JP2007179067A - Multi-display apparatus and image display control method, and computer program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a configuration for displaying various image data to a multi-display apparatus constituted of two or more image display apparatuses. <P>SOLUTION: A master apparatus transmits a control signal for processing image data including an image display area setting data and a display image expansion/contraction processing data to the individual image display apparatuses constituting the multi-display apparatus. The master apparatus calculates two or more combinations of the image data to be displayed on the image apparatuses, sequentially generating the control signals corresponding to the combinations of each image data, and transmitting the signals to the individual image display apparatuses. The image display apparatuses receive the control signals from the master apparatus and sequentially display the images based on the control signals corresponding to the combinations of the two or more image data. With this constitution, it becomes possible to sequentially display various different images using two or more image display apparatuses. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a multi-display device, an image display control method, and a computer program. More specifically, the present invention relates to a multi-display device, an image display control method, and a computer program that can realize image data display in various modes in a configuration in which a plurality of displays that can operate independently are combined.

  Applying a multi-display composed of a combination of multiple display devices, such as CRTs, liquid crystal display devices, etc., to display images on a large screen, or to display different image data on each display device constituting the multi-display A multi-display system is known as a display system.

  In general, such a multi-display system provides each display data individually to each display included in the multi-display system from, for example, a single image data source or a plurality of image data sources, and each display receives it. The data is displayed.

  The multi-display system is provided with, for example, n displays in the horizontal direction and m displays in the vertical direction, for example, CRTs, liquid crystal display devices, and the like. Display data, divide n × m display into two or three parts, display different image data in each divided area, or display different image data for each n × m display For example, various image data can be displayed.

  However, in the conventional multi-display system, the configurations of a plurality of displays for displaying image data are determined in advance, and the configurations are fixed. For example, a display system in which n displays in the horizontal direction and m in the vertical direction are fixedly combined is set, and display data is supplied from a data source to each of the multiple displays having this fixed configuration. It is common to display various image data.

  It becomes difficult to change the combination configuration of a plurality of displays once set after the system setting. When changing the display combination configuration, it is necessary to perform a system change process similar to the total replacement of the entire multi-display system, such as a setting change process of a control device that supplies image data.

  Further, in the conventional system, a plurality of displays are generally integrated, that is, each display is combined in a state adjacent or close to each other to form a multi-display. There is no display using the display.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems of the prior art, and allows a multi-display device configured by combining a plurality of display devices to be freely changed in configuration and located at a separated position. Multi-display device capable of displaying display data controlled on the basis of relative positional relationship with other display devices, and enabling display of image data in various modes, image display control It is an object to provide a method and a computer program.

The first aspect of the present invention is:
A multi-display device combining a plurality of image display devices having a display capable of displaying images;
A master device for transmitting a control signal for image data processing including image display region setting data and display image enlargement / reduction processing data to each image display device constituting the multi-display device;
The master device calculates a plurality of combinations of image data to be displayed on the image display device capable of presenting an input image, sequentially generates the control signals corresponding to the combinations of the image data, and each of the image display devices To
Each of the image display devices receives the control signal from the master device, and displays an image based on the control signal corresponding to a combination of a plurality of the image data.
The multi-display apparatus is characterized in that.

  Furthermore, in one embodiment of the multi-display device of the present invention, the master device sequentially generates and transmits the control signals corresponding to the combinations of the image data until a selection input is made for the combination of the image data. The multi-display apparatus according to claim 1.

Furthermore, the second aspect of the present invention provides
An image display control method that is executed in a multi-display device in which a plurality of image display devices each having a display capable of displaying an image are combined,
A control signal transmission step in which the master device transmits a control signal for image data processing including image display area setting data and display image enlargement / reduction processing data to the individual image display devices constituting the multi-display device; Yes, the master device calculates a combination of a plurality of image data to be displayed on the image display device capable of presenting an input image, sequentially generates the control signal corresponding to each image data combination, A control signal transmitting step for transmitting to the display device;
An image display step in which each of the image display devices receives the control signal from the master device and displays an image based on the control signal corresponding to a combination of a plurality of the image data;
An image display control method characterized by comprising:

Furthermore, the third aspect of the present invention provides
A computer program for executing image display control in a multi-display device in which a plurality of image display devices each having a display capable of displaying images is combined,
A control signal transmission step of causing the master device to transmit control signals for image data processing including image display area setting data and display image enlargement / reduction processing data to the individual image display devices constituting the multi-display device; Yes, the master device calculates a combination of a plurality of image data to be displayed on the image display device capable of presenting an input image, and sequentially generates the control signal corresponding to each combination of the image data. A control signal transmission step to be transmitted to the image display device;
An image display step of causing each of the image display devices to receive the control signal from a master device and displaying an image based on the control signal corresponding to a combination of a plurality of the image data;
In a computer program characterized by causing

  The computer program of the present invention is, for example, a storage medium or communication medium provided in a computer-readable format to a general-purpose computer system capable of executing various program codes, such as a CD, FD, MO, etc. Or a computer program that can be provided by a communication medium such as a network. By providing such a program in a computer-readable format, processing corresponding to the program is realized on the computer system.

  Other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a more detailed description based on embodiments of the present invention described later and the accompanying drawings. In this specification, the system is a logical set configuration of a plurality of devices, and is not limited to one in which the devices of each configuration are in the same casing.

  According to the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, control signals for image data processing including image display area setting data and display image enlargement / reduction processing data are provided to the individual image display devices constituting the multi-display device. Sent from the master device. The master device calculates a plurality of combinations of image data to be displayed on the image display device, sequentially generates control signals corresponding to the combinations of the image data, and transmits them to the individual image display devices. The image display device receives control signals from the master device and sequentially displays images based on control signals corresponding to a combination of a plurality of image data. With this configuration, various different images can be sequentially displayed using a number of image display devices.

  Hereinafter, a multi-display device, an image display control method, and a computer program according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows an example of a combination of image display devices constituting the multi-display device of the present invention. The multi-display device of the present invention is configured by, for example, a combination of a box incorporating the image display device 101 shown in FIG. 1A and an open box 102 not incorporating the image display device shown in FIG.

  Examples of such combinations are shown in FIGS. 1 (c-1) to (c-3). (C-1) is a configuration example of a multi-display device in which the image display devices 111 to 115 and the open box 121 are overlapped in a column, and (c-2) is a 3 × 3 in which three are arranged in a column and a row. Is a multi-display device configuration example in which only the lower right end is set as an open box 131, and (c-3) is a 4 × 3 box configuration with horizontal: 4 and vertical: 3. An example of a multi-display device configuration is shown in which only the third column from the left is set as an open box 141. In addition, the example shown to FIG.1 (c-1)-(c-3) is a part of examples as a multi-display apparatus structural example, and various settings can be performed besides this.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a single image display device constituting the multi-display device of the present invention. The image display apparatus includes a memory 211, a display area setting unit 212, a control unit 213, an N double density conversion processing unit 214, and a display control processing unit 215.

  The memory 211 stores image data input from the image data supply source. The image data input from the image data supply source is image data including image area data displayed by the image display device itself that inputs the data, for example, NTSC-decoded image data. The display area setting unit 212 executes a display area setting process as a process for extracting image area data displayed by the image display device itself from the image data stored in the memory 211.

  The display area setting process of the display area setting unit 212 is executed based on a control signal supplied from the control unit 213. The control unit 213 receives a control signal from an external device, for example, a master device that performs control of the multi-display device, or a remote controller, and supplies the received control signal to the display area setting unit 212. The master device and the remote controller will be described in detail later. When the own apparatus is set as the master, the control unit 213 may generate various control signals and synchronization signals and provide them to the own apparatus and other image display apparatuses. These configurations will be described in detail later.

  The image data cut out by the display area setting process executed by the display area setting unit 212 is provided to the N double density conversion processing unit 214, and the double density conversion process of the cut image, that is, the enlargement / reduction process of the image data is executed. The double-density conversion process is a process similar to a conversion process between images having different densities, such as a high-density image (HD image) and a low-density image (SD image). Is an image conversion process to be executed in accordance with the number of lines of the. The enlargement / reduction processing of the cut-out image in the N double density conversion processing unit 214 in this apparatus is performed by a control signal received by the control unit 213 from the master device or a remote controller, and output from the control unit 213 to the N double density conversion processing unit 214. It is executed based on.

  A control signal supplied from the control unit 213, a display area setting process executed by the display area setting unit 212, and a cutout image enlargement / reduction process in the N-times dense conversion processing unit 214 will be described with reference to FIG. The control signal received by the control unit 213 from the master device or the remote controller includes the following data.

Image cutout start position (x1, y1) and image size (x2, y2) data,
Display start position (x3, y3) and display image size (x4, y4) data,

  First, the display area setting unit 212 sets from the image data stored in the memory 211 based on the image clipping start position (x1, y1) and the image size (x2, y2) data provided from the control unit 213. A display area setting process for cutting out image data of the area is executed. The image data 251 is cut out by this display area setting process.

  Next, the N double density conversion processing unit 214 provides image size (x2, y2) data as a cutout image size provided from the control unit 213, a display start position (x3, y3), and a display image size (x4, y4). ) Based on the data, an N-fold density conversion process is performed as an enlargement / reduction process of the cut-out image data 251. That is, based on the image size (x2, y2) data as the cut-out image size and the display image size (x4, y4) data, the value of N as N double dense image conversion is calculated, and based on the calculated N value. Then, line interpolation or thinning processing is executed. Display image data 252 is generated by this double-density conversion processing.

