JPH0448383A - Image filing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily perform the retrieval operation for another arbitrary image data and a language dictionary by applying a second operation which performs display by supplying proper attribute to a character image that coincides with a character code already registered on a first operating and managing on which second image data is registered. CONSTITUTION:When an operator selects (English) on a menu 173, a central processing unit 11 instructs retrieval to a retrieval processor 16 by supplying a retrieval keyword 'Standard' and the address of an English dictionary 18b in memory 18. The retrieval processor 16 receiving such instruction outputs an item that coincides with 'Standard' to the prescribed area of display memory 17m, and accordingly, the image data 172 (translated to Japanese language) is displayed on the display screen of a CRT display 17a, thereby, the operation can quickly and easily recognize the meaning of the word 'Standard' as the character image in displayed image data 171 by referring to dictionary data 172. In such a way, it is possible to easily perform the retrieval operation for another arbitrary image data and the language dictionary.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an image filing technique, and particularly to a technique effective for improving the efficiency of image data editing and searching.

[Conventional technology]

For example, by storing image information such as documents and photos together with search information such as corresponding titles on a relatively large-capacity storage medium such as an optical disk, it is possible to improve the efficiency of managing, searching, and editing desired image information. Image filing systems such as electronic filing devices are commonly used to reduce storage space.

In such an image filing system, it is important to efficiently input a large amount of image information together with desired search information from the viewpoint of improving the efficiency of system operation.

For this reason, conventionally, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 55-1359
As disclosed in Publication No. 67 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 62-260475, prior to inputting a series of image data groups, a list in which search information corresponding to each piece of image data is collectively described. By loading a form in a specific format with search information written in a specific area before inputting individual image data,
Efforts are being made to improve the efficiency of input work.

Other techniques for improving the efficiency of search information include, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 136877/1983 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 60-136877.
As disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 211572, an operator specifies an arbitrary region of a character image included in target image data output on a display screen, and converts it into a character code using a well-known character recognition method. There is a technique for registering the obtained character code information as the title, search keyword, etc. of the image data.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, in the case of both the former and latter conventional techniques, although it is true that the efficiency of registering keywords unique to specific image data can be improved to a certain extent, it is difficult to Based on any character image included in the image data, other image data or Japanese language/
No consideration is given to improving operational efficiency when searching for related information such as foreign language dictionaries.

In other words, in such cases, conventionally, the operator would have to return to the search keyword input screen each time and enter the character code corresponding to the character image, and the character code corresponding to the character image would be However, since the operator has to guess/determine whether or not the desired search image data is registered as a keyword, there is a problem that the search operation becomes complicated.

In addition, when inputting title data, etc. separately using a form or list in a specific format, it is necessary to read the registration/search list each time through an input device such as a scanner, which is a complicated operation. The problem is that the storage space in the system's main memory or registered storage medium becomes larger than necessary due to the data, and the space available for processing and recording image data decreases by that amount, reducing hardware usage efficiency. There is also.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to easily perform a search operation on other arbitrary image data, language dictionaries, etc. based on character images included in specific image data, without impairing hardware usage efficiency. The objective is to provide a possible image filing technology.

The above and other objects and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the description of this specification and the accompanying drawings.

[Means to solve the problem]

Among the inventions disclosed in this application, a brief overview of typical inventions is as follows.

That is, the image filing device according to the present invention includes: an image manual means for manually processing image data; a recording means provided with a recording medium in which the image data is stored; an image display means for displaying arbitrary image data; An image recognition means for obtaining a corresponding character code from an arbitrary character image in the first image data displayed on the image display means, and a management means for associating and managing second image data related to the character code. Specify any character image in the first image data being displayed, and send the corresponding second image data to rf! A first operation of displaying on the BR display means or registering new corresponding second image data, and converting at least some character images included in the first image data into character codes, and converting the character images into character codes. At least one of the second operations of giving a unique display attribute to a character image whose code matches a character code already registered in the management means and displaying the character image is performed.

[Effect]

According to the image filing technology of the present invention described above,
For example, by specifying an arbitrary character image of arbitrary first image data output on a display screen using a desired coordinate indicating device, etc., and converting it into a corresponding character code by giving it to an image recognition means, the character Use the code as a key to search and automatically display second image data, such as Japanese or foreign language dictionary data, or indulge in recording means for second image data that should be registered in association with the character code. A pointer pointing to a storage position is stored in the management means in association with a pointer pointing to a storage position, and at any time, while referring to the first image data, simply by specifying any character image in the first image data, a specific search screen can be displayed. You can call up and refer to the desired second image data without performing complicated operations such as switching the display.

Further, based on the character code registered in the management means together with the pointer indicating the storage position of the related second image data, the corresponding character image in the first image data is searched while converting into character code, By displaying the corresponding character image area in a different color from other areas, inversion, blinking, and other display attributes, the first character image area can be accurately displayed without relying on the operator's ambiguous memory or judgment. The operator can know information such as keywords that have already been set in the image data.

In addition, since the target character image cut out from the image data being displayed is the target of recognition and search, compared to, for example, inputting search information such as keywords using a form in a specific format, etc. The required memory work area, the occupied area on the recording medium, etc. do not increase more than necessary.

As a result, without sacrificing hardware utilization efficiency,
Search operations for other arbitrary image data, language dictionaries, etc. can be easily performed based on character surface images included in specific surface image data.

[Embodiment 1] Hereinafter, an example of an image filing device that is an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing an example of the configuration of a W image filing device that is an embodiment of the present invention.
The figure is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the effect.

First, an overview of the configuration of the image filing device of this embodiment will be explained with reference to FIG.

A common internal bus 19 includes a central processing unit 11°, an image processor 12. I10 adapter 13° optical disk adapter 14. Recognition processor 15° Search processor 16.
I10 adapter 17. A memory 18 and the like are connected, and data, commands, etc. are exchanged with each other via the internal bus 19.

Connected to the I10 adapter 13 are a scanner 13a that reads image data from a form, etc., a printer 13b that prints and outputs the image data, and the like. Further, an optical disk device 14a that uses an optical disk 140 as a storage medium is connected to the optical disk adapter 14, and records image data inputted from the scanner 13a and image data obtained by performing desired editing processing on the image data. and performing playback operations.

In addition, the I10 adapter 17 includes the I10 adapter 1
Display memo provided in 7! Based on the image data stored in the CRT display 117m, the CRT display 17a displays a desired surface image, the keyboard 17b1 allows the operator to input character data and commands, and any position on the screen of the CRT display 17a is displayed. A mouse 17c, etc., for specifying and performing menu selection operations, which will be described later, is connected.

The memory 18 stores a Japanese dictionary 18a, an English dictionary 18b, a pointer indicating the storage position of the image data stored in the optical disk group f14a, and search information such as title data and keywords corresponding to the image data. , an area 18c for storing data in association with each individual image data is provided.

Data such as the iE1 language dictionary 18a and the English dictionary 18k) are constructed, for example, by loading data recorded as image data on the optical disk device 14a into the memory 18 at the time of system startup. .

The image processor 12 performs operations such as compressing the image data inputted from the scanner 13a before storing it in the optical disk device 14a, and decompressing it when outputting it to the CRT display 17a, printer 13b, etc.

The recognition processor 15 operates to convert dot data obtained by cutting out an arbitrary character image from the image data displayed on the CRT display 17a into a corresponding character code using the recognition dictionary 15a.

Furthermore, the search processor 16 uses the Japanese dictionary 18a and the English dictionary 18b in the memory 18 based on the character code and the character code input from the keyboard 17b.
1 Furthermore, a search operation for desired image data in the optical disk device 14a is performed via the unique area 18C.

The central processing unit 11 implements a series of operations as described below by supervising and controlling each of the above-mentioned units.

Hereinafter, an example of the search operation of the English dictionary 18b will be explained first with reference to FIG.

As shown in FIG. 12, on the screen of the CRT display 17H, image data 171 is displayed by a conventional search operation, and at the bottom of the screen, menu, -17
'3 is displayed.

The operator is now selecting rstandard in the image data 171.
If you don't know the meaning of the word "" and try to look it up in a dictionary,
First, the area of the character image "rStandard" is specified using the mouse 17C.

This information is transmitted to the central processing unit 11 via the I/'O adapter 17, and from the central processing unit 11 to the recognition processor 15, the memory address of the area in the display memo +J 17 m held by the I10 adapter 17 is sent. Information is given.

