JP3342717B2 - Image filing method and apparatus - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an image filing method, and more particularly, to an image filing method for recording high-resolution image data such as still image data on an image recording medium such as an optical disk, and an apparatus therefor. Things.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, a so-called compact disc
In a photo CD system by Philips Kodak that records image data on a (CD), high-resolution image data is recorded in a plurality of resolution layers. One frame of high-definition image is, for example, basic (base) image data in which pixels are decimated to the same pixel density as that of a normal television video signal such as the NTSC system, and a difference value corresponding to the basic image data or one representing the image detail. The data is progressively compressed in the form of the difference data of the above hierarchy and recorded on one compact disc. Generally, image data in which pixels are thinned below the base image is used as an index image. Such multi-layer image data is sequentially recorded on a compact disk for a plurality of frames of images.

When reading image data from a compact disk on which image data is compressed and recorded, the compressed data can be reorganized to have an image quality suitable for the purpose of use of the image data. When reproducing an image of a certain frame, first, base image data is read from a compact disk, and then this is interpolated to create provisional high-definition image data. Next, the corresponding difference data is read from the disk and added to the provisional high definition image data. As a result, an intended high-definition image can be reproduced. Therefore, it is determined to which level of image data to read out according to the image quality of the image to be reproduced.

[0004]

In this prior art system, image data of all resolution hierarchies is recorded on one compact disc. In the case of high-resolution image data, the data amount is very large, and therefore, it took a long time to read and transfer such a large amount of data from the compact disk. Further, even when a user wants to reproduce an image only with a relatively low resolution, such as a base image or an index image, the image data of all layers is recorded on one compact disc. The usage efficiency was forced. Further, it sometimes takes time to search for an image of a specified frame.

The present invention overcomes such disadvantages of the prior art. Even when only relatively low-quality images are required, the present invention does not reduce the use efficiency of the image recording medium and therefore does not increase the image search time. It is an object to provide a filing method and apparatus.

[0006]

According to the present invention, there is provided an image filing method for recording high-resolution image data on an image recording medium, comprising the steps of: converting image data into image data of a plurality of resolution hierarchies; Recording the image data of the resolution hierarchy on a plurality of individual image recording media corresponding thereto.

According to the present invention, there is further provided an image filing apparatus for recording high-resolution image data on an image recording medium.
Converting means for converting the image data into image data of a plurality of resolution hierarchies; recording means for recording the image data of the plurality of resolution hierarchies on an image recording medium; controlling the converting means and the recording means; Control means for recording the hierarchical image data on a plurality of individual image recording media corresponding thereto.

[0008] Further, according to the present invention, the image recording medium comprises:
Any single layer image data among the plurality of resolution layer image data formed from the high resolution image data is recorded.

[0009]

According to the present invention, when high-resolution image data is recorded on an image recording medium, the image data is converted into image data of a plurality of resolution layers, and the image data of the plurality of resolution layers correspond to the image data. It is recorded on a plurality of individual image recording media. Therefore, in each of the plurality of image recording media on which the image data is recorded, the image data of any one of the plurality of resolution layers formed from the high-resolution image data is recorded. Have been.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of an image filing apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Referring to FIG. 1, an image filing apparatus 10 of the embodiment is a recording apparatus for recording image data input from an image data input unit 12 on a set of a plurality of compact disks 14a, 14b and 14c. The image data input to the input unit 12 is image data of the photo CD standard in the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 2, this image data has a pixel number of 512 ×, which is almost equivalent to a normal television video signal such as the NTSC system.
It represents a 768 base image 100, a four base image 102 substantially corresponding to four times the number of pixels 1024 × 1536, or a 16 base image 104 substantially corresponding to sixteen times the number of pixels 2048 × 3072. The resolution of the four base image 102 corresponds to a high definition television image.

