JPS63148375A - Image editing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily perform the position designation and the position change of an image, by using a line segment or a curve being displayed on an image display means, but not being recorded on an image recording means as an auxiliary means. CONSTITUTION:An operator moves a cursor to a first one point by a digitizer 16 observing a CRT14. Next, when the operator depresses the bush button of the digitizer 16 to represent that the point is the first position of a straight line, a processing part 12 stores it as a first point. Furthermore, when the operator moves the digitizer 16 to indicate the second point of the straight line, the processing part 12 calculates the coordinate of a second new point at every movement of the digitizer. And a display picture element to be changed by the straight line drawn from the first point to the second point is calculated, and the picture element is inverted from black to white and white to black, and a targeted auxiliary line is displayed on the display screen of the CRT14. Also, the curve can be displayed similarly as the above.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to an image editing method, and more particularly to an image editing method with improved operability.

(Backbone of the invention) Image editing involves editing the input image while viewing the display on a CRT, etc., displaying the editing results on the CRT, etc., and recording the editing results using an output device such as a dot printer, if necessary. This is done by By the way, there are times when it is desired to make a temporary note of the editing position during such image editing. For example, by overlapping images 91 and 2 as shown in Figure 5 (a) (b)
When obtaining an image as shown in FIG. 1, it may be desirable to note down the overlapping area 1a and the boundary line /1 in advance, and erase the image for area 1a in advance. In response to such requests, conventional methods have been to place only points (temporary cursors) or to write the area as an image.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) In the case of the method of showing only points with a cursor, only points can be memorized, making it difficult to grasp detailed positions. In the case of the image capture method, detailed specifications can be made, but if you want to change the overlapping area, it is necessary to input the original image again and start the process from the beginning.

The present invention has been made in view of these points, and
The purpose is to provide an image editing method that allows finely specifying the position of an image and easily changing the position.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention for solving the above-mentioned problems is such that when an image is edited and displayed on a display means or recorded by an image recording means, lines that are not recorded on the image recording means are minutes or/
The present invention is characterized in that editing is performed by displaying the curve and the curve on the display means.

(Function) Line segments and/or curves (hereinafter referred to as auxiliary lines) that are displayed on an image display means such as a CRT but not recorded on an image recording means such as a dot printer are used as auxiliary means during image editing. In other words, the image at the time of image editing is displayed only on the image display means for monitoring, thereby improving the operability of image editing.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Here, we will consider the case where a straight line is displayed as an auxiliary line. The operator moves the cursor to the first point while viewing the CRT using a position indicating means, such as a digitizer. At this time, the processing section reads the digitizer position and
Display a cursor on the corresponding display image. That is, the cursor is moved in accordance with the movement of the digitizer by the operator.

Generally, the output value of the digitizer is different from the actual position of the image, so it is necessary to convert it to the coordinate position of the image. Figure 1 shows the correspondence between images.
(a) shows the display screen, and (b) shows the image information. In other words, the display screen shown in (a) corresponds to the shaded area of the image information shown in (b), indicating that only part of the image information is displayed on the display screen. Figure 2 is a diagram showing the output range of the digitizer, and shows that the digitizer outputs X and Y specifying one point (x mark in the diagram) can output up to the maximum DW in the X direction and the maximum DH in the y direction, respectively. .

In Figure 1 (a), CW is the width of the display screen, CH is the height of the display screen, and DX is from the top left corner A' of the entire image to point A at the top left corner of the displayed image. X of
Similarly, the length in the direction DY is the length in the y direction from point A1 to point A. JW is the width of the displayed image, JH
is the vertical width.

DX, DY, JW, and JH are all integral multiples of the unit pixel length, and each corresponds to the number of pixels.

GX the horizontal position of the cursor on the display screen shown in Figure 1 (a).
, 1i1 position is CY, CX and CY are respectively expressed by the following equations.

CX-(X/DW)xCW...(1)
CY-(Y/D)-1)xCH...(2)(1),(
Equation 2> is an equation that indicates the positional relationship between the cursor positions CX and CY on the display screen and the digitizer outputs X and Y, and is calculated by the processing section. At this time, CW/Dffi, tCH/D)-
(It is better to set it equal to () for a better balance between the vertical and horizontal movement of the digitizer and the cursor.

Next, move the cursor position on the image information shown in (b) to
, KY, the positions cx, cy on the display screen shown in (a)
The correspondence is as follows.

KX=DX+ (CX/CW)XJW...(3
) KY-DY+ (CY/CH) x JH... (4) At this time, it is better to set the values of JW/CW and JH/CH to be equal for the vertical and horizontal balance between the display screen and the actual image. This is convenient because they are the same.

However, if the pixel density at the time of image output differs in length and width, it may be adjusted to the aspect ratio.

The operator then presses the digitizer push button to indicate that the position is the first position in the line.

When the processing unit confirms that the push button has been pressed, it stores the coordinates (CX, CY) and (KX, KY) of each of the aforementioned points as the first point. Furthermore, the operator moves the digitizer to indicate the second point on the straight line. The processing unit calculates the new coordinates (MCX, MCY) of the second point each time it moves.

Then, from the first point (CX, CY) to the second point (MCX, M
Calculate the display pixels to be changed by drawing a straight line to CY),
Invert the pixel to black and white. Through this process, the desired auxiliary line is displayed on the display screen of the CRT.

Furthermore, when a new digitizer is moved, (C
Reverse the auxiliary line drawn from <MCX, MCY) to
) from (CX, CY), (MCX', MC
Y') are displayed in a straight line with black and white reversed. Through this process, the auxiliary line to be drawn is displayed as the operator moves the digitizer. The above example uses a straight line as an example of how to draw an auxiliary line, but it is also possible to specify multiple points and draw a curved line using a spline function. You can also edit these auxiliary lines. That is, it is the transformation, copying, and movement of the auxiliary lines that have already been set.

Here, a case of copying a straight line (moving a straight line to another position while keeping the same shape) will be described. The operator moves the cursor using the digitizer and presses a button near the straight line he wants to copy.

The processing unit performs the above-mentioned calculation and converts the pressed position of the button into a position on the image. Then, an X as shown in FIG. 3 is drawn centered on the position where the button was pressed.

Assuming a square with lengths dx and dy in each direction, multiple points (K,

Check (KX', KY') in sequence.

This search is essentially the same as the clipping algorithm.

If there is an auxiliary line passing through, auxiliary line 1!10' is displayed at the cursor position Wjl (point B in FIG. 3) on the screen based on the auxiliary line information. This auxiliary line 410' is (KX
, KY) and (KX', KY') by translating the auxiliary line 11m drawn between them (copying). New auxiliary line position ffi (NKX, NKY).

(NKX', NKY') are each expressed by the following equations.

NKX-KCX...(5
)NKY-KCY...(6
) NKX' -KCX+ (KX' -KX) ・・
・(7) NKY' -KCY+ (KY' -KY)
(8) Here, (KCX, KCY) is the position on the image currently indicated by the cursor 10.

The operator presses the button a second time at the desired position while looking at the displayed auxiliary line. The processing section is located at this position (N
KX, NKY) and (NKX', NKY') are stored as straight line auxiliary line information.

When deleting an auxiliary line, when an auxiliary line passing through the area is found in the above process, the display is reversed (that is, the auxiliary line is erased) and the stored contents are deleted. In this case, a message may be sent to the operator to confirm whether the data should be deleted. The content of the message may be text information or may be made to blink a corresponding auxiliary line.

The processing unit stores a plurality of points of information obtained in this way. When JW, JH, DX, and DY are changed, that is, when the display magnification or position of the image is changed, KX
, KY are calculated, and a straight line is displayed at that position. The correspondence between KX, KY and CX, CY is as follows.

