JPH0362265A - Image processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To retrieve an image having high image resolution and high accuracy at a high speed by storing the coding data on each line of the image stored in a 1st storage means into a 2nd storage means, decoding the coding data by an amount equal to one line out of every plural lines to store these decoded data into a 3rd storage means, and then outputting the decoded data. CONSTITUTION:An image consisting of plural lines is coded for each line and stored in a 1st storage means 20, and the coding data is read out for each line of the stored image. Then the read coding data is stored in a 2nd storage means 38, and the coding data is decoded by an amount equal to one line out of every plural lines of the image stored in the means 38. The decoded data is stored in a 3rd storage means 42 and then outputted. Thus it is possible to retrieve an image having high image resolution and high accuracy at a high speed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to an image processing device such as an image filing device that performs image registration, search, etc., for example.

(Prior Art) Recently, images such as documents, which are generated in large quantities, are read by optical two-dimensional scanning using a two-dimensional scanning device (scanner).
Image filing devices have been put into practical use that store the read images on an optical disk, search for and read out any stored image, and output it in a form that can be viewed by an output device such as a CRT display device or a printer.

In such a device, when an image is stored on an optical disk, the read image is compressed (encoded) using a compression/expansion circuit (CODEC), and when an image is retrieved from the optical disk, the image is read (retrieved) from the optical disk. The image is expanded (decoded) using a compression/expansion circuit, and the expanded image is
Store it in the page memory, then store it in the display memory,
It is designed to be displayed on a CRT display device.

In this way, when searching for an image from an optical disk, all the decoded data read (searched) from the optical disk is decoded to reproduce the image data. Although this is a matter of course when dealing with images, the decoding time is long, making it impossible to search high-resolution, high-definition images, particularly photographic images, at high speed.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) This invention eliminates the drawback that high-resolution, high-definition images cannot be searched at high speed. The purpose is to provide an image processing device that can

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) The image processing device of the present invention includes a first storage means in which an image consisting of a plurality of lines is encoded and stored for each line; a reading means for reading out encoded data for each line of an image stored in the means; a second storage means for storing encoded data for each line of the image read by the reading means; a decoding means for decoding encoded data for each line every plural number of lines in the stored image; a third storage means for storing all the decoded data decoded by the decoding means;
and an output means for outputting the decoded data stored in the third storage means.

(Function) The present invention is characterized in that an image consisting of a plurality of lines is encoded line by line and stored in the first storage means, and the encoded data for each line of the stored image is read out. storing the encoded data for each line of the image stored in the second storage means, decoding the encoded data for each line every plural lines in the image stored in the second storage means, This decoded data is stored in a third storage means, and the stored decoded data is output.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

1 and 2 show an image filing device as an image processing device of the present invention. That is,
The image filing device includes a control module 10, a memory module 12, an image processing module 14, a communication control module 16, a scanner device 18, an optical disk (first storage means) 20, an optical disk device 22, a keyboard 23, a CRT display device ( output means) 24,
Printer device (output means) 25, magnetic disk 26 and magnetic disk device 27, mouse 29, system bus 3
0, and an image bus 32.

The control module 10 includes a CPU 34 that performs various controls for image storage, search, and editing processing, a DMA (direct memory address controller) 35 that controls information transfer separately from the CPU 34, an optical disk device 22, and a magnetic disk. It consists of an interface circuit (reading means) 36 that connects the device 27 and the CPU 34. Further, a keyboard 23 and a mouse 29 are connected to the CPU 34.

The memory module 12 includes a main memory (second storage means) 38 that stores various control programs such as image storage, search, and editing, management information, etc., and a storage capacity that corresponds to images of several pages of an A4 size document. an image memory (third storage means) 40 such as a page memory, and a display memory (third storage means) 42 as a display interface;
and a display control section 44. A part of the image memory 40 is provided with a buffer memory area 40a having a capacity of 128 bytes. The image memory 40 stores, for example, images to be stored on the optical disc 20 and the optical disc 2.
This is a memory that temporarily stores images read from 0. The display memory 42 also stores an image that is actually displayed within a window in a display window (not shown) in the CRT display device 24, that is, an image stored in the image memory 40 (
Images that have been enlarged, reduced, rotated, inserted, or reversed in black and white are stored.

