JPH06282584A - Picture information processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a picture information processor in which a retrieval condition expression inputted by an operator in order to retrieve data stored in a data base can be stored in a storage medium or the like, and the retrieval condition expression can be reused. CONSTITUTION:This device is equipped with an outside storage means 11 which stores the title of the data stored in the data base, auxiliary storage means 12 which stores the retrieval condition expression inputted by the operator in order to retrieve the title of the data, and judging means which judges whether or not the retrieval condition expression stored in the auxiliary storage means 12 can be reused in order to retrieve the data. The retrieval condition expression/title inputted by the operator can be stored in the auxiliary storage device, and reused at the time of retrieving the data plural times. Thus, the high speed and manpower saving of the retrieval processing can be attained.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image information processing apparatus capable of storing a retrieval condition expression / title input by an operator in an auxiliary storage device for reuse.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An image information processing apparatus such as an image filing apparatus is provided with an optical disk or the like as a database. In the image filing apparatus, there is a method of searching for a title as one of the methods of displaying the image data stored in the optical disc. Here, the title is code data added together with the image data (hereinafter referred to as the title). As shown in FIG. 7, in the conventional search process, after the power is turned on (step st1
0), the operator inputs code data (hereinafter referred to as a search condition expression) which is a basis for searching for this title (step st11), a search process of image data in the optical disk device is performed, image confirmation, etc. Is performed (steps st12, st13). When the search is completed (step st14), the power is cut off (step s).
t15). When a further search is necessary, the operator inputs the search condition expression again (step st11). As described above, conventionally, the search condition expression is input to the image filing apparatus by the operator using the keyboard at the time of system startup or each time the search process is performed.

[0003]

As described above, the prior art is as follows.
Since the search condition expression can be entered only by the keyboard operated by the operator, there is a problem that a quick search process cannot be performed. Further, conventionally, when the image data search is repeated a plurality of times, the previous search condition expression is input to the storage medium in the second and subsequent searches, and it is used as the default value, that is, the initial value of the search condition expression. You can However, even in this case, there is a problem that the default value cannot be obtained in the first search after the power is turned on. In addition, because the search condition formula once entered cannot be saved,
There was a problem that the search condition expressions of the last time or before could not be reused.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and stores a search condition expression / title input by an operator in order to search data stored in a database in a storage medium or the like. An object of the present invention is to provide an image information processing device in which a search condition expression / title can be reused.

[0005]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides an external storage means for storing the title of data stored in a database, and an operator input for searching the title of the data. An auxiliary storage unit that stores the retrieved search condition formula and a determination unit that determines whether or not the search condition formula stored in the auxiliary storage unit can be reused for data retrieval are provided.

[0006]

Operation: It is determined whether or not the search condition expression input by the operator is to be saved. When storing in the auxiliary storage device, the validity of the stored data structure is judged. If appropriate, the search condition expression is stored in the auxiliary storage device.
When saving, a file name / annotation can be added so that the operator can easily identify it later. When reading,
A list of files is displayed, the operator arbitrarily specifies it, and the search condition expression is read into the image information processing apparatus. As a result, the search condition expression from the auxiliary storage device can be reused when the image data is searched a plurality of times.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the schematic arrangement of an image information processing apparatus of the present invention, for example, an image filing apparatus. The image filing device 1 is connected to another image filing device 1 via a public line 2. The image filing device 1 includes a control unit 10, a scanner device 18,
Optical disk device 22, keyboard 23a, mouse 23
b, a CRT display device 24, a printer device 25, and a magnetic disk device 27. The keyboard 23a and the mouse 23b are the CPU 3 of the control unit 10.
4 is connected.

The control unit 10 has a CPU 34 for performing various controls for image storage, retrieval, and editing processing, an optical disk interface 36 for connecting the optical disk device 22 and the CPU 34, a magnetic disk device 27, and a CPU 3.
4, a magnetic disk interface 37 for connecting the CRT display device 4, a main memory 38 for storing various control programs for image storage, retrieval, editing, etc., management information, etc. A display memory 42 that is a display interface, an image memory 50, an image processing unit 51, and the scanner device 18
Scanner interface 52 and printer device 25
And a network interface 58 for connecting to an external device such as another image filing device, a facsimile device, and a personal computer. The respective units are connected by the system bus 30.

The scanner device 18 is a two-dimensional scanning device which obtains an electric signal (image data) corresponding to an image on the original by scanning the original (document) two-dimensionally with a laser beam. The optical disk device 22 sequentially stores the images of the original read by the scanner device 18 on the optical disk. Further, the optical disc is searched for an image corresponding to the search code designated by the keyboard 23a or the like. The keyboard 23a is used to input a unique search code corresponding to an image stored on the optical disc and various operation commands such as storage, search, and edit processing. The mouse 23b is used to arbitrarily move a cursor displayed on the display window of the CRT display device 24 to select or instruct various operation modes, area designation for image editing, and the like.

