JPS62122374A - Picture processing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To combine complementarily a microfilm preserved as visible information and a disk capable of retrieving at high speed and to use by reading selected picture information of the picture information recorded on the microfilm and recording on the disk. CONSTITUTION:When retrieval data of, the desired picture information, for instance, a retrieval number (Paten number) is inputted to an input device 4, it is fed to a microfilm retrieval device 2 and a disk retrieval device 3 through a control circuit 1, and in the disk retrieval device 3, the desired picture information corresponding to the retrieval number is retrieved and the picture information is read by a photodetecting element and converted into an electrical signal. This picture signal is displayed on a display device 5 and when it is required to print the picture by seeing the picture, a print command switch of the input device 4 is turned on. At this time, when the desired picture information is retrieved by the microfilm retrieval device 2, it is read by an image sensor, converted into a binarization picture signal, fed to a printer 6 through the control circuit 1 and the retrieved picture is printed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an image processing system that comprehensively combines microfilm and disk.

BACKGROUND ART Image information such as documents generated in large quantities is recorded at high density on microfilm, and necessary information can be easily obtained from this microfilm. A typical example is a patent publication.

A detailed description of the invention and drawings are recorded from page 2 onwards.

When using a microfilm in which one page of this patent publication is recorded frame by frame, use the microfilm search device attached to the reader printer to find the frame of the first page of the desired patent publication on the microfilm. I searched for it, looked at the image of the frame on the first page on the screen, considered whether this patent publication was necessary, and, if necessary, obtained a copy of it.

By the way, microfilm allows for the manual processing of large amounts of information at high speed, and is ideal for permanent preservation.
In general, microfilm retrieval devices have a slow retrieval speed, which has led to the problem of poor work efficiency. In particular, it takes a very long time to search a large number of patent publications, which is disadvantageous in that other users cannot use the device for a long time.

On the other hand, as a filing system, optical disks have been developed in recent years and are attracting great interest due to their instant processing capabilities and high-speed search. This optical disk system does not require developing and fixing processes like microfilm, and has the advantage of being able to search for information at high speed. There was a problem in that the recorded information could not be verified directly and there was no legal evidence.

On the other hand, microfiles have a storage capacity of approximately 1
It has a lifespan of 00 years, can retain information for a long period of time, and even if the device breaks down, the recorded information can be visually confirmed, and is recognized as legal evidence.

This invention was made in view of the above circumstances, and utilizes a complementary combination of microfilm, which stores image information as safe visual information that can be visually checked, and a disk, which allows high-speed retrieval of image information. The objective is to provide an image processing system that can perform

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

FIG. 1 shows an information retrieval device to which the present invention is applied. Reference numeral 1 denotes a control circuit, which is comprised of a microcomputer that performs various controls. Reference numeral 2 denotes a microfilm retrieval device, which includes a roll-shaped microfilm file recording a large amount of image information, for example, patent publications, and a retrieval device that searches for desired image information in the microfilm file. 3 is a disc search device that reads only the image information selected on the microfilm, for example, the image information on the first page of a patent publication, with an image sensor such as a CCD, converts it into a digital signal, and searches for an optical disc or an optical disc on which this signal is recorded. It has a search device that searches for files such as a magneto-optical disk and desired image information on the disk. Reference numeral 4 denotes an input device consisting of a keyboard, into which search data, such as a desired microfilm number and an address number of desired image information in this microfilm, are entered manually, and the search is started by inputting the search data. Microfilm retrieval device 2
Then, the disc search device 3 searches for desired image information in the microfilm and disc corresponding to the search data.

Note that the frame to be recorded on the disc is not limited to the frame on the first page, but any frame on the microfilm can be selected and recorded on the disc.

5 is a display device for displaying the image information searched by the disk device 3; 6 is a printing device for printing the image information searched for by the microfilm search device 2. The display device 5 includes, for example, a high-resolution cathode ray tube or a liquid crystal display, and the printer device 6 includes, for example, a laser beam printer, an inkjet printer, or the like.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a microfilm retrieval device, in which a microfilm F is housed in a cartridge 10, and is sent out from the cartridge 10 by a capstan roller 11 and a pinch roller 12, and is transported by a film guide member (not shown). and is sent to the take-up reel 15 by guide rollers 13 and 14, and wound up on the take-up rail 15.

