Systems and methods for generating visual representations of graphical data and digital document processing

• US 7,271,814 B2
• Filed: 10/10/2002
• Issued: 09/18/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/13/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Artifex Software Inc.
• Original Assignee: Picsel Technologies Limited
• Inventors: Anwar, Majid, Pollock, Brian Richard
• Primary Examiner(s): Tung; Kee M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Caschera; Antonio A
• Application Number:
  US10/492,472
• Publication Number:
  US 20050017986A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,804 Days
• Field of Search: 345636-638, 348/597
• US Class Current: 345/629
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text

Abstract

A method of blending a plurality of mutually overlapping graphical objects in a digital document processing system. The graphical objects are arranged in an ordered stack that includes at least one static object and at least one animated object. Each object has at least one associated blending parameter (e.g., transparency). The method comprises: (a) blending the content of the static objects to form at least one composite static object, taking account of the respective blending parameters of the static objects; and (b) blending the content of the animated object and the composite static object(s), taking account of the blending parameter(s) of the animated object.

Claims

1. A method of blending a plurality of mutually overlapping graphical objects in a digital document processing system, wherein said plurality of graphical objects is arranged in an ordered stack, the order being that in which the objects are to be rendered, said stack including a plurality of static objects and at least one animated object, each of said objects comprising graphical content and having at least one blending parameter comprising at least one alpha value representing the transparency of at least part of the object associated therewith, the method comprising:

(a) organizing the static objects into clusters comprising a first cluster of those static objects lying below the animated object in the ordered stack, and a second cluster of those static objects lying above the animated object in the ordered stack;

(b) for each of said first and second clusters, blending the content of said static objects within the cluster to form first and second composite static objects, taking account of the respective blending parameters of the static objects;

(c) blending the content of the animated object and the first and second composite static objects, taking account of the blending parameter(s) of the animated object to produce an image;

(d) repeating step (c) using the previously obtained first and second composite static objects formed in step (b) when the content of the animated object changes to produce an undated image; and

(e) storing or presenting to a user images produced in steps (c) and (d).

2. The method of claim 1, wherein current display content formed in step (c) using first animated object content is replaced by new display content formed by blending second animated object content and the previously obtained composite static objects formed in step (b).

3. The method of claim 1, wherein current display content formed in step (c) using first animated object content is updated by subtracting the first animated content from the current display content and adding second animated object content.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said at least one blending parameter is an achromatic blending parameter applicable to all colour channels of the object associated therewith.

5. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said at least one blending parameter comprises a plurality of chromatic blending parameter values, each chromatic blending parameter value being applicable to at least one colour channel of the object associated therewith.

6. A method as claimed in claim 1, including dividing said graphical objects and composite objects into a plurality of bitmap tiles of fixed, predetermined size and storing said tiles in an indexed array.

7. A method as claimed in claim 6, including selectively clipping at least one of said objects by rounding to the nearest tile size.

8. A method as claimed in claim 6, wherein current content of said graphical objects is updated by removing redundant tiles from said selected set and adding new tiles to said selected set.

9. A method as claimed in claim 6, including processing subsets of said tiles in parallel.

10. A method as claimed claim 1 wherein said objects and content are assembled from a plurality of bitmap tiles of fixed, predetermined size.

11. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said graphical objects originate from at least one content source for transmission to at least one output location via a data communications network, and wherein the blending steps (b) and (c) are performed at least partially at one of the at least one of said content sources, at least one of said output locations, and at least one intermediate location.

12. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:

carrying out steps (a) and (b) to form the first and second composite static objects at a first computer;

transmitting the first and second composite static objects and the animated object over a network to a second computer;

carrying out step (c) to form the image at the second computer;

when the content of the animated object changes sending only the changed animated object over the network to the second computer; and

in step (d), repeating step (c) at the second computer using the previously transmitted composite static objects and the newly-transmitted changed animated object.

13. A method of blending a plurality of mutually overlapping graphical objects in a digital document processing system, wherein said plurality of graphical objects is arranged in an ordered stack, the order being that in which the objects are to be rendered, the stack includes a plurality of static objects and a plurality of animated objects, each of said objects comprising graphical content and having at least one blending parameter comprising transparency for at least part of the object associated therewith, the method comprising:

(a) organizing the static objects into clusters comprising a first cluster of those static objects lying below a bottom-most animated object in the ordered stack, a second cluster of those static objects lying above a top-most animated object in the ordered stack, and at least one further cluster of those static objects lying between two consecutive animated objects in the ordered stack;

(b) blending the content of said static objects within each of said first, second, and further clusters to form a respective composite static object for each cluster, taking account of the respective blending parameters of the static objects;

(c) assigning a rendering order to each of the composite static objects and the animated objects in the stack, the rendering order of each composite static object being determined by the location in the stack of the cluster of static objects from which the respective composite static object was formed;

(d) blending the content of the animated objects and the composite static objects, taking account of the blending parameter(s) of the animated object and of the assigned rendering order to produce an image;

(e) repeating step (d) using the previously obtained composite static objects formed in step (b) when the content of at least one of the animated objects changes to produce an undated image; and

(f) storing or presenting to a user images produced in steps (d) and (e).

14. A method of blending a plurality of mutually overlapping graphical objects in a digital document processing system, wherein said plurality of graphical objects is arranged in an ordered stack that includes at least one static object and at least one animated object, each of said objects comprising graphical content and having at least one blending parameter for at least part of the object associated therewith, the method comprising:

(a) blending the content of all of the static objects in the stack into a single composite static object, taking account of the relative blending parameters of all of the static and animated objects in the stack, and forming a blending parameter value stencil for the or each animated object in the stack, the blending parameter value(s) of the or each stencil taking account of the blending parameter value(s) of the corresponding animated object and of any objects above the corresponding animated object in the stack;

(b) blending the content of the or each animated object with the composite static object on the basis of the corresponding blending parameter value stencil to produce an image;

(c) repeating step (b) using the previously obtained composite static object and stencil(s) formed in step (a) when the content of the animated object changes to produce an updated image; and

(d) storing or presenting to a user images produced in steps (b) and (c).

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the objects are blended in a display buffer, and including:

processing the objects in order from the bottom to the top of the stack by scaling the current content of the display buffer by the complement of the blending parameter value of the next object in the stack, and where the next object in the stack is a static object, scaling the content of that static object by its own blending parameter value, and adding the scaled content of that static object to the scaled content of the display buffer.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein a blending parameter value stencil for each animated object is formed in a stencil buffer, and including:

where the next object in the stack is that animated object corresponding to the stencil buffer, scaling the blending parameter value(s) of the stencil by the blending parameter value(s) of the animated object, and where the next object in the stack is above the animated object corresponding to the stencil buffer, scaling the current blending parameter value(s) of the stencil buffer by the complement of the blending parameter value(s) of that next object.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein step (b) comprises scaling the content of the animated object by the blending parameter value(s) of the corresponding stencil and adding the scaled animated object content to the composite, scaled static object content of the display buffer.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein current display content is updated by scaling new animated object content using the previously obtained blending parameter value stencil and adding the new scaled animated object content to the previously obtained composite static object.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein current display content is updated by scaling new animated object content using the previously obtained blending parameter value stencil, subtracting the current scaled animated object content from the current display content and adding the new scaled animated object content.

20. The method of claim 15, adapted for varying the value of a blending parameter of at least one animated object in an ordered stack of graphical objects in one or more steps, comprising forming first and second blending parameter stencils and first and second display buffers for the or each animated object in the stack corresponding to first and second blending parameter values or sets of blending parameter values, the blending parameter value(s) of each of said first and second stencils taking account of the blending parameter value(s) of the corresponding animated object and of any objects above the corresponding animated object in the stack and, for each step of varying the value of the blending parameter, deriving a resultant blending parameter stencil and resultant display buffer content from the first and second stencils and the first and second display buffers and the required parameter blending value for the current step, for use in said step (b).

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the first stencil, S0, and the first display buffer, D0, are created using a blending parameter value of zero and the second stencil, S1, and the second display buffer, D1, are created using a blending parameter value of 1, and wherein the resultant stencil, S, and the resultant display buffer content, D, are calculated for the required parameter blending value, t, of the current step as follows:

D=(1−

t)D0+tD1

S=(1−

t)S0+tS1.

