JPH05274397A - System and device for picture processing - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make an effective use of the picture processor having both scanner and printer connected to a communication network. CONSTITUTION:A server 102 is connected to a network through an Ethernet port 219, and connected to a copying device 103 through video interface ports 221 and 222. The server 102 can perform character recognition, encoding, PDL processing, and translation for the picture data read by the copying device 103 or obtained from a network by means of a character recognition circuit 210, picture encoding/decoding circuit 211, PDL interpreter circuit 212, and translation circuit 213. The data performing various processings can be sent to the network or printed by the copying device 103.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image processing system in which a scanner / printer in which an image scanner and a printer are integrated is connected to a network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, networking has advanced,
Large-scale networking is now being carried out around the entire intelligent building and the like. Furthermore, a nationwide network in which a LAN is directly connected to a public line such as WAN (Wide Area Network) and an advanced information network such as ISDN are being developed.

Therefore, it is becoming possible to use a computer on a floor or a building different from the place where the user is, or a host computer from Tokyo to Osaka. As a result, the printer server can be used not only in a relatively narrow range as in the past, but also in a very wide area.

Conventionally, in order to share a printer as a network resource on such a network, it has been realized to connect the printer to the network via a printer server. However, I never shared a scanner to read images.

[0005]

When inputting using a scanner, all input data are treated as bitmap data. Therefore, when the scanner is used as a shared resource on the network, the scanned data goes through the network as image data, which not only reduces the network efficiency due to the amount of data but also manages the network files. A lot of memory area was required even when it was handled by the file server. Also,
Since it is bitmap data, even if the read original is a document, it is not possible to perform operations such as editing as a document.

Therefore, even if a scanner-printer including a scanner and a printer is connected to a network, the image data read by the scanner must be appropriately processed.
There is a problem that the scanner cannot be effectively used as a shared resource of the network. Further, when printing with a printer, there is a similar problem if the processing performed on the scanner side cannot be inversely converted.

The present invention has been made in view of the above conventional example, and an object of the present invention is to provide an image processing system which can effectively use a scanner printer by using various image processing services.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, the image processing system of the present invention has the following configuration.

An image processing system connected to a communication network, comprising image reading means for reading an image,
An image input / output device including a printing unit that prints out an image, a unit that captures image data, a unit that outputs the read image as image data, and a capture that captures image data from the image input / output unit Means, a sending means for sending image data to the image input / output device, a character recognizing means for recognizing characters of the image data and converting them into character codes, and a communication means for performing communication via a communication network,
And a server device including a recognition unit that recognizes an instruction received by the communication unit.

Alternatively, in the image processing apparatus connected to the communication network, the image reading means for reading the image, the printing means for printing out the image, and the character recognizing means for recognizing the characters of the image data and converting them into character codes. And communication means for communicating via a communication network, and recognition means for recognizing an instruction received by the communication means.

[0011]

With the above configuration, the server device can recognize the character code of the image data read by the image input / output device to obtain the character code based on the instruction from the communication network, and send the character code to the communication network. it can. Further, the character code from the communication network can be printed out by the image input / output device.

[0012]

【Example】

[Embodiment 1] As a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a network in which a copying machine, which is a scanner printer including a scanner and a printer, is connected as a resource will be described.

FIGS. 1 and 2 show a part of the network of the embodiment. <Structure of Network and Copier (FIG. 1)> FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a network system of the present embodiment. A host computer 101 and a copying machine 103 are connected to a network 104 via a scanner / printer server 102. The host computer 101 executes a client process 105 for controlling the copying machine 103. Further, in the scanner printer server 102,
Under the control of the client process 105, the copying machine 1
The server process 106 controlling 03 is executed. The client process 105 communicates with the server process 106 via a network medium (hereinafter referred to as Ethernet as an example) 104, and the copying machine 1
The image is read from the scanner side of 03, and the image is printed on the printer side. Further, copying in the copying machine 103 is also possible. Needless to say, the copying machine 103 has therein a scanner for reading an image and a printer for printing, and as described later (FIG. 3), the scanner and the printer can be used as independent input / output devices. Further, it is possible to use only the functions provided inside without using the scanner / printer.

Scanner printer server 102 and copying machine 1
03 and SPCOM as control and data signals
(Scanner printer serial command signal) 107, C
LOCK (clock signal) 108, VSYNC (vertical synchronization signal) 109, HSYNC (horizontal synchronization signal) 110,
There is DATA (image data signal) 111. These signals are collectively a video I / F signal (abbreviated as video I / F)
Call. When the copier 103 is used as a scanner for reading image data, when the image data sent as a printer is printed out, or when the image read by the scanner as a copier is output by the printer,
There is a case where it is used as a server without input / output, but these are properly used based on an instruction given by the SPCOM signal 107, and the video I / F signal is used for input / output of image data and a synchronization signal.

<Configuration of Scanner Printer Server (FIG. 2)
> FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the scanner printer server 102. Each block in the figure will be described with reference to the figure.

[Communication between server / client] When the scanner / printer server 102 is started, the CPU 201 executes P
The program of the ROM 202 is activated to execute the server process 106 using the RAM 203 as a temporary storage location.
At this time, the Ethernet controller 206 connects to the Ethernet 104 via the Ethernet port,
Client process 10 of host computer 101
Can communicate with 5.

[Communication between server / copier] The scanner / printer server 102 and the copier 103 are CLOCK10.
8, data is exchanged by a video I / F signal such as DATA111. Data exchange by video I / F signal is a completely synchronous type, and when starting or pausing or changing parameters on the copying machine 103 side, S
It is performed by a PCOM (scanner printer command) signal 107.

The sub CPU 214 is a dedicated CPU that constantly monitors the SPCOM signal 107 between the copying machine 103 and the server 102. The CPU 214 is in constant communication with the copying machine 103, and manages blocks of image data and receives errors.

The serial interface 215 serially communicates commands between the scanner / printer server 102 and the copying machine 103 via the video I / F command port 221.

Video I / F signal control circuit 216
Is a circuit for controlling the input / output of the synchronization signal shown in FIGS. 11 and 12, the input of the image data output from the scanner side in synchronization therewith, and the output of the image data sent to the printer side. The input / output signal controlled there is the video I / F signal described above.
Input / output is performed via the data port 222.

The dual port RAM 208 includes a CPU 201 for managing the server process 106 and the copying machine 103.
The communication with the sub CPU 214 that manages the interface with the sub CPU 214 is performed by sharing the memory and controlling the interrupt. The sub CPU 214 constantly communicates with the copying machine 103. However, the main CPU 201 only operates when necessary.
Interrupt 214, dual port RAM 208
Pass data through. On the contrary, the sub CPU
When the 214 wants to inform the main CPU 201 of scan end, print end, or error information, the main CPU 2 is sent through the dual port RAM 208.
Interrupt 01 to exchange data.

Scanner printer server 102 and copying machine 1
As a command exchanged with the printer 03, a prescan command, a scan command, etc. are sent from the scanner printer server 102 to the scanner side of the copying machine 103. Further, the scanner side of the copying machine 103 sends status information such as a copy command and operation abnormality.

Similarly, a print command or the like is sent from the scanner printer server 102 to the printer side of the copying machine 103. Also, the printer side of the copier 103 runs out of paper,
Status information such as paper jams and malfunctions are sent.

[Buffer Memory] The image data is temporarily stored in the buffer memory 209 which can store several lines. The buffer memory 209 is accessible from the CPU 201, and character recognition, encoding, and decoding of image data are performed by reading the data from the buffer memory 209.

[Character Recognition Circuit] The character recognition circuit 210 is
A process of converting character image data into character code data is performed.

The conversion procedure performed here is as follows: (1) Extraction of characters The CPU 201 detects the breaks of pixels in the vertical and horizontal directions of the data in the buffer memory 209 to detect character divisions. is there. Actually, a certain threshold value process is applied to the touch image data (halftone image) read by the scanner 103 to determine the presence or absence of pixels. For example, if the character image data is "Today is blue sky", the characters are cut out and the "book", "day",
Cut out into the character sections "ha", ",", "clear", "heaven", "na", and "ri".

(2) Transfer for Each Character Section The CPU 201 reads the image data of the character section from the buffer memory 209 and sends it to the character recognition circuit 210.

(3) Feature Extraction of Character Section The extracted character section is further divided into blocks, and it is detected in which direction the pixel sequence is directed to the left, right, up, down, or diagonal.

(4) Similarity calculation Based on the feature extraction information in the fine blocks of the feature extraction (3), characters having a high feature similarity are extracted from the dictionary. The detailed block diagram is shown in FIG.

By the above procedure, the read image is recognized as a character.

[Image Encoding / Decoding Circuit] The encoding / decoding circuit 211 encodes the data read from the scanner of the copying machine 103. Also, the encoded image data sent from the Ethernet 105 is decoded. As the encoding method, ADCT (Adactive Discrete
Cosine Trans-form) method. The ADCT coding method is a color still image coding method and has been described with reference to the block diagram of FIG.

[PDL Interpreter] The PDL interpreter 212 is a PDL (Page Description Language) that describes print commands to the printer.
Is translated, the image is developed in the buffer memory 209 by a bit map or a byte map, and is printed by the printer side of the copying machine 103. A block diagram of the PDL interpreter 212 is shown in FIG. 9 described later.

[Automatic Translation Circuit] The characters coded by the character recognition circuit 210 are grouped into clauses to form one sentence. The automatic translation circuit 213 receives the one sentence as data and translates it into the language specified by the host computer. For example, the language read by the scanner and recognized is Japanese, and it is translated into English.

The translation procedure is as follows: (1) Morphological analysis The words in one sentence are separated.

For example, in the case of "I go to my friend's house today,""I","wa","today","friend","no","home","ni" , "Play", "To",
It is divided into "go" and ".".

(2) Interpolation analysis Modifiers are detected from the words subjected to morphological analysis.

For example, a word that specifically modifies "house" is detected as "friend" → "no" → "house".

(3) Semantic analysis The consistency is checked from the context of the sentence.

(4) Replacement Rule Analysis In the case of Japanese to English, it is converted into an English rule. In Japanese, the subject is first or first and the predicate is last, but in English, there are certain rules. Perform that conversion.

For example, rearranging "I go to my friend's house to play" in English word order, "I am""go"
It becomes like "to play,""to,""house of friends." This is also the case between English and Japanese, or other two languages, if the rules are replaced.

(5) Translation Based on the replacement rule, translation such as Japanese-English conversion and English-Japanese conversion is performed.

By the above procedure, one language can be translated into another language.

The automatic translation circuit 213 may be in the server 102 or in the host computer.
Here, the case of having the server 102 is shown.

[Various Hard Blocks] In order to realize the functions of the blocks described above, or to realize the functions not particularly described in detail, there are the following blocks.

CPU 201: Executes a server program stored in the PROM 202 to deliver image data, control the scanner printer server 102, and manage the copying machine 103.

PROM 202: Stores a server program and the like.

RAM 203: Used as a working memory of the CPU 201, temporary storage of image data, and the like.

Serial I / F 204: Used for connecting to a terminal through the serial I / F port 217 or connecting to a serial printer.

Parallel I / F 205: Centronics I / F, GPI via parallel I / F port 218
This parallel I / F port 2 is connected to a parallel input / output scanner or printer composed of B, SISI, etc.
Input / output of image data is also performed from 18.

Communication control device 207: Data which is character coded by character recognition from character image data is digital public line or IS via public line I / F 220.
It connects to DN and controls transfer or reception. However, although the communication control device 207 may be provided in the host computer, the communication control device 207 is provided in the server 102 here.

<Configuration of Copying Machine (FIGS. 3, 4, and 5)> FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of the copying machine 103. CPU 306 is memory 3
The program stored in 05 is executed to control each block that is a component. In this configuration, the copying machine 10
The operation of each part when the scanner side and the printer side operate independently of the operation No. 3 will be described. In the figure, 301 is a reading sensor, 302 is a scanner side image processing circuit,
Reference numeral 303 is a printer-side image processing circuit, 304 is a printer engine, 305 is a main memory, 306 is a scanner printer control CPU, and 309 is a scanner printer internal image data bus. Further, the sensor unit 301 and the image processing circuit 302 are integrated into a scanner unit 310, and the printer engine 304 and the image processing circuit 303 are integrated into a printer unit 3.
It is called 11. Further, in the following description, the scanner unit 310 or the printer unit 311 may include the control of the scanner or the printer by the CPU 306, the timing control circuit 308, or the like.

[Scanner Operation] The operation for scanning an image will be described with reference to FIG. The serial interface 307 receives a scan command from the scanner / printer server 102 and sends it to the CPU 306.

Next, the CPU 306 determines the image size to be read, the scan start position of the image, etc. based on the received scan command.

The CPU 306 controls the reading unit 301 to control the scanner driving circuit in the reading unit 301,
Similarly, from the image reading sensor in the reading unit 301,
As shown in FIG. 11, the image is read out for each pixel column. The read image data is subjected to necessary image processing by the scanner-side image processing circuit 302. After that, the timing control circuit 308 controls the image data obtained from the image data bus 309 at the timing shown in FIG. 12 as CLOCK (clock signal) 108 and VSYNC (vertical synchronization progress) 10 which are synchronization signals.
9, HSYNC (horizontal synchronization signal) 110, and image data DATA (image data signal) 111 synchronized with this
Output as. The timing chart of FIG. 12 is an example showing reading of data for one page.

The scanner printer server 102 receives a signal HSYNC (horizontal synchronization signal) input from the copying machine 103.
110, VSYNC (vertical synchronization signal) 109, CLOC
The image data 111 is synchronized with the K (clock signal) 108.
Read. In the scanner printer server 102, the video I / F control circuit 216 receives the image data and stores it in the buffer memory 209.

[Printer Operation] The operation for printing an image will be described with reference to FIG.

The serial interface 307 receives a print command from the scanner / printer server 102 and sends it to the CPU 306. Next, the scanner printer C
The PU 306 determines the image size, the print start position of the image, and the like according to the print command.

The CPU 306 has a printer engine 304.
Is controlled to record an image for each pixel column as shown in FIG. At this time, as in the case of reading, as shown in FIG.
The timing control circuit 308 includes a synchronization signal CLOCK (clock signal) 108 and a VSYNC (vertical synchronization signal) 10.
9, HSYNC (horizontal synchronizing signal) 110 and image data 111 synchronized with this are received from the server 102, and after the necessary processing is performed by the printer side image processing circuit 303,
Output by the printer engine 304.

[Command Operation] The serial interface 307 communicates commands between the server 102 and the copying machine 103 by serial transmission using SPCOM (scanner printer serial command signal) 107. This data is from the scanner printer server 102 to the copying machine 103.
For the scanner function of, a prescan command, a scan command, etc. are sent. Further, the copying machine 103 sends a copy command and status information such as an abnormal operation.

Similarly, a print command or the like is sent from the scanner printer server 102 for the printer function of the copying machine 103. In addition, the copy machine 103 runs out of paper,
Status information such as paper jams and malfunctions are sent.

[Image Processing on Scanner Side] FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the image processing circuit 302 on the scanner side. In FIG. 4, the image processing circuit 302 includes a shading correction unit 401, a resolution conversion unit 402, a scanner color conversion unit 403, a scanner gamma conversion unit 404, and a level conversion unit 405, which are connected to a bus (not shown). And CPU
The parameters can be changed from 306.

An RGB color image is read by the reading unit 301, and the data is input to the image processing unit 302.

