JP2002351433A - Character information correcting device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a character information correcting device which displays an image display so that an operator can easily confirm patient ID, etc., and enables the operator to correct character information at need. SOLUTION: The character information correcting device which has a means for inputting image data and character information and corrects the character information has a display information storage means 14 which stores a value used to display the input image data and a display means 20 which displays the image data with the value in the display information storage means 14.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a character information correcting apparatus, and more particularly, to an apparatus for storing character information extracted from image data containing characters in an image by character recognition and image data in association with each other. As one of the application fields, for example, in the field relating to image recording / reproducing devices, in particular, there is provided a device which correlates and stores image data and character information supplied to a device for recording and reproducing medical image information, and corrects character information. No.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, MRI (nuclear magnetic resonance diagnostic apparatus),
Character information such as a patient ID and a patient name is recorded in a medical image such as a CT (tomography apparatus). Therefore, in a medical diagnostic apparatus, these patient IDs and the like are usually extracted and stored together with the image.

A character information database is searched based on the recognition result of characters recorded in such an image, and other information is added based on the search result and transmitted to a filing device. . In this case, when the character recognition fails, the worker (user) needs to recognize the image, read the character information written therein, and input the character information.

[0004]

On the image, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish the character due to the overlap between the character and the real image or low contrast. At this time, in order for the operator to check the patient ID and the like, it is necessary to adjust the contrast and the like every time the image is changed. Also, for each image data that contains characters in the image,
Character positions may be different. In particular, in the case of medical image data, the position of a character in an image differs for each input device of medical image data, each operation mode of the input device, and each size of image data. Therefore, it is necessary to move the position and frame on the image where the character is recognized to the display area on the monitor every time the image is changed.

[0005] The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and provides a character display capable of displaying an image so that an operator can easily confirm a patient ID and the like and correcting character information as necessary. It is intended to provide an information correction device.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a character information correcting apparatus for correcting character information, comprising means for inputting image data and character information. A display information storage means for storing a value to be used, and a display means for displaying image data based on the value of the display information storage means.

With this configuration, the character information on the image can be more easily recognized. (2) The invention according to claim 2 is characterized in that the input character information is character information extracted by character recognition from image data including characters in an image.

With this configuration, character information extracted from an image can be used as character information. (3) The invention according to claim 3 is characterized in that a value for displaying an image near a specific position in image data is stored in the display information storage means.

With this configuration, it is possible to display an image near a specific position in the image data based on the value stored in the display information storage unit. (4) The invention according to claim 4 is characterized in that the specific position is an image position near a character recognition execution position.

With this configuration, it is possible to display an image near the character recognition execution position of the image data. (5) The invention according to claim 5 is characterized in that a value for displaying a specific image in a plurality of image data is stored in the display information storage means.

With this configuration, it is possible to display a specific image in a plurality of image data. (6) The invention according to claim 6 is characterized in that the specific sheet is a character recognition execution sheet.

With this configuration, it is possible to display a specific image in which character information is stored. (7) The invention according to claim 7 is characterized in that a value for performing at least one processing of contrast change, density change, LUT, interpolation, and enlargement ratio change is stored in the display information storage means. I do.

With this configuration, it is possible to display an image on which at least one process of contrast change, density change, LUT, interpolation, and enlargement ratio change has been performed. (8) The invention according to claim 8, wherein a value for displaying an image near a specific position in the image data, a value for displaying a specific image in the plurality of image data, and A plurality of arbitrary values among values for performing at least one of a contrast change, a density change, an LUT, an interpolation, and a magnification change are stored in the display information storage means.

With this configuration, an image can be displayed using a plurality of values (parameters) for displaying the image. (9) A storage method according to the ninth aspect, further comprising a display information operation input means for changing display contents of the image data, wherein a value stored in the display information storage means is a value at the time of previous display. And at least one storage method of storing a value input by an operator.

According to this structure, an image can be displayed using one of the values displayed by the operator at the time of the previous display and the value input by the current worker as parameters. (10) According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a display information storage means capable of storing a plurality of pieces of display information itself of the image data, and a selection means for selecting one from the plurality of display information groups. It is characterized by having.

According to this structure, one of a plurality of display images can be selected and displayed. (11) The invention according to claim 11 is means for retrieving the input character information from a character information database having a large number of character information, and comparing the input character information with character information obtained from the character information database. It is characterized by having a comparing means and a determining means for determining character information based on a comparison result by the comparing means.

With this configuration, the character information can be determined by comparing the input character information with the character information obtained from the database. (12) The twelfth aspect of the present invention has an operation means for an operator to perform an operation input, and displays only the image data and the character information on which the operator performs a correction operation. I do.

