JPH02234273A - Picture information processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the convenience to use of a processor by retrieving pictures on both surfaces by means of a single piece of retrieve information when the pictures on the front and rear surfaces of an original are read and processed. CONSTITUTION:A CPU 1, a ROM 2, which stores a control program to operate the CPU 1, a RAM 3 to construct retrieve information, a keyboard 4, picture readers 5 to 7, an optical disk 8, which stores read picture data and inputted retrieve data, display devices 9 and 10, and an expanding part 11 to expand the compressed picture data constitute a picture information processor. Further the front surface picture of the original and the rear surface picture are stored into the optical disk 8 as one unit, and based on a single retrieve information, the front surface picture and the rear surface picture can be retrieved. Thus the picture information such as a check or a bill, whose front and rear surfaces are to be processed as one body, can be easily processed, and the convenience to use of the processor can be improved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to an image information processing device, such as an image information file device, which has a function of reading, storing, and searching images of a large number of objects.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, when an image information processing device handles an image of a subject that has images on both sides, consecutive numbers are assigned to the front and back sides, and the images on the front side and the images on the back side are separated into consecutive and separate images. Images, that is, images on the front and back sides, were treated as images of different page units.

[Problem to be solved by the invention] However, if images on both sides are treated as images on different pages as described above, the front and back sides are continuous, for example, like a bill with an endorsement for the content on the front side. If you want to handle the front and back sides of a single sheet at once, rather than separate pages, if you use page units, the front and back sides will be separated and information on only one side will be lost, or if you want to handle only the front side in order. When you want to search, you have to deal with every other page, which has the disadvantage of making it difficult to understand.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides an image reading means for reading an image of a document, a search information generating means for generating search information corresponding to the read image information, and the above-mentioned method. Storage means for storing image information read by the image reading means and search information generated in a storage medium; and information for searching information matching specified conditions from among the search information stored in the storage means. In an image information processing apparatus equipped with a search means and an image information reading means for reading out image information corresponding to the retrieved search information, a process of storing an image of the front side and an image of the back side of the document in the storage medium as one wheel. The apparatus is equipped with a means for searching front and back images of one document based on one piece of search information.

[Function] With the above configuration, the present invention can handle images on the front and back sides of a document as one, thereby improving the usability of the apparatus.

[Example] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a first embodiment of the present invention.

1 is a CPU, 2 is a ROM that stores a control program for operating the CPU 1, and 3 is a RAM for constructing search information. 4 is a keyboard for inputting search keywords etc. when reading images or searching;
5, 6, and 7 are image reading devices, 7 is an image reading section on the front side of the object equipped with a line image sensor consisting of a plurality of light receiving elements, 7 is an image reading section on the back side, and 5 is a control section for the two image reading sections. It is. 8 is the image data read by the image reading device and the keyboard 4;
This is an optical disc that stores search data input from the computer and other information. Reference numerals 9 and 10 denote display devices for displaying keywords being searched and searched image information, which are composed of a liquid crystal display board 10 and a control section 9 thereof, and the control section 9 has a VRAM for developing images to be displayed. ing. Reference numeral 11 denotes a decompression unit that decompresses compressed image data stored on the optical disc.

Hereinafter, the operation according to the present invention will be explained based on the flowchart shown in FIG.

When a double-sided original image is read and stored on the optical disk 8, first, a keyword 20 for later searching for the original to be read is entered manually from the keyboard 4 (S1). The manually generated keyword 20 is temporarily stored in RAM3 (S
2) (Figure 2). When the image reading operation starts (S
3) Image reading units 6 and 7 provided on both sides of the document travel path read the front and back images of the document O, respectively.
Each line is converted into a corresponding analog electrical signal and output to the reading control section 5 and display control section 9. The reading control unit 5 combines the image signals of both sides into a set for each line (S4), compresses and encodes the signal (S5), and temporarily stores it in the RAM 3 (S6).

The display control unit 9 develops the read image into VRAM,
It is displayed on the display board 10. Note that the combination of image signals from both sides is performed as follows.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing details of the image reading device shown in FIG. 1. Reference numeral 53 denotes a selector that selects and outputs the image signal outputted from the image reading section 6.7 on a line-by-line basis. 54 is an A/D converter that converts the analog image signal output from the selector 53 into an image signal of a digital value of a predetermined number of bits for each pixel. 57 is a binarization comparator which outputs a signal of 1 if the value of the digital image signal from the A/D converter 54 is larger than a predetermined value, and outputs a signal of O if it is smaller than a predetermined value.

When the image reading operation is started, the image reading sections 6 and 7 provided on the front and back sides of the document travel path respectively convert the front and back images of the document 0 into corresponding analog electrical signals every 7 lines. , is output to the selector 53.

