JP2017195492A - Image storage apparatus and image storage program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image storage apparatus in which, when the number of characters in an image is larger than or equal to a predetermined threshold value, characters having less capacity than the image are stored as a substitute for the image.SOLUTION: Accepting means of the image storage apparatus accepts an image from an image processing apparatus. Extracting means extracts characters from the image accepted by the accepting means. When the number of characters of the character extracted by the extraction means is larger than or equal to a predetermined threshold value, storage means accumulates the character as a substitute for the image.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to an image storage device and an image storage program.

  Patent Document 1 provides an image forming apparatus that temporarily stores image data received from the outside in an external memory, and suitably prevents information leakage through the external memory, a control method thereof, and a program When the image forming apparatus receives the image data from the external apparatus via the network, the image forming apparatus determines whether the image data can be stored in the storage unit of the image forming apparatus and sets the image data to be stored in the external memory. The image data is stored in the storage unit, the image data is stored in the external memory, or the reception of the image data is rejected, and the image data is further stored in the external memory. If it is determined that the setting for storing the image is made, the setting is valid, so input / output processing of other image data using the external memory may be restricted. It is shown.

  Patent Document 2 is a server for storing image data, which is to select a flexible storage type of image data according to a combination of importance levels of a plurality of image data. When each DB that stores information on the image, the image data, and the transaction content related to the image data are received via the transmission / reception unit, one of a plurality of image data compression methods is selected according to the input transaction content. And a compression method determination unit that determines the image data, and an image compression unit that converts and stores image data according to the determined compression method.

JP2013-090201A JP 2010-206450 A

An image is received from an image processing apparatus and stored.
By the way, in order to store images, a large-capacity storage device is required. In the technique described in Patent Document 1 or the like, an image is stored in an external memory. However, even if the image is centered on characters, the image is accumulated.
The present invention provides an image storage device and an image storage program for storing characters having a capacity smaller than that of an image as an alternative to the image when the number of characters in the image is greater than or greater than a predetermined threshold. It is intended to provide.

The gist of the present invention for achieving the object lies in the inventions of the following items.
According to the first aspect of the present invention, a receiving unit that receives an image from an image processing apparatus, an extracting unit that extracts characters from the image received by the receiving unit, and the number of characters extracted by the extracting unit are predetermined. If the number is greater than or equal to the threshold value, the image storage device includes a storage unit that stores the characters as an alternative to the image.

  The invention of claim 2 is the image storage device according to claim 1, wherein the storage means stores the image when the number of characters in the image is less than or less than the threshold.

  The invention according to claim 3 determines whether the storage means stores an image or a character according to whether or not a character string in the image includes a predetermined character string. An image storage device according to claim 1.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the case where the accumulation object determined by the number of characters and a predetermined character string is different, the accumulation means performs accumulation according to the accumulation object determined by the predetermined character string. 3. The image storage device according to 3.

  The invention according to claim 5 is the image storage device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the storage means determines whether to store the image or the character according to the structure in the image.

  The invention according to claim 6 is the image storage device according to claim 3, wherein the storage means performs storage according to the storage object determined by the structure when the storage object determined by the number of characters and the structure is different.

  According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, when the number of characters extracted by the extraction unit is greater than or equal to a predetermined first threshold, the storage unit stores the character as a substitute for the image. And storing a reduced image that has been reduced to a predetermined first resolution, and the number of characters is less than or less than the first threshold and greater than or greater than the second threshold, As an alternative to the image, when the characters are accumulated, a reduced image reduced to have a second resolution higher than the first resolution is accumulated, and the number of characters is less than or less than the second threshold Storing the image, storing a reduced image reduced to a third resolution lower than the first resolution, and wherein the second threshold is lower than the first threshold. The image storage device according to any one of 1 to 6 .

  The invention according to claim 8 is a computer that receives an image from an image processing apparatus, an extraction unit that extracts characters from the image received by the reception unit, and the number of characters extracted by the extraction unit. When the number is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold value, an image storage program for functioning as storage means for storing the characters as an alternative to the image.

  According to the image storage device of the first aspect, when the number of characters in the image is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold value, it is possible to accumulate characters having a smaller capacity than the image as an alternative to the image.

  According to the image storage device of the second aspect, when the number of characters in the image is less than or less than the threshold value, the image can be stored.

  According to the image storage device of the third aspect, it is possible to determine whether to store an image or a character according to whether or not a character string in the image includes a predetermined character string. .

  According to the image storage device of the fourth aspect, when the storage target determined by the number of characters and the predetermined character string is different, the storage can be performed according to the storage target determined by the predetermined character string.

  According to the image storage device of the fifth aspect, it is possible to determine whether to store the image or the character according to the structure in the image.

  According to the image storage device of the sixth aspect, when the storage target determined by the number of characters and the structure is different, the storage can be performed according to the storage target determined by the structure.

