JP2012054825A - Graphic region acquisition device and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a graphic region of a graphic included in a document, including characters attached to the periphery of the document.SOLUTION: A graphic region acquisition device 1 according to the present invention comprises: character and graphic acquisition means which acquires characters and graphics included in the document; and graphic region acquisition means which acquires a graphic region including the graphic and the characters associated with the graphics, on the basis of a geometrical relationship between the characters and the graphics.

Description

  The present invention relates to a graphic area acquisition apparatus and a program.

  In Patent Document 1, if it is determined in the image processing apparatus that an area in an image is smaller than a predetermined size or that pixels having substantially the same color are included in a predetermined ratio or more, a character determination unit includes a character. It is described to determine whether or not.

  In Patent Document 2, in an information processing apparatus, a frequency distribution of brightness is obtained for each pattern area of image data, and a pattern area having a predetermined number or more of brightness frequency peaks in the frequency distribution is searched as a graph area. It is described to do.

JP 2007-336000 A JP 2009-194612 A

  A problem to be solved by the present invention is to acquire a graphic region included in a graphic included in a document including characters accompanying the periphery of the graphic.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, a graphic region acquisition apparatus according to claim 1 of the present invention is characterized in that character graphic acquisition means for acquiring characters and graphics included in a document, and a geometric relationship between the characters and the graphic. And a graphic area acquisition means for acquiring a graphic area including the graphic and the character associated with the graphic.

  Further, the graphic region acquisition device according to claim 2 of the present invention is the graphic region acquisition device according to claim 1, wherein the graphic region acquisition means has a distance from at least one side of a circumscribed rectangle of the graphic, It is determined that the character located at a position smaller than the first distance is associated with the graphic.

  Moreover, the graphic region acquisition apparatus according to claim 3 of the present invention is the graphic region acquisition device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the graphic region acquisition unit is configured to connect the side from at least one side of a circumscribed rectangle of the graphic. When the distance to the character closest to the character is smaller than the second distance, the character at a position where the distance from at least one side of the circumscribed rectangle of the graphic is smaller than the first distance is the graphic. Judge that it is associated.

  Further, the graphic area acquisition device according to claim 4 of the present invention is the graphic area acquisition device according to claim 3, wherein the graphic area acquisition means is located at least from one side of a circumscribed rectangle of the graphic to the corresponding side. The first distance is determined according to the distance to the character at a close position.

  Moreover, the graphic area acquisition apparatus according to claim 5 of the present invention is the graphic area acquisition apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the graphic area acquisition means is associated with the graphic. Based on the geometric relationship between the character and the other character, it is determined that the other character is associated with the graphic.

  According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a program, comprising: a computer, a character / figure obtaining unit that obtains a character / figure included in a document; and the geometrical relationship between the character and the graphic; And a graphic region acquiring unit that acquires a graphic region including the character associated with the graphic.

  According to the graphic region acquisition apparatus of the first aspect, it is possible to acquire the graphic region included in the graphic included in the document including the characters accompanying the periphery of the graphic.

  Moreover, according to the graphic area acquisition apparatus of the said Claim 2, the character arrange | positioned in the vicinity of the figure periphery can be linked | related with the said figure.

  In addition, according to the graphic region acquisition device of the third aspect, characters arranged close to the periphery of the graphic can be accurately associated with the graphic as compared with the case without such a configuration. .

  In addition, according to the graphic region acquisition device of the fourth aspect, characters arranged close to the periphery of the graphic can be accurately associated with the graphic as compared with the case where such a configuration is not provided. .

  In addition, according to the graphic region acquisition apparatus of the fifth aspect, the characters constituting a series of words and phrases are associated with the graphic in relation to the characters arranged close to the periphery of the document. Can do.

  According to the program of claim 6, the computer can be operated as a graphic area acquisition device that acquires a graphic area of a graphic included in a document including characters attached to the periphery of the graphic. it can.

It is a functional block diagram of the graphic area acquisition apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement in which the character figure acquisition part which concerns on embodiment of this invention acquires a character and a figure. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement which the graphic area acquisition part which concerns on embodiment of this invention acquires a graphic area. It is a figure which shows an example of a document. FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram showing the document of FIG. 4 delivered to the graphic area acquisition unit. It is a figure explaining step S12 thru | or step S14. It is a figure explaining step S15. It is a figure explaining step S16 and step S17. It is a figure which shows a figure area | region.

  FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a graphic area acquisition apparatus 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  The graphic area acquisition apparatus 1 is realized by using a general computer having a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a memory, and an input / output interface, which is a general-purpose information processing apparatus. And the graphic area acquisition apparatus 1 is virtually implement | achieved by running the computer program for operating a computer as the graphic area acquisition apparatus 1 on this computer. A computer program for operating the computer as the graphic area acquisition device 1 is recorded and provided on an arbitrary information recording medium such as a DVD-ROM (DVD-Read Only Memory) or a CD-ROM (Compact Disk Read Only Memory). Alternatively, it may be provided as a computer-readable electric signal via an electric communication line such as a public line represented by the Internet. Of course, the information processing apparatus used to realize the graphic area acquisition apparatus 1 is not limited to a general computer, and can be realized by a microcontroller, or a dedicated apparatus can be manufactured using a DSP (digital signal processor) or the like. Also good. Further, the graphic area acquisition apparatus 1 may be configured as a device that can operate independently, or may be configured as a module that is mounted or added to office equipment such as a copier or a facsimile.

  The illustrated functional block of the graphic area acquisition apparatus 1 is a graphic area acquisition apparatus 1 realized by a computer program, for convenience of explanation, focusing on the function, and each functional block is not necessarily a physical block. Need not exist.

  The document accepting unit 2 that functions as a document accepting unit is an interface that accepts an arbitrary document as electronic data from the outside. The document here may be recorded on a physical medium such as paper or microfilm, or may be recorded as electronic data. The document accepting unit 2 may be anything as long as it accepts documents as electronic data. For example, the document accepting unit 2 is a so-called socket that inputs and outputs information between processes running on a computer. However, it may be a telecommunication line connected to a WAN (Wide Area Network) including a public line such as a LAN (Local Area Network) or the Internet, an arbitrary information recording medium reader, etc., or paper or micro It may be a device such as a scanner that electronically reads document information on a medium such as a film, and may include a plurality of these. Also, any format of electronic data that can be accepted may be used, such as a page description language such as PDF (Portable Document Format), or a markup language such as XML (extensible Markup Language). The data may be in a format having metadata such as mere raster data. If the format of the electronic data has metadata, it may be expanded into raster data for convenience of subsequent processing, but it is not essential.

  The document received by the document receiving unit 2 is delivered to the character / graphic acquisition unit 3 that functions as a character / graphic acquisition unit. The character graphic acquisition means is means for acquiring characters and graphics included in the document. Here, the configuration of the character graphic acquisition unit 3 may be anything as long as it functions as a character graphic acquisition means, and is not limited. In the present embodiment, an object included in a document is acquired, Thereafter, it is determined whether or not the object is a character, the object determined to be a character is recognized as a character, and the other object is recognized as a graphic. Here, recognition of whether an object is a character may be performed every time the object is acquired, or may be performed for each object after all the objects included in the document are acquired. As an example, the character / graphic acquisition unit 3 according to the present embodiment is configured to determine whether or not it is a character each time an object is acquired.

  In the present specification, an object means a character or figure included in a document and recognized separately and a part thereof. For example, a set of chromatic pixels separated from other objects by a background color of a document and connected to each other is one object. Here, the chromatic color means a color that is not the background color of the document. For example, if the background color is white, colors other than white including black are chromatic colors. Prior to the acquisition of the object by the character / graphic acquisition unit 3, the document may be binarized and converted into an image composed of only two colors of black and white.

  FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation in which the character / graphic acquisition unit 3 according to the present embodiment acquires characters and graphics. First, the character / graphic acquisition unit 3 acquires an object included in a document in step S01. This method is not particularly limited, but may be used What including those known, assumed here to get aware of the individual objects by the method of so-called labeling.

  Subsequently, the character graphic acquisition unit 3 determines whether or not the object acquired in step S02 is a character. The determination method is not particularly limited, as long as the method can determine what not reasonably characters may be used What including those known. Here, it is determined whether the object is a character based on the size of the circumscribed rectangle of the object of interest. In other words, since the size (number of points) of characters used in a document is generally determined, this is required when the size of the circumscribed rectangle of the object of interest is smaller than the size of a character that is normally used. The object is determined to be a character. Here, in obtaining the circumscribed rectangle of the object, in consideration of the fact that characters are usually arranged without being rotated in a document, the sides thereof extend in the vertical and horizontal directions of the document, respectively. It is preferable to use a certain rectangle. In addition to this, the characteristics of the object of interest, for example, the number of intersections and bends, the length of the included straight lines, etc. are extracted and generally determined by comparing with the same type of characteristics of characters. Alternatively, character recognition used for OCR (Optical Character Recognition) or the like may be performed, and an object recognized as a character may be determined as a character.

