JPH027665A - Picture processing unit - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field] The present invention relates to an image processing device that processes image information.

[Conventional technology]

A digital copying machine has been proposed that photoelectrically reads an original image and records the image on a recording material based on the image information obtained by reading.

Since such a digital copying machine handles images electrically, various types of image processing are possible. For example, processing such as extracting a necessary image portion from a document image or erasing an unnecessary image portion is performed.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

In addition, there have been proposals to print out images by compositing letters, numbers, etc. on a document image, but these methods combine predetermined letters, numbers, etc. in fixed positions, and do not allow users to print out images of any shape. It was difficult to create a simple structure to synthesize characters, etc.

[Means for solving problems]

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and includes a reading means for reading a document image, an input means for inputting character information to be synthesized with the document image, and a device for transmitting the character information inputted from the input means. The present invention provides an image processing device having a converting means for converting into pattern information using a converting member, and a synthesizing means for synthesizing and outputting the image information from the reading means and the pattern information from the converting means. .

〔Example〕

The present invention will be explained below based on preferred embodiments.

FIG. 1 is an external view of a copying machine to which the present invention is applied;
1 is an editor used for point input and mode settings; 32 is a touch pen for inputting points on the editor 31; 33 is an operation unit for setting various modes; 34 is a league for reading the manuscript; 35 is a league 34 36 is a removable font cartridge of the apparatus.

Figure 2 shows the structure of the league printer. The document is placed face down on document table glass 3, and is pressed onto the glass by document cover 4. The document is illuminated by a fluorescent lamp 2, and the reflected light is focused onto the surface of the CCDI via a mirror 5.7 and a lens 6.

Mirror 7 and mirror 5 move at a relative speed of 2;l. These optical systems are moved forward (from left to right) at a speed corresponding to the reading magnification while applying PLL by a DC servo motor 26.

The backward movement (from right to left) is performed at a constant speed regardless of the magnification. The maximum document size that can be processed is A3, and the resolution is 4.
00dots/1nch, so about 50 as CCDI
Use 00 bits.

In this way, while moving the mirrors 5 and 7 to move the document reading position, the document image is sequentially line-scanned by the CCDI to obtain an image signal indicating the density of the image.

The image signal processed bit-serially by the league is input to the laser scanning optical system unit 25 of the printer. This unit 25 consists of a semiconductor laser collimator lens, a rotating polygon mirror, an Fθ lens, and a tilt correction optical system.

The image signal from the league is applied to a semiconductor laser for electro-optic conversion, and is irradiated via a collimator lens to a polyhedral mirror rotating at high speed, and the reflected light is incident on a photoreceptor 8 and scanned. A pre-static eliminator 9 and a pre-static eliminator lamp 1O1 are used as process components that enable image formation on the photoreceptor 8.
-Next charger 11. Secondary charger 12, front exposure lamp 13
, developing device 14, paper feed cassette 15, paper feed roller 16, paper feed guide 17, registration roller 18, transfer charger 19,
A separation roller 20, a conveyance guide 21, a fixing device 22, and a tray 23 are arranged. The speed of the photoconductor 8 and the conveyance system is 1
It is 80mm/sec. Printer B is a so-called laser printer. Note that a photosensor is provided near the photoreceptor 8, and by detecting the laser beam being scanned by this photosensor, the tip reference signal BD for each scan is obtained.

The copying device in this example has an intelligent engine such as image editing, and its functions include variable magnification in 1% increments in the range of 0.35x to 4.0x, and cropping and trimming to extract only a specified area of the image. There is a moving function that moves the image to an arbitrary position on the paper.

Figure 3 shows the appearance of the league.

The document reading device includes an operation section 143 and a document table pressure plate 142 having an editor.

This will be explained in order below. An operation section], 43 is connected to the document reading device and also displays information on a printer section (not shown) that forms an image based on image information.

A start key 101 instructs to start document reading.

The asterisk key 102 is used for setting the service mode and the like.

A recall key 103 is used to specify a recall mode in which the previous copy mode can be recalled. A reset key 104 is used to return various settings to standard mode. A numeric keypad 105 is used to set the number of copies.

A clear stop key 106 is used to clear the number of sheets specified by the numeric keypad and to stop the copying operation. Density key 107. 108. 109 specifies manual density adjustment and automatic density adjustment (AE) for copying, and the instructions are displayed on the indicator 110.

The photo key 111 is designated when a user wants to make a copy of a photo original. The high contrast key 112 is designated when it is desired to make the contrast (black and white) of the image clear. negative/
The positive inversion key 113 inverts the white level and black level of the image.

The number of sheets display section 114 displays the set number of sheets and the number of remaining sheets during the copying operation. An indicator 115 displays the orientation of the document based on the copy magnification and paper size. Indicator 116 displays the paper size. A cassette selection key 117 specifies the paper feed stage of the printer. The same magnification key 118, the standard magnification key 119, and the auto magnification key 121 instruct the magnification of variable copying, and the indicator 122 displays the magnification at the time of standard magnification.

The auto paper selection key 120 is used to automatically select a paper size based on the original size or the like.

The liquid crystal display section 123 is composed of a 240 dot x 64 dot liquid crystal, and is displayed under the control of a microcomputer, which will be described later.

Note that the surface of the liquid crystal display section 123 is covered with a transparent touch panel. This touch panel has a built-in 4×10 matrix of transparent electrode switches, and is configured so that the coordinate values when specified with a finger or the like are taken into a microcomputer so that the specified position can be determined. A duplex/multiplex key 124 is used to specify duplex/multiplex operation of the printer. Sort/collate key 125 is used to specify the operation of a sorter connected to the printer. The center movement key 126 is used to move image information to the center of the paper. The original recognition key 127 is used to select whether or not to recognize the original size.

The memory key 128 memorizes various operation modes,
- This is a key that can be called all at once.

The document table pressure plate 142 presses down the document on the document table (not shown) and has an operation section, and has various settings for the copy mode, characters,
Ability to use numbers, symbols, etc. manually.

The digitizer 139 can import coordinate data on the board indicated by the touch pen 138 into the microcomputer. The coordinate data is recognized as position information and magnification information on the document from the coordinate magnification input surface 141 and character information from the character input surface 143 in combination with the operation mode. In addition, since the magnification information is converted from coordinate values to magnification information by a microcomputer program, it is possible to display a large range of necessary magnification as shown in the figure (in this example, the range of magnification is 35%). 100% is displayed in bold).

The zoom key 129 is a key for specifying a magnification, and after pressing this key, the magnification is specified by pointing the coordinate magnification input surface 141 with the touch pen 138.

The area specification key 130 is a key for specifying an area for image processing. After pressing this key, by specifying a position on the document placed on the coordinate magnification input surface 141 with the touch pen 138, an arbitrary area can be selected. can be specified.

The movement key 131 is a key for moving the image, and after pressing this key, you can specify the position you want to move on the coordinate magnification input surface 141 with the touch pen 138, or use the touch panel! Specify by 23.

The page continuous copying key 132 is used when it is desired to output a document in multiple sheets.

The enlarged continuous copying key 133 is used when it is desired to output an enlarged image of a document on multiple sheets of paper.

The mirror image key 136 is used when copying an original image by inverting it in the main scanning direction.

The image create key 137 is used when performing various image processing (such as italicized text).

The character input key 134 is used to combine and record characters such as letters, numbers, and symbols on the original image.
After pressing this key, characters can be input by pointing the character input surface 143 with the touch pen 138.

Specify characters such as numbers and symbols.

The image repeat key 135 is used to repeatedly record the entire document or a trimmed image on the same recording material multiple times.

The character input surface 143 is shown in FIG. As shown in the figure <"A.

Uppercase letters of the alphabet such as "B, C...Z"; lowercase letters of the alphabet such as "a, b, c...2", rl, 2. Number keys like ``3...0'', ``A.

Katakana capital letter key for "I, Tsu...wo", "A, I.

Katakana lowercase key like ``tsu...tsu'', 189 month.

Kanji keys like ``year'', r (,), %, ? ,/..."
It has various symbol keys such as and external character keys corresponding to three arbitrarily registered external characters, and a desired character can be selected by pressing the desired key with the touch pen 138.

