Multi-display system
A multi-display system provided with display devices arranged to form a rectangular video display screen as a whole includes: distributors to which video signals are input; CPUs for detecting the number of input video signals; arrangement determining units for determining a display layout on the video display screen by looking-up a pre-set look-up table using the number of input video signals detected by the CPUs; and display units for displaying an input video image or images on the video display screen, in accordance with the determined display layout and the arrangement of display devices. Thus, the display layout of the multi-display system can automatically be changed in accordance with external environment.
1. A multi-display system provided with a plurality of display devices, comprising:
a receiving unit having a plurality of video signal distributors, each being specified by a distributor number and being capable of receiving an input video signal;
a display layout determining unit for determining, in accordance with a number of the input video signals inputted to said plurality of video signal distributors and the distributor numbers, a display layout of video images generated from each of said input video signals, said video images being displayed on a video display screen formed by said plurality of display devices; and
said plurality of display devices, each for generating a video image from said plurality of input video signals and displaying the video image on said video display screen, in accordance with said determined display layout,
wherein said video display screen formed by said plurality of display devices is arranged horizontally,
when one video image is displayed on said video display screen as a whole, the number of said plurality of video signal distributors is the same as the number of display devices forming upper and lower ends of the image,
each of said plurality of video signal distributors is positioned close to the corresponding one of said plurality of display devices forming the upper and lower ends, and
said display layout is determined such that when a number of the plurality of input video signals inputted to said plurality of video signal distributors is less than a number of the plurality of display devices, a video image generated from the input video signal inputted to said video signal distributor is displayed on the display device corresponding to said video signal distributor receiving the input video signal and at least one display device which is adjacent to the display device corresponding to said video signal distributor receiving the video signal and does not have a video signal inputted to the corresponding video signal distributor.
2. The multi-display system according to claim 1 , wherein
said display layout is determined by
information specifying a video signal used for generating a video image displayed by each of said display devices, from said input video signals,
information specifying, in a video image as a whole corresponding to the video signal used by each of said display devices, an area of the video image displayed by each of said display devices, and
information specifying magnification of said area of the video image displayed by each of said display devices.