JPH0636070A - Information input method and device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To lighten the load on a host computer by converting a character part in the information of an inputted document from image information to text information, separating the information into the text information and image information, and transferring them to the host computer. CONSTITUTION:The data of the document inputted from a facsimile terminal 1 are stored in an image file in a storage part 21b as image information consisting of the character part and a pattern part shown by data A through the communication control part 21a of a storage converting device 21. The stored image information is stored in an image file in a storage part 22b temporarily as image information through the communication control part 22a of a storage converting circuit 22. This image information is passed through a character decoding device 22c to convert the character part from image information to text information. and the pattern part, on the other hand, is transferred as image information as it is. Those text information and image information are transferred to the host computer 3a.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information input method and apparatus, and is particularly suitable for a system for processing information input to a host computer from a terminal such as a facsimile by distinguishing it between text information and image information. The present invention relates to an information input method and device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a method for separating a picture part and a character part, for example, an image transmission technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-238971 is known. This technique is for transmitting a document in which a picture part and a character part are mixed, and when the sender mainly wants to transmit the information of the character part, only the character part is separated and transmitted. In the transmission device, the picture part and the character part are separated, the area of the picture part is converted into white background information, and the document having only the character part is binarized and transmitted as image information. is there.

[0003]

In the above prior art, in the information input system using the facsimile and the electronic file system, which is connected to the host computer or the like which handles the character part and the picture part separately, the character part separating means is used. Is considered, but no consideration is given to the means for separating the picture part. Therefore, in this case, the separation of the pattern portion is processed by the host computer, which causes a problem that the load on the host computer increases. In this case, the transfer data to the host computer is for two pages of the image information in which the character portion is separated and the original image information in which the character portion and the picture portion are mixed. This is the capacity when handling an A4 size image in uncompressed mode (about 500 Kbytes).
2 times, which is about 1 Mbyte. The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to solve the above-described problems in the conventional technique and to connect to a host computer or the like that handles a character portion and a pattern portion separately, An object of the present invention is to provide an information input method capable of reducing the load on a host computer in an information input system using a facsimile, an electronic file system and the like, and an apparatus therefor.

[0004]

The above object of the present invention is input in a system for inputting a document consisting of image data including a character portion and a picture portion from a terminal to a host computer via a storage exchange device. Information that is characterized in that the character portion in the information of the document is converted from image information into text information to separate it into text information and image information, and the separated information is transferred to a host computer. Achieved by an input method and device.

[0005]

In the information input method and apparatus according to the present invention, the load on the host computer is reduced by performing the processing of separating the character portion and the picture portion in the storage exchange device, and the amount of information to be input. The reduction of the file size is realized by converting the image information of the character portion into text information. More specifically, by adding a character decoding device to the storage exchange device and converting the character part in the document information from image information to text information, the amount of information input to the host computer and the file capacity are reduced. In addition, the load can be reduced by eliminating the need for the host computer to perform the processing for separating the character portion and the picture portion. Speaking of the example of the data transferred to the host computer, the total data amount is about 500 Kbytes by converting the character part of the data of about 1 Mbytes from image data to code data (this remains unchanged). + Code data is approximately 4 Kbytes, which enables a significant reduction in data amount compared to the conventional technology.

[0006]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an information input system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In addition, in this system, data of a case where a document including a plurality of pages including a character portion and a picture portion is input is shown. It shows the flow. The information input system according to this embodiment includes a facsimile terminal 1, storage and exchange devices 21 and 22, a host computer 3a, and a storage device 3b. The storage exchange device 21 includes a communication control unit 21a and a storage unit 21.
b, the storage / exchange device 22 has a communication control unit 22a and a storage unit 22b. A character decoding device 22c is connected to the storage / exchange device 22 as an external device. The outline of the operation of the information input system of the present embodiment configured as described above is as follows. The data of the document input from the facsimile terminal 1 is transmitted via the communication control unit 21a of the storage exchange device 21 as image information including a character portion and a pattern portion shown in the data A in the figure,
The image file is stored in the storage unit 21b. The above-mentioned image information stored in the storage unit 21b is temporarily stored as image information in the image file of the storage unit 22b via the communication control unit 22a of the storage exchange device 22.

As described above, the storage / exchange device 22 is connected to the character decoding device 22c as an external device. The character decoding device 22c converts the image information temporarily stored in the storage unit 22b described above from the image information into the text information only through the character decoding device 22c, while the pattern portion stores the image information. Leave it alone. As a result, the data of the above-mentioned document is changed from the format of only the image information shown in the data A to the format of the combination of the text information and the image information shown in the data B in the figure, and is stored again in the storage unit 22b. At this time, the text information is stored in the text file in the storage unit 22b, and the image information is stored in the image file in the storage unit 22b. After that, the text information stored in the text file and the image information stored in the image file in the storage unit 22b are transferred to the host computer 3a as a series of data, and stored in the storage device 3b.
To store. At this time, the text information is stored in the text file in the storage device 3b, and the image information is stored in the image file in the storage device 3b.

2 and 3 show the transfer data format and storage method of the data A and data B described above. Figure 2
It is the transfer data format and storage method of data A. The data format is image information in which a character portion and a pattern portion are mixed for each page, and transfer is performed in this unit. The storage is performed as image information in the document No.n area of the image file. FIG. 3 shows the transfer data format and storage method of data B. The data format is divided into a text information part that collects the character parts of each page and an image information part that collects the picture parts of each page.
Transfer as a series of information. Regarding storage, the text information is stored in the text file and the image information is stored in the image file in the corresponding document No. n areas. The data is transferred from the storage exchange device 22 to the host computer 3a by extracting the text information stored in the text file and the image information stored in the image file, and transferring them to the host computer as a series of information. , Text information is stored in a text file, and image information is stored in an image file.

FIG. 4 shows a detailed structure of the storage / exchange device 22. The storage / exchange device 22 receives the image information including the character portion and the pattern portion input from the facsimile terminal 1 at the receiving unit 22a1 via the storage / exchange device 21, and temporarily stores the image information via the storage control unit 22a2. It is stored in the image file 22b1 in the section 22b. Storage control unit 22a2
Sends the stored image information to the character decoding device control unit 22a3, and the character decoding device control unit 22a3
Inputs the image information into the character decoding device 22c.
In carrying out this series of operations, when inputting data from the facsimile terminal 1, as shown in FIG. 5, a fixed format in which a character part area is designated in advance is used, or
Also, when using an arbitrary format, specify the area to be handled as the character part. Regardless of which format is used, multiple areas to be handled as character parts can be specified. Note that, in FIG. 5, a thick frame indicates an area converted into text information, which is treated as image information at the time of input. The other areas are areas that are treated as image information that is not converted into text information.

Here, in order to specify the area in the arbitrary format shown in FIG. 5, it is possible to use not only the method of specifying both ends of the diagonal line but also the method of marking with special ink. By performing the above-mentioned processing for designating the area, it is possible to limit where in the input image information is the image information treated as the character portion. In the image information to be transferred to the storage exchange devices 21 and 22, the information specifying the area is also transferred. The character decoding control unit 22a3 picks up only the image information included in the specified area based on the information specifying the area, and transmits the image information to the character decoding device 22c. The character decoding device 22c converts the transmitted image information into text information and transmits it again to the character decoding control unit 22a3. Character decoding control unit 22a3
Stores in the storage unit 22b the text information transmitted from the character decoding device 22c and the image information transmitted from the image file 22a1 excluding the character portion and the information designating the area.

At this time, the storage controller 22a2 stores the text information in a text file, as shown in FIG.
The image information is stored in each image file.
For the data transfer to the host computer 3a, the storage control unit 22a2 reads the information for each page from each file, reassembles the information into a series of information, and the transmission unit 22a.
Transfer via a4. According to the above embodiment, by adding the character decoding device to the storage exchange device, the character portion can be converted from the image information to the text information, so that there is an effect that the total data amount can be reduced. As a result, the amount of data transferred to the host computer can be reduced, and the file capacity of the storage device connected to the host computer can be reduced. Further, in the prior art, it is necessary to process the separation of the picture portion by the host computer, and the load for the separation processing is applied to the host computer, whereas it becomes possible to separate by the storage exchange device, and the load on the host computer is increased. It is also possible to obtain the effect of reducing

It is needless to say that the above embodiment shows one example of the present invention, and the present invention should not be limited to this. For example, the data formats shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 are examples, and various modifications are possible such that other formats can be used.

[0013]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, in an information input system using a facsimile, an electronic file system or the like, which is connected to a host computer or the like which handles a character portion and a picture portion separately, This has the remarkable effect of realizing an information input method and a device therefor that can reduce the load on the host computer.

[0014]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an information input system and a data flow according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a transfer data format and a storage system until the data input from the facsimile terminal 1 is temporarily stored in the storage exchange device 22.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a transfer data format and a storage system from once being stored in the storage / exchange device 22 to being stored in the storage device 3b of the host computer 3a.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a detailed configuration and an operational outline of each functional part in the storage / exchange device 22 according to the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a fixed format and an arbitrary format.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: Facsimile terminal, 21, 22: Storage and exchange device, 2
1a, 22a: communication control unit, 21b, 22b: storage unit,
22a1: receiver, 22a2: storage controller, 22a
3: character decoding device control unit, 22a4: transmission unit, 22b
1: image file, 22b2: image file,
22b3: text file, 22c: character decoding device,
3a: host computer, 3b: storage device.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A system for inputting a document consisting of image data including a character portion and a picture portion from a terminal to a host computer via a storage exchange device,
The character part in the input information of the document is
By converting image information to text information,
An information input method characterized by separating text information and image information and transferring the separated information to a host computer. 2. A storage / exchange device, wherein data separated into text information and image information for each page is edited for each text information, each image information is edited for each image information, and the data is collectively transferred to a host computer. The information input method according to claim 1, wherein: 3. A system for inputting a document consisting of image data including a character portion and a picture portion from a terminal to a host computer via a storage exchange device,
Means for inputting the document in the storage exchange device, and means for separating the character portion in the information of the input document from image information into text information to separate it into text information and image information, An information input device comprising: means for transferring the separated information to a host computer. 4. The transfer means edits data separated into text information and image information for each page, text information for each text information, image information for each image information, and transfers the data collectively to a host computer. The information input device according to claim 3, wherein: