JPH0591437A - Split screen display - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] To make it easier to see each unit image in a split screen display. [Structure] When the original image 1 is reduced to, for example, 1/36 and displayed in a split screen, first, a predetermined area 1a on a white background and a masked area 1b with diagonal lines are divided and the screen is cut out. The area can be reduced to 1 /
Set to 4. Next, the unit area 1c is obtained by reducing the predetermined area 1a to, for example, 1/9. As a result, only the main part of the original image can be reduced at a relatively low compression rate and displayed in a split screen.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a split screen display device, more specifically a still image file device and a camcorder (camera integrated type V
The present invention relates to a split screen display device that can be used for creating an index of image information recorded in TR, etc., or for cueing by searching.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As is well known, in order to display a plurality of image information recorded in a still image filing apparatus, a camcorder, etc., each different image information (hereinafter referred to as "original image")
In addition to single-screen display on the screen, image information from the original image is electrically reduced to form a reduced screen (hereinafter referred to as a unit image), and one screen is divided into a plurality of grids. There is a display system called split screen display or menu screen display in which some of the unit images are allotted to an area and displayed simultaneously.

This kind of split screen display will be described with reference to FIG. 7. The image information from the original images 41, 42 and 43 shown in FIGS. 7A, 7B and 7C are electrically reduced, The unit images 44a, 44b and 44c are arranged and displayed in a grid pattern on one screen 44 as shown in FIG. 7D.

A circuit configuration embodying this will be described with reference to FIG. 8. The luminance signal Y and the color difference signals RY and BY are output from the memory controller 18 by a write enable signal which will be described later with reference to FIGS. , Y field memory 11, RY field memory 12, and BY field memory 13, the write enable signal is thinned by the thinning control circuit 19, that is, image sampling is performed. Then, when such memory information sampled and written is read, it is read at a normal read rate.

Luminance signal Y read from the memory 11
Is a D / A converter 14, and the color difference signals RY and BY read from the memories 12 and 13 are encoded by a color encoder 15 and then D / A converter 16
Then, the signals are converted into analog signals, and these two signals are added by the adder 17 to be output as an NTSC video signal, for example.

The details of the sampling writing will be described with reference to FIG. 9. FIG. 9A is a diagram showing the arrangement of each pixel of the original image 1, in which the information of the pixels marked with black is the sampling data. 8 field memories 11, 1
2 and 13 are stored. That is, one pixel out of six pixels in the horizontal direction and one line out of six lines in the vertical direction are sampled. Therefore, one pixel out of 36 pixels is used as sampling data, that is, the reduction ratio 1 /
It will be stored in each field memory at 36.

FIG. 9B is a table showing stored pixels in each field memory, for example, 11 in which column numbers are shown in the horizontal direction and row numbers are shown in the vertical direction. Then, the pixel 1-1 in FIG. 9A is stored in the storage area (0, 0) in the memory, and the pixel 1-7 is stored in the area (0, 1).
However, the information of the pixels shown in the figure is image-sampled and stored in each address in the same manner.

FIG. 10 is a timing chart at the time of memory writing in the single screen display. Input data accumulated in each pixel shown in (A) is converted to "L" of the "L" active write enable signal WE shown in (B). Write to each memory address shown in (C) in synchronization with the "level". That is, in the data writing in the single-screen display, the data input at any time is written while designating the memory address on a one-to-one basis. The write enable signal WE
Performs write operation at "L" level and write prohibition at "H" level, but the horizontal bar originally attached to the upper part of WE is attached to the lower part for the purpose of electronic application.

On the other hand, in the case of image sampling and memory writing, for example, 6 × 6 = 36 split screen display, 0, 6, 12 marked with a star in each input data shown in FIG. Only for ..., The write enable signal WE shown in FIG. And
The memory addresses 0, 1, 2, ... Shown in (C) are designated, that is, the input data 0 is written in the address 0, the input data 6 is written in the address 1, and the input data 12 is written in the address 2. ing. As a result, FIG.
The data of the pixel marked with a black mark in (A) is written.

