JP2008042840A - Image reading method and image reading apparatus control method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To generate read data in which additional information is synthesized by an optimum method according to a read original.
A setting of an additional information synthesis mode is stored in a scanner, and a scanner driver in a host device acquires this setting from the scanner and synthesizes additional information such as a stamp according to the setting. At this time, the additional information is synthesized after performing correction processing such as rotation / tilt correction on the scanned image acquired from the scanner. Further, when the reading target area of the main scan is changed on the preview screen, the additional information is synthesized according to the designated range. Thus, additional information such as a stamp can always be combined with data read by a scanner whose additional information combining mode is ON. In addition, after processing the data acquired from the scanner with a scanner driver and combining stamps, etc., after applying various processes such as cropping, tilt correction, and rotation, additional information in an appropriate form is added to the image of those processing results Can be synthesized.
[Selection] Figure 2

Description

  The present invention relates to an image reading method, an image reading apparatus control method, and an apparatus, and more particularly, to an image reading method for synthesizing visible or invisible information with image information read by the image reading apparatus. The present invention relates to a control method and apparatus.

  Conventionally, when a confidential document is distributed as a printed matter, it has been managed by adding a specific mark such as “confidential” or “confidential”. In this case, a printed matter with the marks added is created by adding these marks to the printed document with a stamp, or by outputting the document with a specific mark added by the printer driver during printing. Is common.

In recent years, the performance of image readers using CCDs (hereinafter referred to as scanners) has improved, so the distributed printed matter is read with a scanner, transferred to an information processing device such as a personal computer, and managed as electronic data. The method has become common. With the widespread use of these image reading devices, it has become easier to obtain electronic data on printed materials. When digitizing confidential documents that do not have a mark such as “confidential”, the “confidential mark” etc. It is necessary to generate electronic data in the form of adding. As a technique for that purpose, a technique is known in which a confidential mark or the like is combined by a scanner at the time of image reading in accordance with a user instruction (see, for example, Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2).
JP 2001-339596 A JP 09-168082 A

  However, in the technique of combining marks in accordance with an instruction from a user who executes image reading, electronic data without embedding a mark can be acquired by executing reading without instructing mark combination. Therefore, the purpose of “permitting digitization only in the form of combining information such as a confidential mark or a mark indicating a duplicate” cannot be achieved.

  Further, in the technique of combining marks on the scanner side and sending the data to the host device as in Patent Documents 1 and 2, in a small-scale device that does not have a lot of memory or a high-speed CPU, It is not possible to perform an optimum combining process according to the reading setting designated by the user. For example, processing that needs to be performed after acquiring the entire scan data, such as combining processing to data that requires image clipping (processing) with a driver such as multi-crop, changing the embedded image or position according to the original image, etc. This is not possible with devices that cannot buffer data for one page. Also, in the method of compositing marks on the scanner side, when the reading range is changed on the preview screen, unless the pre-scan image is acquired again from the scanner, the state where the stamp is embedded in the changed reading range is displayed as a preview. There is also the problem of not being able to do it.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an image reading method capable of adding additional information such as a mark indicating a confidential document on the scanner driver side to image information acquired from a scanner. The purpose is to provide. It is another object of the present invention to provide an image reading method capable of embedding additional information in an appropriate form in an image obtained by performing various processes such as cropping, tilt correction, and rotation.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention has the following configuration.

(1) An image reading apparatus having a storage unit for storing a setting state of an additional information combining function for setting whether or not additional information is combined with a read image, and image data output from the image reading apparatus are input. A control method in the information processing apparatus in an image reading system having the information processing apparatus,
Obtaining image data on a document table from the image reading device;
Obtaining a setting state of the additional information combining function from the image reading device;
A method for controlling an information processing apparatus, comprising: an additional information synthesis step of synthesizing visible or invisible additional information with the image data based on a setting state of the additional information synthesis function.

  (2) The control method of the information processing apparatus according to (1), wherein the additional information combining step determines a method of combining additional information based on a reading target area designated by an operator.

