JPH0792951A - Display device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To perform a composite display of picture data having different scanning frequencies of more than two without deteriorating pictures. CONSTITUTION:Data of picture signals from stations 21 to 2n are stored in data storage devices 112 to 117 arranged double for one work station. A processor 103 determines the constitution of display pictures based on data from a mouse 4 and sets a readout order from storage devices 112 to 117 and 105 to a data readout address circuit 102. A scanning frequency determining circuit 101 selects the highest frequency among scanning frequencies of objective picture data and data in data storage devices are readout by giving addresses of the data readout address circuit 102 to timming control circuits 108 to 111 with the scanning frequency and then prescribed pictures and displayed on a display 3. Thus, a composite display of pictures of plural work stations and personal computers, etc., can be displayed and the deterioration of pictures is not generated.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a workstation,
The present invention relates to a device such as a personal computer that synthesizes and displays image data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a system in which a plurality of workstations and personal computers (hereinafter, simply referred to as stations) are connected, if the display image of each station is displayed on one station, the system can be efficiently monitored and operated. However, the operating frequencies of the stations are generally different, and even those of the same standard are not synchronized.
Therefore, in order to combine and display the image data displayed on a plurality of stations by one station, it is necessary to supply them to a display means such as a CRT in a synchronized form by some method.

The prior art of such a system is, for example, a superposition display system disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 58-208845. This is to display the display screens of the character display and the graphic display in an overlapping manner on the same display surface. The character display and the graphic display display screen data having a remarkably different resolution, and the scanning frequency has a doubled difference. Focusing on this point, the above-mentioned conventional example uses the synchronization signal of the image data of the character display as a master and the image data of the graphic display having a synchronization signal of about half the frequency as a slave, and synchronizes this with the master synchronization signal. Are synchronized with. Further, the display relative position of both image data (display position on the screen) is determined by setting a fixed delay time when synchronizing the synchronizing circuit.

Further, in the "video synthesizing device" disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 126266/1989, in order to synthesize and display two image data, the first image data is used as a master and the second image data is used as a frame. After writing in the memory, the second image data is read from the frame memory in synchronization with the scanning of the master and is combined with the first image data.

[0005]

In the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 58-208845, the screen data having remarkably different resolutions are overlapped with each other, and the station having substantially the same resolution is used. Since the scanning signal speeds are close to each other, it is difficult to synchronize the screen data.
Also, because it is always displayed in the same position due to synchronization,
There is a problem that it is difficult to move the display position so that the operator can operate the screen easily. Further, in the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 1-126686, the image data composition display of two devices is targeted, and it is not possible to support many devices, and the station which is the master of synchronization is fixed. Generally, image data with a higher scanning frequency has a larger number of image primes in the vertical and horizontal directions (vertical and horizontal directions). Therefore, if image data with a scanning frequency higher than the scanning frequency of the master is read at the scanning frequency of the master, There is a problem that pixels cannot be displayed, the amount of information that can be displayed is limited, and the resolution is reduced.

An object of the present invention is to provide a display device which can display image data of two or more stations in a composite display without lowering the resolution.

[0007]

The above-described object is to provide a data storage means provided corresponding to the external processing means for storing the image data transmitted from the plurality of external processing means at the operation timing for each of the image data. A scanning frequency determining means for detecting the highest scanning frequency among the image data, an address setting storage means, and a position on the display screen where the image data is displayed to form a composite screen. The data storage means to be read out at each scanning time point and a processor for setting the address thereof in the address setting storage means, and the scanning frequency determining means provided corresponding to the data storage means. If the address read from the address setting storage means by the scanning frequency is the address of the corresponding data storage means, the address is stored. Is achieved by which read the data provided and timing control means for outputting to the display unit.

[0008]

