JP2000066659A - Image compositing device and method, and navigation system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make a superposed optional area semi-transmissible when image data for plural display screens are composited. SOLUTION: Image data transmitted from an image storing memory 5 are stored a layer unit by a layer unit in a display memory 5 to be converted into image display data (values of a digital RGB) by a lock-up table, and to be added with semi-transmission ON/OFF information in every image display data unit for one dot. An image compositing part 57 screen-composits each layer in every one dot unit based on a display condition signal for every layer and the image display data output from a display position control part 53 to form image display data for one layer. In the case where the display condition signal has two or more of display conditions, the image display data of the uppermost layer in superposed layers is used for the image display data after composition when the semi-transmission ON/OFF information is OFF, and semi- transmission compositing processing is conducted when the ON/OFF information is ON.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for synthesizing image data of a plurality of display surfaces, for example, map data and data other than a map, and a navigation system including a screen synthesizing apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, a G
There is known a car navigation system that automatically displays a map around a current position detected by a PS (Global Positioning System) or the like and guides a route to a set destination. As described above, in such a navigation system, it is necessary to display a route around the current location or the route to the destination as a map, and various map display devices for that purpose have been considered.

[0003] In this map display device, for example, image data of a map, image data of a cursor indicating the position of the vehicle, and image data indicating an item of a function selection switch are synthesized and displayed. . At this time, if the vehicle position cursor and the function selection switch are simply combined and displayed on the map, the map of the portion where the vehicle position cursor and the function selection switch are displayed becomes invisible.

For this reason, a technique has been proposed in which a semi-transparent (semi-transparent) process is performed on a portion where a plurality of pieces of image data are overlapped so that the image data hidden in a lower layer can be visually recognized (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. HEI 9-102572). 4-25699).

[0005]

However, in the case of the above-mentioned prior art, a semi-transmissive process is performed on the entire overlapping area, and only an arbitrary area in the overlapping area is set in a semi-transmitting state. Cannot be performed (see FIG. 9).

Therefore, for example, if the map image data and the character indicating the item of the function selection switch are in a semi-transparent state, the map image and the character overlap and the character becomes difficult to see. In addition, when there are a plurality of function selection switches, for example, for a switch that cannot be used in a certain screen state, the map image is made visible as a semi-transparent state, but the switch function is set to a usable switch without setting the switch to a semi-transparent state. Sometimes it is desirable to distinguish between the two by clearly indicating the characters shown. However, in the case of the prior art,
It cannot be realized because it is not possible to set a part in a semi-transmissive state and the rest in a semi-transmissive state.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of such a problem.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a screen synthesizing apparatus and a method capable of making an overlapping arbitrary area into a semi-transparent state, and a navigation system including the screen synthesizing apparatus.

[0008]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a screen synthesizing apparatus for synthesizing image data of a plurality of display surfaces, the image being formed in an overlapping area of the image data. This is a device that adjusts the gray value to make it in a semi-transmissive state, and stores image data of a plurality of display surfaces in image data storage means for each display surface. The image display data creation means includes:
The image data for each display surface stored in the image data storage means is converted into image display data in pixel units, and semi-transmissive information for instructing whether or not to semi-transmit each image display data in pixel units is added. I do. Then, when the screen combining means combines the image display data for each of the plurality of display surfaces to which the semi-transparent information is added, if the semi-transparent information instructs semi-transmission, the image combining data is added to the plurality of image display data to be combined. The value obtained by applying a predetermined weighted average to the combined image display data is used as the image display data after combining. If the semi-transparent information does not indicate semi-transmission, the image display data set as the top layer in the image display data to be combined is used. This is the image display data after the combination.

In this manner, when combining image data of a plurality of display surfaces, an overlapping arbitrary region can be made semi-transparent. In other words, on the display surface of the lower layer to be superimposed, semi-transmissive synthesis is performed on a portion that is to be made visible, and semi-transparent synthesis is not performed on a portion that does not need to be visible or that should not be translucently synthesized. Screen composition can be performed so that only the image data of the surface can be visually recognized (see FIG. 10). Therefore, for example, when the map and the item of the function selection switch are combined on the screen, for example, a switch that cannot be used in a certain map screen state is made to be in a semi-transparent state so that the map image can be viewed, but a switch that can be used is not used. It is also possible to distinguish between the two by clearly indicating the character indicating the switch function without setting the transmission state.

Since an arbitrary area in a pixel unit can be made semi-transparent, for example, for a function selection switch item, characters are not made semi-transmissive, but other items such as a frame surrounding a character, etc. Can be in a semi-transmissive state. Thus, it is possible to prevent the map image from overlapping with the character and making the character hard to see.

Although a predetermined weighted average is applied to a plurality of image display data to be combined, an average value with the same weight is simply sufficient. The image display data may be digital RGB values, for example, as described in claim 2. In this case, the data is for displaying a color image. However, if the weighted average value of the digital RGB values is obtained in the case of semi-transmission, it means that the gray value of the image is eventually adjusted, and the semi-transmission state is changed. realizable.

By the way, as the image data of a plurality of display surfaces to be synthesized, any data can be applied. For example, map data is displayed on a screen as realized in a navigation system, for example, and a function selection switch is turned on. It is common to combine the indicated items on a screen. Then, the map data often needs to be updated according to a predetermined map scroll instruction, that is, updated while moving the display area little by little. In this case, the translucent image changes frequently. Even in this case, the transflective state can be realized without increasing the processing load by using the screen synthesizing apparatus of the present invention. Because only the map data to be scrolled is updated, there is no need to update other data such as the function selection switch. After that, the screen composition processing that makes only the necessary portions semi-transparent based on the semi-transparent information Because they just do

[0013] On the other hand, the technical idea of the present invention can be realized as a screen synthesizing method. That is,
A method for synthesizing a plurality of image data, wherein the image data is adjusted to a semi-transmissive state by adjusting the image density value of an area where the image data overlaps, and the image data of a plurality of display surfaces is converted into pixel-based image display data. In addition, the image display data of the pixel unit is added with semi-transmissive information indicating whether or not the image display data is semi-transparent, and when the image display data is written to the image data storage unit, the image display data of the lower layer is already written. In this case, the written lower-layer image display data is temporarily read out, and if the translucent information added to the upper-layer image display data to be written this time indicates translucency, The value obtained by subjecting the corresponding upper layer and lower layer image display data to a predetermined weighted average is used as the synthesized image display data, and if the semi-transmission information does not indicate semi-transmission, the upper The image display data layer as the image display data after synthesis and of writing to the image data storage means.

When processing is performed in a software manner, the hardware configuration is simplified. In other words, in the case of the above-described screen synthesizing apparatus, the image data of a plurality of display surfaces are stored in the image data storage unit for each display surface. It is sufficient if there is a storage area of.

However, at the time of screen composition, the image display data already written in the image data storage means is once read, and if there is a semi-transparent composition instruction, a semi-transparent composition process is performed with the written data. Otherwise, it is necessary to perform the synthesizing process in a format that overwrites the write data, and write the synthesized image display data to the image data storage means again. Therefore, the processing load increases.
In particular, when it is necessary to frequently rewrite image display data due to scrolling or the like, the processing load is considerably large. From this viewpoint, it is advantageous to perform the above-described hardware processing.

When the present invention is realized as a navigation system including the screen synthesizing device, the screen synthesizing device indicates at least image data of a display surface showing a map and items of function switches. It is conceivable that the image processing apparatus is configured to be used for synthesizing the image data of the display surface. A navigation system characterized by being performed.

Although the navigation system has been described as an example of using the screen synthesizing apparatus, other systems may be used.

[0018]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment in which a screen synthesizing apparatus is applied to an on-vehicle navigation system will be described below as an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a vehicle-mounted navigation system 2 (hereinafter, simply referred to as a navigation system 2) of the present embodiment. The navigation system 2 includes a position detector 4, a map data input device 6, an operation switch group 8, a navigation control unit 10 connected thereto, a speaker 11 connected to the navigation control unit 10, and an external memory. 12, a remote control sensor 15 and a display control device 50. The navigation control unit 10 is configured as a normal computer, and includes a well-known CPU, ROM, RAM, I / O, and a bus line connecting these components.

The position detector 4 is a GPS (Global Pos.) For detecting the position of a vehicle based on radio waves from a well-known gyroscope 18, a distance sensor 20, and satellites.
and a GPS receiver 22 for the itioning system). Each of these sensors 18, 20, and 22 has an error having a different property.
Each is configured to be used while interpolating. Note that, depending on the accuracy, a part of the above-described components may be used, and a rotation sensor for the steering wheel, a wheel sensor for each rolling wheel, or the like may be used.

The map data input device 6 is a device for inputting various data including so-called map matching data, map data and landmark data for improving the accuracy of position detection. As a storage medium, CD
-A ROM or DVD is generally used, but other media such as a memory card may be used.

The display 14 is connected to the display control device 50. The display 14 includes a vehicle current position mark input from the position detector 4, map data input from the map data input device 6, a guidance route to be displayed on the map, and a mark of a set point to be described later. Can be superimposed and displayed. As the display 14, for example, a CRT, a liquid crystal display, a plasma display, or the like may be used.

