Patent Application
20200372876
This relates generally to electronic devices, and, more particularly, to electronic devices with displays.
Electronic devices may have displays. Displays may be used for displaying visual content for a user. Professional graphics workflows may require various types of displays with different display properties. For instance, one graphics workflow might require a display that is particularly suited for photo-editing, whereas another graphics workflow might require a display that is more suited to outputting video content.
Therefore, a single display that is capable of emulating a wide variety of displays may be desired. It is, however, challenging to build a single display that can perform all the requisite emulation in the display itself while maintaining sufficient accuracy to the advertised specifications associated with each of the emulated displays. Calibrating such type of display that meet all the various emulation requirements adds another level of complexity.
It is within this context that the embodiments herein arise.
An electronic device may have a display mounted in a housing. The display may have pixels that display an image. The display may further include an emulation circuit that is configured to receive image content from a display host and that is operable to support multiple emulation pre-setup configurations (or presets) with different display properties. The display may also include a calibration circuit separate from the emulation circuit. The calibration circuit may be configured to store at least one factory calibration dataset that is shared among any number of the emulation presets. The pixels may then display the image content that has been modified by both the emulation circuit and the calibration circuit. The emulation circuit may be further configured to provide display identification and configuration data, which advertises emulated display capabilities to the display host. If desired, the calibration and emulation circuits may be combined into a single circuit that stores the emulation presets and calibration datasets separately.
The emulation presets are generic across different displays, whereas the factory calibration dataset is unique to each display. The emulation presets are visible to the display host, whereas the factory calibration dataset may optionally be hidden from the host. The emulation presets may include a browsing preset, a movie preset, a photo-editing preset, a printing preset, a gaming preset, an outdoors preset, a privacy preset, etc. The emulation presets may include a list of pre-defined emulation settings created initially by the manufacturer and at least one custom emulation setting that is created at a later point in time by a user of the device. If desired, the calibration circuit is further configured to an updated factory calibration dataset using factory targets or custom calibration datasets obtained using calibration targets different than the factory targets.
The display may be further configured to present the user with an opportunity to add to the list of predefined emulation presets, with an opportunity to add additional calibration datasets to the calibration circuit, with an opportunity to switch to a different emulation preset, and with an opportunity to switch to a different calibration dataset. In response to the user selecting a particular emulation preset, the calibration circuit may automatically select an appropriate calibration dataset optimized for that particular emulation preset.
As shown in
Control circuitry 16 may include a content generator such as content generator 18. Content generator 18 may be associated with an application running on control circuitry 16 such as a game, a media playback application, an application that presents information to a user, an operating system function, or other code running on control circuitry 16 that generates image data to be displayed on display 14.
Input-output circuitry in device 10 such as input-output devices 12 may be used to allow data to be supplied to device 10 and to allow data to be provided from device 10 to external devices. If desired, input-output devices 12 may include buttons, joysticks, scrolling wheels, touch pads, keypads, keyboards, microphones, speakers, tone generators, vibrators, cameras, light-emitting diodes and other status indicators, data ports, etc. A user can control the operation of device 10 by supplying commands through input-output devices 12 and may receive status information and other output from device 10 using the output resources of input-output devices 12.
Input-output devices 12 may include one or more displays such as display 14. Display 14 may be a touch screen display that includes a touch sensor for gathering touch input from a user or display 14 may be insensitive to touch. A touch sensor for display 14 may be based on an array of capacitive touch sensor electrodes, acoustic touch sensor structures, resistive touch components, force-based touch sensor structures, a light-based touch sensor, or other suitable touch sensor arrangements. Display 14 may include an array of display pixels (e.g., tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, or more display pixels arranged in rows and columns) that are used to display the image data received from content generator 18. The display pixels may be based on organic light-emitting diodes, crystalline semiconductor diodes (e.g., micro-light-emitting diodes), liquid crystal display structures, electrophoretic display structures, plasma display structures, electrowetting display structures, or other suitable display technologies. Since content generator 18 determines what data to send to display 14 at any given point in time, content generator 18 is sometimes referred to as the display “host” device.
