JP2627744B2 - Image processing device - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, there is known a technique of extracting a contour part of an image and outputting the extracted contour part as a binary image.

However, in the contour output as in the above-described conventional example, the contour portion is output in black and the portion other than the contour is not output, so that only the contour portion is simply output as an image regardless of the type of image.

[Object of the Invention] According to the present invention, when a contour portion is extracted and output as a visible image, an image capable of outputting a visible image in consideration of a balance between the image of the contour portion and an image of a portion other than the contour portion. It is another object of the present invention to provide a processing device, and to effectively output an image of a contour portion and an image of a portion other than the contour portion when multi-value output of image data (density information) is performed. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image processing apparatus. To achieve this object, an image processing apparatus according to the present invention includes an input unit for inputting image data, and an image indicated by the image data input by the input unit. Data generating means for detecting the contour part and generating contour part data indicating the contour part and non-contour part data indicating a part other than the contour part; 1 and the above contour Density setting means for manually and independently setting second densities corresponding to portions other than the portion, and multi-value image data corresponding to the first density corresponding to the contour portion data, According to the non-contour part data, the second
And a multi-valued image data generating means for generating multi-valued image data according to the density.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

In this embodiment, an image input device 11 for outputting 8-bit image data, a video data multiplexer 12 for determining an input destination of data, a memory bank 0, a memory bank 1, a memory bank 2, a memory bank 3, An address multiplexer 17 that determines which address of the memory bank is to be stored, a contour processing circuit 18, a non-processing circuit 19 that does not perform contour processing, a CPU 110, an operation unit 111,
It has a selector 112, a printer 113, a communication line 114 through which data immediately before the line of interest passes, a communication line 115 through which data of the line of interest passes, and a communication line 116 through which data immediately after the line of interest passes. .

The image input device 11 shines light on the image of the original on the platen,
This is a device that decomposes into pixels (examples of which are shown in FIG. 2) which are the minimum units of an image, and sequentially reads them with a light receiving element such as a CCD.

The image data is sequentially written into the memory banks 0, 1, 2, and 3 by one line of data by the video data multiplexer 12 and the address multiplexer 17. That is, first, data for one line is written to the memory banks 0, 1, and 2 respectively, and when the writing starts to the memory bank 3, the data of the memory banks 0, 1, and 2 is read, and the read data is read. Are communication lines 114 and 1
The data is sent to the contour processing circuit 18 via the lines 15 and 116, and only the data of the line of interest is sent to the non-processing circuit 19.

Then, when the writing to the memory bank 3 is completed and then the writing to the memory bank 0 is started, the memory banks 1,
A few data are read, the data from memory bank 1 becomes the data of the previous line, the data of memory bank 2 becomes the data of the line of interest, and the data of memory bank 3 becomes the data of the next line. Data.

The above operation is sequentially performed for all lines using the four memory banks.

On the other hand, based on the input from the operation unit 111, it is determined whether the processing is the contour processing or the non-processing, and when performing the contour processing, the density slice level and the output density after the contour processing are determined. Then, a formed image is output from an output device (for example, a printer).

By the way, each pixel is subjected to an edge emphasis filter for finding a contour portion (a boundary between a white portion and a black portion in an image), and binarization is performed using the calculation result and a threshold level. Output. The contour processing is performed in this order.

FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram specifically showing the contour processing circuit 18 and the non-processing circuit 19 in the above embodiment, and FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an image storage portion of the image input device in the above embodiment. .

In this embodiment, the input / output of the density information is 8 bits. However, the amount of information temporarily increases to about 13 bits during various processes.

In FIG. 3, the non-processing circuit 19 has flip-flops 319 and 320. The contour processing circuit 18 includes an adder 34,
38, 310, 312 and flip-flops 35, 36, 37, 39, 31
1, comparator 314, AND gates 317, 318, OR gate 330, inverters 328, 330, 327, 331, multiplier 3
29. In addition, flip-flops 324 and 325 that delay the select signal are provided.

In FIG. 3, one line of image data (density information) from the image input device 11 is stored in a memory (memory banks 0, 1,.
(One of the memories 2 and 3), the memory for the other 3 lines is stored in the communication lines 114, 115 and 11 for each one pixel.
Send to 6. When all the inputs in the main scanning direction are completed,
Of the three memory banks, the line of the oldest memory bank is in the write state, and data is output from the other three memory banks. In this way, the pixel data of the line of interest is always sent to the signal line 115, the pixel data of the line immediately before the line of interest is sent to the signal line 114, and the line data of the line of interest is sent to the signal line 116. Is sent.

In this embodiment, the operations of the outline processing and the non-processing can be switched in one main scanning line (pixel unit).

Now, the edge enhancement filter shown in FIG.
Is realized by each member.

That is, a and e shown in FIG. 5 are formed by the adder circuit 34, the flip-flops 35 and 36, and the inverter 327, b is formed by the flip-flop 37 and the inverter 328, and c is formed by the multiplier 329. , D are made by inverter 330.

