Patent Application
20140355307
The present application claims priority of Taiwan Patent Application No. 102119058, filed on May 30, 2013, the entirety of which is incorporated by reference herein.
1. Field of the Invention
The present application relates to a display apparatus, and in particular, relates to a display apparatus having an auxiliary light source.
2. Description of the Related Art
Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) have been widely applied in various electronic products. For automotive display, mechanical instrument panel has mostly been replaced by LCD device.
However, as the automotive LCD device is easily affected by sunlight, the contrast and saturation of images therein may decrease, such that drivers may ignore warning signals or driving assistance indicator lights of the instrument panel.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the aforesaid problems, an embodiment of the invention provides a display apparatus including a panel module and a light module. The panel module has a display surface. The light module is disposed on a side of the panel module and has a main light source and an auxiliary light source. The main light source emits a first light to the display surface to produce an image. The auxiliary light source emits a second light to the display surface to increase the brightness of at least one first region of the image.
The invention can be more fully understood by reading the subsequent detailed description and examples with references made to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Referring to
As shown in
In this embodiment, white, red, green, blue, or other colors are defined and classified as in the Munsell Color System. In the CIE 1931 color space chromaticity diagram, the chromaticity values x=0.31˜0.35 and y=0.31˜0.36, close to the chromaticity values of the standard illuminant C, D50, D55, D65, D75 or B, indicate the “white light”. The dominant wavelength of “red” is between 550 nm and 700 nm (including the 564 nm peak wavelength absorbed by the red cone). The dominant wavelength of “green” is between 500 nm and 600 nm (including the 534 nm peak wavelength absorbed by the green cone). The dominant wavelength of “blue” is between 380 nm and 500 nm (including the 400 nm peak wavelength absorbed by the blue cone). “Color” in the description below may indicate any color distinguished from white. It is noted that the first light emitted from the plurality of main light sources 202 may also be a colored light depending on application and produced by white light sources, colored light sources, or a combination thereof.
The panel module 100 is a liquid crystal panel module including a thin film transistor (TFT) substrate, a color filter substrate, a liquid crystal layer, driving circuits, and related optical components (not shown in
In this embodiment, a control unit 206 and the auxiliary light sources 204 are disposed on the substrate B. The control unit 206 is electrically connected to the auxiliary light sources 204 for driving the auxiliary light sources 204 to individually emit a second light to the corresponding first regions 100a, so as to increase the brightness or change the saturation of the first regions 100a. In some embodiments, the control unit 206 may be combined with the driving unit of the main light source 202 to individually or simultaneously drive the plurality of main light sources 202 or the auxiliary light sources 204. The auxiliary light sources 204 may be red light sources (LEDs or CCFLs), blue light sources (LEDs or CCFLs), green light sources (LEDs or CCFLs), white light sources (LEDs or CCFLs), other colored light sources, or a combination thereof depending on the predetermined colors (white or color) of the first regions 100a. The brightness and saturation of the auxiliary light sources 204 can be adjusted to clearly show the warning symbols. The area on the display surface S where the first light is projected exceeds that of on the display surface S where the second light is projected.
The auxiliary light sources 204 are disposed corresponding to the first regions 100a (
In some embodiments, the control unit 206 may drive the auxiliary light sources 204 to flicker to catch the attention of divers. In some embodiments, when the auxiliary light sources 204 emit the second lights to the first regions 100a, the transmittance of some specific areas in the panel module 100 corresponding to the first regions 100a can be increased, or the transmittance of the other areas near to the first regions 100a can be reduced. Thus, the brightness and saturation of the first regions 100a can be enhanced to contrast with the other regions of the image.
In some embodiments, the main light source 202 may also be an R/G/B LED which produces white light or colored light by mixing three color lights. The auxiliary light source 204 may also be an R/G/B LED in which a single chip can be driven to selectively produce red, green, or blue light. The invention does not limit the color of the auxiliary light sources 204 as long as that can match with the predetermined color of the first regions 100a. The quantity and type (such as light bulb or tube) of the main light source 202 and the auxiliary light source 204 are also not limited to that in
Note that, the lights emitted from the auxiliary light sources 204 are guided by the light guide plate G to the display surface S of the panel module 100, thus increasing the brightness of the first regions 100a. In this embodiment, the auxiliary light sources 204 and the corresponding first regions 100a are disposed near a side of the light guide plate G (
In some embodiments, the main light sources 202 and the auxiliary light sources 204 can be disposed on the same side of the light guide plate G. In some embodiments, more main light sources 202 or auxiliary light sources 204 can be added to the left and right sides of the light guide plate G, and the first regions 100a can be disposed on the left and right sides of the display surface S, corresponding to the auxiliary light sources 204.
In some embodiments, the bottom side of the light guide plate G may further include a plurality of light guide structures, such as prisms having V-shaped cross-sections or optics having semicircular cross-sections, corresponding to the auxiliary light sources 204. The light guide structures can guide the second lights to the display surface S precisely and increase the brightness of the first regions 100a of the image. The propagating distance of the second light inside of the light guide plate G is indicated as D (
Referring to
The display apparatus 10 may also be an industrial display, so that an image having noticeable warning or operation symbols can be shown on the industrial display.
As mentioned above, the invention provides a display apparatus such as an automotive or industrial display, including a panel module and a light module. The main light source of the light module can produce an image on a display surface of the panel module. The auxiliary light source of the light module can increase the brightness of at least one first region of the image. According to the aforesaid features, the brightness and saturation of the first regions (warning or operation symbols) shown on the automotive or industrial display can be increased to catch the attention of the divers.
While the invention has been described by way of example and in terms of the preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. To the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements (as would be apparent to those skilled in the art). Therefore, the scope of the appended claims should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 102119058 | May 2013 | TW | national |