The ila processor 15 displays memo! The dot data at the specified address in 717m is read out, converted into character code 5 standard'' by the recognition dictionary 15H, and returned to the central processing unit 11'l.

Here, when the operator selects "English" in the menu 173, the central processing unit 11 instructs the search processor 16 to perform a search by giving the search keyword =Standard' and the address of the English dictionary 18b in the memory 18. do.

In response to this, the search processor 16 searches for the search keyword "5tanda" within the designated area of the memory 18.
rd” is output to a predetermined area of the display memory 17m, and as shown in FIG.
Dictionary data 172 (Japanese translation) for the item is displayed on the display screen of the T-display 17H, and the operator can refer to the dictionary data 172 to change the image data 17 being displayed.
You can quickly and easily know the meaning of the word "rStandard" as a character image in 1.

[Example 2] Next, regarding an example of registration and search operations that associate any character image in any image data with other image data, the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 3 to 5, right, and FIG. 8 will be explained. This will be explained with reference to etc.

First, FIG. 3 shows an example of the structure of image data in the image filing device of this embodiment. Each image data 23 is divided into pages and compiled into a document 22 having multiple pages as a unit, and a title for searching is given to each document 22. In the example shown in the figure, titles are given to documents 1 to n, respectively.

Further, a plurality of documents 22 with titles given in this way
is managed as a file 21 in a certain unit, and there are a plurality of files 21 having such a structure, and each of the files 21 is given a file name of file 1 to file n.

FIG. 5 shows an example of the recording format of management information for managing the individual documents 22 stored on the optical disc 140, which is the recording medium of the optical disc device f14a. , document title data information 141 (in the example in the figure, the character code is “Document 1”)
and an image data pointer 142 indicating the physical storage position of the document on the optical disk 140 are assigned to management information recorded in association with each other, and an arbitrary document 22 is called up or registered using this management information A. be.

FIG. 4(a) shows an example of the screen of the CRT display 17a when registering other image data for each document 22 using a character image included in the image data of the document 22 as a keyword. (b) is an example of actual image data to be registered.

Same I! l As shown in (a), the title image 1 of the document 22 is displayed on the screen of the CRT display 17a.
74, text display image 175, and Meni x-173a
The current status is shown in the title image 174.
As is clear from the display contents, for example, the second page of document 1 is being displayed.

The contents of the display image 175 include “
"Attachment Figure 1.1" is included, and if the corresponding image in Figure 1.1 is registered as part of the document 1 in the same way as other pages, as in the past, When the operator wants to see the actual image data corresponding to "Attachment Figure 1.1" while referring to the page where the "Attachment Figure 1.1" is listed, the page This requires the complicated operation of flipping through the pages to search.

Therefore, in the case of this embodiment, as shown in FIG. Information B is provided, and part of the management information A of the document 22 includes an additional information pointer 14 pointing to the management information B.
3. Set and manage. Similar to the management information A, the management information B includes title data information 144 . An image data pointer 1451 that points to the physical storage location of the title data information 146 and the corresponding image data on the optical disc 140; image data pointer 1;
47 are recorded in association with each other.

Then, by using such management information A and B, an additional information registration operation is performed by a series of operations illustrated in steps 101 to 108 in FIG. 8, for example.

In other words, Meni! - After entering the registration mode by selecting 173a (step 101), by specifying the area of the target character image "Attachment Figure 1.1" with the mouse 17c (step 102), similar to the dictionary search operation described above, Then, the dot data of the character image of "Attachment Figure 1.1" is converted into a character code of "Attachment Figure 1.1" by the recognition processor 15 (step 104), and at the same time, the area setting of management information B is performed. Then, the additional information pointer 143 pointing to the management information B is set for the management information A (step 103).
Memory 1 for the desired image data (from Figure 31, etc. to Figure 4, etc.)
8 (step 105).

