JP2894232B2 - Character information superimposition device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image information apparatus such as a TV receiver, a VTR recording / reproducing apparatus, an electronic file apparatus, a personal computer, etc., which superimposes character information on image information for display. And a device for superimposing and superimposing a data code corresponding to display character information on a pixel of image information.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIGS. 6 to 8 are schematic diagrams of a conventional character information superimposing apparatus. This character information superimposing device is shown in FIG.
As shown in the figure, the image memory 20a is stored in the image information device 20.
And a memory such as a data memory 20b. Image information obtained from the VTR camera 22 or the TV receiver 23 via the input / output device 20d is converted into data by the video digitizer 21, read, and stored in the image memory 20a. . It also has an image processing unit 20c for reading out character information and text information stored in advance in the data memory 20b, developing them into character dots, and synthesizing them with the pixels of the image, via the display control unit 8a. The image memory 20 is displayed on the display 8.
The images and characters stored in a are displayed. FIG.
Shows a display example in which a character 7c is superimposed on an image 7a. In this case, the image input method is the input / output device 20d.
May be connected to an image information device such as a CD-ROM or an electronic file.

Further, as shown in FIG. 8, an apparatus for superimposing character information by an electric circuit method has been proposed. That is, while the character information or text information created in advance is stored in the character information medium 24, a VTR camera or T
The image information is input to an image information input unit 2 connected to a V receiver or the like. The horizontal / vertical synchronization unit 1 synchronizes the image information of the image information input unit 24 with the horizontal / vertical synchronization unit 1. I do. A character information detecting unit 25 for detecting character data of character information or text information from the character information medium 24; a character dot generating unit 6 for converting character data into a character dot configuration; 7 from the image information input unit 2 based on the synchronization signal of
It has an image character synthesizing section 3 for superimposing a character dot 7c on a, and outputs the image and the character synthesized here to a display 8 to superimpose and display the image 7a and the character 7c.

Here, the character information medium 24 is often the same as the medium on which image information is recorded or transmitted, and in a VTR, it is recorded on a part of a video tape by a recording means different from the image. Or, in a TV broadcast, it is inserted into a gap between image information frames and transmitted as a text broadcast. The function of the image character synthesizing unit 3 is considered to be similar to the method shown in FIG. 6 described above, by replacing the function of the horizontal and vertical synchronizing unit 1 with the horizontal and vertical coordinates of the display pixels.

As an on-screen display device (not shown), there is a device that superimposes character information such as a specific operation display on an image in advance. In this case, as shown in FIG. Information input unit 2 and image character synthesizing unit 3
Is achieved by the character dot generating unit 6.

[0006]

In such a conventional character information superimposing device, an image and a character can be viewed by superimposing and displaying the character on the image. However, the character information and the image information are integrated. When this character and image are recorded on other media, the character information is lost as information and becomes part of the image, and the character is still inserted in the recorded secondary image. Characters cannot be deleted.

Further, when a text broadcast is additionally transmitted to a TV broadcast, when a TV image is received and recorded on a VTR,
Since teletext information is not recorded, the text information is superimposed on the TV image to superimpose the text, and is recorded. In this case as well, the character information and the video information cannot be separately operated and viewed. Therefore, the characters cannot be removed even if the characters are applied to the image and the image is difficult to see.

Further, in the information equipment, both the image and the character information are converted into data, and when these are unified, the image and the character information can be separately operated and displayed. However, in the case of a moving picture such as a TV, which has a very large amount of information, it is not suitable for converting a moving picture image into data, and is not suitable for recording on a VTR which is another medium. . Therefore,
As in the case described above, there is a problem that the character information and the video information cannot be separately operated and viewed.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a character information superimposing apparatus which enables character information to be added to image information to be handled integrally with image information, and which enables individual operation of images and characters. provide.

[0010]

The character information superimposing device of the present invention comprises a character information reproducing device and a character information dot recording device , and is an analog device for inputting image information of an image information device such as a television, a VTR or an electronic file. System or digital image input unit, horizontal / vertical synchronization unit that performs image coordinate detection or horizontal / vertical synchronization, character information dot reading unit that reads character information dots placed at specific positions in the image, and character information dots A character data conversion and display control unit for converting character data including character information and a display control command according to the coordinate detection unit or the horizontal / vertical synchronization according to a display control command or a character information which forms a part of the character data A character dot generator for determining a position of a pixel indicated by a portion and generating a character dot font for forming a character on a display image; An image character synthesizing section for displaying characters character dot combining the image and the character information to be superimposed on the image
To create report and display control instructions as character data
The information text creation unit and the created character information text
It has a character information dot conversion unit for converting to character information dots.
Character information creating device, and an image indicated by the horizontal / vertical synchronization unit.
Determine the position of the element and place the character information
Image and character combining unit that combines images and characters in display information
And a display for superimposing and displaying the information dots .

[0011]

In the character information superimposing apparatus of the present invention, the character information reproducing apparatus converts character information dots into character information when a command for displaying only an image is set by the character information creation function of the character information dot recording apparatus. There is a character information dot erasing unit that masks the character information dots with the color signal of the image information in the vicinity without using the character information dots.

The character information dot is divided into a binary signal or a plurality of levels of the RGB signal or the YC signal, and a binary code or a hex code of the character data is associated with each combination. The character information is reproduced as character data by the character information reproducing device.

Further, the character information dot recording device has a function of adding a calibration dot as a part of the character information dot, and the character information reproduction device has a function of adding the character information dot based on the luminance or color signal level of the calibration dot. And a character information dot readout unit data conversion display control unit for judging and coding the level of the luminance or color signal.

[0015]

In the character information reproducing apparatus according to the present invention, the character information dots are detected by the horizontal / vertical synchronization unit in place of some pixels placed at a specific position of the input display image, and the RGB signal is read by the character information dot reading unit. Alternatively, the level of the YC signal is read and determined and coded, and the character data conversion display control unit associates a binary code or a hex code capable of digital signal processing according to the level and sets character data composed of character information and display control instructions. Read.

As shown in FIG. 9, when character data dots are set to 2 at 30 frames / second as shown in FIG.
Although 0 dots / second can be added, the number of human readable characters is approximately 10 characters / second in Japanese, which is 80 bits / second in terms of data amount. Therefore, RGB
In the case of (1), if two levels are detected for one pixel or one dot, information corresponding to 90 bits / second can be added. This can be converted into ASCII or JIS code to obtain character data. If the number of character information dots is set to three or more, or the value of RGB is divided into three or more levels and detected, the amount of information can be expanded.

The character information dots are converted by a character generator according to the character data into a character dot configuration, and the character information dots are converted by a character dot generator which outputs dots in synchronization with the horizontal / vertical synchronization unit and an image character synthesis unit which synthesizes the input image. It can be reproduced and displayed as characters.

By adding character data and a display control command constituting a part of the character data to the character information dot, the character display is turned on / off, scrolled, and partly turned on / off.
Functions such as F, display color setting, border setting, display position setting, display digit number line number setting, display mask setting, display blink setting, and display character size setting are obtained.

On the other hand, in the character information dot recording apparatus according to the present invention, the character information and the display control are superimposed on the image by the character information text creating section provided as software in the character information creating apparatus using information equipment such as a personal computer. An instruction is created as character data, and this is converted into character information dots corresponding to the level of the RGB signal or YC signal by a character information dot conversion unit, and an image input unit, an image coordinate detection unit or a horizontal / vertical synchronization unit, The position of the pixel indicated by the coordinate detecting unit or the horizontal / vertical synchronizing unit is determined by the image character synthesizing unit, and the character information dot is synthesized at a specific position of the image. The structure of the character information dots must correspond to the character information reproducing apparatus described above.

When the character information dot erasing section of the character information reproducing apparatus sets an instruction to display only an image possessed by the character information creating function of the character information dot recording apparatus, the character information reproducing apparatus deletes the character information dots. The image information is output and displayed without the character information dot by not converting the character information into the character information and masking the character information dot with the color signal of the image information in the vicinity.

Further, the calibration dots are arranged as a part of the character information dots, and the level of each signal of the character information dots is determined based on the luminance and color signal levels of the dots, and the character information dots are coded, Convert to data.

[0022]

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The character information superimposing device of the present invention includes the character information reproducing device shown in FIG. 1 and the character information dot recording device shown in FIG. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a character information reproducing apparatus. This apparatus includes an analog or digital image input unit 2 for inputting image information 7 of an image information device such as a television, a VTR, or an electronic file; A horizontal / vertical synchronization unit 1 for detecting a position corresponding to the coordinates of an image pixel; and a character information dot 7b placed at a specific position in the image
Character information dot reading section 4 for converting the signal level of RGB into analog / digital and judging and reading the level, and a character data conversion display control section for converting character data including character information and a display control command according to character information dot 7b 5 and a character dot for generating a character dot font for forming a character on a display image by determining the position of a pixel indicated by the horizontal / vertical synchronization unit 1 according to a display control command or character information constituting a part of character data. It comprises a generator 6, an image / character synthesizing unit 3 for synthesizing the display image information 7 and character dots, and a display 8 for displaying images 7a and characters 7c.

Further, a character information dot erasing section 9 is provided. When a command for displaying only the image 7a set by the character information creation function of the character information dot recording device is detected, the character information dot erasing section 9 is provided. The character information dot 7b is masked with the color signal of the image information 7a in the vicinity without making the displayed character composite with the image 7a, and the character information dot 7b is made invisible. With this function, the fidelity of the image information 7a to the original image is maintained. Needless to say, the character information dots 7b in the present method are sufficiently small with respect to the image 7a even if they are viewed as they are in a receiver without this function, but if they are arranged at the corners of the screen of the display 8, some dots such as bright spots can be seen It hardly affects the image 7a.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the character information dot recording apparatus. This device includes an image information input unit 2, a horizontal / vertical synchronization unit 1, and an image character synthesizing unit 3 similar to those described above, and generates character information and a display control command to be superimposed on the image 7a as character data. A character information creating device 10 having an information text creating unit 10a and a character information dot converting unit 10b for converting the information text into a character information dot 7b; The position of the pixel indicated by the vertical synchronizing unit 1 is determined, and the character information dot 7b is superimposed and synthesized, and the character information is recorded in the display information 7 as a part of the pixel of the image 7a. The character information creating device 10 is an information device represented by a personal computer, and its function is provided as software.
The horizontal / vertical synchronizing unit 1, image information input unit 2, image character synthesizing unit 3, and character dot generating unit 6 have the same configuration as a general on-screen display device.

Next, an example of the character information dot is shown in FIG.
This will be described with reference to FIG. These figures are code tables showing the structure of character data according to the present invention. FIG. 3 shows an example of a display control command forming a part of the character data. FIG. 4 shows a code forming a character information dot and a character code. This shows an example of correspondence with. FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing the relationship between the image information and the character information described above.
Although it was assumed that expressing the B signal in two levels was sufficient for displaying character information, in order to further enhance the display function, 3 levels were used.
An example treated at the level is shown.

Normally, an image is represented by a matrix of pixels expressing colors, and a TV or VTR is composed of about 320 in width and about 240 in height, and an information device is composed of about 640 in width and 480 in height. It is expressed by the level of each color component of the three primary colors, or is intermediately expressed by a luminance level and a color signal as a YC signal in TV and VTR. The character information dots 7b may be inserted into the image information by any signal. FIG. 4 shows that RGB signals are made into three levels, and 27 levels can be expressed by one dot by a combination of each level, each of which corresponds to a binary code or a hex code and has two dots.

At the time of recording, the code of this format created by the character information creating device 10 is made to correspond to three levels of RGB, and if the image input is analog, each level is converted from digital to analog and superimposed on a specific pixel of the image 7a. At the time of reproduction, a specific pixel is read and RGB signal levels are converted from analog to digital to determine three levels.

In the present embodiment, code numbers 1 to 16 are assigned to hexadecimal codes so as to be compatible with ASCII or JIS character codes, and code numbers 17 to 27 are assigned to display control commands for controlling display. ON
/ OFF, scrolling, partial ON / OFF, display color setting, border setting, display position setting, display digit number line number setting, display mask setting, display blink setting, display character size setting, etc. are obtained.

By applying these functions, character information dots corresponding to Japanese subtitles can be added to images with foreign language audio,
At the same time, add character information dots equivalent to English subtitles,
Depending on the user's selection, one of the displays, simultaneous display, both display OFF, etc. can be performed. If the video is used for education and quizzes, explanations, questions and answers, annotations are added as character information dots, and various selections are made by the user. It is possible to provide works that can be viewed.

Next, in this embodiment, the calibration shown as the display control command in FIG. 3 will be described. 5A and 5B are explanatory diagrams of the calibration dot of the present invention. FIG. 5A shows a character information dot and a calibration dot, and FIG. 5B shows another example of the calibration dot. In this embodiment, as the display control command,
When a command requesting the calibration function is set in the character information creating device 10, the calibration dots 7d in which the RGB color signals are set to values corresponding to level 1 or 3, respectively, are added.

The character information dot reading section 4 of the character information reproducing apparatus reads the added calibration dots 7d in order to achieve the calibration function in accordance with the command, reads the respective levels of the RGB signals, and sets the reference value for determination. Calibrate. The method shown in FIG. 5B is a method in which the calibration dots 7d are added in the vicinity of the character information dots 7b expressing the character data irrespective of the display control command, and the reference value is calibrated for each frame of the image. Therefore, characters can be reproduced from character information dots stably and surely by appropriately coping with color misregistration of images.

In this embodiment, the preservation of character information dots for media having different numbers of scanning lines can be easily dealt with by setting one dot with a plurality of pixels.

Also, instead of inserting character information dots at specific positions for each screen, they are inserted once for several screens,
Further, the insertion position may be shifted every time, and in this case, the character information can be inserted with less influence on the image. According to this method, character information can be added to an electronic still image without damaging the image and without a medium for adding character information. Characters can be displayed at any position in the image.

