JPS63260265A - Color picture processing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the stain of an original by placing a transparent sheet member overlappingly on the original, describing a loop of a specific hue different from an edition command onto the sheet and reading it, thereby extracting the edition area with high accuracy. CONSTITUTION:The original 1 is clipped between sheets 2 formed by folding a transparent sheet 2a and other white sheet 2b and closed. A loop L surrounding an area B desired to be edited on the original 1 is drawn on the transparent sheet 2a in a specific hue sign pen 3. The original 1 is removed from the sheet 2, only the sheet 2 is applied to a picture input device 10 to store the loop L in a color picture memory 11. Then the original 1 is inserted to the color picture input device 10, the picture information and loop information of the memory 11 are processed by a color picture processor 12, the information in the loop is edited and the edited picture information by a controller 13 is inputted to an output device 14. Two or more of loops L are processed simultaneously while varying the hue. Thus, the edition with high accuracy is attained without giving to the stain to the original.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a color image processing apparatus such as a digital color copying machine, and more particularly to a color image processing method for performing editing such as image conversion processing.

[Conventional technology]

In a color image processing device, for example, a digital color copying machine, a color original is read through red, green, and blue filters, converted into red, green, and blue image signals, and stored in a memory. An image is output based on the read image signal. Therefore, by performing signal processing such as level conversion on the image signal when reading the image signal from the memory, it becomes possible to perform various processing on the image.

For example, a method has been proposed in which a certain area on a document is designated and a predetermined editing process is performed on this area.

In this case, the area to be edited is specified by writing a loop of a specific hue on the document using a felt-tip pen or the like.

Then, the color image input device reads this loop of a specific hue along with the original image, and uses the inside of the loop as an editing area to erase the original image contained within this loop, or convert it to a specified color to edit the image. I'm trying to edit it.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, in conventional color image processing methods, reading the image on the document and detecting the loop are performed at the same time, so if the image on the document and the loop come into contact, for example, if a character and a loop overlap, Loop detection becomes uncertain, and loop detection processing becomes complicated to ensure detection. Furthermore, if the background of the original is colored or if there is a loop in the color image, there is a problem in that it is extremely difficult to detect the loop itself or the hue. Furthermore, since the loops were written directly on the manuscript with a pen or the like, there was an inconvenience that the manuscript was stained.

The present invention was devised to solve the above-mentioned problems, and aims to detect edited areas easily and with high accuracy by separating reading of a manuscript and reading of a loop. shall be.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to achieve the above object, the color image processing method of the present invention reads a document with a color image input device to obtain document information, and edits the document information in a specified area of the document information. In the image processing method, the color image input device reads a loop written in a different hue for each editing command on a member provided separately from the original, and the editing is performed on the original information existing in the loop. It is characterized by editing in response to commands.

As the member, a transparent sheet that is placed over the original can be used, and the loop written on the transparent sheet is read by the color image input device to obtain area data, and then the loop is placed on the original. may be read by the color image input device to obtain manuscript information, and editing may be performed on the manuscript information in an area specified by the area data of the manuscript information.

Alternatively, the area data obtained when reading the loop may be compressed and encoded and stored in a memory, and the compressed area data in the memory may be decoded and edited when the document is read.

[Effect]

In the present invention, a member for specifying an editing area, such as a transparent sheet, is provided separately from the original, and a loop is written in a specific hue on the transparent sheet. At this time,
The hue of the loop is set to a different hue for each editing command. Then, by reading the transparent sheet on which the loop is written, the area within the loop and the hue of the loop are determined.
The editing area and the type of editing command are detected. Then, an editing command corresponding to the hue of the loop is executed on the document information in the area corresponding to the detected editing area, and editing processing is performed.

Further, if the area data is compressed and encoded and stored in the memory during the loop reading, and then decoded when reading the document, the amount of area data to be stored in the memory can be significantly reduced.

〔Example〕

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Hereinafter, features of the present invention will be specifically described based on examples with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic block diagram of color image processing for carrying out the color image processing method of the present invention.

In the figure, lO indicates a color image input device, which inputs approximately 16 color originals through red, green, and blue filters) /
It reads at a resolution of mm (400 dots/inch) to obtain 8-bit red, green, and blue color document information for each color. The read color document information is stored in a color image memo January 1 having a capacity of one page of A4 size. Document information from the color image input device IO or the color image memory 11 is supplied to the color image processing device 12 . In this color image processing device 12, the editing area and the type of editing command are identified from a loop of a specific hue written on a transparent sheet, and this is temporarily stored in a buffer memory. Perform processing according to the command. Note that details of the color image processing device 12 will be described later.

