Image reading device and image forming device

Abstract

To edit images of a plurality of pages included in a file easily.SOLUTION: An image reading device includes: a display part 121; a display control part 112; an input reception part 12; a page deletion device 113 for deleting a page corresponding to a page image displayed in the display part 121 from a file when the input reception part 12 receives an input; and a page sorting part 114 for, when the input reception part 12 receives rearrangement of the pages, recognizing a page number included in each page of the file, recognizing the order of the page numbers or characters in a predetermined region included in each page, and rearranging the pages in the predetermined character order. When rearranging the pages in the order of the page numbers, the page sorting part 114 deletes the pages with no page numbers. Or when rearranging the pages in the predetermined character order, the page sorting part deletes the pages with no characters in the predetermined region.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to an image reading device and an image forming device. [Background technology]

[0002] Patent Document 1 describes a method that allows users to adjust the arrangement of photos when creating a photo book. Patent Document 2 describes a method for identifying and deleting unnecessary photos and videos on a device. Patent Document 3 describes a method for controlling an image reading device that allows users to manage image editing and reading using digital data. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] US9219830B1 [Patent Document 2] CN107408212B [Patent Document 3] EP3024213B1 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] However, Patent Documents 1 to 3 do not specifically disclose a method for displaying data such as a document on a display unit of an image forming apparatus in the same state as when it is printed on paper and editing each page.

[0005] An object of the present invention is to enable easy editing of multi-page images contained in a file. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] An image reading device according to one aspect of the present invention comprises a display unit, a display control unit which causes an image of each page contained in a file to be displayed on the display unit, a deletion accepting unit which accepts input of an instruction to delete a page, a reordering accepting unit which accepts input of an instruction to rearrange the pages, a page deletion unit which, when the deletion accepting unit accepts input, deletes from the file a page corresponding to the page image being displayed by the display unit, and a page sorting unit which, when the reordering accepting unit accepts the page rearrangement, recognizes the page numbers contained in each page of the file and rearranges the pages in the order of the page numbers, or recognizes characters in a predetermined area contained in each page and rearranges the pages in a predetermined character order, wherein the page sorting unit deletes pages without page numbers when rearranging the pages in the order of page numbers, or deletes pages without characters in the predetermined area when rearranging the pages in the predetermined character order.

[0007] An image forming apparatus according to one aspect of the present invention includes the image reading apparatus according to one aspect of the present invention, and an image forming section that forms an image on a recording medium. Effect of the Invention

[0008] According to the present invention, the page sorting unit extracts page numbers and characters from the pages and sorts the pages according to the extracted page numbers and characters, so that the pages can be easily sorted even after the image reading unit reads a stack of documents with random pages. Furthermore, if the page numbers and characters that serve as the basis for sorting the pages are not extracted from the pages, the page sorting unit deletes the pages from the file, so that pages that are not desired to be included in the file can be easily excluded from the file. Therefore, according to the present invention, images of multiple pages included in a file can be easily edited. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0009] [Figure 1] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an electrical configuration of the image forming apparatus. [Diagram 2]11 is a flowchart showing the flow of a page deletion process in the present embodiment. [Diagram 3] FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed by a display unit. [Figure 4] FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed by a display unit. [Diagram 5] FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed by a display unit. [Figure 6] 11 is a flowchart showing an example of a page rearrangement process according to the present embodiment. [Figure 7] FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed by a display unit. [Figure 8] FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed by a display unit. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0010] An image reading device and an image forming device according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Note that in this embodiment, an image forming device equipped with an image reading device according to the present invention will be described as an example. Fig. 1 is a diagram showing the electrical configuration of an image forming device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0011] The image forming apparatus 1 is configured to include a control unit 11, an input receiving section 12, an image reading section 13, an image forming section 14, a storage section 15, and a communication section 16. The input receiving section 12 includes hardware keys such as a decision key for confirming various operations and settings and a start key, and a display section 121. The input receiving section 12 is an example of a deletion receiving section, a rearrangement receiving section, and an input receiving section in the claims. The display section 121 is, for example, an LCD (liquid crystal display) or the like, and displays an operation screen, messages, and the like. The display section 121 may be configured integrally with a touch panel.

[0012] The image reading unit 13 includes a scanner and the like, and reads an image of a document to obtain the document image. The image reading unit 13 also includes an automatic document feeder (ADF) and continuously reads a stack of documents consisting of multiple documents. The image forming unit 14 prints the document image read by the image reading unit 13 and the data stored in the memory unit 15 on paper.

