JPH10164342A - Image transfer method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently transfer images at a low cost by transferring stored image data higher than a prescribed level and the address data. SOLUTION: At the time of printing out a document prepared in a PC 104 in an image formation device 102, it is tentatively stored in a RAM 107 inside an image formation controller 101 and developed on a real memory in an image memory unit 108 as visible image data by a CPU 105. The image memory unit 108 transfers addresses and the image data onto an image data transfer line 103 while referring to address values where black images are plotted written in the RAM 107 beforehand. The image memory unit 113 which receives them image-plots the image data accompanying the address to an image memory inside the present image memory unit 113 based on the address, and when the plotting of the image data for one page is ended, they are transferred to recording paper as visible images in a printer unit 114.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a method for transferring image data between two image data processing devices.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, when image data is transferred between two devices, the transfer is performed by transferring all data in a specific area in an image memory or compressing the image data itself.

[0003]

However, in recent years,
The resolution of image data handled by the image processing apparatus has been increasing, and the data amount has been rapidly increasing. For this reason, the transfer method according to the conventional method takes a long transfer time,
A high-speed dedicated circuit for compression / decompression is required.

Further, most of the image data is usually white data, and it is inefficient to transfer all of the white data.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an image transfer system capable of performing an inexpensive and efficient image transfer.

[0006]

According to the image processing apparatus of the present invention, when transferring image data stored in an image memory, for example, stored image data other than a white image and its address data are transferred. By transferring, an inexpensive and efficient image transfer can be realized.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an image forming apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the first embodiment. FIG.
FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration example of transfer data in the first embodiment.

Hereinafter, a computer (hereinafter, referred to as a PC)
The operation performed after the document created in step 104 is expanded into visible image data by the image forming controller 101 and transferred to the image forming apparatus 102 will be described.

The image forming controller 101 is a PC-I
/ F109 connects with the PC 104 used by the user. As a connection method in this case, a connection by a network or a connection by a local (RS-232C, Centronics, SCSI, etc.) can be adopted.

The document created by the PC 104 is
When an attempt is made to print out by the image forming apparatus 102, the printout is temporarily stored in the RAM 107 in the image forming controller 101 via the PC-I / F 109 (S
1).

The document data stored in the RAM 107 is developed by the CPU 105 as visible image data on a real memory in the image memory unit 108 while referring to font data and the like stored in the ROM 106 in advance (S2). ).

At this time, the CPU 105 writes the address of the image memory where the drawing has been performed into a predetermined area in the RAM 107 (S3).

When the data of the document for one page has been developed on the image memory unit 108 (S
4), the CPU 105 issues a print request command to the image forming apparatus 102 through the communication unit 115 and the interface 116 (S5).

The CPU of the image forming apparatus 102 which has received the print request command via the communication unit 117
110 is 0 for the image memory unit 113 of the own device.
Clear (white image) is performed (S6).

When the clearing of the image memory unit 113 is completed, the CPU 110 issues an image transfer permission command to the image forming controller 101 through the communication unit 117 (S7).

The image forming controller 101 that has received the image transfer permission command issues an image transfer instruction to the image memory unit 108.

The image memory unit 108 has a RAM
The address and the image data are transferred to the image data transfer path 103 through the image data transfer path 103 as shown in FIG. 3 while referring to the address value where the black image written in 107 is drawn (see FIG. 3). S8).

The image memory unit 113 in the image forming apparatus 102 which has received the address data and the image data from the image data transfer path 103, based on the address,
The associated image data is drawn in the image memory of the image memory unit 113 of the own device.

When one page of image data has been drawn (S9), the drawn image data is transferred to the printer unit 114 (S10), and the image is transferred to a recording sheet as a visible image. .

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.

In the second embodiment, the A4 size, 600 dpi binary image address data is transferred from the image memory unit 108 of the image forming controller 101 to the image memory controller unit 113 in the image forming apparatus 102 in the first embodiment. When transferring image data, the total amount of image data is A4: 210 mm ×
At 297 mm, 4960 dots × 7015 dots =
34794400 dots, and the address space is 42
It will be 5d74h.

If the bus width of the image data transfer path 103 is 8 bits, the address is divided into three and 1-byte data is transferred to the address.

Therefore, when the image is transferred from the image memory controller unit 108, the black image is 425d74
If it exists at an address of h ÷ 4 or more, the total data amount is smaller when only data is sent starting from address 0 in the memory space in the image memory unit 108.

Therefore, the amount of data to be transferred is 10873
In the case of 25 or more (425d74h ÷ 4) or more, as the data to be sent from the image memory unit 108 of the image forming controller 101 to the image memory controller unit 113 in the image forming apparatus 102, the address and the data where the black image exists are sent. Instead, the image data stored in the image memory is transferred sequentially from the end.

[0025]

As described above, according to the present invention,
When an image is transferred between two memories, it is possible to prevent data in a portion where data does not exist, for example, data in a mostly white portion from being sent, and to reduce the time required for transfer.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing transfer data of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101 image forming controller, 102 image forming apparatus, 103 image data transfer path, 104 PC, 105, 110 CPU, 106, 111 ROM, 107 RAM, 108, 113 image memory unit, 114 printer 115, 117 ... communication unit.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A system for transmitting and receiving image data between a plurality of image processing apparatuses, wherein the image data stored in a first image memory provided in the first image processing apparatus is converted into a second image data. When transferring to the second image memory of the processing device, of the image data stored in the first image memory, the address stored as an image of a predetermined level or higher and only the data are stored in the first image memory. 2. An image transfer method, wherein the image is transferred to the second image processing apparatus. 2. The image processing method according to claim 1, wherein, among image data stored in the first image memory, a sum of addresses at which images of a predetermined level or higher are stored is equal to or lower than a predetermined amount. An image characterized in that, of the image data stored in the first image memory, an address stored as an image of a predetermined level or higher and only that data are transferred to the second image processing apparatus. Transfer method.