JPH06231466A - Dot code and information recording and reproducing system for recording and reproducing the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To record for a long time and to repeatedly reproduce multi-media information including audio information, video information and digital code data, etc., and being recorded so as to be read optically. CONSTITUTION:A recording device records so-called multi-media information including audio information such as voice, video information obtained from a camera, etc., and digital code data obtained from a personal computer, etc., as a dot code 36 so as to be read optically on a medium such as paper together with a picture 32 and a character 34 by means of a printer system or a palte making system for printing. A pen type information reproducing device 40 successively fetches the dot code 36 in accordance with the manual scanning of the dot code 36 and outputs the original voice to a voice output device 42 such as an earphone, the original video information to a display such as a CRT and the original digital code data to a page printer, etc.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to so-called multimedia information including audio information such as voice and music, video information obtained from a camera, a video and the like, digital code data obtained from a personal computer, a word processor and the like. The present invention relates to a dot code suitable for recording and / or reproducing data and an information recording / reproducing system for recording / reproducing the same, and in particular, recording of an optically readable dot code on a sheet of paper, various resin films, metal or the like. And / or playback.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, various media such as magnetic tapes and optical disks have been known as media for recording voice, music and the like.

However, even if a large number of copies are made, these media are expensive to some extent, and a large amount of space is required for their storage.

Further, when it is necessary to hand over the voice recording medium to another person in a remote place, whether it is mailed or brought directly, it takes time and time. There was also the problem of this.

Therefore, it has been considered to record voice information on paper in the form of image information which can be transmitted by facsimile and can be reproduced in large quantities at low cost. For example, JP-A-60
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 244145, there has been proposed a method in which a small amount of voice is converted into an optical code so that voice information is converted into image information and can be sent by facsimile.

[0006]

However, in the apparatus disclosed in the above publication, the facsimile apparatus is provided with a sensor for reading the optically readable recorded voice, and according to the sensor output. I try to play the sound. Therefore, the optically readable voice information transmitted by facsimile can only be heard at the place where the facsimile device is installed, and the usage such as reproducing the sound by moving the facsimile output paper to another place is assumed. Was not done.

Therefore, if the recording capacity of voice information is increased, it may affect other facsimile transmission / reception, and if the recorded content itself is difficult, while reproducing a large amount of voice. It is possible that you forget the first one. Furthermore, the recording capacity is limited by the recording density and the compression method, and only a voice of about several seconds can be transmitted. Therefore, in order to send a large amount of audio information, the magnetic tape, the optical disk, etc. have to be resorted to.

Further, even for a short time of voice information, since the reproducing apparatus itself is built in the facsimile apparatus, it is inconvenient to repeatedly reproduce the voice information.

In addition to audio information, so-called multimedia information as a whole including video information obtained from a camera, a video, etc., digital code data obtained from a personal computer, a word processor, etc. is inexpensive and has a large capacity. The recording / playback system has not been realized yet.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and is a dot code capable of inexpensively recording a large amount of multimedia information including audio information, video information, digital code data, and the like, and repeatedly reproducing it. And an information recording / reproducing system for recording / reproducing the same.

[0011]

In order to achieve the above object, an information recording system according to the present invention has an input for inputting multimedia information including at least one of audio information, video information and digital code data. Means, a conversion means for converting the multimedia information input by the input means into an optically readable dot code, and the dot code converted by the conversion means is optically read on a recording medium. It is characterized by comprising a recording means for recording possible.

In the dot code according to the present invention, a plurality of blocks are arranged, and each of the blocks has a data dot pattern consisting of a plurality of dots arranged according to the content of data, and the data dot pattern. And a block address pattern indicating an address of the block arranged in a second predetermined positional relationship with respect to the marker and having a pattern that is impossible in And an error detection code pattern of the block address arranged in a third predetermined positional relationship with respect to the block address pattern.

The information reproducing system according to the present invention is a recording medium having a portion in which multimedia information including at least one of audio information, video information and digital code data is recorded in an optically readable dot code. Reading means for optically reading the dot code, restoring means for converting the dot code read by the reading means into original multimedia information, and output means for outputting the multimedia information restored by the restoring means It is characterized by having and.

Here, the restoring means includes a first memory means for storing the dot code read by the reading means, and a marker for detecting a marker of each block from the dot code stored in the first memory means. Detecting means, and data array direction detecting means for detecting the data array direction from the marker of each block detected by the marker detecting means,
The first address control means for outputting the dot code stored in the first memory means according to the data array direction detected by the data array detection means and the dot code output from the first memory means are provided. After binarization, demodulation means for demodulating, block address detection means for detecting the block address from the demodulation output data of the demodulation means, and demodulation output data of the demodulation means according to the block address detected by the block address detection means Second address control means for mapping to the second memory means and data output means for outputting the demodulated output data mapped to the second memory means are included.

Alternatively, the restoring means includes first memory means for storing the dot code read by the reading means, and marker detection for detecting a marker of each block from the dot code stored in the first memory means. Means, and data array direction detecting means for detecting the data array direction from the marker of each block detected by the marker detecting means,
Block address detecting means for detecting the block address in accordance with the data array direction detected by the data array detecting means, and demodulating means for demodulating the dot code output from the first memory means after binarizing the dot code. Address control means for mapping the demodulated data output from the demodulation means to the second memory means according to the block address detected by the block address detection means, and mapping to the second memory means output from the demodulation means. And data output means for outputting the demodulated data.

[0016]

That is, according to the information recording system of the present invention, the audio information input from the input means by the conversion means,
The multimedia information including at least one of image information and digital code data is converted into an optically readable code, which is recorded on the recording medium by the recording means so as to be optically readable.

Here, the dot code is formed by arranging a plurality of blocks, and each of the blocks has a data dot pattern composed of a plurality of dots arranged according to the content of the data, and the data dot pattern has the data dot pattern. A marker having an impossible pattern and arranged in a first predetermined positional relationship with respect to the data dot pattern, and a block address pattern indicating an address of the block arranged in a second predetermined positional relationship with respect to the marker,
Since the block address pattern and the error detection code pattern of the block address arranged in a third predetermined positional relationship are provided, the data array direction, that is, the rotation or inclination can be determined by connecting the markers of each block. It can be detected, and the correction according to the detection can be easily performed.

According to the information reproducing system of the present invention, the reading means records the multimedia information including at least one of the audio information, the image information and the digital code data in the optically readable dot code. The dot code is optically read from a recording medium having a portion, and the read dot code is converted into original multimedia information by the restoring means, and the restored multimedia information is output by the output means. .

Here, the restoring means stores the dot code read by the reading means in the first memory means,
The marker detection means detects the marker of each block from the stored dot code, the data arrangement direction detection means detects the data arrangement direction from the detected marker of each block, and the first address control means The dot code stored in the first memory means is output according to the detected data arrangement direction. The demodulation means binarizes the dot code output from the first memory means, demodulates it, and the block address detection means detects the block address from the demodulated output data to obtain the second address. The control means maps the demodulated output data of the demodulating means to the second memory means according to the detected block address. Thereafter, the data output means outputs the demodulated output data mapped in the second memory means.

Alternatively, the restoring means stores the dot code read by the reading means in the first memory means, the marker detecting means detects the marker of each block from the stored dot code, and the data array direction The data array direction is detected by the detection means from the marker of each detected block. Then, the block address detecting means detects the block address in accordance with the detected data arrangement direction. On the other hand, in the demodulation means, the dot code output from the first memory means is binarized and then demodulated. The address control means maps the demodulated data output from the demodulating means to the second memory means according to the block address detected by the block address detecting means, and outputs the second memory by the demodulating means. The demodulated data mapped to the means is output by the data output means.

[0021]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First, an embodiment related to audio information such as voice and music in multimedia information will be described. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an audio information recording apparatus for recording audio information such as voice and music on a paper as an optically readable digital signal in the first embodiment of the present invention.

An audio signal input by the voice input device 12 such as a microphone or an audio output device is
After being amplified by the preamplifier 14 (AGC is applied in the case of microphone sound), it is converted into a digital signal by the A / D converter 16. The digitized audio signal is subjected to data compression by the compression circuit 18, and then an error correction code is added by the error correction code addition circuit 20.

Thereafter, the memory circuit 22 performs interleaving. This interleaving distributes the data array two-dimensionally according to a predetermined rule, so that when the data is returned to the original array by the reproducing apparatus, paper-like stains and scratches, that is, The error itself is dispersed, which facilitates error correction and data interpolation. This interleaving is performed by appropriately reading and outputting the data stored in the memory 22A by the interleaving circuit 22B.

The output data of the memory circuit 22 is then subjected to a data addition circuit 24 for each block in accordance with a predetermined recording format, which will be described in detail later, a marker, and an x-address indicating a two-dimensional address of the block. Then, after the y address and the error determination code are added, the modulation circuit 26 performs modulation for recording. Then, after data such as image data to be recorded together with the output data of the audio information is superimposed by the synthesizing circuit 27, the printer system or the plate making system for printing 28 takes measures for printing.

As a result, for example, it is recorded on the paper 30 in the format as shown in FIG. That is, together with the image 32 and the character 34, the sound data converted into a digital signal is printed as the recording data 36. Here, the recording data 36 is composed of a plurality of blocks 38, and each block 38 includes a marker 38A, an error correction code 38B,
Audio data 38C, x address data 38D, y
It is composed of address data 38E and error determination code 38F.

The marker 38A also functions as a synchronizing signal, and uses a pattern that does not normally appear in recording modulation, such as DAT. The error correction code 38B is used for error correction of the audio data 38C. The audio data 38C corresponds to the audio signal input from the voice input device 12 such as the microphone or the audio output device. The x and y address data 38D and 38E are data representing the position of the block 38, and the error determination code 38F is used for error determination of these x and y addresses.

Recording data 36 having such a format
Prints the data of "1" and "0" by the printer system or the printing plate making system 28 by setting "1" with black dots and "0" without black dots as in the case of a bar code, for example. Will be recorded. Hereinafter, such print data will be referred to as a dot code.

FIG. 2B shows a situation where the sound data recorded on the paper 30 as shown in FIG. 2A is being read by the pen-type information reproducing device 40. By tracing over the dot code 36 with the pen-type information reproducing device 40 as shown in the figure, the dot code 36 can be detected, converted into a sound, and heard by the voice output device 42 such as an earphone.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the information reproducing apparatus 40 in the first embodiment of the present invention. The information reproducing apparatus according to the present embodiment includes a sound output device 42 such as headphones or earphones.
It is assumed that the other parts are housed in one portable pen-type housing (not shown). Of course, the speaker may be built in the housing.

The detection unit 44 basically has the same function as that of an image pickup unit such as a television camera. That is, the dot code 36 on the paper surface, which is a subject, is illuminated by the light source 44A, and the reflected light is imaged by the image pickup unit 44D including a semiconductor area sensor or the like via the imaging system 44B such as a lens and the spatial filter 44C. Is detected, and is amplified by the preamplifier 44E and output.

Here, the pixel pitch of the area sensor is set to be equal to or less than the dot pitch of the dot code 36 on the image pickup surface by the sampling theorem. Further, the spatial filter 44C installed on the image pickup surface is also based on this theorem,
It is inserted to prevent the moire phenomenon (aliasing) on the imaging surface. Further, the number of pixels of the area sensor is set in the vertical direction of a predetermined dot code 36 that is defined as being readable at one time in consideration of camera shake when manually scanning the detection unit 44 as shown in FIG. It is set to be larger than the width of.
That is, (A) and (B) of FIG. 4 show the moving state of the imaging area for each certain period when the detecting unit 44 is manually scanned in the direction of the arrow, and in particular, (A) shows dots. FIG. 9B shows a state of manual scanning when the width of the code 36 in the vertical direction is within the imaging area (camera shake is also taken into consideration), and (B) shows that the amount of the dot code 36 is large and the width in the vertical direction is one. The case where the image does not fit in the imaging area is shown. In the latter case,
At the position where the manual scanning of the dot code 36 is started, a manual scanning marker 36A for indicating it is printed.
Therefore, a large number of dot codes 36 can be detected by performing manual scanning a plurality of times along the manual scanning marker 36A.

The image signal detected by the detection unit 44 as described above is then input to the scan conversion and lens distortion correction unit 46. In the scan conversion and lens distortion correction unit 46, the input image signal is first converted into an A / D converter 46A.
Is converted into a digital signal and stored in the frame memory 46B. The frame memory 46B has a gradation of 8 bits.

Further, the marker detecting circuit 46C detects the marker 38A by scanning the image information stored in the frame memory 46B as shown in FIG. 4C. θ
The detection circuit 46D detects which address value on the image pickup surface each marker 38A detected by the marker detection circuit 46C corresponds to, and the inclination θ of the image pickup surface with respect to the arrangement direction of the dot codes from the address value. Is calculated. It should be noted that the marker detection circuit 46C is rotated by approximately 90 ° as in the case of FIG. 4C to scan the dots in the scan only in the direction as shown in FIG. 4C, as shown in FIG. When the image of the code 36 is imaged, the inclination θ may not be correctly obtained. Therefore, when the scan is performed in the lateral direction of the block 38, θ may not be correctly obtained. Therefore, as shown in FIG. Also, the scan in the direction orthogonal to is performed, and the correct one of the results obtained by the scans in the two orthogonal directions is selected.

On the other hand, in the lens aberration information memory 46E,
Pre-measured aberration information of the lens used in the image forming system 44B of the detection unit 44 for correcting the distortion of the lens is stored. When the address control circuit 46F next reads the data stored in the frame memory 46B, the value of the inclination θ calculated by the θ detection circuit 46D and the lens aberration stored in the lens aberration information memory 46E are read. The read address according to the information is used as the frame memory 4
6B, and scan conversion in the array direction of data is performed while performing data interpolation by the interpolation circuit 46G.

FIG. 5A shows the principle of data interpolation performed by the interpolation circuit 46G. Basically,
Interpolation data is created by a convolution filter and LPF using pixels around the position Q where data is interpolated. The pixel pitch and the scanning line pitch after the scan conversion are set below the dot pitch of the dot code based on the sampling theorem, as in the case of imaging.

In the case of simple data interpolation using four pixels around the position Q to be interpolated, Q = (D6 × F6)
+ (D7 x F7) + (D10 x F10) + (D11 x F11),
In the case of relatively accurate data interpolation using 16 surrounding pixels, Q = (D1 × F1) + (D2 × F2
) + ... + (D16 × F16) is used to create the interpolation data. Where Dn is the data amplitude value of pixel n, Fn
Is a coefficient of an interpolation convolution filter (LPF) determined according to the distance to the pixel n.

The dot code 36 which has been subjected to scan conversion and read from the frame memory 46B as described above is then binarized by the binarization circuit 48 constituted by the latch 48A and the comparator 48B. The threshold value for the binarization is determined by the threshold value determination circuit 50 by using the value of the histogram for each screen or each block in the screen. That is, the threshold value is determined according to the stain on the dot code 36, the distortion of the paper 30, the accuracy of the built-in clock, and the like. As the threshold determination circuit 50, it is preferable to use, for example, a circuit using a neural network disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 4-131051 by the present applicant.

In parallel with this, the frame memory 46
The dot code 36 read from B is the PLL circuit 52.
Clock pulse CK that is input to and synchronized with the reproduced data
To occur. This clock pulse CK is used as binarization and demodulation after scan conversion, and as a reference clock for an error determination circuit 56A, x, y address detection circuit 56B and a memory unit 56C in a data string adjustment unit 56 described later. .

The binarized data is demodulated by the demodulation circuit 54, and the error judgment circuit 56A in the data string adjustment unit 56 is provided.
Is input to the x, y address detection circuit 56B. The error determination circuit 56A is configured to operate the error determination code 38 in the block 38.
Using F, it is determined whether or not there is an error in the x, y address data 38D, 38E. If there is no error, x,
According to the address detected by the y-address detection circuit 56A, the data is recorded in the memory unit 56C for adjusting the audio data string. If there is an error, the audio data 38C of the block 38 is not recorded in the audio data string adjustment memory unit 56C.

The purpose of the data string adjusting unit 56 is to determine the accuracy of the scan conversion in the scan conversion and lens distortion correction unit 46 (depending on the accuracy of the reference clock and the S / N of the image pickup device) and the distortion of the paper. , To correct a slight shift generated in the data array direction and the scan direction after scan conversion. This will be described with reference to FIG. In the figure, dot codes D1, D2 and D3 indicate data for each block. The pitch of the scan lines 1, 2, 3, ... After scan conversion is
As described above, it may be set to the dot pitch of the data or less based on the sampling theorem, but in FIG.
For completeness, the dot pitch is set to 1/2. Therefore, as is clear from the figure, the dot code D1 can be detected without error in the scan line 3 after scan conversion. And D2
Is detected on the scan line 2 after scan conversion without error, and D3 is similarly detected on the scan line 1 after scan conversion without error.

Then, x in each block 38,
It is stored in the memory unit 56C for adjusting the data string according to the y addresses 38D and 38E.

Next, as shown in FIGS. 4 (A) and 4 (B), the detecting section 44 is manually scanned so that the voice dot code 36 on the paper 30 is not leaked and a memory for adjusting the data string is provided. It can be stored in the section 56C.

The voice dot code whose data string has been adjusted by the data string adjusting section 56 is
According to a reference clock CK 'generated by a reference clock generation circuit 53 which is different from the circuit 52, the data is read from the memory unit 56C for adjusting the data string. Then, at this time, de-interleaving is applied by the de-interleaving circuit 58,
Converted into a formal data string. Next, the error correction circuit 60 performs error correction using the error correction code 38B in the block 38. Then, the decoding circuit 62 decodes the compressed data, and the data interpolation circuit 64 further interpolates the audio data whose error cannot be corrected. After that, it is converted into an analog audio signal by the D / A conversion circuit 66, amplified by the amplifier 68, and converted into sound by the voice output device (earphone, headphone, speaker, etc.) 42.

As described above, by making it possible to record audio information such as voice and music on paper, and by making the reproducing device a small portable device, a printout or a facsimile transmission thereof. , Or printed in the form of a book by printing plate making, anywhere
You will be able to listen again and again.

The memory unit 56C for adjusting the data string in the data string adjusting unit 56 is not limited to the semiconductor memory, and
Other storage media such as floppy disks, optical disks, magneto-optical disks, etc. can be used.

Various applications are conceivable as applications of the audio information recorded as described above. For example, for general use, language textbooks, sheet music, various texts such as distance learning, product specifications, manuals for repairs, dictionaries in foreign languages, encyclopedias, books such as picture books, product catalogs, travel guides, direct mail and guidance. Letter, newspaper, magazine, leaflet,
Albums, congratulations, postcards, etc. can be considered. For business use, FAX (voice & fax) business instruction,
Minutes, electronic blackboards, OHPs, identification cards (voiceprints), business cards, telephone memos, sticky notes, supply products (consumables) in the form of rolls of fine paper, and the like are conceivable. Here, as shown in FIG. 5 (B), the consumable item means that a double-sided tape or a sticky paper such as a sticky note is provided on the back surface of the rolled paper 30A, Record the dot code 36 on, and separate it as needed.
It is designed to be attached to various objects (hereinafter referred to as reel seal). Further, as shown in (C) of the figure, the width of the paper 30A is widened so that a plurality of dot codes 36 can be recorded, and the manual scanning marker 36B is used as a guideline for the manual scanning of the detection unit 44. May be printed vertically and horizontally. At the same time, the marker 36B can be used as a guide for the recording position of the dot code 36. That is, if a sensor is provided in the printer system 28 and the marker 36B is read by the sensor to find the beginning of the printout, the dot code 36 is always printed in the area surrounded by the marker 36B. Therefore, manual scanning can also be performed along the marker 36B to reliably reproduce the recorded audio information. Of course, the marker 36B may be printed when the dot code 36 is printed.

The recording time of audio information is 20
In the case of a general facsimile of 0 dpi, for example, 1 inch × 7 inch (2.54 cm × 1) along one side of the paper.
When data is recorded in an area of 7.78 cm, the total number of data is 280 kbit. From now on, a marker, an address signal, an error correction code, an error determination code (however, the error determination code in this case is the x, y address 38D, 38
In addition to E, audio data 38C is also subjected to error determination) (30%) is subtracted, 196 kbit
become. Therefore, the recording time when the voice is compressed to 7 kbit / s (mobile communication bit rate) is 28 seconds. When recording on the entire back side of A4 size double-sided facsimile paper, 7 inches x 10 inches (17.78 cm x 2)
Since the area of 5.4 cm) can be taken, it is possible to record 4.7 minutes of voice.

Further, in the case of a 400 dpi G4 facsimile, as a result of the same calculation as above, 7 inches × 10
It is possible to record 18.8 minutes of voice in the inch area.

For high-quality printing of 1500 dpi, 5 mm
When printed in an area of × 30 mm, the result of the same calculation as above results in a voice recording of 52.3 seconds. Also,
When printed on a 10 mm x 75 mm tape-shaped area, high-quality sound (30 kbi after compression is possible) that enables music
When calculated with an audio signal of t / s), one minute of audio recording is possible.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the configuration of the second embodiment of the present invention. The second embodiment is an example in which an xy address type image pickup unit such as a memory and a randomly accessible CMD is used as an image pickup device, and only the detection unit 44 and the scan conversion and lens distortion correction circuit 46 of the reproducing apparatus are used. , Which is different from the first embodiment. That is, the detection unit and the scan conversion unit 70 perform marker detection on the image pickup data stored in the xy address type image pickup unit 70A in the same manner as in the first embodiment,
Decoder address generator 70B and four x, y decoders 70C, 70D are used to interpolate four pieces of surrounding data when reading.
Are sequentially read by and input to the interpolation unit 72. Interpolator 7
2, the coefficient is sequentially read from the coefficient generation circuit 70E with respect to the input data, multiplied by the multiplier 70F, and further added by the adder 70G and the sample and hold circuit 70.
H, an analog cumulative addition circuit composed of a switch 70I performs cumulative addition, and a sample and hold circuit 70J performs sample and hold to scan-convert the dot code into the binarization circuit 48, the threshold value judgment circuit 50, And to the PLL circuit 52.

With this structure, the same function as that of the first embodiment can be achieved, the frame memory 46 can be eliminated, and the cost and the size can be reduced. Furthermore, the xy address type image pickup unit 70A, the address generation unit 70B, and the decoder 70
C, 70D, interpolator 72 are built in one board and IC
Further miniaturization can be achieved.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the configuration of the third embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, a transparent paint (ink) 74 that is easily specularly reflected (totally reflected) on the paper 30 on which pictures and characters are printed.
The dot code 36 is recorded by. Then, the polarization filters 44F and 44G are provided between the light source 44A and the image forming system 44B in the detection unit 44, and the polarization planes of these polarization filters 44F and 44G are aligned,
The polarization direction of the reflected light from the inside (the surface of the paper 30) and the reflected light from the place where the hole 74A through which the transparent paint 74 is removed according to the code are scattered, and the polarization filter 44G cuts 1/2. Since the difference in light amount between the normal reflected light and the total reflected light is originally large, the contrast of the dot code recorded with the transparent paint 74 is emphasized and an image is captured.

Further, the paper 30 is subjected to a surface treatment such as a mirror finish so that the surface is easily specularly reflected, and the transparent paint 74 is made of a material having a refractive index higher than that of the surface-treated surface and having a quarter wavelength. If a film with a certain thickness (in consideration of the change in the optical path length depending on the incident angle, the optical path length in the transparent paint becomes 1/4) is used, the effect of the reflection-amplifying coat prevents the light that obliquely strikes. , More easily amplified and easily reflected on the surface (regular reflection).

In this case, for example, the dot code formation is
Fine chemical etching or the like is performed to roughen the holes corresponding to the dots to reduce the reflectance.

When the dot code 36 is recorded with the transparent paint 74 in this manner, the dot code 36 can also be recorded on a character or a picture. Therefore, when the dot code 36 is used together with the character or picture, the recording capacity is larger than that in the first embodiment. Can be increased.

Further, instead of the transparent paint, a transparent fluorescent paint may be used, or it may be colored and multiplexed. In the case of this color, a normal color ink can be used, or a transparent ink can be mixed with a dye to form a color.

Here, as an example, the transparent ink may be an ink composed of a volatile liquid and a binder (for example, there are phenol resin varnish, linseed oil varnish, and alkyd resin), and the dye may be a pigment.

Next, a portable voice recorder to which the audio information recording device is applied will be described. 9A and 9B are external views thereof. This portable voice recorder is composed of a main body 76 and a voice input unit 80 which is attachable to and detachable from the main body 76 by attaching / detaching members (a surface fastener, a velcro tape, etc.) 78A and 78B on the main body side and the voice input unit side.
A recording start button 82 and a print sheet discharging portion 84 are provided on the surface of the main body 76. The main body 76 and the voice input section 80 are connected by a cable 86.
Of course, the signal may be transmitted from the voice input unit 80 to the main body 76 by wireless or infrared rays.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of such a portable voice recorder. The voice input from the microphone 88 is amplified by a preamplifier 90, converted into a digital signal by an A / D converter 92, and then compressed by a compression processing unit (ADPC).
M) 94. The compressed data is
The error correction code adding unit 96 adds the error correction code, the result is supplied to the interleaving unit 98, each data is stored, and then the interleaving process is performed. The data interleaved in this way is further processed by the address data addition unit 100 to determine the address of the block and the error determination code (CRC) for the address.
Etc.) is added, and the result is input to the modulation circuit 102. In this modulation circuit 102, 8-bit data, such as 8-10 modulation, is converted into data having a different bit number of 10 bits. After that, in the marker adding unit 104,
A marker is generated and added using a data string that does not exist in the 256 data strings associated by the modulation circuit 102.

The data to which the marker has been added in this way is sent to the simplified printer system 106, and the data shown in FIG.
And, as shown in (B), the reel seal 108 is printed, and the sheet is discharged from the print sheet discharging section 84. in this case,
The simple printer system 106 prints the date and time measured by the timer 110 on the reel seal 108.
The above-mentioned units are controlled by the control unit 112 according to the operation of the recording start button 82. Further, of the above-mentioned units, the distance from the microphone 88 to the voice input unit 80 is not particularly limited, and for example,
Here, it is assumed that the voice input unit 80 contains a microphone 88, a preamplifier 90, and an A / D converter 92.

FIG. 12 is an operation flowchart of the portable voice recorder having such a configuration. That is, the main body 76
When the recording start button 82 provided at the step S12 is pressed (step S12), while the button is pressed (step S1).
4) The processing from the voice input to the dot code 114 printing processing on the reel seal 108 is performed (step S1).
6). Then, when the pressing of the recording start button 82 is stopped, the recording start button 8 is again pressed within a predetermined time.
2 is pressed (step S18),
If it is determined that the button has been pressed, the process returns to step S14 and the above process is repeated. However, if the recording start button 82 is not pressed within the fixed time, the timer 110 refers to the current date and time (step S
20), the reel seal 108 is printed on the blank portion 116 while feeding the referred date and time (step S22).

In such a portable voice recorder, when the main body 76 and the voice input section 80 are connected to each other as shown in FIG. 9A, the user holds the main body 76 by hand and operates the voice input section 80. Dot code 114 by moving the voice closer to your mouth
Is recorded on the reel seal 108. Further, as shown in FIG. 9B, the main body 76 and the voice input section 80 are separated, and the voice input section 80 is attached to the handset side of the handset of the telephone by using the attaching / detaching member 78B. Instead of making a note of the contents, the other party's message can be directly recorded on the reel seal 108 as the dot code 114. Moreover, in this case, as shown in FIGS. 11A and 11B, not only the date and time are printed on the reel seal 108, but also the margin portion 116 is formed. You can write a comment, such as who or to whom.

The voice input section 80 may have various modes other than the configuration in which it is attached to and detached from the main body by the attachment / detachment member as described above. For example, as shown in FIGS. 11C and 11D, an earphone type can be used. In the case of such an earphone type voice input unit 80, as shown in FIG.
By pulling it out of the voice input section storage section 118 of No. 6 and inserting it into the user's ear, it becomes possible to record it in the form of dot code while listening to the voice of the other party heard from the handset side of the handset of the telephone.

In the above description, the recording start button 82
The dot code is printed only while the button is kept pressed. However, a recording end button is separately provided on the main body 76, and the dot code is printed from when the recording start button 82 is pressed once until the recording end button is pressed. Printing may be performed.

The recording device may be a recording / reproducing device by incorporating the reproducing function as shown in FIG. In that case, the earphone type voice input unit 80 may also have the function of an earphone.

In the above embodiments, the audio information such as voice and music has been described as an example of the information to be recorded.
An example of handling so-called multimedia information including video information obtained from a video or the like and digital code data obtained from a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a personal computer) or a word processor (hereinafter referred to as a word processor) will be described. To do.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of a multimedia information recording apparatus for recording such multimedia information.

Of the multimedia information, audio information is input from the microphone or audio output device 120 as in the case of FIG.
After being amplified by, the signal is converted into a digital signal by the A / D converter 124 and supplied to the compression processing unit 126.

In the compression processing unit 126, the input digital audio signal is selectively supplied to the voice compression circuit 130 such as the ADPCM circuit and the voice synthesis coding circuit 132 by the switch 128. The voice compression circuit 130 performs data compression by performing adaptive differential PCM on the input digital audio information. The voice synthesis coding circuit 132 recognizes one voice from the input digital audio information and then converts it into a code. This is because the ADPCM encodes it in the form of voice information to reduce the amount of data, that is, the raw data is processed, whereas it is relatively changed by once changing to another synthesized code. It reduces the amount of data.
Regarding the switching of the switch 128, for example, the user manually switches the switch 128 according to the purpose. Alternatively, for example, high-quality information such as information from an audio output device is passed through the voice compression circuit 130, and, for example, a person's voice or comment from a microphone is passed through the voice synthesis coding circuit 132. By predetermining in this way, it is also possible to adopt a configuration in which which audio information is input is recognized at the front stage of the switch and automatically switched.

Further, various data which has already been formed as digital code data from a personal computer, word processor, CAD, electronic notebook, communication, etc., is first transmitted in a data form via an interface (hereinafter referred to as I / F) 134. It is input to the determination circuit 136. The data form determination circuit 136 basically determines whether or not compression is possible in the compression processing unit 126 in the subsequent stage, and some compression processing has already been performed on the data, and the compression processing unit 126 in the subsequent stage. For information for which the effect of the above is not obtained, the compression processing unit 126
Is directly passed to the subsequent stage of the compression processing unit 126, and when the input data is uncompressed data,
It is sent to the compression processing unit 126.

The data determined to be non-compressed code data by the data form determination unit 136 is input to the compression processing unit 126, and the code data is optimized by the compression circuit 138 such as Huffman, arithmetic code, and Dibrempel. The compression process is performed to compress to. The compression circuit 138 also performs compression processing on the output of the speech synthesis coding circuit 132.

The voice synthesis coding circuit 132 is used.
May recognize character information other than voice and convert it into voice synthesis code.

The image information of the camera or video output device 140 is supplied to the compression processing unit 126 after being amplified by the preamplifier 142 and A / D converted by the A / D converter 144.

In the compression processing unit 126, the image area determination and separation circuit 146 determines whether the input image information is a binary image such as a handwritten character or a graph or a multivalued image such as a natural image. . This image area determination and separation circuit 146
For example, the binary image data and the multi-valued image data are separated by using a discriminant image area separation method using a neural network as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 5-163635 of the present applicant. Then, the binary image data is compressed by a general binary compression processing circuit 148 such as MR / MH / MMR such as JBIG as binary compression, and the multivalued image data is a still image such as DPCM or JPEG. It is compressed by the multi-level compression processing circuit 150 using the compression function of.

The data subjected to the compression processing as described above is appropriately combined by the data combining processing section 152.

Note that it is not always necessary to provide all the systems for inputting and compressing information in parallel, and one or a plurality of systems may be combined as appropriate according to the purpose. Therefore, the data synthesizing processing unit 152 is not always necessary, and if the data system has only one type, omit it.
The configuration may be such that it is directly input to the error correction code addition unit 154 in the next stage. The error correction code adding unit 154 adds the error correction code, and the data memory unit 156
Entered in. The data memory unit 156 stores the respective data, and thereafter, interleave processing is performed. This is actually recorded as a dot code,
Then, when it is reproduced, in order to reduce errors as much as possible, for example, block errors due to noise and so on, to improve the correction capability, a continuous data string is dispersed at appropriate positions. Processing. That is, the work of reducing the risk of burst errors into bit errors is performed. The address data adding unit 158 further adds the address of the block and the error determination code (CRC or the like) for the address to the interleaved data, and the result is input to the modulation circuit 160. In the modulation circuit 160, for example, 8-
There are 10 modulations.

In the above embodiment, it goes without saying that a code for error correction may be added after interleaving.

After that, the marker adding section 162 generates and adds a marker by using a data string that does not exist in the 256 data strings associated by the modulation circuit 160. By adding the marker after the modulation as described above, it is possible to eliminate the problem that even the marker is also modulated and it is difficult to recognize the marker as a marker.

The data thus added with the marker is sent to the synthesizing / editing processing section 164 and recorded on a recording paper other than the generated data, for example, synthesized with an image, a title, characters, or the like, or The layout and the like are edited, and the output format to the printer and the data format corresponding to the printing plate making are converted and sent to the next printer system or the printing plate making system 166. And finally, with this printer system and plate making system for printing,
It is printed on sheets, tapes, and printed materials. In the editing process in the composition and editing processing unit 164, the code length is appropriately set in word units, content breaks, etc. to match the paper surface information and the dot code layout, the dot size of the code to the resolution of the printing machine, the printer, etc. This includes an editing operation such as changing the delimiting step, that is, changing the step of moving one row to the next line.

The printed matter printed in this way is, for example, F
It is transmitted by AX168. Of course, instead of printing the data generated by the composition and editing processing unit, the FA
X may be transmitted.

Here, the concept of the dot code 170 in this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. In the data format of the dot code 170 of this embodiment, one block 172 has a marker 174 and a block address 1
76, and address error detection and error correction data 1
It consists of 78 and a data area 180 in which actual data is stored. That is, in the embodiment described with reference to FIG. 2A, one block is one-dimensionally arranged in the line direction, but in this embodiment, it is two-dimensionally developed. Is formed in a shape. The blocks 172 are arranged vertically, horizontally, and two-dimensionally, and they are gathered to form a dot code 170.

Next, the structure of the multimedia information reproducing apparatus will be described with reference to the block diagram of FIG. This information reproducing apparatus includes a detection unit 1 for reading a dot code from a sheet 182 on which the dot code 170 is printed.
84, a scan conversion unit 18 for recognizing the image data supplied from the detection unit 184 as a dot code and performing normalization.
6, a binarization processing unit 188 for converting multi-valued data into a binary value, a demodulation unit 190, an adjustment unit 192 for adjusting a data string, a data error correction unit 194 for correcting a read error and a data error during reproduction, and a data, respectively. A data separation unit 196 that separates the data according to the attributes, a decompression processing unit for the data compression processing according to each attribute, a display unit or a reproduction unit,
Alternatively, it consists of another input device.

In the detection unit 184, the dot code 170 on the sheet 182 is illuminated by the light source 198, and the reflected light is provided with the imaging optical system 200 such as a lens and the spatial filter 202 for removing moire and the like. The image information is converted into an electric signal through an image pickup unit 204 such as a CCD or CMD, which is detected as an image signal, amplified by a preamplifier 206, and output. The light source 198, the imaging optical system 200, the spatial filter 202, the imaging unit 204, and the preamplifier 20.
Reference numeral 6 denotes an external light shielding portion 208 for preventing external light disturbance.
Composed within. The image signal amplified by the preamplifier 206 is converted into digital information by the A / D conversion unit 210 and supplied to the scan conversion unit 186 at the next stage.

The image pickup unit 204 is controlled by the image pickup unit control unit 212. For example, when an interline transfer type CCD is used as the imaging unit 204,
The image pickup unit control unit 212 stores a V blank signal for vertical synchronization, an image pickup device reset pulse signal for resetting information charges, and a charge transfer accumulation unit arranged two-dimensionally as control signals for the image pickup unit 204. Charge transfer gate pulse signal for transmitting the electric charge to a plurality of vertical shift registers, and a horizontal charge transfer CLK which is a transfer clock signal of the horizontal shift register for transferring the electric charge in the horizontal direction and outputting it to the outside.
A signal, a vertical charge transfer pulse signal for vertically transferring the plurality of vertical shift register charges and sending the charges to the horizontal shift register, and the like are output. The timing of these signals is shown in FIG.

Then, the image pickup section control section 212 gives the light source a light emitting cell control pulse for timing the light emission of the light source 198 in synchronization with this timing.

Basically, the timing chart of FIG. 16 is a conceptual diagram for one field. The image data is read from the V blank of this one field to the V blank. The light source 198 performs pulse lighting instead of continuous lighting, and while synchronizing in field units,
Subsequent pulse lighting shall be performed. In this case, the timing is controlled such that the exposure is performed during the V blanking period, that is, while the image charge is not being output, so that the clock noise for pulse lighting does not enter the signal output. That is, since the light emitting cell control pulse is a very thin digital clock pulse that is generated instantaneously and gives a large amount of power to the light source, it is possible to prevent noise due to it from entering the analog image signal. This is necessary, and as a measure therefor, the light source is pulsed during the V blanking period. By doing so, the S / N is improved.
Further, pulse lighting means shortening the light emission time, and thus has a great effect of eliminating the influence of blurring due to shake and movement of manual operation. This enables high-speed scanning.

In addition, in order to minimize the S / N deterioration even when a disturbance such as external light enters due to some reason despite the presence of the external light shielding portion 208 due to the tilt of the reproducing apparatus. , Immediately before the light source 198 is caused to emit light in the V blanking period, the image sensor reset pulse is output once to reset the image signal, light is emitted immediately after that, and immediately thereafter.
I try to read it.

Now, returning to FIG. 15, the scanning conversion unit 186 is executed.
Will be explained. The scan conversion unit 186 recognizes the image data supplied from the detection unit 184 as a dot code,
This is the part for normalizing. As the method, first, the image data from the detection unit 184 is stored in the image memory 214, and once read out from the image memory 214, it is sent to the marker detection unit 216. The marker detection unit 216 detects a marker for each block. Then, the data array direction detection unit 218
Uses the marker to detect rotation or tilt and the data array direction. Based on the result, the address controller 220 reads out the image data from the image memory 214 so as to correct it and supplies it to the interpolation circuit 222.
At this time, lens aberration information is read from the memory 224 for correcting distortion of lens aberration in the imaging optical system 200 of the detection unit 184, and lens correction is also performed. Then, the interpolation circuit 222 performs interpolation processing on the image data and converts it into the original dot code pattern.

The output of the interpolation circuit 222 is the binarization processing unit 1
88. Basically, as can be seen from FIG. 14, the dot code 170 is a white and black pattern, that is, binary information, and is thus binarized by the binarization processing unit 188. At that time, the threshold determination circuit 226 adaptively performs binarization while determining the threshold in consideration of the influence of disturbance, the influence of the signal amplitude, and the like.

Since the modulation as described with reference to FIG. 13 is performed, the demodulation unit 190 first demodulates it, and then the data is input to the data string adjustment unit 192.

In the data string adjusting unit 192, the block address detecting unit 228 first detects the block address of the above-mentioned two-dimensional block, and then the block address error detecting / correcting unit 230 detects the block address error. After that, the address control unit 23
In 2, the data is stored in the data memory unit 234 in units of blocks. By storing data in block address units in this way, data can be stored without waste even if data is skipped midway or entered midway.

After that, the data read from the data memory unit 234 is corrected by the data error correction unit 194. The output of the error correction unit 194 is branched into two, and one of them is sent as digital data to a personal computer, a word processor, an electronic notebook, etc. via the I / F 236. The other is supplied to the data separation unit 196, where images, handwritten characters and graphs, characters and line drawings,
Sound (2: the original sound and the one with speech synthesis)
Types).

The image corresponds to a natural image and is a multivalued image. The decompression processing unit 238 performs decompression processing corresponding to JPEG at the time of compression, and the data interpolation circuit 240 further interpolates error-uncorrectable data.

For binary image information such as handwritten characters and graphs, the decompression processing unit 242 performs decompression processing for MR / MH / MMR and the like performed by compression, and further the data interpolation circuit 244. Interpolation of data that cannot be error-corrected is performed.

Characters and line drawings are converted into another pattern for display through a PDL (page description language) processing unit 246. In this case, as for the line drawing and the characters, if the compression processing for the code is performed after being encoded, the expansion processing unit 248 corresponding thereto performs the expansion (Huffman, Gibblempel, etc.) processing, and then PD
It is adapted to be supplied to the L processing unit 246.

The data interpolation circuits 240, 244 and P
The output of the DL processing unit 246 is the synthesis or switching circuit 25.
The data is combined or selected by 0, converted into an analog signal by the D / A converter 252, and then displayed on a display device 254 such as a CRT (television monitor) or FMD (face mounted display). The FMD is a spectacles-type monitor (handy monitor) for wearing on the face, and is effective for applications such as virtual reality, and for viewing a large screen in a small place.

As for the voice information, the decompression processing unit 2
At 56, decompression processing is performed on the ADPCM, and at the data interpolating circuit 258, error-uncorrectable data is interpolated. Alternatively, in the case of voice synthesis, the voice synthesis unit 260 receives the voice synthesis code, synthesizes the voice from the code, and outputs the synthesized voice. In this case,
When the code itself is compressed, the decompression processing unit 262 performs decompression processing such as Huffman or Jiblempel in the same manner as the above character and line drawing, and then performs voice synthesis.

Further, as shown in FIG. 17, the character information may be output as voice information by the voice synthesis unit 260 after the sentence recognition unit 271 recognizes the sentence.

The expansion processing unit 262 can also be used as the expansion unit 248. In that case, the data is expanded by the switches SW1 and SW depending on the attribute of the data to be expanded.
2, SW3 is appropriately switched, and the PDL processing unit 24
6, or input to the voice synthesizer 260.

The data interpolation circuit 258 and the voice synthesis unit 26.
The output of 0 is synthesized or selected by the synthesis or switching circuit 264, converted into an analog signal by the D / A conversion unit 266, and then output to a speaker, headphones, or other similar audio output device 268.

Characters, line drawings, etc. are directly output from the data separation unit 196 to the page printer, plotter, etc. 270, and the characters, etc. are printed on paper as word processing characters, or line drawings, etc. are output as a plotter as drawings. It can also be done.

Of course, for images, CRT and FM
Not only D, it is also possible to print with a video printer or the like, and it is also possible to take a picture of the image. Next, the data string adjusting unit 192 will be described. Here, the above-mentioned audio information reproducing apparatus (see FIG. 3)
18A, a block having a block address 272A indicated by reference numeral 272 and its error correction data 272B in the first line is arranged two-dimensionally as shown in FIG. 18A. With
Line-shaped markers 274 as shown in (B) of the figure are arranged in the vertical direction, and the reference numeral 27
Line address 276A and error detection data 2 indicated by 6
The description will be made assuming that 76B is provided.

In the present embodiment, as compared with the scanning method described with reference to FIG. 6, as shown in FIG. 18C, the pitch is made finer for each line, and the center of the marker is further set. After detection, the center lines of the markers are equally divided by twice the number of dots. That is, as shown in (D) of the same figure, first, in the first scan, the dots 278 are finely divided vertically and horizontally by one.
/ 2, that is, 1/4 is taken in. In that case, the pitch is taken at the same intervals as the dots 278, and therefore data is taken every other dot. Thus, if the data up to the CRC error detection data 276B, for example, one block has 64 dots,
64 dots are captured every other dot.

Then, it is confirmed whether the line address can be actually read by using the line address 276A at the rear side and the error detection data 276B of the CRC for the line address. If this line address can be read, it is determined that the data dot before that line has also been correctly read. If it is judged to be wrong, the dot is shifted to the right, for example, to the right, and the second scanning is performed (black circle in (D) of the figure). This is 6
Capture all 4 dots and check if the line address was actually read in the same manner. 1 if wrong
3rd scan, moving 1 dot down from the 3rd dot,
If it is still wrong, move it 1 dot to the right and move it to 4
Perform the second scan.

As described above, if scanning of one line is repeated four times, it seems that the data can be correctly read at least once, and if it is determined that the data can be read correctly, the data is written to the data memory unit 234. .

In this case, when the line address of the fetched line is recognized as, for example, "0" (start address), that is, the first data, it is determined that the previous data is the block address 272A and the error correction data 272B. . It should be noted that the error correction data 272B may be, for example, CRC for detecting an error in the block address, or may be added to the error correction depending on the purpose, and may also be used as the Reed-Solomon error correction for the block address.
Then, when the first address line 0 is recognized, the block address 272A is read first, and it is determined from this address data what number block the block is. On the other hand, since the actual data is entered from the next line, they are read and the data is written in the block of the data memory unit 234 corresponding to the block.

In the above description, if there is no error while scanning one line, it is assumed that the scanning of the next line is skipped. However, the scanning should be repeated four times for each line. You can At that time, it is determined that the error does not occur a plurality of times, but since the same data is only written at the same address in the data memory unit, there is no problem. To simplify the process, scanning is repeated 4 times. When speed is prioritized, the former scanning method is adopted.

The actual configuration of the block address detecting unit 228 and the block address error detecting / correcting unit 230 for realizing the above-described operation of the data string adjusting unit 192 will be described with reference to FIG.

When 10 bits of binarized interpolation data are input on the shift register 190A, the demodulation unit 190 converts it into 8 bits by a look-up table (LUT) 190B.

In the data string adjusting unit 192, the demodulated data is temporarily stored in the buffer memory (all 64 dots are stored) under the control of the write address control unit 280.
It is stored in 82. Then, the data read address control unit 284 reads only the line address information and the CRC information for the address, and the line address error detection circuit 286 performs error detection. When the determination signal indicating the result of this error detection is true, that is, there is no error, the data read address control unit 284 reads the information before the line address information, that is, the actual data information from the buffer memory 282.

On the other hand, the start address detection circuit 288
Confirms whether the line address for which an error has been detected by the line address error detection circuit 286 is a start address. When the start address is detected, the start address detection circuit 288 informs the block address detection circuit 290 that the line has a block address as information, and accordingly, the block address detection circuit 290 causes the block address detection circuit 290 to change the buffer memory. 282
A block address is detected from the data read from the error detection circuit 292, and the error detection circuit 292 performs error detection and correction. Then, the result is latched by the address control unit 232 of the data memory unit 234 as a block address.

It should be noted that only error detection is added to the line address in order to obtain an accurate read position, but since the block address is used as address information, an error correction code is added.

Since the subsequent lines thereafter become data lines sequentially, they are written as data in the data memory section 234. At that time, depending on the processing, the line address is also output if necessary. Alternatively, if a counter is provided internally, the line address can be automatically incremented internally.

Then, when the next start address "0" is detected, it is recognized as the next block, and the same operation is repeated for all the blocks.

On the other hand, the line address error detection circuit 28
The determination signal output from 6 is also supplied to the address control unit 220 of the image memory 214. This is a signal necessary for jumping to the next line when the data becomes true in order to reduce the time in the four scannings per line.

In the above example, the line address error detection circuit 286 performs address detection for the interpolation data by using the same address information four times until it becomes true. Then, when the data becomes true, the address is once skipped to the data line of the dot next to the new next line to create the interpolated data, and then four points in the interpolated data are read out. Therefore, for such control, a determination signal is passed to the address control unit 220 of the image memory 214, and the same address is generated four times to be interpolated, or the order of interpolation is changed and read, or The address is rewritten to the next line, the data on that line is output, and the data is output four times while being interpolated.

Although not shown in the figure, the address control unit 232 of the data memory unit 234 performs mapping on the data memory unit 234. When further reading, the address control unit 232 controls de-interleaving. Also do. Again, using a lookup table etc., for example, when an address for each dot occurs,
The data obtained by combining the block, the line, and the dot address is converted into a memory data string that actually appears in a lookup table using a ROM or the like. This is the work of de-interleaving (de-shuffling), and the data is read out in the form of the original data string only after the processing is performed. Of course, this de-interleaving may be performed at the time of reading from the data memory unit 234, or at the time of writing, such conversion is performed once and data is written (mapped) in such an order that the data is scattered.
You can do so.

Further, in this example, the marker 274 has a line shape, but it may be a circle as shown in FIG. 14 or a square marker. Once the marker is detected, the blocks are read on a line, so the marker does not necessarily have to be linear. For example, as shown in (A) to (C) of FIG. 20, markers 294, 29 of circles, squares, and rectangles are used.
6,298 are conceivable.

If the printed code has no partial bleeding or deviation and is almost precise, it can be said that (approximately center = accurate center), and therefore accurate center detection described later is omitted. It can be processed only by the approximate center detection process described later. However, in this case, in order to detect the arrangement direction, dots 294A for detecting the arrangement direction,
296A and 298A are provided.

FIG. 20D shows another mode of the multimedia information reproducing apparatus. This is the detection unit 18
No. 4 A / D converter 210 is moved to the scan converter 186, and the block address detector 22 of the data string adjuster 192 is moved.
8 and the block address error detection / correction unit 230 is performed in the scan conversion unit 186.
Since the data error correction unit 194 and the subsequent components have the same configuration as that of FIG. 15, they are omitted in the figure.