In other words, for the input data 1 to 5 shown in FIG. 11A, the write enable signal WE is set to the "H" level to inhibit the writing, so that it is determined that the image is sampled. Become. That is, the write enable signal WE is set to the “L” level only once every six times to form a unit image.

[0011]

However, the above-mentioned FIG.
In the conventional split screen display of 36 splits exemplified in
Unit image is 1 / horizontally in each direction
6, that is, 1/36 in area. In this case, since the entire original image is uniformly reduced regardless of whether it is the main subject or the background, the main subject, which is a characteristic part of the original image, becomes extremely small. Therefore, for example, when it is used for retrieval, it is difficult to see each unit image,
As a result, it becomes difficult to determine the relationship between the split screens. By the way, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-76479 discloses a television camera with a printer that prints one frame of a television screen as a still image on a dot printer and outputs it. In this television camera with a printer, when the video signal is stored in the RAM by the address designating circuit, the scanning line is decomposed into pixels and the density information of each pixel is stored in order at a predetermined address in the RAM, and the video is displayed in the printer section. RA to print
When the density information of each pixel is read from M, the address is specified by the address specifying circuit so that the density information of the address can be read by sequentially adding the number corresponding to the number of pixels of one scanning line with the specific address as the initial value. The information stored in the designated address is read out and transferred to the buffer circuit, and thereafter, the information is sent to the printer section through the selection circuit or the like.

Therefore, when printing a television image, the density information of vertically arranged pixels on the television screen is read out from the memory and horizontally printed by the printer section.

Therefore, the horizontal direction, which requires a large number of pixels on the television image, is the paper feed direction on the printing surface of the printer unit, and the vertical direction, which has a small number of pixels on the television image,
Since it can be set in the horizontal direction on the printing surface of the printer, the width of the printer unit can be reduced and the still image to be printed can be enlarged for easy viewing.

However, in this TV camera with a printer, the vertical and horizontal directions of the TV image are interchanged and printed to make it easier to see, and only the characteristic portion of the TV image is made easier to see. It has not been.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve the above problems and provide a split screen display device in which each unit image in split screen display is easy to see.

[0016]

A split screen display device according to the present invention has an area setting means for specifying a predetermined area in the entire area of an original image and a predetermined area based on a signal representing the predetermined area. An image sampling means for obtaining a signal representing an image obtained by sampling an image in this area at a reduction ratio, and the screen is divided into a plurality of areas representing each unit image based on the output of the image sampling means. And a split screen display circuit for forming each unit image in the split screen.

[0017]

The present invention will be described below with reference to the illustrated embodiments. First, before explaining the embodiments of the present invention, the basic concept of the present invention will be described. In a whole area of the original image, a predetermined area such as a central portion of the original image in which a main subject is highly likely to exist is defined. The reduction ratio is suppressed by cutting out first and then performing image sampling on the predetermined area to reduce the reduction ratio, thereby obtaining a relatively large readable unit image at the time of multi-division (for example, 25, 36, 49 ... Division). To do.

This will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 1A. The original image 1 in which the person 2 who is the main part of the original image is located at the substantial center of the screen is reduced to, for example, 1/36 and 36-segmented. In the case of forming a unit image in the divided screen display of, the present invention performs processing in the following two steps.

In the first step, when the horizontal direction of the original image 1 is divided into four, H1, H2, H3 and H4, and the vertical direction is also divided into four, V1, V2, V3 and V4, respectively, A white area (hereinafter, referred to as a predetermined area) 1a divided by the scales H1, H3, V1, and V3 includes a person 2 representing a main part of the original image 1 as it is, but its area is Is 1/4 of the area of the original image 1.

In this case, the shaded area 1b other than the specific area 1a is a mask area that is masked and discarded before reduction, that is, image sampling is not performed. Such an entire screen is displayed in the predetermined area 1a and the mask area 1b.
The process of dividing into and is the clipping of the screen by the region setting means for specifying a predetermined region in the entire region of the original image.

