JP7314767B2 - IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, PRINT MAKING SYSTEM AND PRINT MAKING METHOD - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, a print production system, and a print production method.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been known a box-type photographing device for photographing an identification photograph to be affixed to a driver's license, passport, resume, or the like. A photographing apparatus changes the magnification of a photographed face image to reduce (resize) it, and prints and outputs photographs of various sizes according to the purpose. A photographing apparatus is provided with a monitor for displaying a face image, so that the face image to be printed can be confirmed (previewed) in advance.

Recently, as a value-added function especially for women, there has been known a photographic apparatus having a "beautifying skin processing" function for reducing fine irregularities and unevenness of the face (skin) and processing it to have a smooth texture. In the skin beautifying process, for example, a smoothing process is performed to remove or reduce stains, wrinkles, etc., or to reduce unevenness to make the skin look smoother, while maintaining the sharpness of the contours of the face, hair, eyes, nose, mouth, etc. (for example, see Patent Documents 1 and 2). Further, there is known a photographing apparatus equipped with other correction processing functions such as adjustment of skin color as well as correction of skin quality.

To allow a user to confirm the effect of applying correction processing to a face image, a photographing device displays a processed preview image subjected to correction processing and a normal preview image not subjected to skin beautifying processing on a monitor. For example, the photographer's imaging device switchably displays a processed preview image and a normal preview image on a monitor, or displays two images side by side. However, with such a conventional display method, it is difficult to compare the two images and confirm the effect of the correction processing.

JP 2005-276182 A Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-60841 JP 2006-3984 A JP-A-2006-85258 JP 2006-157613 A

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an image processing apparatus, a print production system, and a print production method that facilitate image comparison.

An image processing apparatus according to the present invention includes an image processing unit that receives image data from a photographing device that has photographed a user's face, performs image processing on the image data to generate a corrected image, a synthesizing unit that synthesizes a portion of the original image corresponding to the image data before the image processing and a portion of the corrected image to generate a synthesized image including one face image, and a display processing unit that displays the synthesized image on a display unit.

In one aspect of the present invention, one side of the face image in the composite image corresponds to the original image and the other side corresponds to the corrected image, and the display processing unit displays a boundary line between the original image and the corrected image in the composite image.

In one aspect of the present invention, the display unit is a touch panel, and when an instruction to move the boundary line is received via the touch panel, the synthesizing unit synthesizes a portion of the original image and a portion of the corrected image based on the position of the boundary line after movement, thereby generating a new synthetic image.

In one aspect of the present invention, the image processing unit performs first image processing on the image data to generate a first corrected image, performs second image processing different from the first image processing on the image data to generate a second corrected image, and the combining unit combines a portion of the first corrected image and a portion of the second corrected image to generate a combined image including one face image.

In one aspect of the present invention, the image processing unit performs a plurality of different image processes on the image data to generate a plurality of corrected images, and the synthesizing unit synthesizes a part of two images out of the original image and the plurality of corrected images to generate a synthesized image.

In one aspect of the present invention, the image switching instruction is an upward or downward swipe.

A print production system according to the present invention includes a photographing device for photographing a user's face, an image processing device according to the present invention, and a printer for printing out the original image or the corrected image.

A method for producing a print according to the present invention comprises the steps of photographing a user's face using a photographing device to generate image data, performing image processing on the image data to generate a corrected image, synthesizing a portion of an original image corresponding to the image data before the image processing and a portion of the corrected image to generate a synthesized image including one face image, displaying the synthesized image on a display unit, and printing out the original image or the corrected image.

According to the present invention, images can be easily compared.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a print production system according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. It is a hardware block diagram of the arithmetic control unit which concerns on the same embodiment. 3 is a functional block diagram realized by executing an image processing program; FIG. 4 is a flow chart for explaining a printed matter production method according to the same embodiment. (a) is a diagram showing an example of an image before correction processing, and (b) is a diagram showing an example of an image after correction processing. (a) and (b) are diagrams showing examples of trimmed images, and (c) is a diagram showing a display example of a synthesized image. (a) and (b) are diagrams showing an example of a synthesized image. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of composition processing; It is a figure which shows an example of the display screen of a touch panel. (a) is a diagram showing an example of an image to be compared, and (b) is a diagram showing a display example of a synthesized image. (a) is a diagram showing an image transition order, and (b) is a diagram showing a display example of a synthesized image.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of a print production system according to this embodiment. The printed matter production system includes an arithmetic control unit 1 having a function as an image processing device, a photographing device 2, a touch panel 3, a printer 5 for printing out a printed matter (photograph), and a strobe 6 for emitting light when the photographing device 2 takes a photograph.

The photographing device 2 is, for example, a digital camera. The photographing device 2 photographs the face of a user P (person to be photographed) to generate face image data. The photographing device 2 outputs face image data to the arithmetic control device 1 .

The touch panel 3 receives various instructions from the user P and displays a preview image. The touch panel 3 displays operation buttons, and when an operation button is pressed, receives an operation instruction corresponding to the operation button. For example, the touch panel 3 receives from the user P an instruction of an image size (photograph size) to be printed on the printed material by the printer 5 . Photo sizes correspond, for example, to driver's licenses, passports, visas, and the like. Also, the photo size may be customized. Further, the touch panel 3 can receive a selection of an image to be printed and an instruction to start printing from the user.

The printed matter production system may be provided with a billing unit (not shown) that accepts money that the user P pays for the printed matter and pays out change.

The arithmetic control unit 1 is connected to the photographing device 2, the touch panel 3, the printer 5, the strobe 6, and the billing unit, and controls each unit and transfers data.

FIG. 2 shows the hardware configuration of the arithmetic and control unit 1. As shown in FIG. The arithmetic control device 1 has a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 11 , a main memory 12 , a disk device 13 and an input/output unit 14 . Each unit of the arithmetic control unit 1 is connected via a bus 15 .

The disk device 13 stores an image processing program 16 executed by the CPU 11 . The disk device 13 is, for example, a hard disk drive. Note that the image processing program 16 may be stored in a ROM or a magnetic tape (both not shown) instead of the disk device 13 .

The CPU 11 loads the image processing program 16 in the disk device 13 into the main memory 12 and executes the image processing program 16 . As the image processing program 16 is executed, an area for storing face image data, preview image data, etc. is secured on the main memory 12 . The preview image data is image data displayed on the touch panel 3 as a preview image.

By executing the image processing program 16 by the CPU 11, functions of an image processing unit 20, a synthesizing unit 21, a display processing unit 22, a boundary line movement reception unit 23, and a print processing unit 24 are realized as shown in FIG. Processing of each unit will be described later.

Next, a print production method using this print production system will be described along the flow chart shown in FIG.

The photographing device 2 photographs the user P and generates face image data (step S1). When the photographing device 2 takes a picture, the strobe 6 irradiates the person P to be photographed with light. The user P may operate the touch panel 3 before photographing to indicate the size of the photograph to be printed. The face image data is transferred to the arithmetic and control unit 1 .

The image processing unit 20 performs image processing on the face image data (step S2). In image processing, for example, a skin area of a face image is extracted, and skin color correction processing and skin beautification processing are performed on this skin area. A known method can be used for extraction of the skin area, skin color correction processing, and skin beautification processing.

For example, in the skin region extraction process, first, the region below both eyes of the face image, more precisely, the region that straddles the contours of both sides of the nose and does not overlap the hair, eyes, and nostrils is defined as a reference region. Then, the average pixel value of each pixel included in this reference area is obtained as an average pixel value, and pixels having pixel values whose color difference with respect to this average pixel value is within a predetermined range are extracted from the pixels constituting the entire face image. A region composed of a set of extracted pixels is a skin region.

In skin color correction processing, the color of the skin area is made whiter or tanned. As you increase the level of skin tone correction, the color of the skin areas becomes whiter or more tanned.

The skin beautifying process reduces fine irregularities, unevenness, wrinkles, spots, and the like by applying filtering to an image using a filter that exhibits a predetermined soft focus effect, a low-pass filter, or the like. Also, dullness and the like are reduced by increasing the saturation of the skin area. The level of skin beautification can be changed by changing the filter used in skin beautification and the saturation correction level (increase range).

For example, as shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B, the image processing unit 20 performs skin color correction on an original image G1, which is an original (before correction) face image, to generate a corrected image G2.

After the image processing, the synthesizer 21 synthesizes a part of the original image G1 and a part of the corrected image G2 to generate a synthesized image (step S3). For example, the left half of the original image G1 shown in FIG. 6(a) and the right half of the corrected image G2 shown in FIG. 6(b) are synthesized to generate a synthesized image C as shown in FIG. 6(c). The image sizes of the original image G1, the corrected image G2, and the composite image C are the same.

The display processing unit 22 displays the composite image on the touch panel 3 (step S4). As shown in FIG. 6C, when displaying the composite image, a boundary line L extending in the vertical direction is displayed at the boundary between the original image G1 and the corrected image G2. Although the boundary line L is displayed so as to overlap the face portion in FIG. 6C, the boundary line L may be displayed so as not to overlap the face portion.

The user P can operate (swipe) the touch panel 3 to move the boundary line L left and right (step S5_Yes). The boundary line movement reception unit 23 receives an instruction to move the boundary line L via the touch panel 3 . Along with the movement of the boundary line L, the synthesizing unit 21 synthesizes a part of the original image G1 and a part of the corrected image G2 to generate a new synthesized image (step S3). The display processing unit 22 displays the new composite image on the touch panel 3 (step S4).

For example, when the boundary line L is moved to the left as shown in FIG. 7A, the display area of the original image G1 becomes smaller and the display area of the corrected image G2 becomes larger. In response to the change in the size of the display area, the synthesizing unit 21 synthesizes a part of the original image G1 and a part of the corrected image G2 to generate a new synthesized image.

When the boundary line L is moved to the right as shown in FIG. 7B, the display area of the original image G1 becomes larger and the display area of the corrected image G2 becomes smaller. In response to the change in the size of the display area, the synthesizing unit 21 synthesizes a part of the original image G1 and a part of the corrected image G2 to generate a new synthesized image.

When the boundary line L is moved to the left end, only the corrected image G2 is displayed on the touch panel 3 . When the boundary line L is moved to the right end, only the original image G1 is displayed on the touch panel 3 .

A composite image C is obtained by combining a part of the original image G1 and a part of the corrected image G2 to form one facial image. Since the original image G1 and the corrected image G2 are displayed adjacent to each other with the boundary line L interposed therebetween, it is easy to confirm the effect of the correction processing. For example, when blemishes are reduced by skin beautification, it is possible to easily confirm how much the blemishes of the original image G1 are reduced in the corrected image G2 by moving the boundary line L left and right at the blemishes.

The user P compares the original image G1 and the corrected image G2 and selects an image to be printed (step S6). The print processing section 24 transfers the selected image to the printer 5 . The printer 5 prints and outputs the image data received from the arithmetic control unit 1 (step S7).

As described above, according to the present embodiment, one facial image is displayed by combining two images, the original image and the corrected image, and the boundary line is movable, so that the original image and the corrected image can be easily compared, and the effect of the correction process can be easily confirmed.

In the above embodiment, an example in which a composite image is generated by combining the trimmed original image and the trimmed corrected image according to the position of the boundary line, but only one of the images may be trimmed and superimposed on the other image to generate a composite image. For example, as shown in FIG. 8, the corrected image G2 is trimmed according to the position of the boundary line, and a part of the trimmed corrected image G2 is superimposed on the original image G1 to generate a composite image.

Each time the boundary line is moved, the image processing unit 20 may perform image processing in accordance with the area after movement to generate a composite image.

The image processing is not limited to skin processing such as skin color correction and skin beautifying processing, and may be eye correction for changing the size of the eyes and lip correction for changing the size and color of the lips. Further, the image processing is not limited to the user's face, and may be a process of synthesizing clothes and accessories for the user by virtual fitting. Alternatively, the background image may be synthesized by chromakey processing.

If there are multiple image processing target areas, they may be combined and compared. For example, as shown in FIG. 9, face correction such as skin color correction can be combined with clothing correction by virtual fitting.

In the example shown in FIG. 9, the upper side of the image is the face correction area R1, and the lower side of the image is the clothing correction area R2. In the face correction area R1, one face image obtained by synthesizing the original image G1 and the corrected image G2 across the boundary line L1 is displayed. In the clothing correction area R2, one clothing image is displayed by synthesizing the first clothing image W1 and the second clothing image W2 across the boundary line L2. The first clothing image W1 and the second clothing image W2 are, for example, images of clothing having the same shape but different colors and patterns.

The boundary lines L1 and L2 can be independently swiped and moved.

In the above embodiment, an example of comparing the original image and the corrected image has been described, but the corrected images may be compared with each other. For example, by changing the skin color correction level, a slightly brown first corrected image and a dark second corrected image are generated, and a part of the first corrected image and a part of the second corrected image are combined to generate and display a synthesized image.

In the above embodiment, an example in which two images are compared has been described, but the images to be compared may be switched so that a plurality of images can be compared.

For example, as shown in FIG. 10A, the image processing unit 20 performs image processing with different correction levels on the original image G1 to generate corrected images G2 to G5. In the example shown in FIG. 10A, the corrected images G2 to G5 have different skin color correction levels.

