Image display system

• US 20030034936A1
• Filed: 09/14/2002
• Published: 02/20/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pixia Corp. (Cubic Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Pixia Corp. (Cubic Corporation)
• Inventors: Ernst, Rudolf O., Lui, Pun Sing
• Granted Patent: US 7,119,811 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/55
• 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: G06F 3/1438 using more than one graphics controller
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/122 Tiling
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/363 Graphics controllers

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 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.

Claims

1. A method for showing an image on a display, comprising:

generating a first tile and a second tile from an image, wherein the first tile and the second tile each have overlapping portions that overlap by at least an amount about equal to what can be shown on a display;

storing the first tile and the second tile in memory;

receiving a first instruction from an interface device to show on the display a first display image located within the first tile;

determining that the first display image is located within the first tile; and

transmitting the first display image from the first tile to the display for viewing.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the receiving step includes receiving a first instruction from an interface device to show on the display a first display image located within the first tile and located primarily within the overlapping portion of the first tile.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, further including the steps of:

receiving a second instruction from the interface device to show on the display a second display image located within the second tile, located primarily within the overlapping portion of the second tile, and virtually identical to the first display image;

determining that the second display image is located within the second tile; and

transmitting the second display image from the second tile to the display for viewing.

4. A method as recited in claim 3, wherein the first instruction and second instruction received from the interface device are generated when a user pans.

5. A method as recited in claim 3, wherein a user pans in one of the horizontal and vertical directions.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, further including the steps of:

receiving a second instruction from the interface device to show on the display a second display image located within the second tile;

determining that the second display image is located within the second tile; and

transmitting the second display image from the second tile to the display for viewing.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, further including the step of storing the first tile and the second tile in external storage.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the step of storing the first tile and the second tile in external storage includes the step of storing the first tile and the second tile in external storage over a network.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the receiving step includes the step of receiving a first instruction from an interface device, wherein the interface device is selected from the group including a track ball, joy stick, mouse, and a keyboard, to show on the display a first display image located within the first tile.

10. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the generating step includes generating a plurality of overlapping horizontal tiles, wherein each adjacent tile has overlapping portions that overlap by at least an amount about equal to what can be shown on a display.

11. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the generating step includes generating a plurality of overlapping horizontal and overlapping vertical tiles, wherein each adjacent tile has overlapping portions that overlap by at least an amount about equal to what can be shown on a display.

12. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the generating step includes generating a first tile and a second tile from an image, wherein the first tile and the second tile each include tile sections and the first tile and the second tile each have overlapping portions that overlap by at least an amount about equal to what can be shown on a display.

13. A method as recited in claim 12, wherein the first tile and the second tile each include four tile sections, each section is 640 pixels wide by 1440 lines high, and the display has a resolution of 1280×

720 pixels.

14. A method as recited in claim 13, wherein each pixel in the tile sections represents image data selected from the group including a single byte for black-and-white color space images, two bytes for YUV color space images, and three bytes for RGB color space images.

15. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the storing step includes storing the first tile in a first memory and storing the second tile in a second memory.

16. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the determining step includes determining that the pixels in two diagonally opposing corners of the first display image are located within the first tile.

17. A method as recited in claim 3, wherein the transition between the first display image and the second display image occurs in less than about a hundredth ({fraction (1/100)}) of a second.

18. A method as recited in claim 3, further including the step of storing a third tile into memory while the user pans within the second tile, wherein the second tile and the third tile each have overlapping portions that overlap by at least an amount about equal to what can be shown on the display.

19. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the image is selected from the group comprising geographic, chemical compound, biologic compound, organism, anatomical, and graphical images.

20. A method as recited in claim 1, further including the steps of compressing the first tile and the second tile and storing the compressed tiles on a disk drive.

22. A method as recited in claim 20, further including the step of decompressing the first tile and the second tile prior to the step of storing the first tile and the second tile in memory.

23. A method as recited in claim 22, wherein each tile section has a width that is evenly divisible into the width of the display.

24. A method as recited in claim 22, wherein the step of generating two or more tiles from the image data includes generating at least two tiles from the image data, wherein each tile includes four tile sections, two of the tile sections in each tile are virtually identical to the two overlapping tile sections in adjacent tiles, the width of two tile sections is equal to the width of a display on which tiles are to be shown, and the height of each tile section is greater than or about equal to the height of the display.

25. A method as recited in claim 22, wherein the step of storing the two or more tiles includes storing the two or more tiles on a disk drive.

26. A method as recited in claim 22, wherein the step of storing the two or more tiles includes storing the two or more tiles on an external storage device.

27. A method as recited in claim 22, wherein each tile section of each tile is made up of rows of image data and the step of storing the two or more tiles includes, starting with the first generated tile,

(d) storing each row of the tile sequentially starting at a first corner of the tile and ending on the diagonally opposing corner of the tile;

and

(e) skipping to a first corner of an adjacent overlapping tile and repeating step (d) until all of the tiles have been stored.

28. A method as recited in claim 27, wherein each row in each tile section has one block of data when the color space of the display is black-and-white, two blocks of data when the color space of the display is YUV, and three blocks of data when the color space of the display is RGB.

29. A method as recited in claim 22, wherein the step of storing the two or more tiles includes storing the two or more tiles on a disk drive as a single file.

30. A method as recited in claim 22, wherein the image is selected from the group comprising geographic, chemical compound, biologic compound, organism, anatomical, and graphical images.

31. A method as recited in claim 22, further including the step of compressing the two or more tiles prior to the step of storing the two or more tiles.

21. A method for storing an image, comprising:

(a) reading image data defining an image from one or more files;

(b) generating two or more tiles from the image data, wherein

(i) each tile includes two or more tile sections,

(ii) one or more of the tile sections in each tile is virtually identical to the one or more overlapping tile sections in an adjacent tile, and

(iii) the height of each tile section is greater than or about equal to the height of a display on which the two or more tiles are to be shown; and

(c) storing the two or more tiles.

32. A method for storing an image, comprising:

(a) providing an image formatted to include two or more tiles, wherein each tile has an overlapping portion that overlaps an adjacent tile by at least an amount about equal to what can be shown on a display, and each tile is defined by rows of pixels;

(b) storing each row of pixels of a tile sequentially starting at a first corner of a tile and ending on the diagonally opposing corner of the tile; and

(c) skipping to a first corner of an adjacent overlapping tile and repeating step (b) until all of the tiles have been stored.

33. The method as recited in claim 32, further including the step of compressing the pixels prior to storing them.

34. The method as recited in claim 32, wherein the step of storing includes storing the pixels on a disk drive.

35. A method for reading image data from a disk drive, comprising:

(a) instructing a controller to read image data from a disk drive, wherein the image data is stored on the disk drive as a contiguous stream of data, by

(i) moving a head of the disk drive so the that the head is located at the beginning of the image data, and

(ii) reading all of the image data from beginning to end; and

(b) transmitting the image data for viewing on a display.

36. A method as recited in claim 35, wherein the transmitting step includes transmitting the image data to memory for viewing on a display.

37. A method as recited in claim 35, wherein the transmitting step includes transmitting the image data over a network for viewing on a display.

38. A method as recited in claim 35, wherein the image data represents an entire image.

39. A method as recited in claim 35, wherein the image data is arranged to form tile sections, the width of each tile section is such that the width of the display is a multiple of the width of each tile section, and the height of each tile section is greater than or about equal to the height of the display.

40. A method as recited in claim 35, further including the step of decompressing the image data.

41. A method for reading image data from a disk drive, comprising:

(a) seeking to a contiguous stream of image data on a disk drive;

(b) reading the image data from beginning to end; and

(c) transmitting the image data for viewing on a display.

42. A method as recited in claim 41, wherein the transmitting step includes transmitting the image data to memory for viewing on a display.

43. A method as recited in claim 41, wherein the transmitting step includes transmitting the image data over a network for viewing on a display.

44. A method as recited in claim 41, wherein the image data represents an entire image.

45. A method as recited in claim 41, wherein the image data is arranged to form tile sections, the width of each tile section is such that the width of the display is a multiple of the width of each tile section, and the height of each tile section is greater than or about equal to the height of the display.

46. A method for showing a scaled image on a display, comprising:

(a) storing an image on a storage device;

(b) receiving an instruction to generate and store multiple scaled levels of the image;

(c) scaling the image in accordance with the instruction; and

(d) storing the scaled levels on the storage device.

47. A method as recited in claim 46, further including, after the step of storing the scaled levels on the storage device, the step of receiving an instruction to transmit a particular scaled level of the image for viewing on a display.

48. A method as recited in claim 46, wherein the receiving step includes receiving an instruction to generate and store multiple scaled levels of the image, wherein a scaling factor is selected from a group comprising a three decimal place number between 0 and 1, a five decimal place number between 0 and 1, and a ten decimal place number between 0 and 1.

49. A method as recited in claim 46, wherein the image is defined by the tiles, each tile having two or more tile sections, the width of each tile section is such that the width of the display is a multiple of the width of each tile section, and the height of each tile section is greater than or about equal to the height of the display.

50. A method as recited in claim 46, further including the step of compressing the scaled levels prior to the step of storing the scaled levels on the storage device.

51. A method as recited in claim 50, further including the step of decompressing a scaled level of the image and transmitting the scaled level of the image for viewing on a display.

52. A method as recited in claim 46, wherein the step of storing scaled levels on the storage device includes storing scaled levels sequentially on the storage device.

53. A method for displaying multiple synchronized images, comprising:

(a) providing two or more viewing systems interconnected so a first viewing system operates as a master to the remaining two or more viewing systems;

(b) providing a display for each viewing system;

(c) showing an image on each display, wherein each image is contiguous with the image on an adjacent display; and

(d) panning the contiguous images shown on each display, wherein the edges of adjacent images are synchronized more than 30 times per second.

54. A method as recited in claim 53, wherein the panning step includes panning the contiguous images shown on each display, wherein the edges of adjacent images are synchronized more than 100 times per second.

55. A method as recited in claim 53, wherein the edges of each adjacent image are synchronized greater than more than 5000 times per second.

56. A method as recited in claim 53, wherein the contiguous images are selected from the group comprising images of a geographic region viewed side-by-side;

images of an event viewed at different angles; and

images of an object viewed at different zoom levels.

57. A method as recited in claim 53, wherein the viewing systems are interconnected via high-speed data link.