JP6175414B2 - Document processing apparatus and document processing program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a document processing apparatus and a document processing program for processing a document based on metadata.

  In recent years, information devices such as servers for registering and managing documents and image forming apparatuses (MFP, Multifunction Peripheral) have been required to have a mechanism that can efficiently manage registered documents as the number of documents handled increases. The following mechanism was developed.

  For example, in the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1, first, a document to be registered in the image forming apparatus and metadata of the document are read from a memory card, converted into a document format handled by the image forming apparatus, and the document and its metadata are converted. Accumulate. Then, the registered document is searched by comparing the keyword input by the user with the keyword registered in the metadata.

  Further, the technique disclosed in Patent Document 2 uses a keyword used for a search for a sentence to be analyzed, a phrase representing evaluation for the keyword, and an evaluation value that is totaled when the phrase appears in the sentence. Perform various analyses. A keyword in a sentence is searched, a phrase representing an evaluation around the searched keyword is extracted, and an author's evaluation for the searched keyword is obtained based on the contents of the phrase. And many evaluations obtained are aggregated and analyzed.

  In the technique disclosed in Patent Document 3, when an advertisement is distributed to a web page, words in the web page are evaluated, and an opinion on the product is determined from the word evaluation. Based on the determined opinion, an extracted summary or descriptive summary is created and entered into a template to form an advertisement for the product.

  In the technique disclosed in Patent Document 4, while a user is browsing a document (browsing document), another document is searched using a word or the like in the document as a keyword, and the user among the documents listed as a search result. The document referred to by is used as the reference document. The relationship between the browsing document and the reference document is accumulated as metadata, and various analyzes are performed.

JP 2008-299432 A JP 2011-70252 A Special table 2011-519444 gazette JP 2007-102767 A

  As described above, metadata has been used to manage and analyze a large number of documents. However, in order to share image data for the purpose of operational efficiency, metadata has not been used much.

  In view of the circumstances as described above, an object of the present invention is to provide a document processing apparatus and a document processing program that can efficiently share image data using metadata.

  To achieve the above object, a document processing apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention outputs a storage unit storing document data including at least one of character data and image data, and the stored document data. Selected by an output unit, a control unit that causes the output unit to output the stored document data for evaluation by one or more evaluators, and the one or more evaluators who evaluated the output document. An input unit that receives position information of the one or more evaluation points in the document data and an evaluation result assigned to each evaluation point, and the control unit further receives the position information received by the input unit. And storing the evaluation result in the storage unit, and extracting and sharing the image data including the evaluation part from the document data based on the stored position information . Therefore, image data can be efficiently shared using metadata.

  In order to achieve the above object, in the document processing apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention, the control unit extracts the image data including the evaluation portion from the document data based on the evaluation result in addition to the position information. The configuration may be shared.

  In order to achieve the above object, in the document processing apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention, the control unit includes, among the evaluation points, an evaluation point where the number of the assigned evaluation results exceeds a specific threshold value. The image data including the image data may be extracted.

  In order to achieve the above object, a document processing program according to an aspect of the present invention causes one or more evaluators to evaluate document data including at least one of character data and image data stored in a storage unit. Output to the output unit, and to the input unit, the position information in the document data of the evaluation point selected by the one or more evaluators who evaluated the output document data and the evaluation point And the received position information and the evaluation result are stored in the storage unit, and based on the stored position information, the image data including the evaluation portion is converted into the document data. The computer functions as a control unit that extracts and shares the information.

  As described above, according to the present invention, image data can be efficiently shared using metadata.

1 is a configuration diagram of a specific example of a use environment in a case where a document processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is realized using a general computer as a document processing server 1. FIG. It is a block diagram of the document processing server 1 used as a document processing apparatus. 1 is a configuration diagram of a specific example of a usage environment when a document processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is realized as an image forming apparatus 20. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an image forming apparatus 20 used as a document processing apparatus. This is a specific example showing how the evaluator adds a Like attribute to a specific part designated by the evaluator in the registered document in the document processing server 1 or the image forming apparatus 20. It is a specific example of metadata generated using a structured language format such as XML. 4 is a flowchart for explaining a flow of processing in a first stage in which a document to be evaluated is registered in the image forming apparatus. 10 is a flowchart for explaining a flow of processing in a second stage for evaluating a document registered in the image forming apparatus 20. FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram for explaining a specific example of a process in which two evaluators (evaluator A and evaluator B) evaluate a document in the image forming apparatus 20. It is a sequence diagram for demonstrating the specific example which the user who registers a document as a 1st step serves as the evaluator of a 2nd step, and processes a 1st step and a 2nd step collectively. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the flow of the process of the 3rd step which shares the image data contained in a document based on the metadata regarding the collected evaluation. It is a sequence diagram for demonstrating the specific example which collectively performs a 2nd step and a 3rd step. It is a sequence diagram for demonstrating the utilization example of the shared image data performed after sharing of the image data in a 3rd step.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

