JP2001312729A - Image processor, image processing method and recording medium recorded with image processing program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image processor by which a specified pattern can be highly precisely detected at a high speed and whose configuration is simplified. SOLUTION: The image processor for detecting the specified pattern contained in an image has a partial image detecting means for detecting a partial image, which is contained in inputted image data, in one part of the specifies pattern by comparing a detection target contained in inputted image data. The partial image detecting means successively scans the image data for the unit of a two-dimensional filter in a prescribed size. When the position of the filter is moved in the case of acquiring data contained in the filter at each of position, concerning parts double contained in the filter, data at each of positions of the filter are prepared by utilizing already acquired data.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and an image processing method for detecting a specific pattern.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, in one of data processing performed in an image processing apparatus or a copying machine, acquired image data is stored in an image memory as binary data or multivalued data, and this data is stored in advance in the image memory. 2. Description of the Related Art There is known a pattern matching process for detecting a specific pattern included in an image, detecting a shape, or the like by comparing data of each pixel of a reference pattern stored in a memory.

[0003]

However, in recent years,
As an input device for performing scanning and an output device for outputting image data as a print print, for example, devices capable of processing image data having a large amount of information such as high-resolution data at a high speed are becoming widespread. In order to realize image data processing including pattern matching processing in real time in cooperation with these input / output devices, there is a problem in that the hardware configuration is considerably complicated. In order to solve this problem, there is a demand for a pattern detection processing system that can detect a specific pattern at high speed while maintaining its accuracy and has a simple configuration.

[0004] The present invention has been made in view of the above technical problems, and an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and an image processing method capable of detecting a specific pattern at high speed and high accuracy and having a simple configuration. It is an object to provide a recording medium for recording an image processing program.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image processing apparatus for detecting a specific pattern included in an image, wherein the part of the specific pattern included in the input image data is provided. Has a partial image detecting means for detecting the partial image is, the partial image detecting means,
When the image data is sequentially scanned in units of a two-dimensional filter of a predetermined size, and the data included in the filter is obtained at each position, when the position of the filter is moved, a portion included in the filter redundantly includes: It is characterized in that data at each position of the filter is created using already acquired data.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the partial image detecting means converts the two-dimensional pixel data constituting the data included in the filter at each position into one-dimensional pixel data. It is characterized by being stored in.

Further, the invention according to claim 3 of the present application is the invention according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the image processing apparatus further processes the input image data by the partial image detection processing means. And a low-resolution means for lowering the resolution.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image processing method for detecting a specific pattern included in an image.
A partial image detecting step of detecting a partial image that is a part of a specific pattern, the partial image detecting step sequentially scanning the image data in units of a two-dimensional filter of a predetermined size, and filtering the image data at each position. When the position of the filter is moved when obtaining the data included in the filter, for the portion included in the filter in duplicate, the data at each position of the filter is created using the already obtained data. It is characterized by.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon an image processing program for detecting a specific pattern contained in an image. A partial image detection step of detecting a partial image that is a part of a specific pattern included in the image data, and the partial image detection step converts the image data in units of a two-dimensional filter of a predetermined size. When sequentially scanning and acquiring the data included in the filter at each position, when the position of the filter is moved, for the portion included in the filter redundantly, the already acquired data is used for the filter. It is characterized in that data at each position is created.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments of an image processing apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. An object of the present invention is to provide an image processing apparatus capable of detecting a specific pattern included in an image with high accuracy and high speed and having a simple configuration. FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a configuration of an image processing apparatus (hereinafter, referred to as a “system”) according to the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, the system includes a central processing unit (hereinafter, referred to as a “CPU”), and is configured around a control device 1 that controls the entire system. As the CPU, for example, Pentium (registered trademark) manufactured by Intel Corporation is used. The control device 1 includes a display 2 for displaying images, characters, and the like, a display for operations, a keyboard 3 and a mouse 4 for performing various inputs and instruction operations, and a floppy disk as a data storage medium. (Registered trademark) disk device 5b and hard disk device 6, printer 7 for printing characters and image data, scanner 8 for capturing image data, CD
-CD for reading data stored in ROM 9a
A ROM device 9b and a speaker 10 for audio output
And a microphone 11 for voice input.

