JPH09288478A - Picture processing method and device therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a picture processing method capable of storing display picture data which are not displayed on its display screen at the time being in the storage medium of a small capacity and its device. SOLUTION: When a first display area 402 in a picture 401 to be expressed by input picture data is specified, compressed data corresponding to small areas 404-406, 408-410 are expanded and transmitted to a bit memory to be displayed on an LCD. Besides, picture data corresponding to remaining small areas 407, 411-415 are compressed in a small area unit to be stored in a RAM. Moreover, when the display changing to the display to a second display area 403 is specified, compressed data corresponding to small areas 411, 413-415 other than overlapped parts are read out and expanded to be displayed on the LCD screen and also picture data corresponding to small areas 404-406, 408 becoming not to be displayed are compressed to be stored in the RAM.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image processing method and an apparatus thereof, and more particularly to an image processing method and an apparatus thereof for displaying information by processing information exceeding the effective display area of a display screen.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional image display device, image data exceeding the effective display range of a display screen is also stored in a storage medium such as a memory in the form of bitmap.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional example, there is a problem that the capacity of the storage medium for storing the display image data becomes large.

The present invention has been made in view of the above conventional example, and an object of the present invention is to provide an image processing method and apparatus capable of storing display image data which is not displayed on the display screen for the time being in a small capacity storage medium. I am trying.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the image processing method of the present invention comprises the following steps.

That is, an input step of inputting compressed image data from an external device, a first instructing step of instructing an area displayed on a display screen in an image represented by the input compressed image data, and the input compression A first decompression display step of decompressing the image data by a plurality of lines and displaying decompressed image data corresponding to the display area specified by the instruction of the first instruction step on the display screen; and the input compressed image data. Corresponding to a plurality of small areas defined by dividing the entire image into a matrix, and decompressing decompressed image data not corresponding to the display area in units of the small areas according to the instruction in the first instruction step. A first compression step, a first storage step of storing the compressed image data in a storage medium, and an instruction to change the displayed image In accordance with the instructing step and the instruction in the second instructing step, the compressed image data corresponding to the area displayed on the display screen is read out from the storage medium in units of the small areas and decompressed to display the image on the display screen. A second decompression display step; a second compression step of compressing image data, which does not correspond to the area displayed on the display screen, in units of the small areas according to the instruction in the second instruction step; and a compression in the second compression step. And a second storing step of storing the obtained image data in the storage medium.

According to another aspect of the invention, display means for displaying an image, storage means for storing image data, input means for inputting compressed image data from an external device, and an image represented by the compressed image data. A first instructing means for instructing an area displayed on the display screen of the display means,
First decompression means for decompressing the compressed image data by a plurality of lines and transferring decompressed image data corresponding to the display area specified by the instruction of the first instructing means to the display means, and formed by the compressed image data. Corresponding to a plurality of small areas defined by dividing the entire image into a matrix, and decompressing decompressed image data not corresponding to the display area in units of the small areas according to an instruction from the first instruction means. First compressing means, first storing means for storing the image data compressed by the first compressing means in the storing means, second instructing means for instructing to change the displayed image, and the second In accordance with an instruction from the instruction means, the compressed image data corresponding to the area displayed on the display screen is read out from the storage means in units of the small areas, expanded, and expanded. Second decompression means for transferring to the display means, second compression means for compressing image data not corresponding to the area displayed on the display screen in small area units according to the instruction from the second instruction means, and the second An image processing apparatus comprising: a second storage unit for storing the image data compressed by the compression unit in the storage unit.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS With the above-described structure, the present invention enables the input compressed image data to be stored when the area displayed on the display screen is designated among the images represented by the compressed image data input from the external device. A plurality of lines defined by decompressing a plurality of lines, displaying decompressed image data corresponding to the display area specified by the instruction on the display screen, and dividing the entire image formed by the input compressed image data into a matrix. In accordance with the above instruction, the decompressed image data not corresponding to the display area is compressed in small area units and stored in the storage medium in correspondence with the small area. Furthermore, when there is an instruction to change the display image, in accordance with the instruction, the compressed image data corresponding to the area displayed on the display screen from the storage medium is read out and expanded in small area units, and the image is displayed on the display screen. Follow the instructions above
Image data that does not correspond to the area displayed on the display screen is compressed in small area units, and the compressed image data is stored in the storage medium.

