JP2001056867A - Image data processor, medium where image data set is recorded, medium where image data processing program is recorded, and image data processing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily refer to the result of image processing while securing the originality of image data. SOLUTION: While image data are stored in a folder managed as a film metaphor, a database of photograph data 30b corresponding to the image data is prepared and when desirable image processing is selected for desirable image data, the selected image processing is updated as correction information on the database structure; when a request for actual display, output, or print is made, various image processing is performed only in a work area by referring to the correction information while the original image data are left. Consequently, while the original image data are left, image corrections can easily be enjoyed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image data processing device which can be used by appropriately modifying image data, a medium recording an image data set, a medium recording an image data processing program, and an image data processing method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, digital still cameras have begun to be rapidly used. When photographing is performed with a digital still camera, images can be managed as data, and modification and the like can be easily performed. For example, if the image is dark, it is easy to modify the image brightly or to make the color of the sky bluer and more beautiful by using image data.

[0003] Such processing is widely used as image processing. However, when input image data is processed, new image data is obtained, which is overwritten on the original storage area.

[0004]

The above-mentioned conventional image data processing apparatus has the following problems. First, the original image data is changed. However, it is difficult to use the original image data if it is important. Of course, it is possible to perform processing of storing the original image data and then storing it under another name, but this is complicated and increases the necessary storage area. In such a case, it is extremely complicated to individually manage the original image data and the modified image data.

[0005] In addition, in some image formats, the image quality deteriorates every time rewriting is performed. In this sense, even if the modification is slight, the image quality deteriorates. The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has an image data processing apparatus capable of easily referencing a result of image processing while ensuring originality of image data, and a medium recording an image data set. It is another object of the present invention to provide a medium storing an image data processing program and an image data processing method.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image processing apparatus comprising: a parameter setting unit configured to set a parameter representing a content of a predetermined image processing performed on image data; A data storage unit that stores the parameter together with the association information; a data acquisition unit that acquires the image data and the parameter with reference to the association information; and the designation based on the acquired image data and the parameter. And image processing reproducing means for obtaining image data subjected to the image processing performed.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a parameter setting means for setting a parameter representing the content of a predetermined image processing to be performed on image data, and a data storage for storing the image data and the parameter together with association information. Means.
According to the invention, a parameter representing the content of a predetermined image processing to be performed on the image data and the image data are stored together with mutual association information, and the image data and the parameter are obtained by referring to the association information. And data processing means for obtaining image data subjected to the designated image processing based on the obtained image data and the parameters.

[0008] In the invention according to claim 1 configured as described above, when a parameter indicating the content of predetermined image processing to be performed on the image data is set by the parameter setting means, the data storage means sets the image data and the above-mentioned image data. Save parameters and associated information. Then, when the data acquisition unit acquires the image data and the parameter with reference to the association information, the image processing reproduction unit performs the designated image processing based on the acquired image data and the parameter. Obtained image data.

That is, a parameter representing the contents of image processing is stored in association with image data. For example, even when image processing is performed, the original image data is managed as a parameter without being changed, and when necessary, image data that has been subjected to image processing based on the parameter is obtained. Then, while the result of such image processing is made available, the original image data is left as it is. The invention according to claim 2 and the invention according to claim 3 partially implement the entire invention.

[0010] In claim 4 configured as described above, the type or degree of image processing is represented by the parameter. Thereby, the contents of the image processing are shown more specifically. Of course, it also indicates the type or degree of a plurality of types of image processing. Further, in the invention according to claim 5 configured as described above, since a plurality of the parameters are prepared for each type of image processing,
In a certain image processing type, it is not always limited to one content, and a plurality of contents can be left. For example, assuming that one image processing is to adjust the sharpness, a parameter indicating a sharpness enhancement degree and a parameter indicating a weak enhancement degree are stored, and one of them is selected at the time of reproduction. When printing reproduced image data, the optimum degree of sharpness enhancement may change depending on the resolution of the printing apparatus, and it is possible to leave a plurality of parameters corresponding to such a case.

Further, in the invention according to claim 6 configured as described above, it can be selectively executed from a plurality of parameters that can be stored. Accordingly, for example, the same image quality is not always required when a sufficient time is required for image processing and when processing must be performed in an extremely short time, and the latter can be realized with a low load. Image processing can be performed. Therefore, in the case of a slide show, image processing corresponding to parameters corresponding to the execution of the slide show is executed,
When printing is performed, image processing is performed according to the corresponding parameters. Of course, this selection may be performed by deciding an execution condition and selecting an item that satisfies the condition at the time of execution, or executing the selection by the user.

Further, in the invention according to claim 7 configured as described above, the image processing is performed according to the execution order information by providing the execution order information of the parameters while assuming that there are a plurality of parameters. When this is performed, the image processing is performed in chronological order. If parameters are left for each operation, such parameters represent a plurality of chronological histories. Therefore, the intermediate image processing is faithfully reproduced. Of course, it is not always necessary to execute all of them, and it is also possible to stop halfway and reproduce the reproduction process.

Further, in the invention according to claim 8 configured as described above, the parameters are divided into a plurality of sets, each of which can be arbitrarily selected.
Image processing is performed based on a set of parameters selected according to the situation at the time of execution. That is, it is possible to select not only a single image processing result but also a plurality of image processing results. For example, there are many cases where image processing for displaying beautifully when displayed on a display is different from image processing for displaying beautifully when printing. In such a case, it is convenient if the parameters for display on the display and the parameters for printing can be stored together. In addition, it is preferable that a set of parameters can be prepared for each size or each user, for example, in correspondence with not only the output destination but also the output size, or when a plurality of users share one image data.

Further, in the invention according to claim 9 configured as described above, the parameters are divided into a plurality of sets, and image processing corresponding to the situation of pixels is applied. That is, it is applied uniformly to image data,
For example, a set of parameters is selectively used depending on the position of the pixel or the color of the pixel. The pixel position is divided into regions such as a central portion of the image, a specific range specified in advance, and an upper half and a lower half, and different sets of parameters are applied to the respective regions. In addition, if the pixel colors are divided into a skin color area, a sky blue area, and a sunset area, it is possible to apply an optimum parameter generally corresponding to a subject.

[0015] Further, the present invention is configured as described above.
According to the present invention, the storage area is partitioned into a hierarchical structure, and the image data and the parameters are partitioned by this hierarchical structure, and the partitioned partition itself represents the association. The association between the image data and the parameter may be such that the parameter may be stored in the same section, or the corresponding hierarchical structure may be provided in another area to store the parameter.

Further, the present invention is configured as described above.
In the invention according to the first aspect, small-capacity thumbnails are associated in advance at the same level as the parameters are associated, and the thumbnail data can be managed in parallel with the parameter management. Further, in the invention according to claim 12 configured as described above, the image data and the parameters are managed on different storage devices.
For example, image data may be managed in a plurality of removable storage areas, and in this case, writing is not always possible depending on the storage area. Thus, for a non-writable storage area, the above parameters can be managed in a writable storage area.

Further, there is a storage area which is not impossible to write but is not suitable for writing. For example, it is often shared by several people via a network, and it should be avoided that someone rewrites the shared image data without permission. In such a case, while the image data is managed in the writable storage area together with the shared area as the unsuitable storage area, the parameters are managed in the writable storage area for the image data in the storage area unsuitable for writing. Configuration. Needless to say, similar problems may occur in areas other than the network and the shared area. In any case, the parameters are managed in a storage area suitable for writing.

Further, the present invention is configured as described above.
According to the invention, the content of the image processing represented by the parameter is set based on the result of statistically analyzing the image data by the parameter setting unit. That is, it corresponds to automatic processing. Further, the present invention is configured as described above.
In the present invention, the image processing performed when reproducing the image processing result is performed by the image processing reproducing unit selecting a corresponding image processing unit based on the parameter. Various methods can be selected for the means for realizing the image processing even if it is realized on a computer, and can be realized by making the selection regardless of the inside or outside. More specifically, select an image processing unit that supports different versions of image processing, select and start an image processing unit provided by a computer operating system, etc., or search for a required image processing unit from a network or the like. Can be launched.

As described above, the method of storing the image data in association with the parameters representing the details of the image processing without changing the image data by performing the image processing is not necessarily limited to a substantial device. It can be easily understood that it also functions as the method. In other words, there is no difference in that the present invention is not necessarily limited to a substantial device and is also effective as a method. In addition, such an image data processing apparatus may exist alone, or may be used in a state of being incorporated in a certain device. It is a thing.
Therefore, it can be changed as appropriate, such as software or hardware.

When the software of the image data processing device is realized as an example of realizing the idea of the present invention, the software naturally exists on a recording medium on which such software is recorded, and must be used. The invention is established as such. Therefore, each invention as a medium described in the present invention has a one-to-one correspondence with the recorded program itself. Of course, the recording medium may be a magnetic recording medium or a magneto-optical recording medium, and any recording medium to be developed in the future can be considered in the same manner. Also, the duplication stages of the primary duplicated product, the secondary duplicated product, and the like are equivalent without any question. In addition, the present invention is not limited to the case where the present invention is used even when the supply is performed using a communication line.

Further, even when a part is realized by software and a part is realized by hardware, the concept of the present invention is not completely different from that of the present invention. It may be in a form that is appropriately read in accordance with it. Further, in order to be able to reproduce image data in this way, a medium on which such an image data set is recorded is indispensable, and the present invention can be realized as such a form.

[0022]

As described above, the present invention provides an image data processing apparatus capable of easily utilizing an image processing result while leaving original image data in performing image processing on image data. it can. According to the second aspect of the present invention, it is possible to create an image data set in which at least parameters are associated with image data in order to realize this. If the set exists, the set desired image processing result can be reproduced.

Further, according to the invention of claim 4,
The content of the image processing can be represented more specifically. This also makes it easier to ensure reproducibility. Furthermore, according to the invention of claim 5, it is possible to substantially prepare a plurality of corresponding reproduction results, and select a reproduction result according to a situation. Further, according to the invention of claim 6, it is possible to provide an optimum image processing result in consideration of the execution conditions and the like.

Further, according to the invention of claim 7,
By reproducing the execution order, it becomes possible to increase variations due to irreversible image processing and to reproduce the image processing process. Furthermore, according to the invention according to claim 8, since a plurality of image processing results can be obtained only by individually prepared parameters, a plurality of image data can be provided without increasing the file capacity much. . Further, according to the ninth aspect, it is possible to apply more appropriate image processing according to the state of the pixel.

Further, according to the tenth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to easily perform the association using the hierarchical structure. Furthermore, according to the invention according to claim 11,
The processing load can be reduced by using the thumbnail data.
Further, according to the twelfth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to optimally cope with the state of storage of the image data, and in particular, it is possible to realize a correspondence between an area where writing is not possible and image data where writing is not preferable and a parameter. Become like

Further, according to the thirteenth aspect, it is possible to automate the setting of the parameters.
Further, according to the fourteenth aspect of the present invention, by preparing the image processing unit corresponding to the image processing, the image reproduction process can be easily realized, and the external image processing unit can be easily realized. Can be implemented. Further, according to the fifteenth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to provide a medium on which an image data set capable of exhibiting the same effect is recorded. A medium on which an image data processing program that can be played can be recorded can be provided. According to the invention according to claims 30 to 36, an image data processing method can be provided.

[0027]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS <First Embodiment> An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an image data processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention in a corresponding schematic configuration diagram. Image data captured by a digital still camera or the like is managed using an external storage device such as a computer. The data storage unit A1 corresponding to the external storage device or the like stores the plurality of image data and the corresponding parameters in association with each other, and performs management such as appropriate change, addition, and deletion by database management by a computer.

In order to perform such management, an image data storage area A11, a parameter storage area A12, and an association information storage area A13 are secured in the data storage means A1. Although the image data is stored in the image data storage area A11, the image data storage area A11 may have a collective database structure or an area for storing individual files. The parameter storage area A12 is information indicating an image processing instruction for individual image data, and has a relatively small capacity as compared with image data. Also in this case, a collective database structure may be used, or individual files may be generated. The association information storage area A13 records association information that associates the parameters stored in the parameter storage area A12 with the image data stored in the image data storage area A11. There are various methods for associating the parameters. For example, if the parameter information is formed as the index information while forming the database structure of the parameter, the parameter storage area A12 and the association information storage area A13
Is inseparably realized as one. The image data storage area A11 naturally includes a removable recording medium and the like.
1, the parameter storage area A12, and the association information storage area A13 need not be the same device. Further, the image data storage area A11 may be a shared area accessed from a plurality of devices.

When parameters representing the contents of image processing are set by the image data management operation or calculation by the parameter setting means A2 realized by the input / output devices in the computer itself and the calculation results of the computer itself, the data storage means A1 executes the management process by associating the corresponding parameter with the image data via the database management, and at this time, the association information is generated. This parameter setting means A
2 is for generating parameters as a result.
And setting parameters upon receiving an image processing instruction from a user via the PC, or setting parameters for implementing image processing that meets a predetermined purpose by independently inspecting image data. Various types of association information can be used, and a correspondence table may be prepared, a file name may be associated, or a storage area may be associated and associated.

In this manner, the data storage means A1 stores the image data and the parameters indicating the contents of the image processing to be performed in association with each other by the association information. And the data acquisition means A4
Means that the data storage means A1 is associated with the association information storage area A
13 and the corresponding image data and parameters are stored in the image data storage area A11 and the parameter storage area A.
12 and output to the image processing reproduction means A3.
The data acquisition unit A4 generally specifies image data to be acquired by receiving an image selection instruction from a user via a GUI, but the identification method is not limited to this. For example, in a computer or the like, it is possible to specify a target image data by giving a predetermined argument from an external application, and to specify and acquire the image data, and to transfer the image data to the image processing reproduction unit A3. The manner in which the image data is obtained varies depending on the specific hardware, and can be regarded as the same as the obtained data even when the image data is simply set as a variable in a state where the image data is expanded on the memory.