In the image processing unit 302, shading correction 401 is first performed on the input image data, and then the resolution conversion unit 402 converts the image reading resolution. This resolution is 400 dpi (dot per
inch), 200 dpi, 100 dpi, etc. This resolution is designated by the CPU 306.

The scanner color conversion section 403 carries out color conversion of the image. For example, here, RGB color data is Y
It is converted into a color space such as CrCb or converted into Lab. Of course, in the case of passing through, it remains RGB. When reading in monochrome, black-and-white conversion is performed based on the correlation of RGB data. The CPU 306 designates the scanner color conversion.

The scanner gamma conversion unit 404 performs gamma conversion on the image data such as YCrCb after color conversion by a LUT (lookup table). This L
The CPU 306 designates the UT. Level conversion unit 40
In 5, the effective bit number of one pixel is converted. For example, the lower bits of the 8-bit / color / pixel YCrCb data after gamma conversion are truncated, and Y is set to 6 bits, and Cr and C are used.
Processing for converting the dynamic range into 4 bits for each b is performed. This level is designated by the CPU 306
Will do.

[Image Processing on Printer Side] FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the image processing circuit section 303 on the printer side. The image data input to the image processing circuit unit 303 is processed as follows.

The printer color conversion unit 501 converts the RGB of the image.
Color conversion to. Here, when an image is input in a color space such as YCrCb, it is converted into RGB.

The printer gamma conversion unit 502 performs gamma conversion on the input image. That is, a conversion of R '= f (R) G' = f (G) B '= f (B) is performed. This conversion is performed by an LUT (lookup table). This LUT is set by the CPU 306
Will do.

The masking conversion unit 503 performs masking conversion on the input image. Where the masking transformation is

[0070]

[Equation 1] Linear transformation of, or

[0071]

[Equation 2] It is obtained by the secondary conversion of

This conversion is performed using the LUT or the gate array. The CPU 306 sets the parameters of the LUT or the gate array.

In the black generation / undercolor removal unit 504, C = 255-R ″ M = 255-G ″ Y = 255-B ″ Bk = α (min (C, Y, M)) (Equation 3) C As shown by '= C-Bk M' = M-Bk Y '= Y-Bk, RGB data is converted into CMK, and black (Bk) generation and undercolor removal are performed from this data. (Look-up table) or gate array The CPU 306 sets the parameters of this LUT or gate array.

In the binarizing unit 505, the printer engine 3
If 04 is a binary printer, the image is binarized. As the binarization method, a simple binarization method, a dither method, an error diffusion method, and three types are switched and used. Printer engine 30
If 4 is a multi-valued printer, the binarization unit 505 is not necessary. The binarization process is performed by the gate array. The CPU 306 sets the binarization method, the binarization threshold value, and the like.

The above is the configuration of the copying machine 103. next,
The components of the scanner printer server 102 will be described in detail.

<Explanation of Character Recognition (FIGS. 6 and 7)> FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an internal block diagram of the character recognition circuit, and FIG. 7 is a diagram showing character cutting and feature extraction for character recognition. .. In FIG. 6, reference numeral 601 denotes a character recognition control DSP (Dig
ital Signal Processor), 602 is dual port RA
M and 603 are feature extraction circuits, 604 is an identification circuit (dictionary), and 605 is a local bus (for character recognition).

The character recognition procedure is described in the above [Character recognition circuit].
This is as described in the above section, which will be described with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7. .

As shown in FIG. 7A, the character segmentation is
This is a process of detecting character gaps in the character image data stored in the buffer memory 209 in the vertical and horizontal directions and cutting out a character block. The cut-out character block is written in the dual port RAM 602 by the main CPU 201, the DSP 601 reads out the image data of the character block, and puts it in the feature extraction circuit 603. Feature extraction circuit 603
As shown in FIG. 7B, the character image data is finely divided into blocks, and the direction of the line in the block is detected.
Extract character features. Although FIG. 7 shows nine blocks surrounded by an ellipse, the blocks are actually divided into smaller blocks, for example, 64 blocks or more.

The result of feature extraction is sent to the discrimination circuit 604, and a character similar to the extracted feature is selected.
At this time, some similar characters are selected and all the character codes are written in the dual port RAM 602.
From the candidate characters, the main CPU 201 detects the corresponding characters based on the context of the characters. The character is recognized by the above.

[Image Encoding / Decoding (FIG. 8)] FIG. 8 is a diagram showing internal functional blocks of the image encoding / decoding circuit 211. This block diagram is for performing ADCT encoding, and is a method for compressing an RGB multi-valued (8-bit for each color) image.

In this ADCT method, an R (Red) component input unit 801, a G (Green) component input unit 802, and B are used.
When RGB signals are input from the (Blue) component input unit 803, the color conversion unit 804 converts the signals into Y, Cr, and Cb (luminance and chrominance components). The converted signal is extracted for each component into a Y (luminance) component input unit 805, a Cr (chrominance) component input unit 806, and a Cb (chrominance) component input unit 807, from which the signal of each component is extracted. , 8 × 8 DCT (Discrete Cosine T
ransform) input to the processing unit 808. DCT processing unit 8
In 08, each signal is transformed by a two-dimensional discrete cosine transform (DCT) for each 8 × 8 block.

The signal after the DCT is subjected to linear quantization of its transform coefficient by the linear quantizer 809, and then the alternating current (A
The AC component is divided into a C) component and a direct current (DC) component, and the AC component is subjected to a zigzag operation in a zigzag operation / image data input unit 812 and then two-dimensional Huffman encoded by a two-dimensional Huffman encoding unit 813. On the other hand, the direct current (DC) component is subjected to one-dimensional prediction by the one-dimensional prediction unit 810, and then Huffman coding is performed by the Huffman coding unit 811. These two code amounts are multiplexed by the multiplexing unit 814 to form a compressed image.

The decompression method can be obtained by expanding the ADCT coding block diagram of FIG. 8 in the opposite direction, that is, from the multiplexing unit 814 side.

Further, here, the color conversion unit 804 converts RGB data into YCrCb, and the scanner unit shown in FIG.
It is unnecessary if the scanner color conversion unit 403 shown in (4) is provided with a function, and the through mode may be set. Further, FIG. 8 shows encoding / coding of color multi-value image data.
Although it is a decoding method, other methods are also conceivable. For example, MH, MR, MMR and L used in FAX
Systems such as ZW (Lempel-Ziv & Welch) can also be configured.

<PDL Interpreter (FIG. 9)> FIG.
It is a circuit block diagram for implement | achieving a DL interpreter.

The PDL (Page Description Language) is sent from the host computer 101 to the scanner printer server 102 through the network. In the server 102, the PDL that has been temporarily stored in the main memory 203 through the Ethernet controller 206 is read by the PDL interpreter circuit 212, interpreted, and developed as an image. PD
The CPU 901 of the L interpreter is the circuit. R
AM902 is a work memory at that time, ROM903
Is a ROM for storing a program executed by the CPU 901.

The result of bit expansion of the CPU 901 is written in the buffer memory 209 through the main CPU bus 223. Then, after that, it is sent to the printer of the copying machine 103 as image data and printed.

<Description of Automatic Translation (FIG. 10)> FIG. 10 is a circuit configuration diagram for realizing an automatic translation circuit 213 for performing Japanese-English / English-Japanese translation.

The character-coded characters are written in a dual port RAM 1007 which is connected to the main CPU bus 223 and the local bus 1008 and is accessible from both as a group for each clause. Translation circuit 21
On the third side, the CPU 1001 reads out the phrase and performs a morphological analysis. The words of each sentence are based on the registered words in the word dictionary ROM 1004. Next, after performing a hooking analysis, a semantic analysis is performed. Also at this time, the word dictionary ROM 10
Based on 04. Next, the words in the sentence are rearranged by the replacement rule analysis based on the replacement rule dictionary 1005. After rearranging sentences, English / Japanese
Based on the Japanese-English dictionary 1006, a Japanese-to-English translation or an English-to-Japanese translation is performed, written again in the dual port RAM, and read out by the main CPU 201. The ROM 1003 is a CP for realizing the above processing.
Stores programs executed by U1001.
The RAM 1002 is a memory used at that time.

