JPH09154100A - Device and method for inputting/outputting image data - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To print an image, which is different from the image displayed on a monitor display device, from a video printer. SOLUTION: Image data for plural frames are read from a camera 1, memory card 2 or optical disk 3, applies to a monitor display device 4 and displayed on a multiscreen. An operating unit 7 selects any desired image to be printed out of the multiscreen. Image data expressing the selected image are read again from the camera 1, memory card 2 or optical disk 3 and applied to a video printer 5 and the image is printed. Since the image different from the image displayed on, the monitor display device 4 can be printed from the video printer 5, efficient printing is enabled.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention reads image data supplied from an image data supply medium such as a memory card, a storage medium such as an optical disk, an image signal generating source such as a digital electronic still camera, and displays the image on a monitor display device. The present invention relates to an image data input / output device and method for displaying and printing on a printing device.

[0002]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION There are a display device, a printing device and the like as a device for reproducing an image visually. Memory card,
Image display by inputting digital image data obtained from an optical disk, digital electronic still camera, etc. to an image input / output device, performing image display processing and printing processing, and applying it to a display device, printing device, etc. , Printing is performed. Many image input / output devices can be connected to either a display device or a printing device. In such an image input / output device, in order to confirm the image before printing, a display device is connected to the image input / output device, the image to be printed is displayed on the display device, and the display device is removed from the image input / output device. , It is necessary to connect a printing device to the image input / output device for printing. In order to avoid such complication, there is also an image input / output device in which both the display device and the printing device can be connected at the same time. In such an image input / output device, an image to be printed can be displayed and confirmed on the display device without removing the display device and the printing device from the image input / output device.

However, even with an image input / output device capable of simultaneously connecting a display device and a printing device,
The image data given to the display device and the printing device at the same time must represent the same image. For this reason, an image different from the image displayed on the display device cannot be printed using the printing device, and there is a difficulty in convenience.

[0004]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION The present invention prints image data representing an image different from the image represented by the image data given to the display device when the image display on the display device and the printing on the printing device are simultaneously performed. The purpose is to allow the device to print.

The image data input / output device according to the present invention comprises:
Image data reading means for reading image data provided from a storage medium or an image data supply medium of an image signal generating source,
Image display processing means for inputting first image data representing a first image read by the image data reading means, performing display reproduction processing for displaying the first image, and outputting the image data. An image print processing means for inputting second image data representing a second image different from the first image read by the reading means, performing print processing for printing the second image, and outputting the print processing. It is characterized by having.

The present invention also provides a method suitable for the image data input / output device. That is, the image data supplied from the storage medium or the image data supply medium of the image signal generating source is read, the read first image data representing the first image is obtained, and the first image data for displaying the first image is displayed. Display reproduction processing is performed and output is performed.
Second image data representing a second image different from the second image is obtained, and a printing process for printing the second image is performed and output.

According to the present invention, the first image data representing the first image and the second image representing the second image different from the first image from the storage medium or the image data supply medium of the image signal generating source. The data and are read. An image display process for displaying an image is performed on the first image data, and an image printing process for printing an image is performed on the second image data. The first image data subjected to the image display processing is given to the display device, and the first image is displayed. The second image data subjected to the image printing process is given to the printing device, and the second image is printed.

An image different from the image displayed on the display device can be printed on the printing device. While an image is being printed by the printing device, the image to be printed next can be displayed on the display device, and the image can be printed efficiently and the image can be checked before printing.
In particular, it is effective for an inexpensive printing device that does not have a built-in frame memory.

Character data representing a character is generated, and at least one of the image display process and the image print process inputs the character data to at least one of the first image data and the second image data to be input. Characters generated by data generation processing
It is preferable that data is combined and at least one of the first image data and the second image data representing an image including a character represented by the character data is output.

This makes it possible to display or print an image in which characters are combined. It is also possible to display or print an image in which a character is combined according to the user's preference.

The image data reading process may read the first image data and the second image data from different image data supply media of the storage medium and the image signal generating source.

In the image display process, image data representing a plurality of images obtained by the image data reading process is input, and multi-image data representing a multi-image including a plurality of images is generated from the input image data, The multi-image is displayed on the display device by giving the generated multi-image data to the display device, and the image data reading process is performed by designating the images constituting the multi-screen displayed on the display device. Thus, the image data corresponding to the designated image may be read from the image data supply medium and the image printing process may be performed.

Since a multi-image including a plurality of images is displayed on the display device, it is relatively easy to select an image to be printed. The image selected from the multiple images is printed. The images forming the multi-image may be reduced images.

[0014]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the electrical configuration of an image data input / output device.

