1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention relates to microelectromechanical systems (MEMS).
2. Description of the Related Technology
Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) include micro mechanical elements, actuators, and electronics. Micromechanical elements may be created using deposition, etching, and or other micromachining processes that etch away parts of substrates and/or deposited material layers or that add layers to form electrical and electromechanical devices. One type of MEMS device is called an interferometric modulator. An interferometric modulator may comprise a pair of conductive plates, one or both of which may be transparent and/or reflective in whole or part and capable of relative motion upon application of an appropriate electrical signal. One plate may comprise a stationary layer deposited on a substrate, the other plate may comprise a metallic membrane separated from the stationary layer by an air gap. Such devices have a wide range of applications, and it would be beneficial in the art to utilize and/or modify the characteristics of these types of devices so that their features can be exploited in improving existing products and creating new products that have not yet been developed.
The system, method, and devices of the invention each have several aspects, no single one of which is solely responsible for its desirable attributes. Without limiting the scope of this invention, its more prominent features will now be discussed briefly. After considering this discussion, and particularly after reading the section entitled “Detailed Description of Certain Embodiments” one will understand how the features of this invention provide advantages over other display devices.
A first embodiment includes a method of displaying information on a display having an array of interferometric modulators, comprising receiving video data at a device having an interlaced mode of displaying data and a non-interlaced mode of displaying data, identifying a portion of the video data as interlaced data, and displaying the interlaced data on a display of the device, the display having an array of interferometric modulators. In one aspect, the method further comprises partitioning the array of interferometric modulators into two or more regions, and displaying non-interlaced video data in the one or more regions of the display. In a second aspect, receiving video data comprises receiving video data at the device over a communications network. In a third aspect, receiving video data comprises receiving video data from an application running on the device. In a fourth aspect, identifying at the device a portion of the video data as interlaced data comprises using information received over the communications network. In a fifth aspect, displaying the interlaced data comprises displaying a first subset of rows of a video frame of interlaced data during a first time period, and displaying a second subset of rows of the video frame during a second time period while continuing to display the first subset of rows. In a sixth aspect, displaying the interlaced data comprises displaying a first half of a frame of interlaced data on the array during a first display refresh and displaying a second half of the frame of interlaced data on the array during a second display refresh. In a seventh aspect, displaying the second half of the frame of interlaced data during a refresh cycle comprises continuing to display the first half of the frame of interlaced data on the array during the second display refresh. In an eighth aspect, the array comprises pixels, and displaying the interlaced data on an array of interferometric modulators comprises updating only the pixels that have changed from a frame of previously displayed video data. In a ninth aspect, the array of interferometric modulators is partitioned into at least two regions, and the update rate of the two regions is different. In a tenth aspect, an update rate of the interlaced data is dynamically determined using the content of the interlaced data. In an eleventh aspect, an update rate of the interlaced data is determined using a user input value. In a twelfth aspect, an update rate of the interlaced data is determined using a frame skip count.
A second embodiment includes a system for displaying information on a display having an array of interferometric modulators, including means for receiving video data at a device having an interlaced mode of displaying data and a non-interlaced mode of displaying data, means for identifying at least a portion of the video data as interlaced data, and means for displaying the interlaced data on a display of the device having an array of interferometric modulators. A first aspect can also include means for defining a region of the interferometric modulators, and means for displaying the interlaced data in the defined region. In a second aspect, means for displaying the interlaced data can include means for displaying a subset of rows of a video frame in the interlaced data, and means for subsequently displaying the non-displayed subset of rows of a video frame in the interlaced data.
A third embodiment includes a system of displaying interlace data on an array of interferometric modulators, including a server configured to provide video data, wherein a portion of the video data is in an interlaced format, and a client device comprising an array of interferometric modulators, the client configured to receive the video data from said server, to identify the portion of the video data in an interlaced format, and to render the video data that is in an interlaced format on the array of interferometric modulators in an interlaced format. In one aspect, the client device can be configured to display the received interlaced video data on a first region of the array, and display received non-interlaced video data on a second region of the array.
A fourth embodiment includes an electronic device including an array of interferometric modulators, and an array driver for the array of interferometric modulators, the array driver configured to receive video data which includes data in interlaced format, to identify that portion of the video data in an interlaced format, and to render the identified video data in an interlaced format on the array of interferometric modulators. The array driver can be configured to display the received interlaced video data on a first region of the array, and display the non-interlaced video data on a second region of the array. In this embodiment, the array driver can selectively skip selected frames based upon a frame skip count.
A fifth embodiment includes an electronic device, including an array of interferometric modulators, and an array driver for the array of interferometric modulators, the array driver configured to display, depending on a selected mode, interlaced and non-interlaced video data. The array driver of this embodiment can display the interlaced video data in a selected region of the display, and the array driver can display the non-interlaced video data in a non-selected region of the display, and/or selectively skip selected frames based upon a frame skip count.
