WO2021033603A1

WO2021033603A1 - Image-reading device

Info

Publication number: WO2021033603A1
Application number: PCT/JP2020/030642
Authority: WO
Inventors: 卓志段床
Original assignee: 京セラドキュメントソリューションズ株式会社
Priority date: 2019-08-21
Filing date: 2020-08-12
Publication date: 2021-02-25

Abstract

In the present invention, an image formation device (10) comprises: a display unit (41); an image reading unit (11) that reads an image of a manuscript; a network communication unit (45) that performs data communications through a network; and a control part (51) that recognizes text contained in the manuscript image read by the image reading unit (11), extracts and selects from the recognized text a character string satisfying a preset selection condition, uses the selected character string as a search condition to acquire search results from a search engine, and causes the display unit (41) to display the search results.

Description

Image reader

The present invention relates to an image reader, and more particularly to a technique for acquiring and displaying text through a network.

In the image forming apparatus, the image of the original is read by the image reading unit, and the image of the original is printed on the recording paper by the image forming unit. On the other hand, in the device described in Patent Document 1, a web page can be accessed, displayed and browsed through a network, and the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of the browsed web page is recorded in a URL table, and the web page is recorded. The hypertext character string specified by the user on the web page is recorded in the character string table, and the web page corresponding to the URL in the URL table and the web page linked to the hypertext character string in the character string table are acquired. And these web pages are combined and printed.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2006-85376

Here, since the image forming apparatus includes an image reading unit for reading the image of the original as described above, it is convenient if the text related to the image of the read original can be searched and obtained from the database on the network. Improves sex.

In Patent Document 1, the web page corresponding to the URL of the URL table and the web page linked to the hypertext character string of the character string table are acquired, and these web pages are combined and printed. , The text related to the image of the original document read by the image reading unit is not acquired.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to make it easier to specify a search target when searching for text.

The image reading device according to one aspect of the present invention is included in a display unit, an image reading unit that reads an image of a document, a communication unit that performs data communication via a network, and an image of the document read by the image reading unit. The text is recognized, a character string satisfying a preset selection condition is extracted from the recognized text and selected, and a search result by a search engine is acquired using the selected character string as a search condition. It is provided with a control unit for displaying on the display unit.

According to the present invention, it is possible to specify the search target more easily than before when searching for text.

It is sectional drawing which shows the image forming apparatus which is an example of the image reading apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a functional block diagram which shows the main internal structure of an image forming apparatus. It is a flowchart which shows the control procedure for searching and acquiring the text and the image which are related to the image of the original document read by the image reading unit through a network. It is a figure which shows the initial screen displayed on the display part. It is a figure which shows the screen of the display part which displays the text extracted from an image and a browser. It is a figure which shows the screen of the display part which displays an image and a browser. It is a figure which shows the screen of the display part which displays the browser in which the text extracted from an image and the data searched by a search engine are arranged. It is a figure which shows the screen of the display part which displays the browser in which an image and another image searched by an image search engine are arranged. It is a figure which illustrates the manuscript containing a plurality of images. It is a figure which shows each browser displayed on the display part by the text of a plurality of images. It is a figure which shows each browser displayed on the display part by the text of a plurality of images. It is a figure which shows each browser displayed on the display part by the text of a plurality of images.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing an image forming apparatus which is an example of an image reading apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The image forming apparatus 10 includes an image reading unit 11 and an image forming unit 12.

The image reading unit 11 has an image sensor that optically reads the image of the document, and the analog output of the image sensor is converted into a digital signal to generate image data indicating the image of the document.

The image forming unit 12 prints an image indicated by the above image data or image data received from the outside on a recording paper, and has an image forming unit 3M for magenta, an image forming unit 3C for cyan, and an image for yellow. It includes a forming unit 3Y and an image forming unit 3Bk for black. In each of the

image forming units

3M, 3C, 3Y, and 3Bk, the surface of the photoconductor drum 4 is uniformly charged, the surface of the photoconductor drum 4 is exposed, and an electrostatic latent image is formed on the surface of the photoconductor drum 4. Is formed, the electrostatic latent image on the surface of the photoconductor drum 4 is developed into a toner image, and the toner image on the surface of the photoconductor drum 4 is transferred to the intermediate transfer belt 5. As a result, a color toner image is formed on the intermediate transfer belt 5. The toner image of this color is secondarily transferred to the recording paper P conveyed from the paper feeding unit 14 through the transfer path 8 in the nip area N between the intermediate transfer belt 5 and the secondary transfer roller 6.

After that, the recording paper P is heated and pressurized by the fixing device 15, the toner image on the recording paper P is fixed by thermocompression bonding, and the recording paper P is further discharged to the discharge tray 17 through the discharge roller 16.

Next, the configuration related to the control of the image forming apparatus 10 will be described. FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing a main internal configuration of the image forming apparatus 10. As shown in FIG. 2, the image forming apparatus 10 includes an image reading unit 11, an image forming unit 12, a display unit 41, an operation unit 42, a touch panel 43, a network communication unit (NW communication unit) 45, and an image. It includes a memory 46, a storage unit 48, and a control unit 49. These components are capable of transmitting and receiving data or signals through the bus to each other.

The display unit 41 is a display device such as a liquid crystal display (LCD: Liquid Crystal Display) or an organic EL (OLED: Organic Light-Emitting Diode) display.

The operation unit 42 includes physical keys such as a numeric keypad, an enter key, and a start key.

A touch panel 43 is arranged on the screen of the display unit 41. The touch panel 43 is a touch panel of a so-called resistance film type or capacitance type, and detects contact (touch) of a user's finger or the like with the touch panel 43 together with the contact position, and a detection signal indicating the coordinates of the contact position. Is output to the control unit 51 or the like described later of the control unit 49. The touch panel 43 serves as an operation unit in which user operations on the screen of the display unit 41 are input together with the operation unit 42.

The network communication unit 45 includes a communication module such as a LAN board and performs data communication through the network. The network communication unit 45 is an example of a communication unit within the scope of claims.

The image memory 46 stores image data indicating an image of the original document read by the image reading unit 11.

The storage unit 48 is a large-capacity storage device such as an SSD (Solid State Drive) or an HDD (Hard Disk Drive), and stores various application programs and various data.

The control unit 49 is composed of a processor, RAM (Random Access Memory), ROM (Read Only Memory), and the like. The processor is, for example, a CPU (Central Processing Unit), an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), an MPU (Micro Processing Unit), or the like. The control unit 49 functions as the control unit 51 when the control program stored in the ROM or the storage unit 48 is executed by the processor.

The control unit 49 comprehensively controls the image forming apparatus 10. The control unit 49 is connected to an image reading unit 11, an image forming unit 12, a display unit 41, an operation unit 42, a touch panel 43, a network communication unit 45, an image memory 46, a storage unit 48, and the like, and is a component thereof. Operation control and transmission / reception of signals or data to / from each component.

The control unit 51 serves as a processing unit that executes various processes necessary for image formation by the image forming apparatus 10. Further, the control unit 51 receives an operation instruction input by the user based on the detection signal output from the touch panel 43 or the operation of the physical key of the operation unit 42. Further, the control unit 51 has a function of controlling the display operation of the display unit 41 and a function of controlling the communication operation of the network communication unit 45. Further, the control unit 51 processes the image data stored in the image memory 46.

In the image forming apparatus 10 having such a configuration, for example, when the user sets the document in the image reading unit 11 and operates the start key of the operation unit 42, the control unit 51 reads the image of the document by the image reading unit 11. The image data indicating this image is read, temporarily stored in the image memory 46, the image data is input to the image forming unit 12, and the image indicated by the image data is formed on the recording paper by the image forming unit 12. Let me.

Further, in the present embodiment, the control unit 51 executes the search function in response to an instruction input by the user operating the touch panel 43. When the control unit 51 causes the image reading unit 11 to read the image of the original while the control unit 51 receives the execution instruction of the search function and stores the image data indicating this image in the image memory 46, the control unit 51 Recognizes and extracts the text included in the image of the original in the image memory 46 by a known OCR (Optical Character Recognition) function, and displays this text on the screen of the display unit 41. Further, the control unit 51 extracts and selects a character string satisfying a preset selection condition from the recognized text, and displays the selected character string on the screen of the display unit 41.

