JP2005253075A - Photo-finishing system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To inexpensively provide the print service or media output service from a digital camera to customers at more many service sites. <P>SOLUTION: One photo-finishing system is provided with: a scanner 10 for reading an image from a film; digital camera image capturing means (27, 28, 29) for capturing images from a digital camera; an image processing means; print-out means (15, 16, 2); and media output means (17, 18, 19, 7a). If processing corresponding to any image processing step is completed for captured image data, the image processing means omits image processing thereof and carries out other image processing. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a photofinishing system for creating a photographic print, and more particularly to a multifunction photofinishing system that prints not only a photograph recorded on a developed film but also a photograph taken with a digital camera.

  Conventionally, services that are most frequently used in photographic service stores are print services such as simultaneous printing or reprinting. Therefore, the conventional photofinishing system is designed mainly for the purpose of performing this print service efficiently. That is, a conventional photofinishing system is processed with a film scanner that efficiently reads a film while automatically feeding the film, and an image processing apparatus that performs image processing such as color gradation conversion on a digital image acquired by the film scanner. Generally, it is constituted by a photographic printer that prints out a digital image as a photographic print.

  However, with the spread of personal computers in recent years, photographs digitized by film scanners are frequently used on personal computers. Along with this, there is an increasing need for a digital output service for recording a digitized image on a medium such as a CD-R. As a response to this need, the photofinishing system has a digital output function. Things are beginning to appear.

  For example, in Japanese Patent Application No. 8-309322, the present applicant has proposed a photo finishing system that performs both photo print creation and media output by reading a film once. This photofinishing system is a system including a film scanner, image processing means, a printer, and a media drive. This system reads developed photographic film while automatically feeding it with a film scanner, and performs image processing suitable for print output or image processing suitable for media output by image processing means on the image data obtained thereby. The image data processed and processed is output simultaneously or alternately by a printer and a media drive.

  According to this system, the print output and the media output can be performed simultaneously by one system, so that the installation space, time and equipment cost can be saved. In addition, if printing from media is performed on a system different from printing from film, the image processing performed on digital images may differ slightly from system to system, resulting in subtle differences in the finish. Such a problem does not occur in the system.

  Further, in the Japanese Patent Application No. 8-309323, the applicant of the present application is the number of film scanners, printers, and media drives that constitute this system. We have also proposed a system in which the operating efficiency of each device is increased by reducing the number of devices, aiming for a photo finishing system that can respond to the increase in users of digital input / output services.

  On the other hand, in recent years, digital cameras have been rapidly spread due to the advantage that captured pictures can be easily taken into a personal computer. Along with this, services for outputting photographs taken with digital cameras as photographic prints have also been provided.

  However, such services have fewer users than prints from film or media. In addition, unlike the case where a photograph recorded on film is digitized, the number of pixels of a digital image acquired by a digital camera or the image processing that the digital camera performs on the digital image differs depending on the model of the camera. In the case of printing out a digital image, more complicated conversion processing must be performed and equipment costs are increased. For this reason, at present, some service shops only provide services by installing image processing apparatuses or photo printers dedicated to printing from digital cameras, apart from the conventional photofinishing system.

  However, if the price of a digital camera becomes as affordable as a camera that uses film with future technological advances, the digital camera will be used as frequently as a camera that uses film. Is expected.

  Accordingly, in the future, it is desired that not only some service stores but also any service store can perform printing from a digital camera as well as printing from a film.

  In view of the above problems, the present invention provides a photofinishing system that has a function of creating a print from a digital camera and can be easily introduced by general service shops without suffering from installation space and cost problems. It is an object of the present invention to provide a print service from a digital camera to a customer at a lower cost at more service bases.

  The photofinishing system of the present invention reads a digital image recorded on a plurality of recording media including at least one of a digital image read from a film or a digital image captured from a digital camera, and performs image processing including a plurality of steps. Is a photofinishing system that can output a recorded image to a print or media after applying the image processing, if the processing corresponding to any of the image processing steps has been processed, omit the image processing, otherwise Output means for executing the above image processing and outputting it to a print or media.

  In the image processing step, image processing including a plurality of steps including at least gradation processing and color processing is performed. If the gradation processing step has been processed, the gradation processing step may be omitted.

  According to the present invention, by realizing a plurality of functions in a single system, the image processing means can be shared between the case of a film and the case of a digital camera. Since it is not repeated, the cost can be reduced and the installation space can be reduced. As a result, a system can be easily introduced even in a small service store, and a print service from a digital camera can be provided to customers at a lower cost at more service bases.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of a photofinishing system of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an outline of a photofinishing system of the present invention. As shown in the figure, this system includes an image handling device 1 and a photographic printer 2 connected to the image handling device 1.

  In the present embodiment, the image handling apparatus 1 is a general-purpose personal computer in which a dedicated program is incorporated, and as a peripheral device or an external interface, a film scanner for reading the developed film 3 and a memory card of the digital camera 4 are read. Cable interface for direct connection to a card reader or camera. Further, the image handling apparatus 1 includes a media drive such as a CD-R or Zip, or is provided externally.

  The photographic printer 2 is a known digital photographic printer, which receives image data and output instruction information (for example, the number of prints, size, etc.) from the image handling apparatus 1 and performs print output based on these.

  In the above system, the image handling apparatus 1 performs predetermined image processing on the image data captured from the developed film 3 and then transfers the image data to the photographic printer 2 and records it on a medium 6 such as a CD-R. . Further, the image handling apparatus 1 can accept a photographic image input by a medium in addition to a photographic image input by a scanner as a print target. This medium may be the medium 6 on which the image data is recorded by this system, or may be another medium.

  A photographic image read from a media or a photographic image taken from a digital camera is interrupted and input to the image handling apparatus 1 when, for example, the film to be processed temporarily is interrupted while waiting for development of the film. Printed out by the printer 2.

  Next, the configuration of this system will be described in detail with reference to FIG. However, among the components shown in FIG. 2, the function relating to image processing may be realized as a function of the image handling apparatus 1 or may be incorporated as a function of the photographic printer 2 or the film scanner. Therefore, in the following, FIG. 2 will be described without particular association with FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the photographic image captured by the scanner 10 is processed by various image processing means 11 to 16 and then output as a photographic print by the printer 2.

  The setup gradation / color processing means 11 is a means for automatically determining underexposure or overexposure and correcting it to an appropriate value. The enlargement / reduction means 12 is a means for converting the pixel density in accordance with the width of the print (the width of the roll paper). Further, the dodging processing means 13 is a means for performing dodging processing as described in JP-A-9-18704, and the grain-suppressing sharpness enhancement processing means 14 is described in JP-A-9-22460. It is a means for performing such a graininess suppression type sharpness enhancement process.

  Further, in addition to the above series of image processing, image data for print output is subjected to color conversion according to the characteristics of the printer by the 3D conversion processing means 15 and 16. The 3D conversion process differs depending on whether the read film is a negative film or a reversal film. Hereinafter, in the present specification, conversion processing in the case of a negative film is referred to as [N] conversion, and conversion processing in the case of a reversal film is referred to as [R] conversion.

  On the other hand, the image data for media output is processed by the grain-suppressing sharpness processing means 14 and then processed by the NIF-RGB converting means 17 and 18 in accordance with the NIF- defined by the FlashPix standard proposed by Eastman Kodak Company Color conversion to RGB space. Here, NIF-RGB is a standard for the color of image data displayed on a CRT, and NIF-RGB conversion is color conversion so that the image data that is output to the media looks best when displayed on the CRT. It is processing to do.

  Further, the image data is hierarchized into a format defined by the above FlashPix standard by the FPX conversion means 19, compressed, and then recorded on the media 6a such as a CD-R by the media drive 7a and provided to the customer. The

  The print output of the photographic image read from the film and the media output process have been described above. Next, reprint processing of a photographic image recorded on a medium as described above or by other means will be described.

  In order to print out the photographic images recorded on the media, the optimal image so that the drive device that reads the media and the format of the image data recorded on the media can be interpreted to create a high-quality print. Means for performing processing is necessary, but these must be provided for each type of media and each type of image format. In this embodiment, five types of digital inputs can be accepted, but the type of media and the type of image format are not limited to these.

