| Patent application number | Description | Published |
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| 20080205765 | Light compression for color images using error diffusion - A light compression method that error diffuses image data provided with luminance and chrominance channels. During error diffusion, a higher number of bits are allocated to the luminance channel. A decompression method for the image data based on sigma filtering is also provided. By manipulating the bits in the luminance and chrominance color spaces, the image output quality may be increased in reconstructed images. | 08-28-2008 |
| 20080217416 | MAGNETIC WATERMARK FOR TEXT DOCUMENTS - The present disclosure is directed to a method and apparatus for applying magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) technology to enable the embedding of coded information within text characters of a document. | 09-11-2008 |
| 20080252931 | Image output color management system and method - Disclosed is an image color management system and method for controlling an image output device. The method for controlling the image output device comprises generating an image output device profile LUT (look-up-table) characterizing the color profile of the image output device for a plurality of drift states associated with the image output device; generating a set of basis vectors representing the LUT; storing the set of basis vectors in an image output device controller; and generating an image output device active profile associated with a current drift state of the image output device to convert image color data for display or printing by the image output device, wherein the image output device active profile is generated from the set of basis vectors. | 10-16-2008 |
| 20080253649 | Image output color management system and method - Disclosed is an image color management system and method for controlling an image output device. The method for controlling the image output device comprises generating an image output device profile LUT (look-up-table) characterizing the color profile of the image output device for a plurality of drift states associated with the image output device; generating a set of augmented basis vectors representing the LUT, L*a*b* values and multiple GCR/UCRs; storing the set of basis vectors in an image output device controller; and generating an image output device active profile associated with a current drift state of the image output device to convert image color data for display or printing by the image output device, wherein the image output device active profile is generated from the set of basis vectors. | 10-16-2008 |
| 20080279474 | Punched hole detection and removal - A method for removal of punched hole artifacts in digital images includes, for a scanned document page, deriving an original digital image that defines the page in terms of a plurality of input pixels. A reduced resolution bitonal image is generated from the original image. The method further includes providing for identifying of candidate punched hole artifacts in the reduced resolution bitonal image and providing for testing the candidate punched hole artifacts for at least one of shape, size, and location. Where a candidate punched hole artifact meets the at least one test, the method includes generating a modified image. This includes erasing the candidate punched hole artifact from the original digital image. | 11-13-2008 |
| 20080292129 | EMBEDDING INFORMATION IN DOCUMENT BLANK SPACE - A method for embedding information in a document includes encoding information as a plurality of data carrying dot patterns. For each of a plurality of blocks of a document page to be rendered, the method includes determining whether the block is blank. Each of the plurality of data carrying dot patterns is embedded in a respective one of the blank blocks. The document with the embedded data carrying dot patterns is rendered. | 11-27-2008 |
| 20080296885 | FONT PRINTING SYSTEM HAVING EMBEDDED SECURITY INFORMATION COMPRISING VARIABLE DATA PERIODIC LINE PATTERNS - A method and system is provided for providing a variable data guilloché shaped pattern comprised of variable data differential line pattern fonts comprising decodable template symbols which are capable of being selectively assembled into a predetermined variable data code. The code representations are embedded in the guilloché pattern amongst a plurality of unvaried standard base patterns. The representation can be decoded with a digital scan capable of identifying the embedded patterns and communicated it to a user for verifying a document containing the code. | 12-04-2008 |
| 20080297852 | VARIABLE DATA PERIODIC LINE PATTERNS FOR COMPOSING A FONT SYSTEM - A method and system is provided for generating a variable data differential line pattern font comprising forming a periodic line pattern suitable for tessellation disposition within a printed document and selectively distorting a portion of the periodic line pattern in a predetermined manner wherein the distorting comprises generating a distinguishable font corresponding to the distorting. A plurality of different distinguishable fonts are formed by a corresponding plurality of distorted line patterns, respectively. | 12-04-2008 |
