JP2001285614A - Image data arrangement method and device, image data rearrangement method and device, and storage medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image data arrangement method and device, an image data rearrangement method and device, and a storage medium by which increase in a data quantity can be suppressed, and each part of an image can be displayed and recoded with a required resolution. SOLUTION: In the image data arrangement method there is arranged an integrated file 50 by adding position information 52 and size information 53 in a rearranged image to a plurality of sets of image information 54 arranging the rearranged image.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for constructing image data, a method and an apparatus for reconstructing image data, and a storage medium for combining a plurality of pieces of image information as one image data. Increase can be suppressed,
The present invention relates to an image data configuration method and apparatus, an image data reconstruction method and apparatus, and a storage medium capable of displaying and recording each part of an image at a required resolution.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the spread of digital cameras, opportunities for general users to handle digital images on personal computers are increasing. However, there is a problem that the data amount of the image is much larger than that of characters and charts, and it takes time to process the image when importing, processing, or transmitting the image with a personal computer, which is an obstacle to popularization. ing. Furthermore, in order to utilize an image for applications such as the Internet and printing, it is necessary to adjust the resolution after processing the image with a high resolution. In addition, the processing requires an enormous memory capacity and a free space of a hard disk, which is troublesome and requires special knowledge. Further, when the resolution is lowered, there is a problem that the image quality of an important part in the image such as a character area is deteriorated.

[0003] Therefore, there is a need for a method of organizing and compressing image data that can be transmitted and stored via the Internet, and can be efficiently applied in various usage forms. In order to respond to such a demand, a method has been proposed in which an image is converted into a multi-resolution image having a plurality of resolutions, and a desired resolution image is selected according to the application. For example, by converting an image into a multi-resolution image for each of a plurality of frequency bands, performing a predetermined process on the image in each frequency band, and performing inverse multi-resolution conversion on the image again,
A method of multi-resolution conversion for obtaining a final processed image has also been proposed.

A conventional image processing method using such a multi-resolution conversion method is disclosed in, for example, JP-A-6-301.
766 and JP-A-6-350989.

The image processing method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 6-301766 is a method referred to as a Laplacian pyramid. By subsampling the image and thinning out the number of pixels to halve it, a 1/4 size blurred image of the original image is obtained, and this process is repeated to create N 1 / ^22N size blurred images of the original image Is what you do. As a result, an image can be selected from N images having different resolutions according to uses such as a portrait image, a preview image, and a diagnostic image.

The image processing method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 6-350989 is a method using a wavelet transform. The original image data is subjected to a wavelet transform to convert the original image data into image data for each of a plurality of frequency bands. Recognize the importance of each part of the image, perform labeling on each part of the image according to the importance, quantize the high importance part with a high number of bits, and lower the low importance part This is an image data compression method for performing quantization according to the number of bits. According to this method, it is possible to compress the image data while maintaining the image quality of important portions of the image, and compress the image data with a higher compression ratio for the non-important portions. It can be carried out.

[0007]

However, according to the conventional image processing method, it is necessary for a user to hierarchically multiplex different resolution images in order to extract a desired resolution image. However, there is a problem that the data amount becomes large. In other words, when the user handles image data, it is sufficient to display and record the area that the user wants to watch at a resolution that is easy for the user to read.
Unnecessarily high-resolution data is not required, which causes an increase in the data amount.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for constructing image data, a method and apparatus for reconstructing image data, capable of suppressing an increase in the amount of data and displaying and recording each part of the image at a required resolution. Another object of the present invention is to provide a storage medium.

[0009]

According to the present invention, in order to attain the above object, a plurality of pieces of image information constituting a reconstructed image are input, and the plurality of pieces of image information are respectively provided with position information and size in the reconstructed image. There is provided an image data forming method characterized in that image data is formed by attaching information. According to the above configuration, by inputting a plurality of pieces of image information at a required resolution to form image data, when the image data is reconstructed, each part of the reconstructed image is displayed and recorded at the required resolution. It becomes possible. Since it is sufficient to input image information of one resolution for each part of the reconstructed image, an increase in the data amount can be suppressed.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an image information acquiring means for acquiring a plurality of pieces of image information constituting a reconstructed image, and a method for acquiring the plurality of pieces of image information from position information and size information in the reconstructed image. Image data composing apparatus, comprising: additional information acquiring means for acquiring additional information, and image composing means for composing image data by attaching the additional information to each of the plurality of image information. .

