This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2023-0002702, filed on Jan. 9, 2023, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety as if fully set forth herein.
The present disclosure relates to a display driving apparatus and a display driving method.
Display devices such as televisions (TVs) or monitors are equipped with a light source such as a light emitting diode (LED) as a backlight for displaying images. LED light sources tend to emit more blue light than the existing fluorescent lights, incandescent lights, or halogen lights.
If exposed to blue light for a long time, blue light may cause eye fatigue and dry eyes, and in severe cases, blue light may be harmful to the body, causing damage to the retina or lens in the eye. In addition, when a display device is used late at night for a long time, secretion of sleep-inducing hormones decreases due to blue light, which may interfere with sleep.
As a method to reduce the amount of blue light emission, a blue light signal component emitted from a light source is artificially reduced or a filter for physically blocking transmission of the blue light signal component is attached.
However, in the method of reducing the blue light signal component as described above, there is a problem in that image quality characteristics change drastically, causing visual discomfort to users who continue to view a screen. While content of a displayed image is very diverse, image quality changes uniformly regardless of the characteristics of the currently displayed image, and thus it is disadvantageously difficult to provide optimal image quality suited to a work environment of a user and it is also difficult to adaptively respond to changes in an input image.
Even in the method of using a physical filter, blue light is simply blocked by a filter regardless of the characteristics of the image, making it difficult to provide image quality suitable for the user and difficult to respond appropriately to changes in the input image.
To overcome the above problems, an object of the present disclosure is to provide a display driving apparatus and a display driving method for reducing the amount of blue light emission according to the color characteristics of an image input to a display panel, thereby reducing the impact on the body due to blue light and preventing color degradation.
According to an embodiment, a display driving apparatus includes an average calculator for each frame configured to calculate an average blue image signal as an average of blue image signals configuring one frame, a frame gain calculator configured calculate a frame gain for correcting the blue image signals configuring the one frame using the average blue image signal, and a pixel gain calculator configured to calculate a pixel gain for correcting a blue image signal of each unit pixel using the blue image signal configuring each unit pixel.
Throughout the specification, like reference numerals are used to refer to substantially the same components. In the following description, detailed descriptions of components and features known in the art may be omitted if they are not relevant to the core configuration of the present disclosure. The meanings of terms used in this specification are to be understood as follows.
The advantages and features of the present disclosure, and methods of achieving them, will become apparent from the detailed description of the embodiments, together with the accompanying drawings. However, the present disclosure is not limited to the embodiments disclosed herein and will be implemented in many different forms. The embodiments are provided merely to make the disclosure of the present disclosure thorough and to fully inform one of ordinary skill in the art to which the present disclosure belongs of the scope of the disclosure. It is to be noted that the scope of the present disclosure is defined only by the claims.
The figures, dimensions, ratios, angles, numbers of elements given in the drawings are merely illustrative and are not limiting. Like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout the specification. Further, in describing the present disclosure, descriptions of well-known technologies may be omitted in order to avoid obscuring the gist of the present disclosure.
As used herein, the terms “includes,” “has,” “comprises,” and the like should not be construed as being restricted to the means listed thereafter unless specifically stated otherwise. Where an indefinite or definite article is used when referring to a singular noun, this includes a plural of that noun unless something else is specifically stated.
Elements are to be interpreted a margin of error, even if not explicitly stated otherwise.
In describing temporal relationships, terms such as “after,” “subsequent to,” “next to,” “before,” and the like may include cases where any two events are not consecutive, unless the term “immediately” or “directly” is explicitly used.
While the terms first, second, and the like are used to describe various elements, the elements are not limited by these terms. These terms are used merely to distinguish one element from another. Accordingly, a first element referred to herein may be a second element within the technical idea of the present disclosure.
It should be understood that the term “at least one” includes all possible combinations of one or more related items. For example, the phrase “at least one of the first, second, and third items” can mean each of the first, second, or third items, as well as any possible combination of two or more of the first, second, and third items.
Features of various embodiments of the present disclosure can be partially or fully combined. As will be clearly appreciated by those skilled in the art, various interactions and operations are technically possible. Embodiments can be practiced independently of each other or in conjunction with each other.
Hereinafter, with reference to
Referring to
The display panel 100 may be implemented as a flat panel display such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) or an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display. In other words, all types of the display panel 100 may be applied.
However, for convenience of description, hereinafter, a display panel implemented as an LCD will be described as an example of the present disclosure.
The display panel 100 may include a plurality of gate lines G1 to Gn, a plurality of data lines D1 to Dm, and a plurality of pixels (not shown) to display an image of a certain gray level.
Each of the plurality of gate lines G1 to Gn receives a scan pulse during a display period DP. Each of the plurality of data lines D1 to Dm receives a data signal during the display period DP. The plurality of gate lines G1 to Gn and the plurality of data lines D1 to Dm are each positioned to intersect each other on a substrate to define a plurality of pixel areas. Each of a plurality of pixels may include a thin film transistor TFT connected to a gate line and a data line that are adjacent to each other, a pixel electrode PE and a common electrode CE that are connected to the thin film transistor TFT, a liquid crystal capacitor Clc between the pixel electrode PE and the common electrode CE, and a storage capacitor Cst connected to the pixel electrode PE.
As shown in
As shown in
The display driving apparatus 200 may include a timing controller 210, the data driver 220, and a gate driver 230, and the timing controller 210, the data driver 220, and the gate driver 230 may be configured with respective chips. However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and the display driving apparatus 200 may be configured with separate chips including at least one of the timing controller 210, the data driver 220, and the gate driver 230.
The timing controller 210 may receive various timing signals including a vertical synchronization signal Vsync, a horizontal synchronization signal Hsync, a data enable signal DE, and a clock signal CLK from a host system 500 and generate a gate control signal GCS for controlling the gate driver 230 and a data control signal DCS for controlling the data driver 220. The timing controller 210 receives an image signal RGB from an external system, converts the image signal RGB into an image signal RGB′ in a format to be processed by the data driver 220, and outputs the image signal RGB′.
The data driver 220 may receive the data control signal DCS and the image signal RGB′ from the timing controller 210. The data control signal DCS may include a source start pulse SSP, a source sampling clock SSC, and a source output enable signal SOE. The source start pulse SSP controls a data sampling start timing of the data driver 220. The source sampling clock SSC is a clock signal for controlling a data sampling timing of data. The source output enable signal SOE controls an output timing.
The data driver 220 converts the received image signal RGB′ into a data signal in an analog form and supplies the data signal to pixels through the plurality of data lines D1 to Dm.
The gate driver 230 receives the gate control signal GCS from the timing controller 210. The gate control signal GCS may include a gate start pulse GSP, a gate shift clock GSC, and a gate output enable signal. The gate driver 230 generates a gate pulse (or scan pulse) synchronized with a data signal through the received gate control signal GCS, shifts the generated gate pulse, and sequentially supplies the gate pulse to the gate lines G1 to Gn. To this end, the gate driver 230 may include a plurality of gate drive ICs (not shown). The gate drive ICs sequentially supply the gate pulse synchronized with the data signal to the gate lines G1 to Gn according to control of the timing controller 210 and select a data line on which the data signal is written. The gate pulse swings between a gate high voltage and a gate low voltage.
The display driving apparatus 200 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may include a blue light controller 240 (refer to
The host system 500 converts digital image data into a format suitable for display on the display panel 100. The host system 500 transmits timing signals Vsync, Hsync, GCS, and DCS along with the image signal RGB converted from digital image data, to the timing controller 210. The host system is implemented as one of a television system, a set-top box, a navigation system, a DVD player, a Blu-ray player, a personal computer (PC), a home theater system, and a phone system and receives an input image.
Hereinafter, with reference to
The blue light controller 240 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure determines the color characteristics of an image displayed on the display panel 100 and controls blue light emitted from the display panel 100 to reduce physical damage to users caused by blue light. To this end, as shown in
The average calculator for each frame 241 may calculate an average of image signals configuring one frame to recognize color characteristics to be displayed on one frame. In detail, the average calculator for each frame 241 calculates an average of the blue image signals B configuring one frame. That is, the average calculator for each frame 241 adds up the blue image signals input to the blue pixels PB of each the unit pixel UP configuring one frame and divides the added blue image signals by the total number of the unit pixel UP to calculate an average blue image signal ABL.
According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, as shown in
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the average calculator for each frame 241 may calculate the average blue image signal ABL and recognize an amount of blue light emission of an image displayed on the corresponding frame using the average blue image signal ABL. That is, the average calculator for each frame 241 may recognize the color characteristics of the corresponding frame by recognizing the amount of blue light emission of the image displayed on the corresponding frame.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the average blue image signal ABL may be calculated after all of the blue image signals B configuring one frame are input, and thus a gain calculated after all of the average blue image signals ABL for one frame may be applied to the blue image signal B configuring a next frame.
The moving average filter 242 is a filter that calculates an average ABL_ave of average blue image signals of a plurality of consecutive frames. For example, the moving average filter 242 may calculate the average ABL_ave of average blue image signals of 16 consecutive frames. That is, when an image signal of an Nth frame is input and an average of previous 16 consecutive frames is calculate, the average ABL_ave of average blue image signals of (N-16)th to (N-1)th frames may be calculated and transmitted to the frame gain calculator 243. Accordingly, the average ABL_ave of average blue image signals of a plurality of consecutive frames is calculated, and thus a frame gain gain_frame may be calculated by applying the color characteristics of consecutive images. In this case, the number of frames for calculating the average ABL_ave of average blue image signals is not limited to 16 as described above, and may be set to a number for recognizing the color characteristics of images, but the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and the number of frames for calculating the average ABL_ave of average blue image signals may be applied variously.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, as shown in
Although not shown, the display driving apparatus 200 may further a determination unit to apply a filter, which controls the moving average filter 242 not to operate when the color characteristics of an image of the current frame (Frame N) and the previous frame (Frame N-1) change rapidly by comparing the average blue image signal ABL (Frame N) of the current frame (Frame N) and the average blue image signal ABL (Frame N-1) of the previous frame (Frame N-1). In detail, the determination unit to apply a filter may first calculate an absolute value of a difference between the average blue image signal ABL (Frame N) of the current frame (Frame N) and the average blue image signal ABL (Frame N-1) of the previous frame (Frame N-1), and the determination unit to apply a filter may compare the absolute value of the difference between the calculated the average blue image signal ABL (Frame N) of the current frame and the average blue image signal ABL (Frame N-1) of the previous frame (Frame N-1) with a threshold signal change amount change_th, as shown in Expression 1 below.
|ABL(Frame N)−ABL (frame N-1)|<change_th [Expression 1]
When the absolute value of the difference between the average blue image signal ABL (Frame N) of the current frame and the average blue image signal ABL (Frame N-1) of the previous frame (Frame N-1) is greater than the threshold signal change amount change_th, the determination unit to apply a filter may control the moving average filter 242 not to operate and transmit the average blue image signal ABL (Frame N) of the current frame (Frame N) as the average ABL_ave of average blue image signals to the frame gain calculator 243 described below. When the absolute value of the difference between the average blue image signal ABL (Frame N) of the current frame (Frame N) and the average blue image signal ABL (Frame N-1) of the previous frame (Frame N-1) is smaller than the threshold signal change amount change_th, the determination unit to apply a filter may apply the moving average filter 242 to calculate the average ABL_ave of average blue image signals for a plurality of frames and transmit the calculated average to the frame gain calculator 243, as described above.
The determination unit to apply a filter may calculate an absolute value of a difference between the average white image signal of the current frame (Frame N) and the average white image signal of the previous frame (Frame N-1). Accordingly, the determination unit to apply a filter may determine whether to apply the moving average filter 242 using at least one of a comparison result between the average blue image signal ABL (Frame N) of the current frame (Frame N) and the average blue image signal ABL (Frame N-1) of the previous frame (Frame N-1) and the threshold signal change amount change_th, and a comparison result between an absolute value of a difference between the average white image signal of the current frame (Frame N) and the average white image signal of the previous frame (Frame N-1) and the threshold signal change amount change_th.
The frame gain calculator 243 calculates the frame gain gain_frame according to the average ABL_ave of average blue image signals. In detail, as shown in
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the frame gain gain_frame has a value of 1 when a blue image signal of one frame is smaller than the predefined threshold average blue image signal ABL_th, and thus color degradation may be prevented, and the frame gain gain_frame has a smaller value than 1 when the blue image signal of one frame is greater than the predefined threshold average blue image signal ABL_th, and as the size of the blue image signal is increased, emission of blue light may be further reduced, thereby minimizing physical impact of blue light on users.
To this end, as described above, the frame gain calculator 243 may include a frame gain lookup table LUT_gain_frame that is a lookup table of the frame gain gain_frame for the average ABL_ave of average blue image signals, and the frame gain lookup table LUT_gain_frame may include the frame gain gain_frame for some values of the predefined average ABL_ave of average blue image signals.
The frame gain gain_frame for values of average ABL_ave of average blue image signals that are not included in the frame gain lookup table LUT_gain_frame may be calculated by applying interpolation to the frame gain gain_frame for some values of the predefined average ABL_ave of average blue image signals included in the frame gain lookup table LUT_gain_frame.
The frame gain gain_frame for values of the average ABL_ave of average blue image signals that are not included in the frame gain lookup table LUT_gain_frame may be calculated using at least one of various interpolations such as linear interpolation, polynomial interpolation, and spline interpolation.
However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and the frame gain calculator 243 may also calculate the frame gain gain_frame for the average ABL_ave of average blue image signals through a function.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, as shown in
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the frame gain gain_frame may be a gain applied to blue image signals B configuring one frame, and the same frame gain gain_frame may be applied to the blue image signals B configuring one frame.
The pixel gain calculator 244 calculates a pixel gain gain_pixel using the blue image signal B for each unit pixel UP. In detail, as shown in
The pixel gain calculator 244 may include a lookup table LUT_gain_frame of a pixel gain gain_pixel of the blue image signal B, and the pixel gain lookup table LUT_gain_pixel may include the pixel gain gain_pixel for all values of the blue image signal B or may include the pixel gain gain_pixel for some predefined values of the blue image signal B. When the pixel gain lookup table LUT_gain_pixel includes a pixel gain gain_pixel for some predefined values of the blue image signal B, the pixel gain gain_pixel for values of the blue image signal B, which are not included in the pixel gain lookup table LUT_gain_pixel, may be calculated by applying interpolation to pixel gains gain_pixel for values of the blue image signal B, which are included in the pixel gain lookup table LUT_gain_pixel. In this case, the pixel gain gain_pixel for values of the blue image signal B, which are not included in the pixel gain lookup table LUT_gain_pixel, may be calculated using at least one of various interpolations such as linear interpolation, polynomial interpolation, and spline interpolation.
However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and the pixel gain calculator 244 may also calculate the pixel gain gain_pixel through a function of the pixel gain gain_pixel for the blue image signal B.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, as shown in
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, unlike the frame gain gain_frame applied in the same way to the blue image signals B configuring one frame, the pixel gain gain_pixel may be calculated according to the blue image signal B of each unit pixel UP, and thus different pixel gains gain_pixel may be applied to the respective unit pixels UP.
The pixel gain calculator 244 may calculate a final gain to be applied to the blue image signal B using the frame gain gain_frame calculated by the frame gain calculator 243 and the pixel gain gain_pixel. In detail, the pixel gain calculator 244 may calculate and output the final gain by multiplying the frame gain gain_frame and the pixel gain gain_pixel.
According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the pixel gain calculator 244 may calculate a final gain for the white image signal W, which is to be applied to the white image signal W, using the frame gain gain_frame calculated by the frame gain calculator 243 and the pixel gain gain_pixel for the white image signal W. In detail, the pixel gain calculator 244 may calculate and output the final gain for white by multiplying the frame gain gain_frame and the pixel gain gain_pixel for the white image signal W.
Gain appliers 245 and 245a may output corrected blue image signal B′ corrected by applying the final gain calculated by the pixel gain calculator 244 to the blue image signal B. In addition, gain appliers 245 and 245b may output corrected white image signal W′ corrected by applying the final gain calculated for white by the pixel gain calculator 244 to the white image signal W as well as the corrected blue image signal B′.
According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the image signal may be corrected according to color characteristics of each frame and each unit pixel UP, and thus it may be possible to prevent color degradation and reduce the amount of blue light emission that physically affect users from the display panel 100.
Hereinafter, a display driving method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to
Referring to
According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, as shown in
Then, the determination unit to apply a filter calculates an absolute value of a difference between the average blue image signal ABL (Frame N) of the current frame (Frame N) and the average blue image signal ABL (Frame N-1) of the previous frame (Frame N-1) and compares the absolute value of the difference between the calculated average blue image signal ABL (Frame N) of the current frame and the average blue image signal ABL (Frame N-1) of the previous frame with the threshold signal change amount change_th (S602). The determination unit to apply a filter may also calculate an absolute value of a difference between the average white image signal of the current frame (Frame N) and the average white image signal of the previous frame (Frame N-1). Thus, the determination unit to apply a filter may determine whether to apply the moving average filter 242 using at least one of a comparison result between the average blue image signal ABL (Frame N) of the current frame (Frame N) and the average blue image signal ABL (Frame N-1) of the previous frame (Frame N-1) and the threshold signal change amount change_th, and a comparison result between an absolute value of a difference between the average white image signal of the current frame (Frame N) and the average white image signal of the previous frame (Frame N-1) and the threshold signal change amount change_th.
Then, when the absolute value of the difference between the average blue image signal ABL (Frame N) of the current frame and the average blue image signal ABL (Frame N-1) of the previous frame (Frame N-1) is greater than the threshold signal change amount change_th, the determination unit to apply a filter may control the moving average filter 242 not to operate and transmit the average blue image signal ABL (Frame N) of the current frame (Frame N) as the average ABL_ave of average blue image signals to the frame gain calculator 243 described below (S603).
When the absolute value of the difference between the average blue image signal ABL (Frame N) of the current frame (Frame N) and the average blue image signal ABL (Frame N-1) of the previous frame (Frame N-1) is smaller than the threshold signal change amount change_th, the determination unit to apply a filter may apply the moving average filter 242 to calculate the average ABL_ave of average blue image signals for a plurality of frames and transmit the calculated average to the frame gain calculator 243, as described above (S604). In detail, the moving average filter 242 may calculate the average ABL_ave of average blue image signals of a plurality of consecutive frames and apply the color characteristics of consecutive images to calculate the frame gain gain_frame.
Then, the frame gain calculator 243 calculates the frame gain gain_frame according to the average ABL_ave of average blue image signals (S605). In detail, as shown in
As shown in
Then, the pixel gain calculator 244 calculates the pixel gain gain_pixel according to the blue image signal B of each pixel of the current frame (S606). In detail, the pixel gain calculator 244 may determine the pixel gain gain_pixel according to the blue image signal B for each unit pixel UP based on the predefined threshold pixel blue image signal pixel_th. That is, when the blue image signal B of each unit pixel UP is smaller than the threshold pixel blue image signal pixel_th, the pixel gain calculator 244 may determine the pixel gain gain_pixel as 1, and when the blue image signal B is greater than the threshold pixel blue image signal pixel_th, the pixel gain calculator 244 may determine the pixel gain gain_pixel as a smaller value than 1 and determine the pixel gain gain_pixel to be smaller value as the blue image signal B increases.
As shown in
Then, the pixel gain calculator 244 may calculate a final gain using the frame gain gain_frame and the pixel gain gain_pixel (S607). In detail, the pixel gain calculator 244 may calculate and output the final gain by multiplying the frame gain gain_frame and the pixel gain gain_pixel.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the frame gain gain_frame may be a gain applied to blue image signals B configuring one frame, and the same frame gain gain_frame may be applied to the blue image signals B configuring one frame. In contrast, unlike the aforementioned frame gain gain_frame, the pixel gain gain_pixel is calculated according to the blue image signal B of each unit pixel UP, and thus different pixel gains gain_pixel may be applied to the respective unit pixels UP.
The pixel gain calculator 244 may calculate a final gain for the white image signal W, which is to be applied to the white image signal W, using the frame gain gain_frame calculated by the frame gain calculator 243 and the pixel gain gain_pixel for the white image signal W. In detail, the pixel gain calculator 244 may calculate and output the final gain for white by multiplying the frame gain gain_frame and the pixel gain gain_pixel for the white image signal W.
Then, the gain applier 245 applies the final gain to the blue image signal B of the current frame (S608). That is, the gain applier 245 may output the corrected blue image signal B′ corrected by applying the final gain calculated by the pixel gain calculator 244 to the blue image signal B. The gain applier 245 may output corrected white image signal W′ corrected by applying the final gain calculated for white by the pixel gain calculator 244 to the white image signal W.
The display driving apparatus and display driving method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may reduce the amount of blue light emission according to the color characteristics of an image input to the display panel, thereby reducing the impact on the body due to blue light and preventing color degradation.
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art to which the present disclosure belongs that the disclosure described above may be practiced in other specific forms without altering its technical ideas or essential features.
The methods described herein may be implemented, at least in part, using one or more computer programs or components. This component may be provided as a series of computer instructions on a computer-readable medium or machine-readable medium containing volatile and non-volatile memory. The instructions may be provided as software or firmware, and may be implemented, in whole or in part, in hardware components such as ASICs, FPGAs, DSPs, or other similar devices. The instructions may be configured to be executed by one or more processors or other hardware components and perform all or part of the methods and procedures disclosed herein or cause when executed by the processor or the hardware components to perform all or part of the methods and procedures disclosed herein.
It should therefore be understood that the embodiments described above are exemplary and non-limiting in all respects. The scope of the present disclosure is defined by the appended claims, rather than by the detailed description above, and should be construed to cover all modifications or variations derived from the meaning and scope of the appended claims and the equivalents thereof.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10-2023-0002702 | Jan 2023 | KR | national |
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Number | Date | Country |
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108074540 | May 2018 | CN |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20240233668 A1 | Jul 2024 | US |