Patent Document ID: 9842281
Application ID: 14296553
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for segmenting a text region from a pictorial region within a scanned image comprising: scanning a document to obtain scanned image data representing the document; generating a binary image from the scanned image data, wherein the binary image comprises a two dimensional array of pixels and where a value of a pixel comprises one of an ON value and an OFF value; identifying a connected component within the binary image, wherein the connected component comprises a group of pixels enclosing a set of connected pixels having the same value; determining a size label, a solidity label, and a run length label for the connected component, wherein: each of the size label, the solidity label, and the run length label identifies the connected component as being either a text component or a non-text component, the solidity label is based on a ratio of total number of pixels within the connected component to a number of pixels within a convex hull of the connected pixels within the connected component, the connected component is identified as a text component if the ratio is greater than a solidity threshold, the run length label is based on a function of a run length vector characteristic of each scanline within a set of scanlines and a ratio of a height to a width of the connected component, wherein the set of scanlines is sampled from scanlines across the connected component and for each scanline within the set the run length vector characteristic is determined as a difference of a number of elements within a run length vector for the scanline that exceed a threshold length and a length of the run length vector, and the connected component corresponds to a text component if each of the size label, the solidity label, and the run length label identifies the connected component as being a text component; and classifying the connected component as a text region within the scanned image when the connected component is identified as being a text component.