JPH04304566A - Method and device for processing picture - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To offer a method and device for processing a picture which unnecissitates the development of a library such as the input/output of a picture file, etc., by respective application developers, unpermits an extension function such as correspondence to a new file format, etc., to be executed by a programing language describing application and uses a system without executing the re-compile and link, etc., of the program. CONSTITUTION:The control process 201 of a picture storage area, which is independent of processing process 203 which actualy executes a picture processing is provided with the function which executes the input/output operation of the picture file as against an external storing device by this invension. Thus, respective picture processing process 202 and 203 only indicate the reading and writing of desired picture data.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

[Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to an image processing method and an apparatus thereof, such as an image processing process and a device for transmitting and receiving image data, and retaining and managing the image data in an image storage area. The present invention relates to an apparatus and method having an independent management process for performing the same.

0002

[Prior Art] Regarding a conventional image processing system consisting of an electronic computer such as a general-purpose minicomputer or an engineering workstation, and hardware dedicated to image processing consisting of an image processor and an image memory, the present applicant filed a patent application in 1983. -59657 and patent application 1986-596
There is a technology that has already been proposed as No. 58. To put it simply, by providing an image storage area management process independent of the image data processing process, an appropriate storage area is dynamically allocated on the image memory or main memory according to the execution of image processing. It aims to make that possible. This allows the programmer to write an image processing program without being aware of the physical arrangement of image data or image transfer between the image memory and the main memory.

0003

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, when using such image storage area management processes from various image processing applications written in various programming languages, images to be processed are input from an external storage device and processed. The user had to prepare an image input/output operation library that can be called from various programming languages to output the resulting image to an external storage device. In addition, in this case, each image processing application developer may adopt its own image file format, so images (files) on external storage devices that can be processed
This sometimes resulted in a situation that lacked uniformity, with different values depending on the application.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problem, and eliminates the need for application developers to develop their own libraries for image file input/output, etc.
We aim to provide an image processing method and device that enables extended functions such as support for new file formats, regardless of the programming language in which the application is written, and without recompiling or linking the program. It is something to do.

[0005]

Means for Solving the Problems The image processing method of the present invention for solving this problem includes the following process. That is, an image processing method that independently includes an image processing process and a management process that exchanges image data between the image processing process and holds and manages the image data in an image storage area. , the management process includes a process of storing image data in the image storage area in an external storage device, and a process of reading the image data from the external storage device into the image storage area.

[0006] Furthermore, the image processing apparatus of the present invention has the following configuration. That is, the image processing apparatus independently includes an image processing means and a management means for transmitting and receiving image data between the image processing means and for retaining and managing the image data in an image storage area. , the management means:
The image storage apparatus includes a storage means for storing and storing image data in the image storage area in an external storage device, and a reading means for reading the image data from the external storage device into the image storage area.

[0007]

[Operation] In the method of the present invention having such a configuration, the image processing process also entrusts the storage and loading of image data to the external storage device to the management process.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the equipment configuration of an image processing system in this embodiment.

In the figure, 101 is a central processing unit (CPU) that controls the entire system and processes according to a program stored in the main memory 102. For example, it can also process image data in the image memory. . The main memory 102 stores, as execution programs for the CPU 101, management processes, processing processes, and the like, as well as management tables, which will be described later. Reference numeral 103 denotes an external storage device (for example, a magnetic disk) for storing images as files. 104 is an image memory for storing images, and 105 is an image processor for processing data in the image memory. 101, 102, 10
3 is the configuration of a general EWS (engineering workstation, such as a workstation from Sun Microsystems in the United States), and 104,105
is the configuration of a general image processing device (for example, NEXUS 6810, etc.). Further, it is assumed that both of them are bus-coupled via an EWS standard bus.

FIG. 2 shows the concept of the process when image processing is executed in this embodiment. Here, 201 is a management process that manages the image storage area, and has means for inputting and outputting image files. Furthermore, 202 and 203 are processing processes that execute image processing procedures. In this embodiment, the operating system (OS) serving as the operating environment of the CPU 101 is UNIX (developed and licensed by AT&T, USA), and communication between processes is
This is realized by the socket system call in NIX. Furthermore, the image memory can be accessed directly from the CPU 101 using the mmap system call, and images on the main memory are placed on the shared memory using the shmget system call, allowing them to be shared between processes.

First, a brief description of the operations between processes in FIG. 2 will be given.

The processing process (202 or 203) makes various requests for the image storage area to the management process 201 using inter-process communication. Requests for the image storage area here include registration of an image, deletion of an image, start of occupying an image on shared memory, release of occupation of an image on shared memory, start of occupying an image on image memory, and start of occupying an image on image memory. There are requests to release the image, save the image to an external storage device, load the image from the external storage device, etc. The management process 201 sequentially processes these various requests in the order of arrival.

[0014] Details regarding image registration, image deletion, starting to occupy an image on the shared memory, releasing occupation of an image on the shared memory, starting occupying an image on the image memory, and releasing occupation of an image on the image memory are as follows: As described in Japanese Patent Application No. 63-59658 proposed by the applicant, in this embodiment, the management process operates in response to a request to save an image to an external storage device or load an image from an external storage device. will be explained below.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the operation of the management process in response to a request to save an image to an external storage device.

First, in step S301, an image ID is obtained as an argument. Then, step S302, S
At 302, the state of the image is determined by referring to the management table. Here, if the image is already occupied on the shared memory or the image memory, the image data cannot be accessed directly, so the process ends as an error (step S308). If it is in an unoccupied state, it is determined whether the actual image exists in the shared memory or the image memory (step S304,
305), the image contents are written to the external storage device 103 according to each case (step S306 or S
307). In this case, writing to the file is achieved using system calls such as open, write, and close.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the operation of the management process in response to a request to load an image from an external storage device. The processing flow itself is similar to the processing for the above-mentioned save request to the external storage device illustrated in FIG. Here, the only difference between the two processes is whether the image content is actually written to the external storage device or read from the external storage device. To realize reading from a file in this case, o
This is achieved using system calls such as pen read and close.

In the above embodiment, an example has been described in which the processing process issues a corresponding request to the management process when it is desired to load or save an image from an external storage device. However, it can also be applied to cases where there is no explicit file load/save request, such as the following.

- When requesting image registration, the file name corresponding to the image can be specified as an optional argument.

If an image file with the specified file name already exists on the external storage device at the time when image registration is requested, the image file is loaded from the external storage device to the image storage area at the same time as the registration process.

- When a request for image deletion is made, if the file name of the image to be deleted is specified at the time of registration, the image will be deleted from the external storage device before the actual deletion process is performed. Save the file.

As explained above, according to this embodiment, the function for inputting and outputting image files is provided in the image storage area management process, which is independent of the processing process that actually executes image processing. This eliminates the need for application developers to develop their own libraries for inputting and outputting image files. Another advantage is that extended functions such as support for new file formats can be used regardless of the programming language in which the application is written, and without recompiling or linking the program.

[0023]

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, there is no need for application developers to develop their own libraries for image file input/output, etc., and extended functions such as support for new file formats can be added. The application can be used regardless of the programming language in which the application is written, and without recompiling or linking the program.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram of an image processing system in an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the correlation of each process in the example.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure for an image save request of a management process in the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure for an image load request of a management process in the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

101 Central processing unit (CPU) 102 Main memory 103 External storage device 104 Image memory 105 Image processor 201 Management process 202 and 203 Processing process

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An image processing method that independently comprises an image processing process and a management process that exchanges image data between the image processing process and holds and manages the image data in an image storage area. The image processing method is characterized in that the management process includes a process of storing image data in the image storage area in an external storage device, and a process of reading the image data from the external storage device into the image storage area. 2. An image processing device that independently comprises an image processing means and a management means that exchanges image data between the image processing means and holds and manages the image data in an image storage area. Image processing characterized in that the management means includes a storage means for storing and storing image data in the image storage area in an external storage device, and a reading means for reading from the external storage device into the image storage area. Device.