JPH02296231A - Image reader - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an image reading device that can read images from a film and output them to a printer or the like, and particularly relates to an image reading device that can read images sequentially from a plurality of frames of film.

[Prior Art] An image reading device has been proposed that exposes a transparent original such as 35II11 film to light using a light source and reads the image of the original using an image pickup device such as a CCD. With such an apparatus, images of a plurality of frames of a roll of film can be read continuously by rewinding the roll.

However, in order to successively read a plurality of film images set one frame at a time on a slide mount or the like, an autochanger is used, and each film is read one after another while automatically advancing the slide mount containing the film frame by frame. In this case, when the reading order of the plurality of films has been determined, it takes time and effort to arrange the slide mounts in the storage tray in the reading order and rearrange the tray. Therefore, a method can be considered in which the user specifies which frame of film on the tray is to be read, and the images of the specified frames are automatically read in sequence.

[Problem that the invention attempts to solve] However,
If there is no film at the specified frame number position, reading operations will be performed in vain. Also, when storing image data read in an externally connected memory one after another, the frames where there was no film will become white or solid black data, which will be unsightly if this image is automatically printed out as a multi-screen image. It becomes a thing. For example, if you try to compose one page of an album using four frames, a solid black print will be printed on white paper, which will be unsightly. Furthermore, if the read images are printed one after another, unnecessary prints will be output, which is a waste of time and money.

Furthermore, if the user mistakenly specifies a frame, the user may not notice the mistake until printing, or may not be able to correct it midway, which is inconvenient.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and provides an image reading means for reading images by automatically advancing a plurality of frames of film, and a method for specifying the frame of the film to be read. To provide an image reading device, which has input means for inputting information, and means for detecting whether there is film at a designated frame position, and issues a warning when there is no film at a designated frame position.

Embodiment 1 FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a schematic configuration of an image reading apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, this image reading device l
includes an illumination section 3 equipped with a halogen lamp 2 as a light source for irradiating light onto a transparent original, and an autochanger 5 that feeds films F, which are transparent originals held on a slide mount 4, to the illumination section 3 one by one. , CC as a reading means 6 for reading the image of the film F in the illumination section 3.
A reading unit 8 to which a D3 line sensor 7 is attached is provided.

In the autochanger 5, a tray 9 is rotatably installed on a tray stand 11 by an autochanger drive circuit 10, a reading section 12 is provided at the bottom of the tray stand 11, and the reading section 12 is positioned inside the illumination section 3. It is located in A plurality of storage sections 13 are formed radially in the tray 9 at equal intervals around the center of rotation, and one film F is stored in each storage section 13. Each time the operator presses a forward button or a reverse button (not shown) once, the tray 9 rotates forward or backward by one storage section, and the tray 9 is rotated to the feeding position.
The film F in the storage section 13 that has been moved to the reading section 1
2, and after the image is read at the reading position 15, it is stored in the storage section 13 again. A sensor 16 is installed near the reading section 12 to detect the presence or absence of the film F at the reading position 15.

The above operation is repeated, and the films F stored in the camera 9 are sequentially sent one by one to the reading position 15, where images are read. Further, when the forward button or the reverse button is continuously pressed, the automatic frame feed function automatically feeds the film F one by one to the reading position 15, and images are read continuously.

In the illumination section 3, light generated from a halogen lamp 2 connected to a DC power source 17 illuminates the reading section 12 via a condenser lens 18, a field lens 19, and an optical filter 20.

At this time, the film F at the reading position 15 is irradiated with light, and the transmitted light passes through the imaging lens 21 and is reflected by the reflecting mirror 22 to irradiate the CCD 3 line sensor 7.
The image is read by the D3 line sensor 7.

The CCD 3 line sensor 7 is composed of three line sensors equipped with red, clean, and blue on-chip optical filters. Each line sensor is scanned in the main direction, and the reading unit 8 is controlled in the main scanning direction by a stepping motor 23. The sub-scanning is performed by moving along the rail 24 in the vertical direction (direction d in the figure).

The information read by the CCD 3 line sensor 7 is output as an analog signal to the analog processing circuit 26 via the cable 25, where it is DC reproduced, amplified, A/D converted, and digitally processed by the digital processing circuit 27. It is sent to an external device 29 via an interface circuit 28.

