JP2000138837A - Image information processing unit - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image information processing unit with which a concerned line is discriminated as to whether it is compression coded or left uncompressed, without causing increase in a processing time and data are coded according to the discrimination. SOLUTION: This image information processing unit provided with a coding means, that applies coding and compression to binary data in the unit of lines, is provided with a change point counter 11 that counts number of change points of serial image data (a) before coding compression in the unit of lines, a control circuit 13 that adds the number of change points to a head of image data of a succeeding line by setting number of the change points to an S/P conversion register 12, that converts the serial image data (a) into parallel data, and a coding decoding section 8 that has a comparator circuit 15, which compares number of the change points added by the control circuit 13 with a prescribed value and that discriminates whether or not the line added with number of the change points is to be coded and compressed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image information processing apparatus such as a facsimile apparatus having means for encoding and compressing binary data in units of lines, and more particularly to reducing the amount of encoded and compressed data. The present invention relates to an image information processing apparatus capable of performing the following.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a facsimile apparatus, binarized image data and the like read from a document are converted into MH (modified Huf) data.
The image data is encoded and compressed by an image encoding method called an fman code) method or an MR (modified READ code) method, and encoded data is transmitted or stored. However, in the above-described encoding method, when there are many change points (points that change from white to black and points that change from black to white) in one line, the coding amount is larger than the data amount of the original image data before coding. There is a disadvantage that the data amount of the coded data is increased. Therefore, during encoding, the data amount of the encoded data is monitored on a line basis, and if the data amount exceeds the data amount of the data before encoding, the encoding of the line is stopped and the data of the line is encoded. The technology of accumulating data as it was before the commercialization has been provided. In addition,
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-197189 discloses a technique that monitors the number of change points in one line at the time of encoding and stops the encoding of the line when the number of change points exceeds a predetermined value. There is also disclosed a technique for accumulating such data as it is before encoding.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In the conventional technology including the technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-197189, the processing time is increased since the determination that the line is to be left uncompressed is performed after the line is partially encoded. There is a problem of doing. The problem to be solved by the present invention is to solve the problems of the conventional technology as described above, and to determine whether the line should be coded and compressed or left uncompressed without increasing the processing time. An object of the present invention is to provide an image information processing apparatus such as a facsimile apparatus that can perform encoding according to a determination.

[0004]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image information processing apparatus including an encoding unit for encoding and compressing binary data in units of lines. The number of change points of the binary data before encoding and compression is counted in units of lines, and the number of change points added by the number of change points added to the beginning of the image data of the next line is calculated by the following: Encoding determination means for determining whether to compress and compress the line to which the number of change points has been added by comparing with a predetermined value. Further, in the image information processing apparatus provided with an encoding unit that encodes and compresses the binarized data in line units, the number of change points of the binarized data before encoding and compression is set in line units. Counting and comparing the number of change points with a predetermined value to determine whether or not to compress and compress the next line, and coding information indicating a result determined by the coding determination means as follows. An encoding information adding means for adding to the head of the image data of the line, and an encoding means for encoding and compressing each line according to the encoding information added by the encoding information adding means are provided.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect of the present invention, the remaining memory capacity of the image storage means for storing the image data subjected to the encoding and compression processing by the encoding means is monitored. There is provided a capacity monitoring means for ascertaining, and a configuration is provided in which a predetermined value with which the number of change points is compared is changed according to the remaining memory capacity ascertained by the capacity monitoring means.

[0005] With the above configuration, the number of change points of the binary data before encoding and compression is counted in line units, and the number of change points is the head of the image data of the next line. It is determined based on the added number of change points whether or not the line to which the number of change points is added is to be encoded and compressed, and the encoding and compression of each line is performed according to the determination. According to the second aspect of the present invention, the number of change points of the binary data before encoding and compression is counted in line units, and it is determined whether or not to encode and compress the next line based on the number of change points. Encoding information indicating the result is added to the head of the image data of the next line, and encoding and compression of each line is performed according to the added encoding information. According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect of the present invention, the number of change points is compared in accordance with the remaining memory capacity of the image storage means for storing the image data subjected to the encoding and compression processing. The predetermined value is changed.