  According to the image storage device of the seventh aspect, it is possible to generate and store a reduced image suitable for the number of characters.

  According to the image storage program of the eighth aspect, when the number of characters in the image is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold, characters having a smaller capacity than the image can be accumulated as an alternative to the image.

It is a conceptual module block diagram about the structural example of this Embodiment. It is explanatory drawing which shows the system configuration example using this Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the process example by this Embodiment. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example of a data structure of a preservation | save information determination table. It is a flowchart which shows the process example by this Embodiment. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example of a data structure of a preservation | save information determination table. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example of a data structure of a preservation | save information determination table. It is a flowchart which shows the process example by this Embodiment. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example of a data structure of a preservation | save information determination table. It is a flowchart which shows the process example by this Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the process example by this Embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the hardware structural example of the computer which implement | achieves this Embodiment.

Hereinafter, an example of a preferred embodiment for realizing the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 shows a conceptual module configuration diagram of a configuration example of the present embodiment.
The module generally refers to components such as software (computer program) and hardware that can be logically separated. Therefore, the module in the present embodiment indicates not only a module in a computer program but also a module in a hardware configuration. Therefore, the present embodiment is a computer program for causing these modules to function (a program for causing a computer to execute each procedure, a program for causing a computer to function as each means, and a function for each computer. This also serves as an explanation of the program and system and method for realizing the above. However, for the sake of explanation, the words “store”, “store”, and equivalents thereof are used. However, when the embodiment is a computer program, these words are stored in a storage device or stored in memory. This means that control is performed so as to be stored in the apparatus. Modules may correspond to functions one-to-one, but in mounting, one module may be configured by one program, or a plurality of modules may be configured by one program, and conversely, one module May be composed of a plurality of programs. The plurality of modules may be executed by one computer, or one module may be executed by a plurality of computers in a distributed or parallel environment. Note that one module may include other modules. Hereinafter, “connection” is used not only for physical connection but also for logical connection (data exchange, instruction, reference relationship between data, etc.). “Predetermined” means that the process is determined before the target process, and not only before the process according to this embodiment starts but also after the process according to this embodiment starts. Also, if it is before the target processing, it is used in accordance with the situation / status at that time or with the intention to be decided according to the status / status up to that point. When there are a plurality of “predetermined values”, they may be different values, or two or more values (of course, including all values) may be the same. In addition, the description having the meaning of “do B when it is A” is used in the meaning of “determine whether or not it is A and do B when it is judged as A”. However, the case where it is not necessary to determine whether or not A is excluded.
In addition, the system or device is configured by connecting a plurality of computers, hardware, devices, and the like by communication means such as a network (including one-to-one correspondence communication connection), etc., and one computer, hardware, device. The case where it implement | achieves by etc. is included. “Apparatus” and “system” are used as synonymous terms. Of course, the “system” does not include a social “mechanism” (social system) that is an artificial arrangement.
In addition, when performing a plurality of processes in each module or in each module, the target information is read from the storage device for each process, and the processing result is written to the storage device after performing the processing. is there. Therefore, description of reading from the storage device before processing and writing to the storage device after processing may be omitted. Here, the storage device may include a hard disk, a RAM (Random Access Memory), an external storage medium, a storage device via a communication line, a register in a CPU (Central Processing Unit), and the like.

  The image storage device 100 according to the present embodiment receives an image from the image processing device and stores the image or characters in the image. As shown in the example of FIG. A character information acquisition module 120, a storage information selection module 130, a storage information generation module 140, a storage information storage module 150, and a storage information determination table 160 are provided.

  The image storage apparatus 100 is an image processing apparatus such as a copying machine, a fax machine, a scanner, a printer, or a multifunction machine (an image processing apparatus having any two or more functions such as a scanner, a printer, a copying machine, and a fax machine) It stores images to be processed (also referred to as images) or processed images (that is, images before processing or images after processing), and when a document leak is detected, who will process (print, It is used for a system (generally referred to as an image log system) that tracks whether an image is read. Specifically, an image log system is a system that stores images processed by an image processing apparatus for a predetermined period, and stores images and attributes in order to identify an outflow source when an information leak is detected. is there. As attributes, the user who issued the processing instruction for the image, the date and time when the processing was performed (may be year, month, day, hour, minute, second, less than second, or a combination thereof), This is information for specifying an image processing apparatus or the like that has performed the process. For example, since an image log system generally targets all image processing apparatuses of a target company as a monitoring target, the number of target images (documents, jobs) is large. That is, the number of images to be accumulated is enormous (for example, about several millions), and the storage capacity is enormous (for example, several TB). Since it is an image in the first place, the storage capacity is also larger than that of text data.

On the other hand, the following information is necessary for tracking when a document leak is detected.
-The image of the document itself-Character information included in the document For example, if the document has little character information such as a drawing, the image of the document itself is used to identify the leaked document. Although it is necessary, if it is a technical document or the like mainly including character information, it can be specified if there is character information. That is, when the storage capacity is taken into consideration while ensuring traceability, it can be said that the optimal storage information differs depending on the document content.

