JP2001030580A - Image processor, printing control method and memory medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent mixing of a page in an erroneous document direction with an output document. SOLUTION: A manuscript constituted of a plurality of pages is read and the printing output of the plural number of copies is ready to be performed but, when there is a page of which the document direction is indistinguishable in the read manuscript (S201, S202), the printing output of only one copy is performed immediately (S204). An operator confirms the content of printing output (S206) and, if there is no problem, the remaining number of copies is outputted (S207). When the operator issues indication, the rotation of the indistinguishable page is performed according to the indication and, then, the printing output of the indicated number of copies is performed (S208).

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, a print control method, and a storage medium, and more particularly, to an image processing apparatus that performs predetermined image processing on input image data and outputs the processed image data to a printing apparatus, and the image processing apparatus. The present invention relates to a print control method applied to a processing device and a storage medium storing a program for executing the print control method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an image processing apparatus such as a digital copying machine or a scanner, which has an OCR function for recognizing a character and its direction from an original image read by a photoelectric conversion element such as a CCD. There is. In such a device, when reading and outputting a document that forms a part of a plurality of sheets, if the document direction of some of the read document images is different from the other, the image image is rotated, and when printing and outputting, All document directions were aligned.

[0003]

However, the above C
It may not be possible to determine the document direction from a document image read by a photoelectric conversion element such as a CD. For example,
This is the case of an original such as a graph, a diagram, or a photograph in which characters in multiple directions exist in the original image.

In such a case, conventionally, for a document image that cannot be determined, a specified number of copies are output in the original document direction without rotating the image image.

Therefore, there is a possibility that pages in the wrong document direction are mixed in the output document. In particular, when the number of designated copies is large, it is troublesome to pick up such pages in the wrong document direction and realign them in the correct document direction. In some cases, useless printout such as re-outputting could be performed.

The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and an image processing apparatus, a print control method, and a storage medium for preventing a page in an incorrect document direction from being mixed in an output document. The purpose is to provide.

[0007]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image processing apparatus for performing predetermined image processing on input image data and outputting the processed image data to a printing apparatus. Image direction detection means for detecting the image direction in the image of each page represented by the input image data, based on the image direction detected by the image direction detection means,
Image rotation means for rotating the image direction of the corresponding page, and when the printing apparatus prints a plurality of copies of the document based on input image data relating to the document composed of a plurality of pages, When there is a page whose direction cannot be detected, first printing control means for causing the printing apparatus to print one copy of the document, and after the operator confirms a page for which the image direction detecting means cannot detect the image direction, Second printing control means for causing the printing device to print at least the remaining number of copies of the document.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in a print control method applied to an image processing apparatus for performing predetermined image processing on input image data and outputting the same to a printing apparatus, the input image data represents An image direction detecting step of detecting an image direction in an image of each page, an image rotating step of rotating an image direction of a corresponding page based on the image direction detected by the image direction detecting step, and a document composed of a plurality of pages When a plurality of copies of the document are printed by the printing device based on the input image data related to the above, when there is a page whose image direction cannot be detected by the image direction detection step, one copy of the document is printed on the printing device. The first print control step of causing the image direction to be detected by the image direction After confirming, and having at least a second printing control step of printing the remaining copies in the printing device of the document.

Further, according to the invention described in claim 11,
A computer-readable storage medium storing a print control method applied to an image processing apparatus that performs predetermined image processing on input image data and outputs the image data to a printing apparatus, wherein the print control method includes: An image direction detecting step of detecting an image direction in an image of each page represented by the image data; an image rotating step of rotating an image direction of a corresponding page based on the image direction detected by the image direction detecting step; When printing a plurality of copies of the document by the printing device based on input image data related to the document to be configured, if there is a page whose image direction cannot be detected by the image direction detection step, the document is sent to the printing device. A first print control step of printing one copy of the image, and an image direction detection step. For pages that direction can not be detected, after the operator has confirmed, and having at least a second printing control step of printing the remaining copies in the printing device of the document.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing the structure of an image processing apparatus according to the present invention. The image processing device here is a digital copying machine.