According to the present invention, in order to achieve the above object, a plurality of pieces of image information constituting a reconstructed image are input with image data constituted by appending position information and size information in the reconstructed image. And reconstructing the reconstructed image composed of the plurality of pieces of image information based on the position information and the size information.

According to the present invention, there is provided an input means for inputting image data in which a plurality of pieces of image information constituting a reconstructed image are added with position information and size information in the reconstructed image. And a reconstructing means for reconstructing the reconstructed image composed of the plurality of pieces of image information based on a plurality of pieces of the position information and the size information.

According to the present invention, there is provided a storage medium for storing image data in which a plurality of pieces of image information constituting a reconstructed image are accompanied by position information and size information in the reconstructed image. I will provide a.

[0014]

FIG. 1 shows an image data construction apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. The image data composing device 100 includes an image reading device 1 that reads a plurality of images constituting a reconstructed image from a document 2 and an interface 3 such as an NTSC (National
Television System Committee) A computer that is connected via a video signal line 3A and an RS232C cable 3B, and composes an integrated file by attaching position information and size information in a reconstructed image to a plurality of images read by the image reading device 1, respectively. 4 and an integrated file constituted by the computer 4
A recording unit 5 for recording on a recording medium such as a magneto-optical disk. The image reading apparatus 1 includes a scanning unit 12 that rotates the direction of an apparatus main body 1A having a CCD camera, which will be described later, around axes 12a and 12b in directions α and β indicated by arrows in FIG.

The computer 4 includes a computer main body 40 having a CPU, a memory, and the like, a display unit 41 such as a CRT display, and an input unit 42 such as a keyboard and a mouse. It controls zooming, image reading position, and the like. The computer main body 40 includes a video capture card 40a that converts an image signal output from the apparatus main body 1A into a digital two-dimensional image.

FIG. 2 shows a main control system of the image data forming apparatus 100. The image reading apparatus 1 includes a CC having a zoom function and a focusing function in an apparatus main body 1A.
D camera 10 and distance measuring unit 1 that measures two-dimensional distance information to an image pickup area of document 2 picked up by CCD camera 10
1, a scanning unit 12 for changing the directions of the CCD camera 10 and the distance measuring unit 11, a control unit 13 for controlling the CCD camera 10, the distance measuring unit 11 and the scanning unit 12, and a CCD camera 1
The image processing apparatus includes a signal processing circuit 14 that performs signal processing on an image pickup signal from 0 and converts the image signal into, for example, an NTSC image signal, and an image memory 15 that stores the image signal.

The computer body 40 performs image processing of the captured image, controls the zoom of the CCD camera, controls the reading position of the image, and the like via the control unit 13.
0, a main control unit 43 for calculating position information and size information in the reconstructed image of the image captured by the image capture unit 0, the above-described video capture card 40a, and an image memory 44a for storing the two-dimensional image converted by the video capture card 40a. And a position information memory 44b for storing position information of the image calculated by the main control unit 43.
A size information memory 44c for storing size information of the image calculated by the main control unit 43; a relative coordinate calculation unit 45 for calculating relative coordinates between the captured images; and calculating a relative size between the captured images. Relative size calculator 4
6 and an information integration unit 47 that forms an integrated file by attaching the relative coordinates and the relative size to the partial image fetched from the image memory 44 a and outputs the integrated file to the recording unit 5.

