JPH11110517A - Information processor and its processing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve operability in the compositing work of an image. SOLUTION: Various data of an original image and a background image 102 are stored in a memory. A display part 111 displays the image based on image data of the original image 101 on a display screen. An extraction part 112 obtains a designated position designated by a mouse cursor and the like on the displayed image from the display part 111 and extracts partial data, corresponding to the designated position from the original image 101 and the background image 102. Partial data are data in an area specified by a brush pattern 113 with the designated position as a center in respective image data. A compositing part 114 executes a compositing processing, based on the brush pattern 113 and writes the result in the corresponding part of the original image 101.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and an information processing method for processing an image by expanding a two-dimensional image on a memory and rewriting the expanded data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, in a personal computer or the like, there is known an application capable of developing a two-dimensional image on a memory and processing the image by rewriting the developed data. A personal computer that executes this type of application includes an input device such as a keyboard and a pointing device such as a mouse and a pen. With these input devices, it is possible to instruct information such as icons, buttons, and character strings displayed on a display or the like. Then, the application executes a corresponding process according to the instruction.

[0003] Image processing includes image compositing, such as pasting a portion of an image to another image. In general, when combining two images, a method such as tracing out the outline of an image to be pasted by a user using a pointing device, or automatically cutting out the outline, or using mask data is used. Was used.

[0004]

However, the operation of cutting out the contour by the user is difficult, and the method of automatically cutting out the contour is heavy in processing, and in many cases, the desired contour cannot be obtained. Therefore, when combining two images in the above-described conventional data processing system,
In some cases, the result desired by the user was not obtained satisfactorily.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and has as its object to provide an information processing apparatus and a method for improving operability in an image synthesizing operation.

[0006]

An information processing apparatus according to the present invention for achieving the above object has the following arrangement. That is, storage means for storing first and second image data, display means for displaying an image based on the first image data on a screen, and designation designated on the image displayed by the display means The image processing apparatus includes an extracting unit that extracts a portion corresponding to a part from each of the first and second image data, and a combining unit that performs a combining process on the data extracted by the extracting unit.

Further, the information processing method of the present invention for achieving the above object has the following steps. That is, a storage step of storing the first and second image data in a storage area, a display step of displaying an image based on the first image data on a screen, and a designation on the image displayed in the display step An extraction step of extracting a portion corresponding to the designated part from each of the first and second image data, and a combining step of performing a combining process on the data extracted in the extraction step.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a data processing apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[0010] The data processing apparatus according to the present embodiment has a CP
U (central processing unit) 1, ROM (read only memory)
2, a RAM (random access memory) 3, a keyboard 4, a mouse 5, a display 6, and an external storage device 7, and these components are connected to each other by a bus line 8. Note that, depending on the system configuration, a system program and an image composition processing program, which will be described later, may be stored in the external storage device 7 such as a hard disk instead of the ROM 2. In this case, a necessary program is loaded from the external storage device 7 to the RAM 3 and executed by the CPU 1.

The CPU 1 is, for example, a microprocessor and controls the operation of each section of the apparatus. The ROM 2 stores a system program 2a and an image processing application program (hereinafter, image application program). The image application program 2b instructs and executes various processes related to an image processing operation and the like. The image application program 2b includes an image composition processing program 2b1 (described later).

The RAM 3 has an image data area 3a for storing an image from which an image is to be synthesized, a background image data area 3b for storing an image to be synthesized with image data,
A brush pattern area 3 in which information on a brush pattern (described later), which is a minimum area for combining, is stored.
c and other management / work areas 3f.

