JPS648854B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] (1) Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a storage, retrieval and display method for image information, particularly a storage, retrieval and display method for image information handled in a system that retrieves and displays image information stored in a center, etc. Regarding.

(2) Description of Prior Art FIG. 1 shows the structure of image information to be searched stored in a center or the like in a conventional method. Conventionally, in this type of method, the screen information to be searched is limited by the resolution of the display device, and all of the screen information to be searched, such as a wide area such as an aerial photograph (this is referred to as original screen information in Fig. 1), is displayed simultaneously on the display device. Since this information is not possible, the information is displayed on a plurality of pieces of small screen information 1-1, 1-2, . . . having the number of pixels according to the resolution of the display device.
The information on each small screen is given a unique name such as a screen number, and the information is searched by using this as a keyword and using the options to follow the option list 2 as shown in FIG. That is, the divided small screen information is stored in a center or the like as a unit and searched and displayed.

However, when searching for visual information over a wide area, such as an aerial photograph, it is difficult to divide this into small screen information and uniquely represent this with linguistic information such as keywords. The selected small screen information is often not what is desired, and unnecessary re-searches are often performed. Furthermore, since the divided screens are searched and displayed as units, it is difficult to check the positional relationship between pieces of information on adjacent small screens. To achieve this, the amount of information that can be accumulated can be increased by creating overlapping parts between adjacent small screens, or by composing small screen information at an intermediate position from multiple adjacent small screen information each time it is displayed. However, there were drawbacks such as a significant increase in the amount of processing required at the center, etc.

(3) Purpose of the Invention In order to solve these drawbacks, the present invention stores original screen information, which is a continuous piece of information, hierarchically from a general image to detailed images using difference information, and selects options. The detailed image is searched step by step by directly specifying an arbitrary area within the general image without using it, and the detailed image can be displayed by combining the difference information with the information of the specified area within the general image. The purpose is to

(4) Explanation of the structure and operation of the invention The present invention will be explained in detail below with reference to Examples.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the configuration of an image information search and display system. In the figure, 3 is a center processing unit, 4 is a center memory, 5 is a magnetic disk, 6 and 7 are input/output interfaces, 8 is a terminal processing unit, 9 is a terminal memory, 10 is a synthesizer, 11 is a display, 1
2 is an indicating device. First, the center processing device 3 reads general image information from the magnetic disk 5 and transmits it to the display device through the input/output interfaces 6 and 7, and the terminal processing device 8 stores this information in the terminal memory 9 and displays it on the display 11. Next, by using the indicating device 12 to specify an arbitrary region within the schematic image displayed on the display 11, the center processing device 3 reads the difference information of the portion corresponding to the region from the sensor memory 4 or the magnetic disk 5. , and transmits this to the display device. The terminal processing device 8 cuts out a portion corresponding to the designated area from the general image information stored in the terminal memory 9, sends it to the synthesizer 10 together with the difference information sent from the sensor processing device 3, and generates detailed image information. The detailed images are displayed on the display 11.

FIG. 3 schematically shows an example of the hierarchical structure of image information stored in the center. In general, two or more pixels of the detailed image 14 obtained corresponding to the illustrated original screen information 13 are represented by one pixel to constitute the general images 15 and 16, and the most detailed image layer is divided into levels. 0, and levels of level 1, level 2, . Also, level i (i=0, 1,...,
N-1; positive integer) layer information is level (i+1)
It is given as differential information with the layer information of
Suppress the increase in the amount of stored information due to the hierarchical structure. Schematic image 16 of level 2 in FIG.
is constructed by representing 4×4 pixels of original screen information as one pixel using their average luminance information, etc. Also, schematic image 1 of level 1
5 is constructed by representing 2×2 pixels of original screen information as one pixel using their average luminance information. The level 0 detailed image 14 is image information composed of the same number of pixels as the original screen information. As for accumulated image information, at level 1, it is stored in the form of difference information between level 2, that is, the average brightness information of 4 × 4 pixels and average brightness information of 2 × 2 pixels, and at level 0, it is stored in the form of difference information between level 2, that is, the average brightness information of 2 × 2 pixels, and at level 0, it is stored in the form of difference information between level 2, that is, the average brightness information of 2 × 2 pixels, and level 1, that is, the average brightness information of 2 × 2 pixels. It is stored in the form of difference information between brightness information and original screen information.

FIG. 4 shows a method of synthesizing detailed images in the synthesizer 10. The information of one pixel of the schematic image 15 corresponding to the indicated area in A in the figure is increased in number of pixels as shown in the information 17 in B in the figure, and then corresponded to a plurality of pieces (four pieces in FIG. 4) of difference information 18. By adding these separately, information for multiple pixels (four in Figure 4) is created as shown in D in the figure, and the information that was expressed by one pixel in the schematic image 15 is expressed by multiple pixels. The detailed images 14 are synthesized.
Note that the numerical values in the figure mean luminance information of each pixel.

FIG. 5 shows an example of application of the present invention. Since it is impossible to display all the information on the display device at the same time even with the number of pixels at level 0, the original screen information is first displayed as an overall schematic image 16 as shown in figure 19, and then as shown in figure 20. Search display is performed by displaying the designated area in the form of an image 15 as shown in FIG. 21, and further displaying the designated area in FIG. 22 as a more detailed image as shown in FIG. 23, such as 14.

In the above explanation, information indicating a wide area such as an aerial photograph was explained as the original screen information, but the small screen information shown in Figure 1 is a collection of independent information that has no relationship with each other to form information that constitutes a wide area. It is also possible to handle

(5) Explanation of Effects As explained above, according to the present invention, original screen information is stored hierarchically from general image information to detailed image information, and any area within a display image can be directly accessed. By giving instructions, more detailed images can be searched and displayed simply by adding difference information. Therefore, the operator can search and display information in any part of the original screen information by directly manipulating visual information while checking continuity with the surroundings. Furthermore, by temporarily storing the general image information in the display device, it is possible to immediately redisplay the general image and repeat the search without retransmitting the image information from the sensor. Therefore, even if a search is made incorrectly, there is no need to restart the search from the beginning, and the search can be performed again in a short time.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional method for searching original screen information, FIG. 2 is an example of the configuration of an image information search and display system used in the present invention, and FIG. 3 is an illustration of the hierarchical structure of original screen information according to the present method. As an example, FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a manner of synthesizing detailed image information, and FIG. 5 shows an example of application of this method. In the figure, 3 is a center processing unit, 4 is a center memory, 5 is a magnetic disk, 6 and 7 are input/output interfaces, 8 is a terminal processing unit, 9 is a terminal memory, 10 is a synthesizer, 11 is a display, 12 14 represents an instruction device, 14 represents a detailed image, 15, 16, . . . represent a general image, and 18 represents difference information.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A first means for accumulating and reading out image information representing hierarchically more detailed images from the general image to the detailed image as at least one piece of the general image information and difference information between each layer; A second means on which the general image information read out from the first means and/or the detailed image information obtained by combining are displayed.
a third means for specifying a desired area in the image of each layer displayed by the second means and cutting out image information corresponding to the area; A fourth means for synthesizing at least the detailed image information from the image information and the difference information corresponding to the image information is provided, and an image corresponding to the synthesized detailed image information is displayed by the second means. A method for storing, retrieving and displaying image information, characterized in that: