JPH0139129B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a multiple image display/switching device in an image search system.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

Conventionally, for example, when searching for medical images, medical records, etc.
This was done manually, or by switching the display screen using a keyboard on a CRT image display.

By the way, it is natural that manual searches are time-consuming and labor intensive, but there are also problems with searches using CRT image display. In other words, when searching using a CRT image display, if you switch the display screen using the keyboard, the screen may move unnaturally or change suddenly, making it difficult to see and causing eye strain. There is a practical problem in doing so.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention was made in view of the above circumstances, and
It is an object of the present invention to provide a multiple image display/switching device that can comfortably switch images when searching, for example, medical images, medical records, etc. using CRT image display.

[Summary of the invention]

The outline of the present invention for achieving the above object includes a plurality of reduction devices each having different reduction timing, a display device for displaying the output thereof, a control device for controlling them, and a control device for controlling image switching for the control device. The apparatus is characterized in that it has an image switching means for giving instructions.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Examples of the present invention will be described in detail below.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, a console 1 is connected to a control device 3, which provides various instructions using, for example, a keyboard. Further, the image switching means 2
It is arranged on the operation console 1. For example, it is a joy stick, a track ball, or a knob that is linked to a variable resistor, and is used to input a command for switching the image displayed on the display device 7. The control device 3 is connected to an interface 6, a high-speed memory device 4, an image processing device 5, and a display device 7, respectively, and controls these devices based on various commands from the console 1. For example, image data C sent from a computer network (not shown) is sent to an interface 6 controlled by a control device 3, a high-speed memory device 4 disposed after the interface 6, and a high-speed memory device 4 disposed after the high-speed memory device 4, respectively. The image is displayed on the display device 7 via the image processing device 5.

Next, detailed configurations of the high-speed memory device 4 and the image processing device 5 are shown in FIG.

In FIG. 2, the dashed line 4 indicates a high-speed memory device, and the dashed line 5 indicates an image processing device. The high-speed memory device 4 includes image memories 41 to 45.
It stores image data sent from the interface 6 and outputs it to an image editing device 51 disposed within the image processing device 5.
The image processing device 5 includes an image editing device 51 that edits a plurality of images into the size of one image at high speed, and a cache memory that is disposed after the image editing device 51 and holds image data to be displayed on the display device 7. 52, a timing control device 54, and a page control device 55.

The timing control device 54 receives control signals from the control device 3 and performs timing control on the high-speed memory device 4, the image editing device 51, the cache memory 52, and the display device 7.

In addition, the page control device 55 receives a control signal from the control device 3 and mainly controls image prefetching for the high-speed memory device 4, and controls the image editing device 51,
It controls the image switching speed and the like for the cache memory device 52 and display device 7.

Next, the image editing device 51 and the page control device 5
A more detailed configuration of 5 is shown in FIG.

In FIG. 3, the image editing device is indicated by a broken line 51, and the page control device is indicated by a broken line 55.

The image editing device 51 includes image reduction devices 511 and 512 for pre-reading which have image data initial functions, image reduction devices 514 and 515 for post-reading, and a buffer memory (or reduction ratio =
0 reduction device) 513 and an image combination device 561 which is arranged after these and combines images based on these output image data. The image data input from the high-speed memory device 4 to the buffer memory 513 is transferred to the pre-reading image reduction devices 512 and 511 by control signals from the direction designation device 551 and the speed designation device 552.
Alternatively, it is connected to image reduction devices 514, 155 for post-reading so as to be movable in the direction of the arrow, and furthermore, image reduction devices 511, 512, 514, 515,
The control signal of the timing control device 54 is connected to be inputted, and the timing of the start of reduction of the image reduction devices 511, 512, 514, and 515 is controlled by this timing signal.

The page control device 55 also includes an image reduction device 51.
1,512,514,515, and a direction specifying device 551 that controls the image reduction direction for the image combination device 516 and mainly controls whether to read ahead or read the image backward in the high speed memory 4, and mainly Image reduction device 511, 512, 51
4,515, and a number specifying device 553 that controls the number of images to be combined in the image combining device 516.

Next, FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining image display switching of the present invention, in which a and b are to the right, c,
d shows how the images are reduced in size in the upward direction.

Next, we will discuss the operation of the device with the above configuration in the fourth section.
This will be explained with reference to the figures.

First, when the image switching means 2, for example, the joystick, is not tilted, image data is input to the high speed memory device 4 via the interface 6 by a computer network (not shown) or the like. Image memory 41 in the high-speed memory device 4
45 stores continuous image data, and the contents of the image data stored in the image memory 43 located at the center are temporarily stored in the buffer memory 513, and the image combination device 51
6 and the display device 7 via the cache memory 52.
is displayed as a single still image.

Next, the case of image pre-reading will be explained.

For example, when the joystick is tilted to the right, a control signal corresponding to the direction and the force thereof is inputted from the control device 3 to the direction designation device 551 and the speed designation device 552, and the direction designation device 55
1 and speed designation device 552, high-speed memory device 4, image reduction device 511, 512, 514, 51
5 buffer memory 513 and image combination device 51
6 is given an image pre-read command and a switching speed command.

When a command to pre-read the image is given to the high-speed memory device, new image data input via the interface 6 is first input to the image memory 41 (in the case of pre-read). Then the image data is
The image memory 41 receives a command from the speed specifying device 552 (a command corresponding to the force required to tilt the joystick).
Move in the direction of 45. That is, when the image data stored in the image memory 45 in the previous state disappears due to a command from the direction specifying device 551 (in this case, an image prefetch command), the image data stored in the image memory 44 is deleted from the image memory 45. The image data stored in 43 is input to image memory 44. By moving image data between image memories in this way, the latest image data is stored in the image memory 41. Further, the image data inputted from the image memory 42 to the central image memory 43 is simultaneously inputted to the buffer memory 513, and furthermore, the image data stored in the buffer memory 513 in the previous state is transferred to the image reduction device according to the force of pushing down the joystick. Move to 512 or 511.

Next, the image reduction devices 511 and 512 start reducing the image data in response to a timing control signal from the timing control device 54 that is output in response to a control signal from the control device 3. Furthermore, the timing control device 5
4. Upon receiving control signals from the direction designation device 551, speed designation device 552, and number of sheets designation device 553,
The image combination device 516 includes a buffer memory 513
Based on the image data output from the image reduction devices 511 and 512, images are combined to form one image. The image data combined into the size of one image by the image combination device 516 is displayed on the display device 7 via the cache memory 52 as shown in FIGS. 4a and 4b. At this point, if you have weak power to defeat the enemy,
As shown in a, the image data in the buffer memory 513 is used as the background image a-1, and the reduced image a-2 (image data in the image reduction device 512) becomes a screen that is reduced in the right direction. Furthermore, if the power to defeat the joystick is strong, as in b, the buffer memory 5
13 as the background image b-1, reduced images b-2, b-3 (image reduction devices 512, 51
1 image data) becomes a screen that shrinks in the right direction.

Next, when the operation (movement) of the joystick is stopped or when the hand is released from the joystick, the image reduction devices 512 and 511 continue to reduce the image data until it disappears, but the buffer 163 that becomes the background image is The image data within will not change. Therefore, as the reduced image is reduced, the proportion of the background image in the display content of the display device 7 increases, and the background image eventually becomes a single still image. The way this image changes is as follows:
It looks as if you are turning the pages of a book.

Next, when the joy stick is tilted to the right again, image data is moved in the high-speed memory device 4, and new image data is input to the image memory 41 via the interface 6. At the same time, the image data (corresponding to a still image) stored in the buffer memory 513 in the previous state is reduced by moving the image reduction device 512 or 511 according to the force of pushing down the joystick, and first starting reduction on the display device 7. It becomes an image. Further, new image data (image data stored in the image memory 42 in the previous state) is input from the image memory 43 to the buffer memory 513, and this time becomes a new background image.

As described above, a desired image can be searched by repeating the operation of tilting the joystick.

In addition, in the above-described image pre-reading, if the desired image is reduced (passed) because the force of pushing down the joystick is too strong, for example, by tilting the joystick in the opposite direction (to the left), the image can be By reading later, the desired image can be displayed as a still image on the display device 7. This image pre-reading and post-reading command is issued by the direction specifying device 55 controlled by the control device 3.
1, and the screen is a screen that shrinks in the opposite direction to that in the case of the above-mentioned look-ahead. That is, the image data input via the interface 6 is in the order of read-behind, first input to the image memory 45, and then moved in the opposite direction to the read-ahead according to the operation of the joystick.
disappears in the image memory 41 (when new data is input to the image memory 45). Also, when the data stored in the buffer memory 513 is moved to the image reduction device 514 or 515 (depending on the force of pushing down the joystick), new data (for example, image data that has passed once) is stored in the buffer memory 513. be done. In this case, what is combined by the image combination device 516 is the image data reduced by the image reduction devices 514 and 515 with the image data in the buffer memory 513 as the background.

In this way, by operating the joystick, you can switch images as if turning the pages of a book, and the number of images to be changed depends on the strength of the force with which you push the joystick; The number of will increase.

It goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and includes various modifications within the scope of the gist of the present invention.

For example, in the above embodiment, a joystick is used as the image switching means, but in addition to the joystick, a knob linked to a track ball, a variable resistor, etc., a switch on a keyboard, etc. may be used, or a switch according to a prespecified program may be used. Therefore, it is also possible to switch images.

Further, in this embodiment, the number of image memories in the high-speed memory device is 5 or more, but it is not limited to this, and may be 5 or more, for example (in this case, the number of image reduction devices in the image editing device is The number should be one less than the number of image memories). By increasing the number of image memories and the number of image reduction devices, the maximum number of reduced images displayed on the display device increases (the number of switched images increases).

Furthermore, in this embodiment, the display device has a small direction of the image displayed on the display device (the moving direction of the reduced image).
In FIG. 4, the right direction and the upward direction are shown, but the present invention is not limited to this, and it is possible to move it up and down, left and right, or diagonally. The direction in which this image is reduced can be specified (set) using the keyboard or switch on the console.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention described above, image switching is performed by
It is possible to provide a multi-image display/switching device that allows comfortable image switching by displaying images as if turning the pages of a book. Therefore, if this is used, for example, to search medical images, medical records, etc., it is possible to improve search efficiency.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of a part of the block diagram shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a more detailed configuration of a part of the block diagram shown in FIG. 4A to 4D are diagrams for explaining image display/switching of the present invention. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1...Operation console, 2...Image switching means, 3...Control device, 4...High speed memory device, 5...Image processing device, 6
...Interface, 7...Display device, 41-45
...Image memory, 51...Image editing device, 52...Cash memory, 54...Timing control device, 55
...Page control device, 511, 512, 514, 5
15... Image reduction device, 513... Buffer memory,
516... Image combination device, 551... Direction designation device, 552... Speed designation device, 553... Number of sheets designation device.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An image storage unit that holds a plurality of images arranged in a predetermined order and sequentially reads out image data in a forward or reverse direction; and a memory unit that holds the image data sequentially read out from this image storage device. , an image reduction unit that reduces the previous image data read from the memory unit in the vertical or horizontal direction;
Combining the image data read from the memory section and the reduced image data from the image reduction section,
An image display device comprising: an image combination unit that creates two display images; and a display unit that displays the display images from the image combination unit.