Patent ID: 8731296

Claim:
A method of reclassifying non-text pixels within a document image, comprising the following steps: (a) accessing said document image, said document image having foreground pixels identified, wherein said identified foreground pixels that have been deemed to be part of human readable printable characters are classified as text pixels and said identified foreground pixels that have been deemed not to be part of human readable printable characters are classified as said non-text pixels, and connected components of classified text pixels are defined as text components and connected components of classified non-text pixels are defined as non-text components; (b) submitting each non-text component within said document image to a candidate selection process wherein each non-text component that is deemed to potentially include text content is designated a candidate component; and (c) submitting each designated candidate component to a reclassification process wherein foreground pixels that form a specific geometric shape are removed from the designated candidate component, and the connected components defined by any remaining foreground pixels are reclassified as text components; wherein in step (c), said specific geometric shape is also of minimum size, said minimum size being defined relative to the dimensions of the bounding box of the designated candidate component being processed, and only foreground pixels that form the specific geometric shape and are not smaller than said minimum size are removed from the designated candidate component; wherein said geometric shape is a straight line of foreground pixels, and said minimum size is a variable minimum size defined as a predefined percentage of the length of a corresponding side of the bounding box; and wherein said corresponding side of the bounding box for a given straight line of foreground pixels is determined by projecting the straight line to the side dimensions of the bounding box and the side dimension that receives the longest projection is deemed said corresponding side of the bounding box.