JPH0320871A - Image retriever - 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 search device having a page turning search function.

[Prior Art] A conventional image search device reduces an image corresponding to the first base or cover of a document, and stores a plurality of the reduced size images on a disk or the like as index images. This reduced image was then used for searches.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the conventional example described above, it is necessary to have a reduced image in addition to the original image, which has the disadvantage that the amount of data increases. In addition, it is not possible to read out the original image and create a reduced image, or it takes time to create and display the reduced image, so there is a drawback that high-speed page turning for searching is not possible.

The present invention aims to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides an apparatus for retrieving images from a storage medium in which a plurality of images are hierarchically encoded and stored. means for decoding a plurality of images into images of different resolutions; page turning means for sequentially reading a plurality of images from the storage medium, decoding and displaying the images sequentially; and when displaying images by the page turning means, the decoding means There is also a control means for decoding to a low resolution image.

Furthermore, the present invention provides an apparatus for retrieving images from a storage medium in which a plurality of images are hierarchically encoded and stored, including means for decoding an image read from the storage medium into images of different resolutions, and a means for decoding an image read from the storage medium into images of different resolutions; page-turning means for continuously reading images, decoding and displaying the images sequentially; means for switching the speed at which the images are displayed by the page-turning means; and decoding by the decoding means according to the display speed switched by the switching means. This allows for control means to vary the resolution of the image being displayed. [Function] The present invention enables high-speed image retrieval without increasing the amount of image data using the above structure.

[Example] Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention.

The reading device 10 reads a document using a predetermined method and converts it into an electrical signal. The optical disc drive device M20 is a device that drives an optical disc having a large recording capacity, and stores an image read by the reading device IO on the optical disc. The printer 30 prints document information during reproduction printout. The data bus 4l is a bus that sends image information and search information to a predetermined circuit. The control path 42 is a lotus for supplying a control signal to a predetermined circuit.

The electronic file device main body 50 includes a control circuit 5l and a DMA
C (direct memory access controller)
52. The control circuit 5l controls the electronic file device main body 50 and peripheral devices,
The control is performed according to the input contents from the keyboard 53. 54 is a RAM that operates as a work memory for the control circuit 51 and stores at least one page of images output from the reading device IO and the optical disk drive device 20; 55 is a RAM that stores control programs and the like;
It is M. The I-th VRAM 61 and the second VRAM 62 each hold one page of image information from the optical disk. The changeover switch 63 transfers the image information from the optical disk to the first VRAM 6 or the second VRAM 6.
The selector switch 64 switches between the I VRAM 61 and the second VRAM 62 to supply the VRAM 62.
Select image information from M62 and display on CRT display 7
0. Note that VRAM is a random access memory for video signals.

The switching control circuit 80 switches the image information from the optical disk to the VlIA by switching the changeover switches 63 and 64.
There is a switch for switching between supplying the signal to the M61 or 62 and supplying the signal from the iAM 61 or 62 to the CRT display 70.

The encoder 9l has a reduction unit for converting the image data input from the reading device 10 into a hierarchical structure, entropy encodes the hierarchically reduced data, and stores it in the optical disk drive device 20. The decoder 92 decodes the hierarchically encoded data stored in the optical disc drive device 20 and outputs it to the I VRAM 61 or the second VRAM 62.
supply.

Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be explained.

First, the case where the electronic file device shown in FIG. 1 records an original image on an optical disk will be described with reference to FIG. 3.

First, a keyword for the image of the document to be recorded is input in step l>, and after the document is set in the reading device 10, an instruction to read the document is input (step 2). If the search information entered using the keyboard 53 at this time is unregistered, the keyword is registered and a new file is created (step 4); if it has been registered, the corresponding file is opened (
Step 5). That reading device ii! The image information read by ilo is transferred to the encoder 2t91 via the data bus 4l under the control of the DMAC 52 (step 6).
．． 7) Here, the data is reduced and entropy encoded so as to have a hierarchical structure, and is sent to the optical disk drive f via the data hub 4l again under the control of the DMAC 52.
The file is transferred to the i20 (Step 8) and recorded on the optical disc (Step 9). When the recording is completed, the file is closed (
Step 10.1+). Further, the input search information is transferred to the optical disc drive device 20 via the data bus 4l and recorded in the search information recording area of the optical disc. Note that the search information is also stored in an auxiliary storage device (not shown) such as a magnetic hard disk or floppy disk. The above operation is repeated for each document to complete the recording operation.

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram for explaining the operation of the encoding device 9l.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the encoder M9. 112, 114, 116 are frame memories, 113,
115 represents a reduction circuit, and 117, 118, and 119 represent encoders. First, original image data to be hierarchically encoded output from the reading device 2110 is stored in the frame memory 112. The original image data stored in the frame memory 112 is reduced to an image of 1/2 size vertically and horizontally in a reduction circuit l13, and is stored in the frame memory 114. The reduction method at this time is, for example, l/n both vertically and horizontally.
(here, n is 2), or filtering with a low-pass filter, high-pass filter, or recursive filter, and thresholding the obtained value before subsampling. The method is not limited to these methods. Similarly, the 1/2 size image data stored in the frame memory 114 is processed by the reduction circuit 115 to 1/2 size vertically and horizontally.
The image is reduced to two sizes and stored in the frame memory 116. Therefore, the frame memory 116 stores an image having a size of 174 in the vertical and horizontal directions of the image stored in the frame memory 112.

The encoder 117 performs entropy encoding of the image data stored in the frame memory 116 using, for example, an arithmetic coding method, and outputs first stage (low resolution) encoded data 101. Further, the encoder 118 performs entrobi encoding on the image stored in the frame memory 114 while referring to the image stored in the frame memory 116, and outputs encoded data 102 at the second stage (medium resolution). Similarly, in encoder 119, frame memory 1
frame memory 1 while referring to the image stored in frame memory 14.
The image stored in 1.12 is entropy encoded, and the third stage (high resolution) encoded data 1. 0 3 is output. The image data encoded in this way are sequentially recorded in the database starting from the lowest resolution.

Here, entropy encoding is taken as an example of the encoding method, but other encoding methods may be used. Furthermore, it is possible not only to store the randomly encoded image data in a database, but also to transmit it to another system through a communication line.

Next, a case in which image information recorded in the electronic file device is searched by turning over the base will be explained using FIG. 5.

First, when you receive a search command from the keyboard (step 2l)
), the low-resolution data stored on the optical disk is sent to the decoding device 92 via the data bus 41 (step 22), where it is decoded (step 23), and the low-resolution data stored on the optical disk is sent to the decoding device 92 via the data bus 41 (step 23), and the low-resolution data is sent to the decoding device 92 via the data bus 41 (step 23). Low-resolution image information is written to the I VRAM 61 (steps 24 and 25).The CRT 70 starts displaying based on the image information written to the I VRAM 61 (step 27).

No. j. While the data written to VRAM is being read and displayed. Decoding the low resolution data of the next image from the optical disc via the data bus 41 @ 9 2
t,;. The data bus 4l is transferred, decoded, and then transferred to the data bus 4l again.
Then, the image is written to the second VRAM and the previous image is displayed for a certain period of time (step 26). Switch 64 to 2nd VR
Switch to AM62 side and display on CRT. By repeating the above steps, a page turning search can be executed.

FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of the decoding device 5,92.

120, 121, 122 are decoders, 12: l, 124,
125 is a frame memory; Data 2ro1 is input to the decoder 120, where it is decoded and the result is stored in the frame memory! stored in 23
Obtain the decoded image data of the 4th stage. 6. The images used for page turning are from the i-th stage. If you search for the desired image C by page turning, issue a stop command. Input 1: Step 28), the original image of the image will be displayed. This case will be explained.

Encoded data calculated from the optical disc (hierarchical code 4
Of the bottled signals, the second stage encoded data 2ro2
is a return device! 21.

In the decoder 121, encoded data 2 and 2 are decoded while referring to the image data stored in the frame memory 1 and it 23 during the previous first stage decoding, and the result is stored in the frame memory 124. The second stage decoded image data 302 is output. Furthermore, third-stage encoded data 203 of the encoded data (hierarchically encoded signal) read from the optical disc is input to the decoder 122 . In the decoder 122, the frame memory 12
The encoded data 203 is decoded while referring to the image data stored in the frame memory 125, and the result is stored in the frame memory 125 and output as third-stage image data 3ro3. At this time, the image data stored in the frame memory 125 represents the original image before being encoded, so this image is transferred to the VRAM by DMA (step 30) and displayed on the display (step 3l).
). Also, when printing, transfer it to RAM 54,
Just output it to a printer. The feature of the tree method is that since the original image is restored using the low-resolution image used for high-speed page turning, there is no duplication of information such as having the original image and reduced image on the optical disk at the same time.

Therefore, the amount of data can be suppressed and efficient image recording and searching can be performed.Also, as mentioned above, the page turning operation or automatic page turning operation may be used.For example, if the display time is less than 2 seconds, , the J-th stage (lowest resolution) image (
(corresponding to signal 301) is displayed on the display L., 3
If it is 5 seconds to 5 seconds, the second stage (next low resolution lf) image (
Corresponding to signal 302) f? −Show on the display;
If it is slow, it is possible to display an image with a higher resolution than the one you want. This is done in steps 22 and 23 of FIG. It is sufficient to read the second-stage image from the disk and decode the second-stage image. In other words, by changing the resolution JW of the displayed image in accordance with the speed, it is possible to realize page turning that suits visual characteristics.

[Effects] As explained above, according to the present invention, the amount of data can be reduced compared to the amount of data when conventionally original images and reduced images were stored simultaneously. The amount of data to be stored can be reduced and image searches can be performed at high speed. Furthermore, by changing the resolution of the displayed image according to the speed of page turning, it is possible to perform page turning searches that match visual characteristics.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The $l diagram is a block diagram showing the configuration of an image retrieval device to which the present invention can be applied, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an encoding device, FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a decoding device, and FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a page-cut search. 7 20 is an optical disk drive device, 51 is a control circuit for an electronic file device, 70 is a CRT display, There is. l is an encoding device, 92 is a decoding device

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A device for searching images from a storage medium in which a plurality of images are hierarchically encoded and stored, comprising means for decoding images read from the storage medium into images of different resolutions; and a device for retrieving images from the storage medium. An image characterized by having a page turning means for continuously reading out, sequentially decoding and displaying the image, and a control means for causing the decoding means to decode the image into a low resolution image when the image is displayed by the page turning means. Search device. (2) In a device for retrieving images from a storage medium in which a plurality of images are hierarchically encoded and stored, means for decoding images read from the storage medium into images of different resolutions; and a device for retrieving images from the storage medium. a page turning means for sequentially reading and sequentially decoding and displaying images; a means for switching the speed at which images are displayed by the page turning means; and a means for switching the speed at which images are displayed by the page turning means; An image retrieval device comprising: control means for varying the resolution of images.