With this configuration, only the image data corrected by the operator can be displayed.

[0019]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 1
0 is a character information correction device, 30 is a character information database in which character information is stored, and 31 is a filing device as an output device. As the filing device 31, for example, a server or a viewer is used. The server is
The image information and the character information are stored in pairs, and the viewer displays the image. 1 is MRI (nuclear magnetic resonance diagnostic apparatus), C
A medical image observation device such as T (tomography device) and 2 are character recognition means for recognizing character information from an image output from the medical image observation device 1. From the character recognizing means 2, an image and character information are obtained. A, B, and C in the figure indicate images in which character information is stored.

Reference numeral 10 denotes a character information correction device that receives image + character information and outputs image + character information. In the character information correcting device 10, a temporary storage unit 11 receives and temporarily stores image + character information. 12 is a temporary storage unit 11
Searching means for receiving character information from the character information database 30 and searching for character information in the character information database 30; comparing means 13 for comparing the character information read from the character information database 30 with the character information stored in the temporary storage unit 11 It is.

Reference numeral 14 denotes a parameter storage unit serving as display information storage means for storing various parameters required for displaying image data. Reference numeral 15 denotes an image processing unit for performing image processing using the parameters stored in the parameter storage unit 14. It is. The output of the image processing unit 15 is provided to the display unit 20 and displayed. Further, the contents of the parameter storage unit 14 are also provided to the display unit 20 as necessary and displayed. 16
Is a determination unit connected to the operation unit 19 and determining a set of image data and character information. Reference numeral 17 denotes a grouping unit that collects a set of image data and character information in response to the output of the determination unit 16. The consolidating unit 17 notifies the temporary storage unit 11 of the result.

Reference numeral 18 denotes a transfer unit for transferring a set of image data and character information stored in the temporary storage unit 11 to the filing device 31; 19, an operation unit as an operation unit of the character information correction device 10; And a display unit for displaying character information. As the operation unit 19, for example, a keyboard, a mouse, or the like is used, and as the display unit 20, for example, a CRT is used. The operation of the device configured as described above will be described below.

An image output from a medical image observation apparatus 1 such as CT or MRI enters a character recognition means 2. The character recognition means 2 recognizes a patient name, a patient ID, and the like attached to the image as character information. This character recognition algorithm is
The same as the prior art can be used. In this way, the character recognized from the image by the character recognition means 2 can be used as character information. As a result, an image and character information are output from the character recognizing means 2. This image + character information enters the temporary storage unit 11 and is temporarily stored. Here, the character information 1 may include one image data or a plurality of image data.

The search means 12 searches the character information database 30 based on the character information obtained by character recognition.
When a search is performed using the patient ID as the character information, if the search is performed using “123”, other character information of the patient ID “123” can be obtained. It could be the patient's name, weight, height, birthday, gender, etc.

Next, when the character information is obtained from the character information database 30, the comparing means 13 compares the character information stored in the temporary storage section 11 with the character information obtained by the search. As a result of the comparison, when it is determined that the character information is the same or conforms to the search result, the character information is determined (overwritten) by the determining means 16, collected as a set of image data and character information by the collector 17 Send to filing device 31. Here, overwriting refers to writing all Roman letters, kana, and kanji as patient names, for example. In this case, the input character information can be compared with the character information from the database to determine the character information. The overall configuration of the apparatus is the same as that of the character recognition unit 2.
Or a configuration including the filing device 31.

The comparing means 13 compares the character information in the temporary storage section 11 with the character information obtained by the search, and if they are not the same, waits for correction by the operator. The worker recognizes the image including the character used for character recognition displayed on the display unit 20 that displays the image near the character recognition execution position and the recognized character information stored in the temporary storage unit 11, An operator inputs necessary character information from the operation unit 19.

If necessary, the character information database 30 is searched based on the recognized character information, and the searched specific character information is displayed on the display unit 20. After being displayed on the display unit 20, in response to an operation input from the operation unit 19, the result of the character information determined from the specific character information is overwritten on the character information of the character recognition result, and the character information of the image is displayed. The data can be collected as a set by the collecting means 17 and sent to the filing device 31 by the transfer means 18.

In the present invention, parameters for displaying an image are stored in the parameter storage unit 14. As the parameters, for example, contrast change, density change, LUT, interpolation, enlargement ratio change, and the like can be considered. The image processing unit 15 reads at least one parameter for image display stored in the parameter storage unit 14, performs image processing based on the read parameters, and displays the result on the display unit 20. With this configuration, the character information on the image can be more easily recognized. Also,
By performing at least one process of these parameters, a processing result can be displayed on the display unit 20.

