JPH04205658A - Electronic filing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To allow the registration of documents regardless of the input sequence of image information and to enhance the overral efficiency of registration operations by adding the retrieval sequence information generated from input image data to the input image data and storing the data. CONSTITUTION:This device is constituted of a memory module 10, a control module 11, an image processing module 30, a communication control module 31, a scanner 20, an optical disk device 22, a keyboard 23, a CRT display 24, a printer 25, magnetic disk devices 27, 28, a mouse 29, a system bus 41, and an image bus 42. The retrieval sequence information is generated from the inputted image data. This retrieval sequence information is added to the inputted image data and the data is stored. The documents are registered in this way regardless of the input sequence of the image information. The overall efficiency of the registration operations is thus improved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Objective of the Invention (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to an electronic filing device such as an image information storage and retrieval device that registers or searches image information.

(Prior art) In recent years, scanners (
A two-dimensional scanning device) reads the image information, stores the read image information on an optical disk, searches for any stored image information, reads it out, and outputs it to an output device, such as a CRT display, so that it can be viewed visually. Electronic filing devices have been put into practical use.

Such devices manage image information for multiple pages of a document or the like on a document-by-document basis.

By the way, in this type of device, when a document is input and registered, it is necessary to have the scanner read the image information of each page in the document one by one. Then, for each document to be registered, a document title, search keywords, etc. are assigned.

Conventionally, the order of each image information in a registered document is equal to the input order of each image information, regardless of the order of pages in the document. Therefore, in order to display the pages in the same order as in the actual document when searching,
The order of the image information to be entered here must be the same as the pages in the document that the image information constitutes.In other words, each page in the document must be read into the scanner in the correct order. be.

For this reason, conventionally, it has been common for an operator to check the order of each page before or at the time of inputting a document. However, when a document consisting of a large number of pages is input continuously, the order of the pages is changed against the operator's will, and pages are often omitted or duplicated.

In addition, in order to check whether each image information of a document consisting of such a large number of pages is arranged correctly, that is, whether or not it has been registered in the correct order, the operator must actually check the images of each page. It has to be displayed on the display, which takes a huge amount of effort and time to confirm.

Furthermore, even if an automatic paper feeder is attached to the scanner and automatic continuous registration processing is performed, if the operator checks each page as described above, the amount of work will increase as the operator reads each page one by one. will not change much. In particular, when automatic continuous registration processing is performed unattended, the registered image information will be checked only after all pages have been registered, so if the orientation or order of the image information is incorrect, use the document editing function, etc. You will have to rewrite the data to the optical disc or re-input the image information.

In this way, in conventional electronic filing devices,
The task of registering image information is the one that places the most burden on the operator among the filing tasks.
There was a need to improve the efficiency of document registration.

On the other hand, various measures have been proposed to improve the efficiency of document registration work.

For example, when registering a large number of documents at once, instead of having the operator enter document title information from the keyboard when inputting image information, you can create only the title information in advance and save it to a mark sheet or file (for example, a floppy disk). Write and store it on a disk.

Then, when inputting image information, the mark sheet or floppy disk is set in the electronic filing device.

Then, the device has a function of reading the title information, automatically assigning a title to the document to be registered based on the title information, and storing it on the optical disc.

When you register a document using this function, you do not have to enter the title from the keyboard when registering the document.
The efficiency of the registration process is improved. However, to check whether the image information is actually entered in the correct order and orientation, the operator must display each image information on the display at the time of registration or after registration, and the work required to confirm this is time-consuming. Not alleviated at all.

Furthermore, devices that apply character recognition technology to document registration are being considered. This device allows the operator to specify an arbitrary area in the image information to be input in advance, and then extracts the information (for example, a character string) existing within that area as the title character of the image information, and then cuts out the extracted character string. Title/keyword character strings obtained by recognition and conversion into code data are added to image information and registered. That is, it is possible to recognize a drawing number, etc., and register a document using that number as a title.

