Image display system

• US 7,607,106 B2
• Filed: 05/06/2005
• Issued: 10/20/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pixia Corp. (Cubic Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Pixia Corp. (Cubic Corporation)
• Inventors: Ernst, Rudolf O., Lui, Pun Sing
• Primary Examiner(s): HAILU, TADESSE
• Application Number:
  US11/123,146
• Publication Number:
  US 20050210405A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,628 Days
• Field of Search: 715790-794, 345/1.3, 345/428, 345/3.3, 345/581, 345/606, 382/307, 382/305, 382/133, 382/284, 382/302, 382/282, 382/291
• US Class Current: 715/790
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/51 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/045 Zooming at least part of an image, i.e. enlarging it or shrinking it
• 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 5/12 Synchronisation between the display unit and other units, e.g. other display units, video-disc players
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/346 for systems having a bit-mapped display memory
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/363 Graphics controllers
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/393 Arrangements for updating the contents of the bit-mapped memory

Abstract

An image display system is disclosed that enables users to navigate very large digital images quickly and seamlessly. The system is optimized to transmit image data from a disk drive to a display at high data rates. The image data is stored on the disk drive in a file format optimized for high speed retrieval, display, and seamless navigation. The image display system can be cascaded for showing two or more contiguous images on multiple displays.

Claims

1. A method of configuring an image for data storage on a storage device in an overlapping-tiled format, comprising:

formatting an image at a first zoom level to comprise a first set of overlapping image tiles, wherein each overlapping image tile within the first set of overlapping image tiles has the same zoom level;

selecting an amount of overlap between adjacent overlapping image tiles to have a size equal to or greater than a display; and

configuring each overlapping image tile for data storage as a separate block of data, wherein a block size is an integer multiple of tile size.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising configuring tile data for data storage as a contiguous string of data that is block aligned.

3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising configuring each row of pixels sequentially for data storage for each overlapping image tile.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising formatting each overlapping image tile as rows of pixels.

5. Machine readable media configured to store an image on a storage device in a tiled format, comprising:

a module configured to format an image at a first zoom level to comprise a first set of overlapping image tiles, wherein each image tile within the first set of overlapping image tiles has the same zoom level;

a module configured to select an amount of overlap between adjacent overlapping image tiles to have a size equal to or greater than a display; and

a module configured to store each overlapping image tile as a separate block of data.

6. The machine readable media of claim 5, further comprising:

a module configured to format an image at a second zoom level to comprise a second set of overlapping image tiles, wherein each image tile within the second set of overlapping image tiles has the same zoom level, wherein the first and second zoom levels are different; and

a module configured to store each overlapping image tile from the second set of overlapping image tiles as a separate block of data.

7. The machine readable media of claim 6, wherein each image tile within the second set of overlapping image tiles overlaps an adjacent image tile by 50%.

8. The machine readable media of claim 5, wherein each image tile within the first set of overlapping image tiles overlaps an adjacent image tile by 50%.

9. The machine readable media of claim 5, wherein each image tile is configured to be stored in blocks that are formatted to be half of a tile width size.

10. The machine readable media of claim 5, wherein each image tile is formatted to comprise sequential rows of pixel data.