Patent Application
20090029740
The present invent ion relates to a mobile telephone terminal, a screen display control method used for the same, and a program thereof, in particular, setting a gamma characteristic of an image to be displayed on a screen of a mobile telephone terminal.
Mobile telephone terminals have been including more functions other than calling, such as e-mailing, shooting with a camera, browsing, and the like, and display images to be displayed on those screens (display devices) have been more variable. Meanwhile, users have been requiring higher quality for a display function of the mobile telephone terminals.
However, a conventional mobile telephone terminal is capable of corresponding to only one display setting as a display function, while there are various types of images, such as character information for an e-mail, a people display image and a landscape display image shot by a camera, a mixture display image including a browsed character and image together, and the like. Also, with respect, to the various types of images, only a common display setting is assigned to gamma characteristic at an innocuous level.
For a conventional mobile information apparatus, there is a method is proposed (refer to Patent Document 1, for example), in which luminance information is detected from image information, and gradation of the image information is calibrated in accordance with the detected luminance information, so that a user can visually recognize an image display with ease.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-051967
However, the aforementioned conventional mobile telephone terminal can respond only one display setting as the display function, and only a common display setting is assigned to the gamma characteristic at the innocuous level. Therefore, there is a problem in display performance to deal with various types of display images. Further, preference of uses has become diversified into a bright image, a reddish image, a sharp image, or the like. Therefore, customizing a display setting has been another problem.
In other words, the conventional mobile telephone terminal has the display function in which a gamma characteristic in the display device is set in accordance with only one display setting in each device. Because a common display setting is assigned to the gamma characteristic at an innocuous level with respect to each of a character image, a people linage, a landscape image, and the like, an optimal value cannot be set with respect to each of various display images, which has been a problem in the display performance. Further, the display setting cannot be customized depending on preference of a user, which cannot satisfy the user's needs.
According to the technique mentioned in Patent Document 1, the object is to enhance visibility of an image to be displayed on a color LCD which is used as a display section of the mobile telephone. Therefore, it cannot solve the problem to realize the display setting respect to various display images such as a character image, a people image, a landscape image, and the like.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a mobile telephone terminal, a screen display control method used for the same, and a program thereof, which are capable of solving the previously mentioned problems, optimizing a gamma characteristic in display setting depending on an image to be displayed, and displaying an image with a higher quality, based on the user's taste.
A mobile telephone terminal according to the present invention capable of displaying at least character information and image information on a display device includes a setting unit for setting a gamma characteristic in response to a type of data to be displayed on the display device.
A screen display control method, according to the present invention, is the method used for a mobile telephone terminal capable of displaying at least character information and image information on a display device, and the method includes executing a setting processing for setting a gamma characteristic in response to a type of data to be displayed on the display device by either the mobile telephone terminal or the display device,
A program for a screen display control method, according to the present invention, is the program used for a mobile telephone terminal capable of displaying at least character information and image information on a display device, the program allows a computer to execute a setting processing for setting a gamma characteristic in response to a type of data to be displayed on the display device.
In other words, the mobile telephone terminal according to the present .invention includes a display setting function capable of selecting a setting value for a gamma characteristic depending on image data to be displayed (such as the character information, a people image, a landscape image, and the like), and the display setting function includes an automatic setting in accordance with image data to be displayed and a customization setting by a user, for setting the gamma characteristic.
Accordingly, in the mobile telephone terminal according to the present invention, a gamma characteristic can be set optimally depending on an image to be displayed, and a higher quality display, which is based on the user's taste, can be achieved.
More specifically, in the mobile telephone terminal according to the present invention, a setting value for a previously prepared gamma characteristic is optimized automatically, or in accordance with user selection, with respect to variable images to be displayed on a screen, such as character information like an e-mail, a people display image and a landscape display image of camera images, a mixture display image including browsed character and image, and the like. Thus, higher quality display performance, which is based on the user's taste, can be achieved.
Further, in the mobile telephone terminal according to the present invention, the display screen may be divided into a plurality of screens and gamma characteristics may be optimised to he set for each divided, display screen. Moreover, in the mobile telephone terminal according to the present, invention, even if the terminal is used outdoors, the setting value of the previously prepared gamma characteristic can be customized depending on an environment by the automatic setting or the user selection.
As above, in the mobile telephone terminal according to the present invention, a gamma characteristic is set in an optimal value depending on an image to be displayed. Thus, higher quality display performance can be achieved. Further, in the mobile telephone terminal according to the present invention, the display setting for an image to be displayed can be customised by a user. Thus, the display quality, which is based on the user's taste, can be achieved. Furthermore, in the mobile telephone terminal according to the present invention, a gamma characteristic is set in an optimal value for each image to be displayed depending on a usage environment. Thus, higher quality display performance can be achieved.
