JPH07296010A - Image display method and device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] (Modified) [Structure] The retrieved images are read one by one from a large-capacity storage device such as an optical disk and subjected to decompression processing by the image processing means, and the decompressed images are processed at high speed. The display position of the first image is determined based on at least one of the forward page turning and the reverse page turning of the plurality of images stored in the buffer memory and the high speed buffer memory. The process of performing parallel movement in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction at regular intervals and displaying the image on the image display means is repeated. [Effect] When searching for a desired image while checking a large number of images one by one, it is possible to visually control pages such as page turning, so that even an amateur can quickly and clearly search.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a device for sequentially displaying a plurality of images, and in particular, it is a suitable image display when a user searches for a desired image while visually checking a large number of images one by one. A method and apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional technique is disclosed in JP-A-58-84365.
As described in (3), the number of classified images could only be confirmed by overlapping display in which the display positions of the images were changed little by little. No consideration was given to the use of overlapping display for searching multiple images and the page turning display in both the forward and backward directions. Searching for a desired image while visually checking a large number of images one by one, when searching for an image, there are two types of pages: forward page turning displayed in the order of the searched images and reverse page turning displayed in the reverse order. It is necessary to make sequential display easy for humans to understand.

Further, in image retrieval, it is necessary to display one image from a large-capacity storage device such as an optical disk on a display device. It takes some time (1 to 2) to read a desired image from a large-capacity storage device such as an optical disk.
Seconds). Therefore, it is necessary to temporarily store the image from the optical disk in a high-speed buffer memory such as a semiconductor memory device in order to display it immediately (0.1 seconds) in response to a human instruction such as turning pages of a book. .

In image retrieval, it is also important to know how many images are currently being input from the optical disc into a high-speed buffer memory such as a semiconductor memory device that can be immediately displayed.

In other words, it is possible to reduce the unpleasant sensation by being known to a person who is operating the image that he or she is trying to view now, which is an image that can be viewed immediately or an image which requires a little time. . As described above, in the conventional technology, sufficient consideration has not been given to the retrieval of a plurality of images.

[0006]

The above prior art does not consider the display method when retrieving a plurality of images, and when retrieving a document composed of a plurality of images selected under a certain condition. There was a problem.

A first object of the present invention is to immediately and in mind when searching for a desired image from a plurality of images, it is known where the image is in the document. It is to find out accurately with a floating image.

To present a display method that allows a user to immediately cut a page by turning the page in the forward direction or turning the page in the reverse direction just by looking at the image displayed for the second purpose. is there.

A third object is to provide a display system capable of determining how many images have been stored in a high-speed buffer memory such as a semiconductor which can be immediately displayed from a large-capacity storage device such as an optical disk. Further, even during the search while visually checking the image on the high-speed memory, the image is transferred from the mass storage device to the high-speed buffer memory in parallel with the search operation to improve the search efficiency.

[0010]

The above-described object is to perform a decompression process by reading out a plurality of images retrieved by the retrieval device one by one from a mass storage device such as an optical disk and decompressing them by an image processing device. A process of storing images in the high-speed buffer memory and a plurality of images stored in the high-speed buffer memory are displayed on the basis of at least one of a forward page turning and a backward page turning display method. This can be achieved by repeatedly performing a process of moving in parallel in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction at regular intervals with respect to the display position and displaying the image on the image display means.

Further, the image display means displays a predetermined start point mark at a position on the screen where the first image of the plurality of images read from the high speed buffer memory is displayed.

When forward page turning is instructed as the display method, the image displayed at the top of the screen of the image display means is erased and the image of the next page is displayed at the top, and the display method is When the reverse page turning is instructed, the image of the previous page is overwritten and displayed on the image displayed at the top of the screen of the image display means.

Further, it is determined how many images can be immediately displayed by checking only a part of the image stored in the high speed buffer memory from the mass storage device when the images are stored in the high speed buffer memory. indicate.

[0014]

Since a plurality of images are three-dimensionally moved in parallel in the vertical and horizontal directions at regular intervals and displayed, it is easy to visually grasp.
In addition, the retrieved image is displayed so as to operate in the same manner as this image, so that it is possible to recognize the position of the currently displayed image, the display direction, and the recognition of the contents.

The state of the image that can be seen immediately can be determined from the display screen by sequentially displaying a part of the image.

Waiting until the first searched image is displayed by performing a search by eyes one by one and a transfer to a high-speed buffer memory means that can be viewed immediately in parallel. The time can be shortened and the psychological burden on the operator can be reduced.