  A specific processing example of the image cutout processing in the display area setting unit 212 will be described with reference to FIG. For example, as the data shown in FIG. 4A, the data shown in FIG. 4A is displayed between the image display devices 1 and 2 in the adjacent image display device, for example, the multi-display device shown in FIG. 4B. Assume that In this case, each image display device has an effective display area 271, an area 272 including an overscan area as an outer peripheral area of the effective display area 271, and an area 273 including a non-display area. Corresponding to the above, there is a mode in which the display image is cut out in each image display device.

  FIG. 4C-1 shows a mode in which the display image data is divided and displayed entirely in the effective display area 271 of the adjacent image display device, and FIG. 4C-2 is a view of the adjacent image display device. This is a mode in which display image data is divided into areas 272 including an overscan area, and image data corresponding to the effective display area is displayed. FIG. 4C-3 illustrates a non-display area of an adjacent image display device. The display image data is divided into areas 273 including the image data, and the image data corresponding to the effective display area is displayed.

  In the multi-display device of the present invention, the control signal for outputting the image clipping process in each image display device to each image display device, that is, the image clipping start position (x1, y1) as the clipping process control information, and the image size ( x2, y2) Since the configuration is performed based on the data, various display modes can be easily changed only by changing the setting of the control signal.

  Similarly, in the image N double density conversion processing, as shown in FIG. 5, one image data shown in (b) is displayed in the image display devices 1, 2, 4 and 5 in the multi-display device shown in (a). Is divided into four parts for enlarged display, the quarter image 280 of (b) is displayed as an effective display area 291 of the image display device 290, an area 292 including an overscan area as an outer peripheral area of the effective display area 291, and There are a plurality of processing methods for executing the dense conversion corresponding to each of the areas 293 including the non-display area.

  In the multi-display device of the present invention, a control signal for outputting the N double density conversion processing in each image display device to each image display device, that is, cut-out image size (x2, y2) data as N double density conversion processing control information And the display start position (x3, y3) and the display image size (x4, y4) data, so that various display modes can be easily changed by simply changing the setting of the control signal. It becomes possible.

  Returning to the block diagram of FIG. 2, the description of the processing of the image display apparatus will be continued. The display image data 252 generated by the N double density conversion processing unit 214 is provided to the display control processing unit 215. The display control processing unit 215 executes display control based on the control signal and the synchronization signal provided by the control unit 213. The control unit 213 receives a control signal and a synchronization signal from an external device such as a master device that performs control of the multi-display device, or a remote controller, and supplies the received control signal and synchronization signal to the display control processing unit 215. .

  The control signal input to the display control processing unit 215 includes a display control signal such as an OSD (on-screen display), a driver control signal, and the like. The synchronization signal is, for example, a horizontal synchronization signal (HSync) or a vertical synchronization signal (YSync).

  The display control in the display control processing unit 215 based on the horizontal synchronization signal (HSync) and the vertical synchronization signal (YSync) will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 6, the horizontal synchronization signal (HSync) is data indicating the horizontal position where the effective display data starts, and the vertical synchronization signal (YSync) indicates the vertical position where the effective display data starts. It is the data shown. The display control processing unit 215 performs display control of the image data output from the N double density conversion processing unit 214 based on the horizontal synchronization signal (HSync) and the vertical synchronization signal (YSync) output from the control unit 213. Output to display means such as CRT.

  Next, with reference to FIG. 7, signal processing in a multi-display apparatus in which a plurality of image display apparatuses described with reference to FIG. 2 are combined will be described. In FIG. 7, three image display devices 410, 420, and 430 are shown as image display devices constituting the multi-display device. Here, three examples of image display devices are shown, but the number of image display devices can be set as an arbitrary number.

  The image display device 410 is an image display device set as a synchronization master display device that provides the above-described synchronization signal to the other image display devices 420 and 430. Control signals, that is, image cutout start position (x1, y1) and image size (x2, y2) data, display start position (x3, y3), display image size (x4, y4) data, and OSD (on A display control signal such as a screen display, a driver control signal, and the like are transmitted from the remote controller 300 to each of the image display devices 410, 420, and 430, for example, by infrared transmission. For example, in the image display device 410, the control signal is received via the light receiving unit 416. Similarly, other devices receive data via the light receiving unit.

  Each of the image display devices 410, 420, and 430 has the same configuration as described above with reference to FIG. However, the image display device 410 set as the synchronization master display device generates a synchronization signal in the control means 413, and executes processing to be provided to the own device and the other image display devices 420 and 430.

  For example, the source image data is received from the image data supply source via the antenna 417 in the image display device 410 and stored in the memory 411. The image data stored in the memory 411 is image data including image area data displayed by each image display device itself, for example, NTSC-decoded image data. Similar processing is executed in other devices.