  One corresponds to the case where the media 6a provided to the customer at the service store is brought directly to the service store for reprinting. In this case, as shown in FIG. 2, the flattening (including the decompression process) by the flattening means 20 is performed on the image data captured from the medium 6a. By this processing, the data structure hierarchized by FPX conversion at the time of output to the medium is restored to raster (flat) data, and the compressed data is decompressed and restored to the original size.

  In this embodiment, after the flattening, if the size of the photographic image is panorama, pixel density conversion and sharpness processing 21 are performed. However, this process is not necessarily performed at this stage, and may be performed immediately before print output.

  One is a case where the customer once captures the image data of the medium 6a into a personal computer and re-records it on another medium 6b (Zip, FD, MO, etc.). This is often done when requesting printout of a processed photographic image, for example, creating a New Year's card postcard. In this case, since the format of the image data is the same as that of the medium 6a, flattening is performed by the flattening processing means 22 as in the case of the medium 6a.

  In addition, PhotoCD is already widely used as a standard other than the FlashPix standard. The color of the image data recorded in the PhotoCD 6c is defined in a color space called photo-YCC. In the system of the present embodiment, this is converted into the NIF-RGB space by the NIF-RGB converting means 23. Is done.

As described above, since the image data captured from the media 6a, 6b, and 6c are all color-converted in accordance with the CRT display at the time of output, the scanner-RGB conversion means is then applied to these data. 24, conversion processing is performed so that the image data has gradation and color suitable for the printer. As indicated by [M ⁻¹ ] in the figure, this conversion process is performed by the conversion performed by the NIF-RGB conversion means 17 by [G] = [R] · [M], and the NIF-RGB conversion means 18. This is equivalent to the inverse conversion of the [M] conversion when the converted conversion is expressed as [F] = [N] · [M]. By performing this conversion processing, the [G] conversion is performed. Only the [R] conversion is applied to the image data, and the [F] converted image data is applied to the [N] conversion only. As a matter of course, [G ^-1 ] conversion or [F ^-1 ] conversion is performed instead of [M ^-1 ] so that [N] conversion or [R] conversion is performed again immediately before printing. However, in the present embodiment, only [M ⁻¹ ] conversion is performed in order to reduce the number of conversion processes and increase the efficiency of the process.

  Further, as with PhotoCD6c, there is an IS standard proposed by the present applicant as a standard for media and image data that has already been widely used. In the present embodiment, it is possible to capture and reprint image data from the medium 6d created according to this standard.

  Further, this system includes a card reader 29 for reading a memory card 30 for a digital camera and taking a photographed image. The captured image data is converted by the pixel density conversion and sharpness processing means 28. Generally, the number of pixels of image data obtained by photographing with a low-priced digital camera is about 350,000 to 500,000 pixels, which is about ¼ to ３ of the image data obtained by reading from film. Therefore, only a blurred photo print can be created as it is. In this embodiment, pixel density conversion is performed so that the number of pixels of image data is 1430 × 1074 pixels (about 150,000 pixels). At this time, sharpness processing is also performed as necessary. Further, color gradation conversion is performed on the digital image by a scanner-RGB conversion unit.

  As an interface for the digital camera, a cable connection interface and various other interfaces can be considered in addition to the memory card.

  The image data captured as described above and subjected to appropriate conversion processing is interrupted and input by the interrupt means 26 when the input from the scanner is interrupted. The interruption may be performed according to an instruction from the operator, or when digital input is given priority, a set of media in the card reader or the media drive may be detected and automatically interrupted.

Of the image data input by interruption, the data captured from the media is already processed once when it is read from the film and recorded on the media. Does not necessarily have to be done. However, for example, when creating an enlarged print, it is necessary to perform enlargement processing by the enlargement / reduction processing means 12, and when the photographic image is blurred due to further enlargement processing, the grain-suppressing sharpness processing is performed. Sharpness processing may be performed by means 14. In addition, as described above, in the present embodiment, [M ⁻¹ ] is applied to the image data by the scanner-RGB conversion unit, and therefore it is not necessary to perform 3D conversion. The image data processed in this way is output as a photographic print by the printer 2.

