JP4177325B2 - Image processing apparatus, image processing program, and image processing method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing program, and an image processing method for processing and displaying a document image including geometric information such as characters.

Image input devices such as scanners and digital cameras, and image display devices such as computer displays, portable terminal monitors, and electronic book viewers have been diversified.
The size of characters included in a document image input from an input device such as a scanner varies depending on the input resolution even if the same sentence is input. Further, in an optical digital image pickup device such as a digital camera or a camera with a built-in mobile terminal, the resolution and the distance between the camera and the object to be imaged are not fixed, and in many cases, the object is imaged in the entire image area.

  For this reason, when a document image is taken with the optical digital image pickup device, the size of characters is different for each image and the positional relationship of markers is different.

  When document images of various resolutions captured by the above optical digital imaging device are input to an image processing apparatus such as a computer or an internal processor, and the document images are mixed and handled at various resolutions, the character size is There is a problem that the readability and visibility of characters that are actually displayed on the screen are poor because they are not unified, and manual correction is necessary to improve readability and visibility, and it takes time and effort to do so. .

  For example, when unifying the character size by manual operation, the image processing apparatus uses an index that is not related to the character size in the document image, such as the ratio to the original image size or the resolution designation. Therefore, it is necessary to designate enlargement / reduction of the image, and it is necessary to designate the scale for all the images to be displayed.

  In general, a document image read by a scanner or the like is input and stored in an image processing apparatus with a relatively high resolution. However, when displaying the character image on a portable terminal having a small screen size such as a PDA or a mobile phone, There was a problem that the size of characters was too large to display a lot of information at once. In addition, an image may be stored with higher resolution and higher file size than necessary even for a document image that only needs to be confirmed.

As a prior art of this type, a technique has been proposed in which a user designates a character size in advance and processes and displays the image with the designated character size when viewing a document image (for example, Patent Document 1). reference).
US Pat. No. 5,754,873

  In the case of the above prior art, since the user needs to manually specify the display size of the character in advance, the character can be displayed only in a predetermined size, and the language (Japanese, English, etc.), Depending on the character type (font type, etc.), it may be difficult to see.

  The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and allows a user to read a character image obtained at a different resolution without specifying a display size by manual operation for each image. An object of the present invention is to provide an image processing apparatus, an image processing program, and an image processing method that can be browsed in an appropriate size.

An image processing apparatus according to the present invention includes a display unit having a screen having a predetermined display area, a business card image having a size larger than the display area, image layout setting information indicating a layout of components of the business card image, and a name dictionary. A layout for obtaining layout information of a character string included in the business card image by performing layout analysis of a component included in the business card image from a storage unit for storing, and a business card image and image layout setting information read from the storage unit The position of the name in the business card image is determined using the analysis means, the arrangement information of the character string obtained by the layout analysis means and the information obtained from the name dictionary, and the start of the name determined by the position is An image arrangement determining means for outputting the business card image to the display means so as to be arranged at the left end of the display area is provided.

An image processing program according to the present invention includes a display unit including a screen having a predetermined display area, and a storage unit that stores a business card image having a size larger than the display area, image layout setting information for displaying a business card, and a name dictionary. An image processing program for causing an image processing apparatus provided to execute processing, wherein the image processing apparatus is configured to use the business card image read from the storage unit and the image card setting information indicating the arrangement of components of the business card image. Layout analysis means for obtaining layout information of character strings included in the business card image by performing layout analysis of components included in the image, obtained from the layout information of the character strings obtained by the layout analysis means and the name dictionary using the information for determining the position of the name in the business card image, placing the beginning of the name position is determined at the left end of the display region It characterized in that to function urchin the business card image as an image arrangement determining means for outputting to said display means.