  In the configuration shown in FIG. 7, the remote controller 300 is a device as a control signal supply source, that is, a master, and the image display devices 410, 420, and 430 that constitute the multi-display device are slaves. However, the image display device 410 is configured to generate a synchronization signal and provide it to other devices, and is set as a synchronization master.

  The image display device 410 as a synchronization master stores image data input via the antenna 417 in the memory 411 and is input from the remote controller 300 to the control unit 413 via the light receiving unit 416 in the display area setting unit 412. Based on the control signal, the image cut-out process described above with reference to FIG. 3 is executed. Further, the N double density conversion processing unit 414 executes N double density conversion processing as enlargement / reduction processing based on a control signal input from the remote controller 300 to the control unit 413 via the light receiving unit 416.

  Further, the display image data generated by the N-fold density conversion processing is displayed on the display control processing unit 415 by, for example, OSD (on / off) included in the control signal input from the remote controller 300 to the control unit 413 via the light receiving unit 416. Display control is performed based on a display control signal such as a screen display) and a synchronization signal generated by the control means 413, and is output to a CRT or the like.

  Slave image display devices 420 and 430 other than the synchronization master have control signals, that is, image cutout start position (x1, y1), image size (x2, y2) data, display start position (x3, y3), and display image. Size (x4, y4) data, display control signals such as OSD (on-screen display), driver control signals, etc. are received from the remote control 300 via the light receiver, and the synchronization signal is used as a synchronization master. The source image data received from the control means 413 of the image display apparatus 410 via a signal transmission path such as a bus, and the source image data received via the antenna based on these control signals and synchronization signals are cut out and subjected to N double density conversion processing. And display image data is generated, and the image data subjected to display control by the display control processing means is displayed in each image table. It is output to a display such as a CRT device.

  The configuration of the remote controller 300 that provides control signals to each image display device will be described with reference to the block diagram of FIG. The remote controller 300 includes a memory 301 that stores a matrix table as system configuration data of the multi-display device, a matrix table control unit 302 that executes matrix table data input / output control, update processing, and the like, for example, from a user interface such as an input key. A command receiving unit 303 that receives user input, and a control signal generating unit 304 that inputs a command from the command receiving unit 303 and generates a control signal for each display device based on matrix table data input from the matrix table control unit 302. The communication unit 305 outputs the control signal generated by the control signal generation unit 304 to each display device.

  The matrix table will be described with reference to FIG. 9 and FIG. The matrix table is a table that stores arrangement information of image display devices constituting the multi-display device. FIG. 9A shows a matrix table in a reset state in which the setting information of the image display device is not input. The matrix table shown in FIG. 9A has five positions -2, -1, 0, 1, and 2 in the horizontal (H) direction, and is similarly -2, -1, and in the vertical (V) direction. This is an example of a table having five positions of 0, 1, and 2, and an example of a table that enables position identification of 5 × 5 = 25.

  For example, a case is assumed where a multi-display device is configured by five image display devices having an arrangement as shown in FIG. Of the five image display devices shown in FIG. 9B, the image display device 451 is a slave image display device (Sm) as a synchronization master that provides a synchronization signal, and the other image display devices 452 to 455 are synchronized master image displays. Assume that the slave image display device (S) receives a synchronization signal from the device.

  In the case of this multi-display device configuration, the matrix table sets the position of the slave image display device (Sm) 451 as the synchronization master to the center (0, 0) of the matrix table as shown in FIG. 9C. Note that (0, 0) indicates the position of (H, V). According to the arrangement of the other image display devices, the image display device 452 is (0, 1), the image display device 453 is (1, 1), the image display device 454 is (1, 0), and the image display device 455 is Set to (1, -1) to generate a matrix table.

  The position data (H, V) on the matrix table corresponding to each image display device indicates a relative position with respect to the synchronization master as shown in FIG. Each image display device is set with an ID as an identifier for identifying each image display device, and position data (H, V) on the matrix table can be used as this ID. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 10C, individual IDs different from the position data (H, V) on the matrix table may be set. These pieces of identification data are set as additional information for the control signal from the remote controller, and each image display device discriminates and extracts the control signal for the own device based on the ID in the additional information.

  In the remote controller 300 shown in FIG. 8, the matrix table is stored in the memory 301 and is appropriately updated under the control of the matrix table control unit 302 based on the configuration change information of the multi-display device.

  When the command receiving unit receives a command such as an image data display instruction using a multi-display device or a display mode selection instruction by the user, the control signal generating unit 304 is based on matrix table data input from the matrix table control unit 302. Then, a control signal for each display device is generated, and the generated control signal is output to each display device via the communication unit 305.

  The matrix table is displayed on the display on the remote controller, for example, as shown in FIG. 11 (a), or by transmitting data from the remote controller, the display of the image display device as shown in FIG. 11 (b). Or can be displayed.

