JP2000207534A - High speed pixel arranging method and device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To eliminate the need of a provisional storage area at the time of reading a color image signal from a storage device and to shorten time required for a rearranging processing. SOLUTION: A color image signal expressing one pixel with three pieces of color image data is transferred with N-pieces (N is the integer of four and above) of color image data for plural pixels as a unit. N-pieces of color image data in the color image signal transferred with N-pieces of color image data as the unit are branched and supplied to N-pieces of FIFO(first-in first-out) storage devices 107-110. Three pieces of color image data from N-pieces of FIFO storage devices 107-110 are read so that the outputs of N-pieces of FIFO storage devices 107-110 on three-pieces of color image data constituting the same pixel become substantially simultaneous. Three-pieces of color image data outputted from N-pieces of FIFO storage devices 107-110 are divided into three channels respectively and they are arranged.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an application in which a color image signal or a color video signal is input and color conversion or color editing is performed at high speed, for example, a color scanner, a color camera, a color hard copy device, a color display device, The present invention relates to a color television camera device, a color recognition device, a video editing device, a color printer device, and a high-speed pixel alignment method and a high-speed pixel alignment device used in a personal computer, an EWS (engineering workstation), etc. using them as input / output devices. It is.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Color image data stored in a storage device such as a semiconductor memory for performing a conversion process or an edit process of a color image signal represented by lightness / chromaticity, three primary colors or tristimulus values is used. , And each pixel is represented by three color image data.
Further, in order to execute the above-mentioned processing by the central processing unit (CPU), a data transfer path corresponding to the arithmetic capacity of the CPU is prepared, but it is usually about 16 to 128 bits, which is a multiple of 16. Lightness / chromaticity, three primary colors, or
When transferring tristimulus values, instead of transferring three color image data of one pixel each time, data of a plurality of pixels is taken into consideration in consideration of storage device use efficiency and transfer path use efficiency.
The components are divided and transferred in word units (in this example, 32 bits, that is, 4 byte units).
Table 1 shows an image format called Packed-RGB.

[0003]

[Table 1] At 0-7,8-15,16-23,24-31
Indicates a bit number, 0 of R0, G0, and B0 indicates a pixel number, and R, G, and B indicate red, green, and blue colors, respectively. For example, R0, G0, and B0 indicate color image data of three colors of red, green, and blue of the pixel of pixel number 0.

In the case of a central processing unit having a 32-bit transfer path, R (red), G (green), B
It is most effective to transmit the color data of (blue) as shown in Table 1 and to transmit four pixels for three times. The use efficiency of the transfer path and the memory can be used efficiently.

However, since the conversion processing and editing processing of the color image signal are executed for each pixel, the central processing unit performs sorting and rearranging as pre-processing for performing the above-described conversion processing and editing processing. Once, it is necessary to save in the temporary storage area. The temporary storage area stores the data of Table 1 in Table 2.
It is sorted and stored as follows.

[0006]

[Table 2] No data is stored in bit numbers 24-31. Table 2
A conversion process or an editing process is performed using the image data arranged as described above. The above conversion process is a conversion process from an RGB space to a different color space such as Lab, XYZ, CMYK, and the editing process is a process such as color extraction and enhancement. The above-described processing is a conventional example.

Here, a configuration of a signal conversion / edit processing system for performing a conversion process or an edit process of an image signal in a conventional example will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG.
Reference numeral 201 denotes a central processing unit (CPU) that performs rearrangement. Reference numeral 202 denotes a 32-bit data bus. A first main storage device 203 stores color image data in a format shown in Table 1. A second main storage device 204 stores the rearranged color image data shown in Table 2 in a temporary storage area. Reference numeral 205 denotes an image editing device that inputs data in the second main storage device 204 and performs an editing process. Note that the conversion process can be realized by using an image conversion device instead of the image editing device 205.

[0008] Here, the rearrangement operation in the conventional example will be described. When the CPU 201 is the first main storage device 20
3, color image data R0, G0, B0, R1, G starting from address 0000H (H means a hexadecimal number)
1, B1, R2,... Are rearranged and arranged in a temporary storage area starting from the address 1000H of the second main storage device 204.

First, the CPU 201 sets the address 0000
The H color image data R0 is moved to the address 1000H. Next, the color image data G0 at the address 0001H is moved to the address 1001H. Next,
The color image data B0 at the address 1002H is moved to the address 1002H.