Image data stored in the image data area 3a (hereinafter sometimes referred to as original image data)
Is an image from which two images are synthesized, and the number of vertical and horizontal pixels of the image after synthesis is the number of vertical and horizontal pixels of the original image data. When an image is read from the external storage device 7, it is stored here first. In order to make it possible to return the image to its original state, for example, when some processing has been performed but the result of the processing is not desired, an area for storing the image data before processing is stored in the image data area 3a. May be reserved in addition to. Alternatively, the processed image data may be written to another area. For example,
Instead of pasting the image data to be combined to the image data area 3a, another image area may be prepared and the synthesis result may be written there. Needless to say, the original image data may be an image obtained as a result of some other processing.

The image data stored in the background image data area 3b (hereinafter, this image data may be described as background image data) is an image to be synthesized with the original image data. The background image data is scaled so as to have the same number of vertical and horizontal pixels as the original image data and synthesized with the original image data. This background image data is also read from the external storage device 7 in the same manner as the original image data.

In this embodiment, an arbitrary area of the original image data is designated by a pointing device or the like, and a corresponding area of the background image data is pasted on the designated area. In this case, the minimum unit of the designated area is , And the brush pattern stored in the brush pattern area 3c.

[0016] It manages various other information and data,
An area used as a work is the management / work area 3f.

The keyboard 4 is for the user to input data such as characters, numbers, and symbols, and to give various instructions to the CPU 1. The mouse 5 is used to indicate various types of information displayed on the display unit 6 so that the CPU 1
To give various instructions. Instead of a mouse, a trackball, a pen, a touch panel or the like may be used.
The display 6 is composed of an LCD or the like, and displays various data under the control of the CPU 1. The external storage device 7
For example, various data read from the external storage device 7 under the control of the CPU 1 is developed on the RAM 3 via the bus line 8.

The operation of the data processing apparatus according to the present embodiment having the above configuration will be described.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the outline of the image synthesizing process described in the present embodiment. (A) shows the state of the screen on the display 6 for instructing the synthesis of the image. Actually, various necessary tool icons may be displayed at the same time.

When the synthesizing process is instructed, a mouse cursor 22 for indicating a synthesizing area is displayed on an image 21 displaying the original image data on the screen. In the figure, the shape is indicated by a + shape, but may be another shape such as the same shape as a brush pattern 31 described later.

FIG. 2B shows the original image data 23 corresponding to the image 21 displayed on the screen. This is image data stored in the image data area 3a.
The position indicated by the cursor on the screen (a) is the same position (area) as the target in the corresponding original image data 23. Here, "relatively" is for the following reason. That is, if one pixel of the original image data 23 of (b) is displayed as one dot on the display 6 of (a), one dot of (a) and one pixel of (b) are in one-to-one correspondence. Corresponding to However, when the original image data 23 is larger than the number of dots in the image area that can be displayed on the display 6, for example, the one-to-one
Since the original image data 23 is not reduced or enlarged, for example, four pixels of the original image data 23 are made to correspond to one dot of the image displayed on the screen.
Is displayed on the screen.

(C) is the background image data 24 to be synthesized with the original image data 23, which is the image data stored in the background image data area 3b. This background image data 2
4 may be different in size from the original image data 23. In this example, the data at the same position (area) on the background image data 24 as the position (area) specified on the screen is relative to the position (area) specified on the screen in the original image data 23. At the same position (area).

FIG. 2D shows the state of the original image data 23 after the synthesis at the designated position. As shown in the figure, in this example, the area specified by the brush pattern 31 at the position indicated by the mouse cursor is to be subjected to the synthesis processing.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a brush pattern. (A) is an example in which the brush pattern is constituted by two values. In this case, for example, the background image data is pasted on a black portion, and the original image data is pasted on a white portion (the original image data remains as it is). Actually, if expressed as, for example, black part = 1 and white part = 0, the brush pattern can be constituted by binary data. That is, in the area of the brush pattern,
The pixel value of the composite image is obtained by taking the logical sum of [pixel value of original image data] × (1− [value of brush pattern]) and [pixel value of background image data] × [value of brush pattern]. Generate

