JP4532622B2 - Data communication apparatus and method - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a data communication apparatus and method capable of exchanging data using an electronic mail system.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Conventionally, in image communication in which image information is transmitted and received between terminals, especially for the purpose of transfer to a specific individual, a facsimile apparatus that mainly transmits and receives image information using a dedicated protocol using a public line, or A method of attaching an image file to an e-mail between computer terminals connected to a network has been used. Further, although not intended for transfer to a specific individual, a WWW (World Wide Web) system using a computer communication network has attracted attention due to the spread of the Internet. This WWW system is a client-server system based on the TCP / IP communication protocol as well as an Internet application such as e-mail, and a client application and a server application having a GUI (Graphical User Interface) called a WWW browser. The system has been developed as an information search / provision system realized by communicating not only image information but also data handled on a computer such as text, voice and moving images.
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, when using the image communication by the facsimile apparatus of the conventional example, it is not possible to confirm what kind of image is transmitted until it is printed on the receiving side. There is a problem in that even unnecessary information cannot be recognized and received in advance. Also, it is often shared by multiple people, and there is no guarantee that a facsimile machine that presupposes image transfer between devices will surely reach the destination individual. There was a drawback that there was a risk of being seen. Furthermore, there has been a problem that a sender aiming to confirm the transmission image with the destination partner has to use other means such as a telephone in order to confirm this.
[0004]
Further, according to the above-described conventional method for attaching an image file to an electronic mail between network-connected computer terminals, since the electronic mail used for an individual is used, the above-mentioned problem is caused. However, it is possible to ensure the certainty of transfer to the destination individual. However, since e-mail is originally intended for transmission / reception of text data, there is a problem that a large load is applied to the e-mail server when the amount of data to be transferred is large.
[0005]
The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and can reliably transmit image information to a destination without attaching a large-capacity file that would be a load on the communication partner's e-mail system. Further, when transmitting a larger amount of image data, a data communication apparatus and method capable of passing only a minimum amount of image data with the image quality required for each image area based on the determination on the receiving side. Is to provide.
[0006]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, a data communication apparatus according to the present invention includes an input unit that inputs image data, an extraction unit that analyzes the image data input by the input unit and extracts a region image according to a feature, Layout means for generating layout information of the image data based on a result of extraction by the extraction means; first storage means for storing the region image extracted by the extraction means and layout information thereof with a first image quality; The second storage means for storing the region image extracted by the extraction means and the layout information thereof at a second image quality lower than the first image quality, and stored by the second storage means. E-mail means for transmitting data including location information for accessing the region image and layout information as e-mail, and a terminal via the network A transmission means for transmitting the area image and layout information stored in the second storage means by a request based on the location information transmitted by the e-mail means by a method other than e-mail; And receiving means for receiving an area image designation and printing instruction from the terminal as a transmission destination, and the first storage according to the area image designation and printing instruction received by the receiving means. Region image stored by means Is transferred to the specified destination, printing Make Control means.
[0021]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
<First Embodiment>
Hereinafter, an example of a first embodiment according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the image communication apparatus according to the present embodiment. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 11 denotes a CPU unit which controls each part of the apparatus and controls the entire apparatus. Reference numeral 12 denotes a display unit for performing various displays such as a device status and a display for prompting an operator to operate. Reference numeral 13 denotes an operation unit for inputting an instruction from the operator in accordance with the display on the display unit 12. It consists of a pointing device and a touch panel. An accumulation unit 14 saves compressed image data and the like as a file. A communication control unit 15 controls connection with a network outside the apparatus. Reference numeral 16 denotes a structure analysis unit which analyzes the document structure of the read image data. A first compression processing unit 17 binarizes monochrome image data and performs monochrome binary coding by a method such as MMR and JBIG (Joint Bi-level Image Group). A second compression processing unit 18 compresses a color image by JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) or the like. An image composition processing unit 22 composes and reproduces an image of one page from layout information and a plurality of partial image data. The image input unit 19 and the image output unit 20 are connected to an image input / output control unit 21, and these are controlled in accordance with instructions from the CPU unit 11.
