JPH02222083A - Display controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To display the whole range of a specific area by arranging the area specified by means of height information and length information in the range when the area exceeds the maximal display range of a picture display device in an automatic mail sorter, which reads the addresses of the mails and sorts the mails at every address. CONSTITUTION:A carried mail P is irradiated with light from a light source 1, the reflected light is guided to a photoelectric converting circuit 2, converted into an electric signal according to reflected light intensity, sliced by a prescribed threshold, binarized picture information on a detecting surface is obtained, and it is stored into a detecting surface storing circuit 3. Next the picture information on the detecting surface stored into the circuit 3 is referenced, the address data is decided by an address area deciding circuit 4, the height information and length information of the area are obtained, and the respective pieces of the information are set in a height holding circuit 21 and a length holding circuit 23. On the other hand, the picture information in the address area decided by the circuit 4 is supplied through a logic circuit 10 and a selecting circuit 11 to an address counting circuit 12, and an output is applied as the address information to an area storing circuit 13, and displayed on a picture display device 7.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention is directed to displaying read address information, etc., in an automatic mail sorting machine that reads the addresses of postal letters and sorts them by address, for example. The present invention relates to a display control device that controls an image display device used for.

(Prior Art) In recent years, various types of information including the address written on postal letters etc. are optically read, an address area is cut out from the read image information, and the image information of the cut out address area is For example, an automatic mail sorting machine that sorts mail by addressee by recognizing characters using a character recognition method has been put into practical use.

With such automatic mail sorting machines, if the addressee in the address area cut out from the optically read image information cannot be recognized, the operator directly reads the address area and manually performs the process. Ta.

The address display of such an automatic mail sorting machine will be explained.

First, the side of the postal letter containing the addressee is read by a scanner or the like. An area in which an address is written (hereinafter referred to as an address area) is cut out from the read image signal using a known technique. Only this cut out area is displayed on the image display device. Therefore, the operator could see only the addressee rather than the entire letter. Therefore, the addressee could be recognized immediately, and subsequent processing could be executed very smoothly.

As described above, in the conventional automatic mail sorting machine, it is necessary to display only the address area in order to improve the processing efficiency of the operator, and for this reason, the display range is set fixedly.

However, in recent mail items, the addressee is often located in a wide range on the letter.

For example, foreign mail is a typical example. The same applies to large mail items, and these mail items have a large degree of freedom in the position of the addressee.

When an attempt is made to display the address area of such a mail piece using a conventional mail automatic sorting machine, the address of the mail piece is not displayed.

For this reason, with conventional equipment, in the above cases,
A printing device or the like was provided separately from the image display device to display and output all input images.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) As described above, in the image display device of the conventional automatic mail sorting machine, the display area is fixed, and when handling a wide variety of postal letters, the address area is not displayed. was there. Therefore, you can exclude mail items that are not displayed from being processed,
If it is to be processed, a separate output display device is required, which poses a problem in that it is inconvenient to handle.

This invention was made in view of the above circumstances, and it is possible to display a specific area (address area) without the need for a separate output display device.
An object of the present invention is to provide a display control device that can display a variable length on an image display device and is therefore extremely easy to handle.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) A display control device of the present invention has a determination means for determining a specific area from image information obtained by reading an image of an object to be detected. In a display control device for displaying image information of a specific area in the image information determined by the means on an image display device, a height holding means for holding height information of the specific area determined by the determining means; length holding means for holding length information of the specific area determined by the determining means; storage means for storing image information in the specific area determined by the determining means; When outputting image information in a specific area to an image display device, the area specified by the height information held in the height holding means and the length information held in the length holding means is If the image information is within the maximum display range of the image display device, the image information within the area is displayed, and if it is outside the maximum display range, the output from the storage means is controlled so as to be displayed within the maximum display range of the image display device. It is characterized by comprising a control means.

(Operation) This invention provides that when a specific area is determined by the determining means from the read image information, the height information of the specific area obtained from the determining means is used as the length of the specific area in the height holding means. The information is held in the length holding means, and when displaying the image information in the specific area judged by the judgment means on the image display device, the height held in the height holding means and the length holding means is displayed. control to display the image information of the area specified by the height and length information, and if the area specified by the height and length information exceeds the maximum display range of the image display device, the maximum display range It is designed to be displayed within the . Thereby, the entire range of the specific area determined by the determining means can be displayed as long as it is within the maximum display range of the image display device.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing the configuration of an electric circuit of a display control section of an image display device applied to an automatic mail sorter according to the present invention.

That is, a mail P as an object to be detected that is transported along a transport path (not shown) is illuminated by a light source 1 provided in the middle of the transport path. The reflected light from the irradiated mail P is converted into an electrical signal according to the light intensity in the photoelectric conversion circuit 2, and is further binarized and stored as image information of the detection surface of the mail P. It is stored in circuit 3.

The address area determination circuit 4 as a determination means refers to the image information of the detection surface of the mail P stored in the detection surface storage circuit 3 to determine the area where the address is written, that is, the address area (specific area). judge. The determination result by the destination area determination circuit 4 is sent to the destination recognition circuit 5 and the display control device 20.

The address recognition circuit 5 performs character/number recognition processing using a well-known method on the image information of the address area determined by the address area determination circuit 4 among the image information stored in the detection surface storage circuit 3. conduct.

Information as a result of recognition by the address recognition circuit 5 is supplied to various parts of an automatic mail sorting machine (not shown), and the mail P is sorted on the address side by opening and closing a gate, for example.

On the other hand, the determination result determined by the destination area determination circuit 4 is sent to the display control section 20 as a display control device according to the present invention. The display control unit 20 performs predetermined processing on the image information in the address area based on the above determination result, and then outputs the image information to the image display device 7.

The display control section 20 is configured as follows. That is, a signal indicating the address area determined by the address area determination circuit 4 is supplied to the address counting circuit 12 via the AND circuit 10 and the selection circuit 11.

The AND circuit 10 generates a clock synchronized with the image signal read out from the destination area determination circuit 4.

Further, the address counting circuit 12 counts write addresses or read addresses of the area storage circuit 13. The area storage circuit 13 stores image information of the destination area determined by the destination area determination circuit 4 using the output signal of the address counting circuit 12 as address information. The image information of the address area stored in the area storage circuit 13 is supplied to the image display device 7 and displayed. The selection circuit 11 passes the output of the AND circuit 10 when writing to the area storage circuit 13, that is, when the address counting circuit 12 generates a write address, and when reading from the area storage circuit 13, that is, when the address counting circuit 12 generates a write address. When generating a read address, the output of the oscillator 14 is passed through. A selection signal applied to the selection circuit 11 is supplied from a control section (not shown).

The oscillator 14 generates an operating clock for the address counting circuit 12 which provides read address information to the area storage circuit 13 when image information is read from the area storage circuit 13 and displayed on the image display device 7.

The image information read out from the area storage circuit 13 in synchronization with this clock is transferred to the image display device 7 and displayed.

The height counting circuit 15 performs a counting operation in synchronization with the clock signal output from the oscillator 14, and the display range in the height direction on the image display device 7 is regulated by the output of the height counting circuit 15. It has become so. Also,
The length counting circuit 16 performs a counting operation in synchronization with the clock signal output from the oscillator 14, and the display range in the length direction on the image display device 7 is regulated by the output of the length counting circuit 16. It has become so.

The height holding circuit 21 as a height holding means stores the height value (height information) H of the address area determined by the address area determination circuit 4.
It is intended to hold the following. The height value H held in the height holding circuit 21 is supplied to a height comparison circuit (control means) 22. The height comparison circuit 22 compares the output of the height holding circuit 21 and the output of the height counting circuit 15, and supplies the comparison result to the AND circuit 25.

Further, the length holding circuit 23 as a length holding means holds the length value (length information) W of the address area determined by the address area determination circuit 4. The length value W held in this length holding circuit 23 is stored in the length comparison circuit (control means) 2.
4. The length comparison circuit 24 compares the output of the length holding circuit 23 with the length counting circuit 16.
The comparison result is supplied to the AND circuit 25.

The AND circuit 25 as a control means uses the image information of the address area outputted by the area storage circuit 13 and the height comparison circuit 2.
2 and the output signal of the length comparison circuit 24 to regulate the range of image information actually supplied to the image display device 7.

Next, in the above configuration, the operation of the display control section 20 will be mainly explained.

First, the light source 1 irradiates the mail P being transported with light, and the reflected light from the mail P is guided to the photoelectric conversion circuit 2 and converted into an electrical signal according to the intensity of the reflected light. By further slicing at a predetermined threshold, 2
This is converted into a value and image information of the detection surface of the mail P is obtained. This image information is stored in the sensing surface storage circuit 3.

Next, the address area determination circuit 4 detects the detection surface storage circuit 3.
The area where the addressee is written is determined by referring to the image information of the detection surface of the mail P stored in , and information on the height 1iaH and length value W of the area is obtained. The information on the height value H and length value W is then set in the height holding circuit 21 and length holding circuit 23, respectively.

Here, detection of the address side is achieved using a known technique. For example, a letter usually has two sides, and by roughly scanning the images of both sides (by increasing the scanning pitch) and comparing the number of pixels on both sides, the side on which the addressee is written can be detected.

After detecting the writing surface, the address area is cut out. To do this, the document is read finely again (by reducing the scanning pitch), the oblique shadows are taken in the X-axis and Y-axis directions, and the distribution of the image signals is examined to find out the distribution of the address area.

Further, the height value H and the length value W may be calculated by the address area determination circuit 4.

On the other hand, the image information of the area determined as the destination area by the destination area determination circuit 4 is sent to the AND circuit 10 and the selection circuit 11 controlled by a control section (not shown) to pass the output of the AND circuit 10. The address counting circuit 12 is supplied as a count signal to the address counting circuit 12 via the address counting circuit 12. As a result, the address counting circuit 12 starts counting operation. The output signal of the address counting circuit 12 is then supplied to the area storage circuit 13 as address information for the area storage circuit 13. As a result, the image information of the area determined as the destination area by the destination area determination circuit 4 is sequentially recorded in the area storage circuit 13. By repeatedly performing this operation, the image information of the area determined as the destination area is stored in the area storage circuit 1.
All are stored in 3.

