JPS6359679A - Image information processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a reproduced image of high quality by selecting either one of multilevel image data or binary image data according to read identification information at the time of outputting the image data. CONSTITUTION:A binary IMEM (binary image memory) 31 is memory for storing binary image information and a multilevel IMEM (multilevel image memory) 32 is a memory for storing multilevel image information. An image area MEM (image area memory) 33 is a memory for storing the image identification information for identifying the image area of a character (binary)/photograph(half tone). The binary image data stored in the binary IMEM31 is stored as the image information the most suitable for the binary image such as the character and the image data stored in the multilevel IMEM32 is the most suitable for the half tone. Accordingly, it is selected according to the image identification information.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an image information processing device, and in particular to an image information processing device that can process even an image containing a mixture of binary image information and multivalued image information. It relates to an information processing device.

[Prior Art] Conventional image information processing devices include processing equipment for processing binary image information such as documents, characters, drawings, etc., and processing equipment for processing halftone image (multivalued image) information such as photographs. There is a multilevel image information processing device. Binary image information processing equipment focuses on resolution rather than gradation expression in accordance with the characteristics of documents, drawings, etc.
Multivalued image information processing devices place emphasis on gradation expression rather than resolution in accordance with the characteristics of photographs and the like.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Therefore, when an image containing a mixture of text and photographs is input to a conventional image information 1A embedding device, the binary image information processing device has difficulty expressing the gradation of the photographic portion. However, multivalued image information processing devices have a drawback in their ability to express details in character parts.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been proposed in view of the drawbacks of the prior art described above, and its purpose is to generate a binary image of an original image from binary image data subjected to binary image processing and multivalued image data subjected to multivalue image processing. An object of the present invention is to provide an image information processing device that can obtain high-quality reproduced images without sacrificing either image quality or halftone image quality (image tone).

[Means for Solving the Problems] The configuration of the present invention for achieving the above-mentioned problems includes a multivalued image data storage means for storing multivalued image data, and a multivalued image data storage means stored in the multivalued image data storage means. A storage means having a binary image data storage means for storing binary image data corresponding to the value image data, and a storage space corresponding to each storage space of the multivalued image data storage means and the binary image data storage means. There is an identification information storage means for storing identification information for identifying whether the image data corresponding to the storage means is originally binary image data or multivalued image data, and an identification information storage means for storing identification information for identifying whether the image data corresponding to the storage means is originally binary image data or multivalued image data; an output means for outputting value image data; and when outputting image data to the output means, reading out the identification information in synchronization with the output, and outputting multi-value image data or binary image data according to the read identification information. and control means for controlling the selected image data to be delivered to the output means.

[Function] In the present invention having the above configuration, the reproduced image outputted from the output means is reproduced from either binary image data or multivalued image data, starting from the one that most closely matches the tone of the original image. Become.

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

<External Appearance of Embodiment> FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the external appearance of an image information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The main components of the system shown in Figure 1 are the control section 1. Keyboard 3, CRT4. Optical disc (hereinafter abbreviated as OD)5. These include an image scanner 6, an image printer 7, and the like.

The keyboard 3 has a pointing device 2 such as a mouse.
is connected. CRT4. The keyboard 3, pointing device 2, etc. form an operation section. The control section 1 controls the optical disk device 5, the image scanner 6, and the image printer 7 and performs image processing according to operations from the operation section by the operator. Note that it is desirable that CBr4 has a high resolution (100 DPI in this embodiment).

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the image information processing apparatus of the above embodiment. In the figure, the area surrounded by a dashed line indicates the configuration range of the control section 1 described above. A CPU (Centran Processor Unit) 10 executes a control program stored in a PMEM (Program Memory) 13 to control the image information processing apparatus. PMEMI3 is a memory that stores this control program and also stores various control information such as control flags. The control program is a program shown in FIGS. 7 to 10, etc., which will be described later.

DISK-I/F (disk interface) 11 is C
according to PLJIO instructions) (D (hard disk) 20
, FD (floppy disk) 21 is controlled. PM
The control program to be stored in EMI 3 is HD20
Alternatively, it may be loaded from the FD21.

0D-I/F (optical disc interface) 1
2 controls the OD (optical disc) 5 according to instructions from the CPU10.

5P-I/F (scanner printer interface) 14
rs (image scanner) 6 according to the instructions of CPUl0
, and controls the IP (image printer) 7. Its detailed configuration is shown in FIG. 4 and will be explained later.

