JPH10320165A - Multidisplay device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To multidisplay images on plural display areas set up in a display screen and to easily select and extract a frame in the images displayed on these display areas. SOLUTION: A multidisplay means 22 transforms an image to be displayed into an image of each display area formed on a display screen, an operation menu synthesizing means 24 synthesizes an operation menu describing operation commands related to the display of the image and a display means 25 displays the image on the display area and displays the operation menu on the display screen. An operation means 26 is constituted of a touch panel so that a user can easily select and indicate a required scene and easily input a required operation command. At the time of receiving a selection instruction for the display image from the means 26, the multidisplay means 22 continuously displays the image frame of the selected image on the display area as a still image and displays an image succeeding the image frame continuously to another display area.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a multi-display device for displaying an image on a plurality of display areas set in a display screen, and more particularly, to easily display a frame in an image displayed and output on the display area. The present invention relates to a multi-display device capable of selectively extracting.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A multi-display system in which one display screen is divided into a plurality of display areas and an image is displayed for each display area includes a television receiver, a display device at an event hall, a remote monitoring device, and the like. It is used for various image display devices. In addition, such a multi-display method is used not only when a moving image is displayed in a display area, but also when a still image is switched and displayed at a certain time interval in the display area, or when a moving image in which frames in the moving image are thinned out. It is also used when displaying an image (stop motion image) in the display area.

For example, in a multi-display type remote monitoring apparatus, moving images captured by a plurality of video cameras are displayed on different display areas on a display screen. In addition, a technique is employed in which a moving image or a quasi-moving image displayed on a display screen is stopped in a certain scene so that the still image at that time can be observed in detail.

[0004]

However, in the conventional multi-display system, when a moving image or a quasi-moving image displayed in a certain display area is stopped, the moving image or the quasi-moving image is stopped. There is a problem that a subsequent frame is not displayed and information is overlooked. Further, when stopping the image displayed in the display area, the user operates the operation panel or the like to select the target display area, but the operation is complicated and the operability is poor for the user. Alternatively, in order to select a scene (frame) in an image that changes every moment, there is a problem that the selection timing is likely to be delayed.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional circumstances, and displays an image frame at the time of selection as a still image, and continuously displays and outputs an image subsequent to the selected image frame. It is an object of the present invention to provide a multi display device capable of performing the following. Another object of the present invention is to provide a multi-display device that facilitates a selection operation on an image that is being displayed and output.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, in the multi display device according to the present invention, the multi display means converts an image to be displayed into an image for each display area provided on the display screen, Display output by the display means. Then, when a selection instruction is received from the operation unit for the image displayed in the display area, the multi-display unit continues to use the image frame at the time of the selection as the image of the display area for the selected image. At the same time, an image to be displayed following the image frame is converted into an image in another display area. As a result, the image frame at the selected time point in the image to be displayed is continuously displayed as a still image in the display area, and the image subsequent to the image frame is continuously displayed in another display area.

[0007] Further, in the multi display device according to the present invention,
An operation menu describing operation commands related to display is synthesized by the operation menu synthesizing means with the image displayed in the display area, and the display means displays the image on the display area and outputs the operation menu on the display screen. I do. The operation means is constituted by a touch panel provided so as to overlap the display area and the operation command description portion of the operation menu, so that the user can easily select and instruct a desired scene and easily input a desired operation command. I have.

The multi-display device of the present invention is not only used by being attached to various image display devices such as a television receiver and a remote monitoring device, but also configured as a device integrated with such an image display device. May be. Further, the multi-display device of the present invention is not limited to a mode in which a moving image is displayed in a display area, a mode in which a still image is switched and displayed at a certain time interval in a display area, and a mode in which a quasi-moving image is displayed in a display area. It can also be carried out.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment in which a multi-display device according to the present invention is applied to an image transmission device will be described with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIG. 1, the image transmission apparatus includes a transmission apparatus 1 that transmits an image and a reception apparatus 2 that receives and displays an image. It is applied to the receiving device 2 which also has the function of the display device. In the present embodiment, an example will be described in which a quasi-moving image is displayed in a display area obtained by dividing a display screen.

The transmitting apparatus 1 includes an image capturing unit 10 for capturing an image to be displayed, an A / D converter 11 for converting a captured image signal into digital image data, and compressing the converted digital image data. Image data compression means 1
2, and a transmitting unit 13 that modulates the compressed image data into a format suitable for the transmission path and transmits the modulated data.

In this embodiment, the image capturing means 10 is constituted by a video camera, captures an image to be displayed as a quasi-moving image, and outputs the image to the A / D converting means 11 as an analog video signal. The image capturing means 10 can also be configured as a means for reading an image stored in a memory, and, in short, any method can be used as long as the means can capture image data. When the image capturing means 10 is a means for capturing an image as digital data, such as a digital video camera, the A / D conversion means 11 for performing digital signal processing as in this embodiment.
Becomes unnecessary.

In this embodiment, since the image data is compressed and transmitted, the image data compression means 12 is provided.
G, H. The digital image data is compressed by a method such as H.261. The transmitting means 13 is means for transmitting the compressed image data via a wired transmission line or a wireless transmission line. For example, when transmitting the image data via a RS232C modem interface, the transmission means 13 is connected to a public line by a wired modem. Direct transmission or direct transmission to a public wireless line by a wireless modem and wireless terminal.

The receiving device 2 is connected to the transmitting device 1 via a transmission path.
Receiving means 20 for receiving and demodulating the image data transmitted from the transmitting apparatus 1, and image data expanding means 21 for expanding the image data received by a method corresponding to the compression method of the transmitting apparatus 1.
And multi-display means 22 for converting the decompressed image data into multi-display format image data, an image memory 23 for writing and reading the multi-display format image data, and an operation command for multi-display. An operation menu synthesizing unit 24 for synthesizing the operation menu with the multi-display format image data, a liquid crystal display unit 25 for displaying and outputting the multi-display format image and the operation menu,
An operation unit 26 that receives a selection instruction input or an operation input from a user, and a control unit 27 that comprehensively controls each of the function units 20 to 27 according to the input from the operation unit 26 and a preset control program.

The receiving means 20 is a means for receiving image data via a wired transmission line or a wireless transmission line. For example, when receiving image data via a RS232C modem interface, a wired modem is used to receive image data from a public line. Direct reception or reception from a public wireless line by a wireless modem and a wireless terminal. Image data expansion means 21
Are provided corresponding to the image data compression means 12, and are JPEG, MPEG, H.264. The digital image data is expanded by a method such as H.261.

The liquid crystal display means 25 has a display screen composed of a liquid crystal panel. In the multi display, the display screen is divided into a plurality of display areas as described later, and the multi display is performed in the display area. The image reduced and converted by the means is displayed and output. In the multi-display, the liquid crystal display 25 also displays and outputs the operation menu combined with the multi-display format image on the same screen. Conversion of such an image into a multi-display format is performed by the multi-display unit 2.
2 uses the image memory 23, and details will be described later with reference to FIGS.

The operation menu synthesizing means 24 is a means for synthesizing an operation menu in which operation commands relating to multi-display, image reproduction, image data reception and the like are described with the multi-display image data generated by the multi-display means 22. . In this example, as shown in FIG. 4A, the operation menu is always displayed and output at the bottom of the display screen, and an "additional function" button for selecting a function such as a multi-display is displayed. The first menu in which a "Cancel" button or the like for terminating the function is described, and a multi-display function is displayed on the display screen by selecting an "Additional function" button as shown in FIG. 4B. A second menu in which a “multi-display” button for starting up, a “close” button for closing the menu, and the like are described, and a “multi-display” button is selected as shown in FIG. And a third menu that is displayed and output and sets various conditions such as the number of screen divisions related to multi-display.

The operation means 26 is constituted by a touch panel in this embodiment, and is provided on the display screen of the liquid crystal display means 25 so as to overlap. The touch panel 26 has a plurality of areas for accepting operation inputs, and each of these input areas corresponds to each display area set on the display screen and each operation command description part (function button description part) of the operation menu. It has become a position. Therefore, when the user touches and selects a certain display area portion of the touch panel 26, a selection instruction for the display area is input, and when the user touches a certain function button portion of the touch panel 26, An operation command corresponding to the function button is input.

The control means 27 controls the multi display in accordance with the input from the operation means 26, and executes the multi display as will be described later with reference to FIGS. In this example, each of the functional units such as the image data decompressing unit 21, the multi-display unit 22, the operation menu synthesizing unit 24, and the control unit 27, and further, the functional parts are part of other functional units.
Although the processor (CPU) is configured by executing a predetermined control program, these functions may be configured as individual circuits.

Next, the above-mentioned conversion of the image into the multi-display format will be described with reference to FIG. 2 showing the detailed configuration of the peripheral portion of the multi-display means 22 and FIG. 3 showing the concept of the image memory 23. . The image data holding area of the image memory 23 is set according to the number of divisions of the display screen. In the state shown in FIG. 3, four image data holding areas are set in accordance with the setting of four display areas on the display screen. Is formed. The multi-display means 22 includes function units 30 to 33 for performing address control when the image data from the image data decompression means 21 is written to the image memory 23, and the operation menu synthesizing means for writing the image data written and held in the image memory 23 It has functional units 34 and 35 that perform address control when reading out to 24.

In order to specify the position timing of each image frame data, the horizontal and vertical timing signals for the image data to be written are input from the image data decompression means 21 to the functional unit for controlling the write address. Based on this timing signal, the row write start address setting section 30 sets the row direction write start address for one image data holding area of the image memory 23, and the column write start address setting section 31 sets the column write start address. A direction write start address is set, and these write start addresses are updated by the row address increment unit 32 and the column address increment unit 33 in the row direction and the column direction.
As a result, as shown in FIG. 3, the image data frame output from the image data decompression means 21 is written into one image data holding area of the image memory 23 set as the writing area.

Until there is a selection instruction from the user as described later, the image data frames output from the image data decompression means 21 are sequentially overwritten and updated in the image data holding area and written. When a selection instruction is given, the image data frame at the time of the instruction is kept in the image data holding area (the extracted image area in FIG. 3), and the write address control units 30 and 31 change the address position. By doing so, the subsequent image data frame output from the image data decompression means 21 is written in another preset image data holding area.

Here, the image data holding area is a part of the data holding area of the image memory 23 (that is, the display area corresponding to the image data holding area is a part of the display screen). In the above, when writing an image data frame into the image data holding area, the image data is reduced. That is, in the present example, the processing of thinning out the data of the image frame output from the image data decompression means 21 in the row direction and the column direction to match the size of the image data holding area is performed. The row address increment section 32 and the column address increment section 33 correspond to the size of the display area allocated to the display screen.
Update the address in the row direction and the column direction in such a manner that the address is skipped by one or two.

The read address control is performed at the timing when the image data frame is written and updated in the image memory 23, and the row read address setting unit 34, the column read address setting unit 35, and the address positions in the row direction and the column direction are set. Is set, and the image data for one display screen held in the image memory 23 is output to the operation menu combining means 24. For example, even when image data is held only in one image data holding area of the image memory 23, the entire area is read from the image memory 23. Here, the timing at which the image data frame is written and updated in the image memory 23 is substantially the timing at which the receiving device 2 sequentially receives the transmitted image frames of the quasi-moving image, and thereby the image data frame is allocated to the display screen. The image received in the designated display area can be reduced and displayed without delay.

Next, the multi-display processing according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. First, in the initial state, as shown in FIG.
And the liquid crystal display means 25 displays the first menu at the lower part of the display screen 28. Then, when the user touches the "additional function" button on the display screen, this command is input from the operation means 26 to the control means 27, and as shown in FIG.
Opens a window 40 at the center of the display screen 28 and further displays a second menu (menu of additional functions).

When the user touches the “close” button after touching the “multi-display” button on the display screen, this command is sent from the operation means 26 to the control means 27.
As shown in FIG. 5, the liquid crystal display means 25 opens another window 41 in the center of the display screen 28, and further opens the third menu (multi-screen display setting menu).
Is displayed. In the third menu, the number of display areas to divide the display screen 28 into and display images is determined by the “number of divisions”.
In addition, when a still image sequentially transmitted is displayed on a multi-screen, an interval for switching the display of the still image can be input in a “still image update interval” column. In this example, as default values, four sheets are set in the “division number” column and 0.5 seconds are set in the “still image update interval” column. The number of divisions can be changed by touching, such as 9, 16,..., And by touching the column of “still image update interval”, such as 1.2, 1.9,. The display switching interval of the still image can be changed.

When the "execute" button of the third menu is touched after the above-described multi-screen display condition setting, the image received by the receiving device 2 is set on the display screen 28 as shown in FIG. The display is output to one display area. In this example, the display screen 28 is divided into four display areas, and the upper left display area in the display screen 28 is used as an area used for image display. Displayed and output. When a moving image is received and multi-displayed, the received moving image is displayed and output in real time in the display area,
When a large number of still images are received and multi-displayed, the received still images are switched and displayed in the display area at intervals set in the “still image update interval” column.

As described above, such a multi display is as follows.
The image data frame realized mainly by the multi-display means 22, the image memory 23, and the operation menu synthesizing means 24 is expanded by the multi-display means 22 into the image data holding area of the image memory 23 corresponding to the display area. The data is overwritten and sequentially written, and the image data for one display screen is read from the image memory 23, the operation menu combining means 24 combines the operation menus, and the liquid crystal display means 25 displays and outputs the image data on the display screen 28. This is done by:

When the user touches a display area different from the display area in the scene to be extracted in the state where the quasi-moving image is displayed in the display area of the display screen 28 as shown in FIG. The image frame of the scene stops as it is and remains displayed in the display area as a still image. At the same time, an image subsequent to the quasi-moving image is continuously output to another display area (in this example, a display area at the upper right of the display screen). That is,
When the user touches a display area where the active image is desired to be displayed in a display area other than the display area where the quasi-moving image is displayed, the selection instruction is input from the operation means 26 to the control means 27, and the multi display means 22 displays the image. The overwriting is stopped in the image data holding area of the image memory 23 corresponding to the display area, and the image data frame following the image data holding area of the image memory 23 corresponding to the other designated display area is overwritten and updated. And write sequentially.

In the present embodiment, an image is stopped in a desired scene by selecting and instructing a display area in which a subsequent active image is to be displayed, and an extracted image (still image) is displayed. Is selected and instructed to stop the image in the display area to be an extracted image (still image), and to output the subsequent images to another display area in a preset order. You may do so.

The above selection instruction is received, the display image is extracted, and the display is switched to another display area every time an instruction is input from the user. As shown in FIGS. Then, the image of the scene selected by the user can be displayed and output as a still image in each display area set on the display screen 28. Therefore, the user can perform multi-display by simply performing an extremely simple operation of touching the display screen 28, and can extract an image from a desired scene and display it as a still image. When the user touches the “Cancel” button on the operation menu, this command is transmitted from the operation unit 26 to the control unit 27.
The multi-display is terminated, and the display is switched to the initial screen display.

In the above-described embodiment, an example in which the display screen is divided into four display areas is shown. However, according to the setting of the "division number" column shown in FIG. The display screen is divided into nine display areas as shown in FIG.
The display screen can be divided into 16 display areas as shown in FIG. Further, in the above-described embodiment, an example in which the quasi-moving image is multi-displayed has been described.
Although an example using a liquid crystal panel as the display means has been described, other types of display means such as a display device using a CRT display may be used. In the above-described embodiment, an example in which one display screen is divided into a plurality of display areas has been described.
A screen may be configured and each liquid crystal panel may be used as a display area.

[0032]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The image frame at the selected time is displayed as a still image, and the image following the selected image frame can be continuously displayed and output, so that the image to be displayed can be omitted. Further, it is possible to easily perform a selection operation on the multi-displayed and display-output images, and to allow the user to easily extract a desired image.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a multi display device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a peripheral configuration of a multi display unit according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a data holding area of an image memory.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an operation menu displayed on a screen.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an operation menu displayed on a screen.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a display screen in which images are displayed in a multiple manner.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a display screen on which images are displayed in a multiple manner.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a display screen in which images are displayed in a multiple manner.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a display screen in which images are displayed in a multiple manner.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a display screen in which images are multi-displayed by nine divisions.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a display screen in which images are multi-displayed by 16 divisions.

[Explanation of symbols]

22: Multi display means, 23: Image memory,
24: operation menu synthesizing means, 25: liquid crystal display means, 26: operation means, 27: control means,

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A multi-display device that divides a display screen into a plurality of display areas and displays and outputs images on the display areas, a display unit having a plurality of display areas, and an image to be displayed is displayed for each of the display areas. Multi-display means for converting the image into an image and displaying and outputting the image on the display means; and operating means for receiving a selection instruction for the image displayed and output on the display area, wherein the multi-display means is selected by the operation means. The image frame at the time of the selection is continuously used as the image of the display area, and the image to be displayed subsequent to the image frame is converted into an image of another display area. Display device. 2. The multi-display device according to claim 1, further comprising an operation menu synthesizing unit for synthesizing an operation menu describing operation commands related to display with an image displayed in the display area, wherein the display unit Displays and outputs an image on the display area and displays and outputs the operation menu on the display screen. The operation means is a touch panel provided so as to overlap the operation command description portion of the display area and the operation menu. A multi-display device characterized by the above-mentioned.