JP4780126B2 - Image processing apparatus, image forming apparatus, and program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image forming system, and a program.

  In order to organize and manage the printed materials obtained from copiers and printing devices, stamp images such as numbers (numbering information) are stamped on the printed materials, and “copy prohibited” and “secret” An image forming system that stamps a stamp image such as "" is disclosed (for example, see Patent Document 1).

  The image forming system disclosed in this patent document 1 automatically combines the image data of the original image read from the original reading device and the generated stamp image data through an image synthesis circuit, thereby automatically imprinting the printed matter. It is a system to do.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-11411

  However, when the composition processing of the document image data and the stamp image data is realized by a hardware image composition circuit, a dedicated hardware circuit for performing the composition processing is required, which causes an increase in cost. Therefore, when an image composition process is to be realized without requiring such an image composition circuit, it is conceivable to realize the image composition process by software processing.

  However, if the composition processing of the document image data and the stamp image data is to be realized simply by software processing, it is necessary to determine the presence or absence of pixel data to be combined for each pixel of the document image data. It will take. In particular, if an image composition process is to be executed by software processing in an image forming system having a large image size, the burden on this software process becomes even larger, and other problems such as delays in other processes may occur.

  An object of the present invention is to provide an image processing apparatus, an image forming system, and a program capable of realizing image synthesis processing for synthesizing a composite image such as a stamp image with output image data by software processing without imposing a heavy burden. It is to be.

[Image processing device]
According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a dividing unit that divides rectangular image data to be synthesized into a synthesized image into a certain amount of data;
Storage means for storing a fixed amount of image data divided by the dividing means;
Determining means for determining whether or not a target pixel to be synthesized is included for each line of a certain amount of image data stored in the storage means;
When the determination unit determines that the target pixel to be synthesized is included , a synthesis start point that is a position where the first pixel of the synthesized image should be synthesized with the image data, and the width and length of the synthesized image Data of which pixel of the synthesized image should be synthesized with which pixel of the line based on the information on the length, the data size of the image data to be synthesized, and the width and length information of the image of the image data to be synthesized Calculating means for calculating address information indicating whether or not
Based on the address information calculated by the calculating means, combining means for combining the data of the corresponding pixels of the combined image with the pixel data included in the image data of the line ;
An image processing apparatus having transfer means for sequentially transferring a predetermined amount of image data stored in the storage means.

The invention according to claim 2, wherein a point of initiation of synthesis, and calculates the combined end point is a position to be synthesized the last pixel of the synthesized image based on the width and length of the composite image, the synthesis end point synthetic The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a changing unit configured to change the synthesis end point so that the synthesis end point falls within the image range when the image range of the target image is exceeded.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to prevent the synthesis end point from exceeding the image range in which the synthesized image is to be synthesized.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, each line included in a fixed amount of image data stored in the storage means is a start line in which the front image data in one line is not included in the fixed amount of image data. Line division in which all image data in one line is divided into intermediate lines that are included in the fixed amount of image data, and the rear image data in one line is divided into end lines that are not included in the fixed amount of image data The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means.

  According to the present invention, since a certain amount of image data is divided into a start line, an intermediate line, and an end line, it is possible to perform processing that matches the characteristics of each line, and the processing load by software is further increased. It is possible to realize a reduced image composition process.

[Image forming apparatus ]
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a dividing unit that divides rectangular image data to be synthesized into a synthesized image into a certain amount of data;
Storage means for storing a fixed amount of image data divided by the dividing means;
Determining means for determining whether or not a target pixel to be synthesized is included for each line of a certain amount of image data stored in the storage means;
When the determination unit determines that the target pixel to be synthesized is included , a synthesis start point that is a position where the first pixel of the synthesized image should be synthesized with the image data, and the width and length of the synthesized image Data of which pixel of the synthesized image should be synthesized with which pixel of the line based on the information on the length, the data size of the image data to be synthesized, and the width and length information of the image of the image data to be synthesized Calculating means for calculating address information indicating whether or not
Based on the address information calculated by the calculating means, combining means for combining the data of the corresponding pixels of the combined image with the pixel data included in the image data of the line;
Transfer means for sequentially transferring a fixed amount of image data stored in the storage means;
An image forming apparatus and an image output means for outputting an image based on image data transferred by said transfer means.

