JP2018056920A - Image processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

Provided is an image processing apparatus capable of reducing a burden of a user's operation and work and efficiently associating a read image of a front surface of a business card with an image of a back surface of the business card. A multifunction device includes a determination unit, a comparison unit, and a first control unit. The determination unit 36 is read at a predetermined time by the reading unit 14, and is read at a different time from the predetermined time by the reading unit 14 and the attribute of the character string included in the image of the business card stored in the main storage memory 19, Whether the attribute of the character string included in the image of the business card stored in the main storage memory 19 matches or not is determined in the order of the priority of the attribute of the character string whose input has been received by the receiving unit 35. When the determining unit 36 determines that the attributes of the character strings match, the comparing unit 37 compares whether the character strings from which the attributes are derived match. The first control unit 38 associates the image on one side of the business card with the image on the other side of the business card as the front and back images of the business card based on the comparison result of the character strings by the comparison unit 37. [Selection diagram] FIG.

Description

  The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus.

  In an image processing apparatus typified by a multifunction peripheral, light is applied to a photoconductor based on image data to form an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductor. Thereafter, charged toner is supplied onto the formed electrostatic latent image to form a visible image, which is then transferred and fixed on paper, and output to the outside of the apparatus.

  Patent Document 1 discloses an image processing system including a reading unit that reads a plurality of documents on a document table. An image processing system disclosed in Patent Document 1 cuts out a document portion of a document read by the reading unit as a plurality of image data, reads a plurality of image data after reading the front and back surfaces of the plurality of documents. And the associated image data are synthesized. In the business card, for example, the zip code on the front surface is compared with the zip code on the back surface, and the same ones are associated with each other.

JP 2006-339770 A

  According to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-133867, the association is performed based on the position information of the image on the front surface of the business card and the position information of the image on the back surface of the business card, that is, the pair of the front surface of the business card and the back surface of the business card is determined. However, such a configuration causes a burden on the user who is trying to read the image of the business card to place the business card at an appropriate position, and the user's work and operation become complicated. End up. Moreover, in patent document 1, the postal code described on the front surface of the business card is compared with the postal code described on the back surface of the business card, and the same one is associated. However, for example, when there are a plurality of the same zip code on the front side of the business card and the zip code on the back side of the business card, the front side of the business card and the back side of the business card cannot be properly associated with each other.

  An object of the present invention is to provide an image processing apparatus capable of reducing the burden on the user's operation and work and efficiently associating the read image on the front side of the business card with the image on the back side of the business card. .

  An image processing apparatus according to the present invention includes a reading unit, a storage unit, a cutout unit, a rotation unit, an extraction unit, a derivation unit, a reception unit, a determination unit, a comparison unit, and a first control unit. And a second control unit. The reading unit reads an image of a business card. The storage unit stores an image of the business card read by the reading unit. The cutout unit cuts out along the edge of the business card image read by the reading unit. The rotation unit rotates the image of the business card so as to correct the inclination if the end of the image of the business card cut out by the cutout unit is inclined. The extraction unit extracts a character string from the business card image cut out by the cutout unit. The derivation unit derives the attribute of the character string extracted by the extraction unit. The accepting unit accepts input of the priority order of the attribute of the character string in advance. The determination unit is read at a predetermined time by the reading unit, and is read at a time different from the predetermined time by the reading unit and the attribute of the character string included in the business card image stored in the storage unit, and is stored in the storage unit. Whether or not the attributes of the character string included in the image of the business card coincide with each other is determined in the priority order of the attribute of the character string received by the receiving unit. If the determination unit determines that the attributes of the character strings match, the comparison unit compares whether the character strings from which the attributes are derived match. The first control unit associates the image on one side of the business card and the image on the other side of the business card as the front and back images of the business card based on the comparison result of the character strings by the comparison unit. The second control unit controls the first control unit to store the business card image in which the front image and the back image are associated with each other in the storage unit.

  According to such a configuration, the image on the front side of the business card and the image on the back side of the business card are read, the character strings are extracted, and the front side of the business card and the back side of the business card are determined based on the priority order of the attributes input in advance. It is supposed to be associated. Then, according to the priority order of the input attribute, it is possible to efficiently associate the front image of the business card with the back image of the business card. In this case, there is no concern about the position at which the front and back images of the business card are read. Therefore, such an image processing apparatus can reduce the burden on the user's operation and work, and can efficiently associate the read image on the front side of the business card with the image on the back side of the business card.