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of the present system.
The CPU 201 stores, via a data bus 220, a ROM 20 storing a program for controlling the system.
3 and a RAM 204 for temporarily storing programs and data executed by the CPU 201 for control. A circuit connected to the CPU 201 via the data bus 220 includes a display control circuit 205 for controlling the display 2 for displaying images, characters, and the like, and a keyboard control circuit 2 for controlling transfer of input from the keyboard 3.
06, a mouse control circuit 207 for controlling transfer of an input from the mouse 4, a floppy disk device control circuit 208 for controlling the floppy disk device 5b, and a hard disk device control circuit 20 for controlling the hard disk device 6.
9, a printer control circuit 210 for controlling output to the printer 7, and a scanner control circuit 21 for controlling the scanner 8.
1, a CD-ROM device control circuit 212 for controlling the CD-ROM device 9b, a speaker control circuit 213 for controlling the speaker 10, and a microphone control circuit 214 for controlling the microphone 11. Further, the CPU 201
Is connected to a clock 202 for generating a reference clock required for operating the system.
An expansion slot 215 for connecting various expansion boards is connected via a data bus 220. Note that a SCSI board may be connected to the expansion slot 215, and the floppy disk device 5b, the hard disk device 6, the scanner 8, the CD-ROM device 9b, or the like may be connected via the SCSI board.

In the above system, a floppy disk 5a and a hard disk device 6 are used as data storage media, but other information recording media such as a magneto-optical disk (MO) may be used. Although the scanner 8 is used as the image data input device, other data input devices such as a still video camera and a digital camera may be used. Further, although the printer 7 is used as an output device, another output device such as a digital copying machine may be used.
In the present system, a program for implementing a data management system is stored in the ROM 203. However, part or all of this program is stored in an information recording medium such as a floppy disk 5a, a hard disk device 6, or a CD-ROM 9a, and the program and data are read out from the information recording medium to the RAM 204 as necessary, and are read out. It may be executed.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a pattern detection process performed by the system having the above configuration. In this pattern detection processing, first, the color image data input via the image input unit is binarized with respect to the color of the specific pattern (S11). Next, in order to reduce the amount of data processing, the binary image data is converted to lower resolution image data.
(S12). Further, the entire low-resolution binary image data is sequentially scanned by a two-dimensional filter of a predetermined size (m × n pixel blocks) to detect elements in the image data (S13). Subsequently, the binary image data is scanned by a filter having a size that can accommodate a specific pattern, and the pattern is determined based on the arrangement of the detected elements (S14).
Then, the obtained pattern determination result is evaluated, and a score corresponding thereto is set (S15). Thus, the pattern detection processing ends.

Next, element detection processing (S13 in FIG. 3)
Will be described. In this element detection processing, the low-resolution binary image data is sequentially scanned in units of a two-dimensional filter of a predetermined size (m × n pixel blocks), and data acquired at each position of the filter is compared with a specific pattern. The pattern matching is performed by evaluating the reference image of the element that is a part of the reference image with respect to the matching rate. As will be described in detail below, in the present invention, when acquiring data at each position of the filter, when the filter is moved, for a portion included in the filter redundantly, the already acquired data is used. , Data is created.

Referring to FIGS. 4 and 5, a procedure for creating data at each position of the filter will be described. In addition,
Here, a case will be described in which, when detecting an element, image data of an 8 × 8 pixel block is read and image data is scanned in units of a two-dimensional filter corresponding to a 4 × 4 pixel block. As shown in FIG. 4A, at the time of this scanning, the filter 25 is first set at the left end and the upper end of the image data. FIG. 4B shows data 30 of a 4 × 4 pixel block acquired by scanning at the start position. Scanning at this start position
The processing is performed sequentially from the upper pixel line of the data 30 of the 4 × 4 pixel block. At this time, each pixel line is indicated by an arrow D
Scanning is performed in the X direction as shown by 2. When scanning of all pixel lines is completed at the start position, the filter 2
5 is Y as shown by the arrow D1 in FIG.
In the direction of one pixel line.

FIG. 5A shows the filter 25 after being moved by one pixel line from the scanning start position in the image data of the 8 × 8 pixel block. FIG.
(b) shows data 32 of a 4 × 4 pixel block acquired by scanning at this position. The data 32 of the 4 × 4 pixel block includes data 32A for the lower three pixel lines of the data acquired at the scanning start position, and data 32B for one pixel line newly added during the movement. The data consists of That is, except for the newly added one pixel line, the filter 25
Is a pixel line that is redundantly included in, and its data has already been acquired. Therefore, scanning at this position is performed only for the lower pixel line 32B. After the scanning for the pixel line 32, the newly acquired data 3
By combining the 2B and the already acquired data 32A, data at the position of the filter 25 shown in FIG. 5A is created.