<Operation of Scanner / Printer> Next, the operation of the character recognition scanner / printer server 102 of the present embodiment having the above configuration will be described. In the description, the arrows represent sequential operations.

[Scanner] (1) Prescan → Read instruction by the client process 105 on the host computer side.

→ Reception of an instruction by the scanner printer server side server process 106.

→ An image is read by the scanner section 310 of the copying machine 103.

→ The server 102 buffers the read image data in the memory 209.

→ The thinned data or the compressed image data is transferred to the host computer 101 through the network 104.

→ The host computer side client process 105 displays the thinned data or the data obtained by expanding the compressed image data on a monitor (not shown).

As described above, the image read by the copying machine 103 is received by the host 101. (2) Character recognition scan → For the image data obtained in prescan (1),
A character area is designated and an image reading instruction is given again from the client process 105.

-> A reading instruction is accepted by the scanner printer server side server process 106.

→ Read the area designated by the scanner unit 310 of the copying machine 103.

→ The server 102 buffers the read image data in the memory 209.

→ Character extraction is performed on the character area of the buffered image data.

→ The character recognition circuit 210 encodes characters.

→ The character code is stored in the memory 203.

→ The character code is transferred to the host computer 101 via the network 104.

As described above, the image is read by the copying machine 103,
It is recognized as a character and received by the host 101.

The following processing may be added to the character recognition scanning operation.

When extracting a character from the buffered character image, the character color or background color is detected, and the character of the designated color or a color other than the designated color is recognized, and the character code is transferred to the host computer. To do.

The position of a character is detected by extracting the character from the buffered character image, the position of the character is added to the character code, and the character code is transferred to the host computer 101.

The position of the character is detected by cutting out the character from the buffered character image, and the obtained character code and position information are converted into a page description language form and transferred to the host computer 101.

After detecting the font type and size of the character code for which the character has been recognized, the font type and size are changed according to an instruction from the host computer 101 in advance.

The read character image is held in the server 102 in the form of page description language, and the image data is again combined with the image data (natural image etc.) obtained by scanning and transferred to the host computer 101.

The read character image is held in the server 102 in the form of page description language, and the image data obtained by scanning the image data again is compressed and synthesized, and transferred to the host computer 101.

The above operation can also be performed. on the other hand,
The printer of the copying machine 103 operates as follows.

[Printer] (3) Print → Transfer print data from the host computer side client process 105 to the server 102.

→ Scanner The printer server side server process 106 accepts print data.

→ If the print data is in the form of page description language, the PDL interpreter 212 performs bit expansion.

If the print data is compressed image data,
The encoding / decoding circuit 211 performs bit expansion.

If the print data is character code data, character bit expansion is performed.

If the print data is bit data, it is left as it is and no particular processing is performed.

→ The bit data is accumulated in the buffer 209 in the server 102.

→ The data in the buffer memory 209 is sent to the copying machine 103 and printed by the printer unit 311.

When the character recognition function in the scanner / printer server 102 is used and the client is used as the character recognition server, the following operation is performed. (4) Character recognition server → Transfers character image data from the host computer side client process 105 to the server 102.

→ The scanner printer server side server process 106 accepts character image data.

→ If the character image data is compressed image data, the encoding / decoding circuit 211 performs bit expansion.
If the character image data is bit data, no particular processing is performed as it is.

→ The character image data is stored in the buffer memory 209.
Accumulate temporarily in.

→ Character extraction is performed on the buffered character image data.

The character recognition circuit 210 encodes character image data.

→ The character code is stored in the memory 203.

→ The character code is transferred again to the host computer 101 through the network 104.

With the above operation, it functions as a character recognition server that processes the data given from the host 101 and returns it to the host.

Further, the following procedure can be added as the operation of the character recognition server.

At the time of extracting the character from the buffered character image, the character color or background color is detected, the character of the designated color or the color other than the designated color is recognized, the character code is formed, and the character code is transferred to the host computer 101. The character position of the buffered character image is detected, the position of the character is added to the character code, and the character code is transferred to the host computer 101. The character position of the character image is detected by the character cutting of the buffered character image. The obtained character code and position information are converted into a page description language form and transferred to the host computer 101. Further, the copying machine 103 is used as a character recognition copy by using the character recognition function in the scanner printer server 102. The operation when used is as follows. (5) Character recognition copy → A character original is read by the scanner unit 310.

→ The server 102 stores the image data in the memory 20.
Buffering to 9.

→ The character recognition circuit 210 encodes the buffered character image. At the same time, identify the font type and size.

The character code, font type and size are stored in the memory 203.

→ The font and size of the character code are changed to those designated by the host computer 101 in advance.

→ Perform bit expansion of character code data.

→ The bit data is accumulated in the buffer 209 in the server 102.

→ The data in the buffer memory 209 is sent to the printer unit 311 of the copying machine 103 and printed.

The following operation is performed when used as a character recognition / automatic translation server that automatically translates a character string and a sentence that are character coded by character recognition. (6) Character recognition / automatic translation server-> A character area is designated for the image data obtained in the prescan (1), and the client process 105 instructs the server 102 to read an image again.

→ Received by the scanner printer server side server process 106.

→ The designated area is read by the scanner section 310 of the copying machine 103.

→ The server 102 stores the image data in the memory 2
Buffering to 09.

→ Character extraction is performed on the buffered character image data.

The character recognition circuit 210 encodes characters.

→ The character code is stored in the memory 203.

→ The character code is transferred to the host computer 101 via the network 104.

→ The client process 105 receives the character code and automatically translates it based on the character string and the preceding and following sentences.

For example, translation is performed from English to Japanese, from Japanese to English, or other two languages.

The above is an example in which the automatic translation is performed by the host computer, but the automatic translation circuit 213 in the server 102 is
In some cases, the translated character code may be sent to the host computer 101 through the network 104 after being translated using the translation function using.

The operation when used as a character recognition / teletext communication server for transmitting or receiving a character-recognized and character-coded document using a public line is as follows. (7) Character recognition / teletext communication server transmission → Character area is designated for the image data obtained in the prescan (1), and the client process 105 instructs the server 102 to read the image again.

→ Received by the scanner printer server side server process 106.

→ The specified area is read by the scanner section 310 of the copying machine 103.

→ The server 102 stores the image data in the memory 2
Buffering to 09: Character extraction is performed on the buffered character image data.

The character recognition circuit 210 encodes character image data.

→ The character code is stored in the memory 203.

→ The character code is transferred to the host computer 101 via the network 104.

→ The client process 105 receives the character code and transfers it to the other side through a public line connected to the host computer 101, for example, a digital public line or ISDN. Reception → The data transferred from the sender is received by the host computer 101 and transferred to the scanner / printer server 102 through the network 104.

→ Data is received by the server process 106 on the scanner printer server side.

→ If the received data is in the page description language, the PDL interpreter 212 performs bit expansion.

If the data is compressed image data, the image encoding / decoding circuit 211 performs bit expansion.

If the data is character code data, character bit expansion is performed.

If the data is bit data, no particular processing is performed as it is.

→ The bit data is accumulated in the buffer 209 in the server 102.

→ The data in the buffer memory 209 is sent to the copying machine 103 and printed by the printer unit 311.

In the above-mentioned transmission and reception, an example in which the public line function is performed by the host computer is shown. However, the server 102 is connected to the public line with the communication control device 207 having the public line connection function, and the character image data is used. The converted character code may be sent to the other party via the public line. On the contrary, the server 102 receives the data transferred from the public line by the communication control device 207, and the copier 1
It is also possible to print from the printer unit 311 of 03.

<Explanation of Image Input / Output Procedure> Next, the image input / output of the scanner / printer server 102 of the present embodiment will be described with reference to the zigzag chart while following the exchange of messages.

When an image is read from the copying machine 103, the size of the image, the position of the image, the resolution, the format (dot sequential, line sequential, plane sequential), edge enhancement, color space (R
GB or YCrCb), color (which color to send, for example only G), level (number of color gradations), encoding method (ADCT or not encoding, etc.), bit rate (bit rate at the time of encoding), It is necessary to specify parameters such as pre-scan thinning rate, which file to read, character recognition setting (whether to do it, color specification, page description verbalization, etc.).

Therefore, the client process 105
The user is instructed to specify these parameters via a user interface such as a display. In response to this, the user designates and instructs the host computer 101 to execute the prescan. Then, the client process 105 communicates with the server process 106 according to the sequence of FIG.

Before describing FIG. 13, the commands exchanged between processes and the commands to the copying machine will be described with reference to FIGS. 16 and 17.

<Packet Structure (FIGS. 16 and 17)> Host computer 101 and scanner printer server 102
The structure of the packet exchanged with the will be described with reference to the drawings. However, the explanation centered on what appeared in the zigzag chart described later.

FIG. 16 shows the structure of a packet. Each field that constitutes a packet will be described.

FIG. 16A shows a PRESCAN packet,
16B is a SCAN packet, and FIG. 16C is a PR.
It is an INT packet, and the first byte of each packet is a tag that indicates what the packet is. For example, P
If it is RESCAN, it indicates that pre-scan is performed by "1", and if it is SCAN, it indicates that scanning is performed by "2".

XSIZE 161 indicates the size in the X direction of a 2-byte image.

YSIZE 162 indicates the size of an image composed of 2 bytes in the Y direction.

XSTART 163 indicates the scanning / printing start position of the 2-byte image in the X direction.

YSTART 164 indicates the Y-direction scanning / printing start position of the 2-byte image.

XZOOM 165 indicates the scan and print resolution in the X direction of an image consisting of 1 byte.

YZOOM 166 indicates the scanning and printing resolution in the Y direction of an image consisting of 1 byte.

The FORMAT 167 indicates the scanning method of the image, and is designated as 1 for dot sequential, 2 for line sequential, and 3 for area sequential.

EDGE / SMOOTH 168 indicates the degree of edge enhancement and smoothing, 16 to 1 designate edge enhancement, and -1 to -16 designate smoothing.

COLORTYPE 169 indicates the color space of the image, and is specified as 1 for RGB, 2 for GMY, 3 for CMYK, 4 for YCrCb, 5 for Lab, and 6 for XYZ. In the case of RGB, the first color is R,
The second color is called G, the third color is called B, and in the case of YCrCb, the first color is called Y, the second color is called Cr, and the third color is called Cb.

COLOR 170 indicates which color of the image colors is to be sent. Which color is assigned corresponding to the bit. For example, for the first color only, the 0th bit,
The first bit is set to 1 for the second color, the second bit is set to only the third color, and the third bit is set to 1 for the fourth color.

For example, COLORTYPE 169 is RG
When sending all RGB colors in B, 7 (= 00000111)
B). However, "B" attached to the numeral indicates that it is a binary number.

When sending two colors of R and B, 5 is sent.
(1st color = 1, 3rd color = 4; 00000101B). Similarly, when COLORTYPE is YCrCb and only Y is sent, it becomes 1.

LEVEL 171 consists of 2 bytes,
The first 4 bits indicate the gradation number of the first color, the next 4 bits indicate the gradation number of the second color, and the next 4 bits indicate the gradation number of the third color. The last 4 bits are undefined.

The number of gradations represented by these bits is designated by an index of 2, such as 256 gradations for 8 and 4 gradations for 6.

CODE 172 indicates a coding method, which is 0 when not coded and 1 when coded by ADCT.
Specify 2 for MMR and 3 for LZW.

BITRATE 173 indicates a coding rate of coding, 6 indicates 1/6, and 12 indicates coding at a compression rate of 1/12.

XSTEP 174 and YSTEP 175 are
Specify how much images are thinned out and sent during prescan. For example, when sending an image every 5 pixels vertically and horizontally,
XSTEP = 5 and YSTEP = 5. When thinning is not performed, XSTEP = 0 and YSTEP = 0.

OCR 176 indicates whether character recognition is performed or not. Set 1 when character recognition is performed on the data in the scan operation area, and set 0 when character recognition is not performed. Further, 2 is set when the position information is added to the character recognition function, and 3 is set when the page description language is used. Furthermore, when a character of a specified color is detected when recognizing a character, and when recognizing only that character, 4 is set, and CO
Recognize characters of the color specified by LOR170. When character recognition is performed only on the background color area of the designated color, 5 is set and characters written in other colors are recognized on the area designated by COLOR 170. In addition, the relationship between colors and characters can be expanded as an option.

The above is the PRESCAN packet and SCA.
It is a description of each field of N packets. Although common parts with these are omitted, each field of the PRINT packet will be described.

UCR178 indicates α at the time of black generation (see (Equation 3)).

BI-LEVEL 179 indicates a binarization method, and 0 indicates that the binarization is not performed when the printer engine 304 is a multi-value printer. Reference numeral 1 is a fatting pattern of the dither method, 2 is a Bayer pattern of the dither method, 3 is a simple binarization method, and 4 is an error conversion method.

THRESHOLD 180 indicates the binarization threshold value (0 to 255) of the simple binarization method.

PAGE 181 indicates the number of pages at the time of printing.

FIG. 16D shows an OK packet. OK
The packet is only a 1-byte OK tag.

FIG. 16E shows a GAMMA packet, and the S / P 182 of the second byte shows which gamma table of the scanner image processing circuit 302 or the printer image processing circuit 303 of the copying machine 103 is set. .. After that, the gamma table is composed of 768 bytes for 256 * 3 colors.

FIG. 16 (f) is a MASKING packet, which is composed of a masking tag and a masking parameter aij consisting of a fixed point of 2 bytes. aij is i row j
The components of the matrix located in columns.

FIG. 16 (g) shows a STATUS packet.
It is composed of a status tag, the number N183 of statuses, and STATUSn (n = 0 to N) indicating the status.

FIG. 16 (h) shows a DATA packet, which includes a data tag, the number N of the next image data and the image data 1, 2 ,.
3 ... and.

FIG. 16 (i) shows an ESC packet, which is a sequence in which the first byte starts with ESC and is expanded by the interpreter 212 into a bit map or byte map image. This is equivalent to a normal printer ESC sequence.

[Composition of command] The structure of commands such as a prescan command, a scan command, status information, a gamma setting command, and a masking setting command which are exchanged between the server 102 and the copying machine 103 have the same format as in FIG. Communication is carried out.

FIG. 17 shows the structure of commands between the server 102 and the copying machine 103. 17A shows a prescan command, FIG. 17B shows a scan command, and FIG. 17C shows a print command. The first byte of each packet is a tag that describes what that packet is. For example, PRES
If it is a CAN packet, the tag is 1, indicating that pre-scanning is performed. In case of SCAN, 2 indicates scanning.

Next, each field of the packet in each packet of prescan, scan and print will be described.

XSIZE and YSIZE are 2 bytes and indicate the size of the image in the X direction and the size of the image in the Y direction, respectively.

XSTART and YSTART are 2 bytes, and indicate the X-direction scan and print start position of the image and the Y-direction scan and print start position of the image, respectively.

XZOOM and YZOOM are 1 byte and indicate the X-direction scan and print resolution of the image and the Y-direction scan and print resolution of the image, respectively.

FORMAT indicates a scanning method of an image,
Specify 1 for dot sequential, 2 for line sequential, and 3 for frame sequential.

EDGE indicates the degree of edge enhancement and smoothing, and 16 to 1 designate edge enhancement, and -1 to -16 designate smoothing.

COLOR TYPE indicates the color space of the image, 1 for RGB, 2 for CMY, 3 for CMYK.
Specify 4 for YCrCb, 5 for Lab, and 6 for XYZ. In the case of RGB, the first color is called R, the second color is called G, and the third color is called B.
In the case of b, the first color is Y, the second color is Cr, and the third color is C.
I will call it b.

COLOR indicates which one of the colors of the image is to be sent. Bits are assigned to which color.
For example, the 0th bit is set for the first color only, the first bit is set for the second color only, the second bit is set for the third color only, and the third bit is set for the fourth color.

For example, when the COLOR TYPE sends RGB in all RGB colors, the 0th, 1st and 2nd bits are set to 1 to be "7" (00000111).

When sending two colors of R and B, "5" (first color = 1, third color = 4: 0000010) is similarly performed.
It becomes 1). Similarly, COLOR TYPE is YCrC
In case of sending only Y in b, it becomes "1".

LEVEL consists of 2 bytes, the first 4 bits indicate the number of gradations of the first color, and the next 4 bits are the second.
The gradation number of the color is shown, and the next 4 bits shows the gradation number of the third color. The last 4 bits are undefined. The value of the LEVEL field is the number of gradations of each color.
If so, it is designated by an index of 2 like 4 gradations.

CODE indicates a coding method, and is designated as 0 when not coded and as 1 when coded by ADCT.

UCR represents α at the time of black generation.

BI-LIVEL indicates a binarization method, and 0
Indicates that the print engine 606 is a multi-value printer and binarization is not performed. Reference numeral 1 is a dithering fatting pattern, 2 is a dithering Bayer pattern, 3 is a simple binarization method, and 4 is an error diffusion method.

THRESHOLD indicates the binarization threshold value (0 to 255) of the simple binarization method.

PAGE indicates the number of pages at the time of printing.

FIG. 17D shows one type of status information.
Indicates OK. OK is a 1-byte OK tag.

FIG. 17E shows a gamma setting command, and the S / P of the second byte indicates which gamma table of the scanner image processing circuit 302 or the printer image processing circuit 303 of the copying machine 103 is to be set. .. After that, the gamma table is composed of 768 bytes for 256 * 3 colors.

FIG. 17 (f) shows a masking setting command, which is composed of a masking tag and a masking parameter consisting of a 2-byte fixed point. The contents have the same meaning as in FIG.

FIG. 17G shows status information, which comprises a status tag, the number N of statuses, and N statuses (STATUS 1 to N).

FIG. 17H shows a copy command, which is a 1-byte copy tag only.

Next, a command sequence for using the copying machine 103 from the client process 105 will be described.

<Explanation of Command Sequence (FIGS. 13 to 1)
5)> [Scanner Side] In FIG. 13, the client process 105 first determines the XSIZE, YSIZE, and XST of the image.
The server process 1 sends a PRESCAN packet P1 including ART, YSTART, XSTEP, YSTEP, etc.
06 (arrow 131). XSIZE, YSIZE and the like are parameters that specify the size of an image to be read.

Since the server process 106 performs image coding and thinning during prescan, PRESC
Upon receiving the AN packet P1, the encoding method, the bit rate at the time of encoding, and the thinning rate are set. Other information is the serial interface 2 as a prescan command.
From 15 to the copying machine 103 (arrow 132).

The copying machine 103 sets parameters in the scanner side image processing circuit 302 according to the information of the prescan command. When these parameters are set correctly, an OK response is sent back to the server process 106 (arrow 133). The server process 106 is transferred from the copying machine 103 to O.
When the K response is received, the OK packet P4 is sent back to the client process 105 (arrow 134). If the parameters are not set correctly, status information is sent back to the server process 106 instead of OK. When the copier 103 receives the prescan command, the image is set to 1
Read line by line. During the prescan, the video interface control circuit 216 of the scanner printer server 102 outputs the output timing signal group HSYNC.
(Horizontal sync signal) 110, VSYNC (vertical sync signal)
109, CLOCK (clock signal) 108, DATA
(Image data signal) 111 is set to high impedance,
The server 102 receives the input timing signal group HSYNC (horizontal synchronization signal) 110, VSY generated by the copying machine 103.
DATA (image data signal) 1 in synchronization with NC (vertical synchronization signal) 109 and CLOCK (clock signal) 108
Data is read from 11 (arrow 135) and written in the buffer memory 209.

At this time, the image is thinned according to the thinning rate of XSTEP and YSTEP designated by the PRESCAN packet P1, and the image data is divided into appropriate sizes or combined to obtain the DATA tag, the number of bytes of the packet, and the image. A plurality of DATA packets P consisting of data and
2 is configured and sent to the client process 105 of the host computer 101 (arrow 136).

The client process 105 of the host computer 101 takes out the thinned image data from the image packet P2 received from the server process 106 and displays it on the CRT (not shown). Copy machine 103
After sending all the image data normally, sends OK from the serial interface 307 to the server process 106 (arrow 137). The server process 106 is the copy machine 1.
If OK is received from 03, an OK packet P4 is sent to the client process 105 (arrow 138). After transmitting the OK packet P4 to the client process 105, the server process 106 waits for the next command packet from the client process 105. The client process 105 receives all the thinned image data,
Display on CRT and ask user which area of the image is actually read.

In response, the user specifies which area is actually scanned with a pointing device such as a mouse. It also gives an instruction as to whether or not to recognize a region designated by the user or a color character. And
Instruct the client process 105 to start scanning.

Then, the client process 105
Image XSIZE, YSIZE, XSTART, YST
The SCAN packet P3 including ART or the like is sent to the server process 106 (arrow 139).

When the SCAN packet P3 is received, the server process 106 sends back OK to the client process 105 in the same procedure as in PRESCAN (arrow 1310) if this information is set correctly.

The server process 106 returns to the copying machine 10 again.
The image is read from 3 according to the parameters specified by the SCAN packet (arrow 1311).

In the case of reading an ordinary image, this image data is divided or combined into an appropriate size, and DA
A plurality of DATA packets P5 including a TA tag, the number of bytes of the packet, and image data are constructed and sent to the client process 105 of the host computer 101 (arrow 1
312).

When the character recognition is designated, the character image data of the area or the color area is character coded by the character recognition means. At the same time, if there is an instruction for position detection or page description verbalization conversion, that information is added. And D
A plurality of DATA packets composed of an ATA tag, the number of bytes of the packet, and image data are constructed and sent to the client process 105 of the host computer 101.

The client process 105 of the host computer 101 takes out image data from the image packet received from the server process 106 and writes it in the disk one after another.

When the server process 106 normally sends all the images, it sends an OK packet P4 to the client process 105 (arrow 1313). Server process 10
6 sends an OK packet to the client process 106 and waits for the next command packet from the client process 105. When the client process 105 receives the OK packet from the server process 106, it waits for the next command from the user.

Here, when the destination of the character code information is a transfer to another party on the public line, there are two transfer routes according to an instruction from the host computer 101. If the server 102 has a communication control device, the server 102
From the host computer 10 directly to the public line
If the communication control device 1 is provided, the data is transferred from the server 102 to the host 101, and the client process 105 receives the data and transfers it on the public line.

[Printer Side] FIG. 14 is an explanatory diagram of the printing operation. The data exchange between the client process 105 of the host computer 101, the scanner printer server 102 and the copying machine 103 at the time of printing will be described below with reference to the figure. To do.

First, the user is the host computer 10
1, the size of the image to be printed, the position of the image to be printed, the file name on the host computer 101 holding the image to be printed, etc. are designated. Also, parameters such as gamma conversion and masking conversion during printing are usually set to default values,
These can also be changed.

In this case, first, in FIG. 14, the client process 105 sends a GAMMA packet P6 to the server process 106 to set a gamma table for gamma conversion at the time of image printing (arrow 14).
1). If the gamma table has already been set, there is no need to send it. Upon receiving the GAMMA packet P6, the server process 106 sends a gamma table setting command to the printer side of the copying machine 103 when the second byte of the GAMMA packet indicates a printer, and a scanner side when the second byte of the GAMMA packet indicates a scanner. Send via / F (arrow 14
2). In this case, since the printer of the copying machine 103 is used, the printer side gamma conversion table is set.

