JPS6235973A - Picture information processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To convert picture information of plural different systems to code system of an outputting device by sending out a command that indicates kind of picture information before picture data and making receiving side switch a controlling section according to above-mentioned command. CONSTITUTION:At first, a bus selector 12 selects a bus 18 to interpret a command to identify picture data. A command to identify picture data is inputted before picture data to a GPIB interface 11. A CPU 13 interprets this, and switches the bus selector 12 to input data to one of controlling sections 101-103. The controlling section 101 processes code system of ASCII and JIS, the controlling section 102 processes MH compression code system and the controlling section 103 processes color picture system. When receiving of picture information is finished, the bus selector 12 is switched and the bus 18 is selected to prepare for identification of picture data.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION "Field of Industrial Application" The present invention relates to an image information processing apparatus that is interposed between an image cheater source and an output device and processes image takes of various different take systems.

[Prior Art] In recent years, image information processing terminals, such as image input devices,
As the development of image editing devices, image output devices, etc. progresses, various forms of image information are created and used. For example, in computer equipment such as personal computers, which have become rapidly popular in recent years, and document processing equipment such as word processors, character processing and image processing are performed using code information such as AS CII and JIS. These code information are sent to an output device such as a copy machine, and the hard copy device usually performs a printing operation in response to command information and image information made up of these character code strings.

Furthermore, in a facsimile machine or the like, image information is sent to an output terminal after compression processing such as MH (Modified Huffman) encoding is applied to the black of input image information and the number of consecutive pieces of own information, ie, run length information. In this case, the image information exchanged is a string of special codes called MH codes, so only an output terminal equipped with an MH decoupling device that converts this special MH code into the original black and white run length information can output the image. It is not possible to receive information or play back images.

Furthermore, in recent years, image information has become particularly colorized, and hard copy devices capable of outputting color images have been actively developed, and the rate of spread of these devices is remarkable. 2. Description of the Related Art Victorian color image I11 output devices that can particularly reproduce halftones among color images are highly anticipated as output terminals for, for example, video printers, color copying machines, computer graphics, and the like. An input device for color image information having this kind of density information is generally a color image input device equipped with a TV camera or a CCD color sensor, and usually the color information separated into each pixel is 1, for example, 6 bits. (64 gradations),
Alternatively, it is transferred as density data such as 8 bits (256 gradations). These are clearly in a different form from the character information such as the ASCII code output from the computer equipment mentioned above, or compressed special codes such as the MH code handled by facsimile machines, and are These output devices cannot receive and print image information in these different formats.

However, preparing individual output terminals compatible with one variety of image input devices is not efficient from all viewpoints such as cost and space. Furthermore, for example, in a color image,
Images from different sources can be combined into one image, such as adding a character image input as code information and printing it, or adding character information (q) to a facsimile image and printing.
There is also a growing demand for superimposed output on a single sheet of paper.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] The present invention has been made in view of the prior art described above, and provides an image information processing device that receives image information of a plurality of different systems and converts it into a code system of an output device. The purpose is to provide

[Means for Solving the Problem] As a means for solving this problem, for example, the image information processing apparatus of the embodiment shown in FIG.
IB interface 11 and CPU as determination means
13, a ROM 34, a path selector 12, and control units 101 to 103 as image information processing means.

[Operation] In the configuration shown in FIG. 1, the CPU 13 judges the image information input from the GPIB interface 11,
The bus of the control unit 1OINIO3 corresponding to the image information is switched by the path selector 12, and the COMI
By giving instructions to each control unit via F1 to F3, image information is received and processed, and converted into output data compatible with the printer unit 104. Also CP
U13 switches the path selector 12 in response to the reception completion message from each control section, and determines the next image information.

[Embodiment J] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[Explanation of the overall configuration diagram (Figure 1) (Figure 2)] Figure 1 is an overall configuration diagram of the image processing system of this embodiment, and includes image data processing units (hereinafter referred to as control units) ioo to 10.
3, and a color image forming section (hereinafter referred to as a printer section) 104. As described above, this system uniformly processes image information of different formats and outputs each image individually or in combination to the printer unit 104. Therefore, the data input unit for image information, etc. of this system is This system uses GPIB, which is an 8-bit parallel standard interface bus.

The control units 101 - 103 are image data processing units that handle various types of image information, and the control unit 101 controls the controller units 101 - 103 and outputs image information to the printer unit 104 .

Here, the control unit 101 uses ASCII or J
The control unit 102 is a processing block for character and image information according to the IS code system, and the control unit 102 is a MHrE1i! which is common in facsimile communication. This is a processing block for encoded image information, which internally performs MH code decoding processing and develops it into a dot image for one page of the image.

