JP2886887B2 - Image reading device - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image reading apparatus capable of reading an image and outputting the image to a printer or the like, and more particularly to an image reading apparatus that reads a plurality of frames of images.

[Prior art] A transparent original such as a 35 mm film is exposed by a light source,
There has been proposed an image reading apparatus that reads a document image by using an image pickup device such as the above. With such an apparatus, a roll-shaped film can continuously read images of a plurality of frames by rewinding the roll.

However, in order to continuously read a plurality of film images set one by one on a slide mount or the like, an auto chain is used, and each film is sequentially read while the slide mount in which the film is stored is automatically fed. In this case, when the reading order of the plurality of films is determined, it takes time and effort to arrange the trays in the reading order for the slide mounts and store the trays again. In view of this, a method is conceivable in which the number of frames on the tray to be read is specified to automatically read the images of the specified frames sequentially.

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] However, when there is no film at the position of the designated frame number, the reading operation is uselessly performed. In addition, when sequentially storing image data read in an externally connected memory, a frame without a film becomes white or solid black data, and it is unsightly when the image is automatically printed out as a multi-screen. It will be something. For example, if an attempt is made to compose one page of an album with four frames, a solid black print is output on white paper, which makes it unsightly. Further, when the read images are sequentially printed, useless prints are output, which wastes time and money.

In addition, if the user specifies a frame by mistake, it is inconvenient that the user does not notice the mistake unless he or she prints it or cannot correct it halfway.

Means for Solving the Problems The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and has a reading unit that continuously reads a plurality of frames of images, and outputs an image read by the reading unit to a screen. Output means for detecting the presence or absence of an image in a frame to be read by the reading means, and causing the reading means to execute a reading operation only in a frame in which the presence of an image is detected by the detecting means; Controlling that the reading operation is not performed by the reading unit in the frame where the absence of the image is detected, and further, the images of a plurality of frames obtained by the reading operation are successively displayed on the same screen by the output unit. And control means for controlling output.

Embodiment FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a schematic configuration of an image reading apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1, an image reading apparatus 1 includes an illumination unit 3 having a halogen lamp 2 as a light source for irradiating light to a transparent original, and a film F which is a transparent original held by a slide mount to the illumination unit 3. An auto changer 5 for feeding one sheet at a time, and a CCD 3 as reading means 6 for reading an image of the film F in the illumination section 3
A reading unit 8 to which a line sensor 7 is attached is provided.

The automatic chain 5 is mounted on a tray base 11 so that the tray 9 can be rotated by an automatic chain driving circuit 10,
A reading unit 12 is provided below the tray base 11, and the reading unit 12
Are arranged so as to be located in the illumination unit 3. A plurality of storage portions 13 are radially formed around the center of rotation in the tray 9 at equal intervals, and one film F is stored in each storage portion 13. Each time the operator presses the advance button or the reverse button (not shown) once, the tray 9 rotates one storage unit in the forward or reverse direction, and the film F in the storage unit 13 moved to the supply position 14 is removed. The image is dropped into the reading position 15 in the reading unit 12, the image is read at the reading position 15, and then stored in the storage unit 13 again. In the vicinity of the reading section 12, a sensor 16 for detecting the presence or absence of the film F at the reading position 15 is provided.

The above operations are repeated, and the films F stored in the tray 9 are sequentially sent one by one to the reading position 15 and the image is read. When the forward button or the reverse button is kept pressed, the film F is automatically fed one by one to the reading position 15 one by one by the automatic frame feed function, and the image is continuously read.

In the illumination unit 3, light generated from the halogen lamp 2 connected to the DC power supply 17 illuminates the reading unit 12 via the condenser lens 18, the field lens 19, and the optical filter 20. At this time, the film F at the reading position 15 is irradiated with light, and the transmitted light is reflected by the reflecting mirror 22 through the imaging lens 21 to irradiate the CCD3 line sensor 7, and the CCD3 line sensor 7 reads an image. Is performed.

The CCD3 line sensor 7 is composed of three line sensors provided with red, green, and blue on-chip optical filters. Each line sensor performs main scanning, and the reading unit 8 is moved in the main scanning direction by a stepping motor 23. The sub-scan is performed by moving along the rail 24 in the vertical direction (the direction d in the figure).

Then, the information read by the CCD3 line sensor 7 is output as an analog signal to an analog processing circuit 26 via a cable 25, and is subjected to DC reproduction, amplification, A / D conversion, and digital processing by a digital processing circuit 27. The data is sent to the external device 29 via the interface circuit 28.

Further, a stepping motor drive circuit 30 for driving the stepping motor 23, an interface circuit 28, a digital processing circuit 27, a film detection circuit 31 for processing information from the sensor 16, and an auto-changer driving circuit 10 are The controller 32 is controlled by the controller 32 to control the sub-scanning of the CCD3 line sensor 7 to synchronize with the external device 29, to set the digital processing circuit 27, and to control the auto-changer 5 based on the information from the sensor 16. Drive control is performed.

The controller 32 is further connected to a DC power supply 17, and controls the voltage of the DC power supply 7 so that the illumination light amount of the halogen lamp 2 changes according to the presence or absence of the film F in the illumination unit 3 or the reading operation of the reading unit 6. It also has a role as a light amount control means for controlling.

The operation display unit 33 is used by the operator to instruct the image reading apparatus to start reading, adjust the density and color balance of the read image, and the like. The operation display unit 33 can also perform frame advance of the auto changer and control instructions to external devices. It has become.

FIG. 2 shows an example of an image processing system for editing and printing out a desired film image from a plurality of film images stored in a tray 9 using the image reading apparatus 1 shown in FIG.

The image reading device 1 is roughly divided into a film image reading unit 51 for reading an image signal from a film, and an operation display unit 33 instructing an image signal read from the film and output from the film image reading unit 51. The processing unit 52 performs processing according to the processing content, and performs communication with an external device and sequence control.

The external device 29 includes an image memory 62, a memory control unit 61, and a reflection document image reading unit 71 that reads a reflection document including an image sensor such as a CCD image sensor, an image processing unit 72, and Y, M,
The printer 73 prints a full-color image on a recording material by sequentially printing each color image of C and BK.

The image memory 62 is a memory for storing image information read by the image reading device 1 or the like, and is capable of storing a plurality of images. The memory control unit 61 is a circuit that controls the image memory, manages the screen number n and the size of the screen (the number of pixels), and also displays a plurality of screens input separately at a specified position at a specified magnification at a specified magnification. And lay it out on the screen.

The image processing unit 72 synthesizes and edits the image signal 78 of the reflection original read by the reflection original image reading unit 71 and the image signal 75 output from the memory control unit, and outputs the edited image signal 79 to the printer 73.

These processes are executed by sequentially giving commands from the image reading device 1 to the memory control unit 61, the image processing unit 72, and the printer 73 via the communication lines 76, 77, and 80.

FIG. 3 shows how an image is synthesized by the image processing system shown in FIG. In this method, four slide film images are arranged at arbitrary positions on one screen in an arbitrary size to create one page of an album. Also, the so-called album mount has a reflective original 10
Insert 0 pattern.

The reflection original 100 is set so as to be read by the reflection original image reading section 71. Then, an image signal 75 is sent from the memory control unit 61 to the image processing unit 72, and when the image is printed by the printer 73, the reflection document 100 is read by the reflection document image reading unit 71 in synchronization with the image signal 75 and the image signal 78. Are synthesized by the image processing unit 72.

Based on the image signal thus synthesized, the printer
The pattern of the reflection original 100 is transferred to another portion of the print 110 recorded at 73.

Reference numerals 101 to 104 denote slide mounts in which films are stored, and are first to fourth film images. These four images are sequentially read by the image reading device 1 and stored in the image memory 62 in order. 105 to 108 are the first to the first in the image memory 62.
The fourth image storage area is managed by the memory control unit 61. These first to fourth images are read by the image reading device 1.
In accordance with a command including layout information and the like from the CPU, the image signal is read out from the image memory 62, and the image signal 78 and the image processing unit 72 are read out.
And output by the printer 73, a composite image 110 is obtained. 111 to 114 are first to fourth recorded images corresponding to the first to fourth film images 101 to 104 on the composite image 110.