[Overview]
First, the outline of the present invention will be described. The present invention includes three stages: “document registration”, “evaluation of registered document”, and “utilization of document evaluation as metadata”.

  In the first stage, “document registration” is performed. Specifically, a document that the user wants to process by the document processing apparatus is registered in the document processing apparatus. The registration may be performed by reading a document printed on a paper medium with a scanner and performing OCR (Optical Character Recognition) processing to form electronic character data or image data in a document processing apparatus. A document that is data may be registered in the document processing apparatus as it is.

  In the second stage, “evaluation of registered document” is performed in the first stage. The evaluation may be performed by accessing the document processing apparatus by a member of the group to which the user who registered the document belongs, or by allowing an ordinary person unrelated to the user who registered the document to access the document processing apparatus. May be collected. The evaluation is performed by the evaluator specifying a part of the document registered in the document management apparatus and assigning a “Like” (like, high evaluation) attribute to the specified location.

  In the third stage, “use document evaluation as metadata” collected in the second stage. Specifically, among the image data included in the registered document, the image data provided with a Like attribute by many evaluators is determined to be data that should be shared for the purpose of improving business efficiency. Extract and share.

  Through the above three steps, metadata for evaluating the contents of a registered document can be easily created, and image data contained in the document can be efficiently shared using the created metadata. I can do it.

  The outline of the present invention has been described above.

[Environment using document processing device (part 1)]
Next, a specific configuration example of the usage environment when the document processing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention is realized using a general computer as a document processing server will be described. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a specific example of a usage environment when a document processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is realized using a general computer as the document processing server 1.

  In this usage environment, a document processing server 1 that is a document processing apparatus is connected to a PC (Personal Computer) 2 and an image forming apparatus 3 via a network 4. There may be a plurality of PCs 2 and image forming apparatuses 3.

  In the first stage of “document registration”, for example, a user scans a paper document using the scanner function of the image forming apparatus 3, and the document is converted into character data and image data by the OCR function of the image forming apparatus 3. The digitized document is registered in the document processing server 1 via the network 4.

  In the first stage, an electronic document including character data and image data may be registered from the PC 2 in the document processing server 1 via the network 4.

  In the second stage of performing “evaluation of registered document”, the evaluator uses a display unit and an operation input unit provided in the document processing server 1 in order to evaluate the document registered in the document processing server 1. The document is directly accessed or the document is accessed from the PC 2 via the network 4.

  In the third stage of “utilizing document evaluation as metadata,” the Like attribute associated with specific image data in the document is tabulated in the second stage, and image data is extracted based on the tabulation result. Share. In order to use the shared image data, the user directly accesses the shared image data by using the display unit or the operation input unit provided in the document processing server 1 or shares it via the network 4 by using the PC 2. Access the recorded image data.

  The specific configuration example of the usage environment has been described above in the case where the document processing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention is realized using a general computer as the document processing server 1.

[Configuration of Document Processing Apparatus (Part 1)]
Next, the configuration of the document processing server 1 used as the document processing apparatus will be described. FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of the document processing server 1 used as a document processing apparatus.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the document processing server 1 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 11, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 12, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 13, an operation input unit (input unit) 14, a network interface unit ( An output unit) 15, a display unit (output unit) 16, and a storage unit 17, and these blocks are connected via a bus 18.

  The ROM 12 stores a plurality of programs and data such as firmware for executing various processes. The RAM 13 is used as a work area for the CPU 11 and temporarily holds an OS (Operating System), various applications being executed, and various data being processed.

