Image reading or processing with ability to prevent copying of certain originals

摘要

There is disclosed an apparatus for image reading or processing, that can precisely identify a particular pattern, such as of banknotes or securities faithful copying of which is to be prohibited. The apparatus is provided with a detecting unit for detecting positional information of an original image, and a discriminating unit for extracting the pattern data of a certain part of the original image and discriminating whether the original image is the predetermined image, based on the similarity between the pattern data and the predetermined pattern.