According to this device, the title of the document to be registered is automatically detected and determined from the image information itself when the image information is input, so the operator basically does not have to input the title of the document. do not have. In addition, if the input image information is oriented in the wrong direction, the drawing direction of the characters in the title string specified area will also be slanted, resulting in a recognition error when recognizing the title string. It is also possible to detect abnormalities in the input of image information. However, with this device, when registering a document consisting of multiple pages,
Since the recognized character string is processed as the title/keyword character string of the document, it is not possible to detect errors in the order or missing pages, for example, regarding the correct orientation of input image information.

As mentioned above, in conventional electronic filing devices, various devices have been developed and proposed to improve the efficiency of registration work. Countermeasures have been taken to prevent errors in the order that may occur, but in the end, it becomes necessary for the operator to display and visually check the image information of each page at the time of registration or after registration, which reduces the overall document registration process. There is a strong need to improve efficiency.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) As described above, in the past, in order to register a document consisting of multiple pages and display it in the same order as the pages in the actual document, input image information It is necessary to enter the image information in the same order as the pages in the document that the image information consists of. If the input order of the image information is different from the order of the pages in the actual document, the registration process will be delayed. The drawback was that the registration process was inefficient, such as having to cancel the process midway through, or re-enter image information that was entered in the wrong order.

Therefore, the present invention provides a registration process that allows a document to be registered regardless of the order in which image information is input, and that also allows each image information that makes up the document to be displayed in the same order as the pages of the actual document. The purpose of the present invention is to provide an electronic filing device that can improve the overall efficiency of electronic filing.

[Configuration of the Invention (Means for Solving the Problem) In order to achieve the above object, the electronic filing device of the present invention includes an input means for inputting image data, and a method for inputting image data by the input means. It is comprised of a generating means for generating search order information from image data, and a storage means for adding and storing the search order information generated by the generating means to the image data inputted by the input means.

Further, the electronic filing device of the present invention includes an input means for inputting image data, a generation means for generating search order information from the image data inputted by the input means, and a search generated by the generation means. a storage means for adding and storing order information to the image data inputted by the input means; a search means for searching the image data stored in the storage means according to the search order information; and a search means for searching by the search means. and display means for displaying the searched image data in the order of the search order information.

(Function) - One - This invention enables image data to be searched regardless of the input order of the image data by the means described above. There is no need to re-enter the information.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 7 shows an electronic filing device of the present invention.

That is, the electronic filing device includes a memory module 10, a control module 11, an image processing module 30,
Communication control module 31, scanner 20, optical disk device 22, keyboard 23, CRT display 24, printer 25, magnetic disk devices 27, 28, mouse 29
, a system bus 41, and an image bus 42.

The control module 11 is a CPU that performs various controls for storing image data (image information), search 1 editing processing, etc.
I2, and an interface circuit 17 for connecting the optical disk device 22 and magnetic disk devices 27 and 28 to the CPU I2 and the like.

The CPU 12 includes the keyboard 23 and mouse 29.
is connected. In addition, the CPU 12 has an image
Code conversion circuit 12a and code/image conversion circuit 12
b is provided.

The image/code conversion circuit 12a converts image data (vector data) as drawing data on a floppy disk, which will be described later, into code data (raster data).

The code/image conversion circuit 12b converts code data on a floppy disk, which will be described later, into image data.

Note that these image/code conversions and code/image conversions can be performed not only by hardware but also by software.

The memory module 10 stores image data.

A main memory 13 for storing various control programs and management data for searches, etc., a page memory 14 as an image memory having a storage capacity corresponding to image data for several pages of an A4 size original (document), and a page memory 14 for display. It is composed of a display memory 15 as an interface, a display control section 16, and the like.

A part of the page memory 14 includes a buffer memory area 14.
A is provided. Writing and reading of this buffer memory area 14a are controlled by a counter (not shown).

The page memory 14 is a memory for temporarily storing, for example, image data stored on the optical disc 19 or image data read from the optical disc 19.

The display memory 15 is for temporarily storing image data displayed on the CRT display 24. This display memory 15 includes a CRT display 24.
The image data that is actually displayed in the upper display window, that is, the image data in the page memory 14, is stored with image data that has been subjected to enlargement, reduction, one rotation, insertion, black and white reversal, etc. .

The display control unit 16 controls the display processing of the CRT display 24 and the like.

The image processing module 30 enlarges image data.

An enlargement/reduction circuit 34 that performs a reduction process, an aspect conversion circuit 35 that performs a rotation process by changing the aspect and width of image data;
a compression/expansion circuit (CODEC) 36 that performs encoding processing to compress image data (reducing redundancy) and decoding processing to expand (return reduced redundancy);
A scanner interface 37 for the scanner 20, a printer interface 38 for the printer 25, the enlargement/reduction circuit 34, the vertical/horizontal conversion circuit 35, and the C0
It is composed of an internal bus 39 that connects a DEC 36, a scanner interface 37, and a printer interface 38.

The communication control module 31 is, for example, a BCP (Bus Communication) connected to a LAN.
Communication interface 4 such as
It is composed of 4.

The communication control module 31 has an interface (R8-232C, GPIB) with external equipment such as an FCP (facsimile connection mechanism) and a personal computer.
, 5C3I) may be provided.

The system bus 41 is a bus for control signals, and connects the control module 11 with the memory module 101, image processing module 301, and communication control module 31.

The image bus 42 is a bus for image data, and connects the memory module 10, the image processing module 30.degree., and the communication control module 31.

The scanner 20 is, for example, a two-dimensional scanning device that obtains electrical signals corresponding to image data on the document by two-dimensionally scanning the document with a laser beam.

The optical disk device 22 sequentially stores image data read by the scanner 20 or code data read from the floppy disk 28a via the magnetic disk device 28 onto the optical disk 19. It also searches the optical disk 19 for image data corresponding to search information specified by the keyboard 23 or display attribute information such as image size, image direction, and number of pages.

The keyboard 23 stores unique search information corresponding to image data consisting of code data and image data stored on the optical disc 19.

It is used to input various operation commands such as search 1 editing processing.

The mouse 29 can be used, for example, by arbitrarily moving a cursor (not shown) displayed on a display window on the CRT display 24 vertically and horizontally, and by giving an instruction at a desired position. It is used to select or instruct display contents (various modes, area designations for image editing, icons, etc.).

For example, the CRT display 24 as a cathode ray tube display device can display image data read by the scanner 20, code data read out via the magnetic disk device 28, or code read out via the optical disk device 22. It displays data, image data, etc. The CRT display 24 is a multi-window type display device that can simultaneously display four pieces of image data using up to four windows in a display area for displaying image data. The image data displayed in each window can be enlarged or reduced independently.
Editing such as rotation and scrolling is now possible.

The printer 25 prints image data read by the scanner 20, code data read from the floppy disk 28a, code data and image data read from one optical disk, image data displayed on the CRT display 24, etc. print out (print)
In other words, it is output as a hard copy.

= 16 − The magnetic disk device 27 is a hard disk device,
The magnetic disk 2 attached to this magnetic disk device 27
7a stores various control programs, and
The search information input from the keyboard 23, the code data for one item corresponding to this search information, the storage address on the optical disk 19 where the image data is stored, the data size, and a flag that identifies whether it is code data or image data. , search and display data (management data) consisting of display attribute information such as image size and image direction rotation angle are stored as a database (DB). This search/display data is displayed on the optical disc 19 when the optical disc 19 is installed.
9 and is stored.

Here, the storage address is a logical address, from which a physical track address and a physical sector address are calculated at the time of access.

The magnetic disk device 28 is, for example, a 5.25-inch floppy disk device, and stores text files (documents) created with a word processor (not shown), CAD drawing files created with a personal computer (not shown), and worksheet files (drawing data). ) is used to read code data files such as files from the floppy disk 28a.

As the floppy disk 28a, various types of O3 (
(operation system).

FIG. 8 shows the document management system in this embodiment.

i.e. cabinet, binder, document, page 4
It has a hierarchy, and each cabinet is associated with one side of the optical disc 19.

A maximum of 8 binders can be defined in a cabinet, and a maximum of 30 binders can be defined within a binder. Up to 00 documents can be registered. Each document has a title, and its structure is defined for each binder.

The above document is the basic unit of the file, and in addition to the title,
Annotations (explanatory text for documents) can be added. Also,
A document consists of up to 4095 pages (image data).

Such a management system takes into account consistency with paper files, and a page corresponds to one paper file (manuscript), but in this example, code data is stored at the level of this page. (search order information) is also managed.

That is, the page is either image data of one paper file, data of one floppy disk (volume/batch data), one file data, or data that is a combination of the above three types. As a result, for example, in one document, the first page is the source file (code data) of a given program, the second page is the program specification (code data) created with a word processor, and the third page is the processing result. (
Image data), which in the past had to be managed completely separately, can now be managed in an extremely efficient manner.

Next, the structure of the control program, ie, software, stored in the main memory 13 will be explained.

In FIG. 9, a filing processing section 51 controls the whole, and this filing processing section 51 includes a search section 311, a registration section 312, a deletion section 313, a correction section 314,
It consists of a maintenance section 315.

The database unit 52 stores the title of each document, physical data such as the address and size of the actual data on the optical disk 19, document search information, and a logical page physical page correspondence table, that is, information registered on the optical disk 19. For each page in a document, a physical page number is assigned based on the input order when the image data of each page is input, and search order information, such as a pre-specified area on each page. It manages a table for associating logical page numbers (page numbers of each page in an actual document) obtained from the results of recognizing written character strings.

The document search information and the logical page/physical page correspondence table are written in the database unit 52 by copying from the optical disc 19 when the optical disc 19 is loaded into the electronic filing device. Also,
When registering a document, search information and a logical page-physical page correspondence table are created for each document to be registered and stored on the optical disk 19.

The document data display section 53 displays image data within a window of the CRT display 24.

The document data management unit 54 manages each image data stored in the page memory 14.

The document data output unit 55 includes an optical disk 19 for recording or reproducing image data, a scanner 20 for inputting image data, a printer 25 for outputting image data, a floppy disk 28a1 for recording/reproducing code data, and an external bag via LAN. It controls image data input/output devices such as the BCP 44 that transmits and receives image data to and from the device.

The code/image conversion unit 56 converts code data such as CAD data into image data.

The image φ code converter 57 converts, for example, a character string (image data) within a prespecified area on input image data into code data, and when a page number is written in that area. , it converts it into code data such as numbers.

When this electronic filing device is powered on, control is first transferred to the filing processing section 51, and the maintenance section 315 is activated to perform various initialization processes. After that, "1: Search" and "2: Search" are displayed on the CRT display 24 via the character data display section 53.
Information such as "Registration", "3: Delete", "4: Modification", and "5: Maintenance" is displayed, and the operator is prompted to select one of these five processes.

When the operator selects one of the displayed information using the keyboard 23 or mouse 29, the filing processing section 51 controls the search section 311 to the maintenance section 315 according to the selected information. be transferred to either.

The search unit 311 searches the database unit 52 for documents that satisfy the search conditions input by the operator, and displays a list of corresponding document titles (keywords) on the CRT display 24 via the document data display unit 53. It looks like this.

Thereafter, when the operator inputs a document title from the keyboard 23, a document corresponding to this document title is searched from the optical disk 19 or an optical disk provided in another electronic filing device (not shown) via the LAN. . The retrieved image data is displayed on the CRT via the document data display section 53 according to the operator's instructions.
It is displayed on the display 24 or sent to the printer 25 via the document data input/output section 55 and printed out.

Further, if the retrieved data is code data=23-, the document data input/output unit 55 outputs the data to the floppy disk 28a.

In addition, when outputting this searched image data using various output devices such as those mentioned above, the operator is required to specify the page output order, that is, "output in logical page number order" mode or "input page (physical page)" mode. ) "Number order output" mode is selected. In this "logical page number order output" mode, when outputting image data, the output order of each page in the document becomes equal to the order of the logical pages described in the logical page physical page correspondence table described above.