| 20090080041 | MULTIPLE DIMENSIONAL COLOR CONVERSION TO MINIMIZE INTERPOLATION ERROR - Linear transformations of L*a*b* color space are provided to minimize interpolation errors when performing multi-dimensional color space conversions involving lookup tables. Methods are provided for linear transformations (e.g., rotation and shear) to substantially fir the sampling grid to a given printer gamut. | 03-26-2009 |
| 20090148042 | TEXT REPRESENTATION METHOD AND APPARATUS - A text-like data representation technique and a text-like data representation apparatus are disclosed that my acquire image data from a scanned image; segment text regions from the image data; further extract each connected component in the text regions; form clusters based on the connected components; group each connected component in the text regions into one of the clusters with similar or identical characters; generate a high-resolution representative for each cluster; generate a vector representation for each high-resolution representative; and code the text as text data by associating each connected component with its vectorized high-resolution representative, and location in the document. | 06-11-2009 |
| 20090161183 | OPTIMAL NODE PLACEMENT FOR MULTI-DIMENSIONAL PROFILE LUTS FOR ARBITRARY MEDIA AND HALFTONES USING PARAMETERIZED MINIMIZATION - A method and system for optimal node placement of a color correction table first generate a high resolution color correction table. A low resolution color correction table is generated. Each node of the low resolution color correction table has a corresponding color correction value generated by interpolating the color correction values of the high resolution color correction table. A reconstructed color correction table is generated, and each of the nodes of the reconstructed color correction table has a corresponding color correction value generated by interpolating the color correction values of the low resolution color correction table using an interpolation method identical to an output device interpolation method. Differences between the color correction values of the reconstructed and the high resolution color correction table are quantified into a measure of error, and the node locations of the low resolution color correction table are adjusted, and the procedure is repeated. | 06-25-2009 |
| 20090214113 | Removing Ringing and Blocking Artifacts from JPEG Compressed Document Images - A method of removing ringing and blocking artifacts from a decompressed digital image. In one method, a background value of the digital image a background region and foreground regions is determined, and a threshold value is computed. A mapping of the digital image is then generated by thresholding the digital image based on the threshold value to produce a thresholded image, and enlarging the foreground regions of the thresholded image to form a map image. The mapping includes the background pixels of the map image. The background region of the decompressed digital image is then cleansed based on the mapping. In an alternate method, ringing artifacts are removed from a decompressed digital image based on a signal-to-noise ratio of the image. In yet another alternate embodiment, ringing artifacts are from a decompressed digital color image that includes a chrominance channel and a luminance channel. An alternate embodiment removes ringing and blocking artifacts. | 08-27-2009 |
| 20090262402 | SHOW-THROUGH REDUCTION METHOD AND SYSTEM - A show-through reduction method is disclosed. The method is designed to deal with both light and severe show-through. The method focuses mostly on text documents, with characters possibly appearing in multiple gray levels, although the method can also be extended to color documents. As in the prior art, the front and back pages are processed in pairs. However, no perfect page alignment is assumed here, since we are dealing with real images. Instead, a front and back registration is performed as the first step before the pages are further analyzed. In this method, we are aligning the front page content with its show-through appearing in the back side, and the back page content with its show-through appearing in the front side. Once the two sides are aligned, masks are generated for both sides to differentiate severe show-through and light color content regions. Finally, different TRCs are applied to different regions. The show-through is reduced and the page contents are retained. | 10-22-2009 |
| 20090274392 | PAGE ORIENTATION DETECTION BASED ON SELECTIVE CHARACTER RECOGNITION - A system and method for character recognition with document orientation determination is shown. The method is a detection of simple page orientation based on a limited version of character recognition. The method includes binairizing an input image which has a plurality of alphanumeric characters with a first orientation. The method continues with extracting the connected components and determining a second orientation where the second orientation is based on a 90° turn clockwise or counterclockwise or, in the alternative, no turn from the first orientation. The second orientation will result in a 180° variance from the proper orientation or it will be the proper orientation. The method continues with implementing a limited version of optical character recognition for an analysis of a character and determining if that second orientation is upside down, based at least in part on the analysis. This method generally uses the character “i” for analysis. However, for documents that have a limited number of “i”s, e.g. such as Russian documents or documents with all capital letters, the “T” may also be used. | 11-05-2009 |
