JPH04328965A - Information processing unit - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the processing efficiency and the quality by not applying expansion processing to a read data but transferring a compressed data without any further processing in the case of transferring the compressed data in a recording medium. CONSTITUTION:A digital coding picture resulting from an object image stored in a RAM 6 via a CCD 2, an image pickup process circuit 3 and an A/D converter circuit 4 is read in the unit of blocks under the control of a system control circuit 13, compressed by a compression/expansion circuit 8 and the result is recorded on an IC card 12. In the case of the mode in which the recorded picture is copied onto other IC card, a bypass circuit is formed automatically via switches 7, 10, and the read picture data being the compressed picture data not through the compression/expansion circuit 8 is sent to a card interface circuit, through which the data is written in the IC card being a copy destination. Thus, the processing time is reduced and the deterioration in the picture quality attended with the compression expansion processing is reduced.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

[Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to an information processing device,
In particular, the present invention relates to an information processing device with improved copy and transfer processing functions.

0002

[Prior Art] In order to save memory capacity, data is subjected to orthogonal transformation processing and recorded as compressed data in memory.
Various information processing apparatuses are known that perform decompression processing such as inverse orthogonal transformation processing on compressed data read from memory during data reproduction. As an example of such an information processing device,
There is a still video camera (hereinafter referred to as a solid-state memory camera) in which a subject image is passed through a lens optical system, converted into an electrical signal by a photoelectric conversion unit such as a CCD, and recorded in a memory. In a solid-state memory camera, an image signal is obtained from a CCD imaged through a lens, this image signal is converted into a digital signal, and then orthogonal transformation processing is performed to compress the image data, followed by quantization and encoding processing. The information is then recorded on an IC memory card (hereinafter referred to as an IC card). Additionally, when playing back images, the compressed image data read from the memory card is decompressed and subjected to inverse orthogonal transformation processing to obtain the original image data, which is then converted to an analog image signal and displayed on the display. .

By the way, since images taken by a solid-state memory camera are stored in an IC card in the form of a digital signal, multiple copies of the same image data can be easily created by copying and transferring data. Copying of data stored in an IC card is usually performed based on the configuration shown in FIG. That is, I.C.
Since the image data stored in the card 31 is compressed image data obtained by orthogonal transformation as described above, the image data read from the IC card 31 is subjected to decompression processing by the decompression circuit 32. This expansion process is a process for generating original image data by performing inverse orthogonal transformation on orthogonal transformation data. The image (video) signal expanded by the expansion circuit 32 is recorded in the VRAM 33. V
The image signal recorded in the RAM 33 is read out by the monitor 34 and displayed on the display screen as a monitor screen. On the other hand, when copying the image data stored in the IC card 31 to another IC card 31A, the image data that has been expanded by the expansion circuit 32 and recorded in the VRAM 33 is read out, and the compression circuit 35 performs orthogonal transformation processing. Then, the compressed data is obtained and transferred to and recorded on the other IC card 31A that has been replaced with the original IC card.

[0004] The above-mentioned copying operation processing procedure of such a conventional electronic still camera is shown in FIG. In Figure 4,
First, a copy source IC card is attached to an electronic still camera (step S41), and image data of an image to be copied is read from the IC card, expanded by the expansion circuit 32, and recorded in the VRAM 33 (step S42). next,
Remove the copy source IC card and insert the copy destination IC card in its place (step S43), and step S4
Move on to the recording operation in step 4. This recording operation is performed on VRAM3
This is a process of compressing the image data read from 3 using a compression circuit and recording it on the attached copy destination IC card. After that, it is determined whether copy processing for other IC cards is necessary (whether copying has been completed or not) (step S45).
), if the copy has been completed, the process ends; if the copy has not been completed, the process returns to step S41 for another IC card.

