Patent ID: 8441684

Claim:
A method for text vectorization, the method comprising: receiving, from an image input device, a bitmap image of at least one document, said bitmap image having at least one character image; and a processor executing machine readable program instructions for performing: detecting, for said character image, a plurality of dominant points; selecting a selected dominant point from said plurality of dominant points; identifying a first dominant point and a second dominant point from said plurality of dominant points, said first dominant point and said second dominant points being different than said selected dominant point and further being located on opposite sides of said selected dominant point from one another; fitting an initial curve to a plurality of edge points in a vicinity of said selected dominant point, said plurality of edge points lying along a boundary edge of said character image, said initial curve comprising a first curve portion extending on a first side of said selected dominant point and further comprising a second curve portion extending on a second side of said selected dominant point, said first side and said second side being on an opposite side from one another of said selected dominant point; estimating a set of boundary parameters in a vicinity of said selected dominant point based upon said initial curve, said set of boundary parameters comprising a derivative of said first curve portion of said initial curve in said vicinity of said selected dominant point, and a derivative of said second curve portion of said initial curve in said vicinity of said selected dominant point; classifying said selected dominant point as being one of a sharp dominant point and a smooth dominant point, said smooth dominant point separating character segments where said derivative of said first curve in said vicinity of said selected dominant point is substantially equal to said derivative of said second curve in said vicinity of said selected dominant point; in response to said selected dominant point being classified as a smooth dominant point: fitting a first curve between said selected dominant point and said first identified dominant point, said fitting maintaining, on said first curve, said derivative of said first curve portion of said initial curve in said vicinity of said selected dominant point; and fitting a second curve between said selected dominant point and said second identified dominant point, said fitting maintaining, on said second curve portion, said derivative of said second curve portion of said initial curve in said vicinity of said selected dominant point are maintained, wherein said derivative of said first curve portion of said initial curve in said vicinity of said selected dominant point is substantially equal to said derivative of said second curve portion of said initial curve in said vicinity of said selected dominant point; and outputting, to an image output device, a vectorized representation of said character image based upon said first and second curves.