Facsimile and static presentation processing – Static presentation processing – Memory
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-28
2003-06-03
Wallerson, Mark (Department: 2722)
Facsimile and static presentation processing
Static presentation processing
Memory
C358S001160, C358S296000, C358S450000, C358S540000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06574008
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique that processes image data, specifically to a technique that implements the overwriting of images at a low cost at high speed.
2. Description of the Related Art
First of all, the overwriting of images that the present invention aims at will be defined. That is, the overwriting of images here signifies processing to overwrite an image with another unit of image. For example, the overwriting here includes a superscription by an opaque ink, which is processed by the PS (PostScript, “Postscript reference manual 2
nd
version”(Adobe Systems, ASCII), etc., PostScript is the trademark of US Adobe Systems Corp.) being a type of the PDL (Page Description Language). The unit image as defined above may be a sheet of raster as defined in the PDL, or a piece of plotting object.
The overwriting on the spatial coordinates of images cannot be carried out by one directional processing. The reason is as follows. The general image processing can be carried out in one direction, for example, from the upper left to the lower right, which includes, for example, expansion, contraction, and spatial filtering, etc. “handbook image analysis” (Takagi, Shimoda, Tokyo Univ. Publishing association). In contrast to this, in the overwriting, the image with which the overwriting is executed can be inputted at random to the spatial coordinates of the output image. Therefore, as far as it is processed in order of input, the image cannot be processed, on the output image, in order of the spatial coordinates.
FIG. 13
illustrates the overwriting. In the drawing,
210
,
211
show plotting objects. The drawing illustrates a processing to overwrite the object
210
with the object
211
. It is clear from the drawing that the random scan on the output image and page memories for the overwriting are needed.
In this manner, the overwriting proceeds while adding a process to data on the halfway of a certain process. When this is viewed as a data flow, it is found that the so-called feedback loop is produced. In general, a feedback loop produces an overhead to the processing time to make the control complicated, and the loop should be shorter.
While the page memory is necessary, the memory size should be small from the view point of cost. Accompanied with a higher quality of images that the image processing devices present in recent years, the resolution of the images is enhanced. Although the unit price of memory is significantly reduced, the reduction of quantity in using memories is still an important problem. Now, the conventional technique to reduce the page memory will be explained.
First Convention Example
As the first conventional example, the Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 5-31974 will be explained. The basic theory of the first conventional example is to apply the image compression coding while storing the image on which the overwriting has been completed in the page memory, and thereby reduce the necessary quantity of memory.
FIG. 14
illustrates a block diagram of the first conventional example. However, the terms are changed to match the explanation of this invention, without damaging the gist of the disclosed contents of the Published Application, and unnecessary parts for the explanation are omitted. In the drawing,
10
denotes an image input unit,
20
an overwriting unit,
30
a small area buffer,
40
an output switch unit,
50
an encoding unit,
60
a compact page memory,
70
a decoding unit,
80
an image output unit,
110
input image data,
120
,
130
processed image data,
140
stored image data,
150
output image data,
160
,
170
coded image data, and
180
decoded image data.
Each of the units in
FIG. 14
will be explained. The image input unit
10
enters image data from an external device. The overwriting unit
20
overwrites the stored image data
140
with the input image data
110
, using a predetermined small area as a processing unit, to send out the processed image data
120
to the small area buffer
30
. The small area buffer
30
stores the processed image data
120
to send them out as the processed image data
130
to the output switch unit
40
. If the overwriting of the processed image data
130
has been completed, the output switch unit
40
sends them out to the encoding unit
50
as the output image data
150
; and if not, the output switch unit
40
sends them out to the overwriting unit
20
as the stored image data
140
. The encoding unit
50
applies a specific compression coding to the output image data
150
to send out the result to the compact page memory
60
as the coded image data
160
. The compact page memory
60
stores the coded image data
160
, and when the coded image data corresponding to all the small areas are complete, sends them out to the decoding unit
70
as the coded image data
170
. The decoding unit
70
performs the decoding processing as an inverse transformation of the compression coding by the encoding unit
50
, and sends out the result to the image output unit
80
as the decoded image data
180
. The image output unit
80
delivers the decoded image data
180
to an external device.
Based on the above configuration, the first conventional example will be explained as to the image processing procedure.
FIG. 15
illustrates a flowchart explaining the operation of the first conventional example.
First, the terms will be defined. In the first conventional example, the image is divided into partial images. The divided partial images are called small areas. And, the image now being processed will be called an image in attention, and similarly the small area now being processed will be called a small area in attention.
Referring to
FIG. 15
, the operation of the first conventional example will now be explained. At S
10
, the image input unit
10
inputs the input image data
110
. At S
20
, the input image data
110
are individually processed as a small area unit, and if the part now being inputted is correspondent to the small area in attention, the step advances to step S
30
; and if not, it advances to S
50
. At S
30
, the small area in attention stored in the small area buffer
30
is read as the stored image data
140
through the output switch unit
40
. At S
40
, the overwriting unit
20
executes the overwriting of the input image data
110
on the stored image data
140
. At S
50
, since the input image data
110
are not correspondent to the small area in attention, the small area is skipped. At S
60
, if the processing of all the small areas in attention is completed, the step advances to S
70
; and if not, it returns to S
20
. At S
70
, if the processing of all the input images is completed, the step advances to S
80
; and if not, it advances to S
90
. At S
80
, the encoding unit
50
executes the encoding to the output image data
150
on which the overwriting has been finished, and stores the result in the compact page memory
60
. At S
90
, the image in attention is shifted to the next image. At S
100
, if the overwriting on all the small areas is completed, the step advances to S
110
; and if not, it advances to S
120
. At S
110
, the decoding unit
70
executes the decoding processing to the coded image data
170
, and outputs the result to the image output unit
80
. At S
120
, the small area in attention is shifted to the next small area, and the image in attention is shifted to the leading image of the input image data
110
.
In the foregoing operation, the encoding unit
50
and the decoding unit
70
execute the image compression coding such that the data size of the coded image data
160
becomes smaller than that of the processed image data
130
. The first conventional example presents an example of the compression using the DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform).
According to the first conventional example, since the image data on which the overwriting has been completed are encoded to be stored, the quantity of memory equivalent to the code quantity for one sheet of image is needed to be prov
Sakurai Yasuharu
So Ikken
Tamatani Mitsuyuki
Yokose Taro
Morgan & Lewis & Bockius, LLP
Wallerson Mark
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