1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an external appearance of a multifunction peripheral when an image processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied to the multifunction peripheral. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the multifunction machine illustrated in FIG. 1. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of a control part. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of a process at the time of reading the image of the front surface of a business card, and the image of the back surface of a business card. It is a figure which shows the state of arrangement | positioning of the business card at the time of reading the image of the surface of a business card. It is a figure which shows the state of arrangement | positioning of the business card at the time of reading the image of the back surface of a business card. It is the image of the surface of a business card. It is an image of the back side of a business card. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of a process at the time of matching the image of the front surface of a business card, and the image of the back surface of a business card. It is a figure which shows the structure of the control part with which the multifunctional device which concerns on other embodiment of this invention is equipped. It is a figure which shows the case where the image of the front surface of a business card and the image of the back surface of a business card are printed on both surfaces of paper, and shows the surface where the image of the front side of the business card was printed. It is a figure which shows the case where the image of the surface of a business card and the image of the back side of a business card are printed on both surfaces of paper, and shows the surface where the image of the back side of a business card was printed.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an appearance of a multifunction machine 11 when an image processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied to the multifunction machine. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the multifunction machine 11 shown in FIG.

1 and 2, the multifunction machine 11 includes a control unit 12, an operation unit 13, a reading unit 14, an image forming unit 15, a paper feed cassette 16, a hard disk 17, and a network (not shown). And a network interface unit 18 for connection. Incidentally, in FIG. 1 indicate the direction facing from top to bottom by the arrow D _1. Further, in FIG. 1, it shows a direction toward the right from the left in the arrow D _2.

  The control unit 12 controls the entire multifunction machine 11. The control unit 12 includes a CPU and the like, and includes a main storage memory 19 as a storage unit that temporarily stores data. The operation unit 13 includes a touch panel type display screen 21.

The reading unit 14 includes an ADF (Auto Document Feeder) 22 as a document transport device that transports a document set at the set position to the read position. The reading unit 14 is made of a transparent contact glass, and an original or an original smaller than a standard original, such as a business card, can be placed thereon. Since the size of the business card is relatively small, a plurality of business cards can be placed on the reading unit 14 at the same time. When reading an image of a document, the document holder 26 that constitutes a part of the ADF 22 and presses the document placed on the reading unit 14 is closed. The document presser 26 is provided to be openable and closable. In other words, the image of the document is read by the reading unit 14 with the document presser 26 closed. Reading unit 14, a carriage 23 for image reading, the light is irradiated on the original side while moving in the sub-scanning direction indicated by the arrow D ₂ in FIG. 1, reads the image of the document from the received reflected light. When reading an image of a document set on the ADF 22, the image of the document conveyed by the ADF 22 is read with the carriage 23 stopped at a predetermined position.

  Next, the configuration of the control unit 12 provided in the multifunction machine 11 will be described. FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the control unit 12. Referring to FIG. 3, the control unit 12 includes a cutout unit 31, a rotation unit 32, an extraction unit 33, a derivation unit 34, a reception unit 35, a determination unit 36, a comparison unit 37, and a first control. A unit 38 and a second control unit 39 are provided. The cutout unit 31 cuts out along the edge of the business card image read by the reading unit 14. If the end of the business card image cut out by the cutout unit 31 is inclined, the rotating unit 32 rotates the business card image so as to correct the inclination. The extraction unit 33 extracts a character string from the business card image cut out by the cutout unit 31. The deriving unit 34 derives the attribute of the character string extracted by the extracting unit 33. The accepting unit 35 accepts input of the priority order of the attribute of the character string in advance. The determination unit 36 is read at a predetermined time by the reading unit 14 and is read at a time different from the predetermined time by the reading unit 14 and the attribute of the character string included in the business card image stored in the main memory 19. Whether or not the attribute of the character string included in the business card image stored in the main memory 19 matches is determined in the order of priority of the attribute of the character string received by the receiving unit 35. When the determination unit 36 determines that the attributes of the character strings match, the comparison unit 37 compares the character strings from which the attributes are derived to match. The first control unit 38 associates the image on one side of the business card and the image on the other side of the business card as the front and back images of the business card based on the comparison result of the character strings by the comparison unit 37. The second control unit 39 controls the first control unit 38 to store the business card image in which the front image and the back image are associated with each other in the main memory 19. These configurations will be described in detail later.

