Patent Application
20230124739
The disclosed technology generally relates to devices and methods for edge illumination for display devices.
Portable electronic devices (e.g., smartphones, cell phones, and other similar electronic devices) may be adapted to edge illumination (or edge lighting) that notifies the user of calls or other notifications by lighting up the edge of the display. For example, a portable electronic device may be configured to notify the user of reception of emails or other messages with the edge illumination feature. The edge illumination may help the user promptly become aware of notifications especially during standby of the portable electronic device.
This summary is provided to introduce in a simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described below in the detailed description. This summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.
In one or more embodiments, a display driver is provided. The display driver includes first interface circuitry, a graphic memory, image processing circuitry, and drive circuitry. The first interface circuitry is configured to receive an edge illumination command from a controller external to the display driver. The graphic memory is configured to store image data. The image processing circuitry is configured to render an edge-illuminated image by overlaying an edge illumination graphic on a first image corresponding to the image data in response to the edge illumination command. The edge illumination graphic extends along an edge of a display region of a display panel. The drive circuitry is configured to drive the display panel based on the edge-illuminated image.
In one or more embodiments, a display system is provided. The display system includes a controller, a display panel, and a display driver. The controller is configured to generate an edge illumination command. The display panel includes a display region. The display driver includes first interface circuitry, a graphic memory, image processing circuitry, and drive circuitry. The first interface circuitry is configured to receive the edge illumination command from the controller. The graphic memory is configured to store image data. The image processing circuitry is configured to render an edge-illuminated image by overlaying an edge illumination graphic on a first image corresponding to the image data in response to the edge illumination command. The edge illumination graphic extends along an edge of the display region of the display panel. The drive circuitry is configured to drive the display panel based on the edge-illuminated image.
In one or more embodiments, a method for operating a display driver is provided. The method includes receiving an edge illumination command from a controller external to the display driver. The method further includes storing image data in a graphic memory of the display driver. The method further includes rendering an edge-illuminated image by overlaying an edge illumination graphic on a first image corresponding to the image data in response to the edge illumination command. The edge illumination graphic extends along an edge of a display region of a display panel. The method further includes driving the display panel based on the edge-illuminated image.
Other aspects of the embodiments will be apparent from the following description and the appended claims.
So that the manner in which the above recited features of the present disclosure can be understood in detail, a more particular description of the disclosure, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to embodiments, some of which are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only exemplary embodiments, and are therefore not to be considered limiting of inventive scope, as the disclosure may admit to other equally effective embodiments.
To facilitate understanding, identical reference numerals have been used, where possible, to designate identical elements that are common to the figures. It is contemplated that elements disclosed in one embodiment may be beneficially utilized in other embodiments without specific recitation. Suffixes may be attached to reference numerals for distinguishing identical elements from each other. The drawings referred to herein should not be understood as being drawn to scale unless specifically noted. Also, the drawings are often simplified and details or components omitted for clarity of presentation and explanation. The drawings and discussion serve to explain principles discussed below, where like designations denote like elements.
The following detailed description is merely exemplary in nature and is not intended to limit the disclosure or the application and uses of the disclosure. Furthermore, there is no intention to be bound by any expressed or implied theory presented in the preceding background, summary, or the following detailed description.
Edge illumination is a technique that notifies the user of calls or other notifications by lighting up the edge of the display. For example, a portable electronic device adapted to edge illumination may be configured to, when receiving emails or other messages, light up the edge of the display to notify the user of the reception. The edge illumination may help the user promptly become aware of notifications especially during standby of the portable electronic device.
The edge illumination feature may be achieved by displaying an edge-illuminated image on a display panel. The edge-illuminated image may include an edge illumination graphic. The edge illumination graphic may be a bright graphic element that extends along at least part of the edge of the display region of a display panel. The display region may be a region in which pixels are disposed to display images.
In one implementation, the edge illumination feature may be achieved by sending an edge-illuminated image from a controller external to the display device. This approach may however increase the communication amount between the display device and the controller, especially when the edge-illuminated image changes over time (e.g., periodically). The increase in the communication amount may cause an undesired increase in the power consumption.
The present disclosure provides various technologies for achieving edge illumination with a reduced communication amount between the display device and the controller. In one or more embodiments, the edge illumination feature can be achieved with a reduced communication amount by sending an edge illumination command, not a full frame edge-illuminated image, from the controller to the display driver. Specifically, in one or more embodiments, a display driver includes first interface circuitry, a graphic memory, image processing circuitry, and drive circuitry. The first interface circuitry is configured to receive the edge illumination command from a controller external to the display driver. The graphic memory is configured to store a first image. The image processing circuitry is configured to generate an edge-illuminated image by overlaying an edge illumination graphic on the first image in response to the edge illumination command. The edge illumination graphic extends along an edge of a display region of a display panel. The drive circuitry is configured to drive the display panel based on the edge-illuminated image. In the following, detailed embodiments of the present disclosure are described.
In one or more embodiments, edge illumination is achieved by displaying an edge-illuminated image that includes an edge illumination graphic. The edge illumination graphic is a graphic element which extends along at least part of the edge 102a of the display region 102 and has increased brightness to at least partially light up the edge 102a of the display region 102.
The shape of an edge illumination graphic may change over time. In some embodiments, the shape of an edge illumination graphic may change periodically.
Additionally, or alternatively, the brightness of an edge illumination graphic may change over time. In some embodiments, the brightness of an edge illumination graphic may change periodically.
The display system 1000 includes a display driver 300 and a controller 400 that is external to the display driver 300. The display driver 300 is configured to drive the display panel 200 to display a desired image. The controller 400 is configured to provide image data to the display driver 300. The image data may correspond to an image to be displayed on the display panel 200, and the display driver 300 may be configured to drive the display panel 200 based on the image data. The image data may include pixel data for respective pixels of the display panel 200. The pixel data may include graylevels of respective subpixels of each pixel.
In one or more embodiments, the controller 400 is further configured to generate and provide an edge illumination command to the display driver 300. The edge illumination command instructs the display driver 300 to display an edge-illuminated image (which may correspond to the edge-illuminated images illustrated in
In the illustrated embodiment, the display driver 300 includes interface (I/F) circuitry 310, a graphic memory 320, image processing circuitry 330, register circuitry 340, and drive circuitry 350. In one implementation, the display driver 300 may be configured as a display driver integrated circuit (DDIC) in which the interface circuitry 310, the graphic memory 320, the image processing circuitry 330, the register circuitry 340, and the drive circuitry 350 are monolithically integrated in a single semiconductor chip.
The interface circuitry 310 is configured to receive the image data from the controller 400 and forward the image data to the graphic memory 320. The interface circuitry 310 is further configured to receive the edge illumination command from the controller 400 and forward the edge illumination command to the image processing circuitry 330. The graphic memory 320 is configured to store the image data received from the interface circuitry 310. The image data stored in the graphic memory 320 may correspond to a full-frame image to be displayed on the display region (which may correspond to the display region 102 illustrated in
The image processing circuitry 330 is configured to process the image data received from the graphic memory 320 (i.e., the full-frame image stored in the graphic memory 320) to generate a resulting image to be displayed on the display panel 200. The resulting image (i.e., the processed full-frame image) may be an edge-illuminated image generated in response to the edge illumination command. In one or more embodiments, the processing performed by the image processing circuitry 330 may include a corner rounding process and an edge illumination process. The corner rounding process may process the image data to round the corners of the resulting image displayed on the display panel 200. The edge illumination process may render an edge-illuminated image by overlaying an edge illumination graphic (which may correspond to the edge illumination graphics 104, 106, 108, 110, 112, and 114 illustrated in
The corner rounding process may process the image data to round the corners of the resulting image displayed on the display panel 200 in line with the shape of the display region 210 of the display panel 200. The display region 210 of the display panel 200 is defined as a corner-rounded rectangle in the embodiment illustrated in
The edge illumination process may include rendering an edge illumination graphic 220 and overlaying the edge illumination graphic 220 on the image 202 to render an edge-illuminated image. The rendering of the edge illumination graphic 220 may be based on one or more settings 360 stored in the register circuitry 340. Details of the one or more settings 360 of the edge illumination graphic 220 will be described below in detail. In various embodiments, the image processing circuitry 330 is configured to render the edge-illuminated image in response to the edge illumination command received from the controller 400. In one implementation, the image processing circuitry 330 is configured to render the edge-illuminated image when instructed by the edge illumination command.
In some embodiments, the display system 1000 has a normal operation mode and a standby mode. The normal operation mode may be an operation mode in which image data is transferred from the controller 400 to the display driver 300 to update the display panel 200 in each frame period (or each horizontal synchronization period). The standby mode may be an operation mode in which the no image data is transferred from the controller 400 to the display driver 300. Placing the display system 1000 into the standby mode effectively reduces the power consumption.
In one or more embodiments, when desiring to display an edge-illuminated image on the display panel 200 (e.g., to notify the user of reception of a call, an email, a message, or the like) in the standby mode, the controller 400 sends an edge illumination command to the display driver 300. It is noted that the edge illumination command includes no pixel data. The image processing circuitry 330 of the display driver 300 renders an edge-illuminated image in response to reception of the edge illumination command.
In one implementation, the rendering of the edge-illuminated image may be achieved as follows. The image processing circuitry 330 retrieves the image data, which corresponds to a full-frame image, from the graphic memory 320. The image processing circuitry 330 may process the image data retrieved from the graphic memory 320 if desired (e.g., applying the corner rounding process to the image data as described in relation to
In various embodiments, the rendering of the edge illumination graphic may be controlled based on the one or more settings 360 stored in the register circuitry 340. The one or more settings 360 may be selected from the group consisting of: the shape of the edge illumination graphic; the brightness of the edge illumination graphic; the color of the edge illumination graphic; how the shape of the edge illumination graphic is to be changed; how the brightness of the edge illumination graphic is to be changed; how the color of the edge illumination graphic is to be changed; the periodicity of the change in the shape of the edge illumination graphic; the periodicity of the change in the brightness of the edge illumination graphic; and the periodicity of the change in the color of the edge illumination graphic.
In one or more embodiments, the one or more settings 360 stored in the register circuitry 340 includes how the brightness of the edge illumination graphic is to be changed, and the image processing circuitry 330 is configured to change the brightness of the edge illumination graphic over time based on the one or more settings 360.
The image processing circuitry 330 may be further configured to render the edge illumination graphic 260 such that the brightness of the edge illumination graphic 260 is kept constant during a first interval period that follows the first time period. In such embodiments, the one or more settings 360 stored in the register circuitry 340 may further include the first interval period.
The image processing circuitry 330 may be further configured to render the edge illumination graphic 260 such that the brightness of the edge illumination graphic 260 gradually decreases during a second time period (or a first disappearing period) that follows the first interval period. In such embodiments, the one or more settings 360 stored in the register circuitry 340 may further include the second time period.
The image processing circuitry 330 may be further configured to render the edge illumination graphic 260 such that the brightness of the edge illumination graphic 260 is kept constant during a second interval period that follows the second time period. In such embodiments, the one or more settings 360 stored in the register circuitry 340 may further include the second interval period.
The image processing circuitry 330 may be further configured to render the edge illumination graphic 260 to repeat the above-described procedure that includes the first time period, the first interval period, the second time period, and the second interval period.
In one or more embodiments, the one or more settings 360 stored in the register circuitry 340 includes how the shape of the edge illumination graphic is to be changed, and the image processing circuitry 330 is configured to change the shape of the edge illumination graphic over time based on the one or more settings 360.
The image processing circuitry 330 may be configured to successively scale the edge illumination graphic 280 to enlarge the edge illumination graphic 280 over a first time period (or an enlarging period). In such embodiments, the one or more settings 360 stored in the register circuitry 340 may include the first time period. In some embodiments, the one or more settings 360 stored in the register circuitry 340 may further include a target size of the edge illumination graphic 280, and the image processing circuitry 330 may be configured to gradually enlarge the edge illumination graphic 280 to the target size during the first time period. It is noted that the image processing circuitry 330 may be configured to enlarge the edge illumination graphic 280 beyond the display region of the display panel 200. In the embodiment illustrated in
The image processing circuitry 330 may be further configured to successively scale the edge illumination graphic 280 to shrink the edge illumination graphic 280 over a second time period (or a shrinking period) that follows the first time period. In such embodiments, the one or more settings 360 stored in the register circuitry 340 may include the second time period.
The display system 1000A is configured to transfer image data and an edge illumination command from the controller 400A to the display driver 300A via separate communication links. In one implementation, the controller 400A includes first interface circuitry 410 and second interface circuitry 420 while the display driver 300A includes first interface circuitry 310 (which may correspond to the interface circuitry 310 illustrated in
In various embodiments, the first interface circuitry 410 of the controller 400A and the first interface circuitry 310 of the display driver 300A are configured to communicate with each other in accordance with a first communication protocol, and the second interface circuitry 420 of the controller 400A and the second interface circuitry 370 of the display driver 300A are configured to communicate with each other in accordance with a second communication protocol different from the first communication protocol. The data transfer rate of the communications between the first interface circuitry 410 and the first interface circuitry 310 may be higher than the data transfer rate of the communications between the second interface circuitry 420 and the second interface circuitry 370. In one implementation, the first interface circuitry 410 and the first interface circuitry 310 may be configured to communicate with each other in accordance with the Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) standard, and the second interface circuitry 420 and the second interface circuitry 370 may be configured to communicate with each other in accordance with the inter-integrated circuit (I2C) standard.
In some embodiments, the display system 1000A may be adapted to proximity sensing. The display system 1000A may include a proximity sensing controller 500 and a sensor array 600 that may be at least partially overlap the display panel 200. The proximity sensing controller 500 may be configured to detect an input object that is in contact to or nearly in contact with the sensor array 600. The detection of the input object may be based on capacitive proximity sensing (e.g., absolute capacitance sensing (or self-capacitance sensing) and transcapacitance sensing (or mutual capacitance sensing)). In such embodiments, the sensor array 600 may include sensor electrodes and the proximity sensing controller 500 may be configured to detect the input object based on resulting signals received from the sensor electrodes.
In embodiments where the display system 1000A is adapted to proximity sensing using the proximity sensing controller 500 and the sensor array 600, the second interface circuitry 420 of the controller 400A may be also used to provide communications between the controller 400A and the proximity sensing controller 500. The proximity sensing controller 500 may be configured to generate proximity sensing data that includes positional information of the detected input object. The “positional information” as used herein broadly encompasses absolute position, relative position, velocity, acceleration, and other types of spatial information. The second interface circuitry 420 of the controller 400A may be configured to receive the proximity sensing data from the proximity sensing controller 500. In one implementation, the second interface circuitry 420 of the controller 400A may be configured to transfer the edge illumination command during a period during which the proximity sensing is not performed. The use of the second interface circuitry 420 of the controller 400A for both the edge illumination function and the proximity sensing function may effectively reduce hardware of the controller 400A.
Method 900 of
The method 900 includes receiving an edge illumination command from a controller external to the display driver at step 902. The method 900 further includes storing image data in a graphic memory (e.g., the graphic memory 320) of the display driver at step 904. The method 900 further includes rendering an edge-illuminated image (e.g., illustrated in
While many embodiments have been described, those skilled in the art, having benefit of this disclosure, will appreciate that other embodiments can be devised which do not depart from the scope. Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be limited only by the attached claims.
