JP2006071827A - Mobile terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a mobile phone which is excellent in input properties and display properties of a card image and has improved processing capacity and operability relating to image reading. <P>SOLUTION: The mobile terminal is provided with a fetching means of fetching an image, a storage means of preserving the image fetched by the fetching means, a display means of displaying the image preserved by the storage means and a control means of successively displaying a region of each character string based on the region size of the character string included in the image when the image preserved by the storage means is displayed on the display means. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a mobile terminal having a function of displaying an image, and more particularly to a mobile terminal having a function of capturing an image.

Mobile phones equipped with cameras and capable of taking images have become widespread. The main purpose of image shooting is entertainment and communication, but it is also being used for recording instead of memos. The resolution of recorded images has also increased, and an image that can capture images of VGA size (640 pixels × 480 pixels) has been developed. By the way, a business card is an indispensable tool for business in modern society. As a way to easily carry information on this business card, the surface of the business card is photographed with a camera-equipped mobile phone and stored. There is also a method. The following patent document discloses a mobile terminal device with a camera.
JP 2004-177874 A

  As an example of conventional technology related to business card information acquisition, an apparatus for reading a business card image, performing character recognition, and creating a database has been developed. However, since character recognition involves complicated processing, it is not preferable to implement the above functions in a mobile terminal such as a mobile phone from the viewpoint of hardware / software cost, power consumption, and the like. Also, it is quite complicated to perform the work of transferring the data to the mobile phone after performing recognition with another device. In addition, since the computer's ability to recognize characters is limited, human correction is often required, making it more complicated. For business card information that is not frequently used, it is easier and quicker to save the image as it is and refer to it when it is needed than to perform the above recognition / correction work. It will be.

  As another example of the prior art, there is a device that stores a business card image and displays it, and there is also a case in which a display device of the size of a business card is attached to a case larger than the size of the business card. is there. In general, this type of device can be realized if there is a means for inputting a business card image, a storage means for storing the image, and a display means for displaying the image. .

  However, in mobile phones, the size of displays such as LCDs is also limited in order to make the shape and size easy to carry. For this reason, when an entire business card is displayed on the display, it is often difficult to read information such as a telephone number or an e-mail address that is generally written in small characters, because the characters are easily crushed. . In addition, an operation such as scrolling for searching for an area where information to be read is written is necessary, which is complicated and not easy to operate.

  As described above, in a mobile phone capable of inputting and displaying an image, when a user views an image such as a captured business card address, telephone number, or mail address, information written in small characters is displayed. There was a problem that it was very difficult to read and it was difficult to display information such as e-mail address and telephone number that the user needed.

The portable terminal according to the present invention uses the following means in order to solve the above problems and achieve the object.
The portable terminal according to the present invention includes a capturing unit that captures an image, a storage unit that stores an image captured by the capturing unit, a display unit that displays an image stored in the storage unit, and the storage unit Control means for sequentially displaying the areas of the respective character strings based on the size of the area of the character strings included in the image when the image stored in is displayed on the display means.

The control means enlarges and displays the character string area.
The control means displays the character string in the order of increasing area size.
The display means has a first display area for displaying the image and a second display area in which a telephone number can be entered, and the control means has a telephone number entered in the second display area When the calling process is performed in the state, the calling process is performed based on the telephone number.
The display means has a first display area for displaying the image and a second display area for inputting characters and numbers, and the control means inputs characters and numbers in the second display area. When registration processing is performed in the phone book in the state of being performed, the characters and numbers are registered in the phone book.

  The portable terminal according to the present invention is excellent in image displayability, and can improve processing ability and operability regarding image browsing.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of a mobile phone 100 that is one of mobile terminals according to an embodiment of the present invention in an opened state. In FIG. 1, a reception speaker 101, a main liquid crystal display unit 102, an incoming call display lamp 103, and a keypad unit 110 are arranged. A camera switch 104 and a headphone terminal 105 are disposed on the side surface. The keypad unit 110 is provided with software keys (111, 112, 113) whose operation can be changed by software, and direction keys 114 which can indicate the up / down / left / right directions.