Next, the operation of the image data forming apparatus 100 will be described. The operator takes an image of the original 2 to be read in several times. The area to be read may have an overlapping area with respect to the adjacent area and may be read.
After the entire document 2 has been imaged, the operator may zoom in and read a part that he wants to watch or a part that he wants to resolve finely.
By reading by zooming, the characteristics of the document can be more finely resolved, and the operator can select an arbitrary zoom magnification while looking at the monitor. The operator selects the reading area and the zoom magnification by operating the input unit 42 so that the imaging direction α as the angle information of the CCD camera 10 can be selected.
This is performed by inputting β and the zoom magnification. The main control unit 43 of the computer 4 controls the zoom of the CCD camera 10 and the scanning unit 1 based on the input information to the input unit 42.
2 is sent to the control unit 13 of the image reading apparatus 1 via the RS232C cable 3B of the interface 3.

The CCD camera 10 captures an image of the document 2 and reads a plurality of images under the control of the control unit 13. At the same time as reading this image, the distance measuring unit 11 acquires distance information to the image pickup area of the document 2. The signal processing circuit 14
An image signal from the D camera 10 is signal-processed and converted into an NTSC image signal, and stored in the image memory 15. The image reading device 1 sends the image signal in the image memory 15 to the computer 4 via the NTSC video signal line 3A of the interface 3, and the distance measuring unit 11 sends the distance information to the imaging area of the document 2 to the RS232C cable 3B. To the computer 4 via.

The video capture card 40a of the computer 4 converts the image signal output from the image reading device 1 into a digital two-dimensional image and sequentially stores the digital two-dimensional image in the image memory 44a. The main control unit 43 calculates the position information and the size information of the actual imaging area in the original 2 based on the camera angle information and the zoom magnification from the input unit 42 and the distance information to the imaging area of the original 2, The position information of the region is stored in the position information memory 44b, and the size information of the imaging region is stored in the size information memory 44c. If necessary, the image is perspective-transformed using the distance information and the camera angle information. Document 2 by image reading device 1 as described above
, A plurality of sets of image information, position information of the imaging region, and size information are obtained.

A plurality of read images are arranged in order in the image memory 44a, and a relative coordinate calculator 45 calculates relative coordinates of the image of interest with respect to the immediately preceding image, and the calculation result Is output to the information integration unit 47 as the position information of the image of interest. In addition, the position information is the original 2
May be two-dimensional coordinate values with the origin (0, 0) at the upper left corner of the entire imaging area. The relative size calculation unit 46 calculates the relative size of the image of interest with respect to the immediately preceding image,
The calculation result is output to the information integration unit 47 as size information of the image of interest. Note that the size information is
May be the actual size value expressed in the unit of mm on the imaging area.

The information integrating section 47 forms an integrated file described later by adding position information and size information to the image information stored in the image memory 44a, and outputs the integrated file to the recording section 5. The recording unit 5 records the integrated file on a recording medium.

FIG. 3A shows a file before being integrated, and FIG. 3B shows a structure of the integrated file after being integrated. Each file 50a, 50b before being integrated,
50c includes position information 52, size information 53, and image information 54, respectively, as shown in FIG. File structure of the integrated file 50, as shown in FIG. (B), begins with a header 51 including the image information of the number of image information integration file 50 includes the position information 52 ₁ then corresponding to each image information, 52 ₂ ,..., 52 _n , size information 5
3 _1, 53 _2, ..., followed by 53 _n, and each image information 5
_{4 1, 54 2, ...,} 54 n is followed in order. Each image information 54
Includes a header, a color map, image data, and the like.

FIG. 4 shows an image data reconstructing apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention. The image data reconstructing device 110 reads the contents of the integrated file from the recording medium on which the integrated file shown in FIG.
11, an image number memory 121a, an image memory 121b, a size information memory 121c and a position information memory 121d for storing the number of images read by the reading unit 111, image information, size information and position information, respectively. An adaptive size calculation unit 122 that calculates the image size on the virtual plane from the stored size information, and a space coordinate calculation unit 123 that calculates coordinates on the virtual plane based on the position information stored in the position information memory 121d. An enlargement / reduction processing unit 124 that calculates an enlargement ratio based on the image size on the virtual plane calculated by the adaptation size calculation unit 122 and performs enlargement / reduction processing on images sequentially taken from the image memory 121b; Scaling unit to the coordinates on the virtual plane calculated by the unit 123 Scaling-processed image by 24 arranged, a virtual plane memory 1 the arrangement image information
27 and an image arrangement unit 125
And a virtual area memory 1 that performs processing for arranging high-resolution image information in an overlapping manner, with the ratio of the number of pixels to the size as the resolution.
And a reproduction unit 130 that processes or displays the information in 27 as one image.

