Image data displaying system and method

• US 7,453,479 B2
• Filed: 07/10/2001
• Issued: 11/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/17/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Innotive Corporation
• Original Assignee: Innotive Corporation
• Inventors: Le, Hao, Okamura, Tomoyuki, Moon, Kwang Soon
• Primary Examiner(s): Shankar; Vijay
• Application Number:
  US10/110,680
• Publication Number:
  US 20020191867A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,688 Days
• Field of Search: 345 11- 9, 345204-215, 345629-641, 345427-428, 345/660, 345667-671, 345690-699
• US Class Current: 345/698
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/14 Digital output to display device ; Cooperation and interconnection of the display device with other functional units
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/0407 Resolution change, inclusive of the use of different resolutions for different screen areas
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/027 Arrangements and methods specific for the display of internet documents
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/393 Arrangements for updating the contents of the bit-mapped memory

Abstract

The system for displaying huge images in accordance with the present invention comprises: a storage device (1) for storing image data winch is divided in either one of the row direction and the column direction and contains at least two subdivided blocks; a first temporary storage device (9) for sequentially reading out data stored in the storage device (1), temporarily storing data as read and, when the data reaches a predetermined unit of data size, outputting all the data as input. And the present invention serves to improve the processing speed of huge images by bypassing the main storage device (3) during the processing operation of image data.

Claims

1. A data file browsing system for displaying image data composed of an array of pixel data, comprising:

an image data dividing mechanism for dividing said image data in a direction perpendicular to the direction of reading said pixel data items to generate a plurality of divided image data items;

a storing means for storing said divided image data items;

a means for reading a desired portion from said divided image data items;

said storing means; and

an image displaying mechanism for combining and displaying said portion, wherein

said image data is data obtained by converting, to image data, a plurality of markup language files having a hierarchical structure in terms of tag data,

the image data as converted being arranged in the lateral direction in accordance with said hierarchical structure; and

wherein said image displaying mechanism is used to scroll the image data in the lateral direction in accordance with said tag data; and

wherein said markup language files are provided through the Internet as Web pages,

wherein each of said image data arranged in the form of a two dimensional array is associated with a link to an address in the Internet where is provided the original markup language file before conversion, and

wherein said Web page can be accessed by clicking the respective image data as arranged in the form of the two dimensional array.

2. The data file browsing system as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a temporary storage means for storing the image portion and outputting to said image displaying mechanism.

3. The data file browsing system as claimed in claim 2 wherein said temporary storage means is in a predetermined area of a memory device.

4. The data file browsing system as claimed in claim 3 wherein there are more than one such predetermined area in said memory device.

5. The data file browsing system as claimed in claim 4 wherein the size of said predetermined storage region is variable depending upon the number of divided image data items being read.

6. The data file browsing system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said system is provided with a bookmark function for recording a current position by adding tag data when the image data is scrolled.

7. The data file browsing system as claimed in claim 1 further comprising

a fixed cursor to be fixedly displayed in a predetermined position in a display screen window;

a coordinates obtaining mechanism for obtaining the coordinates in the screen window as specified by the fixed cursor; and

a console device for inputting the direction in which said fixed cursor is moved, wherein

said image displaying mechanism is used to scroll said image data to the direction opposite to the direction as input through the console device.

8. The data file browsing system as claimed in claim 1 further comprising

a region selecting mechanism with which an arbitrary region can be designated on the image displayed in said image displaying mechanism;

and

a record file outputting mechanism for including the images as designated in a record file and outputting, to said record file, designated region specifying data for specifying the divided image data items included in the region as designated by said region selecting mechanism.

9. The data file browsing system as claimed in claim 8 further comprising

a substitute data generating mechanism for generating, when the divided image data item included in said record file is deleted, a new image data file corresponding to the image portions of said divided image data items in order that the image data file generated anew is associated with said designated region specifying data.

10. The data file browsing system as claimed in claim 1 wherein

said image data is generated by converting pages of a publication to image data items.

11. The data file browsing system as claimed in claim 10 wherein

the coordinate information of said divided image data items is associated with pages and line numbers of the publication.

12. The data file browsing system as claimed in claim 10 wherein

said publication includes is a program schedule of television or radio broadcasting while the coordinate information of said divided image data items is associated with channels and time of the program schedule.

13. The data file browsing system as claimed in claim 10 wherein

said publication is a catalog in which the coordinate information of said divided image data items is associated with the page numbers of the catalog in order to specify a particular item in the catalog with reference to the page number and the associated coordinates.

14. The data file browsing system as claimed in claim 1 wherein

said divided image data item is used to demonstrate a full-motion video by sequentially displaying a plurality of divided image data items, and

said system is provided with a full-motion video handling mechanism for specifying or modifying the displaying order of said plurality of the divided image data items.

15. The data file browsing system as claimed in claim 14 wherein

said motion picture handling mechanism is a pointing device including a touch panel and a mouse while said displaying order and the speed of display can be adjusted by controlling the moving direction or speed of said pointing device.

16. The data file browsing system as claimed in claim 1 wherein

said image data is provided for displaying a wide area such as a map, a celestial image and so forth while said divided image data items represent sub regions of said wide area;

said image displaying mechanism has a function for displaying predetermined dummy data in display areas in which no divided image data item is available.