That is, in FIG. 20D, the biggest difference from FIG. 15 is the scan conversion unit 186 and the data string adjustment unit 192. In this embodiment, the function of the data string adjustment unit 192 is simultaneously performed from the marker detection unit 216 in the scan conversion unit 186 to the address control unit 220. That is, the marker detection unit 216 detects the marker, and the data array direction detection unit 218 detects the data array direction, that is, the tilt, rotation, and direction. Then, the block address detection, error determination, and accurate center detection unit 300 detects the block address and makes the error determination, and detects the correct center, that is, the true center, depending on whether it is wrong or not. In this case, since the block address is detected in detecting the true center, the interpolation unit 302 for the next marker and block address is used.
After the marker and the block address are interpolated by, the information of the block address is also given to the address control section 232 of the data memory section 234.

Further, similarly to the configuration of FIG. 15, address control is performed by the address control unit 220 based on the data of the interpolation processing of the block address to control the address, the writing and the output to the image memory 214. To do.

Other than that, there is no functional difference from the embodiment of FIG.

In FIG. 15 and FIG. 20 (D), the A / D conversion unit 210 in the detection unit 184 converts the data into 8-bit multi-valued digital data, for example, and thereafter the processing is performed. , A / D conversion unit 210, and a binarization processing unit (comparator) 188 and threshold value determination circuit 22.
6 may be arranged at the A / D conversion unit 210 and all the subsequent processing may be performed with binary data.

In this case, the interpolation circuit 222 uses the pixel data around the interpolation address coordinates obtained from the address controller 220 as shown in FIG. 5A to perform 4-point or 16-point interpolation. Instead of so-called interpolation processing, pixel data closest to (neighboring) the interpolation address coordinates can be adopted as data.

By performing binarization and processing instead of A / D conversion, for example, 1 is obtained as compared with the case of 8 bits.
The number of signal lines is / 8, and the data amount. Therefore, the memory capacity is reduced to ⅛, the processing of each part is simplified, and the circuit size is greatly reduced, the processing amount is significantly reduced, and the processing time is significantly reduced. It contributes to cost reduction and speedup.

The address output of the address controller 220 is the interpolation circuit 2 in the case of FIG. 15 and FIG.
At the time of outputting the image data to 22, the pixel address becomes, for example, four points around the interpolation address coordinate, and the interpolation circuit 222
The distance information is used for calculating a weighting coefficient for each pixel address by a signal line (not shown). Alternatively, each pixel address and the interpolation address coordinate data may be sent, and the interpolation circuit 222 may obtain the distance from each pixel address to obtain the weighting coefficient.

When processing binary data as described above, the address controller 220 outputs pixel addresses near the interpolation address coordinates. Therefore, in this case, the data output from the image memory 214 is directly input to the demodulation unit 190.

Now, a specific example of the dot code shown in the conceptual diagram of FIG. 14 will be described with reference to FIGS.

As shown in the conceptual diagram of FIG. 14, the blocks 304 are two-dimensionally arranged, and block addresses 306 are added to each block. The block address 306 has an address corresponding to the X address and the Y address. For example, in FIG. 21A, the upper left block is (X address, Y address) = (1,
1). On the other hand, the block address of the block on the right side is (2, 1), and in the same manner, the X address is incremented toward the right, and the Y address is incremented toward the bottom. So, block address 3 in all blocks 304
06 is added.

Here, the lowermost marker and the rightmost marker are dummy markers 308. That is, the block 304 for a certain marker 310 is the data diagonally to the lower right surrounded by the four markers 310 including it, and the markers at the bottom and the right are the second from the bottom and the second from the right. Auxiliary markers, or dummy markers 308, arranged to define blocks for the markers
Is.

Next, the contents of the block 304 will be described. As shown in FIG. 21B, the block 304
The block address 306 and the error detection code 312 of the block address are added between the marker 310 and the lower marker. Similarly, the block address 306 and its error detection code 312 are added between the marker 310 and the right marker. In the conceptual diagram of FIG. 14, there is a marker at the upper left of the block and the block address is arranged at the lower right, but in the present embodiment, the block address 306 is arranged at the left side and the upper side, and the marker 310 is at the upper left corner. The shape is arranged in. Although the block address 306 is recorded in two locations in one block, it may be recorded in one location. However, by recording at two locations, even if noise occurs in one of the block addresses and an error occurs, it can be reliably detected by detecting the other address, so recording at two locations. Is preferred.

The position of the data of the block with respect to a certain marker, the position of the block address thereof, the position of the dummy marker on the code determined by the position, etc. are not limited to the preceding examples.

Next, a pattern example of the marker 310 will be described. As shown in FIG. 21C, in this embodiment, a circular black pattern 310A having a diameter of 7 dots is adopted as the marker 310. And the black circle 310A
The portion 310B around is colored white to make it easier to distinguish the black portion of the marker. Reference numeral 310C in FIG. 21C is an auxiliary line for explanation.

The range of the white portion 310B is desired to be as small as possible in order to increase the recording density, but it is required to be large in order to perform the marker detection processing easily and at high speed. Therefore, the black pattern 310 when the rotation is 45 °
A range 310C is a portion 310B for sufficiently discriminating A.
It is set to enter inside.

The image magnification of the imaging optical system 200 in FIGS. 15 and 20D is the same as the size of the data dot 316 in the data area 314, as shown in FIG. Under the conditions described below, an image is formed on 1.5 pixels. The pixel here means one pixel of the image pickup element of the image pickup unit 204. That is, one dot recorded on the sheet 182, for example, a dot of 30 to 40 μm,
It is assumed that an image is formed on 1.5 pixels of the image pickup device, which is usually 7 μm or 10 μm, through an image forming system lens. In the sampling theorem, the pixel pitch may be set to be equal to or smaller than the dot pitch, but here, for safety, 1.5 pixels are set. For an example of binarization instead of the A / D conversion described above, see 2
It is a pixel.

By adopting the two-dimensional block division method as described above, there are the following advantages. That is,
If the dot pitch for each dot is less than or equal to the resolution of the image sensor, the code (set of unit data blocks) can be read even if the data dot size is different; even if the image capturing unit 204 tilts with respect to the code. Readable;
It can be reproduced even if there is local expansion and contraction of the sheet, and it can be read even if rotated; unit blocks can be freely expanded in two dimensions according to the total data amount,
As a result, the code size can be freely changed;
Since each block address is added, it can be played even if you start reading from the middle of the code; if it is a block unit, you can freely change the shape of the code according to other information on the paper, such as letters, pictures, graphs, etc. Can be laid out in
Although a rectangular dot code is shown in FIG. 21 (A), it can be made into a key shape or can be deformed a little more; for example, a predetermined start code and a stop as in a bar code. No code is needed and no clock code is needed.

Further, by utilizing these characteristics, it is possible to reproduce even if there is camera shake. Therefore, it is very easy to deal with the handy reproducing device.

That is, as will be described later in detail, on the reproducing apparatus side,
Since four adjacent markers are detected and the markers are equally divided by the number of dots, normalization is performed. Therefore, there is an advantage that they are strong against enlargement, reduction, deformation, etc., and strong against camera shake.

Regarding the dots 316 in the data area 314, for example, one dot has a size of several tens of μm. This can be up to several μm level depending on the application, but generally 40 μm.
Or 20 μm or 80 μm. The data area 314 has a size of 64 × 64 dots, for example.
These can be freely expanded or contracted to the extent that the error due to the equal division can be absorbed. Also,
The marker 310 has not only a function as a synchronization signal but also a function as a position index. The marker 310 has a size that does not exist in the modulated data, and in the case of the present embodiment, it has a circular shape and is, for example, 7 dots or more with respect to the dots of the data area 314, or a circular black with a diameter of about 7 × 7 dots. The marker is 310A.

Here, tilt and rotation at the time of reproduction will be described.

The inclination of the image pickup unit 204 means that the sheet 182 on which the dot code is printed by the reproducing apparatus.
On the other hand, although it should originally be vertically opposed, it means a state in which the user holds the reproducing device at an angle and thus becomes oblique to the sheet 182. The rotation means a state in which the image pickup area (see (A) of FIG. 4) is not parallel to the dot code written on the sheet 182.

When the above-mentioned inclination occurs, the image obtained by the image pickup unit 204 is reduced as compared with the image when vertically opposed. For example, when a tilt of 30 degrees occurs, the apparent projected image is reduced to 86.5%. That is, for example, if the block is square and tilts 30 degrees in the horizontal direction with respect to the vertical direction,
Even in the vertical direction of 1: 1, the horizontal portion becomes 0.865 times, and the obtained block image becomes rectangular. If there is such an inclination, if the clock has the original internal synchronization clock, each part operates with the evenly-spaced clock, and the resulting data may not match the original data. .

Regarding the rotation,
If we take the image of vertical, the true data rises diagonally upwards or downwards diagonally, so the true information cannot be obtained. Furthermore, when the combined state of tilt and rotation occurs, the imaging result of the square block becomes a diamond,
The condition that the horizontal and vertical data arrays are orthogonal is also not satisfied.

The marker detector 216 for solving these problems will be described below. Marker detection unit 216
As shown in FIG. 22, a marker determination unit 318 that extracts a marker from the code and determines the marker, a marker area detection unit 320 that detects an area where the marker exists,
It comprises an approximate center detection unit 322 which detects the approximate center.

The marker determination unit 318 searches for a continuous black pixel of 7 or more and 13 or less, and recognizes a case where the continuous black pixel continues for 7 rows as a circular black marker 310A.
As shown in FIG. 3, first, the image data read from the image memory 214 is binarized to identify black and white for each pixel (step S32). Then, black pixels continuous in the X-axis direction are detected on the image memory 214 (step S34). That is,
A continuous black pixel having 7 or more continuous pixels and 13 or less continuous black pixels is detected. Next, it is checked whether or not the point shifted by one pixel in the Y-axis direction from the middle pixel of the continuous first black pixel and the last pixel is black (step S36). If it continues seven times in the Y-axis direction (step S38), it is determined as the circular black marker 310A (step S40). If it is not detected in step S34 or is not a black pixel in step S36, it is not determined as a marker (step S42).

That is, it is assumed that a marker is checked on the image memory and, for example, there is a line in which seven black pixels continue. Then, it is checked whether the point shifted by 1 pixel in the Y-axis direction from the center of the first black pixel and the last black pixel is black, and if it is black, the left and right It is checked whether 7 to 13 consecutive pixels are black, and in the same manner, the pixels are shifted one by one in the Y-axis direction, and finally, in the Y-axis direction.
If it continues, the circular black marker 310A is determined.

The minimum value 7 for checking continuous black in the X-axis and Y-axis directions is determined by distinguishing the black portion of the marker 310 (circular black marker 310A) from the modulated data. This is a lower limit value set so that the data area 314 portion and the circular black marker 310A can be distinguished from each other even if the paper is shrunk or contracted due to inclination. The maximum value of 13 is an upper limit value that is set in consideration of paper elongation, ink bleeding, and the like. This prevents noise such as dust and scratches larger than the marker from being erroneously detected as the marker.

Further, since the marker pattern 30A has a circular shape, it is not necessary to consider the rotation, so that the difference between the lower limit value and the upper limit value can be minimized and the erroneous detection of the marker can be reduced. You can

The marker area detecting section 320 determines that the range of the circular black marker 310A judged by the marker judging section 318 is
Some expansion and contraction due to tilt and changes in image magnification of the image,
Since it is deformed, it is for detecting in which area the black range is included.

In this marker area detecting section 320, the
As shown in FIG. 4, first, the temporary center pixel of the circular black marker 310A determined by the marker determination unit 318 is detected (step S52). That is, one pixel near the center of the range determined by the marker determination unit 318 is set as the temporary center pixel.

Then, it is checked that it is black in the upward direction (minus direction on the Y-axis) from the tentative center pixel, and when it becomes white, several pixels on the left and right are checked. If it is black, the upward direction is the same as above. The check is performed to the Y address where black does not exist, and the Y address is set in the Ymin register (see FIG. 25A) (step S5).
4). Similarly, it is checked that it is black in the downward direction (plus direction on the Y-axis) from the provisional center pixel, and when it becomes white, several pixels on the left and right are checked, and when it is black, the downward direction is checked as above. A check is performed up to the Y address where no black exists, and the Y address is set in the Ymax register (step S56).

Next, from the provisional center pixel, it is checked that it is black in the left direction (minus direction on the X axis), and if it becomes white, it is checked that the upper and lower pixels are black, and then black. If there is, check the left direction in the same manner as above, check up to the X address where black does not exist, and set the X address to Xmi.
It is set in the n register (step S58). Similarly,
It is checked that it is black in the right direction (plus direction on the X-axis) from the temporary center pixel, and if it becomes white, the upper and lower pixels are checked. Check up to the X address that does not exist and set the X address in the Xmax register (step S6).
0).

Xmin, Xmax, Y thus obtained
A marker area 324 is selected from the values of the min and Ymax registers as shown in the table of FIG. 25 (B) (step S62). That is, the area shown by hatching with diagonal lines in the figure with the edges removed, not the area of a square including the circular black marker 310A, is the marker area 324.
And The marker area 324 may be a square,
Actually, there is data around the white portion 310B of the marker 310, and the data includes information of the black data portion inside the white portion 310B due to the influence of the spatial filter and the like, and is used to calculate the approximate center. It is possible that the marker area 324 is entered. In order to avoid this as much as possible, it is desirable to make the marker area 324 as small and necessary as possible, and in this case, the circular black marker 3 has the same shape as the circular black marker 310A, that is, the circular black marker 3A.
It suffices if a circular area larger than 10 A can be set, but in the present embodiment, the circular black marker 310 A is a small circle having a diameter of 7 dots, and therefore the marker area 324 is as shown in FIG.

The approximate center detecting unit 322 is for finding the approximate center of the black circle of the marker in the marker area thus detected by the marker area detecting unit 320. Generally, in printing or the like, there is a phenomenon that a dot expands to a target size (this is called a dot gain) or becomes small (this is called a dot reduction) due to bulging of ink. In addition, it is assumed that the ink oozes and spreads around, or that the ink bleeds to one side. In order to deal with such dot gain, dot reduction, or ink stain, the approximate center detection unit 322 obtains the center, the so-called center of gravity, in the image of the circular black marker 310A, and sets it as the approximate center. I do. Here, it is a process for obtaining the center with accuracy smaller than one pixel pitch.

First, with respect to this marker area 324 on the image, the center line on the X-axis and the center line on the Y-axis are divided into two types, that is, the X-axis direction and the Y-axis direction of the image memory 214. By searching, find the final or approximate center. 25C and 25D are diagrams showing values obtained by accumulating each pixel in FIG. 25A and each pixel in the vertical and horizontal directions. The center of gravity is at the half of the total cumulative value, that is, the part where the cumulative values of the top, bottom, left and right become equal.

First, in the case of (C) in the figure, for example, the result Sxl of each cumulative addition of the hatched portions in the figure is 1/2 of the total area S. If it is not satisfied and the area of the next Sxc is added to it and the area exceeds 1/2, the column S
It can be determined that xc includes the center line X including the approximate center. That is, for the X-address at the approximate center, the cumulative value of each column (Xk) is accumulated from the left side (Xmin direction), and X '+
When more than ½ of the total accumulated value at the time of accumulating one row, there is an approximate center between the X ′ row and the X ′ + 1 row. X '
When the column of X '+ 1 is divided into left and right so as to be ½ of the total area S by adding to the cumulative value up to, the approximate center is included on the dividing line.

Therefore, the ratio of the portion excluding the portion accumulated from the area of 1/2 to the X column, that is, (1/2) S-Sxl and the accumulated value Sxc of the middle column is Δx (approximately center = X '
+ Δx).

This will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, normalization is performed (step S72).
That is, the white data portion is set to 0 so that the addition does not affect the accumulation even if the periphery is added to each data in the marker area 324.
Then, the black data is temporarily set to 1, and the data in the image memory 214 is normalized as the data having the gradation of the multivalued data. This is for the purpose of accurately recognizing the state and accurately and accurately detecting the center of gravity, because the periphery becomes blurred by a spatial filter or the like. Next, each column Xk (k
= Min, min + 1, ..., Max), the cumulative value Sk is obtained (step S74), and the center of gravity calculation subroutine is called (step S76).

In the center of gravity calculation subroutine, (B) in FIG.
As shown in, the total area S is obtained, and 1/2 of that is Sh
And again Sl is set to 0 (step S92), i = mi
n, that is, set from the leftmost column (step S94),
It is obtained by calculating Sl '= Sl + Si (step S96). Since Sl = 0 at the beginning, here is Si
As such, Sl ′ = Smin. Next, Sl ′ is compared with Sh, that is, with a size of 1/2 of the entire area (step S98), and when Sl ′ does not exceed Sh, i is incremented (step S100), S
By setting l'to Sl (step S102) and repeating from step S96, the next column is accumulated. Then, when the cumulative result exceeds half of the total area, by subtracting Sl from S / 2 and dividing by Si, Δ
x is obtained (step S104), and i, that is, X ′ is Δ.
The sum of x is set as C (step S106), and the process returns to the upper routine.

In the upper routine, the value of C is approximately centered on X.
The coordinates are set (step S78).

Thereafter, in steps S80 to S84, similar processing is performed in each row direction to obtain the Y coordinate, and X and Y are set to the approximate center of the marker (step S86).

The configuration for realizing such processing is as follows.
As shown in FIG. 27.

The normalization circuit 326 normalizes the white data as 0 and the black data as 1. The output of the normalization circuit 326 is accumulated by the accumulating unit 328 to calculate the total area S, is halved by the ½ multiplying unit 330, and is latched by the latch circuit 332.

On the other hand, the output of the normalizing circuit 326 is delayed by the delay circuits 334 and 336 for the blocks in the X-axis direction, the accumulating unit 338 accumulates each column in order from the above left, and the accumulating unit 340 also. Accumulation is performed for each column.
At the time of outputting the result, the portion of the central column Sxc is output.

The comparator 342 compares the 1/2 area latched by the latch circuit 332 with the accumulated value of each column accumulated by the accumulator 338. The latch 344 is for storing the timing of making a determination and the accumulation of columns up to that point. The X address calculation unit 346 causes the comparator 342 to set 1
When it is determined that the area exceeds 1/2, the latch circuit 33
2 of the area latched by 2 and Sxl latched by the latch 344, the accumulated value Sxc from the accumulator 340, and the X ′ supplied from the address controller 220 via the delay circuit 348. From the address corresponding to
The final X-address of the approximate center of the marker is calculated.

Similarly, the delay circuits 350 and 352, the accumulators 354 and 356, the comparator 358, the latch 360, and Y are provided.
The address calculation unit 362 is used to calculate the Y address of the approximate center of the marker. In this case, the delay circuits 350 and 3
52 is composed of a line memory.

Delay circuits 334, 336, and 35 here
0 and 352 are S / 2, Sxl, Sxc, Syl, and Sy.
It is a circuit for adjusting each output timing of c to the timing required by the X address calculation unit 346 and the Y address calculation unit 362.

Next, the data array direction detection unit 218 will be described, but for convenience of description, the detailed arrangement of the dot code blocks 304 will be described first. The dot code blocks 304 are arranged as shown in FIG. 21 (B), but more specifically, FIG. 28 (A).
As shown in. That is, the block address 30
6 is divided into an upper address code 306A and a lower address code 306B, and the error detection code 312 is also divided into an upper address CRC code 312A and a lower address CRC code 312B. And the marker 31
A low-order address code 306B is arranged beside 0, and a high-order address code 306A is arranged beside it in a size larger than the low-order address code 306B. Next, a CRC code 312A having the same size as the upper address code 306A and corresponding to the higher address is added, and then a CRC code 312B having the same size as the lower address code 306B and having the lower address is added.

Also under the marker 310, the block address and the error detection data are arranged in the above order toward the lower marker.

Here, the upper address code 306A and the upper address CRC code 312A are put together and step1
Together with the lower address code 306B and the lower address CRC code 312B are referred to as step 2 code.

Further, when the lower address code 306B is decomposed, on the right side of the marker 310, the data above and below each dot data for indicating the lower address data (marker 3
The code that is inverted with respect to the data is written on both sides (left and right in the case of 10 lower side). Furthermore, the data margin part 36 for distinguishing from the upper and lower data areas 314.
4 are provided. The data margin section 364 may be omitted. Further, the inversion code is added not only to the lower address but also to the upper address code. Here, the dots are indicated by circles for the sake of easy understanding of the data, but actually white circles indicate that there are no dots to be printed. That is, it is not to print the white circles. Hereinafter, white circles shown in the drawings indicate the same thing.

Here, if the upper address and the lower address are all composed of 12 bits, the first 4 bits are assigned to the upper address and the next 8 bits are assigned to the lower address. It's like hitting. The data length can be appropriately changed according to the device. Basically, for all the block addresses, the order from the beginning to the upper address, and from the last address to the lower address are divided.

By providing the address codes horizontally and vertically as described above, there is an advantage that even if the address code cannot be detected in one direction, it can be detected by the other address code.

FIG. 29 shows another dot code arrangement.
This will be described with reference to (A). This figure omits the address code in the vertical direction of FIG. Since the address code is only in one direction, the data area can be increased and the processing speed can be increased. Since the address code is in one direction, if the address code cannot be detected, the address of the block becomes unknown, but the address can be caught by the address interpolation processing described later.

In FIG. 29A, the block address code is provided only between the markers in the horizontal direction, but a dot code having the block address code only in the vertical direction may be used.

Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 28B,
The upper address code 306A may be arranged between the lower address code 306B and the upper address CRC code 312A may be arranged between the lower address CRC code 312B.

The processing will be described below with reference to the dot code shown in FIG. Only in the case of the processing peculiar to the dot code of FIG. 29A, supplementary explanation will be added.

30 and 31 are a block diagram of the data array direction detection unit 218 of FIG. 20D and a flowchart showing its operation.

The data array direction detecting unit 218 receives the data of the approximate center of the marker from the approximate center detecting unit 322 of the marker detecting unit 216, and the adjacent marker selecting unit 366 selects the adjacent marker. That is, the approximate center detection unit 32 has already been
The address of the center of each marker is mapped on one screen by the processing of 2, and the representative marker to be processed now, that is, the marker of interest is set for that (step S112), and which marker is set for that representative marker. Adjacent markers are selected to detect whether the approximate center of is closest (step S114).

The adjacent marker selection process is shown in FIG.
As shown in, the distance d between the representative marker and the adjacent marker is calculated, and the adjacent marker within the range of d ≦ dmax is designated (step S142). However, in this case, dmax is the length of the long side of the data block + α (α is determined by the expansion and contraction of the paper). Then, the approximate center addresses are sent to the step1 sample address generation circuit 368 in the ascending order of the distance d from the designated adjacent markers (step S144).
For example, in FIG. 32B, the approximate center address at the distance D2 from the representative marker is the closest, and then the distance D is next.
Since the order is the approximate center addresses of 1 and D4, and D3 and D5, the approximate center address at the closest distance D2 is sent first. If the distances d are the same, the marker is searched in the clockwise direction from the distance calculation start address, and the direction is detected in the order in which they appear (step S146). That is, D1,
The approximate center address at the distance of D4, D3, D5 is s
It is sent to the step1 sample address generation circuit 368 to perform direction detection described later.

That is, the step1 sample address generation circuit 368 generates a step1 sample address around the approximate center of the representative marker and the selected adjacent marker (step S116), and generates a scanning line connecting the step1 sample addresses. (Step S118), a read address is generated so that the data in the image memory 214 is sampled at points equally divided on the scanning line (step S1).
20). The address control unit 220 gives the address of this sample point as a read address to the image memory 214 to read the data.

In the above description, the data at the sample points are approximated and output (from the image memory).
As shown in (A), when it is determined that the sample point is between the data in the image memory, the data may be interpolated from the data of the surrounding four pixels.

After the data thus read out, that is, the upper address code is error-detected by the error detection circuit 370, the upper block address calculation / center calculation circuit 372 is executed.
Given to. The upper block address calculation / center calculation circuit 372 causes the next adjacent marker selection process to be performed if there is an error as a result of the error detection by the error detection circuit 370, and when a marker in two directions is detected. Since it is no longer necessary to detect the adjacent marker, the address calculation result is sent to the adjacent marker selection unit 366 to end the adjacent marker selection processing.

When the dot code shown in FIG. 29A is used, the marker selection process is terminated when the unidirectional upper address code is detected.

If the address calculation result indicates that there is an address error (step S
122), it is determined whether or not the scanning of all the sample points is completed (step S124), and if not yet, the process proceeds to the above step S118, and if the scanning of all the sample points is completed, it is confirmed whether or not there is an unsearched adjacent marker ( Step S126),
If so, the process proceeds to step S114. If not, the same process is performed for all markers. After the processing is completed for all markers, the process proceeds to marker / address interpolation processing (step S128).

