The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 15, 2004
Filed:
Feb. 11, 2000
Toshihiro Kanata, Nara, JP;
Yasushi Adachi, Nara, JP;
Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha, Osaka, JP;
Abstract
The present invention is directed to the provision of an image processing apparatus which enables the characteristic of an image region to be discriminated accurately, even in the presence of pixel displacements, noise, etc. Within masks for three colors, each mask consisting of m×n pixel including an object pixel, sub-region masks of u×v are set, and the sum of pixel densities is calculated by a sum calculation circuit. Based on the thus calculated sum, a parameter calculation circuit calculates a parameter based on which a multi-valued signal generation circuit generates a multi-valued signal. A characteristic signal represented by multi-valued data is generated by a characteristic signal generation circuit from the distribution of data within a region discriminating mask represented by the multi-valued signal, and a segmentation signal representing the result of region characteristic discrimination is output from a segmentation signal generation circuit.