DISPLAY DEVICE AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING DISPLAY DEVICE

• US 20110134145A1
• Filed: 11/19/2010
• Published: 06/09/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Moriwaki, Toshiki
• Granted Patent: US 8,890,911 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/660
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1652 the display being flexible, e.g. mimicking a sheet of paper, or rollable
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04102 Flexible digitiser, i.e. constructional details for allowing the whole digitising part of a device to be flexed or rolled like a sheet of paper
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03 Arrangements for converting the position or the displacement of a member into a coded form
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2300/0426 Layout of electrodes and connections
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/0464 Positioning
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/035 for flexible display surfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/22 using controlled light sources
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3208 organic, e.g. using organic light-emitting diodes [OLED]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 345/903 Modular display

Abstract

A display device includes a flexible substrate, a display unit including multiple light-emitting elements arranged at the substrate and configured to display an image according to an image signal, a displacement sensor provided to at least one of a front surface and a back surface of the substrate and configured to detect a curved state of the substrate, and a control unit configured to execute a control by which the image is split and displayed in the display unit when a curve of the substrate is detected by the displacement sensor.

Claims

1. A display device comprising:

a flexible substrate;

a display unit including multiple light-emitting elements arranged at the substrate and configured to display an image according to an image signal;

a displacement sensor provided to at least one of a front surface and a back surface of the substrate and configured to detect a curved state of the substrate; and

a control unit configured to execute a control by which the image is split and displayed in the display unit when a curve of the substrate is detected by the displacement sensor.

2. The display device according to claim 1, wherein the control unit controls a split of the image displayed in the display unit according to a curve amount of the substrate.

3. The display device according to claim 2, wherein the control unit controls the split of the image displayed in the display unit according to the curve amount of the substrate and a curve position of the substrate.

4. The display device according to claim 2, further comprising:

an image region arithmetic unit configured to calculate a split amount and a reduction percentage of an image region based on a lookup table specifying a relation between an output of the displacement sensor and an image split control amount;

wherein the control unit controls the split of the image displayed in the display unit based on the split amount and the reduction percentage of the image region calculated by the image region arithmetic unit.

5. The display device according to claim 1, wherein, when the substrate is bending, the control unit controls a split of the image displayed in the display unit in a moderate manner compared to when the substrate is recovering.

6. The display device according to claim 1, wherein, when the curve is such that a display surface of the display unit is a convex portion in a result of detection of the curved state by the displacement sensor, the control unit controls a split of the image displayed in the display unit in a moderate manner compared to when the curve is such that the display surface of the display unit is a concave portion.

7. The display device according to claim 1, wherein the displacement sensor includes a pair of transparent electrodes formed of ITO or IZO and is configured to detect the curved state of the substrate based on a change in resistance value between the pair of transparent electrodes.

8. A method of controlling a display device, comprising the steps of:

detecting a curved state of a flexible substrate provided with a display unit configured to display an image according to an image signal; and

executing a control by which the image is split and displayed in the display unit when a curve of the substrate is detected in the step of detecting the curved state.