Image control device and image control method

Abstract

The present disclosure provides an image control device and an image control method. The image control device includes a control command output port, an image input port, a processor, and an image output unit. The control command output port transmits a scene switching command to an image source device; the image input port receives an image stream from the image source device; the processor is coupled to the image input port and the control command output port, and obtains a first image and a second image from the image stream, wherein the second image corresponds to the scene switching command; the image output unit is coupled to the processor, and outputs the first image and the second image, wherein the first image is displayed in a first display area, and the second image is displayed in a second display area.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present disclosure relates to an image control device and an image control method. BACKGROUND

[0002] When a general user plays a game by using a game console or a computer console, the image source of the game screen is usually a single image source device (such as a game console like PS4, PS5, Switch, or a computer console). If the game itself supports scene switching, the user often needs to frequently switch the game screen to confirm the status of other scenes in the computer game (such as the current status of the opponent player). However, when the user frequently switches the game screen, it is easy to make an operation mistake and cause the screen to jump to a game screen that is not expected by the user, thereby causing the game process to miss a good opportunity. Therefore, how to make the user operate more smoothly on a device that provides a single image source is the goal that the person skilled in the art should strive for. SUMMARY

[0003] The present disclosure provides an image control device and an image control method, which can output different images in an image stream without frequently switching images.

[0004] The image control device of the present disclosure includes a control command output port, an image input port, a processor, and an image output unit. The control command output port transmits a scene switching command to an image source device; the image input port receives an image stream from the image source device; the processor is coupled to the image input port and the control command output port, and obtains a first image and a second image from the image stream, wherein the second image corresponds to the scene switching command; the image output unit is coupled to the processor and outputs the first image and the second image, wherein the first image is displayed in a first display area and the second image is displayed in a second display area.

[0005] The image control method of the present disclosure includes: transmitting a scene switching command to an image source device; receiving an image stream from the image source device; obtaining a first image and a second image from the image stream, wherein the second image corresponds to the scene switching command; outputting the first image and the second image by an image output unit; wherein the first image is displayed in a first display area and the second image is displayed in a second display area.

[0006] Based on the above, the image control device and the image control method of the present disclosure can obtain images in an image stream according to a scene switching command. Accordingly, different images in the image stream can be output through different image output ports. In addition, the obtained different images can also have different frame rates, which further optimizes the user experience.

[0007] In order to make the above features and advantages of the present disclosure more obvious and easy to understand, the following specific embodiments are described in detail below, and the detailed description is made below with reference to the accompanying drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0008] Figure 1 is an architectural block diagram of an image control apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0009] Figure 2 is a flowchart of an image control method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0010] Figure 3 is an architectural block diagram of an image control apparatus according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0011] BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0012] 100: image control apparatus

[0013] 110: control command output port

[0014] 120: image input port

[0015] 130: processor

[0016] 140: image output unit

[0017] 141: first image output port

[0018] 142: second image output port

[0019] 150: control command input port

[0020] 200: image source apparatus

[0021] 300-1, 300-2, 300: display

[0022] S201, S203, S205, S207: step

[0023] 300a, 300b: split screen DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0024] Reference will now be made in detail embodiments of the present disclosure, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the description to refer to the same or like parts.

[0025] Figure 1 is an architectural block diagram of an image control apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0026] Reference will now be made in detail embodiments of the present disclosure, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the description to refer to the same or like parts. Figure 1The image control device 100 includes a control command output port 110, an image input port 120, a processor 130, an image output unit 140, and a control command input port 150. The processor 130 is coupled to the control command output port 110, the image input port 120, the image output unit 140, and the control command input port 150.

[0027] The image output unit 140 can include a first image output port 141 and a second image output port 142. The first image output port 141 is coupled to the processor 130, and the second image output port 142 is coupled to the processor 130.

[0028] The image input port 120, the first image output port 141, and the second image output port 142 can be a High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI), a DisplayPort (DP), a Digital Visual Interface (DVI), a Video Graphics Array (VGA), a Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI), or other similar transmission interfaces, without being limited thereto.

[0029] The control command output port 110 and the control command input port 150 can be a USB interface, a gamepad connection interface of a dedicated game console, or other similar transmission interfaces, without being limited thereto.

[0030] The processor 130 can be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), or other programmable general-purpose or special-purpose microprocessors (Microprocessor), Digital Signal Processors (DSP), programmable controllers, Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC), or other similar components or combinations thereof, without being limited thereto.

[0031] The image source device 200 can provide image content including an output image, which can be a computer host, a digital disc player (DVD player), a game console, or the like, without being limited thereto.

[0032] The displays 300-1 and 300-2 are, for example, Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs), Light-Emitting Diode (LED) displays, Plasma displays, Organic Light Emitting Diode displays, or other kinds of display devices. It is worth mentioning that, Figure 1 The number of displays shown is merely illustrative and the present disclosure is not limited in this regard.

[0033] Figure 2 is a flowchart of an image control method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, wherein the image control method can be implemented by the image control device 100 in Figure 1 .

[0034] Please refer to Figure 1 and Figure 2 In step S201, the control command output port 110 can transmit a scene switching command to the image source device 200. For example, if the image stream is a computer game, the scene switching command can instruct to switch real-time images of different locations in the computer game (e.g., a real-time strategy game), or to switch images of different perspectives in the computer game (e.g., a racing game) (e.g., from a front perspective image of a racing car to a rear perspective image of the racing car).

[0035] The scene switching command can be stored in a storage unit (not shown) outside the image control device 100 and be driven by the processor 130 to be output to the control command output port 110 for output. In another embodiment, the image control device 100 can include a storage unit (not shown), and the storage unit of the image control device 100 stores the scene switching command, and the processor 130 can drive the scene switching command to be output to the control command output port 110 for output. The storage unit can be a RAM, a ROM, an EEPROM, an HDD, a flash disk, or the like, and the present disclosure is not limited in this regard.

[0036] In an embodiment, the image control device 100 can include an input / output device (not shown). The scene switching command can be set by a user through the input / output device of the image control device 100, i.e., the content, time period, or any other setting of the scene switching command can be adjusted, and the present disclosure is not limited in this regard.

[0037] In step S203, the image input port 120 can receive an image stream from the image source device 200. For example, the image stream can be continuous images (continuous frames) of a computer game.

[0038] In step S205, the processor 130 can acquire the first image and the second image from the image stream, wherein the second image corresponds to the scene switching command. For example, if the scene switching command indicates to switch the computer racing game from the front view image of the racing car to the rear view image of the racing car, the first image can be the front view image, and the second image can be the rear view image (i.e., the second image corresponds to the scene after the switching indicated by the scene switching command).

[0039] In step S207, the image output unit 140 can output the first image and the second image, wherein the first image is displayed in the first display region, and the second image is displayed in the second display region.

[0040] In Figure 1 In the embodiment shown, the first image output port 141 can output the first image to the first display 300-1, and the first display 300-1 can display the first display region. On the other hand, the second image output port 142 can output the second image to the second display 300-2, and the second display 300-2 can display the second display region. In other words, the first image and the second image can be displayed on different displays at the same time.

[0041] Figure 3 is a block diagram of the architecture of the image control device 100 according to another embodiment of the disclosure. Figure 3 Unlike Figure 1 The difference between and Figure 3 The image output unit 140 in is coupled to a single display (display 300).

[0042] In other words, in Figure 3 In the embodiment shown, the first display region and the second display region can be displayed on different split screens of the display 300 at the same time (e.g., the first display region can be displayed on the split screen 300a, and at the same time, the second display region can be displayed on the split screen 300b). Accordingly, the first image and the second image can be displayed on different split screens of the display 300 at the same time.

[0043] In an embodiment, after the scene switching command is output, if the processor 130 determines that there is no scene change in the current frame relative to the previous frame of the current frame, the image output unit 140 can stop outputting the second image. Specifically, after the processor 130 acquires the second image (corresponding to the scene switching command) from the image stream (i.e., step S205), in step S207, the processor 130 can compare the current frame and the previous frame of the acquired second image. For example, if the processor 130 determines that the difference between the current frame and the previous frame is greater than a threshold value, the processor 130 can determine that there is a scene change in the current frame relative to the previous frame of the current frame. The threshold value can be the difference between the image features of the current frame and the image features of the previous frame, where the image features can be, for example, pixel difference, object contour difference, color distribution difference, brightness distribution difference, Gamma curve difference, etc., which is not a limitation. In other words, the threshold value can be a numerical value corresponding to various image features that can be used to determine the difference between the image features of the current frame and the previous frame.

[0044] If the processor 130 determines that there is a scene change in the current frame relative to the previous frame of the current frame, the image output unit 140 can output the second image. On the other hand, if the processor 130 determines that there is no scene change in the current frame relative to the previous frame of the current frame, the image output unit 140 can stop outputting the second image.

[0045] In an embodiment, the frame rate of the first image plus the frame rate of the second image is less than or equal to the frame rate of the image stream. For example, if the frame rate (FPS, Frame per Second) of the image stream is 100 frames, the frame rate of the first image can be 60 frames, and the frame rate of the second image can be 20 frames.

[0046] In an embodiment, the frame rate of the first image divided by the frame rate of the second image is equal to a predetermined frame rate ratio. Specifically, the predetermined frame rate ratio can be used to allow the output first image and the output second image to have different frame rates, and the frame rate between the first image and the second image has a ratio. Based on this, the frame rate of the first image and the frame rate of the second image can be displayed according to the predetermined frame rate ratio, and in an embodiment, one of the first image and the second image can be displayed at a higher frame rate (e.g., the user can thereby more easily watch the first image displayed at a higher frame rate). For example, the frame rate of the first image can be 60 frames, and the frame rate of the second image can be 40 frames.

[0047] In one embodiment, after transmitting the scene switching command to the image source device 200, the control command output port 110 can transmit a scene restoration command to the image source device 200. For example, if the scene switching command indicates switching a computer game (e.g., a racing game) from a front view image of a racing car to a rear view image of the racing car, the scene restoration command can indicate restoring the image of the previous view in the computer game (e.g., restoring from the rear view image of the racing car to the front view image of the racing car). The scene restoration command can be pre-stored in a storage unit (not shown) of the image control device 100, or the scene restoration command can also be dynamically set by a user.

[0048] The processor 130 can acquire a third image from the image stream, wherein the third image corresponds to the scene restoration command. For example, if the scene restoration command indicates restoring a computer racing game from a rear view image of a racing car to a front view image of the racing car, the third image can be the front view image (i.e., the third image corresponds to the scene after the restoration indicated by the scene restoration command). The image output unit 140 can output the third image, which can be displayed in the first display area (i.e., the third image can be displayed in the same display area as the first image). For example, as described in the foregoing embodiments, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the third image can be displayed in the first display area displayed by the display 300-1, or, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, the third image can be displayed in the split screen 300a of the display 300. Figure 1 Figure 3 In one embodiment, the view angle of the third image can be the same as the view angle of the first image, i.e., the third image can be used to update and replace the first image originally displayed by the display 300-1 (or the split screen 300a) after the third image is acquired.

[0049] In one embodiment, the processor 130 can periodically drive the control command output port 110 to output the scene switching command. In other words, the processor 130 can drive the control command output port 110 to output the scene switching command to the image source device 200 at a fixed time interval (e.g., every 1 ms, 0.5 ms, or any other time interval).

[0050] In another embodiment, the processor 130 can periodically drive the control command output port 110 to output the scene restoration command.

[0051] In other words, if the scene switching command indicates switching a computer game (e.g., a racing game) from a front view image of a racing car to a rear view image of the racing car, the scene restoration command can indicate restoring the image of the previous view in the computer game (e.g., restoring from the rear view image of the racing car to the front view image of the racing car). The scene restoration command can be pre-stored in a storage unit (not shown) of the image control device 100, or the scene restoration command can also be dynamically set by a user. Figure 1 ​As illustrated in the embodiment, when the control command output port 110 does not output the scene switching command, the processor 130 continuously acquires the first image from the image input port 120 and outputs the first image to the display 300-1 via the image output unit 140. When the control command output port 110 starts to periodically output the scene switching command and the scene restoring command, the processor 130 acquires the first image, the second image and the third image according to the scene switching command and the scene restoring command to periodically acquire and update the images displayed on the display 300-1 and the display 300-2. That is, as illustrated in the foregoing embodiment, the third image can be displayed in the same first display region as the first image, and the processor 130 can further determine whether to output the second image (to be displayed in the second display region) according to the current frame and the previous frame of the second image. Accordingly, periodically replacing the first image with the third image and periodically outputting the second image can allow the user to maintain playing the game with the first image displayed on the display 300-1 and to know the status of the other scene by observing the image displayed on the display 300-2.

