Image forming apparatus for outputting equivalents of words spelled in a foreign language

• US 5,729,618 A
• Filed: 03/17/1995
• Issued: 03/17/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/1992
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Sato, Takako, Fujisawa, Tetsuo
• Primary Examiner(s): JOHNS, ANDREW W
• Application Number:
  US08/407,054
• Time in Patent Office: 1,096 Days
• Field of Search: 364/419.01, 364/419.02, 364/419.03, 364/419.05, 364/419.07, 382/100, 382/112, 382/114, 382/177, 382/229, 382/309, 395/751, 395/752, 395/753, 395/755, 395/757, 395/760
• US Class Current: 382/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/40 Document-oriented image-based pattern recognition

Abstract

An image forming apparatus operable with digital image data and capable of outputting equivalents of words spelled in a foreign language. Characters are recognized out of image data optically read out of a document image by a scanner or image data received over a subscriber line. Words are separated from the sequences of recognized characters. The equivalent of each word is searched for and then outputted together with the matching word. Paragraphs are separated from the image data and provided with serial paragraph numbers. The paragraph numbers are added to the image data before the generation of an image.

Claims

1. An image forming apparatus having an interlinear function, comprising:

image reading means for optically reading a document image to convert said document image to corresponding image data;

image storing means for storing the image data read by said image reading means or image data received over a communication line;

image processing means for executing various kinds of image processing with the image data to produce an image signal;

image recording means for recording an image on a recording medium in response to the image signal from said image processing means;

character recognizing means for recognizing characters included in the image data read by said image reading means or the image data received over the communication line;

word separating means for separating words on the basis of the characters recognized by said character recognizing means;

equivalent storing means for storing the words separated by said word separating means and equivalents of said words;

equivalent searching means for searching for the equivalent of words read out from said equivalent storing means;

output image generating means for outputting the equivalent searched for by said equivalent searching means together with the word corresponding to said equivalent;

paragraph separating means for separating paragraphs included in the image data;

paragraph mark adding means for adding paragraph marks to the paragraphs separated by said paragraph separating means; and

image generating means for generating an image by adding the paragraph marks to the image data.

2. An image forming apparatus having an interlinear function, comprising:

image reading means for optically reading a document image to convert said document image to corresponding image data;

image storing means for storing the image data read by said image reading means or image data received over a communication line;

image processing means for executing various kinds of image processing with the image data to produce an image signal;

image recording means for recording an image on a recording medium in response to the image signal from said image processing means;

character recognizing means for recognizing characters included in the image data read by said image reading means or the image data received over the communication line;

word separating means for separating words on the basis of the characters recognized by said character recognizing means;

equivalent storing means for storing the words separated by said word separating means and equivalents of said words;

means for reading out a word from said equivalent storing means responsive to said word separating means;

equivalent searching means for searching for the equivalent of the word read out of said equivalent storing means;

output image generating means for outputting the equivalent searched for by said equivalent searching means together with the word corresponding to said equivalent;

line recognizing means for recognizing lines on the basis of the image data;

line number adding means for adding line numbers to the lines recognized by said line recognizing means;

image generating means for generating an image by adding the line numbers to the image data; and

priority setting means for setting an order of priority of alternative meanings for words having a plurality of different meanings so that when equivalents are to be read out by said output image generating means, the meanings with the highest priority will be read out in correspondence with said words having the plurality of different meanings.

3. An image forming apparatus having an interlinear function, comprising:

image reading means for optically reading a document image to convert said document image to corresponding image data;

image storing means for storing the image data read by said image reading means or image data received over a communication line;

image processing means for executing various kinds of image processing with the image data to produce an image signal;

image recording means for recording an image on a recording medium in response to the image signal from said image processing means;

character recognizing means for recognizing characters included in the image data read by said image reading means or the image data received over the communication line;

word separating means for separating words on the basis of the characters recognized by said character recognizing means;

equivalent storing means for storing the words separated by said word separating means and equivalents of said words;

means for reading out a word from said equivalent storing means responsive to said word separating means;

equivalent searching means for searching for the equivalent of the word read out of said equivalent storing means;

output image generating means for outputting the equivalent searched for by said equivalent searching means together with the word corresponding to said equivalent;

page number adding means for adding a page number to the image generated by said output image generating means; and

priority setting means for setting an order of priority of alternative meanings for words having a plurality of different meanings so that when equivalents are to be read out by said output image generating means, the meanings with the highest priority will be read out in correspondence with said words having the plurality of different meanings.

