JP5195194B2 - Image processing apparatus and image processing system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention assigns all or part of image processing to another image processing apparatus connected to the network, or substitutes all or part of image processing of another image processing apparatus connected to the network. The present invention relates to a processing apparatus and an image processing system.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a technique is known in which image forming apparatuses connected to a network complement each other's functions to enhance the functions of the individual image forming apparatuses (see, for example, Patent Document 1). Also, multiple copy machines (MFPs) can be connected, and the original copy image read by one MFP can be output by multiple MFPs. It is offered to. Further, a group of printers on the network are grouped, one of them is set as a main printer, the other printers are integrated under the management of the main printer, and the resources of each of these integrated printers are virtually one resource As described above, a technique for efficiently operating a printer on a network is disclosed (for example, see Patent Document 2).

JP 2005-74881 A JP 2005-209027 A

  However, in the image processing apparatuses disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2, distributed processing is performed only for print processing. For this reason, for example, an image processing apparatus that can improve the processing performance when performing image processing that applies a processing load to a CPU in a device such as OCR (Optical Character Recognition) is desired. It was.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above, and an object of the present invention is to provide an image processing apparatus and an image processing system capable of improving processing performance even in image processing with a high processing load.

In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention is an image processing apparatus that performs image processing, and is connected to at least one other image processing apparatus via a network, and receives an image processing instruction from a user who instructs image processing. Input accepting means for accepting input, subdividing means for subdividing the image processing instructed by the image processing instruction into a plurality of image processing jobs, and a first image processing apparatus for executing the subdivided image processing jobs Selecting apparatus from among the at least one other image processing apparatus, a transmitting means for transmitting a processing request for requesting execution of the image processing job to the first image processing apparatus, and the image processing job and an image transmitting means for transmitting the subject to image the first image processing apparatus, the apparatus selecting means, each of said at least one other image processing apparatus Among the at least one other image processing device, the first acquisition means for acquiring capability information indicating the image processing capability including the free memory size of the image processing device, and the free memory size is necessary for the execution of the image processing. A first selection means for selecting an image processing apparatus having a memory size or larger and a maximum number of image processing requests that can be accepted by the image processing apparatus for each of the one or more image processing apparatuses selected by the first selection means. And a second acquisition unit that acquires status information indicating the first number of the image processing requests and the second number of the received image processing requests, and the one or more images selected by the first selection unit. Among image processing apparatuses, the image processing apparatus having the highest image processing capability is selected as the first image processing apparatus from among the image processing apparatuses that satisfy the condition that the first number is greater than the second number. A second selecting means that is characterized by having a.

According to the present invention, one image processing device serving as a master device and at least one image processing device serving as a slave device are connected via a network, and the image processing device serving as the master device instructs image processing. An input receiving unit that receives an input of an image processing instruction from a user, a subdividing unit that subdivides the image processing instructed by the image processing instruction into a plurality of image processing jobs, and the subdivided image processing job. An apparatus selection unit that selects a first image processing apparatus to be executed from among image processing apparatuses that are slave units; and a transmission unit that transmits a processing request for requesting execution of the image processing job to the first image processing apparatus. , and an image transmitting means for transmitting the image to be the image processing job in the first image processing apparatus, the apparatus selecting means, an image to be slave A first acquisition unit that acquires capability information indicating an image processing capability including an empty memory size of the image processing apparatus for each of the processing apparatuses, and an image processing apparatus that is a slave machine has an empty memory size that executes the image processing. A first selection unit that selects an image processing device having a memory size that is larger than the required memory size, and an image processing request that the image processing device can accept for each of the one or more image processing devices selected by the first selection unit. Second acquisition means for acquiring status information indicating the first number that is the maximum number and the second number that is the number of the received image processing requests; and one or more selected by the first selection means Among the image processing devices, the image processing device having the highest image processing capability among the image processing devices satisfying the condition that the first number is larger than the second number is defined as the first image processing device. And a second selecting means for constant, the image processing apparatus as a slave machine, receives a processing request for requesting execution of the image processing job is all or part of the image processing from the image processing apparatus as a master unit Receiving means for receiving the image to be processed by the image processing job requested by the processing request from the image processing apparatus serving as the master machine, and executing the image processing job for the image. And executing means for executing.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to improve processing performance even for image processing with a high processing load.

  Exemplary embodiments of an image processing apparatus and an image processing system according to the present invention are explained in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

(1) Configuration FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of an image processing system according to the present embodiment. In the present embodiment, a plurality of image processing apparatuses 201 to 205 are connected via a network. The network is classified into a WAN (Wide Area Network) connected to the outside through a public line or a dedicated line, and a LAN (Local Area Network) that constructs a network on the same site. Any of these methods may be used. Further, the Internet may be used for the network, and in this case, connection by TCP / IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol) or wireless connection may be used. Hereinafter, when there is no need to distinguish between the image processing apparatuses 201 to 205, they are simply referred to as image processing apparatuses. In the present embodiment, any one of the plurality of image processing apparatuses 201 to 205 is a master machine, and the other image processing apparatuses are slave machines. The image processing apparatus serving as a master machine and the image processing apparatus serving as a slave machine can change dynamically.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of the image processing apparatus according to the present embodiment. The image processing apparatus converts the print data in accordance with a predetermined page description language and an engine 101 for forming print data on a recording sheet according to a predetermined process, and enters a print correction mode set in the main body or a driver. Therefore, it includes a controller 102 that converts the video data and sends it to the engine 101. The controller 102 includes a RAM 103, an ASIC 104, a CPU 105, a font ROM 106, an engine I / F 107, an HDD (hard disk drive) 108, a ROM 109, and a NIC (Network Interface Card) 110. The CPU 105 comprehensively controls the entire controller according to the control program. The RAM 103 is a working memory at the time of control processing by the CPU 105, a buffer for managing and temporarily storing data from an information processing apparatus (not shown) connected to the image processing apparatus in units of pages, and stored in the buffer. It is used as a bitmap memory that converts data into an actual print pattern and stores it as video data. The ROM 109 is stored so that the control program of the CPU 105 can be read. The font ROM 106 stores various font information that is actually used. The engine I / F 107 is an interface for exchanging control signals from the controller 102 to the engine 101 and engine status signals from the engine 101 to the controller 102. The engine 101 is, for example, a black-and-white plotter, a one-drum color plotter, a four-drum color plotter, a scanner, or a fax unit. The HDD 108 is for storing document data, related information, print data, and the like. The NIC 110 is an interface for network connection. The image processing apparatus also includes an operation panel (not shown) that receives an instruction input from a user who instructs image processing.

  3 to 4 are diagrams illustrating a software configuration of the image processing apparatus. FIG. 3 illustrates a state when the power is activated, and FIG. 4 illustrates a state when the OCR application is used. In FIG. 3, the image processing apparatus includes an OS (Operating System), an NFS server, an NFS client, a Java (registered trademark) VM, an OCR application, and a remote program activation daemon. As shown in the figure, at the time of power activation, neither the master machine nor the slave machine has been activated yet. On the other hand, FIG. 4 shows that the OCR engine is started on both the master machine / slave machine after the power is turned on. In the figure, an OS is a module that manages all hardware resources and provides an execution environment for all processes operating on the system. The NFS server is a module that provides a network file server function. The NFS client is a module that provides a function of accessing a file on the network file server. Java (registered trademark) VM is a module that provides a virtual execution environment for a Java (registered trademark) program.

  When the image processing apparatus is a master machine, the OCR application displays an operation screen as shown in FIG. 15 on the operation panel by the GUI, receives an instruction input from the user, and performs character input on the document read by the scanner. This module controls the execution of OCR processing for recognition. The OCR application subdivides the OCR process into a plurality of jobs, and selects an image processing apparatus that executes the subdivided job based on the status information and capability information. For convenience of explanation, the job subdivided here is also referred to as OCR processing.

  The status information is information indicating the load state of the OCR engine. For example, the maximum number (maxreq) of commands (OCR processing request) that can be received by the OCR engine and requesting OCR processing, and the received OCR processing requests. (Reqcnt) number. The capability information is information indicating the image processing capability of the image processing apparatus. For example, the scale of the image processing performance (processSpeed), the free area size (freeMem) of the memory such as the RAM 103 managed by the OS, and the execution Contains information such as possible languages (acceptLang). FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a capability information table. As shown in the figure, identification information capable of identifying other image processing apparatuses and capability information are stored in association with each other. The identification information is, for example, an IP address. Also, the identification information of itself is distinguished from the identification information of other image processing apparatuses as “localhost”. A specific selection method based on the status information and capability information will be described in the operation column described later.

  Note that the OCR application confirms a slave device existing on the network before selecting an image processing device, and executes an image for performing subdivided OCR processing from among the image processing devices including the slave device and itself. A processing device is selected based on capability information. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating another device search result table that stores identification information of the image processing apparatus. Then, the OCR application activates the OCR engine of the selected image processing apparatus to execute the OCR process, and stops the OCR engine after the process. Further, when the image processing apparatus is a slave machine, the OCR application executes the OCR process in response to a request from the master machine, and sends the result of the OCR process to a designated mail address.

  The OCR engine is a module that executes OCR processing. The HDD 108 includes a JAR (Java (registered trademark) ARchive) file obtained by compressing a plurality of Java (registered trademark) programs and files necessary for executing the program, and a character pattern file and a dictionary file necessary for executing OCR processing. Etc. are stored. The remote program activation daemon is a resident process that is activated when the power is turned on, and is a module that starts and stops the execution of the OCR engine in accordance with an instruction from the OCR application. Further, the remote program activation daemon transmits capability information indicating its own image processing capability in response to a request from another image processing apparatus. Further, the remote program activation daemon acquires capability information from another image processing apparatus and stores it in the capability information table. Hereinafter, the remote program launch daemon may be referred to as rpld (Remote Program Launch Daemon).

  FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the relationship between modules when the OCR engine is started on the same image processing apparatus (referred to as a local node) as the image processing apparatus in which the OCR application is operating, that is, the master machine side. On the other hand, FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the relationship between modules when starting the OCR engine on the image processing apparatus (referred to as a remote mode) different from the image processing apparatus in which the OCR application is operating, that is, on the slave machine side. In any case, a command (OCR engine activation request) for requesting activation of the OCR engine is transmitted to the remote program activation daemon operating on the image processing apparatus targeted for the OCR process, whereby the OCR engine to start. When there is no need to distinguish between the local node and the remote mode, the node may be simply referred to as a node. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a path when the slave machine side accesses a file on the file server or a file on the master machine side. In this figure, a program running on the slave machine side issues a file access request to the NFS client, thereby accessing a file on the file server or a file stored in the HDD on the master machine side. It is shown that it is configured to be able to. In FIGS. 7 to 9, the HDD on the slave machine side and the NFS server are omitted in order to avoid complicated illustrations.

(2) Operation Next, a processing procedure by the remote program activation daemon of the image processing apparatus according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. The image processing apparatus that executes the remote program activation daemon determines whether or not a command is received from another image processing apparatus (step S1). If the determination result is affirmative, the type of the received command is determined. (Step S2). When the command is a capability request for requesting capability, the image processing apparatus transmits capability information stored in itself to another image processing apparatus (step S3). FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a data configuration of capability requests. If the received command is a process activation request for requesting activation of the process, the image processing apparatus starts executing the designated process (program) (step S4). FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating a data configuration of a process activation request. If the received command is a process stop request for requesting a process stop, the image processing apparatus stops the execution of the designated process (program) (step S5). FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating a data configuration of a process stop request.

  Next, a processing procedure for controlling the OCR processing by the OCR application of the image processing apparatus according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. When the user places an original on an ADF (not shown) of the image processing apparatus and presses the start key 34 on the operation screen displayed on the operation panel shown in FIG. 15 (step S10: YES), the process starts. Is done. Here, the image processing apparatus that executes the OCR application becomes a master machine and a local node. Then, the image processing apparatus as the master machine executes the OCR engine activation process, activates its own OCR engine (step S11), executes the document reading process for reading the document image (step S12), and reads the read document image. The OCR process is executed (step S13), the result of the OCR process is transmitted by mail (step S14), and the OCR engine stop process for requesting the stop of the OCR engine is executed (step S15).

  Next, the procedure of the OCR engine activation process executed by the image processing apparatus in step S11 in FIG. 14 will be described with reference to FIG. When the image processing device serving as the master device starts the OCR engine via rpld (step S20), it searches for a slave device that is another image processing device existing on the network (step S21: other device search processing). ). Next, the master machine acquires capability information from each of the slave machines corresponding to the search result in step S20 and acquires its own capability information (step S22: capability information acquisition process). Then, the master machine selects an image processing apparatus that performs the OCR process using the capability information acquired in step S21 (step S23: OCR request destination determination process). Here, the image processing apparatuses that are candidates for selection include the master machine itself. Next, the master machine requests the selected image processing apparatus to start the OCR engine (step S24). In addition, in preparation for stopping the OCR engine, the master machine stores identification information for identifying the target slave machine requested to start the OCR engine in a memory such as the RAM 103 during the OCR engine activation process.

  Next, the procedure of the OCR process executed by the image processing apparatus in step 13 of FIG. 14 will be described with reference to FIG. Here, the master image processing apparatus searches for an image processing apparatus that can execute the OCR process for each page of the read document image, selects an image processing apparatus that executes the OCR process, and selects the selected image processing apparatus. Requests the image processing apparatus to execute OCR processing. Specifically, the master machine sets page n to be processed to “1” (step S30), then retrieves the original image of page n (step S31), and searches for an image processing apparatus capable of performing OCR processing. (Step S32: OCR process node search process). Note that the image processing apparatus to be searched includes the master machine itself. If there is a corresponding image processing apparatus (step S33: YES), the master device transmits a command (OCR processing request) requesting OCR processing to the corresponding image processing apparatus (step S34). FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating a data configuration of an OCR processing request. When the master device receives a response command (OCR processing response) from the image processing apparatus in response to the OCR processing request (Step S35), does the OCR processing response indicate that the OCR processing can be executed? It is determined whether or not (step S36). FIG. 19 is a diagram illustrating a data configuration of an OCR process response. The page n to be processed is incremented by one (step S37), and it is determined whether or not the next page exists (step S38). If the determination result is negative, the process proceeds to step S32. If the determination result is negative, the master machine then determines whether or not the OCR process is complete (step S39). If the result is positive, the OCR process is terminated.

  Next, the procedure of the OCR engine stop process executed by the image processing apparatus in step 15 of FIG. 14 will be described with reference to FIG. The image processing apparatus serving as the master device transmits a command (OCR engine stop command) for requesting the stop of the OCR engine to the confident OCR engine, and stops the OCR engine (step S40). In addition, the master machine transmits a command for requesting the OCR engine to stop to all the slave machines identified by the identification information stored in the memory at the time of starting the OCR engine to stop the OCR engine. (Step S41).

  Next, the procedure of the OCR processing node search process executed by the image processing apparatus in step 32 in FIG. 18 will be described with reference to FIG. The master machine transmits a command (status information request) for requesting the status information of the current OCR engine to all the image processing apparatuses that have requested execution of the OCR engine (step S50). FIG. 22 is a diagram illustrating a data configuration of a status information request. The master machine receives a status response including status information in response to the status information request (step S51), and receives a status response from all target image processing apparatuses that have requested execution of the OCR engine (step S52). : YES), it is determined whether there is an image processing apparatus capable of executing OCR processing (step S53). FIG. 23 is a diagram illustrating a data structure of a status response. If the determination result in step S53 is affirmative, the master machine selects an image processing apparatus that performs the OCR process as follows (step S54). An image processing apparatus having the highest image processing performance is selected from among the image processing apparatuses satisfying the condition of “reqcnt <maxreq” shown in FIG. If multiple image processing devices have the same image processing performance, the local node is prioritized over the remote node, and if multiple remote nodes have the same image processing performance, from among them An image processing apparatus is selected at random. Then, the master machine returns the selection result (step S55). If the determination result in step S53 is negative, the master device returns that there is no selectable image processing device (step S56).

  Next, the procedure of the other device search process executed by the image processing apparatus in step 21 of FIG. 17 will be described with reference to FIG. The master machine broadcasts a command (slave machine existence confirmation request) for confirming the existence of the slave machine to the image processing apparatus connected to the image processing system (step S60). FIG. 25 is a diagram exemplifying a data configuration of a slave unit presence confirmation request. When the master device receives a response command (slave device presence confirmation response) indicating that it is a slave device and including an IP address from another image processing device within a predetermined time as a response to the slave device confirmation request ( In step S61, the IP address included in the response command is stored in the other device search result table (see FIG. 6) (step S62). FIG. 26 is a diagram illustrating a data configuration of a slave unit presence confirmation response. If the slave unit presence confirmation response cannot be received within a predetermined time (step S63: YES), the process is terminated.

