JPS60229574A - Image processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To shorten a processing time and save consumptive parts greatly by performing processing operation while ignoring all-white image information more than a specific amount when all-white image information is inputted from a readout means by more than the specific amount. CONSTITUTION:A CPU (central arithmetic processing unit) 11 controls a conveyor roller 13 through a motor control circuit 12 and also controls the transmission output operation of image data through a circuit control part 10. Namely, the CPU11 conveys the conveyor roller 13 through the motor control circuit 12 by one scanning line at every time and data on one line is outputted from a CCD sensor 6 successively. The read image data is compressed by an image compressor 8 and sent to a line buffer 8. Then, the CPU11 sends the image data out of the line buffer 9 to a communication circuit 14 such as a telephone circuit through the circuit control part 10 according to the advance of readout operation. When more than a specific quantity of all-white lines are inputted in the line buffer 9, following all-white lines are thinned out to perform control so that unnecessary continuous parts are not transmitted.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field] The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, and particularly to an image processing apparatus that performs predetermined processing on image information input from a reading device.

[Prior Art] Conventional devices of this type are generally configured to faithfully output an image input from a reading device. For example, in a facsimile machine, a signal representing a margin is transmitted even for a margin scanning line, and the receiving side reproduces the received all-white scanning line on recording paper based on this signal. Further, even in the case of a digital copying machine such as a laser beam printer, the read white portion is faithfully reproduced on recording paper.

When processing manuscripts that include drawings, images created manually must be reproduced as they are, but text manuscripts often contain blank lines that are not necessarily necessary, so it is necessary to reproduce these blank areas faithfully. There is a lot of waste in doing so. In the case of a facsimile machine, extra communication time is required, and in the case of a digital copying machine, recording paper, memory, etc. are wasted. Also, from the perspective of an operator who handles recording paper, it is often easier to process the paper if there are no unnecessary blank spaces.

[Objective] The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide an image processing device that can perform processing while ignoring unnecessary blank lines, thereby reducing the amount of recording paper, memory, and processing time. shall be.

[Example 1] Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on an example shown in the drawings. Here, an embodiment relating to a facsimile machine that transmits and processes image data of a read document will be described.

FIG. 1 shows the structure of an image processing apparatus employing the present invention.

In this embodiment, image input is performed by reading an image on a document using a COD optical sensor.

That is, as shown in FIG. 1, a document having image information set on a document table l is conveyed to the left in the figure by a conveyance roller 13. As shown in FIG. Will part of the manuscript table l be cut out?
It is made of a glass plate or the like, and the document is illuminated in this part by a light source 2 made of a fluorescent lamp or the like.

Reflected light 3 from the original is imaged onto a CCD sensor 6 via an optical system comprising a mirror 4, a lens 5, and the like. The CCD sensor 6 is configured to receive a clock from a CCD control circuit 7, thereby controlling the reading of image data. The data read from the CCD sensor 6 is C
It is sent to the image compressor 8 via the CD control circuit 7.

The image compressor 8 compresses input data by encoding compression such as the MH (Modified Huffman) method, and the compressed image data is sent to a line buffer 9 comprised of a random access memory and the like. It is assumed that the line buffer 9 has a capacity capable of storing compressed image information for at least one line.

A CPU (Central Processing Unit) 11 composed of a microprocessor and its control memory is provided to control the operation of the entire apparatus, and in this embodiment, it controls the conveyance roller 13 via a motor control circuit 12. At the same time, it also controls the transmission and output operation of image data via the line control unit 10.

That is, the CPU II transports the transport roller 13 one scanning line at a time via the motor control circuit 12, and the data of the ] lines are sequentially output from the CCD sensor 6. The read image data is compressed by an image compressor 8 and sent to a line buffer 9. As the read operation progresses, the CPU II sends the image data in the line buffer 9 to a communication line 14 such as a telephone line via a line control unit 10.

In this embodiment, when blank lines are input to the line buffer 9 consecutively, control is performed so that unnecessary continuous portions are not transmitted by wrapping the subsequent blank lines. The flowchart in FIG. 2 shows the CP in the present invention.
The UII control procedure is shown. Here, a control flag set in a predetermined area of a control memory is used. This flag is set when a predetermined number or more of margin lines are read consecutively.

When receiving a transmission command from the operation panel, etc., the CP
U11 first turns on the light source 2 in step S1 of FIG. 2 to prepare for the reading operation. When the amount of light from the light source becomes stable, in step S2, the conveyance roller 13 is activated via the motor control circuit 12 to convey the original by one line.

