Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080204805 | AUTOMATIC DETECTION OF USER PREFERENCE FOR PRINTER SETTING - A method is described for automatically predicting user-preferred printer settings based on past user behavior. A driver service module maintains an application/driver/user (ADU) settings database that stores printer settings associated with the application that initiated the print job, the printer driver and versions thereof, and (in a multiple user environment) the user's identity. Each time a print job is initiated, the driver service module analyzes the ADU database to determine a predicted user-preferred setting. The user may manually change the setting and confirm it, and the driver service module stores the user confirmed setting in the ADU database for future use. The method can transfer user-preferred settings associated with one application or one printer driver (or a version thereof) to another application or another printer driver (or another version thereof). It further allows user preference information to be accessed or transferred over a network. | 08-28-2008 |
20080210758 | Color Barcode Producing, Reading and/or Reproducing Method and Apparatus - A color barcode can record much more amount of information than black white barcode. However, the problem of the color barcode is that it is easy to lose integrity or authenticity in printing and copy generation. This invention provides an apparatus and a method to keep the integrity or authenticity of the color barcode. Such is accomplished by the color information portion of the color barcode representing the color information about what colors are used for color tiles of data portion of the color barcode and an apparatus and a method for producing and reproducing such color barcode. | 09-04-2008 |
20080210764 | Color Barcode Producing, Reading and/or Reproducing Method and Apparatus - A color barcode can record much more amount of information than black white barcode. However, the problem of the color barcode is that it is easy to lose integrity or authenticity in printing and copy generation. This invention provides an apparatus and a method to keep the integrity or authenticity of the color barcode. Such is accomplished by the color information portion of the color barcode representing the color information about what colors are used for color tiles of data portion of the color barcode and an apparatus and a method for producing and reproducing such color barcode. | 09-04-2008 |
20080231880 | AUTOMATIC DETECTION OF USER PREFERENCE FOR COPY OR SCAN SETTING - A method is described for automatically predicting user-preferred copy or scan settings based on past user behavior. The method is implemented in a management section of a copier, scanner, or multifunction devices that combine copy, scan and print functions, or on a server connected with such a device. The management section maintains a copy/scan/user (CSU) settings database that stores copy and/or scan settings associated with user IDs. Each time a copy or scan job is initiated, the management section analyzes the CSU database to determine a predicted user-preferred setting. The user may manually change the setting and confirm it, and the management section stores the user confirmed setting in the CSU database for future use. The CSU database may be transferred from one copier/scanner/multifunction device to another. | 09-25-2008 |
20080239363 | COPIER DEVICE CAPABLE OF ELECTRONICALLY STORING AND RECALLING COPIED DOCUMENTS - A method is described for electronically storing images of previously copied documents and recalling them for reprinting later. When a user uses a copier to make a physical copy of a physical document, the document image is stored by the copier, and certain document management information is captured and stored in a document management database to facilitate later recall and reprint of the document images. A document management section, which resides either on the copier or on a server connected to the copier by a network, performs document management functions that allow a user to select a previously copied and stored document for reprinting. | 10-02-2008 |
20080243818 | CONTENT-BASED ACCOUNTING METHOD IMPLEMENTED IN IMAGE REPRODUCTION DEVICES - A content-based accounting method is implemented in a management section for a copier, scanner, printer or multifunction device (referred to as MFP), or on a networked server accessible by the copier, scanner, printer or MFP. When copying, scanning or printing a document, the management section automatically extracts content information from the documents being copied, scanned or printed, groups the documents based on the content, and updates an accounting database. The accounting database contains user accounts that store usage information according to content groups. For copied and scanned documents, textual content is extracted from the document image using OCR techniques. For printed documents, textual information is extracted from the digital data used to print the document. | 10-02-2008 |
