Abstract: To provide an image processing apparatus and method that enable high speed and high quality image drawing process. When a drawing instruction including drawing logical arithmetic process instruction is input to a drawing instruction converting unit, the drawing instruction converting mans converts the input drawing instruction to a drawing object and a drawing logical arithmetic process instruction and then stores these to a drawing object storing unit. A drawing logical arithmetic process instruction determining unit determines whether the drawing logical arithmetic process instruction has content to be drawn without logical arithmetic process or not.

Abstract: A circuit and process perform trilinear filtering using four texels (called “nearest texels”) that are nearest to a to-be-displayed pixel, and also using twelve additional texels (called “surrounding texels”) that surround the nearest texels. The nearest texels and the surrounding texels (together called “fine texels”) are all from only one level of detail L, while a filtered texel being generated is at another level of detail L+p, wherein p is a fractional level of detail. The filtered texel is used in rendering the to-be-displayed pixel, and can be identical to the texel obtained by trilinear filtering in the prior art. The circuit and process use fine texels to regenerate a quad of coarse texels that are used with a quad of the nearest texels to perform trilinear filtering.

Abstract: It is an object to provide an image generating apparatus and method which can perform a high-quality translucence process with reduction of the hardware scale and processing load. The translucence process is performed according to a first translucence information OPt used for performing the translucence control with respect to the respective portions of an object and a second translucence information OPm used for performing the translucence control with respect to the entire object. The translucence control according to OPm is invalidated with respect to a portion of the object that is judged to be opaque according to OPt, that is, to be OPt=1. For example, the translucence control may normally be carried out according to the relational expression of OPp=OPm×OPt. On the other hand, when a switching flag SFL is 0, OPp is fixed at 1 or the translucence process is omitted, with respect to the opaque portion.

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: The invention provides a detector to detect pseudo-contour noise that appears when gradation display is performed in the subfield method on the display apparatus such as a plasma display panel. The invention also provides a display apparatus which makes use of the detector. The detector detects the probability of pseudo-contour noise appearance as a noise quantity (MPD value), which comprises an MPD calculator to calculate the MPD value, an exclusion area detector to detect an area in which diffusion processing is not performed; and a subtractor to remove an exclusion area from an area for which the MPD value has been determined. The display apparatus comprises the detector and a noise diffussing device to reduce appearance of pseudo-contour noise based on the MPD value.

Abstract: An initial magnified image is generated using a lowpass magnification filter. The resulting image will generally have smaller image data gradients than the original image. Portions of the image that the user, or an application, want to sharpen are selected, and the corresponding portions of the original image data are highpass filtered by one or more highpass filters to generate sharpening data. The initial magnified image data and the sharpening data are combined to generate a sharpened magnified image. In a preferred embodiment, two highpass filters are used, and a distinct sharpening parameter is used to scale the coefficients in each of the two highpass filters. The sharpening parameters are user selectable. This gives the user greater control over the image sharpening process than use of a single highpass filter.

Abstract: An image magnifying method and apparatus magnifies a portion of an image displayed on a computer display device. The user of the computer selects a first region (called a magnification window) of the displayed image, for instance using a mouse or trackball pointer device. Image data from the screen buffer for the user selected magnification window is copied to a first buffer. A magnified image is generated from the copied image data and the magnified image is stored in the screen buffer so as to replace the copied image data. When the user moves the screen cursor, or otherwise selects a second magnification window that overlaps with the first, the magnification application copies image data for a combined window, covering both the first and second magnification windows, from the screen buffer to a second buffer.

Abstract: In a method of displaying an emitted light beam seemingly irregularly folded, the emitted light beam is divided into a plurality of segments each of which has an angle which is regularly varied at each segment in accordance with a predetermined simple algorithm with a length and light intensity kept constant. Such segments which are regularly changed in angle can accomplish a powerful image of the emitted light beam when the segments are displayed on a screen of a display device by attaching a polygon and a texture to each segment. Such a display can be realized by simple calculation.

