Abstract: A method of drawing a straight or curved line of predetermined thickness on a raster device having a display or printed page consisting of a rectangular array of pels. Initially, a spine list is generated which comprises a digitization of a spine that can be swept by a preselected pen of thickness 2t centered on the spine to draw the line or "stroke." The next step is to generate penleft and penright lists representing the X and Y coordinate values of the left and right sides of the pen. Thereafter, left and right lists representing a pair of boundaries of the stroke are generated by starting at a first end of the spine list and sequentially moving toward a second end of the spine list. For each position in the spine list, the X, Y coordinate values thereof are added to the X and Y coordinate values in the penleft list. The left list is updated when any of the resulting sums yield an X value less than the current X value for the corresponding Y value in the left list.

Abstract: A method for determining the proper occulation relationship between a calligraphic point and at least one of another calligraphic point and a surface in a raster image, divides the total image screen into an array of spans, each containing an ordered set of pixels which may be further divided into an array of subpixels; determines which of the subpixels on the total screen lie inside each of the raster surfaces and calligraphic points which must be considered for the image totality; then orders the distance of each of the raster surfaces from the viewing point and also orders the distance of each of the point features from the viewing point; and then compares the ordered distances of each point to at least one of the raster surface distances and other point distances to determine which of subpixels of the point or surface/other point are occluded and which subpixels are visible.

Abstract: A figure editing apparatus for editing figure sets each comprising a set of a plurality of basic figures includes a first memory for storing, in correlated form, each figure set and the plurality of basic figures constituting the figure set, a second memory for storing, in correlated form, each figure set and an area corresponding to the figure set, a third memory for storing, in correlated form, the basic figures and areas corresponding to the basic figures, and an adding/deleting unit for designating an area corresponding to a figure set or basic figure, thereby to add a basic figure to or delete the basic figure from the first memory. The editing of figure sets, each of which comprises a set of a plurality of basic figures, and particularly the editing of a graphical program, is simplified.

Abstract: Antialiased vectors, composed of a plurality of pixels along the vector minor axis for each major axis step, are rendered such that consecutively rendered pixels are always adjacent. For each major axis step, pixels are rendered along the minor axis in an order that reverses with each major axis step.

Abstract: A data processing system includes, among others, three memory areas: a source memory which is addressed in planar, data unit increments and stores display data units on a bit per plane basis; a target memory for storing display data units in a manner suitable for operation of a display unit; and a window buffer for transferring display data units from the source memory to the target memory. The system includes apparatus for inhibiting certain data units from the source memory from overwriting data units already in the target memory. The method comprises first accessing a plurality of data units from the source memory and then logically determining if all bits of each accessed data unit meet a predetermined criteria. Each data unit found to meet the predetermined criteria is inhibited from altering any data unit already in the target memory.

Abstract: A system that uses two character positions on a display area of an oscilloscope to indicate the progress being made toward achieving a target number of waveform acquisitions. The system displays the percentage of waveform acquisitions taken within this two character percentage display area by first displaying two symbols as white dots on a dark background. As the percentage of waveform acquisitions taken increases, the dots within the symbols are inverted starting at the bottom of the display area and progressing toward the top. When the target number of waveform acquisitions have been taken, all the dots within the symbols are inverted to display dark on white. As the percentage increases, the dots forming the first character of the display are inverted prior to the dots forming the second character. Therefore, higher resolution of the display is obtained.

Abstract: A text documents managing method comprising the steps of subjecting an original document registered beforehand to a first arrangement designated by a user, thereby to generate a first derived document. The first arrangement is registered as a set of derived document information items on the original document. The above steps are repeated in relation to a second arrangement designated for generating a second derived document by the user. The user selects one of the plurality of sets of derived document information items which have been registered in relation to the original document. The original document is subjected again to the arrangement expressed by the selected set of derived document information items, thereby to reproduce the corresponding derived document.

Abstract: A dimension display device displays the dimension of a machined member to be measured by means of a bar graph. The dimension display device includes a bar graph display part which is composed of a large number of display elements, and a plurality of scale display parts disposed in parallel to the bar graph display part for displaying in a numeric value a scale with respect to the bar graph display part. The plurality of scale display parts are able to shift the numeric value of the scale for display according to different types of members to be measured. That is, if the center value of the tolerance of the member to be measured is set, then the scale display parts shift the numeric value of the scale such that the center value of the tolerance is moved to the center of the bar graph display part, so that the bar graph display part can be used effectively.

Abstract: Method and apparatus are provided for editing input information. Input information is received from an input means (1) from which a keyword is selected for editing purposes. A low level record is located in a memory (5) which has the keyword of the input information stored therein. The low level record having the keyword stored therein is accessed to determine the location in the memory of higher level records and information types of the higher level records. The higher level records having stored therein explanatory information for the keyword in accordance with the information types of the higher level records. The higher level records are of a plurality of information types for presenting different types of explanatory information regarding the keyword, such as a definition of the keyword, a synonym for the keyword, an example usage of the keyword, etc.

Abstract: The display of structured oriented graphs undergoing incremental modifications is locally updated by determining the area containing the modification and the affected areas surrounding the modification. The affected areas are shifted to accommodate the modification without the necessity of regenerating the entire display.

Abstract: A polygon rendering circuit for a computer color graphics system comprising an edge stepper which steps along edges of an input polygon to determine the span of the polygon along each scan line intersected by the polygon. The coordinate values of the edges on each scan line are determined to sub-pixel resolution such that only those pixels whose centers lie within the true polygon edges (within the span width) must be drawn. Processing efficiency is improved and bandwidth is minimized by passing only those edges of the polygon which are new to that polygon and by computing the Z values in the same manner as, and in parallel with, the X values. Improved results are also possible in accordance with the technique of the invention, for since adjacent polygons compute the same edge by stepping, there can be no gaps between polygons due to round-off errors.

Abstract: An image processing system having an input controller, a file server, an image setter, and a work station, each of which includes a separate and independent CPU. These CPUs operate simultaneously to provide high speed image processing. This system allows a user to combine and interactively edit various types of information, such as characters, designs and images, when the information is displayed upon a work station. After a user interactively edits this image information, a composed final image is stored in memory. The system also eliminates pattern frames, representing contour border lines around segments of the image, by superimposing an eliminating frame upon the contour lines.

Abstract: An image data processing apparatus includes a <v> calculating block 7 for calculating a vector <v> from a vector <x> which has 64 elements in a real space and which has been generated as a sequence of image data in 8 rows and 8 columns in the real space, a <w> calculating block 8 for calculating a vector <w> from the vector <x> in the real space, and a <c> calculating block 9 for adding and subtracting elements of the vector <v> and elements of the vector <w>, thereby producing a vector <c> which has 64 elements in a space of spatial frequencies. The elements of the vector <c> in the space of spatial frequencies are arranged into data in 8 rows and 8 columns in the space of spatial frequencies.

Abstract: A system for automatically laying out and graphically displaying the topology of a computer network system. The layout system retrieves a list of the nodes within the network and their interconnections from a database which can be manually built by a network administrator or automatically constructed by other software. The system will provide any of three views that can be requested by the user. An internet view is the largest and shows the interconnection of different networks. A network view can be shown for any of the networks described in the internet view. A network is comprised of segments and the system will display a view of the nodes connected to any one of the segments. The system will automatically update the view as new nodes become available in the database. This aspect of the system and allows the system to dynamically update the graph when the list of nodes is being supplied by other software.

Abstract: A fast vertical scan-conversion and filling method and apparatus for outline font character generation in dot matrix devices including a normalized polysegment generation engine for converting spline data to normalized polysegment data, a vertical scan conversion engine comprised of a decision table transitioner (DT) unit for identifying the location of a transition pixel relative to each polysegment or indicating that an identification cannot be made, intersection transition calculating unit (IT) for calculating the position of a transition pixel relative to each polysegment, and a transition pixel coordinate generating unit responsive to the normalized polysegment data and input received from the DT and IT units and operative to generate signals corresponding to the X and Y coordinates of each transition pixel, and a parity filling engine responsive to the x and y coordinate segment and operative to generate bit mapped character image data for use in driving a bit map print or display device.

Abstract: A method, in a computer graphics system, manipulates the vertices contained within a group of possibly self intersecting, free space, over lapping polygons, into simple, convex polygons. A normal axis to the complex polygon is determined such that the surface of the polygon is viewed along this normal axis. The polygon surface is then bounded by a rectangle and subdivided into a group of slabs, or smaller rectangles, each rectangular slab being bounded by a pair of interior vertices of the complex polygon. An active edge table is used to store values corresponding to the edges crossing through the slabs, which are used to determine if these edges cross are another at any point within the slab. If a crossing point does exist, the slabs are divided at the crossing point into rectangular sub-slabs until it is determined that no edge intersects another edge within the sub-slabs, of the original slab being considered.

Abstract: A system and method for converting coordinates on a computer graphics system so that objects drawn on a computer display screen will have the dimensions and location intended by the user when the object is printed. The user draws lines on the display screen, with the lines being aligned with marks on rulers which are also displayed along each axis of the display screen. The ruler marks are labeled in units, such as millimeters, which are often impossible to accurately display on the computer screen. The system then converts the coordinates to a high resolution coordinate system value that corresponds to the position and size of the object in relation to the labeled marks on the ruler. When the display screen is printed, the object is printed in accordance with the labels on the rulers rather than the displayed image of the object on the computer screen.

Abstract: A scan conversion device generates segment direction information on the basis of vector information representing outlines of a pattern such as graphic FIGURES. An image drawing data generating device generates raster information inclusive of image drawing direction information in accordance with predetermined image drawing direction rules on the basis of the segment direction information, and further generates new image drawing data to be stored into a frame memory in accordance with predetermined image drawing rules on the basis of the raster information and previous image drawing data read from the corresponding memory area of the frame memory. The frame memory stores the image drawing data on a dot-by-dot basis. A dot pattern converting device converts the image drawing data provided from the frame memory into a dot pattern signal in accordance with an image drawing mode as set.

Abstract: A contour filling apparatus comprising a display frame memory and a draft memory spatially corresponding thereto. A target shape to be displayed is filled inside by a draft filling means according to a suitable draft scan pattern. The filled shape is drawn in the draft memory. Scan coordinates specifying each dot in the draft memory and the display frame memory are generated in accordance with any of a plurality of previously provided scan patterns. If a dot specified by scan coordinates in the draft memory is found to be a dot filled by the draft filling means, that dot is drawn in the display frame memory where specified by the scan coordinates. The target shape is thus filled on a display screen of the apparatus in a desired scan pattern.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus for receiving digital image data including bilevel images such as character and line draw images and pseudo halftone images such as dither image and error diffusion image and for estimating a halftone image.