Information processing device
The information processing device addresses the challenge of combining and rearranging pages in multiple document files by using a heading extraction and sorting mechanism, enabling efficient file merging and page organization.
Patent Information
- Authority / Receiving Office
- JP · JP
- Patent Type
- Applications
- Current Assignee / Owner
- KYOCERA DOCUMENT SOLUTIONS INC
- Filing Date
- 2024-12-11
- Publication Date
- 2026-06-23
AI Technical Summary
Existing technologies do not provide a method for extracting headings from multiple document files and rearranging pages based on these headings to combine them into a single document file.
An information processing device with a heading extraction unit to identify headings and specific information before and after them, a page sorting unit to arrange pages according to these headings, and a file merging unit to combine the pages into a single document file.
Facilitates easy rearrangement and merging of pages across multiple document files by extracting headings and specific information, allowing for efficient organization and combination of pages into a unified document.
Smart Images
Figure 2026101767000001_ABST
Abstract
Description
Technical Field
[0001] The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus that rearranges each page included in a plurality of document files and combines them into one document file.
Background Art
[0002] Patent Document 1 describes a technique for a user to identify differences in documents and create a consistent document when handling multiple versions of documents generated in drafting, editing, collaborative work, etc.
[0003] Also, Patent Document 2 describes a technique for identifying the document schemas of both the first document and the second document, mapping the tags of the first document to the second document based on the identification result, and merging the formatted parts of the first document into the corresponding parts of the second document.
Prior Art Documents
Patent Documents
[0004]
Patent Document 1
Patent Document 2
Summary of the Invention
Problems to be Solved by the Invention
[0005] However, Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 do not describe a technique for extracting headings from a plurality of specified document files and rearranging the pages constituting the document files based on the headings.
[0006] An object of the present invention is to rearrange each page included in a plurality of different document files and combine them into one document file.
Means for Solving the Problems
[0007] The information processing device of the present invention comprises a heading extraction unit that extracts predetermined headings and specific information placed before and after the headings from the pages constituting the source file and the pages constituting the target file, respectively, with respect to a source file and a target file which are document files; a page sorting unit that arranges all pages of the source file and the target file in the order indicated by the headings and specific information placed before and after the headings extracted by the heading extraction unit; and a file merging unit that combines all the pages arranged by the page sorting unit into a single document file. [Effects of the Invention]
[0008] According to the present invention, the heading extraction unit extracts headings and specific information before and after them from each page constituting the source file and the target file, the page sorting unit arranges each page according to the order indicated by the headings and specific information, and the file merging unit combines each of these pages into a single document file, thereby easily rearranging pages at the same time as merging files. [Brief explanation of the drawing]
[0009] [Figure 1] This diagram shows the electrical configuration of an information processing device. [Figure 2] This is a flowchart illustrating the file merging process. [Figure 3] This figure shows an example of how a screen window is displayed. [Figure 4] This figure shows an example of how a screen window is displayed. [Figure 5] This diagram shows how pages are rearranged. [Figure 6] This figure shows an example of how a screen window is displayed. [Figure 7] This is a flowchart illustrating the process of manually merging files. [Figure 8]This figure shows an example of how a screen window is displayed. [Figure 9] This figure shows an example of how a screen window is displayed. [Figure 10] This figure shows an example of how a screen window is displayed. [Modes for carrying out the invention]
[0010] Hereinafter, an information processing device according to one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Figure 1 is a diagram showing the electrical configuration of an information processing device 1 according to one embodiment of the present invention. The information processing device 1 includes a control unit 11, an input receiving unit 12, a display unit 13, and a storage unit 14, etc.
[0011] The input receiving unit 12 is a pointing device such as a keyboard or mouse. The input receiving unit 12 receives various instructions from the user. The display unit 13 consists of a liquid crystal display (LCD) or an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display, and displays operation screens, messages, etc. In this embodiment, an example is shown in which the display unit 13 is integrated with a touch panel (which is also an example of the input receiving unit 12).