  The storage unit 17 is, for example, an HDD (Hard Disk Drive), a flash memory, or other nonvolatile memory. In the storage unit 17, in addition to the OS and various applications, document data 17a of a document to be registered and evaluated, metadata 17b such as a Like attribute added to a specific part by evaluating the document, and document data 17a are stored. Shared data 17c that is processed and extracted and shared based on the metadata 17b is stored. In this configuration, the shared data 17c is stored in the storage unit 17 in the document processing server 1. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and in order to share image data extracted from a document based on the metadata 17b, The extracted image data may be transmitted to an external shared server.

  The network interface unit 15 is connected to the network 4 and exchanges information with the PC 2 and the image forming apparatus 3.

  The CPU 11 expands a program corresponding to an instruction given via the operation input unit 14 or the network 4 among the plurality of programs stored in the ROM 12 or the storage unit 17 in the RAM 13, and displays the display unit according to the expanded program. 16 and the storage unit 17 are appropriately controlled.

  Further, the CPU 11 stores electronic document data input for registration by the user via the network 4 and the network interface unit 15 in the storage unit 17. Then, the CPU 11 presents the stored document data 17a to the evaluator, and stores the Like attribute added to a specific part of the document presented by the evaluator in the storage unit 17 as the metadata 17b.

  Then, the CPU 11 extracts image data to be shared from the document based on the stored metadata 17b, and stores it in the storage unit 17 as shared data 17c in order to share the extracted image data.

  The operation input unit 14 is, for example, a pointing device such as a mouse, a keyboard, a touch panel, and other operation devices.

  The display unit 16 is, for example, a liquid crystal display, an EL (Electro-Luminescence) display, a plasma display, a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) display, or the like. The display unit 16 may be built in the document processing server 1 or may be externally connected.

  The configuration of the document processing server 1 used as the document processing apparatus has been described above.

[Environment using document processing device (part 2)]
Next, a specific configuration example of the usage environment when the document processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is realized as an image forming apparatus will be described. FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a specific example of the usage environment when the document processing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention is realized as the image forming apparatus 20.

  In this usage environment, the image forming apparatus 20 that is a document processing apparatus also serves as the document processing server 1 in the above-described example. In other words, the image forming apparatus 20 integrates the functions of the document processing server 1 and the general image forming apparatus 3 described above.

  Except for the point that the image forming apparatus 20 also functions as the document processing server 1, the configuration is the same as that shown in FIG.

  The specific configuration example of the usage environment when the document processing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention is realized as the image forming apparatus 20 has been described above.

[Configuration of Document Processing Device (Part 2)]
Next, the configuration of the image forming apparatus 20 used as the document processing apparatus will be described. FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of the image forming apparatus 20 used as the document processing apparatus.

  The image forming apparatus 20 includes a control unit 21. The control unit 21 includes a CPU, a RAM, a ROM, a dedicated hardware circuit, and the like, and governs overall operation control of the image forming apparatus 20.

  The control unit 21 includes a document reading unit (scanner) 22, an image processing unit 24, an image memory 25, an image forming unit (output unit) 26, an operation unit (input unit) 27, a facsimile communication unit 28, a network interface unit (output unit). ) 29, connected to the storage unit 31 and the like. The control unit 21 performs operation control of each of the above connected units, and transmission / reception of signals or data to / from each unit.

  Further, the control unit 21 stores electronic document data input from the PC 2 in the storage unit 17 for registration by the user via the network 4 and the network interface unit 15. Alternatively, the control unit 21 performs OCR processing on the image data read by the document reading unit 22 for registration by the user, and stores the image data in the storage unit 31 as electronic document data 31a.

  Then, the control unit 21 presents the stored document data 31a to the evaluator via the display unit 27a or the network 4, and adds a Like attribute added to a specific part of the document presented by the evaluator to the metadata 31b. Is stored in the storage unit 31.

  Then, the control unit 21 extracts image data to be shared from the document based on the stored metadata 31b, and stores the extracted image data in the storage unit 31 as shared data 31c in order to share the extracted image data.

  The control unit 21 performs operation control on each function such as a scanner function, a print function, a copy function, and a facsimile transmission / reception function in accordance with a job execution instruction input from the user through the operation unit 27 or the network-connected PC 2 or the like. Controls the drive and processing of the mechanisms necessary to execute.

  Further, the control unit 21 includes an OCR processing unit 21a and the like. The OCR processing unit 21a and the like are functional blocks that are realized by the CPU executing a program loaded from the ROM or the like to the RAM.

  The OCR processing unit 21a performs OCR processing on the image data read by the document reading unit 22 and converts the image data into document data, or extracts image data such as graphs and photographs.

