Electronic filing apparatus

• US 5,572,726 A
• Filed: 09/16/1994
• Issued: 11/05/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 02/09/1989
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Hasuo, Kamon
• Primary Examiner(s): Bayerl, Raymond J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): KATBAB, ABDOLLAH
• Application Number:
  US08/307,034
• Time in Patent Office: 781 Days
• Field of Search: 395/600, 395/425, 364/413.22, 382/305, 382/306
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/532 Query formulation, e.g. graphical querying
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing

Abstract

An electronic data filing apparatus is disclosed, which includes a unit for displaying an index image for retrieval of data stored in a data storing medium, a unit for storing relative data representing a relation between the data and the index image, a unit for selecting at least one index image from a plurality of index images displayed on the displaying unit, a unit for selecting at least one index image from a plurality of index images displayed on the displaying unit, and a unit for executing retrieval of data according to index image selected by the selecting unit and relative data stored in the storing unit. When a plurality of index images are selected by the selecting unit the retrieval means executes retrieval of data with a combination of relative data corresponding to individual selected index images.

Claims

1. An electronic filing apparatus for retrieving desired image information from a storage medium storing a plurality of image information, said apparatus comprising:

storage means for prestoring a plurality of index images and relation data representative of a relation between each of the plurality of index images and each of the plurality of image information, the index image being an image of a predetermined size, representative of an index for retrieval of image information stored in said storage medium, each of the index images being able to be used as an index of the plurality of image information and being formed from an original image for index information;

display means having a plurality of display locations for displaying the index images read out from said storage means;

index image selection keys each provided for each row of the index images displayed by said display means, for tentatively selecting the index images of a row corresponding to each index image selection key;

a decision key for regularly selecting the index images tentatively selected by said index image selection keys;

display control means for changing a display mode of each of the index images of a row to be tentatively selected by said index image selection keys to a first display mode each time the index image selection key corresponding to the row is depressed, in order to indicate that the index image to be tentatively selected is changed and for changing the display mode of the index image displayed with the first display mode to a second display mode in response to depression of said decision key, in order to indicate that the index image displayed with the second display mode is regularly selected; and

retrieval means for retrieving more than one of the information stored in the storage medium according to the index images regularly selected by said decision key and the relation data stored in said storage means.

2. The electronic filing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said retrieval means executes retrieval of data under an AND condition of relative data for a plurality of index images selected in a same column and under an OR condition of relative data for a plurality of index images selected in different columns.

3. The electronic filing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said retrieval means executes retrieval of data under an OR condition of a plurality of index images selected in a same column and under an AND condition of relative data for a plurality of index images selected in different columns.

4. An electronic filing apparatus for retrieving desired image information from a storage medium storing a plurality of image information, said apparatus comprising:

storage means for prestoring a plurality of index images and relation data representative of a relation between each of the plurality of index images and each of the plurality of image information, the index image being an image of a predetermined size, representative of an index for retrieving the image information stored in the storage medium, each of the index images being able to be used as the index of the plurality of image information, and each of the index images being formed from an original image for formation of the index;

display means having a plurality of display locations, for displaying the index image read out from said storage means, at each of the display locations;

selecting means for selecting at least one of the plurality of index images displayed at the display locations; and

retrieval means for retrieving more than one of the information stored in the storage medium based on the at least one of the index images selected by said selecting means and the relation data stored in said storage means.

5. An electronic filing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the storage medium has a storage area storing the plurality of index images and said storage means stores the plurality of index images read out from the storage medium.

6. An electronic filing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said display means displays the plurality of index images in a matrix form.

7. An electronic filing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the retrieval means retrieves the image information under an OR condition when the plurality of index images in a same row are selected from the plurality of index images displayed in the matrix form by said selecting means, and said retrieval means retrieves the information under an AND condition when a plurality of index images in a same column are selected.

8. An electronic filing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said selecting means selects the at least one of the index images displayed by said display means by keys provided in a neighborhood of a display screen of said displaying means.

9. An electronic filing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the storage medium is a magnetic-optical disk.

10. An electronic filing apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising input means for inputting retrieval data to be used for retrieval of the image information stored in the storage medium by said retrieval means, the retrieval data being not an image but code data, wherein said retrieval means retrieves the image information on the basis of the index image selected by said selecting means and the retrieval data input by said input means.

11. An electronic filing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said display means displays the retrieval data input by said input means together with the index image.

12. An electronic filing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the retrieval data input by said input means includes a character code.

13. An electronic filing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said retrieval data input by said input means includes code data representing the date and time of storing of the image information on the storage medium.

14. An electronic filing apparatus according to claim 13, wherein said retrieval means retrieves the image information stored in a range between the data and time represented by two code data included in the retrieval data input by said input means.

15. An electronic filing apparatus according to claim 13, wherein said retrieval means retrieves the image information stored in a range of data and time before or after a date and time represented by the code data included in the retrieval data input by said input means.

16. A method for retrieving desired image information from a storage medium which stores a plurality of image information each comprising images of one or a plurality of pages, comprising the steps of:

reading out a plurality of index images prestored in storage means, said plurality of index images representing indexes for retrieval of the image information stored in the storage medium and each of the plurality of index images being able to be used as the index of the plurality of image information;

displaying the plurality of index images read out in said reading step on display means having a plurality of display locations;

selecting at least one of the plurality of index images displayed in said displaying step; and

retrieving more than one of the image information stored in the storage medium, based on the index image selected in said selecting step, wherein the plurality of image information can be retrieved based on one index image.

17. A method according to claim 16, wherein said reading step includes a step of reading out the plurality of index images from the storage medium and storing the read-out index images in said storage means.

18. A method according to claim 16, wherein in said displaying step, the plurality of index images are displayed in a matrix form.

19. A method according to claim 18, wherein in said retrieving step, the image information is retrieved with an OR condition when the plurality of index images of the same column of the matrix are selected, and the image information is retrieved with an AND condition when the plurality of index images of different columns are selected.

20. A method according to claim 16, further comprising a step of inputting retrieval data comprising code data to be used for retrieval of the image information,

wherein in said retrieving step, the image information is retrieved based on the index image selected in said selecting step and the retrieval data input in said inputting step.

21. A method according to claim 20, wherein in said inputting step, the retrieval data including a character code is input.

22. A method according to claim 20, wherein in said inputting step, the retrieval data including the code data indicating date and time when the image information is stored in the storage medium, is input.

23. A method according to claim 22, wherein in said retrieving the step, the image information is retrieved based on a time-scale between two dates and times included in the retrieval data input in said inputting step and the index image selected in said selecting step.

24. A method according to claim 22, wherein in said retrieving step, the image information is retrieved based on a time-scale preceding or subsequent to the data and time included in the retrieval data input in said inputting step and the index image selected in said selecting step.

25. A method according to claim 16, wherein the index image is formed from an original image for index formation.

26. A method according to claim 16, wherein said storage medium is a magnetic-optical disk.