The display control device 50, as shown in FIG.
Control unit I / F 51, image storage memory 52, display position control unit 53, reading control unit 54, display memory 55
, A lookup table 56, a screen synthesizing unit 57,
An image display I / F 58 is provided. The function of each of these components will be described together with the description of the processing operation related to screen composition described later.

The navigation system 2 is a remote control terminal (hereinafter, referred to as a remote controller).
When the position of the destination is input from the remote control sensor 15 via the operation switch group 8 via the remote control sensor 15a, an optimum route from the current position to the destination is automatically selected, and a guidance route is formed and displayed. It also has a route guidance function. As a technique for automatically setting the optimum route, a technique such as the Dijkstra method is known. Also,
As the operation switch group 8, for example, a touch switch or a mechanical switch integrated with the display 14 is used, and is used for various inputs.

Next, the operation of the navigation system 2 of the first embodiment will be described. Since the processing operation related to image display has a feature, a general operation as a navigation system will be briefly described, and then the operation of the display control device 50 will be described in detail.

After the power of the navigation system 2 is turned on, the driver can display the guidance route from the menu displayed on the display 14 by the remote controller 15a (the same operation can be performed with the operation switches 8; the same applies to the following description). When the route information display process is selected to be displayed on the device 14, the following process is performed.

That is, when the driver inputs the destination by operating the remote controller 15a or the like based on the map on the display 14, the current position of the vehicle is obtained based on the satellite data obtained from the GPS receiver 22, and the destination is obtained. A process is performed to calculate the cost between the current location and the current location by the Dijkstra method and determine the shortest route from the current location to the destination as a guidance route. Then, the guidance route is displayed on the road map on the display 14 so as to guide the driver to an appropriate route. The calculation process and the guidance process for obtaining such a guide route are generally well-known processes, and a description thereof will be omitted.

This is the operation of a general navigation system. As shown in FIG. 3, the display 14 displays a composite screen of a map, a cursor, and a switch. Then, next, the display control device 5
The processing operation related to the screen synthesis executed in step 0 will be described in detail. Note that, as described above, the configuration of each unit in the display control device 50 illustrated in FIG. 2 will be described as needed.

As shown in FIG. 2, the control unit I / F 51 is an interface for exchanging data with the navigation control unit 10. The image data sent from the navigation control unit 10 is an image. It is stored in the storage memory 52. In the navigation system 2 according to the present embodiment, a map, a cursor indicating the current position, and a switch for selecting a function are mainly displayed. Is displayed.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 3 or FIG. 4, the image data of the map layer, the cursor layer, and the switch layer sent from the navigation control unit 10 are stored in the image storage memory 52, respectively. Note that FIG. 3 shows a display image, and in actuality, FIG.
As shown in (1), it is stored in each storage area managed by the navigation control unit 10. The image data of each layer is raster format / lookup table type image data, and a lookup table number (pixel0, pixel1,...) Is set for each data (1 byte) for one dot. . Further, the allocation of the area (position and size) on the image storage memory 52 of each layer can be set freely in units of 1 byte.

The display position controller 53 includes a navigation controller 10
Thus, the screen display position for each layer is arbitrarily designated and set in units of one dot in the horizontal direction and one line in the vertical direction. Also, start address information for reading data of each layer from the image storage memory 52 is set. Then, the display position control unit 53 synchronizes with the timing (vertical synchronization signal and horizontal synchronization signal shown in FIGS. 5 and 6) for displaying the image data on the display 14 for each layer based on the set value of the display position. In addition, a timing (memory read timing) for reading data from the image storage memory 52 is generated, and a display state signal indicating that an image is being displayed is generated for each layer (see FIG. 6). As can be seen from FIG. 6, when the display state signal is in a display state of two or more layers, the display layers are overlapped.

Then, the read control unit 54 reads the image data for each layer from the image storage memory 52 for the data required for display (16 dots) based on the memory read timing output from the display position control unit 53. , To the display memory 55. In the display memory 55,
The image data transferred from the image storage memory 52 can be stored for each layer. This display memory 55
In, image data of each layer is treated as a table number of a lookup table. Then, the image data is converted into image display data (digital RGB values) by the look-up table 56, and semi-transparent ON / OFF information is registered in units of one dot of image display data.

As described above, by adding the semi-transparent ON / OFF information to the image display data registered in the color look-up table, the semi-transparent processing can be realized in an arbitrary area (color: for each table number). Can be. Further, the screen synthesizing section 57 performs one based on the display state signal for each layer output from the display position control section 53 and the image display data.
Each layer is screen-combined on a dot-by-dot basis to make one layer of image display data. The method of this screen composition is as follows.