[0034]

As described above, according to the present invention, since character information is inserted into an image as character information dots, the image and the character information can be handled in a unified manner and even if the image is recorded on another medium. Provided is a character information superimposing device capable of separately operating an image and character display if the data formats of the character information dot recording device and the character information reproducing device match. Also,
When characters are directly superimposed on the image, the characters may make it difficult to see the image. However, in the present invention, only character information dots are added, so that the positions and sizes of the corners of the image have practically no effect. It can be set, and character information can be added while maintaining the quality of the image.

Further, since the character information dot erasing section is provided, the influence of the character information dots on the image is reduced when only the image is viewed.

Further, since the calibration dots are added, it is possible to prevent the character information dots from being deteriorated due to noise and signal deterioration of the image information receiving / transmitting / recording / reproducing apparatus and from being unreproducible as character data, thereby ensuring stable data. Characters can be displayed and played back.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a character information reproducing device of a character information superimposing device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a character information dot recording device of the character information superimposing device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a code diagram showing a configuration of character data according to the present invention, and is a diagram showing an example of a display control command constituting a part of the character data.

FIG. 4 is a code diagram similar to FIG. 3, showing an example of correspondence between character information dots and codes constituting character codes.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a calibration dot according to the present invention, in which (a) character information dots and calibration dots are shown, and (b) another example of the calibration dots.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a character information superimposing device in an information device of a conventional character information superimposing device.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a display example in which characters are superimposed on an image in the apparatus in FIG. 6;

8 is a diagram showing an example of a character information superimposing device by an electric circuit method in the device of FIG. 6;

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing a relationship between image information and character information.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Horizontal / vertical synchronization part 2 Image information input part 3 Image character synthesizing part 4 Character information dot reading part 5 Character data conversion display control part 6 Character dot generation part 7 Display information 7a Image information 7b Character information dot 7c Character 7d Calibration dot 8 Display 8a Display control unit 9 Character information dot erasing unit 10 Character information creation device 10a Character information text creation unit 10b Character information dot conversion unit 11 Character information dot generation unit 20 Information equipment 20a Image memory 20b Data memory 20c Image processing unit 20d Input / output device 21 Video digitizer 22 VTR camera 23 TV receiver 24 Text information media 25 Text information detection unit

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] An image input unit to which at least image information is input, and a horizontal / vertical synchronization for detecting a coordinate or a horizontal / vertical synchronization of the input image. Unit, a character information dot reading unit that reads character information dots placed at a specific position in an image, and character data conversion display control that converts the read character information dots into character data containing character information and display control instructions And a character dot generation unit that determines a position of a pixel indicated by the horizontal / vertical synchronization unit according to a display control command or character information constituting a part of character data, and generates a character dot font for forming a character on a display image. An image character synthesizing unit for synthesizing the image information and character dots and displaying characters on the image; and character information and a display control command to be superimposed on the image.
A character information text creating section for creating character data; and
Convert created character information text to character information dots
Character information creating apparatus having a character information dot conversion unit
And the position of the pixel indicated by the horizontal / vertical synchronization unit is determined and displayed.
Image characters that combine character information dots at specific positions in the image
The superimposing unit superimposes the image and the character information dot on the display information
A character information superimposing device comprising a display for displaying . 2. The character information reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when a command for displaying only an image is set by a character information creation function of the character information dot recording device, the character information dot is converted into character information in accordance with the control command. 2. The character information superimposing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a character information dot erasing unit that masks character information dots with color signals of image information in the vicinity of the character information dots. 3. The character information dot recording device according to claim 1, further comprising a character information dot conversion unit which divides the RGB signal into binary or plural levels as character information dots and associates each combination with a binary code or a hex code of character data. has, claims character information reproducing apparatus having a character data converting display control unit to read the determined binary code or hex code each binary or more levels from the level of the RGB signal character information dot as character data in correspondence 1 Or the character information superimposing device according to 2. 4. A character information dot recording apparatus has a character information dot conversion unit which divides a YC signal into binary or plural levels as character information dots and associates each combination with a binary code or hex code of character data. The character information reproducing apparatus uses the character information dot YC
The character information superimposing device according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising a character data conversion display control unit that determines a binary or a plurality of levels from signal levels, associates a binary code or a hex code, and reads the character data as character data. 5. The character information creating device has a function of adding a calibration dot as a part of the character information dot, and the character information reproducing device has a function of adding the character information dot based on the luminance or color signal level of the calibration dot. It of claims 2 having the character information dot reading unit having a function of determining encoding level of the luminance or chrominance signal 4
The character information superimposing device according to any one of the above .