JPH11146188A - Image processing method and its device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the time for an image processing by editing image data by wherein the direction of a following original image is regarded as the same when the direction of first and second originals are the same, so as to omit judging processing of the direction of the original. SOLUTION: Image data outputted from a shading circuit of an image processor is inputted to a CPU/memory part 401 of a document direction discriminating part 306, wherein the image data is temporarily stored to execute various kinds of control. A character recognizing/direction discriminating part 402 recognizes several kinds of character areas in a document from each direction of 0 deg., 90 deg., 180 deg. and 270 deg. and obtains the most precise direction in the precision of character recognition at each direction as a direction of the document. An area separating and 403 separates a character part, a graphic part, a natural picture part, a table part, etc., from document image data to respective rectangular areas as a preprocessing for executing character recognizing/direction discriminating processing, and executes the processing of adding the attribute of each area.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image processing method and apparatus for automatically determining the direction of a document image and processing image data of the document image.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, in a copying machine, there is a mode in which four originals are reduced to one copy sheet and copied, so-called "4 in 1". In this case, one of the plurality of originals
The orientation of the image of the original document is determined, and 3
The direction of the copy output is determined by judging that the originals have the same orientation.

[0003]

However, according to the above-described method, there are cases where originals in different directions are mixed, and when the two-sided copying of originals is simultaneously used, a copy desired by a user cannot be obtained. there were. Therefore, in order to cope with such a case, each document is read by an optical reading device such as a scanner, and the characters of the read document information (image data) are recognized, so that the document direction in each document is changed. The above-described copying processing can be performed by performing the image processing according to the determination and the direction.

However, there are many methods of reading the original image for each original by an optical reading device such as a scanner and recognizing the characters of the read original information (image data) to determine the orientation of the original. It took a long time.

The present invention has been made in view of the above conventional example, and determines the orientations of the first and second originals. When the orientations of the first and second original images are the same, It is an object of the present invention to provide an image processing method and apparatus in which the direction of a subsequent document image is estimated to be the same and the process of determining the document direction is omitted, and the time required for image processing is reduced.

Another object of the present invention is to reduce the number of originals and print them on a single sheet of paper such as a 4-in-1 copy. The direction of the original document image is determined, and if the directions of the two original images are the same, the determination of the orientation of the subsequent third and fourth original images is omitted, and the time required for image processing is reduced. An object of the present invention is to provide a shortened document processing method and apparatus.

Further, according to the present invention, when a plurality of originals have the same orientation in succession, it is determined that the orientation of the succeeding original is the same, and the orientation of the original with respect to the subsequent original is determined. The object of the present invention is to provide an image processing method and apparatus in which the time required for image processing is reduced by omitting the above.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, an image processing apparatus according to the present invention has the following arrangement.
That is, image input means for inputting image data of a document image, direction discriminating means for discriminating the direction of the document image input by the image input means, and first and second sheets discriminated by the direction discriminating means. Determining means for determining whether the orientations of the original images are the same, image editing means for editing image data input by the image input means in accordance with the output of the determining means, And image recording means for recording the obtained image data. The image editing means, when the determination means determines that the orientations of the first and second document images are the same, the subsequent document image The editing of the image data is performed on the assumption that the directions are the same.

In order to achieve the above object, the image processing method of the present invention comprises the following steps. That is, an input step of inputting image data of a document image, and a direction determining step of determining the direction of the document image input in the input step,
A determining step of determining whether the orientations of the first and second document images determined in the direction determining step are the same, and an image input in the input step according to a determination result in the determining step An image editing step of editing data; and an image recording step of recording image data obtained in the image editing step. In the image editing step, the first and second originals are determined in the determination step. When it is determined that the directions of the images are the same, the image data is edited on the assumption that the directions of the subsequent document images are also the same.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating the configuration of an image forming apparatus (copier) according to the present embodiment.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 101 denotes an original platen glass on which originals fed from an automatic document feeder (ADF) 142 are sequentially placed at predetermined positions. Reference numeral 102 denotes a document illumination lamp having a halogen lamp or the like, for exposing a document placed on the document table glass 101 to light. 103,10
Reference numerals 4 and 105 denote scanning mirrors, which are housed in an optical scanning unit (not shown) and reciprocate in the left-right direction in FIG.
Light reflected from the document is guided to the CCD unit 106. The CCD unit 106 includes the imaging device 10 such as a CCD.
8, an imaging lens 107 for imaging reflected light from the original;
A CCD driver 109 for driving the image sensor 108 is provided. The image signal output from the image sensor 108 is converted into, for example, 8-bit digital data and then input to the controller 139.

