JPH0357519B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a drawn image communication device that transmits a drawn image drawn by hand on a flat surface via a telephone line, and reproduces and draws it on the receiving side. , relates to a method for reading drawn images from a memory in a drawn image communication device that can transmit drawn images in batches.

[Prior art]

A hand-drawn image communication system that enables the transmission of hand-drawn drawings is being developed. In this system, a device for image communication (in-home device) is attached to a telephone for communication. This device includes a telephone 21 and a telephone line 2 as shown in FIG.
0, a drawing pad 23 equipped with a pressure-sensitive pad for drawing and operation buttons for communication of drawn images, and a monitor device 24 for drawn images. Signals of drawings (characters, figures) written on the drawing pad 23 with the pen 23a are input to the interface 221 as X, Y coordinate signals from the pressure sensitive pad and pen touch signals, and are sent to the microprocessor which is the control center of the control unit 22. Setusa 2
22. The microprocessor 222 encodes this, modulates the encoded signal at the modem 223, and further multiplexes the modulated signal and the voice signal from the telephone 21 at the demultiplexer circuit 224 and sends it to the telephone line 20. Also, microprocessor 2
The encoded signal at 22 is stored in memory (video
(RAM) 225, and the drawn content is converted into a video signal and displayed on the monitor device 24.

On the other hand, a signal transmitted from another device via the telephone line 20 is separated into an audio signal and a graphic image signal by a demultiplexing circuit 224. The audio signal is sent to the telephone 21, and the graphic image signal is sent to the modem 223. The signal is demodulated by the microprocessor 222, then encoded by the microprocessor 222, written into the memory 225, and displayed on the monitor device 24. A hard copy device (not shown) is provided as needed;
A hard copy of the image displayed on the monitor device 24 is taken.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Now, such conventional devices do not have a function to collectively send drawn images drawn by hand in advance, and therefore, when sending the same drawn image to multiple parties, it is difficult to send the same drawn image to multiple parties. , there is the hassle of having to write it by hand each time it is sent.

[Means for solving problems]

The present invention has been made to solve these problems, and has a structure in which a drawn image is temporarily stored in a memory, and the content stored in this memory is directly read out as stroke information. It is an object of the present invention to provide a drawn image communication device that can communicate the entire drawn image at once by using a readout method that can reduce the required hardware.

The drawing image readout method according to the present invention is a method in which drawing images handwritten on a drawing pad are stored in a memory and the accumulated drawing image information is read out as stroke information. , check the presence or absence of points of the 8 connected components, advance the address pointer to the existing point and memorize its direction, and repeat the same process for the above points until the point where the direction changes. 1
It is characterized in that, while it is encoded as a vector, at a branch point where a plurality of 8-connected components exist, the address pointer is advanced to a point in the same direction as before.

〔Example〕

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be specifically described below based on drawings showing embodiments thereof.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing the configuration of an image communication device according to the present invention. A control section 12 controlled by a microprocessor 122 is interposed between the telephone 11 and the telephone line 10, and a drawing pad 13 and a monitor device 14 are connected to this. Place pen 1 on the pressure sensitive pad of drawing pad 13.
3a, the X and Y coordinate signals of the touch signal of the pen 13a and the pen touch signal representing the top and bottom of the pen 13a are inputted to the microprocessor 122 via the interface 121 and encoded there. The encoded signal is modulated by modem 123, and the modulated signal is multiplexed with the voice signal from telephone 11 by demultiplexing circuit 124 and sent to telephone line 10.

Further, the drawn image signal inputted from the drawing pad 13 is stored in the memory 125 using the video RAM, and the stored contents are read out and displayed on the monitor device 14. Further, at the time of reception, the received signal is separated into an audio signal and a graphic image signal by the demultiplexing circuit 124 in the same way as explained with reference to FIG. The signal is demodulated, stored in the memory 125 by the microprocessor 122, and displayed on the monitor device 14.

