JP2005064640A - Image processor, data supplying device, and image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image processor capable of flexibly switching a transfer speed of image data. <P>SOLUTION: An image processor 20 comprises two input interfaces 202 which are provided parallel to each other and acquire image data from a controller 18, a plurality of image process paths where the image data acquired from the two input interfaces 202 passes, a synthesis circuit 204 which synthesizes the image data acquired from the two input interfaces 202 and outputs it to the image process path, and a synthesizing switch 210 which switches whether to make the synthesis circuit 204 synthesize the image data or not on the basis of a transfer speed of the image data to be output. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus provided with a plurality of image processing paths.

In an image processing apparatus, a method for realizing different functions by switching internal circuit blocks has been proposed.
For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a color image editing process in which a part of a plurality of image processing means connected in parallel is connected in series to increase the number of combinations of image processing while preventing an increase in circuits. An apparatus is disclosed. Patent Document 2 discloses an image processing apparatus that can improve the image quality of a monochrome image by applying a plurality of filters provided for color image filter processing to the monochrome image.
JP 10-271350 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-42150

  The present invention has been made from the above-described background, and an object thereof is to provide an image processing apparatus that switches the transfer speed of input image data in accordance with the output speed of the image data.

[Image processing device]
In order to achieve the above object, an image processing apparatus according to the present invention is an image processing apparatus that receives supply of image data from a data supply apparatus, and a plurality of input units that respectively acquire image data from the data supply apparatus; A plurality of image processing paths for passing the image data acquired by the plurality of input means, and a combining means for combining the image data acquired by at least two of the input means and outputting to the image processing path; And switching means for switching whether to synthesize the image data based on the transfer speed of the image data to be output.

  An image processing apparatus according to the present invention is an image processing apparatus that receives supply of image data from a data supply apparatus, and a plurality of input means that respectively acquire image data from the data supply apparatus, and a plurality of the input means A plurality of image processing paths through which the image data acquired in step S3 is passed, a combining means for combining the image data acquired by at least two of the input means, and outputting to the image processing path; And switching means for switching whether to synthesize the image data by the synthesizing means according to whether the image is a single color image or not.

  Preferably, at least one color image data constituting a color image is assigned to each of the image processing paths, and the switching means is provided on the condition that the input image data is a single color image. The image data input from a plurality of input means are combined and output to the image processing path.

  Preferably, the image processing device outputs image data to an optical writing device connected at a subsequent stage, and the switching unit sends an image to the combining unit according to an image writing speed by the optical writing device. Switches whether to synthesize data.

  Preferably, the image processing apparatus outputs image data to an image forming apparatus connected to a subsequent stage, and the switching unit sends image data to the synthesizing unit according to an image forming speed of the image forming apparatus. Switch whether to synthesize.

  Preferably, the switching unit may cause the synthesizing unit to synthesize the image data on the condition that the transfer rate of the image data input to the input unit is faster than the transfer rate of the image data through the image processing path. Toggles whether or not.

  Preferably, the switching means switches whether to synthesize the image data by the synthesizing means, according to the output resolution of the image data.

[Data supply device]
The data supply apparatus according to the present invention is a data supply apparatus for supplying image data to a subsequent image processing apparatus, and a plurality of output means for outputting image data to the image processing apparatus, and an input When the image data is a single color, the image data is distributed and output to at least two of the output means according to the transfer speed of the image data to be output by the image processing apparatus. Output control means for causing the plurality of output means to output image data of different colors in the case of a color.

[Image forming apparatus]
In addition, an image forming apparatus according to the present invention acquires a data supply device that supplies image data using a plurality of output units, and acquires image data from the data supply device using a plurality of input units. An image processing apparatus that performs image processing on image data, and an image forming apparatus that forms image data that has been subjected to image processing by the image processing apparatus on a sheet, and image data input to the data supply apparatus In the case of a single color, the image data is distributed and transferred to at least two sets of the output unit and the input unit according to the output speed of the image data to be output by the image forming apparatus, and the input image data Is a plurality of colors, image data of different colors is transferred to a plurality of sets of the output means and the input means.

  According to the image forming apparatus of the present invention, the transfer rate of image data can be flexibly switched.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of the printer apparatus 10.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, a printer apparatus 10 (image forming apparatus) includes a paper tray unit 12 that stores printing paper, a print engine 14 that forms a toner image on the printing paper, and fixes the toner image on the printing paper. A fixing device 15, a scanner 16 for reading an image on a document sheet, a controller 18 for controlling each component of the image processing device 20, an image processing device 20 for correcting image quality of image data, and a user interface device (UI device) ) 30. The printer device 10 is connected to a client terminal via a network or the like, and receives PDL data or the like.

The controller 18 analyzes the image data (PDL) received from the client terminal, creates image data for printing (such as Raster data), and outputs the image data to the image processing apparatus 20. The controller 18 also performs color conversion (RGB → YMCK) and gradation correction.
Further, the controller 18 controls the operation of the print engine 14 and the image processing device 20 according to the operation mode set via the UI device 30 or the attribute of the input image data. The operation mode is an operation type of the printer device 10 or the image processing device 20, for example, a resolution priority mode in which the output resolution of the image is set to a high value (for example, 1200 dpi), and high-speed printing is realized by lowering the output resolution. A printing speed priority mode for printing, a single color mode for printing an image composed of one color, or a multi-color mode for printing an image composed of a plurality of colors. The attribute of the image data is a characteristic of the image data that affects the contents of the image processing. For example, a color image (multi-color image) / single color image, a character / line drawing / halftone image, a multi-value image / For example, a binary image.

The image processing apparatus 20 performs image quality correction processing such as smoothing processing and screen processing on the image data input from the controller 18 and outputs the result to the print engine 14 as a pulse signal.
The print engine 14 controls an ROS (optical writing device) in accordance with the pulse signal input from the image processing device 20, and forms an electrostatic latent image by irradiating the photosensitive member charged with the initial potential with laser light. . Subsequently, the print engine 14 forms a toner image by attaching toner to the electrostatic latent image formed by laser exposure, and transfers the formed toner image to the printing paper supplied from the paper tray unit 12. . The print engine 14 repeats the above process for Y, M, C, and K to form a four-layer toner image on the paper.
The fixing device 15 heats and fixes the toner transferred on the printing paper.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the printer device 10 in more detail with the controller 18 and the image processing device 20 as the center.
As shown in FIG. 2, the image processing apparatus 20 is provided with a plurality of paths (two channels in this example) through which image data passes in parallel. Channel A in this example receives K (black) image data among a plurality of colors constituting a color image when the multi-color mode is set, and channel B receives C (Sian) image data. Entered. The printer apparatus 10 includes two image processing apparatuses 20 and processes image data of four colors (YMCK).
The image processing device 20 is a circuit device that performs hardware processing, such as an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit).

  The image processing apparatus 20 includes a controller interface (hereinafter referred to as a controller I / F) 200, an image processing path 230, and a pulse generation unit 240 in each channel. The image processing path 230 of this example includes a binary image data path 232 for performing image processing on binary image data, and image processing such as smoothing processing or area gradation processing for multi-value image data. A multi-valued image data path 234 is provided.

The controller 18 is provided with a plurality of output interfaces (hereinafter referred to as output I / F) 180 in parallel with each other so as to correspond one-to-one with the plurality of channels provided in the image processing apparatus 20.
Similarly, the print engine 14 is provided with a plurality of ROSs 142 so as to correspond to the channels of the image processing apparatus 20 on a one-to-one basis.
In the present embodiment, the output I / F 180 of the controller 18, the channel of the image processing apparatus 20, and the ROS 142 of the print engine 14 correspond one-to-one, but the present invention is not limited to this. There may be a certain correspondence such as “one-to-many” or “many-to-many”.

  With the above configuration, the image processing apparatus 20 according to the present embodiment processes the image data of each color in parallel in each channel and outputs the image data to the corresponding ROS 142 when the multi-color mode is set. In addition, when the single-color mode is set, the image processing apparatus 20 acquires image data from the controller 18 with one controller I / F 200 when the data transfer speed to be output to the ROS 142 is lower than a predetermined value. The processed image data is subjected to image processing and output to the ROS 142. When the data transfer speed to be output to the ROS 142 is equal to or higher than a predetermined value, the image data is acquired from the controller 18 using a plurality of controller I / Fs 200. The processed image data are combined and processed, and output to the ROS 142.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an interface between the controller 18 and the image processing apparatus 20 with the controller I / F 200 as a center.
As shown in FIG. 3, the controller 18 includes the output I / F 180 (output means) and a serial / parallel conversion circuit (hereinafter referred to as S / P conversion circuit) 182 that converts a serially transferred bit string into a parallel bit string. And a plurality of data output channels (channel A and channel B in this example) composed of a selection circuit 184 for selecting input data.
The S / P conversion circuit 182 of this example is connected to the selection circuit 184 in the subsequent stage via two image data buses and two tag data buses. The image data bus is an 8-bit data bus (“EVEN” and “ODD”) that transfers image data, and the tag data bus is a 4-bit data bus (“EVEN”) that transfers tag data. ”And“ ODD ”). Further, one of the plurality of S / P conversion circuits 182 (in this example, the S / P conversion circuit 182A) is also connected to a selection circuit (in this example, the selection circuit 184B) provided in another channel. Connected.
Note that whether “EVEN” or “ODD” is used for the image data bus and the tag data bus is defined by the connection mode between the controller 18 and the image processing apparatus 20, and is not necessarily “EVEN” or “ODD”. Both data buses are not necessary. The tag data itself is not necessarily required. Therefore, the following description will focus on the image data bus.

  The selection circuit 184 selects image data to be output from image data input from a page memory (not shown) provided in the controller 18 and image data input from the S / P conversion circuit 182. And output to the output I / F 180. In the case of this example, the selection circuit 184B provided in the channel B has another channel (channel) in addition to the image data input from the page memory and the image data input from the S / P conversion circuit 182B. It is also possible to select the image data input from the S / P conversion circuit 182A provided in A).

The image processing apparatus 20 includes a controller I / F 200 and a composition switching unit 210. The controller I / F 200 is provided with a plurality of input I / Fs 202 and a synthesis circuit 204.
Input I / Fs 200 (input means) are provided in parallel to each other, and output a synchronization signal (Line Req) in the main scanning direction and a synchronization signal (Page Req) in the sub-scanning direction to the corresponding output IF 180, Request image data. The output I / F 180 outputs image data to the input I / F 200 in synchronization with the synchronization signal (Line Req) and the synchronization signal (Page Req). At this time, the output I / F 180 outputs the image data in synchronization with the valid signal (Valid) and the clock signal (CONT VCLK).
The image data input to the input I / F 200 is transferred using two 8-bit image data buses “EVEN” and “ODD” or one of them.
Further, the input I / F 200 performs clock transfer between the image processing clock of the controller 18 and the image processing clock of the image processing device 20.
Note that the controller I / F 200 may include a circuit that performs resolution conversion or gradation conversion of image data.

  The synthesis circuit 204 synthesizes the image data input from the plurality of input I / Fs 202 under the control of the synthesis switching unit 210 and outputs the synthesized image data to the image processing path 230. More specifically, the composition circuit 204 is provided when the transfer speed of the image data to be output to the print engine 14 is fast on the condition that the single color mode is set (for example, when printing a high-resolution image, Image data input from a plurality of input I / Fs 202 (in this example, the input I / F 202A and the input I / F 202B) is combined, and in other cases, the image data is combined. Instead, the image data input from the input I / F 202 provided in the same controller I / F 200 is output to the image processing path 230 as it is.

The composition switching unit 210 determines whether or not to perform image data composition in accordance with the operation mode set by the controller 18 and controls the composition circuit 204.
FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of the composition switching unit 210.
As illustrated in FIG. 4, the composition switching unit 210 includes a CPU 212, an address decoder 214, and n registers 216-1 to 216-n.
The CPU 212 writes a switching signal for controlling ON / OFF of the synthesis circuit 204 to the register 216 selected by the address decoder 214.
The register 216 to which the switching signal is written outputs a switching signal to the synthesis circuit 204 to instruct whether or not to perform the synthesis process.

