VIDEO MULTIVIEWER SYSTEM PERMITTING SCROLLING OF MULTIPLE VIDEO WINDOWS AND RELATED METHODS

• US 20090256965A1
• Filed: 04/10/2008
• Published: 10/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/10/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Imagine Communications Limited (Gores Broadcast Holdings LLC)
• Original Assignee: Harris Corporation (L3Harris Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Mance, Daniel, Moote, Stanley R., Faragher, Chad
• Granted Patent: US 8,811,499 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/564
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42204 User interfaces specially adapted for controlling a client device through a remote control device; Remote control devices therefor constructive details of casings for the remote control device H01H9/0235; user interfaces for controlling a tuning device of a television receiver through a remote control H03J9/00; remote control of peripheral devices connected to a television receiver through the remote control device of the television receiver H04B1/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42653 for processing graphics
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440263 by altering the spatial resolution, e.g. for displaying on a connected PDA
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4435 Memory management allocation of memory to service a request G06F9/5016; addressing or allocating within memory systems or architectures G06F12/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4438 Window management, e.g. event handling following interaction with the user interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8146 involving graphical data, e.g. 3D object, 2D graphics
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/44504 Circuit details of the additional information generator, e.g. details of the character or graphics signal generator, overlay mixing circuits

Abstract

A video multiviewer system may include a plurality of video inputs and a multiviewer video processor coupled to the plurality of video inputs for generating video data based upon the plurality of video inputs. The system may further include a display coupled to the multiviewer video processor for displaying multiple video windows based upon the video data, and at least one user input device. The multiviewer video processor may permit scrolling among the multiple video windows displayed on the display at a given instant and at least one other video window not displayed on the display at the given instant based upon the at least one user input device.

Claims

1. A video multiviewer system comprising:

a plurality of video inputs;

a multiviewer video processor coupled to said plurality of video inputs for generating video data based upon said plurality of video inputs;

a display coupled to said multiviewer video processor for displaying multiple video windows based upon the video data; and

at least one user input device;

said multiviewer video processor permitting scrolling among the multiple video windows displayed on said display at a given instant and at least one other video window not displayed on said display at the given instant based upon said at least one user input device.

2. The video multiviewer system of claim 1 wherein said multiviewer video processor further permits scrolling among portions of the multiple video windows displayed on said display at a given instant and at least one other portion not displayed on said display at the given instant.

3. The video multiviewer system of claim 1 wherein said multiviewer video processor comprises a central processing unit (CPU) and a graphics processing unit (GPU) cooperating therewith for generating the video data.

4. The video multiviewer system of claim 3 further comprising a system memory and a video input/output (I/O) controller;

wherein said GPU comprises a GPU memory storing the video data; and

wherein said CPU operates said video I/O controller to transfer video data to said GPU memory via direct memory access (DMA) without using said system memory.

5. The video multiviewer system of claim 4 wherein said video I/O controller assigns addresses to be used for video data in said GPU memory.

6. The video multiviewer system of claim 5 wherein said CPU cooperates with said video I/O controller to lock the assigned addresses.

7. The video multiviewer system of claim 6 wherein said GPU memory comprises at least one texture buffer in which said CPU locks the assigned addresses.

8. The video multiviewer system of claim 7 wherein said video I/O controller receives a plurality of video input streams;

and wherein said at least on texture buffer comprises a respective texture buffer for each video input stream.

9. The video multiviewer system of claim 4 wherein said CPU operates said video I/O controller and said GPU to transfer video data in real time.

10. The video multiviewer system of claim 4 wherein said CPU uses at least one Microsoft DirectX application programming interface (API) for operating said GPU.

11. The video multiviewer system of claim 1 wherein the video data comprises video frame data.

12. A video multiviewer system comprising:

a plurality of video inputs;

a multiviewer video processor coupled to said plurality of video inputs and comprising a central processing unit (CPU) and a graphics processing unit (GPU) cooperating therewith for generating video data based upon said plurality of video inputs; and

at least one user input device;

said multiviewer video processor permitting scrolling among portions of the multiple video windows displayed on said display at given instant and at least one other portion not displayed on said display at the given instant based upon said at least one user input device.

13. The video multiviewer system of claim 12 further comprising a system memory and a video input/output (I/O) controller;

wherein said GPU comprises a GPU memory storing the video data; and

wherein said CPU operates said video I/O controller to transfer video data to said CPU memory via direct memory access (DMA) without using said system memory.

14. The video multiviewer system of claim 13 wherein said video I/O controller assigns addresses to be used for video data in said GPU memory, and wherein said CPU cooperates with said video I/O controller to lock the assigned addresses.

15. The video multiviewer system of claim 12 wherein said multiviewer video processor further permits scrolling of the multiple video windows on said display among the multiple video windows displayed on said display at a given instant and at least one other video window not displayed on said display at the given instant.

16. A video processing method comprising:

providing a plurality of video inputs;

using a multiviewer video processor for generating video data based upon the plurality of video inputs;

displaying multiple video windows based upon the video data on a display; and

permitting scrolling among the multiple video windows displayed on the display at a given instant and at least one other video window not displayed on the display at the given instant based upon at least one user input device.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein permitting further comprises permitting scrolling among portions of the multiple video windows displayed on the display at a given instant and at least one other portion not displayed on the display at the given instant.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein the multiviewer video processor comprises a central processing unit (CPU) and a graphics processing unit (GPU) cooperating therewith for generating the video data.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the GPU comprises a GPU memory storing the video data, and wherein the CPU has a system memory associated therewith;

and further comprising operating the video I/O controller to transfer video data to the GPU memory via direct memory access (DMA) without using the system memory.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the video I/O controller assigns addresses to be used for video data in the GPU memory;

and further comprising using the CPU in cooperation with the video I/O controller to lock the assigned addresses.