JP4916587B1 - Providing electronic books - Google Patents

Abstract

A printed book is browsed by generating an electronic book of another type from one reception window by performing an optimization process according to the browsing device based on one image information. The problem is to improve the convenience of the user.
An electronic book providing method for transmitting image-converted electronic book information to a browsing device of a viewer based on a request from the viewer, the electronic book information being stored in a predetermined format. In addition, based on a browsing request from a viewer, the requested electronic book information is subjected to an optimization process for making the image format optimal for the browsing system of the browsing device, and is then made ready for transmission to the browsing device. .
[Selection] Figure 3

Description

  The present invention relates to an electronic book providing method for providing an electronic book generated by converting an image of a book such as printed matter as electronic information to a viewer.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, printed books are converted into image information by using an image capturing device such as a scanner and converted into an electronic book for reasons such as convenience of carrying and a small storage space.

  By the way, in such electronic book conversion, there is a problem that the amount of data per page at the time of electronic conversion is large and the number of books that can be stored in a recording medium with a limited storage capacity is limited. It has been pointed out that the switching time is long.

  In order to eliminate such problems, it is necessary to minimize the amount of data when digitized. For this reason, when capturing an image, for example, a blank portion that surrounds information provided for viewing It has been proposed to capture an image while omitting (Patent Document 1).

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-8862

  By the way, in recent years, not only personal computers but also electronic devices such as mobile phones and book readers have been used as browsing devices for browsing electronic books, and browsing electronic books with these browsing devices. Opportunities are increasing.

In these browsing devices, applications for operations such as display of electronic books and page turning differ for each browsing device or for each manufacturer. Therefore, the format of the electronic book to be provided is also for each browsing device or for each manufacturer. Each one is specialized.
For this reason, the malfunction that the electronic book which can be browsed with one browsing apparatus cannot be browsed with another browsing apparatus has arisen.

  Therefore, it is necessary for a person who wishes to browse to select and obtain an electronic book in a format corresponding to the browsing device he is using, and to search for the place to obtain the book.

  Therefore, the present invention generates an electronic book of another type from one reception window by performing an optimization process according to a browsing device based on one image information of a printed book. An object is to improve the convenience of the viewer.

In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention saves the electronic book information in a predetermined format when transmitting the electronic book information subjected to image conversion to the viewer's browsing device based on a request from the viewer. In addition, based on the browsing request from the viewer, the requested electronic book information can be transmitted to the browsing device after performing an optimization process to make the image format optimal for the browsing system of the browsing device A method of providing an e-book to be in a state ,
The optimization process includes a show-through removal process and a margin deletion process,
The image-converted electronic book information includes text information, margin information indicating a margin area outside the area where the text information is displayed, and additional information such as a title and a page number displayed in the margin area. Including
The margin deletion processing is based on the processing for calculating the display area of the additional information by the distance from the corner of the page, the processing for calculating the relationship between the horizontal width and the vertical width of the display area with respect to the page, and the calculation results thereof. And determining whether the information is additional information,
In the margin deletion process, the additional information is also deleted as margin information,
In addition, the margin deletion process is performed after the show-through removal process is performed .

With such a configuration, electronic book information corresponding to the browsing device to be used is generated from one piece of image information, so that the user can request browsing without worrying about the browsing device being used. And the convenience is greatly improved.
Also, on the provider side, the original image information is one, and it can be used for various browsing devices based on this, so it is a significant task compared to processing specialized for many browsing devices. Can be shortened, and the delivery time can be shortened.

In the present invention, the optimization processing is at least the back of image tilt correction, contrast adjustment, brightness adjustment, character outline adjustment, background color adjustment, show-through removal processing, moire adjustment, and margin deletion processing. The image processing apparatus is characterized in that it includes image removal processing and margin deletion processing.

  By performing such an optimization process, an appropriate display according to the browsing device is made, and the viewer can enjoy an easy-to-read environment. Further, by performing at least a show-through removal process and a margin removal process, it is possible to achieve a clear image display without show-through, a reduction in data amount, an improvement in display speed, and the like.

In the present invention, the image-converted electronic book information includes text information, margin information indicating a margin area outside the area where the text information is displayed, a title and a page number displayed in the margin area, and the like. Additional information, and
In the margin deletion process, the additional information is also deleted as margin information. By processing in this way, it is possible to reduce the amount of data and improve the display speed more efficiently.

