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JP-2026076073-A - Image processing device, image processing method, recording device, and program

JP2026076073AJP 2026076073 AJP2026076073 AJP 2026076073AJP-2026076073-A

Abstract

[Problem] When performing rotation processing with an image processing device such as a copier, it is necessary to prepare a separate rotation processing device. As a result, reading and writing to the main memory occurs at both the image processing device and the rotation processing device, which may increase the main memory access bandwidth. [Solution] Image rotation is performed by changing the order in which the image data is read from the main memory in rectangular units and the order in which the pixels within the rectangle are read from the intermediate memory where the read image data is stored. [Selection Diagram] Figure 3

Inventors

  • 宮脇 昌俊
  • 吉谷 明洋

Assignees

  • キヤノン株式会社

Dates

Publication Date
20260511
Application Date
20241023

Claims (7)

  1. A first storage means, a second storage means, and a third storage means for storing image data, A first transfer means reads out the image data as a plurality of rectangular data corresponding to a plurality of rectangles obtained by dividing the image data in a first direction and a second direction orthogonal to the first direction, and writes it to the second storage means, An input means reads the plurality of rectangular data from the second storage means and inputs them to the image processing unit, An output means outputs the plurality of rectangular data that have undergone image processing from the image processing unit and writes them to the third storage means, A second transfer means reads the plurality of rectangular data from the third storage means and writes them to the first storage means, Equipped with, (1) If rotation is not performed, The first transfer means reads the image data stored in the first storage means in the order arranged in the first direction in rectangular data units, and repeats the reading process in the order arranged in the first direction along the second direction. The input means reads out the plurality of rectangular data stored in the second storage means in the first reading order, determining the order in which to read each pixel within each rectangular data. (2) When performing a rotation process that rotates by 90 degrees, The first transfer means reads the image data stored in the first storage means in the order arranged in the second direction in rectangular data units, and repeats the reading process in the order arranged in the second direction along the first direction. The image processing apparatus is characterized in that the input means reads out the plurality of rectangular data stored in the second storage means in a second reading order that is different from the first reading order, in which order each pixel is read out within each rectangular data.
  2. The first reading order is a reading order in which the process of reading from the top pixel to the bottom pixel along the second direction in each rectangular data is repeated along the first direction. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the second reading order is a reading order in which the process of reading from the leftmost pixel to the rightmost pixel along the first direction in each rectangular data is repeated along the direction opposite to the second direction.
  3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the order in which each pixel of each rectangular data is read by the first transfer means when no rotation processing is performed is the same as the order in which each pixel of each rectangular data is read by the first transfer means when 90-degree rotation processing is performed.
  4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 3, characterized in that the order in which each pixel of each rectangular data is read by the first transfer means is a reading order in which the process of reading from the leftmost pixel to the rightmost pixel along the first direction is repeated along the second direction.
  5. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the order in which each rectangular data output from the image processing unit by the output means is written to the third storage means when no rotation processing is performed is the same as the order in which each rectangular data output from the image processing unit by the output means is written to the third storage means when a rotation processing of 90 degrees is performed.
  6. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the order in which each rectangular data read from the third storage means by the second transfer means is written to the first storage means when no rotation processing is performed, and the order in which each rectangular data read from the third storage means by the second transfer means is written to the first storage means when 90-degree rotation processing is performed, are the same.
  7. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the reading process by the first transfer means and the reading order by the input means are differed depending on the angle during rotation processing.

Description

This invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, a recording apparatus, and a program for recording images on a recording medium. Traditionally, image processing devices in printers and digital cameras have a configuration where data is read from main memory, multiple image processing steps are performed, and then the data is written back to memory. However, even when the image processing unit only needs specific pixels, unnecessary data is also read, resulting in a large data transfer volume and long processing times. Patent Document 1 discloses a configuration in which data, including peripheral data necessary for image processing, is used as the basic unit for processing. This configuration allows for multiple image processing operations to be performed without increasing memory capacity while reducing the amount of data transferred. Japanese Patent Publication No. 2000-312327 Image processing unit configuration diagramBlock diagram illustrating the prior art and the outline of this embodiment.Conventional processing vs. processing with the new configurationImage processing flowchartDiagram of the reading order processing within a rectangleDiagram illustrating the rotation process from 90 degrees to 270 degrees.Diagram illustrating the sequential reading process within a rectangle during 180-degree rotation.Diagram illustrating the sequential reading process within a rectangle during a 270-degree rotation.Diagram illustrating the conventional technology and its problems.Diagram explaining burst boundary determination processImage processing flowchartDiagram showing processing with conventional technology and the new configuration.A diagram showing data processing in the third embodiment. (First embodiment) One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The configuration of the image processing device in this embodiment will be explained using the block diagram in Figure 1. The image processing device in this embodiment is a digital copier. A typical digital copier 1300 includes a scanner unit, a printer unit, a controller ASIC, main memory, and a CPU. Each of these parts and their internal components will be described below. The CPU 1301 controls the entire device. The scanner 1302 is a unit that optically scans a document to obtain digital image data. The scanner 1302 has an internal lighting unit, a line sensor, and an analog/digital conversion unit, and outputs the scanned image data as a digital signal of brightness value per pixel to the main memory 1330 (described later). The input DMAC_A 1303 reads the scanned image data from the main memory 1330 (described later) to the scanner image processing unit 1304 (described later), in band units. DMAC stands for Direct Memory Access Controller. The scanner image processing unit 1304 performs various image processing operations on the scanned image data. The output DMAC_A1305 writes the processing results from the scanner image processing unit 1304 to the main memory 1330 in band units. The input DMAC_B1313 reads the image data from the main memory 1330 (described later) to the print image processing unit 1314 (described later). The print image processing unit 1314 performs various image processing operations on the image data read by the input DMAC_B1313. The output DMAC_B1315 writes the quantized data, which is the processing result from the print image processing unit 1314 (described later), to the main memory 1330 in band units. The main memory 1330 is a main memory that temporarily stores image data and various control data, and is usually composed of DRAM. The print unit 1340 records images on a recording medium by applying ink or toner based on the quantized data, which is the processing result of the print image processing unit 1314. The bus 1350 electrically connects each of the above modules. Figure 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the print image processing unit 1314 in this embodiment. The main memory 101 stores image data, etc. The main memory 101 in this figure refers to the same main memory 1330 in Figure 1. The first transfer unit 102 reads multiple rectangular image data from the main memory 101, with each rectangular unit representing one rectangle. In this specification, rectangular image data refers to each of the multiple parts obtained by dividing the input image data in both the main scanning direction (first direction) and the sub-scanning direction (second direction) perpendicular to the main scanning direction. Further details will be described later using Figure 6, but in this embodiment, by controlling the reading order of the rectangular data units and the reading order of each pixel within the rectangular data when reading these multiple rectangular image data, the image can be rotated in 90-degree increments. The first intermediate memory 103 is a memory that temporarily stores rectangular image data read by the first transfe