If the image data input to the image data input unit 12 represents a high-resolution image, for example, a 16-base image 104, the pixels are thinned out (106) and reduced to a quarter. A base image 102 is formed. If this is further reduced to a quarter (108), the base image
100 are formed. When the base image 100 is subjected to double pixel interpolation 110, temporary image data 112 having 1024 × 1536 pixels is formed. When the difference between the data of the provisional image data 112 and the data of the 4-base image 102 is calculated (114), difference data 116 is formed. Therefore, if the provisional data 112 and the difference data 116 are added (118), the 4-base image data 120
Is restored. The 4-base image data 120 has 1024 × 1536 pixels, and by performing double pixel interpolation 122 on this, provisional image data 124 having 2048 × 3072 pixels is formed. When the difference between the data of the provisional image data 124 and the data of the 16 base image 104 is calculated (126), difference data 128 is obtained. Therefore, if the provisional data 124 and the difference data 128 are added (130), the 16 base image 104 is restored.

In general, in a photo CD system, of these image data, image data 1 representing a base image 100 is stored.
40 (FIG. 4) and the difference data 116 and 128 are recorded on the compact disc. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 3, the image data input unit 12 inputs the base image data 140 and the image data 15 in which the difference data 116 and 128 form one set for each of a plurality of n (natural number) images.
Entered as 0. In this embodiment, the photo CD
Although applied to a system, the invention is not so limited. As long as the system records high-resolution image data in a plurality of resolution levels, it is effectively applied to not only a compact disk but also a system of an image recording medium of another system.

The compact disks 14a, 14b and 14c
In this embodiment, the optical disk is a recordable optical disk of the Sony Philips standard, and is used as a set of three optical disks. On the compact disk 14a, image data 140 representing the first layer, in this example, the base image 100, is stored by the recording unit, ie, the compact disk drive 16a.
Is recorded. Other compact discs 14b include:
The difference data 116 is recorded as image data of the second hierarchy by the recording unit 16b similar to the recording unit 16a. Similarly, on the other compact disk 14c, another difference data 128 is recorded as third-layer image data by a recording unit 16c similar to the recording unit 16a. Therefore, in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, the image data 140 of the n base images 100 of frames # 1 to #n are sequentially recorded on the compact disk 14a, and the frame # is recorded on the disk 14b. N pieces of differential data 116 from 1 to #n are recorded, and further, n pieces of differential data 128 from frames # 1 to #n are recorded on the disk 14c.

The image data input unit 12 is an image data input device such as a high-resolution scanner or a communication line, and its output 18 is connected to an image memory 20. In this embodiment, the image memory 20 is a rewritable storage device having a storage area capable of storing image data of the number of pixels of the 16 base image 104 for one frame or more and a work area for arithmetic processing. , A data compression unit 22 is also connected.
The data compression unit 22 is an arithmetic function unit that compresses image data stored in the image memory 20 using the work area of the image memory 20. This compression processing includes pixel thinning 106 and 108, interpolation 110 and 122, subtraction processing 114 and 126, and addition processing 118 shown in FIG.

A recording control unit 26 is connected to the read output 24 of the image memory 20. The recording control unit 26 includes an operation display unit 28, an image data input unit 12, and a data compression unit 2 as illustrated.
2, and a control circuit which is also connected to the recording units 16a, 16b and 16c, controls the overall operation of the present apparatus, and records image data on the compact disks 14a, 14b and 14c. The operation display unit 28 has an input operation device such as a keyboard for inputting data such as designation of a frame of an image to be recorded on the compact discs 14a, 14b, and 14c, and an instruction such as a recording instruction. It is an input / output device having a display for displaying the status of the device.

The recording units 16a, 16b and 16c are provided with detachable compact disks 14a, 14b and 14c, and record image data supplied from the image memory 20 through the recording control unit 26 to the connection lines 30 on the respective disks. Recording device. The recording controller 26 distributes the image data 140 of the first hierarchy to the recording unit 16a, the image data 116 of the second hierarchy to the recording unit 16b, and the image data 128 of the third hierarchy to the recording unit 16c. .

In the operating state, when reading of data of a desired image is instructed from the operation display unit 28, the recording control unit 26 controls the image data input unit 12 in response to the instruction, and takes in the image data of the image. The captured image data is
Once stored in the image memory 20. So the data compression unit
22 reads out the image data stored in the image memory 20 and performs pixel thinning 106 and 108, interpolation 110 and 122,
Image compression processing such as subtraction processing 114 and 126 and addition processing 118 is performed to form base image data 100, difference data 116 and 128 as image data of the first, second and third resolution layers. These compressed data are stored in the image memory 20.

In response to this, when an image recording is instructed on the operation display unit 28, the recording control unit 26 reads the base image data 100, the difference data 116, and the difference data 128 sequentially from the image memory 20 in response to the instruction. Transfer to 16a, 16b and 16c. Recording units 16a, 16b and 16
c represents the transferred base image data 100, difference data 116, and 128, respectively, on the compact disks 14a, 14
Record additionally to b and 14c. Thus, one frame of image data is stored in each compact disc 14a for each layer.
, 14b and 14c. Image data input unit 12
When this operation is repeated for the image data of each frame input to the compact disk 14a as shown in FIG.
, 14b, and 14c complete the data 140, 116, and 128 of the first, second, and third layers, respectively, for n images from frames # 1 to #n.

The compact discs 14a, 14b and 14c on which the image data is recorded constitute a set of three files, and are used for reading the image data by the image reproducing apparatus 50 shown in FIG. Referring to FIG. 5, the reproducing apparatus 50 includes three reproducing units 52a, 52b and 52c.
Which have compact disks 14a, 14a respectively.
b and 14c are removably loaded. The reproducing device 50 of the embodiment is a device that reads desired image data from the compact discs 14a, 14b, and 14c and reproduces the image data as a visible image on the image output unit 54. Playback unit 52a,
52b and 52c are the respective compact discs 14a
, 14b and 14c, a reading device for reading out the image data of the corresponding hierarchy, the connection line 56 of which is
Connected to 58. The image output unit 54 is an image output device such as a video monitor or a printer that visually displays an image. This may be a communication line or the like.

The playback control unit 58 includes an operation display unit as shown in the figure.
60, an image output unit 54, a data decompression unit 62, and an image memory 64, which collectively control the operation of the entire apparatus, read image data from the compact disks 14a, 14b and 14c, and A control circuit for performing a reproducing operation of outputting an image to the CPU. The operation display unit 60 has an input operation device such as a keyboard for inputting data such as designation of a frame and a resolution level of an image to be recorded on the image output unit 54 and an instruction such as a reproduction instruction. It is an input / output device having a display for displaying the status of the device.

In this embodiment, the image memory 64 is an image memory.
Similar to 20, a rewritable storage device having a storage area capable of accumulating image data of the number of pixels of the 16 base image 104 for one frame or more and a work area for arithmetic processing. The data decompression unit 62 is an arithmetic function unit that decompresses compressed image data stored in the image memory 64 using the work area of the image memory 64. The decompression process includes interpolations 110 and 122 and addition processes 118 and 130 shown in FIG.

In the operating state, a set of three compact disks 14a, 14b and 14c on which image data is recorded
Are loaded into the playback units 52a, 52b and 52c, respectively, and when the designation of the frame to be played back and the resolution level are input from the operation display unit 60, the playback control unit 58 responds to this by setting the playback units 52a, 52b and 52c to Controls and transfers the image data of the specified frame to compact discs 14a and 14b
And read from 14c. Each disk 14a, 14
The image data 140, 116, and 128 of the first, second, and third layers read from b and 14c are output to the playback control unit.
It is temporarily stored in the image memory 64 under the control of 58.

The reproduction control unit 58 controls the data decompression unit 62 to decompress the compressed image data. Data decompression unit
62 reads out the base image data 100, the difference data 116 and 128 from the image memory 64, and performs interpolation processing 110 and
122 and addition processing 118 and 130 are performed to form 4-base image data 120 and 16-base image data 104. These formed image data are temporarily stored in the image memory 64. Therefore, when the reproduction is instructed from the operation display unit 60, the reproduction control unit 58 responds to the instruction. Reads image data of the specified resolution level. This image data is, for example, base image data 140, four base image data 120 or 16 base image data 104. The image data thus read out is reproduced on the image output unit 54 as a visible image. Alternatively, it is sent to a communication line.

In the operation display section 60, for example, the base image 1
When the reproduction at the resolution level of 00 is instructed, the image output unit 54
The image to be reproduced may be only the image based on the first layer of image data. In that case, the data decompression unit 62 does not need to perform decompression processing. When only the image data of the first layer is reproduced in this manner, one set of compact discs 14
Only the disc 14a among the discs 14a, 14b, and 14c may be loaded into the playback unit 52a, and the operation display unit 60 may instruct designation and playback of the resolution level of the base image. In that case, the reproduction control unit 58 can read out the first layer image data 140 only from the disk 14a by the reproduction unit 52a and output this image to the image output unit 54 without operating the data decompression unit 62. it can.

In the operation display unit 60, for example, four base images
When playback at a resolution level of 102 is instructed, the image output unit
The images reproduced in 54 are only those based on the image data of the first and second layers. In that case, the data decompression unit 62
Performs only interpolation 110 and addition 118 as decompression processing. When only the image data of the first and second layers is reproduced in this manner, a set of compact discs 14a, 14
Of the discs b and 14c, only the discs 14a and 14b are mounted on the reproduction units 52a and 52b, respectively, and the operation display unit 60 instructs the designation and reproduction of the resolution level of the four base images. In response to this, the reproduction control unit 58 reads the first and second layer image data 140 and 116 from the disks 14a and 14b by the reproduction units 52a and 52b, respectively, and operates the data decompression unit 62 to output the four base image data. Form the data 120. As a result, the four base image 102 is output to the image output unit 54.

As will be understood from the above description, if the apparatus exclusively reproduces only the base image 100, the apparatus may include only the reproduction unit 52a into which the first level compact disc 14a is loaded. In that case, the data decompression unit 62 does not need to be provided. Similarly, if it is an apparatus for reproducing an image having a resolution up to the 4-base image 102, a system configuration having only the reproducing units 52a and 52b into which the first and second level compact disks 14a and 14b are loaded, respectively, may be used. . In this case, it is sufficient that the data decompression unit 62 has a function of performing only the interpolation 110 and the addition 118 as the decompression processing.

In this embodiment, an image having a lower resolution than the base image 100 is not handled. However, the invention is not limited to this particular embodiment, but of course the resolution hierarchy may be more than three levels. For example, base image 100
The present invention is also effectively applied to a system that handles a 1/4 base image in which 1/4 is thinned out or a 1/16 base image in which 1/16 is thinned out. Such a reduced image is used as an index image.

Further, the illustrated embodiment has three recording units 16a, 16b and 16c and three reproducing units 52a, 52b and 52c. However, the invention is not limited to this particular configuration, and may be, for example, a system having only one recording unit 16a and / or playback unit 52a, in which case,
A compact disk 14a, 14b or 14c having a required resolution level may be selectively loaded. More specifically, when reading the image data of the first resolution hierarchy, for example, in the image reproducing apparatus, the compact disk 14a is mounted, and then, if necessary, the compact disk 14b is loaded and the second resolution hierarchy is loaded. The image data of the third hierarchy may be read by loading the disk 14c as necessary. The same applies to recording.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the high-resolution original image data 150 is stored in the compact disks 14a, 14b and 14c corresponding to the three resolution hierarchies.
Recorded separately. Therefore, when images are reproduced from these disks at a desired resolution level, it is sufficient to use only disks of the required resolution hierarchy. Therefore, a compact disc can be efficiently used as an image recording medium, and image data of a necessary hierarchy can be read at a specified resolution level.
It does not require much time to search and read out image data.

[0030]

As described above, according to the present invention, high-resolution original image data is separately recorded on a plurality of individual image recording media corresponding to a plurality of resolution hierarchies. Therefore, when reproducing an image from these image recording media at a desired resolution level, it is sufficient to use only the image recording media of the required resolution hierarchy. Therefore, the image recording medium can be used efficiently, and searching and reading of the image data does not take much time.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing an embodiment of an image filing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a functional flow diagram illustrating a process of compressing and expanding image data in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram schematically illustrating an example of input image data in the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing an example of a format of image data recorded on a compact disc in the embodiment.