CX-(KX-DX)/CW ・(9)C
Y-(KY-DY)/CH...<10) However, the portions that protrude from the display screen are not processed. Perform so-called clipping.

Algorithms for drawing straight lines and clipping are performed using known techniques. Here, the straight line is drawn only on the display screen, not on the original image.

In the above explanation, when changing the display magnification of an image,
(see FIG. 2), the display magnification may be set to 1 if the pixel density of the display screen is sufficiently high to be approximately the same as the pixel density of the image, or if the price of the entire device is to be kept low.

At this time, it naturally becomes DX-DY-0. Further, in the above description, a straight line is displayed as an auxiliary line, but a curved line such as a circle, a circular arc, a rectangle, etc. can be displayed in the same manner. To explain the process for a circle, for example, the first point may indicate the center, and the second point may indicate the radius from the center. Alternatively, it may be a circle whose diameter is a straight line connecting the first point and the second point. In any case, in order to display a circle, it is sufficient to memorize two points.

The editing method of the present invention not only uses the auxiliary line as a key during image editing, but also includes using the auxiliary line to indicate the processing range of the image to the processing unit. For example, it can be used to color an image on an auxiliary line in a specific color, or to fill in a closed area surrounded by an auxiliary line with a specific pattern or color.

Further, in the description, it is assumed that the auxiliary lines are always displayed, but it is also possible to display only the image that is originally output without overlapping the auxiliary lines on the image according to the operator's instructions.

That is, if the processing unit receives an instruction to hide the auxiliary line,
The pixels may be inverted again based on the auxiliary line information. Also, if you receive this instruction when the auxiliary line is not displayed, there is no need to do anything.

If an instruction to hide an auxiliary line is received while no auxiliary line is being displayed, the display process described above may be performed while clipping all auxiliary lines based on the auxiliary line information.

FIG. 4 is a system configuration diagram for implementing the method of the present invention. In the figure, 11 is an image memory that stores edited images, and 12 is a processing section that performs the aforementioned image editing, auxiliary line processing, and analysis of IG collection instruction contents. 13 is a display memory that stores image data for display, such as a refresh memory; 14 is a display device that constantly displays the contents of the display memory 13, such as a CRT. 15 is image memory 11
This is an output device that outputs the contents of. The output device 15 may be any device that can make a hard copy of the contents of the image memory 11. For example, it may be a laser printer, a thermal copy printer, a silver halide photographic device using OFT, or a camera that optically photographs the contents of the CRT 14.

Reference numeral 16 denotes an editing instruction unit that issues editing instructions and position instructions. As the editing instruction section 16, for example, a digitizer, a mouse, a trackball, etc. can be used.

The processing unit 12 writes and displays a part of the contents of the image memory 11 together with the magnification on the display memory 13, and also writes and displays an editing menu for giving editing instructions. Further, the instruction is interpreted from the position information of the editing instruction section 16 and executed. For the processing section 12, a so-called microprocessor can be used. Further, dedicated hardware may be added for image editing and calculation of auxiliary lines. Using dedicated hardware improves computational efficiency. As the hardware, a so-called raster operation processor (R+P), a floating point arithmetic processor, or the like may be used.

(Effects of the Invention) As described in detail above, according to the present invention, when editing an image, the position of the image can be specified by using auxiliary lines that are displayed only on the display means and not output on the image output means. It is possible to provide an image editing method that allows detailed editing and easy position changes.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figures 1 to 3 are explanatory diagrams of the method of the present invention, Figure 4 is a system configuration diagram for implementing the method of the present invention, and Figure 5 is an illustration of the method of the present invention.
It is an explanatory diagram of m east. 11... Image memory 12... Processing section 13...
・Display memory 14...Display device 15...Output device 16...Editing instruction section Fig. 4 Fig. 5

Claims (1)

[Claims] When an image is edited and displayed on a display means or recorded by an image recording means, editing is performed by displaying line segments and/or curves that are not recorded on the image recording means on the display means. An image editing method characterized by: