Abstract: Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, implementing and using techniques for coordinating grid tracking and character composition. A grid defining a layout of one or more lines of grid boxes is received. Each grid box can accommodate one full-width character and has a global track amount specified in an absolute unit. One or more of the grid boxes is populated with characters and associated spaces. The characters and their associated spaces in the one or more lines of grid boxes are tracked by an amount determined as a function of the global track amount and a proportion of an em for the characters and their associated spaces.

Abstract: There is provided an method for a character-outputting apparatus which is capable of storing a character image defined by a character font, as bitmap data in the form of a dot matrix, and printing or displaying the character image. The bitmap data is converted temporarily to vector data when the character image is enlarged. Then a new line is drawn from a starting point of each vector of the vector data to an ending point of the vector in a vector direction, where is included a diagonal discontinuity between dots diagonally adjacent to each other, and an inside of the new line is filled to thereby regenerate bitmap data corresponding to the character image.

Abstract: Storing of data items in a memory (31) is provided wherein the data items are divided into successive data pieces of decreasing significance, and the data pieces are stored in respective parts of the memory (31), and when applying a data piece to the memory (31) in case all candidate memory parts are assigned to other data pieces: if the significance of the applied data piece is lower than a lowest significance of the other data pieces, discarding the applied data piece; if the significance of the applied data piece is higher than the lowest significance, storing the applied data piece in one of the candidate memory parts at expense of a given other data piece which has a lower significance than the significance of the applied data piece. Advantageous use of the invention is made in applications using a device of fixed storage capacity for storing compressible data, such as video, images, audio, speech.

Abstract: A system, method, and computer program product for producing a show. In an embodiment, the invention is directed to a production system having a first production path, a second production path, and a control system that causes the first production path to generate a show in a first aspect ratio (4:3), and that causes the second production path to generate the same show in a second aspect ratio (16:9). In another embodiment, the invention is directed to producing a show from live material and from archived material. This aspect of the invention operates by producing a first show comprising a plurality of stories, segmenting the first show, and storing the show segments in an archive. Then, the invention produces a second show using live portions as well as show segments retrieved from the archive. The invention is also directed to a media manager that interacts with a server. In some cases, the server is integrated with the production system.

Abstract: This invention relates to a device for converting bit strings from a first resolution to a second resolution suitable for application, in particular, on peripherals such as printers, scanners or facsimile machines. The device comprises a source register 31 in which a string of bits to be converted is stored by a CPU 11, a destination register 32 from which the CPU 11 extracts the converted string, and a pair of control registers 21 and 22 which cooperate for converting bit by bit the bit strings from the source register 31 to the destination register 32. The control registers 21 and 22, the source register 31 and the destination register 32 operate independently from the CPU 11 used and at a clock rate (clk2) greater than that (clk1) of the CPU 11, thereby permitting extremely fast conversion times.

Abstract: A font database includes a plurality of font files each of which stores bitmaps associated with a range of characters. The plurality of font files contains only a single version of a bitmap for each character. In a first embodiment, a plurality of composite font files contain one of more pointers pointing to selected ones of said plurality of font files. In a second embodiment, a rules set responsive to a print request retrieves a desired font file to print a character in accordance with the established rule set.

Abstract: The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for increasing the perceived quality of displayed images. This is achieved in a variety of ways including the use of a plurality of device specific display characteristics when preparing images for display. It is also achieved through the monitoring of display device and/or ambient light conditions, e.g., on a periodic basis, and using the obtained information when controlling display output. Another approach to improving the perceived quality of displayed images involves the use of information relating to a specific user's ability to perceive image characteristics such as color. By customizing display output to an individual user's own physical perception capabilities and/or viewing characteristics it is possible to enhance the image quality perceived by the individual viewer as compared to embodiments which do not take into consideration individual user characteristics.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for automatically setting the height of an on-screen display (OSD) font in a display device which supports a multi-resolution are provided. The apparatus for controlling the OSD font height includes a horizontal line number generator and a font height generator. The horizontal line number generator generates information on the number of horizontal lines of a display region of the display device. The font height generator receives a predetermined font height reference value and the horizontal line number information, obtains automatic font height, and generates the automatic font height. The font height reference number is preferably the number of OSD fonts to be displayed in a vertical direction in the display region.

