JP2023042439A - Image processing device, image reading apparatus and image formation apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

To shorten the processing time without deteriorating accuracy of processing.SOLUTION: An image processing device comprises: an image generation unit which generates image recognition image data with the high resolution from raw data of an image read from an image reading unit; and a transmission image processing unit which generates transmission image data according to the setting from an operator from the raw data of the image read from the image reading unit. The generation processing of the image data in the transmission image processing unit is executed in parallel with the generation processing of the image recognition image data in the image generation unit.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 4

Description

The present invention relates to an image processing device, an image reading device, and an image forming device.

Conventionally, an image forming apparatus that performs character recognition by OCR (Optical Character Recognition/Reader) on input image data and controls the transmission of the input image data and the result of character recognition to the next process. It has been known.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-200001 discloses a technique for converting high-resolution image data into low-resolution image data for document storage after performing character recognition based on high-resolution image data, in order to reduce the storage capacity.

Patent Document 2 has a first generating means for generating low-resolution image data for document storage and a second generating means for generating high-resolution image data for character recognition. and a second generation means are disclosed in order.

However, according to the conventional technique, if the processing for high-resolution image data for character recognition and the processing for low-resolution image data for document storage are executed in order in order not to lower the accuracy of character recognition, transmission control is not possible. There is a problem that the time required to start is extended.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to shorten the processing time without degrading the accuracy of processing.

In order to solve the above-described problems and achieve the object, the present invention provides an image generation unit for generating high-resolution image data for image recognition from raw data of an image read by an image reading unit; an image processing unit for transmission that generates image data for transmission from raw data of an image read by the reading unit according to settings by an operator; It is characterized in that it is performed in parallel with image data generation processing for image recognition in the image generation unit.

ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, it is effective in the ability to shorten processing time, without reducing the precision of a process.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a printing system according to an embodiment. FIG. 2 is a hardware configuration diagram of the image forming apparatus. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of functional blocks related to character recognition control processing of the image forming apparatus. FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing the flow of character recognition control processing in the image forming apparatus.

Exemplary embodiments of an image processing apparatus, an image reading apparatus, and an image forming apparatus will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a printing system according to an embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, in the printing system, one or more client PCs (Personal Computers) 300, a print server 400, and an image forming apparatus 100 are connected via a network 500 such as the Internet. Print server 400 generally performs intermediate processing of a print job. Image forming apparatus 100 executes a print job. Image forming apparatus 100 is a multi-function device having at least two functions out of a copy function, a printer function, a scanner function, and a facsimile function. The image forming apparatus 100 also functions as an image processing apparatus and an image reading apparatus.

An outline of print processing in the print system will be described. Data created within an application having a printing function that operates on the client PC 300 is converted into a print job via a printer driver inside the client PC 300 . The print job is transmitted from client PC 300 to image forming apparatus 100, edited and analyzed by controller 910 (see FIG. 2) inside image forming apparatus 100, and converted into printable raster data. The raster data is printed by the printer unit 932 (see FIG. 2) of the image forming apparatus 100. FIG.

Note that client PC 300 transmits a print job to print server 400 , and after print server 400 edits the print job and performs necessary settings, print server 400 transmits the print job to image forming apparatus 100 . can be

Instead of sending a print job from client PC 300 , a document stored in advance in print server 400 may be sent directly to image forming apparatus 100 .

In the example of FIG. 1, one image forming apparatus 100 is illustrated in the printing system, but the number and type of image forming apparatuses 100 included in the printing system are not limited to this. be.

Next, the hardware configuration of the image forming apparatus 100 will be described.

FIG. 2 is a hardware configuration diagram of the image forming apparatus 100. As shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, the image forming apparatus 100 includes a controller 910, a short-range communication circuit 920, an engine control section 930, an operation panel 940, and a network I/F 950.

Among them, the controller 910 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 901, a system memory (MEM-P) 902, a north bridge (NB) 903, a south bridge (SB) 904, an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) 906, a local memory (MEM-C) 907 as a storage unit, an HDD controller 908, and an HD 909 as a storage unit. It is configured.

