APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR EMBODYING OVERLAY IMAGES USING MRLC

• US 20130162679A1
• Filed: 02/29/2012
• Published: 06/27/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., Ltd. (Samsung Group)
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., Ltd. (Samsung Group)
• Inventors: Kim, Gyu Won, Ha, Joo Young, Song, In Taek
• Application Number:
  US13/409,017
• Publication Number:
  US 20130162679A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/634
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/302 combining image information with GPS information or vehicle data, e.g. vehicle speed, gyro, steering angle data
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/305 merging camera image with lines or icons
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/306 using a re-scaling of images
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/14 Handling requests for interconnection or transfer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/634 Warning indications

Abstract

Disclosed herein are an apparatus and a method for embodying overlay images using MRLC. The apparatus includes: a data encoder receiving static overlay images, warning overlay images, and continuous dynamic overlay images to perform RLC on each image and padding dummy data to perform MRLC on the padded dummy data and encode the padded dummy data; an address generator generating address indices; a memory the encoded MRLC data; a data decoder accessing the MRLC data of each overlay image; and a microcontroller calculating each RLC data size to obtain the maximum RLC data size and transmit the maximum RLC data size to the data encoder and reading the stored MRLC data and display each overlay image decoded. By this configuration, the low-price microcontroller can maximize the storage efficiency of the memory and implement the fast and easy access, thereby implementing the effective overlay and saving costs.

Claims

1. An apparatus for embodying overlay images using MRLC, comprising:

a data encoder receiving static overlay images, warning overlay images, and continuous dynamic overlay images to perform RLC on each image and padding dummy data so as to have the same size as a maximum RLC data size to perform MRLC on the padded dummy data and encode the padded dummy data;

an address generator generating address indices to be applied to each MRLC data encoded by the data encoder;

a memory storing the encoded MRLC data according to the address indices generated by the address generator;

a data decoder accessing the MRLC data of each overlay image stored in the memory according to the address indices to decode each MRLC data into original image data; and

a microcontroller calculating each RLC data size encoded by the data encoder to obtain the maximum RLC data size and transmit the obtained maximum RLC data size to the data encoder and reading the stored MRLC data from the memory to perform a control to overlay and display each overlay image decoded by the data decoder.

2. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1, further comprising an image sensor inputting the static overlay images and the continuous dynamic overlay images.

3. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1, further comprising a steering sensor sensing a steering angle of a vehicle wheel so as to input the continuous dynamic overlay images according to the steering of the vehicle wheel at the time of inputting the continuous dynamic overlay images.

4. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1, further comprising a display unit displaying the static overlay images, the warning overlay images, and the continuous dynamic overlay images that are overlaid by the control unit.

5. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein the memory includes:

a flash memory storing the static overlay images, the warning overlay images, and the continuous dynamic overlay images encoded by the MRLC; and

a plurality of buffers each accessing and reading the MRLC data of the static overlay images, the warning overlay images, and the continuous dynamic overlay images stored in the flash memory by the address indices at the time of reading so as to implement the overlay of each overlay image and temporarily storing the images, respectively.

6. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein the address indices of the address generator are generated by the following [Equation 1] and [Equation 2]:

Start address index of N-th overlay image=(N-1)-th MRLC data size+1  

 

[Equation 1]

End address index of N-th overlay image=(N-1)-th MRLC data size*N  

 

[Equation 2]

where N is an integer number.

7. A method for embodying overlay images using MRLC, comprising:

(A) receiving static overlay images, warning overlay images, and continuous dynamic overlay images to perform RLC on each image and padding dummy data so as to have the same size as a maximum RLC data size to perform MRLC on the padded dummy data and encode the padded dummy data;

(B) generating address indices to be applied to each encoded MRLC data so as to be stored in a memory;

(C) accessing and decoding the MRLC data of the static overlay images, the warning overlay images, and the continuous dynamic overlay images stored in the memory by the address indices; and

(D) overlaying and displaying each decoded overlay image.

8. The method as set forth in claim 7, wherein step (A) includes:

(A1) receiving the static overlay images, the warning overlay images, and the continuous dynamic overlay images;

(A2) performing RLC on the input static overlay images, warning overlay images, and continuous dynamic overlay images, respectively, to primarily encoding the images into each RLC data;

(A3) calculating and comparing the RLC data sizes of the static overlay images, the warning overlay images, and the continuous dynamic overlay images encoded into the RLC data to obtain a maximum RLC data size; and

(A4) padding dummy data in each RLC data so as to have the same RLC data size as the maximum RLC data size and performing MRLC on the dummy data so as to secondarily encoding the dummy data into each MRLC data.

9. The method as set forth in claim 7, wherein in step (B), each address index corresponding to each overlay image encoded into each MRLC data is generated so as to be stored in a flash memory of the memory, each address index being generated by the following [Equation 1] and [Equation 2]:

Start address index of N-th overlay image=(N-1)-th MRLCed data size+1  

 

[Equation 1]

End address index of N-th overlay image=(N-1)-th MRLCed data size*N  

 

[Equation 2]

Where N is an integer number.

10. The method as set forth in claim 7, wherein step (C) includes:

(C1) accessing the MRLC data of the static overlay images, the warning overlay images, and the continuous dynamic overlay images stored in the memory by the address indices so as to be temporarily stored in each of the plurality of buffers; and

(C2) reading and decoding each MRLC data of the static overlay images, the warning overlay images, and the continuous dynamic overlay images temporarily stored in each of the plurality of buffers.

11. The method as set forth in claim 7, wherein step (D) includes:

(D1) blending the decoded static overlay images, warning overlay images, and continuous dynamic overlay images, respectively;

(D2) overlaying and combining the blended static overlay images, warning overlay images, and continuous dynamic overlay images, respectively; and

(D3) displaying the overlaid and combined images by the overlay on a display unit.