Facilitating interaction between video renderers and graphics device drivers

• US 7,451,457 B2
• Filed: 03/25/2003
• Issued: 11/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Estrop, Stephen J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee; Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hoang; Phuong N
• Application Number:
  US10/400,040
• Publication Number:
  US 20030195998A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,058 Days
• Field of Search: 719/323, 719/321, 719/327, 345/419, 345/629, 345/522, 345/428, 345/581
• US Class Current: 719/323
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/10 Program control for peripheral devices G06F13/14 - G06F13/42 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/14 Handling requests for interconnection or transfer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/38 Information transfer, e.g. on bus G06F13/14 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/00 General purpose image data processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/00 2D [Two Dimensional] image generation
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2310/0229 De-interlacing
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/08 Power processing, i.e. workload management for processors involved in display operations, such as CPUs or GPUs
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/04 Exchange of auxiliary data, i.e. other than image data, between monitor and graphics controller
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/005 Adapting incoming signals to the display format of the display terminal
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/363 Graphics controllers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/46 Colour picture communication systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/443 OS processes, e.g. booting an STB, implementing a Java virtual machine in an STB or power management in an STB
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/012 Conversion between an interlaced and a progressive signal for graphics images G09G2310/0229
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/0122 the input and the output signals having different aspect ratios
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/0127 by changing the field or frame frequency of the incoming video signal, e.g. frame rate converter
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/641 Multi-purpose receivers, e.g. for auxiliary information H04N9/642 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/643 Hue control means, e.g. flesh tone control

Abstract

Facilitating interaction may be enabled through communication protocols and/or APIs that permit information regarding image processing capabilities of associated graphics hardware to be exchanged between graphics device drivers and video renders. In a first exemplary media implementation, electronically-executable instructions thereof for a video renderer precipitate actions including: issuing a query from a video render towards a graphics device driver, the query requesting information relating to process amplifier (ProcAmp) capabilities; and receiving a response at the video renderer from the graphics device driver, the response including the requested information relating to ProcAmp capabilities. In a second exemplary media implementation, a graphics device driver precipitates actions including: receiving a query at the graphics device driver from a video renderer, the query requesting information relating to ProcAmp capabilities; and sending a response to the video renderer from the graphics device driver, the response including the requested information that relates to ProcAmp capabilities.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for facilitating interaction between one or more video renderers and at least one graphics device driver, the method comprising:

querying, by a video renderer of the one or more video renderers, the at least one graphics device driver regarding process amplifier (ProcAmp) control property capabilities, the querying including a description of video to be displayed;

generating, based on the description of video to be displayed, a response including information relating to ProcAmp control property capabilities;

sending the response to the video renderer from the at least one graphics device driver, wherein the information relating to ProcAmp control property capabilities includes at least a subset of ProcAmp control property capabilities that the at least one graphics device driver can offer to the video renderer;

providing to the video renderer from the graphics device driver, ProcAmp adjustments that may be performed simultaneously with video processing operations associated with the subset of ProcAmp control properties;

selecting, at the video renderer, a ProcAmp control property associated with one of the subset of ProcAmp control property capabilities;

receiving at the graphics device driver, from the video renderer, a request for values associated with the selected ProcAmp control property;

providing values to the video renderer in response to the request for values associated with the selected ProcAmp control property, the values being used in video processing operations;

receiving at the graphics device driver from the video renderer, a command to open a ProcAmp stream object;

opening the ProcAmp stream object;

sending to the video renderer, from the graphics device driver, another response having a handle pointing to the opened ProcAmp stream object;

receiving at the graphics device driver, from the video renderer, a command to perform a ProcAmp adjustment; and

causing performance of the ProcAmp adjustment, wherein;

the command includes an instruction to perform a video processing operation associated with the selected ProcAmp control property concurrently with the ProcAmp adjustment;

causing performance of the ProcAmp adjustment comprises causing a concurrent performance of the ProcAmp adjustment and the video processing operation; and

the information relating to ProcAmp control property capabilities is directed to video processing operations that are performed simultaneously with the ProcAmp adjustments.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the at least a subset of ProcAmp capabilities that the at least one graphics device driver can offer to the video renderer comprises ProcAmp capabilities allotted to the video renderer from the at least one graphics device driver.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the graphics device driver has one or more predetermined sets of ProcAmp control property capabilities set up for one or more descriptions corresponding to the description of video to be displayed.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

sending a command to close a video processing stream object to the graphics device driver from the video renderer;

receiving the command from the video renderer at the graphics device driver; and

closing, by the graphics device driver, the video processing stream object.

5. One or more electronically-accessible media comprising electronically-executable instructions that, when executed, precipitate actions comprising:

receiving a query at a graphics device driver from a video renderer, the query comprising;

a request for information relating to process amplifier (ProcAmp) control property capabilities; and

a description of the type of video to be displayed;

generating, based on the description of the video to be displayed, a response that includes the requested information that relates to ProcAmp control property capabilities;

sending the response to the video renderer from the graphics device driver;

providing to the video renderer from the graphics device driver, ProcAmp adjustments that may be performed simultaneously with video processing operations associated with the ProcAmp control properties;

selecting, at the video renderer, a ProcAmp control property associated with one of the ProcAmp control property capabilities;

receiving at the graphics device driver, from the video renderer, a request for values associated with the selected ProcAmp control property;

providing values to the video renderer in response to the request for values associated with the selected ProcAmp control property, the values being used in video processing operations;

receiving at the graphics device driver from the video renderer, a command to open a ProcAmp stream object;

opening the ProcAmp stream object;

sending to the video renderer, from the graphics device driver, another response having a handle pointing to the opened ProcAmp stream object;

receiving at the graphics device driver, from the video renderer, a command to perform a ProcAmp adjustment; and

causing performance of the ProcAmp adjustment, wherein;

the command includes an instruction to perform a video processing operation associated with the selected ProcAmp control property concurrently with the ProcAmp adjustment;

causing performance of the ProcAmp adjustment comprises causing a concurrent performance of the ProcAmp adjustment and the video processing operation; and

the information relating to ProcAmp control property capabilities is directed to video processing operations that are performed simultaneously with the ProcAmp adjustments.

6. The one or more electronically-accessible media as recited in claim 5, wherein one or more video processing operations performed concurrently with ProcAmp adjustments include at least one video processing operation selected from the group comprising:

de-interlacing operations, aspect ratio corrections, color space conversions, frame rate conversions, vertical or horizontal mirroring operations, alpha blending operations, and none.

7. The one or more electronically-accessible media as recited in claim 5, wherein the command is directed to a bit block transfer.

8. The one or more electronically-accessible media as recited in claim 7, wherein the command instructs the graphics device driver to cause a bit block transfer to occur along with the performance of the ProcAmp adjustment on the video.

9. The one or more electronically-accessible media as recited in claim 7, wherein the command instructs the graphics device driver to cause a bit block transfer to occur along with the performance of the ProcAmp adjustment to create one image for an entire screen of a display device, the one image stored in memory as a single block and including a frame of the video after the ProcAmp adjustment.

10. The one or more electronically-accessible media as recited in claim 5, wherein the command stipulates at least one control property value or change to a control property value for the ProcAmp adjustment on the video.

11. The one or more electronically-accessible media as recited in claim 5, comprising the electronically-executable instructions that, when executed, precipitate a further action comprising:

receiving at the video renderer an operation request from an instigating application, the operation request including a request to perform a ProcAmp adjustment on the video.

12. The one or more electronically-accessible media as recited in claim 5, comprising the electronically-executable instructions that, when executed, precipitate a further action comprising:

issuing a command from the video renderer towards the graphics device driver to close a ProcAmp stream object.

13. The one or more electronically-accessible media as recited in claim 5, wherein the actions of receiving a query and sending the response are effectuated, at least partially, by propagating the query and the response between the video renderer and the graphics device driver using at least one of a graphic interface and a device driver interface.

14. The one or more electronically-accessible media as recited in claim 5, wherein at least a portion of the electronically-executable instructions comprises at least part of an operating system.

15. The one or more electronically-accessible media as recited in claim 5, wherein at least a portion of the electronically-executable instructions comprises at least part of a graphics device driver.

16. The one or more electronically-accessible media as recited in claim 5, wherein the ProcAmp control properties are selected from a group comprising:

none, brightness, contrast, hue, and saturation.

17. The one or more electronically-accessible media as recited in claim 5, wherein the values are selected from a group comprising:

range, maximum, minimum, step size/increment, and default.

18. The one or more electronically-accessible media as recited in claim 5, wherein the one or more video processing operations that may be performed simultaneously with ProcAmp adjustments include at least one video processing operation selected from a plurality of video processing operations comprising:

a YUV-to-RGB conversion operation, a stretch X operation, a stretch Y operation, a sub-rectangle region operation, an alphablend operation, and none.

19. A system for facilitating interaction between a video renderer and a graphics device driver, the system comprising:

a processor;

video rendering logic adapted to prepare queries that request information relating to process amplifier (ProcAmp) capabilities that can be applied to video to be displayed, wherein the queries include a description of the type of video that is to be displayed; and

graphics device driving logic adapted to prepare responses that indicate what ProcAmp capabilities can be applied to video to be displayed based on the description of the type of video to be displayed; and

interface logic that is adapted to facilitate interaction between the video rendering logic and the graphics device driving logic, the interaction comprising;

receiving a query at a graphics device driver from a video renderer, the query comprising;

a request for information relating to process amplifier (ProcAmp) control property capabilities; and

the description of the type of video to be displayed;

generating, based on the description of the video to be displayed, a response that includes the requested information that relates to ProcAmp control property capabilities;

sending the response to the video renderer from the graphics device driver;

providing to the video renderer from the graphics device driver, ProcAmp adjustments that may be performed simultaneously with video processing operations associated with the ProcAmp control properties;

selecting, at the video renderer, a ProcAmp control property associated with one of the ProcAmp control property capabilities;

receiving at the graphics device driver, from the video renderer, a request for values associated with the selected ProcAmp control property;

providing values to the video renderer in response to the request for values associated with the selected ProcAmp control property, the values being used in video processing operations;

receiving at the graphics device driver from the video renderer, a command to open a ProcAmp stream object;

opening the ProcAmp stream object;

sending to the video renderer, from the graphics device driver, another response having a handle pointing to the opened ProcAmp stream object;

receiving at the graphics device driver, from the video renderer, a command to perform a ProcAmp adjustment; and

causing performance of the ProcAmp adjustment, wherein;

the command includes an instruction to perform a video processing operation associated with the selected ProcAmp control property concurrently with the ProcAmp adjustment;

causing performance of the ProcAmp adjustment comprises causing a concurrent performance of the ProcAmp adjustment and the video processing operation; and

the information relating to ProcAmp control property capabilities is directed to video processing operations that are performed simultaneously with the ProcAmp adjustments.