JPH11234636A - Image transfer device, image transmitter and image receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enhance performance in matching with system configuration including transfer of image as for the image transfer device that transfers image information via a cable. SOLUTION: In the case of an image information transfer section 11 and an image information reception section 12 that freely connect with a plurality of cables 13, the image information transfer section 11 is provided with a allocation means 111 that allocates each partial image information configuring one image to the connection cable 13 so that the image information configuring one image are transferred through the connected cables 13. The image information reception section 12 is provided with a re-buildup means 121 that re-builds the one total image from the partial image information transferred via the allocation means 111 through the connected cables 13.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image transfer device for transferring image information via a cable, and an image transmitting device and an image receiving device for transmitting and receiving image information via a cable.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, a cable is connected between a video camera and a television monitor, or between a data storage device for storing image information and an image display device for displaying images, and the cable is connected. Transfer of the interposed image information is performed. In the image transfer system as described above, in the case of a system in which the transfer speed of image information can be determined in advance, an interface and a cable suitable for the transfer speed may be provided, but a system that requires various transfer speeds may be used. A problem arises when an attempt is made to configure a general-purpose image transfer device to be incorporated.

Here, the transfer of image information from the data storage device to the image display device will be described as an example. When trying to configure a general-purpose image transfer device, for example, in a system having an image display device that displays high-definition images or a system that displays images on a plurality of image display devices, extremely high-speed image information can be obtained. It is necessary to perform the transfer, and a transfer circuit having a conventional normal speed cannot be used. Therefore, it is necessary to newly design a circuit suitable for the high-speed transfer, which increases the cost.

If such an image transfer apparatus for high-speed transfer is manufactured, there is no major problem when constructing a system that matches the performance of the image transfer apparatus. In applications where it is only necessary to transfer the data at a normal transfer rate, the performance will be excessive and the cost will be far greater than the cost of the system.

It is also necessary to sufficiently reduce the risk that image information cannot be transferred when the cable is disconnected or disconnected.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above circumstances, the present invention provides an image transfer apparatus capable of exhibiting performance corresponding to the configuration of a system including image transfer using the image transfer apparatus, and an image transfer apparatus using the same. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image transmitting device and an image receiving device that respectively perform an image transmitting side and an image receiving side of the device.

[0007]

An image transfer apparatus according to the present invention, which achieves the above object, comprises an image information transfer section for transferring image information via a cable, and an image information transfer section for transferring image information transferred via the cable. In the image transfer apparatus provided with an image information receiving unit for receiving, the image information transfer unit and the image information reception unit are freely connectable to a plurality of cables, and the image information transfer unit is connected. Distributing means for distributing each partial image information constituting the image information representing the one image to the connected cable, so that the image information representing one image is shared and transferred by the cable, The image information receiving unit further comprises a reconstructing means for reconstructing image information representing one image from partial image information shared and transferred via a connected cable. That.

An image transfer apparatus according to the present invention is capable of freely connecting a plurality of cables, distributes and transfers image information to the connected cables, and reconstructs the image information on the receiving side. Therefore, it is only necessary to connect the number of cables corresponding to the transfer speed suitable for the system, and the performance suitable for the system can be exhibited. Here, in the image transfer device of the present invention, the image information transfer unit includes a detection unit that detects the number of connected cables, and the distribution unit detects the image information to be transferred by the detection unit. It is preferable that the distribution is performed in a distribution mode according to the number of cables detected in the step (a).

With this configuration, the number of connected cables does not need to be manually input to the device.
After the cable is connected or disconnected, the image information is transferred in a distribution mode corresponding to the number of cables connected at that time, that is, at a transfer speed corresponding to the number. Also, in this case, if multiple cables are connected and one of them is disconnected or disconnected for some reason, the transfer speed will be reduced accordingly, but the image information will be transferred using the remaining cables And thus high reliability can be obtained.

Further, in the image transfer apparatus according to the present invention, the detection means may include a transfer capacity indicating a number of connected cables and an amount of information that can be transferred per unit time through the connected cables. Detecting the image information to be transferred, in accordance with the number of cables detected by the detecting means, and distributing the image information in a distribution mode according to the transfer capacity of the connected cable. Is also a preferred embodiment.

