JPH08194830A - Method and device for synthesizing character information and picture - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To make it possible to relationally add the information of user's various data bases to an optional position on a graphic/picture. CONSTITUTION: This synthesizing device is provided with a display control means 34 for displaying an optional part of previously prepared picture data as a background picture, a retrieving position specifying means for specifying a required position on the displayed background picture by plotting a graphic surrounding the area of the required position, a graphic information registering means 31 for registering the plotting information and positional information of the graphic in a storage medium as graphic information, and a character information registering means 32 for registering optional character information specified for the graphic in the storage medium correspondingly to the graphic information. The device is also provided with a picture position retrieving means 34 for inputting the character information as a retrieving key and finding out the position on the picture based upon the graphic information registered correspondingly to the character information.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for synthesizing character information and an image and an apparatus therefor, and particularly to an arbitrary position or area on an image, adding arbitrary character information for managing the position. The present invention relates to a method for synthesizing character information and an image, and a device therefor so as to obtain the position on the image using any character information as a search key.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the case of obtaining a part of the graphic information stored in a database or the like and displaying it on a display device, conventionally, for example, a search key for the information or the information containing the information is previously prepared. Is set, and the information is obtained from the search key. For example, a so-called “map information system (GIS: Geogr) system for analyzing attribute information about a map using a computer.
afical Information System
In "m)", the information associated with the topographic map can be analyzed by specifying the search key to obtain the desired information.

Further, a system for managing facilities (facility) and position information on a map in association with each other, so-called "FM (F
“Ability Management” ”is used for traffic control and power distribution management, etc., and it is possible to search facilities at high speed using topographic maps as indexes.
The equipment information managed by M includes roads, water and sewage systems, telephones, electric power, gas, railways, and plants. Examples of FM construction include NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation) 's telephone equipment management design system. Tokyo Gas's “Totalmap”
"Inng System".

Another example of displaying a map on a screen to display related information for a designated place is a so-called "navigation system". In navigation systems, the method of knowing the direction of travel with a precise gyro sensor mounted on the car, combining it with the vehicle speed sensor to show the distance traveled, and trying to move the vehicle mark on the map (self-contained navigation) has been known from the past. Has been. In addition, recently, a map database in which any one of a satellite, a geomagnetic sensor, a roadside sign post, or a combination thereof is used to send position information to a car and the position information is stored in a CD (compact disc) inside the car. A navigation system that automatically displays the map of the current location on the display and automatically displays the position of your car on the map has been realized.

In such a navigation system, there are a display in which an arrow showing a destination and a flag showing a waypoint are displayed in different colors according to the order of passage, and a guidance is given by voice. In addition, it has a map search function, and if you enter a tourist attraction, city name, address, or phone number on the display screen as a search key for a departure point or a destination, the part where the location is searched will be displayed. It is also possible to display a map including the map.

[0006]

By the way, recently, information sources have been diversified, and various kinds of information can be obtained in various forms such as taking in desired information through a network or obtaining it from an optical disk such as a CD-ROM. can do. Further, in many cases, an original user database is constructed such that the user creates information unique to the user and stores it in the user database. However, in the above-mentioned conventional information retrieval system such as the map information system, FM, and navigation system, the attribute information and the retrieval key related to the figure / image are set in advance,
The information that the user has could not be used. For example, graphics such as maps, blueprints, and various structural drawings
When it is desired to add information of various user databases to an image in association with each other, there is no means for adding.
In addition, it was not possible to combine and display the information of the user related to the corresponding place on the figure / image such as a map, or to search for the corresponding place using the setting information of the user as a key.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to allow a user to select an arbitrary position of a figure / image such as a map, a design drawing, or a structural drawing of various structures. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for synthesizing character information and images, which can add information of various databases in association with each other. Another object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for synthesizing character information and an image, in which a desired image can be displayed by searching the position of a figure / image using the added character information as a search key. .

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for synthesizing character information and an image, and the above object of the present invention is to display an arbitrary portion of image data created in advance as a background image. Then, a desired position on the displayed background image is drawn and designated by drawing a figure surrounding the area,
This is achieved by registering the drawing information and the position information of the graphic as graphic information in the storage medium, and by registering any character information designated for the graphic in the storage medium in association with the graphic information.

Another object of the present invention is to search the position on the image by inputting the character information as a search key and based on the graphic information registered corresponding to the character information. This is achieved by obtaining the position on the image so that the position on the image can be obtained using arbitrary character information as a search key.