[0013] The storage unit 15 is a large-capacity storage device consisting of an SSD (Solid State Drive) or an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) that stores image data, various programs, data tables, etc. The communication unit 16 is composed of a communication module, etc., and transmits and receives various data to and from external devices via a network.

[0014] The control unit 11 is composed of a processor, a RAM (Random Access Memory), a ROM (Read Only Memory), etc. The processor is a CPU (Central Processing Unit), an MPU (Micro Processing Unit), an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), etc. The control unit 11 functions as a control unit 111, a display control unit 112, a page deletion unit 113, and a page sorting unit 114 by the processor executing a control program stored in the ROM, etc. Note that each of the above-mentioned parts of the control unit 11 may be composed of a hardware circuit, regardless of the operation based on the control program.

[0015] The control unit 111 is responsible for controlling the overall operation of the image forming apparatus 1. The display control unit 112 controls the display of the display unit 121.

[0016] The page deletion unit 113 deletes the page displayed on the display unit 121 from the file in accordance with the operation input received by the input reception unit 12. The page sorting unit 114 rearranges the pages included in the file in accordance with the operation input received by the input reception unit 12. Details of this page rearrangement will be explained later. Note that the file referred to here includes both a file (e.g., a PDF file) consisting of image data having a page concept and including images of multiple pages, and an image group consisting of multiple original images obtained by the image reading unit 13 by reading the original continuously in one go.

[0017] Next, a flow of a page deletion process by the image forming apparatus 1 will be described. Fig. 2 is a flowchart showing the flow of the page deletion process in the present embodiment. Figs. 3 to 7 are diagrams showing examples of display screens displayed by the display unit 121.

[0018] First, in accordance with an original reading instruction input to the input receiving unit 12 by a user operation, the control unit 111 causes the image reading unit 13 to continuously read an original stack consisting of a plurality of originals at once (S1).

[0019] Alternatively, in accordance with a list display instruction input to the input receiving unit 12 by a user operation, the control unit 111 displays a list of files stored in the storage unit 15 (S1). The storage unit 15 has, for example, user boxes created for each user account in its storage area. Files are stored in the user boxes.

[0020] 3 is a diagram showing an example of a list of files stored in a user box. The control unit 111 causes the display unit 121 to display a list showing each file stored in the user box as in list screen G1. When list screen G1 is displayed, when the user touches check box 71 of the file name of the page for which the user wishes to edit, and touches preview button 72, an instruction to specify the file to be edited and an instruction to edit are received by the control unit 111 via the touch panel.

[0021] Then, the display control unit 112 analyzes the file specified by the file specification instruction, and displays a preview screen G2 on the display unit 121 to preview the page images included in the file one page at a time (page P1) as shown in Fig. 4 (S2). Furthermore, the display control unit 112 displays operation keys such as print, page delete, page rearrangement, and save. Also, in S1, when the image reading unit 13 is caused to read a document stack consisting of multiple documents at once by continuous reading, the display control unit 112 previews each document image obtained by document reading one page at a time on the preview screen G2 as shown in Fig. 4.

[0022] When the user touches the arrow key 73 or 74, the display control unit 112 accepts a page switching instruction via the touch panel and switches the page image displayed on the display unit 121. When the user touches the check box 77 and then touches the delete key 75, the page deletion unit 113 accepts a delete instruction via the touch panel (YES in S3) and deletes the displayed page (page P1) from the file (S4). When the page deletion is completed in this manner, the display control unit 112 displays a preview screen G2 that displays each page one by one after deleting the target page, as shown in FIG. 5. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a preview screen after deleting the fifth page shown in FIG. 4. When the page deletion unit 113 does not accept a delete instruction (NO in S3), the process proceeds to S5.

[0023] 5, the page deletion unit 113 has deleted the fifth page in accordance with the user's instruction, and as a result, the display control unit 112 has changed the total number of pages from 40 to 39, and furthermore has the display unit 121 display an image of the page next to the fifth page (the sixth page). At this point, when the user touches the save key 76 and the control unit 111 receives a data save instruction via the touch panel (YES in S5), the file including the contents of the pages other than the page (here, the fifth page) deleted based on the deletion instruction up to this point is overwritten and saved in the storage unit 15 (S6). Note that when the control unit 111 does not receive a page save instruction (NO in S5), the process is repeated from S2.

[0024] Next, the page rearrangement process will be described. Fig. 6 is a flow chart showing an example of the page rearrangement process. When the user touches the rearrangement key 78 while the preview screen G2 is displayed, the display control unit 112 receives a page rearrangement editing instruction via the touch panel, and displays the page rearrangement screen G3, an example of which is shown in Fig. 7.

