JP3264527B2 - 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 used for a digital camera, an image database, and the like.
And its method .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in the image compression coding method, image compression coding is performed by utilizing the autocorrelation of the image and reducing the spatial redundancy, so that the code amount is generally small in a small picture portion. It will increase.

[0003]

However, a fine pattern is necessary for an area that the image information user (user) does not consider important in the image (hereinafter, such a part is called an unimportant area). However, in such a part, the image may be slightly blurred in many cases, and the code amount is uselessly increased.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above conventional example, and has an image processing apparatus and an image processing apparatus capable of preventing unnecessary encoding of unimportant image data from increasing the total code amount.
The point is to provide that method .

[0005]

[MEANS FOR SOLVING THE PROBLEMS] To achieve the above object
The image processing apparatus of the present invention has the following configuration.
That is, low-pulse filter processing is performed on the input image data.
Processing means for applying a plurality of image data,
Dividing means for dividing the input image into
Specifying means for specifying an image area based on data;
The finger is extracted from the plurality of image areas divided by the dividing means.
Recognition means for recognizing the image area specified by the determination means
In the input image data,
Processing means in an area other than the image area recognized by
Combining means for combining image data obtained by
And compress the image data obtained by the combining means.
Compression encoding means for encoding.
You. In order to achieve the above object, the image processing method of the present invention
The method includes the following steps. That is, the input image data
Data is divided into a plurality of image areas, and the input image data
Specify the image area based on the data
Recognizes the specified image area from the image areas and
In the input image data, the recognized image
In the area other than the area, the input image data
Combine low-pulse filtered image data before
Compression encoding of the combined image data
I do .

In the above arrangement, the input image data
Data into a plurality of image areas, and
Recognize the specified image area from the image areas
In the input image data,
Obtained by applying low pulse filter processing to the outside area
Combine image data and combine the combined image data
It operates to perform compression encoding.

[0007]

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. <First Embodiment> A first embodiment described below is an example in which the present system is applied to a compression encoding system based on a JPEG baseline system on a computer.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an image processing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. In the figure,
1 is an image data generating unit, 2 is a graphical user interface, 3 is an area selection type low-pass filter processing unit, 4
Denotes a JPEG baseline compression encoding unit, and 5 denotes a transmission device and a storage device. 100 denotes a mouse. 101 and 103 indicate image data, 102 indicates important area designation information, and 104 indicates compression-encoded data.

Next, the operation of the above configuration will be described. FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining how important areas are specified according to the first embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining an example of an image based on the image data 103. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a matrix of a two-dimensional low-pass filter according to the first embodiment. First, the user designates an important area in the image data 101 by inputting the mouse 10 from the image data 101 output from the image data generation unit 1 using the graphical user interface 2 on the computer. The designated important area is indicated by a broken line in the embodiment as shown in FIG. In FIG. 2, it is assumed that the user does not want to impair the image quality of the human image, and draws a free curve by designating the human image as an important area and designates the image as an important area. Here, information on the important area input by the user with the mouse 100 is referred to as important area designation information 102. Important area designation information 102
Is sent to the region selection type low pulse filter processing unit 3.

The area selection type low pulse filter processing section 3 performs low-pass filter processing only on an unimportant area in the image data 101 as shown in FIG. , And cuts high frequency components in unimportant areas. The low-pass filter used here is, for example, a two-dimensional digital low-pass filter as shown in FIG. The image data 103 output from the region selection type low-pass filter processing unit 3 is compression-encoded by the JPEG baseline compression encoding unit 4 to generate compressed encoded data 104. The compressed and encoded data 104 is sent to the transmission device or the storage device 5 as compressed and encoded data according to the present method.

The compression-encoded data 104 obtained by this embodiment is obtained by performing compression-encoding after reducing high-frequency components outside the important area, so that the compression rate is higher than in the prior art. This is a result of good compression encoding. <Second Embodiment> A second embodiment of the present invention is an example in which this method is applied to a compression encoding method based on a JPEG baseline method on a computer.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an image processing apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 5, the same components as those in FIG. 1 described in the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted. In FIG. 5, 6 is a full-screen low-pass filter processing unit, 7 is an image area separation processing unit, 8 is an important area recognition processing unit, 9 is a graphical user interface, 10 is an image combination processing unit, 1
Reference numeral 1 denotes a JPEG baseline compression encoding unit, and reference numeral 12 denotes a transmission device and a storage device. 105,10
9 is image data, 106 is divided area data, 107 is pixel designation information in an important area, 108 is important area designation information, 1
Numeral 10 indicates compression encoded data.

