Screen display device

• US 20060066506A1
• Filed: 07/20/2004
• Published: 03/30/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/23/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Automotive Systems Company of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Yoshioka, Kenji, Nojiri, Atsushi
• Granted Patent: US 7,439,964 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/3.100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1431 using a single graphics controller
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/66 Transforming electric information into light information scanning details H04N3/00

Abstract

Herein disclosed is a display controlling apparatus, comprising: data output units (140) to be electrically connectable to respective display apparatuses; an information inputting unit (110) to be operable to have inputted therein information to be required for said display apparatuses to display on screens; a controlling unit (120) for producing contents to be displayed by said display apparatuses from said information inputted by said information inputting unit; and a video memory (130) having stored therein said contents produced by said controlling unit, wherein said controlling unit (120) is operative to adjust the resolution of each of said contents to be displayed by said display apparatuses on the basis of the number of said display apparatuses electrically connected to said signal outputting units, and to output said contents to be displayed at said adjusted resolution by said display apparatuses through said data output units (140).

Claims

1. A display controlling apparatus, comprising:

data outputting units to be electrically connectable to respective display apparatuses;

an information inputting unit to be operable to have inputted therein information to be required for said display apparatuses to display on screens;

a controlling unit for producing contents to be displayed by said display apparatuses from said information inputted by said information inputting unit; and

a video memory having stored therein said contents produced by said controlling unit, wherein

said controlling unit is operative to output said contents stored in said video memory to said display apparatuses through said data outputting units.

2. A display controlling apparatus as set forth in claim 1, in which

said controlling unit is operative to adjust the resolution of each of said contents to be displayed by said display apparatuses on the basis of the number of said display apparatuses electrically connected to said signal outputting units, and to output said contents to be displayed at said adjusted resolution by said display apparatuses through said data outputting units, and in which

said controlling unit is operative to maintain said resolution of each of said contents to be displayed by said display apparatuses when the judgment is made that said number of said display apparatuses is equal to one.

4. A display controlling apparatus as set forth in claim 1, in which

said image data has layers to be collectively defined as data structure, and in which

each of said contents to be displayed by said display apparatuses is constituted by data assigned to one or more of said layers.

5. A display controlling apparatus as set forth in claim 1, in which

said controlling unit is operative to allow said contents to be sequentially received by said display apparatuses through said data outputting units in order of said data outputting units electrically connected to said display apparatuses in a period of a synchronization signal.

6. A display controlling apparatus as set forth in claim 5, in which

the number of said display apparatuses electrically connected to said data outputting units is equal to two, and in which

said controlling unit is operative to allow said contents to be received by one of said two display apparatuses on each of leading edges of said synchronization signal, and to allow said contents to be received by the other of said two display apparatuses on each of trailing edges of said synchronization signal.

7. A display controlling apparatus as set forth in claim 1, in which

each of said display apparatuses electrically connected to said data outputting units has an operating unit for issuing an instruction to said controlling unit to select one or more contents, and in which

said controlling unit is operative to judge whether or not one or more contents selected by one of said display apparatuses are the same as one or more contents which are being outputted to the other of said display apparatuses, and to allow one of said display apparatuses to display information on whether or not one or more contents selected by one of said display apparatuses are the same as one or more contents which are being outputted to the other of said display apparatuses in response to said instruction issued by said operating unit of one of said display apparatuses.

8. A display controlling apparatus as set forth in claim 1, in which

each of said display apparatuses electrically connected to said data outputting units has an operating unit for issuing an instruction to said controlling unit to select one or more contents, and in which

said controlling unit is operative to judge whether or not one or more contents selected by one of said display apparatuses are the same as one or more contents which are being utilized through said operating unit to the other of said display apparatuses, and to allow one of said display apparatuses to display information on whether or not one or more contents selected by one of said display apparatuses are the same as one or more contents which are being outputted to the other of said display apparatuses in response to said instruction issued by said operating unit of one of said display apparatuses.