Further, in the present invention, the display area displayed using the electronic book information is classified into the display area for the text information and the display area for the additional information, and then the margin deletion process is performed. It is said. By doing so, it is possible to reliably perform the margin deletion process.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the margin deletion process includes an information area determination process for determining a text information area by adding a rectangular line of a minimum pixel so as to surround an area displayed using the text information. It is characterized by this.

  By determining the information area using such a rectangular line, the browsing device can set a display area based on the rectangular line, thereby avoiding unnecessary enlargement / reduction.

In the present invention, the margin deletion process includes a process of calculating the display area of the additional information by a distance from a corner of the page, a process of calculating a relationship between the horizontal width and the vertical width of the display area with respect to the page, And a process of determining whether or not the information is additional information based on the calculation result. By this processing, it can be more reliably determined whether or not the information is additional information.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the request from the viewer is made by communication from the browsing device.

  With such a configuration, a viewer can easily order and obtain an electronic book.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the request from the viewer is made by communication from the browsing device, and information on the browsing system of the browsing device is transmitted together with the communication signal. It is.

With such a configuration, when a browsing request is made by communication, the browsing system of the browsing device to be used is notified, and the viewer only needs to request the desired electronic book. Becomes even simpler.
Further, the provider side does not mistake the format of the electronic book to be provided.
The communication may be wired or wireless.

The present invention is characterized in that, after the optimization process, a show-through removal process is performed, and then a blank deletion process is performed.

  By adopting such optimization processing, the amount of data to be processed can be reduced, and the processing speed can be improved.

According to the present invention, an electronic book of another type is generated from one reception window by performing an optimization process according to a browsing device based on one piece of image information for a printed book. Thus, the workability can be greatly improved, and the viewer can make a browsing request without worrying about the browsing device being used, which greatly improves the convenience.
Also, on the provider side, the original image information is one, and it can be used for various browsing devices based on this, so it is a significant task compared to processing specialized for many browsing devices. Can be shortened, and the delivery time can be shortened.
Also, the margin deletion processing is based on the processing for calculating the display area of the additional information by the distance from the corner of the page, the processing for calculating the relationship between the horizontal width and the vertical width of the display area with respect to the page, and the calculation results thereof. And the process of determining whether or not the information is additional information. Therefore, the determination of whether or not the information is additional information can be performed more reliably and efficiently.
Furthermore, after performing the show-through removal process, the margin deletion process is performed, whereby the amount of data to be processed can be reduced and the processing speed can be improved.

It is a schematic block diagram of the apparatus for implementing one Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the image process part of the apparatus for implementing one Embodiment of this invention. It is a processing flowchart for demonstrating one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining the deletion process of the margin concerning one Embodiment of this invention. It is a schematic block diagram of the apparatus for implementing other embodiment of this invention.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an apparatus (electronic book providing system) for carrying out the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 1 is a viewer, and 2 to 4 are image information constituting original data of the electronic book. Storage devices (image storage units), 5 to 7 are tuning servers for optimizing the image information, 8 is a reception server for responding to a viewer, and 9 is based on information from the reception server 8, A central server that retrieves target electronic book information from a plurality of storage devices 2, 3, 4, and sends the electronic book information by selecting a tuning server having a light load among the plurality of tuning servers 5, 6, 7. Each is shown.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the image processing unit 20 of the electronic book providing system for carrying out the present invention. In this example, an image reading unit 11 is provided in addition to the reception server 8, the central server 9, the tuning server 5 (6, 7), and the image storage unit 2 (3, 4). The image reading unit 11 includes, for example, a scanner, reads a book for each page with the scanner, generates original data of the electronic book, and sends the original data to the image storage unit 2 (3, 4) for storage. .

  As shown in FIG. 2, each of the tuning servers 5 (6, 7) includes an image processing unit 20 that performs overall image processing such as various image adjustments, editing, correction, enlargement, and reduction. The image processing unit 20 in this embodiment includes an image data acquisition unit 21, an inclination correction unit 22, a contrast adjustment unit 23, a brightness adjustment unit 24, a character outline adjustment unit 25, a background color adjustment unit 26, and a show-through removal processing unit. 27, a moire adjustment unit 28, a margin detection unit 29, a margin deletion processing unit 30, a display size adjustment unit 31, a rectangular line addition processing unit 32, and the like.

  The tuning server 5 (6, 7) includes a CPU that executes digital arithmetic processing according to a predetermined program when executing image processing as a tuning server, a RAM that is used as a working memory of the CPU, and a processing program. And a ROM for storing various setting values, a non-volatile memory NVM such as a flash memory, an I / F unit with the central server 9, and the like.