  On the other hand, among the image data input by interruption, the data acquired from the digital camera is processed by the setup gradation / color processing means 11. This is because a digital camera is more expensive than a camera that uses film, and an inexpensive digital camera has limited image processing functions built into the camera body. That is, in order to obtain a sufficient image quality when printing, it is desirable to perform various setup processes in the photofinishing system. Note that processing such as enlargement / reduction may be performed as necessary, as in the case of capturing from media.

  In the above embodiment, a film image capturing unit that captures a digital image by reading a developed film and a digital image captured by the film image capturing unit are output to a photofinishing system as a photographic print. Print output means, digital camera image capture means for capturing a digital image taken by a digital camera, and interrupt means for interrupting and inputting the digital image captured by the digital camera image capture means to the print output means; And a technical idea that, when an interrupt input by the interrupt means is generated by the print output means, a digital image input by the interrupt is output as a photographic print.

  The digital camera image capturing means is, for example, a card reader for reading a memory card such as SSFDC, compact flash (registered trademark), PCMCIA or the like used in a digital camera, or a digital camera with a built-in memory and data. A cable connection interface for transferring image data, software for performing various conversion processes necessary for printing out a digital image captured by a card reader or cable connection, and the like.

  The various conversion processes are processes for converting a digital image taken by a digital camera into data in a form that can be handled by the photofinishing system, and are performed only on the digital image captured from the digital camera. For example, since the size and aspect ratio of a digital image acquired by a digital camera vary depending on the model, pixel density conversion must be performed in accordance with the size of the roll paper to be printed. Alternatively, a digital image acquired by a low-priced digital camera has a smaller number of pixels than a digital image read from a film, and if printed as it is, the image becomes blurred, and thus sharpness processing and the like are necessary. However, since some expensive digital cameras can acquire a digital image with a large number of pixels, such conversion processing is not essential.

  In addition, digital images read from film and digital images captured from a digital camera are preferably subjected to image processing such as color gradation processing, enlargement / reduction in accordance with the print size, and dodging processing. .

  The photofinishing system may further include media output means for recording the digital image captured by the film image capturing means or the digital camera image capturing means on a predetermined recording medium. This means that a digital image capturing function from a digital camera is added to the system described in the above Japanese Patent Application No. 8-309322, so that all digital input / output services are implemented by a single system. can do.

  According to this technical idea, a conventional system for reading a photographic image from a film and printing it out is provided with a digital camera image capturing means for capturing a photographic image from a digital camera. Both cameras can be handled as image sources. By realizing a plurality of functions in one system, for example, the image processing means can be shared between the case of a film and the case of a digital camera, so that the cost can be reduced and the installation space can be reduced. As a result, a system can be easily introduced even in a small service store, and a print service from a digital camera can be provided to customers at a lower cost at more service bases.

  Furthermore, if media output means for recording digital images captured on media such as CD-R, Zip, etc. is provided so that digital images captured from film or digital cameras can be recorded on media, it will be more cost-effective and more fulfilling. The digital I / O service can be provided to customers at low cost. In particular, if a photograph taken with a digital camera is once imported into the system of the present invention, processed and recorded on a medium, and the digital image is imported from the medium to a personal computer, the digital image is directly imported from the digital camera to the personal computer. Compared to this, much higher image quality can be obtained.

  In addition, by performing pixel density conversion with the digital camera image capturing means so that there is no difference in pixel density between the digital image captured from the digital camera and the digital image read from the film, the subsequent image processing The image processing function in the case of film can be used as it is, which is desirable in terms of processing efficiency.

The figure which shows the outline | summary of the photofinishing system of this invention The figure which shows the structure in one Embodiment of the photofinishing system of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

1 Image Handling Device 2 Photo Printer 3 Developed Film 4 Digital Camera 5 Photo Print 6 Image Recording Media
26 Interrupt means
30 memory card

Claims (2)

Reading a digital image recorded on a plurality of recording media including at least one of a digital image read from a film or a digital image taken from a digital camera;
A photofinishing system capable of outputting a recorded image to a print or media after performing image processing consisting of a plurality of steps,
A photofinishing system comprising output means for omitting image processing when processing corresponding to any one of the image processing steps has been processed, and performing other image processing to output to a print or media. Perform image processing consisting of multiple steps including at least gradation processing and color processing,
2. The photofinishing system according to claim 1, wherein the gradation processing step is omitted when the gradation processing step has been processed.

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