JPH11238053A - Document device, document generation method and recording medium recording document generation program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To convert an existed document inputted as picture data into a document described by prescribed structured tag language. SOLUTION: Picture data inputted from an input means 1 is layout-recognized by a layout recognition means 3 and an HTML layout generation means 6 generates the control code of HTML based on respective recognized layouts and HTML(hyper text mark up language) layout knowledge 5. A character recognition means 4 character-recognizes input picture data and outputs a character code. An HTML document generation means 20 generates the HTML document by associating the control code of HTML with the character code and outputs it from an output means 7.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] The present invention relates to the World Wide Web (WoW), for example, on the Internet.
A document creation device and a document creation method for creating a document described in a structured tag language, such as HTML (HyperText Markup Language), which is a language for describing a home page of an rld Wide Web, and a recording medium storing a document creation program It is about.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A structured tag language is known in which a character string (control code) called a tag is placed in a text file so that the arrangement, size, font and the like of characters can be specified. A document described in the structured tag language is displayed according to a control code described in the document by using a dedicated program called a browser.

As a typical example of the structured tag language, HTML, which is a language for describing a WWW homepage on the Internet, is known. In particular, with the development and spread of Internet technology and intranet technology in recent years, there has been an increasing demand for converting various documents into HTML documents. Naturally, there is a great demand to convert a huge document printed on paper held in the past into an HTML document format and use it.

There are two methods for converting a document printed on paper into a document described in a structured tag language such as an HTML document. The first method is a method in which a document is read by an optical scanner, and the document is used as it is incorporated into an HTML document as image data. The second method is HTM by hand while looking at the document
This is a method of giving control codes for L.

[0005]

However, the conventional method has the following problems. First, when used as image data, there is a problem that the image data becomes enormous, and the storage capacity and the time to acquire the data for the user to browse become enormous. In addition, when a control code for HTML is manually added, an enormous amount of work time is required, which is not efficient.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a document creating apparatus and a document creating method capable of converting an existing document input as image data into a document described in a predetermined structured tag language, and a recording in which a document creating program is recorded. The purpose is to provide a medium.

[0007]

According to the present invention, there is provided a document creation apparatus for creating a document described in a predetermined structured tag language from a document input as image data, Input means for inputting a document as image data, input image storage means for storing image data input from the input means, layout recognition means for recognizing a layout of image data stored in the input image storage means, and structuring Layout knowledge storage means storing conversion rules related to a tag language layout, and control for generating a structured tag language control code for each layout recognized by the layout recognition means based on the conversion rules of the layout knowledge storage means Code generating means for recognizing a character image in the image data stored in the input image storage means, Character recognition means for conversion, a character code outputted by the character recognition unit, in association with the control code generated by the control code generating means, a document creation means for creating a document described in a structured tag language,
Output means for outputting a document created by the document creation means.

As a result, a document creation device capable of converting an existing document input as image data into a document described in a predetermined structured tag language is obtained.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The invention according to claim 1 of the present invention is a document creating apparatus for creating a document described in a predetermined structured tag language from a document input as image data, Input means for inputting image data as image data;
Input image storage means for storing image data input from the input means, layout recognizing means for recognizing the layout of the image data stored in the input image storage means, and layout storing conversion rules for the layout of the structured tag language Knowledge storage means, control code generation means for generating a structured tag language control code for each layout recognized by the layout recognition means based on the conversion rules of the layout knowledge storage means, and storage in the input image storage means Character recognition means for recognizing a character image in the image data to be converted into a character code, character codes output by the character recognition means, and control codes generated by the control code generation means in association with each other. A document creation means for creating a document described in a tag language, and a document creation means Output means for outputting a document, a control code of a predetermined structured tag language is added in accordance with the layout of the document input as image data, and a document described in the structured tag language is added to the document. Can be converted.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the layout knowledge storage means includes:
By adopting a configuration in which a conversion rule can be added by a user, it is possible to cope with an expression unique to a document held by the user.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the document creating means connects each document obtained from a plurality of input image data and is described in a structured tag language. With such a configuration that a single document is generated, even a document physically extending over a plurality of pages can be used as one page described in a structured tag language.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In each of the following embodiments, HTML is described as a specific example of the structured tag language.

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a document creating apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention, and shows the configuration of functional units.