Then, for the management information set in step 103, the image data pointer pointing to the storage position on the optical disc 140 of the image data as input additional information and the character code obtained in step 104 are used as keywords. The title data information 144 is set in association with the title data information 144 (step 106), and the central processing group [11
According to instructions from the image processor 12, the memory 18
Step 107) performs a predetermined compression process on the image data as the information read in the image data and sends it to the optical disk adapter 14, and the optical disk adapter 14 transmits the management information to the optical disk device 14a in step 106.
The compressed image data is recorded at the storage location on the optical disk 140 pointed to by the image data pointer 145 set in (step 108).

In the subsequent display/4i collection of a document having additional information registered in this manner, when the operator specifies a character image on the screen as necessary to instruct the search for additional information,
The central processing unit 11 recognizes the storage location of the management information B related to the additional information by the additional information pointer 143 recorded in the management information A, and uses the #Ell processor 15 to search the character code obtained from the character image by the search processor. 16 to search for title data information 144, 146 in the management information B.

If a match is found in this search, the search processor 16 returns an image data pointer corresponding to the title data information to the central processing unit W11.

Upon receiving this, the central processing unit 11 instructs the optical disk adapter 14 to output the image data on the optical disk 140 specified by the image data pointer to a predetermined work area of the memory 18, and The output compressed image data is decompressed by the image processor 12 and transferred to the display memory 17m, and the target image is displayed on the CRT display 17a.

In this way, when registering or editing a document consisting of desired image data, the image data corresponding to character images included in the document is associated and independently registered as additional information, so that it can be stored in the optical disc cover 14a. This will definitely improve the operability when viewing and editing documents and images.

In addition, when multiple pieces of title data are input each time using a form in a special format, the work area in the memory 18 and the storage area in the optical disk device 14a for recognition processing of the data may become large. Although this is unavoidable, in the case of this embodiment, since the target character image in the image data being displayed is identified and recognized, only the minimum necessary work area is required, so that the memory 18, optical disk device 14a, etc. improves the efficiency of use.

[Example 3] Next, the 6th! ! An example of using the search function of the foreign language or Japanese dictionary described above for document translation will be described with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG.

As shown in the figure, the CRT display 17a displays original image data 171a and the image data 17.
Dictionary data 172a that is searched and outputted by a character code corresponding to an arbitrary character image included in 1a is displayed, and furthermore, by translating image data 171a, the operator can sequentially input data to the position of the cursor 177. Edited image data 176 is displayed at the same time.

Then, the operator refers to the original image data 171a/
When an unknown word (character image) is encountered during translation, the area of the word can be picked up by operating the mouse 17C as needed, and a search in the English dictionary can be instructed using the menu 173b, thereby dealing with the word. The translated items in the dictionary are displayed as dictionary data 172a (Japanese translation), and translation work can be carried out efficiently while referring to this.

An example of the series of operations during this time is shown in step 201 in the 9th WJ.
~206.

As a result, for example, the image data 171 of the original text being referenced
Each time an unknown word is encountered in a, the operator searches/refers to a regular dictionary book, as in the past.
Translation work can be carried out more smoothly.

[Embodiment 4] FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of other functions of an image filing device that is another embodiment of the present invention.

In the case of this embodiment, the display image 175a of the desired document and menus 5-173 are displayed on the screen of the CRT display 17a.
c is displayed.

In this case, menu -173c contains "Additional information search"
By specifying this item, contrary to the case of the second embodiment, it is possible to determine whether or not the title data of the additional information already registered in the currently displayed document matches which character image in the display screen. is displayed as a display image 175 by giving the corresponding character image different color, inversion, blinking, and other display attributes.
The operator can identify it by outputting it in a.

That is, when 'additional information search' is commanded, li!
The recognition processor 15 converts the entire character image of the display image 175a into a character code, and the central processing unit 11 sends the title data information of the management information B in which the already registered additional information is recorded to the search processor 16. As a key,
The character code obtained from the character image is searched for, and the matching character image (character code) is returned to the central processing unit 11.

The central processing unit 11 displays the returned character image area with display attributes 175b such as a color different from the surrounding area, inversion, and blinking, so that the operator can easily identify the area.

This allows the operator to rely on his/her vague memory,
You can quickly and easily refer to related information without having to refer to another search title data list or return to the title data search screen each time, greatly improving the operability of the image filing device. .

Although the invention made by the present inventor has been specifically explained above based on Examples, it goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to the Examples and can be modified in various ways without departing from the gist thereof. Nor.