[0012] The storage unit 14 is a large-capacity storage device consisting of an SSD (Solid State Drive) or HDD (Hard Disk Drive) that stores various programs, data tables, etc. The storage unit 14 also stores, for example, multiple document files 141 (document file 141a, document file 141b).
[0013] The control unit 11 is composed of a processor, a RAM (Random Access Memory), a ROM (Read Only Memory), and the like. The processor is a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a MPU (Micro Processing Unit), an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), or the like. The control unit 11 functions as a control section 111, a character recognition section 112, a heading extraction section 113, a page sorting section 114, and a file combining section 115 by executing a control program stored in the ROM or the like by the processor. The control section 111 is in charge of the overall operation control of the information processing device 1.
[0014] The character recognition section 112 performs character recognition of an image using, for example, OCR (Optical Character Recognition) processing and converts it into text data. The heading extraction section 113 extracts a predetermined heading and specific information before and after the heading from the text data converted by the character recognition section 112. The page sorting section 114 rearranges the pages according to the order indicated by the heading extracted by the heading extraction section 113 and the specific information before and after the heading, and generates one file. The file combining section 115 combines the pages arranged by the page sorting section 114 into one document file.
[0015] In the present embodiment, the heading extraction section 113 extracts a predetermined heading and specific information arranged before and after the heading from the pages constituting the source file and the target file, which are document files. The page sorting section 114 arranges all the pages of the source file and the target file in the order indicated by the heading extracted by the heading extraction section and the specific information arranged before and after the heading, taking into account all the pages.
[0016] In addition, the above-mentioned predetermined headings are, for example, words indicating the start of paragraphs such as "n parts", "n chapters", "n sections", "n items", "Part n", "Chapter n", "Section n", "Sub-Section n", etc.). Here, "n" is a character type indicating specific information. The above specific information indicates a predetermined character type having an order rule such as numbers, alphabets, etc. In the present embodiment, the case where the specific information is a number is shown as an example.
[0017] FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the flow of file combining processing according to an embodiment of the present invention. The combining processing is a process in which a heading extraction unit 113 extracts the heading numbers from each page included in two files (source file and target file) selected by a user, and a page sorting unit sorts each page according to the headings extracted by the heading extraction unit 113 and the numbers (an example of specific information) before and after them, and combines them into one file.
[0018] The user selects each file as a source file and a target file from, for example, a document file stored in the storage unit 14 (a file in a format having a page concept and including images of each page. For example, a file in PDF format or Word format) via an input reception unit 12 (S111).
[0019] FIG. 3 is an example of an operation screen for prompting the selection of the above file, that is, a screen window for selecting a source file and a target file. When the user touches the button 21, the control unit 111 receives a file selection instruction via the touch panel, and according to this file selection instruction, causes the display unit 13 to display a list of document files 141 stored in the storage unit 14 as another screen window (not shown). When the user selects a source file from the list displayed in the other screen window (not shown), the control unit 111 reads the selected document file from the storage unit 14 as the source file.
[0020] Furthermore, when the user touches button 22, the control unit 111 receives a file selection instruction via the touch panel and, in accordance with this file selection instruction, displays a list of document files 141 stored in the storage unit 14 as a separate screen window (not shown) on the display unit 13. When the user selects a target file from the list displayed in this separate screen window (not shown), the control unit 111 reads the selected document file from the storage unit 14 as the target file.
[0021] Alternatively, the input receiving unit 12 may accept the selection of a file as the source file by dropping an image representing the name or icon of a document file 141 to be used as the source file from another screen window (not shown) displaying a list of document files 141 onto the position of button 21. Similarly, the input receiving unit 12 may accept the selection of a file as the target file by dropping an image representing the name or icon of a document file 141 to be used as the target file from another screen window (not shown) onto the position of button 22.
