Patent ID: 7570811
Filing Date: 2009-08-04
Classification: G06K

Abstract:
1. A method of segmenting a composite image of pixels of a physical document into a number of fields corresponding to lay-out elements of the image of the physical document, the pixels having a value representing the intensity and/or color of a picture element, the method comprising: analyzing the pixels of the image as either background pixels having a background property indicative of a background of the image or foreground pixels not having said background property; detecting in the image any foreground separator elements that are objects in the foreground of the image having a pattern of foreground pixels; replacing the pixels of the detected foreground separators by pixels having the background property; constructing separating elements corresponding to rectangular areas of adjacent pixels of the image having the background property; and constructing a graph representing the lay-out elements of the image of the physical document by