JP2003323456A - Image display device and image display method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve operability when displaying an image, and to reconcile high speed and high image quality in synoptic display and detailed display of the image. <P>SOLUTION: In a synoptic display operation of the image, a thumbnail image preserved in a second memory region 38 is displayed after its display size is adjusted by an image conversion part 30. Then, the original image preserved in the second memory region 38 is converted into an image having higher accuracy than the thumbnail image and the same size as the thumbnail image by the image conversion part 30, and the displayed thumbnail image is updated by the image. In a detailed display operation of the image, a high-speed display image is displayed on a first memory region 36 after being subjected to low- accuracy interpolation resizing by the image conversion part 30. Then, the original image in the second memory region 38 is subjected to high-accuracy interpolation resizing by the image conversion part 30, and the detailed display is updated by the image. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an image display technique. The present invention particularly relates to an apparatus and method for displaying a digitalized image.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, digital cameras have become widespread.
Images are stored as digital data in a digital camera. The image is viewed on a monitor of a PC (personal computer) or digital camera, or printed on paper or the like. When viewing an image on a PC, an image viewer, which is image display software, is used. Although there are various kinds of image viewers, the contents to be displayed generally are a list of folders, a list of images, and details of images. Here, the folder list display is a tree display of the folder hierarchy, the image list display is a display of all the images in the folder, and the image detail display is a large display of a predetermined image so that it can be scrutinized. That is.

An image viewer capable of displaying a list of folders, a list of images, and details of images on one screen can generally change the images displayed in detail only by selecting a predetermined image from the list of images. Therefore, operability is taken into consideration. FIG. 1 shows an example of a display screen of the image viewer. In FIG. 1, the contents described above are displayed as a folder window 10, a list display window 12, and a detailed display window 14.

Further, the image viewer has a function of displaying the image on the entire screen in order to make the image look as large and detailed as possible. Further, when viewing a plurality of images, the image viewer has a function of continuously updating and displaying the images because the procedure of selecting individual images is omitted.

In many image viewers, the images displayed in the list do not use the thumbnail images attached to the original images,
It is created by reading the original image, decoding it, and reducing it. This is because the thumbnail image attached to the original image generally has a problem in image quality. Further, regarding the image of the detailed display, when the number of pixels of the original image is larger than the number of pixels of the display screen, it is necessary to reduce and display the original image. For example, this includes Nearest Neighbor
The bor method and the bi-cubic convolution method are used. Compared with the nearest neighbor method, the bicubic method has a large amount of calculation for interpolation, but is characterized by excellent image quality.

[0006]

In recent years, the number of pixels of images handled by image viewers, particularly digital camera images, has increased remarkably. The number of pixels of the digital cameras which are widely used today is about 2 to 5 million pixels.

Under these circumstances, the present inventor has come to recognize the following problems. Generally, the number of pixels of a monitor of a PC is around 1 million pixels, which is smaller than the number of pixels of a digital camera. Further, the number of pixels that can be displayed on the detailed screen of the conventional image viewer requires a certain space for displaying a list of folders, for example, and is smaller than the number of pixels of a PC monitor. Therefore, generally, the user expands the display area of the detailed screen and uses it. FIG. 2 shows the image viewer in that state. In FIG. 2, the display areas of the folder window 10 and the list display window 12 are compressed. When operating the folder in this state, it is necessary to first make the detail display window 14 small to secure the vertical size of the folder window 10. Further, when browsing the list image, it is necessary to secure the horizontal size of the list display window 12. As described above, there has been a problem that frequent window adjustments are required and the operability of the image viewer is deteriorated.

In addition, when the image is displayed on the entire screen, the user interface disappears from the screen, which causes a problem that it takes time to switch the display image. Further, when a plurality of images are continuously updated and displayed, there is a problem that the frame advance order and the display interval need to be set in advance, and changes or adjustments cannot be made during the update and display.

As the number of pixels of the digital camera increases, the process of reading, decoding, and reducing the original image in the image list display becomes slower, which causes a problem that the time required to display the image list becomes long. On the other hand, when the original image is converted to the number of pixels of the monitor such as PC in the detailed screen display
The nearest neighbor method has a problem in that a satisfactory image quality cannot be obtained because jaggies occur at the edges, and the bicubic method requires high-precision interpolation, and thus it takes time to display.

The present invention has been made to solve these problems, and its purpose is to improve the operability when displaying images and to achieve high-speed and high-speed display of images in a list display and detailed display. It is compatible with image quality.

