Patent Document ID: 8073262
Application ID: 12206588
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. An image matching apparatus, comprising a features extraction section for extracting features of an image from input image data, the features extraction section extracting the features based on a connected region in which pixels in a binarized image of the image data are connected to each other and the number of the pixels exceeds a default threshold value, said apparatus (i) causing the features extraction section to extract the features from input image data of a target document to be matched, and (ii) determining whether or not the target document has a similar image to that of a preliminarily stored reference document based on a comparison of the features thus extracted with features of the image of the reference document; said apparatus, further comprising: an N-up document determination section that determines (i) whether or not the target document is an N-up document on which plural documents are laid out, and (ii) the number of images laid out on the N-up document when it is determined that the target document is an N-up document; and a document size detection section that detects a document, size of the target document, when the N-up document determination section determines that the target document is an N-up document, the features extraction section extracting the features, by use of not the default threshold value but a variant threshold value that varies depending on the number of the images laid out on the N-up document and the document size that are found and detected by the N-up document determination section and the document size detection section, respectively, based on a connected region in which the number of pixels exceeds the variant threshold value.