JPH08263512A - Document retrieval device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To efficiently retrieve a desired document by reading a document recorded on a recording form and specifying a retrieval range when the same document as the document recorded on the recording form is retrieved. CONSTITUTION: When an optional document among documents saved in a document file storage part 1b is already recorded on the recording form, the recorded document is read out by the optical read part 4a of a document retrieval device 4 and the retrieval range on a display screen is specified through an input device 3. Only through operation like this, the same document as the recorded document can automatically be retrieved. The retrieving operation is therefore greatly reduced and the retrieval time is shortened. Consequently, an editing process for rerecording the retrieved document on the recording form and correcting it on the display screen can speedily be performed and the user interface can be therefore improved.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is applied to a word processor (hereinafter simply referred to as "word processor"), a desktop publishing (DTP: Desktop Publishing), an electronic filing apparatus, and other document editing apparatus, and is recorded on a recording sheet. The present invention relates to a device for retrieving the same document as a document stored in the document editing device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a document created on a display screen can be edited and saved as a file, the saved document can be searched and read, and the read document can be displayed on a display device. A document editing device that can print out with a printer is used.

In such a document editing device, a document is stored in an auxiliary storage device such as a floppy disk (FD), a hard disk (HD), a magneto-optical disk (MO). At this time, a file name or the like is added to each document and saved. The search for the stored document is achieved by inputting and designating the file name and the like from the input device.

[0004]

By the way, when one of the documents stored in the auxiliary storage device is printed on a recording sheet and is already in circulation, the printed document is the above-mentioned document. If you do not know which part of which file is stored in the auxiliary storage device and try to obtain the above document, check the contents of each document stored in the auxiliary storage device to see if it is the desired document. The complicated work of judging is required. Especially when multiple documents with very similar contents are stored, such as contracts or quotation documents, where most of the contents are the same and only some are different, the above confirmation work becomes very complicated. . Therefore, in the above case, there has been a demand for easily searching for a desired document.

On the other hand, for example, an optical character recognition device (OC)
As shown in R), after the document recorded on the recording paper is optically read by the scanner and the character is recognized, the document data corresponding to the document is converted into the character code and displayed on the display screen or as a file. It has been traditionally made to save. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve the above-described technical problem and to perform character recognition on a part or all of a document recorded on a recording sheet to search a file for a corresponding document by a simple operation. The object is to provide a document retrieval device capable of performing the document retrieval.

[0006]

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a document retrieving apparatus for reading a document recorded on a recording sheet and a document storage unit for storing a plurality of documents. Data acquisition means for acquiring the document data corresponding to the document, display means for displaying the document corresponding to the document data acquired by the data acquisition means, and one or more of the documents displayed by the display means When a search range is specified by the search range specifying means and a search range is specified by the search range specifying means, a document including document data whose contents and positional relationship match the document data in the search range is stored in the document storing means. And a retrieval means for retrieving from a plurality of documents stored in the document, and the retrieval means that the contents and the positional relationship with the document data within the designated retrieval range match. When a document including the document data is retrieved, the information related to the retrieved documents, characterized in that it comprises a display control means for displaying in the display means.

The "information relating to the document" is, for example, the address given to the storage area where the document was stored, or the file name when the document is stored with the file name added. Name, etc. are conceivable. Anyway, any information can be specified as long as the document to be searched can be specified with certainty. According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a document search device for storing a plurality of documents in a document storage unit, an external communication device, or document data corresponding to a document created by an external document editing device in a predetermined communication line. A data acquisition unit that acquires the data via the, and a display unit that displays a document corresponding to the document data acquired by the data acquisition unit;
In the document displayed by the display means, a search range designating means capable of designating one or a plurality of search ranges, and when the search range is designated by the search range designating means, document data and contents within the search range and Retrieval means for retrieving a document including document data having a matching positional relationship from a plurality of documents stored in the document storage means, and in this retrieval means, document data and contents within the designated retrieval range and When a document including document data having the same positional relationship is searched, a display control unit for displaying information related to the searched document on the display unit is included.

Further, the document search device according to claim 3 is the document search device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the search area to be specified by the search range specifying means is:
It is a two-dimensional area.

[0009]

In the structure according to the first aspect, when the document data corresponding to the document recorded on the recording sheet is acquired by the data acquisition means, the recorded document is displayed.
After that, when one or a plurality of search ranges are specified from among the displayed documents, the acquired document data within the specified search range includes the document data whose contents and positional relationship match. The document is retrieved from the plurality of documents in the document storage means. As a result, when a document is searched, information related to the document is displayed.