In this selector 3, image signals for the front and back sides of the original y40 supplied from the front and back image reading units 6 and 7 are alternately switched line by line by a timing signal generated by a timing controller 56.

That is, surface image signals 01, 02, . . . as shown in FIG.
. . . and back side image signals Ul, U2, . . . as shown in FIG. 5B.
... are synthesized as shown in FIG. 5C and output to the A/D converter 54.

The A/D converter 54 converts the image signals of the front side and the back side, which are switched and manually inputted line by line by the selector 53, into digital signals and outputs the digital signals.

The binarization comparator 57 compares the value of the digital signal from the A/D converter 54 with a predetermined value, and outputs 1 or O.

55 is a data compressor that compresses the binarized image signal. The data compressor 55 receives the start timing and end timing of image reading from the timing controller 56, compresses data line by line during reading, and outputs the compressed data. This data compression process uses the well-known MH (Modified Huffman) encoding method, in which the image signal on the front side and the image signal on the back side are compressed and encoded line by line alternately, and the output is The compressed data that is output as a continuous signal string is
The front and back sides cannot be easily separated, and the total amount of data can be reduced.

Furthermore, regarding the signal between the front side 1 line and the back side 1 line,
The number of line delimiters can be reduced by controlling the timing controller 56 so as not to insert line delimiters in between, and to compress and encode the front and back sides together as one line, as shown in FIG. 5D. Furthermore, it is also possible to effectively utilize two-dimensional compression encoding methods with higher compression rates, such as MR encoding and MMR encoding.

The compressed code output from the data compressor 55 is RA
Stored in M3.

When the reading of the original image is completed (S7), as shown in FIG. (4 lb in this case), and the image information in which the front image and the back image are combined is written on the optical disc 8 (S8). Furthermore, the free space of the search information area 30 on the optical disc (in this case, 3 lb,
keyword 32b stored on the RAM 3 in the image information (compression method, recording date, etc.) 33b,
Write the address number 34b of the image information storage area (S
9). If an image is read using the same keyword as a previously stored keyword, the image read later is considered to be continuous after the previously read image. For example, 31c Create search information with the same keyword and pointer information to other image information, such as .

The case of searching for necessary information from the optical disc 8 will be explained based on the flowchart of FIG. As shown in FIG. 8, first, search information for an image to be searched is input from the keyboard 4 (Sll).

For example, if you input a keyword and want to see a list of search information that matches that keyword, the input search information is temporarily stored in the RAM 3 (312). Based on the keyword 50 stored in the RAM 3, the CPU searches for a matching keyword in the search information area 30 on the optical disc 8 (513). If a match is found (
S14). The matching search information is retrieved and the display control unit 9
send to The display control unit 9 sequentially displays the sent search result information on the liquid crystal display board 10 (S15). Searches can use not only keywords but also other attributes such as dates.

Also, if you want to see the searched image information (S17),
After finding the search information that matches the keyword, the image information is extracted using the number of the image information area in the search result information, and the data decompression unit 11 decompresses and decodes it (S19).
The decompressed image information is stored in the RAM (S20), sent to the display control section 9, developed in the VRAM, and displayed on the liquid crystal display board 10. In this case, since the read image information is both front and back, it can be displayed on both sides at the same time, or one side can be specified externally using a keyboard, etc., or one side can be automatically selected, so that only one side is displayed. You can.

This front and back surface can be distinguished by extracting the front half and rear half of the image information of each expanded line, respectively. In this state, if you want to see the next image that matches the keyword, you will further search for an image that matches the keyword in the search information area, and if found, display it in the same way as described above.

In this way, since there is only one piece of search information per sheet, there is no need to consider the front and back sides separately and be conscious of the number of pages.

In the tree example, the searched information is displayed, but it may also be sent to the outside using a communication line or printed using a printer. Furthermore, information to be searched may be entered not only using the keyboard but also manually from a distance using a communication line, or may be read from an external storage device such as a floppy disk device.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of the second embodiment of the wooden invention.

1 is a CPU, 2 is a ROM that stores control programs etc. for operating the CPUI, 3 is a RAM for constructing search information, 4 is a computer that manually inputs search keywords etc. when reading images or searching. keyboard for, 5
'． 6 is an image reading device, 6 is an image reading section for the subject, and 5 is a control section for the image reading section, which, unlike the first embodiment, reads only one side of the subject. Reference numeral 8 denotes an optical disk for storing image data read by the image reading device, search data entered manually from the keyboard 4, and others. , 9.10 is a display device for displaying keywords being searched and image information searched, and is composed of a liquid crystal display panel 10 and a control section 9 thereof, and has a VRAM for developing images to be displayed. Reference numeral 11 is a decompression unit that decompresses compressed information.

The operation according to the present invention will be explained below.

The case where double-sided original images are read and stored on the optical disk 8 will be explained based on the flowchart of FIG. First, a keyword 20 for later searching for a document to be read is entered manually from the keyboard 4 (s31). The manually entered keyword 20 is temporarily stored in the RAM 3 (S32) (FIG. 2). The image reading operation begins with only the front image 1.
Each line is converted into a corresponding analog electrical signal and sent to the control unit 5°. Control section 5° inserts 8-1.8-2 pages. After reading the images on the front and back sides of the original, the CP
The UI retrieves the compressed and encoded image information from the RAM 3 (S42). Similarly to FIG. 6, a free area in the image information area 40 on the optical disk 8 is searched out (in this case, it is designated as 41c), and the image information is written on the optical disk 8 (S43). Furthermore, the search information area 30 on the optical disc
The keyword 32c and image information attributes stored in the RAM 3 in a free area (31c in this case) are structured as shown in FIG.

54 is an A/D converter that converts the analog image signal output from the image reading section 6 into a digital image signal of predetermined bits for each pixel. 57 is a binary comparator that outputs a signal of 1 if the value of the digital image signal from the A/D converter 54 is larger than a predetermined value, and 0 if it is smaller than a predetermined value. 58 is a memory for storing binarized image data.

5 is a data compressor that compresses image data.

First, the document is transported with the front side of the double-sided document 0 as the reading surface, and an image of only the front surface is read line by line (S33).

The read surface image signal is converted into a digital signal by the A/D converter 54 as shown by the broken line arrow in FIG. Temporarily stored in the memory 58 (S34)
.

When the image on the front side has been read (S35), the same double-sided original 0 is transported with the back side as the reading surface.
The image of only the back side is read line by line (S36). The image signal read from the back side is converted into a digital signal by the A/D converter 54 as indicated by the dashed-dot line arrow in FIG. (S37), but after the image signal for the last line on the back side (here, the 1024th line) is input (338), the image signal is transferred from the memory 58 without ending the manual input of the image signal. The image signals on the front surface are sequentially read out (S39) and input manually to the data compressor 55 as indicated by the two-dot chain arrow in FIG. 11 (S40). In other words, the force shown in FIG. 12 should be applied. With this, even if one side is read at a time, the image data of both sides can be compressed as one set. The compressed image is stored in RAM3 (S41). In addition, in the case of this embodiment, all the read image data are arranged and stored in the memory 58 in the order of reading, and after the reading operation is completed, the data are stored in the memory 58.
Alternatively, the data may be extracted from and input to the data compressor 55.

In this case, as many pieces of image data as the memory capacity allows, it is possible to group together any number of image data, so that, for example, documents with multiple pages can be handled without worrying about missing pages.

(Compression method, recording date, etc.) 63c and the number 34c of the image information storage area are written (S44).

Searching for necessary information from the optical disc 8 is the same as in the first embodiment (FIG. 7), so the explanation will be omitted.

Furthermore, when displaying, the front image and the back image can be identified by counting the number of lines. That is, in this embodiment, after counting 1024 lines, the front side and the back side may be separated.

In the second embodiment, the front image and the back image are combined and compressed, but the front and back images may be compressed separately. The processing in that case will be briefly explained.

The case where double-sided original images are read and stored on the optical disk 8 will be explained based on the flowchart of FIG. 13. First, a keyword 20 for later searching for a document to be read is entered manually using the keyboard 4 (S 5 1 ). The manually generated keyword 20 is temporarily stored in the RAM 3 (S52
) (Figure 2). In the image reading operation, first, only the image on the front surface is converted line by line into a corresponding analog electrical signal, and the signal is output to the control section 5. In the control unit 5, the read surface image signal is converted into a digital signal by the A/D converter 54, binarized by the binarization comparator 57, and compressed and encoded by the data compressor (S54). ,
It is stored in RAM3 (S55). In this case, memory 58 in FIG. 11 is not used.

When the image on the front side of the document has been read (356)
As shown in FIG. 14, cput retrieves the compressed and encoded image information from the RAM 3 (S57) and takes it out from the optical disc 8.
A free space in the upper image information area 40 is found (in this case, it is designated as 71c), and the image information is written onto the optical disc 8 (358). Furthermore, search information area 3 on the optical disc
Keyword 62c stored on RAM3 in the empty area of 0 (61c in this case), information 63c of the number of image of the corresponding keyword and front or back (F2 is 2
(representing the table of the first sheet), image information attributes (compression method, recording date, etc.) 64c, and image information storage area number 71c are written (S59). Next, the subject is turned over, the back image is read, and placed on the optical disk 8 in the same manner as the front image. The image information is written in 71d and the search information is written in 61d (360-S66) (82 in 63d represents the back side of the second sheet). In other words, the same search information is automatically assigned to the two consecutively read images, and identification information for the front and back sides is assigned to each image. New search information can be input for the third image.