Here, to further explain the logical page physical page correspondence table, it is generated by the database unit 52 when registering a document, and is actually written on each page of the document to be registered. The current page number is defined as a logical page number, and the order of the image data actually input is defined as a physical page number, and these two are associated with each other. Therefore, "logical page number order output"
-24= In the mote, each image data is output in the same page number order as the actual document, regardless of the order in which the image data of each page of the document was actually input. On the other hand, in the "output in order of input page number" mode, image data is output in the order of physical page numbers, that is, in the same order as the image data input at the time of registration.

The registration unit 312 registers the scanner 2 according to an operator's instruction.
Image data input from 0 or image data (coat data) read from the floppy disk 28a
It performs processing such as storing the information on the optical disk 19 or storing it on the optical disk of another electronic filing device (not shown) via the LAN.

Furthermore, document titles (keywords) input by the operator from the keyboard 23 are registered in the database section 52. This document title is used when searching for documents registered on the optical disc 19.

Also, when inputting image data, check the
For the specified area, if the data is image data, perform character recognition, and if it is code data, obtain the code data of the character drawn in the specified area when the data is expanded. . Then, using these code data as the logical page number (search order information) of the page, the above-mentioned logical page physical page correspondence table is created.

The deletion unit 313 deletes the document title stored in the database unit 52 according to the document to be deleted according to an operator's instruction.

The modification unit 3 ] 4 selects a document to be modified according to an operator's instruction, and modifies the document title stored in the database 52 .

Note that the selection of documents in the deletion section 313 or the correction section 314 is performed by the search section 3]1.

The maintenance section 315 performs initialization processing for one optical disk.

Next, the operation in the above configuration will be explained.

FIG. 1 shows an example of the operation when registration processing is selected by the operator.

Here, a case will be explained in which automatic page number reading is specified.

For example, assume that the operator specifies document registration processing. In other words, "
With the information ``1: Search'', ``2: Registration'', ``3: Delete'', ``4: Modification'', and ``5: Maintenance'' being displayed, select ``2: Registration'' using the keyboard 23 or mouse 29. Suppose it is selected.

Then, first, the registration unit 312 is activated. Then, a title registration table (registration condition input table) for inputting the title and search key for the document to be registered is displayed on the document data display section 53 as a registration window WW as shown in FIG. 2, for example. are displayed on the CRT display 24.

This registration window WW displays fields for displaying the cabinet name and binder name to be registered, as well as a title key list, and the title of the document to be registered is displayed next to the corresponding title key. can be entered.

Further, in the field below that, there is a section for setting whether or not "page number automatic reading designation" is to be specified. In this embodiment, "specified" is selected by the operator.

Further, at the bottom of the registration window WW, four function keys are provided: "Enter registration page", "Execute registration", "Set page number reading position", and "End".

In this case, after inputting the title of the document corresponding to the title registration display and setting a plurality of documents constituting one document on the scanner 20, the function key "Set page number reading position" is pressed.

Then, the registration unit 312 reads the image data of the first physical pager of the document to be registered from the scanner 20, for example, if the data is image data, first writes it on the page memory 14, and then writes it on the CRT display 24. The processing shown above is performed. At this time,
The read image data is managed by the document data management section 54.

Then, the operator is asked to specify a page number description rectangular area. Then, using, for example, a mouse, the operator specifies the upper left and lower right positions of the area where the page number is written on the image data.

In this case, the specified rectangular area is highlighted and displayed to allow the operator to confirm the area he or she has set.

Subsequently, the operator presses down the function key "registration execution".

Then, first, the image/code conversion unit 57 executes conversion processing for the designated area, and obtains the logical page number written in the area as code data. Note that if an error occurs during character recognition, such as an unrecognizable situation, the logical page number of the image data is set to "0 (zero)" and the registration process continues.

Further, in the case of this embodiment, the valid numbers as logical page numbers are natural numbers of 1 or more.

Then, the logical page number and document title are transferred from the document data management section 54 to the database section 52 under the control of the registration section 312.

In the database unit 52, respective values are entered in a correspondence table between logical page numbers and physical page numbers in the document. In this case, the logical page number is an arbitrary number obtained by character recognition, and the physical page number is "1" because this image data corresponds to the first physical page of the manuscript. .

