JP2833061B2 - Image data storage device - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image data storage device that reads and stores image data such as a document, and displays or prints out the image data as necessary.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, image data such as a document is read using an image scanner, index data is added to the read image data, and a plurality of pieces are stored in a storage unit such as a memory or a magnetic disk. An image data storage device that retrieves and reads arbitrary image data by designating index data in accordance with, and displays or outputs the image data is proposed. In this type of image data storage device,
A plurality of business card image data can be stored.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, regardless of the amount of data, the image data is converted into a black and white binary image including a blank area and stored as it is. In the case of (1), the bit of the value "0" is stored, and when the effective image, that is, the black printing is performed, the bit of the value "1" is stored. When the data is called, the image data consisting of "0" and "1" stored in the storage means is called and displayed or printed out as it is.

If the image data is stored as it is as described above, the amount of image data required for storage increases, and the storage capacity of the storage unit is limited, so that only a limited number of data can be stored. .

Further, the valid image data portion may include unnecessary image data such as a company badge in the business card image data, for example. There was a drawback that was wasted use.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has an image data storage device capable of effectively utilizing the capacity of storage means for storing image data and storing more necessary image data. The purpose is to provide.

[Means and Actions for Solving the Problems] The present invention focuses on, for example, the fact that in a business card image data, there are many portions where a company emblem is color-printed in a color other than black, and a white light source is used by an image scanner or the like. The image data to be irradiated is read, and the effective image block of the read image data is detected as its position information. Then, the pixel density of each effective image block is detected, and the pixel density is lower than the others. The effective image block is deleted and the remaining effective image block is written and stored in the storage means together with the position information, and these are read out as necessary, and the effective image is displayed or printed at a position based on the position information. And delete the blank part in the image data and the effective part by color printing with lower pixel density than other effective parts, and Since only the image data is stored, the storage capacity can be effectively used, and a large number of image data can be stored.

Embodiment An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a business card file device will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 show the external configuration, in which 11 is a main body case. This main body case 11 is an upper case 11a
And the lower case 11b are connected and integrated to have a size that can be held by the hand when folded, and FIG. 1 shows the opened state. Inside the upper case 11a of the main body case 11, a liquid crystal display panel 12 with a dot matrix slightly larger than a business card for displaying read image data and index data to be described later, and a power supply
Power key 13 for ON / OFF, "Registration" mode and "Search"
A mode changeover switch 14 using a two-contact slide switch for switching between modes is provided, and an execution key 15 for executing various instructions. A character / numerical key 16 for inputting index data or the like is provided inside the lower case 11b. Further, on the side surface of the upper case 11a, a reading unit 17 for reading business card image data is provided on one side, and a reading switch 18 for instructing reading is provided on the other side. The reading unit 17 will not be described in detail,
For example, a line sensor for image reading having a read pixel of 8 to 16 dots / mm in length corresponding to the width of a business card, an illumination light source for irradiating a business card image, and an encoder for generating a read timing signal from a reading moving speed, etc. As shown in FIG. 2, the upper case 11a and the lower case 11b are folded, and the reading unit 17 is brought into contact with one end of the upper surface of the business card 19 to be read. By scanning the business card 19 in the direction shown by the arrow A while holding down, the image data printed on the business card 19 is read.

Next, the configuration of an electronic circuit provided in the main body case 11 will be described with reference to FIG. In the same figure, the power key 13,
Key input section consisting of mode switch 14, density key 15, execution key 16, character / numerical key 17, and read switch 18.
All the key input signals by the key operation at 21 are sent to the control unit 22 composed of a CPU. The control unit 22 controls the operation of each of the other circuits according to a signal from the key input unit 21 and stores a microprogram for operation control.
Specify the address of the ROM address specification section 24 of the ROM 23 to
While reading the microprogram from the RAM 25 and inputting / outputting data to / from the RAM 25 storing various data by addressing. The control unit 22 outputs a control command to the reading control unit 26 and display data to the display control unit 27. The reading control unit 26
The line sensor of the reading unit 17 according to a command from the control unit 22
A drive signal is sent to 28 to read the target image data. At this time, the control unit 22 simultaneously drives the lamp 29 of the white light source provided in the reading unit 17, and the image data illuminated by the white light source and read by the line sensor 28 is read via the reading control unit 26. Captured by the control unit 22, RA
Stored in M25. The display control unit 27 obtains a drive signal based on the display data sent from the control unit 22, and controls the display unit 30 including the liquid crystal display panel 12 based on the drive signal to display image data and the like. Output.