  Next, the procedure of capability information acquisition processing executed by the image processing apparatus in step 22 of FIG. 17 will be described with reference to FIG. The image processing apparatus serving as the master device transmits a capability request to its own rpld (step S70). Then, the master machine transmits a capability request to rpld of all other image processing apparatuses registered in the other machine search result table (step S71). When the master device receives a capability response including capability information in response to a capability request within a predetermined time (step S72: YES), the master device registers the capability information in the capability information table (step S73). FIG. 28 is a diagram illustrating a response command which is a capability response. If the master machine fails to receive a capability response within a predetermined time (step S64: YES), the process is terminated.

  Next, the procedure of the OCR request destination determination process executed by the image processing apparatus in step 23 of FIG. 17 will be described with reference to FIG. The image processing apparatus serving as the master machine sets “sel” to “−1” as an argument for selecting an image processing apparatus for executing the OCR processing (step S80), and then the capability information table shown in FIG. The record number (No) is set to “i” and set to “0” (step S81). Then, the master machine determines whether or not the i-th record in the capability information table is empty (step S82). If the determination result is negative, it is determined whether or not the free memory size in the i-th record is equal to or larger than the memory size required for execution of the OCR engine (step S83). The memory size necessary for executing the OCR engine is determined in advance, and the value is stored in the HDD 108, for example. If the determination result is affirmative, the master device determines whether or not the executable language in the i-th record is an executable language for OCR processing (here, Java (registered trademark)). (Step S84). If the determination result is affirmative, the master device determines whether “sel” is “−1” (step S85). If the determination result is negative, the master unit determines whether the image processing performance value in the i-th record is greater than the image processing performance value in the record having the value of 'sel' as the record number. (Step S86). If the determination result is affirmative, the master unit sets the value of “sel” to the value of “i” (step S87), and then increments the value of “i” by one (step S88). The process proceeds to step S82. If the determination result of step S85 is affirmative, the process proceeds to step S87. If the determination results in steps S83, S84, and S85 are negative, the process proceeds to step S88. If the determination result in step S82 is affirmative, the master machine returns a value of 'sel' (step S89).

  As a result, the image processing apparatus identified by the IP address in the record having the “sel” value as the record number is selected as the image processing apparatus for executing the OCR process. In this manner, the master machine selects the image processing apparatus having the highest image processing performance among the image processing apparatuses in which free memory exceeding the memory capacity necessary for executing the OCR engine remains. A plurality of image processing apparatuses may be selected.

  Next, the procedure of processing executed by the OCR engine by the image processing apparatus according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. When the image processing apparatus executing the OCR engine receives a command from the OCR application (step S90), the image processing apparatus determines the type of the command (step S92), and executes a process according to the type. When the command is an OCR processing request, the image processing apparatus compares the current number of received OCR processing requests with the maximum number of OCR processing requests that can be accepted, and determines whether the former is smaller than the latter. (Step S92). When the former is smaller than the latter (step S92: YES), the OCR processing request can be accepted. In this case, the image processing apparatus notifies the OCR application that the request has been successfully received (step S93). The OCR processing request received in step S90 is registered (step S94). Then, the image processing apparatus determines whether image transfer processing corresponding to the OCR processing request received before the OCR processing request is being executed (step S95), and the determination result is negative. If it is the target, the image transfer process for receiving the document image corresponding to the OCR process request received in step S90 is started (step S96). That is, when the image processing apparatus receives a new command requesting the OCR process while executing the image transfer process, the image processing apparatus queues the command, and when the image transfer process being executed is completed, A new image transfer process corresponding to the command is started. On the other hand, if the former is greater than or equal to the latter in step S92 (step S92: NO), it is impossible to accept an OCR processing request. In this case, the image processing apparatus indicates that “request acceptance failure” has occurred. The application is notified (step S98). If the command received in step S90 is a status request, the image processing apparatus sends the currently accepted number of OCR processing requests and the maximum number of OCR processing requests that can be accepted to the image processing apparatus that has transmitted the command. Is notified (step S97).

  If no command is received in step S90, the image processing apparatus determines whether the image transfer process is completed (step S99). If the determination result is affirmative, the image processing apparatus executes an OCR process. It is determined whether or not it is in progress (step S100). If the determination result is negative, the image processing apparatus starts OCR processing (step S101), and then determines whether there is a request for waiting for image transfer (step S102). If the determination result is affirmative, the image processing apparatus starts an image transfer process (step S103). If the determination result of step S100 is affirmative, the process proceeds to step S102. If the determination result in step S99 is negative, the image processing apparatus determines whether or not the OCR process is completed (step S104). If the determination result is affirmative, the image processing apparatus notifies the OCR application that has transmitted the OCR processing request of the OCR processing result indicating the result of the OCR processing (step S105). FIG. 31 is a diagram illustrating an OCR processing result. Next, the image processing apparatus determines whether there is a request for waiting for OCR processing (step S106). If the determination result is affirmative, the image processing apparatus starts OCR processing (step S107). In this way, the image processing apparatus executes actual OCR processing every time reception of a document image is completed, and starts image transfer processing for receiving a document image transferred from another image processing device. Since the content of the OCR process is a known technique, a detailed description thereof is omitted.

  FIG. 32 is a diagram schematically illustrating a state in which commands are transmitted and received between a master device and a slave device when the above-described OCR application is executed. It should be noted that only the typical commands are shown in the figure where all the commands are illustrated in a complicated manner when the OCR process is performed on the document image. In the figure, for the first and third pages of the original image, the master machine performs OCR processing, and for the second page, the master machine requests OCR processing from the slave machine, and the slave machine performs OCR processing. Shown to be running.

  FIG. 33 is a diagram schematically illustrating a state in which commands and document images are transmitted and received between the master machine and the slave machine when the above-described OCR processing is executed. Here, it is assumed that the maximum acceptable number of OCR processing requests of the OCR engine is “1”. In this example, when the OCR engine receives an OCR processing request, a new OCR processing request cannot be accepted until the above-described image transfer processing is executed and the OCR processing for the document image is completed. For this reason, in the figure, idle time corresponding to the image transfer time is generated while the OCR processing is being performed on the document image of each page, and the CPU of each image processing apparatus efficiently It is shown that it is not used.

  FIG. 34 shows a state in which commands and document images are transmitted and received between the master machine and the slave machine when executing the OCR process when the maximum number of OCR process requests that can be received by the OCR engine is “2”. It is a figure shown typically. In this example, when the OCR engine receives an OCR processing request, a new OCR processing request is received and a new image transfer is performed while the above-described image transfer processing is being executed and the OCR processing is being performed on the document image. Processing can be executed. For this reason, when the transfer time of the document image data for one page falls within the time required for the OCR process, the OCR process can be continuously executed, and the CPU of each image processing apparatus efficiently. Shown to be used.

  FIG. 35 is a diagram illustrating a state in which the OCR engine side queues and manages these OCR processing requests when the image processing apparatus receives a plurality of OCR processing requests. Each OCR processing request is assigned a request ID, and its progress state is stored as a table in a memory such as the RAM 103, for example. The states are defined as “waiting for image transfer”, “during image transfer”, “waiting for OCR”, and “during OCR”, indicating that the state transitions in this order.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, a plurality of image processing apparatuses can also execute the OCR process, which is an image process other than the print process, in a distributed manner. Therefore, even in the case of image processing with a high processing load, the processing performance can be improved and the usability of the image processing apparatus is improved. In addition, since any image processing apparatus on the network can benefit from the performance improvement by distributed processing, the usability of the image processing apparatus is improved.

  Even if the image processing function is not originally provided in the slave device, the master device can request image processing from the slave device. For this reason, even when old and new image processing devices are mixed on the network and the functions of each image processing device are different, it is possible to benefit from the performance improvement by distributed processing. Usability as a system is improved.

  In addition, since the image processing apparatus has a network file server function, for example, the image processing apparatus serving as the slave device can obtain the program for executing the OCR processing by downloading it from the image processing device serving as the master device. it can. It is also possible to store a program file that realizes functions provided only by a certain master machine only in that master machine. In this case, the work load when the device manager updates the program is also reduced. For this reason, the usability of the image processing apparatus is improved. Further, it is not necessary to prepare a dedicated server for providing the network file server function, so that the usability of the image processing system is improved.

  In addition, since it is possible to centrally manage files (for example, character pattern files and dictionary files in the case of OCR processing) required to execute a program realizing a certain function, the usability of the image processing system is improved. improves.

  In addition, since the CPU and OS employed in each slave device are mixed and only one type of program file needs to be prepared, the usability of the image processing system is improved. Even if the master machine and the slave machine have different CPUs and OSs, distributed processing can be executed between the master machine and the slave machine. For this reason, usability as an image processing system is improved.

  Even if the image processing performance of each image processing apparatus that performs distributed processing is different, processing according to the performance can be shared. For this reason, the productivity of the entire image processing system is improved.

  In addition, it becomes possible to issue an image processing request according to the load state of each slave device and the request acceptance capability. For this reason, the processing efficiency of the entire image processing system is improved. Therefore, the productivity of the entire image processing system is improved.

  Further, when there are a plurality of image processing apparatuses that can serve as slave machines, for example, it is possible to share the processing with an apparatus having high CPU performance. For this reason, the productivity of the entire image processing system is improved.

  Further, it is possible to conceal the communication overhead for transmitting the next image processing request in the previous image processing time. For this reason, the productivity of the entire image processing system is improved.

  Further, since the master machine executes the program on demand only when necessary, the memory and CPU capabilities can be used effectively. For this reason, it is possible to reduce the cost of the image processing apparatus.

[Modification]
Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment as it is, and can be embodied by modifying the constituent elements without departing from the scope of the invention in the implementation stage. Moreover, various inventions can be formed by appropriately combining a plurality of constituent elements disclosed in the embodiment. For example, some components may be deleted from all the components shown in the embodiment. Furthermore, constituent elements over different embodiments may be appropriately combined. Further, various modifications as exemplified below are possible.

  In the embodiment described above, various modules (programs) executed by the image processing apparatus may be provided by being stored on a computer connected to a network such as the Internet and downloaded via the network. good. The various programs are recorded in a computer-readable recording medium such as a CD-ROM, a flexible disk (FD), a CD-R, and a DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) in a file in an installable or executable format. May be configured to be provided.

  In the above-described embodiment, the image processing distributed and executed by a plurality of image processing apparatuses is the OCR processing. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the image compression processing, the skew (tilt) correction processing of the read image, or the like It may be processing.

  In the above-described embodiment, the program for executing the OCR process is a Java (registered trademark) program. However, the program is not limited to this, and may be a program written in another script language.

It is a figure which shows an example of a structure of the image processing system concerning one Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the structure of the image processing apparatus concerning the embodiment. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a software configuration of the image processing apparatus according to the embodiment. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a software configuration of the image processing apparatus according to the embodiment. It is a figure which shows the capability information table concerning the embodiment. It is a figure which illustrates the other machine search result table concerning the embodiment. It is a figure which shows the relationship between the modules concerning the embodiment. It is a figure which shows the relationship between the modules concerning the embodiment. It is a figure which shows the path | route at the time of the slave machine side concerning the same embodiment accessing the file on a file server, and the file on the master machine side. 4 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure by a remote program activation daemon of the image processing apparatus according to the embodiment. It is a figure which illustrates the data structure of the capability request | requirement concerning the embodiment. It is a figure which illustrates the data structure of the process starting request | requirement concerning the embodiment. It is a figure which illustrates the data structure of the process stop request | requirement concerning the embodiment. 4 is a flowchart showing a procedure of processing for controlling OCR processing by an OCR application of the image processing apparatus according to the embodiment. It is a figure which illustrates the operation panel concerning the embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the OCR engine starting process concerning the embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the OCR process concerning the embodiment. It is a figure which illustrates the data structure of the OCR process request concerning the embodiment. It is a figure which illustrates the data structure of the OCR process response concerning the embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the OCR engine stop process concerning the embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the OCR process node search process concerning the embodiment. It is a figure which illustrates the data structure of the status information request | requirement concerning the embodiment. It is a figure which illustrates the data structure of the status response concerning the embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the other machine search process concerning the embodiment. It is a figure which illustrates the data structure of the slave machine presence confirmation request concerning the embodiment. It is a figure which illustrates the data structure of the slave machine presence confirmation response concerning the embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the capability information acquisition process concerning the embodiment. It is a figure which illustrates the response command which is a capability response concerning the embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the OCR request destination determination process concerning the embodiment. 4 is a flowchart showing a procedure of processing executed by the OCR engine by the image processing apparatus according to the embodiment. It is a figure which illustrates the OCR process result concerning the embodiment. It is a figure which shows typically a mode that a command is transmitted / received between a master machine and a slave machine when the OCR application concerning the embodiment is executed. FIG. 6 is a diagram schematically illustrating a state in which commands and document images are transmitted and received between a master machine and a slave machine when executing OCR processing according to the embodiment. When the maximum number of OCR processing requests that can be accepted by the OOCR engine according to the embodiment is “2”, commands and document images are transmitted and received between the master machine and the slave machine when the OCR process is executed. It is a figure shown typically. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a state in which the OCR engine side queues and manages the OCR processing requests when the image processing apparatus according to the embodiment receives a plurality of OCR processing requests.

