JP2002245075A - Device for throwing away document and filing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a device for throwing away a document and a filing system for canceling a nuisance in reading an image. SOLUTION: The filing system consists of a device 101 for throwing away a document and of a filing device. The device 101 for throwing away a document is provided with rollers 301 for taking-in a paper document to be thrown away, CCDs 303 for reading the image of the taken-in paper document, a heater 306 and a heat insulating means 307 for making the printed characters and the plotting image of the paper document whose image is read to be unreadable, an unreadable document storing part 309 for storing the unreadable paper document and a network controller 316 for transmitting the read image via a communication medium. The filing device is connected with the device 101 through a communication medium and is provided with a display part for receiving the read image which is transmitted from the device 101, storing a reception image and displaying the stored reception image by a request from a user.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a document discarding device used for discarding a secret document or a normal document, and a filing system including the document discarding device and a filing device connected via a communication medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Heretofore, documents such as documents to be stored because they are important and documents that may be used in the future have been filed as they are recorded on paper and arranged on a bookshelf or the like. However, in an office or the like where a large number of documents are stored, a space is required for storing the documents, and it takes time to search for a desired document. For this reason, with the advancement and speeding-up of the data processing technology in recent years, along with the price reduction of the storage means, the documents that need to be stored are read by a scanner device and stored in a large-capacity storage device. So-called filing systems have become widespread. The filing system for converting the data into digital data for filing is not limited to business establishments with a large number of documents, but has recently been introduced to small business establishments.

[0003] In this type of filing system, there is a filing system in which related documents and the like can be easily searched by, for example, systematically classifying the documents according to the type of the documents. Recently, the usability has been further improved. Various filing systems have been proposed.

Further, when it is determined that the document recorded on these papers will not be used at all in the future, the document is discarded in a trash box or a document discarding box if it is a normal document, or a document discarding device (shredder if it is a secret document). ) Is discarded in a state that cannot be read again. The document disposal device has been devised to improve noise at the time of cutting and to improve a cutting method suitable for paper recycling.

[0005]

In normal office work, document disposal is performed when it is determined that the target document will not be used at all. For documents deemed to be particularly insignificant, the judgment is made on the spot when the document is received, and for personal documents, the judgment is often made when the work content changes. However, in many cases, it cannot be determined that some documents will not be used in the future, and it is determined that the documents will not be used at all in the future.
In the rare case of disposal, it may be needed again in rare cases. For this reason, hesitant to discard the documents, and as a result, almost all the documents are filed and stored on a bookshelf or the like.

Further, when documents are stored and managed by a filing system using a scanner device, in the existing filing system, a user needs to read a document using a scanner and assign keywords or the like as necessary. There is considerable annoyance. Also,
In these existing filing systems, it is necessary to determine whether to store and manage documents. This determination is a very big problem, like the above-mentioned determination of discarding a document that is not used at all.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of such a situation of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a document discarding apparatus and a filing system which can eliminate the trouble of reading an image.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a document discarding apparatus and a filing system which can prevent a secret document from being seen by anyone other than the discarder.

[0009]

An apparatus for discarding a document is provided with an image reading means, and all the discarded documents are read as image data in the apparatus and transmitted to a filing apparatus connected to the apparatus for filing. The apparatus automatically detects a keyword from the received image data of the discarded document using a character recognition technique, and stores and manages the image data together with the keyword. Further, the discarded document from which the image data has been read is made unreadable by the print erasing means provided in the apparatus to prevent the document from being seen by anyone other than the discarder of the document.

Specifically, the document discarding device according to the first means includes a document taking means for taking in a paper document to be discarded, an image reading means for reading an image of the taken paper document, and an image reading means. A print erasing unit that makes the print characters and the drawn image of the paper document unreadable, a storage unit that stores the paper document that has become unreadable by the print erasure, and a read that transmits the read image via a communication medium. An image transmission means was provided.

[0011] In this case, the image of the paper document that has passed through the print erasing means is read again, and a confirmation means for discriminating whether or not the printed characters and the drawn image on the paper document are completely unreadable is provided. The means for switching the document storage means is switched to the unreadable document storage means according to the case where the means is determined to be in the unreadable state or still in the readable state, and the readable paper document is switched to the readable document storage means. To be stored.

