Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Hiroki Kishi

Hiroshi Kajiwara

Makoto Sato

Takeshi Yamazaki

Mitsuru Maeda

Tadayoshi Nakayama

Naoki Ito

Yuji Suzuki

Hidefumi Osawa

Masaki Suzuki

Yuki Shiraishi

An image processing apparatus which re-encodes encoded data, encoded with a pixel block having a predetermined number of pixels as a coding unit, while suppressing degradation of image quality, with a higher compressibility. For this purpose, when an encoded-image-data input unit inputs JPEG encoded data with an 8&#xd7;8 pixel block as a coding unit, a redundancy estimation unit performs encoding on the encoded data, and sets an encoded data amount obtained by the coding, as a target code amount for a recompressor to perform coding in accordance with JPEG 2000 coding. The inputted encoded data is decompressed by a decompressor, and the recompressor generates encoded data in the previously-determined target code amount. The code amount control is performed by deleting the encoded data in bit planes in an order from a least significant bit plane toward a high-order bit plane.

Image processing apparatus and control method therefor

This invention provides a technique of speeding up decoding processing by omitting several processes while reducing the influence of omission of processes on image quality in accordance with the variable magnification ratios at which images are to be decoded and displayed. For this purpose, an apparatus according to the invention analyzes the header of decoding target encoded image data. The apparatus then obtains information indicating how many times distortion suppression processing has been executed at the time of the generation of the encoded image data. The apparatus decides which process can be omitted, based on the set variable magnification ratio and the information extracted from the header, and generates an image on which an output is based, by executing the processes which are not to be omitted. The apparatus then re-sizes the image in accordance with the set magnification ratio.

Image decoding apparatus and control method for speeding up decoding processing

An encoding unit separates converted coefficients obtained by frequency conversion into the upper-bit portion that is higher than a bit position specified by a boundary bit position determined when the previous macro block is encoded and the lower-bit portion, performs encoding on the upper-bit portion and outputs the encoded data and the lower-bit portion. When a maximum difference in the number of valid bits of the converted coefficients represented by the lower-bit portion remaining after deletion and the upper-bit portion of each pixel block when it is assumed that the number of bits i to be deleted is changed to 1, 2, . . . and so on in the range of the finite number of bits representing converted coefficients is represented as max_diff(i), a stream generating unit creates a histogram constituted by the bit number i and the frequency for max_diff(i) to determine the number of bits N to be deleted.

Image encoding apparatus and control method therefor

This invention provides a technique to turn off a distortion suppression function within the range in which image quality degradation is allowed, in order to increase the processing speed at the time of decoding. For this purpose, an apparatus of the invention rewrites parameter information in a header with information indicating that no distortion suppression processing has been performed, and decodes encoded image data including the rewritten header, when the header contains parameter information indicating that the distortion suppression processing has been performed only before the first frequency conversion.

Image decoding apparatus for decoding image data encoded by a method designating whether to perform distortion suppression processing and control method for the same

This invention enables the suppression of block noise even at an intermediate resolution equal to or lower than the original resolution and further increases the number of directly decodable resolutions for higher convenience. For this purpose, a memory stores original image data photographed by an image sensing unit. A resizing unit generates resized image data by reducing the numbers of horizontal and vertical pixels of the original image data stored in the memory to &#xbd; and stores the image data in the memory again. An image compression unit encodes the original image data and the resized image data by HD Photo&#xae;. A CPU puts the two encoded data into one file and stores it in a nonvolatile memory card connected to an output unit.

Image encoding apparatus, image decoding apparatus, and methods of controlling the same

An image processing apparatus of this invention includes a classification unit configured to classify anchor points that define the contour of an object into a plurality of groups based on features of the contour of the object, and a saving unit configured to identifiably save the anchor points classified by the classification unit for respective groups.

Image processing apparatus, image processing method, and recording medium

An image processing apparatus specifies an evaluation-target area that tends to produce distortion in an object contained in an image, and calculates amount of distortion produced in vectorization of the object by comparing the shape of the object and the shape of a vectorized object obtained by vectorizing the object in the specified evaluation-target area. The apparatus further revises the shape of the vectorized object in the evaluation-target area so as to approach the shape of the object when the amount of distortion is larger than a predetermined reference value.

