Abstract: A video distribution hub and display method are disclosed which is capable of driving a plurality of video display monitors as a virtual monitor or monitors. The video distribution hub receives a video signal from a single head graphics card or a suitable video source which signal embodies data within a video buffer on the graphics card or at the video source. The hub processes the received video signal and stores selected data segments corresponding to selected portions of the video buffer in a plurality of frame buffers within the distribution hub. The data stored within the plurality of frame buffers is employed to drive respective video displays, such as flat panel displays or conventional CRT displays. The hub accommodates displays of different resolution. Additionally, the hub accommodates displays having either a portrait or landscape orientation.

Abstract: A video interface system which samples an input video signal to capture a subset of pixels from first and second frames of the signal. A frame buffer temporarily stores the captured subsets of pixels from the first and second frames and a display interface unit reads the stored pixels out of the frame buffer for transfer to a flat panel display. The subsets of pixels from the first and second frames are interleaved on the display to provide a video image. The display is updated by replacing one of the displayed subsets of pixels with a subset of pixels captured from a subsequent frame of the video signal. In one embodiment, the subset of captured pixels from the first frame includes those pixels for which the sum of the respective row and column numbers is either odd or even and the subset of captured pixels from the second frame includes those pixels for which the sum of the respective row and column numbers is even or odd.

Abstract: A multiuser display system in which the bit planes are shared by a plurality of user stations. A bus carries a superpixel containing bits from each of the bit planes in this system. Each user station is assigned particular bit planes and extracts the bits corresponding to the assigned bit planes from the superpixel. Double buffering within a window is made possible by providing two sets of bit plane identification registers.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for improving the display of objects on an interlaced raster-scan television are disclosed. The invention takes each data point that will appear as a pixel on the screen and makes it appear also at pixel locations displaced by one unit in each of two axes, individually or collectively if desired. The direction of displacement is uniform for any given picture. The additional appearance is not stored as part of the picture data, but instead is generated "on the fly" as part of reading the data and preparing it for presentation on the television screen.