JPH06149888A - Electronic filing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily register a key word for retrieval by displaying an input image on a display means, and registering by segmenting a character string that exists on the input image as a key word by an area designation means. CONSTITUTION:An original is fetched in a system from an image input device 110 such as a scanner camera, etc., via an image input I/F 104. An inputted original image is displayed on a liquid crystal tablet 111 via a video I/F 105, and also, an area instruction and a command instruction are issued by a pen, and the information of those instructions are transmitted to a CPU 101 via a tablet I/F 106. An instruction method can be applied by enclosing a character set as a target, or drawing an underline. In such a manner, since the input image is displayed on the liquid crystal tablet 111, and the character string on the input image is registered by segmenting as the key word by the pen, work taking much time to perform input from a keyboard one by one can be eliminated.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic filing system, which is capable of easily inputting a search keyword to be added to a read image.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an electronic filing system,
When the image information read by the image input device is stored in the storage device, it is necessary to add a search keyword so that the image information can be searched later. Conventionally, in this keyword input operation, an operator extracts a keyword while looking at an input document and inputs it through a keyboard.

[0003]

However, the task of inputting a keyword via a keyboard is troublesome and has been an obstacle to the spread of the electronic filing system.

By the way, generally, a search keyword is usually present in a manuscript. Therefore,
The present invention takes the above characteristics into consideration, displays an input image,
An object of the present invention is to provide a device capable of easily registering a keyword for search by designating a portion to be a keyword by a region designating means, recognizing a character string in the designated region, and registering this character string as a keyword. To do.

[0005]

The electronic filing system of the present invention is an image inputting means for reading an image, a displaying means for displaying the read image, and an area designating for indicating a keyword portion on the displayed image. Means, a character recognition means for recognizing a character string in the designated area, a storage means for storing the read image, and a registration means for registering the recognized character string as a keyword. .

A liquid crystal tablet and a pen are used as the display means and the area designating means.

Further, when registering a keyword using the registration means, a keyword list used for searching is created.

[0008]

【Example】

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a case where a liquid crystal tablet and a pen are used as the display / area indicating means in the present invention. Reference numeral 101 denotes a CPU that controls the entire electronic filing system of the present invention and performs various image processes,
Reference numeral 102 is a ROM in which a program for performing registration / search processing described later is stored, and 103 is a RAM used as a work memory for image processing and the like. The document is read from the image input device 110 such as a scanner / camera to the image input device I / F 1
Incorporated into the system via 04. The image of the input document is displayed on the liquid crystal tablet 111 via the video I / F 105, and the area and command instructions are given by the pen.
It is transmitted to the CPU 101 via 106. An optical disk device 112 stores image data and the like, and information is stored via the optical disk device I / F 107. Reference numeral 113 denotes a hard disk device that stores a search database, a character recognition dictionary, etc., which will be described later.
Information is recorded or read via F108. Reference numeral 114 denotes an image printing apparatus that prints the searched image data, search results, and the like, and image information is transmitted via the image printing apparatus I / F 109.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the electronic filing system shown in FIG. Reference numeral 111 denotes a liquid crystal tablet and pen, which displays an image of an input image and windows for various processes on a liquid crystal display, and uses the tablet and pen to indicate a keyword area and select a command. 11
Reference numeral 0 is a scanner for inputting a document, 112 is an optical disk device for storing image information, and 109 is an image printing device I / F. Each block shown in FIG. 1 is included in this device except the image printing device 114.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the main routine of the processing of the present invention. In step s301 (hereinafter abbreviated as steps), the conditions necessary for various operations are initialized after the power is turned on, and various work routines are selected by commands in step s302. When registering an image, s303
Is selected, and when performing a search, s304 is selected.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a registration work routine. First, a document is set on the image input device 110 and the image information is read (s401). Next, the read image information is displayed on the screen of the liquid crystal tablet 111 (s402). Then, while looking at the displayed image information, the user designates a character string to be a search keyword with the pen (s403). As an instruction method, the target character string may be enclosed as shown by 501 in FIG. 5, or may be underlined as shown by 601 in FIG. In the case of a manuscript having a narrow character string or a narrow space between characters, the method of FIG. 6 is easier to work. In the example of FIG. 6, a line is drawn below the target character string, but a line may be drawn above.

