JPH0512358A - Drawing input device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To input a drawing which contains plural contents differing in representation distinctively according to a symbol form of necessary level corresponding to a way of using after input to a computer. CONSTITUTION:A picture is stored in an image memory through an image scanner 1. Range specification information for specifying a processing area for image data on a display picture 6 and processing specification information for specifying a processing method for image data in the specified area are received, image data in the specification range is segmented 13c from the image memory, and the kind of data is converted to a form specified for the segmented image data and stored in a storage device 10. When plural ranges and plural processes are specified, image data are stored by repeating the image data segmentation and data kind conversion processing and data on respective parts of a drawing after the data kind conversion are outputted having the same arrangement with an inputted original drawing. Consequently, data obtained converting the respective parts of the inputted original drawing to necessary symbol formats are obtained.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a drawing input device for converting various drawing contents into a code format which can be easily handled by a computer and inputting the same into a computer, and particularly, the range of each part of the drawing in an interactive manner. And a process identification, and a drawing input device for obtaining data converted into a required code format for each content of each drawing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There are many drawings such as facility drawings, single-line connection diagrams, logic circuit diagrams, and maps, which are mainly composed of lines and which are composed of lines and symbolic figures. recent years,
A system that converts these lines and figures into a code format, such as vector data, that can be easily handled by a computer, stores them in a database, and manages them in CAD, CAM, facility management, etc., or as a resource that can be reused for retrieval, etc. Is being developed. In order to input these line figure data into a computer, conventionally, digitizers interactively specify each point on the line figure, and the point coordinates of the specified points are connected and input as line figure data. It was This method is very inefficient because it requires a large number of points to be manually specified.

As another method, a method is conceivable in which a drawing is taken into an image memory by an image input device and line figure data is automatically obtained by a pattern recognition technique. But 1
For example, if one of the drawings is a single line connection diagram, if it is written only with a single line connection diagram, if it is written carefully, it can be read with a considerable recognition rate, but the expression is different If the drawing includes a plurality of contents, the recognition rate becomes low, and complicated correction work is required. As a matter of fact, when considering various drawings that already exist as actual problems, a plurality of contents (for example, a map of a location, a device layout diagram, a single line connection diagram, and a device specification table) with different expressions are included in one drawing. Often mixed in,
Computer input of these existing drawings has hardly progressed.

[0004]

The above-mentioned conventional drawing input device requires a great deal of labor in the case of manual input, and in the case of automatic reading, a drawing including a plurality of contents having different expressions is included. In the case of, there was a problem that the recognition rate became low and complicated correction work was required.
The present invention has been made in order to solve the above problems, and inputs a drawing containing a plurality of contents which are easy to input and have different expressions that actually exist to a computer. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a drawing input device that has a high processing speed and a high recognition rate for existing drawings by specifying and converting the processing according to the required level of code format according to the later usage method. I am trying.

[0005]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides range designation information by a range designation means for interactively designating a processing area for image data on a display screen, and within the designated area. Receiving the processing designation information by the processing designation means for designating the processing method for the image data, the means for cutting out the image data in the designated range from the image memory, and the data in the format designated for the clipped image data. By means of the type conversion processing means, it is stored as specified format conversion data of the position corresponding to the image data, and when a plurality of ranges and processing are specified,
By repeatedly storing the image data cutout and the data type conversion process, and managing the data of each part of the drawing after the data type conversion by the management means so that the data can be output in the same manner as the arrangement in the input original drawing, Each part of the input original image is obtained as data converted into a required code format. [Operation] First, the operator designates a processing range and processing contents for each target division on the drawing displayed on the CRT. In this case, the storage device stores six processing contents that are basic to the encoding of the drawing. That is, vectorization, processing for recognizing characters in a table, recognition of characters at arbitrary positions, recognition of symbol graphics and line segments, connection recognition of symbol graphics and line segments, symbol graphics, correspondence between line graphics and characters There is. Therefore, when inputting a drawing, if the required processing is selected, for example, if only vector processing is required and “vectorization” is selected, the conversion processing is not performed on the portion that may be the image data and the designated processing is performed. The part has a limited range, and unlike the case where processing is always performed using the most difficult level as in the case of uniform conversion processing, only the necessary level of processing needs to be used, so processing can be performed quickly. Can be done.

[0006]

Embodiments will be described below with reference to the drawings. Figure 1
FIG. 1 is a functional configuration diagram of an embodiment of a drawing input device according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 is an image scanner which reads pictures, characters and the like on the drawing and writes them in the image memory 2 as image data. That is, the image scanner 1 reads a picture / character in a drawing by photoelectric conversion and takes in binary data having a background of "0" and a line segment of "1". This binary data is stored in the image memory 2 as image data by the memory controller 4 via the scanner interface 3. The image data stored in the image memory is displayed by the CRT controller 5 via the memory controller 4 on the CRT 6 as an image similar to an input drawing having a two-dimensional spread having xy coordinates.

The pointing device 7 (here, a mouse) as a position designation means is operated by the operator on the CRT 6
By selecting the menu displayed above, you can enter the drawing input instruction and other commands, or use the CRT6.
This is for instructing the position on the drawing image displayed in FIG. When the button 8 of the mouse 7 is pressed, the xy coordinates of the cursor position on the display screen shown in the figure are generated by the mouse interface 9. Based on this zy coordinate, the corresponding value in the image memory 2 is read out via the memory controller 4 and given to the control processor 13.

The control processor 13 controls the entire apparatus, extracts image data of pictures / characters in the drawing, and encodes the image data (for example, vector data) according to an operator's command input via the mouse and the mouse interface 9. For storing the encoded data in the main storage device 10. The encoded data stored in the main storage device 10 and the remaining image data that does not require encoding are accumulated in the magnetic disk 12 or transferred to another computer.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the contents of the image memory 2. In the figure, an original image memory 21 is for storing an image of a picture / character of the drawing read by the image scanner 1, and the content of this image is displayed by the CRT 6. The original image copy memory 22 stores a copy of the image data of the original image memory 21 first, and when the image data of each part is cut out from this in the subsequent processing, the image data of the cut out part is deleted. It is a memory for saving. This is a memory in which the image data finally left in this memory as a result of being deleted can be taken out as the contents of the image data. First and second working memory
23 and 24 are used as work areas for extracting encoded data. The encoded data display memory 25 is for processing the extracted encoded data into display data and storing the processed display data.

FIG. 4 shows a flow of processing executed by the control processor 13. The control processor 13 performs processing according to the menu selection of the mouse 7. When "input image" is selected as the menu in step 32, the picture / character on the drawing read by the image scanner 1 is stored in the image memory 2 as image data (step 33) and immediately displayed on the CRT 6. (Step 34). on the other hand,
When "range designation" is selected in step 35 as the menu, the operator designates each vertex of the polygon in the order of connection on the drawing display screen on the CRT 6 in order to designate a necessary processing area on the drawing. The xy coordinates of a plurality of points are read and the xy coordinate string is registered in the main storage device 10 (step 36).

Further, when "Processing designation" is selected in step 37 as a menu, an item list for selecting the processing contents is displayed on the CRT 6, and when the operator designates a required item column on the display screen, The xy coordinates of the designated point are input to the control processor 13, and the control processor 13 outputs the x-y coordinate.
The content of the request is judged from the -y coordinates (step 38), and the xy coordinate sequence for specifying the processing range and the processing content data are stored as a set in the external magnetic disk 12 via the disk controller 11 (step 39). .. By repeating the designation operation by the operator, a set of xy coordinate sequences for designating the processing range and the processing content data are stored in the multiple sets of magnetic disks 12 (steps 35 to 39).

Next, when "conversion process" is selected in step 40 as the menu, the next process is repeated by the number of sets designated by the operator. That is, one of the set of the xy coordinate sequence for specifying the processing range and the processing content data is taken out from the magnetic disk 12 (step 42), and the image data within the range surrounded by the xy coordinate sequence for specifying the processing range is displayed. It is cut out from the original image copy memory 22 and stored in the first work memory 23 (step
43), the specified encoding process is performed on the clipped image data (step 44), and the encoding result is stored in the main memory with the data having the data indicating where the encoded data is located in the original drawing. Registering in the device 10 (step 45) is repeated.

