Abstract: A terminal device, such as a computer, workstation or smart phone, incorporates a memory structure which simplifies and facilitates communications between a host computer and the terminal device. The host computer and the terminal device exchange application interface information via a communications protocol in which the host computer associates different types of objects with respective identifiers and then transmits an object type and its associated identifier to the terminal device. The terminal device, in turn, displays the object in a form determined solely by the terminal device but in accordance with respective predefined policies determined by the memory structure. If a user manipulates a displayed object type, then data representative of such manipulation is generated and transmitted with the associated object identifier to the host processor.

Abstract: A drawing which is drawn on a personal computer includes plural drawing elements and is displayed on a display unit of the personal computer. An editing area and a location to which the editing area is moved are specified by means of a pointing device such as a mouse. Coordinates of the editing area are stored in an area memory. A relative moving distance is calculated from coordinates of the specified location. The calculated relative moving distance is stored in a moving distance memory. A coordinate changing process is effected using data stored in the area memory and the moving distance memory. In the coordinate changing process, it is judged whether individual drawing elements are located inside the editing area. The drawing element which is located inside the editing area is subjected to a moving process. When a drawing element is located across a boundary of the editing area, only a part of the drawing element that is located inside the editing area is moved to the specified location.

Abstract: In order to increase the speed of the transfer of control data to an OSD circuit, and to eliminate "holes" in memory caused by the use of memory mapped registers, dual use is made of the serial data port of the OSD circuit to accomplish two distinct tasks, serial transfer of graphics data and serial transfer of the control data. The on-screen display apparatus includes an OSD circuit for generating an graphics signal for display on a display screen, a controller coupled to the OSD circuit, for controlling the OSD circuit, and a VRAM including a first area for storing graphics data and a second area for storing control data for the OSD circuit. The VRAM has a parallel input/output port coupled to the controller and a serial output port coupled to the OSD circuit, the serial output port conveys the graphics data from the first area of the VRAM to the OSD circuit for processing and display.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for browsing through a computer database on a computer system with a graphical user interface. The information to be browsed is displayed on a display screen. A browsing tool which resembles a magnifying glass is displayed on the display screen on top of the information. The browsing tool has a viewing lens with targeting crosshair and a "magnifying" reticle. When the browsing tool is moved about the screen, the information on the screen is shown in normal form. When the browsing tool comes to a rest, the information within the viewing lens of the browsing tool is modified depending on the current browsing tool mode. When the browsing tool is in magnification mode, the information within magnifying reticle is enhanced such that it fills the entire viewing lens of the browsing tool. When the browsing tool is in hierarchical browsing mode, the next lower level of the hierarchy is displayed within the viewing lens of the browsing tool.

Abstract: A high performance computer includes a CPU, a video display unit, a control unit, an image data extension unit, a video encoder unit responsive to the outputs of the video display unit, the controller unit and the image data extension unit, and a sound data output unit, for processing a variety of image data together with a variety of sound data at high speed. Three types of image data sequence processes can be carried out in the computer. These are an external block sequence, an external dot sequence, and an internal dot sequence.

Abstract: A data processing system displays options for selection by a user as a hierarchical tree form diagram. When a user indicates his first selected option to the data processing system it calculates what further selections are and are not available as a result of the selected option. It then modifies the display to show the options which are available for selection and those which are not. A selection list is stored and updated by the data processing system and the options input by the user are executed when the selection list is complete.

Abstract: A display controller includes a memory for storing data to be displayed on a display, a unit for supplying data to the memory, a first flag group for indicating a line on the display screen of the display corresponding to data supplied by the data supplying unit, a second flag group for indicating a plurality of the first flag groups, a detector for detecting the status of the display, a selector for selecting the first or second flag in accordance with the status of the display detected by the detector, and a display control unit for reading data designated by the first or second flag selected by the selector from the memory, and displaying the data on the display.

Abstract: Apparatus and method for processing hierarchically-coded image data includes structure and steps for storing hierarchically-coded image data and providing a first image data by decoding the hierarchically-coded image data. The first image data having a first resolution is stored in a display memory. The stored first image data is displayed on a display, and an area within the displayed first image is designated for a second image. The second image data is provided by decoding the hierarchically-coded image data and is representative of an image in the designated area of the first image. The second image data having a second resolution is stored in a portion of the display memory while the memory maintains the first image data stored therein. Finally, the display displays a combined image including the first image having the first resolution and the second image having the second resolution.

Abstract: The virtual graphics processor is a software process that enables different video display systems to execute the same graphical display application. The process also permits the display application to be updated or reconfigured in real time without changing the embedded display system software. The parts of the virtual graphics processor include an application graphics database for storing graphic primitives and associated static primitive data defining one or more graphic pages in a display application. An image control interface (video library) associates graphic functions of the particular video display system with graphic primitives in a requested page. An instruction sequencer within the virtual graphics processor responds to a display request by obtaining the requested graphic page from the graphics database and associated graphics functions from the video library.

Abstract: A computer system having a visual display which displays a selectable button and permits a user to quickly redisplay a previous visual display selected by the user is dislosed. The selectable button preferably contains a textual or graphical representation upon the face of the button which indicates the previous visual display. When a new visual display is selected by the user, either by single clicking on the button or by a click-and-drag operation, the button is revised such that the previous visual display is selectable by the single clicking on the selectable button. The visual display of this invention allows the user to quickly and conveniently revert to a previous visual display by a single user operation utilizing a selectable button.

Abstract: A display request for displaying a virtual plane from an input section is interpreted by an input request processing section and sent to a display request processing section. This section searches the concerned node from node data stored in a node/link data storage section and displays such a node on a display section. Simultaneously therewith, the display request processing section sends link data included in the displayed node to the input request processing section for storage. Further, the input request processing section makes a reference of a relevant node display request from the input section to the stored link data by the input request processing section, and a link ID that identifies the concerned link is sent to a relevant node search processing section. This section searches link data within the node/link data storage section to find an ID of a relevant node and searches the node data from the ID and finds a display position on the virtual plane to display the relevant node.

Abstract: A graphics and video controller 105 is provided which includes a dual aperture interface 206 for receiving words of graphics and video pixel data, each word of such data associated with an address directing that word to be processed as either graphics or video data. Circuitry 200, 201, 202, 207, 208 is provided for writing a word of the pixel data received from the interface 206 to a one of the on- and off-screen memory areas corresponding to the address associated with the received word. Circuitry 201, 202 is provided for selectively retrieving graphics and video data from the on-screen and off-screen memory areas. A first pipeline 205 is provided for processing data received from the on-screen area of frame buffer 107 while a second pipeline 204 is provided for processing data retrieved from the off-screen area of the frame buffer.

Abstract: A printer controller system for converting a page description language datastream into a pagemap and for dispatching the pagemap to a print engine one band at a time. The system includes the steps of interpreting the PDL datastream to generate a plurality of rendering commands; partitioning the page into a plurality of bands; allocating memory for at least one of the bands; rendering a bitmap in the allocated memory by processing the rendering commands; monitoring access to the allocated memory while processing a rendering command; saving off the rendering command if the processing operation attempts to access memory outside of the allocated memory; and dispatching the bitmap to a print engine. The saved off rendering commands will be retrieved and processing of them will be resumed when rendering the bitmap of the next band. Preferably, the tasks of interpreting the PDL datastream, rendering the bitmaps of the bands, and dispatching the rendered bands, are performed in parallel by separate processing units.

Abstract: Font character data is maintained in a cache memory in bit map form. Each character is identified a unique identifier (ID) value. The printer searches the cache memory only by ID value to determine the presence of a character in the cache. Pointer tables are avoided. A list is maintained of characters recently employed by the printer and is arranged so as to enable determination of a ranking of usage among the listed characters in cache. When a new character is requested by the printer, the cache is initially searched to determine if the character is present therein. If the character is found, it is immediately accessed and its identifier is placed at the head of the usage list. Other characters are pushed down in the list.

Abstract: A document editor for editing and displaying elements of a graphic with a logic structure which have an inclusive, side-by-side, or connective relationship mutually. The document editor comprises an editing unit for editing any element of said logic structure and reflecting the result of editing on other elements, an output unit for externally displaying the result of reflective editing, if necessary, and a control unit for designating display or non-display of the result of reflective editing for each element of said logic structure, and controlling the output unit in terms of display or non-display of the result of reflective editing according to the designation. By the constitution, during document editing and display, stepwise display of details can be controlled according to a logic structure, and any element can be edited in a selected display stage. Eventually, the constitution contributes to a reduction in the quantity of display information and a display time interval.

Abstract: A new behavior in a graphical user interface allows the user to open and close enclosures, while dragging an object. When the user pauses, gestures, or rolls over a hot spot on top of an icon or text representing a closed enclosure, a temporary window for the closed enclosure is "sprung open" to allow the user to browse inside the enclosure and possible open another enclosure contained within the temporary window. This process can be carried on throughout a hierarchy of windows as the user browses for a destination window for the drag operation. All of the temporary windows except the destination are closed when the mouse button is released, signaling the end of a drag. The user may close sprung open windows by simply moving the cursor out of the sprung open window, or by making some other gesture.

Abstract: A video register interface for a video processor in which each frame register has a first storage element which is written by a microprocessor interface independently from a second storage element which outputs control data to video processing circuitry. Since reading and writing are done independently to different storage elements, the contents of the register can be changed without adverse effects on a displayed image. The register interface is used in a CMOS video processor which in turn is used in a microprocessor based multimedia computing system.

Abstract: A media editing system for editing source material comprising digitizing apparatus for receiving and digitizing video and audio source material, the video source material including a sequence of images, each spanning both the horizontal and vertical display axes of the video source material. The editing system also includes computing apparatus including compression apparatus responsive to the digitizing apparatus. The compression apparatus compresses the images from the video source material. The computing apparatus determines if at least one of the compressed images occupies more than a target amount of storage and provides an indication if the at least one of the compressed images does occupy more than the target amount of storage. The compression apparatus is responsive to this indication to adjust its level of compression. The computing apparatus is also for manipulating the stored source material.

Abstract: A portrait drawing apparatus having image data input function for allowing the operator to select candidates of facial parts while displaying a draft image of the model to be drawn on the display screen. Comparing the candidates with the draft image makes it easy to select the most appropriate candidate of each facial part as well as to position the selected candidate where appropriate. The apparatus comprises a memory unit for storing facial part candidates with which to construct a portrait, a draft image reader for reading image data from image-bearing materials, a display unit for superimposing the draft image onto facial part candidates, and a selector for selecting the most appropriate candidate of each facial part.

Abstract: A low-cost high-performance technique for providing bit-mapped graphics display controllers is described whereby video frame buffer memory and video controller functions are integrated together on a single chip, permitting very wide video memory formats without the usual penalties of high pin count, package count, and wiring complexity. The wide video memory format relaxes timing requirements on the video frame buffer memory and provides greater accessibility of the video frame buffer memory for pixel data accesses other than display refresh accesses.