As described above, according to the above configuration, when the recording sheet on which the document stored in the document storing means is recorded is at hand, the same document as the document recorded on the recording sheet is searched. When desired, the document can be searched by a simple operation of reading the document recorded on the recording sheet and designating a search range. Moreover, since the search range can be arbitrarily specified, a desired document can be efficiently searched by using, for example, a characteristic character group not included in another document as the search range.

According to the second aspect of the invention, the document data corresponding to the document created by the external communication device such as a facsimile machine or the external document editing device such as a word processor is acquired through a predetermined communication line. Even in this case, similarly to the configuration described in claim 1, the document corresponding to the acquired character data can be searched by a simple operation of designating the search range.

According to the third aspect of the invention, a two-dimensional area can be designated as the search range. Normally, the probability that a character group included in a two-dimensional area of an arbitrary document of two or more documents will be included in another document as it is is extremely small. for that reason,
With this configuration, the desired document can be searched more efficiently.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. <First Embodiment> FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the structure of a word processor to which the document searching apparatus of the present invention is applied. This word processor has a basic structure of a word processor 1 and a C
A display device 2 including an RT, a liquid crystal display device or a plasma display device, a keyboard, and a pointing device such as a mouse, digitizer or cursor key, and a user manually operates document data including character data, numeric data, and graphic data. An input device 3 for inputting and creating a document on the display screen of the display device 2 is provided.

More specifically, the word processor main body 1 includes a CPU, and a document editing section 1a for performing various editing processes such as a display data conversion process on a document created by the input device 2. A document file storage unit 1b which is composed of a floppy disk (FD), a hard disk (HD), a magneto-optical disk (MO), etc., and which stores the document created by the input device 3 as a file represented by a character code, Also, a document file management control unit 1 that manages and controls the storage of documents in the document file storage unit 1b, the reading of stored documents, the deletion, or the list display.
c is provided.

When saving the document, the user requests the document to be saved via the input device 3. At this time, the file name to be added to the document is also input at the same time. Document editor 1a
Then, when the storage of the document is requested, the document and the file name created by the input device 3 are given to the document file management control unit 1c. The document file management control unit 1c adds the given document to a file name and saves it in a storage area in the document file storage unit 1b to which a unique file number is added.

By the way, the created document is not only stored in the document file storage section 1b, but also usually recorded on a recording sheet by a printer (not shown). Here, for example, when the user reads the document recorded on the recording paper,
When there is a punctuation, when there is a new sentence to be added, or when it is desired to newly record on a recording sheet, it is necessary to retrieve and read the document stored in the document file storage unit 1b.

Therefore, in the word processor of the first embodiment,
A document retrieval device 4 is provided as a component necessary for retrieving and reading the same document as the document already recorded on the recording sheet. This document retrieval device 4 has a CCD (Charge
Coupled Device: An optical reading unit 4a configured by an image scanner or the like for optically reading a document recorded on a recording sheet P (hereinafter referred to as “recorded document”),
The character recognition unit 4b includes a character recognition unit 4b, a recognition dictionary 4c in which characters that can be used in the word processor of the first embodiment and character codes are stored in association with each other, a search character buffer 4d, and a character code matching search unit 4e. Has been.

When the user has a recording sheet on which an arbitrary document is already recorded among the documents stored in the document file storage unit 1b, the user searches the document file storage unit 1b for the recording document. When reading, the recorded document is first read by the optical reading unit 4a. In response to this, the optical reading unit 4a generates recorded document data corresponding to the recorded document. The generated recorded document data is supplied to the character recognition unit 4b and the document editing unit 1a. Document editor 1a
The recorded document data given to the display device 2 is converted into display data and given to the display device 2. As a result, the recorded document is displayed on the display device 2.

The user arbitrarily specifies one or a plurality of one-dimensional continuous search ranges from the displayed recorded document by using the pointing device included in the input device 3. As the search range to be specified, for example, a range including words unique to the document can be considered.
When the search range is designated, the designated search range data is given to the character recognition unit 4b.

In the character recognition section 4b, the optical reading section 4 is used.
The recorded document data corresponding to the search range given from the input device 3 is extracted from the recorded document data given from a. The extracted recorded document data is cut out for each character. Thereafter, for each cut out character, the character code corresponding to each recorded document data is compared and collated with the stored contents of the recognition dictionary 4c and recognized, and the recognized character code is sequentially searched as a search character code string. It is given to the character buffer 4d and temporarily held.

When all the search character code strings are held in the search character buffer 4d, the character code matching search unit 4e
Accesses the document file storage unit 1b via the document file management control unit 1c and searches for a document including a character code string whose content and positional relationship completely match the search character code string. As a result, when a document including a character code string that completely matches is searched, the file number of the document is given to the document editing unit 1a. In the document editing unit 1a,
The document and the file name corresponding to the given file number are read from the document file storage unit 1b via the document file management control unit 1c, and the read document and the corresponding file number are given to the display device 2. As a result, the same document and file name as the recorded document are displayed on the display device 2 together with the file number.

In this state, when the display is designated by the user, the document corresponding to the file name and the file number is displayed on the display device 2. When the user designates recording, the printer records a document corresponding to the file name and file number on recording paper. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a display screen of the display device 2 for more specifically explaining the features of the word processor of the first embodiment. In the following description, it is assumed that a mouse is used as a pointing device.

When the user wants to read the document stored in the document file storage unit 1b, first, the user causes the optical reading unit 4a to read the document recorded on the recording paper P. As a result, as shown in FIG. 2A, the document recorded on the recording paper P is displayed on the display device 2 in the half of the screen together with the mouse pointer M _P. At the same time, the recognition character display field, the directory field, and the search result display field are secured in the other half of the screen.

Next, the user operates the mouse to move the mouse pointer M _P on the display screen to specify a desired one-dimensional continuous search range K _E. For example, when the recorded document includes the word "vacuum device" which seems to be characteristic, the search range K is set to "vacuum device".
Designate as _E (see Fig. 2 (b)). When the search range K _E is specified, the character code corresponding to the “vacuum device” included in the specified search range K _E is changed to the character recognition unit 4b.
Recognized in. At this time, the recognized character "vacuum device"
Is displayed in the recognition character display column of the display device 2 (Fig. 2 (b)
reference). Then, in the character code matching search unit 4e,
The document string storage unit 1b searches for a document including the code string for search characters stored in the search character buffer 4d and the code string whose content and positional relationship completely match, that is, the "vacuum device", and the result thereof. , When a document including a code string that completely matches is searched, the file number corresponding to the searched document (for example, "A: \ DATA \.
... ") is displayed in the directory field, and the file name corresponding to the searched document (for example," Device purchase request (1) ") is also displayed in the search result display field (Fig. 2).
(See (c)).

It is possible that a plurality of documents including "vacuum device" are stored in the document file storage unit 1b. In such a case, the plurality of documents will be read simultaneously. In order to deal with this, instead of "vacuum device" as the search character to be specified, a more specific and characteristic clause such as "vacuum device to be introduced in the third laboratory" is used as the search character. And it is sufficient. As a result, it is possible to improve the probability of reliably identifying the document.

As described above, according to the word processor of the first embodiment, when an arbitrary document among the documents stored in the document file storage unit 1b is already recorded on the recording paper, the recorded document is optically recorded. The same document as the recorded document can be automatically searched for by a very simple operation of causing the target reading unit 4a to read and specifying the search range K _E on the display screen. Therefore, the search work can be significantly reduced and the search time can be shortened. Therefore, it is possible to quickly realize the re-recording of the searched document on the recording sheet and the editing process such as the correction on the display screen. Therefore, the user interface can be improved.

Further, since the search range K _E can be arbitrarily designated, for example, a character group peculiar to a desired document is searched for in the search range K _{E.
With E} , the desired document can be searched efficiently. In addition,
In the above-described first embodiment, the case where a file name is added to a document when the document is stored has been described as an example, but the file name may not be added, for example. Because
In the first embodiment, even if the file name is not added to the document, the document editing unit 1a recognizes the file number and reads the document stored in the storage area corresponding to the recognized file number. This is because the purpose of document retrieval can be achieved by displaying the read document directly on the display device 2. Therefore, according to this configuration, the user's operation becomes simpler and the capacity of the document file storage unit 1b can be saved. <Second Embodiment> FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing another example of the structure of a word processor to which the document searching apparatus of the present invention is applied.
In FIG. 3, the same reference numerals are used for the same functional parts as in FIG.

In the word processor of the second embodiment, as means for acquiring the recorded document data, instead of the optical reading section 4a provided in the word processor of the first embodiment, a public telephone line or a dedicated line is used. An external facsimile device 21 connected to the communication line 20 is used. Therefore,
The word processor of the second embodiment includes a facsimile device 21.
A receiving device 4f is provided for receiving the recorded document data that has been read in and transmitted via the communication line 20.

