JPH07129621A - Picture information storage device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make an area occupying a main memory small by respectively storing the divided contents of a dictionary file in memory cards and performing first selection by selecting the memory card by a user. CONSTITUTION:Pictures inputted from a picture input device 4 to a main memory unit 6 are passed through an extraction part 10 and an editing and display part 11 and displayed on a display device 8 constituting an interactive input device. The user decides the retrieval keyword of the picture information by observing the displayed pictures or from other information. The user selects the memory card of a pertinent hierarchy name among the memory cards 1 corresponding to the decision, reads it in a memory card read part 2 and stores it in the main memory unit 6. Then, by input from a keyboard 7, the hierarchy names of the memory cards 1 are displayed by menu on the display device 8. The user selects one hierarchy name and inputs it from the keyboard 7. Then, the hierarchy name is stored in a data base file 13 corresponding to the pertinent picture.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image information storage device capable of storing image information and retrieving and outputting the image information as needed, and more particularly to a retrieval system thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a prior art of the present invention, Japanese Patent Application No. 63-67790 filed by the applicant of the present application (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-23 / 1983).
9628) (hereinafter referred to as prior application). In the prior application, a keyword dictionary file is created in which each search keyword corresponding to each image information and the hierarchical name at each hierarchical level when all the search keywords are semantically classified into a hierarchical structure are created. The keyword dictionary file is used to facilitate the task of assigning search keywords corresponding to individual image information and the task of inputting search keywords or hierarchical names to access desired image information.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned prior application, however, the storage contents of the keyword dictionary file becomes large, and it takes time to read this from the file to the main memory, and the storage capacity of the main memory is reduced. There is a problem that a large part is occupied by this keyword dictionary.

That is, in the example shown in FIG. 2 of the prior application, the hierarchical name of level number 1 in the hierarchical structure is "politics",
"Economy", "Labor", "Culture", "Science", "Society",
There are 9 hierarchical names of “incident”, “sports”, and “international”, but in the first selection, only one of these 9 hierarchical names is selected, and the selected hierarchy Only the information for the name is used, and the information corresponding to the other eight hierarchical names is read into the main memory, but there is a waste of ending without being used.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems in the prior application, and eliminates the above-mentioned waste and prevents the keyword dictionary from occupying an excessive capacity in the main memory. It is intended to provide a memory device.

[0006]

An image information storage device according to the present invention divides the contents of a keyword dictionary file into hierarchical names at the highest level, and stores the contents of each of the divided dictionary files in a memory card. The first selection was made by the user selecting a memory card. In the example shown in FIG. 2 of the prior application, nine types of memory cards are formed, but the user can easily determine which type of memory card should be used from among these nine types of memory cards. If only the memory card is read and stored in the main memory, the area occupying the main memory can be reduced.

That is, when a search keyword is registered, the hierarchy name of all lower levels within the hierarchy of the hierarchy name and the hierarchy name of any hierarchy name having the highest hierarchy level in the hierarchy structure are registered. , A memory card in which all search keywords are stored, a memory card reading unit that reads the information stored in this memory card, and the highest level hierarchy name for the search keyword of the image information to be input from this memory card Means for selecting the memory card in which the memory card is stored and reading by the memory card reading unit, and displaying the hierarchical information read by the memory card reading unit as a hierarchical menu on the display device of the interactive input device in order from the upper level hierarchical information. Means, the desired hierarchy, desired search keyword from this hierarchical menu, interactive A means for designating from the keyboard of the input device, a means for storing the hierarchy name designated by this keyboard as the hierarchy name of the image information, and a means for storing the search keyword designated by this keyboard as the keyword of the image information. Thus, it is possible to easily register an appropriate search keyword for the image information and the layer name of each layer corresponding to the keyword.

When searching for desired image information from a search keyword or a hierarchical name of a hierarchical structure, the memory card, the memory card reading section, the hierarchical menu display means, the interactive input device, and the interactive input device described in the previous section. By providing the search keyword access unit that accesses the image information corresponding to the search keyword by the search keyword specified by, desired image information can be easily output.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, in which one memory card selected by a user from a plurality of memory cards 1 is read by a memory card reading unit 2 and the stored contents are stored in a main storage device. 6 is stored in a predetermined area. The image input / output control unit 3 controls an input image from the image input device 4 and an output image to the image output device 5. Image information passing through the image input / output control unit 3 is input / output to / from the database file 13 via the main storage device 6. The contents of the main storage device 6 are edited by the extraction unit 10 and the edit display unit 12 and displayed on the display device 8.