[0052] In an embodiment, the control command input port 150 can be configured to receive the user command. For example, the user command is transmitted to the control command input port 150 by the input device (e.g., a keyboard, a mouse, a gamepad or any combination thereof) operated by the user.

[0053] The processor 130 can determine whether the control command input port 150 receives the user command. When the processor 130 determines that the control command input port 150 receives the user command, the processor 130 can transmit the user command to the control command output port 110. The control command output port 110 can output the user command.

[0054] Further, as illustrated in the foregoing embodiment, when the processor 130 periodically drives the control command output port 110 to output the scene switching command, if the processor 130 determines that the control command input port 150 receives the user command, the processor 130 will preferentially process the user command. Therefore, the processor 130 can first transmit the user command to the control command output port 110 and pause the periodic driving of the control command output port 110 to output the scene switching command for a period of time (i.e., the pause time). After the pause time elapses, the processor 130 can continue to periodically drive the control command output port 110 to output the scene switching command.

[0055] In summary, the image control device and the image control method of the present disclosure can acquire images in the image stream according to the scene switching command. In this way, different images in the image stream can be output through different image output ports. In addition, the acquired different images can also have different frame rates, which optimizes the user experience. In addition, the image control device and the image control method of the present disclosure can also stop transmitting the scene switching command when a user command is received, so as not to affect the user's original operation mode.

[0056] Finally, it should be noted that: the above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solutions of the present disclosure, and not to limit them; although the present disclosure has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, those skilled in the art should understand: it can still modify the technical solutions recorded in the foregoing embodiments, or make equivalent replacement for part or all of the technical features; and these modifications or replacements do not make the essence of the corresponding technical solutions deviate from the scope of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present disclosure.

Claims

1. An image control device, characterized in that, include: The control command output port transmits scene switching commands to a single image source device. An image input port receives an image stream from the single image source device; A processor, coupled to the image input port and the control command output port, acquires a first image and a second image from the image stream, wherein the second image corresponds to the scene switching command; as well as An image output unit, coupled to the processor, outputs the first image and the second image, wherein the first image is displayed in a first display area and the second image is displayed in a second display area. After the scene switching command is output, if the processor determines that there is no scene change in the current frame relative to the previous frame, the image output unit stops outputting the second image. The sum of the frames per second of the first image and the frames per second of the second image is less than or equal to the frames per second of the image stream.

2. The image control device according to claim 1, characterized in that, in: After transmitting the scene switching command to the single image source device, the control command output port transmits the scene restoration command to the single image source device. The processor acquires a third image from the image stream, wherein the third image corresponds to the scene restoration command. The image output unit outputs the third image, which is displayed in the first display area.

3. The image control device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The processor periodically drives the control command output port to output the scene switching command.

4. The image control device according to claim 1, characterized in that, Also includes: The control command input port is coupled to the processor, wherein: When the processor determines that the control command input port has received a user command, the control command output port outputs the user command.

5. An image control method, executed by an image control device, characterized in that, The image control method includes: Transmit scene switching commands to a single image source device; Receive image streams from the single image source device; Obtain a first image and a second image from the image stream, wherein the second image corresponds to the scene switching command; and The first image and the second image are output by the image output unit; The first image is displayed in a first display area, and the second image is displayed in a second display area. The step of outputting the first image and the second image by the image output unit includes: After outputting the scene switching command, if it is determined that there is no scene change in the current frame relative to the previous frame, the image output unit stops outputting the second image. The sum of the frames per second of the first image and the frames per second of the second image is less than or equal to the frames per second of the image stream.

6. The image control method according to claim 5, characterized in that, Also includes: After transmitting the scene switching command to the single image source device, a scene restoration command is transmitted to the single image source device. A third image is obtained from the image stream, wherein the third image corresponds to the scene restoration command; as well as The third image is output by the image output unit, wherein the third image is displayed in the first display area.

7. The image control method according to claim 5, characterized in that, The step of transmitting the scene switching command to the single image source device includes: The scene switching command is periodically output through the control command output port of the image control device.

8. The image control method according to claim 5, characterized in that, Also includes: When it is determined that the control command input port of the image control device receives a user command, the user command is output by the control command output port.

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