JP3428436B2 - Image reading system and storage medium - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image reading system and a computer-readable storage medium storing an image reading program.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an image reading apparatus such as a flatbed scanner or a sheet feed scanner that optically reads an original and converts the light and shade of the original into digital data is used as an image in a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a personal computer). The image data read by the image reading device is connected to the processing device and is taken into the image processing device. A personal computer can perform various image processings such as image data storage, correction, display, printing, and optical character recognition (OCR).

[0003]

However, in order to perform image reading using the above-mentioned conventional scanner and personal computer, the user sets the original on the scanner and then operates the personal computer to operate the desired application program ( The operation is complicated because it is necessary to start an application) and call the scanner driver that controls the scanner from the application to instruct the scanner to start reading.

It is also known that a scanner is provided with a push button, and a dedicated image reading application can be called up in a personal computer simply by pushing the push button. In this case, in order to perform image processing on the image data read by the image reading application with the desired application that the user is familiar with, save the image data with the image reading application and load the application used by the user. Since it is necessary to start and save the saved image data, there is a problem that it takes time.

The object of the present invention is to solve the above problems,
An object is to provide an image reading system capable of simplifying the image reading procedure.

[0006]

According to the image reading system of the first aspect of the present invention, an image reading apparatus having a reading start instruction means for instructing the start of image reading, and an image read by the image reading apparatus. An image reading system comprising: an image processing apparatus for processing data, wherein the image processing apparatus controls the image reading apparatus and transfers common image data to the image processing apparatus; And a plurality of general-purpose processing means, and the common control means is a general-purpose processing means selected in advance from a plurality of general-purpose processing means including image data transfer means. The image reading device is called by the control unit, and the monitoring unit is a general-purpose processor selected in advance when the reading start is instructed. Having means for called a common control unit from. Therefore, the user can execute the image reading by the desired general-purpose processing means only by operating the reading start instruction means of the image reading apparatus, and the operation is simplified.

According to the image reading system of the second aspect of the present invention, the monitoring means emulates a keyboard operation to the image processing device for calling the common control means from the preselected general-purpose processing means. . Therefore, the common control means can be called by the instruction of the reading start instruction means without changing the content of the application program as the general-purpose processing means.

According to the image reading system of the third aspect of the present invention, since the image reading device has the reading start signal holding means, the monitoring interval by the monitoring means is long, and the instruction of the reading start instruction means is short. Even
The monitoring means can surely recognize the reading start instruction.

According to the image reading system of the fourth aspect of the present invention, since the image reading device has means for indicating the operating state, the user can know the progress of the image reading only by checking the image reading device. be able to.

[0010]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the outline of the image reading system of the embodiment of the present invention.

A personal computer 1 (hereinafter, personal computer 1) as an image processing apparatus includes a CPU 11, a RAM 12 as a main storage device, a hard disk 13 as an auxiliary storage device, a keyboard 14 as an input device, and a pointing device such as a mouse 15. A display 16 and a printer 17 are connected as output devices.

The scanner 2 as an image reading device is a flat bed type scanner, and is a SCSI (Small Coordinate).
A personal computer 1 is connected by a cable 23 via interfaces 18 and 22 capable of bidirectional communication such as a computer system interface). The scanner 2 is provided with a push button 21 as a reading start instruction means. Multiple push buttons can be provided, each with different functions. Further, as a means for indicating the operating state of the scanner 2, an LED (Light Emitting Diode)
A lamp 24 composed of e) or the like is provided. The lamp 24 lights up in green when the scanner 2 is turned on.

An OS is stored in the hard disk 13 of the personal computer 1.
(Operating System) and an application as a processing means are installed. OS is GUI (Grap
hical user interface) and the user can use mouse 15
By operating, the pointer displayed on the display 16 is moved, and the button of the mouse 15 is pressed to give an instruction to the personal computer 1. On the OS,
A plurality of general-purpose applications that perform document creation, spreadsheet, image processing, etc. can be loaded into the RAM 12 and executed simultaneously.

The hard disk 13 has a personal computer 1
As a common control means for controlling the scanner 2 from the TWA
A scanner driver program compliant with the IN standard is stored. As long as a general-purpose application that can be executed by the personal computer 1 supports reading according to the TWAIN standard, any application calls this scanner driver to control the scanner 2 and performs image reading to read image data to the RAM 12 of the personal computer 1 or It can be transferred to the hard disk 13.

When the scanner driver is called, a user interface (UI) screen 300 as shown in FIG. 3 operated by the user is displayed, and the user operates the mouse 15 to read the original reading range 301 and the reading resolution 302. , Image type 303, reading brightness 304, contrast 305, and other reading conditions are set, and the reading start button 306 is pressed to control the scanner 2 and execute image reading. The image type 303 includes monochrome binary, 256
Gradation gray scale, full color (about 16.7 million colors), etc. can be designated. Further, at the same time when the UI screen 300 is displayed, the user can also perform a preview button 307.
By pressing, the scanner 2 is instructed to read the original at low resolution, the preview image is displayed, and the reading range 3
It is also possible to easily select 01.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a relationship between programs executed in the conventional image reading system. In the conventional image reading system, the scanner 20
After setting the original on 0, the user operates the personal computer 100 to execute the general-purpose application 135 from the OS 131. In the case of an image reading-only application, the scanner driver 134 is called at the same time as it is executed.
In order to read an image, the user needs to call the scanner driver 134 by operating the keyboard 14 or the mouse 15 of the personal computer 2 after the general-purpose application 135 is activated.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the relationship between the programs executed in the image reading system of this embodiment. Each program is installed in the hard disk 13 of the personal computer 1 and is operated by the user or is called from another program to perform RA.
It can be read by M12 and executed by the CPU 11. When the power is turned on to the personal computer 1, the OS 31 is first
Will start. A computer program called a scanner monitor 32 as a monitoring unit is called when the OS 31 is started up and is resident in the RAM 12 and transmits a predetermined signal to the scanner 2 at predetermined time intervals (for example, 1 second). Push button 21 by confirming the answer
Watch if is pressed.

The scanner 2 is provided with an area for storing a flag 25 as a reading start signal indicating the information on the depression of the button 21, and when the scanner monitor 32 sends a signal for monitoring, the flag 25 is sent. Reply the contents of. Immediately after turning on the scanner 2, the flag 2
The content of 5 is OFF. When the user presses the button 21 of the scanner 2, the content of the flag 25 is turned on. When the user stops pushing the push button 21, the push button 21 returns to its original position by a spring or the like, but the content of the flag 25 is kept ON. Therefore, even when the user is pressing the push button 21 for a shorter period than the monitoring period of the scanner monitor 32, the scanner monitor 32 can recognize the pressing of the push button 21. When the content of the flag 25 is read by the scanner monitor 32, the content of the flag 25 is turned off. When a plurality of push buttons are provided, a plurality of flags are provided correspondingly.

The scanner monitor 32 issues a predetermined command to the scanner 2 via the interface 18 when it is activated. Means for determining whether or not the scanner 2 corresponds to the command of the scanner monitor 32 is provided.
If it is not supported, the scanner monitor 32 is terminated,
It does not reside in RAM 12. For example, when the scanner 2 with the push button 21 corresponding to the command of the scanner monitor 32 is connected to the personal computer 1, since the predetermined data indicating the type of the scanner 2 is returned to the command, the scanner 2 Corresponds to the command of the scanner monitor 32. Scanner 2
Is not connected, the scanner 2 is not powered on, the scanner 2 that does not support the command from the scanner monitor 32 is connected, and the predetermined data is not returned from the scanner 2. It is determined that the command of the scanner monitor 32 is not supported.

The scanner monitor 32 calls the general-purpose application 35 when it recognizes that the push button 21 is pressed. For example, OS31 is Microsoft's Wind
In the case of os95 (trademark), the user presses a predetermined alphabet key while pressing the “Ctrl” key of the keyboard 14 from the general-purpose application 35 that can call the scanner driver 34, or the “Alt” key,
The scanner driver 34 can be called by pressing the "F" key and then a predetermined alphabetic key. After the general-purpose application 35 is activated, the scanner monitor 32 emulates the above-described operation of the keyboard 14 performed by the user when calling the scanner driver 34 from the general-purpose application 35, and the same process as when the key of the keyboard 14 is pressed. By executing
The scanner driver 34 can be called up even if the user does not operate the keyboard.

When the scanner driver 34 is called by the general-purpose application 35, the scanner driver 34 is stored in the switching information storage area 36 provided on the RAM 12.
Is written to indicate that is running. The scanner monitor 32 checks the contents of the switching information storage area 36 and monitors the push button 21 only when the scanner driver 34 is not in execution.
When 4 is in execution, even if the user further presses the push button 21, the image reading is not executed. When the processing by the scanner driver 34 ends, the information in the switching information storage area changes to information indicating that the scanner driver 34 is not being executed, and the monitoring of the push button 21 by the scanner monitor 32 is restarted. That is, only one of the scanner monitor 32 and the scanner driver 34 is always processing.

