JPH11112753A - Picture processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To shorten the developing period of a picture processing part constitut ing a color copying machine and to facilitate the change of an internal logic. SOLUTION: Inputted and log-converted picture data is divided into plural bands and alternately written in storage means 7 and 8. In reading, picture data of each band is divided in a main scanning direction and a logic arithmetic means 3 to 6 pipeline-processes each divided data to write data for the portion of one band to a storing means 9. At the same time when data for the portion of one band is outputted to a printer. Next pipeline-processed divided data is written in a storage means 10. At the time of realizing the copying machine, logic information realizing a filter circuit, a color correction circuit, etc., is set to the logic arithmetic means from a storage means 12.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, and more particularly, to a digital color copying machine which performs image processing necessary for outputting image data input from a scanner to a printer, and inputs the image data from the scanner. The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus that performs necessary image processing when transmitting image data to a computer connected to a color copying machine or when outputting image data transmitted from the computer to a printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Image processing performed in an image processing apparatus such as a color copying machine is usually executed by a dedicated LSI. For example, an image processing apparatus in which an image area separation function or the like is incorporated in a dedicated LSI (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-307717) can be used. While development of such an LSI takes a considerable period of time, various improvements and changes are frequently made to the image processing method, so that the life of the product is shortened and the efficiency of product development is low.

Further, the above-mentioned color copying machine is also used as a scanner or printer for a computer connected to a network, but in this case, an external device is required and the amount of hardware is increased. , Increase costs.

Therefore, a signal processing method that can increase the number of processed signals without increasing the amount of hardware has been proposed (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 3-320926). In this method, an element whose internal logic can be changed is used as a logical operation element, and the set logical operation is performed by appropriately changing the inside of the logical operation element without providing a plurality of image processing circuits. It is executed to reduce the amount of hardware.

[0005]

However, the amount of image data processed by a color copier, a scanner, and a printer is a large amount of data. In particular, a large number of line memories having a capacity equivalent to 8 bits × 5000 words are used. Therefore, a line memory cannot be built in the above-described logical operation element. For this reason, it is difficult to apply the above-described signal processing method to a color copying machine that processes a large amount of image data.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above background, and it is an object of the present invention to shorten the development period of an image processing unit constituting a color copying machine and to facilitate the change of internal logic. An object of the present invention is to provide a processing device.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an image processing apparatus which does not require an external device when a color copying machine is used as a scanner or printer for a computer connected to a network. .

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, a means for reading an original and inputting an image and a first means for alternately writing image data obtained by the input means are provided. Means for executing a set logical operation by dividing the image data in the main scanning direction from the first and second storage means and alternately reading and processing the image data in a pipeline manner; Third and fourth storage means for alternately writing the image data after the execution of the operation, and means for alternately reading out the image data from the third and fourth storage means and outputting the image data before division, It is characterized by comprising means for storing predetermined logical information to be set in the logical operation means, and means for reading the logical information from the storage means and setting the logical information in the execution means.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, when the image data is divided and read alternately in the main scanning direction, a predetermined number of pixels at the divided boundary portion are redundantly read.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the first and the second
When image data is alternately written to the storage means, a predetermined number of pixels are written in both storage means in an overlapping manner.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided means for executing predetermined image processing for outputting image data obtained from the input means to the computer, which is connected to the computer via the connecting means. An image processing apparatus comprising means for outputting the data after execution to the computer via the connection means, means for storing predetermined logical information for performing the image processing, and the storage means Means for reading the logical information from the memory and setting the information in the execution means.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided means for executing predetermined image processing on print output data output from the computer, the means being connected to the computer via the connection means, and transmitting the data after the execution. 2. An image processing apparatus comprising an output unit according to claim 1, wherein said output unit outputs predetermined logical information for performing the image processing, and reads the logical information from the storage unit. Setting means.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. The input unit 1 is, for example, a scanner that reads a document and inputs an image. The Log conversion means 2 corresponds to a Log conversion circuit described in the above-mentioned publication (JP-A-8-307717), and converts a signal having a linear reflectance into a signal having a linear density. FIG. 6 shows a configuration of the image processing apparatus shown in FIG. 1 of the publication.

