JP2001333280A - Device and method for processing image - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem that a detailed part cannot be reproduced corresponding to a compression system when small characters or the like exist in a monochromatic part since a compression method suited to a color image is applied to a monochromatic image as well when the color image and the monochromatic image are mixed in an area (tile) corresponding to a packet. SOLUTION: Suitable compressing processing is applied to each of the color image and the monochromatic image included in one tile, the color image is stored in a first data part 920 of one packet 900, and the monochromatic image is stored in a second data part 930. In addition, the attribute information of these data is stored in a tag part 910.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and a method thereof, for example, a color image, a gray scale image, and a binary image used for a scanner, a printer, a facsimile, a videophone, an image sound database and a hologram. The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and method for processing image data in which a plurality of types of images such as moving images and still images are mixed.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There is packetized image data as shown in FIG. 6 and 7 are diagrams for explaining the correspondence between an image and a packet. In the image example shown in FIG. 6, a plurality of image types having different characteristics such as color, grayscale, binary image, moving image, still image, or 2D or 3D are mixed in the image. Here,
For the purpose of explanation, the left side of FIG. 6 is a color image 110 and the right side is a monochrome binary image 120, and the image is associated with at least one or more packets.

In FIG. 6, grids of the same size, called tiles for explanation, are prepared, and an image is divided by these tiles. Data transfer and image processing are performed on a tile-by-tile basis. Image data included in these tiles and data attribute information such as the type of data (not shown), data processing destination, data processing content, data size, and data position added to the image data are referred to as “packets”. It is common to transmit to

FIG. 4 shows the structure of a packet 800. The packet 800 includes a data section 820 and a tag section 810 indicating an attribute of data included in the data section 820.
Stores a color image and a monochrome binary image.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of an image processing apparatus (image / audio processing apparatus) 300 corresponding to the above-mentioned packetized image data. In FIG. 1, a rectangular portion is a functional block, and arrows indicate transmission directions of data and signals. In each arrow, the side of the bar is input and the arrowhead is output. That is, data and signals are transmitted from the function block connected to the rod side to the function block connected to the arrowhead.

The image processing apparatus 300 shown in FIG. 1 can be roughly divided into functional blocks 311 to 322. Of these, a data input unit 311 is an image input device such as a scanner, a digital movie camera, or a digital still camera.

[0007] Data compression units 313 and 314 are means for compressing the data input to the data input unit 311 to reduce the packet size. Reference numeral 315 denotes a packetization unit for adding attribute tags such as a destination, data size, and data size to the data compressed by the data compression unit 313 or 314 to form a packet.

Reference numeral 316 denotes a packet transmission unit, for example, a wired or wireless communication facility, an ISDN, a LAN, a data line in a board, a data line in a semiconductor chip, and the like. Do. A non-packetizing unit 317 is a functional block for discarding unnecessary data or performing conversion and depacketizing in order to provide data packetized by the packetizing unit 315 to the next block. It is.

Reference numerals 318 and 319 denote data decompression units, which are blocks for restoring information compressed by the data compression unit 313 or 314. Note that the data restored here and the data before compression include data (irreversible compression, lossy compression) that are restored to such an extent that they are perceived to be equivalent to humans, even if they are not exactly the same. Of course, the exact same case (lossless compression,
Needless to say, lossless compression is also included.

Reference numerals 320 and 321 denote data processing units for converting data into a format and a signal suitable for the next functional block. If the data to be handled is image information, rotation, enlargement, reduction, color conversion, binarization, grayscale, gamma conversion,
Performs what is called image processing such as flattening and 3D → 2D conversion, and converts it into a signal suitable for the next block.

A data output unit 322 is driven by a signal converted into a format suitable for the data output unit 322 by a data processing unit or 321. For example, a display, a printer, a magnetic recording device, an optical recording device, etc. This is a functional block that provides a final output in the image processing apparatus 300.

The data compression unit 313 and the data decompression unit 318
The data processing unit 320 performs a process suitable for a color image, and the data compression unit 314, the data decompression unit 319, and the data processing unit 321 perform a process suitable for a monochrome image.

[0013]

FIG. 7 is an enlarged image of a tile 200 near the center of the image shown in FIG. 6, that is, a tile in which a color image and a monochrome image are mixed. Figure 6
In the image of FIG. 7, as shown in FIG. 7, at the boundary between color and monochrome, one tile (packet) includes a portion to be finally output through color image processing, and a portion to be finally output to a monochrome image. There are parts that are output after processing.
In such a case, since the color image and the monochrome image cannot be transmitted as one packet in the packet as shown in FIG. 4, the monochrome image is also combined into one packet as a color image.

