KR100264800B1 - Method for automatically selecting image processing kinds according to image of document in facsimile - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for transmitting a facsimile, and more particularly, to an automatic document selection and a method for automatically converting image processing in an original. The present invention divides the document into units and performs image processing. As described above, since the image is processed by dividing the unit by two or more lines, the original can be selected automatically, and automatic image processing conversion is possible even when letters or pictures are mixed in the original. The present invention for achieving the above object, the present invention for achieving these objects

A first step of quantizing image data in units of setting lines of an original to a predetermined level and retrieving its distribution;

A second step of determining whether the image data in the setting line unit is a character or a picture according to the distribution of the image data in the quantized setting line unit found in the first step;

And a third process of separating and processing the image data in the set line units in a corresponding image processing mode based on the determination of the second process.

Therefore, according to the above automatic document selection and image processing mode conversion method in the document according to the present invention, the user can send a fax without regard to the contents of the document.

Description

Automatic selection of originals from faxes and automatic conversion of image processing within originals.

The present invention relates to a method for transmitting a facsimile, and more particularly, to an automatic document selection and a method for converting an image processing mode within an original.

Looking at the operation of the fax using a general transmission method, when the original to be scanned is scanned, the control unit in the fax confirms the type of original to be selected by the user. In response to the confirmation, the image processing unit in the fax operates the image processing mode under the control of the control unit. As described above, it can be seen that the conventional facsimile selection of a document is dependent on a key input according to the user selecting the transmission document.

1A to 1C generally show the type of originals sent from a facsimile. 1A shows a manuscript consisting only of letters A or B. FIG. 1B and 1C show an original in which letters and pictures are mixed. A more detailed description of FIGS. 1A-1C will be provided later.

Conventionally, when a user wants to transmit by facsimile, the user selects a document by inputting a corresponding key according to the type of the loaded document. Referring to FIG. 1A, the above-described transmission method requires the user to reselect the original selection each time the nature of the original changes, when the user transmits a large amount of originals in which text pages and picture pages are mixed. Uncomfortable. In addition, the transmission time is delayed by the key input for original selection conversion during transmission, and it is cumbersome because the user has to keep paying attention to the fax transmission until the transmission is completed. In particular, in the case where a text and a picture are mixed in a single page document, as shown in FIGS. 1B and 1C, when a picture is selected, a transmission time is consumed, and a picture is not processed properly when a text is selected. Able to know.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a method for automatically selecting an original when transmitting an original from a facsimile.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for automatically converting an image processing mode when letters and pictures are mixed in an original.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a convenience of facsimile use and a shortening of transmission time by an automatic document selection method without a separate key operation when transmitting a large amount of originals in which text pages and picture pages are mixed. .

The present invention to achieve these objects

A first step of quantizing image data in units of setting lines of an original to a predetermined level and retrieving its distribution;

A second step of determining whether the image data in the setting line unit is a character or a picture according to the distribution of the image data in the quantized setting line unit found in the first step;

And a third process of separating and processing the image data in the set line units in a corresponding image processing mode based on the determination of the second process.

1A to 1C are diagrams showing types of originals generally transmitted from a facsimile;

2 is a block diagram of a facsimile to which the present invention is applied.

Fig. 3 is a flowchart showing a method for automatic original selection and automatic image processing conversion in an original in a transmission mode according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4A and 4B are graphs showing the number of pixels corresponding to each level when quantizing each pixel in image data in units of setting lines to 16 levels.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. First of all, in adding reference numerals to the components of each drawing, it should be noted that the same components have the same reference numerals as much as possible even though they are shown in different drawings. In addition, in the following description of the present invention, if it is determined that a detailed description of a related known function or configuration may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention, the detailed description thereof will be omitted.

2 is a block diagram of a facsimile to which the present invention is applied and includes a control unit 200, a key input unit 210, a sensor unit 220, a scanner 230, an image processing unit 240, a memory 250, and a modem ( 260, an NCU 270, and a printer 280. Referring to FIG. 2, the controller 200 controls the overall operations of the transmission mode, the reception mode, the copy mode, and the like of the facsimile according to the set program. In particular, in the transmission mode, the control unit 200 searches and determines the fed document in units of two or more lines, and selects a corresponding image processing mode in the image processing unit 240 to be described later according to the determination.