Among them, the CPU 901 is a control unit that performs overall control of the image forming apparatus 100 . The NB 903 is a bridge for connecting the CPU 901, the MEM-P 902, the SB 904, and the AGP bus 921, and is a memory controller that controls reading and writing with respect to the MEM-P 902, a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) master, and an AGP target. have

The MEM-P 902 includes a browser application, a program (including an OCR processing program) that implements each function of the controller 910, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 902a that is a memory for storing data, expansion of programs and data, and memory printing. and a RAM (Random Access Memory) 902b used as a drawing memory. The OCR processing program is a program for performing character recognition on input image data by OCR (Optical Character Recognition/Reader).

The programs stored in the RAM 902b are recorded in a computer-readable recording medium such as a CD-ROM, a CD-R, a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc), etc., in an installable or executable format. may be configured to provide

SB 904 is a bridge for connecting NB 903 with PCI devices and peripheral devices. The ASIC 906 is an image processing IC (Integrated Circuit) having hardware elements for image processing, and serves as a bridge that connects the AGP bus 921, PCI bus 922, HDD 908 and MEM-C 907, respectively. This ASIC 906 includes a PCI target and AGP master, an arbiter (ARB) that forms the core of the ASIC 906, a memory controller that controls the MEM-C 907, and multiple DMACs (Direct Memory Access Controllers) that rotate image data using hardware logic. , and a PCI unit for performing data transfer via the PCI bus 922 between a scanner unit 931 as an image reading unit and a printer unit 932 as an image forming unit. Note that the ASIC 906 may be connected to a USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface or an IEEE 1394 (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 1394) interface.

MEM-C 907 is a local memory used as an image buffer for copying and an encoding buffer. The HD 909 is a storage for accumulating image data, accumulating font data used for printing, and accumulating forms. The HD 909 controls reading or writing of data to or from the HD 909 under the control of the CPU 901 . The AGP bus 921 is a bus interface for graphics accelerator cards proposed to speed up graphics processing, and can speed up the graphics accelerator card by directly accessing the MEM-P 902 with high throughput. .

The near field communication circuit 920 also includes a near field communication circuit 920a. The short-range communication circuit 920 is a communication circuit for NFC, Bluetooth (registered trademark), or the like.

Furthermore, the engine control section 930 is configured by a scanner section 931 and a printer section 932 . The operation panel 940 also displays a current setting value, a selection screen, etc., and receives a panel display unit 940a such as a touch panel for receiving an operation input for character recognition setting and an operation input for document reading setting from the operator, and a density display unit 940a. and an operation panel 940b comprising a numeric keypad for receiving set values of conditions related to image formation such as setting conditions for image forming, a start key for receiving a copy start instruction, and the like. The controller 910 controls the entire image forming apparatus 100, for example, controls drawing, communication, input from the operation panel 940, and the like. The scanner unit 931 or printer unit 932 includes an image processing part such as error diffusion and gamma conversion.

Note that the image forming apparatus 100 can switch and select the document box function, the copy function, the printer function, and the facsimile function in sequence using the application switching key on the operation panel 940 . The document box mode is set when the document box function is selected, the copy mode is set when the copy function is selected, the printer mode is set when the printer function is selected, and the facsimile mode is set when the facsimile mode is selected.

A network I/F 950 is an interface for data communication using the network 500 . A short-range communication circuit 920 and a network I/F 950 are electrically connected to the ASIC 906 via a PCI bus 922 .

The program executed by the image forming apparatus 100 of this embodiment may be stored in a computer connected to a network such as the Internet, and provided by being downloaded via the network. Also, the program executed by the image forming apparatus 100 of this embodiment may be provided or distributed via a network such as the Internet.

Further, the program executed by the image forming apparatus 100 of the present embodiment may be configured so as to be pre-installed in a ROM or the like and provided.

Next, character recognition control processing, which is a characteristic processing of the image forming apparatus 100, will be described below.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of functional blocks related to character recognition control processing of the image forming apparatus 100. As shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 3, the image forming apparatus 100 includes an image generation unit 101, a transmission image processing unit 102, a character recognition unit 103, a control unit 104, a network control unit 105, a mode switching unit 106, Prepare.