The output signal of the adder 312 and the slice level of the contour processing are compared in the comparator 314. That is,
When the output signal of the adder 312 is equal to or higher than the slice level, for example, the gate 317 is opened and the gate 318 is closed.
Conversely, when the output signal of the adder 312 is lower than the slice level, the gate 318 opens and the gate 317 closes.

In this case, the density corresponding to the contour output is set as the reproduction density “1”, and the density that has not been output is set as the reproduction density “0”. Information is sent. As described above, the density information of the contour processing and the non-processing is always input to the selector 112, and selection of each processing is realized in pixel units according to the select signal input in real time.

In the above-described embodiment, the comparator 114 is an example of a binarizing unit that binarizes the contour information.
The 318, the OR gate 310, and the inverter 331 are an example of an output density selection unit that selects one of a plurality of output densities according to the binarized value. In addition, the operation unit 111
It is an example of a setting unit that sets a threshold level of the binarization unit and the plurality of output densities. Then, the slice level of the comparator 314, the reproduction density “1”,
“0” can be freely set in the operation unit 111.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of the image input device in the above embodiment.

In this figure, a copy start key 601, a copy mode reset key 602 for setting all copy modes to the standard mode, a numeric keypad 604, a clear key 605, a copy number display device 606, a copy density display device 607, A copy density adjustment key 608, a warning display device 609, an AE key 610, a photo key 611 used for copying an image having an intermediate value such as a photo, a display device 612 for slice level and output density, and a paper selection key 613. And a paper selection display device 614,
Display 615 with slice level and output density
, An outline / no-processing setting key 616, a magnification key 617, a 1 × / auto-magnification key 618, a magnification display device 619, and a 1 × / auto 1 × display device 620.

 Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be described.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the operation in the above embodiment.

First, when it is desired to perform the contour operation, the contour and no-processing setting key 616 is pressed to set the contour processing mode (S1), and the display 615 is brought into the state shown in FIG. Here, when it is desired to return to the original non-processing mode, the setting key 616 is pressed, and the display 615 is turned off (S2). If you want to change the conditions (S
3) Press any one of slice level, reproduction density, and reproduction density (S4, 5, 6, 7). As a result, the default value is displayed on the display device 612. By pressing "+" to increase the default value, "-" to decrease the default value, or "OK" when the operator reaches the desired value, the operator can freely select the slice level, reproduction density, and reproduction density. Can be set.

Therefore, various contour processes can be performed.
Further, it is possible to output a contour image in an optimal mode for various types of originals (photographs, characters, etc.).

If the user wants to enlarge or reduce the original and perform the outline processing on it at the same time, the magnification key 617 may be pressed before or after the above processing. Actually, after the address conversion is performed in the address multiplexer 117, the contour processing is performed.

By adding the input mode to the input device 11, the contour processing can be performed in the AE mode, the photograph mode, and the character mode. Thus, in the contour processing, the quality of the output image is further improved.

Further, in the mixed original of the photograph and the character, after the area of the photograph and the character is designated, by designating the area of each of the photograph mode and the character mode, an optimum contour image can be obtained. Therefore, in image input of various types, for example, originals of only characters and mixed originals of characters and photographs, contour processing is performed, and optimum output images are obtained.

Further, by performing the above-described contour processing after the enlargement / reduction processing, a wide range of applications can be made, particularly in the design direction.

In the above embodiment, the operator can set the level to be extracted as the outline information and the output density of the outline portion (after processing).
Can be obtained. Further, by performing the contour processing after the enlargement / reduction processing, it is possible to obtain an output image having a contour line having a constant thickness independent of the enlargement / reduction processing. By applying contour processing to a photograph, a coloring book such as a human face can be easily created.

According to the present invention, when a contour portion is extracted and output as a visible image, a visible image can be output in consideration of the balance between the image of the contour portion and an image other than the contour portion. This has the effect. Also, according to the present invention, in consideration of the fact that image data (density information) can be output in multi-values, the image of the contour portion and the image of the portion other than the contour portion are each converted into the image of the first density and the second image. It is possible to output the density image and control the density of the image of the contour portion and the image of the portion other than the contour portion independently of each other.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of pixels and lines in the above embodiment. FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram showing a specific example of the contour processing circuit and the non-processing circuit in the above embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an image storage portion of the image input device in the above embodiment. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a matrix of an edge processing filter in the above embodiment. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of the input device in the above embodiment. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation in the above embodiment. 18: contour circuit, 19: unprocessed circuit, 111: operation unit, 112: selector, 314: comparator.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] An input unit for inputting image data; detecting an outline of an image indicated by the image data input by the input unit, and detecting outline data indicating the outline; Data generating means for generating non-contour part data indicating a part; a first density corresponding to the contour part, and a second density corresponding to a part other than the contour part, respectively. Density setting means for manually setting the multi-valued image data according to the first density corresponding to the contour data, and corresponding to the second density corresponding to the non-contour data. And a multi-valued image data generating means for generating multi-valued image data.