Further, each character corresponding to these keys is given a unique code, namely, "A" on the first line.

B, C...J" has code 0. 1.2...9 are given respectively, rK, L, M...T in the second line
Codes from 0 to 147 are sequentially assigned to each character, such as codes 10°11, 12, . . . , 19 are assigned to “.”. In Fig. 9, the numbers in parentheses indicate codes (0), (1), (2)...
9) corresponds to the last digit of the code, (00), (01),
(02)...(14) correspond to the first two digits of the code.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the circuit configuration of the control section of the copying apparatus shown in FIG. 201 corresponds to the CCD in Fig. 2,
The original image set on the original platen 3 is converted into an electrical signal and output as an image signal. An image processing circuit 202 performs image processing on the image signal from the CCD 201, such as shading correction for correcting non-uniformity of output and γ correction for correcting density characteristics. 207 is an add-on display RAM that stores the code of a character to be added on;
08 is an add-on font ROM 205 that outputs dot data representing a character corresponding to the code data stored in the font cartridge 36 shown in the first figure.
206 is an add-on RAM that stores dot data from the add-on font ROM 208, and 206 is a sub-scanning section ADS that controls the output of the dot data stored in the add-on RAM.
An add-on image generation circuit 203 generates add-on image data to be inserted into a document image in response to T and an add-on start signal ADST. A synthesis circuit to be synthesized, 204 is a synthesis circuit 2
This is a printer that performs printing operations based on image data from 03.

Further, 210 is a control unit CPU that controls the operation of each block of the reader, and performs control operations using RAM 215, 110216, etc. according to a program stored in ROM 214.

Reference numeral 213 denotes an editor 21 provided on the document platen pressure plate 142.
Reference numeral 2 corresponds to the operating section shown in the third figure, 211 a buzzer that emits a buzzer sound to the operator, and 209 a sub-scanning counter that counts the number of recording lines of the printer.

FIG. 5 shows the liquid crystal display section 12 in various processing mode settings.
3 shows the display state.

When the zoom key 129 is pressed, the screen shown in FIG. Figure (B) is displayed, and the displayed X down key 702, X auto key 703, X up key 704, Y down key 705, and Y auto key 7
06, Y up key 707, xyX down key 708X
The magnification is set using the Y auto key 709 and the XY up key 710. In addition, in the display state of FIG. 5(A), the coordinate input surface 141 on the editor is
8, the CPU 210 is controlled to convert the coordinate data to a magnification corresponding to the zoom scale, change the screen to that shown in FIG. 5(B), and display the input magnification.

Next, the area specification mode will be explained. Up to three rectangular areas can be entered on the same document, and when the area designation key 130 is pressed, the area number (1
, 2, or 3) is set, the area corresponding to Fig. 5 (C) is set, and if it is not set, the area corresponding to Fig. 5 (C) is set.
Figure (D) is displayed.

In FIG. 5(C), 712 is a clear key for clearing the currently displayed area, 713 is an area up key for increasing the area number, 714 is an area down key, and 715 is for displaying the current area number. Area number display.

When the area up key 713 is pressed in the same figure, if an area is registered, area number 7 is displayed in FIG. 5(C).
15 becomes "2" and is also displayed on the left side of the area corresponding to the mode and setting value of either trimming or masking. Further, if the area is not registered, the area number 715 of FIG. 5(D) is displayed as "2".

In addition, if you press the touch panel input key 716 in Figure 5 (C) or (D), Figure 5 (F) will be displayed, allowing you to correct the point position of the input area in mm units or register a new area. It is controlled so that it can be done.

In Figure 5 (D), when you input one point on the diagonal input of the area, the screen changes to the one shown in Figure 5 (E), and when you press the OK key 717 after inputting the remaining one point, a new The area is registered and the screen is displayed as shown in FIG. 5(C).

Next, the movement mode will be explained. When the movement key 131 is pressed, the screen shown in FIG. 5(G) is displayed on the liquid crystal display section 123. The operator selects and presses one of the center movement key 718, corner movement key 719, designated movement key 720, and binding margin key 721. When the selected key corresponds to corner movement, specified movement, and binding margin, the keys shown in Fig. 5 (H), Fig. 5 (1), and Fig. 5 (K) are displayed, respectively.
is displayed.