The image data input / output device 6 shown in FIG. 1 can connect the monitor display device 4 and the video printer 5. An image different from the image displayed on the monitor display device 4 can be printed on the video printer 5 while displaying the image on the monitor display device 4.

The overall operation of the image data input / output device 6 is C
It is managed by PU12.

A digital electronic still camera 1 is shown as an image signal generation source connectable to the image data input / output device 6, and a memory card 2 and an optical disk 3 are shown as storage media. Besides this, a magnetic disk as a storage medium,
The internal memory or the external memory of the personal computer can be used.

The image data input / output device 6 has a connector 10 for connecting the digital electronic still camera 1, a connector 20 for mounting and connecting the memory card 2, and for reading data recorded on the optical disk 3. An optical disk driver 30 is provided.

From the digital electronic still camera 1, luminance data Y and color difference data C of RY and BY are obtained.
Is output to the memory controller 13 via the connector 10 and the camera interface circuit 11. Luminance data Y given to the memory controller 13
And the color difference data C is given to the Y / C data DRAM 14 and temporarily stored.

When the memory card 2 is attached to the image data input / output device 6, the image data stored in the memory card 2 is read out and compressed / compressed via the connector 20 and the card interface circuit 21. Expansion processing circuit
Given to 22. When the optical disk 3 is mounted on the image data input / output device 6, the image data stored in the optical disk 3 is read by the optical disk driver 30 and is sent to the compression / expansion processing circuit 22 by the SCSI (Small Computer system interface) controller 31. Given.

Luminance data Y and color difference data C are compressed and stored in the memory card 2 and the optical disk 3. Therefore, the luminance data Y and the color difference data C read from the memory card 2 and the optical disc 3 are subjected to data expansion processing in the compression / expansion circuit 22. The luminance data Y and the color difference data C decompressed in the compression / decompression processing circuit 22 are stored in the memory controller.
It is given to the Y / C data DRAM 14 via 13 and temporarily stored.

When displaying an image on the monitor display device 4 and printing an image on the video printer 5, the luminance data Y and the color difference data C stored in the Y / C data DRAM 14 are read.

When displaying an image on the monitor display device 4, the luminance data Y and the color difference data C read from the Y / C data DRAM 14 are given to the Y / C-RGB conversion circuit 40. In the Y / C-RGB conversion circuit 40, the luminance data Y and the color difference data C are the three primary color data RGB.
Is converted and output.

The image data input / output device 6 has an image processing C for controlling the display of an image on the monitor display device 4.
PU44 is included. The image processing CPU 44 controls the memory controller 41 and the image display VRAM 43 to control the image display on the monitor display device 4.

The three primary color data RGB output from the Y / C-RGB conversion circuit 40 is given to the RGB data DRAM 42 via the memory controller 41 and temporarily stored therein.
Three primary color data R stored in the RGB data DRAM 42
GB is read and given to the screen display VRAM 43. The three primary color data RGB are given from the screen display VRAM 43 to a digital / analog conversion circuit (made up of an IC) 45, converted into an analog video signal and output. The analog video signal converted by the digital / analog conversion circuit 45 is given to the monitor display device 4 via the connector 46, and an image is displayed on the display screen of the monitor display device 4.

The RGB data DRAM 42 has a capacity capable of storing one frame of three primary color data RGB, and in this embodiment, the RGB data DRAM 42 can store 1280 × 1024 pixels of three primary color data RGB.

The monitor display device 4 connected to the image data input / output device 6 is a high definition monitor display device. Therefore, the screen display VRAM 43 has a capacity capable of storing the three primary colors RGB (image data for one screen of the monitor display device 4) of 1280 × 1024 pixels.

When an image is printed by the video printer 5, the luminance data Y and the color difference data C read from the Y / C data DRAM 14 are given to the digital / analog conversion circuit 50, and the analog luminance signal Y and the analog luminance signal Y are supplied. The color difference signal C is converted and output. digital/
The luminance signal Y and the color difference signal C output from the analog conversion circuit 50 are given to the character generator 51.
A video signal representing a character such as a character or a symbol is generated in the character generator 51 and is combined with the luminance signal Y and the color difference signal C given from the digital / analog conversion circuit 50. As a result, the character generator 51 obtains and outputs the luminance signal Y and the color difference signal C representing the image in which the character is combined with the image.

The luminance signal Y and the color difference signal C output from the character generator 51 are given to the encoder 52 and converted into an NTSC video signal of NTSC format. An NTSC video signal is generated from the luminance signal Y and the color difference signal C input in the NTSC encoder 52. This NTSC video signal is supplied to the video printer 5 via the connector 53, and the image represented by the NTSC video signal is printed.

