JPH07221972A - Image editing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the image editing method in which edit is easily and accurately implemented without giving dirt to an original and occupying a machine. CONSTITUTION:An image of an original 101 to be edited is entered and a contour structure and a layout structure of the image of the original 101 are extracted to generate structural data. A structural extracted image is outputted onto paper 108 based on the structural data and an edit symbol 109a is described on the structural extracted image to generate an edit sheet 109. The image of the edit sheet 109 is entered to store image data of the edit sheet 109 and the edit symbol 109a is identified based on the image data of the edit sheet 109. The image of the original 101 is entered again and the identified edit information 109a is referenced to obtain an image 110 being an edited image of the original.

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 used in a digital copying machine or the like, and more particularly to an image editing method in this image processing apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a digital copying machine to which image quality adjustment and image editing functions are added, some devices are mounted for the function of specifying adjustment and editing functions. For example, it is an editing board using a digitizer, a device using a liquid crystal display, or a device which writes editing information on a document using a marker pen or the like and performs editing processing by referring to it.

[0003]

However, the conventional editing function designating means, for example, the editing board using the digitizer, is not suitable for complex and various designations because the editing information is not directly visualized. However, there is a problem that it is difficult for the operator to immediately confirm the edit designation content. Further, even in the case of a device using a liquid crystal display capable of confirming the edited result, there is a problem that the accurate edit designation cannot be made due to the low resolution of the liquid crystal display. In addition, in the editing using the marker pen, there are disadvantages that complicated and accurate editing designation is difficult and the original is soiled. Further, these editing designating means occupy the machine during the editing operation, and in the case of a copier having many joint users, a problem is likely to occur in distribution of the usage time.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an image editing method which enables accurate and easy editing work without contaminating a document and occupying a machine.

[0005]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention inputs an image of a document to be edited,
An outline sheet or a layout structure of the image of the document is extracted to generate structure data, a structure extraction image is output on a sheet based on the structure data, edit information is written on the structure extraction image, and an edit sheet To create an image, input the image of the edit sheet, accumulate the image data of the edit sheet, identify the edit information from the image data of the edit sheet,
The image of the original is edited by inputting the image of the original again and referring to the identified editing information.

[0006]

The structure extraction image is generated from the image of the input document, and the operator prints the image once to write a symbol or the like corresponding to the editing function on the obtained paper to create an editing sheet. After inputting the edit sheet as an image and storing it in the memory, the document is input again, and the edit processing selected by decoding the edit sheet image stored in the memory is applied to the original input image, and the edited image output result is displayed. obtain. In this way, by giving an edit instruction using the edit sheet as a medium, it becomes possible to easily and collectively perform a wide variety of edit designations.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an image processing apparatus for carrying out the image editing method of the present invention. The image processing apparatus is an image input apparatus 1 for inputting an image of a document 101.
02, an image processing circuit 100 that performs various editing processes on an image of an input document, and an image output device 107 that outputs the edited image on a sheet. The image processing circuit 100 includes a structure extraction circuit 103 that extracts a structure of an input image, an edit sheet memory 104 that stores image data of an edit sheet, which will be described later, and an edit code identification circuit that identifies an edit code from image data of the edit sheet. 105, an editing circuit 106 for editing an image of a document based on the identified editing code.

The flow of editing processing will be described with reference to FIG. In this embodiment, the image input for generating the structure extraction image, the image input for reading the editing sheet, and the image input for generating the edited image are performed three times in total until the operator obtains the edited image. Image output is performed twice, that is, input, structure extraction image result output, and edited image output.

In image input for generating a structure extraction image,
The original 101 is set on the image input device 102 and input as an image. The image signal may be multi-valued or binary. From the image signal, the structure extraction circuit 103 extracts the contour structure and layout structure of the image, and this structure image is printed out from the image output device 107 as the structure extraction image result recording paper 108. The details of the structure extraction circuit 103 will be described later.

The operator fills in the structure extraction image result recording paper with an editing symbol previously associated with the editing process content with a marker pen or the like. Since the image of the edge of the image or the edge of the fine line of the table is recorded on the structure extraction image result recording paper, it is possible to specify the accurate position. Further, as many instructions as the editing function can be entered as long as the operator can confirm. The structure extraction image result recording paper in which the editing information is entered in this manner will be referred to as an editing sheet.

