Patent Document ID: 7602394
Application ID: 11291916
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. An image processing device comprising: an image processing section, the image processing section having: (A) one or more image processing modules, each image processing module having; (1) an image processing engine that determines a fixed unit processing data amount specific to the image processing module and carries out a predetermined image processing on image data in the determined units of a fixed unit processing data amount, and (2) a control section that inputs image data which is acquired from a preceding stage of its own module, in data amount units needed in order for the image processing engine to carry out processing in determined fixed units of the unit processing data amount, and outputs, to a following stage of its own module, image data, which has undergone a predetermined image processing by the image processing engine, or a processing result of the predetermined image processing in units of the determined fixed unit processing data amount, (B) one or more buffer modules, the buffer module having a buffer for storing image data and a buffer control section, the image processing section is constructed in response to an instruction of a desired image processing by a user, by selecting individual modules to be connected in a pipeline form or a directed acyclic graph form, such that the buffer module is connected to at least one of a preceding stage and a following stage of each image processing module which is selected; and a processing managing section that causes the image processing section to process an entire image which is an object of the desired processing, by processing at the individual image processing modules of the image processing section, wherein the buffer control section, when an image processing module is connected at a preceding stage of its own module, acquires from the preceding image processing module a fixed write data amount specific to the preceding image processing module, and carries out processing of causing writing of image data, which is outputted from the preceding image processing module, to a storage region on the buffer which can store data of the fixed write data amount, and when an image processing module is connected at a following stage of its own module, acquires from the following image processing module a fixed read data amount specific to the following image processing module, and carries out processing of causing the following image processing module to read, in units of the fixed read data amount, image data which is stored in the buffer, and wherein the processing managing section causes the image processing section to process an entire image which is an object of the desired processing by, at the individual image processing modules of the image processing section, causing repeating of processings of inputting to the image processing engine, image data which is acquired from a preceding stage of its own module and outputting, to a following stage of its own module, image data which has undergone a predetermined image processing by the image processing engine or processing results of the predetermined image processing.