[0011]

One aspect of the present invention relates to an image display device. This device includes an image processing unit having an image conversion unit, and a display control unit that performs control for displaying an image processed by the image processing unit. With this configuration, the image conversion unit reads the thumbnail image attached to the original image and outputs the thumbnail image to the display control unit when displaying the list of images, and then the original image is more accurate than the thumbnail image. The thumbnail image is converted into an image of the same size and is output to the display control unit. The display control unit first displays the thumbnail image, and then updates the display of the thumbnail image with the image of the same size.

The "original image" is used both as a file in which an image captured by a device having a function of capturing an image such as a digital camera is converted into digital data and an image in which the file is displayed on a monitor or the like. Further, the image displayed on a monitor or the like includes an image which is adjusted or processed in accordance with the number of pixels of the monitor.

A "thumbnail image" is a file in which an image having a small number of pixels attached to an image captured by a device having a function of capturing an image such as a digital camera is converted into digital data and the file is displayed on a monitor or the like. Used for image ambiguity. Further, the image displayed on a monitor or the like includes an image which is adjusted or processed in accordance with the number of pixels of the monitor.

The "high accuracy" includes a state in which the image has a high resolution, that is, a large number of pixels, a state in which the number of quantized colors is large, and a state in which the image has little aliasing and a high decomposition rate. The “same size” means that the display areas of the images on the monitor and the like are the same, but here also includes roughly the same. Therefore, the range that the human eyes perceive to be the same size is included in the “same size”. According to this device, a high-speed image display is possible by displaying the thumbnail image attached to the original image. Further, the displayed image is updated with an image based on the original image, so that the image quality is improved.

Another aspect of the present invention relates to an image display device. This device includes an image processing unit having an image conversion unit, and a display control unit that performs control for displaying an image processed by the image processing unit. With this configuration, the image conversion unit generates an image for high-speed display in advance from the original image and saves it before displaying the detailed image, and when the detailed display of the image is instructed, the image conversion unit reads the image for high-speed display. This is output to the display control unit, then the original image is output to the display control unit,
The display control unit first displays the high-speed display image, and then updates the display of the high-speed display image with the original image.

The "high-speed display image" is used to mean both digital image data created by thinning out pixels from the original image and an image displayed on a monitor or the like. Further, the image displayed on the monitor or the like includes an image which is adjusted or processed in accordance with the number of pixels of the monitor.

Another aspect of the present invention relates to an image display device. This device includes an image processing unit having an image conversion unit, and a display control unit that performs control for displaying an image processed by the image processing unit. With this configuration, the image conversion unit generates an image for high-speed display in advance from the original image and saves it before displaying the detailed image, and when the detailed display of the image is instructed, the image conversion unit reads the image for high-speed display. This is output to the display control unit, and then the image for high-speed display is converted to a higher-precision image and output to the display control unit.The display control unit first displays the high-speed display image, and then the high-speed display image. The display of the high-speed display image is updated by the image obtained by converting the display image with higher accuracy.

The "image in which the high-speed display image is converted with higher accuracy" is an image in which the high-speed display image is interpolated and resized, and which has a higher accuracy than the high-speed display image already displayed on the monitor or the like. Is a resized image of. According to this device, since the high-speed display image is displayed in detail by the resize of the low-precision interpolation, high-speed image display is possible. Further, the image displayed in detail is updated with the high-precision interpolation resize image of the high-speed display image and the high-precision interpolation resize image of the original image, thereby improving the image quality.

The image converting section may generate and store a high-speed display image from the original image in the background while displaying the list of images. Alternatively, a high-speed display image may be generated and stored for the original images included in the folder selected by the user as a unit.
In addition, an intermediate image with multi-step accuracy is sequentially generated and output between the first output image and the last output image, and the display control unit outputs the image first acquired from the image conversion unit and the last output. By displaying the intermediate image generated stepwise between the images, the high-precision image may be gradually displayed. Further, the high-speed display image may be generated by thinning out the number of pixels of the original image.

Still another aspect of the present invention relates to an image display device. This device includes an image processing unit including an operation unit for a user to select any one of a plurality of modes for displaying a predetermined combination of image list display, detailed display, and folder display, and an image conversion unit. And a display control unit that performs control for displaying the image processed by the image processing unit. With this configuration, the operation unit shares the contents to be displayed on the screen in a plurality of modes, thereby realizing all aspects of the display in the plurality of modes.

