Patent Application
20160071466
The disclosure relates to a method for controlling a display and, more particularly, to a method for controlling a display to partially power on.
With the development of mobile technology, mobile devices, such as smart phones or tablets, have become more and more important in people's daily life. A mobile device is usually powered by a built-in battery. Due to the nature of the mobile device, the capacity of the built-in battery is often compromised to, for example, achieve better mobility. Therefore, power consumption needs to be taken into consideration when designing a mobile device.
A mobile device is equipped with a display screen to display information or contents. Usually, a fair amount of power is consumed by the display screen. Sometimes, for example, the display screen may consume about 70%-80% of the total power of the mobile device. Therefore, a battery life of the mobile device is often affected by the display screen. In the conventional technology, when the mobile device needs to display a piece of information or certain contents, the entire display screen needs to be powered on. Sometimes, the information or content that needs to be displayed only occupies a small portion of the display screen, and thus the rest of the display screen is not utilized but still consumes power. As a result, a lot of power is wasted, and the battery life of the mobile device is reduced.
To reduce the power consumption by a display screen, a mobile device may provide an option to reduce the brightness of the entire display screen. However, reducing the brightness may also reduce the readability of the contents displayed on the display screen, and thus affects the user experience.
In accordance with the disclosure, there is provided a method for controlling a display screen. The method includes receiving information to be displayed on the display screen, determining a required display area that is needed to display the information according to the information, and controlling the display screen to partially power on according to the required display area.
Also in accordance with the disclosure, there is provided an electronic device. The electronic device includes a display screen and a controller. The controller is configured to receive information to be displayed on the display screen, determine, according to the information, a required display area that is needed to display the information, and control the display screen to partially power on according to the required display area.
Features and advantages consistent with the disclosure will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the disclosure. Such features and advantages will be realized and attained by means of the elements and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention, as claimed.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate several embodiments of the invention and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
Embodiments consistent with the disclosure include a method for controlling a display to partially power on.
Hereinafter, embodiments consistent with the disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.
The display screen 102 is configured to display information or contents, and may be, for example, an LCD screen, an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) (such as a passive-matrix OLED (PMOLED) or an active-matrix OLED (AMOLED)) screen, or an e-ink screen. In some embodiments, the display screen 102 includes a touch screen. The display screen 102 may be turned on and off manually, and may automatically enter into an off state from an on state when the mobile device 100 has been idle for a certain period of time.
The control button 104 may be a mechanical button. A user may press on the control button 104 to input a control command, such as turning on the display screen 102, to the mobile device 100. In some embodiments, the control button 104 may include a touch sensor, configured to generate the control command when sensing a touch. The control button 104 may include other sensors to receive various signals. In some embodiments, a finger-print reader may be integrated in the control button 104.
The power button 106 is configured to turn on and off the mobile device 100. For example, the mobile device 100 may be turned on and off by pressing and holding the power button 106 for a certain period of time. In some embodiments, a single pressing on the power button 106 may also turn on and off the display screen 102.
The display controller 112 may include various control units that control different components of the display screen. For example, the display screen 102 includes a plurality of display units arranged in an array, each of which may be individually controlled to turn on and off. By controlling the on and off of the display units and the amount of light emitting from the display units, an image can be displayed. To control the display units, the display controller 112 may include a timing control unit that generates control signals to be applied to the display units. In some embodiments, the display units of the display screen 102 do not generate light themselves, but rather can allow light to pass through. In this scenario, the display screen 102 also includes a backlight panel for generating light, and the display controller 112 further includes a backlight control unit to control the operation of the backlight panel.
Consistent with the present disclosure, whether the entire display screen 102 needs to be turned on may depend on how much display area is needed to display the information. For example, when the mobile device 100 receives an incoming call while the display screen 102 is in the off state, besides outputting a ringing or vibration, the mobile device 100 may also need to display at least one of a phone number or a contact name that is associated with the incoming call on the display screen 102. That is, the mobile device 100 receives a triggering signal to display a piece of information—at least one of the phone number or the contact name. The mobile device 100 determines that only a small portion, such as about 10% or even less, of the entire display screen 102 is needed to display the phone number and/or the contact name. As a result, only the portion of the display screen 102 that is needed to display the phone number and/or contact name is turned on to display such information to the user. The rest of the display screen 102 is kept off.
In the example described above, an incoming call is used as an example of an event that is independent of the user's concurrent operation. In the present disclosure, such an event is also referred to as a “passive event.” Besides the incoming call, the passive event may also be, for example, an incoming text message, a calendar reminder, or a notification message from an app installed on the mobile device 100.
