JP2006023946A - Image processing apparatus, control method therefor, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image processor capable of properly and safely searching for electronic documents composed of contents suited to a user's access level. <P>SOLUTION: Image data consisting of a plurality of kinds of component elements are stored in a storage part and managed while a different access level is set for each of the component elements. The access level of the user information inputted is obtained. A second image data corresponding to the first image data is obtained by reading from the storage part. Based on the access level of the user information obtained, a determination is made as to whether or not it is permitted to output each of the component elements of the second image data detected. The second image data consisting of the component elements permitted to be outputted are outputted. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus that searches for desired image data, a control method thereof, and a program.

  In recent years, paper-less offices have been advocated, but paper documents have advantages not found in electronic documents, such as less eye fatigue, easy overview, and writeability. Utilizing the merits of each document, electronic documents and paper documents are used together. In such a situation, in order to reduce the difference in handling between paper documents and electronic documents, an environment that facilitates the mutual transition from electronic documents to paper documents and from paper documents to electronic documents is required. Yes.

  The transition from an electronic document to a paper document can be easily achieved by printing the electronic document with a printer. On the other hand, in order to shift from a paper document to an electronic document, a method in which a paper document is read by a scanner and digitized as image data is generally performed.

  However, when an original electronic document exists for a paper document, it is preferable to shift to the original electronic document for the paper document rather than reading the paper document to shift from the paper document to the electronic document.

  As a method for realizing this, for example, in Patent Document 1, an original electronic document is converted into a raster image, stored in association with the electronic document, raster image data obtained by scanning a paper document, It is possible to search the original electronic document by comparing the similarity of the feature amount with the raster image data for the original electronic document.

  For example, if the material used for presentation at the meeting is distributed to attendees as a paper document obtained by printing the original electronic document, the original electronic document is extracted from the distributed paper document. It becomes possible to acquire. This allows attendees of the conference to edit the original electronic document or distribute it to people who are not attending the conference.

  On the other hand, in recent years, there has been an increase in the momentum to strictly operate security for information, and a technique for switching accessible users for each component of a document (text, table, figure, photograph, etc.) has been proposed.

  For example, in Patent Document 2, when a document image is transmitted, for each component (object) of the document image, a certain recipient is allowed to view only the character region, and other recipients are allowed to view the character region and the photograph region. In order to achieve this, a technique has been proposed in which a document image is divided into objects and encryption is performed for each object.

  Also, with the spread of the Internet and WEB browsers, HTML documents are increasing as electronic documents currently created, and some HTML documents are dynamically generated by a program such as CGI. In such an HTML document, an object to be displayed is switched by an accessing person.

When an original electronic document is to be generated from a paper document for such a dynamically generated electronic document, all the patterns that are dynamically generated can be obtained using the technique proposed in Patent Document 1. Needs to be converted into a raster image and stored in association with a dynamically generated electronic document.
JP 2001-256256 A JP 2002-318535 A

  Since the printed paper document can be easily transferred from person to person, in the case of the electronic document generated dynamically as described above, for example, based on the printed matter of the electronic document viewed by Mr. A, B When Mr. A searches for an original electronic document, in the prior art, an electronic document browsed by Mr. A is obtained, which may be different from information that B can browse. In such a case, it is often preferable that Mr. B can obtain an electronic document including information that can be viewed by Mr. B, but the conventional technology cannot obtain necessary information.

  Also, when searching for an electronic document, a list of thumbnail images of candidate electronic documents as search results is displayed in a list, and a desired document is acquired by selecting the desired electronic document from the displayed thumbnail images. Is generally done. Here, when the original electronic document is searched from the paper document, the same thumbnail image as the input paper document is searched from the list display. However, if the original electronic document to be acquired has a different content from the input paper document, the electronic document with the content different from the input paper document is displayed as a thumbnail image. There is a problem that it is difficult to search for a desired electronic document.

  Furthermore, since paper documents can be easily passed from person to person, for example, a person with a low access level may obtain a paper document containing information that the person cannot access. When an original electronic document is retrieved based on the document and the original electronic document is obtained, information that cannot be accessed by the user is included in the original electronic document. As described above, the electronic document has a higher reusability such as duplication and transmission than a paper document, and there is a risk that information on which access restriction is applied spreads.

  In addition, in this way, it is not possible to detect that a paper document containing information that cannot be accessed because access restrictions have been violated, and it is not possible to notify the administrator of this, so it is possible to deal with information leakage. There was also a problem that we could not do it.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problem, and an image processing apparatus capable of appropriately and safely searching for an electronic document configured with contents suitable for a user's access level, and a control method thereof, The purpose is to provide a program.

In order to achieve the above object, an image processing apparatus according to the present invention comprises the following arrangement. That is,
An image processing apparatus for searching for desired image data,
Storage means for storing and managing image data composed of a plurality of types of components by setting an access level for each component;
An input means for inputting user information;
Obtaining means for obtaining an access level of the user information input by the input means;
Reading means for reading a document;
Search means for searching the storage means for second image data corresponding to the first image data obtained by the reading means;
A determination unit that determines whether or not each component of the second image data searched by the search unit can be output based on an access level of the user information acquired by the acquisition unit;
Output means for outputting second image data including components permitted to be output by the determination means.

Preferably, the search means includes first image data obtained by the reading means and comparison means for comparing the image data stored in the storage means,
Based on the comparison result of the comparison means, second image data corresponding to the first image data is searched.

Preferably, the comparison unit includes an extraction unit that extracts a feature amount of the first image data.
The feature quantity extracted by the extraction means is compared with the feature quantity of the image data stored in the storage means.

  Preferably, the extraction unit extracts one or both of an image feature amount and a character feature amount of the first data.

Preferably, the apparatus further comprises display means for displaying a list of candidate image data that are candidates for the second image data searched by the search means,
Whether the determination unit outputs each component of the candidate image data to be the two image data selected from the list of candidate image data displayed by the display unit based on the access level acquired by the acquisition unit Determine.

Preferably, the determination means includes a setting means for setting an access level for the second image data searched by the search means;
An access level comparing means for comparing the access level set by the setting means with the access level of the user information acquired by the acquiring means;
Warning information output means for outputting warning information based on the comparison result of the access level comparison means.

  Preferably, when the access level of the user information acquired by the acquisition unit is higher than the access level set by the setting unit, the determination unit is configured based on the access level set by the setting unit. Whether to output each component of the second image data searched by the search means is determined.

  Preferably, when the access level of the user information acquired by the acquisition unit is the same as or lower than the access level set by the setting unit, the determination unit accesses the user information acquired by the acquisition unit. Based on the level, it is determined whether or not each component of the second image data searched by the search means can be output.

  Preferably, the storage unit stores and manages image data including a plurality of types of components by setting an access level for each component, and stores and manages a feature amount for each component.

  Preferably, the storage unit stores and manages image data including a plurality of types of components by setting an access level for each component, and stores and manages a feature amount for each component. The same feature quantity is stored and managed using an identifier indicating the feature quantity.

