JPH0535796A - Picture retrieving device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily retrieve pictures by ranking pictures by the frequency in retrieval to use ranks as the reference of retrieval. CONSTITUTION:When a retrieval code corresponding to a picture to be retrieved is inputted, a CPU 34 compares it with retrieval codes stored in a title management table of a magnetic disk 26 to store a pertinent document number in a main memory 38. The CPU 34 refers to the document number to generate a list of pertinent documents (consisting of the retrieval code and retrieval ranks of respective page units) by data read out from the title management table and retrieval ranks read from a record management table, and this list is displayed on a CPU display device 24. When the retrieved document (a page of the document) is found in this display, the picture to be retrieved is designated from the list by the document number, the page number, or the like to indicate the execution of retrieval.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image storage / retrieval device such as an image filing device for registering and retrieving images.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, an image such as a large amount of documents is read by a scanner (two-dimensional scanning device), the read image is stored in an optical disk, and any stored image is searched and read out. Output it to an output device, eg C
2. Description of the Related Art An image filing device which outputs an RT display device or a recording device in a visually recognizable state has been put into practical use.

In such a device, the images stored on the optical disk are not ranked according to the number of searches. For this reason, there is a problem that it is difficult to distinguish an image that is frequently searched from an image that is frequently searched and an image that is frequently searched.

[0004]

As described above, it is impossible to distinguish an image with a small number of searches from an image with a large number of searches,
There is a problem that it is difficult to search for images that are frequently searched.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances. By ranking images according to the number of searches, they can be used as a reference for searches, and an image with a small number of searches and an image with a large number of searches are provided. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image search apparatus that can be distinguished and that can be easily searched for images that are frequently searched, and that has an extremely high operability.

[0006]

An image retrieval apparatus of the present invention comprises a storage unit for storing a plurality of images together with retrieval information corresponding to each of these images, an instruction unit for instructing at least a part of the retrieval information, Extraction means for extracting related search information by comparing the content instructed by the instruction means with the search information stored in the storage means,
Selection means for selecting one of the search information extracted by the extraction means, output means for reading out and outputting an image corresponding to the search information selected by the selection means from the storage means, and output by this output means. It is composed of processing means for adding to the search information corresponding to the image the number of times of search updated for each search and a level according to the number of times of search and storing the number in the storage means.

[0007]

According to the present invention, a plurality of images are stored in the storage means together with the search information corresponding to each of these images, at least a part of the search information is designated, and the designated contents and the storage means are stored. Relevant search information is extracted by comparing it with the search information stored, one of the extracted search information is selected, and an image corresponding to the selected search information is read out from the storage means and output. The search information corresponding to the output image is provided with the number of times of search that is updated for each search and a level according to the number of times of search, and is stored in the storage means.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an example of the construction of an image retrieval apparatus of the present invention, for example, an electronic filing apparatus. That is, the electronic filing device includes a control module 10, a memory module 12, an image processing module 14, a communication control module 16, a scanner device 18, and an optical disk 20.
The optical disk device 22, the keyboard 23, the CRT display device 24, the printer device 25, the magnetic disk 26 and the magnetic disk device 27, the mouse 29, the system bus 30, and the image bus 32 are included.

The control module 10 includes a CPU 34 that performs various controls for image storage, retrieval, edit processing, and the like.
And optical disk device 22, magnetic disk device 27 and C
The interface circuit 36 connects the PU 34. A keyboard 23 and a mouse 29 are connected to the CPU 34.

The memory module 12 is an image memory having a main memory 38 for storing various control programs for image storage, retrieval, editing, etc. and management information, and an image memory having a storage capacity corresponding to several pages of an A4 size document. Page memory 40, a display memory 42 as a display interface, and a display controller 44. A buffer memory area 40a is provided in a part of the page memory 40. The page memory 40 is a memory that temporarily stores, for example, an image stored in the optical disc 20 or an image read from the optical disc 20.

The display memory 42 is for temporarily storing an image displayed by the CRT display device 24. In the display memory 42, an image actually displayed in the display window of the CRT display device 24, for example, an image from the page memory 40 or an image from the buffer memory 40a is enlarged, reduced, rotated, inserted or inserted. An image subjected to black-and-white reversal or the like is stored. The display control unit 44 controls the display processing of the CRT display device 24 and the like.

The image processing module 14 includes an enlarging / reducing circuit 46 for enlarging and reducing an image, a vertical / horizontal converting circuit 48 for rotating an image, and an encoding process for compressing an image (reducing redundancy). A compression / decompression circuit (CODEC) 50 for performing a decoding process for applying and decompressing (restoring the reduced redundancy), a scanner interface 52 for the scanner device 18, a printer interface 54 for the printer device 25, and scaling. The internal bus 56 connects the circuit 46 and the vertical / horizontal conversion circuit 48 with the compression / expansion circuit 50, the scanner interface 52, and the printer interface 54.

