JP2003091479A - Server and terminal in image data acquiring system, acquiring method for the image data and image data acquiring program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To realize the maintenance of cognitive information quantity for picture data in the middle of communication even when data communication quantity is changed at communicating picture data, and reading the picture data on a terminal. SOLUTION: This system is provided with a perceptive characteristic storing part 21 for storing the characteristics of a picture necessary for allowing a human being to sufficiently acknowledge the contents of information, a display region position/speed measuring part 23 and a display magnification control part 24 for acquiring operation information for the target picture of a user, a layout information storing part 61 for storing the information from those two parts and layout information related with the target picture in the server part, and a valid resolution object deciding part 25 and a reception range calculating part 26 for calculating the region of a picture to be acquired from the target picture and the resolution of each region based on these pieces of information. Then, picture operation situations such as the position or moving speed of a display region operated by the user and picture information matched with the perceptive characteristics of the user at that time are re-configured at the server side, and transmitted to a terminal.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to transmission / reception and display of image data via a communication network, and more particularly, to a server and a terminal in an image data acquisition system for changing the resolution according to the content of the image data and the image data acquisition thereof. The present invention relates to a method and an image data acquisition program.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a digital image such as a bitmap format is generally displayed in raster scan order.
Hereinafter, this display method is referred to as a "raster progressive method". With this image transmission method, the next image can be displayed after all the image data has been received. Therefore, when transmitting an image with high definition and a large data size, it is only for obtaining an outline of the image. Had to receive all images, and there was a problem that communication time was very long.

As a method for solving the drawbacks of the raster progressive method, there is a "resolution progressive method" used for image formats such as progressive JPEG and interlaced GIF. With this method,
The display order of the images is not the raster scan order, but it is possible to display the entire image roughly first and then gradually display it finely. Therefore, even if you do not receive all the image data,
You can get an overview of the image. Such a display method has an effect of reducing a feeling of frustration and stress for a waiting time required for displaying an image.

However, in any of the above image formats, it is necessary to always obtain all the pixel information in the image data, and it has been impossible to select an arbitrary pixel set during communication.

On the other hand, as a further improved image format, JPEG2000 (ISO / IEC WG1, SC29,15444)
And Flashpix (registered trademark: Digital Imaging Grou
(p, Inc.) image format has been proposed.
In this image format, as shown in FIG. 10, it is possible to select an arbitrary pixel set in units of blocks in which some pixels are collected, and display each pixel block in a resolution progressive method. is there.

Conventionally, in an apparatus for acquiring and displaying image data recorded in the above-mentioned image format, it takes a long processing time for a display update processing represented by image enlargement / reduction processing and scroll display processing. However, there is a problem that proper display quality and operability cannot be obtained. here,
The display update process refers to, for example, a series of display region moving processes of completing or interrupting the display process of a part of the target image, acquiring image data from another display region, and displaying the image data. .

In order to shorten the display update processing time,
Conventionally, JP-A-07-005346 and JP-A-11-
As disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 088866, before moving the display area, a process (prefetching process) of reading a neighboring image of the currently displayed display area is performed in advance so that the display area can be moved smoothly. .

Further, in a system using Flashpix, an image to be prefetched is acquired at a low resolution, and the resolution is gradually increased from the time when the movement of the display area is stopped. It reduces the amount of data communication between the server and the terminal, and increases the display update processing speed.

[0009]

As described above, the conventional system has the following problems.

It is generally known that when the display maintaining time and the display magnification change, the information perceived by the human visual system changes even if the display target is the same. For example, 197
9th year, Science, 206, 468-469 (Rayn
er, K. Bertera, JH 1979 Reading without a fovea.
According to Science, 206, 468-469), the visual angle required for humans to recognize a character is 8 minutes to 1 degree.

In another example, even if the same sentence is displayed, the viewing angle of a character changes due to a change in display magnification,
The ease of character recognition also changes.

Furthermore, in 1983, Vision Research, 2
Volume 3, Pages 541-546 (Morgan, MJ, Wat, RJ,
McKee, SP 1983 Exposure duration affects the se
nsitivity of vernier acuity to target motion.Visi
on Research, 23, 541-546) show that visual acuity decreases with the increase of the motion speed of visual stimulation, and it is considered that cognitive ability decreases when the display time of the display area is short. .

When display updating processing such as enlarging / reducing processing and scrolling operation of the display area is performed, the display state of the image viewed from the user depends on attributes of the image data itself (resolution, number of pixels, gradation, compression rate, etc.). , Display status (display duration, frame rate, display magnification, etc.), communication line and the ability of hardware to perform a series of processing, etc., and display operation is constant as long as any of these factors are variable. Does not mean

Therefore, since the state of the display varies depending on the display target, the specified contents of the operation, the terminal, etc., the system is designed while balancing the respective elements so that an appropriate display can be obtained. There is a need.
In particular, when the scrolling operation is performed at high speed, the target image area to be processed increases within a unit time, so that the image is roughened or pixels to be processed are thinned so as not to deteriorate the operability. The method of suppressing the amount of processed data per unit time, that is, the progressive display method described above is effective.

However, in the conventional image display system, there is no relation between the moving speed of the display area, the magnification of the image in the display area, and the resolution of the image to be prefetched. Therefore, when progressive display is performed while moving the display area, for example, an image including characters or the like is uniformly displayed at a low resolution, and as shown in FIG. 11, the resolution required for interpretation is set. May move to the next area before reaching.

When scroll-displaying a document, it is difficult to specify the move destination unless at least the key character such as the headline cannot be identified. Therefore, the key character cannot be identified. The work efficiency of the scroll operation is markedly reduced.

As described above, in the prior art, when the server is requested to have the highest resolution for all the image information to be updated with the movement of the display area, the target image data can obtain the highest amount of information that can be provided to humans. However, the amount of data communication is maximized and the time required to communicate and process the data is also maximized.

On the other hand, if the resolution is lowered for all the image information to be updated, the amount of data communication and the time required for data communication and processing will be shortened. This leads to the lack of information such that the terminal user cannot recognize a component such as a certain figure or character.

The above-mentioned problems result from the fact that the resolution of the image during communication is treated as uniform without considering the interest of the image viewer and the visual cognitive characteristics of human. Therefore, from the viewpoint of improving the user interface, it is necessary to appropriately control the amount and content of data to be communicated, the characteristics, the data management and the display method on the terminal side, etc. in accordance with the human visual perception characteristics. .

The first object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, and even when the data communication amount is changed when the image data is communicated and browsed on the terminal, the image data in the middle of the communication is compared. A server and a terminal in an image data acquisition system, an image data acquisition method thereof, and an image data acquisition program capable of maintaining a cognitive amount of information.

