Device for controlling data storage and/or data reconstruction and method thereof

Abstract

A data storage controlling device including: a data dividing section for dividing target data made by a set of elements, each element being expressed in multiple values, into groups of partial data made by a set of elements, each element being expressed in two values, or dividing target data made by a set of elements, each element being expressed in two values, to partial data made by a subset of the elements; a compression section for generating compressed data blocks by means of reversibly compressing the partial data and of dividing the compressed data into predetermined size of blocks; an identifier assigning section for assigning an identifier for identifying partial data from which the compressed data block is generated to each compressed data block; and a storage processing section for reserving a storage area being smaller than the size of the target data and being common to the partial data and storing the generated compressed data block into the storage area.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a data storage controlling device of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a data reconstruction controlling device of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the configuration of a digital full-color multi function peripheral as a mode of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an image control section for processing image data to be dealt by the image forming apparatus according to the present invention;

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the procedure of image data compression/decompression according to the present invention;

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing the format of a compressed data block to be stored in a compressed data storage area in the present invention;

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a method of dividing additional data into groups;

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a method of dividing additional data expressed as binary data of each pixel to four groups;

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing another example of a method of dividing additional data expressed as binary data of each pixel to four groups;

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing further another example of a method of dividing additional data expressed as binary data of each pixel to four groups;

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the case where the number of compression circuits is larger than that of decompression circuits in the present invention; and

FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the case where the number of compression circuits is smaller than that of the decompression circuits in the present invention.

Claims

1. A data storage controlling device comprising: a data dividing section for dividing target data made by a set of elements, each element being expressed in multiple values, into groups of partial data made by a set of elements, each element being expressed in two values, or dividing target data made by a set of elements, each element being expressed in two values, to partial data made by a subset of the elements;a compression section for generating compressed data blocks by means of reversibly compressing the partial data and of dividing the compressed data into predetermined size of blocks;an identifier assigning section for assigning an identifier for identifying partial data from which the compressed data block is generated to each compressed data block; anda storage processing section for reserving a storage area being smaller than the size of the target data and being common to the partial data and storing the generated compressed data block into the storage area.

2. The data storage controlling device according to claim 1, wherein each of the elements of the target data is expressed in multiple values by a plurality of bits, and the data dividing section divides the target data by one bit in the bit depth direction of each element.

3. The data storage controlling device according to claim 2, wherein the target data is additional data to be added to image data, and each of elements of the additional data indicates an attribute of each of pixels of the image data.

4. The data storage controlling device according to claim 2, wherein the compression section compresses data by using an MH coding method, an MR coding method, an MMR coding method, a JBIG coding method, or a combination of any of the methods.

5. The data storage controlling device according to claim 1, wherein the number of compression sections is smaller than the number of groups, the data dividing section assigns a plurality of groups to a single compression section in accordance with the number of groups and the number of compression sections, andthe compression section to which the plurality of groups are assigned compresses the partial data in a time division manner.

6. An image forming apparatus comprising the data storage controlling device according to claim 1.

7. A data storage controlling method using a computer comprising: a step of dividing target data made by a set of elements, each element being expressed in multiple values, into groups of partial data made by a set of elements, each element being expressed in two values, or dividing target data made by a set of elements, each element being expressed in two values, to partial data made by a subset of the elements;a step of reserving a storage area being smaller than size of the target data and being common to partial data;a step of reversibly compressing the partial data and dividing the compressed data into predetermined size of blocks, thereby generating compressed data blocks;a step of assigning an identifier for identifying partial data from which the compressed data block is generated to each compressed data block; anda step of storing the generated compressed data block into the storage area.

8. A data reconstruction controlling device comprising: a data reading section for reading a compressed data block from a storage area in which compressed data blocks are stored, the compressed data blocks being obtained using the data storage controlling device according to claim 1;a classifying section for classifying the compressed data blocks into the groups on the basis of the identifiers assigned to each compressed data blocks;a decompression section for decompressing the classified compressed data blocks, thereby generating group-by-group data blocks; anda data connecting section for connecting the group-by-group data, thereby reconstructing the original data.

9. The data reconstruction controlling device according to claim 8, wherein the original data is made of a plurality of elements, each element of the original data is expressed in multiple values by a plurality of bits, and the group-by-group data block is obtained by dividing the original data by one bit in the bit depth direction of each element.

10. The data reconstruction controlling device according to claim 9, wherein the original data is additional data to be added to image data, and each of elements of the additional data is data indicative of an attribute of each of pixels of the image data.

11. The data reconstruction controlling device according to claim 9, wherein the decompression section decompresses a compressed data block compressed by using an MH coding method, an MR coding method, an MMR coding method, a JBIG coding method, or a combination of any of the methods.

12. The data reconstruction controlling device according to claim 8, wherein the number of decompression sections is smaller than the number of groups, the classifying section assigns a plurality of groups to a single decompression section in accordance with the number of groups and the number of decompression sections, andthe decompression section to which the plurality of groups are assigned decompresses the compressed data block in a time division manner.

13. An image forming apparatus comprising the data reconstruction controlling device according to claim 8.

14. A data reconstruction controlling device comprising: a data reading section for reading a compressed data block from a storage area in which compressed data blocks are stored, the compressed data blocks being obtained by dividing multivalued or binary original data into binary data of a plurality of groups, reversibly compressing the binary data, dividing the compressed binary data into predetermined size of blocks, and assigning an identifier of corresponding group to each compressed data block;a classifying section for classifying the compressed data blocks into the groups on the basis of the identifiers assigned to each compressed data blocks;a decompression section for decompressing the classified compressed data blocks, thereby generating group-by-group data blocks; anda data connecting section for connecting the group-by-group data, thereby reconstructing the original data.

15. A data reconstruction controlling method using a computer comprising: a step of reading a compressed data block from a storage area in which compressed data blocks are stored, the compressed data blocks being obtained through the data storage controlling method according to claim 7;a step of classifying the compressed data blocks into the groups on the basis of the identifiers assigned to each compressed data blocks;a step of decompressing the classified compressed data blocks, thereby generating group-by-group data blocks; anda step of connecting the group-by-group data blocks, thereby reconstructing the original data.