Printing apparatus, composite image data generating apparatus, and composite image data generating program

• US 8,837,023 B2
• Filed: 03/23/2010
• Issued: 09/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Original Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Inventors: Takata, Masayuki, Goto, Kazuma, Nakamura, Atsushi, Kawai, Narumi, Ito, Yuichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Madelein A
• Application Number:
  US12/729,402
• Publication Number:
  US 20110029901A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,638 Days
• Field of Search: 358537-540, 345/179, 715801-803
• US Class Current: 358/538
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/3876 Recombination of partial images to recreate the original image

Abstract

A printing apparatus which prints a composite image formed of a background image and an input image on a recording medium includes: a display; a display image data generating section which generates data of a display image to be displayed on the display; a display controller which controls the display; an input region determining mechanism which determines at least one input region in which the input image is to be inputted on the background image displayed on the display; an image capturing mechanism which captures the input image inputted via the display; a composite image data generating section which generates data of the composite image from data of the background image and the input image captured by the image capturing mechanism; and a printing mechanism which prints the composite image on the recording medium based on the data of the composite image generated by the composite image data generating section.

Claims

1. A printing apparatus which prints a composite image formed of a background image and input images on a recording medium, the apparatus comprising:

a display;

a detecting sensor configured to detect positions on the display;

a printing mechanism; and

a control device configured to;

control the display to display the background image;

determine a plurality of input regions, each input region being configured to have an input image inputted therein, the plurality of input regions being displayed simultaneously on the background image displayed on the display;

for each region, sequentially;

generate data of an enlarged image comprising an enlargement of;

one input region which is included in the plurality of input regions, a part of another input region which is different from the one input region and which is included in the plurality of input regions, and a portion of the background image different from a portion of the background image in another enlarged image;

control the display to display, in a predetermined area of the display, the enlarged image based on the data of the enlarged image; and

control the detecting sensor to capture an input image inputted in the one input region included in the enlarged image displayed on the display based on a position detected by the detecting sensor;

generate data of the composite image from data of the background image and data of the captured input image, the composite image not being an enlarged image; and

control the printing mechanism to print the composite image on the recording medium based on the generated data of the composite image,

wherein the input image captured by the detecting sensor is an image drawn by a user directly on the display in the one input region included in the enlarged image.

2. A printing apparatus which prints a composite image formed of a background image and input images on a recording medium, the apparatus comprising:

a display;

a detecting sensor configured to detect positions on the display;

a printing mechanism; and

a control device configured to;

control the display to display the background image;

determine a plurality of input regions and a rotation amount of each of enlarged images to be displayed on the display, each input region being configured to have an input image inputted therein, the plurality of input regions being displayed simultaneously on the background image displayed on the display;

for each region, sequentially;

generate data of an enlarged image comprising an enlargement of;

one input region which is included in the plurality of input regions, a part of another input region which is different from the one input region and which is included in the plurality of input regions, and a portion of the background image corresponding to the at least one input region, the portion of the background image being different from a portion of the background image in another enlarged image;

control the display to display, in a predetermined area of the display, the enlarged image based on the data of the enlarged image; and

control the detecting sensor to capture an input image inputted in the one input region which is included in the enlarged image displayed on the display based on a position detected by the detecting sensor;

generate data of the composite image from data of the background image and data of the captured input image, the composite image not being an enlarged image; and

control the printing mechanism to print the composite image on the recording medium based on the generated data of the composite image,

wherein the input image captured by the detecting sensor is an image drawn by a user directly on the display in the one input region included in the enlarged image,

the one input region is a region extending in a first and second directions, and

when the first direction is at an angle relative to a vertical direction of the display, the control device is configured to generate the data of the enlarged image, which is rotated so that the first direction coincides with the vertical direction of the display, based on the determined rotation amount, as the data of the display image.

3. The printing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

the control device is configured to generate data of an image to which a mark indicating the first direction of the input region is added as the data of the enlarged image.

4. The printing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the control device is further configured to change at least one of a position, a size, and the first direction of the at least one input region together with the input image which is inputted in the input region.

5. The printing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the control device is further configured to determine positions of the plurality of input regions on the display and the rotation amount of each of the enlarged images by accepting inputs of a plurality of markers indicating the positions of the plurality of input regions, and each of the markers indicates the first direction and the second direction of one of the input regions.

6. A composite image data generating apparatus which generates data of a composite image formed of a background image and input images, the apparatus comprising:

a display;

a detecting sensor configured to detect positions on the display; and

a control device configured to;

control the display to display the background image;

determine a plurality of input regions, each input region being configured to have an input image inputted therein, the plurality of input regions being displayed simultaneously on the background image displayed on the display;

for each region, sequentially;

generate data of an enlarged image comprising an enlargement of;

one input region which is included in the plurality of input regions, a part of another input region which is different from the one input region and which is included in the plurality of input regions, and a portion of the background image different from a portion of the background image in another enlarged image;

control the display to display, in a predetermined area of the display, the enlarged image based on the data of the enlarged image; and

control the detecting sensor to capture an input image inputted in the one input region which is included in the enlarged image displayed on the display based on a position detected by the detecting sensor; and

generate data of the composite image from data of the background image and data of the captured input image, the composite image not being an enlarged image,

wherein the input image captured by the detecting sensor is an image drawn by a user directly on the display in the one input region in the enlarged image.