Further, 13 is a control device that performs signal control of the entire device described above. The edited image is output by the color image output device 14. In this embodiment, the color image output device 14 is yellow.

Approximately 32 dots using 4 colors of magenta, cyan, and black)
A color laser printer is used that can output images at a resolution of 800 dots/inch.

Next, details of the color image processing device 12 will be explained with reference to FIG.

In the color image processing device 12, the hue of the loop drawn on the transparent sheet is identified by the hue identification circuit 31, and the area extraction circuit 32 extracts an editing area from the loop. The area data obtained by the area extraction circuit 32 and the hue signal from the hue identification circuit 31 are compressed by an encoding circuit 33 and temporarily stored in a buffer memory 35. The compressed data in the buffer memory 35 is decoded by the decoding circuit 34 to obtain the original area data. In addition, the color document information from January 1 of the color image memo is color corrected by the color correction circuit 36, and the color original information from January 1 is corrected by the color correction circuit 36.
7 to the image conversion circuit 38. In this image conversion circuit 38, an image is edited in response to an editing command using a loop.

Further, a selection circuit 3 is provided at the input end of the color image processing device 12.
When reading a sheet, this selection circuit 30 supplies red, green, and blue color signals R, G, and B from the color image input device 10 to the hue identification circuit 31.
When reading a document, these color signals R, G, and B are supplied to the color image memo IJII.

Next, the procedure of editing work using a loop in this embodiment will be explained with reference to FIG.

In this embodiment, a sheet 2 for loop entry is prepared separately from the original 1 as a means for specifying an editing area. This sheet 2 is, for example, a transparent sheet 2a and a white sheet (2+1) closed on one side. First, as shown by the broken line arrows P and Q in FIG. 1(a), the target document 1 is sandwiched between the transparent sheet 2a and the white background sheet 2b, and then the transparent sheet 1 is inserted as shown in FIG. 1(b). Close the sheet 2a. Then, from above the transparent sheet 2a, the image area to be edited is circled in a loop using a colored felt-tip pen 3 or the like. For example, if it is desired to erase only the character "B" among the characters rABcj on the original document 1, a loop L is drawn with the yellow felt-tip pen 3 so as to surround the character rBJ. In this embodiment, the hue of the loop L corresponds to an editing command, and by changing the hue of the loop L, various different edits, which will be described later, are possible.

Next, the document 1 is taken out from the sheet 2, leaving only the sheet 2 as shown in FIG. 1(C), and the color image input device 10 ( (See Figure 2). When reading this transparent sheet 2a, the selection circuit 30 (see FIG. 3) is controlled by a signal from the control device 13, and the signals R, G, and B read by the color image input device 10 are as shown in FIG. The image is transferred to path (3) shown in FIG. 3, and the hue of the edge portion is detected by the hue identification circuit 31. The hues identified here are yellow and magenta.

It is set to be one of cyan, black, blue, edge, red, and white, and is represented by a total of 3 bits, 1 bit each for red, green, and front. That is, intermediate colors are assigned to one of the eight colors. This hue identification process is performed using R as shown in FIG.
OM (read-only memory) 31R, 31G, 3
This is realized by a lookup table consisting of 1B and 31a. That is, each 8-bit red, green, and blue signal R,
G, B, ROM31R, 31G.

31B into each 3-bit signal, and further RO
M31a generates 1-bit hue signals r, g, b.
is converted to The total 3-bit hue signals r, g, and b obtained here are sent to the encoding circuit 33, and the area extraction circuit 32 receives only one of the 3-bit hue signals r, g, and b. A signal is sent.

Therefore, data of a loop image as shown in FIG. 5 is sent line by line to the area extraction circuit 32, and the inside of the loop, that is, the editing area is extracted line by line.

Here, in this embodiment, as a loop internal extraction method, a method is adopted that focuses on the point of change of pixel data from "0" to "1".

In other words, since the loop L of the editing command is always closed, each time the scanning line S crosses the loop L, the change point M from "0" to "1" is extracted. As you count the number of times, if the initial value is 0, you will know that you are inside a loop when the count value is an odd number. That is, when the count value is FLAG, in the example of FIG. 5, FLAG = 1, FLAG =
When it is 3, it is inside the loop.