As described above, according to the word processor of the second embodiment, the recorded document data can be acquired from a remote place via the communication line 20. Instead of the facsimile device 21, a document editing device such as a word processor, a DTP, or an electronic filing device is connected to the communication line 20, and the document created on the display screen of the document editing device or the document editing device is displayed. The document data corresponding to the document created and stored in step S4 is transmitted through the communication line 20, and the transmitted document data is received by the receiving device 4f.
May be received and obtained at.

Further, the document data corresponding to the retrieved document is automatically transmitted through the communication line 20 to the facsimile apparatus 2
1, or may be returned to the document editing device.
With this configuration, the facsimile device 21 or the document editing device can efficiently and easily acquire a document stored in a remote place. <Third Embodiment> FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining another example of the search range designation processing in a word processor to which the document search apparatus of the present invention is applied.

In the first embodiment, the one-dimensional continuous range is
The box is the search range K_EHowever, in this third embodiment
Search for a two-dimensional area, for example, as shown in Fig. 4 (a).
Range K _EIt is said that. At this time, the number of characters in each line
Is at least 2 characters (for example, 5-6 characters)
Is preferred. By the way, the search range K for the two-dimensional area_EWhen
If you do this search range K_EBetween each line contained in
There is no written connection and each line may be independent
Many. In such a case, if the search range K_Einclude
Search processing is performed assuming that there is a document connection between each line.
For example, the document to be searched is the document file storage unit 1b.
Even if the document is saved in the
Yes.

Therefore, in the word processor of the third embodiment, when the two-dimensional area is designated as the search range K _E , the search character code group 4 is used for the search character code group in line units.
A document containing a character code group whose contents and positional relationship match the stored search character code group is searched line by line. At this time, the order of lines to be searched is arbitrary. Then, if there is a document including a character code group whose contents and positional relationships are the same in all lines, the document is regarded as a document to be searched.

As described above, according to the word processor of the third embodiment, since the two-dimensional area is set as the search range K _E , compared with the word processor of the first embodiment, the search character code group, the contents and the positional relationship. Document file saving section 1b with matching
The character code group in can be narrowed down. In other words,
For example, as shown in FIG. 4B, when a one-dimensional continuous "vacuum device" is set as the search area K _E , a document including the character string "vacuum device" is relatively stored in the document file storage unit 1b. It is highly likely that many are stored, while Figure 4
As shown in (c), when the area including “vacuum” and “is” is set as the search area K _E , there is almost no possibility that a document including a character group having such a positional relationship is stored,
It is likely that only the documents to be searched. Therefore, the document to be searched can be specified more efficiently and quickly. This effect is particularly effective for documents that differ only in part, such as contracts and quotations.

Further, the search range K _E is not limited to one line and may be any range as long as it is a two-dimensional range. Therefore, there is no restriction on the work for designating the search range K _E. for that reason,
The operability can be improved. <Other Embodiments> The embodiments of the present invention have been described above, but the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. For example, in the above-described first embodiment, when the document in the document file storage unit 1b is specified, it is determined whether or not the search character code string and the character code string in the document file storage unit 1b completely match. However, for example, it may be determined whether or not the search character code string and the character code string match at a predetermined ratio or more with respect to their contents and positional relationship.

More specifically, for example, when "vacuum device" is designated as the search range K _E and when the "vacuum device" is erroneously recognized as "investigation device" by the character recognition unit 1d, the above-mentioned In the first, second or third embodiment,
It will be searched whether or not there is a document that contains a character code string whose content and positional relationship completely match the search character code string corresponding to the "search device". I can't.

On the other hand, in the above configuration, even if the “vacuum device” is erroneously recognized as the “investigation device”,
If there is a document that contains a character code string corresponding to the “true device” (where ◯ is an arbitrary character), that document is considered to be the document to be searched. That is, if the contents and the positional relationship match at a rate of 3/4 or more, the code strings are considered to match.

It is needless to say that it is preferable that the ratio used as the judgment criterion can be arbitrarily changed. As described above, according to the above configuration, since the code matching search is performed with some ambiguity, the reading accuracy of the optical reading unit 4a or the character recognition unit 1d, for example.
Even if the recognition accuracy of is not sufficient, the document to be searched can be surely searched.

If, for example, it is known in advance that "empty" is erroneously recognized as "study", it is the same as "study" and "empty" in the character code matching search section 4e. A database that regards characters may be provided. With this configuration, it is not necessary to perform a process of determining whether or not the degree of coincidence is equal to or higher than a predetermined ratio, so that the control can be simplified.

