Method of and apparatus for converting attributes of display data into desired colors in accordance with relation

• US 4,958,301 A
• Filed: 03/30/1989
• Issued: 09/18/1990
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/1988
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Kobayashi, Hironobu
• Primary Examiner(s): CLARK, DAVID
• Application Number:
  US07/330,481
• Time in Patent Office: 537 Days
• Field of Search: 358/22, 358/80-82, 358/169, 358/213.28, 358/455-460, 340/701, 340/703, 340/747, 340/790, 340/793, 364/518, 364/521, 382/17, 382/47
• US Class Current: 345/593
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1475 with conversion of CRT control signals to flat panel control signals, e.g. adapting the palette memory
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/028 Circuits for converting colour display signals into monochrome display signals
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/30 Control of display attribute
• 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

An apparatus for displaying display data without color competition includes a memory for storing the display data, attributes being assigned to portions of the display data in units of pixels, a controller for obtaining, in response to an input change instruction, a relation between the display data portions and a size of an area of each display data portion, and for determining display code data in accordance with the relation and the sizes, and a display unit for reading out the display data from the memory and displaying the display data with colors determined in accordance with the display code data.

Claims

1. An apparatus for displaying display data without color competition, comprising:

storage means for storing the display data, said display data having attributes assigned to portions of the display data in units of pixels;

control means for determining in response to an input change instruction a relation between the display data portions and a corresponding size of an area of each display data portion, and for determining display code data in accordance with the relation and the sizes; and

display means for reading out the display data from said storage means, and displaying the display data with representations determined in accordance with the display code data.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said display means includes a conversion table for storing the display code data determined by said control means, and means for referring to said conversion table to convert the attributes of the display data to codes representing the representations.

3. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

instruction generating means for generating and outputting to said control means the input change instruction, and wherein

said control means includes;

memory means for storing an application program and a code change program, the display data stored in said storage means being under the control of the application program; and

processor means for executing the code change program in response to the input change instruction, and for executing the application program after the execution of the code change program.

4. An apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said processor means includes means for executing the code change program by interrupting the application program in response to the input change instruction and resuming the application program after the code change program is executed.

5. An apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the code change program is included in an operating system.

6. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said control means prevents adjacent display areas of corresponding data portions from having identical display code data.

7. A method of displaying display data without color competition, comprising the steps of:

obtaining in response to a change instruction a relation between portions of the display data and a corresponding size of an area of each display data portion, each of the display data portions having an attribute in units of pixels;

determining codes of display code data corresponding to the attributes of the display data portions in accordance with the relation and the corresponding sizes; and

displaying the display data with colors determined in accordance with the codes.

8. A method according to claim 7, wherein said obtaining step includes obtaining the relation and the size from the attributes of pixels in each of a plurality of blocks, the plurality of blocks forming a first frame.

9. A method according to claim 7, further comprising checking whether a mode is a graphic mode or a text mode, said checking step occurring before said determining step.

10. A method according to claim 9, wherein said determining step includes determining the codes corresponding to the attributes of the display data portions sequentially from a first display data portion having a second largest area size to a second data portion having a smallest area size in accordance with the obtained relation in the graphic mode.

11. A method according to claim 9, wherein said determining step includes:

determining sequentially the code corresponding to the attribute of a first display data portion to be background data of the display data, the first display data portion having a largest area size in accordance with the obtained relation in the text mode; and

determining the code corresponding to the attribute of each character data of the display data in accordance with the determined code of the background data.

12. A method according to claim 7, wherein an application program controls the display data, said obtaining and said determining steps are executed in accordance with the code change program, and said displaying step is executed in accordance with the application program.

13. A method according to claim 12, wherein the application program is interrupted in response to the change instruction to execute the code change program, and the application program is resumed after the code change program is executed.

14. A method according to claim 13, wherein the code change program is included in an operating system.

15. A method according to claim 7, wherein said determining step prevents adjacent display areas of corresponding data portions from having identical display code data.

16. An apparatus for displaying display data without color competition comprising:

storage means for storing the display data, the display data having portions, the portions of the display data having attributes representing colors to be displayed;

means for checking whether a mode is a graphic mode or a text mode;

means for obtaining a relation between the display data portions and sizes of areas of the display data portions in response to an input change instruction;

means for determining a code corresponding to the attribute of each of the display data portions sequentially from a display data portion having a second largest area size in accordance with the relation in the graphic mode; and

display means for displaying the display data in accordance with the determined codes.

17. An apparatus according to claim 16, wherein said obtaining means includes second means for obtaining the relation from attributes of pixels, the pixels forming a block, a plurality of the blocks forming a frame, the display data having the attribute for each pixel.

18. An apparatus according to claim 16, wherein said determining means further comprises:

second means for sequentially determining the code corresponding to the attribute of a first display data portion to be background data of the display data, the display data portion having a largest area size in accordance with the obtained relation in the text mode; and

means for determining the code corresponding to the attribute of character data of the display data in accordance with the determined code of the background data.

19. An apparatus according to claim 16, wherein a code change program controls said obtaining means and said determining means.

20. An apparatus according to claim 19, wherein the application program is interrupted in response to the change instruction to execute the code change program, and the application program is resumed after the code change program is executed.

21. An apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the code change program is included in an operating system.

22. An apparatus according to claim 16, wherein said determining means prevents adjacent display areas of corresponding data portions from having identical display code data.