Patent Application
20220165225
The present application claims priority of Chinese Patent Application No. 202011344707.6 filed to the CNIPA on Nov. 26, 2020, the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
The present disclosure relates to, but is not limited to, the field of display technology, in particular to an electronic paper display apparatus, and a method for driving the electronic paper display apparatus.
Electronic paper (E-paper, also called as electronic ink) display apparatus has advantages of eye protection and power saving, which has drawn wide attention. An electronic paper display apparatus includes multiple microcapsules, and electrically charged black particles and white particles are encapsulated in each microcapsule. Gray tone display of the electronic paper display apparatus depends on distribution of the black particles and the white particles in the microcapsules, while the distribution of the black particles and the white particles depends on the applied voltage sequence, which is, a driving waveform. Thus, optimization of the driving waveform directly affects the display effect of the electronic paper display apparatus.
The following is a summary of subject matter described in detail herein. This summary is not intended to limit the protection scope of the claims.
Embodiments of the present disclosure provide an electronic paper display apparatus, and a method for driving the electronic paper display apparatus.
In one aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a method for driving an electronic paper display apparatus. The electronic paper display apparatus includes multiple microcapsules, and a first electrode and a second electrode disposed on opposite sides of at least one of the microcapsules; the at least one microcapsule includes black particles and white particles, wherein an electric property of charges carried by the black particles and an electric property of charges carried by the white particles are opposite. The driving method includes: applying a first driving signal to a first electrode of a microcapsule to be displayed in white, and applying a second driving signal to a first electrode of a microcapsule to be displayed in black according to a black-and-white particle image to be displayed. The first driving signal includes a first sub-driving signal applied in a display stage, wherein the first sub-driving signal is configured to drive the white particles in the microcapsule to be displayed in white to be closer to a display side relative to the black particles. The second driving signal includes a second sub-driving signal applied in the display stage, wherein the second sub-driving signal is configured to drive the black particles in the microcapsule to be displayed in black to be closer to the display side relative to the white particles. An effective voltage of the first sub-driving signal and an effective voltage of the second sub-driving signal are alternately applied in sequence.
In some exemplary embodiments, the effective voltage of the first sub-driving signal and the effective voltage of the second sub-driving signal have a same absolute value and opposite electrical properties.
In some exemplary embodiments, the first sub-driving signal includes at least one first pulse unit, and the second sub-driving signal includes at least one second pulse unit. The at least one first pulse unit and the at least one second pulse unit are in one-to-one correspondence.
In some exemplary embodiments, each first pulse unit includes a first voltage and a first common voltage which are sequentially applied; each second pulse unit includes a second voltage and a second common voltage which are sequentially applied; and the first voltage and the second voltage have opposite electrical properties. The first voltage is equal to the effective voltage of the first sub-driving signal, and the second voltage is equal to the effective voltage of the second sub-driving signal. The first voltage has same application duration of as the second common voltage, and the first common voltage has same application duration as the second voltage.
In some exemplary embodiments, the first voltage has a same application duration as the second voltage.
In some exemplary embodiments, the first sub-driving signal includes N first pulse units, and the second sub-driving signal includes N second pulse units, wherein N is an integer greater than 1. An end moment of a first voltage of a n-th first pulse unit is a start moment of a second voltage of a corresponding n-th second pulse unit, and an end moment of the second voltage of the n-th second pulse unit is a start moment of a first voltage of a (n+1)-th first pulse unit, wherein n is an integer greater than 0 and less than N.
In some exemplary embodiments, the first driving signal further includes a third sub-driving signal applied in a balance stage before the display stage; and the second driving signal further includes a fourth sub-driving signal applied in the balance stage before the display stage. A product of an absolute value of the effective voltage of the third sub-driving signal and an application duration thereof is equal to a product of an absolute value of the effective voltage of the fourth sub-driving signal and an application duration thereof. The effective voltage of the third sub-driving signal and the effective voltage of the fourth sub-driving signal have the same absolute value and opposite electrical properties.
