The present application claims priority from Japanese application serial No. 2006-185107 filed on Jul. 5, 2006, whose content is incorporated by reference into this application.
The present invention relates to a display device with improved optical characteristics of a display panel, and a method for driving the same, and in particular, relates to a display device applied a liquid crystal to pixels, and a method for driving the same.
An active matrix type liquid crystal display device is utilized as a display device such as a thin-shaped TV or the like, due to having features of being thin-shaped, high definition and low power consumption. However, optical response of liquid crystal is about several tens milliseconds, which requires more time than scanning period of one screen page (one frame), and in the case of displaying a dynamic image, response of liquid crystal cannot follow change in display data, resulting in blurred display. As countermeasure against such a blur, U.S. Pat. No. 6,501,451 (JP-A-11-126050) discloses a method for improving optical response of liquid crystal, by detecting the changed portion of image data per each pixel, and providing the compensation in accordance with the change onto liquid crystal applied voltage. However, in a method of U.S. Pat. No. 6,501,451, although required effect can be expected in the case of display transition from arbitrary tone to intermediate tone, because sufficient voltage compensation is possible, improvement effect of liquid crystal response cannot be expected in the case of display transition close to saturated tone such as maximum tone or minimum tone, because sufficient voltage compensation cannot be provided. To overcome this problem, by setting an applied voltage range of liquid crystal wider than a range used in display, as in a method of U.S. Pat. No. 6,876,347 (JP-A-2002-107694), compensation voltage can be applied even in the case of display transition toward the tone close to saturated tone, and thus liquid crystal response can be improved.
Use of the above technique is capable of improving liquid crystal response even in the case of display transition toward the tone close to saturated tone, however, execution of the compensation by a conventional data driver results in shift of relation between tone and transmittance from required characteristics set to the original data driver. In addition, there was a problem of decrease in display tone number relative to input data tone number. To avoid this problem, development of a new data driver responding to such a compensation range has been required.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a display device, which can obtain the compensation effect of optical response characteristics of liquid crystal and improve the visibility of dynamic image, even in display transition to the vicinity of maximum tone or minimum tone, without decreasing contrast characteristics of a display panel, and no shift of γ (gamma) characteristics of input data, along with no decrease in tone number, and a method for driving the same.
To solve the above-described problem, a range of higher applied voltage (lower applied voltage) is set than maximum (minimum) applied voltage, which provides conventional maximum (minimum) liquid crystal transmittance, and reference voltage is set so that the range can be utilized to compensate liquid crystal response. Furthermore, a γ adjustment means and an inter-tone interpolating means are provided to adjust shift of γ characteristics caused by extension of the applied voltage range.
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a display device, wherein said display device comprising:
a display panel having a plurality of data lines and a plurality of scanning lines arranged in a matrix way, having pixels arranged corresponding to intersecting points thereof, and having predetermined tone-brightness characteristics;
a first driving circuit which inputs display data of n tones (n: an integer of equal to or larger than 0), and outputs voltage level corresponding to said n tones to said data lines;
a second driving circuit which outputs selected signals to select pixels which should receive said display signals to said scanning lines;
a circuit which enhances optical response characteristics of said pixels, by applying voltage higher than maximum applied voltage of said predetermined tone-brightness characteristics, to said pixels; and
a circuit which converts input display data to output data based on configuration tones set;
wherein tone-brightness characteristics for data processed by the circuit to execute enhancement of said optical response characteristics, and tone-brightness characteristics for the case without execution of enhancement of said optical response characteristics are nearly the same.
According to the present invention, compensation effect of optical response characteristics of liquid crystal can be obtained, even in display transition to the vicinity of maximum tone or minimum tone, without decreasing contrast characteristics of a display panel, and no shift of γ characteristics of input data, along with no decrease in tone number, and visibility of dynamic image can be enhanced.
Explanation will be given on an active matrix type liquid crystal display device and a method for driving according to a first embodiment of the present invention, with reference to
From now on, explanation will be given below on operation of the present embodiment with reference to
In a conventional liquid crystal response compensation means, sufficient effect of liquid crystal response compensation could not be obtained in the case of transition to the tone of vicinity of maximum tone due to data processing, because sufficient correction value could not be added to liquid crystal response. Namely, for example, in 8-bit tone expression, in the case of transition from arbitrary intermediate tone to maximum 255-tone, correction value cannot be added to liquid crystal response, because voltage equal to or higher than 255-tone cannot be applied.