The error detection circuit 370 is used in the Television Society Journal Vol. 44, No. 11, P.I. 1549 ~
P. A general one such as error detection based on a cyclic code as disclosed in “Handling Code Theory” of 1555 or the like may be used.

On the other hand, if there is no address error in the above step S122, it is judged whether or not the scanning of all the sample points is completed (step S130). If not, the process proceeds to the above step S118 to scan all the sample points. If it is finished, the upper address is confirmed (step S132),
The center address of step1 is calculated (step S13
4) and determine (step S136).

That is, the direction is detected by the marker closest to the representative marker (in FIG. 32B, the approximate center address is at the distance D2). The detection method determines which direction the peripheral marker is located by whether an address recorded in a dot code (step 1 code) larger than a data dot for direction detection can be recognized. The step 1 code records the upper block address and its CRC code, and is recognized if there is no error when scanning the code.

When the direction is detected, the inclination of the data block can be predicted. The step1 code has directionality, and the block address is normally recognized only when scanning from the representative marker toward the peripheral markers. Therefore, if no recognition error occurs, the block address codes in two directions are always detected. The process is repeated until the block address code in two directions is detected. Further, the data array can be estimated from the positional relationship in the two directions (see (C) of FIG. 32).

In the case of the dot code shown in FIG. 29A, the address code is detected only in one direction. At that time, the data area can be recognized from the detected line and the scanning direction (see FIG. 29B).

In the actual operation, the direction is detected from the distance D2, which is the shortest distance from the representative marker, and if the address is not recognized, the clockwise search is performed.
The same operation is repeated at the next shortest distance D1. The detection is
If it is performed clockwise, the detection continues at the distances D4, D3 and D5. Processing is performed until two directions are detected.

In the case of FIG. 29A, the processing is performed until one direction is detected.

If one direction can be detected, the other direction may be predicted. For example, if D4 and D5 are in the forward direction, D2 does not exist, and the search is started from D4, when the address is confirmed in D4, it is predicted that the address can be recognized in either D3 or D5.

The direction detecting process as described above will be described in more detail with reference to FIG.

Approximate center detection section 322 of marker detection section 216
The approximate center of the representative marker detected in step S1 is defined as a dot A5 on the upper left side of the figure, and eight sample points A1 to 1.5 dots (this can be changed appropriately depending on the processing) from the dot A5.
A4, A6 to A9 are generated by the step1 sample address generation circuit 368. Similarly, a marker for which direction detection is to be performed, for example, the approximate center of the distance D2 (dot B on the upper right side of FIG.
A sample address is generated around 5).

Here, the reason why the interval is set to 1.5 dots will be described.

In the process of obtaining the approximate center of the marker, the description has been made so that the difference from the center is within 1 dot, but it is assumed that a problem such as ink bleeding does not occur. Considering ink bleeding etc., the detection range is ±
It is set to 1.5 dots.

The address controller 220 draws a certain line between the addresses of both markers. First, a scanning line is drawn on the dots A1 and B1. And by providing a sample clock so that the upper address can be sampled,
Data sampling of the image memory 214 is performed.

As shown in FIG. 28A, since a CRC code 312A is added next to the upper address code 306A, if the data sample can be read correctly, the upper address On the other hand, the error detection result in the error detection circuit 370 is detected in the form that there is no problem, and if it cannot be read correctly, it is determined that there is an error.

Then, similarly, the dots A1 and B2,
Scanning lines are sequentially drawn in the order of A1 and B3, A1 and B4, and it is checked whether or not an error has been detected. Since there are a total of 9 positions on the representative marker side and 9 positions on the detected marker side, 81 processes are performed in total.

When an error occurs in all the 81 processes, it is determined that there is no direction code in that direction, that is, the detection side marker is a marker other than the array (a marker that is erroneously detected).

For example, in FIG. 33A, the dot A1
If data is taken at each sample point on the scanning line (indicated by a dotted line) drawn for B7 and B7, the sample point indicated by a broken line circle in the figure is out of the data, resulting in erroneous detection. Especially, as described above, since the inverted codes are provided on the upper and lower sides of the address data dot, an error always occurs.

On the other hand, when the dots A5 and B5 are connected,
Since the data is properly collected, there are no detection errors,
Therefore, it is recognized that there is a code in this direction.

Although inverted codes are provided above and below to facilitate error detection, this need not necessarily be provided above and below. For example, white codes are written above and below the address data dots, and address data dots are written. Can be in a format such that black data continues for only the last few dots. In this case, the end on the detection marker side is always black data and the outside is a white margin, so that the data error can be correctly detected. Also, in the case of the inversion code, it is not necessary to provide it in the entire inversion code portion, and it may be provided in a part of both sides ((C) of FIG. 28).

Here, the size of dots will be described. As shown in (B) of FIG. 33, the size of each dot of the high-order address code 306A is n dots, and step1
If the code width is m dots, the relationship between m and n is s
At the inner edge of the tepl sample address, a width of 2 dots is provided with respect to the center and a diagonal line is drawn, and the width m is determined by how much the upper address code 306A is provided.
Is the long side and the diagonal is the diagonal, and the height of the rectangle is n. That is, if m is determined, n is inevitably determined. Even if all the space between the inner ends of the step1 sample addresses is set to 2 dots, n dots have a width of up to 2 dots. Although the horizontal width of one dot is not determined, a horizontal width that facilitates data recognition is preferable.

Note that the above-mentioned two dots have a range in which, for example, the scanning line connecting the dots A5 and B5 hits, but the line connecting the dots A6 and B4 and the line connecting A2 and B8 do not hit. Stipulates that you can. If it is larger than that, for example, dot A
In the case of hits with 5 and B5, the hit may occur even if A2 and B8 are subtracted, and the detection as the center spreads. This value can also be changed according to the device.

In the example of FIG. 33A, dot A
5 and B5 are hit, but dot A4 is the same
If, for example, a line connecting B4 is hit, then at the next step 2 of center detection, the center of dots A4 and A5 is used as a starting point and the same search is performed with that as the center. Processing will be carried out.

Another method is also conceivable. This will be described with reference to FIG. Here, A4 and A5, one side is also B4 and B5
When is hit, the sample address (A4
1-A45, A51-A55, B41-B45, B51
B55) may be used as the sample address of the next step2. In this case, since the number of sample address points in step 2 is increased from 9 to 10, the number of processes is also 81 to 1.
00 (the number of scanning lines). But A4 and A5
Since the process of deriving the midpoint and the predetermined sample points are used, 9 step2 points centering on the midpoint
The process for generating the Slope pull address is eliminated. Overall, the processing seems to be reduced.

Further, assuming that the exact center of step2 is between A4 and A5, A42 to A44 and A52 to
If the address detection processing is performed on the scanning lines connecting A54 and B42 to B44 and B52 to B54, the number of processings can be reduced from 81 to 36 (6 × 6).

With the above processing, the rough center at step 1 is obtained.

As described above, by detecting the CRC, it is detected whether or not the data blocks are properly arranged in that direction. FIG. 32 (B)
In this case, of course, the marker at the distance D2 becomes a erroneously detected marker, so when looking at the data direction in that direction, there is no upper address code, so there are 81 possible detections. Then, all errors will occur in that direction, and it will be determined that there is no direction.

When it is determined that there is no D2 in this way, the next shortest distances are D1 and D4, but since it turns clockwise with respect to the marker of interest now, processing is next performed for the distance D1. As described above, in terms of the data array, the determination can be made only from left to right and from top to bottom. In this case, therefore, the processing is performed in the direction from the representative marker to the marker at the distance D1. , From the opposite direction, ie C
Since the RC code is read first and then the address code is read, this is naturally determined to be an error.
Therefore, it is determined that the distance D1 has no direction.

Next, the distance D4 is determined. When D4 is read along the distance D4 from the representative marker, it is read in the order of the address code and the CRC code. Therefore, it is determined that D4 has directionality. That is, no error occurs.

Next, the slips to be judged are the distances D3 and D5 which are equidistant. On the other hand, since it is clockwise, the processing is first performed from the distance D3. This D3
Also, since the CRC code is read first as described above, it is detected that there is no directivity. Then, finally, the distance D5 is read, and it is determined that there is a direction here.

As a result, since the distances D4 and D5 are read, the hatched portion in FIG.
It can be recognized that the data for the block address described in the portions of the distances D4 and D5 is written. Finally, if two representative directions are detected for one representative marker, the direction of the block can be detected, and therefore the processing is performed until the two directions are detected.

In the case of the dot code shown in FIG. 29A, only one direction is detected. The processing is performed until one direction (D5 in FIG. 29B) is detected. If an error occurs after performing the processing for all of the above five directions, the direction detection processing is performed for the marker in the diagonal direction. In this case, in order to prevent an increase in the number of processing, Processing is not performed for those outside a certain range, and necessary information is obtained by the marker and block address interpolation processing for the address information that is not obtained.

As described above, the block address is not modulated. However, when the block address is modulated, it is naturally necessary to perform the process of demodulating after recognizing the block address code.

In the above description, whether or not there is directionality is determined using error detection of the upper address, but, for example, instead of the upper address CRC code,
Use a directional pattern such as "11100001" and adopt a method that recognizes that there is a directional marker in that direction when "11100001" is detected by pattern matching. You can also

In the above direction detection, it is not necessary to search for adjacent markers in a clockwise direction for all markers, and the next block is
An operation for recognizing the higher-order address code may be performed in that direction. That reduces the number of processes.
Further, even when an abnormality occurs in the detection of the upper address, it may be recognized that the code exists in the direction obtained by detecting the peripheral direction.

Next, the block address detection, error determination, and accurate center detection unit 300 will be described with reference to the block diagram of FIG. 35A and the flowchart of FIG.

When the upper address can be detected, the upper block address calculating and center calculating circuit 372 of the data array direction detecting unit 218 detects the upper block address to the next block address, error judgment, and accurate center detection. It is sent to the block address calculation and center calculation circuit 374 of the unit 300. Further, since the rough center at the time of detecting the upper address is known, this center address is set to step2.
Guide to the sample address generation circuit 376 (step S1)
52).

Step 2 sample address generation circuit 37
6 generates this rough center sample address (step S154). That is, as shown in (B) of FIG. 35, the approximate center (center of direction detection) found earlier.
On the other hand, as in the above case, 8 points and sample addresses are placed outside. Then, eight points are similarly provided for the marker for which the directionality is found, a scanning line is similarly drawn (step S156), and processing is performed as to whether or not the lower address can be detected. In this case, the data interval for forming the sample address is defined every 0.5 dots in this embodiment, but can be changed as appropriate according to the specifications of the apparatus.

Then, the address controller 220 reads out the data from the image memory 214 based on the generated sample address, and leads the data according to this sample point to the error detection circuit 378 (step S158). As in the case of direction detection (as shown in FIG. 5A), when the sample points are between the data in the image memory, 1
The data may be interpolated and derived from surrounding data instead of representing the data. If an error is found in the error determination (step S160), it is determined whether or not scanning of all sample points is completed (step S162). If not, the process proceeds to step S156, where scanning of all sample points is completed. If so, after the addresses have been detected for all blocks, the process proceeds to marker / block address interpolation processing (step S164).

On the other hand, if there is no address error in the step S160, it is judged whether or not the scanning of all the sample points is completed (step S166). If not, the process proceeds to the step S156 to scan all the sample points. If completed, the lower address is confirmed (step S168),
Determine the exact center (step 2 center) (step S
170).

In other words, the error detection circuit 378 detects an error, and if an error is detected in the error determination, the process goes to the next step. The block address calculation and center calculation circuit 374 is provided with a start and end address at the time of center detection, that is, a signal indicating which point is connected and which point is currently connected from the address control unit 220. Judge whether or not. When no error is detected, the block address calculation / center calculation circuit 374 combines the derived lower address with the upper address sent from the upper block address calculation / center calculation circuit 372 to obtain a block address. , To the next marker and address interpolation unit 302. Similarly, the center address is also derived to the marker / block address interpolator 302.

In FIG. 35B, the setting of 0.5 dot means that the center point finally obtained by this processing is detected by detecting the sample points in the range of 0.5 dot ( This is because the difference between the center of direction detection) and the true center falls within the 1/4 dot range. If it falls within the 1/4 dot range, if the sample points formed by the above processing are taken,
The data in the data area can be played properly.

Since the smallest dot of the step 2 code is 1 dot, a data arrangement smaller than that does not make sense as data, so it is formed by 1 dot.

[0230] As in the case of the step1 code,
Inversion codes may be provided above and below the address data dots, or black data may be provided at several dots at the end of the address data dots, and the surrounding area may be used as a margin portion. In addition, a data margin part 364 for distinguishing the address code and the data code
Since the area to be distinguished from the data area 314 is very likely to be mistaken for a marker even if it overlaps with the black area, the data margin 364 is not provided and the area is directly entered from the inversion layer. May be.

Further, as shown in FIG. 35B, as a result, the lower address and the upper address have a data length of approximately ½ of the total data length, and CR of the same size.
C code is added. The reason is that the data length is set so that it is possible to detect a burst error in such a state that noise is all over the address length, ink is attached, or the like. The ratio of this data length can also be changed as appropriate.

By the tree search processing as described above, that is, the detection method of obtaining the rough center and further finer center, the accurate center for sampling the data in the data area 314 and the block address are recognized. It was done. That is, by performing the process of tree search, the amount of processing is greatly reduced, and the amount of processing and the processing time are reduced, compared with the case where the sampling is performed at a fine pitch from the beginning.
Further, by using the block address for the direction detection and the accurate center detection, the redundancy of the total data amount can be reduced.

Next, the marker / address interpolation unit 302 will be described with reference to FIG. In the figure, it is assumed that the black marker portion around the block B2 is detected in response to the error that the marker for the block B2 is not detected or the address is not detected.

In this case, first, a line is drawn which connects the centers of the marker of the block B1 and the marker of the block B3, and a line which connects the centers of the markers of the block A2 and the marker of the block C2, and the intersection point is drawn. Use as a prediction center. Then, the address can be detected and processed from the predicted center point toward the marker of the block C2 and the marker of the block B3. Further, since the array is known without performing address detection, if block B2 exists below block B1, the address of block B2 is set from the surrounding addresses, so there is no need to detect it. Can also be estimated. That is, it is possible to detect the address and the center of the marker of the block, which has been predicted and cannot be predicted, from the surrounding processing.

Interpolator 302 for marker and block address
Guides the address data normally read, the address interpolated with the center position, and the information of the predicted center to the address control unit.

When the image data is fetched in the image memory 214 as shown in the same figure and the scanning direction is the arrow direction, the upper left corner is generally set as the first representative marker and the processing is performed thereafter. The center is detected sequentially in the vertical direction,
Eight (blocks A1 to
The centers of the A4 marker and the blocks B1 to B4) are obtained. Then, when the center of the next column is detected, the centers of the markers of the blocks B1 to B4 are already known, and therefore no processing is performed on them, and the markers of the blocks C1 to C4 are targeted for those centers. The rough center, the center of step1, and the center of step2 are obtained. Therefore, as described above, 81 scanning lines are not necessary, and once the center is obtained, it is sufficient to perform processing so as to sample the 9 points in the latter stage. Ie 1
The center can be obtained by eight types of processing. in this way,
Although there are many processes only at the beginning, there is an advantage that the processes after that are reduced.

In the case of the dot code shown in FIG. 29A, first, the upper left A1 is used as the representative marker A1,
Direction detection processing is performed in the horizontal direction with B1 and C1. Processing is A
Once the marker centers of 1 and B1 are obtained, the center detection processing of C1 may be nine kinds of processing. In order to determine that the block under A1 is A2, since there is no address code, processing is performed as described below.

That is, the block size may be judged from the lengths of the A1 marker and the B1 marker, and detection may be started from the marker at an appropriate position from the predicted block size, or the marker immediately below A1 may be detected. First, the processing may be performed using the representative marker. Then, the block in which the horizontal block address matches the detected block address may be set as A2. When the detection of the direction of two steps (the step of A1 and the step of A2 in the figure) is completed, the direction can be predicted in the process of the vertical direction (the process of selecting the marker of A3), so only the marker in that direction is detected. It suffices to perform processing. Even if there is a detected marker, the processing can be performed excluding it.

Next, the address controller 220 of FIG. 20D will be described with reference to the block diagram of FIG. 37B.

First, in the address control section 220,
The data of the A / D conversion unit 210 is stored in the image memory 214 at the address generated by the write address generation unit 380 that generates an address when writing the data from the A / D conversion unit 210 to the image memory 214. .

Then, as described above, the marker detection unit 2
16, it is necessary to generate an address in each of the data array direction detection unit 218, block address detection, error determination, accurate center detection unit 300, and marker / address interpolation unit 302, and the address generation unit 382 for that purpose.
~ 388 are configured. In this case, the marker detection address generator 382, the data array direction detection address generator 384, the block address detection, the error determination,
In the accurate center detection address generation section 386, the corresponding marker detection section 216 (the internal marker determination section 31
8, marker area detector 320, approximate center detector 32
2) Addresses are generated by exchanging information with the data array direction detection unit 218, block address detection, error determination, and accurate center detection unit 300. Further, the interpolation processing address generation unit 388, for a block in which four markers around the block exist, an address (hereinafter, referred to as a marker address) in which an accurate center of each marker is associated with the image memory, and the number of data. Further, the memory read address of the interpolated address coordinate data and the pixel data in the periphery of the block is equally generated.

The selection circuit 390 selects these address generators 382 to 388 at each timing and supplies them to the lens aberration distortion correction circuit 392. Then, the lens aberration distortion correction circuit 392 receives the distortion information of the lens aberration from the lens aberration distortion memory 224 and converts (corrects) the selectively supplied address,
The read address is given to the image memory 214 via the selection circuit 394.

Next, another embodiment of the marker determination unit 318 in the marker detection unit 216 will be described with reference to FIGS. 38 (A) to 38 (C).
This will be described with reference to.

In the above-described embodiment, when the size of the dot code is determined, the image forming optical system 200 forms an image so that one dot corresponds to 1.5 pixels of the image pickup device of the image pickup unit 204, and the marker determination is made. In the part 318, two-dimensionally continuous black pixels are found and determined as a marker. On the other hand, in the present embodiment, codes with different dot sizes, for example, codes with a dot size of 20 μm, 4
When there is a code of 0 μm or a code of 80 μm, each code can be reproduced without changing the image magnification in the imaging optical system 200.

That is, the paper quality, the sheet property, the ink level, and the printing level are different among various applications, and therefore, the dot size code corresponding to each application is used. For example, it is conceivable that 20 μm will be used when the recording density can be extremely increased, and 80 μm will be used depending on the application using a very rough low-cost sheet having poor quality. In such a situation, determine its size,
The purpose is to play this code correctly.

That is, as shown in (B) of the figure, there are a circular dot size 20 μm marker, a dot size 40 μm marker, and a dot size 80 μm marker.
The reproducing apparatus to which the present embodiment is applied is, for example, an apparatus for efficiently reproducing a code of 20 μm, that is, an apparatus having a magnification of an image forming system capable of decoding more information in one image pickup. To do. Then, in the device which is imaged at an image magnification of 1.5 times for this 20 μm dot,
The purpose of each code is 40 μm and 80 μm so that the image forming system can be reproduced without changing the image magnification. However, the size of the marker shown in FIG.
The diameter was 7 times the size of each dot.

Therefore, as shown in (A) of the figure, first, the code of the maximum dot size to be selected is initialized (step S182). For example, 80 μm, 40
When there are codes of μm and 20 μm and it is desired to reproduce all of them, the maximum size is set to 80 μm. This may be set by key input by the user, or if it is determined that there are three types of 80 μm, 40 μm, and 20 μm, and it is possible to handle only that size, the device itself The size may be set to a large size of 80 μm.

Then, the provisional center is obtained by making a determination using the marker determination formula shown in FIG. 13B (step S184).

That is, if a code is made using 7 dots of each dot size as a marker, then at that time, since the imaging optical system has an image magnification of 1.5 times, the code of 20 μm is used. In case of, the diameter is 10.5 dots, and in case of 40 μm code, it is 21 dots, 80 μm
In case of the code of, it becomes 42 dots. Therefore, if 7 pixels or more and 12 pixels or less, or black pixels are two-dimensionally continuous, 20
Judged as a marker of the code of μm, 14 pixels or more 24
If the number of pixels is less than the pixel, it is judged as a marker of 40 μm code,
Those having 29 pixels or more and 47 pixels or less are determined to be markers having a code of 80 μm. The value of this pixel is calculated by the following equation.

R = s × d × m int (r × 0.7) ≦ R ≦ int (r × 1.1 + 1) where r is the number of pixels corresponding to the diameter of the marker (= 7) s is the dot size (20 μm, 40μm, 80μ
m) m: Image magnification of image forming system (= 1.5) d: Number of dots of marker diameter R: Number of pixels of marker diameter in binary image 0.7: Reduction ratio due to inclination, dot rejection, etc. 1. 1: The enlargement ratio due to dot gain and the like.

First, at step S182, 80
Since the marker is initially set to a μm code marker, it is checked in step S184 if the marker determination formula is an 80 μm code marker, and a marker of that size (a marker formed of 80 μm dots) is determined. For those that are determined to be present, the provisional center is obtained.

Next, the number of the markers is checked, and it is checked that there are four or more markers (step S18).
6). This means that one block is surrounded by four markers, and thus it is determined whether or not there are one or more blocks.

Then, it is confirmed whether the marker has a predetermined positional relationship with the adjacent marker as shown in (C) of the figure, that is, whether the marker is aligned (step S18).
8). That is, the marker B located in the vicinity of the target marker A, the marker C located in the vicinity of a position separated by the distance D in the direction perpendicular to the direction connecting the markers A and B from the target marker A, and the marker B as a reference. The marker D located in the vicinity of the position separated by the distance D in the same direction as the direction of the markers A to C is detected.
If they exist, it is determined that the code is, for example, 80 μm in this case.

Also, in step S186, 8
If there are not four or more markers of 0 μm code, or if it is determined in step S188 that they are not aligned, it is determined that this is not an 80 μm code, and one smaller code, 40 μm in this case
(Step S190), the process returns to step S184, and the marker is determined once again.

If it cannot be determined even in the determination of the smallest size, it means that it is not a code, or even if it is a code, it cannot be reproduced, and the process is terminated. In this case, it is preferable to proceed to a process of issuing a warning such as issuing an alarm.

Next, another embodiment of the marker judging section 318 will be described. That is, a method of determining the marker pattern and the modulated data by dilation, which is a general image process, will be described. Here, the dilation process is a process of converting a black pixel near a white pixel into a white pixel. Specifically, for example, the pixels around 3 pixels of the pixel of interest (7 × 7 pixel area centering on the pixel of interest) are checked (black and white determination), and if even one pixel is a white pixel, the pixel of interest is made a white pixel. The conversion process is performed for all pixels on the image.

First, binarization processing is performed on the data in the image memory.

Next, by the above dilation processing, only the data portion of the code image is entirely converted into white pixels, and the pattern portion of the marker is converted into an image which is smaller than the initial size by the number of dilated pixels. It

Next, the address in the image memory of the change point from the white pixel to the black pixel on the image and the number of consecutive black pixels from the pixel are counted, and the information is classified for each marker from the information. , The temporary center address and the marker existence range are detected. Then, the approximate center detection process is performed.

As a result, the marker determination and the marker existing range can be detected at high speed.

Further, in the case of a code in which the marker center is uniformly deformed like the dot gain and dot reduction described above for the marker, the temporary center address obtained by the marker judgment is set as the approximate center as it is. You can also

The process of step S184 of FIG. 38A may be the above process.

When the above-mentioned A / D conversion section is binarized by a comparator, in the above marker determination processing,
The binarization process can be omitted.

Next, a light source integrated type image sensor applicable to the detection unit 184 of the reproducing apparatus shown in FIG. 15 and FIG. 20D will be described. FIG. 39 is a diagram showing the structure thereof. For example, the light emitting cell 3 is formed beside the light receiving cell 396 by a compound semiconductor such as an LED or an electroluminescence element.
98 is formed on-chip. Between the light receiving cell 396 and the light emitting cell 398, an isolation (light shielding) portion 400 in which a cutter is actually formed on the wafer to form a groove and which is non-transmissive, for example, metal is embedded is provided. The isolation section 400 can eliminate the problem that the light emitted from the light emitting cell 398 directly enters the light receiving cell 396.