The case of searching for necessary information from the optical disc 8 is shown in the 15th section.
The explanation will be based on the flowchart shown in the figure. As shown in Fig. 16, first input the search information for the image you want to search from the keyboard 4 (371). The information is temporarily stored in the RAM 3 (S72). The CPU searches the search information area 30 on the optical disk 8 based on the keyword 50 stored in the RAM 3.
Only the search information on the front surface is searched for with matching keywords (S73). If a match is found (S 7
4) Extract the matching search information and send it to the display control unit 9
send to The display control unit 9 sequentially displays the sent information on the liquid crystal display board 1o (575). Searches can use not only keywords but also other attributes such as dates.

If you want to see image information (S77), after finding search information that matches the keyword, extract the image information using the number of the image information area in the search information (378),
The data is sent to the decompression unit l1, decompressed and decoded (S79), sent to the display control unit 9, expanded to the VRAM, and displayed on the liquid crystal display board 10 (S80). Decide in advance whether to display the front or back side, or allow input from the keyboard when searching. If you want to see the other side of the displayed side,
When a command to that effect is issued (S81.85), a sheet with the same number and the opposite side is searched from the field 63 indicating the sheet number and front and back sides, and the image is read out using the corresponding search information ( S82), decompresses and decodes (S63), and displays (S84). In this state, if you want to see the next image with the matching keyword (S86), you will further search for an image with the matching keyword and the same face in the search report area, and if found, display it in the same way as described above. In this example, there is one search information for each image plane, but the search information management method allows it to be handled in units of one sheet.

In the tree example, the searched information is displayed, but it may also be sent to the outside using a communication line or printed using a printer. In addition, the information you want to search for can be retrieved manually from a distance using 8 communication lines, or connected to an external storage device such as a floppy disk device, in addition to using the keyboard. .

In addition, if the image reading unit is equipped with a device that automatically flips the front and back sides of the document after reading one side of the subject, such as a document feeder, it is possible to feed one document, read the front side, and use an optical disc. 8, the CPU 1 issues a document reversal command to the document feeder, the document is reversed, the back side is read, and the image is stored on the optical disk 8. There is no need to be aware of the front and back sides of the subject when reading them, which prevents mistakes and makes operations easier.

[Effects] As explained above, according to the present invention, when reading and handling images of the front and back sides of a document, it is possible to search for images on each side with just one search information. It is possible to easily handle the image information that is desired to be handled by integrating the front and back sides of the image information, and the usability of the device can be improved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a state of keyword assignment, FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an image registration operation, and FIG. 4 is a detailed diagram of a reading control unit.
Fig. 5 is a diagram showing how front and back images are combined, Fig. 6 is a diagram showing image registration operation, Fig. 7 is a flowchart showing image search operation, and Fig. 8 is a diagram showing image search operation. ,
FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a second embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing an image registration operation, and FIG.
12 is a diagram showing how front and back images are combined, FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing image search operation, FIG. 14 is a diagram showing image registration operation, and FIG. 15 is a detailed diagram of the reading control unit. The figure is a flowchart showing the image search operation, and FIG. 16 is a diagram showing the image search operation. 1 is a CPU, 3 is a RAM, 5.5° is a reading control unit, 6.
7 is a reading section, 8 is an optical disk, 9 is a display control section, 1
0 is a display board. Oro number? Dankutun Q, et al. Relationship with the name and address of the person making the amendment Patent applicant 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo (100) Canon Inc. Representative Kei Yamaji 34. Agent residence: 3-30-25 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo 146. Specification to be amended 6. Contents of amendment (1) "Information attribute" on the 14th line is deleted from "8-1..." on the 4th line on page 13 of the specification. (2) The 18th line of page 15 is amended as follows. “When the images on the front and back sides of the document are finished reading, the CPU
1 takes out the compressed and encoded image information from the RAM 3 (S42), searches for an empty area in the image information area 40 on the optical disc 8 in the same way as in FIG.
1c), and write the image information to the optical disc 8 (
3 4 3). Furthermore, the free space of the search information area 30 on the optical disc (
31c in this case), keyword 32c stored on RAM 3, image information attributes (compression method, recording date, etc.) 63c, and image information storage.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) An image reading means for reading an image of a document, a search information generation means for generating search information corresponding to the read image information, and a storage medium for storing the image information read by the image reading means and the search information generated. information retrieval means for retrieving information matching specified conditions from among the retrieval information stored in the storage means; and image information for reading out image information corresponding to the retrieved retrieval information. An image information processing device equipped with a reading means, comprising a processing means for storing an image of the front side and an image of the back side of the document as one unit in the storage medium, and reads a front side image of one document based on one piece of search information. An image information processing device characterized by being able to search for images on the back side. (2) The image information processing apparatus according to claim (1), wherein the processing means includes means for compressing a front side image and a back side image as a set.