JPS6263373A - Picture information retrieving network system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To execute the editing output processing of a picture at highs speed by reading a processing object page in advance from a picture filing device together with a picture buffer to assign plural pages to one terminal equipment and storing the earlier read page to the picture buffer together with the processing object page. CONSTITUTION:A terminal control equipment 3 reads the picture data for plural pages from the picture filling device 1, with the picture retrieving conditions (data which should come to be a key word or data corresponding to the key word) inputted (designated) from a corresponding picture retrieving terminal 2 as a parameter, and is in charge of a series of the control fetched into the image file through a communicating line LAN 4. From an image file 31 under the control of the terminal control equipment 3, the picture data (first official report picture data) of the succeeding read page (page 2) in advance is read. The same are transferred to the picture retrieving terminal 2 and the picture data for one page can be rewritten which come to be the output object reserved at a memory 22 in the same picture retrieving terminal 2.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Technical field of invention].

The present invention relates to an image information retrieval network system in which an image filing device using an optical disk as a recording medium is shared by a plurality of image retrieval terminals via a communication line.

[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 the device is used individually or independently. Therefore, in cases where the above devices are used frequently in relatively separate locations, such as in an office, it is necessary to place the above devices separately in each location, which requires less installation space. , 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. Each of the image search terminals can commonly receive the search and supply of images filed in the image filing device, and the frequency of access of each of the image search terminals to the image filing device can be minimized to ensure smooth image supply. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image information retrieval network system that can secure an image in a page and output an image in a page to be outputted on a display screen, and an image in a page before and after the image at high speed.

[N Essentials of the Invention] The present invention connects an image filling device using an optical disk as a recording medium and a terminal control device via a communication line, and compresses transmitted and received images on the communication line to the terminal control device. /An image processing device that performs decompression processing, and an image directory that makes correspondence between image search conditions specified by the terminal @ and image fI2 numbers that manage file images of the image filing device, and the terminal control device Obtain the image number of the image filing device by referring to the image directory, obtain image information from the image filing device based on the image number, process the image information with the image processing device, and send it to the corresponding terminal device. An image information retrieval network system for outputting image information, wherein the terminal control device includes:
An image buffer in which a plurality of pages are allocated to a terminal device, and at least a page before or after the page to be processed is read in advance from the image filing device, and the read-ahead page is stored in the image buffer along with the page to be processed. This allows a single image filing device to be shared by image retrieval terminals placed at several locations in the tank. Each of the above-mentioned image search terminals can commonly receive the search and supply of images filed in one image filing device, and the access gradient of each of the above-mentioned image search terminals to the above-mentioned image filing device can be suppressed as much as possible to provide smooth images. The supply can be secured, and editing and output processing of the intra-page image output on the display screen and the intra-page images of the previous/next page can be executed at high speed.

[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...
* is a plurality of high-performance workstations (AWS) that share this image processing device @1, and is referred to here as an image search terminal. 3.3... is the same image search terminal 2, 2
It is a distributed processing computer (DP) that controls..., and is referred to here as a terminal control device. 4 is an image search terminal 2.
A communication line (LAN) connecting each terminal control device 3, 3... that controls 2... and the image filing device 1
It is.

5 is an image processing device (IIP) provided in a predetermined specific terminal control device 3, and 6 is a file directory (FID), both of which are shared by each terminal control device 3. It is structured 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 @ facility, a CRT display 12 that is used for image display/operation guidance/trouble display, etc., a numeric keypad and cursor keys for inputting various data, and an image filing device 1. Keyboard (K
B) 13. Scanner to read the original to be filed (
SCN) 14, a printer that prints out images and lists (
PRT) 15, an optical disk drive unit 16 for recording images, a magnetic disk device (r)rsK) 1z for storing search information of images registered in this optical disk drive 1-16, and further storing optical disks. Consists of optical disk storage, etc.