The image data of a plurality of workstations, personal computers, etc. can be stored in the data storage means at all times and the combined display can be carried out, so that the operator can easily monitor and operate the states of a plurality of stations. Become. At the same time, since the scanning signal having the highest scanning frequency is taken out and displayed, the composite display can be performed without losing the information amount of each image data and thus without deteriorating the resolution.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 shows an example of a system to which the present invention is applied. A plurality of stations 21 to 2n (workstations, personal computers, etc.) are connected to the display device 1 of the present invention. Display device 1 (display such as CRT or liquid crystal)
Displays its own image data and the image data of the stations 21 to 2n on the display 3. The image data composition method is set by the pointing device 4 (mouse in the embodiment) connected to the display device 1. Here, the display 3 stores synchronization data for various types of synchronization in advance so that the display 3 can be synchronized with the video signal of the station in which the connection is predicted, and the display 3 is automatically adjusted according to the timing of the input signal. It is assumed that the display is a multi-auto scan type display capable of displaying images in synchronization.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a display device of the present invention. The screen signals from the stations 21 to 2n are converted from analog signals to digital signals by A / D converters 106 to 108. It The converted image data is a data storage device 112, two for each station.
~ 117 is stored. The conversion and memory write timings at that time are controlled by the timing control circuits 109 to 111 at the timing synchronized with the scanning frequency of each station. The image data is updated at a constant cycle (about 60 times per second). The analog signal for the screen is R,
Since it is composed of three types, G and B, it is assumed that the A / D converter has a conversion function for three signals for each signal. In addition, the conversion function of each converter is assumed to have a resolution corresponding to the maximum resolution of the station to which the connection is expected. Even if the resolutions of the respective stations are different, in the case of an analog signal, since the change width is the same, the display color is discrete for the signal with low resolution and the display color is continuous for the signal with high resolution.

The scanning frequency determining circuit 101 selects the highest frequency from the scanning frequencies of the connected stations 21 to 2n. This selection method can be determined by comparing the station display synchronizing signals. After the determination, the selected value is cyclically compared with each input signal so that the fastest frequency can always be selected in the connected station. Based on the selected frequency, the address data is read from the data read address circuit 102.
The data is sequentially read and output to the address bus 120, and the control line 121 specifies the data storage device to be read and the timing to read the image data from the data storage device.
Further, at the frequency selected by the scanning frequency determination circuit 101, D /
The conversion timing of the A converter 118 is controlled, and the data bus
The image data read in 122 is output to the display 3.

The interface circuit 104 transmits the button signal from the mouse and the movement amount to the processor (CPU) 103. The processor 103 determines the scanning order of the screen data to be displayed by the data, and sets the address corresponding to the scanning in the data read address circuit 102. Data to be displayed on the display device 1 is stored in the data storage device 105, which is read when the display is selected and displayed on the display 3. Data storage
As the data of 105, screen data for a display target station and a menu for setting the display position, HELP data such as an instruction manual of this device, and the like are stored.

The storage device timing control circuits 109-111 are
It controls the writing and reading timings of the data storage devices 112 to 117. In this embodiment, a memory device in which a write data line and a read data line are separately provided is adopted so that writing is always possible. However, since it is not necessary to change the data being read during the process, it is necessary to prepare a dual data storage device for one station as described above, considering that both timings may overlap. Keep it. Writing to each storage device is performed at a timing synchronized with the scanning frequency of each workstation. On the other hand, reading is performed at the timing synchronized with the scanning frequency selected by the scanning frequency determining circuit 101. Two data for each station
The data storage device is controlled by using a flag indicating the location of the updated latest data. That is, the reading is performed from the storage device with the flag. If there is a read request during writing, the flag is read from the storage device that was previously updated and is standing in that storage device. If a write request is issued during reading, the data is written in the other storage device. When this writing is completed, a flag is set on the side of the storage device to which the writing has been performed. The storage device timing control circuits 109 to 111 also perform the switching control as described above.

In the following, first, the operation and operation of this embodiment will be described in detail assuming that the combined image data have the same scanning frequency. FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the setting procedure of the image data synthesizing method, and the mouse is used here, but since the same kind of operation can be realized in other devices, it is not necessary to pay attention to it. When the mouse button is first double-clicked (step 300), the composition setting screen is selected and displayed by the processing of the processor 103 (step 301). An example of the setting screen is shown in FIG. 4A, and the processing of the processor 103 for this display is performed as follows.

FIG. 5A shows the image data when the setting screen as shown in FIG. 4 is displayed, and the data from this device, that is, the data from the storage device 105 is read for each horizontal scanning. Display data only. Therefore, the addresses of the storage device 105 are set in the data read address circuit 102 by the processor in the scanning order as shown in FIG. 6A.
However, in FIG. 6, the addresses of the display data are sequentially selected in the vertical direction, and the scanning of the entire screen is completed when the nth horizontal scanning of the vertical scanning is completed. A scanning order of horizontal scanning is set in the h-th one block.

Following this screen display for setting, it is judged whether or not a station to be displayed is necessary (step 302), and if necessary, the setting screen is moved to the optimum position in step 303. This is the data storage device 105 that constitutes the setting screen.
The scanning frequency of the image data of the scanning frequency determining circuit 101
This is because the display position is not as shown in FIG. 4 (a) when the scanning frequency is lower than the scanning frequency for reading from. The reason for this and the corresponding processing method will be described later in the description of image data display with different scanning frequencies (different in the number of pixels), and will be omitted here.