  Next, a case where a plurality of business cards, here three business cards, are read using the multifunction device 11 will be described. Here, since a business card has images on both sides, that is, on the front and back sides, it is necessary to read images on both sides of the front side image and the back side image of the business card. Therefore, it is necessary to read the business card image at least twice in total. Here, a case will be described in which reading is performed to read the image on the front side of three business cards at a time and to read the image on the back side of three business cards at a time.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing when reading the image on the front side of the business card and the image on the back side of the business card. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a state of business card arrangement when an image on the surface of the business card is read. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a state of arrangement of business cards when an image on the back side of the business card is read. In FIG. 6, from the viewpoint of easy understanding, the case where the image on the surface of the business card faces upward is indicated by hatching.

  First, referring to FIGS. 4 and 5, three business cards 51 a, 51 b and 51 c are placed on the reading unit 14. The business cards 51a to 51c are placed so that the surfaces thereof face downward with a space therebetween. That is, the back surfaces 53a, 53b, and 53c of the business cards 51a to 51c face upward and are placed so as to face the carriage 23 positioned on the lower side of the contact glass.

  Here, the user does not have to arrange the business cards 51a to 51c in the main scanning direction or the sub-scanning direction, or arrange them in an organized manner. That is, the business cards 51a to 51c may be placed inclined with respect to the main scanning direction or the sub scanning direction. Therefore, the complexity of the user's work when reading the images of the business cards 51a to 51c can be reduced.

  Thereafter, the document holder 26 is closed by the user. And the control part 12 receives the input of the setting that it is reading of the business cards 51a-51c from a user via the operation part 13 (In FIG. 4, step S11 and abbreviate | omitted "step" below). Thereafter, when pressing of a start key (not shown) provided on the operation unit 13 is detected (YES in S12), the reading unit 14 moves the carriage 23 in the sub-scanning direction while moving the surfaces of the business cards 51a to 51c. The images 52a to 52c are read (S13). The read images of the front surfaces of the business cards 51a to 51c are temporarily stored in the main memory 19 as a storage unit (S14).

  When the reading of the images on the front surfaces of the business cards 51a to 51c is completed, the business cards 51a to 51c are turned over. Then, as shown in FIG. 6, the front surfaces 52a, 52b, and 52c of the business cards 51a to 51c face up, and the reading unit 14 reads the images of the back surfaces 53a to 53c of the business cards 51a to 51c that face down (S15). ). Thereafter, similarly, the read images of the back surfaces 53a to 53c of the business cards 51a to 51c are temporarily stored in the main memory 19 (S16).

  Here, the cutout part 31 cuts out along the edge part of the image of the business cards 51a-51c read by the reading part 14 (S17). Thereafter, if the ends of the business cards 51a to 51c cut out by the cutout unit 31 are inclined (YES in S18), the rotating unit 32 corrects the inclination of the image (S19). That is, when the end portions of the business cards 51a to 51c do not extend straight in the sub scanning direction or the main scanning direction, the end portions of the business cards 51a to 51c extend straight in the sub scanning direction or the main scanning direction. Rotate the image. In this case, each is rotated according to the inclination angle of the image.

  Here, for the business cards 51a to 51c, the images on the front surfaces 52a to 52c of the business cards 51a to 51c and the images on the back surfaces 53a to 53c of the business cards 51a to 51c are stored separately in the main memory 19, respectively. It is not done. That is, the images of the front surfaces 52a to 52c of the business cards 51a to 51c and the images of the back surfaces 53a to 53c of the business cards 51a to 51c are not paired together. Therefore, next, the images of the front surfaces 52a to 52c of the business cards 51a to 51c are associated with the images of the back surfaces 53a to 53c of the business cards 51a to 51c.

  Here, the correspondence between the images of the front surfaces 52a to 52c of the business cards 51a to 51c and the images of the back surfaces 53a to 53c of the business cards 51a to 51c will be described. First, the image of the surface 52a of the business card 51a will be described. FIG. 7 is an image of the surface 52a of the business card 51a. Referring to FIG. 7, on the surface 52a of the business card 51a, there is a character string 54a with "Taro Yamada" whose attribute is "name", and a character string with "Software Development Division XXX Section" whose attribute is "Affiliation". 54 b, a character string 54 c with “Kyocera Document Solutions Co., Ltd.” with the attribute “company”, a character string 54 d with “attribute” “address” “Tamazo 1-chome 2-28, Chuo-ku, Osaka”, and the attribute A character string 54e with "〒 540-8585" as "zip code", a character string 54f with "Tel: 06-6664-3327" with attribute "telephone number", and a "facsimile number" with attribute " Character string 54g with "Fax: 06-6664-3339" and character string 54h with "E-mail: taro.yamada@dc.kyocera.com" with attribute "e-mail address" Is written. That is, character strings 54a to 54h indicating eight attributes are written on the surface 52a of the business card 51a. Here, the attribute refers to one of information types divided into categories such as names and addresses.

