JPS6263372A - Picture information retrieving network system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To execute the printing processing of the optional image reserved at the picture buffer at a high speed by executing simultaneously and in parallel the extending processing of the picture information reserved at the picture buffer having the capacity larger than the output screen of the terminal device of the terminal control device and the printing processing. CONSTITUTION:Plural pages of the picture data of the image system equivalent to retrieving conditions designated from an input device 29 of a picture retrieving terminal 2 are earlier read including the designated page from an optical disk driving unit 16 of a scanning filing device 1, and filed through a communicating line LAN 4 to an image file 31. After the picture data are reserved at a memory 22 of a picture retrieving terminal 2, the picture data for one screen, which come to be the displaying object, are extended and processed by an image processing device 5 and developed on a bit map memory 25 under the control of a bit mover 26, and thereafter, displayed at a CRT displaying part 23. After the code system displaying screen data including the character code read from a screen information file 32 under the control of a terminal control device 3 is imaged by an image processing device 5, the data are developed (overlapping-written) on the bit map memory 25 and displayed at a CRT displaying part 32.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention provides an image information search network 1-work system in which an image filing device using an optical disk as a recording medium is shared by a plurality of image search terminals via a communication line. Regarding.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems] In recent years, image filing devices using optical disks as recording media have become widely popular and used.

Since the purpose of this type of image filing device is to store a large amount of images and search and output them at high speed, it has a so-called stand-alone configuration in which each device is used independently. Therefore, in cases where the above devices are used relatively far apart, such as in an office, etc., it is necessary to separately place the above 5A units in each location, and the installation space is limited.
Various problems arise in terms of cost, operational efficiency, etc.

[Object of the Invention] The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and it is possible to share a single image filing device with image search terminals placed in multiple locations, and to use a single image filing device in multiple relatively distant locations. The above-mentioned image search terminals can commonly receive the search and supply of images filed in the image filing device, and the frequency of access of the above-mentioned image search terminals to the above-mentioned image filing device can be minimized to ensure smooth image supply. An object of the present invention is to provide an image information retrieval network system that can secure and quickly edit and output processing of images within a page to be output on a display screen, and print processing of arbitrary images stored in the image buffer. .

[Summary of the Invention] The present invention connects an image filling device using an optical disk as a recording medium and a terminal-side m+ device through a communication line,
The terminal control device includes an image processing device that compresses/decompresses images transmitted and received on the communication line, and an image search condition specified by the terminal device and an image number that manages file images of the image filing device. The terminal control device refers to the image directory to obtain the image number of the image filing device, obtains image information from the image filing device based on the image number, and processes the same image. An image information retrieval network system in which information is image-processed by the image processing device and output to a corresponding terminal device, wherein the terminal control device has an image buffer with a capacity larger than the output screen of the terminal device, and the terminal control device has an image buffer with a capacity larger than the output screen of the terminal device. This system is configured to perform decompression processing of the image information stored in the storage device and printing processing of the decompressed image information at the same time.This allows a single image filing device to process images stored in multiple locations. A search terminal can be shared, and each image search terminal can commonly receive the search and supply of images stored in a single image filing device at a plurality of relatively distant locations;
It is possible to ensure smooth image supply by minimizing the frequency of access to the image filing device by each of the image search terminals, and to edit and output the images within the page that are output on the display screen, as well as the arbitrary data stored in the image buffer. Image printing can be performed quickly.

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

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an image information retrieval network system according to the present invention.

In Figure 1, 1 is an image filing device (IFD) shared by multiple image search terminals, which stores registered images (image data) on an optical disk and stores search information for each image on a magnetic disk. Remember. 2,2・
... are a plurality of advanced workstations (AWS) that share the image filing device 1, and are referred to as image search terminals here. 3.3... is the same image search terminal 2.
It is a distributed processing computer (DP) that controls 2..., and is referred to as a terminal control device here. 4 is image search terminal 2
．． A communication line (LAN) connects each terminal control device @3.
).

