JP2000293153A - On-screen display method and device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To freely set display positions of respective image patterns in the case of displaying image patterns such as plural characters on a display screen. SOLUTION: A dot clock is counted from a horizontal direction counting start point by a horizontal counter 12. Horizontal synchronizing signals are counted from a vertical direction counting start point by a vertical counter 16. Based on the counted values of the counters 12 and 16, character font patterns are read from a character font memory 5 and plural image patterns are displayed on a display screen. Horizontal and vertical interval counters 14 and 18 count prescribed values equivalent to the character intervals in horizontal and vertical directions after the completion of the reading of the character font patterns. During the counting, the counting operations of the counters 12 and 16 are stopped so that the reading timing of a next pattern is delayed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an on-screen display method and apparatus, and more particularly, to an on-screen display method and apparatus for displaying a plurality of image patterns including characters on a display screen such as a CRT display.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, an on-screen display device for displaying characters on a CRT display of a television is shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 1, a character designation memory 3 for designating characters and a character font memory 5 for storing bit patterns (image patterns) of various character fonts are disclosed (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 10-198546).

[0003] The character designation memory 3 has a matrix storage area. The character designation memory 3 is provided with a character input operation at an appropriate position in the storage area by a character input operation or the like by an operation unit 7 such as a switch. Is stored. As for each character code stored in the character designation memory 3, the count value input from the horizontal counter 1 and the vertical counter 2 is used as an address, and the character code in the area corresponding to the address is read.

The horizontal counter 1 is reset by a horizontal synchronizing signal and counts a predetermined dot clock (pixel clock). As shown in FIG. Is counted. The vertical counter 2 is reset by the vertical synchronization signal and counts the horizontal synchronization signal. The vertical counter 2 counts the horizontal synchronization signal from a preset vertical start position.

The character code read from the character designation memory 3 is output to a character font memory 5 and is used as information for reading a character font pattern stored from the character font memory 5 corresponding to the character code. You. On the other hand, the address conversion circuit 4 converts each count value input from the horizontal counter 1 and the vertical counter 2 into address data in one character font pattern in the character font memory 5 and outputs this to the character font memory 5. I do. Thus, the character font patterns specified by the character specification memory 3 are sequentially read.

[0006] The character font pattern read from the character font memory 5 is output to a video signal mixing circuit (not shown) via a display control circuit 6. The above circuits are controlled and controlled by the microcomputer 8.

[0007]

In the above-mentioned conventional on-screen display device, the items which can be specified with respect to the display position of the character on the display screen are only the horizontal / vertical operation start positions as shown in FIG. It is. Therefore, the first one
The position of the character can be freely set, but when the horizontal / vertical operation start position is determined, the positions of other characters are uniquely determined, and adjacent characters are arranged as shown in FIG. 4B. Are not arranged at intervals, and are continuously arranged in a predetermined character size.

When a menu of a GUI (Graphical User Interface) is displayed by using the on-screen display device and a character and an image displayed behind the character, it is necessary to create a rear image in accordance with the character interval. . As a result, there is an adverse effect such as a feeling of strangeness appearing in the rear image, or a decoration being provided around the character, whereby the space between the characters is separated by one or more characters, and the amount of information provided on the entire screen is reduced. Come out.

As a countermeasure, even if the character size is plural and the interval is adjusted, since the control is performed in units of characters, a reduction in the amount of information is inevitable. The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an on-screen display method and apparatus that can freely set the display position of each image pattern when displaying an image pattern such as a plurality of characters on a display screen. The purpose is to provide.

[0010]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a signal synchronized with a dot clock is counted from the start of counting in the horizontal direction, and a signal is counted from the start of counting in the vertical direction. In an on-screen display method of counting signals synchronized with the horizontal synchronization signal, reading an image pattern including characters from the pattern storage means based on these count values, and displaying a plurality of image patterns on the display screen, It is characterized in that the horizontal and / or vertical intervals between patterns can be set arbitrarily.

The invention according to claim 2 of the present application counts a signal synchronized with the dot clock from the start of counting in the horizontal direction, and counts a signal synchronized with the horizontal synchronization signal from the start of counting in the vertical direction. In the on-screen display method of reading an image pattern including a character from the pattern storage means based on a numerical value and displaying a plurality of image patterns on a display screen, the method includes the steps of: The counting of signals synchronized with the clock and / or the horizontal synchronizing signal is stopped for a desired period, and the horizontal and / or vertical intervals between adjacent image patterns are arbitrarily set by delaying the read timing of the next image pattern. It is made possible.