Next, the image information of the address area determined by the address area determination circuit 4 is displayed. This display is performed by sending the image information of the address area already stored in the area storage circuit 13 to the image display device 7.

That is, first, the selection circuit 11 is controlled by a control signal from a control section (not shown) to pass the output of the oscillator 14. As a result, the output signal of the oscillator 14 is supplied to the address counting circuit 12, and the counting operation of the address counting circuit 12 is started.

The output of the address counting circuit 12 becomes the address information of the area storage circuit 13, and the image information of the address area stored in the area storage circuit 13 is sequentially sent to the AND circuit 25.

Meanwhile, in parallel with the above operation, using the output of the oscillator 14 as a clock signal, the height counting circuit 15 and the length counting circuit 16
starts counting operation. And height counting circuit 15
The output is supplied to the image display device 7 as a maximum display height signal. Similarly, the output of the length counting circuit 16 is supplied to the image display device 7 as a maximum display length signal.

On the other hand, the comparison circuit 22 compares the output of the height counting circuit 15 with the height value H of the address area supplied from the height holding circuit 21, and supplies the comparison result to the AND circuit 25. . Similarly, in the comparison circuit 24, the length counting circuit 16
The output is compared with the address area length value W supplied from the length holding circuit 23, and the comparison result is sent to the AND circuit 25.
is supplied to

The AND circuit 18 performs an AND operation on the image information of the destination area outputted from the area storage circuit 13 and the signals outputted from the comparison circuit 22 and the comparison circuit 24, and uses the result as an image. Image display is performed by outputting to the display device 7.

The range of the above image display is controlled as follows.

That is, when "the height value H held by the height holding circuit 21 is the count value of the height counting circuit 15", the height counting circuit 15
When the count value H matches the height value H held by the height holding circuit 21, the AND circuit 25 stops the operation of outputting the image information outputted by the area storage circuit 13 to the image display device 7. Similarly, when "the length value held by the length holding circuit 23 is equal to the counted value of the length counting circuit 16", the length counting circuit 16
When the counted value matches the length value W held by the length holding circuit 23, the AND circuit 25 stops the operation of outputting the image information outputted by the area storage circuit 13 to the image display device 7.

On the other hand, when "the height value H held by the height holding circuit 21 ≧ the counted value of the height counting circuit 15", when the counted value of the height counting circuit 15 matches the maximum display range value, or length = 1
When the count value of the number circuit 16 matches the maximum display range value, the AND circuit 25 stops the operation of outputting the image information output by the area storage circuit 13 to the image display device 7.

As explained above, when the address area determination circuit 4 determines the address area from the image information obtained by charging and converting the reflected light from the mail P and binarizing it, the address area determination circuit 4
The height value of the address area obtained from the above is stored in the height holding circuit 21, the length value of the address area is held in the length holding circuit 23, and the image of the address area determined by the address area determination circuit 4 is stored. When displaying information on the image display device 7, image information of an area specified by the height value and length value information held in the height holding circuit 21 and length holding circuit 23 is displayed. If the area specified by the height value and length value information exceeds the maximum display range of the image display device 7, it is displayed within the maximum display range. The range determined by the determination circuit 4 can be displayed as an address area in variable length. Therefore, without preparing a special output device, the range of the address area determined by the address area determination circuit 4,
and its contents can be viewed within the maximum display range of the image display device 7, and in addition to normal sorting work, it is also possible to reduce the burden and shorten work time, for example, in adjustment work, etc. It has become a thing.

[Effects of the Invention] As detailed above, according to the present invention, a specific area (address area) can be displayed in a variable length on an image display device without requiring a separate output display device, and therefore,
A display control device that is extremely easy to handle can be provided.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing the configuration of an electric circuit of a display control section of an image display device according to the present invention. 3... Sensing surface memory circuit, 4... Address area determination circuit (
determination means), 12... address counting circuit, 13... area storage circuit (memory means), 14... oscillator, 15...
Height counting circuit, 16... Length counting circuit, 20... Display control unit (display control device), 21... Height holding circuit (
height holding means), 22...height comparison circuit (control means)
, 23... length holding circuit (height holding means), 24...
・Length comparison circuit (control means), 25...AND circuit (
Control means), P... Mail (object to be detected).

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A determination means for determining a specific area from among image information obtained by reading an image of an object to be detected, and image information of the specific area in the image information determined by the determination means. A display control device for displaying on an image display device, comprising: a height holding unit that holds height information of a specific area determined by the determining unit; and a height holding unit that holds length information of the specific area determined by the determining unit. storage means for storing image information within the specific area determined by the determining means; and when outputting the image information within the specific area stored in the storage means to the image display device If the area specified by the height information held in the height holding means and the length information held in the length holding means is within the maximum display range of the image display device, the image within the area is A display control device characterized by comprising: control means for displaying information, and controlling output from the storage means so as to display information within the maximum display range of the image display device if the information is outside the maximum display range.