JPH10307460A - Device and method for forming image and storing medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a device and a method for forming an image capable of performing frame erasing processing on a position corresponding to the contents of an original to be read. SOLUTION: When an operator presses a book frame erasing mode key on a control panel 140, a frame erasing mode by which the central part and the outside peripheral part of the spread page of a book, and a magazine, etc. are forcibly erased is set. In the frame erasing mode, at first, the document direction of the original is discriminated. A position where the frame erasing processing is performed automatically is set in accordance with the document direction. Thus, the frame erasing processing corresponding to the document direction of the original placed on an original platen glass 101 is performed and a copy image is formed. Consequently, the operator can perform a copy using a frame erasing function without worrying about the opening direction of the book.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a digital copying machine.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an image forming apparatus such as a digital copying machine, when a book or a magazine is copied, shadows and outlines are formed around and at the center of the copy paper due to the thickness of the book or the magazine.

Some conventional image forming apparatuses can erase shadows and contours generated when copying a book or magazine as described above by performing a frame erasing process. Further, as the frame erasing process, there is a so-called book frame erasing function for simultaneously erasing the periphery and the central portion in accordance with copying of a book or a magazine.

[0004]

However, the book frame erasing function in the above-described conventional image forming apparatus is such that the position to be erased is fixed according to the size of the original to be copied regardless of the contents of the original. Therefore, for example, even when a book is copied with the book opening direction set to vertical, the frame erasing process corresponding to the book that is horizontally opened is always performed, so that not only the effect of the frame erasing is lost but also the necessary image A situation of erasing occurs.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus and an image forming method capable of appropriately performing a frame erasing process on a read original. .

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image forming apparatus for optically reading an original to generate an image signal, and converting the generated image signal into a photoelectric signal. Image input means for converting and inputting as image data; determining a document area in the document from the image data input by the image input means; and determining a document flow direction of the document from the document data in the document area. Document direction discriminating means for discriminating, frame erasing area setting means for setting a frame erasing area at a position corresponding to the document flow direction determined by the document direction discriminating means, and setting by the frame erasing area setting means Image forming means for performing a frame erasing process on the set area to form a copy image of the document.

In order to solve the above problem, an image forming apparatus according to the present invention optically reads a document to generate an image signal, and photoelectrically converts the generated image signal into image data. Image input means for inputting,
A document area discriminating means for discriminating a document area in the document from the image data input by the image input means; and a document area discriminating means which determines at least one character data contained in the document area discriminated by the document area discriminating means. Character direction determining means for determining the direction of at least one character of
Document direction discriminating means for discriminating the flow direction of the document of the document based on the direction of the characters in the document discriminated by the character direction discriminating means; and document flow of the document discriminated by the document direction discriminating means. A frame erasing area setting means for setting a frame erasing area at a position corresponding to the direction, and an image forming means for performing a frame erasing process on the area set by the frame erasing area setting means to form a copy image of the document. It is characterized by having.

[0008] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a third aspect is provided.
In the image forming method according to the present invention, an image signal is generated by optically reading a document, and the generated image signal is photoelectrically converted and input as image data. A document area in the document from the obtained image data, and a document direction discrimination step of discriminating a flow direction of the document of the document from the document data in the document area; and the document discriminated in the document direction discrimination step. A frame erasing area setting step of setting a frame erasing area at a position corresponding to the flow direction of the document, and performing a frame erasing process on the area set in the frame erasing area setting step to form a copy image of the document. And an image forming step.

[0009] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a fourth aspect of the present invention is provided.
In the image forming method according to the present invention, an image signal is generated by optically reading a document, and the generated image signal is photoelectrically converted and input as image data. A document area discriminating step of discriminating a document area in the document from the extracted image data; and at least one character in the document is discriminated from at least one character data contained in the document area discriminated in the document area discriminating step. A character direction determining step of determining a direction, a document direction determining step of determining a flow direction of a document on the document based on a direction of a character in the document determined in the character direction determining step, and a document direction determining step A frame for setting a frame erasing area at a position corresponding to the document flow direction of the document determined in And then the area setting step, is subjected to frame removal process in the region set in this frame erasure region setting step, characterized in that it comprises an image forming step of forming a copy image of the document.

[0010] Further, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a seventh aspect is provided.
The image forming apparatus according to the present invention may further comprise: a reading unit that reads an original image to form an image signal; a direction determining unit that determines a direction of the original image; Processing means for performing a frame erasing process on the document image read by the reading means.

