JP3498573B2 - Image input device, image input method, and computer-readable recording medium - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image input device capable of inputting image data via a computer network , an image input method and a computer-readable memory.
It concerns recording media .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, the capabilities of personal computers have improved and color image processing has become relatively easy. Along with this, color scanners that can read color images have become widespread, and have come to occupy an important position as one of data input devices. Many scanners are used by being locally connected to a user's personal computer (client PC) by a cable such as a Centro cable or a SCSI cable.

[0003]

The performance of scanners has been greatly improved in recent years, and multi-color image data with high resolution can be acquired.
Some have appeared that can import large pages such as the third edition. However, such a high-performance color scanner is expensive and requires a certain amount of installation space. Therefore, if a high-performance scanner is locally connected to the personal computer of an individual user, the installation cost is high and there is a space problem. Further, considering the operation rate of the scanner, it cannot be said that the local connection is an efficient use method.

In view of the above, the present invention provides an image input device and an image input method in which a scanner is connected to a computer network (hereinafter, network) and can be shared by a plurality of users via the network. The purpose is to do.

Conventionally, as described above, the scanner is used by being locally connected to the personal computer, and is usually installed on the machine side of the personal computer so that the scanner can be operated while operating the personal computer. On the other hand, when the sharing service is provided via the network, the scanner is not installed on the machine side of the user's personal computer, and the scanner must be operated separately from the personal computer. Furthermore, image data obtained using a scanner (image data)
In particular, a color image has a huge amount of data, and it is necessary to acquire the huge amount of data via a network. Further, since a scanner capable of acquiring image data of a plurality of pages using a document feeder has also been developed, it becomes necessary to process image data of a large number of pages.

Therefore, in the present invention, further, an image input device , an image input method, and a code input device capable of efficiently processing a large amount of image data via a network.
It is intended to provide a computer-readable recording medium .

[0007]

Therefore, in the present invention, rather than transmitting the image data of a plurality of pages as a file for each individual page, the plurality of pages are transmitted to the destination as a single file. To reduce the amount of files created on the network,
The image data files do not flood the user's personal computer or file server. Also,
Image data for each page, and for image data
If you send them together for each data file, the image
The scanner has a memory area for temporarily storing data.
It is necessary on the side of the image input device. For this reason,
In Ming, image data is transmitted line by line.
By doing so, the image of the RAM buffer etc.
Buffer area to temporarily store data
I also try to be very small.

That is, the image input apparatus of the present invention scans an original and outputs image data representing the original as a line.
Image control means for outputting in units, network connection means capable of transmitting and receiving data by connecting to a computer network, and control means capable of exchanging data between the image input means and the network connection means Means for outputting a line unit output by the image output means.
Image data on the computer network
And image data transmission function to create an image data file the image data of a plurality of pages into the device is housed in order by sequentially transmitted to the i
Image data created by the image data transmission function
Offset indicating the starting position for each page in the file
The information file containing the
And a function of transmitting an information file to be created in the device in which the data file is created .

Further, the image input method of the present invention is a line relating to the document, which is generated by scanning the document.
An acquisition process for sequentially acquiring in-unit image data ,
Image data for each line output by the image output means
Data sequentially to devices on the computer network
By creating the image data file , multiple pages of image data are stored in order in the device.
And image data transmission step of, sending the image data
In the image data file created by the receiving process,
Contains offset information indicating the starting position for each page
The information file created by the image data file
And a step of transmitting the information file created in the device .

By forming an information file at the destination in addition to the image data file containing the image data of a plurality of pages, the user can know the offset position of each page recorded in the image data file. Image data of a desired page can be extracted from the data file and processed. By such a method, the image data of a plurality of pages can be stored and managed as one file.

In particular, when storing a large amount of image data in a file server, the image data of a plurality of pages is
It is effective to put them together in one file in order to make effective use of the storage area and simplify directory management. When inputting image data via the network, once the image data is stored in a specific file server on the network, the image data can be stored on the network without being affected by the environment of individual user terminals, such as personal computers. You can share it by placing it in. In addition, by sharing the image data on the file server, it is possible to efficiently perform the input operation of the image data using the scanner.

Further, if the image data is transmitted so that thumbnail data of small data summarizing each page is included, the thumbnail of each page is displayed without displaying the image data of the entire page. It can be grasped by displaying it. Therefore, even when downloading image data from the file server to the user terminal, it is possible to first display a thumbnail with a small amount of data and then download the image data of the corresponding page. Therefore, it is possible to prevent an increase in network traffic due to downloading the wrong page, and also the user can effectively use the work time.

Although the thumbnail data can be transmitted as a file different from the image data file, it is desirable to store the thumbnail data in the image data file because the number of files to be managed increases. It is also possible to store thumbnail data collectively at a specific location in the image data file, but thumbnail data of the image data of each page is stored by sending the thumbnail data of each page following each page. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the storage capacity consumed.

[0014]

Furthermore, if the image data is compressed line by line and transmitted, network traffic can be reduced. For example, JPEG (Joi
ntPhotographic Experts Gr
up), it can be compressed line by line and sent to the file server. Therefore, the buffer capacity for buffering the image data for compression is small, and the load on the network can be reduced.

Further, instead of transmitting the image data obtained from the scanner in the same format via the network as described above, the image data is converted into an appropriate file format and then transmitted to the network. An image file that can be immediately processed by the application can be created on the file server or the user terminal. Even in the image data file that stores the image information of multiple pages,
By storing the image data in the TIFF or JPEG format, the image of the first page can be immediately viewed by an application that can handle TIFF or JPEG.

The image input apparatus of the present invention can be realized as an image input program having an instruction capable of executing the above-mentioned processing, and the scanner body is installed in a connectable information processing apparatus to be a stand-alone type. It is also possible to provide it as an image input device, or to install it in a scanner control system together with a network interface and provide it as a network-compatible scanner.

[0018]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an outline of a scanner sharing system that employs the image input apparatus of the present invention. In the shared system of this example, a peripheral device management apparatus (hereinafter, management apparatus) 10 to which a scanner 1 and a printer 2 are locally connected, a file server 20, and a user terminal (personal computer) 30 are connected by a network 5.
Image data obtained by scanning a document with the scanner 1 is temporarily stocked in the file server 20 via the network 5 from the management device 10 which is an image input device, and then accessible from the user terminal 30. .

The management device 10 is implemented as a stand-alone processing device, and is used for peripheral devices such as a network interface 11 for connecting to the network 5 to enable data exchange and a SCSI interface 12 and a Centronics interface 13. The scanner 1 and the printer 2 are provided with an interface.
Is locally connected. The management device 10 includes a control unit 50 having a function of exchanging data with each other through interfaces 12 and 13 for peripheral devices or through the network interface 11. This control unit 50
A local copy function that sends image data from the scanner 1 to the local printer 2 and outputs the image data, and the image data obtained from the scanner 1 via the network interface 11 to a printer (not shown) on the network.
A network copy function for sending and outputting to a file server, and a server scan function for sending and storing image data obtained from the scanner 1 according to the present invention to a file server are supported.

In order to control these functions, the management apparatus 10 of this embodiment is connected to the LCD 3 having a function as a local operation panel, and can be controlled by the control unit 50. In addition, the network interface 11
Has a hardware interface function such as a LAN card and a software interface function supporting an appropriate network protocol such as TCP / IP.

The file server 20 has the same network interface 21 as described above, a file storage area 23 realized by a storage medium such as a hard disk, and the like.
Management unit 2 for managing files in this file storage area
2 is provided so that a file can be input / output to / from the file storage area 23 via the network 5, and a file in the file storage area 23 can be accessed via the network 5. ing.

The control unit 50 of the management apparatus 10 stores the image data obtained from the scanner 1 using the SCSI interface 12 as an image input unit in the file server 20 and supports the server scanner function as follows. Is equipped with. That is, the control unit 50
An image data transmission function unit 51 for transmitting data for forming the image data obtained from the scanner 1 as an image data file 25 to the file server 20 to the file server 20 via the network interface 11, and the image data file 25. Information file 2 in text format that contains the included page information
The information file transmission function unit 52 for transmitting the data for creating 6 to the file server 20, and the thumbnail data for extracting the data from the image data at a predetermined sampling rate and displaying the summary of the image of each page A summary function unit 53 for sending to the file server 20 so as to be included in the data file 25, and a management function unit 54 for managing these functions are further provided.