9. A display controlling apparatus as set forth in claim 7, in which

said information displayed by one of said display apparatuses is represented by a pointer.

10. A display controlling apparatus as set forth in claim 7, in which

said controlling unit is operative to allow one or more contents to be utilized through said operating unit of one of said display apparatuses with the restriction on the use of said contents after allowing one of said display apparatuses to display said information that one or more contents selected by one of said display apparatuses are the same as one or more contents which are being outputted to the other of said display apparatuses.

11. A display controlling apparatus as set forth in claim 1, in which

said display apparatuses each has an operating unit for issuing an instruction to said controlling unit to output one or more contents, said display apparatuses being assigned to respective priority sequences, in which

said controlling unit is operative to judge whether or not one or more contents which are being outputted to one of said display apparatuses are the same as one or more contents selected by the other of said display apparatuses before judging whether or not one of said display apparatuses exceeds in priority sequence the other of said display apparatuses when the judgment is made that one or more contents selected by the other of said display apparatuses are the same as one or more contents which are being outputted to one of said display apparatuses, and in which

said controlling unit is operative to allow the other of said display apparatuses to display one or more contents the same as one or more contents which are being outputted to one of said display apparatuses with the restriction on the utilization of said contents when the judgment is made that one of said display apparatuses exceeds in priority sequence the other of said display apparatuses.

12. A display controlling apparatus as set forth in claim 11, in which

said controlling unit is operative to allow said priority sequence assigned to each of said display apparatuses to be changed by each of said operating unit of said display apparatuses.

3. A display controlling apparatus, comprising:

data outputting units to be electrically connectable to respective display apparatuses;

an information inputting unit to be operable to have inputted therein data to be required for said display apparatuses to display on screens;

a controlling unit for producing image data on contents to be displayed by said display apparatuses on the basis of said information inputted by said information inputting unit; and

a video memory having stored therein said image data produced by said controlling unit, wherein

said controlling unit is operative to output said contents to said display apparatuses through said data outputting units on the basis of said image data stored in said video memory.

13. A display controlling apparatus for allowing display apparatuses to display respective images represented by image data, comprising:

a multiplexing unit for multiplexing said image data indicative of said images to be displayed by the display apparatuses;

a buffer memory having stored therein said multiplexed image data; and

demultiplexing unit for demultiplexing said multiplexed image data stored in said buffer memory to output said demultiplexed image data to each of said display apparatuses.

14. A display controlling apparatus as set forth in claim 13, which further comprises:

a synchronization signal producing unit for producing a synchronization signal to be constituted by a pulse string having a predetermined period, and in which

said demultiplexing unit is operative to demultiplex said multiplexed image data stored in said buffer memory by allowing said multiplexed image data to be selectively received by each of said display apparatuses in said predetermined period of said synchronization signal.

15. A display controlling apparatus as set forth in claim 13, which further comprises:

a synchronization signal producing unit for producing a synchronization signal to be constituted by a pulse string having a predetermined period, and in which

said demultiplexing unit is operative to demultiplex said multiplexed image data stored in said buffer memory by allowing said multiplexed image data to be received by one of said two display apparatuses on each of leading edges of said synchronization signal, and to be received by the other of said two display apparatuses on each of trailing edges of said synchronization signal.

16. A display controlling apparatus as set forth in claim 13, in which

said multiplexing unit is operative to adjust said resolution of each of said images to be respectively displayed by the display apparatuses on the basis of the number of said display apparatuses electrically connected to said data outputting units to multiplex image data indicative of said images to be respectively displayed by the display apparatuses at said adjusted resolution.

17. A display controlling apparatus as set forth in claim 16, in which

said multiplexing unit is operative to adjust said resolution of each of said images to be respectively displayed by the display apparatuses in inverse proportional relationship with the number of said display apparatuses electrically connected to said data outputting units.