Reference numeral 101 denotes an original platen glass on which originals fed from the automatic original feeder 142 are sequentially placed at predetermined positions. Reference numeral 102 denotes a document illumination lamp composed of, for example, a halogen lamp, which exposes a document placed on the document table glass 101. Reference numerals 103, 104, and 105 denote scanning mirrors, which are housed in an optical scanning unit (not shown).
While reciprocating, the reflected light from the document is guided to the CCD unit 106. The CCD unit 106 includes the imaging device 10
8, an imaging lens 107 for imaging reflected light from the original;
For example, the image pickup device 108 includes a CCD, a CCD driver 109 that drives the image pickup device 108, and the like. The image signal output from the image sensor 108 is, for example, 8
After being converted into bit digital data, it is input to a controller unit 139 which performs image processing and control of the entire apparatus. The controller unit 139 includes a document direction determining unit 306 as described later. An image signal output from the image sensor 108 is input to the document direction determining unit 306, and a document direction determining process is performed.

Reference numeral 110 denotes a photosensitive drum. Reference numeral 112 denotes a pre-exposure lamp, and the photosensitive drum 110
To remove static electricity. A primary charger 113 charges the photosensitive drum 110 uniformly. Exposure means 117 is constituted by, for example, a semiconductor laser or the like, and exposes the photosensitive drum 110 based on the image data processed by the controller 139 to form an electrostatic latent image. A developing device 118 stores a black developer (toner), and visualizes the electrostatic latent image to create a toner image. A pre-transfer charger 119 applies a high voltage to the toner image developed on the photosensitive drum 110 before the toner image is transferred onto a sheet.

Reference numerals 120, 122, and 124 denote paper feed units. The transfer paper in each paper feed unit is fed into the apparatus by driving the paper feed rollers 121, 123, and 125, and the registration rollers 126 are arranged. The sheet is temporarily stopped at the set position, and is fed after the transfer timing with the toner image formed on the photosensitive drum 110 is set. 127 is a transfer charger, which transfers the toner image developed on the photosensitive drum 110 to
Transfer to the fed transfer paper. Reference numeral 128 denotes a separation charger, which transfers the transfer paper after the transfer operation to the photosensitive drum 110.
Separate more. The toner remaining on the photosensitive drum 110 without being transferred is collected by the cleaner 111. 12
Reference numeral 9 denotes a conveyor belt, which conveys the transfer sheet after the transfer process to the fixing device 130, and the transferred image is fixed to the transfer sheet by, for example, heat.

Numeral 131 denotes a flapper, which moves the transfer path of the transfer sheet after the fixing process is completed.
Control is performed in the direction in which the second or intermediate tray 137 is arranged. 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 unit 139. In addition, the flapper 13
1 performs reversal (in the case of multiple printing) or non-reversal (in the case of double-sided printing) on the transfer paper on which the fixing process has been completed, and feeds the intermediate tray 1
Feed to 37. Reference numeral 138 denotes a re-feed roller, which conveys the transfer sheet placed on the intermediate tray 137 again to the position where the registration roller 126 is provided.

The controller section 139 includes a microcomputer, an image processing section, and the like, as will be described later with reference to FIG. 2, 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 the internal configuration of the controller 139 and peripheral devices connected to the controller 139.

Reference numeral 201 denotes a C for controlling the entire image processing apparatus.
It is a PU, and sequentially reads and executes a control program from a read-only memory (ROM) 203 that stores a control procedure (control program) of the apparatus main body. An address bus and a data bus of the CPU 201 are connected to each section of the controller section 139 via a bus driver / address decoder 202.

Reference numeral 204 denotes a random access memory (RAM) which is used as a main storage device and provides a storage area for input data, a work storage area, and the like. 205 is I / O
An interface, an operation panel 140, motors 207, clutches 208, solenoids 209 for driving a paper feed system, a conveyance system, and an optical system, a paper detection sensor 210, a toner remaining detection sensor 211, and a high-voltage unit 215, the beam detection sensor 213 is connected. The operation panel 140 includes a keyboard, a liquid crystal display device, an LED, and the like. The operator performs key input, and the state of the device is displayed as an image. The paper detection sensors 210 are sensors for detecting the paper being conveyed. The toner residual sensor 211 is disposed in the developing device 118 and detects the amount of toner in the developing device. The high-voltage unit 215 is connected to the primary charger 113 and the developing device 11 according to the instruction of the CPU 201.
8. Output a high voltage to the pre-transfer charger 119, the transfer charger 127, and the separation charger 128. Beam detection sensor 213
Is a light receiving sensor as described later.

