JPS60142416A - Storing and retrieving device of picture information - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To remove ordinary necessity for restoring picture retrieving information every charge of a picture information storage medium and to speed up processing by forming plural picture retrieval information storage areas. CONSTITUTION:Status (sectional information) is set up to ''0'' when no picture retrieval information is stored in a picture retrieval information storage area (b), and set up to ''1'' when said information is stored on the contrary. At the time of retrieval, a CPU2 reads out the status of a directory (a) and discriminates whether the status is ''0'' or not, and in case of ''0'', any picture retrieval information in the picture retrieval information area (b) in a magnetic disc 20 is erased and stores the picture information of a newly charged optical disc 9. When the status is ''1'', the picture retrieval information of the charged optical disc 9 exists in the magnetic disc 20, so that the status of a directory (a) is set to ''2'' in accordance with the pass A of a flow chart to display a message indicating that the picture retrieval information is being used at present.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of the Invention 1] The present invention relates to an image information storage and retrieval device for storing and retrieving image information.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems] Conventionally, in image information storage and retrieval devices that record image information or search and read out recorded image information, image information is stored in an image information storage medium such as an optical disk. At the same time, the image search information was stored in an image search information storage medium such as a magnetic disk. When searching for images, image search information is read out from a magnetic disk with a high readout speed and used for image searching.

However, conventionally, the image search information storage medium has only stored image search information for - image information storage media, so the image search information must be rewritten every time the image information storage medium is loaded. It was not possible to process it quickly. Further, even though it is possible to load a plurality of image information storage media at the same time, it is impossible to read image search information for only negative image storage media, making it impossible to search at the same time.

[Object of the Invention] The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides image information that can speed up processing by reducing the number of times image search information is re-stored in an image search information storage medium. The object of the present invention is to provide a storage retrieval device.

[Summary of the Invention] To achieve the above object, an outline of the present invention is that an image search information storage medium has a medium identification information storage area for storing medium identification information of each image information storage medium, and a medium identification information storage area for storing medium identification information of each image information storage medium. and an image search information storage area for storing image search information of some of the image information storage media corresponding to the medium identification information to be stored.

[Embodiment of the Invention] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing the entire structure of an image information storage and retrieval apparatus to which the present invention is applied. That is, 1 is a main control device, a CPU 2 that performs various controls, a main memory 3, a buffer memory such as a page buffer 49, which has a storage capacity corresponding to image information of at least one unit (original - page), and compression of image information. Compression and decompression (reducing redundancy) and decompression (without restoring the reduced redundancy)
Expansion circuit 51 Pattern generator 6 storing pattern information such as characters and symbols, Display interface 7
, and a title memory 8 for storing all data read from a floppy disk 18 to a floppy disk device 17, which will be described later.

The CPU 2 has processing means for storing or retrieving image information on the optical disc 9, which will be described later, and processing means for storing or reading image retrieval information on the magnetic disc 20, which will be described later. Reference numeral 10 denotes a reading device, such as a two-dimensional scanning device, which scans the original (document) 11 two-dimensionally with a laser beam to obtain an electrical signal corresponding to image information on the original 11. Reference numeral 12 denotes an optical disk device which receives image information tl read by the two-dimensional scanning device M10 and supplied via the main controller 1.
i, etc. are sequentially stored on the optical disc 9.

Furthermore, when an optical disc 9 on which information has already been recorded is loaded, the optical disc device 12 reads this information. In addition, optical disk device 1
2 can be loaded with a plurality of optical discs 9 at the same time. Here, an example of the storage contents of the optical disc 9 will be explained with reference to FIG. 2. In FIG. 2, the optical disc 9 has a serial number (SNO) as medium identification information,
Image search information and image information are stored. The image search information is composed of a search code made up of a plurality of search keys such as gender, employee number 2 name, and the like.

On the other hand, 13 is a keyboard for inputting instructions (processing information) such as unique search code registration or search corresponding to image information, and various operation commands.

Reference numeral 14 denotes an output device such as a cathode ray tube display device (hereinafter referred to as a CRT display device) which is a display section, and displays image information read by the two-dimensional scanning device 10 and supplied via the main controller 1 or an optical disk device. 12 and supplied via the main control device 1. 15 is a recording device that stores image information read by the two-dimensional scanning device 10 and supplied via the main controller 1;
Alternatively, image information read out from the optical disk device 12) and supplied via the main controller 1 is output as a hard copy. Reference numeral 17 denotes a floppy disk device that stores search data for original image information on a floppy disk, which is composed of a search code input using the keyboard 13 and a storage address on the optical disk 9 where image information corresponding to the search code is stored. 18, each piece of image information is stored. The magnetic disk device 19 stores medium identification information and image search information from the keyboard 13 or the two-dimensional scanning device 10 on the magnetic disk 20. The magnetic disk 20
As shown in FIG. 3(a), there is a medium identification information storage area (also referred to as a directory) a that can store medium identification information of, for example, 100 optical disks, and a storage area (also called a directory) that can store medium identification information of, for example, 100 optical disks. and an image information storage area b for storing image search information of the optical disc. This image information storage area b consists of a storage area b1 that stores a title for search, and a storage area 112 that stores an image storage address of an optical disc. In the directory a, the serial number (SNO) which is medium identification information, the status, the number of image information storage area B in which the image search information is stored, and the last use date 1 Image search corresponding to the optical disc with - are stored in the directory a. Each degree of classification is memorized. Here, the status refers to distinguishing information,
If no image search information is stored in the image search information storage area b, rOJ is stored, and if image search information is stored in the image search information storage area b, information "1" is stored.

Furthermore, if the status is "1" and the optical disc is currently being loaded, it means that it is in use and the status is "1".
2". The last use date is
The image search frequency refers to the last date in the past when image information was searched, and the image search frequency refers to the number of times image information was searched.

The operation of the image information storage and retrieval device configured as described above will be explained with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. First, any optical disc 9 on which information has already been stored is loaded into the optical disc device 12. Then, first, the serial number (No. 5), which is the medium identification information stored on the optical disc 9, is read and stored in the main memory 3 under the control of the CPU 2. On the other hand, each serial number (SNO) stored in each directory a in the magnetic disk 20 is transferred to the main memory under the control of the CPU 2.
The information is sequentially input to step 3. Here, the CPU 2 compares the tc serial number read from the optical disc 9 with the serial number of each directory a, and searches for a directory a with a matching number. When the CPU 2 finds a directory a with a matching serial number, the CPU 2 then reads the status of this directory a into the main memory 3 and determines whether or not this status is "0". A status of "O" means that the image search information corresponding to the serial number is not stored in the image search information storage area b in the magnetic disk 2o, and if the status is other than "0", the image search is performed. It means that the information is stored. If the status is “1”, image search information for the loaded optical disk exists on the magnetic disk 20;
According to the bus A shown in the flowchart of FIG. 4, the status of the directory a is set to "2" and is currently in use. Thereafter, a search or the like can be performed to quickly accomplish a predetermined task. In this way, the loaded optical disc 9
If the image search information exists on the magnetic disk 20, subsequent processing can be performed quickly.

In this embodiment, image search information corresponding to 12 types of optical disks out of 100 types to be loaded exists in the magnetic disk 20, so image search information in the magnetic disk 20 is stored each time the optical disk is replaced. The possibility of rewriting the image search information is reduced, and the number of times image search information is re-stored on the magnetic disk can be reduced. On the other hand, if the status is rOJ, the image search information of any of the image search information storage areas b in the magnetic disk 20 must be deleted and the image search information of the optical disk 9 loaded this time must be stored. It won't happen. For this purpose, the CPU 2 first finds a directory in the directory a whose status is "1". Then, the image search frequency in the directory a whose status is "1" is checked, and the one with the lowest image search frequency is found. The corresponding directory a
If there is only one location, then the image search information storage area b corresponding to the image search information storage area b corresponding to the control blocks 1 to 1a is assigned as the storage area for the image search information of the optical disc currently being loaded. If there are two or more corresponding directories a, check the last use date information of this directory a, and store the image search information storage area b corresponding to the older date of use for the image search information of the optical disc currently being loaded. Allocated as a storage area.