An image processing method according to the present invention includes a display unit having a screen having a predetermined display area, a business card image having a size larger than the display area, image layout setting information indicating a layout of components of the business card image, and a name dictionary. storage means for storing for a layout analysis means, the image processing method in an image processing apparatus and an image arrangement determining means, said layout analysis means, the components of the business card image and read the business card image from the storage means Extracting a component included in the business card image from image layout setting information indicating a layout, obtaining layout information of a character string included in the business card image by performing layout analysis of the extracted component, and the image arrangement determining means, using information obtained from the arrangement information and the name dictionary of the character string, determines the position of the name in the business card image Position is characterized by a step of outputting the business card image to the beginning of the name determined to be placed at the left end of the display area on the display means.

In the present invention, the component included in the business card image is extracted from the business card image read from the storage means and the image layout setting information indicating the layout of the component of the business card image, and the layout analysis of the extracted component is performed To obtain the arrangement information of the character string included in the business card image, determine the position of the name in the business card image using the information obtained from the arrangement information of the character string and the name dictionary, and the name determined by the position Since the business card image is output to the display means so that the beginning of the character is placed at the left end of the display area, the necessary characters for the user are displayed on the screen in an easy-to-see position.

  As described above, according to the present invention, a user browses a character image obtained at a different resolution in a size suitable for reading a character, without specifying a display size by manual operation for each image. be able to.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the image processing apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a language / character type / character size correspondence table stored in the image processing apparatus of FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the image processing apparatus according to this embodiment includes an image input unit 11, a storage unit 12, a layout analysis unit 13, a geometric information estimation unit 14, a language / character type estimation unit 15, an image processing unit 16, an image display. Unit 17, image output unit 18, operation input unit 19, and the like.

  The image input unit 11 is image input means for inputting a document image as digital data. As the image input unit 11, for example, an image input device such as a scanner, a digital multi-function peripheral, a digital camera, a mobile terminal built-in camera, or the like is used.

  The storage unit 12 is an image storage unit that saves (including primary storage) and reads out a document image input from the image input unit 11. As the image recording unit 12, for example, a magnetic disk device, an optical disk device, various memories, a storage on a network, a server, or the like is used.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the storage unit 12 stores a language / character type / character size correspondence table 20 in which an appropriate conversion character size is associated with the language and character type of characters included in the image to be converted. .

The layout analysis unit 13 functions as an image component extraction unit that reads a document image stored in the storage unit 12 and extracts a component of the document image. In addition, the layout analysis unit 13 analyzes the layout of the component elements of the extracted document image to obtain layout information (external rectangles, columns, etc.) indicating how the component elements are arranged in the document image. Part.
The geometric information estimation unit 14 uses the layout information extracted by the layout analysis unit 13 to describe geometric information (for example, a width in the case of a character, a character, a symbol, a mark, a marker, a seal stamp) This is geometric information estimation means for estimating height, size, and the like.

  The language / character type estimation unit 15 is a language / character type estimation unit that estimates the language and character type used in the document with reference to the language / character type / character size correspondence table 20 stored in the storage unit 12.

The image processing unit 16 performs processing of the image read from the storage unit 12 using the language and character type estimated by the language / character type estimation unit 15 and the geometric information estimated by the geometric information estimation unit 14. An image to be displayed on a screen in a certain display area is generated and output to the image display unit 17. The image processing processing is, for example, image reduction processing or enlargement processing for making the characters of the document image easy to see on the display screen.
That is, the image processing unit 16 and the language / character type estimation unit 15 refer to the language / character type / character size correspondence table 20 based on the character size estimated by the geometric information estimation unit 14 to determine the characters included in the document image. It functions as image processing means for reducing or enlarging the image read from the storage unit 12 so that the size becomes the converted character size and outputting it to the image display unit 17.

  The image display unit 17 is an LCD, an organic EL display device, SEDFED, or the like provided with a screen of a predetermined display area, and is a display unit that displays an image generated by the image processing unit 16 on the screen. The image output unit 18 is an image output unit that stores the image generated by the image processing unit 16 in a file format such as an image file in the storage unit 12 or the like, or outputs it to an external printer. The operation input unit 19 is an input receiving unit that receives an instruction operation from a user.

