JPS63167569A - Picture file device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain high speed retrieval even when quantity of data of an original picture is enough by storing the original picture while dividing it into a picture used for the retrieval and the picture to restore the original picture. CONSTITUTION:An original picture 1 is reduced by a picture reduction means 2 to generate a 1st picture to the degree withstanding the retrieval. on the other hand, the remaining data not required for the picture reduction means 2 is used as a 2nd picture 4 and a compression means 5 decreases the redundancy. The pictures are stored in a storage means 8 as one of a series of files and plural files are preserved in the storage means 8. in case of the retrieval, a central control means 10 seeks the file being an object of the retrieval from the said files and only the 1st picture of the file is extracted by using the picture retrieval means 6 and displayed on a display means 9. As a result of observation, when the original picture is required, a central control means 10 uses a picture restoration means 7 to restore the original picture based on the 1st and 2nd pictures and displays it on the display means 9.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to an image file device for recording, storing, and reproducing image information.

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, with the development of optical discs, systems for storing image data on optical discs have become popular.

A well-known example of its application is an optical disk file device for patent searches. This type of device binarizes and reads a document using a document reading device generally called a scanner. The read images are then compressed to reduce redundancy and are recorded and stored on an optical disc.

Stored patent images are searched using search information such as classification tables, publication numbers, and keywords.

An example of the compression process of the conventional image file device described above will be described below with reference to the drawings.

4 and 5 show the flow of compression processing in a conventional image file device, and FIG. 6 shows a search method in another conventional image file device.

In FIG. 4, the image is an original image read by a scanner or the like. 2 is a compression means for reducing the redundancy of the original image. 12 is a storage means for storing compressed image information as a file.

1) is a decompression means for extracting compressed image information from a storage means and restoring it to the original original image. 9 is a means for displaying an image, and 10 is a central control means for managing the entire apparatus.

The operation of the image file device configured as described above will be explained below.

First, the redundancy of the original image read by a scanner or the like is reduced by the compression means 2.

As this compression method, MH (Modified Huffman), which is an international standard (CCITT recommendation),
Use of MR (Modified Read) code increases versatility.

An example of an optical disk document file configured using the MH code is Sanyo Electric Technical Report's ``R Optical Disk Document File'', y Stem'' published by Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.
ANYOTECHNICAL REVIEW Vol.
There is an example reported by Mr. Nakatani et al. in 16Na'2 AUG, 1984 pp3-12). As seen in the above report, in order to store a large amount of image data, compression is applied to reduce its redundancy, it is stored as a file in a storage medium, and when reading out the stored information,
A common method is to decompress the contents of a compressed file using decompression means 1) and output it to image display means 9 or a printing device. In particular, when the MH code is used, it has excellent features such as easy connection to a fax line. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the correspondence between the original image 1 in FIG. 4 and the files stored in the storage means 12.

As another conventional example, an image file device shown in FIG. 6 is known. (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 60-254963) In FIG. 6, the plurality of original images on the left side are reduced by a predetermined reduction means. By combining the reduced images to create a composite image, image search can be performed using a single image.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention It is expected that image file devices that currently mainly handle binary images will also be able to store multivalued and color images in the future. In addition, it is common practice to search for stored information using search information other than image information, but as with storage on microfilm,
It is thought that a method of searching while viewing images will also be needed. In response to this need, current hardware and software technology requires a large amount of time to compress and decompress images at high speed, and it is difficult to meet the demand for searching while viewing images. From a machine interface point of view, the problem was that the system was very difficult to use and had a slow response. In addition, when using the conventional configuration in which multiple original images are reduced and then combined and searched, it is necessary to store both the original image and the combined image, resulting in the problem that the storage device cannot be used efficiently. was.

In view of the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides an image file device that maintains the conventional data compression effect by reducing redundancy and allows high-speed searching while viewing images.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above problems, the image file device of the present invention includes an image reduction means, an image compression means, and a storage for storing the original image separately into a reduced image and a compressed image. image display means and reduced image search means capable of searching while viewing a desired image using the reduced image; and image restoration means having a function of restoring the original image from the reduced image and the compressed image. It is equipped with the following.

Effect of the present invention With the above-described configuration, it is possible to search while viewing the image using a reduced image with a small amount of data.
If it is determined as necessary as a result of the search, the original image can be restored from the reduced image and the compressed image, allowing efficient use of the storage device.

Embodiment Hereinafter, an image file device according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of an image file device in an embodiment of the present invention. In Fig. 1, 1 is the original image,
2 is an image reduction means, 3 is a first image reduced by the reduction means, and 4 is a second image which is the remaining image that is no longer needed at the reduction stage. 5 is a compression means. 8 is a storage means that stores the reduced image and the compressed image as a file. 6 is a reduced image search means, 7 is an image restoration means,
9 is an image display means, and 10 is a central control means.

FIG. 2 shows the original image l and the storage means 8 in the embodiment of the present invention.
This shows the correspondence with files stored in .

The operation of the image file device configured as described above will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1, 2, and 3.

First, FIG. 1 shows an image file device, in which an original image 1 is a digital image already inputted by a scanner, a video camera, or the like.

When this original image is reduced by the image reduction means 2, it becomes a first image. However, it is assumed that the reduced image has a resolution sufficient for human observation and search.

The second data, which is the remaining data that is no longer needed by the image reduction means 2,
The redundancy of the image is reduced by the compression means 5.

