On-Screen Display Proportional Font Shift Parameter Method
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional display devices using character-based fonts for on-screen display (OSD) information face limitations in displaying a large number of characters, leading to insufficient information provision, while graphic fonts require significant memory resources.
Innovation Solution
An on-screen display method and device that reads and adjusts font widths, determines shift parameters, and combines shifted fonts to create proportional fonts, allowing for high-quality OSD information display within predetermined areas.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If character-based fonts are used for OSD display, then memory usage is reduced, but the number of characters that can be displayed is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the fixed font display area into multiple variable-width character slots. Each character is assigned a specific width based on its actual font width, allowing multiple characters of varying widths to be packed into the same display area. This segmentation enables efficient space utilization while maintaining low memory usage characteristic of character-based fonts.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the parameter of character width from fixed to variable. By calculating and applying different width values to different characters based on their font properties, the system optimizes the number of characters that can be displayed in the OSD area. This parameter change allows proportional spacing without requiring graphic fonts, thus reducing memory usage while improving information density.
2Loss of information
If graphic fonts are used for OSD display, then information density is improved, but memory requirements increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of using graphic fonts to achieve proportional display (which consumes large memory), the patent inverts the approach by making character-based fonts proportional. It calculates variable shift parameters for each character based on its width, creating proportional spacing within the fixed character font structure. This inversion achieves the visual quality of graphic fonts while maintaining the memory efficiency of character-based fonts.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a virtual proportional font system by copying and adapting the character-based font structure. It generates shift parameters that simulate proportional font behavior without storing actual proportional font data. This virtual copying allows the system to achieve proportional display effects using minimal memory, avoiding the need to store large graphic font datasets.
3Device complexity
If fixed font width is used for all characters, then display simplicity is maintained, but information capacity is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces dynamic width adjustment for characters while maintaining the overall simplicity of character-based font display. Each character's display position is dynamically calculated based on its specific width and a computed shift parameter. This dynamic approach allows variable-width character placement without requiring complex proportional font systems, thus improving character capacity while keeping the implementation relatively simple.
Data Source
AI summary
An on-screen display device which supports a proportional font, and a method thereof. The method includes reading fonts which correspond to string characters, deciding a font width, deciding a shift parameter of a font based on the font width, combining a font shifted by the determined shift parameter with a prior shifted font, and producing font data for an on-screen display when a result of the combined fonts fills a width of a basic font area.