Image Processing Apparatus Using Embedded Marks for Distortion Correction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional electronic watermark techniques fail to accurately extract embedded data from printed images that have undergone distortion, such as enlargement, reduction, or rotation, due to misalignment of the embedded data area during reading.
Innovation Solution
An apparatus and method that embeds a predetermined pattern as a mark in the image to specify the data area, allowing for accurate detection and extraction of embedded data by determining the enlargement or reduction rate and rotation angle of the image, ensuring precise data retrieval even after image distortion.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional electronic watermark techniques embed data directly into image blocks based on characteristic magnitudes, then data embedding is achieved, but data extraction becomes inaccurate when the image undergoes distortion such as enlargement, reduction, or rotation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by embedding reference marks with predetermined patterns into the image before data embedding. These marks serve as reference points that enable the extraction system to detect and correct for image distortions (enlargement, reduction, rotation) during the data extraction phase, thereby maintaining extraction accuracy even when the image is distorted
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces reference marks as an intermediary element between the embedding process and the extraction process. These marks act as mediators that carry information about the original image geometry, enabling the extraction system to compensate for distortions by comparing the detected mark positions and patterns against the known predetermined patterns
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus that embeds data in an image includes a mark embedding unit that embeds a feature that forms a predetermined pattern in the image, as a mark to be used to specify an area in which the data is embedded, and a data embedding unit that embeds the data in the image of the area specified by the mark.