JP2015087809A - Plotting device, method, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To quicken the plotting of a font/icon of a vector format.SOLUTION: When vector data should be plotted, a system control part (103) confirms whether or not corresponding raster data is temporarily stored in the work area of a RAM 101 by referring to a database. When there does not exist any work area, the system control part (103) registers the vector data to which plotting processing is performed by the plotting processing part (106) in the database, and allows the plotting processing part (106) to plot the vector data. The raster data to be obtained by the plotting of the plotting processing part (106) is written and displayed in a VRAM area for cache of the RAM (101), and also written in the work area for reuse. When the raster data is stored in the work area, the system control part (103) transfers the raster data to a VRAM area for cache from the work area.

Description

  The present invention relates to a drawing apparatus, method, and program, and more particularly to an apparatus, method, and program for drawing vector characters and icons.

  Conventionally, when vector data such as characters and icons is rendered based on the resource information, the representation format of the rendered object is a vector format or bitmap using the size based on the width information and the height information of the resource information. The format was decided.

  Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-228561 describes that the rendering object representation format is adaptively switched depending on the size and complexity of the resource. Specifically, when developing a scalable font, the size and complexity of the output font are compared with the preset maximum size and maximum complexity, respectively, and the comparison result is converted into a bitmap format or a rectangular format. Switch. For example, even when the output size exceeds the maximum size, if the complexity is smaller than the maximum complexity, the rectangular format is adopted. Thereby, a scalable font can be developed with a small memory capacity, and the processing efficiency can be improved while saving the memory capacity.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-1224029

  GUIs (graphical user interfaces) are also being adopted in digital cameras that use small displays. Since digital cameras handle color images and there is a demand for simple editing functions, various character expressions are expected. For example, improvement in the expressiveness of characters and icons, coloring by gradation, transparency with a background with adjusted transparency, drop shadows with shadows on characters, and animations linked to touch operations.

  In a small portable device such as a digital camera, the amount of memory that can be installed is limited, and it is necessary to handle vector data more efficiently.

  In the prior art, the processing is switched by evaluating the size and complexity of the resource, but it is difficult to judge the processing performance only from the resource information for the expressions listed here. Even if the complexity is low, drawing with multi-color gradations increases the processing load, and the smooth movement of the GUI is the top priority during animation operation, so it is fast regardless of the size and complexity of the resource A technique that can be used for drawing is desired.

  An object of the present invention is to present a drawing apparatus, method, and program that satisfy such a demand.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, a drawing apparatus according to the present invention draws vector data according to drawing parameters and outputs corresponding raster data, and determination means for determining a processing load of the drawing processing means. A storage means for temporarily storing the raster data output from the rendering processing means when the processing load exceeds a threshold; a database for managing vector data for temporarily storing raster data in the storage means; When the raster data corresponding to the vector data to be drawn is stored in the storage means by referring to the database according to the data drawing instruction, the raster data temporarily held in the storage means is reused. Control means for controlling the drawing processing means to draw the vector data to be drawn when not stored Characterized in that it has a.

  According to the present invention, since raster data that has already been developed is used when drawing a GUI expression with a high processing load, high-speed drawing can be realized and operation response can be improved.

1 is an external view of an imaging apparatus to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied. It is a schematic block diagram of one Example of this invention. It is a schematic diagram of raster format data. It is a schematic diagram of vector format data. It is an operation | movement flowchart of a present Example. It is an example of the drawing parameter in a present Example. It is a schematic diagram of the expression effect of a present Example. It is a block diagram of the database used in a present Example. It is operation | movement explanatory drawing of a present Example. It is another operation | movement flowchart of a present Example.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is an external view of an imaging apparatus to which an embodiment of a drawing apparatus according to the present invention is applied.

  The display unit 28 of the digital camera 100 is a display unit that displays images and various types of information, and includes a liquid crystal panel or the like. The shutter button 61 is an operation unit for issuing a shooting instruction. The mode dial 60 is an operation unit for switching various modes. The connector 112 is a connector that connects the connection cable 111 to the digital camera 100. The operation unit 70 is an operation unit including operation members such as various switches, buttons, and a touch panel for receiving various operations by a user or a photographer. The controller wheel 73 is a rotatable operation member included in the operation unit 70. Reference numeral 72 denotes a power switch that switches between power on and power off. The recording medium 200 is a recording medium such as a memory card or a hard disk. The recording medium slot 201 is a slot for storing the recording medium 200. The recording medium 200 stored in the recording medium slot 201 can communicate with the digital camera 100. A lid 202 is a lid of the recording medium slot 201.

