Methods and systems for asymmeteric supersampling rasterization of image data

Abstract

Methods and systems are disclosed for utilizing an increased number of samples of image data, coupled with the separately controllable nature of RGB pixel sub-components, to generate images with increased resolution on a display device. such as a liquid crystal display. The methods include scaling, hinting, and scan conversion operations. The scaling operation involves scaling the image data by factors of one in the directions perpendicular and parallel to the RGB striping of the display device. Hinting includes placing the scaled image data on a grid that has grid points defined by the positions of the pixels of the display device, and rounding key points to the nearest full pixel boundary in the direction parallel to the striping and to the nearest fractional increment in the direction perpendicular to the striping. Scan conversion includes scaling the hinted image data by an overscaling factor in the direction perpendicular to the striping. The overscaling factor is equivalent to the denominator of the fractional increments of the grid. Scan conversion also includes generating, for each region of the image data, a number of samples that equals the overscaling factor and mapping spatially different sets of the samples to each of the pixel sub-components.