Patent ID: 7567730

Claim:
An image processing apparatus, comprising: means for extracting a character line from an input document image having a plurality of characters; means for causing the character line to have a selected orientation by rotating the character line by a predetermined degree; means for converting the character line having the selected orientation to a first set of symbols; means for obtaining trained data, which is generated based on a reference document image having an upright position, the trained data being selected from a first kind of trained data trained on a horizontal character line extracted from the reference document image and a second kind of trained data trained on a vertical character line extracted from the reference document image, wherein the trained data is selected based on the character line having the selected orientation; means for detecting the degree of similarity between the character line having the selected orientation and the trained data of the upright position to generate a detection result; and means for determining an orientation of the plurality of characters in the input document image based on the detection result.