  Next, an image of the back surface 53a of the business card 51a will be described. FIG. 8 is an image of the back surface 53a of the business card 51a. Referring to FIG. 8, on the back surface 53a of the business card 51a, a character string 55a “Taro Yamada” having an attribute “name” and a character “Corporate Software Development XXX section” having an attribute “Affiliation” are shown. A column 55b, a character string 55c of “KYOCERA Document Solutions Inc.” with an attribute “company”, and “2-28, 1-Home, Tamatsukuri, Chuo-ku, Osaka, Japan” with an attribute “address” Character string 55d, a character string 55e of "540-8585" having an attribute "zip code", a character string 55f of "Tel: + 81-6-6664-3327" having an attribute "telephone number", an attribute “Fax” with “Fax” + 81-6-6764-3339 string 55g of the ", the attribute is referred to as" e-mail address "," E-mail: string 55h of the taro.yamada@dc.kyocera.com "is notation. That is, the character strings 55a to 55h corresponding to the eight attributes written on the surface 52a of the business card 51a are written in English.

  FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing when associating the images of the front surfaces 52a to 52c of the business cards 51a to 51c with the images of the back surfaces 53a to 53c of the business cards 51a to 51c. Referring to FIG. 9, first, the accepting unit 35 accepts the input of the priority order of the attribute of the character string by the user (S21). The user inputs priorities of attributes through the operation unit 13 with priorities according to the types of business cards. Here, it is assumed that three priorities are input in the order of “name”, “e-mail address”, and “phone number” as attributes.

  When receiving the input of the priority order (YES in S21), the extraction unit 33 extracts a character string from the images determined as the business cards 51a to 51c (S22). In this case, specifically, a character string is extracted from each of the images of the front surfaces 52a to 52c of the business cards 51a to 51c and the images of the back surfaces 53a to 53c of the business cards 51a to 51c by the business card OCR (Optical Character Recognition) function. To do. Here, when the character string is extracted, the orientation detection function in the OCR function is used. If the orientation is not the normal direction, the image is rotated every 90 degrees, such as 90 degrees, 180 degrees, and 270 degrees. Is recognized and a character string is extracted.

  Thereafter, the derivation unit 34 derives an attribute corresponding to the character string from the character string extracted by the extraction unit 33 (S23). Specifically, the image of the surface 52a of the business card 51a is as follows. For the character string 54a “Taro Yamada”, the personal name dictionary data stored in the hard disk 17 is searched, and if it is hit, the character string 54a “Taro Yamada” is derived as an attribute “name”. Is done. Further, the attribute of the character string 54 c is derived from the character string 54 c “Kyocera Document Solutions Co., Ltd.” in comparison with the company name database stored in the hard disk 17. Further, if there is a character string “E-mail”, an attribute called an e-mail address and a character string following this attribute, in this case, a character string adjacent to the character string “E-mail”, indicate an e-mail address. Derived as a string. In this way, the character string 54b is derived to have the attribute “affiliation” using a database or the like stored in the hard disk 17. The character string 54d has an attribute "address", the character string 54e has an attribute "zip code", the character string 54f has an attribute "telephone number", the character string 54g has an attribute "facsimile number", and the character string 54h has an attribute " It is derived that the attribute is “e-mail address”.

  The image on the back surface 53a of the business card 51a is as follows. For the character string 55a “Taro Yamada”, the personal dictionary data stored in the hard disk 17 is searched, and if a hit is found, the character string 55a “Taro Yamada” is derived as an attribute “name”. Is done. In addition, the attribute of the character string 55 c is derived from the character string 55 c “KYOCERA Document Solutions Inc.” in comparison with the company name database stored in the hard disk 17. In this way, the character string 55b is derived as having the attribute “affiliation” using a database or the like stored in the hard disk 17. Further, the character string 55d has an attribute "address", the character string 55e has an attribute "zip code", the character string 55f has an attribute "telephone number", the character string 55g has an attribute "facsimile number", and the character string 55h has an attribute " It is derived that the attribute is “e-mail address”.

  Next, after the derivation unit 34 derives the attribute for each of the character strings 54a to 54h and 55a to 55h, the determination unit 36 determines the attribute. Specifically, the determination unit 36 reads the character strings 54 a to 54 h included in the images of the business cards 51 a to 51 c read by the reading unit 14 a predetermined time, in this case, the first time and stored in the main memory 19. Whether the attribute matches the attribute of the character string 55 a to 55 h included in the image of the business card 51 a that is read by the reading unit 14 different from a predetermined time, in this case, the second time, and stored in the main memory 19 Whether or not the input is accepted by the accepting unit 35 is determined in the order of priority of the attributes of the character string.