Further, a confidential document designating means is further provided, and when it is designated by this means that the discarded document is a confidential document, the confidential document is always stored in a specific storing means irrespective of the judgment result of the unreadable state confirming means. To do it. As the specific storage unit, for example, the readable document storage unit is used.

[0013] A filing system according to a second means comprises the document destruction apparatus according to the first means, and a filing apparatus connected to the document destruction apparatus via a communication medium. A read image receiving unit that is connected to the document disposal device via a communication medium and receives a read image transmitted from the document disposal device, and a storage unit that stores a received image received by the read image reception unit; And display means for displaying the received image stored at the request of the user.

With this configuration, it is possible to provide a document discarding device and a filing system that can eliminate the trouble of reading an image, and a filing system that can prevent a secret document from being seen by anyone other than the discarder.

[0015]

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

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a system configuration of a filing system for discarded document data. This system includes a document discarding device 101, a filing device 102, and a network 103 connecting the two devices 101 and 102.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the appearance of the document disposal apparatus 101. Referring to FIG.
1. A tray 202 for placing a waste document, a cover 203 for covering the tray 202, and a locking claw 204 for locking the cover 203 are provided.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the structure of the document discarding apparatus 101. A document discarding device that reads an image from the top, erases the image, and stores the image; a so-called image processing unit 110;
It comprises an unreadable document storage unit 309 and a readable document storage unit 310. The image processing unit 110 includes a reading fluorescent lamp 302, a reading CCD 303, a reading fluorescent lamp 304 of an unreadable state checking unit, a reading CCD 305 of an unreadable state checking unit, and a heating heater 30 of a print erasing unit.
6, a heat retaining means 307, and a switching claw 308 for switching the paper transport direction are arranged along the transport path 320 or across the transport path 320. This transport path 320
A plurality of paper transport rollers 301 are provided along the transport path of the paper, and transport the paper to be filed. The switching claw 308 is connected to the unreadable document storage unit 3.
It has a function of switching whether to discharge the document to the document 09 or the readable document storage unit 310. The switching claw 308
A valve 311 is provided at a discharge port to the readable document storage unit 310 on the downstream side of the document to prevent the document entering the readable document storage unit from spilling out.

The image processing section 110 is provided with circuit means for performing various types of image processing. These circuit means are functionally equivalent to the reading C provided on each of the front and back sides.
Compression units 312 and 313 for respectively compressing image data sent from the CD 303;
Memories 314 and 315 for temporarily storing the compressed data compressed in 313; a network controller 316 for transmitting the compressed image data to the filing apparatus 102 via the network 103; An unreadable state confirmation unit 318 that analyzes the image from the CCD 305 to determine whether the document is readable or unreadable, and a main control unit 319 that controls the entire document disposal apparatus 101.
It consists of

FIG. 4 is a front view showing a display screen of the operation unit 201. In the figure, reference numeral 401 denotes a display screen, 402 denotes a list of the displayed document discarding user, 403 denotes a reading start button, and 404 denotes a button for designating a confidential document.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the filing apparatus 102. In the figure, a filing device 102 is connected to an input device including a display unit 509 and a keyboard 511, and performs various processes on data transmitted from the document discarding device 101 via the network 103. The processing input from the keyboard 511 is executed while displaying the transmitted data and the like. The processing circuit includes a network controller 502 that receives the compressed image data, and a central processing unit 5 that controls each unit of the filing apparatus 102 and the overall operation.
03, a main storage unit 504 that temporarily stores received image data and the like, a character recognition unit 505 that receives the received compressed image data, decompresses and extracts character information from the decompressed image data, and an HDD. Storage medium 5
07, a storage medium control unit 506 for writing or reading keywords extracted from compressed image data and character information from a storage medium, a display control unit 508 for controlling a display unit 509, and an input control unit 510 for controlling a keyboard 511 and the like. Become.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the work procedure of the user in the document discarding apparatus, and FIGS. 7A and 7B are flowcharts showing the internal operation of the document discarding apparatus.
FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a user operation procedure in the filing apparatus, and FIGS. 9 and 10 are flowcharts showing internal operations in the filing apparatus.

(1) Work Procedure of User As shown in the flowchart of FIG. 6, the user confirms that the discarded document device is not being read (step 60).
1) Open the cover 203, place the discarded document on the tray 202, close the cover, and perform a so-called document input operation (step 602). Next, the user selects his / her name from the display screen of the operation unit 201 (step 603), and if the discarded document is a confidential document (step 604), presses a confidential document designation button to designate a confidential document (step 604). 605) Then, a reading start button is pressed to start reading (step 606).

(2) Operation Procedure in Document Discarding Apparatus As shown in the flowchart of FIG. 7A, a list of document discarding apparatus users is displayed (step 701), and the list is selected on the touch panel of the display unit 401. The document discarder is determined (step 702), and the reading start button 40
Wait for the user to press 3 (step 703). When the reading start button 403 is pressed, the cover 203 is locked using the locking claw 204 (step 704), and one of the discarded documents is picked up using the push-up plate and the roller 301 (step 705), and the fluorescent light is emitted. The lamps 302 and 304 are turned on to start image reading by the light receiving units (CCD) 303 and 305 (step 706). Light receiving unit 303
The compression units 312 and 313 start the compression operation of the image data continuously transmitted from (step 707), and wait for the end of the image reading and the end of the writing of the compressed image data to the memories 314 and 315 (step 708). ), Controlling the network controller 316 to transmit the compressed image data and the document revoker information to the filing apparatus 102 (step 709). If a discarded document remains at this point, the subsequent discarded paper is picked up and reading is continued, and if no discarded document remains, the process returns to the start point (step 710).

In parallel with this control, as shown in the flow chart of FIG. 7B, when the reading of step 706 is started (step 711), the heating heater 306 is heated up and the document passing therethrough is passed. Is erased by heating (step 712), and the document after the heating and erasing is read using the unreadable state confirming means fluorescent lamp 304 and CCD 305 (step 713). Further, it is determined from the read image whether the document is readable (step 714). If it is determined that the document is a readable document, the switching claw 308 is controlled to guide the waste paper to the readable document storage unit 310 (step 71).
5) If the document is determined to be an unreadable document, the document is led to the unreadable document storage unit 309 (step 716). If a discarded document remains at this point (step 717), reading of the next discarded paper coming out of the print erasing means is continued. In this embodiment, since no specific storage means for a confidential document is provided, when the confidential document is specified in step 605, the confidential document is stored in the readable document storage unit 310.

(3) Operation Procedure in Filing Apparatus As shown in the flowchart of FIG.
9 is confirmed as a document search screen (step 801), the user is identified using a password or the like (step 802), a keyword likely to be related to the document to be searched, and a discard date / time or a discard date / time range Is specified (step 803), and the search is started (80).
4). As a result, a candidate document is displayed as a thinned image. A search request document is specified from the thinned image, and an instruction is given by the keyboard 511 (step 805) to obtain a desired document image (step 806).

(4) Internal Operation in Document Discarding Apparatus As shown in the flowchart of FIG. 9, an operation of storing image data is performed in the filing apparatus 102. In this operation, first, the compressed image data and the document discarder information are received from the document discarding device 101 via the network 103, and temporarily stored in the main storage unit 504 (step 9).
01) After that, the compressed image data stored in the main storage unit 504 is read out by direct memory access, expanded to the original data, and the character recognition unit 505 is instructed to extract characters from the image data by a character recognition technique. (Step 902). After waiting for the end of the character extraction process by character recognition (step 903), a keyword is extracted from the extracted characters and words (step 904).
The storage medium control unit 506 records the compressed image data, the document revoker information, the extracted keywords, and the date and time information when the compressed image of the discarded document is received on the storage medium 507 (step 905).

As shown in the flowchart of FIG. 10, in the filing apparatus 102, image data search and display operations are performed. In this operation, first, user authentication is performed using the user name and the input password (step 1001). If the user is an appropriate user, input of a search keyword, a document discard date / time, or a document discard date / time range is performed. And an input value is obtained (step 1002). Using the input keyword, document destruction date / time information, and user information, from among the discarded document compressed images stored in the storage medium 507, the user information matches the document destructor information, and the keywords match. Search for documents (step 100
3). After completion of the search, a thinned image of a candidate document is created (step 1004) and displayed on the display unit 509 (step 1005). Next, a document designation from the keyboard 511 is received (step 1006), and a compressed image of the designated document is expanded into original image data (step 1007), and the original image data is displayed on the display unit 509 (step 1008).