Next, the operation of the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of an image of image data 101 in the second embodiment, FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of an image of image data 109, and FIG.
FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of an image of image data 105.
First, the image data 1 output from the image data generator 1
01 is first sent to the image area separation processing unit 7. The image area separation processing section 7 divides the image 101 into a plurality of areas. As an example of means for dividing an image into a plurality of regions, for example, a strong edge in the image is detected, and the strong edge is traced. As a result, the trace forming the closed loop has the closed loop as one region. On the other hand, a trace that does not form a closed loop forms a closed loop by connecting the start point and the end point of the trace with a straight line, and defines this closed loop as one region.
A region not included in the closed loop formed in this way is also treated as one region. By these processes, all the pixels in the image are included in any of the regions. Information indicating which pixels in the image are included in which region in this way is referred to as divided region data 106.

Next, in this embodiment, when designating the important area, the user is caused to designate one point in the important area by means of a mouse click or the like. This data is the pixel designation information 1 in the important area.
As 07, it is sent to the important area recognition processing unit 108. The important area recognition processing unit 8 recognizes which area the user wants to specify from the divided area data 106 and the pixel designation information 107 in the important area. The important area designation information 108 is generated by this process.

On the other hand, the full-screen low-pass filter processing unit 6 collectively performs low-pass filter processing on all images of the image data 101 to generate image data 105. The low-pass filter used here is, for example, a two-dimensional digital low-pass filter as shown in FIG. Next, the image stitching processing unit 10 cuts out the area designated by the important area designation information 108 from the image data 101 and converts the individual data into the area indicated by the important area designation information 108 in the image of the image data 105. Overwrite
The image data 109 is generated.

The image data 109 is compression-encoded by the JPEG baseline compression encoding unit 11 to generate compression-encoded data 110. This compressed encoded data 1
10 is sent to the transmission device or the storage device 12 as compression-encoded data according to the present method. Since the compression-encoded data 110 obtained from the present embodiment is obtained by performing compression-encoding after reducing high-frequency components outside the important area, the compression rate is higher than that of the conventional art, and the compression quality of the important area is good. This is the result of encoding. Further, according to the present embodiment, the user can specify one area in the area to be specified simply by clicking the mouse 100 with the mouse 100 when specifying the area.

The present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices or an apparatus composed of one device. Needless to say, the present invention can be applied to a case where the present invention is achieved by supplying a program to a system or an apparatus. Note that the designation of the important region in the present invention can also be achieved by image recognition means (for example, a computer automatically extracts a person region).

[0018]

As described above, according to the present invention, the finger
After reducing high frequency components outside the specified image area
By performing compression encoding, unimportant image data
Useless encoding to prevent an increase in the overall code amount.
There is an effect that can be stopped.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an image processing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a state of specifying an important area according to the first embodiment.

3 is a diagram illustrating an example of an image based on image data 103. FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a matrix of a two-dimensional low-pass filter according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an image processing apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of an image of image data 101 in the second embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of an image of image data 109.

8 is a diagram illustrating an example of an image of image data 105. FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image data generation part 2 Graphical user interface 3 Area selection type low-pass filter processing part 4 JPEG baseline compression coding part 5 Transmission device / storage device 6 Full screen low-pass filter processing part 7 Image area separation processing part 8 Important area recognition processing Unit 9 Graphical User Interface 10 Image Combine Processing Unit 11 JPEG Baseline Type Compression Encoding Unit 12 Transmission Device / Storage Device 100 Mouse 101, 103, 105 Image Data 102 Important Area Specification Information 104 Compression Encoded Data 106 Divided Area Data 107 Important area designation information 108 Important area designation information 110 Compressed encoded data

Continuation of front page (58) Fields surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04N 1/41-1/419 H04N 1/40-1/409 H04N 7/24

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] A processing unit configured to perform low-pulse filter processing on input image data; a dividing unit configured to divide the input image data into a plurality of image areas; and an image processing unit configured to generate an image based on the input image data. Specifying means for specifying an area; recognizing means for recognizing an image area specified by the specifying means from a plurality of image areas divided by the dividing means; and recognizing the input image data by the recognizing means. A combining unit that combines the image data obtained by the processing unit into an area other than the image area obtained by the processing unit; and a compression encoding unit that compresses and encodes the image data obtained by the combining unit. Characteristic image processing device. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the input image data is divided into a plurality of image areas.
Area, and specify an image area based on the input image data
The designated image is extracted from the plurality of divided image areas.
Recognizing an image area and, in the input image data,
In an area other than the image area, the input image data
Combining the image data subjected to the low-pulse filter processing and compression-encoding the combined image data.
Image processing method.