JP2001022674A - Method and device for transferring image - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method and a device for transferring image with which the image of a resolution corresponding to the empty capacity of a transfer destination storage means is transferred among images hierarchically structured with plural resolutions. SOLUTION: In this image transfer method, when transferring images hierarchically structured with plural resolutions and stored in a device (hard disk) 100 of a terminal 100 through a network 115 to a device (hard disk) 111 of a terminal 101, an application 102 detects the empty capacity of the hard disk 111, selects the resolution of an image to be transferred corresponding to the detected empty capacity and transfers the image data of the selected resolution through the network 115.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image transfer method and apparatus for transferring image data hierarchically structured at a plurality of resolutions via a network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, image data transfer (transmission / reception) via a network can be easily performed by anyone because of digitization of images and rapid spread of computer networks represented by the Internet. It is becoming. In particular, with the advent of network providers, opportunities for handling digital images on the Web are expected to increase in the future.

[0003] Netscape Communicator (Net)
scale (registered trademark) Communicator)
In applications that can easily handle digital information such as, for example, when handling high-resolution image information, devices that handle the image (network transfer speed, traffic,
Depending on the level of performance (processing speed of memory and CPU), it takes a lot of time to acquire the image. This can be easily imagined because if the resolution is twice as high as that of an image of the same size in a high-resolution image, the information is quadrupled in a simple consideration. At this time, the operator who handles the image desires to reduce loss of time for displaying the image.

Further, when transferring (transmitting / receiving) high-resolution and large-capacity image data, if there is not enough free space in a hard disk (HD) or a memory at a transmission destination or a reception source, the data is transferred as it is. Not only can image data be transmitted and received intact, but it can also affect the execution results of other applications running on devices that are transmitting and receiving. For example, when transferring an image to another hard disk via a network, if the image is transferred beyond the free space of the transfer destination hard disk, the hard disk overflows and the OS of the workstation runs on another application. The task may be forcibly stopped.

[0005]

In such a case, if the amount of image data can be reduced in accordance with the free space of the transfer destination hard disk, the operator can handle digital data for other applications and the like. The processing can be executed with less time burden. It goes without saying that the data amount (resolution) of the image does not have to be perfect.

Further, when transferring image data, if the image data amount is simply reduced to half (not the concept of compression) and transmitted / received, the structure of the image is lost, and the image is displayed correctly. Can not do.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problem, and is an image transfer method for transferring an image having a resolution corresponding to a free space of a transfer destination storage unit, among images hierarchically structured with a plurality of resolutions. It is an object to provide a method and an apparatus.

[0008]

To achieve the above object, the present invention relates to an image transfer method for transferring image data hierarchically structured at a plurality of resolutions via a network, comprising: An acquiring step of acquiring the free space, a specifying step of specifying the resolution of the hierarchically structured image data according to the free space obtained in the obtaining step, and image data of the resolution specified in the specifying step. And a transfer step of transferring via the network.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image transfer apparatus for transferring image data hierarchically structured with a plurality of resolutions via a network, the method comprising detecting a free space in a storage means of a transfer destination apparatus. Detecting means, a selecting means for selecting the resolution of the hierarchically structured image data according to the free space detected by the detecting means, and image data of the resolution selected by the selecting means via the network. Transfer means for transferring.

[0010]

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

First, before describing the present embodiment in detail,
The difference between the FlashPix image file format and the conventional image file format will be briefly described.

In a conventional image file format,
The image file is divided into a header section and an image data section.
In general, the header section stores information necessary for reading data from the image file and incidental information explaining the contents of the image. Typical examples include information such as an image format identifier indicating the image format name, file size, image width / height / depth, compression / non-compression, color palette information, resolution, and offset to the image data storage position. Is stored. The image data section is a section that stores image data sequentially. A typical format for such image files is Micros
Oft's BMP format and Compuserve's GIF format are widely used.

On the other hand, in the FlashPix image file format, the image attribute information and the image data stored in the header portion are further hierarchically stored in the image file. This hierarchically structured image file is shown in FIGS.

Each property or data in the file includes:
Access through storage and streams, equivalent to MS-DOS directories and files. 1 and 2, the shaded portion is the storage and the unshaded portion is the stream. Image data and image attribute information are stored in the stream portion. The image data is hierarchized at different resolutions, and the image of each resolution is called a Subimage and is indicated by Resolution0, 1,..., N. For each resolution image, the information needed to read that image is
ge Header and the image data are stored in Subimage data.