20090041383 | METHOD FOR CORRECTING SKEW IN SCANNED DOCUMENTS - An apparatus and method for deskewing a scanned printed document is described. The original printed document is scanned with the scanner to obtain a first digital image, which contains skew (rotation) with respect to the original printed document. The first digital image is digitally flipped around a centerline to obtain a second digital image, which is printed to generate a second printed document. The second printed document is scanned using the same scanner to obtain a third digital image, which contains skew errors with respect to the second printed document. The third digital image is digitally flipped around the centerline to obtain a final digital image, which is substantially free of the skew introduced by the scanner. | 02-12-2009 |
20090067666 | DETERMINING DOCUMENT AUTHENTICITY IN A CLOSED-LOOP PROCESS - A document authentication method uses a watermark added in a printed document to detection possible alterations made to the document after it was printed. First, a visible watermark in the form of a dot pattern is overlapped with an original digital image. The watermarked image is printed out as a halftone image at a first resolution. The watermark in the printed document appears as a light gray shade. Later, the printed document is scanned back using a grayscale scan at a resolution higher than the first resolution. In the scanned image, altered areas would appear flat (lacking intensity variation) whereas unaltered areas will have relatively large density variations due to the watermark dots and the fact that the image was halftone printed at a lower resolution. Alternations are detected by identifying flat areas within the image using a combination of flat block detection and a multiple thresholds method. | 03-12-2009 |
20090086273 | METHOD FOR COMPENSATING FOR COLOR VARIATIONS ACROSS A PRINTED PAGE USING MULTIPLE-PASS PRINTING - A method for compensating for color variations introduced by printer hardware limitations and other factors is described. First, for each printer model or each individual printer, the extent of color variation throughout a printed page is determined. Based on this determination, each page is partitioned into a plurality of image areas. Then, in an actual printing process, the page of image is printed in a multi-pass process where each image area is printed in a separate pass. The digital image data is shifted and/or rotated for each pass, and the paper is shifted and/or rotated correspondingly, so that the different image areas printed in different passes form a complete image on the final printed page. From the standpoint of the pointer hardware, all passes involve printing the same area of a physical page, resulting in reduced color variation across the page. | 04-02-2009 |
20090086290 | METHOD FOR COMPENSATING FOR COLOR VARIATIONS ACROSS A PRINTED PAGE USING MULTIPLE COLOR PROFILES - A method for compensating for color variations introduced by printer hardware limitations and other factors is described. First, the extent of color variation throughout a printed page is determined. Based on this determination, each page is partitioned into a plurality of image areas. A color profile is generated for each image area. The partition and the multiple color profiles are stored in the printer. In an actual printing process, the page of image to be printed is divided into a plurality of image areas based on the paper size and the stored partition, and the respective stored color profiles for the image areas are retrieved and used to process the digital image for printing. | 04-02-2009 |
20090147279 | METHOD FOR COMPENSATING FOR COLOR VARIATIONS AMONG MULTIPLE PRINTERS - A method for compensating for color variations among multiple user printers by providing a target simulation process in each user printer that modifies its default color characteristics so that it has the same color characteristics as a designated target printer. In a WCS implementation, a target CDMP and a user CDMP representing color characteristics of the target printer and the user printer, respectively, are stored and used by the WCS workflow to perform color conversion when printing an image on the user printer. In an ICC implementation, a color simulation profile is generated that matches the color characteristics of the user printer to those of the target printer. The color simulation profile is combined with the default color profile of the printer to generate a combined color profile which is used to perform color conversion when printing an image on the user printer. | 06-11-2009 |
20090238625 | CREATION AND PLACEMENT OF TWO-DIMENSIONAL BARCODE STAMPS ON PRINTED DOCUMENTS FOR STORING AUTHENTICATION INFORMATION - A document authenticating method is disclosed by which numerous small-sized two-dimensional barcode stamps are generated and placed in a distributed manner on a printed document. The small-sized barcode stamps collectively encode the content of the document to be used for document authentication. In one example, the stamp size is about ¼ by ¼ inches or less and the tile size for the stamps is 4 by 4 pixels at a resolution of 400 dpi. The document is segmented into segments each containing a paragraph or a line of text. For each segment, a set of barcode stamps encoding the authentication data for the segment is placed in the vicinity of the segment. They may be placed in the empty space in the last line of each paragraph, in the empty space between adjacent paragraphs, or at the beginning or end of each line. | 09-24-2009 |
