Patent ID: 8229203

Claim:
A system for determining a plurality of PCS values for a document image representing a document having at least one area of interest on a surface of the physical item for containing critical data and a background image positioned on the surface, the document suitable for positioning in a digital image capture device, the system comprising: an input module configured for obtaining a plurality of reflectance values distributed across the surface of the document; a memory configured for storing a plurality of PCS threshold values assigned to a corresponding plurality of locations on the surface; a calculation module configured for determining respective PCS values of a plurality of target portions of the surface, each of the respective PCS values based on a target reflectance value of the corresponding target portion and a region reflectance value of a corresponding defined region located adjacent to the target portion on the surface, each of the defined regions being different for each of the target portions, each of the respective PCS values assigned a location of the surface representative of the location of the target portion, the size of the defined region being greater than the size of the target portion, the target reflectance values and the region reflectance values being determined from said plurality of reflectance values; a comparison module configured for determining from the memory a plurality of PCS threshold values having specified surface locations matching the assigned locations of the calculated PCS values and for comparing the PCS threshold values with the calculated PCS values to determine whether the target portions satisfy their respective PCS threshold values; wherein the degree of target portions that satisfy their PCS threshold value is indicative of the acceptability of the design of the background image when processed by the digital image capture device.