The CRT display device 24 displays the image read by the scanner device 18 and the image retrieved from the optical disk. The printer device 25 is
The image read by the scanner device 18, the image retrieved from the optical disk, or the image displayed on the CRT display device 24 is printed out (hard copy). The magnetic disk device 27 is the magnetic disk device 2
Various control programs are stored in the magnetic disk mounted on the disk 7, and search data, that is, search data, which includes a search code input from the keyboard 23a and a storage address on the optical disk where the image corresponding to the search code is stored, an image size, and the like. It stores information.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic system configuration of an image information processing apparatus of the present invention. This system stores a control unit 10 for performing a search process, an external storage device connected to the control unit 10 for storing image data, such as an optical disk device 22, and a title of the image data connected to the control unit 10. For example, an external storage device 11 made up of a hard disk and an auxiliary storage device 12 made up of a storage medium, such as a floppy disk, for storing the search condition expression input by the operator. The search condition expression input by the operator for searching the image data stored in the optical disk device 22 is stored in the auxiliary storage device 12, and this search condition expression is reused as described later.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a stored base data structure. The format of the search condition expression stored in the auxiliary storage device 12, that is, the saved base data structure can be arbitrarily configured by the user, and various formats exist. FIG. 2 shows an example, and is composed of “key number”, “key type” and “digit number” corresponding to this key number. This data structure is also used to determine the validity of storing / reading the data of FIG. That is, it is used to determine whether the formats match or whether it is okay to read the search condition expression from the auxiliary storage device 12 for the current search. A file name / annotation can be added to this data when stored for easy identification by the operator at a later date.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a search condition expression file format. This format exemplifies the search condition expression actually input by the operator and is stored in the auxiliary storage device 12. The operator can arbitrarily specify the "search condition expression file name" so that the operator can easily identify it later. FIG. 3 shows an example of a search condition expression file format when the FDD is assumed in the storage medium, that is, the auxiliary storage device 12. Search method: annotation: conditional expression key number: key number, search condition expression length, and search condition. It is composed of expressions. The “search method” field is set when the stored data is a search condition expression, and is used for the validity of reading the search condition expression or an application such as performing a search process immediately after reading. Incidentally, when the title data is saved, this data becomes indefinite. Also,
"Annotation" shows the outline of each file, "Number of conditional expression keys" is the number of keys entered by the operator,
The "key number" indicates the partition number of the search condition expression input area, and the "length of the search condition expression" indicates the byte length of the search condition expression for each actual key in the next field. Inside the FDD, there is one file shown in FIG. 2 and a plurality of files shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a search condition expression file name list. When reading the search condition expression, the image information processing apparatus displays a list as shown in FIG. 4 and allows the operator to arbitrarily specify. The data in the search conditional expression file designated by the operator is read into the image information processing apparatus. This list can be used for table operations such as sort processing with the name "search condition expression file". In FIG. 4, for example, the file with number 1 stores “1992 catalog data”, and the file with number 2 stores “new user list”.
Is stored.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing the flow of the search processing in the present invention. First, the power is turned on (step st20). Then, it is determined whether or not the search condition expression is read from the auxiliary storage device 12 (step st2).
1). If the corresponding search condition expression has already been input in the auxiliary storage device 12 and the search condition expression can be input to the image information processing apparatus, the search condition expression is input (step st22). On the other hand, if it is judged impossible,
The operator inputs a search condition expression (step s
t22). The retrieval condition expression is basically read by an operator's instruction to enter the retrieval condition expression, but it is always possible before the retrieval process is executed. Further, the usage method of the saved data is not limited to the use in the search condition expression, and it can be used in the registration / correction of the title. When it is necessary to correct the search condition expression input from the auxiliary storage device 12, the operator corrects the search condition expression in step st22. It is determined whether or not the search condition expression is stored in the auxiliary storage device 12 (step st24), and the search condition expression is stored if necessary (step st2).
5). The search condition expression is normally saved by an operator's instruction by inputting the search condition expression by the operator before executing the search process, but can always be saved while the data exists in the control unit 10. Also, the data that can be stored in this storage medium is not limited to the search condition expression, and it matches the storage base data structure that is stored in advance in the storage medium, that is, the format of the stored data, such as title data that is added when registering an image. It is possible to save the data to be processed or similar data. When it is unnecessary or when the search condition expression is saved, the image data search process is performed (step st26). After necessary processing such as image confirmation of the read image data is performed (step st27), it is determined whether the search processing is completed (step st28). If it is finished, the power is cut off (step st29), while if it is not finished, the search processing returns to step st21 again. Where step s
The determination at t21 and step st24 can be made by the operator, but can also be made by the apparatus itself. Note that step st21 and step s
The route of NO at t24 gives a route corresponding to the conventional flowchart of FIG. 7 showing the input of the search condition expression by the operator. Therefore, it is obvious that the present invention can be applied to the existing image filing apparatus.

[0017]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since the search condition expression / title entered by the operator is stored and saved in the auxiliary storage device, it is not necessary for the operator to enter it by the keyboard for each search process, and the process can be performed at high speed when the search process is performed multiple times. And labor saving.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic system configuration of an image information processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a saved base data structure used in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a search condition expression file format used in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a search condition expression file name list used in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a flow of search processing according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an image information processing apparatus of the present invention, for example, an image filing apparatus.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the flow of a conventional search process.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Image filing device, 2 ... Public line, 1
0 ... Control unit, 11 ... External storage device (HD), 1
2 ... Auxiliary storage device (FDD), 13 ... Storage base data structure example, 14 ... Search condition expression file format example, 15 ... Search condition expression file name list example, 1
8 ... Scanner device, 22 ... Optical disc device, 2
3a ... keyboard, 23b ... mouse, 24 ...
.CRT display device, 25 ... printer device,
26 ... Magnetic disk device.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An external storage means for storing a title of data stored in a database, an auxiliary storage means for storing a search condition expression inputted by an operator for searching the title of the data, and the auxiliary storage. An image information processing apparatus, comprising: a determination unit that determines whether or not a search condition expression stored in the unit can be reused for data search. 2. The image information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said judgment means judges the validity at the time of storing / reading based on a predetermined format of data.