Note that the same applies even if the change point N from "1" to "0" is extracted.

A flowchart of this loop internal extraction is shown in FIG.

In step 101, initialization is performed at the start of each scanning line.

Note that 1 indicates the position of the pixel in the main scanning direction (see FIG. 5). Next, in step 102, the determination point is advanced by one in the main scanning direction. In step 103, the pixel data is "0"
It is determined whether the value has changed from "1" to "1". In other words, the current pixel data data (i) is "1"
, and the data of one pixel before (i-1>
is "0".

Then, if it changes from "0" to "1", step 1
After incrementing the count value FLAG by 1 in step 04, if it has not changed again, the count value F is increased and 80 is not changed, and in step 105 it is determined whether the count t[FLAG is an odd number or an even number. i.e. Karan) IIFLAG
When divided by 2, if the remainder is 1, it is an odd number, and if the remainder is 0, it is an even number. If it is an odd number, it is inside the loop, so set r (1) = 1 in step 106, and if it is even, it is outside the loop, so step 10
7 and let r (i) = 0. That is, r(i)
contains the judgment results for each pixel. Step 10
At step 8, it is determined whether or not to proceed further in the main scanning direction, and if it is determined to proceed, the process returns to step 102; if not, in step 109, the process proceeds one step in the sub-scanning direction (see FIG. 5), and then returns to step 101.

Through the above-described processing, the determination result r(1) as to whether or not the pixel is inside the loop can be sequentially obtained for each pixel. That is, r(i) is "l" when inside the loop,
When it is outside the loop, it is "0".

In this way, the editing area can be extracted as shown in FIG. In other words, the non-edited area is "0" and the edited area is "0".
1”. This extraction result, that is, the area data, is
Since the run length of each "0" and "1" is very long, significant data compression is possible.

Therefore, in this embodiment, data is compressed by MH encoding. However, since each editing area corresponds to a loop of a different hue, the MH code cannot be used as is. That is, as shown in FIG. 8(a), for example, black, green and red loops LL, LG,
When writing in Lm, three different editing areas EK, EG, black, green and red are created as shown in Figure 8(b).
Since El is set, it is necessary to identify these areas. Therefore, when the determination result r(i) changes from "0" to "1", a hue code is added based on the hue signals r, g, b from the hue identification circuit 31 as described later.

Next, an example of encoding according to this embodiment will be shown.

For example, when the extracted editing area is as shown in Table 1, the encoding result will be as shown in Table 2.

In Table 2, EOL is an end-of-line code, and M is a make-up code.

T indicates a terminating code.

Table 1 Table 2 As shown here, in this embodiment, in addition to encoding using the conventional M code and T code, when the determination result r(1) changes from "0" to "1", , a code representing hue, that is, a hue code is inserted. As shown in Table 3, the first 12 bits of this hue code are "0" and the remaining 3 bits match the hue signals r, g, b from the hue identification circuit 31.

Table 3 These M codes, T codes, and hue codes are encoded by the encoding circuit 3.
3 and stored in the buffer memory 35.

This encoding allows for significant data compression. The degree of compression varies depending on the number and size of loops, but for example,
Compression on the order of 100 times is possible with A4 size, and as a buffer memory 35 for storing area data,
Small capacity ones can be used.

Through the above processing, the area and hue of the loop L written on the transparent sheet 2a can be efficiently identified using a simple algorithm and device. Further, this identification result is efficiently stored in the buffer memory 35.

After the above processing is completed, the original 1 is read by the color image input device l. At this time, the read document information is transferred to path (3) by the selection circuit 30 and temporarily stored in the color image memory 11. The document information is sequentially retrieved from the color image memory 11, and color correction processing is performed in the color correction circuit 36 to remove turbidity due to unnecessary absorption of color materials used in the color image output device 14. Further, the under color removal circuit 37 performs processing to generate a black plate, and then the image is sent to the image conversion circuit 38.

The compressed area data from the buffer memory 35 is decoded into the original area data by the decoding circuit 34 and supplied to the image conversion circuit 38 . Then, when the document information from the undercolor removal circuit 37 matches the area specified by the area data from the decoding circuit 34, the desired image conversion described below is performed.

The content of the conversion is, for example, the fourth one, depending on the hue of the loop entered.
They are distinguished as shown in the table.

Table 4 An example of the configuration of the surface image conversion circuit 38 is shown in FIG.

