Method of displaying multi-channel waveforms

• US 20060161360A1
• Filed: 12/22/2005
• Published: 07/20/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/18/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co., Ltd. (Excelsior Union Ltd.), Shenzhen Mindray Scientific Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co., Ltd. (Excelsior Union Ltd.)
• Inventors: Chen, Wei, Yao, Li
• Granted Patent: US 7,260,489 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/67
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation

Abstract

A method of displaying multi-channel waveforms, which is used for displaying multi-channel waveforms dynamically in embedded systems, the method comprising the steps of: dividing at least one waveform screen in a video memory which is mapped to a display terminal into a plurality of waveform windows, wherein boundaries of each of the windows are defined by a plurality of values set in at least a set of boundary registers; establishing a waveform parameter table in a memory of the system, which contains characteristic parameters of each waveform in each of the waveform windows; writing waveform data into a logical space in the waveform screen corresponding to a waveform by writing operations from CPU to the video memory; and on a basis of the parameters of the waveform windows in the waveform parameter table, performing a display mode defined by the parameter by means of is changing the mapping relationship between the video memory and the display terminal, before transmitting the data of each of the waveform windows read out from the video memory to the display terminal by a display drive circuit. According to the method of present invention, the inconsistency between the increase of waveforms and the resultant significant increase of logic resources and degradation of the performance of chips for display can be solved, which enables the system advantageous in high efficiency, low cost and excellent extensibility.

Claims

1. A method of displaying multi-channel waveforms for embedded systems, comprising the steps of:

a. assigning a plurality of separate spaces in a video memory, each of which is mapped to a same display terminal, wherein at least one of the spaces is named as a waveform screen which is used for storing waveform data; and

dividing writing operations for a video memory by CPU, wherein the writing operations for a video memory divided by CPU contains at least a writing operation for the waveform screen;

b. transmitting data including the waveform screen data which is read out from the video memory to corresponding ones of processing channels to be processed respectively by a display drive circuit, wherein the channels contains channels for waveform screen data which are named as waveform channels; and

c. synthesizing multi-channel data processed in and output from the corresponding channels, and transmitting the synthesized data to the display terminal.

2. The method of displaying multi-channel waveforms according to claim 1, wherein in the step a, at least one of the remaining spaces is used for storing character data which is named as a character screen, and writing operations for a video memory divided by CPU further contains writing operations for the character screen accordingly;

in the step b, each of the character screen data and each of the waveform screen data which are read out from the video memory are transmitted to corresponding ones of character screen channels and waveform screen channels to be processed; and

in the step c, multi-channel data processed in and output from the corresponding character screen channels and waveform screen channels is synthesized, then transmitted to the display terminal.

3. The method of displaying multi-channel waveforms according to claim 1, wherein in the step b, the multi-channel waveforms are processed in each of the waveform screen channels in such a way that each waveform is displayed in different modes.

4. The method of displaying multi-channel waveforms according to claim 1, wherein in the step c, the synthesis of the multi-channel data processed in and output from the corresponding character screen channels and waveform screen channels is performed by covering the waveform data with the character information data or by covering the character information data with the waveform data.

5. The method of displaying multi-channel waveforms according to claim 2, wherein color information contained in each of the waveform data of the plurality of waveform screens which is mapped to a same region of the display terminal and displayed in parallel thereon is different from each other.

6. A method of displaying multi-channel waveforms, which is used for displaying multi-channel waveforms simultaneously in embedded systems, the method comprising the steps of:

a. dividing a waveform screen in a video memory that is mapped to a display terminal into a plurality of waveform windows arranged in a vertical direction, each of which displays a waveform or displays multi-channel waveforms in parallel in a horizontal direction respectively, wherein boundaries of each of the windows are defined by a plurality of values set in at least a set of boundary registers;

b. establishing a waveform parameter table in a memory of the system, which contains characteristic parameters of each waveform in each of the waveform windows, wherein the characteristic parameters contain at least a parameter indicating a display mode of the waveform;

c. writing waveform data into a logical space in the waveform screen corresponding to the waveform by writing operations from CPU to the is video memory; and

d. on a basis of the parameters of the waveform windows in the waveform parameter table, performing a display mode defined by the parameter by means of changing the mapping relationship between the video memory and the display terminal, before transmitting the data of each of the waveform windows read out from the video memory to the display terminal by a display drive circuit.

7. The method of displaying multi-channel waveforms according to claim 6, wherein contents set in the boundary register are used either to set a common boundary for all of the waveform windows, or to divide each of the waveform windows separately and set the boundary thereof.

8. The method of displaying multi-channel waveforms according to claim 6, wherein the contents set in the boundary register are also used to set a segment of horizontal region for displaying each waveform when multi-channel waveforms are horizontally displayed in the windows in parallel.

9. The method of displaying multi-channel waveforms according to claim 8, wherein in a case that multi-channel waveforms are displayed in parallel in the windows horizontally, the multi-channel waveforms are switched from left to right while relevant steps are performed to synthesize each line of scanning data on the display terminal by the display drive circuit according to the waveform parameter table and the boundary registers of each of the multi-channel waveforms.

10. The method of displaying multi-channel waveforms according to claim 6, wherein the characteristic parameters of waveforms further contain a parameter indicating a horizontal initial position xo for displaying the waveform.

11. The method of displaying multi-channel waveforms according to claim 6, wherein the characteristic parameters of waveforms contain at least a vertical boundary of the waveform window.

12. The method of displaying multi-channel waveforms according to claim 6, wherein the waveform parameter table established in RAM built in FPGA or ASIC or in RAM memory outside of chips.

13. The method of displaying multi-channel waveforms according to claim 10, wherein for each waveform, the steps c and d further comprises the steps of:

clearing and refreshing waveform data in the video memory according to each value of xo corresponding to the waveform in the memory for storing waveform parameters in the system while incrementing xo by 1 continuously in such a circulation that xo will be reset by a preset value wflb in a left boundary register for the waveform once it overflows a preset value wfrb in a right boundary register for the waveform; and

performing different processes on a basis of different display modes, wherein in a case of refreshing mode, the waveform data in the video memory is mapped directly to the display screen by the display drive circuit, so that the display of the waveforms from left to right can be realized by means of point-by-point refreshing; and

in a case of scrolling mode, the waveform data in the video memory is mapped directly to the display screen in the region outside of a waveform window by a driving logic for display, while inside of the waveform window, during the waveforms are scrolled from right to left as the continuous increment of xo by itself, a mapping relationship between the video memory and the display terminal is used by the driving logic for display, which is expressed mathematically as follows;

when xo≦

x≦

wfrb, W(x, y) is mapped to (x−

xo+wflb, y) on the display terminal;

otherwise, when wflb≦

x<

xo, W(x, y) is mapped to (x+wfrb−

xo+1, y) on the display terminal.

14. The method of displaying multi-channel waveforms according to claim 13, wherein in a case that multi-channel waveforms are displayed in parallel in the windows horizontally, the multi-channel waveforms are switched from left to right while relevant steps are performed to synthesize each line of scanning data on the display terminal by the display drive circuit according to the waveform parameter table and the boundary registers of each of the multi-channel waveforms.

15. The method of displaying multi-channel waveforms according to claim 6, wherein the display terminal of the system is supported by the waveform screens to display at least 9 channels of waveforms dynamically.

16. The method of displaying multi-channel waveforms according to claim 6, wherein a plurality of waveform screens are included in the video memory, each of which is mapped to the same display terminal or the same region of the display terminal, wherein color information contained in the each of the waveform data of the plurality of waveform screens which is mapped to the same region of the display terminal and displayed in parallel thereon is different from each other.