Image composing system and a method thereof

Abstract

The present invention provides an image composing apparatus that can composite images at high speed and in which the apparatus configuration can be easily expanded as the number of images to be composed increases. Sub-images generated by node computers are synchronized each other by a synchronizing section. Then, each pair of synchronized sub-image data is composed into a single sub-image in a first-layer image composing section, comprising a plurality of image composing circuits each for composing two sub-images, and the resulting sub-images are composed iteratively through a second-layer image composing section, a third-layer image composing section, and so on, that have the same configuration as the first-layer image composing section.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S) [0001] This application is a divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 10 / 291,854, filed Nov. 8, 2002, which claims priority of Japanese patent application number 2002-126952, filed on Apr. 26, 2002, priority of which are claimed herein.TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates to an image composing apparatus and method, and more particularly an image composing apparatus and method that can compose images at high speed and in which the apparatus configuration can easily be expanded in proportion to the number of images to be composed. PRIOR ART [0003] To intuitively grasp the results of computer processing, the results must be presented in visible form. However, as the scale of processing becomes larger, it becomes difficult to generate necessary images using a single computer. Therefore, it is often practiced to compose images using a plurality of computers. [0004]FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an image composing app...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides an image composing apparatus and method that can quickly and easily expand as the number of images to be composed increases. The invention uses various methods to merge sub-images based on their occlusion relationship, including a binary space-partitioning tree and priority comparison. The resulting composed image has high quality and can be used in various applications. The invention also includes a method to synchronize the sub-images before merging them and a method to store and output the sub-images in a sequential manner. Overall, the invention improves image composition speed and efficiency.

Problems solved by technology

However, as the scale of processing becomes larger, it becomes difficult to generate necessary images using a single computer.

Though the apparatus can respond flexibly to increasing the number of node computers, it involves following problems.

(2) To avoid collisions during transferring image data, a waiting time is necessary, and this waiting time increases the time required for transferring image data.

Images