JPH07105068A - Filing equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a small and inexpensive filing device capable of easily being used by an individual. CONSTITUTION:The compression/expansion means 23 of picture information, an information storage means 24 provided with a semiconductor memory for storing the picture information, an information input/output means 21 for inputting/outputting information with an external unit, a picture processing circuit 2 provided with a control means 22 for controlling a whole and a disk drive 11 capable of recording/reproducing information and exchanging a medium are provided. The respective units can be connected to a computer 3 by the same communication route.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a filing apparatus for storing documents, drawings and the like as image data (image information).

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A filing device electronically stores a document or drawing as image information (image data) on a large-capacity disc such as an optical disc and outputs the recorded image information to a display or a printer when necessary. It is a thing.

Conventionally, since this type of device has been prepared on the assumption that a large amount of data shared by a large number of people is filed, a large high-definition CRT display and an optical disc of 5 inches or more capable of storing a large amount of data are provided. It is composed of a drive device and is large and expensive. Therefore, one device is used by a plurality of people, and it is difficult to freely use the device at a desired time.

In order to solve these problems, a library device is attached to a filing device, a personal computer is connected to the library device via a LAN (local area network), and files can be searched for by a personal computer at hand. There is.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a conventional filing apparatus.

In the figure, 3 is a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a personal computer), 4 is a scanner, 5 is a facsimile, 6 is an image processing board, and 11 is a drive.

In the conventional device, the board 6 for image processing is used.
Is to be inserted into the expansion slot of the personal computer 3.

[0008]

In the above-mentioned conventional apparatus, when a board for another purpose already exists in the expansion slot of the personal computer 3, it is necessary to adjust the address and interrupt of each board. If this adjustment is not good, the operation of the personal computer 3 becomes unstable and there is a risk of runaway. Further, the personal computer 3 needs to control the drive 11 and the image processing board 6, so that the load is increased.

By the way, the search method is important for the filing apparatus. As a search method, there are a method of searching by a keyword attached when the image is recorded and a date, and a method of sequentially displaying the recorded images by continuous page feeding on the display. In the keyword search, it is difficult to find a target image at once if the keyword selection is not good. Therefore, it is often the case that after narrowing down the range to some extent by a keyword search, the target image is searched for by continuous page feed.

In order to increase the search speed, it is necessary to increase the continuous page feed speed, and for that purpose, it is important to shorten the data read time from the drive. However, since a drive having a high data transfer rate is generally expensive, there is a problem that the device price becomes high.

An object of the present invention is to provide a compact and inexpensive filing device which solves the difficulty of use of the conventional products and can be easily used by individuals.

[0012]

The above-mentioned object is to perform input / output of information between compression / expansion means of image information, information storage means having a semiconductor memory for storing the image information, and external equipment. An information input / output unit for performing the operation, an image processing circuit having a control unit for controlling the whole, and a disk drive capable of recording / reproducing information and having a medium exchangeable, and these units are the same. This is achieved by the first means for connecting with a computer via a communication path.

In the first means, the image processing means can be achieved by a second means having a function of analyzing a format of information recorded in the disk drive.

[0014]

In the present invention, a small disk drive of about 3.5 inch size, information storage means having a buffer memory, compression / expansion means for compressing / expanding image information, and a micro controller for controlling the whole. By connecting the device in which the control means such as the processor is integrally incorporated to the personal computer, the disk drive does not need a high data transfer speed or access time.

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a filing apparatus according to an embodiment.

In the filing apparatus 1 of this embodiment, the image processing board 2 and the disk drive 11 are housed in the same housing. The disk drive 11 is a flexible disk drive having a disk diameter of 3.5 inches, for example, a floppy disk made by INSITE.
To use. The filing device 1 is configured to be connected to the personal computer 3 by SCSI, like a normal external recording device. A scanner 4 or a facsimile 5 is connected to the personal computer 3 as an input device.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the filing apparatus according to the embodiment.

In the figure, 2 is an image processing board, 21 is a SCSI control circuit, 22 is an MPU, 23 is a compression / expansion circuit, and 24 is a memory.

The actual operation of the above embodiment will be described below. First, information is input according to the following procedure.

For documents and drawings to be filed, use the scanner 4 and the facsimile 5 connected to the personal computer 3,
It is read into the personal computer 3 as image data. The above image data read into the personal computer 3 is SCSI
Through the image processing board 2. The image processing board 2 creates a reduced image for retrieval from the above image data, and then uses the compression / expansion circuit 23 for an MMR (Modified Modify) adopted in a G4 facsimile or the like.
d Relative Element Addresses
s Designate) method to compress to about 1/10. The image processing board 2 records the compressed original image and search image on the flexible disk by directly controlling the disk drive 11. When an A4 size document is converted into image data at a resolution of 200 dpi, the data amount becomes about 0.5 MB. If the flexible disk has a capacity of 20 MB, one disk can store about 300 A4 size documents.

The retrieval of the filed information is performed in the following procedure.

When the flexible disk on which information is recorded is inserted into the disk drive 11, the reduced image data for search compressed by the image processing board 2 is read from the disk drive 11 into the memory 24. The personal computer 3 reads the reduced image data for search which is expanded by the compression / expansion circuit 23 into the original image data.

FIG. 3 shows a user interface displayed on the display of the personal computer 3 during retrieval.

The reduced image for retrieval read from the image processing board 2 is displayed on a frame which is an image of a paper file. The user can display the reduced image data for search one after another by clicking a button on the screen with a mouse or by an instruction from the keyboard. It is also possible to move an arbitrary page by selecting a label attached to a frame which is an image of a paper file.
By the above operation, the target document can be searched.

At this time, since the reduced image data for retrieval is recorded in the memory 24, high-speed continuous page feeding becomes possible. In addition, in the above user interface,
It is possible to replace / delete pages, add / delete labels, and display a list of label titles.

When displaying the details of the retrieved page,
The procedure is as follows.

The image data compressed by the image processing board 2 is read from the flexible disk, expanded by the compression / expansion circuit 23 to the original image data, and then sent to the personal computer 3.

FIG. 4 shows a user interface displayed on the display of the personal computer 3.

Since the display of the personal computer 3 has a low resolution, only a part of the image is displayed on the window. By operating the scroll bar attached to the window with a mouse or the like, the user can move the display area vertically and horizontally to read the entire area. Even if the personal computer 3 does not have a memory for recording all the image data of one sheet, it can be dealt with by reading only the data of the portion necessary for display from the image processing board 2.

With the above configuration, the filing apparatus 1 is in charge of image processing and drive control, and the load on the computer side is reduced. As a result, it becomes possible to construct a system using the inexpensive personal computer 3.

Next, the recording method on the disc will be described.

In order that the disc drive 11 can be used from the personal computer 3 as an ordinary external recording device, the disc recording format is set to the OS of the personal computer 3.
(Operating system). At this time, generally, the OS of the personal computer 3 records the data in the disc free area which is found first. Therefore, when recording and erasing are repeated, as shown in FIG. It records discontinuously.
When reading the files recorded discontinuously, the disk drive 11 has an extremely low read speed as compared with the case of reading the files recorded continuously.

In this embodiment, the MPU 22 mounted on the image processing board 2 analyzes the disk format and always records the image data file in a continuous area as shown in FIG. If the continuous area cannot be secured, the disk data is temporarily saved in the memory 24, and the files recorded on the disk are rearranged so as to secure the continuous area.

The area securing method of this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, the FAT (file allocation table) of the disk is read (S1). From the read FAT, it is checked which position on the disc the free area is (S2). If there is a continuous area for recording a file (Y in S3), it is recorded in that position (S
5). If the area cannot be secured (N in S3), the already recorded file is temporarily saved in the memory 24,
Re-recording is performed so as to eliminate the empty area between files (S4). By repeating this, a continuous area for recording a file is secured, and the file is recorded at that position (S5). As a result, the image data file is recorded so that it can be read out most efficiently. With the above configuration, the disk drive 11 does not need a high data transfer speed or access time even when displaying image data continuously at high speed. As a result, the cost of the disk drive 11 can be suppressed.

In this embodiment, a floppy disk is used as the disk drive 11 as an example, but an optical disk drive, a floppy disk drive, a replaceable hard disk drive, a deep drive, etc. can be used as the disk drive 11.

[0038]

As described above, by adopting the configuration of the present invention, an expensive disk drive having a high data transfer speed and access time is not required, and it can be used by being connected to a general personal computer. Therefore, it is possible to realize a filing device that is inexpensive and can be used with a simple operation.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a filing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a filing apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a user interface of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a user interface of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an example in which files are discontinuously recorded on a disc.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing an example in which files are continuously recorded on a disc.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the operation of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a conventional filing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Filing Device 2 Image Processing Board (Image Processing Circuit) 3 Personal Computer 11 Disk Drive 21 SCSI Control Circuit (Information Input / Output Means) 22 MPU (Control Means) 23 Compression / Expansion Circuit (Compression / Expansion Means) 24 Memory (Information Storage Means)

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An image information compression / expansion means, an information storage means having a semiconductor memory for storing the image information, and an information input / output means for inputting / outputting information to / from an external device. An image processing circuit having control means for controlling the whole and a disc drive capable of recording / reproducing information and exchanging a medium are provided, and these units are connected to a computer via the same communication path. A filing device characterized in that 2. The filing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image processing means has a function of analyzing a format of information recorded in the disk drive.