JP2005348450A - Image processing method and storage medium - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a configuration wherein forgery can be suppressed for an image input from a color scanner or an image output to a color printer. <P>SOLUTION: An instruction of print processing is received (equivalent to a print instruction command in the figure) and in accordance with the instruction of print processing, it is judged whether or not an image expanded by a rasterizer represents a specific image (equivalent to a forgery judge processing module in the same figure), and a result of the judgement is outputted to be used for processing the image signal (equivalent to an output of a result of forgery judgement in the same figure). <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an image processing method and a storage medium.

In recent years, the performance of color image readers (hereinafter referred to as color scanners) using CCDs and color printers and color printers has improved, so originals that are prohibited from copying, such as banknotes and securities, are read as image data with color image readers. By outputting to a printer, there is an increased risk that a copy-prohibited document will be copied and forged. In order to prevent such forgery, a color copying machine having a combination of a color scanner and a color printer is often incorporated with a forgery prevention device that recognizes a copy-prohibited document and prohibits copying. (For example, see Patent Document 1)
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-243223

  However, anti-counterfeiting devices such as those used in color copiers only work during copying operations, and once a copy-prohibited document is read by a color scanner, it can be output by a color copier or other color printer via a controller, There is a drawback of being counterfeited.

  In view of the above-described drawbacks, an object of the present invention is to provide a configuration capable of suppressing forgery against image input from a color scanner and image output to a color printer.

  In response to the print processing instruction, in response to the print processing instruction, the forgery determination processing module determines whether the image corresponding to the developed image signal represents a specific image, and the determination is based on the obtained image signal. However, the process ends when a high recognition rate that the image is a specific image is obtained. Further, the determination is performed using an image signal obtained by spatially thinning the image signal, and then the determination result is specified. When there is a high possibility of being an image, determination is performed using an image signal that is not thinned, and the determination using the image signal that is not thinned is an image signal of a region where a determination target exists in the thinned image signal The present invention provides an image processing method in a printer driver that makes a determination by using.

  As described above, the specific image determination function can be provided even if the printer does not support specific image determination.

  A specific image determination function corresponding to various input devices can be provided.

  It is possible to provide an operation system that acquires a determination result that determines whether an image corresponding to an image signal obtained by a print instruction represents a specific image, and outputs a signal to perform processing according to the acquired determination result. The system can reliably perform processing based on the determination result of the specific image.

  Outputs an image signal generation command to the input device, determines whether the image corresponding to the image signal obtained from the input device represents a specific image according to the command, and outputs a signal to display the determination result on the display unit Therefore, it is possible to let the operator know the determination result of whether the image represented by the image signal represents a specific image.

  It is determined whether the image according to the image signal is a specific image. If the determination result indicates that the image is a specific image, the image is a specific image when storing the determined image data. Therefore, it is possible to add information when storing the determined image. In addition, when the determined image is stored in the storage medium, the information can be added.

(First embodiment)
FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of the present invention and is a diagram showing a configuration of a scanner system including a host computer. An operating system 102 (hereinafter referred to as OS) is running on the host computer, and an operation environment such as an image reading operation of the scanner 104 is provided by a scanner operation application 101 that operates on the operating system 102.

  The scanner system of FIG. 1 is implemented on the hardware configuration shown in FIG. In FIG. 2, the scanner system includes a host computer 21 and a scanner 22. Further, the host computer 21 displays a monitor 201 for displaying a GUI of the application 101 and an image reading result from the scanner, a mouse 202, a keyboard 203, various programs, and the like for transmitting user input to the application 101 and the OS 102. An HDD 208 for storing image data, a ROM 206 for storing basic programs of the host computer, a RAM 205 for reading programs and storing images, and a scanner I / F 207 for controlling the scanner 22 are provided. They are connected to each other via a bus 209 and controlled by the CPU 204. On the host computer 21 configured as described above, both the OS 102 and the scanner operation application 101 are realized by causing the CPU 204 to operate a program read from the HDD 208 to the RAM 205.

  Next, the internal structure of the OS 102 will be described to the extent necessary for the first embodiment of the present invention. In many OSs, a device driver that interfaces with hardware such as a scanner and a module that manages other user applications and memory management, such as UNIX (registered trademark), are separately mounted. In this embodiment, an OS having such a separation structure will be described as an example.

  The OS 102 has a scanner driver 103 as a module for controlling the scanner, in addition to controlling user input and other hardware devices, and the scanner driver 103 in the present embodiment directly controls the scanner 104. -1 and an image fetched from the scanner have a forgery determination processing module 103-2 for determining whether the image is a copy-prohibited document. The OS also has a memory management module 105 for managing the image data area.

  The scanner operation application 101 also includes a GUI routine for interface with the user, a routine for interpreting user input received via the OS 102 and issuing a command for operating the scanner, a routine for displaying an image read from the scanner, And a routine for storing the image read by the scanner on the HDD.

  The scanner 104 scans the CCD line sensor in accordance with the scanner operation signal from the scanner driver 103, electronically reads the document placed on the document table, and returns an image signal to the host computer in accordance with a predetermined interface rule. The image signal is divided into a plurality of color components, for example, R, G, and B, and is assumed to be multi-value data of 8 to 12 bits.

  In accordance with the above description, the operation of the present embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 3 illustrates an example of the operation flow of the scanner system for each module of the scanner operation application 101, the OS 102, and the scanner driver 103.

  When the user instructs the scan start operation using the mouse 202 and the keyboard 203 on the GUI (graphical user interface) displayed on the monitor 201 through the scanner operation application 101, image reading by the scanner is started. When the scanning operation is started by the scanner operation application, in S301, the application secures a designated image area to be read on the RAM, and in S302, identifies the scanner and issues an image reading command to the OS. Then, the application enters the wait state until receiving an image reading process end notification in S303.

  In step S311, the OS 102 that has received the scan start command calls a scanner driver module corresponding to the specified scanner, issues an image read command from the scanner, and enters a wait state until the processing of the scanner driver 103 ends. . At this time, a forgery prevention module outputs on the OS side, and a determination rate indicating whether the image data is a copy-prohibited document is prepared as a variable.

  Upon receiving the scan start command from the OS 102, the scanner control module 103-1 in the scanner driver issues a scan start command specific to the scanner to the scanner in S321. In S322, after reading the image, the image signal received from the scanner is stored in the image data area secured by the application, and the process proceeds to the forgery determination module 103-2.

The forgery determination processing module 103-2 has a copy prohibition pattern as a template on a memory (which may be a RAM or a ROM) separately from the image memory. Pattern matching between the image data stored in S323 and the template is performed, and a value from 0 to 100 is output as a determination rate. As a specific example of such pattern matching, a process of taking the cross-correlation for each color component of the image data and the template and outputting the maximum value can be considered, but here the pattern matching method is not particularly particular. Further, there may be a plurality of copy prohibition pattern templates. When there are a plurality of copy prohibition patterns, pattern matching between a plurality of patterns and image data may be performed and the maximum value may be output. Here, the forgery determination module 103-2 has been described as a software module, but it is also possible to increase the speed by performing hardware processing. In order to perform high-speed processing using software modules,
1) The above-described image data is spatially thinned to obtain, and template matching between this image data and a copy prohibition pattern (copy prohibition pattern corresponding to the image data after thinning) is performed.
2) After reducing the number of bits of the image data described above, template matching is performed with a copy prohibition pattern (copy prohibition pattern corresponding to image data with a reduced number of bits).
Any one of the methods may be taken.

  After reading the image data and finishing the counterfeit determination process, the scanner driver notifies the OS of the end of the process and returns a determination rate.

  In S <b> 312, the OS receives a processing end notification from the scanner driver, and in S <b> 313, it is determined whether the image data is a copy-prohibited image as a result of the actual forgery determination process. If the determination rate is larger than the threshold set in advance on the OS side, the image data may be a copy-prohibited image, and the process proceeds to the forgery prevention control process of S314.