[0015] Property set
Attribute information is defined by classifying attribute information according to its purpose of use and content. Summary info. Property set, Image in
fo.Property set, Image contents Property set, Exte
There is an ntion list Property set.

[Description of each property set] Summary in
The fo. Property set is not specific to FlashPix,
A required property set in crosoft's structured storage, which stores the title, title, author, thumbnail image, etc. of the file.

The image contents property set is an attribute that describes a method of storing image data (FIG. 5). This attribute includes the number of layers of image data, the width and height of the image with the maximum resolution, the width, height, and color configuration of each resolution image, or the quantization table and Huffman table when JPEG compression is used. Write the definition.

The Image info. Property set stores various information that can be used when an image is used, for example, information on how the image is captured and how it can be used.・ Information on how to import or generate digital data (File Source) ・ Information on copyright (Intellectual property) ・ Information on the contents of images (persons, places, etc. in images) (Content description) ・ Camera used for shooting Information (Camera infroma
・ Information on camera settings (exposure, shutter speed, focal length, use of flash, etc.) at shooting (Per Picture settings) ・ Information on digital camera specific resolution and mosaic filter (Digital camera characterization) ・ Film manufacturer name , Product name, type (negative / positive, color / black and white), etc. (Film description) ・ Information on type and size when the original is a book or print (Original document scan description) ・ For scanned images, the scanner used The extension list property set is an area used when adding information that is not included in the above basic specifications of FlashPix.

FlashPix image view object r shown in FIG.
oot is an image file that stores together viewing parameters and image data used when displaying an image. The viewing parameters are the rotation of the image,
This is a set of processing coefficients stored in order to apply enlargement / reduction, movement, color conversion, and filtering processing when displaying an image.

Source (Result) FlashPix image object
Is the entity of FlashPix image data, and
Pix image object is required, Result FlashPix image obje
ct is optional. Source FlashPix image object
Stores the original image data, Result FlashPix
The image object stores the image resulting from image processing using the viewing parameters.

The Source (Result) desc. Property set is
The property set for identifying the image data stores an image ID, a property set for which change is prohibited, a last update date and time, and the like.

The Transform Property set includes rotation, enlargement /
Affine conversion coefficients for reduction and movement, color conversion matrices, contrast adjustment values, and filtering coefficients are stored.

[Explanation of Format Containing Multiple Resolution Images Divided into Tiles] Next, the handling of image data will be described.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of an image file composed of a plurality of images having different resolutions. In the figure, the image of the maximum resolution is composed of columns × rows of C × R, the next largest image is C / 2 × R / 2, and thereafter, the columns and rows are sequentially reduced by 1/2 for both columns and rows. Reduced to 6 for both columns and rows
Repeat until four pixels or less or equal.

As a result of the hierarchization as described above, header information and image data are required as the attribute information of the image, such as "the number of layers in one image file" and the image of each layer. Information on the number of layers in one image file, the width and height of the image with the maximum resolution, or the width, height, color configuration, compression method, etc. of the image with each resolution is described above.
This is described in the Image contents Property set (FIG. 5).

The image of each resolution layer is divided into 64 × 64 tiles as shown in FIG. When divided into 64 × 64 tiles sequentially from the upper left of the image,
Depending on the image, blanks may occur in some of the right and bottom tiles. In this case, 64 × 64 pixels are constructed by repeatedly inserting the rightmost image or the lowermost image.

In FlashPix, an image in each tile is stored by any of JPEG compression, single color, and non-compression. JPEG compression is ISO / IEC JTC
This is an image compression method internationally standardized by 1 / SC29, and the description of the method itself is omitted. The image data divided in this way is stored in the Subimage data stream, and the total number of tiles, the size of each tile, the starting position of data, and the compression method are all Subimage Header (FIG. 6).
Is stored in

The single color is a method of expressing the color of a tile in one color without recording the value of each pixel only when the above-mentioned one tile is all composed of the same color. . This method is particularly useful for images generated by computer graphics.

The above is a brief description of FlashPix.

In the present embodiment, as described above,
By taking advantage of the characteristics of FlashPix, which can have multiple resolutions for multi-valued images, various burdens imposed when transferring images are reduced.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the concept of the connection between the terminals and the software at the time of image transfer in the embodiment. In the figure, reference numerals 100 and 101 denote image transfer terminals, for example, a personal computer (PC) or a workstation (W) capable of handling the FlashPix format.
S). Note that the terminal 100 may be a digital camera that can handle the FlashPix format.

In this embodiment, a system for transferring an image in FlashPix format stored in the terminal 100 to the terminal 101 will be described as an example.

First, each block in the terminals 100 and 101 will be briefly described. Reference numerals 102 and 103 denote application software operating on the respective terminals. In this embodiment, the two applications 102 and 103
May be software that can handle FlashPix, or only the image transfer source application 102 may be able to handle FlashPix. The blocks with thick frames shown at 104 and 105
Basic software (Operating System) for operating each terminal shown in FIG. 106 and 107 are device drivers for controlling devices to be described later. The device driver is software for controlling image data while communicating data attributes (date, image size, etc.) such as free space in a hard disk (HD) with the HD.

Reference numerals 108 and 109 denote software for managing data transmission / reception via a device such as a network card described later. 110 and 111 are devices for storing images, for example, a hard disk (HD)
And so on. Reference numerals 112 and 113 are used to transmit and receive image data and protocol control signals in the devices 110 and 111 via a network. For example,
A network card or the like corresponds to this device. 11
Reference numeral 5 denotes a network to which two terminals 100 and 101 are connected to transmit and receive data. This network 115 is configured by cables such as RS-232C and Ethernet (registered trademark).

Now, consider a case where an image in the FlashPix format is stored in the HD 110 in the terminal 100, and multi-value data of this image is transferred to the terminal 101.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the image transfer processing according to the present embodiment. First, in step S101, a user application 1 that can handle FlashPix
02 selects an image specified by the user, and in step S102, specifies a transfer destination terminal to which the selected image is transferred. Here, the selection of the image is performed by application 1
02 or another dedicated application located above the driver 108.

However, when an application different from the application 102 is used, the application 1
It is necessary to select and save an image after checking the consistency (file format, attribute) and the like with No. 02 (not shown). In the method of designating the transfer destination terminal, for example, when the connection is made via Ethernet, an IP address of the transfer destination is set by a data transfer application, and the end of the transfer destination is specified (not shown).

Next, in step S103, the free capacity of the HD 111 of the transfer destination terminal 101 is checked. This HD
As a method of checking the free space of the file 111, for example, there is a method of requesting the transfer destination terminal 101 to disclose the file information and acquiring the free space.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a process for checking the free space in the HD of the transfer destination terminal. First, in step S201, the device 11 of the transfer destination terminal 101 is transmitted via the network 115 by a network protocol (not shown) controlled in the OS 104 in the terminal 100.
3. The transfer destination terminal 101 is confirmed with the OS 105. Then, in step S202, when the confirmation signal of the transfer destination terminal 101 is confirmed by the OS 104 in the terminal 100, similarly to step S201, the HD 111 is transmitted to the OS 105 via the device 113 in the transfer destination terminal 101 via the network 115. Request to disclose the file information stored in the.

Next, in step S203, if disclosure of the file information is permitted by the transfer destination terminal 101, the process proceeds to step S204, and the application 102 in the terminal 100 is instructed by the device driver 107 from the OS 105 in the transfer destination terminal 101. Terminal 101 disclosed by
Information indicating the free space of the HD 111 in the network 1
15 to get.

If the disclosing of the file information is not permitted by the transfer destination terminal 101 in step S203, the process proceeds to step S205, and the image transfer method according to the present embodiment cannot be used. Select the transfer capacity (resolution) and transfer the image. Here, the image format to be transferred is FlashPix
Format, or may be converted to another format and transferred.

When the free space of the storage device such as the HD of the transfer destination terminal is recognized by the above procedure, the process returns to step S104 shown in FIG.

Next, in step S104, the free capacity of the HD 111 obtained from the transfer destination terminal 101 is compared with the amount of image data in the FlashPix format to be transferred. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 1, the application 102 stores a FlashPix format image that has already been selected in the HD 110 via the OS 104: an image which is a stream in a FlashPix image object.
Acquires information about the size (width, height) and data amount of the image with the maximum resolution in the contents Property set. Then, the application 102 calculates the data amount of the image to be transferred from this information according to the following equation (1).

Data amount = width × height × bit width × color number (RGB) + header amount (1) At this time, if the following condition (2) is satisfied, the process proceeds to step S 105.