20090238626 | CREATION AND PLACEMENT OF TWO-DIMENSIONAL BARCODE STAMPS ON PRINTED DOCUMENTS FOR STORING AUTHENTICATION INFORMATION - A document authenticating method is disclosed by which numerous small-sized two-dimensional barcode stamps are generated and placed in a distributed manner on a printed document. The small-sized barcode stamps collectively encode the content of the document to be used for document authentication. In one example, the stamp size is 1 cm by 1 cm and the tile size for the stamps is 4 by 4 pixels at a resolution of 400 dpi. A total of approximately 80 such small barcode stamps are placed on the page to form a pattern that resembles a border on one or more sides of the page. In one particular example, the stamps are placed on all four sides of the page to form a frame. Such a stamp layout minimizes undesirable visual effect and can create a decorative effect. Small-sized stamps also allow reduced tile sizes and increased information density. | 09-24-2009 |
20090245678 | METHOD FOR GENERATING A HIGH QUALITY SCANNED IMAGE OF A DOCUMENT - An improved image processing method for generating an image from a hard copy document includes the following steps: scanning the hard copy document multiple times using a scanner to generate a plurality of images; performing deskewing for each image; performing translational compensation for each image; selecting two images (first and second) among the plurality of images that have the highest similarity to each other; dilating the first image; converting the dilated first image into a binary form; eroding the converted first image to generate a first processed image; eroding the second image; converting the eroded second image into a binary form; dilating the converted second image to generate a second processed image; and extracting common portions of the first and second processed images to generate a final image. This method can be used to generate high quality scanned images of hard copy documents for purposes of document authentication. | 10-01-2009 |
20090328143 | METHOD OF SELF-AUTHENTICATING A DOCUMENT WHILE PRESERVING CRITICAL CONTENT IN AUTHENTICATION DATA - An improved document authentication method in which critical content, such as signatures, is preserved at a high-resolution in the authentication data carried on the self-authenticating document. When generating authentication data, signatures are compressed without down-sampling to preserve their resolution and quality. The compressed signature data (a bit string) is embedded in an image segment on the document. For example, each bit of the bit string is stored in the low bits of one or more image pixels. A hash code is calculated from the bit string and stored in a barcode printed on the document. To authenticate a scanned-back document, the bit string is recovered from the image segment. A hash code is calculated from the recovered bit string and compared to the hash code extracted from the barcode. The signatures re-generated from the recovered bit string are compared to the signatures in the scanned document. | 12-31-2009 |
20100155479 | CREATION AND PLACEMENT OF TWO-DIMENSIONAL BARCODE STAMPS ON PRINTED DOCUMENTS FOR STORING AUTHENTICATION INFORMATION - A document authenticating method is disclosed by which a plurality of two-dimensional barcode stamps are generated and printed on a back side of the document forming a color mosaic pattern. Each barcode stamp by itself is a binary barcode, but the plurality of barcode stamps as a whole are printed with different colors and/or color intensities. The barcode stamps collectively encode the content of the document to be used for document authentication. | 06-24-2010 |
20100157318 | CREATION AND PLACEMENT OF TWO-DIMENSIONAL BARCODE STAMPS ON PRINTED DOCUMENTS FOR STORING AUTHENTICATION INFORMATION - A document authenticating method is disclosed by which a plurality of two-dimensional barcode stamps are generated and printed on a back side of the document forming a pre-defined special pattern. The barcode stamps collectively encode the content of the document to be used for document authentication. Each barcode stamp encodes linking information indicating the position of the next barcode stamp. An index barcode may be printed on the front side of the document which encodes the position information for all of the barcode stamps on the back side. | 06-24-2010 |
20100329576 | METHOD FOR DETECTING ALTERATIONS IN PRINTED DOCUMENT USING IMAGE COMPARISON ANALYSES - A document alteration detection method compares a target image with an original image using a two-step process. In the first step, the original and target images are divided into connected image components and their centroids are obtained, and the centroids of the image components in the original and target images are compared. Each centroid in the target image that is not in the original image is deemed to represent an addition, and each centroid in the original image that is not in the target image is deemed to represent a deletion. In the second step, sub-images containing the image components corresponding to each pair of matching centroids in the original and target images are compared to detect any alterations. | 12-30-2010 |
20110043864 | DEBLURRING AND SUPERVISED ADAPTIVE THRESHOLDING FOR PRINT-AND-SCAN DOCUMENT IMAGE EVALUATION - A method is described to obtain a binary image from the print-and-scan process to best match the known original. A point-spread function (PSF) of the PAS process is first obtained from its knife-edge responses, and deblurring is carried out on the scanned images using deconvolution. After image deskewing and preliminary registration, a supervised adaptive thresholding procedure is utilized to binarize the scanned image such that a measure of difference (e.g. the Euclidean distance) between the original and binarized images is minimized. The supervised adaptive thresholding procedure divides the scanned images into many rectangular sub-images. Otsu's method is used to find a starting threshold for each scanned sub-image. An optimal threshold is found around the Otsu's threshold via iterative search to minimize the measure of difference between the original sub-image and scanned sub-image. The sub-images are binarized using the optimal threshold. This method may be used in document authentication. | 02-24-2011 |
20110044554 | ADAPTIVE DEBLURRING FOR CAMERA-BASED DOCUMENT IMAGE PROCESSING - An image deblurring method for camera-based document image processing is described. A document image captured by a digital camera is divided into multiple overlapping or non-overlapping sub-images. A point spread function is derived for each sub-image by analyzing the gradient information along edges contained in the sub-image. Each sub-image is deblurred by using its local point-spread function. The whole deblurred image is constructed from deblurred sub-images. In cases where information of interest is located in localized parts of the document image, dividing the image into sub-images may be done by extracting the area of interest from the captured image. This deblurring method improves the quality of the deblurred image when the camera-captured image is blurred by variable amount of location-dependent defocus. | 02-24-2011 |
20110121066 | DOCUMENT AUTHENTICATION USING HIERARCHICAL BARCODE STAMPS TO DETECT ALTERATIONS OF BARCODE - A method of generating a self-authenticating printed document and authenticating the printed document. The back side of the printed document contains 2d barcode which encode extracted features of the document content. The features are hashed into a hash code, converted to a barcode stamp element, and transformed into a hierarchical barcode stamp by repeating the stamp element. The hierarchical barcode stamp is printed as a gray background pattern on the front side of the same sheet of printed document. To authenticate the printed document, the barcodes on the back side are read to extract the document features. The features are hashed into a hash code and compared to the hash code extracted from the hierarchical barcode stamp on the front side of the document to detect any alterations of the back side barcodes. Further, the document features extracted from the front and back sides of the document are compared. | 05-26-2011 |
20110133887 | IMAGE REGISTRATION METHOD FOR IMAGE COMPARISON AND DOCUMENT AUTHENTICATION - A method for authenticating a printed document is disclosed. Barcode stamps are added to an original document image near the corners of the page to act as registration markers. The original document image bearing the barcode stamps is printed and circulated, while the original document image is stored in a database. To authenticate a printed document, the printed document is scanned into a target document image, which is compared to the stored original document image. The barcode stamps are used as registration markers to perform a global image registration. Then, the target image and the original image are divided into multiple sub-images, and local image registration is performed on the sub-images before performing an image comparison. Difference sub-images are generated from the pairs of sub-images, and merged into a global difference image for the purpose of detecting any alterations in the printed document. | 06-09-2011 |
20110149348 | DETERMINING DOCUMENT AUTHENTICITY IN A CLOSED-LOOP PROCESS - A document authentication method uses a watermark added in a printed document to detection possible alterations made to the document after it was printed. First, a visible watermark in the form of a dot pattern is overlapped with an original digital image. The watermarked image is printed out as a halftone image at a first resolution. The watermark in the printed document appears as a light gray shade. Later, the printed document is scanned back using a grayscale scan at a resolution higher than the first resolution. In the scanned image, altered areas would appear flat (lacking intensity variation) whereas unaltered areas will have relatively large density variations due to the watermark dots and the fact that the image was halftone printed at a lower resolution. Alternations are detected by identifying flat areas within the image using a combination of flat block detection and a multiple thresholds method. | 06-23-2011 |
20110157612 | METHOD FOR CALCULATING COLOR TRANSFORM IN WCS PIPELINE - A modified WCS (Windows Color System) pipeline is provided, which calculates the color transform off-line. More specifically, the color transform is calculated once after any profile is changed, and the calculated color transform data is stored for later use. During the printing process (i.e. when the user prints a document), the stored color transform data is retrieved and used by the pipeline to perform subsequent steps such as content color translation, without re-performing the color transform calculation. | 06-30-2011 |
20110158483 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR AUTHENTICATING PRINTED DOCUMENTS USING MULTI-LEVEL IMAGE COMPARISON BASED ON DOCUMENT CHARACTERISTICS - A document authentication method compares a target document image (scanned image) with an original document image at multiple levels, such as block (e.g. paragraph, graphics, image), line, word and character levels. The paragraph level comparison determines whether the target and original images have the same number of paragraphs and whether the paragraphs have the same sizes and locations; the line level comparison determines if the target and original images have the same number of lines and whether the lines have the same sizes and locations; etc. Document segmentation is performed on the target and original images to segment them into paragraph units, line units, etc. for purposes of the comparisons. The original document may be segmented beforehand and the segmentation information stored for later use. The authentication process may be designed to stop when alterations are detected at a higher level, so lower level comparisons are not carried out. | 06-30-2011 |
20110161674 | DOCUMENT AUTHENTICATION USING DOCUMENT DIGEST VERIFICATION BY REMOTE SERVER - A method of generating a self-authenticating document while utilizing document digest stored on a server for verification purposes. Authentication information for the document is encoded in barcode which is printed on the document. A document digest is calculated from the authentication information and transmitted to a server to be stored. When authenticating a scanned copy of the document, the barcode is read to extract the authentication information. A target document digest is calculated from the extracted authentication information and transmitted to the server for verification. The server compares the target document digest with the previously stored document digest. If they are not the same, the barcode has been altered. If they are the same, the extracted authentication information is used to authenticate the scanned copy. A document ID may be generated and transmitted to the server, and used by the server to index or search for the stored document digest. | 06-30-2011 |
20120120453 | METHOD FOR BINARIZING SCANNED DOCUMENT IMAGES CONTAINING GRAY OR LIGHT COLORED TEXT PRINTED WITH HALFTONE PATTERN - A method for binarizing a scanned document images containing gray or light colored text printed with halftone patterns. The document image is initially binarized and connected image components are extracted from the initial binary image as text characters. Each text character is classified as either a halftone text character or a non-halftone text character based on an analysis of its topology features. The topology features may be the Euler number of the text character; a text character with a Euler number below −2 is classified as halftone text. The gray-scale document image is then divided into halftone text regions containing only halftone text characters and non-halftone text regions. Each region is binarized using its own pixel value statistics. This eliminates the influence of black text on the threshold values for binarizing halftone text. The binary maps of the regions are combined to generate the final binary map. | 05-17-2012 |
20120243785 | METHOD OF DETECTION DOCUMENT ALTERATION BY COMPARING CHARACTERS USING SHAPE FEATURES OF CHARACTERS - A document alteration detection method compares a target image with an original image by comparing character shape features without actually recognizing the characters. Bounding boxes for the characters are generated for both images, each enclosing one or more connected groups of pixels of one character. The bounding boxes in the original and target images are matched into pairs. Addition and deletion of text is detected if a bounding box in one image does not have a matching one in the other image. Each pair of bounding boxes is processed to compare their shape features. The shape features include the Euler numbers of the characters, the aspect ratio of the bounding boxes, the pixel density of the bounding boxes, and the Hausdorff distance between the two characters. The two characters are determined to be the same or different based on the shape feature comparisons. | 09-27-2012 |
20130003086 | METHOD FOR PROCESSING HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE IMAGES USING TONE MAPPING TO EXTENDED RGB SPACE - A method for processing a high dynamic range (HDR) image for printing. Tone mapping is first applied to the input image to map the colors from the original color space to an extended RGB space without scaling or clipping of colors. The colors are then converted to a device-independent color space such as Jab, and scaled (normalized) in that space. Then, image-based gamut mapping is performed in the Jab space to map the gamut of the image to the gamut of the destination device. The colors are then converted to the color space of the destination device (e.g. printer) and outputted. | 01-03-2013 |