In Figure 5 (H), the type of corner movement can be specified;
In Figure (I), by specifying the destination of the specified movement on the editor or pressing the touch panel input key 716, the display in Figure 5 (J) will be shifted, and the point already specified on the editor can be corrected or New input is possible.

In addition, in FIG. 5(K), it is possible to set the binding position in the upper page mode, that is, the amount of movement of the image.

Next, the page continuous shooting mode will be explained. When the page continuous copying key 132 is pressed, the display shown in FIG. 5(L) is displayed. In the figure, for example, the left and right page continuous copy mode and the top and bottom page continuous copy mode are modes that output the left half and right half or the top half and bottom half of the scanned document on separate sheets, and the left page continuous copy mode and the right page The continuous shooting mode, the upper page continuous shooting mode, and the lower continuous shooting mode are modes in which only the left half, right half, upper half, and lower half of the read original are output, respectively. Such modes are available for each continuous shooting mode key 722 to 7.
Settings can be made by pressing 27.

Next, the enlarged continuous shooting mode will be explained. The enlarged continuous copying mode is a mode in which when copying at a set magnification does not fit on the output paper, it is output on multiple sheets separately, and a single output result is obtained by combining the multiple output sheets. To set this mode, when the enlarged continuous shooting key 133 is pressed, the screen shown in FIG. 5(M) is displayed, and the mode is set.

Next, the character input mode will be explained. There are two main character input modes, and FIG. 12 shows the output of each mode. In Figure 12, (1) is the manuscript, (2)
, (3) shows the printout. In the first mode, the input character string "x" is placed at any position on the output paper.

This is a character mode that outputs Y, ZJ and overlays it with the scanned original image information (1) to obtain a printout (2). part) is repeatedly output, overlaid with the scanned original image information (1), and printed out (3).
This is the shading mode to know.

When the character input key 134 on the editor is pressed, the screen shown in FIG. 5(N) for selecting one of these two modes is displayed. Since these two modes are realized using the same circuit, it is not possible to set the character mode and the hatching mode at the same time, and the control is such that one of them is selected and used. In the same figure, 728 is a character key 729 for setting a character mode, a shading key for setting a shading mode, and 730 is an all clear key for canceling the character mode and shading mode.

The details of the character mode will be explained below.

After the character input key 134 is pressed, the liquid crystal display section 123
On the screen shown in Figure 5 (N) displayed, press character key 7.
When 28 is pressed, the screen shown in FIG. 6(A) is displayed on the liquid crystal display section 123. In the same figure, 800 is a character editing key that changes to the screen for inputting a large character string to be overlaid, 801 is an output position key that displays a screen that determines where on the output paper the input character string is to be output, and 80
Reference numeral 2 denotes an external character key that displays a screen where the operator freely registers a character pattern, and 803 a character size key that displays a screen that allows the operator to select an output character size.

When the character edit key 800 is pressed, the screen changes to that shown in FIG. 6(B). On this screen, there are 6 characters vertically and 1 horizontally.
Six characters can be displayed in a character area 804 indicated by dotted lines in the figure.

The operator moves the cursor 805 to the desired input position using the cursor movement keys 806, and inputs a character at the cursor position by indicating the desired character or pattern on the character input surface 143 on the editor with the touch pen 138. Is possible.

In addition, the operator should move the cursor 8 to the character that was entered incorrectly.
You can correct the error by moving 05 onto the incorrectly inputted character and inputting the character again. Further, when the clear key 807 is pressed, all characters are cleared and the cursor 805 is controlled to be returned to the beginning position.

Now, the procedure of the CPU 210 when inputting characters using the character input surface 143 of the editor will be explained in detail using the flowchart shown in FIG.

The editor 213 and the CPU 210 perform serial communication, and it is possible to tell the CPU 210 where on the editor 213 the touch pen 138 is pointing.