  The operation of this image processing apparatus will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the image processing apparatus, FIGS. 4 and 5 are examples of images when two document images are both in Japanese, and FIGS. 6 and 7 are examples of images when the two document images are Japanese and alphabet. FIG.

  In this image processing apparatus, the document image read from the form by the image input unit 11 is stored in the storage unit 12 (step 11 in FIG. 3; step is hereinafter referred to as S).

  The layout analysis unit 13 reads out image data, which is a document image to be processed, from the storage unit 12 and executes layout analysis (S12), and how the components included in the image data are arranged in the image. The layout information indicating whether or not it has been extracted is extracted.

  In the layout analysis here, layout information such as extra-rectangular rectangles and character strings in the document is extracted. The extra-character rectangle is extracted by detecting a connected black pixel component in the image. Further, the character string is extracted by performing a process of integrating neighboring characters.

Subsequently, the geometric information estimation unit 14 estimates the geometric information of the constituent elements based on the layout information extracted by the layout analysis unit 13 (S13).
The geometric information in this example is the size (size) of characters included in the document. The character size of the document can be estimated by a method such as averaging the character sizes of character strings in the document. In addition, a method of using the character size of the minimum character line, the average character size of the body part of the document, or the mode of the most frequent character as the estimated character size of the document may be used. The character size may be estimated for width and height, or may be represented by either one.

  The language / character type estimation unit 15 estimates the language and character type used in the document based on the geometric information estimated by the geometric information estimation unit 14 (S14). The estimation of language and character type is realized by using, for example, a character recognition function (hereinafter referred to as OCR function). The OCR function is a function that matches a character image (image data) in a document image with image data in a preset character recognition dictionary and converts it into a character code (text data). With the OCR software, it is possible to read Japanese, alphabets and numbers in the document. In the character recognition dictionary, character image data and character codes (text data) are stored in pairs. The character code range varies depending on the character type (character code number to number is alphabetic, number to number is kana, number to number is kanji), so the OCR function By analyzing the character recognition result by, the language and character type of characters used in the document can be estimated.

  Subsequently, the image processing unit 16 refers to the language / character type / character size correspondence table 20 based on the language / character type estimation result estimated by the language / character type estimation unit 15 to enlarge or reduce the image. Is determined (S15).

  For example, the width of the input image is W, the height is H, the width of the estimated character size is Ew, the height is Eh, and the width and height of the converted character size are Tw and Th in the storage unit 12 in advance. It is assumed that it is set.

  In this case, the image processing unit 16 sets the enlargement / reduction ratio of the image to Tw / Ew in the width direction and Th / Eh in the height direction, and sets the conversion source image to width Tw × W / Ew, height Th × H. A display image is created by converting the image to / Eh (S16).

  Here, the operation of the image processing apparatus will be described in detail with reference to examples of images shown in FIGS. The example of FIG. 4 is an image A and an image B of a conversion source document having a size of horizontal 1280 pixels × vertical 1024 pixels (SXGA), and these images A and B include Japanese characters having different sizes. . Assume that the character size of image A is estimated to be 80 × 80 pixels, and the character size of image B is estimated to be 160 × 160 pixels.

The character size (target character size) of the output image is set to 20 pixels (vertical 20 pixels × horizontal 20 pixels) in the language / character type / character size correspondence table 20 in the case of Japanese, Kanji / Kana. Yes.
In this case, the image processing unit 16 determines that the reduction or enlargement ratio of the image A is Tw / Ew = 20/80 = 1/4 in the width direction and the height is also 1/4, and in the case of the image B, Tw / Ew = 20/160 = 1/8 and the height is determined to be 1/8.