  The document reading unit 22 reads an image from a document.

  The image processing unit 24 performs image processing on the image data data of the image read by the document reading unit 22 as necessary. For example, the image processing unit 24 performs image processing such as shading correction in order to improve the quality after the image read by the document reading unit 22 is formed.

  The image memory 25 is an area for temporarily storing document image data obtained by reading by the document reading unit 22 and temporarily storing data to be printed by the image forming unit 26.

  The image forming unit 26 forms an image such as image data read by the document reading unit 22.

  The operation unit 27 includes a touch panel unit and operation key units that receive instructions from the user regarding various operations and processes that can be executed by the image forming apparatus 20. The touch panel unit includes a display unit (output unit) 27a such as an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) provided with a touch panel.

  The facsimile communication unit 28 includes an encoding / decoding unit, a modulation / demodulation unit, and an NCU (Network Control Unit) (not shown), and performs facsimile transmission using a public telephone line network.

  The network interface unit 29 includes a communication module such as a LAN board, and transmits and receives various data to and from a device (such as a PC) in the local area via a LAN or the like connected to the network interface unit 29.

  The storage unit 31 stores a document image read by the document reading unit 22, document data 31a, metadata 31b, and shared data 31c. The storage unit 31 is a large-capacity storage device such as an HDD. The document data 31a, metadata 31b, and shared data 31c are the same as the document data 17a, metadata 17b, and shared data 17c described above.

  In this configuration, the shared data 31c is stored in the storage unit 31 in the image forming apparatus 20. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and in order to share image data extracted from a document based on the metadata 31b, The extracted image data may be transmitted to an external shared server.

  The configuration of the image forming apparatus 20 used as the document processing apparatus has been described above.

[How to add Like attribute]
Next, in the second stage described above, the manner in which the evaluator adds a Like attribute to a specific part designated by the evaluator of the document registered in the document processing server 1 or the image forming apparatus 20 is specifically described. This will be explained with an example. FIG. 5 is a specific example showing how the evaluator adds a Like attribute to a specific part designated by the evaluator in the registered document in the document processing server 1 or the image forming apparatus 20. In the following example, the document processing server 1 is used as a document processing apparatus.

  First, it is assumed that the user A registers the document D “evaluation result report” in the document processing server 1.

  Next, the evaluator B browses the document D on the browsing screen D1 using the document evaluation application program. Then, suppose that the graph shown in the item “Test 4” in “Chapter 4 Result Report” is given a high evaluation. Specifically, the evaluator B designates a range of the graph to be evaluated on the browsing screen D1, and presses a Like button (not shown) to give an evaluation result.

  When the evaluator clicks the Like button, the document evaluation application program generates metadata 17b using a structured language format such as XML (Extensible Markup Language) as shown in FIG. 6, for example.

  In the structured language format metadata 17b, the location selected by the evaluator is image data (image), the chapter number, the XY coordinates of the selection start position, and the XY coordinates of the selection end position. Furthermore, the file name of the image data may be recorded in the <binary> tag as one meaningful file including the selected range.

  In the above, a specific example has been described in which the evaluator adds a Like attribute to a specific part designated by the evaluator in the registered document in the document processing server 1 or the image forming apparatus 20.

[Criteria to extract for sharing]
Next, the criteria for extracting which image data to be shared among the image data to which the Like attribute is given in the document will be described.

  As an extraction criterion, for example, it can be determined that a Like attribute is assigned, or that a Like attribute is assigned from a certain number or more of evaluators.

  In the present invention, it is based on the premise that image data having a portion that is evaluated by an evaluator with high evaluation is image data that can improve business efficiency by sharing. Therefore, whether or not to extract specific image data for sharing is determined based on the number of Like attributes.

  As described above, the criteria for extracting which image data to be shared among the image data having the Like attribute in the document has been described.

[Process flow]
Next, the flow of processing performed by the document processing server 1 and the image forming apparatus 20 that are document processing apparatuses will be described. 7 to 12 are a flowchart and a sequence diagram for explaining the flow of processing performed in the document processing server 1 and the image forming apparatus 20 which are document processing apparatuses.

  In the following description, the image forming apparatus 20 will be described as an example. The description will be divided into a first stage to a third stage.

