JPS632118B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] The present invention relates to a character image digitizing device that decomposes characters, symbols, figures, etc. (hereinafter simply referred to as characters or character images) into any desired number of pixels and converts them into digitized characters. be.

Character images are originally displayed in a continuous manner within a plane. However, in recent years, such character images have been decomposed into various numbers of pixels (digitalization of characters),
There has been an increasing demand for displaying or recording information. For example, a Roman/numeric display device, which allows relatively low quality, may display pixels of about 8 x 8 pixels, and a Japanese word processor may display pixels of about 16 x 16 to 24 x 24 pixels.
At least 100 for CRT phototypesetting machines and laser phototypesetting machines
×100 pixels, 800×800 to 1000× if there are many
Digitalization with over 1000 pixels is also required.

However, like Japanese characters, each typeface has several thousand character types, and each character image is digitized.
Otherwise, the work of making corrections to this requires an extremely large amount of effort, and above all, it is extremely difficult to respond to requests for digitization to various arbitrary numbers of pixels in a short time. Furthermore, conventional character image digitization devices can only handle character images (original characters) formed in advance to any size or digital character signals decomposed into any number of pixels; For character images of various sizes and digital character signals with different numbers of pixels, a pre-process such as creating a new predetermined character image is required.

In view of these conventional problems, the present invention provides a character image digitization device that can easily convert a character image of any size and any number of pixels into a digital character signal of a predetermined size and number of pixels. It is something to do.

FIG. 1 schematically shows a configuration example of an embodiment of a character image digitizing device according to the present invention. In the figure, 1
is a character image to be digitized displayed on a recording piece (hereinafter referred to as the original character), 2 is an image pickup tube for capturing the original character, and 3 is an image of the original character 1 projected onto the image pickup tube 2. 4 is a column, 5 is a base plate, and the configurations 1 to 3 above constitute an imaging unit 6 that outputs an original video signal. Further, 7 is a display device consisting of a cathode ray display tube, etc., 8 is an input section, and 9 is a display device such as a cathode ray display tube.
Reference numeral 10 indicates a control device including a sampling A/D conversion section, a collation mark signal generation section, a digital character memory section, and a controller, which will be described later, and 10 indicates an input/output device such as an FDD.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the operating mechanism of the embodiment of the present invention illustrated in FIG. 1, and the same parts as in FIG. 1 are given the same numbers. In the figure, 21
is a collation mark signal generation unit that outputs a collation mark signal 22 for displaying a collation mark image of a predetermined size or a collation mark image corresponding to a predetermined number of pixels input from the input unit 8 on the display device 7; ,
The manner in which the verification mark is displayed will be described later based on FIG. 23 is the original video signal 24 from the imaging unit 6
After sampling at an arbitrary period, this is A/D (analog/digital) at a constant slice level.
This is a sampling A/D converter that performs conversion to generate a digital character signal 25. Reference numeral 26 denotes a digital character memory section composed of a refresh memory 27 and a font data processing section 28, and the refresh memory 27 stores the digital character signal 25. The font data processing section 28 also processes a digital character signal 25' read out from the refresh memory 27 in response to a command from the input section 8 or a digital character signal 25' (to be described later) which is input separately from an external device such as the input/output device 10. , thinning out, repeating, pixel pattern replacement, and other well-known digital scaling processing is performed, and based on the scaling results, the contents of the refresh memory 27 are updated and the number of resolved pixels is updated.

The display section 29 is composed of a display control circuit 30 and a display device 7, and displays a collation mark signal 22, an original video signal 24, and the refresh memory 2.
Based on the digital character signal 25'' from 7, the collation mark image, original character image, and digital character image are displayed on the same screen of the display device 7. At this time, the image to be displayed and the selected image are displayed on the same screen. The selection of the display mode regarding whether to display the images in parallel, overlappingly, or alternately is determined by the display mode command 35 from the input unit 8.

Further, 31 issues a collation mark image selection command 32, a sampling period selection command 33, a scaling ratio and the number of pixels according to the number of resolved pixels, the scaling ratio, the size of the character image to be displayed, etc. inputted from the input section 8. In addition to outputting the command 34 etc. as appropriate, the digital character signal 25'
36 is an external memory consisting of a floppy disk, magnetic tape, magnetic disk, etc., and 37 is an instruction means to be described later. The control device 9 including the refresh memory 27, font data processing unit 28, controller 31, etc. can be constructed of an electronic circuit including a data processing means such as a microprocessor, as appropriate, but the details will be described later. do.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing various display modes of the verification mark image 38 displayed on the display device 7. In reality, any one of the illustrated marks 38A to 38C is selectively displayed according to a command from the input section. Is displayed. Each of these mark images serves as a guide when displaying the original character image or digital character image on the display device 7 and confirming its position and size. In the illustrated example, the character virtual body (the area that a character can occupy)
In this case, the "+" mark is used as a guideline to correspond to the four corners of the virtual body, but in addition, the center line of the virtual body or a square corresponding to the virtual body can be used, or the inside of the square can be shaped like a grid equal to the number of pixels. It can take any number of shapes, such as dividing it into squares. And each of these marks 38A~
Various types of display data 38C are stored in advance in the collation mark signal generating section 21, and a desired mark is selected and displayed in accordance with the collation mark image selection command 32.

For example, the collation mark 38A shown in FIG. 3 is a guideline for an area consisting of 400×400 pixels in terms of the number of pixels processed by the digital character memory unit 26, and the marks 38B and 38C are each 200×
This is a guideline for a 200 pixel and 50 x 50 pixel area. These are just examples, and the number of pixels corresponding to the mark is not limited to these several types. Incidentally, in FIG. 3, the numbers attached along the X-Y axis are reference numbers indicating the number of corresponding pixels, and there is no necessity to display them.

Next, the features of the present invention will be clarified by explaining the operation of the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 to 3.

[Input from original characters (1)] First, a case will be described in which a character image of a certain size is input to obtain a digital character image of a predetermined number of pixels. When the input unit 8 specifies a collation mark of a predetermined size, for example 38A, and instructs to capture the original character 1, the signal operates the controller 31 to send the collation mark image selection command 32 to the collation mark signal generation unit 2.
Direct it to 1. The generating section 21 selects a reference mark of a predetermined size, in this case 38A, and displays its image on the display device 7 via the display control circuit 30.

On the other hand, the image capturing unit 6 captures a character image (original character) 1 that is created uniformly in a certain size and placed on the base plate 5.
is imaged and the original character image is displayed on the display device 7 on which the mark 38A is displayed. At this time, the optical system 3 provided in the imaging section 6 is operated, or the positional relationship between the optical system 3 and the original characters 1 is adjusted to change the magnification, or the original characters are placed on the base plate 5. By moving the position vertically, horizontally, etc., the position and size of the original character image displayed on the display device as shown in FIG. 4 are adjusted using the collation mark 38A as a guide.

When the adjustment of the original character image is completed in this way, a command is then given to digitize the original character video signal 24. The controller 31 receiving this command from the input section transmits the sampling period selection command 33 to the sampling A/D converter 23 . This A/D converter then operates at an arbitrary commanded sampling period. That is, since the A/D converter is configured with a variable sampling period, the sampling period can be freely changed according to instructions from the input section 8. The original character video signal is taken in and further A/D converted at a constant slice level to form a digital character signal 25, which is stored at a predetermined address in the refresh memory 27. When the contents of the refresh memory 27 are supplied to the display section 29, an image based on the digital character signal 25'' is displayed on the display device 7.

Whether this digital character image and the original character image based on the original character video signal 24 are to be displayed in parallel, overlappingly, or alternately on the same screen of the display device 7 is determined by a prior display mode command. 35.

The character image based on the digital character signal 25'' displayed on the display device as described above may be different from the original character video signal 24 due to quantization errors, illumination unevenness that occurred during imaging of the original character 1, various noises, etc. In such a case, the timing at which the original video signal 24 is taken into the sampling A/D converter 23 is changed, and the result is displayed on the display device 7 in the same manner as in the above case. In other words, by appropriately changing the timing of capturing the original character video signal 24, the image of the original character video signal 24 and the digital character signal 25'' can be displayed.
The state in which the image is most approximated is selected and the data is imported.

Even if it is the digital character signal obtained in this way, if you really want to make corrections, etc., use the light pen provided in the input section 8 to touch the desired pixel part of the digital character image displayed on the display device 7. Alternatively, an instruction may be given using an instruction means 37 such as a cursor (index) display, and the digital character signal corresponding to the pixel may be rewritten using known means.

When you want to check the details of the digital characters created as described above, or conversely, when you want to visually grasp the balance of the entire character, set the font data processing section 28 to a processing magnification other than "1". It is activated to change the magnification of enlarged or reduced display.

The scaling process for executing this scaling will be explained using FIG. 8. This figure 8 shows the second
This is a partially detailed view of the figure, in which 80 to 83 are interfaces and 84 is a CPU. The input section 8 is configured like a normal keyboard, and the collation mark 38
Various types of keys are available, including keys for commanding the generation of images, keys for commanding the magnification for scaling processing, keys for commanding the number of resolved pixels to be described later, and keys for commanding the display mode. When the magnification command key is operated, the signal is sent to the CPU 84 via the interface 80.
can be conveyed to. When the CPU determines that the signal is a magnification command signal, it reads out the digital character signal data (including the address) stored in the refresh memory 27 via the interface 81 and stores it in the memory M1 in the font data processing section 28. is stored via the interface 82. In the example shown in FIG. 8, the font data processing section 28 is provided with two memories M1 and M2, which are used alternately.