In order to achieve the above object, a method for controlling an image processing apparatus according to the present invention comprises the following arrangement. That is,
A method for controlling an image processing apparatus that searches for desired image data from a storage unit that stores and manages image data including a plurality of types of components by setting an access level for each component,
An input process for inputting user information;
An acquisition step of acquiring an access level of the user information input in the input step;
A reading process for reading a document;
A search step of searching the storage unit for second image data corresponding to the first image data obtained by the reading step;
A determination step of determining whether or not each component of the second image data searched in the search step can be output based on the access level of the user information acquired in the acquisition step;
An output step of outputting second image data including components permitted to be output in the determination step.

In order to achieve the above object, a program according to the present invention comprises the following arrangement. That is,
A program that realizes control of an image processing apparatus that searches for desired image data from a storage unit that stores and manages image data including a plurality of types of components by setting an access level for each component,
A program code of an input process for inputting user information;
A program code of an acquisition step for acquiring an access level of the user information input in the input step;
A program code for a reading process for reading a document;
A program code of a search step for searching the storage unit for second image data corresponding to the first image data obtained by the reading step;
Based on the access level of the user information acquired in the acquisition step, the program code of the determination step for determining whether to output each component of the second image data searched in the search step,
And a program code of an output process for outputting second image data including components permitted to be output in the determination process.

  As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide an image processing apparatus, a control method thereof, and a program that can appropriately and safely search an electronic document configured with contents suitable for a user's access level.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of an image processing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  Connected to the network 103 are an MFP (multi-function printer) 100 that realizes a plurality of types of functions (copying function, printing function, transmission function, etc.), a management PC 101 that controls the MFP 100, a client PC 102, and a document management server 106. ing.

  A database 105 for storing document data is connected to the document management server 106, and the document management server 106 sends document data stored in the database 105 to the client PC 102 by a WEB application (for example, a WEB browser). Can be sent.

  In the client PC 102, the transmitted document data is browsed using a WEB application, and printing is performed as necessary.

  In the present invention, the MFP 100 includes an image reading unit that electronically reads a paper document (printed material) that is a document, and an image processing unit that executes image processing on an image signal obtained from the image reading unit. Data can be transmitted to the management PC 101 using the LAN 104.

  The management PC 101 is a normal PC (personal computer), and includes an image storage unit, an image processing unit, a display unit, and an input unit. A part of the management PC 101 is integrated with the MFP 100.

  The network 103 is typically the Internet, LAN, WAN, telephone line, dedicated digital line, ATM, frame relay line, communication satellite line, cable TV line, data broadcasting radio line, or the like, It is a so-called communication network realized by the combination, and it is sufficient that at least data can be transmitted and received.

  Various terminals such as the management PC 101, the client PC 102, and the document management server 106 are standard components (for example, CPU, RAM, ROM, hard disk, external storage device, network interface, display, Keyboard, mouse, etc.).

  Next, a detailed configuration of the MFP 100 will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of the MFP according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  In FIG. 2, an image input unit 110 is an image reading unit configured by, for example, a scanner or a reader. In particular, when the image input unit 110 is configured by a scanner or a reader, an auto document feeder (ADF) is used. Further configured. The image input unit 110 irradiates a bundle or one original image with a light source (not shown), forms an original reflection image on a solid-state image sensor with a lens, and scans the raster image data from the solid-state image sensor. Is obtained as a raster image having a predetermined density (600 DPI or the like).

  In addition to the scanner and the reader, the image input unit 110 is a raster image such as an imaging device such as a digital camera or digital video, an information processing device having a CPU such as a PC or PDA, a communication device such as a mobile portable communication terminal or a FAX. Any device that can input data may be used.

  Next, main function groups of MFP 100 will be described below.

"Copy function"
The MFP 100 has a copying function for printing an image corresponding to the scanned image data on a recording medium by the printing unit 112. When copying one original image, the MFP 100 uses the scanned image data as a data processing unit 115 (CPU, RAM The image data is subjected to various corrections using a ROM, etc. to generate print data, which is printed on a recording medium by the printing unit 112. On the other hand, when copying a plurality of document images, the storage unit 111 temporarily stores and holds print data for one page, and then sequentially outputs the print data to the printing unit 112 for printing on a recording medium.

  In addition, without storing the print data in the storage unit 111, the scan image data is subjected to various kinds of image processing for performing various corrections in the data processing unit 115 to generate the print data, and the print unit 112 directly onto the recording medium It is also possible to print.

"Save function"
The MFP 100 stores the scanned image data or the scanned image data subjected to the image processing from the image input unit 110 in the storage unit 111.

"Transmission function"
In the transmission function via the network I / F 114, the scan image data obtained from the image input unit 110 or the scan image data stored in the storage unit 111 by the storage function is converted into a compressed image file format such as TIFF or JPEG, PDF, or the like. To an image file of the vector data file format and output from the network I / F 114. The output image file is transmitted to the document management server 106 via the network 103.

  Although not shown here, it is also possible to use a FAX I / F to send scanned image data by facsimile using a telephone line. Further, the scan image data may be directly transmitted after being subjected to various kinds of image processing by the data processing unit 115 without storing the scan image data in the storage unit 111.

"Print Function"
In the printing function by the printing unit 112, for example, the data processing unit 115 receives print data output from the client PC 102 via the network I / F 114. The data processing unit 115 converts the print data into raster data that can be printed by the printing unit 112, temporarily stores recording data for one page in the storage unit 111, and then prints an image on the print medium by the printing unit 112. Form.

  As described above, an operator's instruction to the MFP 100 to execute various functions is performed from the key operation unit provided in the MFP 100 and the input unit 113 including the keyboard and mouse connected to the management PC 101. It is controlled by a control unit (not shown) in the data processing unit 115. Further, the display of the operation input status and the image data being processed is performed on the display unit 116.

  The storage unit 111 is also controlled by the management PC 101, and data transmission / reception and control between the MFP 100 and the management PC 101 are performed via the network I / F 117 and the LAN 104.

  In the image processing system, an electronic document managed by the document management server 106 is stored and managed with an access level set for each element (character block, image block, table block, graph block, etc.) constituting the electronic document. Therefore, when an electronic document is viewed from the WEB browser of the client PC 102, the elements that are output (displayed) for the same electronic document differ depending on the access level of the user.

  In response to an instruction from the management PC 101, a paper document on which an electronic document managed by the document management server 106 is printed is read from the image input unit 110 of the MFP 100, and the original electronic document of the read paper document is searched. The original electronic document can be acquired from the document management server 106.

  Details of the image processing system of the present invention will be described below.

  First, a printing process for browsing and printing an electronic document (document data) stored in the database 105 from the client PC 102 in the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the printing process according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  First, in step S301, the WEB browser is started from the client PC 102, the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of the TOP page of the WEB application of the document management server 106 is designated, and the WEB browser logs into the document management system.