The logical operation means 3 to 6 process the image data according to the internal logic set by the control means, and the internal logic is appropriately replaced by an FPGA (Field).
dProgrammable Gate Array). The storage units 7 to 10 are buffer memories such as a RAM for temporarily storing image data. The control means 11 is composed of a CPU core and ROMs and RAMs associated therewith for extracting logical information from the storage means, inputting the logical information to the logical operation means 3 to 6, and setting internal logic.

The storage means 12 is a ROM for storing a plurality of logical information set in the logical operation means 3 to 6. The connection means 13 is an interface for inputting and outputting data to and from a computer. The output unit 14 is a printer that outputs image data. The image area separating means 15 is provided as shown in FIG.
The edge separation circuit, the halftone dot separation circuit, the color separation circuit, the storage device, the multiplexer, and the determination circuit shown in FIG.

This embodiment operates as a copier, a computer scanner, and a computer printer by replacing the internal logic of the logical operation means 3 to 6. Examples of each case will be described below.

(1) Embodiment as Copying Machine; As an example, a case where a color copying machine shown in FIG. 6 is realized will be described. The filter circuit (3), the color correction circuit (4), the UCR circuit (5), and the dither circuit (6) in FIG. 6 are realized as follows by the logical operation means 3 to 6 of the present invention.

For example, in a filter circuit, FIG.
Filter coefficients as shown in (b) are used. In this case, the filter circuit is generally configured using a line memory capable of storing the number of pixels of the original image data in the main scanning direction as shown in FIG. For example, when the longitudinal direction of an A4 size document is set as the main scanning direction and an image is read at a resolution of 400 dpi, one line consists of about 5000 pixels. Therefore, the capacity of the line memory used is 8 bits × 5000 pixels × 2 when one pixel is 8-bit data.
Book × 3 colors = 240000 bits.

On the other hand, as an example of the logical operation means 3 to 6,
Programmable logic data book (1997 V
3 Xilinx Co., Ltd.'s page 4 to 6 shows the largest FPGA (XC4062XL) with a built-in RAM capacity of 73728 bits, so it is necessary to use a plurality of FPGAs, which increases the circuit scale. And
Costs rise.

Therefore, in order to avoid this problem, in the present invention, image processing is performed using a small-capacity line memory that can be built in an FPGA. As an example, here, the number of pixels stored in the line memory is 32. That is, the pipeline process is performed on the assumption that the image has 32 pixels in the main scanning direction. As a result, the capacity of the line memory used is
8 bits × 32 pixels × 2 lines × 3 colors = 1536 bits, which can be sufficiently incorporated in one FPGA.

The image data output from the Log conversion means 2 is divided in the sub-scanning direction by a predetermined amount equal to or less than the capacity of the storage means 7 (the storage means 7 and 8 have the same capacity) as shown in FIG. And band 1, band 2,. .., Band n (n is an integer of 2 or more). The image data of each band is alternately input to the storage means 7 and 8. At the time of the filter operation, it is necessary to multiply five pixels on three consecutive lines (a total of 15 pixels) by a coefficient corresponding to each position and to add them. Therefore, when the scanner image is divided into banks, one line of the image is insufficient at the upper end and the lower end. To make up for this shortage, as shown in FIG.
(I = 2... N-1) band i-1 at the beginning of the image data
, And the first line of band i + 1 is added to the end of the image data of band i. As described above, when the image data input is switched by the storage means 7 and 8,
The image data for the line is redundantly input.

The image data input to the storage means 7 or 8 is divided and output every 32 pixels in the main scanning direction as shown in FIG. First, after outputting the first 32 pixels of the first line of the storage means, next, the first 32 pixels of the second line are output. Similarly, the first 32 pixels of the last line stored in the storage unit are output.

Thereafter, returning to the first line again, the next 32
Output the pixel. Similarly to the case where the image data for two lines at the band boundary is overlapped, the pixels are also output at the division boundary in the main scanning direction at this time. At the time of the filter operation, since two pixels on both sides of the target pixel in the main scanning direction are required at the same time, 32 pixels are output by overlapping the rear four pixels of the first 32 pixels of the already output first line. In the same manner, the data is output up to the last line in the storage means.

As described above, the image data output from the log conversion circuit is temporarily stored in the storage means, and divided into images having 32 pixels in the main scanning direction, and the pipeline processing is performed. At this time, by overlapping the pixels at the division boundaries in the main scanning direction and the sub-scanning direction, the filter operation processing can be executed smoothly.

A filter circuit, a color correction circuit, and a UC using a small-capacity line memory that can be built in the logical operation means.
The image data processed by the R circuit and the dither circuit
The data is alternately input to the storage units 9 and 10. After the input is completed, the image is output to the printer again as an image having 5000 pixels in the main scanning direction.

The filter circuit thus devised,
The color correction circuit, the UCR circuit, and the dither circuit are logical operation means 3
Logic information to be realized in steps (1) to (6) is stored in the storage unit 12 in advance.

First, the above logic is set in the logic operation means 3 to 6 by the control means 11. Next, the original is read by a scanner, and the output image data is Log-converted, and a predetermined amount is input to the storage unit 7. Before the input of the image data to the storage unit 7 is completed, the predetermined overlapping pixel amount is also input to the storage unit 8, and the input of the image data to the storage unit 8 is continued.

While the image data is being input to the storage unit 8, the image data input to the storage unit 7 is divided and output in the main scanning direction, and predetermined logical processing is performed by the logical operation units 3 to 6. The divided image data after processing is
The image data input to the storage means 9 and output to the printer for one band is completed. Thereafter, the main scanning direction is again changed to 50.
The image is output from the storage means 9 to the printer as an image of 00 pixels. At the same time, the input of the divided image data after the pipeline processing into the storage means 10 starts.

In this manner, a circuit equivalent to the color copying machine disclosed in the above publication can be realized by partially using a logic operation means (FPGA) whose internal logic can be changed. As described above, the embodiment of FIG. 1 operates as a copying machine.

(2) Embodiment as a Scanner for a Computer; Here, as an example, a case will be described in which image data output from a scanner is processed by a filter circuit and output to a connected computer.

In the logical operation means 3, the same logic as in the embodiment of the copying machine (1) is set. In the logical operation means 4 and 5, the logic through which the image data passes is set. The logical operation means 6 alternately inputs the image data divided by the logical operation means 3 to the storage means 9 and 10, and sets again the logic for outputting to the computer as an image having 5000 pixels in the main scanning direction.

The logic information for setting the logic in the logic operation means 3 to 6 is stored in the storage means 12 in advance. The logic information is read from the storage means 12 by the control means 11, and the logic is set in the logic operation means 3 to 6. The original is read by the scanner 1 and the logical operation means 3 to 6
The above-described image processing is performed, and image data is input to the storage units 9 and 10 alternately. Thereafter, the image data is output from the storage means 9 or 10 to the connected computer via the connection means 13. Thus, the embodiment of FIG. 1 operates as a computer scanner.

(3) Embodiment as a printer for a computer; here, as an example, Trikeps WS 13
3 Page p. A case where the printer operates as a page printer described in FIG. FIG. 8 is a configuration example of a page printer disclosed in the above-mentioned document.

The components relating to image processing in the block diagram shown in FIG. 8 are as follows. a. CPU section: controls the entire page printer controller. b. Font section: stores character pattern data. c. Drawing control unit: converts print output data transmitted from a computer into image data and stores it in a memory.

The engine interface control section shown in FIG. 8 controls the printer engine connected thereto and outputs image data. Since the function of outputting image data from each storage unit to the printer when the present embodiment operates as a copying machine has already been realized, the description of the engine interface control unit will be omitted.

The CPU section corresponds to the control means 11 of this embodiment. Character pattern data constituting the font part is
It is stored in the storage means 12 in advance.

The logical operation means 4 has a graphic drawing function, and the logical operation means 5 has a drawing control function. At this time, both logical operation means make the storage means 7, 8, 9, 10 accessible as a frame buffer. That is, data can be accessed from the logical operation means 4 to the storage means 7 and 8 via the logical operation means 3 or to the storage means 9 and 10 via the logical operation means 5 and 6. I do. Further, data is accessed from the logical operation means 5 to the storage means 7 and 8 via the logical operation means 3 and 4, or the storage means 9 and
10 to be able to access data.

Further, the logical operation means 3 and 6 switch the data access paths in the logical operation means 4 and 5 to use the data in the storage means 7, 8, 9 and 10 for the printer. It also has a function to output. Logic information for setting the above functions inside the logical operation means 3 to 6 is stored in the storage means 12.

First, the above-mentioned logic is set in the logic operation means 3 to 6 by the control means 11. Next, the print output data input from the computer via the connection means 13 is once input to the RAM in the control means 11. The CPU in the control means 11 identifies this data, and if it is a character code, reads the corresponding character pattern from the font part in the storage means 12 and sends the data to the logical operation means 4. The logical operation means 4 writes the transmitted data as image data in a storage means (frame buffer). If the data in the RAM is raster image data, the logical operation means 4
The data is decoded by the logical operation means 4 and the image data is written to the storage means (frame buffer). If the data in the RAM is graphic data, the data is sent to the logical operation means 5, the command is dot-expanded, and written into the storage means (frame buffer).

As described above, after the CPU identifies the data and sends the data to the corresponding logical operation means, the logical operation means performs a process of writing to the storage means. In this way,
After processing the print output data for one page, the image data in each storage unit is output to the printer. As described above, the embodiment of FIG. 1 operates as a computer printer.

[0041]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the logic operation means (F) capable of changing the internal logic is provided.
Since PGA) is used, the development period is shorter than when a dedicated LSI is used, and the logic can be easily changed. Further, since a part of the pipeline processing unit is realized by the FPGA, the cost of the FP is higher than that of the entire FPGA.
Since the number of GAs to be used can be reduced, an increase in cost can be suppressed.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the pixels at the division boundary portion in the main scanning direction of the image data are output in an overlapping manner, a filter operation for simultaneously processing a plurality of pixels continuous in the main scanning direction is performed. Can be executed efficiently.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the pixels at the division boundary in the sub-scanning direction of the image data are redundantly input to the storage means, a plurality of pixels continuous in the sub-scanning direction are simultaneously processed. Can be efficiently executed.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, since there is provided a means for connecting to another computer, the read document image can be processed and output to another computer. No additional equipment is required.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided means for connecting to another computer, and image processing logic for outputting print output data output from the computer to the printer is set in the logical operation means. Then, since the image processing is performed, an external device is not required when used as a printer for a computer.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 shows a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a line memory forming a part of a filter circuit.

FIG. 3 is a diagram in which image data after Log conversion is divided into bands.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating writing of band data to a storage unit.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating division of a band i in a main scanning direction.

FIG. 6 shows a configuration example of a color copying machine to which the present invention is applied.

FIGS. 7A and 7B show an example of a filter circuit.

FIG. 8 shows a configuration example of a page printer to which the present invention is applied.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Input means 2 Log conversion means 3, 4, 5, 6 Logical operation means 7, 8, 9, 10 Storage means 11 Control means 12 Storage means 13 Connection means 14 Output means 15 Image area separation means

Claims (5)

[Claims] Means for reading a document and inputting an image;
First and second storage means for alternately writing the image data obtained by the input means, and alternately reading out the image data from the first and second storage means by dividing the image data in the main scanning direction and alternately Means for executing the set logical operation, third and fourth storage means for alternately writing the image data after the execution of the operation, and image data from the third and fourth storage means alternately. Means for outputting the image data before division, means for storing predetermined logical information to be set in the logical operation means, and reading the logical information from the storage means and setting it in the execution means And an image processing apparatus. 2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, when the image data is divided and read alternately in the main scanning direction, a predetermined number of pixels at the divided boundary portion are redundantly read. . 3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, when the image data is alternately written in the first and second storage units, a predetermined number of pixels are written in both storage units in an overlapping manner. . 4. A means for executing predetermined image processing for outputting image data obtained from the input means according to claim 1 to said computer, said means being connected to a computer via connection means; An image processing apparatus comprising: means for outputting data to the computer via the connection means; means for storing predetermined logical information for performing the image processing; and reading the logical information from the storage means Means for setting the execution means. 5. A means connected to a computer via connection means for executing predetermined image processing on print output data output from the computer, and outputting the data after the execution. An image processing apparatus comprising: an output unit configured to store predetermined logical information for performing the image processing; and a unit configured to read the logical information from the storage unit and set the read logical information in the execution unit. An image processing apparatus characterized in that: