JP3701557B2 - Image display control method and apparatus, and computer-readable recording medium - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an image display control method and apparatus used for image display such as dissolve display for gradually shifting an image from a start point image to an end point image, and a computer-readable recording medium.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Conventionally, so-called dissolve display in which an image is gradually shifted from a start point image to an end point image has been performed as shown in FIG. First, the image data of the start point image 1200 and the end point image 1600 is stored in a predetermined memory. Next, the gradation of the start point image 1200 is gradually lowered, while the gradation of the end point image 1600 is gradually increased to combine both, and a plurality of progress images 1400a to 1400i are sequentially generated. Then, the generated progress images are sent to a display device (D / A converter or the like) (not shown), and are sequentially displayed between the start point image 1200 and the end point image 1600. Here, the gradation in the figure is the gradation at the time of original image display, and is normally determined by the performance of the image display device (image processing circuit) (in this example, 10 gradations).
[0003]
By the way, in order to perform dissolve display smoothly, it is necessary to display each progress image at a high gradation, that is, to display a large number of progress images having different gradations. For example, it is said that if a progress image having 16 gradations (16) or more per second is displayed, it will appear smooth to the human eye.
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in the case of the above-described prior art, it is necessary to increase the gradation of the original image in order to increase the gradation (display number) of the progress image. For example, in FIG. 11, the number of gradations of the original image is 10, and the progress image is obtained by combining the gradation numbers of the start point image and the end point image between 1 and 9, and combining them. The value obtained by adding the gradations of the start point image and the end point image is equal to the number of gradations of the original image. Therefore, it is not possible to generate a progress image of nine (number of gradations-1) or more unless the gradation of the original image is increased.
[0005]
For example, when the relationship between the number of elapsed images per time and the display time is shown in FIG. 12, in order to make the dissolve display smoothly, it is necessary to display the elapsed images of 16 gradations (16) or more per second. Therefore, it is necessary to set the “design limit” to 16 sheets / second. In order to ensure this, it is necessary to increase the number of progress images or increase the number of gradations. In particular, in order to obtain the number of images exceeding the design limit when the display time is long, it is necessary to increase the number of gradations of the original image.
[0006]
However, in order to increase the number of gradations of the original image, it is necessary to increase the mounting scale of the image processing circuit (digital circuit). In that case, the entire circuit portion of the image processing becomes large and the cost also increases. Inconvenience occurs. Further, when the size of the image processing circuit is limited, if the size of the digital circuit is increased in order to increase the number of gradations, there is a problem that the size of the image data storage memory is sacrificed accordingly. .
[0007]
The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and generates a progress image based on an intermediate image obtained by synthesizing a start point image and an end point image, so that a dissolve can be achieved without increasing the number of gradations of the original image. An object of the present invention is to provide an image display control method and apparatus capable of increasing the gradation of image display such as display.
[0008]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above-described object, the image display control method of the present invention displays a plurality of progress images between a start point image and an end point image, and gradually shifts the image from the start point image to the end point image. Used to generate the one or more intermediate images by synthesizing the start point image and the end point image at a predetermined ratio, and in order from the intermediate image having a high combination ratio of the start point images, the start point image is sequentially arranged. A step of generating the plurality of progress images by synthesizing two adjacent images when the end point image is arranged after the last intermediate image.
[0009]
The image display control method of the present invention, in the step of generating the lapse image, the image data Pm of two adjacent images, with respect to Pm + 1, P [m, m + 1, n] = (1- (n / S)) * Pm + (n / S) * Pm + 1 (where S is the number of gradations in image display, m is an integer from 0 to the number t of intermediate images, P0 is the image data of the start image, and Pt + 1 is the end point. Image data of a progress image represented by image data of an image, n: an integer from 1 to (S-1)) is generated.
[0010]
It is preferable to include a step of displaying the progress images in order from a progress image having a high composition ratio of the start point image.
[0011]
The image display control apparatus according to the present invention uses the intermediate image generating means for generating the intermediate image and the progress image generating means for generating the plurality of progress images by combining the two adjacent images. It is characterized by comprising.