The second object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art and to reflect the processing capacity and scale of contents, communication lines, servers and terminals in designing these image data acquisition systems, for example. The server and the terminal in the image data acquisition system in which a part of the information processing on the terminal side can also be performed on the server side so that a flexible design such that a comfortable image browsing can be realized even on a terminal with low processing capacity can be performed. And an image data acquisition method therefor, and an image data acquisition program.

[0022]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is a server in an image data acquisition system for delivering image data to a terminal via a communication network, and the amount of communication with the terminal. The resolution of the image data is changed and distributed based on the display performance of the terminal and the operation content of the image data on the terminal side.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the layout information of the image data to be distributed, the operation content of the image data in the terminal, and the perceptual characteristic of the image for a person to fully recognize the content as information are shown. It is characterized by comprising an effective resolution object determining unit that determines the resolution of image data to be distributed based on the perceptual property information and the display performance of the terminal.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, an image area indicating an area required for prefetching the image data is determined based on the layout information of the image data to be distributed and the resolution from the effective resolution object determining unit. It is characterized by comprising a reception range calculation unit that performs

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the reception range calculation unit calculates the data communication amount for receiving the prefetch area within a fixed time by using the operation content, and the image area according to the resolution is calculated as the image area. Based on the resolution determined by the effective resolution object determination unit, the image region determined by the reception range calculation unit, and the data communication amount in order to communicate with the communication amount less than or equal to the data communication amount, It is characterized by comprising a transmission data generation unit for processing and generating processed image data, and delivering the generated processed image data to the terminal.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, a perceptual characteristic storage unit for storing and referring to the perceptual characteristic information is provided, and the effective resolution object determining unit extracts the perceptual characteristic information from the perceptual characteristic storage unit, It is characterized in that the resolution of the image data is determined.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the position of the display area of the image data being displayed on the terminal from the terminal, the display area speed indicating the speed of change by the operation of the image data, and the display of the image. Each data of the display magnification indicating the number of pixels of the image data of the image for one pixel on the screen is received as the operation content, and the effective resolution object determination unit is expected to change the image displayed on the terminal. A read-ahead difference area that is a difference between the display area and the display area before the change, based on the perceptual characteristic information, the image component in the read-ahead difference area, the display area speed and the operation shown in the operation content and It is characterized in that the minimum required resolution for human perception is calculated as the resolution of the image based on the display magnification.

According to the present invention of claim 7, the reception range calculation unit determines a set of rectangular regions covering the prefetch difference region determined by the effective resolution object determination unit as the image region of the image. Characterize.

According to the present invention of claim 8 in a terminal for acquiring image data distributed from a server via a communication network, the display performance and the operation content for the image data are transmitted to the server, and the server, The display performance and the operation content for the image data are received, and further, the resolution of the image data is changed and distributed based on the communication amount with the server, the received display performance and the operation content, The image data having the changed resolution is received.

In a ninth aspect of the present invention, in a terminal in an image data acquisition system for acquiring image data distributed from a server via a communication network, the amount of communication with the server, display performance in the terminal, and It is characterized in that the server is requested to deliver the image data whose resolution has been changed, based on the content of the operation on the image data on the terminal side.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, the layout information of the image data to be distributed, the operation content of the image data, and the perceptual characteristic information indicating the perceptual characteristic of the image for a person to fully recognize the content as information. And an effective resolution object determining unit that determines the resolution of the image data based on the display performance of the terminal.

According to the present invention of claim 11, an image area indicating an area required for prefetching the image data is determined based on layout information of the image data to be distributed and the resolution from the effective resolution object determining section. It is characterized by comprising a reception range calculation unit that performs

The present invention according to claim 12 further comprises a perceptual property storage unit for storing and referring to the perceptual property information, wherein the effective resolution object determination unit extracts the perceptual property information from the perceptual property storage unit, and It is characterized in that the resolution of the image data is determined.

According to a thirteenth aspect of the present invention, the position of the display area of the image data being displayed, the display area speed indicating the speed of change due to the operation of the image data, and the corresponding one pixel in the display screen of the image. It is characterized in that each data of the display magnification indicating the number of pixels of the image data of the image is acquired as the operation content.

In the fourteenth aspect of the present invention, the effective resolution object determining section calculates a prefetch difference area which is a difference between an area where the image being displayed on the terminal is expected to change and a display area before the change. , Based on the perceptual characteristic information, the image component in the prefetch difference region, the display region speed and the display magnification indicated in the operation content, the minimum required resolution for human perception, It is characterized in that it is calculated as the resolution of the image.

In the fifteenth aspect of the present invention, the reception range calculation unit determines a set of rectangular regions covering the prefetch difference region determined by the effective resolution object determination unit as the image region of the image. Characterize.

According to a sixteenth aspect of the present invention, the effective resolution object determining section and the reception range calculating section are provided as external devices.

According to a seventeenth aspect of the present invention, in an image data acquisition method for delivering an image from a server to a terminal via a communication network, the amount of communication between the server and the terminal, the display performance of the terminal, and the terminal. It is characterized in that the resolution of the image data is changed and distributed based on the operation content of the image data on the side.

The present invention of claim 18 shows the layout information of the image data to be distributed, the operation content of the image data in the terminal, and the perceptual characteristic of the image for a person to fully recognize the content as information. It is characterized by comprising an effective resolution determining step of determining a minimum required resolution of the image data to be distributed, based on the perceptual characteristic information and the display performance of the terminal.

According to a nineteenth aspect of the present invention, based on the layout information of the image data to be distributed and the resolution obtained in the effective resolution determining step, an image area indicating an area necessary for prefetching the image data is received. It is characterized by having a range calculation step.

According to the present invention of claim 20, in the server,
Transmission data generation for generating image data indicating a portion of the image area with the resolution based on the resolution determined in the effective resolution determination step and the image area determined in the reception range calculation step for the image data to be distributed. And a step of delivering the generated image data to the terminal.

In the twenty-first aspect of the present invention, the terminal has the effective resolution object determining step and the reception range calculating step, and receives the layout information of image data to be distributed from the server, The resolution of the image is determined by the effective resolution determination step, and the resolution determined in the effective resolution determination step,
The image area determined in the reception range calculation step is transmitted to the server, the server receives from the terminal the resolution of the image to be distributed and the designation of the image area, and the transmission data generation step is performed. ,
Image data indicating the image is generated based on the designated resolution and the image area, and the generated image data is distributed to the terminal.

According to a twenty-second aspect of the present invention, the terminal comprises a step of transmitting the operation content of the image data to the server, the server comprising the step of determining the effective resolution object and the step of calculating the reception range. Prepare,
Upon receiving the operation content from the terminal, the resolution of the image is determined by the effective resolution determining step, and the resolution determined in the effective resolution determining step and the image area determined in the reception range calculating step are set. Based on the above, the transmission data generating step generates image data indicating the image, and distributes the generated image data to the terminal.