The reduced image and the compressed image with reduced redundancy are stored in the storage means 8 as a series of files by the central control means 10. By repeating the above procedure several times, a plurality of files are stored in the storage means 8.

When searching for stored information, search information such as keywords is generally used to search for files, but the description of this means is omitted in FIG.

Instead, it describes a means for a person to directly observe and search images, which is one of the features of the present invention. In order for a person to directly observe and search an image, the central control means searches the storage means 8 for a file to be searched, and uses the image retrieval means 6 to retrieve only the image corresponding to the first image of the file. It is extracted and sent to the image display means 9. As a result of the observation, if a person needs the original image, the central control means uses the image restoration means 7 to restore the original image from the reduced image and the compressed image, and sends it to the image display means 9. .

Next, using FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, the original image 1 and the storage means 8 are
Shows the correspondence with files stored in . The original image on the left side of FIG. 2 is divided into four parts by the image reduction means 2. However, here, the original image is assumed to be a binary image with a resolution of (16 dots)/n). Therefore, the resolution of the image after reduction is (8
dot/flI). Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 3, the four-division method is such that four adjacent square dots are made to correspond to images A through both images, respectively. The reduction method may be a simple thinning method like this method, or a method of taking an average (a special reduction method may be suitable depending on the type of image).

Here, image A, which is one of the four divided images, is used as an image after reduction, and images 8 to 1 are used as remaining images that are no longer needed due to reduction. Image A is packed into a predetermined file in the storage means from the beginning, and images 8 to 1 have their redundancy reduced by the compression means and are packed into the predetermined file from behind image A. Files with such a structure are created one after another in the storage means and are searched targets. When searching for an image, the image search means extracts only information about image A from a predetermined file and sends it to the image display means.

As shown in FIG. 3, images 8 to 2 that are no longer needed as a result of the reduction are compressed by the image compression means 5, respectively.

As described above, according to this embodiment, by storing the original image separately into an image used for searching and an image used to restore the original image, the image display means can quickly display the image even when the amount of data of the original image is large. It can be displayed in Furthermore, since it is equipped with a compression means, which is a conventional function, the storage means can be used efficiently.

In the embodiment, the reduced image 3 is recorded as it is in the storage means, but it may be compressed and sent as shown in the conventional configuration example before being sent to the storage means. For example, if the image A is compressed using MH or MR codes for compatibility with facsimile, the image A matches the resolution of G3 facsimile and can be easily connected to a communication line. Furthermore, the original image may be a multivalued image or a color image.

Furthermore, although it is desirable that the image restored by the image restoration means 7 can be completely restored to the original image, this is not necessary depending on the user's judgment.

In addition, it is easiest to compress images 8 to 3 in Fig. 3 individually using MH codes, but as a means to increase the compression rate, a method is used in which the remaining images are encoded using image A as a reference. It's okay.

Effects of the Invention As described above, the present invention comprises: an image reduction means for converting an original image into an image with a small number of pixels; a compression means for reducing the redundancy of remaining image information that is no longer needed in the reduction stage; A storage means having a function of storing a plurality of original images, reduced images, and compressed images, and an image search means and image for searching information stored by the storage means using storage information of the reduced images. Redundancy can be reduced by providing a display means, an image restoration means for extracting the information of the reduced image and the compressed image from the storage means and restoring it to the original image, and a central control means for managing the execution of all the above means. It is possible to realize an image file device that has a data compression effect due to a reduction in image density and allows high-speed searching while viewing images.

Further, if the original image is a binary image with a resolution of (16 dots/■■), compatibility with the fax line can be maintained by setting the resolution of the reduced image to (8 dots/drink). However, when the above compatibility is taken into account, the reduced image is also subject to compression.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an image file device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram illustrating the relationship between an original image and a file stored in a storage means in the configuration of FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing an embodiment of the reduction means, FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of a conventional image file device, and FIG. 5 is a configuration showing the relationship between the original image and the file stored in the storage means in the configuration of FIG. 4. 6 are explanatory diagrams showing another conventional image retrieval method. 1...Original image, 2...Image reduction means,
3...First image, 4...Second image, 5...Image compression means, 6...Reduced image search means, 7... ...Image restoration means, 8...
...Storage means, 9...Image display means, 10...
... Central processing means, 1) ... Decompression means, 1
2...Memorization means. Name of agent: Patent attorney Toshio Nakao Number of persons: 1 person 0 ~ 1 year
N-cho whistle 5 Figure 6

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) An image reduction means for reducing the original image and outputting a first image; and an image compression means for reducing the redundancy of the second image, which is the remaining image information that is no longer needed at the reduction stage. , an image display means having a function of displaying the first image for the purpose of searching for the original image, and at least the first image.
storage means having a function of storing a plurality of compressed images of the image and the second image, and a reduced image search means for searching information stored in the storage means using the information of the first image. , an image restoration means for extracting compressed image information of the first image and the second image from the storage means and restoring it to the original image, and a central control means for managing execution of all the above means. An image file device comprising: (2) The central control means records or records in the storage means the reduced image after reducing the original image and the compressed image in which the redundancy of the remaining image information that has become unnecessary at the above-mentioned reduction stage is reduced. It has a reproduction function, manages the reduced image and the compressed image as a series of files, and sends the reduced image to a display means, and an image restoration means from the reduced image and the compressed image. An image file device according to claim (1), which has a function of reproducing an original image using a computer and sending it to display means. (3) The image compression means refers to the image obtained by reducing the original image when reducing the redundancy of the remaining images that are no longer needed at the reduction stage. image file device.