METHOD FOR SEGMENTATION OF TEXT BY COLOUR CRITERION IN PROCESS OF COPYING Russian patent published in 2009 - IPC G06K9/50 H04N1/60 

FIELD: physics, image processing.

SUBSTANCE: invention is related to digital processing of image in process of scanning and copying, and especially to the field of colour and black-and-white text segmentation, when text is automatically extracted from scanned document. According to the present invention, method of text segmentation by colour criterion consists in performance of the following operations: initial image is broken down into non-overlapping units of pixels; new image Z is generated, in which each pixel represents corresponding unit of initial image; in process of scanning serial units are selected from initial image; classification is carried out for current unit by criterion "monochromatic/colour" in space of opposite colours; initial colour unit RGB is broken down into monochromatic units R, G and B; detector of Laplacian-Gaussian edges is applied with specified threshold T to monochromatic unit; number of edges is calculated for each pixel in Z; classification of "text/non-text unit" is performed by comparison of edge number with set threshold C; classified channels are combined, using logical operator OR.

EFFECT: provision of universal approach to preliminary processing of initial document, providing for faster printing of copy and saving of multifunctional device resources.

4 cl, 3 dwg