JPH0561630A - Method for displaying multiwindow of image display device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily multi-display plural images or characters by means of the small number of memories in the multi-window display method of an image display device. CONSTITUTION:Reference data corresponding to respective information are rewritten in a reference memory 8 prepared independently of a display memory 3 for writing plural information to be displayed so that data with high display priority order in respective information are left, and at the time of writing information read out of an image memory 13 in the memory 3, the reference data written in the memory 8 are read out and information is written in a position in which the reference data corresponding to the information exist. Thus plural information can be simultaneously displayed on one screen of the image display device by reading out the information from the memory 3. Consequently plural images or characters can easily be multi-displayed by means of the small number of memories.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image display for simultaneously displaying a plurality of images or characters on one screen of an image display device such as an image workstation and selecting and displaying a desired image or characters from the images. More particularly, the present invention relates to a multi-window display method for an image display device capable of easily multi-displaying a plurality of images or characters with a small memory.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional multi-window display method for an image display device of this type is to display a plurality of images on one screen of the image display device, for example, in such a manner that a plurality of images are gradually overlapped with each other while being gradually shifted. However, only the desired image was pulled out and displayed in a vacant place on the screen, and the entire image was observed.
For such a multi-window display method, see “Graphic Engineering” by Fujio Yamaguchi (Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun).
Pp. 253-263, published on January 25, 1982, and "Computer Graphics," translated by Atsumi Imamiya, published by the Japan Computer Association, July 15, 1984, pp. 565-582.

[0003]

However, in the conventional multi-window display method, a memory and a program are allocated to each window for displaying a plurality of images, and the multi-display is executed in a time division manner. Therefore, a memory for the number of images to be multi-displayed is required, and the display operation is complicated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a multi-window display method for an image display device which can easily display multiple images or characters in a small memory by multi-displaying such problems. To do.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, a multi-window display method for an image display device according to the present invention displays a plurality of pieces of information on one screen of the image display device at the same time, and a desired one of them is displayed. In a multi-window display method of an image display device for selecting and displaying information, a reference memory is used separately from a display memory for writing a plurality of information to be displayed, and reference data corresponding to each of the above information is stored in the reference memory. When the information having a high display priority is written for the information and the information read from the storage unit is written in the display memory, the reference data written in the reference memory is read and the reference data corresponding to each information exists. A plurality of information is displayed by writing the information in the part to be read and reading the information in the display memory.

The information displayed on the image display device may be either image data or character data.

[0007]

According to the multi-window display method of the image display apparatus having the above-described structure, the reference memory is used separately from the display memory for writing a plurality of information to be displayed. The data is written so that the data with high display priority remains for each information. Next, when writing the information read from the storage means to the display memory, the reference data written in the reference memory is read and the information is written in the portion where the reference data corresponding to each information exists. Then, by reading out the information in the display memory, a plurality of pieces of information are simultaneously displayed on one screen of the image display device. This makes it possible to easily multi-display information such as a plurality of images or characters with a small memory.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an outline of a multi-window display method of an image display device according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of an image workstation used for implementing this multi-window display method.

In FIG. 2, an image workstation 1 used for implementing the multi-window display method of the present invention is
For example, while storing various medical images inspected by a doctor using various medical image inspection devices for patients,
The image is read out and displayed on the image display device if necessary.
A storage device 2 such as a magnetic disk for storing data of various medical images collected in advance, a display memory 3 for temporarily storing the image data read from the storage device 2 for display, and this display memory 3 is an image display device that captures image data from 3 to display various medical images, for example, C
RT4, a main memory 5 in which data for controlling the operation of each of the above components is written, and a central processing unit (CPU) for controlling the decoding and execution of instructions from the main memory 5.
6, a high-speed arithmetic circuit 7, a reference memory 8 for writing reference data corresponding to each image data written in the display memory 3, a keyboard 9 as an input device, and a controller 10 for controlling the operation of the keyboard 9. An interface 11 for inputting / outputting a signal to / from another external device is provided. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 12 indicates a data bus.

Next, a multi-window display method performed by using the image workstation 1 having such a configuration will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 1, the image memory 13 serves as a storage means for storing image data such as medical images, and is composed of a magnetic disk or the like provided in the storage device 2 shown in FIG. Image data of a plurality of images such as I ₁ , second image I ₂ , third image I ₃ , fourth image I ₄ , ... Are stored. Further, the display memory 3 and the reference memory 8 have the same size in the case of an image, and the coordinates correspond to each other on a one-to-one basis. Then, by writing the image data in the display memory 3, the image is displayed on the screen of the CRT 4 shown in FIG. 2, but in FIG. 1, four images I ₁ ,
An example in which data of I ₂ , I ₃ , and I ₄ are written will be shown.
In this example, the display priority PR of each image is the image I
₃ is the highest (expressed as PR (1) = 3), the second highest priority is the image I ₁ (PR (2) = 1), and the third highest priority is the image I ₄ (PR (3) = 4), image I ₂ has the fourth highest priority (PR)
(4) = 2). Here, for example, the start coordinates of the _second image I ₂ are represented by (XH (2), YH (2)), and the start coordinates of the _fourth image I ₄ are (XH (4), YH (4)). Is represented by
The start coordinates of the th image Ii are represented by (XH (i), YH (i)).

