KR100299959B1 - Method for controlling software codec of combiner - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A method for controlling software CODEC of a combiner is provided to process various kinds of data being inputted simultaneously by embodying a CODEC using a software. CONSTITUTION: Various information of output data necessary for converting data is opened and initialized(S401). Various information of input data necessary for converting data is opened and initialized(S402). Information related to input data to be processed is received and set(S403). A position for reading the inputted data is adjusted for reading the input data to be processed correctly, and an input page is opened by performing an initialization(S404). Information related to processed output data is set(S405). It is judged whether a form of the input data is a binary-coded bitmap image(S406). If the form of the input data is a binary-coded bitmap image, it is judged whether an inputted image is outputted as a MH form. If the inputted image is outputted as a MH form, it is checked whether input data to be processed are remained. If input data to be processed are remained, change element position information of a pixel is calculated. In addition, a line is compressed and EOL(End Of Line) information is appended. A one-dimensional coding is processed. Necessary fill bit is appended for adapting to the minimum transmission time.

Description

How to control software codec of multifunction device

The present invention relates to a codec control method, and more particularly, to a software codec control method of a multifunction apparatus for controlling and configuring an encoder and a decoder required for a multifunction device that processes various types of data at the same time with a software codec having a predetermined control order. .

In general, a multifunction device is a device having a reading unit, a printer, a modem, a computer, and the like, which prints data read from the reading unit or data transmitted from another system through a modem to a printer or stores the data on a hard disk in the computer. .

Therefore, the multifunction apparatus refers to a device having a fax function, a printer function, a scanner function, a copier function, and the like.

1 is a schematic block diagram of a general MFP.

As shown in the drawing, a central processing unit (CPU) 1 for controlling and processing a system according to a predetermined program, and converting into electrical energy having contrast by scanning and dividing pictures or characters of documents or documents to be transmitted at regular intervals. A reading unit 2 for transmitting digital image data to the central processing unit 1, program data, protocol data, text data and recorded audio data, and accessing data under control of the central processing unit 1; Or a modem for demodulating and outputting the received input signal by modulating and outputting the data output from the central processing unit 1 under the control of the memory unit 3 and the central processing unit 1 in analog form. 4) and a code / complex for encoding or decoding data under the control of the central processing unit 1 for efficient processing of data input / output to the modem 4. A network controller 6 for forming a call loop of a telephone line under the control of the central processing unit 1 and interfacing the signal of the modem 4 with the signal of the telephone line; It is provided with a key and a display device to input various control commands, and under the control of the central processing unit 1, an operating panel 7 for displaying the state and various information of the system, and a main memory or auxiliary storage device. Computer 8, an ordinary printer 9 capable of printing and expressing original information through an arbitrary transmission line or printing contents stored in the computer 8, and receiving or transmitting via a modem 4 The data stored in the memory unit 3 or the data stored in the main memory device or auxiliary storage device of the general computer 8 under the control of the central processing unit 1, or transmitted to the general computer 8; The data in your storage device (9) It is configured as a buffer controller 10 for outputting the data to the printer (9) or to output the data read through the reading unit (2).

The data coding and decoding (called codec) in the general MFP can be roughly divided into two methods. There is a way it is.

First, in the case of configuring a codec with hardware, the information required for data compression or decompression is stored in a predetermined buffer (register) and processed so that the operation speed is high, but the process of making it an ASIC This has the disadvantage of being expensive.

In the case of implementing a codec in software, unlike hardware configuration, data can be processed by a program according to a certain data flow without implementing a special circuit, so it may be more useful, but how to process various kinds of data input at the same time The key is to be able to do it quickly.

On the other hand, a general software codec requires a unique codec software module for each data type in order to process different types of data. Therefore, a codec software module corresponding to each data type is required to code various types of data. Because it has to operate, it wastes system resources and has a problem of slowing down codec speed due to each software function.