In accordance with this one-line conveyance, the CCD sensor 6 and image compressor 8 are controlled in a known manner, and the original image is read. The compressed image data is sequentially sent to the line buffer 9, and at this time, in step S3, it is determined whether one line of the image has a margin. The margin line can be detected using various known methods such as those used in mini-fax standard facsimiles.

If the read line is not a margin line, the process moves to step S4, and if the read line is a margin line, the process moves to step S6.

In step S4, after clearing the margin flag, the process moves to step S5, and one line of image data in the line buffer 9 is sent to the line control unit IO. The line control unit 10 connects the image receiving side device to the communication line 1 according to a predetermined communication procedure.
Send this data via 4. When the transmission is finished,
Returning to step S2, the process moves to the next line. Therefore, when the image data is not a blank space, a process similar to the known process in which data is transmitted one line at a time is performed.

On the other hand, if the line read in step S3 is a margin line, it is determined in step S6 whether a margin flag is set. If the flag is set, the process returns to step S2, and if it is not set, the process moves to step S7. Therefore, when an all-white line appears for the first time, the process moves to step S7.

In step S7, the CPU II increments by 1 a counter that counts the number of all white lines. This counter may be configured as either a hardware or software counter.

Subsequently, in step S8, it is determined whether the number of margin lines X counted by the above-mentioned counter has become larger than a predetermined value N. This value N is the maximum number of margin lines that can be transmitted without being ignored, and is determined according to the space between lines of a standard character document. If the counted number of margin lines is greater than N, the process moves to step S9, where a margin flag is set and the process returns to step S2. If the counted number of margin lines is smaller than N, step S1
0, one line of blank lines in the line buffer 9 is transferred to the line control unit 10 and transmitted from the communication line 14.

Therefore, if the margin lines are continuous, step S
8, step Sl until the number of lines reaches the predetermined value N.
Image data is sequentially transmitted at O. When a predetermined value N of margin lines is read, a margin flag is set in step S9, so that the margin lines are ignored and not transmitted until it is confirmed in step S3 that a line that is not a margin has been read.

For example, if the original to be read contains unnecessary blank spaces in lines 1-2, 3-4, 4-5 and 5-6, as in the original shown on the left side of Figure 3, these will be ignored. Since no data is transmitted, the receiving side reproduces a recording paper R that does not have unnecessary long blank areas as shown on the right side of FIG. Therefore, communication time can be shortened by the amount of blank space that is ignored, and communication costs can be significantly reduced. In this embodiment, after a predetermined number or more of margin lines have been read, processing can proceed to the next line by simply checking the flag, so that the processing time can be greatly reduced.

Furthermore, if the image receiving side has a continuous roll of recording paper, the amount of recording paper can be saved. In general, the embodiments described above can be implemented with only a small amount of software without changing known hardware, so the manufacturing cost of the device will not increase.

In the above embodiment, a facsimile machine that reads and transmits one line at a time has been exemplified, but the present invention can also be practiced with a facsimile machine that stores read and compressed image data in a memory and electronically transmits a predetermined number of originals at once. Of course. In this case, it may be configured to ignore margin lines exceeding a predetermined number and prevent them from being stored in the memory.

Furthermore, in consideration of the case where image processing of drawings or the like is performed, the function of omitting processing of margin lines in the above embodiment may be turned on/off from an operation panel or the like.

Further, the present invention is not limited to facsimile machines, but can also be implemented in image processing apparatuses that record read image data on a magnetic disk or with a laser beam printer, for example.

[Effect] As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, in an image processing apparatus that performs predetermined processing on image information input from a reading means, the image information input from the reading means is a blank space. and a means for measuring the image information of this margin, and when a predetermined amount or more of margin image information is input from the reading means, the margin information of the predetermined amount or more is ignored and processed. Since the configuration is adopted, it is possible to provide a simple, inexpensive, and excellent image processing apparatus 0 that can significantly save processing time and consumable parts.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a facsimile device adopting the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the control procedure of the CPU in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a communication operation by the device shown in FIG. 1. FIG. l...Original table 2...Light source 6...CCD sensor 7...CCD control circuit 8...
・Image compressor 9...Line eight buffer 10...Line control section 11...CPU 12...Motor control circuit D...Original R...Recording paper Fig. 1 Fig. 3

Claims (1)

[Claims] An image processing device that performs predetermined processing on image information input from a reading means, comprising means for determining whether or not the image information input from the reading means is a blank space, and means for measuring the amount of image information in this blank space. An image processing apparatus characterized in that, when a predetermined amount or more of margin image information is input from the reading means, the image processing apparatus performs a processing operation while ignoring the predetermined amount or more of the margin image information.