FIG. 3B is an example in which the brush pattern is multi-valued. The numerical value represents the percentage of the pixel on the background image corresponding to the pixel, and the pixel value can be calculated by the same operation as the above equation. For example, "70"
For example, in the case of the portion of the above, [the value of the pixel on the background image data corresponding to the position of the brush pattern] × 70% + [the value of the corresponding pixel on the original image data] × 30% It becomes the value of the corresponding pixel. By making the brush pattern multi-valued in this way, there is an effect that the boundary portion of the area where the original image and the background image are combined appears to change naturally from the original image to the background image.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of operation specifications of the synthesizing process according to the present embodiment. The image in FIG.
An image (corresponding to 21 in FIG. 2A) displayed above is shown. When processing image data, the processing is performed by instructing the image displayed on the display 6 by a pointing device such as a mouse or an input from a keyboard such as a cursor key.

The + symbol at t0 in FIG. 4 is the cursor position in a state where a compositing instruction is given and the start point of the area to be composed is designated. For example, the cursor is moved by a mouse, and the start button is pressed at a position to be set as the start point, thereby determining the start point position. Next, when the cursor is moved in a direction in which the background is to be pasted, the background appears on the screen along the locus of the movement. For example, a mouse button is pressed to specify a start point, dragged in that state (while holding down the mouse button), and the mouse button is released at the end point. In this way, the background image data is pasted to the original image data along the locus of the mouse from when the start point is specified to when the end point is specified.

The operation method for designating the start point and the end point is not limited to the above. For example, the mouse may be moved after one click at the start point, and one click may be performed again at the end point. Alternatively, the cursor may be moved by a cursor key or the like of a keyboard, and the start point and the end point may be designated by an execution key or the like. In this way, the start point and the end point are specified according to the operation specifications of the system.

In the case of specifying the start point and end point using the cursor keys, for example, after the start key is pressed once to specify the start point, the cursor is moved until the end point is specified by pressing the execute key again. Each time the cursor key is pressed, the synthesizing process described with reference to FIG. 5 is executed. Of course, instead of pressing once, it is performed every time the button is pressed, or after a certain period of time, and the amount of movement of the target position on the actual image data is not the movement of the cursor on the image on the display. The timing at which the combining process is performed, such as when they are performed together, is not unique.

When the start point and the end point are designated by a pointing device such as a mouse, the position of the cursor at that point is acquired every time a predetermined time elapses between the start point designation and the end point designation, and the synthesizing process is performed. In this case as well, the timing of performing the combining process is not unique, such as considering the amount of movement instead of the fixed time or not performing the combining process if the cursor is not moved from the position where the previous combining process was performed. .

FIG. 4 shows an example in which the cursor position at that time is acquired every time a predetermined time elapses and the combining process is performed. The combining process is performed at the cursor position when a certain time elapses from t0 to t1, t2, and so on. The result of the synthesis is as shown in FIG. In addition,
In FIG. 4A, the background is actually synthesized at t0 when the cursor moves from t0 to t1, so the background is displayed at t0 when the cursor moves to t1. . Further, FIG. 4B shows an image on the display at the time when t14 in FIG. 4A is the end point.

The processing flow will be described below with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 5 and FIGS. FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the procedure of the image combining process according to the present embodiment.
However, a flow of starting an image application and performing various initial processes and a flow of a process of calling an image and the like are omitted in the flowchart of FIG.

First, when the image application is activated, the ROM
2, an image application program 2b and an image synthesis processing program 2b1 for synthesizing images as in the present embodiment are read. However, the image synthesis processing program 2b1
Is effective when the image composition processing is started from the image application so that no useless area is used. Various information and areas required for image synthesis are secured in the RAM 3. The image data area 3a, the background image data area 3b, and the brush pattern area 3c may be secured at the time of starting the image application. This is effective when other processing using the memory area is performed. The management / work area 3f may be reserved in advance at the time of starting the application, or may be reserved when necessary.

When an image to be processed (to be original image data) is called by the image application, and activation of the image synthesizing process is instructed by the image application, a process to call the next image to be the background (to be background image data) is performed. Of course, the specification may be such that an image to be used as a background is called and then the image synthesis processing is instructed. At this time, the called image data is stored in the image data area 3a and the background image data area 3b, and necessary information is set.

If the format of the original image data is different from that of the background image data (for example, the original image data is full-color data and the background image data is a black-and-white multi-valued image, etc.) Must match the format. This can be solved, for example, by adjusting one of the image data formats to the other image data format in the process before transitioning to step S1. For example, when the image data is stored in the image data area 3a and the background image data area 3b, the data format of the background image data may be converted according to the data format of the original image data. Further, a process such as converting both image data into a new format and calling it may be performed. The matching of the formats of the two image data may be performed at the time of calculating the pixels of the composite image, which will be described later. In any case,
Since the matching of the format of the image data is apparent to those skilled in the art, a description thereof will be omitted in the present embodiment. In the present embodiment, a full-color image in which the effect of the synthesizing process according to the present embodiment can be best obtained is described.

When the synthesizing function is activated, the start point of the area for synthesizing the display background on the displayed original image is specified as described above with reference to FIG. After the start point is specified, until the end point is specified, the process from step S1 is performed every time the cursor is moved by the cursor key from the keyboard or a predetermined time elapses as described above.

In step S1, the cursor position (coordinate) on the display 6 of the image currently displayed on the display 6 is obtained. Here, it is necessary to determine in advance which position of the brush pattern 3c, which will be described later, the base point of the cursor. In the present embodiment, the center of the mouse cursor 22 (the center of + in FIGS. 2 and 4) is set as the center of the brush pattern 3c.

In step S2, coordinates in the original image data corresponding to the coordinates on the display 6 obtained in step S1 are obtained. For example, by performing a proportional calculation using the origin of the image on the display 6 and the original image data and the number of pixels in the vertical and horizontal directions, the coordinates can be obtained from the original image data. Alternatively, a correspondence table of the coordinate values of both images may be created in advance in a region such as the management / work region 3f as a table. When the resolution of the display can be switched, it is necessary to prepare a correspondence table corresponding to each resolution.

However, if the dots of the image on the display 6 correspond to the pixels of the image data 3a on a one-to-one basis, and the coordinates have the same value, the coordinates obtained in step S1 are used as they are in the original image. The coordinates of the data may be used.

Next, the brush pattern 3c is superimposed on this cursor position, and the background image data is synthesized according to the brush pattern 3c. Therefore, a range on the original image data where the brush pattern 31 is superimposed is obtained. As described above, the cursor coordinates obtained here are the brush pattern 3
Since it corresponds to the center of 1, the range can be obtained from the coordinates on the original image data and the size of the brush pattern 31. If the brush pattern protrudes from the original image data when the brush pattern 31 is superimposed on the noted coordinates on the original image data (for example, when the designated coordinates are (0, 0)), the protruding area is ignored. May do it. In such a case, the subsequent processing is the same, but the processing only needs to be performed for the area of the brush on the original image data.

When the overlapping position of the brush pattern 31 on the original image data is obtained in step S2 in this way, the process proceeds to step S3. Hereinafter, by the processing from step S3 to step S7, the synthesis processing is performed on all the pixels on the original image data in the brush pattern area. That is, the following steps S3 to S6 are performed by focusing on the corresponding pixels on the original image data by the number of elements of the brush pattern 31 (9 × 9 = 81 pixels in the example of FIG. 3). More specifically, the process is performed on all the rows of the brush pattern 31 for all the digits.

First, in step S3, attention is paid to a pixel on the original image data which overlaps the element of interest on the brush pattern 31, and the pixel value is obtained. Specifically, the pixel is indicated by a pointer secured on the management / work area 3f. By pointing with the pointer, the pixel value of the pixel can be immediately known.

