Patent ID: 7711189

Claim:
A computer-readable recording medium having a layout analysis program recorded thereon, said program causing a computer to perform the steps which comprise: a divided region extracting step that extracts a region partitioned by a pattern according to a binary image so as to use the outcome of extraction as divided region; a set of character elements extracting step that extracts a set of the character elements extracted by a first binary image layout analysis process for each divided region extracted in the divided region extracting step so as to use the outcome of extraction as set of character elements; a text block extracting step that extracts a region including the set of character elements extracted in the set of character elements extracting step in each divided region so as to avoid overlapping the non-character elements extracted by a second binary image layout analysis process and use the outcome of extraction as text block; and a layout information generating step that generates layout information according to the text block extracted in the text block extracting step and the non-character elements extracted by the second binary image layout analysis process.