Patent ID: 8494304
Filing Date: 2013-07-23
Classification: G06T,H04N

Abstract:
1. A method for removal of punched hole artifacts in digital images, comprising: for a scanned document page, deriving an original digital image that defines the page in terms of a plurality of input pixels; generating a reduced resolution bitonal image of black and white pixels from the original image, including reducing the resolution such that a punched hole artifact has a diameter of no more than two black pixels; providing for identifying of candidate punched hole artifacts in the reduced resolution bitonal image, including determining for a current pixel which is black, whether at least a predetermined proportion of a selected group of neighboring pixels is white and if so, identifying the pixel as a candidate punched hole artifact; providing for testing the candidate punched hole artifacts for at least one of shape, size, and location; and where a candidate punched hole artifact meets the at least one test, generating a modified image, including erasing the candidate punched hole artifact from the original digital image.