Image frame processing method and device for displaying moving images to a variety of displays

1. An image frame processing device comprising:

an interface unit for acquiring a condition that an image frame should meet for output to a display, wherein the condition is an output resolution defined depending on whether contents of images displayed on the display comprise a still image or moving images;

a rendering processing unit for performing rendering at a predetermined frame rate independent of said condition to generate an image frame sequence based on given geometry data;

a postprocessing unit for performing a predetermined process on the image frame sequence generated by said rendering processing unit, in accordance with said condition acquired by said interface unit, to generate an updated image frame sequence for the display;

a first memory storing the image frame generated by said rendering processing unit; and

a second memory used by said postprocessing unit as a work area,

wherein said rendering processing unit starts rendering a set of image frames in the image frame sequence with mutually different offsets of coordinates in a rendering space, and

wherein said postprocessing unit locates the set of image frames generated by the offset rendering in a single coordinate system and samples pixels in the coordinate system to generate an updated image frame sequence with a higher resolution and a lower frame rate than those of the image frame sequence output from said rendering processing unit, and

wherein said first memory has a capacity for storing at least one image frame generated by said rendering processing unit, the image frame temporarily stored in said first memory is transferred to said second memory, and said postprocessing unit reads out a plurality of image frames for the predetermined process from said second memory.

2. The image frame processing device according to claim 1 , further comprising:

a first memory storing the image frame generated by said rendering processing unit; and

a second memory used by said postprocessing unit as a work area,

wherein said first memory is built into the same semiconductor circuit element as at least said rendering processing unit.

3. The image frame processing device according to claim 2 , wherein a main memory is used as said second memory.

4. A rendering method of a processor, said method comprising:

acquiring a condition that an image frame should meet for output to a display, wherein the condition is an output resolution defined depending on whether contents of images displayed on the display comprise a still image or moving images;

rendering, by said processor, at a predetermined frame rate independent of the condition that an image frame sequence should meet for output to the display; and

converting, by said processor, the image frame sequence generated by said rendering into an updated image frame sequence which is dependent on said condition in postprocessing,

wherein said rendering further includes starting rendering a set of image frames in the image frame sequence with mutually different offsets of coordinates in a rendering space, and

wherein said postprocessing further includes locating the set of image frames generated by offset rendering in a single coordinate system and sampling pixels in the single coordinate system to generate an updated image frame sequence with a higher resolution and a lower frame rate than those of the image frame sequence output from said rendering step,

wherein the image frame generated by said rendering step is stored in a first memory and said postprocessing uses a second memory as a work area, and

wherein said first memory has a capacity for storing at least one image frame generated by said rendering step, the image frame temporarily stored in said first memory is transferred to said second memory, and said postprocessing includes reading out a plurality of image frames for a predetermined process from said second memory.

5. The rendering method according to claim 4 , wherein a memory storing the image frame generated by said rendering is built into a same semiconductor circuit element as said processor.

6. An image frame processing device comprising:

an interface unit for acquiring a condition that an image frame should meet for output to a display, wherein the condition is an output resolution defined depending on whether contents of images displayed on the display comprise a still image or moving images;

a rendering processing unit for performing rendering at a predetermined frame rate independent of said condition to generate an image frame sequence based on given geometry data;

a postprocessing unit for performing a predetermined process on the image frame sequence generated by said rendering processing unit, in accordance with said condition acquired by said interface unit, to generate an updated image frame sequence for the display;

a first memory storing the image frame generated by said rendering processing unit; and

a second memory used by said postprocessing unit as a work area,

wherein said rendering processing unit starts rendering a set of image frames in the image frame sequence with mutually different offsets of coordinates in a rendering space,

wherein said postprocessing unit locates the set of image frames generated by the offset rendering in a single coordinate system and blends pixels in the coordinate system to generate an updated image frame sequence with the same resolution and a lower frame rate than those of the image frame sequence output from said rendering processing unit, and

wherein said first memory has a capacity for storing at least one image frame generated by said rendering processing unit, the image frame temporarily stored in said first memory is transferred to said second memory, and said postprocessing unit reads out a plurality of image frames for the predetermined process from said second memory.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored therein a program causing a computer to execute steps of:

acquiring a condition that an image frame should meet for output to a display, wherein the condition is an output resolution defined depending on whether contents of images displayed on the display comprise a still image or moving images;

rendering an image frame sequence on a memory based on given geometry data; and

postprocessing the image frame sequence generated by said rendering step so as to adapt it to the display,

wherein said rendering step generates the image frame sequence by performing rendering at a predetermined frame rate independent of the condition that the image frame should meet for output to the display,

said postprocessing step subjects the image frame sequence generated by the rendering step to a predetermined process so as to generate and output an updated image frame sequence that meets said condition,

wherein said rendering includes starting rendering a set of image frames in the image frame sequence with mutually different offsets of coordinates in a rendering space, and

wherein said postprocessing unit locates the set of image frames generated by the offset rendering in a single coordinate system and blends pixels in the coordinate system to generate an updated image frame sequence with the same resolution and a lower frame rate than those of the image frame sequence output from said rendering processing unit,

wherein the image frame generated by said rendering step is stored in a first memory and said postprocessing step uses a second memory as a work area, and

wherein said first memory has a capacity for storing at least one image frame generated by said rendering step, the image frame temporarily stored in said first memory is transferred to said second memory, and said postprocessing step includes reading out a plurality of image frames for a predetermined process from said second memory.