  When the URL of the TOP page is designated, a page for inputting the user name and password is displayed on the WEB browser, and the user inputs the user name and password using the keyboard. In step S302, based on the input user name, the user information shown in FIG. 4 is referred to and the input password is checked.

  Here, the user information will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of user information according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the user information includes a user name, a password at the time of logging in the document management system, a user ID for uniquely identifying the user, and whether or not to output (display) the components constituting the electronic document. The specified access levels are configured in association with each other. This user information is managed by the document management server 106, for example, and the administrator can change this user information as necessary.

  Returning to the description of FIG.

  If the input user name and password are not valid (NO in step S302), the process ends. On the other hand, if the input user name and password are valid (YES in step S302), the document management server 106 issues a session ID, and session management is performed in the subsequent processing. For session management in a WEB application, a method using Cookie is known and widely used, and thus detailed description thereof is omitted.

  In step S303, the access level corresponding to the user name is acquired from the user information in FIG. Hereinafter, the access level acquired here will be referred to as a user access level.

  In step S304, a list of document data is displayed. The list of document data generates an HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) document based on the document information shown in FIG.

  Here, the document information will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of document information according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  As shown in FIG. 5, in the document information, as information related to individual document data, a document ID that is an identifier of the document data and an access level indicating a level at which the document data can be browsed (hereinafter referred to as a document access level). ), The document name that is the name of the document data, and the administrator of the document data are stored in association with each other. The document information is managed by, for example, the document management server 106, and the administrator can change the user information as necessary.

  Also, the access level set for each document data is a restriction on access to the document data, and means that the larger the access level value, the fewer people can access. Further, the value of this access level can be obtained from the access level for a block in document data to be described later.

  Returning to the description of FIG.

  In particular, in step S304, the user access level acquired in step S303 is compared with the document access level in the document information, and a list of document data corresponding to a document access level that is equal to or smaller than the user access level is obtained as a document. Generate as a list of names. FIG. 29 shows an example of a document data list screen that displays a list of document data.

  Here, the document data list screen will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 29 is a diagram showing an example of a document data list screen according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  In FIG. 29, a radio button is arranged on the left side of each document name, and the access level of the generated document data can be selected from a list box. The maximum value of the access level displayed in this list box is set to the value of the user access level acquired in step S303. In addition, a browse button is configured.

  Returning to the description of FIG.

  In step S305, a document to be processed is designated.

  Specifically, on the document data list screen, the user selects a desired document name by clicking on the radio button with the mouse, selects the access level of the document to be acquired using the list box, and clicks the browse button with the mouse. Click with.

  As a result, the document ID associated with the radio button and the selected access level are transmitted to the document generation program on the document management server 106, and in step S306, the document data corresponding to the selected document ID and access level. Is generated. By using the FORM tag defined in the HTML document, an HTML document that performs such an operation can be easily created in step S304.

  Note that the document generation processing in step S306 will be described later with reference to FIG. The document data generated by this processing is HTML document data, and is displayed on the WEB browser of the client PC 102 by being transmitted to the client PC 102 in step S307.

  Subsequently, in step S308, based on a user instruction, the HTML document data displayed on the WEB browser of the client PC 102 is output to the MFP 100 and printed.

  Next, document block information relating to blocks that are constituent elements of document data will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of document block information according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  Note that the document information in FIG. 5 described above, the following document block information in FIG. 6 and the object information in FIG. 7 are information on document data managed by the document management server 106 and stored in the database 105. In particular, in the present embodiment, each document data is assumed to be composed of one page for the sake of simplicity. However, extension that handles document data composed of a plurality of pages can be easily performed.

  As shown in FIG. 6, each document data page is composed of a plurality of blocks (rectangular areas), and the block information for the document ID is stored in the document block information in FIG.

  In the document block information, information of one block includes a block ID that is an identifier, a document ID of the document data that includes the block, and a block position (for example, a block with the upper left corner of the page of the document data as the origin) Are stored in correspondence with the block size (vertical and horizontal lengths). The contents of each block are defined by the object information in FIG.

  Here, the object information will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of object information according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  In the object information, the content of each block is the object ID that is the identifier, the block content indicating the address of the file in which the content is stored, the attribute of the content (image, text, table, etc.), and the content A block ID of a block including the document ID, a document ID including the block, and an access level (hereinafter referred to as an object access level) that restricts access to the content are managed in association with each other.

  As shown in FIG. 7, the contents of each block differ depending on the access level. When the access level changes for one block, the contents may be changed or the contents of the block may be lost depending on the access level. FIG. 8 shows an example in which the content of the document differs depending on the access level for the document data with the document ID 0001 based on the example of the object information in FIG.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of document data output according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  In FIG. 8, when the access level is 4 for the document data with the document ID 0001, “dog”, “car”, “aaa”, and “bbb” are displayed as shown in FIG. Contains the contents of four objects. As shown in FIG. 8B, when the access levels are 3 and 2, the contents of the three objects “dog”, “car”, and “bbb” are included. Further, when the access level is 1, the contents of two objects “cat” and “bbb” are included as shown in FIG. That is, depending on the access level, the content of the included (output (displayed)) object is lost and changed to another object.

  As described above, the document data managed by the document management server 106 includes different contents (output (displayed)) depending on the access level even if the document data has the same document ID. In other words, whether to output the constituent elements of the document data is controlled according to the access level.

  The document access level in the document information of FIG. 5 can be obtained from the object access level stored in the object information of FIG. Specifically, the lowest object access level for the document ID in the object information is the document access level for the document.

  Next, details of the document generation processing in step S306 will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing details of the document generation processing according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  In step S901, one block ID corresponding to the document ID of the document data designated in step S305 is acquired from the document block information.

  In step S902, it is determined whether or not acquisition of all block IDs in the document block information corresponding to the document ID of the designated document data has been completed. When the acquisition is completed (YES in step S902), the process proceeds to step S906. On the other hand, if the acquisition has not ended (NO in step S902), the process proceeds to step S903.

  In step S903, the block contents of the block corresponding to the access level specified in step S305 are acquired from the object information for the target document ID and block ID.

  If there is an object access level having the same value as the access level specified in step S305, the block contents of the block corresponding to the object access level are extracted. Otherwise, an object access level that is smaller than the specified access level and has the maximum value is searched, and the block contents of the block corresponding to the object access level are acquired.

  In step S904, it is determined whether the block content has been acquired. If not acquired (NO in step S904), the process returns to step S901 to acquire the next block ID. On the other hand, if acquired (YES in step S904), the flow advances to step S905.

  In step S905, the document ID of the document specified in step S305, the block ID acquired in step S901, and the block content acquired in step S903 are temporarily stored in the memory in association with each other. Thereafter, the process returns to step S901.