In such a state, reference data is written in the reference memory 8 as follows. First, data "0" indicating that the display priority PR is the lowest on the entire memory surface
write. Next, from the image data written in the display memory 3 in the order of lower priority PR, first, (XH (2),
Data "2" corresponding to the image I ₂ having the fourth highest priority is written in the area A ₂ having YH (2)) as the start coordinate, and then (XH (4),
The data "4" corresponding to the image I ₄ having the third highest priority is written in the area A ₄ having YH (4)) as the start coordinate, and then (XH (1),
The data "1" corresponding to the image I ₁ having the second highest priority is written in the area A ₁ having YH (1)) as the start coordinate, and finally (XH
(3), YH (3)) has a priority of 1 in the area A ₃ whose start coordinates are
Write the data “3” corresponding to the image I ₃ of the rank. As a result, the reference data for the display memory 3 into which the image data of the four images I _{1 to} I ₄ to be displayed are written is written in the reference memory 8. In this example, the priority P
The reference data was written in order from the lowest R,
The present invention is not limited to this, and when writing data, the respective data may be compared and the one with the higher display priority PR may be left.

Here, as shown in FIG. 1, the image memory 1
When displaying the _fourth image I ₄ stored in 3, the corresponding image I ₄ is read from the image memory 13 while looking at the reference memory 8 in which the reference data is written as described above, and the data is read. Write to the display memory 3. At this time,
The reference data written in the reference memory 8 is read, and the data of the image I ₄ is written in the portion where the reference data corresponding to the _fourth image I ₄ exists. That is, since the value of the point Pr on the reference memory 8 to which the point P of the image I ₄ on the image memory 13 corresponds is “4”, the point P ′ on the display memory 3 corresponding to this position on a one-to-one basis is present. , The data of the image I ₄ corresponding to the data “4” is written. However, the value of the point Qr on the reference memory 8 to which the point Q of the image I ₄ on the image memory 13 corresponds is “3”, and this position corresponds to the _third image I ₃ , so that The data of the image I ₄ is not written in the part Q ′ on the display memory 3 which corresponds to the above position one-to-one. In this manner, the image I ₄ is displayed only on the portion on the display memory 3 that corresponds to the position where the value of the reference data written in the reference memory 8 is “4”, that is, the shaded portion in FIG. The data of will be written.

In the same manner as described above, the other images I ₂ , I ₁ , I
_When writing the data of ₃ , the corresponding image data is written corresponding to the positions of the values “2”, “1”, and “3” of the reference data written in the reference memory 8. At this time, the data of the image with the low display priority PR is overwritten by the data of the high image and is in a partially cut-out state. By reading the display memory 3 in which the image data is written in this way, four images I _{1 to} I ₄ are simultaneously displayed on the screen of the CRT ₄ shown in FIG.

Next, referring to the flowchart shown in FIG. 3, for the procedure for selecting and displaying, for example, the fourth image I ₄ from the state in which the four images I _{1 to} I ₄ are simultaneously displayed as described above. Explain. In this case, the image data may be displayed only in the memory area where the reference data “4” is written in the reference memory 8 shown in FIG. The start address of the _fourth image I ₄ is stored in (XH (4), YH (4)). First, the start address of the display memory 3 is set to x = XH (4) and y = YH (4) (step in FIG. 3). Next, the reference data is read from the corresponding point of the reference memory 8 (step). Then, in step, it is determined whether or not the value of the read reference data is "4", and if it is "4", the process proceeds to the "YES" side. Then 4
The data of the th image I ₄ is read and the corresponding point (x,
y) is enlarged or reduced (step). Then, this image data is written in the display memory 3 (step).

Next, in step, 1 is added to the address x to advance the address in the x direction. At this time, if the value of the reference data is not "4" in the determination in the above step, nothing is done and the process proceeds to the step. Then, in step, it is judged whether or not the address x has reached the maximum value, and if it has not reached the maximum value yet, the process returns to the above step and the same procedure is repeated. When x reaches the maximum value, the process proceeds to the next step, and 1 is added to the address y as the address x = XH (4) to advance the address in the y direction.
Then, it is determined in step whether or not the address y has reached the maximum value. If the address y has not reached the maximum value yet, the process returns to the above step and the same procedure is repeated. And
When y reaches the maximum value, all the data of the image I ₄ has been written in the display memory 3, and the CRT 4 shown in FIG.
The image I ₄ is displayed on the screen. Other images I ₁ , I ₂ , I ₃
Can be displayed by the same procedure.