The management device 10 can be realized by using an information processing device having the configuration shown in FIG. That is, the management device 10 includes the CPU 14 and the CPU 14
R storing the control program and control data of the
An OM 15 and a RAM 16 used as a temporary storage area for work are provided, and these are connected by a bus 17. The bus 17 also includes a scanner 1
A SCSI interface 12 that functions as an interface with the printer 2, a Centronics interface 13 that functions as an interface with the printer 2, a network interface 11, and an LC that controls the LCD 3.
The D controller 18 is connected. Therefore,
As shown below, the ROM 15 stores a program for image input having instructions capable of executing processing or a processing procedure, loads the program into the CPU 14 at an appropriate timing and executes the program, and thereby manages the functions shown in FIG. Device 10
Can be realized.

3 and 4, the image data file 2 sent from the management device 10 to the file server 20.
5 and an example of the configuration of the information file 26. File storage area 23 of file server 20 by server scan
In the image data file 25 formed in 1, the images of a plurality of pages are continuously stored as one file. Further, following the scan data (image data) 25a of the first page, thumbnail data 25b in which data is output from the image data of the first page at an appropriate sampling rate is stored, and further the image data of the second page is stored. 25c and thumbnail data 25d of the page are continuously stored in the file 25.

By thus storing the image data of a plurality of pages continuously in one file, a plurality of image data (multi-page image data) can be obtained.
It is possible to collectively manage the files, and it is not necessary to increase the number of files in the file server 20 on a page-by-page basis, which facilitates file management. Further, the file storage area 23 of the file server 20 can be effectively used. However, if the division of the image data of each page is not known, the image cannot be processed page by page.

Therefore, in the system of this example, the information file 26 is provided so that offset information indicating the starting position of the image data of each page can be provided via this information file 26. As shown in FIG. 4, in the information file 26, first, as header information 26a, data 26b of the scanner 1 and data 26c of the management device 30 are provided.
Also, the total number of pages 26d stored in the image data file is recorded. Then, as information 26e of each page, an offset value 26f of image data of each page and an offset value 26g of thumbnail data of that page are described for each page. Therefore, it is possible to specify the range of the image data of each page based on the offset information of each page described in the information file 26, and the image data can be processed for each page.

Furthermore, the management apparatus 10 of the present example recognizes one job unit each time one scan, that is, the start button is pressed, and the image data file 25,
The information file 26 corresponding to it is created. The image data file 25 is given an appropriate file name and an identifier, for example, “000”, and the corresponding information file 26 is given the same file name and a different identifier, for example, “ini”. The image data file 25 and the information file 26 are managed as a pair. In addition, the information file 26
The above-mentioned information is stored as the most general text data, and the contents of the information file 26 can be referred to by any application or utility software.

The processing contents of the server scan will be described below with reference to flowcharts and the like. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing main processing in the server scan. First, in step 61, the operation waits until the server scan is selected from the operation panel 3 of the management device 10. Management device 1 of this example
For 0, local copy is set by default,
A local copy operation screen 81 as shown in FIG. 11 is displayed on the operation panel 3. This operation screen 81
Then, when the button 81a for instructing the function of the scanner is operated, the server scan is selected, and the server scan operation screen 82 shown in FIG. 12 is displayed. On the server scan operation screen 82, a user 82a who performs a server scan,
Original type (size) 82b, Scanner resolution 82
c, an image file type (mode) 82d, and an item capable of setting or selecting a preset parameter 82e are displayed. Therefore, in step 62, the operation screen 82 can be used to set the image data acquired by the scanner 1 and the parameters such as the name or type of the file to be transmitted to the file server.

