Image processing method and apparatus

An image processing method of fragmentarily receiving, caching, and displaying encoded image data, comprising:

• a specifying step of specifying a region of interest of an image;
• a moving direction specifying step of specifying a moving direction of a previously displayed image region between the region of interest specified in said specifying step, and that previously displayed image region;
• a delete region determination step of determining a region, where cached image data is to be deleted, on the basis of the region of interest and the moving direction to have a delete unit field as a unit;
• and
• a delete step of deleting the cached image data for respective delete unit fields.

An image processing apparatus for fragmentarily receiving, caching, and displaying encoded image data, comprising:

• specifying means for specifying a region of interest of an image;
• moving direction specifying means for specifying a moving direction of a previously displayed image region between the region of interest specified by said specifying means, and that previously displayed image region;
• delete region determination means for determining a region, where cached image data is to be deleted, on the basis of the region of interest and the moving direction to have a delete unit field as a unit;
• and
• delete means for deleting the cached image data for respective delete unit fields.

An image processing method of fragmentarily inputting, caching, and displaying encoded image data, comprising:

• a region of interest specifying step of specifying a region of interest of an image;
• a checking step of checking if a data size in a cache memory that caches the image data exceeds an allowable size of the cache memory upon changing the region of interest;
• a delete data size determination step of calculating, if it is determined in said checking step that the data size in the cache memory exceeds the allowable size, a data size to be deleted from cache data stored in the cache memory;
• a distance measurement step of measuring a distance from the region of interest specified in said region of interest specifying step to a unit field to be deleted;
• a delete region determination step of determining a delete region, in which data is to be deleted from cache data, to have the unit field as a unit, on the basis of the region of interest, and the distance measured in said distance measurement step;
• and
• a delete step of deleting cache data included in the delete region determined in said delete region determination step.

An image processing method of fragmentarily inputting, caching, and displaying encoded image data, comprising:

• a region of interest specifying step of specifying a region of interest of an image;
• a checking step of checking if a data size in a cache memory that caches the image data exceeds an allowable size of the cache memory upon changing the region of interest;
• a delete data size determination step of calculating, if it is determined in said checking step that the data size in the cache memory exceeds the allowable size, a data size to be deleted from cache data stored in the cache memory;
• an access time management step of managing a use state of unit fields which form the image data;
• a delete region determination step of determining a delete region, in which data is to be deleted from cache data, to have the unit field as a unit, on the basis of the region of interest, and the use state;
• and
• a delete step of deleting cache data included in the delete region determined in said delete region determination step.

An image processing apparatus for fragmentarily inputting, caching, and displaying encoded image data, comprising:

• region of interest specifying means for specifying a region of interest of an image;
• checking means for checking if a data size in a cache memory that caches the image data exceeds an allowable size of the cache memory upon changing the region of interest;
• delete data size determination means for, if said checking means determines that the data size in the cache memory exceeds the allowable size, calculating a data size to be deleted from cache data stored in the cache memory;
• distance measurement means for measuring a distance from the region of interest specified by said region of interest specifying means to a unit field to be deleted;
• delete region determination means for determining a delete region, in which data is to be deleted from cache data, to have the unit field as a unit, on the basis of the region of interest, and the distance measured by said distance measurement means;
• and
• delete means for deleting cache data included in the delete region determined by said delete region determination means.

An image processing apparatus for fragmentarily inputting, caching, and displaying encoded image data, comprising:

• region of interest specifying means for specifying a region of interest of an image;
• checking means for checking if a data size in a cache memory that caches the image data exceeds an allowable size of the cache memory upon changing the region of interest;
• delete data size determination means for, if said checking means determines that the data size in the cache memory exceeds the allowable size, calculating a data size to be deleted from cache data stored in the cache memory;
• access time management means for managing a use state of unit fields which form the image data;
• delete region determination means for determining a delete region, in which data is to be deleted from cache data, to have the unit field as a unit, on the basis of the region of interest, and the use state;
• and
• delete means for deleting cache data included in the delete region determined by said delete region determination means.