Abstract:
A portrait drawing apparatus for storing for each facial part a plurality of attributes thereof (race, sex, age-group, specific shape such as snub or aquiline for nose, etc.) and for allowing the facial part candidates selected as per the designated attributes to be displayed preferentially over the candidates having other attributes so that the operator will determine the appropriate facial parts with ease and combine them into a portrait in the shortest possible time. The apparatus comprises an image display unit, an input unit and a memory unit that stores programs and data, i.e., a facial part attribute table, facial part pattern data and facial part candidate tables. The facial part attribute table includes pattern numbers, facial part patterns, attributes, and address pointers pointing to the facial part pattern data.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to a portrait drawing apparatus for allowing patterns of the eyes, nose and other facial parts to be selected and combined as desired in order to draw a portrait. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     Conventional portrait drawing apparatuses generally comprise a display unit that displays portrait image data, a memory unit that stores facial part pattern data, and an input unit used to determine the facial parts with which to draw a portrait. As shown in FIG. 7, the display unit comprises a display screen  81  having a facial part name display area  83  and a portrait drawing area  82 . The facial part name display area  83  displays such facial part names  84  as the eyes, nose, mouth, eyebrows, ears, hair, facial contour, mustache, wrinkles and sideburns with which to construct a likeness. The portrait drawing area  82  is an area in which the operator draws a portrait using the facial parts whose names are listed in the area  83 . 
     With the conventional portrait drawing apparatus, the operator selects appropriate facial parts from the facial part names  84  in the facial part name display area  83 , and arranges suitably the selected facial parts in the portrait drawing area  82 . More specifically, the operator first determines the facial part with which to construct the portrait (step  91  in FIG.  8 ). When the facial part (e.g., the nose) is selected, candidates of the selected facial part are displayed successively in the “nose” position of the portrait drawing area  82  in FIG. 7 (step  92 ) 
     The operator then selects one nose from among the candidates successively overwritten in the “nose” position of the portrait drawing area  82 , the selected nose best representing the characteristic of the model&#39;s nose (steps  94  and  95 ). 
     With the nose thus selected and positioned, other facial parts still need to be selected (NO in step  96 ). Thus step  91  is reached again, and another facial part is selected (steps  92  through  95 ). 
     In this manner, the remaining facial parts are selected and positioned. When all facial parts have been selected (YES in step  96 ), the drawing of the portrait comes to an end. 
     One disadvantage of the prior art portrait drawing apparatus is this: because each facial part needs to be selected from all those previously stored candidates of the part, the candidates being displayed successively in a predetermined order, it takes time for the operator to select the most likely candidate. In addition, the operator must be fully cognizant of the model&#39;s facial characteristics in order to make suitable decisions on the facial part candidates displayed. The more facial parts to be determined, the more time required to draw the portrait. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     It is therefore an object of the present invention to overcome the above and other deficiencies and disadvantages of the prior art and to provide a portrait drawing apparatus which stores for each facial part a plurality of attributes thereof (race, sex, age-group, specific shape such as snub or aquiline for nose, etc.) and allows the facial part candidates selected as per the designated attributes to be displayed preferentially over the candidates having other attributes so that the operator will determine the appropriate facial parts with ease and combine them into a portrait in the shortest possible time. 
     In carrying out the invention and according to one aspect thereof, there is provided a portrait drawing apparatus comprising: image display means for displaying portrait image data; storage means for storing pattern data on a plurality of facial parts; attribute storage means for storing information on the attributes corresponding to the facial part pattern data; input means for inputting attribute information as the condition under which to search for a facial part pattern; searching means for searching for the appropriate facial part pattern based on the attribute information derived from the attribute storage means; and display control means for displaying on the image display means the facial part pattern searched and retrieved by the searching means. 
     In operation, the input means first admits attribute information under which to search for each facial part. Given the attribute information input, the searching means searches for the target facial part pattern using the facial part pattern data from the storage means and the attribute information from the attribute storage means. Once the appropriate facial part pattern is searched and retrieved, that pattern is displayed on the image display means. 
