JP2008252294A - Image forming system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming system which performs update of change history without applying time and effort and missing even for a paper document. <P>SOLUTION: The image forming system is provided with: an image reading unit 21 which reads the document, and forms a document image and a history image; a history information recognizing unit 29 which recognizes change history information of the document from the history image formed by the image reading unit 21; a change content recognizing unit 28 which discriminates whether the document is changed or not based on the document image, and recognizes the change content if the document is changed; a history image forming unit 30 which adds the changed content of the document recognized by the change content recognizing unit 28 if the document is changed to the change history information recognized by the history information recognizing unit 29, and forms the history image showing the change history information; and an image forming unit 24 which composes and outputs the document information formed by the image reading unit 21 and the history image formed by the history image forming unit 30. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming system.

Conventionally, document revision / revision management methods include a method of adding a revision history column to a document and adding a revision history each time a change is made, or changing an electronic document using a personal computer. 2. Description of the Related Art A document management apparatus (see, for example, Patent Document 1) that recognizes changes and manages them as revision history information together with an electronic document is known.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-120049

  However, with the method of writing in the revision history column, it takes a lot of work to summarize the changes in a short time, and in some cases, the history may be omitted, or the actual changes can be accurately identified from the descriptions. Inconveniences such as inability to occur. In addition, especially when there are many changes, many pages are consumed in the revision history. Even though the opportunity to refer to the revision history is limited, it always affects the readability and ease of use of the document. End up.

  Further, in the document management apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1, the creation and management of revision history information for an electronic document does not cause troubles such as troubles and omissions in the creation of revision history manually, but a user who refers to or changes a document. The handling of documents by is limited to electronic. For this reason, a personal computer is required to perform the work, and it cannot be used especially for a user who wants to handle a document with paper having excellent readability and portability and a user who does not use a personal computer.

  The present invention provides an image forming system capable of updating a change history without taking time and effort for a paper document and managing the history of the document while maintaining usability unique to a paper document. The purpose is to provide.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned object, the image forming system according to claim 1 includes an image reading unit that reads a document to create a document image and a history image, and changes the document from the history image created by the image reading unit. History information recognizing means for recognizing history information, determining whether or not the document has been changed based on the document image, and if the document has been changed, a change content recognition means for recognizing a change content; If the document has been changed, the change content of the document recognized by the change content recognition means is added to the change history information recognized by the history information recognition means, and a history image indicating the change history information is added. A history image creation means to create, and an image composition method for synthesizing and outputting the document image created by the image reading means and the history image created by the history image creation means It has a, and.

  The image forming system according to claim 2 is the image forming system according to claim 1, wherein the change content recognition means recognizes date information and user information when the document is changed, and the history image creation means The date and time information and the user information recognized by the change content recognition unit are added to the change history information in association with the change content of the document, and a history image indicating the change history information is created.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided the image forming system according to the first or second aspect, further comprising history information editing means for editing the change history information.

  The image forming system according to claim 4, further comprising an area designating unit for designating an area of the document in the image forming system according to any one of claims 1 to 3. The means determines whether or not the document has been changed outside the area designated by the area designation means in the document.

  6. The image forming system according to claim 5, wherein the document forming history information recognized by the history information recognizing means is displayed in the image forming system according to any one of claims 1 to 4. Is further provided.

  The image forming system according to claim 6 is a change in which specific change history information is selected from the change history information displayed by the display unit in the image forming system according to any one of claims 1 to 5. The apparatus further comprises history selection means and document image forming means for forming an image of the document at the time of change based on the change history information selected by the change history selection means.

  The image forming system according to claim 7, further comprising storage means for storing the change contents of the document as change history information in the image forming system according to any one of claims 1 to 6. The reading unit reads a document to create a document image and a history image, and further reads an additional image for specifying the change history information. The history image generation unit stores the history image in the storage unit based on the additional image. The read change history information is read out, and a history image is created based on the read change history information.

  An image forming system according to an eighth aspect is the image forming system according to the seventh aspect, characterized in that the storage means is connected via a network.

  The image forming system according to claim 9 is the image forming system according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the history image creating unit is configured to change the contents of the document one-dimensionally or as change history information. A history image that is two-dimensional code information is created.

  11. The image forming system according to claim 10, wherein in the image forming system according to any one of claims 1 to 6, the history image creating means uses the change contents of the document as change history information. A history image is created by embedding in the image.

