JPH0793523A - Picture information processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent unnecessary picture data from being registered as picture files. CONSTITUTION:This processor 15 provided with a scanner 24 for reading the picture of a document original and generating the picture data of a two-dimensional matrix (x, y) form, a page memory 40 for storing the picture data, an optical disk 19 for storing the picture files and processing parts 10 and 38 for registering the picture data in a disk memory 19 as the picture files. Further, the processing parts 10 and 38 are provided with a counting part 10 for counting dot numbers for respective coordinates on a (y) axis in the matrix of the picture data inside the page memory 40 and generating numerical data corresponding to the counted values, a projection register for respectively storing the plural pieces of the numerical data obtained from the counting part 10 as projection data and an inhibition part 10 for detecting that the original is put face down when the entire projection data are below a prescribed value and inhibiting the picture data of the original from being registered in the optical disk 19 as the picture files.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention generally relates to an image information processing apparatus for managing image data of an original as an image file, and more particularly to an image information processing apparatus capable of automatically reading a plurality of originals.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A typical image information processing apparatus is constructed so that image data of a plurality of document originals is registered as an image file on an optical disk, and the registered image data can be searched and edited. The image data of the document original is input using, for example, an image scanner that reads an image of the document original and generates image data corresponding to the image.

When a document original having a plurality of pages is often handled, an automatic document feeder is provided in an image scanner so that the document originals are automatically supplied to the reading position one by one by the automatic document feeder. In this case, the images of the document original are continuously read by the image scanner.
In a general document manuscript, the front side of the paper is used for the description of the document and the back side is blank.

Also, some image information processing apparatuses detect this title by performing character recognition on the image data of the portion corresponding to the first character line which is entered on the first page of the document original and constitutes the title, and the title is detected. And, it is registered in a search keyword table provided in the magnetic disk in advance as a search keyword for specifying desired image data in the editing process.

[0005]

By the way, when setting a document original of a plurality of pages in the automatic document feeder, a part thereof may be turned upside down. The image scanner reads an image from a document supplied to a reading position regardless of whether the image is turned inside out. Since all the image data corresponding to the read image is registered in the optical disc, it may not be recognizable that the image data corresponding to the blank original image exists in the optical disc. Further, in order to perform the above-mentioned character recognition, it is necessary to preset the coordinate range of the title portion in the image information processing device.

An object of the present invention is to provide an image information processing apparatus having excellent operability in image reading.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to read an image of an original having front and back sides, store the read image in an information recording medium, and reproduce the stored image from the information storage medium. In the apparatus, an image reading means for reading an image having a row direction and a column direction of a document and generating image data composed of a plurality of pixels, and either one of the row direction and the column direction in the image data generated by the reading means. Means for counting the number of pixels, the means for determining that the counting result by the counting means is less than or equal to a predetermined number of pixels, and the surface of the document to be read by the image reading means from the front side to the back side based on the result of the determining means. It is achieved by an image information processing apparatus characterized by further comprising:

A further object of the present invention is to provide an image information processing apparatus for reading an image of a text original, storing the read image in an information recording medium, and reproducing the stored image from the information storage medium. An image reading means for reading an image having a plurality of pixels to generate image data composed of a plurality of pixels, and a number for counting the number of pixels in one of the row direction and the column direction in the image data generated by the reading means. 1 means, a first extracting means for extracting pixel number data in either the row direction or the column direction from the pixel number data counted by the first counting means, and the first extracting means. From the pixel number data, the second means for counting the number of pixels in either the row direction or the column direction, and the pixel number data counted by the second means Second extracting means for extracting pixel number data in one of the row direction and the column direction, and means for recognizing a character of a document based on the pixel number data extracted by the first extracting means and the second extracting means. This is achieved by an image information processing measure characterized by including the following.

[0009]

According to the present invention, the inside-out document is detected based on the number of pixels forming the matrix of the image data supplied from the image reading unit to the image memory, and the image data of the inside-out document is stored in the disk memory as an image file. Registration is prohibited. Therefore, meaningless image data does not fall into the disk memory without noticing it. Further, since the coordinate range of character lines arranged at intervals on the document can be detected based on the number of pixels in the row direction and the column direction, it is not necessary for the operator to specify this range in character recognition of this character line. .

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An image information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. This image information processing apparatus is used, for example, to read images of a plurality of document originals and manage image data corresponding to the read images as an image file.

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of this image information processing apparatus. This image information processing apparatus includes a control module 10, a memory module 12, an image processing module 14, a communication control module 16, a scanner device 18, and an optical disc 1.
9, optical disk device 20, keyboard 23, CR
A T display device 24, a printer device 25, a magnetic disk 26 and a magnetic disk device 27, a mouse 29, a system bus 30, an image bus 32, a character recognition unit 39 and an address generation unit 43 are provided.

The control module 10 controls the image registration, retrieval, editing, and various other processings by the CPU 34.
And an interface circuit 36 for connecting the optical disk device 20 and the magnetic disk device 27 to the CPU 34.
Including and The keyboard 23 and the mouse 29 are the CPU 3
4 is connected.

The memory module 12 is read from a main memory 38 for temporarily storing a control program executed by the CPU 34, management information, work data and the like, and image data written on the optical disc 19 and the optical disc 19, for example. The image memory temporarily stores image data, and includes a page memory 40 having a storage capacity capable of storing image data corresponding to several pages of A4 size original document, and a display interface. A part of the page memory 40 constitutes a buffer memory 40a. The display interface displays the display memory 42 that temporarily stores the image data to be actually displayed in the display window of the CRT display device 24, and the image data stored in the display memory 42 on the CRT display device 24. And a display control unit 44 for controlling the. The display memory 42 is, for example, the page memory 4
Image data stored in 0 and buffer memory 40a
Image data obtained by performing processing such as enlargement, reduction, rotation, insertion, and black / white inversion on the image data stored in is received.

The image processing module 14 compresses the image data by enlarging / reducing circuit 46 for enlarging and reducing the image data, a vertical / horizontal converting circuit 48 for rotating the image, and encoding by reducing redundancy. A compression / decompression circuit (CODEC) 50 for decompressing image data by decomposing the redundancy reduced by encoding, a scanner interface 52 connected to the scanner device 18, and a printer interface 54 connected to the printer device 25. , An internal bus 56 interconnecting them. In the compression / expansion circuit 50, band compression and band expansion of image data are performed by the Modified Huffman (MH) system or Modifie.
d Read (MR) method is used.

The communication control module 16 is for a bus communication processor (BCP) provided for local area network (LAN) communication, a facsimile communication processor (FCP) provided for facsimile communication, or for communication with an external device such as a personal computer. Communication interface 5 such as a Universal Communication Processor (UCP)
It is composed of 8.

The system bus 30 is a control module 10,
The memory module 12, the image processing module 14, the communication control module 16, the address generation unit 43, and the character recognition unit 39 are connected. Control signals are transferred between these components via this system bus 30. The image bus 32 is connected to the memory module 12, the image processing module 14, the communication control module 16, and the character recognition unit 39. Image data is the image bus 32
Is transferred between these components via. The address generator 43 is further connected to the page memory 40 for addressing.

The scanner device 18 is an automatic document feeder (AD) that automatically feeds a plurality of documents sequentially to the reading position.
F) 18a, the original image set at this reading position is two-dimensionally scanned by the laser beam light to read the original image, and the blank "0" and the dot "1" correspond to this read image. Image data in a two-dimensional matrix format that is to be arranged. When the original is A4 size,
The image data matrix (x, y) is 1800 x 240
It consists of 0 bits.

The optical disc device 20 has an interface 20a for accessing the optical disc 19, and sequentially writes the image data obtained from the scanner device 18 to the optical disc 19 and also the image data designated by a specific search code. Used to read from.

The CRT display device 24 is provided with the image data obtained by the scanner device 18 and the optical disc 1.
9 is used to display the image data recorded. Icons and the like are displayed at the top, bottom, and right ends of the display window.

The keyboard 23 is used for inputting a search code (keyword) of image data recorded on the optical disk 19, a processing command and the like. Mouse 29
A cursor (not shown) displayed in the display window of the CRT display device 24 is moved in the up, down, left, and right directions to specify an operation mode, an image editing area, an icon, and the like corresponding to the cursor position. Used for.

The printer device 25 is used to print the image data obtained by the scanner device 18, the image data recorded on the optical disc 19, and the image data displayed on the CRT display device 24 as a hard copy.

The magnetic disk device 27 stores a control program of various CPUs 34 prepared in advance for image file management, and a document management table as search information for searching image data registered as an image file on the optical disk 19. The magnetic disk 26 is accessed. This document management table is the title management table 26.
a, a search keyword table 26b, a page management table 26c, and a record management table 26d. The title management table 26a includes a plurality of registration numbers, and document numbers and titles set corresponding to the respective registration numbers. The search keyword table 26b includes the same registration number as that of the title management table 26a and a plurality of search keywords set corresponding to each registration number. Page management table 26c
Is composed of the same registration number as that of the title management table 26a, all page numbers of the document corresponding to each registration number, and the record number set corresponding to each page number. The record management table 26d represents all the record numbers set in the page management table 26c, the storage address of the optical disk 19 indicating the address where the beginning of the image data corresponding to each record number is stored, and the length of this image data. An image length, a compression method of this image data, an image attribute indicating an attribute such as resolution, a search frequency indicating the number of times this image data has been searched, and the like. The storage address is a logical address, and the physical track address and the physical sector address of the optical disk 19 are calculated in correspondence with this logical address during actual access.

The address generator 43 generates an address of the page memory 40 to specify the range of image data stored in the page memory 40. The character recognition unit 39 uses the address generation unit 43 to perform character recognition on the image data in the specified range, and recognizes each character of the character line represented by the image data in this range. For this character recognition, the magnetic disk 26 further stores a character recognition dictionary composed of various character font data.

In the above-mentioned main memory 38, first, second and third projection registers 38a, 38b and 3 are provided.
8c is provided for projection processing of image data obtained from the scanner device 18 and stored in the page memory 40 in the registration mode. The first projection register 38a stores a plurality of projection data in proportion to the number of dots obtained by projecting dots of blanks and dots forming a matrix of image data on the y axis. The second projection register 38b stores a plurality of pieces of projection data in proportion to the number of dots obtained by projecting dots of blanks and dots forming a matrix of image data on the x-axis. The second projection register 38c is arranged such that the dots of the blanks and the dots forming the partial matrix of the image data limited in the axial direction orthogonal to the character lines arranged at intervals on the document are set on the axis parallel to the character line. It stores a plurality of projection data that is proportional to the number of dots obtained by projection. The contents of the first projection register 38a are used to detect an upside-down original, and the contents of the first to third projection registers 38a, 38b, and 38c are used to perform character recognition on the image data of the title portion. . The first projection register 38a has a storage capacity of 24 in order to store 2400 8-bit projection data.
00 bytes, the storage capacity of the second projection register 38b is set to 1800 bytes to store 1800 8-bit projection data, and the third projection register 38c
Is set to 2400 bytes to store 2400 or 1800 8-bit projection data. (However, when the resolution of the scanner device 18 is high, it is possible to reduce the number of projection data to be stored by thinning out the projections on the y-axis and the x-axis.) Hereinafter, the image registration operation of this image information processing device Will be described with reference to FIG.

This image registration operation is performed by the CPU 34 executing the control program stored in the main memory 38. When the image registration operation is started, the registration mode is set and the search code is input first. After that, it is repeatedly checked whether the document original is set in the automatic document feeder 18a of the scanner device 18.
The CPU 34 controls the scanner device 18 when the document setting is completed.
To scan one page of the image,
The image data in the two-dimensional matrix format supplied from the company is stored in the page memory 40, and the projection processing is performed on this image data.

In this projection process, the CPU 34 counts the number of dots for each coordinate on the y axis in the matrix of image data stored in the page memory 40, and generates numerical data corresponding to the counted value. Thus obtained 24
The 00 pieces of numerical data are respectively stored in the first projection register 38a as projection data on the y axis. CPU34
Further, in the matrix of the image data stored in the page memory 40, the number of dots for each coordinate on the x-axis is counted, and numerical data corresponding to the counted value is generated. The 1800 pieces of numerical data thus obtained are respectively stored in the second projection register 38b as projection data on the x-axis. After that, it is checked whether the projection data stored in the first projection register 38a are all below a predetermined value near zero. If the total projection data is less than or equal to this predetermined value, it is determined that the document is upside down, a caution message is displayed on the display device 24, and the operator is inquired whether or not this image data should be registered. When the operator confirms that the original is upside down, the operator returns the original in the correct direction and inputs the registration prohibition command from the keyboard 23. Subsequently, when the CPU 34 detects that the registration prohibition command has been input, it deletes the image data stored in the page memory and the contents of the first and second projection registers 38a and 38b, and reads the original image again. Therefore, the process returns to the step immediately after the document setting is completed. (However,
When it is configured to read the inside-out original after reading all pages, the above-described data deletion may be performed without confirming the key operation of the operator. On the other hand, when the registration permission command is input from the keyboard 23 and when the total projection data stored in the first projection register 38a is larger than the above-mentioned predetermined value, this image registration processing is performed by the page memory 4
This is performed in order to register the image data stored in 0 on the optical disc 19 as an image file. After that, the process returns to the step immediately after the completion of the document setting to read the next document. If there is no next original, the image registration operation ends.

