generation unit generates output image data adapted to an image formation device in accordance with the drawing command. In parallel with the operation, the recognition image data generation unit generates recognition image data adapted to a recognition unit in accordance with the drawing command. The recognition unit performs a process of recognizing a specific image by using the recognition image data. The recognition image data may have a data format, resolution, a color space, and the number of bits per pixel which are different from those of the output image data. When the specific image is recognized by the recognition unit, the output image data generation unit stops outputting the output image data.

Recognizing a print inhibit image pattern using image data converted for fast recognition

The present invention provides an image processor and an image processing method wherein a specific image such as an image of which the printing is prohibited can be recognized at high speed and in addition, with high precision. A rendering command analysis unit passes a rendering object to any of a recognition unit for a raster image, a recognition unit for graphics and a recognition unit for a character according to the type of the rendering object in the rendering command and tries to recognize a specific image. The result of recognition by each recognition unit is passed to a recognition determination unit and it is synthetically determined based upon these results of recognition whether the specific image exists or not. Even if the specific image is formed by dividing into plural types of rendering objects, the specific image can be recognized by such recognition processing. Also, processing for generating output image data by an output image data generation unit according to a rendering command and outputting it is executed in parallel with such recognition processing so as to speed up processing.

Image processor, image processing method and storage medium

Growing community of inventors

Ebina, Japan

Kenichi Ishida