  As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, there is an effect that the change history can be updated without omission of a paper document without omission.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, it is possible to manage the document change history including the change date and time and the changer.

  According to the third aspect of the invention, there is an effect that the user can correct the change history information automatically created.

  According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, there is an effect that the specific area of the document can be excluded from the change determination target.

  According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, there is an effect that the user can visually confirm the change history information of the document.

  According to the sixth aspect of the invention, an effect is obtained that an image of a document at the time of past change can be restored.

  According to the seventh aspect of the invention, an effect is obtained that a large amount of change history information can be stored in the storage medium.

  According to the eighth aspect of the invention, there is an effect that a large amount of change history information can be stored in a storage medium on the network.

  According to the ninth aspect of the invention, there is an effect that the change history information can be output and stored together with the document image on the paper document as code information.

  According to the tenth aspect of the present invention, since the change history information is included in the document image and output, an effect that the image other than the document image can be saved without being output is obtained.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a basic configuration of an image forming system according to the present invention. The image forming system includes an image reading device 11, an image forming device 12, and a display screen 13.

  The image reading device 11 scans a document placed at a predetermined position, reads an image, and acquires image data indicating the image. The image forming apparatus 12 forms an image using image data such as image data acquired by the image reading apparatus 11 or a history image, and prints the image. The display screen 13 includes a touch panel provided with a liquid crystal display device, and displays change history information and the like, and includes a key for a user (changer) to select a change history or input information.

  FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of the image forming system. The image forming system includes an image reading unit 21 that reads an image of a document, an image recognition unit 22 that recognizes an image of the read document, an image creation unit 23 that creates an image to be printed, an image formation unit 24 that forms an image on paper, A display unit 25 that accepts display of information to the user and input of information from the user, a storage unit 26 that stores document change history information, and a control unit 27 that controls them are provided. The image recognizing unit 22 includes a change content recognizing unit 28 for recognizing the change content of the document and a history information recognizing unit 29 for recognizing the change history information from the read document image. A history image creation unit 30 for adding and creating a history image is provided.

  The present invention is an image forming system that adds document change history information to a document. In particular, when a document is changed, the contents of the change are recognized, and the change history is updated and added to the document.

As an outline, an original change history is added to the original document in advance and an original is registered. Thereafter, the change history is updated each time a change is made to the document, and the document with the updated change history added is printed. As for the document change history, when a document to which change history information is added is read, the change history and the contents of the change are displayed on the display screen. When one of the displayed change histories is selected, the document at that stage can be displayed and the document at that stage can be printed. That is, the embodiment of the image forming system is as follows.
(1) Original registration of document (2) Update of document change history (3) Display of document change history (4) Restoration of past documents Each embodiment will be described below.
<Original registration of document>
FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of an outline of processing for document original registration. As shown in the figure, the image forming system scans the document image of the original document 40, recognizes the date and time, and then prints the document 41 in which the history image 51 is added to the document image.

  The detailed operation of document original registration will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

  First, in step 100, the image reading unit 21 reads the document image of the original document 40, and in step 110, the change content recognition unit 28 recognizes the date and user information and the user information. The user information is input by a method such as input using an IC card or a mobile phone, or key input by the user using the touch panel of the display screen 13, and the change content recognition unit 28 recognizes the user information.

  In step 120, the history image creation unit 30 combines the document image read by the image reading unit 21 with the date / time and user information, and creates a history image 51 (QR code in this embodiment) as change history information.

  In step 130, the image creating unit 23 synthesizes the history image 51 created by the history image creating unit 30 and the document image read by the image reading unit 21 to create a document image to which change history information is added.

  Finally, in step 140, the image forming unit 24 prints the document 41 to which the change history information is added.

As described above, in original registration of a document, a document is formed by adding a history image as initial change history information including the date and time of registration and user information to the document image of the original document.
<Update document revision history>
FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of an outline of processing for updating a document change history. As shown in the figure, the image forming system scans a changed document 42, recognizes change history information, change contents, date and time, and a user from the history image 52, and then adds the updated history image 53 to the document. 43 is printed.

  The detailed operation of updating the document change history will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

  First, in step 200, the image (document image and history image 52) of the changed document 42 is read by the image reading unit 21, and in step 210, the change date recognition unit 28 recognizes the date and user information and the user information.

