JPH0821040B2 - Image information transfer method for image file system - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image file system in which a large amount of image information such as documents and drawings is stored in a recording medium such as an optical disk and the information is appropriately reproduced and used. The present invention relates to an image information transfer method.

2. Description of the Related Art An image file system is known in which a file server (image information means) and various workstations, facsimile communication devices, etc. are connected via a network. In the workstation, the image information read from the document by the scanner can be registered in the file server, and the image information retrieved from the file server can be displayed on the display or printed by the printer. In the facsimile communication device, image information sent from another facsimile device can be registered in a file server, or image information retrieved from the file server can be sent to another facsimile device.

Image information whose data amount has been reduced by encoding in a predetermined system is registered in the file server. When the image information is transferred from the file server to the workstation or the facsimile communication device, the image information reproduced from the recording medium is transferred as it is (the above-mentioned encoded information format).

An image using device (workstation, facsimile communication device, etc.) that receives the image information from the file server performs conversion processing of the size, resolution, and encoding method of the image information according to the usage format. For example B5
The required pre-processing (size and resolution conversion processing) differs between printing on a printer for A1 and printing on a printer for A1. Further, in the case of facsimile communication, it is necessary to change the size, resolution, and coding method of image information depending on the type of communication line and the destination device.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention There are various sizes of originals to be registered in the file server, and there are several types of scanners for reading the originals, from B edition to A1 edition. The resolution of the scanner matches the level of the printer, and is about 8 to 16 dots / mm.
This is higher than the resolution of a typical display of 4-8 dots / mm.

Transferring high-resolution image information from the file server to the workstation, reducing the resolution there, and then displaying it on the display means that more image information is being transferred than is necessary, thus reducing wasteful transfer time. You are paying for it. This waste is further increased when the size of the image information is large.

This problem leads to a problem that it is not possible to sufficiently speed up the process of transferring and displaying image information one after another from the file server to the workstation and providing it for a necessary image search such as so-called page turning.

In addition, each device that receives the image information supplied from the file server corresponds to the image information of the maximum size (the maximum amount of information) with the highest resolution as the page memory that buffers the transferred image information. A large amount of memory must be prepared, and it may be wasted in comparison with the amount of information actually used effectively.

The same applies to the case of a facsimile communication device.
Since the size, resolution, and coding method of the image information are converted according to the function of the other party, not all the amount of information transferred from the file server is used effectively.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, and an object thereof is to eliminate waste when transferring image information from an image storage means to an image use means, and also reduce hardware cost of the entire system. An object of the present invention is to provide a method of transferring image information of an image file system which can be performed.

Therefore, in the present invention, in the present invention, an image storage device that stores image information is connected to the image storage device via a transmission line of a network, and an arbitrary image is taken out from the image storage device. In an image file system having an image using device to be used, a transmission command group including an instruction command for search and a request command indicating the size, resolution, and encoding method of the transferred image is transmitted from the image using device to the image. A function response command that is sent to a storage device and that the image storage device responds to the instruction command, and information indicating the transfer state of the image to be transferred that responds to the request command, the registration state registered in the image storage means. The response command group including the request response command of the information indicating The image storage device converts the image information in the image storage device according to the size, resolution, and encoding method and transfers the image information to the image using device.

Action The present invention transmits a group of transmission commands including an instruction command for retrieval and a request command indicating the size, resolution, and coding method of an image to be transferred from the image using apparatus to the image storage apparatus by the above-described configuration, A response command including a function response command for the storage device to respond to the instruction command, information indicating the transfer state of the image to be transferred in response to the request command, and a request response command for information indicating the registration state registered in the image storage means. While returning the group, the image size, resolution, and encoding method corresponding to the request command are converted in the image storage device, and the image information is transferred to the image utilization device.

FIG. 1 shows a configuration example of an image file system to which the present invention is applied. In this system, two workstations 6 and 10, a facsimile communication device 13, a file server 16 and a search server 19 are connected to a transmission line 20 of the network.

The workstation 6 controls an image display 1 for displaying image information, a keyboard 2, an image scanner 3 for reading image information from a document, an image printer 4 for printing out image information, and these. And a control device 5 for Similarly, the workstation 10 comprises an image display 7, a keyboard 8 and a controller 9.

The facsimile communication device 13 is connected to another facsimile device 11 via the public telephone line network 12.

The file server 16 is an optical disc deck 14 that records / reproduces information on / from an optical disc that stores a plurality of discs.
And a control device 15 for controlling it.

The search server 19 includes a hard disk device 17 for registering a keyword added to each image information of the file server 16, and a control device 18 that controls the hard disk device 17 and searches for the corresponding image information from the keyword.

FIG. 2 shows a configuration example of the control device 15 in the file server 16. The control device 15 stores a central processing unit (CPU) 22 that controls the entire device, a ROM 23 that stores a program necessary to operate the CPU 22, and information and data that are necessary to operate the CPU 22. RAM24 for
An interface section 25 for connecting to the optical disc deck 14, an image memory 26 for temporarily storing image information, and a decoding circuit 27 for returning encoded image information to raw image information. An image information conversion circuit 28 for converting the size and resolution of raw image information, an encoding circuit 29 for encoding raw image information, and an image information selector 30 for controlling the flow of processing of image information. And an interface unit 31 for connecting to a network.

