JPH034367A - Information processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To effectively use the storage area of an optical disk by storing managing information in a storage information area by extending a managing information area. CONSTITUTION:The managing information stored in the optical disk 20 is read out on a magnetic disk 26 once, and image data is stored in the optical disk 20 as storing and also updating the managing information. At a time when a series of storing operations are completed and updated managing information in the magnetic disk 26 is stored in the optical disk 20 again comprehensively, the managing information area is extended in an image data area if the managing information area is filled, then, the managing information is stored. Therefore, the storage area on the disk 20 can be effectively used.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to an information processing device that processes image information, such as in an image information storage and retrieval device that stores and retrieves image information.

(Prior art) In recent years, a large amount of image data such as documents is read by a scanner (two-dimensional scanning device), and the read image data is registered on an optical disk. An image information storage and retrieval device that searches for and displays or prints image data has been put into practical use.

In such an image information storage and retrieval device, an optical disk serving as an optical storage means stores not only image data read by a scanner but also image control information and search information (title information).
Management information such as the following information is stored. and,
The size of the area on the optical disk in which the image data and management information are stored is predetermined by the system and cannot be changed later.

Therefore, for example, if you register many images with small image data size (and a lot of management information such as image control information and search information (title information)), even though there is enough data area for each image, However, the management information area becomes full and no more images can be registered, resulting in the disadvantage that the storage area of the optical disc cannot be used effectively.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) As described above, this invention solves the problem of, for example, when registering a large number of images with a small image data size and a large amount of management information, even though there is sufficient image data area remaining. This eliminates the drawback that the management information area becomes full and no more images can be registered and the storage area of the optical disk cannot be used effectively.This is affected by the size of the image data and the amount of management information. An object of the present invention is to provide an information processing device that can effectively utilize the storage area of an optical disk without causing any problems.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) An information processing device of the present invention includes a storage information area for storing storage information and a management information area for storing management information for managing the storage information. an optical storage means having an optical storage means; a storage means for reading and storing the management information stored in the optical storage means; and a storage means for reading and storing the management information stored in the optical storage means; a first processing means for storing information in a storage information area of the storage means;
When the management information stored in the storage means is stored in the management information area of the optical storage means after the storage information is stored by the processing means, if the management information area is full, the management information is stored in the storage information area. The present invention is characterized by comprising a second processing means for expanding the area and storing the management information in the expanded management information area.

(Operation) This invention temporarily reads the management information stored in the optical storage means into the storage means, and while referring to and updating the management information read into the storage means, the storage information is transferred to the optical storage means. When a series of storage operations in the storage means are completed, the updated management information in the storage means is stored all at once in the optical storage means. If the information area is full, the management information area is expanded within the storage information area to store management information. As a result, it is possible to avoid the situation where the management information area becomes full even though the information storage area is empty and no further storage can be performed, and the storage area of the optical storage means can be used effectively. It becomes.

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

FIG. 1 shows an example of the configuration of an information processing apparatus, such as an image information storage and retrieval apparatus, according to the present invention. That is, the image information storage and retrieval 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 20 and an optical disk device 22, a keyboard 23, a CRT display device 24, and a printer device 25. , a magnetic disk 26, a magnetic disk device 27, a mouse 29, a system bus 30, and an image bus 32.

The control module 10 includes CPUs 34 and 5 that perform various controls such as image data storage, search, and editing processing, an optical disk device M22, and an interface circuit 36 that connects the magnetic disk device 27 and the CPU 34. Further, a keyboard 23 and a mouse 29 are connected to the CPU 34.

The memory module 12 stores, retrieves, and stores image data.
A main memory 38 that stores various control programs such as editing and other various information, a page memory 4o as an image memory having a storage capacity corresponding to image data for several pages of an A4 size manuscript, and a display memory as a display interface. 42, a display control section 44, and the like. A part of the page memory 40 includes a buffer 7 memory area 4.
0a is provided. This buffer memory area 40a
Writing and reading are controlled by a counter (not shown). This page memory 40 is a memory that temporarily stores, for example, image data stored on the optical disc 20 and image data read from the optical disc 20. Further, the display memory 42 temporarily stores image data displayed on the CRT display device 24. The display memory 42 stores image data that is actually displayed within the display window formed on the CRT display device 24, that is, the image data in the page memory 40, for enlarging, reducing, rotating, inserting, or reversing black and white. Image data that has been subjected to such processing is stored. The display control unit 44
It controls the display processing of the CRT display device 24, etc.