Besides the passive event, an active event may also trigger the partially turning on of the display screen 102. In the present disclosure, an active event refers to an event resulting from the user's operation. Different predetermined information may be associated with different user operations. For example, when the user press on the control button 104 or the power button 106 for one time while the display screen 102 is in the off state, the mobile device 100 determines that a piece of predetermined information, such as time, a virtual key pad, a sliding bar for turning on the mobile device, needs to be displayed according to this operation. Thus, as shown in
Consistent with the present disclosure, the CPU 110 receives and analyzes the information. According to the information, the CPU 110 generates a CPU signal and sends it to the display controller 112, which then controls the operation of the display screen 102 according to the CPU signal.
In some embodiments, the display screen 102 includes a backlight-lit LCD, such as a light-emitting diode (LED) lit LCD. In such a display screen, backlight sources, such as LEDs, may be arranged as an array behind an LCD panel. Liquid-crystal (LC) cells in the LCD panel can be turned on and off to allow light to pass through or prevent light from passing through. In this scenario, the display controller 112 includes the backlight control unit configured to individually control the backlight sources. That is, instead of turning on and off all the backlight sources simultaneously, the backlight control unit may be configured to turn on and off each individual backlight source separately. In some embodiments, the backlight sources may be divided into several groups, each of which includes multiple backlight sources. The backlight control unit may also be configured to turn on and off each individual group separately.
Consistent with the present disclosure, according to the controlling signal from the CPU 110, the backlight control unit operates to turn on the backlight sources of the backlight units (the backlight units 402 in
In an LCD display, each LC cell in the LCD panel may be controlled by one or more thin-film transistors (TFTs). In some embodiments, instead of or in addition to partially turning on the backlight sources, the display controller 112 may also control to partially turn on the LC cells by individually controlling the on and off of the TFTs.
According to the present disclosure, the LCD panel 400C may include additional components not shown in
Consistent with the present disclosure, according to the controlling signal from the CPU 110, the timing control unit operates to only provide signals to the TFTs 414 in a first portion 418 of the LCD panel 400C but not the TFTs 414 in a second portion 420 of the LCD panel 400C. As such, the LC cells 416 in the first portion 418 of the LCD panel 400C are turned on while the LC cells 416 in the second portion 420 of the LCD panel 400C are kept off. The first portion 418 of the LCD panel 400C corresponds to the portion of the display screen 102 that needs to be turned on to display information, such as the portion 102-1 in
The above scheme of partially turning on LC cells applies to an LCD display screen that does not have a plurality of backlight sources, an LCD display screen having backlight source(s) arranged at one or more sides of the LCD panel, or an LCD display screen having backlight sources arranged in an array across the LCD panel. Since turning on an LC cell may require applying a voltage across the LC cell and thus consumes power, keeping off the LC cells that are not needed for displaying information also reduces the power consumption by the display screen 102.
In some embodiments, the display screen 102 includes an AMOLED panel. An AMOLED panel includes a plurality of OLEDs arranged in an array. Each OLED can be individually controlled to emit light.
Consistent with the present disclosure, according to the controlling signal from the CPU 110, the timing control unit operates to provide signals to the TFTs 508 in a first portion 512 of the AMOLED panel 500, but not the TFTs 508 in a second portion 514 of the AMOLED panel 500. As such, the OLEDs 510 in the first portion 512 of the AMOLED panel 500 are turned on, while the OLEDs 510 in the second portion 514 of the AMOLED panel 500 are kept off. The first portion 512 of the AMOLED panel 500 corresponds to the portion of the display screen 102 that needs to be turned on to display information, such as the portion 102-1 in
It is noted that the AMOLED units 502 shown in
In some embodiments, the display screen 102 includes an e-ink panel. An e-ink panel includes a plurality of pixels arranged in an array. Each pixel can be individually controlled to reflect light of different colors.
As shown in
Consistent with the present disclosure, according to the controlling signal from the CPU 110, the display controller 112 operates to apply voltages to the electrodes in a first portion 606 of the e-ink panel 600, and not to the electrodes in a second portion 608 of the e-ink panel 600. The first portion 606 corresponds to the portion of the display screen 102 that needs to be turned on to display information, such as the portion 102-1 in
It is noted that the e-ink panel 600 shown in
Consistent with the present disclosure, the mobile device 100 may also include a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, such as a memory, that stores data for supporting the operation of the mobile device 100. The storage medium is coupled to the CPU 110 and/or the display controller 112, and stores instructions that cause the mobile device 100 to, for example, operate in consistence with embodiments of the present disclosure. For example, the instructions may cause the CPU 110 and/or the display controller 112 to execute methods consistent with embodiments of the present disclosure, such as those described above. The storage medium may include, for example, a volatile or a non-volatile memory device, or a combination thereof, such as a static random access memory (SRAM), a read-only memory (ROM), a programmable read-only memory (PROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a magnetic memory, a flash memory, or a magnetic or optical disk.
Other embodiments of the present disclosure will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the invention disclosed herein. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the invention being indicated by the following claims.
This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from Provisional Application No. 62/046,887, filed on Sep. 5, 2014, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62046887 | Sep 2014 | US |
