Patent Document ID: 7792364
Application ID: 10730122
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. An image processing apparatus comprising: an isolated dot discriminating portion judging, for each pixel of a plurality of pixels included in an image, whether the pixel corresponds to a center pixel of an isolated dot; a size detector detecting an isolated dot size; a dot region discriminating portion judging whether a target pixel is included in a dot region based on a position of said pixel judged as being the center pixel of the isolated dot; and a dot region determining portion determining a dot region based on a position of said target pixel judged as being included in the dot region and said isolated dot size detected, wherein said dot region discriminating portion includes a counter counting the number of center pixels of isolated dots existing within a prescribed range from a process-target pixel, and a comparator comparing said counted number of the center pixels of the isolated dots with a predetermined threshold value.