JPH04304069A - Picture data transferring device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make the operation simple by performing the character recognition for plural address numbers described at an arbitrary place in the read picture data and transferring calling/picture data based on the recognition result. CONSTITUTION:An address number area extraction part 3 recognizes the control code described at an arbitrary place from the information obtained from a picture data storage part 2, extracts the picture data area corresponding to the address number and stores it in an extraction data storage part b. An OCR part 4 performs the character recognition for the picture data corresponding to plural address numbers referring to a storage part 4 and stores it in a text data storage part 6. A communication control part 7 calls via a telephone line 9 referring to the storage part 6 and transfers the picture data stored in the storage part 2.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image data transfer device for a facsimile machine or the like.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, with the arrival of the information age, interest in image data transfer using facsimile machines and the like has increased. Conventional image data transfer devices perform transfer processing by inputting a destination number using a push button or the like each time the transfer destination is different. Furthermore, when transferring a plurality of image data to different destinations, the image data is stored on a disk and transferred from an input device using a reservation function, a push button, or the like. In this case, there is a problem that the transfer time that restricts the operator depends on the amount of data.As an improvement to this problem, only the transfer destination number written anywhere in the loaded image data is recognized as a character. There was a method of automatically dialing based on the recognition results and automatically transmitting image data.

0003

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] However, the above-mentioned conventional transfer method using destination numbers cannot deal with the case where multiple destination numbers exist simultaneously in the image data for one conveyance sheet into which the destination has been read. is not considered and therefore, to transfer the same image data to multiple destinations,
It is necessary to perform operations such as resetting the same conveyed sheet in the sheet feeder for each transfer destination, which has the disadvantage of complicating the transfer operation. The present invention aims to provide an image data transfer device that solves the above-mentioned conventional problems.

0004

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the image data transfer device of the present invention has an image data input unit that inputs image data in which a destination number with a control code attached before and after is written at an arbitrary position. an image data storage unit that stores input image data; and a destination number area extraction unit that extracts an image data area of the destination number by recognizing a control code written at an arbitrary position using information obtained from the image data storage unit. an extraction data storage section that stores an image data area of the extracted destination number; and an OC that refers to the extracted data storage section and recognizes the destination number from the destination number image data.
an R unit, a text data storage unit that stores the recognition output from the OCR unit, and a call is made by referring to the information read from the text data storage unit, and the information in the image data storage unit is sent to the telephone line. It includes a communication control section and a system control section.

[0005]

[Operation] Therefore, according to the present invention, the characters of multiple destination numbers written in arbitrary positions of the read image data are recognized and the call/transfer of image data is automatically processed. Even if the destination number is read once, transfers can be made multiple times, and the operator's time can be significantly reduced due to operations and time constraints during transfers.

[0006]

[Examples] The present invention will be explained below with reference to Examples. Figure 1
1 is a functional block diagram of an image data transfer device according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which 1 is an image data input unit that reads image data; 2 is an image data storage unit that stores image data read from the image data input unit 1; 3 is a destination number area extraction unit that recognizes a control code C written at an arbitrary location from information obtained from the image data storage unit 2 and extracts an image data area corresponding to destination number A; 4 is a destination number area extraction unit; An extracted data storage unit 5 stores the image data area obtained by the area extraction unit 3, and extracts image data B corresponding to a plurality of destination numbers A written at arbitrary locations while referring to the extracted data storage unit 4. Character recognition OCR (Optical C
haracter Reader: optical reader)
section, 6 is a text data storage section that stores information character recognized by the OCR section 5, and 7 is a text data storage section 6.
8 is a system control unit that makes a call to the telephone exchange and sends information stored in the image data storage unit 2 to the telephone line while referring to number data area extraction section 3, OCR section 5,
Control the communication control unit 7 etc. to read the image data B,
Controls detection of destination number data area, character recognition processing, communication processing, etc. 9 is a telephone line.

FIG. 2 shows transport paper 1 with destination number A written on it.
Multiple examples of 0, Figures 2(a), (b), (c) and Figure 2(d)
), and the conveyance paper 10 is shown in FIGS. 2(a), (b), (
c) Or, as shown in FIG. 2(d), a control code (@) is added before and after the destination number A, and the destination number A is written in the desired location on the transport sheet 10 for the number of destinations. Note that the image data B may be mixed on the conveyed paper 10 as shown in FIGS. 2(c) and 2(d).

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of this embodiment configured as described above. First, when an operator sets a plurality of transport sheets 10 on which image data B and a plurality of destination numbers A with control codes written at arbitrary locations are written in the sheet feeder (S1), the system control unit 8 The data input unit 1 is instructed to transport one sheet of paper 10 from the sheet feeder, and is instructed to read image data B from the paper 10. After receiving the instruction, the image data input unit 1 performs a process of transporting one sheet of paper 10 from the sheet feeder (S2
), the image data B is read from the conveyed paper 10 and stored in the image data storage section 2 (S3). Next, the start address and end address of the image data B read in S3 are stored in the internal memory of the image data input unit 1, and after the data is stored, a signal indicating the end of processing is sent to the system control unit 8 (S4). . Next, the system control unit 8, which has received the signal to end the processing, instructs the destination number area extraction unit 3 to detect an image data area corresponding to the destination number area from the read image data B, and Upon receiving the destination number area extracting unit 3, while referring to the image data storage unit 2, it detects a plurality of image data areas of the destination number A written at arbitrary locations on the transport sheet 10 (S5). In parallel with this process, it is determined whether an image data area is detected (S
6) When the first destination number A is detected, control shifts to S7. In S7, the internal memory of the destination number area extracting unit 3 (in which the number of detections of the destination number A of previously read image data is stored) is referred to, and if the memory content is 0, the control goes to S8. Then, while continuing the detection process in S5, the number of times the destination number A has been detected is stored in the internal memory of the destination number area extraction unit 3 (S8). Next, the image data of a plurality of detected destination numbers A are sequentially stored in the extracted data storage unit 4, and the image data of the detected destination numbers A are sequentially deleted from the image data storage unit 2. After the deletion, the system Sends a signal to the control unit 8 to end the process (S
9). The system control unit 8, which has received the signal to end the process, determines whether or not there is any unprocessed conveyed paper 10 on the sheet feeder (S10), and if so, repeats the processes of S2 to S5 described above. Next, in S6, it is determined whether the destination number A also exists in the newly read image data, and if it does exist, the process moves to S7. In S7, when the internal memory of the destination number area extraction unit 3 is referred to, the value m (because m destination numbers A were detected in the image data B read last time) is stored, so the flag is turned ON. west(
S11) Thereafter, a signal indicating the end of processing is sent to the system control unit 8, and the system control unit 8 then instructs the OCR unit 5 to recognize the image data of the destination number A as characters. Upon receiving the instruction, the OCR section 5 extracts the extracted data storage section 4.
Character recognition is performed on the m-th image data stored in , and the recognition result is stored in the text data storage unit 6 (S1
2) Next, in S12, the character-recognized image data is deleted from the extracted data storage unit 4, and the value stored in the internal memory of the destination number area extraction unit 3 is counted down (S13).
) (The number of detections is m=m-1). After the countdown, a signal indicating the end of the process is sent to the system control unit 8. The system control unit 8, which has received the signal that the processing has ended, instructs the communication control unit 7 to transfer the image data, and the communication control unit 7, which has received the instruction, dials while referring to the text data storage unit 6. and make a call to the telephone exchange (
S14). It is determined whether the telephone line 9 is closed by the above-mentioned call, and S14 and S15 are carried out until the telephone line 9 is in a talking state.
The process is repeated (S15). Next, while referring to the internal memory of the image data storage section 2 and the image data input section 1,
The image data B from the start address of the image data storage section 2 to the currently stored head address is sent to the telephone line 9 all at once.
(S16). Next, until the value stored in the internal memory of the destination number area extraction unit 3 becomes 0 (if not 0, it means that the image data transferred in S16 has another transfer destination). The process of S17 is repeated (S17). In the end, the above steps S12 to S17 were repeated m times (
The number of times the destination number A that was first stored in the internal memory of the destination number area extracting unit 3 is detected is repeated. If the result detection counter in S17 is 0, it is determined whether the flag is ON (S18), and if it is ON, the control moves to S19 and refers to the internal memory of the image data storage section 2 and the image data input section 1. At the same time, data from the start address to the end address is copied from the start address of the image data storage section 2. Also, clear the data after the first address or the last address (S19), and turn off the flag in S20.
Next, process S8 and S9. Next, in S10, if there is no unprocessed conveyed paper on the sheet feeder, the process moves to S21. In S21, while referring to the internal memory of the image data input unit 1, the value of the end address is substituted for the start address, and the value is stored in the internal memory again.
, and after performing the processing in S17 and S18, the processing is performed in S22.
to move to. After that, after opening the telephone line 9 (S22
), the image data storage section 2 is cleared (S23), and the processing of all steps is completed.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the operation of S19, and FIG. 4(a) shows an image memory that stores the start addresses up to S18, and displays images read from the first image data to be transmitted. Data area 11, start address 12
, an image data area 13 read from the second image data, and an end address 14 are stored, and 15 is an empty area. Next, in S19, as shown in FIG. 4(b), the image data area 13 read from the second sheet of image data from the first address 12 to the last address 14 is copied by clearing the last address and beyond.

0010

Effects of the Invention As is clear from the detailed explanation above, the present invention recognizes the characters of multiple destination numbers written anywhere in the read image data, and dials a dial number based on the recognition results. This function automatically performs ring and image data transfer processing, and even when transferring the same image data to multiple destinations, it is possible to automatically transfer the same image data to multiple destinations with one reading process. Therefore, in order to transfer the same image data to multiple destinations, the operator can either copy the same image data for the number of destinations, or set the same transport paper with the address written on it for each different destination in the sheet feeder. This eliminates the need for operations such as ``transfer'', which reduces operations and time for the operator during transfer, and has the effect of enabling more efficient transfer processing.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of an image data transfer device in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing conveyance paper used for image data transfer in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the image data transfer device in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing main processing of steps in the flowchart of FIG. 3;

[Explanation of symbols]

1... Image data input section, 2... Image data storage section,
3... Destination number area extraction unit, 4... Extracted data storage unit,
5...OCR section, 6...Text data storage section, 7...
Communication control unit, 8...System control unit, 9...Telephone line, 10...Transfer paper, 11...Image data area read on the first sheet, 12...Start address, 13...
Image data area read in the second image, 14...End address, 15...Empty area.

Claims (1)

[Claims] Claim 1: An image data transfer device, comprising: an image data input section for inputting image data in which a destination number with a control code attached before and after the destination is entered at an arbitrary position; and an image data storage section for storing the input image data. , a destination number area extraction unit that recognizes a control code written in an arbitrary position based on information obtained from the image data storage unit and extracts an image data area of the destination number; and a destination number area extraction unit that stores the extracted image data area of the destination number. an extracted data storage section, an OCR section that refers to the extracted data storage section and recognizes destination numbers from destination number image data as characters, a text data storage section that stores recognition output from the OCR section, and the text data storage section. a communication control unit that makes a call and sends the information in the image data storage unit to the telephone line by referring to the information read from the image data input unit/destination number area extraction unit/O
An image data transfer device comprising: a system control unit that controls a CR unit and a communication control unit.