Apparatus for image manipulation

Abstract

An image can be represented by an M .times. N array I(*,*) of image points, where each point I(i,j) over the ranges 0.ltoreq.i<M and 0.ltoreq.j<N is a value or set of values representing the color and intensity of an elemental portion of the image. A black/white image can be represented by assigning to each point I(i,j) a value of 1 or 0. Thus, I(i,j) = 1 represents a black elemental image area, while I(i,j) = 0 represents a white elemental area. Image manipulation refers to that class of image processing operations which sequentially process the points of a rectangular array I(0,0), I(0,1), . . . ,I(0,n-1), I(1,0), . . . ,I(M-1, N-1) in such a way that the resulting points must be mapped into coordinate points of the array. The image processing operations satisfying this constraint include the blanking of an image area, the combining of two images, the changing of scale of an image by a rotational amount, rotation by 90.degree. , and the creation of a mirror image. Image manipulations in the invention are performed upon black/white images by logically combining a base image stored in an accumulating memory with a sequence from another raster source subject to selective size and translation changes. Such processing is subject to two constraints. First, the data must be in non-compressed form. Second, the processed data must not fall outside the memory space originally occupied by the base image in the memory. Optionally, the function of magnification/minification may be performed separately from the other image manipulations. This can be conveniently done by placing the magni/minifier between the external image source and a network, which network logically combines the serial information from the external source with the serially extracted base image information stored in the accumulating memory.