Television – Image signal processing circuitry specific to television – Special effects
Patent
1996-03-07
2000-02-08
Lee, Michael H.
Television
Image signal processing circuitry specific to television
Special effects
348590, 348592, 348586, H04N 974
Patent
active
060233028
ABSTRACT:
A graphics blending feature for a terminal such as a home communication terminal (HCT) allows an overlay image to be selectively blended with a background image through the use of a chroma key function and one or more alpha control bits. The chroma key function is used to determine whether the overlay will be completely transparent or not, and the one or more alpha control bits are used to look up a larger alpha value used to blend the overlay and background images. By using a small number of alpha control bits to retrieve a larger alpha value for blending, memory requirements per pixel are reduced. The chroma key function may be implemented by comparing each overlay pixel value to a chroma value and, responsive to a match, making the overlay pixel transparent (i.e., no blending occurs). A dithering function is included in various embodiments to smooth out the resulting image.
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Chen Jiann-tsuen
MacInnis Alexander G.
Barnhardt III Hubert J.
Gardner Kelly A.
Lee Michael H.
Massaroni Kenneth M.
PowerTV, Inc.
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