  And the comparison part 37 compares the character strings of the thing with which attributes correspond (S24). That is, if the determination unit 36 determines that the character string attributes match, the comparison unit 37 compares whether the character strings from which the attributes are derived match. In this case, the comparison is made in the order of higher priority received by the receiving unit 35. Specifically, since the attribute “name” has the highest priority, the character string 54a “Taro Yamada” having the attribute “name” of the front surface 52a of the business card 51a and the back side of the business card 51a The character string 55a with “Taro Yamada” having the attribute “name” as the attribute of 53a is compared.

  In this case, the character string 54a “Taro Yamada” and the character string 55a “Taro Yamada” do not match (NO in S25). Then, it is detected whether or not there is an attribute with a higher priority to be compared next (S26). If there is an attribute to be compared (YES in S26), a character string corresponding to the attribute with the next higher priority is compared. (S27). In this case, the character strings are compared with the attribute of “electronic mail address”. Specifically, the character string 54h of “taro.yamada@dc.kyocera.com” having the attribute of the front surface 52a of the business card 51a as “e-mail address” and the attribute of the back surface 53a of the business card 51a The character string 55h with “taro.yamada@dc.kyocera.com”, which is “e-mail address”, is compared.

  Here, since the character strings 54h and 55h match (YES in S25), the first control unit 38 associates the image of the front surface 52a of the business card 51a with the image of the back surface 53a of the business card 51a (S28). That is, the first control unit 38 associates the image on one side of the business card 51a and the image on the other side of the business card 51a as front and back images of the business card 51a based on the comparison result of the character strings by the comparison unit 37. Specifically, the image on the front surface 52a and the image on the back surface 53a are associated with the front and back images of the business card 51a.

  Thereafter, the second control unit 39 controls the first control unit 38 to store the image of the business card 51a in which the image of the front surface 52a and the image of the back surface 53a are associated with each other in the hard disk 17 (S28). That is, the second control unit 39 controls the first control unit 38 to store the image of the business card 51 a in which the image of the front surface 52 a and the image of the back surface 53 a are associated with each other in the hard disk 17. Similarly, the images on the front surfaces 52b and 52c and the images on the back surfaces 53b and 53c of the other business cards 51b and 51c are associated and controlled to be stored in the hard disk 17.

  By configuring in this way, the image of the front surface 52a of the business card 51a and the image of the back surface 53a of the business card 51a are read, the character strings 54a to 54h and 55a to 55h are extracted, and the priorities of the attributes inputted in advance are set. Based on this, the front surface 52a of the business card 51a and the back surface 53a of the business card 51a are associated with each other. Then, the image of the front surface 52a of the business card 51a and the image of the back surface 53a of the business card 51a can be efficiently associated according to the priority order of the input attributes. In this case, there is no concern about the position at which the images on the front surface 52a and the back surface 53a of the business card 51a are read. Therefore, the multifunction machine 11 can reduce the burden on the user's operation and work, and can efficiently associate the read image of the front surface 52a of the business card 51a with the image of the back surface 53a of the business card 51a.

  In this case, since the attribute includes a name, an e-mail address, a telephone number, a facsimile number, an address, a company, a affiliation, and a job title, it can be associated with a more appropriate attribute.

  In the case described above, if there are no more attributes to be compared in S26 (NO in S26), a message indicating that there is no associated image is displayed on the display screen 21 (S30), and the process is terminated. .

  Here, in said embodiment, it is good also as a structure provided with the alerting | reporting part which alert | reports the result of matching by the 1st control part 38 by the display by the display screen 21. FIG. Moreover, it is good also as a structure further equipped with the correction | amendment reception part which receives correction | amendment of the result of the correlation alert | reported by the alerting | reporting part. By doing so, the image of the front surface 52a of the business card 51a and the image of the back surface 53a of the business card 51a can be more reliably associated with each other after confirmation by the user and reflection of the correction result. Here, the acceptance of correction is performed, for example, via the operation unit 13. In addition, you may make it alert | report by an audio | voice. In this case, notification by display and notification by voice may be performed together.

  In addition, the first control unit 38 places a character string at a predetermined position with respect to a character string indicating an attribute included in one surface, and a predetermined position with respect to a character string indicating an attribute included in the other surface. If it matches with a certain character string, it may be controlled to associate the image on the front side of the business card with the image on the back side of the business card. Specifically, a numerical character string connected by two “-” (haiphong) at a predetermined position following the character string “〒” representing “zip code” is matched as a character string indicating the zip code. Whether or not to do so may be determined and associated.

  The following configuration may also be used. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a configuration of a control unit 41 provided in a multifunction machine according to another embodiment of the present invention. 10, the same components as those in FIG. 3 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof is omitted. Referring to FIG. 10, control unit 41 determines whether the language of character strings 54a to 54h included in the image of front surface 52a of business card 51a and the character strings 55a to 55h included in the image of back surface 53a of business card 51a match. A determination unit 42 that determines whether or not and a translation unit 43 that translates the language of the other character strings 55a to 55h into the language of one of the character strings 54a to 54h if the determination unit 42 determines that they do not match. Prepare. Then, the determination unit 36 determines whether the attribute of the translated character string matches the attribute of the character string that has not been translated.

  By comprising in this way, the other language can be translated and compared with one language side. If it does so, the influence of the difference in a language will be eliminated, the matching rate of the character strings 54a-54h and 55a-55h can be raised more, and matching with a user's convenience can be performed more.

  In the above embodiment, the recommended priority order may be displayed on the display screen 21 at the stage of inputting the attribute priority order. By doing so, it is possible to further reduce the burden on the user's operation.

  In the above-described embodiment, the multifunction machine 11 controls the image forming unit 15 to form a paper image based on the business card 51a image in which the image on the front surface 52a and the image on the back surface 53a are associated with each other. It is good also as a structure provided with a 3rd control part.

  In this case, an image of the front surface 52a of the business card 51a and an image of the back surface 53a of the business card 51a may be formed on the front surface of the paper and the back surface of the paper, respectively. That is, an image of the front surface 52a of the business card 51a and an image of the back surface 53a of the business card 51a are formed using the double-sided printing function. By doing so, it is possible to obtain a printed material in which the image of the business card 51a is printed on both sides of the paper in the same manner as the business card 51a.

  Note that the third control unit may control the image forming unit 15 to form an image by arranging image data of business cards in a predetermined order among the attributes. By doing so, it is possible to form an image more according to the user's request.

  Here, the third control unit arranges a plurality of business card images in which the front image and the back image are associated with each other by the first control unit 38 in a row in the vertical or horizontal direction of the paper. 15 may control to form an image. The third control unit forms an image on the front side of the business card on one side of the paper and forms an image on the back side of the business card at a position corresponding to the front side of the business card on the other side of the paper. The unit 15 may be controlled.

  11 and 12 are diagrams illustrating a case where an image of the front side of a business card and an image of the back side of the business card are printed on both sides of a sheet. FIG. 11 shows the surface of the printed material on which the image on the front side of the business card is printed, and FIG. 12 shows the surface of the printed material on which the image on the back side of the business card is printed.

  First, referring to FIG. 11, an image 64a corresponding to the surface 52a of the business card 51a, an image 64b corresponding to the surface 52b of the business card 51b, and an image 64c corresponding to the surface 52c of the business card 51c are displayed on the surface 62a of the printed matter 61. It is printed. Note that only the outer frames of the images 64d, 64e, 64f, 64h, and 64h corresponding to the surfaces of other business cards are shown. Here, the image 64a corresponding to the surface 52a of the business card 51a is printed in the upper left area of the printed matter 61, and the image 64b corresponding to the surface 52b of the business card 51b is printed in the upper right area of the printed matter 61.

  Next, referring to FIG. 12, on the back surface 63a of the printed matter 61, an image 65a corresponding to the back surface 53a of the business card 51a, an image 65b corresponding to the back surface 53b of the business card 51b, and an image 65c corresponding to the back surface 53c of the business card 51c. Is printed. Note that only the outer frame of the images 65d, 65e, 65f, 65h, and 65h corresponding to the back side of other business cards is shown. Here, the image 65a corresponding to the back surface 53a of the business card 51a is printed so as to be arranged on the upper right area of the printed matter 61, that is, just behind the image 64a corresponding to the front surface 52a of the business card 51a. The image 65b corresponding to the back surface 53a of the business card 51b is printed so as to be arranged on the upper left area of the printed matter 61, that is, the back side of the image 64b corresponding to the front surface 52b of the business card 51b. The same applies to the images 65c to 65h corresponding to other business cards.

  With this configuration, it is possible to perform printing as if a business card was put in a so-called business card holder. Therefore, it is possible to perform printing according to the user's request.