In the present embodiment, an accumulation method focusing on the document content is selected. Specifically, there are (1) accumulation in an image and (2) accumulation in characters in an image as an accumulation method.
As will be described later, as a third option for the accumulation method, (3) a reduced image (hereinafter also referred to as a thumbnail) may be selectable. However, this is a combination with the above (1) or (2). That is, there are an image and a reduced image, and a character and a reduced image. Note that the reduced image is an image having a resolution that allows the document configuration to be understood (a resolution lower than the processing resolution (resolution of the original image) in the image processing apparatus). The reduced image may be a low-resolution reduced image or a medium-resolution reduced image.
Therefore, as a specific example of the present embodiment, there are the following combinations of accumulated data.
(1) Pattern 1 of accumulated information (hereinafter also referred to as stored information)
・ Image (High resolution: Original image resolution)
(2) Pattern 2 of stored information
-Character (3) pattern 3 of stored information
・ Image (High resolution: Original image resolution)
・ Reduced image (low resolution)
(4) Pattern 4 of stored information
・ Text and reduced images (low resolution)
(5) Accumulated information pattern 5
・ Text and reduced image (medium resolution)
The patterns after (3) can be omitted (optional). In addition, the above-described attributes may be included in each pattern.

  The image includes image data itself (generally referred to as a raster image, including a compressed image), print data, and the like. Specifically, an image read by a scanner, a printer to be printed Data (PDL (Page-Description Language), PDF (Portable Document Format), etc.), an image transmitted by fax, an image received by a fax, an image copied by a copying machine, and the like.

The image reception module 110, the character information acquisition module 120, the storage information selection module 130, the storage information generation module 140, the storage information storage module 150, and the storage information determination table 160 in the image storage device 100 are connected to each other.
The image receiving module 110 receives an image from the image processing apparatus. Moreover, you may receive an attribute with an image. In some cases, image data (raster image, a kind of image) is transferred from the image processing apparatus, and in other cases, PDL (a kind of image) is transferred. The image is received and passed to the subsequent processing.
The character information acquisition module 120 extracts characters from the image received by the image reception module 110. If the image received by the image receiving module 110 is PDL, characters are extracted by analyzing the structure of the PDL. If the image received by the image receiving module 110 is a raster image, the image is recognized and character information is acquired.

When the number of characters extracted by the character information acquisition module 120 is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold, the saved information selection module 130 uses the character as an alternative to the image received by the image reception module 110. Select as accumulation target.
Further, when the number of characters extracted by the character information acquisition module 120 is less than or less than the threshold, the saved information selection module 130 may select the image as an accumulation target.
Further, the stored information selection module 130 determines whether to store an image or a character according to whether or not the character extracted by the character information acquisition module 120 includes a predetermined character string. You may make it do.
Furthermore, when the accumulation target determined by the number of characters and a predetermined character string is different, the storage information selection module 130 may perform accumulation according to the accumulation target determined by the predetermined character string. .
Further, the storage information selection module 130 determines whether to store the image or the characters extracted by the character information acquisition module 120 according to the structure in the image received by the image reception module 110. May be.
Furthermore, when the storage target determined by the number of characters and the structure is different, the storage information selection module 130 may perform storage according to the storage target determined by the structure.
Further, when the number of characters extracted by the character information acquisition module 120 is greater than or equal to a predetermined first threshold, the saved information selection module 130 accumulates characters as an alternative to the image, You may make it accumulate | store the reduced image reduced so that it might become the defined 1st resolution. If the number of characters is less than or less than the first threshold and greater than or equal to the second threshold, the character is stored as an alternative to the image, and the second is higher than the first resolution. You may make it accumulate | store the reduced image reduced so that it might become the resolution. If the number of characters is less than or less than the second threshold, the image may be stored, and a reduced image that has been reduced to a third resolution lower than the first resolution may be stored. . Note that the second threshold value is lower than the first threshold value.
Specifically, the storage information selection module 130 applies the character acquired by the character information acquisition module 120 to the storage information determination table 160 and selects an accumulation target (image itself or character).

The storage information generation module 140 generates information to be accumulated selected by the storage information selection module 130. Specifically, the image data itself received by the image receiving module 110 (processing by the storage information generation module 140 is unnecessary), or the characters extracted by the character information acquisition module 120 (storage information generation module 140). Or processing from PDL to a raster image. A reduced image may be generated. Furthermore, you may perform the process which matches these and an attribute.
Specifically, the saved information generation module 140 generates accumulated information. The accumulated information candidates are as follows.
-Image / Character / Attribute / Reduced Image A raster image is generally generated in the case where images are stored. Since accumulation takes a long time, a format that ensures long-term browsing is appropriate. Specifically, in the case where the PDL is received from the image processing apparatus 200, the PDL is converted into a raster image.
The attribute is job information generated when processing is performed on the image processing apparatus 200. For example, there are a user ID indicating the user who has processed, date and time of processing, job type (print, copy, etc.), paper size, number of pages, and the like. Note that when the image processing apparatus 200 is used, a user ID can be acquired by performing authentication using, for example, an IC card or biometric authentication.
The storage information storage module 150 stores the storage target generated by the storage information generation module 140 in a storage device. For example, it may be stored in a specific directory such as a hard disk, or a database system may be constructed and stored in the database system.
The stored information determination table 160 stores determination criteria (selection rules) used for the selection process of the stored information selection module 130. For example, a correspondence (string attachment) between the threshold value of the number of characters and accumulated information is recorded. Further, a threshold value for the number of characters and accumulated information may be set for each paper size. Specifically, when the paper size is A4, the character is stored if it exceeds 100 characters. If it is 100 characters or less, information such as saving an image is recorded. Specifically, the storage information determination table 400 shown in the example of FIG. 4 described later, the storage information determination table 600 shown in the example of FIG. 6, the storage information determination table 700 shown in the example of FIG. 7, and the storage shown in the example of FIG. There is an information determination table 900.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a system configuration example using the present embodiment.
The image storage device 100 and the image processing device 200 are connected via a communication line 290. The communication line 290 may be wireless, wired, or a combination thereof, and may be, for example, the Internet or an intranet as a communication infrastructure. Further, the function of the image storage device 100 may be realized as a cloud service.
The image processing apparatus 200 is an image processing apparatus such as the above-described copying machine, fax machine, scanner, printer, or multifunction machine. Of course, not only paper output as in a printer but also electronic data distribution as in a scanner can be performed. In the case where electronic data is distributed, the electronic data is stored. The storage destination may have a function for managing documents such as a file system and a repository.
The image storage device 100 is a server that stores an image (or an image to be processed) processed by the image processing device 200 for a predetermined period. At the time of information leakage, it is used to identify the leakage source from the leaked image and the attribute of the image (such as the user who performed the output and the information of the output date and time).

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of processing according to this embodiment.
In step S302, an image is received. As described above, attributes may be received for both images.
In step S304, the processing target page is extracted. A processing target page is taken out for processing one page at a time. For example, the pages are sequentially extracted from the first page. In a specific system, the subsequent processing may not be performed in units of pages. In this case, the process may be executed in document units (collectively including a plurality of pages) before the process in page units following this process.

In step S306, a thumbnail of the page to be processed is generated. When it is not necessary to generate thumbnails in units of pages, the processing flow may be configured to generate thumbnails only for necessary pages. For example, as the “necessary page”, only the first page may be required.
In step S308, character information is extracted from the received image. For example, when the received image can extract character information by structural analysis such as PDL, the character information is extracted by analyzing the structure of the data. For example, if the received image is a raster image, character recognition is performed to extract character information.

  In step S310, the storage information determination table is referred to. Specifically, for example, based on the extracted character information and the paper size information acquired from the attribute, the storage information determination table 400 is referred to, and the value of the storage information is acquired. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the data structure of the storage information determination table 400. The storage information determination table 400 includes a setting ID column 410, a paper size column 420, a character number column 430, and a storage information column 440. The setting ID column 410 stores information (setting ID: IDentification) for uniquely identifying the setting in the present embodiment. The paper size column 420 stores the paper size. The character number column 430 stores the number of characters. The saved information column 440 stores saved information. In other words, the paper size column 420 and the character number column 430 are used as conditions, and the storage information column 440 of the line that satisfies the conditions is determined as the storage information. For example, if the setting ID is 1 and the paper size is “A4” and the number of characters is “less than 100”, this indicates that the image (the image itself) is saved. The setting ID: 2 indicates that the paper size is If “A4” and the number of characters is “100 or more”, it indicates that the characters (character recognition results, etc.) are to be stored. Note that the paper size column 420 may be omitted, and the storage information (storage information column 440) may be determined simply from the number of characters (character number column 430).

In step S312, it is determined whether or not the character information is to be stored. If so, the process proceeds to step S314. Otherwise, the process proceeds to step S316. Processing is divided according to the storage information acquired in the previous step.
In step S314, character information is added to the saved information.
In step S316, image information is added to the saved information.
In step S318, a saved image is generated. Since the image for storage is usually in a predetermined format, it is converted into that format. If the conversion is unnecessary, the conversion process here is unnecessary. For example, the format of the image received from the image processing apparatus 200 may vary depending on the model of the image processing apparatus 200 and the like. In that case, the image storage apparatus 100 converts the format from, for example, PDF into a format suitable for long-term storage (for example, a raster image).