[0022] When the control unit 111 receives and reads the selection of source and target files as described above, it creates thumbnail images of each page of the selected source file and each page of the target file, and displays them in the screen window of the display unit 13 (S112). Figure 4 shows an example of a screen window displaying the thumbnail images of each page of the source and target files. Here, the user touches button 31 to perform the merging process to combine the two files.
[0023] When the input reception unit 12 receives an automatic combination instruction based on the touch operation of the button 31, the character recognition unit 112 extracts images of each page of the source file and the target file, performs character recognition on each of these images using OCR processing or the like, and converts the character images indicating characters and the like included in each of these images into text data (S114). Then, the heading extraction unit 113 extracts any of the predetermined headings and the numbers (specific information) before and after them from the text data of each page of the source file and the target file (S115).
[0024] As shown in FIG. 5, assume that the source file is composed of page S1 and page S2, and the target file is composed of page T1 and page T2. In this example, the heading extraction unit 113 extracts "chapter", which is the character used as the heading, from the text data of each page as a predetermined heading, and also extracts the numbers before and after "chapter" as specific information at the same time. That is, the heading extraction unit 113 extracts "Chapter 1" from page S1, "Chapter 4" from page S2, "Chapter 2" from page T1, and "Chapter 3" from page T2.
[0025] In this embodiment, it has been described that after the character recognition unit 112 performs character recognition on the images of each page of the source file and the target file using OCR processing or the like and converts them into text data, the heading extraction unit 113 extracts the headings. However, when the source file and the target file are originally text data, the heading extraction unit 113 may directly extract the headings from the source file and the target file without performing OCR processing.
[0026] Then, the page sorting unit 114 combines the source file and the target file, and arranges each page in the order indicated by the headings and numbers extracted by the heading extraction unit 113 (S116). That is, as shown in the lower column of FIG. 5, the page sorting unit 114 arranges each page including the same heading ("chapter") in the order of the extracted numbers (page S1, page T1, page T2, page S2).
[0027] After that, as shown in Figure 6, the control unit 111 displays the page thumbnail images in the screen window of the display unit 13 in the order sorted by the page sorting unit 114. When the input reception unit 12 receives a merge instruction from the user based on the operation of the save button 41, the file merge unit 115 merges the sorted pages into a single file (target file) according to the merge instruction (S117), and the control unit 111 stores the merged file from the file merge unit 115 as a new file in the storage unit 14.
[0028] In this way, the heading extraction unit 113 extracts headings and the numbers before and after them from each page that makes up the selected document file, the page sorting unit 114 sorts each page based on the extraction results, and the file merging unit 115 merges them into a single document file, making it easy to merge files and rearrange pages at the same time.
[0029] Furthermore, when the control unit 111 displays the page thumbnail images in the order sorted by the page sorting unit 114 on the screen window of the display unit 13, as described above, if, for example, the user determines that the page sorting by the extraction unit 113 and the page sorting unit 114 was not performed as desired, the input reception unit 12 may receive a drag-and-drop instruction to move the page position via the touch panel, the page sorting unit 114 may sort the pages again according to the instruction, and the file merging unit 115 may merge each page into a single document file in the sorted order.
[0030] Next, we will describe a method for manually rearranging pages and combining multiple document files. Figure 7 is a flowchart showing the flow of the manual file merging process according to one embodiment of the present invention. The manual merging process in the present invention is a process in which all pages of two files selected by the user (source file and target file) are grouped together, the user rearranges each page in any order, and then the files are merged into one.
[0031] Processes S111 and S112 are the same as processes S111 and S112 in the file merging process shown in Figure 2, so a detailed explanation will be omitted. First, in the screen window shown in Figure 3, the user selects the source file and target file via the input reception unit 12, in the same manner as in the file merging process shown in Figure 2 (S111). Then, the control unit 111 creates thumbnail images of each page of the source file and each page of the target file, and displays them in the screen window of the display unit 13 as shown in Figure 4 (S112). Here, the user touches button 32 to merge the two files using a manual merging process.
[0032] The user then drags and drops each thumbnail image of the source file to the desired position on the page of each thumbnail image in the target file, and the input receiving unit 12 receives the rearrangement instruction via the touch panel (S121).
[0033] Figures 8 and 9 illustrate how thumbnail images from a source file can be moved to any page position of each thumbnail image in a target file using drag-and-drop. In Figure 8, the user specifies page S2 via the input reception unit 12. Page S2 is a page from Chapter 4, and the target file contains page T1 from Chapter 2 and page T2 from Chapter 3. The user wants to place page S2 after page T2 from Chapter 3, so they drag and drop page S2 to the position after page T2.
[0034] Next, as shown in Figure 9, the input receiving unit 12 receives a specification instruction from the user to specify page S1 using touch operation. Since page S1 is a page from Chapter 1, the user will place it before page T1 of Chapter 2 in the target file. Therefore, the input receiving unit 12 receives a page insertion instruction from the user to move page S1 to the position of the page before page T1 by drag and drop.
[0035] The control unit 111 displays an image on the display unit 13 showing the rearranged pages of the target file, in accordance with the page insertion instruction by moving the thumbnail image of the source file received by the input reception unit 12. Figure 10 shows an example of the screen window after moving page S1 to the page before page T1.
[0036] At this time, the page sorting unit 114 sorts the pages of the target file according to the page insertion instruction by moving the thumbnail image of the source file received by the input reception unit 12 (S122). Then, when the input reception unit 12 receives a merge instruction based on the user's operation of the save button 41, the file merge unit 115 merges the pages sorted by the page sorting unit 114 into a single file (S123). The control unit 111 stores the merged file from the file merge unit 115 in the storage unit 14.
[0037] In this way, the input receiving unit 12 receives instruction input to insert each page constituting the source file into any page position in the target file, the page sorting unit 114 inserts and sorts each page constituting the source file into the target file according to the instruction input received by the input receiving unit 12, and the file merging unit 115 merges the sorted pages from the page sorting unit 114 into a single document file, making it easy to perform file merging and page sorting simultaneously.
[0038] The present invention is not limited to the configuration of the above embodiments and various modifications are possible. Furthermore, the configuration and process shown in the above embodiments using Figures 1 to 10 are merely one embodiment of the present invention and are not intended to limit the present invention to such configuration and process. [Explanation of Symbols]
[0039] 1. Information Processing Device 11 Control Unit 111 Control Unit 112 Character recognition section 113 Headline Extraction Section Page 114, sorting section 115 File merging section 12 Input reception section 13 Display section 14 Storage section
Claims
1. Regarding source files and target files, which are document files, a heading extraction unit extracts predetermined headings and specific information placed before and after those headings from the pages constituting the source file and the pages constituting the target file. A page sorting unit arranges each page constituting the source file and each page constituting the target file in the order indicated by the headings extracted by the heading extraction unit and the specific information placed before and after the headings, totaling all pages. An information processing device comprising: a file merging unit that combines all the pages sorted by the page sorting unit into a single document file.
2. It further includes an input receiving unit that receives instructions from the user, The input receiving unit receives an instruction input to insert each page constituting the source file at any page position in the target file, The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the page sorting unit inserts and arranges each page constituting the source file into the target file according to an instruction input received by the input receiving unit to insert each page constituting the source file into the target file at an arbitrary page position in the target file, and the file merging unit merges all the pages arranged by the page sorting unit into a single document file.
3. Display unit and The system further comprises a control unit that causes each page contained in the source file and the target file to be displayed on the display unit, respectively. The input receiving unit is equipped with a touch panel provided on the display unit, The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the input receiving unit receives the instruction input based on a user's drag operation to insert each page constituting the source file into any page position of the target file.