[0010]

In the present invention, the position of the target image is drawn and designated, the graphic information of the drawn graphic is registered, and the arbitrary character information designated for the graphic is registered. Register in association with graphic information. Therefore, it is possible to add arbitrary character information for managing the position to an arbitrary position or area on the image, and it becomes possible to effectively use the information that the user has, and to use the unique information. The system can be easily constructed.
Further, since the position on the image can be obtained by using the added character information as a search key, it becomes possible to easily construct an information search system for searching the corresponding place by using the setting information of the user as a key. .

[0011]

EXAMPLES Graphic tools are roughly divided into two parts: a "paint tool" and a "draw tool".
The paint tool is a tool that creates an image by embedding a figure on the campus. The embedded figure is assimilated to pixels on the campus, and you cannot operate on the embedded figure except to cancel the drawing. On the other hand, the draw tool is a tool for arranging figures on the campus to create an image, and the arranged figures can be moved, updated, or deleted. One of the reasons that the draw tool can be used is that each figure has its type and placement position as information. Utilizing this, the present invention proposes means for adding information related to an arbitrary position and area of an image, and means for searching the position of the image using the added related information as a search key.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a main part of a character information / image combining device of the present invention.
The outline of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. In the same figure, graphic / image information such as maps, design drawings, and various structural drawings are stored in the image file 5. This figure / image is displayed on the display device 2, and the user draws a figure surrounding a desired position on the image by using the input device 1 having operation means such as a keyboard, a mouse and a light pen. And specify. Information on the drawn graphic is stored in the central processing unit 3.
It is registered in the graphic information storage unit 41 in the information storage unit 4 by the graphic information registration means 31 therein.

[0013] The user draws at the designated place
Input device 1 for arbitrary character information for managing the place
Enter from. The character information input from the user database DB or the like via the input device 1 is the character information registration means 3
2 is registered in the character information storage unit 42 in the information storage unit 4. The correspondence between the registered graphic information and character information is registered and managed in the management table 43 in the information storage unit 4. A plurality of the above character information can be registered for one place, and the same character information can be registered for a plurality of places.

Furthermore, the corresponding position on the image can be searched using the character information registered by the user as a search key. When the search instruction is issued, the image position in the central processing unit 3 is searched. The search means 33 searches the graphic information registered corresponding to the character information, and calculates the position on the image based on the graphic information. Then, the display control means 34 in the central processing unit 3 displays an image including the position on the display device. As described above, the apparatus shown in FIG. 3 has a search function for obtaining a position on the image by using the registered character information as a search key, in addition to the function of adding the related information.

With such a configuration, the method of synthesizing the character information and the image of the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Here, using a map as an example, a procedure for adding information of a user related to the place to an arbitrary place on the map will be described. FIG. 4 shows a file configuration example of the image file 5 in which the image information of the map is stored. The displayed map portion is displayed in the designated direction after the portion is displayed by page designation, place name designation, etc. An arbitrary portion can be displayed by scrolling.

First, the user, as shown in FIG. 5A, includes a map portion including a place P1 to which information is to be added,
For example, the portion of the image portion F1 in FIG. 4 is displayed on the display portion 2a of the display device 2 as a background image (step S11). Next, as shown in FIG. 5 (B), the user draws a graphic G1 that surrounds the area P1 on the displayed image and specifies it (step S12).

When the corresponding place P1 is designated, the graphic information registration means 31 in the central processing unit 3 causes the drawn graphic G1.
Along with the drawing information, the coordinate values on the image are stored in the graphic information storage unit 41 as graphic information. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, the display area of the display device 2 has a width of 400 dots and a height of 20 dots.
Assuming 0 dots, the coordinate value (180, 110) of the upper left corner of the graphic display area is stored as the coordinate information of the graphic G1 together with the position information of the display image portion on the image file (step S13).

Then, the user gives an instruction to register the character information related to the place P1. FIG. 7 shows an example of a registration screen when the related information is directly input from a keyboard or the like, and the related information to be registered (= search key information: in the present invention, the character information is the search key of the corresponding place P1). Is entered in the text box Wa in the display unit 2a. As the related information, for example, an arbitrary character string representing information for managing the place, such as a character string "-machi-chome xxx" indicating the address of the portion P1 of the map or customer information, is input. In the figure, when the search key KEYG12 for the figure G1 is input and then the add button is instructed, the search key KEYG12 is registered, and a display window Wb showing a list of registered search key information for the figure G1.
(In the figure, KEYG11 is already registered) is additionally displayed (step S14).

When the related information is input and the user gives a registration instruction, the character information registration means 32 associates the corresponding graphic information with the character information and registers the character information in the character information storage unit 42. To do. FIG. 8 shows a configuration example of the information storage unit 4, and the management table 43 includes management information of each graphic information registered in the graphic information storage unit 41 and characters registered in the character information storage unit 42. It is composed of link information of an information group.

Here, a specific example of the method of associating the graphic information and the character information will be described with reference to FIG. 8. First, the graphic information registration means 31 stores the graphic information G1, G2 and G3 in the graphic information storage. When registering in the section 41, the management code K1,
K2 and K3 are added, and the management code and the storage addresses G1a, G2a, and G3a of the graphic information are registered in the management table 43. Then, the character information registration means 32 causes the character information KEY.
When registering G11 to KEYG32, the character information is registered in the character information storage unit 42 together with the management code corresponding to the corresponding graphic information.

In the example of the figure, the character information corresponding to the graphic information G1 is KEYG11 and KEYG12, the character information corresponding to the graphic information G2 is KEYG12, and the character information corresponding to the graphic information G3 is KEYG31 and KEYG32. In this way, a plurality of character information (search keys) may be designated for one piece of graphic information, and the correspondence between graphic information and character information is the same, such as the same character information for a plurality of graphic information. It can be specified and registered arbitrarily (step S
15).

If there is other information to be added to the same figure, the process returns to step 14 and the processing is repeated (step S16). If character information is to be added to another place on the map, , And returns to step S11 (step S12 if present on the display image) and repeats the processing (step S17). Then, if there is no additional information, the registration process ends. In the above procedure, the character information is registered after the graphic information is registered. However, after registering all the graphic information, that is, after designating all the target places, the corresponding graphic is selected. It is also possible to register each character information.

By the above procedure, the information on the figure and the character information indicating the position on the map can be associated with each other. Therefore, when searching for an arbitrary position, the character information indicating the place (related information) is searched. However, the position on the image representing the place can be obtained from the graphic information associated with the character information.

The search operation includes a "character string specification" operation for specifying a single search key and a "file specification" operation for specifying a plurality of search keys. First, the search procedure when "character string designation" is performed will be described. When the user designates a search command of "character string designation", the display control means 34 displays a guide screen as shown in FIG. 9A on the display unit 2a. The user inputs a search key in the text box Wa in the display unit 2a and instructs a search button. When the search button is instructed, the image position searching means 3
In 3, the search key registered in the character information storage unit 42 is searched, and if registered, the corresponding graphic information is read from the graphic information storage unit 41 by referring to the management table 43.

Then, the position on the image is obtained based on the graphic information, and the corresponding image information is read from the image file 5. In the display control means 34, as shown in FIG. 9B, the display area is arranged such that the position P1 is arranged at a predetermined position on the display screen (for example, the central portion of the display window in the display unit 2a). Adjust and display the map image. At this time, the display control means 34 highlights the corresponding place by displaying the inside of the area of the graphic G1 in reverse video. Here, the corresponding place may be clearly indicated by combining the graphic G1 and displaying it, or by displaying the inside of the area in a color different from the background image. Further, the character information may be displayed in the same window, not in another window, in association with the relevant place (displayed by association with a leader line, an arrow, a code, etc.).

When the same search key is registered in a plurality of places on the image, the above search operation is repeated every time the "search next" instruction is issued, and the corresponding image is searched. Displayed sequentially. The displayed order is the registration order,
The order can be changed according to the change instruction.

Next, a search procedure by "file designation",
That is, a procedure for designating a plurality of character information (search key information) and sequentially searching for the position will be described with reference to a specific example. For example, there is a user database D1 that stores data (character information group) as shown in FIG.
In the figure, "KEYA" to "KEYE" respectively
Is character information that is related information of the image position. In this case, first, the user selects the search key parts KEYA and KEY from the data managed in the database.
Only B, ..., KEYE are extracted, and the line feed data is output to the text file TX1 as classification information, for example, as shown in FIG.

The user gives a search command by instructing a search command of "file designation" and inputting the file name of the text file TX1 (or selecting a file name already registered from the list). When the file name is input, the image position searching means 33 reads the character information group from the text file TX1 and regards each data segmented by the segment information as each retrieval key, as shown in FIG. It is expanded in the character information storage unit 42. Here, the character information group representing the position on the image to be searched created in the character information storage unit 42 from the text file as described above is called "search key information", and the character information group added to the drawn figure That is, as shown in FIG. 8, a character information group to which a management code is added and registration processing is performed is referred to as “registered key information”.

Next, a search process when a search start instruction is given by "file designation" will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Where the text file T
The search key specified by X1 will be described on the assumption that registered keys and unregistered keys are mixed.

