JPH09114843A - Device and method for controlling film - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To quickly display a folder having a reduced image as a representative image. SOLUTION: The reduced image data having the number of picture element reduced from original image data is prepared, and the reduced image data is recorded with the original image data in a recording medium. When four of original image data is recorded as files IMG0000. IMG to IMG0003. IMG, plural reduced image data is collected in a file and a file is continuously recorded in the recording medium. For instance, as a file IDX0000. IMG, the reduced image data of IMG0000. IMG and IMG0001. IMG is recorded. As an IDX0001. IMG, the reduced image data of IMG0002. IMG and IMG0003. IMG is recorded. By recording the image data in this way, the number of times of file access is reduced when reduced image data is read and the display of a folder can be quickly performed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a file management apparatus and method for recording an original image and a reduced image of the image on a recording medium, and more particularly to a file management apparatus and method for recording a plurality of reduced images in continuous areas. Regarding

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the recent advances in the performance of arithmetic units and their peripheral devices, digital images have come into wide use. Therefore, in various devices, it has become necessary to store a large amount of digital image data in a recording medium such as MD (mini disk) Data (trademark) or read out and display the stored image data.

For example, in an electronic file device, when a manuscript is read by a scanner and a large amount of image data corresponding to the document is stored in a recording medium, for example, when a process related to predetermined image data is performed, the image data in the image data The operation of selecting one image data from is required. In such a case, a list of image data (reduced image data) obtained by reducing the original image data (original image data) is displayed, and the user operates the mouse or the like to display the reduced image corresponding to the desired image data. It is possible to make it select.

When displaying a list of such reduced image data, reduced image data corresponding to the original image data is created in advance and stored together with the original image data in a predetermined recording medium, and only the reduced image data is displayed. Can be read from the recording medium and displayed.

When the reduced image data is recorded on the recording medium, a file of each image data is managed as shown in FIG. 11, for example. In the file management shown in FIG. 11, original image data (in this example, two original image data IMG0000.
IMG and IMG0001. IMG) is accumulated and I
Reduced data obtained by reducing these original image data in a directory NDEX (in this example, two reduced image data IDX0000.IMG and IDX0
001. IMG) is accumulated. That is, in this example, one file contains one reduced image data.

Therefore, when the reduced images are to be displayed all at once, 1 is selected from the file containing the reduced image data.
The reduced image data is read out one by one. In FIG. 11, two reduced image data IDX0000. IM
G and IDX0001. Read each IMG.
As shown in FIG. 12, these file IDX000
0. IMG and IDX0001. In many cases, the IMG is not physically recorded continuously on a recording medium such as a magneto-optical disk, and two file accesses are required to read the data.

When files having reduced image data are accidentally and physically arranged consecutively on a recording medium, the number of file accesses decreases, but in the conventional file management method, For multiple files,
Even with one file, it is not guaranteed to record these in physically continuous areas. Therefore, in order to read the data of all the reduced images, it is necessary to perform file access approximately the same number of times as the number of reduced images.

[0008]

As described above, in a situation where file management is performed in which one file has only one reduced image data, the reduced image is displayed in order to display the reduced images all together. When reading data,
File access is performed almost the same number of times as the number of reduced images. Therefore, particularly when the recording medium is a magneto-optical disk having a relatively slow access speed, it takes a lot of time to read the reduced image data, and it is difficult to quickly display the reduced images collectively. There is.

The present invention has been made in view of such a situation, and a predetermined number of reduced image data are collected in one file, and the beginning to the end of the file are recorded in a continuous area of a recording medium. Thus, the number of file accesses when reading the reduced image data is reduced, and the reduced images are collectively displayed quickly.

[0010]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a file management apparatus which records an original image and a reduced image obtained by reducing the original image on a recording medium, and controls the recording unit to form one file. And a control means for arranging a plurality of reduced images and recording the file in a continuous area of the recording medium.

The file management method according to claim 3 is 1
It is characterized in that a plurality of reduced images are arranged in one file and the files are recorded in continuous areas of the recording medium.

In the file management apparatus according to the first aspect, the recording means records the original image and the reduced image obtained by reducing the original image on the recording medium, and the control means controls the recording means.
A plurality of reduced images are arranged in one file, and the files are recorded in continuous areas of the recording medium.

In the file management method according to the third aspect, a plurality of reduced images are arranged in one file and the files are recorded in continuous areas of the recording medium.

[0014]

FIG. 1 shows an example of the configuration of an embodiment of an electronic file device to which the file management device of the present invention is applied. This embodiment includes a CPU 1 as a control unit and an MD Data drive 8 as a recording unit. The CPU 1 is adapted to perform various processes in accordance with a user's input from the input unit 10 in accordance with a program stored in the ROM 2. And RA
The M3 is adapted to temporarily store programs and data when the CPU 1 performs processing.

The CPU 1 creates reduced image data by reducing the number of data pixels from the original image data read by the scanner 4 and stored in the buffer memory 5. Normally, the screen size of the liquid crystal display (LCD) 7 is, for example, 480 vertical pixels and 640 horizontal pixels. In this embodiment, a document of A4 size is placed 172 vertically.
Eight pieces of pixel data (original image data) of 2368 pieces are captured. Therefore, the CPU 1 reduces the number of pixels on each side of the A4 document to 1/4 and creates reduced image data (about 32 kilobytes) composed of 432 pixels in the vertical direction and 592 pixels in the horizontal direction.

Further, the CPU 1 controls the MD Data drive 8 for the original image data stored in the buffer memory 5 and the reduced image data generated from the original image data to control the MD which is a recording medium of a magneto-optical disk. Dat
a9, or MD Data Drive 8 is MD D
The reduced image data read out from the data 9 is output to the liquid crystal display 7 via the LCD control circuit 6.

The CPU 1 has a plurality of reduced image data
One file is configured and MD Data drive 8 is controlled, and MD Data from the beginning to the end of the file is set.
The data is recorded in a continuous area of a9.
In this way, by recording the file in one continuous area on the MDData 9, a read position jump to another area (discontinuous area) can be prevented from occurring during reading of the reduced image file, and the file can be saved. It is possible to prevent the read time from being prolonged.

When continuously recording from the beginning to the end of the file, the CPU 1 controls the MD Data drive 8 to make a cluster of MD Data 9 (MD Data).
, A cluster with a capacity of 64 kilobytes (=
The recording operation is performed in units of 32 sectors), and an unused cluster is searched for, and recording of the file is started from the head of the cluster. Therefore, the end portion of the file to the end portion of the cluster may remain unused, but it is possible to reduce the unused area by adjusting the number of reduced image data included in one file. it can.

As described above, the reduced image data is recorded in the MDData 9 as one file for each predetermined number, and the original image data is recorded as one file in MData.
Recorded in DData9. Further, the CPU 1 creates a management file that records the correspondence between the original image data and the reduced image data, and controls the MD Data drive 8 to control the MD.
Record in Data9.

In the example of the file management shown in FIG. 2, one file has two reduced image data, and four files (IMG0000.IMG to IMG000) corresponding to four original image data are provided.
3. IMG), and two files (IDX0000.IMG and IDX0001.IM) each containing two reduced image data obtained by reducing the original image data.
According to G), the image data is accumulated.

Then, the management file IMG_INF. I
NF has a file IDX0000.
The file name of the original image data corresponding to the reduced image data included in the IMG, and the file IDX0001. IMG
The name of the file of the original image data corresponding to the reduced image data included in is recorded. File IDX0000.
IMG, IDX0001. Since each IMG has two reduced image data, IMG_INF. IN
In F, the names of all four files are recorded.

In the case of this embodiment, the name of the file is simply represented by a four-digit number. For example, 0000 is
File IMG0000. It represents IMG. In the present case, IDX0000. IMG is IMG0000. I
MG and IMG0001. IDX0001.IMG has the reduced image data of the original image data of IMG. IMG
, IMG0002. IMG and IMG0003. I
Since the MG has the reduced image data of the original image data, the IMG_INF. These tables (correspondences) are recorded in the INF.

In this way, by storing two reduced image data in one file, for example, in the case of the reduced image of A4 (about 32 kilobytes), the length of one file becomes 64 kilobytes, and the length of MD Data9 is reduced. Since the length is almost the same as that of the cluster, it is possible to prevent the unused portion of the cluster from occurring and to efficiently use MD Data.

Next, in the example of the file management shown in FIG. 4, one file has 16 reduced image data, and 101 files (IMG0000) corresponding to 101 original image data. .IMG to IMG0100.IMG) and seven files (IDX0000.IMG) corresponding to 101 reduced image data.
Through IDX0006. Image data is stored by the IMG). IDX0000. IMG to IDX0
005. Each of the IMGs has 16 reduced image data, and IDX0006. The IMG has 5 pieces of reduced image data.

Then, the management file IMG_INF. I
As shown in FIG. 5, the NF has a file IDX0000.
IMG to IDX0006. The name of the file of the original image data corresponding to the reduced image data of each IMG is recorded.

In this example, IDX0000. IM
G is IMG0000. IMG to IMG0015. I
It has reduced image data of the original image data that MG has, and in the following order, IDX0001. IMG is IMG001
6. IMG to IMG0031. IMG has reduced image data of original image data, and IDX0002. IM
G is IMG0032. IMG to IMG0047. I
It has the reduced image data of the original image data that MG has,
DX0003. IMG is IMG0048. IMG to IMG0063. It has reduced image data of the original image data that the IMG has.

Then, IDX0004. IMG is IM
G0064. IMG to IMG0079. IDG000 that has reduced image data of original image data that IMG has.
5. IMG is IMG0080. IMG to IMG00
95. IMG has reduced image data of original image data, and IDX0006. IMG is IMG0096. I
MG to IMG0100. It has reduced image data of the original image data that the IMG has.

Next, referring to the flowchart of FIG.
The image data recording operation in the above embodiment will be described.

When an original reading command is input from the input unit 10, first in step S1, the scanner 4 reads the originals and writes the original image data of those originals in the buffer memory 5.

Next, in step S2, the CPU 1
Reads the original image data from the buffer memory 5, creates reduced image data from the image data, and temporarily stores it in the RAM 3.

Then, in step S3, the CPU 1
Outputs the original image data stored in the buffer memory 5 to the MD Data drive 8 one by one, and outputs those data to the IMGxxxx. The file name is IMG (xxxx is a four-digit integer) and is recorded in MD Data 9.

Next, in step S4, the CPU 1
The data is output from the RAM 3 to the MD Data drive 8, and IDX is output for each predetermined number of reduced image data.
xxxx. The file name is IMG (xxxx is a four-digit integer) and is recorded in MD Data 9.

Here, the operation of recording the reduced image data in the MD Data 9 will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, in step S21, the CPU
1 controls the MD Data drive 8 to drive MD Data
Find a free cluster on ta9. Here, the empty cluster means a cluster in which no data is recorded at all, and a cluster in which data is recorded even in a part thereof is not regarded as an empty cluster.

Next, in step S22, the CPU 1
Controls the MD Data drive 8 to perform step S
From the beginning of the empty cluster found in 21 to the beginning to the end of one file of reduced image data is recorded continuously.

When there are a plurality of files of reduced image data, if there are continuous clusters, each file is recorded therein, and if there are no continuous clusters, they are recorded in file units in arbitrary clusters. .

By doing so, the image data in the file is always continuous, and the jump of the reading position between the clusters at the time of data reading, which occurs when one file straddles a plurality of clusters, is prevented. be able to.

Next, returning to the flowchart of FIG. 6, in step S5, the CPU 1 controls the MD Data drive 8 to show the correspondence between the reduced image data and the original image data as shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 5, for example. It is recorded as a management file.