5 is an image processing device (IIP) provided in a predetermined specific terminal control device @3, and 6 is a file directory (FID), which is shared by each terminal control device @3. The structure is as follows.

Here, the configuration of each of the above parts will be explained.

The image filing device 1 includes a controller (CTL) 11 that controls the entire device, a CRT display 12 that is used for image display/operation guidance/trouble display, etc., numeric keys and cursor keys for inputting various data, and image keys. Keyboard (KB > 13) equipped with function keys (enlarge/$11 small/rotate/flip, etc.) and kana-kanji conversion keys, scanner (SCN) 14 for reading originals to be files, printing images and lists A printer (PRT) 15 for outputting, an optical disk drive unit 16 for recording images, and a magnetic disk 6 for storing search information of images registered in this optical disk drive unit 16.
1 (DISK>17), and further includes an optical disk storage for storing optical disks.

As shown in FIG. 2, the image search terminal 2 includes a microprocessor (μCPU) 21 that controls the internal terminal device,
A memory 22 that stores image data of a specified page to be output.
, CR7 display section 23, microprocessor 21 and CR7
Displayed on the display screen of the CR7 display unit 23 under the control of a graphic display controller (GDC) 24 configured with an LSI (for example, NEC 2μPD 7284) that controls the interface with the display unit 23. Bitmap memory (partial area within a page for one screen) that stores display image data
BMM) 25, a bit mover (BMV) 2 that controls high-speed transfer of image data cut out from the memory 22 to the bitmap memory 25 according to address specification by the microprocessor 21;
6. An arithmetic circuit 27 that performs dot operations on the image data on the bitmap memory 25, a parallel-serial conversion circuit (P/5) 28 that converts the image data read from the bitmap memory 25 into a bit-serial video signal, and consists of components such as an input device 29 consisting of an operation input section such as a keyboard <KB), a mouse, and its controller (KBC).

The terminal control device 3 receives input from the corresponding image search terminal 2 (
A plurality of pages of image data are read out from the image filing device 1 using the specified image search condition (data to be a keyword or data corresponding to a keyword) as a parameter, and are described over a communication line (LAN) 4. It is in charge of a series of controls for importing into an image file, and here it is configured by a distributed processing computer (for example, DPlo). Each of the terminal control devices 3 includes an image file unit (IF; hereinafter referred to as an image file) 31 that stores multiple pages of image data read out from the image filing device W11, and various displays for search processing. It has an external storage (for example, a magnetic disk) having a code system file section (CF: hereinafter referred to as a screen information file) 32 for storing screen information, etc., and an image file 31 of the external storage or a memory in the image search terminal 2. It has an image printer (GP) 33 that prints out the image data stored in the image search terminals 2. An image data file area for three pages (the page to be output processed and the pages before and after it) shall be provided for each terminal control device 3.3...
is a communication control device (ECP: ethernetco).
The specific terminal control device 113 includes an image processing device (IIP) 5, which is shared by each terminal control device 3.3... and a file directory (F[)) 6 are provided.

The image processing device (IIP) 5 is read out from the image filing device 1 and stored in the image file 31 of the terminal control device 3, and then stored in the memory 22 of the image search terminal 2.
It processes the output image portion of the output image data stored in the LAN, and is shared by the image search terminals 2, 2, . . . connected to the communication line (LAN) 4.

This image processing device 5 includes an encoding/decoding processing mechanism for compressing/expanding image data, a density conversion mechanism for converting dot density, an enlargement/reduction processing mechanism for enlarging/reducing images, and an optional image processing mechanism for image data. It has an extraction mechanism for extracting image data, and an image buffer for storing image data processed by each of the above mechanisms, and its specific structure and operation are disclosed in a patent application filed by the same applicant as this invention. Publication No. 59-228528 and patent application No. 59-228
Since it is disclosed in Publication No. 530 "Image Data Processing Apparatus", detailed explanation thereof will be omitted here. This image data processing device includes an image data decoding unit that decompresses input compressed image data into uncompressed image data, density conversion of the expanded image data (uncompressed image data),
an input image data converting section comprising a conversion control section for enlarging/reducing processing, an image cutting section for cutting out a specified range of the converted image data, and the like; Output image data comprising an image cutting section, a conversion control section that performs density conversion, enlargement, and reduction processing of the cut out image, and an image data encoding section that compresses the converted image data in a predetermined compression format. It has a conversion unit and a character and figure generation unit that patterns code information including kanji codes, and performs expansion/compression processing of input/output image data and output target images (images developed on the bitmap memory 25). ) performs various data processing processes such as cutting/enlarging/reducing processing.