When a search start instruction is given by "file designation", the image position search means 33 causes the character information storage unit 4 to operate.
It is positioned at the head of "search key information" in 2 (KEYA in the example of FIG. 10C) (step S21). Then, if there is an unchecked search key, it is positioned at the head of the registered key information (KEYG11 in the example of FIG. 8) (steps S22 and S23). Then, it is determined whether or not there is an unchecked registered key (step S
24) If there is not, it is positioned at the position of the next search key information (step S25), and the process returns to step S22 to perform the process for the next search key information. If there is an unchecked registered key in step S24, it is determined whether the search key and the registered key match (step S2).
6). If they do not match, the process returns to step S24 and the process for the unchecked registered key is repeated.

If the search key matches the registered key, the management table 43 is referred to obtain the graphic information having the registered key from the graphic information storage unit 41, and the corresponding graphic information on the image is acquired based on the graphic information. The position is obtained, and the corresponding image information is read from the image file 5 (step S27). Then, the display control means 34 adjusts the display area of the screen so that the position is displayed in, for example, the central portion of the display screen, and displays it on the display unit of the display device 2 (step S28).

When the user wants to perform the next search,
Instruct the "Find Next" button. When the "search next" button is instructed (step S29), the image position searching means 3
In 3, the position is set to the next registered key information (step S
30) and returns to step S24 to repeat the above operation. Then, if it is determined in step S22 that the search process for all the search keys is completed, or if a search end instruction is issued in step S29, the search process is ended.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, the case where the character information is added as the related information is given as an example.
It is also possible to specify image information such as an arbitrary mark or color information as related information. In addition, the figure serving as the background image is arbitrary and is not limited to the map.

[0034]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to register arbitrary character information for any position and area of an image as related information, and by designating the related information, the related information can be changed. The position on the corresponding image can be obtained. Therefore, the information of the user can be registered and managed at an arbitrary position of the image, and the information possessed by the user can be effectively used. For example, by using address data and customer data in an existing database such as customer management software, it becomes possible to display the information on the city map as information indicating the position. Further, since the position on the image can be searched and the image can be displayed by using the registered text information as a search key, the information search system for searching the corresponding place by using the user's setting information as a key can be facilitated. It is possible to build.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a main part of a character information / image combining device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a procedure for combining character information and an image according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an image position search procedure according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of an image file used in the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining an example of an image position specifying method according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining an example of an image position storage method according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining a first example of a character information registration method according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a conceptual diagram showing a configuration example of an information storage unit in the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining an image position searching method according to the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining a second example of the character information registration method according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Input device 2 Display device 3 Central processing part 31 Graphic information registration means 32 Character information registration means 33 Image position search means 34 Display control means 4 Information storage part 41 Graphic information storage part 42 Character information storage part 43 Management table 5 Image file

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Internal reference number FI Technical display location G06T 1/00 9194-5L G06F 15/401 310 C 15/60 614 Z 15/66 450

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. An arbitrary portion of image data created in advance is displayed as a background image, and a desired position on the displayed background image is drawn and designated by drawing a figure surrounding the area.
By registering the drawing information and the position information of the graphic as the graphic information in the storage medium, and by registering the arbitrary character information designated for the graphic in the storage medium in association with the graphic information, A method for synthesizing character information and an image, wherein arbitrary character information for managing the position can be added to an arbitrary position or area. 2. When searching a position on the image, the character information is input as a search key, and the position on the image is obtained based on the graphic information registered corresponding to the character information. The method for synthesizing character information and an image according to claim 1, wherein the position on the image can be obtained by using the arbitrary character information as a search key. 3. After obtaining the position on the image using the character information as a search key, the display area is adjusted and displayed so that the position is arranged at a predetermined position on the display screen. The method for synthesizing character information and an image according to claim 2, wherein. 4. After obtaining the position on the image using the character information as a search key, when displaying an image including the position, an image of a graphic corresponding to the search key is combined with the position. The method for synthesizing character information and an image according to claim 2 or 3, which is displayed. 5. After obtaining the position on the image using the character information as a search key, when displaying an image including the position, the area of the figure corresponding to the search key is highlighted. 5. The method for synthesizing character information and an image according to claim 2, wherein: 6. A display control means for displaying an arbitrary portion of previously created image data as a background image, and a search for designating a desired position on the displayed background image by drawing a figure surrounding the area. Position specifying means, graphic information registration means for registering drawing information and position information of the graphic as graphic information in a storage medium, and arbitrary character information specified for the graphic in association with the graphic information Character information registering means for registering the character information with the image information, and adding arbitrary character information for managing the position to an arbitrary position or area of the image. apparatus. 7. The character information is input as a search key,
7. The character information and image synthesizing apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising image position searching means for obtaining the position on the image based on the graphic information registered corresponding to the character information.