JP2770764B2 - Image data display device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image data display apparatus, and more particularly to an apparatus for displaying image data obtained by an analyzer such as a scanning probe microscope.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Various measurement data obtained by an analyzer have been displayed as images. For example, in an analyzer such as a scanning probe microscope,
2. Description of the Related Art There has been known a display device that acquires a measurement result of an atomic arrangement on a material surface or a surface shape of a material surface as image data, and displays the image data by color display or grayscale display. In addition, as a scanning probe microscope to which such a display device can be applied, for example, a scanning tunnel microscope (STM) using a tunnel current flowing between the probe and the sample surface, or a device operating between the probe and the sample surface. An atomic force microscope (AFM) for measuring an atomic force is known,
A physical quantity such as the height of the surface of the material can be displayed in color or shade.

[0003] In addition to the above-mentioned physical quantity of the height, various physical quantities such as magnetic quantity and surface friction, and data values obtained by data processing of the measured physical quantity are displayed on the display device. Can be applied.

[0004]

However, in the conventional image data display device, when a plurality of display objects such as physical quantities are displayed on one display screen, the magnitude of the physical quantities of the display objects is determined. There is a problem that the range shown (hereinafter referred to as a display range) cannot be easily set.

In the conventional image data display device, when displaying a plurality of image data on one display screen,
Normally, when individual image data is measured, the data is displayed using the display range value set in the analyzer as it is. Therefore, the display ranges of a plurality of image data displayed on one display screen do not always match, and comparison between the image data cannot be easily performed. for that reason,
In order to compare image data, it is necessary to set the display range value of each image data to the same value before displaying.

Further, since the analyzer handles image data corresponding to various physical quantities, it is necessary to set a display range value for each physical quantity. Therefore, the present invention solves the above-described problem of the conventional image data display device, and provides an image data display device capable of setting the same display range value for a plurality of image data on a screen. The purpose is to provide.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a data holding means for holding image data and attributes of the image data, a display means capable of displaying a plurality of image data, and a means for displaying the image data on the display means. Data display processing means for performing data processing of the image data display device, the data display processing means, the display range value in the attribute of the image data being displayed on the display means, the specified display range specified value The display means displays the image data according to the display range value set in the attribute, thereby displaying a plurality of image data in the same display range. This achieves the above object.

[0008] The image data of the present invention is data for displaying measured data obtained by measurement with an analyzer or the like as an image. The attribute according to the present invention is data indicating characteristics of image data, such as a display range value of the image data and a physical quantity represented by the image data. The attribute of the display range value indicates the relationship between the measured value and the color distribution or shade when displaying the image data.
The attribute of the physical quantity indicates a measured quantity such as a height, a magnetic quantity, and a surface friction.

In a first embodiment of the present invention, the data display means designates a display range only for an attribute of a display range value of image data having a common physical quantity attribute among the image data being displayed on the display means. The value is set, whereby only the image data corresponding to the common measurement value can be displayed in the same display range among a plurality of image data displayed on the display means.

[0010]

The object to be measured by the analyzer or the like is measured, and measurement data obtained by the measurement is stored in the data storage means as image data for displaying an image. The data holding unit stores and holds the image data and the attributes of the display range values and the physical quantities indicating the characteristics of the image data as one data unit. The data display processing means performs image display on the display means using the image data held in the data holding means. The display means can display a plurality of image data, and each image data is displayed according to a display range value in each attribute.

The data display processing means designates a display range designation value and sets the display range value of each image data to the display range designation value in order to display the image data being displayed in the same display range. Then, the image data is displayed on the display device according to the set display range designation value. As a result, the display range of the image data being displayed is displayed with the same designated display range value, and comparison of measured values between display image data becomes easy.

According to a first embodiment of the present invention,
Search for image data having a common physical quantity attribute in image data displayed in the display means, and set a display range designation value only for the attribute of the display range value of the searched image data. Accordingly, it is possible to set the display range value only for image data whose display range is to be aligned from among a plurality of image data being displayed. As a result, only the display range to be set can be set in the image data being displayed.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. [Configuration of Embodiment of the Present Invention] First, the configuration of an embodiment of the image data display device of the present invention will be described with reference to the configuration diagram of FIG. In FIG. 1, an image data display device of the present invention includes a display unit 1 for displaying image data and a display range value, a function for setting a display range value of the image data, and a function for displaying image data and a display range value. A data display processing unit 2 having a display function and an input unit 3 for setting a display range value and inputting various commands are provided. FIG. 1 illustrates a case where image data is displayed in color, and an analyzer that measures image data displayed on an image data display device is omitted.

The display means 1 includes image data display units 10 and 1
1, color table display units 12 and 13, histogram display units 14 and 15, display range, and image designation display unit 18. The display of the display range and the image designation display unit 18 can be performed by a window display by software. The image data display sections 10 and 11 are sections for displaying the measurement data measured by the analyzer as image data, and can be constituted by a display device divided into a plurality of 512 × 512 pixels, for example. An image display is performed by inputting image data to each pixel, and a color display function corresponding to R, G, B color data is also provided. When the analyzer is a scanning tunnel microscope, the image data is image data having three-dimensional information corresponding to the surface state of the sample.

The color table display sections 12 and 13 (sometimes called video look-up tables) are sections for displaying the distribution state of colors used for color display in the image data display sections 10 and 11, respectively. In the figure, it is shown in a columnar form. The color table display units 12 and 13 are, for example, divided into 256, and color information of a color table, which will be described later, with respect to pixel values (hereinafter, referred to as color values) corresponding to the divided sections. Color display is performed by making them correspond.

The histogram display units 14 and 15 are portions that represent the distribution of measured values in the measured image data. FIG.
In the example, the measured value distribution in the measured image data is represented by a histogram display, but may be represented by other known display forms. A plurality of image data displayed on the image data display section can be displayed on the display screen. In FIG. 1, two image data are displayed.

The data display processing means 2 has a function of setting a display range of image data and a display function of displaying image data, a display range, and the like. The image data processing means 20 and the data holding means 21 , Display range receiving means 22, display range setting means 23, display image data memory 24, color table memory 25, display driver 26, and the like.

The function of setting the display range of the image data is as follows: the image data processing means 20 searches the data holding means 21 for image data having the same physical quantity as the image data designated by the input means 3; 23 is performed by setting the display range value of the searched image data to the display range designation value.

A display function for displaying image data, a display range, and the like is performed by the image data processing unit 20 using the image data and attributes in the data holding unit 21 to display image data (for display) corresponding to the display range. Bitmap data) is created, a process for color display is performed by associating the color image memory data with the color table memory 25, and a display driver 26 is controlled to drive the display means 1.

The input means 3, the data holding means 21, the display range setting means 23, the display image data memory 24, and the display driver 26 are connected to the image data processing means 20. The input means 3 is a display range receiving means 2
2, the display range receiving means 22 is connected to the display range setting means 23, and the display range setting means 23 is connected to the data holding means 21. The display image data memory 24 has a color table memory 2.
5 is connected.

The data holding means 21 is means for holding image data obtained from an analyzer or the like, and the image data can be stored in a file format together with an attribute indicating its characteristics. FIG. 2 is a configuration example for explaining a file that stores image data. In FIG. 2, image data and attributes are stored in one file. This attribute includes, for example, a physical quantity representing the measured quantity of the measurement target,
It is possible to set a maximum value and a minimum value of data values in the image data, a display range value when displaying the image data, and the like. As the data holding unit 21, a storage unit built in the data display processing unit 2 can be used, or an external storage unit such as a hard disk can be used.

The display image data memory 24 is a memory for storing image data to be displayed on the image data display section 10, and obtains image data from the image data processing means 20 in correspondence with a color table. This is a memory for storing the color values to be obtained on a pixel-by-pixel basis, in the form of bitmap data. Color display in the image data display unit 10 is performed based on the bitmap data stored in the display image data memory 24.

The color table memory 25 stores color information for performing color display. For example, when coloring 256 colors, the combination of the R, G, and B intensities for each color is stored. I remember. When the R, G, B signals corresponding to the color values designating each color are sent to the image data display unit 10, the image data display unit 10 performs color display. R to use,
By changing the number and combination of the G and B signals, the number of colors and the color state of the color display can be changed.

The display driver 26 is a drive unit for displaying the storage contents of the display image data memory 24 and the color table 25 and the display range values on the display unit 1, and is controlled by the image data processing means 20.

In order to perform the histogram display, a histogram data memory (not shown) may be provided to store the number of pixels of the measured image data within the display range.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram for explaining a display range setting process in the image data display device of the present invention. The image data processing means 20, the display range receiving means 22, and the display range receiving means 22 shown in FIG. And display range setting means 23
This is to explain the overall processing of. In FIG.
The MPU 40 provided in the data display processing means 2 includes a bus 4
3, display range designated value storage means 41, attribute storage means 42, data holding means (file data storage means) 2
1, display means 1 and input means 3 are connected.

[Operation of Embodiment of the Present Invention] Next, the operation of the image data display device of the present invention will be described. First, a display state on a display screen by a display range setting process by the image data display device of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 4 shows the distribution of two measured quantities in the same measurement area, with the measured quantities on the vertical axis. The measurement amount is a physical amount such as a height indicating the surface shape of the measurement object, a magnetic amount, and a surface friction. FIG. 4A shows the magnitude of the physical quantity at each of the points A to D in the measurement area by A (0.
0), B (4.0), C (8.0), D (4.0), and FIG. 4B shows points a to d corresponding to the points A to D in the measurement area. The magnitudes of the physical quantities of a (0.
0), b (2.0), c (4.0), and d (2.0). The numerical value in this case is a temporary value for comparison.

Here, when the measured values in FIG. 4 are displayed as image data with the maximum value of each measured value as the maximum value of the display range, the display state shown in FIG. 5 is obtained. In the display state of FIG. 5,
The image data is represented by color display or gray scale display. FIG. 5A is a diagram in which the physical quantity of FIG. 4A is displayed as image data, and FIG. 5B is a diagram in which the physical quantity of FIG. 4B is displayed as image data. The image data display of FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B are displayed in the same color display or shade display, although the display range is different. For this reason, the comparison between the two image data results in the same display despite the different measurement amounts, making it difficult to easily compare.

Therefore, by making the display ranges of both the same, image data is displayed in the common display range. FIG. 6 shows a display state of the image data when both display range values are set to the display range designated value. Here, the same display range value as that of FIG. 5A is adopted as the display range designation value, and the display range value of FIG. 5B is changed to the display range designation value and displayed. Accordingly, the image data of FIG. 6B is displayed according to the changed display range value, and the image data of FIGS. 6A and 6B have the same display range. Will be displayed.

Next, the process of setting the display range by the image data display device of the present invention will be described with reference to the block diagram of FIG. 1 and FIG. 3 and the flowchart of FIG. In this flowchart, it is assumed that a plurality of image data have already been displayed on the display screen of the display unit 1. The image data is displayed on the image data display unit 10,
11 and the display range of the image data is displayed by the range display units 16 and 17. In the case of color display, the relationship between the color distribution of the color and the display range is displayed by the color table display units 12 and 13. The number of data is displayed by the histogram display units 14 and 15. When the image data is displayed by the density distribution, the color table display section becomes a gray scale display section. The display range values displayed by the range display sections 16 and 17 in FIG. It is shown as 00 (nm).

The plurality of image data to be displayed are:
In some cases, image data for different physical quantities is displayed instead of image data for the same physical quantity.

Step S1: First, the input means 3 designates image data for setting the display range from the image data displayed on the display means 1. The specification of the image data can be performed by specifying the image data display section being displayed by the input means 3 such as a mouse, for example. In the display range / image designation display section 18,
Set the display range only for the specified image data, or
Alternatively, it may be configured to select whether to specify the setting of the display range for all the image data being displayed.

Step S2: Image data processing means 20
Finds a file corresponding to the specified image data from the data holding unit 21 and reads out a physical quantity from the attribute in the file. The read physical quantity is temporarily stored in the attribute (physical quantity) storage unit 42 in FIG.

Step S3: Next, the display range setting means 23 from the input means 3 via the display range receiving means 22
Enter the display range specification value in. The display range setting means 23 sends a display range designation value to the image data processing means 20. The display range designation value is a value for designating the size of the display range of the image data selected in step S1 and image data displaying the same physical quantity as the image data. The display range designation value is temporarily stored in the display range designation value storage means 41 in FIG.

The designation of the display range value of the image data on the display means 1 can be performed by displaying the image data on the display range / image designation display section 18. Further, the display unit may be configured to designate a display range value by a numerical value input from the input means 3 such as a keyboard, or to select a maximum value of image data in a file attribute.

Steps S4 and S5: The image data processing means 20 searches the image data currently displayed on the display means 1 for a file having the same physical quantity as the physical quantity obtained in step S2, and does not search the file. It is determined whether or not the file exists. In this operation, the MPU 40 sequentially reads the file of the image data being displayed from the data holding unit 21 and compares the physical quantity in the attribute of the file with the physical quantity temporarily stored in the attribute (physical quantity) storage unit 42. Can be done by

The file is sequentially read out based on a data structure such as a tree structure forming the file, based on a display order of software for displaying image data on the display means 1 or a display flag or the like in the attribute of the file. Various methods, such as providing a marker, can be used.

When there is no unsearched file, it indicates that there is no file for which the display range setting processing shown in subsequent steps S6 to S9 has not been completed. Ends.
On the other hand, if there is an unsearched file, the display range setting process is performed on the unprocessed file in steps S6 to S9.

Step S6: Image data processing means 20
Reads the physical quantity in the attribute of the unsearched file from the data holding unit 21. This reading is performed in FIG.
This can be performed by the MPU 40 accessing a physical quantity in the displayed file in the data holding unit 21.

Step S7: Next, the image data processing means 20 determines whether or not the physical quantity read in step S6 is the same as the physical quantity read in step S2. 23, and sends a setting signal. By determining the physical quantity, it is possible to select the image data for which the display range is to be set from the image data being displayed. In FIG.
This determination process can be performed by the MPU 40 determining whether the physical quantity read from the data holding means 21 matches the physical quantity stored in the attribute (physical quantity) storage means 42.

In this determination, if the physical quantities are different, the image data read out in step S6 does not need to set the display range, so the process returns to step S4 again and returns to step S5 for another unsearched file.
To Step S7. On the other hand, if the physical quantities match, the image data read in step S6 is image data for which a display range should be set,
Proceeding to the next step S8, the display range is set.

Step S8: display range setting means 23
Sends the display range designation value to the data holding means 21, changes the display range value of the file being processed to the designated value, and resets the display range. This process is performed by transferring the display range value of the display range designated value storage unit 41 to the display range in the attribute of the data holding unit 21 in FIG. 3 and resetting the display range value to the display range value. The display range value initially set for the attribute in the file can be, for example, a difference between the maximum value and the minimum value of the image data.

Step S9: Image data processing means 20
Reads the image data and the attribute of the display range value set in step S8 from the data holding unit 21, and displays the image data according to the display range value. In this image data display, the image data processing means 20 refers to the data in the color table memory 25, converts the image data into a data format for display on the display means 1, and stores it in the display image data memory 24. To the display means 1 via the display driver 26.

With this processing, the setting of the display range of one image data being displayed is completed, and the flow returns to step S4 to perform the same processing for the remaining unprocessed image data. The flowchart is a process for setting a display range, and a schematic procedure of a display process of image data after the process is performed in the order shown in a schematic process diagram of image data in FIG.