  If acquisition of all block IDs is completed in step S902, document data is generated in step S906 based on the block temporarily stored in step S905 and its block contents. The generated document data is HTML document data, and the content of the block is laid out based on the position size information of the block stored in the block information using CSS (Cascading Style sheets).

  Next, as a preparation for searching for document data managed by the document management server 106 using the MFP 100, a registration process for registering the document data in the database 118 in the MFP 100 under the control of the management PC 101 is performed. The outline will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing registration processing according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  First, in step S1001, one document ID is acquired based on the document information acquired from the document management server 106.

  In step S1002, it is determined whether or not all document IDs have been acquired. If the acquisition is completed (YES in step S1002), the process proceeds to step S1009. On the other hand, if the acquisition has not ended (NO in step S1002), the process proceeds to step S1003.

  In step S1003, the maximum access level is set in order. In step S1004, it is determined whether or not all access levels have been set. When the setting is completed (YES in step S1004), the process returns to step S1001. On the other hand, if the setting has not been completed (NO in step S1004), the process proceeds to step S1005.

  In step S1005, similarly to step S306, based on the document block information and object information obtained from the document management server 106, the document ID obtained in step S1001 and the document data for the access level set in step S1003 are obtained. Generate.

  In step S1006, it is determined whether the same document data as the document data generated in step S1005 has been generated. If it has been generated (YES in step S1006), the flow advances to step S1008. On the other hand, if it has not been generated (NO in step S1006), the process advances to step S1007.

  In step S1006, whether or not the same document data as the generated document data has been generated is determined with reference to the generated document information shown in FIG. 11 and the generated document block information shown in FIG.

  Here, the generated document information and the generated document block information will be described with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of generated document information according to the embodiment of this invention. FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of generated document block information according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  The generated document information and the generated document block information are information for storing document information generated for different access levels with respect to the document ID. The generated document information is information for storing variations of document data generated according to the access level for all document data managed by the document management server 106. As shown in FIG. Are managed in association with the generated document ID that is the ID of the document data generated for each access level.

  Also, even when the access levels are different, the same generated document ID is assigned when the generated document data is the same.

  On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 12, the generated document block information is managed by associating a generated document ID with a block included in the document data and an object ID that is the content of the block.

  Returning to the description of FIG.

  If the same document data as the generated document data has not been generated in step S1006, a generated document ID for the generated document data is newly issued in step S1007 and generated in step S1005, as shown in FIG. Document data block information (attribute, position, size) and object ID indicating the contents of the block are stored in the generated document block information on the database 118 in association with the generated document ID.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 11, the generated document ID, the document ID, and the access level are associated with each other and stored in the generated document information on the database 118. In the generated document information, a thumbnail image is generated by reducing the generated document data by creating a raster image, and address information of the thumbnail image is stored. Thereafter, the process returns to step S1001.

  On the other hand, if the same document data as the generated document data has been generated in step S1006, the access level set in step S1003 for the generated document ID of the same generated document data in the generated document information in step S1008. Add Thereafter, the process returns to step S1001.

  If acquisition of all document IDs is completed in step S1002 (YES in step S1002), a feature amount corresponding to the type of each object is obtained based on the object information obtained from the document management server 106 in step S1009. Extract information.

  For example, for an image block, an image feature amount related to color is extracted. For a character block, a character string in the character block is extracted as a character feature amount. Of the feature quantities extracted in accordance with the type of each object, the image feature quantity is registered on the database 118 as the color feature quantity information shown in FIG. 13, and the character feature quantity is registered on the database 118 as the character feature quantity information shown in FIG. . Thereafter, the registration process is terminated.

  Next, a search process for searching corresponding original document data from a paper document and executing various processes such as printing will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing search processing according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  In step S1501, the management PC 101 logs in the original document search system. As in step S301, the user name and password are input from the keyboard. The input user name and password are transmitted to the document management server 106, and as in step S301, the validity of the user name and password is determined. When the validity is confirmed, a session is started.

  In step S1502, the document management server 106 acquires the user access level in the same manner as in step S303.

  When the access level is acquired, the result of determination of the validity of the user name and password is returned from the document management server 106. If the result is valid, the management PC 101 displays the image input unit 110 including the ADF of the MFP 100 in step S1503. In operation, the paper document is scanned in a raster shape, and a raster image is read into the storage unit 111.

  In step S1504, block selection (BS) processing is performed on the raster image for one page stored in the storage unit 111. This process is executed under the control of the management PC 101.

  Specifically, the CPU of the management PC 101 first divides the raster image to be processed stored in the storage unit 111 into a character / line drawing portion and a halftone image portion, and the character / line drawing portion is further divided into paragraphs. The data is divided for each block grouped as a block, or for each table or figure composed of lines.

  On the other hand, the halftone image part is divided into blocks such as an image part of a block separated into a rectangle and a background part.

  Here, an example of the correspondence between the raster image before the block selection process and the result of the block selection is shown in FIG.

  Next, in step S1505, feature amount extraction is performed for each block according to the type of each block.

  In this feature amount extraction, the position and size of an image block are associated with each other, and further, the image feature amount relating to color is associated with image feature amount information (paper document image feature amount information). An example of the paper document image feature amount information is shown in FIG. In addition, the character block is made to correspond to the position and size of the character block, and the character code extracted by OCR is used as the character feature amount (paper document character feature amount information). Here, an example of the paper document character feature information is shown in FIG.

  The paper document character feature amount information and the paper document image feature amount information are temporarily stored in the storage unit 111.

  Next, in step S1506, a comparison process is performed. Based on the generated document block information stored in the database 118, the generated document IDs are sequentially processed one by one, and the block information (position, size, attribute) corresponding to the generated document ID and the block (object ID) are processed. The color feature amount information and the text feature amount information in the corresponding database 118 are calculated from the paper document image feature amount information and the paper document character feature amount information stored in the storage unit 111, and the similarity is calculated from a predetermined threshold value. Document data having a higher value is registered in the document candidate list.

  The document candidate list is a list in which the generated document ID is associated with the similarity, and an example thereof is shown in FIG. In the document candidate list, the generated document IDs are sorted in descending order according to the similarity value.

  In step S1507, candidate display / selection is performed. A thumbnail of the document data corresponding to the generated document ID stored in the document candidate list is displayed, and the operator specifies the generated document ID of the original document data from a plurality of candidates. A thumbnail image corresponding to the generated document ID can be obtained from the generated document information stored in the database 118.

  A list of thumbnail images corresponding to the generated document ID is displayed on the display of the management PC 101. When the operator selects one of the thumbnail images from the list, the generated document ID corresponding to the selected thumbnail image is selected. It will be.

  In step S1508, a document ID to be acquired is set for the generated document ID selected in step S1507, and an access level necessary for acquisition is set.

  In step S1509, document data corresponding to the set access level is acquired from the document management server 106 for the document ID set in step S1508. This is obtained by transmitting the document ID and the access level to the document generation program of the document management server 106 in the session logged in in step S1501, and generating the document data corresponding to the document ID and the access level. This process is the same as step S306.