  If it is determined in step S02 that the character is a character, the process proceeds to step S03, and the object of interest is recognized as a character. This process is an operation to operate on the data of the object of interest so that it can be determined that the object is a character. Although this operation is not limited, for example, information indicating that the object is a character is added to the obtained object data, or the object is a list of objects that are characters. What is necessary is just to add the identification information which shows an object.

  On the other hand, if it is not determined in step S02 that the character is a character, the process proceeds to step S04, and the object of interest is recognized as a figure. As in the case of characters, this process is an operation for operating on the data of the object of interest so that it can be determined that the object is a graphic.

  In either case of steps S03 and S04, the process proceeds to step S05, where it is determined whether all objects included in the document have been acquired. If all objects have been acquired, the process ends. If not, the process returns to step S01 and repeats until all objects are acquired.

  Returning to FIG. 1, the characters and graphics acquired by the character / graphic acquisition unit 3 are transferred to the graphic region acquisition unit 4 functioning as a graphic region acquisition unit. The graphic area acquisition means is a means for acquiring a graphic area including a graphic and a character associated with the graphic based on the geometric relationship between the character and the graphic.

  Hereinafter, an operation in which the graphic area acquisition unit 4 acquires a graphic area will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation in which the graphic area acquisition unit 4 according to the present embodiment acquires a graphic area.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a document. In this example, a bar graph is inserted on the right side of the document. Here, descriptions such as “100”, “200”, and “300” indicating the scale of the bar graph, or descriptions such as “method A”, “method B”, and “proposed method” indicating the item names of the bar graph are generally used in the bar graph. It is recognized as accompanying and is distinguished from the text on the left side of the document. As used in this specification, “characters attached to the periphery of a graphic” are arranged around a graphic that is not a character such as a bar graph, as shown in this example, and are recognized as being closely related to such a graphic, It refers to characters that are distinguished from other characters and figures.

  The document is received by the document receiving unit 2, and is transferred to the graphic region acquiring unit 4 in a state where the character and graphic are determined by the character / graphic acquiring unit 3 (see FIG. 1). FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram showing the document of FIG. 4 delivered to the graphic area acquisition unit 4. In the same figure, the character determined by the character graphic acquisition unit 3 (see FIG. 1) is indicated by a white circumscribed rectangle.

  The graphic area acquisition unit 4 first pays attention to one of the graphics included in the document in step S11 of FIG. Here, it is assumed that the figure indicated by reference numeral 5 in FIG.

  Subsequently, the graphic area acquisition unit 4 selects an arbitrary side of the circumscribed rectangle 6 of the graphic 5 of interest in step S12. This circumscribed rectangle 6 is indicated by a broken line in FIG. 6 which is a diagram for explaining steps S12 to S14, and here, the left side in the figure is selected as one side of the circumscribed rectangle. The circumscribed rectangle 6 is preferably a rectangle whose sides extend in the vertical and horizontal directions of the document.

  Subsequently, in step S13, a distance L1 to the character 7 located closest to the selected side is obtained. At this time, a character is selected that is located outside the figure 5 of interest. In step S14, the distance L1 is compared with a second value th2, which is a predetermined value. When the distance L1 is smaller than the second distance th2, the graphic area acquisition unit 4 selects the selection. It is determined that there is a character associated with the graphic of interest near the selected side, and the process proceeds to step S15. At this time, the width w in the direction perpendicular to the selected side of the character 7 closest to the selected side is acquired. In FIG. 6, in order to facilitate understanding of the determinations made in steps S <b> 13 and S <b> 14, the character 7 closest to the left side of the circumscribed rectangle 6, the distance L <b> 1, the second distance th <b> 2, the width of the character 7. w is shown in the figure. When the distance L1 is greater than the second distance th2 or no character is present on the selected side, the graphic region acquisition unit 4 focuses on the vicinity of the selected side. It is determined that there is no character associated with the graphic, and the process proceeds to step S18.