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: A display apparatus has an adjusting device, which acquires image brightness data, and adjusts a weighting multiplier N on the basis of brightness data. The weighting multiplier N takes not only a positive integer, but also a decimal fraction numeral. In accordance with this, even if weighting multiplier N changes, an abrupt change in brightness does not occur, and a person watching the screen is not left with a sense of incongruousness.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method of compensating for the differences in persistence of the phosphors in an image display screen consisting of cells arranged in lines and in columns, several adjacent cells being covered with different phosphors in order to form a pixel, the cells of one pixel being put either into an “off” state or into an “on” state for a time within one frame period depending on the grey level to be displayed. According to the method, at the pixel, the transitions between a first grey level and an adjacent second grey level are detected and if the transition is greater than a threshold the state of the cell covered with a persistent phosphor is forced to the second grey level before the end of the frame period. The invention applies especially to plasma panels.

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, for use in a computer image generation system wherein polygons are displayed on an array of pixels, for encoding data representing intersections of the polygons and the pixels. The method comprises the steps of receiving input data signals characterizing a set of coordinates of each of at least three vertices of each polygon to be displayed, each different pair of the vertices of each polygon defining a different edge of the polygon; and generating, responsive to the received vertex data signals, edge data signals describing the intersection, if any, of the polygon edges with each pixel to be displayed.

Abstract: A signal processing apparatus for linear interpolation capable of performing operations to obtain suitable original data even when an interpolation coefficient &agr; is 1.0, wherein a correction term selects A when &agr;=0×FF (&agr;=1.0) and selects B when the bit is 0. The selected data becomes an element of addition by being shifted for the number of bits of &agr;. A product summation operation term uses the upper 8 bits of the result of multiplication of 8 bits×8 bits and shifts the 8-bit result of operation 8 bits to the left so as to enable further addition of the product summation operation term. An adder adds the shifted correction term, the partial products out—0 to out—7, and the product summation operation term and outputs the upper 8 bits as the result of the operation.

Abstract: A system and method of rendering overlapping layers in a computer display, such as a windowing system, employs front-to-back assembly of the displayed image. An arbitrary number of overlapping elements, such as windows, can be presented, without requiring temporary storage space or additional off-screen buffers. The front-to-back assembly technique minimizes the number of memory transfers performed in connection with rendering an image, and avoids unnecessary reading and processing of pixels that will not contribute to the final image. Special effects such as semi-transparency, shadows, and irregular shapes can be accommodated and processed in an efficient manner.

Abstract: Morphing between two-dimensional or three-dimensional computer graphic models is accomplished by reducing given models from full resolution to low resolution ones between which the morph can be constructed either trivially or with simple user interaction, and then refining the morph using local searches as the two models are progressively refined back to full resolution.

Abstract: A method for scaling of an image that includes providing an N-tap filter to be applied upon an image region and applying the N-tap filter variously to the image region and obtaining therefrom at least one scaled image pixel, such that N is equal to the scaling factor plus one. For instance, a 4:1 scaling procedure is achieved using a five-tap filter. By carefully selecting the coefficient of the five-tap filter, 2:1 scaling with a three-tap filter may be achieved using the same hardware and adding control signals and selectors. The scaling methodology and apparatus work directly in the CFA domain and provide efficient single pass dual-moded or multi-moded scaling capability.

Abstract: A method and system for compressing and decompressing degamma data stored in a read only memory (116). A control processor (114) reads the compressed degamma data from the ROM (116) and decompresses the degamma data. The decompressed data is stored in a set of random access memory degamma lookup tables (118).

Abstract: A method and system for displaying a resource schedule containing a plurality of objects in an N-level multiple hierarchy all of which objects are subject to a common dependency, comprising the steps of allocating different non-overlapping areas of a display device for each level of the resource schedules, and graphically displaying each level of the resource schedule in the respective area of the display device in synchronized relationship on a common axis representative of the common dependency. Editing tools are provided for allowing objects of the same level to be interchanged, objects of a given level i (where i<N) to be inserted into an object of a higher level (i+1), and objects of a given level i (where i>1) to be disassembled into an object of a lower level (i−1). The method and system are particularly suited for constructing and editing crew pairings for airlines and allow simple and efficient on-line, interactive manipulation of resources.