Next, the address of the second main storage device 204 is increased by 2 to 1004H, and the address 0003H
Is moved to the address 1004H. Next, the color image data G1 at the address 0004H is moved to the address 1005H. Next, the color image data B1 at address 0005H is stored at address 10
Move to 06H.

Next, the address of the second main storage device 204 is increased by 2 to 1008H, and the color image data R2 at the address 0006H is moved to the address 1008H. The above operation is repeated to rearrange all the color image data. The above operation is performed in units of 8 bits, and 3
Not all 2-bit data buses are used.

[0012]

A second main storage unit 204 for a conventionally proposed color image signal of lightness / chromaticity, three primary colors or tristimulus values is used by a CPU 201.
There is the following problem in the conventional example in which the alignment processing is performed by using the following.

In such a conventional example, the image data format stored as shown in Table 1 for effective use of the storage area is returned to the form of Table 2 in units of three colors by the alignment processing in the CPU 201. Was.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a software process in the system shown in FIG. This flowchart shows a procedure of first reading out image data in a stored state, then rearranging the read out image data, and then performing an image editing process. As shown in FIG. 5, it is not suitable for an application field which requires an image rearrangement process, which consumes a lot of time, and requires high-speed color image processing. In particular, for still image processing and moving image processing with high image quality of 1,000,000 pixels or more, when the above-described image rearrangement processing of the conventional example is adopted, the performance of applied equipment is significantly deteriorated.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to execute a high-speed rearrangement process of a color image signal when reading a color image signal representing one pixel by three color image data from a storage device and performing image processing. It is an object of the present invention to provide a high-speed pixel alignment method and a high-speed pixel alignment device capable of performing high-speed image processing.

[0016]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a high-speed pixel aligning method according to the present invention, wherein a color image signal representing one pixel is represented by first, second and third color image data of 1 byte at a time. , N units of color image data (N is an integer of 4 or more) over a plurality of pixels are transferred as a unit, and N color image data in a color image signal transferred in units of N color image data are N units. Are supplied to the first-in first-out storage means, respectively, so that the output of the first, second and third color image data constituting the same pixel from the N first-in first-out storage means is substantially simultaneous. Read out the first, second and third color image data from the first-in first-out storage means, and output the first, second and third color image data output from the N first-in-first-out storage means. The first channel data, respectively, and wherein the aligning divided respectively to the second channel and the third channel.

According to this method, N pieces of color image data in a color image signal transferred in units of N pieces of color image data are branched and supplied to N pieces of first-in first-out storage means, and the same pixel is formed. First and second
And reading out the first, second and third color image data from the N first-in first-out storage means so that the output of the third color image data from the N first-in first-out storage means is substantially simultaneous. The first, second, and third color image data output from the first-in, first-out storage means are aligned separately for the first channel, the second channel, and the third channel, respectively. The color image signal representing the pixel of the color image signal is read out from the storage device, and the color image signal rearrangement process when performing the image processing can be executed at high speed.
Image processing can be performed at high speed.

In the high-speed pixel alignment apparatus according to the second aspect of the present invention, one pixel is represented by the first, second and third color image data of one byte at a time, and N pixels (N: N) over a plurality of pixels are represented. The color image signal transferred in units of (4 or more integers) color image data is divided so that the first, second and third color image data are respectively divided into a first channel, a second channel and a third channel. Transfer data branching means for branching N color image data in a color image signal transferred in units of N color image data for each color image data, and transfer data branching means N branched by
N first-in first-out storage units to which the color image data are input, first, second, and third alignment units to which the outputs of the N first-in, first-out storage units are input, and N of the second and third color image data
Reading from the N first-in first-out storage means so that the outputs from the first-in first-out storage means are substantially simultaneous, and the first, second, and third output from the N first-in-first-out storage means. And alignment control means for controlling the first, second and third alignment means so that the color image data is aligned separately for the first channel, the second channel and the third channel.

