Image Processing Apparatus

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus having an image data file and having the communicating function.

2. Related Background Art

Hitherto, an electronic file system having the facsimile communicating function mainly transmits data from the electronic file system to a facsimile. However, in the case where the system can also receive data, after image data was received from a partner facsimile, the operator of the electronic file system needs to execute the operation to give the index information corresponding to the received image in order to register the image data as a file.

On the other hand, even in the case where image data was input from the reader of the electronic file system, a plurality of index information must be added for enabling other users or the like to refer to the image data.

Therefore, in the case of registering the image data as a file to the electronic file system the operator of the electronic file system needs to perform the operation to add a plurality of index information by using a keyboard or the like.

Hitherto, in an electronic file system having the facsimile communicating function, in the case where the user wants to obtain desired image data stored in the electronic file system, his request is previously informed to the operator of the electronic file system by a telephone or the like to thereby allow the desired image data to be transmitted to the facsimile by the search of the operator.

However, when the user desires the image data, the operator certainly needs to be present on the electronic file side. If the operator is absent, the user cannot obtain the desired information in a real-time manner.

The present invention is made to solve the above problems and it is an object of the invention to provide an image processing apparatus in which in the case where the user desires the image data, the image data is transmitted without the presence of the operator of the image processing apparatus.

The invention is made to solve the above problems and it is another object of the invention to provide an image processing apparatus in which index information and image information in the reception image data are registered and stored so as to correspond to one another.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an electronic file system of an embodiment according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining image data;

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a table for converting marks into code data in the embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the image data using a bar code;

FIG. 5 is an operation flowchart in the embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining a received original; and

FIG. 7 is an operation flowchart showing a processing procedure.

A preferred embodiment according to the present invention will be described in detail hereinbelow with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a construction of an electronic file system in the embodiment. Reference numeral 1 denotes a display (CRT) as a high resolution CRT display; 2 indicates a video RAM (VRAM) to display an image on the CRT 1; 3 a bit manipulation unit (BMU) to execute the bit operation of image data; 4 an interface (R/P I/F) of a printer 6 and a reader 5; 5 the reader; 6 the printer; 7 an interface (OD I/F) of an optical disk 8; and 8 the optical disk. A magneto-optical disk may be used in place of the optical disk 8. Reference numeral 9 denotes a CPU to perform the main control of the system; 10 is an ROM in which a processing procedure of the CPU 9, which will be explained hereinafter, is stored; 11 an image memory (IMEM); 12 a general communication interface (GC I/F) to perform the communication with the outside; 13 an adapter to connect data from a communication board to a telephone network 16; 14 a MMR/RL curcuit (Modified Modified READ/Run Length) to compress and expand image data; 15 an I/0 bus; 16 the telephone network; 17 a partner facsimile; 18 a hard disk; 19 a keyboard (KB) to input data such as an operation command and the like; and 20 a pointing device (PD) to indicate coordinates on the CRT 1.

A converter 21 for recognizing a special area in image data in the embodiment and for converting into a plurality of index information corresponding to the image areas of the image data will now be described hereinbelow with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.

As shown in FIG. 2, recognizing means in the embodiment uses the optical mark recognition in which a mark is written to a special area. In the diagram, reference numeral 31 denotes a special area of image data and 32 indicates an image area. Reference numerals 33 and 34 denote tags to recognize the positions of marks; 35 a position to be marked; and 36 a portion which was actually marked.

First, the converter 21 converts the special area 31 into the code data by the optical mark recognition. Next, on the basis of the converted code data, the conversion content corresponding to a block 37 and a location 38 in an index information table shown in FIG. 3 is extracted by only the amount of the code data. The conversion of the index information is finished. The index information table has previously been stored into the hard disk 18.

In the embodiment, the tags 33 and 34 and the mark 35 shown in FIG. 2 have been used as the recognizing means. However, what is called a bar code recognition in which the width of linear image is analyzed as shown in FIG. 4 can be also used. Reference numeral 40 in FIG. 4 denotes a bar code of the special area of the image data and 41 indicates an image area of the image data.

The operations to receive and register an image from a partner facsimile by the electronic file system in the embodiment will now be described hereinbelow with reference to a flowchart of FIG. 5.

First, in step S10, the CPU 9 shown in FIG. 1 is in the waiting mode of a terminating call. When an end of reception signal is transmitted from the general communication interface (GC I/F) 12, step S12 follows. When a terminating call is received from the partner facsimile 17 through the public telephone network 16 in the waiting mode of the CPU 9, the GC I/F 12 receives the data through the adapter 13. When an end signal of the data transmission is received from the partner facsimile 17, the connected line is disconnected and an end of reception signal is output to the CPU 9. in the next step S12, the BMU 3 is made operative to transmit the received data to the image memory (IMEM) 11 and the MMR/RL 14 is made operative to expand the received data. In step S14, a check is made to see if the expansion of the received data has been completed or not. In the GIII mode, since the facsimile transmission and reception data has been compressed by the MH method, it is expanded by using the MMR/RL 14 and is developed into the image memory 11. FIG. 2 shows the expanded data developed in the image memory 11.