In FIG. 8, the image data read from the data holding means 21 is represented as image original data A. In FIG. 8, the image original data A is indicated by a 4 × 4 matrix.
It can be realized by two matrix-shaped pixels. “Pn” described in each pixel represents the luminance intensity at the pixel. The luminance of the pixels in the matrix is represented by a table of luminance data B.

From the luminance intensities in each pixel, the maximum luminance and the minimum luminance are obtained, and the section between the maximum luminance and the minimum luminance is divided. Although the number of divisions is arbitrary, it is desirable to set the number of divisions in correspondence with the number of colors when performing color display in the subsequent signal processing. Then, a luminance division of color display or light and shade display (hereinafter, color display is described as an example) is set corresponding to the division. It is assumed that representative values of the respective luminances in this luminance division are, for example, L1 to L4. The number of the luminance sections is, for example, 256 corresponding to the number of colors of the color display described above.
It can be. In FIG. 8, the relationship between the luminance and the luminance division is represented by luminance / luminance division correspondence data C surrounded by a broken line.

The histogram display in FIG. 1 can be performed based on luminance distribution data obtained by counting the number of pixels having luminance intensities corresponding to luminance divisions.
It can be stored in a storage unit (not shown).

Next, bit map data D for displaying the image data on the image data display section 10 of the display section 1 is obtained. The bitmap data D indicates which luminance division the luminance intensity of each pixel falls into, and indicates the division values in a matrix. The matrix of FIG. 8 shows 4.times.4 bitmap data, and the division values are indicated by L1 to L4. This bitmap data D becomes display image data, and is stored in the display image data memory 24 in FIG.

The color display of the image data is performed by associating the color value of the color range with the luminance section on a one-to-one basis, and determining the correspondence between the luminance section and the color range. Color value C corresponding to section L
By asking for Then, by using the color table E for the bitmap data D,
The corresponding R, G, B color data is obtained and displayed on the display unit.

In general, a color table can be displayed in color by software according to the combination of the intensities of the respective colors R, G, and B. A color value C is designated in the color table indicating the combination. Thus, the color can be displayed. The display of the color table itself can be performed by displaying colors corresponding to the color values of the color table on the color table display units 12 and 13.

(Modification) In the above embodiment, the display range is set using the physical quantity in the attribute of the file as an index. However, the display range can be set using other attributes as an index. In the above embodiment, the color display is described. However, the same can be applied to the gray scale display.

(Effects of Embodiment) According to the above embodiment, the image data can be compared in the common display range without setting the display range of each image data to the same value before displaying the image data. it can. Also, according to the embodiment,
It is possible to automatically select the physical quantity and set the corresponding display range without individually examining the physical quantity which is the measured quantity of the image data.

[0054]

As described above, according to the present invention,
It is possible to provide an image data display device capable of setting the same value display range for a plurality of image data on a screen.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of an image data display device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a file storing image data according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a process of setting a display range in the image data display device according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a distribution state diagram showing a distribution state of two measured quantities in the same measurement area.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a display state on a display screen of the image data display device of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a display state on a display screen of the image data display device of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a display range setting process performed by the image data display device of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram for explaining a schematic procedure of image data display processing by the image data display device of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Display means, 2 ... Data display processing means, 3 ... Input means, 10 and 11 ... Image data display part, 16, 17 ... Range display part, 20 ... Image data processing means, 21 ... Data holding means, 22 ... Display Range receiving means, 23: display range setting means, 24: display image data memory, 25: color table, 26: display driver, 41: display range designation value storage means, 42: attribute storage means.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A data holding means for holding image data and attributes of the image data, a display means capable of displaying a plurality of the image data, and a data processing for displaying the image data on the display means. Data display processing means, the data display processing means, the display range value in the attribute of the image data being displayed on the display means, set to the specified display range specified value, and the data holding means, An image data display device, wherein the display means displays a plurality of image data in the same display range by displaying image data according to a display range value set in the attribute.