In some exemplary embodiments, the effective voltage of the third sub-driving signal and the effective voltage of the first sub-driving signal have opposite electrical properties. The effective voltage of the fourth sub-driving signal and the effective voltage of the second sub-driving signal have opposite electrical properties.
In some exemplary embodiments, the first driving signal further includes a fifth sub-driving signal applied in a shaking stage between the display stage and the balance stage. The second driving signal further includes a sixth sub-driving signal applied in the shaking stage between the display stage and the balance stage. The fifth sub-driving signal and the sixth sub-driving signal each include pulse signals with alternating positive and negative voltages.
In some exemplary embodiments, absolute values of effective voltages of the first sub-driving signal, the second sub-driving signal, the third sub-driving signal, the fourth sub-driving signal, the fifth sub-driving signal and the sixth sub-driving signal are all the same.
In another aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure further provides an electronic paper display apparatus, which includes: multiple microcapsules, and a first electrode and a second electrode disposed on opposite sides of at least one of the microcapsule; the at least one microcapsule includes black particles and white particles, wherein an electric property of charges carried by the black particles and an electric property of charges carried by the white particles are opposite. The electronic paper display apparatus further includes a processor, which is configured to execute any one of the aforementioned driving method.
In another aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing a computer program that implements any one of the aforementioned driving methods when the computer program is executed by a processor.
Other aspects will be understood after the drawings and the detailed description are read and understood.
Accompanying drawings are used to provide a further understanding of technical solutions of the present disclosure and constitute a part of the description. They are used for explaining the technical solutions of the present disclosure together with embodiments of the present application and do not constitute a limitation on the technical solutions of the present disclosure. Shapes and sizes of one or more components in the accompanying drawings do not reflect real scales, and are only for a purpose of schematically illustrating contents of the present disclosure.
Multiple embodiments are described in the present disclosure, but the description is exemplary rather than restrictive, and it is apparent to those of ordinary skills in the art that there may be more embodiments and implementation solutions within the scope of the embodiments described in the present disclosure. Although many possible combinations of features are shown in the drawings and discussed in the embodiments, many other combinations of the disclosed features are also possible. Unless specifically limited, any feature or element of any embodiment may be used in combination with or in place of any other feature or element of any other embodiment.
The present disclosure includes and contemplates combinations of features and elements known to those of ordinary skilled in the art. The disclosed embodiments, features and elements of the present disclosure may be combined with any conventional features or elements to form a unique inventive scheme defined by the claims. Any feature or element of any embodiment may also be combined with features or elements from other inventive solutions to form another unique inventive solution defined by the claims. Therefore, it should be understood that any of the features shown and discussed in the present disclosure may be implemented individually or in any suitable combination. Therefore, the embodiments are not otherwise limited except in accordance with the appended claims and equivalents thereof. In addition, various modifications and changes may be made within the protection scope of the appended claims.
Furthermore, when describing representative embodiments, the specification may have presented a method or process as a specific sequence of steps. However, to the extent that the method or the process does not depend on the specific order of steps described herein, the method or process should not be limited to the specific order of steps described. As those of ordinary skills in the art will understand, other orders of steps are also possible. Therefore, the specific order of steps set forth in the specification should not be interpreted as limiting the claims. Furthermore, the claims for the method or the process should not be limited to performing the steps in the order of its steps and those skilled in the art can easily understand that these orders may be varied but still remain within the essence and scope of the embodiments of the present disclosure.
The “first”, “second”, “third” and other ordinal numbers in the present disclosure are used to avoid confusion of constituent elements, not to provide any quantitative limitation. In the description of the present disclosure, “multiple” means two or more counts.
In the present disclosure, for the sake of convenience, wordings such as “central”, “upper”, “lower”, “front”, “rear”, “vertical”, “horizontal”, “top”, “bottom”, “inner”, “outer” and the others describing the orientations or positional relations are used to depict relations of elements with reference to the drawings, which are only for an easy and simplified description of the present disclosure, rather than for indicating or implying that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, or must be constructed and operated in a particular orientation and therefore, those wordings cannot be construed as limitations on the present disclosure. The positional relations of the constituent elements may be appropriately changed according to the direction in which constituent elements are described. Therefore, they are not limited to the wordings in the specification, and may be replaced appropriately according to the situations.