A sixth embodiment includes a method of displaying information on a display having an array of interferometric modulators, including determining at a server the characteristics of the display of a client device, selecting one or more display modes for the display of the client device based on the characteristics of the display, receiving video data at the client device over a communications network, and displaying the video data on the display using one or more of the selected display modes. In this embodiment, the method can also include partitioning the display into two or more regions and updating each region at its own update rate. One of the selected display modes can rip and hold and/or frame skip, a display mode that updates changes to the video data displayed on the array on an area-by-area basis, a display mode that updates the video data displayed on the array on a pixel-by-pixel basis, and/or a selected display mode that displays the video data in an interlaced format.
A seventh embodiment includes a method of displaying information on a display having an array of interferometric modulators, comprising receiving video data at a device having an interlaced mode of displaying data and a non-interlaced mode of displaying data, identifying a portion of the video data as interlaced data and a portion if the video data as non-interlaced data, and displaying the interlaced data on a first portion of a display of the device and displaying the non-interlaced data on a second portion of the display.
The following detailed description is directed to certain specific embodiments. However, the invention can be embodied in a multitude of different ways. Reference in this specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment,” “according to one embodiment,” or “in some embodiments” in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments. Moreover, various features are described which may be exhibited by some embodiments and not by others. Similarly, various requirements are described which may be requirements for some embodiments but not other embodiments.
In one embodiment, a display array on a device includes at least one driving circuit and an array of means, e.g., interferometric modulators, on which video data is displayed. Video data, as used herein, refers to any kind of displayable data, including pictures, graphics, and words, displayable in either static or dynamic images (for example, a series of video frames that when viewed give the appearance of movement, e.g., a continuous ever-changing display of stock quotes, a “video clip”, or data indicating the occurrence of an event of action). Video data, as used herein, also refers to any kind of control data, including instructions on how the video data is to be processed (display mode), such as frame rate, and data format. The array is driven by the driving circuit to display video data.
Data is typically shown on a conventional display (e.g., a CRT, a LCD) in a single mode based on the characteristics of the display. A bi-stable display has the ability to display data for a significantly long period of time with very little energy consumption. Using a bi-stable display, for example, a display having an array of interferometric modulators, can allow innovative refresh and update modes that take advantage of not having to refresh the display unless the displayed data actually changes. One of the display modes of a bi-stable display, such as an interferometric modulator display, is “interlacing” mode. Typically, interlacing refers to a video data display methodology where a conventional display is updated or refreshed by alternately writing all the odd rows of a display for a first video data frame, and then in the next successive video data frame, writing all the even number rows for the next frame. For example, for a set of video data frames 1-6, the odd rows R1, R3, R5, and R7, etc., are written for frames 1, 3, and 5, and the even rows R2, R4, R6, etc., are written for frames 2, 4, and 6. Thus, in an interlaced format, halves of the total rows on the display are refreshed or updated in an alternating manner such that, for example, each odd or even row is refreshed or updated every other cycle. Because of the relatively frequent constant refreshing required with conventional displays, in many applications this raw interlaced data is processed into what is known as a progressive format which requires interpolating and merging the displayed interlaced lines of video data to form a suitable image for viewing. In contrast to a conventional display, an interferometric modulator display does not require constant refreshing to maintain an image. During a refresh cycle of interlaced data, where half of the rows are being refreshed or updated, the interferometric modulator display maintains the other half of the rows in their previously written state. This implementation can simplify the image processing circuits for the display and results in reduced power consumption in both the display and display circuitry.
In this description, reference is made to the drawings wherein like parts are designated with like numerals throughout. The invention may be implemented in any device that is configured to display an image, whether in motion (e.g., video) or stationary (e.g., still image), and whether textual or pictorial. More particularly, it is contemplated that the invention may be implemented in or associated with a variety of electronic devices such as, but not limited to, mobile telephones, wireless devices, personal data assistants (PDAs), hand-held or portable computers, GPS receivers/navigators, cameras, MP3 players, camcorders, game consoles, wrist watches, clocks, calculators, television monitors, flat panel displays, computer monitors, auto displays (e.g., odometer display, etc.), cockpit controls and/or displays, display of camera views (e.g., display of a rear view camera in a vehicle), electronic photographs, electronic billboards or signs, projectors, architectural structures, packaging, and aesthetic structures (e.g., display of images on a piece of jewelry). MEMS devices of similar structure to those described herein can also be used in non-display applications such as in electronic switching devices.
Spatial light modulators used for imaging applications come in many different forms. Transmissive liquid crystal display (LCD) modulators modulate light by controlling the twist and/or alignment of crystalline materials to block or pass light. Reflective spatial light modulators exploit various physical effects to control the amount of light reflected to the imaging surface. Examples of such reflective modulators include reflective LCDs, and digital micromirror devices.
Another example of a spatial light modulator is an interferometric modulator that modulates light by interference. Interferometric modulators are bi-stable display elements which employ a resonant optical cavity having at least one movable or deflectable wall. Constructive interference in the optical cavity determines the color of the viewable light emerging from the cavity. As the movable wall, typically comprised at least partially of metal, moves towards the stationary front surface of the cavity, the interference of light within the cavity is modulated, and that modulation affects the color of light emerging at the front surface of the modulator. The front surface is typically the surface where the image seen by the viewer appears, in the case where the interferometric modulator is a direct-view device.
The network 3 can be operatively coupled to a broad variety of devices. Examples of devices that can be coupled to the network 3 include a computer such as a laptop computer 4, a personal digital assistant (PDA) 5, which can include wireless handheld devices such as the BlackBerry, a Palm Pilot, a Pocket PC, and the like, and a cell phone 6, such as a Web-enabled cell phone, Smartphone, and the like. Many other devices can be used, such as desk-top PCs, set-top boxes, digital media players, handheld PCs, Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation devices, automotive displays, or other stationary and mobile displays. For convenience of discussion all of these devices are collectively referred to herein as the client device 7.
One bi-stable display element embodiment comprising an interferometric MEMS display element is illustrated in
The depicted portion of the pixel array in
The partially reflective layers 16a, 16b are electrically conductive, partially transparent and fixed, and may be fabricated, for example, by depositing one or more layers each of chromium and indium-tin-oxide onto a transparent substrate 20. The layers are patterned into parallel strips, and may form row electrodes in a display device as described further below. The highly reflective layers 14a, 14b may be formed as a series of parallel strips of a deposited metal layer or layers (orthogonal to the row electrodes, partially reflective layers 16a, 16b) deposited on top of supports 18 and an intervening sacrificial material deposited between the supports 18. When the sacrificial material is etched away, the deformable metal layers are separated from the fixed metal layers by a defined air gap 19. A highly conductive and reflective material such as aluminum may be used for the deformable layers, and these strips may form column electrodes in a display device.
With no applied voltage, the air gap 19 remains between the layers 14a, 16a and the deformable layer is in a mechanically relaxed state as illustrated by the interferometric modulator 12a in
Currently, available flat panel display controllers and drivers have been designed to work almost exclusively with displays that need to be constantly refreshed. Thus, the image displayed on plasma, EL, OLED, STN LCD, and TFT LCD panels, for example, will disappear in a fraction of a second if not refreshed many times within a second. However, because interferometric modulators of the type described above have the ability to hold their state for a longer period of time without refresh, wherein the state of the interferometric modulators may be maintained in either of two states without refreshing, a display that uses interferometric modulators may be referred to as a bi-stable display. In one embodiment, the state of the pixel elements is maintained by applying a bias voltage, sometimes referred to as a latch voltage, to the one or more interferometric modulators that comprise the pixel element.
In general, a display device typically requires one or more controllers and driver circuits for proper control of the display device. Driver circuits, such as those used to drive LCD's, for example, may be bonded directly to, and situated along the edge of the display panel itself. Alternatively, driver circuits may be mounted on flexible circuit elements connecting the display panel (at its edge) to the rest of an electronic system. In either case, the drivers are typically located at the interface of the display panel and the remainder of the electronic system.
The array driver 22 receives the formatted information from the driver controller 29 and reformats the video data into a parallel set of waveforms that are applied many times per second to the hundreds and sometimes thousands of leads coming from the display's x-y matrix of pixels. The currently available flat panel display controllers and drivers such as those described immediately above have been designed to work almost exclusively with displays that need to be constantly refreshed. Because bi-stable displays (e.g., an array of interferometric modulators) do not require such constant refreshing, features that decrease power requirements may be realized through the use of bi-stable displays. However, if bi-stable displays are operated by the controllers and drivers that are used with current displays the advantages of a bi-stable display may not be optimized. Thus, improved controller and driver systems and methods for use with bi-stable displays are desired. For high speed bi-stable displays, such as the interferometric modulators described above, these improved controllers and drivers preferably implement low-refresh-rate modes, video rate refresh modes, and unique modes to facilitate the unique capabilities of bi-stable modulators. According to the methods and systems described herein, a bi-stable display may be configured to reduce power requirements in various manners.
In one embodiment illustrated by
Still referring to
In one embodiment, video data provided by data link 33 is not stored in the frame buffer 28, as is usually the case in many embodiments. It will also be understood that in some embodiments, a second driver controller (not shown) can also be used to render video data for the array driver 22. The data link 33 may comprise a SPI, I2C bus, or any other available interface. The array driver 22 can also include address decoding, row and column drivers for the display and the like. The network interface 27 can also provide video data directly to the array driver 22 at least partially in response to instructions embedded within the video data provided to the network interface 27. It will be understood by the skilled practitioner that arbiter logic can be used to control access by the network interface 27 and the processor 21 to prevent data collisions at the array driver 22. In one embodiment, a driver executing on the processor 21 controls the timing of data transfer from the network interface 27 to the array driver 22 by permitting the data transfer during time intervals that are typically unused by the processor 21, such as time intervals traditionally used for vertical blanking delays and/or horizontal blanking delays.
Advantageously, this design permits the server 2 to bypass the processor 21 and the driver controller 29, and to directly address a portion of the display array 30. For example, in the illustrated embodiment, this permits the server 2 to directly address a predefined display array area of the display array 30. In one embodiment, the amount of data communicated between the network interface 27 and the array driver 22 is relatively low and is communicated using a serial bus, such as an Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C) bus or a Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) bus. It will also be understood, however, that where other types of displays are utilized, that other circuits will typically also be used. The video data provided via data link 33 can advantageously be displayed without a frame buffer 28 and with little or no intervention from the processor 21.
As shown in
For a display array having the hysteresis characteristics of
In typical applications, a display frame may be created by asserting the set of column electrodes in accordance with the desired set of actuated pixels in the first row. A row pulse is then applied to the row 1 electrode, actuating the pixels corresponding to the asserted column lines. The asserted set of column electrodes is then changed to correspond to the desired set of actuated pixels in the second row. A pulse is then applied to the row 2 electrode, actuating the appropriate pixels in row 2 in accordance with the asserted column electrodes. The row 1 pixels are unaffected by the row 2 pulse, and remain in the state they were set to during the row 1 pulse. This may be repeated for the entire series of rows in a sequential fashion to produce the frame. Generally, the frames are refreshed and/or updated with new video data by continually repeating this process at some desired number of frames per second. A wide variety of protocols for driving row and column electrodes of pixel arrays to produce display array frames are also well known and may be used.
One embodiment of a client device 7 is illustrated in
The display 42 of exemplary client 40 may be any of a variety of displays, including a bi-stable display, as described herein with respect to, for example,
The components of one embodiment of exemplary client 40 are schematically illustrated in
The network interface 27 includes the antenna 43, and the transceiver 47 so that the exemplary client 40 can communicate with another device over a network 3, for example, the server 2 shown in
Processor 21 generally controls the overall operation of the exemplary client 40, although operational control may be shared with or given to the server 2 (not shown), as will be described in greater detail below. In one embodiment, the processor 21 includes a microcontroller, CPU, or logic unit to control operation of the exemplary client 40. Conditioning hardware 52 generally includes amplifiers and filters for transmitting signals to the speaker 44, and for receiving signals from the microphone 46. Conditioning hardware 52 may be discrete components within the exemplary client 40, or may be incorporated within the processor 21 or other components.
The input device 48 allows a user to control the operation of the exemplary client 40. In one embodiment, input device 48 includes a keypad, such as a QWERTY keyboard or a telephone keypad, a button, a switch, a touch-sensitive screen, a pressure- or heat-sensitive membrane. In one embodiment, a microphone is an input device for the exemplary client 40. When a microphone is used to input data to the device, voice commands may be provided by a user for controlling operations of the exemplary client 40.
In one embodiment, the driver controller 29, array driver 22, and display array 30 are appropriate for any of the types of displays described herein. For example, in one embodiment, driver controller 29 is a conventional display controller or a bi-stable display controller (e.g., an interferometric modulator controller). In another embodiment, array driver 22 is a conventional driver or a bi-stable display driver (e.g., a interferometric modulator display). In yet another embodiment, display array 30 is a typical display array or a bi-stable display array (e.g., a display including an array of interferometric modulators).
Power supply 50 is any of a variety of energy storage devices as are well known in the art. For example, in one embodiment, power supply 50 is a rechargeable battery, such as a nickel-cadmium battery or a lithium ion battery. In another embodiment, power supply 50 is a renewable energy source, a capacitor, or a solar cell, including a plastic solar cell, and solar-cell paint. In another embodiment, power supply 50 is configured to receive power from a wall outlet.
In one embodiment, the array driver 22 contains a register that may be set to a predefined value to indicate that the input video stream is in an interlaced format and should be displayed on the bi-stable display in an interlaced format, without converting the video stream to a progressive scanned format. In this way the bi-stable display does not require interlace-to-progressive scan conversion of interlace video data.
In some implementations control programmability resides, as described above, in a display controller which can be located in several places in the electronic display system. In some cases control programmability resides in the array driver 22 located at the interface between the electronic display system and the display component itself. Those of skill in the art will recognize that the above-described optimization may be implemented in any number of hardware and/or software components and in various configurations.