  Then, the CPU reads the processing program from the ROM into the main storage device, and the image data acquisition unit 21, the inclination correction unit 22, the contrast adjustment unit 23, the brightness adjustment unit 24, the character outline adjustment unit 25, the background color adjustment unit 26, the back The functions of the function units of the image removal processing unit 27, the moire adjustment unit 28, the margin detection unit 29, the margin deletion processing unit 30, the display size adjustment unit 31, and the rectangular line addition processing unit 32 are realized.

Next, the method of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
First, the method of the present invention starts based on the access from the viewer 1 to the reception server 8, and various information (name, electronic book information to be browsed, browsing device information to be used, etc.) from the viewer is recorded in the reception server 8. After that, the electronic book information to be browsed and the browsing device information to be used are sent to the central server 9.

  The central server 9 determines whether or not there is a browsing request from the viewer 1 (S1), and proceeds to the next step (S2) on the condition that it is present.

  In step S2, it is determined whether or not an electronic book is specified in the browsing request, and on the condition that there is an electronic book, the corresponding electronic book information is fetched from the plurality of storage devices 2 to 4 (S3).

  Next, it is determined whether or not the browsing request includes information on the browsing system of the browsing device (S4). If there is, the process moves to the next step S5, and the browsing server is selected and loaded in the central server 9. If not, the system waits until information on the browsing system of the browsing device is obtained.

  When the browsing system is taken in by the central server 9, the tuning server 5 (6, 7) having a low load is selected in the central server 9 and is already taken in by the selected tuning server 5 (6, 7). The image information of the current electronic book and the browsing system information of the browsing device are sent in, and the process proceeds to the next step S6.

In step S6, the image information of the electronic book is optimized based on the information of the browsing system.
The contents of this optimization processing are as shown in the broken line in FIG. 3. Image information inclination correction, contrast adjustment, brightness adjustment, character outline adjustment, background color adjustment, show-through removal processing, moire reduction or Information that determines the information area by adding a rectangular line of minimum pixels so as to surround the image information to be viewed as necessary, such as removal processing, margin removal processing, display size adjustment, and further viewing For example, area determination processing.

By such processing, easy-to-read image information with a small amount of information is generated.
In addition, since the information area is determined by the above-described rectangular line, the display area can be set based on the rectangular line, and unnecessary enlargement / reduction can be prevented.

When such optimization processing ends, the process proceeds to step S7, where it is determined whether or not there is a next page. If there is, the process proceeds to step S8 and the next page is read, and then the process returns to step S4 and subsequent steps. .
If the browsing system information is fixed, the process proceeds from step S8 to step S6.

  If it is determined in step S7 that there is no next page, the optimization process for the previous page has been completed, so all pages for which the optimization process has been completed are stored as one electronic book information (S9), A completion notification is transmitted to the viewer 1 (S10), and the browser is made ready for capturing.

Next, the blank deletion process of the image processing unit 20 will be specifically described with reference to FIGS.
As illustrated in FIG. 4, a book such as a book has a body information 51 at the center of the page 50, a document title 52 at the upper right, a subtitle 53 at the upper left, a page number 54 at the lower, and the like. It is common. In addition, it is known that there may be a shadow line or the like at the boundary of the image scanned by the scanner, for example, the boundary of the image corresponding to the edge 50a on the end side in the scanning direction corresponding to the width direction of the page 50. Yes.

In the margin deletion process of the present invention, these are also deleted as margins, and a process of cutting out an image of only the text information 51 is performed.
In this process, first, the image is converted into two gradations, each of which is a collection of black continuous points and a size of a white continuous region, as shown by rectangular frame lines 5a, 5b, 5c and 5d in FIG. It is classified into a set of Here, border 5a surrounds the text information area, border 5b surrounds the document title area, the frame line 5c surrounds the subtitle area, border 5d surrounds the page number area.

  Next, when cutting out the body information area surrounded by the frame line 5a, that is, when performing margin deletion processing, additional information such as a document title 52, a subtitle 53, a page number 54, and a shadow line (not shown) is added. Processing for determining whether or not to determine margin information will be described.

  Among the additional information, for the document title 52 and the subtitle 53, the processing for calculating the display area of the additional information by the distance from the corner of the page 50 and the relationship between the horizontal width Y and the vertical width X of the display area with respect to the page 50 are as follows. Processing to calculate and processing to determine whether or not the information is additional information based on the calculation results.