[0022]
FIG. 2 is a system configuration diagram illustrating an image communication system to which the image communication apparatus of the present embodiment is connected. 2, reference numerals 21 and 22 denote the image communication apparatuses shown in FIG. 1, which have an image input and image output function, a network communication function by TCP / IP connection, a WWW server function, and an e-mail transmission / reception function. It communicates with each other via a Local Area Network (27), a WAN (Wide Area Network) 28, and a LAN 29. A terminal 24 registered as an image transmission destination from the image communication apparatus 21 is a computer terminal (including a CPU unit, a memory, a display unit, and the like) connected to the network. Reference numerals 25 and 26 denote mail servers that provide electronic mail services to terminals in the LAN 27 and LAN 29, respectively. Reference numeral 24 denotes a computer having a mail client function and a Web browser function. As for the networks indicated by 26 to 28, any line or protocol conversion may be performed on the way as long as each terminal is connected by TCP / IP.
[0023]
Next, the operation of the image communication apparatus according to the present embodiment configured as described above will be described in detail with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. These flowcharts are the flow of control performed by the CPU unit 11 based on the program data stored in the memory of each device.
[0024]
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a process from when the operator of the image communication apparatus 21 performs a transmission operation until an e-mail is transmitted to the transmission destination. In FIG. 3, first, in step S101, the transmission operator recognizes that the document to be transmitted is set in the image input unit 18, and in step S102, the transmission destination set by the operation unit 13 is further set according to the guide by the display unit 12. And the instruction return destination. After confirming the input settings, the process proceeds to step S103. In step S103, the key input for starting transmission is awaited. When the operator gives an instruction to start transmission from the operation unit 13, the process proceeds to step S104. In step S104, the document is read as digital color image data. In step S105, the structure of the original is analyzed from the read color image data. For the structural analysis, various methods proposed in the past can be used. For example, the region segmentation method for performing statistical processing based on the peripheral distribution and the like is described in Reference Documents (辻: “Document Image Structure Analysis by Split Detection Method”, IEICE Transactions (D), J74-D-II, 4 (1991). )) Etc. have already been proposed. In the structure analysis step, the image data is further divided into regions based on the features, and the size, position information, and type of the region are extracted. The type indicates image characteristics such as a color multivalued image area and a monochrome binary area. FIG. 6 shows the result of the structural analysis step. In the example shown in the figure, as a result of structural analysis of the document image (a), a region division result (b) is obtained. Reference numerals 72 and 73 denote areas recognized as color images, and 74 and 75 denote areas recognized as monochrome binary images. In each area, the relative position with respect to the entire document 71 is extracted as position information.
[0025]
In the layout information generation step (S106), layout information of each region is generated according to the result of the structure analysis step (S105). The layout information is described by, for example, an HTML style sheet (CSSL1: Cascading Style Sheet Level 1) standardized by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) or an XML (eXtensible Markup Language) style sheet (XSL: eXtensible Style Language). It is what is done. The position of the image area in the document can be described by the style sheet. Here, the layout information of the display low-resolution image and the layout information of the print high-resolution image are created. By using an HTML or XML style sheet, an image can be confirmed from a general-purpose terminal with a built-in Web browser function. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the relationship between the layout of the high resolution image and the layout of the low resolution image. (A) shows the layout of the high-resolution image for printing, (b) shows the layout of the low-resolution image for display, and the regions 82 to 85 in (a) correspond to the regions 92 to 95 in (b), respectively. . The layout of the low resolution image can be obtained by converting the layout of the high resolution image at a desired magnification. Next, in step S107, the read high-resolution image is compressed for each region according to the structural analysis result. For example, the color image data area is JPEG, and the monochrome binary image area is binarized and then compressed by a compression method such as JBIG, MMR, GIF, or PNG. In step S108, the image data is compressed at a low resolution. Here, for example, resolution conversion is performed to reduce the image data used in step S107 to a low resolution at a predetermined magnification, and the converted image data is compressed for each region in the same manner as in step S107. The area image file group having different image quality created and stored in this manner is displayed together with the corresponding layout information mainly on the receiver's terminal to confirm the received image (the amount of data is small). Coarse image) and a print image group (high-quality image) to be transferred as print data after the receiver confirms the display image. The above processing is repeated until all pages are processed (step S109).
