JPH07131601A - Image information processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To inexpensively obtain an image information processor capable of easily managing images on the front side and rear side of each original by providing a means for managing the relation of correspondence between the images on the front side and rear side of each original. CONSTITUTION:A CPU 1 is provided to entirely control this device, and a ROM 2 is a memory storing a control program or the like for operating the CPU 1. This control program contains processing for managing the relation of correspondence between the images on the front side and the rear side. While using reading means 5 and 6 for the images on one side and an original feeding means 14 provided with no original inverting means, the continuously read images on one side are stored while adding retrieval information, and the relation of correspondence between the front image and rear image of that original 15 is managed. In this case, an optical disk 8 stores read image information, retrieval information inputted from a keyboard 4, the relation of correspondence between the front and rear sides of image information and others. Therefore, the double side images read separately, for the front and rear sides can be stored, managed and retrieved as one original.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image information processing apparatus such as an image information filing apparatus having a function of reading, storing, and retrieving images of many subjects.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when an image of a subject having images on both front and back sides is handled as a double-sided image by an image information processing apparatus,
A method using an image reading means capable of reading images on both sides at the same time, or a single-sided image reading means can be used to print both sides
There has been proposed a method of sequentially reading one by one, manually or by using a document feeding device equipped with a document reversing mechanism capable of reversing documents one by one.

[0003]

However, when the above method is used, the front and back of each sheet are read one by one, so that when the double-sided simultaneous reading means is used or when the original reversing mechanism is used, the apparatus is It has a drawback that it becomes complicated and expensive, and it has a drawback that it is troublesome to manually invert each sheet.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a cheaper and more convenient image information processing apparatus.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention uses a single-sided image reading unit and a document feeding unit without a document reversing mechanism to store continuously read single-sided images with search information, By managing the correspondence between the front image and the back image of the original, the two-sided images read separately on the front and back can be
It is a document that is stored and managed as one manuscript and can be searched.

[0006]

1 is a schematic diagram showing the outline of a first embodiment of the present invention.

The CPU 1 controls the entire apparatus of this embodiment, and the ROM 2 is a memory storing a control program for operating the CPU 1. It should be noted that the control program includes processing for managing the correspondence relationship between the front surface image and the back surface image.

The RAM 3 is a memory for constructing search information and temporarily holding image information, and the keyboard 4 is for inputting search keywords and the like at the time of image reading and search. The image reading device includes an image reading unit 6 and a reading control unit 5 for a document, and the image reading unit 6 is installed above the document traveling path.

The optical disk 8 is a storage medium for storing image information read by the image reading device, search information input from the keyboard 4, correspondence between front and back of image information, and the like. The display device is composed of a liquid crystal display panel 10 and a control unit 9 thereof, and is for displaying a keyword being searched for and image information searched for.

The originals 15 are stacked on the paper feeding stacker 12, and are fed one by one from the top onto the original feeding means 14 by an unillustrated original feeding means, as shown by 15a, and the paper output stacker 13 is shown. The ones sent first are stacked so that they are on the lower side. The document feeding means 14 has, for example, a belt feeding roller 21 and a feeding belt 22 as shown in FIG. 2, the belt feeding roller 21 is rotated by a driving means (not shown), and the feeding belt is interlocked with the rotation. The document 15a on the feed belt 22 is moved by feeding 22.

The operation of the present invention will be described below with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In this example, it is assumed that there are four originals.

When reading the original image and storing it on the optical disk 8, first, in order to read only the front surface continuously,
A stack of documents 15 is aligned with the front side facing up, and the sheet stacker 1
Stack 2 (S1). In this state, the original is
From the top are the first table, the second table, the third table, and the fourth table.

Next, a keyword 20 for searching the original to be read later is input from the keyboard 4 (S).
2). The input keyword 20 is temporarily stored in the RAM 3
(S3). FIG. 4 shows the data flow in this case.

Next, when the image reading operation is started (S4), the originals 15 are fed out by the original feeding means 14 in order from the top. The image reading unit 6 provided on one side of the document traveling path converts the surface image of the document 15a into electric signals line by line and outputs the electric signals to the reading control unit 5 and the display control unit 9.

The reading controller 5 compresses and encodes the image signal for each line (S5), and temporarily stores it in the RAM 3 (S6). The display control unit 9 displays the read image in the VRAM.
And is displayed on the display board 10.

When the reading of one original image is completed, as shown in FIG. 5 (in the case of the third original), the CPU
1 retrieves the compression-coded image information from the RAM 3, searches for an empty area of the image information area 40 on the optical disc 8 (in this case, 41c), and writes this image information on the optical disc 8 (S7).

Further, the search information area 3 on the optical disk 8
RAM3 in the empty area of 0 (31c in this case)
The keyword 32c stored above, the number of the image of the keyword, and the information 33c (F
The meaning of 3 is that F is the front side, 3 is the third sheet), image information attributes (compression method, recording date, etc.) 34c, and image information recording area number 35c are written (S8).

In this way, the originals are fed to the stacker 12
Reading of the original and writing on the optical disk are repeated until it is not over (S9). After scanning the original,
The paper is sent to the paper output stacker 13 and is stacked so that the previously read one is on the bottom.

Next, in order to continuously read the back side, the originals stacked on the paper discharge stacker 13 are taken out, turned upside down for each bundle and stacked on the paper feed stacker 12 (S1).
0). In this state, the originals are 1
The back of the first sheet, the back of the second sheet, the back of the third sheet, the back of the fourth sheet.

Then, when the image reading operation is started again (S11), the back side is read in the same manner as the front side reading, and the compression-coded signal is stored in the RAM 3 (S12, S13).

When the reading of the original image is completed, the CPU 1 causes the RAM 3 to operate as shown in FIG. 6 (in the case of the third original).
The compressed and encoded image information is taken out, a free area of the image information area 40 on the optical disc 8 is searched (41 g in this case), and this image information is written on the optical disc 8 (S14).

Further, a search information area 30 on the optical disk
32g of the keyword stored in the RAM 3 in the empty area (in this case, 31g), the number of the image of the keyword, and the information 33g of whether the keyword is front or back (the meaning of B3 is B is the back side). (3 represents the third sheet), the image information attribute (compression method, recording date, etc.) 34g, and the image information recording area number 35g are written (S15).

Then, similarly to the front side, the back side is repeated until there are no originals on the sheet stacker 12 (S16). When recorded in this manner, the front and back sides of the same original have different image information and search information, but it is possible to know which is the same original from the information 33a to 33h.

Next, a process for retrieving necessary information from the optical disk 8 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, the information to be searched is input from the keyboard 4 (S21). For example, when a keyword is input and the user wants to see a list of search information that matches the keyword, the input information is temporarily stored in the RAM 3 (S
22). The CPU 1 searches for a matching keyword in the search information area 30 on the optical disk 8 based on the keyword 50 stored in the RAM 3 (S23).

When a match is found, the matched search information is taken out and sent to the display controller 9. The display control unit 9 sequentially displays the sent information on the liquid crystal display panel 10 (S25). Note that the search can use not only the keyword but also other attributes such as the date.

Further, when the user wants to see the image information, after finding the search information having the matching keyword, the image information is retrieved using the number of the image information area in the search information (S2).
7). Then, the extracted image information is displayed on the display control unit 9
To the liquid crystal display panel 10 (S32, S33, S34).

FIG. 8 shows a case in which the images on the front and back sides of the second original, which was the second sheet at the time of recording, are simultaneously displayed.
The information of F2 (33b) and B2 (33f) is searched from the information of 3h, and the image information 41b and 41f are found and displayed from the number information 35b and 35f of the image information recording areas of the respective search information 31b and 31f. There is.

As described above, even when the image information and the search information are different, it is possible to manage the image information as the front and back of the same original by providing the information indicating the front and back relation of the image.

In this state, if it is desired to see an image with the next matching keyword, the search information area is further searched for a matching keyword, and if found, it is displayed in the same manner as described above. Further, when it is desired to display only the front surface or only the back surface, the image information may be searched for and displayed using only the corresponding search information on either the front or back.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing the outline of the second embodiment of the present invention.

In the second embodiment, unlike the first embodiment, the image reading section 7 is installed below the document traveling path.

Further, the originals 15 are stacked on the paper feed stacker 16, and are fed one by one from the bottom onto the original feeding means 14 by the original feeding means (not shown), as shown by 15a, and discharged. The items sent first to the stacker 13 are stacked so that they will be on the bottom.

The others are the same as the first embodiment (FIG. 1).
Since it is the same as that of FIG.

The operation according to this embodiment will be described below with reference to FIG.
A description will be given based on the flowchart of. In this example,
It is assumed that there are four originals.

