JPH05252512A - Data transmission equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To shorten a transmission time by transmitting picture data constituted of natural picture data and the other data after synthesizing and converting the data into the new natural picture data. CONSTITUTION:At the time of obtaining a result that the picture data to be transmitted are constituted of the natural picture data and the other data (character data or/and graphic data), a CPU11 discriminates whether the area of each kind of picture is divided or superimposed based on the position information of both the data. Then, information instructing a synthesizing processing according to a display configuration is imparted to a synthesis control part 25A, and then the synthesizing processing by a synthesizing part 30 is activated. The synthesizing part 30 synthesizes the natural picture data with the other data, and compresses the synthesized natural picture data by using a data compressing/extending part 24A. Then, the data are transferred from a natural picture processing part 18 to a line processing part 14, and then transmitted.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a data transmission device for transmitting natural image data and other types of data.
It can be applied to a videotex terminal device such as a captain terminal device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There are character data and graphic data as data handled by a videotex terminal device, but recently, in addition to these data, data of a still image (hereinafter referred to as a natural image) close to a photograph is also handled. It's coming.

FIG. 4 shows a conventional videotex terminal device 1.
It is a block diagram which shows the whole 0 structure. In FIG.
The CPU 11 appropriately controls the entire videotex terminal device 10 using the working RAM 13 according to the program stored in the program ROM 12.

Further, the videotex terminal device 10 has a line processing unit 14, and via the line processing unit 14 and a digital line or an analog line 15, it is connected to a center (not shown) or another videotex terminal device. The character data, the graphic data, and the natural image data are transmitted and received. The line processing unit 14 performs line control processing, and stores the received image data in the RAM 13.
When the character data is received, the CPU 11 delivers the character data to the character processing unit 16, when the graphic data is received, the graphic data is delivered to the graphic processing unit 17, and when the natural image data is received, the natural image is received. The data is delivered to the natural image processing unit 18. Further, the line processing unit 14 sends the image data to the RAM 13 and the natural image processing unit 18 when transmitting the image data.
The image data is received from the digital camera, converted according to the transmission format, and then transmitted to the digital line or the analog line 15.

Under the control of the CPU 11, the character processing section 16 develops pixels of the character data received or received from the input means (including the reproducing means) (not shown) using the character generator 19, and is instructed. The stored character data (pixel expanded character data: three primary color data) is stored in the character image memory 20 with a given color, and is applied to a printing device or a display device (not shown) via the synthesizing unit 21 to print. Output or display output.

Under the control of the CPU 11, the graphic processing unit 17 causes the graphic data taken in from the input means (not shown) or the received graphic data to be stored in the graphic image memory 22 with the designated color and stored. The graphic data (three primary color data) is supplied to a printing device or a display device (not shown) via the synthesizing section 21 to be printed or displayed. The graphic data is compressed and transmitted, and the decompression processing at the time of reception is performed by the CPU 11 by software, and the compression processing at the time of transmission is also performed by the CPU 11 by software. Therefore, the graphic processing unit 17
During such processing, the processing is performed in cooperation with the CPU 11.

Under the control of the CPU 11, the natural image processing section 18 stores the natural image data fetched from the input means (not shown) in the image memory 23 for natural image, and the received natural image data in the data compression / expansion section 24. After being given and decompressed, it is stored in the image memory for natural image 23, and the stored natural image data is given to a printing device or a display device (not shown) via the synthesizing section 21 for printing output or display output.
In addition, under the control of the CPU 11, the natural image processing unit 18 attempts to transmit the natural image data acquired from the input unit (not shown) or the received natural image data to the center or another videotex terminal device. The natural image data to be processed is given to the data compressing / expanding section 24 to be compressed and then transferred to the line processing section 14.

The synthesizing unit 21 includes image memories 20, 22,
The data read from 23 is combined and given to the printing device or the display device as described above. The timing and the synthesizing method at this time are controlled by the synthesizing control unit 25.

For example, when one image as shown in FIG. 5 (A) is divided into three and image data in which natural images, characters, and figures are applied to each divided region is transmitted, or although not shown, it is natural. When transmitting image data in which images, characters, and graphics are superimposed, the structure of the transmission data is as shown in FIG. 5B, that is, the natural image data part, the character data part, and the graphic data part (control information for each data part). Was included) was a continuous one.

That is, the transmission side assembles the transmission data as shown in FIG. 5 (B), and the reception side divides the transmission data into natural image data, character data, and graphic data and processes them in respective processing units. It was

Incidentally, the videotex terminal device 10 receiving such transmission data not only performs the reception display operation, but also transfers the transmission data to another videotex terminal device. .. In this transmission, for example, character data and graphic data stored in the RAM 13 are used, and natural image data is stored in the RAM 13.
The data stored in 13 or the data stored in the image memory 23 as described above is used after being compressed by the data compression / decompression unit 24.

[0012]

As described above, when the natural image data is transferred, it is transferred after being compressed. However, since the amount of information is large originally, the amount of information is still large even if data compression is performed. For example, the amount of information is several tens of kilobytes even if compressed by discrete cosine transform or scalar quantization. As described above, in a state where the transfer amount of the natural image data is large, the character data and the graphic data are added to this to form one image, and the transfer amount becomes large. Therefore, the transmission time of one image becomes long, and the user may be dissatisfied.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and image data composed of natural image data and other types of data can be transmitted at a higher speed than in the past. It is intended to provide a data transmission device.

[0014]

In order to solve such a problem, in the present invention, in a data transmission device for transmitting image data composed of a natural image and another type of image,
The natural image data and the other types of image data are combined to obtain new natural image data, and the transmitting unit transmits the natural image data obtained by the synthesis.

[0015]

In the present invention, the synthesizing means synthesizes the natural image data and other types of image data to obtain new natural image data, and the transmitting means transmits the natural image data obtained by the synthesis.

As a result, it is not necessary to distinguish between natural image data and other types of image data for transmission, and the transmission time can be shortened.

[0017]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a videotex terminal device will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall construction of this embodiment, in which the same or corresponding parts as in FIG. 4 are designated by the same reference numerals. As shown in FIG. 1, the videotex terminal device 10A of the embodiment further includes a second combining unit 30 in addition to the conventional configuration. In addition, a new synthesis control unit 25A and data compression / decompression unit 24 different from the conventional one
And are provided.

The second synthesizing unit 30 reads character data (pixels expanded) read from the character image memory 20, graphic data read from the graphic image memory 22, and natural image data. It combines the natural image data read from the image memory 23. The image data from the second composition unit 30 is given to the compression configuration of the data compression / decompression unit 24A.

The synthesis control unit 25A is a conventional synthesis control unit 2
Similar to 5, the synthesis control of the synthesis unit (hereinafter referred to as the first synthesis unit) 21 is performed, and the synthesis control of the newly provided second synthesis unit 30 is also performed. The description of the control for the first combining unit 21 is omitted. Second synthesis unit 30
When the CPU 11 is made to function (when data of an image composed of natural image data and other data is transmitted as described later), the CPU 11 instructs the combination control unit 25A to select the type of data to be combined and the combination. Information such as a method (region division synthesis or superposition synthesis) is given, and based on these information, the second
The synthesizing unit 30 is controlled. In addition, the character image memory 2
0, graphic image memory 22 and natural image memory 23
To generate a read control timing signal.

The data compressing / expanding section 24A has the function of the conventional data compressing / expanding section 24, and in addition, immediately compresses the image data given from the second combining section 30 to directly compress the image data. 18 has a function to give.

The second synthesizing unit 30 is activated when the image to be transmitted is an image composed of the following combination of character data, graphic data and natural image data. This is the case of an image composed of character data, graphic data and natural image data, an image composed of character data and natural image data, and an image composed of graphic data and natural image data. Conversely, in the case of an image of character data alone, an image of graphic data alone, an image of natural image data alone, and an image consisting of character data and graphic data,
The second synthesis unit 30 is not activated.

That is, the second synthesizing unit 30 functions in the case of image data composed of natural image data and other data. As described above, since the data stored in the image memories 20, 22, and 23 are combined, the combined data can be regarded as natural image data.

The reason why the image data composed of the natural image data and other data is combined and converted into new natural image data is as follows.

FIG. 2A shows the amount of information when an image composed of character data, graphic data and natural image data is transmitted by the conventional apparatus 10. In this case,
Since character data, graphic data, and natural image data exist separately in the transmitted data, the amount of information is large. FIG. 2 (B) shows the amount of information when the same image as FIG. 2 (A) consisting of character data, graphic data and natural image data is transmitted by the apparatus 10A of this embodiment. In this case, the amount of information is only natural image data after synthesis, and the amount of information is smaller than in the conventional case. That is, it was decided to synthesize with this intention. Note that the amount of information of the natural image data after combining is often larger than the amount of information of the natural image data before combining (because of the high frequency components, etc.), but still the character data, the graphic data, and Compared with the amount of information of the combination of natural image data, it is significantly less.

On the other hand, in the case of data other than the image data composed of natural image data and other data, the reason why the combination is not performed is as follows.

This is because the information amount of such image data is originally smaller than the information amount of image data composed of natural image data and other data. In addition, since the composition is performed after being read from the image memory, for example, in the case of character data, what can be transmitted in the state of code data is transmitted in the state of pixel expansion data, which rather increases the amount of information. Is also caused.

Next, the process of transferring the received image data to another videotex terminal device will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The description of the receiving process is omitted.

First, it is determined whether or not the image data to be transmitted includes natural image data (step SP1). If it includes natural image data,
It is determined whether or not the data includes other data (character data and / or graphic data) (step SP2).

If the result that the natural image data is not included or the result that the natural image data is included but no other data is included is obtained by such discrimination, the transfer similar to the conventional transfer is performed. Execute processing (step S
P3).

On the other hand, when the result that the image data is composed of the natural image data and other data is obtained, the area for each type of image is determined based on the position information of the natural image data and the position information of the other data. Divided image data (Fig. 5
(See (A)) or image data in which each type of image is superimposed (step SP4). Then, the information for instructing the synthesizing process according to the display form is added to the synthesizing control unit
5A, the second synthesizing unit 30 starts the synthesizing process (steps SP5 and SP6).

At this time, the second synthesizing unit 30 performs a synthesizing process with the natural image data and other data, and gives the synthesized natural image data to the data compressing / expanding unit 24A. The data compression / decompression unit 24A compresses the combined natural image data and supplies the compressed natural image data to the natural image processing unit 18.
Sends it to the line processing unit 14 for transmission.

Therefore, according to the above-mentioned embodiment, when transmitting the image data consisting of the natural image data and other data,
Since these are combined and converted into image data of the natural image data alone and transmitted, the amount of information can be made smaller than in the past and the transmission time can be shortened.

Further, even when the videotex terminal device on the receiving side has only the processing function of only the natural image data, the image data composed of the natural image data and other data can be substantially transmitted.

The present invention is not limited to the videotex terminal device, but can be applied to other data transmission devices that handle natural image data and other data.

In the above embodiment, the case of transferring the received image data has been described, but the present invention can be applied to the case of transmitting the created image data. Further, the present invention can be applied to a case where the received image data is recorded on a recording medium (included in a broad transmission concept: the scope of the claims means broad transmission).

Furthermore, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the natural image data after the composition is immediately transmitted, but the natural image data after the composition is stored in the image memory,
After that, the transmission process may be performed.

In the above embodiment, natural image data,
Although the one handling character data and graphic data is shown, the invention can be applied to a device handling other data. For example, it can be applied to an apparatus that handles PDI data such as defining a figure by the center and radius of a circle.

[0039]

As described above, according to the present invention, when image data consisting of natural image data and other data is transmitted (concept including recording), these are combined to create new natural image data. Since the data is transmitted after being converted into, the transmission time can be shortened as compared with the conventional case.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a reason for synthesizing natural image data and other data.

FIG. 3 is a processing flowchart when transmitting image data.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a conventional device.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional defect.

[Explanation of symbols]

10A ... Videotex terminal device, 11 ... CPU, 14
... line processing unit, 16 ... character processing unit, 17 ... graphic processing unit,
18 ... Natural image processing unit, 20 ... Character image memory, 22 ...
Image memory for figures, 23 ... Image memory for natural images, 24 ...
Data compression / decompression unit, 25A ... Combining control unit, 30 ... Combining unit for composing at transmission.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A data transmission device for transmitting image data composed of a natural image and another type of image, to obtain new natural image data by synthesizing the natural image data and another type of image data. A data transmission device comprising: a synthesizing means and a transmitting means for transmitting the natural image data obtained by the synthesizing.