According to this apparatus, the image list display, the image detail display, and the folder list display are displayed not on one screen but on a plurality of screens, so that an appropriate display area is secured for them. Therefore, it is not necessary to adjust the window size frequently.

Yet another aspect of the present invention relates to an image display method. According to this method, in the first mode of displaying a list of images and a list of folders, a display in which a relatively large area is allocated to the list of images is performed, and a second list of displaying a list of images and details of images is performed. In the mode, the image details are displayed by allocating a relatively large area.
The size of each image displayed in the list of images in the second mode is made larger than the size of each image displayed in the list of images in the second mode.

Yet another aspect of the present invention relates to an image display method. This method includes the steps of reading the thumbnail image attached to the original image and displaying it first when displaying a list of images, and then the original image is more accurate than the thumbnail image and has the same size as the thumbnail image. It includes the steps of converting to images and updating the display of thumbnail images with images of the same size.

Yet another aspect of the present invention relates to an image display method. This method includes the steps of generating an image for high-speed display in advance from the original image and saving the image before displaying the image in detail, and reading the image for high-speed display and displaying it first when the image is displayed in detail. And subsequently updating the display of the high-speed display image with the original image.

Yet another aspect of the present invention relates to an image display method. This method includes the steps of generating an image for high-speed display in advance from the original image and saving the image before displaying the image in detail, and reading the image for high-speed display and displaying it first when the image is displayed in detail. And a step of updating the display of the high-speed display image with an image obtained by converting the high-speed display image with higher accuracy.

The step of generating and saving the high-speed display image from the original image may be performed in the background while displaying the list of images. The method may further stepwise display intermediate images with multiple levels of accuracy between the first displayed image and the last displayed image.

Yet another aspect of the present invention relates to an image display method. In this method, a list of images is displayed with the image displayed on the entire screen and a part of the image displayed on the entire screen being overlapped, and a predetermined image is selected by the user from the list of displayed images. Then, the image displayed on the entire screen is updated with the image selected by the user.

Yet another aspect of the present invention relates to an image display method. This method displays a list of images separately from this image when images are sequentially and continuously displayed at predetermined time intervals, and when a predetermined image is selected from the images in the list, the selected image is selected. Images are continuously displayed with the new images as new starting points.

It is to be noted that any combination of the above constituent elements, and the expression of the present invention converted between a method, an apparatus, a system, a recording medium, a computer program, etc. are also effective as an aspect of the present invention.

[0030]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The first embodiment is a technique that mainly solves both high-speed display and high image quality in the list display and the detailed display of images, and the second, third, and fourth embodiments mainly relate to operability in image display. It is a technology to solve the improvement.

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an image display device 100 according to Embodiment 1. This configuration
In terms of hardware, it can be realized by a CPU, memory, or other LSI of an arbitrary computer, and in terms of software, it is realized by a program loaded in the memory, but here, the functional blocks realized by their cooperation. Is drawn. Therefore, these functional blocks can be realized in various forms by only hardware, only software, or a combination thereof.
It will be understood by those skilled in the art.

The image display device 100 shown in FIG.
It has a display controller 22 and an image processor 24. The image processing unit 24 also includes an image conversion unit 30, a control signal generation unit 32, and a memory 34. Further, the memory 34 has a first memory area 36 and a second memory area 38.

The monitor 20 displays an image based on the electric signal input from the control display section 22. For example, a CRT monitor or a liquid crystal monitor corresponds to this. Display control unit 22
Generates an electric signal necessary for displaying an image on the monitor 20 from a signal input from the image processing unit 24 and outputs the electric signal to the monitor 20. For example, in a PC, a display driver or a display adapter corresponds to this. The image processing unit 24 stores the image converted into digital data, performs a predetermined calculation necessary for displaying the image according to an instruction from the user, and outputs the result. The memory 34 stores the image converted into digital data, the image conversion unit 30 performs a predetermined calculation and a result output, and the control signal generation unit 32 controls the memory 34 and the image conversion unit 30 according to an instruction from the user. To generate a signal.

In addition, the first memory area 36 of the memory 34
Is a main memory that is a RAM, and the second memory area 38 is a hard disk. Therefore, generally, the first memory area 36 can read and write data faster than the second memory area 38. Further, since the capacity of the second memory area 38 is generally larger than the capacity of the first memory area 36, the original image is stored in the second memory area 38.