[0006]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. Here, a case where the image information processing apparatus according to the present invention is applied to a facsimile apparatus will be described as an example. FIG. 1 is a configuration block diagram of a facsimile apparatus showing an example of an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the facsimile apparatus has a ROM having a built-in program and a C which operates according to the program.
A control unit 1 having a PU or the like to manage and control the entire apparatus,
An operation display unit 2 including a keyboard for the user to give an instruction to the facsimile apparatus and a display means for the facsimile apparatus to give a message to the user; a RAM 3 for temporarily storing image data and the like; A scanner 4 for reading an image of the image, a plotter 5 for outputting the decoded image data to recording paper, a network control unit (NCU) 6 for setting up a call with a remote facsimile apparatus via a public telephone network, A communication control unit 7 for performing facsimile transmission and reception in accordance with a G3 transmission control procedure and the like; a coding / decoding unit (DCR) 8 for coding stored image data and transmission image data by a coding unit and decoding received image data and the like; A modem 9 comprising a low-speed modem and a high-speed modem; an image memory (image storage means) 10 for storing image data; It is provided. When facsimile transmission is performed by such a facsimile apparatus, first, the controller 1 reads image data into the RAM 3 using the scanner 4, encodes the image data using the DCR 8, and stores the image data in the RAM 3 or the image memory 10. Further, the control unit 1 acquires call-out designation information such as a destination specified by the operation display unit 2, and the NCU 6 to which the destination information has been passed sets a call with the specified destination. Subsequently, the communication control unit 7 executes the phase B via the low-speed modem, and then moves to the phase C,
The coded image information in the RAM 3 or the image memory 10 is modulated by the high-speed modem in the modem 9 and the NCU 6
Out via. Alternatively, it is re-encoded and transmitted according to the other party's facsimile machine. When receiving, NCU6
Sets up a call, enters phase B, performs predetermined communication via a low-speed modem, enters phase C, and receives encoded image data. Then, the image data is
The data is stored in the RAM 3 via the CU 6 and the communication control unit 7, decoded by the DCR 8, and plotted by the plotter 5 via the RAM 3.
Or stored in the image memory 10.

FIG. 2 is a data flow diagram of a main part of the facsimile apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention. In the scanner 4, an image of a serial bit string corresponding to a pixel row in a line direction (main scanning direction) is provided. A change point counter 11 that counts change points in the data a, an S / P conversion register 12 that converts image data a of a serial bit string into a plurality of parallel data, and adds the number of change points of the line to the head of image data of the next line. Control circuit 1 including change point number adding means
The RAM 3 has an area allocated as a line buffer 21 and the DCR 8 has a P / P for converting parallel data into image data b of a serial bit string.
An S conversion register 14 and a comparison circuit 15 for comparing the value with a predetermined value when the number of change points is set in the P / S conversion register 14 are provided. Hereinafter, the operation of this embodiment will be described. First, an original is set on the scanner 4, and the grayscale image data of a pixel row constituting the first line (the uppermost reading line in the main scanning direction) of the original is converted into black-and-white binary serial bit string image data a. ,
The change point counter 11 and the S / P conversion register 12 are provided. The change point counter 11 is reset to 0 by the control circuit 13 at the start of reading each line, and thereafter, when the level of the input image data a changes, that is, when the level of the input image data a changes from white to black, and The count is incremented when the color changes from white to white, and the value is increased by 1 each time. Also, S / P conversion register 1
Reference numeral 2 denotes, for example, a 16-bit configuration, and outputs 16-bit parallel parallel data every time a serial bit string is input for 16 bits.

The parallel image data output from the S / P conversion register 12 is written to the line buffer 21 in the output order, and the image data written in the line buffer 21 is read out in the writing order. Is converted to image data b. Then, the image data b is given to the encoding means in the DCR 8, encoded and compressed, and written into the image memory 10. On the other hand, the control circuit 13 counts the number of bits input to the S / P conversion register 12 for each line. When the control circuit 13 detects the end of the image reading of the first line, the control circuit 13 controls the change point counter 11 at that time. The output value, that is, the number of change points of the line is set in the S / P conversion register 12. Subsequently, reading of the second line is started, and image data a
Starts to be input to the S / P conversion register 12 again. By this time, the number of change points of the first line is read out from the S / P conversion register 12 and is sent to the P / S conversion register 14 via the line buffer 21. The number of transition points, which is set as a parallel output value, is compared with a predetermined value previously given to the comparison circuit 15, and a level indicating the result of the comparison is output from the comparison circuit 15, and the DCR is determined according to the level.
Reference numeral 8 determines whether or not to perform coding compression on the next line (in this case, the second line). For example, if the comparison result indicates that the number of change points is larger, the data is stored in the image memory 10 without performing the encoding and compression of the next line. Since the number of change points of adjacent lines is similar, the number of change points of the next line is regarded as the same as the number of change points of the line. Hereinafter, the same operation is repeated.

[0009] FIG.
The structure of data given to R8 is shown. Note that DCR8
For example, information indicating whether the image data of the line is compressed data or non-compressed data is added to the head of the processed image data of each line stored in the image memory 10.
When transmitting the image data stored in the image memory 10, the image data is once decoded and decompressed in accordance with the added information, and is again encoded and transmitted in accordance with the decoding function of the partner facsimile machine. Also, when the facsimile apparatus is used as an image storage apparatus and the stored image data is output on a recording sheet by the plotter 5, the decoding and decompression are performed as described above. As described above, according to this embodiment, the amount of image data to be stored in the image memory 10 can be made smaller than before, and each uncompressed line can be encoded and compressed halfway. Is performed, the encoding / compression processing of the line is not stopped, so that the encoding / compression processing is completed in a short time. In the second embodiment of the present invention, a predetermined value to be compared with the number of change points is changed according to the remaining memory of the image memory 10. When the remaining memory capacity is large, the above-mentioned predetermined value is made smaller than the value that gives the minimum data amount to increase the number of uncompressed lines, and when the remaining memory capacity is small, the predetermined value is increased and the number of uncompressed lines is reduced. is there.

For this purpose, the control unit 1 constantly monitors the remaining amount of the image memory 11. That is, the control unit 1 also functions as a capacity monitoring unit, and when writing to a new area of the image memory 11 occurs, a value obtained by subtracting the writing amount from the remaining memory amount up to that time is set as the updated memory remaining amount, When memory erasure occurs, a value obtained by adding the memory erasure amount to the remaining memory amount is the updated memory remaining amount,
The remaining memory capacity is stored in a predetermined area in the RAM 3. In addition, a predetermined value table as shown in FIG. 4 is provided in, for example, a flash memory in the control unit 1, and a predetermined value is set in advance in association with the remaining memory amount Q. The control unit 1 refers to the predetermined value table each time the remaining memory capacity is updated, and changes the predetermined value given to the comparison circuit 15 if the predetermined value needs to be changed. Instead of obtaining the predetermined value K from the table, the predetermined value K may be obtained from a calculation formula such as K = a (C−Q) + b. In the above formula, a, b, and C are constants. Thus the second
According to the embodiment, when the remaining memory is large, the image data is often stored in the image memory 10 uncompressed. Therefore, the encoding processing time is reduced by that much, and when the remaining memory becomes small, Since the encoding is performed so that the data amount is further reduced, the occurrence of a situation in which the image memory 10 becomes full and cannot be stored can be extremely reduced.

FIG. 5 is a data flow diagram of a main part of a facsimile apparatus showing a third embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the facsimile apparatus of this embodiment includes a change point counter 11, a comparison circuit 16 for comparing the change point number, which is the output value of the change point counter 11, with a predetermined value, in the scanner 4, and an S / P The conversion register 12 includes a control circuit 13a including an encoding information adding means for adding a comparison result of the number of change points of the line as encoding information to the head of the image data of the next line. The DCR8 contains a P / S
A conversion register 14 and a determination circuit 17 for determining whether or not to compress and compress the line according to the value when the coding information is set in the P / S conversion register 14 are provided. Hereinafter, the operation of this embodiment will be described. First, an original is set on the scanner 4, and the grayscale image data of the pixel row constituting the first line of the original is converted into image data a of a binary serial bit string of black and white, a change point counter 11 and an S / P conversion register. 12 is given.
The change point counter 11 is reset to 0 by the control circuit 13a at the start of reading of each line, and thereafter, when the level of the input image data a changes, that is, when the level changes from white to black, The count is incremented when the color changes from white to white, and the value is increased by 1 each time. The S / P conversion register 12 has, for example, a 16-bit configuration, and outputs 16-bit parallel parallel data every time a 16-bit serial bit string is input.

The parallel image data output from the S / P conversion register 12 is written to the line buffer 21 in the output order, and the image data written in the line buffer 21 is read out in the writing order. Is converted to image data b. Then, the image data b is given to the encoding means in the DCR 8, encoded and compressed, and written into the image memory 10. On the other hand, the control circuit 13a counts the number of bits input to the S / P conversion register 12 for each line, and upon detecting the end of the image reading of the first line,
The output value of the change point counter 11 at that time, that is, the number of change points of the line is given to the comparison circuit 16 and compared with a predetermined value set in advance. Then, the coded information as the comparison result is set in the S / P conversion register 12. For example, if the comparison result indicates that the number of change points is larger, the coded information indicates that the next line is not coded and compressed. Subsequently, the reading of the second line is started, and the image data a starts to be input again to the S / P conversion register 12. By this time, the coding information inserted at the head of the image data of the second line is obtained. Is read from the S / P conversion register 12, set in the P / S conversion register 14 via the line buffer 21, and the encoded information which is the parallel output value is given to the determination circuit 17.
As a result, the DCR 8 performs or does not perform coding compression of the next line (in this case, the second line).
Hereinafter, the same operation is repeated. The DCR 8 adds, for example, to the head of the image data of each line stored in the image memory 10, information indicating whether the image data of the line is compressed data or uncompressed data. As described above, according to the third embodiment, similarly to the first embodiment, the data amount of the image data stored in the image memory 10 can be reduced, and the respective uncompressed As for the line, since the encoding compression of the line is not stopped after performing the encoding compression halfway,
The encoding / compression processing is completed in that short time. In addition,
Also in the third embodiment, the predetermined value given to the comparison circuit 16 can be changed according to the remaining amount of the image memory 10 as in the second embodiment. The case where the image information processing apparatus is a facsimile apparatus has been described above as an example. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention can be effectively applied to an image storage apparatus and a multifunction device.

[0013]

As described above, the present invention has the following excellent effects. In the invention according to claim 1,
The number of change points of the binary data before encoding and compression is counted in line units, the number of change points is added to the beginning of the image data of the next line, and the number of change points is added based on the added number of change points. It is determined whether or not to compress and compress the data, and the coding and compression of each line is performed according to the determination, so that the data amount of the image data stored in the image storage unit can be further reduced. With respect to the non-compressed line, the encoding / compression of the line is not stopped after the encoding / compression is performed halfway, so that the encoding / compression processing time can be shortened accordingly. According to the second aspect of the present invention, the number of change points of the binary data before encoding and compression is counted in line units, and it is determined whether or not to encode and compress the next line based on the number of change points. The encoding information indicating the result of the addition is added to the head of the image data of the next line, and encoding and compression of each line are performed according to the added encoding information. It is possible to reduce the amount of image data stored in the storage means, and for each uncompressed line, perform encoding compression halfway and then stop encoding compression of that line. , The encoding / compression processing time can be shortened accordingly. According to the third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect or the second aspect,
In the described invention, when the remaining amount of memory of the image storage means for storing the image data subjected to the encoding and compression processing is large, the image data is often stored in the image storage means uncompressed. Only when the encoding processing time is shortened and the remaining memory capacity is reduced, encoding is performed so that the data amount is further reduced. can do.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration block diagram of a facsimile apparatus showing an example of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a data flow diagram of the main part of the facsimile apparatus showing the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a main part of the facsimile apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a data configuration diagram of a main part of a facsimile apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a data flow diagram of a main part of the facsimile apparatus showing a third embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: control unit (capacity monitoring unit), 3: RAM, 4: scanner, 8: encoding / decoding unit (encoding unit), 10: image memory, 11: change point counter, 12: S / P conversion register, 13: control circuit (change point addition means, coding information addition means), 14: P / S conversion register, 15: comparison circuit, 16: comparison circuit (coding determination means)

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An image information processing apparatus comprising an encoding means for encoding and compressing binary data in line units, wherein the number of change points of the binary data before encoding and compression is counted in line units, and Is added to the beginning of the image data of the next line, and the number of change points added by the change point number addition means is compared with a predetermined value to encode and compress the line to which the number of change points is added. An image information processing apparatus comprising: an encoding determination unit configured to determine whether or not the image processing is performed. 2. An image information processing apparatus comprising an encoding means for encoding and compressing binary data in line units, wherein the number of change points of the binary data before encoding and compression is counted in line units, and Is compared with a predetermined value to determine whether or not to compress and compress the next line. The coding information indicating the result determined by the coding determination unit is used as image data of the next line. An image information processing apparatus comprising: an encoded information adding unit to be added to the head; and an encoding unit that performs encoding and compression of each line according to the encoded information added by the encoded information adding unit. . 3. A capacity monitoring means for monitoring and grasping the remaining amount of memory in an image storage means for storing the image data which has been subjected to the encoding and compression processing by the encoding means, wherein the capacity monitoring means grasps the remaining capacity. 3. The image information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a predetermined value with which the number of change points is compared is changed according to the remaining amount of memory.