Professional graphics workflows often require various display types with different output properties. To satisfy this need, display 14 is configured to emulate a wide variety of displays. When emulating a particular display type, display 14 may identify or advertise itself to the host (e.g., the content generator 18 that is part of control circuitry 16) as having some or all of the emulated display's characteristics and may perform all of the emulation within itself (e.g., without requiring content generator 18 to preemptively modify the image content it generates when changing from one emulation to another) while properly displaying data as the emulated display would by maintaining sufficient accuracy in accordance with its advertised specifications.
Emulation circuit 200 provides display 14 with a number of different emulated display configurations that a user of device 10 can switch among. Emulation circuit 200 may provide a list of at least two different emulation display configurations, at least three different emulation display configurations, at least four different emulation display configurations, at least five different emulation display configurations, two to ten different emulation display configurations, more than ten different emulation display configurations, or any suitable number of emulated display configurations. Depending on which emulated display configuration is currently selected by the user, emulation circuit 200 may provide a set of display identification (ID) and configuration data advertising the properties and capabilities of the selected emulation display configuration back to the host.
Emulation circuit 200 may output emulated display data to calibration circuit 202. Calibration circuit 202 is configured to correct the physical panel performance of display 14 at one or more display calibration targets. Calibration circuit 202 aims to mitigate potential non-uniformities between two different displays 14 that ought to be identical but are actually slightly different in terms of display performance due to manufacturing variations. Calibration circuit 202 may receive and emulated display data and generate corresponding calibrated display data, which can then be display on pixel array 204. Having an emulation block and a separate calibration block in this way provides a tangible technical improvement to computer functionality by enabling the sharing of a limited number of calibration datasets between multiple emulation configurations (e.g., additional emulation presets may be added without the need to recalibrate the display), which can help reduce calibration time significantly. In another suitable arrangement, the emulation settings and the calibration settings (which are stored separately) may be mathematically combined within a single circuit to help save power.
Another difference is that the emulation presets are generally visible to the host (e.g., content generator 18 in
Functionally, the emulation settings enable each display 14 to emulate different types of displays (e.g., emulation presets enable a single display to emulate different display targets or display modes). As examples, there may be a first emulation preset configured for normal web browsing, a second emulation preset configured for movie/cinema viewing, a third emulation preset configured for printing, a fourth emulation preset configured for photo editing, a fifth emulation preset configured for gaming, a sixth emulation preset configured for outdoor usage, a seventh emulation preset configured for privacy, etc. These various display emulation modes are merely illustrative. If desired, the emulation circuit may be configured to provide any suitable number of display emulation presets. In contrast, the calibration settings are used to calibrate a particular display 14 to one or more physical targets. Exemplary calibration target parameters include a target white point, a target color space, a target luminance level, a target gamma, etc. The calibration datasets corrects each display panel so that it operates in a known state.
As described above, each emulation preset takes the raw image data and then modifies it so that is emulates the output properties of the selected display type. In other words, it converts the raw image content to an emulated image content using some mathematical function. From another perspective, the emulation data includes mathematical transformation data that adjusts the display performance from the calibrated target to the emulated target. This sort of data conversion may be categorized as an electro-to-electro transformation. The emulation presets are therefore modifications on top of the current calibration state. In contrast, a calibration dataset aims to take whatever data it receives and calibrates that data so that any variations and imperfections associated with that particular display hardware is corrected. The calibration datasets may include color correction matrices, electrical current adjustment lookup tables (LUTs), panel response correction lookup tables, just to name a few.
