Apparatus and method for blending graphics and video surfaces

• US 7,002,602 B2
• Filed: 11/13/2003
• Issued: 02/21/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/09/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: MacInnis, Alexander G., Tang, Chengfuh Jeffrey, Kranawetter, Greg A., Patterson, James T., Xie, Xiaodong
• Primary Examiner(s): Luu, Matthew
• Application Number:
  US10/712,809
• Publication Number:
  US 20040130558A1
• Time in Patent Office: 831 Days
• Field of Search: 345/629, 345/634, 345/637, 345/639, 345/640, 345/641
• US Class Current: 345/629
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0611 in relation to response time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0653 Monitoring storage devices or systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0683 Plurality of storage devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/20 Processor architectures; Processor configuration, e.g. pipelining
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/60 Memory management
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 9/00 Image coding bandwidth or redundancy reduction for static pictures H04N1/41; coding or decoding of static colour picture signals H04N1/64; methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 9/007 Transform coding, e.g. discrete cosine transform
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2310/0224 Details of interlacing
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0247 Flicker reduction other than flicker reduction circuits used for single beam cathode-ray tubes
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/02 Handling of images in compressed format, e.g. JPEG, MPEG
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/0407 Resolution change, inclusive of the use of different resolutions for different screen areas
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/10 Mixing of images, i.e. displayed pixel being the result of an operation, e.g. adding, on the corresponding input pixels
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/125 wherein one of the images is motion video
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/02 Graphics controller able to handle multiple formats, e.g. input or output formats
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/121 using a cache memory
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/125 using unified memory architecture [UMA]
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/126 The frame memory having additional data ports, not inclusive of standard details of the output serial port of a VRAM
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/128 Frame memory using a Synchronous Dynamic RAM [SDRAM]
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/001 Arbitration of resources in a display system, e.g. control of access to frame buffer by video controller and/or main processor
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/02 : characterised by the way in which colour is displayed details of colour display specific for CRTs G09G1/28; specific for flat matrix panels other than liquid crystal displays G09G3/2003; specific for liquid crystal displays G09G3/3607
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/024 : using colour registers, e.g. to control background, foreground, surface filling G09G5/06 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/026 : Control of mixing and/or overlay of colours in general G09G5/022 and G09G5/024 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/06 : using colour palettes, e.g. look-up tables
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/12 : Synchronisation between the display unit and other units, e.g. other display units, video-disc players
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/14 : Display of multiple viewports
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/28 : for enhancement of character form, e.g. smoothing
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/346 : for systems having a bit-mapped display memory
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/36 : characterised by the display of a graphic pattern, e.g. using an all-points-addressable [APA] memory
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/363 : Graphics controllers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 11/143 : Encoding means therefor H04N11/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 11/20 : Conversion of the manner in which the individual colour picture signal components are combined, e.g. conversion of colour television standards
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/42 : characterised by implementation details or hardware specially adapted for video compression or decompression, e.g. dedicated software implementation H04N19/635 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/423 : characterised by memory arrangements H04N19/433 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/436 : using parallelised computational arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/44 : Decoders specially adapted therefor, e.g. video decoders which are asymmetric with respect to the encoder
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/59 : involving spatial sub-sampling or interpolation, e.g. alteration of picture size or resolution
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/61 : in combination with predictive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42204 : User interfaces specially adapted for controlling a client device through a remote control device; Remote control devices therefor constructive details of casings for the remote control device H01H9/0235; user interfaces for controlling a tuning device of a television receiver through a remote control H03J9/00; remote control of peripheral devices connected to a television receiver through the remote control device of the television receiver H04B1/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/426 : Internal components of the client ; Characteristics thereof H04N5/44 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42653 : for processing graphics
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4305 : Synchronising client clock from received content stream, e.g. locking decoder clock with encoder clock, extraction of the PCR packets arrangements for synchronising receiver with transmitter by comparing receiver clock with transmitter clock H04L7/0012; arrangements for synchronising receiver with transmitter wherein the receiver takes measures against momentary loss of synchronisation H04L7/0083
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 : for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/434 : Disassembling of a multiplex stream, e.g. demultiplexing audio and video streams, extraction of additional data from a video stream; Remultiplexing of multiplex streams; Extraction or processing of SI; Disassembling of packetised elementary stream demultiplexing of data packets for data networks, e.g. RTP/UDP H04L65/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440263 : by altering the spatial resolution, e.g. for displaying on a connected PDA
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4438 : Window management, e.g. event handling following interaction with the user interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 : End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/04 : Synchronising for television systems using pulse code modulation H04N7/56
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/126 : whereby the synchronisation signal indirectly commands a frequency generator
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/14 : Picture signal circuitry for video frequency region cameras or camera modules comprising electronic image sensors, or control thereof H04N23/00
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/45 : Picture in picture , e.g. displaying simultaneously another television channel in a region of the screen
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/46 : for receiving on more than one standard at will deflecting circuits of multi-standard receivers H04N3/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/0122 : the input and the output signals having different aspect ratios
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/0135 : involving interpolation processes interpolation-based image scaling G06T3/4007; interpolation for video coding H04N19/587, H04N19/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/45 : Generation or recovery of colour sub-carriers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/641 : Multi-purpose receivers, e.g. for auxiliary information H04N9/642 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/642 : Multi-standard receivers