The copying machine 103 sets the LUT of the printer gamma conversion unit 502 according to the parameter of the gamma setting command. If it can be set normally, OK is sent back to the server process 106 (arrow 143). Server process 10
When receiving the OK from the copying machine 103, the No. 6 sends back the OK packet P4 to the client process 105 (arrow 144).

Next, the client process 105 sets M to set the masking table for image printing.
The ASKING packet P7 is sent to the server process 106 (arrow 145). If the masking table has already been set, it need not be sent. Upon receiving the MASKING packet P7, the server process 106 sends a masking setting command to the copying machine 103 (arrow 146). The copying machine 103 sets the parameters in the masking conversion unit 503 in the printer side image processing circuit 303 according to the parameters of the masking setting command. If it can be set normally, OK is sent back to the server process 106 (arrow 14
7). Upon receiving the OK from the scanner, the server process 106 sends the OK packet P4 to the client process 1
It returns to 05 (arrow 148).

When the parameters for gamma conversion and masking conversion have been set as described above, the client process 105 determines the XSIZE, YSIZE, XST of the image.
PRIN consisting of ART, YSTART, PAGE, etc.
Send T packet P8 to server process 106 (arrow 1
49).

Upon receiving the PRINT packet P8, the server process 106 receives the serial interface 21.
5 sends a print command to the copying machine 103 (arrow 14
10). When the copying machine 103 correctly receives the information of the print command and sets the parameter, OK is sent back to the server process 106 (arrow 1411). Server process 1
When 06 receives an OK from the scanner, the OK packet P
4 to the client process 105 (arrow 14
12).

When the client process 105 receives the OK packet, it reads the image from the designated file. The client process 105 divides the read image data into an appropriate size or combines them, and
A plurality of DATA packets P9 composed of an ATA tag, the number of bytes of the packet, and image data are constructed and sent to the server process 106 (arrow 1413). Server process 106
Then, the image data is taken out from the image packet P9 which is sent from the client process 105 of the host computer 101 and received, and the copying machine 1 is sent via the video I / F.
03 sequentially sends print data (arrow 141
4).

At the time of printing, the video I / F control circuit 216 of the scanner printer server 102 uses the sync signal group HSYNC (horizontal sync signal) 110, VSYNC.
(Vertical sync signal) 109, CLOCK (clock signal)
108 and the image data synchronized with this are output to DATA (image data signal) 111, and the copying machine 103 reads the data to be printed from the DATA (image data signal) 111 signal in synchronization with the synchronization signal group and prints it. .

When all the images are printed normally, the copying machine 103 sends OK to the serial interface 307.
To the server 102 (arrow 1415). When the server process 106 receives the OK from the copying machine 103, the O
The K packet is sent to the client process 105 (arrow 1416). After sending the OK packet to the client process 105, the server process 106 waits for the next command packet from the client. When the client process 105 receives the OK packet from the server process 106, it waits for the next command from the user.

In the above print operation, in addition to the case where the image data is sent from the host computer 101 according to the instruction of the client process 105, the scanner printer server 102 reads the image data from the scanner of the copying machine 103 and converts it into a page description language. In some cases, the type and size of characters may be changed for printing. Also, in the same way, receive character codes from the public line,
In some cases, the bits are expanded in the scanner printer server 102 and printed.

[Error] FIG. 15 is an explanatory diagram when an error occurs at the time of printing. The data exchange between the host computer 101, the scanner printer server 102, and the printer side 103 at the time of printing will be described below with reference to the drawing. ..

Similar to the above printing, the client process 105 sets the gamma table and masking table for image printing. Next, the client process 105 uses the XSIZE, YSIZE, and XSTA of the image.
PRINT consisting of RT, YSTART, PAGE, etc.
Send the packet to the server process 106. Upon receiving the PRINT packet, the server process 106 sends a print command from the serial interface 215 to the copying machine 1.
03 (arrows 151 to 1510).

When the value of the parameter of the print command is incorrect, or when an error such as a failure in setting the print command or an error such as paper shortage occurs, the copying machine 103 sends status information indicating the error status to the server process 106. It sends it back to (arrow 1511).

Upon receiving the status information from the copying machine 103, the server process 106 sets the status information to ST.
The ATUS packet P10 is converted and sent back to the client process 105 (arrow 1512).

The client process 105 is STATUS.
When the S packet P10 is received, an appropriate message is output to the user according to the status to notify that an error has occurred. When an error such as a paper jam occurs in the printer, the C of the copying machine 103
The PU 306 immediately interrupts the print operation and transmits error status information to the server process 106 via the serial interface 307.

In the server process 106, the printer side 1
When the status information from No. 03 is received, this status information is sent to the client process 105 as a STATUS packet P10, and the next command is awaited.

Client process 105 is STATUS
When the S packet P10 is received, an appropriate message is output to the user according to the status to notify that an error has occurred.

[Character Recognition Server] In some cases, only the character recognition means and the automatic translation means in the scanner printer server 102 are used from the host 101. In this case, the host computer 101 side cuts out character image data in a desired area in advance, and the client process 1
05 sends the character image data to the server process 106.
In the server 102, the same processing as when the image is read by the copying machine 103 is performed, and the character code is returned to the host computer 101 via the network 104. In this case, the copying machine 103 is not involved in the processing, and the host 101
The message sent from the server to the server 102 is processed by the server 102, and no instruction is given to the copying machine 103 to perform the processing.

The following effects can be obtained by using the copying machine configured and functioning as described above and its server system.

(1) The copier can be combined with a scanner printer server capable of character recognition to form a shared resource on the network. That is, the network user
In addition to the copier itself, the server functions can be shared.

(2) Since a character code is obtained by reading a character image document with a scanner, the amount of data is reduced, the load on the network is reduced, the processing speed in the computer is increased, and the operability is improved.

(3) The character image original read by the scanner can be automatically converted into the page description language.

(4) It is possible to read a character image original containing a color and take out only a character of a designated color.

(5) The type and size of the character of the read character image original can be changed and printed.

(6) The read character image original can be recognized as a character, converted into a character code, and further automatically translated.

(7) The host computer on the network can use only the character recognition function of the server.

(8) Character image It is possible to recognize the character of the original and send it as a character code to the public line, or receive the character code and print it.

In the present embodiment, the case where the bus type Ethernet 104 is used for the network has been described, but the network may be of any type. For example, FDDI using a token ring or an optical fiber is also possible as a network means.

In this embodiment, the case where serial communication is used to communicate data such as commands, parameters, and errors between the scanner printer server 102 and the copying machine 103 has been described. However, without being limited to serial communication, Any two-way communication interface can be used.

In this embodiment, serial communication is used to communicate data such as commands, parameters, and errors between the scanner printer server 102 and the copying machine 103, and a video interface is used to communicate image data. It is also possible to communicate information such as commands, parameters and errors and image data through the same communication path by using an interface capable of bidirectional communication such as SCSI and GPIB without being restricted by these communication interfaces. .

In this embodiment, the image is dot-sequential YC.
In the case of the rCb format, the image is sent by being coded by the ADCT coding method, but not limited to the ADCT coding method, any coding method can be used. As a result, encoding is also performed for images other than the dot-sequential YCrCb format,
Images can be compressed and transmitted.

Further, although the buffer memory 209 for several lines is used in the server 102, the memory for one screen can be provided to further increase the speed.

Further, in this embodiment, the scanner unit 310 of the copying machine 103 thins out the image during the pre-scanning and sends it without thinning out the image during the main scanning.
When pre-scanning a color image, (1) send only single color components (2) send with thinning out (3) send with encoding (4) send with reduced number of image gradations (5) drop image resolution It is also possible to combine sending by sending.