  FIG. 2 shows a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of a drawing apparatus according to the present invention. The drawing apparatus 10 draws a GUI at the time of shooting in the digital camera 100 and draws a shooting setting menu.

  An internal bus 120 is connected to each unit of the drawing apparatus 10 and is used for data transmission / reception. A RAM 101 is used as a work area for the system control unit 103. The RAM 101 is used as a VRAM area for storing screen data to be displayed, a work area for expanding vector format data into raster data, and an area for caching (temporarily holding) rasterized data. A ROM 102 stores a control program used by the system control unit 103, various data, vector format font / icon data, and the like.

  The system control unit 103 controls each unit of the drawing apparatus 10. The system control unit 103 determines an item with a high processing load from items of drawing parameters described later. Reference numeral 104 denotes an external input IF, which is connected to the imaging unit 300 of the camera. The imaging unit 300 images a subject and outputs image data. Image data output from the imaging unit 300 is written to the RAM 101 via the external input IF 104 and the bus 120.

  A display processing unit 105 outputs the screen data held in the VRAM area of the RAM 101 to a display unit such as a liquid crystal panel in a predetermined format for display.

  Reference numeral 106 denotes a drawing processing unit. The drawing processing unit 106 reads font / icon data or the like held in the ROM 102 according to an instruction from the system control unit 103 and draws it in the VRAM area of the RAM 101. The system control unit 103 sets various parameters necessary for the drawing processing in the drawing processing unit 106. The drawing processing unit 106 performs coordinate conversion such as drawing position on the screen, scaling, and rotation based on the resource data input from the ROM 102 based on the set drawing parameters. The drawing processing unit 106 can also change the drawing expression such as coloring the inside of the font / icon and the outline based on the color parameter.

  Reference numeral 107 denotes a user interface to which an operation member such as a button of the operation unit 70 and a touch panel are connected. A user operation on the operation unit 70 is input to the system control unit 103 via the user interface 107.

  The format of font / icon data processed in this embodiment will be described. There are two data formats, a raster (bitmap) format shown in FIG. 3 and a vector format shown in FIG. The drawing apparatus 10 can handle both the raster format and the vector format.

  FIG. 3 shows an example of representation of raster format data for the alphabet “I”. The raster format is composed of a collection of pixels arranged in a grid, and the value of each pixel indicates the color intensity. On the other hand, FIG. 4 shows an example of an expression format of vector format data for the alphabet “I”. As shown in FIG. 4A, the vector format includes coordinate values of vertices that define a shape and connection line information that connects the vertices. FIG. 4B shows the position of the vertex on the raster. As shown in FIG. 4B, the vector data indicating the alphabet “I” includes twelve coordinate values corresponding to the vertex coordinates of the black circle, end point information indicating the start point, end point information indicating the end point, and It consists of 12 pieces of connection line information connecting the vertices.

  A characteristic operation of the drawing apparatus 10 will be described. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the drawing operation of the drawing apparatus 10.

  In the drawing apparatus 10, the system control unit 103 sets predetermined drawing parameters in the drawing processing unit 106 in advance when drawing a vector font / icon held in the ROM 102. Among the main drawing parameters to be set, those having a high drawing processing load are shown in FIG. FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing the expression effect by each drawing parameter.

  In step S501, the system control unit 103 issues a vector data drawing instruction. At this time, if the drawing parameter is one of the items shown in FIG. 6, the system control unit 103 temporarily stores the font / icon identifier for identifying the font / icon to be drawn and the drawing parameter in the work area of the RAM 101. Hold. The font / icon identifier is used to specify a font / icon to be drawn. In this embodiment, an address for storing a font / icon in the ROM 102 is used as a font / icon identifier.

  FIG. 8 shows an example of the configuration and contents of a database 800 that manages font / icon identifiers, drawing parameters, and cache area information. As registration conditions for the database 800, it is assumed that the drawing parameters shown in FIG. 6 specify that the gradation is a fill, transparency is other than 100%, and that there are filter effects such as blurring and drop shadow. In the database 800 shown in FIG. 8, data that satisfies the above conditions are registered together with detailed parameters in the form of identifiers and sets.

  In step S502, the system control unit 103 searches the database 800 for data stored in the work area of the RAM 101 in step S501.

  In step S <b> 503, the system control unit 103 determines the presence / absence of data with matching identifiers and drawing parameters as a search result of the database 800. If there is no matching data (S503), the system control unit 103 proceeds to S504.

  In step S <b> 504, the system control unit 103 generates new registration data based on the data held in the work area of the RAM 101 and adds it to the database 800.

  In step S <b> 505, the system control unit 103 rasterizes the drawing target font / icon registered in the database 800 by the drawing processing unit 106 according to the following procedure and draws it in the VRAM.

  First, the system control unit 103 reserves an area having a capacity corresponding to the width and height calculated from the coordinate conversion coefficient as a cache VRAM area in the cache area of the RAM 101. Next, the system control unit 103 sets the address and size of the font / icon data to be drawn on the ROM 102 as drawing resources for the drawing processing unit 106, and uses the secured cache VRAM area as the drawing destination VRAM. Set. Further, the system control unit 103 sets all parameters necessary for the drawing process in a predetermined register, and then issues a vector data drawing instruction to the drawing processing unit 106.

  The rendering processing unit 106 refers to the parameters set in the register and the vector data in the ROM 102, rasterizes the font / icon data, and writes the obtained raster data in the cache VRAM area. Thereby, the raster data is cached or temporarily held for reuse. At the time of rasterization, the rendering processing unit 106 develops and rasterizes the vector data in a predetermined color by applying gradation according to the set parameters. A known technique can be used for the rasterizing process, and detailed description thereof is omitted.

  The system control unit 103 holds the address and size information of the cache VRAM area in the database 800.

  In step S506, the system control unit 103 transfers the font / icon rasterized to the cache VRAM area to the screen data VRAM area.

  The processing up to this point is for drawing the icon / font to be cached for the first time. Next, the operation for drawing the cached icon / font will be described.

  When the system control unit 103 issues a drawing instruction such as an icon, the system control unit 103 searches the database 800 in step S503 to determine whether the identifiers match. When the identifiers match, the system control unit 103 determines whether the parameter of the corresponding data matches the parameter of the current drawing instruction. When the contents of the identifier and the parameter match (S503), the system control unit 103 reuses the rasterized cache data (S506). Specifically, the system control unit 103 refers to the address and size held in the cache information of the database 800 and transfers the raster data cache data to the screen data VRAM of the RAM 101. This completes drawing.

  However, even if the icon has the same identifier in S503, if the parameter stored in the database does not match the instructed parameter, the system control unit 103 updates the parameter information in the database in S504. The system control unit 103 performs rasterization again with the parameters instructed to the cache VRAM in S505, and transfers them to the VRAM area for screen data in S506.

  Further, when items other than the parameters held in the database 800 such as the drawing position and size on the screen are updated, the system control unit 103 proceeds from S503 to S506 without updating the cache data. . Then, when transferring the cache data from the cache area to the VRAM area for screen data, the system control unit 103 changes the updated items such as the position and size.

  The data path will be described with reference to FIG. First, FIG. 9A shows a schematic diagram of vector data stored in a ROM of a font to be drawn. When the rendering processing unit 106 rasterizes the vector data in the cache VRAM in S505 in response to the rendering instruction, rasterized data is generated as shown in FIG. 9B. In step S506, the system control unit 103 changes the position and size, and transfers the raster data to the screen data VRAM as illustrated in FIG. 9C. The VRAM raster data for screen data is displayed on the display unit 28 by the display processing unit 105.

  As described above, re-rendering can be executed at high speed by reusing raster data held in the cache area for vector fonts / icons that apply parameters that have a high rendering load and affect response degradation.

  The drawing speed at the time of drawing vector data (font or icon) may be measured, and the use of the raster data cache may be controlled according to the measurement result. FIG. 10 shows a flowchart of the operation thus changed.

  In step S <b> 1001, the system control unit 103 issues a drawing instruction to the drawing processing unit 106. Similar to step S501, when the drawing parameter is one of the items shown in FIG. 6, the system control unit 103 temporarily stores the font / icon identifier for identifying the font / icon to be drawn and the drawing parameter in the RAM 101. Hold in work area.

  In step S1002, the system control unit 103 searches the database 800 for data stored in the work area of the RAM 101 in step S1001, as in step S502.