(3) An image reading apparatus having storage means for storing a setting state of an additional information combining function for setting whether or not additional information is combined with the read image, and image data output from the image reading apparatus are input. A control method in the information processing apparatus in an image reading system having the information processing apparatus,
Obtaining image data on a document table from the image reading device;
An image correction step for correcting the image data;
Obtaining a setting state of the additional information combining function from the image reading device;
A method for controlling an information processing apparatus, comprising: an additional information combining step of combining visible or invisible additional information with the corrected image data based on a setting value of the additional information combining function.

  (4) In (3), the additional information combining step includes processing the additional information based on the image information of the image data corrected in the image correction step, and then combining the additional information with the image data. Control method of the device.

(5) An information processing apparatus capable of communicating with an image reading apparatus including a storage unit that stores a setting state of an additional information combining function for setting whether or not additional information is combined with a read image,
Reading data acquisition means for acquiring image data on a document table from the image reading device;
Setting acquisition means for acquiring a setting state of the additional information combining function from the image reading device;
An information processing apparatus comprising: additional information combining means for combining visible or invisible additional information with the image data based on a setting state of the additional information combining function.

  (6) In the information processing apparatus according to (5), the additional information combining unit determines a method of combining additional information based on a reading target area designated by an operator.

(7) An information processing apparatus capable of communicating with an image reading apparatus including a storage unit that stores a setting state of an additional information combining function for setting whether or not additional information is combined with a read image.
Reading data acquisition means for acquiring image data on a document table from the image reading device;
Image correction means for correcting the image data;
A setting acquisition means step for acquiring a setting state of the additional information combining function from the image reading device;
An information processing apparatus comprising: additional information combining means for combining visible or invisible additional information with the corrected image data based on a setting value of the additional information combining function.

  (8) In (7), the additional information combining unit processes the additional information based on the image information of the image data corrected by the image correcting unit, and then combines the additional information with the image data. apparatus.

  With the above configuration, the following effects can be obtained according to the present invention.

  (1) The additional information composition mode setting is stored in the scanner body, and the scanner driver obtains this setting from the scanner and performs composition processing according to the setting. Therefore, the data read by the scanner with this setting turned on Can always be combined with additional information such as a stamp.

  (2) Since it is possible to combine stamps after processing the data acquired from the scanner with a scanner driver, it is appropriate for the image resulting from such processing after cropping, tilt correction, rotation, etc. Additional information can be embedded in various forms. In addition, it is possible to present to the user at the preview display stage what scan data is acquired as a result of combining the additional information when each processing is performed.

  (3) The state of the data after the additional information composition can be changed according to the reading target range specified on the preview screen and presented to the user in the preview.

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

(First embodiment)
<< Explanation of the entire system >>
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an image reading system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The image reading system according to the present embodiment includes a host device 101 and a scanner 102 that reads an image and sends it to the host device 101 as image data. The host device 101 includes a scanner driver 103 that is software for controlling the scanner 102. I have.

<Explanation of scanner>
The scanner 102 is, for example, a color scanner, scans a CCD line sensor (not shown), optically reads a document placed on a document table, and converts it into an electrical signal. The image signal is divided into a plurality of color components, for example, R, G, and B, each of which is multi-value data of 8 to 16 bits. A CPU 1021 is a CPU (central processing unit) that controls the following units. A ROM 1022 is a read-only memory and stores a program for controlling the scanner 102. A RAM 1023 is a write / read memory as needed, and temporarily stores programs necessary for the operation of the scanner 102, setting parameters transmitted from the host device 101, and the like. A reading unit 1024 reads an image from a document based on the control of the CPU 1021. The interface unit 1025 has functions such as receiving data from the host device 101 and transmitting image data read by the reading unit 1024 to the host device 101.

  The operation unit 1026 provides various buttons such as a scan button for executing an image reading operation from the scanner 102 and an operation button for setting an “additional information composition mode” to be described later. A display unit 1027 displays an operation state performed by the operation unit 1026, a scanner setting state, and the like. The setting storage unit 1028 is a storage device for storing settings performed by the operation unit 1026 and setting information transmitted from the host device 101.

<Description of the scanner driver>
The scanner driver 103 includes a UI control unit 1031, a setting storage unit 1032, an image processing unit 1033, and a reading control unit 1034. The UI control unit 1031 displays and controls a user interface screen (hereinafter referred to as a driver UI) for causing the scanner 102 to execute an image reading operation. The user designates various settings at the time of image reading, for example, reading resolution, reading range, reading mode, correction processing, etc., through the driver UI controlled by the UI control unit 1031. The UI control unit 1031 sets and stores these setting information. Stored in the unit 1032.

  When reading execution is instructed via the driver UI, the reading control unit 1034 transmits a command for executing reading according to the setting stored in the setting storage unit 1032 to the scanner 102, and the scanned image is received from the scanner 102. get.

  The image processing unit 1033 performs processing such as color correction, tilt correction, and rotation on the scan image based on the settings stored in the setting storage unit 1032 and the acquired scan image. Further, additional information combining processing described later is performed according to the setting of “additional information combining mode” stored in the scanner 102.

<Additional information composition mode setting>
In the image reading system according to the present embodiment, the “additional information synthesis mode” is set by operating a button provided by the operation unit 1026 of the scanner 102. Here, since only the user having the administrator authority of the scanner 102 can change the setting of the additional information synthesis mode, when the setting change operation of the “additional information synthesis mode” is performed, the display unit 1027 is used. Displays a request to enter a password to authenticate the scanner administrator authority. The user inputs a password with the button of the operation unit 1026, and does not permit the setting change when authentication fails with the input password.

  The setting contents of the “additional information synthesis mode” are “additional information type” and “additional information form”. When these settings are made on the operation unit 1026, the setting is stored in the setting storage unit 1028. The additional information type determines the type of information to be added, such as “no additional information”, “secret mark”, “copy mark (representing a duplicate)”. The additional information form determines how to synthesize additional information, such as “add stamp”, “synthesize a mark on the background”, and “embed an invisible digital watermark”. FIG. 3 is a table showing a list of setting values and setting contents of the additional information synthesis mode. 3A is a list of additional information types, and FIG. 3B is a list of additional information types. For example, when “additional information type” is selected and “additional information type” is selected when “additional stamp” is selected as the additional information type and “additional stamp” is selected as the additional information type. Is stored in the setting storage unit 1028. Here, “additional information type = 0” means that there is no information to be synthesized, that is, “additional information synthesis mode” is OFF.

  In this embodiment, the additional information composition mode is set by the operation button provided by the operation unit 1026 of the scanner 102. However, the configuration may be such that the setting is performed from the host device 101 by the operation on the driver UI. . In this case, when the additional information composition mode is set on the driver UI, the UI control unit 1031 transmits the setting information to the scanner 102 via the interface unit 104 of the host device 101. When the scanner 102 receives these settings, it stores them in the setting storage unit 1028.

  Also in this case, since only the administrator can change the setting, the UI control unit 1031 requests the password input for authenticating the scanner administrator authority, and permits the setting change when the authentication fails. Shall not.

  Hereinafter, the flow of the image reading process in the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

<< Driver processing during scan execution >>
When the scanner driver 103 is activated by the user, the UI control unit 1031 displays the driver UI, and the setting content made on the driver UI is stored in the setting storage unit 1032. When image reading is instructed on the driver UI, the reading control unit 1034 performs pre-scanning at a low resolution in order to acquire a preview image (S201), and acquires a pre-scan image from the scanner 102 (S202). ). Further, the additional information type is acquired from the scanner 102 (S203). In S204, if the additional information type is 0, that is, “no additional information”, it is a setting not to synthesize additional information, so the process proceeds to S207, and the acquired pre-scan image is previewed. If the additional information type is other than “no additional information”, the additional information form is acquired from the scanner 102 because the additional information is set to be combined (S205). Then, the image processing unit 1033 combines the additional data corresponding to the additional information type and the additional information form with the pre-scan image acquired in S202 to create a preview image (S206), and performs a preview display. (S207). At this time, it is also possible to synthesize a mark according to the locale of the host apparatus 101 by acquiring the locale information of the host apparatus 101, determining the language of the mark to be used, and using the corresponding mark as an embedded image. .