The thus selected image search information storage area b is set to have the status i rOJ of the directory a corresponding to the optical disc that has stored the image search information so far. After that, the image search information of the optical disk 9 currently being loaded is stored in this selected storage area. In this way,
The optical disk 9 being loaded this time is inside the magnetic disk 20.
It can have image search information, and the status of the directory a corresponding to this optical disc is set to "2", which means that it is currently in use, and the desired work can be performed. In this way, if the loaded optical disk 20 does not store image search information, the optical disk that is least likely to be used among the optical disks that already have image search information on the magnetic disk is selected as the "image search frequency" or "last used". "Date" can be selected as a parameter, the image search information corresponding to this optical disk can be deleted, and the image search information of the optical disk 9 loaded this time can be newly stored in this area. Therefore,
For the frequently used optical disc 9. Processing can be performed according to bus A in the flowchart of FIG. 4, and the possibility of re-storing the image search information is extremely reduced, making it possible to speed up the processing.

In addition, in the flowchart of FIG. 4, if the directory a corresponding to the serial number of the loaded optical disc 9 does not exist, all the directories a are rescanned to search for an empty area, and this empty area is used for the current loading. optical disc 9
Create it as a directory. Thereafter, image search information can be stored in the same manner as described above. Further, after the predetermined processing is completed, the optical disc 9 is transferred to the optical disc device 12.
When removing the optical disc, the status of the directory a corresponding to this optical disc is returned from "2" to "1". The image search information on the optical disk 9 can be erased from the magnetic disk 20 at any time. It goes without saying that when the optical disc 9 is loaded and an image search is performed, the "image search frequency" and "last use date" of the directory 9 corresponding to this optical disc are updated.

The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the gist of the present invention.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, since the image search information storage area is provided in multiple stages, it is possible to re-store the image search information each time the image information storage medium is loaded. Furthermore, if the image search information storage medium does not store the image search information, the image search information storage medium that already has the image search information can be used. The image information storage medium that is least likely to be used is selected using the "image usage frequency" or "last search date" as a parameter, and the image search information corresponding to this image information storage medium is deleted and stored in this area. Image search information can be stored.

Therefore, the possibility of re-storing image search information on a frequently used image information storage medium is further reduced, which can greatly contribute to speeding up processing.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing the overall configuration of an image information storage and retrieval device to which the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing the storage contents of an optical disk, and FIG. 3(a) is a storage diagram of a magnetic disk. FIG. 3(b) is an explanatory diagram showing the contents stored in the directory, and FIGS. 4 and 5 are flowcharts showing the order of operation of the apparatus of this embodiment. 1... Control means, 9... Image information storage medium, 20... Image search information storage medium, a...
. . . Medium identification information storage area, b . . . Image search information storage area. Figure 2 Figure 3 (G) b' (b)

Claims (5)

[Claims] (1) Medium identification information 2 Among the storage information of the image information storage medium that stores image information and image search information, medium identification information and image search information are stored in advance in the image search information storage medium, and In an image information storage and retrieval device, the control means inputs at least medium identification information when an image information storage medium is loaded, and performs a search by reading out the image retrieval information storage medium corresponding to the medium identification information. The storage medium includes a medium identification information storage area for storing medium identification information of each image information storage medium, and a portion of images of the image information storage medium corresponding to the medium identification information stored in this medium identification information storage area. An image information storage and retrieval device comprising an image retrieval information storage area for storing image retrieval information of an information storage medium. (2) The image information storage and retrieval device according to claim 1, wherein the medium identification information storage area stores retrieval frequency information representing the number of times of retrieval of image retrieval information. (3) The control means determines whether the image search information corresponding to the medium identification information input when the image information storage medium is loaded is 1.
If the image search information is not stored in the image search information storage area, the image search information with the lowest search frequency among the already stored image search information is deleted and the image search information of the image information storage medium is stored in that area. An image information storage and retrieval device according to claim 2. (4) The medium identification information storage area stores the last use date of the image search information, and if there are two or more items with the lowest search frequency, the control means selects the one with the oldest last use date. The image information storage and retrieval device according to claim 3, which erases image information. (5) A plurality of image information storage media can be loaded at the same time, and the medium identification information storage area stores identification information indicating whether or not the image information storage medium is currently in use;
The image information storage and retrieval device according to claim 3 or 4, wherein the control means excludes image retrieval information on an image information storage medium currently in use from being deleted.