Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Display driving control circuitry – Controlling the condition of display elements
Reexamination Certificate
2000-08-25
2004-08-31
Kincaid, Kristine (Department: 2174)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Display driving control circuitry
Controlling the condition of display elements
C345S215000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06784902
ABSTRACT:
The invention pertains to a method for the configuration and parameterization of a graphical computer program, such as for the operation of a data processing system. The data processing system contains at least one data processor, one data memory, one input device and one display device. The program controls functional elements comprising, on one hand, of devices which are connected to the data processor via signal or data interfaces and, on the other hand, functional units which are emulated by a software module. The invention also pertains to a computer program for carrying out such a method.
Data processing systems are used in numerous technical fields, in particular, for the acquisition of measurement data at test stands, for the monitoring of process data in chemical systems, for quality monitoring in mechanical manufacturing systems, etc. Modern data processing systems typically utilize a computer with a data processor, a data memory, and an input device (keyboard, computer mouse, trackball or the like), as well as a display device, usually a monitor. The functional elements of a measurement or automation system may comprise data acquisition devices, e.g., measuring sensors, devices for reading data carriers (CD-ROM drive, diskette drive or the like), mechanical scanning devices, optical measuring devices, etc. Such data acquisition devices are usually connected to signal interfaces of the computer via signal lines. The signal interfaces can be configured for the transmission of digital signals if the external data acquisition device or measuring device digitizes the acquired signals. If the external data acquisition device supplies an analog signal, e.g., when using temperature sensors or microphones, the interface is realized in the form of an analog signal input. The received analog signal is converted into a digital signal by means of a data processor that is usually part of an analog/digital converter within the computer, and forwarded (e.g., to a data memory).
The functional elements may also contain additional signal sources such as, e.g., a clock signal generator, which defines a certain time cycle, or a trigger, which supplies a trigger signal when another signal exceeds a certain threshold value.
The functional elements may also contain devices for converting and additionally processing data and signals. For example, signals recorded by means of a signal recording device can be scaled and transformed. Depending on the intended use, other data transformation methods can be used.
Finally, the functional elements contain data memories for storing a selected portion of the recorded data as well as display devices for displaying a certain image of the recorded signals and data.
The individual functions of the functional elements were initially fulfilled by separate devices that were coupled to one another via electrical signal lines. With the increasing capability of modern computers, many of the functions of the functional elements can be emulated within the computer by means of software modules and, if necessary, in cooperation with the required hardware components in the computer. For example, so-called transient recorders for recording and storing a large quantity of digitized signals can be eliminated, due to the continuously increasing capacity of the main memories (RAM) and the hard disk drives in the computers. Due to the increasing computing power of the data processor, external FFT analyzers can be eliminated and the Fourier transform can be carried out within the computer by the data processor with the aid of a software module. Special processors, e.g., mathematical coprocessors, can be integrated into the computer if it is necessary to carry out complex mathematical transformations.
The increasing capacity of hardware has led to an integration of computers into the measurement chain. This integration has resulted in the fact that conventional interconnections of the functional elements can be realized by electrically conductive signal lines. In addition, the separate arrangement of display devices and operating elements can be replaced in ever more instances by direct connections to the computer, since, in many cases, the computer can integrate operating elements and a display device into one unit, and it is able to fulfill this task for several devices or functions simultaneously.
The emulation, configuration and interconnection of the various functional elements was initially realized by means of computer programs prepared as text in customary programming languages, such as FORTRAN, PASCAL, etc. Such a configuration of a measurement or control computer required comprehensive knowledge of the respective programming language. In addition, comprehensive knowledge regarding the design of the computer as well as the devices connected to the computer was required to read signals present at the different interfaces by means of the data processing program and to control the devices that are connected to the computer via the interfaces.
The disadvantage of known programming languages is that it is difficult to ascertain the functional interconnections between the different functional elements of the system from the program. The functional interconnections were usually outlined, before the program was written, in a graphical fashion in the form of easy-to-understand flow charts. After the system requirements were defined by means of the flow chart, the required command sequences were written in an arbitrary text-based programming language by a programmer and the resulting computer program was compiled.
With the increase in capability for producing graphic illustrations at the beginning of the 1980s, data flow charts were preferably prepared on the display devices of computers with a suitable program module, a data flow chart editor. It was later recognized that the information content in a data flow chart prepared on a computer display did not necessarily have to be converted into textual program code by a programmer, but rather it could be used by the computer to create a computer program that operates according to the data flow chart. Thus, the authors Davis and Keller disclosed the possibility of specifying programs by using editors for data flow charts in the article “Data flow program graphs” in IEEE Computer, February 1982. Similar embodiments are described in the article “PICT:AN Interactive Graphical Programming Environment” by the authors Glienert and Tanimoto in IEEE Computer, November 1984. U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,221 (European Patent EP 0 242 131 B1) discloses a practical application of such graphical programming languages. In this case, a separate computer program may be prepared for each special application by means of the graphical programming language. For this purpose, the graphical programming language may represent the directional data flow from one functional element to another functional element, and it may represent the program control. In order to attain the latter objective, graphic illustrations of the control functions of the program, i.e., iterative and conditional functions, may be incorporated into the graphical programming language.
Due to further increase in storage capacity and computing speed of computers, a similar program concept was introduced on the market that contains a fixed algorithm. This algorithm contains software modules for all functional elements of the program as well as a program core that carries out the initialization of the drivers, devices, etc., the measurement loop itself (starting the signal recording, executing the mathematical signal conversion and storage/display) as well as the measurement post-processing. This fixed program can be adapted to the respective measuring task without altering the executable program code by simply changing certain parameters. Until now, parameterization was realized with a signal wiring diagram that contained different graphic symbols (pictographs) for different functional elements and their interconnections to one another, and thus, this wiring diagram exhibits a certain simil
Becker Thomas Dieter
Melder Wilfried
Hood Jeffrey C.
Kincaid Kristine
Meyertons Hood Kivlin Kowert & Goetzel P.C.
National Instruments Corporation
Vu Thanh T
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