JPH087732Y2 - Block copy reader - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION <Industrial field of application> The present invention is used in a printing plate making process, in which an image sensor is used to relatively scan an stencil mount including a line drawing area and a pattern area. The present invention relates to a block board reading device for reading image data.

<Prior Art> Conventionally, as a device of this type, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9215/1990
There is an image reading apparatus as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 0.
This apparatus includes an image sensor having a photoelectric conversion element group along the X direction, an X-direction feeding device and a Y-direction feeding device of the image sensor, the image sensor performing continuous feeding in the Y direction and intermittent feeding in the X direction. Feeding control means for controlling the X-direction feeding device and the Y-direction feeding device so as to perform comb-shaped scanning by repeating the above, and data output means for outputting the image data of the original read by the image sensor during the Y-direction feeding together with the position data thereof. In the image reading apparatus including the above, the scale is arranged along the X direction at the peripheral portion of the document placing portion and has a pitch shorter than the length of the document placing portion corresponding to all the element lengths in the image sensor. Before the image data is read, the scale on which the image is formed and the image sensor facing the scale are divided in the X direction. One of the scales detected in the range is input as the reading start point and the other scale is input as the reading end point, and the data from the reading start point to the reading end point of the image data read by the image sensor at the time of Y-direction feed is an effective image. An effective reading area control means for selectively outputting as data is provided.

According to this apparatus, the image sensor is opposed to the scale at a position corresponding to the current reading range before reading the image data by the Y-direction feed of the image sensor each time. Then, the effective reading area control means inputs one of the scales detected by the image sensor in the reading range as the reading start point and the other scale as the reading end point.

After that, the image data in the present reading range is detected while the image sensor is fed in the Y direction by driving the Y-direction feeding device by the feed control means, and at that time, the effective reading area control means reads the image data. Data from the reading start point to the reading end point in the image data is selected as valid image data, and the position data is output together with the valid image data via the data output means.

When one reading in the Y direction is completed, the feed control means returns the image sensor to the origin position in the Y direction, and also feeds only one step in the X direction, and the image sensor is scaled in the reading range next to the previous reading range. Face each other.

In this case, since the scale pitch is shorter than the length at the document placing portion corresponding to the total element length in the image sensor, even if the X-direction feed accuracy is somewhat rough, within the range of the total element length of the image sensor, In this state, one scale corresponding to the reading start point and the other scale corresponding to the reading end point in the current reading range are included.

Moreover, since the scale corresponding to the current reading start point and the scale corresponding to the previous reading end point are the same, the current reading start point input by the effective reading area control means is the same as the previous reading end point. Will inevitably agree.

<Problems to be Solved by the Invention> However, the conventional example has the following problems.

Hereinafter, FIG. 5 will be referred to. This figure is a schematic plan view of a blockboard. The area A in the drawing is a line drawing area in which a clean print such as a typesetting letter, a logotype, and a symbol mark is pasted, and the area B is a design area. From the viewpoint of the printing process, it is sufficient to draw Atarikei in the pattern area B of the blockboard, but a photographic image or a print image of the pattern or a copy image (copy image) of the pattern is pasted in this area B. It is a copyboard attached.

Although this type of blockboard reading device is configured to output the read image to, for example, run length compression and output it to another image editing device or the like, the above-mentioned printed matter or copied image is pasted. Since the attached blockboard contains a large number of fine dots and particles in the picture area B, efficient data compression cannot be performed in the picture area B, and therefore it is originally unnecessary as read image data. A huge amount of image data in the picture area B is transmitted. As a result, if the data transmission capacity is exceeded, a data transfer error occurs, or if the transmitted image is processed by an image editing device (for example, when copying and storing the image) There are problems such as taking time.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and is a plate capable of reading only the image data of the necessary area while avoiding the reading of the data of the unnecessary image area of the plate mount. It is intended to provide a lower mount reading device.

<Means for Solving the Problem> In order to achieve such an object, the present invention has the following configuration.

That is, according to the present invention, a plate mount reading that relatively scans a plate mount including a line drawing area and a pattern area by an image sensor to read image data of the plate mount and compresses and outputs the image data. An apparatus, which is an image storage unit for storing an image obtained by roughly reading a master block mount, a display unit for displaying the stored image, and a designating area in the image displayed on the display unit, Scanning means for inputting position data of the picture area, mask data creating means for creating data for masking the picture area based on the position data of the picture area given from the operating means, and the mask data creating means Mask data storage means for storing the mask data given from the above, and the mask data storage means for finely reading the image data of the block mount. The image data of the picture area is replaced by a single type of image data with reference to the generated mask data, and the data is output; and a compression unit that compresses the image data given from the data processing means. It is a thing.

<Operation> The operation of the present invention is as follows.

That is, first, the image data obtained by roughly reading the blockboard is stored in the image storage means, and the image is displayed on the display means. The operator operates the operating means to specify the pattern area while looking at the image displayed on the display means, thereby inputting the position data of the pattern area via the operating means. Mask data creation means
Mask data is created based on the position data of the picture area. This mask data is stored in the mask data storage means.

Next, when reading the master block finely, referring to the mask data stored in the mask data storage means, the image data of the picture area is replaced with a single type of image data and output. As a result, the image data in the picture area is efficiently compressed by the compression means and output.

<Embodiment> An embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an image processing system of an embodiment of a master block mount reading device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is an external perspective view showing a schematic configuration of a reading scanning mechanism, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a plan view showing the relationship between the image sensor and scale scale.

First, the schematic configuration of the reading and scanning mechanism will be described with reference to FIG. Below the original placing section 1 made of plate glass,
There is an image data input unit 3 including a linear image sensor 2 such as a lens system or CCD (charge coupled device).
The image data input unit 3 includes an X direction feed mechanism 4 and a Y direction feed mechanism.
The direction feed mechanism 5 is configured to be movable in the X direction (main scanning direction) and the Y direction (sub scanning direction) orthogonal to each other.

The X-direction feed mechanism 4 is composed of a motor 6, a conveyor belt 7, a conveyor table 8 and the like. The Y-direction feeding mechanism 5 is composed of a stepping motor 9, a ball screw 10, a mounting base 11 having a nut member, a guide 12 and the like mounted on the carrier 8. The image data input unit 3 is attached to the attachment base 11, and the internal image sensor 2 is
The photoelectric conversion element group is arranged along the X direction.

A master block mount 13 is placed on the upper surface of the document placing section 1. Further, a scale 14 is formed on the rear surface of the edge of the document placing section 1 and near the edge of the plate mount 13 at substantially equal intervals with scales M _{0 to} M _N for determining the effective reading area. Is attached.

As shown in FIG. 3, the pitch P of each scale M _{0 to} M _N of the scale 14 is formed to be shorter than the length L of all the elements of the image sensor 2.

Next, the configuration of the image processing system of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

Of the image data read by the image sensor 2, the control unit 15 selectively takes in the image data in the effective reading area determined by the scales M _{0 to} M _N of the scale 14 and creates mask data described later. Based on the mask data created by the section 16, a process for replacing the image data in the picture area of the blockboard 13 with a single type of image data (for example, white data) is performed.

Specifically, the control unit 15 selectively operates a shading / binarization circuit 17 that performs shading correction and binarization processing on image data input from the image sensor 2 and selectively switches the shading / binarization circuit 17 via a changeover switch 18. Connected line memory 19 and data shaping circuit 20 as data processing means
And a mask memory 21 as a mask data storage means for storing the mask data created by the mask data creation unit 16.
And a timing pulse generation circuit 22 for applying a required timing signal S ₁ or S ₂ to the shading / binarization circuit 17, line memory 19, data shaping circuit 20 and mask memory 21.
And switching control of the changeover switch 18 and motor control circuits 23, 24 for the X-direction feed mechanism 4 and the Y-direction feed mechanism 5, respectively.
It includes a computer 25 for controlling the.

The mask data creation unit 16 uses the digitizer 27 and the mouse 27a as the operation means for the image of the blockboard 13 displayed by the rough line image data on the CRT 26 as the display means.
Based on the position data input from, set the trimming area along the pattern area that does not need to be read, and create mask data for masking all the image data in the trimming area. Image memory 28 as image storage means for storing image data of coarse lines
A display controller 29 and a computer 30 as mask data creating means for creating mask data.

Further, the reference numeral 31 in the figure selects the image data output from the data shaping circuit 20 to the image memory 28 or to the run length compression circuit 32 as a compression means for performing run length compression of the image data under the control of the computer 30. It is a changeover switch that is given selectively.

 The operation of the above-described embodiment apparatus will be described below.

In this embodiment, first, in order to create mask data,
The blockboard 13 is roughly read at 72 to 144 lines per inch (hereinafter referred to as "coarse line reading"), and then the blockboard 13 is finely read at 1000 to 2000 lines per inch ( Hereinafter, referred to as "fine line reading"). At the time of this fine line reading, the mask data is used to mask the image data of the picture pattern area in the blockboard 13.

The image data in the effective reading area is read using the scale 14 in both of the above-described coarse line reading and thin line reading, which will be described first. However, such image data reading means is not indispensable in the present invention, and this is described in detail in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-92150. Therefore, a brief description will be given here. stop.

In the initial state when the image sensor 2 is fed in the Y direction, the image sensor 2 faces the scale 14, and the changeover switch 18 is set to the line memory 19 side at this time. Then, the image of the scale 14 is read by the image sensor 2 in synchronization with the image reading timing signal S ₁ given from the timing pulse generation circuit 22, and the binarized image data thereof is transferred via the changeover switch 18 to the line. Written to memory 19. Line memory 19
The image data written in is, for example, data that is "1" for the scales M ₀ and M ₁ and is "0" for all other scales.

The computer 25 of the control unit 15 searches the image data in the line memory 19 to obtain the addresses A ₀ and A ₁ of the elements storing the image data “1”.

Subsequently, the image sensor 2 is fed in the Y direction, and the plate mount
When the image reading of the first line of 13 is started, the changeover switch 18 is switched to the data shaping circuit 20 side, and the binarized image data of the blockboard 13 is given to the data shaping circuit 20. At this time, the timing pulse generating circuit 22 supplies the data shaping circuit 20 with the second timing signal S _{2 which} goes to the “H” level, for example, from the addresses A ₀ to A ₁ . As a result, the data shaping circuit 20 passes the image data input during the period when the timing signal S ₂ is at the “H” level as effective image data.

By such an operation, the image data of the master block mount 13 between the scales M ₀ to M ₁ is read. When the reading of the image data of the I line in the Y direction is completed, the image sensor 2 is sent in the X direction at a pitch substantially equal to the pitch P of the scale of the scale 14, and the image data of the scale 14 and the plate are printed in the same manner as described above. The image data of the second line of the lower mount 13 is read, and the image data of the lower mount 13 between the scales M ₁ and M ₂ is output as valid image data. Hereafter, all the image data of the blockboard 13 is similarly read.

Next, the rough line reading operation of the block board 13, the mask data creating operation, and the fine line reading operation using the mask data will be described.

First, the operator instructs the computer 25 of the control unit 15 to read an image of a rough line in order to roughly read the blockboard 13. Based on this, the computer 25 causes the timing pulse generation circuit 22 to generate the timing signal S ₁ for reading the coarse line, and causes the motor control circuit 24 for Y-direction feed to control the feed for coarse line reading. Issue a command. In addition, the mask data creation unit from the computer 25
When a control command for reading the rough line is issued to the computer 30 of 16, the computer 30 is switched to the changeover switch 31.
To the image memory 28 side.

Then, the reading operation of the image data in the effective reading area (here, the rough line image reading) using the scale 14 is performed as described above.

The image data of the copyboard 13 which has been scanned with the rough lines is written from the data shaping circuit 20 to the image memory 28 of the mask data creation unit 16 via the changeover switch 31. Then, the image data is transferred to the CRT2 via the display controller 29.
By being given to 6, the rough line image of the blockboard 13 is displayed on the CRT.
Displayed on 26.

Along with the rough line image, the CRT 26 is marked with a cross mark whose display position changes corresponding to the position designated by the mouse 27a on the digitizer 27. The operator looks at the rough line image of the blockboard 13 displayed on the CRT 26 while looking at the mouse.
The position data of the pattern area is input to the computer 30 by operating 27a to align the marked line with the contour of the pattern area of the rough line image.

The computer 30 creates mask data corresponding to the designated picture area based on this position data. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of mask data created corresponding to the blockboard 13 shown in FIG. This mask data is
It is binary data in which the line drawing area A of the blockboard 13 is "1" and the pattern area B which is not required to be read is "0", and is transferred and stored in the mask memory 21 of the control unit 15.

Next, the operator gives the computer 25 an instruction to read the fine line on the blockboard 13. This allows the computer
A reference numeral 25 causes the timing pulse generation circuit 22 to generate a timing signal S ₁ for reading a fine line, and also issues a feed control command for reading a fine line to the Y direction feed motor control circuit 24. Also, from computer 25 to computer 30,
When the control command for reading the thin line is issued, the computer 30 switches the changeover switch 31 to the run length compression circuit.
Switch to 32 side.

The image data of the master block mount 13 read by the fine lines is binarized by the shading / binarization circuit 17, and then supplied to the data shaping circuit 20 via the changeover switch 18. The data shaping circuit 20 refers to the mask data in the mask memory 21 shown in FIG. 4 to perform masking processing on the binary image data. That is, the image data of the line drawing area A having the mask data of “1” is passed as it is, but the image data of the picture area B having the mask data of “0” is replaced with, for example, continuous image data of white data. Output.

By applying the masked thinned image data to the run length compression circuit 32, the image data in the picture area B is efficiently compressed and transmitted to an image editing device (not shown). In addition, the position data of the reading position is synchronized with the control unit 15 in synchronization with the reading of the thinned image.
Is transmitted from the computer 25 to the computer 30 of the mask data creation unit 16, and the position data is further transmitted to the image editing device or the like in synchronization with the run-length compressed image data.

<Effects of the Invention> As is clear from the above description, the block-mounting board reading apparatus according to the present invention allows the pattern-mounting board to be preliminarily rough-line scanned to specify a pattern area on the displayed image.
Mask data of the area is created, and when reading fine lines thereafter, the mask data is referred to so that the image data in the pattern area is replaced with a single type of image data and output. The image data of the pattern, which is the unread area, is efficiently compressed, and only the image data of the line image necessary for image editing can be efficiently transmitted.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 to 4 relate to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an image processing system of a block board reading device according to the embodiment, and FIG. 2 is an image reading scan. FIG. 3 is an external perspective view showing a schematic configuration of the mechanism, FIG. 3 is a plan view showing a relationship between an image sensor and a scale scale, and FIG. 4 is a schematic view of mask data. Further, FIG. 5 is a plan view illustrating an example of a block mount as an image reading target. 1 …… Original section 2 …… Image sensor 13 …… Printing board 20 …… Data shaping circuit (data processing means) 21 …… Mask memory (mask data storage means) 26 …… CRT (display means) 27 ... ... Digitizer (operation means) 27a ... Mouse (operation means) 28 ... Image memory (image storage means) 30 ... Computer (mask data creation means)

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A plate-mounting paper reader for scanning image data of the plate-mounting paper by relatively scanning an image-printing board containing a line drawing area and a pattern area with an image sensor and compressing and outputting the image data. The image storage means for storing an image obtained by roughly reading the blockboard, the display means for displaying the stored image, and the design area in the image displayed on the display means are designated, An operating means for inputting position data of the pattern area, a mask data creating means for creating data for masking the pattern area based on the position data of the pattern area given from the operating means, and the mask data creating means. Mask data storage means for storing the given mask data, and the mask data storage means for reading the image data of the master block in detail. Data processing means for referring to the mask data and replacing the image data in the picture area with a single type of image data for output, and compression means for compressing the image data given from the data processing means are provided. A copyboard reading device characterized by.