5 is a functional block diagram showing an embodiment of a reproducing apparatus for reproducing image data from a compact disc on which image data is recorded by the recording apparatus of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Image filing device 14a Compact disc 16a Recording unit 22 Data compression unit 26 Recording control unit 50 Image reproduction device 52a Reproduction unit 58 Reproduction control unit 62 Data decompression unit

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI H04N 5/76 H04N 5/76 Z (56) References JP-A-2-178879 (JP, A) JP-A-62-219973 JP, A) JP-A-61-105586 (JP, A) JP-A-1-255979 (JP, A) JP-A-63-292769 (JP, A) JP-A-56-35258 (JP, A) JP JP-A-2-156773 (JP, A) JP-A-2-206873 (JP, A) JP-A-4-170681 (JP, A) Table of contents JP-A-4-504039 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int) .Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06T 1/00 G06F 17/30 G11B 27/00 H04N 5/76 G06T 9/00 H04N 1/41-1/419 H04N 1/21

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] 1. An image filing method for recording high-resolution image data on an image recording medium, comprising: a first step of thinning out the high-resolution image data to form intermediate-resolution image data; A second step of thinning out the intermediate-resolution image data formed in the first step to form low-resolution image data; and converting the low-resolution image data formed in the second step to intermediate-resolution image data. A third step of predicting the image data; and calculating the difference between the intermediate resolution image data predicted by the third step and the intermediate resolution image data formed by the first step. A fourth step of forming the difference data; and the intermediate resolution difference data formed by the fourth step and the intermediate resolution image data predicted by the third step. A fifth step of forming image data used to predict the high-resolution image data by taking a sum; and predicting the high-resolution image data from the image data formed by the fifth step A sixth step of forming high-resolution difference data by calculating a difference between the high-resolution image data predicted by the sixth step and the high-resolution image data; An eighth step of recording the low-resolution image data formed in the second step on a first image recording medium of the image recording medium, and an intermediate resolution difference data formed in the fourth step In a second image recording medium of the image recording medium, and the high-resolution difference data formed in the seventh step is stored in a third image recording medium of the image recording medium. Recording on a recording medium. 2. An image filing apparatus for recording high-resolution image data on an image recording medium, the apparatus comprising: an image filing device for inputting the high-resolution image data and outputting the input high-resolution image data; Input means, image memory means for storing the high-resolution image data output from the image data input means, storing image data for arithmetic processing, and storing image data of the arithmetic result; A data compression unit connected to the image memory unit, wherein the data compression unit reads out and thins out the high-resolution image data stored in the image memory unit to form intermediate-resolution image data; Means for thinning out the intermediate resolution image data formed by the first means to form low resolution image data; and And third means from the formed low-resolution image data for predicting the image data of intermediate resolution, intermediate resolution the image data first predicted by means of the third
A fourth means for forming difference data of the intermediate resolution by taking a difference from the image data of the middle resolution formed by the means of the third means, and the difference data of the middle resolution formed by the fourth means and the third means. Fifth means for forming image data used for predicting the high-resolution image data by summing with the intermediate-resolution image data predicted by the means; and forming the image data by the fifth means. Sixth means for predicting the high-resolution image data from the obtained image data, and obtaining a high-resolution image data by calculating a difference between the high-resolution image data predicted by the sixth means and the high-resolution image data. And an image data input means, an image memory means, and a data compression means. Display means, the first recording unit means, the second recording unit means and the third
Recording control means connected to the recording unit means, and when there is an instruction to read desired high-resolution image data from the operation display means, the recording control means first sends the image data input means to the image data input means. Causing the instructed high-resolution image data to be captured, and outputting the captured high-resolution image data;