The image processing reproducing means A3 realizes the modification processing corresponding to the parameters, and includes a plurality of modification engines A31 to A3n. When the image data and the parameters are given, each of the modification engines A3x performs modification according to each of the modification engines A3x represented by the parameters on the image data to newly generate modified image data, and outputs this. Here, the image data is treated as an original, and the modified image data is newly generated. Of course, the original image data can be freely overwritten with newly generated image data, and may be overwritten and stored in the image data storage area A11 in the data storage unit A1. The modification engines A31 to A3n are shown as having a plurality of types in the sense that several types of conversion results can be obtained, but are substantially one type of modification engine that can obtain several types of conversion results depending on parameters. Alternatively, individual modification engines may be prepared to obtain conversion results separately. Also, the modified engines A31-A
3n is not limited to one provided internally by the application itself, and may be one that selects any of the modification engines A31 to A3n existing outside.

The data storage means A1, the parameter setting means A2, the image processing reproduction means A3, the data acquisition means A
4 can be realized not only by a single piece of hardware, but also by using a general-purpose computer system 10. In the case where the above-described configuration is realized by software, each of the data storage steps A
1. It is realized as a parameter setting step A2, a data acquisition step A4, and an image reproduction processing step A3.

In the present embodiment, the computer system 10 is employed as an example of hardware for realizing such an image data processing device. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the computer system 10. The computer system 10 includes a scanner 11a, a digital still camera 11b, and a video camera 11c as image input devices for directly inputting image data, and is connected to a computer main body 12. Each input device generates image data representing an image by pixels in a dot matrix form,
The image data can be output to RGB
By displaying 256 gradations in each of the three primary colors, approximately 16.7 million colors can be expressed.

The computer main body 12 is connected to a floppy disk drive 13a, a hard disk 13b, and a CD-ROM drive 13c as external auxiliary storage devices. The hard disk 13b stores main system-related programs. Necessary programs and the like can be read from a floppy disk or a CD-ROM as needed. The computer body 1
A modem 14a is connected as a communication device for connecting the 2 to an external network or the like. The modem 14a is connected to the external network via the same public communication line, and software and data can be downloaded and introduced.
In this example, the modem 14a accesses the outside via a telephone line. However, a configuration in which a network is accessed via a LAN adapter is also possible.

Here, among the external auxiliary storage devices, the floppy disk drive 13a and the CD-ROM drive 1
Regarding 3c, the recording medium itself can be exchanged, and when supplied in a state where image data is recorded on this recording medium, it can also be a means of an image input device. Further, when accessing a network via the modem 14a or a LAN adapter, image data may be supplied from the network, and in such a case, the image data can be used as an image input device. Note that accessing the network is not limited to acquiring data, but may acquire a part of a program or another program that can be started externally. This makes it possible to acquire part or all of the retouching engine from outside, or to delegate execution to an external one.

In addition, a keyboard 15a and a mouse 15b as a pointing device are connected to operate the computer main body 12, and a speaker 18a and a microphone 18b are provided for multimedia. Further, a display 17a and a color printer 17b are provided as image output devices. Display 1
For 7a, 800 pixels horizontally and 60 pixels vertically
A display area of 0 pixels is provided, and the above-mentioned 16.7 million colors can be displayed for each pixel. Of course, this resolution is merely an example, and can be changed as appropriate, such as 640 × 480 pixels or 1024 × 768 pixels.

A color printer 1 as a printing device
Reference numeral 7b denotes an ink-jet printer which can print an image by adding dots to printing paper as a recording medium using four color inks of CMYK. Image density is 360
High-density printing such as × 360 dpi or 720 × 720 dpi is possible, but the gradation table has a two-gradation expression such as whether or not to apply color ink. The color ink is not limited to the four color inks, and it is possible to reduce the conspicuousness of dots by six colors including light cyan and light magenta, and color toner is used not only in the ink jet method. It is also possible to adopt an electrostatographic method or the like. The printing device does not necessarily need to be a color printer, but may be a black and white printer. As will be described later, optimal image processing can be performed in monochrome reproduction, and if such image processing is performed on image data, inconvenience will occur if it is desired to reproduce color again. However, in the present invention, the original image data is left to the last, and such image processing can be easily executed.

On the other hand, a predetermined program is executed in the computer main body 12 in order to display or output an image while inputting an image using such an image input device. The operating system (OS) 12a is operating as a basic program, and the operating system 12a performs printing output to a display driver (DSP DRV) 12b for displaying on a display 17a and a color printer 17b. A printer driver (PRT DRV) 12c to be installed is incorporated. These drivers 12b and 12c depend on the models of the display 17a and the color printer 17b, and can be additionally changed to the operating system 12a according to each model. In addition, additional functions beyond standard processing can be realized depending on the model. That is, it is possible to realize various additional processes within an allowable range while maintaining a common processing system on the standard system of the operating system 12a.

Of course, the premise of executing such a program is that the CPU 12e
, A RAM 12f, a ROM 12g, an I / O 12h, and the like.
While using M12f as a temporary work area, setting storage area, or program area,
The basic program written in 12g is appropriately executed, and I
/ O12h, which controls external devices and internal devices connected thereto.

The application 12d is executed on the operating system 12a as the basic program. The processing contents of the application 12d are various, and include a keyboard 15a and a mouse 1 as operation devices.
5b is monitored, and when it is operated, various external devices are appropriately controlled to execute corresponding arithmetic processing and the like. Further, the processing result is displayed on the display 17a,
For example, the data is output to the color printer 17b.

The computer system 10 can acquire image data by reading a photograph or the like with a scanner 11a or the like which is an image input device, acquire image data photographed by a digital still camera 11b, or acquire a video camera 11c. It is possible to acquire image data as a moving image photographed by. In addition, various types of image data shot in advance are often provided as CD-ROM software, and image data is stored in a single storage area in advance and accessed by a plurality of people via a network. I often do it.

In many cases, image data taken by the digital still camera 11b is collectively stored on the hard disk 13b.
The user often enjoys not only viewing and enjoying on the 7a, but also outputting on the color printer 17b. An advantage of image data is that it can be easily modified even if the image quality is poor. That is, when printing is performed by the color printer 17b, the original image data is modified as by photo retouching, for example, the image quality is poor. In this way, there is a need for an image data processing device for managing image data and modifying the image, and the application 12d and the computer system 10 are organically integrated to realize the image data processing device.

In this sense, the application 12d which is image data processing software is a digital still camera 11
b, while storing and managing the image data captured by the hard disk 13b, and managing the image data supplied by the CD-ROM via the CD-ROM drive 13c so that it can be appropriately input, as described later. Parameters are also managed. Therefore, in this sense, the data storage means A is implemented by the related software and hardware.
1.

The image data stored in this manner is subjected to image processing by an internal image processing routine together with the corresponding parameters as described above after specifying the processing target by the application 12d. The image processing reproduction means A3 is constituted by software and hardware related in a sense. Then, the application 12d communicates with the keyboard 15a and the mouse 15b via the operating system 12a.
A predetermined corresponding screen is generated and displayed on the display 17a while inputting the above operation. In the sense that the target image data is selected through such GUI processing and the image processing to be executed is specified. The parameter setting means A2 is constituted by related software and hardware. Further, the data acquisition means A4 is constituted by related software and hardware in the sense that parameters are read so that the previously specified image processing can be executed when already stored image data is read.

Note that such software is stored in the hard disk 13b,
It is read and operated at 2. In addition, CD-
ROM 13c-1 or floppy disk 13a
-1 is recorded and installed. Therefore, these media constitute a medium on which the image data processing program is recorded. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the control contents of the image data processing software. The main control unit 60 performs various general controls, the common function unit 20 performs various common controls, and the image data processing software. It comprises a film data management unit 30 for performing management, an image modification control unit 40 for performing image modification on each image data, and a DPE print control unit 50 for performing a series of print processing.

The main control unit 60 appropriately selects and executes various flows described below, and also executes various other functions that are not classified. One of them is an environment setting unit 60a, in which common settings and the like in the image data processing software are recorded as a setting information file 60b on the hard disk 13b, and can be read out from other functional units as appropriate. The setting information file 60b includes various default designations, for example, designation of a source for importing new image data, and parameters of a page to be taken over next time in a printing process described later. Will be recorded.

FIG. 4 shows a detailed block diagram of the common function unit 20, some of which can be commonly called from other function units. For example, the image selection unit 20a causes the thumbnail creation unit 20i to create a thumbnail for each image data while the image display unit 20a.
A plurality of thumbnail images are displayed on the display 17a by m, and in that state, selection of each image is input by receiving a selection operation by the keyboard 15a or the mouse 15b. Of course, when the display is changed in accordance with the selection operation, the display is appropriately changed on the image display unit 20m, and the result of the selection is transferred to another functional unit. The display designation unit 20b designates display on the screen, and appropriately designates display of an image in response to a change in the size of a window area or the like in response to a GUI operation.

The file editing unit 20c executes an operation for appropriately changing the storage area of the image data, and the search unit 20d executes a search based on parameters managed together with the image file, such as a comment or a date. Things. The batch comment section 20e collectively processes comments on a plurality of image data.
The batch organizing unit 20f collectively processes image data and parameters simultaneously.

The image processing unit 20g and the image editing unit 20h
While the image modification control unit 40 mainly generates various parameters when automatically executing the image processing, the image modification control unit 40 actually executes the image processing, and also executes the manually specified image processing. . This processing result is treated as temporary data in principle, and is reflected in the original image data when a change is made to the original image data during the actual processing. Further, for convenience of display and processing time, it is not always necessary to execute the processing based on the original image data. During the operation, the image processing unit 20g and the image editing unit 20h execute various processes based on the thumbnail image data.

The image input unit 20j performs a process of reading the image data at the time of image processing or print processing when the storage area of the image data is already registered by the file editing unit 20c. Corresponding to the existence of various data formats as image output units 20
k executes a process of converting the format and outputting the converted format.
Next, the film data management unit 30 will be described. FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a management structure of an image file 30a, which is image data managed by the film data management unit 30, photographic data 30b including parameters, and film data 30c used in grouping the image data. I have. Here, the image data is handled as a file in the computer system 10, so that
It is shown as an image file, and the parameters are shown as photograph data 30b together with various information corresponding to each image data. In addition, film data 30
“c” is information for grouping and managing image data, and is shown as a film metaphor in FIG. Here, the database of the photograph data 30b is stored in a rewritable storage area on the computer system 10, and is stored in a fixed area regardless of a plurality of film metaphors. Of course, a plurality of databases can be physically provided, but the point is that the image data does not necessarily need to be formed on a medium in which image data is actually stored.

In the figure, the physical recording form of the image file is shown on the left side of the figure. The operating system 12a forms a hierarchical structure in folder units, and stores the image file in each folder. Has become. The grouping of image data in the present embodiment physically utilizes exactly the hierarchical structure of this folder unit, and information is added and managed in this folder unit. That is, the minimum information constituting the film data 30c is a film name that can be arbitrarily assigned, a link destination indicating an actual storage area as physical arrangement information of this folder, a creation date, a comment, and a media attribute. , Media label, film attribute, number of stored image files, and the like. In addition, as shown in the figure, each folder is identified as a film cartridge in management, and from a different viewpoint, the actual storage area is identified as a cartridge without individual awareness, so the alias management is performed. It is close to. In addition, a mark indicating whether or not the physical storage area is a replaceable medium is displayed on the patrone to make it easy for the user to understand. That is, if the image file is supplied by a CD-ROM, the image file can be exchanged. In this case, the CD-ROM may be exchanged so that the image file is not mounted on the actual CD-ROM drive 13c. . In such a case the CD
-If the ROM is not installed, the display is not made non-display, but the display is performed based on the data registered as the film data 30c after the data is registered. It becomes easy to understand that the information cannot be referenced unless a CD-ROM is set.

In this example, only exchangeable marks are shown, but information may be displayed by appropriately changing such marks. For example, the mark may be changed between a case where the CD-ROM is mounted and a case where the CD-ROM is not mounted as a replaceable storage area.
In addition, when image data is stored in a storage area shared by a plurality of people on a network, if each person rewrites the data without permission, it becomes impossible to collect the data, so a mark indicating a network drive may be displayed. good. Of course, a network drive may be treated as writable or unwritable. Instead of changing the mark, the shape of the cartridge itself may be changed.

The specific structure of the photograph data 30b is shown in FIGS. Here, the index information includes a file name, a file date and time, a file size, and a shooting date and time, and thumbnail data obtained by reducing the image file is displayed as a thumbnail. The comment can be added to each image file, and the photo data 30b together with the organizing information indicating the display order and the like, the position information indicating the actual storage area, and the sound information added via the microphone 18b and the like. Is composed.

Further, the photograph data 30b also has modification information, characteristic information and color matching information. As described above, this image data processing software manages the image data and modifies the image. However, instead of directly modifying the original image data by modifying the image, only the guidelines for modifying with these parameters are used. The information is managed as modification information, and the characteristic information and the color matching information can be managed in conjunction with the modification information. FIG. 7 shows a specific example of variable declaration for managing the modification information. A trimming start X coordinate (m_x1), a trimming start Y coordinate (m_y1), and a trimming end X coordinate (m_x2) representing the modification information related to trimming. , Trimming end Y coordinate (m_y2), rotation angle (m_nRotation) when performing rotation processing, automatic image modification (m_nApf), and red component enhancement degree (m_n
nRed) and the degree of green component enhancement (m_nGreen)
, A blue component enhancement level (m_Blue), a brightness component enhancement level (m_nBrightness), and a contrast enhancement level (m_nContrast).

Here, image processing which can be executed by the present image data processing software, in particular, automatic image modification will be described.
The core of the automatic image retouching is the image retouching control unit 40 shown in FIG. 8.
0b creates parameters necessary for the modification, and the modification designation section 4
0c is the image processing unit 20g described above using the same parameters.
To execute the actual processing.

FIG. 9 schematically shows a flow of a general procedure executed by the image modification control section 40. The automatic image modification processing will be described below with reference to this flow. In step 1, image data is input. The image data is read via the operating system 12a and stored in a predetermined work area. However, if thumbnail data has already been created, the thumbnail data is read from the photograph data 30b and used as image data. Since feature extraction is a tallying process for each pixel in the image data,
The calculation time changes according to the amount of pixels. The use of the thumbnail data takes into account such an overwhelming difference in the amount of pixels, and the processing time can be reduced as compared with the case where the original image data is used. Note that the image data itself is a single file, and includes profile data such as the size of the image and the number of colors at the head as shown in FIG. 10, and thereafter, individual pixels are expressed in 256 gradations of RGB. For this purpose, a 3-byte area is secured for the number of pixels.

