JPH04371075A - Data communication device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To facilitate the transmission of a color document composed of colored characters and graphics only or an remaining area obtained by removing a natural image from the color document. CONSTITUTION:In a data communication device transmitting color document information composed of utilizing color information, code and positional coordinate as one display element, the area information and color information of the area in which adjacent display elements having a same color exist are specified by a CPU 101 based on the color information and positional coordinate of the display elements, and the codes and positional coordinates of respective display elements as well as the area information and color information specified by the specifying means are transmitted by a transmission circuit 103.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a data communication device for color documents.

0002

[Prior Art] Color documents include colored characters, figures,
It consists of color natural images expressed as bit images, etc. Conventionally, when transmitting color natural images, image information has been separated into three primary colors or into a luminance signal and a color difference signal before being transmitted.

On the other hand, in personal computers and word processors equipped with a color display function, it is possible to color some or all of the characters and figures in a document. Unlike the above-mentioned natural images, displaying such characters and figures does not require color information for each pixel;
Characters and figures included in one area are often expressed in the same color. When transmitting such a color document as a bit image to a receiving device such as a color facsimile via a communication line etc., if it is separated into three primary colors and transmitted like a natural image, the amount of information increases and the transmission efficiency decreases. Therefore, when data compression is performed, there is a problem in that the sharpness of characters decreases.

0004

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a data communication device that facilitates the transmission of a color document consisting only of colored characters and figures, or the remaining area of a color document excluding natural images. do.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems] A data communication device of the present invention is a data communication device that transmits color document information composed of color information, code information, and position coordinates as one display element. A specifying means for specifying area information and color information indicating an area where adjacent display elements of the same color exist based on the information and position coordinates, and code and position coordinates of each display element and area information specified by the specifying means. and a transmission means for transmitting color information.

[0006]

[Operation] According to the present invention, based on the color information and position coordinates of display elements, the specifying means specifies area information and color information indicating areas where adjacent display elements of the same color exist, and the transmitting means specifies each display element. The code and position coordinates of the element, and the area information and color information specified by the specifying means are transmitted.

[0007]

Embodiment FIG. 1 is a hardware configuration diagram of a data communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Reference numeral 100 denotes a document input device, which inputs a color document created by a personal computer, word processor, or the like. 102 is a ROM in which a processing program is stored. 101 is a CPU, and RO
Based on the processing program stored in M102, color information (
(color code, etc.), area information corresponding to the color information, code, and position information. A transmitting circuit 103 transmits color information (such as a color code) obtained by the CPU 101, area information, code, and position information corresponding to the color information. Further, 104 is a receiving circuit, which receives the above-mentioned information transmitted from the transmitting circuit 103 on the transmitting side. A RAM 105 temporarily stores information during transmission and reception. Furthermore, 107 is an output device, which includes a printer, CRT, file, etc., and is connected via I/O 106.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the processing of a data communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0010] Color documents created with a document creation device such as a word processor or a personal computer are generally composed of character codes (graphic codes), position information, color attributes, etc. in a storage device (memory, etc.) within the device. ing. Regarding this color document, first, in step S1, all types of colors used are extracted based on the color information.

[0011] In step S2, for each extracted color, the entire area expressed by that color is detected.

[0012] In step S3, information on the shape, starting position coordinates, horizontal and vertical lengths of the area detected in step S2 is stored in a storage device in association with its color information (color code).

[0013] Next, the above-described process is repeated, and when area detection is completed for all colors used, in step S4, the color information stored in step S3 and area information corresponding to that color are transmitted.

Furthermore, in step S5, monochrome document information obtained by removing all color-related information from the color document is transmitted.

Thereafter, the receiving side restores the transmitted color document by adding color components to the received monochrome document information based on the information regarding the transmitted colors and the area information corresponding to each color.

Next, the area detection method of step S2 in FIG. 2 in the data communication apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

FIG. 3 is a color document containing four rectangular areas (1-4) colored in three colors C0, C1, and C2.

First, the 3 colors used in this color document
Among the colors, C0 is first focused on and the position of the character colored with that color is detected. That is, the first position (X, Y) and end position (X+L0, Y) of characters colored in that color are stored in units of lines. After performing this process on all rows, the vertical relationship is determined based on that information, and a rectangular area (for example, a rectangular area with upper left point coordinates (X0, Y0) and lower right point coordinates (X0+L0, Y0+M0) ). Furthermore, those that can be merged are merged, and the minimum rectangular area is finally determined. At this time, a portion where no characters or the like are input may be included in the area because it does not affect processing on the receiving side. The figure shows an example in which all four areas can be represented by rectangles. In this way, in the case of characters, etc., objects can be expressed as rectangles. However, some figures such as pie charts cannot be expressed simply by rectangles. If it is impossible to express it in a rectangular shape like this, it can be expressed in an appropriate shape such as a circle or fan shape.

[0019] In addition to the method of determining the area directly using each color code as described above, three primary colors (for example, RGB)
One possible method is to separate the color components into two and find a region for each color component. The former is effective when the number of colors used in the color document is small, and the latter is effective when the number of colors used is large.

