JPH05159030A - Picture data management device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a picture data management device where maintenance is improved and whose reliability is high by separating plural picture data different in formats into picture main body data and management data related thereto. CONSTITUTION:A data separation part 2 separates respective picture data inputted by a picture data input part 1 into picture main body data and management data such as attribute information related thereto, history information and accompanied related information for respective pieces of picture data. Picture main body data is converted into data on the picture elements array of the single standard formats decided for the respective data types in a picture main body data format conversion part 3 and they are stored in an external storage medium 7. Management data is set to be a pair with a picture main body data file in the system of a text file and they are stored in the external storage medium 7. The data management part 5 sequentially converts management data into binary data which can easily be handled in an internal processing and they are synthesized with picture main body data becoming the pair. Then, they are given to corresponding picture processing parts 61-63.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus for storing and saving image data in an attached external storage medium, and particularly when performing image processing, a plurality of image data having different formats can be internally processed. The present invention relates to an image data management device that can be converted into data that is easy to handle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, four primary color image data for printing of C (cyan), M (magenta), Y (yellow), K (black) and R ( Red), G (green),
The B (blue) light three primary color image data, or a binary mask image created to use only a specific part of the image should be stored and saved in an external storage medium attached to the image processing apparatus. There are many.

In this case, normally, in a plate making total scanner, CMYK color-separated image data is obtained by disassembling a color film by a scanner, but as shown in FIG. Depending on the difference, the CMYK pixel sequence as shown in FIG. 5, the line sequence for storing each line of each color, the frame sequence for storing one face for each color, etc. There are various types, and the total scanner data of each manufacturer uniquely determines the standard type. Therefore, in a department that has installed a plurality of total scanners, in order to divert image data to each other, each input / output using a standard size MT (magnet tape) is adjusted according to each format. Reading and writing.

At the plate making site, in order to finish the disassembling work of the submitted color film in a short delivery time, the color separating work can be carried out to various scanners, or special processing can be performed only by a specific total scanner. In many cases, this format conversion is unexpectedly performed. In addition, recently, there is an increasing number of cases in which image data stored in a format of a total scanner as a database is used in another machine.

However, such a work load of format conversion requires work instructions, conversion time in a computer, and the like, which is a serious problem in terms of overall work efficiency.

Information such as a data file name for specifying a color, vertical / horizontal pixel size when disassembled by a scanner, resolution (pixels per mm), and range of digital values of shadow / highlight However, it is always necessary when performing image processing on the image body data.

However, in the original format defined by each total scanner maker up to now, the image body data and the management data managed by the image data are integrated, and the management data is generally a unique header as a header at the beginning of the file. It is written in the format. for that reason,
When using image data, it is necessary to prepare a program for individually converting the format for each combination of unique formats, which is very time-consuming. In addition, in the original format, the attribute item has a fixed format that means the attribute that has a value of the number of bytes, so if the attribute item is added or changed due to version upgrade etc., the format is fully supported. The related program of must be rewritten, and maintainability is also very poor.

[0008]

As described above, in the related art, when managing a plurality of image data having different formats, the overall work efficiency is lowered, and the individual correspondence image processing for each of a plurality of formats is performed. There was a problem that we had to prepare a program and it was troublesome to deal with additions and changes due to version upgrades.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object thereof is to convert a plurality of formats into another format without lowering the overall work efficiency. It is possible to convert multiple image data of different formats into easy-to-use data by internal processing without preparing an individualized image processing program, and easily add / change due to version upgrades and maintainability. An object of the present invention is to provide an extremely reliable image data management device that can be improved.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, in an image data managing device in an image processing device for storing and saving image data in an external storage medium attached thereto, mutual formatting is performed. Image data input means for inputting a plurality of different image data, and data separation means for separating each image data input by the image data input means into image body data and management data related thereto for each image data, The image main body data separated by the data separation means is converted into the data of the pixel arrangement of the format defined for each data type, and is stored in the external storage medium. Convert the management data into data that represents the identification code and its attribute value for each attribute item. And management data format converting means to be stored in an external storage medium as the image body data pair,
The identification code of each record of the management data stored in the external storage medium is discriminated, and the attribute value that follows is integrated with the pair of image main body data stored in the external storage medium and given to the image processing apparatus main body. And a data management means.