When reading the original image and storing it on the optical disk 8, first, in order to read only the front surface continuously, a bundle of originals 15 is aligned with the front surface facing down and stacked on the paper feed stacker 16 (S41). . In this state, the document is viewed from the bottom, and the first sheet from the bottom, the second sheet, the third sheet, and the fourth sheet from the bottom.
It is the first table.

Next, the keyword 20 for searching the original to be read later is input from the keyboard 4 (S4).
2). The input keyword 20 is temporarily stored in the RAM 3 (S43). FIG. 4 shows the data flow in this case.

When the image reading operation is started (S44), the document 15 is fed by the document feeding means 14 in order from the bottom. The image reading unit 7 provided on one side of the document traveling path converts the surface image of the document 15a into a corresponding electric signal for each line, and the reading control unit 5
And output to the display control unit 9.

The reading controller 5 compresses and encodes the image signal for each line (S45), and temporarily stores it in the RAM 3 (S46). The display controller 9 VR-reads the read image.
It is expanded to AM and displayed on the display board 10.

When the reading of one original image is completed, as shown in FIG. 11 (in the case of the third original), the CP
U1 takes out the compression-coded image information from the RAM 3, searches for an empty area of the image information area 60 on the optical disk 8 (in this case, 61c), and writes this image information on the optical disk 8 (S47).

Further, a search information area 50 on the optical disk
The keyword 52c stored in the RAM 3, the attribute of the image information (compression method, recording date, etc.) 53c, and the number 54c of the image information recording area corresponding to the front side image are written in the empty area (in this case, 51c). (S48).

At this stage, since the back side image has not been read yet, the number area 55c of the image information recording area corresponding to the back side image is blank. In this way, the reading of the original and the writing on the optical disk 8 are repeated until the original is no longer on the paper feed stacker 12 (S49). The originals that have been read are sent to the paper output stacker 13 and stacked so that the previously read originals are on the bottom.

Next, in order to continuously read the back side, the originals stacked on the paper discharge stacker 13 are taken out, the whole bundle is turned over and stacked on the paper feed stacker 12 (S5).
0). In this state, the originals are 4
The back of the first sheet, the back of the third sheet, the back of the second sheet, the back of the first sheet.

When the image reading operation is started again (S51), the back side is read in the same way as the front side reading, and the compression-coded signal is stored in the RAM 3 (S51).
51, S53).

When the reading of the original image is completed in this way, as shown in FIG. 12 (in the case of the third original), the CP
U1 takes out the compression-coded image information from the RAM 3, searches for an empty area of the image information area 60 on the optical disc 8 (in this case, 61 g), and writes this image information on the optical disc 8 (S54).

Then, the retrieval information 51 of the corresponding surface is obtained.
The number area 5 of the image information recording area corresponding to the back side image of b
The number 61g of the area in which the image is written is written in 5c (S55).

Similarly to the front side, the back side is repeated until there are no originals on the sheet stacker 12 (S56). in this case,
Since the order of reading the original on the back side is the reverse of that for reading the front side, the writing order to the number area of the image information recording area corresponding to the back side image is 55d, 55c, 55b, 5
The order is 5a.

Next, a process for retrieving necessary information from the optical disk 8 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, the information to be searched is input from the keyboard 4 (S61). For example, when a keyword is input and the user wants to see a list of search information that matches the keyword, the input information is temporarily stored in the RAM 3 (S
62). The CPU 1 searches for a matching keyword in the search information area 30 on the optical disk 8 based on the keyword 50 stored in the RAM 3 (S63).

When a match is found, the matched search information is taken out and sent to the display controller 9. The display controller 9 sequentially displays the sent information on the liquid crystal display panel 10 (S65). Search is not limited to keywords
Other attributes such as date can also be used.

Further, when the user wants to see the image information, after finding the search information having the matching keyword, the image information is taken out using the number of the image information area in the search information (S6).
7). The extracted image information is sent to the display control unit 9, expanded and decoded (S68), and displayed on the liquid crystal display panel 10 (S).
72, S73, S74).

FIG. 14 shows a case in which the front and back images of the second original at the time of recording are simultaneously displayed, and the number area of the image information recording area corresponding to the front and back images of the second retrieval information 51b is displayed. Image information is extracted and displayed by the numbers 61b and 61g of the image information areas in 54b and 55b.

In this state, when it is desired to see an image with the next matching keyword, the search information area is further searched for a matching keyword, and if found, it is displayed in the same manner as described above. Further, when it is desired to display only the front surface or only the back surface, the image information may be retrieved and displayed by using the number of the image information area that is necessary.

FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram showing the outline of the third embodiment of the present invention.

As shown, in this third embodiment,
The documents 15 are stacked on the paper feed stacker 12, and are fed one by one from the top onto the document feeding means 17 by a document feeding means (not shown) in the order of 15a.

Further, as shown in the figure, the document feeding means 17 reverses the documents at the sheet discharging portion, and stacks the documents fed to the sheet discharging stacker 18 so that the ones fed first are the lower side.

The others are the same as the first embodiment (FIG. 1).
Since it is the same as that of FIG.

The operation according to this embodiment will be described below with reference to FIG.
A description will be given based on the flowchart of. In this example,
It is assumed that there are four originals.

When the original image is read and stored in the optical disk 8, first, in order to read only the front surface continuously,
A stack of documents 15 is aligned with the front side facing up, and the sheet stacker 1
2 (S81). In this state, when viewed from the top, the original document is the first table, the second table, the third table, and the fourth table from the top.

Next, the keyword 20 for searching the original to be read later from the keyboard 4 is input (S8).
2). The input keyword 20 is temporarily stored in the RAM 3
(S83). FIG. 4 shows the data flow in this case.

When the image reading operation is started (S84), the document 15 is fed by the document feeding means 17 in order from the top. The image reading unit 6 provided on one side of the document traveling path converts the surface image of the document 15a into a corresponding electric signal for each line, and the reading control unit 5
And output to the display control unit 9.

The reading controller 5 compression-codes the image signal for each line (S85) and temporarily stores it in the RAM 3 (S86). The display control unit 9 displays the read image as V
It is expanded to RAM and displayed on the display board 10.

When the reading of one original image is completed, the CPU 1 reads R as shown in FIG. 17 (in the case of the third original).
The compression-coded image information is taken out from the AM3 and a free area of the image information area 80 on the optical disk 8 is searched for. However, in case of front and back management, every other free area is searched.

When a free area is found (81e in this case), this image information is written on the optical disk 8 (S87). Further, every other free area of the search information area 70 on the optical disc is searched (in this case, 71e
, And the keywords 52c stored in the RAM 3,
The number 53c indicating the sheet number of the document and the number 54c of the image information recording area in which the image is written are written (S88).

Here, to find every other free area,
This is because the corresponding back surface information is inserted immediately after the front surface information. At this stage, since the back side image has not been read yet, the area corresponding to the back side image is blank.

In this way, the original is fed to the paper feed stacker 12
Reading of the original and writing on the optical disk are repeated until the original is not reached (S89).

Then, the read originals are sent to the paper discharge stacker 18 and piled up so that the ones read earlier are placed on the lower side. However, due to the shape of the original traveling path, the back side is stacked at the time of being piled up. It is designed to face the upper surface.

Next, in order to continuously read the back side, the originals stacked on the paper discharge stacker 18 are taken out and stacked on the paper feed stacker 12 without being turned over (S9).
0). In this state, the originals are 4
The back of the first sheet, the back of the third sheet, the back of the second sheet, the back of the first sheet.

When the image reading operation is started again (S91), the signal obtained by reading the back surface and compressing and coding the same as the reading of the front surface is stored in the RAM 3 (S9).
1, S93).

When the reading of the original image is completed, FIG.
As shown in the case of the third original, the CPU 1 has a RAM.
The compression-encoded image information is taken out from 3, and the image information is written in the area (81d in this case) next to the corresponding image information area (81c) on the surface of the optical disk 8 (S94).

Then, the corresponding search information (71
The keyword, the sheet number, the attribute of the image information, and the number of the image information recording area are written in the area next to c) (71d in this case) (S95). Then, like the front side, the back side is repeated until there are no documents on the sheet stacker 12 (S9).
6).

In this case, the order of reading the original on the back side is the reverse of that for reading the front side, so the order of writing the images in the image information recording area corresponding to the back side image is 81h, 8h.
The order is 1f, 81d, 81b, and the search information is written in the order 71h, 71f, 71d, 71b.

Next, the processing for retrieving necessary information from the optical disk 8 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, the information to be searched is input from the keyboard 4 (S101). For example, when a keyword is input and the user wants to see a list of search information that matches the keyword, the input information is temporarily stored in the RAM 3 (S
102). The CPU 1 searches for a matching keyword in the search information area 30 on the optical disk 8 based on the keyword 50 stored in the RAM 3 (S103).

