METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ESTIMATING VANISH POINTS FROM AN IMAGE, COMPUTER PROGRAM AND STORAGE MEDIUM THEREOF

A method and apparatus for estimating vanishing points from an image, a computer program and a storage medium thereof are provided. One of the methods for detecting the vanishing points from an image includes a dividing step for dividing the image into small patches, a first detecting step for detecting each patch's local orientations, a composing step for composing lines of pencils from which at least one vanishing point is to be computed based on the local orientations detected in the first detecting step, and a computing step for computing at least one vanishing point based on the lines of pencils composed in the composing step. On the basis of the computed vanishing points, the perspective rectification on a document image can be executed accurately and quickly.