FIG. 8 schematically shows a state in which the file shown in FIG. 2 is recorded in the MD Data 9 as described above. One file corresponding to a plurality of reduced images is recorded in continuous areas.

As described above, by storing a plurality of reduced image data in one file and continuously recording from the beginning to the end of the file in the MD Data 9, the file access at the time of collectively displaying the reduction is performed. The number of times
When the number of reduced image data is smaller than the number of reduced image data and one file contains N reduced image data, the number of times of file access is 1 / N of reading the reduced image data arranged discontinuously. .

In this embodiment, when one (page) original is read, it can be stored in a predetermined folder, and each folder for storing the original of any page is given a predetermined name. be able to. A list of documents contained in each folder is also recorded in the management file. Then, the recorded original can be read by designating the accommodated folder.

Next, referring to the flowchart of FIG.
The folder read operation will be described.

When a folder read command is input from the input unit 10, first, in step S41, C
The PU 1 controls the MD Data drive 8 to read the management file from the MD Data 9, and then the step S
At 42, the top (latest) image data of each folder is confirmed from the contents of this management file.

Next, in step S43, the CPU 1
Controls the MD Data drive 8 to perform step S
The reduced image data corresponding to the original image at the head of each folder obtained at 42 is read from the MD Data 9. At this time, since a plurality of reduced image data are stored in one file, the number of times of accessing the file can be reduced.

Then, in step S44, the CPU
1 further reduces the read reduced image as needed (according to the number of folders to be displayed) to create a representative image of each folder and outputs the image data to the LCD control circuit 6. The LCD control circuit 6 outputs the screen data to the LCD 7 and displays it as shown in FIG. 10, for example.

In the display example of FIG. 10, the folder 21
Through 28 are displayed with names such as “95-1” and “95-2”. Further, in each folder, a reduced image of the first page of the originals stored in the folder is displayed as a representative image. The user can intuitively recognize the contents of each folder from the representative image.

As described above, since one file has the image data of a plurality of reduced images, it is possible to reduce the number of times of file access and to display the reduced images collectively.

Although the MD Data drive 8 is used as the recording means in the above embodiment, another recording device such as a magnetic disk drive can also be used. Further, in the above embodiment, since MD Data is used as the recording medium, the recording unit is a cluster of 64 kilobytes, but in other recording media, the length of the recording medium may be different. The number of reduced image data in one file is set according to the recording medium.

[0049]

As described above, according to the file management apparatus and method of the present invention, when the reduced image data is recorded, the plurality of reduced image data are recorded continuously, so that the reduced images are collected. In the case of displaying the reduced images, it is possible to reduce the number of file accesses that occur when reading the reduced image data, and it is possible to quickly display a large number of reduced images together.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of an embodiment of an electronic file to which a file management device of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of file management in the embodiment of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of contents of a management file shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing another example of file management in the embodiment of FIG.

5 is a diagram showing an example of the contents of the management file shown in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an image data recording operation in the embodiment of FIG.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating details of processing in step S4 of FIG.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a recording state of a file on a disc in the embodiment of FIG.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a folder display operation in the embodiment of FIG.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example in which folders are displayed.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of file management in a conventional electronic file device.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating a recording state of a conventional file on a disc.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 CPU 2 ROM 3 RAM 4 Scanner 5 Buffer Memory 6 LCD Control Circuit 7 Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) 8 MD Data Drive 9 MD Data 10 Input Portion 21 to 28 Reduced Image

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A recording unit for recording an original image and a reduced image obtained by reducing the original image on a recording medium; controlling the recording unit to arrange a plurality of the reduced images in one file; A file management apparatus comprising: a control unit for recording in a continuous area of a recording medium. 2. The file management device according to claim 1, wherein the recording medium is a magneto-optical disk. 3. A file management method for recording an original image and a reduced image obtained by reducing the original image on a recording medium, wherein a plurality of reduced images are arranged in one file, and the file is a continuous area of the recording medium. A file management method characterized by recording in.