Preferably, in claim 7, the direction determining means determines a direction of a character in the document image.

Preferably, in claim 8, further comprising a character recognizing means, wherein the direction determining means determines the direction of the character recognized by the character recognizing means.

[0013] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a first aspect is provided.
0, an image forming apparatus according to the present invention, a reading unit that reads an original image to form an image signal, an area determining unit that determines an image area of the original, and an image area that is determined by the determining unit. Processing means for performing a frame erasing process on the document image read by the reading means.

Preferably, the image processing apparatus further includes an area separating unit for separating the image area determined by the area determining unit.

[0015] Preferably, in claim 11,
The area separating means separates a character area.

Preferably, the apparatus according to any one of claims 10 to 12, further comprising character recognition means for performing character recognition in the character area, wherein the processing is performed based on the character recognized by the character recognition means. The means performs a frame erasing process of the original image.

[0017] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a first aspect is provided.
An image forming method according to a fourth aspect of the present invention includes: a reading step of reading an original image to form an image signal; a direction determining step of determining a direction of the original image; and a method of determining a direction of the image determined in the determining step. And performing a frame erasing process on the document image read in the reading step.

Preferably, in the above aspect, the direction determining step determines a direction of a character in a document image.

Preferably, in claim 15,
The method further includes a character recognition step. In the direction determination step, the direction of the character recognized in the character recognition step is determined.

[0020] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a first aspect is provided.
8 according to the present invention, a reading step of reading an original image to form an image signal, an area determining step of determining an image area of the original, and an image forming method according to the image area determined in the determining step. And a processing step of performing a frame erasing process on the document image read in the reading step.

Preferably, the image processing apparatus further includes an area separating step of separating the image area determined in the area determining step.

Preferably, in claim 19,
In the region separating step, a character region is separated.

[0023] Preferably, in claim 20,
A character recognition step of performing character recognition in the character area; and performing a frame erasing process of the document image in the processing step based on the character recognized in the character recognition step.

Further, in order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the present invention is characterized in that an image forming method according to any one of claims 4, 6, 14 to 16, and 18 to 21 is stored as a program. Provide a storage medium.

[0025]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a schematic configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In the image forming apparatus shown in FIG. 1, the originals fed from the automatic original feeder 142 are successively placed at predetermined positions on the upper original platen glass 101.

The original placed on the original platen glass 101 is exposed by an original illumination lamp 102 composed of, for example, a halogen lamp.

The reflected light from the document exposed by the document illumination lamp 102 is guided to the CCD unit 106 by reciprocating scanning mirrors 103, 104 and 105 housed in an optical scanning unit (not shown).

The CCD unit 106 includes an image forming lens 107 for forming an image of reflected light from a document, for example, an image pickup device 108 composed of a CCD, a CCD driver 109 for driving the image pickup device 108, and the like. here,
The output of the image signal from the image sensor 108 is converted into, for example, 8-bit digital data and then output to the controller unit 1.
39 is input.

A laser unit 117 is connected to the controller 139. This laser unit 1
Reference numeral 17 denotes an exposure unit configured by, for example, a semiconductor laser or the like. The exposure unit 17 exposes the photosensitive drum 110 based on image data processed by a controller unit 139 that performs image processing and control of the entire apparatus to form an electrostatic latent image. I do.

Around the photosensitive drum 110, a cleaner 111, a pre-exposure lamp 112, a primary charger 113, a developing device 118, a transfer charger 127, a separation charger 128, a pre-transfer charger 119 and the like are arranged. .

The photosensitive drum 110 includes a pre-exposure lamp 112
As a result, charge is removed in preparation for image formation by the laser unit 117. Also, the photosensitive drum 11
0 is uniformly charged by the primary charger 113.

The developing device 118 contains a black developer (toner). A toner image is formed on the photosensitive drum 110 by the toner of the developing device 118.

The pre-transfer charger 119 includes a photosensitive drum 110
The high pressure is applied before the toner image developed above is transferred to a sheet.

Paper feed unit 12 arranged at the lower part of the apparatus
Transfer papers of various sizes are stored in 0, 122, and 124. The paper feed units 120, 122, 12
The transfer paper in the paper feed rollers 121, 123, 12
5 is driven into the apparatus and the registration rollers 1
26, the photosensitive drum 1 is temporarily stopped.
The image is re-fed at a timing of writing with the image formed on the sheet 10.