In FIG. 1, 1 is an input means for inputting an image image, 2 is a data storage means for storing the image image, layout recognition, character recognition result, etc., 3 is a layout recognition apparatus for recognizing the layout of the input image image. Means 4, character recognition means for converting a character image into a character code, reference numeral 5, an HTML layout knowledge DB (database) storing conversion rules related to the HTML layout, and reference numeral 6, an HTML control code is generated according to an HTML layout knowledge DB 5 HTML layout generating means 7 for outputting the generated HTML document in a file or the like or displaying the generated HTML document on a display;
Reference numeral 20 denotes a character code output from the character recognition means 4 and H
HTML document creation means for creating an HTML document in association with the control code generated by the TML layout generation means 6.

FIG. 2 is a device block diagram of the document creation device according to the first embodiment of the present invention, and shows a configuration by hardware.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 8 denotes a scanner for reading data. Reference numeral 9 denotes a central processing unit (CPU) that controls the apparatus by executing a control program. 1
0 is a read only memory (RO) for storing data
M), and has an area for storing a program to be executed by the CPU 9. Reference numeral 11 denotes a random access memory (RAM) for temporarily storing data. Reference numeral 12 denotes a display device such as a cathode ray tube display (CRT).

Reference numeral 13 denotes a disk drive for reading and writing data on a recording medium such as a floppy disk (FD). Reference numeral 14 denotes an input device such as a keyboard or a pointing device, and 15 denotes a secondary storage device such as a hard disk. 16 is a data bus.

Here, the correspondence between the functional means of FIG. 1 and the hardware of FIG. 2 will be described. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the input unit 1 is realized by a scanner 8. The data storage means 2 is realized by the RAM 11. HTML
The layout knowledge DB 5 is realized by the ROM 10 or the secondary storage device 15. The output means 7 is realized by a CRT 12 or a disk drive 13.

Layout recognition means 3, character recognition means 4,
The HTML layout generating means 6 includes a CPU 9
0 and R while exchanging data with RAM11.
This is realized by executing a control program stored in the OM 10.

In this embodiment, the CPU 9 determines whether the RO
In this embodiment, the control program stored in the M10 is executed.
Alternatively, the CPU 9 may read the control program via the CPU 9 and develop the program on the RAM 11 or the secondary storage device 15 to execute the program. With such an embodiment, the present invention can be easily realized by a general-purpose computer.

The operation of the document creating apparatus configured as described above will be described below. Note that the following flowchart shows how the CPU 9 executes a control program stored in the ROM 10.

FIG. 3 is an operation flowchart of the document creating apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 3, first, an image is input from the input means 1, and the input image data is stored in the data storage means 2 (step 1). Here, it is assumed that the image shown in FIG. 5 has been input.

Next, the layout recognizing means 3 analyzes the input image and recognizes the layout (step 2). In this case, the character area is divided into two large parts, the "home recipe collection" is centered, written in relatively large characters, and the three lines following "yesterday's menu" are listed. It will be recognized. In addition, here I wrote "my home recipe collection", but character recognition has not yet been performed, and at this time the character string "my home recipe collection" is not generated, it is there Indicates the image part.

The HTML layout generating means 6 includes an HTML
An L layout is generated (step 3). Step 3 will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

FIG. 4 is an operation flowchart of layout generation according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 4, first, at step 301
Then, the HTML layout generating means 6 extracts one rule from the HTML layout knowledge DB 5. FIG.
9 shows an example of the HTML layout knowledge DB5. Here, “Large centered character → <CENTER><H
1> and </ H1></CENTER>."

Next, in step 302, the HTML layout generating means 6 refers to the layout information output by the layout recognizing means 3 and checks whether there is a layout that matches the extracted rule. Here, the step of "My home recipe collection" matches the rule, so step 3
Go to 03.

In step 303, the processing after "→" in the rule is performed, and the part of "my home recipe collection" is changed to <C
ENTER><H1> and </ H1></CENTER> are stored in the data storage means 2.

Returning to step 302, it is checked again whether there is a layout that matches the rule. Here, since there is not, the process proceeds to step 304.

In step 304, the HTML layout generation means 6 checks whether or not all of the rules stored in the HTML layout knowledge DB 5 have been processed. Since only one of the rules shown in FIG. 6 has been processed, the process returns to step 301.

In step 301, the HTML layout generation means 6 extracts another rule from the HTML layout knowledge DB 5. FIG. 6 shows HTML layout knowledge D.
The example of B5 is shown. Here, "The bulleted part → Enclose the whole with <UL> and </ UL>, and each item is <LI>
And </ LI>).

In step 302, the HTML layout generating means 6 refers to the layout information output by the layout recognizing unit 3 and checks whether there is a layout that matches the rule. In this case, since the items from “the menu of yesterday” to “the menu of tomorrow” are the bulleted parts, they match the rules and go to step 303.

In step 303, the processing after "→" of the rule is performed, and the whole from "Yesterday's menu" to "Tomorrow's menu" is enclosed by <UL> and </ UL>. , "Menu of today" and "menu of tomorrow" are stored in the data storage means 2 in <LI> and </ LI>, respectively.

Returning to step 302, it is checked again whether there is a layout that matches the rule. Here, since there is not, the process proceeds to step 304.

In step 304, the HTML layout generation means 6 checks whether or not all the rules among the rules stored in the HTML layout knowledge DB 5 have been processed. Here, it is assumed that all rules have been processed, and the process proceeds to step 305.

In step 305, it is checked whether there is any unprocessed layout. Here, all the rules have been tried, but if there is a layout that has not been processed, as shown in step 306, the fact that there is a part where the layout processing cannot be performed is output to the output unit 7.

Instead of displaying a warning in step 306, some default processing may be performed.
For example, all characters are used as body data without any layout information, and data whose layout could not be confirmed is inserted as a comment.

As described above, the generation of the HTML layout shown in FIG. 4 is completed.

Returning to FIG. 3, character recognition of the input image data is performed (step 4). In step 4, the characters in each character area are recognized and a character code is output. When the character code is output, the HTML document creator 20 embeds the character code according to the HTML layout information generated in step 3 to create an HTML document (step 5). In step 5, <HTML><BODY> is added to the head of the document and </ BODY></HTML> is added to the end of the document as essential control codes for being an HTML document.

The created HTML document is output by the output unit 7. FIG. 7 shows a state in which all data is output to the output means 7. This output is, for example, stored in the disk drive 13 or displayed on the display device 12.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the layout of input image data is recognized, an HTML control code is generated based on the layout recognition result, and the character recognition result and the HTML Since the HTML document is created by associating the control code, the operator does not need to manually assign the control code when converting the existing document into the HTML document, and thus the work efficiency can be improved.

(Embodiment 2) Hereinafter, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.

In this embodiment, the user can add and modify rules as needed in the HTML layout knowledge DB 5 shown in the first embodiment.

For example, as shown in FIG. 8, when a document including a three-column table surrounded by ruled lines is converted into an HTML document,
It is assumed that there is no rule in the HTML layout knowledge DB 5 for processing a three-column table written with ruled lines.

In such a case, the operator uses an input device such as a keyboard to add a new rule to the HTML layout knowledge DB 5 as shown in FIG. By the procedure, the HTML document shown in FIG. 10 can be obtained.

As described above, in the present embodiment, even for a document having a layout that is not prepared in the HTML layout knowledge DB 5 in this way, the operator adds and corrects rules by using the HTML. Documents can be created automatically.

(Embodiment 3) Hereinafter, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described.

In this embodiment, in the document creation apparatus shown in the first embodiment, a plurality of pages of an input document can be processed as one HTML document.

FIG. 11 is an operation flowchart of the document creating apparatus according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 11, a plurality of image data are inputted from the input means 1 and stored in the data storage means 2 (step 501).

The input image data is stored in the procedure from step 2 to step 5 shown in the first embodiment, ie,
The document is converted into an HTML document by the procedure shown in FIG. 3 (step 502).

This procedure is continued until all pages have been processed (step 503). Here, 2 shown in FIG.
Taking the document of the page as an HTML document as an example, as shown in FIG.
It is ML documented.

Next, the HTML document creating means 20 performs a combining process of a plurality of pages (step 504). Specifically, <HTML><BODY> and </ BODY><
/ HTML> and connect each page. The result is shown in FIG.

The created HTML document is output from the output means 7 (step 505). This output is stored in, for example, the disk drive 13 or the display device 1.
2 is displayed.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, a logically continuous page is divided into a plurality of pages for convenience of paper, so that the input image data is divided into a plurality of pages. However, it can be created as one HTML document.

As described above, each embodiment has been described by taking a certain embodiment as an example. However, it is needless to say that the present invention is not limited to each embodiment described above. For example, the scanner 8 has been described as an example of the input unit 1, but image data may be input via the disk drive 13 or a network instead of the scanner 8.

Although an example in which the output result is output to the storage medium 17 has been described, output to a flash memory card or another device via a network may be considered.

[0059]

As described above, according to the present invention, there is provided a document creating apparatus for creating a document described in a predetermined structured tag language from a document input as image data, wherein the document is used as image data. Input means for inputting, input image storage means for storing image data input from the input means,
Layout recognition means for recognizing the layout of image data stored in the input image storage means, layout knowledge storage means for storing conversion rules relating to the layout of the structured tag language, and layout based on the conversion rules of the layout knowledge storage means A control code generation unit for generating a control code of a structured tag language for each layout recognized by the recognition unit; and a character image in image data stored in the input image storage unit is recognized and converted into a character code. A character recognition unit, a document creation unit that associates a character code output by the character recognition unit with a control code generated by the control code generation unit, and creates a document described in a structured tag language; And output means for outputting a document created by the means. According to the layout of a document input as data, a control code of a predetermined structured tag language can be added and converted into a document described in the structured tag language, so that the operation burden on the operator in the conversion work is reduced. It is reduced.

Further, the layout knowledge storage means is configured so that the conversion rule can be added by the operator, so that the layout knowledge storage means can cope with an expression peculiar to the document held by the user, and the subsequent conversion accuracy can be improved. .

Further, the document creation means is configured to link documents obtained from a plurality of input image data to generate one HTML document described in a structured tag language, thereby physically providing a plurality of documents. Even a document spanning pages can be used as one page described in the structured tag language, and the efficiency of use after conversion can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a document creation device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a circuit block diagram of a document creation device according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an operation flowchart of the document creation apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an operation flowchart of layout generation according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing input image data according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an HTML layout knowledge DB according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a view showing an HTML document created according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing input image data according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an HTML layout knowledge DB according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a view showing an HTML document created according to the second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is an operation flowchart of a document creation device according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing input image data according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an HTML document being processed according to the third embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an HTML document created according to the third embodiment of the present invention;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Input means 2 Data storage means 3 Layout recognition means 4 Character recognition means 5 HTML layout knowledge DB 6 HTML layout generation means 7 Output means 8 Scanner 9 Central processing unit (CPU) 10 Read only memory (ROM) 11 Random access -Memory (RAM) 12 Display device 13 Disk drive 14 Input device 15 Secondary storage device 16 Data bus 20 HTML document creation means

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A document creation device for creating a document described in a predetermined structured tag language from a document input as image data, comprising: input means for inputting a document as image data; Input image storing means for storing input image data, layout recognizing means for recognizing a layout of image data stored in the input image storing means, and layout knowledge storing means for storing a conversion rule relating to a layout of a structured tag language And, based on the conversion rule of the layout knowledge storage means,
A control code generating means for generating a structured tag language control code for each layout recognized by the layout recognizing means; and a character code for recognizing a character image in image data stored in the input image storage means. A document recognizing means for converting a character code output by the character recognizing means and a control code generated by the control code generating means into a document described in a structured tag language Means for outputting a document created by the document creating means. 2. The document creation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said layout knowledge storage means is capable of adding a conversion rule by a user. 3. The document according to claim 1, wherein said document creating means connects each document obtained from a plurality of input image data and generates a document described in one structured tag language. Creating device. 4. A document creation method for creating a document described in a predetermined structured tag language from a document input as image data, comprising: a step of storing input image data; Recognizing a layout of the data; generating a control code of the structured tag language for each recognized layout with reference to a conversion rule regarding the layout of the structured tag language; Recognizing a character image and converting it to a character code; associating the converted character code with the generated control code to create a document described in a structured tag language; and the created document. Outputting a document. 5. A recording medium on which a document creation program for creating a document described in a predetermined structured tag language from a document input as image data is stored, wherein the input image data is stored. Recognizing the layout of the input image data, generating a control code of the structured tag language for each recognized layout by referring to a conversion rule relating to the layout of the structured tag language, Recognizing a character image in the image data to be converted into a character code; and associating the converted character code with the generated control code to create a document described in a structured tag language. Outputting a created document. A storage medium storing a document creation program.