JPH06103358A - Image input device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an image input device which can decide the data processing contents by each scanning paper sheet form without holding the image data processing contents designated by a host computer in the image input device in a system which contains the component elements of the image input device such as an electronic filing device. CONSTITUTION:A bar code sensor 11a and a bar code recognizing part 10a which optically scan the surface of a paper sheet to detect and recognize a bar code are added to a conventional image input device which includes an image sensor 1, a preprocessing circuit 3, a data processing part 5a, a transmitter buffer 7, an interface 9, and a control part 8a. Then the part 8a is informed of the recognized result 12 and the part 8a controls the part 5a for selection of the best one of those methods including a dither method, an error scattering method, a simple binarizing method, etc. Thus, it is possible to input an image with the processing contents in accordance with the application such as that a partitioning sheet and OCR sheet, etc., can always be image-inputted by the simple binarizing method.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image input device, and more particularly, it supplies input image data to a computer-related device such as an electronic filing device which handles image data of a large number of documents under the control of a host computer. Image input device

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional image input device of this type is C
Equipped with a CD element and a contact image sensor as a photoelectric conversion unit for light scanning on the paper surface, after preprocessing such as A / D conversion for the acquired image, data processing such as dither method and error diffusion method is performed. The one having a processing flow of outputting as a representative is representative.

[0003]

The above-described conventional image input device has the following problems for the purpose of inputting a large number of documents such as electronic filing.

That is, most of the conventional electronic filing apparatuses having an image input device arranged in parallel use the above-mentioned conventional image input device. Since it is not possible to automatically recognize the boundary of, the method of repeating the input for each document, the method of dividing the document by the operator after inputting all at once, etc. have been generally adopted.

In addition, a method has been devised in which a special partition paper is sandwiched between documents so that the boundaries between the documents can be automatically recognized even if they are collectively input.

On the other hand, however, in order to improve the image quality of a complicated image such as a photograph, it is required for the scanner device to perform data processing such as the above-mentioned dither method or error diffusion method. However, it is difficult to surely identify whether or not it is a page partition sheet.

When a character other than a partition paper, for example, an OCR paper mixed with a general document is input for character recognition, the recognition rate is deteriorated in the image processed as described above. It is necessary to decide whether or not the data should be processed after determining whether or not.

As described above, the conventional image input device has a problem in that the function of inputting a page image is merely secured and the image processing device does not have a function of determining the data processing content corresponding to the type of paper to be read. .

The object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems,
An object of the present invention is to provide an image input device provided with a function of determining the contents of data processing according to the type of paper to be read.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An apparatus of the present invention is an image input apparatus which processes an optical scanning input on a paper surface by an image sensor and supplies it to another apparatus as image data of a predetermined output format. A bar code sensor and a bar code recognition unit are arranged side by side to detect and recognize a bar code applied to a partition sheet inserted between the scanned documents independently of the image sensor, and the scanning is performed based on the bar code recognition result. It has a configuration provided with a means capable of individually determining the processing content of the input and the output format corresponding to the difference of the scanning paper surface.

Another device of the present invention is an image input device which processes an optical scanning input on a paper surface by an image sensor and supplies it to another device as image data of a predetermined output format. The barcode attached to the partition paper inserted between is detected and recognized from the scan input by the image sensor, and based on this recognition result, the processing contents and output format of the scan input are individually corresponded to the difference in the scanning paper surface. It has a structure provided with means capable of determining.

[0012]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the first embodiment of the present invention.

The first embodiment shown in FIG. 1 is basically characterized in that a bar code provided on a scanning paper surface is detected by a dedicated bar code sensor, and its construction is an image sensor for optically scanning the paper surface. 1, a pre-processing circuit 3 for digitizing an image acquired by the image sensor 1 into a multi-valued image, and the output of the pre-processing circuit 3 is converted into a binary image by a method such as dithering, error diffusion, or simple binarization. A data processing unit 5a for converting a binary image, a sending buffer 7 for storing and outputting a binary image, a control unit 8a for controlling the operation of each component, and an interface with the host computer. Interface 9 for sending the command of the above to the control unit 8a, and a point type barcode sensor 11a for reading the barcode The contents of the bar code read and a barcode recognition unit 10a recognizes. During these configurations,
The barcode sensor 11a, the barcode recognition unit 10a, the control unit 8a, and the data processing unit 5a are the parts directly related to the present invention.

Next, the operation of the first embodiment will be described.

The bar code recognition section 10a detects and recognizes a bar code from the image 13 acquired by the bar code sensor 11a different from the image sensor 1, and sends the recognition result 12 to the control section 8a. Here, the detection of the bar code is performed by conveying the paper surface in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 2 and scanning the bar code sensor 11a at a predetermined position on the paper surface.

The control unit 8a, based on the recognition result 12,
When it is known that the barcode is printed on the paper surface, the data processing unit 5a does not follow the data processing method notified from the host computer via the interface 9 in advance and processes the data by another method. It also has the ability to be programmed to control the. That is, for example, even if it is notified in advance to process the data by the dither method, it is possible to control the data to be processed by the simple binarization method immediately after the barcode is recognized.

As a result, a plurality of documents, as shown in FIG.
That is, the first document 141, the second document 143, and the third document 145 are stacked with the partition sheets 142 and 144 sandwiched therebetween, and when inputting these images, as shown in FIG. By using the partition paper on which the barcode is printed, the first document 141 to the third document 145
For ordinary documents, it is possible to input images that have been processed by the dither method.