The control unit 103 has R, G, B, Y, M,
The color image information separated into the three primary colors of C is color-converted as necessary, and after being subjected to gradation correction, blemish processing, color correction processing, halftone processing, etc., the image data is sent to the color printer section.

10 is a GPIB interface bus through which data is exchanged. 11 is an interface circuit with GPIB, which supports address specification in the GPIB system, GPIB handshake, etc.
It has an interface function. 12 is a path selector, which is controlled by the CPU 13 that controls the entire system.
Bus 14 and buses 15 to 18 by signal 19 as required
connection can be switched.

That is, since there is only one signal line 10 input to this system, the received data is non-image code data (COMl, C0M2) indicating commands and status as shown in FIG.
) 201.202 and image data 200 that is a different sequence of "1" and "O", or compressed image code data (IDATAt, IDATA2) 203.204
etc., and the processing blocks for each of these data are different.
By switching the bus selector, system and image data control commands are sent to the bus of the CPU 13, and image data is sent to the image processing block 1 of each form corresponding to each image data.
01-103.

The CPU 13 that controls the entire system has COMIF1~
3 (20 to 22) to each control unit 101-1.
03 each CPU300.400.

500, and 23 to 25 are signal lines for this communication.

The CPU 13 interprets the command for image data identification, which is sent out prior to sending out the image data, and instructs the CPU of the corresponding control section to select the control section corresponding to the type of image, and also passes the pass. Switch the selector 12. On the other hand, the CPU that received the command sends the bus receivers (301, 4
01, 501) is enabled and image data is taken into the buffer memory in each block.

Reference numerals 27 to 29 are units for moving and adjusting the position of the output image relative to the print paper, and the CPU 13 controls the I10 port 26.
Through this, the amount of movement can be individually set for the images processed by each control unit 101-103. 30 to 32 are each image, that is, character image data 353
, MH decoded monochrome image 454, Y, M,
C.

BK acid component, among the color image data sent out sequentially,
The AND gate tear lJ controls which image is to be output, and the output image data from these AND gates is logically summed by the OR gate 33 at the next stage. That is, images are synthesized using these AND gates 30 to 32 and an OR gate 33.

34 is a program ROM in which the program of the CPU 13 is stored; 35 is a RAM for temporary data storage and reference such as flags; 36 is a key input section and display section for this system; 37 is an address membrane for Gl'lB. The address setting units 38 and 39 are interface units with the printer unit 104, and perform exchanging control data with the printer unit, exchanging image synchronization signals, and sending image data.

Reference numeral 104 denotes a color printer. In this embodiment, a laser beam printer of a color sequential overlapping method is used, and a synchronization signal is generated at the leading edge and left edge of the image to print Y (yellow), M (magenta), C ( cyan), BK (black)
A full-color image is obtained by sequentially forming a color image using a raster scanning method and overlapping each color toner image with high precision.

[Description of ASCII or JIS code information processing section (
3)] FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a character and image processing unit for ASCII or JIS code, etc., and FIG. 3 corresponds to the control unit 101 in FIG. 301 is a bus receiver that inputs ASCII character code data etc. from GPIB, and
3 to the CPU 300, the path receiver 3
01 connects the bus 15 and the bus 351, and the received data is transferred one byte at a time to the buffer memory 302 by DMA via the bus 351 under the control of the DMAC 303.

The code data in the buffer memory 302 is stored in the ROM 30.
The character patterns corresponding to each code are sequentially read out by the CPU 300 according to the control program stored in the character generator 310 or the character font 3.
11 and stored in the window buffer 312. The contents of the window buffer 312 are sequentially outputted to the printer section 104 as an image signal 353 by the data read control circuit 313.

[Description of MH encoded data processing unit (Fig. 4)] Fig. 4 is a block diagram of the control unit 102, which is a processing block, in which MH compression encoded image information is input from the bus 16 through the path receiver 401. The image information is DMA-transferred to the buffer memory 406 by the DMAC 402 similarly to the control unit 101. The CPU 400 controls the entire control section 102, and the ROM 404 stores control programs, data, etc. for the CPU 400.

Currently, the MH compression code for 9 minutes is buffer memory 40.
6, the data is sequentially read out by the CPU 400, the data is decompressed and the code is decoded by the decoding circuit 403, and the data is stored in the image memory 408 for one page as dot image information of ``0''. The dot image stored in the image memory 408 is read out byte by byte by the readout control circuit 409 during printing, converted to dot serial data by the parallel/serial conversion circuit 411, and converted to the output signal of the clock conversion circuit 410. It is sent out as an image signal 454 in synchronization with .