FIG. 4 shows projections in the x-axis and y-axis directions obtained corresponding to the front side image of the general original, and FIG. 5 shows projections in the x-axis and y-axis directions obtained corresponding to the back side image of the general original. Shows the projection of. The contents of the first and second projection registers 38a and 38b represent this projection as a numerical value. As can be seen from these figures, when the back side image of the document is read, this can be easily detected.

FIG. 6 shows a title recognition process additionally performed in the above registration process. In this recognition process,
The CPU 34 sets the coordinate range of the title, which is the first character line of the plurality of character lines arranged at intervals on the original, to the first and second projection registers 38a and 38b.
It is specified on the axis orthogonal to the character line of the title based on the numerical distribution of the projection data stored in. Subsequently, the CPU 34 counts the number of dots for each coordinate on the axis parallel to the character line of this title in the matrix of image data limited to the coordinate range on the orthogonal axis thus designated, and the numerical value corresponding to the counted value. Generate data.
The 2400 or 1800 numerical data thus obtained are stored in the third projection register 38c as projection data. Further, the CPU 34 designates the coordinate range of the title character line on the axis parallel to the character line from the numerical distribution of the projection data stored in the third projection register 38c, and goes straight to the title character line thus designated. Regarding the image data of the portion corresponding to the coordinate range on the axes and the parallel axes, the character recognition unit 39
Make the character recognition. Then, the title obtained by this character recognition is confirmed. If there is an error in the title, the coordinates are corrected and the character recognition unit 39 is made to perform character recognition again. In this way, the recognition process ends when the correct title is recognized.

According to the image information processing apparatus of the above-described embodiment, the inside-out document is detected based on the number of blanks and dots forming the matrix of the image data supplied from the scanner 18 to the page memory 40. Then, it is prohibited to register the image data of the inside-out original on the optical disc 19 as an image file. Therefore, meaningless image data does not fall into the disk memory without noticing it. Further, the coordinate range of the title portion of the image data can be automatically detected based on the projection data.

In this embodiment, the original turned over is the first.
Although it is detected based on the content of the projection register 38a, it may be detected based on the content of the second projection register 38b.

In this embodiment, the case where the character line of the title is set parallel to one of the x axis and the y axis has been described. However, when this is always set parallel to the x axis, for example. , The second projection register 38b and the processing related thereto can be omitted.

[0032]

According to the present invention, projection data is created from image data of a document image. Since the inverted document is detected based on this projection data, it is possible to prevent unnecessary image data from being registered as an image file. Further, since the coordinate range of the character lines arranged at intervals on the document can be detected based on this projection data, it is not necessary for the operator to specify this range in character recognition of this character line.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of an image information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a document management table provided in the magnetic disk shown in FIG.

3 is a flowchart for explaining an image registration operation of the image information processing apparatus shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing projections in the x-axis and y-axis directions obtained corresponding to the front side image of a general document.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing projections in the x-axis and y-axis directions obtained corresponding to the back side image of a general document.

6 is a flowchart showing a title recognition process additionally performed in the registration process shown in FIG.

[Explanation of Codes] 10 ... Control Module, 23 ... Keyboard, 24 ... CR
T display device, 29 ... Mouse, 26 ... Magnetic disk, 39 ... Character recognition unit, 38 ... Main memory, 38a ...
First projection register, 38b ... Second projection register, 38c
... 3rd projection register, 40 ... page memory.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An image information processing apparatus for reading an image of a document having a front surface and a back surface, storing the read image in an information recording medium, and reproducing the stored image from the information storage medium. An image reading means for reading an image having the following, and generating image data composed of a plurality of pixels, and image data generated by the reading means,
Means for counting the number of pixels in either the row direction or the column direction, means for determining that the counting result by the counting means is less than or equal to a predetermined number of pixels, and the image reading means based on the result of the determining means An image information processing apparatus, comprising: a means for instructing to change the front side of the document to be read from the front side to the back side. 2. An image information processing apparatus for reading an image of a text original, storing the read image in an information recording medium, and reproducing the stored image from the information storage medium, the image having a row direction and a column direction of the text original. And an image reading means for generating image data composed of a plurality of pixels, and a first number for counting the number of pixels in one of the row direction and the column direction in the image data generated by the reading means.
Means, first extracting means for extracting pixel number data in either the row direction or the column direction from the pixel number data counted by the first counting means, and the pixels extracted by the first extracting means Second means for counting the number of pixels in either the row direction or the column direction from the number data, and the pixel number data counted by the second means for determining the number of pixels in the row direction or the column direction. An image information processing means comprising: a second extracting means for extracting pixel number data; and a means for recognizing a character of a document based on the pixel number data extracted by the first extracting means and the second extracting means. .