In the subsequent processing, as described above, when the filter 25 is moved by one pixel line, the filter 25
Is scanned, only the lower one pixel line corresponding to the 4 × 4 pixel block is scanned, and the newly acquired data and the already acquired data are combined, so that data at each position of the filter 25 is created. You. As described above, the low-resolution image data is sequentially scanned in units of a filter of a predetermined size, and when the data included in the filter is obtained at each position, when the filter is moved, the image is redundantly included in the filter. By using data that has already been acquired and creating data at each position of the filter 25, the memory required for processing can be reduced, and the processing time can be shortened.
Further, in this embodiment, the resolution of the image data is reduced prior to the element detection processing, so that the memory required for the processing can be further reduced.

FIG. 6 is a diagram schematically showing an aspect in which data included in a filter at a predetermined position is stored in a predetermined memory. The data 40 of the 4 × 4 pixel block included in the filter at the predetermined position is a coordinate value of a two-dimensional array.
It consists of pixel data for which (x, y) is set.
These two-dimensional pixel data are sequentially stored one-dimensionally in a predetermined memory when the data 40 is scanned from the upper pixel line. Reference numeral 50 is a coordinate value of each pixel data.
(x, y) represents a storage block in which one-dimensional data is stored. The upper part 50A of this storage block corresponds to the upper pixel line of the data 40, while the lower part 50B corresponds to the other pixel lines. Therefore, when data included in the filter is acquired at a position where the filter is moved by one pixel line from this position, the lower part 50B is reused. In this way, the data included in the filter at each position is composed of 2
Dimensional pixel data is stored in one dimension,
With respect to the portion included in the filter in duplicate, already acquired data can be extracted and used without having to calculate the data again.

FIG. 7 shows an element detection process (S1 in FIG. 3).
The flowchart for 3) is shown. In the following, a case will be described in which image data is sequentially scanned using a filter corresponding to an m × n pixel block. In this process, first, the binary image data stored after the resolution is reduced is read (S21). Next, the scanning start position of the filter is determined. That is, the X-direction coordinate of the filter is set to be located at the left end of the image data (S22),
The Y direction coordinate of the filter is set so as to be located at the upper end of the image data (S23). After setting the filter position, scanning is started (S24).

When scanning is started, m included in the filter
The data of the × n pixel block is sequentially scanned from the upper pixel line. At this time, scanning in the X direction is performed sequentially from the upper pixel line (S25), and every time scanning of m pixels in the X direction is completed, the last pixel line in the Y direction (ie, the n-th line) in the filter. Is determined (S26). As a result, if it is not the last pixel line, the process proceeds to S28, and the pixel line to be scanned in the filter is moved by one pixel line in the Y direction (S28). Thereafter, the process returns to S25, and the scanning in the X direction is repeated. On the other hand,
If it is the last pixel line in S26, the filter is set to Y
It is moved by one pixel line in the direction (S27). At this time,
Only one pixel line is newly added in the filter.
Others are pixel lines that are included in the filter in duplicate, and the data of which has already been acquired in S25 and S26.

After S27, in S29, scanning for m pixels in the X direction is performed in order to acquire data for one pixel line newly added to the filter. And S3
0, the newly acquired data for one pixel line,
The data at the position of the filter is created by synthesizing the already acquired data of the portion included in the filter in duplicate. After that, in S31, pattern matching is performed between the created data and a reference image of an element having a predetermined shape, the relevance of both is evaluated, and data realizing the predetermined relevance is detected as an element.

In S32, it is determined whether or not the filter includes the last pixel in the Y direction in the image data. As a result, if the filter does not include the last pixel, the process returns to S27, and the filter is moved by one pixel in the Y direction. After moving by the line, the subsequent processing is repeated. On the other hand, when the filter includes the last pixel in the Y direction in the image data, the process proceeds to S33, and it is determined whether the filter includes the last pixel in the X direction in the image data. If not included, the process proceeds to S34, where the filter is moved in the X direction by m pixel lines, and then the process proceeds to S23, where the subsequent processes are repeated. On the other hand, when the last pixel in the X direction in the image data is included, the element detection processing ends, and the process returns to the main routine shown in FIG.

The element detection processing of S21 to S34 is executed based on an operating program incorporated in the control device 1 (see FIG. 1). In this embodiment, the program is executed by the control device 1 1 is stored in a predetermined memory. Also, without being limited to this, such a program may be stored in a file format on an external recording medium such as a floppy disk or a CD-ROM.

The present invention is not limited to the illustrated embodiment, and it goes without saying that various improvements and design changes can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the binary image data is converted into lower-resolution image data prior to element detection, but the present invention is not limited to this. It is not necessary.