With such a configuration, a plurality of cables having different transfer speeds can be used without particular consideration. Here, the allocating means converts the image information to be transferred into pixel units, line units in which a plurality of pixels are arranged one-dimensionally, or each block in which one image is divided into a plurality of blocks. The distribution may be performed in any one of the units.

Further, the image transmitting apparatus of the present invention is an image transmitting apparatus for transmitting image information via a cable, wherein the image transmitting apparatus is capable of freely connecting a plurality of cables. Each piece of partial image information constituting the image information representing one image is transferred so that the image information representing one image is shared and transferred by the cable.
Distributing means for distributing to the connected cable is provided.

Further, the image receiving apparatus of the present invention is an image receiving apparatus for receiving image information transferred via a cable, wherein the image receiving apparatus is capable of connecting a plurality of cables freely. Reconstructing means for reconstructing image information representing one image from respective partial image information constituting image information representing one image transferred in a shared manner via the connected cable. It is characterized by having.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. In the following, embodiments of the image transfer device will be described. However, the image information transfer unit and the image information reception unit in each embodiment correspond to the embodiments of the image transmission device and the image reception device of the present invention, respectively. .

FIGS. 1 and 2 show a first embodiment and a second embodiment, respectively, which are basic embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 1 shows an embodiment in which an image information transfer unit 11 and an image information reception unit 12 are connected by a cable 13. For example, an image information storage device (not shown) is connected to the image information transfer unit 11.
Is connected to, for example, an image display device (not shown). The image information transfer unit 11 receives image information from the image information storage device, and receives the image information via the cable 13.
The image information is transferred toward 2. The image information receiving unit 12 sends the received image information to the image display device.

Although only one cable is shown in FIG. 1, the image information transfer unit 11 and the image information reception unit 12 can be freely connected to a plurality of cables. , So that the image information representing one image is shared and transferred by the connected cable,
The image information receiving unit 12 includes a distributing unit that distributes each partial image information constituting the image information representing the one image to the connected cable, and the image information receiving unit 12 shares and transfers the image information via the connected cable. There is provided a reconstructing means for reconstructing image information representing one image from the obtained partial image information.

FIG. 2 shows an embodiment in which both the image information transfer unit 11 and the image information reception unit 12 are connected to the same end of the cable 13. The cable 13 may be plural. Operation of Image Information Transfer Unit 11, Image Information Receiving Unit 1
The operation of 2 is the same as the operation of the image information transfer unit and the image information reception unit in the first embodiment shown in FIG.

For example, if one such image transfer apparatus 10 is provided at each end of the cable 13, bidirectional image transfer becomes possible. The image transfer device of the present invention basically has
Both the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 and the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 are included.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a third embodiment which is a more specific embodiment of the image transfer device of the present invention.

The image transfer apparatus 10 shown in FIG. 3 comprises an image information transfer section 11 and an image information reception section 12. The image information transfer unit 11 includes a distribution unit 111 and an interface 112 connected to each cable 13, and the image information reception unit 12 includes a reconstruction unit 121 and an interface 122 connected to each cable 13. ing. In addition, the distribution unit 111 of the image information transfer unit 11 is connected to the data storage device 20 that stores a large amount of image information, and the image is displayed on the reconfiguration unit 121 of the image information reception unit 12. The monitor 30 is connected to the monitor 30. The image information transfer section 11 and the image information receiving section 12 are connected by a plurality of cables 13.

Here, the distribution means 1 of the image information transfer section 11
11 receives image information from the data storage device 20,
Distribute to a plurality of interfaces 112. Each interface 112 converts the partial image information allocated to itself into a data format suitable for data communication, and transmits the data to the image information receiving unit 12 via a cable connected thereto. Interface 1 of image information receiving unit 12
22 receives the partial image information transferred via the cable 13 connected to itself, restores the data format to the original, and passes it to the reconstructing means 121. The reconstructing means 121 integrates partial image information received from the plurality of interfaces 122 to reconstruct image information representing an image, and passes the reconstructed image information to the monitor 30. The monitor 30
An image based on the received image information is displayed.

The above-described image information transfer process is sequentially performed for a plurality of frame images, and a moving image based on the sequentially transmitted image information is displayed on the monitor 30.
FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of an image information transfer method in the image transfer device shown in FIG. The data storage device 20 receives the data via the bus 23 from the data storage unit 21 in which the data that is the basis of the image generation is stored, and receives the data from each data (pixel data) for each pixel. A graphic accelerator 22 for generating image information
A memory 24 for storing image information generated by the graphic accelerator 22 is provided.

