DISPLAY DEVICE AND DISPLAY METHOD THEREFOR

• US 20120249610A1
• Filed: 05/19/2010
• Published: 10/04/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Katagami, Masayuki, Ban, Atsushi, Tsubata, Toshihide, Yoshida, Takehisa
• Application Number:
  US13/498,149
• Publication Number:
  US 20120249610A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/690
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/133514 Colour filters
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 2201/52 RGB geometrical arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0242 Compensation of deficiencies in the appearance of colours
• 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 2320/0646 Modulation of illumination source brightness and image signal correlated to each other
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3426 the different display panel areas being distributed in two dimensions, e.g. matrix
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3648 using an active matrix G09G3/367 - G09G3/3696 take precedence

Abstract

In the present display device with each pixel being composed of subpixels of four or more colors, a backlight data processing portion sets a backlight source luminance to be high enough to compensate for a display luminance reduction caused by a maximum luminance adjustment portion (332) multiplying input pixel data for G by an adjustment gain, such that the value of the input pixel data for G does not exceed the maximum pixel value, after a G correction portion (331) corrects the input pixel data for G to compensate for a display luminance reduction due to the area of (subpixel) G being half of others. Thus, it is possible to realize high color reproducibility and a high luminance as realized by conventional liquid crystal display devices with a three-color, RGB, pixel configuration.

Claims

1. A display device having a function of controlling a backlight luminance, comprising:

a display panel for displaying an image on the basis of external video data, having each pixel being composed of subpixels of four or more colors;

a backlight including light sources whose luminances are controllable;

a luminance adjustment portion for, when a tone value exceeding a predetermined limit is to be provided to any subpixel of a specific color among all pixels included in the display panel, decreasing tone values to be provided to all subpixels of the specific color to a predetermined limit or less and correspondingly decreasing tone values to be provided to all subpixels of the other colors; and

a lighting control portion for controlling the luminances of the light sources to increase, thereby compensating for a display luminance reduction of the subpixels due to the tone values being decreased.

2. The display device according to claim 1, further comprising a maximum value calculation portion for calculating a maximum of the tone values to be provided to the subpixels of the specific color included in the video data for one frame period, wherein,

when the maximum value calculated by the maximum value calculation portion is greater than or equal to a predetermined limit, the luminance adjustment portion decreases the tone values, and

the lighting control portion controls the luminance of the light sources to increase in accordance with the maximum value calculated by the maximum value calculation portion.

3. The display device according to claim 1, wherein the luminance adjustment portion includes:

a specific-color correction portion for multiplying the tone values to be provided to the subpixels of the specific color by a predetermined correction gain, thereby generating corrected tone values to be provided to the subpixels of the specific color; and

a luminance decrease adjustment portion for, when any of the corrected tone values is greater than or equal to the limit, multiplying both the corrected tone values and the tone values to be provided to the subpixels of the other colors by a predetermined adjustment gain, thereby decreasing the tone values.

4. The display device according to claim 1, wherein the luminance adjustment portion includes a polychromatic allocation portion for allocating red, green, and blue pixel data included in the video data to the tone values to be provided to the subpixels of four or more colors.

5. The display device according to claim 1, wherein each of the pixels includes at least a white subpixel, in addition to red, green, and blue subpixels.

6. The display device according to claim 5, wherein the specific color is green, and the green subpixel has a smaller display area than at least one of the subpixels of the other colors.

7. The display device according to claim 1, wherein each of the pixels includes a yellow or cyan subpixel, or subpixels of both colors, in addition to red, green, and blue subpixels.

8. The display device according to claim 1, wherein the subpixels of the specific color have a lower relative luminance than the subpixels of the other colors.

9. A display method for a display device having a function of controlling a luminance of a backlight, the method comprising:

a luminance adjustment step of, when a tone value exceeding a predetermined limit is to be provided to any subpixel of a specific color among all pixels included in a display panel, decreasing tone values to be provided to all subpixels of the specific color to a predetermined limit or less and correspondingly decreasing tone values to be provided to all subpixels of the other colors, wherein the display panel has pixels each being composed of subpixels of four or more colors, and displays an image on the basis of external video data; and

a lighting control step of controlling luminances of light sources included in the backlight to increase, thereby compensating for a display luminance reduction of the subpixels due to the tone values being decreased.