Free space ≧ the image capacity of the FlashPix format to be transferred (2) In step S105, the terminal 100 uses the device driver 106 in the OS 104 to change the entire resolution of the image specified in step S101 from the HD 110 into the device The driver 108 is the device 112, the network 11
5 to the HD 111 in the transfer destination terminal 101. Here, the image format to be transferred is FlashPix
It may be converted to another format (not shown).

If the above condition (2) is not satisfied, the flow advances to step S106 to select an image resolution falling within the capacity and transfer it to the destination terminal 101.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a process for transferring an image having a transferable resolution. First, step S
At 301, the application 102
The storage of the specified FlashPix format data in the FlashPix image object stream Image con
The information about the size (width, height) of each resolution stored in the tents Property set is fetched. Next, in step S302, the data amount of the image at the first (maximum resolution-1) resolution to be compared is calculated from the following equation (3).
It is calculated by:

The width of the resolution × the height of the resolution × the number of bits × the number of colors (RGB) ten header amounts (3) Then, in step S 303, the data amount of the image calculated at the current resolution is equal to the above-mentioned transfer destination terminal 101. HD1
It is determined whether it is less than the free space of No. 11 and if this condition is satisfied, the process proceeds to step S304, and the image is transferred to the transfer destination terminal 101 at the current resolution. Here, the transferred image is
The image may be in FlashPix format or may be in another format.

If the calculated data amount of the image does not satisfy the above condition, the process proceeds to step S305, and it is determined whether the current resolution is the lowest resolution. Here, if the resolution is not the lowest, the process proceeds to step S307, and the data amount of the image when the resolution is further reduced by one is calculated as in step S302. Then, the process returns to step S303, and the above processing is repeated.

As described above, it is assumed that the resolutions to be compared are sequentially reduced from the resolution of the maximum image to the lower resolution. First, the data amount at the resolution n−1, which is one resolution lower than the maximum resolution n, is calculated. It is determined whether the free space condition of the transfer destination terminal 101 is satisfied. Thereafter, for example, when the condition is satisfied when the resolution is the resolution n-3, the image data at the resolution n-3 is transferred.

In step S305, if the current resolution is the lowest resolution, the process proceeds to step S306, and since the image cannot be transferred, the application 102 cannot transfer the image because the operator has no free space in the transfer destination terminal 101. Is warned, and the image transfer process ends.

[Modification] Next, a modification of the above-described embodiment will be described. The block diagram showing the basic configuration is the same as that of the above-described embodiment, and the same (corresponding) parts will not be described repeatedly.

In this modification, the image data to be transferred and the HD of the transfer destination terminal 101 are opposite to the processing shown in FIG.
When comparing the free space of the 111, the comparison is performed from the minimum resolution.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing a modification of the process for transferring the image having the transferable resolution shown in FIG. First, in step S401, the application 102 stores information on the size (width, height) of each resolution stored in the storage of the designated FlashPix format data in the HD 110: the Image contents Property set which is a FlashPix image object stream. take in. Next, in step S402,
First, the data amount of the image at the minimum resolution to be compared is calculated by Expression (3), as in the above-described embodiment.

In step S403, the data amount of the image calculated at the current resolution is determined by the transfer destination terminal 1 described above.
It is determined whether the free space is less than the free space of the HD 111, and if this condition is satisfied, the process proceeds to step S404, and the image data at the current resolution + 1 is calculated in the same manner.
Then, the process returns to step S403, and the above processing is repeated. If the calculated image data amount does not satisfy the above condition, the process proceeds to step S405, and it is determined whether the current resolution is the minimum resolution. If the resolution is the lowest, the process proceeds to step S406, and the application 102 warns the operator that the image cannot be transferred because the transfer destination terminal 101 has no free space, and ends the image transfer process.

If the current resolution is not the lowest resolution in step S305, the flow advances to step S407 to reduce the resolution by one and transfer the image to the destination terminal 101.

As described above, in the modified example, the data amount is calculated by increasing the resolution one by one from the lowest resolution, and it is determined whether or not the free space condition of the transfer destination terminal 101 is satisfied. After that, for example, if the free space of the transfer destination terminal 101 is not satisfied when the resolution is the resolution n-3, the image data is transferred at the resolution n-4, one resolution lower than that.

As described above, according to the embodiment, since the image data can be transferred according to the storage capacity of the transfer destination terminal, the time required for transferring the digital image can be reduced, and the time loss of the operator can be reduced. Since the data could not be transferred, the trouble of dropping the data in the HD to another storage medium such as a DAT and then re-transferring the image can be omitted, which greatly contributes to the image transfer process.

Even if the present invention is applied to a system including a plurality of devices (for example, a host computer, an interface device, a reader, a printer, etc.), an apparatus (for example, a copier, a facsimile, etc.) comprising one device is used. Device).

Further, an object of the present invention is to supply a storage medium storing a program code of software for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or an apparatus, and a computer (CPU or MP) of the system or apparatus.
It goes without saying that U) can also be achieved by reading and executing the program code stored in the storage medium.

In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiment, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

As a storage medium for supplying the program code, for example, a floppy (registered trademark) disk,
Hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-
A ROM, a CD-R, a magnetic tape, a nonvolatile memory card, a ROM, and the like can be used.

When the computer executes the readout program code, not only the functions of the above-described embodiment are realized, but also the OS (Operating System) running on the computer based on the instruction of the program code. ) May perform some or all of the actual processing, and the processing may realize the functions of the above-described embodiments.

Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written into a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, based on the instruction of the program code, It goes without saying that the CPU included in the function expansion board or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing.

[0065]

As described above, according to the present invention,
By transferring an image having a resolution corresponding to the free space of the transfer destination storage unit among images hierarchically structured with a plurality of resolutions, efficient image transfer can be performed and convenience for the operator is improved. Can be done.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a hierarchically structured image file in a FlashPix format.

FIG. 2 is an image file that stores viewing parameters and image data used when displaying an image in FlashPix format.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of an image file composed of a plurality of images having different resolutions.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of block division in a FlashPix format.

[Figure 5] Image contents Pro in FlashPix format
perty set: a diagram showing attributes describing a method of storing image data.

[Figure 6] Subimage Header in FlashPix format
FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating (a total number of tiles, a size of each tile, a data start position, and a compression method are stored).

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating the concept of software and connection between terminals at the time of image transfer in the embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an image transfer process according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a process of checking a free space in an HD of a transfer destination terminal.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a process of transferring an image having a transferable resolution.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a modification of the process of transferring an image having a transferable resolution shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 100 terminal 101 terminal 102 user application B 103 user application A 104 operating system B 105 operating system A 106 driver B1 107 driver B2 108 driver A1 109 driver A2 110 device B1 111 device A2 112 device B2 113 device A2 115 network

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. An image transfer method for transferring image data hierarchically structured at a plurality of resolutions via a network, comprising: an obtaining step of obtaining a free space of a storage unit of a transfer destination apparatus; A specifying step of specifying a resolution of the hierarchically structured image data in accordance with a free space; anda transferring step of transferring the image data having the resolution specified in the specifying step via the network. Image transfer method to use. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the specifying step calculates a data amount of the image data hierarchically coded from the highest resolution, and specifies an optimum resolution by comparing the calculated amount with the free space. 2. The image transfer method according to 1. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the specifying step calculates a data amount of the image data hierarchically coded from the lowest resolution, and specifies an optimum resolution by comparing the calculated amount with the free space. 2. The image transfer method according to 1. 4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of stopping the transfer of the image data when the resolution of the image data to be transferred cannot be specified in the specifying step. 5. An image transfer apparatus for transferring image data having a hierarchical structure with a plurality of resolutions via a network, comprising: a detection unit for detecting a free space in a storage unit of a transfer destination device; Selecting means for selecting the resolution of the hierarchically structured image data according to available space; and transfer means for transferring the image data of the resolution selected by the selecting means via the network. Image transfer device. 6. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the selection unit calculates a data amount of the image data hierarchically encoded in a descending order of resolution, and selects an optimum resolution by comparing the calculated amount with the free space. 6. The image transfer device according to 5. 7. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the selection unit calculates a data amount of the image data hierarchically coded from the lowest resolution and selects an optimum resolution by comparing the calculated amount with the free space. 6. The image transfer device according to 5. 8. The image transfer apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising means for stopping transfer of the image data when the resolution of the image data to be transferred cannot be selected by the selection means. 9. A computer-readable storage medium storing a program code of an image transfer method for transferring image data hierarchically structured at a plurality of resolutions via a network, wherein a free space of storage means of a transfer destination device is stored. And a code for a specifying step for specifying the resolution of the hierarchically structured image data according to the obtained free space, and transferring the image data of the specified resolution via the network. A storage medium comprising: a code for a transfer step.