Here, an LCD may be used for displaying an image, or a host computer may be used as an external device. Further, the display area of the image can be instructed and the change can be instructed from the host computer.

Further, the small area corresponds to a divided image obtained by dividing the entire image formed by the compressed image data into n × m.

Further, a bitmap memory can be used to store the decompressed image data, and a RAM can be used to store the compressed image data. Then, it is assumed that the compressed image data is compressed line by line.

When the image area which has been displayed so far and the area which is displayed by the instruction to change the image display area overlap each other, the image data corresponding to the overlapping area is not expanded. You may control not to perform.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an image display device having an LCD as a display unit, which is a typical embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 101 is a CPU for controlling the operation of the entire apparatus, input control of image data from a host computer (not shown, hereinafter referred to as a host), and image data processing described later, and 102 is a C
RO with built-in control program executed by PU 101
M and 103 are used as a work area of a control program executed by the CPU 101, a RAM used to temporarily store an input image data or to store a data-compressed image, and 104 is a bit to store display bitmap data. It is a map memory.

Further, 105 is a bit map memory 104.
LCD according to the contents of the bitmap data stored in
An LCD driver that controls ON / OFF of each dot on the panel, 106 is an LCD panel (hereinafter referred to as LCD) that is controlled by the LCD driver 105 and displays an image, 1
Reference numeral 07 is a host interface for inputting display image data sent from the host, and reference numeral 108 is a system bus for mutually connecting the constituent elements.

Next, regarding the display control processing of the image data performed by using the apparatus having the above-mentioned configuration, the flowchart shown in FIG. 2, the example of the display image shown in FIG. 3, and the example of the display screen division shown in FIG. It will be described with reference to FIG. Here, FIG.
It is assumed that image data representing an image as indicated by reference numeral 301 is input from the host as compressed data. In addition, it is assumed that this compression is performed by sequentially encoding line by line in the x direction (line direction) from the upper left corner of the image 301.

Further, here, the image 301 is divided into small areas 302 to 313 shown in FIG. Generally speaking, as shown in FIG. 4, the entire display image 401 is divided into four in the x direction and three in the y direction, that is, divided into 12 small regions 404 to 415 and managed. .

In the following description, as shown in FIG. 4, the first display area 4 corresponding to a part of the whole image 401 is displayed.
02 is instructed to be displayed on the screen, and then a display change instruction is issued to display the second display area 403 corresponding to another part of the entire image 401.

First, in step S501, display image data sent from the host via the host interface 107 is input. At this time, a display instruction to the first display area 402 is also sent at the same time.

Next, in step S502, the input image data is expanded and converted into bitmap data. In this decompression processing, considering that the input image data is sequentially coded in line units, small areas (for example,
404 to 407, 408 to 411, 412 to 415) process the input image data for one line, that is, for a plurality of lines. Therefore, in step S502, the image data displayed in the small areas 404 to 407 is expanded.

In step S503, the first display area 4
The expanded image data corresponding to the small areas 404 to 406 which are a part of 02 are transferred to the bitmap memory. Subsequently, in step S504, the decompressed data corresponding to the small area 407 which is a non-displayed area is encoded and compressed again and stored in the RAM 103.

Further, in step S505, the image data displayed in the small areas 408 to 411 is expanded as in step S502. Then, in step S506, similarly to step S503, the first display area 40
The decompressed image data corresponding to the small areas 408 to 410 that are a part of 2 are transferred to the bitmap memory 104. Subsequently, in step S507, the decompressed data corresponding to the small area 411 which is a non-displayed area is coded and compressed again and stored in the RAM 103.

Further, in step S508, the image data displayed in the small areas 412 to 415 is expanded in the same manner as in step S502. Since the image data corresponding to the small areas 412 to 415 is outside the first display area 402, the process re-encodes and compresses the decompressed data corresponding to the small areas 412 to 415 which are not displayed in step S509. Stored in the RAM 103.

By such processing, an image is displayed in the first display area 402 on the screen of the LCD 106, and the data in the remaining area is encoded and compressed in the RAM 103.
Stored in. As you can see, the entire image 401
For the display of, a display area exceeding the effective display range of the LCD 106 is required.

After that, in step S510, a command for changing the display area from the host (here, the second
(Instruction to display an image in the display area 403).

Upon receipt of this command, the process proceeds to step S511, in which the image data displayed in the small areas 404 to 406 and 408 is coded and compressed to RAM 103.
To memorize. Further, in step S512, the small area 4
The image data corresponding to 09 and 410 is moved to an address position suitable for displaying in the second display area 403 within the bitmap memory 104. For example, the bitmap memory 10
Assuming that the capacity of the bitmap development of No. 4 is only for the bitmap expansion of the image data corresponding to 6 small areas, the second display area 403 is displayed in the small areas 409 and 410. Bits corresponding to the other four small areas are formed so that the storage addresses of the corresponding bitmap image data are properly formed when the bitmap images corresponding to the other four small areas are developed and combined. It is necessary to move to an address that considers continuity with the map image.

Then, in step S513, the small area 4
The compressed image data corresponding to 11, 413 to 415 are decompressed and expanded and transferred to the bitmap memory 104.

By such processing, the image is displayed on the second display area 403 on the LCD 106, and the data of the remaining area is stored in the RAM 103 in the encoded and compressed format.

Therefore, according to the embodiment described above, only the image data required for display is expanded in the bit map memory, and the image data not required for the immediate display is stored in the RAM as compressed data. Display image data exceeding the range can be stored in a small-capacity storage medium.

In the above embodiment, the image display device having the LCD panel is used as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, any display device capable of controlling the brightness and transparency of pixels corresponding to bitmap data, for example, a display provided with a high-resolution CRT, FLCD, PDP (plasma display panel) dedicated to CAD or CG It goes without saying that the present invention is applicable to devices and the like.

In the above embodiment, the image is divided into four in the x direction, three in the y direction, for a total of 12 divisions, but the present invention is not limited to this, and generally x is divided. There may be m divisions in the direction and n divisions in the y direction (m and n are positive integers of 2 or more).

Furthermore, an object of the present invention is to supply a storage medium having a program code of software for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or apparatus, and to supply the computer (or CPU or MPU of the system or apparatus). It goes without saying that) is achieved by reading and executing the program code stored in the storage medium.

In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium implements the functions of the above-described embodiment, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

As a storage medium for supplying the program code, for example, a floppy disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-ROM, CD
-R, a magnetic tape, a nonvolatile memory card, a ROM, or the like can be used.

When the computer executes the readout program code, not only the functions of the above-described embodiment are realized, but also the OS (Operating System) running on the computer based on the instruction of the program code. ) May perform some or all of the actual processing, and the processing may realize the functions of the above-described embodiments.

Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written into a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, the program code is written based on the instructions of the program code. It goes without saying that the CPU included in the function expansion board or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the processing realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments.

When the present invention is applied to the above-mentioned storage medium, the storage medium stores the program code corresponding to the above-mentioned flowchart. Briefly, for example, the memory shown in FIG. Each module will be stored in a storage medium like a map. That is, at least the “input processing module”, the “first instruction processing module”, the “first decompression display processing module”,
"First compression processing module", "first storage processing module", "second instruction processing module", "second decompression display processing module", "second compression processing module", and "second storage processing module" The program code of each module may be stored in the storage medium.

[0038]

As described above, according to the present invention, of the input image data, the image data that is not displayed on the display screen for the time being is stored in the storage medium after being compressed, and then the display image is changed. Then, according to the instruction, the compressed image data corresponding to the area displayed on the display screen is read out from the storage medium, decompressed to display the image on the display screen, and the image data not corresponding to the area displayed on the display screen is compressed. Since it is stored in the storage medium as a storage medium, there is an effect that a storage medium having a small capacity can be used for storing display image data which is not displayed for the time being.

[0039]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an image display device including an LCD as a display unit, which is a typical embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a display control process of image data.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display image and an example of image division.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration of a display screen.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a memory map.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101 CPU 102 ROM 103 RAM 104 Bitmap Memory 105 LCD Driver 106 LCD Panel 107 Host Interface 108 System Bus

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Internal reference number FI Technical indication H04N 1/41 H04N 1/41 Z

Claims (11)

[Claims] 1. An input step of inputting compressed image data from an external device; and an image represented by the input compressed image data,
A first instructing step of instructing an area displayed on a display screen, decompressing the input compressed image data by a plurality of lines, and displaying decompressed image data corresponding to the display area specified by the instruction of the first instructing step. A first decompression display step of displaying on the screen, and a plurality of small areas defined by dividing the entire image formed by the input compressed image data into a matrix form, corresponding to the instruction in the first instruction step. A first compression step of compressing decompressed image data that does not correspond to the display area in units of the small areas; a first storing step of storing the compressed image data in a storage medium; and changing the displayed image. And a compressed image corresponding to an area displayed on the display screen from the storage medium according to the instruction in the second instruction step. A second decompression display step of reading out data in units of the small areas and decompressing the data to display an image on the display screen; and image data that does not correspond to the area displayed on the display screen according to the instruction in the second instruction step. An image processing method comprising: a second compression step of compressing in units of the small areas; and a second storage step of storing the image data compressed in the second compression step in the storage medium. 2. A display unit for displaying an image, a storage unit for storing image data, an input unit for inputting compressed image data from an external device, and the display unit among the images represented by the compressed image data. First instructing means for instructing an area displayed on the display screen, decompressing the compressed image data by a plurality of lines, and displaying the decompressed image data corresponding to the display area specified by the instruction of the first instructing means. First decompressing means for transferring to the means, and corresponding to a plurality of small areas defined by dividing the entire image formed by the compressed image data into a matrix, according to the instruction by the first instructing means,
A first compression unit that compresses decompressed image data that does not correspond to the display region in units of the small regions; a first storage unit that stores the image data compressed by the first compression unit in the storage unit; Second instructing means for instructing to change the displayed image, and in accordance with the instruction by the second instructing means, the compressed image data corresponding to the area displayed on the display screen is read from the storage means in units of the small areas. Second decompression means for decompressing and transferring to the display means, and second compression means for compressing image data not corresponding to the area displayed on the display screen in small area units in accordance with an instruction from the second instructing means. An image processing apparatus comprising: a second storage unit that stores the image data compressed by the second compression unit in the storage unit. 3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the display unit includes an LCD. 4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the external device includes a host computer. 5. The image processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the instruction to the first and second instruction means is issued from the host computer. 6. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the small area corresponds to a divided image obtained by dividing an entire image formed by the compressed image data into n × m. 7. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a bitmap memory for storing the image data expanded by the first and second expanding means. 8. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storage unit includes a RAM. 9. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the compressed image data is compressed line by line. 10. The second decompression means, if the display areas designated by the first and second designating means overlap each other, do not decompress the image data corresponding to the overlapping areas. The image processing device according to claim 1. 11. A computer-readable memory in which a program code for image processing is stored, the code performing an input step of inputting compressed image data from an external device, and an image represented by the input compressed image data. ,
Code for executing a first instructing step for instructing an area to be displayed on the display screen, and an expanded image corresponding to the display area specified by the instruction of the first instructing step for expanding the input compressed image data by a plurality of lines. Corresponding to a code for executing a first decompression display step of displaying data on the display screen, and a plurality of small areas defined by dividing an entire image formed by the input compressed image data into a matrix, A code for executing a first compression step of compressing decompressed image data not corresponding to the display area in units of the small areas according to an instruction in the first instruction step; and storing the compressed image data in a storage medium. 1 a code for executing the storing step, a code for executing a second instructing step for instructing to change the displayed image, and a code for executing the second instructing step A code for executing a second decompression display step of decompressing compressed image data corresponding to an area displayed on the display screen from the storage medium in units of the small areas and displaying an image on the display screen according to the instruction to Code for executing a second compression step of compressing image data that does not correspond to an area displayed on the display screen in units of the small areas according to an instruction in the second instruction step; and an image compressed in the second compression step. Computer readable memory having code for performing a second storage step of storing data in the storage medium.