In particular, as the management data format conversion means, the management data is variable length data in which an identification code and its attribute value are represented by one record for each attribute item, and the end of the record is identified in each record. I am trying to add a line feed code to do this.

Further, the image body data and the management data are
As a pair, they are stored in an external storage medium under a tree structure directory.

[0013]

Therefore, in the image data management device of the present invention, a plurality of image data having different formats input from the image data input means are processed by the data separation means as image main data and management data related thereto for each image data. Is separated into

Next, the separated image body data is
The image body data format conversion means converts the data into pixel array data in a format defined for each data type and stores the data in an external storage medium. The separated management data is converted into data representing the identification code and its attribute value for each attribute item by the management data format conversion means, and stored in the external storage medium as a pair with the image body data.

Further, in the data management means, the identification code of each record of the management data stored in the external storage medium is discriminated, and the attribute value that follows is discriminated from the pair of image main bodies stored in the external storage medium. The data is integrated with the data and provided to the main body of the image processing apparatus.

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration example of an image data management device in an image processing device according to the present invention. That is, as shown in FIG. 1, the image data management apparatus of the present embodiment has an image data input unit 1, a data separation unit 2, an image body data format conversion unit 3, a management data format conversion unit 4, and a data unit. It is composed of the management unit 5.

Reference numerals 61, 62 and 63 denote image processing units of three image processing apparatuses such as workstations,
Reference numeral 7 is a common external storage medium attached to the image processing apparatus.

Here, the image data input unit 1 inputs three pieces of image data Va, Vb, Vc of different formats (each company A, B, C).

Further, the data separation unit 2 is provided with each image data Va, Vb, Vc input by the image data input unit 1.
Is separated for each image data into management data such as image body data and attribute information, history information, and related information associated therewith.

On the other hand, the image main body data format conversion unit 3 converts the image main body data separated by the data separation unit 2 into data of a pixel array of a single standard format defined for each data type, and the image main body. The data file is stored in the external storage medium 7.

Further, the management data format conversion unit 4
Converts the management data separated by the data separation unit 2 into variable length data in which an identification code for each attribute item, its attribute value, and a line feed code for identifying the end of the record are represented as one record, and It is stored in the external storage medium 7 in the form of a file as a pair with the image body data file.

Furthermore, the data management unit 5 determines the identification code of each record of the management data stored in the external storage medium 7, and successively converts the attribute values that follow into binary data that is easy to handle in internal processing. In addition, the image data is integrated with a pair of image body data stored in the external storage medium 7 and given to the corresponding image processing units 61, 62, 63.

Next, the operation of the image data management apparatus of the present embodiment constructed as described above will be described with reference to FIGS.

In FIG. 1, three pieces of image data Va, Vb, Vc, which are input from the image data input unit 1 and have different formats from each other, are separated by the data separating unit 2 for each image data, and the image main body data and attributes relating to the image main body data. It is separated into management data such as information, history information, and related information.

Next, in the image body data format conversion unit 3, the image body data separated by the data separation unit 2 is classified by data type (continuous tone data, multi-valued or binary bitmap mask data, etc.). The standard format defined in 1 is determined, converted into data of the determined pixel arrangement, and stored in the external storage medium 7 as an image body data file.

That is, a pixel array of any one of a CMYK pixel sequence as shown in FIG. 5, a line sequence in which each line is stored for each color, and a frame sequence in which one face is stored for each color (for example, Gradation data is converted into pixel-sequential data and mask data is converted into line-sequential run-length compressed data) and stored.

In the management data format conversion unit 4, the management data separated by the data separation unit 2 has an identification code for attribute identification for each attribute item, its attribute value,
And a line feed code to identify the end of the record
Converted to variable length data represented as a record.