Although the description of the control of the heater is not given in this embodiment, the erasure of the print can be performed more accurately and safely by using the temperature sensor.

Further, in this embodiment, an example in which the print erasing section is constituted by the heater 306 and the heat retaining means 304 has been described. It may be constituted by a hood for preventing leakage to the means.

[0031]

As described above, according to the present invention, since a document to be discarded is input to the document discarding device, the document can be discarded and the document image can be transmitted to the filing device. Is done. Further, since the discarded document becomes unreadable in the print erasing unit, it is possible to prevent the secret document from being seen by anyone other than the discarder.

Further, according to the present invention, when the printed characters and the drawn image are not completely erased by the printing and erasing means, the printed characters and the drawn image are stored in a document storage means different from the completely erased document. Therefore, the paper of the paper document from which the printed characters and the drawn images have been completely erased can be reused as recycled paper, and only the paper of the paper document which has not been completely erased can be treated as a discarded document and further as a confidential document. be able to.

Further, according to the present invention, even a document which has become unreadable due to the erasing process by the print erasing means can be re-readable by using a high-performance reading device or by special chemical processing. If a confidential document designating means is provided and the confidential document designating means designates a confidential document, the confidential document is stored in a specific storage means, for example, an unreadable document storage means, so that the confidential document is reused as recycled paper. Can be prevented.

Further, according to the present invention, a system is constituted by the document discarding device and the filing device, the received image received by the read image receiving means is stored, and the received image stored at the request of the user is displayed. In addition to the effects of the document disposal device,
Even a discarded document can be placed in a readable state as needed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a filing system for discarded document data according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an external view of the document disposal device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a document disposal device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a display screen of an operation unit of the document discarding device.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a filing device.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a work procedure of a user in the document disposal device.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an internal operation of the document disposal device.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a user operation procedure in the filing apparatus.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing an internal operation in the filing apparatus.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing an internal operation in the filing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Document disposal apparatus 102 Filing apparatus 103 Network 201 Operation unit 202 Tray for placing a disposal document 203 Cover which covers over a tray 204 Locking claw which locks the cover 301 Transport roller 302, 304 Fluorescent lamp 303, 305 CCD 309 Unreadable document storage Unit 310 readable document storage unit 312, 313 compression unit 314, 315 memory 316, 502 network controller 318 unreadable state confirmation unit 319 main control unit 503 central processing unit 505 character recognition unit 506 storage medium control unit 507 storage medium 509 display unit

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) B41J 29/26 B41J 29/38 Z 29/38 G06F 12/14 320A G06F 12/14 320 H04N 1/00 C H04N 1/00 B41J 29/00 Z

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A document capturing means for capturing a paper document to be discarded, an image reading means for reading an image of the captured paper document, and a print character and a drawing image of the scanned paper document in an unreadable state. A document discarding device comprising: a print erasing unit configured to store a paper document in an unreadable state by the print erasing unit; and a read image transmitting unit that transmits a read image via a communication medium. 2. A confirmation means for re-reading an image of a paper document which has passed through the print erasing means and discriminating whether a printed character or a drawing image on the paper document is completely unreadable. The document storage unit is switched according to whether the document is in the unreadable state or is still in the readable state, and the paper document in the unreadable state is sent to the unreadable document storage unit, and the readable paper document is sent to the readable document storage unit. The document disposal device according to claim 1, wherein the document is stored. 3. A confidential document designating means, wherein when the discarded document is designated as a confidential document by this means, the confidential document is always stored in a specific storing means irrespective of the judgment result of the unreadable state confirming means. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein
Or the document disposal device according to 2. 4. The document disposal apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said specific storage means is a readable document storage means. 5. The document discarding device according to claim 1, further comprising: a filing device connected to the document discarding device via a communication medium. A read image receiving unit that is connected to the document destruction device via a communication medium and receives the read image transmitted from the document destruction device, a storage unit that stores the received image received by the read image reception unit, And filing means for displaying the received image stored in response to the request.