JP2000115448A - Terminal, image read system, and image read method and storage medium thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To transmit image data generated by an image read means shared in common on a network, while reducing the size of the data. SOLUTION: This terminal is provided with an image read means 1B that is shared in common on a network 6, a data form conversion means 2 that converts a form of image data generated by the image read means 1B into a designated data form, and a communication means 4 that communicates data via the network 6, and the form of the data can be converted into a data form which is not supported by a driver of the image read means shared in common on the network.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a terminal device, an image reading system, an image reading method, and a storage medium.
In particular, the present invention relates to an image reading unit shared on a network and a management method thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, with the spread of PCs, scanners, digital cameras, and the like, there has been an increasing need to read image data or read a printed document for digitization. In addition, networks such as LANs are also becoming popular,
The need to share image reading means on the network has also increased.

[0003] Sharing the image reading means on the network has the advantage that the cost can be reduced and the installation place can be minimized.

[0004]

However, there are various types of image data actually read by using image reading means sharable on a network, and one image is a color document or another image. In many cases, the data size became very large due to high resolution or the like.

[0005] For this reason, it takes a very long time to acquire image data via a network, which is not only inefficient, but also increases the traffic on the network, so that other users using the same network are required. There is a problem that the work efficiency is also reduced.

Further, even when it is desired to convert image data into a format having a small data size and transmit the data, the data size can be reduced if the driver of the image reading means does not have such a function of converting the data format. could not.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and has been made in view of the above-described problems. It is an object of the present invention to make it possible to make the transmission smaller.

[0008]

According to the present invention, there is provided a terminal device comprising: an image reading unit sharable on a network; and a data format conversion unit for converting a format of image data generated by the image reading unit into a designated data format. Means, and communication means for exchanging data via the network. Another feature of the terminal device of the present invention is that the terminal device further includes a data format determining unit that determines whether a data format of the image data generated by the image reading unit corresponds to a specified data format. It is characterized by: Another feature of the terminal device of the present invention is that a data format information obtaining unit that obtains format information of image data that can be generated by an image reading unit that can be shared on a network; And a communication means for exchanging data via the network.

An image reading system according to the present invention comprises: an image reading means sharable on a network; and a data format for determining whether a data format of the image data generated by the image reading means corresponds to a specified data format. A server terminal comprising: a determination unit; a data format conversion unit configured to convert a format of the image data generated by the image reading unit into a designated data format; and a communication unit configured to exchange data via the network. A data format information acquisition unit that acquires format information of image data that can be generated by the image reading unit that can be shared above, a data format specification unit that specifies a format of the image data that is generated by the image reading unit, The communication method for exchanging data via the network and the client terminal It is characterized in that Bei.

According to the image reading method of the present invention, there is provided a first process in which an image reading instruction is issued from a client terminal side to an image reading means of a server terminal shared on a network, and the first processing in response to the instruction from the client terminal side. A second process of reading an image to generate image data, a third process of determining whether a data format of the image data generated by the image reading unit corresponds to a specified data format, and a process of reading the image. A fourth process of converting the image data into a data format specified by the client terminal when the data format of the image data generated by the means does not correspond to the specified data format; Performing a fifth process of transmitting image data from the server terminal to the client terminal. To have. Another feature of the image reading method of the present invention is that, before instructing the image reading means of the server terminal shared on the network to read the image, a data format that can be generated on the network is obtained. The client terminal side specifies the format of the image data to be generated by the image reading means based on the result of the data format acquisition process.

[0011] The storage medium of the present invention is characterized in that a program for causing a computer to function as each of the above means is stored so as to be readable from the computer.
Another feature of the storage medium of the present invention is that a program for causing a computer to execute the procedure of the image reading method is stored so as to be readable from the computer.

[0012]

Since the present invention comprises the above technical means, it is possible to cope with a data format which is not supported by the driver of the image reading means shared by the network. It is possible to transmit via.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS <Description of Terminal Device> A terminal device, an image reading system, an image reading method and a storage medium according to the present invention will be described below. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an image reading apparatus according to the present embodiment.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a system bus.
It is connected to the bus 1. 2 is CPU (Central Processi
ng Unit).

3 is a program memory (referred to as PMEM)
Then, a program for processing performed by the present apparatus is appropriately selected / read from the hard disk 10 and executed by the CPU 2. Data input from the keyboard 12 is stored as code information in the PMEM 3 which is also a text memory.

A communication controller 4 controls input / output data at the communication port 5. The signal output from the communication port 5 is transmitted via the communication line 6 to the communication port of another device 7 on the network. Communication with the printer 18 and the image reading device 1B shared on the network is performed via the communication control unit 4.

In this embodiment, a network such as a LAN will be described. However, the present invention is applicable even if the communication port 5 and the communication line 6 connected to the communication control unit 5 are general public lines. Needless to say.

