JPH10269348A - Method for managing satellite image data, geographic image processor and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a geographic image processor which efficiently manages satellite image data and carries out image processing without stress. SOLUTION: This device divides satellite image data into plural cells, also generates a space index that defines the correspondence relation between each cell and a path of a cell storage area and preserves it in an index storing part 13. At the time of image processing, a data managing part 16 retrieves a corresponding cell, searching for a space index, and an image processing part 18 performs image processing of a cell unit. Further, the part 16 preferentially retrieves a cell to first show a specific area on a display part 3 and later, sequentially retrieves cells that correspond to other adjacent areas.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image processing technique using satellite image data, and more particularly, to dividing satellite image data into a plurality of cells (data blocks) and efficiently managing each divided cell. To reduce the load on image processing and improve the processing speed.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Map data representing geographical information such as residential land, farmland, roads, rivers and the like, and arrangement information of buildings on the surface of the ground, is converted into a database, and necessary map data is appropriately displayed on a display unit as an image or printed. There is known a geographic image processing system for providing a customer with a service to do so. In such a geographic image processing system, the satellite data and the survey result data of the ground surface are periodically acquired to generate map data, and when the content of the map data changes over time, the operator needs to The corresponding map data is retrieved from the database and corrected.

In recent years, attempts have been made to utilize satellite image data obtained from artificial satellites and use image data of the ground surface included in the satellite image data as map data. Since satellites frequently photograph the surface of the earth, using satellite image data has the advantage of providing a more fresh geographic image than conventional map data based on paper-based maps. is there.

[0004]

Incidentally, since satellite image data includes not only image information of the ground surface but also date and time of photographing, altitude information of the ground surface, weather information at the time of photographing, etc., general satellite image data is used. Large capacity. For example, in the case of "Panchromatic specification" by QucikBird satellite of EarthWatch, USA, one image covers 27 km square, but its data size reaches 1 GB (gigabyte). For this reason, not only the above-described geographic image processing system but also information processing systems that execute image processing using satellite image data perform operations such as smooth display range scrolling and zooming on general-purpose computers such as personal computers and workstations. It is impossible in terms of performance to realize this information processing device.

Further, since the data size of satellite image data is enormous, it takes a lot of time for input / output processing, and during that time system resources are occupied. There was a problem of feeling. An object of the present invention is to provide an improved image processing technique for a system or an information processing apparatus that performs image processing based on satellite image data so that the image processing can be executed without stress by efficiently managing the satellite image data. To provide.

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides an efficient method for managing satellite image data in an information processing system having image processing means. According to this method, the satellite image data is divided into a plurality of cells and stored, and a spatial index that defines the correspondence between each cell and the storage area of the cell is held, and the image processing means transmits the satellite image data. When an execution command of image processing including an image generation process and an operation process based on data is detected, a corresponding cell is searched for while searching the spatial index, and image processing is performed in a cell unit. Here, the “cell” refers to a unit area of an image generated based on satellite image data.

The present invention also provides a geographic image processing apparatus for executing image processing including generation processing and operation processing of geographic images including natural objects and buildings based on satellite image data. This geographic image apparatus includes the following components. (1) A means for dividing input satellite image data into a plurality of cells and storing each cell in one or a plurality of storage devices. (2) Means for generating and holding a spatial index defining the correspondence between individual cells and the path of the storage device storing the cells when the satellite image data is divided. (3) Image processing means for searching for the spatial index and searching for a corresponding cell from the storage device and executing image processing in units of cells when an image processing execution command is detected based on satellite image data. (4) Display means for displaying an execution result of the image processing in the cell unit. (5) Communication means for performing mutual communication with another similar device having the spatial index. (6) Notifying means for notifying another device of the updated content via the communication means when updating the content of the space index of the own device. (7) Means for storing the cell obtained by dividing the cell in its own device in a storage device of another similar device via the communication means.

In the geographic image processing apparatus, when an operator specifies a display range of a geographic image, a search process for searching map data centering on an image of a target object and a range not displayed on the display means are performed. Scroll processing for scrolling the map data in any of the eight directions around the screen for reference is performed. In the case of the above-described search processing, the operator tends to demand that the detailed contents around the target can be quickly referenced, and in the case of the scroll processing, the operator tends to demand that the details of the scroll direction can be quickly referenced. The present invention pays attention to this point, and executes the image processing by preferentially searching for the corresponding cell so that the specific divided area is displayed first on the display means, and executing the image processing. It is configured to sequentially search for cells corresponding to other divided areas adjacent to a specific divided area and execute image processing. Also,
A process of searching for each cell and an image process, for example, another map data operation process can be executed in parallel.

