REMOTE MULTIPLE IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS

• US 20100103183A1
• Filed: 10/23/2008
• Published: 04/29/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/23/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Aspen Technology (Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson)
• Original Assignee: Aspen Technology (Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson)
• Inventors: LIN, Hung-Ming, CHEN, Ya-Cheng, BAI, Ming-Chi, YUAN, Jen-Min, HUANG, Hung-Ju
• Application Number:
  US12/256,944
• Publication Number:
  US 20100103183A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/555
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1454 involving copying of the display data of a local workstation or window to a remote workstation or window so that an actual copy of the data is displayed simultaneously on two or more displays, e.g. teledisplay
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/02 Handling of images in compressed format, e.g. JPEG, MPEG
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/10 Use of a protocol of communication by packets in interfaces along the display data pipeline
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2365 Multiplexing of several video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4347 Demultiplexing of several video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43615 Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4382 Demodulation or channel decoding, e.g. QPSK demodulation analog front ends or means for connecting modulators, demodulators or transceivers to a transmission line H04L27/0002
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44008 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in the video stream arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• 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

Abstract

A remote multiple image processing apparatus comprises a graphic processing unit, a memory unit, an image compression unit, a transmission unit and a transmission medium. The graphic processing unit receives at least an image frame including a plurality of image blocks, and determines the degree of the difference between the current input image block and the previous input image block. The memory unit, coupling to the graphic processing unit, stores the image blocks. The image compression unit, coupling to the memory unit, compresses the image blocks and generates at least a compressed datum. The transmission unit, coupling to the image compression unit, transforms the compressed datum into at least a data packet. The transmission medium outputs the data packet. The remote multiple image processing apparatus uses the compression technique to allow a client sharing the resources of graphic processing unit so as to get multiple use benefits.

Claims

1. A remote multiple image processing apparatus, comprising:

a graphic processing unit for receiving at least an image frame including a plurality of image blocks and for determining the degree of the difference between the current input image block and the previous input image block;

a memory unit, coupling to the graphic processing unit, for storing the image blocks

an image compression unit, coupling to the memory unit, for compressing the image blocks and generating at least a compressed datum;

a transmission unit, coupling to the image compression unit, for transforming the compressed datum into at least a data packet;

a transmission medium for outputting the data packet.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the current input image block and the previous input image block each comprise a color datum and a flag datum and, when the difference between the color datum of the current input image block and that of the previous input image block reaches a preset level, the graphic processing unit changes the flag datum stored in the memory unit and the image compression unit compresses the current input image block according to the flag datum.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein, when the difference between the color datum of the current input image block and that of the previous input image block does not reach the preset level, the graphic processing unit maintains the flag datum stored in the memory unit and the image compression unit does not compress the current input image block according to the flag datum.

4. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the transmission unit does not transmit the data packet to the transmission medium.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the current input image block comprises a pixel of the current input image, the previous input image block comprises a pixel of the previous input image, and the positions of these two pixels are substantially the same.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the current input image block comprises a plurality of pixels of the current input image, the previous input image block comprises a plurality of pixels of the previous input image, and the positions of every two pixels of the current and previous input images are substantially the same.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the current input image block comprises all pixels of the current input image and the previous input image block comprises all pixels of the previous input image.

8. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the color datum comprises red, green, blue (RGB) primary color data.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the memory unit is implemented by a dynamic random access memory (DRAM).

10. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the memory unit is implemented by a frame buffer built in the graphic processing unit.

11. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the graphic processing unit receives the current input image block and the previous input image block via a peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) interface or a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) interface.

12. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the transmission unit comprises:

at least a data link layer for processing the compressed datum to generate the data packet; and

at least a physical layer circuit coupling to the data link layer for processing and transmitting the data packet.

13. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the data packet comprises a header, the compressed datum, and a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) or error correction code (ECC).

14. A remote multiple image processing method, comprising:

receiving at least an image frame including a plurality of image blocks and determining the degree of the difference between the current input image block and the previous input image block wherein the current input image block and the previous input image block each comprise a color datum and a flag datum;

updating the flag data and compressing the current input image block according to the flag data to generate a compressed datum when the color data of the current input image block and the previous input image block are different;

transforming the compressed datum into a data packet and thereby outputting via a network cable or optical fiber.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein, when no difference between the color datum of the current input image block and that of the previous input image block, the flag data are not updated, the current input image block is not compressed, and the current image data are not outputted.

16. A remote multiple image processing apparatus, comprising:

a de-multiplexer for receiving at least a data packet and for outputting the data packet according to an command; and

at least a client processing circuit, comprising;

at least a transmission unit for receiving the data packet and transforming the data packet into a compressed datum; and

at least a de-compression unit coupling to the transmission unit for decompressing the compressed datum to generate an image frame datum.

17. The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the transmission unit comprises:

at least a physical layer circuit for processing and transmitting the data packet; and

at least a data link layer coupling to the physical layer circuit for processing the data packet to generate the compressed datum.

18. The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the image datum is outputted to a display device.

19. The apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the display device comprises an image interface and a display.

20. The apparatus according to claim 19, wherein the image interface is selected from the group consisting of the following or combination thereof:

D-sub interface, S-video interface in Video Graphics Array (VGA) interface, AV terminal interface, 3RCA (YUV, YpbPr, or YCbCr) terminal interface or BNC terminal interface, or digital video interactive (DVI) interface.