The image processing unit 16 performs reduction processing (image processing) on the document image based on the magnification (reduction rate) determined in this way.
As a result, as shown in FIG. 5, the image A is converted to an image A1 having a size of 320 × 256 pixels, and the image B is converted to an image B1 having a size of 160 × 128 pixels. The character sizes in the two images A1 and B1 are almost the same.
The image display unit 17 displays the image processed (magnification conversion) by the image processing unit 16, and the image output unit 18 outputs the file as various images or document file format documents (S17).
Further, the example shown in FIG. 6 is an image A and an image B of a conversion source document having a size of 1280 pixels by 1024 pixels (SXGA), and the image A includes Japanese characters. Contains alphabets (English characters). The size of characters included in images A and B is estimated to be 80 × 80 pixels.

As the character size (target character size) of the output image, an optimum conversion character size for each language is set in the language / character type / character size correspondence table 20.
For example, when the character is Japanese, Kanji / Kana, it is set to 20 pixels (vertical 20 pixels × horizontal 20 pixels), and when it is English or the alphabet, it is set to 16 pixels (vertical 16 pixels × horizontal 16 pixels). ing.
In this case, the image processing unit 16 determines that the reduction or enlargement ratio of the image A is Tw / Ew = 20/80 = 1/4 in the width direction and the height is also 1/4, and in the case of the image B, Tw / Ew = 16/80 = 1/5, and the height is similarly determined as 1/5.

The image processing unit 16 performs reduction processing (image processing) on the document image based on the magnification (reduction rate) determined in this way.
As a result, as shown in FIG. 7, the image A is converted into an image A1 having a size of 320 × 256 pixels, and the image B is converted into an image B1 having a size of 256 × 205 pixels. The character size in the two images A1 and B1 is a size that is easy to read and does not feel uncomfortable.

  In this example, the character size T is reduced for an English document such as an alphabet that can be read even if the character size is relatively small, and the character size T is set for a Japanese document including a kanji having a large number of strokes. By setting a large value, it becomes possible to optimally adjust the balance of the readability of the document, the file size, the amount of information that can be displayed on the display, and the like.

As other variations of the enlargement / reduction process, the input image area is enlarged / reduced so that the height of the image after input conversion is equal to the height of the display area, or the aspect ratio (Wv / Hv) of the display area is set. When it is larger than the aspect ratio (Wi / Hi) of the input image area, the input image area is enlarged / reduced so that the height of the image after input conversion becomes equal to the height of the display area.
As another variation when the aspect ratio (Wv / Hv) of the display area is smaller than the aspect ratio (Wi / Hi) of the input image area, the height of the image after conversion is equal to the height of the display area. When the input image area is enlarged / reduced as described above and the aspect ratio (Wv / Hv) of the display area is larger than the aspect ratio (Wi / Hi) of the input image area, the width of the image after the input conversion is the width of the display area. It is also possible to enlarge / reduce the input image area so as to be equal to.

  The image display unit 17 displays the image processed (magnification conversion) by the image processing unit 16, and the image output unit 18 outputs the file as various images and document file format documents.

  As described above, according to the image processing apparatus of the first embodiment, layout analysis, geometric information estimation, and language / character type estimation are sequentially performed on a document image, so that the language, character type, character size, etc. The geometric information is estimated, and the image processing unit 16 refers to the language / character type / character size correspondence table 20 based on the estimated geometric information, and displays an appropriate size for displaying characters on the display screen in a size easy to see for each language. Since image processing such as reduction or enlargement of the document image is performed and an appropriate image is displayed on the display screen or file output is performed, characters can be input without having to manually specify the display size for each image. The document image can be displayed on the display screen in a size that is easy to see, and when the document image is reduced, use of useless storage and memory can be suppressed.

  In other words, since the character size included in the document image can be unified without changing the display size by manual operation, the readability and visibility of the document image on the display screen can be improved. In addition, use of unnecessary storage and memory can be suppressed by reducing an image using information having a necessary and sufficient character size according to the application.