The image generation unit 101 is based on the ASIC 906 and generates high-resolution image data for image recognition (for character recognition) from raw data of an image read by the scanner unit 931, for example.

The transmission image processing unit 102 generates image data for storage/transmission from the raw data of the image read by the scanner unit 931, for example, with the resolution and image quality according to the setting by the operator via the operation panel 940b. do. In the speed priority mode, signals are input to the transmission image processing unit 102 at the same time as the image generation unit 101 . The transmission image processing unit 102 is implemented by the CPU 901 of the image forming apparatus 100 operating according to a program.

Note that the transmission image processing unit 102 can be realized by one or a plurality of processing circuits. Here, the "processing circuit" in this specification means a processor programmed by software to perform each function, such as a processor implemented by an electronic circuit, or a processor designed to perform each function described above. Devices such as ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), DSP (Digital Signal Processor), FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) and conventional circuit modules are included.

The character recognition unit 103 executes character recognition from the high-resolution image data generated by the image generation unit 101 . Character recognition unit 103 is implemented by CPU 901 of image forming apparatus 100 operating according to an OCR processing program.

The control unit 104, which is mainly composed of the CPU 901, performs processing such as overall control of the image forming apparatus 100 and synthesis of image data for storage/transmission and image data as a result of character recognition. More specifically, the control unit 104 functions as a character image synthesizing unit that synthesizes the characters recognized by the character recognition unit 103 and an image, and converts the image into an image with text, for example, a file format such as pdf (Portable Document Format). do.

Network control unit 105 uses network I/F 950 to exchange information with client PC 300 or the like outside image forming apparatus 100 via network 500 . Specifically, the network control unit 105 is a transmission unit that transmits an image generated by the synthesizing function of the character image synthesizing unit by e-mail or folder transmission.

The mode switching unit 106 displays a UI displayed on the operation panel 940 between a speed priority mode in which the maximum number of readable sheets per job is reduced but the processing speed is improved, and a number priority mode in which the speed is slow but the number of readable sheets does not change. (User Interface). Mode switching unit 106 is implemented by CPU 901 of image forming apparatus 100 operating according to a program.

Next, the flow of character recognition control processing in the image forming apparatus 100 will be described. Here, FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing the flow of character recognition control processing in the image forming apparatus 100. As shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 4, the flow of character recognition control processing in the image forming apparatus 100 differs depending on whether the mode switching unit 106 accepts the number priority mode or the speed priority mode.

When the mode switching unit 106 accepts the number-of-sheets priority mode (No in step S1), the image generation unit 101 converts the raw data of the image read from the scanner unit 931 into a high-resolution image for image recognition (for character recognition). image data is generated (step S2).

Next, the character recognition unit 103 executes character recognition from the high-resolution image data generated by the image generation unit 101 (step S3).

Next, the control unit (character image synthesizing unit) 104 synthesizes the characters recognized by the character recognition unit 103 and the image data generated by the image generating unit 101 to generate image data with text (step S4). .

Next, the transmission image processing unit 102 generates image data for storage/transmission based on the image data with the text, with the resolution and image quality set by the operator through the operation panel 940b (step S5). ). Here, it is assumed that the setting from the operator is to lower the resolution, lower the density, and the like.

Finally, the network control unit 105 transmits the image data generated by the transmission image processing unit 102 (step S6).

As described above, in the number-of-sheets priority mode, the image generation process is executed twice, resulting in a long processing time.

On the other hand, if the mode switching unit 106 accepts the speed priority mode (Yes in step S1), the raw data of the image read by the scanner unit 931 is sent to the image generating unit 101 and the transmission image processing unit 102 in parallel. is entered.

The image generating unit 101 generates high-resolution image data for image recognition (for character recognition) from the raw data of the image read by the scanner unit 931 (step S11).

The transmission image processing unit 102 generates image data for storage/transmission with the resolution and image quality according to the setting by the operator via the operation panel 940b (step S12). Here, it is assumed that the setting from the operator is to lower the resolution, lower the density, and the like.