After the image data is read into the work area, in steps 2 to 4, the image data of the target pixel is processed while the target pixel is moved as shown in FIG. Although the content of the aggregation processing varies depending on the feature amount of the image, in the present embodiment, “contrast”, “brightness”, “color balance”, “saturation”,
Aggregation processing is performed to obtain five feature amounts of “sharpness”. In addition, after the tallying process is completed for all the pixels, in step 5, a feature amount is calculated based on the tallying result. Less than,
A description will be given of the totalizing process and the feature amounts derived based on the totalizing process.

The contrast indicates the range of the luminance of the entire image. When it is desired to adjust the contrast, there is a main demand to increase the range of the contrast. In FIG. 12, the distribution of the luminance of each pixel of a certain image as a histogram is shown by a solid line. When taking the distribution shown by the solid line, the difference between the brightness of the bright pixel and the brightness of the dark pixel is small, but if the brightness distribution spreads as shown by the dashed line, the difference between the brightness of the bright pixel and the brightness of the dark pixel becomes large. That is, the range of contrast is widened. Here, FIG. 13 shows luminance conversion for enlarging the contrast. Assuming that the conversion is performed in a relationship of Y = ay + b between the luminance y of the conversion source and the luminance Y after the conversion, the maximum luminance Ym of the conversion source
The difference between the pixel of ax and the pixel of the minimum luminance Ymin becomes large after the conversion in the case of a> 1, and the luminance distribution is widened as shown in FIG. Therefore, assuming that such a histogram is created, it is necessary to perform an aggregation process using the interval from the maximum luminance value to the minimum luminance value as the contrast width. However, in this case, it is a conversion of the brightness, and if the image data has the brightness as an element, the counting can be directly performed. However, since the image data is expressed in 256 gradations of RGB as described above, It has no direct luminance value. Luv to find the luminance
Although it is necessary to perform color conversion to a color specification space, this is not a good solution due to problems such as the amount of calculation and the like. y = 0.30R + 0.59G + 0.11B That is, while moving the target pixel, 3 bytes which are the image data of each pixel are read, and the luminance y is calculated based on the same equation. In this case, the luminance y is also represented by 256 gradations, and the frequency for the calculated luminance y is added one by one. The conversion to black and white may use this luminance, and is realized by making the obtained gradation value of the luminance coincide with each component value of RGB. In addition, for a single color such as sepia tone, RG
The RGB component values may be obtained according to the B component ratio.

Obtaining the histogram of the luminance distribution in this way is the image data summarizing process in step 2. Based on this histogram, in the feature amount extracting process in step 5, both ends of the luminance distribution are obtained. As shown in FIG. 14, the luminance distribution of the photographic image generally appears in a mountain shape. Of course, the position and shape are various. The width of the luminance distribution is determined depending on where the both ends are determined. However, the point where the number of distributions becomes “0” by extending the base cannot be set as the both ends. This is because the number of distributions may change around “0” in the tail part, and the number of distributions changes while approaching “0” without limit statistically.

For this reason, a portion which is shifted inward by a certain distribution ratio from the side with the highest luminance and the side with the lowest luminance in the distribution range is defined as both ends of the distribution. In the present embodiment, as shown in the figure, the distribution ratio is set to 0.5%.
Of course, this ratio can be changed as appropriate. In this manner, by cutting the upper and lower ends by a certain distribution ratio, white points and black points caused by noise or the like can be ignored. That is, if such a process is not performed, even if there is even one point, a white point or a black point will be at both ends of the luminance distribution. And the uppermost end has a gradation of "255". However, such a problem is eliminated by setting a part which is inside by 0.5% of the number of pixels from the upper end part as an end part. Then, based on the actually obtained histogram, 0.5 to the number of pixels is calculated.
% Of the reproducible luminance distribution, and accumulates the respective distribution numbers while going inward from the luminance value at the upper end and the luminance value at the lower end in order, and the luminance value having a value of 0.5% is the maximum luminance Ymax. And the minimum luminance Ymin.

The width Ydif of the luminance distribution is equal to the maximum luminance Ymax.
And the minimum luminance Ymin, and Ydif = Ymax−Ymin. As the image processing for increasing the contrast, the slope a and the offset b may be determined according to the luminance distribution. For example, if a = 255 / (Ymax−Ymin) b = −a · Ymin or 255−a · Ymax, the luminance distribution having a narrow width can be expanded to a reproducible range. However, when the luminance distribution is expanded by maximizing the reproducible range, a highlight portion may be lost in white, or a high shadow portion may be lost in black. To prevent this, a luminance value of about "5" may be left as a range that does not expand to the upper and lower ends of the reproducible range. As a result, the parameters of the conversion equation are as follows. a = 245 / (Ymax−Ymin) b = 5−a · Ymin or 250−a · Ymax In this case, it is preferable not to perform conversion in the range of Y <Ymin and Y> Ymax.

In this conversion, it is not necessary to calculate each time. The luminance range is from “0” to “25”.
Assuming a value of "5", a conversion result is prepared in advance for each luminance value, and a conversion table is formed as shown in FIG. However, in this case, the conversion of the luminance is used, and it is likely that the application of the image data of 256 gradations of RGB needs to be considered separately. However,
Actually, the same conversion relationship as luminance can be applied between the image data before conversion (R0, G0, B0) and the image data after conversion (R1, G1, B1), and R1 = aR0 + bG1 = aG0 + bB1 = aB0 + b, and as a result, FIG.
It can be understood that the conversion should be performed using the conversion table shown in FIG.

That is, the work of extracting the feature in step 5 corresponds to the above-described work of obtaining the maximum luminance Ymax and the minimum luminance Ymin, and the modification information creation processing of step 6 performs the conversion while obtaining the width Ydif of the luminance distribution from these. The process of obtaining the parameters a and b of the formula and creating a conversion table corresponds to this process. Then, in the modification designating process in step 7, such a conversion table is designated and the image data (R0, G0, B
0) to generate converted image data (R1, G1, B1).

Next, the brightness will be described. The lightness as the feature amount of the image here means an index of lightness and darkness of the entire image, and uses the median (median) Ymed of the distribution obtained from the above-described histogram. Therefore, the tallying process in this case is performed simultaneously with the tallying process for the contrast in the procedure 2. On the other hand, when the feature value is analyzed in step 5, Ymed_ta, which is the ideal value of lightness, is used.
Difference from rget (Ymed_target-Ymed)
May be calculated. Note that the ideal value Ymed_target
The actual value of t uses “106”, but is not fixed. In addition, it may be possible to change it to reflect the preference.

In the case where the brightness is adjusted by using this feature amount, the following is performed. The median Ymed is the ideal value Ymed_
Whether the image is bright or not can be evaluated based on whether the image is large or small as compared with the target. For example, when the median Ymed is “8
If “5”, it is smaller than the ideal value Ymed_target “106”, so that it is primarily evaluated as “dark”, and secondarily the degree of darkness is “106-85”.
Is expressed numerically.

FIG. 16 shows a histogram of the luminance. When the peaks of the luminance distribution are shifted to the dark side as a whole by the solid line, the peaks are shifted to the bright side as a whole by the broken line. It is preferable to move the peak, and conversely, if the peak of the luminance distribution is entirely shifted to the bright side as shown by the solid line in FIG. And good. In such a case, instead of performing linear luminance conversion as shown in FIG. 13, luminance conversion using a so-called γ curve as shown in FIG. 18 may be performed.

In the correction based on the γ curve, the entire area becomes bright when γ <1, and becomes entirely dark when γ> 1.
In the above example, if the median Ymed rises by “21”, the ideal value Y
Although it will be the same as med_target, it is not easy to exactly increase “21” using the γ curve. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 19, the evaluation value (Ymed_target-Ymed) is “5”.
What is necessary is just to set the value of (gamma) corresponding to every step. In this example, the value of γ is set to “0.0” corresponding to the fluctuation amount “5” of the evaluation value.
5 ", but it goes without saying that the correspondence between them can be changed as appropriate.

It is also possible to automatically set the value of γ as in the case of adjusting the contrast. For example, the value of γ may be obtained by setting γ = Ymed / 106 or γ = (Ymed / 106) ** (1/2). Needless to say, a conversion table as shown in FIG. 15 may be formed for the conversion of luminance by the γ curve. In other words, the work of extracting the feature in step 5 corresponds to the work of finding the median Ymed, and the modification information creation processing of step 6 corresponds to the processing of creating the conversion table while obtaining the γ correction value.
Then, in the modification designation processing in step 7, such a conversion table is designated, and the image data (R0, G0,
B0) to generate converted image data (R1, G1, B1).

Next, the color balance will be described. Here, the color balance indicates whether there is a certain unbalance tendency among the R component, the G component, and the B component constituting the image data. For example, if a photograph looks reddish and it represents the real situation at the time of shooting, it does not matter if it does not, it can be said that some adverse effect has appeared. However, it can be said that such an imbalance cannot be known unless it is actually compared with the real situation, so it may not be possible to make an ex post evaluation itself.

In the present embodiment, this will be evaluated from the uniformity of the frequency distribution for each color. Depending on the situation at the time of shooting, it may be more natural that the frequency distribution of each color component becomes non-uniform. In such a case, the color should not be modified. However, if we look back from the results, it is determined that the frequency distribution should be uniform if the frequency distribution of each color component is somewhat similar, and if the frequency distributions are not similar, it should not be uniform. it can.

For this reason, in the image data totaling process of the procedure 2, a histogram is created for each color component in order to check the similarity of the frequency distribution for each color component later.
At this time, the frequency distribution is not obtained for all the gradation values, but the region of 256 gradations is divided into 8 to 16 (n division), and the frequencies belonging to each region are totaled. In the case of dividing into eight, as shown in FIG. 20, "0 to 31", "32 to 6"
3 "... Frequency distributions are calculated for eight regions" 224 to 255 ".

On the other hand, when the above-described histogram is created for each color component for all pixels, the number of pixels (r1, r
2 ... rn), (g1, g2 ... gn), (b1, b2 ... b)
n) (here, n = 8) is vectorized as a component.
For each of RGB, feature vectors VR, VG,
VB is expressed as follows: VR = (r1, r2... Rn) Σri = 1 VG = (g1, g2... Gn) Σgi = 1 VB = (b1, b2... Bn) Σbi = 1 Find the cross-correlation. The cross-correlation is expressed as a dot product: corr_rg = (VR · VG) / | VR | · | VG | corr_gb = (VG · VB) / | VG | · | VB | corr_br = (VB · VR) / | VB | · | VR , The inner product of the vectors can be said to represent the similarity between the two vectors, and the value is "0" to "1". Here, the color balance is evaluated based on the minimum value corr_x.

It should be noted that the color balance may be modified for each of the n-divided regions. However, it is possible to deal with the problem by roughly increasing or decreasing the overall brightness of each color component. The adjustment of the RGB values using the above may be performed. That is, the work of extracting the feature in step 5 corresponds to the work of finding the minimum value corr_x, and the modification information creation processing of step 6 creates a conversion table while finding a γ correction value for adjusting the balance based on this. To be processed. In the modification designating process in step 7, such a conversion table is designated to convert the image data (R0, G0, B0) before conversion of each pixel from the image data (R1, G1, B1) after conversion.
1) will be generated.

Next, the saturation will be described. Here, the saturation refers to the vividness of the entire image.
For example, it is an evaluation as to whether the primary color is captured vividly or grayish. The saturation itself is Lu
Although represented by the size from the reference axis in the uv plane in the v color space, the amount of calculation for converting the color space is large as described above. To For this, the following calculation is performed as the saturation alternative value X. X = | G + B−2 × R | The saturation is originally “0” when R = G = B,
The maximum value is obtained at the time of mixing of a single color of RGB or a predetermined ratio of any two colors. Although it is possible to directly represent the saturation directly from this property, even the simplified above equation gives the maximum value of saturation for a single color of red and yellow which is a mixed color of green and blue. Is "0" when is uniform. In addition, green and blue single colors also reach about half of the maximum value. Of course, the expression X '= | R + B-2 × G | X ″ = | G + R-2 × B |

In the image data totaling process in the procedure 2, the distribution of the histogram for the saturation alternative value X is obtained. If the distribution of the histogram for the alternative value X of the saturation is obtained, the saturation is distributed in the range from the minimum value “0” to the maximum value “511”, so that the distribution is roughly as shown in FIG. . On the other hand, when the feature amount is analyzed in the procedure 5, it is performed based on the histogram. That is, a saturation index for this image is determined based on the aggregated histogram. A range occupied by the higher-order “16%” is obtained from the distribution of the saturation alternative value X, and the lowest saturation “S” within this range represents the saturation of this image.

If the saturation "S" is low, it is desired to enhance the saturation. In the case of automatic correction, the following is performed.
When each component is a component value of a hue component having a substantially equal relationship as in the RGB color space, if R = G = B, it is gray and achromatic. Assuming that the minimum component of each component of RGB is merely decreasing the saturation without affecting the hue of each pixel, the minimum value of each component is subtracted from all component values. It can be said that saturation can be enhanced by enlarging the difference value. Now, each component (R, G, B) of the image data
If the component value of blue (B) at is the minimum value,
Using the saturation enhancement parameter Sratio, conversion can be performed as follows. R ′ = B + (R−B) × Sratio G ′ = B + (G−B) × Sratio B ′ = B In this example, a method of simply subtracting the minimum component from the other component values for the achromatic component However, in subtracting the achromatic component, other methods can be adopted. In particular, when performing this conversion, there is a tendency that, when the saturation is enhanced, the luminance is also improved and the whole becomes bright. Therefore, the conversion is performed on the difference value obtained by subtracting the luminance equivalent value from each component value. Assuming that the saturation enhancement is as follows, R ′ = R + ＝ RG ′ = G + △ GB ′ = B + △ B, the addition and subtraction values △ R, △ G, and の B are calculated based on the difference value with the luminance as follows: To ask. That is, ΔR = (RY) × Sratio ΔG = (G−Y) × Sratio ΔB = (BY) × Sratio, and as a result, R ′ = R + (RY) × Sratio G ′ = G + (G−Y) × Sratio B ′ = B + (B−Y) × Sratio The preservation of the brightness is apparent from the following equation. Y ′ = Y + △ Y △ Y = 0.30 △ R + 0.59 △ G + 0.11 △ B = Sratio ｛(0.30R + 0.59G + 0.11B) −Y｝ = 0 That is, luminance is preserved before and after conversion, and color Emphasizing the degree does not make it overall brighter. Further, when the input is gray (R = G = B), the luminance Y = R = G = B, so that the adjustment value △ R = △ G = △ B = 0, and there is no achromatic color. .