  In step S1510, any one of printing, distribution, and editing is performed on the document data acquired in step S1509 based on an instruction from the operator.

  Details of each process will be described below.

  First, details of the block selection process in step S1504 will be described.

  In the block selection process, for example, the raster image shown in FIG. 16A is recognized as a block for each meaningful object as shown in FIG. 16B, and the attribute (character (TEXT)) of each block is recognized. / Picture (PICTURE) / Photo (PHOTO) / Line (LINE) / Table (TABLE), etc.), and is divided into blocks having different attributes.

  An embodiment of the block selection process will be described below.

  First, the input image is binarized into black and white, and contour tracking is performed to extract a block of pixels surrounded by a black pixel contour. For a black pixel block with a large area, the white pixel block is extracted by tracing the outline of the white pixel inside, and a black pixel is recursively extracted from the white pixel block with a certain area or more. Extract the lump.

  The blocks of black pixels obtained in this way are classified by size and shape, and are classified into blocks having different attributes. For example, a block in a range where the aspect ratio is close to 1 and the size is constant is a pixel block corresponding to a character, a portion where adjacent characters can be grouped in an aligned manner is a character block, and a flat pixel block is a line block. The area occupied by the black pixel block that is larger than the size and contains the rectangular white pixel block well aligned is a table block, the area where the irregular pixel block is scattered is a photo block, and the pixel block of any other shape is drawn. Let it be a block.

  Next, details of the feature amount extraction processing in step S1505 will be described.

  It should be noted that the feature amount extraction will be described separately because the processing method differs between images and characters.

  Here, in the example of FIG. 16B, the image block is a photographic block and a graphic block, but the image block may be at least one of a photographic block and a graphic block depending on the application and purpose. is there.

  First, feature amount extraction processing for an image block will be described.

  If there are a plurality of image blocks in one document, the following processing is repeated for the total number of image blocks.

  In this embodiment, as an example, color feature amount information extraction processing for extracting a color feature amount related to the color of an image is performed.

  Details of the color feature amount information extraction processing will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 20 is a flowchart showing details of color feature amount information extraction processing according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  In this process, information associating the color having the most frequent color in the color histogram of each mesh block obtained by dividing the processing target image into a plurality of mesh blocks and the position information of each mesh block is extracted as color feature information. .

  First, in step S2020, the image is divided into a plurality of mesh blocks. In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 21, the image is divided into 9 mesh blocks in the vertical and horizontal directions. In particular, in the present embodiment, an example in which it is divided into 9 × 9 = 81 mesh blocks is shown for convenience of description, but actually, it is preferable that the number is about 15 × 15 = 225 mesh blocks.

  In step S2030, the target mesh block to be processed is set as the upper left block. For example, as shown in FIG. 22, the target mesh block is set with reference to an order determination table in which the processing order is determined in advance. In the present embodiment, a scanning example is shown in which scanning is performed from the upper left end to the right, and when the line is finished, scanning is performed from the left end of the next line to the right.

  In step S2040, the presence / absence of an unprocessed target mesh block is determined. If there is no unprocessed target mesh block (NO in step S2040), the process ends. On the other hand, if there is an unprocessed target mesh block (YES in step S2040), the process proceeds to step S2050.

  In step S2050, the density values of all the pixels of the target mesh block are projected onto a color bin, which is a partial space created by dividing the color space of FIG. 23, and a color histogram for the color bin is generated.

  In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 23, the density values of all the pixels of the target mesh block are projected onto the color bin obtained by dividing the RGB color space into 3 × 3 × 3 = 27. Actually, it is preferable to project the density values of all the pixels of the target mesh block onto the color bin obtained by dividing the RGB color space into 6 × 6 × 6 = 216.

  In step S2060, the color bin ID of the most frequent color bin of the color histogram is determined as the representative color of the target mesh block, and stored in the storage unit 111 in association with the target mesh block and its position.

  In step S2070, the target mesh block to be processed next is set with reference to the order determination table of FIG. Then, it returns to step S2040 and repeats the process of step S2040-step S2070 until there is no unprocessed focused mesh block.

  Through the above processing, information in which the representative color for each mesh block of the processing target image (image block) and the position information of each mesh block are associated can be extracted as color feature amount information.

  Next, character feature information extraction processing for character blocks will be described.

  If there are a plurality of character blocks in one document, the following processing is repeated for the total number of character blocks.

  Character feature amount information for a character block is a character code obtained by subjecting the character block to OCR (character recognition) processing.

  In the OCR (character recognition) process, character recognition is performed on a character image cut out in character units from a character block using a pattern matching method, and a corresponding character code is acquired.

  This character recognition process compares an observed feature vector obtained by converting a feature obtained from a character image into a numerical sequence of several tens of dimensions with a dictionary feature vector obtained in advance for each character type. Is the recognition result.

  There are various known methods for extracting a feature vector. For example, there is a method characterized by dividing a character into meshes and using a mesh number-dimensional vector obtained by counting character lines in each mesh block as line elements according to directions.

  When character recognition is performed on the character block extracted in the block selection process (step S1504), first, horizontal writing / vertical writing is determined for the corresponding character block, and a character string is cut out in the corresponding direction. The character image is obtained by cutting out the character from the character string.

  The horizontal / vertical writing is determined by taking a horizontal / vertical projection of the pixel value in the corresponding character block. If the horizontal projection has a large variance, the horizontal writing is determined, and if the vertical projection has a large variance, the vertical writing is determined. If the block is a horizontally written character block, the character string and character are decomposed by cutting out the line using the horizontal projection and cutting out the character from the vertical projection of the cut line. . On the other hand, for vertically written character blocks, horizontal and vertical may be reversed.

  Next, details of the comparison processing in step S1506 will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 24 is a flowchart showing details of the comparison processing according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  First, in step S2410, document IDs are acquired in order from the top of generated document information for managing comparison target documents.

  In step S2420, it is determined whether all document IDs have been acquired. If the acquisition is complete (NO in step S2420), the process advances to step S2470. On the other hand, if acquisition has not ended (YES in step S2420), the flow advances to step S2430.

  In step S2430, layouts are compared. Here, the layout refers to the attribute, size, and position of the block in the block information.

  Here, in the layout information obtained by the block selection process extracted in step S1504, the size and position of the block whose attribute is an image are stored in the paper document image feature information, and the block whose attribute is a character. Are stored in the paper document text feature amount information.

  Specifically, the attribute, size, and position of each block are compared with the attribute, size, and position of each block in the generated document block information corresponding to the document ID acquired in step S2410, and the layout is the same. Determine whether.

  If the comparison source image (paper document) and the comparison destination image (original document) have the same layout (YES in step S2430), the process advances to step S2440. On the other hand, if the layouts of the comparison source image and the comparison destination image are not the same (NO in step S2430), the process returns to step S2410.