According to this configuration, the N color image data in the color image signal transferred in units of N color image data are branched and supplied to the N first-in first-out storage units, respectively, to form the same pixel. First and second
And controlling the reading of the third color image data from the N first-in first-out storage units so that the outputs from the N first-in-first-out storage units are substantially simultaneously output from the N first-in-first-out storage units. First,
Since the first, second and third aligning means are controlled so that the second and third color image data are aligned separately in the first channel, the second channel and the third channel, respectively, three color images are formed. A color image signal expressing one pixel by data is read out from the storage device, and the color image signal rearrangement process at the time of performing image processing can be executed at high speed, so that image processing can be performed at high speed.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a high-speed pixel aligning method for converting or editing a color image signal representing one pixel by three color image data of 1 byte. When the image data stored for every N times the integer in bytes is read out by the transfer path having the width of N times the integer in bytes, the data of the same pixel is read by 3 bytes from the first-in first-out storage means having a basic unit of 3 × N bytes. It is characterized in that image data is regularly and repeatedly read for each basic unit.

According to this method, when the image data stored in the storage means at every N times integral number of bytes is read out by the transfer path having the width of N times integral number of bytes, 3 × N bytes are regarded as the basic unit. Since the image data of the same pixel is regularly and repeatedly read for each basic unit from the first-in-first-out storage means, three bytes are stored in one pixel.
When color image signals representing individual pixels are read from a storage device and image processing is performed, color image signal rearrangement processing can be performed at high speed, and image processing can be performed at high speed.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a high-speed pixel aligning apparatus for converting and editing a color image signal representing one pixel by three color image data of 1 byte unit. Branching means for transferring the image data stored in the storage means through the data bus and receiving the image data, and branching for each byte; storing the image data received from the branching means; Alignment means for sending the color image data received from the storage means to the conversion processing and editing processing system; and a read signal for simultaneously reading out the three color image signals of the same pixel from the first-in first-out storage means; Color image signals are divided into three channels at the same time for the next conversion processing and editing processing system. And a control means for generating a channel selection signal that is sent in the state.

According to this configuration, the branching unit branches the image data byte by byte, stores the image data received from the branching unit by the first-in first-out storage unit for the number of the branched bytes, and stores the image data from the first-in first-out storage unit by the alignment unit. When sending the received color image data to the conversion processing or editing processing system, simultaneously read out the three color image signals of the same pixel from the first-in first-out storage means,
Since three color image signals of the same pixel are simultaneously sent to the next conversion processing or editing processing system in a state of being divided into three channels and sent out, one pixel is represented by three color image data. The color image signal to be read out from the storage device to perform the image processing and the color image signal rearrangement process can be executed at high speed,
Image processing can be performed at high speed.

[0024]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

First, the configuration of a signal conversion / editing system that performs conversion processing or editing processing of an image signal using the high-speed pixel alignment device according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a signal conversion / editing processing system for performing conversion processing or editing processing of an image signal using the high-speed pixel alignment apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 4, reference numeral 301 denotes a CPU. Reference numeral 302 denotes a 32-bit data bus. Reference numeral 303 denotes a first main storage device which stores color image data in the same arrangement as the first main storage device 203 in FIG. Reference numeral 304 denotes a high-speed pixel alignment device. An image editing device 305 is the same as the image editing device 205 in FIG. When performing image conversion processing, an image conversion device is used instead of the image editing device. In the case of performing both, an image conversion / editing device is used.

In this embodiment, the second main storage device 204 is not provided and the color image data is rearranged by the software processing of the CPU 202 as in the configuration of FIG. The high-speed pixel alignment device 304 performs high-speed hardware-based rearrangement processing of the color image data stored in the CPU 301 and supplies the rearranged color image data to the image editing device 305. This eliminates the need for the second main storage device as in the conventional example, and allows the color image data to be directly transferred from the first main storage device 303 to the image editing device 305.
Can be transferred via the high-speed pixel alignment device 304.

With this configuration, lightness / chromaticity, and
A color image signal composed of three primary colors or tristimulus values, that is, a color image signal expressing one pixel with three color image data is read from the first main storage device 303 in the data format shown in Table 1, and Are rearranged in hardware by the high-speed pixel alignment device 304,
The time required for the rearrangement processing can be reduced as compared with the rearrangement processing by software processing of the PU 301, and high-speed image processing can be realized.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a high-speed pixel alignment device 304 according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 101 denotes a 32-bit color image signal having a format shown in Table 1. Reference numeral 102 denotes a transfer data branching device that distributes the 32-bit width color image signal 101 into four for every 8 bits (1 byte), and corresponds to transfer data branching means in the claims. 10
7, a first first-in first-out storage device; 108, a second first-in, first-out storage device; 109, a third first-in, first-out storage device;
Reference numeral 10 denotes a fourth first-in first-out storage device, which corresponds to a first-in first-out storage means in the claims, and N in the claims is four in this example, but differs according to the number of bytes of one word. N is 8 when one word is 8 bytes.

