JPH03116380A - Picture storage device and stored picture retrieving device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain sufficient retrieving speed by preparing a changed picture changing the size and the resolution of a picture and storing the plural changed pictures as one synthesized picture into a storing means. CONSTITUTION:An electronic filing device is equipped with a control module 10, memory module 12, picture processing module 14, communication control module 16, scanner 18 and optical disk device 22, etc. Each time source pictures for the unit of four pages of one document are stored in an optical disk 20 at the time of picture registration, one synthesized picture synthesizing those reduced pictures is stored in the optical disk and when high-speed retrieval is executed, the pictures are displayed at high speed by using the synthesized picture. Thus, when the retrieval is executed, the sufficiently high retrieving speed can be obtained, operability is improved and the picture can be easily observed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to an image storage device and an image storage retrieval device, such as an image filing device that performs image registration, retrieval, etc., for example.

(Prior Art) In recent years, images such as documents, which are generated in large quantities, are read by a scanner (two-dimensional scanning device), the read images are stored on an optical disk, and any stored image is searched and read out. An image filing device has been put into practical use that outputs the image so that it can be viewed by an output device such as a CRT display device or a recording device.

With such devices, high-speed continuous search (discrete turning)
In other words, page turning is performed at high speed by sequentially displaying every six pages of a plurality of documents on a CRT display device.

However, this kind of disjointed flipping causes the search image to be CR
When displaying on a T-display device, images are read out one by one from an optical disk and displayed, and if the images are displayed continuously, it is not fast enough, and this display speed is a drawback when searching for the desired image. It has become.

Therefore, there has been a drawback that a sufficient search speed cannot be obtained when sequentially turning the pages in pieces.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) As described above, the present invention eliminates the drawback of not being able to obtain sufficient search speed when searching and displaying arbitrary plural images. An object of the present invention is to provide an image storage device and an image storage retrieval device that can obtain sufficient search speed when searching and displaying images.

C. Configuration of the Invention (Means for Solving the Problem) The image storage device of the invention includes a supply means for supplying an image;
A storage means for storing the image from the supply means, a creation means for creating a modified image by changing the size and resolution of the image supplied by the supply means, and a storage means for storing a plurality of images in the storage means. , processing means for storing a plurality of modified images created by the creation means as one composite image in the storage means.

The image storage and retrieval device of the present invention stores a plurality of images in a storage means, and stores search information for searching each image corresponding to each of these images in the storage means,
In the device which retrieves a desired image from the storage means and displays it on the display means based on the specification of the stored search information, a supply means for supplying the image, the size and resolution of the image from the image supplied by the supply means; a first process of storing the plurality of changed images created by the creation means in the storage means as one composite image when storing the plurality of images in the storage means; and a second means for sequentially reading out composite images of changed images stored corresponding to the images from the storage means and displaying them on the display means when searching for a plurality of images by specifying the search information. It consists of processing means.

(Operation) When storing an image supplied by the supplying means in the storage means, the present invention creates a changed image in which the size and resolution of the image are changed, and combines the created plurality of changed images into one image.
Two synthesis i2! iiR, and this composite image is stored in the storage means as a page-turning image.

This invention stores a plurality of images in a storage means, stores search information for searching each image corresponding to each of these images in the storage means, and specifies the stored search information to search for a desired image. In the apparatus for retrieving an image from the storage means and displaying it on the display means, when storing the image supplied by the supply means in the storage means, a modified image is created by changing the size and resolution of the image; A plurality of changed images that have been changed are made into one composite image, and this composite image is stored in the storage means as a page turning image, and when a plurality of images are searched by specifying the above search information, the composite image is The synthesized image of the changed images stored in the stored changed images is sequentially read out from the storage means and displayed on the display means.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the configuration of an image storage device and an image storage retrieval device, such as an electronic filing device, according to the present invention. That is, the electronic filing device includes a control module 10, a memory module 12, an image processing module 14, a communication control module 16, a scanner device 18, an optical disk (storage means) 20, an optical disk device 22,
Keyboard 23, CRT display device (display means)
24, a printer device 25, a magnetic disk 26 and a magnetic disk device 27, a mouse 29, a system bus 30, and an image bus 32.

The control module 10 includes a CPU 34 that performs various controls for image storage, search, and editing processing, and an interface circuit 36 that connects the optical disk device 22, magnetic disk device 27, and CPU 34.

Further, a keyboard 23 and a mouse 29 are connected to the CPU 34.

The memory module 12 includes a main memory 38 that stores various control programs such as image storage, search, and editing, management information, etc., and a page memory as an image memory having a storage capacity corresponding to images of several pages of an A4-sized document. 40
, and display memory 4 as a display interface
2 and a display control m544. A buffer 7 memory area 41 is provided in a part of the page memory 40. The page memory 40 is provided with an image data storage area 40a for temporarily storing, for example, an image stored on the previous disk 20 or an image read from the optical disk 20, and a composite image storage area 40b for storing a composite image to be described later.

