The disclosure generally relates to a driver circuit, in particular, to a display driver integrated circuit and a display driving method.
The conventional image driving method for providing real-time time information should process a large amount of image data. Especially when a central processing unit of an electronic device is operated in a sleep mode or a power saving mode, the display driver continues to consume more power to process the large amount of image data, so the electronic device still consumes more power during the period of the sleep mode or the power saving mode. Moreover, since the electronic device or the display driver has higher data storage space requirements, so the cost of the electronic device or the display driver cannot be effectively reduced.
The disclosure is directed to a display driver integrated circuit and a display driving method capable of providing effective display driving function.
The display driver integrated circuit of an embodiment of the disclosure includes an image processing circuit, a timing controller, and a data driving circuit. The display driver integrated circuit is suitable for driving a display panel of an electronic device. The image processing circuit is configured to generate an output image based on time information, a background image, and an original time indication image. The timing controller is coupled to the image processing circuit. The timing controller is configured to receive the output image and generate a processed output image. The data driving circuit is coupled to the timing controller. The data driving circuit is configured to receive the processed output image and generate data voltages according to the processed output image. The data driving circuit drives the display panel according to the data voltages.
The display driving method for driving a display panel of an electronic device of an embodiment of the disclosure includes the following steps: generating an output image based on time information, a background image, and an original time indication image by an image processing circuit; receiving the output image and generating a processed output image by a timing controller; receiving the processed output image and generate data voltages according to the processed output image by a data driving circuit; and driving the display panel according to the data voltages by the data driving circuit.
Based on the above, according to the display driver integrated circuit and the display driving method of the disclosure, the display driver integrated circuit and the display driving method can generate various display effects with a lower amount of display data.
To make the aforementioned more comprehensible, several embodiments accompanied with drawings are described in detail as follows.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the disclosure, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate exemplary embodiments of the disclosure and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure.
It is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural changes may be made without departing from the scope of the disclosure. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology used herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. The use of “including,” “comprising,” or “having” and variations thereof herein is meant to encompass the items listed thereafter and equivalents thereof as well as additional items. Unless limited otherwise, the terms “connected,” “coupled,” and “mounted,” and variations thereof herein are used broadly and encompass direct and indirect connections, couplings, and mountings.
In the embodiment of the disclosure, the electronic device 10 may be a display device, but the disclosure is not limited thereto. In the embodiment of the disclosure, the display driver integrated circuit 100 may be a display driver integration chip, and may also integrate other circuits, such as a touch driving circuit and/or a fingerprint sensing circuit. In the embodiment of the disclosure, the display panel 190 may be a light-emitting diode (LED) display panel, a micro LED display panel, an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display panel, a liquid-crystal display (LCD) panel or other types of display panels, and includes a plurality of pixel units arranged in an array.
In the embodiment of the disclosure, the image processing circuit 110 includes a location arrangement unit 112, a mask generating unit 113, and an image stacking unit 116. The image stacking unit 116 is coupled to the location arrangement unit 112 and the mask generating unit 113. In the embodiment of the disclosure, the location arrangement unit 112 may obtain the original time indication image and the background image from a frame buffer, and the mask generating unit 113 may obtain the original time indication image from the frame buffer. In the embodiment of the disclosure, the location arrangement unit 112 may be used to transform coordinates of a reference point in a first input image which is input to the location arrangement unit 112 to coordinates of an image stacking location in the background image. The mask generating unit 113 may generate a mask image according to a second input image which is input to the mask generating unit. The image stacking unit 116 may process a third input image which is input to the image stacking unit by using the mask image to generate a processed input image, and stack the processed input image on the background image to generate the output image according to the coordinates of the image stacking location. In the embodiment of the disclosure, the first input image and the second input image may be the same as the original time indication image or a scaled time indication image, and corresponding to the time information.
In the embodiment of the disclosure, the image processing circuit 110 may generate the output image with time indication information by stacking the time indication image and the background image. The image processing circuit 110 may use fewer image data than storing multiple complete output images with different variations over time. Therefore, the electronic device 10 or the display driver integrated circuit 100 can have lower data storage space requirements, and can provide can effectively drive the display panel 190 to display an image screen with time information.
In the embodiment of the disclosure, the image processing circuit 310 includes a scaling unit 311, a location arrangement unit 312, a mask generating unit 313, a rotating unit 314, a special effect generation unit 315, and an image stacking unit 316. The scaling unit 311 is coupled to the storage unit 370, the location arrangement unit 312 and the mask generating unit 313. The rotating unit 314 is coupled to the location arrangement unit 312, the mask generating unit 313, the special effect generation unit 315, and the image stacking unit 316. The special effect generation unit 315 is further coupled to the image stacking unit 316 and the ambient light sensor 380. The image stacking unit 316 is coupled to the timing controller 320.
In the embodiment of the disclosure, the storage unit 370 may be a frame buffer in the display driver integrated circuit 300, but the disclosure is not limited thereto. In another embodiment of the disclosure, an external memory device outside the display driver integrated circuit 300 of the electronic device 30 may be used for acting the similar function of the storage unit 370 in the disclosure. In the embodiment of the disclosure, the storage unit 370 may store at least one time indication image and a background image for the image processing circuit 310 to read, and the scaling unit 311 may obtain an original time indication image by accessing the storage unit 370. The scaling unit 311 may change an image size of the original time indication image to generate the scaled time indication image. In one embodiment of the disclosure, the scaling unit 311 may perform an affine transformation on the original time indication image to change the image size of the original time indication image, so as to generate a scaled time indication image. In other words, the storage unit 370 may storage the original time indication image with a lower amount of data. Moreover, the image size corresponding to the data amount of the original time indication image stored in the storage unit may be lower than the actual image size to be displayed by display panel 390. In addition, the scaling unit 311 may be used to change an image size of the background image to generate the scaled background image.
In the embodiment of the disclosure, the location arrangement unit 312 may receive the scaled time indication image (the first input image) and the background image from the scaling unit 311, and may determine the position of the scaled time indication image in the background image. The location arrangement unit 312 may transform coordinates of a reference point in the scaled time indication image to coordinates of an image stacking location in the background image. The coordinate transformation is performed since the image size (width*height by pixels) of the scaled time indication image may be different from the image size of the background image. For example, the image size of a scaled minute hand image is 32 pixel (width)*240 pixel (height) and the image size of a background image is 480 pixel (width)*480 pixel (height), and the coordinate transformation is required since the coordinates (Xh, Yh) of a reference point of the scaled minute hand mage has to be transformed to be coordinates (Xb, Yb) of the center of the background image. The image stacking location may be a preset location. In the embodiment of the disclosure, the mask generating unit 313 may receive the scaled time indication image (the second input image) from the scaling unit 311, and may generate a mask image according to the scaled time indication image.
In the embodiment of the disclosure, the rotating unit 314 may receive the coordinate transformed time indication image from the location arrangement unit 312 and the background image, and receive the mask image from the mask generating unit 313. Moreover, the rotating unit 314 may further receive time information from a central processing unit of the electronic device 30. The time information may be used to represent real-time time information such as 7:30 AM or 7:30:22 AM. The coordinate transformed time indication image may be a clock hand image such as an hour hand image, a minute hand image or, a second hand image, and the clock hand pattern in the coordinate transformed time indication image may be rotated by the rotating unit 314 by a rotation angle corresponding to the current time information to point to a direction regarding to the current time. In the embodiment of the disclosure, the rotating unit 314 may rotate the coordinate transformed time indication image by a rotation angle corresponding to the time information to generate a rotated time indication image and also rotate the mask image by the same rotation angle corresponding to the time information to generate a rotated mask image, so that the clock hand pattern in the rotated time indication image may be point to a specific direction corresponding to the time information (current time). In one embodiment of the disclosure, the rotating unit 314 may determine the rotation angle through a look-up table, but the disclosure is not limited thereto. For example, if the current time is 00:00 AM, the (scaled) hour hand image and the (scaled) minute hang image may be rotated zero degree and if the current time is 7:30 AM, the hour hand image may be rotated 195 degrees clockwise and the minute hand image may be rotated 180 degrees clockwise.
In the embodiment of the disclosure, the special effect generation unit 315 generate a shadow image output to the image stacking unit 316 according to the rotated time indication image. The special effect generation unit 315 may determine a transparency of the shadow image according to ambient light information, and determine a displacement between the shadow image and the rotated time indication image according to the time information. In the embodiment of the disclosure, the special effect generation unit 315 may receive the ambient light information from the ambient light sensor 380. Thus, the special effect generation unit 315 may generate the shadow image that mimic actual shadow changes.
In the embodiment of the disclosure, the image stacking unit 316 may receive the rotated time indication image (third input image) and the rotated mask image from the rotating unit 314, the background image, and the shadow image from the special effect generation unit 315. The image stacking unit 316 may process the rotated time indication image by using the rotated mask image to generate a processed time indication image, and stack the processed time indication image and the shadow image on the background image to generate an output image with real-time time information according to the coordinates of the image stacking location.
Therefore, when the central processing unit of the electronic device 30 is operated in the sleep mode or the power saving mode, the display driver integrated circuit 300 may read at least ones original time indication image having the clock hand pattern which is not associated with real-time time information, and the background image from the storage unit 370 at one time, and rotate the original time indication image based on real-time time information to generate the output image with real-time time information, for example, periodically generating such as generating in every second, every minute, or every hour. Therefore, the electronic device 30 or the display driver integrated circuit 300 can have lower data storage space requirements, and can provide can effectively drive the display panel 390 to display an image screen with time information when the central processing unit of the electronic device 30 is operated in the sleep mode or the power saving mode.
In the embodiment of the disclosure, the mask image 520 may include a first grayscale region 521 and a second grayscale region 522. The mask generating unit 313 may determine the grayscale values of the first grayscale region 521 corresponding to the coverage area according to pixel data of the first region 511 of the time indication image 510, and determine the grayscale values of the second grayscale region 522 corresponding to the transmissive area according to pixel data of the second region 512 of the time indication image 510. The first grayscale region 521 of the mask image 520 may corresponded to the first region 511 of the time indication image 510 having the first grayscale range, and the second grayscale region 522 of the mask image 520 is corresponded to the second region 512 of the time indication image 510 having the second grayscale range. In one embodiment of the disclosure, the grayscale value of first grayscale region 521 of the mask image 520 may be 255, and the grayscale value of second grayscale region 522 of the mask image 520 may be 0, but the disclosure is not limited thereto.
In the embodiment of the disclosure, the rotating unit 314 may rotate the time indication image and the mask image in a manner corresponding to the original point of the image coordinate system or any coordinate point (for example, the image center or the above-mentioned reference point in the image), but the disclosure is not limited thereto. It should be noted that, as shown the partially enlarged area 611 in
The image stacking unit 316 may generate a plurality of first coefficients (x/255) by dividing a plurality of grayscale values (x) of the rotated mask image 620 by a maximum grayscale value (255) respectively, and the image stacking unit 316 may generate a plurality of grayscale values of the output image according to the plurality of first coefficients, the rotated mask image 620 and the rotated time indication image 610. More specifically, the image stacking unit 316 may obtain a plurality of second coefficients (1−(x/255)) by subtract 1 from the plurality of first coefficients (x/255). The image stacking unit 316 multiples the plurality of first coefficients (x/255) by a plurality of grayscale values of the rotated time indication image 610 respectively to obtain a plurality of first values. The image stacking unit 316 multiples the plurality of second coefficients (1−(x/255)) by the plurality of grayscale values of the rotated mask image 620 respectively to obtain a plurality of second values. The image stacking unit 316 adds the plurality of first values and the plurality of second values respectively to generate the plurality of grayscale values of the output image.
In summary, according to the display driver integrated circuit and the display driving method of the disclosure, the display driver integrated circuit can effectively generate a clock image with real-time time information by reading images with a lower amount of data from the storage unit, and can effectively reduce the data storage space requirement of the electronic device or the display driver integrated circuit. Moreover, the display driver integrated circuit also can generate a more realistic clock image with shadow effect.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the disclosed embodiments without departing from the scope or spirit of the disclosure. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the disclosure covers modifications and variations provided that they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.
This application claims the priority benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/165,097, filed on Mar. 23, 2021. The entirety of the above-mentioned patent application is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.
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