Next, in step S4, coordinates corresponding to the pixel of interest on the original image data on the background image data are obtained. For example, if the background image data is the same size as the original image data both vertically and horizontally, the coordinates on the background image data for the pixel of interest in the original image data are the same as the coordinates of the pixel of interest in the original image data It is. If the background image data is not the same size as the original image data, the coordinates on the background image data corresponding to the coordinates of interest on the original image data are obtained by proportional calculation. Then, the pixel value of the pixel of the background image data corresponding to the coordinates thus obtained is obtained.

However, in the case of a system having a sufficient available RAM size, the background image data is scaled to the same size as the original image data before starting this processing, for example, at the beginning of the background synthesis processing. If so, the proportional calculation need not be performed here. Further, by performing appropriate interpolation and thinning-out processing in the scaling, the quality of the image of the background portion after the synthesis is improved.

Also, by pointing the coordinates on the background image data obtained in step S4 with the pointer secured on the management / work area 3f, the pixel value can be immediately known.

In step S5, the value of the pixel after synthesis is obtained from the element on the brush pattern 31 of interest and the pixel values of the original image data and the background image data obtained in steps S3 and S4. Here, as shown in FIG.
When the brush pattern of the value is used, if the element on the focused brush pattern 31 is 1, the pixel value of the background image data is 0, and if 0, the pixel value of the original image data is the pixel value of the synthesized pixel. Value.

When a multi-valued brush pattern as shown in FIG. 3B is used, a pixel value after synthesis is obtained by performing calculations using the values of the elements of the brush pattern. For example, assuming that the value of the element of interest on the brush pattern 3c is 70, (the target pixel value of the background image data × 70% + the target pixel value of the original image data × (100−7)
0)%) is the desired value. Here brush pattern 31
Needless to say, if the value of the element of interest is 0, the value of the pixel of interest in the original image data is 100, and if it is 100, the value of the pixel of interest in the background image data is the value after synthesis as it is. . In this example, the value of the brush pattern is set to 0 to 100. However, it is apparent that the pixel value after the combination may be calculated using other numerical values.

In step S6, the pixel value obtained in step S5 is written on the target pixel in the image data area 3a. For this reason, if an area on the original image data that has already been synthesized is again designated as a background synthesis area later, a synthesized area on the original image data is specified as the original image data. Therefore, both the original image and the background image become the background image, and the result of the synthesis is that the background image is also synthesized. Also in this case, when the value of the element of interest on the brush pattern 31 is 0, the value is the same as the value of the pixel of interest on the original image data, and in this case, writing of the pixel may not be performed. .

In this manner, when the processing from step S3 to step S6 is performed on all the elements in the pattern brush 31 (step S7), the composition at the cursor position at that time can be performed. Further, as described with reference to FIG. 4, until the end point of the synthesis area is designated, a predetermined time elapses or the cursor moves, and so on.
Is repeated. By repeating the above processing until an instruction to end the background composition function is received, background composition can be realized.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration for realizing the image synthesizing process according to the present embodiment described above. The original image 101 and the background image 102 represent the image data stored in the image data area 3a and the background image data area 3b, respectively. The display unit 111 displays the original image 101 on the display 6. The display unit 111 displays a mouse cursor 22. The extracting unit 112 displays the display 6
The corresponding positions on the original image 101 and the background image 102 are obtained from the positions of the upper mouse cursor, and the partial image data to be subjected to the image synthesis processing is extracted from each of them. Here, the partial image data is a brush area specified by the brush pattern 113.

The synthesizing unit 114 performs image synthesizing based on the partial image data extracted by the extracting unit 112 and the brush pattern 113. That is, in the case of a brush pattern as shown in FIG. 3A composed of binary data, either the original image data or the background image data is employed. Alternatively, if it is a multi-valued brush pattern as shown in FIG.
The original image data and the background image data are combined at a ratio according to the value. Then, the synthesizing unit 114 writes the partial image synthesized as described above in a corresponding part of the original image 101. As a result, the synthesized result is immediately displayed on the display unit 111.
Is reflected on the display 6.

