Local pixel luminance adjustments

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016335948-A1
Application number	US-201514713816-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	May 15, 2015
Priority date	May 15, 2015
Publication date	Nov 17, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

An electronic device includes a display and a processor coupled to the display. The display includes a plurality of zones distributed over a viewable display area. The processor is configured to (1) obtain source data for the image to be displayed in the viewable area of the display, (2) analyze the source data in selected zones of the plurality of zones to determine at least one characteristic of the image in each selected zone, and (3) adjust, separately in each zone of the plurality of zones, at least one type of subpixel in the subpixel matrix based on determined characteristics of the image in the selected, analyzed zones.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An electronic device comprising:
a display having a plurality of zones, each zone comprising a subpixel matrix configured to display an image in a viewable area of the display; and a processor coupled to the display, the processor configured to:
obtain source data for the image to be displayed in the viewable area of the display;
analyze the source data in selected zones of the plurality of zones to determine at least one characteristic of the image in each selected zone; and
adjust, separately in each zone of the plurality of zones, at least one type of subpixel in the subpixel matrix based on determined characteristics of the image in the selected, analyzed zones.

2 . The electronic device of claim 1 , further comprising a display driver coupled to the processor and the display, the display driver configured to drive varying amounts of power to the subpixel matrix in each zone based on the analysis and the adjustments performed by the processor.

3 . The electronic device of claim 1 , further comprising a memory coupled to the processor, the memory configured to store at least one lookup table,
wherein the processor is further configured to compare the characteristics of the image with the stored lookup table and determine an amount of power to drive to the at least one type of subpixel in each zone.

4 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one characteristic of the image comprises, for each selected zone, a gray level histogram of the image, content of the image, an application being run, or a combination thereof.

5 . The electronic device of claim 4 , wherein the content of the image comprises a color histogram of the image, an identified shape of the image, an identified texture of the image, or a combination thereof.

6 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one type of subpixel comprises a white subpixel.

7 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one type of subpixel comprises a combination of red, blue, and green subpixels.

8 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one type of subpixel comprises a yellow subpixel, cyan subpixel, magenta subpixel, or combination thereof.

9 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to calculate and provide a gamma adjustment to the image to be displayed in each zone of the plurality of zones, the gamma adjustments based on the determined characteristics of the image.

10 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the display comprises a backlight comprising a plurality of planar emission devices distributed over a viewable display area, wherein the plurality of planar emission devices are disposed in a configurable zone arrangement comprising a plurality of zones of the viewable area, each zone of the plurality of zones comprising at least one planar emission device of the plurality of planar emission devices, and
wherein the processor is configured to calculate and provide a backlight adjustment by driving each of the multiple planar emission devices in each zone of the plurality of zones at a respective brightness level.

11 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the subpixel matrix is a pentile subpixel matrix.

12 . An electronic device comprising:
a display having a plurality of zones, each zone comprising an array of subpixels configured to display an image in a viewable area of the display; a memory configured to store at least one lookup table; a display driver coupled to the display, the display driver configured to drive varying amounts of power to the array of subpixels; and a processor coupled to the display, the memory, and the display driver, wherein the processor is configured to:
obtain source data for the image to be displayed in the viewable area of the display;
analyze the source data in selected zones of the plurality of zones to determine at least one characteristic of the image in each selected zone, the at least one characteristic of the image comprising, for each selected zone, a gray level histogram of the image, content of the image, an application being run, or a combination thereof; and
compare determined characteristics of the image in the selected, analyzed zones with the lookup table stored in the memory;
determine an amount of power to drive to at least one type of subpixel in each zone based on the comparison; and
adjust, in communication with the display driver, at least one type of subpixel of a subpixel matrix in each zone of the plurality of zones based on determined characteristics of the image in the selected, analyzed zones and the determined amount of power.

13 . A method comprising:
obtaining, using a processor of an electronic device, source data for an image to be displayed in a viewable area of a display having a plurality of zones; analyzing the source data in selected zones of the plurality of zones to determine at least one characteristic of the image in each selected zone; and adjusting, separately in each zone of the plurality of zones, at least one type of subpixel in the respective zone based on determined characteristics of the image in the selected, analyzed zones.

14 . The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
comparing, using the processor, the determined characteristics of the image with at least one lookup table stored in a memory of the electronic device.

15 . The method of claim 14 , further comprising:
determining, using the processor, an amount of power to drive to the at least one type of subpixel in each zone based on the comparison.

16 . The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
calculating, for each zone, a gamma adjustment to the image to be displayed, the gamma adjustment based on the determined characteristics of the image; and providing the gamma adjustment by adjusting power to specific subpixels within the zone.

17 . The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
calculating, for each zone, a backlight adjustment to the image to be displayed; and providing the backlight adjustment by driving multiple planar emission devices of a backlight of the electronic device at brightness level.

18 . The method of claim 13 , wherein adjustments to unselected, unanalyzed zones of the plurality of zones are an average of adjustments made to two or more adjacent, selected and analyzed zones.

19 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the at least one characteristic of the image comprises, for each selected zone, a gray level histogram of the image, content of the image, an application being run, or a combination thereof.

20 . The method of claim 19 , wherein the content of the image comprises a color histogram of the image, an identified shape of the image, an identified texture of the image, or a combination thereof.

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Wen Chien-Hui
• Zheng Ying

Classifications

• G09G2370/027

  Arrangements and methods specific for the display of internet documents · CPC title

• G09G2360/16

  Calculation or use of calculated indices related to luminance levels in display data · CPC title

• G09G2360/08

  Power processing, i.e. workload management for processors involved in display operations, such as CPUs or GPUs · CPC title

• G09G2320/0626

  for control of overall brightness · CPC title

• G09G2320/0285

  using tables for spatial correction of display data · CPC title