JP2637402B2 - Image processing system - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image processing system in which image information (for example, a sentence recorded and printed on paper or the like) is input in pixel units, and converted into digital signals for processing. More particularly, the present invention relates to an image processing system capable of processing one pixel of image information with a binary digital signal and a multi-valued digital signal.

(Prior art)

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an image processing system that reads image information such as a line drawing or a document in a pixel unit using a photoelectric conversion element or the like and converts it into a binary digital signal to perform editing, display, storage, and the like is generally known. Further, in order to process image information having a halftone expression such as a photograph, and to perform image processing such as gradation conversion, edge enhancement, and clipping of an object, the image information is converted into a multi-valued digital signal. Image processing systems for processing have been developed in recent years.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

However, in an image processing system that performs image processing using a signal in which image information is converted into a binary digital signal (hereinafter, referred to as binary image data), a signal in which image information is converted into a multi-valued digital signal (hereinafter, referred to as a binary signal) No image processing can be performed by using multi-valued image data), and even in an image processing system that performs image processing using multi-valued image data, there is no one that can perform image processing using binary image data and lacks versatility. Was. Therefore, a highly versatile image processing system capable of integrating binary image data and multi-valued image data and performing image processing such as text editing and printout has been desired.

[Means and actions for solving the problems]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention has a binary image processing means for performing image processing on binary image data, and a multi-value image processing means for performing image processing on multi-valued image data. An image processing system for transmitting and receiving value and multi-valued image data, a binary / multi-valued conversion means for converting binary image data into multi-valued image data;
Multi-value to convert multi-value image data to binary image data
/ 2 value conversion means and the binary data transmitted to the multi-value image processing means.
When the conversion to multi-valued image data is specified for the value image data, the multi-valued image data is converted into multi-valued image data using the binary / multi-value conversion means, and the multi-valued image data transmitted to the binary image processing means is transmitted. Control means for controlling the conversion of the data to binary image data by using the multi-level / binary conversion means when conversion to binary image data is designated. The purpose is to provide.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an image processing system to which the present invention is applied.

In FIG. 1, 1-1, 1-2,...
This is a binary image processing work station (hereinafter referred to as binary WS) that can edit and display value image data.
.. Are image readers (hereinafter referred to as binary RDs) for binarizing image information and reading them.
.. Is an image printer (hereinafter, referred to as a binary PR) for printing binarized image data. Binary
WS2-1, 2-2, ... are binary RD3-1, 3-2, ..., respectively.
And a binary PR 4-1 and 4-2, and a reader / printer system (hereinafter referred to as a binary printer) comprising a binary image reader and a binary image printer via a network (hereinafter referred to as LAN) 12. Value RD / 2 value PR system)
It is possible to transmit and receive binary image data such as 1,5-2,.

In the above configuration, the binary WS1-1, 1-2,... Are binary image data from any of the binary RD / binary PR systems 5-1, 5-2,. And edits such as cutting, enlarging, reducing, rotating, moving, and synthesizing the binary image data on the display, and displaying the final binary image data. Binary RD / 2-value PR system 5 through LAN12
-1, 5-2,..., And print the binary image data, and an external storage device of the binary WS or a storage file server connected via the LAN 12 (Hereinafter, referred to as FS) 6-1 and 6-2. In addition, binary WS2-1, 2-2, ...
・ Send and receive binary image data with binary RD / 2-value PR system on the network, and directly connect binary
Binary image data can be read from RD3-1,3-2, ... and binary image data can be printed using binary PR4-1,4-2, ... .

Further, 7-1, 7-2, ..., 8-1, 8-2, ... are multi-valued image processing work stations (hereinafter referred to as multi-valued WSs) capable of editing and displaying multi-valued image data. ) And 9-1,
9-2,... Are image readers (hereinafter referred to as multi-valued RDs) which read image information in a multi-valued manner, and 10-1, 10-2,.
Is an image printer (hereinafter referred to as multi-value PR) that can print multi-valued image data while reproducing halftones.