When the magnification commanded from the input section 8 is for enlarging the data in the refresh memory 27,
CPU84 reads data from memory M1,
It is written into the memory M2 via the interface 82 after performing well-known digital scaling processing such as repetition or pixel pattern replacement. By reading out the written data in the memory M2 and sending it to a predetermined location in the refresh memory 27, a magnified (enlarged) image can be displayed on the display section 29.

The case of reducing the image on the display section 29 is similar to the above, and the data in the refresh memory 27 is read out and temporarily stored in the memory M1 or M2, and then subjected to digital scaling processing and transferred to the other free memory. , and then transfer it to the refresh memory 27 and display it on the display section.

Here, a processing method for converting a digital character signal of a predetermined number of pixels once obtained as described above into a digital character signal of another number of pixels will be described. For example, when converting the currently displayed image into a digital character of 50 x 50 pixels, the 50 x 50 is commanded using the key for commanding the number of pixels to be separated into the input unit 8. Then, the signal is transmitted to the controller 31, and the contents of the refresh memory 27 are read out and stored in either of the two memories explained in FIG. 8. Assuming that this is the memory M1, for example, the controller 31 converts the data stored here into 50×50 pixels using a known binarization method, and stores the result in the memory M2. And this memory M2
The contents are read out and sent to the refresh memory 27, and displayed on the display device as described above.

The size of the displayed image in this case is adjusted to the initially set collation mark 38A by 50×50 pixels. Even in the case of 100×100 or 400×400 pixels, the size of the displayed image is based on the initially set collation mark 38A.
This shows that the area per pixel for 50 x 50 and 400 x 400 pixels changes as shown in Figures 6 and 7, but no matter what number of pixels are resolved. This has the advantage that the size of the image when displayed is unified.

The digital character signal finally obtained in this way is sent to the external memory 36 via the input/output device 10.
Output to. From now on, many letters and marks will be digitized in the same way.

[Input from original characters (2)] This input method (2) is used to obtain digital character images with a unified number of pixels. First, input the predetermined number of pixels that you want to digitize from the input section 8.
The display signal 22 of the collation mark 38 corresponding to the predetermined number of pixels is outputted from the collation mark signal generating section 21 to the display section 29 in accordance with the collation mark image selection command 32 from the controller 31. For example, 50
When ×50 pixels are input, a collation mark 38C is displayed on the display device 7. Therefore, an image of the original character 1 whose size is not standardized (of course, a uniform size is also acceptable) is captured by the imaging unit 6, and the image of the original character is displayed on the display device 7 together with, for example, the collation mark 38C. . At this time, as in the case of [Input (1)] above, the position and size of the original character image are set using the collation mark 3.
Use 8C as a guide and adjust accordingly. If the sizes of the original characters 1 are different, adjustments are made by changing the optical system magnification of the imaging unit 6 for each original character. When the adjustment of the original character image is completed in this way, the sampling A/D converter 23 is operated at a predetermined sampling period.

Since the original video signal 24 corresponding to the predetermined number of pixels sampled in this way is further inputted at a certain slice level, in this case 50×50 pixels, using the decomposition pixel command key of the input section 7, the A/ The signal is converted into a digital character signal 25 and stored in the refresh memory 27. By supplying the contents of the refresh memory 27 to the display section 29, the digitized character image can be confirmed on the display device 7.

The above explanation was for the case where 50 x 50 pixels were specified, but when 100 x 100 was specified, the verification mark 3
The imaging section 6 is operated so as to capture the original character 1 in a size corresponding to 8B. When the size is 400×400, the original character image is captured in a size corresponding to the collation mark 38A. Therefore, when digitizing a character image by specifying the number of pixels, the size of the image displayed on the display device changes depending on the specified number of pixels, as shown in Figures 5 and 6, for example. become.

Furthermore, when displaying this digitized character image, the digital character memory unit 26 can be used to perform scaling processing, as in the case of [input (1)].

In this way, by transmitting the final result to the input/output device 10, a digitized character can be obtained by specifying the number of pixels.