A KEY-I/F (keyboard interface) 15 is an ink interface that notifies the CPU 10 of the states of the keyboard 3 and PD (pointing device) 2. C
PUl0 detects the operating state of FD2 and
Controls the position of the cursor displayed in 4.

VMEM (video memory) 16 stores image information displayed on CBr4. Then, according to instructions from the CPU 10, this image information is read out in synchronization with the synchronization signal of the CBr4, converted to a rask signal, and applied to the CBr4 to display the image.

LAN-I/F (local area network interface) is LAN (local area network) 2
2 is an interface for exchanging information with other devices.

The ICU (image compression unit) 19 is a unit that compresses and expands images, and compresses and expands images using, for example, the MMR (modified-modified-READ) method used in FAX (facsimile) and the like. In this embodiment, this ICU 19 is used when storing images on the optical disc 5.

<BMU functions> BMU (pit manipulation unit) 17
transfers image information in rectangular units and performs image processing such as enlargement, reduction, and rotation.

It is also possible to perform logical operations on the image information of the transfer source and the image information of the transfer destination. The logical operations here include logical sum, logical product, etc. between pixels. All of the above image processing can be performed on bit boundaries.

FIG. 3(a) is a diagram for explaining an example of the operation of the BMU 17 of FIG. 2, taking image enlargement/transfer as an example. 70
is an image memory and corresponds to IMEM31.32, which will be described later. In FIG. 3(a), the image information in the transfer source area 40 once passes through the BMU 17, undergoes image enlargement processing, and is transferred to the transfer destination area 41.

FIG. 3(b) is a diagram showing another example of the use of the BMU 17 shown in FIG. 2 in this embodiment. It performs a function of thinning out image information so that the image can be displayed. In other words, if the image memory 70 has image information with a resolution of 400 DPI,
By reading it, thinning out the image information and reducing it to %, it is converted to image information with a resolution of 100 DPI, and CR
Transfer to VMEM 16 for display on T4. In this case, the BMU 17 thins out three pixels out of every four pixels in both the X direction and the Y direction, resulting in a reduction in size. One of the reasons for displaying on the CRT 4 in this embodiment is that the 400DPI read from the image scanner 6
This is to monitor the image on the CRTJ and distinguish between the binary image part and the halftone image part in the read image.

(Function of SP-IF) The function of 5P-17F14 is the most characteristic in this embodiment.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram for explaining the configuration of F14 in detail. In the figure, a spa (scanner,
Printer controller) 30 follows instructions from CPUl0 and prints IS6. It communicates with the IS7 and controls their operations, as well as controlling each circuit within the 5P-I/F 14, which will be described later.

A binary IMEM (binary image memory) 31 is a memory that stores binary image information, and has a bit density of 400DP.
It is I. A multi-value IMEM (multi-value image memory) 32 is a memory that stores multi-value image information, and has a pixel density of 1.
It is 00DPI.

The image area MEM (image area memory) 33 is a memory that stores image identification information for identifying character (binary)/photo (halftone) image areas, and has a bit density of 400 DPI.

First, considering the case of output (for example, to the IF 7), the multi-value conversion circuit 34 converts the binary image information stored in the binary IMEM 31 into 8-bit multi-value image information. That is, for example, by M I N/MAX conversion, "0'
is converted to "0'," and "1" is converted to "255." The interpolation circuit 35 uses the resolution 100 stored in the multilevel rMEM 32.
Multi-value image information of DPI is converted to multi-value image information of resolution 4001) PI by linear interpolation.

The synthesis circuit 37 switches and synthesizes two pieces of image information output from the multi-value conversion circuit 34 and the interpolation circuit 35, respectively, according to the image identification information of the image area MEM 33. Further, according to instructions from the 5PC 30, the image information from the multi-value conversion circuit 34 and the interpolation circuit 35 can be logically summed or logically multiplied and synthesized. From the above, binary IMEM31. Multi-value I MEM312
．． The DPI of the image information output from the image area MEM33 is
In the end, everything will be 400DPI. That is, 5P-I/F
14, both binary images and multivalued images are output without being compressed or expanded at the stage of output reproduction. Also, since the image area MEM33 is also 400DPI,
Binary image and multi-value image stored in binary I MEM31
Since there is a one-to-one correspondence between the multivalued images stored in the EM 32 and the image identification information stored in the image area MEM 33 representing their types, among the reproduced images output to the IF 7, The binary image part is the binary image information stored in the binary IMEM 31, and the halftone image part is the multivalued IMEM 31.
The multivalued image information stored in the EM 32 will be output.