  In step S <b> 1003, the system control unit 103 determines the presence / absence of data with matching identifiers and drawing parameters as a search result of the database 800. If there is no matching data (S1003), the system control unit 103 proceeds to S1004.

  In step S <b> 1004, the system control unit 103 generates new registration data based on the data held in the work area of the RAM 101 and adds it to the database 800.

  In step S1005, the system control unit 103 rasterizes the drawing target font / icon registered in the database 800 by the drawing processing unit 106 in the same manner as in step S505 and draws it in the VRAM. At this time, the system control unit 103 measures the time from the drawing start of the drawing processing unit 106 to the end of drawing in the cache VRAM area. This measurement is realized by counting clock signals.

  In step S1006, the system control unit 103 compares the measured drawing time with a threshold, and determines that the drawing load is high if the drawing time exceeds the threshold. When determining that the drawing load is high, the system control unit 103 adds the address and size information of the cache VRAM area of the data newly registered in S1004 to the database 800. When the value is equal to or smaller than the threshold value, the system control unit 103 clears the corresponding identifier and parameter from the database 800.

  If the identifier already exists in the database 800 in S1003 and the parameter also matches the registered data in the database 800, the system control unit 103 transfers the cached raster data to the VRAM area for screen data. As a result, the processing load for developing vector data into raster data can be reduced.

  The rendering load of vector data depends on the system. In the present embodiment, the drawing speed is measured, and it is determined whether or not to cache based on the actually measured result, thereby enabling drawing at a stable speed regardless of the system.

  Drawing may be performed by reusing cached data based on mode information at the time of screen drawing in addition to drawing parameters. The mode information is an animation operation mode or a scroll operation mode. In these modes, redrawing is repeated while updating the positions of drawing items such as icons / fonts at predetermined intervals. Since the operation requires smooth drawing update, it is necessary to suppress a reduction in drawing speed depending on drawing parameters.

  When detecting that the operation mode is an animation operation or a scroll operation, the system control unit 103 reuses raster data rasterized by the cache VRAM for all icons / fonts regardless of the drawing parameters.

  It is preferable that the system control unit 103 prohibits the change of the drawing parameter during the animation operation or the scroll operation.

  As described above, in the predetermined operation mode, the cached raster data is reused to be drawn, so that the icon / font can be smoothly drawn at a constant speed without depending on the drawing parameter. .

  Part or all of the above-described functions of the drawing apparatus 10 can also be realized by a program operating on the system control unit 103. That is, the present embodiment can also be realized by a CPU that operates the program of the digital camera 100 or a program that operates on an arithmetic device.

Claims (6)

Drawing processing means for drawing vector data according to drawing parameters and outputting corresponding raster data;
Determining means for determining a processing load of the drawing processing means;
Storage means for temporarily storing the raster data output from the drawing processing means when the processing load exceeds a threshold;
A database for managing vector data for temporarily storing raster data in the storage means;
When the raster data corresponding to the vector data to be drawn is stored in the storage means by referring to the database according to the vector data drawing instruction, the raster data temporarily stored in the storage means is reused And a control unit that controls the drawing processing unit to draw the vector data to be drawn when not stored.   The drawing according to claim 1, wherein the determination unit determines a processing load of the drawing processing unit based on whether the drawing parameter indicates any one of gradation painting, transparency, and filter effect. apparatus.   The drawing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determination unit includes a unit that measures a time required for drawing by the drawing processing unit, and determines a processing load of the drawing processing unit according to the time. . Furthermore, it has means for determining the drawing operation mode,
When the operation mode is an animation operation or a scroll operation and the corresponding raster data is temporarily stored in the storage unit, the control unit reuses the raster data temporarily stored in the storage unit The drawing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein A drawing processing step of drawing vector data according to drawing parameters and outputting corresponding raster data;
A determination step of determining whether a processing load of the drawing processing step exceeds a threshold;
A storage step of temporarily storing in the storage means the raster data generated in the drawing processing step when the processing load exceeds the threshold;
Registering vector data temporarily storing raster data in the storage means in a database;
When the raster data corresponding to the vector data to be drawn is stored in the storage means by referring to the database according to the vector data drawing instruction, the raster data temporarily stored in the storage means is reused And a control step of controlling to draw the vector data to be drawn in the drawing processing step when not stored.   A program for causing a computing unit of an imaging apparatus to execute the drawing method according to claim 5.

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