When a monochrome image and a color image are combined into one packet, the image processing apparatus 300 has the following problem.

That is, a compression method suitable for a color image is also applied to a monochrome image.
For example, when a fine image such as a small character exists in the monochrome portion, the monochrome image cannot be reproduced to the details. This is the first problem.

The second problem is that JPEG, which is generally used for compressing a color image, is an irreversible compression, and a pixel having a small correlation with an adjacent pixel has a large distortion due to the compression. That is,
Before and after compression, details such as edges are likely to be lost. On the other hand, JBIG, which is generally used for compressing monochrome images, has a feature that it can reproduce well in detail because of lossless compression, but cannot be used for multi-valued images such as color and gray scale.

Further, since the compression method is different between a tile in which a color image and a monochrome image are mixed and an adjacent tile, the edge of the monochrome image is shifted or the density of the monochrome image is different. There is a problem.

These problems are not peculiar to tiles in which a color image and a monochrome image are mixed, but are a tile in which a grayscale image and a monochrome image are mixed, and a picture and a character are mixed even if they are color images. A problem also occurs when images that require different types of image processing methods, such as mixed tiles, are mixed in one tile.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problem, and it is an object of the present invention to reproduce a good image when different types of images are mixed in an area of a predetermined size.

It is another object of the present invention to prevent a problem that image continuity is destroyed at a boundary between regions of a predetermined size.

[0021]

The present invention has the following configuration as one means for achieving the above object.

An image processing apparatus according to the present invention comprises: a dividing means for generating a divided image obtained by dividing an input image into a plurality of regions of a predetermined size; a detecting means for detecting a characteristic of each of the divided images; Separating means for separating the divided images into images of different types, and packetizing means for packetizing attribute information corresponding to the divided images and their characteristics, wherein the packetizing means In the case where the image includes the images of different types separated by the separation unit and attribute information corresponding to the characteristics of the different types of images, a packet is provided.

[0023] Further, a decomposing means for decomposing an input packet into data and attribute information thereof, a reproducing means for processing the data based on the attribute information and reproducing a divided image of a predetermined size, and a combination of the divided image Output means for outputting as one image, wherein the reproduction means, when the packet contains different types of image data, a divided image obtained by combining different types of images based on attribute information corresponding to the data. Is reproduced.

An image processing method according to the present invention generates a divided image obtained by dividing an input image into a plurality of regions of a predetermined size,
An image processing method for detecting a feature of each of the divided images, separating the divided images into different types of images based on the detected features, and packetizing the divided images and attribute information corresponding to the characteristics, The packetization is characterized in that, when the divided images include different types of images, the separated different types of images and attribute information corresponding to their characteristics are packetized.

Also, the input packet is decomposed into data and its attribute information, the data is processed based on the attribute information, a divided image of a predetermined size is reproduced, and the divided images are combined and output as one image. In the image processing method, when different types of image data are included in the packet, a divided image in which different types of images are combined is reproduced based on attribute information corresponding to the different types of image data.

[0026]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Note that the image processing apparatus according to the embodiment has substantially the same configuration as the image processing apparatus illustrated in FIG. 1, and thus the embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

Incidentally, in order to solve the above-mentioned problem, it is also possible to transmit two packets 800 shown in FIG. 4 corresponding to one tile. However, this method
There is a problem that the same number of tags as the number of data is required, and the size of information to be transmitted increases.

[0028]

[First Embodiment] First, an image processing apparatus 300 of the present embodiment is described.
However, a case of a color copying machine will be described as an example.

In FIG. 1, the data input unit 311 is a color scanner in the image processing apparatus of the present embodiment, and the data output unit 322 is a color printer. Further, in order to reduce the use of memory inside the device and the load of packet transmission, data compression is usually performed.

Regarding the use of the two data compression units 313 and 314, when the color scanner 311 determines that the image has a certain characteristic (here, a color image), the data compression unit 313 for the color image is used. You. Note that the data compression unit 313 can be realized using a general color image compression unit such as a JPEG compressor, DCT transform, subband transform, wavelet transform, or the like.

When the color scanner 311 determines that the image is an image having another characteristic (here, a monochrome image), the data compression unit 314 for a monochrome image is used. The data compression unit 313 is a general monochrome image compression unit such as JBIG, PackBits, Run Length, MR,
It can be realized by MMR.

The data compression unit may be a software compressor realized by a program or a hardware compressor using a logic circuit (logic circuit) in accordance with required cost and image processing speed. It does not matter.

The packetizing unit 315 stores attributes such as coordinate information on paper, a process of outputting each dot (mask process), and designation of image processing such as color conversion. A packet is added. The next packet transmission unit 316 corresponds to, for example, an image signal line for transmitting an image signal, which is connected to a scanner board and a printer board inside the color copying machine. The above-described packet is transmitted from the data input unit 311 to the image processing unit via the packet transmission unit.

The depacketizing unit 317 removes unnecessary information from the image data and decomposes the packet for each data.
In the data decompression units 318 and 319 in the next stage, data decompression is performed by a decompression unit that matches the compression unit. For example, the data that has been JPEG-compressed by the data compression unit 313 is JPEG-decompressed by the data decompression unit 318 and the data compression unit 314
The data decompressed by JBIG is subjected to JBIG decompression by the data decompression unit 319.

In the data processing units 320 and 321, image processing is performed in accordance with attributes specified for image processing such as masking and color conversion added to the packet. Also, the data processing unit
320 or 321 converts image data into serial data indicating on / off of a laser beam in synchronization with a horizontal synchronization signal of a data output unit 322 (for example, a color printer) and a vertical synchronization signal of paper feed, and converts the data into color data. Send to printer 322.

The color printer as the data output unit 322 controls a laser beam or the like in accordance with a signal input from the data processing unit 320 or 321 and prints an image corresponding to the image data on a paper.

Draw on the top.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a packet 900 handled by the image processing apparatus of the present embodiment. In FIG. 2, 920
Is a first data part included in the packet 900, and 930 is a second data part included in the packet 900. Reference numeral 910 denotes a tag unit indicating the attributes of the first and second data included in the packet 900. In the case of corresponding to the above-described tile example shown in FIG. 7, a color image is stored in the first data section 920 and a monochrome binary image is stored in the second data section 930 in FIG.

In this embodiment, the color image portion is formed from the data of the color portion, that is, the data of the first data portion 920, and the monochrome image portion is formed from the data of the monochrome portion, that is, the data of the second data portion 930. I do. In this manner, even in the case of a fine figure portion, a good image can be reproduced up to the details.

Further, by processing an image by the same image processing as that of an adjacent tile, it is possible to prevent edge shift and density change. Furthermore, packet 9 as shown in FIG.
By transmitting 00, it is possible to transmit the same data as in the case of transmitting two packets 800 shown in FIG. 4, and it is possible to reduce the data size of the tag section.

The number of data in the packet is not limited to two as shown in FIG. 2, but may be changed according to the type of data. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, a form in which three or more different types of data are included in one packet 1000 may be adopted. That is, in FIG. 3, the packet 1000 includes a first data portion 1020 and a second data portion 1030.
And a tag unit 1010 that includes attributes of the first to third data. For example, the first data portion 1020 has a color image, the second data portion 1030
, And three different types of data are stored in the third data portion 1040, like other types of images. With such a packet configuration, duplication of tags is eliminated, and more efficient image processing becomes possible.

[0042]

[Second Embodiment] In the first embodiment, an image processing apparatus
Although the example in which 300 is a color copying machine has been described, the present invention is not limited to this, and may be a moving image recording / reproducing apparatus as described in the second embodiment.

The data input unit 311 of the second embodiment is a color digital movie camera for performing photoelectric conversion and A / D conversion, and the data output unit 322 is a video board and a color CRT.
It is.

Incidentally, in order to reduce the use of memory in the apparatus and the load of packet transmission, data compression is usually performed. Therefore, regarding the use of the two data compression units 313 and 314, the color digital movie camera 311
If it is determined that the image is an image having a certain characteristic (here, a moving image signal), the data compression unit 31 corresponding to the compression of the moving image
3 is used. Note that the data compression unit 313 can be realized using an MPEG compressor, which is a general moving image compression unit.

The color digital movie camera 31
If it is determined that 1 is an image having other characteristics (here, a still image), the data compression unit 314 is used. Note that the data compression unit 314 can be realized using a JPEG compressor, which is a general still image compression unit.

In determining whether the image is a still image or a moving image, for example, a portion where no change is observed in the image due to calculation between frames is determined to be a still image. In addition, these compressors may be software compressors implemented by programs or hardware compressors using logic circuits according to the required cost and the speed of image processing. Absent.

The packetizing unit 315 includes, for the data, attributes such as coordinate information on paper, processing for determining whether to output each dot (mask processing), and designation of image processing such as color conversion. To make a packet.

The packet transmission unit 316 includes, for example, a color digital movie board in a moving image recording / reproducing apparatus,
A packet corresponds to an image signal line for transmitting an image signal, which is connected to a video board for moving the CRT, and a packet is transmitted from the data input unit 311 to the image processing unit via the packet transmission unit.