The transfer charger 127 feeds the toner image developed on the photosensitive drum 110 to the paper feeding units 120, 122, 1
The image is transferred to a transfer sheet fed from the printer 24.

The separation charging device 128 separates the transfer sheet after the transfer operation from the photosensitive drum 110. The toner remaining on the photosensitive drum 110 without being transferred is collected by the cleaner 111.

A transport belt 129 disposed at the lower left of the photosensitive drum 110 transports the transfer sheet after the transfer process to the fixing device 130. The fixing device 130 fixes the toner image transferred to the transfer sheet by, for example, heat.

A staple sorter 132 is arranged at the lower left of the apparatus. Also, an intermediate tray 13 is provided at the lower part of the apparatus.
7 are arranged.

The flapper 131 controls the transfer path of the transfer sheet after the fixing process to one of the staple sorters 132 and the intermediate tray 137.

The paper discharged to the staple sorter 132 is sorted into each bin, and the staple unit 141 performs stapling according to an instruction from the controller unit 139.

The feed rollers 133 to 136 are for reversing (multiplexing) or non-reversing (both sides) the transfer paper once having undergone the fixing process to the intermediate tray 137, and re-feed rollers 138. Is for transporting the transfer sheet placed on the intermediate tray 137 again to the position where the registration rollers 126 are provided.

An operation panel 140 arranged at the upper right of the apparatus
Is provided with various key buttons such as a copy key and a frame erase mode key so that the operator can perform key input. The operation panel 140 displays the state of the apparatus and the like using liquid crystals and LEDs.

The controller section 139 includes a microcomputer, an image processing section, and the like, which will be described later, and performs an image forming operation in accordance with an instruction from the operation panel 140.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of the controller unit 139.

As shown in FIG.
Has a CPU 201 for controlling the entire apparatus, and this CP
A read-only memory (ROM) 203, a random access memory (RAM) 204, an I / O interface 205, and an image processing unit 206 are connected to an address bus and a data bus of the U201 via a bus driver and an address decoder circuit 202.

Here, the ROM 203 stores a control program necessary for control processing performed by the CPU 201. The CPU 201 controls the entire apparatus by sequentially reading and executing the control programs stored in the ROM 203. The storage medium storing the program is not limited to the ROM, but may be a portable floppy disk or MO.

The RAM 204 is a main storage device used for storing input data, a working storage area, and the like.

The I / O interface 205 includes motors 207, clutches 208, and solenoids 20 for driving the operation panel 140, paper feed system, transport system, and optical system.
9, each block of the apparatus such as paper detection sensors 210 for detecting the paper being conveyed is connected. Further, in the above-mentioned developing device 118, a toner residual detection sensor 211 for detecting the amount of toner in the developing device is provided, and an output signal thereof is input to the I / O interface 205.

The high-voltage control unit 215 connected to the I / O interface 205 controls the primary charger 113, the developing unit 118, the pre-transfer charger 119, the transfer charger 127, and the separation charger 128 according to the instruction of the CPU 201.
Output high pressure to

The image processing unit 206 includes a CCD unit 1
The image signal output from the input unit 06 is input, and image processing described later is performed. Also, the image processing unit 206
Is the laser unit 1 according to the input image data.
Seventeen control signals are output.

The laser beam output from the laser unit 117 irradiates and exposes the photosensitive drum 110, and 213 which is a light receiving sensor in a non-image area.
The light-emitting state is detected by the beam detection sensor, and its output signal is input to the I / O interface 205.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of the image processing section 206 in the controller section 139.

The image processing unit 206 includes a shading circuit 301, a scaling circuit 302, an edge emphasis circuit 303, a gamma conversion circuit 304, a binarization processing unit 305, and a document direction discriminating unit 3.
06, a synthesis circuit 307, a PWM circuit 308, a memory control unit 309, an image memory 310, and a frame deletion processing unit 311
It is roughly composed of

In the image processing unit 206, the image pickup device 10
The image signal converted into the electric signal by the correction unit 8 is first corrected by a shading circuit 301 for variations between pixels, and then, in a scaling circuit 302, a data thinning process is performed at the time of a reduced copy, and at a time of an enlarged copy. Data interpolation is performed.