[0012]
Further, the image display control apparatus of the present invention, the elapsed image generating means wherein the image data Pm, to Pm + 1, P [m, m + 1, n] = (1- (n / S)) * Pm + (n / S) * Image data of a progress image represented by Pm + 1 is generated.
[0013]
It is preferable to have display means for displaying the progress images in order from the progress images having the highest composition ratio of the start point images.
The image processing apparatus further includes storage means for storing image data of the start point image, the intermediate image, and the end point image, the storage means has a bank memory system, and the image data of the two adjacent images is stored in separate banks. Preferably, the progress image generation means stores the image data by reading the image data from each bank.
[0014]
The computer-readable recording medium of the present invention is characterized by recording a program for causing a computer to execute the image display control method.
[0015]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an image display control apparatus 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention. A secondary storage memory unit 2 stores a plurality of original image data (including a start point image and an end point image). A primary storage memory unit 4 that stores data at a predetermined address, a control unit 6, and a display unit (D / A converter or the like) 8 that displays an image are configured. The primary storage memory unit 4 is a two-bank memory, and includes a first bank 4a and a second bank 4b. The control unit 6 includes a synthesis calculation unit 6a that generates an intermediate image and a progress image, and a basic control unit 6b that performs various controls. The image display in the present invention includes a dissolve display in which the start point image is gradually switched to the end point image, a fade-in display in which the mono color (single color) start point image is switched to the natural end point image, and the natural color start point image to the mono point image. A fade-out display that switches to a color (single color) end-point image is given. The dissolve display will be described below, but the present invention can be similarly applied to fade-in display and fade-out display.
[0016]
First, an intermediate image generation method in the image display control of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The intermediate image is used when generating a progress image, which will be described in detail later. In this figure, the start point image 12 and the end point image 16 are synthesized at a predetermined ratio to generate intermediate images (14a to 14d, 14 '). The intermediate image is obtained by appropriately combining images obtained by increasing or decreasing the number of gradations of the start point image and the end point image according to the number of gradations of the original image. A value obtained by adding the gradations of the start point image and the end point image is set to be equal to the number of gradations of the original image. The image composition is calculated by multiplying each color (RGB) of the image data by a count for increasing / decreasing the number of gradations and adding the corresponding pixel values of each image data to obtain composite image data. The image data normally has an information amount of 8 bits for each RGB. This image composition is performed in the same manner when a progress image to be described later is generated.
[0017]
The number of intermediate images to be generated is not particularly limited and may be one or more. In addition, as the number of intermediate images increases, the number of progress images to be combined increases, and the resolution of the dissolve display (image display) can be increased. However, the number of image processing increases and the capacity of the primary storage memory increases accordingly. Since it is necessary, the number of intermediate images is set as appropriate. In FIG. 2, when the number of gradations of the original image is 10, these gradations when combining the start point image and the end point image are any one of 1 to 9, and are obtained as illustrated. The maximum number of combinations of intermediate images is nine.
[0018]
As an example, when generating four intermediate images, first, the first intermediate image 14a is generated by synthesizing the gradation of the start point image as 8 and the gradation of the end point image as 2, and hereinafter, the first image is scaled. The tone is 6, the gradation of the end point image is 4, the second intermediate image 14b, the start point image is 4, the end point image is 6, the third intermediate image 14c, and the start point image is 2. The gradation of the end point image is set to 8, and the fourth intermediate image 14d is generated. Also, for example, when generating one intermediate image, the intermediate image 14 ′ is generated by combining the gradation of the start point image with 5 and the gradation of the end point image with 5. However, the gradation of the start point image and the end point image is not limited to the above.
[0019]
Next, an outline of a procedure for generating a progress image using the obtained intermediate image will be described with reference to FIG. In this figure, consider a case where three intermediate images (first to third intermediate images) 14a to 14c are used. First, the first intermediate image 14a having the largest composition ratio of the start point images is arranged below the start point image 12, and the second intermediate image 14b and the third intermediate image 14c are arranged in descending order of the composition ratio of the start point images. It is assumed that the end point image 16 is finally arranged (direction from top to bottom in FIG. 3).