On the other hand, the logical address on the optical disk 19 where this image data is to be stored is passed to the registration unit 312. Then, the document data management section 54 writes the image data to the thus obtained location on the optical disk 19.

Subsequently, the next page number of the document set in the scanner 20 is read as the second physical page number, and character recognition is performed to make the characters in the area specified above the logical page number of the document. The obtained logical page number and document title are then transferred to the database section 52 as described above.

In the database unit 12, the logical page physical page correspondence table is updated based on the transferred data.

Thereafter, the image data of the second physical page is written onto the optical disk 19 as described above.

In this way, image data from the 33rd physical page onwards are registered in the same manner. The registration process ends when image data of the final physical page, for example, image data corresponding to the last document set in the scanner 20, is written on the optical disk 19.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the operation when search and display processing is selected by the operator.

For example, assume that the operator selects the information "1: Search" displayed on the CRT display 24.

Then, control is transferred to the search unit 311. And C
"Which optical disk drive?" appears on RT Display 24.
This message is displayed, and an inquiry is made to the operator as to which document in one optical disk set in which device is to be searched. Further, when the operator inputs the optical disk drive number, the binder names defined in the optical disk 19 are read by accessing the optical disk 19 and the database section 52, and a list of them is displayed on the CRT display 24. At the same time, the operator is asked, "Which binder?"

When the operator uses the keyboard 23 or mouse 29 to specify a binder number, the search section 311 searches the database section 5 for the document title structure of this binder.
2, the search window R as shown in FIG.
displayed on the W or CRT display 24. This search window RW displays a search condition input table for inputting search conditions.

Also displayed in this search window RW is a page output order mode setting area for setting the page order when outputting the image data of each page of the corresponding document as a result of the search. In this embodiment, there are two types: "logical page number order output mode" and "input page number order output mode".

In the "logical page number order output mode", the image data of each page is displayed or printed in the order of the logical page number obtained by image code conversion from the image data of each page at the time of document registration. On the other hand, in the "input page number order output mode", the image data of each page is displayed or printed in the order in which the image data of each page was input when registering the document, that is, in the order of the physical page number of the document. . Here, the explanation will be continued assuming that the former "logical page number order output mode" is specified.

Now, when the operator inputs the search conditions for the target document into the search condition input table and instructs the start of the search, the operation starts. When documents that meet the conditions are found, the number of matching documents is displayed.

At this time, in addition to the search window RW in which the search condition input table shown in FIG. 4 is displayed, a document display window DW shown in FIG. 5 is displayed on the CRT display 24.
The image data retrieved from the optical disc 19 is displayed in this document display window DW. Display of this image data is performed by the document data display section 53, and is performed by specifying the function key "document display" in the search window RW with the mouse 29.

In this case, when the operator specifies "document display," the database section 52 is requested to perform a search process, and the image data included in the document is displayed on the optical disk 19.
The start address and data length of the data are found. After searching for a document, if you specify "display one document for the first time," the image data of the first page of the document will be displayed. As in this example, when the page output order mode is [Logical page number order output mode], the image data of the first page displayed is registered as the logical page number of the document is "1". Become something.

That is, the search unit 311 refers to the logical page physical page correspondence table, finds the physical page number corresponding to the logical page number "1", and finds the storage start address in the optical disk 19 of the image data corresponding to the physical page number. Then, processing to obtain the data length is performed. These pieces of information are then passed to the document data input/output section 55, where image data is taken in from the optical disk 19 and stored in the page memory 14. The image data stored in the page memory 14 is managed by the document data management section 54 shown in FIG. Here, for example, a page memory index (hereinafter referred to as PMID) is attached to image data stored in the page memory 14, and the image data is identified by this PMID.

Then, the search section 311 passes this PMID to the document data display section 53, so that the image data is displayed within the document display window DW. In this case, the document data display unit 53 searches the page memory 14 for image data corresponding to the PMID, and transfers this image data to the display memory 15. The image data stored in the display memory 15 is then displayed on the CRT display 24.

