FR2683347A1 - Flexible system for processing mixed documents - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a flexible system for processing mixed documents. This system comprises a processing device (4) which reads data from a mixed document specified through an order or data, from a carrier (34), processing and transmitting the data read on the basis of the order, and a system device (2), provided separately from the device (4) and serving to send the order associated with a processing request originating from a user (at 6), receiving the read data or the processed data originating from the device (4) and displaying (at 8) and/or printing (at 10) the received data. Application in particular to the processing and printing of mixed documents comprising image data and code data.

Description

The present invention relates to a device for carrying out a treatment

  fast and efficient mixed document in a system for displaying and printing the mixed document, which includes image data and code data and which is stored in a device

  electronic such as a compact disc (CD-ROM).

  A classic device for display and printing

  pressing of a mixed document stored in an electronic device such as a CD-ROM has already been described

  in JP-A-01-94379, JP-A-63-131168, JP-A-63-214878.

  To view and print such a mixed document

  in accordance with the prior art, it is necessary to execute

  ter processing such as document development

  mixed, etc., in a computer such as a personal computer

  staff or workstation, after the mixed document has been read from the CD-ROM by a drive

  CD-ROM drive Note that here the expression "docu-

  mixed document "means a document which includes both

  code data and image data.

  With reference to FIG. 1, appended to the present application, a conventional treatment system will be described.

mixed documents.

  First, we will explain the configuration of such a classic document processing system

  mixed A mixed document processing system

  takes a display device 101, an input unit

  102, a system device 104, a disk drive

  pact-ROM 105 and a printer 106 The display device

  file 101, which is used to display entered data,

  has a display section 107 and a display section

  display 108 The input unit 102 comprises a keyboard section 109 and a mouse section 110 The system device 104, which is actually constituted by

  a CPU unit, memory, etc. (not shown),

  functionally takes a display processing station 111, a memory section 112, a control section 113, an extraction processing section 114, a drive processing section 115, a processing processing section input 116 and a mixed document processing section 119 A unit 105 which is used to drive a CD-ROM includes a control section 117 and a drive section 120 of the CD-ROM A CD-ROM stores a plurality of files

  mixed documents and an index file for memorization

  hints for these files The printer 106 for printing input data includes a printer control section 121 and a printer section 122.

  Below, we will describe the operation of the system

  classic theme of mixed document processing On va ex-

  first apply a document search processing

  mixed After starting the system, a de-

  search request is sent by a user to the sec-

  control 113 from the keyboard section 109 through the input processing section 116 The control section 113 produces a simple

  search order, which is sent to the processing section

  training 115 The treatment section

  115 controls the control section 117 if-

  killed in CD 105 to drive drive section 120 so that

  access to an index file stored in a hard disk

  pact-ROM and search for clues including all the keywords which were sent together with the request for

  search Extracted clues are stored in the sec-

  memory 112 In response to storing the information

  dices, the extraction processing section 114 executes a calculation specified by a search condition applied to the indices thus memorized. In response to the completion of the extraction operation, the control section 113 sends a display order to the display processing section 111 for displaying the indices determined on the section

  display 107 via the display section

  display command 108 In this way, the indices

  responding to the search request are displayed in the

display section 107.

  Below, we will explain the processing used to display a mixed document When a menu

  drop-down and clues resulting from the request for re-

  searches are displayed on display section 107, if a "display" is selected from the drop-down menu and

  then one of the clues is clicked using the sec-

  With the mouse 110, the input processing section 116 generates a display request and data based on the clicked position and sends it to the control section 113 In response to this request, the control section 113 sends to the processing section 115 a document display order and the name of a mixed document corresponding to the specified index The processing section 115 controls the control section 117 of the CD-ROM drive to access the disc compact-ROM based on the name of the mixed document and read from the compact-ROM

  a five-page part of the specified mixed document The do-

  specified mixed cument is stored in the meta section

  moire 112 via the control section 113 The document processing section 119 performs processing such as development processing for the mixed document stored in the memory section 112, expansion / reduction processing for the compressed image data or processing of converting code data to image data When the request from the user includes rotation, the image data is rotated by the document processing section 119 response to the completion of

  processing performed by the data processing section 119

  cuments, the control section 113 sends a display command to the display processing section 111 to

  view the mixed document developed on the affi-

  chage 107, via the display control section 108 In this way, the mixed document, which corresponds to the request, is displayed in the section

display 107.

  Finally, we will explain a treatment of prints-

  When a print request is made from

  from an input unit 102, a print order is produced In the same way as for the display request, a target mixed document is read from a

  CD-ROM and is stored in the meta section

  moire 112 through the processing section

  115 and the control section 113 En-

  further, the target mixed document is subjected to a development processing similar to that executed in connection with

  the display request When the development processing

  ment is completed, the print processing section 118

  reads the data developed from the processing section

  printing 118 reads the data developed from

  fired from memory section 112 and sends them to

  printer 106 Therefore, the mixed document is im-

award winning in a desired form.