The image processing module 14 includes an enlargement/reduction circuit 46 that enlarges/reduces an image, a vertical/horizontal conversion circuit 48 that performs image rotation processing by converting the image vertically and horizontally, and image compression (reducing redundancy; encoding). ) and compression/expansion circuit (CODEC, decoding means) 50 that performs encoding and decoding processing (returning reduced redundancy; decoding);
a scanner interface 52 for the scanner device 18;
a printer interface 54 for the printer device 25;
and an internal bus 56. The compression/decompression circuit 50 stops the decoding process when the empty signal and the full signal are supplied from the counter 39, and stores the data in the buffer memory area 40g when these signals are no longer supplied. This starts the data decoding process.

When storing an image on the optical disk 20, the compression/expansion circuit 50 encodes each line of image data of one image's worth of image data supplied from the image memory 42 using the MR (modified read) method. The data is compressed.

When image data is compressed using this MR method, when the image resolution is 200 ppi, the encoding parameter is r4J (k-4), and the 1st line, 8th line, 16th line, etc.・One-dimensional run-length encoding is performed every three lines, and two-dimensional run-length encoding is performed on the second, third, fifth, etc. lines between them. There is. Also, the image resolution is 4
00pp i, the encoding parameter is I:8J
(k■8), and the 1st line, 8th line, 16
One-dimensional run-length encoding is performed every seven lines, and two-dimensional run-length encoding is performed on the second, third, fourth, and so on lines between them. conversion is being carried out. At this time, an EOL (end of line) signal is added to the end of each line as a line termination code, an EOL signal is added at the beginning of one image, and finally an EOL signal is added as an end code for 6 consecutive times. An RTC signal is provided. The format of the above EOL signal is ``rooooooooooo○1'', and a tag pit is provided after this EOL signal, and if this tag pit is ``1'', the next line is a one-dimensional run length encoding code. Show that
When the tag pit is "0", it indicates that the next line is a two-dimensional run-length encoded code.

One-dimensional run-length encoding converts into a code corresponding to the number (length; run length) of consecutive white pixels or black pixels. For example, the code is converted using a conversion table 50a shown in FIG. conversion is being carried out. For example, if the length of a white pixel is rOJ, the encoding code r00110
101J and the length of the white pixel is "10",
It is converted to the encoded code ro0111J, and if the length of the black pixel is "1", it is converted to the encoded code r010J,
If the length of the black pixel is "10", the encoding code is r000
01.00". At this time, the color of the encoded code within one line is alternately white and black, and in order to synchronize the color tone, all lines begin with a white encoded code.

In addition, two-dimensional run-length encoding refers to the position of each changing pixel on the currently encoded line with reference to the position of the corresponding reference pixel on the encoding line or the reference line immediately before the encoding line. It is a sequential encoding method that encodes
The encoding is performed using a conversion table 50a.

In addition, when MR inverse transformation is performed to convert encoded data into decoded data by the compression/expansion circuit 50, in the case of a one-dimensional run-length encoded code, a conversion table 50 is used.
In the case of a two-dimensional run-length encoded code, decoding is performed using a conversion table 50a.

The communication control module 16 is a BCP (Bus Coaa+guication) connected to a LAN, for example.
communication interface 58 such as
It is made up of. In addition, the communication control module 1
6 is a U that is connected via an FCP (Facsimile Connection Mechanism) interface with an external device such as a personal computer.
CP (U n1versalc omnilea
tron processor) may be provided. This communication control module 16 transfers the search information transmitted via the communication line to the main memory 3.
8, or transmits an image corresponding to the transmitted search information. Furthermore, it supplies images stored on the optical disc 20 to the image memory 40, and also supplies search information corresponding to the images to the main memory 38.

The system bus 30 is a bus for control signals of various devices, and connects the control module 10, the memory module 12, the image processing module 14, and the communication control module 16. Further, the image bus 32 is a bus for images, and includes the memory module 12 and the image processing module 14.
, and the communication control module 16.

The scanner device 18 is, for example, a two-dimensional scanning device, and is a document (
By scanning the document (document) two-dimensionally with a laser beam, an electrical signal corresponding to the image on the document is obtained.

The destination disk device 22 sequentially stores images read by the scanner device 18 on the optical disk 20 .

