JPH0887518A - Image retrieval device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Object] An object of the present invention is that an operator does not need to check a document to be printed in advance and can make a selection on the spot for printing, and can be operated more easily than before. When the document to be printed is selected, the image retrieval apparatus of the present invention can update the title list by using FC (function) and can confirm the document to be printed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image retrieving apparatus such as an image filing apparatus for registering and retrieving images.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, an image such as a large amount of documents is read by a scanner (two-dimensional scanning device), the read image is stored in an optical disc, and any stored image is searched and read out. Output it to an output device, eg C
An image filing device that outputs (displays or prints) an RT display device or a recording device in a visually recognizable state has been put into practical use.

In such an apparatus, when images of a plurality of documents are continuously printed, a PS (property sheet) for selecting a document to be printed is displayed, and on this property sheet, a title list of documents to be printed is displayed. A number is input and printing is executed after the input is completed.

However, when selecting a document to be printed, the title list cannot be operated, and therefore the document to be printed cannot be selected while checking the title (contents of the search information). Therefore, the operator prints in advance. It is necessary to write down the documents that should be written, and it is inconvenient to operate.

[0005]

As described above, when printing images of a plurality of documents in succession, it is possible to eliminate the disadvantage that the document to be printed cannot be selected while checking the contents of the search information. An object of the present invention is to provide an image search apparatus capable of selecting a document to be printed while confirming the content of search information when printing images of a plurality of documents continuously.

[0006]

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image search apparatus, which stores a plurality of images together with search information including a plurality of search keys corresponding to a document unit including a plurality of pages, and at least one search key. A first designating means for designating the search information, an extracting means for extracting search information corresponding to the search key designated by the first designating means, and a part of the list of the search information for each document extracted by the extracting means. First display means for displaying, second designating means for designating printing of the document extracted by the extracting means, and when the printing of the document is designated by the second designating means, the first display means Second display means for displaying a property sheet for selecting a print document on the displayed list, and when the property sheet for selecting a print document is displayed by the second display means, Third designation means for designating a change of the display part of the list displayed on the first display means, and of the list displayed on the first display means according to the designation of the third designation means. The changing means for changing the display part, the fourth specifying means for specifying the document to be printed on the list by using the property sheet displayed by the second displaying means, and the fourth specifying means. It comprises a searching means for searching the image of the designated document from the storage means, and a printing means for printing the image searched by the searching means.

The image retrieving apparatus of the present invention stores a plurality of images in a storage medium together with retrieval information consisting of a plurality of retrieval keys corresponding to a document unit consisting of a plurality of pages, and selects a desired image by selecting a print document. In a device for searching from a storage medium for printing by a printing unit, a first designating unit designating at least one search key and search information corresponding to the search key designated by the first designating unit are extracted, and this extraction is performed. A first processing means for displaying a part of a list of the retrieved information in document units displayed on the display means, and a selection screen is displayed on the list of the display means when a print document is selected on the list. Second processing means, a second designating means for designating a change of the display portion of the list when the print document selection screen is displayed by the second processing means, and the second designating means. And a changing means for changing the display portion of the list in accordance with the specification.

[0008]

According to the present invention, in the above structure, a plurality of images are stored in the storage means together with the search information including a plurality of search keys corresponding to a document unit including a plurality of pages, and at least one search key is designated. Then, the search information corresponding to the specified search key is extracted, a part of the list of the search information of the extracted document units is displayed, printing of the extracted document is specified, and printing of this document is performed. Is specified,
A property sheet for selecting print documents is displayed on the list displayed above, and when the property sheet for selecting print documents is displayed, change the display area of the list above and specify this. In accordance with the above, the display area of the list is changed, the document to be printed on the list is designated using the property sheet, the image of the designated document is searched from the storage means, and the search is performed. The image is printed.

