Stroke-vector character generator
US4660028A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Nov 1, 1984 |
| Grant date | Apr 21, 1987 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Nov 1, 2004 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG09G1/10
- WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A novel stroke-vector character generator is disclosed for generating characters or the like in a raster-scan video display system. An external data signal defines the type of character to be displayed, the character field dimensions, the character drawing point, and any character rotation or reflection. Using that part of the data signal that defines the character type as a memory address, the character generator retrieves from memory a character microprogram containing a plurality of encoded binary valued stroke-drawing directives. These directives are instructions to a decoder how to generate all of the shape dependent attributes for a series of chain related stroke-vectors that define the overall shape of the character to be displayed. Once defined in the system, each stroke-vector is scaled so that the character cell size matches the character field dimensions defined by the external data signal. Lastly a logical pel may be generated and added to the individual stroke-vectors before the connected stroke-vectors are projected onto the display screen at the character drawing point.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.