As described above, there is a problem in that a manufacturing cost increases in a method of configuring a codec with hardware in a general MFP, and in the case of a method for implementing a software codec, various types of input to the multifunction device are simultaneously input. There was a problem of not processing data quickly and wasting system resources.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to implement a software codec without special hardware configuration in consideration of the above two distinct problems, so as to be able to quickly process even a variety of data input at the same time,

1 is a block diagram of a general multifunction device,

2 is a conceptual diagram showing a data flow of a preferred multifunction device according to the present invention,

3 is a table showing data paths corresponding to functions possible in the preferred multifunction apparatus according to the present invention;

4A and 4B illustrate a method of controlling a software codec of a multifunction apparatus according to the present invention.

The present invention for achieving the above object, the input data type determination step of determining the input data type of the received data; An output data type determination step of processing the input data and determining an output data type of data to be output; An encoding step of performing encoding in a manner corresponding to an output data type of the input data to encode the input data according to an output data type; Disclosed is a method for controlling a software codec of a multifunction apparatus including a decoding step of decoding the encoded data when the received data is predetermined encoded.

Preferably, in the encoding step, when the input data type of the received data is bit-type and the output data type is one-dimensional coded (MH: Modified Huffman) type, the input data is 1 according to one line inflection point information. Perform dimensional encoding.

Preferably, in the encoding step, when the input data type of the received data is a bit-in input type and the output data type is a two-dimensional coded (MR) type, information on one line inflection point of the input data is provided. Accordingly, one-dimensional encoding and two-dimensional encoding are selectively performed.

Preferably, in the encoding step, when the input data type of the input data is a bit-in input type and the output data type is a modified modified read (MMR) type, the input data is two-dimensionally encoded according to one line inflection point information. Perform

Preferably, in the decoding step, when the received data is encoded by one-dimensional coding method (MH: Modified Huffman method) / two-dimensional coding method (MR: Modified Read method), the encoded data is one-dimensionally decoded.

Preferably, in the decoding step, when the input data is encoded by Modified Modified Read (MMR), the encoded data is two-dimensionally decoded.

Hereinafter, the objects, features, and advantages of the present invention described above will be described in more detail with reference to the preferred embodiments of the present invention shown in the accompanying drawings.

The terms to be described below are terms defined in consideration of functions in the present invention, and may vary according to the intention or custom of a person skilled in the art, and the definitions should be made based on the contents throughout the specification.

Looking at the data flow of the preferred multifunction device according to the present invention with reference to FIG.

First, the multifunction apparatus according to the present invention uses a Charge Coupled Device (CCD) 210 to the readout unit 2 instead of a CIS (Contact Image Sensor) mainly employed in the readout unit 2 of the conventional multifunction device to read a color or black and white document. Poison

The resolution at this time can read up to 600 DPI, while the fax data is 200 DPI. In addition, the reading mechanism is a shuttle scan, in which the reading module has the same shape as the movement of the print head. Raw data is stored in band 1 or 2 220 in a deasterized form (the form of the data is aligned vertically) via direct memory access (DMA) (process 1 The size of this band is proportional to the data read width and the number of read lines. Assuming that there are 128 lines read at a time and the effective read width is 303 bytes, the size of one band is equal to 128 lines x 303 bytes = 38 KB. 76 KB is needed for one more band for efficient data management.

Data stored in each band 220 is passed through the swath logic (SWATH LOGIC: 230) by the operation of the central processing unit (1), this logic is in the printer module, the role of the derasterized data Change it into rasterized data. The changed data is again stored in the 16 × 16 raster buffer 240 through the operation of the central processing unit 1.

Since the size of this buffer is 16 bits x 16 bits, it is 32 bytes and is stored in the slice buffer 250 again. That is, the slice buffer 250 has data of the actual original in units of lines. Until now, the process has been complicated and the data volume is large. Therefore, the conventional process is composed of hardware using ASICs. Such an ASIC is referred to as a color image processor (CIP), and all of the above-described processes are processed in the CIP.

The slice buffer 250 is composed of 16 lines. The size of the slice buffer 250 is 303 bytes × 16 lines, 4.73 KB, and two buffers may be used for efficient data transmission.

The data processed by the above-described process is stored, transferred, sent to a PC, and printed in a memory according to a current desired job. That is, each task (tasks) is responsible for these details, and if necessary, encoding or decoding of data is required.