[0026]
Next, in step S110, the display image file group and print image file group created and saved so far and the location of the style sheet information specifying the page layout are described in HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and stored. Stored in section 14. The location of the HTML file and the display data is described by a URL that collectively represents information resources on the Internet. The general format of the URL used in this WWW system is shown as “resource_type: //host.domain/path”. Here, resource_type represents a protocol or service to be used, and http is designated in the image communication apparatus of the present embodiment. Others include gopher, ftp, etc., but omit each tax. Host.domain indicates the address of the server to be accessed on the Internet, and is specified in the IP address or domain name format. In the image communication apparatus of the present embodiment, the WWW server in the apparatus Specify the IP address. Further, path indicates the position of the file on the server. For example, in the image communication apparatus of the present embodiment, the location of the HTML file is represented as “http: Server_ip_address / □□□ / xxx.html”, and the description of the location of the stored display data for confirming the transmission image About "by notation with HTML tags"<IMG SRC = http: // Server_ip = address / □□□ / ○○○. △△△> ”. Here, the extension △△△ of the image file generally uses a compressed image file format such as GIF or JPEG. This is a client application of the WWW system. Interpreted by the WWW browser, the WWW browser of the image communication apparatus 21 can request the image file “XXX.ΔΔΔ”, and the WWW browser can display the image file in step S111, which is set in step S102. A transmission document is created based on the existing general-purpose electronic mail format, such as the transmission destination and instruction return destination, and the location of the display HTML file created and stored in step S110 is described in the transmission document of this electronic mail. The e-mail transmission document created in this way is sent to the electronic mail possessed by the image communication apparatus 21 in step S112. It is transmitted as an e-mail to a destination specified by the transmission function of the mail, and is delivered to the computer terminal 24 as a transmission destination via the mail servers 25 and 26.
[0027]
Next, until the user of the computer terminal 24 that is the destination of the email transmitted in S112 receives the email, confirms the display image, and gives various instructions to the image communication device 21 that is the transmission source. This will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG. This flowchart shows the flow of control executed by the CPU unit 11 based on a program installed in the memory of the computer terminal 24. First, in step S410, an e-mail is received, and in step S411, the e-mail recipient displays the document content of the e-mail received by the mail client application on the display unit for confirmation. The content of the text sentence of the received e-mail describes a description urging access by the WWW browser to the URL indicating the location where the image data is stored. In step S415, it is determined whether or not the recipient of the e-mail has issued an instruction to confirm the image based on the described contents. If there is an instruction to confirm the image, the process proceeds to step S416. In step S416, the WWW browser requests the image communication apparatus 21 for an HTML file including a link to the low-resolution image and layout information created and stored in the image communication apparatus 21 in step S109 indicated by the previous URL. In response to this, the image communication apparatus 21 having the WWW server function transmits the designated HTML file to the WWW browser. Further, the WWW browser analyzes the HTML file and requests the display image in accordance with the display image that is the source object to be displayed described in the sentence and the URL that describes the layout information. In step S417, the display image requested by the WWW browser is displayed, and the WWW browser displays the display image on the display screen of the computer terminal 24. As a result, the recipient of the e-mail is transmitted from the image communication apparatus 21. The outline can be confirmed as a visible image on the display screen of the computer terminal 24 where the destination user has logged in. In step S417, image data is reconstructed for display from a low-resolution image group and a style sheet indicating its page layout information. After the display image is confirmed by the e-mail recipient, the process proceeds to step S418. In the image communication system according to the present embodiment, the operator can instruct the image quality (resolution) of the image data to be printed out for each image area simultaneously with the confirmation of the image by displaying on the transmission destination terminal 24. In step S418, a display for instructing whether to print each area of the image at a high resolution or a low resolution on the same screen as the display of the display image is performed. Is transmitted. The function of the WWW browser can be used for this instruction and transmission method. In the WWW system, there is a mechanism called CGI (Common Gateway Interface) for transmitting input from a client (WWW browser) to a server and processing it by an external program. For example, by embedding an object indicating the resolution of each area of the print image in an HTML document displayed on the WWW browser, and operating this, the prepared instruction content is transferred to the server. The server receiving this instruction can analyze the contents of the instruction and start a program for transferring and printing printing data. In addition, if the CGI is used, it is possible to transmit not only those prepared in advance but also data input from the operator as to the contents of this instruction. If this is used, it is possible to instruct transfer and printout of a print image not only to a specific image communication apparatus but also to an arbitrary image communication apparatus based on input data. Further, the previous instruction and transmission method is not limited to the above-described method using CGI, and a terminal that displays an image for display is used as a client, and a server and a client that server the image communication apparatus 21 are used. Any instruction and transmission means may be used as long as it is an executable application. If it is instructed to print out the printing image in step S419, the process proceeds to step s420, and the instruction content is transmitted to the image communication apparatus 21 by the above-described instruction and transmission method. If it is determined in step S418 that printing of a print image is not instructed, the process proceeds to step S421. In step S422, an instruction to discard the print image is given for processing on image data for which printing is not instructed.