  Next, an image display processing procedure to which the multi-display device of the present invention is applied will be described with reference to a flow. The process is broadly divided into a process involving initial settings for executing image display after inputting or arranging the arrangement configuration of the image display apparatuses constituting the multi-display apparatus, and generating or updating the matrix table, and a matrix already generated. 2 of the process with the contrast process which performs the contrast process of a table and the arrangement structure of the image display apparatus which comprises a multi-display apparatus, updates the matrix table as needed, and performs an image display There are two processes.

  First, referring to FIG. 12, the procedure of image display processing including initial setting processing for generating or updating a matrix table by inputting the arrangement configuration of the image display devices constituting the multi-display device to the remote controller will be described.

  In step S101, an initial setting screen is displayed on the display on the remote controller, and in step S102, the arrangement configuration of the image display apparatus constituting the multi-display apparatus on which the user intends to perform image display is input using input means such as a remote controller key. Input through.

  The remote control receives the arrangement configuration information of the image display device via the command receiving unit 303 (see FIG. 8), outputs the input information to the matrix table control unit 302, and the matrix table control unit 302 based on the input information. A matrix table is generated or updated and stored in the memory 301. In step S103, an identifier (ID) set corresponding to each image display device constituting the multi-display device and a link of the arrangement configuration of the image display device are set. This link setting process is a matrix table generation process. At this time, the ID information set in each image display device constituting the multi-display device is input and stored.

  Details of the processing in step S103, that is, link setting processing and matrix table generation processing will be described with reference to the flow of FIG. Step S151 is an initialization process of the matrix table. The matrix is set in a state in which no system configuration is input to the matrix table described above with reference to FIG. 9, that is, in a data non-storage state shown in FIG. Execute table initialization processing.

  In step S152, devices (image display devices) constituting the multi-display device are sequentially selected one by one, and in step S153, an ID as an identifier is set for the selected device (image display device). This ID is the coordinate data (H, V) based on the arrangement position as described above, or a simple sequence number such as 1, 2, 3,. Can be set as

  Next, in step S154, the setting ID is transmitted to the device (image display apparatus) having the set ID. On the device side, the ID is received in step S161, and the received ID is stored in the memory in step S162.

  On the remote control side, the setting ID is written in the matrix table in step S155, and in step S156, it is determined whether or not the ID setting processing for all devices (image display devices) constituting the multi-display device has been completed. If there is, the process after step S152 is executed for the unfinished device, and the process is terminated when the ID setting and matrix table generation for all the devices (image display devices) are completed.

  Returning to the display processing flow of FIG. 12, the description will be continued. When the link setting in step S103 is completed, in step S104, one synchronization master that generates a synchronization signal and provides the generated synchronization signal to another device is selected from the image display devices that constitute the multi-display device. . Next, in step S105, a control signal for each image display device is generated based on the matrix table set in step S103. As described above, the control signal includes image cutout start position (x1, y1), image size (x2, y2) data, display start position (x3, y3), and display image size (x4, y4) data. And a display control signal such as an OSD (on-screen display), a driver control signal, and the like, and these signals generate the number of data corresponding to individual IDs of the image display devices constituting the multi-display device.

  In step S106, the generated control signal is output to the image display device constituting the multi-display device via the communication unit 305. In step S107, each image display apparatus receives the control signal, and in step S108, extracts corresponding control information based on the ID assigned to itself, cuts out image data, N-times dense conversion, and display control. To display each display data. The synchronization process is executed based on a synchronization signal input from the synchronization master.

  Next, referring to FIG. 14, a comparison process between the already generated matrix table and the arrangement configuration of the image display devices constituting the multi-display device is executed, and the matrix table is updated as necessary. A process involving a comparison process for executing image display will be described.

  In step S201, the operation status in the arrangement configuration of the image display devices constituting the multi-display device on which the user intends to perform image display is confirmed. That is, an image display device that is in the ON state and can be operated is confirmed. In step S202, the operating image display apparatus configuration is compared with the matrix table information stored in the remote controller. The matrix table information is confirmed by displaying it on the display on the remote controller as described above with reference to FIG. If it is determined in step S202 that the active device (image display device) and the matrix table information match, the process proceeds to step S203.

  If it is determined in step S202 that the operating device does not match the matrix table information, the process proceeds to step S211 to determine the operating status of the synchronization master. If it is determined that the synchronization master is operating, in step S212, a device ID and system configuration link resetting process using only the active device is executed. This link resetting process is executed as a matrix table update process, that is, a matrix table update process based on the configuration of the active device.

  If it is determined in step S211 that the synchronization master is not operating, the process advances to step S213 to execute the matrix table update process as the initial setting process described above with reference to FIG. This processing includes processing for setting a synchronization master.