Image processing apparatus, method and recording medium

This invention enables to generate encoded data without noticeable image quality degradation when reproducing an image at a lower resolution not to mention the original resolution. To accomplish this, when setting is done to transmit an image captured by a digital camera to a network, code stream forming information CF is set to '2' to arrange the encoded data of each tile in a resolution order. To suppress image quality degradation when reproducing at an intermediate resolution, stream conversion information SC is set to '2'. When encoding image data in compression processing, block overlap processing of suppressing discontinuity of data at the boundary between adjacent blocks is executed as many times as the count set in the stream conversion information. The obtained encoded data is arranged in accordance with the code stream forming information CF and output.

Image encoding apparatus and control method thereof

This invention enables to generate encoded data without noticeable image quality degradation when reproducing an image at a lower resolution not to mention the original resolution. An image a digital camera can capture takes three sizes L, M, and S. When the size L is designated, stream conversion information SC is set to '2'. When the size M is designated, the stream conversion information SC is set to '1'. When the size S is designated, the stream conversion information SC is set to &#x201c;0&#x201d;. When encoding image data in compression processing, block overlap processing of suppressing discontinuity of data at the boundary between adjacent blocks is executed as many times as the count set in the stream conversion information.

If the processing time of a labeling process performed on a target rectangle found to be an image of a character/line drawing is equal to or longer than a given threshold, an unprocessed region of the target rectangle which has not yet been labeled is analyzed (S). In accordance with the analytical result, a color reducing process or resolution reducing process is performed on the unprocessed region (S, S, S). A labeling process is performed on the processing result (S). Vector data is generated on the basis of the labeling process result (S).

Image processing apparatus and image processing method for gathering vector data from an image

This technique prevents errors from being gradually accumulated on the decoding side, while maintaining high scalability, even when transformation to subbands as a plurality of frequency components is used for moving image coding. The image data of one input frame is decomposed into a plurality of subbands having different frequency components by a discrete wavelet transformation unit. A lower bitplane coding unit codes, for each bitplane, predetermined lower bits of each coefficient data of a subband LL and the coefficient data of subbands other than the subband LL. The data of the upper bits of the subband LL is stored in a frame memory. A motion vector detection unit detects a predicted value and motion vector on the basis of the decoded data of the subband LL in a preceding frame. A subtracter obtains the difference between the detected predicted value and the current frame.

Moving image coding apparatus, moving image decoding apparatus, control method therefor, computer program, and computer-readable storage medium

This invention switches the number of bits per pixel between object types when converting code information into image data, thereby rendering one entire page at high speed while minimizing the influence on print quality. For this purpose, an apparatus analyzes received PDL data, and generates a DL (Display List) serving as a rendering unit. The apparatus determines whether the DL is a character/line image or a halftone image including a photograph image. When determining that the DL is a character/line image, the apparatus resizes the DL in accordance with the resolution of a printer engine, and renders each color component at an 8-bit precision (integer). When determining that the DL is a halftone image including a photograph image, the apparatus resizes the DL in accordance with the resolution of the printer engine, and renders each color component at a 10-bit precision (8-bit integral part+2-bit decimal part).

Disclosed are an image processing apparatus and an image processing method capable of changing a quality of audio data according to a degree of significance of an image. The image processing apparatus includes an image encoding unit for encoding image data inputted, an audio data encoding unit for encoding audio data inputted together with the image data, a significant scene setting unit for setting to encode a part of region of the image with a high image quality, and an audio data encoding setting unit for setting to process the audio data with a high quality in accordance with the setting by the significant scene setting unit.

High quality image and audio coding apparatus and method depending on the ROI setting

To reduce the computation cost of rate/distortion optimization in image compression, the rate/distortion gradient of a frame of interest is classified to m categories. A category information creating unit acquires a threshold &#x3bb; for a preceding frame as a predictive value &#x3bb;' for the frame of interest that is to be coded, and further finely segments a category in which the predictive value &#x3bb;&#x2032; is included. A code amount is then calculated for each of n categories that include the predictive value &#x3bb;&#x2032;. A code sequence forming unit selects a category having a target rate, and searches for a threshold between an upper and a lower limit value of the category. A value (S) at the end of the processing is selected as the threshold &#x3bb;, and a code sequence is formed by using the threshold &#x3bb;.

Image coding method and apparatus

According to this invention, since a region to be decoded in a frame is set in accordance with the playback speed, the load on the decoding process remains unchanged irrespective of the playback speed, and a smooth moving image can be played back within a feasible load range. To this end, when normal playback is designated, a frame data decoding unit is set to decode the entire frame at 30 fps. On the other hand, when double-speed playback is designated by a high-speed playback designation, the frame data decoding unit is set to decode a region substantially corresponding to &#xbd; the area of a frame at 60 fps.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Hiroki Kishi