Here, the saturation enhancement parameter Sratio may be increased as the evaluation value Psat becomes smaller.
S ′ = − S × (10/92) +50 92 ≦ S <184 if S <92, S ′ = − S × (10/46) +60 184 ≦ S If <230, S ′ = − S × (10/23) +100 If 230 ≦ S, the saturation enhancement index S ′ is determined such that S = 0, and the saturation index S ′ is converted into the saturation enhancement index Sratio. May be obtained as Sratio = (S + 100) / 100. In this case, when the saturation enhancement index S = 0, the saturation enhancement parameter Sratio = 1 and the saturation enhancement is not performed. FIG. 22 shows the relationship between the saturation “S” and the saturation enhancement index S ′.

That is, the operation of extracting the feature in step 5 corresponds to the operation of obtaining the saturation “S”, and the modification information creation processing of step 6 passes through the saturation index S ′ and the saturation enhancement index Srati.
The process for asking for o is applicable. Then, in the modification designation processing in step 7, the image data (R1, G1) after conversion is obtained while obtaining the luminance from the image data (R0, G0, B0) before conversion of each pixel using such a saturation emphasis index Sratio. , B1).

Finally, the sharpness will be described.
The sharpness as a feature amount of an image is evaluated based on an edge degree described below. Assuming that the image data is composed of pixels in a dot matrix, the difference in image data between adjacent pixels at the edge of the image is large. This difference is a luminance gradient, which will be referred to as an edge degree. When considering the XY orthogonal coordinates as shown in FIG. 23, the vector of the degree of change of the image can be calculated by obtaining the X-axis direction component and the Y-axis direction component.
In a digital image composed of pixels in a dot matrix, pixels are adjacent to each other in a vertical axis direction and a horizontal axis direction, as shown in FIG. In this case, f (x, y) may be luminance Y (x, y), or R (x, y), which is each luminance of RGB.
G (x, y) and B (x, y). 24, the difference value fx in the X direction and the difference value fy in the Y direction are: fx = f (x + 1, y) -f (x, y) fy = f (x, y + 1) -f (x, y). Therefore, the magnitude Ddif of the vector g (x, y) having these as components is Ddif = | g (x, y) | = (fx ** 2 + fy ** 2)
** (1/2). The edge degree is represented by Ddif. It should be noted that the pixels are originally arranged vertically and horizontally in a grid as shown in FIG. 25, and there are eight adjacent pixels when focusing on the central pixel. Therefore, similarly, the difference between the image data and each adjacent pixel may be represented by a vector, and the sum of the vectors may be determined as the degree of change of the image. Furthermore, simply comparing only the horizontal rows is effective in reducing the amount of calculation.

As described above, even if the edge degree is obtained for each pixel, the sharpness of the image cannot be obtained simply by obtaining and averaging the edge degrees of all the pixels.
FIG. 26 shows a photograph of an airplane flying in the sky, and it is easily understood that the degree of change of the image is not large in the background sky. In such a case, assuming a situation where the sky part is trimmed, the image is not sharp because the average value decreases as the number of pixels in the sky decreases, despite the fact that the image data of the airplane that is the center subject does not change. When the number of empty pixels decreases, the average value increases and the image becomes sharp. In such a case, it is normal to determine the sharpness of the image based on the sharpness of the original airplane, which is the subject, so it can be said that averaging is not suitable.

Therefore, instead of averaging the edge degrees of all the images, the edge degrees of only the outline parts are averaged in order to determine how sharp the outline parts in the image are. More specifically, when the image data is totalized in step 2 while moving the target pixel, the threshold value Th obtained by calculating the edge degree as described above.
By comparing it with 1, it is determined whether or not the pixel is an edge portion. Only when the pixel is an edge portion, the edge degree Ddif is integrated (積 算 Ddif) and the number of pixels in the edge portion is integrated ( ΣEdge_Pixe
l).

On the other hand, when the feature is extracted in step 5, the edge degree (ｄDdif) integrated in step 2 is divided by the number of pixels (ΣEdge_Pixel) to calculate an average value Ddif_ave of the edge degree in the edge portion. . Of course, the larger the average value Ddif_ave of the edge degree is, the sharper the image is. If the average value Ddif_ave of the edge degrees is small, edge enhancement is desired. In the present embodiment, however, the following is performed. First, the edge enhancement degree Eenhance is converted to the average value Ddi of the edge degree.
Obtained from f_ave. As an example, an arithmetic expression such as Eenhance = 4 × Ddif_ave / 100 may be used.

The edge enhancement process itself uses an unsharp mask as shown in FIG. Edge enhancement Eenhanc
After e is obtained, edge enhancement processing is performed on all pixels using an unsharp mask as shown in FIG.
The luminance Y 'after the enhancement relative to the luminance Y of each pixel before the enhancement is calculated as Y' = Y + Enhance.multidot. (Y-Yunsharp). Here, Yunsharp is obtained by performing unsharp mask processing on the image data of each pixel, and the unsharp mask sets the value of “100” at the center to the pixel Y to be processed in the matrix image data.
It is used for weighting (x, y), and for weighting the peripheral pixels corresponding to the numerical values in the cells of the same mask and integrating them. If the unsharp mask shown in FIG. 27 is used,

[0084]

(Equation 1) Integration is performed based on the following arithmetic expression. In the equation, “39
"6" is the total value of the weighting coefficients. Also, Mi
j is a weight coefficient described in a cell of the unsharp mask, Y (x, y) is image data of each pixel,
ij is indicated by the horizontal and vertical coordinate values of the unsharp mask.

The meaning of the edge emphasis operation calculated using the unsharp mask is as follows. Y
Since unsharp (x, y) is obtained by adding the pixel of interest to peripheral pixels with a lower weight, so-called "unsharp" image data is obtained. What has been blunted in this way has the same meaning as that obtained by applying a so-called low-pass filter. Therefore, “Y (x, y) −Yunsharp (x, y)” has the same meaning as the result of subtracting the low-frequency component from all the original components and applying a high-pass filter. Then, the high-frequency component that has passed through the high-pass filter is multiplied by the edge enhancement Eenhance to obtain “Y (x, y)”.
, The high frequency component is increased in proportion to the edge enhancement Eenhance, and the edge is enhanced.

Since the degree of edge enhancement varies depending on the size of the unsharp mask, the edge enhancement degree Eenhance is classified into classes, and an unsharp mask of a corresponding size is prepared. A sharp mask may be used. In addition, since it is natural that the edge enhancement is required at the edge portion of the image, the calculation may be performed only in the place where the image data is greatly different between the adjacent pixels as described above. In this way, it is not necessary to perform the unsharp mask calculation on the image data portion which is not the most edge portion, and the processing is drastically reduced.

As described above, the sharpness can be summarized as follows.
The work of feature extraction in step 5 is the average value of edge degree Ddi
The operation for obtaining f_ave corresponds to the process for obtaining the edge enhancement degree Eenhance in the modification information creating process in step 6. Then, in the modification designation processing in step 7, the image data (R1, G1, B1, R1, G1, B1, B2) of which the brightness is enhanced from the image data (R0, G0, B0) before the conversion of each pixel while using the edge enhancement degree Eenhance. B1).

The above has been a brief description of the processing in the image modification controller 40 in this embodiment. However, even in the same modification processing, the modification result changes by changing the target value. Therefore, in addition to the standard automatic image retouching process, automatic image retouching process that brings colors closer to memorized colors to give a “clean” feeling, and “DPE” tone automatic image retouching that enhances sharpness and saturation enhancement You may make it possible to select a processing or the like. In the automatic image modification according to the memory color, the user's preference can be set as a standard value, so that the automatic image modification can be performed so that each person feels "clean".

The image modification control unit 40 is used as a so-called image modification engine. The image data processing software uses the image modification engine shown in FIGS.
In accordance with the flowchart of FIG. 33, the main control unit 60 controls the image modification processing as a whole. The image quality of the JPEG data format is degraded each time rewriting is performed. This is because the processing is based on an 8 × 8 block peculiar to JPEG, and the processing for reducing distortion caused by this block is also performed. More specifically, a filter of a smoothing process is applied, but the edge portion is not smoothed. By weakening such edge preserving smoothing processing,
While the edge portion is emphasized, 8 × 8 block distortion and noise are smoothed and smoothed. And even if the 8 × 8 block distortion is reduced, the JPE
If you save it with a degrading method such as G, it will be distorted again,
In a system that does not deteriorate, such as BMP (bitmap), the recording size increases. On the other hand, in the method of managing parameters as in the present embodiment, since the reduction process is performed at the time of output such as display or printing, image expression with the best image quality is possible.

As a series of image data management processes performed by the main control unit 60, there is a simultaneous printing process. FIG. 34 shows a screen display in this simultaneous print processing. In this case, the main control unit 60 appropriately outputs a command to the display designating unit 20b of the common function unit 20, displays the same screen on the display 17a, and receives an operation input of the keyboard 15a and the mouse 15b. . In the simultaneous print processing screen, a leftward portion on the screen is an operation display area, in which tabs are displayed along a flow of a series of data processing.
In this example, tabs of “photo input”, “modify photo”, “print designation”, and “print” are displayed, and a downward “Δ” mark is displayed between them. Of course, the data processing is "input photo" process, "modify photo" process,
Through the order of “print designation” processing and “printing” processing, desired image data can be printed neatly.
In the past, it was naturally possible to execute the same processing, but in that case, the work must be carried out by assuming the flow of the procedure by itself.

That is, 1: Open the image data from the file menu, 2: Specify the image modification operation from the tool menu, display the necessary palette, etc., perform the desired modification, and save the image. 3: A format to be printed is designated by a print layout in the file menu, 4: a print preview in the file menu is checked, and 5: a print in the file menu is finally executed. Of course, when printing a plurality of image data, it is necessary to determine the print target from the file menu in this process.

On the other hand, the digital still camera 11
The printing of the photograph taken in b corresponds to specifying simultaneous printing by the DPE as compared with the case of normal photographing, and a series of data processing is made to correspond to the work of simultaneous printing. It is possible to execute a series of data processing even if the user is not familiar with the application. In the simultaneous print processing screen shown in FIG. 34, "input of photograph" is displayed, but image data management by the film data management unit 30 is substantially performed. The left part of the display area is the operation display area dp1, but the remaining display area is the main display area dp2, and the left part is a group display area dp3 for grouping and displaying image data. The remaining portion is an image display area dp4 for displaying, when a certain group is selected, image data belonging to that group as thumbnails.

The group display area dp3 is an area for displaying a film metaphor corresponding to a folder unit as described above, and displays a film name, a comment, a date, and a film name while displaying a film cartridge as a frame. Displays the number of image files. Of course, if the properties of each film metaphor are displayed, all information such as a film name, a link destination, a date, a comment, a medium attribute, a medium label, a film attribute, and the number of stored image files will be displayed. The group display area dp3 is G
The display area can be appropriately increased or decreased using the UI,
When the display cannot be completed in the display area, scroll display is added or reduced display is performed. Of course, by selecting and operating one of the displayed plurality of film metaphors, the image file 30a stored in the folder corresponding to the selected film metaphor is displayed as a thumbnail in the image display area dp4. Will be.

In this embodiment, since the image data is managed by using the hierarchical structure of the folder adopted by the operating system 12a, the operator directly operates the computer system 10 to store the image data in the folder. It is also possible to store the image file 30a. In this case, there may be a difference between the presence or absence of the image file 30a in the folder and the photograph data 30b. In this case, the presence or absence of the image file 30a in the folder , And the photograph data 30b is appropriately increased or decreased.

In this sense, it is determined whether or not there is corresponding photo data 30b based on the image file 30a present in the folder corresponding to the film metaphor. Is performed, and if there is no photo data 30b, thumbnail data is created by the thumbnail creation unit 20i and then displayed. The photo itself is portrait or landscape, and one thumbnail display area is a square that can accommodate both, and the serial number and the actual file name are displayed outside the frame.

Note that when simultaneous printing is selected, not only is data management already performed, but also
In some cases, the image data that has just been captured is captured and subjected to printing, and in another case, the image data itself is captured in a predetermined storage area and data management is newly started. The method of taking in the image data that has just been taken may be, for example, the case of taking in by connecting a cable from the digital still camera 11b, or the case of using a predetermined exchangeable recording medium. In any case, “new film” prepared as a command button on the upper part of the main display area on the screen shown in FIG. 34 is executed. Then, as shown in FIG. 35, it becomes possible to execute two command buttons of “always input” and “select input method”, and also to execute a command button of “input setting”. General operators use a single digital still camera 11b.
, The capture of image data is considered to be constant, and the image data transfer method selected in advance in “input setting” is executed. Needless to say, there may be a case where a plurality of digital still cameras 11b are owned, or there is a case where it is necessary to capture by a different method. The method will be displayed and selected. In these cases, it may be necessary to run an external application,
These are appropriately executed by setting in the input setting. It goes without saying that the input designation method and the like can be changed as appropriate.

In such a state, the operator displays the image data in the image display area while judging the group by looking at the display in the patrone displayed in the group display area.
Further, image data to be printed is selected. This selection operation is received by the image selection unit 20a. The selected image data is displayed by changing the color of the frame portion of the thumbnail display area, so that the presence or absence of selection can be easily determined. Then, the selection result is not only the "modification of the photo" but also the "print"
Will be reflected as an output target in the processing of. In these cases, the physical arrangement information is referred to in each processing, and the actual processing is not performed by moving the image data to be selected to the temporary area.

