Script-Driven Head-Up Display Warping Controller
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing head-up display (HUD) systems face challenges in reducing latency and cost due to the need for large external memories for image warping, and there is a lack of methods for dynamically determining buffer management requirements to deliver output pixels on time to the display surface.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a script-driven HUD controller with a line-buffer-based memory that pre-fetches input lines based on off-line calculated buffer management instructions, allowing for efficient on-chip image warping without off-chip memories, and using a line-based warping descriptor to manage the storage and allocation of input lines.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If large external memories are used to store input and output images for electronic image warping, then image warping can be performed, but latency increases and cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential data needed for image warping - specifically individual lines of pixels - from the complete image storage requirement. Instead of storing entire input and output images in external memory, the system processes and stores one line at a time, dramatically reducing memory requirements and eliminating the latency associated with large memory accesses.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the image processing into line-by-line operations. The display surface is divided into multiple lines, and the warping process processes one line at a time, using a line-buffer to store only the current line of pixels being processed. This segmentation allows the system to function with minimal memory while maintaining real-time performance.
2Reliability
If large external memories are used to store input and output images for electronic image warping, then image warping can be performed, but cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential data needed for image warping - specifically individual lines of pixels - from the complete image storage requirement. Instead of storing entire input and output images in external memory, the system processes and stores one line at a time, dramatically reducing memory requirements and eliminating the latency associated with large memory accesses.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the image processing into line-by-line operations. The display surface is divided into multiple lines, and the warping process processes one line at a time, using a line-buffer to store only the current line of pixels being processed. This segmentation allows the system to function with minimal memory while maintaining real-time performance.
3Device complexity
If a single line-buffer with fixed length is used for image warping, then implementation is simple, but it cannot dynamically adapt to different sections of the input image
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic buffer management where the line-buffer's effective length and configuration can change based on the specific section of the image being processed. The system uses adaptive buffering that adjusts to different homogeneous sections of the input image, allowing each section to be processed with the optimal buffer configuration rather than forcing a fixed-length buffer on all sections.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies different buffer management strategies to different sections of the image based on their specific characteristics. Each homogeneous section of the input image can use a line-buffer configuration optimized for that particular section's requirements, rather than using a uniform approach for the entire image.
4Ease of manufacture
If off-chip memories are eliminated and only on-chip line-buffer is used, then cost decreases and latency decreases, but buffer management becomes more challenging
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service buffer management through automated line-fetching mechanisms. The system automatically determines which lines to fetch from the input image and stores them in the line-buffer without requiring complex external memory management. This self-service approach handles the complexity of buffer management internally while maintaining the cost and latency benefits of eliminating off-chip memories.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses preliminary action by pre-fetching and storing lines of pixels into the line-buffer before they are needed for the warping calculation. This allows the computationally intensive warping operations to proceed without waiting for memory access, effectively preparing data in advance and smoothing out the buffer management requirements.
Data Source
AI summary
A script-driven head-up display controller comprising an image warping unit and an image projection unit wherein the image warping unit is coupled to the image projection unit and is adapted to:receive a line-based warping descriptor comprising first information associated with a distortion caused by a non-flat display; and,in response to the reception of the line-based warping descriptor, the image warping unit is further adapted to, based on the line-based warping descriptor:fetch one or more lines of the source image; and,output to the image projection unit at least one output line of the output image associated with an electronic image warping of one or more pixels of the one or more input lines,and wherein the line-based warping descriptor further comprises second information associated with buffer management instructions calculated off-line.