In the transmission mode, the key input unit 210 includes a number key for dialing and a plurality of function keys such as a transmission, and generates key data corresponding to the key pressed by the user and transmits it to the control unit 200. The sensor unit 220 detects the presence or absence of paper feeding and the key input and transmits the detected state signal to the control unit 200. Next, the controller 200 controls the scanner 230 to scan the image of the original while moving the loaded original, and transmits data representing the image of the original as an analog value to the memory 250 line by line. (Hereinafter, the data of the analog value composed of one line is referred to as "image data.") The control unit 200 sets the number of setting lines in which the image data is a unit of two or more lines (hereinafter referred to as "setting line unit"). .), The image data in the setting line unit in the memory 250 is searched and judged, and the corresponding image processing mode in the image processing unit 240 by the judgment is selected. The image processing unit 240 performs image processing in the set line unit in the memory 250 under predetermined control in the selected image processing mode under control of the control unit 200, and performs binarization for transmission. Do it. The image data of the set line units binarized in the respective image processing modes are encoded and stored in the memory 250. When the encoded image data of the set line unit is one page, the controller 200 modulates the encoded image data of the set line unit to meet the facsimile standard and transmits the encoded image data to the telephone line. The network control unit (NCU) 270 forms a transmission / reception path between the telephone line (Tip, Ring) and the modem 250 under the control of the controller 200. The printer 280 prints the data input from the image processing unit 240 on the printer paper under the control of the control unit 200 during the reception mode and the copy mode.

3 is a flowchart of a method for automatic original selection and intra-document image processing for fax transmission according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, each step operation will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 1A to 1C, FIGS. 2, 4A, and 4B.

4A and 4B are graphs showing the number of pixels corresponding to each level (density) when the analog value of each pixel in image data in units of setting lines is divided into 16 levels. Here, the vertical axis represents the number of pixels corresponding to each density and the horizontal axis represents each density of 16 levels, where 0000 is black and 1111 is white.

In step 300, when the control unit 200 receives key data for requesting scanning of the fed document from the key input unit 210, the scanner 230 moves the fed document under the control of the control unit 200. The scanned image data are transmitted to the memory 250 at each line. In operation 310, the controller 200 determines whether the fourth line of the fed document is scanned. As a result of the determination, if the scanned image data is not the image data of the fourth line, the control unit 200 performs the control operation from step 200 again. As a result of the determination, when the scanned image data is the fourth line, in step 320, the controller 200 quantizes the analog value of each pixel in the scanned image data in units of four lines to a level of 0 to 15. In operation 330, the controller 200 searches for distribution of image data in units of four quantized lines. Referring to FIGS. 4A and 4B, when the search method is described, if the quantized value of each pixel positioned in the image data in units of 4 lines is less than or equal to 5 levels, the search method is classified into a range of A, If the quantized value of each pixel located in the image data in units of 4 lines is greater than 5 levels and less than 10 levels, the quantized value of each pixel is divided into a range of B, and the quantization of each pixel positioned in the image data in units of 4 lines is performed. If the value is greater than or equal to 10 levels, it is divided into the range of C.

In step 340, if the number of pixels belonging to the range of B is less than or equal to 10 percent of the total number of pixels located in the image data in units of 4 lines, the control unit 200 may distribute the distribution of image data in units of 4 lines. Generally, it has a clear two-stage structure of high and low, so it is judged as a general character, line, or figure composed of white and single color (usually black) (hereinafter referred to as "letter").

If the number of pixels belonging to the range of B among the total number of pixels located in the image data in units of 4 lines is 10 percent or more of the total, the controller 200 determines the image data in units of 4 lines as a picture.

The criterion of the character and the picture depends on the distribution characteristic of the number of pixels located in the image data in units of four lines corresponding to each level (density) shown in Fig. 4A. In general, the letter is distributed in a small number in the area A corresponding to the dark density, and the concentration (level) of the quantized value of the pixel is concentrated in the area C corresponding to the light density. However, the pixel is hardly present in the region B corresponding to the intermediate density.

Therefore, in step 340, the criterion for character and picture is determined as the ratio of the number of pixels belonging to the region of B to the total number of pixels located in the image data in the unit of 4 lines. FIG. 4B shows a distribution diagram when the picture is composed of only pictures or when pictures and letters are mixed in image data in units of four lines. As shown, it can be seen that the ratio of the number of pixels belonging to the area of B to the total number of pixels located in the image data in units of four lines is larger than that of FIG. 4A.

If it is determined in step 340 of FIG. 3 that the image data in units of four lines is a character, in step 350, the controller 200 controls the image processor 240 to operate the text processing mode in the image processor 240. . In operation 350, the text processing mode in the image processor 240 obtains a density histogram of the image data in units of four lines under the control of the controller 200. Then, a threshold value for distinguishing the white area of the original and the black area of the text portion is determined, and binarization is performed to extract the line component clearly. In operation 350, the operation of the text processing mode in the image processor 240 is the same as that of the image processing of a conventional facsimile character.