Assuming that image data to be printed is selected in the "input of photo", it is obvious at a glance that the next processing is "modification of photo" according to the display in the operation display area. In this “photo modification”, the image modification can be performed only on the selected image data. FIG. 36 shows a display in the main display area when performing automatic image modification. In the figure, the image before the modification of the selected image data is displayed in the upper row of the thumbnail, and the image after the automatic modification described above is displayed in the lower row of the thumbnail. The operator looks at the two, compares them, and selects which is better. Of course, the choice is to use the mouse on the thumbnail
The user clicks on the button b, and the display specification unit 20b can discriminate the clicked side by, for example, highlighting the frame portion. By default, before modification is selected, the modified state may be selected only for the side clicked with the mouse, or it is assumed that in most cases, the modified image will be selected. The default may be modified so that the default is selected.

In this scene, a command button of "execute" and a command button of "cancel" are prepared at the bottom, and when the command button of "execute" is clicked on with a mouse, the command button is prepared for each image data. The modification information of the photograph data 30b is updated. As shown in FIG. 7, a management parameter of the automatic image modification (m_nApf) is prepared, and when the image data after the modification is selected and the “execute” command button is clicked, the management parameter of the automatic image modification (m_nApf) is set. Set a flag. That is, even if the image data after the modification is selected, the image data after the modification is not overwritten by replacing the original image data, but merely sets the flag of the management parameter. However, in the subsequent processing, by referring to this management parameter, it becomes possible to determine that the processing should be executed for the image data that has been automatically corrected for the main image data. Of course, in that case, it is necessary to read the image data and perform automatic image modification by the image modification control unit 40. However, the thumbnail data in the photograph data 30b is updated to thumbnail data based on the modified image data. The thumbnail data may be simply displayed as long as it is displayed. At the bottom of the screen, there is a checkbox "Reflect to original data",
When this check box is checked, the original image data is overwritten with the modified image data.

In this example, although the automatic image modification is selectively performed, there is no way not to use such a function, and especially in the case of an inexperienced operation, even if such a function exists, the selection operation can be known. There is another problem. Therefore, it is also convenient that automatic image modification is performed by default at the time of inputting a photograph, so that the process of modifying the photograph is not displayed. FIG. 37 shows an example of a screen display in such a case. In the example shown in the figure, a process of “selection of film” is added before “input of photo” as an operation, and a process of “print designation” is executed after “input of photo”. As shown in FIG. 34, a photograph may be selected while a new film can be selected in the process of “photo input”, but in the case of FIG. 37, “film selection” is performed first.
Is displayed, the selection of photographic data in patrone units or the selection of a new film is performed first to make it easier to understand. In addition, in this screen display, command buttons for “previous step” and “next step” are prepared in the upper part on the right side of the screen to give an instruction to advance or return the processing, and “previous step”
Is executed, the process is returned, and when the "next step" is executed, the process proceeds. Furthermore, a simple explanation of the processing of each stage can be displayed on the upper part of the screen. For example, at the "Film selection" stage, the message "Select a film and proceed to the next. A new film can be created by" Adding a film "" is displayed.

On the other hand, it is also possible to select manual image modification, and the degree of modification is instructed using a GUI. That is, the GUI display is operated with the mouse 15b to reflect the result of the manual modification. In the present embodiment,
The image processing unit 20g can execute a stepwise enhancement process for brightness and contrast, and based on the premise, a parameter representing each degree of enhancement is prepared. Degree of emphasis (m_
nBrightness) and the contrast enhancement degree (m_nContrast).

The manual image modification is not limited to the brightness and the contrast. The red, green, and blue components can be respectively subjected to enhancement processing. (M_nRe
d) management parameter and green component enhancement level (m_nGr)
een) and the blue component enhancement level (m_B)
lu) is reflected in the management parameter. Image modification includes various processes reflected in the display of image data in a broad sense, and includes trimming and rotation of an image in a broad sense. When trimming is performed with the image data selected, the image data based on the current management parameters is displayed in a frame of a predetermined size as shown in FIG. Here, the mouse 15b
Is operated to specify a trimming start position and a trimming end position, and when an "execute" command button is clicked, a portion other than a rectangular area having a diagonal between the start position and the end position is removed and displayed. Of course, in this case, a part of the original image data is not deleted, and the trimming start X coordinate (m_x
1), trimming start Y coordinate (m_y1), trimming end X coordinate (m_x2), and trimming end Y coordinate (m_y)
Only the coordinate value is set to the management parameter of y2), and based on this, the thumbnail creating unit 20i creates a new thumbnail and updates it only in the photograph data 30b.

On the other hand, the rotation of the screen is also referred to as image modification in a broad sense, and is used when a vertical photograph taken with the camera horizontally is also displayed vertically. FIG. 39 shows a display screen of the main display area in the case of such a rotation process. In the upper left portion, the original image data is displayed as a thumbnail,
Below that, three rotation angles for every 90 degrees and an operation input button for selecting an arbitrary rotation angle are prepared. Also, a thumbnail rotated by the selected rotation angle can be displayed in the right center portion. Of course,
The selected rotation angle is the rotation angle (m_nRotatio
n) is set to the management parameter.

FIGS. 40 and 41 show menu operations for designating these image modifications. FIG. 40 shows an example of a menu operation in the case of performing the automatic image modification. When the image modification is clicked on the menu bar, a drop-down menu is displayed, and when the automatic image modification is selected, further detailed options are displayed. . Of course, if you click "Pretty" at this time, automatic image modification will be "Pretty"
Will be started with the option. In this case, all of the selected image data are displayed as shown in FIG. FIG. 41 shows an example of a menu operation in the case of performing the manual image modification. When the user selects the manual image modification in the drop-down menu while clicking the image modification,
Modification of "brightness / contrast" or "color enhancement"
Can be selected. As for manual image correction, it is thought that it is often the case that automatic image correction does not improve even if it is performed individually, so it is started after selecting the image data to be subjected to manual image correction. Only be able to execute these when you have done so.

In addition, image data is selected for trimming, rotation, monochrome conversion, and sepia conversion, and image processing is selected from this drop-down menu and executed. Although the black-and-white conversion and the sepia tone conversion are individually performed, the conversion result is uniform and does not need to be adjusted by the operator's subjectiveness like manual image modification. Therefore, in practice, the automatic image correction (m_
nApf) is set.

In the foregoing, a situation has been described in which parameters are set in the process of performing various modifications on image data when simultaneous printing is selected. Next, processing in the computer system 10 for actually implementing such an operation will be described. FIG. 28-
FIG. 31 is a flowchart illustrating each process. FIG. 28 shows processing for executing automatic image modification. When reading image data for performing automatic image modification,
In step 100, the modification information is read with reference to the database structure of the photograph data 30b. This modification information means the various parameters described above, and if these parameters indicate that automatic image modification or manual image modification is to be performed, the processing is terminated without performing the following automatic image modification. I do. This is because there is no point in performing automatic image retouching over and over, and as long as the preference is reflected by manual image retouching, it cannot be automatically retouched.

Next, the image data is read in step 110, the features of the image are extracted in step 115, and the feature information is stored in step 120.
In step 130, automatic retouching information is created, and in step 130, automatic retouching image processing is executed. Of course, these are
This corresponds to Procedures 1 to 6 described above. on the other hand,
Trimming start X coordinate (m_x1) and trimming start Y
Coordinate (m_y1) and trimming end X coordinate (m_x2)
If the trimming position information is set in the management parameter of the trimming end Y coordinate (m_y2), the image processing for trimming is executed in step 140 after the determination in step 135, and the rotation angle (m_nRota) is set.
In the case where the rotation modification information is set in the management parameter of (tion), rotation image processing for rotating the image is executed in step 150 after the determination in step 145.

Since the image after the automatic image modification can be obtained by performing the above processing, in step 155, the thumbnails before and after the modification are displayed as shown in FIG. The process waits for an input as to whether to adopt the result of the modification process. That is, if the one after the automatic image modification is more desirable, it is selected and the "execute" command button is clicked.
In this case, in step 170, the selection status in the check box “Reflect to original data” is fetched, and if it is determined that the check is made, the image data is overwritten and saved in step 175.

When the original is rewritten, it is not necessary to refer to the retouching information. Only when the rewriting is not performed, the retouching information is stored in step 180. On the other hand, in a case where the “standard” automatic image processing is not sufficient, when “clean” or “DPE tone” is selected as shown in FIG. The operation condition value of the automatic image processing is changed in advance in step 165, and the above-described processing is repeated in step 115. When the “cancel” command button is clicked, the process is determined to be “cancel” and the process ends.

Of course, the automatic image modification can cope with various other conditions. Therefore, in addition to the selection such as “DPE tone” prepared in advance, the above operation condition value is changed according to the user's specification such as “brighter this area ...” or “whole yellow”. It is also possible to repeat the above processing. This operation condition value is not only set lately in step 165 but also naturally reflected at the time when the modification information of the automatic image modification is first created in step 125.

Next, a description will be given of a process for executing manual image modification. FIG. 29 shows the process of manual image modification. When manual image modification is executed, modification information is read in step 200 before reading the image data to be processed, and then in step 205. Read image data. Subsequently, in step 210, the management parameter of the automatic image retouching (m_nApf) is referred to.
In step 215, image processing for automatic image modification is executed.

Thereafter, in step 220, the management parameters for the manual image modification which have been set are read and the image processing is executed as specified. Thereafter, the processing for the trimming and the processing for the rotation are respectively set as the management parameters. The processing is executed in steps 225 to 240 based on the above. Through the above processing, it is possible to obtain the image after the manual image adjustment which has already been set. If the manual adjustment operation is further performed as described above in step 245, the modification is performed in step 255. The information is changed, and image modification is performed through the processing of steps 220 to 240.

When the "execute" command button is clicked, it is determined that "confirm" is meant, and the original image data is deleted at step 265 in accordance with the selection status of the "reflect on original data" check box. In step 270, the management parameter indicating the final modification information is rewritten. When the “cancel” command button is clicked, the process is determined to be “cancel” and the process ends.

Next, a process for executing trimming will be described. FIG. 30 shows the trimming process. Before the image data to be processed is read, the modification information is read in step 300, and then the process proceeds to step 305.
Reads the same image data. Subsequently, in step 310, the management parameter of the automatic image modification (m_nApf) is referred to, and if the management parameter is set, the image processing of the automatic image modification is executed in step 315. In step 320, various management parameters for manual image modification that have already been set are referred to.
At 5, the corresponding image processing is executed.

Thereafter, in step 330, the management parameters for trimming which have already been set are referred to, and
At step 335, image processing for trimming is executed. At step 340, a management parameter for rotation that has been set is referred to, and at step 345, image processing for rotation is executed. Through the above processing, all of the already set images after image modification can be obtained. Therefore, in step 355, a trimming operation is accepted on the screen display shown in FIG. 38, and a new trimming operation is performed. Is performed, the modification information is changed in step 360, and the image modification is performed through the processing in step 335. In this case, the control parameter for rotation is referred to in step 340, but it is determined whether or not the rotation is overlapped, and the rotation is not necessarily performed.

In this case as well, if the command button of "execute" is clicked, it is determined that it means "confirmed".
In step 365, the original image data is rewritten, or in step 370, the management parameter representing the final modification information is rewritten according to the selection status of the "reflect on original data" check box.
When the “cancel” command button is clicked, the process is determined to be “cancel” and the process ends.

Finally, the processing for executing the rotation will be described. FIG. 31 shows the rotation process. Before reading the image data to be processed, the modification information is read in step 400, and then the image data is read in step 405. Subsequently, in step 410, the management parameters of the automatic image modification (m_nApf) are referred to, and if the management parameters are set, step 415 is performed.
Executes image processing for automatic image modification. In step 420, various management parameters for manual image modification that have already been set are referred to, and if management parameters are set, corresponding image processing is executed in step 425.

Thereafter, in step 430, reference is made to the management parameters for trimming which have already been set, and
At step 435, the image processing for trimming is executed. At step 440, the management parameter for the already set rotation angle (m_nRotation) is referred to, and at step 445, the image processing for rotation is executed. Through the above processing, it is possible to obtain all of the already set images after image modification. In step 455, a rotation operation is accepted on the screen display shown in FIG. 39, and a new rotation operation is performed. Is performed, the modification information is changed in step 460, and step 445 is performed.
The image modification is performed after the above processing.

In this case as well, if the command button of "execute" is clicked, it is determined that it means "confirmed".
In step 465, the original image data is rewritten, or in step 470, the management parameter of the rotation angle (m_nRotation) representing the final modification information is rewritten in accordance with the selection status of the "reflect on original data" check box. Will be. When the “cancel” command button is clicked, the process is determined to be “cancel” and the process ends.

As described above, one advantage of using the management parameters is that there is no need to change the original image data, and it is necessary to modify the management parameters in order to utilize the original image data. come.
As shown in FIGS. 40 and 41, in the drop-down menu displayed when the image modification of the file menu is selected, a command of image modification cancellation is prepared at the bottom, and the command is selected and executed. The processing is executed according to the flowchart of FIG.

In this case as well, it is assumed that the image modification is canceled with the image data selected. In step 500, the modification information of the photograph data 30b for the image data is read, and in step 505, the operation menu shown in FIG. Display in the display area and wait for operation input. In this operation menu, select the check boxes in front of each item along with the items to be canceled such as "Auto Image Correction", "Manual Image Adjustment", "Rotation", "Cropping", "Black and White", and "Sepia Tone". it's shown. Here, when the operator clicks the check box in front of the image modification item to be canceled with the mouse 15b, a check mark is displayed in a toggle manner, and internally, the presence or absence of each check mark is represented by a flag and stored. . In addition, an “execute” command button and a “cancel” command button are prepared at the bottom, and the operator clicks the “execute” command button after checking necessary check boxes.