The image processing module 14 includes an enlargement/reduction circuit 46 for enlarging and reducing image data, a vertical/horizontal conversion circuit 48 for rotating image data, and an encoding process for compressing image data (reducing redundancy). or a compression/expansion circuit (CODEC) 50 that performs decoding processing (returning reduced redundancy), a scanner interface 52 for the scanner device 18, a printer interface 54 for the printer device 25, and a scaling circuit. 46 and the vertical/horizontal conversion circuit 48, and an internal bus 56 that connects the compression/expansion circuit 50, the scanner interface 52, and the printer interface 54.

The compression/expansion circuit 50 is a MH (Modlf'fed Hu
fman) method or MR (Modlrled) method.
Bandwidth compression or band expansion is performed using the Read) method or the like.

The communication control module 16 is, for example, a BCP (Bus Co., Ltd.) connected to a local area network (LAN).
(2) It is constituted by a communication interface 58 such as unlcatlon Processor). The communication control module 16 also includes an FCP (Facsimile Connection Mechanism) and a UCP (Universal C
Communication Processor) may be provided.

The system bus 30 is a bus for control signals, 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 image signals, and connects the memory module 12, 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 (
Sentence N) An electrical signal corresponding to image data on a document is obtained by two-dimensionally scanning the document with a laser beam.

The optical disk device (optical storage means) 22 is the scanner device 1
The image data read in step 8 is sequentially stored on the optical disk 20, and the search information entered from the keyboard 23 and the storage address on the optical disk 20 where the image data corresponding to this search information are stored, the image size (image length), etc. ),
It stores management information including image attributes and the like. It also searches the optical disc 20 for image data corresponding to search information input using the keyboard 23.

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

The CRT display device (cathode ray tube display device) 24 is
Image data read by the scanner device 18, image data retrieved from the optical disc 20, etc. are displayed. The image data display area of this CRT display device 24 has a multi-window type in which four image data can be displayed simultaneously using a maximum of four display windows. The image data displayed in each display window is subjected to editing processing such as enlargement, reduction, rotation, scrolling, etc. independently.

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

The magnetic disk device (storage means) 27 stores various control programs on a magnetic disk 26 attached to the magnetic disk device 27, and also stores search information entered manually from the keyboard 23 and image data corresponding to this search information. It stores management information including storage addresses on the optical disk 20, image size (image length), image attributes, etc.

The document management system in the image information storage and retrieval device configured as described above consists of "cabinet", "binder",
It consists of four levels: "document" and "page", and the cabinet is associated with one side of the first disk 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 the title structure is defined for each binder.

The above document is the basic unit of a file, and in addition to the title, annotations (explanation of the document) can be added. Further, the document is composed of up to 4095 pages. In this document management system, the image data stored on the optical disc 20 is managed by a document management table (not shown).

FIG. 2 shows the format of each area inside the optical disc 20. As shown in FIG. The "format area" is an area that stores the block address and area size of each area in its initial state. 1 image data area" (storage information area) is an area for storing image data read by the scanner device 18, for example, and the image data stored here is the image data compressed by the compression/expansion circuit 50 described above. . rImage control information area" (management information area) is an area that stores the attributes and start address of each image. The last block of this image control information area is provided with an area for storing a "next area block address". The "search information area" (management information area) is an area that stores search information and the like for each image. The last block of this search information area is provided with an area for storing the "next area block address".

Next, the operation of the image information storage and retrieval device with such a configuration will be explained.

First, an overview of the operation of image registration processing will be explained. When the optical disk 20 is loaded into the optical disk device 22 by the operator, image control information and search information are read from the management information area on the first disk 20 and stored in a predetermined area of the magnetic disk 26. Below, this magnetic disk 2
It operates while referring to and updating the image control information and search information stored in 6.

This kind of situation Q! ! For example, a processing menu is currently being selected by the CRT display device 24,
When the registration mode is selected using the keyboard 23, the CP
U34 displays a title screen on the CRT display device 23. Next, the operator manually enters a title (search information) to be attached to the image data using the keyboard 23.

This title is composed of a plurality of search keys, and the contents of the search key items are set as the title structure when defining the binder in advance.

When this title is input, the CPU 34 checks the validity of the input title according to a predefined format. Further, the title is compared with titles already registered on the optical disc 20 to check for double registration. Depending on the result of this check, the input title is stored in the main memory 13 and used in the following processing.

Next, image registration processing is started according to the title. First, a document is set on the scanner device 18. C.P.
U34 operates the optical disk device 22 and the scanner device 18. The scanner device 18 two-dimensionally scans and photoelectrically converts image data such as a set document. The line information of this photoelectrically converted image data is stored in the page memory 4.
0 is stored sequentially. The image data stored in the page memory 40 is further stored in the display memory 42,
It is displayed on the CRT display device 24.

The skew, density, resolution, etc. of the image data displayed on the CRT display device 24 are checked, and when the displayed image data is satisfactory, a memory key (not shown) is pressed manually. Then, the CPU 34 uses the page memory 40
The image data stored in the image data is encoded by a compression/expansion circuit 50 for each line of information by band compression using a well-known MR method or the like.

This encoded image data is stored in the optical disk device 2.
2 and stored in a predetermined position on the optical disk 20 according to the image control information and search information stored on the magnetic disk 26. Once this image data has been stored,
The CPU 34 stores management information such as a physical track address where image data is stored, a logical address determined from the physical sector address, an image length expressed by a block length, and image attributes in the main memory 38 in correspondence with the title. Next, the CPU 34 outputs the management information stored in the main memory 38 to the magnetic disk device 27. Thereby, the magnetic disk device 27 stores the supplied management information in the magnetic disk 26 and ends the registration process. If further registration is to be performed, the next document is set in the scanner device 18, and the same operation is performed.
Image data is sequentially stored on the optical disk 20, and management information is stored on the magnetic disk 27. The above process is repeatedly executed until the registration process for all images is completed.

Next, the operation when storing search information, which is one of the management information, on the optical disc 20, which is a feature of the present invention, will be explained. When a series of image data is stored on the optical disk 20, the image data stored on the optical disk 20 is next stored on the magnetic disk 26 in order to maintain compatibility by associating the image data and management information. Then, a process is performed to re-record the updated search information on the optical disc 20.

That is, as shown in the flowchart of FIG. 3, first, the offset from the beginning of the area where the search information is to be written is read. This offset is given by a program (not shown) that executes the process of writing image data onto the optical disc 20. From this given offset, the corresponding block address in the optical disc 20 is calculated (step Sl). Next, it is checked whether the block area specified by the calculated block address is full (step S2).In other words, it is checked whether the corresponding block area is full, except for the "next block address area". Check and if there is free space, step S8
The search information created on the magnetic disk 26 is written to the corresponding block.

On the other hand, if there is no free space, that is, if the search information area is used up, it is checked whether the image information area can be expanded (step S3). That is, the last block of the search information area is checked, and if the content is not zero, it indicates the block address of the expanded search information area (extended search area), so the process branches to step S9, and from that block address The corresponding block is newly calculated.

Next, the process returns to step S2, and it is checked whether the block reserved as the extended search area is full (step S2), and the same operation is repeated until a vacant extended search area is found. If a free block is found in the process of this repeated execution, the process branches to step S8 and the search information created on the magnetic disk 26 is written to the corresponding block, as described above.

On the other hand, if the content of the last one block of the search information area is zero, the next extended search area has not been secured yet, so processing for securing the extended search area is performed. That is,
First, it is determined whether there is any remaining area for expansion in the image data area (step S4). This is done by checking the last block of the image data area and checking whether there are more than N blocks remaining to be expanded as a search information area. Here, "N" is a value arbitrarily determined by the system, and is assigned, for example, rlooJ. In this case, if more than 100 blocks remain in the image data area, the extended search area can be secured.