Moreover, all of the emulation may be performed within the display itself (i.e., emulating the various display types does not require additional hardware to create). In contrast, calibration (whether or not performed at the factory or by the user outside of the factory) generally require dedicated external calibration equipment that can be used to monitor the output of a particular display 14 during calibration operations. The table of
Operated in this way, the actual display output may be equal to 50 (i.e., 5*10) during the first emulated state, may be equal to 60 (i.e., 5*12) during the second emulated state, and may be equal to 70 (i.e., 5*14) during the third emulated state. The example emulation method of
The user of display 14 will also be able to add custom emulation presets to any available empty emulation slots. In the example of
Display 14 may ship with at least one factory calibration dataset 520-1 that occupies a first calibration slot. Alternatively, display 14 might be shipped without any calibration data, which may then be optionally calibrated by the user. The user may optionally recalibrate the display as the display ages to maintain its performance using factory targets to obtain an updated factory calibration dataset 520-2, which can occupy a second calibration slot. The updated factory calibration dataset 520-2, which is typically obtained at a later point time in time compared to when the factory calibration dataset 520-1 was created, represents a more up-to-date diagnosis of the display panel and may therefore override the initial factory calibration dataset 520-1.
If desired, the user can also add one or more custom calibration datasets using calibration targets that are different than the factory target (e.g., the user may perform their own calibrations and re-link one or more existing emulation presets to the new calibration settings). For example, the user may add a first custom calibration dataset 522-1 (e.g., using calibration target X that is different from the factory targets), which occupy another calibration slot. The user may also add a second custom calibration dataset 522-2 (e.g., using calibration target Y that is different than the factory targets and target X). Custom user calibration dataset(s) created in this way should be stored alongside the factory calibration dataset but should not replace it. If desired, the custom user calibration dataset(s) could also replace the factory calibration dataset.
Each custom calibration dataset may be configured for a specific emulation preset or may serve to augment the existing calibration datasets. In general, display 14 may be provided with any suitable number of total available calibration dataset slots (e.g., two or more calibration slots, 3 to 10 calibration slots, more than 10 calibration slots) to accommodate any number of factory calibration datasets or any desired number of custom user calibration datasets. At one extreme, each emulation preset may be provided with its own calibration dataset optimized for that emulated display target (e.g., there may be a one-to-one mapping between the emulation presets and the calibration datasets). At the other extreme, a single calibration (e.g., any one of the calibration datasets) can be used for multiple emulation presets. Any degree of intermediate pairing where different groups of emulation presets are linked to different calibration datasets may be implemented. Due to the time consuming nature of a calibration procedure, a minimum number of calibration operations should be performed and stored within the available calibration slots.
At step 602, device 10 may present the user with an opportunity to add a calibration dataset based on factory targets or custom user targets. In other words, the user may decide to build upon the factory calibration dataset by filling in any one or more of the available calibration slots during the lifetime of the display.
At step 604, device 10 may present the user with an opportunity to select from the list of emulation presets (or display emulation settings). If the user does not proactively make a particular selection, the default emulation preset may be used. The user may select from any one of the pre-defined emulation presets provided by the manufacturer or from any one of the user-created custom emulation presets depending on the desired graphics workflow suitable for the current usage scenario.
At step 606, device 10 may optionally present the user with an opportunity to select from the list of calibration datasets (or display calibration settings). If the user does not proactively make a particular selection, the factory calibration dataset may be used. The user may select from any one of the factory-based calibration settings (see, e.g., calibration datasets 520-1 and 520-2 in
At step 608, display 14 may be operated using the emulation preset selected during step 604. At step 610, the calibration circuit within display 14 (e.g., calibration block 202 of
Although the methods of operations are described in a specific order, it should be understood that other operations may be performed in between described operations, described operations may be adjusted so that they occur at slightly different times or described operations may be distributed in a system which allows occurrence of the processing operations at various intervals associated with the processing, as long as the processing of the overlay operations are performed in a desired way.
The foregoing is merely illustrative and various modifications can be made to the described embodiments. The foregoing embodiments may be implemented individually or in any combination.
This application claims the benefit of provisional patent application No. 62/851,013, filed May 21, 2019, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62851013 | May 2019 | US |