According to the present invention, in the above structure,
A plurality of images are stored in a storage medium together with search information including a plurality of search keys corresponding to a document unit including a plurality of pages, and a desired image is retrieved from the storage medium by selecting a print document and printed by a printing unit. At least one search key is specified, the search information corresponding to the specified search key is extracted, and a part of the list of the extracted search information for each document is displayed by the display means. When selecting a print document on the table, display a selection screen on the list of the display means, and when the selection screen of this print document is displayed, specify the change of the display part of the list, The display part of the list is changed according to this designation.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an example of the structure of an image retrieval apparatus of the present invention, for example, an electronic filing apparatus. That is, the electronic filing apparatus includes the control module 1
0, memory module 12, image processing module 14,
Communication control module 16, scanner device 18, optical disk 20, optical disk device 22, keyboard 23, C
RT display device 24, printer device 25, magnetic disk 26 and magnetic disk device 27, mouse 29,
It is composed of a system bus 30 and an image bus 32.

The control module 10 includes a CPU 34 that performs various controls for storing, retrieving and editing images.
And an interface circuit 36.
The interface circuit 36 is used in the optical disc device 2
2, the magnetic disk device 27, the keyboard 23, the mouse 29, and the CPU 34 are connected.

The memory module 12 is a main memory 38 for storing various control programs for image storage, retrieval, editing, etc., and management information, and an image memory having a storage capacity corresponding to images of several pages of A4 size document. The page memory 40, the display memory 42 as a display interface, the display controller 44, and the like.

A buffer memory area 40a is provided in a part of the page memory 40. The buffer memory area 40a is controlled to write and read by a counter (not shown). The page memory 40 is a memory for temporarily storing, for example, an image stored in the optical disc 20 or an image read from the optical disc 20. The display memory 42 is for temporarily storing an image displayed by the CRT display device 24. In the display memory 42, the image actually displayed in the display window of the CRT display device 24, that is, the image of the page memory 40 is enlarged, reduced, rotated, inserted, or inverted in black and white. The image is stored. The display control unit 44 controls the display processing of the CRT display device 24 and the like.

The image processing module 14 includes an enlarging / reducing circuit 46 for enlarging and reducing an image, a vertical / horizontal converting circuit 48 for rotating an image, and an encoding process for compressing an image (reducing redundancy). A compression / decompression circuit (CODEC) 50 for performing a decoding process for applying and decompressing (recovering reduced redundancy), a scanner interface 52 for the scanner device 18, a printer interface 54 for the printer device 25, and scaling. The internal bus 56 connects the circuit 46 and the vertical / horizontal conversion circuit 48 with the compression / expansion circuit 50, the scanner interface 52, and the printer interface 54.

The compression / decompression circuit 50 uses an MH (Modify).
ed Huffman) method or MR (Modi)
Bandwidth compression or bandwidth expansion is performed using a fied read) method or the like.

The communication control module 16 is, for example, an LA.
BCP (Bus Communicat) connected to N
Ion Processor) or the like. Further, the communication control module 16 is connected to an external device such as an FCP (facsimile connection mechanism) or a personal computer through an interface, and a UCP (Universal Communicat).
Ion Processor) may be provided.

The system bus 30 is a bus for control signals of various devices and connects the control module 10 with the memory module 12, the image processing module 14 and the communication control module 16. The image bus 32 is an image bus, and connects the memory module 12, the image processing module 14, and the communication control module 16.

The scanner device 18 is, for example, a two-dimensional scanning device and obtains an electric signal corresponding to an image on the original by scanning the original (document) two-dimensionally with a laser beam.

The optical disk device 22 is a scanner device 18.
The images read by the method are sequentially stored in the optical disc 20. Further, the optical disc 20 is searched for an image corresponding to the search information designated by the keyboard 23 or the like.

The keyboard 23 stores unique search information corresponding to the image stored in the optical disk 20 and storage, search,
It is for inputting various operation commands for editing processing and the like.
The mouse 29 is, for example, the CRT display device 2
By moving the cursor (not shown) displayed on the display window 4 in the up / down and left / right directions and giving an instruction at a desired position, the display content (various operation modes, image This is for selecting or instructing an area designation or icon for editing).

The CRT display device (cathode ray tube display device) 24 displays an image read by the scanner device 18 and an image retrieved from the optical disk 20. In the CRT display device 24, as shown in FIG. 2, for example, when the title list is displayed on the display screen 24a, the printing is designated, so that the property sheet 24b for selecting a print document is simultaneously displayed. It is supposed to be displayed. In this property sheet 24b, F1 "execute" and F8 "cancel" are set as function keys. At this time, as a function key for the title list, a key for instructing display switching of the list is valid. For example, as function keys, F2 "Previous table", F3
"Next table" and F4 "Select table" can be designated.