With the above configuration, the controller 18 performs data conversion (PDL → Raster) or color conversion (RGB → YMCK) on the image data input from the scanner 16 (FIG. 1) or the client terminal, and stores it in the page memory. . The output I / F 180 of the controller 18 reads image data stored in the page memory in response to a request (“Page Req” and “Line Req”) from the image processing apparatus 20, and is provided in the image processing apparatus 20. Output to the controller I / F 200.
A controller I / F 200 provided in the image processing apparatus 20 combines image data input via a plurality of paths (input I / F 202) according to an operation mode, and outputs the combined image data to the image processing path 230.

[Data path]
Next, the transfer path of image data when the operation mode is switched will be described. The printer device 10 according to the present embodiment can switch between a multi-color mode and a single-color mode according to input from the UI device 30 (FIG. 1) or an attribute of image data.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the path of image data when the multi-color mode is set.
As shown in FIG. 5, when the multi-color mode is set, the controller 18 outputs the image data of each color constituting the color image to the selection circuit 184A and the selection circuit 184B provided in parallel as they are. That is, each selection circuit 184 acquires image data (multi-value) of the assigned color as a serial bit string, selects this image data, and outputs it to the output I / F 180.
The output I / F 180 outputs image data to the corresponding input I / F 202, and the input I / F 202 outputs the input image data to the image processing path 230.
As described above, when the multi-color mode is set, each channel processes the image data of the color assigned to each channel in parallel. Therefore, the composition circuit 204 outputs the image data input from the input I / F 202A as it is to the image processing path 230A.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining the path of image data when the monochrome mode is set.
As shown in FIG. 6, when the monochrome mode is set, the controller 18 outputs the input image data (multi-value) to the S / P conversion circuit 182. In the monochromatic mode, image data is input to only one channel (channel A in this example). Then, the image data input to channel A is input to the S / P conversion circuit 182A.
The S / P conversion circuit 182A converts the input multi-valued image data (serial bit string) into a parallel bit string and distributes it to the selection circuit 184A and the selection circuit 184B. In this example, the S / P conversion circuit 182A distributes the image data to the selection circuit 184A and the selection circuit 184B for each pixel.
The selection circuit 184A and the selection circuit 184B select the image data input from the S / P conversion circuit 182A and output it to the output I / F 180A and the output I / F 180B, respectively.
The output I / F 180A and the output I / F 180B output image data to the corresponding input I / F 202A and input I / F 202B, respectively. The input I / F 202A outputs the input image data to the combining circuit 204, and the input I / F 202B also outputs the input image data to the combining circuit 204.
The combining circuit 204 combines the image data input from the input I / F 202A and the input I / F 202B and outputs the combined image data to the image processing path 230A.
As described above, when the monochrome mode is set, the controller 18 transfers the image data to the image processing device 20 using a plurality of channels, and the image processing device 20 receives the image data input from the plurality of channels. The images are combined and output to one image processing path 230A.

As described above, in the monochromatic mode, there are channels that are not used, and thus the printer apparatus 10 can increase the transfer rate of image data by using a part of the channels that are not used. This is effective when there is some restriction on the data transfer speed between the output I / F 180 of the controller 18 and the input I / F 202 of the image processing apparatus 20 and the image output speed cannot be accommodated.
Regarding the exchange of synchronization signals between the output I / F 180 (controller side) and the controller I / F 200 (image processing apparatus side), the output I / F 180 and the input I / F 202 are input as necessary, for example. Image data is exchanged using an independent synchronization signal for each bus. Further, the output I / F 180 and the input I / F 202 may exchange image data by using all or part of the synchronization signals for one color in common. Further, the output I / F 180 and the input I / F 202 may be switched as appropriate to exchange image data.

As described above, according to the printer device 10 of the present embodiment, high-speed data transfer is possible by bundling and using a plurality of data transfer channels provided corresponding to each color of a color image.
In particular, in the case of the monochromatic mode, it is often a character or a line drawing and needs to be printed at a high resolution. In this case, it is necessary to transfer more image data, but it is necessary to transfer the image data at a high speed so as not to reduce the printing process speed. Therefore, when the monochrome mode is set, the printer apparatus 10 bundles a plurality of data transfer channels provided in parallel to realize high-speed transfer of image data.
Further, the printer device 10 switches whether to apply the synthesis processing by the synthesis circuit 204 according to the output resolution or process speed, and outputs the output I / F 180 of the controller 18 and the input I / F 202 of the image processing device 20. The data transfer rate can be changed between Therefore, the printer apparatus 10 can cope with various output resolutions or process speeds.

[Modification]
Note that the present invention may be applied to the printer device 10 in which only the monochrome mode can be set.
FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a transfer path of image data when the low-speed printing mode is set in the printer device 10 according to the present modification.
As shown in FIG. 7, the controller 18 in the modified example has an S / P conversion circuit 182 shared by two channels (channel A and channel B), and an output I / F 180 provided in each channel. . It should be noted that among the components shown in the figure, the same reference numerals are given to the components that are substantially the same as those shown in FIG.

Next, the path of image data in this modification will be described.
As shown in FIG. 7, when the low-speed transfer mode is set, the S / P conversion circuit 182 of the controller 18 outputs image data to the output I / F 180A. Since the data bus between the S / P converter circuit 182 and the output I / F 180 can connect two EVEN and ODD 8-bit buses, for example, binary image data is packed 16 bits at a time in the main scanning direction. Can be transferred.
The output I / F 180A outputs image data to the input I / F 202A, and the input I / F 202A outputs the input image data to the image processing path 230A.
As described above, when the low-speed transfer mode is set, image data is transferred using a part of the plurality of channels (channel A).

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating the path of image data when the high-speed transfer mode is set in the modification.
As shown in FIG. 8, when the high-speed transfer mode is set, the S / P conversion circuit 182 converts the input binary image data (serial bit string) into a parallel bit string and outputs the output I / F 180A. And output I / F 180B. In this example, the S / P conversion circuit 182 distributes the image data to the output I / F 180A and the output I / F 180B every 16 pixels (every 16 bits).
The output I / F 180A and the output I / F 180B output the image data input from the S / P conversion circuit 182 to the corresponding input I / F 202A and input I / F 202B, respectively. The input I / F 202A outputs the input image data to the synthesis circuit 204, and the input I / F 202B also outputs the input image data to the synthesis circuit 204.
The combining circuit 204 combines the image data input from the input I / F 202A and the input I / F 202B and outputs the combined image data to the image processing path 230A.
As described above, when the high-speed transfer mode is set, the controller 18 transfers the image data to the image processing apparatus 20 using a plurality of channels, and the image processing apparatus 20 receives the image data input from the plurality of channels. Are output to one image processing path 230A.

FIG. 9 is a timing chart of data transfer in this modification. FIG. 9A is a timing chart when the low-speed transfer mode is set, and FIG. 9B is a timing chart when the high-speed transfer mode is set.
As shown in FIG. 9A, when the low-speed transfer mode is set, the image data is input to the channel A every clock and this image data is output as it is. Therefore, the transfer rate of the image data output from the combining circuit is substantially the same as the image data input to the channel A.
As shown in FIG. 9B, when the high-speed transfer mode is set, the image data is input in parallel to channel A and channel B every two clocks, and the image data input to each channel is It is synthesized by the synthesis circuit and output. Therefore, the transfer rate of the image data output from the combining circuit is twice that of the image data input to the channel A. Note that the internal clock period when the high-speed transfer mode is set is ½ that when the low-speed transfer mode is set.

  As described above, according to the printer device 10, in the mode in which image formation is performed with a plurality of colors, the input bus for each color is used in each image processing block, and in the mode in which image formation is performed with a single color, By sharing the input bus for two colors with one image processing block, image data is transferred at a double transfer speed between the output I / F 180 of the controller 18 and the input I / F 202 of the image processing apparatus 20. be able to.

  In the above embodiment, an example in which the present invention is applied to an electrophotographic system has been described. However, the present invention may be applied to an inkjet system, a thermal system, or the like.

1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a printer device 10. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the printer device 10 in more detail with a controller 18 and an image processing device 20 as the center. It is a figure explaining the interface of the controller 18 and the image processing apparatus 20 centering on controller I / F200. 3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a composition switching unit 210. FIG. It is a figure explaining the path | route of the image data when a multi-color mode is set. It is a figure explaining the path | route of the image data when a monochrome mode is set. It is a figure explaining the transfer path | route of image data when the low-speed printing mode is set to the printer apparatus 10 in this modification. It is a figure explaining the path | route of the image data when the high-speed transfer mode is set in this modification. It is a timing chart of the data transfer in this modification.

Explanation of symbols

10: Printer device 14 ... Print engine 142 ... ROS
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 18 ... Controller 180 ... Output interface 182 ... Serial / parallel conversion circuit 184 ... Selection circuit 20 ... Image processing apparatus 200 ... Controller interface 202 ... Input interface 204 ... Composition Circuit 210 ... Composition switching unit 230 ... Image processing path 232 ... Binary image data path 234 ... Multi-value image data path 240 ... Pulse generation unit

Claims (9)

An image processing apparatus that receives supply of image data from a data supply apparatus,
A plurality of input means for respectively obtaining image data from the data supply device;
A plurality of image processing paths through which the image data acquired by the plurality of input means passes;
Synthesizing means for synthesizing image data acquired by at least two of the input means and outputting the synthesized image data to the image processing path;
An image processing apparatus comprising: switching means for switching whether to synthesize the image data based on a transfer speed of image data to be output. An image processing apparatus that receives supply of image data from a data supply apparatus,
A plurality of input means for respectively obtaining image data from the data supply device;
A plurality of image processing paths through which the image data acquired by the plurality of input means passes;
Synthesizing means for synthesizing image data acquired by at least two of the input means and outputting the synthesized image data to the image processing path;
An image processing apparatus comprising: a switching unit that switches whether to synthesize the image data by the synthesis unit according to whether the image data is a multi-color image or a single color image. Each of the image processing paths is assigned image data of at least one color constituting a color image,
2. The image according to claim 1, wherein the switching unit synthesizes the image data input from a plurality of input units on the condition that the input image data is a single color image, and outputs the synthesized image data to the image processing path. Processing equipment. This image processing device outputs image data to an optical writing device connected to a subsequent stage,
4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the switching unit switches whether to synthesize the image data by the synthesizing unit according to an image writing speed by the optical writing device. 5. This image processing apparatus outputs image data to an image forming apparatus connected to a subsequent stage,
The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the switching unit switches whether to synthesize the image data with the synthesizing unit according to an image forming speed of the image forming apparatus. The switching unit switches whether to synthesize the image data on the condition that the transfer rate of the image data input to the input unit is faster than the transfer rate of the image data through the image processing path. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the switching unit switches whether to synthesize the image data with the synthesizing unit according to an output resolution of the image data. A data supply device for supplying image data to a subsequent image processing device,
A plurality of output means for outputting image data to the image processing apparatus;
When the input image data is a single color, the image processing apparatus distributes the image data to at least two output means according to the transfer speed of the image data to be output by the image processing apparatus, and outputs the input image data. A data supply device comprising: output control means for causing the plurality of output means to output different color image data when the data is in a plurality of colors. A data supply device for supplying image data using a plurality of output means;
An image processing device that acquires image data from the data supply device using a plurality of input means, and performs image processing on the acquired image data;
An image forming device that forms on the sheet image data that has been subjected to image processing by the image processing device;
When the image data input to the data supply device is a single color, the image data is sent to at least two sets of the output means and the input means according to the output speed of the image data to be output by the image forming apparatus. An image forming apparatus in which image data of different colors is transferred to a plurality of sets of the output means and the input means when the input image data is distributed and transferred and has a plurality of colors.

Images