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
A graphic display controller ('GDC) 24 composed of an LSI (for example, NEC; μPD 7284) that controls the interface with the display unit 23, and a CR7 under the control of the graphic display controller 24.
A bitmap memory (BMM) 25 stores display image data for one screen (partial area within a page) displayed on the display screen of the display unit 23, and image data cut out from the memory 22 by address specification by the microprocessor 21. A bit mover (BMV) controls high-speed transfer of data to the bitmap memory 25.
) 26, an arithmetic circuit 27 for performing dot operations on image data on the bitmap memory 25, and a bitmap memory 25
A parallel-to-serial conversion circuit (P/5) 28 that converts the image data read from the image data into a bit-serial video signal.
, and further includes components such as an input device 29 consisting of an operation input section such as a keyboard (KB) and a mouse, and its controller (KBC).

The terminal control device 3 receives input from the corresponding image search terminal 2 (
Using the specified image search conditions (data that should be a keyword or data that corresponds to a keyword) as a parameter, multiple pages of uniform data are read out from the image filing device 1°, and are output from a communication line (LAN) 4 as described later. 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, DPIO). Each of the terminal control devices 3 includes an image file section (IF: hereinafter referred to as an image file) 31 that stores multiple pages of image data read out from the image filing device 1, 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 screen information file) 32 that stores screen information, etc., and an image file 31 of the external storage or a memory in the image search terminal 2. 22
It has an image printer (GP) 33 that prints out the image data stored in the . An image data file area for three pages (the page to be output processed and the previous page) shall be provided to the user. These terminal control devices 13, 3
-- is a communication control device (ECP: etherne)
tCommunication processor)
A specific terminal control device 3 has an image processing device (IIP) 5 shared by each terminal control device 3, 3... and a file directory. (, FID) 6 is provided.

The image processing device (IIP) 5 outputs the output target image data that is read out from the image filing device 1, stored in the image file 31 of the terminal control device 'f13, and then stored in the memory 22 of the image search condition 2. It processes the image part, and here communication line (LAN) 4
It is shared by each image search terminal 2, 2, . . . connected to the image search terminal 2. This image processing device 5 includes an encoding/compounding processing mechanism for compressing/expanding image data, a density conversion mechanism for converting dot density, and an enlargement/input processing mechanism for enlarging/reducing images.
li! It has a small processing aM4, a cutting mechanism for selectively extracting images, and an image buffer for storing image data processed by each of the above mechanisms,
The specific structure and operation thereof are described in Japanese Patent Application No. 59-228528 and Japanese Patent Application No. 59-228530 "Image Data Processing Device" by the same applicant as this invention.
Since it is disclosed in , a detailed explanation thereof will be omitted here. This image data processing device includes an image data decoding unit that expands input compressed image data into uncompressed image data, and this expanded image data (uncompressed image data).
an input image data conversion section, which includes a conversion control section that performs density conversion, enlargement, and reduction processing; It includes an image cropping section that performs cropping processing, a conversion control section that performs density conversion, enlargement, and reduction processing of the cropped image, and an image data encoding section that compresses the converted image data in a predetermined compression format. It has an output image data conversion section consisting of a Various data processing processes such as cutting out/enlarging/reducing the image developed on the memory 25 are performed.

The file directory (FID) 6 has a table structure that corresponds to the image search conditions specified by the image search terminal 2 and the image numbers for managing file images in the image filing device 1. Multiple pages or a single page corresponding to various search conditions (category designation, item designation, date designation, screen designation, etc. may be used, and specific examples will be described later) entered from the keyboard 29 of the terminal 2. Image number information is obtained and sent to the terminal control device B3 corresponding to the image search terminal 2.

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 a main program and two subprograms (namely files).

