JPH0865663A - Digital image information processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide a digital image information processor with which the degradation of picture quality can be reduced and the same data structure as input image information can be provided at the time of outputting even when original compressing processing is further performed to the compressed input image information. CONSTITUTION: A video signal compressed and inputted by a first compressing circuit 50 is returned to the data amount of an original information source by a first extending circuit 51 and afterwards, a standardizing circuit 52 performs the standardization of data structure by respectively quantizing a luminance signal and a chrominance signal at a prescribed sampling frequency. Next, the standardized video signal is compressed by a second compressing circuit 53 and after the data amount is further reduced, the compressed data are recorded in a storage medium 54. At the time of reproducing, the data are C extended to the non-compressed data amount by a second extending circuit 55, compressed again by a first compressing circuit 56 and outputted through a transmission line. Therefore, the handling of data and input/output connection to a system are facilitated and the degradation of picture quality is reduced as well.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a digital image information processing apparatus which is easy to handle data in input / output while performing multi-stage compression processing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, digital processing of images has been studied. In particular, with regard to high-efficiency encoding for compressing image data, various systems have been proposed for standardization. The high-efficiency coding technique is for coding image data at a smaller bit rate in order to improve the efficiency of digital transmission and recording. As such a high-efficiency coding method, CCITT is a standardization recommendation H.264 for video conference / telephone. 261, JPEG for color still images
(Joint Photographic Coding Experts Group) method and MPEG (Moving Picture Image Coding Ex
perts Group) method is proposed. These three types of proposals are all systems based on DCT. As an application to HDTV, A in FCC in the US
A digital HDTV broadcast is being realized by using a compression technique which is an improved version of the MPEG system called TV (Advanced Television).

[0003]

As described above, if the forms of input and output images are diversified, for example, when recording is attempted, problems occur in correspondence with hardware and increase in recording capacity.
Conventionally, when a compressed image is received, the image is recorded as it is or is expanded and reproduced. However, in consideration of the storage capacity of the recording medium, there are cases where further compression processing is required. Also, the component type D1 type V
In the commercial VTR market, TR is said to have better image quality than the composite type D2 type VTR, but it is pointed out that the data format mismatch when connecting the system other than price is the reason why it has not penetrated into the studio system. There is.

The present invention has been made in the above situation, and the image quality is not deteriorated even when the compressed input image information is further subjected to its own compression processing, and is the same as the input image information at the time of output. It is an object of the present invention to obtain a digital image information processing device which can have a data structure.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided system discriminating means for discriminating a compression system of input image information compressed by the first compression system and generating first discrimination information.
A method for determining a second compression method based on the first determination information and a method for determining second compression information, and the input image based on the first determination information and the second determination information The output image information having a data structure that matches the data structure of the input image information is generated by processing the compression means for compressing information by the second compression method and the image information compressed by the compression means. And data processing means.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a system discriminating means for discriminating the compression system of the input image information compressed by the first compression system to generate the first discrimination information, and the first discrimination information are used. A method for deciding a second compression method and generating second discrimination information, and decompression standardization means for decompressing and standardizing the input image information based on the first discrimination information. A compression unit that compresses the image information obtained from the decompression standardization unit based on the first determination information and the second determination information by the second compression method, and the image information compressed by the compression unit. By doing so, data processing means for generating output image information having a data structure that matches the data structure of the input image information is provided.

[0007]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, even if the compressed input image information is further subjected to its own compression processing, it has the same data structure as the input image information at the time of output. Input / output connection at the time of construction becomes easy. Furthermore, by selecting the internal compression method so that the compression processing is optimal for the compression format of the input image information,
It is possible to suppress deterioration of image quality.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, even if the original compressed image information is further expanded and standardized, the compressed data has the same data structure as the input image information at the time of output. Therefore, data handling and input / output connection at the time of system construction become easy. Further, by selecting the internal compression method so that the compression processing is optimum for the compression mode of the input image information, it is possible to suppress the deterioration of the image quality.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a digital image information processing apparatus of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. (1) Relationship between processing step and data amount FIGS. 1 and 2 show changes in the data amount at each processing step from the input of the information source to the transmission line which is an output. In Figure 1, ATV (Ad
An example will be described in which a digitally transmitted signal compressed by the vanced TV system is internally compressed by the MPEG-1 system.