The principle of the basic method for realizing the above functions will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows one display screen of the display system of the present invention. The display screen 101 is
Starting point marker 10 indicating the position of the first image searched
2, the currently displayed image 103 and the mass storage device are composed of a partial image 104 showing a part of the image stored in the high speed buffer memory which can be displayed immediately.

The display screen 101 of FIG. 1 shows a state in which the searched image is forward-page-turned by several pages from the first image.

The display process will be described in detail with reference to FIG. When the search is started, the start point marker 112 is displayed first. Next, when the first image retrieved from the mass storage device is stored in the high-speed buffer memory and is ready to be displayed, the image 113 is immediately displayed. The display position of the first image 113 can be a position in contact with the start point marker 112.

The accurate display position of the first image will be described. One point of the starting point marker 112 is set as a starting point marker reference point. For example, in the example of FIG. 2, the point 112a is set as the starting point marker reference point. The origin of the image of the image 113 is the lower left point 113a of the image.

The first image 113 displays the starting point marker reference point at a position that coincides with the origin of the image.

The second image is the origin of the second image from the starting marker reference point 102a both vertically and horizontally when the second image is stored in the high speed buffer memory from the mass storage device. Display at positions separated by Δx and Δy (where Δx and Δy> 0). However, instead of displaying the full screen of the second image, only the partial image 114 of the portion that does not overlap the first image is displayed.

Each time an image is stored in the high speed buffer memory from the mass storage device, the origin of the image is separated by Δx and Δy and only the partial image 114 'is displayed.

The forward page turning operation will be described with reference to FIG.

When performing page turning in the forward direction, the entire area 123 of the first image is displayed in the same color as the background (usually white), and then the second image 123 'is displayed. At this time, instead of displaying the entire second image 123 ', only the remaining portion of the image 124 displayed when the image is stored in the high speed memory from the mass storage device may be displayed.

The entire area of the first image is not displayed (filled) with the background color, but only the area of the first image that does not overlap with the area of the second image is displayed (filled). You may.

The reverse page turning operation will be described with reference to FIG. It is assumed that the third image 133 is currently displayed. When performing reverse page turning, it is sufficient to simply display the second image 133 'in the area where the second image was displayed in the past.

FIG. 5 shows a display image when Δx = 0 and Δy> 0, and FIG. 6 shows a display screen when Δx> 0 and Δy = 0.

Further, a start point marker may be provided on the upper right side of the display screen and set as Δx <, Δy <0. As in FIGS. 2 and 3, Δx = 0, Δy <0 or Δx <0, Δy. It may be set to = 0.

A modification of the basic principle will be described with reference to FIG.

In the image of a normal document, the peripheral portion of the image is often white. Therefore, if the outline of the image of the document is displayed with a black frame, for example, the display becomes easier to understand. In this regard, instead of displaying the partial image 104 that does not overlap with the first image, only the part that does not overlap the black frame may be displayed.

In addition, instead of filling only the area of the first rendered image that does not overlap the area of the second image with the background color in the page turning in the forward direction, the first area that does not overlap the area of the second image You may fill only the part of the black frame with the background color.

The image 103 to be displayed may be not only an image such as a photograph or a figure, but also an image representing a document represented by a character code created by Word Brosset or the like.

[0034]

The present invention will be described in detail below based on an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the image display device for explaining the display system of the present invention. This apparatus is roughly composed of a search unit 200, a mass storage unit 300, an image processing unit 400, and a display control unit 500. Next, the configuration of each unit will be described in detail. First, as shown in FIG. 8, the search unit 200 includes a control bus 210, a search guide screen display section 220,
Keyboard 230, search control unit 240, central control unit 250, search unit 260, external control information input device unit 2
70, an external control information input controller 280, and an image processing unit adapter 290.

As shown in FIG. 9, the image processing unit 400 includes an image bus 410, an image decompressing unit 420, an image processing data storage unit 430, a frame data storage unit 431, a search unit adapter 440, and an image display selection control unit 450. , Image display position control unit 451, display device adapter 460, mass storage device adapter 470, image storage information storage unit 47
1, a display screen storage unit 480, a high speed buffer memory information storage unit 490, a high speed buffer memory 491, and a display image number storage unit 492.

The overall processing flow will be described with reference to FIG. The overall processing flow is as follows: an expanded image information input 610 for inputting information about a plurality of retrieved documents from the search unit to the image processing unit, and an initial image for performing image processing and image display such as a starting point marker as an initial screen. Display 6
20, external control information input 630 for inputting information for controlling page turning processing, etc., turning the document image in the forward direction, turning forward page 640, turning the document image in the reverse direction, turning page backward 650, document image Enlarged display 660 for performing enlarged display or flipping processing while enlarged.
An image input 670 for inputting a plurality of retrieved document images to the high speed memory 491. Forward page turning 64
0, reverse page turning 650, enlarged display 660, and image input 670 are parallel processes.