Explanation of symbols

101 Engine 102 Controller 103 RAM
104 ASIC
105 CPU
106 Font ROM
107 Engine I / F
108 HDD
109 ROM
201, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205 Image processing apparatus

Claims (9)

An image processing apparatus that performs image processing,
Connected to at least one other image processing apparatus via a network;
Input accepting means for accepting input of an image processing instruction from a user instructing image processing;
Subdividing means for subdividing the image processing instructed by the image processing instruction into a plurality of image processing jobs;
Device selection means for selecting a first image processing device for executing the subdivided image processing job from the at least one other image processing device;
Transmitting means for transmitting a processing request for requesting execution of the image processing job to the first image processing apparatus;
Image transmission means for transmitting an image to be processed by the image processing job to the first image processing apparatus ;
The device selection means is
First acquisition means for acquiring, for each of the at least one other image processing device, capability information indicating an image processing capability including a free memory size of the image processing device;
A first selection means for selecting an image processing device having a free memory size greater than or equal to a memory size required for execution of the image processing from among the at least one other image processing device;
For each of one or more image processing devices selected by the first selection means, a first number that is the maximum number of image processing requests that can be accepted by the image processing device and the number of image processing requests that have been accepted. Second acquisition means for acquiring status information indicating a certain second number;
Among the one or more image processing devices selected by the first selection means, the image processing device having the highest image processing capability among the image processing devices satisfying the condition that the first number is larger than the second number. Second selecting means for selecting an apparatus as the first image processing apparatus;
An image processing apparatus. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus selection unit dynamically selects the first image processing apparatus according to a progress state of the image processing job. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus selecting unit dynamically selects the first image processing apparatus according to a load state of the at least one other image processing apparatus. The image processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising a result receiving means for receiving an execution result of the image processing job from the first image processing apparatus. The transmission unit, according to claim 4 wherein the result receiving means, characterized by transmitting before receiving the execution result, the processing request for requesting execution of a new said image processing job to the first image processing apparatus An image processing apparatus according to 1. Wherein the image transmitting means, said before the result receiving means receives the execution result, to claim 5, characterized in that transmitting the image to be new the image processing job in the first image processing apparatus The image processing apparatus described. The image processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that it comprises a storage means which is shared with other image processing apparatus through the network. Receiving means for receiving a processing request for requesting execution of an image processing job which is all or part of image processing from another image processing apparatus;
Image receiving means for receiving, from the other image processing apparatus, an image to be processed by the image processing job requested to be executed by the processing request;
The image processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 7, further comprising an execution means for executing the image processing job to the image. One image processing device serving as a master device and at least one image processing device serving as a slave device are connected via a network,
The master image processing device is
Input accepting means for accepting input of an image processing instruction from a user instructing image processing;
Subdividing means for subdividing the image processing instructed by the image processing instruction into a plurality of image processing jobs;
Device selecting means for selecting a first image processing device for executing the subdivided image processing job from among image processing devices serving as slave devices;
Transmitting means for transmitting a processing request for requesting execution of the image processing job to the first image processing apparatus;
Image transmission means for transmitting an image to be processed by the image processing job to the first image processing apparatus;
The device selection means is
First acquisition means for acquiring, for each image processing apparatus serving as a slave machine, capability information indicating image processing capability including an empty memory size of the image processing apparatus;
A first selection means for selecting an image processing device having a free memory size equal to or larger than a memory size required for executing the image processing from among image processing devices serving as slave units;
For each of one or more image processing devices selected by the first selection means, a first number that is the maximum number of image processing requests that can be accepted by the image processing device and the number of image processing requests that have been accepted. Second acquisition means for acquiring status information indicating a certain second number;
Among the one or more image processing devices selected by the first selection means, the image processing device having the highest image processing capability among the image processing devices satisfying the condition that the first number is larger than the second number. Second selecting means for selecting an apparatus as the first image processing apparatus,
The image processing device that is the slave machine
Receiving means for receiving a processing request for requesting execution of an image processing job that is all or part of image processing from an image processing apparatus serving as a master device;
Image receiving means for receiving an image to be processed by the image processing job requested to be executed by the processing request from an image processing apparatus serving as the master device;
An image processing system comprising: execution means for executing the image processing job on the image.

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