JP2000218907A - Printing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent low-quality images having deteriorated picture quality from being printed. SOLUTION: A system controller 111 built in a printing apparatus reads images to be printed from a memory card 201 and decides whether the picture quality of the images is good or no-good. With a function for deciding picture quality provided for a printer itself, the decision for deciding whether the picture quality is good or no-good can be made in a way suitable to kind and capacity of the printer concerned. This picture quality deciding process is made by analyzing density distribution in a thumbnail image corresponding to an image to be printed, and an image that is insufficient in gradation expansion is decided to be a low-quality image; namely an image for which sufficient printing output cannot be obtained. In the case of low-quality image, the system controller 111 interrupts printing for such image, or makes warning, indicating a notification of low-quality image, and makes an inquiry at a user about whether the low-quality image should be printed or not.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer device, and more particularly to a printer device for printing out an image photographed by an electronic camera or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, various digital printers for printing out images taken by an electronic camera or the like have been developed. In this type of printer, printing can be easily performed only by inputting an image to be printed to the printer via a memory card or the like.

[0003] As a printing method, a sublimation type method in which three colors of YMC are superimposed and a photosensitive type method using a photosensitive film as printing paper are used to realize high quality printing similar to a photograph. And the print resolution is set very high. For this reason, although a relatively long time is required for the print processing, a print having the same photographic quality as a silver halide camera can be easily realized at home.

[0004]

However, in a conventional printer, all images are usually printed out regardless of the quality of the image. For this reason, for example, an image having a low image quality such as an image for which photographing has failed is printed at the same high resolution as a normal image, and the printing paper is wastefully used. Wasted time wasted.

[0005] In addition, although it is common practice to print after confirming the image on the monitor, it is difficult to appropriately determine the quality of the image by such visual judgment. Usually, the image quality required to obtain a sufficient print output differs depending on the type and performance of the printer used, and it is actually difficult for a person to visually judge the image quality in consideration of such a difference. Because.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and enables the printer apparatus to automatically determine the image quality of an image to be printed, so that print paper is wasted or the image quality is poor. An object of the present invention is to provide a printer device capable of preventing a situation in which useless time is consumed for image printing processing.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a printer apparatus according to the present invention comprises an image quality judging means for judging the quality of an image to be printed and an image quality judging means. A control unit for stopping printing of the image when the image quality is determined to be poor.

In this printer apparatus, the quality of image quality is automatically determined, and an image of sufficient image quality that can be printed is printed as it is, but the printing of an image of poor quality is automatically stopped. . Therefore, it is possible to prevent a situation in which the print paper is wasted or a waste of time is spent for the print processing of an image having a low image quality. Even when various images having different conditions are mixed, it is possible to efficiently print only images having good image quality. Further, in particular, since the image quality determining means for judging the image quality is provided in the printer device itself, the image quality can be determined in a form suitable for the type or performance of the printer device. It is possible to accurately determine whether or not the image has an image quality necessary for obtaining a sufficient print output.

Further, when the image quality determining means determines that the image quality of the image is poor, a warning may be issued instead of or in addition to stopping the printing of the image at that time. Thus, it is possible to prevent the printer from being erroneously recognized as being out of order.

When the above-mentioned warning means is provided,
It is preferable to further provide a selection unit for selecting whether to print the image for which the warning has been issued. As a result, the final decision as to whether or not to print can be left to the printer operator, so that it is possible to flexibly respond to the intention of the printer operator.

As the above-mentioned image quality discriminating means, for example, means for analyzing an image and examining the degree of shading distribution of the image can be used. In addition, it is preferable that the determination of the quality of the image quality by the image quality determination means is performed based on the thumbnail image corresponding to the image to be printed.
As a result, the quality of the image can be determined at a high speed.

Further, by further providing recording means for recording information on the image quality determined by the image quality determining means for each image, when the same image is printed again,
Image quality determination can be omitted. Information on the image quality can be recorded in, for example, a header portion of the image file.

Further, in order to display on the screen an image determined to be of poor image quality by the image quality determining means, it is preferable to further include image signal output means for outputting a display image signal corresponding to the image. This allows the printer operator himself to visually check the image determined to be of poor image quality, especially when leaving the final decision on whether to print to the printer operator. Is valid.

For an image determined to be of poor image quality by the image quality determining means, the image may be printed out with information indicating that fact. As a result, even when a plurality of images are continuously printed, it is possible to easily distinguish images having poor image quality from images not having such image quality after print output.

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the appearance of a printer device according to an embodiment of the present invention. The printer device 11 reads an image from a memory card which is a recording medium for recording an image captured by an electronic camera or the like, and prints the image using a print mechanism built in the printer device 11. It is a video printer. The printer device 11 is provided with a function for automatically judging the quality of the image to be printed, and performs processing such as stopping printing or displaying a warning according to the image quality judgment result. It can be carried out.

As shown, a memory card slot 12, a print discharge unit 13,
LCD panel 14, print mode changeover switch 1
5, print frame designation buttons 16 and 17 and a print button 18 are provided.

The memory card slot 12 is for removably mounting a memory card which can be used by being mounted on an electronic camera. As the memory card, for example, a storage medium of the SSFDC standard or the like is used. When the memory card is inserted into the memory card slot 12, the image quality of the image recorded on the memory card is automatically determined, and a process according to the determination result is executed.

The print discharge section 13 is for discharging print paper, and the print paper on which an image is printed is automatically discharged from the print discharge section 13. The liquid crystal display panel 14 is used to display a frame number of an image to be printed and a print mode. When it is determined that the image quality of the image to be printed is poor, it is also used for a warning display for notifying the user of the fact.

As the print mode, three modes of "one-frame print mode", "index print mode" and "all-frame print mode" are prepared.
These three print modes can be sequentially switched by operating the print mode switch 15.

The "single-frame print mode" is a mode in which images to be printed are selected and printed one by one from a plurality of images recorded on a memory card. The image to be printed can be selected by operating the print frame designation buttons 16 and 17. When the print frame designation button 16 is pressed, the frame number (selected frame number) of the image to be printed becomes 1
When the print frame designation button 17 is pressed, the selected frame number increases by one.

The "index print mode" is a mode in which reduced images (index images) corresponding to a plurality of images recorded on a memory card are arranged and printed on one print sheet. Normally, 16 frames can be printed per print sheet.

The "all frame print mode" is a mode in which all the images recorded on the memory card are continuously printed one by one.

The housing of the printer device 11 has a TV set.
An interface for displaying images on an external monitor 21 is also provided. As a result, an image to be printed can be displayed on the monitor 21 for confirmation, or an image determined to have poor image quality can be actually displayed on the monitor 21 for viewing.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration inside the printer device 11.

As shown, the printer device 11 includes a system controller 111, a memory card interface (I / F) 112, an image decompression circuit 113, and a RAM 11
4, ROM 115, liquid crystal display panel control unit 116, operation unit 117, video output interface (I / F) 11
8 is provided.

The system controller 111 is a CPU for controlling the entire functions of the printer device 11, and is realized using a one-chip microcomputer or the like. The system controller 111 has a function of judging quality of image quality and variously changing a subsequent processing mode according to the judgment result.

For example, in the "single-frame print mode", if it is determined that the image to be printed is a low-quality image with poor image quality, the printing of the image to be printed is stopped, a warning is displayed, and the like. . In the “index print mode”, instead of printing a reduced image corresponding to a low-quality image with poor image quality, an index image prepared for warning display prepared in advance is index-printed together with index images of other images. For example, a process is performed in which an index image corresponding to an image with poor image quality is not printed, and a subsequent index image is packed and index printed.

In the "all-frame print mode", printing of a low-quality image having poor image quality is stopped.
Processing such as index printing of only the low-quality images at a later time, or combining and printing a low-quality image with a warning image indicating poor image quality is performed.

The quality judgment of the image quality by the system controller 111 is performed by analyzing the thumbnail image corresponding to the print target image in order to speed up the judgment process. In this image analysis, a histogram (RGB) of the thumbnail image is obtained, and the quality distribution of the image is examined based on the histogram to determine the quality of the image quality. The principle of the image quality determination processing will be described later with reference to FIG.

Memory card interface (I / F)
Reference numeral 112 denotes a memory card 2 set in the card slot 12 of FIG.
01 is an interface for accessing the memory card 201, and image data recorded on the memory card 201 is read out from the memory card interface (I / F) 1
12 is performed.

The image decompression circuit 113 is connected to the memory card 20
1 is a circuit for expanding digital image data recorded in a compression format such as JPEG. When printing out, the main image data read from the memory card 201 is subjected to expansion processing by the image expansion circuit 113. When it is determined whether the image quality of the image to be printed is good or not, the main image data corresponding to the image to be printed is determined. Thumbnail image data is read from the memory card 201 and is subjected to expansion processing by the image expansion circuit 113. The image expanded by the image expansion circuit 113 is stored in the RAM 114.

In the ROM 115, an image for warning display prepared in advance is recorded. The image for this warning display is
As described above, in the "index print mode" and the "all-frame print mode", the image is used when it is determined that the image to be printed is of low image quality. The warning display image includes a warning index image used in the index print mode and a warning character image used in the all-frame print mode.

The liquid crystal display panel control section 116 controls the driving of the liquid crystal display panel 14 under the control of the system controller 111. The operation unit 117 corresponds to FIG.
The print mode changeover switch 15, the print frame designation buttons 16 and 17, and the print button 18 described above are collectively shown, and are used to notify the system controller 111 of various operation instructions from the user.

Video output interface (I / F) 1
Reference numeral 18 is provided for connecting the monitor 21 to the printer device 11. An image to be displayed on the monitor 21 is converted into a monitor display image signal (video signal) by a video output interface (I / F) 118. The data is output to the monitor 21.

The printer 11 includes a head drive circuit 119, an optical head 120, a drive control unit 121, a drive unit 122, a transport roller 123, and a paper cartridge 124 as units for realizing a printer mechanism. Is provided. This printer mechanism is a so-called photosensitive printing mechanism.

The paper cartridge 124 contains a large number of print papers utilizing a photosensitive film.
Print paper is fed from the paper cartridge 124. The optical head 120 includes three optical heads corresponding to R, G, and B lights. By controlling the driving of the optical head 120 by the head driving circuit 119, the printing paper is exposed by the respective lights of R, G, and B, whereby a color image is formed on the printing paper. The print paper is transported by the drive control unit 121, the drive unit 122, and the transport rollers 123 in conjunction with the image forming operation by the optical head 120.

(File Structure of Image Data) FIG.
An example of a file structure of image data recorded on the memory card 201 is shown.

As shown, each image data file includes a file header section, thumbnail image data, and main image data. The thumbnail image data is reduced image data used for displaying an overview of the main image data at a high speed, and is created in the electronic camera when the main image data is recorded on the memory card 201 as an image file. Both the thumbnail image data and the main image data are compressed in a compression format such as JPEG.

The file header section holds various kinds of information relating to the corresponding image file. The file header section contains information such as a file name, a file size, a compression format, a pixel size of main image data, and a panorama / image data. It includes shooting mode information indicating whether or not the image is a continuously shot image, frame number information indicating the number of the image within the same panorama / continuously shot image, and the like. Further, in the present embodiment, for an image for which the image quality is once determined to be good or bad, image quality check information indicating the image quality is written in the file header portion. When the same image is printed again, by referring to the image quality check information, it is possible to immediately determine the quality of the image without actually performing the image quality determination process.

(Principle of Image Quality Judgment Processing) Next, with reference to FIG. 4, a principle of quality judgment of image quality will be described.

As described above, the quality of the image is determined by examining the degree of the density distribution of the image to be determined. Specifically, a histogram (RGB) of the thumbnail image is obtained, and the brightest portion (maximum value) and the darkest portion (minimum value) of the image are detected from the histogram. By comparing the maximum value and the minimum value with the predetermined reference minimum value and the predetermined reference maximum value, the gradation distribution can be adjusted to obtain a good print output by the printer device 11 of the present embodiment. It is checked whether or not it has spread to an appropriate range as needed.

Here, the reference minimum value and the reference maximum value are determined according to the printing performance of the printer device 11 of the present embodiment, and the reference minimum value is the maximum value of the brightest portion of the image. The lower limit is defined, and the reference maximum value defines the upper limit that the minimum value, which is the darkest part of the image, must satisfy.

An image that satisfies the conditions of maximum value> reference minimum value and minimum value <reference maximum value is determined to have good image quality, that is, an image quality that enables the printer device 11 to obtain a good print output. .

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 4A, if the image is a normal image having gradation characteristics properly distributed between 0 and 255 (in the case of 8-bit data for each of RGB),
It is determined that the image quality is good.

On the other hand, an image biased toward a dark portion as shown in FIG. 4B or an image biased toward a bright portion as shown in FIG. It is determined that the image cannot obtain a proper print output.

Next, a series of operations executed by the printer device 11 of this embodiment will be described for each print mode.

(Single Frame Print Mode: Part 1)
The first operation in the “single-frame print mode” will be described with reference to the flowchart in FIG.

When the print button 18 is pressed while the "single-frame print mode" is selected, the system controller 111 executes the following one-frame print mode processing.

That is, first, the system controller 1
The step 11 checks the selected frame number designated by the print frame designation buttons 16 and 17 (step S11). Next, the system controller 111 reads the file header of the image file specified by the selected frame number from the memory card 201 (step S12), and the image has already been subjected to image quality determination processing based on the presence / absence of image quality check information in the file header. Is determined (step S
13).

If there is no image quality check information,
It is determined that the image has not been subjected to image quality determination (NO in step S13). In this case, the system controller 111 first reads out the thumbnail image data (step S14), decompresses it using the image decompression circuit 113, and stores it in the RAM 114 (step S1).
5, S16). After this, the system controller 111
Reads out the decompressed thumbnail image data from the RAM 114 (step S17) and executes an image quality determination process (step S18). This image quality determination processing is performed according to the procedure shown in FIG.

That is, in the image quality determination processing, as described above, a histogram of thumbnail image data corresponding to the image to be printed is created (step S31), and the brightest portion (maximum value) and the darkest portion (minimum value) of the image are created. )
Is checked (step S32). Then, it is determined whether or not the conditions of maximum value> reference minimum value and minimum value <reference maximum value are satisfied (steps S33, S34). If the conditions are satisfied, the image has a good image quality (image quality OK). Is determined, and if not satisfied, an image of poor image quality (image quality NG)
Is determined.

Information (image quality OK or image quality NG) relating to the image quality obtained in this image quality determination processing (step S18)
Is written as image quality check information in the file header (step S19).

In step S13 of FIG. 5, if the image is determined to have already been subjected to image quality determination, the process proceeds to step S14.
Steps S19 to S19 are omitted.

Next, the system controller 111
Based on the image quality check information already written in the file header or the result of the image quality determination processing in step S18, it is determined whether or not the image to be printed is an image with good image quality (step S20). If the image has a good image quality (YES in step S20), the system controller 111 executes the following process to print out the main image data. That is, the system controller 111 reads the main image data (step S2).
1) After being expanded using the image expansion circuit 113, it is stored in the RAM 114 (steps S22 and S23).
Then, the system controller 111 executes printing of the main image data by using the printer mechanism (step S24).