The printer device 25 prints out (hard copy) the image read by the scanner device 18, the image retrieved from the optical disk 20, or the image displayed on the CRT display device 24.

The magnetic disk device 27 stores various control programs on the magnetic disk 26 mounted on the magnetic disk device 27, and displays a search title (search information) input from the keyboard 23 and an image corresponding to this title. It stores search data including a storage address on the optical disk 20 to be stored, an image size, an image attribute, and the like.

The search data is managed by a document management table, which is a title management table 26a, as shown in FIG.
Page management table 26b and record management table 2
6c. The title management table 26a stores one document number corresponding to each title (search information: image name) composed of a plurality of search keys. In the page management table 26b, record numbers are stored page by page of one document, and one record number is stored corresponding to each page.
The record management table 26c stores, for each record number, a storage address (storage start position) of an image on the optical disc 20, a document size (image size), and image attributes such as a compression method and a resolution.

The storage address is a logical address, and the physical track address and the physical sector address are calculated from this at the time of access.
The document management system in this embodiment has four layers of cabinet, binder, and document page, and the cabinet corresponds to one side of the optical disk 20. Up to 8 binders can be defined in the cabinet, and up to 30,000 documents can be stored in the binder. Each document has a title, and its structure is defined for each binder. The document is a basic unit of the file, and in addition to the title, an annotation (description of the document) can be added. The document is composed of up to 4095 pages.

Next, the operation of image storage and retrieval processing in the electronic filing apparatus having such a configuration will be described. First, the image storage process will be described. For example, now, the registration mode is selected and set using the keyboard 23, and the title of the image to be stored in the optical disc 20 is input. This title is composed of search keys of multiple items, and the contents of the items of this search key are
It is set in advance. The CPU 34 checks the validity of the input title according to a format defined in advance. Further, the double registration is checked by comparing with the title already registered on the optical disc 20. The input title is stored in the main memory 13 according to the result of this check.

Next, the original is set on the scanner device 18, and the CPU 34 operates the optical disk device 22 and the scanner device 18. The scanner device 18 two-dimensionally scans and photoelectrically converts an image of a set document or the like. The line information of the photoelectrically converted image is sequentially stored in the page memory 40. The image stored in the page memory 40 is stored in the display memory 42 and displayed on the CRT display device 24. The skew, density, resolution, etc. of the image displayed on the CRT display device 24 are confirmed, and when the displayed image is satisfactory, a memory key (not shown) is input. Then, the CPU 34 causes the compression / expansion circuit (CODEC) 50 to process the image stored in the page memory 40 by the well-known MR.
Encoding processing is performed by band compression using a (Modified Read) method or the like. The encoded image is supplied to the optical disc device 22 and is then transmitted to the optical disc 2.
Stored in 0.

When the storage of the image on the optical disk 20 is completed, the CPU 34 makes the logical address determined from the physical track address and the physical sector address where the image is stored,
The image length represented by the block length, the image attribute, and the like are stored in the main memory 38 in association with the title. Then,
The CPU 34 supplies the search data stored in the main memory 38 to the magnetic disk device 27. As a result, the magnetic disk device 27 stores the supplied search data in the magnetic disk 26.

Next, the search processing of the image stored in the optical disk 20 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, a search mode is set with the keyboard 23 (or mouse 29) (ST1), and a title (at least one search key) as search information corresponding to an image to be searched is input (ST2). CPU34
Sequentially compares and collates the input title with the titles stored in the title management table 26c of the magnetic disk 26, and sequentially checks whether or not a title matching the input title is stored, and the corresponding document number (ST3).

Then, the CPU 34 displays a list of titles of the relevant document using the CRT display device 24 (ST4). According to this display, if the operator does not find a desired document, the process returns to step 2 and the title is input again.

At this time, if the document to be printed is found,
The printing of the function key is designated (ST5). Then, as shown in FIG. 2, the CPU 34 opens a property sheet 24b for selecting a print document on the list of relevant documents on the CRT display device 24, and the document to be printed can be selected using this property sheet 24b. (ST6). In this property sheet 24b, F1 "execute" and F8 "cancel" are set as function keys. At this time, as a function key for the title list, a key for instructing display switching of the list is valid. "Previous table" can be designated as F2, "next table" can be designated as F3, and "table selection" can be designated as F4.