As described above, a code and a decoder are designed as an ASIC, which is hardware, and a method, which is designed as a functional module, which is a software. The present invention uses a software codec.

In particular, since the encoding and decoding processes are often performed simultaneously in the real world, the codec 260 is preferably configured with one software module.

On the other hand, the software codec 260 of the present invention receives the read data (step 2), stores it in the memory 270 allocated to the system (step 4), or if the data already exists in the memory 270. (Step 3).

If the data should be transmitted, the communication buffer 280 and the modem 290 will be passed through (steps 11 and 13), and an ECM (Error Correction Mode) buffer 270 may be used to transmit Error Correction Mode (ECM). (Step 10). In this case, the size of the communication buffer 280 may be set to 1 KB, and the ECM buffer 270 may be set to 64 KB.

On the other hand, when printing the read data, the received data, the data read from the memory, and the like, the software codec 260 receives the data to be printed and transmits the data to the printer buffer 300 (step 5). At this time, if resolution conversion is required, resolution conversion logic (R / C LOGIC) 310 is passed (step 6).

The reason for the resolution conversion is that fax data on the G3 is typically received at 200 DPI, but printing is often done at 300 DPI or more. When the printer buffer is included in the printer module, its size is set to 256 KB. The data in the printer buffer is line-by-line and cannot be passed directly to the print head in this form, thus passing through the SWATH logic 320 (step 7). Data passed through SWATH logic 320 is transferred to the print head using DMA (process 9).

Meanwhile, when the read data or data in the memory is to be transmitted to the computer, the data is transmitted to the computer transmission buffer 330. This data is stored in the memory of the application program of the computer by the Extended Capability Protocol (ECP) transmission method using a parallel cable (process 15). Serial communication using RS-232C is possible without using ECP, but it can be excluded because of difficulty in transmitting color data. The size of the computer transmission buffer 330 may be set to 2 KB. In the case of fax transmission of data in the computer, the computer receiving buffer 340 is used (step 15).

Follow step 8 to print a document created in a PC application.

3 illustrates a data path based on FIG. 2, and the multifunction apparatus should be able to represent and implement all possible data paths by integrating all terminals.

Each data path is described below.

1) When data is read into memory for data transmission (A)

This path is used for later transmission or quick reading of the data to be transmitted. The data to be read is one of color, monogray binarized data. At this time, the required number of codecs is required because compression of binary data to be transmitted is required.

2) When printing data in memory (B)

This path is for printing received data in memory if there is data to be copied. 200 and 300 DPI data can be stored in the memory, and data with higher resolutions are excluded because they occupy a large area of memory. Since the resolution of the printer is 300 DPI, follow Step 5 or Step 6 depending on the resolution of the data in the memory.

Since the data in the memory is stored in the form of one-dimensional coding method (MH: Modified Huffman) / two-dimensional coding method (MR: Modified Read method) / MMR (Modified Modified Read method), it is restored to the original image. You need one codec.

3) Original transmission (C, D)

This is the case when a document placed in an automatic document feeder is sent. Both normal and Error Correction Mode (ECM) transmissions can carry 300 DPI data along the same path. One codec is needed to compress the data.

4) Data transfer stored in memory (E, F)

This is the case where the data already stored in the memory is to be transmitted to the receiving side. At this time. The data to be transmitted is stored in MMR with high compression efficiency. If a receiver wants a different compression mode, it needs to be converted into MH or MR data.

5) Receive (G, H) of memory of received data

Typical printing devices are limited in print speed due to slow mechanical motion. To this end, it is an advantageous data processing method to print the received data quickly in memory and print it. Therefore, the preferred embodiment of the present invention excludes a method of directly receiving and printing data, and when the sender sends 300 DPI data, it can receive it and store it in a memory.

If the data compression type sent by the sender is MH or MR, it needs to be converted to MMR and stored, so one codec is required.

6) Memory storage of documents for copying (I)

This data path is the same as reading data into memory for data transmission in Case 1. However, because it is data for printing, it is different from storing at 300 DPI, and since the read data may be stored without compression, a codec may be unnecessary.

7) Print other reports and journals (J)

The all-in-one stores various information related to transmission and reception (e.g., transmission and reception confirmation report), status information of the device constituting the all-in-one device (e.g., printer nozzle status, etc.), and various values set by the user. This is the path to go through.

If you have your own font inside the inkjet printer, you can print multiple characters using PCL3 (Printer Commands Language). Otherwise, you need one codec because it requires the process of compressing the desired ASCII typeface.

8) Printing Documents on the Computer (K)

This is the required path when printing a document created using a computer application. This path is purely required when the all-in-one is used as a printer. There is no codec to use, and all data conversion is handled by the printer driver.

9) Read document into computer (L)

This is the case when using a multifunction device as a pure poisoning device. That is, it is a path necessary when reading a document, editing it on a Windows of a computer, or transmitting it to a sender.

In order to implement this, the following three things should be considered.

First, the control of the firmware (firmware) step to control the reading device,

Secondly, an interface that connects the reader to an application on Windows, preferably using a TWAIN driver,

Third, the application that manages the read data on Windows,

This should be considered.

On the other hand, the use of the codec is determined according to the type of read data. Color and mono gray level data having a large amount of information are not compressed, and binary data for fax transmission is compressed using the codec.

10) Computer Send Function (M, N)

This is a case where a binary data obtained through computer reading or a document created on Windows is to be transmitted. An application program on Windows manages data processing, and thus a codec is unnecessary.

11) Computer Receive Function (O, P)

This is the case where the receiver's data is stored in the computer's memory using the modem inside the MFP. In this case, the codec is preferably excluded.

12) Computer Transfer of Memory Data (Q)

In case of file uploading, it is decided whether to use a codec according to the data type.

The results so far indicate that codecs are involved in almost all cases when the MFP processes data.

Accordingly, the method of controlling a software codec of the multifunction apparatus according to the present invention, which will be described later, may simultaneously process each of the above-described cases and simultaneously process various types of input data in a desired form.

The software codec of the present invention obtains data in line units according to the type, size, and the like of a given data if only a pointer to the input data is known regardless of the input data. Data compression) to obtain the position of the color change from white to black). In this case, even when the input data is already compressed, the compressed data can be obtained in units of one line, and reconstructed to decode the original binary data.

Looking at the software codec control method of the multifunction apparatus with reference to Figure 4 as follows.

First, open and initialize various information of output data required for data conversion (step S401).

After opening and initializing various information of required output data, opening and initializing various information of input data required for data conversion (step S402).

After initializing various information of the input and output data, predetermined information related to the input data to be processed is input and set (step S403). Predetermined information is information about a compression type and a reduction ratio of data.

After receiving the predetermined information related to the input data to be processed, adjust the position to read the input data so that the input data to be processed can be read correctly, and open the input page by initializing it to white since there is no previous line (step: S404) ).

After opening the input page, information (compression type, etc.) related to the processed output data is set (step S405). On the other hand, the codec refers to this information when converting the input data.

After performing basic parameter setting from step S401 to step S405, it is determined whether the type of input data is a binarized bitmap image (step: S406).

As a result of determining whether the form of the input data is the binarized image, it is determined whether to output the input image in the MH form when the bitmap data is binarized (step S407).

As a result of determining whether to output the input image in the MH form, when outputting the input image in the MH form, it is checked whether there is any input data to be processed currently. (Steps S408, S409).

The inflection point information of the pixel is obtained from one line, the line is compressed, and the end of line (EOL) information is added (step S410).

After EOL (End Of Line) information is added, one-dimensional encoding is performed based on the information obtained in step S409 (step S411).

After performing one-dimensional encoding, fill bits are added as necessary to meet the minimum transmission time (step S412).

After the one-dimensional encoding of one line is ended, the process branches to step S408 to determine whether there is data to be further processed.

On the other hand, as a result of determining whether to output the input image in the MH form in step S407, if the MR output is not the MH form, it is checked whether there is input data to be processed currently, and if there is input data to be processed currently, the pixel from the line to be processed The inflection point information is obtained (steps S413, S414, S415).

After obtaining the inflection point information of the pixel from one line, it is determined whether one line is to be one-dimensionally encoded or two-dimensionally encoded (step S416).

As a result of determining whether one line is to be one-dimensionally encoded or two-dimensionally encoded, when one-dimensional encoding is performed, one line is one-dimensionally encoded (step S417).

As a result of determining whether one line is subjected to one-dimensional encoding or two-dimensional encoding, when two-dimensional encoding is performed, one line is two-dimensionally encoded (step: S418).

After the encoding is performed, fill bits are added in an amount necessary to meet the minimum transmission time (step S419).

After the encoding for one line is finished, the flow branches to step S414 in which it is determined whether there is data to be further processed.

On the other hand, as a result of determining whether to output the input image in the MH form in step S407, if the MMR output is not the MH form, it is checked whether the input data to be processed currently remains, and if the input data to be processed currently remains, the pixel from the line to be processed. Obtain the inflection point information of (step S420, S421, S422).

Two-dimensional encoding is performed based on pixel inflection point information of the line to be processed (step S423).

After the 2D encoding is performed, a fill bit is added in an amount necessary to meet the minimum transmission time (step S412).

After the two-dimensional encoding on one line is finished, the process branches to step S421 to determine whether there is data to be further processed.

On the other hand, as a result of determining whether the form of the input data is the binarized image in step 406, if the input data is not the binarized bitmap data, it is determined whether to output the input image as the bitmap (step: S425).

As a result of determining whether or not to compress the input image into the bit 결과, when the input image is compressed into the bit 멥, the shape of the input image data is determined and set to one-dimensional decoding in the case of the MH / MR input (step S426).

The type of the input image data is determined and set to two-dimensional decoding in case of MMR input (step: S427).

After setting the decoding type, decoding is performed according to the set type (step S428).

On the other hand, if it is determined in step 425 whether the input image is to be output as bit 멥, when the input image is not output as bit 멥, the shape of the input image data is determined and set to one-dimensional decoding in case of MH / MR input (step : S429).

The type of the input image data is determined and set to two-dimensional decoding in case of MMR input (step S430).

After setting the decoding type, decoding is performed according to the set type (step S431).

As described above, according to the present invention, since various types of data input simultaneously can be processed through a software codec constituted by one software module, the system is overloaded by performing routines and programs corresponding to the respective types. (System overload) and processing speed delay problem is solved, it is effective to process various types of data quickly,

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention may be modified without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. It will be appreciated that modifications or variations may be made. Therefore, changes in the future embodiments of the present invention will not be able to escape the technology of the present invention.

Claims (3)

In the software codec control method of a multifunction apparatus that receives data and performs encoding and decoding, An input data type determination step of determining an input data type of the received data; An output data type determination step of processing the input data to determine an output data type of data to be output; An encoding step of performing encoding in a manner corresponding to an output data type of the input data in order to encode the data according to an output data type if the input data is in bitmap form; Decoding to decode the encoded data when the received data is encoded by one of a one-dimensional coding method (MH: Modified Huffman method), a two-dimensional coding method (MR: Modified Read method), or MMR (Modified Modified Read method). Software codec control method for a multifunction printer, comprising the steps of The method of claim 1, wherein in the encoding step, Performing one-dimensional encoding according to line inflection point information of the input data when the output data type is a one-dimensional coded one (MH: Modified Huffman); Selectively performing one-dimensional encoding and two-dimensional encoding on the input data according to one line inflection point information when the output data type is a two-dimensional encoded (MR) type; And if the output data type is MMR (Modified Modified Read) type, performing the two-dimensional encoding of the input data according to one line inflection point information. The method of claim 1, wherein in the decoding step, Performing one-dimensional decoding on the encoded data when the received data is encoded by a one-dimensional coding method (MH: Modified Huffman method) / two-dimensional coding method (MR: Modified Read method); If the received data is encoded by MMR (Modified Modified Read), the software codec control method of the multifunction device characterized in that the two-dimensional decoding of the encoded data.

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