[0028]
Next, after the instruction content from the receiver is received by the image communication device 21 until the image communication device 22 receives and prints the image data after analyzing / processing it, the flowchart (a) in FIG. A description will be given according to b). 5A and 5B are flowcharts showing operations of the image communication device 21 and the image communication device 22, respectively. 5A, first, in step S501, the received instruction content (instruction in any of steps S418, S420, or S421) is stored in the storage unit. After the saving, the process proceeds to step S502, and the setting for the transmission image in step S102 performed at the time of image transmission is specified from the received instruction content. In step S503, the received instruction content is analyzed. If the instruction content is discard of the image data, the process proceeds to step S504, where the image file stored in the storage unit 14 is deleted, and the process is terminated. If the instruction content is transfer printing, the process proceeds to step S505. In step S505, transfer layout information is generated according to the instruction content. Specifically, in the area designated as low resolution, the link information to the image is set to the link to the low resolution image created for display, and in the area designated as high resolution, the link to the high resolution image is set. Set. Through this processing, the area image data group to be actually transferred and printed and the layout information corresponding to the area image data group are reconfigured. In step S506, printing on the image communication apparatus based on data input by the image communication apparatus designated in advance is processed by transfer from the image communication apparatus 21 to the image communication apparatus 22 without using the mail server 25. When the transfer of the print image from the image communication apparatus 21 to the image communication apparatus 22 and the file storage (step S506 and step S510) are completed, the process proceeds to step S511. In step S511, the image communication apparatus 22 expands the plurality of compressed image data by a predetermined method, and uses the layout information to combine and reproduce the image data as one page. At this time, in the area where the low resolution image is linked, the image data is enlarged to a size that fits in the layout according to the description of the style sheet. In step S512, the reproduced image data is printed. In step S512, the image output unit 19 prints out from the storage unit 14 via the image input / output control unit 17, and the process ends. Note that the operations shown in the flowcharts of FIGS. 3 to 5 are all confirmed to be a series of communication for the same image by ID collation.
[0029]
As described above, according to the first embodiment, in the image transfer system using the WWW server function and the e-mail transmission / reception function, the receiver receives only a necessary area with high resolution after confirming the schematic image. It is possible to instruct to print with high quality, and unnecessary transfer of image data can be avoided, and the bandwidth of the communication line can be used effectively.
[0030]
<Second Embodiment>
Next, regarding the second embodiment, only differences from the first embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. In the second embodiment, a region image is compressed by a plurality of compression methods, and the method can be selected when displayed on a computer terminal. First, in the image communication apparatus 21 that is the transmission source, the high-resolution image data is compressed by a plurality of methods in step S107 of FIG. Specifically, the image data of an area determined to be a color multilevel image is stored in color code using JPEG or the like, and the color multilevel image is once binarized and compressed by a monochrome binary encoding method such as MMR. save. That is, a plurality of high-resolution image data is provided for the same image area. On the other hand, in the computer terminal 24 on the receiving side, the operator selects the resolution and the compression method for each image area in step S418 in FIG. Specifically, a color image or a black and white image is selected. Further, in the image communication apparatus 21 that is the transmission source, the layout information is reconfigured using the image data having the resolution and compression method instructed in step S505 in FIG. 5A as an image linked to the area. Further, the image communication apparatus 22 expands each area according to the designated resolution and compression method, and synthesizes and reproduces the page image.
[0031]
As described above, according to the second embodiment, for each area of the document image data, it can be instructed to specify the resolution and the compression method and receive the print image, so that color printing is not required in the area. Can receive the black-and-white print data and can use the bandwidth of the communication line more efficiently under the initiative of the receiving side.
[0032]
In the above embodiment, the case of instructing the resolution of the image data for each area has been described. However, instead of specifying the resolution, an instruction as to whether or not to receive the area for printing may be given. In this case, the reception-side operator can browse the display image and print only the image in the necessary area as a high-definition image after reception, thereby further reducing the amount of communication data.
[0033]
In the above embodiment, image data attached to an e-mail or image data stored in the WWW is printed according to an instruction from a computer terminal. However, there is a case where an instruction to store and save as file data is used instead of the print instruction. The present invention can be applied.
[0034]
Further, in the above-described embodiment, the description has been given using an example of a device including a single device, which is a communication device. It may be applied to the system.
[0035]
Also, program code of software for realizing the functions of the embodiment is supplied to an apparatus connected to the various devices or a computer in the system so as to operate various devices to realize the functions of the above-described embodiments. However, the present invention includes those implemented by operating the various devices according to a program stored in a computer (CPU or MPU) of the system or apparatus.
