JPS6238076A - Overall photograph processing unit - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain the small capacity and quick processing for transmission and storage by compressing photographic information into a file data. CONSTITUTION:The titled unit consists of a photograph concentration and distribution system 2 connected to an optical highway 1, a storage managing system 3, a printing processing system 4, and a main computer 5 controlling them and the optical highway 1 is connected with a print system 6 via an interface 6a. The photography concentration and distribution system 2 is provided with a photographic input means 2a, a photographic data compression means 2b and a photograph concentration and distribution means 2c and the storage management system 3 consists of a photograph storage means 3a and a monitor/ printer as a paper edition output means 3b. Further, the print processing system 4 is equipped with a photograph data expanding means 4a, a photograph correction processing means 4b a photograph edition processing means 4a, a picture element number unifying means 4d and a dot means 4e.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a comprehensive photo processing device for photographic information published in publications such as newspapers and magazines, and in particular, to improve the image quality of photographed photographs and electronically transmitted photographs. , relates to a comprehensive photo processing device that facilitates the transfer and storage of photo data inside and outside the system.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, for photo manuscripts published in publications that require typesetting, such as newspapers and magazines, when the shooting location and editing location are far apart, the photo is printed onto photographic paper at the shooting location, and then Attach this photographic paper to the photoelectric transmitter and
The images are sent electronically to the editing site and then received on photographic paper again. For this image, the editor instructs publication processing such as cropping and specification of publication dimensions. Will the photographic paper be printed according to the editor's instructions? It is read by a scanner, converted into an electrical signal, input into a computer, and then sent to electronic typesetting.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

In the above-mentioned conventional system, there is a ``double effort'' of first converting the photo into an electrical signal to send it, outputting it on photographic paper at the receiving end, and then converting it into an electrical signal using a scanner and inputting it into the computer. This not only means a waste of work due to "double work," but also a decrease in image quality due to using the scanner twice.
This results in disadvantages such as the cumbersome manual work required to change the way photos are posted, to repair photos that are not in good condition, and the image quality to deteriorate when retransferring.

Then, should we simply transmit all the electrical signals resulting from the initial scanning and use them for electronic typesetting of photographic originals?We are faced with a different problem.

That is, electrophotography, electronic still cameras, TV imaging devices, and the like have relatively low pixel densities, and the total number of pixels is insufficient to correspond to the basic pixels of electronic typesetting.

In the case of enlarged publication, this pixel shortage becomes even more serious. When digitizing image signals, increasing the sampling rate and the number of quantization levels can avoid deteriorating the image quality, but the amount of data increases, the transmission time becomes extremely long, and the storage capacity also increases.

The present invention solves these problems, improves the image quality of photographed photographs and electronically transmitted photographs sent to a typesetting system, facilitates the transfer of photographic data into and out of the system, and facilitates photographic storage work. The purpose is to provide a comprehensive photo processing device that facilitates photo processing.

[Means for solving problems]

In the present invention, means for solving the above problems include a photo album distribution system that includes a photo input means, a photo data compression means, and a photo album distribution means, and a photo album distribution system that includes a photo data storage means and a paper editing output means. This is a comprehensive photo processing device comprising a storage management system, a photo data decompression means, a photo retouching means, a photo editing means, a two-pixel number unification means, and a posting processing system equipped with a halftone dot formation means. .

Furthermore, when adapting to the publication size, there are two methods of enlarging or reducing the publication on the paper, and there are also two methods of pixel unification means: a pixel interpolation means and a pixel thinning means.

[Effect]

By compressing photo information into file data, it becomes possible to reduce the capacity and speed up the transmission and storage required. During the process of re-expanding the data into photographic information, it becomes possible to edit the paper while monitoring it on a display device, and also to unify the electronic typesetting and pixel configuration in accordance with the publication size.

Furthermore, by connecting each system with an optical highway, transmission is speeded up and data transfer into and out of the system is facilitated.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail with reference to examples and drawings thereof.

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an example of a comprehensive photographic processing apparatus embodying the present invention. In the figure, the comprehensive photo processing device includes a photo album distribution system 2 connected to an optical highway 1, an accumulation management system 3, a publication processing system 4,
The optical gateway 1 is further connected to a typesetting system 6 via an interface 6a. The photo album distribution system 2 includes a photo input means 2a and a photo data compression means 2.
b, and a photo album distribution means 2c, the storage management system 5 includes a photo data storage means 5a, and a monitor/printer as a paper editing output means 5b, and the publication processing system 4 includes a photo collection distribution means 2c. It includes an expansion means 4a, a photo retouching means 4b, a photo editing means 4c, a pixel number unification means 4d, and a halftone dot forming means 4e. Also,
The photo album distribution system 2 is capable of communicating with the outside (for example, a branch office) via an interface 2d'.

The photo input means 2a is for inputting a photograph taken by a photo input device, an electronic still camera, a high-definition television, etc. as an electrical signal, and can be input directly as a digital signal, or
If this is not the case, the input photo original is immediately digitized.◇Photo input devices that input photo information as digital signals include scanners that can scan photographic paper, negative film, and positive film. used. Electronic still cameras using solid-state image pickup devices are already well known, and the photographic results are stored in a small disk, applied to a dedicated reader, and can be easily input to a combinator in the form of electrical signals. Received images from high-definition television are also much more detailed than ordinary television and can be used as photographic manuscripts, and can also be imported into the combiator via intermediary means. The scanning line density of the scanner is approximately 7.24 lines per page when the printed size of the photo and the original size are one-to-one.
It is sufficient if it is more than a pilgrimage, but the dimensions of the photo printed on the paper are 0.
Since it is 2 to 2.0 times, it is set as 16 capes.

The data compression means 2b encodes and compresses photographic data for transmission and storage.

In digital phototransmission, the number of quantization bits per sample pixel of an image determines the gradation reproduction.

If the number of quantization bits is large, the gradation will be rich and the reproducibility will be good, but since the amount of image data will increase, a large memory will be required, and the processing time and transmission time will also become longer. As shown in FIG. 2, the halftone dots of electronic typesetting are composed of 50 pixels, and the gradation is expressed in 5 levels from 0 to 50.

The density of the measured photographic original is quantized in 8 bits and quantized from 0 to
255 and 256 level data are generated, gradation correction is performed as shown in the vertical axis/horizontal axis shown in FIG. 3, the 256 levels are divided into 5 levels each, and the data is compressed to 5 levels.

If the number of pixels is divided equally into each level, it will form a straight line with equal steps as shown by the dotted line (A), 0 pixels for the 0 level, 1 pixel for the 1 to 2 levels, etc. 50-54
If we make the levels correspond to each other in a series such as 21, then (
A curved stage can be obtained as shown in b), and a halftone photograph can be created that emphasizes the light and illumination areas. Similarly, (ha)yani)
Various tone correction curves such as the following can also be considered. If the number of quantization bits is 8 bits, 256 levels are possible.
With 7 bits, there are 128 levels from 0 to 127, so (
B) and Hj are limited, and in 6 bits it is 0 to 63064.
level, so it is only possible to perform gradation correction with characteristics close to (a). If transmission is to be performed over a 64 kbps digital line, it can be transmitted in about 3 minutes by scanning a 130 fi x 1901 m original at a scanning line density of 16 lines per frame, quantizing the density level with 8 bits, and compressing the data. The image data encoding methods for data compression include perfect reproduction prediction method, differential pulse code modulation encoding method,
Possible methods include a block coding method and a predictive conversion method.

The photo album distribution means 2c is equipped with a sending/receiving function and a monitoring function, and instructs to manage the distribution of electronic photo albums, and also temporarily stores data in the collection distribution file 2e to facilitate the transmission and reception. There is.

The received photo data is temporarily stored in a file memory, which is the photo data storage means 3a of the storage management system 5. The file memory normally holds 10 days' worth of data, and the amount of photographic originals per day can reach 400 megabytes, so a large-capacity optical disk is used.

In the posting processing system 4, first, the photo data is restored by the photo data decompression means 4a, which corresponds to the photo data compression means 2b. The restored photo original is on the monitor TV
etc., and the photo editing processing means 4 (!) electronically performs editing operations such as cropping, enlarging, and reducing to achieve the paper format specified by the editor. Photo retouching work is also carried out.This includes hue correction, contour correction, gradation correction, compositing, rotation, enlargement, reduction, smoothing, etc. on the display using pen processing, etc., and the results are monitored.・You can check the price using a printer.

The pixel unification operation is performed before halftone dot formation or in conjunction with the halftone dot formation step. As methods to be carried out before the halftone forming step, the nearest neighbor interpolation method, the direct approximation interpolation method, the logarithmic approximation interpolation method, the cupic composite method, etc. have been proposed. A pixel interpolation operation or a pixel thinning operation is performed in consideration of the pixel number conversion function of the halftone logic. In electronic typesetting, where one halftone dot consists of 50 pixels, in addition to creating one halftone dot with 50 pixels of photo information before halftone conversion, for example, one halftone dot is made from 4, 12, 24.40 pixels. You can make points. Prepare multiple types of halftone logic corresponding to these, select the halftone logic according to the degree of change in the number of pixels before halftone and after halftone halftone, and perform pixel interpolation or pixel thinning operation. Then halftone processing can be performed. As a result,
The number of pixels of the photographic information before halftone conversion is converted into the basic number of pixels of electronic typesetting.

The halftone photographic original is sent to the typesetting system 6 via the optical highway 1. Also, all the above operations are
It is controlled by the main computer 5. Strictly speaking,
The main computer 5 does not control only the integrated photo processing apparatus and typesetting system according to the present invention, but also controls all the systems connected to the optical highway 1, and each system of the integrated photo processing apparatus also controls one of them. However, the transmission and reception of data is not sequential, and each system inputs and outputs the necessary data individually via the optical highway.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, the image quality of photographed photographs and electronically transmitted photographs is made good, and furthermore, by once storing photographic data in a file, the image quality is not degraded even when transferred inside and outside the p system. It is possible to provide a comprehensive photographic processing device that is easy to transmit and store, and does not require photographic paper reception.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a pixel block diagram of halftone dots in electronic typesetting, and FIG. 3 is a graph of gradation correction special numbers. 1...Hikari Highway, 2...Photobook distribution system,
6... Storage management system, 4... Publishing processing system, 5... Main computer, 6... Typesetting system.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A photobook distribution system, an accumulation management system, a publication processing system, and a main computer that controls each of the above systems are connected by an optical highway, and the photobook distribution system has a photo input means that converts captured photos into digital signals. The storage management system is equipped with a photo data compression means and a photo book distribution means for inputting and outputting digital photo information to and from a communication line, and the storage management system is equipped with a photo data storage means and a monitor/printer output means for page editing. The processing system includes photo data expansion means, photo retouching processing means, photo editing processing means, and pixel interpolation means or pixel thinning means for making the number of pixels of the photo data the same as the basic number of pixels of electronic typesetting, which correspond to the compression means. What is claimed is: 1. A comprehensive photographic processing device comprising: halftone forming means.