20130161395 | FOUR DIMENSIONAL (4D) COLOR BARCODE FOR HIGH CAPACITY DATA ENCODING AND DECODING - A method and program for encoding and decoding color barcodes to increase their data capacity. The encoding steps include determining a shape and a color for each data cell to encode digital data, wherein a combination of the shape and the color for the data cell is chosen from a plurality of combinations of shapes and colors in accordance with a value of the digital data to be encoded, and coloring a subset of the plurality of pixels in each data cell in accordance with the shape and the color for the data cell determined above. The decoding steps include segmenting the data cells in a color barcode, recognizing a shape formed by a subset of pixels in each data cell and the color of the shape, and obtaining digital data from a combination of the recognized shape and color in each data cell. | 06-27-2013 |
20130161396 | FOUR DIMENSIONAL (4D) COLOR BARCODE FOR HIGH CAPACITY DATA ENCODING AND DECODING - A method for encoding and decoding color barcodes to increase their data capacity. The encoding steps include determining a shape, a foreground color and a background color for each data cell, wherein a combination of the shape, foreground and background colors for the data cell is chosen from a plurality of such combinations in accordance with a value of the digital data to be encoded; and coloring some pixels in the data cell with a foreground color and other pixels with a background color, in accordance with the shape, foreground and background colors for the data cell determined above. The decoding steps include segmenting the data cells, recognizing a shape, a foreground color of the shape and a background color of the data cell, and obtaining digital data from a combination of the shape and foreground and background colors in each data cell. | 06-27-2013 |
20130250339 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ANALYZING AND PROCESSING RECEIVED FAX DOCUMENTS TO REDUCE UNNECESSARY PRINTING - A method implemented in a fax machine for analyzing and processing received fax documents to identify unwanted faxes. The method applies a content based analysis to textual contents extracted from the fax by OCR, and applies an image pattern analysis to the image of the fax, as well as a statistical analysis based on past analysis results and user actions of faxes from the same sender. An overall relevance value is calculated based on the above analyses and is used to determine whether the received fax is unwanted. For unwanted faxes, the fax machine either prints the fax using a low quality printing mode, or save the fax in a memory without printing it. The user may subsequently perform various actions on the fax document, such as printing, reprinting, forwarding, deleting, etc. Such user actions are recorded as a part of the statistical information used in the statistical analysis. | 09-26-2013 |
20130258373 | DETERMINING IF A RECEIVED FAX IS AN AUTO-REPLY FOR A TRANSMITTED FAX - A method implemented in a fax machine for analyzing a received fax to determine whether it is an auto-reply fax. Auto-reply faxes are handled differently from other faxes to avoid unnecessary printing. The analysis method includes: determining whether the sender of the received fax is the same as the receiver of a fax sent by the fax machine within a predefined time period in the past; determining whether the received fax contains only one or two pages; extracting text from the image of the received fax using OCR; and detecting the presents of certain keywords in the extracted text which indicate an auto-reply or received status. These determination and detection results are combined to determine whether the received fax is an auto-reply. Auto-reply faxes may be saved but not automatically printed, or forwarded to an email box of the sender of the original fax, etc. | 10-03-2013 |
20130329965 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DOCUMENT AUTHENTICATION USING KRAWTCHOUK DECOMPOSITION OF IMAGE PATCHES FOR IMAGE COMPARISON - A document authentication method employs Krawtchouk decomposition to analyze and compare document images. When printing an original document, the original document image is segmented into image patches, which preferably correspond to individual symbols of the document. Krawtchouk decomposition is applied to each image patch. The image patches are classified into image patch classes using their Krawtchouk coefficients. The locations of all image patches belonging to each class are obtained and stored along with the Krawtchouk coefficients for each class. When authenticating a target document, the same segmentation, Krawtchouk decomposition and classification steps are applied to the target document image, and the locations of all image patches belonging to each class are obtained. The image patch classes and the locations of image patches belonging to each class for the original and target document image are compared to detect alterations present in the target document. | 12-12-2013 |
20140027504 | MULTI-LAYER BARCODE FOR PRINT ON DEMAND DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT - A document management method, including the steps of gathering data of a multi-page document for a first layer barcode, encoding the gathered data for the first layer barcode, writing the first layer barcode on at least one page of the document, deriving key information of the document from the gathered data; and for at least one other page of the document, gathering data of the at least one other page for a second layer barcode, encoding key information of the document and the data of the at least one other page for the second layer barcode, and writing the second layer barcode on the at least one other page of the document, such that the at least one other page of the document has its respective second layer barcode. | 01-30-2014 |
20140144991 | ROBUST DECODING OF COLOR BARCODE PRINTED WITH EXTREMELY SMALL DATA CELLS - A method for decoding digital data in a color barcode having a plurality of data cells, including the steps of: scanning the color barcode of the hardcopy document, separating color image of the color barcode into print primary color planes, computing peaks of each print primary color plane, projecting, for at least one of the print primary color planes, the data cells along a horizontal direction and a vertical direction at the peaks of the at least one of the primary color planes in each direction which represent data cell center locations respectively, and creating a grid where each of its intersection is a respective data cell center location, assigning a color to each grid intersection which corresponds to a respective data cell by examining values of the print primary color planes at such location, and decoding digital data from the data cells based on the respective color assigned to each data cell. | 05-29-2014 |
20140183854 | METHOD OF AUTHENTICATING A PRINTED DOCUMENT - A method for authenticating a printed document which carries barcode that encode authentication data, including word bounding boxes for each word in the original document image and data for reconstructing the original image. The printed document is scanned to generate a target document image, which is then segmented into text words. The word bounding boxes of the original and target document images are used to align the target document image. Then, each word in the original document image is compared to corresponding words in the target document image using word difference map and Hausdorff distance between them. Symbols of the original document image are further compared to corresponding symbols in the target document image using feature comparison, symbol difference map and Hausdorff distance comparison, and point matching. These various comparison results can identify alterations in the target document with respect to the original document, which can be visualized. | 07-03-2014 |
20140185933 | DOCUMENT IMAGE COMPRESSION METHOD AND ITS APPLICATION IN DOCUMENT AUTHENTICATION - A method for compressing a bi-level document image containing text is disclosed. The document image is segmented into symbol images each representing a letter, numeral, etc. in the document. The symbol images are classified into a plurality of classes, each class being associated with a template image and a class index. Classification is done by comparing each symbol to be classified with template of existing classes, using a number of image features including zoning profiles, side profiles, topology statistics, and low-order image moments. These image features are compared using a tolerance based method to determine whether the symbol matches the template. After classification, certain classes that have few symbols classified into them may be merged with other classes. In addition, the template images of the classes are down-sampled, where the final sizes of the template images are dependent on the likelihood of confusion of the template with other templates. | 07-03-2014 |
20140270526 | METHOD FOR SEGMENTING TEXT WORDS IN DOCUMENT IMAGES - A word segmentation method for processing a document image applies clustering analysis to the spacing segments of a line. The spacing segments are generated by thresholding a one-dimensional vertical projection profile of the line. Taking advantage of the bimodal distribution of spacing length distribution of text lines, a k-means clustering algorithm is used, with the number of clusters pre-set to two, to classify the spacing segments as either character spacing or word spacing. Moreover, k-means++ initialization is used to enhance performance of cluster analysis. The clustering result such as cluster centers and compactness is used to prune single-word text line, single table item, etc. The locations of the word spacing segments are then used to segment the line of text into words. | 09-18-2014 |
20150069140 | FOUR DIMENSIONAL (4D) COLOR BARCODE FOR HIGH CAPACITY DATA ENCODING AND DECODING - A method for encoding and decoding color barcodes to increase their data capacity. The encoding steps include determining a shape, a foreground color and a background color for each data cell, wherein a combination of the shape, foreground and background colors for the data cell is chosen from a plurality of such combinations in accordance with a value of the digital data to be encoded; and coloring some pixels in the data cell with a foreground color and other pixels with a background color, in accordance with the shape, foreground and background colors for the data cell determined above. The decoding steps include segmenting the data cells, recognizing a shape, a foreground color of the shape and a background color of the data cell, and obtaining digital data from a combination of the shape and foreground and background colors in each data cell. | 03-12-2015 |