In this display state, when the function keys F2 to F4 are designated (ST7), the CPU3
4 updates the display contents of the title list corresponding to the designation (ST8).

When the number of the document to be printed is input and the function key F1 is input (ST9), the property sheet 24b for selecting the printed document is closed (S9).
T10), and all "x" are displayed in the function display for the title list (ST11). Printing of the relevant document is executed (ST12).

When the document to be printed is selected, the CPU 34 assigns the record number of each page of the selected document to the page management table 26b in the magnetic disk 26.
Read out from and stored in the main memory 38.

Then, the CPU 34 causes the main memory 38 to
The logical address corresponding to the first record number stored in the record management table 2 in the magnetic disk 26.
6c, a physical track address and a physical sector address corresponding to this address are calculated, and an image is reproduced from the optical disk 20 by the optical disk device 22 using these addresses.

The CPU 34 also supplies the image (compression information) for each scanning line supplied from the optical disk device 22 to the compression / expansion circuit 50, performs band expansion processing, and sequentially supplies it to the page memory 40. The image stored in the page memory 40 is supplied to the printer device 25 via the printer interface 54 and printed.

Thereafter, the image corresponding to the record number stored in the main memory 38 is printed by the printer device 25. As a result, each page of the document designated for printing is sequentially printed.

As described above, when the document to be printed is selected, the title list can be updated by using the FC (function) and the document to be printed can be confirmed.

As a result, the operator does not need to check the document to be printed in advance, but can select it on the spot to print it, and can operate it more easily than before. Although the optical disk is used as the image storage means in the above embodiment, the present invention is not limited to this, and other storage means such as a magnetic disk or a magneto-optical disk may be used.

[0040]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention,
When printing images of a plurality of documents in succession, it is possible to provide an image search device capable of selecting a document to be printed while confirming the content of the search information.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of an electronic filing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example in which a title list and a property sheet for selecting a print document are displayed on a CRT display device.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a storage example of a document management table.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining a search operation.

[Explanation of symbols]

 20 ... Optical disk 22 ... Optical disk device 23 ... Keyboard 24 ... CRT display device 25 ... Printer device 26 ... Magnetic disk 27 ... Magnetic disk device 29 ... Mouse 34 ... CPU 38 ... Main memory

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. Storage means for storing a plurality of images together with search information consisting of a plurality of search keys corresponding to a document unit consisting of a plurality of pages; first designating means for designating at least one search key; Extracting means for extracting the search information corresponding to the search key designated by the first designating means, and first displaying means for displaying a part of the list of the search information for each document extracted by the extracting means, Second designating means for designating the printing of the document extracted by the extracting means, and when the printing of the document is designated by the second designating means,
Second display means for displaying a property sheet for selecting a print document on the list displayed by the first display means, and a property sheet for selecting a print document is displayed by the second display means. The third display means for specifying the change of the display part of the list displayed on the first display means, and the first display means according to the designation of the third display means. Changing means for changing the displayed portion of the displayed list, and fourth specifying means for specifying the document to be printed on the list using the property sheet displayed by the second displaying means. An image retrieval apparatus comprising: a retrieval unit that retrieves the image of the document designated by the fourth designation unit from the storage unit; and a printing unit that prints the image retrieved by the retrieval unit. . 2. A plurality of images are stored in a storage medium together with search information composed of a plurality of search keys corresponding to a document unit composed of a plurality of pages, and a desired image is searched from the storage medium by selecting a print document. In an image retrieval apparatus for printing by a printing means, a first designating means for designating at least one search key, and search information corresponding to the search key designated by the first designating means are extracted, and the extracted document is extracted. A first processing means for displaying a part of a list of unit search information on a display means; and a second processing means for displaying a selection screen on the list of the display means when selecting a print document on the list. And a second designating means for designating the change of the display part of the list when the selection screen of the print document is displayed by the second processing means. According to specification Image retrieval apparatus being characterized in that comprising a changing means for changing the display region of the table Te.