In the present disclosure, the terms “install”, “connect” and “couple” shall be understood in their broadest sense unless otherwise explicitly specified and defined. For example, a connection may be a fixed connection, or may be a detachable connection, or an integrated connection; it may be a mechanical connection, or may be an electrical connection; it may be a direct connection, or may be an indirect connection through middleware, or may be an internal connection between two elements. Those of ordinary skills in the art can understand the specific meanings of the above terms in the present disclosure according to situations.
For a current available electronic paper display apparatus, whitening of image tend to occur when displaying a black-and-white particle image, especially for a large-sized electronic paper display apparatus. Since black particles and white particles in a microcapsule have opposite electrical properties, in a display stage of the black-and-white particle image, it takes a lot of energy to simultaneously drive the white particles in microcapsules to be displayed to be closer to the display side relative to the black particles and to drive the black particles in microcapsules to be displayed to be closer to the display side relative to the white particles. When the drive capacity of the electronic paper display apparatus is insufficient, whitening of display tends to occur, affecting the user experience.
At least one embodiment of the present disclosure provides an electronic paper display apparatus and method for driving the electronic paper display apparatus, which can effectively improve the problem of whitening of display of black-and-white particle images, and further improve the display effect.
At least one embodiment of the present disclosure provides an electronic paper display apparatus including multiple microcapsules, and a first electrode and a second electrode disposed on opposite sides of at least one of the microcapsule. At least one microcapsule includes black particles and white particles, wherein electric properties of charges carried by the black particles and electric properties of charges carried by the white particles are opposite. The electronic paper display apparatus further includes a processor. The processor is configured to apply a first driving signal to a first electrode of a microcapsule to be displayed in white, and apply a second driving signal to a first electrode of a microcapsule to be displayed in black according to a black-and-white particle image to be displayed. The first driving signal includes a first sub-driving signal applied in a display stage, wherein the first sub-driving signal is configured to drive the white particles in the microcapsule to be displayed in white to be closer to a display side relative to the black particles. The second driving signal includes: a second sub-driving signal applied in the display stage, wherein the second sub-driving signal is configured to drive the black particles in the microcapsule to be displayed in black to be closer to the display side relative to the white particles. An effective voltage of the first sub-driving signal and an effective voltage of the second sub-driving signal are alternately applied in sequence.
The electronic paper display apparatus provided by the present exemplary embodiment is a black-and-white electronic paper display apparatus, wherein the black particles and the white particles encapsulated in the microcapsules keep moving under the action of an electric field generated between the first electrode and the second electrode. When white particles in a microcapsule are closer to the display side relative to black particles under the action of electric field, the ambient light will be completely reflected when irradiating on the display side and showing white. When the black particles in the microcapsule are closer to the display side relative to the white particles under the action of the electric field, the ambient light will be totally absorbed when irradiating on the display side, showing black, thus forming black-and-white display. When the black particles and the white particles in the microcapsule are mixed in proportion on the display side under the action of the electric field, colors with different gray levels can be formed on the display side. When the applied electric field is cancelled, the black particles and white particles in the microcapsule stay in their original positions, maintaining the imaging display.
In the electronic paper display apparatus provided by the present exemplary embodiment, the effective voltage of the first sub-driving signal and the effective voltage of the second sub-driving signal are alternately applied in sequence according to the black-and-white particle image to be displayed, which can alternately drive movement of the white particles in the microcapsules to be displayed in white and movement of the black particles in the microcapsules to be displayed in black in a display stage. In some examples, in the display stage, the white particles in the microcapsules to be displayed in white may be firstly driven to be closer to the display side relative to the black particles, and then the black particles in the microcapsules to be displayed in black may be driven to be closer to the display side relative to the white particles. Or, in the display stage, the black particles in the microcapsules to be displayed black are firstly driven to be closer to the display side relative to the white particles, and then the white particles in the microcapsules to be displayed white are driven to be closer to the display side relative to the black particles. However, this is not limited in the present embodiment.
The electronic paper display apparatus and a method for driving the electronic paper display apparatus according to the present embodiment will be illustrated by some examples below.
In some exemplary embodiments, as shown in
In some exemplary embodiments, as shown in
In some exemplary embodiments, second electrodes 12 corresponding to multiple microcapsules 10 may be electrically connected together. For example, the second electrodes corresponding to the multiple microcapsules may have an integrated structure. Voltage signals applied by the multiple second electrodes are the same, and the second electrodes may be called a common electrode (or Vcom electrodes), and the voltage applied to the second electrodes may be called a common voltage (or Vcom). However, this is not limited in the present embodiment. For example, the second electrodes corresponding to the multiple microcapsules may not be electrically connected together, and the voltage signals applied by the second electrodes may be either same or different. In some examples, the second electrodes may be grounded (i.e., the common voltage is 0V).
In some examples, in the display stage T1, the first sub-driving signal 011 is applied to the first electrode of the microcapsule to be display in white, so that the first electrode and a second electrode generate an electric field which drives the white particles in the microcapsule to move towards the side of the second electrode, so that the microcapsule is displayed in white near the display side. Since the white particles are negatively charged, the first sub-driving signal 011 applied to the first electrode is a negative voltage signal. An effective voltage of the first sub-driving signal 011 is a negative voltage, and the voltage value should be sufficient to drive the white particles to move.
In some examples, in the display stage T1, the second sub-driving signal 012 is applied to a first electrode of a microcapsule to be displayed in black, so that the first electrode and a second electrode generate an electric field to drive the black particles in the microcapsule to move towards the side of the second electrode, so that the microcapsule is displayed in black near the display side. Since the black particles are positively charged, the second sub-driving signal 012 applied to the first electrode is a positive voltage signal. An effective voltage of the second sub-driving signal 012 is a positive voltage, and the voltage value should be sufficient to drive the black particles to move.
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In the present exemplary embodiment, according to the black-and-white particle image to be displayed, the first sub-driving signal is applied to the first electrode of the microcapsule to be display in white and the second sub-driving signal is applied to the first electrode of microcapsules to be displayed in black in the display stage T1, and the effective voltages of the first sub-driving signal and the second sub-driving signal are alternately applied in sequence. For example, in the display stage, the white particles in the microcapsule to be displayed in white are firstly driven to be closer to the display side relative to black particles, and then the black particles in the microcapsule to be displayed in black may be driven to be closer to the display side relative to the white particles. Or, the black particles in the microcapsule to be displayed in black are firstly driven to be closer to the display side relative to the white particles, and then the white particles in the microcapsule to be displayed in white are driven to be closer to the display side relative to the black particles. The driving method of the present exemplary embodiment can effectively improve the problem of whitening of display of black-and-white particle images, and further improve the display effect.
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In this example, in a process of applying the first voltage, the white particles in microcapsules will move to the display side, so the first common voltage (i.e. zero voltage for a period of time) is applied after the first voltage is applied, and the white particles will move to the display side for a period of time due to inertia. In this way, the white particles can be more easily moved to the display side, improving the white display effect. In a process of applying the second voltage, the black particles in microcapsules will move to the display side, so the second common voltage (i.e. zero voltage for a period of time) is applied after the second voltage is applied, and the black particles will move to the display side for a period of time due to inertia. In this way, the black particles can be more easily moved to the display side, improving the black display effect.
In this example, when displaying the black-and-white particle image to be displayed, the white particles in the microcapsules to be displayed in white are driven twice and the black particles in the microcapsules to be displayed in black are driven twice, and the white particles and the black particles are driven alternately in turn, which can effectively improve the display effect.
Other implementations of the driving method according to the present exemplary embodiment may be referred to the description of the previous embodiment and will not be repeated here.
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The implementation of the driving waveform in a display stage in the present exemplary embodiment may be referred to the description of the corresponding embodiment in
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In the present exemplary embodiment, through the shaking stage, the black particles and the white particles in each microcapsule can be fully separated and uniformly mixed, which contributes to their swift and accurate movement in the display stage, thereby improving the display effect.
The implementation of the driving waveform in the balance stage and the display stage in the present exemplary embodiment may be referred to the description of the corresponding embodiment in
In some exemplary embodiments, a adjustment frequency adopted in the driving process of the electronic paper display apparatus may be, for example, 30 Hz to 35 Hz. By changing the adjustment frequency, waveform frequencies in the balance stage, the shaking stage and the display stage can be adjusted. Increasing the adjustment frequency can improve the display clarity, and the picture refresh time can be shortened, further improving the display effect.
In some exemplary embodiments, during an adjustment process of an electronic paper display apparatus, at a certain temperature section (e.g., normal temperature section), issues such as mura, font blur, and afterimage may be observed by human eyes according to the detection specification. After confirming that the electronic paper display apparatus has no issues such as mura, font blur, and afterimage, a problem of whitening of display of the black-and-white particle image can be detected. Once a problem of whitening of display of the black-and-white particle image is observed, the processor of the electronic paper display apparatus may adopt the driving method provided in the present embodiment to drive the electronic paper display apparatus to display a black-and-white particle image. After normal display of the black-and-white particle image is confirmed by human eyes, the electronic paper display apparatus can be adjusted in a next temperature section (for example, high temperature section) with reference to a detection mode of the current temperature section.
At least one embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a method for driving an electronic paper display apparatus. The electronic paper display apparatus includes: multiple microcapsules, and a first electrode and a second electrode disposed on opposite sides of at least one of the microcapsules. The at least one microcapsule includes black particles and white particles, wherein electric properties of charges carried by the black particles and electric properties of charges carried by the white particles are opposite. The driving method according to this embodiment includes: applying a first driving signal to a first electrode of a microcapsule to be displayed in white, and applying a second driving signal to a first electrode of a microcapsule to be displayed in black according to a black-and-white particle image to be displayed. The first driving signal includes a first sub-driving signal applied in a display stage, wherein the first sub-driving signal is configured to drive the white particles in the microcapsule to be displayed in white to be closer to a display side relative to the black particles. The second driving signal includes a second sub-driving signal applied in the display stage, wherein the second sub-driving signal is configured to drive the black particles in the microcapsule to be displayed in black to be closer to the display side relative to the white particles. An effective voltage of the first sub-driving signal and an effective voltage of the second sub-driving signal are alternately applied in sequence.
In some exemplary embodiments, the effective voltage of the first sub-driving signal and the effective voltage of the second sub-driving signal have a same absolute value and opposite electrical properties. For example, the first sub-driving signal is a negative voltage signal and the second sub-driving signal is a positive voltage signal. However, this is not limited in the present embodiment.
In some exemplary embodiments, the first sub-driving signal includes at least one first pulse unit. The second sub-driving signal includes at least one second pulse unit. The at least one first pulse unit corresponds to the at least one second pulse unit in one-to-one correspondence. The number of the first pulse units of the first sub-driving signal is consistent with the number of the second pulse units of the second sub-driving signal.
In some exemplary embodiments, each first pulse unit includes a first voltage and a first common voltage which are sequentially applied. Each second pulse unit includes a second voltage and a second common voltage which are sequentially applied, wherein the first voltage and the second voltage have opposite electrical properties. The first voltage is equal to the effective voltage of the first sub-driving signal, and the second voltage is equal to the effective voltage of the second sub-driving signal. The first voltage and the second common voltage have a same application duration, and the first common voltage and the second voltage have a same application duration. For example, the first voltage is a negative voltage and the second voltage is a positive voltage. However, this is not limited in the present embodiment.
In some exemplary embodiments, the first voltage and the second voltage have a same application duration. However, this is not limited in the present embodiment. For example, the application duration of the first voltage and the application duration of the second voltage may be different.
In some exemplary embodiments, the first sub-driving signal includes N first pulse units, and the second sub-driving signal includes N second pulse units, wherein N is an integer greater than 1. An end moment of the first voltage of the n-th first pulse unit is a start moment of the second voltage of a corresponding n-th second pulse unit, and an end moment of the second voltage of the n-th second pulse unit a the start moment of the first voltage of the (n+1)-th first pulse unit, wherein n is an integer greater than 0 and less than N. However, this is not limited in the present embodiment. For example, zero voltage may be applied for a period of time during the alternation of the first pulse units and the second pulse units.
In some exemplary embodiments, the first driving signal further includes a third sub-driving signal applied in a balance stage before a display stage, and the second driving signal further includes a fourth sub-driving signal applied in the balance stage before the display stage. An product of an absolute value of an effective voltage of the third sub-driving signal and an application duration thereof is equal to a product of an absolute value of an effective voltage of a fourth sub-driving signal and an application duration thereof. The effective voltage of the third sub-driving signal and the effective voltage of the fourth sub-driving signal have a same absolute value and opposite electrical properties.
In some exemplary embodiments, the effective voltage of the third sub-driving signal and an effective voltage of the first sub-driving signal have opposite electrical properties. The effective voltage of the fourth sub-driving signal and an effective voltage of the second sub-driving signal have opposite electrical properties.
In some exemplary embodiments, the first driving signal further includes a fifth sub-driving signal applied in a shaking stage between a display stage and a balance stage. The second driving signal further includes a sixth sub-driving signal applied in the shaking stage between the display stage and the balance stage. The fifth sub-driving signal and the sixth sub-driving signal each include pulse signals with alternating positive and negative voltages.
In some exemplary embodiments, absolute values of effective voltages of the first sub-driving signal, the second sub-driving signal, the third sub-driving signal, the fourth sub-driving signal, the fifth sub-driving signal and the sixth sub-driving signal are all the same. In other words, heights of the driving waveforms in the balance stage, the shaking stage and the display stage according to the present exemplary embodiment are the same.
Relevant implementations of the driving method according to the present embodiment can be referred to the description of the aforementioned embodiment and will not be repeated here.
At least one embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium on which a computer program is stored. When the program is executed by a processor, the method for driving the electronic paper display apparatus provided in any of the aforementioned embodiments is implemented.
Those of ordinary skill in the art may understand that all or some of the steps in the method, the system, and functional modules/units in the apparatus disclosed above may be implemented as software, firmware, hardware, and an appropriate combination thereof. In a hardware implementation, the division between functional modules/units mentioned in the above description does not necessarily correspond to the division of physical components. For example, a physical component may have multiple functions, or a function or a step may be performed by several physical components in cooperation. Some or all of the components may be implemented as software executed by a processor, such as a digital signal processor or a microprocessor, or as hardware, or as an integrated circuit, such as an application specific integrated circuit. Such software may be distributed on a computer readable medium, which may include a computer storage medium (or a non-transitory medium) and a communication medium (or a transitory medium). As is well known to those of ordinary skill in the art, the term “computer storage medium” includes volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storing information (such as computer readable instructions, a data structure, a program module or other data). Computer storage media include, but are not limited to, random access memories (RAMs), read only memories (ROMs), electrically erasable programmable ROMs (EEPROMs), flash memories or other memory technologies, compact disc-ROMs (CD-ROMs), Digital Versatile Disks (DVDs) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tapes, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other media that may be used to store desired information and may be accessed by a computer. Furthermore, it is well known to those of ordinary skill in the art that the communication medium typically contains computer readable instructions, a data structure, a program module, or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier or another transmission mechanism, or the like, and may include any information delivery medium.
Although the embodiments disclosed in the present disclosure are as described above, the described contents are only the embodiments for facilitating understanding of the present disclosure, which are not intended to limit the present disclosure. Any person skilled in the art to which the present disclosure pertains may make any modifications and variations in the form and details of implementation without departing from the essence and scope of the present disclosure. Nevertheless, the scope of patent protection of the present disclosure shall still be determined by the scope defined by the appended claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 202011344707.6 | Nov 2020 | CN | national |
