A document placement detecting device includes a document table, a plate, a plurality of invisible light sources, an imaging device, and circuitry. The document table transmits light. The plate is openable and closable relative to the document table, and covers the document table in a closed state of the plate. The plurality of invisible light sources irradiate a placement area with invisible light via the document table. The placement area is an area of the document table on which a document is placed. The imaging device receives reflected light from the document, and outputs read data. The circuitry detects the placement of the document with a change in a read value of the read data output from the imaging device based on the irradiation with the invisible light.

A user device transmits a digital representation of a document or contract to a document or contract validation system through one or more channels. The document or contract validation system validates the document or contract before submitting the document or contract to a transaction system as a valid transaction. The digital representation of the document or contract may include one or more sets of parameters that are useful in the validation process.

An image processing apparatus including a confirmation unit, a recognition unit, and a generation unit. The confirmation unit is configured to confirm that a predetermined element image is included at a predetermined position in each of a plurality of pages of read images. The recognition unit recognizes characters displayed in a recognition region determined relative to a region where the element image is formed. The generation unit is configured to generate a data file as a single file based on a recognition result of a page by the recognition unit, the page having a predetermined relationship with a page of the read image that is confirmed to include the element image by the confirmation unit.

An image reading apparatus includes a document feeder, a reading unit configured to read an image of a document fed by the document feeder, a facing member positioned to face the reading unit via a document feeding path, and a detection processing unit configured to perform area detection processing for detecting an area of the document with respect to a read image obtained by the reading unit. The facing member includes a white portion and a gray portion. The reading unit selectively performs normal reading for reading the image of the document with the white portion of the facing member as a background and auto-crop reading for reading the image of the document with the gray portion of the facing member as the background. The detection processing unit performs the area detection processing only in the auto-crop reading.

The disclosure discloses methods and systems for handling content of a document based on one or more identifiers. The method includes receiving the document having content marked using one or more starting identifiers and corresponding one or more ending identifiers, the content marked between each starting identifier and corresponding ending identifier indicates content for one of: extraction, deletion, replacement and sharing, the content in the document is marked using braille symbols. The content is marked using an erasable marking device without affecting the document. A selection of a function to be performed on the marked content is received. The document is scanned to generate a scanned document. The scanned document is analyzed to identify the one or more starting identifiers and the one or more ending identifiers. Based on the selection of the function to be performed on the marked content, perform one of: extraction, deletion, replacement and sharing.

Aspects of the present disclosure provide methods and apparatuses for processing a digital image of a document, for example, to determine whether the document is a long document. An exemplary method generally includes obtaining a plurality of digital images of the document, segmenting at least a first digital image of the plurality of images into pixels associated with a foreground of the first digital image and pixels associated with a background of the first digital image, detecting a plurality of contours in the segmented first digital image, deciding, for each detected contour of the plurality of contours, whether that contour is an open contour or a closed contour, and determining that one or more sides of the document is out of bounds based, at least in part, on the decisions.

The character line division apparatus has character line contact determination unit configured to determine whether a character line of interest comes into contact with another character line in the height direction, count value derivation unit configured to derive a count value of the number of black pixels in the width direction in the character line of interest in the character line of interest determined to come into contact with another character line, and character line division unit configured to perform character line division for the character line of interest determined to come into contact with another character line on the periphery of a reference point derived from the character line information and the character height information by taking a first position at which the count value becomes a minimum in the height direction of the character line of interest as a character line division position.

A sheet reading apparatus includes a sheet table on which a sheet is placed, a conveyor configured to convey the sheet, a reading guide configured to guide the sheet conveyed by the conveyor, and a reading device configured to read a shadow of the sheet conveyed by the conveyor, for detection of an inclination of the sheet. The sheet reading apparatus further includes a transparent member disposed at a position on a reading line of the reading device. The position on the reading line is withdrawn from the sheet and adjacent to the reading guide.

An image forming apparatus includes a document reading unit reading an image of a document and generating scan data of the document and a printing unit printing on a sheet the scan data generated by the document reading unit, and is configured to be able to feed the sheet subjected to printing by the printing unit to a post-processing device. The image forming apparatus includes a judging unit that judges whether an image of a post-processing mark which is composed of a staple mark or a punching hole is present in the scan data generated by the document reading unit, and a printing control unit that, when the judging unit judges that the image of the post-processing mark is present in the scan data, generates corrected data by deleting the image of the post-processing mark from the scan data and causes the printing unit to print the corrected data.

An image reading apparatus includes a document tray on which a document is stacked; a conveyance unit configured to convey the document stacked on the document tray; a reader configured to read the image of the document conveyed by the conveyance unit using a sensor. The sensor includes a first light receiving element row having a plurality of light receiving elements, which receives light of a first color, arranged in a main scanning direction; and a second light receiving element row having a plurality of light receiving elements, which receives light of a second color, arranged in the main scanning direction, wherein the first light receiving element row and the second light receiving element row are arranged in a sub-scanning direction orthogonal to the main scanning direction. The image reading apparatus further includes a setting unit and a determination unit.