When an end signal of the data expansion is received from the MMR/RL 14, the processing routine advances to step S16 and the converter 21 is made operative to convert the image data shown in FIG. 2 into the index information. In step S18, a check is made to see if an end signal of the conversion is received from the converter 21 or not. If YES in step S18, step S20 follows and a plurality of index information and images corresponding to the image data are written onto the optical disk 8 through the optical disk controller (OD I/F) 7. In this manner, the registration of the received image data and a plurality of index information corresponding to the image data is finished.

According to the embodiment, in the case where an image is registered and stored into the electronic file system and a key word is given as proper index information, these processes can be executed by merely transmitting the image data from the facsimile at a distant location without using the reader 5, keyboard 19, and the like of the electronic file system. On the other hand, the facsimile can be used as one of the registering and storing means of the electronic file system. If the index information to be registered has already existed on the optical disk, this fact may be also transmitted to the transmitting side. In such a case, it is sufficient to merely transmit the new index information to the electronic file system.

As described above, according to the invention, the index information and image information in the received image data can be registered and stored so as to correspond to one another without needing any operator.

Next, FIG. 6 shows an example of an original which is transmitted to the electronic file system (image processing apparatus) in the case where the user wants to obtain image data in the embodiment. The index information which is necessary when the electronic file system searches the image data is written on the original. As shown in the diagram, reference numeral 61 denotes tags for character recognition; 62 indicates a box into which it is necessary to write a character; and 63 represents index information written. The reception original in FIG. 6 is recognized as characters by the converter 21 and the result of the recognition is used as the index information of desired image data. In the embodiment, the operations to receive the original from the partner facsimile 17 as the user and to search it and to transmit the image data to the user will now be described hereinbelow with reference to a flowchart of FIG. 7.

First, in step S10, the CPU 9 is in the waiting mode of the end of reception data from the general communication interface (GC I/F) 12. On the other hand, when a terminating call is received from the partner facsimile 17 through the public telephone network 16, the GC I/F 12 receives the original through the adapter 13 in accordance with the standard facsimile protocol When an end of transmission signal is received from the partner facsimile, an end of reception signal is output to the CPU 9. In response to the end of reception signal, the CPU 9 detects the terminating call from the partner facsimile. By the terminating call, the waiting mode is released and the processing routine advances to step S12. Since the telephone number of the partner facsimile is used when the image data after the search is transmitted, it is stored in the GC I/F 12.

In the next step S12, the reception data is transmitted to the image memory (IMEM) 11 and the MBU 3 and MMR/RL 14 are made operative to expand the received data. In step S14, a check is made to see if the expansion of the received data has been finished or not. For instance, when the facsimile transmission and reception data is in the GIII mode, such an expanding process is executed because the data compressed by the MH method is transmitted and received. In the embodiment, the MMR/RL 14 executes the expansion and after completion of the expansion, an end of data expansion signal is output to the CPU 9. The expansion data developed in the image memory 11 corresponds to the foregoing transmission original shown in FIG. 6.

In the next step S16, the converter 21 is made operative and a check is made to see if the character recognition of the expansion data has been finished or not in step S18. On the other hand, the converter 21 checks to see if the tag 61 indicative of the character train data of the index information exists at a special location in the data shown in FIG. 6 or not. If the tag 61 is written, the subsequent data is recognized as the character. After the recognition with respect to the whole area of the image data was finished, an end of recognition signal is output to the CPU 9. In response to an end of conversion signal from the converter 21, in step S20, by using the character recognized by the converter 21 as the key word of the index information corresponding to the image, the data base of the index information existing on the hard disk 18 or in the program memory (ROM) 10 is searched and the address information in the optical disk 8 as the storage location of the image data corresponding to the index information is obtained. In the next step S22, the BMU 3 and MMR/RL 14 are made operative to transfer the image data on the optical disk 8 to the image memory 11 by the address information and to compress the image data. In step S24, a check is made to see if the compression has been finished or not. If YES, in step S26, the image data searched is transmitted to the partner facsimile. The telephone number of the partner facsimile has been stored in the GC I/F 12.

According to the embodiment, when the user at a remote location wants to obtain image data stored in the electronic file system, he can obtain the image data from the facsimile without needing any operator of the electronic file system. If a plurality of image information corresponding to the index information exist, the electronic file system can also transmit such a fact to the transmitting side. Or, the reduced information of a plurality of image information can be transmitted together with the index information to the transmitting side, thereby allowing the information to be further compressed. The reduced information can be made by thinning out the filed image information before transmission. Or, both of the original image and the reduced image may be also prepared in the file.

As described above, according to the invention, special pattern information in the reception information received from the partner facsimile is recognized and the result of the recognition is used as the index information and the image data file is searched. The searched image data can be transmitted to the partner facsimile.