The next non-packetizing unit 317 removes unnecessary information from the image data and decomposes the packet for each data. Also, the data decompression unit 318
Decompress the MPEG-compressed data, and the data decompression unit 319
The data compressed by JPEG by the data compression unit 314 is expanded.

The data processing units 320 and 321 perform predetermined image processing in accordance with image processing designated attributes such as masks and color conversion added to the packet. Also, the data processing unit
The 320 or 321 converts the image data into a video signal in synchronization with a horizontal synchronization signal and a vertical synchronization signal of a data output unit 322 (for example, a video board), and sends it to a video board or a color CRT.

A video board or C as the data output unit 322
RT controls the electron gun according to the input video signal,
Draws an image corresponding to the image data on the CRT.

In the case of the moving picture recording / reproducing apparatus, the packet format is as follows. That is, in FIG. 2, moving image data is stored in first data section 920, and still image data is stored in second data section 930. Alternatively, still image data is stored in the first data portion, and moving image data is stored in the second data portion.

Although a still image can be identified to a high resolution in terms of human visual characteristics, a moving image does not require the same resolution as a still image. Therefore, when the same compression processing and image processing as for a moving image are performed up to a still image, the details of the still image portion are not reproduced well, resulting in an undesirable image. Therefore,
In the moving image recording / playback apparatus of the present embodiment, for a still image portion, the still image data is compressed by a method suitable for a still image, and the compressed data is transmitted as the same packet as the moving image. And stretched into videos,
Performs image processing suitable for still images. Thereby, a good still image can be obtained. The same applies to moving images.

As described above, according to each of the above-described embodiments, one packet is assigned to each tile obtained by dividing an image, and a plurality of types of data and tags are incorporated in the packet, so that the characteristics of each image can be improved. Suitable compression and image processing can be performed, and image processing and image output with good reproducibility can be performed.

Even for tiles in which images requiring different image processing are mixed, the same image processing as that of the adjacent tiles can be used. With respect to an image that continuously exists between adjacent tiles, it is possible to prevent the visual continuity at the tile boundary from being broken.

Further, even when a plurality of types of data are incorporated in the same packet, the duplication of the tag is eliminated, the data amount of the transmitted packet is suppressed, and the transmission load can be reduced.

Also, by combining the tags into one, it is not necessary to perform a plurality of times of analysis of a plurality of tags, for example, a process of determining tile position information at the time of re-synthesis. Time can be reduced.

As described above, according to the above-described embodiment, when transmitting packetized images corresponding to respective rectangular areas to which image attribute information is added as image data, a single packet is transmitted. Each line / graphic that composes an image by having a plurality of different types of image data, that is, by assigning one packet to one tile and making the packet have multiple types of data The image processing suitable for the feature (1) can be performed, and the reproducibility of the image can be greatly improved.

Further, even in a tile in which a plurality of images requiring different image processing methods are mixed, the image data of the same format as the adjacent tiles can be used. It is possible to eliminate the visual continuity break at the tile boundary in the graphic that exists continuously between the tile and the adjacent tile.

Further, since the same packet has a plurality of types of data, the tag portion of the packet is not duplicated.
The total amount of data is reduced and the transmission load is reduced. in addition,
Since there is no need to perform tag analysis multiple times,
Calculation load and time can be reduced.

[0061]

[Modification] The configuration of the image processing apparatus 300 is not limited to the configuration described in the above embodiment. In Figure 1,
In this embodiment, the output of the data input unit 311 of the image processing device 300 is input to both the data compression units 313 and 314.
The configuration shown in FIG.

For example, the data input unit 3 of the image processing apparatus 300
There may be a configuration in which there are a plurality of 11 (data input units 311a and 311b), and these data input units are paired with the data compression units 313 and 314.

In the above embodiment, the data output unit
Although the input of 322 is in a form connected to both the data processing units 320 and 321, it is not limited to this form, for example,
As shown in FIG. 5, a plurality of data output units 322a and 322b
And the data processing units 320 and 321 may be configured as a pair.

[0064]

[Other Embodiments] 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 copying machine) Machine, facsimile machine, etc.).

Further, an object of the present invention is to supply a storage medium (or a recording medium) storing a program code of software for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or an apparatus, and to provide a computer (or a computer) of the system or the apparatus. It is needless to say that the present invention can also be achieved by a CPU or an MPU) reading and executing the program code stored in the storage medium. In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium implements the functions of the above-described embodiment, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention. Also,
When the computer executes the readout program code, not only the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized, but also the operating system (OS) running on the computer based on the instructions of the program code.
It goes without saying that a case where the functions of the above-described embodiments are implemented by performing some or all of the actual processing, and the processing performs the functions of the above-described embodiments.

Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written into the memory provided in the function expansion card inserted into the computer or the function expansion unit connected to the computer, the program code is read based on the instruction of the program code. Needless to say, the CPU included in the function expansion card or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the processing realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments.

When the present invention is applied to the storage medium, the storage medium stores program codes corresponding to the configuration shown in FIG. 1 and / or FIG. 5 described above.

[0068]

As described above, according to the present invention,
When different types of images are mixed in a region of a predetermined size, a good image can be reproduced.

Further, the problem that the continuity of the image is destroyed at the boundary between the regions of the predetermined size can be prevented.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of an image processing apparatus (image sound processing apparatus).

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a packet handled by the image processing apparatus;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating another configuration example of a packet handled by the image processing apparatus;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a data configuration of a packet.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a modification of the image processing apparatus.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining the correspondence between an image and a packet;

7 is an enlarged image of a tile near the center of the image shown in FIG. 6;

Continuation of the front page F term (reference) 5C059 MA00 MA23 MA24 PP02 PP04 PP14 PP19 PP20 RB02 RB18 RC12 RC24 RC33 SS07 SS11 SS28 5C077 MP06 MP08 PP21 PP27 PP28 PP51 PQ30 RR21 5C078 AA04 AA09 BA21 CA02 DA01 DA02 DB00 EA02 9001 CC06 EE01 EE04 HH27 HH31

Claims (15)

[Claims] A dividing unit that divides an input image into a plurality of regions of a predetermined size to generate a divided image; a detecting unit that detects a feature of each of the divided images; and a dividing unit that divides the divided image into different types based on the detected features. Separation means for separating the divided images and attribute information corresponding to the characteristics of the divided images into packets, wherein the packetization means includes a case where the divided images include different types of images. An image processing apparatus characterized in that different types of images separated by the separating means and attribute information corresponding to their characteristics are packetized. 2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the packetizing unit includes one piece of attribute information in one packet. 3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising compression means for compressing the divided image or the separated image based on the detected characteristic. 4. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the compression unit performs irreversible compression or lossless compression according to the characteristic.
An image processing apparatus according to claim 1. 5. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the features detected by the detection unit include at least a monochrome image and a color image. 6. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the feature detected by the detection unit includes at least a moving image and a still image. 7. Decomposing means for decomposing an input packet into data and its attribute information; reproducing means for processing said data based on said attribute information to reproduce a divided image of a predetermined size; and combining said divided images. Output means for outputting as one image, wherein the reproducing means, when the packet contains different types of image data, a divided image in which different types of images are combined based on attribute information corresponding to the different types of image data An image processing apparatus for reproducing an image. 8. The image processing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the packet includes one piece of attribute information. 9. The image processing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the reproducing unit expands the data based on the attribute information and reproduces the divided image. 10. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the attribute information indicates at least a monochrome image and a color image.
10. The image processing device according to any one of claims 1 to 9. 11. The image processing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the attribute information indicates at least a moving image and a still image. 12. A divided image obtained by dividing an input image into a plurality of regions of a predetermined size, a feature of each of the divided images is detected, and the divided image is separated into different types of images based on the detected features. An image processing method for packetizing attribute information corresponding to a divided image and a feature thereof, wherein the packetization includes, when the divided images include different types of images, different types of separated images and their separated images. An image processing method characterized by converting attribute information corresponding to a feature into a packet. 13. An input packet is decomposed into data and its attribute information, the data is processed based on the attribute information, a divided image of a predetermined size is reproduced, and the divided images are combined and output as one image. An image processing method, wherein, when different types of image data are included in the packet, a divided image in which different types of images are combined is reproduced based on attribute information corresponding to the different types of image data. . 14. A recording medium on which a program code for image processing is recorded, wherein the program code includes at least a code for generating a divided image obtained by dividing an input image into a plurality of regions of a predetermined size; A code of a step of detecting the characteristic of the above; a code of a step of separating the divided image into images of different types based on the detected characteristic; and a code of a step of packetizing the attribute information corresponding to the divided image and the characteristic. The packetization is characterized in that, when the divided images include different types of images, the separated different types of images and attribute information corresponding to their characteristics are packetized. Medium. 15. A recording medium on which a program code for image processing is recorded, wherein the program code includes at least a code for a step of decomposing an input packet into data and its attribute information, and the data based on the attribute information. Processing, a code of a step of reproducing a divided image of a predetermined size, and a code of a step of combining and outputting the divided images as one image, wherein the packet contains different types of image data. A recording medium for reproducing a divided image obtained by combining different types of images based on attribute information corresponding to the divided images.