It also searches the optical disc 20 for an image corresponding to search information specified using the keyboard 23 or the like.

The keyboard 23 is used to input unique search information corresponding to images to be stored on the optical disc 20 and various operation commands such as storage, search, and editing processing.

Further, the mouse 29 can be used, for example, by arbitrarily moving a cursor (not shown) displayed on a display window on the CRT display device 24 in vertical and horizontal directions, and by giving an instruction at a desired position, the cursor is positioned. This function is used to select or instruct the displayed contents (various operation modes, area designation for edited images, icons, etc.).

The CRT display device (cathode ray tube display device) 24 is
Images read by the scanner device 18 and the optical disc 2
The image searched from 0 is displayed. This CR
The display area for displaying images of the T-display device 24 is
It is a multi-window type display device that can display four images simultaneously using a maximum of four windows (not shown). Editing processes such as enlarging, reducing, rotating, scrolling, etc. are performed on the images displayed in each display window independently.

The printer device 25 prints images read by the scanner device 18 and images retrieved from the optical disk 20 or CRT.
The image displayed on the display device 24 is printed out (
hard copy).

The magnetic disk device 27 stores various control programs on a magnetic disk 28 attached to the magnetic disk device 27, and also has an optical disk 20 that stores search information input from the keyboard 23 and images corresponding to this search information. It stores search data consisting of the above storage address, image size, etc.

Furthermore, if the image from the optical disk 20 is larger than the displayable size of the CRT display device 24, the image decoded by the compression/decompression circuit 50 is reduced in size by the enlargement/reduction circuit 46 and then displayed via the image bus 32. By being supplied to the memory 42, the retrieved image is displayed on the CRT display device 24.

The CPU 34 is provided with a conversion table 38a having the same configuration as the conversion table 50a. As a result, when the high-speed search mode is selected, the CPU 34
The soft codec function using the conversion table 38a decodes the encoded data read from the optical disk 20 for each one-dimensional code at the time of encoding, that is, for each line. If the image data read from the optical disc 20 is a large image with A4 size and a resolution of 200 ppi or more,
The line-by-line decoded data decoded by the CPU 34 is supplied to the image memory 40 and then transferred to the image bus 32.
The image is output to the enlargement/reduction circuit 46 via the image bus 32, and after being reduced by the enlargement/reduction circuit 46, it is stored in the display memory 42 via the image bus 32. Also, the image data read from the optical disk 20 is A4 size and has a resolution of 200.
If the image is less than pp i, the decoded data for each line decoded by the CPU 34 is transferred to the DMA
display memory 42 via system bus 30 using
is memorized to.

Next, a case will be described in which an image retrieved from the optical disc 20 is displayed on the CRT display device 24 in such a configuration. First, the high-speed search mode is set using the keyboard 23, and search information corresponding to the image desired to be searched is input. The CPU 34 sequentially compares and collates the input search information with the search information stored on the magnetic disk 26, and sequentially checks whether or not search information that matches the input search information is stored.

As a result, the CPU 34 reads the document number of the matching search information from the magnetic disk 26 and stores it in the main memory 38. Next, the CPU 34 displays the list of document numbers stored in the main memory 38 on the CRT display device 24. Next, desired search information is selected from the search information displayed on the CRT display device 24 using the keyboard 23. The address corresponding to this selected search information is read. The CPU 34 calculates a physical track address and a physical sector address corresponding to this address, and uses these addresses to cause the optical disc device 22 to reproduce images from the optical disc 20.

In addition, the CPU 34 uses the DMA 35 to sequentially transfer the image data (encoded data) for each line supplied from the destination disk device 22 via the interface circuit 36 to the main memory 38 via the system bus 30. Write to memory 38. After the image data (encoded data) for one image is stored in this main memory 38, the CP
U34 sequentially decodes the image data (encoded data) for each line using the conversion table 50a, and outputs this decoded data to the image memory 40 or display memory 42 using the DMA 35. At this time, the image memory 40 and the display memory 42 have white data stored (white cleared) in advance in areas where image data is stored.

That is, when the image data read from the optical disk 20 is a large image of A4 size and resolution of 200 ppi or more, the decoded data for each line decoded by the CPU 34 is supplied to the image memory 40. After that, it is output to the enlargement/reduction circuit 46 via the image bus 32, and after being reduced by the enlargement/reduction circuit 46, it is stored in the display memory 42 via the image bus 32. If the image data read from the optical disc 20 is an A4 size image with a resolution of 200 ppi or less,
The line-by-line decoded data decoded by the CPU 34 is stored in the display memory 42 via the system bus 30 using the DMA 35.

As a result, the image decoded line by line from the first line to the last line is displayed on the CRT display device 24.

The line-by-line decoding process (soft copy) by the CPU 34 will be explained with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, the CPU 34 recognizes the width, height, and resolution of the image from the search information. If the recognized resolution is 200ppi, the CPU 34 determines that the k parameter is "4", and if the resolution is 400ppi, the k
Determine that the parameter is "8", calculate the final line by subtracting "k parameter 1" from the recognized height, set the color of the encoding code to white, and set the line to be encoded as the start line (1 line). do.

In this state, the CPU 34 uses the main memory 3
The image data (encoded data) of the first line from 8 is decoded, and this decoded data is output to the image memory 40 or the display memory 42 using the DMA 35.

That is, after setting each of the above parameters, the CPU 34 reads the EOL signal added at the beginning of the first line of encoded data. If this EOL signal cannot be read, the CPU 34 determines an error return. Further, when the EOL signal is read, the CPU 34 decodes the encoded code supplied next as a white run length, and decodes it using the conversion table 34a. After that, C
The PU 34 sets the color of the next encoded code to black, decodes the next supplied encoded code as a black run length, decodes it using the conversion table 34a, and stores it in an internal memory (not shown). Thereafter, until the EOL signal is decoded, the CPU 34 decodes the encoded codes of the alternately supplied white run length and black run length using the conversion table 34a, and stores them in the internal memory. And C.P.
When U34 decodes the EOL signal, it checks whether the length of one line of decoded data is the same as the width of the image set above, and if it is not the same, it determines that there is an abnormality in the compressed data. It is determined that there is a code data error. In the same case, the CPU 34 determines that one line has been successfully decoded, and transfers the normally decoded one line of decoded data to the image memory 40 or display memory via the system bus 30 using the DMA 35. 42
Output to.

Further, the CPU 34 sets the next line to be decoded to the next line, changes the color of the encoded code to white, and then alternately supplies the encoded code after the line in the same manner as above until the EOL signal is decoded. The encoded codes for the white run length and black run length are decoded using the conversion table 34a, and the decoded data for one line that is normally decoded is
The data is output to the image memory 40 or display memory 42 via the system bus 30 using the DMA 35.

Thereafter, one line of decoded data obtained by decoding the encoded code for each k line is sent to the image memory 40 or the display memory 4 via the system bus 30 using the DMA 35.
Output to 2.

Therefore, decoded data obtained by decoding the encoded code for each line from the first line to the last line is written into the image memory 40 or the display memory 42.

As mentioned above, by decoding the encoded data line by line, which is the value of the k parameter, only the encoded data of 1/2 of the conventional method is handled. image data can be obtained at high speed.

[Effects of the Invention] As detailed above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide an image processing device that can search for high-resolution, high-definition images at high speed.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings show an embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 1 is a diagram schematically showing the main parts of the configuration, Fig. 2 is a block diagram schematically showing the overall configuration, and Fig. 3 is a conversion table. FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation. 18... Scanner device, 20... Optical disc, 22
... Optical disk device, 23 ... Keyboard, 24.
...CRT display device, 25...Printer device, 27...Magnetic disk device, 2...Mouse, 3
0...System bus, 32...Image bus, 34...
・CPU. 35...DMA, 36...Interface circuit,
38... Main memory, 38 a s 50 a...
- Conversion table, 39... Counter, 40... Image memory, 40a... Buffer memory area, 46...
Enlargement/reduction circuit, 50... Compression/expansion circuit, 54...
printer interface.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A first storage means in which an image consisting of a plurality of lines is encoded and stored line by line, and coded data for each line of the image stored in the first storage means is read. a second storage means for storing encoded data for each line of the image read by the reading means; and one line every plural number of lines in the image stored in the second storage means. a decoding means for decoding encoded data for each minute; a third storage means for storing the decoded data decoded by the decoding means; and decoded data stored in the third storage means. An image processing device comprising: an output means for outputting; and an image processing device.