In such a structure, the light emitting cell 39
Light emission is controlled according to the light emitting cell control pulse signal as shown in the timing chart of FIG. The light receiving cell 396 sends the accumulated charges to the adjacent vertical charge transfer register 402 by applying the charge transfer gate pulse signal to the charge transfer gate (not shown). The vertical charge transfer register 402 sends the accumulated charges to the horizontal charge transfer register 404 line by line with a vertical charge transfer pulse.
The horizontal charge transfer register 404 outputs accumulated charge pixel by pixel via the buffer amplifier 406 in response to a horizontal transfer clock signal. Next, in the circuit of the playback device described above,
An embodiment in which the analog circuit is used up to the preceding stage of the demodulation circuit and the chip is configured with one chip will be described with reference to FIG. In the present embodiment, the image pickup unit is, for example, C as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-4376.
By using the XY address type image pickup unit 408 typified by MD, a memory is unnecessary and therefore a circuit system can be reduced, so that it can be configured with one chip. An X decoder 410 and a Y decoder 412 are prepared for address scanning the XY address type image pickup unit 408.

In a normal XY address type image pickup unit, CC
Unlike D, one line is read out and then this line is reset to read out the next line, that is, another line enters the exposure period while reading another line. Target. However, such a reading method has a demerit that an extra portion is exposed when external light enters during the image pickup time. Therefore, in this embodiment, the XY address method is used, and yet In combination with the element shutter, the operation is performed such that the external light is exposed only when it comes in, that is, when it should be exposed, and the other parts are not exposed.

The image sensor scan address generation and element shutter control unit 414 thus generates an element shutter pulse for providing an element shutter-like operation in the XY address system, and a reset pulse for resetting all pixels. .

The X-decoder 410 and the Y-decoder 412 are circuits for turning on any one of the elements in response to the X-address and the Y-address from the image-capturing element scanning address generation and element shutter control section 414. Normally, it is composed of a shift register or the like, but in this embodiment,
Image sensor scan address generation and element shutter control unit 41
It is a type of selector in which any one element can be turned on by a signal from 4.

The reset pulse in this embodiment corresponds to the image sensor reset pulse in the timing chart of FIG. 16, and the image sensor is reset before exposure, and the reset pulse is set to Hi during this reset period. To switch the switch 416 so that the negative power source 4
All charges are drawn toward 18.

The element shutter pulse is generated in such a manner that it can be gated from after the end of the reset pulse until after the end of exposure, as shown by the broken line waveform in FIG.

Read-out is performed in the same manner as a normal pulse.
The respective elements are sequentially turned on, and the signal charges are transferred to the current / voltage conversion amplifier 42 via the reset selection switch 416.
After being amplified by 0, it is supplied to the marker detection unit 422. The marker detection unit 422 is the same as that described above, and the data detected by the marker is stored in the register 424. The θ detection unit 426 calculates the inclination based on the contents of the register 424 as in the direction detection unit described above. For example, in the circuit shown in FIG. 20D, the θ detector 426 corresponds to the data array direction detector 218, and the next data interval controller 428 and the image sensor scan address generator / element shutter controller 414 address the data. It corresponds to the control unit 220.

Then, the coefficient for interpolation generated from the coefficient generating section 430 under the control of the data interval control section 428 is multiplied by the electric charge read by the multiplication circuit 432.
All are added in the adder circuit 434. That is, the output of the adder circuit 434 is sampled and held by the sample and hold (S & H) circuit 436, and the switch 43
It is returned to the addition circuit 434 via 8. This behavior is
When the data is sampled after the direction and the scanning line are determined, it is performed to perform data interpolation as shown in FIG. In FIG. 5A, D6, D7, D10, and D11 are interpolated by applying coefficients to obtain Q data. The value thus interpolated is further added to the S & H circuit 440.
The sampled and held value is sampled and held, and the sampled and held value is binarized by the comparator 442 and the threshold value judgment circuit 444.

Each image pickup device (pixel) of the XY address type image pickup unit 408 will be described in more detail. As shown in FIG. 41A, each pixel is composed of two CMD elements, and the element shutter pulse has the first CMD element 4
Capacitor 4 that enters 46 and is stored for the element shutter
The charge is accumulated at 48. Then the second CMD
The Y-decoder 412 drives a pulse for reading the element 450 to select a line, and the horizontal selection switch 452 reads the electric charge for each pixel.

At the time of exposure, the element shutter pulse causes the first CMD element 446 to operate as an element shutter, and charges are accumulated in the element shutter capacitor 448. When the charges are accumulated in this way, the charges are shielded, a line for reading is applied from the Y decoder 412 to select a line, and the second CMD element 450 is turned on by the horizontal selection switch 452 to read one pixel at a time.

When the charges are reset, all the horizontal selection switches 454 are turned on by the reset pulse output from the image pickup device scanning address generation and element shutter control unit 414, and the reset selection switch 416 is set to the negative power source 4.
Set to 18 side. Since the source of the CMD element 450 has a negative voltage, the charges accumulated in the element shutter capacitor 448 and the gate of the CMD element 446 move to the negative power source and are reset.

In addition to the above operation, the voltage of the element shutter pulse and the read pulse can be reset by applying a slightly higher voltage at the same time.

In the case of an ordinary image pickup device, dark current is a problem, but in the case of this embodiment, exposure is performed only during the period when the device shutter pulse shown in FIG. 16 is high, Since the charge is read out immediately, the dark current actually accumulates for a very short time. Therefore, the S / N ratio is more advantageous than the operation of other image pickup devices. is there. In exposure, a sufficient amount of light is given even in this short exposure period, so that the signal level remains the same and the S / N level against dark current is reduced. It is possible to set a fairly large gain for the output degree of the current-voltage conversion amplifier 420 of FIG.

In the present embodiment, the pixel structure for performing the element shutter operation as described above is used, but a CM capable of the element shutter operation as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-4376.
It is also possible to use the D element.

Next, referring to FIG. 42, the above X
A circuit using the Y address type image pickup unit 408 is used as a three-dimensional I
An example constructed in C will be described. In this example,
This is the case of a reproducing apparatus for audio information.

This is a CM for the sheet 182.
The imaging unit layer 454 including the D 408, the X decoder 410, and the Y decoder 412, the detection unit layer 456 that detects data formed by stacking on the imaging unit layer 454, and the stacking on the detection unit layer 456. Then, the output processing layer 458 is formed. The output processing layer 458 includes the demodulation unit 19
0, an error correction unit 194, a decompression processing unit 256, a data interpolation circuit 258, a D / A conversion unit, an output buffer 266, and the like, and the decoded audio information is reproduced as sound by an audio output device 268 such as an earphone.

Of course, the output processing layer 458 can also be configured to reproduce the multimedia information including the image information, as described above.

By using a three-dimensional IC in this way, processing up to sound output can be performed with one chip.
The circuit scale becomes very small, and it also leads to cost reduction.

Next, various configuration examples of the pen-type multimedia information reproducing apparatus will be described.

For example, the pen-type information reproducing apparatus can be provided with a switch for instructing the timing of loading the dot code.

FIG. 41 (B) is a diagram showing an example thereof. This pen type information reproducing apparatus has a light source 198 and an image forming device in the reproducing apparatus shown in FIG. 15 or 20 (D). A detection unit 184 including the optical system 200, the spatial filter 202, the imaging unit 204, the preamplifier 206, and the imaging unit control unit 212.
Is provided at the tip thereof, and the scan conversion unit 186, the binarization processing unit 188, the demodulation unit 190, the data error correction unit 194,
The expansion processing unit 256, the data interpolation circuit 258, etc.
The image processing unit 460, the data processing unit 462, and the data output unit 464 are incorporated. Then, the audio output device 26
I have 8 earphones. In this figure,
Although only an output device for audio information is shown, if a processing unit for images, characters, line drawings, etc. is built-in, it is of course possible to connect an output device corresponding to it (see the following pen-type information reproducing device). The same applies in the explanation).

A touch sensor 466 is provided on the side surface of the pen-type information reproducing device. As the touch sensor 466, for example, a piezoelectric switch, a micro switch, a piezoelectric rubber or the like can be used, and a switch having a small thickness of 0.6 mm or less is known. The control unit as the image capturing unit control unit 212 starts capturing the dot code as described above in response to the touch sensor 466 being pressed by the finger. And
When the finger is released from the touch sensor 466, the capturing ends. That is, the touch sensor 466 is used to control the start and end of the dot code acquisition.

Reference numeral 468 in the figure is a battery as an operating power source of each unit in the pen type information reproducing apparatus.

Further, the touch sensor 466 can perform the same function not only by being pressed by a finger, but also by being attached to the tip of the pen-type information reproducing apparatus as shown in FIG. .

That is, when the user places this pen type information reproducing apparatus on the sheet 182 to manually scan the dot code printed on the sheet 182, the touch sensor 46
6 is turned on, the control unit 212 recognizes it and starts reading the dot code.

In this case, since the tip of the pen-type information reproducing device moves in contact with the sheet surface during scanning, in this example, the tip of the touch sensor 466, that is, the surface in contact with the sheet surface is made of smooth resin or the like. Is preferably coated to provide smooth movement during manual scanning (movement).

Further, the detecting unit of the pen-type information reproducing apparatus may be further provided with a mechanism for removing specular reflection.

FIG. 44A is a diagram showing the structure thereof. The first polarizing filter 470 is arranged on the front surface of the light source (light source such as LED) 198, that is, on the irradiation side, and then the imaging optical system ( Lens) 200 on the front side of the second polarization filter 4
72 is arranged.

For example, the first polarization filter 470 has a polarization filter film 474 as shown in FIG.
Is formed by cutting out into a donut shape, and the second polarization filter 472 has a different polarization filter film 47.
6 can also be used, and for example, as shown in (C) of the same drawing, an inner portion of the polarization filter film 474, which is obtained by cutting out the first polarization filter 470, can be used.

The first and second layers thus formed are
The polarization filters 470 and 472 are arranged such that the pattern surface (polarization plane) of the second polarization filter 472 is orthogonal to the pattern surface (polarization direction) of the first polarization filter 470.

As a result, the random light emitted from the illumination light source 198 has its plane of polarization limited by the first polarization filter 470 and is irradiated with, for example, P waves. The polarization plane of the specular reflection component is preserved as it is and returned from the sheet surface as a P wave. However, since the polarization plane of the second polarization filter 472 is orthogonal to that of the first polarization filter 470, The reflection component is blocked by the second polarization filter 472. On the other hand, in the case where the light emitted from the first polarization filter 470 returns to the actual dots, that is, the sheet surface and returns as the brightness information of the paper surface, the polarization plane becomes random. Therefore, like this, once you enter the page, the black and white information,
Alternatively, the signal returned as color information has both P and S components. Among them, the P component is similarly cut by the second polarization filter 472, but the S component orthogonal to the P component passes through the second polarization filter 472 and actually passes through the lens 200. An image is formed on the imaging unit 204. That is, the reflected light from which the regular reflection component is removed is guided to the image pickup unit 204.

In this case, a 1/4 λ plate 1230 is arranged on the front surface of the spatial filter 202, and the image light that is once incident as linearly polarized light is converted into circularly polarized light and is input to the spatial filter 202. This is because the spatial filter normally utilizes the birefringence of quartz, so for linearly polarized light,
This is because that effect cannot be obtained. In this example,
The quarter-wave plate 1230 is arranged on the front surface of the spatial filter 202, but is not limited to this.
It may be arranged at any place between the polarization filter 472 and the spatial filter 202 which is easy to install.

As a structure for removing the specular reflection component in this way, a structure as shown in FIG. 45 can be considered. This is because the first polarization filter 470 is connected to the light source 19 described above.
Instead of arranging in the vicinity of 8
Using the transparent resin optical waveguide material 480 provided with 78, the light from the light source 198 is guided to a position very close to the sheet surface to illuminate the sheet (dot code). It is arranged in the light emitting part of the. In this case, the first polarization filter 470 is arranged so that the light orthogonal to the second polarization filter 472 is transmitted.

Incidentally, here, the transparent resin optical waveguide material 480 is used.
Is advantageous in that the light source 198 and the outer shape can be made as thin as possible, and the incident angle can be made shallow so that the regular reflection component can be reduced.

However, since the specular reflection component still remains due to the ink swelling, the sheet surface swelling, and the like, a polarization filter is provided in order to eliminate it more efficiently.

Further, instead of the second polarization filter 472, an electro-optical element shutter 1220 such as a liquid crystal shutter or a PLZT shutter may be provided. As shown in FIG. 44D, the electro-optical element shutter 1220 includes a polarizer 1221 as a polarization filter, a liquid crystal, and a PL.
It is composed of an electro-optical element 1222 such as ZT and an analyzer 1223 as a polarization filter. In this case, the shutter 1
By disposing the shutter 1220 so that the light distribution direction of the polarizer (polarization filter) 1221 of 220 is the same direction as the second polarization filter 472, the specular reflection removing effect can be obtained.

Furthermore, the shutter function allows IT-CC
There is a merit that a frame reading is possible with an image sensor compatible with field reading such as D, or that all pixels are simultaneously exposed even with an XY addressing type image sensor such as CMD.

Next, an example in which the light source 198 is made more efficient and the device is made slim will be described.

FIG. 46A is a diagram showing the structure thereof, and as in the example of FIG. 45, is provided with an acrylic transparent resin optical waveguide material 480 having a mirror coat 478 on its surface. As shown in FIG. 46 (B), this acrylic transparent resin optical waveguide material 480 is formed in a truncated cone shape, and a screw portion 482 is provided on the upper portion (the end portion on the widening side) thereof. It is adapted to be screwed and attached to the housing 484 of the pen-type information reproducing device. The surface mirror coat 478 is not applied to the inner portion near the screw portion 482,
The light source 198 is provided at the portion 486. That is, the light source 198 is a thin flexible substrate 48.
LE with LED mounted on 8 and configured like a ring
It is provided as a D array, which is adhesively attached to the portion 486 without the surface mirror coat. Then, as shown in (C) of the figure, the lower portion (tip portion) of the acrylic transparent resin optical waveguide material 480 is cut to form a portion 490 where the surface mirror coat 478 is not applied. Therefore, the light from the light source 198 is transmitted through the transparent resin optical waveguide material 480 from the uncoated portion 486.
The light enters the inside, is reflected by the surface mirror coat 478, passes through the inside of the optical waveguide material 480, goes out from the surface mirror coat-free portion 490 at the tip end, and is irradiated onto the dot code on the sheet.

It is to be noted that, as shown in (D) of the same figure, the tip of the acrylic transparent resin optical waveguide material 480 should be straightened and the surface mirror coat 478 should be applied only to the outer portion. The shape may be easy to manufacture. In this case, it is more preferable to make the tip round to make it slippery.

Next, an example of a pen-type information reproducing apparatus using a light source integrated image sensor will be described (see FIG. 47).

That is, in this embodiment, the light source integrated image sensor 492 as described above with reference to FIG. 39 is used, and a rod lens (for example, a Selfoc lens or A convex lens) 494 and a glass thin plate 496 are arranged and formed. Here, the glass thin plate 4
96 has a role of a protective glass for the actual contact surface, and a role of providing a certain distance to make the illumination as flat as possible.

As described above, the image sensor 4 with integrated light source
By using 92, it is possible to reduce the size of the pen-type information reproducing device, and also to shorten it in the length direction.

Next, a pen type information reproducing apparatus for handling color-multiplexed dot codes will be described.

FIG. 48A is a diagram showing the structure thereof. The touch sensor 466 as shown in FIG. 41B and the first and second touch sensors as shown in FIG. The polarizing filters 470 and 472 of FIG. Further, the pen-type information reproducing apparatus of this embodiment reads the color-multiplexed color code by synthesizing a plurality of dot codes of different colors as shown in FIG. 48B. The color liquid crystal 498 controlled by the control unit 212 is arranged on the pupil plane of the lens 200.

Here, in order to explain the method of controlling the color liquid crystal 498 by the control section 212, an example of using a color multiple dot code will be described first.

For example, as shown in FIG.
The color multiple dot code 502 is arranged on the sheet 500, and corresponding to it, "Good Morning"
It is assumed that the characters are written and the index 504 and the index code 506 are arranged at a predetermined position, for example, the lower right. Then, when the color multi-dot code 502 is played back by this pen type information playback device, the pronunciation "Good morning" is output in Japanese, "Good morning" is pronounced in English, or "Good morning" is spoken in German. In order to select whether to pronounce “Guten Morgen”, as shown in (D) of the figure, the index code 506 arranged corresponding to the index 504 indicating the option is scanned and recognized, and, for example, Japanese is selected. After doing the color multiple dot code 502
The following explanation will be given for the purpose of making it possible to make a utterance such as "Good morning" by scanning.

First, as shown in (B) of the same figure, a dot code for pronouncing in Japanese is generated and assigned as code 1 to red (R). Similarly, create a dot code to be pronounced in English as code 2, and then green (G)
, A dot code pronounced in German is created as code 3, and is assigned to blue (B). The color of the overlapping portion of each information is set as the color formed by the additive color of each color, and the color multiplex dot code 502 is applied to the sheet 500.
Record above. In this case, the portion where the colors do not overlap is recorded as a black dot. That is, as mentioned above, the dot code consists of a marker and a data dot, but the marker is black,
This means that the data dots are recorded in different colors by the color addition method. In this way, color multiple dot code 50
Recording at 2 means increasing the recording density.

Not limited to the three types of colors of RGB, a plurality of different pieces of information may be assigned to colors of different narrow band wavelengths. Therefore, by using another narrow band wavelength color, More information such as types and 5 types can be multiplexed. As the color ink in that case, in addition to the conventional inks such as cyan, yellow, and magenta, it is possible to mix a dye (ink that reflects light of only a narrow band wavelength).

The index code 506 is arranged in the underlined portion of the index 504 indicated by characters or pictures so that the user can recognize and select it. Which color is selected for the printing. It is printed in black so that it can be read.

The color liquid crystal 498 is formed by adhering RGB light transmissive mosaic filters in accordance with the pixels of the liquid crystal, and is for separating the information of each color of the color multiple dot code 502. That is, the control unit 212 sets only the pixels corresponding to the color of the information selected by the scanning of the index code 506 into the transparent state.
Controlled by. Further, the liquid crystal may not have a mosaic shape, but the optical path may be divided into planes. that time,
It is preferable to make the divided area ratio of each color inversely proportional to the sensitivity of the pixel because the sensitivity for each color becomes uniform. That is, when the sensitivity of B is low, the area is made larger than that of other colors. The color liquid crystal may be placed on the light source side.

Next, the operation for reading the index code 506 and selecting a color to generate it in a desired language will be described with reference to the flowchart in FIG. 49 (A).

First, if green is selected (step S202) by the initial setting and the touch sensor 466 is pressed (step S204), the control section 212 controls the liquid crystal transmission part of the color liquid crystal 498 in accordance with the color selection. (Step S206). For example, since green is initially selected, only dots with a green filter are made transparent. Next, the light source 198 is controlled by the control unit 212, and the dot code is read by the image processing unit 460 (step S208). Then, the data processing unit 462 decodes the code (step S2
10) Recognize whether all the codes have been finished, that is, whether all the codes have been read (step S212). When the codes have been read, a sound is issued to notify that (step S21).
4). Next, the control unit 212 determines whether the index code 506 or the sound information (color multiple dot code 502) is read according to the decoding result (step S216). , The color indicated by the index code 506 is selected (step S218), and the process returns to step S204. If it is sound information, the data output unit 464 causes the sound output device 268 to reproduce sound (step S220).

After the sound reproduction in step S220, it is further judged whether or not the sound is repeatedly generated a predetermined number of times (step S222), and the number of times is preset by the repeat switch 467. If
The predetermined number of times is repeated and reproduced.

Of course, the number of repetitions may be one,
The number of times can be set by various switches and the like, and in addition to this, the number of times can be recorded in advance in the index code 506 or the dot code 502.

FIG. 15 shows the repeat reproduction here.
Alternatively, it is possible by repeatedly reading from the data memory unit 234 in FIG.

The image pickup unit 204 includes a black and white one,
Generally, there is a color image pickup device in which a color mosaic filter is attached to the image pickup device section. In the above example, the monochrome image pickup unit is used. However, by using a color image pickup device and separating the colors in the image processing unit 460, it is possible to reproduce each color separately. In that case, the color liquid crystal 498 can be omitted.

FIG. 49B is a diagram showing the configuration of the image memory section of the image processing section 460 when a color image pickup device is used. That is, the signals coming from the color image pickup device are separated into respective colors by the color separation circuit 508 and stored in the memories 510A, 510B, 510C, which are selected by the multiplexer (MPX) 512 and the subsequent processing is performed. To do so.

Of the first and second polarization filters 470 and 472 for the purpose of preventing regular reflection, the second polarization filter 472 is the same as the polarization filter of the color liquid crystal 498. Since it is known, it is possible to use it as well. Therefore, the color liquid crystal 498
The second polarization filter 472 can be omitted by combining with the other polarization filter. However, at that time, the angle in the horizontal plane of this color liquid crystal is
Must be rotated so as to cut the components in the same direction as the direction corresponding to the polarization filter 472, that is, in the same direction.

Further, as shown in FIG. 50A, the color liquid crystal 498 is removed, and the light source 198 is not a white light source but an RGB light source such as an LED as shown in FIG. 50B. Even, color multiple dot code 5
02 can be read. That is, in the case of dividing into RGB and the above three colors, among the RGB light sources 198, only the LED corresponding to red is turned on when reading the code 1 corresponding to red, and only the green LED corresponding to code 2 is read. For code 3, only the blue LED may be turned on to reproduce.

Also, instead of using RGB LEDs,
It is also possible to add a color filter to each part as a white light source to form a light source of each color.

As described above, by using the light sources of RGB different colors as the light source 198 and controlling the lighting of the light source of the color selected by the index code 506, the same effect as that of the configuration of FIG. Obtainable. Furthermore, by having each of the light sources that emit light of a plurality of narrow band wavelengths, it is not necessary to have a color liquid crystal and its control circuit, and the size can be reduced at low cost. In particular, LEDs are narrow band,
For example, there is a light having a wavelength of about ± 27 nm, and if such a light is used, narrower band reproduction can be performed.

Next, a stealth type dot code pen type information reproducing apparatus will be described.

FIG. 51A shows a title-attached dot data sticker 516 on which an infrared light emitting paint dot code 514 as a stealth type dot code is printed.
This dot data sticker 516 is, for example, in a printing machine or a printer, prints a title, for example, in a normal color or black and white print, and prints a dot code below it by using an invisible paint. It was done. Of course, in this dot data sticker 516, since the dot code 514 is invisible, that is, transparent printing,
As shown in (B) of the figure, the dot code 514 may be printed over the title of visible information by using transparent ink. This printing is realized by, for example, in the case of an inkjet printer or the like, by adding an infrared light-emitting paint ink as a fifth ink to four inks of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, and printing them in an overlapping manner. it can. Note that FIG. 51A shows an example in which a title is printed in the margin of a stealth-type dot code.
A dot code of visible light may be printed on the title-attached dot data sticker, and the title may be printed in the margin.

As a pen type information reproducing apparatus for reproducing the infrared light emitting paint dot code 514 as such a stealth type dot code, for example, as shown in (C) of FIG. Since it is printed with luminescent paint, the infrared light emitting element 518 is used as the light source 198, and the infrared band bandpass optical filter 520 is arranged in front of the imaging unit 204.

That is, when the dot code 514 is irradiated with light in the infrared region from the infrared light emitting element 518, the light is reflected in the infrared region, that is, in a wavelength of a certain narrow wave band. In order to detect the intensity of the reflection by the imaging unit 204, the reflected light is guided by being separated from the visible light information through the infrared band bandpass optical filter 520.

Since it is possible to prepare several kinds of light emission bands of the paint used for printing the dot code 514,
For example, this transparent printing can also be multiplexed by imaging while changing the characteristics of the bandpass optical filter 520 little by little.

Next, instead of configuring all the functions of the reproducing system in the pen-type information reproducing apparatus, various devices such as an electronic notebook, a PDA, a word processor, a personal computer, a copying machine, a printer, an electronic projector, etc. ROM cards are commonly used to add optional features. An example in which the functions are partially distributed to a card type adapter that can be connected to the connector of the ROM card will be described.

FIG. 52 shows an example in which the image processing unit 460 is provided in the pen type information reproducing apparatus, and the output of the image processing unit 460 is supplied to the card type adapter 524 through the output connector 522. Shows. The card type adapter 524 in this case has a data processing unit 462, a data output unit 464, a signal processing unit 526 including a D / A, and an audio connection terminal 528, and outputs reproduced audio information from the audio output device 268 as a sound. In addition, the multimedia information such as reproduced images can be supplied to the external device 532 such as an electronic notebook through the I / F 530.