In the image input for reading the edit sheet, the operator sets the edit sheet on the image input device 102 and inputs the edit sheet as an image. The input image signal is temporarily stored in the edit sheet memory 104.

In the image input for generating the edited image, the operator sets the original again on the image input device 102 and inputs it as an image. The input image signal is edited by the editing circuit 1.
It is input to 06. On the other hand, the edit code identification circuit 105
Reads the image stored in the edit sheet memory and decodes the code entered in the edit sheet image. That is, the shape of the code entered in the edit sheet image is identified, and the instruction command of the corresponding edit content is output to the editing circuit 106 from the table in which the correspondence between the code created in advance and the edit content is recorded. The editing circuit 106 interprets this editing instruction command and performs editing processing on the document input image described above.

The image thus edited is output to the image output device 107, and the operator obtains a desired edited copy.

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram showing a configuration example of the structure extraction circuit 103. The original signal input from the image input device 102 is binarized by the binarization circuit 201.
The binarized signal is thickened by the expansion circuit 202 including an MxN window OR circuit.
That is, the OR processing is performed on the pixels in the window having the size of M pixels × N pixels centering on the pixel of interest.
Next, this signal is input to the contraction circuit 203 composed of a KxL window AND circuit, and AND processing is performed on the pixels in the KxL window centered on the pixel of interest. The output of the expansion circuit 202 and the output of the contraction circuit 203 are input to the combining circuit 204, the output of the contraction circuit 203 is 0, and. 1 is output only when the output of the expansion circuit 202 is 1. By this processing, an image is generated by extracting the outer periphery of each image in the document. In this embodiment, this is used as the structure extraction image. The values of M, N, K, and L that define the size of the window are set to appropriate values so that a structure extraction image can be generated as desired. M,
When the values of N, K, and L are increased, a plurality of image blocks adjacent to each other are combined into one block, and when the values are decreased, they become independent blocks. Therefore, by changing these values, it is possible to form one block in character units, line units, or paragraph units.

FIG. 3 illustrates the flow of image generation when the present invention is applied to a document consisting of a picture area 101a and a character area 101b as shown in FIG. A structure extraction image is output from the original 101. The structure extraction image is printed on the paper 108 by the image output device 107 as shown in FIG. In FIG. 7B, 108a is an extraction structure corresponding to the picture area 101a, and 108b is an extraction structure corresponding to the character area 101b. The operator creates an edit sheet 109 on a part of the output paper 108, for example, by writing a diamond-shaped symbol 109a as shown in FIG. The diamond-shaped symbol 109a is associated with a certain editing function such as deletion in advance, and the image processing apparatus automatically identifies the symbol 109a from the read image of the editing sheet 109 by pattern matching, performs the deletion process, and then performs the deletion process. The edited image 110 as shown in (d) is output. In addition,
Although the present embodiment has been described using the symbols, the designation of the color by a color marker or the like and the editing function may be associated with each other. In this case, the edit code identifying circuit includes a color identifying circuit.

[0016]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to accurately and easily collectively specify a wide variety of editing functions. Since the editing function is specified using the editing sheet, the time occupied by the copying machine can be reduced.
Further, since the structure extraction image output result of the original image is used as the edit sheet, it is easy to understand where the original is specified for the editing, and it is possible to accurately specify the part of the drawing by coloring or the like. In addition, liquid crystal display,
Since an expensive device such as an editing board is not required, low-cost mounting is possible.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration outline of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a structure extraction circuit.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a structure extraction image, an edit sheet, and a processing flow.

[Explanation of symbols]

101 ... Original, 102 ... Image input device, 103 ... Structure extraction circuit, 104 ... Edit sheet memory, 105 ... Edit code identification circuit, 106 ... Edit circuit, 107 ... Image output device, 108 ... Structure extraction image result recording paper (edit) Sheet), 201 ... Binarization circuit, 202 ... Expansion circuit, 203
… Contraction circuit, 204… Synthesis circuit

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An image of a manuscript to be edited is input, a contour structure and a layout structure of the image of the manuscript are extracted to generate structure data, and a structure extraction image is output on a sheet based on the structure data. Editing information on the structure extraction image to create an editing sheet, inputting the image of the editing sheet to accumulate image data of the editing sheet, and identifying the editing information from the image data of the editing sheet Then, the image editing method is characterized in that the image of the original is input again and the image of the original is edited by referring to the identified editing information.