Abstract:
An image magnification system and method thereof for selectively perform either a low-rating magnification process or a high-rating magnification process for an image captured by a digital camera is disclosed. The method of the invention comprises the steps of: reducing the image to reduced image data, performing a pre-magnification process for the reduced image data to generate pre-magnified image data, and selectively perform either the lowing-rating magnification process for the reduced image data or the high-rating magnification process for the pre-magnified image data.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0002]    The present invention provides an image magnification system and method thereof for a digital camera, and more particularly, an image magnification system having a pre-magnification process module and method thereof for a digital camera. 
         [0003]    2. Description of the Related Art 
         [0004]    Generally speaking, when a digital camera performs motional or stationary image magnification, an image displaying module (e.g. LCD) must display a specific quantity of images per second in order to prevent the generation of noise signals and the effect of residual images. This requirement constrains an image capturing module (e.g. CCD), as it must output every row of the image to the image displaying module within a specific time frame. 
         [0005]    As a result, in the image magnification process of precedent technologies, an image processing module must reserve a specific amount of bandwidth for the image magnification process, and a larger bandwidth reservation is required for a high-rating image magnification process. Throughout the duration of a motional image magnification process, the image processing module must increase the rate at which the motional images are processed in order to keep the number of images, which are transmitted from the image capturing module, to a minimum required quantity. 
         [0006]    However, increasing the rate of the magnification process will cause the chip to encounter problems such as bandwidth insufficiency or clock frequency limitation. Thus throughout the duration of the motional image magnification process of precedent technologies, the number of images per second must be reduced to prevent bandwidth insufficiency and problems thereof. 
         [0007]    At the same time, the digital camera&#39;s image processing system of precedent technologies uses a single-directional processing method, therefore every processing module must have sufficient bandwidth to allow the storage of processing data obtained from the previous module; however, this could easily results in bandwidth insufficiency for the image processing procedures, which further results in the generation of noise signals and effect of image residuals. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0008]    In order to resolve the problems mentioned above, the present invention provides an image magnification system and method thereof, which can selectively perform a low-rating magnification process or a high-rating magnification process for an image, and also is able to reduce the system&#39;s bandwidth requirement. 
         [0009]    The present invention of an image magnification system comprises of: an image capturing module for capturing an original image; an image reducing control module which reduces the original image by converting it into reduced image data; a pre-magnification module which performs a pre-magnification process on the reduced image data to generate pre-magnified image data, a magnification module for selectively magnifying either the reduced image data or the pre-magnified image data to ultimately generate magnified image data; a temporary image storage module for temporarily storing either the pre-magnified image data or the magnified image data; and an image displaying module that displays the magnified image data; wherein, when performing the low-rating magnification process, the magnification module magnifies the reduced image data; when performing the high-rating magnification process, the magnification module magnifies the pre-magnified image data. 
         [0010]    The present invention also provides a method of image magnification which comprises the steps of: capturing an original image; reducing the original image by converting it into reduced image data; performing a pre-magnification process on the reduced image data to convert it into pre-magnified image data; selectively performing either a low-rating magnification process on the reduced image data or a high-rating magnification process on the pre-magnified image data to ultimately produce magnified image data; temporarily storing the magnified image data; and displaying the magnified image data. 
         [0011]    Via the image magnification system and its method of the invention depicted above, the processing bandwidth requirement is reduced, and noise generation is prevented during the high-rating magnification process of a digital camera. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0012]      FIG. 1  is a structural block diagram of an image magnification system in accordance with the present invention. 
           [0013]      FIG. 2  is a path diagram of a high-rating magnification process for an image magnification system in accordance with the present invention. 
           [0014]      FIG. 3  is a path diagram of a low-rating magnification process for an image magnification system in accordance with the present invention. 
           [0015]      FIG. 4  is a flow chart of a high-rating magnification process for an image magnification method in accordance with the present invention. 
           [0016]      FIG. 5  is a flow chart of a low-rating magnification process for an image magnification method in accordance with the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
       [0017]    Other advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
         [0018]    Please refer to  FIG. 1 , which shows a structural block diagram of an image magnification system for the present invention. 
