Patent ID: 6930808
Filing Date: 2005-08-16
Classification: G06T,H04N

Abstract:
1. An image processing apparatus comprising: a light source which irradiates an original with a plurality of colors in a time-divisional manner; an image reading unit which line-sequentially reads the original and outputs a plurality of color components of image data in units of lines while time-divisionally irradiating the original with the plurality of colors using said light source; a buffer memory; and an image processor which writes the plurality of color components of image data for one line outputted from said image reading unit into said buffer memory, after that during an image reading period of said image reading unit for a next line, reads out the plurality of color components of the image data for the one line from said buffer memory and performs a masking operation on the read out image data for the one line, wherein said buffer memory has a plurality of blocks which are virtually broken up into a matrix pattern, and said image processor switches operation for writing the plurality of color components of image data in the blocks that belong to corresponding rows, and operation for writing the plurality of color components of image data in the blocks that belong to corresponding columns in units of lines, and reads out old image data from a region of said buffer memory in which new image data are expected to be overwritten before the new image are overwritten by the write operation.