Electronic graphic system
First Claim
1. An electronic graphic system comprising:
- a store for storing a plurality of pixels representing an image;
a display for displaying the image;
a processor for performing a modification proceeds to create modified pixels;
a reading means connected to the store for reading batches of pixels comprising some of said plurality of pixels from the store and selectively delivering the batch, a pixel at a time, to the processor and to the display;
a writing means connected to the processor for receiving modified pixels therefrom to form a batch of modified pixels and for writing the batch of modified pixels to the store, andwherein the pixels forming said plurality of pixels are stored in the store in a known order and the reading means reads the plurality of pixels from the store in said order for delivery to the display to display the image represented thereby, and the reading means and the writing means interleave the reading and writing of batches of pixels to and from the processor and the reading of pixels for delivery to the display.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An electronic graphic system for modifying image pixels includes a framestore 21 and a pipeline brush processor 22. Image pixels are read out of the framestore 21 in batches and applied to an input of the brush processor 22. Other data representing colour shape and pressure of a line drawn by a user on a touch tablet 17 by way of a stylus 18 is also input to the processor 22. As the pixels pass through the processor 22 they are modified by the other data. Batches of modified pixels are written back to the framestore 21. The reading and writing of pixels from the framestore 21 is interleaved with the reading of pixels for display as an image on a monitor 16. The system also includes an arrangement for interpolating stylus pressure to remove visible discontinuities or other changes in the drawn image resulting from significant changes in stylus pressure. An improved zoom facility enables a substantially continuously variable zoom factor to be defined thereby to avoid large changes in scale during a zooming operation. An arrangement for adjusting numerical values associated with some functions or features of the system allows the user to control the values solely by movement of the stylus over the touch tablet.
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Citations
36 Claims
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1. An electronic graphic system comprising:
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a store for storing a plurality of pixels representing an image; a display for displaying the image; a processor for performing a modification proceeds to create modified pixels; a reading means connected to the store for reading batches of pixels comprising some of said plurality of pixels from the store and selectively delivering the batch, a pixel at a time, to the processor and to the display; a writing means connected to the processor for receiving modified pixels therefrom to form a batch of modified pixels and for writing the batch of modified pixels to the store, and wherein the pixels forming said plurality of pixels are stored in the store in a known order and the reading means reads the plurality of pixels from the store in said order for delivery to the display to display the image represented thereby, and the reading means and the writing means interleave the reading and writing of batches of pixels to and from the processor and the reading of pixels for delivery to the display. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. An electronic graphic system comprising:
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a store for storing image data in the form of pixels representing an image; reading means for selectively reading pixel data from the store; a pipeline processor for performing a modification process on pixel data read by said reading means from the store, wherein the modification process is divided in said pipeline processor into a sequence of successive processing steps which are performed concurrently; and writing means for writing pixel data modified by said pipeline processor back to said store. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16)
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- 17. An electronic graphic system for modifying image pixels, the system comprising a stylus and touch tablet combination for generating co-ordinate data and for generating pressure values which values are presentative of pressure applied to the stylus at respective times, and a processor responsive to said co-ordinate data for selecting pixels to be modified, said processor having means for interpolating between a first pressure value which is representative of pressure applied to the stylus at a first time and a second pressure value which is representative of pressure applied to the stylus at a second time and said processor further having means to modify the selected pixels in accordance with the interpolated pressure values.
- 23. An electronic graphic system for modifying an image stored in a store and for displaying the image on a display screen, in which system a user selectable menu is displayable on a portion of the display screen, the menu displaying representations of user alterable features associated with the modification of the image and a user controlled movable cursor is displayed on the display screen, wherein a feature is selectable by placing said cursor over the representation of that feature and is alterable by movement of the cursor on the display screen once the feature has been selected.
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27. An electronic graphic system for producing a zoom effect on an image for display, the system comprising:
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a store providing a plurality of storage locations for storing respective pixels representing the image; means for addressing the storage locations at an addressing rate and for reading pixels therefrom at a reading rate for display; means for predefining a zoom factor in a range from zero to unity; and an addressing reduction circuit responsive to the zoom factor for controlling the addressing means to reduce the rate at which storage locations are addressed as compared with the rate at which pixels are read from the store for display. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29)
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30. An electronic graphic system for producing a zoom effect on an image for display, the system comprising:
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a store providing a plurality of storage locations for storing pixels representing the image; means for reading locations in the store at a clock rate N; user operable means for defining a zoom factor in the range N to 0;
a nda zoom controlling circuit responsive to the user defined zoom factor for controlling the addressing of locations in the store such that locations are addressed at a rate M determined by the zoom factor, where M≦
N. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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Specification