JP3953688B2 - Image distribution system - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention connects a document reading device, a facsimile device, an image input device such as a video camera or a digital still camera, and a personal computer on a LAN such as Ethernet, and the image data obtained by the image input device is stored in a personal computer or the like. The present invention relates to an image distribution system for distributing images.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Conventionally, a facsimile machine reads a document to be transmitted and transmits it to a designated destination. At this time, in order to simplify the transmission work, a destination that is generally frequently used is registered in advance. When transmitting to a predetermined destination, destination information registered in advance is displayed on the display unit, an operation of searching the display information and selecting a desired destination is performed.
[0003]
In addition, when mail delivery is performed from a facsimile machine or personal computer to another device, a cover sheet (format) is usually inserted by inserting a name corresponding to the To and From fields to the device to be transmitted. Creating.
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, as shown above, when searching for and selecting a registered destination in a facsimile machine or the like, for example, if an attempt is made to select a destination of a bank from destinations that have been rearranged in order. However, since an operation for changing the display screen is required, the operation up to the destination selection is troublesome, and there is a problem in that a distribution mistake is caused.
[0005]
In addition, the mail delivery cover page only includes the name corresponding to the To and From fields for the device to be sent, so only confirm information about who is sent to whom. There is a problem that the outline of the transmission information cannot be grasped from the cover sheet.
[0006]
In addition, when sending image information as described above, the cover page and the image information are handled as separate information, so it is highly likely that the image information and the cover page will be separated later when received by e-mail. There is a problem that the image information is not properly delivered to the other party to be transmitted, or who the image information is from is unknown.
[0007]
The present invention has been made in view of the above, and by performing rearrangement display according to the number of times of use of registered destination information, it is possible to reduce the troublesomeness of destination selection and avoid the occurrence of distribution mistakes. This is the first purpose.
[0008]
Further, a second object is to make it possible to grasp the outline of the contents of transmission information added thereafter simply by confirming a cover sheet, and to reduce the occurrence of information leakage and transmission leakage.
[0009]
A third object is to realize the integration of the transmission information and the cover page by inserting the cover page into the transmission information, and to improve the reliability in the transmission of the image information.
[0010]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, an image distribution system according to claim 1 includes: a document reading device; and a host computer having a mail distribution means for distributing image data acquired from the document reading device by mail. In the image distribution system connected on the same network, the host computer inserts the largest character string of the first page of the image data acquired from the document reading apparatus into a pre-registered fixed format, and displays a destination header. A header creation means for creating; and a conversion means for converting a destination header created by the header creation means into header image data, wherein the header image data converted by the conversion means is the first page of the image data The distribution image data inserted as is appended to the destination header created by the header creation means. Then, it is to mail delivery in the mail delivery means.
[0011]
According to the first aspect, the host computer creates a destination header by inserting the largest character string of the first page of the image data acquired from the document reading apparatus into a pre-registered standard format. And a delivery unit that converts the destination header created by the header creation unit into header image data, and the distribution image in which the header image data converted by the conversion unit is inserted as the first page of the image data By attaching the data to the destination header created by the header creating means and delivering the mail by the mail delivering means, it is possible to roughly show what the contents are without opening all of the image data. It becomes possible to confirm .
[0020]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Embodiments of an image distribution system according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
[0021]
First, the system configuration will be described. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a system according to an embodiment of the present invention. An image read by a facsimile apparatus 10 when a facsimile apparatus 10 and a plurality of personal computers 23 are connected to an Ethernet 22. Is shown as an example of a system that distributes to a plurality of personal computers 23. Although there are a plurality of personal computers 23, in FIG. 1, one is shown for convenience of explanation. Further, although the facsimile apparatus 10 is used, an apparatus having a document reading function and a function of outputting a read image, such as a digital copying machine (multifunction machine) or an image scanner, may be used.
[0022]
The facsimile apparatus 10 displays on the system bus 11 a reading unit 12 that reads a document image, a CPU 13 that controls the entire apparatus, a display state of the apparatus, a setting state, information related to transmission / reception, and the like. I / F control for controlling the image processing unit 15, the image processing unit 15 that performs correction (shading correction, γ correction, etc.) for improving the image quality on the read image data, and image processing described later, and the public line 21 A unit 16; an image recording unit 17 capable of developing a bitmap of the read image data and recording a plurality of pages; an operation unit 18 for inputting various conditions by a user; a ROM 19 storing a control program; RAM 20 used for a memory or the like.
[0023]
The Ethernet 22 is a local area network (LAN) with a bus structure, and a transmission speed of 10 Mbit / second, a maximum distance between nodes of 2.5 km, and nodes up to 1024 stations can be connected. As the data control procedure, a CSMA / CD (carrier sense multiple access with collision detection) method is used. Further, for example, a standard such as 10BASE-5, 10BASE-2, or 10BASE-T is used as the Ethernet 22 cable. In this embodiment, Ethernet is used as the LAN, but another LAN may be used.