Reference numeral 110 denotes a photosensitive drum, which is discharged by a pre-exposure lamp 112 in preparation for image formation. A primary charger 113 charges the surface of the photosensitive drum 110 uniformly. Reference numeral 117 denotes an exposure unit that is configured by, for example, a semiconductor laser or the like, exposes the photosensitive drum 110 based on image data processed by a controller 139 that performs image processing and control of the entire apparatus, and forms an electrostatic image corresponding to the image data. Form a latent image. Reference numeral 118 denotes a developing device which stores a black developer (toner). A pre-transfer charger 119 applies a high voltage before transferring the toner image developed on the photosensitive drum 110 to a sheet. Reference numerals 120, 122, and 124 denote paper feed units, and each paper feed roller 121, 123, 1
The transfer paper is fed into the apparatus by the rotation drive of 25,
The image forming apparatus temporarily stops at a position where the registration roller 126 is provided, and is re-fed at a timing of writing with the image formed on the photosensitive drum 110. A transfer charger 127 transfers the toner image developed on the photosensitive drum 110 to a fed transfer sheet. Reference numeral 128 denotes a separation charger, which separates the transfer paper having undergone the transfer operation from the photosensitive drum 110. The toner remaining on the photosensitive drum 110 without being transferred is collected by the cleaner 111.

Reference numeral 129 denotes a transport belt which transports the transfer sheet after the transfer process to the position of the fixing device 130, and fixes the image by, for example, heat. 131 is a flapper,
The transfer path of the transfer sheet after the completion of the fixing process is controlled to any one of the arrangement directions of the staple sorter 132 or the intermediate tray 137. The paper discharged to the staple sorter 132 is sorted into each bin, and the staple unit 141 staples according to an instruction from the controller 139.
Reference numerals 133 to 136 denote feeding rollers, which invert (multiply) transfer paper on which the fixing process has been completed once to the intermediate tray 137.
Or, feed the paper with non-reversal (both sides). Reference numeral 138 denotes a re-feed roller, which conveys the transfer sheet placed on the intermediate tray 137 to the position of the registration roller 126 again. The controller 139 includes a microcomputer described later,
The image forming apparatus includes an image processing unit and the like, and performs the above-described image forming operation in accordance with an instruction from the operation panel 140.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the controller 139 of the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 201 denotes a CPU for controlling the entire image forming apparatus according to the present embodiment. The CPU 201 sequentially reads a control program from a read-only memory 203 (ROM) storing a control procedure (control program) of the apparatus main body. Read and execute. An address bus and a data bus of the CPU 201 are connected to respective units via a path driver and an address decoder circuit 202. Reference numeral 204 denotes a random access memory (RAM) which is a main storage device used as storage for input data, a work storage area, and the like.
Reference numeral 205 denotes an I / O interface port, which is operated by a key input by an operator, and drives an operation panel 140 for displaying the state of the apparatus using liquid crystal and LEDs, a paper feed system, a transport system, and an optical system. Motors 207, clutches 208,
The solenoids 209 are connected to loads such as paper detection sensors 210 for detecting the paper being conveyed.

In the developing device 118, a toner remaining amount detecting sensor 211 for detecting the amount of toner in the developing device is arranged, and an output signal thereof is input to the I / O port 205. Reference numeral 215 denotes a high-voltage control unit, and the primary charger 113 and the developing device 11
8. The voltage value (high voltage) to the pre-transfer charger 119, the transfer charger 127, and the separation charger 128 is controlled.

An image processing unit 206 receives an image signal output from the CCD unit 106 and performs image processing described later to generate image data for printing. The laser unit 1 according to the image data thus generated
17 is driven. In this manner, the laser beam output from the laser unit 117 irradiates the photosensitive drum 110 by irradiating and exposing the photosensitive drum 110, and the light emission state is detected by a beam detection sensor 213 which is a light receiving sensor in a non-image area, and the output signal is I / O. Input to the O port 205.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram showing a functional configuration of the image processing unit 206 of the controller 139 in the image forming apparatus according to the present embodiment.

An image signal converted into an electric signal output by the CCD 108 is firstly converted into a shading circuit 301.
After the variation between pixels is corrected by the
In 02, data thinning processing is performed at the time of reduced copy, and data interpolation is performed at the time of enlarged copy. Next, in the edge emphasis circuit 303, for example, a second derivative is performed in a 5 × 5 window to emphasize the edges of the image.
Since this image data is luminance data, γ is converted to density data to be finally output to the semiconductor laser.
The conversion circuit 304 performs data conversion by table search. The image data thus converted into the density data by the gamma conversion circuit 304 is input to the binarization processing circuit 305. Here, multi-value data is converted into binary data by, for example, the ED (error diffusion) method. The image data thus converted into binary data is input to the synthesizing circuit 307, and the input image data and the image data of the image memory 310 constituted by, for example, a DRAM are selectively or ORed. And output. The read / write control for the image memory 310 is performed by the memory control unit 309. When the image is rotated, the read address of the image data in the image memory 310 is controlled. The image data output from the synthesizing circuit 307 is input to the PWM circuit 308 in order to convert the image data into a signal of the light emission intensity of the semiconductor laser, and outputs a signal of a pulse width according to the image density to the exposure unit 117. The image data output from the scaling circuit 302 is input to the document direction determination unit 306, and a document direction determination process described later is executed.

Next, the operation of the document direction discriminating unit according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the structure of the document direction discrimination unit 306.

In FIG. 4, a shading circuit 301
Is output to the CPU / memory unit 401, where the image data is temporarily stored and various controls are performed. This CPU / memory unit 401
Is connected to the CPU 201 of the controller 139 via a bus, for example, via a dual port RAM (not shown), and data is transmitted and received between them. Note that this data communication may of course be serial communication.

The character recognition / direction discrimination unit 402 focuses on the fact that the direction of the document is most accurately represented by the direction of the character, and identifies several types of character areas in the document as 0 °, 90 °, and 1 °.
Character recognition is performed from each direction of 80 ° and 270 °, and the direction with the highest accuracy among the character recognition accuracy (the degree of confidence of character recognition: the distance to the characteristic distribution of the character) in each direction is obtained. Is the document direction. Region separation unit 403
Separates a character portion, a graphic portion, a natural image portion, a front portion, and the like from the document image data into rectangular regions as preprocessing for performing character recognition / direction determination processing by the character recognition / direction determination portion 402. Then, a process of adding an attribute (such as a character portion) of each area is performed. The storage unit 404 includes, for example, a hard disk or a magneto-optical disk, and processes results of various data (image data, area separation result, character recognition result, and the like).
Used to save An I / F unit 405 is an interface unit that operates according to interface specifications such as SCSI and RS232C.
06 is controlled. The computer 406 obtains information via the I / F unit 405 and obtains and uses data stored in the storage unit 404.

Next, the outline of the document direction automatic discrimination / correction and character recognition processing in this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

In step S2, the image data (multi-valued image) input in step S1 is separated by the region separating unit 403 into rectangular regions for each attribute such as a character portion, a graphic portion, a natural image portion, and a table portion. You. Here, actually, area information surrounded by a rectangle is created.

Then, the process proceeds to a step S3, wherein rectangle information of the character area is extracted from each attribute. Here, the character frame area includes a text portion, a title portion, characters in a table, a caption portion of a figure, and the like.