The ATV system is being established by the Grand Alliance as a unified standard for US digital HDTV. The features of this ATV system are as follows. The scanning method is an interlace method with 1080 effective scanning lines and 72 by square pixels.
It employs multi-scan that supports both 0-progressive method. Also, the frame rate is 24
Hz and 30 Hz, field frequency is 59.94 Hz
And the system that supports both 60Hz.

The video system conforms to MPEG-2 and ensures complete compatibility at the high level of the main profile. Therefore, the B frame is adopted and the AC leak is excluded. In this way, since it complies with MPEG-2, MP
There are many common processing parameters with MPEG-1, which is the basis of EG-2. In the MPEG system, the upper compatibility of the decoder is secured, but even in the case of compressing in two stages as in this example, the image quality is maintained as can be seen from the MPEG-1 algorithm described later and the similarity of parameters. Is effective in terms of.

MPE is applied to such an ATV system input signal.
Internal compression is performed by the G-1 system, and the features of this MPEG-1 will be described below. MPEG-1 is 1.5 Mbps
Secures the coding rate of the
It is based on the coding method using CT. Then, in order to realize the random access function, GOP (Group
A layer composed of multiple image frames called "Pictures of Pictures" is provided. The GOP is composed of three types of coded frames: an intra-frame coded frame (I picture), a forward predictive coded frame (P picture), and a bidirectional predictive coded frame (B picture). Each frame (Picture layer) is Slice, Macro Block
The layers (MB) and Block are hierarchically configured. Picrure is more than 1 Slice, Slice is more than 1 MB, MB is 6 BlocK (4 luminance signals
Block and two color difference signals Block). Block
Has a size of 8 pixels * 8 lines.

Regarding the motion, there are a prediction method, a method of utilizing correlation between frames, and an intra-frame prediction method. Further, motion compensation may be performed by searching for a motion in 16 * 16 block units or by searching the entire screen. For example, the half-pel motion compensation is a rounded average of two pixels between two pixels having predicted pixel positions. The conversion principle of compression is, for example, NTS.
If it is the C method, Hadamard transform may be used instead of DCT.

In FIG. 1, in the first compression circuit 50, D
The amount of data of the information source is reduced by the ATV compression process using CT. In this state, the video signal is supplied to the receiving side via the transmission path. The input video signal is the first
The decompression circuit 51 restores the data amount of the original information source. next,
Standardization circuit 5 which is a pre-processing for defining internal processing
In step 2, the data structure is standardized according to CCIR recommendation 601. The luminance signal is sampled at 13.5 MHz and the color signal is sampled at 6.75 MHz, and quantization is performed at 8 bits. Further, in order to match the sampling of SIF (Source Input Format) which is the basic image format of MPEG-1, the sampling of chroma is converted from 4: 2: 2 to 4: 2: 0. By doing this, MPEG-
It becomes easy to handle as 1-compliant data.

Next, the standardized video signal is compressed by the second compression circuit 53 to further reduce the data amount. In this state, the compressed data is recorded in the storage medium 54. The details of the recording operation will be described later. Next, at the time of reproduction, the second decompression circuit 55 decompresses to the data amount before compression, the first compression circuit 56 recompresses it, and outputs it through the transmission path.

FIG. 2 shows a case where a signal compressed by the CIF standard which is a common intermediate format as a world standard is digitally transmitted from an information source. CIF (Common
Intermediate Format) is standardized as coding for video conferences and videophones together with QCIF (Quater CIF) in which the number of CIF pixels is reduced to 1/4, and is a world standard format based on motion-compensated prediction and DCT. . D
CT is performed in 8 * 8 pixel blocks. Intra-frame coding mode in which the input signal is coded as it is, and inter-frame prediction in which prediction error from the previous frame is coded in macroblock units consisting of four luminance signal blocks of 8 * 8 pixels and corresponding color difference signal blocks There is an encoding mode.

The motion compensation is performed in the range of horizontal and vertical and + -15 pixels in macroblock units. Intraframe coding is
It is done in the same way as the JPEG baseline system.
When such a CIF image is input, the amount of input data supplied from the transmission path is small, as shown in FIG. 2, so that the amount of data is increased during the standardization process to facilitate internal processing. . The other compression and decompression processes are the same as in the example of FIG.

As described above, according to the present invention, according to the information source having a different data structure, internal standardization is performed, compression processing is performed, and recording / reproduction is performed to match the data structure at the time of input at the time of output.