On the other hand, multiple menus (display control commands) such as "Next Page" and "Previous Page" are displayed at the bottom of the document display window DW shown in FIG. processing is executed.

"Next page" is for reading the image data of the next page of the displayed image data and displaying it on the document display window DW. If the image data being displayed at this time is the last page of the document, no processing will be performed unless the mode is changed, regardless of the page output order mode.

That is, when "next page" is specified, the document data display section 53 requests the search section 311 to input a next page. At this time, if the "logical page number order output mode" is selected, the search unit 311 retrieves the image data corresponding to the next logical page number of the page that has been displayed up to that point from the page memory from the optical disk 19 in the manner described above. 14, obtains its PMID, and passes this to the document data display section 53. When the document data display unit 53 receives the PMID for the next page, the image data in the page memory 14 based on this PMID is displayed in the document display window DW.

"Previous page" displays image data of the page preceding the displayed image data in the document display window DW. If the image data being displayed at this time is the first page of the document, no processing will be performed unless the mode is changed, regardless of the page output order mode.

Note that the flow of control is the same as in the case of "next page" described above, so it will be omitted.

Next, the management status of documents in the database section 52 will be explained.

FIG. 6 shows the format of search/display data (management information) for each document in the database unit 52.

The database unit 52 stores physical data such as the address and size of the actual data of the document on the optical disk 19, the title of the registered document, and each page in the document stored on the optical disk 19. It manages a correspondence table between logical page numbers and physical page numbers.

In other words, the search/display data is as shown in Figure 6.
It consists of a physical data section 91, a title data section 92, and a logical page-physical page correspondence table 93.

The physical data section 91 contains the storage address on the optical disk 19 for the image data of each page in the document, data size, data density, code/image data identification flag, and data compression method identification in the case of image data. Contains information such as flags and data registration date. The page number of each page in the document used in this physical data section 91 is set based on the order in which the image data was input when registering the document, and as described above,
In this embodiment, these page numbers are called physical page numbers.

These pieces of information are necessary when the filing processing section 51 accesses the image data on the corresponding optical disk 19 at the time of registration and search.

The title data section 92 includes the above registration section 31 at the time of registration.
Information regarding the title of the registration document written in step 2 is stored. When searching for documents, use the search section 3 above.
11 uses this information.

As already mentioned, the logical page physical page correspondence table 93 is used to associate arbitrary logical page numbers with the physical page numbers used in the physical data section 91 for the image data of each page in the document. belongs to. This table is generated when the document is registered.

In this embodiment, the logical page number is written in a prespecified area on the image data to be registered and is a numerical value (actual page number). When registering a document, the operator specifies an area in advance, and then, for each image data of the document input for registration, character recognition processing is performed on the data within that area. The character code obtained from the result is used as the logical page number of the image data. and,
The correspondence table 93 is used to determine whether this logical page number is associated with a physical page number determined by the input order of image data.

In this way, by using this correspondence table when searching (logical page number order output mode) and displaying the image data of each page in order in the order of logical page numbers, you can input image data when registering the document. Regardless of the order, it is possible to display each image data in the same order as the actual page numbers written on each page.

As described above, image data can be searched regardless of the input order of the image data.

That is, the display order of each image data within a document can be determined based on the logical page number recognized from each image data at the time of document registration. As a result, even if you enter the image data for each page in the wrong page order when registering, as long as you set the logical page numbers correctly, you can display them in the same page order as the actual document. becomes. Therefore, when registering a document, there is no need to check the order of each page, or to interrupt the registration process even if the order of input pages is incorrect, and it is not necessary to check the order of image data after registration. This eliminates the need to rearrange or re-enter image data through editing processing, and the efficiency of registration work can be significantly improved.

In addition, since the physical page number is not discarded during registration, after the registration process is complete, it is possible to display the image data in the order in which it was input, and compare it with the document used for actual registration. By displaying the pages in the order of physical page numbers, it is possible to easily discover missing pages that may occur when inputting image data, for example.

In addition, in the above embodiment, the case where the logical page number and the physical page number are correlated using the logical page physical page correspondence table was explained as an example, but the example is not limited to this. It may be directly managed, that is, the physical page number may be used as an address value to the actual data on the optical disk in which the target image data is stored.

