Systems, methods, and devices for highly interactive large image display and manipulation on tiled displays

Abstract

Display units which can be arranged to form a single arrayed display system, thereby allowing the display of much larger images than can be shown on a single display. Each display unit can include an image display, a communication mechanism, such as a network interface card or wireless interface card, and an image display module, such as a video card and an image processor. Each display module can be configured to selectively process and display portions of large digital images.

1 . A tiled display system comprising:
 an array of display units in communication with a network, each of the display units comprising an image display device and a processor, the image display devices being arranged in a tiled layout;   a control unit in communication with each of the display units via the network, the control unit configured to transmit to the display units, a message indicative of a state of a digital image;   wherein the processor of each of the display units is configured to determine a respective portion of the digital image to output on its respective image display device based at least in part on the message and to output the respective portions on the respective image display devices so as to collectively present a unified display of the digital image on the array of display units.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein all of the display units are configured to store the digital image in the form of discrete tiles, a combination of the tiles forming the entirety of the digital image. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein all of the display units are configured to define the respective portion of the digital image as a subset of the discrete tiles, and to process and display image data only from the subset of discrete tiles in response to the message. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein at least a plurality of the display units are configured to store the digital image in the form of discrete portions, a combination of the portions forming the entirety of the digital image. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein at least a plurality of the display units are configured to define the respective portion of the digital image as a subset of the discrete portions, and to process and display image data only from the subset of discrete portions in response to the message. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein at least a plurality of the display units are configured to store a plurality of copies of the digital image, the plurality of copies comprising data representing the digital image at different resolutions. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 6 , wherein at least a plurality of the display units are configured to selectively process and display at least a portion of one of the plurality of copies based on the message. 
     
     
         8 . (canceled) 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the message comprises one or more display parameters of the digital image. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the one or more display parameters includes a location of a reference pixel of the digital image on the array of display units. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the one or more display parameters include a zoom level of the digital image. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the one or more display parameters include at least one of an indication of a size of the digital image, a pixel color value, and a pixel transparency value. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the message comprises at least a portion of the digital image. 
     
     
         14 . (canceled) 
     
     
         15 . (canceled) 
     
     
         16 . A method of presenting a large digital image on an array of display units, the array including a control unit communicating with each of the display units over a network, each of the display units comprising a display monitor and a processor:
 transmitting a message from the control unit to the display units, the message comprising at least one display parameter of a large digital image;   storing at least a portion of the large digital image on a local memory of each of the display units;   using a plurality of the display units in parallel to identify the respective portions of the large digital image to display on each of the respective display units, based at least in part on the at least one display parameter;   using the respective ones of the plurality of the display units to process the identified respective portions of the large digital image; and   using the respective ones of the plurality of the display units to output the respective portion of the large image on the respective display monitor of the display units in parallel, based at least in part on the at least one display parameter.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprising receiving the large digital image from an image data source in communication with the network. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein transmitting comprises transmitting a location of a reference pixel of the large image on the array. 
     
     
         19 . (canceled) 
     
     
         20 . (canceled) 
     
     
         21 . (canceled) 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprising storing sub-images of at least a portion of the large image on each of the display units. 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 22 , wherein storing comprises storing multiple resolution layers of at least a portion the large image. 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 22 , wherein storing comprises storing a plurality of image blocks of at least a portion of the large image. 
     
     
         25 . A method of presenting a large digital image on an array of tiled display nodes, each of the tiled display units comprising a display monitor and a processor, the array also including a control unit communicating with each of the tiled display nodes over a network, the method comprising:
 receiving a message from a control unit, the message comprising at least one display parameter of a large digital image;   determining a respective portion of the large digital image to display on each of the display nodes in response to the message received, based on the at least one display parameter;   using each of the display nodes in parallel to process groups of one or more stored sub-images corresponding to the respective portions of the large digital image;   using each of the display nodes in parallel to output a display of the respective portions of the large digital image on the respective display monitors of each of the display nodes.   
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 25 , further comprising:
 receiving a second message from the control unit, the second message comprising a second display parameter; and   updating the display based on the second display parameter, the second display parameter having a different value than the at least one display parameter.   
     
     
         27 . (canceled) 
     
     
         28 . (canceled) 
     
     
         29 . (canceled) 
     
     
         30 . (canceled) 
     
     
         31 . (canceled) 
     
     
         32 . (canceled) 
     
     
         33 . (canceled) 
     
     
         34 . (canceled) 
     
     
         35 . (canceled) 
     
     
         36 . (canceled) 
     
     
         37 . (canceled)