  Next, step S15 will be described with reference to FIG. In step S <b> 15, the graphic region acquisition unit 4 determines that the character 8 located at a position closer than the first distance th <b> 1 from the selected side is associated with the graphic 5. In the present embodiment, the first distance th1 is the sum of the distance L1 and the width w. That is, th1 = L1 + w. As a result, for the character 7 that is closest to the selected side, a character that is at a position where at least a portion overlaps in the direction parallel to the selected side is selected. The first distance th1 does not necessarily have to be obtained as described above. In addition, the first distance th1 may be obtained by adding a constant value to the distance L1, or may be a predetermined constant value. Good. When the first distance th1 is determined according to the distance L1 from the selected side of the circumscribed rectangle 6 of the figure 5 to the character 7 closest to the side as in the present embodiment, it does not For example, the character associated with the graphic 5 can be determined more accurately than when it is fixed to a constant value.

  In the present embodiment, step S15 is performed when the result of determination in step S14 is affirmative, that is, when the distance from at least one side of the circumscribed rectangle of the graphic 5 to the character 7 closest to the side is the first. This is executed when the distance is smaller than the distance th2. However, this configuration is not essential, and the above steps S13 and S14 may be omitted.

  Subsequently, the process proceeds to step S <b> 16, and the graphic region acquisition unit 4 further associates another character with the graphic 5 based on the geometric relationship between the character associated with the graphic 5 and another character. This will be described with reference to FIG.

  In step S <b> 16, the graphic area acquisition unit 4 determines whether or not there is a character at a position closer to the third distance th <b> 3 from the character associated with the graphic 5 in a direction away from one side of the selected circumscribed rectangle 6. judge. The third distance th3 is determined in advance so as to be larger than the interval between the characters when the characters are related as a series of words or phrases as illustrated for the character 7, for example. In this case, the character 9 is found.

  If it is determined in step S16 that there is a character at a position closer than the third distance th3, the process proceeds to step S17, and the found character 9 is associated with the figure 5. And it returns to step S16 again and repeats the same determination. In this case, since the character 9 is no longer a character associated with the graphic 5, it is determined whether or not there is a character closer to the character 9 than the third distance th3. As a result, the character 10 is found and similarly associated with the graphic 5. The same processing is performed for the character 8, and the character 11 is associated with the graphic 5. If no character is found at a position closer than the third distance th3 from the associated characters 7 to 11, the process proceeds to step S18.

  Note that, in the processes of steps S16 and S17 described here, as described above, when the characters are related as a series of words and phrases, all the characters related to each other are acquired as related to the graphic 5. As long as it is an example of the process and a process that can obtain the same result, an operation different from that described here may be performed. For example, in this embodiment, in step S16, it is determined whether or not another character is associated with the graphic 5 based on the distance from the character associated so far. The determination may be made based on the distance from the selected side of the rectangle 6. Or you may make it determine whether another character is linked | related with the figure 5 in consideration of the other geometrical relationship between characters, for example, the positional relationship of the direction parallel to the selected edge | side.

  In step S <b> 18, the graphic region acquisition unit 4 determines whether all sides of the circumscribed rectangle 6 of the graphic 5 of interest have been selected. If there is a side of the circumscribed rectangle 6 that has not yet been selected, the process returns to step S12, an unselected side is selected, and the above-described processing up to step S18 is repeated. Thereby, as shown in FIG. 8, the character 12 indicating the item name below the graphic 5 is also associated with the graphic 5. When all the sides of the circumscribed rectangle 6 of interest are selected, the process proceeds to step S19.

  In the present embodiment, the processing of steps S12 to S17 is performed for all four sides of the circumscribed rectangle 6 to search for characters associated with the graphic 5, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the circumscribed rectangle 6 is preliminarily stored. The processes in steps S12 to S17 may be performed only for some determined sides. For example, when it is known in advance that the figure included in the document to be processed is a graph having scales only on the left side and the lower side, the left side and the lower side of the circumscribed rectangle 6 Only steps S12 to S17 may be performed. In addition, the user may select which side of the circumscribed rectangle 6 to perform the processing of steps S12 to S17. Furthermore, in the present embodiment, the second distance th2 and the third distance th3, which are threshold values used in the processing in steps S12 to S17, use a common value when any side of the circumscribed rectangle 6 is selected. However, instead of this, a different value may be used for each side of the circumscribed rectangle 6. The same applies when a predetermined value is used for the first distance th1.

  In step S <b> 19, the graphic area acquisition unit 4 acquires a graphic area 13 for the graphic 5 of interest. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the graphic area 13. In the present embodiment, in this example, there is a circumscribed rectangle including the graphic 5 and the characters 7 to 12 associated with the graphic 5, and each side of the rectangle extends in the vertical and horizontal directions of the document. Acquired as a graphic area 13.

