Display device, display method, recording medium, and television receiver

• US 10,535,289 B2
• Filed: 12/27/2016
• Issued: 01/14/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 01/18/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Sakurai, Ryoji, Taniguchi, Shigeki
• Primary Examiner(s): Li, Grace Q
• Application Number:
  US15/752,601
• Publication Number:
  US 20180247581A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,113 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0271 Adjustment of the gradation levels within the range of the gradation scale, e.g. by redistribution or clipping
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0626 for control of overall brightness
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2330/028 Generation of voltages supplied to electrode drivers in a matrix display other than LCD
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/16 Determination of a pixel data signal depending on the signal applied in the previous frame
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/16 Calculation or use of calculated indices related to luminance levels in display data
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/20 for presentation of an assembly of a number of characters, e.g. a page, by composing the assembly by combination of individual elements arranged in a matrix no fixed position being assigned to or needed to be assigned to the individual characters or partial characters
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/34 by control of light from an independent source
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3426 the different display panel areas being distributed in two dimensions, e.g. matrix
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/36 using liquid crystals

Abstract

A technique of displaying an image at adequate luminance with a configuration simpler than a configuration in related art is disclosed. A display device (1) includes a display unit (40) that is configured such that luminance of an image to be displayed is adjustable on a per area basis of multiple areas, an image processing unit (32) that generates an output image by modifying a signal level of an input image in a current frame by referencing process information concerning a preceding frame generated by a process information generation unit (34) in the preceding frame, and a display control unit (36) that determines maximum luminance, adjusts luminance on a per area basis of the multiple areas, and displays the output image at the adjusted luminance.

Claims

1. A display device comprising:

a display;

image processing circuitry;

device control circuitry;

luminance oscillation restricting circuitry; and

process information generation circuitry, wherein

the display is partitioned into a plurality of areas, and is configured such that luminance of an image to be displayed is adjustable on a per area basis of the areas,

the image processing circuitry generates an output image by modifying a signal level of an input image,

the display control circuitry determines outputtable maximum luminance in response to the output image, adjusts luminance on a per area basis of the areas in response to the output image and the maximum luminance, and displays the output image on the display unit at the adjusted luminance,

the process information generation circuitry generates process information responsive to the maximum luminance and luminance at which the display is enabled to display, and

the image processing circuitry generates the output image by modifying the signal level of the input image in a current frame by referencing the process information concerning a preceding frame generated by the process information generation circuitry in the preceding frame, and

the luminance oscillation restricting circuitry selects, as the process information that the image processing circuitry references to generate the output image, the process information concerning the current frame or the process information concerning the preceding frame, depending on a difference between a gain calculated in the current frame and a gain calculated in the preceding frame.

2. The display device according to claim 1, wherein

the display includes a backlight that adjusts the luminance on a per area basis of the areas, and

the display control circuitry adjusts the luminance on a per area basis of the areas by controlling the backlight.

3. A non-transitory computer readable recording medium having recorded a control program causing a computer to operate the display device according to claim 1, the control program causing the computer to perform as the image processing circuitry and the display control circuitry.

4. A television receiver comprising the display device according to claim 1.

5. A method of displaying an image on a display device including a display and a processor, the method comprising:

an image processing step;

a display control step;

a luminance oscillation restricting step; and

a process information generation step, wherein

the display is partitioned into a plurality of areas, and is configured such that luminance of an image to be displayed is adjustable on a per area basis of the areas,

the image processing step causes the processor to generate an output image by modifying a signal level of an input image,

the display control step causes the processor to;

determine outputtable maximum luminance in response to the output image,

adjust luminance on a per area basis of the areas in response to the output image and the maximum luminance, and

display the output image on the display at the adjusted luminance,

the process information generation step includes causing the processor to process information responsive to the maximum luminance and luminance at which the display is enabled to display,

the luminance oscillation restricting step includes causing the processor to select, as the process information that is referenced in the image processing step to generate the output image, the process information concerning a current frame or the process information concerning a preceding frame generated in the process information generation step in the preceding frame, depending on a difference between a gain calculated in the current frame and a gain calculated in the preceding frame, and

the image processing step includes causing the processor to generate the output image by modifying the signal level of the input image in the current frame by referencing the process information selected in the luminance oscillation restricting step.