When the character input mode is set as described above (Sll), the display shown in FIG. 6(B) is displayed (S13).
. When the operator points at a certain position on the editor 213 with the touch pen 138, the CPU 210 transfers the point coordinate information from the editor 213 to the character input surface 14.
3 (S14). When the point position is inside the character input screen, the buzzer 39 beeps to notify the operator that a character has been input (515), and the code corresponding to each pointed character is displayed. “A”→0. 'B'' → 1. External character 1 → 144. External character 2 → 145. External character 3 → 146. Blank →
147 is determined and stored in the add-on display RAM 207 (S16). This data is reflected on the screen display and the cursor is usually moved one step to the right. If the current cursor position is on the right side, move the cursor one line down to the left side.

Next, the case where the output position key 801 is pressed in FIG. 6(A) will be explained. When the output position 801 is pressed, Fig. 6 (
C) is displayed on the liquid crystal display section 123, and the touch pen 138
The first character displayed in Figure 6(C) (i.e. “
When you point to the coordinate input screen 141 corresponding to the point on the recording material where the upper left corner of
), and the approximate output position is displayed by a bar 809. If you press the OK key 810 here, the position currently pointed with the touch pen 138 will be moved to the 8th position.
Assuming the KP point in the figure, the output reference position Xout, Yout
is stored in the RAM 215, and the screen is controlled to change to that shown in FIG. 6(A).

Next, the operation when the external character key 802 is pressed in FIG. 6(A) will be explained. When the external character key 802 is pressed, the screen shown in FIG. 6(E) is displayed, and the external characters l, 2, . The operator can arbitrarily set the font corresponding to external character 3 in 8x8 dots. External character l key 811, external character 2 key 81
2. Select one of the three external characters using the external character 3 key 813. In the figure, for example, when the user presses the external character key 812, the font information registered for the external character 2 is displayed in an 8×8 dot in an external character registration area 819 indicated by a dotted line.

The operator presses the external character key (external character l key, external character 2 key, external character 3 key) that he/she wants to register on the display shown in FIG. By pressing the white dot key 820, the desired pattern/character is registered in the external character registration area 819.
to express. Note that when the clear key 144 is pressed, all the dots in the external character registration area 8.19 are controlled to become white dots. Further, the current cursor position is displayed on a cursor position display section 821, and the cursor position can be recognized when the black dot and the cursor overlap.

The pattern displayed in the custom character registration area 819 uses 8 bytes of characters and is written to the backed up custom character font area (total of 24 bytes for 3 characters) of the RAM 215, and is stored in the add-on RAM 205 in the same way as the display and add-on font RAM 208. used as expansion data. Next, when you press the font size key 803 in Figure 6 (A), Figure 6 (F) is displayed, and the 2 mm m key 822.4 m
After selecting one of the m keys 823, if the OK main key 24 is pressed, one of the font sizes is set, and then control returns to the screen shown in FIG. 6(A).

Next, the image processing operation in the character mode set in this way will be explained. FIG. 10 shows the processing procedure of the CPU 210.

First, let us consider the case of outputting the character string shown in FIG. 6(B) in character mode.

Prior to starting, the operator installs the font cartridge 36 into the device. Copy start key after manual power (S
IOI), and determines the character mode setting (S102)
, the CPU 210 develops font data corresponding to the character code information stored in the add-on display RAM 207 into the add-on RAM 205, which is a bitmap memory. At this time, since there are no external characters in the example shown in FIG. 6(B), all font data is read from the add-on font ROM 208 built in the font cartridge 36 installed in the device (S106).

On the other hand, if characters registered as external characters are used, the external character font data is read from a part of the backed up RAM 215 (5105), and the add-on RA
Expand to M205 (8107). In this example, 8
Add-on RAM to read X 5dot font
205 is 8X maximum main scanning character number dyte, and the 6th
It is assumed that there is sufficient capacity for the maximum number of characters that can be displayed in the character area 804 in Figure (B). FIG. 11 shows how the character string shown in FIG. 6(B) is developed in the add-on RAM 205.

In addition, in the same figure, following "1234" (since the blank space for 12 characters does not need to be output, it is developed as character input information of 2 characters vertically x 4 characters horizontally).