<First stage (document registration)>
First, the process flow of the first stage for registering the document to be evaluated in the image forming apparatus 20 will be described. FIG. 7 is a flowchart for explaining the flow of processing in the first stage of registering a document to be evaluated in the image forming apparatus 20.

  First, it is determined whether or not the document to be registered for evaluation is printed on paper (step S1).

  If it is printed on paper (Y in step S1), the user gives an instruction to the control unit 21 via the operation unit 27, and causes the document reading unit 22 to scan a paper medium (step S2).

  Next, the control unit 21 causes the OCR processing unit 21a to perform OCR processing on the scan data (step S3). The data after the OCR process is stored in the storage unit 31.

  If the document is not printed on a paper medium (N in Step S1), or after the OCR process is completed, the document data constituting the document is composed of electronic character data and image data, and is stored in the storage unit 31 as it is. Stored (step S4).

<Second stage (evaluation of registered document)>
Next, the flow of the second stage process for evaluating a document registered in the image forming apparatus 20 will be described. FIG. 8 is a flowchart for explaining the flow of processing in the second stage for evaluating a document registered in the image forming apparatus 20.

  First, an evaluator who evaluates a document gives an instruction to the image forming apparatus 20 and selects a document to be evaluated (step S10).

  Next, the control unit 21 of the image forming apparatus 20 presents the selected document to the evaluator via the display unit 27a (step S11).

  Next, the evaluator selects a location (evaluation location) to which a highly evaluated attribute (evaluation result) is to be given in the presented document (step S12).

  Next, the evaluator pushes the Like button to the part selected in the previous step to give an evaluation attribute (step S13).

  Next, the control unit 21 of the image forming apparatus 20 stores the position information selected by the evaluator and the assigned attribute of evaluation in the storage unit 31 as metadata 31b (step S14).

<Specific example of the second stage>
Next, a specific example of processing in which two evaluators (evaluator A and evaluator B) evaluate a document in the image forming apparatus 20 will be described. FIG. 9 is a sequence diagram for describing a specific example of a process in which two evaluators (evaluator A and evaluator B) evaluate a document in the image forming apparatus 20.

  In the example shown in FIG. 13, the evaluator A and the evaluator B are accessing the image forming apparatus 20 from another PC 2, and the document selected on the PC 2 by using the above-described document evaluation application program. Shall be evaluated.

  First, the evaluator A designates the document ID and acquires the document data 31 a stored in the storage unit 31 via the network interface unit 29 and the control unit 21 of the image forming apparatus 20.

  Specifically, as illustrated in FIG. 9, first, the evaluator A transmits a document acquisition request to the network interface unit 29 by designating the document ID via the PC 2 of the evaluator A. Next, the network interface unit 29 transmits the document ID to the control unit 21. When receiving the document ID, the control unit 21 activates the document BOX service, and acquires the document data 31 a corresponding to the document ID from the storage unit 31. The control unit 21 transmits the acquired document data 31a to the PC 2 of the evaluator A via the network interface unit 29. Thereby, the evaluator A acquires the document data 31a. The document BOX service is provided to manage input / output of the document data 31a stored in the storage unit 31.

  Next, the evaluator B acquires the document data 31a in the same manner as the process performed by the evaluator A.

  Next, when the evaluator A selects a location to which an evaluation attribute is to be added from the acquired document data 31a and presses the Like button to give the evaluation attribute, the document evaluation application program running on the PC 2 is set to the metadata 31b. Is generated. (The metadata 31b may be generated on the image forming apparatus 20 or may be generated on the PC 2.)

  Next, the document evaluation application program used by the evaluator A specifies the document ID and stores the generated metadata 31b via the network interface unit 29 and the control unit 21 of the image forming apparatus 20. Store in the unit 31.

  Specifically, as illustrated in FIG. 9, first, the PC 2 of the evaluator A transmits the document ID and metadata 31 b to the network interface unit 29. Next, the network interface unit 29 transmits the document ID and metadata 31 b to the control unit 21. When the control unit 21 receives the document ID and the metadata 31b, the control unit 21 activates the document BOX service and stores the metadata 31b in the storage unit 31 in association with the document ID. Thereafter, the control unit 21 notifies the evaluator A's PC 2 that the evaluation of the evaluator A has been registered via the network interface unit 29.

  Next, the process for the evaluator B is performed in the same manner as for the evaluator A.