Then, in step 510 and subsequent steps, the corresponding modification information is deleted while determining whether or not each check box is checked. Of course, the deletion of the modification information here is nothing but modification of the management parameter, and there is no need to process the original image data at all. Specifically, step 5
In step 10, it is determined whether or not a check mark has been added to the item of "automatic image modification".
At 15, the modification information of “automatic image modification” is deleted. Next, in step 520, it is determined whether or not a check mark is added to the item of “black and white”. If so, in step 525, the modification information of “black and white” is deleted. next,
In step 530, it is determined whether or not a check mark is added to the item of “sepia tone”. If so, in step 535, the modification information of “sepia tone” is deleted. Next, in step 540, it is determined whether or not a check mark is added to the item of "manual image adjustment", and if it is, the modification information of "manual image adjustment" is deleted in step 545. The manual image adjustment includes such things as brightness, contrast, and color enhancement. In this example, all are canceled, but these may be individually canceled.

Next, in step 550, "trimming"
It is determined whether or not a check mark is attached to the item, and if it is, "trimming" is performed in step 555.
Delete the modification information of. Next, in step 560, it is determined whether or not a check mark is added to the item of "rotation", and if so, in step 565, the modification information of "rotation" is deleted. With some modification information deleted after the above result, the modification information is stored in step 570. The preservation work here is the photograph data 30b
And updates the latest modification information by accessing the database structure of the photograph data 30b shown in FIG.
When the command button of "Cancel" is clicked in the operation menu shown in FIG. 42, all the check marks are internally deleted and the above processing is executed. Therefore, after all, no modification information is deleted. This processing ends. Note that, in this example, a technique of restoring the created retouching information by deleting the retouching information is adopted. However, by adding date and time information to the retouching information itself, a plurality of times corresponding to one image data in time series can be obtained. The modification information may be managed. In this way, it is possible to delete the modification information not only by simply deleting the modification information but also by going back to the modification information at an arbitrary stage. Can be restored.

Although the operation of setting or canceling the management parameters prepared for each image data has been described above, it is possible to use the actually modified image data while using the management parameters. Will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The scene in which the modified image data is used is displayed in the thumbnail creation unit 2 according to the instruction from the display designation unit 20b.
0i is a case where the thumbnail is updated and displayed on the screen, or a case where the data format of the image data is converted and output by the image output unit 20k. In this case, the original print data is created when executing. Therefore, although there is a slight difference in the processing in each case, the processing generally corresponds to the flowchart in FIG.

In step 600, the modification information of the target image data is read, and in step 605, the image data is read. In the following processing, image modification is performed based on the image data while following the modification information. The new image data is created without rewriting the image data. In step 610, it is determined whether or not there is modification information for automatic image modification. If so, automatic image modification is performed in step 615. In this case, automatic image modification (m_
nApf) management parameters include not only information on performing automatic image modification, but also “standard”, “clean”,
The process proceeds by determining which automatic image modification such as “DPE tone” is to be performed. Further, since the conversion to black and white or sepia tone has only one modification result, it can be represented by the management parameter of the automatic image modification, and is performed simultaneously or alternatively.

Subsequently, in step 620, it is determined whether or not there is modification information for manual adjustment. If so, image processing for manual adjustment is executed in step 625. As described above, the modification information of the manual adjustment includes the enhancement degree of the brightness component (m_nBrig).
htness) and the degree of contrast enhancement (m_nCo)
ntrust) and the degree of enhancement of the red component (m_nRed)
, Green component emphasis level (m_nGreen), and blue component emphasis level (m_Blue). If any one of the modification information has the modification information, the corresponding image processing is executed. If there is the modification information of (1) and the modification information of the color emphasis, the former is modified, and then the latter is modified. Of course, if a result reflecting such a modification order can be obtained, the modification can be performed with one modification.

Thereafter, in step 630, it is determined whether trimming modification information is present.
Executes the trimming image processing. In the trimming image processing, surrounding image data is deleted while leaving an area surrounded by a trimming start X coordinate (m_x1), a trimming start Y coordinate (m_y1), a trimming end X coordinate (m_x2), and a trimming end Y coordinate (m_y2). Will be. In step 640, it is determined whether there is rotation modification information. If so, rotation image processing is executed in step 645. In rotation image processing, the rotation angle (m
_NRotation), the rotation angle is referred to based on the management parameter, and processing for rotating the image data is executed.

In the above-described image processing, the original image data is first stored again in the work area, and then the image data in the work area is changed. Therefore, no change is made to the original image data. The above is the optional image processing that is performed or not performed in response to the selection operation of the operator. In step 650 and step 655, essential image processing is performed based on a difference in hardware environment. . In step 650, image processing for color reproduction according to the output device is executed. It is undeniable that there is a deviation from the standard in color output reproduction equipment. That is, there are many cases where the output results are different while the same image data is input. In addition, it is simply impossible to make the image data and the output result consistent with the standard state by standardizing this shift, which is simply impossible in terms of cost / cost. It is a good idea to use information.

In the case of the image data described above, it can be said that a large color shift does not occur in the output result if there is color shift information on the photographing side and color shift information on the output side. In the present embodiment, the former color shift information is managed as color matching information in the database structure of the photograph data 30b, and is managed in the setting information as color shift information generated in the computer system 10 and the color printer 17b. In step 650, the image data on the work area is modified based on the color misregistration information of the two.

In step 655, image processing of a resolution corresponding to the output device is executed, and a corresponding resolution conversion is performed by comparing the resolution of the image data with the resolution at the time of output. For example, color display 1
When the display at 7a is 70 dpi and printing is to be performed according to the size, assuming that the resolution of the color printer 17b is 720 dpi, a resolution conversion of 10 times in the vertical and horizontal directions is required.

Returning to the description of the simultaneous printing process shown in FIG. 34, the process of “print designation” is performed after the photo modification. Already after "input of photo" and "modification of photo", selection of image data to be printed and image processing to be performed on it are selected. In this “print designation”, the format in which the selected image data is to be printed is designated. FIG. 43 shows the display in the main display area in "print designation", and a display area that can be scrolled in the horizontal direction is arranged in the upper part so that a layout pattern can be displayed. In the drawing, the layouts of “Layout by four”, “Album print”, and “Sticker print” are displayed.
Of course, other layout patterns can be implemented. In addition, as an option, a check box is provided so that the user can select to print a registration mark as a guide of a cutting position, print a date, or print a title. Furthermore, for paper, it corresponds to "A4", "B5", "Seal", etc.
Radio buttons are provided for exclusively selecting one of these.

When printing, it is necessary to generate print data according to the model of the color printer 17b.
A selection display area for the printer device is provided on the lower left side. Here, by selecting the printer device, the corresponding setting information is read out, and the above-described color shift is corrected or the output resolution is matched. A layout of “album print” is prepared in the layout. When the command button of “album details” is clicked, an operation screen shown in FIG. 44 is displayed in the main display area. Also on this display screen, an album pattern can be displayed by disposing a horizontally scrollable display area in the upper part. In this example, A4 paper is arranged in two rows and four columns, and a checkered pattern is displayed. 1 shows an image that is printed on the left half, an image that is printed on four tiers on the left half, and an image that is printed on two tiers. Also,
As options for album printing, check boxes are provided so that you can select to print comments, print dates, or print page titles. A designated page number list is also provided so that successive page numbers can be printed as they go. The page number may automatically be set to the page number following the previous album printing. Then, if this display is acceptable, the command button "OK" may be clicked, and if not, the command button "Cancel" may be clicked.

The last processing of the simultaneous printing shown in FIG. 34 is "printing". In this main display area, as shown in FIG. 45, the model of the currently designated printer, the size of the paper to be printed and A message for confirmation including the required number of sheets is displayed, and a command button of "execute" and a command button of "cancel" for starting printing are prepared. Of course, in this state, clicking the "execute" command button starts printing. Depending on the color printer 17b, it often takes a long time to perform printing. Therefore, after completing all the operations to be specified in advance, clicking the "Execute" button completes the printing after the bath. It becomes easier.

FIG. 46 shows the DPE print control unit 5 which executes such “print designation” and “print” processing.
0 shows a specific configuration. The print image designation unit 50a inherits the designation of the image data selected as described above, and executes the process of “print designation” by the frame designation unit 50b and the layout designation unit 50c, and is executed by the print designation unit 50d. Under the control, the print style creating unit 50e and the print image processing unit 50f generate actual print data. Generally, image data is represented by RGB multi-gradation display, but printing is often performed by CMYK two-gradation display. For this reason, the print image processing unit 50f executes the image processing according to the above-described designation, and then executes the RGB → CMYK
In addition to the change of the color space, the gradation conversion processing from multi-gradation to two-gradation is also executed.

When a plurality of pieces of modification information are stored in chronological order for one image data, a history is displayed when the modification is deleted, and the modification is deleted one by one. I should do it. Of course, if there is modified data in a case series, image processing is performed in order from the oldest one to reproduce image data desired to be used. When a modification is to be added, new modification information is generated and saved with the previous modification information remaining. <Second Embodiment> On the other hand, FIG. 47 shows the above-mentioned folder unit hierarchical structure more specifically. First, as for the film data 30c, the database file ai_dpe.data in the “main” folder 31 in which the main program of the image data processing apparatus is stored. It is stored as db0. Since it is the same folder as the main program, which patrone corresponds to which folder is core and important information, and if the location is changed by user's arbitrary specification, it will be dissipated as a result To prevent Next, as for the image file 30a stored in the exchangeable storage area such as the CD-ROM 13c-1, the photograph data 30b is managed in the patrone unit, and the photograph data 30b is stored in the "main" folder 31. "Removable" folder 3
2 in the database file photo1. db1, ph
oto1. db2, photo2. db1, photo
2. It is stored as db2. Here, two files having the names photo1 and photo2 for one patrone and having extensions db1 and db2 respectively are generated. Of these two database files, the file with the extension db2 is a thumbnail-dedicated file in the photo data 30b, and the file with the extension db1 stores the remaining photo data 30b. . Therefore, in this example, a set of database files photo1. db
1, photo1. db2 constitutes the photograph data 30b.

On the other hand, when storing the image file 30a on the hard disk 13b, the "main" folder 31
Is stored in the “films” folder 33 formed in the folder. Here, one folder is further formed in the “films” folder 33 for each patrone,
When "Sea bathing" is set as the name of the patrone, the "sea bathing" folder 34 is obtained. When "Hiking" is set as the name of the patrone, "Hiking" is performed.
It becomes the folder 35. In each folder, the database file ai_ is stored as the photograph data 30b.
dpe. db1, ai_dpe. db2 is created, and individual image files 30a are stored under unique names. In the two database files, the thumbnail data is stored in the file having the extension db2, and the remaining photo data is stored in the file having the extension db1. This database file stores information of only the image file 30a stored in the same directory. Of course, the same applies to the “hiking” folder 35.

Further, for the sake of processing, it is convenient to have a patrone for temporarily storing items that cannot be separated.
A patrone named "Other" is available. The image file 30a classified as the “other” patrone is stored immediately below the “films” folder 33 in the same row as the “sea bathing” folder 34 and the “hiking” folder 35 described above. Here also, the database file ai_dpe. db1, ai_dpe. db2
Has been created.

As described above, the location of the image file 30a is on a replaceable recording medium or the hard disk 13b, and is managed in each cartridge, and the location is stored in the database file a of the "main" folder 31.
i_dpe. It is centrally managed by db0. Then, the database file ai_dpe. The information is stored in db0 as a link destination. If the link destination is on the hard disk 13b, one directory of the image file 30a is secured and stored together with the photo data 30b.
0b is centrally stored in one directory. If the photo data 30b and the image file 30a are not in the same directory, that is, if they are on an exchangeable recording medium, the database file photo1. db1, photo1. d
The file name of b2 is also stored in the film data 30c. This is because the photograph data 30b of a plurality of patrones is stored in one directory. On the other hand, the photograph data 30b and the image file 30
If a is in the same directory, the photograph data 30b
Ai_dpe. db1, ai_dpe. The name db2 is not particularly important. This means that one directory is reserved for each patrone, in which a set of database files ai_dpe. db1, ai_dpe.
This is because only db2 exists. Of course, since the name of the directory corresponds to the name of the patrone, the location of the patrone is also specified.

By the way, there are various methods for linking the image file 30a and the photograph data 30b. In the above example, a set of database files is formed for a plurality of image files 30a, but it is also possible to distribute them in file units. In FIG. 48, one attribute file “0616000x.ATB” including the above-described modification information, feature information, color matching information, and the like is generated for one image file “0616000x.jpg” as the photograph data 30b. In this case, one directory is generated for one cartridge, and the image files 30a and the attribute files 30d are stored in each directory. When handling the image file 30a, first, it is determined whether the attribute file 30d and the image file 30a in each directory correspond one-to-one, and if they match, the thumbnail file in the attribute file 30d is used to simplify the process. And perform processing of various displays and various operations. In this case, since the attribute file 30d is specified by the location of the directory written in the film data 30c and the name of each image file 30a, these pieces of information constitute the link information between the image file 30a and the modification information. .

As another example in which a database file is not generated, an image file 30a and a photo data 30
It is also possible to generate a file integrating b.
FIG. 49A shows an example of a directory structure in that case, and one image file “0616000x.j” is displayed.
pg "is generated, and one file" 0616000x.PHT "including the photograph data 30b is generated. In this case, since the correspondence is such that the picture data 30b is attached on the premise that the image file 30a exists, the correspondence does not become different as in the case of a separate file.

Further, a version upgrade of the retouching process is foreseen, and extra information is required to cope with other unforeseen changes. FIG. 49B shows an example in which information indicating the version of the image modification engine is included in correspondence with the version upgrade of the modification process. Here, the image file “xxx.jpg” and the photograph data “xxx”
x. ATB "and an information file" xxxx.ENG "indicating the version of the image modification engine are integrated to generate one integrated file" xxxx.PHT ".

FIG. 50 shows a specific process when such a folder structure is employed. As mentioned above,
The normal modification processing result is reflected only on the thumbnail, and the modification is not added to the original image file 30a. Therefore, it is necessary to add a modification process to the actual image file 30a in the case of the same size display, the enlarged display, or the printing. Of course, the retouching result is the image data 30a of the temporary work.

The work image file generation processing shown in FIG. 50 will be described on the premise of the above-described file configuration.
When the simultaneous printing process of FIG. 34 is being executed, it is necessary to display the image file at the same size or enlarged in order to check the modification result in the middle. Further, when printing is finally performed, an image file reflecting the modification result is required. The work image file generation process shown in FIG. 50 is a process of generating a work image file in such a case.

This processing is realized as one module or the like, and it is assumed that an image file is designated when a certain cartridge is selected when the module is called. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 51, the selection information of the patrone is stored in the variable PATRONE,
A variable f_PICT indicating whether or not each of the image files 30a held in each cartridge is selected is prepared. For this variable f_PICT, 1
Although it is a character area of 000 bytes, each byte is selection information for each image file 30a.
The user can specify whether or not to select 000 image files 30a. Then, by giving an argument, one byte at an arbitrary location can be referred to, and each image file 30
It is determined whether or not a has been selected.

First, at step 700, the variable PATRO
Film data 3 of the patrone selected from NE
0c is stored in the database file ai_dpe. Reference is made to db0. The corresponding film data 30c includes a medium attribute and a link destination for the patrone. Therefore, in step 700, the link destination is obtained, and in step 705, it is determined whether or not the medium is an exchangeable recording medium, that is, a removable medium based on the medium attribute, and the process branches. In the case of removable, first, in step 707, a removable recording medium to be handled is loaded. Specifically, it obtains the path name and media label that is the link destination of the removable recording medium, shows it to the user, prompts the user to set it in the specified drive, confirms whether it is correct if set, and redo if it is wrong. Let When this is completed, the corresponding database file is referred to in the “removable” folder 32 in step 710. Database file p
photo1. db1, photo1. If db2,
The modification information of each image file specified based on the specification information in the variable f_PICT is acquired from the database file.

If the media is not removable based on the media attribute, a folder with the name of the patrone is searched in the films folder 33 in step 715.
Database file ai_dp in the corresponding folder
e. db1, ai_dpe. Reference is made to db2. Then, the modification information of each image file specified based on the specification information in the variable f_PICT is acquired from the database file. Thus, the image file 30
Since the modification information corresponding to the location of a can be obtained, the modification processing is executed by the corresponding image modification engine on the basis of the designated modification information in step 720, and the original corresponding / enlarged display is performed in step 725. Alternatively, a print process is executed. Step 725 may be executed from the module concerned, or the process may be returned to a higher-order module and executed once.

On the other hand, a thumbnail image is displayed in the image display area dp4 with the patrone selected. In this case, a thumbnail display process shown in FIG. 52 is executed. Also in this case, first, in step 730, the variable PA
The film data 30c of the patrone selected based on TRONE is stored in the database file ai_dpe. The medium attribute and the link destination of the cartridge are acquired from the corresponding film data 30c with reference to db0. Then, it is determined from the medium attribute whether or not the medium is a replaceable recording medium, that is, whether or not the medium is removable.
0, the database file photo1.x in the “removable” folder 32. Acquire thumbnail data from db2. If the file is not removable based on the medium attribute, a folder with the name of the patrone is searched in the films folder 33 in step 745, and the database file ai_
dpe. Acquire thumbnail data from db2. Then, in step 750, the obtained thumbnail data is displayed in the image display area dp4.

Next, a description will be given of processing for enabling the image processing order to be arbitrarily changed. FIG. 53 shows the contents of the modification information in the photograph data 30b in this case. The contents of the processing are “automatic image modification”, “brightness”, “contrast”, “red (emphasized)”, “green (emphasized)”, and “blue (emphasized)” as shown in the leftmost column. In addition, for each of the processes, the individual designation information to be set includes “modification engine version”, “order (execution order information)”, and “processing strength” as shown at the top.

Here, since the execution order of each processing content is fixed in the "auto image modification", the order becomes effective between other processes only when not selected. In FIG. 11A, “1” is set in the order of the automatic image modification, and the other processing is “0”, which means that no selection is made. On the other hand, in FIG. 11B, the order of the automatic image modification is “0” and is not selected. And other processing is "1" ~
The order of “5” is set.

FIG. 54 shows a flowchart for executing the image modification processing when such a processing order is given. First, in step 760, sorting is performed according to the processing order. As described above, when a process is not selected, “0” is added, and as a result of the ascending order, the process not selected comes first. In step 765, the process in which "0" is added to the order column and arranged at the beginning is excluded.
For example, in the case of FIG. 53 (a), only the automatic image processing remains. In the case of FIG. 53 (b), only the automatic image processing is excluded. , Blue enhancement, brightness, and contrast.

Step 770 is a loop end judgment. If there is no more processing to be performed, this modification processing is terminated. If there is something to be processed, the processing is executed in steps 775 and 780. In step 775, the processing engine of the highest priority process delivers the image data and the parameter of the processing strength to execute the modification process. The process with the highest priority is a process that is sorted and rearranged at the top, and in the example of FIG.

After this processing, in step 780, unprocessed ones are moved up. First, the red emphasis processing is the highest priority processing, and when the processing is completed, the red emphasis processing is eliminated and the second blue emphasis processing is set as the highest priority processing, and so on. By such a carry-up process, the processes are executed in order until the last process ends, and there is no more process to be executed last, and the loop process ends. FIG.
Indicates the processing of step 775 conceptually. The image modification control unit 40 includes a plurality of image modification engines on the assumption that it is used as a so-called image modification engine. In the drawing, there are version 1 (41) and version 2 (42) as automatic image modification engines, and version 1 (43) and version 2 (44) as brightness modification engines. Version 1 (45) is provided as a contrast modification engine, and other engines are provided similarly. In step 775, the processing engine, version, image data, and processing strength are designated as parameters to the image modification control unit 40 as shown in the manner of FIG.
Executes the specified image modification on the image data and outputs the modified image data.

That is, the image modification control section 40 selects modification engines 41 to 45... According to the contents of the parameters, and gives parameters to them to execute image modification.
Of course, the image modification control unit 40 itself is configured as an aggregate of a large number of modules, and a specific modification engine module is executed through a branch process. In this way, the order element is set as one parameter of the modification information,
By performing the sorting, the modification processing can be executed in a desired order without executing unnecessary processing.

On the other hand, “automatic image modification”, “brightness”,
"Contrast", "red (emphasized)", "green (emphasized)"
The respective processes of “blue (emphasized)” can be grouped and used properly. For example, a first group consisting only of "automatic image modification", a second group consisting of "brightness" and "contrast", and a second group consisting of "red (emphasized)", "green (emphasized)", and "blue (emphasized)". Three groupings can be performed, such as three groups. The first group needs its own feature extraction processing, modification information creation processing, and modification designation processing, and must be realized as a series of processing. The second group focuses on luminance conversion as the content of the processing, and has commonality. Further, the third group is an emphasis process for each color component, and the content of the process is common.

Therefore, if there is room in the execution environment, such as when the processing capacity of the CPU is high, all groups can be designated, but the third group can be realized depending on the execution environment. It is possible that the first group and the second group cannot be realized. In this case, the execution permission / prohibition of the first to third groups is determined in the environment setting or the like, and the execution permission / non-permission determination unit 46 of the image modification control unit 40 determines whether each of the modification engines 41 to 45. refer. Then, the modifying engine is executed for the process of the executable group, and the process of the unexecutable group is terminated in the same manner as the process which has been completed without being executed by the modifying engine.

By the way, a case where the photograph data 30b is one set has been mainly described, but a configuration having a plurality of sets like the above-mentioned history information may be adopted.
FIG. 56 shows an example of the contents of the photograph data 30b when a plurality of such sets of modification information are provided. In terms of contents, a plurality of sets shown in FIGS. 53 (a) and 53 (b) are provided. Assuming that each set is called one group, FIG. 57 is a flowchart showing a process when the photograph data 30b includes a plurality of groups. First, since there is only one modification designation so far, it is necessary to save as a plurality of groups.

After the image data to be modified is selected in step 800, a modification to be specifically performed is specified in step 805, and the modification specified in step 810 is performed. Of course, the image modification in step 810 is performed on the thumbnail data representing the original image file 30a. The above instruction is given in the same manner as described above. Next, in step 815, the user is inquired whether to save the modification instruction given in step 805. The inquiry is displayed on the display 17a using a GUI, and is responded by the mouse 15b or the keyboard 15a. In the case of saving, a designation of a save group is input in step 820. Five storage groups can be selected in advance, and any one of them can be input via the GUI. Needless to say, the number of storage groups is arbitrary, and it is also possible to add them sequentially without determining the upper limit.

Step 83 when the storage group is determined
Write modification information with 0. As one mode when the number of groups is determined in advance, a predetermined case may be associated with each group. For example, group 1 is a modification process for a slide show, and group 2 is a modification process for a print. In addition, when each group is selected, designation may be made individually such that the group is for a slide show or for printing. Step 825 represents processing for associating a group with a condition for executing the group, and is not essential.

After writing the modification information, step 840
Then, write the thumbnail data. Thumbnail data is required for each group, and the above-described photo data 30
Add to the database file of b with extension db2. FIG. 58 shows a modification process when a plurality of groups are registered as described above. Here, as a premise of the modification processing shown in FIG.
In step 85, it is determined whether or not modification information of a plurality of groups is stored.
At 5, the user is caused to select one of the groups. If there is no plurality of groups, an existing group is determined in step 860.
Specify by default. Since one group is designated as the modification information in step 855 or step 860, the processing from step 800 onward in FIG. 57 is executed.

In this example, a plurality of sets of the entire parameters are prepared, and one of the sets is selected. However, it is naturally possible to prepare a plurality of processing patterns for a part of image processing instead of preparing a plurality of sets as a whole. For example, in FIG. 53 and FIG. 56, a plurality of processing intensity columns are prepared, and a column to be set is specified in the same manner as specifying a storage group in step 820. When reading is performed, if a plurality of values are set in a plurality of columns in step 850, a setting to be read is selected in step 855.

On the other hand, as described above, a group may be stored with a condition for executing the group. In this case, the modification processing is executed according to the flowchart shown in FIG. That is, it is determined in step 870 whether or not there are a plurality of groups.
To get the current environment. This environment corresponds to the conditions as described above. That is, it is determined whether a slide show or a print process is currently being performed by referring to a predetermined variable or flag. The variable to be referred to may be any type. For example, a global variable JOKEN may be set. After obtaining the current condition, a group corresponding to this condition is selected in step 880. The following performs the processing from step 800 shown in FIG.

In this way, if the execution conditions are set when the modification processing is executed, the environment is automatically determined when the processing such as display or printing is started, and the environment is determined in advance. If modification processing is set for the environment, the corresponding modification processing is automatically performed. For example, in the case of a slide show, it is necessary to prevent the original display interval from being exceeded during image modification. Therefore, reduction of the processing time is desired, and simplification of the processing is indispensable. On the other hand, in the case of printing, a clear image quality is desired even if it takes a long time, so that the desired modification processing may be executed.

In the case of a slide show from such a background, a group for correcting only the brightness and the contrast, which is relatively easy to process, is registered instead of the automatic image correction.
In the case of printing, it is effective to register as a group to execute automatic image modification. Next, FIG.
0 shows a flowchart in the case where such a plurality of groups are used for the history. Step 900
Steps 910 select predetermined image data and execute the modification in the same manner as in steps 800 to 810 described above. Thereafter, in step 915, the user is made to select whether or not to store the modification instruction. If the instruction is to be stored, a group of the latest modification information is added in step 920. For example, if there are three existing groups, they are stored as the fourth group. At this time, the modification date and time may be added as one of the information. Then, in step 925, corresponding thumbnail data is added to a predetermined database file as in step 840 and the like.

As a history, a new modification must be performed on top of the past modification. FIG. 61 shows a flowchart of the modification processing when there is history modification information. First, in step 930, sorting is performed in the order of group execution. Usually, the group with the higher number is the new modification information, and is not essential. However, there is a possibility that the specification may be changed, and there is a case where the information of the modification date and time is stored as described above, so that it is meaningful that the sorting can be executed.

When the sorting is completed, the number of groups is set in a variable g_total in step 935, and step 94 is executed.
At 0, "1" is set to the loop pointer i. Then, in step 945, the modification processing is executed based on the modification information of the group i indicated by the loop pointer i. Since the loop pointer i is added by "1" at step 950, the modification processing is executed in ascending order of the group number, and the history is reproduced in the order from the oldest. Then, in step 955, it is determined whether or not the loop pointer i has exceeded the number of existing groups. Unless the loop pointer i has exceeded the number of groups, the loop is repeated assuming that there is an unprocessed modification process.

On the other hand, although it has not been assumed that the modification process is performed only on a part of the image data, it is needless to say that the modification process is performed not only on the entire image data but also on a part thereof. It is also possible to do so. Here, the part may be a part of the image, or may be only a part of the layer if it is composed of a plurality of layers. FIG. 62 shows a flowchart in a case where the image modification is realized by designating such a modification area. After selecting image data to be processed in step 960, a modification area is designated in step 965, a modification instruction is given in step 970, and the image is modified in step 975. In many cases, trial and error are repeated as appropriate for the designation and modification of the area.
The order of the processing of 75 merely indicates the relative execution order.

At step 980, an inquiry is made as to whether or not the modification instruction is to be stored. If so, at step 985, the modification instruction is stored as modification information together with the area information.
However, it can be said that the modified area stored in this way is only one parameter for the modified engine. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 55, the modification engine partially modifies the region or layer corresponding to the region and outputs the modified image data. When the modification area is specified by specifying a specific specific area, for example, in the case of a rectangular area, the coordinate values of two diagonal corners are specified, or each object is specified, or an arbitrary curve is used. Can be designated. Alternatively, a designation such as a central area, an upper half, or a lower half may be used.

On the other hand, it is also possible to specify the color of the image and associate the image processing. For example, image processing can be associated with a chromaticity that is not easily affected by brightness. In the case of a flesh-colored area, it is considered that the object is almost a human face, and in the case of a human face, a slightly blurred image looks more beautiful than a sharp image. Therefore, the chromaticity of the flesh color is designated instead of the area information, and an instruction to reduce (blur) sharpness is given as a correction instruction. Then, the modification engine identifies the chromaticity of the processing target pixel, and if the chromaticity is the target chromaticity, performs the unsharpening of the designated processing intensity.