Next, in the edge emphasizing circuit 303, second differentiation is performed in, for example, a 5.times.5 window to emphasize the edges of the image. Since the image data is luminance data, the γ conversion circuit 304 performs data conversion by table search in order to convert the image data into density data to be output to the laser unit 117. The image data converted to the density data by the γ conversion circuit 304 is
5 is input.

The binarization processing unit 305 converts multi-value data into binary data by, for example, the ED method (error diffusion method). Here, the image data that has been converted into binary is supplied to the synthesizing circuit 30.
7 is input.

The synthesizing circuit 307 selectively outputs the input image data and the image data in the image memory 310 constituted by, for example, a DRAM or a hard disk. The read / write control for the image memory 310 is performed by the memory control unit 309, and when the image is rotated, the read address of the image data in the memory is controlled.

The image output from the scaling circuit 302 is also input to the document direction discrimination unit 306. Document direction determination unit 3
At 06, a document direction determination process described later is performed.

The frame erasing processing unit 311 performs a frame erasing process described later at a position corresponding to the document direction of the document determined by the document direction determining unit 306.

The image data that has passed through the synthesizing circuit 307 and the frame erasure processing unit 311 is input to the PWM circuit 308 in order to convert the image data into a signal of the laser emission intensity. PWM circuit 308
Sets the pulse width according to the image density to the laser unit 1
17 is output.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of the document direction determining unit 306.

The document direction discriminating unit 306 has a CPU / memory unit 401, and the CPU / memory unit 401 has a character recognition / direction discriminating unit 402, an area separating unit 403, and a storage device 4.
04 and the I / F unit 405 are connected.

In the document direction determining unit 306, the image data output from the scaling unit 302 of the image processing unit 206 is
First, the image data which is input to the CPU / memory unit 401 is temporarily stored, and various controls are performed. CPU /
Memory unit 401 and CPU 20 in controller unit 139
1 is connected to the bus by, for example, a dual-port RAM (not shown) so as to transmit and receive data. This data transmission / reception may of course be performed by serial communication.

The character recognition / direction discrimination unit 402 pays attention to the fact that the most accurate representation of the direction of a document is a character.
Several types of character areas in a document can be rotated clockwise by 0 °, 90 °,
Character recognition is performed from 180 ° and 270 ° directions, and the direction with the highest accuracy among the character recognition accuracy (the degree of confidence in character recognition: the distance to the characteristic distribution of the character) in each direction is determined as the correct document direction. I do.

As a pre-process for performing the character recognition / direction discrimination processing by the character recognition / direction discrimination section 402, the area separation section 403 discriminates a document area in the document from the image data, and furthermore, a character area of this document area. , A graphic area, a natural image area, a table area, and the like are separated into rectangular areas, and a process of adding an attribute of each area is performed.

The storage device 404 is composed of, for example, a hard disk or a magneto-optical disk, and is used to store various processing results (image data, area separation results, character recognition results, etc.).

The I / F unit 405 is provided with a SCSI or RS232
C for providing data transmission to the outside.

The computer 406 obtains information via the I / F unit 405 or obtains and uses data from a movable storage device such as a magneto-optical disk.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of the frame erasure processing section 311.

The frame erasing unit 311 operates the operation panel 140.
When a frame erasing instruction is issued from, a below-described frame erasing process is performed, and includes a processing memory controller 501, a memory 502, a selector 503, and a frame erasing processing circuit 504.

When an instruction to erase a frame is given, the document image read by the image sensor 108 is temporarily stored in the memory 502 via the memory controller 501 until the result of the character recognition / area determination unit 402 is obtained. You.

When the result of the character recognition / area determination unit 402 is output, the CPU 201 sets various data according to the result. For example, any one of frame erasing data of horizontal frame erasing for a horizontally-open book and vertical frame erasing for a vertically-open book is set.

The selector 503 selects an output from the memory 502 when an instruction to erase a frame is given. The output of the selector 503 is input to the frame erasure processing circuit 504.

The frame erasing processing circuit 504 receives the signal shown in FIG. 17A as the main scanning frame erasing signal and the sub-scanning frame erasing signal of the frame erasing signal, which will be described later, in the horizontal direction based on the determination result. In the case of the direction, the signal of FIG. 17B is input.

Next, the operation of the image forming apparatus according to the present invention will be described.

First, the outline of the document direction determination, correction and character recognition processing in the document direction determination unit 306 will be described with reference to FIG. 7 and the flowchart of FIG.

The original placed on the original platen glass 101 in FIG. 1 is optically read to generate an image signal,
The image data is photoelectrically converted by the image sensor 108 of the D unit 106 and input to the image processing unit 206 of the controller unit 139 as image data.

The image data (multi-valued image) input to the image processing unit 206 as described above is first sent to the document direction determination unit 306.
In the area separation unit 403, the document area is determined, and the document area is separated into rectangular areas according to attributes such as a character area, a graphic area, a natural image area, and a table area (steps S1 and S2).

As the area separation processing, black pixels of image data are detected, and a rectangular frame of black pixel blocks is created by contour tracing or labeling.
Next, a character area (title, body, caption, etc.), a graphic area, a natural image area, and a table area are determined based on the black pixel density in the rectangular area, the presence / absence of adjacent rectangular blocks, the aspect ratio of the rectangle, and the like. And so on.

Next, the rectangular information of the character area is extracted from the rectangular areas separated for each attribute as described above (step S3). Here, the character area includes a text portion, a title portion, characters in a table, a caption portion of a figure, and the like. For example, in the case of the documents shown in FIGS.
The rectangular areas 71 and 72 as shown in (b) and (d) are extracted as the rectangular information of the character area.

Then, using several blocks in the rectangular area extracted here, the document direction is determined in the character recognition / direction determination unit 402 (step S4). as a result,
If the document direction is the forward direction, character recognition processing is continuously performed on all character areas in the image (step S7).
The document direction here is the direction of flow of the document. For example, in the case of FIG. 7A, the direction of flow of the document is the vertical direction, and in the case of FIG. 7C, it is the horizontal direction. . Also,
The case where the document direction is the forward direction indicates the case as shown in FIG. 7C. In FIG. 7A, the document direction shown in FIG. 7C is incorrect because the document is rotated 270 ° clockwise. Direction.

On the other hand, if the document direction is incorrect, the image data is rotated in the correct direction (step S5). Then, region separation is performed on the rotated image, and correction processing of region separation information is performed (step S6).

The correction processing in step S6 corrects the difference in the area separation information due to the rotation of the image. For example, there are two methods. First, as the first method,
There is a method of performing the area separation process again on all the rotated image data, and another method is to apply an address conversion to the area separation result. However, the area separation processing
Since it is generally assumed that the image is in the forward direction, the result of the segmentation process performed in the initial stage and the segmentation process performed on the rotated image data often differ. Therefore, it is desirable that the former method be used.

Next, proceeding to step S7, the character area block in the rotated image data is recognized by the character recognition processing system. As a result, the segmentation information and the character recognition information for all the character regions are finally obtained in both the case without the rotation and the case with the rotation.

The processing result is transmitted to the computer 406 via the I / F unit 405, and is used by filing application software and the like on the computer 406. The image is transmitted to the CPU 201 in the controller unit 139 for each image.

Next, the details of the document direction discrimination processing in the character recognition / direction discrimination unit 402 in step S4 will be described with reference to FIGS.

In this embodiment, the direction of the entire document is determined from the direction of the characters included in the document.

First, character recognition processing is performed to determine the direction of a character. As one method of this character recognition processing,
There are feature vector extraction and comparison methods. For example, FIG.
As shown in the figure, the character area 81 including the character "book"
Is determined.

At this time, as a first step, a character segmentation process is performed on this character area. This is a process of cutting out a rectangle of one character as shown in FIG. 9, and is obtained by detecting the state of black pixel continuity.

Next, as a second step, as shown in FIG. 10, one character is cut into a pixel block of m × n (for example, 64 × 64) pixels. Then, the distribution direction of the black pixels is extracted from the extracted pixel block using a window of 3 × 3 pixels to obtain direction vector information.

FIG. 11 exemplifies a part of the direction vector information. In the pixel block of m × n pixels, 3 ×
By shifting the window of three pixels, several tens of directional vector information of one character can be obtained. This vector information becomes a character feature vector.

The feature vector is compared with the contents of the character recognition dictionary stored in advance, and characters are extracted in order from the character whose feature is closest to the feature vector. In this case, the first candidate, the second candidate,...

The closeness of the feature to this feature vector is
It is a numerical value called the closeness of the character, that is, the confidence (accuracy) of character recognition.

The degree of confidence in character recognition is obtained as described above. Character direction discrimination processing based on the degree of confidence is performed as follows.
A description will be given using a rectangular area including a sentence example of “name of the present invention” shown in FIG.

FIG. 12A shows a case where the rectangular area including the sentence "name of the present invention" is in the forward direction, and FIG. It is a case where it was. FIG. 12 (a)
FIG. 12B is a sentence example included when the opening direction of a book or the like as a manuscript is horizontal, and FIG. 12B is a sentence example included when the opening direction is vertical.

Attention is now paid to the character “book” in FIG. 12A.
As shown in FIG. 3, character recognition is performed from four directions of 0 °, 90 °, 180 °, and 270 ° clockwise for one character “book”. For each rotation angle, the method of reading the rectangular area of the character may be changed, and it is not particularly necessary to rotate the document.

When character recognition is actually performed, the result of character recognition at each rotation angle is as shown in FIG.
Different from each other. FIG. 13 shows a provisional character recognition result and a degree of confidence for explanation, and this is not always the case.

In FIG. 13, the positive direction (rotation angle 0 °)
When the character recognition is performed from “”, “book” is correctly recognized, and the degree of confidence is as high as 0.90. Further, when character recognition is performed from a direction rotated by 90 °, the character is erroneously recognized as “town”, and the degree of confidence is reduced to 0.40. The reason why the erroneous recognition occurs and the confidence level is reduced is that the character recognition is performed based on the feature vector when viewed from the rotating direction.

Similarly, when character recognition is performed from a direction rotated by 180 ° or 270 °, erroneous recognition occurs and the degree of confidence is reduced. Note that the degree of confidence in the direction of character recognition becomes more noticeable as the characters are more complex.

In the result of FIG. 13, the confidence is 0.90, which is the highest in the positive direction with a rotation angle of 0 °, and it is determined that the document is likely to be oriented in the positive direction. By similarly performing character recognition from four directions for other characters in the rectangular area, the accuracy of character direction determination can be improved.

Further, when the character direction is determined only by one rectangular area, the character direction may be erroneously determined with respect to a special character string. The accuracy of the determination can be improved. Then, for each rectangular area, an average value of the confidence in each of the four directions of each character to be recognized in the rectangular area is obtained, and further, an average value of the average of the confidence in each of the four directions in each rectangular area is obtained. The direction having the highest average value is determined as the document direction.

As described above, the document direction is determined based on the confidence of a plurality of characters in the same rectangular area, and further, based on the confidence of the plurality of characters in the same rectangular area, without determining the document direction based on the confidence of only one character. Thus, the document direction can be determined with high accuracy.

However, even if the document direction is determined based on the confidence of only one character, or the document direction is determined based on the confidence of a plurality of characters in the same rectangular area, the document direction can be determined with higher accuracy than before. Needless to say.

If the document direction discriminated as described above is a direction other than the forward direction, the original image is rotated so that the document direction is the forward direction. This rotation corresponds to C in FIG.
This can be easily performed by a known technique using the PU / memory unit 401, and a description thereof will be omitted.

By the above processing, the area separation data shown in FIG. 14 and the character recognition information shown in FIG. 15 can be obtained together with the original image data. These pieces of information are sent to the CPU 201 of the controller unit 139 as described above, and are used for various image processing and various controls.

Here, as shown in FIG. 14, the format of the area separation data is "heada" indicating that the area separation data is the area separation data.
der "and the identifiers of the separated areas" rect1 "to
"Rect4".

The identifiers “rect1” to “rect1”
The information of each area identified by “4” includes the number “order” of the separated area, the attribute of the area (such as a character area and a graphic area) “att”, the coordinate values “x1” and “y1” of the upper left of the area, It is composed of a region width “w”, a region height “h”, and “direction” indicating vertical writing or horizontal writing.

As shown in FIG. 15, the character recognition information has "header" indicating that the character recognition information is character recognition information. For example, character recognition information "OCR1" relating to a single character such as "book" is displayed. And “blk he” corresponding to the above “rect1” and the like indicating a block including the character.
"ader".

The character recognition information such as “OCR1” is “type” indicating whether it is a character or a blank.
e ", the first to fifth candidate characters" character 1 "to" character 5 "according to the above-described degree of confidence in character recognition, the cutout positions" x1 "and" y1 "of the character, and the width" w "of the character. , The height of the character "h", and a spare area "reserve".