     These and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become more apparent upon a reading of the following description and appended drawings. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a portrait drawing apparatus embodying the invention; 
     FIG. 2 is a view showing how a facial part attribute table is related to individual facial part patterns in the embodiment; 
     FIG. 3 is a view depicting how the facial part attribute table is related to candidate tables in the embodiment; 
     FIG. 4 is a flowchart of steps in which the embodiment works; 
     FIG. 5 is another flowchart of steps in which the embodiment works; 
     FIG. 6 is a further flowchart of steps in which the embodiment works; 
     FIG. 7 is a typical screen of a portrait drawing apparatus; and 
     FIG. 8 is a flowchart of steps in which the typical prior art portrait drawing apparatus works. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     One preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. As shown in FIG. 1, the portrait drawing apparatus embodying the invention comprises an image display unit  21 , a keyboard  22 , a ROM  23   a,  a RAM  23   b,  a printer  24  and a CPU  25 . The image display unit  21  is a display unit on which facial part candidates along with the part names are displayed and combined to form a portrait. The keyboard  22  is used to enter the key word with which to search for the facial part in question, and includes a plurality of character keys  221 , a candidate key  222  and a plurality of function keys  223 . The candidate key  222  is used to display the next facial part pattern candidate on the image display unit  21 . The printer  24  prints the portrait thus drawn. The CPU  25  controls the operation of these components of the portrait drawing apparatus. 
     As depicted in FIG. 7, the image display unit  21  includes a display screen  81  having a facial part name display area  83  and a portrait drawing area  82 . The facial part name display area  83  displays such facial part names  84  as the eyes, nose, mouth, eyebrows, ears, hair, facial contour, mustache, wrinkles and sideburns with which to construct a likeness. The portrait drawing area  82  is an area in which to draw a portrait using the appropriate facial parts. The ROM  23   a  accommodates a bootstrap program, a portrait drawing program, a facial part attribute table and facial part pattern data. The RAM  23   b  stores a facial part candidate table area and a work area in which programs are run. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the facial part attribute table includes pattern numbers  32  by which to search through facial part candidates, facial part patterns  33 , attributes  34  having attribute details  341 , and address pointers  35  pointing to the facial part pattern data  36  representing the respective facial part patterns. 
     How the embodiment of the above constitution works will now be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 4,  5  and  6 . Applying power to the embodiment activates the bootstrap program stored in the ROM  23   a.  The bootstrap program initializes the components and starts the portrait drawing program. 
     With the portrait drawing program started, the screen of FIG. 7 appears on the image display unit  21 . The operator selects a desired facial part name  84  in the facial part name display area  83  using the keyboard  22  (step  51  in FIG.  4 ). When the facial part name is selected, the system prompts the operator to enter attributes regarding the facial part. If the selected facial part is, say, the facial contour, the operator enters illustratively “male” “female” “adult” “child” “round face” and other applicable attributes (step  52 ). 
     With the attributes entered, the facial pattern candidates are successively displayed in the “facial contour” position of the portrait drawing area  82  in accordance with the operation of the candidate key  222  by the operator, and one of the successively displayed facial pattern candidates is selected in a facial part determining routine (step  53 ). The selected facial pattern candidate is the one that best represents the characteristic of the person whose portrait is to be drawn. The above steps S 51  and S 52  are process for entering some information about the facial part patterns  33  and the attributes  34 , and the facial part attribute table  31  is searched using the entered information to identify the facial pattern candidates. Therefore, the operator can enter the attributes (step  52 ) before selecting the facial parts (step  51 ). 
     If there remain other facial parts to be determined (NO in step  54 ), step  51  is reached again for another pass of selecting the next facial part (steps  52  and  53 ). 
     The facial parts are selected and determined in the manner described above. When all facial parts are dealt with (YES in step  54 ), the portrait is completed. 