  FIG. 2 is an external perspective view of the cellular phone 100 shown in FIG. 1 in a closed state. In FIG. 2, a camera 201 and a sub liquid crystal display unit 202 are disposed. Further, the camera switch 104 and the headphone terminal 105 on the side surface are exposed to the outside as they are even when they are closed as shown in FIG.

  FIG. 3 is a configuration block diagram showing main blocks of the hardware configuration of the mobile phone 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3, the hardware includes a radio unit 301 that handles radio waves, a voice processing unit 312 that performs amplification and [A / D, D / A] conversion of call voice connected thereto, and this voice processing. A speaker 311 and a microphone 310 connected to the unit 312; a CPU 302 that executes processing of various functions of the telephone; a ROM 309 that stores programs connected to the bus of the CPU 302; a temporary storage RAM 308; Display) 303, sub LCD 304, keypad 307 for user operation input, camera switch 306, and camera 305 used for image input.

In the case of taking an image using the mobile phone 100 having the configuration shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, when the camera switch 306 (104 in FIG. 1) is slid, the camera application is started by the CPU 302 that detects this, As the camera enters an operating state, an image input (captured) by the camera is displayed on the main liquid crystal display unit 303 (102 in FIG. 1) in real time.
Next, when the action key on the keypad 307 (102 in FIG. 1) is pressed while the image to be saved is displayed on the main liquid crystal display 303 (102 in FIG. 1), the display image is frozen and the CPU 302 performs compression processing. Thereafter, it is stored in the built-in RAM 308.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of screen display during business card photography in the mobile phone according to the present invention. The display screen during shooting includes an information display area 401 that always displays the remaining battery level / radio wave intensity / time, an image display area 402 that displays a camera image, and key descriptions for changing the exposure of the camera. And a software key display area (405, 406, 407) for displaying corresponding to the software key. During image shooting, in the mobile phone 100 of FIG. 1, the software key 111 is a function for changing the captured image size, the software key 112 is a shutter function, and the software key 113 is a menu function for activating various other functions. It should be assigned.

  In order to view a business card image that has been shot and stored by the above method, the “business card browsing mode” is activated by operating the keypad from the standby state. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of an initial screen of the [business card browsing mode]. The display screen being viewed includes an information display area 401, an image display area 502 for displaying a saved image in a reduced size, and a key explanation display area 503 for displaying a description of keys for switching images. And a software key display area (405, 406, 407) for displaying corresponding to the software key.

  In this [business card browsing mode], stored business card images can be selected and displayed sequentially by the left direction key / right direction key of the direction key 114 in the mobile phone 100 of FIG. The software key 113 may be assigned “menu”, the software key 112 may be assigned “lowercase enlarged”, and the software key 111 may be assigned “uppercase enlarged”. Further, by operating the “menu” in this way, it is possible to perform operations such as deleting an image from the memory or attaching it to an e-mail.

In the case of “small letter expansion” in the business card browsing mode, if a character string region composed of small characters is located on the lower side of the image of the one-line character string in the business card image, It is possible to shift to a mode in which the character string in the character string area on the right side is sequentially enlarged and displayed.
Furthermore, in the case of “capital enlargement”, if a character string region composed of large characters is located on the upper side of the character string region in one line in the business card image, the character string region on the upper right or upper left of the image It is possible to shift to a mode of sequentially enlarging and displaying from the character string.

