JPS6262355B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a character image digitizing device, and more particularly to a character image digitizing device that generates a digital character image signal by shaping and sampling an imaging signal of a character image.

A configuration as shown in FIG. 1 can be considered for creating a digital character image signal corresponding to a matrix-like decomposed image of a character image by shaping and sampling the image signal of the character image.

In the configuration shown in FIG. 1, a display piece 2 displaying a character image 1 to be digitized is placed on a base plate 3, and the character image 1 is transferred to an image pickup tube 5 through an optical system 4.
The character image 1, the optical system 4, and the imaging tube 5 constitute the main part of an imaging section 6 that outputs an imaging signal. or,
7 is a processing section, 8 is an output section for the desired digital character image signal obtained by the processing section 7, and 9 is a display section for appropriately monitoring and displaying the processing results.

By the way, the use of digital character image signals created by the configuration illustrated in Figure 1 has been increasing rapidly in various fields recently, but when this is seen in relation to the number of resolved pixels, there is a comparison. CRTs require high quality, large character output, from the 8x8 pixel resolution of Roman characters and numeric display devices, where low quality is acceptable.
There is a wide range of requirements for phototypesetting machines, ranging from 800 x 800 to 1000 x 1000 pixels.

On the other hand, when focusing on the image pickup section 6, it is of course possible to perform digitization with a high number of pixels using a special high-resolution image pickup tube, but the use of such a high-resolution image pickup tube is extremely costly. It has the disadvantage of being high. On the other hand, if you use a normal image pickup tube for industrial televisions that is commercially available at a relatively low price, the number of scanning lines will be low because its original purpose is for televisions.
Due to reasons such as the fact that only about 500 lines can be obtained and the scanning distortion in the periphery not being completely removed, there is a limit to the ability to create a digital character image signal of about 400 x 400 pixels.

In view of these conventional problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a character image digitizing device that can obtain a digital character image signal with a high number of pixels using a normal image pickup tube, and has the following characteristics: However, in a character image digitizing device that creates a digital character image signal by capturing a character image with an imaging means, a vertical synchronization signal Vsy and M types of horizontal synchronization signals Hsy whose phases are shifted by 1/M period from each other are used. The synchronizing signal generating means 27 generates N types of sampling pulses Sp whose phases are shifted by 1/N period from each other.
a timing controller 30 for instructing selection of M×N combinations of horizontal synchronization signals and sampling pulses from the M types of horizontal synchronization signals Hsy and the N types of sampling pulses Sp; , sampling means 23 for sampling the character image digital character image signal imaged by the imaging means based on the sampling pulse Sp generated from the sampling pulse generation means 28;
a storage means 26 for storing N types of digital character image signals; a composition processing means for interpolating and synthesizing the M×N types of digital character image signals stored in the storage means 26 to generate a digital character image signal;
It is to have the following. The present invention will be explained below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of the character image digitizing apparatus of the present invention, and the same parts as in FIG. 1 are given the same numbers.

In FIG. 2, an imaging signal 21 outputted from the imaging section 6 is converted into a binary signal by a comparator 22, and a digital character image signal 24 sampled by a sampling circuit 23 according to a timing described later is sent to the interface. 25 to predetermined portions (#1 to #4) of the memory 26. Further, 27 is a vertical synchronization signal for the image pickup tube 5.
28 is a sampling pulse generation circuit that outputs a sampling pulse Sp to the sampling circuit 23, and 29 is a memory #1 to memory #1 as described later.
A synthesis processing circuit generates a desired digital character image signal by interpolating and synthesizing the stored contents of #4 with a phase shift, and 30 controls the operation of the synchronization signal generation circuit 27 and the sampling pulse generation circuit 28, and the interface. This is a timing controller that synchronizes data transfer timing in the face 25.

Next, a character image digitizing device of the present invention realized by the configuration illustrated in FIG. 2 will be explained with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4. In addition, in the following explanation,
Using an image pickup tube with digitization capability of 400 x 400 pixels, the number of pixels is (M = 2) in the horizontal direction and (N) in the vertical direction.
=2) A case will be described in which a multiplied digital character image signal of 800 x 800 pixels is created, but the present invention is not limited to this.
The same purpose can be achieved even if the value is set to any integer above. Furthermore, in order to simplify the explanation, interlace scanning of the image pickup tube is not mentioned; however, by reading the interpolation result by interlace scanning as the output result by one output mode, which will be described later, the present invention can also be applied in this case. can be applied.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing the imaging target area 31 of the image pickup tube 5 having a digitization capability of 400×400 pixels in an 800×800 matrix, and FIG. 4 shows the vertical synchronizing signal Vsy and the horizontal synchronizing signal. This is a timing chart showing the output relationship of Hsy and sampling pulse Sp, and τv and τs are horizontal synchronizing signals, respectively.
The period of Hsy and sampling pulse Sp is shown.

As shown in FIG. 4, the synchronization signal generation circuit 27 outputs M types of horizontal synchronization signals Hsy whose phases are shifted from each other by 1/M period (in this case, M=
2), and the image pickup tube 5 has the following signal generation mode:
It operates in one of these M types of horizontal scanning modes, selected by the timing controller 30. Further, the sampling pulse generation circuit 28 has N types of signal generation modes (N=2 in this case) in which sampling pulses Sp whose phases are shifted by 1/N period from each other are output, and the sampling circuit 23 has N types of signal generation modes (N=2 in this case). It operates in one of the N types of sampling modes selected by the timing controller 30.

At this time, the timing controller 30
For example, as shown in FIG. 5, there are M×N types (2×2=4 types in this case) consisting of combinations of the above-mentioned modes.
The above-mentioned operation mode selection command is executed according to the output mode.

Then, according to the sequence shown in FIG. 5, when output mode 1 is first executed, the selected horizontal scanning mode Hsy (mode 1) is selected.
As a result of the operation of the image pickup tube 5 and the sampling circuit 23 based on the sampling mode Sp (mode 1), from the 400×400 pixels corresponding to the position indicated by the mark “〇” in the imaging target area 31 in FIG. A digital character image signal 24 is output and stored in #1 of the memory 26.

Next, when output mode 2 is executed, which commands sampling mode Sp (mode 2) in which the sampling timing period is delayed by 1/M period (1/2 period in this case), it is indicated by the "x" mark in Fig. A digital character image signal 24 consisting of 400 x 400 pixels corresponding to the position is output, and this is stored in the memory 2.
6 #2.

Similarly, by executing output modes 3 and 4, "△" and "□" in FIG.
Digital character image signals of 400×400 pixels corresponding to the positions are stored in #3 and #4 of the memory 26, respectively.

When the entire sequence of output modes shown in FIG. 5 is completed as described above, the synthesis processing circuit 29 reads out the contents stored in #1 to #4 of the memory 26, and performs the output mode shown in FIG. Perform interpolation synthesis to reproduce the matrix configuration. Then, the desired digital character image signal composed of 800×800 pixels created by the interpolation synthesis process is outputted to an external memory as appropriate via the output section 8, and is used for various purposes.

The character image digitizing apparatus of the present invention can be realized by constructing the synchronizing signal generating circuit 27, the sampling pulse generating circuit 28, the synthesis processing circuit 29, etc., which constitute the processing section 7, using an electronic circuit such as a microcomputer. This can be realized more cheaply and faster.

As described above in detail, the character image digitizing device of the present invention has the great advantage of being able to create digital character image signals with high resolution that exceeds the digitization capability of ordinary image pickup tubes by using the ordinary image pickup tube. It has the following.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a character image digitizing device, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the character image digitizing device of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is an explanation showing a matrix configuration of an imaging target area. 4 is a timing chart showing the relationship between signal outputs, and FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of the operation sequence of the present invention. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Character image, 4... Optical system, 5... Image pickup tube, 6... Imaging section, 7... Processing section, 8... Output section, 9... Display section, 21... Imaging signal, 22... …
Comparator, 23...Sampling circuit, 24
... Digital character image signal, 25 ... Interface, 26 ... Memory, 27 ... Synchronization signal generation circuit, 28 ... Sampling pulse generation circuit, 2
9...Synthesis processing circuit, 30...Timing controller, 31...Imaging target area, Vsy...Vertical synchronization signal, Hsy...Horizontal synchronization signal, Sp...Sampling pulse, τs, τv...Period.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In a character image digitizing device that creates a digital character image signal by capturing a character image with an imaging means, a vertical synchronizing signal Vsy and M types of horizontal signals whose phases are shifted from each other by 1/M period are provided. a synchronizing signal generating means 27 that generates a synchronizing signal Hsy; a sampling pulse generating means 28 that generates N types of sampling pulses Sp whose phases are shifted by 1/N period from each other; and the M types of horizontal synchronizing signals Hsy and the aforementioned a timing controller 30 for instructing selection of M×N types of combinations of horizontal synchronizing signals and sampling pulses from N types of sampling pulses Sp; a sampling means 23 for sampling a character image digital character image signal imaged by the sampling means 23; a storage means 26 for storing M×N types of digital character image signals sampled by the sampling means 23; A character image digitizing device comprising: composition processing means for interpolating and synthesizing M×N types of digital character image signals to generate a digital character image signal.