Patent ID: 6804395
Filing Date: 2004-10-12
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
A digital image processing apparatus having a function of separating an image data from an original manuscript document into a character area and a picture area, comprising:a character candidate area detecting mechanism configured to detect a character candidate area from the image data; a background area detecting mechanism including, a binarizing circuit configured to binarize the image data using a predetermined threshold value to produce binarized image data associated with a halftone image, and a pattern matching circuit configured to determine whether the binarized image data matches one of a plurality of patterns, wherein the background area detecting mechanism is configured to detect whether a background area exists around a detected character candidate area based on an output of said pattern matching circuit; an area judging mechanism configured to judge that an area satisfying at the same time detected conditions of (i) being a character candidate area and (ii) having a background area is said character area and an area outside said character area is said picture area; a character processing mechanism configured to process the image data in the character area; a picture processing mechanism configured to process the image data in said picture area; and an area-processing selecting mechanism configured to select either one of said character processing mechanism and said picture processing mechanism on the basis of a judgment result of said area judging mechanism.