Next, the image data reconstructing device 110
The operation will be described. First, the reading unit 111 reads the integrated file
50 header 51 is read and included in the header 51
Information of the number n of images indicating the number of image information 54
It is stored in the image number memory 121a. Subsequently, the reading unit 11
1 is position information 52 for n images.₁, 52_Two, ..., 52 _n
And size information 53₁, 53_Two, ..., 53_nIn order
Then, the position information 52 is stored in the position information memory 121d.
And stores the size information 53 in the size information memory 121c.
I do. Then, the reading unit 111 outputs the image information 54₁, 5
4_Two, ..., 54_nAre read in order by the number of images n
It is stored in the memory 121b. Compatible size calculator 122
Is the size stored in the size information memory 121c.
The image size on the virtual plane is calculated from the information. Expansion
The large reduction processing unit 124 is
Magnification based on the image size on the virtual plane calculated by
Calculated from the image memory 121b.
Is subjected to scaling processing. Further, the space coordinate calculation unit 123
Is the position information stored in the position information memory 121d.
Is calculated on the virtual plane based on. And the picture
The image arrangement unit 125 is calculated by the space coordinate calculation unit 123
Scaled by the scaling processing unit 124
Image that has been scaled by
The information is stored in the virtual plane memory 127. Overlap area processing
The unit 126, when arranging by the image arranging unit 125,
The resolution is defined as the ratio of the number of pixels to the size.
The image information is placed on top of the other image information. Playback unit 13
0 sets information in the virtual plane memory 127 as one image.
To process or display.

FIG. 5 shows the concept of a reconstructed image. As conceptually shown in the figure, the details of information drawn for each region in the image are different. Image information 54 ₃ of high resolution area
By enlarging, more information is available, it is only rough image is displayed even if the low-resolution area Ejo information 54 ₁ of expansion. By reducing the amount of information in unimportant parts, the total amount of data can be reduced.

FIG. 6 shows a specific example of a reconstructed image. As shown in the figure, high importance portion of the reconstructed image, for example, portions of the face represents the image information 54 ₄ high resolution, the lower part of importance, for example, distant scenery of the low-resolution image it can be represented by the information 54 _1. in this case,
The image information with the higher resolution is displayed on top of it.

According to the above-described image data composing device 100 and image data reconstructing device 110, the entire data size can be reduced while maintaining the resolution state and the amount of information in the area important to the user. In addition, by suppressing the data amount, it is possible to use it for various purposes such as on a network. In addition, since information on the ratio of the degree of gaze desired by the user is stored as the resolution,
There is no need for the user to perform an operation or process such as specifying a gaze point and performing zooming, thereby increasing work efficiency.

[0029]

As described above, according to the present invention, by constructing image data by inputting a plurality of pieces of image information at a required resolution, an increase in the amount of data can be suppressed, and each part of the image can be used. It is possible to display and record at a resolution.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an image data configuration device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a main control system of the image recording apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3A is a diagram showing files before being integrated,
(B) is a diagram showing the configuration of an integrated file after integration

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an image data reconstructing device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the concept of a reconstructed image according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a specific example of a reconstructed image according to the second embodiment;

