JP2000216975A - Image layout method and its device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To automatically attain segmentation of the pattern of a material image, and allocation in the prepared image. SOLUTION: A material image for segmenting a pattern is selected (S4), and a mask image for segmenting the pattern from the selected material image is selected (S5), and is subjected to rotation and variable magnification (S6). A central point is set in this mask image, and a blend value for operating watermark compositing is set at each position. Then, a segmenting point is decided in the material image, and the central point of the mask image is made to coincide with the segmenting point, and the pattern of the material image is segmented along the outline of the mask image in that state (S7). Then, an allocating point is decided in the prepared image, the central point of the segmented pattern is made coincident with the allocating point, and the segmented pattern is allocated. At that time, the watermark compositing of the pattern of the prepared image with the pattern to be newly allocated this time is operated, by using the blend value set at each position of the mask image (S8).

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for cutting out a picture from a material image by using a mask image and automatically laying out the cut out picture, and an apparatus therefor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When an image used for wallpaper or the like is created, a plurality of small-sized material images are laid out at appropriate positions while being rotated or scaled. It is usually that. In the past, such processing was performed by film processing, and recently, using a personal computer or workstation equipped with software for performing appropriate image processing, appropriate patterns were cut out from the material image, and the cut out patterns were appropriately displayed on a monitor screen. In this case, the pattern is created so that the sense of density of the pattern in the created image is almost uniform, that is, the pattern is concentrated on the part where the pattern is located, or conversely. Since it is necessary to pay attention so that the pattern does not decrease in a certain part and the same material image does not line up, it is troublesome, and the burden on the operator is large.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to automatically cut out a picture from a material image and lay out the picture.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object, an image layout method according to claim 1 includes a first step of selecting a material image and a step of selecting a mask image.
At least a second step of performing rotation and scaling processing, and a cutout point determined in the material image selected in the first step, and a representative point defined in a mask image obtained as a result of the processing in the second step And a third step of cutting out the pattern of the material image with the outline of the mask image in a state where
And a fourth step in which the representative points of the picture cut out in the third step are assigned and matched.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the image layout method of the first aspect, a blend value is set at each position of the mask image, and the picture cut out in the fourth step is created. When allocating to an image, watermark synthesis is performed on the pattern of the created image and the pattern to be newly allocated this time.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image layout apparatus comprising: a first means for selecting a material image; a second means for selecting a mask image and performing at least rotation and scaling processing; A cutout point is determined in the selected material image, and a pattern of the material image is cut out with the outline of the mask image in a state where the representative point defined in the mask image obtained as a result of the processing of the second means is matched. An image layout comprising: a third means; and a fourth means for determining an allocation point for a created image, and matching the allocation point with a representative point of a pattern cut out by the third means. apparatus.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the image layout apparatus of the third aspect, a blend value is set at each position of the mask image, and the pattern cut out by the fourth means is created. When allocating to an image, watermark synthesis is performed on the pattern of the created image and the pattern to be newly allocated this time.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First, an image layout method according to the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, initialization is performed (step S1).
In this initial setting, setting of an image to be created (hereinafter, referred to as a created image), setting of a random number to be used in later processing, and the like are performed.

Next, a material image is fetched (step S2). Although the number of material images may be one, it is desirable to capture a plurality of material images. The import of this material image,
For example, this can be performed by reading an original image drawn by a designer with a scanner and using it as an image file, or by using an image already registered as an image file.

Next, a mask image is created (step S).
3). This mask image may be one, but it is desirable to create a plurality of mask images. The size and shape of the mask image can be arbitrarily determined. Then, a blend value α (0 ≦ α ≦ 1) is set at each position inside the mask image. What blend value is set at which position in the mask image is arbitrary. Therefore, the mask image is a multi-valued image.
In addition, a representative point is determined for each mask image. The representative point may be obtained by calculating the center of gravity of the mask image and using the position of the center of gravity as the representative point, or may be manually determined arbitrarily by an operator.

Next, a material image from which a picture is to be cut is selected (step S4). If there is only one material image, that material image is automatically selected. If there are a plurality of material images, any one of the material images is selected using random numbers. Since a method of selecting one from among several using random numbers is well known, detailed description is omitted.

Next, a mask image for cutting out a picture from the material image selected in step S4 is selected (step S5). If there is only one mask image, that mask image is automatically selected. If there is more than one mask image, any one of the mask images is selected using random numbers.

Next, rotation and scaling are performed on the mask image selected in step S5 (step S6). As a technique for this, for the rotation, an appropriate number of rotation angles are determined in advance within the range of 0 ° to 360 °, and one rotation angle is randomly selected from these rotation angles by a random number. Then, the mask image may be rotated by the selected rotation angle. The same applies to scaling. For example, an appropriate number of scaling factors are determined in advance, one of the scaling factors is randomly selected by a random number, and the selected scaling factor is used for masking. The image may be scaled. 50% to 150 for magnification
%. It is needless to say that appropriate deformation processing may be performed in addition to rotation and magnification.

Next, from the material image selected in step S4, a picture is cut out using a mask image selected in step S5 and subjected to at least rotation and scaling processing in step S6 (step S7). In this process, a cut-out point is randomly determined in the material image by a random number, and the cut-out point is made to match the representative point of the mask image obtained as a result of the processing in step S6. When the image is completely included in the material image, this is performed by cutting out the pattern of the material image using the outline of the mask image. For example, the cutout points P randomly determined in the material image are as shown in FIG. 2A, and the mask image obtained as a result of step S6 and its representative point Q are as shown in FIG. 2B. When the cut-out point P of the material image and the representative point Q of the mask image are matched, FIG.
As shown in (c), an area included in the mask image of the material image in this state is cut out. In FIGS. 2B and 2C, the mask image is simply shown as a rectangle for convenience. However, when the cut-out point P of the material image matches the representative point Q of the mask image, and the mask image protrudes from the material image as shown in FIG. The process of selecting the cut-out point of the material image is repeated until the mask image is completely included in the material image in a state where the representative points are matched.

Next, the picture cut out in step S7 is allocated to the created image (step S8). This process is as follows.

First, using a random number, an allocation point is randomly determined in the created image, and the allocation point is made to match the representative point of the cut out pattern, that is, the representative point of the mask image used for the pattern cut out. The cut out pattern is assigned. At this time, the pattern of the created image and the pattern to be newly assigned this time are subjected to watermark synthesis. In this watermark synthesis, the blend value α set in the mask image is used. For example, in the state where the allocation point of the created image and the representative point of the pattern cut out in step S7 are matched with each other, when attention is paid to a certain position where both are overlapped, it is used for cutting out the pattern at that position. The blend value of the mask image that has been set is α ₀ (0 ≦ α ₀ ≦ 1), the color value at the position of the created image is (R _U , G _U , B _U ). color value of the position (R _T, G _T, B
_T ), a new color value (R, G, B) is determined by the following equation, for example. _{R = α 0 · R T +} (1-α 0) · R U G = α 0 · G T + (1-α 0) · G U B = α 0 · B T + (1-α 0) · B _U

The above processing is performed for all positions of the picture to be assigned this time. This makes it possible to perform watermark synthesis of the pattern of the created image and the pattern to be assigned this time.

In this way, the picture cut out from the material image is assigned to the created picture. In the peripheral part of the created picture, the assigned picture may protrude from the created picture. At this time, the protruding image part is
The image is sent to the side opposite to the side where the image protrudes.

Specifically, it is as follows. For example, FIG.
FIG. 3 (b) shows the allocation points of the material images indicated by R in FIG.
It is assumed that when the pattern shown in FIG. 3 is pasted, a part of the pattern protrudes from the created image as shown in FIG. In the drawing, Q indicates the representative point of the pattern to be assigned this time, and A
Indicates a picture portion that protrudes from the created image. At this time, as shown in FIG. 3D, the protruding pattern portion A is sent to the opposite side of the created image. Thereafter, the watermark synthesis is performed as described above. As a result, when the created images are connected side by side without any gaps, the patterns are not connected at the connection portion, and the step does not occur. In other words, this allows the created image to be an endless image.
FIG. 3 illustrates the case where the pattern to be assigned this time protrudes in the horizontal direction, but the same applies to the case where the pattern protrudes in the vertical direction. Hereinafter, connecting the created images side by side in the horizontal direction without any gap will be referred to as repeat.

The above processing is repeated a desired number of times.
As a result, it is possible to obtain an image in which the patterns cut out from the material image are allocated in various forms.

After that, this image is repeated a suitable number of times in the horizontal and vertical directions to obtain a printing plate size, and a printing plate is created and printed based on the repeated image.
Wallpaper and the like will be obtained.

The embodiment of the image layout method according to the present invention has been described above, but such an image layout method can be realized by a configuration using a personal computer or a workstation. FIG. 4 shows a configuration example of the image layout apparatus.

In FIG. 4, reference numeral 1 denotes a personal computer (PC) or a workstation. Here, a PC is used. The PC 1 includes a control device 2, an input device 3, and a monitor 4. The control device 2 includes a processing unit and peripheral devices such as a large-capacity storage device and a floppy disk drive (none of which are shown). The control device 2 is loaded with a program for performing various processes in the above-described image layout method. The input device 3 includes a keyboard, a mouse, and the like. The monitor 4 is constituted by a color display device such as a color CRT, and constitutes a man-machine interface together with the input device 3.

This apparatus is composed of a scanner 5 and an output unit 6
It has. The output device 6 may be a device for creating a printing plate, a color printer, or the like.

In this configuration, the initial setting in step S1 in FIG. Step S
In capturing the material image 2, the original image drawn by the designer is read by the scanner 5 and temporarily stored as digital image data in a storage device in the control device 2, or an image file already registered in the storage device is read. It may be used.

The creation of a mask image in step S3 may be performed by an operator operating the input device 3 to create a desired mask image.

Next, the processing of steps S4 to S8 is performed. This can be achieved by sequentially starting the programs for performing the processing of steps S4 to S8 by the input device 3. As a result, a created image is obtained.

When the created image is obtained, the created image is repeated to create a printing plate size image. This can be performed by using a program for performing image repeat processing. Then, the printing plate size image obtained by the repeat can be stored in the storage device, and can be given to the output device 6 to create a printing plate or to print out.

As described above, according to the image layout method and the image layout apparatus according to the present invention, it is possible to automatically create an image having variations from a material image, for example, when giving a presentation to a customer. In the above, it is possible to provide a variety of samples. In addition, since the processing is automatically performed except for the initial setting, the fetching of the material image, and the creation of the mask image, the burden on the operator can be greatly reduced.

The embodiments of the present invention have been described above. However, it is obvious to those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and that various modifications are possible.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of steps of an image layout method according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a process in step S7 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a process when a picture to be newly assigned protrudes from a created image in a process of step S8 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an embodiment of an image layout device according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1. Personal computer (PC) 2. Control device
3 input device, 4 monitor, 5 scanner, 6 output machine.

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Claims (4)

[Claims] A first step of selecting a material image; a second step of selecting a mask image and performing at least rotation and scaling processing; and a cutout point on the material image selected in the first step. A third step of cutting out the pattern of the material image with the outline of the mask image in a state where the representative points defined in the mask image obtained as a result of the processing of the second step are matched with each other; The allocation point is set to the third point.
A fourth step of matching and assigning the representative points of the picture cut out in the step (b). 2. A blend value is set at each position of the mask image. When allocating the picture cut out in the fourth step to the creation image, the picture of the creation image and the picture to be newly assigned this time are assigned. 2. The image layout method according to claim 1, wherein watermark synthesis is performed. 3. A first means for selecting a material image, a second means for selecting a mask image and performing at least rotation and scaling processing, and a cut-out point for the material image selected by the first means. ,
A third means for cutting out a pattern of a material image with a contour of the mask image in a state where the representative point defined in the mask image obtained as a result of the processing of the second means is matched; And assign the third
And a fourth means for matching and assigning the representative points of the picture cut out by the means. 4. A blend value is set at each position of the mask image, and when allocating a picture cut out by the fourth means to a created image,
4. The image layout apparatus according to claim 3, wherein a watermark is combined with a picture to be newly assigned this time.