In general, the size of a character displayed on a business card (text area size) is “Organization logo”>“Name”> “Company name”> “Affiliation / Title”>“Address”> “Phone number”・ Email address ”is often used. In many cases, telephone numbers and email addresses are written on the lower and right sides. For this reason, by displaying the character string in the character string area composed of small characters from the lower left, the mail address, telephone number, etc. are displayed in an enlarged manner first. Therefore, when it is desired to quickly enlarge and display a telephone number or mail address, the target information can be reached earlier by pressing this key.
Conversely, by displaying the character string in the character string area composed of large characters from the upper right, the company logo, company name, name, etc. are displayed in an enlarged manner first. Therefore, when the company name or the like is to be enlarged and displayed quickly, the target information can be reached earlier by pressing this key.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of the “lowercase enlarged mode” screen and its transition in the mobile phone of the present invention. When transitioning to the “lowercase enlargement mode”, a screen 610 is displayed first. As shown in FIG. 6, the screen in the small letter enlargement mode includes an information display area 401, a mode display area 601, an enlarged image display area 602, a memo area 603, and software key display areas (604, 605, 606). The On the screen 610 in FIG. 6, a character string indicating the “e-mail address” in the lower right, which is the smallest character string extracted from the business card image illustrated in FIG. 5, is displayed in an enlarged manner.

The software key 605 in the software key display area is assigned a “next” instruction, and the area of the FAX number (FAX01 2345 6788), which is the next lower right small character string, is displayed by pressing the corresponding soft key. The screen transitions to the screen 640 to be displayed. Further, a “previous” instruction is assigned to the soft key 604, and the screen returns from the screen 640 to the screen 610 by pressing the corresponding soft key.
Here, if the telephone number is the target information, the target information can be reached with a total of three key operations counted from the business card image. The initial screen (FIG. 5) → screen 610 → screen 640 → screen 650 So that the screen transitions.

  When the user inputs characters or numbers using the keypad while the enlarged image is displayed on the screen, the input characters or numbers are displayed in the memo area 603. Examples of display of these input characters are shown in FIG. 6. For example, when an e-mail address is input on the screen 610, it is displayed in the memo area 603 on the next screen 620, and When a phone number is entered on the screen 650 (characters), it is displayed in the memo area 603 on the next screen 660.

The letters and numbers displayed in the memo area 603 can be registered in the address book by pressing the menu key 606 to which a menu is assigned and selecting address registration. Examples thereof are shown as screen 620 → screen 630 and screen 660 → screen 670.
Further, an example of selecting outgoing calls by pressing the menu key 606 is shown in a screen 660 → screen 680, and an example of selecting mail transmission by pressing the menu key 606 is shown in a screen 620 → screen 690.

  As described above, according to the mobile phone according to the present invention, the user can input characters or numbers using the keypad. Therefore, when the user reads the numerical value read from the enlarged image into the mobile phone, the user can memorize it. There is no need to record anything else and it is very easy to do. In addition, both the image and the input character or numerical value can be displayed on the same screen, and the user can input while comparing the information recorded in the image with the input character or numerical value, Input without input mistakes is possible.

  Now, in the mobile phone according to the present embodiment, a business card image is acquired and held as image data, and the character string region is set by performing region detection processing for each character string of the business card image. Each character string can be displayed on the screen. Here, an example of a region detection process for dividing a business card image into a plurality of character string regions and displaying a character string in the character string region will be described with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 8 shows an example of a business card image. The business card image 200 is a horizontally written rectangular image with black and white shading, and has a long side (horizontal direction) and a short side (vertical direction). Therefore, in order to detect a plurality of character string regions with each character string, first, a peripheral distribution in the long side direction, which is the display direction of the character string, is created for the business card image 200. Then, each row is cut out using the peak of the peripheral distribution. Next, a peripheral distribution in a direction orthogonal to the previous long side direction (short side direction in FIG. 8) is created for each cut-out line area, and the character string area and the blank area are separated.

An example of the peripheral distribution in the short side direction is shown in FIG. Here, a distance d _i between the peaks of the peripheral distribution is obtained, and an adjacent area within a constant α times the average value ￣d is determined as a character string area having the same character string. (For example, the constant α times may be set to 3 times here.) Then, the size of the character in the character string area is defined as the width h in the short side direction of the area, and the position of the area is The coordinates (x, y) of the upper left pixel are defined as the position.

