Display control device, display device, method for controlling display control device, and storage medium

• US 10,319,317 B2
• Filed: 07/07/2016
• Issued: 06/11/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2015
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Okamoto, Takuya, Asai, Junki
• Primary Examiner(s): Bolotin, Dmitriy
• Application Number:
  US15/576,977
• Publication Number:
  US 20180158424A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,069 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2310/0264 Details of driving circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/02 Handling of images in compressed format, e.g. JPEG, MPEG
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/0435 Change or adaptation of the frame rate of the video stream
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/02 Graphics controller able to handle multiple formats, e.g. input or output formats
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/18 Use of a frame buffer in a display terminal, inclusive of the display panel
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3611 Control of matrices with row and column drivers
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/005 Adapting incoming signals to the display format of the display terminal
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/008 Clock recovery
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/391 Resolution modifying circuits, e.g. variable screen formats
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/63 Generation or supply of power specially adapted for television receivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/01 Conversion of standards , e.g. involving analogue television standards or digital television standards processed at pixel level

Abstract

The present invention provides a display control device and a display device each of which can reduce electric power consumption by switching a resolution of image data to be displayed. In a case of transferring image data having a 4k resolution, an image transferring section (12) transfers the image data to a display driver (20) via a first lane and a second lane. In a case of transferring image data having an FHD resolution, the image transferring section (12) stops operation of the first lane and transfers the image data to the display driver (20) via the second lane.

Claims

1. A display control device, comprising:

a display driver;

an image transferring section configured to transfer image data to the display driver; and

a first transmission line and a second transmission line each of which connects the display driver with the image transferring section,

in a case of transferring image data having a first resolution, the image transferring section transferring the image data having the first resolution to the display driver via the first transmission line and the second transmission line, and

in a case of transferring image data having a second resolution which is lower than the first resolution, the image transferring section (i) stopping operation of the first transmission line and (ii) transferring the image data having the second resolution to the display driver via the second transmission line, wherein the display driver includes a frame memory which is capable of storing the image data having the first resolution, and wherein in a case of storing the image data having the second resolution, the frame memory skips some of memory addresses.

2. The display control device as set forth in claim 1, wherein:

the frame memory stores image data, which is of a lowermost row of an image having the second resolution, at a position corresponding to image data of a (B/A)th raw of an image having the first resolution, where a frame rate of the image data having the second resolution is A times that of the image data having the first resolution, and B is the number of rows in the first resolution.

3. The display control device as set forth in claim 1, wherein:

in a case where a frame rate is constant, the frame memory stores data, which is of a lowermost row of an image having the second resolution, at a position corresponding to data of a lowermost row of an image having the first resolution.

4. The display control device as set forth in claim 1, wherein:

when (i) the first resolution is switched to the second resolution and (ii) a first frame rate is switched to a second frame rate which is C times (C>

1) the first frame rate, the display driver reads out (1−

1/C) of the image data which has the first resolution and is stored in the frame memory and then transmits a transfer timing signal to the image transferring section; and

upon receipt of the transfer timing signal, the image transferring section transfers image data having the second frame rate to the display driver.

5. The display control device as set forth in claim 1, further comprising:

a first transmission channel including the first transmission line and the second transmission line; and

a second transmission channel including a third transmission line and a fourth transmission line,

in a case of transferring the image data having the first resolution, the image transferring section transferring the image data having the first resolution to the display driver via the first transmission line, the second transmission line, the third transmission line, and the fourth transmission line, and

in a case of transferring the image data having the second resolution, the image transferring section (i) stopping operation of the first transmission line and the third transmission line and (ii) transferring the image data having the second resolution to the display driver via the second transmission line and the fourth transmission line.

6. The display control device as set forth in claim 1, wherein:

the image data indicates an image for one (1) frame; and

the image transferring section transfers the image data at a timing corresponding to a frame rate of the image.

7. The display control device as set forth in claim 1, further comprising:

an image generating section,

in a case where a static image is to be displayed, the image generating section generating the image data having the first resolution, and

in a case where a moving image is to be displayed, the image generating section generating the image data having the second resolution.

8. A display device, comprising:

a display control device recited in claim 1; and

a display section configured to display an image, the display section being driven by the display driver.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing therein a control program for causing a computer to function as a display control device recited in claim 1, the control program causing the computer to function as the image transferring section.

10. A display control device comprising:

a display driver including a frame memory which is capable of storing image data having a first resolution;

an image transferring section configured to transfer image data to the display driver; and

a first transmission line and a second transmission line each of which connects the display driver with the image transferring section, wherein

in a case of transferring the image data having the first resolution, the image transferring section transfers the image data having the first resolution to the display driver via the first transmission line and the second transmission line, and

in a case of transferring image data having a second resolution which is lower than the first resolution, the image transferring section (i) stops operation of the first transmission line and (ii) transfers the image data having the second resolution to the display driver via the second transmission line, wherein

when a resolution of the image data to be transferred is switched from the first resolution to the second resolution, the display driver reads out the image data which has the first resolution and is stored in the frame memory, converts the image data having the first resolution into image data having the second resolution, and causes the image data, whose resolution has been thus converted into the second resolution, to be stored in the frame memory.

11. A display control device comprising:

a display driver including a frame memory which is capable of storing image data having a first resolution;

an image transferring section configured to transfer image data to the display driver; and

a first transmission line and a second transmission line each of which connects the display driver with the image transferring section, wherein

in a case of transferring the image data having the first resolution, the image transferring section transfers the image data having the first resolution to the display driver via the first transmission line and the second transmission line, and

in a case of transferring image data having a second resolution which is lower than the first resolution, the image transferring section (i) stops operation of the first transmission line and (ii) transfers the image data having the second resolution to the display driver via the second transmission line, wherein

during a period of storing the image data having the second resolution, the frame memory stops memory retaining operation in some of memory regions.

12. The display control device as set forth in claim 11, wherein:

the frame memory stops the memory retaining operation in the some of the memory regions by stopping (i) power supply to the some of the memory regions, (ii) supply of a clock signal to the some of the memory regions, or (iii) refresh operation in the some of the memory regions.

13. A method of controlling a display control device which includes (i) a display driver, (ii) an image transferring section configured to transfer image data to the display driver, and (iii) a first transmission line and a second transmission line each of which connects the display driver with the image transferring section, wherein:

in a case where image data having a first resolution is transferred, the image data having the first resolution is transferred from the image transferring section to the display driver via the first transmission line and the second transmission line; and

in a case where image data having a second resolution which is lower than the first resolution is transferred, operation of the first transmission line is stopped and the image data having the second resolution is transferred from the image transferring section to the display driver via the second transmission line, wherein the display driver includes a frame memory which is capable of storing the image data having the first resolution, and wherein in a case of storing the image data having the second resolution, the frame memory skips some of memory addresses.