     More specifically, the above-mentioned facial part determining routine first searches and retrieves from the facial part attribute table  31  the pattern numbers  32  having the facial part attributes entered in step  52  (step  61  of FIG.  5 ). The pattern numbers  32  of the facial part having the required attributes are set successively in a first candidate table  41 , and the pattern numbers  32  not corresponding to the required facial part attributes are set successively in a second candidate table  42  (step  62 ). The relation between the facial part attribute table  31  and the first and the second candidate tables  41  and  42  is shown in FIG.  3 . When the pattern numbers  32  are thus set in the first and the second candidate tables  41  and  42 , the pattern numbers  32  in the first candidate table  41  are used initially to reference the address pointers  35  in the facial part attribute table  31 . In turn, the address pointers  35  point to the facial part patterns in the facial pattern data  36 . The facial part patterns thus pointed to are displayed as facial part candidates in the portrait drawing area  82  (step  63 ). 
     The operator determines whether or not the currently displayed facial part candidate in the portrait drawing area  82  best represents the model&#39;s characteristic regarding the facial part in question, and operates the keyboard  22  to enter the decision (step  64 ). If the currently displayed candidate is deemed appropriate and selected (YES in step  64 ), control is returned from the facial part determining routine to step  54 ; if the currently displayed candidate is not selected (NO in step  64 ), a check is made to see if the current pattern number  32  in the first candidate table  41  is the last number (step  65 ). If the pattern number  32  is not the last number (NO in step  65 ), step  63  is reached again in which the facial pattern corresponding to the next pattern number  32  in the first candidate table  41  is displayed as another candidate in the portrait drawing area  82  (step  63 ). 
     The process of determining the facial part (steps  63  through  65 ) continues until the appropriate facial part candidate is selected (YES in step  64 ) or until the pattern numbers  32  stored in the first candidate cable  41  have been exhausted (YES in step  65 ). When the last pattern number  32  in the first candidate table  41  is displayed as a candidate (YES in step  65 ), the pattern numbers  32  set in the second candidate table  42  are then used to reference the address pointers  35  in the facial part attribute table  31 . From among the facial pattern data  36 , the facial part patterns pointed to by the address pointer  35  are displayed one by one as a candidate in the portrait drawing area  82  (step  66  of FIG.  6 ). 
     The operator determines if the currently displayed facial part candidate in the portrait drawing area  82  best represents the model&#39;s characteristic regarding the facial part in question, and operates the keyboard  22  to input the decision (step  67 ). If the currently displayed candidate is selected (YES in step  67 ), control is returned from the facial part determining routine to step  54 ; if the currently displayed candidate is not selected (NO in step  67 ), a check is made to see if the current pattern number  32  in the second candidate table  42  is the last number (step  68 ). If the pattern number  32  is not the last number (NO in step  68 ), step  66  is reached again in which the facial pattern corresponding to the next pattern number  32  in the second candidate table  42  is displayed as another candidate in the portrait drawing area  82  (step  66 ). 
     The process of determining the facial part (steps  66  through  68 ) continues until the appropriate facial part candidate is selected (YES in step  67 ) or until the pattern numbers  32  stored in the second candidate cable  42  have been exhausted (YES in step  68 ). When the last pattern number  32  in the second candidate table  42  is displayed as a candidate (YES in step  68 ), step  63  is reached again. In this step, the facial patterns corresponding to the pattern numbers  32  in the first candidate table  41  are again displayed one by one as a candidate in the portrait drawing area  82  (step  63 ). Steps  63  and  68  are repeated until the appropriate facial part is selected (YES in steps  64  or  67 ). 
     As described, the facial part candidate tables prepared in steps  61  and  62  present the operator preferentially with those facial part patterns between representing the model&#39;s characteristic than other patterns (steps  63  through  65 ). The scheme allows the operator to find the appropriate facial part pattern in the shortest possible time and thereby to draw the portrait with ease. 
     As described, the portrait drawing apparatus according to the invention allows the operator to designate facial part attributes with which to display preferentially more likely candidates of the facial part in question. From these candidates displayed, the operator can select the best candidate of each facial part easily and quickly. Thus the portrait is drawn with ease and in the shortest possible time. 
     While a preferred embodiment of the invention has been described using specific terms, such description is for illustrative purposes only, and it is to be understood that changes and variations may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the following claim.