The system can automatically estimate a character size appropriate for the user to view the character for each language, and the character image can be reduced or enlarged and displayed on the screen. In addition, since the language / character type / character size correspondence table 20 that can specify (edit) the character size for each language is provided, the setting / change can be performed freely.
The appropriate character size corresponding to the language and character type may be a value determined by the system, or the system may automatically set an appropriate size based on the size and resolution of the display screen. It may be set from the operation input unit 19.

  Next, an image processing apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the image processing apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

  As shown in FIG. 8, the image processing apparatus of this embodiment includes an image input unit 11, a storage unit 12, a layout analysis unit 13, a geometric information estimation unit 14, an enlargement / reduction magnification determination unit 31, an image arrangement determination unit 32, An image processing unit 16, an image display unit 17, an image output unit 18, an operation input unit 19 and the like are included. In addition, about the structure similar to 1st Embodiment, the same code | symbol is attached | subjected and the description is abbreviate | omitted.

  The enlargement / reduction ratio determination unit 31 estimates the size of a character that is one of the constituent elements of the image based on the layout information obtained by the layout analysis unit 13, and determines the size of the image for which the size of the character displayed on the screen is appropriate. It functions as an image enlargement / reduction magnification determination means for determining an enlargement magnification or a reduction magnification. Note that the enlargement / reduction ratio determination unit 31 has an OCR function as in the first embodiment, and recognizes characters based on the geometric information estimated by the geometric information estimation unit 14 and performs character code (text data). After that, the enlargement / reduction ratio of the language or character type used in the document included in the image may be determined.

  The image arrangement determining unit 32 is a language or character type enlargement / reduction magnification determined by the enlargement / reduction magnification determination unit 31, geometric information estimated by the geometric information estimation unit 14, and preset form type information ( Using a form type such as a document or a business card and information specifying the arrangement of character strings in the form), it is determined where the characters of the image generated by the image processing unit 16 are to be arranged on the screen. It is an image processing means for executing an arrangement process. The image arrangement process is a process for determining where and in what size the position where the character starts in the image is to be displayed in order to make the character of the document image easy to see on the display screen. . That is, the image arrangement determination unit 36 determines how to arrange the characters of the generated image in the display area of the screen.

  The image display unit 17 is a display unit that displays the image generated by the image processing unit 16 on the screen. The image output unit 18 is an image output unit that stores the image generated by the image processing unit 16 in a file format such as an image file in the storage unit 12 or the like, or outputs it to an external printer.

  The operation of this image processing apparatus will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the operation of the image processing apparatus, and FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a process for determining the enlargement / reduction magnification of the image.

  In this image processing apparatus, the document image read from the form by the image input unit 11 is stored in the storage unit 12 (S21 in FIG. 9).

  The layout analysis unit 13 reads out image data, which is a document image to be processed, from the storage unit 12 and executes layout analysis (S22), thereby extracting layout information.

  In the layout analysis here, layout information such as extra-rectangular rectangles and character strings in the document is extracted. The extra-character rectangle is extracted by detecting a connected black pixel component in the image. Further, the character string is extracted by performing a process of integrating neighboring characters.

Subsequently, the geometric information estimation unit 14 estimates the geometric information of the constituent elements based on the layout information extracted by the layout analysis unit 13 (S23).
The geometric information in this example is the size of characters included in the document. The character size of the document can be estimated by a method such as averaging the character sizes of character strings in the document. In addition, a method of using the character size of the minimum character line, the average character size of the body part of the document, or the most frequent character size as the estimated character size of the document may be used. The character size may be estimated for width and height, or may be represented by either one.

  Subsequently, the enlargement / reduction magnification determination unit 32 refers to the language / character type / character size correspondence table 20 based on the geometric information (symbol, character size, etc.) estimated by the geometric information estimation unit 14 as the entire image. The enlargement ratio or reduction ratio is determined (S24).

  As an example, the input image area is set so that the width of the converted image is equal to the width of the display area while maintaining the aspect ratio of the input image or a partial area to be displayed in the input image (hereinafter referred to as the input image area). An example of enlargement or reduction will be described.