The operation unit 7 is a digital electronic still
A key for selecting either the camera 1, the memory card 2 or the optical disc 3, a key for designating desired one of the image data of a plurality of frames stored in these storage media,
A key for selecting a multi-screen configuration, a key for designating display by the monitor display device 4, a key for designating printing by the video printer 5, and other command keys for causing the image data input / output device 6 to perform a desired operation. Contains. The operation unit 7 is connected to the CPU 12 via the connector 18. In response to a command from the operation unit 7, the CPU 12 communicates with the camera 1, accesses the memory card 2, controls the optical disk driver 30, and the like. In addition, it performs a multi-screen configuration, display control, etc., which will be described later.

Next, a method of displaying a multi-screen on the high-definition monitor display device 4 will be described.

A multi-screen is configured to display a plurality of frames of image data read from a plurality of types of image data generation sources or storage media on the display screen of the display device 4 at once. An example of a multi-screen configuration is shown in Fig. 2 (A). The screen is divided into 2 × 2, 4 × 4, 6 × 7. The numbers 1 to 4 shown are numbers representing the divided sections. The reduction rate of image data is determined according to such a screen configuration. Image data for forming a multi-screen is created in the screen display VRAM 43.

The image data stored in the RGB data DRAM 42 is composed of 1280 × 1024 pixels and has a screen display V
Since the RAM 43 stores image data of 1280 × 1024 pixels, image data reduction processing is required in the case of a 2 × 2 multi-screen. In this case, the horizontal and vertical dimensions are reduced to 1/2. Image reduction processing is performed by, for example, thinning processing. As shown in FIG. 3, reduced image data with a reduction ratio of 1/2 can be obtained by thinning out image data one by one in the horizontal and vertical directions. In addition to this, there is averaging processing as a reduced image.
This is to calculate an average value of image data of four adjacent pixels in the original image and use this average value as image data of one pixel in the reduced image (when the reduction ratio is 1/2). The image data is read from the RGB data DRAM 42 and stored in the screen display VRAM 43 in accordance with the positions of the divided sections forming the multi-screen. For example, Figure 2 (A)
When an image is displayed in the section 2 shown in FIG. 3, the image data representing the image is stored in the screen display VRAM 43 by RG.
This section 2 when read from the B data DRAM 42
Will be stored at the address displayed in.

Even when the multi-screen configuration is 4 × 4, RGB is used.
Reduction of the image represented by the data stored in the data DRAM 42 is required. In this case, the horizontal and vertical dimensions are reduced to 1/4. Image reduction processing is performed by, for example, thinning processing. As shown in FIG. 3, the reduction ratio is reduced to 1/4 by thinning out the image data one by one in the horizontal and vertical directions.
The reduced image data of is obtained.

In any case, the RGB data DRAM
The image processing CPU 44 executes the image data transfer from 42 to the screen display VRAM 43 (including defining the address so as to form a multi-screen) and the image reduction process.

Next, the processing for displaying an image on the monitor display device 4 while printing an image different from the displayed image by the video printer 5 will be described.

The operation unit 7 selects from which of the digital electronic still camera 1, the memory card 2 and the optical disc 3 the image data is obtained and the frame number of the image data. The image data of the frame selected by the operation unit 7 is temporarily stored in the Y / C data DRAM 14. When the multi-screen display is designated by the operation unit 7, the frame numbers of the images forming the multi-screen are also designated by the operation unit 7. When the frame number of the image forming the multi-screen is specified, the image data of the image corresponding to the frame number is displayed in the digital electronic still camera 1, memory,
The data is sequentially read from the designated medium of the card 2 or the optical disc 3, and the memory controller 13, DRAM 14,
Y / C-RGB conversion circuit 40, memory controller 41,
It is given to the screen display VRAM 43 via the DRAM 42 or the like and sequentially stored. The image data forming the multi-screen is read from the screen display VRMA 43, converted into an analog signal in the digital / analog conversion circuit 45, and given to the monitor display device 4. As a result, a multi-screen as shown in FIG. 2B is displayed on the monitor display device 4. In FIG. 2B, the frame number is also displayed in the lower right corner of each image forming the multi-screen.

When the user sees the multi-screen displayed on the monitor display device 4 and there is an image to be printed from the video printer 5, the operating unit 7 gives a print command and specifies the frame number of the image to be printed. A command is given to the image data input / output device 6. When the frame number is designated, image data representing the image specified by the frame number is read from the digital electronic still camera 1, the memory card 2 or the optical disc 3 and the Y / C data D
It is stored in the RAM 14. The image data stored in the Y / C data DRAM 14 is read out and the digital / analog conversion circuit 50, the character generator 51 and the NTSC are read.
Video as NTSC video signal via encoder 52
It is given to the printer 5. This allows the monitor display device 4
While displaying a multi-image, the images forming the multi-image can be printed by the video printer 5. For example, when the user selects the frame number "2" as the image to be printed when the multi-screen shown in FIG. 2B is displayed on the monitor display device 4, the frame number "2" is specified. The image is printed by the video printer 5. An example of an image printed by the video printer 5 is shown in FIG. The printed image shown in FIG. 4 has a character generator 51 in the area A ₁ below it.
The characters generated by are also printed together. Of course, it is also possible to include a picture or a symbol instead of a character in a desired portion in the image. Designation of these characters, pictures, and symbols The printing position is designated by the operation unit 7.

In the above description, the monitor display device 4
The multi-screen is displayed on the screen, and one image forming the multi-screen is printed using the video printer 5. However, even if the multi-screen is not displayed on the monitor display device 4, the image displayed on the monitor display device 4 is Video printer 5 with different images
You may print from.

The image data representing the image displayed on the monitor display device 4 and the image data representing the image printed by the video printer 5 are stored in the digital electronic still camera 1, the memory card 2 and the optical disk 3. It does not have to be obtained from the same medium. For example, image data representing an image displayed on the monitor display device 4 is obtained from the digital electronic still camera 1,
Image data representing an image printed by the printer 5 may be obtained from the memory card 2. In any case, while the video printer 5 is printing, the image to be printed next can be searched and the image can be printed efficiently.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the character generator 51 is provided and desired characters, pictures, etc. are put in the printed image to be printed, but the character generator is not always necessary. Further, a character may be combined with the image displayed on the monitor display device 4 to be displayed. In this case, a character generator would be connected between the digital / analog conversion circuit 45 and the connector 46.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of an image data input / output device.

FIG. 2 shows a process of reproducing image data read from a medium in a multi-screen configuration, (A) shows a state in which the monitor display screen is divided into a plurality of sections according to the set screen configuration, and (B) shows Each of a plurality of images read from the medium is displayed on the same screen.

FIG. 3 illustrates a reduction (thinning-out) process of image data.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a printed print image.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 digital electronic still camera 2 memory card 3 optical disk 4 monitor display device 5 video printer 6 image data input / output device 11 camera interface circuit 12 CPU 21 card interface circuit 30 optical disk driver 31 SCSI controller 40 Y / C- RGB conversion circuit 44 Image processing CPU 45, 50 Digital / analog conversion circuit 52 NTSC encoder

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. An image data reading means for reading image data supplied from a storage medium or an image data supply medium of an image signal generating source, and first image data representing a first image read by the image data reading means. Image display processing means for inputting, performing display reproduction processing for displaying the first image and outputting the second image, and displaying a second image different from the first image read by the image data reading means. An image data input / output device comprising image print processing means for inputting the second image data, performing print processing for printing the second image, and outputting the print processing. 2. A character data generating means for generating character data representing a character, wherein at least one of the image display processing means and the image print processing means inputs the first image data and the second image data. Of the first image data and the second image data representing an image partially including the character represented by the character data by combining the character data generated by the character data generating means with at least one of the image data The image data input / output device according to claim 1, which outputs at least one of the image data. 3. The image data reading means reads the first image data and the second image data from different image data supply media of the storage medium and the image signal generation source. The image data input / output device according to claim 1. 4. The image display processing means inputs image data representing a plurality of images supplied from the image data reading means, and generates multi-image data representing a multi-image including a plurality of images from the input image data. Then, the multi-image is displayed on the display device by giving the generated multi-image data to the display device, and the image data reading means designates the images forming the multi-screen displayed on the display device. The image data input / output device according to claim 1, wherein the image data corresponding to the designated image is read from the image data supply medium and given to the image print processing means to perform the print processing. . 5. The image data supplied from a storage medium or an image data supply medium of an image signal generating source is read, and the read first image data representing the first image is obtained to obtain the first image display. Second display different from the above-mentioned first image read and output.
Image data input / output method for obtaining the second image data representing the image, performing the printing process for printing the second image, and outputting. 6. Character data representing a character is generated, and at least one of the image display processing and the image printing processing is applied to at least one of the first image data and the second image data to be input. At least one of the first image data and the second image data representing an image including a part of the character represented by the character data is generated by combining the character data generated by the character data generating process. The image data input / output method according to claim 5, wherein the image data is output. 7. The image data reading process reads the first image data and the second image data from different image data supply media of the storage medium and the image signal generation source. The image data input / output method according to claim 5. 8. The image display processing inputs image data representing a plurality of images obtained by the image data reading processing, and generates multi-image data representing a multi-image including a plurality of images from the input image data. Then, the generated multi-image data is given to the display device to display the multi-image on the display device, and the image data reading process specifies the images constituting the multi-screen displayed on the display device. The image data input / output method according to claim 5, wherein the image data corresponding to the designated image is read from the image data supply medium to perform the image printing process.