JP2000250505A - Image data transmission system and image data supply device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent the communication band of a transmission line from being wasted when image data transmitted from an image source through the transmission line are displayed on a display device. SOLUTION: When image data are transmitted from an Internet terminal 10, a navigation device 20, a TV tuner 30 or the like, to a display device 50, the image data corresponding to the picture size of display on the display device 50 are generated and transmitted. The navigation device 20 as a subject which supplies, for example, a navigation picture as a main picture transmits the image data of the size of one picture (lateral 640 dots by longitudinal 480 dots) and the Internet terminal 10 as the subject which supplies an Internet picture as a subpicture only transmits the image data of the size of a 0.5 picture (lateral 320 dots by longitudinal 240 dots). Consequently, only the communication band for a 1.5 picture in total is occupied and the communication band of a multiplex communication path 40 can be prevented from being wasted.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a technique for transmitting image data to be displayed on a display device from an image data supply device via a transmission line.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, a G
There is known a car navigation system that automatically displays a map around a current position detected by a PS (Global Positioning System) or the like and guides a route to a set destination. In such a navigation system, the navigation device is, for example, a CD-RO.
A map read from a map data recording medium such as an M or a DVD is sent to the display device side and the sent map is displayed on the display device. A system that can display the content transmitted from the (supply device) on the same display device has become common. For example, in addition to a screen using a navigation device as an image source (navigation screen), a screen of a received television broadcast (TV screen) or a screen of information received from outside via an Internet terminal (internet screen) can be displayed. is there. When displaying image data from a plurality of image sources, it is common to switch and display any one screen selected by the user.

[0003] However, for example, adoption of a wide screen, etc.
As the physical display area of the display device becomes larger than before, a plurality of screens are simultaneously displayed on one display device as in a so-called two-screen display. In the case of a navigation system, an enlarged view of an intersection or the like is often superimposed on a screen displaying a map on a normal scale (child screen display) or displayed side by side (two-part display). Have been done.

In such a multi-screen display, not only two types of images using the same navigation device as a source, but also image data from a plurality of image sources have been simultaneously displayed. For example, a navigation screen such as a map and a TV screen are simultaneously displayed, or a navigation screen and an Internet screen are simultaneously displayed. It is preferable that the navigation screen for displaying the map around the current location is always displayed for the purpose. Therefore,
If a TV screen or an Internet screen is displayed as a small screen or divided into two in addition to the navigation screen, those screens can also be viewed temporarily.

[0005]

By the way, in the case of the above-mentioned prior art, image data transmitted from a plurality of image sources is image data of a size to be displayed on the entire physical display area of the display device. And display it after processing it on the display device side. For example, let us consider a case where the physical display area of the display device is 640 dots wide by 480 dots high, and the Internet screen is displayed in a half size of the Internet screen in the navigation screen. in this case,
Both the navigation screen as the parent screen and the Internet screen as the child screen are transmitted from the respective image sources as image data corresponding to a size of 640 (horizontal) × 480 (vertical) dots. The image data for the Internet screen is 320 dots wide by 2 vertical dots on the display device side.
After reducing the size to 40 dots, the image is superimposed on the navigation screen and displayed on two screens.

Therefore, when a plurality of image sources and a display device are connected by a transmission path (multiplex communication path) capable of multiplex communication and the above-described image data is transmitted, one screen is 640 dots wide. A communication band for transmitting image data having a size of 480 dots vertically for two screens at the same time is required. However, in actuality, since the display device displays the Internet screen in a reduced size of 320 horizontal dots × 240 vertical dots, it is necessary to transmit image data larger than the image size required for display. Become. In other words, the data is a total of 1.5 screens at the time of display, but is a data of 2 screens at the time of transmission. Therefore, it is necessary to set the multiplex communication path so that data for two screens can be transmitted, and the communication band is wasted.

[0007] From the viewpoint of wastefully consuming the communication band, the same problem occurs even if the display of a plurality of screens such as a small screen display and a two-split screen is not assumed. For example, consider a case where there is a function that allows the user to reduce the screen size displayed on the display device. Also in this case, up to 640 horizontal dots × 4 vertical dots up to the display device.
It has been transmitted at a size of 80 dots. Then, for example, when there is an instruction to reduce the screen by half, the display device reduces the screen to a screen of 320 dots wide by 240 dots long and displays the screen. Therefore, the communication band is wasted. If the transmission path is 1
If it is used only for transmitting image data from one image source, there is no particular problem. For example, when the present invention is applied to a system that shares multiple communication paths such as an in-vehicle LAN, such a communication band is used. Wasteful consumption of is a problem.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and in displaying image data transmitted from an image source via a transmission line on a display device, prevents unnecessary consumption of a communication band of the transmission line. The purpose is to do.

[0009]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image data transmission system, comprising: a display device that transmits image data supplied from an image data supply device via a transmission path; On the premise of displaying, the display device can display image data even with a screen size smaller than the physical display area. Then, when the screen size notifying unit notifies the image data supply device of the screen size of the image data to be displayed on the display device, the image data supply device that has received the notification of the screen size changes the screen size to the notified screen size. The corresponding image data is generated and supplied to the display device. The transmission path is assumed to be capable of multiplex communication.

As described above, when image data is transmitted from the image data supply device, the image data corresponding to the screen size to be displayed on the display device is generated on the image data supply device side and then transmitted. Useless communication band consumption can be prevented. In other words, since the transmission path is capable of multiplex communication, if it is used for other than transmission of image data to this display device, it can be used for more data transmission if unnecessary communication consumption is eliminated. .

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a plurality of image data can be simultaneously transmitted from the image data supply device, and when the display device can simultaneously display the plurality of image data, Especially effective. For example, on the navigation screen, which is the main screen, the Internet screen, which is a child screen, is described as a problem of the prior art described above.
Consider a case where the images are superimposed and displayed in a one-half size. According to the system of the present invention, image data of one screen size (640 dots in width × 480 dots in height) is transmitted from the image data supply device for the navigation screen, and 0 data is transmitted from the image data supply device for the Internet screen. Since image data having a size of .5 screens (320 horizontal dots × 240 vertical dots) may be transmitted, it is only necessary to occupy a communication band for a total of 1.5 screens. Of course, the same applies to the case of three or more screens.

By the way, the screen size notifying means notifies the image data supply device of the screen size of the image data to be displayed on the display device. For this notification, the following points may be devised. it can. For example, as described in claim 3, the screen size notifying unit may notify only when the screen size of the image data to be displayed on the display device is smaller than the physical display area. . This is because if there is no notification, it is sufficient to transmit the image data in full size (the same size as the physical display area of the display device), and therefore there is no need to notify the user in particular. This simplifies the processing related to the notification.

In addition, assuming that the screen size is defined by the vertical and horizontal sizes of the screen, the screen size notifying means may provide the screen size notifying means of the vertical and horizontal sizes. If only one of the sizes is reduced, only the size to be reduced may be notified.

On the other hand, the screen size notifying means may notify the scale of the physical display area as the screen size. This is effective when only the scale changes without changing the screen aspect ratio (aspect ratio). With regard to these screen sizes specifically shown, for example, it is conceivable that the user directly specifies the vertical or horizontal size, or specifies the scale, but in practice, for example, "child" Screen display"
Or a size instruction like a designated item such as "two-split display". Therefore,
According to a sixth aspect, the apparatus further includes an instruction input unit for instructing a display mode on the display device by a user, and the screen size notifying unit is configured to perform the operation based on the display mode instructed via the instruction input unit. What is necessary is just to determine a screen size.
For example, in the case of an instruction to display a small screen, for example, one half
Scale or corresponding 320 dots wide x 2 vertical
A size such as 40 dots is notified. If the instruction is a two-split screen, a size of 320 dots horizontally × 480 dots vertically (assuming that the screen is divided into two in the horizontal direction) is notified.

In the above description, the image data supply system has been described. However, the image data supply system may be realized as an image data supply device. That is, an image data supply device that supplies image data to a display device connected via a transmission path, and generates image data corresponding to a screen size notified from the outside and supplies the image data to the display device side. , Can be considered as an invention characterized by the following. The operation and effect of the image data supply device are substantially the same as those described in the description of the above-described system, and will not be described here.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. It is needless to say that the embodiments of the present invention are not limited to the following examples, and can take various forms as long as they belong to the technical scope of the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an image data transmission system as one embodiment. This system is configured on the premise that it is mounted on a vehicle, and as shown in FIG.
0, a plurality of image data supply devices such as the navigation device 20 and the TV tuner 30, and a plurality of image data supply devices 10 via a transmission path (multiplex communication path) 40 capable of multiplex communication.
And a display device 50 for displaying the image data supplied from the display units 20 and 30.

The Internet terminal 10 can take in Internet information from the outside via an unillustrated automobile telephone or portable telephone. The navigation device 20 is connected to a position detector (not shown), a map data input device, and the like, and inputs data from these devices. The position detector is a well-known gyroscope, a distance sensor, and a GPS (Global Positioning S) that detects the position of a vehicle based on radio waves from satellites.
ystem). Since each of these sensors has an error with different properties,
A plurality of sensors are configured to be used while interpolating. It should be noted that depending on the accuracy, a part of the above-described components may be used, and a rotation sensor for the steering wheel, a wheel sensor for each rolling wheel, or the like may be used. The map data input device is a device for inputting various data including so-called map matching data, map data, and landmark data for improving the accuracy of position detection. As a medium, a CD-ROM or a DVD is generally used because of its data amount, but another medium such as a memory card may be used.

The TV tuner 30 selectively receives a TV broadcast via a receiving antenna (not shown). When the display device 50 touches the screen with a finger, a predetermined number of infrared rays running vertically and horizontally are cut off, a touch switch 51 that identifies a pressed area and performs a switch function, and controls the entire display device. Display ECU 52 and LCD
A monitor 53 is provided.

The LCD monitor 53 is capable of color display. The screen includes an Internet screen based on image data supplied from the Internet terminal 10, a navigation screen based on image data supplied from the navigation device 20, and a screen supplied from the TV tuner 30. It is possible to display a TV screen or the like based on the obtained image data. In this case, any one of the screens selected by the user among the screens based on the image data from a plurality of image sources such as the Internet screen, the navigation screen, and the TV screen can be switched and displayed. They can be displayed simultaneously (multi-window display). In the present embodiment, to facilitate understanding, the description will be given on the assumption that two screens can be displayed simultaneously.

As the two-screen display, there are a "child screen display" in which a child screen is superimposed on a parent screen and a "split display" in which two screens are displayed side by side. In the case of the navigation screen, a two-screen display such as a map screen and an intersection enlargement screen can be performed. In this case, since the same image source, that is, image data from the navigation device 20 is used, the two screens in the navigation device 20 are displayed. What is necessary is just to supply after synthesizing screens in a state where display is possible. Here, the image data from two different image sources, such as a navigation screen and an Internet screen, such as a navigation screen and an Internet screen, are combined by the display device 50 so that a two-screen display is possible.

When a user touches a desired input item on the screen while the menu screen is displayed, the selection is detected by the touch switch 51 and the display ECU 52 selects the screen to be displayed. A predetermined corresponding process is executed. Similarly, the sub-screen display and the two-split display can be instructed by the user touching the items displayed on the screen.

On the other hand, the image data supply devices 10, 20, 3
On the 0 side, the following measures are taken. Here, the Internet terminal 10 will be described as an example. FIG.
As shown in (b), the Internet terminal 10 includes a control unit 11, a communication unit 12, a drawing unit 13, and an image size changing unit 14. As described above, a communication unit with a telephone and the like are provided for taking in Internet information from outside via a car phone or a mobile phone (not shown), but these are not shown.

The communication section 12 is for performing data communication with the display device 50 via the multiplex communication path 40, and exchanges commands via a command communication line, and connects the image data communication line. The image data is transmitted to the display device 50 via the display device 50. The command notified from the display device 50 includes a screen size described later.

The control unit 11 controls the image size changing unit 14 based on the screen size command received via the communication unit 12.
To indicate the image size. Since the original image is output from the drawing unit 13 to the image size changing unit 14, the image size changing unit 14 changes the image size based on an instruction from the control unit 11, and transmits the image after the size change to the communication unit 12. Output to Thus, the internet image whose size has been changed is supplied to the display device 50.

In FIG. 1B, the Internet terminal 10 has been described as an example.
Similarly, the TV tuner 30 also has such an image size changing mechanism. Next, transmission processing of image data in the system having the above-described configuration will be described.

The outline is as follows. Display device 5
When the user touches a desired input item on the screen while the menu screen is displayed on the LCD monitor 53 of No. 0, the display ECU 52 displays the corresponding image data supply device (the Internet terminal 10, the navigation device 20, An instruction to supply image data is issued to the TV tuner 30 or the like. In response to this instruction, the corresponding image data supply device supplies the image data to the display device 50 side. When the two-screen display is instructed, the image data is supplied from the two corresponding image data supply devices. Further, when a screen size command is notified from the display device 50, the image data supply device supplies the display device 50 with image data changed to a size corresponding to the notified screen size.

This will be described with reference to FIG. The size of the LCD monitor 53 of the display device 50 is X in the horizontal direction H,
Since the vertical direction V is Y, it is possible to display a screen having a maximum size of H = X and V = Y. Therefore, in the image data supply apparatuses 10, 20, and 30, a screen having the same size of H = X and V = Y as the size of the LCD monitor 53 is generated as a default image.
The drawing unit 13 in FIG. 1B generates an image of this size. If there is no notification of the screen size, the display device 5 keeps the same size (H = X, V = Y).
0. On the other hand, when the screen sizes x and y are notified, the notified screen sizes (H = x, V = y)
And supplies it to the display device 50.
Note that the size does not necessarily need to be changed in both the horizontal direction H and the vertical direction V, and a notification that only the horizontal direction H is x or a notification that only the vertical direction V is y may be issued. .

First, the process of notifying the image data supply device of the screen size performed by the display ECU 52 of the display device 50 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. This process is a process that is periodically executed. For the image data to be displayed, the screen size x, y to be actually displayed is changed to the size X, Y of the LCD monitor 53.
If screen size x <monitor size X, (S
10: YES) Notify the corresponding image data supply device of the screen size x (S20), and if the screen size y <monitor size Y (S30: YES), notify the relevant image data supply device of the screen size y. (S40).

Then, it is determined whether there is another display screen (S50). If there is another display screen (S50: YES), the processing of S10 to S40 is executed for the display screen. For example, in the case of “child screen display” in which a child screen is superimposed and displayed on the parent screen, a negative determination is made for the parent screen in S10 and S30 in the flowchart of FIG. No notification is made, but the screen size x, y is notified for the child screen. Also,
In the case of “two-split display” in which two screens are displayed side by side, a positive determination is made in either S10 or S30 of the flowchart of FIG. 3 for both of the two display screens. That is, when vertically divided into two parts, only the size y in the vertical direction (V) is changed, and when divided into two parts horizontally, only the size x in the horizontal direction (H) is changed. Therefore, only the size in the changing direction is notified. As described above, in the case of the two-screen display, and S10 to S4
0 is executed.

Subsequently, the image data supply devices 10, 20,.
The processing executed at 30 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. This process is a process that is periodically executed while an image data supply instruction is issued.
Therefore, it is not executed in the image data supply devices 10, 20, and 30 to which the instruction to supply the image data has not been issued.