Next, the area designated by the pen is extracted (s
404), the extracted character string is separated for each character and character recognition is performed (s405). First, the extraction of character strings will be described. In the case of the example in FIG. 5, the number of black pixels in the horizontal (line) direction is counted for the image in the area surrounded by the line, and when the number of black pixels on the line is less than or equal to the threshold value Th1, this It is determined that the line is a line where no character exists, and when Th1 or more, it is determined that the line exists. Since the area designated by the pen includes only one line of character string, a group of each line determined to be a line where a character exists is determined to be a character string. In the case of the example in FIG. 6, the number of black pixels for each line is counted in the upward direction from the underlined line, and from the line that first exceeds Th1,
Next, the line up to Th1 or less is taken as one lump,
Extract a character string. When a line is drawn on the character string to be extracted, scanning may be performed from top to bottom.

To cut out each character, the number of black pixels is counted for each line in the vertical direction in the extracted character string, and a line having a threshold value Th2 or more is set as a line with a character, and Th
This is done by making the lines of 2 or less the lines of characters.
Furthermore, when the continuous length of a line without a character is equal to or less than a certain value, it is determined that one character is separated, and it is integrated into one character. Next, character recognition is performed on the character image cut out for each character. As a character recognition method, a known method using peripheral features or direction line elements is used.

The search keyword recognized as described above is displayed on the liquid crystal tablet 111 (s40).
6). An example of the display screen is shown in FIG. 701 is a keyword recognition and registration window, and the keyword recognition result is displayed in 705. In this example, three keywords are extracted by designating three areas. Regarding the method of registering the keyword, the recognition result is checked to determine whether it is correctly recognized (s407), if correction is necessary, correction is performed (s408), and the input image and the keyword are registered (s409). The input image is the optical disk device 11
The search keywords are stored in the hard disk device 113. The keyword information may be stored in the optical disc device. In addition, at the time of keyword registration work, a keyword list used in a search work described later is created or updated.

A method of correcting a keyword will be described with reference to FIG. In the example of FIG. 7, the character indicated by 706 of the keyword 3 is erroneously recognized as “KU” although it should be “WA” originally. In this case, when the character frame indicated by 706 is selected using the pen and then the delete button 702 is clicked, the character "KU" is deleted. Next, write the character "wa" in the character box 706 with a pen and click the recognition button 703.
Click with the pen. If it is correctly recognized, the correction work ends, and the registration button 704 is clicked to end the registration work. If it is not recognized correctly or if there are other corrections, repeat the above work.

Next, a search operation of registered image information will be described with reference to FIG. First, a search keyword is input using the liquid crystal tablet (s801).
The input method will be described in detail later. When a keyword is input, a search is performed according to the keyword (s802). As a result of the search, if the relevant document exists, the process proceeds to the next step, and if it does not exist, another keyword is input and the search is performed again (s803). If the relevant document exists, a list is displayed (s80
4) Select the required document with the pen (s805).
Then, the selected document image is read from the optical disk device 112 (s806) and displayed on the liquid crystal display 111 (s807). It is selected whether or not to print the displayed document image (s808), and when printing, the image printing device 114 prints it (s809). If another document displayed in the list is to be viewed, the process returns to s804, otherwise the process proceeds to the next step (s810). In s811, it is asked whether to search with another keyword. If the search is performed, the process returns to s801, and if not searched, the search operation is ended.

Finally, a keyword input method at the time of search will be described with reference to the drawings. In FIG. 9, a window for keyword search 901 is displayed on the liquid crystal display. Reference numeral 904 is a keyword list created at the time of image and keyword registration, and for example, all keywords registered in the order of aiueo can be viewed. The operator selects a necessary keyword from these with a pen. The selected keyword is displayed in the keyword display window 902.
Is displayed in. When the selection of the keyword to be searched is completed, the search button 903 is clicked to start the search operation. FIG. 10 shows an example of writing a search keyword with a pen. First, a keyword is written in the character frame 1005 with a pen. Next, the recognition button 1003 is clicked to perform character recognition. If there is an erroneous recognition, the correct keyword is input using the delete button 1002 and the recognition button 1003 in the same manner as when registering. When the keyword is entered correctly, search button 1
Click 004 with a pen to start searching.

(Embodiment 2) FIG. 11 shows an embodiment of the present invention.
The block diagram when a CRT is used as the display means and a keyboard and a mouse are used as the area designating means is shown. The display means may be a display body such as a liquid crystal display or a plasma display. Reference numeral 101 is a CPU that controls the entire electronic filing system of the present invention and performs various kinds of image processing, 102 is a ROM that stores a program that performs registration / search processing described later, and 103 is used as a work memory for image processing and the like. RAM. The original document is taken into the system from the image input device 110 such as a scanner or camera via the image input device I / F 104. The image of the input document is displayed on the CRT 115 via the video I / F 105, and the area instruction and the command instruction are given by the keyboard 118 or the mouse 119, and the information thereof is the keyboard I / F 116 and the mouse I / F 117, respectively. Is transmitted to the CPU 101 via. An optical disk device 112 stores image data and the like, and information is stored via the optical disk device I / F 107. Reference numeral 113 denotes a hard disk device in which a search database, a character recognition dictionary, etc., which will be described later, are stored, and information is recorded or read out via the hard disk device I / F 108. An image printing apparatus 114 prints the searched image data, search results, and the like.
Image information is transmitted via F109.

Regarding the registration and retrieval work, the first embodiment is described.
Since it is almost the same as the above, only different parts will be described. In the registration work, the keyword area designation process (s403) is performed using a mouse. In the keyword correction process (s408), the registration button 704 and the character frame 705 are selected with the mouse, and the erroneously recognized character is corrected by inputting the correct character from the keyboard. In this case, the delete button 702 and the recognition button 703 are unnecessary.

Similarly in the search operation, in the keyword input process (s801), the mouse is used for the selection operation of buttons and the like, and the keyboard is used for the input of characters.

[0021]

As described above, according to the present invention, the input image is displayed on the display means, and the character string existing on the input image is cut out as a keyword and registered by the area designating means. It is free from the troublesome work of doing. Moreover, since the keyword is extracted from the input image, there is an effect that registration can always be performed with an appropriate keyword. Further, by using the liquid crystal tablet in which the display means and the area designating means are integrated, the keyword area designating work can be performed easily. Furthermore, since a list is created at the time of keyword registration and a keyword required at the time of search is selected from these, it is possible to easily associate with which keyword the keyword is registered.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram of an embodiment of an electronic filing system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the above embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a main routine in the electronic filing system of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of registration work in the electronic filing system of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a view showing a display example at the time of area designating work according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a display example at the time of area designating work according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a display example at the time of keyword recognition of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart of a search operation in the electronic filing system of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a display example at the time of keyword search of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a display example at the time of keyword search of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a block configuration diagram of an embodiment of an electronic filing system of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101 CPU 102 ROM 103 RAM 104 Image Input Device I / F 105 Video I / F 106 Tablet I / F 107 Optical Disk Device I / F 108 Hard Disk Device I / F 109 Image Printing Device I / F 110 Image Input Device 111 Liquid Crystal Tablet & Pen 112 Optical disk device 113 Hard disk device 114 Image printing device 115 CRT 116 Keyboard I / F 117 mouse I / F 118 keyboard 119 mouse

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An image inputting means for reading an image, a displaying means for displaying the read image, an area designating means for designating a portion serving as a keyword on the displayed image, and a character string in the designated area. An electronic filing system comprising: a character recognition unit for recognition, a storage unit for storing a read image, and a registration unit for registering a recognized character string as a keyword. 2. The electronic filing system according to claim 1, wherein a liquid crystal tablet and a pen are used as the display means and the area designating means. 3. The electronic filing system according to claim 1, wherein a keyword list used for searching is created when the keywords are registered using the registration means.