According to the present invention, having the aforementioned construction and operation, the gamma characteristics in the display setting can be opt liaised depending on an image to be displayed. Thus, the higher quality and user preferable display can be realized.
Next, exemplary embodiments of the invention will be explained with reference to the drawings.
The wireless communication section 12 is connected to the antenna II for usual voice communication, and the like, and communicates with a base station (unillustrated) for the usual voice communication, and the like. The operation section 15 includes various keys, such as a dial key, an arrow key, and the like. The memory 16 stores information, such as setting information and inside information (an address book, for example), a program to be executed by the CPU 13, and the like. The memory 16 also stores image recognition software for recognizing display image data.
The display device 18 is a device such as an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), and the like, for displaying the character information, a people image, a landscape image, or a mixture image including character and image, which are in the image memory 19, in accordance with control and drive by the display device driver 17. The gamma characteristic setting table 20 previously stores a gamma characteristic with respect to an image pattern recognised by the above image recognition software, and the like.
The gamma characteristic can be set by either or both of an automatic setting depending on an image pattern to be displayed and a manual setting capable of customisation by a user, and can be set for respective R, G, B independently, or R, G, B all together. Further, in the mobile telephone terminal 1, a display screen of the display device 18 may be divided into a plurality of screens, and each function may be divided to be processed separately so as to set an optimal gamma characteristic for each display screen.
The gamma characteristics is a characteristic showing luminance with respect to a gradation. When a horizontal axis indicates the gradations and a vertical axis indicates the luminance, the gamma characteristics is not shown only by an upward sloped line, but also by an S-curve, and the like, which shows the fine adjustment, being performed, depending on an image pattern to be displayed. The gamma characteristics can be set for R, G, B independently, and the gamma characteristics sometimes corrects a color and a gradation characteristic peculiar to a display device, too.
Therefore, specifically, in a case of character information such as an e-mail, the gamma characteristics is set to be exhibited almost in the S-curve, as an above described gamma characteristic setting value, so as to distinguish clearly between a character and a background, for enhancing visibility of the character. In a case of a people image, a gamma characteristic is set so that an intermediate gradation can be exactly realized and that skin color and the like can be displayed clearly.
In a case where an image is displayed in the mobile telephone terminal i according to the first exemplary embodiment of the invention, a flow, in which display image data is recognized, a gamma characteristic with respect to the recognized image pattern is set, and an image is displayed with the set gamma characteristic, will be explained sequentially a
Firstly, the recognition of display image data will be explained. Images to be displayed in the mobile telephone terminal 1 are variable, which are, for example, the character information such as an e-mail and the like, a people display image and a landscape display image of the camera images, a mixture display image including browsed character and image, and the like. According to the exemplary embodiment, with respect to those variable images, what type of an image is being displayed on the display screen is determined by the CPU 13.
Operation of the mobile telephone terminal 1 is configured to be hierarchized, from a large classification to a small classification using a menu. Contents to be displayed are roughly determined depending on each menu item, so that display images for each menu item can be assumed in some extent. Accordingly, when a menu item is selected, image patterns can be classified into several kinds.
For example, in a case with an e-mail, a large portion thereof is the character information and it is classified into a character image pattern, in a case with data from the camera 14, a large portion thereof is the shot image and it is classified into a certain image pattern. However, it cannot be identified usually whether the data from the camera 14 represents a people image or a landscape image. Therefore, information for identifying the type of the image pattern may be added to the data in advance when the data is stored. Further, image information may be added automatically or manually to an image downloaded by a communication function of the mobile telephone terminal 1.
Next, setting a gamma characteristic which is optimal with respect to the recognized image pattern will be explained. A gamma characteristic which is optimal with respect to the recognized image pattern mar be set by performing the automatic setting or the user preference setting. When setting an optimal gamma characteristic automatically, optimal gamma characteristics are previously assigned to a plurality of image patterns, and the recognized image pattern is compared with those image patterns described above so as to select a gamma characteristic.
The gamma characteristic setting table 20 stores the optimal gamma characteristics previously assigned to the plurality of image patterns. The CPU 13 reads out a gamma characteristic corresponding to the image pattern which is recognized by executing the image recognition software or the like, from the gamma characteristic setting table 20, and set. In this case, the gamma characteristics can be set optimally with respect to R, G, B independently, as described above, so that color can be adjusted to make a reddish image, and the like.
Finally, displaying an image with the set gamma characteristic on a display device will be explained. The set gamma characteristic is realized by correcting the display image data with the software processing in the CPU 13, or by correcting the display image data with hardware in the display device driver 17.
That is, in the case where the above gamma characteristic setting processing is to be performed, when an image to be displayed is selected by selecting each menu item (Step S1 in
If the automatic setting is checked in advance in the menu items for display setting, the CPU 13 determines that the display setting is performed by the automatic setting (an automatic setting mode), and executes the image recognition software and the like so as to recognize a selected image (Step S3 in
On the other hand, when the manual setting is checked in advance in the menu items for display setting, the CPU 13 determines that the customization setting is to be performed for the display setting (a customization setting mode), and controls the display device driver 17 so that the display device 18 displays a specification screen for image types, such as the one shown in
As described, according to the exemplary embodiment, the gamma characteristics is set optimally depending on an image to be displayed in the mobile telephone terminal 1. Thus, higher quality display performance can be achieved. Further, according to the present invention, a user customises the display setting for an image to be displayed. Thus, a display quality preferable for the user can be achieved.
When the display image data is divided into a plurality of sections, as described above, display images are recognised in the mobile telephone terminal 1 at each display screen area 18a, 18b respectively, and optimal gamma characteristics are set respectively as well as the gamma characteristic setting processing described above. For example, when a browser is displayed, an image and a text are recognized and optimal gamma characteristics are set in the display areas 18a and 18b respectively.
Accordingly, in the exemplary embodiment, higher quality display performance can be achieved at each of the plurality of display areas 18a and 18b. In addition, since a user can customize the display setting for an image to be displayed on each of the plurality of display areas 18a and 18b, display quality preferable for the user can be achieved, at each plural area 18a and 18b. In the case where a browser is displayed, an image and a text are recognised respectively so that optimal gamma characteristics can be set at each display area.
That is, in the case where the gamma characteristic setting processing described above is to be performed, an operation item is selected from the menu (Step S11 in
The CUP 13 reads out a setting content for a gamma characteristic corresponding to the recognized result of the image identification information from the gamma characteristic setting table 20 (Step S14 in
On the other hand, when the selected, operation item is for an e-mail or searching a browser (Step S12 in
As described, according to the present invention, the gamma characteristics is set optimally for each image (the character information, a people image, a landscape image, a mixture display image including a character and an image) which is displayed in response to a selected operation item. Thus, higher quality display performance can be held.
The illuminance sensor 21 is a device for detecting illuminance information of outside light, which can be arranged inside or outside the display device 18. According to the exemplary embodiment, a gamma characteristic is set so as to be able to view an image easily in strong outside light, by detecting the illuminance information of outside light using the illuminance sensor 21. Accordingly, in the exemplary embodiment, the gamma characteristics are set optimally for each display image with respect to the usage environment (indoors, outdoors, or the like), and higher quality display performance can be achieved.
In a case where the terminal is used outdoors, and when the illuminance information is in the range between the prescribed values 1 and 2, a gamma characteristic is set to emphasise contrast, for preventing degradation of visibility caused by the outside light. In this case, the illuminance sensor 21 is provided so that the gamma characteristic is automatically set in accordance with the outside light (the illuminance information) detected by the illuminance sensor 21, However, the gamma characteristic can be also set manually by a user for improving the visibility in the outside light. Further, when the illuminance information is equal to or more than the prescribed value 2, a gamma characteristic may be set so as to emphasize the contrast more.
In the CPU 13 of the mobile telephone terminal 1, when the gamma characteristic setting processing above is performed, and if an image to be displayed is selected (Step S21 in
If the automatic setting is previously checked in the menu for the display setting, the CPU 13 determines that the display setting is to be performed by the automatic setting (the automatic setting mode), and executes the above image recognition software and the like so as to recognize the selected image (Step S23 in
On the other hand, if the manual setting is previously checked in the menu for the display setting, the CPU 13 determines that the display setting is to be performed by the customization setting (the customization setting mode), and controls the display device driver 17 so that the display device 18 displays the specification screen for specifying the type of the image as shown in
Next, when the illuminance information detected by the illuminance sensor 21 is equal to or less than the above prescribed value (Step S26 in
When the illuminance information detected by the illuminance sensor 21 is equal to the above prescribed value or more (Step S26 in
As described, according to the present invention, the gamma characteristics are set optimally at each image to be displayed with respect to the usage environment (indoors, outdoors, or the like). Thus, higher quality display performance can be achieved.
The present invention is not limited to each of the above described exemplary embodiments. Each exemplary embodiment can be combined to be conducted.
While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, the invention is not limited to these embodiments. It will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the claims.
This applications is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from Japanese patent applications No. 2006-054257, filed on Mar. 1, 2006, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
1, 1a MOBILE TELEPHONE TERMINAL
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006-054257 | Mar 2006 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2007/053624 | 2/27/2007 | WO | 00 | 9/2/2008 |