When the processing for the number of sets designated by the operator is completed, a message display or the like notifies that fact, and all encoded data registered in the main storage device 10 is processed into display data and encoded. The image data is stored in the encoded data display memory 25 and is displayed on the CRT 6 together with the image data of the original image stored in the original image memory 21 (step 46). When it is confirmed that the encoding process has been completed for the image data of the portion planned by the operator, and "End drawing input process" is selected in step 47 as a menu, the data is registered in the main storage device 10. The encoded data and the image data finally remaining in the original image copy memory 22 are paired and stored in the magnetic disk 12 as drawing data for which drawing input processing has been completed.

Next, an example of the encoding process shown in step 44 of FIG. 4 will be described with reference to FIG. Basically, the encoding process for drawings is the vectorization of line figures (which may include characters) (various long and short line segments (vector data)).
So that it can be represented by a collection of
There are line segment recognition and character recognition, and there is recognition of the types described above and recognition of the connection relationship between symbolic figures and line segments.In the above, when characters are written in a table and in any place. Sometimes it is written, and there is a difference in recognition processing.
For a drawing including a plurality of contents having different expressions, any one of the above processes is designated alone or in combination, and the encoding process is performed as follows.

As an example of the menu, in step 51, "vectorization", "vectorization and character recognition", "recognition of characters in tabular form", "recognition of symbol graphic and line segment", "symbol graphic and line". Min. And character recognition "," symbol figure and line segment recognition and graphic and line segment connection recognition "," symbol figure and line segment and character recognition and graphic and line segment connection recognition ". Here, each of the processes shown in FIG. 5 through FIG. 5 will be described with reference to FIGS.

In the processing for vectorization only, the upper left black point is first found in the cut out image data, contour tracing is performed from there, and connected figures are respectively detected (step 71). Next, the image is thinned for each connected figure (step 72), and the line segment is divided at each inflection point detected by tracing the thinned line segment, and x- A y-coordinate value is created (step 73).

Is a process for recognizing the characters in the table. First, the closed loop surrounded by the ruled lines of the table is detected (step 81),
Cut out the image data in this closed loop (step
82), and character recognition is performed by detecting image data for each character (step 83) therefrom (step 84).

In the character recognizing process at an arbitrary position, first, the upper left black point is found in the cut out image data, contour tracing is performed from there, and connected figures are respectively detected (step 91). Next, if the size of the circumscribed rectangle of a set of isolated connected figures is within a predetermined range, it is cut out as character image data (step 92). At this time, the character image data may be in character units or character string units. If it is a character string unit, it is further cut out from that character unit.
Then, character recognition is performed (step 93).

In the symbol graphic and line segment recognition processing, first, the upper left black point in the cut out image data is found, contour tracing is performed from there, and connected graphics are detected respectively (step 101). Next, the image is thinned for each connected figure (step 102), the feature points of the thinned figure are detected, and each line figure (segment) separated by the feature points is created (step 103), and the segment is set to 1 Collect more than one,
Create a sub-symbol with characteristics (step 104),
Further, the sub-symbols are integrated to create a symbol candidate, and the data of the characteristic or structure of the symbol in the symbol dictionary is compared and collated with that of the symbol candidate to determine the symbol (step 105). If they do not match, the above process is repeated up to a certain number of times for the symbol candidates with different combinations of sub-symbols. Then, the segment not processed as a symbol is processed as a line segment (step 106).

In the symbol pattern and line segment connection recognition processing, a segment in the symbol represented as a set of segments is based on the data of the connection relation between the segments which is provided in the segmentation in step 104. And the connection between the line segment and the line segment are detected, and the connection data of the symbol and the line segment is created (step 111).

In the process of associating a symbol figure, a line segment and a character, first, a symbol and a line segment in the vicinity of the character are detected (step 121), and whether the correspondence is correct by referring to the drawing rule of the drawing. Check whether or not (step 122),
If it is correct, it is created as the correspondence data between the symbol or line segment and the character (step 124). If not, look for another symbol or line.

Therefore, in FIG. 5, "vectorization" is performed.
If is selected, the vector processing described above is performed (step 52). When "Vectorization and character recognition" is selected, the character recognition process at the above arbitrary position (step
53) and vector processing (step 54). If there is the same processing here and, the result of the previous processing is
The processing time can be shortened by leaving it in the work memory 24 and using it in the subsequent processing. If "recognition of characters in table format" is selected, the characters in the table are recognized (step 55).

When "recognize symbol graphic and line segment" is selected, the above-mentioned symbol graphic and line segment recognition processing is performed (step 56). When "Recognize symbol figure, line segment and character" is selected, the recognition processing of the character at the arbitrary position (step 57) and the symbol figure and line segment recognition processing are performed (step 58). If the minutes and letters are to be associated,
The line segment and the character are associated with each other (step 60).
If the same process is performed in and, the processing time can be shortened by leaving the result of the previous process in the second work memory 24 and using it in the subsequent process.

When "recognize symbol figure and line segment and recognize connection between figure and line segment" is selected, the above-mentioned symbol figure and line segment recognition processing (step 61) and symbol figure and line segment connection recognition processing are performed. (Step 62). "Recognition of symbolic figures, line segments and characters, and recognition of connections between figures and line segments"
When is selected, the character recognition processing (step 63), the symbol graphic and line segment recognition processing (step 64), and the symbol graphic and line segment connection recognition processing are performed (step 65). When the symbols, line segments and characters are associated with each other, the symbol graphic, line segments and characters are associated with each other (step 67). If the same processing is performed here and, the processing time can be shortened by leaving the result of the previous processing in the second work memory 24 and using it in the subsequent processing.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, but can be modified in various ways. For example, in the embodiment, the same encoding process is performed within the designated range, but a further range is designated within the range, and the range is processed by excluding the previously designated encoding process. You may do it. In the above embodiment, the control processor 13 has been described as performing all encoding processing.
It is also possible to use another processor to perform the processes shown in FIGS. 6 to 11 and to perform the processes in parallel when there are a plurality of areas having different designated processes. Further, a tablet may be used as the pointing device other than the mouse.

[0026]

As described above, according to the present invention, by specifying the processing range and the processing content for each target portion on the drawing, the conversion processing is performed especially for the portion that may remain as image data. Is not performed, and the range and processing of the specified parts are limited, so unlike the case where processing is always performed according to the most difficult level as in the case of uniform conversion processing for drawings, each is required. Only one level of processing needs to be used, which results in faster processing. Further, since the conversion processing result is obtained in a form matched to the original position of the input original drawing, the efficiency of the computer input work of the existing drawing is significantly improved, and the data input to the computer becomes extremely easy to use.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of a drawing input device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a display example on a display screen in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of an image memory in the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a schematic flow of a drawing input process in the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the flow of a specific encoding process in the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the processing content of a diagram enumerating detailed diagrams of basic processing necessary for encoding processing.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing processing contents similar to the above.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing processing contents similar to the above.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing processing contents similar to the above.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing processing contents similar to the above.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing processing contents similar to the above.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Image Scanner 2 Image Memory 6 CRT (Display Means) 7 Pointing Device (Position Designating Means) 10 Main Memory 12 Magnetic Disk 13 Control Processor

Claims (1)

What is claimed is: 1. A drawing characterized by comprising the following arrangements for converting various drawing contents into a code format which can be easily handled by a computer and inputting into the computer. Input device. (B) An image memory that stores the contents of the drawing as image data. (B) Display means for displaying the contents of this image memory. (C) Range designation means for designating a necessary processing area for the contents on the screen of this display means. (D) Processing designation means for designating the processing method for the image data in the designated area by the range designation means. (E) A means for receiving the range designation information by the range designation means and cutting out the image data of the designated range from the image memory. (F) A means for receiving the processing designation information by the processing designation means for the image data cut out by the clipping means and converting the data type into the designated code format. (G) When multiple ranges and processes are specified,
A means to manage the contents of each part of the drawing after data type conversion so that it can be output with the same layout as in the input original drawing.