In the liquid crystal response compensation means 106 of the present invention, a tone range for compensation is set at larger tone than display maximum tone, so that correction value can be added also at the tone of vicinity of display maximum tone, thereby tone number after the liquid crystal response compensation means 106 increases from input. For example, in the case where monochrome input data is 8-bit tone, a display tone range becomes from 0-tone to 255-tone, and when 32-tone amount is prepared for liquid crystal response compensation, a tone range from 256-tone to 287-tone becomes tone for liquid crystal response compensation, and 8-bit+m (m: an integer equal to or larger than 1) is output as data. Value of “n” may be 1, or 2 or 3. A tone range for compensation differs depending on response characteristics at the vicinity of maximum tone, and when fine adjustment is required, a tone range for compensation may be widened. In addition, also at the vicinity of minimum tone, similar concept is applied. A tone range for compensation is set at smaller tone than display minimum tone, so that subtraction of correction value becomes to be possible also in tone at the vicinity of display minimum tone. Also in this case, tone expression number after the liquid crystal response compensation means 106, increases from that of input.
It is necessary to consider a tone range for compensation, in the case where data added with correction value by the liquid crystal response compensation means 106 is displayed at the liquid crystal panel 102, using present liquid crystal data driver IC. The data driver 103 sets a plurality of reference voltages from the reference voltage generation unit 104, and generates applied voltage corresponding to tone data, in consideration of alternating current drive of inherent characteristics of a liquid crystal panel, and applied voltage-transmittance characteristics, so that γ characteristics as shown in
However, by the shift of reference voltage toward high voltage side, drift in γ characteristics is generated in conventional tone-applied voltage relation. For example, shift of only maximum reference voltage provides γ characteristics as shown in
To solve these problems, drift between y characteristics generated by range extension to over maximum display tone of the liquid crystal response compensation means 106, and γ characteristics set by the data driver 103 is adjusted by using the γ adjusting means 107, and further, decrease in tone number is prevented by the inter-tone interpolation means 108.
The γ adjusting means 107 provides a circuit, which is capable of adjusting output tone by setting, relative to input tone, as shown in
The inter-tone interpolation means 108 is a means to convert data generated by the γ adjustment means 107 to bit number that the data driver 103 has. As an example, for 10-bit output from the γ adjustment means 107, the data driver 103 is assumed to have tone expression capability of 8-bit. In this case, the inter-tone interpolation means 108 converts to be pseudo-display of 10-bit by using dithering processing or FRC (frame rate control). Explanation will be given on such an example by using
In the case where the lowest two bits of 10-bit data are expressed as 0, ¼, ½ and ¾, 10-bit data can be expressed as D+¼, D+½, D+¾ and D+1. In the case where this is expressed by dithering, row position and line position of a matrix-like display are counted by a binary counter, which counts each of them as 0, 1, 0, 1 - - - , and at the same time, when 10-bit data is tone D+¼, for a position with a row position of 0 and line position of 0, it is expressed as tone D+1 that can be expressed by 8-bit; and for other expression position, it is expressed as tone D. As a result, a matrix composed of 2 pixels in a row direction, and 2 pixels in a line direction becomes to have tone D+1 of 1 pixel and tone D of 3 pixels, and tone D+¼ in average can be expressed. Similarly, when 10-bit data is tone D+½, for a display position with additional value of a row position and line position of even number, it is expressed as tone D+1; and display position with additional value of odd number, it is expressed as tone D. As a result, a matrix composed of 2 pixels in a row direction, and 2 pixels in a line direction becomes to have tone D+1 of 2 pixels and tone D of 2 pixels, and tone D+½ in average can be expressed. In this way, by specifying shading pattern based on row position and line position of a display, dithering processing can be attained. It should be noted that shading pattern, and input/output bit number for the inter-tone interpolation means 108 are not especially limited.
By this inter-tone interpolation means 108, tone number increased by the liquid crystal response compensation means 106 and the γ adjusting means 107 is converted to tone number corresponding to the data driver 103. For example, an 8-bit input data is converted to a 10-bit data by the liquid crystal response compensation means 106 and the γ adjusting means 107, and converted to an 8-bit data, which enables 10-bit equivalent expression, by the inter-tone interpolation means 108, and thus provides tone number responding to the data driver 103.
In this way, by the γ adjusting means 107, drift of γ characteristics caused by the liquid crystal response compensation means 106 is adjusted, and decrease in tone caused by the liquid crystal response compensation means 106 and the γ adjusting means 107 is prevented by the inter-tone interpolation means 108, by which effect of liquid crystal response compensation can be obtained even at the vicinity of maximum tone by using a conventional data driver IC.
Explanation was given above mainly on the vicinity of maximum tone, however, effect of liquid crystal response compensation can be obtained even at the vicinity of minimum tone by using a conventional data driver IC, in the same thought.
The present invention is suitable to an active matrix type liquid crystal display device and a method for driving, however, it is also applicable to other display devices and methods for driving.
A display device of the present invention is utilized in a liquid crystal display device such as a liquid crystal TV, a liquid crystal display or the like.
It should be further understood by those skilled in the art that although the foregoing description has been made on embodiments of the invention, the invention is not limited thereto and various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention and the scope of the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2006-185107 | Jul 2006 | JP | national |