Graphic Drawing Device Antialiasing via Curved Line Segmentation

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Solution Overview

Problem

Conventional graphic drawing devices face challenges in achieving high-speed real-time drawing while preventing jaggy edges, as they require significant arithmetic processing and hardware resources, leading to image degradation and inability to smoothly render edge lines.

Innovation Solution

A graphic drawing device that includes a curved line dividing unit for matrix transformation and division into minute line segments, combined with distance information generation and edge rasterization, allowing for accurate antialiasing by determining pixel location and mapping distance information onto antialiasing intensity, reducing arithmetic operations and hardware requirements.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Manufacturing precision

If super sampling method is used to divide pixel into subpixels for antialiasing, then edge smoothness is improved, but drawing speed deteriorates due to increased arithmetic processing

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveedge smoothnessVSAvoiddrawing speed
Core Design Contradiction:
Manufacturing precisionVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent divides the curved line into multiple minute line segments, and for each segment, only the pixels that actually intersect with the segment are processed. This segmentation approach avoids unnecessary calculations for pixels that would not contribute to the final image, thereby maintaining edge smoothness while reducing overall processing time.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent applies different processing strategies to different regions: for each minute line segment, it identifies and processes only the local set of pixels that the segment passes through, rather than uniformly processing all pixels in the image. This local quality approach ensures high precision where needed while minimizing unnecessary computations elsewhere.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

2Manufacturing precision

If distance calculation is performed for each pixel to all divided minute line segments for curved line antialiasing, then edge accuracy is improved, but arithmetic operation amount increases hugely

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveedge accuracyVSAvoidarithmetic operation amount
Core Design Contradiction:
Manufacturing precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts only the necessary information for antialiasing calculation - specifically, for each minute line segment, it identifies only the pixels that the segment actually passes through or intersects. This extraction principle eliminates the need to calculate distances from all pixels to all segments, reducing arithmetic operations while maintaining edge accuracy for the relevant pixels.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent performs preliminary action by pre-determining which pixels are affected by each minute line segment before performing distance calculations. By first identifying the relevant pixel sets for each segment, the system avoids unnecessary distance calculations for pixels that would not contribute to the final antialiasing result, thereby reducing the overall arithmetic operation amount.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentEP2230642B1Graphic drawing device and graphic drawing method
Publication Date: 2022.05.18 MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORP
  • EP2230642B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP2230642B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP2230642B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

A distance information generating unit 4 for rasterizing minute line segments divided by a curved line dividing unit 2 through a combination of straight line cells and corner cells to generate distance information corresponding to a pixel 12 of a display and an edge rasterizing unit 7 for rasterizing edge information about the minute line segments divided by the curved line dividing unit 2 are disposed, and a mapping unit 10 determines whether the pixel 12 is located inside or outside by using the edge information rasterized by the edge rasterizing unit 7, and maps the distance information generated by the distance information generating unit 4 onto the antialiasing intensity 11 of a component 13 included in the pixel 12 according to the results of the inside or outside determination.