JP3187073B2 - Image processing apparatus and method - 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 processing apparatus and method for storing and managing, for example, a number of image data in a memory and displaying the image data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, some image processing systems include an image processor that specializes in processing image data, in addition to a main processor that controls the entire image processing system. In such a system,
The present applicant has filed Japanese Patent Application No. 63-59657 and Japanese Patent Application No. 63-59657.
According to the method proposed in Japanese Patent No. 59658, a management process for specialized management of an image storage area is provided independently of a processing process for processing image data itself. This makes it possible to dynamically and appropriately allocate the storage area of the image to the image memory or the main memory in accordance with the execution of the image processing. An image processing program can be described without being aware of image transfer between memories.

[0003]

However, there is a demand that one or more images in the image storage area under the management of the image storage area management process be redisplayed each time the content changes. There is also a demand for displaying and monitoring a managed image. In order to meet such a demand, it is necessary to transfer image data to the image processing process side and explicitly control the image data to be displayed on the image processing process side. As a result, the processing becomes complicated and the overhead due to the transfer processing is required.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional example, and has an image processing apparatus capable of displaying an image in accordance with the creation or update of an image without the complexity and overhead of processing by explicit instructions from a programmer. The purpose is to provide.

[0005]

To achieve the above object, an image processing apparatus according to the present invention has the following arrangement. An image processing apparatus for managing image data stored in a memory, comprising: identification means for identifying a specific request for the image data; and when a specific request identified by the identification means is made, the Display means for displaying the target image data, the identification means, as the specific request, identifies an occupancy release request for the image data,
The display means displays the image data for which the occupation release request has been issued. To achieve the above object, a coordinate input method according to the present invention has the following configuration. An image processing method for managing stored image data, comprising: an identification step of identifying a specific request for the image data; and, when a specific request identified in the identification step is made, an object of the request. A display step of displaying the image data, wherein the identification step identifies, as the specific request, an occupancy release request for the image data, and the display step displays the image data to which the occupancy release request has been issued. I do.

[0006]

With the above arrangement, the image in the memory is read out and displayed by the procedure for managing the memory without going through the procedure for managing the image data.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. <Structure> FIG. 1 shows the structure of an image processing system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 101 denotes a central processing unit (CP
In U), the program stored in the main memory 102 is executed, and the image data in the image memory 103 is processed. 10
A main memory 2 stores a management process, a processing process, a window process, a management table, and the like. 103, an image memory for storing images; 104, an image memory 1
An image processor for processing the data in the image data 03. Reference numeral 105 denotes a display control device, and reference numeral 106 denotes a bitmap display.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a process configuration at the time of executing image processing according to the present embodiment. Reference numeral 204 denotes an image data storage for storing images, which comprises an image memory 103 and a common memory 204-a which is a part of the main memory 102. 2
01 is a management process for managing the image data storage 204. Reference numeral 202 denotes an image processing process for executing an image processing procedure, and reference numeral 203 denotes a window process for controlling the display control device 105 to display a multi-window on the bitmap display 106.

The operating system (OS) of the apparatus of this embodiment is UNIX, and the communication between the processes is U
This is realized by the socket system call of NIX. Further, the image memory 103 can be directly accessed from the CPU 101 by the mmap system call. The window process 203 is an X-Win
This is a server process of a client-server type window system such as dow.

FIG. 9 shows an image data storage 204
Is an example of a state in which four images stored in are displayed on the bitmap display 106. A window with a title is opened for each image, and each image is displayed in the window. If there are a plurality of windows, they are displayed in an overlapping state. The display of the image in such a multi-window format is managed by the window process 203.

<Description of Processing> The operation in FIG. 2 will be described as to what processing is performed to display image data in this manner. First, the image processing process 202
Makes various requests for the image data storage 204 to the management process 201 using inter-process communication. Requests for the image memory include registration of an image, start of occupation, release of occupation, release of an image, and update of a display image. These requests can be roughly divided into two: a request for a registered image and a request for registering an unregistered image.

From the time the image data is registered in the image data storage 204 until the image data is released again, the management process 201 issues a window generation request to the window process 203 to display the image on the bitmap display 106. To open the window and display the registered image in the window. When the image processing process 202 operates a registered image, the image processing process 202 always issues an occupation request for the target image to the management process 201 before performing the operation. When the management process receives the release request of the occupation or the update of the display image, the data of the requested registered image is read from the image data storage 204 and displayed again in the window. However, the update request of the display image is
If the target image is not occupied, it is ignored. Requests such as occupation and release of occupation of the management process are executed by manipulating values in a management table 205 described later.

<Explanation of Flowchart> FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the management process 201 in response to an image registration request issued from the image processing process 202. In the image registration request, in addition to the image data, the X size (xsize) and the Y size (Ysi
ze) / depth (data such as gradation, nbytes). The management process 201 calculates “xs
"size × size × nbyte" to calculate the required storage capacity (step S301). Next, it is determined whether or not a free area larger than this storage capacity is in the image memory 103 or the common memory 204-a. (Step S302), and if the determination is negative, the process ends with an error code as a return value as an error (step S3).
03). On the other hand, if the determination is affirmative, the necessary information is registered in the management table after securing the storage area in the image data storage 204 (step S304).

The management table 205 includes a common memory 204-
The table provided in a is used to manage images registered in the configuration shown in FIG. In this table, a data group in one horizontal row indicates attributes of one image. FIG. 8 shows a management table 205 in which an image is registered.
Here is an example. Here, reference numeral 801 denotes an image ID given as a natural number at the time of registration processing, which is incremented by one in the order of registration and given, so that uniqueness is maintained within one management process. Reference numerals 802, 803, and 804 indicate the X size, Y size, and depth of the image, respectively. 80
Reference numeral 5 denotes an occupancy status, where 1 indicates occupancy, and 0 indicates unoccupied status. A memory status 806 indicates whether the current image is stored in the image memory 103 (1) or whether the image is currently stored in the shared memory 204-a (0).
A head address 807 of the image indicates a virtual address required for access from the CPU or a physical address required for access from the image processor. Which address is determined by the memory status 806.

A display flag 808 indicates whether or not to display an image. In some cases, it is not necessary to display all the registered images (including generation of a window). If this entry is set to 0, the images are not displayed. When the image registration is completed, a window generation request is issued to the window process (step S305).
A window 901 is created on a bitmap display. Then, the image I in the image ID column 801 of the management table
D as a return value to the image processing process 202,
The process ends (step S306).

In the image processing process 202, the received image ID is used as an ID for specifying a subsequent processing target. A new image is registered in the image data storage 204 by the above procedure. The operation of the image registered in this manner is performed in the following procedure. FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a processing procedure when operating already registered image data in the system of the embodiment. The processing in the figure is executed by the image processing process 202.

When an image is to be manipulated in the image processing process 202, first, it is tested whether the target image has been registered (S401). As described above, this test is performed based on whether or not an image ID has been obtained at the time of image registration. If a request other than registration is issued for an unregistered image, a response indicating that the image has not been registered is sent to the request (S406). If it is confirmed that the image is a registered image, first, a request to occupy the image is sent to the management process 2.
01 (S402). If the image can be occupied, operation of the image is started for the first time (S40).
3). When an operation such as image change is completed (S404-
NO), a release request is issued to the management process 201 to release the occupation of the operation target image (S40).
5). Thus, the operation of the image is completed.

On the other hand, in the management process receiving the occupation start / occupation release request, processing as shown in FIGS. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the management process in response to a registered image occupation request. The occupation request is directed to the image memory 103 and the shared memory 204.
There are two types, one for -a. When the image to be operated is not in the occupied memory, the image data is transferred to the occupied memory and then occupied.

When receiving the occupation request, the management process tests whether the occupation target is the image memory 103 (S50).
1). The target is not the image memory 103 but the common memory 204
-A, the operation target image is stored in the shared memory 204.
A test is performed to determine whether or not the value is -a (S502). If it is not in the shared memory, it must be in the image memory 103.
The image is transferred to the shared memory 204-a, and the memory status column 806 and the address column 807 of the management table are rewritten accordingly (S503).

On the other hand, if occupation is performed on the image memory, it is tested whether or not the image to be operated is in the image memory 103 (S505). If not, shared memory 2
04-a to the image memory 103 and transfer the image to the memory status column 806 of the management table.
And the address column 807 are updated (S506). In this manner, the occupation status column 805 of the operation target image in the management table is set to “1 (occupied)” with the operation target image in the occupied memory (S504).

