JP2011210013A - Image filing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image filing system which displays a high-quality image at a high speed.SOLUTION: A system is composed which stores image data obtained by digitizing books by means of a scanner and made computer readable in a server. The image data is prepared in page through plural stages from a low resolution to a high resolution. The image data of each resolution is made in blocks in line with broken lines and is stored as the image file for each block. When an image is displayed, high image quality display is achieved by using the image data of resolution which corresponds to a designated display scale. When extended display is performed, a range of display on a display or the like does not cover the whole page but covers only a part thereof, and consequently only blocks necessary for display are read out and then displayed. Thus, even when high-resolution display is performed, an amount of data to be used for display is restrained, and high-speed display is achieved.

Description

  The present invention relates to an image filing system for storing and browsing image data.

There is an image filing system for storing and browsing image data obtained by photographing with a digital camera or image data obtained by scanning a book or the like. In an image filing system, thumbnails are used to search and browse stored images.
For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for ordering a photo based on image data obtained by scanning a negative film or the like, and more specifically, in high-resolution scan data generated for printing. A technique for generating medium-resolution image data for display on a monitor and low-resolution image data for an index by performing resolution conversion is disclosed. Thus, by preparing image data with a resolution according to the application, it is possible to maintain the image quality and processing speed according to each application. For example, if a small index image is to be displayed with high-resolution image data, it will take time to read out and reduce the data. However, if low-resolution image data is prepared in advance, it can be done quickly. The index can be displayed.

Japanese Patent No. 3511625

The image filing system is also required to display an enlarged / reduced image according to a user instruction. Conventionally, an image to be displayed is enlarged or reduced by converting the resolution of the image data. When enlarging an image, high-resolution image data is generated by interpolating the original image data, and when reducing, low-resolution image data is generated by thinning the original image data by sampling. It is.
However, with such resolution conversion, it takes a very long time to display an image. In addition, such resolution conversion cannot display a high-quality image. The deterioration in image quality cannot be overlooked, especially when enlarged display.

In order to improve the image quality at the time of enlarged display, a method of preparing image data with high resolution in advance can be considered.
However, with this method, the size of the image data increases, and it takes time to read and display the data. For example, when image data is provided from a server via a network, the network traffic increases, and the time until display becomes longer.

  In view of these problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a technique capable of displaying a high-quality image at high speed according to a designated resolution in an image filing system.

A configuration of the present invention as an image filing system for storing and browsing image data will be described.
First, definitions of terms used in this specification with respect to image data and the like will be described.
First, in the present invention, drawings such as books and photographs taken with a digital camera or the like are to be browsed. Each page of a book, one drawing, and one photo as a browsing unit is referred to as a “unit image” in this specification. For books, two pages may be combined so that they can be viewed in a spread state. In this case, since the page in the spread state is the browsing unit, the spread state is referred to as “unit image”.
The digital data representing this “unit image” is referred to as “image data”. In the case of books or drawings, image data can be obtained by scanning. In the case of a digital camera, the data of the photographed image itself is the image data referred to in this specification. In the present invention, by converting the resolution of image data obtained by scanning or the like, “image data” is generated at a plurality of resolutions for a unit image. The image data before the resolution conversion is sometimes called “original image data”. In the case of a book, two pages may be combined as described above. In this case, the image data in which each page is scanned is also referred to as “original image data”, but the image data in which the original image data of each page is combined without resolution conversion is also subjected to resolution conversion. In the sense of data, it is called “original image data”.
In the present invention, each image data is divided into areas of predetermined vertical and horizontal sizes. This area is referred to as a “block”. However, the block size may be different for each original image and for each resolution.
The image data is stored as individual data for each block. Data representing each block is referred to as an “image file”.
To summarize the above, in the present invention, image data having a plurality of resolutions is generated for each unit image, but each image data is divided into a plurality of blocks and stored as image files for each block. Will be.

The image filing system includes an image database storage unit, an instruction input unit, and a display control unit.
The image database storage unit divides image data obtained by digitizing a unit image at a plurality of resolutions into blocks having a predetermined shape for each resolution, and stores the blocks as image files. As described above, the block size may be different for each resolution, but it is preferable that the block size is uniform because processing can be performed uniformly.
The instruction input unit inputs an instruction for resolution and display range when displaying an image. The resolution means the number of pixels per unit, but the instruction may be performed at an enlargement / reduction ratio with respect to a reference image size. The designation of the display range means designation of which part is displayed when only a part of the image can be displayed depending on the size of the display or window capable of displaying the image. For example, the display range may be specified as long as the information can relatively specify the display range in the entire image. When the display range is rectangular, a method can be used in which the center point of the display range and the vertical and horizontal sizes are indicated by relative coordinates with respect to the image. Further, a method may be used in which the positions of two points on the diagonal line of the rectangular area are indicated by relative coordinates with respect to the unit image. When the size of the display range is fixed, the display range may be specified by the relative coordinates of the center point and a preset fixed size.
The display control unit reads an image file corresponding to the designated resolution and display range from the image database storage unit, arranges the image files, and displays a portion corresponding to the display range of the unit images.

  According to the present invention, since image data is prepared for each resolution, image data corresponding to the designated resolution can be used, and the image quality of the displayed image can be maintained. Each image data is divided into blocks and stored in an readable manner as an image file for each block. Therefore, it is possible to display the obtained image by reading out only the image file corresponding to the display range instructed by the user. Thus, according to the present invention, since it is not necessary to read the entire image data, the data size required for display can be suppressed even when an image is displayed at a high resolution. As a result, high-speed and high-quality image display can be realized.

  In general, the display range is defined by the size of the display and window, so even if the resolution of the image to be displayed changes, the number of pixels in the entire display range does not change, and the image is displayed within this display range. The data capacity required to do this is essentially unchanged. When displaying an enlarged image, the size of the entire image data is increased, but the data size of the portion used for display is the same as before the enlargement, and most of it is just useless data that is not used for display. is there. The present invention has been made based on such a point of view. Image data is stored as an image file divided into blocks, and an arbitrary part of an image can be read out in units of blocks, thereby reading unnecessary data. To speed up the display.

  The image filing system may be configured as a single device, or may be configured as a system in which a computer as a terminal and a server are connected via a network. In the latter case, for example, an image database storage unit may be provided on the server, and an instruction input unit and a display control unit may be provided on the computer side.