  In step S203, displayable combinations are calculated in the operating device (image display device) configuration based on the matrix table generated in advance or the matrix table updated in step S212 or S213, and the combinations that can be displayed in step S204. In step S205, a displayable combination image is displayed in a toggle format one after another based on the generated control signal.

  For example, when the display processing in the toggle format is a multi-display device composed of 3 × 3 = 9 image display devices, various display modes as shown in FIG. A combination of displaying individual images on each device (image display device), an example of displaying one image data on the four devices (image display devices) at the upper left as in (2), as in (3) There are various combinations such as an example in which one image data is displayed on the four devices (image display devices) in the upper right, and an example in which one image data is displayed on nine devices (image display devices) as shown in (n). These combined images (1) to (n) are displayed one after another at regular time intervals. Corresponding to each combination, the control signal is also different, and the remote controller generates a control signal based on each combination and transmits it to each image display device.

  In step S206, it is determined from the combination of the image data displayed in the toggle format whether or not the user's selection processing input has been made, and the toggle format image display is continued until there is an input. In step S207, the image display according to the selected image data display format is continuously executed. Also in this process, as described above, the control signal includes the image clipping start position (x1, y1), the image size (x2, y2) data, the display start position (x3, y3), and the display image. This includes size (x4, y4) data, OSD (on-screen display) display control signals, driver control signals, etc., and these signals are transmitted from the remote control to the individual image display devices constituting the multi-display device. The synchronization process is executed based on a synchronization signal input from the synchronization master.

  Even in the image display process with initial settings shown in FIG. 12 described above, toggle image display for each image combination and selection process may be executed when there are combinations of a plurality of images.

  In the multi-display device of the present invention, control signals for image segmentation and N-fold density conversion processing are transmitted to each image display device, and each image display device extracts a control signal corresponding to its own device. Since the display data is generated, and the control signal is generated corresponding to the matrix table based on the arrangement configuration of the image display devices constituting the multi-display device, it corresponds to various image display arrangement configurations. Image display is possible.

  FIG. 16 shows an image display example. FIG. 16A shows a multi-display device composed of nine 3 × 3 nine image display devices. The upper left 2 × 2 image display device area 511 and the upper right 1 × 2 image display device area. 512 is a multi-display display example constituted by three 1 × 1 image display device areas 513, 514, and 515 at the bottom.

  FIG. 16B is an example of a combination of an image display device and an open box. The image display area includes a leftmost 1 × 3 image display device area 521 and an upper right 3 × 2 image display device area 522. And have open box areas 531, 532, and 533. The open box area 533 has a width different from that of the image display device. In the image display device of the present invention, the image display is performed for each image display device according to the control based on the individual control signal. Therefore, even when an open area having an arbitrary space is set. By setting the control signal as data based on the set space width or height, as shown in the display mode of FIG. 16B, an image without a sense of incongruity that is integrated using a plurality of spaced image display devices Data display can be executed.

  In the above-described embodiment, the configuration example in which the control signal is transmitted from the remote controller to the image display device configuring the multi-display device has been described. Next, without using a remote control, the selected image display device of the image display devices constituting the multi-display device generates not only a synchronization signal but also various control signals and provides them to other image display devices A configuration example of the multi-display device configured as described above will be described.

  FIG. 17 shows a block diagram of a multi-display apparatus according to the present embodiment. In FIG. 17, three image display devices 510, 520, and 530 are shown as image display devices constituting the multi-display device. Here, three examples of image display devices are shown, but the number of image display devices can be set as an arbitrary number.

  The image display device 510 is a master image display device, and provides a synchronization signal to the other image display devices 520 and 530 as slave image display devices, as well as a control signal, that is, an image clipping start position (x1, y1), And image size (x2, y2) data, display start position (x3, y3), display image size (x4, y4) data, display control signals such as OSD (on-screen display), driver control signals, etc. Is also provided to other image display devices 520 and 530 as slave image display devices.

  These signals are transmitted and received between the image display devices via a signal transmission path such as an IIC bus (Inter-IC bus) 550, for example. The IIC bus (Inter-IC bus) is a data communication bus capable of bidirectional communication, random access, distributed control, and collision processing. It is a normal asynchronous serial transmission, start / stop bit system, and open collector drive. This is a two-wire serial bus having a collision processing function and the like and an acknowledgment (confirmation response) processing function for each basic transmission unit.

  Each image display device 510, 520, 530 has the same configuration as described above with reference to FIG. However, the image display device 510 set as the master display device generates a synchronization signal and a control signal in the system control signal generation means 513, and executes processing to be provided to itself and other image display devices 520 and 530. To do.

  The source image data is input to each image display device from an external image supply source via various communication means such as wireless or wired, and is stored in the memory of each image display device. The image data stored in the memory 411 is image data including image area data displayed by each image display device itself, for example, NTSC-decoded image data.

