JPH1115224A - Copying device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent bookbinding processing from being executed while the directions of the images of pages are different by discriminating the direction of the image and discriminating whether the directions of all the images being moved on a sheet placing means are identical or not in copying sheets which are bound as a book. SOLUTION: By a CPU 201, documents set in an automatic document feeder are successively fed to a document glass and the images thereof are read when a copying key arranged on a control panel 140 is turned on. The writing direction of the image data thereof is discriminated by a writing direction discrimination part and respectively set. Next, when the image forming actions of the whole sheets on which the image is formed is finished, a stapling mode or a bookbinding mode is inputted from the key on the panel 140. Besides, since the writing directions where the image is formed are not uniform when plural flags out of the flags for discriminating the writing direction are set, the processing is finished without executing the processing in the stapling mode or in the bookbinding mode. When the plural flags are not set, the stapling processing or the bookbinding processing is executed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a copying apparatus capable of recognizing the direction of a document image.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional copying machine, if a document to be copied is set in a document feeder of the copying machine while a document whose image direction is rotated by 180 degrees is mixed with the original, the copying machine is not used. Was not able to recognize this and was just performing the copying operation.

[0003]

Therefore, if staple processing or bookbinding processing is selected as post-processing, bookbinding is performed with the page image direction being different, resulting in incomplete bookbinding. There was a problem.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a first discriminating means for discriminating the direction of an image according to a read document image, and a discrimination result of each document by the first discriminating means. Second determining means for determining whether all the images in the copy sheet to be bound are in the same direction based on the same;
And a control unit for controlling the bookbinding process in accordance with the result of the determination by the second determination unit.

[0005]

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

FIG. 1 is a sectional view illustrating the structure of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. Reference numeral 101 denotes an original platen glass on which originals fed from the automatic original feeder 142 are sequentially placed at predetermined positions. Reference numeral 102 denotes a document illumination lamp composed of, for example, a halogen lamp,
The document placed on 1 is exposed. 103, 104, 105 are scanning mirrors, accommodated in an optical scanning unit not shown,
The light reflected from the document is guided to the CCD unit 106 while reciprocating. The CCD unit 106 includes an imaging lens 107 that forms an image of reflected light from a document on the CCD, an image sensor 108 including a CCD, a CCD driver 109 that drives the image sensor 108, and the like. The image signal output from the image sensor 108 is converted into, for example, 8-bit digital data and then input to the controller unit 139. Reference numeral 110 denotes a photosensitive drum, which is discharged by a pre-exposure lamp 112 in preparation for image formation. A primary charger 113 charges the photosensitive drum 110 uniformly. Reference numeral 117 denotes an exposure unit that is configured by, for example, a semiconductor laser or the like, and that 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. . Reference numeral 118 denotes a developing device which stores a black developer (toner). Reference numeral 119 denotes a pre-transfer charger, which applies a high voltage before transferring the toner image developed on the photosensitive drum 110 to a sheet. 12
Reference numerals 0, 122, and 124 are paper feed units, and each paper feed roller 121,
By the drive of 123 and 125, the transfer paper is fed into the device,
The image forming apparatus temporarily stops at the position where the registration roller 126 is provided, and starts rewriting the image formed on the photosensitive drum 110 at the timing. 127 is a transfer charger, and is a photosensitive drum 1
The toner image developed in step 10 is transferred to the fed transfer paper. Reference numeral 128 denotes a separation charger, which separates the transfer paper 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. Reference numeral 129 denotes a transport belt which transports the transfer paper on which the transfer process has been completed to the fixing device 130, and fixes the transfer paper by, for example, heat. Reference numeral 131 denotes a flapper, which controls the transfer path of the transfer sheet having undergone the fixing process in one of the arranging directions of the staple sorter 132 or the intermediate tray 137. The paper discharged to the staple sorter 132 is sorted into each bin, and the staple unit 141 staples 141 according to an instruction from the controller unit 139. When a bookbinding device (glue binder) 145 is attached instead of the staple sorter 132, the backstrip and the paper bundle with glue are glued by the binder unit 143 according to an instruction from the controller unit 139, and the stacker is used. Store the bundle of bound paper in 144.
Reference numerals 133 to 136 denote feeding rollers, which feed the transfer sheet, for which the fixing process has been completed, once to the intermediate tray 137 by inversion (multiplexing) or non-inversion (both sides). Reference numeral 138 denotes a re-feed roller, which transfers the transfer sheet placed on the intermediate tray 137 again.
The sheet is transported to the position where the registration roller 126 is provided. The controller unit 139 includes a microcomputer, an image processing unit, and the like, which will be described later, and performs the above-described image forming operation in accordance with an instruction from the operation panel 140.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the controller 139 in the image forming apparatus. Reference numeral 201 denotes a CPU that controls the entire image processing apparatus, and sequentially reads and executes programs from a read-only memory 203 (ROM) that stores control procedures (control programs) for the apparatus main body. An address bus and a data bus of the CPU 201 are connected to each load via a bus driver circuit and an address decoder circuit of the CPU 202. Reference numeral 204 denotes a random access memory (RAM), which is a main storage device used as storage of input data and a work storage area. 205 is an I / O interface,
The operator performs key input, displays the status of the apparatus using liquid crystal and LEDs, and displays an operation panel 140, and motors 207, clutches 208, and solenoids 209 for driving a paper feeding system, a conveyance system, and an optical system. Also, it is connected to each load of a device such as paper detection sensors 210 for detecting the paper being conveyed. The developing device 118 is provided with a residual toner detection sensor 211 for detecting the amount of toner in the developing device, and an output signal thereof is input to the I / O port 205. A high voltage unit 215 outputs a high voltage to the primary charger 113, the developing device 118, the pre-transfer charger 119, the transfer charger 127, and the separation charger 128 according to an instruction from the CPU.

Reference numeral 206 denotes an image processing unit, and the CCD unit 106
The image signal output from the CPU is input, the image processing described below is performed, and a control signal for the laser unit 117 is output in accordance with the image data. The laser light output from the laser unit 7 irradiates the photosensitive drum 110, 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 the output signal is input to the I / O port 205.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the image processing section 206 in the controller section 139 in the image forming apparatus. The image signal converted into an electric signal by the CCD 108 is first corrected by a shading circuit 301 for variations between pixels, and then, in a scaling circuit 302, data is thinned out at the time of reduced copy, and at the time of enlarged copy. Performs data interpolation. Next, in the edge enhancement circuit 303, for example, 5 × 5
The second derivative is performed in the window of, and the edge of the image is emphasized. Since this image data is luminance data, data conversion is performed by a table search in a γ conversion circuit 304 in order to convert the image data into density data to be output to a printer. The image data converted to the density data is input to the binarization processing unit 305. Here, multivalued data is converted into binary data by, for example, the ED method. The binary converted image data is input to the synthesis circuit 307. In the combining circuit 307, input image data and an image memory configured by, for example, a DRAM are provided.
The image data in 310 is selectively output or ORed and output. The read / write control for the image memory 310 is performed by the memory control unit 309. These image data are converted to a signal of the laser emission intensity by a PWM circuit 3
08, and outputs a pulse width according to the image density to the laser unit. The image output from the scaling circuit 302 is input to the document direction discrimination unit 306, and performs a document direction discrimination process described later.

Next, the document direction discriminating operation will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the document direction determining unit 306. The image data output from the scaling unit 302 is input to the CPU / memory unit 401, and the scanner unit 1 temporarily stores the image data and performs various controls. The CPU 201 in the controller unit 139 is re-connected to the CPU 201 by, for example, a dual-port RAM (not shown), and transmits and receives data. Of course, serial communication may be used.

The character recognition / direction discriminating unit 402 focuses on the fact that the most accurate representation of the direction of a document is a character.
0, 90, 180
Character recognition is performed from the directions of ° and 270 °, and the direction with the highest confidence among the degrees of confidence in character recognition in each direction (the degree of approximation between the read character and the recognized character) is determined to be the document direction.

An area separation unit 403 is a character recognition / direction determination unit 402
Character recognition by. As pre-processing for performing the direction discrimination processing, a text part, a graphic part, a natural image part,
This is a block for performing processing of separating a table portion or the like into rectangular regions and adding an attribute (such as a character portion) of each region.

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 configured by SCSI, RS232C, or the like, and is provided for transmitting data to an external device. 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.

Next, an outline of the document direction automatic discrimination / correction and character recognition processing in this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The input image data (multi-valued image) is first converted into a character portion, a graphic portion,
The image is separated into rectangular areas according to attributes such as a natural image portion and a front portion (steps S1 and S2). Here, actually, area information surrounded by a rectangle is created.

Next, rectangle information of the character area is extracted from each attribute (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. 6A and 6C, rectangle information of a character area as shown in FIGS. 6B and 6D is extracted. Then, the document direction is determined by using several blocks among them (step S4). As a result, if the document direction is the forward direction, the character recognition process is continuously performed on the character blocks in the image (step S
7).

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). This is to correct the difference of the area separation information due to the image rotation. One method is to perform the area separation processing again on all the rotated image data, and the other is to perform the address conversion by the area separation. There is a way to multiply the results. Since the area separation processing generally assumes that the image is in the forward direction, the results of the area separation processing performed in the initial stage and the area separation processing 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 are finally obtained in both the case without the rotation and the case with the rotation (step S8).

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

Next, a description will be given of a method of determining the document direction using the character recognition processing.

(Area Separation Processing) The black pixels in the document image data are detected, and a rectangle of a black pixel block is created by contour tracing or labeling. Next, the character area (title, body, caption, etc.), graphic area, natural image area, table area, etc. are determined based on the black pixel density in the rectangle, the presence or absence of adjacent rectangular blocks, the aspect ratio of the rectangle, and the like. Is determined. The rectangular area of the character area is determined based on the processing result.

(Character Recognition Processing) One method of character recognition processing is a feature vector extraction and comparison method. For example, as shown in FIG. 7A, it is assumed that a character area including the character "book" is determined. As a first step, character extraction processing is performed on this character area (see FIG. 7B). This is a process of cutting out a rectangle of one character, and is obtained by detecting the state of black pixel continuity. As a second step, one character is cut into m × n (for example, 64 × 64) pixel blocks (see FIG. 7C). And 3 of them
The distribution direction of black pixels is extracted using a window of 3 pixels (direction vector information: see FIG. 7D).

FIG. 7 (d) illustrates a part of the direction vector information. The window of 3 × 3 pixels is shifted to obtain several tens of direction vector information. This vector information is a character feature. By comparing this feature vector with the contents of a character recognition dictionary stored in advance, characters are extracted in order from the character whose feature is closest to the feature vector. In this case, the first
Candidate, second candidate ... Becomes The closeness of the feature to this feature vector is a numerical value of the closeness to the character, that is, the degree of confidence in character recognition.

(Character Direction Discrimination Processing) The degree of confidence in character recognition is obtained in this manner. The character direction discrimination processing based on the degree of confidence is performed using the sentence example of "Name of the present invention" shown in FIG. Will be explained.

FIG. 8A shows a sentence in the forward direction, and FIG.
° The sentence is rotated. Here, paying attention to “book”, when determining the character direction, as shown in FIG. 8C, one character “book” is determined from four directions of 0 °, 90 °, 180 °, and 270 °. Try character recognition.

For each rotation angle, it is sufficient to change the method of reading the character rectangular area, and it is not necessary to rotate the document.
The character recognition results at each rotation angle are different from each other as shown in FIG. FIG. 8 (c) shows the temporary character recognition result and the degree of confidence for explanation, and this is not always the case.

In FIG. 8C, when character recognition is performed from the positive direction (0 °), the character is correctly recognized as a “book” and the confidence level is as high as 0.90. When character recognition is performed from a direction rotated by 90 °, it is erroneously recognized as “town” and the confidence level is 0.40.
And decline. 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 180 °, 2
Even when character recognition is performed from a direction rotated by 70 °, erroneous recognition occurs and the degree of confidence decreases. The degree of confidence in the direction of character recognition becomes more noticeable as the characters are more complex.

In the result shown in FIG. 8C, the degree of confidence is highest in the forward direction, so that it is determined that the document is likely to be oriented in the forward direction. In order to improve the accuracy of character direction discrimination, character recognition is performed for a plurality of characters in the same block from four directions in the same manner. Furthermore, when the character direction is determined only by one block, the character direction may be erroneously determined for a special character string. Therefore, similar character recognition is performed on a plurality of blocks. And
For each block, calculate the average value of the confidence in each direction of each recognition target character in the block, and calculate the average value of the confidence in each block in each direction. The highest direction is the text direction (document direction)
Certified as

As described above, the character direction is determined based on the confidence of a plurality of characters in the same block, and further, the character direction is determined based on the confidence of a plurality of characters in the same block without determining the character direction based on the confidence of only one character. The (document) direction can be determined with high accuracy. However, it is needless to say that the character direction can be determined with higher accuracy than before even if the character direction is determined based on the confidence level of only one character or the character direction is determined based on the confidence levels of a plurality of characters in the same block.

Next, when the result of determination of the character direction (document direction) is a direction other than the forward direction, the original image is rotated so that the character direction becomes the forward direction. This rotation is based on the CPU /
This can be easily performed by a known technique using the memory 401, and a description thereof will be omitted.

With the above processing, the original image data shown in FIG. 9A, the segmentation data shown in FIG. 9B, and the character recognition information shown in FIG. 9C can be obtained. . These information are stored in the C of the controller unit 139 as described above.
It is sent to PU201 and used for various image processing and various controls.

As shown in FIG. 9B, the format of the area separation data is "header" indicating that the area separation data is used.
And each area (block) identified by the identifiers “rect1” to “rect4” of the separated areas.
Is the block number "order", the block attribute (character part, graphic part, etc.) "art", the coordinate value "x1" and "y1" at the upper left of the block, the block width "w", and the block height "H" or "directi" indicating vertical or horizontal writing
on ", the ID of the block" selfID ", the ID of the parent block containing the block" upperID ", the attribute of the parent block" upperAtt ", and the reserved area" reserve ".

