Patent ID: 8208766

Claim:
An image processing apparatus, comprising: a storage unit configured to store article images, embedded with mark data and loaded in the image processing apparatus, the mark data being a graphical mark which includes therein encoded data and is a machine readable representation of the encoded data; an input unit configured to input at least one search information element used for searching for a given article image among the stored article images; a reading unit configured to read mark data of each article image stored in the storage unit; a controller configured with an analysis function, a determination function, and a selection function; and an output unit configured to output an article image selected by the selection function, wherein, in the analysis function, the mark data read by the reading unit is analyzed, in the determination function, the read mark data is compared with the at least one search information element based on an analysis of the mark data and is checked to determine whether the read mark data includes an information element matching the at least one search information element input by the input unit, and in the selection function, an article image having the read mark data matched to the at least one search information element is selected based on a determination of the determination function.