The file directory (FID) 6 has a table structure that corresponds to image search conditions specified by the image search terminal 2 and image numbers for managing file images in the image filing device 1. Various search conditions (category designation,
This may be any of item specification, date specification, screen specification, etc. (specific examples will be described later), and obtains image number information for multiple pages or a single page, and transmits this to a terminal corresponding to the image search terminal 2. It is sent to the control device 3.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the constituent elements of the above-mentioned image search terminal 2. Since each constituent element has already been described in detail, its explanation will be omitted here.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of the processing state in the above embodiment. Here, the image program is divided into three phases consisting of a main program and two subprograms (namely, a file driver and a print driver), and the image processing is performed by simultaneously executing processing from image data reading to output. We are trying to speed up the process. That is, of the above two subprograms, the file driver (F
ILE DRIVER) let, the output target page and the pages before and after it (total of 3 pages) during the initial display of the main program
By importing the data into the image file 31, processing time is shortened. Also, print driver (PRINT
DRIVER) aims to improve the efficiency of image output processing by performing print output in parallel while image processing is being executed. These two subprograms allow smooth image processing.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a function selection menu 51 and display point guidance 52 that are displayed at a fixed position on the screen of the C'RT display section 23 of the image search terminal 2 (here, at the right end of the screen). 51 display contents, press the corresponding function key (PFl.

PF2. ), you can select any one of 12 functions with a single touch.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the relationship between the display of the display point guidance 52 and its in-page display area. Here, the display surface of the display point guidance 52 is divided into three sections (nine sections) vertically and horizontally as shown by broken lines in the figure, and the current image data of one page of image data stored in the memory 22 of the image search terminal 2 is displayed. The in-page display position W (hatched area in the figure) is simply and clearly expressed in black (hatched area in the figure).

FIG. 6 shows a specific screen-based processing flow for explaining the image search processing procedure in the above embodiment.
A) to (G) are shown.

Of these seven types of screens (A) to (G), (A) to (E)
(F) and (G) are screens developed based on code-based display screen data successively output from the screen information file 32 of the terminal control device 3, and (F) and (G) are the screens developed by the image filing device 1.
This is a screen that is overwritten based on image-based image data read from the optical disk drive unit 16 and code-based display screen data read from the screen information file 32. To give an overview of these screen displays, image-based image data that corresponds to the search conditions specified by the input device 29 of the image search terminal 2 is retrieved from the optical disk drive unit 1G of the image filing device 1.
Three pages including the specified page (however, only for the first time, a total of two pages, the first page and the next page) are read in advance and filed in the image file 31 via the communication line (LAN) 4, and the output target page is read in advance. After the image data of the page is stored in the memory 22 of the image search terminal 2 that started the image search, the image data for one screen to be displayed is decompressed by the image processing device 5 to restore the image. After being processed and developed on the bitmap memory 25 under the control of the pit mover 26, it is displayed on the CRT display section 23.

Also, under the control of the terminal control device 3, a screen information file 32 is created.
The code-based display screen data including the character code read from the character code is converted into an image by the image processing device 5, and then developed (overwritten) on the bitmap memory 25 under the control of the mover 26.

Here, the image search i instant operation of the above embodiment will be explained according to the screen processing flow shown in FIG.