Reference numerals 103, 104, 105, and 106 denote image signals each having an 8-bit width, and the first first-in first-out storage device 107 and the second first-in first-out storage device 1
08, the third first-in first-out storage device 109, and the fourth first-in first-out storage device 110, respectively. An alignment control device 119 corresponds to an alignment control unit in the claims.

Reference numerals 111, 112, 113, and 114 denote a first first-in first-out storage device 107, a second first-in first-out storage device 108, a third first-in first-out storage device 109,
This is an output image signal from the fourth first-in first-out storage device 110 and has an 8-bit width. 115, 116, 11
Reference numerals 7 and 118 denote read signals output from the alignment control device 119 to the first first-in first-out storage device 107, the second first-in-first-out storage device 108, the third first-in-first-out storage device 109, and the fourth first-in-first-out storage device 110.

Reference numeral 120 denotes a first aligning device, 121 denotes a second aligning device, and 122 denotes a third aligning device, which corresponds to the aligning means in the claims, and comprises, for example, a selector.

Reference numeral 126 denotes an output from the first alignment device 120, which is a color image signal (for example, an R signal) of the first channel.
It is. 127 is an output from the second alignment device 121,
An image signal of the second channel (for example, a G signal). 1
Reference numeral 28 denotes an output from the third alignment device 122, which is a third channel image signal (for example, a B signal). 123, 12
4,125 are outputs from the alignment control device 119,
One of the four types of data input to the alignment device 120, the second alignment device 121, and the third alignment device 122 is selected, and an image signal 125 of the first channel, an image signal 126 of the second channel, and a third channel are selected, respectively. Image signal 127
Are the first, second, third, and fourth channel selection signals that determine whether to output as the first channel.

The operation of the high-speed pixel alignment device 304 configured as described above will be described. The color image signal 101 is R
(Red), G (green) and B (blue).
, Four color image data R0, G0,
B0 and R1 are transferred first. Next, four color image data G1, B1, R2, and B2 are transferred. Next, four color image data B2, R3, G3, B3
Is transferred. Thereafter, the above three transfer patterns are repeated.

The color image signal 101 is input to the transfer data branching device 102 and is stored in the first first-in first-out storage device 10.
7 shows color image data R0 of bit numbers 0-7 in Table 1.
In the second first-in first-out storage device 108, the color image data G0 of bit numbers 8-15 in Table 1 is stored in the third first-in-first-out storage device 109, and in the third first-in first-out storage device 109, the color image data B0 of bit numbers 16-23 in Table 1 is stored. First in first out storage device 1
10 are simultaneously written with the color image data R1 of bit numbers 24-31 in Table 1, respectively, and the data arrangement is as shown in FIG.

The first to fourth first-in first-out storage devices 107 to
The image data written in 110 is read by the high-speed pixel alignment device 304 for each pixel.

Table 3 shows the states of the read signals 115 to 118 and the output channel destinations (first, second, and third channel color image signals 126 to 128).

[0038]

[Table 3] In Table 3, READ (R0) indicates that color image data is read, and the color image data read at that time is R0. NOP is NO
It indicates that data is not read in the meaning of OPERATION.

The data read from the first to fourth first-in first-out storage devices 107 to 110 based on Table 3 is converted by the first, second, and third alignment devices 120 to 122 into the data shown in FIG. As well as aligned. The data arranged for each pixel is transferred to the image editing device 305 at the next stage.

In the third aspect of the present invention, "from the first-in first-out storage means having a basic unit of 3.times.N bytes, the image data of the same pixel is regularly and repeatedly read for each basic unit by three bytes". Has been described above using N = 4 as an example. That is, the basic unit is as shown in FIG.
And by reading according to the rules in (Table 3),
The data arrangement shown in FIG. 2B corresponds to claim 3.

As described above, the rearrangement of the color image data is performed using the high-speed pixel alignment device 304 having the hardware configuration, whereby the color image signal expressing one pixel by the three color image data is converted into the first color image signal. When image processing is performed by reading from the main storage device 303, color image signal rearrangement processing can be performed at high speed, and image processing can be performed at high speed.

