HVAC system display

• US 6,819,802 B2
• Filed: 12/21/2000
• Issued: 11/16/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Carrier Corporation (Carrier Global Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Carrier Corporation (Carrier Global Corporation)
• Inventors: Gonchar, Richard P., Higgs, Raymond J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Couso, Yon J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bayat, Ali
• Application Number:
  US09/741,252
• Publication Number:
  US 20020081037A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,426 Days
• Field of Search: 382/232, 382/233, 382/237, 382/239, 382/244, 382/245, 382/246, 341/67, 341/59
• US Class Current: 382/245
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 9/005 Statistical coding, e.g. Huffman, run length coding

Abstract

A set of processes are disclosed for compressing and decompressing bitmapped picture files that are to be stored for later display within a control for an HVAC system. The compression process includes an examination of the first bitmapped pixel in a given bitmapped file followed by a counting of the number of consecutive pixels having the same state as the first pixel. The process continues with analyses of successive numbers of pixels of first one state and then another state and generating a numerical representations as to each number of so counted pixels until the last pixel of the bitmapped picture file data is analyzed. The resulting compressed file is stored in a memory within a control for an HVAC system so that the file can thereafter be read when the file is to be displayed. The reading and decompressing of the stored file is the reverse of the compression of the file whereby each numerical representation is analyzed with the appropriate number of pixels of a given state being produced before proceeding to analyze the next numerical representation.

Claims

1. A process for compressing electronic data files used to display images on a display of a control associated with a heating, ventilating, and air conditioning system, said process comprising the steps of:

noting the state of the first bit of a bitmapped file of information for an image to be displayed;

counting the number of consecutive bits having the same binary state as the first bit;

generating a numerical representation of the counted number of consecutive bits having the same binary state as the first bit;

counting the number of consecutive bits having the binary state of the next bit in the bitmapped file of information and thereafter generating a numerical representation of the counted number of consecutive bits having the same binary state as the next bit in the bitmapped file; and

repeatedly counting the next number of consecutive bits having a binary state differing from that of the binary state of the previously counted number of consecutive bits and thereafter generating a numerical representation of the next number of consecutive bits having the binary state differing from that of the binary state of the previously counted number of consecutive bits until there are no remaining bits of information to be counted in the bitmapped file.

2. The process of claim 1 wherein each of said steps of generating a numerical representation of the counted number of consecutive bits comprises the steps of:

dividing the count of consecutive bits by a constant;

defining a numerical representation as to the multiple of the constant when there is no remainder in the resulting quotient; and

defining a numerical representation as to the multiple of the constant plus the remainder when the resulting quotient includes a remainder.

3. The process of claim 2 wherein said step of defining a numerical representation as to the multiple of the constant comprises the step of:

defining a number of equal valued bytes of information, the number of such bytes being equal to the multiple of the constant, the number of equal value bytes being followed by a further byte equal to the constant.

4. The process of claim 3 wherein said step of defining a numerical representation as to the multiple of the constant plus the remainder when the quotient includes a remainder comprises the step of:

defining a number of equal valued bytes of information wherein the number of such bytes is equal to the multiple of the constant, the number of equal value bytes being followed by a further byte equal to the remainder.

5. The process of claim 2 wherein the constant is representative of the maximum numerical value of a byte of information.

6. A process for reading a stored file of information used to display images on a display within a control associated with a heating, ventilating, and air conditioning system comprising the steps of:

reading the state of the first pixel from the stored file of information;

reading a plurality of equally valued bytes of information from the stored file of information;

setting the same number of pixels equal to the state of the first pixel for each equally valued byte of information that is read wherein this same number of pixels is not the value of each of the equally valued bytes of information;

reading a byte of information from the stored file of information that is not the value of each of the equally valued bytes of information;

setting a number of pixels equal to the value of the read byte of information that is not the value of each of the equally valued bytes of information;

reading a further plurality of equally valued bytes of information from the stored file of information;

setting the same number of pixels equal to a state opposite from the state of the previously set number of pixels for each of the further equally valued bytes of information that are read wherein the same number of pixels equal to a state opposite from the state of the previously set number of pixels is in each case not the value of each of the equally valued bytes of information;

reading a byte of information from the stored file of information that is not the value of each of the equally valued bytes of information;

setting a number of pixels equal to the value of the read byte of information; and

repeating said steps of reading a further plurality of equally valued bytes of information from the stored file of information and setting the same number of pixels equal to a state opposite from the state of the previously set number of pixels for each of the further equally valued bytes of information that are read and further reading a byte of information from the stored file of information that is not the value of each of the equally valued bytes of information; and

setting a number of pixels equal to the value of the read byte of information until all bytes of information have been read.

7. The process of claim 6 wherein said step of setting a number of pixels equal to the value of the read byte of information that is not the value of each of the equally valued bytes of information comprises the steps of:

determining whether the read byte of information is equal to a predefined value;

defining a prescribed number of next occurring pixels based on the predefined value when the read byte of information is equal to the predefined value; and

defining a prescribed number of next occurring pixels based on the numerical value of the read byte of information when the numerical value of the read byte of information is not the predefined value.

8. The process of claim 7 wherein the prescribed number of pixels in said step of defining a prescribed number of next occurring pixels based on the numerical value of the read byte of information is a constant representative of the maximum numerical value of the number of bits in a byte.

9. A system for displaying bitmapped files of data used to display images associated with the control of a heating, ventilating, and air conditioning system, said system comprising:

a memory for storing information;

a display for displaying images;

a processor operative to read information stored in said memory wherein said stored information includes a number of bytes of information collectively defining a numerical representation as to the number of consecutive pixels in an image equal to a first pixel state followed by a number of bytes of information collectively defining a numerical representation as to the number of consecutive pixels in the image equal to a second pixel state opposite to said first pixel state, each number of bytes including a number of equally valued bytes wherein the number of equally valued bytes is an integer obtained by dividing the number of consecutive pixels in the image of the given state by a numerical constant.

10. The system of claim 14 wherein each number of bytes of information defining a numerical representation includes either a byte having the numerical constant or a byte having a remainder generated by the division of the number of consecutive pixels in the image of the given state by the numerical constant.

11. The system of claim 14 wherein the numerical constant is representative of the maximum numerical value of a byte of information.