[0025] In the page rearrangement process, the page sort unit 114 converts character images in an image showing a page into text using optical character recognition (OCR) technology or the like, and rearranges the pages in order of page number, or in a predetermined character order based on characters arranged in a predetermined area. The predetermined character order is alphabetical order, Japanese syllabary order, etc. The first character existing in a predetermined area on each page is the target. In this embodiment, the page sorting is described as being performed in alphabetical order.

[0026] Furthermore, based on instructions input by the user, the page sorting unit 114 deletes from the file pages from which page numbers were not extracted or pages from which characters were not extracted within a predetermined area, or creates a separate file consisting of only those pages.

[0027] When the page sorting screen G3 is displayed, the user selects check boxes 81 and 82 and touches execute key 87, which causes page sorting unit 114 to accept, via the touch panel, (i) an instruction to sort in page number order, and an instruction to delete from the file pages whose page numbers were not extracted from the page images. Also, when the user selects check boxes 81 and 83 and touches execute key 87, the page sorting unit 114 accepts, via the touch panel, (ii) an instruction to sort in page number order, and an instruction to collect pages whose page numbers were not extracted from the page images and create a separate file (S11).

[0028] When the page sorting screen G3 is displayed, the user selects check boxes 84 and 85 and touches execute key 87, causing page sorting unit 114 to receive, via the touch panel, (iii) an instruction to sort in alphabetical order based on the text present in a predetermined area, and an instruction to delete from the file pages from which no characters have been extracted in the predetermined area (S11). When the user selects check boxes 84 and 86 and touches execute key 87, causing page sorting unit 114 to receive, via the touch panel, (iv) an instruction to sort in alphabetical order based on the text present in the predetermined area, and an instruction to collect pages from which no characters have been extracted in the predetermined area and create a separate file (S11).

[0029] When the above instruction (i) or (ii) is received from the user ((i)(ii) in S12), the page sorting unit 114 converts character images into text for each page of the file using optical character recognition technology, and extracts text corresponding to the page number (S13). Page numbers often exist in the same font and character size in the upper and lower areas of an image (header and footer areas), and are numbers next to specific characters or symbols such as "Page 1", "Page 2", ..., "-1-", "-2-", ..., so the page sorting unit 114 extracts the page number by referring to these conditions.

[0030] Here, if the page sorting unit 114 has received the instruction (i) above regarding a page from which the page number could not be extracted ((i) in S14), the page sorting unit 114 deletes the page from which the page number could not be extracted from the file (S15).

[0031] Then, page sort unit 114 rearranges the pages of the file from which the pages for which the page numbers could not be extracted have been deleted in ascending or descending order according to the extracted page numbers (S25).

[0032] Furthermore, if the page sorting unit 114 has received the instruction (ii) above for a page for which the page number could not be extracted ((ii) in S14), it deletes the page for which the page number could not be extracted from the file and creates a separate file containing only the deleted pages (S16). After this, the page sorting unit 114 rearranges each page of the deleted file in ascending or descending order according to the extracted page number (S25).

[0033] When the above instruction (iii) or (iv) is received from the user ((iii)(iv) in S12), the page sorting unit 114 converts character images within a predetermined area contained on each page of the file into text using optical character recognition technology (S20).

[0034] Note that when the above instruction (iii) or (iv) is received from the user while the page rearrangement screen G3 is being displayed, the predetermined area included in the page is determined by, for example, tracing a rectangular or circular outline of an area in preview image P3 of the page rearrangement screen G3 that includes characters to be used as the basis for rearrangement, and the area enclosed by the enclosing operation is accepted by page sorting unit 114 as the above predetermined area via the touch panel. Page sorting unit 114 converts only the above predetermined area specified by the user on each page into text using optical character recognition technology or the like.

[0035] Furthermore, when the page sorting unit 114 receives the instruction (iii) above regarding a page that has no characters in the predetermined area ((iii) in S21), it deletes the page that has no characters in the predetermined area from the file (S22).Then, the page sorting unit 114 rearranges the pages of the file from which the pages that have no characters in the predetermined area have been deleted in ascending or descending order according to the extracted page numbers (S25).

[0036] Furthermore, if the page sorting unit 114 has received the instruction (iv) above regarding a page that has no characters in a predetermined area ((iv) in S21), it deletes the page that has no characters in a predetermined area from the file and creates a separate file that includes only those pages (S23).The page sorting unit 114 then rearranges the pages of the deleted file in ascending or descending order according to the extracted page numbers (S25).