Therefore, when documents or symbols such as a document number or a title sentence are written on the surfaces of the partition sheets 142 and 144, the optimum data processing method for recognizing the above-mentioned characters and symbols only on these partition sheets. Can be selected.

If there is no information on the surface of the partition sheet and it only serves as a partition sheet, the image of the partition sheet has no meaning as data, so the control unit 8a stores it in the sending buffer 7. It is also possible to easily apply the control method such as discarding the corresponding image and notifying the host computer only of the presence of the partition sheet.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the second embodiment of the present invention. The second embodiment is an embodiment using a line scan type bar code sensor 11b as a bar code sensor.

The bar code sensor 11a shown in FIG. 1 is a point sensor and is adapted to ensure a linear scan by moving the paper surface. On the other hand, the barcode sensor 11b of FIG. 3 is capable of scanning linearly by generating a scanning line by itself, without moving the paper. In the case of the first embodiment of FIG. 1, the printing direction of the barcode is limited to the paper feed direction as shown in FIG. 5A, but in the case of the second embodiment of FIG. As shown in (b) of FIG. 5, it is possible to recognize the barcode printed in the direction perpendicular to the paper feeding direction.

The bar code sensor 11b of FIG. 3 has a removable structure, which can be removed when not in use, and can also be used as a bar code reader independently of the image scanner. I am trying.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of the third embodiment of the present invention.

In the configuration of the third embodiment shown in FIG. 6, different scanning is performed by detecting and recognizing the bar code included in the paper surface of the optical scanning input object from the image acquired by the image sensor without using the bar code sensor. The basic feature is that the processing contents and output format can be set independently for each sheet.

The configuration of the third embodiment shown in FIG. 6 has the same image sensor 1, preprocessing circuit 3, sending buffer 7 and interface 9 as shown in FIG. Detect the barcode included in image 4,
A barcode recognition unit 10b for recognition, a data processing unit 5b for performing data processing on the multi-valued image 4, and a data processing unit 5b based on the recognition result 12 of the barcode recognition unit.
And a control unit 8b for setting the processing contents of (1) according to the type of paper surface.

Next, the operation of the third embodiment will be described.

A multivalued image 4 is generated by the image sensor 1 and the preprocessing circuit 3.

The bar code recognition section 10 inputs the multi-valued image 4 before data processing, detects and recognizes the bar code, and sends the recognition result 12 to the control section 8b.

When the control unit 8b recognizes that the barcode is printed on the paper surface based on the recognition result 12, the control unit 8b has a function of controlling the data processing method for the data processing unit 5b. Here, the multi-valued image 4 is an image by the image sensor 1 that originally scans the paper surface in the direction perpendicular to the paper feed direction, so that the barcode printed in the direction shown in FIG. 5B can be recognized. Is.

Comparing the third embodiment of FIG. 6 with the first embodiment of FIG. 1, the fact that no separate sensor for bar code recognition is required and the line scanning the bar code image Due to the large number of lines, there is a high probability that they will be recognized normally, and due to the small area on the paper surface that is scanned until the barcode recognition is completed, the space for writing the character symbols for OCR mentioned above is printed on the paper surface. There is an advantage in that more can be secured. On the contrary, since there is no independent bar code sensor, it is not necessary to recognize the scanning density and the density of the image scanner.

[0031]

As described above, according to the present invention, the image input device for converting the input of the image sensor into the image data and outputting the image data has the function of recognizing the bar code, and the processing contents of the image data are scanned according to the recognition result. By controlling according to the type of paper surface, it is possible to reliably recognize the barcode attached on the paper surface to be input and to judge the form of image data transmission by itself. Batch input of multiple documents and OCR
There is an effect that image data can be obtained by optimally selecting the processing contents depending on the paper, such as always reading the paper with the optimum image quality.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing an example of a plurality of documents to be scanned and input.

FIG. 5 is a plan view (a) showing an example in which a bar code is printed in the paper feed direction and a plan view (b) showing an example in which a bar code is printed perpendicularly to the paper feed direction.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a third embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 image sensor 2 image 3 pre-processing circuit 4 multi-valued image 5a, 5b data processing unit 6 binary image 7 sending buffer 8a, 8b control unit 9 interface 10a, 10b bar code recognition unit 11a, 11b bar code sensor 12 recognition result 13 Image 14 Document 15a, 15b Image input device

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An image input device which processes an optical scanning input on a paper surface by an image sensor and supplies it to another device as image data of a predetermined output format, on a scanned document or a partition sheet inserted between the scanned documents. A bar code sensor and a bar code recognizing unit which detect and recognize the applied bar code independently of the image sensor are arranged side by side, and based on the result of the bar code recognition, the processing contents of the scan input and the output format are scanned on a paper surface. An image input apparatus comprising means capable of individually determining the difference in the above. 2. An image input device which processes an optical scanning input on a paper surface by an image sensor and supplies it to another device as image data of a predetermined output format, on a scanning document or a partition sheet inserted between the scanning documents. It is possible to detect and recognize the given bar code from the scan input by the image sensor, and based on this recognition result, it is possible to individually determine the processing content of the scan input and the output format corresponding to the difference of the scanning paper surface. An image input device comprising means.