METHOD OF PROCESSING DATA AND DISPLAY APPARATUS FOR PERFORMING THE METHOD

• US 20110148908A1
• Filed: 10/29/2010
• Published: 06/23/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Display Company Limited (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Samsung Display Company Limited (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Inventors: KOH, Jai-Hyun, YOU, Bong-Hyun, BAE, Jae-Sung, JEONG, Jae-Won
• Granted Patent: US 8,780,133 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/590
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2300/0452 Details of colour pixel setup, e.g. pixel composed of a red, a blue and two green components
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/0457 Improvement of perceived resolution by subpixel rendering
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/06 Colour space transformation
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/02 characterised by the way in which colour is displayed details of colour display specific for CRTs G09G1/28; specific for flat matrix panels other than liquid crystal displays G09G3/2003; specific for liquid crystal displays G09G3/3607

Abstract

In a method of processing data of a display apparatus, red, green and blue data are gamut mapped as red, green, blue and white data. The red, green, blue and white data are reconstructed by means of subpixel rendering to generate metameric sets dot pixels composed for example of one such dot pixel having red and green color components and another such dot pixel having blue and white color components such that when the metameric set dot pixels is lit up it produces a white colored region on the display apparatus and when un-lit it appears as contrastingly dark colored region on the display apparatus. By selectively forcing one metameric set of dot pixels to be un-lit, the method allows an immediately adjacent metameric set of dot pixels to be lit-up as a contrasting white region on the display apparatus.

Claims

1. A machine-implemented method of automatically processing data signals of a display apparatus, the method comprising:

automatically mapping input color data signals into a different color gamut space supported by a repeating group of the display apparatus, said repeating group including red, green, blue and white subpixels wherein the repeating group substantially populates a display area of the display apparatus and subpixels of the repeating group are organized to provide adjacent and metameric pairs of dot pixels, each dot pixel having a plurality of differently colored subpixels;

automatically rendering the gamut mapped color data signals into coverage areas of adjacent metameric dot pixels of the display area; and

selectively setting at least one set of the metameric pairs of dot pixels to a black grayscale level based on the input color data signals so as to thereby assure that a clean black horizontal or vertical line will be perceived to appear in the display area that is substantially populated by said subpixel repeating group.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the selective setting of the at least one set of the metameric pairs of dot pixels to the predetermined black grayscale level comprises:

setting adjacent red and green subpixels or adjacent blue and white subpixels to the predetermined black grayscale level when grayscale levels of the inputted, green and blue data are approximately close to the predetermined black grayscale level in accordance with a predetermined nearness threshold.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the setting of the at least one set of the metameric pairs of dot pixels to the predetermined black grayscale level further comprises outputting the original red and green data or the blue and white data instead of the forced to black data when the grayscale levels of the red, green and blue data include the black grayscale level and the red, green and blue data include black dot data are part of a predetermined dot-check pattern.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein setting the red and green data or the blue and white data to the black grayscale level comprises:

setting the red and green data or the blue and white data to the black grayscale level when grayscale levels of the red, green, blue and white data include the black grayscale level; and

outputting the red and green data or the blue and white data when grayscale levels of the red, green, blue and white data include grayscale levels except for the black grayscale level.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein setting the red and green data or the blue and white data to the black grayscale level further comprises outputting the red and green data or the blue and white data when the grayscale levels of the red, green, blue and white data include the black grayscale level and the red, green, blue and white data include black dot data having a dot-check pattern.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a luminance level of a light source part using a histogram based on the red, green, blue and white data; and

redetermining the red, green, blue and white data based on the luminance level.

7. A method of processing data of a display apparatus, the method comprising:

mapping red, green and blue data as red, green, blue and white data;

selectively applying a blue shift algorithm to the red, green, blue and white data, the blue shift algorithm smoothly processing a color change between adjacent data; and

reconstructing the red, green, blue and white data to generate red and green data or blue and white data using the adjacent data adjacent to the red, green, blue and white data.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein selectively applying the blue shift algorithm to the red green, blue and white data comprises:

applying the blue shift algorithm to the red, green, blue and white data when the red, green, blue and white data are in a color display region; and

excluding the application of the blue shift algorithm when the red, green, blue and white data are in a text display region.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

determining a luminance level of a light source part using a histogram based on the red, green, blue and white data; and

redetermining the red, green, blue and white data based on the luminance level.