Next, FIG. 4 shows an example of the transmission format of the information regarding the colors and the area information regarding each color obtained from the color document of FIG. 3 by the above-described extraction process.

Of these transmission formats, 5 to 9 are shown in FIG.
1, 15-19 are 3 in Figure 3, 25-29 are 2 in Figure 3,
37 to 39 correspond to 4 in FIG. 3, respectively.

[0022] Also, 5, 15, 25 of this format
is the color information of each area, and area information is added corresponding to each color information. That is, color information 5 and area information 6
9 correspond to each other, color information 15 corresponds to area information 16 to 19, and color information 25 corresponds to area information 26 to 29, and 37
~39 are supported. In addition, these area information includes the area shape (6, 16, 26), area start position coordinates (7
, 17, 27), the horizontal length of the region (8, 18, 28)
, the vertical length of the area (9, 19, 29).

After transmitting the information regarding colors in such a format and the area information regarding each color, document information obtained by removing color components from the color document shown in FIG. 3 is transmitted. That is, since conventional document creation devices usually construct color documents by adding color components to monochrome document information, it is sufficient to simply ignore the color components. Furthermore, in a color facsimile or the like, a document composed of character codes is converted into a binary bit image before being sent.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of color document restoration on the receiving side corresponding to the data communication apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[0025] When the memory for one page of a document (frame memory) on the receiving side is composed of R, G, and B shapes, first in step R1, the document to be received is stored in the frame memory. Write a black code (maximum value of each of R, G, and B) to all addresses in the area.

Next, in step R2, when the area information (6 to 9, etc.) as shown in FIG. 4 is received, the color information (color code) extracted from the received information and the area information corresponding to each color information are extracted. Based on this, it detects which pixel has which color and determines the range to be colored.

In step R3, the R, G, and B components of the corresponding color information are written to all addresses in the frame memory corresponding to the range to be colored determined in step R2. That is, if the values of each color element of color code C0 are CR, CG, and CB, write CR, CG, and CB to the corresponding addresses of the R, G, and B planes of the frame memory.This process is performed for all color codes and all This is done for area information.

In step R4, binary document information is received and one pixel thereof is extracted.

[0029] When the value of the extracted pixel is 0,
In step R5, the content of the frame memory address corresponding to that pixel is set to 0.

[0030] By repeating the above processing from step R4 until processing of all pixels is completed, the color document developed in the R, G, and B frame memories is finally restored.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a state in which area information is developed on the R plane in order to further explain the above-mentioned color document restoration processing on the receiving side.

In the figure, in the initial state, 00 is input to the address of the entire plane.

First, in step R1 of FIG. 5, FF is input to all addresses of the area where the received document is stored. Next, in step R3, the R component of the color code designated at all addresses within the area to be colored is input. Further, in step R5, 00 is input into the address corresponding to the position where the received pixel value is 0. A color document can be restored by the above processing.

If the receiving side only has a line buffer, it is possible to restore a color document by alternately developing the color code and area information into the line buffer and receiving monochrome document information.

[0035]

According to the present invention, since color information in a color document is replaced with area information, it is possible to realize a data communication device with a small amount of information and high transmission efficiency.

Another advantage is that even if the receiving device does not support color printing (such as a conventional facsimile), the sending side can do so by sending only the above-mentioned monochrome document information without sending area information. There is also.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a hardware configuration diagram of a data communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing processing in a data communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an area detection method in a data communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a transmission format of information regarding colors and area information regarding each color in a data communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing color document restoration processing on the receiving side in the data communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Figure 6
] A diagram showing a state in which area information is developed on the R plane in a data communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

100 Document input device 101 CPU 102 ROM 103 Transmission circuit 104 Receiving circuit 105 RAM 106 I/O 107 Output device

Claims (4)

[Claims] Claim 1. In a data communication device that transmits color document information that includes color information, code information, and position coordinates as one display element, based on the color information and position coordinates of the display element, A specifying means for specifying area information and color information indicating an area where a display element exists, and a transmission means for transmitting the code and position coordinates of each display element and the area information and color information specified by the specifying means. A data communication device characterized by: 2. In a data communication device that transmits color document information including color information, code information, and position coordinates as one display element, based on the color information and position coordinates of the display element, a specifying means for specifying area information and color information indicating an area in which a display element exists; a specifying means for specifying an area having the same color information based on the area information and color information specified by the specifying means; A data communication device comprising a transmission means for transmitting a code and position coordinate of a display element, color information specified by the specifying means, and area information corresponding to the color information specified by the specifying means. 3. Receiving means for receiving information transmitted from the data communication device according to claim 1 or 2; and from the information received by the receiving means, the color information and area information corresponding to the color information; and an extraction means for extracting the code and position coordinates of each of the display elements, and a display means for displaying each of the display elements included in the area based on color information corresponding to the area. Device. 4. When the information output from the data communication device according to claim 1 or 2 is decomposed into color information, area information corresponding to the color information, and image information in bit units and transmitted, the information is received. receiving means for extracting the color information, area information corresponding to the color information, and image information in bit units from the information received by the receiving means; A data communication device characterized by comprising a display means for displaying information based on color information corresponding to an area.