  The width of the input image area is Wi, the height is Hi, the width of the display area is Wv, the height is Hv, the character size in the estimated input image area is E, the maximum allowable character size in the converted image is Tmax, and conversion The minimum allowable character size in the image is Tmin (Tmin ≤ Tmax), the character size in the converted image when the converted image is inscribed in the display area is Tfit, the character size in the converted image is T, and the determined enlargement When the reduction ratio is R, the enlargement / reduction ratio at which the image width after image processing is equal to the width of the display area is Wv / Wi, and Tfit at that time is E × Wv / Wi.

Here, with reference to FIG. 10, the enlargement / reduction ratio determination process in S24 will be described in detail.
The enlargement / reduction ratio determination unit 32 determines the enlargement / reduction ratio R by executing the processing of the following flowchart (FIG. 10).
The enlargement / reduction ratio determination unit 32 first calculates Tfit (Tfit = E × Wv / Wi) (S31).

The enlargement / reduction magnification determination unit 32 compares Tfit and Tmax (S32).
If Tfit is greater than Tmax as a result of this comparison (Y in S32), the enlargement / reduction ratio determination unit 32 uses Tmax as the value of T and sets R to Tmax / E (S33).
As a result of comparison, if Tfit is smaller than Tmax (N in S32) and Tfit is larger than Tmin (N in S34), the enlargement / reduction ratio determination unit 32 sets the enlargement / reduction ratio R to Wv / Wi. (S35).

  On the other hand, if Tfit is smaller than Tmin as a result of comparison (Y in S34), the enlargement / reduction ratio determination unit 32 uses Tmin as the value of T and sets R to Tmin / E (S36).

Here, the determination of the enlargement / reduction magnification will be described using a specific image example.
FIG. 11 shows an example in which the plurality of input images to be displayed are three images A, B, and C having at least one different resolution such as 640 × 480 pixels, 640 × 480 pixels, and 1280 × 1024 pixels, respectively. Show. In the images A, B, and C, the size of alphabet characters is also different.

Thus, an image A having a size of 640 pixels × 480 pixels (VGA), an image B having a size of 640 pixels × 480 pixels (VGA), and an image C having a size of 1280 pixels × 1024 pixels (SXGA) are converted. Original document images, that is, input images, and the sizes of characters included in these input images are estimated as 80 × 80 pixels, 40 × 40 pixels, and 40 × 40 pixels, respectively, by the geometric information estimation unit 14. To do.
Tmax and Tmin are 32 and 12 pixels, respectively, and the resolution of the display device is 320 pixels wide by 240 pixels high.

FIG. 12 shows the relationship between the character size Tfit and the enlargement / reduction ratio R of the image after conversion when the images A, B, and C to be converted are inscribed in the display area of the image display unit 17.
(Image A)
The width of the image A is 640 pixels × height is 480 pixels, and the character size in the image is estimated to be 80 pixels. Therefore, the character size Tfit of the image after conversion is 40 pixels from Tfit = E × Wv / Wi = 80 × 320/640 = 40.
At this time, since the character size Tfit of the converted image is Tfit> Tmax, the enlargement / reduction ratio R is 0.4 from R = Tmax / E = 32/80 = 0.4.

(Image B)
The width of the image B is 640 pixels × height is 480 pixels, and the character size in the image is estimated to be 40 pixels. Therefore, the character size Tfit of the converted image is 40 pixels from Tfit = E × Wv / Wi = 40 × 320/640 = 40.
At this time, since the character size Tfit of the image after conversion is Tmin <= Tfit <= Tmax, the enlargement / reduction ratio R is 0.5 from R = Wv / Wi = 320/640 = 0.5.

(Image C)
The width of the image C is 1280 pixels × height is 1024 pixels, and the character size in the image is estimated to be 40 pixels. Therefore, the character size Tfit of the converted image is 10 pixels from Tfit = E × Wv / Wi = 40 × 320/1280 = 10.
At this time, since the character size Tfit of the converted image is Tmin> Tfit, the enlargement / reduction ratio R is 0.3 from R = Tmin / E = 12/40 = 0.3.

Subsequently, the image processing unit 16 performs image enlargement / reduction processing at the magnification determined by the enlargement / reduction magnification determination unit 32 (S25).
As a result of this image processing, the image A is converted into an image A1 having a width of 256 (640 × 0.4) and a height of 192 (480 × 0.4), which was originally 640 × 480 pixels.
The image B is originally converted to an image B1 having a size of 640 × 480 pixels and a width 320 (640 × 0.5) and a height 240 (480 × 0.5) of the image B.
The image is converted into an image C1 having a width 384 (1280 × 0.3) and a height 308 (1024 × 0.3) of the image C which originally has a size of 1280 × 1024 pixels.

Subsequently, the image arrangement determination unit 32 determines the arrangement in which the image created by the image processing unit 16 is displayed in the display area (S26).
In the enlargement / reduction ratio determination process in FIG. 10, when Tfit is larger than Tmax, the image size is smaller than the display area, so that the image arrangement determination unit 32 has the center of the image area as in the image A1 in FIG. The image is arranged so as to be positioned at the center of the display area.
When Tfit is smaller than Tmax and larger than Tmin, the image size becomes equal to the display. Therefore, as shown in the image B1 in FIG. 13, the image arrangement determining unit 32 sets the upper left of the image to the upper left of the display area. Arrange the images.
When Tfit is smaller than Tmin, the image size is larger than the display area. Therefore, as shown in the image C1 in FIG. 13, the information included in the image is simply arranged at the center of the display area. There is a case where a part of (image area) is not displayed.

Therefore, when the image size is larger than the display area, the image arrangement determination unit 32 scrolls the image according to an instruction from an input device such as a key, a button, a mouse, or a touch panel, so that the image area that is hidden from the screen is hidden. Display, which allows the user to see the entire image area even on a small screen.
That is, the image arrangement determining unit 32 determines an initial arrangement of images that can display more document contents by using knowledge and information about the result of layout analysis and the type of document image to be input.

  For example, in the case of a document image, the position of the character in the document can be determined as a result of the layout analysis by the layout analysis unit 13, and therefore the image arrangement determination unit 32 uses the position information of the character as shown in FIG. The layout is determined so that the beginning of the document (the position of the ☆ mark) is exactly at the upper left corner of the display area of the screen.

In addition, when the input image is a business card image or the like and the form type is known in advance, the image arrangement determination unit 32 stores the image arrangement setting information for displaying the business card in the storage unit 12 so that the image arrangement determination unit 32 in FIG. As shown, the beginning of the name (the position of the ☆ mark) is arranged at the left end of the display area so that the name included in the business card image can be best understood.
The position of the name character string is estimated by the image arrangement determination unit 32 using character string arrangement information obtained as a result of layout analysis by the layout analysis unit 13 or information obtained from the name dictionary.

  Subsequently, the image display unit 17 displays the image processed (magnification conversion) by the image processing unit 16, and the image output unit 18 outputs the file as various images and document file format documents (S27).

  As described above, according to the image processing apparatus of the second embodiment, a document image or a business card image in which the size of characters is optimized to a size that is easy for the user to read while making the most of the screen that is the display area of the image. Since it is displayed on the screen, the user can read text on a document or a business card on the screen without manually adjusting the size of the image.

In addition, useless storage and memory usage can be suppressed by reducing the image to a necessary and sufficient character size according to the application.
Further, when the image size is larger than the display area size, the user can be minimized by using the layout analysis result to optimize the initial arrangement.

In addition, this invention is not limited only to the said embodiment.
As a method of automatically setting the character size, for example, there is a method of changing the character size so that the character size is suitable for display according to the language and character type.
In addition, there is also a method of automatically estimating an appropriate character size from the characteristics (mainly resolution and size) of the display to be displayed (for example, the optimal size is different between the screen of the mobile terminal and the display of the PC).