A menu selection screen as shown in FIG. 6 (A>) is displayed as an initial screen on the CRT display section 23 of the image search terminal 2.2. After processing, the display screen data for menu selection is read out from the code-based display screen data blocks stored in the screen information file 32 as the initial screen display, and the same screen data is input to the image processing device 5 to display the code/screen data. It converts the image and sends the image data to the image search terminal 2.2 to be controlled.When the microprocessor 21 of the image search terminal 2 receives the display screen data, it passes control to the bit mover 26, An image according to the above display screen data is developed on the bitmap memory 25 under the control of the bit mover 26. The image data developed on the bitmap memory 25 is subjected to parallel-serial conversion under the control of the graphic display controller 24. The signal is supplied to the CRT display section 23 via the circuit 28. As a result, a menu selection screen as shown in FIG. 6 (A>) is displayed on the CRT screen of the CRT display section 23 as an initial screen.

This menu selection screen here consists of a selection item for search classification and a selection item for processing selection. It will be done. That is, by operating the return key on the input device 29 after selecting the search classification item, the next item selection for processing selection becomes possible, and by specifying the item selection for processing, the message at the bottom of the screen is displayed. The message shown in the diagram will be displayed in the display area, prompting you to move to the next screen according to the message [Yes
By selecting (yes), the next screen is displayed on the CRT screen. At this time, if the item ``Special/Actual Publication Publication'' is selected in the search category item selection, ``Direct Search'' can be specified in the next function search item selection, and also, in the search category item selection, "Special/Actual Publication Abstract"
When the item is selected, "direct search" or "function search" can be specified in the next function search item selection.

If the "Direct Search" item is selected here, a message will be displayed prompting you to specify the announcement number, and if the "Functional Search" item is selected, a message will be displayed prompting you to set the search conditions.
The "Function search specification item" screen shown in Figure (B) is displayed.

Furthermore, if a technical term (AAB in the figure) is set by the input operation on the input device 29 on the "Function search specification item" screen of FIG. 6(B), for example, the message shown in the message display area will be displayed. A message will be displayed prompting you to proceed to the next screen. By selecting yes, a list of publications corresponding to the specified technical term (AAB> as shown in Figure 6 (C) will be displayed on the CRT. displayed on the screen.

At this time, if you wish to refer to the list of technical terms, applicants, etc., select the technical term designation or applicant designation item and then press the help key (HELP) on the input device 29. A list of technical terms as shown in Figure (D) or a list of applicant codes as shown in Figure (E) is CR.
displayed on the T screen. The display screen data reading and image development processing at this time are the same as the above-mentioned menu selection screen display processing, so the explanation thereof will be omitted here.

When the sequence number (SEQ) corresponding to the desired technical term is specified from the input device 29 of the image search terminal 2 and the return key is operated in the screen display state shown in FIG. 6(C) above, the third The image program shown in the figure is activated and image search processing is started. In this image search process, the terminal control device 3 first refers to the file directory 6 and specifies the sequence number (
SEQ) as a search key, the image number of the corresponding image registered in the optical disk drive unit 16 of the image filing device 1 is searched, and the image number information is used to search the optical disk drive unit 16 of the image filing device 1.
is accessed, and the registered image data corresponding to the above image number is read out.

In this case, when the specified material (i.e., here, the patent publication according to the specified sequence number) is displayed on the screen for the first time, the first page (first page) and the next page (page 1) of the material are first displayed. 2 pages) in total are read out uniquely. Here, an abstract page is added to each publication that should be the original material, and this is the first page of the material, so first the image data of the abstract on the first page is read out, and then the The image data of the page publication is read out.

Further, while the image filing device 1 is reading image data, the message [Image (!Il reading in progress]) is displayed in the message display area of the CR7 display section 23 of the image search terminal 2.

As described above, image data read out from the optical disk drive unit 16 of the image filing device 1 is input to the terminal control device 3 via the communication line (LAN) 4.
It is stored in the image file 31 under the control of the terminal control device 3.