FIG. 3 shows a configuration example of the control device 5 in the workstation 6. The control device 5 includes a CPU 32 that controls the entire device, a ROM 33 that stores a program required to operate the CPU 32, a RAM 34 that stores information and data required to operate the CPU 22, An interface unit 35 for connecting the display 1 and the keyboard 2, an interface unit 36 for connecting the image scanner 3 and the image printer 4, and an encoding circuit 37 for encoding the raw image information read by the scanner 3. A decoding circuit 38 for returning encoded image information to raw image information, an image memory 39 for temporarily storing image information, and an interface section 40 for connecting to a network.

FIG. 4 shows the contents of the command for retrieving image information from the file server 16. This command is sent from the workstation 6, 10 or the facsimile communication device 13 to the file server 16.

In FIG. 4, "address" indicates an address on the network, which is the address of the other party to which this command is sent and its own address. The "process number" is a number sequentially assigned to each command on the side that issues the command. The command is, for example, a command such as search or registration.
The "optical disc number" indicates the number of the optical disc that contains the image information to be taken out of the plurality of optical discs in the file server 16, the "file number" indicates the number of the file on the optical disc, and the "document number" indicates the file. Indicates the number of the document in the document, and "page number" indicates the number of the page in the document. These optical disc number, file number,
The image information to be taken out is specified by the document number / page number.

The "requested image size" refers to the size of the image when transferring image information (for example, A4 or B4), and the "requested resolution" is the same as the transfer resolution (for example, 8dot / mm or 1
6dot / mm, etc.), and the "request encoding method" indicates the encoding method of information at the time of transfer. A request is made to the file server 16 for these sizes, resolutions, and encoding methods, and they are specified.

FIG. 5 shows the response contents to the above command. When the processing is completed in the file server 16, this response is sent to the device (workstation 6 or 10 or the facsimile communication device 13) which issued the command, and then Transfer the requested image information to.

In FIG. 5, "address" is the same as the address of the command, and "process number" corresponds to the process number of the command and has the same number. The "completion status" indicates that the processing for the command has been completed. The "transfer image size", "transfer resolution", and "transfer coding method" indicate the size, resolution, and coding method of the image information transferred after this response. It is the same as the resolution / coding method. However, for example, when the requested image size is designated as "is still registered in the optical disc", the transfer image size is the registered image size. Furthermore, the "registered image size", "registered resolution", and "registered encoding method" indicate the size, resolution, and encoding method in which the requested image information is registered in the optical disc.

Next, the flow of operations when image information is extracted from the file server 16 to the workstation 6 will be described.

First, the workstation 6 issues the search command shown in FIG. 4 to the file server 16. File server 16
In the controller 15 of the above, the network interface unit 31 receives the above command and transmits it to the CPU 22. CPU
22 is an optical disc deck according to the contents of the command.
Corresponding image information is read from the optical disc deck 14 through the interface unit 25 and stored in the image memory 26.
Next, the image information is read from the image memory 26, restored to the raw image information by the decoding circuit 27, converted to the size and resolution specified by the image information conversion circuit 28, and further converted by the method specified by the encoding circuit 29. The encoded and processed image information is transferred from the network interface unit 31 to the workstation 6 through the selector 30. In the workstation 6, the transferred image information is transferred to the image memory through the network interface 40.
Temporarily store in 39, read it out and decryption circuit 38
Return to the raw image information, and display it on the display 1, for example.

FIG. 6 shows an example of conversion processing in the image information conversion circuit 28. In this example, the resolution is converted from 8dot / mm to 4dot / mm without changing the image size. n represents the number of dots of the image information in the main scanning direction, and 1 represents the number of dots in the sub scanning direction. The dot marked with a circle is taken out and output from the conversion circuit 28.

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, a transmission command group including an instruction command for retrieval and a request command indicating the size, resolution, and coding method of an image to be transmitted is transmitted from the image using apparatus to the image storage apparatus. Then, the image storage device displays a function response command in response to the instruction command, information indicating the transfer state of the image to be transferred in response to the request command, and a request response command of information indicating the registration state registered in the image storage means. In addition to returning the response command group including the image, the image size, resolution, and
Since the image is converted into the encoding method in the image storage device and the image information is transferred to the image using device, it is possible to eliminate the waste of transferring an excessive amount of information.

Further, it is not necessary to provide the page memory with the maximum capacity in all the image utilizing means, and it is possible to use the memory capacity suitable for the usage form. Similarly, some types of image utilization means do not need to be provided with a size or resolution conversion circuit. Therefore, the hardware design can be made more rational and the system cost can be reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of an image file system to which the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram showing an example of a file server controller, and FIG. 3 is an example of a workstation controller. A schematic configuration block diagram showing
FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram showing the command contents when the image information is retrieved from the file server, FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram showing the response contents to the command, and FIG. 6 is a conversion process in the image information conversion circuit in the file server. It is a conceptual diagram which shows an example. 6,10 ... Workstation, 13 ... Facsimile communication device, 16 ... File server, 20 ... Transmission line

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Internal reference number FI technical display location 9194-5L 370 B

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An image storage device for storing image information, and the image storage device, which is connected to the image storage device via a transmission line of a network, and which extracts and uses an arbitrary image from the image storage device. In the image file system, a transmission command group including an instruction command for search and a request command indicating the size, resolution, and encoding method of the image to be transferred is transmitted from the image using apparatus to the image storage apparatus, A function response command in which the storage device responds to the instruction command, and information indicating a transfer state of an image to be transferred in response to the request command,
A response command group including a request response command of information indicating a registration state registered in the image storage means is returned, and image information is stored in the image storage device in a size, resolution, and encoding method according to the request command. Is converted and transferred to the image utilizing apparatus.