Note that the transmission image processing unit 102 does not need to perform resolution conversion when the resolution requested by the operator is such that the accuracy of character recognition in the character recognition unit 103 does not deteriorate.

Next, the character recognition unit 103 executes character recognition from the high-resolution image data generated by the image generation unit 101 (step S13).

Next, the control unit (character image synthesizing unit) 104 synthesizes the characters recognized by the character recognition unit 103 and the image data generated by the transmission image processing unit 102 to generate image data with text (step S14).

Finally, the network control unit 105 transmits the image data synthesized by the control unit (character image synthesizing unit) 104 (step S15).

As described above, according to the present embodiment, in the speed priority mode, the transmission image processing unit 102 generates image data for storage and transmission, and the image generation unit 101 performs image recognition (character recognition) image data. The generation processing is not performed in order, but the image data generation processing for image recognition (for character recognition) and the image data generation processing for saving and transmission are performed in parallel with the character recognition processing, so the character recognition accuracy is improved. It is possible to shorten the processing time until the storage/transmission processing is completed without dropping.

More specifically, the combined processing time of the image data generation processing by the image generation unit 101, which is high-resolution image processing, and the character recognition processing by the character recognition unit 103, is greater than the processing time for the transmission image processing, which is low-resolution image processing. It is longer than the processing time of image data generation processing for storage/transmission by the processing unit 102 . Therefore, the total processing time is the sum of the image data generation processing by the image generation unit 101 and the character recognition processing by the character recognition unit 103, and the transmission image processing unit 102 generates image data for storage and transmission. This has the effect of shortening the entire processing time by the amount of time required for the processing.

In the above embodiment, character recognition has been described as an example of processing, but the present invention is not limited to this, and image recognition processing such as image determination for recognizing the authenticity of a form may be applied.

In the above embodiments, an example in which the image forming apparatus and the image reading apparatus of the present invention are applied to a multifunction machine having at least two functions out of a copy function, a printer function, a scanner function, and a facsimile function will be described. However, it can be applied to any image forming apparatus or image reading apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer, a scanner, a facsimile machine, or the like.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 100 image processing device, image reading device, image forming device 101 image generation unit 102 transmission image processing unit 103 character recognition unit 104 character image synthesis unit 105 transmission unit 106 mode switching unit 931 image reading unit 932 image forming unit

JP-A-11-306321 JP 2007-041709 A

Claims (7)

an image generation unit that generates high-resolution image data for image recognition from raw image data read by the image reading unit;
an image processing unit for transmission that generates image data for transmission from the raw data of the image read by the image reading unit according to settings by an operator;
with
The process of generating image data in the transmission image processing unit is performed in parallel with the process of generating image data for image recognition in the image generation unit.
An image processing apparatus characterized by: further comprising a character recognition unit that performs character recognition from the high-resolution image data generated by the image generation unit;
The image data generation processing in the transmission image processing unit is performed in parallel with the image data generation processing for image recognition in the image generation unit and the character recognition processing in the character recognition unit.
2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: a character image synthesizing unit for synthesizing the character recognized by the character recognition unit and the image data generated by the transmission image processing unit;
a transmitting unit that transmits image data generated by the synthesis of the character image synthesizing unit;
3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising: It also has a mode switching unit that accepts a selection between a speed priority mode, which reduces the maximum number of readable pages per job but improves processing speed, and a number priority mode, which slows speed but does not change the number of readable pages.
When the speed priority mode is selected by the mode switching unit, the image data generation processing in the transmission image processing unit is performed in parallel with the image data generation processing for image recognition in the image generation unit. ,
4. The image processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized by: The transmission image processing unit does not perform resolution conversion when the resolution requested by the operator is a resolution that does not cause deterioration in accuracy of character recognition in the character recognition unit.
3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein: an image reading unit for reading image data;
an image processing device according to any one of claims 1 to 5;
An image reading device comprising: an image processing device according to any one of claims 1 to 5;
an image forming unit;
An image forming apparatus comprising:

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