As described above, the image data handled by the image filing system can be data of a photograph taken with a digital camera or the like, data obtained by scanning a book or drawing, and the like. When handling image data obtained by scanning a book, the image filing system of the present invention may further include an image input unit, a page merge unit, and an image file generation unit.
The image input unit digitizes each page of the book as a unit image and generates original image data. The digitization of each page may be scanned by a scanner or may be taken by a digital camera or the like.
The page merge unit generates original image data in a state in which the original image data is arranged in a two-page spread state and combined. The page arrangement of the second and subsequent pages varies depending on the opening direction. In a right-open book such as a vertically written book, pages are arranged in the order of right and left, whereas in a left-open book such as a horizontally written book, pages are arranged in the order of left and right. The page merge unit configures original image data with the spread state as a unit image in consideration of the page arrangement for each book. The page layout may be automatically determined based on vertical writing / horizontal writing, or may be instructed by the user. The covers do not need to be joined because they are independent of the spread state.
When the original image data in the spread state is generated as described above, the image file generation unit generates an image file of each resolution based on the combined original image data.

  Books are usually viewed in a double-page spread. Depending on the book, the book may be spread across the left and right pages on the assumption that the book is viewed in a spread state. According to the above aspect, since the image data is generated in a state where the spread state is a unit image, the image data obtained from the book can be browsed without a sense of incongruity.

In the present invention, not only when handling image data obtained from a book, the image database storage unit further stores management data for managing a plurality of resolution image files corresponding to unit images in association with one record. It may be stored.
In this case, the image filing system is provided with a search unit that refers to the management data and searches for records corresponding to the specified search condition, and the display control unit performs image search based on the searched records of the management data. A file may be read.

In the present invention, image data is generated at a plurality of resolutions for each unit image, but the information for managing the image data, such as the name of the unit image, is the same regardless of the resolution. Since the management data is managed by associating a plurality of resolution image files with one record, efficient data management is possible. As a method for managing image files of a plurality of resolutions at once, for example, information specifying the storage destination of the image file of each resolution (hereinafter referred to as “storage destination information”) may be recorded in each record. Then, the image files of each resolution may be stored together in one folder or directory, and storage destination information in this folder or the like may be recorded.
By providing such management data, when browsing the image data, it is possible to easily find the storage location based on the storage location information recorded in the management data record. Further, if one record is searched, the storage destination of the image data of a plurality of resolutions can be grasped, so that the resolution can be switched, that is, the image can be smoothly enlarged or reduced.

When image data taken from a book is targeted, table of contents data may be stored in the management data.
The table of contents data can be contents including the table of contents of the entire book and link information representing records corresponding to the contents of each table of contents. The contents of the table of contents indicate which page of the book contains the contents, and the link information is information for specifying a record corresponding to the page.
If the record can be specified, the image data corresponding to the page can be specified based on the storage location information. Therefore, when the table of contents data includes link information, it is necessary to associate the contents of the table of contents with each record. There is no. For this reason, the table of contents data may be stored in any one of a plurality of records constituting one book. In this way, the maintenance load of management data can be reduced as compared with the case where the contents of the table of contents are recorded in each record.
Further, the display control unit may display a table of contents column that lists the contents of the table of contents with link information attached based on the table of contents data. By attaching link information to the table of contents in this way, it becomes possible to display the corresponding image data via the link information by clicking the table of contents in the table of contents column.

Further, in the management data, character data generated by removing line breaks from characters described in a unit image corresponding to the record may be stored for each record.
By doing so, the retrieval unit can retrieve a record in which the designated character string is included in the character data. Since the character data is generated with line breaks removed, a character string written across lines in a book can also be searched.
For example, when searching for “character string”, in a book, there may be a description such as “character + string” (+ indicates line break) over two lines. Assuming that character data is generated without removing line breaks, in such a case, even if a search is performed with “character string”, the corresponding record cannot be found. On the other hand, if character data is constructed by removing line breaks as described above, it is possible to search without omission.

As described above, the present invention can be configured as a single device, or can be configured as a system in which a computer as a terminal and a server are connected via a network.
Thus, when an image filing system is constructed by connecting a computer and a server via a network, the present invention can also be configured as a server used in such a system. The server includes the above-described image database storage unit, inputs an image file transmission request from a computer functioning as an image browsing device, reads the designated image file from the image database storage unit, and stores the image file in the image browsing device. Supply it.

In addition, the present invention may be configured as an image filing method for storing and browsing image data by a computer. It can also be configured as a computer program for causing a computer to realize each function of the image filing system. Considering the case where an image filing system is constructed by connecting a computer and a server via a network, the present invention can also be configured as a computer program for causing a computer to realize a function as a terminal of the image filing system.
The present invention may be further configured as a computer-readable recording medium that records such a computer program. Recording media include flexible disks, CD-ROMs, magneto-optical disks, IC cards, ROM cartridges, punch cards, printed matter on which codes such as bar codes are printed, computer internal storage devices (memory such as RAM and ROM), and A variety of computer-readable media such as an external storage device can be used.

It is explanatory drawing which shows the structure of an image filing system. It is explanatory drawing which shows the structure of an image file. It is explanatory drawing which shows the structure of management data. It is a flowchart of an image registration process. It is a flowchart of an image file generation process. It is a flowchart of a text data generation process. It is explanatory drawing which shows a search screen. It is explanatory drawing which shows the list display of a search result. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example of a page selection screen. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example of an enlarged display screen. It is a flowchart of a page selection screen display process. It is a flowchart of an enlarged / reduced display process. It is explanatory drawing which shows the processing content at the time of expansion / reduction.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in the following order.
A. System configuration:
B. Image file structure:
C. Management data configuration:
D. Image file and management data generation:
D1. Overall processing:
D2. Image file generation processing:
D3. Text data generation processing:
E. Interface screen example:
F. Image display:
F1. Page selection screen display processing:
F2. Enlarged / reduced display processing:

A. System configuration:
FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of an image filing system. In the present embodiment, an example is shown in which the system is configured to store and browse image data obtained by scanning a book.
The image filing system is configured by connecting a server 200 for storing an image database, an image database generation device 100, and an image browsing device 300 via networks NE1 and NE2, respectively. The networks NE1 and NE2 may be limited networks such as an intranet, or may be wide-area networks such as the Internet.
In the present embodiment, the system configuration composed of the above-described three types of devices is illustrated. However, the image filing system may be configured such that the server 200 and the image database generation device 100 are configured as one device, or the whole is a single unit. You may comprise as an apparatus. Further, two or more image browsing devices 300 may be provided.

  The image browsing device 300 is a device that displays an image on the display 300 </ b> D based on the image data provided from the server 200. As shown in the figure, the image browsing apparatus 300 is provided with functional blocks that operate under the control of the main control unit 301. In this embodiment, the personal computer is configured by installing software that realizes these functions. However, these functional blocks may be configured by hardware. These functional blocks are not necessarily realized by a single dedicated software, and may include functions provided by an OS (Operating System) installed in a personal computer or general-purpose browser software. Software for realizing each functional block may be provided in the form of an applet.

The function of each functional block in the figure will be described.
The main control unit 301 controls the whole.
The transmission / reception unit 302 transmits / receives various commands and data to / from the server 200 via the network NE2. In this embodiment, image data to be browsed, image data transmission requests, and the like are transmitted and received.
The command input unit 303 inputs a user instruction regarding image browsing through an operation of a keyboard or a mouse.
The image file storage unit 304 temporarily stores the image file supplied from the server 200. The configuration of the image file in this embodiment will be described later. In the present embodiment, when browsing an image, the server 200 does not transmit the entire image data, but transmits only an image file necessary for browsing. The image file storage unit 304 stores the image file thus transmitted.
The display control unit 305 displays a screen for searching for a unit image to be browsed, a search result list display screen, a page selection screen, and the like. In displaying these images, the display control unit 305 uses the image file stored in the image file storage unit 304.

The server 200 stores image files and the like, supplies them to the image browsing apparatus 300, and provides software necessary for image browsing (hereinafter also referred to as “viewer”). The image database storage unit 210 that stores image data and the like and the viewer storage unit 202 that stores the viewer are both configured by hard disks, but various nonvolatile memories can be used.
The viewer storage unit 202 stores a viewer for the image browsing apparatus 300 to search and display an image. In this embodiment, the viewer is provided in the form of an applet.
The image database storage unit 210 stores management data 211 and an image file group 215. The image file group 215 is a set of image files generated by dividing image data having the entire page of the book as a unit image. Here, image files corresponding to a large number of pages are stored. The management data 211 is list data that stores management information for managing these image files in units of pages. The management data 211 is used to search for an image and to specify a storage destination of an image file at the time of display, and has a database function. In the present embodiment, the management data 211 and the image file group 215 may be collectively referred to as an “image database”.

The transmission / reception unit 201 and the database management unit 203 are configured by installing software that realizes these functions, but may be configured by hardware.
The transmission / reception unit 201 transmits / receives commands and data to / from the image database generation apparatus 100 and the image browsing apparatus 300 via the networks NE1 and NE2.
The database management unit 203 manages input / output of the image database storage unit 210. In this embodiment, in accordance with an instruction from the image database generation device 100, update processing such as addition and deletion of image files to the image file group 215 and update processing of the management data 211 are performed.

  The image database generation apparatus 100 is an apparatus for scanning a book with the scanner 101 to generate image data, storing it as an image file in the server 200, and preparing management data 211. As shown in the figure, the image database generation apparatus 100 is provided with functional blocks that operate under the control of the main control unit 111. In this embodiment, the personal computer is configured by installing software that realizes these functions. However, these functional blocks may be configured by hardware. These functional blocks are not necessarily realized by a single dedicated software, and may include functions provided by an OS (Operating System) installed in a personal computer or general-purpose browser software. Software for realizing each functional block may be provided in the form of an applet.

The function of each functional block in the figure will be described.
The main control unit 111 controls the whole.
The transmission / reception unit 112 transmits / receives data and commands to / from the server 200 via the network NE1. In this embodiment, management data 211 to be stored in the image database storage unit 210, image files, commands for storing the data, and the like are transmitted and received.
The command input unit 113 inputs an operator instruction related to generation of an image file, maintenance of management data, and the like through operation of a keyboard or a mouse.
The image input unit 114 controls the scanner 101 to read each page of the book as digitized image data. Instead of the scanner 101, a digital camera may be used. It is also possible to read already digitized image data.
The image data storage unit 115 stores the image data read by the image input unit 114. The image data storage unit 115 can also store various data generated in the image file generation process and an image file as a generation result.

  The page merge unit 119 combines the image data of each page of the book and generates image data in a spread state. In this embodiment, on the basis of an instruction from the operator, it is determined whether to arrange on the right / left side (hereinafter referred to as “right open”) or left side / right side (hereinafter referred to as “left open”) in ascending order of page numbers. The image data is generated according to the specified page arrangement. The page arrangement may be automatically determined according to whether the book is written vertically or horizontally. For example, it can be determined that a vertically written book is opened right and a horizontally written book is opened left.

  The image file generation unit 118 has two functions of image data resolution conversion and blocking. In this embodiment, the image database storage unit 210 stores an image file having a plurality of resolutions for each image data for use in enlargement / reduction display as described later. For this reason, the image file generation unit 118 converts the image data generated by the image input unit 114 and the page merge unit 119 into a plurality of preset resolutions. Further, the generated image data of each resolution is divided into blocks each having a predetermined number of pixels in the vertical and horizontal directions, and each is used as an image file. The blocks may have different sizes for each resolution, but in the present embodiment, the blocks have a common size.

The OCR processing unit 117 performs character recognition based on the image data. The recognized character string includes line breaks according to the arrangement of characters in the unit image, but the OCR processing unit 117 removes the line breaks and sets the recognized character string as a one-line character string (hereinafter, this processing is referred to as “character string”). Sometimes referred to as “one line”). The character string generated in this way is registered in the management data 211 and used for page search.
The database management unit 116 performs update processing such as registration of management data 211 and addition / deletion of image files to / from the image file group 215.

B. Image file structure:
FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing the structure of an image file.
FIG. 2A shows a low resolution image file. The rectangle shown on the left represents the entire unit image. In this embodiment, this unit image is divided into blocks each composed of pixels of a predetermined size in the vertical and horizontal directions (for example, 64 pixels in the vertical and horizontal directions). Broken lines in the figure represent divided blocks. For convenience, the divided blocks are numbered 1, 2,... Na from left to right in the horizontal direction, and numbers 1, 2,.
Each block generated in this way constitutes an individual image file. For example, an image file named “file0101” is generated from the hatched portion in the figure. Similarly, “file0102”... “FileMaNa” are generated from the other blocks. These image files are data that can individually display the image of the corresponding block.
The name of the image file can be arbitrarily set, but in this embodiment, the block arrangement is included in the form of “vertical number + horizontal number”. “File0101” represents the 01st block in the vertical direction and the 01st block in the horizontal direction. “FileMaNa” represents the Math in the vertical direction and the Nath in the horizontal direction, that is, the block at the lower right corner of the image.

FIG. 2B shows medium resolution image data. Since the number of vertical and horizontal pixels is larger than in FIG. 2A, the size of the entire image is large. The medium resolution image data is also divided into 1 to Mb in the vertical direction and 1 to Nb in the horizontal direction as indicated by the broken line, and individual image files “file0101” to “fileMbNb” are generated from each block. Is done.
FIG. 2C shows high resolution image data. The size of the entire image is larger than those in FIGS. 2 (a) and 2 (b). High-resolution image data is also blocked into 1-Mc in the vertical direction and 1-Nc in the horizontal direction as indicated by broken lines, and individual image files “file0101” to “fileMcNc” are generated from each block. Is done.
The resolution setting of the medium resolution (FIG. 2B) and the high resolution (FIG. 2C) and the block size can be arbitrarily set. The blocks may have different settings for all resolutions, but in this embodiment, they have the same size.
As described above, in this embodiment, image data is prepared at a plurality of resolutions for each unit image, and the image data at each resolution is composed of block image files. FIG. 2 shows an example, and the resolution may be provided in more stages, or low-resolution image data that is not divided into blocks may be prepared in order to display a so-called thumbnail image.