Next, the station selecting area on the setting screen is clicked once with the mouse (step 30).
4). By this operation, the screen of the selected station is displayed on the entire display (step 30).
5). The processing of the processor 103 at this time is as shown in FIG.
As shown in (b), 1 of the data read address circuit 102
~ H-th block (one horizontal line corresponds to one block)
Is set to the address of station #k, and then the address of the storage device 105 in this apparatus is set. As a result, the content of the image data becomes as shown in FIG. 5B, and the image of the station #k is displayed on the upper side and the menu section of the setting screen is displayed on the lower side.

Next, in steps 306 and 307, when the display position of the displayed station is deviated, it is corrected. This is also the same as in the case of the setting screen, which is higher than the scanning frequency for reading. It occurs when image data with a low scan frequency is selected. The reason for this and the processing method will be described later.

Subsequently, it is judged whether the image data of the station selected so far is displayed in a window (step 308). When the window is displayed, four points on the screen are clicked to display the size and position of the window. Is determined (step 309). At that time, the window position is displayed on the screen by a broken line as shown in FIG. 4 so that the selected position can be seen. This display is displayed in the storage device 105 between the address setting positions of station #k in FIG.
This is done by inserting the address storing the dotted line data of. If it is determined in step 308 that the window is not displayed, then "OK" is clicked and the process proceeds to step 310. At this time, it becomes the background screen. Then, it is judged whether the window position or the background screen is as desired (step 310), and if it is as desired, "O" on the menu is displayed.
Click "K" (step 311). At this time, the setting of the address circuit 102 is changed to erase the broken line display. Next, it is judged whether or not the screens of other stations are to be displayed (step 313).
Return to and repeat the above operation in sequence. When the operation is completed, the word "end" is clicked in step 314. Then, the composite screen of the stations set up to now is displayed on the display. To stop the display in step 302, click “NG” (step 31
5) Then click Finish (Step 31)
4).

In the processing for displaying the image data of this station, the address corresponding to each station (the address of WS1, etc.) as shown in FIG. 6C is set in the address circuit 102 in correspondence with the display screen. That is, the address of the corresponding one of the storage devices 112 to 117 in FIG. 1 is set by the processor 103. The image data read at this time is as shown in FIG. 5C, and the data of several stations are read during one horizontal scanning period. Figure 7
Is a display example of the composite image data displayed in this way. That is, WS1, WS2, and WS3 are three work stations.
A station screen is shown, WS1 is displayed in the background screen, and WS2 and WS3 are displayed in the window format.

Next, the display of image data having a scanning frequency lower than the scanning frequency for reading detected by the scanning frequency determining circuit 101, that is, image data having a small number of pixels will be described. First, as the capacities of the storage devices 112 to 117, a size is prepared that can store the maximum number of pixels of image data that may be input. Then, the timing control circuits 109 to 111 sequentially store the data sent in the scanning order from the beginning. Therefore, if the number of pixels is less than the maximum number of pixels, nothing is stored in the latter half and the data becomes invalid. FIG. 8 shows such an example. Although valid data is stored in the first half of each horizontal scan, it is not stored because there is no data in the second half, and the m-1th and subsequent ones are invalid data. There is. Also, since there is no data in the latter half of the vertical scanning, it is not stored, and the entire area from the (n-1) th place becomes invalid data. Normally, when the power is turned on, "0" is stored in the storage device.
Since the data is set, when this is read, the corresponding portion (the latter half of the scanning line) becomes a black screen. Therefore, for example, when the image data of the setting screen of the storage device 105 has a scanning frequency lower than the reading scanning frequency, the setting screen is not displayed at the bottom of the display surface as shown in FIG. It will be displayed to the top. Thus, it becomes necessary to correct the display position of the setting screen. The situation is the same when displaying the image data of the station. The solid line frame in FIG. 5B shows an example in which the image data of the station is displayed in the upper left part.

In order to perform this position correction, it is complicated to move the data in the corresponding data storage device, so the data read address to be accessed is rewritten. That is, first, as shown in FIG. 4B, the mouse button is pressed at the center position P1 of the screen and the mouse is moved as it is. When the button is released at P2 when the mouse is moved as much as desired, the horizontal and vertical movement amounts of the mouse can be obtained. In order to change the horizontal scanning direction and the vertical scanning start time point and the scanning end time point according to this value, an invalid address is set in the data read address circuit 102 during the period before the scanning start and after the scanning end. This invalid address is an address value that does not exist in the corresponding data storage device, or an address that always stores "0" even if it exists. Therefore, since no output is obtained during this invalid address scanning period, a black screen is displayed, and the display data is selected from the data of the storage device only during the period when the display data is present, and a predetermined display can be obtained.

Data read address circuit 10 in this case
An example of setting to 2 is shown in FIG. In the figure, (a) shows the addresses of the corresponding storage devices arranged in the vertical direction for one screen in the scanning order. The addresses corresponding to workstation #k and the addresses of the storage device 105 are displayed before the image data (in the horizontal and vertical directions). In both cases, an invalid address is inserted so that it is displayed at a desired position. However, the scanning frequency of these image data is lower than the reading scanning frequency from the scanning frequency determining circuit 101. In this case, if it is read and displayed as it is as described above, it is displayed at the upper left of the screen, but if the moving process is performed as described above, the position of the screen can be shifted downward and to the right. . Figure 9
FIG. 9B shows the image data set as shown in FIG. 9A. If the moving process is not performed, the image data is read at the broken line position of each horizontal scan. It shows that it moves to the position of.

If the window position on the composition screen is to be changed after the composition screen is displayed, click on the window position with the mouse and press the button, as in the moving process of FIG. 3 described above. The movement process is performed by moving the robot while holding it and releasing the button at the position you want to move. The setting method of the address circuit 102 by the processor at this time is the same as that described above.

According to this embodiment, the scanning frequency determining circuit 10
Since the highest scanning frequency of the image data that is always input from 1 is read out from the storage device and displayed, any image data can be displayed without loss of information, and the reduction in resolution due to composite display does not occur. It won't happen. Also, composite display is possible at two or more stations.

In the above description, the signal from each station is converted from an analog signal into a digital signal and stored, but the digital signal is transferred by the transmission device.
It is apparent that the present invention can be applied to a method of receiving data and storing it in the data storage device according to the transmission timing of the transmission device.

[0027]

According to the present invention, on the screen of the display device,
Two or more workstations, PC screens, etc. can be displayed in a window, and it is easy for the operator to check the status of other workstations, PC screens, etc. from moment to moment. Becomes Further, when the composite display is performed, the image quality is not deteriorated.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a display device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the overall configuration of a system that synthesizes image data of a plurality of stations.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a procedure for setting screen data combination.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a setting screen.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of displayed image data.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of address setting of a data read address circuit.

FIG. 7 is an example of a combined display screen.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an address setting state of the data storage device when the number of image primes is less than the maximum number of image primes.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of address setting when the display position is moved.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 display device 101 scanning frequency determination circuit 102 data read address circuit 109-111 storage device timing control circuit 112-117 data storage device 103 processor 104 interface circuit 105 data storage device

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification number Internal reference number FI Technical indication location G09G 5/36 520 L 9471-5G (72) Inventor Masanobu Tanaka 5-2 Omikacho, Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture No. 1 in Hirtitsu Process Computer Engineering Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Terunobu Kawahara 52-1 Omika-cho, Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture Hirt Process Computer Engineering Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Takayuki Morioka Omika, Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture 5-2-1, Machi Incorporated company Hitachi, Ltd. Omika factory

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A data storage means provided corresponding to an external processing means for storing image data transmitted from a plurality of external processing means at an operation timing for each image data, and a scanning frequency of each image data. Scanning frequency determining means for detecting the highest one among the above, address setting storage means, and each scanning time point according to which position on the display screen the above image data is displayed to form a composite screen. And a processor for setting the data storage means and the address thereof to the address setting storage means, and the address setting with the scanning frequency detected by the scanning frequency determining means provided corresponding to the data storage means. If the address read from the storage means is the address of the corresponding data storage means, the data at that address is read out and the display means is displayed. And a timing control means for outputting to the display device. 2. An internal data storage means is provided therein,
The display device according to claim 1, wherein the processor is configured so that an address of the internal data storage means can be set in the address setting storage means in addition to the data storage means. 3. The data storage means is composed of two pieces for each of the external processing means, and is configured such that writing of image data from the external processing means and reading by the timing control means can be performed at the same time. The display device according to claim 1 or 2. 4. An input unit is provided, and the processor sets how to synthesize and display the respective image data according to an input from the input unit. The display device according to one of the items. 5. The display device according to claim 4, wherein the input unit is capable of designating image data to be a background screen, image data to be displayed in a window, and a window position thereof.