First, the image size is set to a default value (H =
X, V = Y) (S110), and monitor the notification of the screen size x, y from the display device 50 (S120).
If there is a notification of the screen size x in the horizontal direction (S1
30: YES), the horizontal size H is set to x (S14).
0), if there is a notification of the screen size y in the vertical direction (S15)
0: YES), the vertical size V is set to y (S16)
0). If there is no notification (S130: NO, S150: N
O), the image size remains at the default value.

In S170, if there is no notification, X,
If the notification is kept at Y, the image data of the horizontal size H and the vertical size V changed to x and y is generated and displayed on the display device 5.
0. As described above, in the image data transmission system of the present embodiment, when image data is transmitted from the image data supply device (the Internet terminal 10, the navigation device 20, the TV tuner 30, or the like), the display device 5
Since the image data corresponding to the screen size to be displayed at 0 is generated and transmitted by the image data supply devices 10, 20, and 30 side, useless communication band consumption can be prevented. In other words, since the multiplex communication path 40 is capable of multiplex communication, if the multiplex communication path 40 is used for other than the transmission of image data to the display device 50, the multiplex communication path 40 is used for data transmission as much as unnecessary communication consumption is eliminated. be able to.

The system of this embodiment is particularly effective because the image data supplied from the two image data supply devices can be transmitted simultaneously, and the display device 50 can simultaneously display the plurality of image data. Act on. This point will be described in comparison with the prior art.

As shown in FIG. 5, it is assumed that the physical display area of the display device 50 has a size of 640 dots in width × 480 dots in height, and a small screen of the Internet screen is displayed in the navigation screen at half the size. . Conventionally, FIG.
As shown in (a), both the navigation screen as the parent screen and the Internet screen as the child screen are transmitted as image data corresponding to the size of 640 (horizontal) × 480 (vertical) dots from the respective image data supply devices, The image data for the Internet screen is reduced to 320 dots wide by 240 dots high on the display device 50 side, and then displayed on the navigation screen in two screens. Therefore, the communication band in which one screen can simultaneously transmit image data having a size of 640 (horizontal) × 480 (vertical) dots for two screens is set to the multiplex communication path 4.
0 is required.

However, since the Internet screen is actually reduced to 320 dots wide by 240 dots high on the display device 50, image data larger than the screen size required for display is transmitted. It will be. In other words, the data is a total of 1.5 screens at the time of display, but is a data of 2 screens at the time of transmission. Therefore, the multiplex communication path 40
In addition, it is necessary to set at least data for two screens to be able to be transmitted, and the communication band is wasted.

On the other hand, according to the system of the present embodiment, the navigation device 20, which supplies the navigation screen as the main screen, receives one screen (640 dots horizontally ×
Image data having a size of 0.5 screen (320 horizontal dots × 240 vertical dots) is transmitted from the Internet terminal 10 which transmits image data having a size of 480 dots (vertical) and supplies an Internet screen as a child screen. What is necessary is just to transmit. Therefore, it is only necessary to occupy a communication band for a total of 1.5 screens, and wasteful consumption of the communication band of the multiplex communication path 40 can be prevented.

[Others] (1) In the above embodiment, when the screen size is notified from the display device 50, the screen size x in the horizontal direction and the screen size y in the vertical direction are notified. However, as screen size,
The scale of the physical display area may be notified. This is effective when only the scale changes without changing the screen aspect ratio (aspect ratio). For example, if the size of the above-mentioned 640 horizontal dots × 480 vertical dots is set to 320 horizontal dots × 240 vertical dots, the size of the notification is reduced to half. (2) In the above embodiment, the size of the sub-screen is fixed, and when the user instructs the display of the sub-screen, the image data of the sub-screen is automatically changed to a half size.
For example, the size may be arbitrarily changed by the user. Even in such a case, the same can be realized by executing the flowcharts of FIGS. Further, the same concept can be applied to the case where three or more screens are simultaneously displayed. Conversely, for example, even when only the Internet screen is displayed, the image is not always displayed in the full size (640 dots × 480 pixels vertically), and may be displayed in a smaller size. This can be handled by similar processing. (3) In the above-described embodiment, the screen size notifying unit is executed by the display ECU 52 in the display device 50. However, the execution unit may be provided in a control device provided separately from the display device 50. (4) In the above embodiment, the touch switch 51 is employed as the instruction input means. However, a mechanical switch may be employed, or a configuration capable of operating a remote controller may be employed. (5) In the above embodiment, an example in which the present invention is implemented as an in-vehicle system has been described, but the application destination is not limited to in-vehicle systems. (6) In the above embodiment, the LCD monitor 53 is used as the display means.
However, any display means such as a CRT or an EL capable of displaying an image may be used. Although the LCD monitor 53 has been described as being capable of color display, it is not a requirement that the display means be capable of color display.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an image data transmission system as an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram regarding a change in size of image data.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a screen size notification process executed on the display device side.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a process executed on the image data supply device side.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing that wasteful consumption of a communication band of a multiplex communication path can be prevented.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Internet terminal 11 ... Control part 12 ... Communication part 13 ... Drawing part 14 ... Image size change part 20 ... Navigation device 30 ... TV tuner 40 ... Multiple communication path 50 ... Display device 51 ... Touch switch 52 ... Display ECU 53 ... LCD monitor

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) 9A001 (72) Inventor Koji Kawasaki 14 Iwatani, Shimowasukamachi, Nishio-shi, Aichi Japan 72) Inventor Ikuo Hayashi 14 Iwatani, Shimowakakucho, Nishio City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan (72) Inventor Naoki Ishii 14 Iwatani, Shimowasukamachi, Nishio City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan Auto Parts Research Institute, Inc. 72) Inventor Norio Mima 14 Iwatani, Shimowakaku-cho, Nishio-shi, Aichi F-term in Japan Automotive Parts Research Laboratory Co., Ltd. BA13 BB01 CA62 CB01 MM02 MM05 5H180 AA01 BB05 BB12 BB13 FF04 FF05 FF27 FF33 9A001 DZ11 EE02 JJ19 JJ2 5 JJ27 JJ77

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. An image data transmission system comprising: an image data supply device; and a display device for displaying image data supplied from the image data supply device via a transmission line, wherein the transmission line is capable of multiplex communication. The display device can display the image data with a screen size smaller than a physical display area, and further displays the screen size of the image data to be displayed on the display device with the image data supply device. When receiving a screen size notification from the display device, the image data supply device generates image data corresponding to the notified screen size, and displays the image data. An image data transmission system, characterized in that the image data is transmitted to a device side. 2. The image data transmission system according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of image data can be transmitted simultaneously from said image data supply device, and said display device can display said plurality of image data simultaneously. An image data transmission system, characterized in that: 3. The image data transmission system according to claim 1, wherein said screen size notifying means includes a screen size in which a screen size of image data to be displayed on said display device is smaller than said physical display area. Notifying only in the case of the image data transmission system. 4. The image data transmission system according to claim 1, wherein said screen size is defined by a vertical and horizontal size of the screen, and said screen size notifying means comprises: An image data transmission system, wherein when only one of the sizes in the direction is reduced, only the size to be reduced is notified. 5. The image data transmission system according to claim 1, wherein said screen size notifying unit notifies a scale of the physical display area as the screen size. Image data transmission system. 6. The image data transmission system according to claim 1, further comprising: an instruction input unit for instructing a display mode on the display device by a user, wherein the screen size notifying unit includes: Determining the screen size based on a display mode instructed via an instruction input unit. 7. An image data supply device for supplying image data to a display device connected via a transmission line, wherein the image data supply device generates image data corresponding to a screen size notified from the outside, and Image data supply apparatus.