Image processing apparatus and method

• US 5,995,111 A
• Filed: 12/01/1997
• Issued: 11/30/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sega Enterprises LTD. (SEGA Sammy Holdings Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Sega Enterprises LTD. (SEGA Sammy Holdings Inc.)
• Inventors: Takano, Masaru, Morioka, Seisuke
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Phu K.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Vo, Cliff N.
• Application Number:
  US08/980,911
• Time in Patent Office: 729 Days
• Field of Search: 345/418, 345/419, 345/425, 345/427, 345/428, 345/429, 345/430
• US Class Current: 345/592
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 1/00 Control arrangements or circuits, of interest only in connection with cathode-ray tube indicators; General aspects or details, e.g. selection emphasis on particular characters, dashed line or dotted line generation; Preprocessing of datacathode-ray oscilloscopes G01R13/20; radar display arrangements G01S7/04; display of digital non-picture data in television systems H04N7/0255
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 1/16 the pattern of rectangular co-ordinates extending over the whole area of the screen, i.e. television type raster
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/122 Improving the 3D impression of stereoscopic images by modifying image signal contents, e.g. by filtering or adding monoscopic depth cues H04N13/128 takes precedence

Abstract

An image processing apparatus for generating image data to be displayed on a predetermined display screen, comprises an image data generator for receiving polygon information of a polygon including at least position information on the display screen and generating image data corresponding to pixels in the polygon; a frame buffer memory for storing image data pixel by pixel; a blur-value buffer memory for storing information of a degree of influence of the image data of each pixel on pixels therearound, as a blur value, in a predetermined pixel unit; and a blur processor for performing an arithmetic operation on the image data of each pixel, read from the frame buffer memory, in accordance with the degree of influence from surrounding pixels, read from the blur-value buffer memory, to generate image data to be displayed on the display screen, and by a method for this apparatus.

Claims

1. An image processing apparatus for generating image data to be displayed on a predetermined display screen, comprising:

an image data generator for receiving polygon information of a polygon including at least position information on said display screen and generating image data corresponding to pixels in said polygon;

a frame buffer memory for storing the image data pixel by pixel;

a blur-value buffer memory for storing information of a degree of influence of said image data of each pixel on pixels therearound, as a blur value, in a predetermined pixel unit; and

a blur processor for performing an arithmetic operation on said image data of each pixel, read from said frame buffer memory, in accordance with said degree of influence from surrounding pixels, read from said blur-value buffer memory, to generate image data to be displayed on said display screen.

2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said blur processor is provided between said frame buffer memory and an output terminal to a display unit, and outputs said image data, generated through said arithmetic operation, from said output terminal to said display unit.

3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said position information included in said polygon information includes a Z value indicative of the depth of a polygon on said display screen, and said image data generator generates Z values for pixels in a polygon to be displayed on said display screen, pixel by pixel;

said image processing apparatus further comprises a Z-value buffer memory for storing said pixel-by-pixel Z values; and

said blur processor compares the Z value of a target pixel with those of surrounding pixels around said target pixel, and performing said arithmetic operation in accordance with the degree of influence from said surrounding pixels when said target pixel is located at the back.

4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said position information included in said polygon information includes a Z value indicating of the depth of a polygon on said display screen, and said image data generator generates Z values for pixels in a polygon to be displayed on said display screen, pixel by pixel;

said image processing apparatus further comprises a Z-value buffer memory for storing said pixel-by-pixel Z values; and

the degree of influence of each pixel on pixels therearound is determined in accordance with a difference between the Z value of said each pixel and a depth of field to be displayed on said display screen.

5. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said image data generator generates a velocity vector of each pixel;

and

the degree of influence of said each pixel on pixels therearound is determined in accordance with said velocity vector of that pixel.

6. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said polygon information includes luminance information or information for determining a luminance, and said image data generator generates luminance information of each pixel;

and

when said luminance information of each pixel exceeds a predetermined value, the degree of influence of that pixel on pixels therearound is determined in accordance with said luminance information.

7. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said polygon information includes transparency information of a polygon or information for determining a transparency of that polygon, and said image data generator generates image data of a semitransparent polygon overlapped with a polygon located at the back of said semitransparent polygon;

and

the degree of influence of pixels in said back polygon on surrounding pixels is determined in accordance with said transparency information.

8. An image processing method for generating image data to be displayed on a predetermined display screen, comprising;

a step of generating image data for each of pixels in a polygon based on polygon information of said polygon including at least position information on a display screen;

a step of storing said image data in a frame buffer memory pixel by pixel;

a step of storing information of a degree of influence of said image data of each pixel on pixels therearound in a blur-value buffer memory, as a blur value, in a predetermined pixel unit; and

a blur processing step of performing an arithmetic operation on said image data of each pixel, read from said frame buffer memory, in accordance with said degree of influence from surrounding pixels, read from said blur-value buffer memory, to generate image data to be displayed on said display screen.

9. The image processing method according to claim 8, wherein said position information included in said polygon information includes a Z value for indicating the depth of a polygon on said display screen, and said image data generator generates Z values for pixels in a polygon to be displayed on said display screen, pixel by pixel;

said image processing method further comprises a step of generating Z values for pixels in a polygon to be displayed on said display screen, pixel by pixel, and storing said pixel-by-pixel Z values in a Z-value buffer memory; and

said blur processing step compares the Z value of a target pixel with those of surrounding pixels around said target pixel, and performing said arithmetic operation in accordance with the degree of influence from said surrounding pixels when said target pixel is located at the back.

10. The image processing method according to claim 8, wherein said position information included in said polygon information includes a Z value for indicating a depth of a polygon on said display screen;

said image processing method further comprises a step of generating Z values for pixels in a polygon to be displayed on said display screen, pixel by pixel, and storing said pixel-by-pixel Z values in a Z-value buffer memory; and

the degree of influence of each pixel on pixels therearound is determined in accordance with a difference between the Z value of said each pixel and a depth of field to be displayed on said display screen.

11. The image processing method according to claim 8, further comprising a step of generating a velocity vector of each pixel, and determining the degree of influence of said each pixel on pixels therearound in accordance with said velocity vector of that pixel.

12. The image processing method according to claim 8, wherein said polygon information includes luminance information or information for determining a luminance;

and

said image processing method further comprises a step of generating luminance information of each pixel, and determining the degree of influence of that pixel on pixels therearound in accordance with said luminance information of that pixel when said luminance information exceeds a predetermined value.

13. The image processing method according to claim 8, wherein said polygon information includes transparency information of a polygon or information for determining a transparency of that polygon;

and

said image processing method further comprises a step of generating image data of a semitransparent polygon overlapped with a polygon located at the back of said semitransparent polygon, and determining the degree of influence of pixels in said back polygon on surrounding pixels in accordance with said transparency information.

14. An image processing apparatus for generating image data to be displayed on a predetermined display screen, comprising:

an image data generator for receiving polygon information of a polygon including at least position information on said display screen, generating Z values for pixels in said polygon, pixel by pixel, based on a Z value for indicating of a depth of said polygon on said display screen, and generating image data corresponding to said pixels in said polygon;

a Z-value buffer memory for storing said pixel-by-pixel Z values;

a frame buffer memory for storing image data pixel by pixel;

a blur-value buffer memory for storing information of a degree of influence of said image data of each pixel on pixels therearound, as a blur value, in a predetermined pixel unit; and

a blur processor for performing an arithmetic operation on said image data of each pixel, read from said frame buffer memory, in accordance with said degree of influence from surrounding pixels, read from said blur-value buffer memory, to generate image data to be displayed on said display screen,

wherein said blur processor compares the Z value of a target pixel with those of surrounding pixels around said target pixel, and performing the arithmetic operation in accordance with the degree of influence from said surrounding pixels when said target pixel is located at the back.

15. An image processing apparatus for generating image data to be displayed on a predetermined display screen, comprising:

a rendering processor for receiving polygon data having at least coordinates of vertexes, Z values of said vertexes and texture coordinates on said display screen, storing a Z value of a polygon, positioned foreground in said display screen, in a Z-value buffer memory, and generating image data including color data corresponding to pixels in said polygon from said texture data read from a texture buffer memory in accordance with said texture coordinates;

a frame buffer memory for storing image data pixel by pixel;

a blur-value buffer memory for storing information of a degree of influence of said image data of each pixel on pixels therearound, as a blur value, in a predetermined pixel unit; and

a blur processor for performing an arithmetic operation on said image data of each pixel, read from said frame buffer memory, in accordance with said degree of influence from surrounding pixels, read from said blur-value buffer memory, to generate image data to be displayed on said display screen,

wherein said blur processor compares the Z value of a target pixel with those of surrounding pixels around said target pixel, and performing the arithmetic operation in accordance with the degree of influence from said surrounding pixels when said target pixel is located at the back.

16. An image processing apparatus for generating image data to be displayed on a predetermined display screen, comprising:

an image data generator for receiving polygon information of a polygon including at least position information on said display screen and generating image data corresponding to pixels in said polygon;

a frame buffer memory for storing image data corresponding to said pixels;

an effect-value buffer memory for storing effect values indicating execution of a predetermined effect process on image data of individual pixels, pixel by pixel; and

an effect processor for performing said effect process on said image data of each pixel, read from said frame buffer memory, in accordance with an effect value read from said effect-value buffer memory, to generate image data to be displayed on said display screen, and supplying said image data to a display unit.

17. The image processing apparatus according to claim 16, wherein said predetermined effect process is a fluctuation process with respect to a distant view;

said position information included in said polygon information includes a Z value indicative of the depth of a polygon on said display screen, and said image data generator generates Z values for pixels in a polygon to be displayed on said display screen, pixel by pixel;

said image processing apparatus further comprises a Z-value buffer memory for storing said pixel-by-pixel Z values; and

said effect processor executes said fluctuation process in accordance with said effect value when the Z value of a target pixel exceeds a predetermined threshold value.

18. An image processing method for generating image data to be displayed on a predetermined display screen, comprising:

a step of generating image data for each of pixels in a polygon based on polygon information of said polygon including at least position information on said display screen;

a step of storing image data, pixel by pixel, in a frame buffer memory;

a step of storing effect values indicating execution of a predetermined effect process on image data of individual pixels, pixel by pixel, in an effect-value buffer memory; and

an effect processing step of performing said effect process on said image data of each pixel, read from said frame buffer memory, in accordance with an effect value read from said effect-value buffer memory, to generate image data to be displayed on said display screen, and supplying said image data to a display unit.