JPH04237095A - Video display controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To offer the device where the contents of video data can be grasped at a glance or easily on a video window system. CONSTITUTION:When an icon controller (21) commands a 2nd read controller (22) to display an icon, a symbol and a character generated by an icon symbol generator (26) and a character generator (27) are put together with the icon, so that the icon for displaying video information is displayed on a display device (1).

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a video display control device for controlling the display of video information in a multi-window system capable of displaying video information.

0001

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, computer systems including personal computers and workstations using microprocessors have tended to be equipped with multi-window systems in search of higher performance and more user-friendly user interfaces. In such window systems, improving the operability of computer systems and developing new application methods are major issues, among them:
One of the major problems is how to handle general video signals such as NTSC signals in a specific window in a multi-window system. Conventional multi-window systems mainly handled only text information and graphic bitmap information, but in recent years, images based on general video signals are displayed as still images or moving images on computer system display devices. Video window systems that enable this have also been devised (for example, Araki et al. "VP-150 High Definition Natural Image Processor", NEC Techniques VOL. 40 No.
7/1987, pp. 28-33).

[0002] Furthermore, conventionally, window systems have been known that display windows as icons, using symbols and characters corresponding to the windows as icons, for the purpose of displaying text information and graphic bitmap data. be.

0003

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in conventional video window systems, emphasis has been placed on the function of displaying video images. A necessary function when editing is to treat a piece of video data as a component, and to edit the video data by looking at the component representing the video data or by performing predetermined operations using the keyboard or mouse. It is difficult to understand the content, and there has been no user interface that takes usability into consideration for video editing. Therefore, it is conceivable to treat moving image data as a component by applying the above-mentioned known window system to video and converting the video window into an icon. However, in such a window system, it is necessary to return the icon to the video window shape before iconization, making it difficult to grasp the contents of the video data at a glance or by simple operations. There was a problem.

In view of the above-described problems with the video window system, the present invention provides a method for editing moving image data by cutting and splicing, analogous to the editing of movie film, in contrast to the conventional video window system. The video data to be spliced is treated as a component to be edited, and the component can be edited at a glance or by a predetermined operation.
An object of the present invention is to provide a video display control device that makes it possible to easily understand the contents of moving image data.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems] As shown in FIG. 1, the present invention comprises a storage means (2) for storing video information to be displayed on a display device (1) in a plurality of fields, and A window control means (3) for controlling the display of video information stored in the means (2) on the display device (1), and a storage means for controlling the content of the video to be displayed by the window control means (3). iconization means (4) that iconizes the icon in association with the video information stored in step (2); and icon display means that displays the icon created by the iconization means (4) on the display device (1). (5).

The iconization means (4) graphically displays a symbol corresponding to the video window as an icon, and displays characters or character strings in or near the icon, or displays the symbol in the video window. The whole or part of one or more arbitrary fields of the video signal can be enlarged or reduced to an arbitrary magnification as a still image and displayed in or near the icon.

[0007]

[Operation] According to the present invention, the storage means (2) stores video information to be displayed on the display device (1) divided into a plurality of fields, and the video information stored in the storage means (2) The content of the image to be displayed is displayed on the display device (1) by the window control means (3), and the content of the image to be displayed is stored in the storage means (
2), it can be made into an icon in association with the video information stored, and this can be displayed on the display device (1) by the icon display means (5).

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The features of the present invention will be specifically explained below based on embodiments with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an icon symbol generator and a character generator used in the embodiment, and FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an icon symbol generator and a character generator used in the embodiment. An example of a display screen is shown.

