Line drawing image generating device, storage medium, and line drawing image generating method

• US 7,095,417 B2
• Filed: 10/28/2003
• Issued: 08/22/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HAL Laboratory, Inc., Nintendo Company Limited
• Original Assignee: HAL Laboratory, Inc., Nintendo Company Limited
• Inventors: Fujita, Yoshikazu
• Primary Examiner(s): Tung, Kee M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): RAHMJOO, MANUCHEHR
• Application Number:
  US10/693,954
• Publication Number:
  US 20040217970A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,029 Days
• Field of Search: 345/581, 345/589, 345/582, 345/591, 345/597
• US Class Current: 345/581
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/10 Control of the course of the game, e.g. start, progess, end
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/45 Controlling the progress of the video game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/52 involving aspects of the displayed game scene
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6009 for importing or creating game content, e.g. authoring tools during game development, adapting content to different platforms, use of a scripting language to create content
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6692 using special effects, generally involving post-processing, e.g. blooming
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8094 Unusual game types, e.g. virtual cooking
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/00 2D [Two Dimensional] image generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/20 Drawing from basic elements, e.g. lines or circles

Abstract

In an original image, an area whose brightness is smaller than a predetermined value is detected as an ink line area, and a neighboring area of the ink line area, which surrounds the ink line area, is detected as a neighboring area. Furthermore, with respect to an area other than the ink line area and the neighboring area in the original image, an outline portion of an image is detected as an outline area. A color is applied to the ink line area and the outline area, and a different color is applied to an area other than the above two types of area.

Claims

1. A line drawing image generating device for generating line drawing data of a plurality of pixels based on original image data of another plurality of pixels, comprising:

ink line pixel detecting mechanism for detecting pixels each having a brightness smaller than a predetermined value in an original image, as ink line pixels;

neighboring pixel detecting mechanism for detecting a neighboring pixels of the ink line pixels, which surround the ink line pixels;

outline extraction process target limitation mechanism for performing an outline extraction process for entire pixels of the original image except the ink line pixels and the neighboring pixels thereof;

outline pixel detecting mechanism for detecting outline pixels, by performing the outline extraction process for the entire pixels of the original image except the ink line pixels and the neighboring pixels thereof;

line drawing data storing mechanism for storing the line drawing data; and

color data writing mechanism for writing color data to a storage area of the line drawing data storing mechanism, which corresponds to the ink line pixels and the outline pixels, and writing different color data to another storage area of the line drawing data storing mechanism, which corresponds to pixels other than the ink line pixels and the outline pixels.

2. The line drawing image generating device according to claim 1, wherein

the original image contains a plurality of pixels, and

when the ink line pixels are included in predetermined pixels surrounding a pixel to be processed in the original image, and the pixel to be processed is not included in the ink line pixels, the neighboring pixel detecting mechanism detects the pixel to be processed as a neighboring pixel.

3. The line drawing image generating device according to claim 1, wherein the ink line pixel detecting mechanism detects, as the ink line pixels, a portion of pixels where brightness is smaller than a predetermined value, such that the portion of the pixels lies near an outline of the pixels.

4. The line drawing image generating device according to claim 3, wherein

the original image contains a plurality of pixels, and

when a pixel other than the ink line pixel is included in predetermined pixels surrounding a pixel to be processed included in pixels whose brightness is smaller than a predetermined value, the ink line pixel detecting mechanism detects the pixel to be processed as an ink line pixel.

5. The line drawing image generating device according to claim 1, further comprising still image data extracting mechanism for extracting arbitrary still image data from moving image data, wherein

the line drawing data is generated using the still image data, which is extracted by the still image data extracting mechanism, as the original image data.

6. The line drawing image generating device according to claim 1, wherein the outline extraction process is performed using a Sobel operator.

7. The line drawing image generating device according to claim 1, further comprising preventing an ink line area formed by the ink line pixels from becoming thickened in a line drawing image by performing the outline extraction process for the entire pixels of the original image except the ink line pixels and the neighboring pixels thereof.

8. The line drawing image generating device according to claim 1, wherein the color data writing mechanism for writing color data to the storage data of the line drawing data storing mechanism, which corresponds to the ink line pixels and the outline pixels, re-writes data of ink line pixels which form an interior portion of an area formed by the ink line pixels to differ color data.

9. A computer readable storage medium storing a line drawing image generating program for generating line drawing data based on original image data, wherein the line drawing image generating program causes a computer to execute steps of:

detecting pixels each of whose brightness is smaller than a predetermined value in an original image as ink line pixels;

detecting neighboring pixels of the ink line pixels, which surround the ink line pixels;

performing an outline extraction process for entire pixels of the original image except the ink line pixels and the neighboring pixels thereof;

detecting outline pixels of an image as outline pixels by performing the outline extraction process for the entire pixels of the original image except the ink line pixels and the neighboring pixels thereof; and

writing color data to a storage area of a line drawing data storing memory for storing the line drawing data, which corresponds to the ink line pixels and the outline pixels, and writing different color data to another storage area of the line drawing data storing memory, which corresponds to pixels other than the ink line pixels and the outline pixels.

10. The storage medium according to claim 9, wherein the original image contains a plurality of pixels, and when the ink line pixels are included in predetermined pixels surrounding a pixel to be processed in the original image and the pixel to be processed is not included in the ink line pixels, the line drawing image generating program causes the computer to detect the pixel to be processed as a neighboring pixel in the step of detecting the neighboring pixels.

11. The storage medium according to claim 9, wherein the step of detecting the ink line pixels, detects, as the ink line pixels, a portion of pixels where brightness is smaller than a predetermined value, such that the portion of pixels lies near an outline of the pixels.