C. Management data configuration:
FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing the structure of management data. The management data is data for managing image files, and one record is generated for each unit image.
The management data 211 stores information on name, title, issue number, publisher, table of contents, text, and link.
The “name” is a unique name given to the unit image. In the case where a book is targeted, in this embodiment, the name is set by a combination of “code unique to book + serial number of unit image + auxiliary number”. “Book1” indicated by a broken line in the drawing is a code unique to the book. The subsequent three-digit numbers such as “001” and “002” are serial numbers. In this embodiment, since the spread state in which the pages are combined on the left and right is used as a unit image, it is referred to as a serial number instead of a page number. The “auxiliary number” is a two-digit number such as “00” or “01” following the serial number. The auxiliary number is used when it is necessary to insert another unit image between consecutive serial numbers, such as when a missing page is found after scanning a book. In the figure, since it is necessary to insert another unit image later between “book1_002_00” and “book1_003_00”, the name “book1_002 — 01” is assigned to this unit image. By using the auxiliary number in this way, it is possible to insert a unit image without changing the name of another record.
Although the name can be arbitrarily set, the configuration including the serial number as in the present embodiment has an advantage that the page arrangement of the book can be easily reproduced based on this name. Apart from the name, the management data 211 may be provided with an item for specifying the page layout of the book.

“Title” is the name of a book, and “Number” is information indicating the number of a magazine that is regularly published. “2010 — 01” in the figure means “January 2010 issue”. The issue year and month may be separate items. In this way, by setting “title” and “number” as separate items, it is possible to easily perform a search for all the numbers of books of a certain title.
“Publisher” is the name of the publisher of the book. In addition, the author's name and the country of issue may be included.

“Contents” is data representing the table of contents of a book. The table of contents can be registered for each unit image, that is, for each page or spread of the book. In this embodiment, the table of contents of the entire book is registered in the record corresponding to the cover. The table of contents often varies in format and content depending on the book, and it is difficult to automatically generate it by character recognition, so the operator must set it manually while looking at the content of the book. There are many cases. If the method of registering the table of contents of the entire book in a single record as in this embodiment, there is an advantage that it is easier to register and the work efficiency is improved than when a table of contents is set for each record. .
The contents of the table of contents data are illustrated on the upper side of the figure. In the present embodiment, the table of contents data is composed of book page numbers, table of contents, and link information. The link information is information that identifies a record corresponding to the contents of the table of contents. For example, “1, table of contents 1, book1_001 — 00” shown in the top row indicates that a table of contents of “table of contents 1” is attached to one page of the book, and the image of this page is named “book1_001 — 00”. This indicates that it corresponds to the record with. “Contents 1” is actually a character string representing the contents of one page. Similarly, “2 3,...” In the second row represents the table of contents corresponding to the second and third pages. Since the book spread is a single image, two pages are grouped together and represented in one table of contents. Even when the spread is a single image, a table of contents may be prepared for each of the second and third pages. In this case, the link information is only common, such as “2,..., Book1 — 002 — 00”, “3, ..., book1 — 002 — 00”. The table of contents does not need to be prepared for all pages.

“Text” is text data obtained by character recognition of a character string included in a single image. In this embodiment, the line feed included in the character recognition result is removed, and the text data made into one line is registered. In the figure, txt1 etc. represents the generated character string. By making one line in this way, even if it is described as “... character + column ...” (+ indicates a line break) over two lines in a single image, Since the text data in the state of “... Character string...” From which “is removed” is stored, it is possible to execute a search using “character string” as a keyword without omission.
The same “text” may be registered in the management data in parallel (for example, text A, text B, text C, etc.). The content registered in each item may be the same. Thus, by registering character strings in a plurality of items, a search using a plurality of keywords can be realized relatively easily.

The “storage destination” is information indicating the storage destination of the image file corresponding to the unit image (hereinafter referred to as “storage destination information”). For example, a path, an address, or a URL (Universal Resource Locator) can be used as the storage destination information.
The relationship between the image file group 215 and the link information is schematically shown on the right side in the drawing. In this embodiment, image files with a plurality of resolutions are prepared for the unit image. Therefore, a folder is prepared for each resolution (RES1 to RES3 in the figure), and image files at the respective resolutions are stored therein. Further, the folders RES1 to RES3 having different resolutions are collectively stored in one folder DIR1 for the unit image. By doing so, it is possible to collectively manage a plurality of resolution image files for each unit image as in the folders DIR1, DIR2, and DIR3. The storage location information stores information that can specify the folders DIR1, DIR2, DIR3 corresponding to the unit images.
Here, the folder corresponding to the unit image can be regularly stored in the image file group 215 in accordance with the page layout of the book. However, in this embodiment, the data is stored randomly. As shown in the figure, the folder DIR1 corresponds to the serial number 001 (see the name column), whereas the folder DIR2 corresponds to 003 instead of the serial number 002. The serial number 002_00 is stored in the folder DIR3. The reason for setting the storage destination at random is to improve security. In other words, if folders are regularly arranged according to the page layout of the book, if the location of any folder leaks outside, the location of the folder for all pages of the book can be estimated according to the rules, and the entire book May lead to data leakage. On the other hand, if each folder is randomly arranged as in this embodiment, it is possible to prevent leakage of the entire booklet even if there is leakage of some folders. . Even in such a random arrangement, the location of the data corresponding to the unit image can be easily identified by referring to the storage location information of the management data 211, so that there is no problem in displaying the image.

D. Image file and management data generation:
D1. Overall processing:
FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the image registration process. This is a process executed by the image database generation apparatus 100 in accordance with an instruction from the operator, and is a process executed by a CPU of a personal computer constituting the apparatus 100 in terms of hardware.
First, the image database generation apparatus 100 captures an image of each page of a book by the scanner 101 (step S10). The books may be disassembled in a separated state and automatically read by the scanner 101, or each page of the book may be read while being faced to the scanner 101 one by one. In this embodiment, the scanner 101 is used, but a method of photographing each page with a digital camera may be used.

Next, the image database generation device 100 inputs a page layout specification (step S12) and performs page merge processing (step S14).
As shown on the left side of the figure, for horizontal books, etc., the pages progress in the order of left to right, such as 2 pages on the left side and 3 pages on the right side. Hereinafter, such an arrangement is referred to as a left opening because it opens leftward as indicated by an arrow OP1. As shown on the right side of the figure, pages of vertical writing, etc., progress in the order of right side → left side, with 2 pages on the right side and 3 pages on the left side. Hereinafter, such an arrangement is referred to as right opening because it opens in the right direction as indicated by an arrow OP2.
In step S12, the fetched book accepts designation of either left or right opening.
The page merge process refers to a process of generating image data in a spread state by combining two pages of image data for a page in a book spread state. An example of processing is shown in the figure. The upper row shows image data for each page starting from the cover. The bottom row shows the result of page merge processing. Here, an example of left opening is shown. Since the cover page is not spread, it does not change even if page merge processing is performed. For the second and subsequent pages, as shown in the figure, page 2 is arranged on the left side, page 3 is arranged on the right side, and both are combined to be converted into image data in a spread state. The same applies to the fourth and subsequent pages. In the case of right opening, the second page is combined on the right side and the third page is arranged on the left side.
Some books are not suitable for binding to the spread state immediately after the next page of the cover. In order to be able to cope with such a case, it is possible to specify a page for starting the page merge process together with the page arrangement in step S12, and to start the page merge process from the specified position in step S14. . The same applies to the end position of the page merge process.