That is, the identification code + value (numerical value or alphabetic character string) determined for each attribute item is
One character in the ASCII code = 1 byte is expressed as one record, and the end of one record is converted into variable length text data which is expressed by a line feed code.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the contents of a variable length text file (management data file). In FIG. 2, each record has an identification code written in the first three digits,
Next, the meaning of the value is described by a numerical value or alphabetic character string, and the line feed code is further described.

In this case, NS; 4 and the number of existing colors = 4 colors,
XC: 1024, number of pixels in x direction (number of columns), YL: 1
024, the number of pixels in the y direction (the number of lines), XR; 14.00
0000 x-direction image capture resolution, YR; 14.000
000 is the y direction image capture resolution, FN; Z00A01 is the image file name, and FM is the file format input by DDBS, which is DDBS, HS; 73.142857.
In the above, only the necessary attributes are described such that the top-bottom dimension = 73.142857 mm.

The management data format conversion section 4 describes the minimum required common identification code for each image data Va, Vb, Vc and the identification code of the attribute unique to each company format. It is a thing. For example, with respect to the image data Va, the identification code FM; DDBS is used to convert each attribute item held in the header portion of the DDBS file format together with the identification code.

Next, the variable length text file is
It is stored in the external storage medium 7 in the form of a text file as a pair with the image main body data file under a directory having a tree structure as shown in FIG. 3, for example.

In the example of FIG. 3, under the classification directory named GIFT, there are a plurality of data storage directories each having a product code such as Z00A01 for the product code number of directory names. 4 files of continuous tone data named CTDATA, management data related to CTDATA named CTLABBL, binary mask data named LWMASK, and management data related to LWMASK named LWLABEL are stored.

Next, in the data management section 5, the identification code of each record of the management data stored in the external storage medium 7 is discriminated, and the value following it is sequentially converted into binary data which is easy to handle in the internal processing. .. Then, the management data after the conversion is integrated with the pair of image body data stored in the external storage medium 7, and the corresponding image processing unit 6
1, 62, 63.

That is, in the example shown in FIG. 3, the first three characters of each record of the management data are read, and after determining what that means, the values after the fourth digit are easy to handle in internal processing. Sequential conversion to binary data, argument values (given with the program name, it is passed to the program as a parameter), member values in the structure (various attributes that have been type-declared in advance as a groove are called structures. , Individual attribute parameters are called members), arrays (things whose names and sizes have been declared in advance for the parameters are called arrays, and the contents are called array values, and can be specified by array element numbers), etc. It is given to the image processing units 61, 62 and 63. That is, it is determined to which processing program the value of the fourth digit and later is given, and the value is passed to the image processing apparatus as a parameter.

In each of the image processing units 61, 62 and 63, the image data input from the data management unit 5 is subjected to predetermined image processing and output to an output target (not shown).

If, for example, only a certain portion of certain image data is cut out and scaled to generate new image data by image processing, new image data is generated in the product code directory in the directory structure of FIG. For example, Z0
A name such as 0A01-1 may be input from a keyboard (not shown), and image body data and management data related thereto may be similarly stored under the directory.

As described above, in this embodiment, in the image data management device for the image processing device that stores and saves the image data in the attached external storage medium 7, three different formats (each company A , B, C) of image data Va, Vb, Vc, and image data Va, Vb, Vc input by the image data input unit 1 as image body data for each image data. The data separation unit 2 that separates the management data related thereto and the image body data that is separated by the data separation unit 2 are converted into data of a pixel array of a single standard format defined for each data type, and the image is converted. Image body data format conversion unit 3 stored in the external storage medium 7 as a body data file, and management data separated by the data separation unit 2. , The identification code for each attribute item, into a variable-length data representing the attribute value, and a line feed code to identify the end of the record as one record,
The management data format conversion unit 4 that stores the image body data file in the form of a text file in the external storage medium 7 as a pair and the identification code of each record of the management data stored in the external storage medium 7 are determined, From the data management unit 5 which sequentially converts the value following it into binary data and integrates it with the pair of image body data stored in the external storage medium 7 and gives it to the corresponding image processing units 61, 62, 63. It is configured.

Therefore, the following various effects can be obtained.