The RAM 25 stores the display data storage unit 2 as shown in FIG.
5a, an image data storage unit 25b, an index storage unit 25c, a work area 25d, an image data temporary storage unit 25e, and a density data storage unit 25f. The display data storage unit 25a
This area has at least a number of bit memories corresponding to all bit maps of the dot matrix of the display unit 30 and stores display data of the display unit 30. Further, the image data storage unit 25b is an area for storing a plurality of pieces of image data obtained by forming effective image blocks. The index storage unit 25c
An index data storage unit Ia for storing index data input and set by the character / numerical keys 16 corresponding to the image data stored in the image data storage unit 25b, and four corners of each of the effective image blocks which are divided into blocks. A plurality of coordinate data storage units Ic for storing coordinate data which is position information indicating which position of the entire read image data is located, and an image block designated by the coordinate data storage unit Ic is image data. It comprises a plurality of sets of areas each including a plurality of address storage sections Ib for storing at which address positions on the storage section 25b the numbers “I ₀ ”, “I ₁ ”, and “I ₁ ” I ₂ "... are sequentially added. Moreover, the work area 25d is X ₀ register which is used for blocking of the image data, Y ₀ register, Y ₁ registers, X ₁ register, Y register, X register consists of G register or the like. Y ₁ register is a two-stage structure of the upper y _m registers and lower y _n registers, similarly X ₁ registers upper
It has a two-stage configuration of the X _m registers and lower x _m register. The image data temporary storage unit 25e is an area for temporarily storing image data when the image data is divided into blocks, and has at least a number of bit memories corresponding to all bit maps of the read image data of one business card. ing. The data amount of each pixel in the image data stored in the image data temporary storage unit 25e is 1 bit, and is determined to be “1” or “0” by a threshold value. Density data storage unit 25
f has an area for storing, for example, 3-bit density data corresponding to one bit of each pixel data in the image data temporary storage unit 25e, and the density of each pixel is described by eight gradations.

 Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be described.

FIG. 5 shows the contents of the overall operation by the control unit 22. At first, as shown in step A01, the operation position of the mode switch 14 is set to any of the "registration" and "search" mode setting positions. To determine if

If the position is the "registration" mode, the process proceeds to the next step A02, where the image data is actually read. In this case, as shown in FIG. 2, the reading unit 17 is brought into contact with the upper surface of the business card 19 to be read, and the business card 19 is scanned while the reading switch 18 is kept pressed.
Is read line by line by the line sensor 28 using the white light emitted from the line 29, and is sequentially sent to the control unit 22 via the read control unit 26 as 3-bit data corresponding to the pixel density for each pixel. Sent. The control unit 22 stores the sequentially sent image data as it is in the density data storage unit 25f.
At the same time, the image data is binarized into black and white using a fixed threshold value for each pixel to be "1" or "0", and stored in the display data storage unit 25a and the image data temporary storage unit 25e of the RAM 25. The image data held in the display data storage unit 25a is sequentially sent as it is to the display control unit 27 as display data,
It is displayed on the display unit 29. After reading all the image data of one business card 19 and storing it in the density data storage unit 25f, the image data temporary storage unit 25e, and the display register 25a, the control unit 22 reads the characters in the key input unit 21 as shown in step A03. / Numeric key 1
Wait for input of index data by 6. When the index data is input, the index data is also stored in the image data temporary storage unit 25e and the display data storage unit 25a.
At a predetermined position, that is, in a storage area different from the storage area of the image data, and is displayed on the display unit 29 via the display control unit 27 from the display data storage unit 25a. Next, in step A04, the system waits for a registration confirmation instruction by operating the execution key 15. When the execution key 15 is operated, the next step A0
Proceeding to 5, the block coordinates of the image data stored in the image data temporary storage unit 25e are detected.

FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of the processing of the detection and storage of the block coordinates. First, as shown in step B01, a row of image data is determined by the bit map of the image data stored in the image data temporary storage unit 25e. To detect. That is, as shown in FIG. 11, the image data stored in the image data temporary storage unit 25e has a binary value of "0" for a blank bit and "1" for a black pixel (with printing).

Thus, the lateral coordinate of the bitmap image data temporary storage section _{25e x 0, x 1, x} 2, x 3, ..., the longitudinal coordinate
When y ₀ , y ₁ , y ₂ , y ₃ ,..., the horizontal direction having the same y coordinate is defined as a row, and the vertical direction having the same x coordinate is defined as a column, and each row has at least one pixel data “1”. Is detected, and the detection means is as shown in FIG.