Abstract: An input image is converted into an image in a predetermined format. An optimal character recognition resolution determination unit determines, using the converted image, an optimal resolution to be used upon executing character recognition of the input image. A character recognition circuit executes character recognition of the input image on the basis of the determination result. An output circuit outputs the recognition result.

Abstract: For enabling image enlargement or reduction of high image quality with improved definition, there is disclosed an image interpolating device comprising a memory for storing digital image signal, memory readout means for reading pixel data in succession from the memory, first, second and third consecutive delay means for respectively delaying the image signal Sn, read by the memory readout means, to respectively from pixel signals Sn−1, Sn−2, Sn−3, first, second, third and fourth coefficient generation circuits for generating interpolation coefficients respectively corresponding to the pixel signals Sn, Sn−1, Sn−2, Sn−3 and determined by N-th order functions from the position of the interpolated pixel S′ positioned between the pixel signals Sn−1 and Sn−2, and a signal synthesis circuit for calculating the sum of respective product of pixel signal Sn and interpolation coefficient kn.

Abstract: A computer-implemented apparatus and method for generating an output digital font from a base font and one or more font descriptor files. The method involves, in an exemplary embodiment, the steps of retrieving from memory a file containing instructions and data for a generic base font; retrieving from memory a font descriptor file containing specifications for operating upon the base font to produce the desired output font; and then generating the output font by performing operations upon the base font in accordance with the specifications contained in the font descriptor file, to produce a character program for each character in the base font wherein the data representing the output font is the generic font data as transformed in accordance with said specification. Two or more font descriptor files may be combined, such as by using mathematical weighted averaging of the parameter values for different typographic design features, or otherwise, to create font descriptor files for hybrid typefaces.

Abstract: The present invention provides for automatic placement of typographical features such as vertical stems or horizontal segments of a character on high contrast pixel sub-component boundaries as part of a rendering process that uses separately controllable pixel sub-components of pixels to represent different portions of the character. In order to identify the typographical features of the character that are to be aligned with high contrast pixel sub-component boundaries, topology of the character is analyzed at runtime. In display devices having vertical stripes of same-colored pixel sub-components, it has been found that character legibility is increased when the left edges of stems are aligned with high contrast boundaries between pixel sub-components. Processing time and resources are conserved by performing a partial, rather than a full, topological analysis of the character.

Abstract: A liquid crystal display system which can accept input display data having a resolution which is larger (e.g. 1120×780 dots) or smaller (e.g. 640×480 dots) than a resolution of a liquid crystal panel (e.g. 1024×768 dots), and convert the input display data to reduced or enlarged display data for display on the liquid crystal panel. The system generates, for example, one new vertical or horizontal line based on two contiguous vertical or horizontal lines in the input display data. If the resolution of the input display data is larger than the resolution of the liquid crystal panel, the system replaces the two contiguous lines with the one new line. If the resolution of the input display data is smaller than the resolution of the liquid crystal panel, the system inserts the one new line between the two contiguous lines.

Abstract: A user of a data processing system may specify variability in the generation of data for data-presentation, either by displaying or printing, on an output device. The variability specification may be applied on a glyph-by-glyph basis to the presentation of glyphs. The data processing system provides processing of glyph-based quality variability requests in the following manner. The system receives a request for data-presentation of a series of glyphs and determines, for each glyph in the series of glyphs, whether quality variability is applicable to each glyph. If quality variability is applicable to each glyph, then the system determines a quality variance to be applied to each glyph according to predetermined data-presentation variability data and performs data-presentation of each glyph on an output device in accordance with the quality variance.

Abstract: A home theater comprises a video processing sub-system and a PC capable of controlling the sub-system. The sub-system has a de-interlacer/line doubler and the PC has a graphics controller with scaling capability. The combination of the line doubler and the scaler is made to function as a line quadrupler.

Abstract: A method and apparatus is provided for interpolating a digital image in response to a requested degree of sharpness. An adjusting signal representing the requested degree of sharpness will then be generated. The interpolated pixel data are computed based on a 3 order or 4 order interpolation function for three sampling input pixels with an adjustable weight coefficient representing the selected degree of sharpness. The apparatus of the present invention mainly includes: a control interface, a control unit, a vertical interpolation computation module, and a horizontal interpolation module. The vertical interpolation computation module and the horizontal interpolation module are implemented according to an interpolation function derived by the present invention. The control unit comprises a lookup table built according to a scaling function of the present invention.

Abstract: For generating characters form data stored in a vector format, are provided two kinds of based skeleton data and data which depends on type style; from this a plurality of type styles are generated. The base skeleton data has a start portion, a middle portion, and an end portion. (Or, the base skeleton data has skeleton priority data, skeleton connection data, face modification data, or stroke weight data.) When the type style is generated, bit map, byte map, outline coordinate type, or skeleton coordinate type is generated as desired, in accordance with an output request.

Abstract: It is an object of present invention to effectively, separately use a game field image and an enlarged image relating to the neighborhood of a sight postion in the game field image. In a game system executing a shooting simulation of the like, a game field image is displayed on a screen of a predetermined monitor by a computer of the game system, a sight position in the game field image is changed in accordance with a player's postion select operation conducted to a predetermined input device, and an enlarged image relating to a predetermined range including the sight postion is displayed on the screen of the monitor. Further, a magnification of the enlarged image relative to the game field image is changed in accordance with a player's magnification switch operation conducted to the input device.

Abstract: An image processing is provided. There is stored character string image data created by arranging at least one character image data item formed in response to text input. Processing image data is selected from character image data created in response to the text input, nonstandard character registration image data created by nonstandard character registration, blank image data formed of data representing a blank image area, and registered image data. The registered image data is created by subjecting any of the character image data, the nonstandard character registration image data, and the blank image data, to a sizing process, and registering the resulting image data. Synthesized image data is formed by synthesizing the processing image data with at least part of the character string image data by carrying out a synthesis operation. The synthesis operation includes any of logic operations.

Abstract: An image processor is composed of a game device body, an operation panel and a display. The game device body is composed of a data processor 12 and a memory 12. The data processor realizes a hit determining circuit 112, an enemy control circuit 112, an enemy (object) set circuit 114, a cursor control circuit 114, an enemy retrieval circuit 116 and a camera control circuit 116 in accordance with corresponding programs used. When an object is displayed on the display, the cursor control circuit displays a cursor in accordance with predetermined processing performed on the basis of data on the coordinates of the object. The camera control circuit 116 performs a zoom-in display process for the object when the object is displayed on the display.

Abstract: A method and system for providing a substitute font that visually approximates a selected font that is unavailable in a computer system is provided. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the method and system first selects as the substitute font a font that is available in the computer system. The method and system then adjusts the overall widths of the characters of the substitute font to match the overall widths of the corresponding characters of the selected font. This causes the same combinations of characters of the substitute font and of the selected font to have substantially the same size and appearance. The method and system then makes the substitute font available to a program that has requested the selected font.

Abstract: A graphic processing system has a processor for managing a display area and a character font area both included within an address space. From coded information indicative of a character transferred through a data bus of the system, the processor generates an address at which a character font pattern of the corresponding character has been stored and transfers that character font pattern to a predetermined position on the display area. The graphic processing system realizes high speed development of fonts.

Abstract: A display control apparatus controls attributes of characters to be displayed on a display unit. The display control apparatus includes a storage storing predetermined attributes, and a converter for converting attributes of each of characters making up an input character string by referring to the storage so that characters making up a converted character string have the predetermined attribute. The converted character string is output for display on the display unit.

Abstract: A display device is provided having a display section for displaying a window frame of a standard pixel number. A data acquiring section is provided for acquiring image data of a given pixel number from any of various applications. An image data storing section is provided for storing therein the image data. A pixel number determining section is also provided for determining the pixel number based on attribution data that is attached to the image data. A pixel number judgment section is provided for judging whether or not the pixel number is smaller than the standard pixel number preliminarily stored in a standard pixel number storing section. A data expanding section is provided for expanding the image data to increase the pixel number of the image data to the standard pixel number, if the pixel number is smaller than the standard pixel number.

Abstract: A method and a system for scaling a digital source image consisting of a grid of X by Y pixels into a target image of a different resolution comprises the steps of/tools for:

Abstract: A method and system are provided for positioning characters within an arbitrarily sized graphics window in order to maximize the distribution of unused space. The method and system are particularly adapted for the redistribution of characters produced during a terminal emulation session with another computing system. Characters produced during the emulated session are adjusted to completely fill the graphics window, regardless of its size. A fill justification procedure distributes characters in areas within the graphics window that would otherwise appear as gutters or margins. A character spacing unit maintains correct character image proportions in the graphics window while not rigidly adhering to a uniform alignment of character rows and columns. A linear distribution procedure allows the character image to fill the graphics window completely with a natural appearance.

Abstract: An undirected graph is generated based on a set of finite n-dimensional space curves. One or more traversal modulations are selected and a directed graph is created by traversing the edges of the undirected graph and determining a direction, either a forward direction or a reverse direction, for each edge in accordance with the selected traversal modulations. The method then re-orientates the set of finite n-dimensional space curves in accordance with the directed graph.

Abstract: An electronic device may include a microdisplay in which a displayed image element may be selected by gazing upon it. An eye gaze detector may determine what the user is looking at at any given instance of time if the user looks at it for sufficient time. Once an image element is identified as being selected by being gazed upon, the screen display may be altered to change the appearance of the selected image element and the unselected image elements. For example, the selected image element may be brought into focus and other image elements may be blurred.

Abstract: The size of information being display by a computer is automatically adjusted in order to make the information easily readable, while at the same time leaving most (or all) of the information displayed on a single screen. Any one or more of the font point size, the font type, the number of lines used, and the caption used can be adjusted in order to determine the manner in which the information is displayed.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for creating anti-aliased fonts for display on a graphics display comprising analyzing a subject font, calculating at least one alpha value to determine the translucency of the subject font edges, incorporating the alpha value in the subject font bit information, and rendering the subject font with translucent edges.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for determining a format for displaying information in a display area coupled to a computer system, the format being based on the size of the display area and the amount of information to display. As a user continues to enter information in the display area, software program instructions update the format of the information when the amount of information to display changes. This includes reducing the size of the font as additional information is entered and enlarging the size of the font when enough information is deleted to create available space. The font type and/or the font size may be changed to allow the information to fit within the available display area. The size of the text may be reduced to a minimum level and, and as more information is entered, the display is scrolled so the user may view the most recently entered data. A scale also be determined to reduce or enlarge graphics information so that it fits within the available display area.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for utilizing pixel sub-components which form a pixel element of an LCD display, e.g., as separate luminous intensity elements, are described. Each pixel of a color LCD display is comprised of three non-overlapping red, green and blue rectangular pixel sub-elements or sub-components. The invention takes advantage of the ability to control individual RGB pixel sub-elements to effectively increase a screen's resolution in the dimension perpendicular to the dimension in which the screen is striped, e.g., the RGB pixel sub-elements are arranged lengthwise. In order to utilize the effective resolution which can be obtained by treating RGB pixel sub-components separately, scaling or super sampling of digital representations of fonts is performed in one dimension at a rate that is greater than the scaling or sampling performed in the other dimension. In some embodiments where weighting is used in determining RGB pixel values, e.g.

Abstract: Display elements are designed to answer element size queries by a layout manager which enable an enhanced layout manager to pack elements on the display with greater uniformity and density than is possible with the element size queries available in the state of the art. The layout manager automatically uses height-for-width and/or width-for-height trade-offs to optimally resize said elements according to the shape of the available area.

Abstract: A scalable edit window and position indicators displayable on a display of an electronic typewriter are provided. The width of the scalable edit window adjusts in accordance with the paper size or size of the recording medium selected for printing the keyed-in characters, or in accordance with a value provided by the operator. The height of the scalable edit window adjusts in accordance with the font size of keyed-in characters. The keyed-in characters are displayed in the scalable edit window in a font size and appearance as characters which will be printed on a recording medium. The displayable position indicators include a horizontal ruler and a vertical ruler. The horizontal ruler is adjusted in accordance with the maximum printing capability of the system printer or the width of a recording medium used for printing the keyed-in characters. The vertical ruler is adjusted in accordance with the font size of the keyed-in characters or the length of the recording medium.

Abstract: A method of displaying a zoomed version of stored image on a display, where the stored image is defined by a set of data entries mapped to respective pixels of the display. The stored image is first scaled relative to the display in accordance with the desired zooming ratio. The scaled image is then located at an initial position relative to the display and the extent to which each display pixel is overlapped by features of the scaled image is determined. A color tone is assigned to each display pixel in accordance with the extent of the overlap. The scaled image is then shifted relative to said initial position one or more times and, for the or each shift, the overlap of each display pixel is recalculated and a new color tone assigned. The sets of assigned color tones are then displayed cyclically on the display to produce a displayed image.

Abstract: A character line address counter clock signal generator for generating a character line address counter clock signal for an on screen display (OSD) circuit used to selectively display a character image within an on screen display contained within a displayed screen image. The character image displayed within the OSD is maintained at a substantially constant image height regardless of the number of image lines contained within the overall displayed screen image. The character image lines for a base character image are displayed in accordance with a predetermined repetition sequence without requiring phase lock loop to generate a reduced character line address clock or requiring arithmetic computation to calculate each character line address.

Abstract: Apparatus comprising a logic member and a shear member incorporating an upsampler are used to enlarge the number of pixels in at least one image dimension by a factor F=N/M, where N is a first given-valued integer, M is a second given-valued integer and 1<N/M≦2. The shear member shears the original image at certain positions of the one dimension that are determined solely by the value of factor F, thereby introducing zero-valued shear-gap pixels at each of the certain positions.

Abstract: Image data processing and image rendering methods and systems whereby images are displayed on display devices having pixels with separately controllable pixel sub-components. Images, such as text characters, are displayed on a display device with at least some features being rendered with sub-pixel precision. The displayed advance width of a character displayed with sub-pixel precision is compatible with the advance width of the character if it had instead been displayed with a conventional full pixel precision rendering process. Thus, characters are displayed with sub-pixel precision, resulting in improved resolution and readability, while the advance width and the corresponding size and spacing of the characters and the overall formatting of the document remains the same compared to documents and characters rendered using conventional full pixel precision processes.

Abstract: A method and apparatus is provided for interpolating a digital image in response to a requested degree of sharpness. An adjusting signal representing the requested degree of sharpness will then be generated. The interpolated pixel data are computed based on a two-order interpolation function for two sampling input pixels with an adjustable weight coefficient representing the selected degree of sharpness. The apparatus of the present invention mainly includes: a control interface, a control unit, a vertical interpolation computation module, and a horizontal interpolation module. The vertical interpolation computation module and the horizontal interpolation module are implemented according to an interpolation function derived by the present invention. The control unit comprises a lookup table built according to a scaling function of the present invention.

Abstract: A video mode controlling apparatus and method of a computer having a LCD is provided. The method includes the steps of checking whether or not the video mode to be changed by the mode change controlling information is supported by the video controller, turning the LCD off, changing font and video mode state of the video controller so as to correspond to the mode change controlling information, and turning the LCD on. It is possible to prevent the generation of a whitening phenomenon of a LCD which is liable to occur when the video mode is changed in a computer having the LCD.

Abstract: Enlargement processing sections enlarge picture data supplied from a VRAM in accordance with enlargement algorithms of their own and output the picture data to a mode selecting section through an enlargement processing selecting section. The mode selecting section selects one of the picture data supplied from the VRAM and enlargement processing selecting sections on the basis of a display mode selection signal supplied from a control section and outputs the picture data to a display section. With this construction, while keeping the picture data supplied from the VRAM displayed on the display section, the picture data is enlarged and output to the mode selecting section, so the normal display image and the enlargement display image can be instantaneously switched only by switching the mode selecting section without rewriting the picture data in the VRAM.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for determining a format for displaying information in a display area coupled to a computer system, the format being based on the size of the display area and the amount of information to display. As a user continues to enter information in the display area, software program instructions update the format of the information when the amount of information to display changes. This includes reducing the size of the font as additional information is entered and enlarging the size of the font when enough information is deleted to create available space. The font type and/or the font size may be changed to allow the information to fit within the available display area. The size of the text may be reduced to a minimum level and, and as more information is entered, the display is scrolled so the user may view the most recently entered data. A scale also be determined to reduce or enlarge graphics information so that it fits within the available display area.

Abstract: A display control apparatus controls attributes of characters to be displayed on a display unit. The display control apparatus includes a storage storing predetermined attributes, and a converter for converting attributes of each of characters making up an input character string by referring to the storage so that characters making up a converted character string have the predetermined attribute. The converted character string is output for display on the display unit.

Abstract: An apparatus and method of calibrating a video monitor relative to an external object is claimed. A video representation of an object is displayed on a video monitor. An external object is placed adjacent the monitor. The size of the video representation of the object is changed to substantially match of the size of at least a portion of the external object.

Abstract: A method, system, and computer program product are provided for multi-threaded texture modulation in axis-aligned volume rendering. Three texture modulation threads are used to modulate texture of three sets of the volumetric data (image sets) in accordance with a texture modulation request. Control is returned from the first texture modulation thread to a main rendering thread while the first texture modulation thread is executing. A user can then interact with a display view while the first texture modulation thread is executing. An intermediate display view of a texture modulated set of volumetric data can be rendered. In one example, a plurality of display connections and contexts are opened for the main rendering thread and each texture modulation thread respectively. Sets of pixel buffers and look-up tables are provided for the respective texture modulation threads. A texture object is included in a context of the main rendering thread.

Abstract: An apparatus for generating a character pattern includes a first memory for storing reference character font data as a coordinate point array, a second memory for storing parameter data in correspondence with at least character size data, and a generator for generating size data of a target character on the basis of the parameter data. Font data corresponding to an input character code is read out from the first memory and is developed into pattern data of a size corresponding to character size data converted by the generator. A method of generating a character pattern for the above apparatus is also disclosed.

Abstract: Font information includes the stroke type, the skeleton point and the stroke tip type information (Types I, II, and III) shared by various kinds of font variants. Each variant is added with horizontal and vertical stroke widths, and the stroke shape control information (803 and 805-810) expressed as their functions. The stroke skeleton point widening (Wx, Wy, Wz, Wr, and Wt) and the follow-up information, the stroke width non-linear scaling information and the composite stroke information of the primary character style based on the scaling proportion and the space occupation information can be added. The restoration method includes processes, such as the determination of the stroke shape control information and the outline control information, the widening adjustment of the skeleton points, the determination of the follow-up points, the adjustrnent of the present stroke width, the isometric adjustment of the composite strokes, and the re-adjustment of the stroke width, which avoids strokes merging together.

Abstract: The widths of characters, that have had (or that are having) resolution enhancement processing applied, are adjusted so that the widths of the characters are maintained. In this way, formatting of any file including such characters is maintained. Specifically, the advance width of each character may be adjusted. A non-uniformity of gaps between characters may be minimized by adjusting the left and/or right side bearing of each character. Finally, a non-uniformity in the weight of character lines may be minimized by adjusting the black body width of each character.

Abstract: A navigation system and method in which geographic data are transmitted in portions, as needed, to end users' computing platforms from a central geographic database and used by the end users' computing platforms to provide navigation-related features to end users as the end users travel along roads in a geographic region.

Abstract: When retrieving documents over a network, such as the Internet, the font size imposed by default or by a style sheet is sometimes not the right size for comfortable viewing by a user. A database of font size changes made by a user to particular documents is maintained and used to infer a font size preference for a document. A document is displayed using a recorded preference. If no preference is found for a document, a check is made to determine if a preference has been specified for a different document related to that document by having a common portion of a network address. That is, if a preference had been specified for one chapter of a document having a particular network address, a preference would be inferred for other chapters of the document based on a common portion of a hierarchical address.