On the other hand, if the image is of poor quality (NO in step S20), the system controller 111 stops the print output process of the main image data and notifies the operator that the image is of poor quality. After the warning is displayed on the liquid crystal display panel 14 (step S25), the one-frame print mode process ends.

As described above, since the printing process is automatically stopped for an image having a low image quality, the printing paper is wasted, or a waste of time is spent for the printing process of the image having the low image quality. Such a situation can be prevented beforehand.

(Single Frame Print Mode: Part 2)
The second operation in the “single-frame print mode” will be described with reference to the flowchart in FIG.

In this example, instead of immediately stopping printing when the image quality of the image to be printed specified by the selected frame number is poor, the printer operator (user) decides whether or not to perform printing. ). That is, in FIG. 7, step S11 in FIG.
In addition to the processing of steps S25 to S25, the processing of step S26 is added.

In the warning display of step S25, the system controller 111 displays a message such as “NG image quality. Press the print button for printing” on the liquid crystal display panel 119, and asks the user whether or not to print. Prompt for a choice. When the print button 18 is pressed by the user, the system controller 1
11 judges that printing is permitted (step S2).
6 (YES), print processing is executed (step S2)
4). In this case, the processes of steps S21 to S24 are actually performed as in the case where it is determined that the image quality is good.

Of course, the quality of the image may be checked after the expansion of the main image data, and the expansion of the main image data may be executed in advance. In this way, when printing is selected in step S26, printing can be started immediately.

When it is determined that the image to be printed is a low-quality image having poor image quality, the image may be displayed on the monitor 21 so that the user can confirm the image. In this case, for example, instead of or in addition to the warning process of step S25, a process of displaying an image to be printed determined to have poor image quality on the monitor 21 through the video output interface 118 may be executed. As a result, the user can select whether or not to print after actually confirming the image with his own eyes.

(Index Print Mode) Next, the operation in the "index print mode" will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

When the print button 18 is pressed while the "index print mode" is selected, the system controller 111 executes the following index print mode processing.

That is, first, the system controller 1
Reference numeral 11 denotes a counter which indicates a frame number of an image for which an index image for index print is to be created, is initialized to an initial value (=
After clearing to 1) (step S41), the file header of the corresponding frame is read from the memory card 201 (step S42), and whether or not the image has already been subjected to image quality determination processing is determined based on the presence or absence of image quality check information of the file header. Is determined (step S43).

If there is no image quality check information,
It is determined that the image has not been subjected to the image quality determination (NO in step S43). In this case, the system controller 111 executes a process of determining the quality of the image quality in the same procedure as in steps S14 to S19 in FIG.
44-S49). Steps S44 to S49 are omitted for an image for which image quality has already been determined.

Then, the system controller 111
After incrementing the counter by +1 (step S5
0), based on the image quality check information already written in the file header or the result of the image quality determination processing in step S48, it is determined whether or not the image for which an index image is to be created is an image of good image quality (step). S5
1). If the image has good image quality (Y in step S51)
ES), the system controller 111 executes the following processing to create an index image.

That is, the system controller 111
Reads out the main image data of the frame for which the index image is to be created (step S52), and transfers it to the image expansion circuit 11.
3 and then stored in the RAM 114 (step S
53, S54). Then, the system controller 111
Reads the main image data from the RAM 114 (step S55), and creates an index image for index printing by reducing the main image data (step S56). Here, the reason why the index image dedicated to the index print is created without using the thumbnail image data is to improve the print quality of the index print. That is, since the thumbnail image data is for display, the pixel size is too small for index print. Therefore, it is necessary to create a dedicated index image having a larger pixel size than the thumbnail image data. The index image thus created is stored in the RAM 114 (step S57).

On the other hand, if the image quality is low and the image quality is low (NO in step S51), the system controller 111
Does not execute the processing for creating an index image from the main image data (steps S52 to S57), but instead reads the warning index image from the ROM 115 (step S58) and stores it in the RAM 114 (step S58). S59).

After that, the system controller 111
It is determined whether or not the processing necessary for one index print has been completed (step S60) until the processing required for one index print has been completed.
The processing from step 42 is repeatedly executed. Since 16 index images are printed at the maximum per index print, when the counter value becomes 17 or more, it is determined that the processing necessary for one index print has been completed. Further, even if the counter value is 16 or less, when the processing for all the frames of the memory card 201 has been completed, it is determined that the processing necessary for one index print has been completed at that time.

When the processing necessary for one index print is completed, the system controller 111
Using the index image on M114 or the index image for warning, execution of index printing is started (step S61). When the execution of one index print is completed, the system controller 111
It is checked whether or not unprinted frames remain in the memory card 201 (step S62).
In order to perform the index print of the next page, the processing from step S41 is executed again.

FIG. 9 shows an example of a print result obtained by the index print processing. Here, frame numbers 4 and 1
This shows a case where three images 1 and 16 are determined to be low-quality frames with poor image quality, and the images of frame numbers 4, 11 and 16 are replaced with actual index images instead of actual index images.
As shown in the figure, a warning index image including an identification mark “x” is printed. The identification mark marked with “x” indicates that printing was stopped because the image of the corresponding frame is of low image quality, so other characters or symbols may be used as identification marks instead of the “x” mark. Needless to say, a warning index image may be printed.

As described above, since the index image for warning is stored in the ROM 115 in advance, the time required for creating it is not a problem. Therefore,
Compared to a case where useless processing such as creating an index image corresponding to a low-quality frame is performed, it is possible to print out an index image corresponding to another high-quality frame at high speed.

If it is determined in step S51 in FIG. 8 that the frame has a poor image quality, the frame is excluded from the targets of index printing, so that only the frames having the good image quality are sequentially displayed as shown in FIG. It can also be index printed. In FIG. 10, frame number 4,
It is assumed that three images 11 and 16 are determined to be low-quality frames having poor image quality. In such processing, when it is determined that the frame is of poor image quality, the printing of that frame is stopped, and the processing of the next frame is immediately performed without executing the processing of steps S58 and S59 in FIG. It can be realized by controlling to shift to.

(Index Print Mode: Continuous Shooting) Next, referring to the flowcharts of FIGS. 11 and 12,
The second operation in the “index print mode” will be described.

In this example, in the index print mode, if a frame having a poor image quality is included in some of the frames constituting the panoramic image or the continuously shot image, all the frames constituting the panoramic image or the continuously shot image are displayed. This is to stop printing.

Since each of the frames constituting the panoramic image or the continuous shot image was taken under the same shooting conditions, some of the frames constituting the panoramic image or the continuous shot image are low-quality frames having poor image quality. In some cases, the image quality of other frames is often poor. Even when the image quality of only some frames is poor and the image quality of the remaining frames is good, the image of the panoramic image or the continuous shot image as a whole is poor in consideration of the image at the time of synthesis. It is often an image. Therefore, if some frames constituting the panoramic image or the continuous shot image include a frame with poor image quality, the printing of all the frames constituting the panoramic image or the continuous shot image is stopped, so that useless printing is performed. Can be prevented.

The specific procedure will be described below with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. Since the processing procedure is the same for both the panoramic image and the continuous shot image, in this example, a process corresponding to a case where a low image quality frame is included in some frames constituting the continuous shot image is illustrated. I will explain.

That is, first, the system controller 1
Reference numeral 11 denotes a counter which indicates a frame number of an image for which an index image for index print is to be created, is initialized to an initial value (=
After clearing to 1) (step S71), the file header of the corresponding frame is read from the memory card 201 (step S72), and based on the shooting mode information in the file header, the frame constitutes a continuous shot image. It is determined whether or not the frame is a shooting frame (step S73).

If it is a normal photographing frame (step S73)
NO), the system controller 111 proceeds to step S
Based on the presence or absence of the image quality check information in the file header read out at 72, it is determined whether or not the image has already been subjected to image quality determination processing (step S74).

If there is no image quality check information,
It is determined that the image has not been subjected to the image quality determination (NO in step S74). In this case, the system controller 111 executes the process of determining the quality of the image in the same procedure as in steps S14 to S19 in FIG. 5 described above (steps S75 to S80). Steps S75 to S80 are performed for images for which image quality has already been determined.
Is omitted.

Then, the system controller 111
After incrementing the counter by +1 (step S8)
1) Based on the image quality check information already written in the file header or the result of the image quality determination processing in step S79, it is determined whether or not the image for which an index image is to be created is an image with good image quality (step). S8
2). If the image has good image quality (Y in step S82)
ES), the system controller 111 executes the following processing to create an index image.

That is, the system controller 111
Reads out the main image data of the frame for which the index image is to be created (step S83),
3 and then stored in the RAM 114 (step S
84, S85). Then, the system controller 111
Reads the main image data from the RAM 114 (step S86), and creates an index image for index printing by reducing the main image data (step S87). The index image thus created is stored in the RAM 114 (step S8).
8).

On the other hand, if the image has a poor image quality (NO in step S82), the system controller 111 creates an index image from the main image data so that only the frames with good image quality are sequentially packed and index-printed. The processing proceeds to the processing of the next frame without executing the processing (steps S83 to S88).

If the frame for which the index image is to be created is a continuously shot frame constituting a continuously shot image (YES in step S73), the system controller 111
Executes the continuous shooting frame processing (step S89). In the continuous shooting frame processing, first, the image quality of each of the continuous shooting frames constituting the continuous shooting image is checked. If even one frame has a poor image quality, printing of all the continuously shot frames constituting the continuous shot image is stopped, and only when the image quality of all the frames is good, an index image of each frame is created. . FIG. 12 shows the procedure of the continuous shooting frame processing.

That is, as shown in FIG.
The system controller 111 executes the image quality determination process using the thumbnail images of the continuously shot frames for which an index image is to be created, in the same procedure as in the case of a normal shot frame (steps S101 to S105). ,
The quality of the image is determined (step S106). If it is determined that the frame is of low quality with low image quality (step S
106) at this point, the continuous shooting frame processing is terminated,
The process returns to the main routine of the index print mode process of FIG.