12. The storage medium according to claim 11, wherein the original image contains a plurality of pixels, and when a pixel other than the ink line pixel is included in predetermined pixels surrounding a pixel to be processed included in pixels whose brightness is smaller than a predetermined value, the line drawing image generating program causes the computer to detect the pixel to be processed as an ink line pixel in the step of detecting the ink line pixels.

13. The storage medium according to claim 9 wherein the line drawing image generating program further causes the computer to execute a still image data extracting step of extracting arbitrary still image data from moving image data, and

the line drawing image generating program causes the computer to generate the line drawing data using the still image data, which is extracted by the still image data extracting step, as the original image data.

14. The storage medium according to claim 9, wherein the outline extraction process is performed using a Sobel operator.

15. The storage medium according to claim 9, wherein the line drawing image generating program causes the computer to execute the further step of:

preventing an ink line area formed by the ink line pixels from becoming thickened in a line drawing image by performing the outline extraction process for the entire pixels of the original image except the ink line pixels and the neighboring pixels thereof.

16. The storage medium according to claim 9, further comprising re-writing color data to the storage area of the line drawing data storing memory for storing the line drawing data, which corresponds to the ink line pixels and the outline pixels, so that data corresponding to an interior portion of an area formed by the ink line pixels is rewritten to different color data.

17. A line drawing image generating method for generating line drawing data based on original image data, the method comprising:

detecting pixels each of whose brightness is smaller than a predetermined value in an original image, as ink line pixels;

detecting neighboring pixels of the ink line pixels, which surround the ink line pixels;

performing an outline extraction process for entire pixels of the original image except the ink line pixels and the neighboring pixels thereof;

detecting outline pixels of an image as outline pixels by performing the outline extraction process for the entire pixels of the original image except the ink line pixels and the neighboring pixels thereof; and

writing color data to a storage area of a line drawing data storing memory for storing the line drawing data, which corresponds to the ink line pixels and the outline pixels, and writing different color data to another storage area of the line drawing data storing memory, which corresponds to pixels other than the ink line pixels and the outline pixels.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein the outline extraction process is performed using a Sobel operator.

19. The method according to claim 17, further comprising preventing an ink line area formed by the ink line pixels from becoming thickened in a line drawing image by performing the outline extraction process for the entire pixels of the original image except the ink line pixels and the neighboring pixels thereof.

20. The method according to claim 17, further comprising re-writing color data to the storage area of the line drawing data storing memory for storing the line drawing data, which corresponds to the ink line pixels and the outline pixels, so that data corresponding to an interior portion of an area formed by the ink line pixels is rewritten to different color data.

21. A computer readable storage medium storing a line drawing image generating program for generating line drawing data based on an original image, wherein the line drawing image generating program causes a computer to execute:

detecting ink line pixels of the original image, the ink line pixels each having a brightness which is smaller than a predetermined value;

detecting neighboring pixels of the original image, the neighboring pixels neighboring the ink line pixels;

performing an outline extraction process for entire pixels of the original image except the ink line pixels and the neighboring pixels thereof;

detecting outline pixels of the original image, the outline pixels being outside of the ink line pixels and the neighboring pixels and having a brightness which differs from pixels adjacent to the outline pixels, by performing the outline extraction process for the entire pixels of the original image except the ink line pixels and the neighboring pixels thereof;

assigning data corresponding to a first color to both the ink line pixels and the outline pixels; and

assigning data corresponding to a second color, different than the first color, to at least the neighboring pixels.

22. The storage medium of claim 21, wherein the program further causes the computer to re-assign data of an interior portion of an area formed by the ink line pixels so that the data of the interior portion of the area formed by the ink line pixels corresponds to another color different than the first color.

23. The storage medium of claim 21, wherein the program further causes the computer to obtain the original image by extracting a still image from a moving image.

24. The storage medium of claim 21, wherein in addition to the neighboring pixels, all other pixels of the original image outside of the ink line pixels and the outline pixels are assigned data corresponding to the second color.

25. The storage medium according to claim 21, wherein the outline extraction process is performed using a Sobel operator.

26. The storage medium according to claim 21, wherein the line drawing image generating program causes the computer to execute:

preventing an ink line area formed by the ink line pixels from becoming thickened in a line drawing image by performing the outline extraction process for the entire pixels of the original image except the ink line pixels and the neighboring pixels thereof.

27. A method of generating line drawing data based on original image data, the method comprising:

detecting pixels of an ink line area of the original image data, the ink line area pixels having respective brightnesses which are smaller than a predetermined value;

detecting pixels of a neighboring area of the original image data, the neighboring area pixels neighboring the ink line area pixels;

performing an outline extraction process for an entire area represented by the original image data except the ink line area and the neighboring area thereof;

detecting pixels of an outline area of the original image data, the outline area being outside of the ink line area and the neighboring area, by performing the outline extraction process for the entire area represented by the original image data except the ink line area and the neighboring area thereof, the outline area pixels each having a brightness which differ from that of pixels adjacent to the outline area pixels;

preventing the ink line area from becoming thickened in a line drawing image obtained from the outline extraction process by performing the outline extraction process for the entire area represented by the original image data except the ink line area and the neighboring area thereof;

assigning data corresponding to a first color to both the ink line area pixels and the outline area pixels; and

assigning data corresponding to a second color, different than the first color, to at least the neighboring area pixels.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the method further comprising re-assigning data of an interior portion of the ink line area so that the data assigned to the ink line area pixels of the interior portion of the ink line area corresponds to another color different from the first color.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein the method further comprises obtaining the original image data by extracting still image data from moving image data.

30. The method claim 27, wherein in addition to the neighboring area pixels, all other pixels of the original image data outside of the ink area and the outline area are assigned data corresponding to the second color.

31. The method according to claim 27, wherein the outline extraction process is performed using a Sobel operator.