Digital image compositing using a programmable graphics processor

A method of compositing digital images, comprising:

• providing a programmable graphics processor;
• receiving digital image data from a graphics memory coupled to the programmable graphics processor;
• receiving additional digital image data from the graphics memory;
• receiving shader program instructions;
• and
• processing the digital image data and the additional digital image data using the shader program instructions to generate composited image data.

A method of compositing digital image data, comprising:

• providing a programmable graphics processor;
• reading a portion of digital image data from a graphics memory coupled to the programmable graphics processor;
• processing the portion of digital image data using the at least one compositing operation to generate a portion of a composited image;
• and
• repeating reading and processing for each portion within the composited image.

A method of compositing digital image data, comprising:

• providing a programmable graphics processor;
• reading a portion of first digital image data from a graphics memory coupled to the programmable graphics processor;
• reading a portion of second digital image data from the graphics memory;
• processing the portion of first digital image data and the portion of second digital image data using the at least one compositing operation to generate a portion of a composited image;
• and
• repeating reading and processing for each portion within the composited image.

A method of compositing digital image data, comprising:

• providing a programmable graphics processor;
• receiving digital video image data;
• reading digital image data from a graphics memory coupled to the graphics processor;
• and
• processing the digital image data and the digital video image data to generate composited image data.

A programmable graphics processor, comprising:

• a digital video interface configured to receive digital video image data;
• a memory interface configured to read digital image data from a graphics memory;
• and
• a fragment processing pipeline configured to perform at least one compositing operation specified by shader program instructions on the digital video image data and the digital image data to generate a composited frame.

A computing system comprising:

• a host processor;
• a host memory, the host memory storing programs for the host processor;
• a system interface configured to interface with the host processor;
• and
• a programmable graphics processor, including:
• a memory interface configured to read digital image data from a graphics memory;
• and
• a fragment processing pipeline configured to generate composited image data by performing at least one compositing operation on the digital image data specified by shader program instructions.