JP2007148585A - Image processor and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make data quantity to be stored smaller than a conventional manner in the case of storing characters included in a document. <P>SOLUTION: An image processor 10 makes a scanner part 1 read a document, and generates image data showing the document content as an image, and performs character recognition processing to a text(characters) included in the document, and stores character codes showing each character in an HD 3 by associating the character codes with the image data of the whole document. An already known JIS code, EUC code or UNICODE or the like may be used as a character code. That is, a text(characters) included in the document is not stored as image data but stored as character codes. Thus, it is possible to make the data quantity of the image data of the characters sharply smaller than the data quantity of the character codes assigned to the characters, and to make the data quantity to be stored in the HD 3 smaller than a conventional manner. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for storing data obtained by reading with an image reading device such as a scanner device.

Conventionally, a method for extracting a document desired by a user from an enormous number of document groups has been proposed. For example, in the system described in Patent Document 1, a document is read by an image reading device such as a scanner, and image data representing the content of the document is generated. Then, the image data is divided into predetermined area units, and a text area including a relatively large character is extracted from each area. The extracted image data of the text area is stored in association with the image data of the entire document. Here, “a relatively large size character” is intended to be a character that symbolically represents the content of the document, such as a document title or a headline. Therefore, if the image of the text area including these characters can be browsed in a list format, the user browses these images one after another, roughly identifies the document with the desired content, and further identifies the entire identified document. It is possible to refer to the image.
JP-A-8-202859

  However, the technique described in Patent Document 1 described above has a problem that the amount of data to be stored is relatively large because the extracted text region is stored as image data. For this reason, in the technique described in Patent Document 1, in order to reduce the amount of data to be stored as much as possible, only text regions including characters of a specific size such as document titles and headings are extracted and stored. However, even if the documents are different, the titles and headings are often the same, and the user cannot accurately determine the difference between the contents of each document only by referring to the titles of the documents. For this reason, in order for a user to specify a desired document, it is necessary to refer to the image of the entire document and confirm the contents one by one, and this work requires a considerable amount of time. is there.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described background, and an object of the present invention is to reduce the amount of data to be stored when storing characters included in a document.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a storage means for storing image data representing an image read by an image reading means, and a text area including a character image and a character image other than the character image in the image represented by the image data. Separating means for separating an image area including an image, character recognizing means for recognizing a character included in a text area obtained by the separating means, and a character code representing the character recognized by the character recognizing means Character encoding means, writing means for writing the character code generated by the character encoding means in association with the image data stored in the storage means, and storage means stored in the storage means The image represented by the existing image data and the character represented by the character code written in the storage means in association with the image data. Further comprising a display control means for displaying on the display unit in association to provide an image processing apparatus according to claim. Thus, instead of storing the characters included in the document as image data as in the prior art, the characters are stored as a character code. Since the data amount of the character code assigned to the character is smaller than the data amount of the character image data, according to the present invention, the data amount to be stored can be reduced as compared with the conventional case. The display device further includes a determination unit that identifies a top / bottom direction of the character recognized by the character recognition unit, and that determines that the top / bottom direction is a top / bottom direction of an image represented by image data stored in the storage unit. The control means displays the image represented by the image data stored in the storage means in a state where the top and bottom direction determined by the determination means matches the top and bottom direction when the user refers to the display means. It is desirable to display on the display means. Further, it is preferable that the image processing apparatus includes conversion means for converting the resolution of the input image data so that the resolution of the input image data is reduced, and the storage means stores the image data whose resolution is converted by the conversion means.

  In addition, the present invention separates a text area including a character image and an image area including an image other than a character image in an image represented by the image data, and a function of writing input image data into a storage unit in a computer. A function for recognizing a character included in the text area, a function for generating a character code representing the recognized character, and the character encoding means in association with the image data stored in the storage means The function of writing the character code generated by the storage means, the image represented by the image data stored in the storage means, and the character represented by the character code written in the storage means in association with the image data And a program for realizing the function of displaying on the display means.

DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments of the invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of an image processing apparatus 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The image processing apparatus 10 can be realized by a so-called multifunction device. As shown in FIG. 1, a scanner unit 1 that reads an image on a document and generates image data, and an operation unit 2 that includes a keyboard, a mouse, and the like. An HD (Hard Disk) 3 for storing various data and control programs, a memory 4 functioning as a work memory, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 5 for controlling the entire image processing apparatus 10, and a liquid crystal display And a display unit 6 such as a display device.

  The image processing apparatus 10 generates image data representing an image of a document, performs character recognition processing on characters included in the document, and associates a character code representing each character with image data of the entire document. Store in HD3. As the character code used here, a well-known code such as JIS code, EUC code or unicode is suitable. That is, in the present embodiment, characters included in a document are not stored as image data as in the prior art, but are stored as code information expressing the characters as character codes. Since the data amount of the character code assigned to the character is much smaller than the data amount of the character image data, according to the present embodiment, the data amount to be stored in the HD3 can be made smaller than before. it can.

