Segmentation for Digital Copying and Compression
John M. Dolan, Kristine E. Matthews · 2000
Segmentation in digital copiers is designed to improve overall image quality by explicitly identifying significant elements in the input that require diverse and specialized treatment with respect to filtering, halftone generation, and marking strategies. Similarly, segmentation can greatly improve compression ratios while preserving image quality by selecting, for each region of the image, the compression method best suited to the content of that region. However, the performance requirements in digital copier and compression scenarios impose serious constraints on the extent and nature of feasible computation. In this paper we define the segmentation problem and discuss its implications for copier and compression tasks. We also examine the various tradeoffs involved with each task in terms of computation and image quality. We then show examples of two original segmentation methods: one achieving reasonable segmentation within the constraints of a low-cost copier product; the other producing high compression ratios while preserving image quality.