In the second step, the cut-out predetermined area 1a can be reduced and displayed in a 36-split screen.
The unit image 1c shown in FIG. In this case, by cutting out the screen in the first step, the predetermined area 1a
Since the area of 1 is already 1/4 of the area of the original image 1, if it is reduced to 1/9 in this second step, a unit image 1c capable of 36-split screen display can be obtained.

That is, in the past, the original image 1 was reduced to 1/36 to obtain the unit image 1a and the divided screen display of 36 divisions was performed, but in the present invention, the reduction ratio of 1/9 is sufficient. , The main part of the original image becomes easy to see. The second step is based on an image sampling means for obtaining a signal representing an image obtained by sampling an image of this area at a predetermined reduction rate based on the signal representing the predetermined area, and the output of the image sampling means. This is a process of forming each unit image in a divided screen in which the screen is divided into a plurality of regions representing each unit image.

The above is a description of the basic concept of the present invention. Next, examples will be described.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a split screen display device according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
Since 1 to the thinning control circuit 19 are the same as those in FIG. 8, the same reference numerals are given to the same constituent members, and the description thereof will be omitted. Only different members will be described below.

In the conventional example shown in FIG. 8, the reduced image obtained by sampling the entire area of the original image is stored in the memory, whereas in this embodiment, the entire area of the original image is set as the predetermined area. The mask area, that is, the white predetermined area 1a in FIG. 1 and the shaded mask area 1b are divided into
For the mask area 1b, the memories 11 to 13 are not used at all.
Will not store any information. The cut-out timing generation circuit 20 performs such control, and the thinning-out control is performed only in the predetermined region 1a by the control signal from the generation circuit 20.

The CPU 21 receives the division number designation from the division number designation input means 22 and determines whether or not to control the cutout timing. That is, if the specified number of divisions is small, for example, four divisions, the entire area of the original image is image-sampled to obtain a unit image without forcibly controlling the cut-out timing. The cutout timing generation circuit 20 is set to non-active, and only the original image is reduced by image sampling.

On the other hand, the designated division number is, for example, 36 or 4
In the case of 9, the cut-out timing generation circuit 20 is activated by the division number control command from the CPU 21, and the first and second steps described in the basic concept are executed.

This is the reason why the area setting means sets an area smaller than the entire area of the original image when the number of screen divisions in the divided screen exceeds a predetermined value.
The flowchart will be described.

The division number designation input means 22 in FIG.
When the number of divisions is designated by, the CPU 21 executes the flow of FIG. The number of split screens that was set in advance is 4, 9, 16, etc., which is too short to set the cutout timing, or the number of screens in which split screen display is difficult to see if the cutout timing, such as 25, 36, is not set. It is determined (step S1). If the number of screen divisions is the former, on the other hand, if the latter is the latter, the cutout timing generation circuit 20 shown in FIG. 2 is activated to generate the cutout timing (step S2), and then the process proceeds to step S3.

In step S3, thinning-out control is performed to sample the entire area of the original image or a predetermined area. Then, the writing of the unit image to each of the memories 11 to 13 is controlled (step S4), which is read out and displayed on the divided screen (step S5).

FIG. 4 is a timing chart of the operation of each part in the first embodiment, which is taken along the horizontal scanning line 3 shown by the chain double-dashed line in FIG.

The horizontal synchronizing signal HSYNC shown in FIG.
Input signals 32a, 32b, ... Shown in FIG. 4B, which are photoelectrically converted by, for example, an image sensor (not shown) between 31a, 31b, 31c ,. Input to the device. The set number of split screens is 2
If it is 5 or more, the first step described in the basic concept is first executed.

That is, as shown in FIG. 4C, a predetermined region is determined by the L-active cutout timing signals 33a, 33b, ... And then, during the L level period of this cutout timing signal, FIG. Write enable signals WE 34a, 34b, ... Or 35a, 35b ,.
To write each unit image to each of the memories 11 to 13 (see FIG. 2).

The details of the write operation will be described with reference to FIG. 5 in the case of 36 divisions. Since the first step in the basic concept has already been made 1/4, the reduction rate in the second step is 1/9. It's enough. Therefore, in FIG. 5A showing the pixel array of the original image, one pixel is selected for every three pixels in the horizontal direction and one line is selected for every three lines in the vertical direction. This sampling point is a pixel marked with a black mark in the drawing, and in each field memory, for example, 11 as shown in FIG. 5 (B), the storage area (0, 0) has an area (0 , 1)
The image information of each of the pixels 1-4 is stored in the address.

The above is the description of the first embodiment of the present invention.
As is clear from comparing FIG. 5 of the first embodiment with FIG. 9 of the conventional example, the reduction ratio of the unit image in the same 36-division split screen display to the original image is halved. The deterioration of the image quality due to the reduction can be reduced.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a split screen display device showing a second embodiment of the present invention. In the first embodiment,
The predetermined area for image sampling is common to each unit image in the split screen display, for example, the central portion of the original image, but in the second embodiment, the predetermined area is arbitrarily set for each unit image, its location, The difference is that the size can be specified.

That is, instead of the division number designation input means 22 of FIG. 2 in the first embodiment, an input means 22a capable of designating both the division number and a predetermined area is provided, and the operator manually operates the input means 22a. Then, the number of divisions and the predetermined area are input to the CPU 21. Then, the CPU 21 (1) directs the cut-out timing generation circuit 20 to specify an area of the original image where the predetermined area should be.

(2) To the thinning control circuit 19, the reduction ratio of how much the original image should be reduced is designated. The reciprocal of the number of screen divisions in this case is 1 / (number of divisions) = (ratio of the predetermined area to the entire area)
× reduction ratio, which can be set arbitrarily as shown in Table 1 below.

[0039]

[Table 1]

With respect to the area setting by the area setting means, the position and the size thereof can be freely changed, and the reduction ratio is determined based on the number of screen divisions in the divided screen and the designated size. The second embodiment is characterized in that the menu screen is configured with.

According to the second embodiment, it is possible to accurately display a main image that is not in the center of the original screen on the menu screen.

[0042]

As described above, according to the present invention, for each unit image in a divided screen divided into a plurality of regions, the original image is selected from all the regions of the original image before reduction to each unit image. Since the predetermined area that most expresses the feature is specified by the area setting means and the specified area is sampled by the image sampling means at each different reduction ratio, the unit image is formed. The reduction rate of the image is smaller than that of the related art, and therefore, the deterioration of the image can be reduced, and thus, the remarkable effect that the divided unit images can be easily seen is exhibited.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a screen cutout for specifying a predetermined area from the entire area of an original image according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block configuration diagram of a split screen display device according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for specifying a split screen in the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a timing chart of the operation of each part in the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the details of the write operation of the 36-split screen in the first embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a block configuration diagram of a split screen display device showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a conventional split screen display.

FIG. 8 is a block configuration diagram of a conventional split screen display device.

9 is a diagram for explaining the details of the write operation of the 36-split screen in FIG.

FIG. 10 is a timing chart at the time of memory writing in the conventional single screen display.

FIG. 11 is a timing chart at the time of memory writing in the conventional 36-split screen display.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Original image 1a Predetermined area 1c Unit image

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An area setting means for specifying a predetermined area in the whole area of an original image, and an image obtained by sampling an image of this area at a predetermined reduction rate based on a signal representing the predetermined area. Image sampling means for obtaining a signal, and a divided screen display for forming each unit image in a divided screen in which the screen is divided into a plurality of regions representing each unit image based on the output of the image sampling means. A split screen display device comprising: a circuit. 2. The area setting means sets an area narrower than the entire area of the original image when the number of screen divisions in the divided screen exceeds a predetermined value. 1) The split screen display device as described above. 3. With respect to the area setting by the area setting means, the position and size thereof are made variable, and the reduction ratio is determined based on the number of screen divisions in the divided screen and the designated size. The split screen display device according to claim 1, wherein the menu screen is configured with images.