The display memory 42 is for temporarily storing images displayed by the CRT display device 24. This display memory 42 stores images that are actually displayed within the display window of the CRT display device 24, such as images from the page memory 40 or images from the buffer memory 41. An image that has undergone black-and-white inversion or the like is stored.

The image processing module 14 includes an enlargement/reduction circuit 46 that performs image enlargement and reduction processing, an aspect conversion circuit 48 that performs image rotation processing, and an encoding processing that performs image compression (reducing redundancy) and decompression. A compression/decompression circuit (COD) that performs decoding processing (restores reduced redundancy)
EC) 50, a scanner interface 52 for the scanner device 18, a printer interface 54 for the printer device 25, an enlargement/reduction circuit 46, and an aspect/horizontal conversion circuit 48 are connected to a compression/expansion circuit 50, a scanner interface 52, and a printer interface 54. It is constituted by an internal bus 56.

The compression/decompression circuit 50
ul'f'l1lan) method, or M R (M o
Bandwidth compression using the dlfledRead) method etc.
Alternatively, band expansion is performed.

The communication control module 16 is connected to a LAN, for example.
onProcessor) and the like. The communication control module 16 also includes an FCP (Facsimile Connection Mechanism) and a UCP (Universal Commun) that is connected to external devices such as a personal computer via an interface.
cationProcessor) may be provided.

The system bus 30 is a bus for control signals of various devices, and connects the control module 10, the memory module 12, the image processing module 14, and the communication control module 16. Further, the image bus 32 is a bus for images, and includes the memory module 12 and the image processing module 14.
, and the communication control module 16.

The scanner device 18 is, for example, a two-dimensional scanning device, and is a document (
By scanning the document two-dimensionally with a laser beam, an electrical signal corresponding to the image on the document is obtained.

The optical disk device 22 sequentially stores images read by the scanner device 18 on an optical disk 20. It also searches the optical disc 20 for an image corresponding to search information specified using the keyboard 23 or the like.

The keyboard 23 is used to input unique search information corresponding to the image to be stored on the optical disc 20 and various operation commands such as storage, search, and editing processing. Also mouse 2
For example, by arbitrarily moving a cursor (not shown) displayed on the display window of the CRT display device 24 in the vertical and horizontal directions and giving an instruction at a desired position, the cursor position can be displayed. It is used to select or instruct contents (various operation modes, area designation for image editing, icons, etc.).

The CRT display device (cathode ray tube display device) 24 is
Images read by the scanner device 18 and the optical disc 2
The image searched from 0 is displayed, and for example, the display size is "A4" and the resolution is 200 dpi. Icons and the like are displayed at the upper end, lower end, and right end of the display window of the CRT display cover 24.

Further, the CRT display device 24 is a multi-window type display device that can display images simultaneously using one, two, or four windows.

Editing processes such as enlarging, reducing, rotating, scrolling, etc. are performed on the images displayed in each display window independently. The CRT display device 24 is designed to display a composite image during a search as a means of high-speed search.

Composite image display is a method of rapidly displaying composite images of multiple pages in document order among a group of candidate documents during a search. The composite image is composed of four pages worth of images, which are images of the same document.

The printer device 25 prints out (hard copy) an image read by the scanner device 18, an image retrieved from the optical disk 20, or an image displayed on the CRT display device 24.

The magnetic disk device 27 is an optical disk that stores various control programs on a magnetic disk 26 mounted on the magnetic disk device 27, and stores search information input from the keyboard 23 and original images corresponding to this search information. It stores search data consisting of storage addresses on the optical disk 20, image size, search frequency, storage addresses of page-turning images on the optical disk 20, etc.

The above search data is managed by a document management table in the magnetic disk 26, and this document management table is composed of a title management table 26a, a 5-page image management table 26b1, and a composite image management table 26c.

The title management table 26a stores one document number corresponding to each piece of search information (image name) consisting of a plurality of search keys. The above page image management table 26b
As shown in FIG. 3, the storage address (storage start position) and document size (image size) of the original image on the optical disk 20 are stored for each page of one document. As shown in FIG. 4, the composite image management table 26c stores a document number, an index number, and a storage address (storage start position) of the composite image on the optical disc 20 in a corresponding manner. The index number is used to distinguish between multiple composite images of the same document. For example, "1" is assigned to composite images of pages 1 to 4, and "1" is assigned to composite images of pages 1 to 4,
"2" is assigned to the composite image from page 8.

The storage address is a logical address, from which a physical track address and a physical sector address are calculated at the time of access.