The distribution means 111 constituting the image information transfer section 11 of the image transfer apparatus 10 includes a plurality of buffers 1111, a plurality of header addition sections 1112, and a plurality of detection sections 1113.
Having. The detection unit 1113 includes the interface 11
2, whether the data transfer path corresponding to itself is established among the data transfer paths including the cable 13 and the interface 122, that is, whether the interfaces 112 and 122 are mounted and the cable 13 is connected. Is detected. The distribution means 111
The pixel data is sequentially read from the memory 24, and in the present embodiment, the sequentially read pixel data is cyclically distributed to the buffer 1111 corresponding to the established data transfer path. Each buffer 1111 temporarily stores the pixel data allocated to itself. Each header adding unit 11
In the pixel data stored in the corresponding buffer 1111, reference numeral 2 denotes vertical / horizontal position information indicating a position of a pixel represented by the pixel data on an image, and frame information for specifying a frame to which the pixel data belongs. Is the monitor 30
Although only one is shown, as shown in an embodiment to be described later (see FIG. 6), when a plurality of monitors are connected, it indicates to which monitor the pixel data constituting the image information to be sent. A header including target monitor information and the like is added. The pixel data to which the header is added is transmitted to the interface 112, the cable 13, the interface 12
2 via the reconstructing means 121 of the image information receiving unit 12
Is input to The reconstructing means 121 has a plurality of header decoding units 1212 and a data restoration unit 1211. The header decoding unit 1212 receives the pixel data from the interface 122, decodes the header, and decodes the pixel data together with the decoded information. Send it to the unit 1211. The data restoring unit 1211 restores image information representing an image based on the information sent from the header decoding unit 1212 and passes the image information to the monitor 30.

Here, a header is added to each data transferred by each cable 13, and the header decoding unit 121
2 decodes the information of the header, so that the cable 13
When connecting the cables, the order of connecting the cables does not matter, and the burden associated with the cable connection work is reduced.
Further, as described above, the detecting unit 1113 detects whether or not a data transfer path corresponding to itself has been established, and the distribution unit 111 determines whether or not the pixel data has been transmitted to the established data transfer path. Therefore, by increasing the number of data transfer paths (increasing the number of connection tables), a high-speed transfer speed is realized as a whole, and the cable 13 may be disconnected or disconnected. However, although the transfer speed is reduced by that amount, the transfer of the image is continued.

Here, the image data stored in the memory 24 is distributed to each buffer 1111 cyclically for each pixel. However, the detecting unit 1113 has a function of detecting the transfer capacity of the corresponding data transfer path. When there are a plurality of data transfer paths and the transfer capacities of the data transfer paths are different, the pixel data may be distributed according to the transfer capacities of the data transfer paths.

In this case, data is distributed in pixel units. However, data may be distributed in line units or in block units when an image is divided into a plurality of two-dimensional blocks. Good. FIG.
9 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure for data transfer according to the third embodiment illustrated in FIG. 4. It is to be noted that this is a flowchart when the function of detecting the transfer capacity of the data transfer path is added to the detection unit 1113 shown in FIG. 4 to allow data transfer paths having different transfer capacities to coexist.

First, it is determined whether or not the data transfer path has been changed (step a). If there has been a change, the number of currently established data transfer paths and the transfer capacity of each data transfer path are detected. I do. If it is determined in step a that there is no change in the data transfer path, the previously detected data is used as it is, and the process proceeds directly to step c.

In step c, it is determined whether or not the total transfer capacity of the established data transfer path is equal to or larger than the data transfer capacity to be transmitted. Here, the data transfer capacity to be transmitted refers to the connected monitor 30 (see FIGS. 3 and 4).
Refers to a data transfer capacity (a transfer data amount per unit time) sufficient for displaying an image on the monitor 30, which is determined based on the number of pixels, the display frame rate, and the like. Is set to the information.

In step c, if the sum of the transfer capacities of the established data transfer paths is equal to or larger than the data transfer capacity to be transmitted, otherwise, step d.
To step e via. When the process proceeds to step d, all data cannot be transferred, and the data thinning rate is set. Data thinning is performed on a frame basis.

In step e, pixel data is distributed as described with reference to FIG. FIG.
FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a fourth embodiment of the image transfer device of the present invention. The difference from the third embodiment shown in FIG. 3 is that a plurality of monitors (here, four monitors) are connected as the monitor 30.

In the case of the image transfer method described with reference to FIG. 4, the monitor information to be transmitted is included in the header of the pixel data to be transmitted.
Accordingly, in the case of the image transfer method described with reference to FIG. 4, a system in which a plurality of monitors are connected as shown in FIG. 6 can be supported. When a plurality of monitors are connected as shown in FIG. 6, a transfer capacity sufficient to send image information to the plurality of monitors in parallel is set in the image transfer device 10 (see step c in FIG. 5). ).

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing an example of a system configured to perform bidirectional data transfer. Here, a system in which two image transfer apparatuses 14 are connected by a plurality of cables 13 is shown. Each image transfer device 14 has a distribution / reconstruction unit 141 and a plurality of interfaces 142. The distribution / reconstruction unit 141 is a distribution unit 111 in the embodiment shown in FIG.
The interface 142 functions as both the interface 112 on the transmitting side and the interface 1 on the receiving side in the embodiment shown in FIG.
22.

As shown in the fourth embodiment of FIG. 7, the image transfer apparatus of the present invention of the type shown in FIG.
By connecting the units, a system capable of transferring image information in both directions can be configured.

[0033]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Image information can be transferred at a transfer speed suitable for the system to be configured.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a first embodiment which is a basic embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a second embodiment which is a basic embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a third embodiment which is a more specific embodiment of the image transfer device of the present invention.

4 is an explanatory diagram of an image information transfer method in the image transfer device shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a procedure for data transfer in the third embodiment shown in FIGS. 3 and 4;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a fourth embodiment of the image transfer device of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a system configured to perform bidirectional data transfer.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 Image transfer device 11 Image information transfer unit 12 Image information reception unit 13 Cable 14 Image transfer device 20 Data storage device 30 Monitor 111 Distributing unit 112 Interface 121 Reconstructing unit 122 Interface 141 Distributing / reconstructing unit 142 Interface 1111 Buffer 1112 Header addition unit 1113 Detection unit 1211 Data restoration unit 1212 Header decoding unit

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An image transfer apparatus comprising: an image information transfer unit that transfers image information via a cable; and an image information reception unit that receives image information transferred via the cable. The information transfer unit and the image information receiving unit are configured such that a plurality of cables can be freely connected, and the image information transfer unit shares and transfers image information representing one image by the connected cable. So that each partial image information constituting the image information representing the one image is allocated to a connected cable, and the image information receiving unit is connected via the connected cable. An image transfer apparatus, comprising: reconstructing means for reconstructing image information representing one image from partial image information transferred in a shared manner. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image information transfer unit includes a detection unit configured to detect a number of connected cables, and the distribution unit determines an image information to be transferred by the number of cables detected by the detection unit. 2. The image transfer apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image data is distributed in a distribution mode corresponding to the image data. 3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the detecting means detects a transfer capacity indicating a number of connected cables and an amount of information that can be transferred per unit time via the connected cables. The dividing means, the image information to be transferred, according to the number of cables detected by the detecting means,
3. The image transfer apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the image data is distributed in a distribution mode according to a transfer capacity of a connected cable. 4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the distributing unit divides the image information to be transferred into pixel units, line units in which a plurality of pixels are arranged one-dimensionally, or a single image divided into a plurality of blocks. 4. The image transfer apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image data is distributed in units of blocks. 5. An image transmitting apparatus for transmitting image information via a cable, wherein the image transmitting apparatus is capable of connecting a plurality of cables freely, and represents one image by the connected cables. An image transfer apparatus, comprising: a distribution unit that distributes each piece of image information constituting image information representing one image to a connected cable so that the image information is shared and transferred. . 6. An image receiving apparatus for receiving image information transferred via a cable, wherein the image receiving apparatus is capable of connecting a plurality of cables freely, and via a connected cable. An image characterized by comprising reconstructing means for reconstructing image information representing one image from respective partial image information constituting image information representing one image transferred in a shared manner. Receiver.