An image processing unit 206 receives an image signal output from the CCD unit 106, performs image processing described later, and outputs a control signal to the laser unit 117 according to image data. Laser unit 117
The laser beam output from the irradiates and exposes the photosensitive drum 110. The beam detection sensor 213 detects the light emission state of the laser unit 117 in the non-image area of the photosensitive drum 110, and inputs the output signal to the I / O port 205.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of the image processing unit 206 in the controller unit 139.

The image signal converted into an electric signal by the image pickup device 108 is first corrected for variations between pixels by a shading circuit 301, and then, in a scaling circuit 302, a data thinning process is performed at the time of reduction copying. At the time of enlargement copy, data interpolation is performed. Next, in the edge emphasis circuit 303, second differentiation is performed in, for example, a 5 × 5 window to emphasize the edges of the image. Since this image data is luminance data, the γ conversion circuit 304 performs data conversion by table search in order to convert the image data into density data to be output to a printer. The image data converted into the density data is input to the binarization processing unit 305. Here, multivalued data is converted to binary data by, for example, the ED method (error diffusion method). The binary-converted image data is input to the combining circuit 307. The synthesis circuit 307 selectively outputs the input image data and the image data in the image memory 310 including, for example, a DRAM or a hard disk. The read / write control for the image memory 310 is performed by the memory control unit 309, and when the image is rotated, the read address of the image data in the image memory 310 is controlled. These image data are converted to a signal of the laser emission intensity by PWM.
The pulse signal is input to the circuit 308 and has a pulse width according to the density of the image, and is output to the laser unit 117.

A document direction discriminating unit 306 is connected between a connection point between the shading circuit 301 and the scaling circuit 302.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of the document direction determining unit 306.

The image data output from the image sensor 108 and passed through the shading circuit 301 is input to the CPU / memory unit 401. The CPU / memory unit 401 temporarily stores image data for each area,
Performs various controls. The CPU / memory unit 401 is connected to the CPU 201 in the controller unit 139 by a bus, for example, via a dual-port RAM (not shown), and transmits and receives data by parallel communication. Of course, serial communication may be used.

The character recognition / direction discrimination unit 402 focuses on the fact that the most accurate representation of the direction of a document is a character, and identifies several types of character areas in the document as 0 °, 90 °, and 180 °.
The character recognition is performed from the directions of ° and 270 °, and the direction with the highest accuracy among the character recognition accuracy (the degree of confidence in character recognition: the distance to the characteristic distribution of the character) in each direction is defined as the document direction.

The pre-processing for character recognition / direction discrimination processing by the character recognition / direction discrimination unit 402 includes a character part, a graphic part, a natural image part, and a front part based on document image data. This is a block that performs processing for separating into rectangular areas and adding attributes (such as character portions) of each area.

The storage device 404 is composed of, for example, a hard disk or a magneto-optical disk, and is used to store various processing results (image data, area separation results, character recognition results, etc.). The I / F unit 405 is a SCSI
And RS232C, etc., and are provided for transmitting data to the outside. Computer 406
Information is obtained via the I / F unit 405, and data is obtained from a movable storage device 404 such as a magneto-optical disk and used.

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

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the procedure of the document direction determination / correction / character recognition processing executed in the document direction determination unit 306.

The input image data (multi-valued image) is first separated by the region separating unit 403 into rectangular regions according to attributes such as a character portion, a graphic portion, a natural image portion, and a front portion (steps S1 and S2). ). Here, actually, area information surrounded by a rectangle is created.

Next, an area having a character portion is extracted from each of the separated areas (step S3). Here, the character part area includes a text part, a title part, a character part in a table, a caption part in the figure, and the like. For example, FIG.
In the case of the document example shown in (A) and (C), FIG.
The rectangle information of each area as shown in (B) and (D) is extracted. Area separation performed by the above area separation unit 403,
The character region extraction processing will be described later in detail.

Next, the character recognition / direction determination unit 402 determines the document direction using several blocks in the character area (step S4). This document direction determination will be described later in detail.

As a result, if the document direction is the forward direction, character recognition processing is performed on the character blocks in the image (step S7). This character recognition processing will be described later in detail.