When the image whose character is recognized is larger than the display image size of the display unit 20, the image on the display unit 20 is moved so as to display a portion on the image where the character is written,
When a plurality of images are included in one piece of character information, it is possible to confirm the character information on the image by providing a means for selecting an image whose character has been recognized.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a display state of an image near a specific position in the image data. In FIG. 5A, P is the whole image, and Q is a display area. That is, the display area Q
Is smaller than the entire image P, the entire image cannot be displayed at once. (B) shows the whole image P and the display area Q
And are overlapped. In this state, only the area of the entire image P that overlaps the display area Q can be displayed.

Here, the operator operates the operation unit 19 to
The position information value for displaying the image near the specific position as shown in (b) can be stored in the parameter storage unit 14. According to this, an image near a specific position in the image data can be displayed based on the position information stored in the parameter storage unit 14.

(C) shows a state where the display area Q is directly moved to the previous display position. This specific position can be stored in advance by the operator in the parameter storage unit 14 from the operation unit 19, such as the upper left or lower right of the entire image. Here, for example, an image near the character recognition execution position can be stored. By doing so, an image near the character recognition execution position of the image data can be immediately displayed at the next display.

Further, according to the present invention, arbitrary plural values among values for performing at least one processing of contrast change, density change, LUT, interpolation and enlargement ratio change are stored in the parameter storage unit 14. Can be memorized. As a result, image processing can be performed by the image processing unit 15 using a plurality of values for displaying an image, and image display can be performed, and character information on the image can be easily confirmed.

As described above, the parameters for performing the image processing in the image processing unit 15 are stored in the parameter storage unit 14, and if necessary, the character-recognized image is processed using the parameters. It becomes possible to display easily. In this case, when the immediately preceding setting parameter is automatically saved and the next image is displayed, the parameter is automatically set, image processing is performed using the parameter, and the result is displayed on the display unit 20. Can be displayed. Alternatively, the image processing can be performed using the parameters input by the operator, and the image can be displayed on the display unit 20 by performing the processing by any one of the methods. According to this, it is possible to display an image using any of the values displayed by the operator at the time of the previous display and the current time as the parameters.
Alternatively, a plurality of settings may be stored, and parameters set during image display may be selected and displayed.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the present invention. It is assumed that the original image is as shown at 40. 40a is a recognized character position. Here, the recognition character is “1234”. Assuming that an image is displayed as shown at 41, the image is shifted so that the character recognition position can be seen.
As a result, the image is as shown at 42, and character information can be recognized.

Alternatively, as shown at 43, when there are four frames in one film and there are recognition characters in the second frame, the image can be shifted so that the second frame is displayed on the display unit. By storing the specific position of the image in the parameter storage unit 14 in this manner, an image near the specific position of the image data can be displayed. Here, if the specific position is near the character recognition execution position, an image near the character recognition execution position can be displayed.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an embodiment of the operation of the present invention. First, when character recognition is performed by the character recognition means 2 (S1), character information and an image are obtained. Therefore, search and collation of the obtained character information and the character information stored in the character information database 30 are performed using the search means 12 and the comparison means 13 (S2). If the search and collation of the character information is OK, the character information and the image are output to the filing device 31 (S7).

If the result of the character information search and collation is NG, the image processing unit 15 performs image processing using the parameters stored in the parameter storage unit 14,
An NG image is displayed on the display unit 20 (S3).

Next, the contrast, the density, the LUT, the interpolation, the enlargement ratio, the position frame, and the like are changed to the optimum values so that the operator can easily read the character information from the image (S
4). In order to obtain the optimum value, there are times when it is not necessary, when shifting one by one, and when selecting a setting parameter.

Next, the operator reads out character information from the image and inputs correct character information (S5). Then, the parameters for which an optimal image is displayed are stored in the parameter storage unit 14 (S6), and the character information and the image are stored in the filing device 3 (S6).
1 (S7). In step S6,
The parameter set to the optimum value is stored in the parameter storage unit 14 and used as the next initial value.

According to the present invention, a value for displaying a specific image in a plurality of image data is stored in the parameter storage unit 1.
4 can be stored. As a result, it is possible to display a specific image of the plurality of image data. Here, since the specific image is the character recognition execution image, the image of the specific image in which the character information is stored can be displayed.

Further, according to the present invention, there is provided a display information storage means capable of storing a plurality of pieces of display information itself of image data, and a selection means for selecting one from the plurality of display information groups. You can do so. This allows
One of a plurality of display images can be selected and displayed.

Further, according to the present invention, there is provided an operating means for an operator to perform an operation input, and the image data can be displayed only with respect to the image data and the character information on which the operator performs the correction operation. Thereby, only the image data corrected by the operator can be displayed.

[0044]

As described above, according to the present invention, the following effects can be obtained. (1) According to the first aspect of the invention, the character information on the image is more easily recognized.

(2) According to the second aspect of the invention, character information extracted from an image can be used as character information. (3) According to the third aspect of the invention, an image near a specific position in the image data can be displayed by the value stored in the display information storage means.

(4) According to the fourth aspect of the invention, it is possible to display an image near the character recognition execution position of the image data. (5) According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to display a specific image in a plurality of image data.

(6) According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to display a specific image in which character information is stored. (7) According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, it is possible to display an image on which at least one of a contrast change, a density change, an LUT, an interpolation, and a magnification change is performed.

(8) According to the eighth aspect, an image can be displayed using a plurality of values (parameters) for displaying the image. (9) According to the ninth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to display an image by using any of the values displayed by the operator at the time of the previous display and the values input by the current worker as parameters.

(10) According to the tenth aspect of the present invention,
One of a plurality of display images can be selected and displayed. (11) According to the eleventh aspect, character information can be determined by comparing input character information with character information obtained from a database.

(12) According to the twelfth aspect of the present invention,
Only the image data corrected by the operator can be displayed. As described above, according to the present invention, the operator can easily perform the patient ID
Thus, it is possible to provide a character information correcting device that performs image display so that the user can check character information, and can correct character information as necessary.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a display state of an image near a specific position in image data.

FIG. 3 is an operation explanatory diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an embodiment of the operation of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Medical image observation apparatus 2 Character recognition means 10 Character information correction apparatus 11 Temporary storage part 12 Search means 13 Comparison means 14 Parameter storage part 15 Image processing part 16 Determination means 17 Combining means 18 Transfer means 19 Operation part 20 Display part 30 Character information Database 31 Filing device

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat II (reference) G06K 9/03 G06T 11/80 E G06T 11/80 G09G 5/22 670Z G09G 5/22 670 5/38 Z 5/36 5/00 555G 5/38 5/36 520P (72) Inventor Yuji Komiya 1 Sakura-cho, Hino-shi, Tokyo Konica Corporation F-term (reference) 5B050 AA02 BA03 BA06 BA15 BA20 CA07 EA12 EA14 FA02 5B064 AA07 EA10 FA05 FA13 5C082 AA04 BA02 BA12 CA11 CA32 CA52 CA76 CA81 CB05 DA51 DA89 MM09 MM10

Claims (12)

[Claims] 1. A character information correction device for correcting character information, comprising means for inputting image data and character information, comprising: display information storage means for storing a value used when displaying the input image data; A display unit for displaying image data based on a value of the display information storage unit. 2. The character information correcting device according to claim 1, wherein the input character information is character information extracted by character recognition from image data including characters in an image. 3. The character information correcting device according to claim 1, wherein a value for displaying an image near a specific position in the image data is stored in the display information storage unit. 4. The character information correcting apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the specific position is an image position near a character recognition execution position. 5. The character information correction according to claim 1, wherein a value for displaying a specific image in a plurality of image data is stored in said display information storage means. apparatus. 6. The character information correcting apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the specific sheet is a character recognition execution sheet. 7. The display information storage unit according to claim 1, wherein a value for performing at least one processing of contrast change, density change, LUT, interpolation, and enlargement ratio change on the image data is stored in the display information storage means. The character information correcting device according to any one of the above. 8. A value for displaying an image near a specific position in the image data, a value for displaying a specific image in the plurality of image data, a contrast change and a density change in the image data. 3. The display information storage unit according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of arbitrary values among values for performing at least one of LUT, interpolation, and enlargement ratio processing are stored in the display information storage unit. Description character information correction device. 9. A storage method having display information operation input means for changing display contents of image data, wherein a value stored in the display information storage means is a value at the time of previous display,
9. The character information correcting device according to claim 1, wherein the character information correcting device has at least one method of storing a value input by an operator. 10. A display information storage means capable of storing a plurality of display information of the image data itself, and a selection means for selecting one from the plurality of display information groups. The character information correction device according to claim 1. 11. A means for retrieving the input character information from a character information database having a large number of character information, a comparing means for comparing the input character information with character information obtained from the character information database, 11. The character information correcting device according to claim 1, further comprising: a determination unit that determines character information based on a comparison result by the unit. 12. An image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an operation means for inputting an operation by an operator, and displaying only the image data and the character information on which the operator performs a correction operation. The character information correcting device according to any one of the above.