IMAGE TRANSMISSION SYSTEM, IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE STORAGE APPARATUS, AND CONTROL METHODS THEREOF

• US 20150356741A1
• Filed: 06/03/2015
• Published: 12/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Osa, Kinya
• Granted Patent: US 9,595,113 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/22 Matching criteria, e.g. proximity measures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/23213 with fixed number of clusters, e.g. K-means clustering
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/11 Region-based segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/187 involving region growing; involving region merging; involving connected component labelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 9/00 Image coding bandwidth or redundancy reduction for static pictures H04N1/41; coding or decoding of static colour picture signals H04N1/64; methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/761 Proximity, similarity or dissimilarity measures
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/763 Non-hierarchical techniques, e.g. based on statistics of modelling distributions

Abstract

A transmission device divides image data into a plurality of regions on the basis of a similarity of pixels and transmits the image data and region representative points of the plurality of regions. A reception device receives the image data and the region representative points transmitted from the transmission device. The reception device generates region labels used for identifying the plurality of regions using the image data and the region representative points.

Claims

1. An image transmission system having a transmission device and a reception device, wherein

the transmission device comprising:

a division unit configured to divide image data into a plurality of regions on the basis of a similarity of pixels; and

a transmission unit configured to transmit the image data and region representative points of the plurality of regions, and

the reception device comprising;

a reception unit configured to receive the image data and the region representative points transmitted from said transmission device; and

a label generation unit configured to generate region labels used for identifying the plurality of regions, using the image data and the region representative points.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein said label generation unit calculates,

for each pixel in the image data, a distance in a feature space between the pixel and each of a plurality of region representative points as being candidates, and assigns a label of a region represented by the region representative point having a minimum distance.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein said transmission unit further transmits a parameter which has been used to divide the image data into the plurality of regions, and

said label generation unit generates the region label using the image data, the region representative points, and the parameter.

4. The system according to claim 2, wherein said division unit calculates the region representative point as a value of a representative of each of the plurality of regions in the feature space.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein said transmission device further comprises a unit configured to resize image data,

said transmission unit transmits the resized image data and region representative points corresponding to the image data before resize, and

said label generation unit generates the region labels using the resized image data and the region representative points corresponding to the plurality of regions in the image data before resize.

6. The system according to claim 5, wherein said label generation unit calculates,

for each pixel in the resized image data, a distance in a feature space between the pixel and each of a plurality of region representative points as being candidates according to a resize ratio.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein said transmission device further comprises a compression unit configured to compress image data,

said transmission unit transmits the image data compressed by said compression unit and region representative points calculated using the image data before compression,

said reception device further comprises a decompression unit configured to decompress the compressed image data, and

said label generation unit generates the region labels using the image data decompressed by said decompression unit and the transmitted region representative points.

8. An image processing apparatus comprising:

a region division unit configured to divide image data into a plurality of regions on the basis of a similarity of pixels and output region representative points of the divided regions;

a data holding unit configured to hold the region representative points;

an image data holding unit configured to hold the image data;

a label generation unit configured to read out the image data held by said image data holding unit and the region representative points held by said data holding unit and generate region labels used for identifying the plurality of regions; and

a region processing unit configured to perform processing using the region labels generated by said label generation unit.

9. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said label generation unit calculates,

for each pixel in the image data, a distance in a feature space between the pixel and each of a plurality of region representative points as being candidates, and assigns a label of a region represented by the region representative point having a minimum distance.

10. The apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising a holding unit configured to hold a parameter which has been used to divide the image data into the plurality of regions,

wherein the parameter when performing region division by said region division unit is held in said holding unit, and said label generation unit reads out the parameter from said holding unit and uses the parameter when generating the region labels.

11. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said region division unit calculates the region representative point as a value of a representative of each of the plurality of regions in a feature space.

12. The apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising a resize unit configured to resize the image data,

wherein said label generation unit generates the region labels using the image data resized by said resize unit and the region representative points corresponding to the image data before resize, which is held by said data holding unit.

13. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein said label generation unit calculates,

for each pixel in the resized image data, a distance in a feature space between the pixel and each of a plurality of region representative points as being candidates according to a resize ratio.

29. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program that causes a computer to function as each unit of an image processing apparatus of claim 8.

14. An image storage apparatus comprising:

a storage unit configured to divide image data into a plurality of regions on the basis of a similarity of pixels and store the image data and region representative points of the divided regions; and

a label generation unit configured to read out the image data and the region representative points stored in said storage unit and generate region labels used for identifying the plurality of regions,

wherein if one of the region label and processing using the region label is necessary, the image data and the corresponding region representative points are read out from said storage unit, and the region label is generated by said label generation unit and used.

15. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein said label generation unit calculates,

for each pixel in the image data, a distance in a feature space between the pixel and each of a plurality of region representative points as being candidates, and assigns a label of a region represented by the region representative point having a minimum distance.

16. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein said storage unit stores a parameter which has been used to divide the image data into the plurality of regions, and

said label generation unit generates the region labels using the image data, the region representative points, and the parameter stored in said storage unit.

17. The apparatus according to claim 14, further comprising:

a region division unit configured to divide image data into a plurality of regions on the basis of a similarity of pixels; and

a calculation unit configured to calculate the region representative point from a region division processing result output from said region division unit,

wherein said calculation unit calculates the region representative point as a value of a representative of a divided region in a feature space and stores the calculated region representative point in said storage unit.

18. The apparatus according to claim 14, further comprising a resize unit configured to resize the image data,

wherein said label generation unit generates the region labels using the image data resized by said resize unit and the region representative points corresponding to the image data before resize, which is held by said storage unit.

19. The apparatus according to claim 18, wherein said label generation unit calculates,

for each pixel in the resized image data, a distance in a feature space between the pixel and each of a plurality of region representative points as being candidates according to a resize ratio.

30. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program that causes a computer to function as each unit of an image storage apparatus of claim 14.

20. An image processing apparatus comprising:

a medium access unit configured to access a medium that stores image data and region representative points of a plurality of regions into which the image data is divided on the basis of a similarity of pixels; and

a label generation unit configured to generate region labels used for identifying the plurality of regions, from the image data and the region representative points read out by said medium access unit,

wherein if one of the region label and processing using the region label is necessary, the image data and the corresponding region representative points are read out from said medium access unit, and the region labels are generated by said label generation unit and used.

21. The apparatus according to claim 20, wherein said label generation unit calculates,

for each pixel in the image data, a distance in a feature space between the pixel and each of a plurality of region representative points as being candidates, and assigns a label of a region represented by the region representative point having a minimum distance.

22. The apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the medium accessed by said medium access unit stores a parameter which has been used to divide the image data into the plurality of regions, and

said label generation unit generates the region labels using the image data, the region representative points, and the parameter read out by said medium access unit.

23. The apparatus according to claim 20, further comprising a resize unit configured to resize the image data,

wherein said label generation unit generates the region labels using the image data resized by said resize unit and the region representative points corresponding to the image data before resize, which is read out by said medium access unit.

24. The apparatus according to claim 23, said label generation unit calculates,

for each pixel in the image data, a distance in a feature space between the pixel and each of a plurality of region representative points as being candidates, assigns a label of a region represented by the region representative point having a minimum distance, and calculates for the resized image data a distance according to a resize ratio.

31. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program that causes a computer to function as each unit of an image processing apparatus of claim 20.

25. A control method of an image transmission system having a transmission device and a reception device, wherein

the transmission device divides image data into a plurality of regions on the basis of a similarity of pixels,

the transmission device transmit the image data and region representative points of the plurality of regions,

the reception device receives the image data and the region representative points transmitted from the transmission device, and

the reception device generates region labels used for identifying the plurality of regions using the image data and the region representative points.

26. A control method of an image processing apparatus, comprising:

a region division step of dividing image data into a plurality of regions on the basis of a similarity of pixels and outputting region representative points of the divided regions; and

a label generation step of reading out the image data and the region representative points and generate region labels used for identifying the plurality of regions,

wherein a processing is performed using the region labels generated in the label generation step.

27. A control method of an image storage apparatus, comprising:

a dividing step of dividing image data into a plurality of regions on the basis of a similarity of pixels and storing the image data and region representative points of the divided regions in a storage unit; and

a label generation step of reading out the image data and the region representative points stored in the storage unit and generating region labels used for identifying the plurality of regions,

wherein if one of the region label and processing using the region label is necessary, the image data and the corresponding region representative points stored in the storage unit are read out, and the region labels are generated in the label generation step and used.

28. A control method of an image processing apparatus, comprising:

a medium access step of accessing a medium that stores image data and region representative points of a plurality of regions into which the image data is divided on the basis of a similarity of pixels; and

a label generation step of generating region labels from the image data and the region representative points read out in the medium access step,

wherein if one of the region label and processing using the region label is necessary, the image data and the corresponding region representative points are read out, and the region labels are generated in the label generation step and used.