In one embodiment, circuitry is embedded in the array driver 22 to take advantage of the fact that the output signal set of most graphics controllers includes a signal to delineate the horizontal active area of the display array 30 being addressed. This horizontal active area can be changed via register settings in the driver controller 29. These register settings can be changed by the processor 21. This signal is usually designated as display enable (DE). Most all display video interfaces in addition utilize a line pulse (LP) or a horizontal synchronization (HSYNC) signal, which indicates the end of a line of data. A circuit which counts LPs can determine the vertical position of the current row. When refresh signals are conditioned upon the DE from the processor 21 (signaling for a horizontal region), and upon the LP counter circuit (signaling for a vertical region) an area update function can be implemented.
In one embodiment, a driver controller 29 is integrated with the array driver 22. Such an embodiment is common in highly integrated systems such as cellular phones, watches, and other small area displays. Specialized circuitry within such an integrated array driver 22 first determines which pixels and hence rows require refresh, and only selects those rows that have pixels that have changed to update. With such circuitry, particular rows can be addressed in non-sequential order, on a changing basis depending on image content. This embodiment has the advantage that since only the changed video data needs to be sent through the interface, data rates can be reduced between the processor 21 and the display array 30. Lowering the effective data rate required between processor 21 and array driver 22 improves power consumption, noise immunity and electromagnetic interference issues for the system.
In the
The details of the structure of interferometric modulators that operate in accordance with the principles set forth above may vary widely. For example,
An embodiment of process flow is illustrated in
Again referring to
An embodiment of process flow is illustrated in
Starting at decision state 84, the client device 7 makes a determination whether an action at the client device 7 requires an application at the client device 7 to be started, or whether the server 2 has transmitted an application to the client device 7 for execution, or whether the server 2 has transmitted to the client device 7 a request to execute an application resident at the client device 7. If there is no need to launch an application the client device 7 remains at decision state 84. After starting an application, continuing to state 86, the client device 7 launches a process by which the client device 7 receives and displays video data. The video data may stream from the server 2, or may be downloaded to the client device 7 memory for later access. The video data can be video, or a still image, or textual or pictorial information. The video data can also have various compression encodings, and be interlaced or progressively scanned, and have various and varying refresh rates. The display array 30 may be segmented into regions of arbitrary shape and size, each region receiving video data with characteristics, such as refresh rate or compression encoding, specific only to that region. The regions may change video data characteristics and shape and size. The regions may be opened and closed and re-opened. Along with video data, the client device 7 can also receive control data. The control data can comprise commands from the server 2 to the client device 7 regarding, for example, video data characteristics such as compression encoding, refresh rate, and interlaced or progressively scanned video data. The control data may contain control instructions for segmentation of display array 30, as well as differing instructions for different regions of display array 30.
In one exemplary embodiment, the server 2 sends control and video data to a PDA via a wireless network 3 to produce a continuously updating clock in the upper right corner of the display array 30, a picture slideshow in the upper left corner of the display array 30, a periodically updating score of a ball game along a lower region of the display array 30, and a cloud shaped bubble reminder to buy bread continuously scrolling across the entire display array 30. The video data for the photo slideshow are downloaded and reside in the PDA memory, and they are in an interlaced format. The clock and the ball game video data stream text from the server 2. The reminder is text with a graphic and is in a progressively scanned format. It is appreciated that here presented is only an exemplary embodiment. Other embodiments are possible and are encompassed by state 86 and fall within the scope of this discussion.
Continuing to decision state 88, the client device 7 looks for a command from the server 2, such as a command to relocate a region of the display array 30, a command to change the refresh rate for a region of the display array 30, or a command to quit. Upon receiving a command from the server 2, the client device 7 proceeds to decision state 90, and determines whether or not the command received while at decision state 88 is a command to quit. If, while at decision state 90, the command received while at decision state 88 is determined to be a command to quit, the client device 7 continues to state 98, and stops execution of the application and resets. The client device 7 may also communicate status or other information to the server 2, and/or may receive such similar communications from the server 2. If, while at decision state 90, the command received from the server 2 while at decision state 88 is determined to not be a command to quit, the client device 7 proceeds back to state 86. If, while at decision state 88, a command from the server 2 is not received, the client device 7 advances to decision state 92, at which the client device 7 looks for a command from the user, such as a command to stop updating a region of the display array 30, or a command to quit. If, while at decision state 92, the client device 7 receives no command from the user, the client device 7 returns to decision state 88. If, while at decision state 92, a command from the user is received, the client device 7 proceeds to decision state 94, at which the client device 7 determines whether or not the command received in decision state 92 is a command to quit. If, while at decision state 94, the command from the user received while at decision state 92 is not a command to quit, the client device 7 proceeds from decision state 94 to state 96. At state 96 the client device 7 sends to the server 2 the user command received while at state 92, such as a command to stop updating a region of the display array 30, after which it returns to decision state 88. If, while at decision state 94, the command from the user received while at decision state 92 is determined to be a command to quit, the client device 7 continues to state 98, and stops execution of the application. The client device 7 may also communicate status or other information to the server 2, and/or may receive such similar communications from the server 2.
Starting at state 124 the server 2, in embodiment (1), waits for a data request via the network 3 from the client device 7, and alternatively, in embodiment (2) the server 2 sends video data without waiting for a data request from the client device 7. The two embodiments encompass scenarios in which either the server 2 or the client device 7 may initiate requests for video data to be sent from the server 2 to the client device 7.
The server 2 continues to decision state 128, at which a determination is made as to whether or not a response from the client device 7 has been received indicating that the client device 7 is ready (ready indication signal). If, while at state 128, a ready indication signal is not received, the server 2 remains at decision state 128 until a ready indication signal is received.
Once a ready indication signal is received, the server 2 proceeds to state 126, at which the server 2 sends control data to the client device 7. The control data may stream from the server 2, or may be downloaded to the client device 7 memory for later access. The control data may segment the display array 30 into regions of arbitrary shape and size, and may define video data characteristics, such as refresh rate or interlaced format for a particular region or all regions. The control data may cause the regions to be opened or closed or re-opened.
Continuing to state 130, the server 2 sends video data. The video data may stream from the server 2, or may be downloaded to the client device 7 memory for later access. The video data can include motion images, or still images, textual or pictorial images. The video data can also have various compression encodings, and be interlaced or progressively scanned, and have various and varying refresh rates. Each region may receive video data with characteristics, such as refresh rate or compression encoding, specific only to that region.
The server 2 proceeds to decision state 132, at which the server 2 looks for a command from the user, such as a command to stop updating a region of the display array 30, to increase the refresh rate, or a command to quit. If, while at decision state 132, the server 2 receives a command from the user, the server 2 advances to state 134. At state 134 the server 2 executes the command received from the user at state 132, and then proceeds to decision state 138. If, while at decision state 132, the server 2 receives no command from the user, the server 2 advances to decision state 138.
At state 138 the server 2 determines whether or not action by the client device 7 is needed, such as an action to receive and store video data to be displayed later, to increase the data transfer rate, or to expect the next set of video data to be in interlaced format. If, while at decision state 138, the server 2 determines that an action by the client is needed, the server 2 advances to state 140, at which the server 2 sends a command to the client device 7 to take the action, after which the server 2 then proceeds to state 130. If, while at decision state 138, the server 2 determines that an action by the client is not needed, the server 2 advances to decision state 142.
Continuing at decision state 142, the server 2 determines whether or not to end data transfer. If, while at decision state 142, the server 2 determines to not end data transfer, server 2 returns to state 130. If, while at decision state 142, the server 2 determines to end data transfer, server 2 proceeds to state 144, at which the server 2 ends data transfer, and sends a quit message to the client. The server 2 may also communicate status or other information to the client device 7, and/or may receive such similar communications from the client device 7.
Beginning in a state 202, the server 2 determines the display characteristics of the client device 7. The characteristics can include information on the display type of the client device 7, for example, whether the display of the client device 7 is a bi-stable display, such as the display array 30 of
Following the characterization of state 202, in state 204 a decision is made, based upon the characteristics determined by the server 22, as to whether an associated client device 7 offers the capability of multiple operating modes or features for the display of the client device 7. If the determination is negative, for example, the client device 7 is of a conventional nature having conventional display types, the process 200 proceeds to a state 206 and the server 2 communicates with the client device 7 to operate the conventional display using it operating mode. However if the determination of state 204 is affirmative, for example, if the client device 7 includes an array 30, the process 200 continues to state 208.
In state 208, the process 200 selects and enables one or more display modes to operate the display array 30 including, for example, rip and hold, frame skip, area address, pixel(s) address, select different update rates, and/or interlace. Selection of the display mode can occur based on pre-programmed values, on user selection, or it can occur dynamically based on the video data displayed. Depending on the embodiment, in
The display array 30 can provide numerous operational characteristics which are different from conventional displays, including being able to operate with certain update modes and refresh rates. The following description is of certain representative embodiments of these operating features or modes. The various modes can operate individually as well as in combination with another mode. The described modes or features are particular embodiments of one way of delineating the operation of a display array 30.
One mode that can be selected for operating the display array 30 is referred to herein as a “rip-and-hold” mode of operation. In one embodiment of the rip-and-hold mode, information, e.g., video data, is sent from the server 2 to the client device 7, and a frame depicting at least a portion of the information is rendered or “ripped” as an image on the display. “Ripped” as used herein, refers to rendering any data as an image on the display array 30, not just vector-based data. Because display array 30 does not require a constant refreshing of conventional displays, the display array 30 can “hold” this ripped frame for an extended period of time. In some embodiments, the information is displayed on the entire viewing area of the display array 30, while in other embodiments the information is displayed on a portion of the display array 30, for example, in a partitioned area of the display array 30. The rip-and-hold mode can be performed in an asynchronous and/or aperiodic manners providing additional flexibility in the use of the display array 30.
A second display mode or feature can comprise a “frame-skip” mode or feature for refreshing the display. Because bi-stable displays, as do most flat panel displays, consume most of their power during frame update, it is desirable to be able to control how often a bi-stable display is updated in order to conserve power. For example, if there is very little change between adjacent frames of a video stream, the display array may be refreshed less frequently with little or no loss in image quality. As an example, image quality of typical PC desktop applications, displayed on an interferometric modulator display, would not suffer from a decreased refresh rate, since the interferometric modulator display is not susceptible to the flicker that would result from decreasing the refresh rate of most other displays. Thus, during operation of certain applications, the PC display system may reduce the refresh rate of bi-stable display elements, such as interferometric modulators, with minimal effect on the output of the display.
As illustrated in
In another embodiment of reducing a display refresh rate to reduce power requirements, if a display device has a refresh rate that is higher than the frame rate of the display feed, the display array 30 can reduce the refresh rate to be equal to or less than the frame rate of the display feed. While reduction of the refresh rate is not possible on a typical display, such as a LCD display, a bi-stable display, such as a display array 30, can maintain the state of the pixel element for a longer period of time and, thus, may reduce the refresh rate when necessary. As an example, if a video stream being displayed on a PDA has a frame rate of 15 Hz and the bi-stable PDA display is capable of refreshing at a rate of 60 times per second (having a refresh rate of 1/60 sec=16.67 ms), then a typical bi-stable display may update the display with each frame of video data up to four times. For example, a 15 Hz frame rate updates every 66.67 ms. For a bi-stable display having a refresh rate of 16.67 ms, each frame may be displayed on the display device up to 66.67 ms/16.67 ms=4 times. However, each refresh of the display device requires some power and, thus, power may be reduced by reducing the number of updates to the display device. With respect to the above example, when a bi-stable display device is used, up to 3 refreshes per video frame may be removed without affecting the output display. More particularly, because both the on and off states of pixels in a bi-stable display may be maintained without refreshing the pixels, a frame of video data from the video stream need only be rendered on the display device once, and then maintained until a new video frame is ready for display. Accordingly, a bi-stable display may reduce power requirements by rendering each video frame only once.
In one embodiment, frames of a video stream are skipped, based on a programmable “frame skip count.” Referring to
Another display mode or feature that can be selected by the process 200 includes an area address or display partitioning mode. As previously described, as the display array 30 does not require the constant frequent refreshing of conventional displays, the display array 30 can be partitioned into two or more areas. Using area addressing, each area or partition can be updated separately, for example, one partition of the display array 30 that displays infrequently changing data can be updated infrequently, and another partition of the display array 30 that displays frequently changing data can have a corresponding frequent update rate. For example,
For example, in one embodiment, the first field 302 can display a toolbar having multiple icons corresponding to different operational features which a device, including the interferometric modulator display 300, can provide. It will be appreciated following a consideration of the description of the various embodiments, that the interferometric modulator display 300 can be incorporated into a variety of electronic devices including, but not limited to, cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), text messaging devices, calculators, portable measurement or medical devices, video players, personal computers, and the like. Thus, in one embodiment the first field 302 can portray images corresponding to a toolbar having a plurality of icons which, during use, retain a constant configuration and location with respect to the interferometric modulator display 300, except perhaps a change of the coloration or highlighting of a particular icon in the first field 302 upon selection of the corresponding function. Thus, images displayed in the first field 302 of the interferometric modulator display 300, would typically require relatively infrequent updating or no updating in particular applications.
A second field 304 can correspond to a region of the interferometric modulator display 300 having significantly different upgrade demands than images portrayed in the first field 302. For example, the second field 304 may correspond to a series of video images which are portrayed on the interferometric modulator display 300 indicating a much higher update rate, such as at approximately 15 Hz corresponding to a video stream. Thus, the update requirements for images portrayed in the first field 302 could be of an infrequent aperiodic nature, such as substantially no updating during use if the image is constant or relatively infrequent aperiodic updating when, for example, a user selects an icon to activate a corresponding operational feature of a device incorporating the interferometric modulator display 300. However, the update requirements for images in the second field 304, would be of a generally periodic nature corresponding to the periodic framing of video data displayed in the second field 304, however, the updating of images displayed in the second field 304 can be readily conducted in an asynchronous manner with respect to updates provided for images in the first field 302. Furthermore, the fields may be overlapping, i.e., one field is designated as being on top of the other and covers the overlapped portion of the underlying field.
Images displayed in the third field 306 can have yet other update requirements different from those of either the first field 302 or the second field 304. For example, in one embodiment, the data displayed in the third field 306 can comprise text, such as e-mail or news content, through which a user of the device may periodically scroll. In such an embodiment, frequent updating of the data in the third field 306 can be necessary corresponding to the users' viewing requirements, for example, during scrolling. However, typically there can also be relatively long periods during which the same image is constantly displayed in the third field 306 as the user reads the information displayed. During these periods, no updating of the display is necessary. Accordingly, the display 300 can support update characteristics which are significantly time varying, for example, periods of substantially no updating while the displayed image is static and periods of relatively high updating when the image is changing. It will also be appreciated that the updating of the images displayed in the third field 306 can also be performed in an asynchronous manner with respect to the updating of data in the first and second fields 302, 304.
In certain embodiments, the interferometric modulator display 300 can also provide different update schemes in addition to different update rates. For example, the first field 302 can be updated in a similar manner to the progressive scan type drive schemes. The second field 304 could be driven with waveforms similar to those used for the first field 302, however in an interlaced row scan manner to reduce power consumption. Yet another embodiment is to drive the third field 306 in a pixel at a time. This embodiment can be advantageously employed when successive frames of data exhibit a relatively high degree of frame to frame correlation. Thus the update can be limited to those pixels changing states. Partitioning of an interferometric modulator display is further described in the aforementioned related Application No. 60/613,573, titled “System Having Different Update Rates For Different Portions Of A Partitioned Display.”
Another display mode or feature that can be selected by the process 200 includes addressing individual pixels or groups of pixels, referred to herein as “pixel addressing.” As previously described above, an advantageous feature of an display array 30 is that it does not require the constant refreshing of its display, as do conventional displays. In one embodiment of pixel addressing, the process 200 can perform the above-described rip-and-hold functionality and display an image on the interferometric modulator display 30. Then, the process 300 can dynamically evaluate incoming data, and determine a change vector corresponding to those particular pixels which change between subsequent frames, and address and update only those pixels which are changing while holding the remainder at their previously set state. Thus, for example when the display array 30 is portraying a relatively constant background with a pointer or cursor moving across the displayed image, only a relatively small proportion of the overall displayed image needs to be updated (e.g., the pixels corresponding to the movement of the cursor), again significantly reducing the system overhead and power expenditure consumed by the client device 7.
Another display mode that can be advantageously implemented on a bi-stable display is an interlacing mode of displaying video data. In some embodiments, the bi-stable array can be the display array 30. In some embodiments, video data is coded in an interlaced manner for compatibility with existing display technologies, such as the CRTs of conventional televisions. Typically, interlacing refers to a video data display methodology where a conventional display is updated or refreshed by alternately writing all the odd rows of a display for a first frame, and then in the next successive frame, writing all the even number rows for the next frame. For example, as illustrated in
In contrast, because the bi-stable display, for example, the interferometric modulator display 30, does not require constant frequent refreshing the process 200 can directly support interlaced data and the display array 30 itself maintains a previous frame of data throughout the refreshing of the interleaved data set.
Referring now to
The process 400 then continues to state 406, where the process 200 displays the interlaced data on a display array 30, as described above. Depending on the embodiment, states of
Accordingly, the process 200 utilized with a client device 7 having an interferometric modulator display can provide significant additional flexibility and bandwidth savings to users. Additionally, again referring to
While the above detailed description has shown, described, and pointed out novel features of the invention as applied to various embodiments, it will be understood that various omissions, substitutions, and changes in the form and details of the device or process illustrated may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. As will be recognized, the present invention may be embodied within a form that does not provide all of the features and benefits set forth herein, as some features may be used or practiced separately from others.
This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/614,360, titled “System With Server Based Control Of Client Display Features,” filed Sep. 27, 2004, which is incorporated by reference, in its entirety. This application is related to U.S. application Ser. No. 11/097,819, titled “Controller And Driver Features For Bi-Stable Display,” filed on even date herewith, U.S. Application No. 60/613,573, titled “System Having Different Update Rates For Different Portions Of A Partitioned Display,” filed on even date herewith, U.S. application Ser. No. 11/096,547, titled “Method And System For Driving a Bi-Stable Display,” filed on even date herewith, U.S. application Ser. No. 11/097,820, titled “System and Method of Transmitting Video Data,” filed on even data herewith, and U.S. application Ser. No. 11/097,818, titled “System and Method of Transmitting Video Data,” filed on even date herewith, all of which are incorporated herein by reference, in their entirety, and are presently assigned to the assignee of this application.
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