  In the above embodiment, the image read by the reading unit 14 is temporarily stored in the main memory 19 as a storage unit. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and is stored in the hard disk 17 as a storage unit. You may do it.

  In the above embodiment, the reading unit 14 may be configured to read images on both sides of a business card. That is, an image processing apparatus according to still another embodiment of the present invention is read by a reading unit that reads images on both sides of a business card, a storage unit that stores an image of a business card read by the reading unit, and a reading unit. A cutout unit that cuts out along the edge of the business card image, and a rotation unit that rotates the image of the business card so as to correct the inclination if the end of the business card image cut out by the cutout unit is inclined, and a cutout unit An extraction unit that extracts a character string from the image of the business card cut out by the step, a derivation unit that derives an attribute of the character string extracted by the extraction unit, and a reception unit that receives an input of the priority order of the attribute of the character string in advance Are read at a predetermined time by the reading unit, and are read at different times from the predetermined time by the reading unit and the attribute of the character string included in the business card image stored in the storage unit. A determination unit that determines whether or not the attribute of the character string included in the image of the business card stored in the storage unit matches with the order of priority of the attribute of the character string received by the reception unit, and a character by the determination unit If it is determined that the attributes of the columns match, the comparison unit comparing whether or not the character strings from which the attributes are derived match, and the image of one side of the business card based on the comparison result of the character strings by the comparison unit A first control unit that associates the image on the other side of the business card with the front and back images of the business card, and a business card image in which the front image and the back image are associated by the first control unit in the storage unit And a second control unit that performs control. By doing so, it is possible to further reduce the burden on the user's operation and work. In this case, among the images on both sides of the business card, the reading of the front image and the reading of the back image are counted as different times.

  In another aspect of the present invention, an image processing method has the following configuration. That is, the image processing method includes a step of reading images on both sides of a business card, a step of storing a read image of the business card, a step of cutting along an end portion of the read image of the business card, If the edge of the image is inclined, a step of rotating the business card image to correct the inclination, a step of extracting a character string from the cut out business card image, and an attribute of the extracted character string The step of deriving, the step of accepting the input of the priority order of the attribute of the character string in advance, the character string attribute that is read at a predetermined time and included in the stored image, and is read at a time different from the predetermined time, A step of determining whether or not the attribute of the character string included in the stored image matches, in order of priority of the received character string attribute, and if it is determined that the attribute of the character string matches, the attribute is derived. Matches the given string The step of comparing whether or not, the step of associating the image on one side and the image on the other side as front and back images, and the image on the front side and the image on the back side based on the comparison result of the character strings And a step of controlling to store the obtained image. This also reduces the burden on the user's operation and work, and can efficiently associate the read image on the front side of the business card with the image on the back side of the business card.

  It should be understood that the embodiments disclosed herein are illustrative in all respects and are not restrictive in any aspect. The scope of the present invention is defined by the scope of the claims, rather than the description above, and is intended to include any modifications within the scope and meaning equivalent to the scope of the claims.

  The image processing apparatus according to the present invention is particularly effective when it is required to efficiently reduce the burden on the user's operation and work, and to efficiently associate the read image on the front side of the business card with the image on the back side of the business card. Used for

  11 MFP, 12, 41 Control unit, 13 Operation unit, 14 Reading unit, 15 Image forming unit, 16 Paper cassette, 17 Hard disk, 18 Network interface unit, 19 Main memory, 21 Display screen, 22 ADF, 23 Carriage , 26 Document holding, 31 Cutting section, 32 Rotating section, 33 Extracting section, 34 Deriving section, 35 Accepting section, 36 Judging section, 37 Comparison section, 38 First control section, 39 Second control section, 42 Determination section, 43 Translation part, 51a, 51b, 51c Business card, 52a, 52b, 52c, 62a Front side, 53a, 53b, 53c, 63a Back side, 54a, 54b, 54c, 54d, 54e, 54f, 54g, 54h, 55a, 55b, 55c, 55d, 55e, 55f, 55g, 55h Character string, 61 Printed matter, 64a, 6 4b, 64c, 64d, 64e, 64f, 64g, 64h, 65a, 65b, 65c, 65d, 65e, 65f, 65g, 65h Images.