[program]
The present invention according to claim 5 divides rectangular image data to be synthesized into a synthesized image for each certain amount of data;
Storing a certain amount of divided image data in a memory;
Determining whether each line of a fixed amount of image data stored in the memory includes a target pixel to be synthesized ; and
When it is determined that the target pixel to be synthesized is included , the synthesis start point, which is the position where the first pixel of the synthesized image is to be synthesized with the image data, and the width and length information of the synthesized image, In addition, based on the data size of the image data to be combined, and the width and length information of the image of the image data to be combined, which pixel of the combined image should be combined with which pixel of the line Calculating address information to be indicated;
Based on the calculated address information, synthesizing the corresponding pixel data of the composite image with the pixel data included in the image data of the line;
A program for causing a computer to execute a step of sequentially transferring a certain amount of image data stored in a memory.

  As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to realize image synthesis processing for synthesizing a composite image such as a stamp image with output image data by software processing without imposing a heavy burden. Obtainable.

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an image forming system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the image forming system according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an image forming system 10 and a terminal device 20 connected to each other via a network 30. The terminal device 20 generates print data and transmits the print data generated via the network 30 to the image forming system 10. The image forming system 10 receives print data transmitted from the terminal device 20 and outputs an image corresponding to the print data on a sheet.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the image forming system 10 includes a system controller 11 and an image forming unit 12. The system controller 11 functions as an image processing device that controls the printing operation of the image forming unit 12 based on the print data transmitted from the terminal device 20. The image forming unit 12 outputs an image corresponding to the print data on the printing paper based on the control by the system controller 11.

  Next, FIG. 2 shows a hardware configuration of the system controller 11 and the image forming unit 12 in the image forming system 10 of the present embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the system controller 11 includes a user interface (UI) device 26 including a CPU 21, a hard disk drive (HDD) 22, a data transfer unit 23, a ROM 24, a RAM 25, a touch panel or a liquid crystal display, and a keyboard.

  The CPU 21 controls the operation of the system controller 11 by executing predetermined processing based on a control program stored in the ROM 24, RAM 25, or HDD 22. The data transfer unit 23 transfers image data to be printed to the image forming unit 12.

  The image forming unit 12 includes a receiving unit 31, an HDD 32, a CPU 33, a ROM 34, a RAM 35, and a print engine 36, as shown in FIG.

  The CPU 33 controls the operation of the image forming unit 12 by executing predetermined processing based on a control program stored in the ROM 34, RAM 35, or HDD 32. The receiving unit 31 receives image data to be printed from the transfer unit 23 of the system controller 11.

  Next, FIG. 3 shows a functional configuration of the system controller 11 realized by executing a control program in the CPU 21.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the system controller 11 includes an image data storage unit 41, a composite image data storage unit 42, a control unit 43, a transmission memory 44, and a data transfer unit 23.

  The image data storage unit 41 stores print image data transmitted from the terminal device 20 or the like. The composite image data storage unit 42 stores composite image data such as a stamp image to be combined with print image data.

  The control unit 43 divides the print image data stored in the image data storage unit 41 into a predetermined amount of block size units, stores the divided print image data in the transmission memory 44, and reads out from the composite image data storage unit 42. The combined image data is combined with the print image data in block size units stored in the transmission memory 44.

  The transmission memory 44 stores a predetermined amount of image data divided by the control unit 43 in units of blocks.

  As illustrated in FIG. 4, the data transfer unit 23 sequentially transfers the image data of one block size stored in the transmission memory 44 to the image forming unit 12.

  As described above, in the image forming system 10 of the present embodiment, the print image data is transferred from the system controller 11 to the image forming unit 12 in units of blocks of a certain size, so that the process of combining a composite image such as a stamp image is complicated. It becomes.

  For example, a case where a composite image 50 such as a stamp image is to be combined with print image data as shown in FIG. 5 will be described.

  The print image data shown in FIG. 5 is image data of 600 dpi, A0 size (69770592 bytes), has a width of 2484 bytes, and a length of 28088 lines. A block size transmitted from the data transfer unit 23 to the reception unit 31 is 16 kbytes (16 × 1024 bytes).

