JPH07105945B2 - Image input device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention will be described in the following order.

A Industrial Field B Outline of Invention C Conventional Technology D Problems to be Solved by the Invention E Means for Solving Problems (Fig. 1) F Action G Example G ₁ Structure of one example ( (Fig. 1) G ₂ Operation of one embodiment (Figs. 1 to 3) H Effect of the invention A Industrial field of application The present invention relates to an image input device suitable for inputting information of videotex.

B Outline of the Invention The present invention separately counts the colors of pixels in a block to obtain the first color.
In the image input device configured to select the second priority color, the means for determining the difference in coloring between the adjacent blocks is provided, and the color of the first block or the second priority of the preceding block is set to the color of the succeeding block. By selecting the color having the first or second priority, a high data compression effect is obtained.

C Conventional Technology Videotex can be regarded as a data communication system with still images, and is characterized by using an existing telephone network as a transmission line and a home-use television receiver as a display device. Since it is possible to perform conversational communication, it is expected to be widely used, and nowadays, captain service is provided in Japan.

First, the captain system will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 to 9.

In the captain system, characters are basically alphanumeric and the information is transmitted by a code system. As for the figure, as shown in FIG. 4A, a "photographic method" is used that faithfully expresses with a dot (pixel) pattern. Since such a hybrid system is adopted, the captain system does not require the user terminal to have an advanced function and can easily transmit a complicated graphic. On the other hand, the amount of information to be transmitted is large, so
The downlink transmission speed from the captain center to the user terminal is 4800 bits / second. Uplink transmission rate is 75 bits / second.

In addition to the screen display method described above, the captain system has a "geometric function" for drawing a figure with points, straight lines, arcs, polygons, etc., as shown in FIG. , "Mosaic function" that draws a figure by combining mosaic pieces is supported.

As shown in FIG. 5, the captain system includes an information center, a videotex communication network (telephone network) and a user terminal device as basic elements.

There are roughly two types of information centers, a captain information center and a direct type information center DF. The information processing device CAPF of the captain information center accumulates screen information from an information provider and sends it to the videotex network. Direct type information center
In the DF, the information provider performs all the screen production, storage, transmission, and data processing from the user terminal GT. The indirect information center 1F and the information input center INC register the screen information in the captain center, and the storage / delivery thereof is processed by the captain center.

As shown in FIG. 6, the user terminal device GT includes a modem (2) connected to a telephone network through an input / output terminal (1) and a computer (for interpreting image information from the modem (2). It has a CPU (3) and a frame memory (4) in which an image interpreted by the computer (3) is drawn. The image in the frame memory (4) is displayed on the display (6) via the video signal generator (5).

The user terminal device has five ranks, and a basic function, a standard function, an optional function, etc. are defined for each rank. At the time of connection, terminal profile information indicating the type and function is sent from the terminal, and the communication processing device VCP of the videotex network performs protocol conversion based on this terminal profile information. The basic functions of the user terminal are shown in Table 1 below.

It should be noted that terminals of ranks 1, 2 and 4 can use a home receiver, and the number of pixels of the display screen is 192 in the vertical and 2 in the horizontal.
It is said to be 48. On the other hand, high-density terminals of rank 3 and 5
It can display double (384,496) dots vertically and horizontally, but it requires a dedicated display.

The display surface of the display (6), as shown in FIG.
It has a multi-frame structure in which multiple display surfaces are overlapped. Basically, a character information frame (7C) (displaying characters, mosaic graphics and DRCS information), a geometric information frame (7G) and a photographic information frame ( 7
It is composed of 3 frames of P), and the display priority is also in this order. Note that the geometric information frame (7
G) is a dot coloring frame, and the character information frame (7C) and the photographic information frame (7P) are block coloring frames.

Table 2 shows the expressible information of the captain system.

As shown in FIG. 8, the photographic information frame (7P) has a pattern surface (8P) in order from the front side of the viewer side.
It consists of four foreground (FG) planes (8F), background color (BG) planes (8B) and display operation planes (8D).

The FG color corresponds to the "1" information in dot units on the pattern surface (8P), and the BG color corresponds to the "0" information. The FG and BG colors correspond to the 4x4 dot block (9P) on the pattern surface (8P) as shown in Fig. 8, and each block (9F) on the FG surface (8F) and BG surface (8B) One color is specified for each of (9B) and (9B). Since each of the FG plane (8F) and the BG plane (8B) has 4 bits, it is possible to designate 16 colors (8 colors and 2 gradations as standard) as shown in Table 2.

In the photographic method, such information is transmitted in photographic data unit (PDU) units. The PDU has a 1-byte photo opcode and a photooperand, and the operand part is composed of parameters and data. The photo operation code is a code for identifying what the PDU data means, and indicates the scanning range, the presence / absence of data compression, coloring, and the like. The parameter is a part that supplements the operation code, and it is the display position coordinate of the data,
It is a code of 1 to several bytes that describes the details of the data content.

FIG. 9 shows a configuration example of the image information input terminal device of the captain system.

In FIG. 9, a TV camera (12) is connected to a common bus (11) connected to a processor (10) through a general-purpose interface control unit (13), graphic information is created by camera input, and an image memory is created. The image is accumulated in the unit (14) and is displayed on the receiver (16) by the display control unit (15). A keyboard (18) is connected to the common bus (11) via a keyboard control unit (17), and the keyboard (18) corrects and colors pattern figures and performs various control operations.

In addition, the main memory (19) and the flexible disk (20)
Are connected to the common bus (11) directly or via the control unit (21). Further, the common bus (11) and the line (23) are connected via the line control unit (22), and signals are transmitted / received.

Next, the block coloring process of the conventional image input device will be described with reference to FIGS. 10 to 12.

As described above, in the captain system, only one color is selected for each of the FG color and the BG color, and therefore, in the past, the multi-priority processing as described below was performed. That is, as shown in the functional block diagram of FIG. 10 and the flowchart of FIG. 11, one block of image data from the input terminal IN is counted by color in the classification and counting means (31) (step), and then, In the color order determining means (32), the colors are ranked in order of increasing number of dots (step). Then, from the first output terminal (32a) of the color order determination means (32), the data of each dot of the color of the first order is supplied to the FG color selection means (33) to be the FG color (step). , The data of each dot of the second color from the second output terminal (32b) is supplied to the BG color selection means (34).
BG color (step). If there is a third or lower color, the dot data of these colors is supplied to the FG color selection means (33) to be the FG color.

By the above-described multi-priority processing, for example, as shown in FIG. 12, two blocks (91F) and (92F) adjacent to each other in the lateral direction (scanning direction) on the FG plane and on the BG plane respectively correspond. Two blocks (91B) and (92
When B) is divided into two parts in the horizontal direction and colored, that is, each right side area (91h) of blocks (91F) and (92F)
When (92h) and (92h) are colored blue and yellow, respectively, and when the left areas (91c) and (92c) of the corresponding blocks (91B) and (92B) are colored red and blue, respectively, Since there is a continuous dot (run) of the same color, data compression is performed by encoding the continuous length (length) of the same color (step).

D Problem to be solved by the invention However, in the multi-priority processing and the run length coding as described above, the FG color and the BG color are independently selected for each block, and therefore, for example, from the top of FIG. In the case of the third scanning lines Lf and Lb, the pattern information is one "0", "1"
There are 3 pieces of information, 2 pieces of "0", 2 pieces of "1", and so on. The color information is 1 blue for FG, 1 red for BG, 1 yellow for FG, 1 blue for BG. However, there is a problem in that the amount of data compression by run-length coding is limited.

Also, in the conventional multi-priority processing, the number of dots of the target object is less than the number of dots of the background in the block of the peripheral part of the image object, and the target object that should originally be FG color is BG.
In addition to being colored, the background may be FG. In the captain method, since the FG surface is printed to obtain a black and white hard copy, in such a case, there is a problem that the smoothness of the original screen graphic is impaired in the black and white hard copy.

In view of the above points, an object of the present invention is to provide an image input device that increases the amount of data compression by run-length encoding and does not impair the smoothness of the original screen graphic in monochrome hard copy. It is in.

E Means for Solving the Problems The present invention is directed to a separate counting unit that separates and counts pixels of the same color on the original screen for each block composed of a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns of pixels, and a separate counting of the separate counting unit. An image including color order determining means for determining the color order of the pixels of the original screen for each block according to the result, and selecting the colors of the first and second priority levels as the foreground color or the background color for each block. In the input device, the colors of the first and second priorities of the preceding block are compared with the colors of the first and second priorities of the succeeding blocks adjacent to the preceding block, and when there is the same color. Is provided with block coloring comparison / determination means for comparing the difference between the color of the first priority of the succeeding block and the foreground color of the preceding block, and the color of the first priority of the succeeding block and the foreground color of the preceding block are the same. If not, follow The color of the second priority locked foreground succeeding block, an image input apparatus adapted to select the color of the first priority of the subsequent block to the background color of the subsequent block.

