JPH09149206A - Control method for micro film reader printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To conduct image processing in a short time efficiently in which an image with a sufficient resolution is outputted respectively to a display device and a printer without reading an image with an undesired high resolution, the need for reading the image for the display device with unnecessary higher resolution is eliminated, the efficient use of an image memory is attained so as to reduce the data quantity for image processing. SOLUTION: In this method, a) a projected image is read as multi-value density image data with a resolution corresponding to the resolution of a display device 12, the multi-value density image is displayed on the display device 12, b) while the image is displayed on the display device 12, the same projected image is scanned again by a line sensor to read binary density image data for print-out with a resolution required for a printer 20, c) the binary density image data are processed and outputted to the printer 20 based on a print command, d) and a succeeding frame is retrieved in parallel with the print output and the projected image of the succeeding frame is displayed on the display device 12.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a control method of a microfilm reader printer which can read a projected image of microfilm by a line sensor, display it on a CRT or the like, and output it to a printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A projected image of a microfilm is read by a line sensor and displayed on a display device such as a CRT, and the display image is confirmed and a print output is instructed. 2. Description of the Related Art A microfilm reader printer which is designated and printed out is known.

In this case, a display device such as a CRT displays a multi-value density gradation image. For example, the density is read and displayed in 256 gradations (8 bits). On the other hand, the printer prints an image of binary density gradation. Therefore, conventionally, the image data read in the multi-value density gradation is displayed on the display device, and the multi-value density image data is converted into the binary density gradation and output to the printer.

[0004]

However, the resolution of the output image is remarkably different between the display device such as CRT and the printer.
For example, in a commonly used CRT, the number of vertical and horizontal pixels is 10
The resolution is 24 × 1280, and the resolution is about 80 to 100 dpi (dot per inch) according to the size of the display screen. On the other hand, the resolution required for the printer is usually 400 dpi or more.

For this reason, an image is read at a constant resolution necessary for the printer and displayed on the display device at a reduced resolution. However, since normally only the necessary image is printed out by looking at the display screen of the CRT, it is impossible to use the memory efficiently if the image not to be printed out is read and stored at a high resolution.

Further, although it is necessary to perform image processing and editing of image data for a printer, the image data of multi-value density gradation has a large amount of data and requires a long processing time. In particular, in printers, the resolution of the print output changes depending on the printer model, and this resolution can be switched, but even if the image is read at a resolution higher than that required by the printer, it is useless and the image processing is troublesome. become.

Therefore, it is possible to separately read the multi-value density gradation image data used in the display device and the binary density gradation image data used in the printer. However, in this case, since the image is read twice, the processing time becomes long, and there is a problem that the efficiency becomes poor especially in the case of continuous search and continuous print output.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is possible to output an image with a sufficient resolution to a display device and a printer without reading an image with an unnecessarily high resolution. An image for a display device does not need to be read at an unnecessarily high resolution, enables efficient use of the image memory, reduces the amount of data to be processed, and enables efficient image processing in a short time. An object of the present invention is to provide a control method of a micro film reader printer which can be performed.

[0009]

According to the present invention, a purpose of the present invention is to control a microfilm reader printer capable of reading a projected image of microfilm by scanning a line sensor, outputting the image to a display device, and printing to a printer. In: a. Reading the projected image as multi-value density image data at a resolution corresponding to the resolution of the display device and displaying the multi-value density image on the display device; b. By scanning the same projected image again with the line sensor while displaying on the display device, the binary density image data for print output is read at the resolution required by the printer, and c. This binary density image data is image-processed and output to a printer based on a print command, d. A method of controlling a microfilm reader printer, characterized in that the next frame is searched in parallel with print output and a projected image of this frame is displayed on the display device.

If the image area for print output is set using the display image of the display device and only this area is read with high resolution, the image processing becomes faster and the efficiency is improved.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is an external view of an apparatus used for carrying out one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing the configuration of this apparatus, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the concept of processing contents, and FIG. , Fig. 5
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a temporal flow of operation.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 is a computer main body, which has a built-in CPU and the like. Reference numeral 12 is a display device such as a CRT, 14 is a keyboard, and these are mounted on a desk 16. Reference numeral 18 is a scanner housed under the desk 16, and 20 is a printer placed beside the desk 16.

The scanner 18 has a cartridge insertion port 22 on the upper front surface thereof, and the cartridge 2 inserted therein.
4 (see FIG. 2), the image on the microfilm 26 is read. The read image is subjected to predetermined image processing by the CPU or the like in the computer main body 10 and then displayed on the display device 12, printed out by the printer 20, stored in a magneto-optical disk or the like, or an external processing device. Transferred to.

The scanner 18 has a vertically long casing 28, and a supply reel driving unit 30 is provided above the front of the casing 28.
A take-up reel drive unit 32 is arranged below the front portion. The supply-side reel drive unit 30 has a cartridge insertion port 2
When the cartridge 24 is inserted into the cartridge 2,
4 is automatically moved to engage the reel 24A with the rotating shaft. Further, the leading end of the film 26 is pulled out and fed downward, and is guided to the take-up reel 32A of the take-up side reel drive unit 32.

As shown in FIG. 2, the film 26 passes behind the gap between the reel driving units 30 and 32, that is, on the back side as viewed from the front of the housing 28. A space is formed between this gap and the front panel of the housing 28, and the light source 34 and the condenser lens 36 are housed therein.

Next, the line sensor drive section 38 will be described.
The line sensor drive unit 38 is integrated with the projection lens 40. That is, as shown in FIG. 2, the frame (rotating frame) 42 of the line sensor driving unit 38 is integrally formed with a cylindrical portion 44 that holds the projection lens 40. The projection lens 40 held by the tube portion 44 has a fixed focus of about 2
Has a double magnification. The tubular portion 44 is rotatably held by a frame (fixed frame) fixed to the housing 28.
Here, the cylindrical portion 44 rotates about an optical axis 74 perpendicular to the film 46.

A belt 50 is wound around the cylindrical portion 44 of the rotary frame 42 and the pulley 48A of the servo motor 48 attached to the fixed frame. And motor 4
The rotation frame 42 is rotatable around the optical axis 46 by the rotation of 8.

As shown in FIG. 2, the rotary frame 42 is provided with a movable table 52 which moves on a plane perpendicular to the optical axis 46 near the image plane of the projection lens 40. The rotary frame 42 has a pulley 5 parallel to the reciprocating direction of the movable table 52.
A belt 58 wound around 4, 56 is provided, and one side of the movable base 52 is fixed to the belt 58. The rotation of the servo motor 60 is transmitted to one pulley 56. As a result, by rotating the servomotor 60 forward and backward,
The movable table 52 can be reciprocated on a plane orthogonal to the optical axis 46.

A long window 62 is formed in the movable table 52 in a direction orthogonal to its moving direction, that is, in a direction orthogonal to the reciprocating direction of the movable table 52. The center of the long window 62 in the lengthwise direction is located on the optical axis 46. This movable table 52
A CCD line sensor 64 facing the long window 92 is fixed to the rear surface, that is, the surface opposite to the cylindrical portion 44.

Of course, the light receiving surface of the CCD line sensor 64 is made to coincide with the image forming surface of the projection image of the projection lens 40. FIG. 3A shows a projected image 66 on this image plane.

CPU built in the computer body 10
Reference numeral 100 is a control means for controlling the whole, and has various functions as shown in FIG. Although these functions are formed by software, they are shown as blocks in FIG. 2 for convenience.

The search control means 102 detects a target frame by using a search blip (not shown) attached to the film 26 in advance. That is, the light emitting element 104a is arranged on one side of the film 26 and the blip sensor 104b formed of a light receiving element is arranged on the other side across the travel path of the blip.
The output of the blip sensor 104b is counted. On the other hand, the motor 106 of the take-up reel drive unit 32 and the motor (not shown) of the supply-side reel drive unit 30 are controlled to obtain a target frame (step 200 in FIG. 4).

Reference numeral 108 denotes a scan control means, which activates the line sensor drive section 38 when the target frame enters a predetermined position in the projection range including the optical axis 46. That is, the motor 60
Is operated, the line sensor 64 is moved in parallel on the image forming plane, and the projection image 66 is read.

Here, the magnification of the projection lens 40 is about 2 times, and the number of pixels of the line sensor 64 is about 5000. The area of the projected image 66 has a size corresponding to about 6000 pixels in the direction orthogonal to the line sensor 64. Generally, a roll film having a width of 16 mm is used as the micro film. Therefore, the line sensor 64 reads about 20 mm, which is twice the effective image projection width (about 10 mm) of this roll film, at 5000 pixels. Considering that the reading density is 24 mm per inch on a display screen of about 30 cm or printed output,
This corresponds to (5000/300) × 24 = 400 dpi.

Reference numeral 110 denotes a changeover switch, which is connected to the A side in FIG. 2 during the first display scan for one frame and is switched to the B side during the second print scan. Reference numeral 112 denotes a multi-value image reading unit for display, which is used when the changeover switch 110 is connected to the A side.
The image is read in the multi-value density gradation for display by the scan of 4.

Reference numeral 114 is an image processing unit for a multivalued image, and 116 is a reading control unit. CRT12 is about 100 as described above
Since the line sensor 64 has a resolution of dpi, it is sufficient that the line sensor 64 reads the projected image 66 at a resolution of ¼ with respect to the maximum capacity of 400 dpi. Based on an instruction from the keyboard 14, the reading control unit 116 sets the changeover switch 110 to the display side A when reading the display data, and the scan control unit 108 and the scanning control unit 108 are set so that the image is read at a resolution sufficient for displaying on the CRT 12. It issues an instruction to the image reading unit 112.

The image reading unit 112 reads the image data with multi-value density gradation by thinning out so as to obtain one pixel output signal for four pixels of the line sensor 64 with a resolution sufficient for the CRT 12. It is stored in memory (step 202 in FIG. 4). At this time, the scan control 108 can perform reading while the line sensor 64 is sub-scanned by the motor 60 at a speed four times higher, and reading can be performed at high speed. The image processing unit 114 performs image processing on the multi-value density gradation data and displays it on the CRT 12 (step 20).
4).

FIG. 3A shows a projected image 66 on the image plane. (B) shows a display screen of the CRT 12. Further, (C) shows a print output image of the printer. The operator looks at the display screen of the CRT 12 and inputs the area to be printed out, for example, from the keyboard 14 (step 2).
06). In FIG. 3B, 68 indicates the print designation area designated in this way.

When the operator specifies this area 68,
The reading control unit 116 switches the changeover switch 110 to the print side (B) and also reads the area 70 for printing.
(FIG. 3) is calculated (step 208). This operation is
Coordinates x and y on the left and upper sides of the print designation area 68
And the horizontal and vertical lengths L and H of this area 68 are coordinates x ′, y ′ and lengths L ′ and H ′ on the projected image 66.
Is converted to

That is, the CRT 12 for the projected image 66
X '= x / n, y' =
It can be determined as y / n, L '= L / n, H' = h / n.

When the reading area is calculated in this way,
The reading control unit 116 sends the calculation result to the print binary image reading unit 118. At this time, the resolution of the print output (for example, 400 dpi) is also sent. The image reading unit 118 reads only the reading area 70 on the projected image 66 corresponding to the designated area 68 in binary density gradation based on the calculation result (step 210).

The reading of the reading area 70 is performed at a reading density corresponding to the print resolution and print size. That is, when the print resolution of 400 dpi is required, the print output size 72 (FIG. 3) is set to L ″ ×.
As H ″, (400/24) × L ″ = (N / 24) ×
From L ', the read density (dpi) is obtained from N = 400 x (L "/ L').

For example, assuming that the print size is 30 cm at 400 dpi (L ″ = 300 mm) and L ′ = 20 mm, N = 400 · (300/20) = 6000 (dp
The reading area 70 may be read at a density of i) = 2500 dots / cm. The image data of the binary density gradation thus read is subjected to predetermined image processing by the image processing / editing unit 120 (step 212) and printed out to the printer 14 (step 214).

At this time, the processing performed by the image processing / editing unit 120 includes spatial filtering processing, image rotation, masking,
At least one of trimming and editing is included. The image rotation is for rotating the image and printing it on the print paper in the correct direction when the main scanning direction of the line sensor 64 is not parallel to one side of the reading area 70. When the print image is changed to the horizontal direction or the vertical direction from the keyboard 14, it is rotated by 90 °.

This image rotation is performed by the image processing / editing unit 1
Instead of performing the electrical processing at 20, the frame 4 of the line sensor driving unit 38 that houses the line sensor 64.
It is also possible to rotate 0 with respect to the optical axis 46.
In this case, the motor 48 is rotated, but if this is done, the electrical processing becomes extremely simple and quick processing becomes possible. The frame 40 may be rotated about the optical axis 46, but may be rotated about another axis parallel to the optical axis 46 depending on the position of the reading area 70 in the projection image 32.

The masking is a process for preventing the black frame from being printed out by replacing the frame portion around the document, which appears as a black frame at the time of printing on the negative film, with white, to print out. The trimming is to erase a part of the read image area 70 by replacing it with white. The editing is to combine information represented by binary density gradations such as arbitrary figures and characters, such as time, date and time, and marks, with the image of the reading area 70 by digital image processing.

The processing performed by the image processing / editing unit 120 is displayed on the CRT 12. Ie CRT1
In FIG. 2, the projected image 66 read in multi-value density gradation and the processing of the image processing / editing unit 120 are displayed in an overlapping manner.
After confirming the processing contents on the display image of the CRT 12, the printer 20 can be printed out by instructing the printer 20 to print from the keyboard 14.

When the operator sets the print area by looking at the screen on the CRT 12 in this way, the reading controller 116
For reading the image with binary density gradation for printing,
Start reading binary image. The CPU 100 waits until the reading of the binary image is completed (step 21 in FIG. 3).
6) If the next frame search is necessary (step 21)
8) Immediately, the search for the next frame is started (see step 200A in FIG. 5).

At this time, if the print output of the previous frame is instructed, the search for a new frame is started at the time of this print output. In FIG. 5, after the image data of the binary image reading (step 210) is processed, the search for the next frame is started (step 200A). However, the search for the next frame may be started during this image processing (step 212) or at the end of the binary image reading (step 210). Of course, when there is no print output instruction for the previous frame, the search for the next frame (step 200A) is started without the print output (step 214).

As described above, the retrieval of the next frame is started immediately after the reading of the binary image of the print image for the previous frame is completed or after the image processing is completed, so that the time during the print output becomes long. It is also possible to finish the search for the next frame, or read the frame in multi-value density gradation and complete the preparation for display on the CRT. Therefore, the search / print processing efficiency can be improved. Especially, when a plurality of frames are continuously searched and printed out, the efficiency can be remarkably improved.

In the embodiment described above, the area 70 to be printed out is set on the screen displayed on the CRT 12,
After that, only this area 70 is read in binary density gradation and high resolution, and is printed out. However, in the present invention, immediately after the image reading for the CRT display is finished or before the print area 70 is set on the CRT 12, the projected image 66 may be read with the binary density gradation and the high resolution.

In this embodiment, the output size (print size) of the printer is the same as the display screen size of the CRT 12, so that the display density of the CRT 12 is 1/4 of the maximum read density of the line sensor 64. Read at maximum read density for printing 400d
You can print out with pi. However, conversely, it is also possible to first determine the pixel density (dpi) at the time of printing, and then determine the print size required for print output at this pixel density.

For example, when printing out at 800 dpi, the print size may be halved of this embodiment. As described above, the print size, the print output resolution, and the read density are associated with each other, and by arbitrarily replacing one of these three elements, it is possible to obtain the print quality that meets the desired conditions.

The display device used in the present invention is a CRT.
Of course, instead of the (cathod ray tube), other types such as a liquid crystal display panel and a plasma display may be used. Similarly, instead of the printer 20, binary image data may be stored in an optical disk, a semiconductor memory, or the like, or may be transferred to another image processing apparatus. In this case, the printer of the present invention is a concept including these optical disks, semiconductor memories, and other image processing devices, and includes these.

[0045]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the multi-value density gradation is read at the resolution corresponding to the resolution of the display device.
The same projected image is displayed on the display device, and the same projected image is read in binary density gradation at the resolution required by the printer, image processing is performed and print output is performed, and the next frame is searched and displayed in parallel with this print output. It is designed to be displayed on the device.

Therefore, since the image is read separately at the resolutions required for the display device and the printer, the capacity of the image memory used is reduced as compared with the case where the image is read at an unnecessarily high resolution for display, and the memory can be used efficiently. It will be possible. Further, since the next frame can be searched and displayed during print output, the search and print processing efficiency can be improved.

If a print output area is set using the display image of the display device and only this area is read as a binary density image for printing, the data amount of the image processing for printing is reduced and the processing is performed. It can be made even faster (claim 2).

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external view of an apparatus used for carrying out one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing the configuration of this device.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a concept of processing contents.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the operation.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a temporal change in operation.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Computer Main Body 12 CRT as Display Device 14 Keyboard 18 Scanner 20 Printer 26 Micro Film 66 Projected Image 68 Print Designated Area 70 Print Reading Area 72 Print Output Size

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A method for controlling a microfilm reader printer, which reads a projected image of microfilm by scanning a line sensor, outputs it to a display device, and prints it to a printer, comprising: a. Reading the projected image as multi-value density image data at a resolution corresponding to the resolution of the display device and displaying the multi-value density image on the display device; b. By scanning the same projected image again with the line sensor while displaying on the display device, the binary density image data for print output is read at the resolution required by the printer, and c. This binary density image data is image-processed and output to a printer based on a print command, d. A method of controlling a microfilm reader printer, characterized in that a next frame is searched in parallel with print output and a projected image of this frame is displayed on the display device. 2. The microfilm reader printer according to claim 1, wherein a print output area can be set using a display image of a display device, and only the set print output area is scanned and read in the step b. Control method.