JP2006060511A - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a copying machine provided with a function of automatically deleting only an image or character part added to an original and of copying the original. <P>SOLUTION: An image forming apparatus includes a read means for reading an image to convert it to an electric signal, a handwritten image recognition means for recognizing a handwritten image out of the read image, and an image forming means for forming an image of copy data of the image on the basis of the electric signal. The handwritten image recognition means judges an image having a recognition rate equal to or higher than a prescribed value to be not a handwritten image and judges an image having a recognition rate lower than the prescribed value to be a handwritten image. and read data read by the read means is assigned as copy data to an image judged to be not a handwritten image, out of the read image and the image judged to be not a handwritten image is copied as it is, and read data read by the read means is erased from an image judged to be a handwritten image, out of the read image and the image judged to be a handwritten image is not copied. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a digital copying machine or a digital multi-function peripheral that recognizes handwritten characters or images written later in a printed document image and prevents copying. About.

  In the use of a copying machine, when writing characters or the like on a printed original image and copying the characters, there are many cases where the user does not want to copy only the characters written later.

  Of course, in an office where a copier always exists, if it is necessary to write characters or the like on a printed original image, it is necessary to copy the original image and write the characters on the copied image. There is no problem.

  However, for example, if you participate in a seminar outside the company and write the important points or cautions of the course directly in the text distributed at the seminar venue, You need to make a copy of the text. When copying, it is preferable that the written characters are not considered from the viewpoint of easy viewing of the text copy. In addition, the characters that are directly written in the texts of such seminars are often messy and unreadable to a third party because they need to be written immediately while listening to the lectures.

  If you bring a note separately and do not write it in the text, the above problem will not occur. However, if you write the note in another note, you will later decide which part of the text the note is for. It may be difficult. In addition, in order to make it easy to determine which part of the text is a memo, for example, adding “text P.6 / 11 line” to a note and writing a memo is a memo written immediately while listening to the course. As a result, it is a complicated task, and there is a risk that the contents of the course may be missed.

On the other hand, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-126384 discloses means for optically reading a character pattern and recognizing a pattern, means for storing a plurality of recognized results as candidates, and candidates and word dictionaries obtained as a result of recognition. A character input system including word matching means for pattern matching and correction means for candidate correction is described.
JP-A-2-126384

  As an example, although many copying machines that convert handwritten characters into printed characters and copy like the above prior art have been proposed, only images and character portions handwritten later in the document are automatically No copying machine has been proposed for deleting and copying.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a copying machine having a function of automatically deleting and copying only images and character portions written later in a document by a simple method.

  An image forming apparatus of the present invention includes a reading unit that reads an image and converts it into an electric signal, a handwritten image recognition unit that recognizes a handwritten image among the read images, and a copy data of the image based on the electric signal. An image forming apparatus having an image forming unit for forming an image, wherein the handwritten image recognizing unit determines that an image having an image recognition rate equal to or higher than a predetermined value is not a handwritten image, and the image recognition rate is a predetermined value. The lower image is determined to be a handwritten image, and the image determined to be not the handwritten image among the read images is copied as it is by assigning the read data read by the reading means as copy data, For the image determined to be a handwritten image among the read images, the read data read by the reading unit is erased. Characterized in that it does not replicate.

  In the image forming apparatus of the present invention, for example, when copying a manuscript to which a handwritten memo is added later in a printed document, only the memo added by handwriting can be deleted and copied. it can. For this reason, even if you participate in a seminar outside the company and write down notes directly on the distributed text, you may get a copy of the text with the notes deleted if you later report the seminar in-house. This is possible and makes it easier for a third party to see a copy of the text. In addition, even if it is decided to hold a report meeting as described above, the participants can write notes directly in the text, so they can write notes immediately and never miss the course contents. .

  FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an in-cylinder discharge type digital multifunction peripheral (image forming apparatus) 1 of the present invention as an example. As shown in FIG. 1, in the digital multifunction peripheral 1, when performing a copy operation, in the image forming unit 130 in the multifunction peripheral body 100, a small-diameter photosensitive drum 4 that rotates in the direction A in the figure by the charging unit 3 is provided. An electrostatic latent image is formed on the photosensitive drum 4 by a laser beam from an exposure unit (laser scanning unit or the like) 6 based on original image data that is uniformly charged and read by an image reading unit (automatic original reading device) 5. Then, a developer (hereinafter referred to as toner) is attached to the electrostatic latent image by the developing unit 7 to form a toner image. The toner is supplied to the developing unit 7 from the toner container 8.

  The sheet is conveyed from the sheet feeding mechanism 9 to the image forming unit 130 via the sheet conveying path 10 and the resist roller pair 14 toward the photosensitive drum 4 on which the toner image is formed as described above. In 130, the toner image on the surface of the photosensitive drum 4 is transferred onto the sheet by the transfer roller 11 (image transfer unit). The sheet onto which the toner image has been transferred is separated from the photosensitive drum 4 and conveyed to the fixing unit 12 having the fixing roller pair 12a to fix the toner image. The sheet that has passed through the fixing unit 12 is sent to a sheet conveyance path 13 branched in a plurality of directions, and is routed by path switching mechanisms 21, 22, and 23 having a plurality of path switching guides provided at branch points of the sheet conveyance path 13. The transport direction is sorted, and the sheet is discharged to the sheet discharge portion of the first discharge tray 102a, the second discharge tray 102b, or the third discharge tray 103 as it is (or after being sent to the sheet transfer path 17 and copied on both sides). .

  Further, although not shown, a static elimination device that removes residual charges on the surface of the photosensitive drum 4 is provided on the downstream side of the cleaning device 20. Further, the paper feed mechanism 9 is detachably attached to the multifunction machine main body 100 and includes a plurality of paper feed cassettes 91 and 92 for storing paper, and a stack bypass (manual feed tray) 93 provided above the paper feed cassettes 91 and 92. These are connected to the image forming unit 130 including the photosensitive drum 4 and the developing unit 7 by the paper conveyance path 10.

  Specifically, the sheet conveyance path 13 is first branched into left and right branches on the downstream side of the fixing roller pair 12a, and one path (a path branching in the right direction in FIG. 1) communicates with the first discharge tray 102a. It is configured as follows. The other path (the path that branches in the left direction in FIG. 1) branches into the upper and lower forks via the conveying roller pair 141, and the other path (the path that branches in the upper direction in FIG. 1) is the second discharge. It is configured to communicate with the tray 102b. On the other hand, the other path (the path branched in the downward direction in FIG. 1) is bifurcated immediately below the branch point, and one path passes through the discharge roller pair 144 to the third discharge tray 103. The other path is configured to communicate with the paper transport path 17.

  FIG. 2 is an example of a schematic diagram showing an operation panel (touch panel) 200 in the operation unit of the digital multi-function peripheral 1, and a screen (A) is a basic setting display screen set in the copy mode as a basic setting. . The screen (B) is a screen displayed when a shortcut key 231 for deleting handwritten characters or images is pressed.

  As shown in the screen (A), the display screen of the touch panel 200 is mainly composed of four areas (201, 202, 203, 204). The currently selected mode is displayed on the left side of the area 201, and the right side. The currently set copy conditions are displayed.

  In the area 202, various operation keys that can be pressed by the user for each mode are displayed. Since the copy mode is currently set, operation keys for the user to set the paper size, set the copy magnification, and set the copy density, which are basic setting displays in the copy mode, are in the areas 220, 221, and 222. Is displayed.

  In the area 203, shortcut keys are displayed. The shortcut key is an operation key that is not displayed in the basic setting in the area 202 but can be displayed in the area 203 according to the user's preference. In FIG. And shortcut keys 230, 231 and 232 for setting the duplex function. Here, for example, when the aggregate function shortcut key 230 is pressed, although not shown, a screen for detailed setting of “2 in 1”, “4 in 1”, etc. is displayed in the area 202, and the duplex function shortcut key 231 is pressed. Then, although not shown, a screen for setting details of “single side → double side”, “double side → single side”, “double side → double side”, and the like is displayed in the area 202.