The document management system in this embodiment has four hierarchies: cabinet, binder, document, and page, and the cabinet corresponds to one side of the optical disc 20. A maximum of 8 binders can be defined in a cabinet, and a maximum of 30,000 documents can be stored in a binder. Each document has a title, and its structure is defined for each binder. The above document is the basic unit of a file, and in addition to the title, annotations (@type explanatory text) can be added. Further, a document is composed of up to 4095 pages.

Next, the operation of image storage and retrieval processing in the electronic filing device with such a configuration will be described. First, image storage processing will be explained with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. For example, if the keyboard 23 is used to select and set the registration mode, the optical disc 2
Enter the search information for the image to be stored in 0. This search information is composed of search keys for multiple items,
The contents of this search key item are set in advance. The CPU 34 checks the validity of the input search information according to a predefined format. Further, the search information is compared with the search information already registered on the optical disc 20 to check for double registration. The input search information is stored in the main memory 13 according to the result of this check.

Next, the original is set on the scanner device 18, and the CPU 34
operates the optical disk device 22 and scanner device 18. The scanner device W1B two-dimensionally scans an image of a set document or the like and photoelectrically converts the image. The line information of this photoelectrically converted image is sequentially stored in the image data storage area 40a of the page memory 40. This page memory 4
The image stored in the image data storage area 40a of 0 is C.
After being enlarged or reduced by the enlargement/reduction circuit 46 according to the display size of the RT display device 24, the display memory 4
2 and displayed on the CRT display device 24.

The user checks the skew, density, resolution, etc. of the image displayed on the CRT display device 24, and when the displayed image is satisfactory, inputs a memory key (not shown). Then, the CPU 34 performs band compression on the original image stored in the image data storage area 40a of the page memory 40 in a compression/expansion circuit (CODEC) 50 for each line information using a well-known MR (Modified Read) method or the like. The encoding process is performed by This encoded original image is supplied to the optical disc device 22 and stored on the optical disc 20.

When the storage of the original image on the optical disk 20 is completed, the CPU 3
4 stores in the main memory 38 the physical track address where the original image is stored, the logical address determined from the physical sector address, the image length expressed by block length, image attributes, etc. in correspondence with the search code (search information). .

Next, the CPU 34 supplies the search data stored in the main memory 38 to the magnetic disk device 27. Thereby, the magnetic disk device 27 stores the supplied search data in each of the tables 26a and 26b within the magnetic disk 26. At this time, the storage address (storage start position) and document size (image size) of the original image on the optical disc 20 are stored in the page image management table 26b, as shown in FIG.

Next, the CPU 34 enlarges or reduces the original image stored in the image data storage area 40a of the page memory 40 using the enlargement/reduction circuit 46 to change it to an A6 size image, and stores this changed image in the composite image memory of the page memory 40. It is stored in area 40b.

Thereafter, the image read from the scanner device 18 is stored in the destination disk 20 in the same manner as described above, and the changed image is stored in the composite image storage area 40b of the page memory 40.

As a result, when changed images of pages 1 to 4 for one document are stored in the composite image storage area 40b, that is, as shown in FIG.
When the synthesized image of the modified images for the four original images up to Encoding is performed by compression. This encoded composite image is supplied to the optical disk device 22 and stored on the optical disk 20.

When the storage of the composite image on the optical disk 20 is completed, the CPU
34 stores a logical address, that is, a storage address determined from the physical track address and physical sector address where the composite image is stored, in the main memory 38 together with the document number and the index number of the composite image.

Next, the CPU 34 supplies the document number, index number, and storage address stored in the main memory 38 to the magnetic disk device 27. As a result, the magnetic disk device 2
7 is the supplied document number "1" and the index number "
1'', the storage address r1000J is stored in the composite image management table 26c in the magnetic disk 26, as shown in FIG.
to be memorized.

Furthermore, since there are no images of subsequent pages for the original image 1-5, a reduced image of the original image 1-5 is stored in the composite image storage area 40b, as shown in FIG. 5(b). and
This composite image is stored on the optical disc 20. On this occasion,
The document number "1", index number "2", and storage address r 1400J are stored in the composite image management table 26c in the magnetic disk 26.

Furthermore, when one document has three pages, for example, as shown in FIG. 5(C), reduced images of the original images 2-1 to 2-3 are stored in the composite image storage area 40b. , this composite image is stored on the optical disc 20. At this time, the document number "2", index number "1", and storage address r2200J are stored in the composite image management table 26c in the magnetic disk 26.

Next, a search process for images stored on the optical disc 20 will be explained. First, a search mode is set using the keyboard 23, and search information corresponding to the image desired to be searched is input. The CPU 34 sequentially compares and collates the input search information with the search information stored in the title management table 26a of the magnetic disk 26, and sequentially checks whether or not search information that matches the manually entered search information is stored. and extract the corresponding document number. As a result, C.P.
The U34 stores the document number of the extracted candidate in the main memory 38.
to be memorized.

Then, the CPU 34 reads from the composite image management table 26c in the magnetic disk 26 the storage address of the composite image corresponding to the index "1" with the first document number of the candidate document numbers stored in the main memory 38. , a physical track address and a physical sector address corresponding to the storage address of this composite image are calculated, and the optical disk device 22 reproduces the page-turning image from the optical disk 20 using these addresses.

That is, the CPU 34 supplies the image (compressed information) for each scanning line supplied from the optical disk device 22 to the compression/expansion circuit 50, performs band expansion processing, and stores the image in the display memory 42.
sequentially supplied to As a result, the composite image stored in the display memory 42, for example, pages 1 to 4 of the first document, are displayed as one image on the CRT display device 24.

Next, the CPU 34 checks whether there is a next index with the same document number based on the stored contents of the composite image management table 26c, and if there is a next index, displays the composite image corresponding to the storage address of that index on the CRT display device. 24 to display. Furthermore, if there is no next index, a composite image for the next document is displayed in the same manner as above.

For example, if composite images of document numbers "1" and "2" are searched sequentially, a composite image of index "1" of document number "1", a composite image of index "2" of document number "1", a composite image of index "2" of document number "1", The composite images with number "2" and index "1" are sequentially displayed on the CRT display device 24.

When the desired image is displayed in such a composite image display, an instruction is given from the keyboard 23 to stop page turning. Here, when a desired image in the composite image and an instruction to display or print a detailed image are given, the CPU 34 stores the storage address and image size of the original image corresponding to the instructed image in the magnetic disk 26. Page image management table 2
6b, and calculates the physical track address and physical sector address corresponding to the storage address of this original image. Using these addresses, the optical disk device 22 reproduces the page-turning image from the optical disk 20, and the page memory 40 is read from the page memory 40. Stored on the image data storage area 4Oa and transferred to the CRT
The details are displayed on the display device 24 or printed out on the printer device 25.

That is, the CPU 34 supplies the image (compressed information) for each scanning line supplied from the optical disk device 22 to the compression/expansion circuit 50, performs band expansion processing, and stores it in the page memory 40.
sequentially supplied to The original image stored in the image data storage area 40a of the page memory 40 is outputted as it is to the display memory 42 and displayed in detail on the CRT display device 24, or is outputted to the printer device 25 via the printer interface 54. , a detailed image is printed out by the printer device 25. As mentioned above, at the time of image registration, each time an original image of 4 pages of one document is stored on an optical disk, a composite image is created by combining the reduced images. When the image is stored on an optical disk and a high-speed search is performed, the synthesized image is used to display the image at high speed. Thereby, when performing a search, a sufficiently high search speed can be obtained. Therefore, it has good operability and is easy to see.

[Effects of the Invention] As detailed above, the present invention provides an image storage device and an image storage retrieval device that can obtain sufficient search speed when searching and displaying arbitrary plural images. can.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings show an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a flowchart for explaining the main parts of the storage operation, FIG. 2 is a block diagram schematically showing the configuration of the electronic filing device, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a storage example of a page image management table, FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a storage example of a composite image management table, and FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining a storage example of a composite image. 20... Optical disk (storage means), 18... Scanner device, 22... Optical disk device, 23... Keyboard, 24... CRT display device, 25...
Printer device, 26... magnetic disk (storage means),
26b...Page image management table, 26C...Composite image management table, 27...Magnetic disk device, 34.
. . . CPU, 38 . . . Main memory, 40 . . . Page memory, 41 . ...Compression/expansion circuit.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) a supply means for supplying an image; a storage means for storing the image from the supply means; and a creation means for creating a modified image by changing the size and resolution of the image from the image supplied by the supply means; , processing means for storing a plurality of modified images created by the creation means as one composite image in the storage means when storing the plurality of images in the storage means; Device. (2) A plurality of images are stored in the storage means, and search information for searching each image corresponding to each of these images is stored in the storage means, and a desired image is retrieved by specifying the stored search information. The image storage and retrieval device retrieves the image from the storage means and displays it on the display means, comprising a supply means for supplying an image, and a modified image in which the size and resolution of the image are changed from the image supplied by the supply means. a first processing means for storing a plurality of changed images created by the creation means in the storage means as one composite image when storing the plurality of images in the storage means; and a first processing means for storing the plurality of changed images created by the creation means in the storage means; and second processing means for sequentially reading composite images of changed images stored corresponding to those images from the storage means and displaying them on the display means when searching for a plurality of images according to designation. An image storage and retrieval device characterized by: