JPH0214751B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention scans an input target drawn on a medium by scanning the medium in multiple times with a scanner having a predetermined reading width. The present invention relates to an image input method used in an image input mechanism for inputting images.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when an image such as a character, a figure, etc. drawn on a sheet of paper, a plate-shaped member, etc. is inputted using a scanner, the image is sequentially inputted by performing partial scanning a plurality of times. At this time, the scanning position accuracy of the scanner in each partial scan is low, and even if a ruler or a dedicated scanning machine is used, vertical and horizontal positional deviations occur due to each scan. Therefore, a portion of the image input data for each scan overlaps with the data read in the previous scan, or vice versa, a gap occurs, and furthermore, a mutual positional shift occurs. A specific example thereof will be explained using FIG. 1. When the figure on the input paper 3 shown in figure a is read by scanner scanning and output on the display screen,
The result will be as shown in Figure b. Here, since the input for the scan _d3 started from the left side compared to the other scans, the image data is shifted to the right. Also, in scanning d ₄ and d ₅ , d ₅ was scanned overlapping the bottom of d ₄ , so
Some entries are duplicated.

In this way, in the past, when inputting an image by partial scanning with a scanner, the scan position accuracy was poor even if it took a considerable amount of time to input carefully. The drawback was that the image quality could not be obtained.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and in a scanner that inputs an image on a medium to be read by multiple partial scans, the present invention can be used to input an image along the scan direction without accurately inputting the entire surface of the medium to the scanner. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image input method that can easily input highly accurate image data by a simple and quick image input operation of inputting images of a partial area redundantly.

[Summary of the invention]

The present invention provides an image input mechanism that inputs an image to be input drawn on a medium to be read by scanning the medium in multiple times with a scanner having a predetermined reading width. Means for managing read data obtained when the medium to be read is scanned once in a fixed direction by the scanner as one block of image input data, and displaying the image, and displaying the displayed image in units of the block. This system is equipped with a moving means such as a mouse that allows the user to move the image in any direction.This allows a part of the image input in the previous scan to be transferred to the next scan without having to accurately input the entire surface of the medium to be scanned. Since it is sufficient to input data redundantly by scanning and then move each block to align each block, image input operations can be performed easily and quickly, and highly accurate images can be input.

[Embodiments of the invention]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIGS. 1a and 1b are diagrams showing an example of image input for explaining the operation of one embodiment. In the figure, 1 is a hand scanner with a predetermined reading width W, 2 is a ruler used as a scanning guide, 3 is a sheet of paper to be read, 4 is a display image when the hand scanner 1 reads the paper 3, 5 is an image input start switch provided on the hand scanner 1; 6 is text information (character string) to be input on paper 2, which is a medium to be read; and 7 is the same figure (in this case, a pie chart). 8 is a boundary for each scan and is not actually displayed. 9 is the left edge of paper 3, 1 is the width of the input image, d ₁ , d ₂ , ... d ₆ are each a series of image input data obtained by one continuous scan in the direction of the arrow, and each is 1 data block. W indicates the reading width (scanning width) of the hand scanner 1.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the overall system configuration in one embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 10 is the control unit (CTL) which is the core of the image input mechanism.
It has 11 to 20 components. Among these, 11 is a microcomputer (μ-CPU) that controls the entire system, 12 is an internal memory (MM) having a page memory section (PAE) that stores one page of image data, and 13 is an internal bus.
Further, 14 to 19 each form an input/output interface mechanism for external equipment, 14 is a scanner input control unit (SC-INF) that accepts and controls input data of the hand scanner 1, 15 is a CRT controller (CRTC), and 16 is the mouse input control section (MA-
INF), 17 is the keyboard controller (KCB),
18 is a magnetic disk controller (MDC), 19
is a floppy disk controller (FDC). 20 compresses image input data stored in a page memory (PAE) in the internal memory 12 or an external memory to be described later using a specific encoding, or restores the compressed data to the original dot image data. Compressed data converter (PDC)
It is.

21 to 25 are external devices for the control unit 10, of which 21 is a CRT display unit (CRT), 22 is a mouse (MA), and 23 is a keyboard (KB). It is used to correct the position of input data in block units. Further, both 24 and 25 are the control unit 10.
24 is a magnetic disk device (DISK), and 25 is a floppy disk device (FDD).

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the image data stored in the page memory section (PAE) of the internal memory 12 and a management table for the same data.Here, the input image shown in FIG. 1 is shown as an example. ing. In the figure, 30 is a management table; here, the X, Y address (position coordinate address indicating the start position of the data block (upper left end dot position);
Xi, Yi) and data block length (X=length=1i,
It consists of a Y length (scan width)=W) and a memory address (Ai) that corresponds to an image storage address. 31 to 36 are image data stored in the image input data storage section, 31 is data block d ₁ , 32 is data block d ₂ , . . .
36 corresponds to data block _d6 , and are stored in units of blocks.

FIG. 4 is a diagram after image data input by a hand scanner is displayed on the CRT display section 21 and edited by moving the mouse 22, and 41, 42, . . . , 47 are image data blocks. indicates the boundaries of Blocks surrounded by broken lines 48 and 49 indicate that the image data block 35 has been moved upward by α, and similarly blocks surrounded by broken lines 49 and 50 indicate that image data block 36 has been moved upward by α. It shows.

Here, the operation of one embodiment will be explained with reference to the drawings.

The present invention scans a medium to be read using a hand scanner having a predetermined reading width in multiple times, overlapping a portion of the previous scan, to obtain an image to be input drawn on the medium to be read. By inputting, managing and editing the image data of each scan as a unit (1 data block),
This allows high-quality (beautiful) image input using the scanner described above.

First, when explaining the specific operation, an overview will be given.

The present invention provides an image input method in which an image to be input drawn on a medium to be read is input by scanning the medium to be read in multiple times with a scanner having a predetermined reading width. The read data obtained when the medium to be read is scanned once in a fixed direction by the scanner is stored as one block of image data in a page memory unit (PAE) so that it can be managed (for example, each data For each block, information such as the block's position information, the length in the x direction, the length in the y direction, and the memory address containing the image data of that block is stored in a table and managed). When each data block is input to the scanner, it is assumed that the data is scanned with an overlap in the portion input in the previous scan. Another method is to use image input data in which one data block is read data when the scanner scans one time in a certain direction continuously, and each data block is used as image input data when developing a pattern (for example, displaying it on a CRT display). It is also possible to add development position information indicating the position of the time) and store it in a predetermined manner. When the image input is completed in this way, these image data are displayed on the CRT display section, and the operator can read them while looking at the displayed screen.
Using a pointing device (for example, a mouse), the overlapping part of the input is moved for each data block, and the blocks are sequentially moved for each data block to eliminate the overlapping part of the input in each scan to create a correct screen. On the screen, if the lower data block overlaps the upper data block, the image data for that part will be displayed as the image data for the lower data block. , operators can easily use pointing devices,
You can get the correct screen while looking at the screen.
With such an image input means, it is possible to improve the screen quality of the image data at both ends of each scan of the image data input by the hand scanner.

Here, the specific operation of one embodiment will be explained with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1a is a diagram showing an example of image input for explaining the operation of one embodiment. Here, a state in which the hand scanner 1 is currently being scanned from left to right is shown. In other words, "A, figure input" on paper 3 has just been input. The sensor section of the hand scanner 1 has a width of W, and image data of [W width] x [1 scan] (data block corresponding to 31 in FIG. 3) can be obtained at one time in one scan. After completing this one scan, the ruler 2 is moved downward in parallel by a width W (in this case, the width W-α). Then, the hand scanner 1 is scanned once from left to right in the same manner as described above. Here, the image input means for storing image data by vertical scanning on the memory is operated by operating an image input start switch 5 provided in the image scanner 1, which is recognized by the microcomputer 11. , a method of inputting (reading) the image by encoder output pulses generated at fixed distances as the internal roller R rotates as the hand scanner 1 moves, and a method without the above switch 5 (even if it is used for another purpose). death),
There is a method in which the microcomputer 11 is interrupted by pulse generation of the encoder due to the movement of the hand scanner 1, and the microcomputer reads the image data, but any method may be used here.

Next, the operation of one embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4. Now, as described above, the hand scanner 1 is scanned once from left to right as shown in FIG. 1a, and the text information 6 on the paper 2 is input. The input image data for one data block is stored in the internal memory 12 under the control of the microcomputer 11.
The data is stored in a page memory section (PAE) in the internal memory as image data 31 as shown in FIG. At the same time, the microcomputer 11
If the start address _A1 where the image data 31 is stored in the ID=(1) table part of 0, the memory address of the management table 30= _A1 is set, and the Y length (W) of the same table is set. The position is set to a value based on a parameter value specified by the operator using the keyboard 23 in advance. For example, when the parameters are set such that the deviation of the starting position of each scanner at the left end of the hand scanner 1 is ±100 dots, the positions X=X ₁ =100 and Y=Y ₁ =0 are set. In other words, X and Y are the CRT in Figure 2.
The upper left corner of the CRT display section 21 of the display section 21 is X=0,
Assuming Y=0, position Q 100 dots to the right in the X direction
means the position of a point. As shown in FIG. 1a, when the text 6 is input, the movement of the hand scanner 1 is stopped at the right edge of the paper 3, and the image input start switch 5 is released, input to the data block _d1 is completed and the microcomputer 11 receives the input data. From the count value of the number of bytes, calculate the X length=1 ₁ dot value and store it in the X length=1 ₁ of the management table 30. Also, the microcomputer 11 uses the ID(2) of the management table 30.
The last byte address + 1 address of the area where the image data 31 is stored = A ₂ is stored in the table. Here, if the data input width (W) of the hand scanner 1 is 24 dots (=W), by moving by a dot in the X direction, the microcomputer 11 reads 24 dots (=3 bytes) at a time.
Under the control of the same microcomputer 11, image data 31 is sent one byte at a time starting from address _A1 .
is stored, and 3 more bytes are sequentially stored during the next one-dot movement in the X direction. At this time, memory 1
2 is composed of 1 byte (8 bits) wide, image data 31, 32,...36 in Figure 3
However, in order to make the explanation easier to understand, it is expressed as shown in Figure 3. Next, when data block d ₂ is input, the microcomputer 11 inputs X ₂ = 100, Y ₂ = 24, Y
The length W = 24 is stored, and when the input of data block d ₂ is completed, the number of bytes of the same block d ₂ ÷ 3 = X length = ₁₂ is stored. Similarly, sequentially, X ₃ =
100, X ₄ ~X ₄ = 100, Y ₃ = 48, Y ₄ = 72, Y ₅ = 96,
Y ₆ =120, Y length W = 24, etc. are set. The value of the X length changes because the input length in the X direction for each scan is different. Furthermore, the memory address value also changes accordingly. Image data 31, 3 when inputting scanner
In step 2, image data 30 and 31 are partially (α dots) inputted using a hand scanner.

In this way, the paper 3 shown in FIG. 1a is scanned six times and stored in the page memory unit (PAE) in the state shown in FIG. Then, the data in the page memory section (PAE) is
Instructs the CRT display section 21 to display it. The microcomputer 11 transfers image data 31, 32, . . . , 36 to the bitmap memory of the CRT controller 15 according to the data in the management table 30. As a result, the contents (images) of the bitmap memory are sequentially displayed on the CRT display section 21.
The screen is displayed as shown in FIG. 1b. At this time, (A ₁ ) to (A ₆ +3×1 ₆ ) are stored in the page memory section (PAE).
Rather than sequentially storing the contents of the address in the bitmap memory, the bitmap memory address is calculated and stored from the table with ID=(i) in the management table 30 corresponding to each data block _d1 to _d6 . Needless to say.

Next, while looking at the screen of the CRT display section 21, the operator uses the mouse 22 to correct unnatural parts of the displayed image. This fix is mouse 2
2, the cursor on the screen of the CRT display unit 21 is moved to align the blocks with each other. That is, the microcomputer 11 recognizes the data blocks d ₁ to _{d 6} in advance using the mouse 22, moves the cursor to the block to be corrected (d ₃ in this case), and presses the mouse 22.
While holding down the designated switch 2, press mouse 2.
2 to the left, the microcomputer 11 processes to shift the entire data block _d3 to the left. The microcomputer 11 is
When the operator detects by moving the mouse 22 that data block d ₃ is to be moved on the CRT display section 21, X ₃ and Y ₃ in the table of ID (3) are corrected, and the data block d 3 in the CRT controller 15 is moved. Then, the image data 31 is transferred from the corrected memory address _A3 and stored sequentially.
When the storage of the image data 31 is finished, zero is stored in the part that does not overlap with the part stored last time and the previous image is erased. With the above, data block d ₃ is CRT display section 2.
1, it has moved a little to the left. When the operator looks at the screen of the CRT display unit 21 and determines that the corrected diagram is still not accurate, he moves the mouse 22 and instructs it to move further to the left. As a result, the microcomputer 11 moves the data block _d3 to the left in the same manner as above. and the fourth
As shown in the image data 33 in the figure, when the data block _d3 moves to the left of the β dot, the operator stops moving the mouse 22, and at that point the mouse 2
Release switch 5 of 2. Microcomputer 1
1 is the ID of the management table 30 shown in FIG. 3 when the switch 5 is turned off (OFF).
(3) Change table position X ₃ -β. here
Since we did not change Y ₃ , its value remains unchanged.
Next, the operator should check the diagrams of data blocks d ₄ and d ₅ .
When it is recognized by the display on the CRT display section 21 that there are overlapping inputs, the cursor is moved inside the data block _d5 , the switch 5 of the mouse 22 is turned on, and the input data is displayed on the CRT display section 21. Use the mouse 22 to make the displayed pie chart a correct circle.
and move data block _d5 in the same way as data block _d3 above. The operator can confirm that data blocks d ₄ and d ₅ no longer overlap;
When the pie chart is correct, click the mouse 22 above.
Turn off switch 5. This data block
d ₅ has moved upward by α dot. By turning off the switch 5, the microcomputer 11 changes the position of the table with ID=(5) to the position X ₅ , Y ₅ of the table Y ₅ -
Change α to Y ₅ . At this time, there will be an α dot space between data blocks _d5 and _D6 , so
The operator moves the cursor into the data block _d6 using the mouse 22, turns on the switch 5 mentioned above, and moves the data block _d6 upward while looking at the screen on the CRT display section 21 until it becomes a correct pie chart. Operate the mouse 22. At this time, since there is no overlap between the image inputs of data blocks _d5 and _d6 , data block _d6 is eventually moved upward by α dots. In this way, the internal memory 12 ensures that the correct image data is obtained from the bitmap memory of the CRT controller 15.
The image data 31, 3 is stored in the page memory section (PAE) in the management table 30 shown in FIG.
By re-editing 3, . . . 36, correct image data can be obtained.

In the previous example, when data block d ₃ was input shifted to the right, data blocks d ₄ and d ₅ were input without shifting to the left or right and were input vertically overlapping, but with hand scanner 1, If you start inputting without strictly determining the input start position and input images by overlapping parts with each scanner, you can input images with simple ruler 2, but generally horizontal and vertical deviations occur at the same time. . However, it is clear from the above description that the image data block is moved to the upper left or upper right using the mouse 22, and the values of Xi and Yi of the table with ID=(i) are obtained from the amount of movement. Also, in general, data blocks
Images between d ₃ and d ₄ , d ₄ and d ₅ , and d ₅ and d ₆ are all overlapped during scanner input.

As described above, when inputting an image, the hand scanner 1 inputs the correct image data easily by editing the image data as described above, as long as the input paper 3 is not leveled and the images of each scanner are scanned while maintaining the overlap. can be obtained.

In the above explanation, the image data block management table 30 and the CRT controller 15 are used to move the image data block while the operator looks at the screen on the CRT display section 21. Block movement processing may also be performed.

As mentioned above, when inputting an image using multiple partial scans (scanners) using a hand scanner, the positional accuracy of the scanner for each scan can be improved by inputting images with a certain overlap between the previous scan and the next scan. It is possible to input beautiful images using a simple and inexpensive hand scanner without the need for accuracy. In addition, the positioning of the left side (scan start) of each scan operation of the hand scanner can be done roughly, and furthermore, it is not necessary to keep the amount of overlap with the scan constant, so the operation is easy and input can be made quickly.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As detailed above, according to the image input method of the present invention, by scanning the medium to be read in multiple times with a scanner having a predetermined reading width, the image input method drawn on the medium to be read can be detected. In the image input mechanism that inputs an image, the read data obtained when the medium to be read is scanned once in a fixed direction by the scanner is managed as one block of image input data, and the image is displayed. and a moving means such as a mouse for moving the displayed image in any direction in block units.
Instead of accurately scanning and inputting the entire surface of the medium to be read, if a part of the image input in the previous scan is inputted repeatedly in the next scan, and then moved block by block to align each block. As a result, image input operations can be performed easily and quickly, and highly accurate images can be input.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figures 1 to 4 are for explaining one embodiment of the present invention. Figure 1a is a diagram showing an image input object, paper, and a hand scanner, and Figure 1b is an image of each scanning operation. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the above embodiment, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the data format in the page memory section in the above embodiment, and FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the data format in the page memory section in the above embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an image modified by moving blocks; 1...Hand scanner, 2...Measure (ruler),
3... Paper, 4... Display image, 5... Switch, 6... Text information, 7... Figure, 8... Boundary,
9...Left edge of paper, 10...Control unit (CTL), 11
...Microcomputer (μ-CPU), 12...
... Internal memory (MM), 13 ... Internal bus, 14
...Scanner input control unit (SC-INF), 15...
CRT controller (CRTC), 16... Mouse input control unit (MA-INF), 17... Keyboard controller (KBC), 18... Magnetic disk controller (MDC), 19... Floppy disk controller (FDC), 20...Compressed data converter (PDC), 21...CRT display unit (CRT), 22...
...Mouse (MA), 23...Keyboard (KB),
24... Magnetic disk device (DISK), 25...
Floppy disk device (FDD), 30...management table, 31, 32,...36...image data, PAE...page memory section, _d1 , _d2 ... _d7 ...data block.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In an image input mechanism that scans a medium to be read in multiple times with a scanner having a predetermined reading width and inputs an image on the medium, the image data read by the scanner is scanned in one scan. means for managing blocks read by scanning in units; means for developing and displaying patterns of image data read by the scanner;
an operation means for moving the image displayed by the display means block by block;
An image input method characterized in that the image inputted by being scanned in a plurality of times by the scanner is moved in units of one scanning block, and the positions of each scanned image are aligned with each other.