Next, it is assumed that the first, second, third, and fourth film images 101 to 104 are stored in the tenth frame, the twelfth frame, the fifteenth frame, and the sixteenth frame of the tray 9 of the auto changer, respectively. . A processing unit for laying out these first to fourth images on the mount 110 of the album as shown in FIG.
The operation of 52 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. However, the layout information of the four screens is already
Suppose that it is set from 33.

First, assuming that the screen number n is 1, the fact that the screen number n is 1 is displayed on the display screen of the operation display section 33 (S0), and the operator reads the read frame number K = 10 on the first screen by the operation section 33.
(S1), it is determined whether the screen number n is less than 4 (S2). If it is less than 4, n is counted up (S3), and the input of the read frame number K of the next screen is received from the operation unit. (S1). This operation is repeated, and when n becomes 4 or more, the registration work of the frame number K on the tray with respect to the screen number n is completed, and the process proceeds.

That is, the apparatus is in a waiting state until the start is instructed from the operation unit 33, but when the start is instructed (S4), the screen number n is returned to 1 (S5), and the frame number K in which the first screen is stored is stored. Then, the tray 9 is advanced by 10 until S = 10 (S6), and it is detected whether or not a film is present at the relevant frame position (S7). If there is a film, the image is read by the image reading apparatus 1, and the image information is stored in the first image storage area 105 of the image memory 62 (S8).

On the other hand, when it is detected that there is no film in the frame number 10, the image reading operation is not performed and the operator is warned with a buzzer provided in the operation display unit 33, and the operation display unit 33 is notified that there is no film of the designated frame. Perform warning display (S1
Four). At the same time, the currently designated frame number 10 is displayed on the display screen, and the operator is asked to change the frame number or cancel the frame designation. When the operator designates the changed frame number as, for example, "8" (S15), the process returns by two frames (S6).

If there is no film in the eighth frame (S7), a warning is issued (S14), and so on. The process waits for selection of whether to change or cancel the frame number (S15). On the other hand, if there is a film in the eighth frame after the change (S7), the image is read and the image information is stored in the first image storage area 105 of the image memory 62 (S8).

On the other hand, if there is no film in the frame number 10 and the operator releases the frame designation (S15), the image number n
Is temporarily stored that there is no film in the frame of the read frame number input corresponding to 1.
Proceed without reading the image (S9). At this point, since the image number n is 1, n is less than 4 (S1
0) and n are counted up (S11), and the process proceeds to reading of the next screen number.

Then, the tray 9 is advanced by one frame to the frame position of the next image number n (S6), and if there is a film at that frame position (S6).
7) The image is read, and the image information is stored in the n-th image area of the image memory 62 (S8).

When it is detected that there is no film, a warning is given to the operator with a buzzer and the operation display
A warning message indicating that there is no film of the designated frame is displayed at 33 (S14). At the same time, the currently designated frame number n is displayed on the display screen, and the operator is prompted to select whether to change the frame number or cancel the frame designation. When the operator designates the changed frame number n '(S15), the frame is advanced to the designated frame (S6).

If there is no film in the frame (S7), a warning is issued (S14), and a selection is made to select whether to change or cancel the frame number. On the other hand, if the frame has a film (S
7) The image is read and the image information is stored in the first image storage area 105 of the image memory 62 (S8).

On the other hand, if there is no film in the frame number n and the operator releases this frame designation (S15), the screen number n
In step S9, it is temporarily stored that there is no film in the frame of the read frame number that has been input in response to the step (S9). And the image number n is 4
If less than (S10), n is counted up (S1).
1), proceed to reading the next screen number.

While n is less than 4 (S10), n is counted up (S11), and S6 to S10 are repeated until n becomes 4 or more (S1).
0), a print command is sent (S12), and the image processing unit 72 and the printer 73 are driven to perform composite printing, and after the printing is completed, the four-frame composite mode is ended.

Here, for example, if there is no film in the fifteenth frame of the tray 9 designated as the third screen, the reading operation is executed in spite of the absence of the film in the related art, and the combined image is displayed as shown in FIG. Becomes blank, and the upper right of the image 113 remains missing, making it unsightly. However, as in the present embodiment, when there is no film, the reading operation is not performed. Therefore, when the warning is recognized and the frame number is changed or released, if the screen is synthesized as shown in FIG. You don't have to.

[Other Embodiments] FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the operation procedure of the second embodiment, and FIG. 8 shows an example of an output image according to the procedure of FIG.