[Description of color image data processing unit (Fig. 5) 1 Fig. 5 is a block diagram of the control ffB103, which is a color image data processing unit, in which the R, G, B color separation density color image input from the bus 26 is processed. The information is developed into dot images for each color and sent to the printer section 104. The 8-bit color density image data stored in the buffer memory 503 by DMA transfer from the bus 17 through the bus receiver 501 is sequentially transferred, for example, to the image memory 1 (for example, 8 images).
507), 6 images are stored in image memory 2 (508), 8
The image is transferred to image memory 3 (509).

The RGB data in each image buffer 507 to 509 is Y, which is the color of ink (toner) in the printer unit 104.
YMC for printing passes through a color conversion circuit 510 that performs color conversion to MC, circuits 511 to 514 that removes undercolor and adds ink, and a masking circuit 515 that performs masking.
It is converted to color tod image data of the system. A data selector 516 selects the color data output from the masking circuit 515 and the extracted black data.

The color data that has passed through the data selector 51B is subjected to halftone processing in a dither circuit 517, and is sent to the printer section as color tod image data 555.

[Description of DMA operation of each control section (FIG. 6) (FIG. 7) 1 Each control section 101 to 103 receives data by high-speed DMA transfer in order to receive a large amount of image data. FIG. 6 is a schematic block diagram for explaining DMA transfer, and FIG. 7 is a timing chart thereof.

When data is sent from GPTB bus 71, GPI
A DMA request signal 66 is sent from the B interface circuit 62 to the DMAC 61 (timing TI). DMAC6
1 outputs a path request signal 64 to the CPU 60 upon receiving the DMA request signal 66 . When the CPU 60 receives the bus request signal 64, it outputs a response signal 65 to the bus request at an appropriate timing and releases the address bus 70 and data bus 69.

As a result, the DMAC 61 returns a DMA response signal 67 indicating that DMA has started to the GPIB interface circuit 62, outputs a read signal for reading the GPIB path to the control line 68 at timing T2, and then at timing T3, A write signal is output together with the address data of the buffer memory 63 to complete the transfer of 1-byte data to the buffer memory 63. When the DMA ends, a DMA response signal 67 and a DMA request signal 66 are generated at timing T4.
is turned off, and then at timing T5, the path request signal 6 is turned off.
4 turns off, the CPU 60 turns off the bus request response signal 67 and starts operating again. Thereafter, this operation is repeated to successively transfer the data on the GPIB bus 71 to the buffer memory 63.

[Description of reception operation flowchart (FIG. 1) (FIG. 2) (FIG. 8)] FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the data reception operation of the main CPU 13.

First, in step Sl, it is checked whether there is received data. If there is data, the process advances to step S2, and the data is read through the bus selector 12. In step S3, the content of the data is determined, and the command data, that is, the COMI shown in FIG.
(201), C0M2 (202), etc. If it is not command data, the process advances to step S4, and processing corresponding to the received data is performed.

If it is determined to be a command in step S3, step S5
Then, in order to select the corresponding control section 101-103, a reception instruction is given to the corresponding control section via one of the COMIFs 1-3 (20-22). Next, in step S6, the node selector 12 is switched to connect the bus 14 to any one of the buses 15 to 17. This means that reception operation control has been transferred to the control section. In step S7, it waits for a message indicating the end of reception to be sent through COMIFI-3 (20-22).

When the end message arrives, the path selector 12 is switched to connect the buses 14 and 18 again, and the process returns to step S1, where it enters a state of waiting for reception of the next command data, etc.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, even if image information of a plurality of different systems is received, it can be converted into the code system of the output device, so that a single image information processing device can convert the image information into the code system of the output device. It has the effect of being able to process information from different sources.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of the image processing device of this embodiment, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of received data, FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of the ASCII or JIS code information processing section of this embodiment, Figure 4 is an overall configuration diagram of the MH encoding unit, Figure 5 is an overall configuration diagram of the color image data processing unit, Figure 6 is a diagram for explaining DMA, and Figure 7 is a diagram showing DMA timing. , FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the operation of the main CPU that controls the entire apparatus. In the figure, 10...GPIB bus, 11...GPIB interface, 12...path selector, 13...
CPU, 20-22...COMIF1-3.30-3
2...AND gate, 33...OR gate, 34...
...ROM, 35...RAM, lO1-103...
Control section, 104... Printer section, 300, 4
00.500...CPU, 301,401,501・
. . . Bus receiver, 302, 406, 503 . . . Buffer memory.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A system of information input means, a determination means for determining the format of image information input through the input means, and multiple types of image information for converting the input image information into a predetermined output image. processing means, wherein the image information processing means starts receiving image information in response to an instruction from the discriminating means, and energizes the discriminating means when reception of the image information is completed. Information processing device. (2) The image information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image information is received page by page.