The user specifies the character string displayed on the screen of the display unit 41 by touch operation. The control unit 51 determines the character string specified by the touch operation through the touch panel 43, and uses the determined character string as a search condition in the existing search engine on the network via a browser through the network communication unit 45. Send. Then, the control unit 51 receives the search result from the search engine that the search engine searches the database of the search engine using the search condition through the network communication unit 45, and sends the search result to the display unit 41. Display it on the displayed browser. This database stores the data that each web page has, which is collected from each web page that exists on the Internet.

Further, the control unit 51 transmits the image in the image memory 46 as a search condition to an existing image search engine on the network through the network communication unit 45, and the image search engine searches the search result using the image as a search condition. Received from the image search engine, the search result is displayed on the screen of the display unit 41.

Therefore, the image reading unit 11 recognizes the text included in the image of the original, displays the character string extracted from the text based on the preset selection conditions, and the user uses the extracted and displayed character string. The specified character string is used as a search condition, and various data are searched from the database by the search engine using this search condition, and other images are searched from the database by the image search engine using the image of the manuscript as the search condition. Is searched, and these various data and images are displayed on the screen of the display unit 41.

Therefore, the user can search and acquire other images and texts related to the image of the manuscript read by the image reading unit 11 through the network as a search target.

Note that the search engine on the network uses a known system provided by the search engine operator.

Next, the control procedure for searching and acquiring the text or image related to the image of the original document read by the image reading unit 11 through the network will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. To do.

First, it is assumed that the control unit 51 displays the initial screen IS as shown in FIG. 4 on the display unit 41. On this initial screen IS, a plurality of function keys 61a to 61h and the like associated with each function are displayed. When the user touches the function key 61h for setting the search function while this initial screen is displayed, the control unit 51 gives an instruction to execute the search function as an instruction corresponding to the function key 61h through the touch panel 43. Is received, and the search function is activated based on the instruction (S101).

Then, with the search function activated, the user sets the document in the image reading unit 11 and operates the start key of the operation unit 42. When the control unit 51 receives the document reading instruction associated with the operation of the start key, the image reading unit 11 reads the image of the document and stores the image data indicating this image in the image memory 46 (S102). ).

The control unit 51 recognizes and extracts the text included in the image of the original in the image memory 46 by a known OCR (Optical Character Recognition) function, and displays the extracted text T1 as shown in FIG. 5A, for example. Is displayed on the screen of, and the browser B1 is started up and displayed on the screen of the display unit 41 (S103). Further, the control unit 51 extracts a character string included in the text T1 from the text T1 based on a preset selection condition, selects the character string, and displays the selected character string on the screen of the display unit 41 (S104). For example, the control unit 51 refers to the word dictionary stored in advance in the storage unit 48, and determines all the words constituting the text T1 as the character string C. Then, the control unit 51 determines the size of the character for each of the determined character strings C, and sets the selection condition that the size of the character is a predetermined size, and the character string satisfying this selection condition. Is extracted and selected. For example, the control unit 51 sets the "predetermined size" to (1) the largest size among the determined character sizes, or (2) the largest size among the determined character sizes. The first is the size up to the nth (any integer larger than n = 1). In the present embodiment, the case where the control unit 51 selects the character string C having the largest size among the determined character sizes as the first and up to the third size will be described as an example. FIG. 5A shows an example in which a list LC in which each character string C selected in this way is arranged in descending order of character size is displayed on the screen of the display unit 41.

Further, as shown in FIG. 5B, for example, the control unit 51 switches the image G1 and the browser B2 in the image memory 46 between the text T1, the list LC, and the browser B1 and processes them so that they can be displayed on the screen of the display unit 41. (S105). At this time, the control unit 51 extracts the image area included in the image G1 of the original based on the layout analysis of the image G1 of the original by the OCR function, and when the image G1 and the browser B2 are displayed, the extracted image area is imaged. It may be displayed as G1.

For example, when the text T1, the list LC, and the browser B1 are displayed, the control unit 51 displays the existence of the browser B2 on the screen of the display unit 41 by tab ta2 in a tab format (FIG. 5A). In this state, when the user touches the tab ta2 of the browser B1, the control unit 51 receives the display instructions of the image G1 and the browser B2 via the touch panel 43, and displays the image G1 and the browser B2 on the screen of the display unit 41. (Fig. 5B). When the tab ta1 of the browser B2 is touched during the display of the image G1 and the browser B2, the control unit 51 receives the display instructions of the text T1, the list LC and the browser B1 via the touch panel 43, and the text T1 is displayed. The list LC and the browser B1 are displayed on the screen of the display unit 41 (FIG. 5B).

Here, when the user touches an arbitrary character string C in the list LC on the screen of the display unit 41, the control unit 51 receives an instruction to specify the arbitrary character string C as a search condition through the touch panel 43. This specified character string C is set as a search condition. Further, when the user sequentially touches a plurality of character strings C in the list LC, the control unit 51 gives an instruction to specify all the touch-operated character strings C as search conditions through the touch panel 43 each time the touch operation is performed. Accept and set these character strings C as search conditions.

Then, when the search condition is set as described above, the control unit 51 transmits the character string C as the search condition to the search engine on the network by the network communication unit 45 via the browser B1 (S106).

The search engine searches the database using the search conditions and sends the search results to the image forming apparatus 10. When the control unit 51 of the image forming apparatus 10 receives the search result, that is, the data hit by the search by the search engine through the network communication unit 45, the data as the search result is displayed on the browser B1 of the screen of the display unit 41. Display (S107). As a result, as shown in FIG. 6A, for example, the control unit 51 causes the browser B1 to display the text T2 as the data hit by the search by the search engine together with the text T1 on the screen of the display unit 41. When there are a plurality of texts T2, the control unit 51 displays the texts T2 side by side on the browser B1.

Further, the control unit 51 transmits the image G1 (or the image area included in the image G1) as a search condition to the search engine on the network by the network communication unit 45 via the browser B2 (S108).

The search engine searches the database using the search conditions and sends the search results to the image forming apparatus 10. When the control unit 51 of the image forming apparatus 10 receives the search result, that is, the image hit by the search by the search engine through the network communication unit 45, the image as the search result is displayed on the browser B2 of the screen of the display unit 41. Display (S109). As a result, for example, as shown in FIG. 6B, on the screen of the display unit 41, the browser B2 in which the image G2 searched by the image search engine is arranged is displayed together with the image G1 in the image memory 46. When there are a plurality of images G2, the control unit 51 displays these images G2 side by side on the browser B2.

As described above, in the present embodiment, when the image of the original is read by the image reading unit 11 with the search function set, the text included in this image is recognized, and a character string having a larger size in this text is recognized. Is set as a search condition, and various data are searched from the database by the search engine. When the image of the scanned document is set as the search condition, the image search engine searches the database for other images. Then, the searched data and / or the searched data are displayed on the screen of the display unit 41. The other searched images and data can be used, for example, by being stored in the storage unit 48 according to the operation of the touch panel 43 or the operation unit 42, or being formed on the recording paper by the image forming unit 12. ..

Further, according to the present embodiment, even if a part of the character in the character string is missing or a part of the read image is missing, the search can be performed by searching for these as the search target. By the search, it is also possible to obtain the above image and the character string in the complete form without any part missing as the search result.

In the above embodiment, each word (character string) is searched from the text included in the image of the original document read by the image reading unit 11, and a character string having a predetermined character size is extracted. The selection condition of selecting is applied, but other selection conditions can be applied.

For example, the control unit 51 detects the appearance frequency of the character string for each word (character string) different from each other in the text, and extracts the character string whose appearance frequency in the text is higher than a predetermined value by the above selection condition. It may be a condition that the selection is made.

Further, the control unit 51 may set the above selection condition as a condition of extracting and selecting a word (character string) in a preset display mode in the text. The preset display mode is, for example, a color, a background color, an underline, a bold character, or the like given to a character string.

Further, the control unit 51 may set the above selection condition as a condition for extracting and selecting a word (character string) composed of preset types of characters in the text. The preset types of characters are, for example, character types such as kanji, katakana, hiragana, and alphabets, or language types (characters corresponding to language types).

