Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Display peripheral interface input device – Stylus
Patent
1993-11-17
1996-09-17
Weldon, Ulysses
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Display peripheral interface input device
Stylus
178 18, G09G 500
Patent
active
055573010
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates in a general manner to a graphics drawing system of the type comprising: plotted lines; surface with respect to a reference; to create or update a digital image by using the coordinates of the stylus; and connected to the processing means.
In such a known system, the width of the plotted line produced remains constant whatever the plotted line produced. This constitutes a significant limitation, especially for graphics creaters, as in this case it is impossible to obtain thick strokes and thin strokes on the image formed.
The present invention aims to overcome this drawback of the prior art.
Another object of the invention is to provide a system enabling the user to go beyond the often small size of a cathode ray tube screen or a liquid-crystal screen, while at the same time producing the plotted lines directly on the image as it is being formed.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide printing means enabling the thick and thin strokes of simulated plotted lines to be reproduced on the drawing surface.
For this purpose, the invention provides a graphics drawing system of the type mentioned in the introduction, characterized in that the means for determining the coordinates of the stylus comprise means to determine the coordinates of a tip of the stylus and means to determine an orientation vector of the stylus enabling in its turn the width of the simulated plotted line to be determined.
Other features, purposes and advantages of the present invention will become clearer upon reading the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof, given by way of example with reference to the appended drawings in which:
FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic overall view, in perspective, of a graphics drawing system according to the invention,
FIG. 2 is a view, in side elevation, of a possible embodiment of part of the system of FIG. 1,
FIG. 3 is a view, in perspective, of a stylus forming part of the system of the invention,
FIG. 4 illustrates, in block-diagram form, the design of the stylus of FIG. 3 from the electrical standpoint.
FIG. 5 is a set of chronogram illustrating the operation of the styler and of the means for determining the coordinates thereof,
FIG. 6 illustrates a simulated plotted line and an actual plotted line reproduced from the simulated plotted line,
FIG. 7 illustrates diagrammatically, in plan view, a plotter forming part of the system of the invention,
FIG. 8 is a view, in perspective, of a fibrous plotting tip according to the invention, and
FIG. 9 is a view, in horizontal section, of the plotting tip of FIG. 8.
It will be noted preliminarily that, from one figure to another, identical or similar parts or elements will be designated by the same reference symbols.
Represented in FIG. 1 is a computer-aided drawing station, for example a graphics creation station, which comprises a central processing unit 100 including processing means 110 of the microprocessor kind, a random access memory 120 as well as other conventional items of equipment, not represented, such as bulk memory, input/output circuits, keyboard, etc.
The central processing unit 100 is connected to a display screen 200, constituted, for example, by a color-display high-definition liquid-crystal screen intended to display an image as it is being created.
A back-projection device 300 enables the image present on the screen 300 to be back-projected from behind it onto a translucent screen 400.
The translucent screen 400 comprises a translucent work surface 402 surrounded by an opaque frame 404.
Finally, the graphics system comprises a graphics-data acquisition device which comprises a stylus 502, preferably of the leadless type, and means 504 for detecting the position of the stylus (x, y coordinates) in the plane of the screen 400.
The operation of the system of the present invention is schematically the following: when an operator simulates, with the aid of the stylus 502, a plotted line on the screen 402, this plotted line is supplied to the central processing processing unit in the form
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Mengistu Amare
Weldon Ulysses
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