Reference numeral 8 denotes an external storage device control unit, 9 and 10 are disks for data files, for example, 9 is a floppy disk (referred to as FD), and 10 is a hard disk (referred to as HD).

Reference numeral 11 denotes an input control unit, which is a keyboard 1
2. An input device such as a mouse 13 is connected. The operator operates the keyboard 11 to issue a system operation command or the like.

Reference numeral 13 denotes a pointing device (referred to as a PD) for processing and instructing image information on the CRT 16. In this embodiment, a mouse is used. This allows CR
The cursor on T16 is arbitrarily moved in the X and Y directions to select a command icon on the command menu to give a processing instruction, and also gives an instruction on an edit target, a drawing position, and the like.

Reference numeral 14 denotes a video image memory (referred to as VRAM), 15 denotes a display output control unit, and 16 denotes a CRT. CR
The data displayed at T16 is developed on the VRAM 11 as bitmap data. A printer control unit 17 controls output of data to the connected printer 18.

Reference numeral 1A denotes an image reading device controller which controls the connected image reading device 1B. In the present embodiment, the image reading server device requires the components of the image reading device control unit 1A and the image reading device 1B, but the client side device has the communication control unit 4 and the communication The image reading device control unit 1 on the server side shared via the port 5
A. The image reading device 1B can be used.

Further, the configuration of FIG.
Even if B and the terminal device are physically separate components, the terminal device has the same function even if it is one component including the image reading device 1B.

The program stored in the program memory 3 in the present embodiment may be stored in a storage medium such as a hard disk (HD) or a floppy disk (FD) directly connected to the apparatus. Good.

Further, it may be stored on another device connected by a network. Further, the program of the present embodiment can be supplied to a system or an apparatus via a storage medium such as the FD 9 or the HD 10 or a network.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation procedure of the image reading apparatus according to the present embodiment.
First, in a first step S201, an instruction such as image reading is issued from a client to a terminal device such as a scanner shared on a network connected to a server. At this time, the data format to be read is also specified.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a screen for setting the image data format to be read. In FIG. 4, reference numeral 41 denotes a window for setting a read image data format. 4
2 to 44 indicate image data formats. Reference numeral 45 denotes a display for the user to set an extension of the image data format that is not displayed.

Next, in step S202, the server receives the instruction and starts a process of reading an image from a designated peripheral device (image reading means such as a scanner) to read the image and generate image data. . next,
Proceeding to step S203, the processing capability of the peripheral device activated in step S202 is checked to determine whether or not the peripheral device supports the data format specified by the client. If the data format is supported, the process proceeds to step S208, and the read image data is sequentially transmitted to the client.

On the other hand, if the result of determination in step S203 is that the data format is not supported, the flow advances to step S204 to determine whether or not the image data format conversion process has been activated. If the result of this determination is that the image data format conversion process has been activated, the process proceeds to step S206 without doing anything. If the image data format has not been activated, the image data format conversion process is activated in step S205, and the process proceeds to step S206.

In step S206, the read image data is converted into a data format specified by the client. After the conversion, the process proceeds to step S207, and the converted image data is sequentially transmitted to the client.

Next, in step S209, it is determined whether or not the image reading process has been completed. As a result of this decision,
If all the image reading processes have not been completed, the process returns to step S203, and the above-described process is continued.

On the other hand, if the result of the determination in step S209 is that the processing has been terminated, the flow advances to step S210 to perform termination processing, terminate all the processes, and terminate the processing.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram of the configuration of the present embodiment. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 301 denotes a client-side device. Reference numeral 302 denotes an application for performing image editing and the like;
03 is a control unit for controlling the peripheral device driver, 3
Reference numerals 04a, 304b, and 304c denote corresponding peripheral device drivers, and reference numeral 305 denotes a communication control unit that exchanges data with the outside via a network. Also, 306
Is a network for exchanging data.

On the other hand, reference numeral 307 denotes a server-side device. 3
08 is a data format conversion unit for converting the data format of the read image data, 309 is a communication control unit for exchanging data with the outside via a network, 310 is a control unit for controlling peripheral device drivers, 311a, 311
b and 311c are drivers for the corresponding peripheral devices,
312a, 312b, and 312c are corresponding peripheral devices.

(Other Embodiments) Another embodiment will be described. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of another embodiment of the present invention. In the above embodiment, when the data format to be read is specified from the client side, the desired data format is unilaterally specified. However, when the driver of the reading device is not compatible, the data format conversion process starts. Therefore, processing time is required, and the processing load on the server increases.

For this reason, in some cases, reading data in a data format supported by the driver is more efficient in consideration of the efficiency of the entire system. An embodiment taking this point into consideration will be described below.

Before instructing a terminal device such as a scanner or the like shared on a network connected to the server to read an image or the like from the client side, first, in step S501, the data corresponding to the driver is read. Acquiring format information and displaying the information on a screen so that the user can select a data format. FIG. 6 shows an example of the screen.