1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an image processing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a language / character type / character size correspondence table of the image processing apparatus of FIG. 1. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence in the image processing apparatus of this 1st Embodiment. In this image processing apparatus, it is a figure which shows the conversion original image in case two document images contain a Japanese character. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating document images obtained as a result of image processing of the conversion source images in FIG. 4. In this image processing apparatus, it is a figure which shows the conversion original image in case one document image contains a Japanese character and the other one document image contains an alphabetic character. It is a figure which shows the document image as a result of image-processing each of the two conversion source images of FIG. It is a figure which shows the structure of the image processing apparatus of 2nd Embodiment which concerns on this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence of the image processing apparatus in this 2nd Embodiment. It is a flowchart which calculates | requires the expansion / reduction rate of an image. It is a figure for demonstrating the process which determines the expansion / contraction rate of an image. It is a figure for demonstrating the calculation process of Tfit and R which determines the expansion / contraction rate of an image. It is a figure which shows the result of the expansion / contraction process with respect to the images A, B, and C. It is a figure which shows an example of an image initial arrangement | positioning in case the produced | generated image size is larger than a display area size. It is a figure which shows an example in the case of displaying on the screen the image produced | generated when the input image is known beforehand as a business card image.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 ... Image input part, 12 ... Memory | storage part, 13 ... Layout analysis part, 14 ... Geometric information estimation part, 15 ... Language and character kind estimation part, 16 ... Image processing part, 17 ... Image display part, 18 ... Image output part, DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 19 ... Operation input part, 20 ... Language / character type / character size correspondence table, 31 ... Enlarging / reducing magnification determining part, 32 ... Image arrangement determining part

Claims (3)

Display means comprising a screen having a predetermined display area;
Storage means for storing a business card image having a size larger than the display area, image layout setting information indicating the layout of components of the business card image, and a name dictionary;
Layout analysis means for obtaining layout information of character strings included in the business card image by performing layout analysis of components included in the business card image from the business card image and image layout setting information read from the storage means;
The position of the name in the business card image is determined using the arrangement information of the character string obtained by the layout analysis means and the information obtained from the name dictionary, and the start of the name determined by the position is set to the left end of the display area. An image processing apparatus comprising: an image arrangement determining unit that outputs the business card image to the display unit so as to be arranged on the display unit . Processing is performed in an image processing apparatus including a display unit including a screen having a predetermined display area, and a storage unit that stores a business card image having a size larger than the display area, image layout setting information for displaying a business card, and a name dictionary. An image processing program to be executed,
The image processing apparatus;
Arrangement of character strings included in the business card image by performing layout analysis of the structural elements included in the business card image from the business card image read from the storage unit and image layout setting information indicating the layout of the structural elements of the business card image Layout analysis means for obtaining information;
The position of the name in the business card image is determined using the arrangement information of the character string obtained by the layout analysis means and the information obtained from the name dictionary, and the start of the name determined by the position is set to the left end of the display area. An image processing program causing an image arrangement determining unit to output the business card image to the display unit so as to arrange the image on the display unit . Display means provided with a screen having a predetermined display area, storage means for storing a business card image having a size larger than the display area, image layout setting information indicating the layout of components of the business card image, and a name dictionary, and layout analysis means, in the image processing method in an image processing apparatus and an image arrangement determining means,
The layout analysis unit extracts the component included in the business card image from the business card image read from the storage unit and the image layout setting information indicating the layout of the component of the business card image, and the layout analysis of the extracted component Obtaining the arrangement information of the character string included in the business card image by performing
The image arrangement determining means determines the position of the name in the business card image using the arrangement information of the character string and the information obtained from the name dictionary, and the start of the name determined by the position of the display area And a step of outputting the business card image to the display means so as to be arranged at the left end.

Images