The present invention also provides a recording medium for realizing the geographic image processing device in a general-purpose computer. This recording medium is a computer-readable recording medium in which a program for causing a computer to execute the following processing is recorded. (A) a process of dividing input satellite image data into a plurality of cells; (b) a process of storing each cell in one or a plurality of storage devices; (c) individual cells when dividing the satellite image data Generating a spatial index that defines the correspondence between the path and the path of the storage device storing the cell, (d)
When detecting an execution command of image processing including generation and operation of a geographic image including a natural object or a building based on the satellite image data, a corresponding cell is searched from the storage device while searching the spatial index while searching for the spatial index. Processing to execute image processing in units.

[0010] In a preferred embodiment, the program causes the computer to display an execution result of the image processing on a cell-by-cell basis on a predetermined display means, and a specific division area is displayed first. The corresponding cell is searched for preferentially and the image processing is executed, and thereafter, the cells corresponding to the other divided areas adjacent to the specific divided area are sequentially searched and the image processing is executed.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a geographic image processing system will be described below in detail. In this embodiment, considering that the range that the operator refers to at a time to grasp the geographical situation at a time, for example, most of the range to refer to when grasping the distribution change of the building is about several hundred meters square, An example in which the unit of the image processing based on the satellite image data is optimized in the range is shown. In other words, the satellite image data is divided and managed in units of several hundred meters square cells to reduce the data size per cell to 1 MB or less, compared to the conventional case where satellite image data of 27 km square is collectively managed. To avoid performance overhead.

As shown in FIG. 1, a geographic image processing system for achieving such an effect includes a plurality of geographic image processing apparatuses 1A, 1B,... 1X connected to a communication line such as a LAN (local area network). 2 so as to be capable of two-way communication. Each geographic image processing device 1A, 1B,
.. 1X can be stored in a standard information processing device such as a workstation or personal computer equipped with a multitasking OS (Operating System) and a large-capacity recording medium such as a CD-ROM. A computer program which is recorded in a computer-readable manner or can be distributed in a computer-readable form using a communication network or the like, and is realized by reading and executing the computer program by an information processing apparatus. Are provided at least.

That is, the geographic image processing apparatus 1A (only this apparatus is described for convenience, but the same applies to other apparatuses) includes a satellite image data storage unit 11 for storing satellite image data obtained from a data provider. A divided data storage unit 12 for storing divided data (cells);
Spatial index storage unit 1 that stores a spatial index
3 to constitute a storage device which is one element of the present invention, and a display unit 3 for displaying an image processing result.

The geographic image processing apparatus 1A also includes a satellite image data division processing section 14, a communication control section 15, a data management section 16, an operation processing section 17, an image processing section 18, and a display control section 1.
9 is provided. The communication control unit 15 enables mutual communication with other geographic image processing apparatuses 1B,... 1X (hereinafter, abbreviated as other apparatuses). In relation to the present invention, a communication unit is constituted by the communication control unit 15 and the communication line 2, an image processing unit is constituted by the data management unit 16 and the image processing unit 18, and a display unit is constituted by the display control unit 19 and the display unit 3. Is configured. Further, the data management unit 16 and the communication control unit 15 constitute a notification unit.

The satellite image data division processing section 14 takes in the satellite image data stored in the satellite image data storage section 11 and divides it into a plurality of cells having the above-mentioned data size. The data is transmitted to another device (a data management unit (not shown)) via the data management unit 16 of the own device or the communication control unit 15.

The data management unit 16 manages data in units of cells, and includes a spatial index management unit 161, a search processing unit 162, and a decryption processing unit 163. The spatial index management unit 161 creates a spatial index based on the cell input via the satellite image data division processing unit 14 or the communication control unit 15 and information on the storage area in the division data storage unit 12, and creates this spatial index. The content is stored in the index storage unit 13 and the content of the stored spatial index is updated. In addition,
The spatial index management unit 161 also has a function of notifying another device of the updated content when the content of the spatial index of the own device is updated.

The search processing unit 162 stores the cell in the divided data storage unit 12 of its own device or another device,
The corresponding cell is retrieved from the divided data storage unit 12 of the own device or another device and sent to the image processing unit 18. When searching for a cell, based on the input information from the operation processing unit 17, first, a specific cell is searched preferentially, and then cells adjacent to the cell are sequentially searched. The decryption processing unit 163
The contents of input data from the communication control unit 15, instructions from the search processing unit 162, and the like are decoded to perform necessary distribution processing.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram of cells managed by the data management unit 16 and shows how each cell is distributedly managed by a plurality of geographic image processing apparatuses. In addition, 12A,
12B and 12X are the respective geographic image processing apparatuses 1A, 1B and 1X.
And 15A, 15B, and 15X are communication control units in each of the geographic image processing apparatuses 1A, 1B, and 1X. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the contents of the spatial index in FIG. In FIG. 3, “cell number (X, Y) is cell position and order information obtained by dividing satellite image data,“ device name ”is identification information of a geographic image processing device storing the cell, "directory",
The "data file" is a storage area of the cell, and the storage area of the cell can be specified from the cell number or the like of the space index irrespective of its own device or another device.

The operation processing section 17 recognizes the contents of data from a data input device such as a pointing device such as a mouse or a keyboard, and executes image processing including a range of an image area input by an operator and instructions such as scrolling. The command is transmitted to the data management unit 16 or the image processing unit 18. In addition, for example, it also has a function of editing attribute information such as an address on a figure representing a house on a map. This function can be realized by a thread different from cell search and image processing described later.

The image processing section 18 executes image processing in units of cells. Specifically, the data management unit 16
(Search processing unit 162) Generates geographic image data in cell units based on the cells received from the operation processing unit 17, and performs image operation processing received from the operation processing unit 17, such as display range scrolling, shift processing, and zooming after displaying a geographic image. For example, it generates control data for realization.

The display control unit 19 controls the display of the image processing result on the display unit 3. The display mode of the display unit 3 by the display control unit 19 is, for example, a linear display of an image corresponding to the cell (display with relative dimensions according to cell position information: see FIGS. 6B to 6D). Or a partially enlarged display (see FIGS. 7B to 7D).

Next, the operation of the geographic image processing apparatus 1A will be specifically described. First, with reference to FIG. 4, a processing procedure from creation of a cell to creation / update of a spatial index will be described.

Referring to FIG. 4, the geographic image processing apparatus 1A includes:
Satellite image data acquired from the satellite image data storage unit 11 or a data provider is input (step S10).
1) This is divided by the satellite image data division processing unit 14 to generate a plurality of cells (step S102). The storage area of each generated cell is determined (step S10).
3). If the determined storage area is another device, the cell and the storage instruction are transmitted to the device via the communication control unit 15 (step S104: No, step S105).

On the other hand, if the determined storage area is its own device, the cell is sent to the data management unit 16 and the divided data storage unit 12
(Step S106). After storing the cell in the divided data storage unit 12, the data management unit 16 creates a space index having contents as shown in FIG. 3 based on the cell number, cell position information, and information (directory, data file) of the cell storage area. It is created and stored in the spatial index storage unit 13 (step S107).
When the content of the existing spatial index is changed, for example, when the same satellite image data is reprocessed, the existing spatial index is read and the content is updated. In this case, the data management unit 16
Searches for the presence of a spatial index related to the update content in another device, and if so, sends the update content and a spatial index update instruction to the device (step S108: Yes, step S109). When the own device can independently manage the spatial index of the other device, the data management unit 16 of the own device updates the content of the spatial index. The above processing is repeated by the number of cells (step S110).

Next, an image processing procedure will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 5, when an image processing request from the operation processing unit 17 is detected (step S201), the data management unit 1
6 determines whether the content of the image processing request is for an image area corresponding to a plurality of cells (step S202),
In the case of a processing request for an image area corresponding to a plurality of cells, a cell of a target area, for example, an area on which an operator wants to pay attention on a geographic image is preferentially searched and sent to the image processing unit 18 (step S203). Cell search is performed by searching a spatial index.

The image processing section 18 executes image processing on the searched cell, and displays the execution result on the display section 3 through the display control section 19 (step S204). At this time, the data management unit 16 searches for cells in the adjacent image area by multitask processing (step S20).
5). After executing the image processing on the target area, the image processing unit 18 immediately executes the image processing on the next cell (step S206). It is determined whether or not the processing of the next adjacent area is necessary (step S207). If necessary, the cell search and the execution of the image processing for the cell are repeated (step S208).

On the other hand, if the image processing request is not for an image area corresponding to a plurality of cells in step S201 (step S202: No), as described above, the cell of the corresponding area is searched for and the image of the cell is searched for. The process is executed (Step 213, Step S214).

FIGS. 6 and 7 show examples of images displayed on the display unit 3 as a result of the execution of the image processing performed in the above procedure. FIG. 6 shows an example in which the display control unit 19 causes the display unit 3 to perform linear display. FIG. 6A shows a reference image corresponding to all cell regions generated based on satellite image data.
FIGS. 6B to 6D show the relative positional relationship of the cells to the satellite image data (left side in each figure) and the image processing result (right side in each figure) based on the result. The cell corresponding to the target area in step S204 or the corresponding area in step S214 is the central cell g1 in FIG. 11B, and the display screen 41 in this case displays a partial image corresponding to the position of the cell. It will be displayed. The image processing result is stored in a memory area (not shown) of the data management unit 16.

In the case of the shift process starting from the cell g1 (steps 205 and S206), FIG.
As shown in (c), the adjacent cell g2 is found, and the image corresponding to the position of the cell g2 is superimposed on the image based on the previous cell g1 on the display screen 42. Further, when the processing is extended to a plurality of areas (step 20 described above).
8), as shown in FIG. 6D, each cell g1, g
Display screen 4 in which images are gradually developed to 3, g4, and g5
It becomes 3. In any case, the picture quotient processing result is stored in the memory area, and is read out at any time when the screen range is scrolled.

FIG. 7 shows an example in which the display control unit 19 zooms and displays the image processing result. Such a zoom display function of the display control unit 19 is convenient mainly in a case where a specific area is enlarged and a search for a noise component of an image is required. For convenience, FIG.
FIG. 7A shows the same reference image as FIG. 6A, and FIG.
Cells g1 to g5 shown in FIGS. 6 to 6D are the same as those in FIGS. 6B to 6D for convenience. In this case, the display form may be a display screen 51 to 53 in which the size of the image changes according to the number of cells as shown in the drawing,
Alternatively, a display screen (not shown) in which an enlarged screen of any one of the display screens 51 to 53 is sequentially scrolled according to the direction of the cell can be provided.

As described above, in the geographic image processing apparatus 1A of the present embodiment, or in the geographic image processing system including the plurality of apparatuses 1B and 1X of the same type as the geographic image processing apparatus 1A, a plurality of satellite image data are stored. Cells, and each cell is managed by a spatial index, and image processing is performed on a cell-by-cell basis, so that the processing load can be significantly reduced compared to conventional devices or systems. Even when a geographic image processing system is configured using a general-purpose information processing apparatus such as the one described above, an extreme reduction in processing speed does not occur.

Further, the cells of the area to which the operator wants to quickly refer are first searched for so that the image of the area can be displayed on the display unit 3 first. Since the cell search and the image processing can be performed in parallel, the image processing accompanying the image search, the scrolling of the display range, and the like can be smoothly performed without the operator feeling stress.

In this embodiment, an example of a geographic image processing system using a plurality of geographic image processing apparatuses 1A, 1B,... 1X having the same configuration has been described, but each geographic image processing apparatus is always the same. It is not necessary to have a configuration, a form in which distributed processing is performed with a functional master-slave relationship like a client-server type system, a device that mainly stores and manages cells and an image processing system device are separated,
Various other forms, such as a form in which geographic image processing is performed by cooperation between devices during operation and a form in which geographic image processing is performed only by a single geographic image processing apparatus, can be adopted.

[0034]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the satellite image data management method of the present invention, it is possible to efficiently manage an enormous amount of satellite image data and to display a smooth display range. Such operations as scrolling and zooming can be easily realized on a standard information processing device such as a personal computer or a workstation.

Further, according to the geographic image processing apparatus of the present invention, the operator can refer to a geographic image centering on a geographical target or quickly refer to detailed contents in the scroll direction without feeling stress. Or partially zoom in on a geographic image of a specific area,
Satellite image data can be effectively used for this type of application.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 shows a geographic image processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a geographic image processing system including the geographic image processing device.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual explanatory diagram of a storage state of a cell according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the contents of a spatial index.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of a processing procedure from creation of a cell to creation / update of a spatial index according to the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an image processing procedure according to the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example of an image processing result;
Is an image of the entire area generated based on the satellite image data,
(B) is a cell in the target area and its image processing result, (c) is an image processing result when scrolling or shifting to an adjacent area, and (d) is an image processing result when the processing range is expanded to a plurality of areas. .

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing another display example of an image processing result.
(A) is an image of the entire area generated based on the satellite image data, (b) is a cell of the target area and its image processing result,
(C) shows an image processing result when scrolling or shifting to an adjacent area, and (d) shows an image processing result when processing is expanded to a plurality of areas.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 (1A, 1B, 1X) Geographic image processing device 2 Communication line 3 Display unit 11 Satellite image data storage unit 12 (12A, 12B, 12X) Division data storage unit 13 Spatial index storage unit 14 Satellite image data division processing unit 15 ( 15A, 15B, 15X) Communication control unit 16 Data management unit 17 Operation processing unit 18 Image processing unit 19 Display control unit 161 Spatial index management unit 162 Search processing unit 163 Decryption processing unit

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A method for managing satellite image data in an information processing system having image processing means, wherein the satellite image data is divided into a plurality of cells and stored.
A spatial index that defines the correspondence between each cell and the storage area of the cell is held, and the image processing unit issues an instruction to execute image processing including image generation processing and operation processing based on satellite image data. A method of managing satellite image data, comprising: searching for a corresponding cell while searching for the spatial index when the detection is performed; and executing image processing in units of cells. 2. When executing image processing over a plurality of cells, the image processing means preferentially searches for a specific cell, and thereafter, searches for another cell adjacent to the specific cell. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the satellite image data is sequentially searched. 3. The satellite image data management method according to claim 1, wherein the execution of the image processing in cell units and the search processing of each cell are performed in parallel. 4. When the information processing system is configured to include an information processing apparatus including a communication unit that performs mutual communication with another similar apparatus each holding the spatial index, the information processing apparatus includes: 2. The satellite image according to claim 1, wherein when updating the content of the spatial index of the own device, the update content is notified to the other device via the communication means, and the update times of the plurality of spatial indexes are made the same. How to manage data. 5. A means for dividing inputted satellite image data into a plurality of cells and storing each cell in one or a plurality of storage devices; and an individual cell and said cell when dividing said satellite image data. Means for generating and holding a spatial index that defines a correspondence relationship with a path of a storage device storing image data, and image processing including generation processing and operation processing of a geographic image including natural objects and buildings based on the satellite image data A geographic image processing apparatus comprising: an image processing unit that searches for a corresponding cell from the storage device and executes image processing in units of cells while searching for the spatial index when an execution command is detected. . 6. A display unit for displaying an execution result of the image processing in a unit of a cell, wherein the image processing unit preferentially displays a corresponding divided cell on the display unit so that a specific divided area is displayed first. And perform image processing.
6. The geographic image processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein a cell corresponding to another divided area adjacent to the specific divided area is sequentially searched to execute image processing. 7. A communication means for performing mutual communication with another similar device having the spatial index, and when updating the content of the own device's spatial index, the updated content is updated via the communication means to another device. 6. The geographic image processing apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising a notification unit that notifies the geographic image processing apparatus. 8. The geographic image processing apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising means for storing the cell obtained by dividing the cell by the own apparatus in a storage device of another similar apparatus via the communication means. . 9. A process for dividing input satellite image data into a plurality of cells, a process for storing each cell in one or a plurality of storage devices, and a process for dividing individual cells and the cells when dividing the satellite image data. A process of generating a spatial index that defines a correspondence relationship with the path of the stored storage device, when detecting an execution command of image processing including generation and operation of a geographic image including natural objects and buildings based on the satellite image data A computer-readable recording medium in which a program for causing a computer to execute a process of searching for a corresponding cell from the storage device and performing image processing in units of cells while searching for the spatial index is stored. 10. The program causes the computer to display an execution result of image processing in a cell unit on a predetermined display means, and preferentially applies a specific divided area so that a specific divided area is displayed first. 10. The method according to claim 9, wherein a cell is searched to execute image processing, and thereafter, cells corresponding to another divided area adjacent to the specific divided area are sequentially searched to execute image processing. The recording medium according to the above.