The command input from the keyboard 7 is analyzed by the analysis unit 9 to control the main storage device 6, the extraction unit 10 and the key retrieval unit 12. Among the image information stored in the database file 13, there are one that stores the image of the image as it is and one that stores it in the form of a character code like a document image. The image information stored in the form of character code is converted into an image pattern by the edit display unit 11 and displayed on the display device 8, and converted into an image pattern by the image output device 5 and output. Therefore, the edit display unit 11 and the image output device 5 include an image conversion unit.

Next, the input of image information will be described. The image input from the image input device 4 to the main storage device 6 is displayed on the display device 8 constituting the interactive input device via the extraction part 10 and the edit display part 11. The user observes the displayed image or determines a search keyword for the image information from other information. In this case, it may be difficult to determine an appropriate search keyword, but even in that case, the highest hierarchical name of the search keyword can be easily determined. The selected one is read by the memory card reading unit 2 and stored in the main storage device 6.

Next, the hierarchy name of the hierarchy of level number 2 of the memory card 1 is displayed as a menu on the display device 8 by the input from the keyboard 7. If the read memory card is a card related to "politics" (level 1 level), "Parliament", "Election", "Political party",
Seven hierarchical names of level number 2 "Administration", "Judiciary", "Diplomatic", "Defense" are displayed. The user selects one from the seven hierarchical names and inputs it from the keyboard 7.
Next, the hierarchical name of level number 3 is displayed in a menu. By repeating the menu display and the selection in this way, an appropriate search keyword is displayed, and the image information is stored in the database file by the user's selection, and at the same time, the search keyword and each of the search keywords are stored. The hierarchy name of the hierarchy is stored in the database file 13 corresponding to the image.

When the desired image information is output from the database file 13, the keyboard 7 is used after reaching the search keyword of the image information in the same procedure as in the case of registration.
When a predetermined command is input from, the key search unit 12 uses the search keyword to search the database file 13
To read the image information into the main storage device 6 and display it on the display device 8. After confirming this display, the user inputs a command from the keyboard 7 and outputs this image information to the image output device 5.

[0014]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to easily determine an appropriate search keyword for the image information when registering the image information, and to perform the search determined corresponding to the registered image information. The hierarchical name of each stage to which the keyword belongs can be easily determined, and the retrieval keyword for desired image information can be easily determined at the time of image information retrieval.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 memory card 2 memory card reading unit 7 keyboard 8 display device 12 key search unit 13 database file

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. The image information is stored in association with a search keyword assigned to each image information and the hierarchical information of the search keyword when the search keyword is hierarchically structured, and the image information is corresponded by the search keyword. In an image information storage device for searching image information, for any hierarchy whose hierarchy level rank of the hierarchy structure is the highest level, the hierarchy name and all search keywords of all lower levels within the hierarchy A memory card that stores information, a memory card reading unit that reads information stored in the memory card, and a memory that stores the highest level hierarchy name for the search keyword of the image information to be input from the memory card Memory card reading means for selecting a card and reading with the memory card reading unit Means for displaying the hierarchical information read by the section as a hierarchical menu on the display device of the interactive input device in order from the higher level hierarchical information, the desired hierarchical level, the desired search keyword from the hierarchical menu, the interactive input device Means for designating with the keyboard of, and a means for storing the hierarchical name designated with the keyboard as a hierarchical name of the image information, and storing the search keyword designated with the keyboard as a search keyword of the image information. An image information storage device characterized by: 2. The image information is stored in association with the search keyword assigned to each image information and the hierarchical information of the search keyword when the search keyword is hierarchically structured in terms of meaning, and is stored by the search keyword. In an image information storage device for searching image information, for any hierarchy whose hierarchy level rank of the hierarchy structure is the highest level, the hierarchy name and all search keywords of all lower levels within the hierarchy A memory card that stores the memory card, a memory card reading unit that reads information stored in the memory card, and a memory that stores the highest level hierarchy name for the search keyword of the image information to be searched from the memory card Memory card reading means for selecting a card and reading with the memory card reading unit Means for displaying the hierarchical information read by the section as a hierarchical menu on the display device of the interactive input device in order from the higher level hierarchical information, the desired hierarchical level, the desired search keyword from the hierarchical menu, the interactive input device An image information storage device, comprising: means for designating with a keyboard of 1 .; and a key search unit for accessing image information corresponding to the search keyword by a search keyword designated by the keyboard.