7. A computer readable storage device storing a composite image data generating program of instructions executable by a composite image data generating apparatus which has a display and which generates data of a composite image formed of a background image and input images, the program comprising:

a background image display step for displaying the background image on the display;

an input region determining step for determining a plurality of input regions, each input region being configured to have an input image inputted therein, the plurality of input regions being displayed simultaneously on the background image displayed on the display;

for each region, sequentially;

an enlarged image data generating step for generating data of an enlarged image comprising an enlargement of;

one input region, which is included in the plurality of input regions, determined in the input region determining step, a part of another input region which is different from the one input region and which is included in the plurality of input regions, and a portion of the background image different from a portion of the background image in another enlarged image;

an enlarged image display step for displaying the enlarged image on the display, in a predetermined area of the display, based on the data of the enlarged image generated in the enlarged image data generating step; and

an image capturing step for capturing an image inputted in the one input region which is included in the enlarged image displayed in the enlarged image display step; and

a composite image data generating step for generating data of the composite image from data of the background image and data of the input image captured in the image capturing step, the composite image not being an enlarged image,

wherein the input image captured in the image capturing step is an image drawn directly on the display in the one input region included in the enlarged image.

8. A composite image data generating apparatus which generates data of a composite image formed of a background image and input images, the apparatus comprising:

a display;

a detecting sensor configured to detect positions on the display; and

a control device configured to;

control the display to display the background image;

determine a plurality of input regions and a rotation amount of each of enlarged images to be displayed on the display, each input region being configured to have an input image inputted therein, the plurality of input regions being displayed simultaneously on the background image displayed on the display;

for each region, sequentially;

generate data of an enlarged image comprising an enlargement of;

one input region which is included in the plurality of input regions, a part of another input region which is different from the one input region and which is included in the plurality of input regions, and a portion of the background image corresponding to the one input region, the portion of the background image being different from a portion of the background image in another enlarged image;

control the display to display, in a predetermined area of the display, the enlarged image based on the data of the enlarged image; and

control the detecting sensor to capture an input image inputted in the one input region which is included in the enlarged image displayed on the display based on a position detected by the detecting sensor; and

generate data of the composite image from data of the background image and data of the captured input image, the composite image not being an enlarged image,

wherein the input image captured by the detecting sensor is an image drawn by a user directly on the display in the one input region included in the enlarged image,

the one input region is a region extending in a first and second directions, and

when the first direction is at an angle relative to a vertical direction of the display, the control device is configured to generate the data of the enlarged image, which is rotated so that the first direction coincides with the vertical direction of the display, based on the determined rotation amount.

9. The composite image data generating apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the control device is further configured to determine positions of the plurality of input regions on the display and the rotation amount of each of the enlarged images by accepting inputs of a plurality of markers indicating the positions of the plurality of input regions, and each of the markers indicates the first direction and the second direction of one of the input regions.

10. A computer readable storage device storing a composite image data generating program of instructions executable by a composite image data generating apparatus which has a display and which generates data of a composite image formed of a background image and input images, the program comprising:

a background image display step for displaying the background image on the display;

an input region determining step for determining a plurality of input regions and a rotation amount of each of enlarged images to be displayed on the display, each input region being configured to have an input image inputted therein, the plurality of input regions being displayed simultaneously on the background image displayed on the display;

for each region, sequentially;

an enlarged image data generating step for generating data of an enlarged image comprising an enlargement of;

one input region, which is included in the plurality of input regions, determined in the input region determining step, a part of another input region which is different from the one input region and which is included in the plurality of input regions, and a portion of the background image corresponding to the one input region, the portion of the background image being different from a portion of the background image in another enlarged image;

an enlarged image display step for displaying the enlarged image on the display, in a predetermined area of the display, based on the data of the enlarged image generated in the enlarged image data generating step; and

an image capturing step for capturing an image inputted in the one input region which is included in the enlarged image displayed in the enlarged image display step; and

a composite image data generating step for generating data of the composite image from data of the background image and data of the input image captured in the image capturing step, the composite image not being an enlarged image,

wherein the input image captured in the image capturing step is an image drawn by a user directly on the display in the one input region included in the enlarged image,

the one input region is a region extending in a first and second directions, and when the first direction is at an angle relative to a vertical direction of the display, the data of the enlarged image is generated so that the enlarged image is rotated and the first direction coincides with the vertical direction of the display, based on the determined rotation amount.

11. The computer readable storage device according to claim 10, wherein the program further comprises a step for determining positions of the plurality of input regions on the display and the rotation amount of each of the enlarged images by accepting inputs of a plurality of markers indicating the positions of the plurality of input regions, wherein each of the markers indicates the first direction and the second direction of one of the input regions.