JPH11306321A - Method and device for document management and recording medium storing document management program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a document management device, a document management method, and a recording medium storing document management program which reduce the volume of data to be registered. SOLUTION: Character recognition is performed based on picture data of a high resolution inputted from an input device, and picture data of the high resolution is converted into that of a low resolution after the end of character recognition. Only the character recognition result and low-resolution picture data are preserved in a storage device as the object of document management, thereby reducing the storage capacity required in the storage device.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a document management apparatus and a document management method for reading document data as image data and storing text-recognized document data, and a recording medium storing a document management program.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a newspaper company, newspaper paper in the past was photographed with a high-precision camera and recorded on a microfilm or the like.
At that time, a title and a keyword were given and used for searching.

However, the man-hours required for photographing a document and inputting a title and a keyword become enormous, and because the work is performed by humans, there are many omissions and errors in entry, and it has been difficult to improve the accuracy of retrieval.

Therefore, a manuscript article to be registered is input as image data by a scanner, and the image data is input to an OCR (Opti
cal Character Reader), and register the combined text and image data.
A system that enables full-text search of article contents has been proposed.

[0005] However, in order to improve the recognition accuracy in OCR, it is necessary to increase the resolution of image data input by a scanner, and there is a problem that the size of data to be registered increases.

[0006]

In a conventional document management apparatus, image data input from a scanner is stored in a storage device as it is. When image data captured at a high resolution is stored for OCR, the image data occupies a large storage area in the storage device, so that a large-capacity storage device needs to be prepared. On the other hand, O
CR requires high-resolution image data, but if the image data is only viewed on a monitor or the like, the resolution up to that point is not required.

An object of the present invention is to provide a document management apparatus, a document management method, and a recording medium on which a document management program is recorded, which can reduce the amount of data to be registered.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve this problem, the present invention performs character recognition based on high-resolution image data input from a scanner or the like and, after the character recognition is completed, a high-resolution image. Convert data to low resolution image data. The storage capacity required for the storage device is reduced by storing only the character recognition result and the low-resolution image data in the storage device as a document management target.

Thus, a document management device with a reduced data size can be obtained.

[0010]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided means for digitizing an original into binary image data at a first resolution, and performing character recognition on the digitized image data. Means for converting, after character recognition, image data to a second low resolution lower than the first resolution, and means for storing the character recognition result and the second resolution degree image data. With this configuration, the storage capacity of data to be stored can be reduced.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. (Embodiment) FIG. 1 is a circuit block diagram of a document management apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and shows a hardware configuration.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 denotes a central processing unit (CPU) for controlling the apparatus. Reference numeral 11 denotes a cathode ray tube (CRT) for displaying the progress and results of processing by the CPU 10, and constitutes a display device of the present invention.

Reference numeral 12 denotes a mouse, 13 denotes a keyboard, and 14 denotes an image input device, which constitute an input device of the present invention.

Reference numeral 15 denotes a random access memory (RA).
M), and the RAM 15 has an image storage area 16 for temporarily storing image data and a character recognition result storage area 17 for storing the result of character recognition processing.

Reference numeral 18 denotes a hard disk. The hard disk 18 has a program storage area 19 for storing a character recognition program according to a flowchart shown in FIG. 3 to be described later, a character recognition dictionary storage area 20 to be referred to at the time of character recognition processing,
OS storage area 2 for storing an operating system
1. It has a document storage area 22 for storing character recognition results and image data.

Reference numeral 23 denotes a read only memory (ROM)
The ROM 23 has a boot program area 24.

Although the processing contents of the document management apparatus according to the present embodiment are stored in the program storage area 19, it operates on the operating system in the OS storage area 21. In addition, in order for this operating system to operate, a boot program in the boot program storage area 24 is required.

Further, the program executed by the CPU 10 is stored in the program storage area 19 of the hard disk 18, but may be stored in a storage medium such as a CD-ROM. That is, the program may be installed in the program storage area 19 of the hard disk 18 from the recording medium on which the program is recorded via the drive device and executed by the CPU 10. With such a configuration, it is possible to easily realize the general-purpose computer of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of the document management apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention, and shows the configuration of functional units.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 100 denotes an image input unit;
1 is a character recognition unit, 102 is a character recognition result correction unit, 103
Denotes a resolution conversion unit, and 104 denotes a document management unit, each of which is realized by the CPU 10 executing a processing program stored in the program area 19 of the hard disk 18.

The operation of the thus configured document management apparatus will be described below. FIG. 3 is an operation flowchart of the document management apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention, showing how the CPU 10 executes the document management program stored in the program storage area 19 of the hard disk 18.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an area information table of the document management apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and shows a method of representing information on a character area on a document.

FIG. 5 shows the concept of a character area on a document in the document management apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a data structure diagram of a character recognition result file of the document management apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a view showing a document management table of the document management apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and shows a method for managing image data and character recognition results.

In FIG. 3, when the document management program stored in the program area 19 of the hard disk 18 is started in step 1, the high-resolution input of the original is performed in step 2. The input image data is used in character recognition performed in step 3. The input image data is stored in the image storage area 16 of the RAM 15. In order to obtain a high character recognition rate in the character recognition unit 101, the resolution of the image data is important. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the resolution of the image input in step 2 is 400 dpi. The image format is a binary format.

In step 3, the image data stored in the image storage area 16 in step 2 is read to perform character recognition, and the character recognition result is stored in the character recognition result storage area 17. Character recognition is a known technique for converting image data into character data, and the present invention does not matter about the method. Therefore, only a brief description will be given here.

In character recognition, layout information is analyzed and divided into a character area, a table area, a graphic area, and the like, and the character area is divided into a vertical writing area and a horizontal writing area. If it is a vertical writing area, for example, like a newspaper, the reading order of each rectangle is determined from the upper right area to the lower left area, and the character recognition process is performed using the dictionary stored in the character recognition dictionary storage area 20. It is sufficient to obtain the character strings output in this order.
In the case of a horizontal writing area, reading is performed from the upper left area to the lower right area.

In step 4, the misread characters in the character recognition result are corrected by input from the keyboard 13.

In step 5, the image data stored in the image storage area 16 is read out, the resolution of the image data is reduced, and the image data is stored again in the image storage area 16. Therefore, the image data was stored in the image storage area 16 before step 5. The high-resolution image data is replaced with the low-resolution image data by performing step 5.

The resolution when the resolution is reduced in step 5 is 200 dpi. This step allows 400 dpi
Sometimes about 2 megabytes image data capacity is about 0.5
Reduced to megabytes.

In step 6, the low-resolution image data stored in the image storage area 16 of the RAM 15 is stored as an image file in the document storage area 22, and the character recognition result stored in the character recognition result storage area 17 is also stored in the document. It is stored in the area 22 as a character recognition result file. Further, a document management table as shown in FIG. 7 is created for collectively managing the image file and the character recognition result file.
One image file and one character recognition result file are associated with one management number in the document management table, and when searching for a document, the document management table is searched using the management number as a key to find the file It is possible to do.

The character recognition result is composed of the position information and the text information of the recognized character for each character area on the document. The character area refers to a set of characters as shown in FIG.

As means for representing character area information, an area information management table as shown in FIG. 4 is used. The page number indicates a page number when the document is composed of a plurality of pages. The X coordinate, Y coordinate, width, and height indicate the position and size of the area on the document. The character set direction indicates the description direction of the character in the area, that is, whether it is vertical writing or horizontal writing. The pointer to the text indicates the storage location address where the result of character recognition in the area is stored. At the time of reference, text data can be referenced using this address. The pointer to the next area indicates the storage location address where the next area information in the document is stored. By following the pointer to the next area, it is possible to refer to information of all areas in the document.

FIG. 6 shows a reference relationship between the area information and the text information. If the pointer to the text included in the area information of the area 1 is traced, the text data of the area 1 can be referred to. By following the pointer to the area next to the area 1, the area information of the area 2 can be referred to. If the pointer to the text included in the area information of the area 2 is traced, the text data of the area 1 can be referred to. Since 0 is contained in the pointer to the area next to the area 2, it is understood that there is no more area information.

As described above, the character recognition result file stores the text data obtained by character recognition of the image data and the position on the original document. The search can be performed, and even if the image data is stored at a reduced resolution, the contents of the document are correctly stored, so that there is no adverse effect of the reduction in the resolution.

In step 7, it is determined whether a document to be read is set in the image input device 14. If a document is set, the process proceeds to step S2. If the original is not set, the operation of the document management program ends.

In this embodiment, the resolution at the time of inputting a high-resolution document and the resolution at the time of low-resolution conversion of an image are fixed values. It is also possible to use a means for obtaining a minimum resolution capable of distinguishing characters on an image from the size of a character image obtained when character recognition is performed on high-resolution image data and setting a low resolution value.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the storage capacity of the storage device can be reduced by reducing the resolution of the image data. In addition, regarding the deterioration of image quality due to the reduction in resolution of image data, the document contents can be reliably read because the character recognition result is stored.

[0040]

As described above, the present invention provides a means for digitizing a document into binary image data at a first resolution, a means for performing character recognition on the digitized image data, and a method for character recognition. The image data is converted into a second lower resolution lower than the first resolution later, and the character recognition result and the second resolution image data are stored. Since the storage capacity of the data to be saved can be reduced, a document management device with a reduced storage area for image data can be realized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a circuit block diagram of a document management apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of the document management apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is an operation flowchart of the document management apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an area information table of the document management apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram of a character area of the document management apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a data structure diagram of a character recognition result file of the document management apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a view showing a document management table of the document management apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention;

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 Central processing unit (CPU) 11 Cathode ray tube (CRT) 12 Mouse 13 Keyboard 14 Image input device 15 Random access memory (RAM) 16 Image storage area 17 Character recognition result storage area 18 Hard disk 19 Program storage area Reference Signs List 20 Character recognition dictionary storage area 21 OS storage area 22 Document storage area 23 Read-only memory (ROM) 24 Start-up program storage area 100 Image input unit 101 Character recognition unit 102 Character recognition result correction unit 103 Resolution conversion unit 104 Document management unit

Claims (4)

[Claims] A means for digitizing a document into binary image data at a first resolution; a means for performing character recognition on the digitized image data; A document management apparatus, comprising: means for converting to a second lower resolution lower than one resolution; and means for storing the character recognition result and the second resolution degree image data. 2. The document management apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for correcting the character recognition result. 3. A document management method for digitizing and saving and managing a document, comprising: digitizing a document into binary image data at a first resolution; character-recognizing the image data; A document management method, comprising: converting the resolution to a second resolution lower than the first resolution; and controlling to save the character recognition result and the image data of the second resolution. 4. A recording medium storing a document management program for digitizing a document and storing and managing the document, wherein the document is digitized into binary image data at a first resolution, and the image data is character-recognized. A document management program for converting the image data into a second resolution lower than the first resolution, and controlling to save the character recognition result and the image data of the second resolution. recoding media.