The lamp 24 of the scanner 2 is lit in green when the scanner 2 is powered on and the scanner 2 is not operating. While the scanner 2 is being controlled by the scanner driver 34, the lamp 24 of the scanner 2 blinks in green. Even when signals are being transmitted and received between the personal computer 1 and the scanner 2, the lamp 24 is kept on when a regular signal is received from the scanner monitor 32. Further, when an error occurs and the scanner 2 cannot operate normally, the lamp 24 blinks red. The red blinking speed is shorter than the green blinking indicating that the scanner 2 is under control. As a result, the user can know the progress of image reading simply by checking the lamp 24 of the scanner 2. As the means for indicating the operation state of the scanner 2, other than the lamp 24, other means such as generating a sound when the image reading process is completed can be used.

For example, when the OS 31 is Windows 95, the scanner monitor 32 is displayed in a minimized state on the task bar. The user moves the mouse 15 to put the pointer on the icon indicating the scanner monitor 32, and the mouse 1
By pressing the right button of 5, the setting screen is displayed, and the general-purpose application 35 called when the push button 21 of the scanner 2 is pressed can be selected. Since the keyboard operation for calling the scanner driver 34 may differ for each application, the keyboard operation to be emulated is registered in advance in the scanner monitor 32 according to the general-purpose application 35 to be called.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing a procedure for capturing an image by the image processing application according to this embodiment.

First, it is assumed that the scanner monitor 32 is selected to call the image processing application on the setting screen.

The user sets the original on the scanner 2 (S101) and presses the push button 21 of the scanner 2 (S101).
102). Then, the content of the flag 25 is turned on (S
103), the scanner monitor 32 confirms the depression of the push button 21 by the response from the scanner 2 to the monitor signal sent from the scanner monitor 32 (S10).
4). When the scanner 2 responds to the scanner monitor 32,
The flag 25 is turned off (S105).

When the scanner monitor 32 confirms that the push button 21 is pushed down, the image processing application is called as the general-purpose application 35 (S106).

The scanner monitor 32 emulates a keyboard operation to call the scanner driver 34 from the image processing application. UI screen 3 by the user
Set the scanning conditions with 00 and start scanning button 30
By pressing 6, the scanner driver 34 controls the scanner 2, the image reading is executed, and the image data is transferred to the personal computer 1. (S107).

By the above steps S101 to S107, the user simply sets the document on the scanner 2 and presses the push button 21 to call up the desired image processing application without operating the personal computer 1 to display the image. The scanner driver 34 can be called from the processing application.

The computer program used in this embodiment is a ppy disk (FD), CD-ROM,
It can be stored and supplied in a computer-readable storage medium such as a magneto-optical disk (MO) or a magnetic tape. Then, it is installed in a storage medium such as the hard disk 13 of the personal computer 1, read into the RAM 12, and executed. It is also possible to provide the computer program on a network such as the Internet, and the computer program may exist in a place distant from the computer main body on which it is executed.

In the above-described embodiment of the present invention, the flatbed type scanner provided with the push button is used as the image reading apparatus having the reading start instruction means. However, according to the present invention, the digital still camera and the sheet are set. It is also possible to use another image reading device such as a sheet feed scanner capable of detecting that the image has been read or a reading start instruction means.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a relationship between programs in an image reading system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an outline of an image reading system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a UI screen of the scanner driver according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a procedure for reading an image according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a relationship between programs in a conventional image reading system.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 PC (image processing device) 11 CPU 12 RAM 13 hard disk 14 keyboard 15 mice 16 display 17 Printer 18 interfaces 2 Scanner (image reading device) 21 push button (read start instruction means) 22 Interface 23 cable 24 lamps (means for indicating the operating state) 25 flag (reading start signal holding means) 31 OS (Operating System) 32 Scanner monitor (monitoring means) 34 Scanner driver (common control means) 35 General-purpose application (general-purpose processing means)

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Karl Sue Hemingway Court, San Jose, California, USA 3506 (56) References JP-A-9-205530 (JP, A) JP-A-10-21177 (JP , A) JP-A-7-162609 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04N 1/00

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. An image reading system comprising: an image reading device having a reading start instruction means for instructing the start of image reading; and an image processing device for processing image data read by the image reading device. The image processing apparatus controls the image reading apparatus and transfers common image data to the image processing apparatus, a common control section, a monitoring section that periodically monitors the instruction of the reading start section, and a plurality of general-purpose devices. The common control means controls the image reading device by being called from a general-purpose processing means selected in advance from the plurality of general-purpose processing means including image data transfer means. When the reading start is instructed, the monitoring unit controls the common control from the preselected general-purpose processing unit. An image reading system having means for calling the means. 2. The means for calling the common control means emulates a keyboard operation to the image processing apparatus for calling the common control means from the preselected general-purpose processing means. Claim 1
The image reading system described. 3. The image reading system according to claim 1, wherein the image reading device has a reading start signal holding unit. 4. The image reading system according to claim 1, wherein the image reading device has a unit that indicates an operating state.