In this embodiment, the image data is temporarily stored in the buffer memory and is sequentially sent to the host computer via the network. However, a storage device such as a hard disk is provided in the scanner printer server 102. It is also possible to configure a form in which the data is once stored in the storage device.

Further, in the present embodiment, when the image is read, and is subjected to the frame-sequential scan conversion and transfer, the sensor 301 scans three times. However, the image is read only once, the image data is stored in the hard disk,
It is also possible to read the image from the hard disk three times and replace it with scanning. As a result, only one mechanical scan is required, and the speed can be increased.

It is also possible to scan and convert the first color at the same time as storing the data in the hard disk and read the remaining two times from the hard disk.

In this embodiment, the binarizing unit 505 binarizes the image for the binary printer engine. This can be dealt with in the same manner as above, and can be easily dealt with in the case of an N-value printer engine by providing an N-value conversion unit.

The present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices or an apparatus composed of one device. Further, it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to the case where it is achieved by supplying a program to a system or an apparatus.

[0280]

[Other Embodiments] FIG. 18 is a diagram of another embodiment. The functions provided are the same as those in the previous embodiment, but the copying machine 181 in the figure is an apparatus in which the scanner printer server 102 is incorporated in the copying machine 103 in the first embodiment, and the copying machine 181 performs the functions of the server 102. Also fulfills.

Further, the present invention is applied to a scanner printer device in which a scanner and a printer are combined, and is similarly applicable to a facsimile device or the like instead of a copying machine.

[0282]

As described above, the image processing system according to the present invention can efficiently use the scanner printer as a shared resource of the network, and can also share various image processing services.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a system according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is an internal configuration diagram of a scanner printer server.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a copying machine.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an internal image processing circuit on the scanner side.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the internal image processing circuit of the printer.

FIG. 6 is a character recognition circuit.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of character segmentation and feature extraction.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an ADCT interpreter coding.

FIG. 9 is a circuit block configuration diagram for a PDL interpreter.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a translation circuit.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing VSYNC, HSYNC, and raster scan.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing video I / F timing.

FIG. 13 is a scanner state transition diagram.

FIG. 14 is a printer state transition diagram.

FIG. 15 is an error state transition diagram.

FIG. 16 is a server command packet.

FIG. 17 is a scanner command packet.

FIG. 18 is a configuration diagram of a copying machine according to a second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

101 ... Host computer, 102 ... Scanner printer server, 103 ... Scanner printer, 104 ... Ethernet, 105 ... Client process, 106 ... Server process, 107 ... SPCOM (scanner printer serial command signal), 108 ... CLOCK (clock signal, 109 ... VSYNC (vertical synchronization signal), 110 ...
HSYNC (horizontal synchronizing signal), 111 ... DATA (image data signal), 201 ... CPU, 202 ... PROM, 2
03 ... RAM, 204 ... Serial interface, 2
05 ... Parallel interface, 206 ... Ethernet controller, 207 ... Communication control unit (CCU), 2
08 ... Dual port RAM, 209 ... Buffer memory for image storage (for several lines), 210 ... Character recognition circuit, 21
1 ... Image encoding / decoding circuit (compression / decompression), 212 ...
PDL interpreter circuit, 213 ... Automatic translation circuit, 2
14 ... Sub CPU (for scanner / printer interface), 215 ... Serial interface (SPCOM
216 ... Timing control circuit for video I / F, 2
17 ... Serial interface port, 218 ... Parallel interface port, 219 ... Ethernet port, 220 ... Public line I / F port, 221 ... Vid
eo I / F command port, 222 ... Video I
/ F data port, 223 ... Main CPU bus (local bus or VME bus, etc.), 224 ... Sub CPU
Bus, 301 ... Scanner image reading sensor, 302 ...
Scanner side image processing circuit, 303 ... Printer side image processing circuit, 304 ... Print head, 305 ... Scanner printer control CPU, main memory, 306 ... Scanner printer control CPU, 307 ... Serial interface, 308 ... Video I / F Timing control circuit, 309 ... Scanner printer internal image data bus, 4
01 ... Shading correction, 402 ... Resolution converter, 4
03 ... Scanner color conversion, 404 ... Scanner gamma conversion unit, 405 ... Level conversion unit, 501 ... Printer color conversion unit, 502 ... Printer gamma conversion unit, 503 ... Masking conversion unit, 504 ... Black generation, undercolor removal unit, 505 ... Binarization unit, 601 ... DSP (Digital Signal) for character recognition control
Processor), 602 ... Dual port RAM, 603 ...
Feature extraction circuit, 604 ... Identification circuit (dictionary), 605 ... Local bus (for character recognition), 801 ... R (red) component input section, 802 ... G (green) component input section, 804 ... B (blue) component input Section, 804 ... Color conversion section, 805 ... Y after color conversion
(Luminance) component input part, 806 ... Cr after color conversion
(Chrominance) component input part, 807 ... Cr after color conversion
(Chrominance) component input section, 808 ... 8 × 8 DCT (D
iscrete Cosine Transform) processing unit, 809 ... Linear quantization unit, 810 ... One-dimensional prediction unit, 811 ... Huffman coding unit, 812 ... Zigzag scanning, image data input unit, 813
Two-dimensional Huffman coding unit 814 Multiplexing unit 901
... CPU for PDL interpreter, 902 ... Main memory for CPU, 903 ... ROM for program storage, 90
4 ... Local bus, 1001 ... CPU for automatic translation control,
Reference numeral 1002 ... CPU main storage memory, 1003 ... Program storage ROM, 1004 ... Clause processing circuit, 1005
Identification circuit (translation dictionary), 1006 ... Dual port RAM for inputting / outputting document character code, 1007 ... Local bus.

Claims (12)

[Claims] 1. An image processing system connected to a communication network, comprising image reading means for reading an image, printing means for printing out an image, means for taking in image data, and image data for reading the read image. An image input / output device including: a means for outputting image data, a capture means for capturing image data from the image input / output device, a sending means for sending image data to the image input / output device, and a character for image data A server device comprising: a character recognition means for recognizing and converting into a character code; a communication means for communicating via a communication network; and a recognition means for recognizing an instruction received by the communication means. Image processing system. 2. The server device, wherein the image data captured from the image input / output device by the capturing means is converted into a character code by the character recognition means and transmitted by the communication means. 1. The image processing system according to 1. 3. The image processing system according to claim 1, wherein the reading unit is a color image reading unit that reads a color image. 4. The image according to claim 3, wherein the image read by the reading unit is character-coded by the character recognizing unit according to the color based on the instruction recognized by the recognizing unit. Processing system. 5. The server device further comprises conversion means for converting a character code string into another character code string, and the image data read by the reading means is converted into a character code by the character recognition means, and the conversion means. The image processing system according to claim 1, wherein the image processing system converts the character code string into another character code string. 6. The image processing system according to claim 1, wherein the server device further comprises means for communicating with a public line network. 7. The character recognition means further comprises page description means for recognizing the position of the obtained character code and converting the character code obtained by the character recognition means into page description information in a page description language. The image processing system according to claim 1. 8. The image processing system according to claim 7, wherein the page description information obtained by the page description means is changed based on an instruction to be recognized by the recognition means. 9. The image processing system according to claim 7, wherein the image data obtained by the communication unit is combined with the page description linguistic information. 10. The image processing system according to claim 1, wherein the server device further includes a compression unit that compresses the image data and a decompression unit that decompresses the image data. 11. The image processing system according to claim 1, wherein the image input / output device is a scanner printer having a copying function. 12. An image processing apparatus connected to a communication network, comprising image reading means for reading an image, printing means for printing and outputting the image, and character recognizing means for recognizing characters of image data and converting them into character codes. An image processing apparatus comprising: a communication unit that communicates via a communication network; and a recognition unit that recognizes an instruction received by the communication unit.