| 20090296107 | METHOD, APPARATUS AND SYSTEMS TO RETRIEVE GCRS FROM HISTORICAL DATABASE - This disclosure provides methods, apparatus and systems for generating a profile for a printing device. Specifically, the profile is generated by selecting a GCR profile from a plurality of GCR profiles and mapping a plurality of nodes to a device dependent color space as a function of the selected GCR profiles. | 12-03-2009 |
| 20100021069 | PDF DE-CHUNKING AND OBJECT CLASSIFICATION - Systems and methods are described that facilitate identifying objects in a document (e.g., a PDF document) for automatic image enhancement (AIE). A PDF document is “chunked” or segmented into chunks, and boundaries between chunks are identified as real or imaginary. Chunks sharing imaginary boundaries are combined, while real boundaries are retained, to generate “de-chunked” objects. These objects are then classified, and an AIE application is executed on objects meeting pre-specified classification criteria. In this manner, objects of r which AIE is not desired are not subjected to the AIE application, thereby saving time and processing resources associated with enhancing the document. | 01-28-2010 |
| 20100033765 | DOCUMENT TYPE CLASSIFICATION FOR SCANNED BITMAPS - Systems and methods are described that facilitate determining an original document format for a scanned document by analyzing a bitmap thereof. Text objects are extracted from the document, binarized, and segmented to identify text. Page orientation and text size are used to distinguish between a slideshow-type document, and a word processing or spreadsheet-type document. To further distinguish between the word processing and spreadsheet types, text column structure and count is analyzed. | 02-11-2010 |
| 20100103465 | COLOR PIXEL ERROR DIFFUSION IN A CMYK INPUT COLOR SPACE - What is disclosed is a system and method for diffusing pixel error in a halftoning process in a color management system. The present method divides a modified CMYK input into a real and imaginary portions. The real portion is the coverage achieved by a physically realizable positive dot. The imaginary portion comprises a an imaginary negative dot and an imaginary excess dot. Each of these dots are processed separately, on a per-pixel basis, in a novel CMYK to CMYKKpRGB conversion discussed in detail herein. Hierarchical thresholding is preformed on the conversion output to produce a high-quality halftone result. A cumulative pixel error sum is derived therefrom and combined with the input CMYK coverages of a next pixel. All pixels are processed. The halftone output generated hereby has the pixel error compensated. Other embodiments are provided. | 04-29-2010 |
| 20100123912 | PANTOGRAPH METHODS, APPARATUS AND SYSTEMS BASED ON UCR/GCR - The disclosure provides pantograph methods, apparatus and systems. Specifically disclosed is a method of rendering a pantograph including defining a foreground region associated with a pantograph, defining a background region associated with the pantograph, and applying a first UCR/GCR strategy to the background region and a second UCR/GCR strategy to the foreground region, whereby the foreground region is less discernable after the pantograph is rendered with a printing device relative to a reproduction of the rendered pantograph. | 05-20-2010 |
| 20100128290 | EMBEDDING INFORMATION IN DOCUMENT BLANK BORDER SPACE - A method for embedding coded information in a document border includes encoding information as a plurality of data carrying dot pair patterns where each dot is too small to be visually noticeable. For each page of a document to be rendered, the method includes determining whether the border area is blank. If found not blank the border area is cleared. Each of the plurality of data carrying dot patterns is embedded in the blank border area of the document page. The document page with the embedded data carrying dot patterns is then rendered, where each data carrying dot is too small to be visually noticeable. | 05-27-2010 |
| 20100128299 | PREVENTION OF UNAUTHORIZED COPYING OR SCANNING - A method for embedding “no-scan” or “no-copy” information in a document border includes encoding information as a plurality of data carrying dot pair patterns. For each page of a document to be rendered, the method includes determining whether the border area is blank. If found not blank the border area is cleared. Each of the plurality of data carrying dot patterns is embedded in the blank border area of the document page. The document page with the embedded data carrying dot patterns is then rendered, where each data carrying dot is too small to be visually noticeable. | 05-27-2010 |