The microfilm F has a frame f in which a large number of patent publications are recorded in page order, a frame mark m1 recorded on the bottom side of each frame,
It has a subject mark m2 recorded on the upper side of the frame in which the image information of the first item of each patent publication is recorded. The microfilm F is illuminated by a lamp at a predetermined position, and the image information of the illuminated frame is imaged by a lens 17 onto a line image sensor 18 such as a COD (charge coupled device).
Image information is read by the image sensor 18. 2
0 is a frame detector that detects the frame mark m1, and 21 is a subject mark detector that detects the subject mark m2.

The frame mark m1 and subject mark m2 have different densities from their surroundings,
When the mark recording portion of the microfilm passes between the lamp 16 and each detector 20.21, the frame mark detector 2
0, the light incident on the mark detector 21 is interrupted by the mark, and each detector outputs a mark signal. Information on a desired item can be retrieved by counting the item mark signal outputted when the item mark detector 21 detects an item mark using a counter. Details of the search device can be found in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 1983-
Since this is known from Japanese Patent No. 54428, the explanation will be omitted. A large number of microfilms are stored in the microfile, and the search device 2 can select a desired microfilm.

When desired image information is retrieved and placed at a predetermined position (illumination position), the image sensor 18 converts this image into an electrical signal and reads it. This image signal is sent to the printing device 6, and if the printing device is a laser beam printer, the laser beam is modulated based on the image signal, and the modulated laser beam is imaged and scanned on the photoreceptor, Copy images can be obtained using the electrophotographic process.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a disk search device using a magneto-optical disk.
0 is, for example, a glass disk on which a magnetic film made of Gd, Tb, Fe, etc. is deposited by sputtering or the like.

During recording, a light beam modulated based on image information is made into parallel light by a collimator lens 52, and a polarizer 53
After passing through the beam splitter 54, the light is focused onto the surface of the disk 50 using a condensing lens 55 as a beam spot with a diameter of about 1 μm.

Here, the magnetic film of the disk 50 is magnetized in advance with its orientation aligned in the vertical direction, and the direction of magnetization is reversed by irradiation with the laser beam, and the image information and search data are converted into bits 60 in FIG. It is recorded on a disc.

On the other hand, during reproduction, a laser light source 51 emits a light beam with a constant intensity, the polarizer 53 converts the light into linearly polarized light, and the light beam is irradiated onto a bit string formed on the disk 50 . The disk 50 is optically rotated according to the image information by the magnetic Kerr effect.
The direction of the reflected light is changed by a beam splitter 54, guided to a light receiving element 57 through a polarizer 56, a signal is detected, and a signal processing circuit 58 reproduces the recorded image information.

In the above disk, the interval between bit strings (track pitch) is 2 μm, and the diameter of the disk is 100 mm.
If the recording area is up to 0.00 mm, approximately 20 bits of information can be recorded, and approximately 125 A4 size images of 16 pels can be stored. This recorded image information is
Arbitrary searches (random access) can be performed by moving the optical system as shown in the figure relative to the disk in the disk radial direction. Moreover, the above-mentioned recording can be easily erased by applying a strong magnetic field that matches the magnetization direction before recording to the disk.

A large number of discs are stored in the disc file, and a desired disc can be selected using the disc search device.

FIG. 5 shows details of the control circuit 1, and 101 may be any well-known microcomputer.
For example, Intel's r8086J or Motorola's r68000 are used. 102 is a ROM (read-only storage device) in which a program for controlling the microcomputer 101 is written. Reference numeral 103 denotes a large-capacity buffer memory that stores image information read by the microfilm retrieval device 2 or the disk retrieval device 3. As the memory 103, for example, a commercially available 64
Uses KDRAM.

104 is an interface circuit for a display device, 105 is an interface circuit for a printing device, 106 is an interface circuit for a microfilm search wedge device, 107
108 is an interface circuit for a disk search device, and 108 is an interface circuit for an input device. Signals from the input device 4 are input to the microcomputer 101 via the interface circuit 108, and the microcomputer 101 sends control signals to the disk search device 3 and the microfilm search device 2 based on the input signals. The image information read by the microfilm retrieval device 2 and the disk retrieval device 3 is stored in a buffer memory 103, and the image information for one page stored in the memory 103 is sent to a display device 5 or a printout via an interface circuit 104 or 105. The image information is sent to the device 6 and displayed or printed.

If the information output speed of the microfilm retrieval device 2 and the information output speed of the printing device 6 are the same, the image information read by the microfilm retrieval device 2 is directly sent to the printing device 6 and printed without going through the memory 103. You can do it like this.

Next, the search operation of the information search device shown in FIG. 1 will be explained with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. In FIG. 6, first, the power switch is turned on, and in step 1, the device is set to the initial state. Next, in step 2, search data for desired image information to be searched, such as a search number (patent number), is input into the human-powered device 4, and a search start key on the input device is pressed to instruct the search to start. The input search number is sent to the microfilm search device 2 and disk search device 3 through the control circuit 1, and in step 3, the microfilm search device 2 and disk search device 3 operate to start a search operation.

The disk search device 3 searches for desired image information (image information on the first page of a desired patent publication) corresponding to the search number,
The image information retrieved in step 5 is read by the light receiving element 57 and converted into an electrical signal. This image signal is sent to the display device 5 via the control circuit 1, and the image information retrieved by the disk device in step 6 is displayed on the display device 5. The user looks at the image information displayed on the display device 5, that is, the image of the first page of the desired patent publication, examines this image, and determines whether or not to print.

If there is no need to print this image, the disk retrieval device and the microfilm retrieval device may be reset to their initial states, and new search data may be input into the human-powered device.

If it is necessary to print the image, the print command switch of the input device 4 is turned on in step 7.

When the print command switch is turned on, it is checked in step 8 whether the microfilm retrieval device 2 has retrieved desired image information.

When desired image information is retrieved by the microfilm retrieval device 2, in step 9, the image information retrieved by the microfilm retrieval device 2 is read by the image sensor 18 and converted into a binary image signal. This image signal is sent to the printing device 6 via the control circuit 1, and step 1
0, the printing device 6 prints the image retrieved by the microfilm retrieval device 2.

If the desired patent publication is composed of a plurality of frames, the microfilm retrieval device 2 sequentially reads the image information of each frame and sends the image signal of each frame to the printing device 6. The printing device 6 sequentially prints the image information of each frame of the desired patent publication sent from the microfilm retrieval device. When printing of each frame of the desired patent publication is completed in step 11, the process returns to the initial state and prepares for the next new search operation.

The search speed of the disc search device is about 0.5 seconds to 2 seconds, and when a search start is commanded, desired image information of the width of the disc is displayed on the display device 5 between short poems. As a result, the user can view the desired image information displayed immediately after starting the search, ie, the image on the first page of the patent publication, and consider whether this image is necessary. On the other hand, although the search speed of the microfilm search device is slower than that of the disk search device, the image information searched by the disk device can be used before the microfilm search device searches for the desired image information. Until the device searches for desired image information, the displayed desired image information can be used to perform necessary studies, and time can be used effectively.

In addition, since all image information is recorded on microfilm, it can be stored forever, and even if the image information recorded on the disc deteriorates, it can be recorded on the disc again using microfilm. This allows you to handle information with peace of mind.

In the above embodiment, the image information on the microfilm is converted into an electrical signal and this signal is sent to the printing device for printing. However, the image information searched by the microfilm search device is transferred to a known photoreceptor using an optical lens. It is also possible to print by projecting the image on the image.

Roll film, fish film, aperture card, etc. can be used as the microfilm.

Further, as the microfilm retrieval device, a known fish retrieval device, aperture card selector, etc. can be used.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to record original images on microfilm and disk, and utilize the advantages of both, thereby realizing a complementary filing system. In addition, microfilm and disks can be used for different purposes depending on their characteristics, and a filing system that can integrate and utilize both can be realized.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an information retrieval device to which the present invention is applied;
Figure 2 is a schematic perspective view of the microfilm retrieval device;
4 is a diagram illustrating a disk, FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an example of a control circuit, and FIG. 6 is a flowchart of the device. 2 ---1 ---Microfilm retrieval device, 3 ---
1 ---- Disk search device, 5 ------- 1 Display device, 6 ------- Print device.

Claims (1)

[Claims] An image processing system characterized in that image information selected from image information recorded on a microfilm is read by a reading means and recorded on a disk.