JP2000148131A - Image display method and image processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [PROBLEMS] To reduce the amount of data sufficiently even for an animation in which the display order of frames is not constant and to enable high-speed drawing. Make it more interesting for the viewer of the animation. Improve video creation efficiency. In this image display method, sprites S1,
By providing a plurality of frames in which S2 is incorporated and sequentially drawing the frames, the animation is reproduced on the display unit. Then, the temporal relationship between the frames to be displayed is not uniquely defined, but the temporal relationship between the frames is defined when the animation is played back. The difference between the sprites S1 and S2 included in the. Also, how to play the animation in the order of the frames described in the scenario,
There are at least two reproduction methods of changing the reproduction position to an arbitrary frame at an arbitrary timing and reproducing the image.
Further, an arbitrary frame is designated by a predetermined label name instead of a frame number.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image display method and an image processing apparatus for animation in which an image called a sprite or a cast is operated according to a scenario.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a method of displaying an animation, there are a frame-based animation and a sprite-based animation. Frame-based animation is a method of displaying pictures one by one like a so-called picture-story show. When creating each picture takes time and effort, the frames are displayed in order. And the load during playback is light.

On the other hand, in sprite-based animation, one picture (frame) is divided into a plurality of sprites (casts), for example, a moving character such as a hero character, a cloud, and a car, and each sprite is arranged in accordance with a predetermined scenario. To operate. This sprite-based animation has the advantage that it is easier to create each frame, and the memory size is smaller overall because multiple frame images share a sprite. . But,
In the sprite-based animation, it is necessary to move each sprite according to a scenario at the time of reproduction, and a heavy load is imposed on a central processing unit (hereinafter referred to as a CPU) that executes a drawing process and a sprite combination process. I have.

[0004]

A conventional image processing apparatus for reproducing a sprite-based animation includes a CPU.
The above-mentioned problem is addressed by increasing the power and the mounted memory. However, when the animation is extremely complicated, for example, when it becomes a stereoscopic image, a very expensive C
A PU and a high-capacity memory are required, and the device becomes expensive.

[0005] Recently, display devices that are portable and are handled by so-called amateurs, such as products called network displays, have begun to be adopted for convenience stores and the like. It is required to reduce the price of a portable device that can simplify such an operation and is used by many people. On the other hand, although the price is kept low, the display speed is required to be equal to or higher than usual.

In a conventional sprite-based moving image, the display order of frames is determined at the time of authoring (at the time of producing a moving image). Then, in order to compress and store the frames in the display order as much as possible, an inter-frame difference for the entire frame is obtained. However, if the display order of the frames can be displayed differently from that at the time of authoring, the difference between frames cannot be obtained by the conventional method, and the memory capacity increases and high-speed drawing cannot be performed. Has become.

[0007] In the conventional animation, since frames are displayed according to a predetermined scenario at the time of authoring, it cannot be related to an external action or the like.
It is not interesting for those who watch animation. In addition, for video authors,
Cooperation (communication) with the person who creates the overall control program for controlling moving images and other members is required, and much time is spent on meetings and meetings.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problem, and an image display method capable of sufficiently reducing the data amount and performing high-speed drawing even for an animation in which the display order of frames is not fixed. And an image processing apparatus. Another object of the present invention is to provide an image display method and an image processing apparatus which can make the display of an animation more interesting for a viewer. Still another aspect of the present invention is an image display method and an image processing apparatus in which a person who authors a moving image can produce a moving image with almost no meetings with the creator of the overall control program, thereby improving the moving image creation efficiency. The purpose is to provide.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the image display method of the present invention, a plurality of frames incorporating sprites are provided, and the frames are sequentially drawn to reproduce an animation on a display unit. In the image display method, the temporal relationship between the frames to be displayed is not uniquely defined, but the temporal relationship between the frames is defined at the time of playing the animation. The difference between sprites included in the previous and subsequent frames is calculated.

As described above, the temporal relationship between frames is not uniquely determined when reproducing the animation, and the relationship is determined for the first time during reproduction. Therefore, a normal difference between frames cannot be obtained. However, since the difference between the sprites included in the frames before and after the reproduction is calculated, the difference can always be calculated regardless of the order in which the frames are reproduced. By using this difference, the image data in the frame can be reduced, and the reproduction speed can be increased in accordance with the data reduction.

In another invention, in addition to the image display method of the above-described invention, a difference between sprites is calculated by using information on the position and size of the sprite included in the scenario. Therefore, the difference between the sprites can be calculated from the scenario data, and the calculation is easy and the difference can be calculated reliably.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image display method in which a plurality of frames incorporating sprites are provided, and the frames are sequentially drawn to reproduce an animation on a display unit. (Hereinafter referred to as scheduled scenario playback) and a method of changing the playback position to an arbitrary frame at an arbitrary timing and playing it back (hereinafter referred to as an arbitrary frame playback). Have.

As described above, the reproduction is normally continued in accordance with the scenario, but it is possible to immediately shift the control to an arbitrary scenario in response to a request from the host system or the like. For this reason,
The animation can be displayed in association with an external event or the like, and the animation becomes interesting for the viewer.

Further, in another invention, in addition to the image display method of the above-described invention, the reproduction of an arbitrary frame is performed at the request of a host system which is a higher-level system for controlling the scheduled scenario reproduction. As described above, the upper-level host system reproduces an arbitrary frame, that is, moves a scenario to an arbitrary frame. Therefore, the upper-level host system associates the reproduction of the arbitrary frame with another control or executes the parallel operation in parallel with the other control. And can be processed.

Further, in another invention, in addition to the image display method of each of the above-described inventions, when an arbitrary frame is reproduced,
An arbitrary frame can be designated by a predetermined label name instead of a frame number. In this way, since the destination frame at the time of moving the scenario can be specified by the label name, the work can be efficiently shared between the author (video creator) and the programmer of the program that controls the reproduction of the arbitrary frame. It will be.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image display method in which a plurality of frames incorporating sprites are provided and the frames are sequentially drawn to reproduce an animation on a display unit. The reproduction position is changed to the frame and the reproduction is performed, and an arbitrary frame is designated by a predetermined label name instead of the frame number.

As described above, since the destination frame at the time of moving the scenario can be designated by the label name, the work sharing between the author (movie creator) and the programmer of the program for controlling the arbitrary reproduction is efficiently performed. It can be done in. For example, in the related art, the author often has a meeting or a meeting with a programmer, but according to the present invention, such an operation is hardly required.

In the image processing apparatus of the present invention, a memory for storing compressed data of a sprite and scenario data for displaying a plurality of frames in which the sprite is incorporated in a predetermined order, a sprite and a frame in accordance with the scenario. In an image processing apparatus having arithmetic processing means for controlling the display of an image and display processing means for performing a process for displaying the decompressed data on the display unit, the temporal relationship between the displayed frames is uniquely defined. In addition, there is provided a display order defining means for defining a temporal relationship between frames at the time of animation reproduction, and a difference detecting means for taking a difference between previous and next frames at the time of animation reproduction, and the difference detecting means is included in the preceding and succeeding frames. The sprite difference is detected.

As described above, the temporal relationship between frames is not uniquely determined when reproducing an animation, and the relationship is determined only at the time of reproduction. Therefore, a normal difference between frames cannot be obtained. However, since the difference between the sprites included in the frames before and after the reproduction is calculated, the difference can always be calculated regardless of the order in which the frames are reproduced. By using this difference, the image data in the frame can be reduced, and the reproduction speed can be increased in accordance with the data reduction.

Further, in the image processing apparatus according to another aspect of the present invention, in addition to the above-described image processing apparatus, a difference between sprites is calculated by using information on a position and a size of a sprite included in a scenario. Therefore, the difference between the sprites can be calculated from the scenario data, and the calculation is easy and the difference can be calculated reliably.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image processing apparatus comprising: a memory for storing compressed data of a sprite and scenario data for displaying a plurality of frames in which the sprite is incorporated in a predetermined order; Arithmetic processing means for controlling the display of the frame;
In an image processing apparatus having display processing means for performing processing for displaying the decompressed data on the display unit, scheduled scenario playback means for playing animation in the order of frames described in the scenario, An arbitrary frame reproducing means for changing the reproduction position to an arbitrary frame at an arbitrary timing and reproducing the image.

As described above, the reproduction is normally continued in accordance with the scenario, but it is possible to immediately shift the control to an arbitrary scenario in response to a request from the host system or the like. For this reason,
The animation can be displayed in association with an external event or the like, and the animation becomes interesting for the viewer.

