JPH0564385B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application The present invention stores image data, such as medical images, in a mass storage device, and searches and reads out the stored image data in response to an external search command. The present invention relates to an image storage and retrieval device, and particularly relates to an image storage and retrieval device that can shorten the time required for image data retrieval processing.

BACKGROUND ART A conventional image storage and retrieval device, as shown in FIG. 7, has one central processing unit (CPU) 1, and this CPU 1 is equipped with a magnetic disk device 2 and an optical disk device as a mass storage device. It consists of connecting 3 and
The CPU 1 was connected to an external data transmission line 4. When receiving a search command for a certain image from an image display terminal device (not shown) via the data transmission path 4, the CPU 1 decodes the search command and searches for a certain image stored in the magnetic disk device 2. The storage location of the corresponding image data is searched based on the identification code, etc., and based on the search result, a read command is issued to the optical disk device 3, the corresponding image data is read from the optical disk device 3, and the data is transmitted. The data is sent to an image display terminal device (not shown) via route 4.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, in such an image storage and retrieval device, a single CPU 1 controls all of the operations of decoding the retrieval command, retrieving, and reading and transmitting the image data. The operations were to be performed serially. That is, as shown in 3a, the decoding and searching operation of the first search command 5a is followed by the reading and transmitting operation of the corresponding image data 6a, and then the decoding and searching operation of the second search command 5b. This is followed by the reading and transmitting operation of the corresponding image data 6b, which is followed by the decoding and retrieval operation of the third search command 5c, and so on. and,
When the amount of image data is very large (for example, several hundred kilobytes to several megabytes) such as medical images, it takes a lot of time to read out the image data from the optical disk device 3 and send it to the data transmission path 4 after the image search. During this time, even if the search command has a small amount of data, the above CPU is
1 was unable to handle it. Therefore, since one operation must be completed before starting the next operation, the operation time of conventional image storage and retrieval devices is reduced by processing each operation in series, as shown in Figure 3a. It required only T ₁ of time to do so. For this reason, the entire processing time for searching and processing image data becomes long. Note that when registering image data, the processing time is also longer for the same reason. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve such problems.

Means for Solving the Problems The means of the present invention for solving the above-mentioned problems is to store digitized image data in a mass storage device, and to store digital image data in accordance with a search command received from the outside via a data transmission path. An image storage and retrieval device that searches for desired image data, reads the image data from the mass storage device, and sends it to the data transmission path, stores the image data and sends the retrieved image data to the data transmission path. The part that combines a central processing unit and a large-capacity storage device forms an image data storage mechanism, and the part that searches for image data based on the search commands combines the central processing unit and an auxiliary storage device to form an image data retrieval mechanism. This is achieved by connecting the central processing unit of the data storage mechanism and the central processing unit of the image data retrieval mechanism to each other through a communication circuit so that image data retrieval and transmission are performed in parallel.

Embodiments Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail based on the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an image storage and retrieval device 7 according to the present invention. The image storage and retrieval device 7 stores digitized image data in a mass storage device, and searches and reads out the stored image data in response to a search command from the outside. , an image data retrieval mechanism 9, and a communication circuit 10, and an image data storage mechanism 8 is connected to an external data transmission line 4. The image data storage mechanism 8 receives and stores image data measured by an image measuring device (not shown) via the data transmission path 4, and retrieves the image data by a search command from an image display terminal device (not shown). It reads out image data and sends it to the data transmission path 4, and consists of a first central processing unit (CPU) 11, an optical disk device 12, and a first magnetic disk device 13. The first above
The CPU 11 controls the operation of the image data storage mechanism 8, and mainly writes image data.
Controls reading, transmission, etc. The optical disk device 12 stores image data as a mass storage device, and the first magnetic disk device 13 temporarily stores image data and serves as a buffer memory. The optical disk device 12 is not limited to this, and may be replaced with a mass storage unit or a large-capacity magnetic disk device.

The image data search mechanism 9 searches for desired image data in response to a search command from an image display terminal device (not shown), and includes a second central processing unit (CPU) 14 and a second magnetic disk device 15. Consisting of The second CPU 14 controls the operation of the image data search mechanism 9, and the second CPU 14 controls the operation of the image data search mechanism 9.
The search command sent from the CPU 11 is decoded and the storage location of the image data is searched. The second magnetic disk device 15 stores search information such as image number, measurement date, device name, storage location, etc. for searching image data stored in the optical disk device 12 of the image data storage mechanism 8. I remember. At present, it is possible to store image data in the optical disk device 12 and to store image search information in the second magnetic disk device 15 using a magnetic disk device compared to an optical disk device. This is because the magnetic disk device 15 is used to perform image retrieval at high speed since the data read/write time is short.