  Next, in step S2440, page comparison processing for comparing pages of the comparison source image (paper document) and the comparison destination image (original document) is executed. This comparison is performed in a composite manner using feature amounts corresponding to characters and images according to the block attributes, and the similarity of pages is calculated. Details of this processing will be described later.

  Next, in step S2450, it is determined whether the calculated similarity is greater than or equal to a threshold value. If it is less than the threshold value (NO in step S2450), the process returns to step S2410. On the other hand, if it is equal to or greater than the threshold value (YES in step S2450), the process proceeds to step S2460.

  Next, in step S2460, the similarity calculated in step S2440 is cumulatively added to the similarity total of the document candidate list corresponding to the currently processed document ID. Thereafter, the process returns to step S2410, and the next document ID to be the comparison target document is acquired from the generated document information.

  On the other hand, if all the document IDs have been acquired in step S2420, the process proceeds to step S2470, where the document IDs registered in the document candidate list are sorted in descending order by the corresponding similarity total value, and the comparison process ends. To do.

  Next, details of the feature amount comparison processing in step S2440 will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 25 is a flowchart showing details of the feature amount comparison processing according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  First, in step S2510, the generated document block information is referenced to determine whether there is an uncompared block in the document data corresponding to the document ID to be processed. If there is no uncompared block (NO in step S2510), the process advances to step S2570. On the other hand, if there are uncompared blocks (YES in step S2510), the flow advances to step S2520.

  Next, in step S2520, the attribute of the comparison target block is determined. If the attribute is an image block, the process proceeds to step S2540. On the other hand, if the attribute is a character block, the process proceeds to step S2560.

  If the attribute is an image block, in step S2540, color feature amount information comparison processing, which is a similarity comparison between the comparison source block and the comparison target block, is performed with the feature amount information about color. Details of this processing will be described later. The degree of similarity thus obtained is temporarily stored in the storage unit 111 in correspondence with the document ID and block ID of the comparison destination.

  On the other hand, if the attribute is a character block, in step S2560, a character feature amount information comparison process, which is a similarity comparison between the comparison source block and the comparison target block in the character feature amount information, is performed. Details of this processing will be described later. Further, the similarity obtained thereby is temporarily stored in the storage unit 111 in correspondence with the document ID and block ID of the comparison destination.

  Next, in step S2510, when the comparison with all the blocks is completed (NO in step S2510), the process proceeds to step S2570, and the comparison destination document (stored in the storage unit 111 by the processing of step S2540 and step S2560). An integration process is performed in which the similarities of all blocks included in the page of the original document are integrated, and the similarity between the paper document that is the search condition and the page in the original document is calculated.

  Next, details of the color feature amount information comparison processing in step S2540 will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 26 is a flowchart showing details of color feature amount information comparison processing according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  First, in step S2610, the color feature amounts of the comparison source image and the comparison destination image are read from the color feature amount information.

  In step S2620, the target mesh block in the image to be processed is set at the head. In step S2630, the similarity distance indicating the similarity between the color feature value of the comparison source image and the color feature value to be compared is reset to zero.

  In step S2640, the presence / absence of an uncompared target mesh block is determined. If there is no uncompared target mesh block (NO in step S2640), the process advances to step S2680. On the other hand, if there is an uncompared target mesh block (YES in step S2640), the process advances to step S2650.

  In step S2650, the color bin ID of each target mesh block is acquired from each color feature amount of the comparison source image and the comparison destination image.

  In step S2660, the local similarity distance of the target mesh block corresponding to the acquired color bin ID is acquired with reference to the color bin penalty matrix of FIG. 27, and this is used as the similar distance acquired in the immediately preceding process. Cumulative addition. The similarity distance is stored in the storage unit 111.

  Here, the color bin penalty matrix will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 27 is a diagram showing the configuration of the color bin penalty matrix according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  The color bin penalty matrix is a matrix that manages the local similarity distance between the color bin IDs. According to FIG. 27, the color bin penalty matrix has a similarity distance of 0 for the same color bin ID, and the similarity distance increases as the difference between the color bin IDs increases, that is, as the similarity decreases. It is configured. In addition, all the diagonal positions of the same color bin ID have a similarity distance of 0 and have symmetry with respect to the boundary.

  Thus, in this embodiment, the similarity distance between the color bin IDs can be acquired only by referring to the color bin penalty matrix, so that the processing can be speeded up.

  In step S2670, the target mesh block to be processed next is set with reference to the order determination table of FIG. Thereafter, the process returns to step S2640.

  In step S2640, if there is no uncompared target mesh block (NO in step S2640), the process proceeds to step S2680, and the similarity distance stored in the storage unit 111 is converted into the similarity and paired with the block ID. Output.

  The conversion to similarity is, for example, 100% similarity when the similarity distance is the minimum value, 0% similarity when the similarity distance is the maximum value, and the similarity to the similarity distance within the range is the minimum What is necessary is just to calculate based on the difference with respect to a value or a maximum value.

  Next, details of the character feature amount information comparison processing in step S2560 will be described.

  In this process, the character codes in the character blocks in the comparison source image and the comparison target image are compared with each other, and the similarity is calculated from the matching degree.

  It should be noted that when comparing a paper document as a search condition with an original document, the similarity is ideally 100%. However, in actuality, OCR processing is performed on a character block in a paper document as a search condition. In some cases, misrecognition may occur. Therefore, even when compared with the original document, the degree of similarity may not be 100%, but is a value close to 100%.

  Next, details of the integration processing in step S2570 will be described.

  In this integration processing, the similarity of the calculated block-by-block similarity is such that the similarity of the block that accounts for a large proportion in the original document that is the comparison target image is more largely reflected as the similarity of the entire original document. Perform integration.

  For example, it is assumed that the similarity ratio for each block is calculated as n1 to n6 for the blocks B1 to B6 in the original document. At this time, the overall similarity N of the entire original document is expressed by the following equation.

N = w1 * n1 + w2 * n2 + w3 * n3 +... + W6 * n6 (1)
Here, w1 to W6 are weighting factors for evaluating the similarity of each block. The weighting factors w1 to w6 are calculated based on the occupation ratio of the block in the original document. For example, if the sizes of the blocks 1 to 6 are S1 to S6, the occupation ratio w1 of the block 1 is
w1 = S1 / (S1 + S2 +... + S6) (2)
Can be calculated as

  By the weighting process using such an occupancy rate, the similarity of blocks that occupy a large area in the original document can be reflected in the similarity of the entire original document.

  Next, details of the access level setting process in step S1508 will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 28 is a flowchart showing details of access level setting processing according to the embodiment of this invention.

  In step S2801, the document access level for the generated document ID selected in step S1507 is acquired and compared with the user access level acquired in step S1502.

  As the document access level, an access level corresponding to the generated document ID can be acquired from the generated document information, and there is a possibility that a plurality of access levels exist for one generated document ID. If the same value as the user access level is included in the access level obtained from the generated document information, the access level setting process is terminated without changing the document access level.

  On the other hand, if the user access level is higher than the maximum value of the document access level obtained from the generated document information, the process proceeds to step S2802.

  In step S2802, the user is allowed to specify the access level of the document data to be acquired. This is a case where the access level of the paper document read in step S1503 is lower than the access level of the user, and the user wants document data having the same access level as the scanned paper document as the desired document data. This is because there are both cases where document data corresponding to the access level of the user is desired, and both of them are supported.

  In this case, it is also possible to select document data with an access level lower than that of the read paper document, or to select data with an access level higher than that of the read paper document and lower than that of the user. However, it is assumed that document data having a higher access level than the user cannot be selected.

  Therefore, in step S2802, the selectable access level is presented to the user, and the user selects the access level from among them, thereby changing the document access level acquired in step S2801 as necessary. Thereafter, the process ends.

  If the user access level is smaller than the minimum value of the document access level obtained from the generated document information in step S2801, the process proceeds to step S2803.

  In step S2803, a corresponding document ID is acquired from the generated document ID selected in step S1507, and a user who cannot access the document data to a manager terminal of the manager who manages the document data creates a paper document. Outputs warning information indicating that it is going to be used. In this case, the document ID corresponding to the generated document ID selected from the generated document information can be acquired, and the administrator corresponding to the document ID can be acquired from the corresponding document information.

  For notification to the administrator, for example, an e-mail address is associated with the administrator, and necessary information such as the user name, access level, document name, and document ID scanned in step S1501 is notified by e-mail. To do. Alternatively, notification may be made using a dedicated notification screen.

  In step S2804, the value of the document access level acquired in step S2801 is changed to the user access level. Thereafter, the process ends.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, even when another user searches the original electronic document data from the printed material for the document data dynamically generated according to the user, the searched document Since document data corresponding to the searcher is generated when data is acquired, document data including information corresponding to the searcher can be acquired.

  In addition, for document data that is dynamically generated according to the user, when another user searches the original electronic document data from the printed matter, it is easy to check the search results and also according to the searcher. The original electronic document data including the information can be acquired.

  In addition, when searching for original electronic document data from a paper document, it is possible to prevent the inaccessible information from spreading by detecting that a search has been performed from a paper document including inaccessible information. it can. In addition, after the detection, the information management can be promoted by notifying the manager of the information.

<Other embodiments>
In the above embodiment, in the registration process of FIG. 10, the feature amount is registered for each object in order to reduce the memory used by sharing the feature amount. However, the actual feature amount is compared, and the same feature amount is compared. May be shared. In this case, for example, the generated document block information, the color feature amount information, and the character feature amount information are used for identifying the feature amount instead of the object ID as shown in FIGS. 31, 32, and 33. The feature amount ID is stored.

  Then, the registration process of FIG. 10 executes the registration process of FIG.

  Here, a registration process in another embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 30 is a flowchart showing registration processing according to another embodiment of the present invention.

  In FIG. 30, the same steps as those in FIG. 10 are denoted by the same step numbers, and the details thereof are omitted.

  In FIG. 10, the object ID is stored in the generated document block information in step S1007. However, in step S3007 in FIG. 30, the storage is not performed. Also, instead of performing feature amount registration in step S1009 in FIG. 10, feature amount registration is executed in step S3009.

  First, for each block of the document data generated in step S1005, the feature amount extraction processing is switched according to the attribute, the color feature amount is extracted for the image block, and the character feature amount for the character block. To extract.

  Then, for each extracted feature quantity, the image block searches for the same feature quantity from the color feature quantity information shown in FIG. 32. If the same feature quantity exists, the corresponding feature quantity ID is shown in FIG. Stored in the feature amount ID corresponding to the target block of the generated document block information.

  On the other hand, if the same feature amount does not exist, a new feature amount ID is issued, and the feature amount ID and the color feature amount are added in correspondence with the color feature amount information.

  Similarly, the character block is searched for the same feature amount from the character feature amount information shown in FIG. 33, and if the same feature amount exists, the corresponding feature amount ID is the target of the generated document block information shown in FIG. Stored in the feature amount ID corresponding to the block.

  On the other hand, if the same feature quantity does not exist, a new feature quantity ID is issued, and the feature quantity ID and the text feature quantity are associated with each other and added to the character feature quantity information.

  In this way, the same feature amount is shared.

  In the above embodiment, in the generated document block information, the block information (attribute, position, size) is directly described for each block with respect to the generated document ID. As is clear from FIG. Some pieces of generated document block information have the same attribute, position, and size.

  Therefore, it is possible to avoid duplication of block information by assigning IDs to these block information, storing this ID in the generated document block information, and managing the block information in a separate table. Can do.

  Similarly, if the layout information (number of blocks in the page, the attribute, position, and size of each block) excluding the image feature amount and character feature amount is also managed in a separate table, the layout information Duplication can also be avoided.

  As described above, according to another embodiment, in addition to the effects described in the above embodiment, when original electronic document data is searched from a paper document, the characteristics of document data registered for search are described. Since the feature amounts having the same amount are stored together as one, the storage capacity necessary for storing the feature amounts can be reduced.

  In the above embodiment, the color feature extraction information processing is described as an example in which the most frequent color of the processing target image is extracted as the color feature information. However, the present invention is not limited to this. It may be extracted as information.

  In addition, although the color feature amount is used as the image feature amount, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the feature amount is represented by luminance feature amounts such as mode luminance and average luminance, co-occurrence matrix, contrast, entropy, Gabor conversion, and the like. A plurality of types of image feature amounts such as texture feature amounts, shape features such as edges and Fourier descriptors, or any combination of image feature amounts may be used.

  In addition, although a character code is used as the character feature amount, for example, matching with a word dictionary may be performed in advance to extract a word part of speech, and a word that is a noun may be used as the character feature amount.

  In the above embodiment, when registering the document data managed by the document management server 106 in the database 118 in the MFP 100, the block information and the character code image are extracted directly from the electronic file. After the conversion to the raster image, the block information, the character feature amount, and the image feature amount may be acquired for the raster image in the same manner as in steps S1504 to S1505.

  In the above embodiment, the document data generated in step S306 is HTML document data. However, any format that can lay out the position of an object in a document to be generated, such as a PDF (Portable Document Format), is used. Any thing may be used.

  In the above embodiment, in order to control access to document data, the concept of access level is used, and the number of accessible objects increases or decreases depending on the level of the access level. Thus, access control may be performed individually for each individual and for each group to which the user belongs.

  In the above embodiment, the MFP 100 in which the image reading unit 110 (scanner) and the printing unit 112 (printer) are integrally configured has been described as an example. However, the image reading unit 110 and the printing unit 112 are respectively separate devices. It may be configured to be connected to the LAN 103 or the client PC 102 or the like. In this case, the other components of the MFP 100 are included in the management PC 101, and the connection between the image reading unit 110 (scanner) and the printing unit 112 (printer) is via the LAN 103 via the network I / F 114. Will be connected.

