An inspection apparatus capable of preventing lowering of position matching accuracy. Control points are positioned in a lattice form on a scanned image of a print product, for performing position matching between the scanned image and a reference image registered in advance. An approximate line of a column and an approximate line of a row intersecting the approximate line of the column are calculated based on two or more control points positioned in the same column and the same row as one control point. One control point determined to be corrected is corrected based on the respective approximate lines of the column and the row. The print product is inspected by comparing a position-matched scanned image generated based on the control points including position-corrected control points and position-updated control points, and the reference image.

An image processing apparatus includes an acquisition unit configured to acquire image data including reflection characteristics information indicating reflection characteristics of a material with respect to incident light; a calculation unit configured to calculate, from reflection characteristics indicated by the reflection characteristics information corresponding to each pixel included in an area of a predetermined size in an image indicated by the image data, a statistical amount indicating the reflection characteristics of the area with the predetermined size; and a generation unit configured to generate arrangement data representing an arrangement of a structure including a printing material on a recording medium, based on the statistical amount.

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit configured to form an image on a recording material based on first image data; a controller configured to control an image forming operation by the image forming unit; an acquisition unit configured to acquire property information related to a property of the recording material; a setting unit configured to set a control value to be used in the image forming operation; a reader configured to read an image formed on the recording material by the image forming unit and to output second image data; and a comparison unit configured to compare the first image data to the second image data, wherein the setting unit is further configured to set the control value based on a comparison result from the comparison unit and the property information.

An information processing apparatus inspecting printed contents of a printed sheet, the information processing apparatus includes a recognition unit configured to recognize the printed contents printed on the sheet, an acquisition unit configured to acquire an attribute value from information recognized by the recognition unit, a specification unit configured to specify a time required for inspection of the printed contents of the sheet by using the attribute value acquired by the acquisition unit, and a notification unit configured to issue a notification to a user based on a result of comparison between the required time specified by the specification unit and a time limit for inspection of the printed contents.

An image forming apparatus includes an image formation unit, a detection unit, a storage unit, and a control unit. When the detection unit outputs a second output value when a second recording material, which is different from a first recording material is detected, in a state where the storage unit stores a first output value output by the detection unit upon detection of the first recording material, the control unit controls an image forming condition based on at least the first output value if a differential value between the first output value and the second output value is smaller than a predetermined threshold value and controls the image forming condition based on the second output value without using the first output value if the differential value is greater than the predetermined threshold value.

An image processing apparatus generates image data used in printing an image on a sheet being attachable to skin. The image processing apparatus includes: an image acquirer that acquires a skin image picked up from the skin; an image analyzer that extracts, from the skin image, a discolored region differing in color from surrounding skin by at least a predetermined level, and surrounding color being color of the skin surrounding the discolored region; a grouping processor that groups a plurality of the discolored regions, and determines an inclusive region for each region group which is a cluster of the grouped plurality of discolored regions or one discolored region not having been grouped, to include the one or a plurality of the region groups; and a printing controller that generates image data having a content of printing a pigment material that causes color of the inclusive region to approximate the surrounding color, on a region corresponding to the inclusive region in the sheet.

A measurement apparatus for measuring values for color adjustments in a print technique includes a measurement instrument including a measurement value detecting device at an arbitrary measurement point, a movement device, a reference coordinate calculation device, a measurement coordinate calculation device, and a computation device. The reference coordinate calculation device calculates a measurement point reference coordinate value. The measurement coordinate calculation device compares both origins to calculate a corrected value relative to the coordinate system of the reference-image, and corrects the position of the measurement origin based on the corrected value to correct the reference coordinate value and calculates a measurement coordinate value in the coordinate system of the measurement-image corresponding to the measurement point of the reference-image. The computation device calculates information for comparing and evaluating the measurement value acquired at the measurement point of the reference-image and the measurement value acquired at the measurement point of the measurement-image.

The present invention provides an image forming apparatus and a malfunction diagnosis method of the image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus stores a diagnosis target of a malfunction in association with a diagnostic item corresponding to the diagnosis target, and in a case where an abnormality is detected, the apparatus specifies the diagnosis target corresponding to the abnormality, executes a malfunction diagnosis process in accordance with the stored diagnostic item in association with the specified diagnosis target, and displays information regarding a malfunction parts determined to be a malfunction by the malfunction diagnosis process. The apparatus executes a malfunction diagnosis processes of a different type depending on whether or not a sheet remaining in the image forming apparatus is detected.

An image inspection device detects an abnormality of a formed image by comparing imaged data obtained by imaging the formed image with original image data of the formed image. The image inspection device includes a hardware processor that: adjusts the original image data to reduce sharpness of the original image data; and detects the abnormality by comparing the adjusted original image data with the obtained imaged data. The hardware processor partly restricts the reduction of the sharpness.

An image reading apparatus includes an image data obtaining unit, a foreign material position information obtaining unit, and a separation processor. The image data obtaining unit obtains image data read from a document passing over a read area. The foreign material position information obtaining unit obtains foreign material position information read from the read area in which the document is not present. The separation processor separates the image data into plural objects including a background object, detects, by using the foreign material position information, a streak image portion caused by foreign material in the read area and included in the image data, and assumes a pixel of the streak image portion to belong to the background object if the pixel is present in the background object and has a pixel value equal to or smaller than a threshold determined in accordance with a representative value of the background.