Then, when the batch communication instruction button 13b provided on the drawing pad 13 is pressed, the microprocessor 12
2 performs the following control operations. First, the address pointer indicating the read address of the memory 125 inside the microprocessor 122 is set to (0,0).
Set to . This address (0,0) has a second
As shown in the figure, the content to be displayed is stored in the upper left corner of the monitor device 14, similarly, the upper right corner is (XM, 0), the lower left corner is (0, YM), and the lower right corner is (XM, YM). It is. In the following control, the address pointer is updated to (XM, YM) so that the horizontal direction (X direction) of the monitor device 14 is the main scanning direction and the vertical direction (Y direction) is the sub scanning direction.

Next, it is checked whether an image signal has been written to the address of this address pointer. Then, the address pointer is advanced to the location where the image signal is written. This detects the left end point of the uppermost image.

It is assumed that point a at the top of the handwritten pattern as shown in FIG. 3a is detected as the starting point through these steps. Then, as shown in Figure 4a, the 8 connected components X ₁ ~ of that point X ₀ (point a in this case)
Examine the presence or absence of a point (image signal) at _X8 . Here, there is one at X ₈ , so advance the address pointer to that point a'. Then, the image signal at the passing point, that is, point a, is erased, and the direction from a to point a', that is, Fig. 4 b
Store the direction "7". If the direction has not changed from the previously stored direction, the presence or absence of image signals of 8 connected components is checked again and the same processing is repeated. Looking at the 8 connected components after reaching point b in Figure 3a, there is a point at _X7 , so the direction to store is "6", and it is detected that the direction has changed.
Then, the coordinates from a to b up to that point are made into one vector (Fig. 3b), encoded with Modify-DPCM, and the relative or absolute coordinates are sent out. Processing from b to d is then performed in a similar manner.

During this time, if there are two or more points in the 8 connected components, such as point c, the address pointer is advanced according to the rule that priority is given to points in the same direction as the previous direction, and the same process as before is performed. go.

Continue processing e, f, g, h in the same way,
When there are no points of 8 connected components, the coordinates of g→h are sent as one vector. Next, when the same process as described above is performed, point i will be detected as the starting point and i→c will be detected as the second stroke.

Thereafter, the content of the drawn image, which has been saved in advance in a memory (not shown), is transferred to the memory 125, and the content erased due to the above processing is restored. As a result, the image does not substantially disappear on the monitor device 14.

〔effect〕

In the case of the apparatus of the present invention as described above, hand-drawn images can be transmitted all at once, so even when transmitting to a plurality of destinations, it is not necessary to repeatedly draw images by hand, thereby significantly increasing the convenience of this type of apparatus.

Further, as in the present invention, as a method for batch transmitting hand-drawn images, it is possible to convert them into stroke information when storing them in memory and store them as stroke information, but for this purpose, a memory for batch transmission is provided in addition to the memory for display. There is a need. Furthermore, such a method results in the accumulation of unnecessary portions at the stage of creating drawn images that should be transmitted all at once, and it is also necessary to accumulate data such as information on erasing them. However, in the present invention, the contents stored in the memory for the display device such as the monitor device 14 are directly read out as stroke information, so there is no such inconvenience at all.

Furthermore, in the present invention, priority is given to the previous direction at branch points, so there is no need for registers or the like to store unprocessed information.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to perform batch communication of drawn images with a simple hardware configuration, and to provide a drawn image communication device that is highly convenient for repeatedly sending the same image.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the device of the present invention, FIGS. 2 to 4 are diagrams for explaining the operation, and FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the conventional device. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11...Telephone, 12...Control unit, 13...Drawing pad, 14...Monitor device, 122...Microprocessor, 125...Memory.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In a method in which a drawn image handwritten on a drawing pad is stored in a memory and the accumulated drawn image information is read out as stroke information, a starting point determined based on a predetermined standard is set as an address pointer, The presence or absence of points of the 8 connected components is checked, the address pointer is advanced to the existing point, the direction is memorized, and the same process is repeatedly executed for the above points, and the point up to the point where the direction changes is treated as one vector. A drawing image reading method characterized in that, while encoding, at a branch point where a plurality of 8-connected components exist, an address pointer is advanced to a point in the same direction as before.