The image processing speed is increased by dividing the image data into three phases (driver and print driver) and executing the processing from image data reading to output simultaneously in parallel. That is, among the above two subprograms,
The file driver (FILE DRIVER) aims to shorten the processing time by importing the output target page and the pages before and after it (total of 3 pages) into the image file 31 during the initial display of the main program. Furthermore, the print driver (PRINT DRIVER) is designed 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 shows a function selection menu 5 displayed at a fixed position on the screen of the CRT display section 23 of the image search terminal 2 (in this case, at the right end of the screen).
1, and a diagram showing display point guidance 52,
Here, the corresponding function key (PFl) is selected based on the display contents of the function selection menu 51.

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 E-display point guidance 52 and its in-page display area. Here, the display image of the display point guidance 52 is divided into 31A (9 sections) vertically and horizontally as shown by broken lines in the figure, and the current image of one page of image data stored in the memory 22 of the image search terminal 2 is displayed. The display position within the page (hatched area in the figure) is shown simply and clearly by blacking out (the shaded 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)
is a screen developed based on the code-based display screen data read from the screen information file 32 of the terminal system-v4 device 3, and (F) and (G) are the optical disk drive unit of the image filing device 1. This is a screen that is superimposed on the image-based image data read from the screen information file 16 and the 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 specified page from the optical disk drive unit 16 of the image filing device 1. A total of 3 pages (first page and next page, total of 2 pages) are read in advance and filed in the image file 31 via the communication line (LAN) 4, of which the output target page is pre-read. 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. The data is expanded on the bitmap memory 25 under the control of the bit mover 26, and then displayed on the CRT display section 23.

Further, code-based display screen data including character codes read from the screen information file 32 under the control 11 of the terminal control device 3 is converted into an image by the image processing device 5 and then converted to an image under the control of the bit mover 26. bitmap memory 2
It is expanded (skewered) on 5.

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

The CRT display unit 23 of the image search terminals 2, 2 displays a menu selection screen as shown in FIG. After the 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/ 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 Goto Mover 2G and An image according to the above-mentioned display screen data is developed on the bitmap memory 25 under the control of the digital mover 26. The image data developed on the bitmap memory 25 is converted from parallel to serial under the control of the graphic display controller 24. The signal is supplied to the CRT display unit 23 via the circuit 28. As a result, a menu selection screen as shown in FIG. 6(A) is displayed on the CR7 screen of the CRT display unit 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 CR7 screen. At this time, if the item ``Special/Actual Publication Publication'' is selected in the search category item selection, ``Dai Ref 1 - Search'' can be specified in the next function search item selection, and the search category item When the item ``Special/Actual Publication Abstracts'' is selected, the item selection for the next function search is ``
It is possible to specify ``direct search'' or ``functional search.''

If the item ``1 Direct Search'' is selected here, a message prompting you to specify the announcement number will be displayed, and ``lIN
When the "Function Search" item is selected, the "Function Search Specification Item" screen shown in FIG. 6(B) is displayed, prompting the user to set search conditions.

Furthermore, when a technical term (AAB in the figure) is set by an 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 is displayed. If you select yes, the list of publications corresponding to the designated technology term (AAB) as shown in Figure 6 (C) will be displayed. Displayed on the CR7 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. The technical code list as shown in Figure (D) or the applicant code list as shown in Figure (E) is CR.
7 displayed on the screen. The successive display screen data and image development processing at this time are the same as the display processing of the menu selection screen described above, and therefore the description 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 1 of the image filing device 1.
6 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 used as the first page of the material, so first, the image data of the abstract on the first page is displayed one after another, and then the second page is The image data of the page publication is read out.

Further, while the image data is being read by the image filling device 1, a message "Image 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, the image data read out from the optical disk drive unit 16 of the image filing device 1 is transferred to the communication port 1! (Input to the terminal control ti@3 via LAN>4, and the image file 3 under the control of the same terminal control!@3
1 is stored.

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 image 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 read out by the image processing device under the control of the terminal control device 3. The compressed image data input to the image processing device 5 is decompressed and temporarily stored on an image buffer within the image processing device 5.

During the compressed data decompression processing period by the image processing device 5, a message "rl IP processing in progress" 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 image 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 guidance 52 are displayed. At this time, the point guidance 52 includes the memory 2 of the image search terminal 2.
It represents the positional relationship between the image data of one page area stored in 2 and the screen to be output processed, that is, the area of one screen displayed on the CR7 display section 23 of the image search terminal 2. A specific display example 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 in-page display position M (hatched area in the figure) of one page of image data stored in the memory 22 is shown. 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 only for the first time, g
, the remaining 3 pages are read ahead and filed in an image file 31 via a communication line (LAN) 4, and the image data of the page to be output is sent to the image search terminal 2 that started the image search. After being stored in the memory 22, the image data for one screen to be displayed is decompressed and restored by the image processing device 5, and then stored in the bitmap memory 25 under the control of the bit mover 26. The expanded model is displayed on the CR7 display section 23. Further, code-based display screen data including character codes read from the screen information file 32 under the control of the terminal control device 3 is converted into an image by the image processing device 5, and then converted into an image under the control of the bit mover 2θ. Expanded on bitmap memory 25 (
(overwritten) 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 (PF1).
When 3) is operated, the display screen of the CR7 display section 23 will be
The screen shown in FIG. 6(F) switches to the screen shown in FIG. 6(G).

That is, at this time, under the control of the terminal control device 3, the next page (second
page) image data (R's first publication image data) is read out, the same data is transferred to the image search terminal 2, and the image data for one page stored in the memory 22 in the image search terminal 2 is read out. Image 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 above display process, and here, the image file 31 is updated 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-based n++ device 3.

That is, at this time, under the control of the terminal system iIl+ device 3,
The optical disk drive unit 16 of the image filing device 1 is accessed, the ring diameter and the image data of the next page (third page) of the page to be output (second page) are read, and ) 4 is received by the terminal control device H3, it is pre-read into the image file 31. As a result, a total of three pages of image data, including the processing target page and its preceding page, are stored in the image file 31 for each image search terminal.

Further, 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. 6(G) above, in the same manner as above, The image data of the next page (third page) that has already been prefetched into the image file 31 is read out, the same data is transferred to the image search terminal 2, and the output is stored in the memory 22 in the image search terminal 2. The image data for one page to be processed is rewritten, and the page to be processed is updated. Furthermore, the image data of the page to be processed on the updated memory 22 is
A part of it (for example, the v4 area of one display screen with the upper left corner as a reference as described above) is cut out, and the cut out image data is input to the image processing device 5 to perform image expansion processing. Then, this 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 transferred to the CR under the control of the graphic display controller 24.
7 displayed on the display section 23.

Furthermore, in this case as well, as shown in FIG. 3, the image file 31 is updated in parallel with the screen display process, and here, the process target page (third page) is On the other hand, the image data of the next page (fourth page) is stored in 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 controller @3.

In this way, image data for the page to be processed and a total of three pages before and after it are always stored in the image file 31 for each image search terminal, excluding the first image data file, and the image data is always stored first. By reading, display screen processing and image file processing can be performed 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 CR7 display section 23 can be enlarged, reduced,
To change the cutting position (top, bottom, left, right), etc., refer to the function selection menu 51 displayed at the regular position of the CR7 screen (in this case, the right edge of the screen) and press the function key (PFl) 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 sent to the Got Mover 26. The image is developed on the bitmap memory 25 under control,
It is displayed on the CR7 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 designated by referring to the function selection menu 51 displayed on the CR7 screen, the CR7 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 print processing at this time is performed by the printer 1 to the driver independently of the image processing and screen display processing.

In the above-described embodiment, a plurality of image search terminals 2.2 connected by a communication line (LAN) 4 are each connected to an image processing device (IIP) 5. and a file directory (FID) 6 are shared, but 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. 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 page after restoration can be stored. It may also be configured to store unit image data (expanded image data).

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 they are configured separately, both the image file 31 and the screen information file 32,
or any one of them to a plurality of terminal control devices 3, 3 .・・・
It is also possible to have a configuration in which .

[Effects of the Invention] As described in detail 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 ill device has an image processing device that compresses/decompresses images sent and received on the communication line, and corresponds image search conditions specified by the terminal device with image numbers that manage 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, and based on the same image number, obtains the image information of both the image filing devices described in -F. An image information retrieval network system that processes image information using the image processing device and outputs it to a corresponding terminal device, the system comprising: the terminal system i! l
The l device includes an image buffer in which multiple pages are allocated to one terminal device, and the above-mentioned image filing device pre-reads at least the previous or subsequent page of the page to be processed, and the pre-fetched page is used as the above-mentioned processing target page. By adopting a configuration that includes means for storing pages and images in the image buffer, a single image filing device can be shared by image search terminals placed in multiple locations, and can be used in multiple relatively distant locations. In this way, each of the above-mentioned image search terminals can commonly receive the search and supply of images filed in one image filing device, and the access frequency of each of the above-mentioned image search terminals to the above-mentioned image filing device is minimized to facilitate smooth operation. It is possible to ensure a reliable image supply, and to perform editing and output processing of the intra-page image output on the display screen and the intra-page images of the previous/next page at high speed.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

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 an image search terminal in the above embodiment, and Fig. 3 is a processing state in the above embodiment. An explanatory diagram, 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 for explaining various display forms of point guidance in the above embodiment. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a screen-based processing flow 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 1t (IIP), 6... File directory (FID), 11... Controller (CTL), 12
... CRT display, 13... Keyboard (K
B), 14... Scanner (SCN), Is... Printer (PRT), 16... Optical disk drive unit, 17... Magnetic disk device t (DISK>, 21
... Microprocessor (μCPU), 22 ... Memory, 23 ... CRT display unit, 24 ... Graphic display controller (GDC), 25 ... Bit map memory (BMM), 26 ... Bit Mover (BMV), 27...Arithmetic circuit, 28...Parallel-serial conversion circuit (P/S), 29-°・Input! Place,
31... Image file, 32... Screen information file, 33... Image printer, 51... Function selection menu, 52... Display point guidance. Applicant's agent Patent attorney Takehiko Suzue Figure 4 Drawing ( )! : Page 1゛) No change to 4ζ) Special 3' [Agency Secretary Tuition Fees Dokou-dono 1. Case Display Patent Application 1986-2021 September 2, Title of Invention Image Information Retrieval Network System 3, Relationship with the case of those who evade amendments Patent applicant (307) Toshiba Corporation 4, Agent Toranomon 1, Minato-ku, Tokyo No. 26-5, No. 17 Mori Building 6, Drawing subject to amendment 7, Contents of amendment

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) A communication line connects an image filing device using an optical disk as a recording medium and a terminal control device, and the terminal control device compresses/receives images transmitted and received on the communication line.
The terminal control device includes an image processing device that performs decompression processing, and an image directory that makes correspondence between image search conditions specified by the terminal device and image numbers for managing file images in the image filing device on a page-by-page basis. Obtain the image number of the image filing device by referring to the image directory, obtain image information from the image filing device based on the image number, process the image information with the image processing device, and send it to the corresponding terminal device. In the image information retrieval network system for outputting, the terminal control device includes an image buffer in which a storage area for a plurality of pages is allocated to one terminal device, and at least An image information retrieval network system comprising means for prefetching a previous or subsequent page and storing the prefetched page in the image buffer together with the page to be processed. (2) The image information search network system according to claim 1, wherein the image buffer always stores the page to be processed and the pages before and after it. (3) The terminal control device selectively reads the first page of the image group corresponding to the specified condition from the image filing device as the first file image to be output to the terminal device, and prints the image of the same page as the first file image to be output to the terminal device. The image information retrieval network system according to claim 1, wherein the image information is stored in the image buffer.