The operation of the image display device 100 of FIG. 3 is roughly classified into an image list display operation and a detailed display operation. The image list display is a display of all the images in the folder, and the image detail display is a large display of a predetermined image so that it can be scrutinized. The image list display operation is shown in the flowchart of FIG.

As a precondition, it is assumed that a predetermined folder has been selected by the user, and the control signal generation unit 32 instructs the second memory area 38 on the image address, read timing, etc. based on the information. Instructing the image conversion unit 30 to resize the image.

The image converter 30 sets the counter i to 0 (S10). Then, when the thumbnail image is attached to the original image corresponding to i (Y in S14), the image conversion unit 30 reads the stored thumbnail image from the second memory area 38 and adjusts the display size. Therefore, the resized thumbnail image is output to the display control unit 22. Then, this thumbnail image is displayed on the monitor 20 (S18). If no thumbnail image is attached to the original image corresponding to i (S14)
N), the image conversion unit 30 creates an empty thumbnail having only the frame and the file name (S16). 1 is added to i (S2
0), the above operation is continued until i becomes the number of images in the folder (Y of S12). With the above operation, a list of images in the folder based on the thumbnail images is displayed on the screen.

When i reaches the number of images in the folder (S
12 N) and i are set to 0 again (S22). If there is no thumbnail image in the image corresponding to i, or if it cannot be confirmed that it is a thumbnail created from high-quality software (Y in S24), the second memory area 38
The original image stored in the thumbnail image is read, and is converted into an image having the same size as the thumbnail image with higher accuracy than the thumbnail image by decoding and resizing (S26). Then, the thumbnail image displayed by this image is updated (S
28). 1 is added to i (S30), and the process is continued until i becomes the number of images in the folder (Y of S32). By the above operation, a list of images in the folder based on the original image is displayed on the screen.

The above-described image list display operation will be summarized in terms of the flow of image data on the memory. FIG. 5 shows images in the first memory area 36, the second memory area 38, and the monitor 20.

An original image 62 and a thumbnail image 64 corresponding to a predetermined image file 60 are present in the second memory area 38. First, the thumbnail image 64 is written from the second memory area 38 to the first memory area 36. At this time, it is assumed that the number of pixels of the thumbnail image 64 is 160 × 140 pixels. This image is resized by the image conversion unit 30 and then displayed on the monitor 20. The number of pixels of the displayed thumbnail image is 128 × 96 pixels 68, 9
There are 5 types of 6 × 64 pixels 70, 64 × 48 pixels 72, 48 × 36 pixels 74, and 36 × 27 pixels 76, and the number of pixels of one image among them is selected by the user.

Next, the original image 62 in the second memory area 38.
Is resized by the image conversion unit 30, and the first memory area 3
Written in 6. The number of pixels at this time is 128 × 96 pixels 66. Then, the thumbnail image 64 in the first memory area 36 is replaced by the resized original image 66. The resized original image 66 is the image conversion unit 3
After being resized by 0 again, it is displayed on the monitor 20 in a state of overwriting the already displayed thumbnail image.

The resized original image 66 is present in the first memory area 36. For example, if the number of pixels of the image in which the user is displayed in a list is 128 × 96 pixels 68 to 64 ×
When the number of pixels is changed to 48 pixels 72, the resized original image 66 in the first memory area 36 is resized by the image processing unit 30 and then displayed on the monitor 20. At this time, since it is not necessary to access the second memory area 38, a high quality image can be displayed at high speed.

Next, the operation of displaying the details of the image is divided into a step of storing the image in the first memory area 36 and a step of actually displaying the details on the screen. The operation of saving an image in the first memory area 36 of the image is shown in the image memory flow chart of FIG. As a prerequisite,
It is assumed that the user has selected a predetermined folder, and the control signal generator 32 instructs the first memory area 36 and the second memory area 38 on the basis of the information about the image address, the read timing, and the like. , Image conversion unit 30
Is instructed to resize the image.

The image converter 30 sets the counter i to 0 (S40). Then, the original image stored in the second memory area 38 is read out, and after decoding and pixel thinning are performed, the original image is stored in the first memory area 36 (S46). When the number of pixels of the image stored in the first memory area 36 is larger than the number of pixels that can be displayed on the monitor by a certain multiple (Y in S48), the image in the first memory area 36 is thinned to an integral multiple and reduced. (S50). The image stored in the first memory area 36 described above is called a high-speed display image. 1 is added to i (S52), and the above operation is continued until i reaches the number of images in the selected folder (Y of S42). When i reaches the number of images in the selected folder (N in S42), this step ends. In addition, the capacity of the high-speed display image stored in the first memory area 36 is smaller than that of the first memory area 36.
When the memory capacity reaches a certain percentage, for example 80%, or the memory capacity specified by the user, for example 50 Mbytes (Y in S44), the process ends.