In step S320, storage information for each page is recorded. For example, information about which saved information is saved in units of pages is recorded in a temporary storage area or the like. In addition to the character information or image information determined up to the previous step, information such as thumbnails, which is common basic storage information, is added to obtain storage information for each page.
In step S322, it is determined whether or not there is an unprocessed page. If there is no unprocessed page, the process proceeds to step S324; otherwise, the process returns to step S304. That is, if there is an unprocessed page, the process returns to step S304.

In step S324, the storage information is stored. For example, information to be stored is recorded in a specific directory on the file system or a document database system. Based on the document attributes common to each document (attributes related to processing on the image processing apparatus 200 received from the image processing apparatus 200) and the storage information for each page stored in the temporary area or the like in step S320, Record information.
The stored information in document units includes, for example, document attributes (attributes related to processing on the image processing apparatus 200).
There is a thumbnail as common storage information for each page. However, there is a case where thumbnails do not require all pages (for example, a case where thumbnails of only the first page are required). In that case, the thumbnails may be generated in units of documents.
Then, either one of the character information and the image is stored as the storage information for each page.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of processing according to the present embodiment. A processing example in which the resolution of the thumbnail is also a change target is shown. The difference from the flowchart shown in the example of FIG. 3 is that step S518 is mainly performed instead of step S508 and step S306.
If it is decided to save the character information without saving the image, the resolution of the thumbnail may be set higher than usual. The thumbnail resolution may be set according to the amount of character information.
With this configuration, in addition to character information as character-centered document recording information, an image (reduced image) having a resolution (resolution lower than the resolution of the image to be processed) that can confirm the document structure is obtained. Can be saved.
Note that the image is stored at a resolution similar to the resolution of the processing performed by the image processing apparatus 200, typically 400 dpi to 600 dpi. Further, when displaying the result of searching for a document in the image log system, a thumbnail image of about 25 dpi is created and stored in order to display a thumbnail list of images. In the processing of the flowchart shown in the example of FIG. 5, the resolution of the thumbnail is increased to a resolution that can grasp the outline of the image by preview, such as 50 dpi to 72 dpi, according to the character information included in the document. I have to.

In step S502, an image is received.
In step S504, the processing target page is extracted.
In step S506, character information is extracted.

In step S508, the storage information determination table is referred to. Specifically, for example, based on the extracted character information and the paper size information acquired from the attribute, the storage information determination table 600 is referred to, and the value of the storage information is acquired. FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the data structure of the saved information determination table 600. The storage information determination table 600 is obtained by adding a thumbnail resolution column 650 to the storage information determination table 400 shown in the example of FIG. In addition to selecting whether the stored information is an image or a character, the thumbnail resolution can be changed according to the document / page. The storage information determination table 600 includes a setting ID column 610, a paper size column 620, a character number column 630, a storage information column 640, and a thumbnail resolution column 650. The setting ID column 610 stores setting IDs. The paper size column 620 stores the paper size. The character number column 630 stores the number of characters. The saved information column 640 stores saved information. The thumbnail resolution column 650 stores thumbnail resolution. In other words, the paper size column 620 and the character count column 630 are used as conditions, the storage information column 640 of the line satisfying the conditions is set as the storage information, and the thumbnail resolution column 650 is determined as the thumbnail resolution. Note that the paper size column 620 may be omitted, and the storage information (storage information column 640, thumbnail resolution column 650) may be determined simply from the number of characters (character number column 630).
Here, for example, paper size: A3 (setting ID: 3 to 5) will be described. When the setting ID is 3 and the number of characters is less than 150, the storage information column 640 is an image, and the thumbnail resolution column 650 is 25 dpi (Dots Per Inch). This 25 dpi is an example of low resolution here. Since the image is stored as an image (the image itself), the thumbnail has a low resolution. That is, when it is desired to know the detailed contents of the image, it is only necessary to browse the image itself. When the setting ID is 5 and the number of characters is 200 or more, the storage information column 640 is a character, and the thumbnail resolution column 650 is 50 dpi. This 50 dpi is an example of medium resolution here. Although the document is mainly composed of characters, there is a possibility that information other than characters (photographs, graphics, etc.) may be present, so the thumbnail resolution is set to a higher resolution (medium resolution) than a low resolution. In the middle setting ID: 4, when the number of characters is 150 or more and less than 200, the storage information column 640 is set to characters, and the thumbnail resolution column 650 is set to 72 dpi. This 72 dpi is an example of high resolution here. Since there is a high possibility that characters and information other than characters (photos, graphics, etc.) are mixed, the thumbnail resolution is set to a higher resolution (high resolution) than the medium resolution. Here, the first threshold is 200 characters, the second threshold is 150 characters, the first resolution is 50 dpi (medium resolution), the second resolution is 72 dpi (high resolution), and the third resolution is 25 dpi ( Of course, these are examples. It is sufficient that the second threshold value has a relationship that it is lower than the first threshold value. The second resolution may be higher than the first resolution and the third resolution may be lower than the first resolution. Here, two threshold values (first threshold value, second threshold value) are used to divide into three ranges, but three or more threshold values may be used to divide into four or more ranges. The resolution of the thumbnail in that case may be determined by the degree of mixing of characters and information other than characters (photos, graphics, etc.).

In step S510, it is determined whether or not the character information is to be stored. If so, the process proceeds to step S512. Otherwise, the process proceeds to step S514.
In step S512, character information is added to the saved information.
In step S514, image information is added to the saved information.
In step S516, a saved image is generated.
In step S518, a thumbnail is generated according to the storage information determination table 600.
In step S520, storage information for each page is recorded.
In step S522, it is determined whether or not there is an unprocessed page. If there is no unprocessed page, the process proceeds to step S524; otherwise, the process returns to step S504.
In step S524, the storage information is stored.

Instead of determining only by the number of characters, a storage method may be selected based on a keyword included in the document.
A table (for example, a storage information determination table 700) in which an association (linkage) between the included keyword and storage information is recorded is prepared separately and referred to in the storage processing flow.
When both the number of characters and the keyword are used together, priority is given to the setting of the keyword, and when there is no keyword, the determination may be made with the table of the number of characters (for example, the storage information determination table 400).
Further, when a plurality of keywords are found in one document / page, the processing may be such that image storage is selected if there is at least one keyword for image storage setting.
FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the data structure of the storage information determination table 700. As shown in FIG. The saved information determination table 700 has a setting ID column 710, a keyword column 720, and a saved information column 730. The setting ID column 710 stores setting IDs. The keyword column 720 stores keywords. The saved information column 730 stores saved information. That is, the keyword column 720 is used as a condition, and the storage information column 730 of the line that satisfies the condition is determined as the storage information. For example, if the keyword is “prohibited copying” in the setting ID: 101, it indicates that the image (the image itself) is stored. If the keyword is “public information” in the setting ID: 999, This indicates that the data is stored as characters (character recognition results, etc.).

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an example of processing according to this embodiment. This processing example shows processing when the storage information determination table 400 and the storage information determination table 700 are used in combination. Differences from the flowchart shown in the example of FIG. 3 are mainly step S810, step S814, and step S816.
In step S802, an image is received.
In step S804, the processing target page is extracted.
In step S806, a thumbnail is generated.
In step S808, character information is extracted.
In step S810, the storage information determination table 700 is referred to.
In step S812, the storage information determination table 400 is referred to.
In step S814, it is determined whether the saved information in step S810 and step S812 is the same. If they are the same, the process proceeds to step S818. Otherwise, the process proceeds to step S816.

In step S816, the storage information in step S810 is adopted.
In step S818, it is determined whether or not the character information is to be stored. If so, the process proceeds to step S820. Otherwise, the process proceeds to step S822.
In step S820, character information is added to the saved information.
In step S822, image information is added to the saved information.
In step S824, a saved image is generated.
In step S826, storage information for each page is recorded.
In step S828, it is determined whether there is an unprocessed page. If there is no unprocessed page, the process proceeds to step S830. Otherwise, the process returns to step S804.
In step S830, the storage information is stored.

Furthermore, the storage information may be determined based on object information included in the document instead of character information (number of characters, keywords).
For example, in the non-raster format, it is possible to determine what kind of figure is included depending on the document structure by analyzing the document structure. Also good.
Further, for example, in the case of a raster format, it may be configured to apply the character recognition process and determine the stored information based on the presence or absence of an object recognized by the character recognition process. For example, some character recognition processes can recognize whether or not there is a table object.
FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the data structure of the saved information determination table 900. The saved information determination table 900 has a setting ID column 910, an object column 920, and a saved information column 930. The setting ID column 910 stores setting IDs. The object column 920 stores objects. The saved information column 930 stores saved information. In other words, the object column 920 is used as a condition, and the storage information column 930 of a row that satisfies the condition is determined as storage information. For example, the setting ID: 1001 indicates that if the object is an “organization chart”, it is stored as an image (the image itself). In the setting ID: 1002, the object is “rows of 3 rows × 3 columns or more. If it is a “table having a column”, it means that the image is stored as an image (the image itself).

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing an example of processing according to this embodiment. This processing example shows processing when the saved information determination table 900 is used. The difference from the flowchart shown in the example of FIG. 3 is mainly steps S1008 and S1010.
In step S1002, an image is received.
In step S1004, the processing target page is extracted.
In step S1006, a thumbnail is generated.
In step S1008, an object is extracted.
In step S1010, the storage information determination table 900 is referred to.
In step S1012, it is determined whether or not character information is to be stored. If so, the process proceeds to step S1014. Otherwise, the process proceeds to step S1016.
In step S1014, character information is added to the saved information.
In step S1016, image information is added to the saved information.
In step S1018, a saved image is generated.
In step S1020, storage information for each page is recorded.
In step S1022, it is determined whether or not there is an unprocessed page. If not, the process proceeds to step S1024. Otherwise, the process returns to step S1004.
In step S1024, the storage information is stored.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing an example of processing according to the present embodiment. This processing example shows processing when the storage information determination table 400 and the storage information determination table 900 are used in combination. Differences from the flowchart shown in the example of FIG. 3 are mainly step S1108, step S1110, step S1114, and step S1116.
In step S1102, an image is received.
In step S1104, the processing target page is extracted.
In step S1106, a thumbnail is generated.
In step S1108, an object is extracted.
In step S1110, the storage information determination table 900 is referred to.
In step S1112, the stored information determination table 400 is referred to.
In step S1114, it is determined whether the stored information in step S1110 and step S1112 is the same. If they are the same, the process proceeds to step S1118. Otherwise, the process proceeds to step S1116.

In step S1116, the storage information in step S1110 is adopted.
In step S1118, it is determined whether or not the character information is to be stored. If so, the process proceeds to step S1120. Otherwise, the process proceeds to step S1122.
In step S1120, character information is added to the saved information.
In step S1122, image information is added to the saved information.
In step S1124, a saved image is generated.
In step S1126, storage information for each page is recorded.
In step S1128, it is determined whether or not there is an unprocessed page. If there is no unprocessed page, the process proceeds to step S1130. Otherwise, the process returns to step S1104.
In step S1130, the storage information is stored.

  Furthermore, a combination of the storage information determination table 600 and the storage information determination table 700, a combination of the storage information determination table 600 and the storage information determination table 900, a combination of the storage information determination table 400, the storage information determination table 700, and the storage information determination table 900, The storage information determination table 600, the storage information determination table 700, and the storage information determination table 900 may be used in combination. In addition, when three tables are used and different storage information is obtained, the result of a predetermined table may be prioritized or determined by majority vote.

  With reference to FIG. 12, an example of the hardware configuration of the image storage apparatus of the present embodiment will be described. The configuration shown in FIG. 12 is configured by a personal computer (PC), for example, and shows a hardware configuration example including a data reading unit 1217 such as a scanner and a data output unit 1218 such as a printer.

  A CPU (Central Processing Unit) 1201 includes various modules described in the above-described embodiments, that is, the modules such as the image reception module 110, the character information acquisition module 120, the storage information selection module 130, and the storage information generation module 140. It is a control part which performs the process according to the computer program which described the execution sequence.

  A ROM (Read Only Memory) 1202 stores programs used by the CPU 1201, calculation parameters, and the like. A RAM (Random Access Memory) 1203 stores programs used in the execution of the CPU 1201, parameters that change as appropriate during the execution, and the like. These are connected to each other by a host bus 1204 configured by a CPU bus or the like.

  The host bus 1204 is connected to an external bus 1206 such as a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect / Interface) bus via a bridge 1205.

  A keyboard 1208 and a pointing device 1209 such as a mouse are devices operated by an operator. The display 1210 includes a liquid crystal display device or a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube), and displays various types of information as text or image information. Further, a touch screen or the like having both functions of the pointing device 1209 and the display 1210 may be used.

  An HDD (Hard Disk Drive) 1211 includes a hard disk (may be a flash memory or the like), drives the hard disk, and records or reproduces a program executed by the CPU 1201 and information. The hard disk realizes functions as a storage device for storing the storage information storage module 150 and the storage information determination table 160. Further, various other data, various computer programs, and the like are stored.

  The drive 1212 reads data or a program recorded in a removable recording medium 1213 such as a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, or a semiconductor memory, and the data or program is read out to the interface 1207 and the external bus 1206. , The bridge 1205, and the RAM 1203 connected via the host bus 1204. Note that the removable recording medium 1213 can also be used as a data recording area.

  The connection port 1214 is a port for connecting the external connection device 1215 and has a connection unit such as USB, IEEE1394. The connection port 1214 is connected to the CPU 1201 and the like via the interface 1207, the external bus 1206, the bridge 1205, the host bus 1204, and the like. The communication unit 1216 is connected to a communication line and executes data communication processing with the outside. The data reading unit 1217 is a scanner, for example, and executes document reading processing. The data output unit 1218 is a printer, for example, and executes document data output processing.

  Note that the hardware configuration of the image storage device shown in FIG. 12 shows one configuration example, and the present embodiment is not limited to the configuration shown in FIG. 12, and the modules described in this embodiment are executed. Any configuration is possible. For example, some modules may be configured with dedicated hardware (for example, Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), etc.), and some modules are in an external system and connected via a communication line Further, a plurality of systems shown in FIG. 12 may be connected to each other via communication lines so as to cooperate with each other. In particular, in addition to personal computers, portable information communication devices (including mobile phones, smartphones, mobile devices, wearable computers, etc.), information appliances, robots, copiers, fax machines, scanners, printers, multifunction devices (scanners, printers, An image processing apparatus having two or more functions such as a copying machine and a fax machine) may be incorporated.

In addition, in the comparison processing in the description of the above-described embodiment, “more than”, “less than”, “greater than”, and “less than (less than)” The values may be “larger”, “smaller (less than)”, “more”, and “less”, respectively.
In determining the stored information, it may be determined in units of pages as described above, or may be determined in units of documents. Here, the document unit is an image group that the image processing apparatus 200 has processed once, and may be one page or a plurality of pages. Needless to say, in the case of a document unit, all pages included in the document have the same form (either character or image).
Further, when the determination is made in units of pages, it is assumed that the following selection result is obtained when a document having a plurality of pages is assumed.
1st page: Image 2nd page: Character 3rd page: Image In this case, only the 2nd page will be saved, and the other pages will save the image. Saved image file (2 pages) If it is referred to), the viewability becomes worse. In general, since display applications are intended to display only images and only characters (text), in order to view both, separate applications must be launched. In particular, if you are browsing an image page, you may forget that you have a text page. Therefore, if it is determined that the image and character pages are mixed, an image indicating that the characters are separately saved on a blank page is generated for the page saved as characters, and the page (a page composed of original characters) is generated. ) May be inserted. This makes it easier for the user to know that there is a page of characters. Also, characters may be converted into images and inserted into the page.

The program described above may be provided by being stored in a recording medium, or the program may be provided by communication means. In that case, for example, the above-described program may be regarded as an invention of a “computer-readable recording medium recording the program”.
The “computer-readable recording medium on which a program is recorded” refers to a computer-readable recording medium on which a program is recorded, which is used for program installation, execution, program distribution, and the like.
The recording medium is, for example, a digital versatile disc (DVD), which is a standard established by the DVD Forum, such as “DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD-RAM,” and DVD + RW. Standard “DVD + R, DVD + RW, etc.”, compact disc (CD), read-only memory (CD-ROM), CD recordable (CD-R), CD rewritable (CD-RW), Blu-ray disc ( Blu-ray (registered trademark) Disc), magneto-optical disk (MO), flexible disk (FD), magnetic tape, hard disk, read-only memory (ROM), electrically erasable and rewritable read-only memory (EEPROM (registered trademark)) )), Flash memory, Random access memory (RAM) SD (Secure Digital) memory card and the like.
Then, the whole or a part of the program may be recorded on the recording medium for storage or distribution. Also, by communication, for example, a local area network (LAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), a wide area network (WAN), a wired network used for the Internet, an intranet, an extranet, or a wireless communication It may be transmitted using a transmission medium such as a network or a combination of these, or may be carried on a carrier wave.
Furthermore, the program may be a part or all of another program, or may be recorded on a recording medium together with a separate program. Moreover, it may be divided and recorded on a plurality of recording media. Further, it may be recorded in any manner as long as it can be restored, such as compression or encryption.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 ... Image storage apparatus 110 ... Image receiving module 120 ... Character information acquisition module 130 ... Storage information selection module 140 ... Storage information generation module 150 ... Storage information storage module 200 ... Image processing apparatus 290 ... Communication line

Claims (8)

Receiving means for receiving an image from the image processing apparatus;
Extracting means for extracting characters from the image received by the receiving means;
An image accumulating apparatus comprising accumulating means for accumulating characters as an alternative to the image when the number of characters extracted by the extracting means is greater than or greater than a predetermined threshold. The storage means stores the image when the number of characters in the image is less than or less than the threshold;
The image storage device according to claim 1. The storage means determines whether to store an image or a character according to whether or not a character string in the image includes a predetermined character string.
The image storage device according to claim 1. The accumulation means performs accumulation according to the accumulation object determined by the predetermined character string when the accumulation object determined by the number of characters and the predetermined character string is different.
The image storage device according to claim 3. The storage means determines whether to store the image or characters according to the structure in the image;
The image storage device according to claim 1. The accumulation means performs accumulation according to the accumulation object determined by the structure when the accumulation object determined by the number of characters and the structure is different.
The image storage device according to claim 3. If the number of characters extracted by the extraction unit is greater than or equal to a predetermined first threshold, the storage unit stores the character as a substitute for the image and stores a predetermined number of characters. Accumulate reduced images reduced to 1 resolution,
If the number of characters is less than or less than the first threshold and greater than or greater than the second threshold, the character is stored as an alternative to the image, and a second higher than the first resolution is stored. Accumulate reduced images that have been reduced to a resolution of
If the number of characters is less than or less than the second threshold, the image is accumulated, and a reduced image that is reduced to a third resolution lower than the first resolution is accumulated,
The second threshold is lower than the first threshold;
The image storage device according to claim 1. Computer
Receiving means for receiving an image from the image processing apparatus;
Extracting means for extracting characters from the image received by the receiving means;
An image storage program for functioning as storage means for storing the characters as a substitute for the image when the number of characters extracted by the extraction means is greater than or greater than a predetermined threshold.

Images