  When the metadata 31 b is generated on the image forming apparatus 20, the PC 2 transmits a document ID and a request to generate the metadata 31 b (including the assigned evaluation attribute and location information) to the network interface unit 29. Then, the network interface unit 29 transmits a document ID and metadata 31b generation request to the control unit 21. The control unit 21 generates the metadata 31b in response to the generation request.

<Specific example of performing the first stage and the second stage together>
Next, a specific example will be described in which a user who registers a document as the first stage also serves as an evaluator in the second stage and processes the first stage and the second stage together. FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram for explaining a specific example in which a user who registers a document as the first stage serves as an evaluator in the second stage and processes the first stage and the second stage together. is there.

  First, the user instructs the control unit 21 to digitize a document printed on paper via the operation unit 27.

  Next, the control unit 21 gives an instruction to the document reading unit 22 to scan the document.

Next, the control unit 21 gives an instruction to the OCR processing unit 21a, converts the scanned image data into character data, and generates document data.
Next, the control unit 21 displays the generated document data on the display unit 27a of the operation unit 27 for preview confirmation.

  Next, as the evaluator, the user selects a portion to which an evaluation attribute is to be assigned, and assigns a highly evaluated attribute to the selected location.

  Next, the control unit 21 generates metadata 31b including the position information of the location selected by the user and the evaluation attribute.

  Next, based on a user instruction, the control unit 21 stores the generated document data 31 a and metadata 31 b in the storage unit 31.

  Finally, the control unit 21 displays on the display unit 27a that the evaluation of the evaluator A has been registered.

<Stage 3 (using document evaluation as metadata)>
Next, the flow of the third stage process for sharing the image data included in the document based on the collected metadata relating to evaluation will be described. FIG. 11 is a flowchart for explaining the flow of processing in the third stage for sharing image data included in a document based on the collected metadata relating to evaluation.

  First, the control unit 21 searches the position information of the part to which the metadata 31b is assigned with respect to the document including the image data to be shared, and one of the parts to which the metadata 31b is assigned based on the search result. Is selected (step S20).

  Next, the control unit 21 determines whether or not the total number of high evaluation results given to the selected location exceeds a specific threshold value (step S21).

  When the total number of high evaluations assigned to the selected location exceeds a specific threshold (Y in step S21), a meaningful unit (here, one image file) including the selected location is shared. In order to do so, it extracts (step S22). In addition, although the location where the total number of high evaluations exceeds a specific threshold is extracted here, the configuration is not limited to this configuration, and a configuration in which an evaluation location with location information is extracted may be used. The structure which extracts the evaluation location with a result may be sufficient.

  Next, the control unit 21 determines whether there is still a part to which the metadata 31b is assigned (step S23).

  If there is still a location to which the metadata 31b is assigned (Y in step S23), the control unit 21 selects the next location to which the metadata 31b is assigned (step S24), and returns to the process of step S21.

<Specific example of performing the second stage and the third stage together>
Next, a specific example in which the second stage and the third stage are performed together will be described. FIG. 12 is a sequence diagram for explaining a specific example in which the second stage and the third stage are performed together. In the figure, in the second stage, the process in which the PC 2 used by the evaluator A acquires the document to be evaluated by the evaluator A from the image forming apparatus 20 is omitted.

  First, the evaluator A selects a portion to be evaluated from the image data in the acquired document.

  Then, the evaluator A gives a highly evaluated evaluation to the selected location by pressing the Like button.

  Next, the document evaluation application program of the PC 2 generates the metadata 31b using the position information of the selected location and the highly evaluated attribute assigned to the selected location.

  Next, the document evaluation application program of the PC 2 transmits the generated metadata 31b to the network interface unit 29 of the image forming apparatus 20 together with the document ID of the document evaluated.

  The control unit 21 that has received the metadata 31 b via the network interface unit 29 stores the metadata 31 b in the storage unit 31.

  Next, the control unit 21 determines whether or not the image data indicated by the metadata 31b satisfies the criteria to be shared, based on the stored metadata 31b.

  When the image data satisfies the criteria to be shared, the control unit 21 stores the metadata 31b in the storage unit 31 as the shared data 31c.

  The flow of processing performed by the document processing server 1 and the image forming apparatus 20 that are document processing apparatuses has been described above.

[Examples of using shared image data]
Next, a utilization example of shared image data performed after sharing of image data in the third stage will be described. FIG. 13 is a sequence diagram for explaining an example of utilization of shared image data performed after sharing of image data in the third stage.