That is, a ROM (not shown) of the external device 532 that does not have a voice output mechanism such as a speaker like an electronic notebook.
Connect to the card connection terminal to input multimedia information such as dot coded images for those that cannot output audio, and at the same time for audio, connect the earphones to the audio connection terminal 528 of the card type adapter 524. The voice output device 268 is connected to listen to the dot coded voice.

As the external device 532, it is possible to envisage a video game machine which has been widely used in homes in recent years. 53A and 53B show the configuration of a card type (in this case, a cassette type) adapter 524 for such a video game machine,
In the case of (A), the data processing unit 4 is provided in the pen-type information reproducing device.
62 is the case where the configuration is performed up to 62, and (B) is the detection unit 184.
This is the case when only configuring. The ROM 534 stores a control program executed by a CPU (not shown) built in the main body of the video game machine, and is loaded to the main body side when the cassette is inserted. The RAM 536 is used to store the processing result of the data processing unit 462. Memory control unit 53
Reference numeral 8 controls the ROM 534 and the RAM 536 according to an instruction from the CPU in the main body of the video game machine.

Normally, a high-performance CP is used for a video game machine.
Since U is mounted, therefore, rather than performing all the processing in the pen-type information reproducing device, it is possible to perform high-speed processing by causing the game machine body CPU to partially perform the processing. Further, since the operation unit of the game machine can be used as various control input units, it is not necessary to provide a reading start instruction switch such as a touch sensor in the pen-type information reproducing device, and the size can be reduced. In this case, a control program for processing that is handled by the CPU of the main body of the game machine, or a control program for the CPU of the main body and the operation unit of the game machine to control the pen-type information reproducing device and the user interface function for operation, It is stored in the ROM 534. Further, since the game machine is configured with a speaker, an audio output terminal, a monitor output terminal, and the like, these can be omitted from the pen-type information reproducing device and the card-type adapter, which enables cost reduction.

Next, the operation switches when using the card type adapter 524 will be described.

The electronic notebook as the external device 532 usually has a slit for mounting a card called a ROM card or an IC card, and when a card type adapter is inserted and mounted in the slit, the card type adapter is inserted. The characters and symbols on the surface can be seen through the transparent touch panel 560 of the electronic notebook body, and when you touch the location marked on the card type adapter, the function corresponding to that touches and is displayed on the display 562, for example. There are some that can be operated. Therefore,
In the case of such a card-type adapter 524 for an electronic notebook, as shown in FIG. 54A, a control system switch of the pen-type information reproducing device 564, for example, the light source 19 is used.
Characters and symbols representing these switches are simply written at predetermined positions on the surface without providing operation switches for turning on / off the switch 8.

In addition, external equipment 5 such as a personal computer or a word processor
In 32, since the keyboard is built-in, when connecting the pen-type information reproducing device to such a device, it can be controlled from the card-type adapter 524 without providing a control system switch.

However, even if there is a dedicated control switch for operating the printer itself, such as a printer, in the case of an external device 532 that has no other control system switch, the card type adapter 524 has a control system. It is necessary to provide the switch of. For example, as shown in (B) of FIG. 54, the switch 566 is provided to be longer than a normal card length and to be provided outside the device when mounted on the device 532. As the switch 566 in this case, for example, a tact switch or a touch panel can be used.

Next, an apparatus for printing a dot code will be described.

First, as shown in FIG. 55, a reel sticker printing machine 572 will be described in which data edited by a personal computer or word processor 568 is dot coded by the multimedia information recorder 570 and the dot code is printed on the reel sticker. To do.

FIG. 56 is a diagram showing the internal structure of this reel seal printing machine.

The dot code from the multimedia information recorder 570 is temporarily stored in the memory 574 and then LE
The D driver 576 causes the LED arrays 578 and 580 to emit light based on the dot pattern. The light from these LED arrays 578 and 580 is guided onto the photosensitive paper extending from the photosensitive paper reel 584 by a rod lens 582 provided in close contact with each pixel. The CPU 588 manages the timing of light emission according to the speed and position of the photosensitive paper detected by the sensor 586. Similarly, the photosensitive paper feed speed is controlled by controlling the driver 594 of the rotary motor 592 that drives the output stage roller 590.

On the other hand, in order to protect the printed dot code, a surface coat sticker 596 is added at the output stage, and the photosensitive paper and the surface coat sticker are simultaneously output in a bonded form. Here, photographic paper, film, or the like can be used as the photosensitive paper, and in this case, the back surface thereof is provided with adhesiveness.

When the photosensitive paper is a normal film or the like, two types of dot codes are used, as shown in FIG. 56, the LED array 578 is a red LED array and the LED 580 is a yellow LED array. May be multiplexed. Regarding multiplexing, two types of LEDs may be shifted in position to form a two-color dot code,
Further, two kinds of LEDs may emit light at the same position to create different colors, and further multiplexing may be performed.

The reel sticker printing machine 572 as described above is characterized in that it uses a photosensitive paper and has a high resolution and a low cost. Further, since the structure of the exposed portion does not require expensive processing such as scanning with a laser or the like, and is performed using a small LED array, the apparatus becomes very inexpensive. Further, in the case of a laser or the like, the angle of the mirror and fine positioning accuracy are required, whereas in the printing machine 572, since the optical path is of a close contact type, such fine positioning accuracy is unnecessary, and it is necessary for manufacturing. You can avoid the problem in. In the figure, for convenience of drawing, the LED arrays 578 and 580 and the rod lens 58 are shown.
Although the arrangement direction of 2 is shown as the traveling direction of the photosensitive paper, it is actually arranged in the direction perpendicular to the paper surface, that is, in the width direction of the photosensitive paper. Needless to say, a large number of dot codes may be formed at once as a two-dimensional array arranged in the width direction as it is.

Also, the reel seal printing machine 5 as described above is used.
At 72, the photosensitive paper on which the dot code is printed is output from the roller 590 in a form as shown in FIG. 55. In this case,
It is preferable to insert a white blank portion at the boundary with the next data so that the user can easily see which portion should be subjected to a cutting process such as a cutter. Moreover,
The length of the code that can be attached varies depending on the size of the sheet to which the reel seal is attached, that is, whether it is A4 or B4. Therefore, the length of the dot code that can be printed can be changed accordingly. good. In such a case, a control method such as controlling the timing of reading the dot pattern on the dot pattern memory 574 according to the manually set sheet size to adaptively change the length is adopted. To do.

FIG. 57 shows the structure of a word processor provided with a function for recording a multimedia dot code.

In this structure, the structure other than the multimedia information recording processing unit 598 which generates the dot code for the edited text is a general word processor structure. That is, the bus 602 coming from the CPU 600 is connected to various ROMs 60 such as programs and character generators.
4. RAM606 as work area, calendar 60
8. Bus control 610, CRT control 616 for displaying data expanded on video RAM 612 on CRT 614, I / O control 620 with keyboard 618, disk control 624 for controlling FDD 622, printer control 628 for controlling printer 626, and various types I / F630 etc. are hanging.

The multimedia information recording processing section 598 is
The bus 602 can be accessed exclusively, and basically has the same contents as the multimedia information recording device 570 in FIG. That is, bidirectional I / O
The data supplied from the bus 602 via 632 is separated into a character and a graph or a picture by a separation circuit 634, appropriately compressed by compression circuits 636 and 638, and combined by a combination circuit 640. On the other hand, the layout information of characters, pictures, and graphs is directly input to the synthesis circuit 640. An error correction code adding circuit 642 is applied to the combined data.
Error correction code is added in the address adding circuit 646, the interleaving process is performed on the memory 644, and the address adding circuit 646 is added.
After adding the block address etc. by
Modulate at 48. After that, a marker is added by the marker adding circuit 650, and the editing / synthesizing circuit 652 is added to
At, the title of the dot code and the like are combined, the size of the dot pattern is changed by the dot pattern shape conversion circuit 654, and it is returned to the bus 602 via the bidirectional I / O 632.

Then, according to the data returned to the bus 602, the printer control 628 controls the printer 62.
6 to obtain a printout as indicated by reference numeral 656 in the figure.

The basic printout 656 is, as shown in the figure, the text 6 entered (typed) in the word processor.
58 and a picture 660 and a graph 662 are added thereto, and the contents of the sentence 658, the picture 660 and the graph 662 are printed at a predetermined position, for example, a dot code 664 below.

By providing such a printout 656, the user who receives this printout 656 directly or by FAX corresponds to it by reading the dot code 664 by the above-mentioned pen type information reproducing apparatus. Document 658, picture 660, graph 66
2 can be taken into the word processor of the user, and there is an advantage that they can be edited arbitrarily.

The multimedia information recording processing unit 59
8 may be realized by software processing by the CPU 600.

Further, the multimedia information recording processing section 59
8 may be built in the printer 626 instead of being mounted on the word processor. That is, when the printer 626 receives information such as fonts and graphs, it may be subjected to such recording modulation and printed. In that case, the card may be supplied in the form of a card type adapter without being built in the printer 626.

The dot pattern shape conversion circuit 654 in the multimedia information recording processing section 598 performs conversion in accordance with the resolution of the printer 626.
When sending the printed contents by FAX, the resolution or definition is also fixed to the FAX, such as GII or GIII, so convert it to a form that can be adapted to that resolution, that is, the size. You may also perform the process which changes. In FIG. 58, the function of the multimedia information recording processing unit is built in the optical copying machine 666, and when a document is copied, the content is copied onto a sheet and a dot code corresponding to the content is printed at a predetermined position on the sheet. It is a figure which shows the structure at the time of doing so.

That is, as with a normal copying machine, the document table 66
8, an illumination 670, a mirror 672, a lens 674, a photosensitive drum 676, and the like, and copy an image on a document onto a sheet.

In addition to this, the optical copying machine 66 of the present embodiment.
6 is a half prism 67 in front of the lens 674 in the optical path.
8 is inserted to split the light, and the light is guided to the image sensor 682 such as a line sensor through the optical component 680. Image sensor 682
The signal from is amplified by an amplifier 684 and subjected to various analog processing, then digitally converted by an A / D converter 686 and recorded in a memory 688. Then, the data recorded in the memory 688 is subjected to image area determination and data character recognition by the image character determination and data character recognition circuit 690. Here, for the image area determination, the method described in Japanese Patent Application No. 5-163635 of the present applicant can be used.

The data subjected to the image area determination and the character recognition of the data are compressed by the compression circuit 692.
In this case, since the compression method differs depending on the type of character, picture, graph, etc., the corresponding compression is performed, and then the data synthesis circuit 694 synthesizes the data including the layout information. Then, the error correction code adding circuit 696 adds an error correction code to the combined data, and the accumulated data is stored in the memory 698 and subjected to processing such as interleaving again, and the address adding circuit 700 adds an address. Then, the modulation circuit 702
Modulate with. After that, a marker is added by the marker addition circuit 704, and the dot pattern shape conversion circuit 706 converts the dot pattern shape. Then, according to the dot pattern, the light emitting element driver 708 causes the light emitting element 710 to emit light, and the mirror shutter 712 is activated to guide the light from the light emitting element 710 to the lens 674 and the photosensitive drum 676.

Further, as described above, when outputting to a FAX or the like, the FAX resolution selecting section 714 selects the FAX resolution, and the dot pattern shape conversion circuit 7 is selected accordingly.
At 06, the shape of the dot code pattern is changed.

Further, the image area determination and data character recognition circuit 690 may treat the character as a binary image and perform general binary image compression processing such as MR and MH. Alternatively, the characters may be recognized and converted into a code such as an ASCII code used in an ordinary word processor, and then compressed by a compression method such as Jiblempel. In this way, when character recognition is performed, ASCII code conversion is performed, and compression is further applied, the compression ratio is considerably increased, and a large amount of data can be recorded with a small number of dot codes.

The dot code is printed once on the photosensitive drum 67 because of the processing speed of the signal processing system.
After the data has been written and exposed on the image recording medium 6, the mirror shutter 712 is set up, and the light emitting element 710 rewrites the data again on the drum for printing.
Alternatively, a dot code may be generated in the first scan of the document in the form of prescan, and the document image and the dot code may be written on the photosensitive drum 676 in the second scan of the document. If the processing speed of the signal processing system is improved in the future, the processing divided into a plurality of times may be unnecessary. However, when the original is placed on the original table 668 sideways or upside down, the reference numeral 656 is used.
In order to obtain a copy result in which a dot code is printed on the lower portion of the printed paper in the vertical direction, it is necessary to perform the processing divided into a plurality of times.

FIG. 59 shows the configuration when applied to a digital copying machine 716. In the same figure, FIG.
Those having the same functions as those in are attached with the same numbers as in FIG. Although it is described that the optical mirror is moved in the input portion, the line sensor may be moved to read the original.

That is, in the present digital copying machine 716, the dot code whose shape has been changed by the dot pattern shape conversion circuit 706 as described above and the data of the original image captured in the memory 688 are edited and synthesized by the edit and synthesis circuit 718. They are combined and printed out by the printer 720. With such a digital copying machine, the dot code can be printed at any position of the paper by one scanning because the digital copying machine has the memory 688 without performing the above-described processing divided into a plurality of times. .

Next, the flow of the broken line in the figure will be described. This is the opposite of scanning the original image and dropping it to dot codes as described above, but only the dot code is read from the original with the dot code printed along with the text or picture, and is reproduced from the dot code. It is the flow of the contents such as printing out the document in the form of the combined text or picture and the dot code.

That is, similarly, the dot code is read from the original by the image pickup device 682, A / D converted and recorded in the memory 688. Further, the output of the A / D converter 686 is also input to the dot code reproducing device 722. The dot code reproduction device 722 includes, for example, a circuit configuration of the scan conversion unit 186 and the subsequent parts shown in FIG. 15, and can reproduce a sentence, a picture, and a graph from the dot code. Memory 68
The image of the dot code accumulated in No. 8 is given to the dot pattern shape conversion circuit 706 in the state of the dot code, changed in size, and then input to the edit synthesis circuit 718. The edit synthesis circuit 718 adds the dot code from the dot pattern shape conversion circuit 706 to the text, picture, graph, etc. reproduced by the dot code reproduction device 722, inputs the code to the printer 720, and prints it.

In this way, the time for scanning the original is only the time for reading this dot code portion.
Time can be shortened. Further, there is an effect that when a sentence, a picture, a graph, etc. is enlarged or reduced, the size of the dot code can be printed without change regardless of the enlargement or reduction.

Next, FIG. 60 shows an example in which the pen-type information reproducing apparatus is also used as an input section for character and picture data.

That is, the image processing section 4 of the pen type information reproducing apparatus.
The signal from 60 is input to the multimedia information recording device 724. In the multimedia information recording device 724, the input data, that is, the imaged data is input to the frame memory 728A or 728B via the selector 726. In this case, the selector 726 makes a selection such that first one screen is loaded into the frame memory 728A and then the next one screen is loaded into the frame memory 728B. Then, the image data captured in the frame memories 728A and 728B are respectively corrected by the distortion correction circuit 730.
After the lens distortion such as the peripheral aberration is removed at A and 730B, the deviation is input to the deviation amount detector 732. The shift amount detector 732 correlates the images captured in the frame memory 728A and the image captured in the frame memory 728B so that the overlapping portions of the images overlap each other when the images are combined in the subsequent stage. It is to calculate which direction and how much it is deviated. This deviation amount detector 7
32 is, for example, Japanese Patent Application No. 5-639 filed by the present applicant.
No. 78 and Japanese Patent Application No. 5-42402 can be used. Then, according to the detected shift amount, one image, that is, the image captured in the frame memory 728B is interpolated by the interpolation calculation circuit 734, and the enhancer (Enhanc
er) 736, and then the image composition circuit 73
In 8, the image is combined with the image captured in the other frame memory 728B, and the result is stored in the image combining memory 740.

Then, the next one screen is displayed in the frame memory 72.
8A, the same processing as above is performed, and this time, the image captured in the frame memory 728A is interpolated.

Thereafter, by repeating this alternately, a large screen can be achieved.

That is, the pen type information reproducing apparatus is originally for reading a fine code such as a dot code, and therefore the image pickup area is very small. In order to use such a small imaging area as a scanner for capturing images of characters and pictures, it is necessary to capture the images in plural times and attach them. Therefore, in the present embodiment, a plurality of frame memories are provided, the amount of deviation is detected, the deviation is corrected, and the images are pasted together.

The data thus recorded in the composite image memory 740 is subjected to image area determination and the like in the image area determination circuit 742, and if it is a character, character recognition circuit 744 performs character recognition. As it is, it is input to the multimedia information recording processing unit 598 as described above. Then, the multimedia information recording processing unit 598 performs processing such as compression to convert it into a dot code, and the dot code is guided to the reel seal printing machine 572 as described above. Alternatively, instead of inputting to the multimedia information recording processing unit 598,
It is also possible to input to an external device 532 such as a personal computer or a word processor via the I / F 746.

The pen-type information reproducing apparatus may be provided with an earphone terminal and two terminals for outputting an image as output terminals, or one connector may be used to manually output sound. It is also possible to adopt a configuration in which the output system and the image output system are switched and used.

FIG. 61 is a modification of FIG. Fig. 60
Describes the case where the area of the image pickup unit 204 when reading a dot code is the same as the image pickup area when used as a scanner. However, in the case of the present embodiment, a wide angle is used when used as a scanner. When the code is read, the imaging optical system 200 is used so as to capture a macroscopic image.
Is to be changed.

That is, the image forming optical system 200 is composed of a zoom or bifocal lens group used in an ordinary camera, and slides the lens barrel 748 to switch between wide angle and macro. There is. A scanner switch 750 is provided so that the contacts are closed and turned on when the lens barrel 748 is contracted. When the scanner switch 750 is turned on, the data processing unit 462 and the data output unit 464 are operated as a scanner. The control unit 212 is caused to perform processing such as stopping them and operating them in order to make them macro-like when they are off.

When the imaging optical system 200 is set to the wide angle side, the image pickup area becomes large and the depth of focus at that time is ± 120 μm.
And assuming that the imaging magnification is 0.08, the depth of field is ±
It becomes 19 mm. Even if there is vertical camera shake, it does not matter if there is such a depth.

In addition to sliding the lens barrel 748 to change the wide angle and macro, the lens itself is replaced, that is, a wide angle lens is taken and a macro lens is attached. The format can be similarly implemented.

FIG. 62 shows a card type adapter 524 with
External device 5 such as a personal computer or a word processor when the dot code is read by the pen type information reproducing device as shown in FIG.
A data processing unit for outputting information corresponding to the dot code to 32 and an image combining or dot when the pen-type information reproducing apparatus as shown in FIG. 60 is used as a scanner for a text or picture image. An example is shown in which both a data processing unit for generating a code and the like are incorporated. That is, a card-type adapter 524 having a scanner data processing unit and a dot code reading data processing unit built therein is shown.

In the figure, selectors 752 and 754
Is for switching between the data processing unit for the scanner and the data processing unit for reading the dot code, and the switching selection may be performed by a manual operation.
Alternatively, the scanner switch 750 may be turned on / off as shown in, or may be directly driven from the external device 532.

The image composition processing circuit 756 is shown in FIG.
Selector 726 and frame memory 728 as shown in FIG.
A, 728B, distortion correction circuits 730A and 730B, shift amount detector 732, interpolation calculation circuit 734, enhancer 73.
6. The output processing circuit 758 is a circuit that performs the function of the image synthesizing circuit 738, and outputs data to be output to the external device 532.
It is to match the format of.

Next, an embodiment in which the information of the read dot code is output to the electronic projector will be described. That is, as shown in (A) and (B) of FIG. 63, the dot code is scanned by the pen-type information reproducing apparatus 760, the output processing unit 762 restores the original information, and the RGB input terminal of the projector 764 or the electronic information is reproduced. It is input to the video input terminal of the OHP766 and projected on the screen 768.

In this case, the pen type information reproducing device 760 is
The configuration from the detection unit 184 to the data error correction unit 194 in the configuration of the reproduction system shown in FIG. 15 or FIG. 20D is built in, and the output processing unit 762 is provided after the data separation unit 196. Built-in configuration and other processing circuits.

The actual configuration of the output processing unit 762 is shown in FIG.
become that way. That is, the separating unit 196 separates the multimedia information from the pen-type information reproducing apparatus 760 into images, graphs, characters, voices, and header information, and the images, graphs,
The characters are decompressed by decompression processing units 238, 242 and 248, and then data interpolation circuits 240 and 2 are applied to the images and graphs.
Interpolation processing is performed at 44, and the PDL processing unit 2 for characters.
At 46, PDL processing is performed. Then, the synthesis circuit 250 synthesizes the interpolated or PDL-processed image, graph, and character,
It is stored in the memory 770. The data stored in the memory 770 is data that can be already projected on the screen 768. Therefore, the D / A conversion unit 252 performs D / A conversion on the data, and the data is stored in the projector 764 or the electronic OHP 76.
Output to 6. In this case, the memory 770 is controlled by the address controller 772. On the other hand, for the voice, the decompression processing unit 256 decompresses the data as it is, and the data interpolation circuit 258
After being interpolated by, the D / A converter 266 performs D / A conversion, and the projector 764 and the electronic OHP are connected via the selector 774.
It is output to a speaker 776 built in the 766 or an external speaker.

Further, the voice-synthesized coded data is converted into voice by the voice-synthesizing unit 260 and input to the D / A converting unit 266.

[0387] For example, in the case where a sentence is read as it is during a presentation, the sentence recognizing unit 271 recognizes the sentence as a sentence from the character code for display, and then the voice synthesizing unit 260 produces a voice. After conversion, the sound is finally output from the speaker 776.

In this case, it is not necessary to separately record the voice synthesis code for reading aloud, so that more information can be included in the dot code.

Further, in this case, the projector selecting means 7 is provided so that connection can be made with any electronic projector system.
78 is provided so that it is possible to select, for example, that the projector 764 is compatible with high-definition or is compatible with NTSC only. That is,
Depending on the electronic projector system as the output system, the processing such as how to allocate the characters on the memory 770 changes. Therefore, according to the selection by the projector selecting means 778, the processing in the data interpolation circuits 240 and 244 and the PDL processing unit 246 is changed, or the clock supplied to the address control unit 772 and the D / A conversion unit 252. The signal CK is changed by the reference clock selection unit 780.

The projector 764 and the electronic OHP 7
When using an electronic projector such as 66, for example, as shown in the same figure, of a document including a sentence, a picture, a graph, etc., want to project only the text, project only the picture, or project only the graph. In some cases, you may want to perform selective projection such as wanting. In such a case, the output control unit 78
Write the header information such that the user can select it by 2 or whether the dot code should be projected for each sentence, whether only the picture should be projected, or whether only the graph should be projected. Then, the output control unit 782 can select a portion to be output according to the header information. Then, according to the selection in the output control section 782, the output editor section 7
Reference numeral 84 performs a division work to determine which portion to project, and causes the address control unit 772 to access that portion of the memory 770 to output the projection data. In addition to the area division processing, the output editor section 784 also performs electronic zoom processing, that is, initially projects the entire original document, and then enlarges only a part of the text or a picture. It is also possible to perform processing and, at that time, edit processing in the form of focusing and enlarging only a part of a sentence or a picture part. When performing such processing, the output processing unit 762 is provided with an input unit and a display unit, and processing such as a graphical user interface is performed so that the enlarged portion can be actually designated. preferable.

The voice is not only input as a dot code and output from the D / A converter 266, but also the voice from the external microphone 786 can be selected by the selector 774.

The pen-type information reproducing device 760 may include only the detection unit 184, and the scanning conversion unit 186 and the subsequent units may be incorporated in the output processing unit 762, or conversely, the separation unit 196 may be pen-shaped. The information reproducing apparatus 760 may be provided so that the separated data is sent to the output processing unit 762 in some form. Actually, considering holding by hand, the pen-type information reproducing device 76
Since 0 is preferably made as small as possible, it is preferable that only the detection unit 184 is provided and the subsequent processing is performed by the output processing unit 762.

FIG. 65A shows a copying machine 788 and a magneto-optical disk device (MO) 79 instead of the above electronic projector.
0, the case of outputting to the printer 792 is shown. The output processing unit is built into the personal computer or the like 794 as hardware or software, and the output of the output processing unit is copied online or offline by the floppy 796 or the like. Machine 7
88, the MO 790, and the printer 792 are supplied. Further, (B) of the figure shows a case where the output processing unit is configured as a card-type adapter 800 mounted on the printer 792 or the electronic notebook 798.

The actual configuration of the output processing unit 762 in this case is as shown in FIG.

