JPH0679320B2 - Image processing device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus used in an information processing apparatus having an image information input / output function.

(Prior Art) In recent years, in various office automation systems, it is essential to have an image processing function in addition to a document processing function. Particularly, in recent systems of this kind, there has been a demand for higher speed and higher functionality in image processing, and it has become impossible for conventional image processing systems of this kind to meet these demands. That is, in the past, one image processor in the center of the system was sufficient, but in recent years, the demand for high-speed image input and high-speed image output has been demanded in various devices such as workstations. An image processor having no control function cannot meet this demand.

As a specific example of this, when the compression-coded input image data is cut out in a certain area, enlarged, and subjected to black-and-white inversion processing, conventionally, a decoding logic, a cutting logic,
Enlargement / reduction logic, black-and-white conversion logic, etc. are provided separately in the hardware configuration. The operation is to first expand the compressed image data by the decoding logic, expand the pattern on the image memory, and then expand the image. The image data on the memory is read out, cut out by the cutout logic, and developed again on the image memory. Next, after reading the image data on the image memory again and enlarging by the enlarging / reducing logic,
The image data is developed in the image memory, the image data in the image memory is read again, and the image data is inverted by the black-and-white inversion logic and developed in the image memory. As described above, conventionally, the image data has to be expanded on the image memory and executed for each conversion process of the image data, so that a lot of processing time is required until the desired image data is obtained. That is, there is a problem in terms of image processing speed. Further, since the plurality of types of logics are connected to the image bus by the bus, the configuration is complicated.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) As described above, in the conventional image processing apparatus, a large amount of time is spent on image processing, especially when a plurality of types of conversion processing including compression and decompression are involved. However, there is a problem in terms of processing speed and processing function.

The present invention is capable of performing a plurality of types of image processing at high speed with a series of hardware sequences, and speeding up image processing,
(EN) Provided is an image processing device capable of realizing high functionality.

[Structure of Invention]

(Means for Solving Problems) According to the present invention, a decoding unit for decompressing and restoring compression-coded input image data is provided between an image bus connected to an image memory and an image input interface unit.
The image memory and the image output interface are provided with an image conversion processing section in which a cutout section, an enlargement / reduction processing section, a rotation processing section, a mirror processing section, a black and white inversion processing section, etc. of the restored image data are arranged in a column. An encoding unit for encoding the image data read from the image memory is provided between the unit and the unit, and the conversion processing unit terminates the necessary processing in a series of hardware sequences.

(Operation) The compression-coded image data input from the image input interface unit is decompressed and restored by the decoding unit, and then input to the image conversion processing unit, and is cut out, enlarged / reduced, rotated, mirrored, black / white inverted, etc. Arbitrary processing is selectively executed by a series of hardware sequences, and the image data for which the processing has been completed is expanded on the image memory. When the image data expanded on the image memory is transferred to the outside, the image data read from the image memory is compression-encoded by the encoder and then output. With such an image processing operation, a plurality of types of image processing can be executed at high speed by a series of hardware sequences, and high speed image processing and high functionality can be realized.

Embodiment An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 10 is a main processor that controls the entire apparatus,
Reference numeral 11 is a main bus of the main processor 10. Reference numeral 20 is an image memory in a two-dimensional format (accessed by X and Y coordinates), and reference numeral 21 is an image memory bus to which the write / read image data of the image memory 20 is transferred. 30
Is an input image data conversion unit, and includes an image input port 31, an image data decoding unit 32, an image conversion processing unit 33, and the like. In the image input port 31 above,
An input image (from the host system) via the main bus 10 and an image from the image scanner 63 are input. If the image attribute is a compressed image, the image data decoding unit 32 decompresses it into a non-compressed image. The conversion control unit 33 performs image cutting, pixel number conversion (including density conversion) by enlarging / reducing an uncompressed image, image rotation in 90 ° units, mirror conversion, and data polarity inversion. This is optionally performed to control writing to the image memory 20. Image cut-out is to perform image processing control in which only the image in the specified range is taken out from the entire image and the outside portion is cut off. The configuration of the image conversion processing unit 33 is the second
It will be described later with reference to the drawings.

Reference numeral 40 denotes an output image data conversion unit, which includes an image conversion processing unit 43, an image data encoding unit 42, and an image output port.
It has 41 mag. The image conversion processing unit 43 optionally performs density conversion of the image data read from the image memory 20 to obtain an image of a desired resolution and performs attribute image processing control for obtaining an enlarged / reduced image. Further, various controls such as image rotation in 90 ° units, mirror conversion, and inversion of data polarity are performed. The image data encoding unit 42 encodes the data generated by the image conversion processing unit 43 in a corresponding compression format if the desired image attribute is the compression format. Further, the image output port 41 performs image output control for outputting the image obtained by the image data encoding unit 42 to the host system via the main bus 11 or to the printer side.

Reference numeral 50 denotes a host system interface unit, which receives commands and data from the above system and performs control for sending status and data to the host system.
Reference numeral 51 is a host system interface line connected to a host system. An image scanner interface unit 60 is an interface unit when the image processor has a direct connection device. 61 is the image scanner interface section 60 → image input port
A scanner image data path between 31 and 62 is an image data path (including control) input from the scanner device 63. Reference numeral 63 is a scanner device which performs image reading and scanning under the control of the image scanner interface unit 60.

Reference numeral 70 denotes an image printer interface section, which prints an image created on the image memory 20 to a printer device 73.
The image printer interface unit when outputting to. 71 is an image output data path between the image output port 41 and the image printer interface section 70, 72
Is the image output path (including controls). 73
Is a printer device that executes print processing under the control of the image printer interface unit 70. A character generator 80 receives a character code from the main processor 10, generates a character image, and expands it on the image memory 20. Character processing forms include enlargement / reduction and rotation. Reference numeral 90 is a graphic generation unit that receives a graphic code from the main processor 10, generates a graphic image, and expands it in the image memory 20. There are a read mode, an OR superimposition mode, and the like for image development and formation in the image memory 20.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the functional arrangement of the image conversion processing unit 33. 331 to 337 are cut out, enlarged / reduced,
It is a processing function unit that optionally executes various image conversion processes such as rotation, mirroring, and black and white inversion with a series of hardware sequences according to the conversion control information, parameters, etc. provided from the main processor 10. Becomes the data through mode. Here, reference numeral 331 is a black-and-white inversion processing unit that black-and-white inverts the image data expanded by the image data decoding unit 32 in the preceding stage. A cutout processing unit 332 cuts out the image that has passed through the black and white reversal processing unit 331. 3
Reference numeral 33 denotes an enlargement / reduction processing unit that enlarges / reduces the image that has passed through the cutout processing unit 332. 334 is the enlargement / reduction processing unit 3
It is a rotation processing unit that rotates the image passing through 33 in 90 ° units. 335 is address switching control during rotation processing,
Further, it is an address control unit for performing address switching control when mirroring processing is designated. 337 is the image memory bus 2
This is the bus control unit that controls 1.

The image conversion processing unit 43 provided in the output image data conversion unit 40 has a configuration excluding the cutout processing unit 332 of the image conversion processing unit 33 described above, and therefore detailed description thereof is omitted here.

The operation of the embodiment will now be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

1) When receiving an image from a host system and expanding it on the image memory 20, the flow of image data at this time is as follows: [host system interface line 51 → host system interface section 50 → main bus 11 → input image data conversion section 30 ( The image input port 31 → the image data decoding unit 32 → the image conversion processing unit 33) → the image memory bus 21 → the image memory 20], and the image data input from the host system is expanded on the image memory 20. The image attributes at this time are image compression formats (MH, MR, M
² R), image resolution, image development position, image size, density conversion, enlargement / reduction conversion and its magnification, rotation angle, mirroring, polarity reversal, and switching of the input image for image cropping control. Main processor, such as exit position, size, and expansion position on the image memory 20.
10 is preset in each unit of the input image data conversion unit 30. At the time of transferring the image data, the image cut-out processing unit 332 in the image conversion processing unit 33 takes out an image of only a specified range based on each parameter for the image cut-out control, and stores it in the image memory. Written on 20. At this time, the input image data outside the specified range is discarded and is not written in the image memory 20.

2) When sending the image expanded in the image memory 20 to the host system The flow of image data at this time is [Image memory 20
→ image memory bus 21 → output image data converter 40
(Image conversion processing unit 43 → image data encoding unit 42 → image output port 41) → main bus 11 → upper system interface unit 50 → upper system interface line 51 → upper system], and the image data read from the image memory 20 becomes It is transferred to the host system. The image attributes at this time are also the same as in 1) above.
The main processor 10 sets up each unit of the output image data conversion unit 40 in advance. At the time of transferring this image data, the image data read from the image memory 20 is compression-encoded by the data encoding unit 42,
It is transferred to the host system.