  In step 220, the history information recognition unit 29 analyzes the history image 52 of the read document and acquires the document image before the change and the change history information.

  In step 230, the change content recognition unit 28 compares the document image before change acquired in step 220 with the changed document image read in step 200 to recognize the change content. Here, it is possible to designate a non-discrimination target region that is not a comparison target in the document. For example, if the page number 60 or the like is designated as a non-discrimination area, even if the page number changes, the comparison is made except for the area of the page number 60. Is not recognized. When comparing both documents, the read image data may be compared as they are, or the image data may be converted into text data and then compared.

  In step 240, the change content recognition unit 28 determines whether or not the document has been changed based on the comparison result between the two documents. If it is determined that there is a change, the process proceeds to step 250. If it is determined that there is no change, the process ends.

  In step 250, the history image creation unit 30 updates the change history information by adding the change content, date and user information of the document recognized by the change content recognition unit 28. At the same time, the display unit 25 displays the change history 61 and the image 62 representing the change content on the display screen 13 as shown in FIG.

  In the change history 61 shown on the display screen 13, the recognized user (changer), the date and time, and the content of the change are displayed on the last line. In the present embodiment, since the character “Kakikukeko” corresponding to the changed portion 63 is added to the original document 40, the content of the change history 61 includes “added character” and a word indicating the changed content. It is filled in automatically. In addition to this, the words indicating the contents of change include “character deletion”, “character change”, “underline addition”, and the like. The contents of the change history 61 can be edited, and the entered change contents can be rewritten by the user.

  In addition, an image including the changed portion 63 recognized by the changed content recognition unit 28 is displayed on the image 62 representing the changed content shown on the display screen 13. At this time, the characters “Kakikukeko” corresponding to the changed portion 63 are displayed so as to be easily understood by a method such as highlighting.

  In step 260, the history image creation unit 30 creates a history image 53 based on the updated change history information.

  In step 270, the image creation unit 23 combines the history image 53 based on the updated change history information and the image of the changed document 42 read by the image reading unit 21, and the updated change history information is added. An image of the document 43 is created.

  Finally, in step 280, the image forming unit 24 prints the document 43 to which the updated change history information is added.

As described above, in the update of the document change history, the changed part of the changed document is automatically recognized, and a document to which a history image including the change contents as change history information is added is formed.
<Display document revision history>
FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of an outline of processing for displaying a document change history. As shown in the figure, the image forming system scans the document 44 to which the history image 54 is added, recognizes and displays the change history information, and when one of the change histories is selected, changes in the stage are performed. An image representing the content is displayed.

  The detailed operation of displaying the document change history will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

  First, in step 300, the image reading unit 21 reads an image of the document 44 to which the history image 54 is added.

  In step 310, the history information recognition unit 29 analyzes the history image 54 of the read document, and acquires change history information (date / time, changer, change content).

  In step 320, the display unit 25 displays the change history 61 on the display screen 13 as shown in FIG.

  In step 330, the display unit 25 determines whether any change history has been selected from the change history 61 displayed on the display screen 13. Here, the change history is selected by touching a specific change history 64 area in the change history 61 displayed on the display screen 13 as a touch panel, as shown in FIG. If there is a selection, the process proceeds to step 340. If there is no selection, the process returns to step 330 to repeat this determination.

  In step 340, the display unit 25 displays an image representing the change contents at the stage corresponding to the change history selected in step 330 on the display screen 13. In FIG. 7, an image 62 representing the change contents at the stage corresponding to the selected change history 64 is displayed. Also here, the changed part 63 is displayed so as to be easily understood by a method such as highlighting.

As described above, in the display of the document change history, the change history at each stage of the document is displayed, and the image indicating the change contents at the stage selected by the user is displayed, and the change contents at the time of each change are visually displayed. Can grasp.
<Restoring past documents>
FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of an outline of processing for restoring a past document. As shown in the figure, the image forming system scans the document 44 to which the history image 54 is added, recognizes and displays the change history information, and when one of the change histories is selected, changes in the stage are performed. An image representing the contents is displayed and the document at that stage is printed.

  The detailed operation of restoring the past document will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

  The process from reading the document image in step 300 to displaying the image representing the changed contents in step 340 is the same as in FIG.