As in the previous embodiment of the projector, the multimedia information is input, the separation unit 196 separates the image, the graph, and the character, and the expansion processing unit 238,
The data and the graph are decompressed, the data and interpolation circuits 240 and 244 interpolate the data and the PDL processing unit 246 performs the PDL processing on the character, and the synthesizing circuit 250 synthesizes and stores in the memory 770. . The memory 770 is controlled by the address control unit 772, and the read data is stored in the interpolation unit 802 and the D / A conversion unit 252.
Is output to the edit monitor 804 in order to confirm the data actually output via. In addition, this edit monitor 804
May be omitted.

The data read from the memory 770 is also input to the synthesizing unit 806. This synthesizer 806
The multimedia information from the pen-type information reproducing device 760 is converted into a dot code by the encoding unit 808 again, and the output adaptive interpolation unit 810 outputs the dot code to the printer 792 to be output.
The output interpolation is performed according to the resolution such as the above, and the output interpolation is combined with the data from the memory 770. In other words, a dot code is added to a sentence or a picture and output to the printer 792 or the copying machine 788 via the I / F 812.

The output selecting means 814, when outputting by the printer 792, outputs the printer 792 to the output unit 76.
If you know the model when you connect it to 2, it will automatically enter the resolution setting, and you will not know the model if you send it offline with a floppy 796 etc., so in such a case you should switch manually. To do.

With such a configuration, the text or the like is copied or printed as it is, and the dot code can be output in accordance with the resolution of the output medium.

Further, when connecting to the electronic notebook 798, since the dot code is not input, the system for recording the dot code becomes unnecessary. The configuration is almost the same as in FIG. FIG. 67 shows an embodiment in which a format conversion unit 816 is provided to correct the data format of the word processor at present, depending on the model, so as to correct the format for each model. Format conversion unit 8
Reference numeral 16 has a word processor select switch as a model selecting means 818, and a dot code is used for the pen-type information reproducing device 7
At 60, the data is converted based on the selection and input to the word processor 820.

The format conversion unit 816 is actually
It is configured as shown in FIG. That is, after being processed by the data interpolating circuits 240, 244, 258, the PDL processing section 246, and the voice synthesizing section 260, the respective data are converted into corresponding format conversion circuits 822, 824, 828, 82.
8, the format is converted in accordance with the selection made by the model selection means 818.

FIG. 69 is a system diagram in the case where a sheet having dot codes recorded (hereinafter referred to as multimedia paper) is transmitted / received by FAX. This is because the printer 792 prints out the dot code created by the FAX multimedia information recording machine 830, and the FAX 8 on the transmission side.
From 32, it transmits to FAX 834 on the receiving side through telephone line 836. The FAX 834 on the receiving side receives this and
After returning to the information on the paper, the dot code is reproduced using the pen-type information reproducing device 838.

FAX multimedia information recorder 830
As shown in FIG. 70, the multimedia information recorder 8
40, a dot pattern shape conversion circuit 842, a FAX selection unit 844, and a composition editing circuit 846. The multimedia information recorder 840 includes the configuration up to the marker adding unit 162 in the configuration of the recording system of FIG. 13, and the composition / editing circuit 846 corresponds to the composition / editing processing unit 164.
Then, the dot pattern shape conversion circuit 842 and the FAX
The selection unit 844 corresponds to the dot pattern shape conversion circuit 706 and the FAX resolution selection unit 714 in FIGS. 58 and 59.

In this case, the FAX on the sending side is sent through the telephone line 836.
When a line is connected from the receiving side FAX 834 to the receiving side FAX 834, the receiving side FAX 834 returns the state of the incoming call to the transmitting side FAX 832. Therefore, this data is manually or directly given to the FAX selecting means 844 and is called the FAX resolution. Or the resolution is selected, the dot pattern shape conversion circuit 842 changes the shape itself according to the size of the dot code pattern or the amount that can be written in one line, and the combining and editing circuit 846 combines it with the paper surface information. By printing out with the printer 792, the multimedia paper to be faxed is printed.

FIG. 71 shows a FAX built-in multimedia information recording machine 848 in which all such processing is automated and the recording machine has even FAX transmission means from the beginning.

In this case, the resolution information of the other party's FAX is directly confirmed at the time when it is connected by the telephone line 836, and the shape of the dot pattern is optimized using that information, and it is combined with the paper surface information and transmitted.

FIG. 72A shows a card on which dot codes as shown in FIGS. 72B and 72C are printed (hereinafter referred to as a multimedia paper (MMP) card).
It is a figure which shows the structure of the overwrite type MMP card recording / reproducing apparatus which records / reproduces.

In the recording / reproducing apparatus 850, the MMP card 852 inserted in the card insertion slit (not shown) is moved to the dot code detecting portion 856 by the card conveying roller portion 854.
The dot code already written on the back surface of the MMP card 852 is read, and the data code reproducing unit 8
At 58, it is converted into the original multimedia information and is not shown in FIG.
/ F and output to the data separation unit. That is, the dot code detection unit 856 corresponds to the detection unit 184 in the configuration shown in FIG. 15 or FIG. 20D, and the data code reproduction unit 858 also changes from the scan conversion unit 186 to the data error correction unit. It has a circuit configuration up to 194. However, the dot code detection unit 856 is provided with image pickup units on both sides of the card, and the one on the back surface of the card is used as the image pickup unit 204 of the detection unit 184.
Further, here, the MMP card 852 has a dot code recording area 852 on the back surface of the card as shown in FIG.
There is A, and images such as titles, names, and pictures are recorded on the surface.

Further, the recording / reproducing apparatus 850 is supplied with information other than the information already written on the card from an external personal computer, a storage device or the like via the I / F 860, and is written on the back surface of the card as a dot code. The power information is supplied to the data synthesizing / editing unit 862, and the data code reproducing unit 86
2 is combined with the information reproduced in 2, and, for example, when new information which is not in the conventional data is input from the I / F 860, for example, the address becomes the next address and is newly added, or In the case of a copy change, the data is combined and edited by replacing only the part to be changed. The information thus synthesized and edited is input to the code pattern generation unit 864 and converted into a dot code. The code pattern generation unit 864 has a configuration as shown in FIG. 13, and generates the generated dot code and I / O.
In addition to the code from F860, the data to be printed is combined and edited, and the data to be printed is passed to the printing unit 866. The dot code detection unit 8 is provided in the printing unit 866.
The pattern data on the surface of the MMP card 852 is also supplied from 56, and printing is performed on both the front and back sides of an unprinted card that is fed from the paper feed cartridge 868, and a new MM is printed.
The P card is carried by the card carrying roller unit 870 to a card discharge slot (not shown) and discharged. The printing unit 8
The double-sided printing at 66 may be a format in which the card is inverted to print the other side after printing on one side of the card, or a format in which both sides are printed at the same time.

On the other hand, the old card, after passing through the dot code detecting section 856, is coated with ink for black filling, for example, by the coating roller 872 for coating in the subsequent stage, and the code recording area 852A is painted black. Is discharged in the form of. As a result, the user can return the original filled card, so that there is no fear that the old card will be misused.

In this way, the overwrite type M of this embodiment is
According to the MP card recording / reproducing apparatus 850, when a card already recorded to some extent is put in this recording / reproducing apparatus 850, the information is read and a new card is issued in combination with the information to be newly added. From the user's point of view, it looks as if the card came out with additional data added to the old card. Then, since the old card still remains, the old card is returned to the user. Therefore, in the form of exchanging cards, make it as if it were overwritten.

FIG. 73 is a diagram showing another structure of the overwrite type MMP card recording / reproducing apparatus. This recording / reproducing device 874 is basically the same as the recording / reproducing device 850 of FIG. 72A, but is a device for use in which it is not necessary to return the old card to the user. Therefore, this recording / reproducing apparatus 874 is used in the shredder 8 for cutting old cards.
76 is arranged at the subsequent stage of the dot code detection unit 856.

FIG. 74A shows an overwrite type MMP.
It is a figure which shows another structure of a card recording / reproducing apparatus.
In the case of this recording / reproducing device 878, the configuration of the MMP card is different from that of the MMP card 852. That is,
Although the MMP card 852 described above was printed directly on the card base itself, the MMP card 880 of the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. A very thin paper (film) 884 on which a dot code is recorded is attached. That is, a thin film-like sheet printed as shown in (C) of the figure is attached to the back surface of the card.

In the recording / reproducing device 878 using such an MMP card 880, the data read by the dot code detecting portion 856 is combined with the data coming from the personal computer or the like in the same manner as described above to form a code pattern, which is transferred to the printing portion 866. Come in. At this time, the printing unit 866 does not print on the back side of the card, but prints on the code recording paper 888 from the paper feed cartridge 886 and newly attaches it to the card base 882. In this case, as shown in (D) of the same figure, the code recording sheet 888 has a sticky surface on which the print surface 890 of the code recording thin paper 884 is not actually printed, for example, an adhesive such as an adhesive is attached. 892, and the protective paper 894 of the adhesive surface 892 is attached thereon. After printing, the protective paper 894 is peeled off by the peeling bar 896, and the protective paper take-up reel 8
It is wound up at 98. The adhesive surface 892 of the code recording thin paper 884 from which the protective paper 894 has been peeled off is exposed, and the pressure contact roller portion 900 presses and adheres the card base 882 to the card recording thin paper 884, and then the card exits as a recorded card.

In this case, since the code recording thin paper 884 is a very thin film, the card base 88
Although it may be laminated on 2, the thickness of the card is increased even if it is thin, so the card conveyance path from the dot code detection unit 856 to the pressure contact roller unit 900. An old code pattern recording thin paper peeling section 902 is provided on the way to peel off the old code recording thin paper. The old code recording thin paper that has been peeled off may be discharged as it is or may be shredded.

Incidentally, the additional information adding section 90 in FIG.
Reference numeral 4 indicates, for example, information indicating the time relationship when the recording / reproducing apparatus 878 recorded on the original card, or which terminal is used when the recording / reproducing apparatus 878 is used as a terminal connected to a service center. It is for adding such information. As a result, it is possible to know which recording / reproducing device 878 was used and how many blanks were recorded.

FIG. 75 is a diagram showing still another structure of the overwrite type MMP card recording / reproducing apparatus. This recording / reproducing device 906 is basically the same as the recording / reproducing device 850 of FIG. 72A, and instead of painting it black, it is painted white instead, and it is made a new printing surface again. is there. Therefore, the dot code detection unit 856
A white-filling ink cartridge 908 and a white-filling ink application roller 910 are arranged in the subsequent stage.

As a result, the back surface of the MMP card once becomes white, and printing is newly performed there by the printing unit 866. Note that the paper feed cartridge 868 is provided because it has the meaning of issuing a new card, but this is not necessary.

Next, a write-once MMP card recording / reproducing apparatus will be described. The write-once type is a method in which old information is left as it is and only new information is added to an unrecorded area as long as it remains. In this case, except when the data reproduction of the card is intended, that is, at the time of recording, it is not necessary to perform all the reproduction processing of the dot code unlike the above-mentioned overwrite type apparatus.

FIG. 76A shows a structure of a write-once MMP card recording / reproducing apparatus 912. When recording,
The data code reproducing unit 858 reproduces only the marker information and the address information of the two-dimensional block, and the code pattern generating unit 864 generates the block address of the additionally written portion,
Create a postscript dot code pattern. Further, the recorded area detection unit 914 detects the recorded area of the card. Then, the printing unit 866 uses the recorded area detection unit 91.
Based on the information from 4, the pattern from the code pattern generation unit 864 is printed in the unrecorded area (recordable area) of the card.

The recorded area detecting section 914 is composed of a recording area detecting section 916, a marker detecting section 918, a last marker coordinate calculating section 920, and an additional recording start coordinate outputting section 922, as shown in FIG. Has been done. That is, since the size of the marker and the block is known, the extent to which the code recording area is automatically written is
It can be detected by the recording area detection unit 916 and the marker detection unit 918. Therefore, the coordinates of the start of the additional recording are calculated by the last part marker coordinate calculation unit 920 and output from the additional recording start coordinate output unit 922.

The recorded area detection unit 914 is shown in FIG.
It may be configured as shown in FIG. However, in this case, as shown in (B) of the same figure, it is necessary to record a recorded marker 924 indicating the extent of recording in the card margin.

In the recorded area detection unit 914, the recorded marker detection unit 926 detects the recorded marker, and the trailing end recorded marker coordinate calculation unit 928 calculates how much is written, and additionally writes. The start coordinate of is output from the additional write start coordinate output unit 922. That is, even if the marker of the fine dot code is not seen, the larger recorded marker 924 is detected to facilitate the detection.

The recorded marker 924 can also be used for alignment in the printing section 866. That is, in the case of the previous example, it was necessary to read the dot code also for the alignment of the printing unit 866. However, when the recorded marker 924 is used, the process can be performed only by the marker 924. it can. That is, by detecting the recorded marker 924, recording may be performed with a distance of, for example, about 1 mm between the recorded area and the additional recording portion, or 1 mm in the vertical direction in the direction shown in FIG.
Since it does not matter if the data is recorded with a slight deviation, it is possible to add the data very easily. However, depending on the added content, if the block address of the recorded block is read, the block address next to the last block address is added, so that the block address of the added part has continuity as one code. Can be made.

[0424] Fig. 78 (A) shows a business card card reading system as one application example using the above-mentioned overwrite type or write-once type MMP card. This system reads the MMP business card card 930 in which the multimedia information is described by dot code with the MMP business card card reader 932, and the CRT 93 of the personal computer 936.
8 is used to display an image and a speaker 938 produces a sound. The MMP business card card reader 932 is the same as the information reproducing apparatus described above in terms of its configuration. Since it only reads a business card card, it is a stationary type rather than a pen type. of course,
As described above, it may be provided in the form of a pen-type information reproducing device and a card-type adapter, and may be displayed or reproduced on an electronic notebook or the like.

[0425] The MMP business card card 930, like the overwrite type or write-once type MMP card described above, has a company name, affiliation, name, address and telephone number on the surface as shown in Fig. (C). Dot code may be printed on the back side of the card marked with, and in the case of a business card in which the back side is also written in English, as shown in FIG. The dot code may be stealth-printed 940 using the above ink or fluorescent ink.

Next, an MMP card formed by a semiconductor wafer etching method will be described. This is a very fine dot pattern recorded on a semiconductor wafer using a semiconductor etching technique. The reflectance of light differs between the mirror-finished wafer surface and the etched pattern portion, and the dot code can be read with the contrast. Here, in order to further increase the contrast and improve the S / N, the etched dot code pattern may be embedded with aluminum or another member having a large difference in reflectance or color.

79 (A) and (B), and FIGS. 80 (A) to (C) are diagrams showing the configuration thereof, in which the wafer 942 on which the dot code pattern is recorded is the card main body 94.
4 base 946. in this case,
Since the dot code pattern is recorded with a dot size of several μm or sub μm level, very high density recording can be performed. As a result, for example, a gigabyte unit ROM
I can make a card.

Further, unlike the ROM-IC, since it is not necessary to operate electrically normally, even if a part of the pattern is defective, it can be corrected by the error correction processing in the reproducing device.
The yield is much higher than that of the ROM-IC, and the number of steps is much smaller than that of the IC, so that there is an advantage that it can be supplied at a very low cost.

However, since the pitch is very fine,
Be careful of dust and dirt such as fingerprints. To protect it, for example, as shown in FIGS. 79A and 79B, a plurality of slide-type protective covers 948 are attached to the surface of the wafer 942 of the card 944, or in FIG. ) To (C), one protective shutter 950 is attached.

In this case, the protective cover 948 is, for example, 4
It is composed of one sheet, and it is possible to select several kinds of opening methods, such as opening only the necessary parts or sliding the doors open, and it is also possible to open all on one side when inserting the card.

On the other hand, in the case of the protective shutter 950, the entire structure is opened when the card is inserted, and closed when the card is removed. For example, as shown in (B) and (C) of FIG.
42 is dropped, a groove 952 is cut on both sides at the card base 946 there, and a protective shutter 950 is inserted so as to sandwich the groove. A stopper 95 is provided at the tip of the claw portion 954 on the side surface of the protective shutter 950.
6 is provided and the receiving side of the card base 946 has a shallow groove 952 for stopping the stopper 956 when it reaches a predetermined position so that the protective shutter 950 does not open beyond the predetermined position.

When reproducing the dot code from the MMP card formed by such a semiconductor wafer etching method, the pen type information reproducing apparatus as described above may be used, but at that time, the image forming optical system should be a microscope level one. There is a need to. Or in the form of a line sensor,
It may be configured to be mechanically moved.

FIG. 81A shows a dot code decoding function newly added to a disk device 958 with a dot code decoding function, that is, a known disk device for recording and reproducing audio information such as music on a magneto-optical disk. And a record function. For example, the dot code on the sheet 960 as shown in FIG.
The code is reproduced by scanning with the operation unit 962,
Information devices 964 such as personal computers and electronic organizers and earphones 96
6 is output.

As shown in FIG. 82, the disk device 958 has a spindle motor 968, an optical pickup 970, a feed motor 972, a head drive circuit 974, an address decoder 976, an RF amplifier 978, as a known structure.
Servo control circuit 980, EFM (Eight to Fourteen Mo
dulation), ACIRC (Advanced Cross Interleave)
Read Solomon Code) circuit 982, seismic resistant memory controller 984, memory 986, display unit 988, key operation panel 990, system controller 992, compression / expansion processing unit 994, A / D converter 996, audio input terminal 998, D / A converter. 1000 and an audio output terminal 1002.

Here, the EFM and ACIRC circuit 982
Is a part that performs encoding and decoding when writing and reading the disc. The seismic resistant memory controller 984 uses the memory 9 to prevent skipping due to vibration.
86 to interpolate the data. The compression / expansion processing unit 994 performs compression / expansion processing using an audio high-efficiency coding method called ATRAC (Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding), which is a kind of transform coding method for converting from a time axis to a frequency axis for coding. To do.

The disk device 958 with the dot code decoding function receives the image signal from the operation section 962 in such a conventional disk device and, for example, FIG.
The image processing unit 1004 for performing processing such as the image processing unit 460 in FIG. 1, a connection terminal 1006 for the information device 964, and its I / F 1008 are provided, and the compression / expansion processing unit 994 is configured by an ASIC-DSP or the like. Therefore, the functions of the data processing unit 462 such as the demodulation for reproducing the dot code and the error correction and the processing for compressing / expanding the data with respect to the other information device 1008 are also included therein.

The operation section 962 is, for example, the imaging optical system 200, the image pickup section 204 in FIG. 41B, the optical system 1010 corresponding to the preamplifier 206, and the image pickup element 10.
12, an amplifier 1014, etc. are included.

In the information reproducing apparatus for reproducing the dot code, reproduction of high capacity information such as music is usually performed.
Although a large-capacity memory is required, a large-capacity memory can be eliminated by providing a recording / reproducing unit for the disk 1016. Further, the sound reproducing portion, here, the sound compression / expansion processing unit 994, the D / A converter 1000, and the like can be used in common, and the sound compression / expansion unit 994 is also used.
Common to the data processing part of the code reproduction process,
By designing with an IC-DSP, cost reduction and miniaturization can be achieved.

The disk device with dot code decoding function 958 having such a structure can use functions such as sound recording and reproduction as a normal disk device, and music selection.
It can also be used as a dot code reproducing device. This switching is controlled by the system controller 992 by operating the key operation panel 990.

When used as a dot code reproducing device, for example, the following usage is assumed. That is, as shown in FIG. 81B, a sheet 960 of A4 size
In the above, a song selection index including a song name and a singer name is described in characters, and a dot code corresponding to the song is recorded. In this case, since the music is information of the order of, for example, 3 minutes and 4 minutes, it becomes considerably long. Therefore, the dot code is divided into a plurality of stages, that is, four stages in FIG. That is, each music piece is divided into a plurality of stages of dot codes, and a block having a block address of, for example, an X address of 1 and a Y address of 1 is divided into a header block in the dot code of each stage. Is recorded on the sheet with an address indicating the divided position in the music. At the time of reproduction, the dot codes of the plurality of stages are all scanned and recorded on the disc 1016.

At this time, even if the scanning order is randomly performed, the music can be written in consideration of the recording position of the disc 1016 by the address indicating the position in the music, that is, the music is recorded in the correct order. It
For example, when one piece of music is divided into four-stage dot codes as shown in the figure, even if the operation unit 962 scans the second-stage dot code first, that number, that is, the second dot Since it is known from the address whether or not it is a code, when the audio information reproduced from the dot code is recorded on the disk 1016, the recording part of the first dot code is opened so that the audio information is reproduced in the correct order at the time of reproduction. can do.

Further, for example, the music A and the music C are recorded,
Next, the user can create an original disc such as recording the music D without using another audio player such as a tape deck or a CD player.
For example, when the user looks at the song selection index of the plurality of music pieces recorded on the sheet 960 and scans the dot codes in the order of reproduction at the time of reproduction, for example, music pieces A, C, D, ... You can record in order, and if you play it normally, it will be played in that order. That is, programming is possible.

An image output device can be used as the information device 964. For example, FMD is used, and in the compression / expansion processing unit 994, for example, Japanese Patent Application No. 4-81.
By performing JPEG, MPEG, and three-dimensional image decompression processing as described in No. 673 and converting into a video signal by the I / F 1008, a three-dimensional image corresponding to the read dot code can be displayed. . As described above, this embodiment is not limited to audio information.

Similarly, it is needless to say that it can be applied to other digital recording / reproducing apparatus such as DAT.

Next, an example of incorporating a dot code recording function into a silver halide camera will be described.

FIGS. 83A and 83B are views showing the structure of the back cover 1018 of the camera for multimedia information dot code recording. This is a configuration in which date information such as date is conventionally recorded by using the LED array 1020 in the form of a data bag, and a two-dimensional LED array 1022 for recording a dot code is arranged beside it. It has become. A circuit built-in portion 1024 is provided on the rear side of the data bag, and here, for example, the LED array 102 is provided.
A circuit such as a 0 lighting control is included, and a circuit system for recording the multimedia information dot code is further incorporated therein, and the data is printed as a dot code on the silver salt film not shown by the LED array 1022. For example, a tie-pin type microphone 1026 is connected to the circuit built-in unit 1024, a sound is picked up from the microphone 1026, and the information is exposed on a film in the form of a dot code by the dot code recording two-dimensional LED array 1022.

The data back 1018 is provided with an electric contact 1028 with the camera body side of the main body because it is controlled by the CPU of the camera body in addition to the LED arrays 1020 and 1022. Further, the claw portion 1032 of the hinge portion 1030 slides, and it can be detached from the camera body using the claw slide lever portion 1034. That is, the data back 1018 can be attached by replacing the original back cover of the camera.

This embodiment is a two-dimensional LED array 10
In this example, the dot code 22 is recorded all at once.
On the other hand, in FIG. 84 (A), the dot code recording LED unit 1036 is moved to record the dot code two-dimensionally. This LED unit 103
6 includes a linear LED array 1038 and a lens 1040 for converging or reducing the light from the LED array 1038, as shown in FIG. An electric signal electrode 1042 for inputting a control signal of the LED array 1038 extends on both sides of the electric signal electrode 1042. The signal electrode 1042 is as shown in FIG. Always contact by sliding on the signal electrode plate 1044 on the data back 1018 side,
It is configured to receive the data signal from there. In addition, the film holding plate 10 of the data back 1018
A scanning window 1048 made of transparent glass, acrylic, or the like is provided in the LED 46.
Only 6 is configured to face the film (not shown).

When a two-dimensional LED array is used, it suffices to electrically blink each required portion without physically moving it.
When using the array 1038, the LED unit 1
You have to move 036. As the moving mechanism, for example, a mechanism shown in FIG. That is, this is basically the same structure as the well-known tuner needle moving mechanism, and when the pulley 1052 is rotated by the motor 1050, the wire wire 1054 wound around the pulley 1052 is correspondingly rotated. The LED unit 1036 whose both ends are fixed moves left and right. The wire wire 1054 has no expansion and contraction, and thus the LED
The unit 1036 can be moved with high precision. Further, the pulley 1052 and the wire wire 1054 are arranged on both sides of the LED unit 1036 so as to be translated accurately.

Further, as a moving mechanism of the LED unit 1036, as shown in FIG.
56 can also be used. This ultrasonic motor 105
Reference numeral 6 gives a vibration to the vibration plate 1058 which transmits the wave of the ultrasonic wave while shifting the phase well, and gives vibration as if the wave moves rightward and leftward, and moves in a form riding on the wave. The body 1060 is configured to move to the right or to the left. With the movement of the moving body 1060, the LED unit 103 connected to it.
6 also moves to the right or to the left.

FIG. 85 is a diagram showing the circuit configuration of the data back 1018 shown in FIGS. 83A and 84A. In particular, the portion surrounded by the broken line is the data back 101.
8 configuration.