After the image is occupied by the above procedure,
Allow image manipulation for the first time. When that's done, you have to release the possession. In addition, if the image is changed by operating the image, it is necessary to redisplay the image. 6 and 7 are diagrams showing the operation of the management process for the occupation release request and the redisplay request, respectively. In the process for the occupation release request, the process for the redisplay request is used as a subroutine. In both cases, when a request comes, the image occupied on the image memory or the shared memory is once converted into a data format for display, and then the display image data and a series of window process control commands are sent to the window process 203, Display a multi-window image.

FIGS. 6 and 7 are very simple diagrams. First, if an image occupancy release request is issued,
In the management process, the occupation status column 805 of the management table 205 is set to 0 (not occupied) (S601).
Thereafter, a redisplay request is issued to redisplay the updated image (S602).

In order to display an image, the management process 201 reads out image data based on the management table 205 (S701), and temporarily converts the data format according to the display device 106 (S702). Usually, since the bit depth of the display device is smaller than the bit depth of the image data, this conversion is often a bit compression conversion. There are various methods for bit compression conversion, such as a simple depth shift and dither / error diffusion, and an appropriate method may be selected according to the application. After the data format is converted in this way, a command is sent to the window process 203 together with necessary data to display an image on the display device 106, and a display request is issued (S703). In the window process 203, when the display request command is received, the accompanying image data is edited into a window format and redisplayed on the display device 106. FIG. 9 is also a window of the redisplayed image.

As described above, according to the occupation / unoccupation procedure of the image data accompanying the registration / change of the image, the registered / changed image is reproduced by the management process without instructing the display through the image processing process. Can be displayed. More specifically, the following three points are possible.

1) In order to grasp the status of the image processing, it is possible to continuously display one or more images in the image storage area under the management of the management process every time the content changes. 2) A managed image can be monitored by image display. 3) The complexity of explicitly displaying on the image processing process side and the transfer overhead can be reduced.

[0026]

[Other Embodiments] In the above embodiment, the case where an image is stored in the image data storage 204 has been described. However, without an image processor, all image processing is done by CPU
In the case of an image processing system performed by UNIX, UNIX sha
An embodiment in which all the image data is stored in the main memory 102 by using the red memory system call can be considered.

In the first embodiment, the case of displaying an image in a multi-window using a window process has been described. However, realizing multi-windows is not an independent window process,
It suffices if a multi-window can be realized even in a system such as S-embedding. Further, the display of the image is not limited to the multiple display on the same bitmap display by the multi-window, but may be any means capable of displaying a plurality of images.

Further, even if the managed data is one-dimensional array data other than an image or general two-dimensional array data, the stored and managed data is converted into an appropriate data such as a graph display or a bird's-eye display. It is also possible to extend it so that it can be displayed in a display format. For this purpose, the image management table shown in FIG. 7 may be extended and a storage data format column and a display format column may be added. In the storage data format column, a data format such as image data or one-dimensional array data other than image data is described, and in the display format column,
Describe the format for displaying the data. In this way, the data that can be managed is not limited to graphics.

[0029]

As described above, according to the present invention,
An image can be displayed according to the creation or update of an image without the complexity and overhead of processing by explicit instructions from the programmer.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a device configuration diagram of an image processing system according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a correlation diagram of a process.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of an image registration process.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of an operation of image data.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of an occupation start process.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of an occupancy release process.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of an image redisplay process.

FIG. 8 is an example of a management table.

FIG. 9 is an example of a displayed image.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101 Central Processing Unit (CPU) 102 Main Memory 103 Image Memory 104 Image Processor 105 Display Control Device 106 Display Device (Bitmap Display) 201 Management Process 202 Processing Process 203 Window Process 204 Image Data Storage 204a: Shared memory

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06T 1/00 G06F 12/00-12/02 G09G 5/00-5/40

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A method for managing image data stored in a memory.
An that the image processing apparatus, identification means for identifying a specific request for the image data
And when a specific request identified by the identification means is made
Display means for displaying the image data that is the subject of the request.
And a step, wherein the identification unit includes, as the specific request, image data.
A request to release the occupation, and the display means displays the occupation release request.
An image processing apparatus for displaying image data for which a presence / absence request has been issued . 2. An image processing method for managing stored image data, comprising: an identification step of identifying a specific request for the image data; and when the specific request identified in the identification step is made,
A display step of displaying image data that is the target of the request , wherein the identification step includes, as the specific request, image data.
A request to release the occupation, and the displaying step comprises:
An image processing method characterized by displaying image data for which a presence / absence cancellation request has been issued .