In this case, displaying the image data of each page can be similarly achieved by obtaining the image data from the optical disk using the address value of the actual data. In addition, there is no particular restriction as long as the information allows the logical page number to be associated with the location where the actual image data exists (address on the optical disk).

In addition, in this embodiment, in order to obtain a logical page number, the operator is required to set the area in which character recognition is to be performed only once at the beginning of registration. This is based on the premise that all logical page numbers are written in the same area; for example, it is easily possible to set multiple areas or to set them individually for each page.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, character recognition technology was applied as a means to obtain the logical page number, but any method may be used as long as it can obtain a numerical value that can be processed as a logical page number from each page.
For example, it may be possible to read symbols or barcodes representing logical page numbers from each image data, or it may be possible to input keys by an operator for each page.

Also, create a separate logical page physical page correspondence table as a registration processing description file before registration, and merge this with the physical data section and title data section at the time of registration.
It is also conceivable to store the data on an optical disk.

Further, it is not necessary to set the logical page number at the time of registering the document, and it is conceivable to create a logical page physical page correspondence table after registration and set it in the database section at the time of search display. By allowing the correspondence table to be changed arbitrarily in this way, it becomes possible to flexibly set the order in which each page of a registered document is displayed. For example, if there are multiple operators who want to view one document, you can set a different logical page/physical page correspondence table for each operator.
It becomes possible to determine the display order of the image data of each page based on the way each operator views the document, and the processing time required for document retrieval is dramatically improved.

Furthermore, if you use similar means to prevent physical page numbers from corresponding to logical page numbers within a certain range,
When a document is displayed based on logical page numbers, any part of the registered document can be made invisible to the operator, and the present invention is also effective in terms of security in information management.

It goes without saying that various other modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the invention.

[Effects of the Invention] As detailed above, according to the present invention, a document can be registered without changing the input order of image information, and each image information forming the document can be registered in the actual document. It is possible to provide an electronic filing device that can display pages in the same order and improve the overall efficiency of registration work.

[BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS] The drawings show one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a flowchart shown to explain the flow of processing related to registration operation, and FIG. 2 shows an example of the format of the registration window. 3 is a flowchart shown to explain the flow of processing related to the search display operation, FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the format of the search window, FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of the format of the document display window, and FIG. Fig. 6 is a diagram showing an example of the format of search/display data for each document, Fig. 7 is a block diagram of an electronic filing device schematically showing the overall configuration, Fig. 8 is a diagram showing the concept related to document management, and Fig. 9 The figure shows an example of a software system. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10... Memory module, 11... Control module, 12... CPU, 12a... Image code conversion circuit, 12b... Code image conversion circuit, 1
3... Main memory, 14... Page memory, 19
...Optical disk, 20...Scanner, 22...Optical disk device, 23...Keyboard, 24...CR
T display, 27.28...magnetic disk device,
27a... Magnetic disk, 28a... Floppy disk, 29... Mouse, 51... Filing processing section, 52... Database section, 53... Document data display section, 54... Document data Management section, 55... Document data input/output section, 56... Code/image conversion section, 57... Image/code conversion section, 91... Physical data section, 92... Title data section, 93...
Logical page physical page correspondence table, 311... Search section, 312... Registration section, 313... Deletion section, 314
... Correction department, 315... Maintenance department. Applicant's representative Patent attorney Takehiko Suzue-46= No. 8 (One side of light skin screen)

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) An input means for inputting image data; a generation means for generating search order information from the image data input by the input means; and a generation means for generating search order information generated by the generation means by inputting the search order information by the input means. 1. An electronic filing device comprising: storage means for storing image data in addition to the image data. (2) an input means for inputting image data; a generation means for generating search order information from the image data input by the input means; and a generation means for generating search order information generated by the generation means by the input means; a storage means for storing the image data in addition to the image data; a search means for searching the image data stored in the storage means according to the search order information; and a search means for searching the image data searched by the search means according to the search order information. An electronic filing device characterized by comprising display means for sequentially displaying information.