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 image reading device 1A device main body 2 document 3 interface 3A NTSC video signal line 3B RS232C cable 4 computer 5 recording unit 10 CCD camera 11 distance measuring unit 12 scanning unit 12a, 12b axis 13 control unit 14 signal processing circuit 15 image memory 40 computer Main unit 40a Video capture card 41 Display unit 42 Input unit 43 Main control unit 44a Image memory 44b Position information memory 44c Size information memory 45 Relative coordinate calculation unit 46 Relative size calculation unit 47 Information integration unit 50 Integrated file 50a, 50b, 50c file 51 Header 52 Position information 53 Size information 54 Image information 100 Image data composition device 110 Image data reconstruction device 111 Reading unit 121c Size information memory 121d Position information memory 121b Image Memory 121a picture number memory 122 adapted size calculation unit 123 space coordinate calculating section 124 scaling processing unit 125 image arrangement unit 126 overlapping area processing unit 127 virtual plane memory 130 reproducing unit alpha, beta direction

Claims (16)

[Claims] 1. A method according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of pieces of image information constituting a reconstructed image are input, and the plurality of pieces of image information are accompanied by position information and size information in the reconstructed image to form image data. Image data construction method. 2. The image data according to claim 1, wherein said image data comprises:
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the position information and the size information are configured as one file. 3. The image data according to claim 1, wherein said image data comprises a number of images of said image information, said plurality of image information, said plurality of position information and said plurality of size information as one file. Configuration method. 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the configuration of the image data is such that two-dimensional coordinates are attached to the image information as the position information. 5. The method according to claim 4, wherein said two-dimensional coordinates are constituted by absolute coordinates based on a predetermined position. 6. The image data forming method according to claim 4, wherein said two-dimensional coordinates comprise relative coordinates of one of said plurality of pieces of image information with respect to said image information. 7. The input of the plurality of image information includes inputting the plurality of image information by capturing an image of an image capturing target, and the configuration of the image data corresponds to the image information of the image capturing target as the size information. 2. The image data configuration method according to claim 1, wherein the size of the imaging region to be performed is configured to accompany the image information. 8. The image data structure according to claim 1, wherein a size relative to a size of one of the plurality of pieces of image information is added to the image information as the size information. Image data composition method. 9. An image information acquiring means for acquiring a plurality of pieces of image information constituting a reconstructed image, and an accompanying information acquiring means for acquiring accompanying information including position information and size information of the plurality of pieces of image information in the reconstructed image. Means for constructing image data by associating the plurality of pieces of image information with the accompanying information. 10. The image information obtaining means includes: an image capturing means for obtaining the image information by capturing an image of an image capturing target; and a changing means for changing an image capturing direction of the image capturing means. A distance measuring means for measuring a plurality of distances to a plurality of points in an imaging region corresponding to the image information of the imaging target; and an arithmetic operation for calculating the accompanying information based on the imaging direction and the plurality of distances 10. The image data composition device according to claim 9, wherein said image data composition device comprises means. 11. An image data comprising a plurality of pieces of image information constituting a reconstructed image, each of which is provided with position information and size information in the reconstructed image, and inputs the plurality of pieces of position information and the size information. Reconstructing the reconstructed image including the plurality of pieces of image information based on the image data. 12. Reconstructing the reconstructed image includes performing scaling processing on the image information based on the size information, and reconstructing the image information on which the scaling processing has been performed based on the position information. The image data reconstructing method according to claim 11, wherein the image data is reconstructed by being arranged on a virtual plane. 13. The reconstruction of the reconstructed image is such that when areas of the image information overlap, a resolution is obtained from the size information and the number of pixels, and the image information having the higher resolution is prioritized and reconstructed. The image data reconstructing method according to claim 11, wherein the method comprises: 14. An input means for inputting image data constituted by adding a plurality of pieces of image information constituting a reconstructed image to position information and size information in the reconstructed image, respectively; Reconstructing means for reconstructing the reconstructed image composed of the plurality of pieces of image information based on size information. 15. A reconstructing means for storing image information arranged on a virtual plane, scaling means for performing scaling processing on the image information based on the size information, 2. An image arranging means for arranging the image information subjected to the enlargement / reduction processing by the enlargement / reduction processing means on the virtual plane of the storage means.
5. The image data reconstruction device according to 4. 16. A storage medium for storing image data in which a plurality of pieces of image information constituting a reconstructed image are accompanied by position information and size information in the reconstructed image.