Of the two pages worth of image data stored in this image file 31, the image data of the first page is first sent to the image search terminal 2 that initiated the image search, that is, issued the image search instruction. , are stored in the memory 22 under the control of the microprocessor 21 of the image search terminal 2.

Further, the uniform data stored in the memory 22 is read out under the control of the microprocessor 21 in a cutout area of one screen based on the upper left corner of the page, and is subjected to image processing under the control of the terminal control device 3. The compressed image data input to the device 5 is decompressed and then temporarily stored on an image buffer within the image processing device 5.

During the decompression process of compressed data by the image processing device @5, an rllP process message is displayed in the message display area of the CR7 display section 23 of the image search terminal 2.

When the image processing device 5 finishes expanding the image data for one screen, the uniformity data stored on the image buffer in the image processing device 5 is sent back to the image search terminal 2. The microprocessor 21 of the image search terminal 2 uses a bit mover 26 to receive the image data decompressed by the image processing device @5.
Pass control to. Thereafter, the image data is developed on the bitmap memory 25 under the control of the bit mover 26.

When this image data development processing is completed, the display screen data of the function selection menu 51 and point guidance 52 shown in FIG. 4 are read out from the screen information file 32 by the terminal control device 3 and converted into image data by the image processing device 5. After that, it is overwritten (or written) on the image data (here, abstract image data) on the bitmap memory 25. The image data developed on the bitmap memory 25 is displayed on the CR7 display section 23 under the control of the graphic display controller 24.

As a result, the CR7 display section 23 displays the abstract as shown in FIG. 6(F), the function selection menu 51 shown in FIG.
and point guider 52 are displayed. On this occasion,
The point guidance 52 includes image data of one page area stored in the memory 22 of the image search terminal 2 and the screen to be outputted, that is, the CR7 of the image search terminal 2.
It shows the positional relationship with the area for one screen displayed on the display unit 23, and a specific example of the display is shown in FIG. Here, the display surface of the display point guidance 52 is divided vertically and horizontally into three sections as shown by broken lines in the figure, and the current display position within the page of one page of image data stored in the memory 22 @ (shaded area in the figure) is expressed concisely and clearly by blacking out (the shaded area in the figure).

In this way, image data corresponding to the search conditions specified by the input device 29 of the image search terminal 2 is stored in the optical disk drive unit 16 of the image filing device 1.
Multiple pages including the specified page (here, 2 pages for the first time, 3 pages thereafter) are read in advance and filed in the image file 31 via the communication line (LAN > 4), and the page to be output is read in advance. After the image data is stored in the memory 22 of the image search terminal 2 that started the image search, the image data for one screen to be displayed is decompressed by the image processing device 5, and the image is restored. After being developed on the bitmap memory 25 under the control of the bit mover 26, the characters are displayed on the CR7 display section 23. Also, the characters read from the screen information file 32 under the control of the terminal control bag N3 After the code-based display screen data including the code is converted into an image by the image processing device 5, it is developed (overwritten) on the bitmap memory 25 under the control of the bit mover 26 and displayed on the CR7 display section 23. .

Furthermore, on the screen shown in FIG. 6(F), in order to refer to the displayed function selection menu 51 and retrieve the publication corresponding to the abstract displayed at the same time, press the function key
13) is operated, the display screen of the CR7 display section 23 is switched from the screen of No. 6I] (F) to the screen of (G) in the figure.

That is, at this time, under the control of the terminal control device 3, the next page (second
Page) image data (first publication image data) is read out, the same data is transferred to the image search terminal 2, and the image for one page to be output is stored in the memory 22 in the image search terminal 2. Data is rewritten. That is, the page to be processed is updated. Furthermore, part of the image data of the page to be processed on the updated memory 22 is cut out (here, unless the screen position, enlargement/reduction, etc. are specified, the image data is predetermined based on the upper left corner of the page). 1 display screen area), and the extracted image data is processed by the image processing device 5.
The image is input into the image and decompression processing is performed. Then, the decompressed one screen worth of gazette image data is stored in the bitmap memory 25 under the control of the bit mover 26 in the same manner as above.
The image is developed above and displayed on the CR7 display section 23 under the control of the graphic display controller 24.