  The extracted character string area can be stored in an area table as shown in FIG. In the area table of FIG. 10, the storage order here is the order in which the size h of the character string area is small, and in the case of the same size, the coordinates (x, y) are the order close to the lower right. In the small enlargement mode, the table (area table) is displayed in order from the top (in order of character string area size), and in the large enlargement mode, the text string area is displayed in order from the bottom of the table (area table). Displayed in descending order of size).

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the flow of the enlargement mode processing for browsing the stored business card image. FIG. 7 (1) is an enlarged view of a small character string on the business card. FIG. 7 (2) shows a process in the small enlargement mode for displaying, and FIG. 7 (2) shows a process in the large enlargement mode for enlarging and displaying a large character string on the business card. In [Business card viewing mode] for viewing business card images, a stored business card image can be displayed on the screen by operating a predetermined key. In the case of FIG. In the case of FIG. 7 (2), the large enlargement mode is selected.

  In FIG. 7 (1), when the small enlargement mode is selected (step 101), a region detection process for dividing and displaying a plurality of character string regions is performed (step 102), followed by small enlargement. In accordance with the mode, the screen shifts to a mode for enlarging and displaying the minimum lower right region, and a predetermined screen display is performed (step 103), and then “key input waiting (step 104)” becomes “input key? (Step 105)”.

  In the “input key? (Step 105)”, when the key assigned to “end” is pressed, the process immediately proceeds to “END (step 114)”, but when the key assigned to “call” is pressed. Proceed to call function activation (step 106). When the key assigned to "address book activation" is pressed, the process proceeds to address book activation (step 107). When the key assigned to "mail activation" is pressed, mail is sent. Proceed to outgoing call activation (step 108), and when those processes are completed, the process is ended (step 114).

  In “input key? (Step 105)”, whether or not there is a next character string area when the key assigned to “next” for displaying an area including the next smaller character string is pressed. Is determined (step 109), the next character string area is enlarged when it is present (step 110), and when the key assigned to "Previous" is pressed, the previous character string area is It is determined whether or not there is (step 111), and if there is, the previous character string area is enlarged and displayed (step 112).

  Furthermore, in the “input key? (Step 105)”, the user can input characters or numbers (numerical values) using the keypad while the enlarged image is displayed on the screen. The additionally input characters or numbers (numeric values) at this time are displayed in a memo area (memo area 603 in FIG. 6), which is a predetermined area on the screen (step 113).

  Up to now, the processing flow in the small enlargement mode has been described with reference to FIG. 7 (1), but the processing flow in the large enlargement mode in FIG. 7 (2) is referred to as “large enlargement mode (step 201)”. And the processing flow of the small enlargement mode in FIG. 7 (1) is the same as the processing flow of the small enlargement mode in FIG.

  According to the portable terminal of the present invention, when the telephone number or address of the captured image is visually read, desired information such as a telephone number or an e-mail address is written by a predetermined operation. An image in which a business card or the like is captured, by detecting area candidates that are likely to be present and displaying or enlarging the character string in the area on the screen according to a predetermined selection and / or a predetermined order. It is possible to easily and quickly perform an information search operation when “” is displayed. In addition to business cards, it can also be used for letterheads, envelope sender fields, and the like.

  According to the present invention, when browsing an image obtained by scanning a business card or the like, it can be enlarged and displayed on the screen, so that information written in small characters can be read very easily. That is, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, and the like are printed with small characters in a character string in a business card, for example, and are often written in the lower right part of a horizontal business card. Therefore, for example, in the case of a business card, the order in which the target information (eg, Tel) is generally displayed is generally selected by selecting an area written in a small character string from the lower right one and enlarging it in order. The search time for an average enlarged display is greatly shortened. When the business card image is written vertically, the area composed of small characters is displayed from the lower left, for example, so that the e-mail address, telephone number, etc. are enlarged first, and the telephone number, e-mail address, etc. Can be reached sooner.