When the page merge process ends, the image database generation device 100 registers management data (step S16). The management data form shown in FIG. 3 is displayed, and input by the operator is accepted for each item. However, the following support may be provided to reduce the input load of management data.
Among the names, a code unique to the book (the part “book1” in FIG. 3) may be automatically assigned a common code based on the title of the book. Similarly, the serial number may be automatically assigned according to the arrangement of unit images after the page merge process. When the operator finds a missing page with respect to the serial number automatically assigned in this way, the missing unit image may be inserted using the auxiliary number.
Further, the storage destination information needs to indicate the storage destination in the image database storage unit 210 of the server 200, and it is necessary to specify that the unit images are arranged randomly rather than in the page arrangement order of the book. In order to perform this designation automatically, in step S16, the operator may designate a folder in which image data of each unit image is stored in the image database generation apparatus 100. As long as each record of the management data is associated with the image data in this way, the folder for the unit image is finally stored in the image database storage unit 210 when the image data and the management data are registered in the server 200. It is possible to automatically arrange at random, and to rewrite and register storage destination information according to the arrangement.

In addition, the image database generation device 100 performs an image file generation process (step S20) and a text data generation process (step S40). The image file generation process is a process of converting the resolution of the image data subjected to the page merge process and generating an image file of each resolution by blocking the image data. The text data generation process is a process for recognizing characters in a unit image and generating “text” to be registered in management data. The contents of these processes will be described later.
The image database generation device 100 repeats the above processing (steps S16 to S40) until the processing is completed for all pages (step S60).

D2. Image file generation processing:
FIG. 5 is a flowchart of the image file generation process. This is a process corresponding to step S20 of the image registration process (FIG. 4).
The image database generation device 100 first reads original image data (step S22). The original image data is image data that has been subjected to page merge processing (step S14 in step 4). In the present embodiment, the original image data is data configured with the resolution at the time of capturing an image of each page.

The image database generation device 100 performs resolution conversion on the original image data (step S24). As described with reference to FIG. 2, in this embodiment, an image file is generated for image data having a plurality of resolutions. Therefore, if conversion is performed for any resolution for which image file generation has not been completed. Good. However, since the resolution of the original image data can be included as one of a plurality of resolutions, the image file may be generated using the original image data as it is. When the original image data is used as it is to generate an image file, the resolution conversion process in step S24 can be omitted.
The processing contents of resolution conversion are schematically shown in the figure. The left side is the original image data ORG, and the right side is the image data IMG subjected to resolution conversion. As illustrated, in this embodiment, resolution conversion is performed on the side that reduces the resolution of the original image data, in other words, on the side that reduces the size of the image. This resolution conversion can be realized by sampling the original image data and thinning out pixels according to the resolution of the original image data and the value of the resolution after conversion.
An image with a high resolution is used for enlarged display, and a high image quality is required. However, since the resolution conversion that increases the resolution is a process that generates new pixels by interpolation processing, the resolution conversion converts the high resolution. Even if the image is generated, sufficient image quality cannot be obtained. On the other hand, at the time of reduced display, only the pixels that originally existed are sampled and thinned out. Therefore, the degradation of image quality is smaller than the conversion process that increases the resolution, and the degradation of the image quality is less noticeable if the display is reduced. Also become. Therefore, as in this embodiment, the original image data is prepared with a sufficiently high resolution, and resolution conversion is performed in a direction to reduce the resolution, so that sufficient image quality can be obtained at each resolution from low resolution to high resolution. It is possible to provide image data that maintains

In this embodiment, as shown in the drawing of step S24, resolution conversion is always performed using original image data. As an example, let us consider a case in which three-stage image data with resolutions A, B, and C (A>B> C) is generated. In the first process, when performing resolution conversion in step S24, image data of resolution A is generated from the original image data. At this time, image data of resolution A is generated with the original image data before resolution conversion remaining. In the second process, resolution B image data is obtained using the original image data in step S24. Similarly, in the third processing, data of resolution C is obtained using the original image data. Thus, when the resolution conversion is always performed on the original image data, there is an advantage that the deterioration of the image quality due to the repeated resolution conversion can be suppressed.
On the other hand, after the resolution of the original image data is obtained to obtain the image data of resolution A, the second processing is performed by further performing resolution conversion on the image data of resolution A to obtain the image data of resolution B. You can also In the third process, image data of resolution C is generated from image data of resolution B. In this processing, the image data of the resolution B and the resolution C is a result of performing the resolution conversion twice or three times on the original image data, so that the image quality may be slightly deteriorated. In the second and third processing, there is an advantage that the processing load can be reduced because the processing is performed on the image data having the resolution A and resolution B lower than the original image data.

  When the resolution conversion is completed, the image database generation device 100 generates an image file (step S26). As shown in the figure, the image data IMG after resolution conversion is divided into blocks as indicated by broken lines, and each block (for example, a hatched portion in the figure) is separated into individual image files (“fileA” in the figure). ). The same applies to other blocks as well as the hatched portions in the figure. By this processing, a large number of image files are generated from one image data IMG. Such generated image files are stored together in one folder.

The image database generation device 100 repeatedly executes the above processing until all the resolutions to be processed are completed (step S28).
When the processing is completed for all resolutions, a folder storing image files corresponding to the respective resolutions is formed. As shown in FIG. 3, each resolution folder is stored in a folder (DIR1, DIR2, etc. in FIG. 3) prepared for each unit image. When the image file generation process of FIG. 5 is being executed, it may be stored in the image database generation apparatus 100. At this time, the storage location in the image database generation apparatus 100 may be recorded in the storage location information of the management data.

D3. Text data generation processing:
FIG. 6 is a flowchart of text data generation processing. This is a process corresponding to step S40 of the image registration process (FIG. 4).
The image database generation device 100 first reads original image data (step S42) and performs character recognition by OCR processing (step S44). By this processing, characters included in the original image are extracted as data. The operator may check the OCR processing result and correct the erroneously recognized part.

Next, the image database generation apparatus 100 performs a single line process (step S46), and registers the result in the “text” item of the management data (step S48).
The contents of the processing are shown in the figure. As shown in the character string txtA on the left side, in the OCR process, character recognition is performed in a state including a line feed in the unit image. In the character string txtA, line breaks are inserted between “XXX” on the first line, “ΔΔ... Δ” on the second line, and “XX... X” on the third line.
The one-line process is a process for removing a line feed from the character string txtA. As shown in the character string B on the right side, line breaks are removed when a single line process is performed, so all lines in one line are displayed as "XX ... XXXXX .... DELTA.XXX ... XXX". The text data is in a state where character strings are arranged. According to such text data, for example, even when txtA searches for a character string described over two lines as a keyword, such as “XXΔΔ”, the character string CH in the figure is included in the character string CH portion. The column can be found, and the search accuracy can be improved.

E. Interface screen example:
An example of a screen displayed on the image browsing apparatus 300 when browsing an image provided from the server 200 will be described.
FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a search screen. FIG. 7A shows a screen for searching for books, and FIG. 7B shows a screen for searching for pages. Clicking on tab1 at the top of the screen brings up a screen for searching for books, and clicking on tab2 switches to a page search screen.
Books can be searched by title, table of contents, publication year, and publication month. The search is executed by the database management unit 203 (see FIG. 1) of the server 200. When the title of the target book is input in the “title” column and the search is executed, this information is transmitted to the server 200, and the server 200 refers to the “title” column of the management data 211 and searches for the corresponding book. Search for.
In “Contents”, a keyword included in the character string of the table of contents is input. The server 200 refers to the “table of contents” column of the management data 211 and searches for a book including the corresponding character string.
Similarly, when “publishing year” and “publishing month” are input, the server 200 refers to the “number” column of the management data 211 and searches for the corresponding book.

The page search screen now searches for pages that contain the specified keyword string. As shown in FIG. 7B, in this embodiment, three character strings can be specified. The server 200 refers to the “text” field of the management data 211 and searches for pages including these character strings. In the example shown in the figure, the search conditions are constituted by the logical product of the three character strings. Therefore, a page including all the specified three character strings is searched. The number of keywords that can be specified may be variable, or the conditions for logical product and logical sum may be switched.
On the page search screen, a page to be browsed may be directly designated as “○ page”.

  FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing a list display of search results. A list of thumbnail images TN of books or pages searched by the search screen of FIG. 7 is displayed. When a page is searched, thumbnail images are displayed in page units as shown in the figure. When a book search is performed, thumbnail images are displayed in book units. Clicking on one of these will move to the next image display.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a page selection screen. This screen is composed of a thumbnail view TW, a table of contents view IW, and an image view VW. In the thumbnail column IW, the thumbnails of the search results shown in FIG. 8 are arranged in the vertical direction and displayed.
When one (for example, thumbnail TN) is selected, the image IMG is displayed in the image view VW. If another thumbnail is selected in the thumbnail view TW, the image IMG of the image view VW changes accordingly.
In the table of contents view IW, as shown in the table of contents item IDX, the contents of the table of contents and the number of pages of the book are displayed as “game user opinion box” “18”. In the case of “Cover”, the number of pages is not displayed. Each table of contents item IDX is provided with link information for specifying a record of management data, for example, in the form of a hyperlink. When the user clicks one of the table of contents items, the management data record is specified based on the link information, and the storage location of the corresponding image data is specified. Therefore, the image IMG in the image view VW can be switched. . That is, the image IMG displayed in the image view VW can be switched by selecting the table of contents item IDX in the table of contents view IW, as in the case of selecting a thumbnail in the thumbnail view TW. The table of contents view IW can be displayed based on the “table of contents” data of the management data, and the display process will be described later.
On the page selection screen, a zoom icon SP is displayed on the upper right. When the zoom icon SP is clicked, the screen shifts to a screen for further enlarging the image IMG shown in the image view VW.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of an enlarged display screen. This screen includes a thumbnail view STW and an enlarged image view SVW. In the thumbnail view STW, thumbnails of the entire unit image are displayed, and a display frame VA indicating a portion displayed in the enlarged image view SVW is displayed. Below the thumbnail, a slide bar SL for instructing an enlargement magnification is displayed. If the slide bar SL is raised, the image can be further enlarged, and if lowered, the image can be reduced. If the size of the enlarged image view SVW is constant, the range that can be displayed in the enlarged image view SVW in the unit image is relatively narrowed by enlarging the image, so the display frame VA becomes smaller as the image is enlarged. .
In this embodiment, the position of the display frame VA, that is, the display range displayed in the enlarged image view SVW is determined so that the center CG of the enlarged image view SVW does not move when the enlargement magnification is changed. .
Note that by dragging the image of the display frame VA or the enlarged image view SVW on the screen of FIG. 10, the display range of the image can be moved within the unit image. In addition, the size of the enlarged image view SVW itself can be changed, and the shape of the display frame VA changes according to this change.
Processing for displaying an enlarged image will be described later.

F. Image display:
F1. Page selection screen display processing:
FIG. 11 is a flowchart of the page selection screen display process. This process is mainly executed by the display control unit 305 of the image browsing apparatus 300 in order to display the screen shown in FIG.
In order to display the thumbnail view TW, the image browsing apparatus 300 reads thumbnail image data to be displayed, and attaches link information to the corresponding record of the management data in the form of a hyperlink (step S100). As the thumbnail image used for display, low-resolution image data prepared for the thumbnail is acquired from the server 200 for the unit image. However, since the acquired thumbnail image is once stored in the image file storage unit 304 (see FIG. 1) in the image browsing apparatus and used for display, the image browsing apparatus 300 displays the thumbnail view TW. Of the necessary image data, it is only necessary to acquire from the server 200 only those that are not stored in the image file storage unit 304. In this way, it is not necessary to acquire all thumbnail images from the server 200, and display speed can be increased and traffic on the network NE2 can be reduced.

  Next, the image browsing apparatus 300 analyzes the table of contents data recorded in the management data and displays the table of contents view IW (step S102). As previously shown in FIG. 3, in this embodiment, the table of contents data of the entire book is recorded in a record corresponding to the cover of the management data. The table of contents data is configured in a format that repeats a set of “page number of the book, table of contents, and link information for specifying the record of the management data”. Therefore, the page number and table of contents are read and 1 of the table of contents view IW. It is sufficient to arrange the display contents of the lines and to repeatedly attach “link information” in the form of hyperlinks to all the sets.

The image browsing device 300 also reads the image data for the unit image being selected and displays it on the image view VW (step S104). On this screen, the entire unit image is displayed in a size that fits in the image view VW. In order to realize such display, the image browsing apparatus 300 first detects the number of vertical and horizontal pixels of the image view VW, and transmits the size to the server 200 together with the designation of the unit image. The server 200 selects image data having a resolution that fits the size of the designated image view VW from the image file group 215 corresponding to the designated unit image, and transmits the selected image data to the image browsing apparatus 300. As described with reference to FIG. 2, the image data is stored in the form of a blocked image file, but in order to display the entire unit image, all image files with the corresponding resolution are sequentially transmitted in this process. The Of course, since these image files are once stored in the image file storage unit 304 of the image browsing apparatus 300 and used for display, only the image files not stored in the image file storage unit 304 from the server 200 are used. Is enough to send.
In the above example, the server 200 determines the resolution. However, the server 200 receives information on the resolution of each image data for the unit image from the server 200, and the image browsing apparatus 300 determines which resolution to use. You may take

F2. Enlarged / reduced display processing:
FIG. 12 is a flowchart of the enlargement / reduction display processing. It is a process for displaying the enlarged display screen shown in FIG.
The image browsing apparatus 300 inputs a display scale (step S200). When the enlarged display screen is first displayed, a preset default value may be used, or a display scale that fits the entire image in the enlarged image view SVW may be used.

Next, the image browsing apparatus 300 acquires the coordinates of the center of the currently displayed image as relative coordinates in the unit image in order to determine the display range of the image (step S202). As shown in the figure, it is assumed that the portion of the display frame VA is currently displayed in the unit image IMG. The center of the display frame VA is a point CG. In the process of step S202, the position of the point CG is set to the relative coordinates in the x and y directions of the unit image IMG, that is, the x coordinate where the left end of the unit image IMG is 0 and the right end is 1, and the upper end is 0 and the lower end is 1. The y coordinate is specified. Since the coordinates need only be in a format that can specify the position of the point CG in the unit image, for example, the x and y coordinates may be represented by the number of pixels instead of the relative coordinates.
When the entire image is displayed in the enlarged image view SVW, the point CG may be matched with the center point of the unit image IMG.

When the coordinates of the point CG are determined, the image browsing apparatus 300 determines the display range on the designated display scale (step S204). In the present embodiment, the display range is determined by changing the size of the display frame VA according to the display scale while the position of the point CG is fixed. The contents of the processing are shown in the figure. When the display scale is designated so as to be larger than the current one, the display frame VA1 corresponding to the designated display scale is obtained by reducing the current display frame VA0 centered on the point CG in a similar manner. When the enlargement is designated, the display frame VA1 becomes smaller than the previous display frame VA0 because the number of pixels of the enlarged image view SVW is constant, so that the enlarged image view SVW is displayed at the time of enlargement, that is, at the time of high resolution display. This is because the displayable range becomes narrow.
The display frame VA1 can be determined by the following method. When the designated display scale is twice the current display scale, the display frame VA1 may be reduced to the display frame VA0 with a similarity ratio of 1/2. That is, the display frame VA1 may be reduced by the similarity ratio determined by “current display scale / designated display scale”. When the size of the display frame VA1 is obtained in this way, the relative range of the display frame VA1 in the unit image can be specified. It may be specified by the relative vertical and horizontal lengths of the display frame VA1 and the relative position of the point CG based on the vertical and horizontal sizes of the unit image, and the coordinates of the upper left and lower right vertices of the display frame VA1. You may express by the relative coordinate in a unit image.
The size of the display frame VA1 can also be obtained using the enlarged display view SVW and the size of the unit image of the designated display scale. The relative size of the display frame VA1 can be obtained by obtaining the number of vertical and horizontal pixels of the unit image in the specified display scale and obtaining the ratio with the number of vertical and horizontal pixels of the enlarged display view SVW. Further, after obtaining the number of pixels of the unit image, the size and position of the display frame VA1 may be represented by the number of pixels.

When the display range is thus determined, the image browsing apparatus 300 reads the image file corresponding to the display scale and the display range, and displays the image (step S206). The contents of the processing are shown in the figure. Consider a case in which an image of the display frame VA1 is displayed for the unit image IMG. In order to display this image, it is sufficient to have an image file that can cover the display frame VA1. Therefore, the image browsing apparatus 300 reads the image file in the hatched block FA in the figure and displays the image. Image data to be read is selected with a resolution corresponding to the specified display scale.
If there is no image data with a resolution completely corresponding to the specified display scale, image data with a resolution one step higher than that is read, and resolution conversion is performed by sampling so that the specified display scale is obtained. Also good. The resolution conversion in this case does not need to be performed on the entire image data, but may be performed only on the range necessary for display, that is, on the image of the block FA in the figure.
Since the image file provided from the server 200 is stored in the image file storage unit 304 of the image browsing apparatus 300 and used for display, an image file not stored in the image file storage unit 304 is displayed when the image is displayed. Only from the server 200 is sufficient. The image browsing apparatus 300 may take a method of requesting the server 200 to transmit only the missing image file after searching the image file storage unit 304. In addition, when the transmission request of the image file in the block FA necessary for display is transmitted to the server 200, the image file list stored in the image file storage unit 304 is also transmitted, and the server 200 has an insufficient image. A file may be specified and transmitted.

  According to the above aspect, when displaying an image, it is sufficient to read only a necessary image file, so that it is not necessary to read a large amount of image data even when displaying an image at a high resolution. Therefore, the processing load required for image data reading, transmission / reception, and image display processing can be remarkably reduced, and high-quality and high-speed display can be realized. Even when there is no image data with a resolution that completely corresponds to the specified display scale, it is only necessary to perform resolution conversion only on the image file required for image display, so that high speed can be maintained. Is possible.

FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram showing the processing contents during enlargement / reduction. The example at the time of displaying an image according to the process demonstrated in FIG. 12 is shown.
The outer frame in FIG. 13A represents a unit image on the initial display scale, and the display frame VA10 represents a display range displayed in the enlarged image view SVW. When this image is displayed, an image file of the block FA10 that can cover the display frame VA10 may be read.
Next, it is assumed that the user moves the display range from the display frame VA10 to the display frame VA11 while shifting the display range from the display frame VA10 as indicated by an arrow MV. At this time, an image file of the block FA11 that can cover the display frame VA11 is read and image display is performed.
By reading the image data in units of block image files in this way, reading of image files other than the block FA10 can be omitted when the display frame VA10 is displayed. Can be achieved. Then, when an image file of a portion that has not been read when the display frame VA10 is displayed, such as when the display frame VA11 is displayed, only the newly required portion is read. Although the case where the display range is moved is illustrated in the drawing, the same applies to the case where the sizes of the display frames VA10 and VA11 are enlarged. Even when the display range is enlarged, it is possible to display an image promptly by adding and reading only the image file of the block required as the image is enlarged.

  Next, consider the case where the display scale is enlarged while the display frame VA10 is displayed. The enlarged state is shown in FIG. The outer frame shows a part of the enlarged unit image. Here, since the size of the unit image itself is shown enlarged, the size of the display frame VA12 is the same as the size of the display frame VA10 before enlargement. When displaying the display frame VA12, an image file of the block FA12 that can cover the enlarged image from the high-resolution image data for the enlarged image may be read. In this embodiment, the image data of each resolution is managed in one folder for each unit image (see FIG. 3), so the location of the high resolution image data can be easily specified.