The invention according to claim 3 of the present application counts a signal synchronized with the dot clock from the start of counting in the horizontal direction and counts a signal synchronized with the horizontal synchronization signal from the start of counting in the vertical direction. In an on-screen display device for reading an image pattern including a character from a pattern storage means based on a numerical value and displaying a plurality of image patterns on a display screen, an arbitrary horizontal and / or vertical interval between adjacent image patterns is set. It can be set to.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an on-screen display device, comprising: a pattern storage means for storing a plurality of image patterns including characters; and a pattern interval for setting horizontal and / or vertical intervals between adjacent image patterns. A setting unit, and a counter unit that counts a signal synchronized with a dot clock from a start time of horizontal counting of the display screen and counts a signal synchronized with a horizontal synchronization signal from a start time of counting in the vertical direction. Each time a count value corresponding to the length in the horizontal and / or vertical direction is counted, a signal synchronized with the dot clock and / or horizontal synchronizing signal for a period corresponding to the interval set by the pattern interval setting means. And a counter unit for stopping the counting of, based on the horizontal and vertical count values in the counter unit It is characterized by comprising: a reading means for reading an image pattern from said pattern recording means.

That is, the on-screen display is performed based on a video signal including a horizontal synchronizing signal and a vertical synchronizing signal. When an image pattern such as a character mixed with the video signal is read, a space between adjacent image patterns is read. In the case where intervals are provided, the read timing is delayed according to a desired set interval for each image pattern unit without reading each image pattern continuously. As a method of delaying the read timing, the counting operation of the horizontal / vertical counter for controlling the reading of the image pattern is temporarily stopped.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of an on-screen display method and apparatus according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an on-screen display device according to the present invention. still,
Portions common to the conventional on-screen display device shown in FIG. 3 are denoted by the same reference numerals.

As shown in FIG. 1, the on-screen display device 10 includes a character designation memory 3, an address conversion circuit 4, a character font memory 5, a display control circuit 6, an operation unit 7, a microcomputer 8, and a conventional horizontal display. It comprises a horizontal counter 12, a horizontal interval counter 14, a vertical counter 16, and a vertical interval counter 18 provided in place of the counter 1 and the vertical counter 2.

The horizontal counter 12 is reset by a horizontal synchronizing signal and counts a predetermined dot clock (pixel clock). As shown in FIG. 4A, a horizontal start position (FIG. 4A )), The dot clock is counted. The horizontal counter 12
Is calculated every time the number of dots corresponding to the horizontal length of one character size is counted (for example, when the character size is 18
Assuming that dot × horizontal 12 dots, the counting operation is stopped (every time the counted value becomes an integral multiple of 12), and a signal for enabling the horizontal interval counter 14 is output.

The horizontal interval counter 14 is a horizontal counter 1
When a signal is input from the second counter 2 and operation becomes possible, the dot clock is counted. When the counted value reaches a value corresponding to a preset character interval H (see FIG. 2), the horizontal counter 1 is turned on.
2 is output. On the other hand, the vertical counter 16 is reset by the vertical synchronizing signal and counts the horizontal synchronizing signal. The vertical counter 16 counts the horizontal synchronizing signal from a preset vertical start position (see FIG. 4A). The vertical counter 16 stops the counting operation each time it counts the number of dots corresponding to the length of one character size in the vertical direction (in the above example, each time the count value becomes an integral multiple of 18). And outputs a signal enabling the vertical interval counter 18 to operate.

The vertical interval counter 18 is a vertical counter 1
When a signal is input from the input terminal 6 and operation becomes possible, the horizontal synchronization signal is counted, and the count value is set to a preset character spacing V (FIG. 2).
), The vertical counter 16
And outputs a signal enabling the operation. Note that a horizontal / vertical start position for setting the position of the first first character, a horizontal character interval H and a vertical character interval V between each character are set.
Can be arbitrarily set based on an operation on the operation unit 7.

The count value of the horizontal counter 12 and the count value of the vertical counter 16 are applied to a character designation memory 3 and an address conversion circuit 4, respectively. The character specification memory 3 has a matrix storage area of, for example, 12 characters in length and 24 characters in width. The character specification memory 3 stores the storage area of the storage area by a character input operation by an operation unit 7 such as a switch. A character code corresponding to the character input is stored at an appropriate position. As for each character code stored in the character designation memory 3, a character code in an area corresponding to the address is read using the count value input from the horizontal counter 12 and the vertical counter 16 as an address. This character code is added to the character font memory 5 and used as information for reading out a character font pattern corresponding to the character code from the character font memory 5.

On the other hand, the address conversion circuit 4 converts each count value input from the horizontal counter 12 and the vertical counter 16 into address data in one character font pattern in the character font memory 5, and converts this into character font data. By outputting to the memory 5, the character font patterns designated by the character designation memory 3 are sequentially read.

The character font pattern read from the character font memory 5 is output via a display control circuit 6 to a video signal mixing circuit (not shown). The above circuits are controlled and controlled by the microcomputer 8. Next, the operation of the on-screen display device 10 having the above configuration will be described. Now, as shown in FIG. 2, a character "character 1" is specified on the first line, a character "character 2" is specified on the second line, and a horizontal character spacing H is set between "sentence" and "character". A case where the vertical character spacing V is set between “character 1” and “character 2” will be described.

In this case, the count value of the horizontal counter 12 is 0
When the number sequentially changes to 12, the data of one line of the font pattern of "text" is sequentially read out, and this data is mixed with the video signal. The horizontal counter 12 counts 1
When the number becomes 2, the counting operation is temporarily stopped, and the horizontal interval counter 14 starts the counting operation. Then, when the count value of the horizontal interval counter 14 becomes a value corresponding to the horizontal character interval H, the counting operation of the horizontal counter 12 is restarted.

When the count value sequentially changes from 13 to 24 due to the restart of the counting operation of the horizontal counter 12, the data of one line of the font pattern of "character" is sequentially read, and this data is mixed with the video signal. . As described above, by temporarily stopping the counting operation of the horizontal counter 12 between “text” and “character”, the reading timing of “character” is delayed. Thus, on a display screen such as a CRT display for inputting a video signal in which the characters are mixed, a horizontal character interval H is provided between "sentences" and "characters".

Similarly, when the count value of the vertical counter 16 reaches 18, the reading of the data of "character 1" ends. When the count value of the vertical counter 16 becomes 18, the counting operation is temporarily stopped, while the horizontal interval counter 14 starts the counting operation. When the count value of the vertical interval counter 18 reaches a value corresponding to the vertical character interval V, the counting operation of the vertical counter 16 is restarted.

When the counting value of the vertical counter 16 is sequentially changed to 19 by restarting the counting operation, the reading of the data of "character 2" is started. In this way, by temporarily stopping the counting operation of the vertical counter 16 between “character 1” and “character 2”, the read timing of “character 2” is delayed. As a result, a vertical character interval V is provided between "character 1" and "character 2" on a display screen such as a CRT display for inputting a video signal in which the characters are mixed.

In this embodiment, the interval counted by the horizontal interval counter 14 and the vertical interval counter 18 is 1
However, the present invention is not limited to this, and it is also possible to configure so as to change the interval value for each character interval, and to have a plurality of horizontal / vertical interval counters and select the output result. It is also possible to adopt a configuration to be used.
Further, it is possible to use a delay circuit other than the horizontal / vertical interval counter, and it is also possible to adapt to a case where a plurality of character sizes are prepared.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, the character spacing in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction can be set arbitrarily. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and characters in only one of the horizontal direction and the vertical direction can be set. The interval may be set.

[0029]

As described above, according to the present invention, when an image pattern including characters is read from the pattern storage means based on each count value of the signal synchronized with the dot clock and the horizontal synchronization signal, a certain image pattern is read. The counting operation is stopped for a desired period at the time when the process shifts to reading the next image pattern from, and the horizontal and / or vertical intervals between the image patterns are arbitrarily set by delaying the reading timing of the next image pattern. Thus, the display position of each image pattern can be freely set on the display screen.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an on-screen display device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a display example by the on-screen display device shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of a conventional on-screen display device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a display example by the on-screen display device shown in FIG. 3;

[Explanation of symbols]

 3 ... Character designation memory 4 ... Address conversion circuit 5 ... Character font memory 7 ... Operation unit 10 ... On-screen display device 12 ... Horizontal counter 14 ... Horizontal interval counter 16 ... Vertical counter 18 ... Vertical interval counter

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A method for counting signals synchronized with a dot clock from the start of counting in the horizontal direction, counting signals synchronized with a horizontal synchronization signal from the start of counting in the vertical direction, and pattern storage means based on these counts. In the on-screen display method of reading an image pattern including a character from a plurality of image patterns and displaying a plurality of image patterns on a display screen, it is possible to arbitrarily set a horizontal and / or vertical interval between adjacent image patterns. A featured on-screen display method. 2. A method for counting signals synchronized with a dot clock from the start of counting in the horizontal direction, counting signals synchronized with a horizontal synchronization signal from the start of counting in the vertical direction, and pattern storage means based on these counts. In the on-screen display method of reading an image pattern including a character from a plurality of image patterns and displaying a plurality of image patterns on a display screen, the dot clock and / or the dot clock and / or
Alternatively, the counting of the signal synchronized with the horizontal synchronizing signal is stopped for a desired period, and the horizontal and / or vertical interval between adjacent image patterns can be arbitrarily set by delaying the reading timing of the next image pattern. An on-screen display method characterized in that: 3. A method for counting signals synchronized with the dot clock from the start of counting in the horizontal direction, counting signals synchronized with the horizontal synchronization signal from the start of counting in the vertical direction, and pattern storage means based on these counts. In an on-screen display device for reading an image pattern including a character from a plurality of image patterns and displaying a plurality of image patterns on a display screen, it is possible to arbitrarily set a horizontal and / or vertical interval between adjacent image patterns. On-screen display device characterized. 4. A pattern storage means for storing a plurality of image patterns including characters; a pattern interval setting means for setting a horizontal and / or vertical interval between adjacent image patterns; A counter unit that counts a signal synchronized with a dot clock from a counting start time and counts a signal synchronized with a horizontal synchronization signal from a counting start time in a vertical direction.
Alternatively, every time a count value corresponding to the length in the vertical direction is counted, counting of the signal synchronized with the dot clock and / or the horizontal synchronization signal is stopped for a period corresponding to the interval set by the pattern interval setting means. An on-screen display device comprising: a counter unit; and a reading unit that reads an image pattern from the pattern recording unit based on horizontal and vertical count values of the counter unit.