First, the synthesizer 21 synthesizes the original image G1 and the corrected image G2, and the touch panel 3 displays a synthesized image as shown in FIG. 10(b). For example, the original image G1 is displayed in the left area R3 of the boundary line L, and the corrected image G2 is displayed in the right area R4. When the boundary line L is moved left and right, the display areas of the original image G1 and the corrected image G2 change along with the movement of the boundary line L. FIG. Also, by swiping the touch panel 3 up and down, the image used for the composite image is switched.

For example, as shown in FIG. 11A, each time the user swipes the touch panel 3 downward, the synthesizing unit 21 switches the images to be synthesized in the order of the original image G1, the corrected image G2, the corrected image G3, the corrected image G4, and the corrected image G5. Each time the user swipes the touch panel 3 upward, the combining unit 21 switches the images to be combined in the order of the original image G1, the corrected image G5, the corrected image G4, the corrected image G3, and the corrected image G2.

For example, when the left region R3 of the touch panel 3 is swiped upward and the right region R4 is swiped downward from the state shown in FIG. 10B, as shown in FIG.

A plurality of images can be easily compared by switching the displayed images in this way.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments as they are, and can be embodied by modifying constituent elements without departing from the scope of the present invention at the implementation stage. Further, various inventions can be formed by appropriate combinations of the plurality of constituent elements disclosed in the above embodiments. For example, some components may be omitted from all components shown in the embodiments. Furthermore, components across different embodiments may be combined as appropriate.

1 Arithmetic control device 2 Imaging device 3 Touch panel 5 Printer 11 CPU
20 image processing unit 21 synthesizing unit 22 display processing unit 23 boundary line movement reception unit 24 print processing unit

Claims (7)

an image processing unit that receives image data from a photographing device that has photographed a user's face and applies image processing to the image data to generate a corrected image;
a synthesizing unit that synthesizes a part of the original image corresponding to the image data before the image processing and a part of the corrected image to generate a synthesized image including one face image;
a display processing unit for displaying the composite image on a display unit;
with
the image processing target area includes a first area including a face and a second area different from the first area;
The image processing unit performs first image processing on the second region of the image data to generate a first corrected image, and performs second image processing different from the first image processing to generate a second corrected image,
The synthesizing unit synthesizes a part of the original image and a part of the corrected image so that one of the left and right sides corresponds to the original image and the other side corresponds to the corrected image in the first area, and synthesizes a part of the first corrected image and a part of the second corrected image so that one of the left and right sides corresponds to the first corrected image and the other side corresponds to the second corrected image in the second area;
The image processing device, wherein the display processing unit displays a first boundary line on the boundary between the original image and the corrected image in the first region, and displays a second boundary line on the boundary between the first corrected image and the second corrected image in the second region. The second region is located below the first region,
2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said image processing section performs clothing correction by virtual fitting on said second region of said image data. 3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the display unit is a touch panel, and when an instruction to move the first boundary line is received via the touch panel, the synthesizing unit synthesizes a part of the original image and a part of the corrected image based on the position of the first boundary line after movement to generate a new synthesized image. The image processing unit performs a plurality of different image processes on the first region of the image data to generate a plurality of corrected images,
The synthesizing unit synthesizes a part of two images out of the original image and the plurality of corrected images to generate a synthesized image corresponding to the first region ;
4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein upon receiving an image switching instruction via said touch panel, said synthesizing unit switches images to be used and generates a new synthesized image. 5. The image processing apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the image switching instruction is an upward or downward swipe. a photographing device for photographing a user's face;
an image processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5 ;
a printer that prints out the original image or the corrected image;
A print production system comprising: a step of photographing a user's face using an imaging device to generate image data;
performing image processing on the image data to generate a corrected image;
synthesizing a portion of the original image corresponding to the image data before the image processing and a portion of the corrected image to generate a synthesized image including one face image;
a step of displaying the composite image on a display unit;
a step of printing out the original image or the corrected image;
with
the image processing target area includes a first area including a face and a second area different from the first area;
performing first image processing on the second region of the image data to generate a first corrected image, and performing second image processing different from the first image processing to generate a second corrected image;
synthesize a part of the original image and a part of the corrected image so that one side of the left and right sides corresponds to the original image and the other side corresponds to the corrected image in the first area, and a part of the first corrected image and a part of the second corrected image are synthesized so that one side of the left and right sides of the second area correspond to the first corrected image and the other side corresponds to the second corrected image, thereby generating the synthesized image;
A method for producing a print, comprising displaying the composite image on the display unit, displaying a first boundary line on a boundary between the original image and the corrected image in the first area, and displaying a second boundary line on a boundary between the first corrected image and the second corrected image in the second area.

Images