Image display control apparatus

Claim 2

an image display control apparatus that controls a display of an image on a display device based on a priority of the image from among a plurality of images requested to be displayed based on signals input from a plurality of in-vehicle units mounted on a vehicle via an input unit, the plurality of images include danger-warning images for warning dangers in driving the vehicle based on the signals input from the in-vehicle units, the image display control apparatus comprising: an image-data loading unit that loads image data of an image requested to be displayed based on an input signal in an image memory; a display-image determining unit that determines an image to be displayed on the display device based on the priority; and an image-data output unit that reads out the image data of the image determined to be displayed by the display-image determining unit from the image memory, and outputs read image data to the display device, wherein the image-data loading unit loads the image data in the image memory before it is determined to display the image data on the display device based on the priority.

Claim 3

The image display control apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising: a danger-warning-image display requesting unit that requests a display of a danger warning image for warning a danger in driving the vehicle based on the signals input from the in-vehicle units; and a normal-information-image display requesting unit that requests a display of a normal information image that differs from the danger warning image based on the signals input from the in-vehicle units, wherein the image-data loading unit loads in advance image data of the danger warning image requested to be displayed by the danger-warning-image display requesting unit in the image memory.

Claim 4

The image display control apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the display-image determining unit includes a first display-image determining unit that determines, when a plurality of normal information images are requested to be displayed by the normal-information-image display requesting unit, one of the normal information images to be displayed on the display device based on a priority assigned to each of the normal information images, and a second display-image determining unit that determines to display the danger warning image requested to be displayed by the danger-warning-image display requesting unit in priority to the normal information image determined to be displayed by the first display-image determining unit on the display device.

Claim 5

The image display control apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the danger warning image includes a plurality of types of images having different priorities, when there is a plurality of requests for displaying the danger warning image, the second display-image determining unit determines to display a danger warning image with highest priority on the display device, and when there two or more danger warning images with same priority requested to be displayed by the danger-warning-image display requesting unit, the second display-image determining unit determines to display a last requested danger warning image.

Claim 6

The image display control apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the image-data loading unit loads the image data of the normal information image requested to be displayed by the normal-information-image display requesting unit in the image memory before the first display-image determining unit determines the normal information image to be displayed on the display device.

Claim 7

The image display control apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the image-data output unit includes an additional-image-data synthesizing unit that synthesizes image data of an additional image into the image data of the danger warning image loaded in advance in the image memory upon the danger warning image being requested to be displayed.

Claim 8

The image display control apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein when the image data of the normal information image requested to be displayed by the normal-information-image display requesting unit is already loaded in the image memory, the image-data loading unit does not load the image data in the image memory.

Claim 9

The image display control apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the image-data output unit includes an image-data synthesizing unit that synthesizes image data of a plurality of normal information images with priorities higher than a predetermined level of priority so that the normal information images can be displayed together on a display screen of the display device.

Claim 10

The image display control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the vehicle includes a plurality of display devices, and the image-data output unit includes a display-device determining unit that determines a display device for displaying each of the images requested to be displayed, based on predetermined criteria for the images.

Claim 11

The image display control apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising: a backup input unit that receives the signals input from the in-vehicle units; a backup danger-warning-image display requesting unit that requests a display of a danger warning image for warning a danger in driving the vehicle based on the signals received by the backup input unit; and a backup image-data loading unit that loads image data of the danger warning image requested to be displayed by the backup danger-warning-image display requesting unit in a backup image memory, wherein when at least one of the input unit, the danger-warning-image display requesting unit, the image memory, and the image-data loading unit in malfunctioning, the backup image-data loading unit loads in advance the image data of the danger warning image requested to be displayed by the backup danger-warning-image display requesting unit in the backup image memory based on the signals received by the backup input unit, and the image-data output unit reads out the image data of the image determined to be displayed on the display device by the display-image determining unit from the backup image memory, and outputs read image data to the display device.

Claim 12

The image display control apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the danger-warning-image display requesting unit stores therein the image data of the danger warning image, the normal-information-image display requesting unit stores therein the image data of the normal information image, and the image-data loading unit receives the image data of the danger warning image from the danger-warning-image display requesting unit to load the image data of the danger warning image in the image memory, and receives the image data of the normal information image from the normal-information-image display requesting unit to load the image data of the normal information image in the image memory.

Claim 13

The image display control apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a sound-output control unit that controls an output of a sound to be synchronized with an output of an image to the display device by the image-data output unit.