  Although the embodiments have been described in detail above, the present invention can take an embodiment as, for example, a system, an apparatus, a method, a program, or a storage medium, and specifically includes a plurality of devices. The present invention may be applied to a system that is configured, or may be applied to an apparatus that includes a single device.

  In the present invention, a software program (in the embodiment, a program corresponding to the flowchart shown in the figure) that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiment is directly or remotely supplied to the system or apparatus, and the computer of the system or apparatus Is also achieved by reading and executing the supplied program code.

  Accordingly, since the functions of the present invention are implemented by computer, the program code installed in the computer also implements the present invention. In other words, the present invention includes a computer program itself for realizing the functional processing of the present invention.

  In that case, as long as it has the function of a program, it may be in the form of object code, a program executed by an interpreter, script data supplied to the OS, or the like.

  As a recording medium for supplying the program, for example, floppy (registered trademark) disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, MO, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, magnetic tape, nonvolatile memory card ROM, DVD (DVD-ROM, DVD-R) and the like.

  As another program supply method, a client computer browser is used to connect to an Internet homepage, and the computer program of the present invention itself or a compressed file including an automatic installation function is downloaded from the homepage to a recording medium such as a hard disk. Can also be supplied. It can also be realized by dividing the program code constituting the program of the present invention into a plurality of files and downloading each file from a different homepage. That is, a WWW server that allows a plurality of users to download a program file for realizing the functional processing of the present invention on a computer is also included in the present invention.

  In addition, the program of the present invention is encrypted, stored in a storage medium such as a CD-ROM, distributed to users, and key information for decryption is downloaded from a homepage via the Internet to users who have cleared predetermined conditions. It is also possible to execute the encrypted program by using the key information and install the program on a computer.

  In addition to the functions of the above-described embodiments being realized by the computer executing the read program, the OS running on the computer based on an instruction of the program is a part of the actual processing. Alternatively, the functions of the above-described embodiment can be realized by performing all of them and performing the processing.

  Furthermore, after the program read from the recording medium is written in a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, the function expansion board or The CPU or the like provided in the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing.

It is a block diagram which shows the structural example of the image processing system of embodiment of this invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a detailed configuration of the MFP according to the embodiment of the present invention. 6 is a flowchart illustrating print processing according to the embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the user information of embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the document information of embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the document block information of embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the object information of embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of an output of the document data of embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the detail of the document production | generation process of embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the registration process of embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the production | generation document information of embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the production | generation document block information of embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the color feature-value information of embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the character feature-value information of embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the search process of embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining the concept of the block selection process of embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the paper document image feature-value information of embodiment of this invention. It is an example of the paper document character feature-value information of the embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the document candidate list | wrist of embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the detail of the color feature-value information extraction process of embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the image mesh block division | segmentation of embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the order determination table of Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of a structure of the color bin on the color space of Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the detail of the comparison process of embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the detail of the feature-value comparison process of embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the detail of the color feature-value information comparison process of embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of a structure of the color bin penalty matrix of embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the detail of the access level setting process of embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the document data list screen of embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the registration process of other embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the production | generation document block information of other embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the color feature-value information of other embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the character feature-value information of other embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

100 MFP
101 Management PC
102 Client PC
103 Network 104 LAN
105 Database 106 Document Management Server 110 Image Input Unit 111 Storage Unit 112 Printing Unit 113 Input Unit 114, 117 Network I / F
115 Data processing unit 116 Display unit

Claims (12)

An image processing apparatus for searching for desired image data,
Storage means for storing and managing image data composed of a plurality of types of components by setting an access level for each component;
An input means for inputting user information;
Obtaining means for obtaining an access level of the user information input by the input means;
Reading means for reading a document;
Search means for searching the storage means for second image data corresponding to the first image data obtained by the reading means;
A determination unit that determines whether or not each component of the second image data searched by the search unit can be output based on an access level of the user information acquired by the acquisition unit;
An image processing apparatus comprising: output means for outputting second image data including components permitted to be output by the determination means. The search means includes a first image data obtained by the reading means and a comparison means for comparing the image data stored in the storage means,
The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein second image data corresponding to the first image data is searched based on a comparison result of the comparison unit. The comparison means includes an extraction means for extracting a feature amount of the first image data,
The image processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the feature amount extracted by the extraction unit is compared with a feature amount of image data stored in the storage unit. The image processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the extraction unit extracts one or both of an image feature amount and a character feature amount of the first data. Display means for displaying a list of candidate image data to be candidates for the second image data searched by the search means;
Whether the determination unit outputs each component of the candidate image data to be the two image data selected from the list of candidate image data displayed by the display unit based on the access level acquired by the acquisition unit The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: The determination means includes a setting means for setting an access level for the second image data searched by the search means;
An access level comparing means for comparing the access level set by the setting means with the access level of the user information acquired by the acquiring means;
The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: warning information output means for outputting warning information based on a comparison result of the access level comparison means. When the access level of the user information acquired by the acquisition unit is higher than the access level set by the setting unit, the determination unit is searched by the search unit based on the access level set by the setting unit. The image processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein whether or not each component of the second image data is output is determined. When the access level of the user information acquired by the acquisition unit is the same as or lower than the access level set by the setting unit, the determination unit is based on the access level of the user information acquired by the acquisition unit, The image processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein whether or not each component of the second image data searched by the search unit can be output is determined. The storage unit stores and manages image data including a plurality of types of components by setting an access level for each component and storing and managing a feature amount for each component. The image processing apparatus according to 1. The storage means stores and manages image data composed of a plurality of types of components by setting an access level for each component, and stores and manages feature amounts for each component. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein storage management is performed using an identifier indicating the feature amount. A method for controlling an image processing apparatus that searches for desired image data from a storage unit that stores and manages image data including a plurality of types of components by setting an access level for each component,
An input process for inputting user information;
An acquisition step of acquiring an access level of the user information input in the input step;
A reading process for reading a document;
A search step of searching the storage unit for second image data corresponding to the first image data obtained by the reading step;
A determination step of determining whether or not each component of the second image data searched in the search step can be output based on the access level of the user information acquired in the acquisition step;
An output step of outputting second image data including components permitted to be output in the determination step. A program that realizes control of an image processing apparatus that searches for desired image data from a storage unit that stores and manages image data including a plurality of types of components by setting an access level for each component,
A program code of an input process for inputting user information;
A program code of an acquisition step for acquiring an access level of the user information input in the input step;
A program code for a reading process for reading a document;
A program code of a search step for searching the storage unit for second image data corresponding to the first image data obtained by the reading step;
Based on the access level of the user information acquired in the acquisition step, the program code of the determination step for determining whether to output each component of the second image data searched in the search step,
And a program code of an output process for outputting second image data including the components permitted to be output in the determination process.

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