  Furthermore, with the enlarged image displayed on the screen, characters or numbers (numerical values) can be input using the keypad, and the input characters and numbers are stored in a predetermined area on the screen (for example, Displayed in the memo section). Thus, even when characters and numbers read from the enlarged image are input to the mobile phone, the user does not need to memorize or record them, and characters and numbers can be input very easily. In addition, both the image and the input characters and numbers can be displayed, and the information recorded in the image can be input while comparing the input characters and numbers, enabling input with fewer errors. .

  In a portable terminal such as a cellular phone having an image input and display means, the present invention makes it easy for a user to read information written in small characters when viewing the input image, and the user needs It has a specific feature that it can be reached quickly by displaying information such as an e-mail address and a telephone number, which is excellent in the input and display of business card images, and improves the processing ability and operability for image browsing. The present invention as described above can be widely applied not only to mobile phones but also to many mobile terminals such as mobile terminal devices such as PDAs and electronic notebooks, and small portable electronic devices such as notebook computers. Industrial applicability is enormous.

It is the external appearance perspective view of the front surface and side surface in the open state of the mobile telephone concerning one Embodiment of this invention. FIG. 2 is an external perspective view of the front and side surfaces of the cellular phone of FIG. 1 in a closed state. FIG. 2 is a configuration block diagram showing main blocks of a hardware configuration in a mobile phone according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is an example of a screen display during business card photography in the mobile phone according to one embodiment of the present invention. Similarly, it is an example of the initial screen of the business card browsing mode of the mobile phone. Similarly, it is an example of a screen and a transition in the lower case expansion mode of the mobile phone. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of a process of the expansion mode in the mobile telephone concerning one Embodiment of this invention. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a peripheral distribution in a long side direction of a black and white gray business card image when performing region detection in a mobile phone according to the present invention. Similarly, it is a figure which shows an example of the periphery distribution of a short bias direction. Similarly, it is a figure which shows an example of an area | region table.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Main body 101 Reception speaker 102 Main liquid crystal display unit 103 Incoming display lamp 104 Camera switch 105 Headphone terminal 110 Keypad part 111,112,113 Software key 114 Direction key 201 Camera 202 Sub-liquid crystal display unit 301 Radio | wireless part 302 CPU
303 Main LCD
304 Sub LCD
305 Camera 306 Camera switch 307 Keypad 308 RAM
309 ROM
310 Microphone 311 Speaker 312 Audio processing unit 401 Information display area 402 Image display area 403 Area for displaying the description of keys for changing the exposure of the camera 405, 406, 407 Software key display area 502 Image display area 503 For switching images 505, 506, 507 Software key display area 610, 620, 630, 640, 650, 660, 670, 680, 690 Example of lowercase expansion mode screen 601 Mode display area 602 Enlarged image display area 603 Memo area 604, 605, 606 Software key display area

Claims (5)

Capture means for capturing images;
Storage means for storing an image captured by the capture means;
Display means for displaying an image stored in the storage means;
Control means for sequentially displaying the area of each character string based on the area size of the character string included in the image when the image stored in the storage means is displayed on the display means;
A portable terminal comprising:   2. The portable terminal according to claim 1, wherein the control means enlarges and displays the character string area.   The portable terminal according to claim 1, wherein the control means displays the area size of the character string in ascending order. The display means includes a first display area for displaying the image, and a second display area for inputting a telephone number,
2. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein when the call processing is performed in a state where a telephone number is input in the second display area, the control means performs the call processing based on the telephone number. The display means includes a first display area for displaying the image, and a second display area for inputting characters and numbers,
2. The control unit according to claim 1, wherein when the registration process is performed in the phone book in a state where characters or numbers are input in the second display area, the control unit registers the characters or numbers in the phone book. Mobile devices.

Images