[Modification 1] In the above embodiment, only the synthesis of the background image has been described. However, by providing a mode of "return to original image", the portion once replaced with the background image is returned to the original image data. You can also. In that case, the original image data is left separately from the image data area 3a. Then, a menu for switching between two modes of "combining the background" and "combining the original image" is provided inside the background compositing function, and the processing is separated according to the mode. The operation in the “combine background” mode in this case is the same as that in the above embodiment, but the meaning of the brush pattern is changed as follows in the “combine original image” mode. That is, during the “combine original image” mode, the “combine background” mode, that is, “background image data” in the above-described embodiment is replaced with “image data area 3a”
The processing can be realized by replacing the original image data that has been left separately with the original image data.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram for explaining the functional configuration of the synthesizing process according to the first modification. In the figure, the same components as those in FIG. 6 are denoted by the same reference numerals. Prior to the start of the image synthesis processing, a copy 103 of the original image 101 is generated and held. The switching unit 120 performs “composite background”
In the case of the mode, the background image 102 is selected, and in the case of the “synthesis of the original image” mode, the copy 103 of the original image is selected and connected to the extraction unit 112.

[Modification 2] In the above embodiment, a method of combining another background image with one original image has been described. However, two or more background images may be combined. In this case, an image area for storing a background image to be combined other than the background image data is secured in the RAM 3. Then, at the time of performing composition (for example, at the time of designating the start point), it can be realized by designating which background image is the image to be composed as the background. The synthesis processing method can be realized by replacing the “background image data” in the above-described embodiment with “instructed background image data”.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram for explaining the functional configuration of the synthesizing process according to the second modification. In the figure, the same components as those in FIG. 6 are denoted by the same reference numerals. In the background image data area 3b, for example, a background image A102, a background image B1
04, a background image C105 is stored. Then, the switching unit 121 sets the background image A as the designated background image data.
102, one of the background image B104, and one of the background images C105 are selected and connected to the extraction unit 112.

[Modification 3] In the above-described embodiment, one type of brush pattern has been described. However, a plurality of brush patterns having different shapes, sizes, and transparency (0 to 100 ratios of the brush pattern in the above-described embodiment) are used. By preparing the above brush pattern, it is also possible to perform finer composition. In that case, it is possible to specify which brush pattern to use at the time of performing the synthesis (for example, at the time of specifying the start point), and to realize the subsequent processing by using the specified brush pattern.

In the third modification, for example, FIGS.
In the functional configuration described above, a plurality of types of brush patterns may be held in the brush pattern 113, and the brush pattern specified by the user may be supplied to the extraction unit 112 and the synthesis unit 114.

[Fourth Modification] In the above embodiment, a description has been given of a case where a brush pattern is prepared in advance and the brush pattern is used. However, a method in which a user can freely create a brush pattern can also be provided. In such a case, a means is provided for allowing the user to specify parameters such as the size, shape, and transparency of the brush pattern, and for generating the brush pattern in accordance with the specification. Then, by storing the generated brush pattern in the brush pattern area 3c, it is possible to perform image synthesis using the brush pattern defined by the user. Of course, the user can also create a plurality of brush patterns by combining with the method of the above-described third modification. Further, by providing a means for registering the brush pattern created by the user in the external storage device 7 or the RAM 3 or the like, it is possible to provide an easier-to-use synthesizing function.

Although the background image data is not displayed in the above embodiment, a background image based on the background image data may be displayed together with the original image based on the original image data.

As described above, according to the above-described embodiment, when an image is synthesized, a portion to be synthesized with another image on the display image is designated by a pointing device or the like, so that the designated portion is The other images can be easily synthesized. In addition, it is possible to immediately check the synthesis result of the synthesis location, and it is possible to provide excellent operability.

Even if the present invention is applied to a system including a plurality of devices (for example, a host computer, an interface device, a reader, a printer, etc.), an apparatus (for example, a copying machine, a facsimile) including one device Device).

Another object of the present invention is to provide a storage medium storing a program code of software for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or apparatus, and to provide a computer (or CPU) of the system or apparatus.
And MPU) read and execute the program code stored in the storage medium.

In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiment, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

As a storage medium for supplying the program code, for example, a floppy disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-ROM, CD
-R, a magnetic tape, a nonvolatile memory card, a ROM, or the like can be used.

When the computer executes the readout program code, not only the functions of the above-described embodiment are realized, but also the OS (Operating System) running on the computer based on the instruction of the program code. ) May perform some or all of the actual processing, and the processing may realize the functions of the above-described embodiments.

Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written into a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, based on the instructions of the program code, It goes without saying that the CPU included in the function expansion board or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the processing realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments.

[0067]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Operability in the image synthesizing operation is remarkably improved.

[0068]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a data processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an overview of an image combining process described in the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a brush pattern.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an operation specification example of a combining process according to the embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of an image combining process according to the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of an image combining process according to the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of an image combining process according to a first modification.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of an image combining process according to a second modification.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 CPU 2 ROM 3 RAM 4 Keyboard 5 Mouse 6 Display 7 External storage device 8 Pass line

Claims (12)

[Claims] A storage unit for storing first and second image data; a display unit for displaying an image based on the first image data on a screen; and a designation on the image displayed by the display unit. Extracting means for extracting a portion corresponding to the designated part from each of the first and second image data; and synthesizing means for performing a synthesizing process on the data extracted by the extracting means. Information processing device. 2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a writing unit that writes a result synthesized by the synthesizing unit into the first image data. 3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the extracting unit detects a designated position on the image displayed by the display unit, and detects the position detected by the detecting unit in each of the first and second image data. Location corresponding to the location
A specifying unit for specifying a predetermined region including the specified position, wherein data included in the predetermined region specified by the specifying unit is extracted from each of the first and second image data. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1. 4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the detecting unit detects a position designated by a user based on a position of a cursor displayed on the screen. 5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the specific area is a predetermined closed graphic area centered on a position detected by the detection means. 6. A storage unit for storing processing information indicating a mode of a synthesis process in the predetermined area, wherein the synthesis unit performs a synthesis process on the data extracted by the extraction unit in accordance with the processing information. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein: 7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the processing information indicates a composition ratio of a pixel value for each pixel in the predetermined area. 8. The storage unit stores a plurality of types of processing information, and the combining unit uses one piece of processing information selected from the plurality of types of processing information to extract data extracted by the extraction unit. 7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein a combining process is performed according to the processing information. 9. An image holding means for copying the first image data and holding the copied image data as copy image data, wherein the extracting means includes: one of the second image data and the copy image data; The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a portion corresponding to the designated part is extracted from the first image data. 10. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an image holding unit that holds a plurality of types of image data as the second image data, wherein the extracting unit selects one of the plurality of types of image data held by the image holding unit. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a portion corresponding to the designated part is extracted from one image data and the first image data. 11. A storage step of storing first and second image data in a storage area, a display step of displaying an image based on the first image data on a screen, and an image displayed in the display step An extraction step of extracting a portion corresponding to the designated part specified above from each of the first and second image data; and a combining step of performing a combining process on the data extracted in the extraction step. An information processing method characterized by the following. 12. A computer-readable memory for storing a control program for performing a process of synthesizing image data, the control program comprising: a code for a storage step of storing first and second image data in a storage area; A code of a display step of displaying an image based on the first image data on a screen; and a part corresponding to a designated part specified on the image displayed in the display step, the first and second image data An information processing method comprising: a code of an extraction step extracted from each of the following: and a code of a synthesis step of performing a synthesis process on the data extracted in the extraction step.