According to such an F action, the amount of data compression by the run length coding increases, and the smoothness of the graphic in the black and white hard copy is maintained.

G Embodiment An embodiment of the image input device according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3.

G ₁ Configuration of One Embodiment A functional block diagram of one embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. In FIG. 1, parts corresponding to those in FIG. 10 are designated by the same reference numerals, and redundant description will be omitted.

In FIG. 1, (41) is a block coloring comparison / determination means,
(42) is a delay means, and the switches (43) to (46) are controlled by the output of the discrimination means (41). The data from the first output terminal (32a) of the color order determination means (32) is the first input terminal (41a) of the block coloring comparison / determination means (41).
And the movable contact (43c) of the first switch (43) in common, and the data from the second output terminal (32b) of the color order determination means (32) is supplied to the block coloring comparison / determination means (41). The second input terminal (41b) and the second switch (4
It is commonly supplied to the movable contact (44c) in 4). Further, the outputs of the FG color selecting means (33) and the BG color selecting means (34) are respectively connected to the delay means at the third and fourth input terminals (41c) and (41d) of the block coloring comparison / determination means (41). (42).

The positive side fixed contacts (43y) and (44y) of the first and second switches (43) and (44) are the movable contacts (45c) and the third and fourth switches (45) and (46), respectively. (46c)
Connected to the first and second switches (43) and (44)
The negative side fixed contacts (43n) and (44n) of the
And fourth positive switches (45y) and (46y) of the fourth switches (45) and (46), respectively. The positive side fixed contact (45y) of the third switch (45) and the fourth switch (4
The negative side fixed contact (46n) of 6) is connected to the input side of the FG color selection means (33), and the negative side fixed contact (45n) of the third switch (45) and the fourth switch (46). A) fixed contact (46y) on the positive side is connected to the input side of the BG color selecting means (34). The rest of the configuration is similar to that of the conventional device shown in FIG.

G ₂ Operation of One Embodiment Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.

When the image data belonging to the first (leftmost) block (91) of an arbitrary row as shown in FIG. 12 is inputted, the classification and counting means (31) and the color order determining means (32) According to the steps of the flowchart of FIG.
The colors of the first and second ranks (blue and red in the example of FIG. 12) of the first block (91) are determined (step). The data of the first and second colors of the first block (91) are supplied to the block coloring comparison / determination means (41) to compare the FG color and the BG color of the preceding block with each other (step). In this case, since the preceding block to be compared does not exist in the first block (91) of the row, the first and second switches (43) and (44) are controlled by the discriminating means (41). The connection state is the opposite of
As in the conventional apparatus shown in FIG. 10, the data of the first color (blue) of the first block (91) is supplied to the FG color selecting means (33) to be the FG color and the second color. The data of the color (red) in the order of is supplied to the BG color selection means (34) to be the BG color (step).

Then, the second block (9
When the image data belonging to 2) is input, the second block (92) from the color order determination means (32) is processed in the same manner as described above.
Data of the first and second colors (yellow and blue in the example of FIG. 12) are supplied to the first and second input terminals (41a) and (41b) of the block coloring comparison / determination means (41). To be done. At this time, the third of the block coloring comparison / determination means (41)
And the fourth input terminals (41c) and (41d) of the first block (91) which have been appropriately delayed by the delay means (42).
Data of FG color and BG color (blue and red) are supplied, and the difference between the first and second colors of adjacent blocks (91) and (92) is compared (step), If there is the same color, the difference between the first-ranked color of the succeeding block (92) and the FG color of the preceding block (91) is compared (step). As described in detail below, if different, the process defined in step and is performed, and if the same, the process defined in step and is performed.

In the example of FIG. 12, the second-ranked color (blue) of the succeeding block (92) is the same as the FG color (blue) of the preceding block (91) and is controlled by the block coloring comparison / determination means (41). ,
All the first to fourth switches (43) to (46) are in the connection state shown in the figure. In this state, the data of the second rank color (blue) of the subsequent block (92) is changed to the color rank determining means (3
2) From the second output terminal (32b) to the FG color selecting means (33) via the second and fourth switches (44) and (46), and the FG color is selected (step), The data of the first color (yellow) of the subsequent block (92) is output from the first output terminal (32a) of the color order determining means (32) to the first and third colors.
BG color selection means (3) via switches (43) and (45)
4) is supplied to the BG color (step).

Thus, in the conventional device, as shown in FIG. 12, the same blue areas (91h) and (92c) divided into the FG surface (91F) of the preceding block and the BG surface (92B) of the subsequent block are In the embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, areas (91) adjacent to each other on both FG surfaces (91F) and (92F) of the preceding and succeeding blocks are used.
h) and (92i).

Further, in the present embodiment, when the color of the first rank of the succeeding block and the FG color of the preceding block are the same, the third and fourth colors are controlled by the block coloring comparison / determination means (41).
The switches (45) and (46) are in a connection state opposite to that shown in the drawing. In this state, the color data of the first rank of the succeeding block is transferred to the first output terminal (32) of the color rank determining means (32).
From (a) through the first and third switches (43) and (45), it is supplied to the FG color selection means (33) to be the FG color (step) and the data of the second color of the subsequent block. From the second output terminal (32b) of the color order determination means (32) via the second and fourth switches (44) and (46),
The color is supplied to the color selection means (34) and is set to the BG color (step).

Thereafter, the same operation is repeated, and the output data of both selecting means (33) and (34) are supplied to the data compressing means (35) to perform data compression by run length encoding (step). In this embodiment, when the adjacent blocks have the same color, the coloring of the succeeding block is determined in association with the coloring of the preceding block, so that the amount of data compression increases.

In the example of FIG. 3, along the third scanning lines Lf and Lb from the top, the pattern information is one "0", five "1", and two "0".
The number of data is 2 in FG, 1 in red in BG, 1 in red in BG, and 1 in yellow in BG, and the amount of data is significantly reduced compared to the case of FIG. 12 described above.

Also, as is clear from the figure, the FG of the adjacent block
Since two areas (91h) and (92i) of the same color (blue) corresponding to the object on the original screen are adjacent to each other on the surfaces (91F) and (92F), the graphic of the original screen is Smoothness is maintained.

Depending on the design of the original screen, the areas of the same FG color of the preceding block and the succeeding block may be, for example, the area (91h) on the right side of the preceding block (91F) and the succeeding block (92).
It may be separated like the area (92j) on the right side of F),
Even in such a case, the color information is compressed, for example, two blue in FG.

H Effect of the Invention As described above in detail, according to the present invention, when adjacent blocks have the same color, the coloring of the succeeding block is determined in relation to the coloring of the preceding block. It is possible to obtain an image input device that increases the amount of data compression due to digitization and does not impair the smoothness of the original screen graphic in black-and-white hard copy.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the image input apparatus according to the present invention, FIGS. 2 and 3 are flow charts and conceptual diagrams for explaining the operation of the embodiment of FIG. 1, and FIG. 5 and 5 are a diagram and a block diagram for explaining the present invention,
6 to 8 are block diagrams and conceptual diagrams showing the configuration of the user terminal and its display surface, FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of the image input terminal device, and FIG. 10 is a conventional image input device. 11 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration example of
10 is a flow chart and a conceptual diagram for explaining the operation of the conventional apparatus of FIG. (31) is a sorting and counting means, (32) is a color order determining means, and (3
5) is a data compression means, (41) is a block coloring comparison / determination means, and (42) is a delay means.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A classification / counting means for classifying and counting pixels of the same color on an original screen for each block composed of a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns of pixels, and the above-mentioned for each block based on the classification / counting result of the classification / counting means. Color order determining means for determining the color order of the pixels of the original screen, and the first and second blocks are provided for each block.
In the image input device in which the color of the priority order of 1 is selected as the foreground color or the background color, the color of the first and second priority levels of the preceding block and the first color of the succeeding block adjacent to the preceding block. And the color of the second priority are compared with each other, and if there is the same color, the block coloring comparison judgment for comparing the color of the first priority of the succeeding block with the foreground color of the preceding block. Means is provided, and when the color of the first priority of the succeeding block and the foreground color of the preceding block are not the same, the second of the succeeding block
2. The image input device according to claim 1, wherein the color having the priority of 1 is selected as the foreground color of the subsequent block, and the color having the first priority of the subsequent block is selected as the background color of the subsequent block.