U.S. Philips Corporation

Alphonsius A De Lange

Peter H De With

A multimedia system has unprogrammable task-specific processors of high performance-density. The task-specific processors perform primitive functions that together constitute a video algorithm. The task-specific processors are interconnected via a high-speed communication module whose interconnectivity is controlled by an arbiter. The arbiter stores a data flow graph. A fully programmable general-purpose processor of low performance-density carries out those tasks that are not readily mapped onto the primitive functions. This configuration with different levels of performance-density and programmability increases overall system performance-density with regard to the prior art.

Multi-media processor architecture with high performance-density

A color image is locally discoloured in the vicinity of edges. The edges extend, for example, between a superposed foreground and a background in a computer-generated image, but also between different regions in natural images which are processed, for example, in a television receiver. Consequently, the edges are perceived as being sharper upon display.

System and method for enhancing the sharpness of a colour image

An image display system forms an output video signal which is composed of successive frames, the output video signal including a plurality of windows, each of which contains image information from an own input video signal in each frame. The image information from the input video signals is written into a memory wherefrom subsequently successive frames of an output video signal are read, each time from a respective series of locations of the memory. Upon reading, a concatenation of the respective series of the successive frames is formed. The locations are periodically repeated in this concatenation with a period of recurrence which is longer than a single series, the locations of the respective series of each frame at an end being coincident in an overlapping fashion with the locations at the beginning of the series of a directly preceding frame. Despite the overlap, no image information of the windows will be overwritten before it has been read, provided that the overlap is smaller than the minimum number of locations used in a series between the beginning and the end of a window. In the case of rectangular windows, the minimum height of the windows thus defines the overlap.

Image display system and multi-window image display method

An image processing system processes background and foreground images and stores a combined image in a shared frame buffer. The images are processed such that mixing of the images and smooth transitions between the images can be achieved. The input images may be independently supplied and may have different refresh rates. The image processing system determines whether a position in a combined image is part of a predetermined background area, a predetermined foreground area or a predetermined mixing area. The mixing area includes mixing area positions, defined as positions in the combined image which correspond to a predetermined area of the corresponding foreground image. The foreground area includes foreground area positions, defined as positions in the combined image which correspond to the foreground image and which are not part of the mixing area. The background area includes background area positions, defined as positions in the combined image which correspond to the background image and which are not part of the mixing area or the foreground area. The image processing system additionally includes a display controller and a frame buffer coupled together. The display controller includes inputs and processors. The inputs receive digital background input pixels, which are a background input image, and receive digital foreground input pixels, which are at least one foreground input image. The processors process the input pixels and propagate the stream of processed pixels to memory elements of the frame buffer, forming a combined image.

Single frame buffer image processing system

A data processing system comprises a plurality of processing elements being operative to process data and being coupled in parallel to a bus via a control means that governs data communication. The control means comprises a plurality of buffer means, and each respective one of the buffer means includes a respective plurality of parallel buffer segments. The control means is operative to selectively connect a single one of the buffer segments in respective ones of the buffer means to respective ones of the processing elements. This effectively permits distributing of the data in an arbitrary manner over the elements by the sorting the data in advance in the segments according to destination. The system is highly suitable to handle video and graphics data in image synthesis.

Growing community of inventors

Eindhoven, Netherlands

Alphonsius A De Lange