  When the handwritten erasing function shortcut key 231 is pressed, a screen for confirming that the handwritten character or image is set to be erased and copied is displayed in the area 202 (see screen (B)). When the “Yes” operation key 223 is pressed, a setting for deleting a handwritten character or image is executed and the screen (A) is displayed again. When the “No” operation key 224 is pressed, the setting is not executed. The screen (A) is displayed as it is.

  In the area 204, basic keys 240 and user setting keys 241 are displayed. By pressing the user setting key 241, for example, the types of shortcut keys displayed in the area 202 (consolidation, handwriting erase, double-sided, etc.) and their The display order can be changed, shortcut key types can be added (up to three types can be set for display in this embodiment), or the operation key types and display order displayed in the area 201 can be changed. it can. In addition, when the basic key 240 is pressed, the original basic setting can be restored.

  FIG. 3 shows a configuration example of a block diagram of the digital multi-function peripheral 1. When the shortcut key 231 is pressed on the operation panel 200 and the handwriting erasing function is selected, the image reading unit (automatic document reading device) 5 outputs an image signal obtained by optically scanning the original image to an n value (however, n is 2 or more) digital image signal (image image data). The bitmap memory storage unit 500 stores an image read by the document reading unit 5.

  The line cutout control unit 501 detects lines from the image image data read by the document reading unit 5 and stored in the bitmap memory storage unit 500, cuts out line by line, and extracts the image image data for one line cut out. Send to the next stage. The character cutout control unit 502 cuts out image image data in character units so that character recognition is easy.

  The character recognition rule storage unit 503 stores a relational rule between the character shape and the corresponding type. The character recognition unit 504 recognizes the shape of the character from the image image data for one character sent from the character cutout control unit 502, and refers to the character recognition rule storage unit 503. At this time, when the character recognition rate is lower than a predetermined value, a code indicating that the character is a handwritten character is output. When the character recognition rate is equal to or higher than the predetermined value, a code indicating that the character is not a handwritten character is output.

  The character recognition rate can be defined as, for example, a correct rate of character candidates when character recognition is performed on input image data. An object of the present invention is to copy a type document in which a handwritten memo or the like is written later and not to copy a handwritten part. Here, there is a high possibility that there is one correct character candidate for the typeface in the document, and there is a possibility that there are two or more correct character candidates for the handwritten character described in the typescript later. high. Therefore, the character recognition rate of handwritten characters is 50% when there are two character candidates, 33.3% when there are three character candidates, 25% when there are four character candidates, and five character candidates. If it is, 20%, and so on. On the other hand, the character recognition rate of type is 100% when there is one character candidate. That is, by setting the predetermined value of the character recognition rate to be very high, it becomes possible to efficiently sort only handwritten characters and control not to copy them.

  The bitmap memory control unit 505 is a memory that stores image information to be printed as a collection of dots. When a code representing handwritten characters is output, the bit map memory control unit 505 receives the data sent from the character recognition unit 504. When a code indicating that it is erased and not a handwritten character is output, the data sent from the character recognition unit 504 is bitmap-expanded.

  The image forming unit 130 prints the dot information that has been bitmap-developed by the bitmap memory control unit 505 as an image on output paper.

  Next, the operation for erasing handwritten characters will be described.

  First, the operator sets, for example, a document P1 on which a handwritten memo as shown in FIG. 4A is written in the document reading unit 5 and instructs the start of processing (dotted line, leader line, symbols a, b, c). , D explain line cutout or character cutout and are not described in the actual document P1). Then, the original reading unit 5 optically reads the image, and the read image image data is stored in the bitmap memory storage unit 500.

