JP6609955B2 - Image processing apparatus, image processing method, and program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and a program.

  Thumbnail images (substitute images) are used to easily search what kind of contents each of a lot of image information includes. The thumbnail image is often a reduced image of the entire image. By the way, since such a thumbnail image is a reduced image of the entire image, it is not easy to grasp the image content. For example, when the image content is composed of a character string, the character string is reduced. Patent Document 1 is disclosed as a related technique.

JP 2011-159161 A

  However, the technique of Patent Document 1 described above cannot generate a substitute image so that the user can easily determine the contents of the image information in generating a substitute image corresponding to a large number of image information including a character string.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and a program that can solve the above-described problems.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and one aspect of the present invention provides a predetermined character string recognition rule in which an area in a character string-containing image and an importance level of the area are associated with each other . The character recognition unit for recognizing the character string in the image from the area of the acquired character string inclusion image based on the image, and the image based on the position in the most important area among the recognized character strings in the image An alternative image generation unit that generates an alternative image that is an enlarged image including a middle character string and is a part of the character string inclusion image.

Another embodiment of the present invention is an image processing method in the image processing apparatus, the image processing apparatus, associating the importance of the area and the area in the character string inclusive image, character string predetermined Based on a recognition rule, a character string recognition step for recognizing a character string in the image from the area of the acquired character string inclusion image, and the image processing apparatus having the highest importance among the character strings in the image recognized An alternative image generation step of generating an alternative image that is an enlarged image including the character string in the image with reference to a position in an area and is a part of the character string inclusion image. It is.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the acquired character is based on a predetermined character string recognition rule in which an area in a character string inclusion image and an importance level of the area are associated with a computer as an image processing apparatus. A character string recognizing step for recognizing a character string in the image from the area of the sequence-included image, and an enlarged image including the character string in the image based on a position in the most important area among the recognized character strings in the image And an alternative image generation step of generating an alternative image that is a part of the character string inclusion image.

  According to the present invention, in generating a substitute image corresponding to a large number of image information including a character string, the user can easily determine the contents of the image information.

It is the schematic which showed the structure of the form image browsing apparatus by embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the form image which the image memory | storage part by embodiment of this invention memorize | stores. It is a figure which shows an example of the form format definition which the form format definition memory | storage part by embodiment of this invention memorize | stores. It is a figure which shows an example of the alternative image which the alternative image generation part by embodiment of this invention produces | generates. It is the flowchart which showed the process sequence of the image process which the form image browsing apparatus by embodiment of this invention performs.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration of a form image browsing apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment. In the present embodiment, a form image browsing apparatus 1 that displays a form image related to a form including a character string will be described as an example of an image processing apparatus. The form image is a character string inclusion image including a character string. In the illustrated example, the form image browsing apparatus 1 includes an operation unit 10, an image storage unit 11, a substitute image generation unit 12, a character recognition unit 13, a form format definition storage unit 14, and an image display control unit 15. , An alternative image information storage unit 16, a character search unit 17, and a monitor 18.

  The operation unit 10 is a keyboard, a mouse, a touch panel, or the like, and receives an operation input. For example, the operation unit 10 receives an operation input for selecting an image to be displayed or changing a screen to an alternative image to be viewed.

  The image storage unit 11 is a hard disk, an external memory, or the like, and stores and saves a form image for browsing. In addition, the image storage unit 11 stores a plurality of form images in a form image folder.

  The substitute image generation unit 12 is a calculation unit that generates substitute images for list display from the form images stored in the image storage unit 11. The substitute image generation unit 12 reads a form image from the image storage unit 11 according to the operation input received by the operation unit 10 and generates a substitute image based on the read form image. Specifically, the substitute image generation unit 12 is an enlarged image including a character string in the image based on the position of the character string in the image recognized by the character recognition unit 13 in the form image, and is a part of the form image. Generate a substitute image. The character string in the image is a character string in the form image. Further, the substitute image generation unit 12 determines the position in the form image of the character string in the image in the reading area having the highest importance among the reading areas defined in the form format definition stored in the form format definition storage unit 14. A substitute image that is an enlarged image including a character string in the reference image and is a part of the form image is generated. The form format definition is a character string recognition rule. The reading area is an area (region) where the character string in the image is located. The substitute image generation unit 12 outputs the generated substitute image to the image display control unit 15. The substitute image generation unit 12 associates the generated substitute image, the character string in the image recognized by the character recognition unit 13, and the form format definition stored in the form form definition storage unit 14 with the substitute image information. Write to the storage unit 16 and store it.

  The character recognition unit 13 recognizes a character image from a form image and reads out a character string in the image by a character recognition technique such as pattern matching. At this time, the character recognition unit 13 reads the form format definition corresponding to the form image from the form format definition storage unit 14, and performs character recognition based on the read form format definition. The character recognition unit 13 outputs the recognized character string in the image and the form format definition used for character recognition to the substitute image generation unit 12.

  The form format definition storage unit 14 stores a form format definition for the character recognition unit 13 to perform character recognition. The form format definition defines the reading area and character type indicating the position of the character string in the image in the form image, and the importance order of each reading area. The importance is given by the person who creates the form format definition in consideration of the degree of attention to distinguish the individual forms when creating the form format definition.

  The image display control unit 15 controls display on the monitor 18. For example, the image display control unit 15 displays a list of alternative images input from the alternative image generation unit 12 on the monitor 18. In addition, when a form image to be displayed is selected from the alternative images displayed as a list on the monitor 18, the image display control unit 15 displays the entire selected form image on the monitor 18. Further, the image display control unit 15 acquires and displays a form image corresponding to the character string in the image obtained as a result of the search in the character search unit 17.

  The substitute image information storage unit 16 associates the substitute image generated by the substitute image generation unit 12, the character string in the image recognized by the character recognition unit 13, and the form format definition used by the character recognition unit 13 for character recognition. Remember. The substitute image generated by the substitute image generation unit 12 stored in the substitute image information storage unit 16, the character string in the image recognized by the character recognition unit 13, and the form format definition used by the character recognition unit 13 for character recognition Is alternative image information.

  The character search unit 17 selects and displays an alternative image using the result of character recognition from the form image. Specifically, the character search unit 17 searches for the character string in the image based on the correspondence between the form image and the character string in the image recognized from the form image, and the received search character string. For example, the character search unit 17 specifies a search character string to be searched, and searches for a character string in the image that matches the character string in the image stored in the alternative image information storage unit 16. The character search unit 17 outputs the substitute image associated with the matched character string in the image to the image display control unit 15 and displays all the matched substitute images on the monitor 18. The monitor 18 is a display unit that displays a list of alternative images and a form image.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a form image G stored in the image storage unit 11 according to the present embodiment. The form image G shown in the figure is an examination form and has three reading areas N1, N2, and N3 for character recognition. A character string indicating an examination number is written in the reading area N1, a character string indicating a name is written in the reading area N2, and a character string indicating a department is written in the reading area N3.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a form format definition D stored in the form format definition storage unit 14 according to the present embodiment. The form format definition D illustrated in this figure defines the form of the form image G shown in FIG. The form format definition D has items of area, importance, position, number of characters, character type, and title. The area is identification information of the reading area. The importance is the importance of the reading area. The position is the position of the reading area. The number of characters is the number of characters entered in the reading area. The character type is the type of character entered in the reading area. The title is the title of the reading area.

  In the example shown in this figure, in the first line, the area is N1, the importance is 2, the position is the coordinate of N1, the number of characters is 5, the character type is a number, and the title is an examination number. is there. In the second line, the area is N2, the importance is 1, the position is the coordinates of N2, the maximum number of characters is 12, the character type is kanji (first name and last name), and the title is first name and last name. In the third line, the area is N3, the importance is 3, the position is the coordinates of N3, the number of characters is 10 at maximum, the character type is Kanji (department), and the title is department.

  Next, the operation of the form image browsing apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment displaying a list of form images will be described. Hereinafter, a case where a substitute image is generated from the form image G shown in FIG. 2 will be described as an example. First, the substitute image generation unit 12 reads the form image G from the image storage unit 11. Then, the substitute image generation unit 12 outputs the read form image G to the character recognition unit 13.

  The character recognition unit 13 reads out the form format definition D corresponding to the input form image G from the form format definition storage unit 14. Then, the character recognition unit 13 executes character recognition processing for each reading area based on the form format definition D. For example, the character recognition unit 13 reads the examination number “012345” from the form image G based on the coordinates of N1, the number of characters (5 characters), and the character type (number). Further, the character recognition unit 13 reads the name “Sato OO” from the form image G based on the coordinates of N2, the number of characters (maximum 12), and the character type (kanji (last name)). Further, the character recognition unit 13 reads the department “ΔΔ department” from the form image G based on the coordinates of N3, the number of characters (maximum 10), and the character type (kanji (department)). Then, the character recognition unit 13 outputs the character string in the image read from each reading area and the form format definition D used for character recognition to the substitute image generation unit 12.

  The substitute image generation unit 12 specifies the reading area with the highest importance based on the form format definition D input from the character recognition unit 13. In this example, the most important reading area is the name N2. The substitute image generation unit 12 cuts out the portion of the character string “Sato OO” in the image of the name N2, which is the most important reading area, from the form image G and generates a substitute image. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of the alternative image A generated by the alternative image generation unit 12 according to the present embodiment.

  FIG. 4A shows an example of an alternative image A0 generated by reducing the entire form image G by a conventionally known technique. As shown in the figure, when the entire form image G is reduced, the characters become very small, and it is difficult to distinguish each form.

  FIG. 4B shows an example of the alternative image A generated by the alternative image generation unit 12. As shown in the figure, since the substitute image A cuts out a characteristic portion “Sato OO” of the form image G, each form image can be easily identified. That is, the substitute image A is an easy-to-identify image including the characteristic text (character string in the image) generated by the substitute image generation unit 12 based on the character recognition result performed by the character recognition unit 13. .

  The substitute image generation unit 12 outputs the generated substitute image A to the image display control unit 15. The image display control unit 15 displays a list of a plurality of alternative images A input from the alternative image generation unit 12.

  The substitute image generating unit 12 also generates the generated substitute image A, the character string “012345” in the reading area N1, the character string “Sato OO” in the reading area N2, and the image middle sentence in the reading area N3. The character string “ΔΔ family” and the form format definition D are associated with each other and written and stored in the alternative image information storage unit 16.

  When the operation unit 10 receives an input of a search character string for searching for a form image, the character search unit 17 searches the substitute image information storage unit 16 for a character string in the image that matches the input search character string. Search for. For example, when the search character string “Sato” is input from the keyboard of the operation unit 10 or the like, the character search unit 17 stores the character string “Sato XX” in the image stored in the alternative image information storage unit 16. ", A substitute image associated with the character string“ Sato OO ”in the image is extracted. Then, the character search unit 17 outputs the extracted substitute image to the image display control unit 15. When there are a plurality of substitute images input from the character search unit 17, the image display control unit 15 displays a list of the input substitute images on the monitor 18. As a result, only the substitute images that partially match the search character string “Sato” are displayed in a list, so that the number of substitute images displayed in the list can be narrowed down, and the target form image can be found more easily. When only one substitute image is input from the character search unit 17, the image display control unit 15 displays the entire substitute image on the monitor 18.

  Further, the character search unit 17 can search by specifying the title and the character string in the image, such as “title = character string for search”. For example, when “name = Sato” is input to the operation unit 10, the character search unit 17 replaces the character string in the image with the title “name” and the search character string “Sato” as a substitute image. Search from the information storage unit 16. That is, the character search unit 17 can search for a form image including Sato in the name. Thereby, the user can perform a more detailed search.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of image processing executed by the form image browsing device 1 according to the present embodiment. The user operates the operation unit 10 while looking at the monitor 18 to select a form image folder. The form image browsing device 1 executes the processing shown in this figure when the operation unit 10 accepts selection of a form image folder.

  (Step S <b> 10) The substitute image generation unit 12 reads out the form image stored in the selected form image folder from the image storage unit 11. Then, the substitute image generation unit 12 outputs the read form image to the character recognition unit 13. Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S11.

  (Step S11) The character recognition unit 13 reads out the form format definition corresponding to the input form image from the form format definition storage unit 14. Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S12.

  (Step S12) The character recognition unit 13 performs character recognition from the input form image based on the read form format definition. The character recognition unit 13 outputs the character string in the image as a result of character recognition to the substitute image generation unit 12 together with the read form format definition. Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S13.

(Step S13) The substitute image generation unit 12 generates a substitute image by cutting out the reading area having the highest importance from the reading area from which the character string in the image of the character recognition result has been acquired. Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S14.
(Step S14) The substitute image generation unit 12 associates the generated substitute image, the character string in the image of the character recognition result, and the form format definition, and writes and stores them in the substitute image information storage unit 16 as substitute image information. . Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S15.

  (Step S15) The substitute image generation unit 12 determines whether there is another form image in the selected form image folder. If the alternative image generation unit 12 determines that there is another form image, the process returns to step S10. That is, when there are a plurality of form images in the selected form image folder, the substitute image generating unit 12 repeats the processing from step S10 to step S14 until the substitute images of all the form images are generated. If the alternative image generation unit 12 determines that there is no other form image, the process proceeds to step S16.

  (Step S <b> 16) The image display control unit 15 arranges all the substitute images generated by the substitute image generation unit 12 and displays the list on the monitor 18. Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S17.

  (Step S17) The image display control unit 15 determines whether or not the operation unit 10 has received an operation input for selecting one of the alternative images displayed side by side. If the image display control unit 15 determines that the operation unit 10 has received an operation input for selecting a substitute image, the process proceeds to step S18. If the image display control unit 15 determines that the operation unit 10 has not received an operation input for selecting a substitute image, the process proceeds to step S19.

  (Step S18) The image display control unit 15 reads out a form image corresponding to the selected substitute image from the image storage unit 11, and displays the entire read out form image on the monitor 18. Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S19.

  (Step S19) The character search unit 17 determines whether or not the operation unit 10 has received an instruction input for performing a search using characters. If the character search unit 17 determines that the operation unit 10 has received an instruction input for performing a search by character, the process proceeds to step S20. If the character search unit 17 determines that the operation unit 10 has not received an instruction input for performing a search by character, the process ends.

  (Step S20) The character search unit 17 compares the search character string input by the keyboard of the operation unit 10 with the character string in the image obtained by the character recognition stored in the alternative image information storage unit 16. Then, the character string in the image partially matching the search character string is searched. Then, the character search unit 17 extracts a substitute image corresponding to the searched character string in the image. Thereafter, the process returns to step S16, and the image display control unit 15 displays a list of alternative images extracted by the character search unit 17. Accordingly, the image display control unit 15 can display only the substitute image that partially matches the input search character string. In other words, the user can narrow down the number of alternative images to be displayed in the list and make it easier to find the target image.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the form image browsing apparatus 1 recognizes the character string in the image based on the character string recognition rule from the acquired character string inclusion image, and the recognized character string in the image. An alternative image generation unit 12 that generates an alternative image that is a part of the character string inclusion image and that is an enlarged image including the character string in the image based on the position in the character string inclusion image.

  Thereby, the form image browsing device 1 recognizes the character image in the form, extracts the character string in the image, and uses the image obtained by cutting out the image including the character string in the image as an alternative image for list display. can do. Therefore, in generating a substitute image corresponding to a large number of image information including a character string, the user can easily determine the content of the image information.

  Further, the form image browsing device 1 further includes an image display control unit 15 that displays a substitute image. As a result, the form image browsing apparatus 1 can display a list of alternative images obtained by cutting out the image of the portion including the character string in the image. For this reason, the user can more easily find out a form image whose details are to be viewed from the list-displayed form images even if the form images are entered in the same style or a similar style. That is, the user can find the target form image in a shorter time when browsing the list of form images.

  Further, the form image browsing device 1 searches the character string in the image based on the correspondence between the character string inclusion image and the character string in the image recognized from the character string inclusion image and the accepted search character string. Further, the image display control unit 15 acquires and displays a character string inclusion image corresponding to the character string in the image obtained as a result of the search.

  Thereby, the form image browsing apparatus 1 can search and display a character string inclusion image by the received search character string. For this reason, the user can find out the target form image by searching the character string in the image as well as visually checking from the list-displayed substitute images. Alternatively, the user can narrow down alternative images to be displayed as a list by searching for a character string in the image. Therefore, when browsing the list of form images, the user can efficiently find a target form image from fewer images.

  The substitute image generation unit 12 of the form image browsing device 1 is an enlarged image including a character string in the image based on the position in the character string inclusion image of the character string in the image in the area of highest importance. A substitute image that is a part of the column inclusion image is generated. As a result, the form image browsing apparatus 1 can generate a substitute image obtained by cutting out a character string in an image in a highly important area, that is, an image of a portion including characteristic text. For this reason, the user can more easily find out a form image whose details are to be viewed from the list-displayed form images.

  Note that all or some of the functions of the units included in the form image browsing device 1 in the above-described embodiment are recorded on a computer-readable recording medium and a program for realizing these functions is recorded on the recording medium. You may implement | achieve by making the computer program read the executed program and executing it. Here, the “computer system” includes an OS and hardware such as peripheral devices.

  The “computer-readable recording medium” refers to a portable medium such as a flexible disk, a magneto-optical disk, a ROM, and a CD-ROM, and a storage unit such as a hard disk built in the computer system. Further, the “computer-readable recording medium” may include a storage medium that holds a program for a certain period of time, such as a volatile memory inside a computer system serving as a server or a client. The program may be a program for realizing a part of the functions described above, and may be a program capable of realizing the functions described above in combination with a program already recorded in a computer system.

  Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

  For example, the form format definition stored in the form format definition storage unit 14 may include a plurality of types depending on the type of form image stored in the image storage unit 11. In this case, the character recognition unit 13 switches the form format definition to be used according to the character recognition result in the first reading area.

  In the above-described embodiment, the character recognition unit 13 performs character recognition based on the form format definition stored in the form format definition storage unit 14. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and character recognition is performed without using the form format definition. Then, the character string in the image may be read out. In this case, the character recognition unit 13 extracts the character position from the entire form image. In addition, when the form format definition is not used, the alternative image generation unit 12 uses the reading area where the reading result is not unique, as the cutout area for generating the alternative image, because all reading areas have the same importance. . That is, in this case, the character string recognition rule is a rule instructing to recognize a character string that does not match a character string recognized from another character string inclusion image among character strings appearing in a plurality of character string inclusion images. . In addition, the character recognition unit 13 recognizes a character string that does not match a character string recognized from another character string inclusion image among character strings appearing in a plurality of character string inclusion images.

  In the above-described embodiment, the substitute image generation unit 12 generates a substitute image every time a list is displayed. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and stores the generated substitute image in association with the form image. It may be used to display the list. Specifically, the substitute image generating unit 12 writes the substitute image information stored in the substitute image information storage unit 16 in association with the form image and stores it in the image storage unit 11. Then, the image display control unit 15 reads the alternative image information associated with the form image from the image storage unit 11 and displays it as a list when displaying a list of alternative images from the next time onward. Thereby, the form image browsing apparatus 1 can display the substitute image list in a shorter time by omitting the above-described steps S10 to S15 and executing from step S16 based on the substitute image information.

  In the above-described embodiment, a form image has been described as an example of a character string inclusion image. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the character string inclusion image may be any image as long as the image includes a character string. For example, the character string inclusion image may be an image such as a business card or a receipt, or may be a still image of a moving image including a telop, such as an archive of a television broadcast.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Form image browsing apparatus, 10 ... Operation part, 11 ... Image storage part, 12 ... Alternative image generation part, 13 ... Character recognition part, 14 ... Form format definition storage part, 15 ... Image display control part, 16 ... Alternative image Information storage unit, 17 ... character search unit, 18 ... monitor

Claims (6)

A character recognition unit for recognizing a character string in the image from the area of the acquired character string inclusion image based on a predetermined character string recognition rule that associates the area in the character string inclusion image with the importance of the area. When,
A substitute image that generates a substitute image that is a part of the character string inclusion image and includes an enlarged image that includes the character string in the image with reference to a position in the most important area of the recognized character string in the image. A generator,
An image processing apparatus comprising: The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an image display control unit configured to display the substitute image. A character string search unit that searches the character string in the image based on the character string inclusion image and the correspondence between the character string in the image recognized from the character string inclusion image and the received search character string; The image processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the display control unit acquires and displays a character string inclusion image corresponding to the character string in the image obtained as a result of the search. The character string recognition rule includes a rule for instructing to recognize a character string that does not match a character string recognized from another character string inclusion image among character strings appearing in the plurality of character string inclusion images,
The said character recognition part recognizes the character string which does not correspond with the character string recognized from the other character string inclusion image among the character strings which appear in the said several character string inclusion image. The image processing apparatus according to any one of claims 3 to 4. An image processing method in an image processing apparatus,
Based on a predetermined character string recognition rule in which the image processing device associates an area in the character string inclusion image with the importance of the area, the character string in the image from the area of the character string inclusion image acquired. A string recognition step for recognizing
The image processing apparatus is an enlarged image including the character string in the image based on the position in the most important area among the recognized character strings in the image, and is a part of the character string inclusion image An alternative image generation step for generating an image;
An image processing method comprising: In a computer as an image processing device,
Character string recognition for recognizing a character string in an image from the area of the acquired character string inclusion image based on a predetermined character string recognition rule that associates an area in the character string inclusion image with the importance of the area Steps,
A substitute image that generates a substitute image that is a part of the character string inclusion image and includes an enlarged image that includes the character string in the image with reference to a position in the most important area of the recognized character string in the image. Generation step;
A program characterized by having executed.

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