In addition, if it is determined in step 340 that the image data in units of four lines is a picture, in step 360, the controller 200 controls the image processor 240 to operate a picture processing mode in the image processor 240. In operation 360, the picture processing mode in the image processor 240 obtains a density histogram of the image data in units of four lines under the control of the controller 200. Then, a predetermined plurality of threshold values are set to obtain a plurality of level planes, thereby performing density analysis of the image data in units of four lines. After that, the concentration is corrected, dithered, and binarized. The operation of the picture processing mode in the image processing unit 240 in step 360 is the same as the processing operation of the picture of a conventional facsimile.

In operation 370, the controller 200 controls the image processor 240 to display text data in units of four lines that have passed the 350 steps or picture data in units of four lines that have gone through the 360 steps within the image processor 240. Encode In step 380, the controller 200 stores the text or picture data of the four-line unit encoded in step 370 in the memory 250, and the fourth line of the stored text or picture data of the four-line unit is fed. Check if it's the last line. If the fourth line is not the last line, the control unit 200 performs the control operation from the step 300 again. And, if the last line, all the one-page document has been processed, so the controller 200 analog-modulates the one-page text or picture data that has been processed in step 380 through the modem 250 and establishes a telephone line. Send it through.

In the detailed description of FIG. 3 described above, the steps 320, 330, and 340 show automatic transmission of not only originals or letters consisting of letters but also manuscripts in which letters or pictures are mixed. It can be seen that the image processing mode is switched so that the text or picture data in the original is processed in the corresponding image processing mode. 1A to 1C generally illustrate the types of originals transmitted from a facsimile, showing that the originals of only the letters of FIG. 4A and the originals of only pictures can be processed in units of four lines by the present invention. The length L of the four lines here is about 1.1 mm. 1B is a form in which letters and pictures are mixed in a manuscript. The AA line, which is a boundary between letters and pictures, can be smoothly processed since the actual length L is about 1.1 mm. 1C illustrates a case where a letter and a picture are mixed within a four-line unit. In this case, as described above in step 340 of FIG. 3, since the ratio of the number of pixels belonging to the area of B to the total number of pixels located in the image data in the unit of 4 lines from the CC range becomes 10% or more, BB It can be seen that the text processing mode in the image processing unit 240 operates up to the range, and the picture processing mode in the image processing unit 240 operates in the CC range and the DD range so that the image processing mode is automatically converted.

In addition, in step 310, the control unit 200 searches for image data in units of four lines. × 4 Dither method. However, FIG. 3 is an embodiment of the present invention, and according to the processing method of 350 or 360, the setting line unit may be changed.

In addition, although the number of quantization levels is limited to 16 in step 320, FIG. 3 is an embodiment of the present invention, and the number of levels can be changed as necessary.

Therefore, in the detailed description of the present invention, a specific embodiment has been described, but various modifications are possible without departing from the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of the present invention should not be limited to the described embodiments, but should be defined not only by the claims below, but also by the equivalents of the claims.

As described above, in the present invention, since the control unit searches and judges image data in units of set lines, and performs image processing on the image data in the corresponding image processing mode, when the user transmits an original in a fax, the type of original to be sent Even if an original selection corresponding to the original is not specified, an original selection corresponding to the type of the original can be automatically performed.

In particular, even when letters and pictures are mixed in the document, the controller separates and processes the document in units of set lines, so that the text or picture can be processed according to its image processing mode.

In addition, when sending a large number of originals containing a mixture of text pages and picture pages, the original selection is automatically converted so that the user does not have to specify the original selection individually, which reduces the transmission time. The user does not have to worry about the transmission until.

Claims (4)

In the method of sending an original from a facsimile, the method automatically determines a character or a picture in the original and separates the image into a corresponding image processing mode. A first step of quantizing image data in units of setting lines of an original to a predetermined level and retrieving its distribution; A second step of determining whether the image data in the setting line unit is a character or a picture according to the distribution of the image data in the quantized setting line unit found in the first step; And a third process of separating image data in the set line unit into a picture image processing mode or a text image processing mode by the determination of the second process. The method of claim 1, wherein the first process, And dividing the analog value of each pixel in the image data in the set line unit into a predetermined level to search the distribution of the pixels by obtaining the number of pixels corresponding to each level. The method of claim 1, wherein the second process, The predetermined quantization level is divided into three regions, and the number of pixels corresponding to the center region is obtained from the pixels in the image data of the quantized set line units, and the number thereof is a ratio of the total number of pixels in the image data of the set line units. And when the ratio is less than the set ratio, determine the image data of the set line unit as a letter, and determine the image data of the set line unit as a picture when the ratio is greater than or equal to a preset ratio. The method of claim 1, wherein the third process, And separating the image data in the set line unit, that is, a character or a picture, by the determination of the second process.