[0042]

According to the high-speed pixel alignment apparatus of the present invention, a color image signal of lightness / chromaticity and three primary colors or tristimulus values, that is, a color representing one pixel by three color image data. When an image signal is read from a storage device, a color image signal expressing one pixel by three color image data is read from the storage device and a color image signal rearrangement process is performed at a high speed. And high-speed image processing can be performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a high-speed pixel alignment device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a data arrangement of image signals in the high-speed pixel alignment device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a conventional signal editing processing system that performs editing processing of an image signal.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a signal editing processing system that performs image signal editing processing using the high-speed pixel alignment device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing processing contents in a conventional signal editing processing system that performs image signal editing processing.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 101 color image signal 102 transfer data branching device 103 color image signal (0-7 bits) 104 color image signal (8-15 bits) 105 color image signal (16-23 bits) 106 color image signal (24-31 bits) 107 First first-in first-out storage device 108 second second-in-first-out storage device 109 third third-in-first-out storage device 110 fourth first-in-first-out storage device 111 output image signal of the first first-in-first-out storage device 112 output image signal of the second first-in-first-out storage device 113 of the third first-in-first-out storage device Output image signal 114 Output image signal of fourth first-in first-out storage device 115 Readout signal for first first-in-first-out storage device 116 Readout signal for second first-in-first-out storage device 117 Third readout signal for first-in-first-out storage device 118 Fourth Read signal for FIFO memory 119 Alignment control device 120 First alignment device 121 Second alignment device 122 Third alignment device 123 First channel output selection signal 124 Second channel output selection signal 125 Third channel output selection signal 126 1 channel color image signal 127 2nd channel color image signal 128 3rd channel color image signal

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A color image signal expressing one pixel by first, second, and third color image data of one byte each is divided into N (N is an integer of 4 or more) color images over a plurality of pixels. Data is transferred in units, and the N pieces of color image data in the color image signal transferred in units of the N pieces of color image data are branched and supplied to N pieces of first-in first-out storage means to configure the same pixel. N of the first, second and third color image data
From the N first-in first-out storage means so that the outputs from the N first-in-first-out storage means are substantially simultaneous.
While reading out the second and third color image data, the first, second and third color image data output from the N first-in first-out storage means are respectively stored in the first color image data.
A high-speed pixel alignment method, which comprises separately arranging a channel, a second channel, and a third channel. 2. One pixel is represented by first, second, and third color image data of each byte, and N (N is an integer of 4 or more) color image data as a unit over a plurality of pixels. The color image signals to be transferred are represented by first, second, and third color image data in a first channel, respectively.
What is claimed is: 1. A high-speed pixel alignment apparatus for aligning a plurality of color image data into a second channel and a third channel, wherein each of said N color image data in a color image signal transferred in units of said N color image data is Transfer data branching means for branching each color image data, N first-in first-out storage means to which the N color image data branched by the transfer data branching means are inputted, and an output of the N first-in first-out storage means And the output of the first, second and third color image data constituting the same pixel from the N first-in, first-out storage means are substantially simultaneously performed. The reading from the N first-in first-out storage units is controlled so that Alignment control means for controlling the first, second and third alignment means so that the first, second and third color image data are aligned separately for the first channel, the second channel and the third channel, respectively; High-speed pixel alignment device equipped with 3. Image data stored in storage means for each N times an integer number of bytes in order to perform conversion processing or editing processing of a color image signal expressing one pixel by three color image data of 1 byte each. Is read by a transfer path having a width of an integer N times the byte unit, the image data of the same pixel is regularly repeated for each of the basic units from the first-in first-out storage means having a basic unit of 3 × N bytes. A high-speed pixel alignment method characterized by reading. 4. A method for converting or editing a color image signal representing one pixel by three color image data of 1 byte each, in which image data stored in storage means in word units is transferred to a data bus. Branching means for receiving after transfer through and branching for each byte, storing the image data received from the branching means, storing the image data received from the branching means, and converting the color image data received from the first-in first-out storage means for the number of branched bytes. An aligning means for sending to a processing or editing processing system, and a read signal for simultaneously reading three color image signals of the same pixel from the first-in first-out storage means, and simultaneously converting the three color image signals of the same pixel into the next pixel A channel selection signal that is sent to the processing or editing processing system while being divided into three channels and aligned. A high-speed pixel alignment apparatus comprising: