JPH1042092A - Picture reader - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To quickly display picture data in host devices and also to provide a picture reader where processing burden in the host devices and an output device is not increased by simplifying picture data into rough picture data when the transmission destination of picture data is the host devices. SOLUTION: When a transmission requesting command for displaying picture data from the host devices 40, 41... is received, the picture reader 10 reads corresponding picture data from a picture data storage means 16 through a command analyzing means 12, a device recognizing means 18 and a picture data retrieving means 17 and transmits it to a data quantity reducing means 19. The data quantity reducing means 19 reduces the data quantity for picture data so as to adopt it as rough picture data and transmits it to the host devices 40, 41... being a transmission requesting source. Thus, picture data are quickly displayed in the host devices 40, 41... and also processing burden in the host devices 40, 41... and a printer 50 is not increased.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image reading apparatus for optically reading image data from an image drawn on a document to be read, and more particularly to an image reading apparatus connected to a host device or an output device via a network. It relates to a reading device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a scanner device used on a network such as a LAN (Local Area Network) has been known as an image reading device. Such an image reading device is connected to a host device (for example, a personal computer) or an output device (for example, a printer device or a facsimile device) via a network, and the host device or the output device reads image data read from a document. To be sent.

Meanwhile, a host device connected to the image reading device receives image data from the image reading device to check and grasp the contents of the image data read by the image reading device, and displays the image data on the display device of the host device. May be displayed above. In this case, if the image reading device transmits all the image data read from the document as it is to the host device, the host device increases the communication load with the image reading device, so that a quick display is performed. Can not be done.
Further, a large storage area, that is, a large storage capacity is required to hold the image data from the image reading device.

For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-105348 discloses that image data to be read is temporarily stored in a storage device such as a hard disk, and the stored image data is transmitted to a host device. Discloses an image reading apparatus that performs a data compression process.
If this image reading device is used, the communication time between the image reading device and the host device is reduced according to the compression ratio of the data compression process, so that the host device can quickly display image data, and Also, a large storage area is not required for image data.

[0005]

However, in the image reading apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-105348, compressed data that has been subjected to data compression processing is transmitted over a network. Therefore, in order to display image data, the host device must have a function of performing data decompression processing on compressed data. In the output device connected to the image reading device, when the image data is to be output, the data decompression process is performed in the output device, or the image data after the data decompression process is performed by the host device is transmitted to the host device. Unless it is received from the device, the image cannot be output. That is, in the image reading apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-105348, the compressed data after the data compression processing is transmitted, so that the processing load on the host device or the output device which receives the compressed data increases. Would.

Accordingly, the present invention reduces the communication load between the host device and the image reading device when the image data read by the image reading device is displayed on the host device for confirmation and understanding. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image reading apparatus which enables quick display in a computer and does not increase the processing load on a host device and an output device.

[0007]

According to the present invention, there is provided an image reading apparatus devised to achieve the above object, which is connected via a network to a host apparatus which displays image data as a visible image. Image reading means for reading image data from an image drawn on a document, and when transmitting the image data read by the image reading means onto the network, the destination of the image data to be transmitted is the host device. A device recognizing means for recognizing whether or not the image data is to be transmitted, and as a result of the recognition by the device recognizing means, if the transmission destination is the host device, Data amount reducing means for reducing the data amount by simplifying the image data into schematic image data for displaying an outline of the outline, and an outline simplified by the data amount reducing means. It is intended and an image data transmitting means for transmitting the image data to the host device is a destination.

In the image reading apparatus having the above configuration, when the image reading means reads the image data, the image data is transmitted to the network in accordance with, for example, an instruction from the host device. At this time, the device recognizing unit recognizes whether the destination of the image data to be transmitted is the host device. As a result of this recognition, if the transmission destination is the host device, the data amount reducing unit reduces the data amount by simplifying the image data to be transmitted into the general image data. Then, the image data transmitting unit transmits the general image data to the host device that is the transmission destination. That is, in the host device connected to the image reading device, the general image data is transmitted from the image reading device, so that the image data read by the image reading means can be used as the source of the image data without the need for data decompression processing. Only the outline of the displayed image is displayed as a visible image.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an image reading apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIG. 1, an image reading apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment
., The host device 40, 41.
And what is connected to. That is, the image reading device 10 is shared by the plurality of host devices 40, 41,.

Each of the host devices 40, 41,... Comprises, for example, a personal computer. In order to confirm and grasp the contents of the image data read by the image reading device 10, the image data is read from the image reading device 10. Upon receipt, this is displayed on a display as a visible image. For this purpose, the host devices 40, 41,... Transmit a transmission request command to the image reading device 10.

The transmission request command is a command for requesting the image reading device 10 to transmit image data in order to display the image data, and is a transmission request command as shown in FIG. , A destination address indicating to which host device to transmit, a source address indicating the requesting host device, and a data ID for identifying image data.

The host devices 40, 41,... Transmit a transfer request command, a setting information command, and a response command to the image reading device 10 in addition to the transmission request command.

The transfer request command is a command for instructing the image reading device 10 to transfer image data to the printer 50 in order to output image data.
As shown in (b), the command ID includes a command identifier indicating a transfer request command, a destination address indicating the printer 50 as a transfer destination, a transmission source address indicating a requesting host device, and a data ID. Command.

The setting information command is a command for instructing setting when reading image data. As shown in FIG. 2C, a command identifier indicating the setting information command, an identification ID of the output device, Output device address,
Output device name, scan parameters (resolution, size,
The command is composed of a type (monochrome / color / photo / halftone, etc.).

The response command is a command for responding to an inquiry from the image reading device 10, and as shown in FIG. 2D, a command identifier indicating that the command is a response command and a response content. This is a command consisting of flags. Note that these commands are input by a user operation using a keyboard or the like of the host devices 40, 41,.

In FIG. 1, the printer 50 is, for example, a laser beam printer. When image data is received from the image reading device 10, the received image data is converted into a visible image on a recording medium (eg, recording paper). Is output to That is, the printer 50
Has a function as an output device on the LAN 30. Note that a plurality of output devices may exist on the LAN 30. In this case, as the output device, for example, a facsimile device or the like other than the printer can be considered.

The image reading device 10 used by being connected to the host devices 40, 41,.
Is an external interface (hereinafter referred to as I /
F) (abbreviated as F) means, command interpreting means 12, setting information storing means 13, operating means 14, image reading means 15, image data storing means 16, image data retrieving means 17, device recognizing means 18, And data amount reducing means 1
9, an image data transmitting means 20, a control means 21, and an internal bus 10a connecting these means to each other.

The external I / F means 11 connects to the LAN 30, and the host device 40,
41 and the printer 50 to communicate image data and commands. Command interpretation means 12
Are for analyzing commands transmitted from the host devices 40, 41,.

The setting information storage means 13 comprises a nonvolatile storage device such as a hard disk device.
When the setting information command is transmitted from the host devices 40, 41,..., The contents (output device ID, output device address,
Output device name, scan parameters, etc.)
It is stored as setting information in association with each of the above output devices. The setting information storage means 13 stores the setting information in a memory map as shown in FIG.

In FIG. 1, the operation means 14 is composed of, for example, a liquid crystal touch panel, and instructs start and stop of image reading, input / change of scan parameters, designation of a device for outputting image data, data ID. Is input. The image reading unit 15 includes, for example, a scanner unit, and optically reads image data from an image drawn on a document according to the setting information stored in the setting information storage unit 13 and an instruction from the operation unit 14. It is. The image data storage means 16 is composed of a non-volatile storage device such as a hard disk device, and stores the image data read by the image reading means 15. The image data storage means 16 stores the data ID corresponding to the image data together with the image data.

The image data retrieving means 17 comprises a host device 4
The image data corresponding to the data ID specified by the transmission request command or the transfer request command from 0, 41... Is searched from the image data stored in the image data storage unit 16. When the image data stored in the image data storage unit 16 is transmitted to the host device 40, 41,... Or the printer 50 via the LAN 30, the destination of the image data to be transmitted is the host device 40, 41... The device recognizing means 18 recognizes the transmission destination based on the destination address of the transmission request command or the transfer request command.

The data amount reducing means 19 is a device recognizing means 1
As a result of the recognition in step 8, if the transmission destination is the host device 40, 41,..., The image data to be transmitted is simplified to schematic image data for displaying the outline of the image from which the image data is based. This reduces the amount of data. Examples of the rough image data include, for example, data after thinning out image data for each column in the sub-scanning direction, that is, so-called line thinning. In addition, when there is image data for a plurality of pages of a recording medium, only the first page is used as rough image data, or image data for a plurality of pages is reduced to edit a plurality of pages into one page (so-called N-up). ). Furthermore, if the image data is a color image, the data after conversion into a binary image may be used as the general image data.

The image data transmitting means 20 transmits the general image data whose data amount has been reduced by the data amount reducing means 19 to the host devices 40, 41,. Is transmitted to the printer 50. The control unit 21 controls the operation of the image reading apparatus 10 as a whole, that is, the operation of each unit described above. Among the above-described units, the command interpreting unit 12, the image data searching unit 17, the device recognizing unit 18, the data amount reducing unit 19, and the image data transmitting unit 20 are, for example, a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a ROM (Read
Only Memory), a combination of a RAM (Random Access Memory) and the like, and more specifically, is realized by executing a predetermined program in a CPU.

Next, an operation example of the image reading apparatus 10 configured as described above will be described. here,
Each of (1) an operation of registering setting information, (2) an operation of reading image data, (3) an operation of transmitting image data to a host device, and (4) an operation of outputting image data will be described.

(1) Operation of Registering Setting Information First, the operation of registering setting information will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. However, the host devices 40, 4
It is assumed that the setting information command is transmitted from 1... Before the image reading device 10 reads image data.

When the setting information command transmitted from the host devices 40, 41,... Is received via the external I / F means 11 (Step 101, hereinafter, step is abbreviated as S), the command interpreting means 12 Analyze (S
102), it is determined whether or not the command is a setting information command (S103). If it is determined that the command is the setting information command, the command interpreter 12 further stores the setting information based on the setting information command,
Is determined (S104).

At this time, if the setting information is not stored, the setting information storage means 13 stores the setting information based on the received setting information command as shown in the memory map of FIG. 3 (S105). If the setting information has already been stored, the image reading device 10 transmits a message as to whether or not to overwrite the setting information to the host devices 40, 41, as shown in FIG. 5 (S106). And
When a response command responding to this message is received from the host devices 40, 41, ... (S101), the command interpreting means 12 analyzes the command again (S10).
2) It is determined whether the received command is a response command (S107).

If the result of the determination by the command interpretation means 12 is that the received command is a response command, the command interpretation means 12 determines whether or not to overwrite the setting information with reference to the flag of the response command (S108). ). And
If it is determined to overwrite, the setting information storage means 13
The received setting information is stored in place of the already stored setting information (S105). On the other hand, if it is determined not to overwrite, the image reading apparatus 10 returns to waiting for command reception (S101).

(2) Image Data Reading Operation Next, the image data reading operation will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 6 and the operation screen of FIG. As shown in FIG. 7A, when the user presses an image reading menu button on the operation unit 14, the operation unit 14
Displays a menu for the user (S201).
Subsequently, as shown in FIGS. 7B and 7C, when the user selects an output destination list item from the displayed menu, the operation unit 14 displays a list of output devices that output the read image data. Is displayed (S202). The output device displayed on the operation unit 14 is assigned an output device address and a scan parameter corresponding to the output device ID (see the memory map of the setting information storage unit in FIG. 3). .

Here, as shown in FIG. 7D, when the user selects a desired output device from the displayed output devices (S203), the image reading means 15 responds to the selected output device. Setting information to be stored
(S204). Further, the operation unit 14 sets the data ID of the image data to be read.
Is input by the user (S205). However,
The data ID may not be input by the user, but may be automatically assigned in the image reading apparatus 10 using, for example, a number indicating the reading time and reading order of image data sequentially. Good.

