Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Computer graphics processing – Attributes
Reexamination Certificate
2001-12-05
2004-08-31
Bella, Matthew C. (Department: 2676)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Computer graphics processing
Attributes
C345S597000, C345S638000, C345S593000, C345S629000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06784897
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an apparatus for and a method of carrying out translucent-processing to both still and moving pictures.
2. Description of the Related Art
In &agr;-blending or translucent-processing in graphics, color-relating values in pixel data of two pictures are blended at a ratio of &agr;: (1−&agr;). The &agr;-blending causes reduction in both the number and size of planes to be transferred to such a degree necessary for reading a &agr;-value out of a frame buffer, in comparison with not carrying out &agr;-blending.
In these days, data in displayed pictures is likely to increase more and more, and hence, the reduction in data of displayed picture, caused by carrying out &agr;-blending, becomes a major problem.
Accordingly, the reduction in data of displayed picture, caused by carrying out &agr;-blending, is required to eliminate.
A circuit for carrying out &agr;-blending process is suggested in Japanese Patent No. 3049012 (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-020049). In the suggested circuit, two data about pictures are &agr;-blended.
FIG. 1
is a block diagram of the circuit suggested in the Japanese Patent. The circuit for carrying out &agr;-blending process is comprised of a central processing unit (CPU)
11
, a two-dimensional graphics processor
12
, a character memory
13
, and a display device
14
.
The two-dimensional graphics processor
12
is comprised of a CPU interface
15
receiving a signal S
2
from and transmitting a signal S
2
to the central processing unit
11
, a memory interface
16
receiving a signal S
3
from and transmitting a signal S
3
to the memory
13
, a first unit
17
for displaying a background, receiving a signal S
5
from and transmitting a signal S
5
to the central processing unit
11
, and receiving a signal S
8
from and transmitting a signal S
8
to the memory interface
15
, a second unit
18
for displaying a graphics, receiving a signal S
7
from and transmitting a signal S
7
to the central processing unit
11
, and receiving a signal S
9
from and transmitting a signal S
9
to the memory interface
15
, a color synthesizer
19
receiving a signal S
6
from and transmitting a signal S
6
to the central processing unit
11
, receiving signals S
10
and S
11
from the first and second units
17
and
18
, respectively, and transmitting a signal S
4
to the display device
14
, and a controller
20
for controlling operations of the CPU interface
15
, the memory interface
16
, the first unit
17
, the second unit
18
and the color synthesizer
19
through signals S
12
, S
15
, S
14
, S
13
and S
16
, respectively.
The central processing unit
11
transmits a control signal S
1
to the CPU interface
15
, the memory interface
16
, the first unit
17
, the second unit
18
, the color synthesizer
19
and the controller
20
for controlling operations of them. The controller
20
transmits a control signal S
17
to the display device
14
for controlling operation of the display device
14
.
The memory
13
is comprised of a read only memory (ROM).
FIG. 2
is a block diagram of an apparatus obtained by generalizing the circuit illustrated in FIG.
1
.
The apparatus illustrated in
FIG. 2
is comprised of a central processing unit interface
1
to which picture data and first data indicative of a ratio at which two data is &agr;-blended are input, a video interface
2
to which video data is input, a frame buffer memory
8
storing the above-mentioned picture data and first data therein, a memory interface
7
acting as an interface for the frame buffer memory
8
, a graphic macro circuit, and a display macro circuit
6
which controls pictures to be displayed, and includes a circuit
6
a
for carrying out &agr;-blending.
The graphic macro circuit is comprised of a digital differential analysis (DDA) circuit
3
, a texture mapping circuit
4
, and a circuit
5
for transferring a bit block.
The above-mentioned apparatus illustrated in
FIG. 2
is accompanied with a problem that when data about pictures to be displayed is to be &agr;-blended, it is necessary to read both two picture data to be &agr;-blended and the first data indicative of a ratio at which the two picture data is &agr;-blended, out of the frame buffer memory
8
for both still and moving pictures each time a picture to be displayed is changed.
As a result, the picture data indicating a picture to be displayed has to be reduced in size to such a degree necessary for reading the first data out of the frame buffer memory
8
, because of a limit in time for making access to the frame buffer memory
8
.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 5-228246 has suggested a pachinko machine including a display unit formed on a playing board for electronically displaying a plurality of characters, a selector which selects one of graphics including the above-mentioned characters and causes the display unit to display the thus selected picture, a first memory which stores data about a still picture displayed on the display unit, a second memory which stores data about a moving picture displayed on the display unit, a picture synthesizer which synthesizes a still picture stored in the first memory and a moving picture stored in the second memory with each other in accordance with the graphics having been selected by the selector, and a third memory which stores data about the thus synthesized picture.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 11-505644, which is an international patent application PCT/US96/02830 based on the U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/413,983 filed on Mar. 6, 1995, has suggested a picture producing apparatus including a central processing unit, a system memory storing therein commands used for operating the central processing unit, a frame buffer therein storing a picks map having data about displayable pixels, a rendering processor which is operatively connected to the frame buffer, scan-converts a primitive into pixel data in response to a command transmitted from the central processing unit, and stores the thus obtained pixel data in the frame buffer, a memory bus through which the central processing unit transmits data to or receives data from the system memory, at least one high capacity memory or at least one peripheral device, and an I/O bus through which the central processing unit and the rendering processor transmit data to each other. The central processing unit operates in accordance with commands fetched from the system memory through the memory bus, to thereby produce primitive and texel commands, and transmits the primitive and texel commands to the rendering processor through the I/O bus. The rendering processor produces a pixel memory address, sophisticates the pixel data by linear interpolation, and carries out the texel command.
However, the above-mentioned problem remains unsolved even in the above-mentioned Patent or Publication.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the above-mentioned problem in the conventional apparatus and method, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for and a method of carrying out &agr;-blending, both of which are capable of reducing a time necessary for reading data indicative of a ratio at which two data are &agr;-blended, out of a frame buffer, and further reducing data about pictures to be displayed.
In one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for carrying out translucent-processing to still and moving pictures, including a moving picture processor for carrying out &agr;-blending process to a moving picture to be displayed, and a still picture processor for carrying out &agr;-blending process to a still picture to be displayed.
It is preferable that the still picture processor carries out the &agr;-blending process to a still picture only when the still picture is updated.
There is further provided an apparatus for carrying out translucent-processing to still and moving pictures, including (a) a judgment unit which judges whether a picture to be displayed is a still or m
Bella Matthew C.
NEC Electronics Corporation
Scully Scott Murphy & Presser
Tran Tam
LandOfFree
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