Next, these processes will be described in detail.

The expanded image information input 610 of FIG. 10 is as shown in FIG.
This will be explained using 9, 11, and 12. First, an image to be searched is selected with the keyboard 230 according to the content displayed on the search guide screen display unit 220 shown in FIG. At this time, a plurality of images are often searched. The specified search condition is sent to the search unit 260 and the corresponding image number is searched for. The image storage information storage unit 47 of FIG. 9 is passed through the image processing unit adapter 290 by the central control unit 250.
An instruction to extract the image of the registration number is sent to 1.

The data structure of the high speed memory information storage unit 490 is shown in FIG. High-speed buffer memory information storage unit 490
Is a page-turning image data start address 711 indicating the start address of the image data on the high-speed memory, an optical disk image data start block address 712 indicating the start block of the image data in a mass storage device such as an optical disk, and its size. It consists of a set of the number of image pages of information 710 for one page, which is composed of the number 713 of optical disk inner surface image data blocks.

The data structure of the high speed buffer memory 491 is shown in FIG. Image data to be displayed is stored in the high speed buffer memory. The first address of the first page 811 of the first page of each image, the first address of the second page 821 ...
・ ・In response to the command, the image storage information storage unit 471 stores a plurality of documents for which the high-speed memory information storage unit 490 has searched the optical disk image data start block address 712 and the optical disk image data block number 713 shown in FIG. Is transferred. At the same time, the head address 811 of the first page image in FIG. 12 is input to the page turning image data head address 711.

The initial image display is shown in FIGS. 1, 9, 11, and 1.
2 is used for the explanation. As shown in FIG. 9, when the image processing data storage unit 430 creates and stores the data that is a constituent element of the document image display method of the present invention, it is possible to frame a plurality of developed images in a similar manner. The frame is created and stored in the frame data storage unit 431 and transferred to the high speed memory 419.
Next, to input the first page image as the initial image,
The first page from the high-speed memory information storage unit 490 shown in FIG.
The image data head address 711, the optical disk image data head block address 712, and the optical disk image data block number 713 data instructions are output,
It is sent to the image expansion section 420. Upon receiving the instruction, the image decompression unit 420 takes out the compressed image data through the mass storage device adapter 470, decompresses the image data into a size of one quarter of the uncompressed image, and decompresses the high speed buffer memory 4
The image data is transferred to the memory 91 in the order of FIG.
However, the size of the original image is the same as that of the display screen 101. At the same time, the high-speed buffer memory information storage unit 490 shown in FIG.
The second page top address 821 of No. 2 is output to the second page information 720 of FIG. Then, the data of all 0 is transferred from the image processing data storage unit 430 of FIG. 9 through the display device adapter 460, and the image display device is cleared. Next, the image of the first page is selected by the image display selection control unit 450, and the command is sent to the high speed buffer memory information storage unit 49.
0, high-speed buffer memory 491, display image number storage unit 4
92, and the image data is transferred from the high-speed buffer memory 491 to the position of the image display device where the first page image is transferred by the image display position control unit 451 or based on the information from the display image number storage unit 492. To do. At the same time, the starting point marker 102 of FIG. 1 is transferred from the image processing data storage unit 430 to the image display device, and the initial image in which the starting point marker of FIG. 1 and the image 103 of the first page are displayed is displayed.

The external control information input of FIG. 10 will be described with reference to FIGS. 8, 9 and 10. As shown in FIG. 8, this process is an information input for controlling the page turning process, and control information such as a page turning speed, a direction, and enlargement is input from the external control information input device 270 to the external control information input control unit 280 and the image processing unit. It is sent to the image display selection control unit 450 of FIG. 9 through the adapter 290. Then, based on this information, the image display selection control unit 450 causes the forward page turning 640, the backward page turning 650, and the enlarged display 66 of FIG.
0, image display 670, processing selection of each, and processing target page are designated.

Next, the forward page turning 640 and the backward page turning 650 shown in FIG. 10, which are the most important processes in the present invention, will be described. First, the forward page turning 640 will be described with reference to FIGS. 1, 9 and 11. An instruction to display the next page of the image displayed on the image display device is output from the image display selection control unit 450 of FIG. 9 to the high speed memory information storage unit 490, the high speed buffer memory 491, and the display image number storage unit 492. The high-speed buffer memory information storage unit 490 outputs the page-turning image data start address 711 and the image data block number 713 in the optical disk shown in FIG. 11, and the image of the page designated by the high-speed buffer memory based on this information. The image display position control unit 451 transfers the image data based on the information from the display image number storage unit 492 as to which position of the image display device is to be transferred. At the same time, the data for deleting the vertical and horizontal lines 103b and 103c of the previous page of FIG. 1 is transferred from the image processing data storage unit 430 to the image display device, and the image of the designated page is displayed on the image display device.