  Thereafter, the row cutout control unit 501 cuts out image image data on the bitmap memory storage unit 500 in units of rows as indicated by a horizontal dotted line (a in FIG. 4) shown in FIG. And sent to the character cutout control unit 502. In the character cutout control unit 502, the image image data cut out in units of lines is cut out in units of characters as shown by vertical dotted lines (b in FIG. 4) shown in FIG. 4A and sent to the character recognition unit 504. It is done.

  In the character recognition unit 504, the image recognition data of one character sent from the character cutout control unit 502 refers to the character stored in the character recognition rule storage unit 503, and the character recognition rate is greater than a predetermined value. If it is low, a code indicating that it is a handwritten character is output, and if the character recognition rate is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, a code indicating that it is not a handwritten character is output.

  Here, the handwritten memo in the document P1 of the embodiment has a handwritten arrow (for example, c in FIG. 4) indicating which part of the document the memo is for. In addition to kanji, hiragana and katakana, the character recognition rule storage unit 503 also stores symbols such as arrows (→, ⇒, etc.) and parentheses ([], [], << >>, etc.) Since these symbols are simpler than kanji, hiragana, and katakana, the character recognition rate tends to be high, but in this embodiment, the predetermined value of the character recognition rate is set very high as described above. Therefore, it is not recognized as a character and is not copied.

  Also, when a line is cut out, there are characters (for example, d in FIG. 4) that extend between the cut lines depending on the memo writing, but the character recognition rate is often lowered when the characters are cut out. Therefore, normally, when a memo written later is written obliquely with respect to a line of a printed document, it is not recognized as a character and is not copied.

  The bitmap memory control unit 505 is a memory that stores image information to be printed as a collection of dots. When a code representing handwritten characters is output, the bit map memory control unit 505 receives the data sent from the character recognition unit 504. When a code indicating that it is erased and not a handwritten character is output, the data sent from the character recognition unit 504 is bitmap-expanded.

  When all the characters have been processed by the above method, the image forming unit 130 copies an image image as shown in FIG. 4B onto the recording paper P2 in accordance with the image of the bitmap memory control unit 505. . That is, only the handwritten memo portion is erased and copied.

  In the above-described embodiment, the handwritten character described in the printed document is referred to the character stored in the character recognition rule storage unit 503, and when the recognition rate is lower than the predetermined value, it is determined that the character is handwritten. However, it is not limited to this.

  For example, while the image density of a printed document is high and the image is not very blurred or crushed, memos described later are often written with a pencil or mechanical pencil, and the image density is low. The image is very faint and crushed. Accordingly, a parameter obtained by combining one or two or more parameters such as image density, image blur, image crushing, etc. is converted into a numerical value, and an image recognition rule storage unit is provided to store predetermined values stored in the image recognition rule storage unit. If it is above, it may be determined whether it is handwritten.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a digital multifunction peripheral (image forming apparatus) according to the present invention. It is the schematic which shows the operation panel (touch panel) in the operation part of the digital multifunctional device of this invention. A schematic block diagram of the digital multi-function peripheral of the present invention is shown. It is a figure which shows the example which copied the type letter document in which the handwritten memo was described by the handwriting erasing function.

Explanation of symbols

1: Digital MFP 5: Image reading unit (automatic document reader)
130: Image forming unit 200: Operation panel (touch panel)
230, 231, 232: Shortcut key

Claims (1)

Reading means for reading an image and converting it into an electric signal, handwritten image recognition means for recognizing a handwritten image among the read images, and image forming means for forming an image of copy data of the image based on the electric signal An image forming apparatus having
The handwritten image recognizing means determines that an image having an image recognition rate equal to or higher than a predetermined value is not a handwritten image, and determines that an image having an image recognition rate lower than the predetermined value is a handwritten image;
Of the read image, an image determined not to be a handwritten image is copied as it is by assigning the read data read by the reading means as copy data, and determined to be a handwritten image among the read images. In the image forming apparatus, the read data read by the reading unit is not copied and copied for the processed image.

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