For example, when the user 82a is selected, the user selection screen 83 as shown in FIG. 13 is displayed and each registered user is displayed. This user information is, for example, given a user-identifiable name to the file names of the image data file 25 and the information file 26 created in the file server 20, or reflected in the properties of these files as the user name. Further, when there is a preset parameter, the preset parameter can be selected and used for each user. The preset parameters can be stored in the management device 10, or the file server 20 can be provided with a storage area for user parameters.

FIG. 14 shows a mode selection screen 84 displayed when the mode 82d is selected. In the management apparatus 10 of this example, when color (JPEG) and gray scale are selected, the image data file 25 will be JP
The image data file 25 is created in the EG-compressed format, and if other is selected, the image data file 25 is created in the TIFF uncompressed format. These two file formats are selected from the point that image data can be sent line by line, as described above, and will be described in more detail below with reference to the flowchart.

Further, when the preset 82e is selected, FIG.
A preset selection screen 85 shown in FIG. 5 is displayed, and by default, some preset groups capable of setting preset values suitable for scanning a color or monochrome original having an appropriate paper size are displayed. The user can further set parameters suitable for his or her job from the operation panel 3 or the user terminal 30, and when such a user-specific preset group is recorded, the default preset group is set. It is then displayed and can be selected.

When the setting of various parameters is completed in step 62, the job is started by pressing the start button (not shown) prepared on the operation panel in step 63. When the job starts, the operation panel display is as shown in Figure 1.
The screen 86 shown in FIG. 6 indicates that the server scan is operating, and information such as the user and the number of pages being scanned or the amount (percent) of image data that can be scanned are displayed.

When the start button is pressed, the management device 1
The control unit 50 of 0 initializes the job in step 64. First, for data transmission to the RAM 16 of the management device 10,
Secure a RAM buffer for extracting thumbnail data, and for compression when JPEG is selected,
Set the sampling rate of thumbnail data. Further, a connection with the file server 20 is established via the network interface 11, and the image data file transmission unit 51 and the information file 52 are stored in the file storage area 23 of the file server 20 and the image data file 25 and information for the current job. The file 26 is opened.

When the initial processing is completed, the next step 65
Pre-processing page by page. In this step, each processing as shown in FIG. 6 is performed. First, in step 65a, the leading offset value in which the image data of the page is stored is set in the information file 26. For example, in the first page, 0 is set as the offset value 26f as shown in FIG. Step 65
In step b, the header data of the image data is created and transmitted to the file server 20, and the image data file 25
It is stored at the beginning of the corresponding page. And step 6
At 5c, the offset value of the image data file is counted up. In this way, when the pre-processing for each page is completed, the parameters set through the SCSI interface 12 are sent to the scanner 1 in step 65d, and the document scanning is started according to the parameters.

When the scanning is started, the image data transmitting function 51 of the management apparatus 10 receives the image data from the scanner 1 in step 66, and the summarizing function 53 extracts the image data from the image data at a predetermined sampling rate in step 67. It is extracted and stored in the area for thumbnail data in the RAM buffer to create thumbnail data. Next, in step 68, it is confirmed whether or not the image data is compressed. If the image data file transmission function unit 51 is set to the mode in which the image data is not compressed, the image data file conversion function unit 51 converts the image data into the TIFF format in step 69 and sends the image data to the image data file 25 of the file server 20 for storage. This step is shown in some detail in FIG.

The TIFF format is as described above.
After the header information, the image data can be sent line by line, for example, line by line and stored.
Therefore, the scan data (image data) input to the RAM buffer line by line from the scanner 1 is converted into TIFF image data in step 69a, and is directly transmitted to the server. And step 69
In b, the offset value of the data file is counted up. Therefore, the capacity of the RAM buffer may be as small as several lines, and full-color, high-resolution scan data can be easily transmitted to the file server 20.

On the other hand, JP which is a compressed format
If EG is selected, the image data is compressed in step 70 and then transmitted to the file server 20. The detailed steps are shown in FIG. First, in step 70a, the image data acquired from the scanner 1 is copied to the compression buffer secured in the RAM buffer. Then, when the image data of the number of lines to be compressed by a predetermined number is secured in the compression buffer in step 70b, JPEG compression is performed in step 70c, and step 7 is performed.
The image data compressed by 0d is transmitted to the file server 20 via the network. Since the data amount of the image data is reduced by the compression, the image data can be transmitted to the file server 20 without significantly affecting the traffic of the network 5.

When the JPEG-compressed image data is stored in the image data file 25 of the file server 20, the offset value is counted up in step 70e. Since the JPEG reversible encoding employs a sequential method and compresses and encodes each line or an appropriate line unit as a block, it is sufficient that the compression buffer has a capacity of several lines. Therefore, as in the case of TIFF, full-color, high-resolution image data can be compressed and sent to the network without increasing the capacity of the RAM buffer so much.

When the image data acquired from the scanner 1 is sent to the file server 20 via the network in step 69 or 70, it is determined in step 71 whether the page is finished. Then, the process returns to step 66 until the page is finished, and the above-mentioned processing is repeated. When the page is finished, the page end processing is performed at step 72.

FIG. 9 shows the detailed contents of the page end processing. Since the offset value of the image data is counted up every time the image data is sent out, the offset value is set to the offset value of the thumbnail data in step 72a, that is, the thumbnail data 26g of FIG.
Is written in the information file 26 as Next, step 6
The thumbnail data extracted in the RAM buffer for thumbnail data in 7 is used as the summarizing function 53 of the management device 10.
Is transmitted to the image data file 25 of the file server 20 in step 72b. As a result, FIG.
After the image data 25a, the thumbnail data 25b of the page is continuously stored, as shown in FIG. 7, and the offset value of the data file is counted up in step 72c. Also, the number of pages is counted up in step 72d.

Next, in step 73, it is judged whether or not there is a subsequent page, and when the next document is set on the scanner 1 using the ADF or the like, the process returns to step 65 and scanning of a new page is started. . Then, the image data 25c of the next page is stored in the image data file 25 continuously following the thumbnail data 25b of the previous page as shown in FIG. The thumbnail data 25b of the previous page is the image data 25 of the previous page.
Since the image data is stored in the image data file 25 following a, the RAM buffer area for accumulating thumbnail data can be cleared when the image data of the next page is acquired, and is used to store the thumbnail data of a new page. be able to. Therefore, also in this respect, in the management apparatus 10 of this example, the capacity of the RAM buffer can be reduced, and the scanner data having a higher resolution and a large amount of multi-color data can be easily handled.

If there is no next page in step 73,
It is determined that the job has ended, and the ending process is performed in step 74. In this process, as shown in FIG. 10, the total number of pages of the header information 26a of the information file 26 is rewritten to the last page, and the information file 26 and the image data file 25 are closed. This allows
The image data file 25 and the information file 26 of this job are stored in the file storage area 23 of the file server 20.
Are formed and managed under the management unit 22.
Further, in the management device 10, the RAM buffer reserved for transferring the image data is released. Then, the connection between the file server 20 and the management apparatus 10 is disconnected, the job is terminated, and the display on the operation panel 3 of the management apparatus 10 also returns to the default local copy operation screen 81.

In this way, the image data read by the scanner 1 via the management apparatus 10 of this example is stored in the file server 20 on the network. Therefore, the user is the user terminal 3 connected to the network 5.
Image data file 2 from 0 to file server 20
5 can be accessed and processing can be performed using the image data.

In the server scan function of the management apparatus 10 of this example, the image data read by the scanner 1 is stored in the file server 20 and then made available to the user terminal 30. Even if the user is connected to the network 5 even if there is a difference in the operating environment such as a specification, for example, a different OS or a different scanner driver, or the environment in which the scanner 1 can be operated from the user terminal 30 For example, the scanner 1 can be shared via the network 5. Further, the image data stored in the file server 20 can be shared by a plurality of user terminals via the network 5, and the image data input by the scanner 1 can be efficiently used.

Further, from the management device 10 of the present example, an image data file 25 in which image data of a plurality of pages is continuously stored is formed in the file server 20.
Therefore, even when a plurality of originals (multi-pages) are read, only one image data file 25 is formed in the file server 20 corresponding to one job. The image data files can be stocked in an easy-to-manage state without increasing excessively. Further, the image data can be grasped and accessed or downloaded for each job from the user terminal, and the image input system is easy to use. Since this multi-page is stored in one file, the image data file 25
An information file 26 including offset information of each page is provided together with the above, and a combination of the image data file 25 and the information file 26 enables multi-page support. The contents of the information file 26 can be read by a function that is standardly supported by a general OS, and the file system has high versatility.

Further, the image data file 2 of this example
In the image data 5 for each page, thumbnail data with a small amount of information that can be viewed by summarizing the image of the page is stored, and the offset value of this thumbnail data is also included in the information file. There is. Therefore, it is possible to display thumbnails for each page by combining the image data file 25 and the information file 26, and to easily understand the contents of each page in the image data file in which multi-pages are collectively stored. You can Then, it is possible to perform processing such as separating only the image data of the corresponding page and downloading it to the user terminal 30 via the network.
Therefore, an operation method is possible in which a master file having a large amount of data is stored in the file server 20 and only image data of necessary pages in the master file is extracted, downloaded, and processed.

With such an operation method, since the minimum required image data can be downloaded from the file server via the network, it is possible to suppress an increase in network traffic and to transfer image data having a large data amount to the network. Can be used efficiently through.

Thumbnail data is 10 per page.
It may be as small as K bytes, and the buffer capacity prepared on the management device 10 side for sampling this thumbnail data may be small. Further, since the thumbnail data is stored in the image data file 25 after the image data of each page, it is not necessary for the management device 10 to save the thumbnail data.
Therefore, the thumbnail data can be added to the image data file with almost no load on the storage capacity of the management device 10, and the image data file can be effectively used as described above.

Further, in the management apparatus 10 of this embodiment, the image data acquired from the scanner 1 is stored in the file server 20 in a general-purpose file format. The data of can be used.
For example, the image data of the first page can be displayed immediately without referring to the information file 26, and the contents of the image data file can be confirmed. Particularly, in this example, TIFF and JPEG are adopted as the file types, and these formats are used for the image data file 25 for each line or every several lines.
Since the image data can be transferred to, the large amount of image data can be processed without increasing the load on the memory on the management device 10 side.

In this example, the scanner 1 can be locally connected as an image input device and can be locally connected to the management device 1.
Although the present invention has been described by taking 0 as an example, the server scan function of the management device 10 can also be adopted as one of the control functions of the scanner 1, and a network interface can be installed to provide a network-compatible type. It is also possible to provide it as a scanner. In this example, an image data file containing multiple pages is sent to the file server as the server scan function, but it is also possible to send the image data file and the information file to the user terminal via the network. Is. Then, the images of a plurality of originals can be managed by one set of files. Of course, it is also possible to adopt the combination of the image data file and the information file of this example when capturing the image data from the scanner locally connected to the user terminal,
As described above, it is possible to easily manage multi-page image data.

[0051]

As described above, the image input device , the image input method, and the computer-readable device according to the present invention.
With the recording medium , the image data acquired by the scanner can be temporarily stored in a file server via the network and shared by users on the network. Can be shared with. Furthermore, by combining the image data file containing multiple pages and the information file, it is possible to manage the image data of multiple originals extremely efficiently, and the image data stored on the file server can be efficiently processed. Can be used.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an outline of a sharing system capable of providing a server scan function of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a hardware configuration of a management device shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an outline of an image data file.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an outline of an information file.

5 is a flowchart showing an outline of a server scan function of the management device shown in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an outline of page preprocessing shown in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an outline of processing for forming the TIFF file shown in FIG.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an outline of processing for forming the JPEG file shown in FIG.

9 is a flowchart showing an outline of page end processing shown in FIG.

10 is a flowchart showing an outline of the job end processing shown in FIG.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a local copy operation screen.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an operation screen for server scan.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a user selection screen of a server scan.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a server scan mode selection screen.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a preset selection screen for server scan.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing a screen in which the server scan is in operation.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Scanner 2 ... Printer 3 ... Local panel 5 ... Computer network 10 ... Peripheral device management device (management device, image input device) 11 ... Network interface 12 ... SCSI interface (scanner interface) 13 ... Centronics interface (printer interface) 20-File server 21-Network interface 22-Management unit 23-File storage area 25-Image data file 26-Information file 30-User terminal (personal computer) 50-Control 51. Image data file transmission function 52. Information file transmission function 53. Summary function 54. Management function

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) Reference JP-A-8-289091 (JP, A) JP-A-9-121263 (JP, A) JP-A-9-205510 (JP, A) JP-A-9- 98367 (JP, A) JP-A-8-63486 (JP, A) JP-A-9-319355 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04N 1/00 107 G06F 13/00 351 G06T 1/60 450 H04N 1/21

Claims (14)

(57) [Claims] 1. An image of a document that is scanned to display the document.
Image input means for outputting image data in line units, network connection means capable of transmitting and receiving data by connecting to a computer network, and control means capable of exchanging data between the image input means and the network connection means. The control unit is a line unit output by the image output unit.
Image data on the computer network
Image data transmission function for creating an image data file in which image data of multiple pages are sequentially stored in the device by sequentially transmitting the image data to the device .
Image created by the image data transmission function
Indicates the starting position for each page in the data file
The information file containing the offset information is
An image input device having an information file transmitting function for creating in the device in which the data file is created . 2. The image data transmission function according to claim 1, wherein thumbnail data of small data summarizing each page is created, and the created thumbnail data is used as the image data.
Image input device characterized by having a summarizing function included in the image data file . 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the summary function, each
The thumbnail data of the page is
In the part of the file that follows the image data of the corresponding page
An image input device characterized by being included . 4. The image input device according to claim 1 , wherein the image data transmission function compresses image data in a line unit and transmits the image data. 5. The image data according to any one of claims 1 to 4 , wherein the image data is transmitted by the image data transmission function.
A file is created, and by the information file transmission function
The device where the information file is created is a file server.
An image input apparatus characterized by that. 6. The odor according to any one of claims 1 to 5.
The information file transmission function of the control means is
The size of the data that is transmitted by the Jideta transmission function
The off for each page by counting
An image input device characterized by determining the contents of set information . 7. Generated by scanning a document
Order the image data of the original in line units.
Next, the acquisition step for acquiring and the image data for each line output by the image output means
Data sequentially to devices on the computer network
By creating the image data file, the image data of multiple pages are stored in order in the device.
Image data transmitting step to perform, and the image created by the image data transmitting step
Indicates the starting position for each page in the data file
The information file containing the offset information is
A data file is created in the device in which the data file is created, and an information file sending step. 8. The image data transmitting step according to claim 7, wherein thumbnail data of small data summarizing each page is created, and the created thumbnail data is used as the image data.
Image input method characterized by including a summarization step to be included in the image data file . 9. The method according to claim 8, wherein in the summarizing step,
Thumbnail data for each page is
The part of the file that follows the image data of the corresponding page
An image input method characterized by being included in . 10. There you <br/> to any one of claims 7 to 8, in the image data transmitting step, an image input method and transmits to compress the image data in line units. 11. The image data transmission function according to any one of claims 7 to 10 , wherein the image data transmission function is used.
A data file is created and added to the information file transmission function.
The device where the information file is created is a file server
Image input wherein the at. 12. The method according to any one of claims 7 to 11.
In the information file transmitting step, the image data is transmitted.
Cow the size of data transmitted by over data transmission step
The offset for each page by
An image input method characterized by determining the content of information . 13. A computer is provided with a line unit generated by scanning an original .
An acquisition process for sequentially acquiring image data and an image data for each line acquired by the acquisition process.
Data to devices on the computer network
By doing so, an image data file is created in which multiple pages of image data are stored in order in the device .
And image data transmission processing that the image created by the image data transmission process
Indicates the starting position for each page in the data file
The information file containing the offset information is
Image reading program for executing the information file transmitting process to be created in the device in which the data file has been created is recorded.
Ri capable of recording medium. 14. The image data transmission process according to claim 13, wherein thumbnail data of small data summarizing each page is created, and the created thumbnail data is used as the thumbnail data.
A computer-readable recording medium, characterized in that the process is included in an image data file .