In each of the above embodiments, the document data corresponding to the document to be searched is acquired from the document recorded on the recording paper P or the document created by the external document editing device. Alternatively, the document data may be acquired from the document that is being created on the current display screen that has quoted a part of the document stored in the document file storage unit 1b.

More specifically, it is assumed that there is a case where it is desired to know the content of the quoted document in the document currently being created on the display screen having the quoted portion. In such a case, the search range K _E is manually specified in the quoted portion of the document being created on the display screen. In response to this, the search character data string within the search range K _E is stored in the search character buffer 4
given to d. Then, the character code matching search unit 4e searches for a document including a character code string whose content and positional relationship match the search character data string at a predetermined matching degree, and as a result of the search, the information related to the document is searched. Is displayed on the display device 2.

As described above, according to this configuration, the optical reading section 4a or the receiving device 4f is different from the above-described embodiments.
Is unnecessary, the configuration can be simplified. Further, in each of the above embodiments, an example in which the document search device of the present invention is applied to a word processor has been described, but it goes without saying that the document search device of the present invention can also be applied to, for example, a DTP or electronic filing device.

In addition, various design changes can be made within the scope of the present invention.

[0043]

As described above, according to the document retrieval apparatus of the first aspect, when the recording sheet on which the document stored in the document storage means is recorded is recorded, the recording sheet is recorded on the recording sheet. If the user wants to search for the same document as the specified document, the same document can be searched for by a simple operation of reading the document recorded on the recording sheet and specifying the search range. Therefore, the user's search work can be simplified and the search time can be shortened. Therefore, it is possible to quickly realize the re-recording of the searched document on the recording sheet and the editing process such as the correction on the display screen.
Therefore, the user interface can be improved.

In addition, since the search range can be arbitrarily specified, a desired document can be efficiently searched by, for example, setting a characteristic character group not included in another document as the search range. Further, according to the document search device of the second aspect, even if there is a document in an external communication device or an external document editing device, the same document as the above document is searched by a simple operation of designating a search range. it can.

Further, according to the document retrieval apparatus of the third aspect, it is possible to specify a two-dimensional area in which the probability that the characters contained therein are contained only in the document to be retrieved is extremely high as the retrieval range. Documents can be searched more efficiently.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a word processor of a first embodiment in which recorded document data is acquired by an optical reading unit to which a document search device of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen of a display device for explaining the flow of search processing in the word processor. Of these, Figure 2 (a) is an example of the display screen when the recorded document is read,
Fig. 2 (b) shows an example of the display screen when the search range is specified.
(c) shows an example of a display screen when a desired document is searched.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a word processor of a second embodiment for acquiring recorded document data from an external communication device to which the document search device of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a case where a two-dimensional area is set as a search range in the word processor.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 word processor body 1a document editing unit 1b document file storage unit 1c document file management control unit 2 display device 3 input device 4 document retrieval device 4a optical reading unit 4b character recognition unit 4c recognition dictionary 4d search character buffer 4e character code match Search unit 4f Receiver 20 Communication line 21 Facsimile device

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A document storage unit for storing a plurality of documents, a data acquisition unit for reading a document recorded on a recording sheet and acquiring document data corresponding to the document, and a data acquisition unit acquired by the data acquisition unit. Display means for displaying a document corresponding to the document data, search range designating means for designating one or a plurality of search ranges in the document displayed by the display means, and search range designating means for the search range designating means. Then, a search means for searching a document including document data whose content and positional relationship match the document data within the search range from the plurality of documents stored in the document storage means, and the search means. , When a document including document data whose content and positional relationship match the document data within the specified search range is searched, the document is related to the searched document. Document retrieval system which comprises a display control means for displaying the broadcast in the display means. 2. A document storage unit for storing a plurality of documents, and a data acquisition for acquiring document data corresponding to a document created by an external communication device or an external document editing device via a predetermined communication line. Means, display means for displaying a document corresponding to the document data acquired by the data acquisition means, search range specifying means for specifying one or a plurality of search ranges in the document displayed by the display means, When the search range is designated by the search range designating means, a document including document data whose contents and positional relationship match the document data in the search range is selected from the plurality of documents stored in the document storing means. Retrieval means for retrieving, and the retrieval means retrieves a document containing document data whose content and positional relationship match the document data within the designated retrieval range. , Document search apparatus characterized by the information related to the retrieved documents and a display control means for displaying in the display means. 3. The document search device according to claim 1, wherein the search area to be specified by the search range specifying means is a two-dimensional area.