When the display state signal is a display state of only one layer, the image display data of that layer becomes the image display data after the synthesis, regardless of the translucent ON / OFF information. When the display state signal is a display state of two or more layers and the translucent ON / OFF information is OFF, the image display data of the top layer of the overlapping layer becomes the image display data after the combination.

When the display state signal is a display state of two or more layers and the transflective ON / OFF information is ON,
Perform semi-transmissive synthesis processing. In this semi-transparent composition processing, the average value of the image display data (digital RGB values) of the overlapping layers is used as the image display data after composition. The image display data after the synthesis is finally data to be displayed on the display unit 14.

Then, the combined image display data is sent to the display 14 via the image display I / F 58 to be displayed. In the present embodiment, the image storage memory 5
2 and the display memory 55 correspond to “image data storage means”, and the look-up table 56 corresponds to “image display data creation means”. Further, the screen synthesizing unit 57 corresponds to “screen synthesizing means”.

As described above, in the present embodiment, when synthesizing image data of a plurality of display surfaces, any overlapping area can be made to be in a semi-transmissive state. In other words, on the display surface of the lower layer to be superimposed, semi-transmissive synthesis is performed on a portion that is to be made visible, and semi-transparent synthesis is not performed on a portion that does not need to be visible or that should not be translucently synthesized. Screen composition can be performed so that only the image data of the surface can be visually recognized (see FIG. 10).

Therefore, for the switch layer,
For example, for a switch that cannot be used in a certain map screen state, the map image can be viewed as a semi-transparent state, but for the usable switch, the character indicating the switch function is clearly indicated without setting the switch to the semi-transparent state. It is easy to make a distinction. Since an arbitrary area in units of one dot (pixel) can be made semi-transparent, only the character portion in the switch layer is not made semi-transparent, and other frames, such as frames surrounding the characters, are made semi-transparent. It can also be in a state. For the image display data of the character portion, the semi-transparent ON / OFF information may be set to ON. Thus, it is possible to prevent the map image from overlapping with the character and making the character hard to see.

In the navigation system 2, there is an application that displays a map layer, a cursor layer, and a switch layer and performs semi-transparent synthesis between the map layer and the switch layer. In this state, the map layer scrolls. When the display position of the switch layer on the screen changes, the semi-transparent image may change frequently. Even in such a case, the transflective processing can be performed without increasing the processing load of the navigation control unit 10 by using the display control device 50 of the present embodiment. This is because image data obtained by dividing layers according to display contents is stored in the image storage memory 52.
This is because the translucent composition processing is performed while reading out the image data of each layer from the image storage memory 52 in real time at the timing when the image data is displayed on the display 14. In other words, as the processing load of the navigation control unit 10, for example, when changing the display position of the switch layer, it is only necessary to change the display position setting of the switch layer, and there is no need to rewrite the image data. Only needs to change the image data of the map layer.

As described above, the present invention is not limited to such an embodiment, and can be implemented in various forms without departing from the gist of the present invention. For example, in the above embodiment, the semi-transmissive synthesis processing is realized by hardware, but may be realized by software. When realized by software, the configuration of the display control device 50 is simplified as shown in FIG. That is, the look-up table 56 and the screen synthesizing unit 57 required in the embodiment shown in FIG.
Is unnecessary, and the display memory 55 only needs to be secured for one layer. In addition, other configurations, that is, a control unit I / F 51, an image storage memory 52, a display position control unit 53, a read control unit 54, and an image display I / F
/ F58 has a similar configuration, and therefore description thereof will not be repeated.

In the case of software implementation, image display data of the map layer, the cursor layer, and the switch layer are stored in the main memory inside the navigation control unit 10, and the lower layer (map layer) → cursor layer → switch layer), the navigation control unit 10 transfers the image data to the image storage memory 52 of the display control device 50,
Image display data for one screen is completed. As shown in FIG. 12, the image display data has a data format including a semi-transparent composition ON / OFF flag and digital R, G, and B values.

Next, the translucent composition processing executed by the navigation control unit 10 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, the image display data of the lower layer is written into the image storage memory 52 (S10). Then, it is determined whether or not the translucent ON / OFF flag of the image display data of the upper layer is in the ON state (S20). Translucent ON / O
If the FF flag is ON (S20: YES), the already written image display data is stored in the image storage memory 5.
2 is read once (S30). Then, the read (lower layer) image display data and the write data (upper layer) image display data are translucently combined (S40), and the translucent combined image display data is stored in the image storage memory. 52 is written again (S50). S
The semi-transmissive combining process at 40 is performed by using the digital R,
In this process, the average value of the G and B values is used as image display data after synthesis.