Next, the high-resolution image data that has been output is stored in the image memory unit, and then the data compression unit is controlled, and the first unit stores the high-resolution image data stored in the image memory unit. The image data having the resolution is read out, the image data having been read out is thinned out, and the image data having the intermediate resolution is formed, and then the second means is formed by the first means. The low resolution image data is formed by thinning out the obtained intermediate resolution image data, and the formed low resolution image data is stored in the image memory means. Causing the third means to predict intermediate resolution image data from the low resolution image data formed by the second means, and then causing the fourth means to predict the third resolution image data. The difference between the intermediate-resolution image data predicted by the means and the intermediate-resolution image data formed by the first means is used to form intermediate-resolution difference data, and the formation is performed. Storing the difference data of the intermediate resolution in the image memory means, and then causing the fifth means to calculate the difference data of the intermediate resolution formed by the fourth means and the difference data predicted by the third means; The image data used for predicting the high-resolution image data is formed by summing the image data with the intermediate-resolution image data, and then the sixth means is formed by the fifth means. The high-resolution image data is predicted from the obtained image data, and then the high-resolution image data predicted by the sixth means and the high-resolution Together causes the formation of high resolution difference data by taking the difference between the image data of the time, to perform the storage of the image memory means of a high-resolution differential data subjected to the said form,
Next, the low-resolution image data stored in the image memory means is read and distributed to the first recording unit means, and the first recording unit means stores the low-resolution image data resulting from the distribution in the image recording means. Recording on a first image recording medium of the medium, and then reading the intermediate resolution difference data stored in the image memory means and distributing the data to the second recording unit means; Means for recording the intermediate-resolution difference data resulting from the distribution on the second image recording medium of the image recording medium, and then reading the high-resolution difference data stored in the image memory means to read the third-resolution difference data; And the third recording unit records the high-resolution difference data resulting from the distribution on a third image recording medium of the image recording media. Image filing device. 3. The high-resolution image data, which is the original 16 base image, is decimated to form the intermediate-resolution image data, which is the 4-base image, and the formed intermediate-resolution image data is decimated. Low-resolution image data, which is a base image, is formed .
Intermediate resolution image, which is a 4-base image predicted and formed from
Taking the difference between the data and the intermediate resolution image data
The difference data of the intermediate resolution, which is the 4-base image, is
An image recording medium which is formed and records the formed difference data of the intermediate resolution . 4. The high-resolution image data of the original 16 base image is thinned out to form intermediate resolution image data of the 4 base image, and the formed intermediate resolution image data is thinned out. Obtaining the difference between the intermediate resolution image data, which is the 4-base image predicted from the formed low resolution image data, and the intermediate resolution image data, wherein low resolution image data as a base image is formed. by 4 the difference data of intermediate resolution is based image is formed, the intermediate resolution of differential data the form
Predicted from low-resolution image data that is the base image
With the intermediate resolution image that is the 4 base image
High-resolution image data of 16 base images
Image data used to predict the data
It is an original 16 base image from the formed image data.
High-resolution image data is predicted and formed by the prediction.
High-resolution image data of 16 base images
What is the difference from the high-resolution image data that is 16 base images?
The high-resolution difference data that is the 16 base image
An image recording medium on which data is formed and the formed high-resolution difference data is recorded. 5. A high-resolution image which is an original 16 base image.
The image data is decimated and is a 4-base image of intermediate resolution.
Image data is formed, and the formed intermediate resolution image is formed.
The low-resolution image data that is the base image with the data thinned out
Data is formed, and the formed low-resolution image dataBut
Recorded on a first image recording medium, Low resolution image data as the base image Predicted form from
The intermediate resolution image data, which is the four base images generated,
SaidHigh resolution image data that is the original 16 base image
4 base image formed by thinning outIntermediate resolution
By taking the difference with the image data of
Difference data of a certain intermediate resolution is formed, and the formed
Intermediate resolution difference dataIs recorded on the second image recording medium.
And Intermediate resolution difference data as the four base images And said
Predicted from low-resolution image data that is the base image
With the intermediate resolution image that is the 4 base image
High-resolution image data of 16 base images
Image data used to predict the data
From the formed image dataSaidIn the original 16 base image
A certain high-resolution image data is predicted, andMeasuredOne
High-resolution image data that is 6 base images andSaidOriginal one
Difference from high resolution image data which is 6 base image
This makes it possible to obtain high-resolution difference data of 16 base images.
Is formed, and the formed high-resolution difference data isNo.
3 image recording mediaAn image characterized by being recorded
Image recording medium.