Then, as shown in FIG. 7E, when the user presses the start button, the image reading means 15 sequentially reads the image data from the document according to the setting information read from the setting information storage means 13. Do (S
206). When the image reading unit 15 reads the image data, the image data storage unit 16 stores the read image data together with the data ID corresponding to the image data (S207). In the image reading means 15 and the image data storage means 16, until reading of all image data corresponding to one data ID is completed (S2
08), and repeat the above processing (S206 to S20)
8).

When it is desired to change the setting information, as shown in FIG. 7A, the registration of each scan parameter can be changed by setting the setting items of the operation means 14.

(3) Operation of transmitting image data to host device Next, the operation of transmitting image data to the host devices 40, 41,... Will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. When a transmission request command transmitted from the host device 40, 41,... Is received via the external I / F unit 11 (S
301), the command interpreting means 12 analyzes the received command (S302), and determines whether the command is a transmission request command (S303). If it is determined that the command is a transmission request command, the command interpreting means 12 determines the destination address of the transmission request command by the device recognizing means 17.
And the image data transmitting unit 20, and further, the data ID of the transmission request command is transmitted to the image data searching unit 1.
7 is notified (S304).

The apparatus recognizing unit 17 recognizes whether or not the destination of the image data is the host device 40, 41,... Based on the notification from the command interpreting unit 12 (S305).
If the transmission destination is the host device 40, 41,..., The image data search unit 17 searches the data stored in the image data storage unit 16 for a data ID that matches the data ID notified from the command interpretation unit 12 ( (S306), the image data corresponding to the detected data ID is read from the image data storage unit 16 (S307). The processing is repeated until reading of all image data corresponding to the notified data ID is completed (S308), and the read image data is transmitted to the data amount reducing unit 19 (S3).
09).

When the data amount reducing means 19 receives the image data read from the image data storage means 16, the data amount is reduced by line thinning or the like to the image data, and the image data is reduced to a rough image data (S310). The image data is transmitted to the image data transmission means 20 (S31
1). Upon receiving the schematic image data, the image data transmitting means 20 transmits the general image data to the host device 40, 41,... Which has requested transmission via the external I / F means 11 and the LAN 30 (S312).

.. That have transmitted the transmission request command to the image reading device 10 receive the rough image data from the image reading device 10 and display it on the display. That is, the host devices 40, 41,... Display the outline of the image drawn on the document to the user. The host devices 40, 41,...
In this case, the displayed image quality is reduced as compared with the case where the image data before the data amount reduction is displayed. However, this is for the purpose of confirming and grasping the image data read by the image reading device 10. No problem occurs.

(4) Image Data Output Operation Next, the image data output operation will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. When the transfer request command transmitted from the host device 40, 41,... Is received via the external I / F unit 11 (S401), the command interpreting unit 12
Then, the received command is analyzed (S402), and it is determined whether or not the command is a transfer request command (S402).
403). If it is determined that the command is a transfer request command, the command interpreting means 12 notifies the destination address of the transfer request command to the device recognizing means 17 and the image data transmitting means 20, and furthermore, the data ID of the transmission request command to the image Notification is made to the data search means 17 (S404).

Here, the device recognizing unit 17 recognizes whether or not the transmission destination of the image data is the host device 40, 41,... Based on the notification from the command interpreting unit 12, but specifies by the transfer request command. .. Are not the host devices 40, 41,..., The data amount reduction unit 19 does not reduce the data amount. Image data search means 1
7, the data I received from the command interpreting means 12
A data ID that matches D is searched from those stored in the image data storage unit 16 (S405), and image data corresponding to the detected data ID is read from the image data storage unit 16 (S406). This is repeated until reading of all the image data corresponding to the notified data ID is completed (S407), and the read image data is transmitted to the image data transmitting means 20 (S40).
8).

The image data transmitting means 20 recognizes the destination address notified from the command interpreting means 12 (S409), and acquires the address of the output device to be transmitted (S410). Then, using the acquired address of the output device as a transfer destination address, all the image data read from the image data storage means 16 is output to the printer
0 (S411), and causes the printer 50 to output all the image data as a visible image.

As described above, in the image reading apparatus 10 of the present embodiment, the transmission destination of the image data is
.., The image data is simplified to general image data to reduce the data amount, and then the general image data is transmitted to the host devices 40, 41,. Therefore, the image reading device 10 and the host devices 40 and 41
, The approximate image data after the data amount is reduced is exchanged, so that the communication time can be reduced as compared with the case where the data amount is not reduced. Furthermore, the host devices 40, 41,... Do not require data decompression processing or the like. With these, the host devices 40, 41,.
Thus, the image data can be quickly displayed, and a large storage area is not required for the image data.

In the image reading device 10, if the destination of the image data is not the host device 40, 41,..., The read image data is transmitted to the LAN 30 as it is. Therefore, the devices provided on the LAN 30, that is, the host devices 40, 41, and the printer 50 do not need to perform any data decompression processing, so that the processing load on the image data receiving side does not increase. That is, according to the image reading device 10 of the present embodiment, when the image data read by the image reading device 10 is displayed on the host devices 40, 41,. , The communication load between the host device 40, the image reading device 10 and the host device 40, 41... Can be quickly displayed, and the processing load on the host device 40, 41. .

Further, in the image reading apparatus 10 of the present embodiment, the image data read by the image reading means 15 is stored in the image data storage means 16. Therefore, in the image reading device 10, for example, after the outline of the image data read by the image reading means 15 is displayed and confirmed on the host devices 40, 41,.
When the image data is to be output by the printer 50, if the image data stored in the image data storage unit 16 is transferred to the printer 50, the image data need not be read by the image reading unit 15 again. As a result, quick output of image data becomes possible.

[0043]

As described above, according to the image reading apparatus of the present invention, if the transmission destination of the image data is a host apparatus, the image data is simplified into the outline image data to reduce the data amount. The schematic image data is transmitted. Therefore, the image data read by this image reading device is displayed and confirmed by the host device,
When grasping, it is possible to reduce the communication load between the host device and the image reading device, to enable quick display in the host device, and not to increase the processing load on the host device and the image output device. It works.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of an image reading device according to the present invention and an example of a system configuration in which the image reading device according to the present invention is used.

FIGS. 2A and 2B are explanatory diagrams showing commands transmitted from the host device to the image reading device, wherein FIG. 2A is an explanatory diagram of a transmission request command, FIG.
(C) is an explanatory diagram of a setting information command, and (d) is an explanatory diagram of a response command.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a memory map of a setting information storage unit.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an operation of registering setting information.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a specific example of a message transmitted from the image reading device to the host device.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an operation of reading image data.

FIGS. 7A to 7E are explanatory diagrams showing display examples on the operation unit at the time of image reading, and FIGS. 7A to 7E are explanatory diagrams of specific examples.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an operation example of an operation of transmitting image data to a host device.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an operation example of an output operation of image data.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Image reading device 15 Image reading means 16 Image data storage means 18 Device recognition means 19 Data amount reduction means 20 Image data transmission means 30 LAN (network) 40, 41 Host device

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An image reading device connected via a network to a host device for displaying image data as a visible image, comprising: image reading means for reading image data from an image drawn on a document; In transmitting the read image data over the network, a device recognizing means for recognizing whether the destination of the image data to be transmitted is the host device, and a result of the recognition by the device recognizing means, If the transmission destination is the host device, the data amount is reduced by simplifying the image data to be transmitted to schematic image data for displaying an outline of an image from which the image data is based, and reducing the data amount. Means, and image data transmitting means for transmitting the simplified image data simplified by the data amount reducing means to the host device, which is the transmission destination. Image reading apparatus characterized by obtaining. 2. The image reading apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an image data storage unit that stores the image data read by the image reading unit.