  With a basic device corresponding to the state

  of the technique described above, since different

  annuities processing such as the development of a mixed document, must be executed in a computer such

  than a personal computer, a workstation or ana-

  log, the load applied to a CPU unit present in

  the computer becomes extremely high, which has the effect of

  significantly impair processing performance

  when another processing such as a display or a

  seeks is executed simultaneously Conversely, if a

  high speed must be run at a certain

  it is necessary to use a computer equipped with a high performance CPU unit, for example

example an expensive computer.

  Likewise, the user cannot build a mixed document processing system with his own computer, so an additional purchase is required.

  indeed, a mixed document processing system.

  In addition, if a document processing system

  mixed media must be built with the personal computer

  nel of a user, the performance of the system must be adapted between the computer and the mixed document processing device. Therefore, it is desirable to have a large capacity of general use for a

  mixed document processing device.

  The present invention has been developed on the basis of the above-mentioned problems and its object is, according to a first aspect, to provide a mixed document processing system which uses a mixed document processing device having a large capacity

of general use.

  A second object of the present invention is to provide a mixed document processing system, which makes it possible to reduce the load applied to a system device. A third object of the present invention is to provide a mixed document processing system, which allows a variety of computers to be used as

system device.

  To achieve these objectives, a processing system

  mixed documents according to the present invention is characterized in that it comprises: a mixed document processing device which responds to a processing command received to read

  data representing the content of a specific mixed document

  trusted by the processing order or the data associated with mixed documents, from a mixed document recording medium, selectively process the data read according to the processing order and transmit the data read or data processed; and a system device, provided separately from said mixed document processing device and for sending the processing order associated with a processing request from a user for said mixed document processing device, receiving the read data or the data processed from said mixed document processing device and display the data received.

  Other features and advantages of the pre-

  sente invention will emerge from the description given below

  after reference to the accompanying drawings, on the-

  that Figure 1, which has already been mentioned, is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of a conventional system for processing mixed documents;

  Figure 2 shows a block diagram illus-

  tring the configuration of a document processing system

  mixed elements according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

  FIG. 3 represents a flowchart allowing

  both explain how the processing system works

  mixed documents according to the present invention.

  We will describe below in detail a system

  processing document for mixed documents according to this

  invention, with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  Referring first to Figure 2, we will explain the configuration of a mixed document processing system 1 according to one embodiment of

  The present invention The document processing system 1

  mixed elements includes a system device 2, a device

  tif 4 for processing mixed documents provided separately from the system device, an input unit 6, a display device 8 and a printer 10 The system device 2 comprises a computer of a size smaller than that of the conventional system device 104 shown in FIG. 1 for the execution of part of the processing of the mixed document, such as for example a search, a display, etc., and additional user services The system device, which is constituted by a CPU unit, a memory ,

  etc in terms of material, includes from a functional point of view

  a control section 12, a memory section 14, an input processing section 16, a display processing section 18, a drive processing section 20 and an extraction processing section 22 L ' input unit 6, which is connected to the input processing section 16, is provided for entering given requests and includes a keyboard section 42 and a mouse section 44 The processing device 4

  of mixed documents, which is connected to the processing section

  drive element 20, includes an interface 24, a control section 26 comprising a processing section

  26-1 and a document processing section 26-

  2, a memory section 28, a CD-ROM drive section 30 and a processing section

  32 A CD-ROM 34 stores a file

  shit of 34-0 clues and mixed document files

  34-1 to 34-n The display device 8 connected to the sec-

  display processing tion 18, includes a section

  display 46 and a display control section 48.

  The printer 10 connected to the print processing section 32 includes a printer control section 50 and a printer section 52 The memory section 14 located in the system device 2 has an area which corresponds to a screen display for memorizing developed data of a mixed document,

  and another area used for other services The sec-

  tion of memory 28 in the device 4 for processing mixed documents includes an area used to memorize

  data developed from the mixed document for five pages.

  We will explain below, with reference to the fi

  gure 3, the functioning of the system 1 for processing mixed documents according to the present invention We will first explain a document search processing

  after system 1 has started, the com-

  command 12 waits for a request to be entered by the user from the keyboard section 42, through the input section 16 during step 52 A search request for mixed documents includes keywords and a condition Each index of mixed documents stored in a CD-ROM includes several assigned data elements, for example the author, the publisher and the date of publication of a

  mixed document, a classification code introduced before-

  depending on the content for the classification of the docu-

  mixed date, date of receipt of the mixed document, etc. At least one of these elements is contained in the form of

  keywords, and the search condition expresses an operation

  tion among the plurality of keywords, for example AND, OR, I <f, ">", "=, etc. In response to the request from the keyboard 42, the control section 12 produces an order of

  search in the same format as that produced by the sec-

  command 113 shown in FIG. 1 (an order having the same format as that explained with reference to

  Figure 1 will be designated below by 'twist in normal mode

  wrong ") and sends the search order and keywords to the training processing section 20 Likewise, an order for processing reading clues is sent

  to the extraction processing section 22, and this conjunction-

  with the search condition.