Next, the procedure for changing the display priority PR of an image will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, of the plurality of images I _{1 to} I ₄ displayed on the screen of the CRT ₄ shown in FIG. 2, an image which is desired to have a higher priority PR and is to be ranked first (PR (1)) is shown in FIG. It is instructed by the keyboard 9 or a mouse (not shown) (step A in FIG. 4). Here, for example, the fourth image I ₄ is designated. Then, from the reference memory 8 reads reference data "4" corresponding to the image I ₄ (Step B). Then, the current display priority PR (Km) for the image I ₄
The rank number Km giving = 4 is obtained (step C). Here, as described above, since the priority of the _fourth image I ₄ is the third place (PR (3)), Km = 3. Therefore, the number representing the priority order is set as a variable K, and K = Km = 3 (step D). Next, in the following steps E, F and G, K =
PR (K) = PR (K-1) is repeated until it becomes 2. afterwards,
In step H, PR (1) = 4 is set, and the priority PR of the image I ₄ is set to the first place. Then, the coordinate x of the reference memory 8 = XH
(4), reference data “4” in the area that has y = YH (4) at the beginning
Is written (step I). As a result, the display priority PR of the _fourth image I ₄ is changed to the first place.
The display priority can be changed for the other images I ₁ , I ₂ , and I _{3 by} the same procedure.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the movement of the image displayed on the screen of the CRT 4. Now, assume that three images I ₅ , I ₆ , and I ₇ are displayed on the screen, and the image I ₆ among them is moved in the arrow direction and displayed at the position I ₆ ′. The processing procedure of image movement at this time will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, the leading coordinates of each image I ₅ , I ₆ , I ₇ before movement are saved. Then, the head coordinates of the moved image I ₆ ′ are changed, and the reference data of each image I ₅ , I ₆ ′, I ₇ after the image movement is overwritten in the reference memory while overwriting in order from the one with the lowest display priority. 8 (step of FIG. 6). Then, with respect to the reference memory 8, the memory after the saved start coordinates is read, and the number of the image i ₅ hidden in the area of the image I ₆ before the movement is obtained (step). Here, the number of the image i ₅ thus hidden is “I ₅ ”. next,
While looking at the reference memory 8 created in the above step, write the data of the moved image I ₆ ′ into the display memory 3,
The image I ₆ ′ is displayed (step). After that, the data of the part of the image i ₅ thus hidden is written in the display memory 3 while watching the reference memory 8, and the image i 5
Display ₅ (step). As a result, the image I ₆ ′ after the movement and the image i ₅ hidden before the movement are displayed.

In the above description, the information displayed on the CRT 4 as the image display device shown in FIG. 2 is described as image data, but the present invention is not limited to this and may be character data. In this case, for example, creates a n row m reference memory 8 corresponding to a plurality of character surfaces of the string, for example n ₁ row and K-th character faces, whether to display the m ₁ row of characters, the It may be determined by whether or not the data “K” corresponding to the reference memory 8 is written.

[0019]

Since the present invention is constructed as described above,
A reference memory 8 is used separately from the display memory 3 for writing a plurality of information to be displayed, and reference data corresponding to the above information is written in the reference memory 8 so that data having a high display priority remains for each information. , Storage means (13)
When writing the information read from the
By reading the reference data written in the reference memory 8 and writing the information in the portion where the reference data corresponding to each information exists, and reading the information in the display memory 3, a plurality of pieces of information can be displayed. ) Can be displayed simultaneously on one screen. This makes it possible to easily multi-display information such as a plurality of images or characters with a small memory.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view showing an outline of a multi-window display method of an image display device according to the present invention,

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of an image workstation used for implementing the multi-window display method.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a procedure for selecting and displaying a desired image from a state in which a plurality of images are displayed simultaneously.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a procedure for changing the display priority of an image,

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating movement of an image displayed on the screen of the image display device,

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure when moving and displaying the image.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Image workstation, 2 ... Storage device, 3 ...
Display memory, 4 ... CRT, 8 ... Reference memory, 13
... image memory, I ₁ ~I ₆ ... image.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A multi-window display method for an image display device, wherein a plurality of pieces of information are simultaneously displayed on one screen of the image display device, and desired information is selected from the plurality of pieces of information to be displayed. A reference memory is used separately from the display memory, and reference data corresponding to each of the above information is written in this reference memory so that data having a high display priority remains for each information, and the information read from the storage means is stored in the display memory. When writing, the reference data written in the reference memory is read, and the information is written in the portion where the reference data corresponding to each information exists.
A multi-window display method for an image display device, wherein a plurality of pieces of information are displayed by reading the information in the display memory. 2. Information displayed on the image display device includes:
A multi-window display method for an image display device, which is image data or character data.