Next, the frame erasing process based on the document direction determined as described above will be described in detail.

When the book frame erasing mode key on the operation panel 140 is pressed by the operator, a frame erasing mode for forcibly erasing the central portion and the outer peripheral portion of the spread of a book, a magazine or the like is set.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure in the frame erasing mode.

When the erasing mode is selected, the operation panel 14
When the copy key 0 is pressed (step S11), the document direction of the document is determined by the character direction determination unit 306 from the input image data as described above.
Until this determination result is obtained, the image data is temporarily stored in the memory 502 of the frame erasure processing unit 311 (Step S).
12). Note that the determination of the document direction determined here is to determine whether the opening of the book as a document is a vertical type or a horizontal type. For example, in the case of FIG. .

When the character recognition / direction determination unit 402 of the document direction determination unit 306 determines that the document direction is either vertical or horizontal (step S13), the result of this determination is transmitted to the CPU 201 and the frame is determined. An erasing type and a range in which a frame is erased according to an image area of a document or the like are set (step S14). When the setting in the CPU 201 is completed, the image data is output from the memory 502 of the frame erasing processing unit 311 and an image is formed after the frame erasing process according to the setting is performed (step S15).

FIGS. 17A and 17B are diagrams showing the waveforms of the frame erasure control signal output from the frame erasure processing circuit 504 of FIG.

FIG. 17A shows a waveform output in the case of horizontal frame erasing, and FIG. 17B shows a waveform output in the case of vertical frame erasing.

In FIG. 17, “ITOP” is
A signal indicating the head of the image, and "HSYNC" is a synchronization signal in the main scanning direction. “RCLK” is an image transfer clock.

The main scanning frame erasing signal and the sub-scanning frame erasing signal of the frame erasing signal include, as shown in FIG.
(A) is input and when the signal is in the vertical direction, FIG.
The signal of (b) is input.

As a result, in the case of the horizontal type, FIG.
As shown in FIG. 18, an image is formed by performing a frame erasing process on the area 181 in the periphery and the central part in the vertical direction.
As shown in (b), the frame erasing process is performed on the region 182 in the peripheral and central portions in the horizontal direction, and an image is formed.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the document direction of the document can be automatically determined by the document direction determination unit 306, and a frame erasing process can be performed according to the determined document direction. Therefore, for example, when a book is copied with the opening direction set to be vertical as in the related art, there is no possibility that a frame erasing process corresponding to a horizontally opened book is performed. This allows the operator to make a copy using the frame erasing function without worrying about the opening direction of the page when performing the frame erasing process for a book or magazine. Even if such character recognition is not performed, the direction of the image may be determined by detecting the longitudinal direction of the separated areas or detecting the interval between the areas.

[0123]

As described above, according to the present invention,
In the so-called frame erasing mode, which avoids the central part and the outer peripheral part of the spread of the original from becoming black, the image area and direction of the original are automatically determined, and the area for erasing the frame is controlled. It is possible to erase the range other than the above with high accuracy and obtain a good copied image.

Further, the operator can make a copy without worrying about the opening direction of the page when performing the frame erasing process for a book or a magazine.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a detailed configuration of a controller unit 139.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a detailed configuration of an image processing unit 206.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a detailed configuration of a document direction determination unit 306.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a detailed configuration of a frame erasure processing unit 311.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating document direction determination and character recognition processing in the image forming apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an area separation state in document direction determination.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram for describing a process of a character recognition process.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram for describing a process of a character recognition process.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram for describing a process of a character recognition process.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram for describing a process of character recognition processing.

FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a document direction determination process.

FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a document direction determination process.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a data format of area separation information.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a data format of character recognition information.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of a frame erasing process in the image forming apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing a control signal at the time of a frame erasing process.

FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating an example of image formation on which a frame erasing process has been performed.

[Explanation of symbols]

 201 CPU 206 Image processing unit 306 Document direction determination unit 311 Frame erasure processing unit 402 Character recognition / direction determination unit 403 Area separation unit

Claims (22)

[Claims] An image input means for optically reading an original to generate an image signal, photoelectrically converting the generated image signal and inputting the image signal as image data, and Document direction discriminating means for discriminating a document area in the document, and discriminating a flow direction of the document of the document from document data in the document area; and a document flow direction discriminated by the document direction discriminating means. A frame erasing area setting means for setting a frame erasing area at a position corresponding to the above, and an image forming means for performing a frame erasing process on the area set by the frame erasing area setting means to form a copy image of the document An image forming apparatus comprising: 2. An image input means for optically reading a document to generate an image signal, photoelectrically converting the generated image signal and inputting it as image data, and Document area determining means for determining a document area in the document; and a character for determining a direction of at least one character in the document from at least one character data included in the document area determined by the document area determining means. Direction discriminating means; document direction discriminating means for discriminating a flow direction of a document in the document based on the direction of characters in the document discriminated by the character direction discriminating means; Frame erasing area setting means for setting a frame erasing area at a position corresponding to the flow direction of the original document; Region is subjected to the frame removal process, it image forming apparatus according to claim and an image forming means for forming a copy image of the document. 3. An image input step of optically reading an original to generate an image signal, photoelectrically converting the generated image signal and inputting the converted image signal as image data, and using the image data input in the image input step. A document direction discriminating step of discriminating a document area in the document, and discriminating a flow direction of the document of the document from the document data in the document area; A frame erasing area setting step of setting a frame erasing area at a position corresponding to the above, and an image forming step of performing a frame erasing process on the area set in the frame erasing area setting step to form a copy image of the document An image forming method characterized by including: 4. An image input step of optically reading a document to generate an image signal, photoelectrically converting the generated image signal and inputting the converted image signal as image data, and A document area determining step of determining a document area in the document; and a character determining a direction of at least one character in the document from at least one character data included in the document area determined in the document area determining step. A direction discriminating step; a document direction discriminating step of discriminating a flow direction of a document in the document based on the direction of characters in the document discriminated in the character direction discriminating step; A frame erasing area setting area for setting a frame erasing area at a position corresponding to the document flow direction of the original And-up, the image forming method by performing frame removal process in the region set in this frame erasure region setting step, characterized in that it comprises an image forming step of forming a copy image of the document. 5. A storage medium storing the image forming method according to claim 3 as a program. 6. A storage medium storing the image forming method according to claim 4 as a program. 7. A reading means for reading a document image to form an image signal, a direction discriminating means for discriminating the direction of the document image, and reading by the reading means in accordance with the direction of the image discriminated by the discriminating means. Processing means for performing a frame erasing process on the received document image. 8. An image forming apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said direction determining means determines a direction of a character in a document image. 9. The image forming apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising a character recognizing unit, wherein the direction determining unit determines a direction of the character recognized by the character recognizing unit. 10. A reading means for reading an original image to form an image signal, an area determining means for determining an image area of the original, and an image read by the reading means according to the image area determined by the determining means. Processing means for performing a frame erasing process on a document image. 11. An image forming apparatus according to claim 10, further comprising an area separating means for separating the image area determined by said area determining means. 12. An image forming apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said area separating means separates a character area. 13. The apparatus according to claim 10, further comprising a character recognition unit for performing character recognition in the character area, wherein the processing unit performs the processing based on the character recognized by the character recognition unit. An image forming apparatus for performing a frame erasing process on a document image. 14. A reading step of reading an original image to form an image signal, a direction determining step of determining the direction of the original image, and reading in the reading step according to the direction of the image determined in the determining step. And a processing step of performing a frame erasing process on the obtained document image. 15. The image forming method according to claim 14, wherein the direction determining step determines a direction of a character in a document image. 16. The image forming method according to claim 15, further comprising a character recognition step, wherein the direction determination step determines a direction of the character recognized in the character recognition step. 17. A storage medium storing the image forming method according to claim 14 as a program. 18. A reading step of reading an original image to form an image signal, an area determining step of determining an image area of the original, and reading in the reading step according to the image area determined in the determining step. And a processing step of performing a frame erasing process of the original image. 19. The image forming method according to claim 18, further comprising an area separating step of separating the image area determined in the area determining step. 20. An image forming method according to claim 19, wherein a character area is separated in said area separating step. 21. The apparatus according to claim 20, further comprising a character recognition step of performing character recognition in said character area, and performing a frame erasing process of said document image in said processing step based on the character recognized in said character recognition step. An image forming method comprising: 22. A storage medium storing the image forming method according to claim 18 as a program.