  The operation of the image processing apparatus 10 will be specifically described below using the flowchart shown in FIG. In the following operation example, the document D shown on the left side of FIG. The document D includes text areas t1 to t5 including characters and an image area i (hereinafter referred to as an image area I) including images other than characters. The dotted lines surrounding the text areas t1 to t5 are for indicating the position and range of the text area, and such dotted lines are not included in the actual document D.

  The user first sets the document D in the scanner unit 1 and instructs the reading of the document using the operation unit 2. In response to this operation, the CPU 5 reads the control program from the HD 3 and loads it into the memory 4 and starts the processing shown in FIG. 2 according to the procedure described in this program. First, the CPU 5 instructs the scanner unit 1 to read a document (step S101). In response to this instruction, the scanner unit 1 emits light to the set document, optically reads an image of the document, generates image data, and supplies the image data to the CPU 5.

  The CPU 5 assigns an image ID (here, “id01”) as identification information to the image data, and stores the image data and the image ID in the memory 4. Next, the CPU 5 performs so-called T (text) / I (image) separation on the image represented by the image data to separate the text area from the image area, and where each area is located on the image. It is recognized whether to do (step S102). In the example of FIG. 3, an image object indicating a tree located substantially in the center of the document image is an image area i, and “ABCDEFGHIJK”, “Ah”, “1234”, “LMNOPQR” scattered around the image area i. ”And“ Eokaki Kokusashi Suseso ”are text regions t1 to t5.

  Next, the CPU 5 performs resolution conversion processing such as thinning out pixels on the image data generated in step S101 to generate lower resolution image data (hereinafter referred to as compressed image data), and this compressed image data. Is stored in the HD 3 together with the image ID “id01” described above (step S103). For example, in the example of FIG. 3, by reducing the resolution of the document D, compressed image data representing the document image sd as shown in the upper right of FIG. 3 is generated, and this is stored in the HD 3 together with the image ID “id01”. Will be. Then, the CPU 5 creates a management table as shown in FIG. 4 and stores it in the HD 3. In this management table, the image ID “id01” is associated with the storage address (here “ad10001”) of the above-described compressed image data on HD3, and further, the storage address of a character code described later is also stored. It is associated.

  Subsequently, the CPU 5 determines whether or not the text area is included in the document D based on the result of the T / I separation in step S102 (step S104). When it is determined that the text area is included (step S104: YES), the CPU 5 performs OCR (Optical Character Recognition) on the text area, and what characters are included in the text area. Is recognized (step S105). Then, the CPU 5 converts the recognized character into a character code according to a predetermined code system (step S106). In the example shown in FIG. 3, each character included in the text areas t1 to t5 in the document D is converted into a character code by the CPU 5. A character code indicating the character image c “Koshishisoseso” is obtained.

Then, the CPU 5 stores the character code generated in step S106 in the HD 3 in association with the above-described image ID and compressed image data (step S107). Then, the CPU 5 writes the storage address of the character code described above on the HD 3 (here, “ad20001”) in the management table shown in FIG.
In step S104, when the CPU 5 determines that the text area is not included in the document D (step S104; NO), the processing of the CPU 5 is ended as it is. In this case, the HD3 management table associates the image ID “id03” and the compressed image data storage address “ad10003” as in the record corresponding to the image ID “id03” in FIG. The character code storage address is blank.

When the process shown in FIG. 2 is completed, the management table described above associates the image ID, the storage address of the compressed image data, and the storage address of the character code. Using this management table, the CPU 5 can display a screen for the user to search for documents on the display unit 6. The specific operation is as follows.
When an instruction to search for a document is given by the user, the CPU 5 sequentially reads “image ID”, “compressed image data storage address”, and “character code storage address” from the management table. Next, the CPU 5 reads the compressed image data from the read compressed image data storage address and reads the character code from the read character code storage address. Then, the CPU 5 displays a document image sd as shown in the upper right part of FIG. 3 on the display unit 6 based on the read compressed image data, interprets the read character code, and shows it in the lower right part of FIG. Such a character image c is generated and displayed on the display unit 6 in parallel with the document image sd. The CPU 5 can display a list of document images sd and character images c by executing the above-described processing for all images managed in the management table. The user can specify a document having the content desired by browsing the character image c. Then, the CPU 5 enlarges and displays the entire image of the specified document on the display unit 6 so that the user can refer to the contents of the entire document.

  It is also possible for the user to input a specific keyword by operating the operation unit 2, and the CPU 5 can search for and display a document including the keyword. Specifically, the operation is as follows. When a keyword is designated by the user, the CPU 5 converts the character of the keyword into a character code and stores it in the memory 4. Then, the CPU 4 refers to the character code storage address described in the management table, and reads the character code from this character code storage address. Then, the CPU 5 compares the keyword character code stored in the memory 4 with the read character code, and determines whether there is a match. If there is a matching character code, the image ID corresponding to the character code storage address of the character code is read from the management table. Next, the CPU 5 reads the compressed image data from the compressed image data storage address corresponding to the image ID, and displays the document image sd as shown in the upper right of FIG. 3 on the display unit 6 based on the compressed image data. At the same time, the above character code is interpreted to generate a character image c as shown in the lower right part of FIG. 3, and this is displayed on the display unit 6 in parallel with the document image sd. As a result, the user can refer to the contents of the document including the keyword.

  As described above, in this embodiment, characters included in a document are not stored as image data as in the prior art, but are stored as code information expressing the characters as character codes. Since the data amount of the character code assigned to the character is much smaller than the data amount of the character image data, according to the present embodiment, the data amount to be stored in the HD3 can be made smaller than before. it can. Conventionally, since only a specific text area such as a document title or headline is stored, the difference between the contents of each document cannot be accurately determined. However, in the present embodiment, it is included in the document. Since all characters are stored as character codes, the difference between each document can be judged more accurately, and the user can refer to the image of the entire document and check the contents one by one. There is no need for trouble. Therefore, it is possible to search for a document desired by the user more accurately and more quickly than before.

The above-described embodiment may be modified as follows.
In the embodiment, an example in which the image processing apparatus 1 is realized by a multifunction peripheral has been described. May be realized.

Further, when the CPU 5 executes the character recognition process, the top / bottom direction of each character can be specified. Therefore, the top / bottom direction of the entire document is determined based on the top / bottom direction of the character, and the determined top / bottom direction is displayed. The document image sd may be displayed on the display unit 6 in a state in which the unit 6 matches the vertical direction when the user refers. This modification will be described with reference to FIG.
In FIG. 5, the document image d1 and the document image d2 read by the scanner unit 5 have the same document contents, but the reading direction (scanning direction) of the scanner unit 5 is different. It will be recognized as. Therefore, the CPU 5 executes character recognition processing in step S105 in FIG. 2 to recognize the vertical direction of each character, and further determines the vertical direction of the entire document based on the vertical direction of the character. As a result, the CPU 5 can recognize that the vertical direction of the document image d1 is the direction of the arrow a1, and the vertical direction of the document image d2 is the direction of the arrow a2, as shown in the figure. Then, the CPU 5 displays the document image sd on the display unit 6 in a state where the determined top and bottom directions a1 and a2 coincide with the top and bottom direction A when the user refers to the display unit 6. In this way, even document images read in different scanning directions with respect to the vertical direction of the document can be displayed on the display unit 6 with the vertical direction aligned, and the user can view each document image. It becomes easy to see. Further, for example, the CPU 5 can determine documents having the same content by obtaining the degree of coincidence of the images in a state where the top and bottom directions of the document images are aligned. Therefore, the CPU 5 does not need to store the document image d1 and the document image d2 separately in the HD 3, and only stores one of the document images. Therefore, the amount of data to be stored in HD3 can be further reduced.

  Note that the CPU 5 performs resolution conversion processing such as thinning out pixels on the image data generated in step S101 in FIG. 2 to generate and store compressed image data having a lower resolution. If the capacity is sufficient, the image data generated in step S101 in FIG. 2 may be stored in the HD 3 as it is.

It is a block diagram which shows an example of a structure of the image processing apparatus which is embodiment of this invention. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an execution procedure of a control unit of the image processing apparatus according to the embodiment. It is a figure explaining the process of the process in the image processing apparatus which concerns on the same embodiment. It is a figure which shows the content of the management table which the image processing apparatus which concerns on the same embodiment memorize | stores. It is a figure explaining the process of the process in the image processing apparatus which concerns on a modification.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Scanner part, 2 ... Operation part, 3 ... HD, 4 ... Memory, 5 ... CPU, 6 ... Display part.

Claims (4)

Storage means for storing image data representing an image read by the image reading means;
In the image represented by the image data, a separating unit that separates a text region including a character image from an image region including an image other than the character image;
Character recognition means for recognizing characters contained in the text region obtained by the separation means;
Character encoding means for generating a character code representing the character recognized by the character recognition means;
A writing unit that writes the character code generated by the character encoding unit in the storage unit in association with the image data stored in the storage unit;
Display control means for associating and displaying on the display means an image represented by the image data stored in the storage means and a character represented by the character code written in the storage means in association with the image data. An image processing apparatus. A determination unit that identifies the top and bottom direction of the character recognized by the character recognition unit and determines that the top and bottom direction is the top and bottom direction of the image represented by the image data stored in the storage unit;
The display control means is an image represented by the image data stored in the storage means in such a state that the top and bottom direction determined by the determination means matches the top and bottom direction when the user refers to the display means. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image is displayed on the display unit. Conversion means for converting the resolution of the image data so as to reduce the resolution of the input image data;
The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storage unit stores image data whose resolution has been converted by the conversion unit. On the computer,
A function of writing the input image data into the storage means;
In the image represented by the image data, a function of separating a text area including a character image and an image area including an image other than the character image;
A function of recognizing characters included in the text area;
A function for generating a character code representing a recognized character;
A function of writing the generated character code in the storage unit in association with the image data stored in the storage unit;
A function of associating the image represented by the image data stored in the storage unit with the character represented by the character code written in the storage unit in association with the image data and displaying the image on the display unit. Program.

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