[0005]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] As mentioned above, copying and transferring image data recorded on a recording medium such as an IC card in a conventional still camera to another recording medium is difficult from the copy source IC card. The read compressed image data is decompressed and temporarily recorded in the VRAM, and the image data read from the VRAM is compressed and recorded in the copy destination IC card. In such a conventional copy operation of an information processing device such as an electronic still camera, the copy source IC card and the copy destination IC card must be replaced every time one image data is copied, and the number of copies is equal to the number of images to be copied. I
The C card must be replaced. Therefore,
Not only is the operation complicated, but the processing time is also increased. Furthermore, since decompression processing and compression processing are always performed during copy processing, there is a problem in that image quality deteriorates with data processing. By the way, JP-A-2-2481
Publication No. 72 discloses a memory device for storing images as an IC card, and shows a method of selecting either a data path that goes through a compression/expansion circuit or a data path that does not go through a compression/expansion circuit. Since this camera does not have an internal memory means for storing data in the IC card memory, it has been impossible to copy or transfer data between IC cards using only the camera.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an information processing apparatus that can copy and transfer image data recorded on a recording medium with high efficiency and high quality.

[0007]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an information processing apparatus according to the present invention compresses reproduction information from an information recording medium in which recorded information that has been subjected to predetermined information compression processing is stored. An information processing device configured to perform information decompression processing corresponding to the processing and store it in an internal memory, the information processing device comprising means for performing the information decompression processing on reproduced information from the information recording medium as required. A means for automatically detouring and directly storing the information in the internal memory, and a means for reading the information directly stored in the internal memory as described above and storing it directly in the loaded information recording medium. It is equipped with a means for instigating.

[0008]

[Operation] In the present invention, when compressed recorded information read and reproduced from an information recording medium is subjected to decompression processing corresponding to compression processing and stored in memory, the reproduced information from the information recording medium is subjected to information decompression processing as required. By configuring the system to automatically bypass the means for performing this and store the information directly in the memory, and to read out the information directly stored in the memory and store it directly in the loaded information recording medium, it is possible to achieve high efficiency and It enables high-quality copying and transfer processing of image data recorded on recording media.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, the present invention will be explained with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of an information processing apparatus according to the present invention and showing an example of application to an electronic still camera. A subject image formed on a CCD 2 through a lens 1 whose focus is controlled is converted into an electrical image signal by the CCD 2 and supplied to an imaging process circuit 3. The imaging process circuit 3 converts the image signal from the CCD 2 into an image signal in a predetermined image format. The image signal from the imaging process circuit 3 is converted into a digital signal (image data) by an A/D converter (ADC) 4 and recorded in the RAM 6 via a switch 5. Image data (for example, 8×8 pixel image data) read out in blocks from the RAM 6 is sent to the compression/expansion circuit 8 via the switch 7 . The compression/expansion circuit 8 is an orthogonal transform circuit (in this example, a two-dimensional discrete cosine/inverse two-dimensional discrete cosine transform: D
CT/IDCT circuit) 81 and quantization/inverse quantization circuit 8
2 and an encoding/decoding circuit 83, and the operations of these circuits are controlled by an encoding control circuit 9. There is a JPEG standard for compression/expansion of image data, RGB,
Compression/expansion processing is performed in a format such as YUV. Quantization/inverse quantization circuit 82, DCT/IDCT circuit 8
The orthogonal transform data sent from 1 is quantized and then encoded by the encoding/decoding circuit 83.

[0010] In this way, the compression/expansion circuit 8 compresses the
The encoded image data is recorded in an IC card 12 such as an SRAM via a switch 10 and a card interface circuit 11 in, for example, DOS format. The entire operation of the camera, including the switches 5, 7 and 10, the encoding control circuit 9, the card interface circuit 11, etc., is controlled by a system control circuit 13. Operation unit 14
is an indication of the switching state of the switches 5, 7, and 10,
Instruction information such as camera photography, camera operation mode settings, etc. is input to the system control circuit 13. Further, the external device interface section 15 inputs and outputs data to and from external devices such as a personal computer via the system control circuit 13, and exchanges data such as compressed image data and decompressed image data. For example, signals are exchanged in RS232C or SCSI format.