  In subsequent step 400, the image forming unit 24 determines whether or not there is a print instruction. The presence / absence of a print instruction is determined, for example, by whether the control unit 27 has touched a predetermined button (not shown) on the display screen 13 that is a touch panel. If there is an instruction, the process proceeds to step 410, and if there is no instruction, the process ends.

  Finally, in step 410, the document at the stage instructed to be printed is restored and printed. In order to be able to restore a document at any stage, it is necessary to store image data necessary to restore the document at any stage. For this purpose, image data of documents at all stages may be held, or difference data may be held by holding image data of changed parts at each stage.

  As described above, in the restoration of the past document, the document at the stage selected by the user from the change history of the document can be easily restored.

  In addition, this invention is not limited to embodiment mentioned above, It can apply also to what changed the design within the range described in the claim.

For example, in the above-described embodiment, a method of adding the change history information as a QR code is used. However, any of the following methods may be used.
(1) A method for adding an image as a key to be stored in a storage unit 26 such as a hard disk of an image forming system to a document (2) A method for storing the image in a storage device such as a server connected to the image forming system via a network A method of adding a key image to be associated with a document.
(3) A method using a one-dimensional code such as a barcode or a two-dimensional code other than a QR code (4) A method of embedding change history information in an image image (5) A method of writing change history information with invisible toner (6) Method of writing change history information in a memory of a paper with a memory function such as an IC tag

1 is a basic configuration diagram of an image forming system according to the present invention. 1 is a functional block diagram of an image forming system according to the present invention. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a processing outline of the image forming system according to the first embodiment. 3 is a flowchart showing a flow of operation of the image forming system according to the first embodiment. It is explanatory drawing of the process outline | summary of the image forming system which concerns on 2nd Embodiment. 6 is a flowchart showing a flow of operations of the image forming system according to the second embodiment. It is explanatory drawing of the process outline | summary of the image forming system which concerns on 3rd Embodiment. 10 is a flowchart showing a flow of operation of an image forming system according to a third embodiment. It is explanatory drawing of the process outline | summary of the image forming system which concerns on 4th Embodiment. 10 is a flowchart showing a flow of operation of an image forming system according to a fourth embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Image reading apparatus 12 Image forming apparatus 13 Display screen 21 Image reading part 22 Image recognition part 23 Image creation part 24 Image formation part 25 Display part 26 Storage part 27 Control part 28 Change content recognition part 29 History information recognition part 30 History image creation Part

Claims (10)

Image reading means for reading a document and creating a document image and a history image;
History information recognition means for recognizing change history information of the document from a history image created by the image reading means;
It is determined whether or not the document has been changed based on the document image, and change content recognition means for recognizing the change content if the document has been changed,
If the document has been changed, a history image showing the change history information by adding the change content of the document recognized by the change content recognition means to the change history information recognized by the history information recognition means A history image creation means for creating
Image synthesizing means for synthesizing and outputting the document image created by the image reading means and the history image created by the history image creating means;
An image forming system. The change content recognition means recognizes date information and user information when the document is changed,
The history image creation means creates the history image indicating the change history information by adding the date information and the user information recognized by the change content recognition means to the change history information in association with the change contents of the document. The image forming system according to claim 1.   The image forming system according to claim 1, further comprising history information editing means for editing the change history information. An area designating unit for designating an area of the document;
The image according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the change content recognition means determines whether or not the document has been changed outside the area designated by the area designation means in the document. Forming system.   5. The image forming system according to claim 1, further comprising display means for displaying change history information of the document recognized by the history information recognition means. Change history selecting means for selecting specific change history information from the change history information displayed by the display means;
6. The image forming system according to claim 5, further comprising: a document image forming unit that forms an image of the document at the time of change based on the change history information selected by the change history selecting unit. Storage means for storing the change contents of the document as change history information;
The image reading unit reads a document to create a document image and a history image, and further reads an additional image for specifying the change history information,
The history image creation means reads the change history information stored in the storage means based on the additional image, and creates a history image based on the read change history information.
The image forming system according to any one of claims 1 to 6.   The image forming system according to claim 7, wherein the storage unit is connected via a network.   The image forming system according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the history image creating means creates a history image which is one-dimensional or two-dimensional code information using the change content of the document as change history information. .   The image forming system according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the history image creation unit creates a history image by embedding change contents of the document as change history information in the document image.

Images