Reference numeral 200 denotes a mount, and reference numerals 201 to 216 denote images recorded on 13 frames of a 16-frame multi-screen.

In other words, when trying to print out a continuous 16-frame image governed by the auto-changer 5 on a multi-screen, the film is stored in the storage section 13 corresponding to the fourth, sixth and eleventh frames in the middle. This is an example in a case where the user has not performed the operation.

The flow of the control operation will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

When entering the multi-screen mode (assuming that N = 16 and 16 screens are selected), both the screen number n and the frame number K are set to 1 (S20). If there is a film in the first frame (S21), the scanned data of the frame is stored in the first image area of the image memory (S23). here,
Since the frame number K is less than N (S24). The screen number n is counted up (S25), the frame is advanced to the next frame, and the frame number K is also counted up (S22).

After the second frame, the loop from S22 to S24 is repeated until K becomes N or more. However, tray 9 at the K-th frame in the middle
If no film is found, a warning indicating that there is no frame is issued as in the first embodiment (S28).

In response to this warning, when the operator instructs to skip the frame and continue (S29), the frame is advanced to the next frame, and the frame K is counted up (S22). (S21), a read operation is performed (S23).

On the other hand, if the operator does not instruct continuation (S29), but interrupts the reading operation and instructs to print (S3).
0), the controller 32 instructs the memory control unit to output the prints of n screens which have been transferred to the memory until then (S26), and waits for the print operation to end (S27) to end the multi-screen mode. .

When the operator does not instruct continuation (S29) and instructs to stop printing (S30), the multi-screen mode ends without printing.

8, 201 to 203, 205, and 207 to 216 are images corresponding to the first to third, fifth, seventh to sixteenth frames of the film stored in the tray 9. Also, the numbers 1 to 13 shown in the figure indicate that only the film stored in the tray 9 is read at the index corresponding to the screen number n, and the images stored in the image memory are laid out in the order of the index and printed. Be out.

FIG. 9 shows a conventional example in which, when there is no film at the Kth frame (for example, the fourth, sixth, and eleventh frame), even if there is no film, reading is performed regardless of the multi-screen. As described above, the portion corresponding to the film image not stored in the tray 9 is printed out as a blank area, and the output is skipped.

On the other hand, according to the control as shown in FIG. 7, the output corresponding to the film image not stored in the tray 9 is packed and output as shown in FIG.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to reduce the time required for continuously reading images of a plurality of frames and continuously outputting the read images on the same screen. Was.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of an image reading apparatus to which the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of an image processing system, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of image synthesis using a memory, FIG. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a conventional layout result, FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a layout result according to the present invention, FIG. 6 is a flowchart of the first embodiment, FIG. 7 is a flowchart of the second embodiment, FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a layout result according to the second embodiment, and FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a conventional layout result. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Image reading device 2 ... Halogen lamp (light source) 3 ... Illumination part 5 ... Auto changer 6 ... Reading means 7 ... CCD3 line sensor 8 ... Reading unit 16 ... Sensor 17 ... DC power supply 32: Controller (light amount control means) F: Film (transparent original)

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G03B 27/32 G03B 27/42-27/48 H04N 5/253

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] A reading means for continuously reading images of a plurality of frames; an output means for outputting an image read by the reading means on a screen; and a detecting means for detecting the presence or absence of an image in the frames read by the reading means. Means for performing a reading operation by the reading means only on a frame in which the presence of an image is detected by the detecting means, and performing a reading operation by the reading means in a frame in which no image is detected by the detecting means Control means for controlling so as not to cause the image to be read out, and further controlling the output means to output the images of a plurality of frames continuously on the same screen by the output means. apparatus. 2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a storage unit for storing a background image, wherein the output unit combines the background image stored in the storage unit with the image read by the reading unit and outputs the combined image to a screen. The image reading device according to claim 1. 3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a designation unit for designating a frame from which an image is to be read by said reading unit, wherein when the detection unit detects that there is no image in the frame designated by the designation unit, The image reading apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a frame is designated again by using (1). 4. The image reading apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a warning unit that issues a warning when the detection unit detects that there is no image in the frame to be read. apparatus. 5. The image reading apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said output means attaches a number to an image of each frame and outputs the image to a screen.