| 20100128320 | PROTECTING PRINTED ITEMS INTENDED FOR PUBLIC EXCHANGE WITH INFORMATION EMBEDDED IN BLANK DOCUMENT BORDERS - A method for embedding coded information in a coupon with a face value denomination includes encoding that face value denomination value as a plurality of data carrying dot pair patterns where each dot is too small to be visually noticeable. For each page of a document to be rendered, the method includes determining whether the border area is blank. If found not blank the border area is cleared. Each of the plurality of data carrying dot patterns is embedded in the blank border area of the document page. The document page with the embedded data carrying dot patterns is then rendered, where each data carrying dot is too small to be visually noticeable. | 05-27-2010 |
| 20100150445 | TEXT VECTORIZATION USING OCR AND STROKE STRUCTURE MODELING - Systems and methods are described that facilitate dominant point detection for text in a scanned document. The dominant points are classified as “major” (e.g., structural) and “minor” (e.g., serif). A set of rules or parameters for each character is determined off-line. During the text vectorization, OCR is performed and the rules (parameters) associated with the recognized character are selected. Both major and minor dominant points are detected as a maximization process with the parameter set. For minor dominant points, additional processes are optionally employed. | 06-17-2010 |
| 20100150460 | OCR-GUIDED TEXT TOKENIZATION OF DIGITAL IMAGES - An image processing method in which OCR is used to guide the text tokenization. More particularly, OCR is first performed on each symbol in the scanned image. For example, a symbol may be a number, letter, or other character. During the tokenization process, the OCR results are used to select appropriate matching criteria for each symbol. The symbols that are recognized as different characters are not allowed to be clustered into the same group. The symbols with the same OCR results are clustered according to the recognition confidence levels. | 06-17-2010 |
| 20100153581 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR OPTIMIZING NETWORK TRANSMISSION OF RENDERED DOCUMENTS - A method and system for optimizing network transmission of print documents to a rendering device. A document for rendering (e.g., print job) can be received and metadata related to the document analyzed simultaneously. The metadata can then be compared to a number of locally saved files and the document containing matching metadata can be rendered directly from a local storage device, thereby reducing network traffic. Otherwise, the document can be transferred over a network to the rendering device. A record of a number of times the document is being requested for rendering can be tracked by the rendering device in order to retain the document for an extended period of time. | 06-17-2010 |
| 20100156919 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR TEXT-BASED PERSONALIZATION OF IMAGES - As set forth herein, a computer-implemented method is employed to place personalized text into an image. A location and region within the image is determined where the text is to be placed. The 3D geometry of the surface is estimated proximate to the location where the text is to be placed. A personalized text string is received. The personalized text string is incorporated into the image to appear as if it is rendered onto the surface or object according to the estimated 3D geometry. | 06-24-2010 |
| 20100156940 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR UTILIZING TRANSFORMATION MATRICES TO PROCESS RASTERIZED IMAGE DATA - A method and system render rasterized data by receiving non-rasterized page description language data and a corresponding transformation matrix representing transformation operations to be performed. The non-rasterized page description language data is rasterizing to create rasterized data. The corresponding transformation matrix is decomposed into a plurality of individual transformation operation matrices and a discrete transformation operation value, from a corresponding individual transformation operation matrix, is generated for each transformation operation to be performed upon the rasterized data. The transformation operations are performed upon the rasterized data based upon the generated discrete transformation operation values. | 06-24-2010 |
| 20100188710 | FONT-INPUT BASED RECOGNITION ENGINE FOR PATTERN FONTS - As set forth herein, a computer implemented method is used to encode and decode a user-individualized font. A variable alphabet is created and a document is created using this variable alphabet to encode machine readable information. The variable alphabet is communicated to a generalized recognition engine via a predefined font mechanism. The alphabet representation is used to modify the recognition engine, by at least changing one or more template definitions. | 07-29-2010 |
| 20100195141 | PRINT JOB SCHEDULING - A printing system capable of concurrently processing and scheduling a plurality of job streams and including at least one marking engine and multiple print media destination is controlled by a controller that includes a jobs scheduler for determining a schedule for processing queued print jobs using the plurality of concurrent job streams. The job scheduler determines the schedule using a method including: determining a utility function dependent at least upon user preference delay criteria, and the schedule of the queued print jobs; and optimizing the utility function respective to the schedule of queued print jobs. | 08-05-2010 |