〔Effect of the invention〕

Among the inventions disclosed in this application, the effects obtained by typical inventions are briefly described below.

That is, according to the image filing device according to the present invention, there is provided an image processing unit for manually processing image data, a recording unit provided with a recording medium in which the image data is stored, and an image processing unit for displaying any of the image data. A display means, an image recognition means for obtaining a corresponding character code from an arbitrary character image in the first image data displayed on the image display means, and second image data related to the character code are managed in association with each other. specifying any of the character images in the first image data being displayed and displaying the corresponding second image data on the image display means;
Or the first image data to register the corresponding new second image data.
and converting at least some of the character images included in the first image data into character codes, the character codes being unique to the character images that match character codes already registered in the management means. Since at least one of the second operations is performed by giving the display attributes of
By specifying an arbitrary character image in the image data using a desired coordinate indicating device, etc., and converting it into a corresponding character code by giving it to an image recognition means, using the character code as a key, for example, a Japanese or foreign language dictionary can be used. search for and automatically display second image data such as data, or associate it with a pointer that points to the storage position in the recording means of the second image data that should be registered in association with the character code in the management means. By simply specifying any character image in the first image data while referring to the first image data, there is no need to perform complicated operations such as switching the display to a specific search screen, etc. , the desired second image data can be called up and referenced.

Also, based on the character code registered in the management means together with the pointer indicating the storage position of the related second image data, the corresponding character image in the first image data is searched while converting into character code. By displaying the character image area in a different color from other areas, inversion, blinking, and other display attributes, the first image can be accurately displayed without relying on the operator's ambiguous memory or judgment. The operator can know information such as keywords that have already been set in the data.

In addition, since the target character image cut out from the image data being displayed is the target of recognition and search, compared to, for example, inputting search information such as keywords using a form in a specific format, etc. The required memory work area, the occupied area on the recording medium, etc. do not increase more than necessary.

As a result, without sacrificing hardware utilization efficiency,
Search operations for other arbitrary image data, language dictionaries, etc. can be easily performed based on character images included in specific image data.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing an example of the configuration of an image filing device that is an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of its operation, and FIG. 3 is a diagram of the present embodiment. FIGS. 4(a) and 4(a) are diagrams showing an example of the structure of image data in the image filing device of FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a recording format of title data management information in a storage medium. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen when performing translation on an image filing device. The figure shows image filing which is another embodiment of the present invention! ! FIG. 8 is a flowchart explaining an example of the operation of the image filing device that is an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 9 is an embodiment of the present invention. It is a flow chart explaining an example of an operation of an image filing device. 11... Central processing unit, 12... Image processor, 13... I10 adapter, 13a... Scanner, 13b... Printer, 14... Optical disk adapter, 14a... Optical disk device, 140... Optical disk, 15... Recognition processor, 15a... Recognition dictionary, 16... Search processor, 17... I10 adapter, 17a... CRT display, 17b...
Keyboard, 17c... Mouse, 17m... Display memory, 18... Memory, 18a... Japanese dictionary, 18
b...English dictionary, 18C...Unique area, 19...
Internal bus, 21...File, 22...Document, 23
...image data, 171.171a・=image data,
172, 172a...Dictionary data, 173.173a
, 173b, 173c...Menu--174...Title image, 175.1758...Display image, 175b
...display attribute, 176...edited image data, A...
- Management information, 141...Title data information, 142
...Face image data pointer, 143...Additional information pointer, B...Management information, 144...Title data information, 145...Face image data pointer, 146...
Title data information, 147... Image data pointer. Agent Patent Attorney Daiwa Tsutsui

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An image input means for inputting image data, a recording means provided with a recording medium in which the image data is stored, an image display means for displaying any of the image data, and an image displayed on the image display means. image recognition means for obtaining a corresponding character code from an arbitrary character image in the first image data;
a management means for associating and managing second image data related to the character code, and specifying any of the character images in the first I-image data being displayed and managing the corresponding second image data. a first operation of displaying image data on the image display means or registering new corresponding second image data; and converting at least some of the character images included in the first image data into character codes. and performing at least one of a second operation of giving a unique display attribute to and displaying the character image whose character code matches a character code already registered in the management means. Image filing device.