  FIG. 6 is a drawing showing an example of a specific flow of the forgery prevention process S314. In step S600, the process starts. In step S601, a user input screen as illustrated in FIG. 4 is displayed on the monitor 109 via the display driver 107. That is, when there is a possibility that the image input from the scanner is a copy-prohibited document, the user is asked whether the image is actually read. In S <b> 602, it is checked whether the user input is “Yes” or “No”. If “Yes” (if read), the operation history as shown in FIG. 5 is stored in the HDD 108. As a result, it is left as evidence that a copy-prohibited document is read later. If “No” (if the image is not read), in S603, the memory storing the image is released so that the image is not read.

  After this processing is completed, a processing end notification is issued to the application in S315, and the image reading operation of the scanner system is ended.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, when an image signal is acquired by a scanner, the similarity between the image signal and a specific image (an image corresponding to securities such as banknotes) is determined and determined by the operator. The result can be notified.

  Therefore, a warning can be issued when a copy-prohibited image is read with mischief.

  Even if the above-described warning is performed, it cannot be said that the counterfeit action can be suppressed only by taking a history when the image is read.

  Therefore, in this embodiment, when the image data obtained by reading the copy-inhibited image determined by the above-described determination is stored in the HDD 208 of the host computer 21, information indicating that the image is a copy-inhibited image is added to the image data. Such a configuration is adopted in the forgery prevention control module 106.

  Forgery can be prevented by providing a function for determining this additional information in a printer driver, a printer device, or the like, and performing anti-counterfeit processing such as making the image formed in the printer driver or printer black.

  In addition, for example, an image data recording format is employed in which this additional information is not removed even when the image data is copied to another external storage medium (floppy (registered trademark) disk, optical disk, mini disk, MO, etc.). By doing so, the additional information can be reliably added to the image data. As a method for reliably adding to image data, it may be added to image data as a digital watermark.

  Scanner-Host computer-Scanner-Host computer (editing device)-Image forming printer by performing the above-described determination at the timing of scanning the most upstream image signal in a series of sequence up to printing The acquisition of the image signal corresponding to the image formation prohibition image can be reliably prevented in the system comprising the above.

  Even when a printer that does not have a function for determining a specific image is connected, a function for determining a specific image is provided in the scanner driver and OS, so that an image signal corresponding to an image formation prohibited image can be reliably received. Printing can be prevented.

(Second Embodiment)
FIG. 7 shows a second embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, forgery prevention processing is performed in the printer driver 703 and the OS 702 in an image processing system including a host computer and a printer. As in the first embodiment, an OS 702 is running on the host computer, and an operating environment such as an image output operation to the printer 704 is provided by an application 701 that runs on the OS 702.

  Similarly to the scanner system of FIG. 1, the printer system of FIG. 7 is also realized on the hardware configuration shown in FIG. In FIG. 7, the printer system includes a host computer 21 and a printer 23. Further, the host computer 21 displays a monitor 201 for displaying a GUI of the application 701 and an image reading result from the scanner, a mouse 202, a keyboard 203, various programs and images for transmitting user input to the application and the OS. An HDD 208 for storing data, a ROM 206 for storing a basic program of a host computer, a RAM 205 for reading a program and storing an image, and a printer I / F 210 for controlling the printer 23 are provided. They are connected to each other at 209 and controlled by the CPU 204.

  On the host computer 22 configured as described above, both the OS and the application are realized by the CPU 204 operating the program read from the HDD 208 to the RAM 205. The OS 702 has a printer driver 703 as a module for controlling the printer in addition to controlling user input and other hardware devices. The printer driver in the present embodiment is a rasterizer that generates image data suitable for the printer 704. 703-1, an image memory 703-2 for storing the generated image data, and a forgery determination processing module 703-3 for determining whether the rasterized image is a copy-prohibited document. The forgery determination result, which is an output of the forgery determination processing module, is passed to the forgery prevention control module 705, and the forgery prevention control module performs processing for preventing or suppressing forgery based on the determination result.

  The OS 702 also has a print spooler 709 that performs control for outputting a rasterized image to a printer. Here, the rasterizer, the image memory, and the forgery determination processing module are performed by the printer driver, that is, performed by software processing. However, a configuration in which these are performed by the printer 704 is also possible. In that case, a configuration may be adopted in which the result of the forgery determination process performed by the printer is returned to the forgery prevention control module 705.

  Next, the flow of anti-counterfeit processing in the present embodiment will be described.