On the other hand, if it is determined that the frame is of good quality (YES in step S106), the result of the determination is written in the corresponding file header (step S107), and the same continuous shot image is formed. It is determined whether or not the image quality determination has been completed for all the frames to be processed (step S1).
08). If not completed (N in step S108)
O) Step S101 for the remaining continuous shooting frames
Re-execute the process from. The continuous shooting frame processing is terminated when a low-quality continuous shooting frame with poor image quality is found, and the step is performed only when all the frames constituting the same continuous shooting image are determined to be of high quality. The index image creation processing of S109 to S116 is executed. In this index image creation process, a process of creating an index image from the main image data is repeatedly executed while incrementing the counter value until index images are created for all frames constituting the continuous shot image. When the creation of the index images of all the frames constituting the continuous shot images is completed (YE in step S116)
S), the continuous shooting frame processing ends, and the process returns to the main routine of FIG. In this case, the counter value is counted up by the number of frames constituting the continuously shot image.

Returning to the main routine of FIG. 11, the system controller 111 determines whether or not the processing necessary for one index print has been completed (step S).
90) The processing from step S72 is repeatedly executed until the processing necessary for one index print is completed. When processing necessary for one index print is completed, the system controller 111
Using the index image on 14 or the index image for warning, the execution of the index print is started (step S91). When the execution of one index print is completed, the system controller 111 checks whether or not unprinted frames remain in the memory card 201 (step S92). Is performed, the processing from step S71 is executed again.

In this example, when frames with poor image quality are included in the continuous shot images, printing of all the frames constituting the continuous shot images is stopped, and only the frames with good image quality are sequentially stopped. Although the index print is performed together, a warning index image as shown in FIG. 9 may be displayed at the print position of each of the frames constituting the continuous shot image.

(All Frame Print Mode: Part 1)
The first operation in the “all-frame print mode” will be described with reference to the flowchart in FIG.

When the print button 18 is pressed while the "all frame print mode" is selected, the system controller 111 executes the following all frame print mode processing.

That is, first, the system controller 1
11 reads the file header of the first image to be printed from the memory card 201 (step S12).
1) Based on the presence or absence of the image quality check information in the file header, it is determined whether or not the image has already been subjected to image quality determination processing (step S122). If there is no image quality check information, it is determined that the image has not been subjected to image quality determination (NO in step S122). In this case, the system controller 111 performs steps S14 to S14 in FIG.
An image quality determination process using the thumbnail image data is executed in the same procedure as in S19 (steps S123 to S12).
8). Steps S123 to S128 are omitted for an image for which it has been determined that the image quality has already been determined.

Next, the system controller 111 reads the main image data of the image to be printed (step S129), expands it by the image expansion circuit 113, and stores it in the RAM 114 (steps S130 and S13).
1). Thereafter, the system controller 111 determines whether or not the image to be printed is a high quality image based on the image quality check information already written in the file header or the result of the image quality determination processing in step S127. (Step S132).

If the image has good quality (step S1)
32 (YES), the system controller 111 executes printing of the main image data stored in the RAM 114 in step S131 (step S136).

On the other hand, if it is determined that the image quality is poor (step S132), the system controller 111
Reads the warning character image from the ROM 115 (step S133), combines it with the main image data in the RAM 114 (step S134), and
It is stored in the AM 114 (step S135). And
The printing of the composite image is executed (step S13).
6). FIG. 15 shows an example of this print image. FIG.
In, the background image indicated by diagonal lines is the main image data, and the rectangular area including the characters “This image is not suitable for printing” is a warning character image synthesized on the main image data. .

The processes of steps S121 to S137 are repeatedly executed until the printing of the images of all the frames on the memory card 201 is completed. As a result, the images of all the frames are sequentially printed and output. For images with poor image quality, a warning character image is added to the image, so even if multiple images are continuously printed in the all-frame print mode,
For example, it is possible to easily classify an image having poor image quality from an image having poor image quality.

(All-frame print mode: part 2)
The second operation in the “all-frame print mode” will be described with reference to the flowchart in FIG.

In this example, instead of adding a warning character image to an image determined to be of poor image quality and printing it, an index image corresponding to the image determined to be of poor image quality is created. Only the determined images are collectively index printed. By printing the reduced-quality image corresponding to each of the poor-quality images by index printing without printing the full-size images, print time and waste of printing paper can be reduced. In addition, since the image that has not been printed out in full size can be confirmed by the output of the index print, the image can be printed out in full size in a single frame mode or the like later, if necessary.

Hereinafter, a specific procedure will be described.

That is, in the flowchart of FIG.
Instead of the warning character image synthesizing process of steps S133 to S135 described in FIG. 13, step S151 is performed as a process for creating an index image from a low image quality image.
13 are provided, and after step S137 in FIG. 13, steps S154 and S155 are performed as a process for collectively index-printing low-quality images.
Has been added.

If it is determined that the image quality is poor (NO in step S132), the system controller 111
The main image data of the low-quality image is read from the RAM 114 (step S151), and an index image for index printing is created by reducing the main image data (step S152). This index image is stored in the RAM 114 and stored and held there (step S153).

If the image has a good image quality (step S1)
32 (YES), the system controller 111 executes printing of the main image data stored in the RAM 114 in step S131 (step S136).

In this way, among the images in the memory card 201, images of good image quality are continuously printed and output as they are, and low-quality images are not printed but the index images are stored in the RAM 114. . When the processing of all the frames in the memory card 201 is completed (YES in step S137), the system controller 111 determines whether or not there is an image determined to be a low quality image (step S154). (Yes in step S154), all the existing low-quality images are collectively index-printed using the index images stored in the RAM 114 (step S155). FIG. 16 shows an example of an output result of the index print of the low image quality image.

FIG. 16 shows three frames corresponding to frame numbers 4, 11, and 16 among frames held in the memory card 201.
This is an example in which one frame is determined to be a low image quality image. In this case, index images of three frames corresponding to these frame numbers 4, 11, and 16 are collectively index printed as shown in the figure.

(All Frame Print Mode: Part 3 (Continuous Shooting)) Next, a third operation in the "all frame print mode" will be described with reference to FIGS.

In this example, in the all-frame print mode,
If low-quality frames with low image quality are included in some frames constituting the panoramic image or the continuous shot image, printing of all the frames constituting the panoramic image or the continuous shot image is stopped. . As described in the operation of the index print mode, the panoramic image or the continuous shot image often has a failure in the entire image even if some frames constituting the panorama image or the continuous shot image are defective. Therefore, if some frames constituting the panoramic image or the continuous shot image include a frame with poor image quality, the printing of all the frames constituting the panoramic image or the continuous shot image is stopped, so that useless printing is performed. Can be prevented.

The specific procedure will be described below. Since the processing procedure is the same for both the panoramic image and the continuous shot image, in this example, a process corresponding to a case where a low image quality frame is included in some frames constituting the continuous shot image is illustrated. I will explain.

That is, first, the system controller 1
11 reads the file header of the first image to be printed from the memory card 201 (step S16).
1) Based on the shooting mode information in the file header, it is determined whether or not the frame is a continuously shot frame that forms a continuously shot image (step S162).

If it is a normal photographing frame (step S16)
(NO in 2), the system controller 111 determines whether or not the image has already been subjected to the image quality determination processing based on the presence or absence of the image quality check information in the file header read in step S161 (step S163).

If the image quality check information does not exist,
It is determined that the image has not been subjected to image quality determination (NO in step S163). In this case, the system controller 111 executes the process of determining the quality of the image in the same procedure as in steps S14 to S19 in FIG. 5 (steps S164 to S169). Steps S164 to S16 are performed for images for which it is determined that the image quality has already been determined.
Step 9 is omitted.

Then, the system controller 111
Based on the image quality check information already written in the file header or the result of the image quality determination processing in step S168, it is determined whether or not the image to be printed is an image with good image quality (step S170). If the image has a good image quality (YES in step S170), the system controller 111 executes the following process to print out the image to be printed.

That is, the system controller 111
Reads out the main image data of the frame to be printed (step S171), expands it by the image expansion circuit 113, and stores it in the RAM 114 (steps S172 and S172).
173). Then, the system controller 111 controls the print mechanism to print the main image data in the RAM 114 (step S174).

On the other hand, if the image quality is low and the image quality is low (NO in step S170), the system controller 111
Is a print process of the low-quality image (step S171) so that only frames with good image quality are continuously printed.
The process proceeds to the next frame without executing steps S174 to S174).

If the frame to be printed is a continuously shot frame constituting a continuously shot image (step S162)
YES), the system controller 111 executes continuous shooting frame processing (step S175). In the continuous shooting frame processing, first, the image quality of each of the continuous shooting frames constituting the continuous shooting image is checked. If at least one of the frames has poor image quality, printing of all continuously shot frames constituting the continuous shot image is stopped, and each frame is printed only when the image quality of all frames is good. FIG. 18 shows the procedure of the continuous shooting frame processing.

That is, the system controller 111
Performs the image quality determination process using the thumbnail images of the continuous shooting frames that are currently being printed, in the same procedure as in the case of normal shooting frames (steps S181 to S181).
185), to judge the quality of the image quality (step S18)
6). If it is determined that the frame is a low-quality frame having poor image quality (NO in step S186), the continuous shooting frame process is terminated at this point, and the process returns to the main routine of the all-frame print mode process in FIG.

On the other hand, if it is determined that the frame is of good image quality (YES in step S186), the result of the determination is written in the corresponding file header (step S187), and the same continuous shot image is formed. It is determined whether or not the image quality determination has been completed for all the frames to be processed (step S1).
88). If not completed (N in step S188)
O) Step S181 for the remaining continuous shooting frames
Re-execute the process from. The continuous shooting frame processing is terminated when a low-quality continuous shooting frame with poor image quality is found, and the step is performed only when all the frames constituting the same continuous shooting image are determined to be of high quality. The print processing of S189 to S192 is executed. In this printing process, the process of printing after decompressing the main image data is continuously performed for each of all the frames constituting the continuous shot image. When the printing process for all frames constituting the continuous shot image is completed (YES in step S193), the continuous shooting frame process is ended, and the process returns to the main routine in FIG.

Returning to the main routine of FIG. 17, the system controller 111 determines whether or not the processing for all the frames stored in the memory card 201 has been completed (step S176). If the processing has not been completed (NO in step S176), the processing from step S161 is repeatedly executed until the processing for all frames is completed.

The operation has been described above for each print mode. However, in the “index print mode” and the “all-frame print mode”, the same procedure as in the “single-frame print mode” is performed to finally obtain a low-quality frame. May be selected by the user as to whether or not to print. Also,
In the present embodiment, the image quality is determined by analyzing the grayscale distribution of the thumbnail image corresponding to the image to be printed, but the quality of the image is determined based on whether the pixel size of the image data to be printed is equal to or larger than a predetermined size. Can also be determined.

[0118]

As described above, according to the printer apparatus of the present invention, the printer apparatus itself is provided with an image quality judging means, and a process such as a print stop or a warning is performed in accordance with the judgment result, whereby the printing is performed. It is possible to prevent a situation in which the paper is wasted or a waste of time is spent for the print processing of an image having a low image quality. Further, since the image quality determining means for judging the image quality is provided in the printer device itself, the image quality can be determined in a form suitable for the type or performance of the printer device, and a sufficient print output can be obtained. Therefore, it is possible to accurately determine whether or not the image has the necessary image quality.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external view illustrating a configuration of a printer device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an exemplary block diagram showing the internal configuration of the printer of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an exemplary view showing an example of a file structure of image data used in the printer device of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an exemplary view for explaining the principle of image quality determination processing executed by the printer device of the embodiment.

FIG. 5 shows a first example of print processing in a “single-frame print mode” executed by the printer device of the embodiment.
5 is a flowchart showing an example of the above.

FIG. 6 is an exemplary flowchart illustrating the procedure of an image quality determination process executed by the printer device of the embodiment.

FIG. 7 shows a second example of the print processing in the “single-frame print mode” executed by the printer device of the embodiment.
5 is a flowchart showing an example of the above.

FIG. 8 is an exemplary flowchart illustrating a first example of print processing in an “index print mode” executed by the printer device of the embodiment.

FIG. 9 is an exemplary view showing a first example of print output of a low-quality image in an “index print mode” executed by the printer device of the embodiment.

FIG. 10 is an exemplary view showing a second example of print output of a low-quality image in an “index print mode” executed by the printer device of the embodiment.

FIG. 11 is an exemplary flowchart illustrating a second example of print processing in an “index print mode” executed by the printer device of the embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing a sequence of a continuous shooting frame process executed in the printing process of FIG. 11;

FIG. 13 is an exemplary flowchart illustrating a first example of print processing in “all-frame print mode” executed by the printer device of the embodiment.

FIG. 14 is an exemplary flowchart illustrating a second example of print processing in an “all-frame print mode” executed by the printer device of the embodiment.

FIG. 15 is an exemplary view showing a first example of print output of a low-quality image in an “all-frame print mode” executed by the printer device of the embodiment.

FIG. 16 is an exemplary view showing a second example of print output of a low-quality image in an “all-frame print mode” executed by the printer device of the embodiment.

FIG. 17 is an exemplary flowchart illustrating a third example of print processing in the “all-frame print mode” executed by the printer device of the embodiment.

FIG. 18 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of a continuous shooting frame process executed in the printing process of FIG. 11;

[Explanation of symbols]

11 printer device, 12 memory card slot, 1
3 Print ejector, 14 Liquid crystal display panel, 15 Print mode switch, 16, 17 Print frame designation button, 18 Print button, 111 System controller, 112 Memory card interface (I / F), 113 ... image decompression circuit, 114 ... RAM,
115 ... ROM, 116 ... Liquid crystal display panel controller, 11
7: operation unit, 118: video output interface (I
/ F), 119: head drive circuit, 120: optical head,
121: drive control unit, 122: drive unit, 123: transport roller, 124: paper cartridge.

Claims (7)

[Claims] An image quality discriminating means for judging quality of an image to be printed; and an image quality judging means for stopping the printing of the image when the image quality judging means judges that the image quality is poor. A printer device comprising: a control unit. 2. An image quality judging means for judging quality of an image to be printed, and a warning means for giving a predetermined warning when the image quality judging means judges that the image quality is poor. A printer device comprising: 3. An image quality determining means for determining quality of an image to be printed, and a warning means for giving a predetermined warning when the image quality determining means determines that the image quality is poor. A selection unit for selecting whether to print the image when a predetermined warning is issued by the warning unit. 4. The image quality determining unit determines the quality of an image to be printed based on a thumbnail image of the image to be printed. 4. The printer device according to 2, 3 or 4. 5. The printer device according to claim 1, further comprising a recording unit that records information on the image quality determined by the image quality determining unit for each image. 6. An image signal output means for outputting an image signal for display corresponding to the image judged to be of poor image quality by the image quality discriminating means on a screen. The printer device according to claim 1, 2 or 3. 7. An image for which an image quality is determined to be poor by the image quality determining means is added to information indicating the image quality, and the image is printed.
4. The printer device according to 2 or 3.