EP0152355A2
Expired / Lapsed
EP
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Image information retrieval/display apparatus
Assignee: NTT Inc
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Filing: 1985-02-12
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2005-02-12
Abstract
Abstract According to an image information retrieval/display apparatus, an original image is represented by a hierarchical structure from a global image of high level to a local image of low level in accordance with resolutions thereof. Only difference information between the images of the respective levels is coded and stored, so that the number of codes will not be increased. When an operator directly designates any partial area within the displayed global image, local images are sequentially retrieved. By adding and combining the difference information of the retrieved local image in the designated area within the global image, the desired local image can be displayed at high speed.
Inventors
- 👤 Satoshi Ishibashi
- 👤 Kenji Ogura
- 👤 Susumu Yonezawa
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-03 00:54
CPC Classifications
H; H04; H04N; H04N19/00; H04N19/10; H04N19/169; H04N19/186; G; G06; G06F; G06F16/00; G06F16/50; G06F16/53; G06F16/532; H04N1/00; H04N1/21; H04N1/2166; H04N1/217; H04N19/60; H04N19/63
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 12
Claim 1
Independent Claim
301 words
An image information retrieval/display apparatus, comprising: coded image information storage means for storing coded image information arranged in a hierarchical structure having different levels corresponding to different resolutions thereof, the coded image information at levels excluding a highest level among the different levels in the hierarchical structure being coded difference information obtained such that a difference between the coded image information of a given level and the coded image information of a level adjacent to the given level is coded; decoding means for decoding the coded image information of a predetermined level which is read out from said coded image information storage means and generating display image information; displaying means for displaying the display image information decoded by said decoding means; designating means for designating a desired partial area within an image of the predetermined level which is displayed on said displaying means; and readout means for reading out from said coded image information storage means part or all of the coded image information which corresponds to the partial area designated by said designating means and which belongs to a level which is at least one lower than the predetermined level, said decoding means comprising extracting means for extracting a decoded image information portion from the display image information displayed on said displaying means, the image portion corresponding to the partial area designated by said designating means, and combining means for combining the information extracted by said extracting means and the difference information of at least one lower level which is read out from said readout means to produce new display image information of the designated partial area, whereby the hierarchically coded image information is repeatedly retrieved and displayed from the high level to the low level in a manner in which a local image can be reproduced at high speed.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
301 words
An image information retrieval/display apparatus, comprising: coded image information storage means for storing coded image information arranged in a hierarchical structure having different levels corresponding to different resolutions thereof, the coded image information at levels excluding a highest level among the different levels in the hierarchical structure being coded difference information obtained such that a difference between the coded image information of a given level and the coded image information of a level adjacent to the given level is coded; decoding means for decoding the coded image information of a predetermined level which is read out from said coded image information storage means and generating display image information; displaying means for displaying the display image information decoded by said decoding means; designating means for designating a desired partial area within an image of the predetermined level which is displayed on said displaying means; and readout means for reading out from said coded image information storage means part or all of the coded image information which corresponds to the partial area designated by said designating means and which belongs to a level which is at least one lower than the predetermined level, said decoding means comprising extracting means for extracting a decoded image information portion from the display image information displayed on said displaying means, the image portion corresponding to the partial area designated by said designating means, and combining means for combining the information extracted by said extracting means and the difference information of at least one lower level which is read out from said readout means to produce new display image information of the designated partial area, whereby the hierarchically coded image information is repeatedly retrieved and displayed from the high level to the low level in a manner in which a local image can be reproduced at high speed.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
36 words
An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the coded image information stored in said coded image information storage means is coded and divided into gray level components and resolution components in accordance with block truncation coding.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
82 words
An apparatus according to claim 2, wherein in order to perform decoding of an intermediate image displayed while coded image information blocks in the hierarchical structure are sequentially retrieved from high-level blocks to low-level blocks, only the resolution component as part of the difference information of the designated partial area is used as the difference information, thereby performing retrieval/display of the intermediate image at high speed and decreasing the time required for discrimination as to whether the partial area is properly designated.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
137 words
A image information coder for coding the information stored in said coded image information storage means in said image information retrieval/display apparatus of claim 1, comprising: first means for receiving image information having a pixel matrix, dividing the pixel matrix into blocks each having a smaller pixel matrix, calculating an average value of luminance or gray level signals of the pixels in each block, and coding the average value; and second means for dividing each block into subblocks each having a still smaller pixel matrix, calculating a difference between an average value of luminance or gray level signals of pixels in a given subblock and the average value of the block including the given subblock and coding the difference, the subblock in said second means being rewritten as a block, thereby repeating coding by said second means.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
53 words
A coder according to claim 4, wherein the image information supplied to said first means comprises gray level and resolution components coded by block truncation coding, and said first and second means being constituted by first gray level and resolution component processing units and second gray level and resolution component processing units, respectively.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
50 words
A coder according to claim 4 or 5, wherein the image information comprises color image information which is divided into sets of pixels in units of red, green and blue components or of luminance, quadrature and in-phase components, said first and second means being used for the sets of pixels.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
107 words
A coder according to claim 4 or 5, further comprising third means for checking variations in all differences between the average values of blocks and the average values of the subblocks included in the respective blocks, coding the subblocks by said second means when the variations exceed a predetermined value but coding the subblocks with a typical value of all the differences and differences between the typical value and all differences or all subblocks with a zero difference when the variations fall within the predetermined value, the subblocks in said second and third means being rewritten as blocks, thereby repeating coding by said second and third means.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
48 words
A coder according to claim 7, wherein the image information comprises color image information which is divided into sets of pixels in units of red, green and blue components or of luminance, quadrature and in-phase components, said first to third means being used for the sets of pixels.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
184 words
A method of coding image information to be stored in said coded image information storage means in said image information retrieval/display apparatus of claim 1, comprising the steps of: dividing original image information having pixels arranged in a matrix into blocks each having pixels in a smaller matrix than that of the original image information, processing and coding luminance or density signals of the pixels belonging to the respective blocks to obtain gray level components, coding gray level distributions of the blocks to obtain resolution components; calculating average values of the gray level and resolution components in units of a plurality of blocks, and processing one block having the average values to produce high-level gray level and resolution components; calculating differences between the gray level components of every two adjacent levels and between the resolution components of every two adjacent levels to produce difference gray level and resolution components, respectively; and supplying the gray level and resolution components for a highest level and the difference gray level and resolution components for the levels excluding the highest level to said coded image information storage means.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
78 words
An image information decoder for decoding image information in said image information retrieval/display apparatus of claim 1, comprising: temporary storage means for temporarily storing decoded image information; extracting means for extracting a portion designated by the designating means from the image information of a given level which is stored in said temporary storage means; and generating means for combining difference information between the given level and a lower level and generating decoded image information of the lower level.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
95 words
A decoder according to claim 10, wherein the image information comprises color image information which is divided into sets of pixels in units of red, green and blue components or of luminance, quadrature and in-phase components, and said temporary storage means, said extracting mean and said generating means are arranged to decode each of the red, green and blue components or the luminance, quadrature and in-phase components, and said decoder further comprises component combining means for combining the red, green and blue components or the luminance, quadrature and in-phase components into a color image signal.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
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