The window handler circuit is inserted between an image memory (7) having as many pages as there are possible windows and a screen controller capable of reading from any of the pages of the image memory. The handler comprises two auxiliary memories (3, 4) each of which stores bit maps in which a logic one bit indicates that the corresponding window includes an image element in the same line or the same column as the case may be as the screen position currently being scanned. A battery (5) of AND gates receives the line and column bit maps associated with the current screen position and generates a third bit map in which each logic one bit indicates that the corresponding window includes an image element at the current screen position. A priority encoder (6) then selects the visible or "uppermost" window from the said third bit map by generating the number (N) of the page to be read in the image memory (7). Relatively little memory is dedicated to determining the uppermost window at any screen position, since a two-dimensional array (the window bit map for each screen position) is generated from two one-dimensional arrays.
A method for specifying a video window's boundary coordinates directly from a multi-color video signal to separate the signals high and low variance components. The method converts the analog multi-color video signal into respective color sequences of digital frames and transforms them into another sequence of digital frames that represent the intensity of the multi-color video signal. The method generates difference frames between successive transformed intensity frames and computes a row activity measure and a column activity measure from at least one of the difference frames. The video window's approximate boundary coordinates are determined from said row and column activity measures.
A circuit is provided which receives pixel data and pixel addresses from a graphics processor and effectuates rapid clipping of image information lying outside of a corresponding window, and also provides a template memory for storing information corresponding to all areas of that window which are obscured by a higher priority window. The pixel addresses are simultaneously applied to an image memory, the template memory, and the window clipping circuit. A write control circuit enables a write signal produced by the graphics processor to be applied to a write input of the image memory only if the present pixel is located within the present window, as determined by the window clipping circuit, and is not in an obscured area of that window, as determined by the read-out of the template memory.
A video image processing system and method for encoding and storing a video image in a bit map array. The system receives a raster scan video signal which it converts into an analog luminosity signal. Then, during each of a preselected repeating sequence of raster scan cycle periods, it encodes a corresponding preselected portion of the information in the analog luminosity signal as a binary value and stores the value in a bit map memory array. As a result, the video image is encoded and stored over a plurality of raster scan cycle periods.
A high speed page turning control system and method which is capable of representing the page turning process by actively displaying the image of a compressed window on a display, for example a CRT. A first page is displayed on a display, a second page is overlapped with the first page. The first page, is compressed and the image on the second page comes into further view until only the second page is displayed on the display. To do a previous page the display is effected in reverse order.
A user guidance display system provides an animated display of example action being entered into a displayed image of the machine, to show a self-service machine user how the machine is to be operated. The various graphic images which show the prospective user what to do are created on a personal computer, using any of the commercially available graphic design programs. The binary file provided by the design program is processed, to compress the file into a special form having reduced memory requirements and having synergism with the image-displaying apparatus so as to permit fast and low overhead display of each image. By displaying a base image comprised of a number of image fragments, the base image can be changed during the course of guiding a user through a transaction. Animation is provided by sequentially displaying a plurality of image fragments under control of an animation list which, in turn, controls a timer. In order to provide for the convenient combination of graphic images and text, each image fragment is referenced to a text character location. The picture fragments, after being compressed, are stored in a memory in the self-service transaction machine. Text and picture images are sent to the display as messages under control of the transaction program executing in the computer of the self-service transaction machine. The messages are in the form of standard character strings in which a special graphic escape control code has been defined to distinguish between character text codes and graphic image fragment display instructions.