Further, in another invention, in addition to the image processing apparatus of the above-mentioned invention, the reproduction by the arbitrary frame reproducing means is
The reproduction is performed by a request from a host system which is a higher-level system for controlling reproduction by the scheduled scenario reproducing means. As described above, an arbitrary frame is reproduced by the upper host system, that is, the scenario is moved to an arbitrary frame.
Arbitrary frame playback can be associated with other controls or processed in parallel with other controls.

According to another aspect of the present invention, in addition to the image processing apparatus according to the above-described aspects, in the case where reproduction is performed by an arbitrary frame reproducing unit, an arbitrary frame can be designated by a predetermined label name instead of a frame number. I have. As described above, the destination frame at the time of moving the scenario can be specified by the label name, so that the work can be efficiently shared between the author and the programmer of the program that controls the reproduction of the arbitrary frame.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image processing apparatus comprising: a memory for storing compressed data of a sprite and scenario data for displaying a plurality of frames in which the sprite is incorporated in a predetermined order; Arithmetic processing means for controlling the display of the frame;
An image processing apparatus having display processing means for performing processing for displaying decompressed data on a display unit, wherein an arbitrary frame reproducing means for changing a reproduction position to an arbitrary frame at an arbitrary timing and reproducing the image is provided; Are designated by a predetermined label name instead of a frame number.

As described above, the destination frame at the time of moving the scenario can be specified by the label name, so that the work can be efficiently shared between the author and the programmer of the program for controlling the reproduction of an arbitrary frame. Become. For example, in the related art, the author often has a meeting or a meeting with a programmer, but according to the present invention, such an operation is hardly required.

[0027]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

The image processing apparatus of this embodiment is a portable television receiver for receiving broadcasts from a television station 8 and is incorporated in a network display 1 which is also a network device. The network display 1 includes a LAN 3 as a local area network, a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a personal computer) 4 as a host server for connection to the outside, an ISDN 5 as a digital public line network, and a host computer of a provider (hereinafter referred to as a WWW server). )
6 is connected to the Internet 2.

This WWW server 6 has a URL (Uniform
Resource Locator), but usually http
(Http) is displayed using (Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol). For this reason, it also functions as an HTTP server.

Other WWW servers 6a and 6b are connected to the Internet 2. Also, the WWW server 6 has:
A server computer 7 serving as a server, a personal computer 4a, and the like are connected via another LAN 3a and the like, and a display 7a is connected to the server computer 7. Note that L
AN3 has other network displays 1a, 1b.
And a personal computer 4b are connected.

Here, as the device into which the image processing device is incorporated, in addition to the network displays 1, 1a, 1b also serving as a part of the display means, the personal computers 4, 4a, 4b
And television receivers, and even server computer 7
And the display 7a and the like may be combined. Also, the connection between the ISDN 5 and the personal computer 4,
For connection between the LAN 5a and the LAN 5, a connection means to a network such as a digital service unit (DSU), a terminal adapter, a modem, an IP router, or the like is used.

Network display 1, 1a, 1b
(Hereafter, network display 1
2), as shown in FIG. 2, a display unit 11 made of a liquid crystal at the center, an operation unit 12 arranged around the display unit 11, a speaker unit 13 for outputting sound, a specific web page. It is mainly composed of a magnetic card reader unit 14 for reading a magnetic card that can be accessed to read the address and reading other magnetic cards, and a connection unit 15 connected to a power supply line or the personal computer 4 as a host. .

The left and right operation units 12 of the display unit 11 are 1-1
0, there are ten types of menu buttons 12, and each of these buttons 12a
The corresponding operation menu is displayed on the display unit 11 close to. For example, various animations stored in the personal computer 4 are selected by their numbers. That is, when the first menu button 12a is pressed, 1
Make the number animation play. Various operation buttons 12b for accessing a homepage on the Internet are arranged below the display unit 11. An instruction operation unit 12c for moving the operation arrow on the screen up, down, left and right near the magnetic card reader unit 14.
Is provided.

The circuit configuration of such a network display 1 is as follows. That is, as shown in FIG.
(Liquid crystal) display unit 11 and C serving as arithmetic processing means
PU (= central processing unit) 21, dedicated graphics LSI 22 as display processing means, and memory 23 such as ROM or RAM for storing animation data including sprite data and scenario data
And receives instructions from an external information source 24 such as the personal computer 4
A data receiving / transmitting circuit 25 for transmitting a signal to the PU 21 or an instruction from the CPU 21 to the personal computer 4, and a VRAM (video RAM) 26 connected to the dedicated graphics LSI 22.
, A sound circuit 27 for supplying sound to an external amplifier and speaker unit 13, a display control unit 28 for driving and controlling the display unit 11, and a peripheral device control unit 29.

The CPU 21, the dedicated graphics LSI 22, the memory 23, and the data transmission / reception circuit 25
And the peripheral device control unit 29 are connected by a high-speed host bus 30. Also, in the sound circuit 27,
A microphone input terminal 31 is connected, and external sound can be input. The display control unit 28 includes a first drive control unit 28a for driving the MIM-type liquid crystal, a second drive control unit 28b for displaying the analog-processed RGB values on the TFT-type liquid crystal, and digitally processed data. RGB value to TFT
Drive control unit 28c for displaying with a liquid crystal of the
A fourth drive control unit 28d for driving the RT,
It can correspond to a plurality of display objects. In this embodiment, the third drive control unit 28c is used.

The peripheral device control unit 29 includes the operation unit 12,
A magnetic card reader unit 14 is connected to receive data input therefrom. Further, the peripheral device control unit 29 includes an LED display unit 16 provided in the network display 1, for example, a power supply O.
N, OFF display (POWER display), display of ready state (READY display), display of busy processing (BUSY display) are connected, and each display is possible. Also, a flash memory 1 composed of an EEPROM
7 can be connected. An image / sound decoding unit 18 can be appropriately incorporated in the network display 1 as necessary, and can reproduce data in a retrofit memory 19 containing a predetermined background image or animation.

The memory 23 has an overall control program for the CPU 21 to fetch specific data from a web browser or a display program and control display.
An animation program for receiving a command from the external information source 24, switching the display flow, and displaying a specified specific image at a specified specific position is stored.

Here, the dedicated graphics LSI 22
Is controlled by the CPU 21 to control the sequence between the screens. On the other hand, the display of a series of images and sprites in each screen is performed by looking at the scenarios and data in the memory 23 and based on the scenarios and data. A series of movements of the sprite and the like are controlled. Also,
The sound circuit 27 is 16 bit, 44.1 KHz, 1
Although it is a channel, other values can be used as appropriate.

The sprite data and the scenario data are installed on the memory 23 or the hard disk (not shown) of the network display 1 or the retrofit memory 19 containing the data is generated and attached to the network display 1. . At the time of installation, distribution is performed by communication using the Internet 2 or another network. Note that the network display 1 has a CD-R
If an information storage medium reading unit such as an OM reading mechanism is provided, data may be installed using an information storage medium such as a CD-ROM.

The structure of the dedicated graphics LSI 22 is as follows.
It is as shown in FIG. That is, the host interface 32 connected to the host bus 30 and the VR
An internal host bus 34 and an internal VRAM bus 35 between the VRAM interface 33 connected to the AM 26;
Is provided. Then, the decoding unit 36 and the image processing unit 3
7 are connected to both buses 34 and 35, respectively. The internal host bus 34 has an audio interface 38
, And a liquid crystal display interface 39 is connected to the internal VRAM bus 35.

The decoding unit 36 includes a natural image decoding function unit,
An index image decoding function unit and a palette RAM for index images are provided. The image processing unit 3
Reference numeral 7 is for performing overwrite processing and the like described later.
The audio interface 38 has various functions such as audio control, audio mixing, and sampling rate change. For mixing, up to three channels of two channels via the host bus 30 and input from an external microphone can be mixed.

The liquid crystal display interface 39 has a display control, an overwriting control when the post-installation memory 19 is used, and a function of hardware-displaying a cursor on the display (hereinafter referred to as a hardware cursor). ing.
The hardware cursor solves the problem of the software cursor by storing the cursor data in the memory 23 in a divided manner and combining the cursor data with other data. In a software cursor, when displaying a cursor display in a predetermined portion, it is necessary to store an original image at a position of the cursor before attaching the cursor, and to rewrite the original image when the cursor moves. This process imposes a load on the CPU 21. The hardware cursor solves such a problem. The liquid crystal display interface 39 has substantially the same function as that of the display control unit 28. When a display body compatible with the standard function of the liquid crystal display interface 39 is mounted, the display control unit 28 almost does not operate. Free pass.