| 20100201711 | RESIZING A DIGITAL DOCUMENT IMAGE VIA BACKGROUND CONTENT REMOVAL - What is disclosed is a system and method for performing a background deletion that exploits both local and global context to remove background and other white space between objects with the aim of retaining structural relationships between objects in the document. A document image is received and seams are carved through the image. Seams composed of uniform background pixels are identified. Adjacent seams containing background pixels are collected into groups of seams. The background seam groups are classified according to their widths. A target number of seams to be removed for each background seam group is then determined based on the classification. Seam groups which are wider will have at least the same or a greater target number of seams to be deleted therefrom than will seam groups of narrower widths. The document image is then resized by deleting seams from the seam groups based on the assigned target number. | 08-12-2010 |
| 20100208290 | DELETION OF UNWANTED REPLY MESSAGES IN E-MAIL PRINTING - Methods and systems receive an instruction to print an accumulation e-mail message through a graphic user interface of a computerized device. The accumulation e-mail comprises an original e-mail message and one or more reply e-mail messages made to the original e-mail message. The methods and systems automatically identify boundaries between the e-mail messages within the accumulation e-mail using the computerized device; automatically truncate the original e-mail message and one or more of the reply e-mail messages from the accumulation e-mail message to create a modified accumulation e-mail message using the computerized device; and automatically print the modified accumulation e-mail message using a printing device. | 08-19-2010 |
| 20100214616 | UNDERCOLOR REMOVAL GRAY COLOR REPLACEMENT WITH IMPROVED DEVICE COLOR LINEARITY - A system and methods for performing UCR/GCR (Undercolor Removal/Gray Color Replacement) in a digital printer is provided. The system and method includes maximizing the linearity of a color mapping function mapping a device independent color to a device dependent color through linear filtering and performing color projection to ensure color accuracy. The system and methods reduces graininess of printed color images having flesh-tones by also including a K reduction step. | 08-26-2010 |
| 20100298971 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR FEEDING SHEETS OF MEDIA FROM A MEDIA STACK IN AN IMAGE PRODUCTION DEVICE - A method and apparatus for feeding sheets of media from a media stack in an image production device is disclosed. The method may include fluffing a stack of media with a predetermined amount of air flow, sensing a number of fluffed media sheets in the media stack, determining if the number of fluffed media sheets equals or exceeds a predetermined value, wherein if it is determined that the number of fluffed media sheets equals or exceeds the predetermined value, feeding the fluffed media sheets to an image production section of the image production device. | 11-25-2010 |
| 20110007334 | BETWEEN-SEGMENT DISCONTINUITY REDUCTION FOR TEXT VECTORIZATION USING DOMINANT POINT CLASSIFICATION - What is disclosed is a novel system and method for text vectorization for bitmap images with reduced artificial discontinuities. Dominant points are identified in a bitmap character image. An initial curve is fitted to edge points of the character image in a vicinity of a selected dominant point. A set of boundary parameters in a vicinity of the selected dominant point are estimated based upon the initial curve. The selected dominant point is then classified as one of a sharp dominant point and a smooth dominant point based upon the boundary parameters or alternatively upon predefined classifications produced by an optical character recognition process. Curves are fitted between the selected dominant point and adjacent dominant points. The fitted curves maintain the estimated boundary parameters in the vicinity of smooth dominant points. A vectorized representation of the text character image based upon the fitted curves is produced as output. | 01-13-2011 |
| 20110026059 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DETERMINING MEDIA THICKNESS IN A FEEDER SECTION OF AN IMAGE PRODUCTION DEVICE - A method and apparatus for determining media thickness in a feeder section of an image production device is disclosed. The method may include receiving one or more multi-dimensional images of a media stack from an imaging device, the media stack including one or more media clips that each contain a plurality of media sheets, deriving a multi-dimensional feature signal from the received one or more multi-dimensional images, converting the derived multi-dimensional feature signal to a one-dimensional feature signal, estimating media clip thickness using the one-dimensional signal, estimating media sheet thickness using the estimated media clip thickness, and adjusting at least one image production device parameter based on the estimated media sheet thickness. | 02-03-2011 |