[0020]
And about each image 12, 14a-14c, 16 arrange | positioned in this way, the 2nd adjacent image is taken out and synthesize | combined, The 1st-4th progress image 20-26 is produced | generated. That is, the first computation image 1 is generated by the start point image 12 and the first intermediate image 14a to generate the first progress image 20, and the first arithmetic image 14a and the second intermediate image 14b are combined by the synthesis operation 2. 2, the second intermediate image 14 b and the third intermediate image 14 c are subjected to the composite operation 3, the third intermediate image 24 is combined with the third intermediate image 14 c and the end point image 16, and the composite operation 4 is performed. The fourth progress image 24 is generated respectively. In this case, four sets of progress images are generated using the three intermediate images.
[0021]
Thus, in the present invention, when t intermediate images are arranged between the start point image and the end point image, the number of combinations of two adjacent images is (t + 1). Then, since a progress image is generated by performing a synthesis operation on each combination, (t + 1) sets of progress images are generated. On the other hand, in the conventional dissolve display, only one set of progress images is generated from one combination of the start point image and the end point image. Therefore, in the present invention, without increasing the gradation of the original image, the number of elapsed images can be increased to (t + 1) times that of the conventional image, and the image display (dissolve display or the like) can be made to have a higher gradation. .
[0022]
Next, a method for synthesizing the progress images will be described in detail with reference to FIG. For the sake of simplicity, consider the case where one intermediate image 14 is used. In this figure, the start image 12 and the intermediate image 14 are combined to generate a first progress image 20 (compositing operation 1), and the intermediate image 14 and the end point image 16 are combined to generate a second progress image 22. (Composite operation 2). Each compositing operation is sequentially performed by decreasing the number of gradations of one image to be combined by one and increasing the number of gradations of the other image by one. The value obtained by adding the gradations of the respective images is set to be equal to the number of gradations of the original image. When this is mathematically expressed, it becomes as shown in equation (1).
P [m, m + 1, n] = (1- (n / S)) * Pm + (n / S) * Pm + 1
(1)
(Where, S: the number of gradations in image display, m: an integer from 0 to the number t of intermediate images, P0 : image data of the start point image, Pt + 1 : image data of the end point image, n: 1 to (S-1 ) Integer)
Here, P [m, m + 1, n] indicates image data of the progress image. In addition, in the image data Pm and Pm + 1 , an intermediate image having a high composition ratio of the start point image is arranged in order after the start point image, and an end point image is arranged after the end intermediate image (combining operations 1 to 4 in FIG. 3). The adjacent two pieces of image data are shown in FIG.
[0023]
For example, m = 0 is set in equation (1), and the start point image data P0 and the intermediate image data P1 are set. Here, since the number of gradations S = 10 and the number of intermediate images t = 1, the first elapsed image data P [0, 1, n] obtained by combining the start point image data and the intermediate image data is
P [0,1, n] = (1-n / 10) * P0 + n / 10 * P1 (2)
It is represented by Here, since n is an integer from 1 to 9 (S-1), nine P [0, 1, n] are generated in total, and nine first images 12 (12a to 12i) are generated in total. )
[0024]
Similarly, m = 1 is set in equation (1), and intermediate image data P1 and end point image P2 are set. Second progress image data P [1,2, n] formed by combining the intermediate image data and the end point image data is:
P [1,2, n] = (1-n / 10) * P1 + n / 10 * P2 (3)
In total, nine second progress images 22 (22a to 22i) are obtained.
[0025]
By sequentially displaying the respective progress images thus obtained, the first progress images 20a to 20i and the second progress images 22a to 22i are displayed in this order between the start point image 12 and the end point image 16. Then, a dissolve display (same for fade-in display and fade-out display) in which the image is gradually shifted from the start point image to the end point image can be performed. Here, as a display order of the first progress image and the second progress image, the first progress image having a high composition ratio of the start point image data is displayed first. That is, in the expression (1), the progress image data having a small value of m is displayed first.
[0026]
In the above-described embodiment, it is necessary to separately display the intermediate image 14 between the progress images 20i and 22a. For example, n = 10 in the above expression (2) or n = 0 in the expression (3). Then, the intermediate image 14 can be included in the progress image. In addition, since the number of elapsed images increases as the value of n increases, there may be no problem in image quality even if the intermediate image is not necessarily displayed. Therefore, when the progress image is generated, the basic control unit 6b may set the value of n to 0 or S, and generate an intermediate image as necessary.
[0027]
Next, a processing flow in the image display control of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 5 shows a flow for generating an intermediate image, FIG. 6 shows a mode for storing image data in the primary storage memory unit, and FIGS. 7 and 8 show a flow for generating a progress image. In the following description, it is assumed that one intermediate image is used.
[0028]
In FIG. 5, the basic control unit 6b extracts the start point image data P0 and the end point image data P2 from the secondary storage memory unit 2 (step S100), and stores them at a predetermined address of the primary storage memory unit 4 (step S110). . The basic control unit 6b instructs the synthesis calculation unit 6a to perform a synthesis operation on the start point image data P0 and the end point image data P2 (step S120). At this time, the basic control unit 6b stores information relating to the composition ratio and the number of intermediate images generated when the intermediate image is generated from the start point image data P0 and the end point image data P2, and the composition calculation unit 6a follows the information. Perform a composite operation. Here, the composition calculation unit 6a generates two identical intermediate image data (P1, P1 ′). Next, the composition calculation unit 6a stores the obtained intermediate image data P1, P1 ′ at a predetermined address of the primary storage memory unit 4 in accordance with an instruction from the basic control unit 6b (step S130).
[0029]
FIG. 6 shows a mode in which the image data P0, P1, P1 ′, and P2 are stored in the primary accumulation memory unit 4. In this figure, the image data P0 and P1 ′ used for the synthesis operation 1 are separately stored in the upper stage of the first bank 4a and the second bank 4b, respectively. Similarly, the image data P1 and P2 used for the synthesis operation 2 are separately stored in the upper stage of the first bank 4a and the second bank 4b, respectively. In this way, since image data is read from different banks at the time of the composition operation, there is an advantage that the processing load is reduced due to the characteristics of the circuit. In this case, since the intermediate image data is necessary for both the synthesis operations 1 and 2, two identical data P1 and P1 ′ are generated. However, if the arithmetic processing speed does not matter much, for example, the primary storage memory unit 4 may be a single bank, and the start point image data, the end point image data, and the intermediate image data may be stored one by one.
[0030]
Then, based on these image data, a dissolve process is performed according to the flow of FIGS. First, in FIG. 7, the basic control unit 6b sets each bank (first and second banks) 4a, 4b of the primary storage memory unit 4 to the read mode (step S200), and assigns the same address to each bank 4a, 4b. (The uppermost address in FIG. 6) is designated (step S210). Here, because of a problem in circuit mounting, it is difficult to designate separate start addresses for each bank, so the same address is designated as described above.
[0031]
Then, the basic control unit 6b simultaneously reads out the image data P0 and P1 ′ stored at the designated address (step S220), and instructs the synthesis calculation unit 6a to perform the synthesis operation 1. The composition calculation unit 6a performs the composition calculation 1 (step S230), and transfers the combined image data (first progress image data) to the display unit 8 (step S240). The display unit 8 sequentially displays the received image data as a first progress image (step S250). Here, according to the input specifications of the display unit, in step S220, data for a plurality of pixels is usually read out simultaneously. For example, when the input I / O port of the display unit (D / A converter) is 192 bits, the bit configuration of one pixel is 8 × 3 = 24 bits (RGB), so 192/24 = 8 pixels worth These data are read in step S220. When the image display is performed digitally, a DVI (Digital Visual Interface) or the like is used instead of the D / A converter as the display unit.
[0032]
Next, the basic control unit 6b reduces the number of gradations of the start point image by one and increases the number of gradations of the intermediate image by one until the number of generated progress image data reaches (S-1) (formula In step (1), n is incremented from 1 in order (step S260: “No”), and the process is terminated when the number of generations reaches (S-1) (step S260: “Yes”). In this way, the generation of the first progress image is completed. Thereafter, the basic control unit 6b may read and display the intermediate image data P1 ′ of the bank 4b, or may generate intermediate image data with n = S in the equation (1).
[0033]
Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 8, the basic control unit 6b combines the intermediate image and the end point image to generate a second progress image. In this figure, the basic control unit 6b first switches the address designation of each bank 4a, 4b (step 300), and simultaneously reads out the image data P1, P2 stored at the designated address (step S310), and the composition calculation unit Command 6a to perform composition operation 2. The composition calculation unit 6a performs the composition calculation 2 (step S320), and transfers the combined image data (second progress image data) to the display unit 8 (step S330). The display unit 8 displays the received image data as a second progress image (step S340). The basic control unit 6b sequentially repeats the dissolve process until the number of generated progress images reaches (S-1) ("No" in step S350), and ends the process when the number of generated images reaches (S-1). (“Yes” in step S350). In this way, the generation of the second progress image is completed, and all the dissolve processing is completed (step S360).
[0034]
In the above-described embodiment, the mode of storing each image data in the primary storage memory unit 4 when one intermediate image is used has been described. However, the mode of storage in the memory when a plurality of intermediate images are used. This will be briefly described with reference to FIG.
[0035]
In this figure, if three intermediate images are used, each intermediate image data must be stored in separate banks 4a and 4b. Therefore, first, the same intermediate image data (P1, P1 '), (P2, P2') , (P3, P3 ′) are generated. Then, P0, P1, P2, and P3 are stored in the first bank 4a, and P1 ′, P2 ′, P3 ′, and P4 are stored in the second bank 4b. In this case, the image data P0 and P1 ′ used for the synthesis operation 1 are separately stored in the upper stage of the first bank 4a and the second bank 4b, respectively. Similarly, the image data P1 and P2 ′ used for the synthesis operation 2 are separately stored in the upper stage of the first bank 4a and the second bank 4b. Hereinafter, the image data P2 and P3 ′ used for the composition operation 3 are separately stored in the lower stage of the first bank 4a and the second bank 4b, and the image data P3 and P4 used for the composition operation 4 are stored in the first bank 4a. It is stored separately in the lower stage of the second bank 4b. Then, image data is read from separate banks at the time of each compositing operation. Note that the present invention is not limited to the two-bank memory described above, and a memory system having three or more banks can also be used in the present invention.
[0036]
As described above, in the present invention, the number of gradations of the original image is increased, that is, the scale at the time of displaying the progress image is not increased without increasing the mounting scale (circuit scale) of the image processing circuit (digital circuit). The key number can be increased. FIG. 10 shows the relationship between the circuit scale and the number of gradations when displaying the progress image. In the conventional image display control, it is necessary to increase the circuit scale proportionally in order to increase the number of gradations. However, in the case of the present invention, the circuit scale of the composition calculation unit 6a is equivalent to that in the conventional image display control. Even if it is left as it is, the number of gradations can be made larger than in conventional image display control. For example, from the graph of FIG. 10, according to the present invention, it is possible to calculate a calculation result of 256 gradations when using four intermediate images in a circuit scale of 64. As shown in FIG. 10, this corresponds to about four times the number of gradations that the conventional image display control can obtain with 64 circuit scales. In order to increase the number of gradations, the number of intermediate images may be increased.
[0037]
The image display control device of the present invention can be realized by a computer and a software program executed by the computer. The software program executed in the device is a computer-readable storage medium or communication line. It is possible to distribute via
[0038]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, the number of elapsed images can be generated without increasing the number of gradations of the original image by generating the elapsed image based on the intermediate image obtained by combining the start point image and the end point image. Therefore, it is possible to increase the gradation of image display such as dissolve display. That is, when t intermediate images are used, the number of combinations of two images for generating a progress image is (t + 1). Therefore, (t + 1) sets of progress images are generated, and the number of progress images is set to the conventional number. It can be increased by (t + 1) times.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an image display control device of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a method for generating an intermediate image.
FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing an outline of a procedure for generating a progress image.
FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a method for generating a progress image.
FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a flow of generating an intermediate image.
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a mode in which image data is stored in a primary storage memory unit.
FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a flow of generating a progress image.
FIG. 8 is a diagram subsequent to FIG. 7;
FIG. 9 is another diagram showing a mode in which image data is stored in the primary storage memory unit.
FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between a circuit scale and the number of gradations when a progress image is displayed.
FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a conventional dissolve display method.
FIG. 12 is a diagram showing the relationship between the number of elapsed images per time and the display time in conventional dissolve display.
[Explanation of symbols]
2 Secondary storage memory unit 4 Primary storage memory unit 4a First bank 4b Second bank 6 Control unit 6a Combining operation unit 6b Basic control unit 8 Display unit (D / A converter, etc.)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Image display control apparatus 12 Starting point image 14, 14a, 14b, 14c, 14d, 14 '
Intermediate image 16 End point image 20, 22, 24, 26 Progress image

Claims (8)

An image display control method used for image display in which a plurality of progress images are displayed between a start point image and an end point image, and the image is gradually shifted from the start point image to the end point image,
Synthesizing the start point image and the end point image at a predetermined ratio to generate one or more intermediate images;
When the start point image is arranged in succession from the intermediate image having the highest composition ratio of the start point image, and the end point image is arranged after the end intermediate image, the plurality of adjacent images are combined to combine the plurality of adjacent images. An image display control method comprising: a step of generating a progress image. In the step of generating the progress image, for the image data Pm and Pm + 1 of the two adjacent images,
P [m, m + 1, n] = (1− (n / S)) * Pm + (n / S) * Pm + 1
(Where S: number of gradations in image display, m: integer from 0 to the number t of intermediate images, P0 : image data of the start point image, Pt + 1 : image data of the end point image, n: 1 to (S-1 ) Integer)
The image display control method according to claim 1, further comprising: generating image data of a progress image represented by:   3. The image display control method according to claim 1, further comprising a step of sequentially displaying, from the progress images, a progress image having a higher composition ratio of the start point image. An image display control device used for image display that displays a plurality of progress images between a start point image and an end point image and gradually shifts the image from the start point image to the end point image,
Intermediate image generation means for generating one or more intermediate images by combining the start point image and the end point image at a predetermined ratio;
When the start point image is arranged in succession from the intermediate image having the highest composition ratio of the start point image, and the end point image is arranged after the end intermediate image, the plurality of adjacent images are combined to combine the plurality of adjacent images. An image display control device comprising: progress image generation means for generating a progress image of The progress image generation means is configured to generate image data Pm and Pm + 1 of the two adjacent images.
P [m, m + 1, n] = (1− (n / S)) * Pm + (n / S) * Pm + 1
(Where S: number of gradations in image display, m: integer from 0 to the number t of intermediate images, P0 : image data of the start point image, Pt + 1 : image data of the end point image, n: 1 to (S-1 ) Integer)
The image display control apparatus according to claim 4, wherein image data of a progress image represented by   6. The image display control apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising display means for displaying in order from a progress image having a higher composition ratio of the start point image among the progress images. Storage means for storing image data of the start point image, the intermediate image, and the end point image;
The storage means is a bank memory system, and the image data of the two adjacent images are stored in separate banks,
The image display control device according to claim 4, wherein the progress image generation unit generates the progress image by reading the image data from each bank.   A computer-readable recording medium on which a program for causing a computer to execute the image display control method according to claim 1 is recorded.

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