This application claims the priority benefit of China application serial no. 201510561371.1, filed on Sep. 7, 2015. The entirety of the above-mentioned patent application is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.
Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to a display technique and more particularly, to a transparent display apparatus and a method for driving a transparent display panel thereof.
Description of Related Art
Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) may generally classified as three types, i.e., reflective LCDs, transmissive LCDs and transflective LCDs. With the increase of the display applications, transparent display panels have been developed in recent years. The transparent display panels have sufficient transmittance, and therefore, users can view through the transparent display panels and can observe background deployment in back of the transparent display panels. In addition to the originally transparent display functions, the transparent display panels can also be applied to display messages and draw more and more attention from the market.
In a current transparent display technique, grey-levels of an image frame can be transferred to transparency, and the image frame can be displayed according to the transparency of the transparent display panel. Taking a transparent display panel applied to a lightbox for example, a maximum gray-level (i.e., a white state, capable of displaying the white color) may be applied to present the greatest transparency (i.e., a transparent state), but leads to the white state being incapable of truly presented, while in another transparent display panel, a minimum gray-level (i.e., black state) may be applied to present the transparent state, but leads to the black state being incapable of truly presented.
Accordingly in the current display technique, once the type of the transparent display panel is determined, one of the black state and the white state cannot be presented. In addition, due to the transparency of the transparent display panel depending on the gray-levels, the transparency adjustment of the transparent display panel is limited. In this way, the display effect and user experiences of the transparent display panel will be dramatically influenced.
The invention provides a transparent display apparatus and a method for driving a transparent display panel thereof which can drive the transparent display panel to display image frame having a black state, a white state and a transparent state to enhance a display effect and user experiences of the transparent display apparatus.
According to an embodiment of the invention, a transparent display apparatus including a transparent display panel, an image processor and a display driver is provided. The image processor receives a display data signal having a plurality of display data and a transparency control signal having a plurality of transparency values to provide a plurality of driving data. When each of the transparency values indicates that each of the display data corresponds to a transparent state, the image processor sets the corresponding driving data according to a predetermined transparent state gray-level. When each of the transparency values indicates that each of the display data corresponds to a non-transparent state, the image processor transforms each of the display data into the driving data corresponding to the non-transparent state. The display driver is coupled to the transparent display panel and the image processor to drive the transparent display panel to display a display frame having all gradations of a black state, a white state and the transparent state according the driving data.
According to an embodiment of the invention, a method for driving a transparent display panel is provided, and the method includes the following steps. A display data signal having a plurality of display data and a transparency control signal having a plurality of transparency values are received. When each of the transparency values indicates that each of the display data corresponds to a transparent state, corresponding driving data among a plurality of driving data is set according to a predetermined gray-level through an image processor. When each of the transparency values indicates that each of the display data corresponds to a non-transparent state, each of the display data is transformed into the driving data not corresponding to the transparent state through the image processor. The transparent display panel is driven to display a display frame having all gradations of a black state, a white state and the transparent state according the driving data through a display driver.
To sum up, in the transparent display apparatus and the method for driving the transparent display panel thereof provided by the embodiments of the invention, whether the display data corresponds to the transparent state or the non-transparent state can be determined according to the transparency control signal, such that the processing of the display data can be decided, and the driving data can be correspondingly generated. Thereby, the transparent display panel can display the image frame having the black state, the white state and the transparent state to enhance the display effect and the user experiences of the transparent display apparatus.
In order to make the aforementioned and other features and advantages of the invention more comprehensible, several embodiments accompanied with figures are described in detail below.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
The image processor 110 receives a display data signal SRGB having a plurality of display data DD and a transparency control signal ST having a plurality of transparency values Vt, and the image processor 110 provides a plurality of driving data Ddr to the display driver 120 according to the display data DD and the transparency values Vt. Therein, one display data DD corresponds to one transparency value Vt, and each transparency value Vt may be a digital value with one or more bits. Herein, each of the transparency values Vt is configured to indicate whether a corresponding pixel on the transparent display panel 130 presents the transparent state. Namely, the transparency control signal ST is configured to determine which areas on the transparent display panel 130 are transparent (i.e., present the transparent state) and which areas on the transparent display panel 130 are non-transparent (i.e., presents a brightness other than transparency). Meanwhile, the transparency control signal ST may be specified by a user or may calculate by using an algorithm to perform the determination according to the display data signal SRGB.
Then, when each of the transparency values Vt indicates that each display data DD corresponds to the pixel presenting the transparent state, the image processor 110 sets the corresponding driving data Ddr according to a predetermined transparent state gray-level corresponding. For example, each gray-level of the corresponding driving data Ddr is set to be identical to the predetermined gray-level. The predetermined gray-level may be a gray-level corresponding to the pixel presenting the transparent state (which is the gray-level “0” in this case), but the invention is not limited thereto. On the other end, when each of the transparency values Vt indicates that each display data DD corresponds to a pixel presenting a non-transparent state (e.g., a black state or a white state), the image processor 110 transforms the display data DD into the driving data Ddr corresponding to the non-transparent state. For example, the gray-level of the driving data Ddr is not the gray-level “0” to prevent the corresponding pixel from presenting the transparent state.
The display driver 120 is coupled to the image processor 110 and the transparent display panel 130 to drive the transparent display panel 130 to display a display frame having a black state, a white state and the transparent state according to the driving data Ddr.
Since the black portrait 220 may have display information with the gray-level “0”, and the gray-level “0” in this case corresponds to the transparent state, display information corresponding to the black portrait may be modified as display information without the gray-level “0”. Namely, the color of the black portrait 220 is pale (as presented by a black portrait 420). For example, a gray-level range corresponding to the black portrait 220 is adjusted to range from 5 to 255, such that the black portrait 220 does not become transparent. In the same way, the same image frame is displayed in the same display manner, the display information corresponding to the white portrait 240 is also modified, i.e., the color of the white portrait is also pale (as presented by a white portrait 430), as shown in
In addition, the increase of the initial gray-level (i.e., the gray-level of the driving data Ddr corresponding to the display data DD having the gray-level “0”) of the Gamma curve would lead to a decreased contrast, and thus, an intermediate brightness (i.e., the intermediate gray-level) of the Gamma curve may be increased (i.e., adjusted toward the maximum gray-level“255”), so as to calibrate the lost contrast, as presented by the Gamma curve 530. The contrast is equal to the maximum brightness divided by the minimum brightness, and the range of adjusting the intermediate gray-level may vary with characteristics of the display frame. For example, if the display frame tends to be bright, the adjustment range is small; if the display frame tends to be intermediate, the adjustment range is normal; and if the display frame tends to be dark, the adjustment range is large, but the invention is not limited thereto.
In addition, the decrease of the final gray-level (i.e., the gray-level of the driving data Ddr corresponding to the display data DD having the gray-level “255”) of the Gamma curve would also lead to a decreased contrast, and thus, the intermediate brightness (i.e., the intermediate gray-level) of the Gamma curve may be decreased (i.e., adjusted toward the minimum gray-level “0”), so as to calibrate the lost contrast, as presented by the Gamma curve 630. The range of adjusting the intermediate gray-level may vary with the characteristics of the display frame. For example, if the display frame tends to be dark, the adjustment range is small; if the display frame tends to be intermediate, the adjustment range is normal; and if the display frame tends to be bright, the adjustment range is large, but the invention is not limited thereto.
Referring to
The display data DD corresponding to the transparent state may correspond to the same or different gray-level gain values Vg, and the display data DD corresponding to the non-transparent state may correspond to the same or different gray-level gain values Vg, which may be determined by the persons with ordinary skills of the art, and is not limited in the invention.
To summarize, in the transparent display apparatus and the method for driving the transparent display panel thereof provided by the embodiments of the invention, whether the display data corresponds to the transparent state or the non-transparent state can be determined according to the transparency control signal, such that the processing of the display data can be decided, and the driving data can be correspondingly generated. Thereby, the transparent display panel can display the image frame having the black state, the white state and the transparent state to enhance the display effect and the user experiences of the transparent display apparatus.
Although the invention has been described with reference to the above embodiments, it will be apparent to one of the ordinary skill in the art that modifications to the described embodiment may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. Accordingly, the scope of the invention will be defined by the attached claims not by the above detailed descriptions.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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201510561371.1 | Sep 2015 | CN | national |