[0037] 8 is a diagram showing an example of a list screen displayed on display unit 121 after page sort unit 114 has sorted pages in order of page number and created a separate file for pages for which page numbers were not extracted from the images. Page sort unit 114 sorts the pages in the "Document1" file, and creates a file called "Separate file of Document1" by grouping together pages for which there is no page number or text in a predetermined area. Display control unit 112 adds "Separate file of Document1" to the file list and displays it on list screen G4.

[0038] As described above, according to the above embodiment, the page sorting unit 114 extracts page numbers or alphabets and rearranges the pages in numerical or alphabetical order, so that even if the pages of a stack of documents read by the image reading unit 13 are out of order, the pages can be easily rearranged in page order after scanning. Furthermore, according to the above embodiment, even if the image reading unit 13 reads a stack of documents that are, for example, multiple questionnaires or the like that have the same format but differ only in the name writing area and answer writing area, the scanned document images can be easily rearranged in alphabetical order.

[0039] Furthermore, if a page number, alphabet, etc. is not extracted from a page, the page sorting unit 114 deletes the page from the file, or creates a separate file that compiles the pages, making it easy to exclude pages that you do not want to include in the file.

[0040] The present invention is not limited to the configurations of the above-described embodiments, and various modifications are possible. For example, a page order designation instruction that designates a page order is input to the input reception unit 12 based on an operation by a user. At this time, when the page sort unit 114 rearranges pages based on the order of page numbers according to the contents of the page order designation instruction, if there are multiple pages with the same page order, the page sort unit 114 determines the order of pages with the same page order according to the contents of the page order designation instruction input by the user to the input reception unit 12. The contents of the page order designation instruction include, for example, when the characters "page 1", "page 2", ... are extracted to determine the page order, if there are multiple pages with the same page order, and if another specific character or symbol such as "-1-", "-2-", ... is extracted, the order of pages is determined based on the page order indicated by the other specific character or symbol, or the page order indicated by the other specific character or symbol is determined based on the presence or absence of a page order indicated by the other specific character or symbol.

[0041] Furthermore, when the page sorting unit 114 rearranges pages based on a predetermined character order for characters arranged in a predetermined area, even if there are multiple pages with the same page order, it determines the order of pages in the same page order according to the contents of the page order designation instruction input by the user to the input receiving unit 12. The contents of the page order designation instruction include, for example, determining the order of pages in alphabetical order or alphabetical order based on the second character when the page order is determined in alphabetical order or alphabetical order based on the first character.

[0042] Moreover, the configuration and processing of the embodiment described above with reference to FIGS. 1 to 8 are merely one embodiment of the present invention, and it is not intended that the present invention be limited to these configurations and processing. [Explanation of symbols]

[0043] 1. Image forming device 11 Control unit 111 Control section 112 Display control unit Page 113 Deleted 114 Page sorting section 12 Input reception section 121 Display section 13 Image reading unit 14 Image forming section 15 Storage section 16 Communications Department

Claims

1. A display unit; a display control unit that causes an image of each page included in the file to be displayed on the display unit; a deletion receiving unit that receives an instruction to delete a page; a rearrangement receiving unit that receives an instruction input for rearrangement of pages; a page deletion unit that deletes a page corresponding to the page image displayed on the display unit from the file when the deletion reception unit receives an input; a page sorting unit that, when the rearrangement receiving unit receives a rearrangement of pages, recognizes page numbers included in each page of the file and rearranges the pages in the order of the page numbers, or recognizes characters in a predetermined area included in each page and rearranges the pages in a predetermined character order; The page sorting unit deletes pages that do not have page numbers when sorting the pages in order of page numbers, or deletes pages that do not have characters in the predetermined area when sorting the pages in the predetermined character order.

2. The page sort unit is When rearranging the pages in the order of page numbers, if a page without a page number is deleted, a different file is created by collecting only the pages without the page number, Alternatively, the image reading device according to claim 1 , wherein when rearranging the pages in the predetermined character order, if a page that has no characters in the predetermined area is deleted, a different file is created by combining only the pages that have no characters in the predetermined area.

3. 3. The image reading device according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined character order is alphabetical order or Japanese syllabary order.

4. further comprising an input receiving unit for inputting a page order designation instruction for designating a page order; 2. The image reading device according to claim 1, wherein when rearranging the pages contained in the file based on the order of the page numbers or the predetermined character order, if there are multiple pages with the same page order, the page sorting unit determines which of the multiple pages with the same page order is in the order of the pages in accordance with a page order designation instruction input to the input receiving unit.

5. The image reading device according to claim 1 ; and an image forming section that forms an image on a recording medium.

Images