The image data storage mechanism 8 and the image data search mechanism 9 are connected to the first CPU 11 and the second CPU 11.
The communication circuit 10 is connected to the CPU 14 . This will cause the first CPU above to
11 and the second CPU 14 can communicate image data search commands, search information, and search results with each other. Further, the first CPU 11 of the image data storage mechanism 8 is connected to the external data transmission path 4 through a communication circuit 16. As a result, the image storage and retrieval device 7 of the present invention as a whole can perform image data retrieval and transmission of the image data in parallel.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing internal details of the image storage and retrieval device 7 of the present invention. In the image data storage mechanism 8, the first CPU 11 is connected to the control device 11.
a, a main memory 11b, and two interfaces 11c and 11d. Further, in the image data search mechanism 9, the second CPU 14 includes a control device 14a, a main memory 14b, and an interface 14c. And the above first CPU1
The first interface 11c and the interface 14c of the second CPU 14 are coupled by a communication circuit 10, and the other interface 11d of the first CPU 11 is connected to an external data transmission path 4.

Next, the operation of the image storage and retrieval device 7 configured as described above will be explained. First, digital image data measured by an image measuring device (not shown) is input to the image data storage mechanism 8 via the data transmission path 4. At this time, the image data includes search information such as an identification code at the beginning, and the entire image data including this search information is sent to the first CPU 11.
The data is stored in the optical disk device 12 or the magnetic disk device 13 under the control of. Next, the first CPU1
1 sends only the above search information to the image data search mechanism 9. Then, this image data search mechanism 9
stores the above search information in the corresponding address of the second magnetic disk device 15 under the control of the second CPU 14. In this way, image data sent from an image measuring device not shown is sequentially accumulated.

Next, in order to search and read out a desired image from among the plurality of image data accumulated as described above, an image search command is first sent from an image display terminal device (not shown) via the data transmission path 4. The image data is input to the image data storage mechanism 8. Then, the first CPU11
sends the search command to the image data search mechanism 9 via the communication circuit 10. The second CPU 14 of this image data search mechanism 9 decodes the search command,
Based on the search information stored in the second magnetic disk device 15, the storage location of the image data corresponding to the search command is searched. Then, the search results are sent back to the image data storage mechanism 8 via the communication circuit 10. Then, the first CPU 11
Based on the above search results, a read command is issued to the optical disk device 12 or the first magnetic disk device 13 to read out the corresponding image data, and a search command is issued to the image data via the data transmission path 4. Transmit to image display terminal device. At this time,
The above image data is divided into packets of a predetermined length and transmitted, but if a search command for the next image is input while one packet is being transmitted, the first CPU
11 sends the search command to the image data retrieval mechanism 9 via the communication circuit 10, and the image data storage mechanism 8
continues to transmit the read image data. During this time, the image data search mechanism 9
Decipher the next search command and retrieve the second magnetic disk 15.
A search is performed based on the search information, and the search results are sent back to the image data storage mechanism 8 via the communication circuit 10. In this way, image data retrieval and transmission are performed in parallel.

The image data retrieval and transmission operations of the image storage and retrieval device 7 are shown in FIG. 3B in comparison with the operations of the conventional device shown in FIG. 3A.
That is, the first search instruction 5a is decoded and searched under the control of the second CPU 14 on the image data search mechanism 9 side, and the corresponding image data 6a is decoded and searched by the first search instruction 5a. Later, based on the search results, the data is read out and transmitted under the control of the first CPU 11 on the image data storage mechanism 8 side.
At this time, the second search command following the first search command 5a,
The third search instructions 5b and 5c are the first search instructions 5.
The image data 6a corresponding to a is the first CPU 11
Even if the data is being transmitted under the control of
4, decoding and retrieval are performed continuously without any time interval. In addition, the second search instruction 5b
is the image data 6 corresponding to the first search instruction 5a.
Since the corresponding image data 6b is decoded and searched while the image data 6a is being transmitted, the image data 6b corresponding to this image data 6b is generated at a time interval under the control of the first CPU 11 based on the search result. It is read and transmitted continuously without any delay. Therefore, the search commands 5a to 5d are executed in the second CU1.
4, the image data 6a to 6c can be sequentially decoded and retrieved by the control of the first CPU.
11, it is possible to read and transmit one after another, and image retrieval can be performed by parallel operation. Therefore, even when reading and transmitting medical images with a very large amount of data, the search commands input one after another can be decoded and searched without waiting time, and the entire desired image data can be searched and processed. _{The time required for this decreases by the amount of parallel operation (T 2 <
T1} ).

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, in addition to the image data storage mechanism 8 described above, another set of image data storage mechanisms 8' is provided, which are connected in parallel to a set of image data retrieval mechanisms 9 through communication circuits 10, 10'. , CPUs 11 and 11' of each image data storage mechanism 8 and 8' are connected to an external data transmission line 4 through communication circuits 16 and 16', respectively. In this case, the operations of reading and transmitting image data having a large amount of data can be performed in parallel, and the time for search processing can be further reduced. In addition,
The number of image data storage mechanisms 8 is not limited to two, and three or more sets may be provided as necessary.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a third embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, two independent data transmission paths 4 are provided, the first data transmission path 4a transmits only image data, and the second data transmission path 4b transmits search commands and other data other than image data. The image data storage mechanism 8 is connected to the first data transmission path 4a through the communication circuit 16, and the image data search mechanism 9 connects the second CPU 14 to the communication circuit 17. It is connected to the second data transmission line 4b by. In this case, the image data search mechanism 9 directly sends and receives search information, search commands, etc. to and from the external image measuring device and image display terminal device via the second data transmission path 4b, and the search results, etc. Communication circuit 1
The image data read out by the image data storage mechanism 8 is transmitted to an external image display terminal device via the first data transmission path 4a. Therefore, data other than image data, such as search commands, and image data can be transmitted and received in parallel via the two data transmission paths 4a and 4b, so that the time required for image data search processing can be significantly shortened.

Effects of the Invention As explained above, the present invention provides
An image data storage mechanism 8 and an image data retrieval mechanism 9 having 11 and 14 are provided.
Since the CPUs 11 and 14 are connected to each other by the communication circuit 10, one CPU 11 and the other CPU 14 can exchange image data search commands, search information, Search results can be communicated. and,
Since the CPU 11 of the image data storage mechanism 8 is connected to the external data transmission path 4 through the communication circuit 16, the image storage and retrieval device 7 of the present invention as a whole can perform image data retrieval and The image data can be transmitted in parallel.
Therefore, even when reading and transmitting medical images having a very large amount of data, the image data retrieval mechanism 9 can process the decoding and retrieval of successive input search commands without waiting time. Therefore, the overall processing time for searching and processing desired image data can be shortened, and the response speed of the entire apparatus can be increased. Note that the processing time can be shortened for the same reason when registering image data.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the image storage and retrieval device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing its internal details, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the operation of image data retrieval and transmission. Figure 4 is a timing diagram showing the operation of the conventional device, Figure b is a timing diagram showing the operation of the device of the present invention, Figure 4 is a block diagram showing the second embodiment of the present invention, and Figure 5 is the third embodiment. FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a conventional image storage and retrieval device. 4...Data transmission path, 5a-5d...Search command, 6a-6c...Image data, 7...Image storage and search device, 8...Image data storage mechanism, 9...Image data search mechanism, 10... Communication circuit, 11...
First central processing unit (CPU), 12... Optical disk device, 14... Second central processing unit (CPU),
15...Second magnetic disk device, 16...Communication circuit.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. Digitized image data is stored in a large-capacity storage device, and desired image data is retrieved by a search command received from the outside via a data transmission path, and the image data is stored in the large-capacity storage device. In the image storage and retrieval device that reads out the image data from the storage device and sends it to the data transmission path, the part that stores the image data and sends the searched image data to the data transmission path is a combination of a central processing unit and a mass storage device. The part that searches image data according to the search command is a data storage mechanism, and the central processing unit and auxiliary storage device are combined to form an image data search mechanism, and the central processing unit of the image data storage mechanism and the central part of the image data search mechanism are An image storage and retrieval device characterized in that the image storage and retrieval device is connected to a processing device through a communication circuit so that searching and transmitting image data can be performed in parallel. 2. Image storage and retrieval according to claim 1, characterized in that a plurality of image data storage mechanisms are provided in parallel for one set of image data retrieval mechanisms, and each is connected to an external data transmission path. Device. 3. The image data storage mechanism is connected to one of two external data transmission lines provided independently of each other, and the image data retrieval mechanism is connected to the other data transmission line. An image storage and retrieval device according to claim 1 or 2.