JPH0666956B2 - Still image display device with hard copy output function - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (1) Description of Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a still image display device with a hard copy output function,
In particular, the present invention relates to a still image display device having a digital signal interface for hard copying and outputting a still image.

(2) Description of Prior Art A still image display device receives information sent through a telephone line and displays a still image based on the information. Its configuration is as shown in FIG. 5, which receives still image information and develops this information on a video memory, an adapter (1), a monitor (2) displaying a screen by a TV signal from the adapter, and a control to the adapter. It comprises a remote control keypad (3) for inputting a signal and a hard copy device (4) for outputting the screen displayed on the monitor as a hard copy. In such a configuration, a digital television signal interface is often used as an interface between the adapter (1) and the hard copy device (4) because the distance between the devices is short.

The digital television signal interface uses RGB signals synchronized with the master scan on the monitor (2). An example of the interface is shown in FIG. 6 and the signal timing is shown in FIG. The RGB signal (5) is 4 bits each, and the clock (6), vertical synchronization signal (7),
Horizontal synchronization signal (8), copy instruction signal (9) for instructing copy start by input from remote control keypad (3), copy ready signal (10) indicating trouble such as running out of paper in hard copy device (4) Consists of. First, when the key of the remote control keypad (3) is pressed to start copying, the adapter (1) sets the copy instruction signal (9) to L. The hard copy device (4) sets the copy ready signal (10) to L to indicate that the copy instruction signal (9) has been received. Further, the adapter (1) starts transmitting the RGB signal (5), the clock (6), the vertical synchronizing signal (7) and the horizontal synchronizing signal (8). The hard copy device (4) outputs a hard copy based on these signals.

As described above, the hard copy device (4) outputs the still image information displayed on the monitor as a copy, so that a desired image can be saved, which is convenient. However, the hard copy of the screen displayed on the monitor (2) is often difficult to see. For example, when displaying characters in white on a red or gray background, the characters are easy to see on the monitor, but on hard copy, the characters may appear small or may get stuck in the background.

(3) Object of the Invention According to the present invention, a character is recorded in black against a background white in the range where the character is displayed, so that an easy-to-read hard copy is obtained.

(4) Description of Configuration and Function of the Invention FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention and shows the internal configuration of the adapter (1). (11) is the line interface, (12)
Is a remote control keypad input unit, (13) is a microprocessor unit, (14) is a frame memory unit for expanding command information, (15) is a character code information frame memory unit, (16) is a screen composing unit, (17) ) Is the D / A converter, (1
8) is a video signal output section, (19) is a color information conversion section, (2
0) is a frame memory for hard copy output control, (21)
Is a selection circuit, and (22) is a hard copy signal input / output circuit. FIG. 2 shows an example of the structure of the character code information frame memory unit (15). The character code information frame memory unit (15) includes a luminance memory (23), a full-scene color memory (24), a background color memory (25), and a flushing information memory (26). As shown in FIG. 2, these select a foreground color and a background color according to 1.0 of the luminance information, and one foreground color and a background color for each matrix unit of n × m pixels of the luminance information. The flashing information is designated.

First, the information sent through the telephone line is sent to the microprocessor unit (13) through the line interface (11). If the information is code information, the code is converted into a pattern by referring to the ROM information, and is developed in the frame memory unit (15). That is, the luminance information plane is formed by setting the portion corresponding to the character to "1" and the background to "0", and then the foreground color, the background color and the flushing information are designated. In addition to this, in the hard copy output control frame memory (20), the range defined by the character size including the character background at the same time as the occurrence of the character pattern is defined as the character area, and the literary area is "1" and the other areas. Is displayed as "0". The screen synthesizing unit (16) synthesizes the screen of the frame memory unit (14) that develops graphic information such as command information and the frame memory unit (15) for character code information. This output is the D / A conversion unit ( In 17), it becomes an analog signal and is output to the video signal output section (18). The luminance information "1" and "0" of the character code information frame are 4-bit black (1,1) in the color information conversion section (19). , 1,1) and white (0,0,0,0) information, and the selection circuit (2
Entered in 1). The selection circuit (21) selects either the color information from the screen compositing unit (16) or the black and white information from the color information conversion unit (19) according to the information in the hard copy output control frame memory (20). It The selected signal is output to the hard copy from the hard copy signal input / output circuit (22).

With such a configuration, one hard copy is obtained as a black character on a white background in the character display area and as a color in the graphic information area, which is very easy to see. In addition to automatically generating a character area in the hard copy output control frame when a character pattern is generated, the information of the hard copy output control frame created considering that it is output as a hard copy is sent along with the screen information through the line. It is possible to receive it. In the example shown in FIG. 3,
(A) is a display of the received information on the monitor, where I is the entire background in blue, II is color screen information, and III is character information. Character information is assumed to be displayed in white on a blue background. In the method of defining a character area at the same time as a character is generated, bits are designated in the hard copy output control frame as shown in (b), and the obtained hard copy is (c).
Becomes Only the character area III is displayed with a white background and black characters. On the other hand, when the hardcopy output control frame information created as shown in (d) is received, the area of I in the hardcopy becomes white (e). Only the character area III of the "guide map" is white and the area I is easier to see than the blue hard copy (c) and is more natural.

The embodiment shown in FIG. 3 has a multi-frame structure, but the same can be done with a simple frame structure. FIG. 4 shows an example including a 4-bit RGB color information frame memory unit (27), a luminance memory (28), and a hard copy output control frame memory unit (29). Both the character code information and the command information are expanded in the color information frame memory section (27), but only the character code information is expanded as black and white information on the luminance memory (28) at the same time as the characters are generated, and the hard copy output control frame is also used. Memory part (2
In 9), the character area is specified. The information in the color information frame memory section (27) is output as a video signal. Luminance memory (28) output and color information frame memory section (2
7) Output is input to the selection circuit, one of which is selected by the hard copy output control frame memory (29) and output from the hard copy signal input / output circuit.

(5) Description of Effects As described above, according to the present invention, when receiving the information sent through the telephone line to display an image and obtain a hard copy as needed, the hard copy In the range where the characters are displayed above, the characters are recorded in black against the white background, and a hard copy that is easy to see can be obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a still image display device of the present invention,
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a character code information frame memory unit, FIG. 3 is an example of hard copy output according to the present invention, and FIG.
Modification of FIG. 5, FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a still image display device, FIG.
The figure shows the interface diagram and Fig. 7 shows the time chart. 1 is an adapter, 2 is a monitor, 3 is a remote control keypad, 4 is a hard copy device, 11 is a line interface, 12 is a remote control keypad input section, 13 is a microprocessor unit, 14 is a frame memory section for expanding command information Reference numeral 15 is a character code information frame memory unit, 16 is a screen synthesis unit, 17 is a D / A conversion unit, 18 is a video signal output unit, 19 is color information conversion unit, 20 is a hard copy output control frame memory, 21 Is a selection circuit, 22 is a hard copy signal input / output circuit, 23 is a luminance memory, 24 is a foreground color memory, 25 is a background color memory, 26 is a flashing information memory, 27 is a color information frame memory section, 28
Is a luminance memory, and 29 is a frame memory unit for hard copy output control.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A still image display device with a hard copy output function, which receives information sent through a telephone line via a line interface and displays the information as a still image, A character code information frame memory unit including a memory including a luminance memory in which the luminance information of characters is stored, a color information conversion unit that converts the information in the luminance memory into black information and white information, A frame memory unit for hard copy output control that defines a character display area for outputting a character code pattern to a hard copy, a frame memory unit that stores information including color information in the information sent, the color information Selection circuit to which the output signal from the converter and the output signal from the frame memory containing the color information are input, PGB digital signal, horizontal synchronization No., vertical sync signal, hard copy signal input / output circuit for outputting clock, character code information Character pattern developed corresponding to the character code from the frame memory section, and information including color information from the frame memory section And an image synthesizing unit for synthesizing the image information, and a video signal output unit for converting the output from the image synthesizing unit into a video signal and supplying the video signal to the monitor display. Either one of the black and white character information input from the color information conversion section is selected by the selection circuit according to the information of the hard copy output control frame memory, and the graphic is color information and the character is Outputs the RGB digital signal for hard copy obtained as black and white information from the hard copy signal input / output circuit In addition to the above configuration, the result supplied to the monitor display from the video signal output unit is configured to be displayed on the monitor separately from the hard copy output from the hard copy signal input / output circuit. Still image display device with copy output function.