A CPU (for example, 1
A chip microcomputer 1062 controls the entire camera. The exposure control unit 1064 controls the exposure based on the photometric data from the photometry unit 1066. The shutter control unit 1068 and the aperture control unit 1070 set the shutter speed and / or the aperture depending on the purpose, or The exposure is controlled according to the mode so that the exposure is optimally adjusted.

Also, the CPU 1062 calculates the lens control amount using the lens information held on the lens side or the main body side, and causes the lens control unit 1074 to perform the necessary lens control. This includes focus control and zoom control. Further, the CPU 1062 operates the shutter in response to the operation of the focus lock button 1076 and the release button 1078 (usually, one button is mechanically used as a single button and comes out independently). Control. Further, the CPU 1062 controls the motor control unit 108.
A motor 1082 for winding the film by 0
To control.

Further, the CPU 1062 sends the data back 1018 through the electric contact 1028 with the camera body side.
Data can be exchanged with the multimedia information recording / reproducing unit 1084, the multimedia information LED controller 1086, and the date LED controller 1088 therein. The date LED controller 1088 controls light emission of the date LED array 1020 to imprint the shooting date and time on the film, and the data back 1018 has a date for generating a time pattern therefor. Clock generator 10
90 is built in.

Multimedia information recording / reproducing unit 1084
For the recording system, for example, the structure from the voice input in the structure of FIG. 13 to immediately before the code synthesis and editing, that is, the portion for generating the pattern forming the dot code is provided. Scan conversion unit 18
6 to the D / A conversion unit 266. And the multimedia information LED controller 108
Reference numeral 6 controls the light emission of the LDE array 1022 or 1038 according to the dot code pattern output from the multimedia information recording / reproducing unit 1084.
In this case, since the two-dimensional LED array 1022 is used in the example of FIG. 83A, the dot code pattern is exposed only with this configuration. On the other hand, in the example of FIG. 84 (A), since it is necessary to move the one-dimensional LED array 1038 further, the LED array moving motor controller 1092 drives the motor 1050 to set L
The ED unit 1036 is moved. The multimedia information LED controller 1086 uses the motor 105
While aligning the timing with the movement by 0, the LED array 10 is provided with code information to be recorded which is necessary at that position at any time.
38 to emit light.

Various mode setting keys 1094 are provided on the camera body side. This may consist of several buttons or may be divided into a mode switching button and a setting button. Further, this may be provided on the data back side, in which case the key operation signal is supplied to the CPU 1062 via the electrical contact.

In the above arrangement, the dot code is exposed on the film as follows, for example. That is, when the operation signal of the focus lock 1076 button, which is one index to start shooting, becomes active, the CPU 1062 captures the audio from the microphone 1026 into the multimedia information recording / reproducing unit 1084 to record the multimedia information recording / reproducing portion 1084. A storage unit (not shown) inside the reproduction unit 1084 sequentially stores a certain amount of time. For example,
Predetermine this fixed time in the form of 5 seconds or 10 seconds,
It is assumed that the maximum capacity of the memory (not shown) is adjusted to that, and the memory is sequentially and cyclically stored in the same manner as in a general voice recorder. Then, when the release button 1078 is pressed, the CPU 1062 causes the multimedia information recording / reproducing unit 1084 to, for example, several seconds before (for example, 5 seconds) before or after that (for example, 1 second after, 3 seconds before). Second) sound is converted to dot code. This setting is
For example, the mode setting key 1094 enables user setting. Then, the audio stored in the multimedia information recording / reproducing unit 1084 is actually coded, and it is printed on the film by the LED array 1022 or 1038. After the operation is over, C
The PU 1062 performs a film winding operation. Of course, the LED array moving motor controller 1092
It is also possible to synchronize the film winding motor control unit 1080 well and wind the film while recording at the same time while adjusting the moving speed and timing. In that case, high-speed continuous shooting is also possible. Also, the LED unit 1036 is fixed,
It is also possible to perform an operation of recording when the film is wound. At this time, there is an advantage that the number of motors is reduced by one.

In addition to recording the sound as dot code information on the film as described above, the CPU 106 is naturally required.
It is also possible to record information given from 2 on the side of various cameras, for example, what kind of lens is currently used, what kind of shutter speed and what kind of diaphragm the aperture is. . That is,
For example, you will be able to find out later on what conditions you took the picture for the finished picture. Normally, such information is stored in the head by the user, but in the case of this embodiment, the film produced later, or the dot code on the photographic paper on which it is printed, By reproducing the multimedia information dot code with a reproducing device, the information can be selectively displayed, and the conditions of the camera at the time of shooting can be understood. Therefore, for example, even when the user wants to shoot under the same condition next time, the same setting can be easily performed. In particular, it is very useful when taking pictures on a routine basis, for example, when taking a picture of a change in a particular landscape through the moon.

FIG. 83C shows an example in which a film on which dot codes are printed as described above is printed. This is an example in which, for example, the dot code 1096 and the date code 1098 written on the film are directly rendered as a picture and printed with the other picture portion 1100. In this case, sound information or various camera information can be reproduced by scanning the dot code 1096 with the above-mentioned multimedia information dot code reproducing apparatus, for example, a pen type information reproducing apparatus. In addition, if only the dot code is removed and the image is printed on the back side on the DPE side, only the photograph is printed on the front side, and the same photograph as the conventional photograph can be obtained. Furthermore, as one of the camera information, DPE
If the trimming information at the time of recording, such as zooming or panorama switching information, is recorded on the film, the DPE scans the dot code on the film and reads the information, and if it is a panorama, it is called panorama. It becomes possible to print with zooming or zooming.

When the dot code is printed on the film, the exposure is doubled with the actual scenery, and there is a possibility that the dot code may not be imaged well if the external light is strong at that time. Therefore, for example, in a conventional panorama camera, when switching to panorama, the light-shielding plates are inserted above and below,
Some of the parts are configured so that the landscape is not captured, but the same function as that may be added. That is,
The light shield plate may be automatically inserted, or if the dot code is supported from the beginning, the light shield plate may be fitted immediately before the film and after the lens. Further, the code may be recorded in the margin (non-exposed portion) of the film.

In FIG. 85, by connecting the pen type information reproducing device 1102 to the data back 1018 and reproducing the dot code 1096 of FIG. 83 (C),
The camera information, that is, the aperture information, the shutter information, the lens information, and the like may be displayed on, for example, the back side of the camera back or the LCD mode display section 1104 or the in-viewfinder LED display section 1106 that the camera body originally has. Also, by scanning the dot code 1096,
The mode may be set under the same condition.
That is, when the user carries a film or a photograph and scans the dot code 1096, each condition on the camera side is automatically set to that mode, and the same shutter speed, the same aperture, and the same lens magnification are obtained.

[0462]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention,
It is possible to provide a dot code capable of inexpensively recording a large amount of multimedia information including audio information, video information, digital code data, etc., and repeatedly reproducing the information, and an information recording / reproducing system for recording / reproducing the dot code. .

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram of a dot coded audio information recording apparatus in a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2A is a diagram showing a dot code recording format, and FIG. 2B is a diagram showing a usage state of the reproducing apparatus in the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block configuration diagram of a playback device in the first embodiment.

4A and 4B are explanatory diagrams of manual scanning, and FIGS. 4C and 4D are explanatory diagrams of scan conversion.

FIG. 5A is a diagram for explaining data interpolation associated with scan conversion, and FIGS. 5B and 5C are diagrams showing examples of a recording medium.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of data string adjustment.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a structure of a reproducing apparatus in a second embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a structure of a reproducing apparatus in a third embodiment.

9A and 9B are external perspective views of a portable voice recorder.

FIG. 10 is a circuit configuration diagram of a portable voice recorder.

11A and 11B are diagrams showing an example of printing on a recording medium, and FIGS. 11C and 11D are perspective views showing the appearance of another example of a portable voice recorder.

12 is a flowchart of dot code printing processing in the voice recorder of FIG.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of a multimedia information recording device.

FIG. 14 is a conceptual diagram of a dot code.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram of a multimedia information reproducing apparatus.

16 is a light source emission timing chart in the multimedia information reproducing apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing another configuration example of the multimedia information reproducing apparatus.

18A is a diagram showing a dot code which is also applied to the reproducing apparatus of FIG. 3 for explaining the data string adjusting unit in the multimedia information reproducing apparatus of FIG. 15, and FIG. The figure showing the line-shaped marker of the dot code of
(C) is a figure for demonstrating a scanning method, (D) is a figure for demonstrating the scan pitch of an image sensor.

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing an actual configuration of a data string adjustment unit.

20A to 20C are diagrams showing markers having dots for array direction detection, and FIG. 20D is a diagram showing still another configuration example of the multimedia information reproducing apparatus.

21A is an explanatory diagram of a block address, FIG.
Is a diagram showing a block configuration, (C) is a diagram showing an example of a marker pattern, and (D) is a diagram for explaining the magnification of the imaging system.

FIG. 22 is a block configuration diagram of a marker detection unit in the multimedia information reproducing apparatus.

23 is a processing flowchart of the marker determination unit in FIG. 22.

FIG. 24 is a processing flowchart of a marker area detection unit in FIG. 22.

25A is a diagram showing a marker area, FIG. 25B is a diagram showing a storage format of a table that stores the detected marker area, and FIGS. 25C and 25D are diagrams of FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a value obtained by accumulating each pixel in FIG.

FIG. 26 (A) is a process flowchart of the approximate center detection unit in FIG. 22, and FIG. 26 (B) is a flowchart of the center of gravity calculation subroutine in (A).

FIG. 27 is a block configuration diagram of an approximate center detection unit.

28A is a diagram showing an actual configuration of a dot code data block, FIG. 28B is a diagram showing another configuration, FIG.
(C) is a diagram for explaining another arrangement of the data inversion dots.

FIG. 29A is a diagram showing another example of the actual configuration of a dot code data block, and FIG. 29B is a diagram for explaining selection of adjacent markers.

[Fig. 30] Fig. 30 is a block configuration diagram of a data array direction detection unit in the multimedia information reproducing apparatus.

FIG. 31 is an operation flowchart of a data array direction detection unit.

32A is a flowchart of a neighboring marker selection subroutine in FIG. 31, and FIGS. 32B and 32C are diagrams for explaining neighboring marker selection.

33A is an explanatory diagram of direction detection, and FIG. 33B is a diagram for explaining a relationship between m and n in FIG.

FIG. 34 is an explanatory diagram of another method of direction detection.

35 (A) and (B) are respectively a block configuration diagram and an explanatory diagram of a block address detection, error determination, and accurate center detection unit in the multimedia information reproducing apparatus.

FIG. 36 is an operation flowchart of block address detection, error determination, and accurate center detection unit.

FIG. 37 (A) is a diagram for explaining the operation of the marker / address interpolator in the multimedia information reproducing apparatus, and FIG. 37 (B) is a block of the address controller in the multimedia information reproducing apparatus. It is a block diagram.

38A is a diagram for explaining another processing method of the marker determination unit, FIG. 38B is a diagram for explaining a marker determination formula, and FIG. 38C is a diagram for explaining marker alignment detection. Is.

FIG. 39 is a diagram showing a configuration of a light source integrated image sensor.

FIG. 40 is a one-chip IC using an XY address type image pickup unit.
It is a block configuration diagram of.

41A is a circuit configuration diagram of a pixel of an XY address type image pickup unit, and FIG. 41B is a diagram showing a configuration of a pen-type information reproducing device having a switch for controlling dot code fetching.

FIG. 42 is a three-dimensional IC using an XY address type image pickup unit.
It is a block configuration diagram of.

FIG. 43 is a diagram showing another configuration of a pen-type information reproducing device having a switch for controlling dot code import.

FIG. 44A is a diagram showing a configuration of a pen-type information reproducing apparatus compatible with specular reflection removal, FIG. 44B is a diagram for explaining configurations of first and second polarization filters, and FIG. It is a figure which shows another structural example of the polarization filter of 2, and (D) is a figure which shows a structure of an electro-optical element shirt.

FIG. 45 is a diagram showing another configuration of a pen-type information reproducing device compatible with regular reflection removal.

46A is a diagram showing a configuration of a pen-type information reproducing device using a transparent resin optical waveguide material as a light source, and FIG. 46B is an enlarged view of a connecting portion between the optical waveguide material and the reproducing device housing. , (C) and (D) are diagrams showing the configuration of the tip portion of the optical waveguide material.

FIG. 47 is a diagram showing a configuration of a pen-type information reproducing device using an image sensor integrated with a light source.

48A is a diagram showing a configuration of a pen-type information reproducing apparatus compatible with color multiplexing, FIG. 48B is a diagram for explaining a color multiplex code, and FIG. FIG. 4D is a diagram for illustrating an index code.

FIG. 49A is an operation flowchart of the color-multiplexing-compatible pen-type information reproducing device, and FIG. 49B is a diagram showing a configuration of an image memory unit when a color imaging element is used.

FIG. 50A is a diagram showing another configuration of a color-multiplexing pen-type information reproducing device, and FIG. 50B is a diagram showing a configuration of a light source.

51A is a diagram showing a dot data sticker with a stealth-type dot code, FIG. 51B is a diagram showing a configuration of a pen-type information reproducing device compatible with the stealth-type dot code, and FIG. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a dot data sticker in which a stealth type dot code is written in another mode.

FIG. 52 is a diagram showing a configuration of a card-type adapter having an audio output terminal.

53A and 53B are diagrams showing a configuration of a card-type adapter for a video game machine.

54A is a diagram showing a usage example of a card-type adapter for an electronic notebook, and FIG. 54B is a diagram showing an appearance and a usage example of a card-type adapter for an apparatus having no input means.

FIG. 55 is a view for explaining how to use the reel seal printing machine for printing the dot code on the reel seal.

FIG. 56 is a diagram showing an internal configuration of a reel seal printing machine.

[Fig. 57] Fig. 57 is a diagram illustrating a configuration in the case where a function for recording a multimedia dot code is provided inside the word processor.

FIG. 58 is a diagram showing the configuration when the function of the multimedia information recording processing section in FIG. 57 is incorporated in an optical copying machine.

[Fig. 59] Fig. 59 is a diagram illustrating the configuration in which the function of the multimedia information recording processing unit in Fig. 57 is incorporated in a digital copying machine.

[Fig. 60] Fig. 60 is a diagram illustrating the configuration in the case where the pen-type information reproducing device is also used as an input unit of character and picture data.

FIG. 61 is a diagram showing another configuration in the case where the pen-type information reproducing device is also used as an input unit of character and picture data.

[Fig. 62] Fig. 62 is a diagram illustrating the configurations of a scanner and a card adapter that supports data reading.

63A and 63B are views showing a system in which a dot code is scanned by a pen-type information reproducing device and projected on a screen by a projector.

64 is a diagram showing a specific configuration of the output processing unit in FIGS. 63 (A) and 63 (B). FIG.

FIG. 65 (A) is a diagram showing a case of outputting to a copying machine, a magneto-optical disk device, and a printer instead of the projector,
(B) is a diagram showing a case where the output processing unit is configured as a card type adapter.

FIG. 66 is a diagram showing a specific configuration of an output processing unit.

[Fig. 67] Fig. 67 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of an example in which a format conversion unit that corrects the format for each type of word processor is provided.

FIG. 68 is a diagram showing an actual configuration of a format conversion unit.

[Fig. 69] Fig. 69 is a system diagram in the case of transmitting / receiving a FAX sheet having a dot code recorded thereon.

FIG. 70 is a diagram showing the configuration of a FAX multimedia information recording machine.

FIG. 71 is a diagram showing the structure of a FAX built-in multimedia information recording apparatus.

72A is a diagram showing a configuration of an overwrite type MMP card recording / reproducing apparatus, and FIGS. 72B and C are MM.
It is a figure which shows the back surface and front surface of a P card.

FIG. 73 is a diagram showing another configuration of the overwrite type MMP card recording / reproducing apparatus.

74A is a diagram showing still another configuration of the overwrite type MMP card recording / reproducing device, FIGS. 74B and C are diagrams showing a back surface and a cross section of the MMP card, and FIG. 74D is a code. It is a figure which shows the structure of a pattern recording paper.

FIG. 75 is a diagram showing another configuration of the overwrite type MMP card recording / reproducing apparatus.

FIG. 76 (A) is a diagram showing a configuration of a write-once MMP card recording / reproducing apparatus, and FIG. 76 (B) is a block configuration diagram of a recorded area detection unit in (A).

77A is a diagram showing another configuration of a recorded area detection unit, and FIG. 77B is an MMP with a recorded marker.
It is a figure which shows a card.

FIG. 78 (A) is a diagram showing an MMP business card card system, and (B) and (C) are diagrams showing a back surface and a front surface of the MMP business card card.

79A and 79B are plan views of an MMP card formed by a semiconductor wafer etching method, FIG. 79A showing a state in which a protective cover is closed, and FIG. 79B showing a state in which the protective cover is opened.

FIG. 80 (A) is a plan view of an MMP card having a different structure formed by a semiconductor wafer etching method, FIG. 80 (B) is a side view, and FIG. 80 (C) is a view for explaining the structure of a claw portion. .

81A is a diagram showing a disk device with a dot code decoding function, and FIG. 81B is a diagram showing a recording example of dot codes and indexes.

[Fig. 82] Fig. 82 is a block configuration diagram of a disk device with a dot code decoding function.

[FIG. 83] FIG. 83A is a diagram showing a configuration of a back cover of a camera compatible with recording multimedia information dot codes, FIG. 83B is a side view thereof, and FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of.

FIG. 84 (A) is a diagram showing another configuration of the back cover of the camera supporting multimedia information dot code recording, and (B) is an LE.
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a configuration of a D unit, FIG. 6C is a diagram showing a data back side signal electrode, and FIGS.
It is a figure which shows the moving mechanism of an ED unit.

[Fig. 85] Fig. 85 is a block configuration diagram of a camera supporting multimedia information dot code recording.

[Explanation of symbols]

12 ... Voice input device, 16, 124, 144 ... A / D converter, 18, 138 ... Compression circuit, 20 ... Error correction code addition circuit, 22 ... Memory circuit, 24 ... Data addition circuit, 26, 102, 160 ... Modulation circuit, 27 ... Composite circuit, 28 ... Printer system or printing plate making system, 36, 170 ... Dot code, 36A, 36B
... Manual scanning marker, 38, 172, 304 ... Block, 38A, 174, 274, 310 ... Marker, 38
B ... Error correction code, 38C ... Audio data,
38D ... x address data, 38E ... y address data, 38F ... error determination code, 40 ... pen type information reproducing device, 42 ... audio output device, 44 ... detecting section, 46 ...
Scan conversion and lens distortion correction unit, 48 ... Binarization circuit,
50 ... Threshold value judging circuit, 54 ... Demodulation circuit, 56 ... Data string adjusting section, 58 ... De-interleave circuit, 60 ...
Error correction circuit, 62 ... Decoding circuit, 64, 240, 24
4, 258 ... Data interpolation circuit, 66 ... D / A conversion circuit, 70 ... Detection section and scan conversion section, 72 ... Interpolation section,
76 ... Portable voice recorder body, 80 ... Voice input section, 82 ... Recording start button, 94 ... Compression processing section (A
DPCM), 96,154 ... Error correction code addition unit,
98 ... Interleave section, 100, 158 ... Address data adding section, 104, 162 ... Marker adding section,
106 ... Simple printer system, 110 ... Timer,
112 ... Control unit, 120 ... Microphone or audio output device, 126 ... Compression processing unit, 130 ... Voice compression circuit, 132 ... Voice synthesis coding circuit, 134, 23
6 ... Interface (I / F), 136 ... Data form discrimination circuit, 140 ... Camera, video output device, etc.
46 ... Image area determination and separation circuit, 148 ... Binary compression processing circuit, 150 ... Multi-value compression processing circuit, 152 ... Data synthesis processing unit, 156, 234 ... Data memory unit, 1
64 ... Compositing and editing processing unit, 166 ... Printer system and plate-making system for printing, 168 ... FAX, 17
6, 272A, 306 ... Block address, 178 ...
Address error detection, error correction data, 180, 3
14 ... Data area, 184 ... Detection part, 186 ... Scan conversion part, 188 ... Binarization processing part, 190 ... Demodulation part,
192 ... Data string adjustment unit, 194 ... Data error correction unit, 196 ... Data separation unit, 214 ... Image memory, 216 ... Marker detection unit, 218 ... Data array direction detection unit, 220, 232 ... Address control unit, 222
... Interpolation circuit, 224 ... Memory for correcting lens aberration distortion,
226 ... Threshold determination circuit, 228 ... Block address detection unit, 230 ... Block address error detection and correction unit, 238, 242, 248, 256, 262 ... Decompression processing unit, 246 ... PDL (page description language) processing unit,
250, 264 ... Combining or switching circuit, 252
266 ... D / A converter, 254 ... Display device, 260
... voice synthesizer, 268 ... voice output device, 270 ... page printer, plotter, etc. 272B ... block address error correction data, 276A ... line address, 276B ... error detection data, 278, 316
... dots, 294A, 296A, 298A ... array direction detection dots, 300 ... block address detection, error determination, accurate center detection section, 302 ... marker and block address interpolation section, 306A ... upper address code, 306B ... lower Address code, 308 ... Dummy marker, 310A ... Circular black marker, 310B ... Marker white part, 312 ... Error detection code, 312
A ... Upper address CRC code, 312B ... Lower address CRC code, 364 ... Data margin part.

Front page continuation (72) Inventor Ken Mori 2-43-2 Hatagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Inside Olympus Optical Co., Ltd.

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. Input means for inputting multimedia information including at least one of audio information, video information and digital code data, and the multimedia information inputted by the input means can be read optically. An information recording system comprising: a conversion unit for converting the dot code into a dot code; and a recording unit for recording the dot code converted by the conversion unit on a recording medium in an optically readable manner. 2. A plurality of blocks are arranged, and each of the blocks has a data dot pattern composed of a plurality of dots arranged according to the content of data, and a pattern which cannot be present in the data dot pattern. And a marker arranged in a first predetermined positional relationship with respect to the data dot pattern, and a second marker with respect to the marker.
And a block address pattern indicating an address of the block arranged in a predetermined positional relationship with the block address pattern, and an error detection code pattern of the block address arranged in a third predetermined positional relationship with respect to the block address pattern. Characteristic dot code. 3. The dot code is optically recorded from a recording medium having a portion in which multimedia information including at least one of audio information, video information and digital code data is recorded as an optically readable dot code. Read-out means for reading, the restoring means for converting the dot code read by the reading means into the original multimedia information, and the outputting means for outputting the multimedia information restored by the restoring means. And information reproduction system. 4. The dot code comprises a plurality of blocks arranged, and each of the blocks comprises a data dot pattern consisting of a plurality of dots arranged according to the content of data, and the data dot pattern includes A marker having an impossible pattern and arranged in a first predetermined positional relationship with respect to the data dot pattern, and a block address pattern showing an address of the block arranged in a second predetermined positional relationship with respect to the marker, An error detection code pattern of the block address arranged in a third predetermined positional relationship with respect to the block address pattern, wherein the restoring unit stores the dot code read by the reading unit.
Memory means, marker detecting means for detecting the marker of each block from the dot code stored in the first memory means, and data for detecting the data array direction from the marker of each block detected by the marker detecting means. Array direction detecting means, first address control means for outputting the dot code stored in the first memory means according to the data array direction detected by the data array detecting means, and output from the first memory means Demodulating means for demodulating the dot code after binarization, block address detecting means for detecting the block address from the demodulated output data of the demodulating means, and the demodulating according to the block address detected by the block address detecting means Second address control for mapping demodulated output data of the means to a second memory means Information reproduction system according to claim 3, characterized in that it comprises stages and, a data output means for outputting the mapped demodulated output data in the second memory means. 5. The dot code comprises a plurality of blocks arranged, and each of the blocks comprises a data dot pattern composed of a plurality of dots arranged according to the content of data, and the data dot pattern has A marker having an impossible pattern and arranged in a first predetermined positional relationship with respect to the data dot pattern, and a block address pattern showing an address of the block arranged in a second predetermined positional relationship with respect to the marker, An error detection code pattern of the block address arranged in a third predetermined positional relationship with respect to the block address pattern, wherein the restoring unit stores the dot code read by the reading unit.
Memory means, marker detecting means for detecting the marker of each block from the dot code stored in the first memory means, and data for detecting the data array direction from the marker of each block detected by the marker detecting means. Array direction detecting means, block address detecting means for detecting the block address according to the data array direction detected by the data array detecting means, and after binarizing the dot code output from the first memory means, Demodulation means for demodulating, address control means for mapping the demodulated data output from the demodulation means to a second memory means according to the block address detected by the block address detection means, Data output means for outputting demodulated data mapped to the second memory means; Information reproduction system according to claim 3, characterized in that it comprises.