[0024]
The reading unit 12 uses a scanning optical system that illuminates a document like a normal image scanner, and a CCD (charge coupled devices) that electrically reads a document image (light) obtained by the scanning optical system. And a reading optical system that forms an image on a CCD line by line. The reading unit 12 may be of any type such as a document moving type or an optical system moving type. Further, the reading unit 12 has an OCR function.
[0025]
The display unit 14 is configured by a panel such as an LCD for displaying a setting state and a device state. As the above-mentioned panel, for example, a dot display is used so that an optimal display can be performed graphically.
[0026]
Next, the operation of the system configured as described above will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 2 to 8 and FIGS. 9 to 11.
[0027]
First, a description will be given of a first operation example in which selection of an output destination is rearranged according to the use frequency in the system configured as shown in FIG. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing preprocessing in the first operation example according to the embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 2, first, the user is prompted to register destination (output destination) data (step S11), and the individual destination (output destination) is input via the operation unit 18 (step S12), and then the destination. Is stored (step S13). Then, whether or not to continue registration is displayed on the display unit 14 (step S14), and it is determined whether or not to continue registration (step S15). If registration is continued, the process returns to step S11 and continues. If not registered, this process is terminated.
[0028]
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a first operation example according to the embodiment of the present invention. After the preprocessing of FIG. 2, first, destination data is acquired (step S21), the destination is displayed on the display unit 14, and the selection is prompted (step S22). Then, it is determined whether or not a destination is selected (step S23). If it is determined that the destination is not selected, the display unit 14 prompts the input of reading conditions (step S24), and sets the reading condition input items (step S25).
[0029]
On the other hand, if it is determined in step S23 that the destination is selected, 1 is added to the frequency counter of the selected destination (step S26), and the destination data is stored (step S27). For the same frequency number, rearrangement is made in ascending order based on the destination selection frequency so that the smaller ID (identification number) is at the top (step S28), and numbers are assigned in order from the top (step S29). ), The destination data is saved (step S30).
[0030]
Further, the above operation will be described with a specific example. FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing a destination rearrangement example corresponding to the first operation example according to the embodiment of the present invention. First, as shown in FIG. 9A, it is assumed that the destination is displayed on the display unit 14 in advance. In this case, data is registered in the apparatus in a state as shown in FIG. That is, for each destination (NAME), ID (identification number), FREQENCY (number of selections), No. It is registered in the (selection frequency) item.
[0031]
Here, for example, when “Suzuki” is selected twice and “Wada” is selected three times, the data is updated inside the apparatus as shown in FIG. Then, as shown in FIG. 9D, the display screen for selecting the destination of the display unit 14 is rearranged in the order of the number of selections in the order of “Wada”, “Suzuki”, “Ito”, “Tanaka”, and output. To do. Accordingly, by rearranging the destinations according to the selection frequency (usage frequency) in this way, the destination information is displayed in the limited display panel space in the order of the high selection rate. Is output, the destination corresponding to the first screen or a screen close to the first screen is likely to be displayed, and the search becomes easier, so that the destination selection operation can be easily performed.
[0032]
Next, a description will be given of a second operation example in which a cover sheet is automatically created at the destination and mail delivery is performed. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing preprocessing in the second operation example according to the embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, first, a pre-registered cover form is called (step S31), and the fixed form is displayed on the display unit 14 (step S32). Then, the standard form of the cover sheet is changed (step S33), and the standard form after the change is registered (step S34).
[0033]
5 and 6 are flowcharts showing a second operation example according to the embodiment of the present invention. When the pre-processing is completed, first, selection of destination / sender data is prompted (step S41). When destination / sender data is selected by the user (step S42), the destination / sender data is stored. (Step S43). Subsequently, the user is prompted to select a reading condition (step S44). When the reading condition is selected, a setting process for the condition is performed (step S45). Thereafter, the reading conditions are stored (step S46).
[0034]
Subsequently, a display for prompting reading is displayed on the display unit 14 (step S47), and a reading start is instructed (step S48). Then, the reading sheet counter n is initialized to 0 (step S49), and it is determined whether there is a next original (step S50). If it is determined that there is a next original, the original is fed (step S51), and the original is read (step S52). Then, the read image data is stored (step S53), the document is further fed (step S54), and the read number counter n is incremented by one (step S55). Steps S51 and S54 are executed as necessary.
[0035]
On the other hand, if it is determined in step S50 that there is no next original, it is determined whether or not n = 0 (step S56). If n = 0, the total number of pages is stored (step S57), and image data is stored. Is converted into one file (step 58), and the process proceeds to step S61 (see FIG. 6). If n = 0 is determined in step S56, a message indicating that there is no document is displayed (step S59), and confirmation by the user is performed (step S60).
[0036]
After the image data is converted into one file in step S58, the process proceeds to the process of FIG. 6 and the total number of pages is extracted (step S61). Further, image data is extracted (step S62), OCR (optical character reader) processing is performed on the extracted image data (step S63), and important phrases are extracted (step S64). Then, the extracted important word / phrase is saved (step S65), the previously registered standard form is taken out (step S66), the image data is taken out (step S67), and the important word / phrase is inserted into the standard form, A cover letter is prepared (step S68), and mail delivery is performed (step S69).
[0037]
Further, the above operation will be described with a specific example. FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing a creation example of the cover sheet 30 corresponding to the second operation example according to the embodiment of the present invention. First, the image of the first page is subjected to OCR processing, and the largest character string among them often means the title of the document, a summary of the contents, etc., and the first few characters are extracted. For example, as shown in FIG. 10, the character string “Notice of the third announcement” is extracted. When the number of pages that have been read is five and “Mr. Suzuki” sends to “Mr. Tanaka”, a cover sheet 30 as shown in FIG. 10 is created as the header of the mail.
[0038]
The underlined portion in FIG. 10 applies information acquired on the apparatus side. However, in this example, it is assumed that the sender and destination are kanji and romaji, and mail addresses are packed and registered. Also, the device name, location, date and time can be inserted. Therefore, by creating a cover sheet with information representing the contents of the e-mail in this way, it is possible to roughly check the contents without opening the entire e-mail. The occurrence of problems such as leakage and transmission leakage can be reduced.
[0039]
Next, a third operation example for inserting the cover sheet into the scanned image will be described. Note that the pre-process in the third operation example is the same as that shown in FIG. Therefore, the description here is omitted.
[0040]
FIG. 7 and FIG. 8 are flowcharts showing a third operation example according to the embodiment of the present invention. The portions in which steps S109 and S110 are inserted are different from those in FIG. 5 and FIG. The portions of S108 and S111 correspond to steps S41 to S69 in FIGS. 5 to 6, and the description of these portions is omitted.
[0041]
That is, in this operation example, the text synthesized in FIG. 8 is converted into a bitmap (step S109), the previous bitmap is pasted on the first page of the image data file (step S110), and mail delivery is performed (step S110). Step S111).
[0042]
A specific example of this is shown in FIG. Here, the sentence created in the second operation example described above (see FIG. 10) is expanded into bitmap-like data, and a cover sheet (sent in FIG. 11) is made into 6 pages of 1 + 5 in total including the header and image data. The first page 40) and the image are sent simultaneously. By doing so, separation of the cover sheet and the image is avoided, so that loss of information can be prevented.
[0043]
By the way, the above-described processing for creating a cover sheet and inserting a cover sheet into image data can be performed by either the facsimile apparatus 10 or the personal computer 23, or both.
[0044]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the image distribution system (claim 1) of the present invention, the host computer has the largest character of the first page of the image data acquired from the document reading device in a pre-registered fixed format. A header created by inserting a column to create a destination header; and a converting means for converting the destination header created by the header creating means into header image data, the header converted by the converting means The distribution image data in which the image data is inserted as the first page of the image data is attached to the delivery destination header created by the header creation means, and mail delivery is performed by the mail delivery means, so that the entire image data is not opened. Since it will be possible to roughly check what the contents are, both information leakage and transmission leakage Tsu was a problem can be reduced.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing pre-processing in the first operation example according to the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a first operation example according to the embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing preprocessing in second and third operation examples according to the embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a second operation example (1) according to the embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a second operation example (2) according to the embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a third operation example (1) according to the embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a third operation example (2) according to the embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing a destination rearrangement example corresponding to the first operation example according to the embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of creating a cover sheet corresponding to the second operation example according to the embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing a creation example of a cover sheet / sent image corresponding to the third operation example according to the embodiment of the present invention;
[Explanation of symbols]
10 facsimile machine 12 reading unit 13 CPU
14 Display unit 15 Image processing unit 18 Operation unit 22 Ethernet 23 Personal computer 30 Cover sheet 40 First page sent

Claims (1)

In an image distribution system in which a document reading device and a host computer having mail distribution means for distributing image data acquired from the document reading device are connected to the same network.
The host computer
Header creation means for creating a destination header by inserting the largest character string of the first page of image data acquired from the document reading device into a pre-registered fixed format;
Conversion means for converting the destination header created by the header creation means into header image data;
Comprising
The distribution image data in which the header image data converted by the conversion means is inserted as the first page of the image data is attached to the destination header created by the header creation means, and the mail delivery means delivers the mail. A featured image distribution system.

Images