In FIG. 6, reference numeral 61 denotes a window for setting a read image data format. Reference numerals 62 to 67 respectively indicate image data formats. Here, the image data format supported by the driver of the image reading device is displayed with its format name enclosed.

The following step S502 and subsequent steps S51
The processing up to 1 is the same as the processing from step S201 to step S210 in the above-described embodiment.

(Other Embodiments of the Present Invention) The present invention is applied to a system including a plurality of devices (for example, a host computer, an interface device, a reader, a printer, etc.), but is also applicable to an apparatus including one device. You may.

Further, in order to realize the functions of the above-described embodiments, a device connected to the above-mentioned various devices or a computer in a system is operated so as to operate various devices so as to realize the functions of the above-described embodiments. The present invention also includes programs implemented by supplying the program code of the software described above and operating the various devices according to programs stored in a computer (CPU or MPU) of the system or apparatus.

In this case, the program code of the software implements the functions of the above-described embodiment, and the program code itself and means for supplying the program code to the computer are provided.
For example, a storage medium storing such a program code constitutes the present invention. As a storage medium for storing such a program code, for example, a floppy disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-ROM,
A magnetic tape, a nonvolatile memory card, a ROM, or the like can be used.

When the computer executes the supplied program code, not only the functions of the above-described embodiment are realized, but also the OS (Operating System) or other operating system running on the computer. Needless to say, even when the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized in cooperation with application software or the like, such program codes are included in the embodiments of the present invention.

Further, after the supplied program code is stored in a memory provided in a function expansion board of a computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, the function expansion board or the function expansion unit is specified based on the instruction of the program code. It is needless to say that the present invention also includes a case where the CPU or the like provided in the first embodiment performs part or all of the actual processing, and the processing realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments.

[0045]

As described above, according to the present invention,
In a system in which image reading means is shared by a network, image data can be read in an image data format having a small data size specified by a user, regardless of the capability of a driver of the image reading means, thereby reducing the load on the network. In addition to this, the image reading time can be shortened, and the operation efficiency of acquiring image data via a network can be improved.

According to another feature of the present invention, the capability of the driver of the image reading means can be checked in advance and an appropriate image data format can be designated, so that the efficiency of the entire image reading system can be improved. It is possible to further improve the work efficiency when acquiring image data via a network.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of the present invention and illustrating a schematic configuration of an image reading apparatus.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of the terminal device according to the embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of an image reading system according to an embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a screen for specifying an image data format.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen for designating a read image data format according to another embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 system bus 2 CPU 3 program memory 4 communication control unit 5 communication port 6 communication line 7 other device on network 8 external storage device control unit 9 floppy disk 10 hard disk 11 input control unit 12 keyboard 13 mouse 14 Display / memory 15 Display output control unit 16 CRT 17 Printer control unit 18 Printer 19 External device control unit 1A Terminal device control unit 1B Image reading device

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. An image reading unit sharable on a network, a data format converting unit for converting a format of image data generated by the image reading unit into a designated data format, and exchanging data via the network. A communication device comprising: 2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a data format determining unit configured to determine whether a data format of the image data generated by the image reading unit corresponds to a specified data format. Terminal device. 3. A data format information obtaining unit for obtaining format information of image data that can be generated by an image reading unit sharable on a network, and data designating a format of the image data generated by the image reading unit. A terminal device comprising: a format designating unit; and a communication unit for exchanging data via the network. 4. An image reading means sharable on a network, a data format judging means for judging whether a data format of the image data generated by the image reading means corresponds to a designated data format, The server terminal includes a data format conversion unit for converting the format of the image data generated by the reading unit into a specified data format, and a communication unit for exchanging data via the network. A data format information obtaining unit that obtains format information of image data that can be generated by the reading unit, a data format specifying unit that specifies a format of the image data that is generated by the image reading unit,
An image reading system, wherein the client terminal includes a communication unit for exchanging data via the network. 5. A first process in which an image reading instruction is issued from a client terminal side to an image reading means of a server terminal shared on a network, and an image is read by receiving an instruction from the client terminal side to read image data. A second process of generating image data; a third process of determining whether a data format of the image data generated by the image reading unit corresponds to a designated data format; and an image data generated by the image reading unit. A fourth process of converting the image data into a data format specified by the client terminal when the data format of the image data does not correspond to the specified data format; and And performing a fifth process of transmitting to the client terminal from the client terminal. 6. A data format acquisition process for acquiring a data format that can be generated on the network before instructing the image reading means of the server terminal shared on the network to read an image. 6. The image reading method according to claim 5, wherein a format of the image data to be generated by the image reading unit is specified from a client terminal based on a result of the processing. 7. A storage medium storing a program for causing a computer to function as each of the means according to claim 1 so as to be readable from the computer. 8. A storage medium, wherein a program for causing a computer to execute the procedure of the image reading method according to claim 5 or 6 is stored so as to be readable from the computer.