Furthermore, at this time, as shown in FIG. 3, the image file 31 is updated in parallel with the display process, and here, for the page to be processed (page 2),
The image data of the next page (third page) is read out from the optical disk drive unit 16 of the image filing device 1 and stored in the image file 31 under the control of the terminal control device 3.

That is, at this time, under the control of the terminal control device 3, the optical disk drive unit 16 of the image filing device 1 is accessed and the page (second page) currently being output is accessed.
The image data of the next page (third page) is read out, received by the terminal control device 3 via the communication line (LAN) 4, and then pre-read into the image file 31. As a result, the image file 31 stores image data of the page to be processed and a total of three pages before and after it for each image search terminal.

In addition, when the function key (PF3) for specifying the next page is operated from the displayed function selection menu 51 on the publication display screen shown in FIG. The image data of the next page (third page) that has been prefetched in the file 31 is read out, the same data is transferred to the image search terminal 2, and the same data is transferred to the output target stored in the memory 22 in the image search terminal 2. The image data for one page is rewritten, and the page to be processed is updated. Furthermore, a part of the image data of the page to be processed on the updated memory 22 is cut out (for example, one display screen area based on the upper left corner as above), and the cut out image data is subjected to image processing. The image is input to the device 5 and the image is expanded. Then, the decompressed one-screen publication image data is developed as an image on the bitmap memory 25 under the control of the bit mover 26 in the same manner as described above, and is displayed on the CR7 display unit 23 under the control of the graphic display controller 24. Is displayed.

Furthermore, in this case as well, as shown in FIG. 3, the image file 31 is updated in parallel with the screen display process.
page), the image data of the next page (fourth page) is transferred to the optical disk drive unit 1 of the image filing device 1.
6 and stored in the image file 31 under the control of the terminal control device 3.

In this way, image data for the page to be processed and a total of three pages before and after the page to be processed are always stored in the image file 31 for each image search terminal, excluding the first image data file. By reading in advance, it becomes possible to perform display screen processing and image file processing simultaneously.

Image search processing as described above is performed at each image search terminal 2.
2... are independently executed while sharing the image processing device 5 and file directory 6.

In addition, the screen displayed on the CR1 display section 23 can be enlarged, reduced,
To change the cutout position (top, bottom, left, right), etc., refer to the function selection menu 51 displayed at a fixed position on the CRT screen (in this case, the right edge of the screen) and press the function key (PFI) specific to the switching screen.

PF2. ...) is executed by selectively operating. That is, you can use the function key (PFl) to enlarge or reduce the screen, change the cropping position, etc.

PF2. ...), the image data to be processed stored in the memory 22 is subjected to image processing in the image processing device 5 according to the instruction input, and the image processed data is transferred to the bit mover 26. The image is developed on the bitmap memory 25 under control,
It is displayed on the CR1 display section 23. Incidentally, various display forms of the in-page display area of the point guidance 52 accompanying the screen switching at this time are shown in FIG.

Further, when printing is specified by referring to the function selection menu 51 displayed on the CRT screen, the CR1 display section 23
A print processing selection screen is displayed, and the image of each page or part of it is displayed on the image printer 3 according to the selection.
3 is printed out. As shown in FIG. 3, the printing process at this time is performed by the print driver independently of the image processing and screen display processing.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, a plurality of image search terminals 2.2... connected by a communication line (LAN) 4 each share an image processing device (IIP) 5 and a file directory (FID) 6. However, each terminal control device @3 may have one or both of them.

Further, in the above embodiment, an image data area of three pages is secured for each image search terminal 2 in the image file 31, and one page is stored in the memory 22 of the image search terminal 2, but the memory of the entire system is It can be set arbitrarily in page units taking into account capacity, etc.

Further, in the above embodiment, the image file 31 and the screen information file 32 are stored in a plurality of terminal control devices 3, 3 .
. . . Although the image file 31 and the screen information file 32 are each provided separately, both or one of the image file 31 and the screen information file 32 may be provided to a plurality of terminal control devices 3.3. . . . may be shared.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the image data before restoration (that is, the compressed data before decompression processing) is stored in the memory 22 of the image search terminal 2, but if the memory capacity allows, the image data after restoration is stored in the memory 22 of the image search terminal 2. It may also be configured to store image data (expanded image data) in units of pages.

[Effects of the Invention] As detailed above, according to the image information retrieval network system of the present invention, an image filing device using an optical disk as a recording medium and a terminal control device are connected via a communication line, and the terminal control device is connected by a communication line. The device includes an image processing device that compresses/decompresses images transmitted and received on the communication line, and an image directory that makes correspondence between image search conditions specified by the terminal device and image numbers that manage file images of the image filing device. The terminal control device refers to the image directory to obtain an image number of the image filing device, obtains image information from the image filing device based on the image number, and applies the image information to the image processing. An image information retrieval network system in which a device processes images and outputs them to a corresponding terminal device, wherein the terminal control device has an image buffer with a capacity larger than the output screen of the terminal device, and the image information stored in the buffer is By adopting a configuration in which the decompression processing of information and the printing processing of the decompressed image information are performed simultaneously, a single image filing device can be shared by image search terminals located at multiple locations.
Each of the above-mentioned image search terminals can commonly receive the search and supply of images filed in one image filing device at a plurality of relatively distant locations, and the above-mentioned image filing of each of the above-mentioned image search terminals is possible. Smooth image supply can be ensured by minimizing the frequency of access to the device, and it is also possible to perform high-speed editing and output processing for uniformity within a page output on the display screen, as well as printing processing for arbitrary images stored in the image buffer. .

[Brief Description of the Drawings] Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing the system configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing the arrangement of the image search terminal in the above embodiment, and Fig. 3 is the above An explanatory diagram of the processing state in the embodiment, FIG. 4 is a diagram showing display examples of the function selection menu and point guidance in the above embodiment, and FIG. 5 is a diagram showing various display forms of point guidance in the above embodiment. An explanatory diagram, FIG. 6, is a diagram showing a processing flow on a screen basis in the above embodiment. 1... Image filing device (IFD>, 2... Image search terminal (AWS), 3... Terminal control device (DP)
), 4... Communication line (LAN), 5... Image processing device (IIP), 6... File directory (F
rD), 11... Controller (CTL), 12...
・CRT display, 13...keyboard <KB)
, 14... Scanner (SCN), 15... Printer (PRT), 16... Optical disk drive unit,
17...Magnetic disk unit @<DISK), 21...
Microprocessor (μCPU), 22... memory,
23... CRT display unit, 24... Graphic display controller (GDC), 25... Bit map memory (BMM), 26... Bit mover (BM
M), 27... Arithmetic circuit, 28... Parallel-serial conversion circuit (P/S), 29... Input device, 31...
...Image file, 32...Screen information file,
33... Image printer, 51... Function selection menu, 52... Display point guidance. Applicant's representative Patent attorney Takehiko Suzue 4th prisoner 5th rIA

Claims (1)

[Claims] An image filing device using an optical disk as a recording medium;
An image processing device that is connected to a terminal control device through a communication line, and that compresses/decompresses images transmitted and received on the communication line, and an image search condition specified by the terminal device and the image filing. and an image directory that corresponds to an image number that manages file images of the device, the terminal control device refers to the image directory to obtain the image number of the image filing device, and based on the image number, the terminal control device obtains the image number of the image filing device. Obtain image information from an image filing device,
An image information retrieval network system in which the image information is processed by the image processing device and outputted to a corresponding terminal device, the terminal control device having an image buffer having a larger capacity than the output screen of the terminal device, An image information retrieval network system is characterized in that an expansion process of image information stored in the same buffer and a print process of the expanded image information are performed simultaneously in parallel.