JPH05307578A - Picture retrieval device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the picture retrieval device which reads out reduced picture data for retrieval at a high speed by providing a reduced picture data area in a picture recording medium and continuously and collectively recording only reduced picture data in this reduced picture data area. CONSTITUTION:A central processing unit 1 for main control is connected to a bus line 2, and a RAM 3, a ROM 4, a VRAM 5, a disk drive 6, a keyboard 8, etc., are connected to the bus line 2. A recording medium 10 in the disk drive 6 is provided with the reduced picture data area, and only reduced picture data is continuously and collectively recorded in this area. Consequently, reduced picture data on the recording medium 10 is not dispersed wholly but collectively exists in the partial area. Thus, plural reduced picture data are efficiently displayed if reduced picture data in the reduced picture data area is read out not as individual picture data but as continuous data at the time of display of reduced picture data for retrieval.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image retrieving apparatus for performing processing such as writing, reading, deleting, updating and displaying image data on a data recording medium such as a magneto-optical disk or a magnetic disk.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when a target image is searched while displaying an image captured by a camera or a scanner and stored in a recording medium on the display, the image data amount is often large. There was a problem that it took time to read from. Therefore, when the reduced image data (for example, the thinned image data) in which the image is reduced is created at the same time as the image data is captured and written in the image recording medium, and the image is actually searched, the reduced image data in which the data amount is reduced is reduced. A technique for reducing the search time by sequentially searching and reading from an image recording medium is known, for example, in Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 3-32951.

[0003]

However, when performing a search while viewing an image as described above, a plurality of pieces of reduced image data are often displayed at one time, and the reduced image data is continuously read. However, in the conventional apparatus in which the image data and the reduced image data are recorded randomly, there is a problem that the retrieval of the reduced image data is troublesome and inefficient. Further, since each reduced image data is not continuously recorded on the image recording medium, there is a problem that the seek time of the image storage medium is long.

The object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems,
An object of the present invention is to provide an image retrieval device capable of reading out reduced image data for retrieval at high speed.

[0005]

An image search apparatus according to the present invention comprises an image data area for recording image data, a reduced image data area for recording reduced image data for search in which image data is reduced, and the image data and reduced image data. At least 3 of the management data area for recording the management data for managing the image data
A recording medium having one data area; data writing means for writing respective data in the three data areas of the image data area, reduced image data area and management data area of the recording medium; image data and reduction from the recording medium Data reading means for reading image data; image display means for displaying the image data and reduced image data read by the data reading means; control means for controlling the image data writing means, image data reading means and image display means It consists of and.

[0006]

With the above-described structure, the reduced image data area is provided in the recording medium, and only the reduced image data is continuously and collectively recorded in the reduced image data area. Therefore, the reduced image data on the recording medium is entirely recorded. It will not be scattered and will be collected and exist in some areas. Therefore, when displaying reduced image data during a search, it is possible to efficiently display a plurality of reduced image data by simply reading the reduced image data in the reduced image data area as continuous data, not for each individual image data. can do.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the hardware construction of an embodiment of the image retrieval apparatus of the present invention. In FIG. 1, a central processing unit (CPU) that performs the main control of this device
1 is connected to the bus line 2. A RAM 3, a ROM 4, a VRAM 5, a disk drive 6, a keyboard 8 and a printer 9 are connected to the bus line 2 and all operate under the control of the CPU 1. Also, VRAM
A CRT 7 for displaying image data is connected to 5.

The RAM 3 and the ROM 4 store a management program for managing image data and the like recorded on the recording medium 10 in the disk drive 6. The recording medium 10 in the disk drive 6 has a structure as shown in FIG. 2, and has a reserved area 11 reserved on the disk, a management data area 12 having a table for managing image data information, and a reduction area. It is composed of a reduced image data area 13 for recording image data and an image data area 14 for recording image data.

The structure of the reduced image data area 13 is as follows.
The structure is as shown in FIG. 3, and each reduced image data is written as fixed length data sequentially from the head position, and is managed by number 15 from the head. Image data area 1
The structure of No. 4 has a structure as shown in FIG. 4, and each image data is sequentially written as fixed-length data and managed by the number 16 from the beginning. The structure of the management data area 12 is as shown in FIG. 5, and the image number storage item 17 for storing the number of the image data recorded in the image data area 14 and the image name given to the recorded image data. The image name storage item 18 for storing the image data, the reduced image number storage item 19 for storing the number of the reduced image data corresponding to the image data recorded in the reduced image data area 13, and the actual image data stored in the image data area 14. The image data size storage item 20 for storing the data size of, and the other storage item 21 for storing information such as the storage date, time, and comment of the other image data are recorded as one entry for filing the image data, and recorded. Medium 1
There are multiple entries as many as 0 can be stored.

The operation of the above embodiment will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 7 and 8. FIG. 7 is a flow chart when an image is first registered. First,
When an image registration request is made, an image is captured by a camera, a scanner or the like in the process of step S701.
Next, in step S702, the image captured in step S701 is displayed. In step S703, the user determines whether to register the image displayed in step S702. As a result of the determination, if the registration is performed, the process proceeds to step S704, and if the registration is not performed, the process proceeds to step S711.

In step 711, the user determines whether or not to capture an image again. As a result, when the image capture process is performed again, the process returns to step S701,
The above steps S701 to S703 are repeated. If the image is not captured again, the main image registration process ends.

In step 704, whether there is a space in which the captured image data can be written in the image data area 14 on the recording medium 10, a space in which the reduced image data can be written in the reduced image data area 13, or an image in the management data area 12 is displayed. It is determined whether there is a free entry for registering data information. As a result, if the image data cannot be written in any of the areas, the process proceeds to step S710, an error is notified, and the process ends. If the image data can be written, the process proceeds to step S705,
The image data is actually written in the image data area 14. Next, in step S706, in order to write the information of the written image data, a free entry in the management data area 12 is searched, and the information of the image data (information other than the reduced image number) is written therein.

Next, in step S707, the image data captured in step S701 is reduced.
At this time, all the reduced image data have a fixed length data size. Image data is reduced by a conventionally known method such as thinning out image data. Next, in step S708, processing for writing the reduced image data in the reduced image data area 13 is performed. When the reduced image data is written in the reduced image data area 13, writing is sequentially performed from a vacant portion. Next, in step S709, the reduced image data number written in step S708 is written in the reduced image number 19 item in the management data area 12, and the process ends.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing an example of processing of a search image display request. First, when there is a search image display request, in step S801, the position from which the reduced image data area 13 is displayed is set. In this case, the user will specify. Next, step S8
At 02, the actual reduced image data is read. In reading, the reduced image data is not read one by one, but continuously read from the position designated in step S801. Next, in step S803, the position on the monitor at which the reduced image data read in step S802 is displayed is set, and in step S804, actual display is performed. Next, in step S805, if the designated number of reduced image data have been displayed, this processing ends, otherwise, the processing returns to step S803, and the processing of steps S803 to S805 is repeated.

According to the above-described embodiment, the reduced image data for retrieval is continuously stored in a part of the recording medium, so that it is compared with reading and displaying the reduced image data one by one. , Which is efficient both in terms of time and processing.

FIG. 6 shows the structure of a recording medium 10 under the control of an OS (operating system) as another example of the image retrieval apparatus of the present invention. In FIG. 6, the reserved area 22 is an area reserved in the recording medium 10. FAT (file allocation table) 23,
Reference numerals 24 are the same, and are tables for managing files on the recording medium 10. Directory 25 contains file name, date, time, size, first FAT
Manages entries etc. The data area 26 is an area for storing data of an actual file, and the structure therein is image data, reduced image data, an image data management file 27 that manages image information, and a reduced image for storing reduced image data. It is composed of a data file area 28 and an image data file area 29 for storing image data. The image data management file 27, the reduced image data file area 28, and the image data file area 29 are as shown in FIG. 5, FIG. 3, and FIG. 4, respectively.
Since it is similar to the embodiment, the description is omitted.

The structure of the data area 26 of this embodiment shown in FIG. 6 is almost the same as that of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 2, and the image data management area 12 is in the image data management file 27 and the reduced image data area. 13 corresponds to the reduced image data file area 28, and the image data area 14 corresponds to the image data file area 29. The image data management file 27, the reduced image data file area 28, and the image data file area 29 need to be secured in advance in the data area 26 on the recording medium 10 before the image data is loaded.

The operations of the image registration request and the search image display request in this embodiment are the same as in the case of the first embodiment described above, and are as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8. The writing and reading of the reduced image data and the image data are managed by assigning numbers to the areas for storing the respective image data in this embodiment, but they are managed not by the numbers but by the relative position from the base position of each area. You may.

In the second embodiment described above, the image data management area, the reduced image data area, and the image data area are handled as files under OS control, so that data exchange between recording media becomes easy. Also, similarly to the first embodiment, it is possible to display a reduced image at high speed.

Through the above-described embodiments, a magneto-optical disk, a magnetic disk and an optical card are preferably used as a recording medium for recording an image. Further, each item of the image management information shown in FIG. 5 is an example thereof,
It goes without saying that it is possible to increase / decrease as necessary.

[0021]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, the image recording medium is provided with the reduced image data area,
Since only the reduced image data is continuously and collectively recorded in this reduced image data area, the reduced image data on the image recording medium is not scattered all over, but exists in a part of the area, When displaying reduced image data at the time of search, it is possible to display multiple reduced image data efficiently by simply reading the reduced image data in the reduced image data area as continuous data instead of each individual image data. You can

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of an embodiment of an image search apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a structure of a recording medium according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a structure of a reduced image data area according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a structure of an image data area in the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a structure of a management data area in the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of another embodiment of the image search device of the invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a process at the time of image registration in the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing processing of a search image display request according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 CPU 2 Bus line 3 RAM 4 ROM 5 VRAM 6 Disk drive 7 CRT 10 Recording medium 11 Reserved area 12 Management data area 13 Reduced image data area 14 Image data area

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An image data area for recording image data,
A recording medium having at least three data areas, a reduced image data area for recording reduced image data for retrieval in which image data is reduced, and a management data area for recording management data for managing the image data and reduced image data; Data writing means for writing respective data in the three data areas of the image data area, reduced image data area, and management data area of the recording medium; data reading means for reading image data and reduced image data from the recording medium; Image display means for displaying the image data and reduced image data read by the data reading means;
An image retrieval device comprising: the image data writing means, the image data reading means, and a control means for controlling the image display means. 2. The image retrieving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the reduced image data area on the recording medium is one file under file management of an OS.