Multivalue WS7-1,7-2, ... 8-1,8-2, ... is binary WS
In the same manner as in the above, multi-valued image data can be received from any of the multi-valued RDs, edited, displayed, transferred to any of the multi-valued PRs and printed, and FS6-1,6
-2. Editing of the multi-valued image data can be performed by cutting, enlarging, reducing, rotating, moving, and synthesizing the cut portion, as well as tone conversion, edge enhancement, and the like.

FIG. 2 shows the binary WS1-1,1-2, ..., 2-1,2-2, ...
It is a block diagram which shows the internal structure of FIG. Basic components include an input keyboard 13 and a pointing device 1.
4, Keyboard interface KBD-I / F15, cpu22, MMU
Program memory including (Memory Management Unit)
23, interface for lead disk drive, floppy disk drive, interface FD / HD-I / F24, disk drive (HD) 25, floppy disk drive (FD) 26, CRT display 16 And a video RAM (hereinafter referred to as a binary VRAM) for that purpose. Reference numeral 18 denotes a bit management unit (hereinafter referred to as BMU) which stores program memories PMEM23 and PMEM23.
A large amount of data in units of words and bits can be transferred at high speed between the binary VRAM 17 and input / output devices without passing through the CPU 22. The BMU 18 further has a logical operation function, a rotation function, and a scaling function of the source data and the destination data. With regard to the scaling function, scaling can be performed by distinguishing between binary image data such as a line drawing and multi-valued image data such as a photograph. In addition, an optical disk (hereinafter referred to as MMR), which has a companding circuit (hereinafter referred to as MMR) 19 with data companding function, and an interface LAN-I / F20 for connecting binary WS and LAN, OD) 29, and may have an interface OD-I / F28 therefor.

Further, it has an interface binary LC-I / F27 for connecting either the binary RD or the binary PR directly or both. LC-I
Although the internal structure of / F27 is well known and omitted, there is a buffer for storing the binary image data, and there is also a function to transfer the read data from the binary RD3 directly to the binary PR4 to realize a local copy.

Binary WS1-1,1-2, ... receive binary image data via LAN12 by LAN-I / F20, decompress by MMR19, and binary buffer of PMEM23 or binary LC-I / F27. The image data. This is edited using the function of the BMU18 and transferred to the binary VRAM17.
Can be displayed. In addition, edited binary image data can be stored in HD25, FD26, OD29, LAN12
Via the binary PR5-1, 5-2 or FS6 shown in FIG.
-1,6-2. The multi-valued / binary CV21 has a function of converting multi-valued image data into binary image data, and converts the multi-valued image data transferred via the LAN 12 into binary image data to form a binary buffer (BUF). Store. Its internal configuration is as shown in Fig. 10,
Binary pattern corresponding to one pixel of multi-valued image data
The corresponding density pattern is transferred from the ROM 55 to the binary BUF 54. This allows the binary WS1-1, 1-2,..., 2-2... To synthesize and edit the binary image data and the multivalued image data as the same binary image data. Can be transferred to the binary PR4.

3 and 4 show the binary RD / 2-value PR system 5 respectively.
, FS6-1, 6-2,... (The same components as those in FIG. 2 are indicated by the same reference numerals). With this configuration, the binary RD / 2-value PR system 5-1, 5-2,... Reads the image information and sends it to the LAN 12 as binary image data, or receives and prints the binary image data from the LAN 12. , Can also be copied locally. FS6-1, 6-2,... Perform a normal file management and have a function of storing binary and multivalued image data in the HD25, FD26, and OD29.

FIGS. 5 and 6 (the same components as in FIG. 2 are indicated by the same reference numerals) are multivalued WS7-1, 7-2,.
・, 8-1,8-2, ・ ・ ・ Multi-level RD / Multi-level PR system 11-1,11-2,
Is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of..., Binary WS, binary
Difference from RD / 2-value PR system is video RAM32 and multi-value LC-I / F3
In four. Multi-value to connect multi-value RD9 and multi-value PR10
An LC-I / F is required, and a multi-level VRAM 32 is required to display multi-level image data as an image.

The multi-valued LC-I / F34 has a configuration as shown in FIG. 7, and the multi-valued RD9 controlled by the controller 37 reads the image information into the multi-valued BUF39 via the thinning circuit 45, and draws a line drawing as necessary.・
There is a function to separate the image area into binary image data such as characters and multi-valued image data having halftones such as photographs. This image area separation information is read into the image area BUF40 via the image area separation circuit 46.
It is digitized and read into the binary BUF38. The multi-value image data of the multi-value BUF39 can be transferred to the multi-value PR10 and printed.

Also, the binary image data of the binary BUF38 is converted to a multilevel circuit 41.
, And can be transferred to the multi-value PR by superimposing the multi-value image data from the multi-value BUF 39 via the superimposing circuit 43. The multi-valued VRAM 32 has a configuration as shown in FIG.
Store multi-level image data in multi-level BUF53 and store it in CRT16
Can be displayed. Also, binary image data is converted to binary BUF52
And superimposed on the multi-valued image data via the superimposing circuit 51 for display.

The binary / multilevel CV33 has a function of converting image data from binary to multilevel and from multilevel to binary.
As shown in the figure, read the data of multi-value BUF56,
The density pattern corresponding to one pixel is transferred from the binary pattern ROM 57 to the binary BUF 58. If the binary image data is data expressing a halftone expression by a density pattern, the data is read from the binary BUF 58 and the multi-value data expressing the gradation of one pixel is read from the multi-value pattern ROM 59 to read the multi-value data. Transfer to value BUF56.

Thus, the multi-value WS8-1, 8-2,... Can synthesize and edit the binary image data and the multi-value image data as the same image data, and transfer the result to the multi-value PR10. , Can also be transferred to binary PR4.

In such a configuration, the multi-value WS is used for the multi-value image,
The same function as the value WS can be realized, and the binary image can be included and processed if necessary.

The data format on the LAN 12 can be realized as shown in FIG. 9 in order to identify the binary image data and the multi-value image data as described above and to identify the transfer between various devices. Here, 47 and 48 are identification numbers indicating the transmitting side and the receiving side, respectively, which are added from the transmitting side. Reference numeral 49 denotes an identification number indicating the content of data. In the binary WS or binary RD / 2-value PR system, a number indicating a binary image is added. Value WS or Multivalue RD / Multivalue P
In the R system, a number indicating a multi-valued image is added.
Then, in accordance with the data iD49, the binary image or the multivalued image is stored in 50.

Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be described with reference to the document editing flow shown in FIGS. 12 (1) and 12 (2).

First, in step S1, a binary image from a binary RD, a multi-valued
Multi-valued images from RD, sentences and figures stored in HD,
A table, a graph, a binary image, a multi-value image, an integrated document thereof, or a blank sheet are selected and displayed. Next, in step S2, the process branches to the following process according to the type of the displayed document and the designated command. Processing includes print processing S4, text input editing S6, figure editing S8, table editing S1
0, graph creation S12, binary image editing S15, multi-valued image editing S16, data extraction S22, and data synthesis S24.

If binary / multi-value conversion is specified for the binary image, the binary image is converted into a multi-value image in step S16, and the process proceeds to multi-value image editing in step S19.

When the multi-value / binary conversion is designated for the multi-value image, the multi-value image is converted into a binary image in step 20, and the process proceeds to the binary image editing in step S15.

In binary image editing, cutting of figures and characters, enlargement / reduction of cut parts, rotation, movement thereof, and composition of them can be performed. In multi-valued image editing, in addition to these, gradation conversion, edge emphasis, extraction of an object, and the like can be performed.

When the document editing is completed in S25, the document is written out in S26, printed out, displayed, saved on a hard disk or the like, and the flow ends.

In the image processing system having the above configuration, the multi-value WS7-1, 7-2,..., 8-1, 8-2,.
You can display and edit the document as shown in Figure 13. Here, an integrated document 57 includes a document 58, a figure 59, a graph 60, a table 63, a multi-valued image 61 such as a photograph, and a binary image 62 such as a figure. Reference numeral 64 denotes a display area for instructing different editing commands depending on the editing state. Where sentence 5
8, a figure 59, a graph 60, and a table 63 are bit-expanded from the code data to the binary BUF 52 in FIG.
Are thinned out and transferred to the same binary BUF 52 by the scaling function of the BMU 18 in FIG. The multi-valued image 61 is transferred to the multi-valued BUF 53 in FIG. 8 by the function of the BMU 18 and is superimposed and displayed on the CRT 16 in FIG.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, the present invention includes a binary image processing unit that performs image processing on binary image data, and a multi-valued image processing unit that performs image processing on multi-valued image data. An image processing system for transmitting and receiving multi-valued image data, wherein when conversion of binary image data transmitted to the multi-valued image processing means into multi-valued image data is designated, the binary / multi-valued conversion means Is converted to multi-valued image data by using the multi-valued image data transmitted to the binary image processing means. Since the data is converted into value image data, conversion is specified especially among data which needs to be converted among a plurality of binary image data or multi-value image data existing in the image processing system. Since over data only each image processing means is converted into a processing data, efficient, it is possible to provide a highly versatile image processing system.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an image processing system to which the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of a binary WS, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of a binary RD / 2-value PR system. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of the FS, FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of the multi-value WS, FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of the multi-value RD / multi-value PR system, 7 is a block diagram showing the internal structure of the multi-valued LC-I / F, FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the internal structure of the multi-valued VRAM, and FIG. 9 is binary image data and multi-valued image data on the network. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the internal configuration of a multi-value / binary conversion circuit, FIG. 11 is a diagram showing the internal configuration of a binary / multi-value conversion circuit, and FIG. 12 is a schematic flow of integrated document editing. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a display example of an integrated document. 1-1,1-2, ..., 2-1,2-1 ... binary image processing work station (binary WS) 3-1,3-2-2, ... binary image reader (binary RD) 4-1, 4-2, ... Binary reader printer (binary PR) 5-1, 5-2, ... Binary RD / 2-value PR system 6-1, 6-2, ... … File saver (FS) 7-1,7-2,…, 8-1,8-2 …… Multi-level image processing work station (multi-level WS) 9-1,9-2,… …… Multi Value image reader (multi-valued RD) 10-1,10-2, ... Multi-valued reader printer (multi-valued PR) 11-1,11-2, ... Multi-valued RD / multi-valued PR system

Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-61-77935 (JP, A) JP-A-59-163959 (JP, A) JP-A-61-154271 (JP, A) JP-A-59-45765 (JP, A) JP-A-58-134576 (JP, A) JP-A-58-136088 (JP, A) JP-A-59-173869 (JP, A) JP-A-61-148971 (JP, A) 60-53373 (JP, A) JP-A-60-53372 (JP, A)

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. An image processing apparatus comprising: a binary image processing means for performing image processing on binary image data; and a multi-value image processing means for performing image processing on multi-value image data. An image processing system for transmitting and receiving, comprising: converting binary image data into multi-valued image data;
Value / multi-value conversion means, multi-value / binary conversion means for converting multi-value image data into binary image data, and converting the binary image data transmitted to the multi-value image processing means into multi-value image data. Is specified, the data is converted into multi-valued image data using the binary / multi-valued conversion means, and the multi-valued image data transmitted to the binary image processing means is converted into binary image data. Control means for controlling the conversion into binary image data using the multi-value / binary conversion means when is designated.