That is, FIG. 7 shows the processing contents of the data presence detection. At the beginning of the processing, in step C01, the control unit 22 initializes both the X register and the Y register of the work area 25d of the RAM 25 to "0". And Next, at step C02, the X register is updated and set to "+1". Next step C03
Then, it is determined whether or not the column position corresponding to the content of the X register is the last column on the bit map. Here, since the X register is “1”, the determination result is NO. Then, the process proceeds to step C04 to determine whether or not the pixel data bit is “1” at the coordinate position indicated by the contents of the X register and the Y register. to decide. If not "1", the above step C02 is performed again.
And the content of the X register is incremented by "+1" again, and the above processing is repeated again.

If it is determined in step C04 that there is pixel data "1", there is at least one pixel data "1" in the row, and the process proceeds from step C04 to step C05, where the contents of the Y register at that time, that is, storing y-coordinate data with data in the Y ₀ register (not shown) of the work area 25d. Thereafter, in step C06, the content of the Y register is updated and set to "+1", and the X register is cleared to "0". Here, it is determined in step C07 whether or not the row position corresponding to the updated contents of the Y register is the last row on the bit map. After it is determined that the row position is different, whether or not there is data in the next row is determined. Step C0 again to detect
Perform the processing from 2. Thus it is determined whether at least one of a pixel data "1" in each row, continue to store the Y ₀ registers its y coordinate data sequentially work area 25d, if any.

If it is determined in step C07 that the row position corresponding to the contents of the Y register is the last row on the bitmap, the data presence row on the bitmap in the image data temporary storage unit 25e according to FIG. Has been completed.

When the detection of the presence of data in step B01 in FIG. 6 is completed, the process proceeds to step B02, where it is determined whether or not each column has at least one pixel data "1". The detecting means is almost the same as that of FIG. 7, and the control of the row and the column is performed by exchanging the control.
Wherein the detailed description is omitted, will be stored in the X ₀ register sequential work area 25d of the x-coordinate data of at least one pixel data "1" columns that.

FIG. 12, thus illustrate the storage state of the X ₀ register which stores the x coordinate data of Y ₀ registers and data-stored sequence in the work area 25d which stores the y coordinate data of the data-stored line. As described above, in steps B01 and B02, the process of detecting the effective block coordinates shown in step B03 is performed using the coordinate data obtained by scanning the bit map of the image data temporary storage unit 25e in both the vertical and horizontal directions.

Figure 8 is shows the details of the detection process of the valid block coordinates, as first shown in Step D01 Y ₁ registers y _m registers of the work area 25d, the y _n registers, 12
The first row coordinate data "y _16" stores set as FIG. 13 which is stored in the Y ₀ register in the same work area 25d shown in FIG. After setting the initial value "0" to G register the work area 25d for counting the distance between the blocks in the next step D02, and the value of y _n register sets "+1" updated in step D03 "y ₁₇ ", and in a succeeding step D04, it is determined whether or not the value is the last row on the bit map of the display register. If NO, then step D05
The process proceeds, the coordinate data that matches the value of y _n register "y _17" is judged whether it is stored in the Y ₀ register. In this case, since the data is stored, the determination result is YES, the G register is cleared in the subsequent step D06, and the processing from step S03 is repeated again.

Thus while sequentially updated and set the value of y _n registers, continue to search for the last row address in the same block. When coordinate data matches the value of y _n register is not stored in the Y ₀ register, Step D Step D05
In step 07, the contents of the G register are updated and set to "+1".
Thereafter, in step D08, it is determined whether or not the content of the G register is "16". If not, the process from step D03 is repeated again. Thereafter, while sequentially updating and setting the value of the register y _n ,
It is counted by the counter.

The G register counts row coordinates with no continuous data, and when the count value reaches a certain number “16”,
This is for recognizing that an image block has been cut off and has become a blank area. Here, the fixed number “16” is 1 if the resolution of the line sensor 28 is 16 dots / mm.
This is a value indicating that rows without images continue over mm.

When the count value of the G register is determined to be "16", then the value of y _n registers in step D09 is "-16", it is returned to the row coordinate data with data. Thereafter, the next data-stored row coordinate data Y ₁ registers y _m register which is stored in the Y ₀ register at step D10, the newly added set to y _n registers, the contents of the additional set y _n register The processing from step D02 is repeatedly executed again.

Thus, the Y ₁ registers work area 25d, a set of row coordinate data indicating a region of a data line is sequentially stored. Figure 10 is illustrative of the image data of the business card 19, a set of row coordinate data together indicating a region of the rows of the block indicated by broken lines will be stored sequentially Y ₁ register. 14th
Figure stored in Y ₁ registers work area 25d, indicates the area of the row coordinates of the effective image block, and corresponds to, for example, first block in the image data, regions of the row coordinate "y ₁₆ "" y ₅₆ "is being stored.

Repeat the process of step D02～D10, after all stores the area of the row coordinates of the effective image blocks Y ₁ register, the value of y _n register is determined to be the last line in step D04 , then proceeds to step D11, the detected row region above "y ₁₆ ~y _56", "y ₁₃₆ ~y _200", "y
₂₂₄ ~y ₂₅₆ "searches the column coordinate with the image data in ..., and the minimum coordinate data and maximum coordinate data of X ₁ registers work area 25d each x _m registers and X _n
Store in a register.

Thus by combining with wo and coordinate data of each row region stored in the coordinate data and X ₁ register of each row region stored in Y ₁ registers work area 25d, which coordinate data of the block area can be detected It is. For example, in the first block in FIG. 10, the coordinates of the four corners that define the block are coordinate data “y ₁₆ ” and “y
₅₆ "and the coordinate data" x ₃₂ "" x ₁₁₂ "in each row region (y
_{16, x 32) (y 16} , x 112) (y 56, x 32) is detected as (y _56, x _112).

The coordinate data of each block obtained in this way is
In the following step D12, the data is temporarily stored in the index storage unit 25c of the RAM 25. FIG. 15 shows the storage state. In the index storage unit 25c, the coordinate data of a set corresponding to the number of blocks is set as the coordinate data of the four points of the block. At the same time as the end of the effective block coordinate detection process, the block coordinate detection and storage process of FIG. 6 ends.

When the detection and storage processing of the block coordinates is completed as described above, the process proceeds from step A05 to step A06 in FIG. 5, and the density determination processing for each image block obtained by the block coordinate detection is performed. Image blocks having a low image length are deleted.

FIG. 9 shows this density discrimination processing. At the beginning of the processing, first, in step E01, the average value of the density data of the pixels in each image block to which the data bit "1" is set is obtained. This is because, for each image block obtained by the block coordinate detection by the control unit 22, the density data storage unit 25f corresponding to the coordinates where the data presence bit “1” is set in the image data temporary storage unit 25e. The density data of each pixel is read from the coordinates, and the average value is obtained.

FIG. 17 shows an example of the density average value of the data bits of each image block corresponding to the image data of the business card 19 shown in FIG. 10, and the density average value of the first image block.
B ₁ is "4.05", average density value of the second image block B ₂
There are "7.66", the average density value B ₃ is "6.90" of the third image block, average density value B ₄ of the fourth image block "7.85". Here, the average density value B ₁ of the first image block is lower than the average density B ₂ .about.B ₄ other of the second through fourth image block, the first 10
As shown in the figure, the first image block portion is image data obtained by reading a company emblem “ABC” by color printing using a color other than black, and the image data stored in the business card file device of the present invention is as follows. It becomes an unnecessary part.

Accordingly, then with a density average value B ₁ .about.B ₄ of each image block in step E02, and calculates the average density value of the whole image block, where their values as shown in FIG. 18 It becomes “6.62”. Using the density average value “6.62”, a difference from the density average value of each image block is determined in the following step E03. Then, in the next step E04, it is determined whether or not the difference is equal to or more than a predetermined threshold value, for example, “2”. Here, the density average value of the first image block is determined.
Since only B ₁ is a difference of more than the threshold value "2" as compared with the density average value "6.62" of the whole image block, the image data from the image data temporary storing section 25e and the index storage unit 25c in step E05, the coordinate data Clear

FIG. 16 shows the coordinate data storage unit Ic of the corresponding area of the index storage unit 25c after the data is cleared in this step E05. Compared with FIG. 15, the coordinate data of the first image block is You can see that it has been cleared.

After completing the data clear processing in step E05,
Alternatively, after it is determined in step E04 that there is no density average value of the image block having the difference equal to or larger than the threshold value, the process returns to the process in FIG. 5 again, and proceeds from step A06 to step A07 to temporarily store the image data temporary storage unit 25e Only the data in the area defined by the coordinate data of the image block in the image data held in the image data is transferred to the image data storage unit 25b and stored and stored in the corresponding address storage unit Ib of the index storage unit 25c. The address on the image data storage unit 25b is set. Next, in step A08, the index data held in the image data temporary storage unit 25e is also stored and set in the index data storage unit Ia of the index storage unit 25c.

The image data of one business card is stored in the image data storage unit 25b by the above-described registration processing, and the address, the coordinate data at the time of display, and the item data on the image data storage unit 25b are stored in the index storage unit 25 together with the index data.
One of c, is stored, for example area I _0. Thereafter, each time a business card image is read, the image data is stored in the image data storage unit 25b, and the index data, the address on the image data storage unit 25b and the coordinate data for display,
Item data is stored in areas I ₁ , I ₂ , I ₃ ,.