For example, in the case of the document shown in FIGS. 6A and 6C, the rectangular information of the character area as shown in FIGS. 6B and 6D is extracted. Then, by using several blocks in these, characters included therein are recognized at a rotation angle of 0 °. Next, in step S5, the character is rotated by 90 °. In step S6, it is determined whether character recognition has been performed in each of the four rotation directions of 0 °, 90 °, 180 °, and 270 °. Steps S4 to S6 are repeatedly executed until the character recognition in one rotation direction is completed.

When character recognition results in these four directions are obtained, the process proceeds to step S7, and the direction of the character is determined based on the degree of confidence at each rotation angle as shown in FIG. 8C. In step S8, the direction of the character string is finally determined according to the rotation angle at which the character is recognized, and further, the corresponding area separation information and character recognition information are obtained.

As a method of the image rotation processing in step S5, there is a method of performing a region separation process again on all rotation image data, and another method of applying an address conversion to a region separation result. Since the image is generally assumed to be in the forward direction, the result of the region separation performed in the initial stage and the result of the region separation performed on the rotated image data are often different from each other. Therefore, it is desirable to take the former method.

The result of this processing is transmitted to the computer 406 via the I / F unit 405, and is used by the filing application program of the computer 406. The image is transmitted to the CPU 201 of the controller 139 for each image.

Next, a description will be given of a method for determining the document direction using the character recognition processing.

[Region Separation Processing] Black pixels in the document image data are detected, and a rectangular frame of black pixel blocks is created by contour tracing or labeling. next,
The density of black pixels in the rectangle, the presence or absence of adjacent rectangular blocks,
A character area (title, body, caption, etc.), a graphic area, a natural image area, a table area, and the like are determined based on an aspect ratio of a rectangle. The rectangular area of the character frame area is determined based on the determination result.

[Character Recognition Processing] As one method of character recognition processing, there is a feature vector extraction and comparison method. For example, as shown in FIG. 7A, it is assumed that a character area including the character "book" is determined. As a first step, a character cutout process is performed on this character area (see FIG. 7B). This is a process for cutting out a rectangle of one character, and is required if the state of black pixel continuity is detected.

As a second step, one character is cut into m × n (for example, 64 × 64) pixel blocks (see FIG. 7C). Then, the distribution direction of the black pixels is extracted from among them using a 3 × 3 pixel window (direction vector information: see FIG. 7D).

FIG. 7D exemplifies a part of the direction vector information. The window of 3 × 3 pixels is shifted to obtain several tens of direction vector information. This vector information is a character feature. The vector information (feature vector) is compared with the contents of a character recognition dictionary stored in advance, and characters are extracted in order from the character whose feature is closest to the feature vector. In this case, the first candidate, the second candidate,. The closeness of the feature to this feature vector is a numerical value indicating the closeness of the distance to the character, that is, the degree of confidence (accuracy, likelihood) of character recognition.

[Character Direction Judgment Processing] The confidence level of the character recognition is obtained in this manner. The character orientation discrimination processing based on the confidence degree is performed by using the character string "name of the present invention" shown in FIG. A description will be given using the case.

FIG. 8A shows a character string in the forward direction.
(B) is a character string obtained by rotating the character string by 270 °. Here, paying attention to the character “book”, when judging the character direction, as shown in FIG. 8C, four characters of 0 °, 90 °, 180 ° and 270 ° for one character “book” are used.
Try character recognition from the direction. For each of these rotation angles, it is sufficient to change the reading method of the character rectangular area, and it is not necessary to rotate the document.

FIG. 8 shows the result of character recognition at each rotation angle.
As shown in (c), they are different from each other. Note that FIG. 8C shows a provisional character recognition result and a degree of self-confidence for explanation, and this is not always the case.

In FIG. 8 (c), when character recognition is performed from the positive direction (0 °), “book” is correctly recognized, and the confidence level is a high value of “0.90”. When character recognition is performed from a direction rotated by 90 °, it is erroneously recognized as “town”,
The confidence level also drops to “0.40”. The reason why the erroneous recognition occurs and the confidence level is reduced is that the character recognition is performed based on the feature vector when viewed from the rotating direction. Similarly, when character recognition is performed from a direction rotated by 180 ° or 270 °, erroneous recognition occurs and the degree of confidence is reduced. Note that the degree of confidence in the direction of character recognition becomes more noticeable as the characters are more complex.

The result shown in FIG. 8C indicates that the document is highly likely to be oriented in the forward direction because the confidence is highest in the forward direction. In order to improve such character direction discrimination accuracy, for a plurality of characters in the same block,
Similarly, character recognition is performed from four directions. Furthermore, if the character direction is determined only by one block, the character direction may be erroneously determined for a special character string.
Perform similar character recognition for multiple blocks.
Then, for each block, an average value of the degrees of confidence in the four directions of each character to be recognized in the block is calculated, and further,
The average value of the confidence values in the four directions in each block is calculated, and the direction with the highest average value is recognized as the character direction (document direction).

As described above, the character direction is determined based on the confidence of a plurality of characters in the same block, and further, the character direction is determined based on the confidence of the plurality of characters in the same block without determining the character direction based on the confidence of only one character. The (document) direction can be determined with high accuracy. However, even if the character direction is determined based on the degree of confidence of only one character, or the character direction is determined based on the degree of confidence of a plurality of characters in the same block, the character direction can be determined with higher accuracy than before.

Next, when the result of determination of the character direction (document direction) is a direction other than the forward direction, the original image is rotated so that the character direction becomes the forward direction. This rotation is performed by the CPU shown in FIG.
It can be easily performed by a known technique using the / memory 401, and the description thereof will be omitted.

With the above processing, the original image data shown in FIG. 9A, the area separation data shown in FIG. 9B, and the character recognition information shown in FIG. 9C can be obtained. . These pieces of information are sent to the CPU 201 of the controller 139 as described above, and are used for various image processing and various controls.

The data format of the area separation data is shown in FIG.
As shown in (B), “header” indicating that the data is the area separation data, and the identifier “rect” of the separated area
The information of each area (block) distinguished by these identifiers includes a block number “order”, a block attribute (character portion, graphic portion, etc.) “att”, and an upper left corner of the block. Coordinate values “x1” and “y1”, block width “w”, block height “h”, and “directio” indicating vertical writing or horizontal writing
n ”,“ selfID ”which is the ID of the block, and“ upp ”which is the ID of the parent block including the block.
erID ", parent block attribute" upperAtt ",
It is configured by a spare area “reserve”.

As shown in FIG. 9C, the character recognition information "head" indicating that the character recognition information is character recognition information.
For example, character recognition information “OCR1” or the like regarding a single character such as “book” and “blk” corresponding to the above “rect1” or the like indicating a block including the character.
header ".

Each character recognition information such as "OCR1" is "type" indicating whether it is a character or a blank.
e ", the first to fifth candidate characters" character 1 "to" character 5 "according to the above-described degree of confidence in character recognition, the cutout positions" x1 "and" y1 "of the character, and the width" w "of the character. , The height of the character "h", and a spare area "reserve".

Next, the operation of the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a 4-in-1 (4 originals are reduced and copied onto one sheet) copying process in the copying machine according to the present embodiment. An example of copying by this 4-in-1 processing is shown in FIG.
It is shown in (B).

First, in step S11, the flags A, B, C, and D set in accordance with the result of the determination of the document direction are cleared to "0". Next, proceed to step S12,
It is determined whether or not the copy key on operation panel 140 has been turned on. If so, the process proceeds to step S13 to count the number of documents set on automatic document feeder 142. Next, in step S14, the copy mode is set to 4-in-1.
Or not. When 4-in-1 is not instructed, the process proceeds to step S15, and a copy process corresponding to the instructed process is executed.

On the other hand, when the 4-in-1 copy processing is instructed, the process proceeds to step S16, and the automatic document feeder 142
Are sequentially sent onto the original glass 101, the image is read, and the orientation of the original image is determined according to the processing shown in the flowchart of FIG. If, for example, the direction is “0 °” according to the document direction determined in step S16, steps S17 to S
The program proceeds to 18, where the flag A is set to "1". If the direction is “90 °”, steps S19 to S2
Proceeding to 0, the flag B is set to "1". If the direction is “180 °”, steps S21 to S2
2, the flag C is set to "1", and the direction is set to "270".
If "°", the process proceeds from step S23 to step S24, and the flag D is set to "1".

When any one of the flags A to D is set in this manner, the process proceeds to step S25, where it is determined whether the document whose orientation has been determined is the first document, and if it is the first document, the process proceeds to step S16. Returning this time, the second document is read, the direction of the document is determined, and a flag corresponding to the second document is set in any of steps S17 to S24 according to the result of the determination. When the orientation of the second document image is determined in this way, the process proceeds to step S26, where it is determined whether the orientation of the first document and the second document is the same. If so, the process proceeds to step S27.
Otherwise, the process proceeds to step S34.

If the orientation of the first document is the same as the orientation of the second document, in step S27, it is assumed that the orientation of the subsequent document is the same, and the orientation of the subsequent document is changed to the first (second sheet). The original is determined in the same direction as the original. Then, the process proceeds to step S28 to check whether the original is the final original. If it is the final document, the flow advances to step S34 to reduce the four or less documents that have been read so far, and create image data to be printed in accordance with the specified layout and document orientation. Then, the process proceeds to step S35, where printing (copying) is performed according to the image data, and the process ends.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S28 that the document is not the final document, the process proceeds to step S29, where the 4nth sheet (n = n
1) Check whether or not. Otherwise, step S30
The next document image is read, and the process proceeds to step S28. The orientation of the document read in step S28 is not determined, and the process is performed assuming the document orientation determined in step S27.

In step S29, if the document is the 4nth document, the flow advances to step S31 to create image data to be printed in accordance with the designated layout and document orientation, as in step S34. And step S3
Go to 2 and print (copy) according to the image data
I do. The image to be printed at this time is obtained by reducing four document images on one sheet. At this time, the value of the counter n is incremented by one. Then, in step S33, it is checked whether or not the copy processing is completed by reading up to the last original. If it is the last original, the processing is ended. If not, the process proceeds to step S28, and thereafter, the orientation of the original is determined. And perform 4-in-1 reduced copy.

In step S26, the first original and the second
If the orientation of the original is not the same, step S36
Proceeding to FIG. 11, it is determined whether or not the document is the last document.
4. The same copy processing as in S35 is performed.

If it is determined in step S36 that the original is not the last original, the flow advances to step S37 to check whether the original is the 4nth original.
If not, the flow advances to step S38 to determine the direction of the next document and set a flag corresponding to the direction of the next document in the same manner as in steps S16 to S24 described above. When the 4th sheet is reached in step S37, the process proceeds to step S40, and based on the determined orientation of each document,
Image processing such as image reduction and layout is performed. When the print data is created in this way, the process proceeds to step S41, where a copy process is executed (counter n = n + 1). Then, the process proceeds to step S42 to check whether the copy process up to the final document (m-th sheet) is completed. If so, the process ends. If not, the process proceeds to step S16. Of the original direction is determined.
In this case (when the orientations of the first document and the second document are different), the process of determining the document direction (orientation of the document) is repeated until the copy process of the final document is completed.

As described above, according to the first embodiment, when there are a plurality of documents, it is checked whether the first document and the second document are in the same direction. It is assumed that the orientation of a plurality of originals is the same, and the orientation of the subsequent original is determined. As a result, the time required for the document orientation determination process can be reduced.

[Second Embodiment] Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the second embodiment, in the first embodiment, the orientation of all subsequent documents is determined only by the first and second documents of the entire document.
In the case of in-one copy, the first original and the second
The orientations of the originals are determined. If the orientations are the same, the orientations of the subsequent two originals are determined to be the same, and the orientations of the third and fourth originals of the four originals are determined. The determination process is omitted. In the same manner, for example, in the case of N-in 1, the orientations of the first and second originals are determined, and if the orientations of these two originals are the same, the subsequent (N-2) The document orientation determination process can be omitted.

FIGS. 12 and 13 are flowcharts showing the processing of the second embodiment.

The processing in steps S51 to S57 in FIG. 12 corresponds to the processing in steps S11 to S24 in FIG. 10, and a description thereof will be omitted. In step S58, in the case of 4-in-1 copy, one of the four sheets
It is checked whether the document is the first document, and if so, the flow returns to step S56 to execute the above-described processing. If it is not the first document, the flow advances to step S59 to check whether the orientations of the first and second documents in the four-sheet document are the same. It is assumed that the orientations of the third and fourth originals are the same, and the original orientation is determined to be the same as that of the first original. Then, the process proceeds to a step S61 to check whether or not the document is the last one.
The copy process is executed in the same manner as described above.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S61 that the original is not the last original, the flow advances to step S62 to check whether the original is the 4nth original (n = 1 at first).
To read the next document and return to step S61.
In this way, when the 4th document is reached in step S62, the process proceeds to step S64, where necessary image processing is performed based on the document orientation determined in step S60 and the document image information for four pages. Create an image and execute the copy process. At this time, the value of the counter n is set to +
Do one. Then, the process proceeds to step S66 to check whether the document is the final document. If not, the process proceeds to step S56 to perform the above-described document orientation determination processing and flag setting processing.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S59 that the orientations of the first and second originals of the four-sheet original are not the same, the flow proceeds to step S59.
Proceeding to 69 (FIG. 13), it is checked whether the document is the final document. If it is the last document, the flow advances to step S67 to execute the above-described processing. If it is not the last original in step S69, the flow advances to step S70 to check whether the original is the 4nth original. If not, the flow advances to step S71 to perform a document orientation determination process and flag setting. If the document is the 4n-th document, the process proceeds to step S64, and the above-described processing according to the image reduction and document orientation is performed.

As described above, according to the second embodiment, for example, when performing 4-in-1 copy processing, it is checked whether the orientation of the first document and the orientation of the second document are the same, and the same is determined. If so, the copy processing is executed on the assumption that the orientations of the subsequent third and fourth originals are the same.

In FIGS. 12 and 13, it is determined in step S62 and step S70 whether or not the image is the N × n-th sheet. In step S64 and step S67, the N-in-1 copy process is performed to obtain the N-in. The present invention can also be applied to the case where one copy process is performed.

In step S26 of FIG. 10 or FIG. 12, attention is paid to the orientations of the first and second originals. For example, if originals of the same orientation continue, the subsequent original orientation is estimated. You can do it.

Even if the present invention is applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices (for example, a host computer, an interface device, a reader, a printer, and the like), an apparatus (for example, a copying machine, a facsimile, etc.) comprising one device Device).

An object of the present invention is to provide a storage medium storing a program code of software for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or an apparatus, and to provide a computer (or CPU) of the system or apparatus.
Or MPU) reads and executes the program code stored in the storage medium.

In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiment, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

As a storage medium for supplying the program code, for example, a floppy disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-ROM, CD
-R, a magnetic tape, a nonvolatile memory card, a ROM, or the like can be used.

When the computer executes the readout program code, not only the functions of the above-described embodiment are realized, but also the OS (Operating System) running on the computer based on the instruction of the program code. ) Performs part or all of the actual processing, and the processing realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments.

Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written into a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, based on the instructions of the program code, The case where the CPU of the function expansion board or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the function of the above-described embodiment is realized by the processing.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, for example, when four originals are read and reduced copy is performed on one copy sheet (4-in-1 copy), originals in different directions are mixed, or both sides are copied. A high-precision copy corresponding to the combined use with can be performed, and the copy time can be shortened.

[0074]

As described above, according to the present invention, 1
Judge the orientation of the first and second originals,
When the orientation of the original document image is the same, it is estimated that the orientation of the subsequent original image is also the same, and the determination process of the orientation of the original document is omitted, so that the time required for the image processing can be shortened.

Further, according to the present invention, when a plurality of originals are reduced and printed on one sheet, for example, in a 4-in-1 copy, the first sheet and the second sheet are printed every four sheets. The direction of the original document image is determined, and if the directions of the two original images are the same, the determination of the orientation of the subsequent third and fourth original images is omitted, and the time required for image processing is reduced. There is an effect that it can be shortened.

According to the present invention, among a plurality of originals,
If there is a document having the same orientation continuously, it is determined that the orientation of the subsequent document is also the same, and the process of determining the orientation of the document for the subsequent document can be omitted, thereby reducing the time required for image processing.

[0077]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a controller of the image forming apparatus according to the exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an image processing unit of a controller of the image forming apparatus according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a document direction determination unit in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing automatic document direction determination and character recognition processing according to the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a region separation state in automatic document direction determination according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram for describing a process of a character recognition process.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram for describing a document (character) direction automatic discrimination process according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a data format of area separation and character recognition information.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating processing in an N-in-1 copy (4-in-1) mode in the image forming apparatus according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating processing in an N-in-1 copy (4-in-1) mode in the image forming apparatus according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating processing in an N-in-1 copy (4-in-1) mode in the image forming apparatus according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating processing in an N-in-1 copy (4-in-1) mode in the image forming apparatus according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating a 4-in-1 copy example.

Claims (12)

[Claims] An image input unit for inputting image data of a document image; a direction determination unit for determining a direction of the document image input by the image input unit; and a first sheet determined by the direction determination unit. Determining means for determining whether the orientation of the second document image is the same; image editing means for editing image data input by the image input means in accordance with an output of the determining means; Means for recording image data obtained by the means, wherein the image editing means determines that the orientations of the first and second original images are the same by the determination means, And editing the image data on the assumption that the directions of the original images are the same. 2. An image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said image input means photoelectrically reads and inputs a document image. 3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image editing unit records a plurality of (N) document images on one recording medium in a designated layout. It is characterized in that image data is edited. 4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the determination unit determines whether the orientation of the first and second original images is the same for each of the N original images. It is characterized by the following. 5. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the direction determination unit recognizes a character of the document image,
The orientation of the document image is determined according to the likelihood of the recognized character. 6. An image input unit for inputting image data of a document image, a direction discriminating unit for discriminating a direction of the document image input by the image input unit, and a direction of the document image discriminated by the direction discriminating unit Determination means for determining whether or not a plurality of images are the same continuously; image editing means for editing image data input by the image input means in accordance with an output of the determination means; Image recording means for recording the obtained image data, wherein the image editing means determines the orientation of a plurality of original images when the orientation of the plurality of original images is determined to be continuously the same by the determination means. An image processing apparatus that edits image data on the assumption that the image data is the same. 7. An input step of inputting image data of a document image, a direction discriminating step of discriminating a direction of the document image input in the input step, and a first sheet and a second sheet discriminated in the direction discriminating step. A judging step of judging whether or not the directions of the eye original images are the same; an image editing step of editing the image data input in the input step in accordance with a judgment result in the judging step; And an image recording step of recording the image data obtained in the step. In the image editing step, if it is determined in the determination step that the orientations of the first and second original images are the same, the subsequent An image processing method, wherein image data is edited on the assumption that the direction of a document image is the same. 8. The image processing method according to claim 7, wherein in the input step, a document image is photoelectrically read and input. 9. The image processing method according to claim 7, wherein in the image editing step, a plurality of (N) document images are recorded on one recording medium in a designated layout. It is characterized in that image data is edited. 10. The image processing method according to claim 9, wherein in said determining step, it is determined whether or not the orientations of the first and second document images are the same for each of N document images. It is characterized by the following. 11. The image processing method according to claim 7, wherein the direction discriminating step recognizes characters of the document image,
The orientation of the document image is determined according to the likelihood of the recognized character. 12. An image input step of inputting image data of a document image, a direction discriminating step of discriminating a direction of the document image input in the image input step, and a direction of the document image discriminated in the direction discriminating step A determination step of determining whether a plurality of sheets are the same in succession; an image editing step of editing image data input in the image input step in accordance with a determination result of the determination step; And an image recording step of recording the obtained image data.In the image editing step, when it is determined in the determination step that the orientations of a plurality of document images are continuously the same, the subsequent document image An image processing method, wherein image data is edited on the assumption that directions are the same.