The exemplary and non-limiting embodiments of this invention relate generally to electronic displays and more specifically to improving quality of an observed image (e.g., eliminating parallax, increasing contrast under dim conditions) in transflective displays, while minimizing power consumption.
The following abbreviations that may be found in the specification and/or the drawing figures are defined as follows:
Image quality (e.g., no parallax, high contrast) in the observed image in electronic displays (e.g., transflective displays) as well as minimization of the power consumption are important areas for improvement of display performance.
According to a first aspect of the invention, a method comprising: measuring at least one of ambient light illuminance, ambient light diffusivity and an ambient light white point of ambient light incident on a transflective display having an upper display operating in a reflective mode; creating at least one complimentary image based on the at least one of the measured ambient light illuminance and the measured ambient light diffusivity and ambient light white point; and lighting up selected pixels in a lower display of the transflective display, using the at least one complimentary image.
According to a second aspect of the invention, an apparatus comprising: at least one processor and a memory storing a set of computer instructions, in which the processor and the memory storing the computer instructions are configured to cause the apparatus to: measure at least one of ambient light illuminance, ambient light diffusivity and an ambient light white point of ambient light incident on a transflective display having an upper display operating in a reflective mode; create at least one complimentary image based on the at least one of the measured ambient light illuminance and the measured ambient light diffusivity and ambient light white point; and light up selected pixels in a lower display of the transflective display, using the at least one complimentary image.
According to a third aspect of the invention, a non-transitory computer readable memory encoded with a computer program comprising computer readable instructions recorded thereon for execution of a method comprising: measuring at least one of ambient light illuminance, ambient light diffusivity and an ambient light white point of ambient light incident on a transflective display having an upper display operating in a reflective mode; creating at least one complimentary image based on the at least one of the measured ambient light illuminance and the measured ambient light diffusivity and ambient light white point; and lighting up selected pixels in a lower display of the transflective display, using the at least one complimentary image.
For a better understanding of the nature and objects of the present invention, reference is made to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the following drawings, in which:
a and 1b are diagrams of displays demonstrating observed image without parallax (
a-5c are diagrams of a dual-image plane transflective display in a reflective mode with parallax (
By way of introduction, dual-image plane transflective displays comprising an upper transmissive/reflective display and a lower emissive/transmissive display with a non-zero reflectance, acting as a reflector of the upper display, 10b and 10, shown in corresponding
This parallax problem has been addressed in reflective and transflective LCDs by locating the reflector 12b inside the liquid crystal next to the reflective image plane 11 of the display 10a in
Moreover, in the transflective OLEDs (e.g., see PCT Patent Application Publication WO2011107826A1), or other dual image-plane transflective display with a reflecting lower emissive/transmissive display, parallax may be reduced by reducing the substrate thicknesses of the upper display and lower display substrates. This also applies to the case of a transparent OLED laminated on top of a reflective display, i.e., a reverse transflective OLED (e.g., see US Patent Application Publication US2011267279A1). The OLEDs can be encapsulated by a thin film instead of a thicker glass, and they will hence not contribute to the parallax. However, the bottom substrate is always thicker and hence contributes to the parallax in the reverse transflective OLED case.
The parallax by the LCD may be reduced by making the LCD substrate thinner However, thinner glass substrates would make the display more fragile. Plastic substrates are thin and durable but they cannot withstand the temperatures necessary for depositing, e.g., ITO electrodes. Also making the LCD directly on top of the OLED is not possible since the process temperature of the LCD is higher than what the OLED layers can withstand.
Furthermore, readability in the reflective mode of the transflective displays may be low because the luminance of the reflected ambient light is insufficient. Illuminating the entire background or replicating the image of the upper display by the lower emissive/transmissive display provides the necessary luminance and contrast but increases the power consumption, particularly if the background is white.
Transmissive LCDs, emissive displays such as conventional OLEDs, or transflective OLEDs in an emissive mode (all LCD pixels switched to black) achieve readability under ambient light by increasing the emissive luminance. This increases power consumption, particularly for a text with positive polarity (dark text on bright background), the preferred polarity for long reading tasks such as E-books and web pages. The number ratio between dark and bright pixels on a typical E-book page (see
In the transflective mode of a dual image-plane transflective display, the lower display shows the same image as in the emissive mode but at a lower luminance since the background luminance is the sum of the luminance of the emitted light and of the reflected ambient light. Although the luminance of the emitted light can be lower compared to the emissive case for achieving the same contrast in ambient light, the number of bright pixels is the same. To reduce the number of bright pixels, the image polarity can be reversed, i.e. bright text on a dark background as shown in
It is noted that for the purpose of this invention the term “light” identifies a visible part of the optical spectrum.
A new method, apparatus, and software related product (e.g., a computer readable memory) are presented for improving quality (e.g., eliminating parallax and/or increasing contrast) of an observed image in displays (e.g., transflective displays) in a reflective mode by creating at least one complimentary image based on measurements of ambient light illuminance and/or diffusivity, as well as minimizing the power necessary to achieve readability in low ambient light.
In a first embodiment the parallax (shadow) image may be inverted and displayed on the emissive/transmissive display to cancel the parallax image as demonstrated in
a-5c show diagrams of a dual-image plane transflective display 20 in the reflective mode with parallax in
An emissive/transmissive display image plane 21 (a lower display) shown in
The emissive/transmissive display pixels 23 below the non-white pixels 15 of the reflective display 11 are black (not blurred). These emissive/transmissive display pixels coincide with the non-parallaxed shadow on the emissive/transmissive display image plane 21 as shown in
This parallax image of the emissive/transmissive display image plane 21 may be calculated from the measured ambient light illuminance, emissive/transmissive display reflectance (known for the spectral region of interest), and a Gaussian blurred reflective display image. The amount of Gaussian blur depends on the distance between the reflective planes 11 and 21 and the spatial distribution of the ambient light. The latter can be estimated from the type of light source which in turn can be determined from the ratio(s) of the at least two spectral channels of the ambient light sensor (ALS). The emissive/transmissive display emitter in this example is always in the same plane as the reflector since it is the emissive/transmissive display metal electrodes or other reflecting structures that can act as reflectors.
The image 31 in
a-5c show schematic implementation for one pixel parallax. However, for higher resolutions and/or larger incident angle of the directed ambient light, the parallax shadow may cover several pixels across which the luminance of the shadow can vary. This variation is determined by the Gaussian blur of the image displayed on the reflective display, and the diffusiveness of the ambient light. Based on the distance between the upper and lower image planes, the radius of the Gaussian blur is chosen such that the luminance of the combined reflected and emitted light of pixels 22 and 32 is identical. Then lighting levels for different pixels may be globally adjusted dependent on illuminance level to equalize the level of light intensity reflected/emitted from the shadowed parallaxed pixels and complementary background pixels.
It is further noted that the blurring applied on the image of the upper display is projected on the lower display according to the position of the point/collimated light source. The position can be measured with a front-facing camera or any other circular 1D or rectangular 2D array photodetector. The ratio between diffusive and collimated/direct light components can be determined by analyzing the image of the ambient light projected onto the array/camera. First a low-pass filter is applied and then the ratio between bright spots and background is calculated. The capturing angle of the array detector should be as wide as possible (e.g., using fisheye lens). This can also be applied to purely reflective displays whose reflective diffusiveness then can be dynamically optimized to the diffusiveness of the ambient light for maximum reflectance and contrast (e.g., see US Patent Application Publication No. 2003/01333284).
Thus the technique according to the first embodiment described herein may allow using transflective displays with relatively thick substrates to read high resolution images without parallax.
In a second embodiment an improvement of readability (as a result of increased contrast) of a positive polarity text/graphic image on the LCD may be accomplished by using an inverted blurred version of the same image multiplied with the original image as shown and explained in reference to an example shown in
In
The criterion for applying the second embodiment (
A blurred and inverted version of the upper display image multiplied with the image itself (e.g., text) is then created as shown in
Moreover, as was stated herein, the lower display may be any emissive, transmissive, reflective or transfective plane with non-zero reflectance. The upper display could utilize any spatial light-modulating technology, e.g., based on birefringence/retardation (LCD with polarizers), scattering (e.g. polymer-dispersed LCD), Bragg reflection (e.g. cholesteric LCDs), Fabry-Perot interference condition (e.g. MEMS), selective absorption (e.g. electro-chromic displays, anisotropic dye-doped LCDs), mechanical shutter matrix, or selective reflection such as tunable plasmonic devices. Furthermore, the displays could be dot matrix, multiplexed segment, and direct-drive iconic displays, and the upper display even optically, magnetically, or thermally addressed/activated.
Furthermore, not only the illuminance of the ambient light can be measured but also its diffusiveness/diffusivity to implement embodiments of the invention. The ambient light diffusivity determines how strong the shadows will be on the lower display. It was shown in US Patent Application Publication Number 2003/0133284 that adjusting the amount of diffusion of a reflective display can be done according to the diffusiveness of the ambient light. According to this reference, diffusivity of ambient light can be measured with an auto-focus sensor, e.g. built-in camera or a stand-alone sensor array. By measuring the contrast in the same way as autofocus sensors in through-the-lens (TTL) single-reflex 35 mm cameras, the amount of diffusivity can be deduced.
It is further noted the example shown in
On the other hand, completely diffusive/distributed ambient light will not result in shadows and hence there won't be any problem of parallaxed shadow according to the first embodiment described herein. In mixed illuminations (point and diffuse sources), the inverted reflected image shown on the lower display may be calculated differently, i.e., taking into consideration the first embodiment (
For example, if the ambient light diffusive component is negligible/small and the collimated/point component in the ambient light is comparable/larger or much larger than the diffusive component (e.g. sun in a clear sky without reflecting objects in the vicinity), then the first embodiment (
In a further embodiment, the methods disclosed in the first and second embodiments may be used for matching white point of the reflected ambient light for more accurate compensation (e.g., see U.S. Pat. No. 7,486,304 for dynamic color gamut). For example, if the spectrum of the ambient light is identified or its tristimulus or RGB components are measured, then the compensation (e.g., pixel emission/transmission of the lower displays) may follow each measured white point, thus providing a matching white point at the same time. Instead of matching white point, the lower display may generate a background image of a chroma and hue value (e.g., in the CIE L*a*b* color space) having the opposite sign and 180 degrees difference, respectively, of that of the reflected ambient light. In this way not only luminance contrast is maximized but also color contrast. For example, a reflective display in a yellowish illumination can enhance the color contrast by applying a blueish hue.
In a method according to this exemplary embodiment, as shown in
In a method according to this exemplary embodiment, as shown in
In a next step 54, add-on-luminance for the lower display is determined/calculated as described herein according to the second embodiment (
The device 60 further comprises (ambient) light measurement device(s) 68 as described herein for implementing step 40 in
The device 60 further comprises at least one memory 70 and at least one processor 76.
Various embodiments of the at least one memory 70 (e.g., computer readable memory) may include any data storage technology type which is suitable to the local technical environment, including but not limited to semiconductor based memory devices, magnetic memory devices and systems, optical memory devices and systems, fixed memory, removable memory, disc memory, flash memory, DRAM, SRAM, EEPROM and the like. Various embodiments of the processor 76 include but are not limited to general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs) and multi-core processors.
The module 72 may be implemented as an application computer program stored in the memory 70, but in general it may be implemented as software, firmware and/or hardware module or a combination thereof. In particular, in the case of software or firmware, one embodiment may be implemented using a software related product such as a computer readable memory (e.g., non-transitory computer readable memory), computer readable medium or a computer readable storage structure comprising computer readable instructions (e.g., program instructions) using a computer program code (i.e., the software or firmware) thereon to be executed by a computer processor.
Furthermore, the module 72 may be implemented as a separate block or may be combined with any other module/block of the electronic device 60, or it may be split into several blocks according to their functionality
It is noted that various non-limiting embodiments described herein may be used separately, combined or selectively combined for specific applications.
Further, some of the various features of the above non-limiting embodiments may be used to advantage without the corresponding use of other described features. The foregoing description should therefore be considered as merely illustrative of the principles, teachings and exemplary embodiments of this invention, and not in limitation thereof.
It is to be understood that the above-described arrangements are only illustrative of the application of the principles of the present invention. Numerous modifications and alternative arrangements may be devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention, and the appended claims are intended to cover such modifications and arrangements.