Claims (12)

A reading unit that reads business card images;
A storage unit for storing an image of the business card read by the reading unit;
A cutout unit that cuts out along an end of the image of the business card read by the reading unit;
If the edge of the business card image cut out by the cutout unit is inclined, a rotating unit that rotates the business card image to correct the inclination;
An extraction unit for extracting a character string from the image of the business card cut out by the cutout unit;
A derivation unit for deriving attributes of the character string extracted by the extraction unit;
A receiving unit that receives an input of a priority order of the attribute of the character string in advance;
The storage unit reads the attribute of the character string included in the image of the business card read by the reading unit at a predetermined time and stored in the storage unit, and the reading unit at a time different from the predetermined time, A determination unit that determines whether or not the attribute of the character string included in the image of the business card stored in the image matches the order of priority of the attribute of the character string received by the reception unit;
If the determination unit determines that the attribute of the character string matches, a comparison unit that compares whether the character string from which the attribute is derived matches;
A first control unit that associates an image of one side of the business card and an image of the other side of the business card as an image of the front and back of the business card based on the comparison result of the character strings by the comparison unit;
An image processing apparatus comprising: a second control unit configured to control the first control unit to store the business card image in which the front image and the back image are associated with each other in the storage unit. A determination unit that determines whether languages of the character string included in the image on the front surface of the business card and the character string included in the image on the back surface of the business card match;
A translation unit that translates the language of the other character string into the language of one of the character strings if it is determined by the determination unit that they do not match,
The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determination unit determines whether or not the attribute of the translated character string matches an attribute of the character string that has not been translated. The first control unit is configured such that the character string at a predetermined position with respect to the character string indicating the attribute included in one surface is predetermined with respect to the character string indicating the attribute included in the other surface. 3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image processing apparatus controls to associate the image on the front surface of the business card with the image on the back surface of the business card if the character string matches the character string at the position. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a notification unit that notifies a result of association by the first control unit. The image processing apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising a correction receiving unit that receives correction of the result of the association notified by the notification unit. An image forming unit for forming an image on paper;
Control to store in the storage unit by the second control unit, and control to form an image on the paper by the image forming unit based on the business card image in which the front image and the back image are associated with each other The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a third control unit that performs the operation. The third control unit forms an image of the front side of the business card on one side of the paper, and forms an image of the back side of the business card at a position corresponding to the front side of the business card on the other side of the paper. The image processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the image forming unit is controlled to do so. The third control unit forms the image by arranging a plurality of business card images in which the first control unit associates the front image and the back image in a row in the vertical or horizontal direction of the paper. The image processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the image processing device is controlled to form an image by the unit. The image processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the third control unit controls the image forming unit to form an image by arranging image data of the business cards in a predetermined order in the attributes. The image processing according to claim 1, wherein the attribute includes at least one of a name, an e-mail address, a telephone number, a facsimile number, an address, a company, a affiliation, and a job title. apparatus. A reading unit that reads images on both sides of a business card;
A storage unit for storing an image of the business card read by the reading unit;
A cutout unit that cuts out along an end of the image of the business card read by the reading unit;
If the edge of the business card image cut out by the cutout unit is inclined, a rotating unit that rotates the business card image to correct the inclination;
An extraction unit for extracting a character string from the image of the business card cut out by the cutout unit;
A derivation unit for deriving attributes of the character string extracted by the extraction unit;
A receiving unit that receives an input of a priority order of the attribute of the character string in advance;
The storage unit reads the attribute of the character string included in the image of the business card read by the reading unit at a predetermined time and stored in the storage unit, and the reading unit at a time different from the predetermined time, A determination unit that determines whether or not the attribute of the character string included in the image of the business card stored in the image matches the order of priority of the attribute of the character string received by the reception unit;
If the determination unit determines that the attribute of the character string matches, a comparison unit that compares whether the character string from which the attribute is derived matches;
A first control unit that associates an image of one side of the business card and an image of the other side of the business card as an image of the front and back of the business card based on the comparison result of the character strings by the comparison unit;
An image processing apparatus comprising: a second control unit configured to control the first control unit to store the business card image in which the front image and the back image are associated with each other in the storage unit. A process of reading images on both sides of a business card;
Storing the read business card image;
Cutting along the edge of the image of the read business card;
Rotating the image of the business card to correct the tilt if the edge of the cut out image of the business card is tilted;
Extracting a character string from the cut out business card image;
Deriving attributes of the extracted string;
Receiving in advance the priority order of the attribute of the character string;
Whether the attribute of the character string included in the image read and stored at a predetermined time matches the attribute of the character string included in the image read and stored at a different time from the predetermined time Determining the order of priority of the received attribute of the character string;
If it is determined that the attributes of the character string match, the step of comparing whether or not the character string from which the attribute is derived;
A step of associating an image on one side and an image on the other side as front and back images based on the comparison result of the character strings;
An image processing method comprising: controlling to store an image in which a front image and a back image are associated with each other.

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