  Note that the graphic area refers to an area including a graphic and characters associated with the graphic in a document, and is not necessarily a rectangular area as in the present embodiment. That is, it may be the area itself that the figure and characters associated with the figure actually occupy in the document. In addition, the data format indicating the graphic area is not particularly limited. When the graphic area is rectangular as in the present embodiment, information indicating the geometric feature, for example, the coordinates of the vertex and the horizontal and vertical widths may be used. Or the data which show that the character contained in a document is linked | related with a certain figure may be sufficient. Since the position and shape of each graphic and character are acquired by the character graphic acquisition unit 3, if a certain graphic and a character related to the graphic are known, the graphic area possessed by the graphic can be easily obtained. As described so far, a graphic area is obtained for each graphic as an area including at least the graphic itself for one graphic. Therefore, in this specification, the fact that a graphic area corresponding to a certain graphic corresponds is expressed as a graphic area included in the graphic.

  Returning to FIG. 3, the graphic area acquisition unit 4 determines in step S <b> 20 whether or not all the graphics included in the document have been noticed. If all of the graphics included in the document are focused and the processing from step S11 to step S19 has already been completed, the graphics region acquisition unit 4 further acquires information about the acquired graphics region in the subsequent processing or device. To end the operation. If there is still a figure that has not been noticed yet, the process returns to step S11, and the process from step S11 to step S19 is repeated for all the figures.

  Although not performed in the present embodiment, a graphic and characters included in the graphic area 13 shown in FIG. 9 may be associated with the graphic 5. At this time, when the graphic area 13 is obtained as a circumscribed rectangle, the shape of the graphic area 13 is not changed.

  The document used in the above description is presented as an example in consideration of the convenience of the description, and is not intended to be limited to this. In the above description, a graph is presented as a graphic, but this is an example. The graph is a representative graphic having characters to be associated therewith, but the graphic in the present embodiment is not limited to the graph. Any figure may be used as long as it has characters to be associated with it.

  In addition, the graphic area acquired by the graphic area acquisition apparatus 1 of the present embodiment may be used for any subsequent process or device, and is not particularly limited. Examples of processing performed in the subsequent stage include, for example, processing in which a figure in a document is acquired separately from the body including its associated characters, and when the document is automatically recognized by OCR, And the like, including the associated characters around it, and the like are excluded from automatic recognition.

  The functional blocks shown in the above-described embodiments are examples for implementing the respective embodiments, and are not limited to those illustrating the configuration and arrangement of the functional blocks. The flowchart is a specific example for realizing the function of the device shown in the embodiment, and is not limited to such an operation, and any process may be performed as long as the process has a similar function.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Graphic area acquisition apparatus, 2 Document reception part, 3 Character figure acquisition part, 4 Graphic area acquisition part, 5 Graphics, 6 circumscribed rectangle, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 characters, 13 graphic area.

Claims (6)

A character graphic acquisition means for acquiring characters and graphics included in the document;
Based on the geometric relationship between the character and the graphic, the graphic region acquisition means for acquiring the graphic region including the graphic and the character associated with the graphic;
A graphic area acquisition device having 2. The graphic region acquisition unit according to claim 1, wherein the graphic region acquisition unit determines that the character at a position where a distance from at least one side of a circumscribed rectangle of the graphic is smaller than a first distance is associated with the graphic. apparatus. When the distance from at least one side of the circumscribed rectangle of the graphic to the character closest to the side is smaller than a second distance, the graphic region acquisition unit is a distance from at least one side of the circumscribed rectangle of the graphic 3. The graphic region acquisition apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the character region at a position smaller than the first distance is determined to be associated with the graphic. 4. The graphic area acquisition device according to claim 3, wherein the graphic area acquisition means determines the first distance according to a distance from at least one side of a circumscribed rectangle of the graphic to the character closest to the side. 2. The graphic area acquisition unit determines that the other character is associated with the graphic based on a geometric relationship between the character associated with the graphic and another character. 5. The graphic area acquisition device according to any one of 4 above. Computer
A character graphic acquisition means for acquiring characters and graphics included in the document;
Based on the geometric relationship between the character and the graphic, the graphic region acquisition means for acquiring the graphic region including the graphic and the character associated with the graphic;
A program for operating as a graphic area acquisition apparatus having

Images