Next, the specific processing according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4, the same parts as those in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals. Figure 3,
In FIG. 4, the input signal input from the transmission line is input to the first decompression circuit 51 and the system determination circuit 57 to determine the system of the image, and the determined information is used as the first information.
It is recorded in the storage medium 54 as the discrimination information ID1. The ID1 is further input to the first rulebook circuit 58 which is determined by referring to the rulebook 1 in Table 1, and the input image method is input to the first expansion circuit 51. As a result, it is possible to perform expansion suitable for the method.

[0020]

[Table 1]

<Specific Example-1> In the example of FIG. 3, the ID1 from the system discriminating circuit 57 which discriminates based on the syntax of ATV or the like is input to the system determining circuit 60. In order to determine the optimum method in the method determining circuit 60, the rulebook 1 and the rulebook 2 in Tables 1 and 2 are referred to, and the method determined by the method determining circuit 60 is used as the second discrimination information ID2. Record at 54.

[0022]

[Table 2]

For example, if it is determined that the system is HD1125, a common factor among the factors defined in rule book 1 is selected from rule book 2 in order to minimize image quality deterioration. In the present embodiment, the block size, which is a major factor in determining the image quality at the time of re-encoding, is emphasized, and DCT is performed with 16 * 16 blocks.
When a method common in the point of quantizing with bit is selected from the second rulebook circuit 59, the method 2-4 is decided.

The ID2 thus determined is the second
It is supplied to the second compression circuit 53 via the rule book circuit 59 so as to be compressed according to the determined method. As a result, an internal unique compression process optimal for the input signal is performed. After decompression by the first decompression circuit 51, standardization is performed by the standardization circuit 52 as preprocessing, and further compression processing is performed by the same factor as the compression mode at the time of input, so that the image quality is less deteriorated and the data amount is smaller than that at the time of input. Thus, an image can be recorded on the storage medium 54.

<Concrete Example-2> FIG. 4 shows an example of using a correspondence table 61 which preliminarily defines the method discrimination and the compression rate for each method regarding the method determination. Table 3 shows the details of the correspondence table 61 in the figure.

[0026]

[Table 3]

First, ID1 is supplied to the method determining circuit 60 to determine the method.
By making it possible to select the three types of methods B and C, it becomes possible to prevent deterioration of image quality as much as possible. The parameter may be selected in consideration of the Q characteristic and the like. And
The determined method is recorded as ID2, and is supplied to the second compression circuit 53 to perform compression processing, and the image is recorded.

At the time of reproduction, the information of ID2 is read from the storage medium 54, and the information regarding the system is determined according to the second rulebook circuit 59. It is expanded by the second expansion circuit 55 according to this output signal. Further, the ID1 information is read from the storage medium 54, and is compressed by the first compression circuit 56 in accordance with the first rulebook circuit 58 so as to match the data amount at the time of input. By outputting in this manner, it is possible to handle the same data at the input and output, and the deterioration of image quality during that time is eliminated as much as possible.

The number of pixels in the image structure shown in Rule Book 1 is as follows. CIF: 360 * 288 QCIF: 180 * 144 NTSC: 720 * 525 HDTV: 1920 * 1125

Further, details of the number of pixels on the screen for each image structure are shown in FIG. In FIG. 5, the input / output screen is shown as a pixel image. The number in parentheses indicates the number of effective coding pixels. In addition, NTSC / PAL and SECAM are shown together.

<Specific Example-3> In the above specific examples, since the rule book is always referred to and written when determining the method,
It takes time to access the rule book. Therefore, in this specific example-3, a system change flag is generated according to an input signal. That is, if the video processing method of the input signal is always the same, CFL = 0 and the method is not changed and processing is performed according to a certain rule. On the other hand, when the video system ends halfway, CFL = 1 is detected to confirm the ID1 shown in the specific example 1 or 2 above, and the optimum compression according to the video system is selected and processed according to a predetermined rule book.

By doing so, unless the method is changed, the compression processing is performed by the same method without accessing the rule book, so that it is possible to efficiently perform the compression processing suitable for the video method. Further, when the recording of ID1 and ID2 in each data block is stopped, the data rate is reduced. Further, when ID1 and ID2 and CFL are written together, the decoding process during reproduction of a special screen such as a search is not broken while the efficiency is improved.

(2) Recording Operation The recording operation will be described below with reference to FIG. Left (L) and right (R) stereo audio signals are input from the audio signal input terminals 1 and 2, and are converted into digital audio signals by the A / D converters 4 and 5. The digital audio signal is subjected to various noise removal and dynamic range limitation by the signal processing circuits 7 and 8, respectively, and then the audio data compression circuit 1
At 0, data compression processing for audio signals is performed. For example, MP
Adaptive transform coding proposed by EG (ATAC, AS
PEC) and band division coding (MUSICAM, SB / A)
DPCM) may be used, or 2 using L / R correlation
Vector coding or the like with channel mixing may be used.