  The OS 702 that has received a print instruction command by a manual instruction using the mouse 202 and the keyboard 203 on a GUI (graphical user interface) displayed on the monitor 708 instructs the printer driver 703 to print data received from the application 701. . Upon receiving the print processing instruction, the printer driver 703 develops the print document as image data in the rasterizer 703-1 and stores it in the image memory 703-2. The stored image is transferred to a forgery prevention determination processing module 703-2 and a print spooler 709, and a forgery determination process and a printing process are started, respectively. In the forgery determination processing module, as in the first embodiment, it is determined whether an image to be printed includes a pattern that is prohibited from being copied, and the determination rate is output to the forgery prevention control module 705. . In the forgery prevention control module, the threshold value set in advance by the OS is compared with the determination rate that is the output value of the forgery determination processing module. If the determination rate is larger, the warning dialog similar to that in FIG. Is displayed on the monitor 708. As a result of this dialog, if the user decides not to print, a spool stop command is issued to the printer spooler 704, and the printing process is terminated. If the user decides to perform printing by inputting into the dialog, operation history information similar to that shown in FIG. 5 is stored in 706, and the printing process ends.

  Note that the forgery prevention module may not display a warning when the determination rate is high, but may display a message to cancel printing on the monitor 708 and issue a spool cancellation command to the printer spooler 704.

  In this embodiment, an example is shown in which the host computer and the printer are connected at a ratio of 1: 1. However, forgery determination is performed by an OS including a printer driver in a form in which a plurality of host computers are connected to the printer via a network. Also good.

  When the configuration of forgery determination is adopted in the printer, forgery can be determined in the same manner as forgery determination in the OS.

  However, it is not preferable for the operator of another host computer that the network printer is in an occupied state while determining image data of a copy-prohibited image in which image formation is not performed.

  On the other hand, being able to make a forgery determination in the OS is also effective in avoiding unnecessary occupation of the printer.

  Further, by adopting forgery determination in the OS, even when a printer that does not have a copy prohibition image determination function is used, copy prohibition can be reliably realized.

(Other embodiments)
Although the number of templates is not particularly mentioned in the above-described embodiment, a plurality of templates may be held in accordance with a plurality of types of securities and a plurality of securities may be determined.

  Another method is to refer to the version information of the scanner (printer) driver in the OS so that the determination cannot be made when a scanner (printer) driver that does not support the determination of the specific image is used. When it is recognized that the scan (printer) driver does not support judgment, an operation screen is displayed so that a scanner (printer) driver that supports judgment of a specific image can be downloaded via a network (for example, the Internet). May be displayed on the monitor 201.

  A scanner (printer) driver corresponding to the determination of the specific image can be downloaded by the manual instruction of the operator on the operation screen.

  In the above embodiment, in order to reduce the determination processing time, template matching using an image signal obtained by performing spatial pixel thinning and template matching after reducing the number of bits of pixels are performed.

  As a method for speeding up other determination processing, a template for a part of a specific image (for example, a watermark portion of a banknote, a number portion, a seal portion) is prepared, and a portion of the specific image is determined. If a configuration in which a high recognition rate is returned to the OS at a timing is adopted, the determination can be ended when the above-described partial determination is completed without determining all of the image signals corresponding to the specific image.

  As a result, it is possible to reduce the time required for the determination despite the determination by the software processing.

  In addition, using an image signal with spatial pixel thinning or an image signal with a reduced number of pixel bits as in the above-described embodiment, a template corresponding to a specific image is used. By adopting a configuration in which a high determination rate is output at the time when the partial determination is completed without determining all of the image signals that have been performed, it is possible to make a determination at a higher speed.

  In most cases, it is unlikely that the image to be determined is a specific image. Therefore, only after the approximate determination is performed using this high-speed determination method and only when the determination rate is high. The image signal corresponding to the position of the image corresponding to the template is read out from the RAM without being thinned out at high speed, and the determination is performed using a template that is not subjected to detailed pixel thinning for detailed determination. In addition to realizing the determination, it is possible to reliably perform determination on what seems to be a specific image.

  Further, when the specific image determination template is part of the specific image, the determination accuracy of the specific image may be lowered.

  Therefore, if a template corresponding to a certain part of the same specific image and a template corresponding to another part are stored in advance and a determination is made using a template corresponding to a certain part and the determination rate is high, a different template is used. If the image data is destroyed for the first time when the determination rate is equal to or higher than a certain threshold value for any template, it is possible to reduce the occurrence rate of erroneous determination and achieve highly accurate determination.

  In the above-described embodiment, the processing procedure has been described using a flowchart or the like. Needless to say, a computer-readable storage medium that sequentially generates codes corresponding to the processing procedure is also included in the present embodiment.

  In the above embodiment, the configuration in which the image signal is obtained from the scanner has been described as an example.

  However, when image signals are acquired from various input devices and playback devices such as digital cameras, digital camcorders, compact discs, minidiscs, DVDs, film scanners, etc., such image signals are not available on the market because of the input device driver and OS. Needless to say, the determination can be made as in the above-described embodiment when determining whether or not it is a thing.

1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a scanner system including a host computer. It is drawing which shows the implementation example of 1st and 2nd embodiment. It is an example of a flowchart which shows operation | movement of 1st Embodiment. It is an example of the inquiry screen to the user about the image input of a copy prohibition thing. It is an example of the operation history of the image input of a copy prohibition thing. It is an example of the flow of a forgery prevention process. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a printer system.

Claims (12)

Upon receiving a print processing instruction,
In response to the print processing instruction, the forgery determination processing module determines whether the image corresponding to the developed image signal represents a specific image,
The determination ends when a high recognition rate that the image according to the obtained image signal is a specific image is obtained,
Furthermore, after the determination is performed using the image signal obtained by spatially thinning out the image signal, if the determination result is likely to be a specific image, the determination is performed using an image signal that is not thinned out. Done
An image processing method in a printer driver, wherein the determination using an image signal that is not thinned is performed using an image signal in a region where a determination target exists in the thinned image signal.   2. The image processing method in a printer driver according to claim 1, wherein an anti-counterfeit module in an operating system issues a command to stop spooling according to the determination result.   The image processing method in the printer driver according to claim 1, wherein the determination is determination using template matching.   2. The image processing method for a printer driver according to claim 1, wherein, when an instruction to perform printing is given after display based on the determination result on a monitor, log information is stored in a storage means.   2. The image processing method in a printer driver according to claim 1, wherein the determination includes determining an image corresponding to the image signal and a plurality of specific images.   2. The image processing method in a printer driver according to claim 1, wherein the determination is performed using an image signal in which bits of the image signal are reduced.   2. The printer driver according to claim 1, wherein the determination is performed when the determination rate is high in the first determination among the two types of determinations prepared for the same specific image. Image processing method. Upon receiving a print processing instruction,
In response to the print processing instruction, the forgery determination processing module determines whether the image corresponding to the developed image signal represents a specific image,
Output the determination result to be used for processing on the monitor based on the determination result,
An image processing method in a printer driver, wherein when a printer driver that does not support the determination is recognized, a download operation screen of the printer driver corresponding to the determination is displayed on the monitor.   A computer-readable storage medium storing a code for performing the processing according to claim 1. Obtain a determination result that determines whether the image according to the image signal obtained by the print instruction represents a specific image,
According to the acquired determination result, a signal is output to perform processing for displaying information based on the determination result on a monitor, and the determination is highly recognized that the image according to the image signal is a specific image. Finish when rate is obtained,
Furthermore, after the determination is performed using the image signal obtained by spatially thinning out the image signal, if the determination result is likely to be a specific image, the determination is performed using an image signal that is not thinned out. Done
An image processing method in an operating system, wherein the determination using the image signal that is not thinned is performed using an image signal in a region where a determination target is present in the thinned image signal. Upon receiving a print processing instruction,
In response to the print processing instruction, the forgery determination processing module determines whether the image corresponding to the developed image signal represents a specific image,
Output the determination result to be used for processing on the monitor based on the determination result,
An image processing method in an operating system, wherein when a printer driver that does not support the determination is recognized, a download operation screen for the printer driver corresponding to the determination is displayed on the monitor. A printer that performs the processing according to claim 1.

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