Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Miyuki Enokida

Kunihiro Yamamoto

Yoshinobu Mita

Kiyoshi Kusama

Yoshihiro Ishida

Kentaro Matsumoto

Naoto Kawamura

Junichi Shishizuka

Tadashi Yoshida

Yasuo Fukuda

Hidefumi Ohsawa

Takashi Hanamoto

Tomoe Ishikawa

To generating a mosaic image by combining a plurality of material images, an original image is divided into tiles and a material image having a characteristic similar to that of an image in each tile is applied to the tile. If more than one version of image data having different resolutions is provided as the image data for the material image, a low-resolution version of the image data is used to calculate a characteristic quantity of the image. Thus, the amount of time required to generate the mosaic image can be reduced.

Method, apparatus, and storage media for image processing

Encoded data, which can be used by a versatile JPEG2000 decoder in a client, and can assure a high-speed decode process of the encoded data and a high-speed display process of image data, is suitably generated using fragmentary encoded data cached in the client, and fragmentary encoded data received as needed from the server. To this end, a client stores first encoded data of encoded data managed by a server, and calculates short second encoded data on the basis of encoded data required to generate JPEG2000 encoded data, and the first encoded data. The client acquires the second encoded data from the server, and segments the encoded data into a plurality of independent encoded data by interpreting the header information of the second encoded data. When not all data of independent encoded data are stored for each segmented unit, the client stores dummy encoded data, and outputs the encoded data as the JPEG2000 encoded data.

Methods, apparatus and computer products for generating JPEG2000 encoded data in a client

An image processing apparatus reconstructs coded image data, having hierarchical encoded data structure for stepwise decoding from a low resolution toward a high resolution, in accordance with a display resolution or a display size of a decoding apparatus, thereby simplifies processing necessary for the next decoding processing. For this purpose, to optimize coded image data encoded by decomposition level=4 JPEG 2000 coding scheme (original image size is 1024&#xd7;1024 pixels) for default display in resolution of 256&#xd7;256 pixels, data at resolution levels 0 to 2 are decoded, thus a 256&#xd7;256 resolution (image size) image is obtained. The 256&#xd7;256 resolution image data, as the lowest resolution LL sub-band in the JPEG 2000 standard, is reconstructed with encoded data at resolution level=0.

Apparatus method and computer-readable medium for processing hierarchical encoded image data

A data processing device first reads directory data provided for each directory by a file management system which manages files using a directory structure. When meta-data to be attached to the directory data is written in proper XML format, the device appends the meta-data to the end of the read directory data, and outputs the entirety of the data obtained thereby as a directory data file. By appending the meta-data to the end of the directory data in this way, meta-data can be registered by directory with respect to existing data managed by the directory, without affecting existing applications.

Data processing method and data processing device

In searching for a desired image from an external storage device which stores a plurality of images, similarity between a designated search source image and each of the plurality of images is calculated on the basis of the feature amount of the designated search source image and the feature amounts of the plurality of images. A similar image is extracted from the plurality of images on the basis of the calculated image similarity. In calculating the similarity, an image is segmented into a plurality of regions, different weights are set for the respective regions, and the similarity is calculated using the set weights.

Image search method and apparatus

A data processing apparatus in which attachment of removable memory card is detected and it is determined whether or not binary data is stored in the memory card. If it is determined that binary data is stored in the memory card, it is further determined whether or not meta data is stored in the memory card. If it is determined that the meta data is stored, the meta data is added to the binary data. If it is determined that no meta data is stored, meta data registration processing is started, and addition processing is performed after registration of the meta data. On the other hand, if it is determined that no binary data is stored, the registration processing is started to register the meta data in the memory card.

Data processing method and apparatus and storage medium

An image processing method and apparatus for forming a mosaic image by combining a plurality of material images, dividing a first image that is the basis of the mosaic image into a plurality of tile areas, comparing each tile area with each of the material images, selecting a material image that most resembles the tile area in terms of color or luminance and pasting this material image to the tile area, thereby creating a mosaic image.

Image processing method, apparatus and storage medium therefor

Encoded moving image data is decoded, the decoded moving image data is intraframe encoded and stored, and the image which was stored and intraframe encoded is decoded and subjected to an arbitrary edition, the edited frame image is encoded by an moving image encoding system, thereby reducing a memory capacity when a moving image edition is performed and realizing a high processing speed.

Moving image editing apparatus and moving image editing method using intraframe encoding

In the retrieval of images that resemble a target image from a plurality of images, the image feature quantity of the target image is calculated when the target image is specified. The feature quantity is calculated upon removing an unnecessary area from the specified target image, and retrieval of resembling images is performed using the feature quantity that has been calculated. The unnecessary area is determined automatically based upon a change in luminance in directions vertically and horizontally of the periphery of the target image. Thus, the calculation of feature quantities from which unnecessary portions in an image have been eliminated can be executed with ease and more effective retrieval of resembling images can be carried out.

Image retrieval apparatus and method

A plurality of images and a feature of each of these images are stored in one image file. An attribute information area stores attribute information necessary to read out and display the images stored in the image file. A feature data area continuously stores features of the images stored in the image file. An image data area continuously stores image data of the images stored in the image file. Since one image file has the attribute information, the feature data area continuously storing the features of all images, and the image data area continuously storing all images, high-speed access to the image data and simple management of the image data are realized.

Image storage method and apparatus

A plurality of image data are stored in a hard disk device in correspondence with their image feature amounts. An image is using an input window. A CPU computes the image feature amount of the input image. The CPU computes image similarity on the basis of the computed image feature amount and the image feature amounts of the stored image data.

Image search apparatus and method, and computer readable memory

Disclosed are an image processing method, apparatus and storage medium for forming a mosaic image by combining a plurality of material images. The method includes dividing an image, which is the basis of the mosaic image, into a plurality of tile areas, obtaining an image characteristic of each tile area obtained by division, calculating distances between the image characteristics of each of the tile areas and image characteristics of respective ones of the plurality of material images, selecting material images corresponding to each of the tile areas in dependence upon result of calculation of the distances, forming a mosaic image by pasting the selected material images to the corresponding tile areas, and subjecting this mosaic image to filtering processing, thereby generating a mosaic image in which the joints between tile areas are no longer noticeable.

Disclosed are a method and apparatus for decoding encoded image data that has been obtained by dividing image data into a plurality of tiles and encoding the image data on a tile-by-tile basis. JPEG encoding tables that were used in the encoding of each of the plurality of tiles are determined based upon the headers, the JPEG-encoded data of respective ones of the plurality of tiles is arranged based upon the sameness of the JPEG encoding tables, and RST marker codes are inserted between the items of JPEG-encoded data of respective tiles, thereby creating a string of encoded data. By successively decoding this created string of encoded data from the beginning thereof, JPEG decoding need not be initiated afresh for each and every tile of encoded data, thereby making high-speed decoding possible.

Tile-based image data decoding method and apparatus

Binary data and meta-data to be attached to the binary data are read. When it is determined that the read meta-data is described in a valid XML, the meta-data is attached behind the read binary data. Then, the type of binary data is determined, and an appropriate end code is added to the end of the meta-data which is attached to the binary data. Then, the obtained data is outputted as a binary data file.

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Yokohama, Japan

Miyuki Enokida