(Manpower for SP-IF) Next, the manpower from IS6 will be explained. Binarization circuit 3
6 judges the 8-bit 400DPI multivalued image from IS6 using a predetermined slice level (fixed threshold), and
Convert to DPI binary image information and convert it to binary I MEM31
Store in.

The thinning circuit 38 takes the average density of 4×4=16 pixels of the multivalued image with a resolution of 400 DPI from the IS6, and divides this into 1
By setting the density of the pixel, resolution conversion to multi-value image information with a resolution of 100 DPI is executed and stored in the multi-value IMEM 32 in the form of 1 dot/8 bits.

The image area separation circuit 39 analyzes the characteristics of the multivalued image from the IS6, identifies the text portion and the photo portion, and generates image identification information of “0” for the text portion and “1” for the photo portion, and the information is Image area MEM
33. In this case, binary IMEM31. It should be noted that data is stored in the multilevel I MEM 32 and the image area MEM 33 in parallel. The image identification information is stored in the image area MEM 33 by the image area separation circuit 39 described above, or by the operator using the CRT as described later.
4. While looking at the screen being monitored on the upper side, specify a halftone image area using the pointing device 2, and the CPU 10 sends information regarding that area to the image area MEM via the BUS.
There is also a method of writing to 33.

The image area separation circuit 39 passes the 8-bit image signal read by the IS 6 through a differential filter, etc., and if the sum of the output within a predetermined area is greater than or equal to a certain predetermined value, the central pixel within the predetermined area is It is only necessary to consider that it is a pixel of a binary image, and set the value of the corresponding image area MEM 33 to "0".

Thus, the binary image data stored in the binary IMEM 31 is stored as image information most suitable for binary images such as characters. The image data stored in the MEM 32 is most suitable for halftones.

Therefore, if an image such as a photograph is stored in the binary IMEM 31, or if a binary image is stored in the multi-value IMEM 32, it goes without saying that it would be inappropriate to output and reproduce them as they are. , The feature of this embodiment is that it is divided according to the image identification information.

Now that the overall configuration of the embodiment is understood, specific operations will be described below. Two specific examples include two operation examples: When inputting an image from IS6, the image area ME
Two examples of a method of inputting image identification information while storing it in the image area MEM 33, one example each of outputting an image to the IF 7 or CRT 4 according to the identification information already stored in the image area MEM 33, and an example of combining optical discs. etc.

<Operation example>...Figure 5 In Figure 5, the character portion 52. Image 50 including photo portion 51
is read from IS6, and as mentioned above, the binary IMEM
31 and 32, and displays the information stored in the binary IMEM 31 on the CRT 4. While viewing the screen, the operator is instructed to specify the photographic area 53, and the image identification information corresponding to the area 53 is displayed on the image area M. The character part is secured in the E M 33, and the character part is displayed on the CRT4 according to the identification information as a binary I M
From the EM31, the photo portion is for displaying the image obtained from the multivalued IMEM32 on the CRTJ.

As mentioned above, binary IMEM31. Multi-value IMEM32
At the stage where the binary image information is stored in the binary IMEM 31, the binary image information stored in the binary IMEM 31 has excellent expressive power for characters, but is inferior in expressive power for photographs. On the other hand, the multi-value image information stored in the multi-value I MEM 32 has excellent expressive power for photographs but poor expressive power for text, but is ultimately displayed on the CRT 4 according to this embodiment. The image is a mixture of text and photos with excellent image quality in both the text and photo parts.

<Operation example>... Figures 6 and 7 show binary IMEM31. Multivalued I MEM32. Necessary information is stored in the image area MEM 33, and based on the image identification information 54 stored in the image area MEM 33, a reproduced text and photo mixed image with excellent image quality for both text and photo parts is obtained on the CRTJ. be.

In this case, the identification information 54 stored in the image area MEM 33 is automatically obtained by the image area segmentation circuit 39 without any trouble from the operator.

<Example of input control procedure>...Fig. 7 In Fig. 7, an image 50 is read from the IS 6, and as described above, it is stored in the binary IMEMs 31 and 32, and
31 on the CRT 4, have the operator specify the photographic area 53 while looking at the screen, and secure the image identification information corresponding to the area 53 in the image area MEM 33. .

First, in step S2, when CPU10 instructs 5PC30 to read an image from IS6, 5PC30 reads the image from IS6.
6 and instructs IS6 to read the image. 5P-
On the 1/F14 side, the contents of step S4 are performed as described above. That is, the IS 6 reads the image according to this instruction, outputs 8-bit multi-value image information with a resolution of 400 DPI, and simultaneously outputs it to the binarization circuit 36 and the thinning circuit 38. Hereinafter, control steps related to the 5P-I/F 14 are indicated by broken lines. The image information binarized by the binarization circuit 36 is converted into binary image information with a resolution of 400 DPI.
It is stored in MEM31.