4. An apparatus as claimed in claim 3, further comprising:

means for altering the number outputted from said page number adding means, wherein said means for altering is responsive to a comparison of the page number of image generated by the output image generating means and image data read by either the image reading means or received over the communication line.

5. An image forming apparatus having an interlinear function, comprising:

image reading means for optically reading a document image to convert said document image to corresponding image data;

image storing means for storing the image data read by said image reading means or image data received over a communication line;

image processing means for executing various kinds of image processing with the image data to produce an image signal;

image recording means for recording an image on a recording medium in response to the image signal from said image processing means;

character recognizing means for recognizing characters included in the image data read by said image reading means or the image data received over the communication line;

word separating means for separating words on the basis of the characters recognized by said character recognizing means;

equivalent storing means for storing the words separated by said word separating means and equivalents of said words;

means for reading out a word from said equivalent storing means responsive to said word separating means;

equivalent searching means for searching for the equivalent of the word read out of said equivalent storing means;

output image generating means for outputting the equivalent searched for by said equivalent searching means together with the word corresponding to said equivalent;

equivalent combining means for outputting the equivalent outputted by said output image generating means under the word corresponding to said equivalent while centering said equivalent with respect to said word; and

priority setting means for setting an order of priority of alternative meanings for words having a plurality of different meanings so that when equivalents are to be read out by said output image generating means, the meanings with the highest priority will be read out in correspondence with said words having the plurality of different meanings.

6. An image forming apparatus having an interlinear function, comprising:

image reading means for optically reading a document image to convert said document image to corresponding image data;

image storing means for storing the image data read by said image reading means or image data received over a communication line;

image processing means for executing various kinds of image processing with the image data to produce an image signal;

image recording means for recording an image on a recording medium in response to the image signal from said image processing means;

character recognizing means for recognizing characters included in the image data read by said image reading means or the image data received over the communication line;

word separating means for separating words on the basis of the characters recognized by said character recognizing means;

equivalent storing means for storing the words separated by said word separating means and equivalents of said words;

means for reading out a word from said equivalent storing means responsive to said word separating means;

equivalent searching means for searching for the equivalent of the word read out of said equivalent storing means;

output image generating means for outputting the equivalent searched for by said equivalent searching means together with the word corresponding to said equivalent; and

copying means for copying the equivalent corresponding to the word to be outputted by said output image generating means if the word to be outputted is of a specified type, otherwise said equivalent is not copied.

7. An image forming apparatus having an interlinear function, comprising:

image reading means for optically reading a document image to convert said document image to corresponding image data;

image storing means for storing the image data read by said image reading means or image data received over a communication line;

image processing means for executing various kinds of image processing with the image data to produce an image signal;

image recording means for recording an image on a recording medium in response to the image signal from said image processing means;

character recognizing means for recognizing characters included in the image data read by said image reading means or the image data received over the communication line;

word separating means for separating words on the basis of the characters recognized by said character recognizing means;

equivalent storing means for storing the words separated by said word separating means and equivalents of said words;

means for reading out a word from said equivalent storing means responsive to said word separating means;

equivalent searching means for searching for an equivalent of the word read out of said equivalent storing means;

output image generating means for outputting the equivalent searched for by said equivalent searching means together with the word corresponding to said equivalent;

inflection determining means for determining whether an inflection of the word searched for by said equivalent searching means exists; and

equivalent reading means for reading out an equivalent matching a portion of the word other than said inflection determined by said inflection determining means;

priority setting means for setting an order of priority of alternative meanings for words having a plurality of different meanings so that when equivalents are to be read out by said output image generating means, the meanings with the highest priority will be read out in correspondence with said words having the plurality of different meanings.

8. An image forming apparatus having an interlinear function, comprising:

image reading means for optically reading a document image to convert said document image to corresponding image data;

image storing means for storing the image data read by said image reading means or image data received over a communication line;

image processing means for executing various kinds of image processing with the image data to produce an image signal;

image recording means for recording an image on a recording medium in response to the image signal from said image processing means;

character recognizing means for recognizing characters included in the image data read by said image reading means or the image data received over the communication line;

word separating means for separating words on the basis of the characters recognized by said character recognizing means;

equivalent storing means for storing the words separated by said word separating means and equivalents of said words;

means for reading out a word from said equivalent storing means responsive to said word separating means;

equivalent searching means for searching for the equivalent of the word read out of said equivalent storing means;

output image generating means for outputting the equivalent searched for by said equivalent searching means together with the word corresponding to said equivalent;

control means for controlling storage of the equivalent on the basis of predetermined characteristic data corresponding to said equivalent.

9. An image forming apparatus having an interlinear function, comprising:

image reading means for optically reading a document image to convert said document image to corresponding image data;

image storing means for storing the image data read by said image reading means or image data received over a communication line;

image processing means for executing various kinds of image processing with the image data to produce an image signal;

image recording means for recording an image on a recording medium in response to the image signal from said image processing means;

character recognizing means for recognizing characters included in the image data read by said image reading means or the image data received over the communication line;

word separating means for separating words on the basis of the characters recognized by said character recognizing means;

equivalent storing means for storing the words separated by said word separating means and equivalents of said words;

means for reading out a word from said equivalent storing means responsive to said word separating means;

equivalent searching means for searching for the equivalent of the word read out of said equivalent storing means;

output image generating means for outputting the equivalent searched for by said equivalent searching means together with the word corresponding to said equivalent; and

control means for storing equivalents already having occurred before an equivalent of interest to thereby control output of said equivalent of interest.

10. An image forming apparatus having an interlinear function, comprising:

image reading means for optically reading a document image to convert said document image to corresponding image date;

image storing means for storing the image data read by said image reading means or image data received over a communication line;

image processing means for executing various kinds of image processing with the image data to produce an image signal;

image recording means for recording an image on a recording medium in response to the image signal from said image processing means;

character recognizing means for recognizing characters included in the image data read by said image reading means or the image data received over the communication line;

word separating means for separating words on the basis of the characters recognized by said character recognizing means;

equivalent storing means for storing the words separated by said word separating means and equivalents of said words;

means for reading out a word from said equivalent storing means responsive to said word separating means;

equivalent searching means for searching for the equivalent of the word read out of said equivalent storing means;

output image generating means for outputting the equivalent searched for by said equivalent searching means together with the word corresponding to said equivalent;

inflection determining means for determining whether an inflection of the word searched for by said equivalent searching means exists; and

an output image memory to be used by said output image generating means independently of an input image memory to be used by said image storing means;

priority setting means for setting an order of priority of alternative meanings for words having a plurality of different meanings so that when equivalents are to be read out by said output image generating means, the meanings with the highest priority will be read out in correspondence with said words having the plurality of different meanings.

11. An image processing apparatus comprising:

image reading means for reading an image;

character recognizing means for recognizing characters included in the image;

word separating means for separating words on the basis of the characters recognized by said character recognizing means;

equivalent storing means for storing the words separated by said word separating means and equivalents of said words;

translating means for converting the characters recognized to corresponding characters or words of another language; and

control means for combining the characters recognized and the characters of another language, and for locating said characters recognized under the characters of the other language while centering the characters recognized with respect to the characters of the other language, from the image read to thereby output a composite image;

priority setting means for setting an order of priority of alternative meanings for words having a plurality of different meanings so that when equivalents are found, the meanings with the highest priority will be read out in correspondence with said words having the plurality of different meanings.

12. An apparatus as claimed in claim 11 wherein said translating means classifies characters into a group which does not need outputting and a group which needs outputting.