Next, the reverse page turning 650 shown in FIG. 10 will be described with reference to FIGS. 1, 9 and 11. An instruction to display the previous page of the image displayed on the image display device is output from the image display selection control unit 450 of FIG. 9 to the high speed memory information storage unit 490, the high speed buffer memory 491, and the display image number storage unit 492. 11, the high-speed buffer memory information storage unit starts the page-turning image data beginning address 711 and the image data block number 71 in the optical disk.
The information of the previous page such as 3 is output, and based on this information, the display image number storage unit determines to which position in the image display device the image of the designated page is transferred from the high-speed memory by the image display position control unit 451. Based on the information from 492,
The image data is transferred, and the image of the designated page is displayed on the image display device.

The enlarged display 660 of FIG.
This will be described with reference to FIGS. 10 and 11. From the image display selection control unit 450 of FIG. 9, a command to enlarge and display the image displayed on the image display device from a quarter to a normal size is issued by the high-speed buffer memory information storage unit 490 and the display image number storage unit. The data is output to the unit 492, the high-speed buffer memory information storage unit 490 outputs the optical disk image data start block address 712 and the optical disk image data block number 713 in FIG. 11, and this information is sent to the image expansion unit 420. Based on this data, the image decompression unit 420 takes out the compressed image data from the mass storage device, decompresses the image data before compression, and causes the image decompression unit 420 to display the image data on the image display device. At the same time, the image data displayed on the image display device is transferred to the display screen storage unit 480. In the enlargement processing, the forward page turning 640 of the enlarged display, the backward page turning 650 of the enlarged display, the reduced display instead of the enlarged display 660, and the image input 670 of the enlarged display of FIG. The page turning of the quarter image is performed in the display screen storage unit, and the page enlarged by the image display device is turned.

Next, the image input of FIG. 10 will be described with reference to FIGS. 1, 9, 11, and 12. The image display selection control unit 450 of FIG. 9 outputs an instruction to input quarter image data to the high-speed buffer memory information storage unit 490, and the high-speed buffer memory information storage unit 490 causes the image data in the optical disk beginning of FIG. The block address 712 and the number of image data blocks in the optical disk 713 are output, and this data is sent to the image expansion unit 420. The image decompression unit takes out the compressed image data from the mass storage device based on this data, performs decompression processing to the size of the image before compression by the image decompression unit 420, and preliminarily sets the frame. The image data with a frame is transferred to the high-speed memory 491 in which the data is stored and transferred to the memory in the order of FIG. At the same time, the top address of the next page of the memory of FIG. 12 is transferred to the high speed buffer memory information storage section 490 to the top address of the page-turning image data of FIG. Also high-speed buffer memory 491
Each time image data is input to the partial image 104 in FIG.
Will increase. When the process of inputting the images of all pages designated by the search is completed, this process is not performed.

Finally, another processing method which is the core of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 10. Processing of the forward page turning 640, the backward page turning 650, the enlarged display 660 and the image input 670 of FIG. Has a configuration that can be performed in parallel.

According to the present embodiment, it is possible to perform display in both forward and backward directions while inputting external control information and buffering processing of a high speed buffer memory for high speed page turning in parallel, and to perform high speed page turning. Can be realized.

Further, the control of the page turning direction, the page number of the document currently being viewed, and the range of the document which can be turned quickly can be simplified by the black frame display method.

[0051]

As described above, according to the present invention, when a desired image is searched while checking a large number of images one by one, it is possible to visually control page turning, so that even an amateur can operate at high speed. It has the effect of enabling a clear search.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a display diagram of a display method (Δx, Δy> 0) of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an input process to a high speed buffer memory.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a process of forward page turning.

FIG. 4 is a view showing a process of reverse page turning.

FIG. 5 is a display diagram of a display method (Δx = 0, Δy> 0) of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a display diagram of a display method (Δx> 0, Δy = 0) of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a search unit according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an image processing unit according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a process flow chart of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a high speed memory information storage unit table according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of a high speed memory according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

101, 111, 121, 131 ... Display screen, 102,
112, 122, 132 ... Start point marker, 103, 11
3, 123, 133 ... Image currently displayed, 104, 11
4, 124, 134 ... Partial image, 200 ... Search unit, 300 ... Mass storage unit, 400 ... Image processing unit, 500 ... Display control unit, 210 ... Control bus, 220 ... Search guide image display section, 230 ... Keyboard, 240 ... Search control unit, 250 ... Central control unit, 260 ... Search unit, 270 ... External control information input device unit, 280 ... External control information input control unit, 290 ... Image processing unit adapter, 410 ... Image bus, 420 ... Image decompression unit, 430 ... Image processing data storage unit, 431 ... Frame data storage unit, 440 ... Search unit adapter, 450 ...
Image display selection control unit, 451 ... Image display position control unit, 4
60 ... Display device adapter, 470 ... Mass storage device adapter, 471 ... Image storage information storage unit, 480 ... Display screen storage unit, 490 ... High speed buffer memory information storage unit, 49
1 ... High-speed buffer memory, 492 ... Display image number storage unit, 610 ... Expanded image information input, 620 ... Initial image display, 630 ... External control information input, 640 ... Forward page turning, 650 ... Reverse page turning, 660 ... Enlarged display, 670 ... Image input, 710 ... First page information, 71
1 ... Page-turning image data start address, 712 ... Optical disc image data start block address, 713 ... Optical disc image data block number, 720 ... Second page information, 730 ... Nth page information, 810 ... First page image data , 811 ... First address of first page, 820 ... Image data of second page, 821 ... First address of second page, 830
... nth page image data.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Atsushi Hatakeyama 1-280, Higashikoigokubo, Kokubunji, Tokyo Inside the Central Research Laboratory, Hitachi, Ltd.

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A compressed image is stored in a large-capacity storage means, an image stored in the large-capacity storage means is searched by a search means, and a plurality of images searched by the search means are stored in the large-capacity storage means. The process of reading the images one by one from the capacity storage unit, performing the decompression process by the image processing unit, and storing the decompressed image in the high-speed buffer memory unit, and the plurality of images stored in the high-speed buffer memory unit are sequentially performed. Based on at least one display method of directional page turning and reverse page turning, the image is displayed on the image display means while being moved in parallel in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction at regular intervals with reference to the display position of the first image. An image display method characterized by repeatedly performing the processing described above. 2. A large-capacity storage means for storing a compressed image, a searching means for searching the images stored in the large-capacity storage means, and a plurality of images searched by the searching means for the large-capacity storage. Image processing means for performing at least decompression processing read from the means, input means for instructing the display method of the image obtained by the image processing means, and displaying the searched image according to the display method of the instructed image An image display device comprising an image display means, a high-speed buffer memory means for temporarily storing a plurality of images read from the large-capacity storage means and expanded by the image processing means, and the high-speed buffer. A plurality of images stored in the memory means, forward page turning designated by the input means,
Based on at least one of the display methods of the page turning in the reverse direction and the page display direction of the first image, the display position of the first image is moved in parallel in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction at regular intervals, and sequentially displayed on the image display means. A read-out image from the large-capacity storage means, a decompression processing by the image processing means, a processing for storing the decompressed image in the high-speed buffer memory means, and a control means for repeating the processing. Characteristic image display device. 3. The image display means according to claim 2, wherein the image display means has a predetermined start point mark at a position on the screen where the first image of the plurality of images read from the high speed buffer memory means is displayed. An image display device characterized by displaying. 4. The control means according to claim 2,
When forward page turning is instructed as the display method, the image displayed at the top of the screen of the image display means is erased and the image of the next page is displayed at the top, and the backward page is displayed as the display method. An image display device, characterized in that, when turning is instructed, the image of the previous page is displayed by being overwritten on the image displayed at the top of the screen of the image display means. 5. A mass storage means for storing a compressed image, a searching means for searching for an image stored in the mass storage means, and a plurality of images searched by the searching means for mass storage. Image processing means for performing at least decompression processing read from the means, input means for instructing the display method of the image obtained by the image processing means, and displaying the searched image according to the display method of the instructed image An image display device comprising an image display means, a high-speed buffer memory means for temporarily storing a plurality of images read from the large-capacity storage means and expanded by the image processing means, and the high-speed buffer. A plurality of images stored in the memory means, forward page turning designated by the input means,
And a process of sequentially displaying on the image display means based on at least one display method of page turning in the reverse direction,
The images are read one by one from the large-capacity storage means, the image processing means performs decompression processing, the processing of storing the decompressed images in the high-speed buffer memory means is repeated, and the images are stored in the high-speed buffer memory means. When the number of images to be displayed is increased, the image display device is provided with a control unit for displaying a part of the corresponding image on the image display unit.