As shown in FIG. 5, data for controlling each frame 20 in the time axis direction is written in the memory 23. The duration of each frame 20 normally switches at a speed of appearing 25 frames per second. The details of the frame duration will be described later. Memory 23
Further, a program or the like for controlling a display position of a sprite (details will be described later) in one frame 20 is written therein.

The image processing section 37 of the dedicated graphics LSI 22 basically performs an overwriting process.
For example, assuming that the sprite is the characters "A", "B", and "C", first, a program for displaying "A" is executed. In this execution, after setting various parameters for displaying “A”, drawing is performed on a virtual screen on a memory in the CPU 21. Similarly, image data of the characters “B” and “C” are generated on the virtual screen of the CPU 21, and then all data are collectively transferred to the real screen of the VRAM 26 by block transfer, as shown in FIG. , Is displayed overwritten (overwritten).

The inside of the image processing section 37 of the dedicated graphics LSI 22 and the processing flow are as shown in FIG. That is, a transparent color extracting process (step S101) is performed on the decoded image (hereinafter referred to as an original drawing image) transmitted from the decoding unit 36. Next, a transparent color replacement process (step S102) for giving the RGB values of the transparent color to the transparent color portion is performed. After that, an enlargement / reduction process (step S103) is performed, and after a transparent color is detected (step S104), a portion to be overwritten on the original image is detected by the overwrite detection unit 41. The details of the enlargement and reduction processing will be described later.

Data for clip processing (step S105) and mask processing (step S106) are input to the overwrite detection unit 41, and after these processings are performed, blend processing (step S107) is performed. The processing such as the enlargement / reduction processing S103, the clip processing S105, and the blending processing S107 is not performed unless the processing is specified. The data subjected to the enlargement / reduction processing is input to the multiplexer 42 and docked with the data of the clip processing S105 and the like, and if necessary, the blend processing S1
07 is performed. When the painting function (details will be described later) is ON, the painting process is performed using the data from the color register 43. The data in that case is also subjected to a blending process S107 after that, and sent to the liquid crystal display interface 39 as a final drawing image.

Next, the display function of the network display 1 will be described. Note that the phrase “sprite” used hereinafter refers to a component of an image in one frame 20 of the animation, and each is represented by a rectangle for the reason described later. For example, [A] [B]
Characters such as "C", pictures such as apples and persimmons, and geometric figures such as triangles and squares correspond to sprites. The “sprite screen” refers to a screen displaying such “sprite”, and corresponds to the frame 20.

In general, each frame 20 which is a screen in the animation is composed of a plurality of sprite screens. Each sprite has 16 bits per pixel (R:
G: B = 5 bits: 6 bits: 5 bits) is a natural image in RGB format and is a natural image sprite. Each sprite is drawn in cooperation with the CPU 21, the dedicated graphics LSI 22, the memory 23, and the like.

The animation screen of this embodiment is
When these sprites overlap, the sprite that comes to the foreground is preferentially displayed. However, since the two specific colors are transparent, the color of the screen on the rear side can be displayed using the “transparency”.

The screen serving as the display unit 11 is an area for displaying an animation movie and serves as a display screen. The network display 1 has a display screen 50 having a display size of 320 × 240 pixels as shown in FIG. Also, the minimum size is 2 pixels wide (pixel) x 2 pixels high (p
ixel), the maximum size is 1024 pixels wide x 1 height
A movie screen 51 of 024 pixels can be supported by software. The origin (upper left corner) of the screen of the animation movie (movie screen 51) is the origin (upper left corner) P of the display screen 50. The display screen 50 of the network display 1 is set to 512 × 240 pixels or 640 × 4 pixels in addition to the 320 × 240 pixels.
It may be 80 pixels.

Here, when the size of the movie screen 51 is larger than the display screen 50, a part of the movie screen 51 is displayed. Conversely, when the size of the movie screen 51 is smaller than the display screen 50, a margin is formed at the right end or lower end of the display screen 50. The margin is on display screen 5
It is displayed with a background color of 0. The background color of the display screen 50 is specified by an RGB value of 16 bits / pixel.

A space for drawing the animation frame 20 (see FIG. 8) is provided in a movie screen space 52.
Call. This space 52 is a kind of virtual space, and a virtual RA
It can be said that it is M. This space 52 has a width of -32,768 pixels to 32,767 pixels in the width direction (horizontal direction) and a width of -32,768 to 32,767 pixels in the height direction (vertical direction). However, an image is actually drawn. This is a partial area in this space 52. This actually drawn area is shown on movie screen 5
Called 1. The movie screen 51 always has the origin P
(0,0) is used as a base point. Its size varies from movie to movie. At maximum, the origins P (0,0) and (1023,102
A rectangular area (including a boundary) having a diagonal of 3) becomes the movie screen 51.

As described above, each animation movie can have a movie screen 51 with a minimum size of 2 pixels wide by 2 pixels high and a maximum size of 1024 pixels wide by 1024 pixels high.
In the sprite drawn in the movie screen space 52, only the portion included in the movie screen 51 is actually drawn. The part outside the movie screen 51 is
It is not drawn. A transfer destination image (drawing image) 53 is drawn on a predetermined portion of the movie screen 51.

The image drawn on the movie screen 51 is not an original drawing image, but is actually an original drawing image and a transparent mask image 56 which becomes transparent color data. The original drawing image is as shown in FIG.
The transfer rectangular image 55 is compressed, stored in the memory 23, and then expanded. The transparent color data also becomes a transparent mask image, and the transparent rectangular image 56 is compressed and the one stored in the memory 23 is expanded and formed. Each image 55,
56 is a maximum size of 1024 pixels in width × 102 in height.
It is 4 pixels and the same size.

As described above, the transparent rectangular image 56 is formed because a specific color in the natural image is assigned as a transparent color. This is because a transparent color cannot be preserved. When the image data and the transparent color data are separated and compressed in this manner, the processing is simplified and the compression efficiency is improved. The transparent rectangular image 56 is a simple bitmap image in which bits of “1” or “0” are assigned to a transparent color portion therein and bits of “0” or “1” are assigned to an opaque portion. .

The virtual screen is generated in the memory in the CPU 21 as described above. The memory size of the virtual screen depends on the screen size of the animation. That is, in this embodiment, 320 × 24
The capacity is about 150 KB for 0 pixel. However,
Another size, for example, 160 × 120 pixels (= about 3
8 KB). Each frame 20 is first generated on this virtual screen (= movie screen 51). After that, each frame 20 is block-transferred to the VRAM 26 and drawn on the real screen (= display screen 50) generated on the VRAM 26.

As described above, various drawing functions based on sprites (enlargement, reduction, clip processing, mask processing, etc.)
Are all CPU21, dedicated graphics LSI2
2. The data is processed by the VRAM 26 and does not depend on other functions of the network display 1 or a system including the network display 1.

The use of the virtual screen and the real screen eliminates display flicker on the display unit 11. In other words, when overwriting sprites, etc.,
Although flicker is likely to occur, in this method, once C
Since one frame 20 is completely drawn on the virtual screen in the PU 21 and then all the data of one frame 20 is block-transferred to the VRAM 26, flickering due to overwriting does not occur. In order to prevent the occurrence of flicker, it is not necessary to install a virtual screen, but to use a VRAM 26.
May be taken in for two or four screens. When two or four screens are used in this way, one or two screens can be used for display, and the other screen or two screens can be used for writing. With this two-screen or four-screen method, flickering during writing can be eliminated, and image quality can be improved.

The network display 1 processes nine types of events (controls). The events are roughly classified into two types: external events and internal events. The external event is notified from outside the network display 1, and the internal event is generated internally according to a change in the reproduction state of the animation movie.

External events are a Click event that occurs when an animation movie is selected, a Focus event that occurs when an animation movie becomes an operation target, and a Click event that occurs when an animation movie is no longer an operation target. Blur event that occurs on, enterSpr that occurs when "sprite became the operation target"
ite event, "Sprite is no longer an operation target"
There are five types of leaveSprite events that occur.

On the other hand, there are the following four types of internal events. The first is a startMovie event that occurs just before the animation movie starts playing and starts drawing the first frame 20, the second is a stopMovie event that occurs immediately before the animation stops, and the third is a stopMovie event. The enterFrame event that occurs immediately before the start of frame drawing in all frames 20, and the fourth is an exitFrame event that occurs immediately after the frame drawing ends in all frames 20.