10. A display apparatus comprising:

a display panel having a display area substantially populated by a repeating group having a plurality of differently colored subpixels, the repeating group including white subpixels and the repeating group having a first subset of its subpixels defining a first class of off-white dot pixels and a second subset of its subpixels defining a second class of differently off-white dot pixels, where immediately adjacent ones the first and second off-white dot pixels define a metameric set of dot pixels such that, when the subpixels of the metameric set are all lit, they create a perception of a white lit region on the display panel in the region of the lit-up metameric set of dot pixels and when all are un-lit, they create a perception of a corresponding black region on the display panel in the region of the un-lit metameric set of dot pixels;

a light source part configured to provide backlighting light to the display panel; and

a data processing circuit that is configured to automatically force a first metameric set of dot pixels to a predetermined black grayscale level in response to automated detection of presence of a horizontal or vertical, near-black line being present in a supplied input signal defining a to be displayed image, the data processing circuit comprising;

a gamut mapping part configured to map color components of the supplied input signal into a gamut space defined by the subpixels of said repeating group that substantially populates the display area of the display panel; and

a subpixel rendering part configured to automatically reconstruct the gamut mapped color components for distributed reproduction by light outputting source points of the display area that is substantially populated by said repeating group, where the automatic reconstruction is based on an area resampling algorithm.

11. The display apparatus of claim 10, wherein the data processing circuit further comprises:

a first memory buffer configured to store a history of the supplied input signal that defines the to be displayed image; and

a black re-establishing part configured to automatically set to the predetermined black grayscale level an identified one or more metameric sets of dot pixels based on historic portions of the supplied input signal stored in the first memory buffer.

12. The display apparatus of claim 11, wherein the black re-establishing part is further configured to automatically bypass its operation of setting to the predetermined black grayscale level in response to detection of a predetermined checkerboard pattern.

13. The display apparatus of claim 10, wherein the data processing circuit further comprises a memory buffer configured to store data outputted from the gamut mapping part, and

wherein the subpixel rendering part is configured to reconstruct the gamut mapped color components based on historic portions of the gamut mapped data stored in the memory buffer.

14. The display apparatus of claim 13, wherein the subpixel rendering part is configured to automatically bypass a black level forcing operation thereof in response to detection of a predetermined checkerboard pattern in the gamut mapped data stored in the memory buffer.

15. display apparatus of claim 10, wherein the data processing circuit further comprises:

a luminance controller configured to determine a luminance level of a light source part using a histogram based on the gamut mapped color components; and

a scaler configured to redetermine the gamut mapped color components based on the luminance level determined by the luminance controller.

16. A machine-implemented method that automatically renders sharp contrasted dark lines on a display panel having a display area substantially populated by a repeating group having a plurality of differently colored subpixels, the repeating group including white subpixels and the repeating group having a first subset of its subpixels defining a first class of off-white dot pixels and a second subset of its subpixels defining a second class of differently off-white dot pixels, where immediately adjacent ones the first and second off-white dot pixels define a metameric set of dot pixels such that, when the subpixels of the metameric set are all lit, they create a perception of a white lit region on the display panel in the region of the lit-up metameric set of dot pixels and when all are un-lit, they create a perception of a corresponding black region on the display panel in the region of the un-lit metameric set of dot pixels, the method comprising:

(a) automatically first determining from a supplied input signal that defines a to be displayed image that is to be displayed by said display panel, a presence of a darkly colored vertical or horizontal line; and

(b) in response to said first automatic determination, automatically forcing one or more of the metameric sets of dot pixels to have a predetermined dark level, where the forced one or more of the metameric sets are located substantially where the darkly colored vertical or horizontal line is to be displayed, whereby said automatic forcing to dark of the one or more metameric sets of dot pixels allows other metameric sets of dot pixels to be contrastingly lit up to display white.