(A) Since the image main body data and the management data related thereto are separately provided under one directory, it is inconvenient to know where the parameters required for image processing are. Will disappear. As a result, image processing can be reliably performed,
Moreover, there is an advantage that the processing such as copying, moving, deleting and renaming the data formula is very easy to perform.

(B) Since the management data has a description method in which the attribute is identified by a code for each record in a text file and expressed, it is possible to easily cope with additions and changes due to version upgrades. In addition, it is extremely efficient because it can be easily checked and corrected during program development and maintenance.

(C) Since the image main body data is stored internally as a single standard format for each data type, the image processing programming may be performed only by the algorithm corresponding to the standard format. No need to create a personalized image processing program. This allows external I / O for import and export.
By creating the O part program independently of the image processing, it becomes possible to make it a common module, and even if a new external format occurs in the market needs, the standard format and the new external format can be used. Only one external I / O program needs to be created, and the extensibility is extremely excellent.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, but can be implemented in the same manner as described below.

(A) In the above embodiment, the case where the number of input image data is four has been described, but it goes without saying that the number is not limited to this.

(B) In the above embodiment, a case has been described in which a line feed code for identifying the end of the record is added to each record of the management data, but this is not essential to the present invention. ..

(C) In the above embodiment, the case where the image body data and the management data are stored as a pair in the external storage medium under the tree structure directory has been described, but the present invention is not limited to the tree structure. Needless to say.

(D) In the above embodiment, as management data, in addition to image management items, history information (for example, input device of the image data, original format, input section, manufacturer, etc.) is added. As a result, it is possible to use it for process control.

[0049]

As described above, according to the present invention, the image data inputting means for inputting a plurality of image data having different formats, and the respective image data inputted by the image data inputting means are provided for each image data. Data separation means for separating the image body data and management data related thereto, and the image body data separated by the data separation means are converted into data of pixel arrangement in a format defined for each data type, and an external storage medium The image body data format conversion means to be stored in and the management data separated by the data separation means are converted into data representing an identification code and its attribute value for each attribute item, and stored in an external storage medium as a pair with the image body data. Management data format conversion means to store and management data stored in the external storage medium To determine the record identification code,
Since the attribute value that follows it is integrated with the image body data of the pair stored in the external storage medium and provided to the image processing apparatus body, the data management means is provided.
It is possible to convert a plurality of image data of different formats into data that can be easily handled by internal processing without reducing the overall work efficiency and without preparing an image processing program for each of a plurality of formats. It is possible to provide an extremely reliable image data management device that can easily add and change due to version upgrade and improve maintainability.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing an embodiment of an image data management device in an image processing device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of contents of management data in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram showing an example of a directory structure storing image data in the same embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram for explaining a difference depending on a scanning direction of a scanner.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram for explaining a method of storing image body data (continuous tone data).

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Image data input unit, 2 ... Data separation unit, 3 ... Image body data format conversion unit, 4 ... Management data format conversion unit, 5 ... Data management unit, 61, 62, 63 ... Image processing unit, 7 ... External storage Medium.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An apparatus for managing image data in an image processing apparatus for storing / saving image data in an attached external storage medium, and image data input means for inputting a plurality of image data having different formats from each other. Data separation means for separating each image data input by the image data input means into image body data and management data related thereto for each image data, and image body data separated by the data separation means An image main body data format conversion means for converting the data into a pixel array data of a format determined for each type and storing the data in the external storage medium, and the management data separated by the data separating means, for each attribute item, an identification code And the data representing its attribute value, and as a pair with the image body data. Management data format conversion means for storing in the external storage medium, the identification code of each record of the management data stored in the external storage medium is discriminated, and the attribute value following it is stored in the external storage medium. An image data management apparatus comprising: a data management unit that integrates with a pair of image body data to be provided to the image processing apparatus body. 2. The management data format conversion means uses management data as variable length data in which an identification code and an attribute value are represented by one record for each attribute item, and the end of the record is identified in each record. The image data management device according to claim 1, further comprising a line feed code for adding the line feed code. 3. The image body data and management data are
The image data management device according to claim 1, wherein the image data management device is configured to store the pair in a directory having a tree structure in the external storage medium.