Also, a stepping motor drive circuit 30 for driving the stepping motor 23 and an interface circuit 28
, a digital processing circuit 27 , a film detection circuit 31 that processes information from the sensor 16 , and an autochanger drive circuit 10 or a controller 32 . Control is performed to take the data, setting the digital processing circuit 27, and controlling the drive of the autochanger 5 based on information from the sensor 16.

This controller 32 is further connected to a DC power source 17, and the voltage of the DC power source 7 is adjusted so that the amount of illumination light of the halogen lamp 2 changes depending on the presence or absence of the film F in the illumination section 3 or the reading operation of the reading means 6. It also serves as a light amount control means.

The operation display section 33 is used by the operator to instruct the image reading device to start reading, adjust the density and color balance of the read image, etc., and also sends instructions to advance the autochanger frame by frame and to control external devices. It has become.

FIG. 2 shows a tray 9 using the image reading device 1 shown in FIG.
This is an example of an image processing system for editing and printing out a desired film image from a plurality of film images stored in the computer.

The image reading device l is broadly divided into a film image reading section 51 for reading image signals from a film, and an image signal read from the film and outputted from the film image reading section 51, which is instructed by an operation display section 33. It is composed of a processing section 52 that performs processing according to processing contents, and also performs communication with external devices and sequence control.

The external device 29 includes an image memory 62 and a memory control unit 61.
, and a reflective original image reading unit 71 that includes an image sensor such as a CCD image sensor and reads a reflective original, and an image processing unit 7
2 and Y, M, C.

It is composed of a printer 73 that records a full-color image on a recording material by sequentially printing each color image of BK.

The image memory 62 is a memory for storing image information read by the image reading device 1 or the like, and is capable of storing a plurality of images. The memory control unit 61 is a circuit that controls the image memory, and manages the screen number n and the size (number of pixels) of that screen, and also prints multiple screens input separately into a single image at a specified position at a specified enlargement rate. layout and output on the screen.

The image processing unit 72 synthesizes and edits the image signal 78 of the reflective original read by the reflective original image reading unit 71 and the image signal 75 output from the memory control unit, and outputs the edited image signal 79 to the printer 73.

These processes are executed by sequentially giving commands from the image reading device l to the memory control unit 6e, the image processing unit 72, and the printer 73 via the communication lines 76, 77, and 80.

FIG. 3 shows how images are synthesized by the image processing system shown in FIG. This is to arrange four images of slide 1 to film at any position on one screen-1- in any size to create one page of an album. Further, the pattern of the reflective original 100 is placed on the so-called album mount.

The reflective original 100 is set to be read by the reflective original image reading section 71. Then, the image signal 75 is sent from the memory control unit 61 to the image processing unit 72, and when the printer 73 prints, the reflective original image reading unit 71 reads the reflective original 100 in synchronization, and the image signal 75 and the image signal 78 are read by the reflective original image reading unit 71. The image processing unit 72 combines the two images.

Based on the image signals synthesized in this way, the printer 7
The other part of the print 110 recorded in step 3 is reflective original 1.
00 pattern is transferred.

101 to 104 are slide mounts in which films are stored, and are first to fourth film images. These four images are sequentially read by the image reading device 1 and stored in the image memory 62.
are stored in order. 105 to 108 are storage areas for the first to fourth images in the image memory 62;
1. These first to fourth images are read out from the image memory 62 in accordance with instructions including layout information etc. from the image reading device l, combined with the image signal 78 by the image processing section 72, and outputted by the printer 73, resulting in a composite image. 110 is obtained. 111 to 114 are NZ on the composite image 110, and 1 to 4th film images 1
These are the first to fourth recorded images corresponding to 01 to 104.

Next, the 1st frame, 12th frame, 15th frame, and 16th frame of tray 9 of the autochanger are placed in the 1st frame, respectively. Second.
Assume that third and fourth film images 101 to 104 are stored.

The operation of the processing unit 52 when the first to fourth images are to be laid out and output on the album mount 110 as shown in FIG. 3 will be explained with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 6. However, it is assumed that the layout information for the four screens has already been set from the operation display section 33.

First, set the screen number n to 1, and display that the screen number n is 1 on the display screen of the operation display section 33 (SO), and the operator inputs the reading frame number K = 10 of the first screen from the operation section 33. When the screen number n is less than 4 (S1), it is determined whether the screen number n is less than 4 (S2), and if it is less than 4, n is counted up (S3), and an input from the operation unit for the reading frame number of the next screen is accepted (S1). This process is repeated, and when n becomes 4 or more, the process of registering the frame number on the tray for the screen number n is completed, and the process proceeds.

That is, it is in a waiting state until a start is instructed from the operation unit 33, but when a start is instructed (S4), the screen number n is returned to 1 (S5), and the stored frame number on the first screen is The tray 9 is advanced frame by frame until =10 (S6), and it is detected whether or not there is film at the frame position (S7). If there is film, the image is read by the image reading device 1, and the image information is stored in the first image storage area 105 of the image memory 62 (S8).

On the other hand, if it is detected that there is no film at frame number lO, the operator is alerted by the buzzer provided on the operation display section 33 without performing an image reading operation, and the operation display section 33
3 displays a warning that there is no film for the specified frame (
S14).

At the same time, the currently designated frame number 10 is displayed on the display screen, and the operator is prompted to select whether to change the frame number or cancel this frame designation.

When the operator specifies the changed frame number as, for example, "8" (S15), the process returns two frames (S6).

If there is no FJ Rem in the 8th frame (S7), a warning will be issued again (514), -". Waits for the selection of whether to change or cancel the frame number (S15). On the other hand, after the change If there is film at the 8th frame (S7), the image is read and the image information is stored in the first image storage area 105 of the image memory 62 (S8).

On the other hand, if there is no film at frame number lO and the operator cancels this frame designation (S15), it will be confirmed that there was no film at the frame with the read frame number input corresponding to screen number n 1. The image is temporarily stored and the process proceeds without reading the image (S9). Incidentally, at this point, the image number n is an image, and since n is less than 4 (SIO), n is counted up (Sll) and the process proceeds to reading the next screen number.

Then, move the tray 9 to the frame position of the next image number n (S6), and if there is film at that frame position (S7)
), reads the image, and stores the image information in the n-th image area of the image memory 62 (S8).

In addition, if it is detected that there is no film, a buzzer will sound to warn the operator and the operation display will
3. Displays a warning that the specified frame of film is not available (
S14). At the same time, the currently designated frame number n is displayed on the display screen, and the operator is prompted to select whether to change the frame number or cancel this frame designation. When the operator specifies the changed frame number n' (S15), the frame is advanced to the specified frame (S6
).

If there is no film for that frame (S7), a warning is issued (514), and the process waits for a selection to change or cancel the frame number. On the other hand, if there is film in that frame (S
7) Read the image and store the image information in the first image storage area 105 of the image memory 62 (S8).

On the other hand, if there is no film at frame number n, and the operator cancels this frame designation (S15), screen number n
It is temporarily stored that there is no film at the frame corresponding to the input frame number, and the process proceeds without image reading (S9). Then, if the image number n is less than 4 (S10), count up n (
Sll), proceed to reading the next screen number.

While n is less than 4 (SIO), n is counted up (5ll), 36 to SIO are repeated, and when n becomes 4 or more (SIO), a print command is sent (S12) to the image processing unit 72 and printer 73. is driven to perform composite printing, wait for printing to finish, and end the 4-frame composite mode.

For example, tray 9, which is specified as the third screen,
If there is no film in the 15th frame of , conventionally the reading operation is executed even though there is no film, and the composite image is blank at 115 as shown in Figure 4, and image 113 is in the upper right corner. It remains unsightly as it is missing. However, as in this embodiment, if there is no film, the reading operation is not performed, so the warning is recognized and
By changing or canceling the frame number, the images will not be combined and become unsightly as shown in FIG. 5.

[Other Embodiments] FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the operating procedure of the second embodiment, and FIG. 8 shows an example of an output image according to the procedure of FIG. 7.

200 is a mount, and 201 to 216 are images recorded on 13 frames of a 16 frame multi-screen, respectively.

That is, when trying to print out 16 consecutive frames of images controlled by the autochanger 5 on a multi-screen, the film may not be stored in the storage section 13 corresponding to the 4th, 6th, and 11th frames in the middle. This is an example of a case where

The flow of the control operation will be explained according to the flowchart shown in FIG.

When entering the multi-screen mode (assuming that N=16 and 16 screens are selected), the screen number n and frame number K are both set to 1 (S20).

When the first frame of film is present (S21), that frame is scanned and the read data is stored in the first image area of the image memory (S23). Here, since the frame number is K or less than N (S24), the screen number n is counted up (S25).
), the frame advances to the next frame, and the frame number is also counted up (S22).

From the second frame onwards, the loop of S22 to S24 is repeated until K becomes N or more. However, if there is no film in tray 9 at the middle frame,
As in the first embodiment, a warning of no frames is issued (S2
B).

In response to this warning, the operator instructs to skip that frame and continue (S29), the frame advances to the next frame and K is counted up (522), and the presence or absence of the film is detected again and the frame is detected. (S21), execute a reading operation (S23)
.

On the other hand, if the operator does not instruct to continue (S29) but interrupts the reading operation and instructs to print (S30), the controller 32 causes the memory control unit to output the print for one screen that has been transferred to the memory. 326), waits for the print operation to finish (S27), and then ends the multi-screen child mode.

Note that if the operator does not instruct to continue (S29) and instructs to stop printing (S30), the multi-screen mode is ended without printing.

Images 201 to 203, 205, 207 to 216 in FIG. 8 correspond to the first frame to the third frame, the fifth frame, and the seventh frame to the 16th frame of the film stored in the tray 9. In addition, the numbers 1 to 13 shown in the figure are screen numbers n
The images stored in the image memory by reading only the film stored in the tray 9 with the index corresponding to the index are printed out in the order of the index.

Fig. 9 shows a conventional example. When there is no film at the Kth frame (for example, the 4th, 6th, and 11th frames), even if there is no film,
This is a diagram showing a case where the image is read and displayed on a multi-screen.

In this way, the portion corresponding to the film image not stored in the tray 9 is printed out as a blank area, resulting in a blank output.

On the other hand, according to the control shown in FIG. 7, the parts corresponding to the film images not stored in the tray 9 are compressed and outputted as shown in FIG. 8, so that an orderly output can be obtained.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, a warning is issued when there is no film at a specified frame, so users can
- Users will now be able to notice their mistakes more quickly, eliminating the need for unnecessary printing.Also, when writing images to memory in 4-frame composite mode or multi-screen mode, if there is no film at the specified frame. When a warning is issued, the editing conditions such as layout conditions can be changed by the operator's operation, or the image can be treated as if the frame had not been specified in the first place, so there is no need to output an unsightly image.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of an image reading device to which the present invention is applied. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of an image processing system. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of image composition using memory. 5 is a diagram showing the layout result according to the present invention, FIG. 6 is a flowchart of the first embodiment, FIG. 7 is a flowchart of the second embodiment, and FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the conventional layout result. 9 is a diagram showing a layout result according to the second embodiment, and FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a conventional layout result. 1... Image reading device 2... Halogen lamp (light source) 3... Illumination section 5... Auto changer 6... Reading means 7... CCD 3 line sensor 8... Reading unit 16... Sensor 17...DC power supply 32...Controller (light amount control means) F...Film (transparent original) s2C;

Claims (4)

[Claims] (1) An image reading means for reading images by automatically advancing multiple frames of film, an input means for specifying the frame of the film to be read, and a means for detecting whether there is film at the specified frame position. 1. An image reading device comprising: an image reading device which issues a warning if there is no film at a frame position specified for reading; (2) It has an image reading means for reading images while automatically feeding multiple frames of film, an input means for specifying the frame of the film to be read, and a means for detecting whether there is film at the specified frame position. An image reading device characterized in that, if there is no film at a frame position specified for reading, the image editing conditions can be changed after issuing a warning. (3) The image reading device according to claim 2, wherein changing the image editing conditions means reconfiguring the editing conditions assuming that the frame was not specified from the beginning. (4) The image reading device according to claim 2, characterized in that it is possible to change and continue frame designation thereafter.