22. A digital document processing system for blending a plurality of mutually overlapping graphical objects, wherein said plurality of graphical objects is arranged in an ordered stack, the order being that in which the objects are to be rendered, said stack including a plurality of static objects and at least one animated object, each of said objects comprising graphical content and having at least one blending parameter comprising at least one alpha value representing the transparency of at least part of the object associated therewith, comprising:

(a) means for organizing the static objects into clusters comprising a first cluster of those static objects lying below the animated object in the ordered stack, and a second cluster of those static objects lying above the animated object in the ordered stack;

(b) means for blending the content of said static objects within each of said first and second clusters to form a first and second composite static object, taking account of the respective blending parameters of the static objects;

(c) means for blending the content of the animated object and the first and second composite static objects to produce an image, taking account of the blending parameter(s) of the animated object, and for causing said blending to be repeated using the previously obtained first and second composite static objects formed in step (b) when the content of the animated object changes to produce an updated image; and

(d) means for storing or presenting to a user images produced in step (c).

23. A system as claimed in claim 22, comprising:

an input mechanism for receiving an input bytestream representing source data in one of a plurality of predetermined data formats;

an interpreting mechanism for interpreting said bytestream;

a converting mechanism for converting interpreted content from said bytestream into an internal representation data format; and

a processing mechanism for processing said internal representation data so as to generate output representation data adapted to drive an output device.

24. A system as claimed in claim 23, wherein said source data defines the content and structure of a digital document, and wherein said internal representation data describes said structure in terms of generic objects defining a plurality of data types and parameters defining properties of specific instances of generic objects, separately from said content.

25. A system as claimed in claim 24, further including a library of generic object types, said internal representation data being based on the content of said library.

26. A system as claimed in claim 24, including a parsing and rendering module adapted to generate an object and parameter based representation of a specific view of at least part of said internal representation data, on the basis of a first control input to said parsing and rendering module.

27. A system as defined in claim 26, further including a shape processing module adapted to receive said object and parameter based representation of said specific view from said parsing and rendering module and to convert said object and parameter based representation into an output data format suitable for driving a particular output device.

28. A system as claimed in claim 27, wherein said shape processing module processes said objects on the basis of a boundary box defining the boundary of an object, a shape defining the actual shape of the object bounded by the boundary box, the data content of the object and the transparency of the object.

29. A system as claimed in claim 28, wherein said shape processing module is adapted to apply grey-scale anti-aliasing to the edges of said objects.

30. A system as claimed in claim 27, wherein said shape processing module has a pipeline architecture.

31. A system as claimed in claim 24, wherein said object parameters include dimensional, physical and temporal parameters.

32. A system as claimed in claim 23, wherein the system employs a chrominance/luminance-based colour model to describe colour data.

33. A system as claimed in claim 23, wherein the system includes means for multiple parallel implementation in whole or in part for processing one or more sets of source data from one or more data sources and for generating one or more sets of output representation data.

34. A graphical user interface for a data processing system in which interactive visual displays employed by the user interface are generated by means of a digital document processing system as claimed in claim 22.

35. A data processing device incorporating a graphical user interface as claimed in claim 34.

36. A hardware device for data processing and/or storage encoding a digital document processing system as claimed in claim 22.

37. A hardware device as claimed in claim 36, further including a core processor system.

38. A hardware device as claimed in claim 37, wherein said core processor is a RISC processor.

39. A data processing system including a digital document processing system as claimed in claim 22.

40. A data processing system as claimed in claim 39, wherein said data processing system comprises a portable data processing device.

41. A data processing system as claimed in claim 40, wherein said portable data processing device comprises a wireless telecommunications device.

42. A data processing system as claimed in claim 39, wherein said data processing system comprises a network user-terminal.

43. A peripheral device for use with a data processing system, including a digital document processing system as claimed in claim 22.

44. A peripheral device as claimed in claim 43, wherein said peripheral device is a visual display device.

45. A peripheral device as claimed in claim 43, wherein said peripheral device is a hardcopy output device.

46. A peripheral device as claimed in claim 43, wherein said peripheral device is an input device.

47. A peripheral device as claimed in claim 43, wherein said peripheral device is a network device.

48. A peripheral device as claimed in claim 43, wherein said peripheral device is a multi-function peripheral device