  In such a case, the control unit 43 divides the image data for 16 kbytes from the print image data stored in the image data storage unit 41 as one block size image data, and stores it in the transmission memory 44. .

  However, as shown in FIG. 5, the synthesized image 50 is not necessarily synthesized with the image data in one block, but must be synthesized with the image data divided into a plurality of blocks. Also occurs.

  Therefore, in the image forming system 10 of the present embodiment, the control unit 43 determines whether or not there is a composite image to be combined for each line (column) of image data for one block stored in the transmission memory 44. Then, when it is determined that there is a composite image to be combined, the control unit 43 calculates address information indicating to which dot (pixel) of the line the composite image should be combined. Finally, based on the calculated address information, the control unit 43 performs a combining process for combining the combined image with the dot image data included in the image data of the line.

Next, the operation of the image forming system 10 of this embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the overall operation of the image composition processing of the image forming system 10 of the present embodiment. In the following description, a case where a composite image as shown in FIG. 7B is combined with print image data as shown in FIG. 7A will be described. Here, as in FIG. 5, the unit of the image length is described as a line, and the unit of the image width is described as a byte.

Further, it is assumed that the following information is known in advance as the print image information that is information of the print image data.
-Address on memory-Data size (bytes)
・ Image width (number of bytes)
・ Image length (number of lines)

Further, it is assumed that the following information is known in advance as the composite image information that is information of the composite image data.
-Address on memory-Data size (number of bytes)
・ Image width (number of bytes)
・ Image length (number of lines)
・ Composition start point (line number, bit number)

  First, when a synthesis start point is designated for a certain print image data and an instruction to synthesize a synthesized image is given, the control unit 43 calculates a synthesis end point (step S101). The synthesis start point indicates a position where the first pixel of the synthesized image should be synthesized when the synthesized image is synthesized. The synthesis end point indicates a position where the final pixel of the synthesized image is to be synthesized.

The details of the synthesis end point calculation process are shown in the flowchart of FIG.
First, the byte value (combination end byte) at the synthesis end point is calculated by adding the composite image width to the byte value at the synthesis start point (step S201). If the composition end byte exceeds the width of the print image (step S202), the composition end byte is set as the print image width value (step S203).

  Next, the line value of the synthesis end point (combination end line) is calculated by adding the synthesized image length to the line value of the synthesis start point (step S201). If the composition end line exceeds the length of the print image (step S205), the composition end line is set as the print image width value (step S206).

  In this synthesis end point calculation process, as shown in FIG. 9A, the synthesis end point is calculated based on the synthesis start point and the width and length of the synthesized image, as shown in FIG. 9B. If the composition end point exceeds the print image range, the composition end point is changed so that the composition end point falls within the print image range.

  After the synthesis end point is calculated in this way, the control unit 43 sets the transmitted size A to 0 (step S102) and converts the image data of one block size portion from the print image data as shown in the flowchart of FIG. The data is copied and stored in the transmission memory 44 (step S103).

  Then, block composition processing is performed to synthesize a composite image with image data for one block size stored in the transmission memory 44 (step S104). Details of this block composition processing will be described later.

  Then, the image data in the transmission memory 44 after the block synthesis process is completed is transmitted to the image forming unit 12 by the data transfer unit 23 (step S105). Then, the control unit 43 adds the data size for the block size to the transmitted size A (step S106), and repeats the processing of steps S103 to S106 until the transmitted size A exceeds the data size of the print image data ( Step S107).

  Next, details of the block synthesis processing described above will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  When this block synthesizing process is performed, the control unit 43 first performs a line dividing process on the image data divided in units of blocks and stored in the transmission memory 44 (step S301). The line dividing process is a process of dividing each line included in the block unit image data as shown in FIG. 11 into a start line, one line in which the preceding image data in one line is not included in the block unit image data. This is a process of dividing all of the image data into intermediate lines that are included in the image data in block units, and the rear image data in one line into end lines that are not included in the image data in block units.

  When this line division processing is performed, for each divided start line, intermediate line, and end line, the line number (which line corresponds to the print image data), the start byte (the number of bytes at the beginning of this line) Line information such as the end size (how many bytes the end of this line is) and the data size are calculated. Also, the number of intermediate lines n, which is the number of intermediate lines in this block, is calculated. For example, in the example shown in FIG. 11, the number of intermediate lines n = 5.