When a match is found, the matched search information is taken out and sent to the display controller 9. The display control unit 9 sequentially displays the sent information on the liquid crystal display panel 10 (S105). The search can use not only keywords but other attributes such as dates.

Further, when the user wants to see the image information, after finding the search information having the matching keyword, the image information is retrieved using the number of the image information area in the search information (S10).
7). Then, the extracted image information is sent to the display control unit 9, expanded and decoded (S108), and displayed on the liquid crystal display panel 10 (S112, S113, S114).

FIG. 20 shows an example in which images on the front and back sides of the second original at the time of recording are simultaneously displayed. First, the sheet number area "2" is searched from the front and found ( 71c), the image of the surface is taken out. Then, the image on the back side is taken out from the search information (72d) written in the next area.

As described above, since the search information on the back side is always next to the search information on the corresponding front side, it is possible to save the trouble of searching for the back side information from the whole as in the first embodiment.

In this state, if it is desired to see an image with the next matching keyword, the search information area is searched for a further matching image, and if found, it is displayed in the same manner as described above. Further, when it is desired to display only the front surface or only the back surface, the image information may be extracted and displayed by using the necessary search information.

In each of the above embodiments, the retrieved information is displayed, but it may be transmitted to the outside using a communication line or printed using a printer. Further, not only the keyboard but also the communication line may be used to input the information to be retrieved from a distance, or an external storage device such as a floppy disk device may be connected and read from there.

Further, although the control program is stored in the ROM 2 in each of the above-mentioned embodiments, the control program is not necessarily stored in the ROM 2, and for example, the control program stored in a storage device such as a hard disk is read into the RAM 3 and executed. May be.

Further, in the case of the third embodiment, only the search information is written every other, and the image information is written even if the search information is written in order as in the first and second embodiments. Only the number indicating the image information area in the inside is changed, and the searching work is almost unchanged. In such a method, it is not necessary to make a space in the image information area in advance, so when the image information has a variable length, there will be no excess or shortage of the space left, and it is more effective. Is.

Further, a method of feeding, conveying, and reversing an original,
The arrangement of the search information and the image information and the writing method do not necessarily have to be the combinations as in each of the above-described embodiments, and any combination can be made if attention is paid to the change in the order relation of the originals.

[0084]

As described above, according to the present invention,
It is possible to provide an inexpensive image information processing apparatus capable of managing front and back images by using a single-sided document reading unit and a simple document feeding unit.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an outline of a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a document feeding unit of the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an image registration operation of the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a data flow when a keyword is added in the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a data flow when an image is registered in the first embodiment.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a data flow when an image is registered in the first embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an image search operation of the first embodiment.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing a data flow when an image is searched for in the first embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing an image registration operation of the second embodiment.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing a data flow when an image is registered in the second embodiment.

FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram showing a data flow when an image is registered in the second embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing an image search operation of the second embodiment.

FIG. 14 is an explanatory diagram showing a data flow when an image is searched for in the second embodiment.

FIG. 15 is a configuration diagram showing an outline of a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing an image registration operation of the third embodiment.

FIG. 17 is an explanatory diagram showing a data flow when an image is registered in the third embodiment.

FIG. 18 is an explanatory diagram showing a data flow when an image is registered in the third embodiment.

FIG. 19 is a flowchart showing an image search operation of the third embodiment.

FIG. 20 is an explanatory diagram showing a data flow when an image is searched for in the third embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... CPU, 2 ... ROM, 3 ... RAM, 4 ... Keyboard, 5 ... Reading control part, 6 ... 7 Image reading part, 8 ... Optical disk, 9 ... Display control part, 10 ... Liquid crystal display board, 12, 16 ... Paper feed stacker, 14, 17 ... Original document feeding means, 15, 15a ... Original document, 21 ... Belt feed roller, 22 ... Feed belt.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Office reference number FI technical display location H04N 1/00 108 K

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An original feeding unit having no document reverse side mechanism, an image reading unit for reading images on one side of a plurality of originals sequentially fed by the original feeding unit, and read image information. Of the search information stored in the storage means, a search information generating means for generating corresponding search information, a storage means for storing the image information read by the image reading means and the generated search information in a storage medium. In the image information processing apparatus including information retrieval means for retrieving information matching the specified condition, and image information readout means for retrieving image information corresponding to the retrieved search information. Manage the correspondence between the front side image and back side image of each document when the front side image and the back side image of those originals are read by manually reversing the back side. Image information processing apparatus characterized by having means.