  When the user changes the reading target area on the preview screen (Yes in S208), based on the changed reading target area, the additional information to be combined is enlarged / reduced, the position is changed, and the like. A preview image is newly generated by combining the additional information with the size and position (S209). Then, preview display is performed again using the generated image (S207).

  When the main scan is executed (Yes in S210), the reading control unit 1034 executes the main scan according to the reading setting stored in the setting storage unit 1032 and the reading range determined in the pre-scan and S208 (S211), A main scan image is acquired from the scanner 102 (S212). The image processing unit 1033 performs processing such as color correction, tilt correction, and rotation on the scanned image based on the settings stored in the setting storage unit 1032 and the acquired image data (S213). If the additional information type acquired in S203 is other than “0 (no additional information)” (No in S214), the corresponding additional data according to the additional information type and the additional information form is added to the image data generated in S213. Synthesize (S215). Then, the synthesized data is sent to the application or saved in a file and the process ends. On the other hand, if the additional information type is “0 (no additional information)” (Yes in S214), the setting is made so as not to synthesize additional information, so the image generated in S213 is sent to the application or saved in a file and finished. To do.

  4 to 8 are diagrams showing processing when the user-read target area is changed on the preview screen, with an example of “additional information type = 1” and “additional information form = 1”.

  When the prescan image 401 as shown in FIG. 4 is acquired from the scanner in S202, the additional information is combined with the prescan image in S206, and the preview image as shown in FIG. 5 is displayed in S207. At this time, an area 501 including all the documents detected by the prescan is presented as the reading target area. Further, since “additional information type = 1” and “additional information form = 1” are set, a composition process of “adding a confidential mark” as a stamp is performed.

  When the user changes the reading target area as indicated by 601 in FIG. 6, the image processing unit 1033 reduces the confidential mark based on the changed reading target area 601 and places the mark at an appropriate position in the reading area 601. Then, a preview image is generated (S209), and a preview display as shown in FIG. 6 is performed. An area 601 surrounded by a broken line in FIG. 6 represents the changed reading area, and an image in which the secret mark is combined with the size and position of the reading area 601 is displayed as a preview. When the main scan is executed in this state, an image in the reading target area 601 is acquired as a scanned image 701 as shown in FIG. The image processing unit 1033 adjusts the size and position of the scanned image 701 and combines the marks as in the preview image generation, and generates a combined image as shown in FIG. 8 (S215).

  9 to 12 are examples when the present invention is applied to multi-crop scanning.

  When so-called multi-crop scanning is specified, in which a plurality of originals are read simultaneously, two crop areas 1001 and 1002 are detected by multi-crop processing for the pre-scan image 901 (FIG. 9) acquired in S202, and previewed. Displayed (FIG. 10). At this time, for the detected crop areas 1001 and 1002, a preview image is generated in a state in which secret marks having sizes, positions, and inclinations that match the respective sizes, positions, and inclinations are combined at appropriate locations. The preview display as shown in FIG. When the main scan is executed in this state, the image data of the entire readable range on the document table is sent from the scanner 102 to the host apparatus 101 as a scan image as shown in FIG. The image processing unit 1033 performs crop processing on the scanned image 1101 to detect two originals, and synthesizes secret marks whose positions and sizes are adjusted in the same manner as in preview display. Thereby, two composite images as shown in FIGS. 12A and 12B are generated.

  By the above processing, additional information such as a stamp can always be combined with data read by a scanner whose additional information combining mode is ON.

  At that time, the data obtained from the scanner can be processed by the scanner driver and then combined with stamps, etc., so after applying various processing such as cropping, tilt correction, rotation, etc., it is appropriate for the image of those processing results It is possible to embed additional information in various forms. In addition, when processing such as cropping, tilt correction, and rotation is performed, what kind of scan data is acquired as a result of combining additional information can be presented to the user at the preview display stage. Furthermore, the state of the data after the additional information composition can be changed according to the reading target area designated on the preview screen and presented to the user in the preview.

  In the present embodiment, an example has been described in which a pre-scan is performed once before the main scan and a preview image is presented to the user. However, the reading method starts from the main scan without performing the pre-scan. It does not matter.

  In addition, the configuration of the driver and the processing for realizing the combining processing according to the additional information combining mode are not limited to these embodiments, and various changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. It goes without saying that corrections will be made.

  Another object of the present invention is to supply a storage medium storing software program codes for implementing the functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or apparatus, and the computer (or CPU or MPU) of the system or apparatus stores the storage medium. Needless to say, this can also be achieved by reading and executing the program code stored in the.

  In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

  As a storage medium for supplying the program code, for example, a flexible disk, a hard disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, a CD-ROM, a CD-R, a magnetic tape, a nonvolatile memory card, a ROM, or the like can be used.

  Further, by executing the program code read by the computer, not only the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized, but also an OS (operating system) operating on the computer based on the instruction of the program code. It goes without saying that a case where the function of the above-described embodiment is realized by performing part or all of the actual processing and the processing is included.

  Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written into a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, the function expansion is performed based on the instruction of the program code. It goes without saying that the CPU or the like provided in the board or 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.

1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an image reading system in an embodiment of the present invention. 5 is a flowchart showing processing of a scanner driver in the embodiment of the present invention. The block diagram which shows the list of the setting value of the additional information synthetic | combination mode in embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the pre-scan image in embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the preview image in embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the preview image after the reading object area | region change in embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the scan image in embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the image after the additional information synthesis | combination which the scanner driver in embodiment of this invention produces | generates. The figure which shows the pre-scan image in embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the preview image at the time of multicrop scanning execution in embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the scanning image at the time of multicrop scanning execution in embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the image after the additional information synthesis | combination which the scanner driver produces | generates at the time of multi-crop scanning in embodiment of this invention.

Claims (8)

An image reading apparatus having a storage unit for storing a setting state of an additional information combining function for setting whether or not additional information is combined with a read image, and information processing for inputting image data output from the image reading apparatus A control method in the information processing apparatus in an image reading system including the apparatus,
Obtaining image data on a document table from the image reading device;
Obtaining a setting state of the additional information combining function from the image reading device;
A method for controlling an information processing apparatus, comprising: an additional information synthesis step of synthesizing visible or invisible additional information with the image data based on a setting state of the additional information synthesis function. The additional information synthesis step includes
The method for controlling an information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a method for synthesizing additional information is determined based on a reading target area designated by an operator. An image reading apparatus having a storage unit for storing a setting state of an additional information combining function for setting whether or not additional information is combined with a read image, and information processing for inputting image data output from the image reading apparatus A control method in the information processing apparatus in an image reading system including the apparatus,
Obtaining image data on a document table from the image reading device;
An image correction step for correcting the image data;
Obtaining a setting state of the additional information combining function from the image reading device;
A method for controlling an information processing apparatus, comprising: an additional information combining step of combining visible or invisible additional information with the corrected image data based on a setting value of the additional information combining function. The additional information synthesis step includes
The method according to claim 3, wherein the additional information is processed based on image information of the image data corrected in the image correction step and then combined with the image data. An information processing apparatus capable of communicating with an image reading apparatus including a storage unit that stores a setting state of an additional information combining function for setting whether or not additional information is combined with a read image,
Reading data acquisition means for acquiring image data on a document table from the image reading device;
Setting acquisition means for acquiring a setting state of the additional information combining function from the image reading device;
An information processing apparatus comprising: additional information combining means for combining visible or invisible additional information with the image data based on a setting state of the additional information combining function. The additional information combining means includes
6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein a method for synthesizing additional information is determined based on a reading target area designated by an operator. An information processing apparatus capable of communicating with an image reading apparatus including a storage unit that stores a setting state of an additional information combining function for setting whether or not additional information is combined with a read image,
Reading data acquisition means for acquiring image data on a document table from the image reading device;
Image correction means for correcting the image data;
A setting acquisition means step for acquiring a setting state of the additional information combining function from the image reading device;
An information processing apparatus comprising: additional information combining means for combining visible or invisible additional information with the corrected image data based on a setting value of the additional information combining function. The additional information combining means includes
The information processing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the additional information is processed based on image information of the image data corrected by the image correction unit and then combined with the image data.

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