Each event is described in what is called an event handler (control procedure manual). For example,
When the enterFrame event is generated, it is described in the enterFrame event handler (control procedure manual). The network display 1 searches for an event handler (control procedure manual) corresponding to each event that occurs, and executes the described process if it exists. A set of event handlers related to the entire animation movie is called a movie script, and a set of event handlers related to the individual frames 20 is called a frame script. The processing content of the event handler is described using a script language dedicated to a script (= program). The network display 1 has translation execution software therein, and sequentially interprets and executes a script (event handler) written in this script language at runtime.

In the script, 4
There are types. A script associated with a sprite is a sprite script, a script associated with a graphic part described later is a graphic part script, a script associated with the frame 20 is a frame script, and a script associated with the entire movie is a movie script. is there. Not all events cause all types of scripts to be executed, but the type and order of scripts executed for each event are determined. Multiple event handlers can be described in each script.

FIG. 9 shows a route on which each event is executed. When each event occurs, the event handler is searched according to the route shown in FIG. 9, and the first found event handler is executed. As for the sprite script and the graphic part script, scripts associated with the sprite and the graphic part that overlap with the event occurrence position are searched in order from the one near the screen, and the first one found is executed.

With this script, scenario control,
External device control, external event processing, and the like are performed. In this embodiment, the script language is composed of seven scenario control commands, two browser cooperation commands, ten variables, if statements as control statements, 64 extended commands, and nine types of events shown above. Is supported. An event handler such as a loop structure that repeatedly repeats an animation using frames 20 in a predetermined order using this script language, or a structure that displays a predetermined frame 20 or a predetermined animation movie by an external event such as pressing of a keyboard. Can be configured.

In this embodiment, the next animation data can be downloaded via the LAN 3 in the background while playing the animation movie.
Then, after the download is completed, the animation to be played can be switched to the downloaded one. The network display 1 issues a file acquisition request to the host computer 4 by designating the URL of the animation movie to be downloaded. The personal computer 4 is an HTTP server W
The specified file is obtained from the WW server 6 and passed to the network display 1.

A sprite includes image data and drawing attributes. The image data is essential image information, and the drawing attribute is arrangement information, size information (width, height), drawing operation, and the like when drawing the image data on the movie screen 51. This image data is called a graphic part. The same graphic part can be shared by a plurality of sprites. In addition, a plurality of frames 20 can share a sprite. Therefore, the data size of the animation movie can be suppressed. The network display 1 uses a graphic component of a bitmap type. In this network display 1, a maximum of 8355585 graphic parts can be used per animation movie.

The width of the image of the graphic part is from 1 to 32,767 pixels, and the height of the image is from 1 to 32,767 pixels. The color depth of graphic parts is 16bit / pixel R
Transparent colors in the GB format (R: G: B = 5: 6: 5) are supported by using two specific colors as transparent colors. That is, the sprite can be used simultaneously in 65536 colors (including two transparent colors). The storage format is a lossless code that balances the unique compression ratio and CPU processing load, specifically, a BID code.

For graphic parts, the following two colors are treated as transparent colors. One is a transparent color of the closed area, in which the R, G, and B values are (31, 62, 31), and represents the transparent color of the closed area. The other one is R, G,
The B value is (31, 63, 31) and represents the transparent color of the open area. That is, as shown in FIG. 10, a transparent area 59a opened with respect to a boundary 58 surrounding the graphic 57.
An open area transparent color is used for the transparent color of the area (part of which is in contact with the boundary). As the transparent color of the transparent region 59b (region that does not partially contact the boundary) closed with respect to the boundary 58 surrounding the graphic 57, a closed region transparent color is used. The image data of the graphic component is expanded without distortion by the BID decoder.

The image data possessed by the sprite becomes the graphic part described above. The rendering attribute is information that is referred to when rendering image data. The information and the drawing attribute of the graphic component of the sprite are as follows. In other words, as the graphic part numbers, the part group numbers 1-255 and the part numbers 1-2767 can be held. Further, the drawing position is a horizontal position of −3276.
The range is from 8 to 32767 pixels, and the vertical position is from 32768 to 32767 pixels.
The width of each sprite is 1 to 32,767 pixels, and the height is 1 to 32,767 pixels.

The graphic parts used in the animation movie are managed for each group. This group is called a part group, and the graphic parts always belong to one of the groups. Up to 255 per animation movie
Groups can be used, and numbers (part group numbers) are assigned in order from No. 1 to No. 255. A maximum of 32767 graphic parts can be registered in one part group. Graphic parts are sequentially numbered (part numbers) from 1st to 32767 in the group. in this way,
The graphic component of the sprite is specified by a component group number and a component number. A plurality of sprites can have the same graphic part. In this case, the plurality of sprites are designated by the same part group number and part number.

In this embodiment, the position at which the sprite is drawn is specified by the coordinates of the upper left point of the image in the movie screen coordinate system. The size of the sprite is
Any value can be specified regardless of the size of the graphic part. If the size of the sprite is larger than the image size of the graphic part, the figure is drawn in an enlarged scale. If the size of the sprite is smaller than the image of the graphic part, the figure is drawn in a reduced size. This enlargement / reduction processing is made to function independently in the horizontal and vertical directions.

Each sprite is a block, here 3
The image data is divided into 2 × 32 pixels, and each block is independently compressed. Since the maximum block size is determined in this way, the size of the data after the image data of the sprite is decompressed is determined in block units. Therefore, in the network display 1, one pixel is represented by 2 bytes, so that only the work memory for a total of 2048 bytes (32 × 32 × 2 bytes) needs to be prepared in the CPU 21 as a block buffer.

For this reason, the image data of the sprite is expanded for each block, and the same block buffer is used for all the blocks, so that the sprite can be stored in a small fixed-size work memory regardless of the image size of the sprite. Can be expanded.

As described above, the animation data including the sprite data is stored in the memory 23 in a compressed form and compressed with an algorithm that balances the compression ratio and the amount of processing operation. On the other hand, when drawing the sprite, the data is expanded in real time,
After drawing and displaying, the decompressed data is discarded.

In this sprite block division, FIG.
In the case where the cloud sprite 61 is displayed on the movie screen 51 as shown in FIG. 1 and flows from left to right, the CPU 21 and the dedicated graphics LSI 22 do not perform unnecessary processing. This is cloud sprite 6
This is because, as shown in FIG. 11B, all sprites such as 1 are divided into 32 × 32 pixel blocks 60 in advance and stored in the memory 23. For this reason,
A non-display portion 61a at the right position which does not appear on the movie screen 51 and a non-display portion 61 at the left position
By not processing the block 60 corresponding to b,
The power of the CPU 21 and the dedicated graphics LSI 22 can be saved.

Such division into a plurality of blocks 60 is performed by a movie screen 51 as shown in FIG.
It is also suitable for the case where the display is enlarged as shown in FIG. That is, when the image is enlarged, many blocks 60 are separated from the movie screen 51. By not rendering the deviated block 60, the power of the CPU 21 and the like can be saved. Block 6
Since the memory capacity for “0” is reduced, the cache memory of the CPU 21 can be sufficiently covered. Therefore, access to the memory in the CPU 21 is localized (= the probability of hit increases), the cache functions effectively, and high-speed processing is realized.

The sprites constituting the frame (image) 20 are drawn on the movie screen 51 in a predetermined order. There are five types of sprite drawing methods. Basically, sprites are overwritten in order, so the underlying image (pixels) is lost. However, depending on the drawing method, the transparent color processing or the underlying image (pixels) may be modified. To create new images (pixels). Also, the blending process described above can be performed. This blending process creates a new image by mixing the underlying image and the overwritten image. On the other hand, since the transparent pixel is not overwritten, the underlying pixel is preserved.

The five specific methods of drawing are as follows. First, both the open area transparent color and the closed area transparent color are drawn as white, and the pixels in the opaque area are drawn as they are. For example, FIG.
In this case, both the opened transparent region 59a and the closed transparent region 59b are white. Second, the open area transparent color is processed as a transparent color, and the closed area transparent color is drawn as white. The pixels in the opaque area are
Draw as it is. For example, as shown in FIG. 10B, this is used when the opened transparent area 59a is made transparent and the closed transparent area 59b is made white to draw an eye. Thirdly, the open area transparent color and the closed area transparent color are processed as transparent colors, while the pixels in the opaque area are drawn as they are. For example, it is used to display “A” as shown in FIG.

Fourth, both the transparent color of the open area and the transparent color of the closed area are processed as a transparent color, while the pixels of the background image of the opaque area are inverted. Note that the blend value is ignored. Fifth, both the transparent color of the open area and the transparent color of the closed area are processed as a transparent color, while the pixels in the opaque area are inverted and drawn. This inversion is performed when the pixel is opaque, and the value of the pixel is changed to “R ′, G ′,
B ′ ”and the values before inversion are“ R, G, B ”,
R '= 255-R, G' = 255-G, B '= 255
This is performed using each expression of B.