The yellow, magenta, cyan, blue, green, and red area signals from the decoding circuit 34 obtained corresponding to each color loop are supplied to the processing selection signal generation circuit 39, and the area colors and processing details specified by the user are supplied to the processing selection signal generation circuit 39. A selection signal is generated that corresponds to the . This selection signal is supplied to demultiplexer 40 and multiplexer 41.

In the demultiplexer 40, the yellow, magenta, cyan, and black signals y, m, c, and k from the under color removal circuit 37 are distributed to six paths a to f according to the selection signal, and the erase circuit 421 color Conversion circuit 43. Fixed binarization circuit 44
1 inversion circuit 45. It is supplied to the edge extraction circuit 46. Note that the path f is for supplying the output of the demultiplexer 40 as it is to the multiplexer 41 without converting it.

In the multiplexer 41, each of the circuits 42 to 46
One set of signals V l among the signals processed by either
+m+ and CI+k+ are selected and output to the dither processing circuit 47.

The document information converted as described above is binarized by the dither processing circuit 47 and then sent to the color image output device 14.
Copy output 4 is obtained.

For example, as described above, if a yellow loop L is drawn surrounding the letters rBJ as shown in FIG. 1(b), route a is selected and the image of the read document Of the information, the signal of the part surrounded by the yellow loop, that is, the part of the character r13J, is processed by the erasing circuit 42 as "
0'', and a copy output 4 from which the character rBJ has been deleted is obtained as shown in FIG. 1(d).

Furthermore, by changing the hue of the loop L, different processing can be performed on multiple areas within the same document.

In addition, if the surface of the transparent sheet 2a is made smooth and the ink used to write the loop L is, for example, water-soluble, the loop L can be easily drawn by wiping the surface of the transparent sheet 2a with a wet cloth. It can be erased, the area or hue can be easily changed, and the transparent sheet can be used repeatedly.

It should be noted that erasing can be done using other than water-soluble ink by selecting the type of solution to be included in the cloth.

Furthermore, when editing manuscripts that have different content but the same format, prepare a sheet with loops corresponding to the formants written on it, and use this sheet for each manuscript. This makes it possible to reduce the effort required to enter loops.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, a transparent sheet was used as a member for writing the loop L, but the material is not limited to this, and if the format is fixed as described above, it may be semi-transparent or, for example, on an opaque sheet. You can also write a loop to read this.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, since a member for specifying an editing command is provided separately from the original, reading of the original and reading of a loop representing the editing command can be processed separately. Therefore, loops can be detected regardless of the content of the document. This makes it easy to detect loops, and allows editing regions to be extracted with high accuracy using a simple loop detection algorithm and device. Furthermore, since it is not affected by the color of the original, the hue of the loop can be reliably identified, and different types of editing are possible by changing the hue of the loop depending on the type of editing. Furthermore, since the loop is not directly written on the original, problems such as the original becoming dirty do not occur.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing the image reading procedure in the color image processing method of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of the entire color image processing for carrying out the color image processing method of the present invention, and FIG. Block diagram of color image processing device,
Fig. 4 is a block diagram of the hue identification circuit, Fig. 5 is a diagram for explaining the extraction method inside the loop, Fig. 6 is a flowchart of region extraction, and Fig. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the extracted region. , FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing the relationship between loops and regions, and FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing an example of an image conversion circuit. 1: Manuscript 2: Sheet 2a for loop entry:
Transparent sheet 2b: White sheet 3: Signature pen
4: Copy output patent applicant Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
Masato Kobori (and 2 others)
Figure 1 (d) Figure 2 m3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 7 Figure 8 Figure (cl) (b) Figure 9 From the decoding circuit 34

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A color image processing method in which a document is read by a color image input device to obtain document information, and the document information in a specified area of the document information is edited. The color image input device reads a loop written in a separately provided member in a different hue for each editing command, and edits the manuscript information existing in the loop in accordance with the editing command. A color image processing method characterized by: 2. The member is a transparent sheet placed over the original, and the loop written on the transparent sheet is read by the color image input device to obtain area data, and then the original is placed on the original. The color image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein original information is obtained by reading with a color image input device, and editing is performed on the original information in an area specified by the area data of the original information. Image processing method. 3. The area data obtained when reading the loop is compressed and encoded and stored in a memory, and when the original is read, the compressed area data in the memory is decoded and the editing is performed. A color image processing method according to claim 2.