Next, processing for searching for arbitrary image data from a large number of image data stored in the RAM 25 will be described.
When performing a search, first, the mode changeover switch 14 is set to a "search" mode, and then index data of desired image data is input by a character / numerical key 16 using a key. 5 is executed again by this key input. If the mode is determined to be the "search" mode in step A01 at the beginning, the index data input in the subsequent step A09 is stored in the RAM 25. The image data is temporarily stored in the image data temporary storage unit 25e and the display data storage unit 25a.
After waiting for the operation key 15 to be operated in the subsequent step A10, based on the index data held in the image data temporary storage unit 25e, each area I ₀ , I in the index storage unit 25c is read.
_1, I _2, to find the ones that stores index data matching among ... index data storage unit Ia of the order. Then, it is determined whether or not there is a match in step A11.
To read the coordinate data of the effective block corresponding to the index data from the index storage unit 25c,
Further, the image data is read from the image data storage unit 25b according to the address storage unit Ib, and the image data read according to the coordinate data stored in the coordinate data storage unit Ic is stored in the display data storage unit 25a so as to be at the original position. This is displayed on the display unit 30 together with the index data, and the process ends.

If it is determined in step A11 that there is no image data having index data that matches the input index data, the process proceeds to step A13, and an error display indicating that there is no matching data is displayed on the display unit.
The process is performed at 30 and the process ends.

In the above embodiment, an example is shown in which an image of a business card is read and stored as image data, and this is displayed and output.
It goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to the business card image, and any other image can be stored by the same processing.

In the above embodiment, a line sensor is used for image reading. However, it is a matter of course that a dot matrix type full sensor for reading all image data at the same time may be used, and various modifications and changes may be made without departing from the gist of the present invention. Application is possible.

[Effects of the Invention] As described in detail above, according to the present invention, attention is paid to the fact that, for example, in the case of business card image data, the company emblem is often printed in a color other than black, and a white image is obtained by an image scanner or the like. The image data irradiated by the light source is read, and the effective image block of the read image data is detected as its position information, and then the pixel density of each effective image block is detected. The effective image blocks remaining after the low effective image blocks are deleted are written and stored in the storage means together with the position information, and these are read out as necessary, and the effective image is displayed or printed out at a position based on the position information. Therefore, the blank part in the image data and the effective part by color printing with lower pixel density than other effective parts are deleted, and only the effective part that is really necessary is recorded. To make better use of storage capacity,
An image data storage device capable of storing a large number of image data can be provided.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an external configuration, FIG. 2 is a side view showing an external configuration when reading an image, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an electronic circuit, FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a region configuration of a RAM in FIG. 3, and FIG.
FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing the contents of the entire data processing.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the contents of the block coordinate detection processing in FIG. 5, FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the contents of the data presence detection processing in FIG. 6, and FIG. 8 is the effective block coordinate detection in FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the processing contents of the ninth embodiment.
5 is a flowchart showing the contents of the density determination process in FIG. 5, FIG. 10 is a diagram showing valid blocks in the read image data, FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a part of the read image data,
FIG. 12 to FIG. 18 are diagrams showing the storage states in the work area and the index storage unit. 11 ... body case, 11a ... upper case, 11b ... lower case, 12 ...
LCD panel, 13 power key, 14 mode switch, 15 execution key, 16 character / numerical key, 17 reading unit, 18 reading switch, 19 business card, 21 key input unit,
22 ... Control unit, 23 ... ROM, 24 ... ROM addressing unit, 25 ... RA
M, 25a: display data storage unit, 25b: image data storage unit, 2
5c: Index storage unit, 25d: Work area, 25e: Image data temporary storage unit, 25f: Density data storage unit, 26: Read control unit, 27: Display control unit, 28: Line sensor, 29: Lamp, 30: Display Department.

Continuation of the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G06T 5/00-7/60 G06K 9/20 G06F 17/30

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] An image reading means for reading image data; a position information detecting means for obtaining position information of an effective image data portion in the image data obtained by the image reading means; Density detection means for detecting the pixel density of the obtained effective image data portion; and deleting the effective image data portion having a pixel density lower than a certain value or more compared to the other effective image data portions according to the detection result of the density detection means, Image data storage means for storing the remaining effective image data portion and its position information; and output means for outputting the effective image data stored in the image data storage means at a position according to the position information. Image data storage device. 2. The image data storage device according to claim 1, wherein said image reading means has a white light source for illuminating an object to be read and an optical image reading sensor.