| 20110047505 | OBJECT BASED ADAPTIVE DOCUMENT RESIZING - What is disclosed is a resizing method that utilizes segmentation information to classify objects found within a document and then selects the most appropriate resizing technique for each identified object. The present method employs readily available document parsers to reliably extract objects. e.g. text, background, images, graphics, etc., which compose the document. Information obtained from a document parser is utilized to identify the document components for classification. The extracted objects are then classified according to their object type. Each of classified objects are then resized using a resizing technique having been pre-selected for the object type based on their respective abilities to resize certain types of document content over other resizing techniques. The present method advantageously extends smart or content-based scaling and is especially useful for N-up or variable-information printing. The present method finds its intended uses in enhancing N-up and handout options currently provided in a variety of print-drivers. | 02-24-2011 |
| 20110102848 | MEMORY EFFICIENT HIERARCHICAL ERROR DIFFUSION WITH COLOR CONSISTENCY CONSTRAINTS - A halftoning process for printing digital images includes: receiving CMYK input pixel data that define an input pixel of an input digital image in terms of continuous tone input data values for cyan, magenta, yellow, and black colors, wherein I(C), I(M), I(Y), I(K) respectively correspond to the continuous tone input data value for the cyan, magenta, yellow, and black colors; converting the CMYK input pixel data to modified CMYKRGB* pixel data that define the input pixel in terms of error-adjusted continuous tone data values for the cyan, magenta, yellow, and black colors, and also in terms of red, green and blue colors, wherein I*(C), I*(M), I*(Y), I*(K), I*(R), I*(G), I*(B) respectively correspond to the error-adjusted converted continuous tone input data values for the cyan, magenta, yellow, black, red, green, blue colors; quantizing the modified CMYKRGB* pixel data to derive intermediate output CMYKRGB pixel data in which the cyan, magenta, yellow, black, red, green, and blue colors are each defined by either a first quantized value that represents no color or a second quantized pixel value that represents full color, wherein O′(C), O′(M), O′(Y), O′(K), O′(R), O′(G), O′(B) respectively define said intermediate output pixel data for the cyan, magenta, yellow, black, red, green, and blue colors, and wherein the intermediate output CMYKRGB pixel data define an output pixel that corresponds to the input pixel; converting the intermediate output CMYKRGB pixel data to CMYK output data in which the output pixel is defined in terms of CMYK output values O(C), O(M), O(Y), O(K) respectively for the cyan, magenta, yellow, and black colors, wherein each of the CMYK output values is defined by either a first output value representing no color or a second output value representing full color. | 05-05-2011 |
| 20110109918 | CONTROLLING PLACEMENT AND MINIMIZING DISTORTION OF IMAGES IN AN IMAGING DEVICE - What is disclosed is a novel system and method to control an imaging device. A first collection of a plurality of two-dimensional image points in a first vector space for a source image and a second collection of a plurality of two-dimensional image points in a second vector space for a target image are received. The first collection of two-dimensional image points and the second collection of two-dimensional image points are converted into a homogenous form to apply affine matrix transformations. A matrix transformation is solved to map the first collection of the plurality of two-dimensional image points to the second collection of the plurality of two-dimensional image points. The matrix transformation is used to adjust distortion of the target image in an imaging device. | 05-12-2011 |
| 20110113323 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS TO RESIZE DOCUMENT CONTENT - A system resizes content within a document that includes a document segmenter that receives a document that contains content. The document segmenter analyzes the content within the document and segments the content into a plurality of object types. An object priority applicator determines a class value associated with each object type. A location scaler identifies a datum point for each object type within the document, wherein each datum point maintains a relative location to one another regardless of document resizing. An object sizing component resizes each object based at least in part upon the class value. | 05-12-2011 |
| 20110141530 | Embedding information using modulated periodic line patterns - A method and system is provided providing a variable data guilloché pattern comprised of variable data differential line pattern fonts comprising decodable template symbols which are capable of being selectively assembled into a predetermined variable data code. The differential line pattern fonts are further spatially modulated for imposition of a second data channel on a printed document. The representation can be decoded with a digital scanner capable of identifying the embedded patterns and spatially modulated transform function and communicate it to a user for verifying a document containing the code. | 06-16-2011 |
