Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Corporation

Masakazu Ohira

Atsuhisa Morimoto

Hitoshi Hirohata

Makio Gotoh

Kazuma Ogawa

Hideyoshi Yoshimura

Masanori Minami

Yasutaka Hirayama

Kenji Onogi

Takafumi Hosogi

Haruo Yamamoto

Daisuke Tani

Makoto Ohtsu

An obstacle detection device () is provided with a distance measurement sensor () which measures a detection distance to an object to be detected, a detection image generation unit () which generates a detection image indicating a presence of the object to be detected in a detection range, based on a result of measurement by the distance measurement sensor (), a rainfall determination unit () which performs a rainfall determination of whether or not a region in the detection range is in a rainfall state, a rain removal processing unit () which executes a rain removal process for removing the isolated points from the detection image, and an obstacle determination unit () which performs an obstacle determination of whether or not the object to be detected is an obstacle. The obstacle determination unit () performs the obstacle determination, based on the detection image on which the rain removal process is performed by the rain removal processing unit (), in a case where a region is determined to be in the rainfall state by the rainfall determination unit ().

Obstacle detection device, moving body, and obstacle detection method

An image processing apparatus includes a compression processing section that compresses image data obtained by reading a plurality of documents into a file, a specifying section that specifies an amount of information for an image of each of the plurality of documents, and a compression size calculation section that calculates a size after compression of an image of each document in accordance with the specified amount of information. The compression processing section compresses the image by using the size after compression calculated by the compression size calculation section.

Image processing apparatus, image forming apparatus and recording medium

An image processing apparatus includes a watermark adding section for adding a watermark for copy control to an image, where the watermark includes a dot pattern which becomes visible when copy, and a pattern adding section for adding a predetermined pattern to an appropriate position of an image, wherein the watermark adding section includes a watermark generating section for generating a watermark for copy control, where the watermark includes a dot pattern which becomes invisible when copy, a determining section for determining whether or not the pattern adding section adds the predetermined pattern to the image, when the generated watermark is added to the image, and a region setting section for setting a region where the predetermined pattern is to be appeared at a different portion where the dot pattern is added, when the determining section determines that the predetermined pattern is to be added to the image.

Image processing apparatus, image forming apparatus, image processing method, and recording medium

In a printing system configured such that a computer and an image forming apparatus can be connected via a network, the computer sets a stamp image and transmits the set stamp image to the image forming apparatus via the network. The image forming apparatus includes a reading device that reads an original image, an image combining unit that reads out at least one stamp image from a storage unit, combines the stamp image with the original image read by the reading device, and forms a composite image, and a printing unit that prints the composite image on recording paper.

Printing system, computer, image forming apparatus and printing method

An image processing apparatus includes: a line noise detection section for detecting line noise pixels included in input image data; a segmentation process section for determining a pixel in a text region; and a line noise removal process section for (i) determining a replacement-target line noise pixel by excepting, from the line noise pixels, the pixel in the text region and a pixel within a first distance from the pixel in the text region and (ii) replacing the replacement-target line noise pixel with another pixel other than the line noise pixels, which another pixel is included in the input image data.

Image processing method, image processing apparatus and image forming apparatus including the same, image reading apparatus, and recording medium

Provided is an image forming apparatus including an image forming section for forming a test image including a plurality of patterns in which at least one pattern is more easily affected by a variation factor for density than another pattern, an accepting section for accepting an amount of adjustment for density, and an adjusting section for adjusting density of an image to be formed by the image forming section based on the amount of adjustment for density accepted by the accepting section.

Image forming apparatus, image forming method and recording medium

Original image data obtained by reading an original is joined with watermark data associated with a watermark for copy control, which appears as a result of making a copy. The watermark generating section sets the spatial frequency of a chromatic halftone pattern of a foreground, which appears as a result of making a copy, lower than the spatial frequency of an achromatic halftone pattern of a foreground, which appears as a result of making a copy. Accordingly, it becomes more difficult to recognize a foreground in an original document when the foreground is generated using an achromatic color, while a foreground in the duplication is recognized clearly when the foreground is generated using a chromatic color.

Image processing apparatus that sets a spatial frequency of a chromatic foreground image of a watermark to be lower than a spatial frequency of an achromatic foreground image of a comparable watermark, associated image forming apparatus, image processing method and recording medium

A two color process section included in the image processing apparatus includes a luminance and chroma calculation section, an image-data determination section, and an output-color generation section. The luminance and chroma calculation section calculates a luminance value and a chroma value based on input image data. The image-data determination section determines the input image data, the chroma value of which is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold, as first input image data constituting a chromatic color in a two-color image and determines the input image data, the chroma value of which is less than the threshold, as second input image data constituting an achromatic color in the two-color image. The output-color generation section generates image data of CMY from the first input image data based on the chroma value and the luminance value and generates image data of CMY from the second input image data based on the luminance value.

Image processing apparatus, image forming apparatus, image processing method, and computer-readable recording medium on which image processing program is recorded

When original image data obtained by reading an original document is to be joined with watermark data associated with a watermark for copy control which appears as a result of making a copy, whether the original document includes a chromatic color or not is determined on the basis of the original image data. When the original document includes a chromatic color, the original image data is joined with chromatic watermark data. When the original document includes an achromatic color, the original image data is joined with achromatic watermark data.

Image processing apparatus, image forming apparatus, recording medium and image processing method

An image processing apparatus includes a two color process section and a color material usage estimation and calculation section. The two color process section generates, based on input image data of RGB inputted by reading an original document, image data of CMY for outputting a two-color image. The color material usage estimation and calculation section calculates, based on the image data of CMY generated by the two color process section, a usage of color materials used when the two-color image is outputted and generates information concerning the usage of color materials from a result of the calculation. The color material usage estimation and calculation section outputs the generated information concerning the usage of color materials to an image display device.

Color material usage estimating image processing apparatus, image forming apparatus, image processing method, and computer-readable recording medium on which image processing program is recorded

In an image processing apparatus for determining whether input image data is identical with image data of a reference image or not and performing a process according to the result of the determination, input image data whose similarity to a reference image is not less than a predetermined first threshold value or encoded image data obtained by encoding the input image data is stored in an access limitation storage section to which only a specific user is accessible. This allows an administrator to easily check whether the result of the determination is appropriate or not, without requiring a larger and more complex structure.

Image processing apparatus, image forming apparatus, image processing system, and image processing method

A document matching process section calculates feature points (e.g., the centroid) on the basis of an inputted document image, then selects a plurality of feature points from among the calculated feature points, and then calculates a hash value on the basis of the selected feature points. Then, on the basis of the calculated features, the document matching process section determines whether the document image is similar to a preliminary reference format (reference image). When it is determined as being similar, the document matching process section determines whether write-in is present in the document image, and then outputs a determination signal (a determination result indicating the presence or absence of write-in). In the determination of similarity of the document image, permission or non-permission for processing such as copying is determined more accurately than in the prior art.

Image processing method, image processing apparatus, image forming apparatus, and image reading apparatus

In a server are stored (i) identification information of a reference image and (ii) a common process rule applied to input image data determined as being similar to the reference image. In a card is stored a merged process rule obtained by merging the common process rule with an individual process rule. Further, when a version of the merged process information is identical to a version of the common process information, a process based on the merged process information corresponding to the reference image determined as being similar to the input image data is carried out, and when these versions are not identical, the process based on the merged process information is not carried out. Consequently, it is possible to reduce the load of the user concerning operation for setting the content of the process for the input image data.

An image processing apparatus is configured to precisely perform positioning of a plurality of document images containing a common part and to precisely extract an image of the common part from the plurality of document images.

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Nara, Japan

Masakazu Ohira