The image information whose resolution has been converted by the thinning circuit 38 is converted into multi-value I MEM3 as multi-value image information with a resolution of 100 DPI.
2. Furthermore, the binary image information of the binary I MEM 31 is converted in resolution by the BMU 17 through a simple inquiry, and is sent to the VMEM 16 in step S6 as binary image information with a resolution of 100 DPI for CRT4.
Displayed on CRT4 at 8.

In order to designate the photo area 51 while looking at the display screen, the operator operates the PD 2 and specifies the frame 53 indicating the photo area (step 510).

In step S12, image identification information corresponding to the designated photographic area is created on the image area MEM 33.

<Example of manual control procedure>...Figure 8 Figure 8 is the same as the procedure in Figure 7, and without operator specification,
Image identification information is automatically obtained. Step S2
0 is the same as step S2 in FIG. Step S2
2, when a document 50 in which a photo portion 51 and a text portion 52 are mixed is read, the read image is converted into a binary I MEM 31 and a multi-value I MEM via a binarization circuit 361 and a thinning circuit 38.
32 and identified by the image area separation circuit 38 is also stored simultaneously in the image area MEM 33. As the identification information 54 corresponding to the photo area 51, "1" is stored.

The manual procedure has been explained above. The input procedure according to the present embodiment has the feature that the amount of information of the multivalued image data inputted from the IS 6 is greatly reduced and stored in the image memory from the point described below. That is, for binary images, because of their binary nature, the memory can be reduced without reducing the resolution, and for multi-valued images, there is no problem even if the resolution is reduced, so it is possible to reduce the memory amount by reducing the resolution. Can be done.

<Output example, to CBr4>...Fig. 9 The procedure for outputting to CBr4 will be explained with reference to Fig. 9. Binary IMEM31. Multivalued IMEM32. Image area M
It is assumed that predetermined information is stored in the EM33. In step S30, the contents of the image area MEM2S are read out for one pixel. In step S32, it is determined whether this content is "0" or "1".

If so, it is a binary image (character image), so in step S34, cpuio converts the resolution of the binary IMEM 31 (fi image information) using the BMLI 17 (see FIG. 3).
b), and transferred to the VMEM 16. Identification information is “1”
”, the process advances to step S36 and the multi-value I MEM3
The multivalued image information of No. 2 is transferred to the VMEM 16. In this case, since the VMEM 16 is a multi-value memory with a resolution of 1000 PI, the multi-value image information stored in the multi-value IMEM 32 also has a resolution of 100 DPI, so it can be transferred without resolution conversion. In this way, the VM
After sending all pixels to EM16, CBr is sent in step S36.
Display on 4.

<Output example, to IF5>...Fig. 10 The procedure for outputting to the IF5 will be explained according to the flowchart in Fig. 10. Binary IMEM31. Multi-value I
MEM32. It is assumed that predetermined information is stored in the image area MEM 33.

In step S50, CPU10 via 5PC30
When the F5 is instructed to output an image, the 5PC 30 communicates with the IF5 in step S52, and instructs the IF7 to output an image, thereby starting the IF7. Further, in step S54, 5P-I/
Each circuit in the F14 is instructed/started to output an image signal in synchronization with the operation of the IF5, and the contents of the image area MEM33 are read out for one pixel. That is, binary image information with a resolution of 400 DPI read out from the binary IMEM 31 is converted into 8-bit multi-value image information by the multi-value conversion circuit 34 and applied to the synthesis circuit 37. Further, the 8-bit multi-value image information with a resolution of 100 DPI read out from the multi-value I MEM 32 is converted to a resolution of 40 DPI by the interpolation circuit 35.
It is applied to the synthesis circuit 37 as multivalued image information of 0DPI. On the other hand, image identification information read out from the image area MEM 33 in which image identification information for specifying whether it is a text portion or a photo portion is also inputted to the synthesis circuit 37.

In steps S56 to S62, the synthesis circuit 37 switches the image information output from the multilevel conversion circuit 34 and the interpolation circuit 35 based on the image area designation information read out from the image area MEM 33, and sends the output image signal to the IF5. generate. This image signal is output in synchronization with the operation of IF5 and printed on paper by IF5.

<Application/Registration to Optical Disc>...Fig. 11 Fig. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of recording an image containing text and photographs on OD5.