3) The image in the image memory 20 is printed by the printer device 73
When outputting to, the flow of image data at this time is
→ image memory bus 21 → output image data converter 40
(Image conversion processing unit 43 → Image data encoding unit 42 → Image output port 41 or image conversion processing unit 43 → Image output port 41) → Data path 71 → Image printer interface unit 70 → Data path 72 → Printer device 7
3], the image data read from the image memory 20 is transferred to the printer device 73. The image attributes at this time are the same as in 2) above, and the main processor 10
Is set up in advance in each unit of the output image data conversion unit 40. The parameter at this time includes the image development position of the printer. Further, since the print range of the image printer is generally fixed depending on the paper size, position information for padding the extra portion may be given as the above parameter.
Further, at the time of the above-mentioned transfer, since the uncompressed data is generally sent to the printer side as it is, the image data encoding unit 42 is bypassed.

4) Image memory from the scanner 63
When deploying on 20 The flow of image data at this time is [Scanner device 63 →
Image path 62 → Image scanner interface section
60 → data path 61 → input image data conversion unit 30 (image input port 31 → image data decoding unit 32 → image conversion processing unit 33) → image memory bus 21 → image memory 20], and the image read by the scanner device 63 Is expanded on the image memory 20. The image attribute at this time is also set up in each part of the input image data conversion unit 30 by the main processor 10 as in the case of each data transfer described above.

Incidentally, at the time of the above transfer, since the image data from the scanner is generally an uncompressed image, the image data decoding unit 32 is bypassed.

5) Parallel operation The data transfer of 1) to 4) above can be performed in parallel.
This enables the following image data transfer.

(A) Upper system → printer device 73 In this case, the data transfer of the above 1) and 3) is performed in parallel.

(B) Scanner device 63 → upper system In this case, the data transfer of the above 4) and 2) is performed in parallel.

(C) Upper system image memory 20 In this case, the data transfer of the above 1) and 2) is performed in parallel.

(D) Scanner device 63 → image memory 20 → printer device 73 In this case, the data transfer of the above 4) and 3) is performed in parallel.

By performing image input / output with each image device using the image data processing device as described above,
Since various kinds of image processing are optionally executed by a series of hardware sequences, various composite image processing can be executed at high speed. Further, an image larger than the width of the physical paper such as a facsimile machine can be processed at a very high speed by the image processing means. On the contrary, when an image larger than the width of the physical paper sheet is created as an image to be sent to the facsimile device side (earnings at both ends of the image), the processing can be performed at high speed. Further, wasteful image transfer is eliminated in the entire system, and system efficiency can be improved. Further, by providing the image processing apparatus according to the present invention as described above between the image input / output devices, the cost increase on the side of each input / output device terminal can be avoided, and there is a great cost merit as the entire system. Also, even if the device directly connected to the image processor has different resolutions for the scanner and printer, the same image is created by the internal density conversion, so there is no problem and there is flexibility in device selection.
In this respect, the cost performance merit is great. Further, since the image input system and the output system can be operated in parallel, the speed performance is also excellent.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above in detail, according to the image processing apparatus of the present invention, between the image bus connected to the image memory and the image input interface unit, there is a decoding unit for decompressing and restoring the compression-coded input image data. , Cut-out part of this restored image data, enlargement / reduction processing part,
An image conversion processing unit in which a rotation processing unit, a reflection processing unit, a black and white reversal processing unit, etc. are arranged in a column is provided, and the image data read from the image memory is encoded between the image memory and the image output interface unit. By providing the encoding unit and terminating the necessary processing by the conversion processing unit with a series of hardware sequences, multiple types of image processing can be executed at high speed by a series of hardware sequences. Higher processing speed and higher functionality can be realized.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing internal components of the image conversion processing unit in the above embodiment. 10 …… Main processor, 11 …… Main bus, 20 …… Image memory, 21 …… Image memory bus, 30 …… Input image data converter, 31 …… Image input port, 32
...... Image data merging unit, 33 …… Image conversion processing unit, 40 …… Output image data conversion unit, 41 …… Image output port, 42 …… Image data encoding unit, 43 …… Image conversion processing unit, 50 …… Upper system interface section, 51 ... Upper system interface line, 60 ...
Image scanner interface, 63 ... Scanner device, 70 Image printer interface,
73: printer device, 80: character generator, 90: graphic generator.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An apparatus comprising an image memory, an image input interface section, an image output interface section, and a character and figure generating section, wherein the image input interface section and the image memory are located between the image input interface section and the image memory. , A decoding unit that expands and restores the compression-encoded input image data, and selectively cuts out the restored image data and selectively performs enlarging / reducing processing, rotating processing, mirroring processing, or black-and-white inversion. An image conversion processing unit for performing processing, and an encoding unit for encoding image data read from the image memory is provided between the image memory and the image output interface unit. .