  First, the user causes the document reading unit 22 of the image forming apparatus 20 to scan a paper document on which image data to be combined with the shared image data is printed.

  That is, the user instructs the control unit 21 to digitize a document printed on paper via the operation unit 27, and the control unit 21 instructs the document reading unit 22 to scan the document.

  Next, the control unit 21 gives an instruction to the OCR processing unit 21a, converts the scanned image data into character data, and generates document data.

  Next, the control unit 21 displays the generated document data on the display unit 27a of the operation unit 27 for preview confirmation.

  Next, the user instructs the control unit 21 via the operation unit 27 of the image forming apparatus 20 to present a list of image data used for composition to the user. In response to the instruction, the control unit 21 acquires a list of image data used for composition from the storage unit 31 and displays the list on the display unit 27a.

  Next, the user selects image data used for image synthesis from the presented list of image data via the operation unit 27.

  Next, the user instructs the control unit 21 via the operation unit 27 of the image forming apparatus 20 to acquire image data used for composition. The control unit 21 acquires the image data selected from the list according to the instruction from the storage unit 31.

  Next, the control unit 21 instructs the image processing unit 24 to combine the acquired image data with the image data of the first scanned paper document.

  Next, the image processing unit 24 combines a plurality of image data.

  Next, the image data synthesized by the user is previewed.

  In the above, the utilization example of the shared image data performed after the image data sharing in the third stage has been described.

[Additional notes]
In addition, this invention is not limited only to the above-mentioned embodiment, Of course, various changes can be added within the range which does not deviate from the summary of this invention.

1 ... Document processing server 2 ... PC
3 ... Image forming apparatus 4 ... Network 11 ... CPU
12… ROM
13 ... RAM
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 14 ... Operation input part 15 ... Network interface part 16 ... Display part 17 ... Memory | storage part 18 ... Bus 20 ... Image forming apparatus 21 ... Control part 22 ... Document reading part 24 ... Image processing part 25 ... Image memory 26 ... Image forming part 27 Operation unit 27a Display unit 28 Facsimile communication unit 29 Network interface unit 31 Storage unit

Claims (6)

A storage unit storing document data including at least image data ;
An output unit for outputting the stored document data;
A control unit that causes the output unit to output the stored document data to allow one or more evaluators to evaluate the document data;
Position information as a range based on selection start coordinates and selection end coordinates in the document data of one or more evaluation places selected by the one or more evaluators who evaluated the output document and the evaluation places And an input unit for receiving the evaluation result assigned to each,
The control unit further includes:
The image data including the range based on the position information received by the input unit is set as one file, and the position information and the evaluation result received by the input unit, and a file name of the image data as one file are included. Generating metadata, storing the metadata in the storage unit,
Based on the position information included in the stored metadata, the image data including the range is extracted from the document data, the extracted image data is stored as shared data in the storage unit, and the extraction is performed. Processing device for sharing the image data . The document processing apparatus according to claim 1,
A display unit and a document reading unit for reading the document;
The control unit displays a list of the shared image data on the display unit, and synthesizes the image data selected from the list with image data of a document read by the document reading unit. . The document processing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2 ,
The controller is
A document processing apparatus that extracts and shares the image data including the evaluation portion from the document data based on the evaluation result in addition to the position information. The document processing apparatus according to claim 1, 2, or 3 ,
The controller is
The document processing apparatus that extracts the image data including an evaluation portion in which the number of assigned evaluation results exceeds a specific threshold among the evaluation portions. Document data stored in the storage unit including at least image data is output to the output unit in order to have one or more evaluators evaluate it,
Position information as a range based on a selection start coordinate and a selection end coordinate in the document data of an evaluation location selected by the one or more evaluators who evaluated the output document data in the input unit; Accept the evaluation result given to the evaluation location,
The image data including the range based on the received position information is set as one file, and metadata including the received position information and the evaluation result , and a file name of the image data as one file is generated. And storing the metadata in the storage unit,
Based on the position information included in the stored metadata, the image data including the range is extracted from the document data, the extracted image data is stored as shared data in the storage unit, and the extraction is performed. A document processing program that allows a computer to function as a control unit that shares image data . A document processing program according to claim 5,
Display a list of the shared image data on the display,
The image data selected from the list is combined with the image data of the document read by the document reading unit that reads the document.
To make a computer function as a control unit
Document processing program.

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