The compression / decompression circuit 50 is a MH (Modified Huff).
Band compression or band expansion is performed using a man (man) method, an MR (Modified Read) method, or the like.

The communication control module 16 is, for example, an LA.
It is configured by a communication interface 58 such as a BCP (Bus Communica-tion Processor) connected to the N.
Further, the communication control module 16 is connected to an external device such as an FCP (facsimile connection mechanism) or a personal computer through an interface, and a UCP (Universal Communication).
Processor) may be provided.

The system bus 30 is a bus for control signals of various devices and connects the control module 10 with the memory module 12, the image processing module 14, and the communication control module 16. The image bus 32 is an image bus, 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, which obtains an electric signal corresponding to an image on the original by scanning the original (document) two-dimensionally with a laser beam.

The optical disk device 22 is a scanner device 18.
The images read by the method are sequentially stored in the optical disc 20. The optical disc 20 is searched for an image corresponding to the search code designated by the keyboard 23 or the like.

The keyboard 23 is used to input a unique search code corresponding to an image stored in the optical disk 20 and various operation commands for storage, search, edit processing and the like. Further, the mouse 29 moves the cursor (not shown) displayed on the display window of the CRT display device 24, for example, vertically and horizontally to give an instruction at a desired position so that the cursor is positioned. The display contents (various operation modes, area designation or icon for image editing, etc.) are selected or designated.

The CRT display device (cathode ray tube display device) 24 displays the image read by the scanner device 18 and the image retrieved from the optical disk 20. Icons and the like are displayed at the upper end, the lower end, and the right end on the display window of the CRT display device 24.

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

The magnetic disk device 27 stores various control programs on the magnetic disk 26 mounted on the magnetic disk device 27, and also stores a search code input from the keyboard 23 and an image corresponding to the search code. The search data (search information) including the storage address on the optical disc 20, the image size, the search frequency, and the like is stored.

The search data is managed by a document management table, which is a title management table 26a, as shown in FIG.
Page management table 26b and record management table 2
6c. In the title management table 26a, one document number is stored for each search code (image name) consisting of a plurality of search keys. In the page management table 26b, record numbers are stored page by page of one document, and one record number is stored corresponding to each page. In the record management table 26c, for each record number, the storage address (storage start position) of the image on the optical disc 19, the document size (image size), the image attributes such as the compression method and the resolution, the number of searches (search frequency: access frequency). ,
And the search rank is stored.

The number of searches is updated by "+1" each time the corresponding image is searched. The search rank stores a result that the search count corresponds to which level each time the search count is updated. For example, if the number of searches is 10 or less, the search rank C is stored (C <10), and if the number of searches is 10 or more, 5
If 0 or less, the search rank B is stored (10 ≦ C <5
0), if the number of searches is 50 or more, the search rank A is stored (50 ≦ A).

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

Next, the operation of image storage and retrieval processing in the electronic filing apparatus having such a configuration will be described.

First, the image storing process will be described.
For example, now, the registration mode is selected and set by the keyboard 23, and the search code of the image to be stored in the optical disc 20 is input. This search code is composed of multiple items of search keys, and the contents of this search key item are as follows:
It is set in advance. The CPU 34 checks the validity of the input search code according to a format defined in advance. Further, the double registration is checked by comparing with the search code already registered in the optical disc 20. Depending on the result of this check, the entered search code is stored in the main memory 13
Memorized in.

Next, the original is set on the scanner device 18, and the CPU 34 operates the optical disk device 22 and the scanner device 18. The scanner device 18 two-dimensionally scans and photoelectrically converts an image of a set document or the like. The line information of the photoelectrically converted image is sequentially stored in the page memory 40. The image stored in the page memory 40 is stored in the display memory 42 and displayed on the CRT display device 24. The skew, density, resolution, etc. of the image displayed on the CRT display device 24 are confirmed, and when the displayed image is satisfactory, a memory key (not shown) is input. Then, the CPU 34 causes the compression / expansion circuit (CODEC) 50 to process the image stored in the page memory 40 for each line information by a known MR (Modified).
Encoding processing is performed by band compression using the Read method. This encoded image is the optical disc device 2
2 and is stored in the optical disc 20.

When the storage of the image on the optical disk 20 is completed, the CPU 34 determines the logical address determined from the physical track address and the physical sector address where the image is stored,
The image length represented by the block length, the image attribute, and the like are stored in the main memory 38 in association with the search code (search information). Then, the CPU 34 supplies the search data stored in the main memory 38 to the magnetic disk device 27. As a result, the magnetic disk device 27 stores the supplied search data in the respective tables 26a to 26c in the magnetic disk 26.

Next, the search processing of the image stored in the optical disk 20 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, the search mode is set by the keyboard 23, and the search code corresponding to the image to be searched is input. The CPU 34 sequentially compares and collates the input search code with the search code stored in the title management table 26a (FIG. 2) of the magnetic disk 26, and determines whether or not the search code that matches the input search code is stored. Check each one in order and extract the relevant document number. As a result, the CPU 34 stores the extracted candidate document numbers in the main memory 38.

Then, the CPU 34 refers to the candidate document numbers in the main memory 38, and reads the list of the relevant documents (consisting of the search code and the search rank for each page) from the title management table 26a as data. It is created with the search rank read from the record management table 26c and displayed using the CRT display device 24. With this display, if the document (page) for which the operator is desired to be searched cannot be found, the search code is input again. If found, the image to be searched is specified from the list (specified by document number, page number, etc.) and the execution of the search is instructed.

At this time, since the rank of the search is displayed for each image, it can be used as a reference for the search, and an image having a small number of searches can be distinguished from an image having a large number of searches. It can be done easily.

The CPU 34 assigns the record number corresponding to the designated image to the page management table 26b of the magnetic disk 26.
, A logical address corresponding to the read record number is read from the record management table 26c in the magnetic disk 26, and a physical track address and a physical sector address corresponding to this address are calculated.
The optical disc device 22 reproduces the image including the search code from the optical disc 20 by these addresses.

The CPU 34 also supplies the image (compression information) for each scanning line supplied from the optical disk device 22 to the compression / expansion circuit 50, performs band expansion processing, and sequentially supplies it to the page memory 40. The image stored in the page memory 40 is reduced by the enlargement / reduction circuit 46 and output to the display memory 42, and the image is stored in the display memory 42. Therefore, the display control unit 44 controls the display memory 4
The stored contents of No. 2 are displayed on the CRT display device 24.

Further, the CPU 34 increments the number of searches in the record management table 26c corresponding to the image by "+1",
It is checked whether the updated number of searches is a change value of the search rank, and if it is the change value, the search rank is changed.

For example, the updated number of searches is "10".
If it is, the search rank is changed to "B", and if the updated number of searches is "50", the search rank is changed to "A".

In the above embodiment, the case has been described in which the number of searches and the search rank for each image in page units are stored, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the number of searches and search ranks are stored in document units. You may do it. In this case, the stored contents of the title management table 26a, page management table 26b, and record management table 26c are changed as shown in FIG.

As described above, the images are ranked according to the number of searches.

As a result, by ranking the images according to the number of searches, it can be used as a reference for the search, and an image with a small number of searches can be distinguished from an image with a large number of searches. It can be done easily. Moreover, operability is good.

[0040]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention,
By ranking images according to the number of searches, the images can be used as a reference for searching, and an image with a small number of searches can be distinguished from an image with a large number of searches. Can be provided.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing the configuration of an image search device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a storage example of a document management table in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining a search process of the image search device in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a storage example of a document management table in another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

20 ... Optical disc, 18 ... Scanner device, 22 ... Optical disc device, 23 ... Keyboard, 24 ... CRT display device, 25 ... Printer device, 26 ... Magnetic disc, 2
6a ... Title management table, 26b ... Page management table, 26c ... Record management table, 27 ... Magnetic disk device, 34 ... CPU, 38 ... Main memory, 40 ... Page memory, 40a ... Buffer memory, 42 ... Display memory, 44 ... Display control unit, 46 ... Enlargement / reduction circuit, 50 ... Compression / expansion circuit.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A storage means for storing a plurality of images together with search information corresponding to each of these images, an instruction means for instructing at least a part of the search information, a content instructed by the instruction means, and the storage. Extracting means for extracting related search information by comparing the search information stored in the means, selecting means for selecting one of the search information extracted by the extracting means, and selecting means for selecting by the selecting means. Output means for reading out and outputting the image corresponding to the retrieved information from the storage means, the number of retrievals updated for each retrieval to the retrieval information corresponding to the image output by the output means, and a level corresponding to the retrieved number An image retrieval apparatus comprising: a processing unit that stores and stores in the storage unit. 2. A storage unit for storing a plurality of images corresponding to each of these images together with search information, an instruction unit for instructing at least a part of the search information, a content instructed by the instruction unit, and the storage. Extracting means for extracting related search information by comparing the search information stored in the means, and first outputting the search information extracted by the extracting means
Output means, selection means for selecting one of the search information output by the first output means, and an image corresponding to the search information selected by the selection means, which is read from the storage means and output. The second output means and the search information corresponding to the image output by the second output means are added with the number of times of search updated for each search and a level according to the number of times of search and stored in the storage means. An image retrieval apparatus comprising: a first processing unit; and a second processing unit that also outputs the level when the search information is output by the first output unit.