[0036]
In this case, the software program code itself realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments, and the program code itself and means for supplying the program code to the computer, for example, the program code are stored. The storage medium constitutes the present invention.
[0037]
As a storage medium for storing the program code, for example, a floppy disk, a hard disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, a CD-ROM, a magnetic tape, a nonvolatile memory card, a ROM, or the like can be used. Further, by executing the program code supplied by the computer, not only the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized, but the program code is running on the computer. It goes without saying that the program code is also included in the embodiment of the present invention even when the functions of the above-described embodiment are realized in cooperation with an OS (operating system) or other application software.
[0038]
Further, after the supplied program code is stored in the memory provided in the function expansion board of the computer or the function expansion unit connected to the computer, the CPU provided in the function expansion board or function storage unit based on the instruction of the program code Needless to say, the present invention includes a case where the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by performing part or all of the actual processing.
[0039]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to print a region image specified based on a low quality image based on layout information at a terminal on the network as a high quality image. Since the image is not transmitted to the terminal, it is possible to reduce the load on the terminal.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an image communication apparatus according to an embodiment.
FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of an image communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a process flow in the image communication apparatus 21;
4 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing in the computer terminal 24. FIG.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing in the image communication apparatus 21 and the image communication apparatus 22;
FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of image structure analysis.
FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a layout for a high resolution image and a layout for a low resolution image.
[Explanation of symbols]
11 CPU section
12 Display section
13 Operation part
14 Accumulator
15 Communication control unit
16 Structural analysis department
17 First compression processing unit
18 Second compression processing unit
19 Image input section
20 Image output unit
22 Image composition processor

Claims (10)

Input means for inputting image data;
Extracting means for analyzing the image data input by the input means and extracting a region image according to the feature;
Layout means for generating layout information of the image data based on a result of extraction by the extraction means;
First storage means for storing the region image extracted by the extraction means and its layout information with a first image quality;
Second storage means for storing the region image extracted by the extraction means and its layout information with a second image quality lower than the first image quality;
E-mail means for transmitting, as e-mail, data including location information for accessing the area image and layout information stored by the second storage means;
Transmitting means for transmitting the region image and layout information stored in the second storage means by a request based on the location information transmitted by the electronic mail means from a terminal via a network by a method other than electronic mail;
Receiving means for receiving a designation of area image and a print instruction from the terminal that is a transmission destination to which the area image and layout information are transmitted by the transmission means;
By transferring the region image stored by said first storage means according to specified and print instruction received area image by said receiving means to a predetermined destination, and control means for causing printing in the destination A data communication apparatus characterized by that. The first and second storage means compress and store each area image by a predetermined compression method,
The data communication apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising selection means for selecting a compression method based on an attribute of the area image. The extraction means separates a color multi-value image area and a monochrome binary image area,
3. The data communication apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the selection unit selects a color image compression method for a color multi-valued image region and a monochrome binary compression method for a monochrome binary image region. . It said receiving means, the data communication apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that it is able to receive information specifying the image quality for each region image. It said receiving means, the data communication apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that it is capable of receiving information that specifies the compression method for each region image. The layout unit, the data communication apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the use of the HTML or XML and style sheet. It said electronic mail transmitting means, the data communication apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that to describe the location information by URL. The transmission unit, the data communication apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the use of HTTP. An input process for inputting image data;
An extraction step of analyzing the image data input by the input step and extracting a region image according to the feature;
A layout step for generating layout information of the image data based on a result of extraction by the extraction step;
A first storage step of storing the region image extracted by the extraction step and its layout information with a first image quality;
A second storage step of storing the region image extracted by the extraction step and its layout information at a second image quality lower than the first image quality;
An e-mail process for transmitting, as e-mail, data including location information for accessing the area image and layout information stored in the second storage process;
A transmission step of transmitting the region image and layout information stored in the second storage step by a request based on the location information transmitted in the electronic mail step from the terminal via the network by a method other than the electronic mail;
A receiving step of receiving designation of a region image and a print instruction from the terminal that is a transmission destination that has transmitted the region image and layout information in the transmission step;
A control step of printing at the transfer destination by transferring the region image stored in the first storage step to a predetermined transfer destination according to the designation of the region image and the print instruction received in the reception step. A data communication method characterized by the above. A computer-readable storage medium storing a program code for executing each step shown in claim 9 .

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