Video data display controlling method and video data display processing system

• US 5,621,429 A
• Filed: 03/15/1994
• Issued: 04/15/1997
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/1993
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Tanikoshi, Koichiro, Tani, Masayuki, Yamaashi, Kimiya, Futakawa, Masayasu, Uchigasaki, Harumi, Hirota, Atsuhiko, Nishikawa, Atsuhiko, Horita, Masato
• Primary Examiner(s): Feild, Joseph H.
• Application Number:
  US08/213,203
• Time in Patent Office: 1,127 Days
• Field of Search: 395/128, 395/158, 395/152, 395/154, 395/135, 395/157, 395/161, 345/113-114, 345/119, 345/120, 345/132, 345/155, 345/202, 369/14-15, 369/20, 348/97, 348/384-387, 348/390, 348/399, 348/552, 348/561, 348/563-569, 348/572, 348/575, 348/581, 348/584-586, 348/588, 348/596, 348/598, 382/47, 382/298-299
• US Class Current: 715/803
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04845 for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/00 General purpose image data processing

Abstract

A video data display controlling method and system in which an image in each image area or in each partial image area of each image area to be displayed on a display screen and designated by a user is displayed at a display quality differentiated from other areas not designated. A video data display control unit stores display state data of each displayed image in a display state management table. The video data display control unit changes the display specification or attribute of each image so as to display an image having a high user interest degree with a high display quality and display an image having a low user interest with a low display quality, and transfers the changed display specification to a display specification management table of a video data input unit. A video data input unit controls a video data compressing unit to compress digital video data in accordance with the changed display specification or attribute.

Claims

1. A video data display controlling method comprising the steps of:

(a) designating a partial image area of an image displayed on a display screen;

(b) in response to a designation of said partial image area, differentiating the display quality of said image between said designated partial image area and another partial image area on the display screen, said differentiating including differentiating a resolution of said image; and

(c) changing the display state of said image in accordance with the results of said designating step and said differentiating step and wherein said differentiating step includes setting a window display priority order in accordance with resolutions of images at said designated partial image area and image areas.

2. A video data display controlling method wherein analog video data is converted into digital video data, and a plurality of images corresponding to a display request command area displayed on a single display screen by using said converted digital video data, said method comprising the steps of:

obtaining display state data of said images displayed on said display screen;

determining as a display order a display quality priority order of images displayed on said display screen based on at least ones of said obtained display state data and importance factors of the images preset by a user;

changing at least one display attribute including at least a resolution of each image and number of frames per unit time; and

in accordance with said changed display attribute, processing said digital video data of each image to generate display video data.

3. A video data display processing system comprising:

video data input device;

at least one video data display device; and

a signal transmission path interconnecting said video data input device and said video data display device,

said video data input device including;

video data sampler wherein input analog video data is sampled at a predetermined sampling timing and said sampled analog video data is converted into digital video data;

a display attribute management table storing a display attribute of each image transferred from said video data display device;

video data converter converting said digital video data in accordance with said display attribute stored in said display attribute table; and

video data input controller coupled to said video data sampler and said video data converter, and

said video data display device including;

an image display;

display driver coupled to said display;

video data display controller controlling said display driver;

a display state management table storing data representing at least the display state of each said image displayed on said display; and

priority order determining means for determining as a display order a display quality priority order of said images in accordance with the data in said display state management table,

wherein said video data display control unit controls said display driving means to receive from said video data input means said digital video data corresponding to a display request command and to display said received digital video data on said display, and operates to store the display state of each said image displayed on said display in said display state management table, to change the display attribute of each said image in accordance with the priority order determined by said priority order determining means, and to transfer said changed display attribute to said display attribute management table of said video data input unit.

4. A system according to claim 3, wherein said video data input device and said video data display device are interconnected via a communications network as said signal transmission path.

5. A system according to claim 3, wherein said video data input device and said video data display device are interconnected via a bus of a single computer system as said signal transmission path, and said digital video data is transferred to a video data storage connected to said bus.

6. A system according to claim 3, wherein said video data converter of said video data input device includes data compressor compressing said digital video data so as to match a limited transmission capacity of said signal transmission path, in accordance with said display attribute set to said display attribute management table.

7. A system according to claim 3, wherein said display attribute to be requested from said video data display device includes a spatial resolution and a time-domain resolution of each said image, said spatial resolution including the number of pixels per unit area of the screen of said display and said time-domain resolution including a frame rate.