On the other hand, if the document direction is incorrect, the image data is rotated in the correct direction (step S5). This rotation is performed by the CPU / memory unit 401 based on a known technique. Then, region separation is performed on the rotated image, and correction processing of region separation information is performed (Step S).
6). This correction process is to correct the region separation information associated with the image rotation. One method is to perform the region separation process again on all the rotated image data,
Another method is to perform address conversion on the result of area separation. Since the image is generally assumed to be in the positive direction, the region separation process is performed at the initial stage.
The result often differs from the segmentation process performed on the rotated image data. Therefore, it is desirable that the former method be used.

In step S7, the character recognition / direction discrimination unit 402 performs a character recognition process on the character area block in the rotated image data. As a result, the segmentation information and the character recognition information are finally obtained in both the case without the rotation and the case with the rotation (step S8).

The processing result is sent to the computer 406 (the CPU 2 of the controller unit 139) via the I / F unit 405.
01 and is used by filing application software on the computer 406.

Next, the area separation / character area extraction processing performed by the area separation unit 403 will be described in detail.

[Area Separation Processing] The area separation unit 403 detects a black pixel from the input image data, and creates a rectangular frame of a black pixel block by contour tracing or labeling. Next, the character area (title, body, caption, etc.), graphic area, natural image area, table area, etc. are determined based on the black pixel density in the rectangular frame, the presence / absence of adjacent rectangular blocks, the aspect ratio of the rectangular frame, and the like. The area and the like are determined.
By this processing, the rectangular area of the character area is determined. If no character area is determined in the document image data, "unknown" (disabled) is output.

Next, the character recognition processing performed by the character recognition / direction discrimination unit 402 will be described in detail.

[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 stage, a character cutout process is performed on this character area (see FIG. 7B). In this process, a rectangle of one character is cut out, and a rectangular frame of one character is detected by using black pixel continuity. Then, as a second stage, one character is divided into m × n (for example, 64 × 64) pixel blocks (FIG. 7C).
), And based on this, a distribution direction of black pixels is extracted using a 3 × 3 pixel window (direction vector information:
FIG. 7 (D)).

FIG. 7D illustrates 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 feature of the character. This feature vector is compared with the contents of the character recognition dictionary stored in advance, and characters are extracted from the character recognition dictionary in order from the character whose feature is closest to the feature vector. That is, the first candidate, the second candidate,... The closeness of the feature to this feature vector is
It is a numerical value called the closeness of the character, that is, the confidence (accuracy) of character recognition.

Next, the character direction determining process performed by the character recognition / direction determining unit 402 will be described in detail.

[Character Direction Judgment Processing] The degree of confidence in character recognition is obtained in this manner. The character direction judgment processing based on the degree of confidence is performed using the sentence example of "Name of the present invention" shown in FIG. explain.

FIG. 8A shows a forward sentence, and FIG.
The sentence is rotated 70 degrees. If you focus on "books" here,
When determining the character direction, as shown in FIG.
0 °, 90 °, 180 °, 2 for one character “book”
Let's try character recognition from four directions of 70 °. For each rotation angle, the method of reading the character rectangular area may be changed, and it is not particularly 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 temporary recognition characters for explanation and the degree of confidence, and this is not always the case.

In FIG. 8C, when character recognition is performed from the positive direction (0 °), “book” is correctly recognized, and the degree of confidence is as high as 0.90. When character recognition is performed from a direction rotated by 90 °, the character is erroneously recognized as “town”, and the confidence level is reduced to 0.40. In this way, misrecognition occurs,
The reason why the degree of confidence also decreases is that character recognition is performed based on the feature vector when viewed from the rotated 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. The degree of confidence in the direction of character recognition becomes more noticeable as the characters are more complex.

In the result shown in FIG. 8C, since the confidence is highest in the forward direction, it is determined that there is a high possibility that the document is oriented in the forward direction. In order to improve the accuracy of character direction discrimination, character recognition is performed for four or more other characters in the same block in the same manner. Furthermore, if the character direction is determined only by one block, the character direction may be erroneously determined for a special character string.
The same character recognition is performed for other plural blocks. Then, in each block, the average value of the confidence in each of the four directions of each character to be recognized in the block is obtained.
Based on the average of the confidence in each of the four directions obtained in each block, the average of the confidence in each of the four directions over each block is calculated. The highest average value is selected, and the direction corresponding to the selected average value is recognized as the character direction (document direction).

As described above, the character direction is determined based on the confidence in a plurality of characters in the same block and further in other blocks without determining the character direction based on the confidence of only one character. This makes it possible to determine the character (document) direction with high accuracy.

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. Needless to say.

However, there may be cases where characters in a plurality of directions exist in one document, such as figures and graphs. In such a case, "unknown" (undetermined) is output.

By the above processing, the area separation data and the character recognition information as shown in FIG. 9 can be obtained. These pieces of information are stored in the CPU 20 of the controller unit 139.
1 (computer 406) and used for various image processing and various controls.

FIG. 9A shows the original image data, and FIG. 9B
FIG. 9C is a diagram showing the area separation data, and FIG. 9C is a diagram showing the character recognition information.

As shown in FIG. 9B, the area separation data is "header" indicating that it is area separation data.
And the identifiers of the separated areas “rect1” to “rect1”
4 ". The information of each area (block) distinguished by this identifier is represented by the block number “orde
r ", block attributes (character part, figure part, etc.)" at
t ", coordinate values" x1 "and" y "at the upper left of the block
1 ", block width" w ", block height" h "," direction "indicating vertical or horizontal writing, block ID" selfID ", and parent block ID" upperID "containing the block , Parent block attribute “upperAtt”, spare area “rese
rve ".

As shown in FIG. 9C, the character recognition information is "header" indicating that the character recognition information is character recognition information.
For example, character recognition information “OCR1” or the like relating to a single character such as “book” and “blk h” 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 coordinate positions“ x1 ”and“ y1 ”of the character, and the width“ w ”of the character ", The height of the character" h ", and the spare area" reserve ".

Next, an automatic document direction discrimination method according to the present invention will be described.

Now, as shown in FIG. 10 (A), an original consisting of 10 sheets is read, and the orientations of the documents are aligned.
It is assumed that a job to output 0 copies is given.

FIG. 10B is a diagram showing the second sheet of the original shown in FIG. 10A, in which the document is composed of characters in the same direction, and the orientation of the original is top and bottom as shown in the figure. It is upside down. FIG. 10C is a diagram showing the fourth sheet of the document shown in FIG. 10A, which is a document of a graph having characters in two directions in the document, and the direction of the document is shown in the figure. It is upside down. Further, FIG.
FIG. 8A is a diagram illustrating the eighth document of the document shown in FIG. 5A, which is a photo document having no characters in the document, and the direction of the document is correct as shown in FIG.

It is assumed that all the remaining originals are document originals composed of characters in the same direction, and the originals are oriented correctly.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the procedure of the document direction automatic discrimination process executed by the document direction discrimination unit 306.

First, a document is read, and the document direction of the read document is determined by the above-described processing (S201). If all the read originals can be determined (S2
02), output 10 copies with the document orientations aligned (S20)
3).

On the other hand, if there is an indistinguishable original in the read original, only the original that can be identified and is not correctly oriented is rotated to print out one copy (S204). A display prompting the operator to confirm the print output is displayed on the liquid crystal display device at 140 (S205).

In this example, as a result of the above-described direction discrimination processing, it is determined that the second sheet is reversed and the fourth and eighth sheets cannot be discriminated (“unknown”). Therefore, only the second sheet is rotated and only one copy of the document is printed out (S2
04), the liquid crystal display device on the operation panel 140 is shown in FIG.
The display as shown in FIG. 1A is performed (S205).

The operator confirms the print output of one printed copy, and either “prints out as it is” or “prints out after correcting the orientation” displayed on the liquid crystal display device on the operation panel 140. Is selected (S206).

If "print out as is" is selected, the remaining 9 copies are printed out.

In this example, since the fourth document is upside down,
It is highly likely that the operator will select "correct the orientation and print out". In that case, the screen shown in FIG. 11B is displayed on the liquid crystal display device of the operation panel 140. When the operator selects “Rotate 4th page” and selects “print out”, only the 4th page is rotated with respect to the document of which only a part has been printed out, and 1st page is rotated.
The printout of 0 copies is performed (S208).

As described above, when a document composed of a plurality of pages is read and a plurality of copies are to be printed out, if there is a page in which the document direction cannot be determined in the read document, first of all, Print out only one copy.
Then, the operator checks the printed output, and if there is no problem, outputs the remaining number of copies. Further, when the operator gives an instruction, the indeterminable page is rotated in accordance with the instruction, and the specified number of copies are printed out. This can prevent erroneous print output in the document image direction.

