Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for providing translucent images on a computer display

US5949432A · kind A · utility

190Cited by
14References
45Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateApr 11, 1997
Grant dateSep 7, 1999
Priority date
Expiry dateApr 11, 2017

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG09G2340/10
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method and apparatus for producing a translucent image over a base image created on the display screen of a computer system by a selected first application program, and conducting image operations either on said base image created by the selected application program with reference to the translucent image produced, or conducting image operations on said translucent image with reference to said base image of the first application program. The first application program runs on a central processing unit (CPU) of a computer system to produce a base image, and another application program referred to as the overlay program is run to produce the translucent image such that portions of the base image which are overlapped by the overlay image are at least partially visible through the translucent image. There is also a mechanism for blending the first video data and the second video data to produce a blended image on the screen assembly.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.