The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 31, 1995
Filed:
Mar. 14, 1995
Donald E Blahut, Holmdel, NJ (US);
Edward S Szurkowski, Maplewood, NJ (US);
AT&T Corp., Murray Hill, NJ (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for the coding and efficient display of overlapping windows with transparency. Each pixel within a window which is not to be displayed may be coded as a 'transparent' pixel. The method identifies those pixels which have been coded as transparent and displays non-transparent pixels contained in windows of lower display priority in place of the transparent pixels contained in windows of higher display priority. A pixel coded as transparent may have associated with it an integer representative of the number of successive pixels in the window which are also transparent. A pixel may be coded as transparent by assigning to it a preselected data value which is distinct from values otherwise used to indicate, e.g., the color and/or intensity for each displayed pixel. The method and apparatus may include one or more windows which contain full motion video (i.e., television) images, each of which may also contain transparent pixels. A pixel also may be coded as a 'translucent' pixel, whereby a combination of the translucent pixel and a non-translucent pixel contained in a window of lower display priority is displayed. The method may be used to efficiently recognize various conditions in the displayed image, including the collision of objects and the pointing of a displayed cursor to identified 'hot spots.'