Method and apparatus to highlight information in complex visual environments

摘要

An image processing system is described which is arranged to highlight information in image displays by selectively blurring less important areas of an image. By generating such displays comprising areas which are in focus and areas which are out of focus, a viewer's attention is preferentially drawn towards those areas of an image which appear sharp. By having a display system which is arranged to generate such images a means is provided to direct a viewer's attention towards considering the sharp areas of the image display first. Further the selective blurring portions of an image reduces rather than increases the amount of information presented to a viewer and hence reduces the likelihood that a viewer will become overloaded with information. Display systems of this type are therefore especially applicable to complex control environments as means of directing viewer's attention.

主权项

1. An image generation method, comprising:
obtaining one or more readings of external conditions; determining a current status on the basis of received readings; receiving image data; generating selection data identifying one or more portions in an image as portions of an image which are to be emphasized on the basis of the determined current status; and processing received image data to generate a composite image in which the portions of said composite image corresponding to said portions to be emphasized identified by received selection data correspond to said portions of the image defined by received image data and in which other portions of said composite image correspond to the other portions of the image defined by said received image data to which a blurring function has been applied, wherein said processing received image data to generate a composite image comprises:
generating selection data in response to receipt of status data identifying a default status identifying the entirety of an image as being the portion of an image to be emphasized;determining pixel data for areas of an image identified by selection data as portions of an image to be emphasized by copying image data for said pixels from received image data; anddetermining pixel data for the remaining portions of a composite image by calculating for pixels in said remaining portions of a composite image a weighted average of received image data weighted by a function dependent upon the distance between a pixel in an image for which pixel data is being generated and a corresponding pixel in said image being utilized to calculate said weighted average; storing function data defining a plurality of functions operable to derive composite image data from received image data in which some portions of a composite image correspond to said portions of the image defined by received image data and in which other portions of said composite image correspond to the other portions of the image defined by said data received by a receiver to which a blurring function has been applied; selecting stored function data defining a function on the basis of received selection data and generating a composite image utilizing received image data and said selected function data.