The present invention can be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices (for example, a host computer, an interface device, a reader, a printer, etc.) or an apparatus composed of one device (for example, a copying machine, Facsimile machine, etc.).

A storage medium storing program codes of software for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to a system or apparatus, and a computer (or CPU or MPU) of the system or apparatus is stored in the storage medium. It goes without saying that the present invention is also achieved by reading and executing the program code.

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 or the like running on the computer is actually executed based on the instructions of the program code. It is needless to say that the present invention also includes the case where the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by performing a part or all of the processing described above.

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 instruction of the program code, It is needless to say that the present invention includes a case where a CPU or the like provided in the function expansion board or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the processing realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments.

[0076]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, when a document composed of a plurality of pages is read and a plurality of copies are to be printed out, the document direction cannot be determined in the read document. If there is an unusual page, only one copy is printed out. Then, the operator checks the printed output, and if there is no problem, outputs the remaining number of copies. Further, when the operator gives an instruction, the indeterminable page is rotated in accordance with the instruction, and the specified number of copies are printed out.

As a result, erroneous print output in the original image direction can be prevented.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an internal configuration of a controller unit and peripheral devices connected to the controller unit.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an internal configuration of an image processing unit in the controller unit.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an internal configuration of a document direction determination unit.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of a document direction determination / correction / character recognition process performed by a document direction determination unit.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating segmentation of a document example.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of characters processed by a character recognition process.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of a character processed by a character direction determination process.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing segmentation data and character recognition information.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of ten originals.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a screen displayed on the liquid crystal display device of the operation panel.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of a document direction automatic determination process executed by a document direction determination unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

 206 Image processing unit 306 Document direction determination unit 401 CPU / memory unit 139 Controller unit 402 Character recognition / direction determination unit 403 Area separation unit 404 Storage device 405 I / F unit 406 Computer

Continued on the front page F term (reference) 2C061 AP03 AP04 AQ06 AS02 HH13 HJ06 HJ07 HJ10 HK11 HK14 HN04 HN15 HQ20 HQ21 2C087 AA03 AA09 AA11 AB01 AB04 AB05 AC01 AC08 BA03 BB01 BB10 BC05 BD01 BD05 BD24 BB06 PP05

Claims (15)

[Claims] An image processing apparatus for performing predetermined image processing on input image data and outputting the processed image data to a printing apparatus, comprising: an image direction detection unit configured to detect an image direction in an image of each page represented by the input image data; Image rotation means for rotating the image direction of the corresponding page based on the image direction detected by the image direction detection means; and a plurality of the originals by the printing apparatus based on input image data relating to the original composed of a plurality of pages. A first print control unit that causes the printing apparatus to print one copy of the document when there is a page for which the image direction detection unit cannot detect the image direction during the copy printing; A second print control procedure for causing the printing apparatus to print at least the remaining number of copies of the document after the operator confirms a page for which the page cannot be detected. The image processing apparatus characterized by having and. 2. When there is a page for which the image direction detecting means cannot detect the image direction, the operator is prompted by the first print control means to confirm the content of one copy of printed matter printed by the printing apparatus. 2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: first display means for causing the display device to perform a prompting display. 3. When there is a page whose image direction cannot be detected by the image direction detecting means, the image processing apparatus further comprises a receiving means for receiving from the operator an instruction as to whether or not to rotate the page. The means, when the instruction received by the receiving means is an instruction to rotate the page, causes the printing device to print the specified number of copies on the printing device after rotating the page, 3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the instruction received by the user is an instruction not to rotate the page, the remaining number of copies of the document is printed by the printing apparatus. 4. When the printing apparatus prints a plurality of copies of the document based on input image data relating to the document composed of a plurality of pages, the image direction detecting means sets an image over all pages of the document. When the direction can be detected, the image rotation unit rotates the image direction of the corresponding page based on the image direction detected by the image direction detection unit, and then prints the specified number of copies on the printing device. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a third print control unit configured to perform the third print control unit. 5. When there is a page for which the image direction detecting means cannot detect the image direction, a display for prompting the operator to confirm the contents of the page is displayed on the display device together with the display of the page number. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a second display unit. 6. A printing control method applied to an image processing apparatus for performing predetermined image processing on input image data and outputting the image data to a printing apparatus, wherein an image direction in an image for each page represented by the input image data is detected. An image direction detecting step, an image rotating step of rotating an image direction of a corresponding page based on the image direction detected by the image direction detecting step, and the input image data related to a document including a plurality of pages. A first print control step of causing the printing device to print one copy of the document when there is a page whose image direction cannot be detected by the image direction detection step when printing a plurality of copies of the document by a printing device; After the operator confirms a page for which the image direction cannot be detected in the image direction detecting step, Both first to print the remaining copies to the printing apparatus 2
And a print control step. 7. When there is a page whose image direction cannot be detected in the image direction detecting step, an operation is performed so as to confirm the content of one copy of printed matter printed by the printing apparatus by executing the first print control step. 7. The print control method according to claim 6, further comprising a first display step of causing the display device to perform a display prompting the user. 8. When there is a page whose image direction cannot be detected in the image direction detecting step, the method further comprises a receiving step of receiving from the operator an instruction as to whether or not to rotate the page, the second print control. In the step, when the instruction received in the receiving step is an instruction to rotate the page, after rotating the page, the document is printed by the printing apparatus for a designated number of copies, while the receiving step is performed. 7. The method according to claim 6, wherein when the instruction received by the printer is an instruction not to rotate the page, the printing apparatus prints the remaining number of copies of the document.
Or a print control method according to claim 7. 9. When the printing apparatus prints a plurality of copies of the document based on input image data related to the document composed of a plurality of pages, the image orientation detection step includes an image for all pages of the document. When the direction is detected,
A third printing control step of rotating the image direction of the corresponding page based on the image directions detected by the image direction detecting step in the image rotating step, and then causing the printing apparatus to print the specified number of copies of the document. 9. The print control method according to claim 6, further comprising: 10. When there is a page whose image direction cannot be detected in the image direction detecting step, a display prompting the operator to confirm the contents of the page is displayed on the display device together with the display of the page number. The print control method according to claim 6, further comprising a display step of (2). 11. A computer-readable storage medium storing, as a program, a print control method applied to an image processing apparatus for performing predetermined image processing on input image data and outputting the image data to a printing apparatus, An image direction detecting step of detecting an image direction in an image of each page represented by the input image data; and an image rotating step of rotating an image direction of a corresponding page based on the image direction detected by the image direction detecting step. Based on input image data relating to a document composed of a plurality of pages, when printing a plurality of copies of the document by the printing apparatus, when there is a page whose image direction cannot be detected by the image direction detection step, A first print control step of causing a printing apparatus to print one copy of the document; Orientation is for a page that can not be detected by the step, after the operator has confirmed, first to print the least remaining copies of the document to the printing apparatus 2
And a print control step. 12. The printing control method according to claim 1, wherein, when there is a page whose image direction cannot be detected in said image direction detecting step, the contents of one copy of printed matter printed by said printing apparatus by executing said first printing control step. 12. The storage medium according to claim 11, further comprising: a first display step of causing the display device to perform a display prompting the operator to confirm the confirmation. 13. The printing control method, further comprising: when there is a page whose image direction cannot be detected in the image direction detecting step, a receiving step of receiving an instruction as to whether or not to rotate the page from an operator, The second print control step includes, if the instruction received in the receiving step is an instruction to rotate the page, rotate the page and print the document by the designated number of copies on the printing apparatus. 2. On the other hand, when the instruction received in the receiving step is an instruction not to rotate the page, the printing apparatus is caused to print the remaining number of copies of the document.
13. The storage medium according to claim 1 or claim 12. 14. The printing control method according to claim 1, wherein the printing apparatus prints a plurality of copies of the document based on input image data related to the document composed of a plurality of pages. When the image direction is detected over all pages, in the image rotation step, based on the image direction detected by the image direction detection step, the image direction of the corresponding page is rotated, and then the 14. The storage medium according to claim 11, further comprising a third print control step of printing a specified number of copies of the document. 15. The printing control method according to claim 1, wherein, when there is a page whose image direction cannot be detected in the image direction detecting step, a display prompting an operator to confirm the content of the page is displayed together with the display of the page number. The storage medium according to any one of claims 11 to 14, further comprising a second display step performed by a display device.