When recording onto the optical disc 5, image data regarding the binary image portion, image data regarding the multi-value image portion, and image identification information are stored together with header information that distinguishes them from each other. On this occasion,
Binary image information is photo area 55 from binary IMEM31
Only the character area 56 excluding the character area 56 is compressed by the ICU 19, predetermined header information is added, and recorded on the OD5.

Further, as for the multi-valued image information, only the photo area 57 excluding the character area 58 from the multi-valued IMEM 32 is stored in OD5 with predetermined header information added thereto. Since the amount of information of multivalued image information is compressed to 1/16 by plotting the resolution, further compression is not performed. Image area MEM33
The image identification information within is compressed by the ICU 19, associated with predetermined header information, and managed as - image files.

Compression excluding a specific area can be achieved using the AND function of the BMU 17 and the ICU 19. In addition, management information (not shown) including header information is HD
20.

<Application/reading to optical discs>...Fig. 12
The figure is a diagram illustrating an example of printing out image information recorded in oD5. Where a desired optical disk file is located can be known from the management information on the HD 20, as described above.

Binary image information is read from OD5, decompressed by ICU 19, and stored in binary IMEM 31. Multivalued image information is read from OD5 and stored in multivalued IMEM32. Image identification information is read from OD5 and IC
It is expanded by U19 and stored in the image area MEM33.

Next, when this is to be printed out, it is read out from each memory in synchronization with the operation of the image printer and is synthesized by the synthesis circuit 36. The area of “1” in the image area MEM 33 indicates the photo area 54, so the photo area is a multivalued I MEM.
32 and data from the binary IMEM 31 in other areas are selectively combined and output to IF5. As described above, it is possible to obtain a text-photo mixed image with excellent image quality for both text and photos.

In the above embodiment, an image scanner is used as the multivalued image data input means, but an input device such as a TV camera or a flying spot scanner may also be used.

Furthermore, a laser beam printer, an inkjet printer, a thermal printer, etc. can be used as the multivalued image printer.

Further, although a random access memory is used to store image identification information, starting point/end point information of the XY coordinates of a photographic area (halftone) may be stored in a register.

In addition, the resolution of multivalued image information is converted and the resolution is 100DPI.
However, other resolutions such as 200DP! But the good news is clear.

As described above, various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the image information processing device according to the present invention, either binary image data subjected to binary image processing or image data subjected to multivalue image processing is processed based on identification information. Since it is possible to select and output a high-quality reproduced image without losing the tone of the original image.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an image information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the image information processing apparatus according to the above embodiment, and FIG. 3(b) is a diagram illustrating an actual usage example (thinning) of the BMU 17 in FIG. 2. FIG. A block diagram for explaining the configuration of the F14 in detail. Figure 5 is an explanatory diagram of an example of operation when the operator specifies text and photographic areas. Figure 6 shows how the image area separation circuit 38 allows the operator to An explanatory diagram of the operation when automatically specifying the Photography Department of the Faculty of Letters without specifying it. Figures 7 to 10 are flowcharts explaining the procedure related to control in the embodiment. Figure 11 is converting an image with text and photos to OD5. FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of printing out the image information recorded in OD5. In the figure, 1...control unit, 2...pointing device (PD), 3...keyboard, 4...CRT, 5
... Optical disc (OD), 6... Image scanner (■S), 7... Image printer (IP), 31.
... Binary image memory, 32... Multi-value image memory, 33... Image area memory, 34... Multi-value conversion circuit, 3
5... Interpolation circuit, 36... Binarization circuit, 37...
Synthesizing circuit, 38... Thinning circuit, 39... Image area separation circuit. Patent applicant: Canon Corporation Figure 5 Figure 6 Figure 7 Figure 10 Figure 11 Figure 12

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) Multi-value image data storage means for storing multi-value image data; and binary image data storage means for storing binary image data corresponding to the multi-value image data stored in the multi-value image data storage means. , a storage means having a storage space corresponding to each storage space of the multivalued image data storage means and the binary image data storage means, wherein the image data corresponding to this storage means is originally binary image data. an identification information storage means for storing identification information for identifying whether the image data is digital or multivalued image data; an output means for outputting the multivalued image data and the binary image data; and when outputting the image data to the output means. control to read out the identification information in synchronization with the output, select either multivalued image data or binary image data according to the readout identification information, and send it to the output means; An image information processing device comprising means. (2) Image information processing according to claim 1, characterized in that the multivalued image data input to the image data input means is multivalued image data whose resolution is lower than that of the original image. Device.