If it is determined that there is no area left for expansion in the image data area, it is determined that no more can be stored on the optical disk 20, and the process branches to step SIO to display a message to that effect on the CRT display. Device 2
4, and the image registration process ends.

On the other hand, if it is determined that there is a remaining area for expansion in the image data area, N blocks therein are secured as a search information area (extended search area) to be expanded (step S5). Then, the block address of the block secured as the extended search area is written in the last block of the search information area before it became full (step S6). Next, the effective area of the image data area is reset (step S7). That is, the value obtained by subtracting N blocks secured as the extended search area from the final block address of the image data area is reset as the new final block address. Next, in the same manner as described above, step S8
, and search the search information created on the magnetic disk 26.
It writes to the corresponding block of the expanded search area secured as the expanded search information area, and the series of processing ends.

In the above embodiment, the case where the search information is stored on the optical disc 20 has been described, but when the image control information is stored on the optical disc 20, the same operation is performed.

Next, a search process for image data stored on the optical disc 20 will be briefly described.

For example, when a search mode is selected using the keyboard 23 while a processing menu is selected by the CRT display device 24, the operator uses the keyboard 23 to input search information corresponding to the image data desired to be searched. Next, the CPU 34 searches a title table (not shown). In other words, the manually entered search information is sequentially compared and collated with the search information stored in the title table in the magnetic disk 26, and it is checked whether or not the search information that matches the manually entered search information is stored. Extract the document number.

Then, the CPU 34 displays a list of the relevant documents using the CRT display device 24.

Based on this display, if the operator cannot find the document he/she wants to search for, he/she can manually search for the information again. If found, the document is specified from the list (specified by display document number, etc.) to instruct search execution.

The CPU 34 extracts all pages having the corresponding document number from the title table in the magnetic disk 26 and their record number information. Then, the CPU 34 reads the record number to be searched first, reads the logical address corresponding to this record number from the title table in the magnetic disk 26, calculates the physical track address and physical sector address corresponding to this address, The optical disc device 22 reproduces the image data stored on the optical disc 20 using these addresses.

The image data reproduced by the optical disk device 22 in this way is transferred to the CP for each scanning line from the optical disk device 22.
Supplied to U34. Then, the CPU 34 supplies this image data (compressed information) to the compression/expansion circuit 50, performs band expansion processing, and sequentially supplies it to the display memory 42. As a result, the image data stored in the display memory 42 is
It is displayed on the T display device 24.

As described above, the management information stored on the optical disk 20 is once read onto the magnetic disk 26, and the image data is stored on the optical disk 20 while referring to and updating the management information read onto the magnetic disk 26. Then, when a series of storage operations on the optical disk 20 are completed, when the updated management information in the magnetic disk 26 is re-stored in the optical disk 20 all at once, the information on the previous disk 20 is
If the management information area provided in the image data area is full, the management information area is expanded into the image data area to store management information. It is possible to avoid a situation where no more image data can be stored because the information area is full, and the storage area of the optical disc 20 can be used effectively.

[Effects of the Invention] As described in detail above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide an information processing device that can effectively utilize the storage area of an optical disk without being affected by the size of image data or the amount of image information.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings are for explaining one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing the configuration of an image information storage and retrieval device, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing the format state of an optical disc, and FIG. The figure is a flowchart for explaining the operation. 1 total...Scanner device, 20...Optical disk (optical storage means), 22...Optical disk device, 23...Keyboard, 24...CRT display device, 25...
Printer device, 26... magnetic disk (storage means),
27...Magnetic disk device, 34...CPU (first
, second processing means).

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] Optical storage means having a storage information area for storing storage information and a management information area for storing management information for managing the storage information; a storage means for reading and storing management information; a first processing means for referencing and updating the management information read into the storage means and storing the storage information in the storage information area of the optical storage means; When the management information stored in the storage means is stored in the management information area of the optical storage means after the storage information is stored by the first processing means, if the management information area is full, the storage information area An information processing apparatus comprising: a second processing means for expanding a management information area into the expanded management information area and storing the management information in the expanded management information area.