The control unit 51 displays the character string selected by such a selection condition on the screen of the display unit 41, sets the character string specified via the touch panel 43 by the user's touch operation as a search condition, and performs network communication. Through the unit 45, the character string is transmitted to an existing search engine on the network as a search condition, the search result by the search engine is received, and the search result is displayed on the screen of the display unit 41.

Further, in the above embodiment, the search condition is the text included in the image of one original document read by the image reading unit 11, but the control unit 51 reads a plurality of documents by the image reading unit 11 and said that. When each manuscript contains an image, each browser is displayed on the screen of the display unit 41 for each image of each manuscript, each search condition is sent to the search engine from each browser, and each from the search engine. Search results may be received separately for each search condition and displayed in each corresponding browser.

For example, as shown in FIG. 7, when there are three originals, the original J1 contains the image G1, the original J2 contains the image G2, and the original J3 contains the image G3, the image reading unit 11 describes the entire original. When each image is read and stored in the image memory 46, the control unit 51 transmits each image G1, G2, and G3 to the search engine as search conditions.

Further, the control unit 51 may send the texts T1, T3, and T4 extracted from each of the three originals shown in FIG. 7 to the search engine as search conditions. In this case, as shown in FIG. 8A, the control unit 51 causes the browser B1 to display the text T2 as the data hit by the search by the search engine together with the text T1 on the screen of the display unit 41. Similarly, the control unit 51 uses the text T3 and the text as the search result as the browser B2 as shown in FIG. 8B, and the text T4 and the text as the search result as the browser B3 as shown in FIG. 8C. It is displayed on the display unit 41 so that it can be switched and displayed.

Further, in the above embodiment, the search engine and the database on the network are illustrated, but the image forming apparatus 10 stores, for example, the data possessed by each web page collected from each web page existing on the Internet. The data stored in the storage unit 48 may be searched as a search engine by storing the data in the storage unit 48 in advance and using the search conditions set as described above.

Further, the configuration and processing of the above-described embodiment described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 8C are merely examples of the present invention, and the present invention is not intended to be limited to the configuration and processing.

Claims

Display and
An image reader that reads the image of the original,
With the communication department that performs data communication through the network
The text contained in the image of the original document read by the image scanning unit is recognized, and a character string satisfying a preset selection condition is extracted from the recognized text and selected, and the selected character string is selected. An image reading device including a control unit that acquires a search result by a search engine and displays it on the display unit as a search condition.
The image reading device according to claim 1, wherein the selection condition is a condition that a character string having a predetermined character size is extracted and selected in the text.
The image reading device according to claim 1, wherein the selection condition is a condition of extracting and selecting a character string whose appearance frequency in the text is higher than a predetermined value.
The image reading device according to claim 1, wherein the selection condition is a condition of extracting and selecting a character string of a preset display mode in the text.
The image reading device according to claim 1, wherein the selection condition is a condition of extracting and selecting a character string composed of characters of a preset type in the text.
It also has an operation unit for inputting instructions from the user.
The control unit extracts and selects a plurality of character strings satisfying the selection conditions, arranges the character strings in an order based on a predetermined condition and displays them on the display unit, and operates the operation unit. The image according to claim 2, wherein when an arbitrary character string among the character strings is specified, the search result by the search engine is acquired using the specified character string as a search condition and displayed on the display unit. Reader.
The search engine is a search engine on the network.
The image reading device according to claim 1, wherein the control unit transmits search conditions to a search engine on a network by data communication of the communication unit, acquires search results from the search engine, and displays the search results on the display unit. ..
With more storage
The control unit uses a word dictionary stored in advance in the storage unit to discriminate all the words constituting the recognized text as character strings from the recognized text, and each of the discriminated characters. The image reading device according to claim 1, wherein a character string satisfying the selection condition is extracted and selected for each column.
The control unit displays the recognized text on the display unit, launches a browser to display it on the display unit, displays the selected character string on the display unit, and displays the acquired search result on the display unit. The image reading device according to claim 1, which is displayed on the browser displayed on the display unit.