A method for specifying the image file of the block FA12 will be described.
As shown in FIG. 13A, the relative coordinates of the center point CG of the conventional display frame VA10 are Xr and Yr, and the block including the center point CG is Nath in the horizontal direction and Math in the vertical direction. Suppose there is (this is represented as (Na, Ma)).
As shown in FIG. 13B, the relative coordinates of the center point CG of the display frame VA12 do not change between Xr and Yr even after the display scale is enlarged. This is because in the present embodiment, the center point CG is enlarged and displayed while being fixed. On the other hand, since the block size is constant even in high-resolution image data, the block to which the point CG belongs is (Nb, Mb) different from that before enlargement when represented by the number of blocks. Nb and Mb can be obtained by the following equations.
Nb = INT (Xr × number of pixel of unit image x / number of pixels of block x) +1;
Mb = INT (Yr × number of pixels of unit image y / number of pixels of block y) +1;
Here, INT means integerization by truncation, the number of pixels x means the number of pixels in the x direction, and the number of pixels y means the number of pixels in the y direction.
The number of vertical and horizontal pixels of the display frame VA12 is the same as the number of pixels of the previous display frame VA10, and the number of pixels of each block is also unified regardless of the resolution. Therefore, the number of blocks included in the display frames VA10 and VA12 is Are the same. Therefore, if the block (Nb, Mb) including the center point can be specified by the above-described calculation, the same number of blocks as the display frame VA10 may be read in the vertical and horizontal directions around this block.
As another method, using the above equation, a block including the upper left corner and the lower right corner of the display frame VA12 may be obtained, and the block included in this range may be read. If the upper left block is (Nb1, Mb1) and the lower right block is (Nb2, Mb2), the blocks (Nb1, Mb1), (Nb1, Mb1 + 1)... (Nb1, Mb2), (Nb1 + 1, Mb1) ... (Nb2, Mb2) may be read.

  According to the present embodiment described above, since image data is prepared for a plurality of resolutions, an image can be displayed with high image quality using image data having a resolution corresponding to a designated display scale. it can. At each resolution, the image data is stored in the form of a blocked image file. Therefore, when displaying an image, it is sufficient to read out only the image file necessary for display. For this reason, even when an image is displayed at a high resolution, only a part of the unit image is sufficient for data used for image display, and high-speed image display can be realized.

The present invention does not necessarily have all the functions of the above-described embodiments, and only a part may be realized. Moreover, you may provide an additional function in the content mentioned above.
Needless to say, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various configurations can be adopted without departing from the spirit of the present invention. For example, a portion configured in hardware in the embodiment can be configured in software and vice versa. In this embodiment, an image read from a book is targeted, but an image taken with a digital camera can also be targeted.

  The present invention can be used for storing and browsing image data.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 ... Image database production | generation apparatus 101 ... Scanner 111 ... Main control part 112 ... Transmission / reception part 113 ... Command input part 114 ... Image input part 115 ... Image data memory | storage part 116 ... Database management part 117 ... OCR process part 118 ... Image file production | generation part DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 119 ... Page merge part 200 ... Server 201 ... Transmission / reception part 202 ... Viewer memory | storage part 203 ... Database management part 210 ... Image database memory | storage part 211 ... Management data 215 ... Image file group 300 ... Image browsing apparatus 300D ... Display 301 ... Main control part 302: Transmission / reception unit 303 ... Command input unit 304 ... Image file storage unit 305 ... Display control unit

Claims (8)

An image filing system for storing and browsing image data,
An image database storage unit that divides image data obtained by digitizing a unit image at a plurality of resolutions into blocks each having a predetermined shape for each resolution and stores the image data as an image file for each block;
An instruction input unit for inputting an instruction for resolution and display range when displaying an image;
A display control unit for reading out an image file corresponding to the designated resolution and display range from the image database storage unit, arranging the image file, and displaying a portion corresponding to the display range of the original image; An image filing system comprising: The image filing system according to claim 1,
An image input unit that digitizes each page of the book to generate original image data;
A page merging unit for generating original image data in a state where the original image data is arranged in a two-page spread state for two pages and combined;
An image filing system comprising: an image file generation unit configured to generate an image file of each resolution based on the combined original image data. The image filing system according to claim 1 or 2,
The image database storage unit further stores management data for managing the plurality of resolution image files corresponding to the unit images in association with one record,
A search unit for referring to the management data and searching for a record corresponding to a specified search condition;
The display control unit is an image filing system that reads the image file based on the retrieved record of the management data. An image filing system according to claim 3,
The management data stores table-of-contents data including a table of contents of the entire book and link information representing a record corresponding to each table of contents in any one of a plurality of records constituting one book. And
The display control unit is an image filing system that displays a table of contents column that lists the contents of the table of contents with the link information attached based on the table of contents data. The image filing system according to claim 3 or 4,
The management data stores, for each record, character data generated by removing line breaks from characters described in the unit image corresponding to the record,
The search unit is an image filing system capable of searching for a record in which a designated character string is included in the character data. An image server that is connected to an image browsing device via a network, stores image data obtained by digitizing unit images in the form of a blocked image file, and browses the image by supplying the image file to the image browsing device. And
The image browsing device requests the image server to transmit an image file necessary for displaying an image based on the designation of the resolution and display range of the image to be displayed, and the image file transmitted from the image server An apparatus for arranging and displaying a portion corresponding to the display range of the unit images;
The image server
An image database storage unit that divides image data obtained by digitizing the unit image at a plurality of resolutions into blocks each having a predetermined shape for each resolution and stores the blocks as image files;
An instruction input unit for inputting an image file transmission request from the image browsing device;
An image filing system for reading the designated image file from the image database storage unit and supplying the read image file to the image browsing apparatus. Image data obtained by digitizing a unit image at multiple resolutions into blocks of a predetermined shape for each resolution, and storing and viewing the image data by a computer having an image database storage unit that stores each block as an image file Filing method,
An instruction input step for inputting an instruction of resolution and display range when displaying an image;
Reading out an image file corresponding to the designated resolution and display range from the image database storage unit and storing it in a memory;
A display control step of arranging the stored image files and displaying a portion corresponding to the display range of the unit images. Image data obtained by digitizing a unit image at a plurality of resolutions is divided into blocks each having a predetermined shape for each resolution, and the image file is supplied from an image server having an image database storage unit for storing each block as an image file. A computer program for causing a computer to perform an image browsing function,
A function for inputting the resolution and display range of the image to be displayed and storing it in the memory;
A function for specifying an image file necessary for displaying an image based on the designation and requesting the image server to transmit the image file;
Receiving the image file from the image server and storing it in a memory;
A computer program for causing a computer to realize a function of arranging the stored image files and displaying a portion corresponding to the display range of the unit images.

Images