  In step 54, the order processing section 21-6 of the control section 26 determines whether an order received from the drive processing section 20 through the interface 24 is an order in fashion

  normal or an order in composite mode If the order is deter-

  mined as an order in normal mode, a determination is made again in step 55 to determine whether or not it is a search order If it is established that it is not a search order, the order is transferred as is to an associated section If it is established that it is a search order, step 56 is executed to carry out the transfer of the search order as which to the CD-ROM drive section 30 In step 58, the disk drive section 30 accesses

  a 34-0 index file from CD-ROM 34 and re-

  search this file for clues that include any

  conch of keywords sent together with the order of

  search In step 510, the indices extracted are memorized

  rised in the memory section 14 via the order processing section 26-1, the drive processing section 20 and the control section 12 In response to the storage of the indices, the processing section extraction processing 22 performs, in step 512, an operation specified by the search condition on the

  memorized clues For example, if three keywords have

  stated that an AND operation is ordered, the

  extraction processing 22 determines indices which satisfy

  do on condition AND among the indices stored in the

  memory section 14 In response to the completion of the

  search, the control section 12 sends a display order to the display processing section 18, in step 514, to display the indices determined in the display section 46 by

  through display control section 48.

  In this way, the indices corresponding to the demand for

  search are displayed in display section 46.

  In this example, the processing section of ex-

  traction is arranged in the system device 2 Otherwise, it can be arranged in the mixed document processing section 4 In this case, determined indices

  are passed to memory section 14.

  Likewise, although a search order was explained as a normal mode order in this example,

  other orders in normal mode are processed so-

  milaire Specifically, an order sent to an associated section without modification is processed by the order processing section 26- 1 This is why, if a processing

  must be executed for an individual processing section

  dual, an order in normal mode can be issued by the

  positive system 2 to document processing device 4

mixed.

  Below, we will explain a treatment for

  displaying a mixed document For displaying a document

  mixed document, we can directly introduce, from the keyboard section 42, a display order to specify a mixed document However, this example explains a display processing of a mixed document, which uses indices retrieved using the search request. When a menu bar and indices obtained from the search request are displayed in display section 46, if a "display" in the menu bar is selected and one of the indices is clicked later on. middle of mouse section 44 when

  step 52, the input processing section 16 sends a

  command and data based on the clicked position and transmits them to the control section 12 In response, the control section 12 issues a display order of composite mode and the name of a mixed document corresponding to the index specified in order processing section 26-1 through drive processing section 20 In step 54, order processing section 26-1 determines whether the order issued by the section 12 is a normal mode order or a composite mode order Since it is a composite mode order in this example, step 516 is then executed to determine whether it is or not display order. Since this is a display order in this

  example, step 518 is executed, step in which a plura-

  lity of processing orders are produced from or-

  dre of composite mode display and sent to the respective associated sections In response to a reading order of mixed documents among these orders, the section forming a unit

  CD-ROM 30 provides access to the CD-

  ROM 34 based on the name of the mixed document in step 520, and a five-page part of the mixed document is read from the CD-ROM 34 The read mixed document is stored in the memory section 28 via of the order processing section 26-1 and of the section

  26-2 in step 522, the sec-

  document processing 26-2 executes, in response to a development order from section 26-1, a

  development processing for the first page of the docu-

  mixed, stored in memory 28, for example a

  expansion / reduction processing for compressed data

  image data or processing of conversion of code data into image data When the request comes

  further specifies a rotation, the data

  born of images are subjected to a rotation processing Ce

  processing is executed since data processing

  images takes a long time and, if loaded into system device 2, the load applied to

  this system device 2 becomes extremely high In re-

  response to the completion of treatment by the processing section

  of documents 26-2, the order processing section 26-1 transmits the data developed for part of a

  display section screen 46 inside the first

  first page of the mixed document developed in step 524, by

  via interface 24 of the milking section

  drive 20 and control section 12, at

  memory section 14 and stores them in this sec-

  In response to the completion of the storage processing, the control section 12 sends a display command to the display processing section 18 in step 526 to display the stored mixed document, in the section

  display 46 via the display section

  display order 48 In this way, the mixed document, which corresponds to the display order, is displayed in the

display section 46.

  Furthermore, the memory section 28 includes a pointer used to indicate a part of a document.

  transferred to memory section 14 when a job order

  the next page is displayed or a scroll order is entered, the necessary data is transferred to the

  memory section 14 based on this pointer.

  Finally, we will explain a treatment of prints-

  sion Steps 52, 54 and 516 are executed in the same way

  denies that display processing Following step 516 is executed step 528 in which a plurality of orders

  are produced from an order of im-

  pressure and are sent to associated sections of the

  same as for step 518 In step 530, a docu-

  The target mixed media is read from the CD-ROM 34 and is stored in the memory section 28 through the order processing section 26-1 and the document processing section 26-2, the

  same as for step 520 In step 532, the first

  first page of the target mixed document is subject to processing

  development processing similar to step 522 When the development processing for the first page is completed, the print processing section 32 reads, in response to a page printing command from the

  section 26-1, the developed data from the sec-

  tion of memory 28 and sends this data to printer 50.

  Therefore, the mixed document is printed in a desired form. While the first developed page is delivered to the printer and printed by the printer, the

  document processing section 26-2 performs the

  development for the next page Then the same operations are repeated until the fifth page,

  that is to say on the last page of the pages read By ail-

  theirs, if a rotation operation is required for a do-

  mixed item, the print order may contain an order

of rotation.

  Although, in the previous example, the order of im-

  pressing either an order in composite mode, similar treatments can also be applied by orders in normal mode Specifically, an order for reading mixed documents, a development order for printing and a page printing order, all in

  normal mode, can be sent by the com section

  requests 12 to the order processing section 26-1 for exe

  cute similar treatments Therefore, the provision

  sitive 4 mixed document processing has a dual order processing structure As a result, the system device can issue a section of normal mode orders or a composite mode order according to user requirements, which allows to build a

  mixed document processing system at different levels

  calves according to scale and milking capacities

  ment of a system device Similarly, the double structure

  order processing device 4

  mixed cuments allows you to connect any computer

  to the device 4 for processing mixed documents, this

  which provides a large capacity for general use

  In addition, since the system device 2 and the device 4 for processing mixed documents are produced separately, the problem concerning the location

  of the installation is deleted and a system can be extended

  conventional computer hopper to a processing system

mixed documents.

Claims (4)

  1 Mixed document processing system,   characterized in that it comprises: a device (4) for processing mixed documents which responds to a processing command received to read data representing the content of a document   mixed specified by the processing order or the data as-   associated with mixed documents, from a medium (34)   for recording mixed documents, process separately   read the data read according to the processing order   and transmit the read data or the processed data   tees; and a system device, provided separately from said mixed document processing device (4) and serving to send the processing order associated with a processing request from a user for said mixed document processing device, receiving the data read or the data processed from said device   (4) processing mixed documents and displaying data born received.   2 Mixed document processing system se-   lon claim 1, characterized in that said medium (34) for recording mixed documents is a CD-ROM, which comprises a plurality of files serving   to memorize data representing the contents of docu-   mixed elements and an index file used to memorize   indices representing elements of most indices   of mixed documents, each index comprising more   several attribute data elements as elements   clues related to a corresponding mixed document.   3 Mixed document processing system   lon claim 2, characterized in that:   said processing order is a re-   search comprising one or more keywords and a condi-   research; said device (4) for processing mixed documents comprises means (26,30) responding to the order of   search to search for said index file in the-   said medium (34) for recording mixed documents, and extracting indices comprising attribute data which   match any of the keywords and pass   be the indices extracted from said system device (2); and said system device (2,6,8) comprises extraction processing means (22) for sending the search order comprising the keywords to said mixed document processing device (4), receiving the indices from this device (4) and extract and display indices which satisfy the search condition, among the clues received.   4 Mixed document processing system   lon claim 2, characterized in that:   said processing order is a display order   ge; said mixed document processing device (4) comprises means (26,28), which respond to the order   display to read a particular mixed document from   shooting from said medium (34) for storing mixed documents, executing a processing commanded by the processing order   for part of the particular mixed document read, and trans-   put the specific mixed document dealt with in said provision   tif system (2); and said system device (2) comprises display means (8,12,14,18) for transmitting the display order to said device (4) for processing mixed documents, and for receiving and displaying the particular processed part of the mixed document from said device   (4) processing mixed documents.   Document processing system according to claim 2, characterized in that:   said processing order is a printing order   If we; said mixed document processing system   further includes printing means (50) for printing   sea of data entered; said system device (2) comprises means   (12,20) to transmit the print order to said device   sitive (4) mixed document processing; and said mixed document processing device (4) comprises means (26,28,32) for reading a document   particular mixed from said storage medium (34)   tion of mixed documents, continuously process   ment of the particular mixed document in a predeter-   mined, and deliver the particular treated part of the docu-   mixed with said printing means (50) in the unit predetermined.