As shown in FIG. 9C, the character recognition information has a "header" indicating that the character recognition information is character recognition information. It is composed of combination information such as "OCR1" and "blkheader" corresponding to the above "rect1" indicating a block including the character.

Each character recognition information such as "OCR1"
"Type" indicating whether it is a character or a blank, and the first to fifth candidate characters "character" according to the above-described character recognition confidence.
1 ”to“ character 5 ”, the cut-out positions“ x1 ”and“ y1 ”of the character, the width“ w ”of the character, the height“ h ”of the character, and a reserved area“ reserve ”.

Next, a detailed operation of the copying apparatus will be described with reference to the flowchart of the CPU 201 in FIG. First,
At step S1, flags A, B,
Clear C and D to 0 respectively. In step S2, it is determined whether or not the copy key on the operation panel 140 is turned on. If the copy key is turned on, the documents set in the automatic document feeder 142 are sequentially fed onto the document glass 101 in step S3, and the image is read. . The read image data is used to determine the document direction by the above-described document direction determination method (step S
Four). According to the determined document direction, for example, if the direction is 0 °, the flag A is set to 1, if the direction is 90 °, the flag B is set to 1, and if the direction is 180 °, the flag C is set to 1, and the direction is set. Is 2
If it is 70 °, the flag D is set to 1 (steps S5 to S8). Next, in step S9, it is determined whether or not the image formation for all sheets to be formed has been completed, and if not completed, the operations from steps S3 to S8 are repeated, and if completed, the staple mode or bookbinding mode is performed in step S10. Is determined from a key on the operation panel 140, and if the stapling mode or the binding mode is not specified, the image forming operation ends as it is.

If the staple mode or the bookbinding mode has been designated, a flag A for document direction discrimination is set in step S11.
It is determined whether or not a plurality of flags are set among. Here, if a plurality of flags are set, it means that the direction of the image-formed document is not uniform. Therefore, even if the staple mode or the bookbinding mode is set, the process is terminated without performing the processing. Here, unless a plurality of flags are set, it means that the direction of the image-formed document has been uniformly aligned.
In step S12, staple processing or bookbinding processing is executed, and all operations are completed.

Although the present embodiment has been described as a copying apparatus, the present invention can be applied not only to a copying apparatus but also to other configurations. For example, a document image read by a scanner is imported to a host computer,
The present invention is also applicable to a configuration in which an image is output from a host computer to a printer equipped with a bookbinding device. In this case, a software program for executing the processing described with reference to FIGS. 5 to 10 is prepared and stored in a floppy disk or a hard disk, and the host computer reads the stored program and connects to the printer. It can be realized by controlling the bookbinding device.

[0036]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The orientation of the image is determined in accordance with the read original image, and it is determined whether all the images in the copy sheet to be bound are in the same direction based on the determination result of each original, and the binding is performed in accordance with the determination result. Since the processing is controlled, it is possible to prevent bookbinding with the image directions of the pages being different.

Further, according to the present invention, characters in a document image are recognized in four directions, and the direction in which the characters in the document image and the character obtained as a result of the character recognition have a high degree of similarity is determined as the direction of the image. Therefore, it is possible to control whether or not to perform the bookbinding process by performing highly accurate direction determination.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a configuration of a copying apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a controller unit 139 in the copying apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an image processing unit 206 in the controller unit 139.

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

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a document direction automatic determination and character recognition process.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a region separation state in automatic document direction determination.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram for describing a process of a character recognition process.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a character direction automatic discrimination process.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a data format of area separation and character recognition information.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a detailed operation of the copying apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 132 Staple sorter 145 Bookbinding device 306 Document direction discrimination unit

Claims (4)

[Claims] A first discriminating means for discriminating a direction of the image in accordance with a read document image; and all images in a copy sheet to be bound based on a discrimination result of each document by the first discriminating means. A copying apparatus comprising: a second determination unit that determines whether the directions are the same direction; and a control unit that controls a bookbinding process according to a determination result of the second determination unit. 2. The copying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit does not execute the bookbinding process when the determination result of the second determination unit is a negative determination. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first determining unit performs character recognition on characters in the document image from four directions.
2. The copying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a direction in which the degree of similarity between the character in the original image and the character obtained as a result of the character recognition is high is determined to be the direction of the image. 4. A program for performing a process of determining a direction of an image according to a read document image, and whether all images in a copy sheet to be bound based on a result of determining the direction of each document are in the same direction. A recording medium storing a program comprising: a program for determining whether or not the content is not included; and a program for controlling a bookbinding process in accordance with a result of the determination.