  The image display device 510 as a master stores the input image data in the memory 511, and the display area setting unit 512 described above with reference to FIG. 3 based on the control signal input to the control unit 513. The image cutout process is executed. Further, the N double density conversion processing unit 514 executes N double density conversion processing as expansion / contraction processing based on the control signal input from the system control signal generation unit 513.

  Further, the display image data generated by the N-fold density conversion processing is displayed in the display control processing unit 515, for example, a display control signal such as OSD (on-screen display) input from the system control signal generation unit 513, and Display control is performed based on the synchronization signal generated by the system control signal generation means 513, and is output to a CRT or the like.

  The slave image display devices 520 and 530 other than the master control signals, that is, image cutout start position (x1, y1), image size (x2, y2) data, display start position (x3, y3), and display image size. (X4, y4) data, display control signals such as OSD (on-screen display), driver control signals, etc. are received from the system control signal generation means 513 of the master image display device 510 via the bus 550, In addition, the synchronization signal is also received from the system control signal generation unit 513 of the master image display device 510 via the bus, and the input source image data is cut out based on the control signal and the synchronization signal, and the N-fold density conversion process is performed. To generate display image data, and display control is performed in the display control processing means. The image data is output to a display such as a CRT of the image display device.

  Next, a procedure of image display processing to which the multi-display device of this embodiment is applied will be described with reference to a flow. With reference to FIG. 18, the procedure of image display processing including processing for generating or updating the matrix table by inputting the arrangement configuration of the image display devices constituting the multi-display device to the master device will be described.

  In step S301, one master device is selected from the image display devices constituting the multi-display device and turned ON. In step S302, an initial setting screen is displayed on the master device display. In step S303, the user inputs the arrangement configuration of the image display apparatuses that constitute the multi-display apparatus to be subjected to image display via the input device of the master device.

  The master device receives the arrangement configuration information of the image display device via the input unit 516 (see FIG. 17), outputs the input information to the matrix table storage memory 517 via the system control signal generation means 513, and generates the system control signal. The means 513 generates or updates the matrix table based on the input information and stores it in the memory 517. In step S304, an identifier (ID) set corresponding to each image display device constituting the multi-display device and a link of the arrangement configuration of the image display device are set. This link setting process is a matrix table generation process. At this time, the ID information set in each image display device constituting the multi-display device is input and stored.

  The details of the process in step S304, that is, the link setting process and the matrix table generation process are the same as those described above with reference to the flow of FIG.

  When the link setting in step S304 is completed, next, in step S305, a control signal for each image display device is generated based on the generated matrix table. As described above, the control signal includes image cutout start position (x1, y1), image size (x2, y2) data, display start position (x3, y3), and display image size (x4, y4) data. And a display control signal such as an OSD (on-screen display), a driver control signal, and the like, and these signals generate the number of data corresponding to individual IDs of the image display devices constituting the multi-display device.

  In step S306, the generated control signal is output to the slave image display device constituting the multi-display device via the own device and the bus. In step S307, each image display apparatus receives the control signal, and in step S308, extracts corresponding control information based on the ID assigned to itself, cuts out image data, N-times dense conversion, and display control. To display each display data. The synchronization process is also executed based on a synchronization signal input from the master.

  The present invention has been described in detail above with reference to specific embodiments. However, it is obvious that those skilled in the art can make modifications and substitutions of the embodiments without departing from the gist of the present invention. In other words, the present invention has been disclosed in the form of exemplification, and should not be interpreted in a limited manner. In order to determine the gist of the present invention, the claims section described at the beginning should be considered.

  The series of processes described in the specification can be executed by hardware, software, or a combined configuration of both. When executing processing by software, the program recording the processing sequence is installed in a memory in a computer incorporated in dedicated hardware and executed, or the program is executed on a general-purpose computer capable of executing various processing. It can be installed and run.

  For example, the program can be recorded in advance on a hard disk or ROM (Read Only Memory) as a recording medium. Alternatively, the program is temporarily or permanently stored on a removable recording medium such as a flexible disk, a CD-ROM (Compact Disc Read Only Memory), an MO (Magneto Optical) disk, a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc), a magnetic disk, or a semiconductor memory. It can be stored (recorded). Such a removable recording medium can be provided as so-called package software.

  The program is installed on the computer from the removable recording medium as described above, or is wirelessly transferred from the download site to the computer, or is wired to the computer via a network such as a LAN (Local Area Network) or the Internet. However, the computer can receive the program transferred in this way and install it in a recording medium such as a built-in hard disk.

  Note that the various processes described in the specification are not only executed in time series according to the description, but may be executed in parallel or individually according to the processing capability of the apparatus that executes the processes or as necessary.

  As described above, according to the configuration of the embodiment of the present invention, the image including the image display area setting data and the display image enlargement / reduction processing data is displayed for each image display device constituting the multi-display device. A control signal for data processing is transmitted from the master device. The master device calculates a plurality of combinations of image data to be displayed on the image display device, sequentially generates control signals corresponding to the combinations of the image data, and transmits them to the individual image display devices. The image display device receives control signals from the master device and sequentially displays images based on control signals corresponding to a combination of a plurality of image data. With this configuration, various different images can be sequentially displayed using a number of image display devices.

It is a figure explaining the structure outline | summary of the multi-display apparatus of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the image display apparatus which comprises the multi-display apparatus of this invention. It is a figure explaining the image clipping process performed in the image display apparatus which comprises the multi-display apparatus of this invention. It is a figure explaining the aspect of the image cut-out process performed in the image display apparatus which comprises the multi-display apparatus of this invention. It is a figure explaining the aspect of the N double dense conversion process performed in the image display apparatus which comprises the multi-display apparatus of this invention. It is a figure explaining the display control process performed in the image display apparatus which comprises the multi-display apparatus of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the Example structure using the remote control as one Example of the multi-display apparatus of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the remote control structure in the Example using the remote control as one Example of the multi-display apparatus of this invention. It is a figure explaining the matrix table applied in the multi-display apparatus of this invention. It is a figure explaining the matrix table applied in the multi-display apparatus of this invention. It is a figure explaining the example of a matrix table display applied in the multi-display apparatus of this invention. It is a flowchart explaining the process sequence in the multi-display apparatus of this invention. It is a flowchart explaining the link production | generation process as a process sequence in the multi-display apparatus of this invention. It is a flowchart explaining the process sequence in the multi-display apparatus of this invention. It is a flowchart explaining the toggle process procedure in the multi-display apparatus of this invention. It is a figure explaining the example of a display process in the multi-display apparatus of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the Example structure using the master device as one Example of the multi-display apparatus of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the image display processing procedure of the Example using the master device as one Example of the multi-display apparatus of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Image display apparatus 102 Open box 111-115 Image display apparatus 121 Open box 131 Open box 141 Open box 210 Image display apparatus 211 Memory 212 Display area setting means 213 Control means 214 N double density conversion processing means 215 Display control processing means 251 Image Data 252 Image data 280 Image data 300 Remote control 301 Memory 302 Matrix table control unit 303 Command reception unit 304 Control signal generation unit 305 Communication unit 410, 420, 430 Image display device 411 Memory 412 Display area setting unit 413 Control unit 414 N double density Conversion processing means 415 Display control processing means 416 Light receiving unit 451 to 455 Image display device 510, 520, 530 Image display device 511 Memory 512 Display Frequency setting means 513 system control signal generating means 514 N times density conversion processing unit 515 display control processing unit 516 input unit 517 memory 550 bus

Claims (4)

A multi-display device combining a plurality of image display devices having a display capable of displaying images;
A master device for transmitting a control signal for image data processing including image display region setting data and display image enlargement / reduction processing data to the individual image display devices constituting the multi-display device;
The master device calculates a plurality of combinations of image data to be displayed on the image display device capable of presenting an input image, sequentially generates the control signals corresponding to the combinations of the image data, and each of the image display devices To
Each of the image display devices receives the control signal from the master device, and displays an image based on the control signal corresponding to a combination of a plurality of the image data.
A multi-display device.   2. The multi-display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the master device sequentially generates and transmits the control signals corresponding to the combinations of the image data until a selection input is made for the combination of the image data. An image display control method that is executed in a multi-display device in which a plurality of image display devices each having a display capable of displaying an image are combined,
A control signal transmission step in which the master device transmits a control signal for image data processing including image display area setting data and display image enlargement / reduction processing data to the individual image display devices constituting the multi-display device; Yes, the master device calculates a combination of a plurality of image data to be displayed on the image display device capable of presenting an input image, sequentially generates the control signal corresponding to each image data combination, A control signal transmitting step for transmitting to the display device;
An image display step in which each of the image display devices receives the control signal from the master device and displays an image based on the control signal corresponding to a combination of a plurality of the image data;
An image display control method characterized by comprising: A computer program for executing image display control in a multi-display device in which a plurality of image display devices each having a display capable of displaying images is combined,
A control signal transmission step of causing the master device to transmit a control signal for image data processing including image display area setting data and display image enlargement / reduction processing data to the individual image display devices constituting the multi-display device; Yes, the master device calculates a combination of a plurality of image data to be displayed on the image display device capable of presenting an input image, and sequentially generates the control signal corresponding to each combination of the image data. A control signal transmission step to be transmitted to the image display device;
An image display step of causing each of the image display devices to receive the control signal from a master device and displaying an image based on the control signal corresponding to a combination of a plurality of the image data;
A computer program for executing

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