In FIG. 2, a video display control device (1
0) is a video signal generator such as a VTR or video camera (
The video signal obtained from 11) is sent to the A/D converter (12)
The encoded video image data sampled by the input side filter (13) and from which aliasing noise has been removed are stored in advance in the video image data memory (1) of the image display control device (10) using the field number as an index.
4). The video image data memory (14) constitutes the storage means (2) shown in FIG. The signals are read out in the order of field numbers, sent to the first spatial filter (16) based on the displayed size, and after aliasing noise is removed, sent to the video window buffer (17). The video window information temporarily stored in the video window buffer (17) is sent to the display device (1).
After synchronizing with the display timing of the image synthesizer (1
8), the signal is combined with a signal from an icon buffer (28), which will be described later, and displayed on the display device (1). These first readout controllers (15), spatial filters (
16) and the video window buffer (17)
The window control means (3) shown in the figure is constructed.

[00011] Here, if the operator issues an instruction to make the video window into an icon using the keyboard/mouse device (19) through a predetermined operation, an iconization instruction signal is sent from the keyboard/mouse controller (20). By being recognized by the iconization controller (21) and instructing the first readout controller (15) to stop displaying the video window, the video image data memory (14) stops outputting the video data, and the video data memory (14) stops outputting the video data. The window disappears. On the other hand, the iconization controller (21) instructs the second readout controller (22) to display an icon. The second readout controller (22) reads video image data from the video image data memory (14) in response to a signal from the iconization controller (21). Second readout controller (2
2) is by controlling the address given to the video image data memory (14), so that, for example, the address advances in the horizontal and vertical directions of the screen at a ratio of 1:4 relative to the way the address advances in the video window. As a result, video image data reduced by a factor of four is obtained. If the value of the ratio is greater than 1, enlarged video image data is obtained. In addition, the video image data output from the video image data memory (14) is processed by an interpolator (2
2). The function of the interpolator (23) is determined by setting the address of the second readout controller (22) to, for example, "3.75".
We will explain the case where it is advanced by the ratio of numbers that are not integers, such as .

[00012] Let the coordinates in the X direction and Y direction be (x,
y), the function that gives the integer part of the argument is INT (argument), and the function that gives the decimal part of the argument is FRAC (argument), then the second readout for the coordinates (x, y) from the controller (22). (INT(
x), INT(y)), b. (INT(x)+1,IN
T(y)), c. (INT(x), INT(y)+1)
, d. (INT(x)+1, INT(y)+1), 4
The address of the point is output to the video image data memory 6.

[00013] If the pixel data including the luminance information and color information at the four points are data (a), data (b), data (c), and data (d), respectively, then the equation (data) is expressed for each luminance information and color information. (a) x (1-FRAC(x)) x (1-F
RAC(y))÷4)+(data(ro)×FRAC(
x)×(1-FRAC(y))÷4)+(data(c)×(1-FRAC(x))×FRAC(y)÷4)+
(data(d) x FRAC(x) x FRAC(y) ÷
4), the data of the pixel corresponding to the coordinates (x, y) is calculated from the data of the pixels at the four points.

[00014] The enlarged or reduced video image data configured in this way is passed through a second spatial filter (2
4), aliasing noise caused by the substantial reduction in sampling frequency due to reduction is removed, and the image is held in the icon buffer (25).

Additionally, the iconization controller (21) includes an icon symbol generator (26) and a character generator (27).
) is connected, and the characters and icon symbols generated by the icon symbol generator (26) and character generator (27) are output to the icon buffer (28) and combined with the icon.

As shown in FIG. 3, the icon symbol generator (26) stores icon symbols associated with icons in an icon symbol attribute memory (29), and generates icon bitmap data corresponding to each attribute. The data is output to the held icon pattern generator memory (30), and the icon bitmap data determined by the icon symbol attributes is output to the icon buffer (28). Also,
As shown in FIG. 3, the character generator (27) stores character information associated with an icon in a character information memory (31), and transfers the character information from the character pattern generation memory (32) to the character information memory (31). A character pattern corresponding to the stored character is read out and output to the icon buffer (28). The icon information temporarily stored in the icon buffer (28) is outputted to the image synthesizer (18) in synchronization with the display timing of the display device (1), and is combined with other video windows and normal windows displaying text, etc. The images are combined and displayed on the display device (1).

Here, the readout address of the video image data outputted by the second readout controller (22) is the video image data of a predetermined specific field, or the readout address of the video image data outputted by the second readout controller (22), or the readout address of the video image data outputted by the second readout controller (22).
0), and is output repeatedly in synchronization with the display timing of the display device (1). When the second readout controller (22) is controlled so as to display the icon, an image based on the specific video data is displayed on the icon as a still image. That is, as shown in FIG. 4, an icon (34) with a still image corresponding to the video window (33) is displayed on the display of the display device (1). Separately, the readout address of the video image data output by the second readout controller (22) can be set to the video image data of a plurality of predetermined specific fields, or the keyboard/mouse controller (22) by a predetermined operation. ) and which is recognized and interpreted by the iconization controller (21).The second controller is configured to repeatedly output video image data of a plurality of fields determined by the index instruction signal outputted from the iconization controller (21) in synchronization with the display timing of the display device (1). When the readout controller (22) is controlled, an image based on the video data of the plurality of fields is displayed as a moving image on the icon. Here, by performing the specified operation, the keyboard
Output from the mouse control (20) and iconization control (
The index signal instruction recognized and interpreted in 21) is:
For example, the index of a plurality of fields determined every 10 fields from the first field to the last field of recorded video image data may be used. Alternatively, the readout address of the video image data output by the readout controller B7 is normally controlled so that an image based on the specific video data is displayed as a still image on the icon, and the operator performs a predetermined operation, e.g. Control may be performed such that an image based on the video data of the plurality of fields is displayed as a moving image based on an operation such as pointing an icon using a mouse or the like and pressing a button on the mouse. The iconization means (4) shown in FIG. 1 by the interpolator (23), the second spatial filter (24), the icon buffer (28), the icon symbol generator (26) and the character generator (27) The image synthesizer (18) constitutes an icon display means (5).

[00018] With the above operation, the operator can check the contents of the video data corresponding to the video window by examining the icon, without returning the contents of the video data corresponding to the video window to the video window before the icon was turned into an icon. This can be understood by looking at the character string displayed near the icon or the contents of the enlarged or reduced video data displayed on the icon. Considering an editing operation by joining multiple pieces of video data, for example, after selecting icon 1 with the mouse, issuing the add merge command from the keyboard, and selecting the destination icon 2 with the mouse, the video image data memory ( 14
), the image data corresponding to icon 1 is copied after the image data corresponding to icon 2, and the image corresponding to icon 2 and the video image corresponding to icon 1 are added and merged to create a new icon. As in the example associated with No. 2, the iconized video data rather than the video window itself can be treated as a part to be edited, and it does not take up much of the display area on the display.

[00019]

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, by displaying the contents of the video window as icons, any of the symbols, characters, character strings, still images, and videos corresponding to the contents of the video window can be displayed. Alternatively, by displaying the icons as a combination, the user can know the general contents of the video window by simply checking the icon corresponding to the video window without looking at the contents of the video window displaying the video image. In addition, when editing moving images in a cutting and splicing format analogous to movie film, by converting the video window into an icon and displaying it on the display device, you can not only save display space but also save the display area by converting the video window into an icon. The video windows can be treated as parts in the video stitching process. Even if the image is turned into an icon at that time, there is no problem in examining the contents of the video window, so it is possible to provide a better user interface as a means of information processing for video image information.

[0020]

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention;

[Figure 3
] FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the icon symbol generator and character generator used in the above embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing an example of the display screen of the same embodiment.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Storage means for storing video information to be displayed on a display device divided into a plurality of fields; window control means for controlling display of the video information stored in the storage means on the display device; iconization means for converting the contents of the video to be displayed by the window control means into an icon in association with the video information stored by the storage means; and displaying the icon created by the iconization means on the display device. 1. A video display control device comprising icon display means for displaying an icon.