According to a twenty-third aspect of the present invention, in the terminal, the position of the display area of the image displayed on the terminal, the display area speed indicating the speed of the operation of moving the image, and the display screen of the image are displayed. The step of acquiring each data of the display magnification indicating the number of pixels of the image data of the image with respect to 1 pixel as the operation content.

According to the twenty-fourth aspect of the present invention, in the effective resolution determining step, a look-ahead difference area which is a difference between an area where the image displayed on the terminal is expected to change and a display area before the change is calculated. , Based on the perceptual characteristic information, the image component in the prefetch difference region, the display region speed and the display magnification indicated in the operation content, the minimum required resolution for human perception, It is characterized by including a step of calculating the resolution of the image.

According to the 25th aspect of the present invention, in the receiving range calculating step, a step of determining a set of rectangular areas covering the prefetch difference area determined by the effective resolution object determining section as the image area of the image. It is characterized by including.

According to a twenty-sixth aspect of the present invention, in an image data acquisition program for distributing an image from a server to a terminal via a communication network by controlling a computer, the server communicates with the terminal. ,
It is characterized in that a function of changing the resolution of the image data and distributing the image data is executed based on the display performance of the terminal and the operation content of the image data on the terminal side.

According to the present invention of claim 27, in the server,
The layout information of the image data to be distributed, the operation content of the image data in the terminal, the perceptual characteristic information indicating the perceptual characteristic with respect to an image for a person to sufficiently recognize the content as information, and the display performance in the terminal. On the basis of this, the effective resolution determining function for determining the resolution of the image data to be distributed is executed.

In the present invention of claim 28, in the server,
A reception range calculation function for determining an image area indicating an area required for prefetching the image data based on layout information of the image data to be distributed and the resolution determined by the effective resolution determination function. And

According to a twenty-ninth aspect of the present invention, the reception range calculation function calculates the data communication amount for receiving the prefetch area within a fixed time by using the operation content, and calculates the image area according to the resolution. The image area based on the resolution determined by the effective resolution object determination function, the image area determined by the reception range calculation function, and the data communication volume in order to communicate at a communication volume less than or equal to the data communication volume. Is provided with a transmission data generation function for generating processed image data, and the generated processed image data is distributed to the terminal.

According to a thirtieth aspect of the present invention, in a terminal program for distributing an image from a server to a terminal via a communication network by controlling a computer, the display performance and operation contents for image data are transmitted to the server. Then, the server is made to receive the display performance and the operation content for the image data, and further, the resolution of the image data is set based on the communication amount with the server, the received display performance and the operation content. The image data having the changed resolution is received, and the image data having the changed resolution is received.

According to a thirty-first aspect of the present invention, in an image data acquisition program for distributing an image from a server to a terminal via a communication network by controlling a computer, the communication amount between the terminal and the server is increased. ,
It is characterized by executing a function of requesting the server to deliver the image data whose resolution is changed based on the display performance of the terminal and the operation content of the image data on the terminal side.

According to a thirty-second aspect of the present invention, the layout information of the image data to be distributed at the terminal, the operation content of the image data at the terminal, and an image for a person to fully recognize the content as information. It is characterized by executing an effective resolution determining function for determining the minimum required resolution of the image data to be distributed, based on the perceptual characteristic information indicating the perceptual characteristic of the image data and the display performance of the terminal.

According to a thirty-third aspect of the present invention, in the terminal, based on the layout information of the image data to be distributed and the resolution from the effective resolution object determining unit, an area required for prefetching the image data is determined. It is characterized by executing a reception range calculation function for determining the image area shown.

In the thirty-fourth aspect of the present invention, the terminal receives layout information of an image to be delivered from the server, determines the resolution of the image data by the effective resolution determining function, and determines the effective resolution. The resolution determined by the function and the image area determined by the reception range calculation function are transmitted to the server, and image data based on the resolution and the image area is delivered from the server. .

[0056]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the arrangement of an image data acquisition system according to the first embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1, the first embodiment of the present invention is
Terminal 1 which is a terminal for users to browse and operate information
And a server 2 such as a computer that stores image data and distributes it to the terminal, and a network 3 for communicating between the server and the terminal. Here, the image data includes a still image and a moving image (MotionJPEG2000, etc.).

The terminal 1 includes an input device 11 such as a keyboard, a mouse, a touch panel, etc., a data processing device 12 operated by program control, and a display device 13 such as a display device.

The data processing device 12 includes a display device information storage unit 22, a perceptual characteristic storage unit 21, a display area position / speed measurement unit 23, a display magnification control unit 24, an effective resolution object determination unit 25, a reception range calculation unit 26, Communication speed measurement unit 2
7, a transmitter / receiver 28, and an image data generator 29.

The display device information storage section 22 includes the display device 13
The display performance information (hereinafter, display performance information) is stored. The display performance information includes information such as the number of main scans and the number of sub scans indicating the resolution of the display device 13, information about the display size, and the like.

The perceptual characteristic storage unit 21 stores information about human visual perceptual characteristics of an image (hereinafter referred to as perceptual characteristic information).

The display area position / speed measuring unit 23 is operated by the terminal user (scroll display operation (movement) of image).
Measure the display position and display area speed of the display area that has been enlarged or reduced. Here, the display area 202 is the display target image data 20 in the server 2 as shown in FIG.
1 indicates an area displayed on the display device 13, and represents an arbitrary rectangular area having the same size as or smaller than the screen size of the terminal 1. The display position is the display target image data 201.
The positions of the vertices, the center of gravity, and other geometric points of the display area 202, with the origin being any of the vertices, the center of gravity, and other geometric points. The display area speed represents the amount of data per unit time required to update the image in the display area 202 when the display area 202 is moved or enlarged or reduced in the display target image data.

The display magnification control unit 24 calculates the number of pixels of the display target image data included in one pixel of the image displayed in the display area. When the enlargement / reduction operation is performed, the enlargement / reduction center position is stored together with the number of pixels of the display target image data.

The effective resolution object determining section 25 has information regarding the display area obtained from the display area position / speed measuring section 23 and the display magnification control section 24, the display performance information in the display device information storage section 22 and the server 2 described later. The layout information in the internal layout information storage unit 61 is acquired via the network 2, the layout information regarding the display target image data is processed, and the layout information is compared with the perceptual characteristic storage unit 21. Effective resolution object determination unit 25
This determines the components such as characters and figures that can be recognized (perceived) by the terminal user in the display area, and determines the resolution necessary for recognition. Also,
The effective resolution object determining unit 25 can also determine whether or not the determined resolution is a resolution that can be displayed by the terminal that transmits the information.

The reception range calculation unit 26 determines the area to be received in the image data based on the layout information from the layout information storage unit 61 and the processing result by the effective resolution object determination unit 25. In addition, the reception range calculation unit 2
6 uses the transmission / reception speed measured by the communication speed measurement unit 27, which will be described later, and the display area speed obtained by the display area position / speed measurement unit 23 to calculate the amount of data communication required for prefetching.

The transmitting / receiving unit 28 is a transmitting / receiving unit and control software for communication equipment such as a modem and a network card.

The communication speed measuring unit 27 is a unit for measuring the time required for transmitting / receiving a certain amount of data in the transmitting / receiving unit 28, and measuring the data communication amount within a certain period of time by the terminal 1 and the server 2. Measure the transmission and reception speed between.

The image data generation unit 29 is composed of a decoder for processing the image data obtained from the transmission / reception unit 28 so that it can be displayed on the display device 13. The format of the image data used in the present invention is a format in which an arbitrary resolution for an arbitrary display area of an image can be cut out from the entire image data. Typical examples of image formats that retain such characteristics are JPEG2000 and Flas.
The present invention can be applied to all image formats having similar characteristics, such as hpix.

The network 3 is a network such as the Internet.

The server 2 comprises a storage device 51 and a data processing device 52 which operates under program control.

The storage device 51 includes an image data storage unit 62.
And a layout information storage unit 61.

The image data storage section 62 stores image data to be transmitted to the terminal 1.

The layout information storage unit 61 stores layout information regarding image data to be transmitted to the terminal 1. Here, the layout information includes the types, sizes, positions, and the orientations and shapes of the components included in the display target image data.

The data processing device 52 is a transmission / reception unit 72 for transmitting / receiving data via the terminal 1 and the network 3.
And a transmission data generation unit 71.

The transmitting / receiving unit 72 is a transmitting / receiving unit and control software of a communication device such as a modem or a network card for communicating with the terminal 1 via the network 3.

The transmission data generation unit 71 receives the area to be received requested by the reception range calculation unit 26 in order to send it to the terminal 1 in a size smaller than the data communication amount calculated by the reception range calculation unit 26. Shape or process the power area,
This is a part for generating processed image data.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of this embodiment. Referring to FIGS. 1 and 3,
The operation of this embodiment will be described in detail.

First, the layout information regarding the display target image data is acquired from the server 2 (step A1).
With the input device 11, the terminal user performs a predetermined operation on the display area. Here, the predetermined operation includes a movement (scroll) operation of the display area and an enlargement / reduction operation. At this time, the display magnification control unit 24 records the display magnification of the display area set by the operation of the terminal user. In parallel with this, the display area position / speed measuring unit 23 measures the position and speed of the operated display area (steps A2 and A3 in FIG. 3).

The display position and speed information of the display area thus obtained, the display performance information of the display device 13 of the terminal 1 in the display device information storage unit 22, and the perceptual characteristic storage unit 2
From the perceptual characteristic information in 1 and the display magnification of the display area from the display magnification control unit 24, and the layout information regarding the display target image in the layout information storage unit 61, the effective resolution object determination unit 25 determines the prefetch difference of the display area. The area is calculated, the constituent elements of the image in the look-ahead difference area are determined, and the effective resolution required for human recognition for each constituent element is obtained by referring to the perceptual characteristic information, and the obtained effective Image components that can be displayed on the display device of the terminal are selected from the resolutions (step A4).

Here, in order to obtain the resolution (= resolution) of the constituent elements of the display area, the display magnification of the display area is required to obtain the resolution on the display device.

Here, the prefetch difference area 203 of the display area
With respect to, each of the display area moving operation and the enlargement / reduction operation will be described.

The prefetch difference area 203 at the time of moving operation is
This is a difference area between the area where the display area 202 is expected to move and the display area before the movement, as indicated by the shaded area in FIG.

Further, the prefetch difference area 2 at the time of enlarging / reducing operation
Reference numerals 04 and 205 are areas indicated by hatched portions in FIGS. 5 and 6, respectively. When the display magnification is enlarged, the area 204 of FIG. 5 is the prefetch difference area, and when the display magnification is reduced, the area 205 of FIG. 6 is the prefetch difference area. At this time, the prefetch difference area 204
The sizes of 205 and 205 and the enlargement / reduction center position are predicted from the display area magnification value and the enlargement / reduction center position in the operation history.

The effective resolution of the image component is the minimum resolution necessary for the human being to perceive the display device 13 at the display area speed and the display magnification of the image component such as characters and drawings. .

Next, using the result of step A4, the reception range calculator 26 selects the smallest partial image covering the prefetch difference area of the display area (step A5). Here, the partial image is an arbitrary rectangular area set when the target image is divided into a plurality of rectangular areas as shown in FIG.

Next, the data receiving speed measured by the communication speed measuring unit 27 and the display area position / speed measuring unit 23
From the display area speed obtained by
6, the time until the smallest partial image information covering the prefetch difference area starts to be displayed on the display device 13 is calculated,
Calculate the amount of data communication for receiving data from the server before the time passes (steps A6 and A).
7).

The partial image obtained in step A5 is requested to the server 2, and at the same time, the data communication amount obtained in step A7 is transmitted to the server 2 (step A8).

In the server 2, the partial image area is shaped or processed by the transmission data generation unit 71 so that the partial image data requested by the terminal 1 is less than the data communication amount designated by the terminal 1, and the processed image data is processed. Is generated and transmitted to the terminal 1. The transmission / reception unit 28 receives the image data, and at the same time, the communication speed measurement unit 27 updates the communication speed information (step A9). Next, of the image data received in step A10, the image data generation unit 2 sequentially enters the image data in the display area.
9 and the display device 13. If there is no change in the position information of the display area for a certain period of time, the process ends as it is, and if there is a change, the process returns to step A3 (step A11).

Here, the transmission data generation unit 71 shapes the partial image area, exceeds the terminal display performance in the visual characteristic information shown in FIG. The transmission data generation unit 71 edits the content so that the terminal 1 displays a dummy image (such as an icon indicating that the image component is not received) at the display position of the image component. And may be transmitted to the terminal 1.

Next, the effect of the first embodiment will be described. As described above, in the first embodiment,
Since all the information and processing unique to the terminal user are performed on the terminal 1 side, in the processing of the data processing device 52 in the server 2, it is possible to suppress an increase in load when the number of terminal users increases.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 7 shows a second embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an image data acquisition system according to the embodiment of FIG.

Referring to FIG. 7, according to the second embodiment of the present invention, the effective resolution object determining unit 25 in the data processing device 12 in the data processing device 14 in the terminal 4,
The difference is that there is no reception range calculation unit 26 and communication speed measurement unit 27, and in the server 5, the data processing device 5
3 includes a communication speed measuring unit 7 in the configuration of the data processing device 52.
3, the effective resolution object determination unit 74, and the reception range calculation unit 75 are different.

The operation of the second embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 8 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of this embodiment.

Steps A1 to A of the flowchart of FIG.
3, A9 to A11, the perceptual characteristic storage unit 21, the display device information storage unit 22, the display area position / speed measurement unit 23, the display magnification control unit 24, the image data generation unit 29, and the transmission / reception unit in the present embodiment. 28, the operation of the transmitting and receiving unit 72,
These respective units 21, 22 in the first embodiment,
This is similar to the operation of 23, 24, 29, 28 and 72.

In the first embodiment, step A in FIG.
In order to perform the processing of No. 4, it was necessary to communicate the information in the layout information storage unit 61 to the terminal 1 side via the network 3. In the present embodiment, step B2 in FIG.
7 is characterized in that the same processing as step A4 in FIG. 3 is performed by the effective resolution object determining unit 74 in the server 5 in FIG. Therefore, it is not necessary to send the information stored in the layout information storage unit 61 to the terminal 4.

Further, in the present embodiment, the processing which was performed in the communication speed measuring unit 27 in step A6 of FIG. 3 is performed in the communication speed measuring unit 73 in step B4 of FIG. 8 in the present embodiment. . This communication speed measurement unit may be on the server side as in the present embodiment, or may be on the terminal side as in the first embodiment.

On the other hand, the processing of steps B2 to B5 of FIG. 8 is performed by the transmission data generation unit 71, the communication speed measurement unit 73, the effective resolution object determination unit 74, and the reception range calculation unit 7.
This process is performed in step 5, but this processing is performed in steps A4 to A6 in FIG.
In the transmission data generation unit 71, the communication speed measurement unit 2
7. The processing is the same as the processing performed by the effective resolution object determination unit 25 and the reception range calculation unit 26.

In step A8 of FIG. 3, the information sent from the terminal 1 to the server 2 is the amount of data communication requested to the server 2 for the partial image obtained in step A4 and simultaneously transmitted to the terminal obtained in step A7. Is. On the other hand, in step B1 of FIG. 8, the terminal 4 transmits to the server 5 the perceptual characteristic information and the display performance information of the perceptual characteristic storage unit 21 and the display device information storage unit 22 and the image request of the prefetch difference region of the display region. However, the perceptual property storage unit 21 may be provided on the server side, in which case only the information in the display device information storage unit 22 and the image request for the prefetch difference region of the display region are sent to the server.

Next, the effect of the second embodiment will be described.

In the second embodiment, the image reception range calculation, which was performed on the terminal side in the first embodiment, is performed on the server side, and the layout information used in the calculation is transferred from the server side to the terminal side. Since this can be done without communication, it can be expected to reduce the amount of data communication from the terminal to the server and the processing load on the terminal side.

Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

Referring to FIG. 9, the third embodiment of the present invention is similar to the first and second embodiments of the present invention.
A terminal equipped with an input device, a data processing device, and a display device,
The storage device comprises a server equipped with a data processing device, and a network required for communication between the terminal and the server. Further, the terminal and the server calculate the range of images to be acquired in the first and second embodiments. The image data acquisition programs 15 and 54 for performing the processing are provided. The image data acquisition programs 15 and 54 are recording media such as a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, a semiconductor memory, and a magnetic memory, and may be other recording media.

The image data acquisition program 15 having the same function is read from the recording medium to the data processing device 16 in the terminal 1 and controls the operation of the data processing device 16. Further, in the server 2, the image data acquisition program 54 is read from the recording medium to the data processing device 55 and controls the operation of the data processing device 55.

The data processing devices 16 and 55 are the same as the data processing devices 12 and 52 in the first embodiment and the data processing devices 14 and 53 in the second embodiment under the control of the read program. Execute the process.

Next, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Such an example corresponds to the first embodiment of the present invention.

In this embodiment, a keyboard is used as an input device, a personal computer is used as a data processing device, a display is used as a display device, a terminal is provided with a modem as a transmission / reception unit, a personal computer is used as a data processing device, and a storage device is used. The server is equipped with a magnetic disk storage device, and the Internet is used as a network for these to communicate.

The storage device of the terminal stores display performance information, which is information relating to the display performance of the display of the terminal, and perceptual characteristic information in which the human visual perceptual characteristic is recorded. 12 and 13 show examples of stored data.
Shown in.

As shown in FIG. 12, the display performance information stored in the display device information storage section 22 stores the number of main scans, the number of sub-scans of the display, and the length of the diagonal line of the display. Besides the diagonal lines, the vertical and horizontal lengths of the display may be used.

The human perceptual characteristic information stored in the perceptual characteristic storage unit 21 includes the size and size of each object such as a character or a figure in the average human visual acuity as shown in FIG. When the representative value of the spatial frequency and the magnitude of the velocity from the observer have a certain value, the resolution required to be recognized as a character or a figure is stored.

In the perceptual characteristic information shown in FIG. 13, for example, of the resolution values, it is determined that -1 dpi is judged not to be recognized by humans from the human visual characteristics.
As an example, it can be considered that 300 dpi is determined to be undisplayable on the display device of the terminal.

The human perceptual characteristics of the image stored in the perceptual characteristic storage unit 21 will be described in more detail.
As the information of the human perceptual characteristics to be stored, for example, in the case of characters and line drawing figures, 1979, Science, 2
06, 468-469 (Rayner, K. Bertera, J.
H. 1979 Reading without a fovea. Science, 206, 468
-469), the necessary viewing angle from 8 minutes to 1 degree for recognizing characters, and 1975 Perception and Psychophysics, Vol. 17, 57.
8 to 586 (McConkie, GW Rayner, K. 1975 The
span of effective stimulus during a fixation in re
ading.Perception and Psychophysics, 17, 578-586)
It is possible to use a value such that the effective visual field area required for normal reading is 15 character spaces as shown in FIG.

Furthermore, as the characteristics necessary for perceiving and recognizing the object displayed in the image, other than the above, the correspondence between the shape of the object and the required resolution,
The brightness and color tone of the object itself, the difference in brightness, color tone and contrast between the surrounding area and the target, the required number of pixels and line width, the number of points and series, the area range to be displayed for each object, the allowable amount of image effect adaptation. , Recommended display angles and sizes, recommended fonts and primitives, reference vectors for objects, object moving speeds (absolute speed and relative speed), recommended values for combining multiple objects and displaying them side by side, etc. can give.

Since appropriate values for these are variable with respect to the actual size of the display device, the display performance of the display device, the positional relationship between the viewer and the display device, etc., these values can be adapted to the viewing conditions as necessary. Store and use information.

The operation of the first embodiment of the present invention will be further described. Consider a case where a command for moving processing is input from a keyboard to a display area displaying a part or all of an image on a terminal.

At this time, the terminal measures the position and speed (pixel / sec) in the image of the display area and simultaneously obtains the value of the magnification of the display area. Then, the layout information of the target image is acquired from the server. This layout information is OC
It can be obtained by analysis of R, etc., and the type, size, position, orientation, shape, etc. of the constituent elements included in the image are recorded.

The prefetch difference area is calculated from this layout information, the position and speed of the display area, and the display performance information which is the information of the display of the terminal as shown in FIG.
What constituent elements are present as an image to be displayed next in the look-ahead difference area and what size and speed they are to be displayed in are calculated.

Then, by referring to a human perception characteristic information table as shown in FIG. 13, it is determined whether or not each displayable component can be recognized by a human, and the image configuration determined to be recognized is recognized. Obtain the effective resolution required for human recognition of an element.

The constituent elements for which the obtained effective resolution can be expressed on the display of the terminal are selected, and thereby the positional information in the image data and the effective resolution information necessary for recognition are obtained for each constituent element. Next, the communication speed is regularly measured by a program in the data processing device, and the display area image after the movement is determined from the time until the display area is newly moved, which is obtained from the speed information and the display area speed. Determine the size of the data needed to generate in time. These image data requests, position and resolution information regarding image components, and data traffic are transmitted to the server via the network.

The server reads the image data requested by the terminal from the magnetic disk storage device. If the size of the read data is equal to or larger than the data size requested by the terminal, the transmission data generation unit processes the read image data so as to be equal to or smaller than the requested data size. Specifically, there are the following image data processing methods.

(1) Reduce the image area.

(2) Decrease the overall resolution in the image area.

(3) Of the image components such as characters and figures,
Delete from the one that is far from the recognized viewing angle or speed.

Here, as the processing method of (1) for reducing the image area, for example, a method of sequentially excluding from the portion farther than the current display area in the image coordinate system from the transmission target, or requesting in raster order It is conceivable that the data size will be the transmission target. Alternatively, a method may be used in which the entire display area has a constant resolution regardless of image constituent elements, and only the data size requested in raster order is transmitted.

After performing such processing on the read image data as necessary, the server transmits the image data to the terminal. In the terminal, the image data received from the server is converted into a format that can be displayed on the display by using a decoder corresponding to the format of the image data, and the converted data is displayed on the display so as to be in the prefetch difference area.

In the above description, an example in which a keyboard is used as a command input means for instructing a moving process or an enlarging / reducing process for a display area displaying a part or all of an image on a terminal has been described. For, may be performed using a pointing device such as a mouse. In that case, the moving direction and the moving amount can be determined from the moving amount of the pointing device in a unit time, and a more intuitive operation can be provided.

Further, the present invention can be implemented in any operation means having an input function similar to these.
For example, input means using voice input or image input means, an optical sensor, an acceleration sensor, a temperature sensor, various switches, etc. can be used.

Further, the data processing device, the display device, the communication device, the storage device, and the like are the personal computers used in the above description.
The present invention can be implemented not only in a computer or a modem but also in any device as long as it has a function capable of realizing the functions of the present invention, regardless of its processing capability.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments and examples, the present invention is not necessarily limited to the above-described embodiments and examples, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the technical idea. It can be modified and implemented.

For example, the perceptual characteristic storage unit 21 provided in the terminal 1 of the first embodiment performs the determination processing of the effective resolution, the partial image, and the data communication amount required for prefetching according to the present invention.
Effective resolution object determination unit 25, reception range calculation unit 2
6. By providing the communication speed measuring unit 27 in the determination device 80 which is another device as shown in FIG. 14, the determination device 80 determines the resolution, the partial image area, and the data communication amount required for prefetching. It is also possible to have a configuration to execute.

That is, in the example of FIG. 14, first, the terminal operation information indicating the viewing state of the image on the terminal 1 is acquired and notified to the determination device 80. In other words, display area position
Information on the position of the display area of the image being displayed on the terminal 1 by the speed measuring unit 23, information on the display area indicating the speed of the operation of moving the image, and one pixel on the display screen by the display magnification control unit 24. The display magnification information indicating the number of pixels of image data and the display performance information by the display device information storage unit 22 are sent from the terminal 1 to the determination device 80.

Then, the terminal 1 acquires the layout information from the server 2 via the network 2 and sends it to the judging device 80 together with the communication speed obtained from the communication speed measuring unit 27.

The determination device 70 uses the perceptual characteristic information stored in the perceptual characteristic storage unit 21, the terminal operation information sent from the terminal 1, and the layout information of the image acquired from the server 2 via the terminal 1, The resolution and the partial image area are determined by executing the same processing as in the case of the terminal 1 of the first embodiment.

Then, the judgment device 80 judges the judgment result of the resolution, the partial image area and the data communication amount necessary for prefetching,
The server 2 is notified via the terminal 1, and the server 2 accepts the designation of the resolution, the partial image area, and the data communication amount required for prefetching, generates the designated image data, and delivers it to the terminal 1.

The determination processing of the resolution, the partial image area, and the data communication amount required for prefetching according to the present invention is performed by the communication speed measuring unit 7 provided in the server 2 of the second embodiment.
3, the effective resolution object determination unit 74 and the reception range calculation unit 75 are provided in the determination device 90, which is another device, as shown in FIG. 15, so that the determination device 90 needs the resolution, the partial image area, and the prefetching. It is also possible to have a configuration in which the determination processing with a large data communication amount is executed.

That is, in the example of FIG. 15, the server 2 first sends the layout information in the layout information storage unit 61 to the determination device 90 together with the communication speed obtained from the communication speed measurement unit 73. Then, the server 2 receives the terminal operation information from the terminal 1 (information on the position of the display area of the image being displayed,
Information about the display speed indicating the speed of the operation of moving the image, information about the display magnification indicating the number of pixels of the image data for one pixel on the display screen, display performance information of the display screen), and perceptual characteristic information are acquired. , To the determination device 90.

Then, the determination device 90 determines the resolution, the partial image area, and the data communication amount required for prefetching using the above-described information, as in the server 2 of the second embodiment.

Then, the determination device 90 notifies the server 2 of the determination result of the resolution, the partial image area, and the data communication amount required for prefetching, and the server 2 accepts and specifies the resolution and the partial image area. The generated image data is generated and delivered to the terminal 1.