For example, the start line information of the start line is calculated by the following method.
The quotient of (transmitted size A / print image width) = the number of lines of print image data that has been transmitted. The remainder of (transmitted size A / width of print image) = the number of bytes of the last line that has been partially transmitted. Number = Number of print image data lines that have been sent + 1
Start byte = number of bytes in the last line where transmission was completed halfway + 1
End byte = Maximum byte of print image Data size = End byte-Start byte + 1

The intermediate line information of the intermediate line is calculated by the following method.
Line number = Line number of the start line + 1
Start byte = 1
End byte = Maximum byte of print image Data size = End byte-Start byte + 1

The number n of intermediate lines is calculated by the following method.
Number of intermediate lines n = (quotient of (block size−starting line data size) / printed image width)

The end line information of the end line is calculated by the following method.
Line number = Line number of start line + number of intermediate lines n + 1
Start byte = 1
End byte = remainder of ((block size-start line data size) / print image width) Data size = end byte-start byte + 1

  Then, the line number i in the image data for one block is cleared (step S302), and a start line synthesis process that is an image synthesis process for the start line is performed (step S303). Details of this line composition processing will be described later. Then, after 1 is added to the line number i, an intermediate line synthesis process is performed (step S304). When the line combining process for one intermediate line is completed, 1 is added to the line number (step S305), and the processes of steps S304 and S305 are repeated until the line number reaches the number n of intermediate lines.

Finally, a line composition process for the end line is performed, and the process ends (step S307).
Next, the line composition processing shown in steps S303, S304, and S307 described above will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  In this line composition processing, first, since the line number where the composite image may be synthesized is known in advance, it is determined whether or not the processing target line is the target line for which the composite image is synthesized. (Step S401).

  If it is determined in step S401 that the processing target line does not need to be combined with the combined image, the line combining process ends. If it is determined in step S401 that the line to be processed needs to synthesize a synthesized image, address information of the pixel to be synthesized with the synthesized image data, that is, from what byte to what byte in one line Information is calculated as to whether the synthesized image should be synthesized (step S402). Further, in the current line composition processing, the control unit 43 prints composite image data from what byte to what byte of which line among the composite image data stored in the composite image data storage unit 42 as print image data. Also, address information indicating whether or not to synthesize should be calculated.

  Then, based on the calculated address information, the control unit 43 performs an image synthesis process for synthesizing the synthesized image on the synthesis target pixel data in the processing target line, for example, as illustrated in FIG. 13 ( Step S403). In the example shown in FIG. 13, a state in which a synthesized image is synthesized with pixel data from the 101st byte to the 120th byte of the processing target line is shown.

  In the image forming system 10 of this embodiment, after the print image data is divided into block sizes and stored in the transmission memory 44, the block size print image data is divided into lines, and a composite image is generated for each line of print image data. It is determined whether or not a process for synthesizing is necessary. Here, since the line on which the synthesized image is to be synthesized is known in advance, whether the process of synthesizing the synthesized image with the processing target line is necessary can be determined only by simple comparison of the line numbers. . That is, the line synthesis process for lines that do not require the synthesis image to be synthesized is completed in a short time with only the process of step S401 for comparing line numbers.

  For this reason, image composition processing for compositing a composite image such as a stamp image with print image data is performed by software processing without requiring hardware such as a dedicated composition processing circuit and without imposing a heavy burden. Can be realized.