  As a specific numerical example, in the case of the document title 52, the display area is 1/5 or more outside (right end side) of the book width and outside of the book width of 1/10 or more (upper end side). In addition, a document title having a horizontal size of 5 times or more the vertical size of a collection of black dots in the display area is determined as a document title.

  In the case of the subtitle 53, the display area is outside 1/5 or more of the book width (on the left end side), outside the book width 1/10 or more (upper end side), and the display area is a black dot. A process for determining a subtitle having a horizontal size of 5 times or more of the vertical size of the group of the images is performed.

  For page number 54, a process is performed in which a region of 1/100 or less of the area of the entire page 50 is determined as a page number, which is a collection of black dots at the bottom of the page (1/5 from the bottom).

  Therefore, when these criteria are met, the margin deletion processing unit 30 of the image processing unit 20 uses the coordinates inside the document title 52, subtitle 53, and page number 54, for example, the coordinates of the frame line 5a. Is cut out, the text is substantially extracted, and the other parts are deleted from the image. If this criterion is not met, it is processed as other than margin information. Note that the above specific numerical values are set as appropriate according to the type and size of the book to be scanned.

  In the above-described embodiment, for each optimization process, image information inclination correction, contrast adjustment, brightness adjustment, character outline adjustment, background color adjustment, show-through removal process, moire reduction or removal process, blank space Deletion processing, display size adjustment, information area determination processing, etc. have been illustrated, but it is not always necessary to perform all of these processing, and some processing is performed depending on the state and type of the book to be converted. It may be omitted. However, in consideration of the peculiarity of the book printed on both sides of the paper, it is desirable to perform at least a show-through removal process and a margin removal process. As a result, a clear image display without show-through, a reduction in data amount, an improvement in display speed, and the like can be achieved.

  In addition, as for the order of the show-through removal process and the blank removal process among the optimization processes, it is desirable to perform the blank-delete process after performing the show-through removal process as in the embodiment. This is because the amount of data to be processed can be reduced and the processing speed can be improved.

  Further, in the embodiment, an example has been described in which the viewer 1 makes an electronic book browsing request via the reception server 8 and performs capture after the optimization process is completed. The central server 9 may be accessed without going through the server 8. In addition, although an example in which electronic books are provided collectively after the optimization process for all pages has been shown, the optimization process is performed in response to a page break signal from the browsing device as a constantly connected state with the browsing device. At the same time, it may be configured to transmit to the browsing device upon completion of the process.

  Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 3, a mode in which the browsing terminal 10 having a wireless communication function is directly connected to the central server 9 is also possible.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Browser 2 Storage device 3 Storage device 4 Storage device 5 Tuning server 6 Tuning server 7 Tuning server 8 Reception server 9 Central server 10 Viewing terminal 11 Image reading unit 20 Image processing unit

Claims (6)

The electronic book information image conversion, when transmitting to the viewing device of viewers based on a request from the viewer, to keep the electronic book information in a predetermined format, based on the viewing request from the viewer A method of providing an electronic book that makes the requested electronic book information an image format that is optimal for the browsing system of the browsing device, and then sets the electronic book information in a state in which it can be transmitted to the browsing device .
The optimization process includes a show-through removal process and a margin deletion process,
The image-converted electronic book information includes text information, margin information indicating a margin area outside the area where the text information is displayed, and additional information such as a title and a page number displayed in the margin area. Including
The margin deletion processing is based on the processing for calculating the display area of the additional information by the distance from the corner of the page, the processing for calculating the relationship between the horizontal width and the vertical width of the display area with respect to the page, and the calculation results thereof. And determining whether the information is additional information,
In the margin deletion process, the additional information is also deleted as margin information,
The method for providing an electronic book is characterized in that the blank deletion process is performed after the show-through removal process . The optimization process, image tilt correction, contrast adjustment, brightness adjustment, contour adjustment of characters, adjusting background color, provide e-book according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises a moiré adjustment method . A display area to be displayed using the electronic book information, a display area of the body information, after classified into a display area of the additional information, according to claim 1, characterized in that the deletion processing of the blank or 2. A method for providing an electronic book according to 2 . The margin removal process includes an information area determination process for determining a text information area by adding a rectangular line of a minimum pixel so as to surround an area displayed using the text information. The providing method of the electronic book in any one of 1-3 . Request from the viewer, provides a method of electronic book according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that performed by the communication from the viewing device. Request from the viewer, along with the carried out by communication from the viewing device, the information browsing system of the viewing device, any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that it is transmitted with the signal of the communication A method of providing an electronic book described in 1.

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