When reproducing the image recorded on the IC card 12 as described above, the switches 7 and 10 are set to the same state as when recording, and the setting state of the switch 5 is changed over. The operation is such that image data read from the IC card 12 via the card interface circuit 11 is
After passing through the switch 10 and being subjected to decompression processing, which is the opposite of the above-mentioned compression processing, in the compression/decompression circuit 8, the data is recorded in the RAM 6 via the switch. One sheet of image data is read from the RAM 6 based on a read address signal supplied from the system control circuit 13 and is supplied to the reproduction process circuit 16 via the switch 5. The image data that has been subjected to processing such as linear interpolation processing in the reproduction process circuit 16 is converted into an analog signal by the D/A converter 17.
Output to the display as a video signal.

Now, when the mode is to copy the recorded image data of the IC card 12 to another IC card, the states of the switches 7 and 10 are automatically switched and set. That is, the card interface circuit 11 is connected to the IC card of the copy source attached to the electronic still camera.
The image data read out via the switch 10 and the bypass circuit via the switch 7 are directly stored in the RAM 6.
to be recorded. Depending on the settings of switches 7 and 10, the image data read from the IC card is compressed/
Since the image data does not go through the decompression circuit 8, it is recorded as compressed image data. Thereafter, the image data read from the RAM 6 is sent to the card interface circuit 11 via the switches 7 and 10, and written to the copy destination IC card installed in the camera.

The above operational processing procedure of the present invention will be explained with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. Switching is made to a bypass circuit that does not pass through (step S1). next,
The copy source IC card is installed (step S2), the data recorded on the installed IC card is read out, and the compressed data is transferred to the RAM 6 via the bypass circuit.
(step S3), then remove the copy source IC card, insert the copy destination memory card (step S4), and transfer the compressed data recorded in the RAM 6 to the copy destination IC card through the bypass circuit. The data is then transferred and recorded (step S5). In step S6, it is determined whether the transfer of all desired data has been completed,
If the processing has not been completed, the process returns to step S2, and if the processing has been completed, the switching states of the switches 7 and 10 are returned to their original states, the compression/expansion circuit 8 is connected, and the processing is completed. In the above embodiment, the copy source IC card and the copy destination IC card are treated as separate entities, but they are
Of course, copy processing for recording in other recording areas within the C card is also possible.

According to the present invention, when the data compression ratio is high, the compressed data is usually several tenths of the original data, for example, when compressed to 1/50, it is equivalent to 50 images. data can be copied at once, which not only enables extremely high-speed copying, but also dramatically reduces the number of IC card replacements, making it possible to copy a large amount of image data with a simple operation. It is also advantageous to increase the number of RAMs installed. Furthermore, since the image data is not compressed/expanded during the data transfer process during copying, there is less signal deterioration, the decompression processing time is also eliminated, and the amount of data is reduced, so there is less deterioration in image quality in the case of video data. This results in faster processing. It is clear that image deterioration is also reduced when a plurality of card slots are installed and copy source and copy destination IC cards are inserted at the same time.

[0015]

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, the information processing device according to the present invention does not decompress the data read from the recording medium when copying or transferring recorded contents as compressed data in the recording medium. Since the data is transferred as compressed data, it is possible to copy and transfer with high efficiency and high image quality.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration block diagram showing one embodiment of an information processing device according to the present invention, and is a block diagram showing an example of application to a solid-state memory camera.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation processing procedure in the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of an information processing device applied to a conventional solid-state memory camera.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation processing procedure of the solid-state memory camera of FIG. 3;

[Explanation of symbols]

1 lens
2 CCD3
Imaging process circuit 4
A/D converter 5, 7, 10 switch 6
RAM 8 Compression/expansion circuit 9 Encoding control circuit 11 Card interface circuit 12
IC memory card 13
System control circuit 14 operation section
15 External device interface section 16 Reproduction process circuit 1
7 D/A converter

Claims (1)

[Claims] The information processing apparatus is configured to perform information decompression processing corresponding to the information compression processing on reproduced information from an information recording medium in which recorded information that has been subjected to predetermined information compression processing is stored in an internal memory. and means for automatically storing reproduction information from the information recording medium directly in the internal memory, bypassing the means for performing the information decompression processing, as required; 1. An information processing device comprising: means for reading out information directly stored in the memory of the device and storing the information directly in the loaded information recording medium.