Bound document scanning method and apparatus

1. A method of scanning a bound document, the method comprising:

acquiring image data of the document, the image data having at least one image attribute;

identifying from the image data a group of image data having a first image attribute by a processor; and

modifying an entire group of identified image data having the first image attribute with a second image attribute by the processor, wherein identifying the group of image data comprises determining at least one of a local luminance minimum and a luminance drop.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first image attribute comprises a luminance value of the image data and the method further comprises determining a luminance value of the image data.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining a plurality of boundaries of the image data.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining a plurality of distortion estimates.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein modifying the group of image data further comprises removing the first image attribute from the group of image data.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising stretching the group of image data with a stretching factor.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising trimming the image data based on the identified image data.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising centering the image data of the document following completion of the modifying.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising printing the centered image data.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the group of image data further comprises classifying the image data as a background pixel when the image data has a luminance value at or above a luminance threshold, and the image data as a dark pixel when the image data has a luminance value below the luminance threshold.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

extracting a foreground from the image data; and

adding the foreground to a second image background having the second image attribute.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the modifying comprises extracting background data from the image data.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the modifying comprises fixing distortions in the image data and stretching the image data upon an amount of distortions fixed.

14. A document scanner for scanning a bound document, the document scanner comprising:

image scanning apparatus configured to acquire image data of the document, the image data having at least one image attribute;

image identifier configured to identify from the image data a group of image data having a first image attribute; and

image modifier configured to modify an entire group of identified image data having the first image attribute with a second image attribute, wherein identifying the group of image data comprises determining at least one of a local luminance minimum and a luminance drop.

15. The scanner of claim 14 , wherein the first image attribute comprises a luminance value of the image data, and wherein the image identifier further comprises a background identifier configured to determine a luminance value of the image data.

16. The scanner of claim 14 , further comprising a boundary finder configured to determine a plurality of boundaries of the scanned image.

17. The scanner of claim 14 , further comprising a distortion identifier configured to determine a plurality of distortion estimates.

18. The scanner of claim 14 , further comprising a first image attribute remover configured to remove the group of image data.

19. The scanner of claim 14 , further comprising an image data scaler configured to stretch the group of image data based on a stretching factor.

20. The scanner of claim 14 , further comprising an image trimmer capable of trimming the image data based on the identified image data.

21. The scanner of claim 14 , further comprising a center finder configured to find a center of the image data of the document.

22. The scanner of claim 14 , wherein the first image attribute comprises a plurality of feature points indicating edges of the document, the scanner further comprising a line fitter capable of best-fitting the feature points.

23. The scanner of claim 14 , wherein the image identifier further comprises a first image identifier configured to classify the image data as a background pixel when the image data has a luminance value at or above a luminance threshold and as a dark pixel when the image data has a luminance value below the luminance threshold.

24. The scanner of claim 14 , wherein the image identifier further comprises a foreground identifier configured to identify a foreground from the image data, and wherein the image modifier further comprises an image adder configured to add the foreground to a second image background having the second image attribute.

25. A computer readable medium storing a document scanning software that when executed by a processor of an imaging device causes scanning of a bound document, the document scanning software comprising:

image scanning software code configured to acquire image data of the document, the image data having at least one image attribute;

image identifying software code configured to identify from the image data a group of image data having a first image; and

image modifying software code configured to modify an entire group of identified image data having the first image attribute with a second image attribute, wherein identifying the group of image data comprises determining at least one of a local luminance minimum and a luminance drop.

26. The computer readable medium storing the document scanning software of claim 25 , wherein the first image attribute comprises a luminance value of the image data, and wherein the image identifying software code further comprises background identifying software code configured to determine a luminance value of the image data.

27. The computer readable medium storing the document scanning software of claim 25 , wherein the document scanning software further comprises boundary finding software code configured to determine a plurality of boundaries of the scanned image.

28. The computer readable medium storing the document scanning software of claim 25 , wherein the document scanning software further comprises distortion identifying software code configured to determine a plurality of distortion estimates.

29. The computer readable medium storing the document scanning software of claim 25 , wherein the document scanning software further comprises first image attribute removal software code configured to remove the group of image data.

30. The computer readable medium storing the document scanning software of claim 25 , wherein the document scanning software further comprises image data scaling software code configured to stretch the group of image data based on a stretching factor.

31. The computer readable medium storing the document scanning software of claim 25 , wherein the document scanning software further comprises image trimming software code capable of trimming the scanned image based on the identified image data.

32. The computer readable medium storing the document scanning software of claim 25 , wherein the document scanning software further comprises a center finding software code configured to find a center of the image data of the document.

33. The computer readable medium storing the document scanning software of claim 25 , wherein the first image attributes comprises a plurality of feature points indicating edges of the document, the scanning software further comprising line fitting software code capable of best-fitting the feature points.

34. The computer readable medium storing the document scanning software of claim 25 , wherein the image identifying software code further comprises first image identifying software code configured to classify the image data as a background pixel when the image data has a luminance value at or above a luminance threshold and as a dark pixel when the image data has a luminance value below the luminance threshold.

35. The computer readable medium storing the document scanning software of claim 25 , wherein the image identifying software code further comprises foreground identifying software code configured to identify a foreground from the image data, and wherein the image modifying software code further comprises image adding software code configured to add the foreground to a second image background having the second image attribute.