On the other hand, a video signal such as a video input from the video input terminal 3 is converted into a digital video signal by the A / D converter 6 capable of high speed processing by the A / D converters 4 and 5. This digital video signal is processed by the video signal processing circuit 9 and then compressed by the video data compression circuit 11 for video signal to a data amount of about several tens to several hundreds. For example, inter-frame correlation processing using temporal image correlation, motion compensation (MC) for reducing image quality deterioration in the above method, and according to the MPEG encoding method, a predetermined number of frame images are used. This can be realized by configuring a GOP and appropriately combining compression with a forward prediction frame (P picture) performed from the forward direction on the time axis and a bidirectional prediction frame (B picture) performed from the front and back (past and future). is there.

Specifically, of the algorithms proposed in MPEG, in MPEG-1, 1/2 inch VT
It is possible to secure a standard image quality of about R and an image quality of NTSC or higher in MPEG-2. The details of the processing are, for example, 19
It is described on pages 34 to 44 of "Forefront Report Digital Television" published by Nikkei BP in 1992.

Next, the data from the ID signal generating circuit 12, which will be described later, and the audio data and the video data are combined by the data combining circuit 13 and then stored in the main memory 18. The main memory 18 is controlled by the memory controller 17 such as memory address and writing / reading. Furthermore, the memory controller 17
The system controller 16 controls the operation of the device as a whole.

The system controller 16 receives instructions such as recording / reproducing / searching with the operation keys 19 and controls the memory controller 17 in response to the instruction, and at the same time, the operating status, recording / reproducing time, etc. Information such as the indicated time code is displayed on the display member 20, and the address information generating circuit 15 is also notified of the time code and the like. There are two main types of this time code. The first is the elapsed time from the beginning of the recording medium or the video program, the cumulative time taken by the camera, and the like. The second is the date of recording or camera shooting, the time of hour / minute / second frame, and the like. Calendar clock generation circuit 1 for the latter time code generation
It is equipped with 4.

The address information generating circuit 15 receives data such as the information storage status from the memory controller 17, and transfers the data to the ID signal generating circuit 12 as information indicating the data amount of each information. An example of the contents of this data is shown in FIG.

A time code, image quality, mode selection of audio, etc. are generated based on the information from the system controller 16, and the amount of video and audio data (data when the variable length code is possible is based on the information from the memory controller 17). Length) and the first address value on the memory for data storage,
The data blocks are transferred to the ID signal generating circuit 12 and are grouped as ID data blocks, and the data synthesizing circuit 13 forms the data blocks. The head address of the main memory 18 in which this data block is stored is sequentially written in the ID file.

(3) Data Structure FIG. 7 shows an example of data storage in the main memory 18 composed of a solid-state memory. In the upper part of FIG. 7, the horizontal axis is the time axis,
It shows that an ID signal is generated every predetermined time (T ₀ ). In the center of FIG. 7, a conceptual diagram of the address space of the solid-state memory is shown. After the ID signal, video and audio information data having different data amounts are sequentially stored in each processing period by variable length coding. Therefore, the ID data are generated at regular intervals (T ₀ ), but they are not at regular intervals on the memory as illustrated.

Therefore, in order to enable high-speed access to the data block at the time of retrieval, as shown in the upper part of FIG. 7, an ID file in which the addresses indicating the storage locations of the data blocks are collected is generated. In this ID file, only the first address of the data block is properly
The data is stored in an area preset according to the storage capacity of the memory 18. This ID data has a fixed length and is shown in FIG.
In this example, there are a total of 10 types of basic information.

As the basic information, the picture quality and the sound quality are selected by the trade-off with the time code and the recording time according to SMPTE, and the head address and the data amount of each variable length AV (audio and video) data are stored. To do. The video system identification has two identification information IDs for selecting the extension or compression method to the recording medium according to the input image information. It is assumed that what determines the compression form of the signal from the information source is the video system determination 1 and handles the above-mentioned ID1, and that that determines the compression system on the receiving side is the video system determination 2 that handles the above-mentioned ID2. . The deleted flag is a logical erased state that can be restored before the physical delete process when the recorded data is erased, and prohibits normal reproduction by the flag.

The audio signal is composed of initialization information (reset data) of each of the L and R channels and variable-length audio data subjected to compression processing. The video signal is, for example, an initialization screen (video reset,
Data) and various compression methods, and is composed of compressed data that is variable-length coded.

For each ID data, a set of the video data and the audio data having the above configuration constitutes a data block. This data block is characterized in that it is generated at intervals defined by the time axis. An example of the video signal is shown in FIG. Here, the HDTV system (vertical 1125
Based on the TV signal of (book), a TV signal having an aspect ratio of 9:16 is used as an input signal. For HDTV signals, N
The TSC signal has a resolution of 2.5 times in the horizontal direction and 2 times in the vertical direction, and a total of 5 times the information amount is generated for 30 screens per second and supplied to the input terminal 3 in FIG. To be done.

This video signal is converted into digital data by the A / D converter 6, and then input to the video signal processing circuit 9 as a component signal (Y: RY: BY) = 4: 2: 2). It Here, the brightness (Y) per pixel is 8b
It and color difference are 8 bi at a sampling rate of 1/2 each
When t-quantized, it becomes 1.2 Gbps. 1 /
A compression process of 200 is performed, and the data amount is deleted up to about 6 Mbps.

Since the data rate of a stereo audio signal having a sound quality equivalent to that of a compact disc is 1.5 Mbps, the compression rate of 1/5 is applied to 1.3 Mbps. Therefore, the total AV is about 6.3 Mbps. Therefore, 10 minutes can be recorded at 1 Gbit.

In addition to the video signal, the current standard T
Not to mention NTSC / PAL of V broadcasting system, H.264. 26
QCIF, which is the international standard for videophones defined in 1.
It may be in the form of CIF. The AV data is stored in the main memory 18 by the above-described data processing, but it is also possible to add a main memory or adopt a replaceable memory form such as an IC card.

(4) Reproducing operation When the reproducing operation is instructed by the operation key 19, the system controller 16 displays the fact that the reproducing operation is in progress on the display member 20, and the memory controller 17 controls the memory address and the read / write operation. Read out the information signal stored by the recording operation from the memory 18. In the above example, 30 screens of video information per second, stereo (or 2 channels) audio information, and ID information for searching these are read out.

Information is supplied to the data distributor 21 in a state where the above three types of data are mixed (serial data information). The data distributor 21 distributes the data as follows. In the ID data, the search information reproducing circuit 22 detects the information as shown in FIG. 7 for each ID, the display information for the monitor is generated in the display information reproducing circuit 23, and is restored by the video data expanding circuit 24. The video information is combined with the adder 27, converted into a versatile analog signal by the D / A converter 28, and displayed on the video monitor 30.

In the audio data expansion circuit 25, the audio data is subjected to the same data expansion process as the data compression process at the time of recording in the audio data expansion circuit 25 to reproduce the audio signal equivalent to the input signal at the time of recording. Data selection circuit 26
Then, the data supplied to the D / A converter 29 and the digital audio output terminal 33 for generating the audio signal for the acoustic monitor are output.

Each of the video and audio data is reproduced by correcting the deviation due to the delay time required for the reproduction signal processing by using the above-mentioned ID signal. In synchronization with the information from the display information generating circuit 23, the reproduction signal of each video and audio is output by the data selecting circuit 26. This ID corresponds to a so-called time stamp that synchronizes different media by providing code timing information because it is located in the packet header of the third layer in the bit stream structure in MPEG-1 and is packet data. Is.

(5) File Structure The main data structure and data processing have been described above in detail. Next, the data file structure adopted for improving the data searchability will be described below with reference to FIG. To do. An AV data file 40 that stores main AV data, and a system controller 4 that performs various controls
7, operation keys 48 for inputting various instructions to the system controller 47, an information processing circuit 41 that performs data processing in accordance with instructions from the system controller 47,
Information input / output circuit 42 for performing processing related to input / output of information
A search file was added to the basic configuration consisting of and.

Since the above-mentioned basic configuration is included in FIG. 7 as described above, a hardware description will be omitted and only a software description regarding the file configuration and its generation will be given below. An example of shooting with a video camera and searching based on index information automatically generated at this time will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 10 and 11.

<Recording system> In FIG. 9 and FIG. 10, step S in FIG. 10 is performed in the state where the video and audio signals from the video camera (not shown) are supplied via the input terminal.
When a shooting start or shooting end instruction is input by the operation keys 48 in S1 and S2, the system controller 47 issues an instruction to the index generation circuit 46 to generate index information. In response to this, the index generation circuit 46 generates or updates two search files in steps S3 to S9. The index information is divided into levels 1 to 3 according to the content. One of them is a time file 44, which stores the time when the index information generation instruction is issued as time data in association with the ID file corresponding to the AV data being input. Therefore, the search work based on the time can be performed quickly. As described above, since the ID file is generated at fixed time intervals, if the start time and end time of shooting are known, it is possible to associate any time in the middle with AV data.

The other is the table of contents file 45, which is performed in steps S10 to S11. This table-of-contents information corresponds to chapters and paragraphs in books, and movements and measures in music. Specifically, if you start / stop recording with a subheading, turn the power on / off with a content inside, and choreograph a big heading when the date changes,
Automatic generation is possible easily. A more complex table of contents generation is
It can be created manually according to your preference. Table 4 shows an example of the structure of the time file and the table of contents file.

[0056]

[Table 4]

Further, in steps S12 and S13, a command for newly creating an ID is issued from the index generating circuit 46 to the ID file 43 in response to a shooting start instruction.
Steps to S16 issue an ID generation stop command in response to the shooting end instruction. This flow is shown by the one-dot chain line in FIG. 9, but it is also possible to write the information such as the data amount directly from the AV data file 40 to the empty area of the ID file.

<Reproduction System> A search procedure at the time of reproduction will be described with reference to FIG. 11 using the configuration example of the time file and the table of contents file shown in Table 4. The index information can be set from level 1 to level 4. In this example, the above-mentioned large, medium and small headings are assigned to 1 to 3 respectively, and 4 is unused because all zeros are assigned. The index word is constructed in units of this minimum level. The start ID number and end ID number are registered in the item of the ID file, the year, month, day, hour, minute and second of the start time are registered in the item of the time file, and the table of contents name of the index is registered in the item of the table of contents file as necessary. It Of course, it can be blank.

Therefore, in such a state, the ID corresponding to the index is determined in steps S21 to S34.
To access the ID file, read out the storage address of the AV data, and use this address information to
By accessing the file 40, the desired portion can be reproduced.

On the other hand, the retrieval from the table of contents file is S36.
~ The index is searched by S40, and if the table of contents name is registered, the table of contents name is displayed, and if not registered, it is converted into an AV data file by the almost same procedure as the time search (index → ID → AV). It may be accessed and displayed on the display as video information.

As another embodiment, the invention can be applied not only to the storage system for recording / reproducing but also to the communication system for information transmission. Also, as an example of a combination of two-stage compression methods, D
A combination of compression using CT and compression using fractal method may be used.

[0062]

As described above, according to the first and second aspects of the present invention, unique compression processing is further performed on the compressed input image information or the image information obtained by decompressing and standardizing the input image information. However, the same data structure as the input image information can be obtained at the time of output, which facilitates data handling and input / output connection at the time of system construction. Further, by selecting the internal compression method so that the compression processing is optimal for the compression mode of the input image information, it is possible to suppress deterioration of image quality due to re-encoding as much as possible. Further, there is an effect that it is possible to shorten the processing time for accessing the rule book when the internal compression method is selected.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a relationship between a processing step and a data amount according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing a relationship between a processing step and a data amount according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a main part of a digital image information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a main part of a digital image information processing apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a typical example of input / output images.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing an entire digital image information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram of a data structure according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a conceptual diagram of input information according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a conceptual diagram of a file structure according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a search according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 53 Second compression circuit 57 Method discriminating circuit 58 Rulebook 1 59 Rulebook 2 60 Method determining circuit

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A system discriminating means for discriminating a compression system of input image information compressed by a first compression system to generate first discrimination information, and a second compression system based on the first discrimination information. And a method for determining the second discrimination information, and a compression means for compressing the input image information by the second compression method based on the first discrimination information and the second discrimination information. And a data processing unit that processes the image information compressed by the compression unit to generate output image information having a data structure that matches the data structure of the input image information. 2. A system discriminating means for discriminating the compression system of the input image information compressed by the first compression system and generating the first discrimination information, and a second compression system based on the first discrimination information. And a decompression standardization means for decompressing and standardizing the input image information based on the first discrimination information, and a method for determining the second discrimination information. The image information obtained from the decompression standardization means on the basis of the first and second discrimination information, and the compression means for compressing the image information by the second compression method; and the image information compressed by the compression means. A digital image information processing apparatus comprising: a data processing unit that generates output image information having a data structure that matches the data structure of image information.