Controller and driver features for bi-stable display

• US 20060077127A1
• Filed: 04/01/2005
• Published: 04/13/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Snaptrack Incorporated (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm MEMS Technologies Incorporated (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sampsell, Jeffrey B., Tyger, Karen, Mathew, Mithran
• Granted Patent: US 7,679,627 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/55
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2310/0224 Details of interlacing
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2310/04 Partial updating of the display screen
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2330/021 Power management, e.g. power saving
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/0435 Change or adaptation of the frame rate of the video stream
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3466 based on interferometric effect
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3688 suitable for active matrices only

Abstract

The invention comprises systems and methods for controller and driver features for displays, and in particular, controller and driver features that relate to displays with bi-stable display elements. In one embodiment, such a display includes at least one driving circuit and an array comprising a plurality of bi-stable display elements, where the array is configured to be driven by the driving circuit, and where the driving circuit is programmed to receive video data and provide a subset of the received video data to the array based on a frame skip count. In some embodiments, the frame skip count is programmable or dynamically determined. In another embodiment, a method of displaying data on an array having a plurality of bi-stable display elements comprises receiving video data comprising a plurality of frames, displaying selected frames based upon a frame skip count, measuring the change between each selected frame and a frame previous to the selected frame, and displaying non-selected frames if the measured change is greater than or equal to a threshold.

Claims

1. A display, comprising:

at least one driving circuit; and

an array comprising a plurality of bi-stable display elements, the array being configured to be driven by the driving circuit,

wherein the driving circuit is configured to receive video data and provide at least a subset of the received video data to the array based on a frame skip count, the frame skip count indicating a number of refresh periods to skip before refreshing at least a portion of the array.

2. The display of claim 1, wherein the frame skip count is programmable.

3. The display of claim 2, wherein the frame skip count is dynamically determined.

4. The display of claim 1, wherein the driving circuit is further configured to provide a subset of the video data to the array based on changes that occur in one or more portions of the video data during a time period.

5. The display of claim 4, wherein the driving circuit is further configured to evaluate the changes in the video data on a pixel-by-pixel basis.

6. The display of claim 1, wherein the driving circuit is further configured to provide the video data based on a display mode.

7. The display of claim 1, further comprising a user input device, wherein determination of the frame skip count comprises a selection using the user input device.

8. A method of displaying data on an array having a plurality of bi-stable display elements, the method comprising:

receiving video data comprising a plurality of frames; and

displaying the received frames using a frame skip count.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

determining a measure of the change in video content between a selected frame of the plurality of frames and one or more frames received previous to the selected frame; and

changing the frame skip count based on comparing the measure to a threshold value.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein changing the frame skip count comprises increasing the frame skip count if the change in video content between the selected frame and one or more previous frames is small, and decreasing the frame skip count if the change in video content between the selected frame and the one or more previous frames is large.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein determining a measure of the change in video content comprises calculating a histogram using one or more frames previous to the selected frame, and determining the measure based on the histogram.

12. A system for displaying data on an array having a plurality of bi-stable display elements, the system comprising:

means for receiving video data comprising a plurality of frames; and

means for displaying frames using a frame skip count.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising:

means for determining a measure of the change in video content between a selected frame of the plurality of frames and one or more frames received previous to the selected frame; and

means for changing the frame skip count based on comparing the measure to a threshold value.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the means for changing the frame skip count comprises means for increasing the frame skip count if the change in video content between the selected frame and one or more previous frames is small, and means for decreasing the frame skip count if the change in video content between the selected frame and the one or more previous frames is large.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein means for determining the measure of the change in video content comprises means for calculating a histogram using one or more frames previous to the selected frame, and means for determining the measure of based on the histogram.

16. The system of claim 12 further comprising a user input means for receiving input from a user, wherein determination of the frame skip count comprises a selection using the user input means.

17. A system comprising:

a client comprising a bi-stable display; and

a server configured to provide frame skip count information to the client, the frame skip count information being used by the client to determine a video refresh rate for the bi-stable display of the client.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the server provides video data to the client based on the frame skip count information.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the frame skip count information is used to implement a video refresh rate for a particular region of the bi-stable display.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the location of the region is defined by the server.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the size of the region is defined by the server.

22. A server configured to provide frame skip count information to a client, the frame skip count being used by the client to implement a video refresh rate for a bi-stable display of the client.

23. The server of claim 22, wherein the frame skip count is used to implement a video refresh rate for one or more regions of the bi-stable display.

24. The server of claim 23, wherein the location of the one or more regions are defined by the server.

25. The server of claim 23, wherein the size of the one or more regions are defined by the server.

26. A system comprising:

a client device having a bi-stable display, the client device configured to provide frame skip count information; and

a server configured to receive frame skip count information from the client, and to provide video data to the client based on the frame skip count information.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the frame skip count information is used to implement a video refresh rate for one or more regions of the bi-stable display.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the location of the one or more regions are defined by the server.

29. The system of claim 27, wherein the size of the one or more regions are defined by the server.

30. The system of claim 26, wherein the client device comprises an input device, and wherein the frame skip count information provided by the client device is based on a selection made using the input device.