[Input from external memory] Input from external memory 36 is, for example, converting a digital character signal of an arbitrary number of pixels created as in the above [input (2)] and stored in external memory 36 to another predetermined magnification. Use when To do this, first, a digital character signal serving as the original data is read from an external memory into the control device 9 via the input/output device 10. The font data processing section 28 then
In accordance with a scaling factor command 34 specified by the number of decomposed pixels input separately from the input section 8, scaling processing is performed on the read digital character signal, and the scaling processing result is output to the refresh memory 27. By supplying the contents of the refresh memory 27 to the display section 29, a variable magnification image of a digital character image specified by the externally inputted digital character signal can be displayed on the display section 7. can.

5 and 6 are diagrams illustrating the relationship between the digital character image 39 and the variable-magnification digital character image 40 when the variable-magnification ratio is set to "2," for example. Character image 40
The uneven contour becomes noticeable. Therefore, the display device 7
An arbitrary pixel portion of the scaled digital character image 40 displayed above is designated by the indicating means 37 such as a light pen or a cursor (index) provided in the input section 8, and the scaled digital character image corresponding to the designated arbitrary pixel portion is displayed. By rewriting the contents of the character signal, a scaled digital character 40 as shown in FIG. 7 can be obtained.

As explained above, it is possible to convert not only the magnification but also the number of resolved pixels of a digital character signal read from an external source.

As described in detail above, the present invention provides a character image digitizing device which images an original character 1 of a character image with an imaging unit 6, digitizes and outputs the obtained original character video signal 24; A sampling A/D converter 23 of a variable sampling period type that samples the data at an arbitrary period and binarizes it to generate a digital character signal 25.
; a refresh memory 27 for storing the digital character signal or a digital character signal inputted from the outside; and a font for scaling the digital character signal stored in the refresh memory to a predetermined size and a predetermined number of pixels. a data processing section 28; a collation mark signal generation section 21 that generates a collation mark signal 22 corresponding to a predetermined size or a predetermined number of pixels; the original character video signal 24, the digital character signal 25, and the collation a display unit 29 that displays an original character image, a digital character image, and a collation mark image on the same screen based on a mark signal 22; A command to be transmitted to the conversion unit 23; a command to be transmitted to the collation mark signal generation unit 21 to generate a predetermined collation mark image; and a command to be transmitted to the font data processing unit 28 to change the magnification by a predetermined number of pixels. The present invention is characterized in that it includes a controller 31 that generates the digital character signal and controls the transfer of the digital character signal;

As a result, it is possible to digitize an original character image using a predetermined size indicated by a certain reference mark image as a guide, or to digitize it based on the number of resolved pixels, and moreover, it can handle both cases. In either case, the optimal sampling period can be selected and set, so it is possible to easily obtain digital character signals of a predetermined size and pixel count, regardless of the size or number of pixels of the original character. It is effective.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an example of the implementation configuration of the character image digitization device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the implementation configuration example of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing the display mode of a collation mark image. , FIG. 4 to FIG. 7 are explanatory diagrams showing examples of display states on the display device, and FIG. 8 is a partially detailed diagram of FIG. 2. 1... Original character, 2... Image pickup tube, 3... Optical system, 6
...imaging section, 7...display device, 8...input section, 9
... Control device, 10 ... Input/output device, 21 ... Verification mark signal generation section, 22 ... Verification mark signal,
23...Sampling A/D conversion unit, 24...Original character video signal, 25, 25', 25''...Digital character signal, 26...Digital character memory unit, 27
... Refresh memory, 28 ... Font data processing section, 29 ... Display section, 30 ... Display control circuit, 31 ... Controller, 32 ... Verification mark image selection command, 33 ... Sampling cycle selection command, 34 ... Magnification ratio command, 35 ... Display mode command, 36 ... External memory, 37 ... Instruction means, 3
8... Verification mark image, 39... Original digital character image, 40... Variable magnification digital character image, 80~
83...Interface, 84...CPU.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In a character image digitizing device that captures an original character 1 of a character image with an imaging unit 6, digitizes and outputs the obtained original character video signal 24, the original character video signal is outputted at an arbitrary period. a sampling A/D converter 23 of a variable sampling period type that samples the digital character signal and binarizes it to generate a digital character signal 25; A font data processing unit 28 that scales the digital character signal stored in the refresh memory to a predetermined size and a predetermined number of pixels, and a verification mark corresponding to a predetermined size or a predetermined number of pixels. a collation mark signal generator 21 that generates a signal 22; the original character video signal 24; and the digital character signal 2.
5, and a display unit 29 that displays the original character image, digital character image, and verification mark image on the same screen based on the verification mark signal 22; A command to be transmitted to the A/D converter 23, a command to be transmitted to the collation mark signal generator 21 to generate a predetermined collation mark image, and a command to be transmitted to the font data processing unit 28 to change the magnification by a predetermined number of pixels. A character image digitizing device comprising: a controller 31 that generates a command to be transmitted and controls the transfer of a digital character signal.