It is also possible to execute this step in the background displaying a list of images. In addition, since the high-speed display image is generated by thinning out the pixels of the original image, the generation process is generally fast.

The steps for displaying details on the screen are shown in the flowchart of FIG. As a precondition, it is assumed that a predetermined image is selected by the user, and the control signal generation unit 32 causes the first memory area 36 and the second memory area based on the information.
The memory area 38 is instructed about the image address, the read timing, etc., and the image conversion section 30 is instructed about the image resizing.

When a high-speed display image is present in the first memory area 36 (Y in S60), the image conversion section 30 reads it out and resizes it with low precision interpolation.
Output to 2. This image is displayed in detail on the monitor 20 (S62). The nearest neighbor method is used for the resizing of the low-precision interpolation, for example. Thereafter, the high-speed display image is resized by high-precision interpolation again, and the detailed display is updated with this image (S64). The bicubic method, for example, is used for the resizing of the high-precision interpolation. Furthermore, the original image in the second memory area 38 is read out, the high-precision interpolation is resized, and the detailed display is updated with this image (S66).
The image displayed in detail in this way is resized to a higher-precision image in multiple stages by resizing the image for high-speed display with low-precision interpolation, resizing the image for high-speed display with high-precision interpolation, and resizing the original image with high-precision interpolation. To be done. It should be noted that, if sufficient image quality can be obtained from an image obtained by performing high-precision interpolation resizing on the high-speed display image, this step can be ended there.

As described above, according to this embodiment, a low-precision image is displayed promptly, and then this image is updated to a high-precision image, so that both high-speed display and high image quality are realized. It is possible. Regarding the list of images, the thumbnail image attached to the original image is displayed.
High-speed image display is possible. This is because the number of bytes of the thumbnail image attached to the original image is usually smaller than that of the original image. Further, the displayed image is updated with an image based on the original image, so that the image quality is improved. This update takes some time, but since the thumbnail image is already displayed, the user can quickly select another image and the operability is improved.

On the other hand, regarding the detailed display of the image, the high-speed display image stored in the high-speed memory area such as the main memory is displayed in detail by the resize of the low-precision interpolation, which enables the high-speed image display. . Further, the image displayed in detail is updated with the high-precision interpolation resize image of the high-speed display image and the high-precision interpolation resize image of the original image, thereby improving the image quality.

(Second Embodiment) FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an image display device 200 according to the second embodiment. The image display device 200 is the same as the image display device 100 according to the first embodiment in FIG. 3 except that the operation unit 26 is added. Therefore, only the operation unit 26 will be described here. The operation unit 26 of FIG. 8 includes a mode selection unit 40 and an object selection unit 42.

In the mode selection section 40, the user selects any one of a plurality of modes for displaying a predetermined combination of image list display, detailed display and folder display. A predetermined object is selected by the user from the plurality of displayed objects in the object selection unit 42. For example, objects include folders and image files.

In the present embodiment, the modes displayed on the screen include a browser mode and a local mode. The browser mode is a mode in which the folder window 10 and the list display window 12 are displayed. FIG. 9 is a display screen in the browser mode. The local mode is a mode in which the list display window 12 and the detail display window 14 are displayed. FIG. 10 shows a display screen in the local mode. The image viewer shown in FIG. 1 displays a folder window, a list display window, and a detailed display window on one screen, but in the present embodiment, these are displayed on two screens. Therefore, the display of each window becomes large and the visibility is improved. Further, switching between these modes is easily performed by one touch in the mode selection unit 40 according to a user's instruction.

Further, the list display window is displayed in both modes, but the display areas in both modes are different. At this time, since the image displayed in the list display window in the local mode is made smaller than the image in the list display window in the browser mode, the list display window can display almost the same number of images between different modes. Is. As a result, the visibility is improved, and more convenience than the image viewer that displays the folder window, the list display window, and the detailed display window on one screen is secured.

The mode selected by the user in the mode selection unit 40 is output to the object selection unit 42. The object selection unit 42 selects an object in the mode selected by the user. The object in the browsing mode shown in FIG. 9 is a folder. When the user selects a predetermined folder, the list display window 12 displays a list of images in the selected folder. The objects in the local mode shown in FIG. 10 are images displayed as a list. When a predetermined image is selected by the user, the image is displayed in detail in the detail display window 14.

Information of the selected folder is transmitted from the object selecting section 42 of the image display device 200 of FIG. 8 to the control signal generating section 32 in the browsing mode, and information of the selected image is transmitted in the local mode. Is transmitted. Then, the control signal generation unit 32 generates a control signal necessary for controlling the image conversion unit 30 and the memory 34 based on these signals. This is as described in the first embodiment.

As described above, according to this embodiment, a plurality of modes are divided into roles and the number of display windows in each mode is limited to two, whereby a list of images, a detailed display of images, and a display of folders are displayed. With respect to the above, an appropriate display area is secured. Therefore, it is not necessary to frequently adjust the size of the window, and the operation of the viewer becomes easy.

(Third Embodiment) FIG. 11 shows a third embodiment.
6 is a flowchart of a method for displaying an image according to the present invention. In addition,
The image display method according to the third embodiment is realized by the image display device 200 in FIG.

As an initial state, a predetermined image 50 is displayed on the entire screen (S80). FIG. 12 shows the screen display at this time. The image list display window 52 is displayed in a state where a part of the entire display image 50 is overwritten. Further, this display is the mode selection section 40 in FIG.
Corresponds to the user selecting the local mode. Next, the user selects a predetermined image from the image list display window 52 (S82). Then, this image is detected (S84). The selection and detection of this image are performed by the object selection unit 42 in FIG. Subsequently, the image displayed on the full screen is updated to the image selected from the list display (S86). The image is updated by the image processing unit 24, the display control unit 22, and the monitor 2 in FIG.
It is done at zero.

The image list display window 52 in the present embodiment is not limited to that shown in FIG. For example, it is conceivable that the location may be moved and the shape may be changed by dragging the mouse, or the cursor may be automatically hidden by stopping for a certain period of time. Further, an operation in which an image is selected when the mouse cursor stays on a predetermined image on the list display window 52 can be considered.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is easy to change the full-screen display by overwriting the full-screen display to display a list of images and selecting a predetermined image from the list. It is possible to realize high operability for full-screen display of the viewer.

(Fourth Embodiment) FIG. 13 shows a fourth embodiment.
6 is a flowchart of a method for displaying an image according to the present invention. In addition,
The image display method according to the fourth embodiment is realized by the image display device 200 in FIG.

As a precondition, there are four images, which are continuously updated at a predetermined time interval. The update order is A,
B, C and D. The image A is displayed (S90). FIG. 14 is a screen display. That is, the image A is displayed in the detail display window 14 and the images A, B, C, D are displayed in the list display window 12. Also, this display corresponds to the user selecting the local mode in the mode selection unit 40 in FIG. Thereafter, unless the user selects a predetermined image from the list display window 12, the image B (S94), the image C (S98), and the image D (S102) are updated and displayed in the detailed display window 14 on the screen. It These are shown in FIG. 15 and FIG. 1, respectively.
6, corresponding to FIG. The image is updated by the image processing unit 24, the display control unit 22, and the monitor 20 in FIG.

However, when a predetermined image is selected from the list display window 12 after the image A is displayed (S9
2 Y), one display window 1 after image B is displayed
When the predetermined image is selected from 2 (Y in S96), when the predetermined image is selected from the list display window 12 after the image C is displayed (Y in S100), the list is displayed after the image D is displayed. When a predetermined image is selected from the display window 12 (Y of S104), the image of the detailed display window 14 is updated to the selected image. For example, when the image selected in the list display window 12 is the image A (A in S106), the display in the detailed display window 14 is the image A. The same applies to the B, C, and D images (S106).
B of S, C of S106, D of S106). The selection of this image is performed by the user in the object selection unit 42 in FIG. After that, subsequent images are continuously displayed with the selected image as a new starting point. For example, while the image C is being displayed, the image B in the list display window 12 is displayed.
If is selected, the image is continuously updated with B, C, and D.

The fourth embodiment is not limited to the screen display shown in FIGS. 14 to 17, but can be executed with the whole display image 50 shown in FIG.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, while the images are being continuously updated, the operation of returning some display screens or the operation of skipping some of the display screens and advancing forward is performed as a list. Since only a predetermined image is selected from the displayed images, it is possible to realize high operability in continuously updating and displaying the image of the viewer.

The present invention has been described above based on the embodiments. It should be understood by those skilled in the art that this embodiment is merely an example, and that various modifications can be made to the combinations of the respective constituent elements and the respective processing processes, and that such modifications are also within the scope of the present invention. is there. Some such modified examples will be described.

In the embodiment, the first memory area 36 and the second memory area 38 are separately provided in the memory 34, but they do not have to be separate hardware and they are the same. It may be one. For example, both can be realized by a main memory, which is a RAM, or a hard disk. The point is that a memory area for storing the original image, the thumbnail image, and the high-speed display image is sufficient.

In the embodiment, the case where an image is displayed on a PC has been described, but this may of course be another electronic device. For example, it may be a digital camera, a digital video, a mobile phone or the like that processes an image converted into digital data.

In the first embodiment, the number of times the images displayed in the image list display and the image detail display are updated once and twice, respectively.
It is also possible to change it according to the processing capacity of C and the capacity or number of images to be displayed. For example, in the case of displaying a list of images, if the original image is resized and displayed after the thumbnail images are displayed, if the time required to resize the original image is long, a high-precision interpolation resize is performed on the thumbnail images between them. A process of generating an image having an intermediate image quality between the two may be added. Further, regarding the detailed display of the image, it is not necessary to display the intermediate image by displaying the original image immediately after displaying the image in which the high-speed display image is resized by low-precision interpolation.

In the first embodiment, the high-speed display image is created from all the images in the selected folder, but the image for creating the high-speed display image may include the images other than the selected folder. Is. For example, high-speed display images may be created for all image files stored in a storage device such as a hard disk.

[0071]

According to the present invention, it is possible to improve the operability at the time of displaying an image and achieve both high-speed display and high image quality in the list display and the detailed display of images.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a display screen of an image viewer according to a conventional technique.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a display screen in which a detail display window of the image viewer of FIG. 1 is enlarged.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration diagram of an image display device according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a procedure of displaying a list of images by the apparatus of FIG.

5 is a diagram showing a flow of image data in a list display of images by the apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a procedure of storing an image in a memory by the apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a procedure for displaying detailed images by the apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a configuration diagram of an image display device according to a second embodiment.

9 is a diagram showing a display screen in a browser mode by the apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a display screen in a local mode by the device of FIG.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a procedure of an image display method according to the third embodiment.

12 is a diagram showing a display screen according to the method of FIG.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a procedure of an image display method according to the fourth embodiment.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a display screen according to the method of FIG.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a display screen according to the method of FIG.

16 is a diagram showing a display screen according to the method of FIG.

17 is a diagram showing a display screen according to the method of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 folder window, 12 list display window, 14 detailed display window, 20 monitor,
22 display control unit, 24 image processing unit, 26 operation unit, 30 image conversion unit, 32 control signal generation unit,
34 memory, 36 first memory area, 38 second
Memory area, 40 mode selection section, 42 object selection section, 50 whole display image, 52 list display window, 60 image file, 62 original image, 64 thumbnail image, 66 resized original image, 68 128 × 96 pixel image , 70 96
X 64 pixel image, 72 64 x 48 pixel image,
74 48 × 36 pixel image, 76 36 × 27 pixel image, 100, 200 image display device

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) G06T 1/00 200 G06T 1/00 200E 5E501 G09G 5/00 530 G09G 5/00 530T 550 550M 5/14 5 / 14 Z 5/36 5/36 520G H04N 5/91 H04N 5/91 ZF term (reference) 5B050 AA09 BA10 BA15 EA12 FA02 FA09 FA12 FA19 5B069 AA01 BA03 BB16 CA01 DD11 5B075 ND06 PP13 PQ02 PQ46 5C053 LA11 5A08 HA40 HA40 HA40 AA00 BA12 BB22 BB25 BB42 CA34 CA62 CA76 DA22 DA53 DA63 DA89 MM02 MM10 5E501 AA02 AC33 BA03 BA20 CA03 CB09 EA13 FA14 FA23 FA42 FB04 FB43

Claims (16)

[Claims] 1. An image processing unit having an image conversion unit, and a display control unit for performing control for displaying the image processed by the image processing unit, wherein the image conversion unit displays a list of images. , A thumbnail image attached to the original image is read and output to the display control unit, and then the original image is converted into an image having a higher precision than the thumbnail image and the same size as the thumbnail image. To the display control unit, and the display control unit first displays the thumbnail image, and then updates the display of the thumbnail image with the image of the same size. 2. An image processing unit having an image conversion unit, and a display control unit for performing control for displaying the image processed by the image processing unit, wherein the image conversion unit is prior to the detailed display of the image. An image for high-speed display is generated and stored in advance from the original image, and when the detailed display of the image is instructed, the image for high-speed display is read and output to the display control unit, and then the original image is displayed. To the display control unit, the display control unit first displays the image for high-speed display, and then updates the display of the image for high-speed display by the original image. apparatus. 3. An image processing unit having an image conversion unit, and a display control unit for performing control for displaying an image processed by the image processing unit, wherein the image conversion unit is prior to the detailed display of the image. An image for high-speed display is generated and stored in advance from the original image, and when the detailed display of the image is instructed, the image for high-speed display is read and output to the display control unit, and then the high-speed display is performed. Outputs a high-precision converted image to the display control unit, the display control unit displays the high-speed display image first, and then converts the high-speed display image with higher precision. An image display device, characterized in that the display of the high-speed display image is updated by the selected image. 4. The image conversion unit generates and saves the high-speed display image from the original image in the background while displaying a list of images, and saves the high-speed display image. The image display device according to any one of 1. 5. The image conversion unit generates a high-speed display image for the original image included in a folder selected by a user as a unit, and stores the high-speed display image. The image display device according to any one of 1. 6. The image conversion unit sequentially generates and outputs an intermediate image having a plurality of stages of accuracy between an image to be output first and an image to be output last, and the display control unit is configured to output the image conversion unit. 6. The high-precision image is gradually displayed by displaying the intermediate image generated stepwise between the image first acquired from the image and the image finally output from the image. The image display device according to any one of 1. 7. The image display device according to claim 2, wherein the image conversion unit generates the high-speed display image by thinning out the number of pixels of the original image. 8. An operation unit for a user to select one of a plurality of modes for displaying a predetermined combination of image list display, detailed display, and folder display, and a mode selected by the user. An image processing unit having an image conversion unit for converting an image according to the image processing unit, and a display control unit for performing control for displaying an image processed by the image processing unit, wherein the operation unit is a screen in the plurality of modes. An image display device, wherein all aspects of display are realized by a plurality of modes by sharing the contents to be displayed on the display. 9. In a first mode for displaying a list of images and a list of folders, a second area is displayed in which a relatively large area is allocated to the list of images and a list of images and details of the images are displayed. In this mode, the display is performed by allocating a relatively large area to the details of the image, and the size of each image displayed in the list of images in the first mode is displayed in the list of images in the second mode. An image display method characterized in that it is made larger than the size of each image displayed in. 10. When displaying a list of images, a step of reading out a thumbnail image attached to the original image and displaying the thumbnail image first, and subsequently, the thumbnail image of the original image having higher accuracy than the thumbnail image. And a step of updating the display of the thumbnail image with the image of the same size. 11. A step of generating an image for high-speed display in advance from an original image and storing the image before displaying the image in detail, and when the image detailed display is instructed, the image for high-speed display is read out and the image is displayed first. An image display method comprising: a step of displaying; and a step of subsequently updating the display of the image for high-speed display by the original image. 12. A step of generating an image for high-speed display in advance from an original image and saving the image prior to displaying the image in detail, and when the image detailed display is instructed, the image for high-speed display is read out and the image is displayed first. An image display method comprising: a step of displaying; and a step of updating the display of the high-speed display image with an image obtained by converting the high-speed display image with higher accuracy. 13. The method according to claim 11, wherein the step of generating and saving the high-speed display image from the original image is performed in the background while displaying a list of images. The image display method according to any one of the above. 14. The image according to claim 10, wherein an intermediate image having a plurality of stages of accuracy is displayed stepwise between the image displayed first and the image displayed last. Display method. 15. A list of images is displayed in a state of being superimposed on the image displayed on the entire screen and a part of the image displayed on the entire screen, and a predetermined image is selected by the user from the displayed list of images. An image display method characterized in that, when selected by, the image displayed on the entire screen is updated with the image selected by the user. 16. An image list is displayed separately from this image when the images are sequentially and continuously displayed at a predetermined time interval, and when the predetermined image is selected from the images in the list, the image list is displayed. An image display method, wherein images are continuously displayed with the selected image as a new starting point.