JPH0140376B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an image area specifying method for specifying a specific image area to be edited from a digital image based on binary information.

In general, recent digital image input/output devices such as facsimiles do not only transfer and output the original image itself, but also extract, erase, and change the position of specific image parts of the original as appropriate. Some devices have been developed that have an image editing function that allows images to be recorded at the same time.

Conventionally, in order to perform such image editing, a digital image read from an external storage device by decomposing the original image into pixel units using a scanner, scanning it, sampling it, and binary quantizing it. After displaying the digital image based on the read binary information on the display surface, a specific image area B in the screen A is formed as shown in FIG. 1 using a position indicating means such as a cursor or a light pen. By specifying two points b1 and b2 of a rectangle, the address of the specific image area can be specified.

However, in such a conventional image area specification method, it is necessary to accurately specify two points in the specific image area B, resulting in poor operability and the risk of position specification errors occurring. Most likely.

The present invention has been made in consideration of the above points, and
A method for specifying an image area that allows a specific image area to be edited to be easily and reliably specified using a position indicating means such as a cursor or a light pen based on a digital image displayed on a display surface. This is what we provide.

In the image area designation method according to the present invention, pixels are obtained from digital image information or an external storage device obtained by dividing a document image into pixel units in a square lattice, sampling them, and performing binary quantization. Based on the binary image information read out in units,
The logical sum of internal information is calculated for each small block of m×n pixel configuration to determine the image area (black) and non-image area (white).
Convert each block into rectangular image areas where the blocked image parts are adjacent to each other, create an address table, and point one point in the digital image displayed on the display surface with a cursor or light pen. A rectangular image area at the designated location is determined from an address table, and the corresponding rectangular image area is designated as a specific image area.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a configuration for concretely implementing the image area designation method according to the present invention.
A quantizer 1 that binary quantizes BS, a first memory 2 that stores the binarized image information, and a logical OR of internal information for each small block based on the stored contents. A blockizer 3 that attempts to create blocks, a second memory 4 that stores the logical OR information thus created, and a third memory that stores an address table for a rectangular image area created based on the stored contents. memory device 5, and a first and a second
an address controller 6 that controls storage addresses in each of the storage devices 2 and 4; and a display device 7 that reads and displays the contents of the first storage device 2.
, a keyboard 8 that can arbitrarily specify one point on the display surface by moving the cursor, and a keyboard 8 that controls the entire system and creates an address table for a rectangular image area, and a point specified by the keyboard 8. performs necessary processing such as determining which image area the image is included in.
It is composed of a CPU 9 and a program ROM 10.

Now, for example, the input image signal BS read by sampling the original image as shown in FIG. After that, the binary image information is stored in the storage device 2 via the address controller 6, and the logical sum of each internal information is taken in the block generator 3, with a 32×32 pixel configuration as one block. Blocking is performed, and the blocked OR information (see FIG. 4) is stored in the storage device 2. Furthermore, Figure 4 shows the logical OR information of each block when the image in Figure 3 is divided into blocks. Each block indicates that it is an image portion.

Next, the CPU 9 reads the contents of the memory 4 and sequentially performs the processes described below to determine rectangular image areas, and causes the memory 5 to create an address table for each image area. That is, at the block coordinates (k, l) in Fig. 4,
For each line of l=0 to 4, check the presence or absence of an image area in each block of k=0 to 4,
When block information "1" of the image section is detected, rectangular image areas a1 and a2 made up of blocks of adjacent image sections are sequentially obtained using that block as a temporary address, and each of the image areas a1 and a2 are determined. The address of a2 is registered in the area management table in the storage device 5 (see FIG. 5). At this time, if a block with image part information is isolated and cannot be connected to a block with other image part information, the information of the isolated block is regarded as noise and is stored in the area management table. Avoid registering addresses. Figure 5 shows the area management table, where k1 in each image area a1, a2, a3,..., _ao is the starting point position of each area in the k direction at block coordinates (k, l), and k2 is the ending point. position, again l
1 indicates the starting point position of each area in the l direction in the block coordinates (k, l), and l2 similarly indicates the ending point position. In addition, in FIG. 4, for image area a1, k1=1, k2=3, l
1=0, l2=1, and for image area a2, k1=2, k2=2, l1=3, l2=4.

Next, the data contents stored in the memory device 2 are read out, the data is transferred to the display device 7, a digital image is displayed on the display surface, and the operator operates the keyboard 8 to edit the image on the screen. A point in a specific image area to be targeted is specified. It causes the CPU
Step 9 checks to which image area registered in the area management table the designated point belongs, and as a result, the corresponding image area is extracted as the target specific image area. If two points, for example (55, 25), are specified at the sampling coordinates (i, j) in Figure 3, then those points will be (1, 0) on the block coordinates (k, l) in Figure 4. ), it is determined that the block is included in the image area a1 registered in the area management table, and as a result, the block is included in the image area a1.
will be designated as a specific image area.

As described above, in the image area specifying method according to the present invention, on the screen displayed on the display,
A rectangular image area can be specified with good operability and reliably by simply specifying one point at an appropriate location in a specific image area to be image edited.

Note that FIGS. 6a and 6b show a processing flow in the image area specifying method according to the present invention. In the figure, B(k, l) represents each block information in Figure 4,
Sk and Sl indicate the start address of the target black (image area) block, Ek and El indicate the end of the target black block, respectively, and k _nax and l _nax
indicates the maximum address of the block at the block coordinates (k, l), and Ik and Il indicate the addresses of the block specified by the designation key KEY, respectively.

As described above, in the image area specifying method according to the present invention, m is based on binary image information in pixel units.
A means for calculating the logical sum of internal information for each block of xn pixel configuration to create each block of image and non-image parts, and a means for determining a rectangular image area where the image parts that have been made into blocks are adjacent to each other. means for creating an address table; means for specifying an arbitrary point within a specific image area to be edited in the image displayed on the display surface; and means for registering the specified point in the address table. This method employs a means for checking which image area the image area is included in and extracting the corresponding image area, thereby making it possible to easily and quickly specify a specific image area without causing an error in specifying the image area. It has the great advantage of being able to

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a conventional method of specifying an image area.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of a configuration for concretely implementing the image area designation method according to the present invention, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a document image, and FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a logical sum thereof. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing information, and FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an address table (area management table) for a rectangular image area. FIG. 6 is a flowchart of processing by the image area designation method according to the present invention. 1... Quantizer, 2, 4, 5... Memory device, 3... Block generator, 6... Address controller, 7... Display device, 8... Keyboard, 9... CPU, 1
0...ROM, a1, a2...Rectangular image area.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 m based on binary image information in pixel units
A means for calculating the logical sum of internal information for each block of xn pixel configuration to create each block of image and non-image parts, and a means for determining a rectangular image area where the image parts that have been made into blocks are adjacent to each other. means for creating an address table; means for specifying an arbitrary point within a specific image area to be edited in the image displayed on the display surface; and means for registering the specified point in the address table. A method for specifying an image area, which includes the following steps: checking which image area it is included in, and extracting the corresponding image area.