For this add-on RAM 205, the add-on image generation circuit 206 is located at address a in FIG.

a+8. a+16. When the font data stored in the order of a+24 is read, it becomes 1 main scanning line, and then 1 is added to each address to read a+1. a+9. When read as a+17° a+25, the font data of the next main scanning line is output, and by repeating this operation, binarized image data corresponding to FIG. 8 can be obtained.

Furthermore, by controlling the clock when reading the add-on RAM 205, it is possible to change the character size.
．． It can output at a resolution of 400dpi, so 8X8do
If the font of t is output at 50dpi resolution, it will be about 4m.
Similarly, if you output an 8x8 dot font with a resolution of 1 oodpi, you can output characters with a size of about 2 mm, and this character size is selected in Fig. 6 (F). Furthermore, by adding means for outputting the image information corresponding to "0" corresponding to "l" of the binary data read from the add-on RAM 205 at a specified density, character density can be realized. However, the character input mode does not allow the operator to make this setting and forces the output to be black.

The CPU 210 calculates and sets the number of main scanning characters "4" from the input string of FIG. 6(B) as described above (S114).
.

This determines the read order of the add-on RAM 205. Next, set the resolution corresponding to the character size mentioned above (5115), further set the density of the image information corresponding to "bi" read from the add-on RAM 205 (specifically, 256 in black), and Add-on RAM2
0 is set so that document image information is output corresponding to "0" read from 05 (S116). still,
It is also possible to set the density of image information corresponding to “0” read from the add-on RAM 205.

Next, the main scanning start position of the image information to be added on, specifically, data corresponding to Yout in FIG. 8 is set (S117).

In addition, the sub-scanning start position Xout and the start position Xo
ut, the number of sub-scanning characters, that is, "2" in the example of FIG. 6(B).
” and the value of XEND calculated from the resolution is calculated and set (S118).

If other editing modes such as scaling shift, trimming, etc. are selected (Sl 19), parameters corresponding to those editing modes are set in the image processing circuit 202 (5120), and thereafter, for copying operations. Execute reading scan of the original as many times as required (S121.51
23).

With the above, as shown in Figure 8, it is possible to obtain a printout in which characters of a desired size and density are synthesized at a desired position on an output sheet.

FIG. 13 shows some examples of font patterns.

(A) is similar to that used in the above explanation,
(B) and (C) are other character patterns written in ROMs built into other font cartridges, respectively.

In this way, a plurality of font cartridges containing ROMs storing fonts of different shapes are provided, and by installing the font cartridges containing ROMs storing fonts of a desired shape into the device during image processing, the desired shape can be created. Characters, symbols, etc. according to the font can be combined with the original image and printed.

In this embodiment, the add-on font 34 is implemented as a ROM cartridge, but it can also be implemented as a floppy disk, CQ-
It is also possible to use a ROM or an IC card instead.

〔effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, the shapes of characters, symbols, etc. to be synthesized with a document image can be made arbitrary, and it is also possible to easily obtain a desired composite output.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is an external view of a copying machine to which the present invention is applied, Fig. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of the copying machine shown in Fig. 1, Fig. 3 is an external view of a league, and Fig. 4 is a configuration of the control circuit of the copying machine. 5 and 6 are diagrams showing the display state of the liquid crystal display section, and FIG. 7 is a flowchart diagram showing the procedure for inputting characters.
8 and 12 are diagrams showing output examples, FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a character input screen, FIG. 10 is a flowchart diagram showing the procedure of copying operation, and FIG. 11 is a diagram showing the contents of the add-on RAM. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a font pattern, 1
23 is a liquid crystal display, 134 is a character input key, 1138 is a touch pen, 141 is a coordinate input surface, 143 is a character input surface,
205 is an add-on RAM, 206 is an add-on image generation circuit, and 210 is a CPU. D State Map 5 Figure 72 Figure 13 Father

Claims (1)

[Claims] a reading means for reading a document image; an input means for inputting character information to be synthesized with the document image; and a conversion means for converting the character information input from the input means into pattern information using a conversion member delivered to the apparatus. , an image processing device comprising a composition means for combining and outputting image information from the reading means and pattern information from the conversion means.