On the other hand, the transflective ON / OFF flag is OFF.
If it is in the state (S20: NO), the image display data of the upper layer is written to the image storage memory 52 (S60). Therefore, no transflective synthesis is performed. Although semi-transparent processing can be realized by software processing as described above, it is necessary to perform writing again from the lower layer in order and perform semi-transparent synthesis compared to the above-described hardware processing. Becomes larger. In particular, when it is necessary to frequently rewrite image display data due to scrolling or the like,
Since the processing load is considerably large, it is more advantageous to perform the above-described hardware processing from this viewpoint.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a navigation system to which a screen composition device according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an internal configuration of the display control device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a schematic image of screen synthesis.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a data storage state in an image storage memory.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of display position control in a display position control unit.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of display position control in a display position control unit.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a data storage state in a look-up table.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing screen synthesis conversion logic in a screen synthesis unit.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing a screen synthesizing process according to a conventional technique.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing a screen synthesizing process according to the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of a display control device when a screen composition device of another embodiment is applied.

FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram showing an image display data format in another embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating a screen combining process according to another embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

2. Navigation system (for in-vehicle use) 4. Position detector 6. Map data input device 8. Operation switch group 10. Navigation control unit 11. Speaker 12. External memory 14. Display unit 15. Remote control sensor 15a. Remote control 18. Gyroscope. Scope 20 ... Distance sensor 22 ... GPS receiver 50 ... Display control device 51 ... Control unit I / F 52 ... Image storage memory 53 ... Display position control unit 54 ... Read control unit 55 ... Display memory 56 ... Lookup table 57 ... Screen Synthesizing unit 58: Image display I /
F

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Masatoshi Yabo 1-1-1 Showa-cho, Kariya-shi, Aichi F-term in DENSO Corporation (reference) 2F029 AA02 AB01 AB07 AB09 AB13 AC02 AC08 AC14 AC16 AD01 5C082 AA00 AA21 AA31 AA37 BA34 BB15 BB22 BB25 BB51 CA56 CA72 CB01 DA01 DA71 DA86 MM10 5H180 AA01 EE01 FF04 FF05 FF22 FF27

Claims (6)

[Claims] When combining image data of a plurality of display surfaces,
What is claimed is: 1. A screen synthesizing apparatus for adjusting an image density value of an area where image data overlaps to make a semi-transmissive state, comprising: image data storage means for storing image data of the plurality of display surfaces for each display surface; An image in which the image data for each display surface stored in the data storage means is converted into image display data in pixel units, and semi-transmissive information indicating whether or not each image display data in pixel units is semi-transparent is added. Display data creating means, when combining the image display data for each of a plurality of display surfaces to which the semi-transparent information is added by the image display data creating means, if the semi-transparent information indicates semi-transmission, A value obtained by subjecting a plurality of image display data to be synthesized to a predetermined weighted average is used as image display data after synthesis. If the semi-transmission information does not indicate semi-transmission, the image to be synthesized is displayed. Picture composing apparatus characterized by and a screen combining unit to the image display data after combining what is set as the uppermost layer among the display data. 2. A screen synthesizing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said image display data is a digital RGB value. Generator. 3. The screen synthesizing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein one of the image data of the plurality of display surfaces to be synthesized is map data. 4. The screen synthesizing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the map data is data that needs to be updated and displayed in response to a predetermined map scroll instruction. 5. A screen synthesizing method in which, when synthesizing image data corresponding to a plurality of display surfaces, the image data is adjusted to a semi-transparent state by adjusting an image density value of an overlapping area of the image data. When the image data of the surface is converted into image display data of a pixel unit, semi-transmissive information indicating whether or not the image display data of the pixel unit is semi-transparent is added, and the image data is written in the image data storage unit. When the lower layer image display data has already been written, the written lower layer image display data is once read out and added to the upper layer image display data to be written this time. If the semi-transparent information indicates semi-transparent,
A value obtained by subjecting the corresponding upper layer and lower layer image display data to a predetermined weighted average is used as combined image display data. If the semi-transmissive information does not indicate semi-transmission, the upper layer image display is performed. Writing the data as image display data after synthesis into the image data storage means. 6. A navigation system comprising the screen synthesizing device according to claim 1, wherein the screen synthesizing device indicates at least image data of a display surface showing a map and an item of a function switch. A navigation system configured to be used for synthesizing image data of a display surface.