JP2008098741A - Telop generation apparatus and telop composition method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a telop generation apparatus and a telop composition method full of versatility, flexibility and expansibility. <P>SOLUTION: The telop generation apparatus 10 includes an agent means for creating a screen script by analyzing an input telop delivery command, a script engine in the form of a printer for drawing a telop based on the screen script, a device driver for controlling transfer of telop image data thus drawn to a frame buffer means, and a frame buffer outputting a video signal and a KEY signal. A system not conscious of the image quality can be made by absorbing the difference between high image quality and standard image quality by means of driver. The user can configure a telop delivery system by simply making a program for delivering a command, and thereby the system can be configured in a short period. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a telop generating device and a telop synthesizing method, and particularly to a telop generating device and a telop synthesizing method that are rich in versatility, flexibility, and expandability.

  Conventionally, in a television broadcasting station, an apparatus for generating a telop signal and combining it with a broadcast signal has been used. The following Patent Document 1 automatically superimposes a telop sentence on a video screen of a broadcast program and automatically sets an optimum display time corresponding to each character string of a telop sentence composed of multiple lines. The resulting television broadcast telop device is disclosed.

This system includes a disk device that reads character string data stored in a telop data storage means, a character pattern generator that stores character pattern data for telop, and character pattern data corresponding to the read character string data. An image memory device that sequentially transfers from the device, generates image data of the telop sentence, and holds image data of the telop sentence for a predetermined time based on time control data set in advance corresponding to the number of characters of the character string data; And a video device for converting image data of the image memory device into a video signal for television.
JP 09-135386 A

  In recent years, the demand for computer graphics in the television industry has become increasingly sophisticated. In addition to variations in video quality and CG special effects, system reliability, real-time performance, expandability, and flexibility are emphasized. Therefore, in addition to processing a large number of high-quality and high-quality expression functions at high speed, the telop generation device does not impair the reliability of sudden screen layouts or movement changes immediately before delivery, It is required to be able to respond quickly.

However, the conventional telop generation device has a problem that it lacks the expandability and flexibility of the system, and only a fixed expression can be achieved only by combining predetermined functions and designs. In addition, the processing speed is limited, and high-precision images are not supported.
An object of the present invention is to provide a telop generating apparatus and a telop synthesizing method that solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art and are rich in versatility, flexibility, and expandability.

  The telop generation apparatus of the present invention includes an agent unit that analyzes an input telop transmission command to generate a screen script, an interpreter type script engine unit that draws a telop based on the screen script, and a drawn telop image The main features include device driver means for controlling the transfer of data to the frame buffer means and frame buffer means for outputting video signals and KEY signals.

  In addition, the above-described telop generation device is characterized in that it further includes a transmission management means for transmitting a telop transmission command set at a set time. In the above telop generation device, the agent means reads out a layout file that defines the arrangement of the telop and a motion file that defines the movement of the telop based on the telop transmission command, and generates a screen script. is there.

  In the telop generation device, the device driver means operates in a kernel area, and the DMA control circuit included in the frame buffer means is controlled so that the frame buffer means operates as a ring buffer. is there. Further, in the above-described telop generation device, when storing material data consisting of a large number of files, the material registration is divided and stored in a plurality of holders so that the number of files in one holder is not more than a predetermined number. There is a feature also in the point provided with the means.

  The telop generation method of the present invention comprises a step of generating a screen script by analyzing an input telop transmission command, a step of drawing a telop by a script engine in an interpreter format based on the screen script, and the drawn telop image data The main feature includes a step of transferring to a frame buffer and a step of outputting a video signal and a KEY signal from the frame buffer.

The telop generation device and telop synthesis method of the present invention have the following effects.
(1) By separating the drawing engine part and the driver and absorbing the difference between HD (high image quality) / SD (standard image quality) by the driver, even if HD stations / NTSC (SD) stations are mixed, HD / It is possible to create a system that is not conscious of SD, and it is possible to operate in a unified manner. In addition, by optimizing the kernel so that the driver operates in the kernel area, high-speed processing is possible and high performance is obtained.
(2) The user can construct a telop transmission system simply by creating a program for transmitting a command script to the telop generation apparatus of the present invention, and the system can be developed in a short period of time.

(3) Since the CG telop can be controlled by a script, it is possible to immediately cope with a sudden change, and the display contents can be changed according to the data contents and various effect functions can be called. Furthermore, since the motion file that determines the movement part of the telop can be written in a full-spec Scheme language, the screen layout can behave as if it were alive, and high flexibility can be obtained.

(4) High expandability can be obtained. All the functions of the telop generation device of the present invention are composed of external objects and scripts. By adopting an interpreted language, programs can be added or changed without the need to recompile the program. In addition to scripts, users can also create external objects, and can create unique functions for special effects (effects, transitions), etc. of computer graphics and easily add them to the system.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

  The first embodiment of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a system configuration example including a telop generation device of the present invention in a television broadcasting station. The telop generation apparatus 10 which is a telop generation apparatus of the present invention is connected to the LAN 18 and outputs a telop video signal and a KEY signal in synchronization with the synchronization signal REF based on a command from the transmission management PC 11.

  The transmission management PC 11 includes a database (DB) 12 that stores program data, and transmits a telop transmission command to the telop generation device 10 at a predetermined time based on the program data. The client PC 19 is used to edit a definition script for generating a telop in advance using an editor and register it in the telop generation apparatus 10. It is also used for editing and registering program data registered in the DB 12.

  The telop video signal and the KEY signal output from the telop generation device 10 are input to a known keyer 14. The keyer 14 also receives a video signal output from a video recording device 13 such as a VTR or HDD recording device. Then, based on an instruction from the switching instruction device 15 such as a switch, the video signal and the telop video signal are synthesized with reference to the KEY signal for controlling the mixing ratio and the like, and output to a desired output terminal. Each device operates in synchronization with the synchronization signal REF.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of the telop generation device of the present invention. The hardware of the telop generation device 10 of the present invention can be realized by mounting a commercially available frame buffer device 35 on a commercially available server device, for example. As the server device, a known server device in which the CPU 30, the memory 31, the HDD 32, the LAN interface circuit 33, and the like are connected by a bus 34 can be used.

  As the frame buffer device 35, for example, a commercially available frame buffer device including an HD compatible or SD compatible frame memory 36, a DMA control circuit 37, a register access circuit 38, and a read control circuit 39 can be used. As an example, GG-151 (SD-SDI) and GG-161 (HD-SDI) manufactured by Astro Design Corporation can be used.

  The frame memory 36 includes a RAM for 12 frames, for example, and is configured to be able to store the luminance, color signal, and KEY signal for each pixel. The DMA control circuit 37 executes data transfer between the ring buffer provided in the kernel area in the memory 31 and the frame memory 36 based on control by the driver program.

  The register access circuit 38 is a circuit for executing access to various control registers and the frame memory 36 in the frame buffer device 35 by a program such as a driver. For example, the read control circuit 39 reads the video signal and the KEY signal from the currently set area of the frame memory 36 in synchronization with the synchronization signal REF input from the outside, and outputs it as a telop video signal.

  In the telop generation device 10 of the present invention, in order to improve the DMA transfer speed to the frame memory 36, the DMA transfer parameters are stored not in the main memory 31 but in the frame memory 36, and the delay due to parameter acquisition from the main memory 31 is achieved. To improve performance.

  FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing DMA processing in the telop generation device 10. For example, in order to display an animation telop, the still image data for animation is read from the hard disk into the main memory within a predetermined cycle, and is combined with other telop images as necessary, and then transferred to the frame memory 36. Need to update the screen. Therefore, the driver program 40 includes a main memory ring buffer management unit 41 and a frame memory ring buffer management unit 42.

  The main memory ring buffer management unit 41 includes a read pointer and a write pointer for the ring buffer area 46 provided in the main memory 31, and also uses a transfer library program 47 provided in the OS, and uses a plurality of threads (data and programs). The shared process) executes a transfer between the hard disk device 32 and the ring buffer area 46. For example, if there is free space in the ring buffer and there is waiting data to be transferred to the hard disk device 32, the data transfer is executed autonomously. The ring buffer area 46 is outside the kernel area of the main memory 31, and the OS is designated to start with a capacity smaller than the actual memory, and the remaining memory is used as the ring buffer area 46.

  The frame memory ring buffer management unit 42 includes a read pointer and a write pointer for the frame memory 36 in the frame buffer device 35, and controls the DMA control circuit 37 in the frame buffer device 35 to control the ring buffer area 46 and the frame memory 36. In between DMA. For example, if there is space in the frame memory 36 and there is waiting data to be transferred to the ring buffer area 46, data transfer is executed autonomously.

  The driver program 40 controls the read control circuit 39 to update the telop video signal frame to be read. In the case of updating in synchronization with the synchronization signal REF, the driver program 40 receives from the read control circuit 39 the start notification of the time (vertical blanking interval) during which the scanning line returns from the end position to the start position. Update. When the frame memory 36 or the ring buffer area 46 becomes free, the waiting data is sequentially transferred.

  The driver program 40 is configured to operate with an OS kernel, and is configured to always start processing with a delay time equal to or less than a predetermined value in response to an external activation request. The driver itself manages the ring buffer and autonomously sequentially transfers the waiting data, thereby realizing high-speed display processing.

  Next, a display example of the telop will be described. FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example and data contents by the telop generation apparatus of the present invention. FIG. 10A shows a display example of a telop. A first telop T1 (61) in which a fixed character string “Today's weather” is displayed in the display screen 60, and an image of a snow picture are displayed. A second telop P1 (62) and a third telop T2 (63) on which the variable character string “Sapporo, snow” is displayed are displayed.

  FIG. 10D shows an example of a command for displaying the telop of FIG. It is actually text data in XML format. The description "name =" XYZ.SCR "" indicates that the layout file with the file name "XYZ.SCR" is used for displaying the telop, and the description "WX =" Sapporo, snow "" This indicates that the character string “Sapporo, snow” is substituted for the variable WX in the layout file. The description “M1” indicates that a motion file whose file name is “M1” is used.

  FIG. 10B shows an example of the contents of a layout file having a file name “XYZ.SCR”. T1 is a description for displaying the telop T1 (61), “X =“ 100 ”, Y =“ 50 ”” is the display position, “TYPE = TEXT” is the display type (character), “VALUE = today The weather "" display content (character string), "FONT =" ... "" represents the font type.

  Similarly, P1 represents the display of the image of the telop P1 (62), and T2 represents the display of the variable character string of the telop T2 (63). In the layout file, in addition to the above, it is possible to specify characters and background colors, background screen transmittance, telop shape, sound, and the like. The motion file M1.SCR represents that each of the layout files T1, P1, and T2 is displayed for a predetermined time (for example, 10 seconds).

  When receiving the command (a) from the transmission management PC 11, for example, the telop generation device 10 of the present invention reads a designated file from layout files and motion files registered in advance, and sets a character string as a designated variable. A screen script is generated by substituting the contents of the above, and is drawn and sent using a script engine. By separating movement and layout data, it is possible to express various movements in one layout.

  The contents of the processing of the telop generation device 10 will be described below. FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram showing the software configuration of the telop generation device of the present invention. The telop transmission agent 50 is a part that performs TCP / IP communication, screen control, command analysis and drawing instruction of the telop generation apparatus 10 of the present invention. Based on the input command, the agent 50 selects a screen definition file, Perform. The agent library 53 is a collection of subroutine groups such as basic TCP / IP communication and command syntax analysis. The agent library 53 is a library serving as a base for customizing the telop transmission agent 50 according to the customer's request.

  The definition script, object 51 (graphic object) is an object group in charge of a drawing portion to the frame buffer called by the agent. Necessary effects and functions such as effects (slides, fades, etc.), transitions (dissolves, rolls, etc.), animation functions (HD sequential playback 30 fps), etc. are stored as a library.

  You can increase the variation of effects and transitions by adding objects. Dynamic functions can be expanded by configuring the core part of telop transmission as library objects and reading them at runtime. A material object such as an image file input from the outside is stored and registered in the material library 55 by the material registration agent 54.

  The screen script 52 (screen definition script) includes a layout file that defines a layout and a motion file that defines movement. The script engine 56 is a scheme interpreter that is the core of the telop generation apparatus of the present invention. The process will be described later.

  The device driver 57 controls writing / reading to / from the frame memory. SD / HD support is supported by exchanging the frame buffer device, and the input / output control interface is abstracted, so input / output control is compatible with HD (high image quality) / SD (standard image quality), with some exceptions. This is common to a plurality of frame buffer devices.

  Note that a layout editor is used to create a telop in the client PC 19. The layout editor is a known tool for easily creating a scene (screen) on Windows (registered trademark). The layout editor can use the mouse to make most settings related to scene creation, such as image settings, animations, text pasting, effect settings, and real-time data settings.

  The client system of the transmission management PC 11 and the client PC 19 can be developed on any OS platform. An instruction is issued to the telop generation apparatus 10 of the present invention through a TCP / IP session. As an instruction, only the script and data to be activated are passed, and basically the operation is performed simply by communicating the transmission timing of the telop. Therefore, the user can enhance GUI development accordingly.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the contents of the sending agent process of the present invention. In S10, it is determined whether data has been received. If the determination result is negative, the process returns to S10, but if the determination is positive, the process proceeds to S11. In S11, it is determined whether the received data is a definition file. If the determination result is negative, the process proceeds to S13, but if the determination is affirmative, the process proceeds to S12. In S12, the definition file data is saved.

  In S13, it is determined whether the received data is an object. If the determination result is negative, the process proceeds to S15, but if the determination is affirmative, the process proceeds to S14. In S14, the object file is saved. In S15, it is determined whether or not the received data is a telop command. If the determination result is negative, the process proceeds to S10, but if the determination is affirmative, the process proceeds to S21.

  In S21, the received telop command is analyzed. In S22, necessary definition files such as a layout file and a motion file are read out. In S23, a screen script is generated by substituting variables into the definition file. In S24, the engine is instructed to draw. In S25, it is determined whether or not all the telop commands have been processed. If the determination result is negative, the process proceeds to S21, but if the determination is affirmative, the process returns to S10.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the contents of the material registration agent process of the present invention. In S30, it is determined whether or not data has been received. If the determination result is negative, the process returns to S30, but if the determination is positive, the process proceeds to S31. In S31, it is determined whether the received data is object data such as an image material. If the determination result is negative, the process proceeds to S30, but if the determination is affirmative, the process proceeds to S32. In S32, it is determined whether the mode is the high speed mode. If the determination result is negative, the process proceeds to S34, but if the determination is affirmative, the process proceeds to S33.

  In S33, the key information is deleted from the object data. For the operation system with tri-kiri material (no key synthesis) material that does not require full-screen key composition, automatic alpha channel removal processing that removes key information from the registered material at the time of material registration is added to reduce the material file size. The price of the delivery system is being reduced.

  In S34, it is determined whether or not the number of object data files is larger than a predetermined value. If the determination result is negative, the process proceeds to S36, but if the determination is affirmative, the process proceeds to S35. In S35, a symbolic link is used to divide the data into a predetermined number of files or less and store them in separate directories.

  For example, when performing continuous playback of animation telop for a long time, if the still images necessary for playback are stored together in a single holder on the HDD in the server, overhead is taken for access to the holder entry, and playback performance is reduced. Extremely low. As a countermeasure against file system performance degradation during long-time frame playback, a symbolic link is used to physically store a predetermined number of registered files in separate holder entries to suppress performance degradation.

  In S36, interrupts by other processes are prohibited. In S37, the object data is stored in a continuous area of the hard disk. When the telop generation device of the present invention is used as a still image continuous playback device, the target file may be divided into non-continuous areas on the HDD depending on the process operation status in the system when registering still images in the telop generation device. is there. If this fragmented state exceeds the allowable amount, the performance will be fatally affected. Accordingly, processing for reducing interruptions in other processes as much as possible during HDD writing processing at the time of still image file registration is added to suppress fragmentation as much as possible to maintain performance.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the contents of the engine processing of the present invention. In S40, it is determined whether or not a drawing instruction has been issued. If the determination result is negative, the process returns to S40, but if the determination is affirmative, the process proceeds to S41. In S41, the drawing script is analyzed. In S42, a command to be executed is extracted from the motion file.

  In S43, the corresponding command is extracted from the layout file. In S44, drawing is performed on the ring buffer. In S45, it is determined whether or not the drawing has been completely processed. If the determination result is negative, the process proceeds to S32. If the determination is affirmative, the process proceeds to S30. In S46, the driver is instructed to transfer to the frame buffer.

  FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the contents of the driver processing of the present invention. In this process, for example, still images for animation display are continuously read from the hard disk, transferred to the frame memory via the main memory, and displayed. In S50, it is determined whether or not an instruction to change the reading position of the frame memory has been issued. If the determination result is negative, the process proceeds to S52, but if the determination is affirmative, the process proceeds to S51. In S51, the frame memory read pointer is updated. With this processing, a frame memory is freed up.

  In S52, it is determined whether there is data waiting to be transferred to the frame memory in the ring buffer. If the determination result is negative, the process proceeds to S55, but if the determination is affirmative, the process proceeds to S53. In S53, it is determined whether or not DMA processing is currently being performed from the ring buffer to the frame memory. If the determination result is negative, the process proceeds to S54, but if the determination is affirmative, the process proceeds to S55.

  In S54, a parameter for transferring data from the ring buffer to the frame memory is set in the DMA control circuit, and DMA is started. The DMA transfer parameters are set on the frame memory 36 and read by the DMA control circuit. In order to improve the speed of the DMA transfer to the frame buffer, the DMA transfer parameters are stored not in the main memory but in the frame memory to reduce the delay due to parameter acquisition from the main memory, thereby improving the performance.

  In S55, it is determined whether there is data waiting to be transferred from the hard disk to the ring buffer. If the determination result is negative, the process proceeds to S50, but if the determination is affirmative, the process proceeds to S56. In S56, it is determined whether or not DMA processing is currently being performed from the hard disk to the ring buffer. If the determination result is negative, the process proceeds to S57, but if the determination is affirmative, the process proceeds to S50. In S57, a parameter for transferring data from the hard disk to the ring buffer is set in the DMA control circuit, and DMA is started.

  FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the contents of the DMA completion interrupt process. This process is executed for both the main DMA control circuit and the completion interrupt of the DMA circuit of the frame buffer device. In S60, the ring buffer or frame memory write pointer is updated. In S61, the transfer queue information is updated.

  Although the embodiments have been described above, the following modifications may be considered in the present invention. By connecting three machines of the telop generation apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to construct a system for sending out telops as if the three screens were made into one horizontally long screen at the same time. The three machines are connected via a printer port or RS-232C port, and the telop generators operate in cooperation. As the operation of the telop generator triple connection, a roll super that spans three screens is possible in which characters flow from the right end of the right screen and flow to the left end of the left screen through the middle screen. When the telop generation devices synchronize with each other at a connection portion between adjacent screens, the screen can be smoothly scrolled.

  In the telop generation device according to the present invention, animation with SD / HD image quality can be displayed while being read from the HDD. Therefore, this function can be used for a disc recorder that records animation as a moving image.

It is a block diagram which shows the system structural example containing the telop production | generation apparatus of this invention in a television broadcasting station. It is a block diagram which shows the hardware constitutions of the telop production | generation apparatus of this invention. FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing DMA processing in the telop generation device 10. It is a functional block diagram which shows the software structure of the telop production | generation apparatus of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the content of the transmission agent process of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the content of the material registration agent process of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the content of the engine process of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the content of the driver process of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the content of the DMA completion interruption process. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example of a display by the telop production | generation apparatus of this invention, and the content of data.

Explanation of symbols

10 ... Telop generator 11 ... Sending management PC
12 ... Database (DB)
13 ... Video recording device 14 ... Keyer 15 ... Switching instruction device 18 ... LAN
19 ... Client PC

Claims (6)

Agent means for analyzing the input telop transmission command and generating a screen script;
Script engine means in an interpreter format for drawing a telop based on the screen script;
Device driver means for controlling the transfer of the drawn telop image data to the frame buffer means;
Frame buffer means for outputting a video signal and a KEY signal;
A telop generation device comprising:   2. The telop generation apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising transmission management means for transmitting a telop transmission command set at a set time. 2. The telop generation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the agent unit reads a layout file that defines a telop arrangement and a motion file that defines a telop movement based on a telop transmission command, and generates a screen script. .   2. The telop generation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the device driver means operates in a kernel area and controls a DMA control circuit included in the frame buffer means so that the frame buffer means operates as a ring buffer. .   Furthermore, when storing material data composed of a large number of files, the apparatus includes a material registration means for storing the data divided into a plurality of holders so that the number of files in one holder is equal to or less than a predetermined number. The telop generation device according to claim 1. Analyzing the input telop transmission command and generating a screen script;
Drawing a telop by an interpreted script engine based on the screen script;
Transferring the drawn telop image data to the frame buffer;
A telop generation method comprising: outputting a video signal and a KEY signal from a frame buffer.

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