Abstract

A graphics integrated circuit chip is used in a set-top box for controlling a television display. The graphics chip processes analog video input, digital video input, and graphics input. The chip blends graphics and video information by various graphics windows using alpha values for the windows, alpha values per pixel, or both. The chip calculates a composite alpha value based on the window'"'"'s alpha values and the alpha values per pixel. Blended graphics and video may then be composited using the composite alpha value.

Claims

1. A method of blending a plurality of image layers comprising:

organizing the plurality of image layers into upper image layers and at least one lower image layer;

blending the upper image layers into a blended upper image layer;

combining a plurality of alpha values associated with the upper image layers into a plurality of composite alpha values; and

compositing the blended upper image layer and the at least one lower image layer using the plurality of composite alpha values.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of upper image layers are blended together using the plurality of alpha values.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein each of the plurality of upper image layers is associated with at least one of the plurality of alpha values.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein each of the plurality of upper image layers comprises a plurality of pixels that are associated with the at least one of the plurality of alpha values.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein blending the upper image layers comprises:

ordering the upper image layers from a back most upper image layer to a front most upper image layer; and

blending the ordered upper image layers in an order from the back most upper image layer to the front most upper image layer.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein blending the upper images layers further comprises:

multiplying each of the plurality of pixels of a second back most upper image layer by an associated one of the plurality of alpha values;

multiplying each of the plurality of pixels of the back most upper image layer by one minus the alpha value associated with a corresponding one of the plurality of pixels on the second back most upper image layer; and

adding the multiplied pixels of the back most upper image layer to the corresponding multiplied pixels of the second back most upper image layer.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising spatially processing the blended upper image layer prior to compositing it with the at least one lower image layer.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein spatially processing comprises two-dimensional filtering.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one lower image layer comprises a plurality of lower image layers, the method further comprising blending the plurality of lower image layers together to generate a blended lower image layer prior to compositing it with the blended upper image layer.

10. A display system for compositing a plurality of image layers comprising upper image layers and at least one lower image layer, comprising:

a display engine for blending the upper image layers into a blended upper image layer and for combining a plurality of alpha values associated with the upper image layers into a plurality of composite alpha values; and

a compositor for compositing the blended upper image layer and the at least one lower image layer using the plurality of composite alpha values.

11. The display system of claim 10, wherein the plurality of upper image layers are blended together using the plurality of alpha values.

12. The display system of claim 11, wherein each of the plurality of upper image layers is associated with at least one of the plurality of alpha values.

13. The display system of claim 12, wherein each of the plurality of upper image layers comprises a plurality of pixels that are associated with the at least one of the plurality of alpha values.

14. The display system of claim 13, wherein the upper image layers are ordered from a back most upper image layer to a front most upper image layer, and

wherein the display engine blends the ordered upper image layers in an order from the back most upper image layer to the front most upper image layer.

15. The display system of claim 14, wherein each of the plurality of pixels of a second back most upper image layer are multiplied by an associated one of the plurality of alpha values,

wherein each of the plurality of pixels of the back most upper image layer are multiplied by one minus the alpha value associated with a corresponding one of the plurality of pixels on the second back most upper image layer, and

wherein the multiplied pixels of the back most upper image layer are added to the corresponding multiplied pixels of the second back most upper image layer.

16. The display system of claim 10, wherein the blended upper image layer is spatially processed prior to compositing it with the at least one lower image layer.

17. The display system of claim 16, wherein the spatial processing comprises two-dimensional filtering.

18. The display system of claim 10, wherein the at least one lower image layer comprises a plurality of lower image layers, and

wherein the plurality of lower image layers are blended together to generate a blended lower image layer prior to compositing it with the blended upper image layer.