In addition to the configuration in which the determination device is connected to the terminal 1 or the server 2 as shown in the examples of FIGS. 14 and 15, there is also a configuration in which the determination device communicates with both the terminal 1 and the server 2 via the network. It can be implemented similarly.

[0139]

As described above, according to the present invention, the following effects can be achieved.

First, according to the present invention, when an image is acquired from the server on the terminal side, the time until the display area information is updated is suppressed when the display area in which the terminal user is interested is moved. At the same time, the display area image information can be updated while providing image quality that is easily recognized by humans.

The reason is that the layout information describing the structure of the image and the information of the terminal user such as the magnification and update speed of the display area are used to communicate the highest resolution image information, not the user. This is because image data that is easily recognized by the user is constructed and communication is performed.

Secondly, according to the present invention, it is possible to flexibly set the load sharing of processing in the terminal and the server. The reason is that, as described in the first and second embodiments of the present invention, the layout information describing the structure of the image and the processing of the information of the terminal user such as the magnification and update rate of the display area are processed in the first embodiment. This is because while it can be performed on the terminal side as shown in the above embodiment, it can also be performed on the server side as shown in the second embodiment.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an image data acquisition system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a definition of a display area according to the first embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining an image data acquisition operation according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the definition of a prefetch difference area during a moving operation according to the first embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the definition of a prefetch difference area at the time of an enlargement operation according to the first embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining the definition of a prefetch difference area at the time of reduction operation according to the first embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an image data acquisition system according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart for explaining an image data acquisition operation according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an image data acquisition system according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating the definition of a partial image according to the third embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining an example of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a diagram for explaining an example of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a diagram for explaining an example of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an image acquisition system according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an image acquisition system according to still another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 terminal 2 servers 3 network 11 Input device 12 Data processing device 13 Display 14 Data processing device 15 Image data acquisition program 16 Data processing device 21 Perceptual characteristic storage unit 22 Display device information storage unit 23 Display area position / speed measurement unit 24 Display magnification control section 25 Effective Resolution Object Determining Section 26 Reception range calculator 27 Communication speed measurement unit 28 Transmitter / receiver 29 Image data generator 51 storage device 52 Data processing device 53 Data processing device 54 Image data acquisition program 55 Data processing equipment 61 Layout information storage unit 62 image data storage unit 71 Transmission data generator 72 Transmitter / receiver 73 Communication speed measurement unit 74 Effective Resolution Object Determining Section 75 Reception range calculator 80,90 Judgment device 201 Display target image data 202 display area 203 Look-ahead difference area

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) G09G 5/00 510 G09G 5/00 555D F term (reference) 5B057 AA20 CA16 CB16 CD02 CD05 CH01 CH11 CH14 DA16 DC30 DC32 5C082 AA01 BA12 BB01 BB42 BB44 BB53 CA32 CA52 CA54 CB03 DA42 DA53 DA73 DA86 MM09 MM10 5L096 BA20 DA02 EA03 FA54 FA69 GA08 HA04 LA05 LA11 MA03

Claims (34)

[Claims] 1. A server in an image data acquisition system that distributes image data to a terminal via a communication network, the amount of communication with the terminal, display performance of the terminal, and the image data of the terminal side. A server which distributes by changing the resolution of the image data on the basis of the operation content for the. 2. Layout information of the image data to be distributed, operation contents of the image data in the terminal,
It is provided with an effective resolution object determining unit that determines the resolution of the image data to be distributed based on the perceptual characteristic information indicating the perceptual characteristic of the image for human beings to sufficiently recognize the content as information, and the display performance in the terminal. The server according to claim 1, wherein the server is a server. 3. A reception range calculation unit that determines an image region indicating a region necessary for prefetching the image data based on layout information of the image data to be distributed and the resolution from the effective resolution object determination unit. The server according to claim 2, further comprising: 4. The reception range calculation unit uses the operation content to calculate a data communication amount for receiving a pre-reading region within a fixed time, and the image region at the resolution is communicated with the data communication amount less than or equal to the data communication amount. In order to communicate by volume, the image area is processed based on the resolution determined by the effective resolution object determination section, the image area determined by the reception range calculation section, and the data communication volume, and a processed image is processed. The server according to claim 3, further comprising: a transmission data generation unit that generates data, and distributes the generated processed image data to the terminal. 5. A perceptual property storage unit for storing and referring to the perceptual property information, wherein the effective resolution object determination unit extracts the perceptual property information from the perceptual property storage unit and determines a resolution of the image data. The server according to any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein 6. The position of the display area of the image data being displayed on the terminal from the terminal, the display area speed indicating the speed of change by the operation of the image data, and one pixel in the display screen of the image. Each data of the display magnification indicating the number of pixels of the image data of the image is received as the operation content, and the effective resolution object determination unit is an area in which the image displayed on the terminal is expected to change and the area before the change. Calculate a look-ahead difference area that is the difference with the display area, based on the perceptual characteristic information, the image components in the look-ahead difference area, the display area speed and the display magnification shown in the operation content, human 6. The minimum resolution required for perceived by the user is calculated as the resolution of the image, according to any one of claims 2 to 5.
One listed server. 7. The reception range calculation unit determines, as the image region of the image, a set of rectangular regions that covers the prefetch difference region determined by the effective resolution object determination unit. The server described in. 8. A terminal that acquires image data distributed from a server via a communication network, transmits display performance and operation contents for image data to the server, and the server displays the display performance and the image. The operation content for the data is received, and further, the resolution of the image data is changed and distributed based on the communication volume with the server, the received display performance and the operation content, and the resolution is changed. A terminal which receives the image data. 9. A terminal in an image data acquisition system for acquiring image data distributed from a server via a communication network, the amount of communication with the server, the display performance of the terminal, and the image on the terminal side. A terminal for requesting the server to deliver the image data, the resolution of which has been changed, based on the content of operation on the data. 10. Layout information of the image data to be distributed, operation contents of the image data, perceptual property information indicating perceptual property to an image for a person to sufficiently recognize the contents as information, and display on the terminal. 10. An effective resolution object determination unit that determines the resolution of the image data based on performance is provided.
The terminal described in. 11. A reception range calculation unit that determines an image region indicating a region required for prefetching of the image data based on layout information of the image data to be distributed and the resolution from the effective resolution object determination unit. The terminal according to claim 10, further comprising: 12. A perceptual property storage unit that stores and refers to the perceptual property information, wherein the effective resolution object determination unit extracts the perceptual property information from the perceptual property storage unit and determines a resolution of the image data. The terminal according to claim 10 or 11, characterized in that. 13. A position of a display area of image data being displayed, a display area speed indicating a speed of change due to an operation of the image data, and a pixel of image data of the image with respect to one pixel in a display screen of the image. The terminal according to any one of claims 9 to 13, wherein each piece of data of display magnification indicating a number is acquired as the operation content. 14. The effective resolution object determining unit calculates a look-ahead difference area which is a difference between an area where an image being displayed on the terminal is expected to change and a display area before the change, Based on the display area speed and the display magnification indicated by the operation content, the image component in the prefetch difference area is calculated as the resolution of the image, which is the minimum resolution required for human perception. The terminal according to any one of claims 10 to 13, characterized in that. 15. The reception range calculation unit determines, as the image region of the image, a set of rectangular regions covering the prefetch difference region determined by the effective resolution object determination unit. The terminal described in. 16. The terminal according to claim 10, further comprising the effective resolution object determination unit and the reception range calculation unit as external devices. 17. An image data acquisition method for delivering an image from a server to a terminal via a communication network, comprising: a communication amount between the server and the terminal; a display performance at the terminal; and the image data at the terminal side. An image data acquisition method characterized in that the resolution of the image data is changed and distributed based on the operation content. 18. Layout information of the image data to be distributed, operation contents of the image data in the terminal, perceptual characteristic information indicating perceptual characteristics with respect to an image for a person to sufficiently recognize the contents as information, 18. The image data acquisition method according to claim 17, further comprising an effective resolution determining step of determining a minimum necessary resolution of the image data to be distributed, based on the display performance of the terminal. 19. A reception range calculation step of deciding an image area indicating an area required for prefetching of the image data based on layout information of the image data to be distributed and a resolution obtained in the effective resolution deciding step. The image data acquisition method according to claim 18, wherein: 20. Based on the resolution determined by the effective resolution determination step and the image area determined by the reception range calculation step for image data to be distributed by the server, a portion of the image area according to the resolution. 20. The image data acquisition method according to claim 19, further comprising: a transmission data generation step of generating image data indicating the above, and a step of distributing the generated image data to the terminal. 21. The terminal has the effective resolution object determining step and the reception range calculating step, and receives the layout information of image data to be distributed from the server,
The resolution of the image is determined by the effective resolution determination step, the resolution determined in the effective resolution determination step and the image area determined in the reception range calculation step are transmitted to the server, and the server, The specification of the resolution and the image area for the image to be distributed is received from the terminal, and the transmission data generating step generates image data indicating the image based on the specified resolution and the image area, and generates the image data. 21. The image data acquisition method according to claim 20, further comprising: delivering the generated image data to the terminal. 22. The terminal comprises a step of transmitting the operation content of the image data to the server, the server comprising the effective resolution object determining step and the reception range calculating step, Upon receiving the operation content, determining the resolution of the image in the effective resolution determining step, based on the resolution determined in the effective resolution determining step and the image area determined in the receiving range calculating step, 21. The image data acquisition method according to claim 20, wherein image data indicating the image is generated by the transmission data generation step, and the generated image data is distributed to the terminal. 23. A position of a display area of an image being displayed on the terminal, a display area speed indicating a speed of an operation of moving the image, and the image for one pixel on a display screen of the image. 23. The image data acquisition method according to claim 21 or 22, further comprising a step of acquiring each data of a display magnification indicating the number of pixels of the image data as the operation content. 24. In the effective resolution determining step, a look-ahead difference area, which is a difference between an area in which an image being displayed on the terminal is expected to change and a display area before the change, is calculated, Based on the display area speed and the display magnification indicated by the operation content, the image component in the prefetch difference area is calculated as the resolution of the image, which is the minimum resolution required for human perception. 24. The image data acquisition method according to claim 23, further comprising: 25. The reception range calculation step includes a step of determining a set of rectangular areas covering the prefetch difference area determined by the effective resolution object determination unit as the image area of the image. The image data acquisition method according to claim 24. 26. By controlling a computer,
In an image data acquisition program for distributing an image from a server to a terminal via a communication network, in the server, the amount of communication with the terminal, the display performance of the terminal, and the operation content for the image data on the terminal side An image acquisition program, which executes a function of changing the resolution of the image data and delivering the image data based on the image data. 27. Layout information of the image data to be distributed at the server, operation contents of the image data at the terminal, and perception indicating an image perception characteristic for a person to fully recognize the contents as information. 27. The image acquisition program according to claim 26, which executes an effective resolution determining function for determining the resolution of image data to be distributed, based on the characteristic information and the display performance of the terminal. 28. Based on the layout information of the image data to be distributed and the resolution determined by the effective resolution determining function, the server determines an image area indicating an area required for prefetching the image data. The image acquisition program according to claim 27, which executes a reception range calculation function. 29. The reception range calculation function calculates a data communication amount for receiving a prefetch area within a fixed time by using the operation content, and sets the image area according to the resolution to be equal to or less than the data communication amount. In order to communicate with the amount of communication, the image area is processed and processed based on the resolution determined by the effective resolution object determination function, the image area determined by the reception range calculation function, and the data communication amount. 29. The image acquisition program according to claim 28, further comprising a transmission data generation function for generating image data, and delivering the generated processed image data to the terminal. 30. By controlling a computer,
In an image data acquisition program for distributing an image from a server to a terminal via a communication network, the display performance and the operation content for the image data are transmitted to the server, and the display performance and the operation content for the image data are transmitted to the server. Receiving, further changing the resolution of the image data for distribution based on the communication volume with the server, the received display performance and the operation content, and receiving the image data with the changed resolution. A terminal program characterized by: 31. By controlling a computer,
In an image data acquisition program for delivering an image from a server to a terminal via a communication network, in the terminal, the amount of communication with the server, the display performance in the terminal, and the operation content for the image data on the terminal side An image acquisition program, characterized by executing a function of requesting the server to deliver the image data having a changed resolution. 32. Layout information of the image data to be distributed at the terminal, operation contents of the image data at the terminal, and perception indicating an image perception characteristic for a person to fully recognize the contents as information. The image acquisition program according to claim 31, which executes an effective resolution determining function that determines a minimum required resolution of image data to be distributed, based on the characteristic information and the display performance of the terminal. 33. The terminal determines an image area indicating an area necessary for pre-reading of the image data, based on layout information of the image data to be distributed and the resolution from the effective resolution object determining unit. 33. The image acquisition program according to claim 32, which executes a reception range calculation function. 34. The terminal receives layout information of an image to be delivered from the server, determines the resolution of the image data by the effective resolution determining function, and determines the resolution determined by the effective resolution determining function. 34. The image area determined by the reception range calculation function is transmitted to the server, and image data based on the resolution and the image area is delivered from the server.
The image acquisition program described in.