As described above, one animation movie is reproduced by continuously displaying frames (images) 20 at predetermined time intervals. One frame 20
Consists of one or more sprites. The information specifying the order and time interval of the frames 20 to be displayed and the sprites constituting the frames 20 is called a scenario as described above. This scenario is the key to the progress of the animation movie.

Up to 32 in one animation movie
767 frames 20 can be used. All frames 20 are numbered from 1 to 32767 (frame numbers). There are two types of time designations as the time during which the frame 20 is kept displayed (frame duration), that is, a time that is set continuously and a time that is valid only for one frame. A continuous time specification is 1 / n second (n =
1, 2,..., 120), the effective time for only one frame is 1 to 60 seconds. The network display 1 keeps displaying the frame 20 for at least a designated time. However, the specified time is not guaranteed, and the frame may be displayed longer than the specified time. In addition, a process based on an internal event or an external event generated during frame display may be shorter than the specified time, and another frame display may be started.

An event handler (= frame handler) for processing an event that occurs during the display of the frame 20 can be registered at most one for each frame 20, and that becomes a frame script. One frame (image) 20 is composed of 0 to 120 sprites. Frame 20
Are drawn in the order of drawing. When the frame 20 is created, it is overwritten in order using a predetermined drawing method according to this order.

The network display 1 reproduces an animation movie from the scenario in which the number of the frame 20 is the first. However, when a command (referred to as a go command) for changing a processing frame to a frame 20 specified by a parameter is executed in a startMovie event generated when the animation movie is started to be reproduced, the reproduction from the specified frame 20 is started. It may be. Last frame 20 existing as a scenario
Becomes the reproduction end frame. After playing the last frame 20, if there is no frame 20 to be played next, the animation playback ends. After the end of the animation reproduction, the last frame 20 is continuously displayed. When moving from the last frame 20 to another frame 20 by a go command, animation reproduction continues.

The network display 1 has two playback modes, a download playback mode and a rush playback mode. Further, data installed by a method other than downloading can be reproduced. In the download reproduction mode, reproduction is started after downloading all animation data via the LAN 3. In the rush (Rush) reproduction mode, the reproduction is started when the download of the data relating to the scenario is completed. The remaining data is downloaded via the LAN 3 in parallel with the reproduction of the animation movie. This function is called a streaming reproduction function (details will be described later). If the graphic part to be displayed has not been acquired yet, the part is not displayed.

The blending process is a process of mixing the color of its own opaque pixel and the color of the underlying pixel at a specified blend ratio when drawing a sprite by a predetermined drawing method.
The blend ratio is specified in a range of 0 to 100%, in this embodiment, in 32 levels. If the value is 100%, the sketch is completely overwritten with the color of its own opaque pixel. When the value is 50%, the color of its own opaque pixel and the color of the underlying pixel are mixed by 1/2 each. 0% value
In the case of, the color of the sketch is saved as it is. The blend ratio is an attribute of the sprite, and is specified as a part of the scenario data. After the transparent pixels and the opaque pixels are determined according to the sprite drawing method, a blending process is performed on the opaque pixels.

In the network display 1, a function called runtime scenario interpolation is added. This is to internally divide the frame duration specified in the scenario into a plurality of frames 20 at time intervals according to the performance of the hardware. That is, the performance of the hardware, especially the CPU 21
Incorporate a predetermined program according to the performance of
By the program, network display 1
CPU 21 detects and determines the scenario and automatically divides the scenario. The sprite of the frame 20 newly generated by internal division is drawn using a new sprite attribute obtained by interpolating from the sprite attributes of the previous and subsequent frames 20.

The sprite has an associated sprite attribute, and this attribute indicates a sprite number (1-120) constituting the frame 20 to be displayed next. Two sprites of the next frame 20 specified in association with the sprite itself having the attribute are subjected to the interpolation processing. If “0” is set in the related sprite attribute, it indicates that there is no sprite to be interpolated. In this case, the own attribute is applied to all internally divided frames 20. That is, the attribute does not change. There are three sprite attributes to be generated by interpolation: horizontal / vertical position, width / height, and blend ratio. Other attributes are
The attributes of the sprite of the previous frame 20 are applied.

Hereinafter, the runtime scenario interpolation will be specifically described. As shown in FIG. 13, if there is room for the processing operation of the CPU 21, the network display 1 creates a new frame # 1.5 between the scenario data frames # 1 and # 2. Assuming that the time interval between frame # 1 and frame # 2 is 1 second, frame # 1.5 is, for example, frame 20 0.3 seconds after frame # 1 and is displayed for 0.4 seconds. Comparing frame # 1 and frame # 2, only part of sprite A has changed, and sprite B has not changed. Therefore, the network display 1
Creates a frame # 1.5 in which only the sprite A in the frame # 1 changes to a state after 0.5 seconds. Sprite A sets the movement distance obtained from its own position in frame # 1 and its own position in frame # 2 by 2
Comes in equally divided positions.

At the time of display, the movie screen 51 is automatically enlarged or reduced to fit the size of the display screen 50. When the movie screen 51 is displayed on the display screen 50, if the reduction ratio is known in advance, the data itself is reduced and stored in the memory 23. In this embodiment, the reduction ratio in this process is set to N / M (N and M are integer values and M> N). Further, it has a function of a transparent background. This function performs transparent color processing of the background color of the movie screen 51 and the background color of the display screen 50.

In this embodiment, the previous frame 2
When switching the display between 0 and the next frame 20, a special screen switching animation can be performed. For this screen switching animation, frame 20 is
It can have the following four pieces of information. The frame 20 having this information includes the previous frame 20 and its own frame 20.
Animation can be used to switch the display of.

The first is a switching time, in which the total time required for switching is set to any of 0 to 30 seconds. This time is subdivided at the optimal time interval and the animation of the screen switching is displayed. The second is smoothness, in which the smoothness of the screen switching animation is set to one of eight levels from 0 to 7. 7 requires the smoothest switching animation. An optimal time interval is determined according to this value, and the number of frames 20 to be animated is determined. Third, in the application range, the area where the switching animation is performed is indicated by rectangular coordinates in the movie screen 51.
If all coordinate values are 0, the movie screen 51
Show the whole.

The fourth type is a switching type, in which 25 types of switching animations are prepared. Which type is implemented depends on the network display 1. As the type of the switching animation, for example, it appears from one of the upper, lower, left, and right to cover the previous frame 20, or is hidden in one of the upper, lower, left, and right, or the next frame 20 moves up and down the previous frame 20. A method of extruding one of the right and left is adopted.

The image processing device incorporated in the network display 1 is capable of performing multi-player operation and multi-animation movie processing. Here, the player refers to animation software in which an interface for connection to the outside is added to an animation reproduction engine including an overall control program and an animation program.

The multi-player operation is to operate a plurality of players at the same time, and each player reproduces each animation movie according to each scenario. Specifically, as shown in FIG.
Is divided into a plurality of screens, different animation movies are displayed on the respective screens 11a and 11b, and another display device 6 is displayed on the network display 1 as shown in FIG.
5, 67 are connected to display different animation movies on the display units 11, 66, 68, respectively.

Multi-animation movie processing is performed by
One player processes a plurality of animation data. That is, the network display 1 can switch the animation data according to the situation. For example, as shown in FIG. 16, when a player in one network display 1 processes and draws one animation movie M1 representing a commercial of a product, an event from the outside, here, an event of product purchase Is switched to another animation movie M2 that displays "Thank you for your purchase" and the like. Thereafter, when the animation movie M2 ends, the process returns to the previous animation movie M1. Such an operation is called multi-animation movie processing.

Further, the same virtual screen (= generated on the memory in the CPU 21) can be shared by a plurality of players. This allows the CPU
The use amount of the work memory in 21 can be suppressed. further,
When the virtual screen is not shared, the difference drawing between the frames is executed based on the sprite, thereby reducing the load on the CPU 21.

The sprite-based inter-frame difference drawing is to draw only the changed sprite difference by using information on the position and size of the sprite in the scenario data. In the case of recording and reproducing moving images, a difference between frames is taken to reduce the capacity. However, this is a case where the frames to be reproduced are determined in a predetermined order in advance, and a difference is obtained in advance at the time of authoring (at the time of producing a moving image), and the entire frame is targeted. In the animation movie of this embodiment, the order in which the frames 20 appear is not predetermined. For this reason, the conventional difference between frames cannot be adopted.

FIG. 17 shows an example of the sprite-based inter-frame difference drawing employed in this embodiment. Previous frame 20 that appears based on a scenario or a predetermined event
A change in sprite S1 is obtained between (frame # 1 in FIG. 17) and the next frame 20 (frame # 2 in FIG. 17), and only a portion where a difference occurs is drawn. The sprite S2 and other frame portions where no change has occurred are represented by frame #
The display of 1 is continued as it is.

The player described above communicates with a system (hereinafter referred to as a host system) for operating the network display 1 including the CPU 21 by the player AP.
Interface using an I function (details will be described later).
The player API function is composed of two types, a client API function and a host API function. API (Applic
The term "ation programming interface" is a group of functions prepared by the basic software such as the OS for application software. In this embodiment, about 20 C language functions are used.

The client API function is implemented in the player and can be disclosed to the outside. The host system plays the animation using the player API function. The host API function is a function defined by extracting a function depending on the host system in the animation reproduction processing. As a result, the player itself can use the host system (including the meaning of the platform).
It does not depend on. Each host system
Generate these functions according to your specifications and save them internally. One required host API function on the host system side is optional, and the others are optional.

In the above-described multi-animation movie processing, this embodiment uses the concept of a player instance in the sense of a request from a player. Also, a mark called an instance handle is used as a mark for identifying each player instance.

One player instance manages one animation. Player instances are dynamically created at runtime and destroyed. The maximum number of player instances that can be generated at the same time depends on the construction conditions of the player. For example, when the work memory is constructed so as to be statically secured, the number of player instances is determined at the time of construction. In the case of constructing to dynamically secure, the size of the heap memory allocated to the overall control program for operating the network display 1 depends on the memory condition at the time of operation.

In order to generate a player instance, first, an instance handle structure is secured in the memory 23.
An API function for generating a player instance is called using the pointer to this structure as an argument. When this function is established, a new player instance is created in the player. This instance handle structure is used as an instance handle for identifying a player instance, and as an argument of all client API functions. Therefore, the instance handle structure of the live player instance must not be discarded from the memory 23, the contents of the player instance must not be destroyed, or moved on the memory 23. To destroy a player instance that is no longer needed, use the API to destroy the player instance.
Call a function from the player. After being destroyed, the instance handle structure used as the instance handle becomes unnecessary.

The timing of generating and destroying a player instance depends on the application. For example,
When the number of animations to be played is fixed, the required number of player instances can be generated when the network display 1 is powered on, and can be used permanently. In the animation reproduction of the WEB browser plug-in, since the number of animations differs for each WEB page, a required number of player instances are generated at the moment of loading the page, and the player instances are destroyed when the page is closed. In the case of a plug-in, if the number of supported animations is limited, the same processing as in the above example can be performed.

By the way, the animation data which the player incorporated in the network display 1 receives from the television station 8 or downloads from the WWW server 6 contains the animation progress program as described above. Scenario data and sprite data (drawing attributes and image data). The capacity of the scenario data and the drawing attribute for sprite is smaller than that of the image data. For this reason, the scenario data and the drawing attribute for sprite data are stored in the memory 23 of the network display 1 first. afterwards,
The network display 1 receives and downloads image data over time. The streaming playback function is used when downloading over this time.

The streaming reproduction function will be described in more detail. The player performs drawing processing on the image constituting the reproduction frame, for which the reception of the download or the like has been completed, and the reception of the download or the like has not been completed. If not, simply ignore it. In this streaming playback,
The client API function is called an arbitrary number of times at an arbitrary timing according to the update of the downloaded data. That is, while the image data is being downloaded, the increase in the downloaded data is notified to the player instance at an appropriate timing. By calling the client API function, the validity of the data stream (pointing to the animation data which is arranged on the memory 23 and which can be directly accessed by the player) being received at that time is checked, and the data stream is incorrectly formatted. If there is, it is not set in the player instance. In this case, usually, the host system performs a process of stopping reception of the data stream.

The script in the scenario data includes a link destination address (“http: // www.
.. ") Can be entered, and when an external event occurs, the network display 1 can be linked to a predetermined link destination via the LAN 3, the personal computer 4, the ISDN 5, the WWW server 6, and the Internet 2. This is called a link function. Here, the external event refers to an external input such as a key being pressed or a coin being inserted in a vending machine. According to this link function, when an animation is embedded in the linked WEB page, the network display 1 downloads the linked animation data via the Internet 2 or the WWW server 6 and the like, and displays the display unit 11. Can be played.

For example, when an external event such as a key operation is input while a commercial of a specific company is flowing on the display unit 11 of the network display 1, the company's script previously inserted into the scenario script is input. You will be able to access your homepage address. Then, on the display unit 11 of the network display 1, a home page, which is a WEB page of a company that has flowed as a commercial, is displayed. Then, if an animation is incorporated in the home page, the animation is displayed as it is.

The player is stored in the memory 23 as a library that operates as a part of the overall control program. The host system calls a client API function published from the library to execute the playback of the animation movie. The player has the memory 2 in the form of a library.
3, the player can be flexibly applied, such as being executed as a part of a task of the host system, or being executed as an independent task by another appropriate host module in the image processing apparatus. . In addition, porting to platforms that are even more diverse than in the form of tasks becomes easier.

However, since the predetermined execution right (execution time) is not a task execution form that can be specified as a specification, that is, in a library form, there is a problem that the player is only passively executed. In other words, control is not acquired by task switching based on a time slice or a specific interrupt, but the execution form is to wait for a function to be called. Therefore, there is a problem that independent time control cannot be performed. Note that the control of the time slice, the specific interrupt, and the like depends on the design of the host system including the CPU 21.

In this embodiment, when calling a client API function for playing back an animation movie,
The host system notifies the elapsed time, and the player responds promptly to the elapsed time, and has a mechanism for proceeding with the scenario (so-called real-time playback function). That is, if there is a process with a higher priority, the host system gives priority to that process, and does not call the player at all during that time. When the processing load is reduced, the player is called with the elapsed time. The player advances the scenario by the received elapsed time, and displays the frame 20 corresponding to that time. When proceeding with the scenario, a predetermined script of each frame 20 is executed, and scenario control and the like by the script function normally.

By using this function, even if the same animation data is executed by a system having different CPU powers and different task priorities (different load conditions), it is possible to reproduce the animation at the time described in the scenario. Become. Note that the accuracy of the playback time depends on the accuracy of the elapsed time notified by the host system.

When this function is not used, each time a predetermined client API function is called, the scenario is advanced one by one while considering the elapsed time. If the client API function is called at a sufficient time interval with respect to the progress speed of the scenario, it is possible to follow the time specification on the scenario, but if the call of the client API function is delayed, the playback speed is also reduced and the client API function is specified on the scenario. Playback in the specified time cannot be performed. However, it is guaranteed that all the frames described in the scenario are displayed in order without being skipped.

Whether to use the real-time playback function is determined by
Since it depends on the operation mode of the player and the content of the animation to be reproduced, it can be selected for each player instance. In addition, it is possible to set such that while playing a plurality of animations at the same time, a part of the function is used for real-time playback, and a part is not used.

FIG. 18 schematically shows a mechanism in which animation is reproduced on the display unit 11 of the network display 1 through notification of the elapsed time from the host system to the player. The host system including the CPU 21 does not call the client API function on the player side when it becomes necessary to perform a process having a higher priority than the reproduction of the animation. Thereafter, the client API function is called when the processing with a high priority is completed or nearly completed and the processing load is reduced.

At the time of calling the client API function, the host system notifies the player of the elapsed time from the previous call based on the real time obtained from the clock. The player who has received the elapsed time advances the scenario by the elapsed time, and displays the frame 20 corresponding to the time when the scenario was advanced. When proceeding with the scenario, the player does not simply discard the frames 20 that should have been reproduced within the elapsed time, but executes a script that is a predetermined program of each frame 20 to perform scenario control by the script. I have to. That is, the scenario in each frame 20 is reliably executed, and the frame 20 to be reproduced within the elapsed time is determined according to the scenario.
The playback process is performed at high speed.

Next, this real-time reproduction function will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described using a specific scenario and frame shown in FIG. Animation data is transmitted from the television station 8,
It is assumed that the network display 1 has performed reception. In the scenario stored in the memory 23, it is assumed that the numbers 1 to 5 are sequentially displayed at one-second intervals, and when the number is displayed up to 5, the display returns to 1 again, and the numbers up to 5 are displayed again. The display time of each number is also one second. Therefore, 2
One cycle of animation reproduction is performed in 0 seconds.

Now, after displaying the frame 20 of the numeral 1, 1
It is assumed that the CPU 21 stops calling the player for another processing at the time when the second has elapsed, and calls the player after 4 seconds have elapsed thereafter. The player also receives data indicating that 4 seconds have elapsed upon calling from the host system. Thus, the player who should have displayed the frame 20 of the numeral 2 advances the scenario by 4 seconds, and displays the frame which should have been displayed if the frame was not interrupted, that is, the frame 20 of the numeral 4. The frames 20 of the numerals 2 and 3 that should have been displayed during these four seconds are not necessarily not reproduced at all, but are reproduced at a high speed.

In the above specific example, the frames 20 are displayed in units of seconds for ease of explanation. However, in actuality, in a scenario of a speed of displaying about 10 to 80 frames 20 per second. is there. Therefore, even if the frame 20 within the elapsed time is reproduced at a high speed and the predetermined frame 20 is displayed immediately, the frame 20 can hardly be recognized by the naked eye, and can be felt similarly to the normal image reproduction.

The elapsed time notified by the host system to the player may be different from the actual time. For example, even if the time during which the client API function is not called is 4 seconds, twice as much as 8 seconds.
Seconds or two-seconds, which is 1/2, can also be notified.
When the player notifies the player of the time twice as much as the real time, the player advances the scenario faithfully at the notified time.
Displays the frame 20 at a point earlier than the original scenario. That is, the animation is temporarily reproduced at double speed. On the other hand, when a time that is １ ／ times the real time is notified, the display unit 11 displays the frame 20 at a time later than the original scenario. That is, the animation is temporarily reproduced at 1/2 speed. As described above, the host system can notify an arbitrary time according to the reproduction environment of the animation instead of notifying the real time.

When playing back an animation using a plurality of player instances, the network display 1 can play back the animation while synchronizing the plurality of player instances by controlling the initial value of the elapsed time. For example, when two animations are simultaneously reproduced on the display unit 11 of the network display 1, the CPU 21 is forced to perform other high-priority processing, and the first animation can be reproduced according to the scenario. Assume that a situation has arisen in which the reproduction of the second animation cannot be performed.

In this case, the first animation is reproduced on the display unit 11 of the network display 1 under the management of the player, but the second animation cannot be reproduced and is stopped. Next, when the load on the CPU 21 for the process with the higher priority is reduced, the reproduction of the second animation is started. At this time, if the second animation is originally intended to proceed at the same time as the first animation, if the second animation is reproduced as it is, a deviation from the first animation occurs.

Therefore, the network display 1
Animation playback is performed while synchronizing a plurality of player instances. That is, the first
The playback of the animation is performed while controlling the initial value of the elapsed time of the animation and synchronizing each player instance. Specifically, the time when the first animation precedes (= the time when the second animation was stopped) is notified to the player instance for the second animation, and the reproduction of the second animation is performed.
Start from the part where the elapsed time has been skipped. As a result, even if the start times of a plurality of animations to be synchronously reproduced are shifted, a state is obtained as if a plurality of animations were reproduced according to a scenario from the beginning.

In this embodiment, the animation is normally reproduced in the order of the frames 20 described in the scenario. However, the host system must change the reproduction position to an arbitrary frame 20 at an arbitrary timing. Is possible. To do so, the frame number of the scenario to be changed is specified as the last argument of the function for movie playback in the client API function. When this argument is 0, the reproduction is performed according to the frame order of the scenario.

Using this function, several types of scenario blocks (sub-scenarios) are prepared in one scenario, and the animation of the corresponding scenario is immediately reproduced according to the state of the device. Can be.
For example, it is possible to incorporate an animation sub-scenario to be reproduced when a button is pressed or a sub-scenario to be reproduced when the state of the device changes.

The sub-scenario can be specified by a specific name (hereinafter, referred to as a label name) instead of a frame number. For example, a display such as “OKAIAGE” is possible. In the animation data, a table in which the label name is associated with the actual frame number is prepared, and an API function for converting the label name in the client API function into the frame number is called to correspond to the label name. Convert to frame number. By using the specification by this label name, the programmer who creates the host system and the designer who creates the animation data must create specifications based on this label name and share work. Becomes possible.

Next, an outline of the operation of the network display 1 configured as described above will be described.

First, the power is turned on, and the network display 1 is brought into an operating state. Then, it is connected to the Internet 2 via the LAN 3, the personal computer 4, the ISDN 5, and the WWW server 6. At this time, the connection is made using the operation button unit 12b for Internet access and the instruction operation unit 12c. After that, the animation data is downloaded from the WWW server 6. Sometimes, the TV station 8
Receives animation data by broadcasting from.
In the download playback mode, playback is started after all the animation data has been downloaded or received. In the rush (RUSH) playback mode, the playback is started when the download or reception of the data related to the scenario is completed. Internet 2
Instead, an HTTP server may be connected to the LAN 3 and animation data may be downloaded from the HTTP server.

When the reproduction is started, the animation movie is displayed on the display unit 11 according to a predetermined scenario. Thereafter, an animation movie is screened using the above-described functions. At this time, each sprite is divided into blocks 60, so that the power of the CPU 21 and the dedicated graphics LSI 22 and the capacity of the work memory can be suppressed.

The network display 1 as described above
FIG. 20 shows an example of how to use this in a closed state without connecting to the Internet 2. A plurality of network displays 1 are connected to one personal computer 70 serving as a host and an HTTP server. PC 7
At 0, an image is displayed on the entire screen, but only a part of the image is displayed on each network display 1. However, in each of the network displays 1, the scroll function allows the PC 70
By scrolling a part of the upper screen, the contents of the entire screen can be grasped. By making the data compression method of the network display 1 reproducible only by software, it is possible to eliminate the need for dedicated hardware, which is advantageous for miniaturization and cost reduction.

Furthermore, if only a part of the image is displayed instead of the entire image of the personal computer 70 as shown in FIG. 20, it is not necessary to decode the entire image.
The display memory can be reduced. The size of the display memory and the size of the display panel may be changed depending on each network display 1. For example, one network display 1 can display “ABCD” and another network display 1 can display “ACD”.
B "may be displayed, and the other network display 1 may be sized to display only" A ".

Although the above-described embodiment is an example of a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the present invention is not limited to this, and various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention. is there. For example, it can be used not only for the Internet 2 but also for various networks such as a network only in a specific company called an intranet. That is, the present invention can be applied to any system having an HTTP server or a WWW server. Further, the present invention can be applied to a device that does not have a server and simply reproduces animation.

Further, the size of the block 60 is set to 32 × 32
Instead of a pixel, it may be another size such as 16 × 16 pixels or 64 × 64 pixels. Also, the blocks may have different vertical and horizontal sizes instead of the same vertical and horizontal sizes. Further, the size of the block that divides the sprite may be changed according to the size and type of the sprite.

Further, the image processing apparatus of the present invention may be incorporated in an ordinary television receiver that receives a broadcast from the television station 8 instead of the network display 1. Further, the present invention can be applied to various devices for displaying animation on a display unit, for example, a panel display for industrial equipment, a vending machine, a register of a convenience store, and a game machine such as a pachinko machine. When used in a television receiver, it is preferable to include scenario data or the like in digital information passed between images, or to apply digital broadcasting.

If a television receiver is used instead of the network display 1, the functions of split screen display and runtime scenario interpolation will be fully utilized.
For example, assume that an animation is broadcast as a television broadcast. At this time, there is a large difference in the CPU used depending on the price of the television to be received. For this reason, the animation broadcasting side sets a certain frame duration. On the other hand, if the receiving TV is high-performance, use the run-time scenario interpolation function to create a smooth animation with a lot of frames and easy-to-see motion.For low-performance TV, set the time interval set on the transmitting side. To display the animation.

As shown in FIG. 21, a player 82 of the present invention is incorporated in a device 81 having a display processing function.
The animation may be displayed on the display device 83 connected to the device 81. Specifically, an audiovisual device such as a video cassette recorder or a car navigation device can be used as the device 81 having a display processing function.

Further, as shown in FIG. 22, using a portable device 85, a CD in which animation data is recorded
-It may be configured such that the ROM 86 and the flash memory card 87 can be inserted. In this case, CD-ROM
DVD-ROM instead of or compatible with
Use portable media such as DVD-RAM,
Instead of or in parallel with the flash memory card 87, a portable device such as an IC card or a ROM cartridge may be used.

Note that, as shown in FIG.
Is provided separately from the device 81 on which the player 82 is disposed, an input interface circuit provided with the display device 83 itself or an input device (such as a touch panel, a button, or a remote controller) provided separately from the display device 83 Is connected to the CPU (corresponding to the CPU 21 in FIG. 3) inside the device 81, and is controlled by the CPU.

Also, as shown in FIG.
Device 85 that enables the use of portable media such as 86 or a portable device such as a flash memory card 87
In this case, in addition to the interface for the network LAN3 (corresponding to the transmission / reception circuit 25 in FIG. 3), the portable medium
U (corresponding to the CPU 21 in FIG. 3), and the CPU
Will be controlled.

In the above-described embodiment, a method of reproducing animation in the order of frames described in the scenario and a method of changing the reproduction position to an arbitrary frame at an arbitrary timing and reproducing the animation. Although the above two reproduction methods can be executed, a reproduction method of only one of them may be adopted, or another reproduction method may be further added.

Further, instead of incorporating the player in the network display 1 or the television receiver or the like in advance, the player may be appropriately incorporated by downloading or the like from a host server or the like via the network LAN3 or wirelessly. Also, after using the player,
The player may be discarded once and taken in again when needed.

The player is actually software, and the one that operates the host system is also software that serves as an overall control program. For this reason, the display method in each invention can be made into steps and programmed. The program is recorded on a recording medium such as a CD-ROM, read by a computer, and executed, thereby realizing each process (including each display method) described in this specification.

[0144]

As described above, claims 1 and 2
In the image display method described above and the image processing apparatus described in claims 7 and 8, even in the case of animation in which the display order of frames is not constant, the data amount can be sufficiently reduced and high-speed drawing can be performed. Further, in the image display method according to the third to fifth aspects and the image processing apparatus according to the ninth to eleventh aspects, a person who looks at the display of the animation becomes more interesting than before. Further, in the image display method according to the sixth aspect and the image processing apparatus according to the twelfth aspect, a person who authors a moving image can produce a moving image with almost no meeting with the creator of the overall control program. Efficiency can be increased.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an outline of an Internet system to which a network display incorporating an image processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is connected.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an overview of the network display of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of the network display of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of a dedicated graphics LSI in the network display of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a memory 2 in the network display of FIG. 3;
FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the role of a scenario stored in the third scenario.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining a basic operation of an image processing unit in a dedicated graphics LSI used for the network display of FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 shows an enlargement and enlargement performed by the dedicated graphics LSI of FIG.
It is a figure for explaining the processing order of reduction processing etc.

FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining the principle of transparent color processing performed by the dedicated graphics LSI of FIG. 4;

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing types and routes of events (controls) of an animation movie operating on the network display of FIG. 1;

FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining transparent color processing of an open area and a closed area performed by the dedicated graphics LSI of FIG. 4;

11A and 11B are diagrams illustrating a case in which an animation sprite displayed on the network display in FIG. 1 is divided into small blocks. FIG. 11A illustrates a state in which a cloud sprite flows, and FIG. It is a figure showing an example which divides a cloud sprite into small blocks.

12A and 12B are diagrams illustrating another example of a case where an animation sprite displayed on the network display of FIG. 1 is divided into small blocks. FIG. 12A illustrates a movie screen in which a sprite written “GOAL” is entirely drawn. (B) is a diagram showing a state where a part thereof is enlarged and drawn on a movie screen.

FIG. 13 is a diagram for explaining runtime scenario interpolation performed by the network display of FIG. 1;

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating an example of a multi-player operation performed by the network display of FIG. 1;

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing another example of the multi-player operation performed by the network display of FIG. 1;

FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating an example of a multi-animation movie process performed by the network display of FIG. 1;

FIG. 17 is a view for explaining sprite-based inter-frame difference drawing performed by the network display of FIG. 1;

18 is a diagram for explaining a relationship between a host system inside the network display of FIG. 1 and a player.

FIG. 19 is a diagram for explaining a real-time playback function of the network display of FIG. 1;

FIG. 20 is a diagram showing an example in which the network display of FIG. 1 is used without being connected to the Internet.

FIG. 21 is a diagram illustrating an example of an apparatus provided with a display unit separately from a main body.

FIG. 22 is a diagram illustrating an example of an apparatus that uses a portable medium on which animation data is recorded.

[Explanation of symbols]

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 network display (device incorporating an image processing device) 2 Internet 3 LAN (local area network) 6 WWW server (HTTP server) 8 TV station 11 display unit 20 frame 21 CPU (central processing unit, processing unit, display order) Defining means, difference detecting means, part of scheduled scenario reproducing means, part of arbitrary frame reproducing means) 22 Dedicated graphics LSI (display processing means, part of scheduled scenario reproducing means, part of arbitrary frame reproducing means) 23 Memory 51 Movie Screen

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 5B050 BA08 CA08 EA24 FA02 5C023 AA02 AA04 AA18 AA21 AA26 AA38 BA11 CA04 CA05 CA08 DA02 DA03 DA08 5C082 AA06 BA43 BA46 BD01 BD02 CA18 CA32 CA54 CA56 CB01 DA87 MM02

Claims (12)

[Claims] 1. An image display method in which an animation is reproduced on a display unit by providing a plurality of frames in which sprites are incorporated and sequentially drawing the frames, the temporal relationship of the frames to be displayed is not uniquely defined. , The time relationship between frames is defined when the animation is played back, and the difference between the preceding and following frames is taken at the time of playing back, and the difference between sprites included in the preceding and following frames is taken. Image display method. 2. The image display method according to claim 1, wherein the difference between the sprites is calculated by using information on a position and a size of the sprite included in the scenario. 3. An image display method in which a plurality of frames incorporating sprites are provided, and the frames are sequentially drawn to reproduce an animation on a display unit, wherein the animation is performed in the order of frames described in the above scenario. (Hereinafter, referred to as scheduled scenario reproduction) and a method of changing the reproduction position to an arbitrary frame at an arbitrary timing and reproducing the image (hereinafter, referred to as an arbitrary frame reproduction). Image display method. 4. The image display method according to claim 3, wherein the arbitrary frame reproduction is performed in response to a request from a host system serving as a higher-level system for controlling the scheduled scenario reproduction. 5. When the arbitrary frame reproduction is performed,
5. The image display method according to claim 3, wherein the arbitrary frame can be designated by a predetermined label name instead of a frame number. 6. An image display method in which an animation is reproduced on a display unit by providing a plurality of frames in which sprites are incorporated and sequentially drawing the frames, wherein the reproduction position is changed to an arbitrary frame at the arbitrary timing. An image display method wherein the arbitrary frame is designated by a predetermined label name instead of a frame number. 7. A memory for storing data of a scenario for displaying compressed data of a sprite and a plurality of frames in which the sprite is incorporated in a predetermined order, and controlling display of the sprite and the frame according to the scenario. In an image processing apparatus having an arithmetic processing unit and a display processing unit for performing a process for displaying decompressed data on a display unit, the reproduction of animation is performed without defining the temporal relationship of the displayed frames. A display order defining means for sometimes defining a temporal relationship between frames, and a difference detecting means for obtaining a difference between preceding and succeeding frames at the time of animation reproduction, wherein the difference detecting means detects a difference between sprites included in the preceding and succeeding frames. An image processing apparatus characterized in that: 8. The image processing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the difference between the sprites is calculated by using information on a position and a size of the sprite included in the scenario. 9. A memory for storing scenario data for displaying compressed data of a sprite and a plurality of frames into which the sprite is incorporated in a predetermined order, and controlling display of the sprite and the frame in accordance with the scenario. In an image processing apparatus having an arithmetic processing unit and a display processing unit for performing processing for displaying decompressed data on a display unit, an image processing apparatus for reproducing animation in the order of frames described in the above scenario. An image processing apparatus comprising: a scheduled scenario reproducing unit; and an arbitrary frame reproducing unit that changes a reproduction position to an arbitrary frame at an arbitrary timing and reproduces the image. 10. The image processing apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the reproduction by the arbitrary frame reproducing means is performed by a request from a host system which is a higher-level system for controlling the reproduction by the scheduled scenario reproducing means. 11. The image according to claim 9, wherein when the reproduction is performed by the arbitrary frame reproducing means, the arbitrary frame can be designated by a predetermined label name instead of a frame number. Processing equipment. 12. A memory for storing data of a scenario for displaying compressed data of a sprite and a plurality of frames incorporating the sprite in a predetermined order, and controlling display of the sprite and the frame according to the scenario. In an image processing apparatus having an arithmetic processing unit and a display processing unit for performing processing for displaying decompressed data on a display unit, an arbitrary frame to be reproduced by changing a reproduction position to an arbitrary frame at the above-mentioned arbitrary timing An image processing apparatus provided with a reproducing means, wherein the arbitrary frame is designated by a predetermined label name instead of a frame number.