1 is a diagram illustrating a system configuration of an image forming system 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of an image forming system 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of a system controller 11 of an image forming system 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a state of transfer of print image data performed between the system controller 11 and the image forming unit 12. It is a figure for demonstrating a mode in the case of synthesize | combining the synthesized image 50 with print image data. 3 is a flowchart showing an overall operation of image composition processing of the image forming system 10 according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of print image data (FIG. 7A) and a diagram illustrating an example of a composite image (FIG. 7B). It is a flowchart which shows the detail of the calculation process of the synthetic | combination end point of step S101. FIG. 9A shows a specific example of the process for calculating the synthesis end point when the synthesis end point does not exceed the print image range, and the synthesis when the synthesis end point exceeds the print image range. It is a figure (FIG. 9 (B)) which shows the specific of the calculation process of an end point. It is a flowchart which shows the detail of the block synthetic | combination process of step S104. It is a figure for demonstrating an example of a line division | segmentation process. It is a flowchart which shows the detail of the line composition process of step S303, S304, S307. It is a figure which shows a mode that a synthesized image is synthesize | combined with respect to the pixel data from the 101st byte of a process target line to the 120th byte.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Image forming system 11 System controller 12 Image forming unit 20 Terminal device 21 CPU
22 HDD
23 Data transfer unit 24 ROM
25 User Interface (UI) Device 30 Network 31 Receiving Unit 32 HDD
33 CPU
34 ROM
35 RAM
36 Print Engine 41 Image Data Storage Unit 42 Composite Image Data Storage Unit 43 Control Unit 44 Memory for Transmission 50 Composite Image S101 to S107 Step S201 to S206 Step S301 to S307 Step S401 to S403 Step

Claims (5)

A dividing unit that divides the rectangular image data to be synthesized into a certain amount of data into which the synthesized image is synthesized ;
Storage means for storing a fixed amount of image data divided by the dividing means;
Determining means for determining whether or not a target pixel to be synthesized is included for each line of a certain amount of image data stored in the storage means;
When the determination unit determines that the target pixel to be synthesized is included , a synthesis start point that is a position where the first pixel of the synthesized image should be synthesized with the image data, and the width and length of the synthesized image Data of which pixel of the synthesized image should be synthesized with which pixel of the line based on the information on the length, the data size of the image data to be synthesized, and the width and length information of the image of the image data to be synthesized Calculating means for calculating address information indicating whether or not
Based on the address information calculated by the calculating means, combining means for combining the data of the corresponding pixels of the combined image with the pixel data included in the image data of the line ;
Transfer means for sequentially transferring a fixed amount of image data stored in the storage means;
An image processing apparatus. It said synthesis initiation point, based on the width and length of the composite image to calculate a combination end point last pixel is a position to be synthesized in the synthesized image, the synthesized end point exceeds the image area of the synthesis target image 2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a changing unit that changes the synthesis end point so that the synthesis end point falls within the image range.   Each line included in a fixed amount of image data stored in the storage means is a start line in which the preceding image data in one line is not included in the fixed amount of image data, and all the images in one line. The line dividing means for dividing the intermediate line in which the data is included in the predetermined amount of image data into one end line not included in the predetermined amount of image data. 2. The image processing apparatus according to 2. A dividing unit that divides the rectangular image data to be synthesized into a certain amount of data into which the synthesized image is synthesized ;
Storage means for storing a fixed amount of image data divided by the dividing means;
Determining means for determining whether or not a target pixel to be synthesized is included for each line of a certain amount of image data stored in the storage means;
When the determination unit determines that the target pixel to be synthesized is included , a synthesis start point that is a position where the first pixel of the synthesized image should be synthesized with the image data, and the width and length of the synthesized image Data of which pixel of the synthesized image should be synthesized with which pixel of the line based on the information on the length, the data size of the image data to be synthesized, and the width and length information of the image of the image data to be synthesized Calculating means for calculating address information indicating whether or not
Based on the address information calculated by the calculating means, combining means for combining the data of the corresponding pixels of the combined image with the pixel data included in the image data of the line;
Transfer means for sequentially transferring a fixed amount of image data stored in the storage means;
Image output means for outputting an image based on the image data transferred by the transfer means;
An image forming apparatus . Dividing the rectangular image data to be synthesized into a synthesized image into a certain amount of data; and
Storing a certain amount of divided image data in a memory;
Determining whether each line of a fixed amount of image data stored in the memory includes a target pixel to be synthesized ; and
When it is determined that the target pixel to be synthesized is included , the synthesis start point, which is the position where the first pixel of the synthesized image is to be synthesized with the image data, and the width and length information of the synthesized image, In addition, based on the data size of the image data to be combined, and the width and length information of the image of the image data to be combined, which pixel of the combined image should be combined with which pixel of the line Calculating address information to be indicated;
Based on the calculated address information, synthesizing the corresponding pixel data of the composite image with the pixel data included in the image data of the line;
A program for causing a computer to execute a step of sequentially transferring a certain amount of image data stored in a memory.

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