As another example for each chromaticity, it is also preferable to specify the chromaticity of the blue sky to make it unsharp. It is also preferable to designate processing for enhancing redness in consideration of the sunset. Here, the image data of each pixel is (R, G,
Assuming that the chromaticity is represented by B), the chromaticity is represented by r = R / (R + G + B) b = B / (R + G + B) The chromaticity is not affected much when the human skin is dark or bright, and shows a constant distribution. More specifically, 0.33 <r <0.51 | .0. 74r + b−0.57 | <0.1. If this condition is applied to each pixel, it can be said that the pixel belongs to the flesh color area. When this is a blue sky, the relational expression of 0.17 <r <0.30 | 1.11r + b−0.70 | <0.2 is established in consideration of the fact that the fluctuation range is larger than that of the skin color. Just do it.

As described above, in order to be able to perform optimal image processing according to the state of the pixel such as the position of the pixel and the color of the pixel, parameters corresponding to the state of the pixel are stored in association with each other. Is acquired, image processing corresponding to the state of the pixel is performed to reproduce an image.
As described above, while storing the image data in the folder managed as the film metaphor and preparing the database of the photograph data 30b corresponding to each image data and selecting the desired image processing for the desired image data, Update the selected image processing as modification information in the above database structure, and when it is necessary to actually display, output, or print, refer to the modification information only on the work area while leaving the original image data. Since various types of image processing are executed in this way, it is possible to easily perform image modification and the like while leaving the original image data.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram corresponding to a claim of an image data processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of specific hardware of the image data processing apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of the image data processing device.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a common function unit.

FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram of a film data management unit.

FIG. 6 is a schematic explanatory diagram showing a data structure managed by the film data management unit.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a variable declaration of a management parameter.

FIG. 8 is a functional block diagram of an image modification control unit.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a flow of a procedure for explaining image modification control.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a configuration of an image file.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a state in which a processing target pixel is moved.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating a distribution range when a luminance distribution is expanded.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a conversion relationship for expanding a luminance distribution.

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating edge processing of a luminance distribution and an edge obtained by the edge processing.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a conversion table for enlarging a luminance distribution.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing a concept of increasing brightness by γ correction.

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing a concept of darkening by γ correction.

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing a correspondence relationship of luminance changed by γ correction.

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing a correspondence relationship between evaluation of brightness and γ.

FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating a method of extracting an element to be used as a feature vector for each color component.

FIG. 21 is a schematic diagram of a tallying state of a saturation distribution.

FIG. 22 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between saturation and a saturation enhancement index.

FIG. 23 is an explanatory diagram in the case where the degree of change of an image is represented by each component value of rectangular coordinates.

FIG. 24 is an explanatory diagram in a case where the degree of change of an image is obtained by a difference value between adjacent pixels in the vertical axis direction and the horizontal axis direction.

FIG. 25 is an explanatory diagram in a case where the degree of change of an image is calculated between all adjacent pixels.

FIG. 26 is a diagram illustrating an example of image data.

FIG. 27 is a diagram showing an unsharp mask of 5 × 5 pixels.

FIG. 28 is a flowchart for specifying automatic image adjustment.

FIG. 29 is a flowchart when manual image adjustment is designated.

FIG. 30 is a flowchart when trimming is designated.

FIG. 31 is a flowchart when a rotation is designated.

FIG. 32 is a flowchart when designating cancellation of modification.

FIG. 33 is a flowchart of a process for making modified image data usable.

FIG. 34 is a diagram illustrating an operation screen of a simultaneous printing process.

FIG. 35 is a diagram illustrating an operation screen when newly acquiring image data.

FIG. 36 is a diagram illustrating an operation screen when performing an automatic image modification process.

FIG. 37 is a diagram illustrating an operation screen when automatic image modification is performed by default.

FIG. 38 is a diagram illustrating an operation screen when performing trimming processing.

FIG. 39 is a diagram illustrating an operation screen when performing a rotation process.

FIG. 40 is a diagram illustrating an operation screen when performing an automatic image adjustment process.

FIG. 41 is a diagram illustrating an operation screen when a process of manual image adjustment is performed.

FIG. 42 is a diagram showing an operation screen when performing a modification cancellation process.

FIG. 43 is a diagram illustrating an operation screen when performing print designation processing.

FIG. 44 is a diagram illustrating an operation screen when performing an album printing process.

FIG. 45 is a diagram illustrating an operation screen when performing printing processing.

FIG. 46 is a functional block diagram of a DPE print control unit.

FIG. 47 is a diagram showing a directory structure.

FIG. 48 is a diagram showing a modification of the file structure.

FIG. 49 is a diagram showing another modification of the file structure.

FIG. 50 is a flowchart of a work image file generation process.

FIG. 51 is a diagram illustrating an example of definition of variables used in a process of generating a work image file.

FIG. 52 is a flowchart of a thumbnail display process.

FIG. 53 is a diagram showing the contents of modification information.

FIG. 54 is a flowchart of an example of a modification process.

FIG. 55 is a conceptual diagram showing a modification process.

FIG. 56 is a diagram showing the contents when a plurality of modification information are provided.

FIG. 57 is a flowchart of a modification operation when modification information is included in a plurality of groups.

FIG. 58 is a part of a flowchart of a modification process when modification information is included in a plurality of groups.

FIG. 59 is a part of a flowchart of a modification process when a group is made to correspond to an environment;

FIG. 60 is a flowchart of a modification operation when a plurality of groups have history modification information.

FIG. 61 is a flowchart of a modification process when a modification history is realized by a plurality of groups.

FIG. 62 is a flowchart of a modification operation when modifying a part of an image.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Computer system 11a ... Scanner 11b ... Digital still camera 11c ... Video camera 12 ... Computer main body 12a ... Operating system 12b ... Display driver 12c ... Printer driver 12d ... Application 13a ... Floppy disk drive 13b ... Hard disk 13c ... CD-ROM drive 14a ... Modem 15a ... Keyboard 15b ... Mouse 17a ... Display 17b ... Color printer 18a ... Speaker 18b ... Microphone 20 ... Common function part 20a ... Image selection part 20b ... Display designation part 20c ... File editing part 20d ... Search part 20e ... Batch comment part 20f: Batch arrangement unit 20g: Image processing unit 20h: Image editing unit 20i: Thumbnail creation unit 20j: Image input unit 20k: Image output unit 20m Image display unit 30 Film data management unit 30a Image file 30b Photo data 30c Film data 40 Image modification control unit 40a Image feature extraction unit 40b Modification information creation unit 40c Modification designation unit 50 DPE printing Control unit 50a Print image designation unit 50b Frame designation unit 50c Layout designation unit 50d Print designation unit 50e Print style creation unit 50f Print image processing unit 60 Main control unit 60a Environment setting unit 60b Setting information file

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Shingo Yudazaka 2-1-2-7 Chuo, Matsumoto-shi, Nagano Within Aisoft Co., Ltd. (72) Yasushi Hiraoka 2-27 Chuo, Matsumoto-shi, Nagano No. F-term in AI Software Co., Ltd. (Reference) 5B050 AA10 BA10 CA07 EA09 EA12 EA23 FA02 FA12 FA13 GA08 5B057 AA20 BA02 CD03 CE09 CE16 CE20 5C077 NP01 PP21 PP22 PP31 PP80 TT09

Claims (36)

[Claims] 1. Parameter setting means for setting parameters representing the contents of predetermined image processing to be performed on image data; data storage means for storing the image data and the parameters together with association information; and referencing the association information. Data acquisition means for acquiring the image data and the parameter, and image processing reproduction means for acquiring image data subjected to the designated image processing based on the acquired image data and the parameter. An image data processing apparatus characterized by the above-mentioned. 2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a parameter setting unit configured to set a parameter representing a content of a predetermined image processing performed on the image data; and a data storage unit configured to store the image data and the parameter together with association information. Image data processing apparatus. 3. A parameter indicating the content of a predetermined image processing to be performed on image data and the image data are stored together with mutual association information, and the image data and the parameter are obtained by referring to the association information. An image data processing apparatus comprising: a data acquisition unit that performs image processing that performs the designated image processing based on the acquired image data and the parameter. 4. The image data processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said parameter represents a type or a degree of image processing. 5. The image data processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of parameters are provided for each type of image processing. 6. The image data processing device according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of said parameters can be stored and can be selectively executed from a plurality of parameters. Image data processing device. 7. The image data processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the parameter is an execution order for performing image processing in a predetermined order. An image data processing device comprising information. 8. The image data processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the parameters are divided into a plurality of selectable sets, and the image is processed based on the parameters of the set selected at the time of execution. An image data processing device for performing processing. 9. The image data processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said parameters are divided into a plurality of sets, and a set of parameters corresponding to a state of a pixel is selectively used. Image data processing apparatus. 10. The image data processing device according to claim 1, wherein said data storage means is capable of partitioning a storage area into a hierarchical structure, and stores said image data and parameters in said storage area. An image data processing device characterized by being divided in a hierarchical structure. 11. The image data processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said data storage means stores thumbnail data of said image data in association with said parameter. Image data processing device. 12. The image data processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said image data is managed on a storage device different from said parameter. apparatus. 13. The image data processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said parameter setting means sets image processing contents based on a result of statistically analyzing said image data. An image data processing apparatus characterized by the above-mentioned. 14. An image data processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said image processing reproducing means selects and executes an image processing unit which performs image processing represented by said parameter. An image data processing apparatus characterized by the above-mentioned. 15. An image data, a parameter indicating the content of the image processing so that predetermined image processing can be performed on the corresponding image data, and the content of the image processing indicated by the parameter is defined as the image data. A medium on which an image data set in which the image data and association information for associating the parameters are recorded so that the image data set can be implemented. 16. A medium in which an image data processing program for causing a computer to perform image processing on image data is recorded, and a parameter setting step for setting a parameter representing the content of predetermined image processing to be performed on the image data; A data saving step of saving the image data and the parameter together with association information; a data acquisition step of acquiring the image data and the parameter by referring to the association information; and acquiring the image data and the parameter. A medium for recording an image data processing program, comprising: an image processing reproduction step of obtaining image data on which the specified image processing has been performed based on the image processing. 17. A medium in which an image data processing program for causing a computer to perform image processing on image data is recorded, and a parameter setting step of setting a parameter representing the content of predetermined image processing to be performed on the image data; A medium storing an image data processing program, comprising: a data saving step of saving the image data and the parameter together with association information. 18. A medium in which an image data processing program for causing a computer to perform image processing on image data is recorded, wherein a parameter representing the content of predetermined image processing to be performed on the image data and the image data are mutually reciprocal. A data acquisition step of acquiring the image data and the parameter with reference to the association information, and performing the designated image processing based on the acquired image data and the parameter. A medium for recording an image data processing program, comprising: an image processing reproduction step of obtaining obtained image data. 19. A medium storing the image data processing program according to any one of claims 16 to 18, wherein the parameter represents a type or a degree of image processing. Medium on which processing programs are recorded. 20. A medium in which the image data processing program according to claim 16 is recorded, wherein a plurality of parameters are provided for each type of image processing. The recorded media. 21. A medium storing the image data processing program according to claim 16 or 18, wherein a plurality of said parameters can be stored and selectively executable from a plurality of parameters. A medium having recorded thereon an image data processing program. 22. A medium in which an image data processing program according to any one of claims 16 to 18, 20 and 21 is recorded, wherein the parameters perform image processing in a predetermined order. A medium storing an image data processing program characterized by including execution order information for executing the program. 23. A medium in which an image data processing program according to claim 16 is recorded, wherein said parameter is divided into a plurality of selectable sets, and said set of parameters is selected according to an execution condition. A medium recording an image data processing program for performing image processing based on parameters. 24. A medium in which the image data processing program according to any one of claims 16 to 18 is recorded, wherein the parameters are divided into a plurality of sets, and a set of parameters corresponding to a pixel condition is set. A medium in which an image data processing program characterized by being properly used is recorded. 25. The medium storing the image data processing program according to claim 16, wherein the data saving step uses a storage area that can be partitioned as a hierarchical structure, A medium in which an image data processing program is recorded, wherein data and parameters are divided in this hierarchical structure. 26. A medium storing the image data processing program according to any one of claims 16 to 18, wherein, in the data storing step, thumbnail data of the image data is stored in association with the parameter. A medium having recorded thereon an image data processing program. 27. A medium storing the image data processing program according to claim 16, wherein said data storing step and said data acquiring step store said image data differently from said parameter. A medium on which an image data processing program recorded and read on a device is recorded. 28. A medium in which the image data processing program according to any one of claims 16 to 18 is recorded, wherein in the parameter setting step, the image data is statistically analyzed, and based on a result of the analysis. A medium in which an image data processing program for setting image processing contents is recorded. 29. In the medium on which the image data processing program according to claim 16 or 18 is recorded, in the image processing reproducing step, an image processing program for performing image processing represented by the parameter is selected. A medium on which an image data processing program is recorded and executed. 30. Setting a parameter representing the content of a predetermined image processing to be performed on image data, storing the image data and the parameter together with association information, and referring to the association information to store the image data and the parameter. An image data processing method comprising: obtaining a parameter; and obtaining image data on which the specified image processing is performed based on the obtained image data and the parameter. 31. An image data processing method, wherein a parameter indicating the content of a predetermined image processing to be performed on image data is set, and the image data and the parameter are stored together with association information. 32. A parameter indicating the content of a predetermined image processing to be performed on image data and the image data are stored together with mutual association information, and the image data and the parameter are obtained by referring to the association information. And an image data processing method for obtaining the image data subjected to the specified image processing based on the obtained image data and the parameters. 33. The image data processing method according to claim 30, wherein thumbnail data of said image data is stored in association with said parameter. 34. The image data processing method according to claim 30, wherein said image data is managed on a storage device different from said parameter. Method. 35. The image data processing method according to claim 30, wherein the image data is statistically analyzed, and image processing contents are set based on a result of the statistical analysis. Image data processing method. 36. An image data processing method according to claim 30, wherein an image processing section which performs image processing represented by said parameter is selected and executed. Data processing method.