[0025]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the first aspect of the present invention, in an image processing apparatus for detecting a specific pattern included in an image, the specific pattern included in the input image data is included. Has a partial image detecting means for detecting a partial image which is a part of a specific pattern, and the partial image detecting means sequentially scans the image data in units of a two-dimensional filter of a predetermined size, and at each position. When obtaining the data included in the filter, when the position of the filter is moved, for the portion included in the filter redundantly, the data at each position of the filter is created using the already obtained data. Therefore, the memory required for processing can be reduced, and the processing time can be shortened. As a result, it is possible to speed up the detection processing of the specific pattern.

According to the invention of claim 2 of the present application, the partial image detecting means stores the two-dimensional pixel data constituting the data included in the filter at each position in one dimension. With respect to the portion included in the data, the already acquired data can be extracted and used without having to calculate the data again.

Further, according to the third aspect of the present invention, prior to the partial image detection processing, the resolution of the image data is reduced, so that the memory required for the processing can be further reduced.

Further, according to the invention according to claim 4 of the present application, in an image processing method for detecting a specific pattern included in an image, a part of the specific pattern included in the input image data is provided. Has a partial image detecting step of detecting a partial image, and the partial image detecting step sequentially scans the image data in units of a two-dimensional filter of a predetermined size, and acquires data included in the filter at each position. When the position of the filter is moved, the portion included in the filter in duplicate is used to create data at each position of the filter using already acquired data. Can be reduced, and the processing time can be shortened. As a result, it is possible to speed up the detection processing of the specific pattern.

Further, according to the invention of claim 5 of the present application, in a computer-readable recording medium recording an image processing program for detecting a specific pattern contained in an image, A partial image detection step of detecting a partial image that is a part of a specific pattern included in the input image data, wherein the partial image detection step converts the image data into a two-dimensional filter of a predetermined size. Scan sequentially in units and acquire the data included in the filter at each position, when the position of the filter is moved, for the portion included in the filter redundantly, use the already acquired data,
Since data at each position of the filter is created, the memory required for processing can be reduced, and the processing time can be shortened. As a result, it is possible to speed up the detection processing of the specific pattern.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing the configuration of an image processing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram mainly illustrating a control device of the image processing apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a pattern detection process performed by the image processing apparatus.

FIG. 4 is a first explanatory diagram of a procedure for creating data at each position of a filter at the time of element detection processing.

FIG. 5 is a second explanatory diagram of a procedure for creating data at each position of the filter at the time of element detection processing.

FIG. 6 is a diagram schematically showing a mode in which data acquired at a predetermined position of a filter is stored in a memory.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of an element detection process.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Control device 5a ... Floppy disk 6 ... Hard disk device 7 ... Printer 8 ... Scanner 9b ... CD-ROM device 9a ... CD-ROM 21 ... Image data 25 ... Filter 30 ... Data at a predetermined position of a filter 32 ... Synthesized data 32A ... Already acquired data 32B ... Newly acquired data 201 ... CPU 203 ... ROM 204 ... RAM

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Chiho Kawakami 2-13-13 Azuchicho, Chuo-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka F-term in Osaka International Building Minolta Co., Ltd. (Reference) 5L096 AA02 EA03 EA35 EA43 FA02 GA55 JA09 JA14 JA18

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An image processing apparatus for detecting a specific pattern included in an image, comprising: a partial image detecting unit configured to detect a partial image that is a part of the specific pattern included in input image data. The partial image detecting means converts the image data to a predetermined size of 2
When sequentially scanning in units of a dimensional filter and acquiring the data included in the filter at each position, when the position of the filter is moved, for the part included in the filter redundantly, the already acquired data is used. And generating data at each position of the filter. 2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said partial image detecting means stores one-dimensionally two-dimensional pixel data constituting data included in a filter at each position. 3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a resolution reducing unit configured to reduce the resolution of the input image data before the input image data is processed by the partial image detection processing unit. Item 3. The image processing device according to item 1 or 2. 4. An image processing method for detecting a specific pattern included in an image, comprising a partial image detecting step of detecting a partial image included in the input image data and being a part of the specific pattern. When the partial image detecting step sequentially scans the image data in units of a two-dimensional filter of a predetermined size and obtains data included in the filter at each position, when the position of the filter is moved, An image processing method for creating data at each position of a filter using data that has already been acquired for a portion that is included in the image data. 5. A computer-readable recording medium on which an image processing program for detecting a specific pattern included in an image is recorded, wherein the image processing program stores a specific pattern included in the input image data. A partial image detecting step of detecting a partial image as a part, wherein the partial image detecting step sequentially scans the image data in units of a two-dimensional filter of a predetermined size, and includes data included in the filter at each position. Is obtained, when the position of the filter is moved, for a portion included in the filter redundantly, data obtained at each position of the filter is created by using already obtained data. Computer readable recording medium.