         [0019]    As indicated in  FIG. 1 , the image magnification system  10  comprises of the following modules which are electronically coupled with each other: an image capturing module  21 , an image capturing control module  22 , a pre-magnification module  23 , a magnification module  24 , a post-processing module  25 , a temporary image storage module  26 , and an image displaying module  27 . 
         [0020]    The image capturing module  21  is used for capturing an original image. The image capturing control module  22  controls the image capturing module  21 , it also consists of an image reducing control module  221 , which is used to convert the image into reduced image data. The pre-magnification module  23  is used to generate pre-magnified image data from the reduced image data through the pre-magnification process. The magnification module  24  is used to generate magnified image data from either reduced image data or pre-magnified image data through a selective magnification process. The post-processing module  25  is used to transmit the pre-magnified image data to magnification module  24 . The temporary image storage module  26  is used for the storage of pre-magnified image data and/or magnified image data. And finally the image displaying module  27  is used to display the magnified image data. 
         [0021]    In one exemplary embodiment of this invention, the image capturing module  21  can be a CCD, a CMOS or the like. The image capturing control module  22 , the pre-magnification module  23 , the magnification module  24 , and the post-processing module  25  can be constructed through software, circuitry and/or hardware installation. Random access memory (RAM) is the preferred component for the temporary image storage module  26 , but the present invention is not limited to this component. Liquid crystal display (LCD) is the preferred component for the image displaying module  27 , but the present invention is not be limited to this component. The present invention can also perform motional or stationary image magnification. 
         [0022]    Via the construction as shown in  FIG. 1 , the present invention is able to selectively perform either a low-rating magnification process or a high-rating magnification process for an image through the image magnification system  10 ; unlike the precedent technologies, the present invention also prevents the problem of bandwidth insufficiency during the high-rating magnification process. In the preferred embodiment, the low-rating magnification process achieves magnification of up to 4 times the original image size and the high-rating magnification process achieves magnification of at least 5 times the original image size. 
         [0023]    Please refer to  FIG. 2  for the path diagram of a high-rating magnification process of the present invention. 
         [0024]    As displayed in  FIG. 2 , in the duration of the high-rating magnification process, the present invention uses an image capturing control module  22  to transmit a control signal to an image capturing module  21 , and the image capturing module  21  then captures an image and transmits its representing data to the image capturing control module  22 . In one preferred embodiment of this invention, the image data is transferred to the image capturing control module  22  through a data bus (not shown in the figure). 
         [0025]    Next, the Image capturing control module  22  reduces the image through the use of an image reducing control module  221  by converting it into reduced image data. Next, the reduced image data is transmitted to a pre-magnification module  23  for the execution of the pre-magnification process. 
         [0026]    In the execution of the pre-magnification process of the pre-magnification module  23 , the reduced image data is first transferred to the first Window of Interest (WOI) module  231 , to provide it with a pre-determined area selected from the reduced image data defined by the user, and converting the pre-determined area into pre-magnified image data; next, an image data downloading module  232  downloads the pre-magnified image data to a temporary storage module  26  for temporary storage. A post-processing module  25  then transfers the pre-magnified image data to a magnification module  24  for the execution of the magnification process. 
         [0027]    In the execution of the magnification process of the magnification module  24 , the pre-magnified image data is first transferred to a selecting module  241 , to provide it with the option for selecting a high-rating magnification process. Next, the pre-magnified image data is transferred to an image processing module  242  for the execution of related image processes such as hue, brightness or the like. After the image processing module  242  completes the related image processes, the pre-magnified image data is then transferred to an image magnification module  243  to provide it with the pre-magnified image data for magnification; the data is then converted into a magnified image data. 
         [0028]    Next, a second Window of Interest module  244  of the present invention is used to select a pre-determined displaying area from the magnified image data, defined by the user, then the pre-determined displaying area is stored temporary in a temporary image storage module  26  and finally the pre-determined displaying area is displayed onto the image displaying module  27 . Please note that in one exemplary embodiment of this invention, the second Window of Interest module  244  and the first Window of Interest module  231  may be implemented as a single module to reduce cost. 
         [0029]    Thus, through the present invention, performing the high-rating image magnification process (especially in the motional images) differs from the precedent technologies which require decreasing the image refreshing rate during bandwidth insufficiency, causing the generation of noise signals and the effect residual images. Furthermore, the present invention not only offers the high-rating magnification process that achieves magnification of at least 5 times the original image size, but also offers a low-rating magnification process that achieves magnification of up to 4 times the original image size. 
         [0030]    Please refer to  FIG. 3  for the path diagram of a low-rating magnification process of the present invention. 
         [0031]    As displayed in  FIG. 3 , in the duration of the low-rating magnification process, the present invention uses an image capturing control module  22  to transmit the control signal to an image capturing module  21 , the image capturing module  21  captures an image and transmits its representing data to the image capturing control module  22 . Similarly, in one preferred embodiment of this invention, the image data is transferred to the image capturing control module  22  through a data bus (not shown in the figure). 
         [0032]    Next, the image capturing control module  22  reduces the image through an image reducing control module  221  by converting it into reduced image data. Next, the reduced image data is transmitted to a magnification module  24  for the execution of the magnification process. 
         [0033]    In the execution of the pre-magnification process of the magnification module  24 , the reduced image data is first transferred to a selecting module  241 , to provide it with the option of selecting the low-rating magnification process. Next, the reduced image data is transferred to an image processing module  242  for the execution of related image processes such as hue, brightness or the like. After the image processing module  242  completes the related image processes, the reduced image data is then transferred to a magnification module  243 , to provide it with the reduced image data for magnification; the data is then convert into the magnified image data. 
         [0034]    Next, a second Window of Interest module  244  of the present invention is used to select a pre-determined displaying area from the magnified image data, defined by the user, then the pre-determined displaying area is stored temporary in a temporary image storage module  26  and finally the pre-determined displaying area is displayed onto a displaying module  27 . 
         [0035]    Thus, as displayed in  FIG. 2  and  FIG. 3 , the selecting module  241  of the present invention enables the selection of pre-magnification image data or reduced image data for the execution of the high-rating magnification process or low-rating magnification process respectively. 
         [0036]    Next, please refer to  FIG. 4  for the flow chart of a high-rating magnification process for the image magnification method in accordance with the present invention. 
         [0037]    As displayed in  FIG. 4 , first, the present invention performs procedure  401 , which captures an image and converts it into reduced image data. 
         [0038]    Next, the present invention pre-magnifies the reduced image data via procedure  402 . Procedure  402  of the present invention first selects a pre-determined magnifying area from the reduced image data defined by the user and converting it into pre-magnified image data; the pre-magnified image data is then downloaded for temporary storage and the downloaded pre-magnified image data is then transmitted. 
         [0039]    Please note that the process of downloading pre-magnified image data and the process of transmitting the downloaded pre-magnified image data can be performed concurrently. In other words, the present invention enables the transmission of the downloaded data as soon as it is downloaded, and does not require waiting for the pre-magnified image data to be downloaded completely. This saves system bandwidth utilization and accelerates the processing time. 
         [0040]    Next, the present invention magnifies the pre-magnified image data via procedure  403 . Procedure  403  of the present invention first is set to receive the pre-magnified image data, and then executes the related image processes, and then it magnifies the pre-magnified image data turning it into the final magnified image data. The pre-determined displaying area defined by the user is then selected from the magnified image data. 
         [0041]    Next, the present invention continues with procedure  404 , which temporarily stores the pre-determined displaying area obtained from the magnified image data, and the pre-determined displaying area is then displayed via procedure  405 . 
         [0042]    Finally, please refer to  FIG. 5  for the flow chart of a low-rating magnification process for the image magnification method in accordance with the present invention. 
         [0043]    As displayed in  FIG. 5 , first the present invention performs procedure  501 , which captures an image and converts it into reduced image data. 
         [0044]    Next, the present invention magnifies the reduced image data via procedure  502 . Procedure  502  of the present invention first is set to receive the reduced image data, and then executes the related image processes, and then it magnifies the reduced image data turning it into the final magnified image data. 
         [0045]    Next, the present invention proceeds with procedure  503 , which temporarily stores the pre-determined displaying area obtained from the magnified image data, and the pre-determined displaying area is then displayed via procedure  504 . 
         [0046]    Thus, as displayed in  FIG. 4  and  FIG. 5 , depending on the selection, the present invention is able to perform either the high-rating magnification or the low-rating magnification, for pre-magnification image data or reduced image data respectively. 
         [0047]    Although the present invention has been explained in relation to its preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that many other possible modifications and variations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed.