SYSTEM, METHOD, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR PROVIDING A DYNAMIC DISPLAY REFRESH

• US 20140092113A1
• Filed: 09/11/2013
• Published: 04/03/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
• Original Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
• Inventors: Wyatt, David, Kilgariff, Emmett M., Huang, Jensen, Slavenburg, Gerrit A., Fox, Thomas F., Stears, David Matthew, Schutten, Robert Jan, Cunniff, Ross, Kamalvanshi, Ajay, Petersen, Tom, van der Kouwe, Paul, Harrison, Laurence, Tamasi, Tony, Osborne, Robert, Dimitrov, Rouslan L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,866,833 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/545
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0247 Flicker reduction other than flicker reduction circuits used for single beam cathode-ray tubes
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/0435 Change or adaptation of the frame rate of the video stream
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/001 Arbitration of resources in a display system, e.g. control of access to frame buffer by video controller and/or main processor
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/12 Synchronisation between the display unit and other units, e.g. other display units, video-disc players
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/395 Arrangements specially adapted for transferring the contents of the bit-mapped memory to the screen G09G5/399 takes precedence

Abstract

A system, method, and computer program product are provided for a dynamic display refresh. In use, a state of a display device is identified in which an entirety of an image frame is currently displayed by the display device. In response to the identification of the state, it is determined whether an entirety of a next image frame to be displayed has been rendered to memory. The next image frame is transmitted to the display device for display thereof, when it is determined that the entirety of the next image frame to be displayed has been rendered to the memory. Further, a refresh of the display device is delayed, when it is determined that the entirety of the next image frame to be displayed has not been rendered to the memory.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

identifying a state of a display device in which an entirety of an image frame is currently displayed by the display device;

in response to the identification of the state, determining whether an entirety of a next image frame to be displayed has been rendered to memory;

delaying a refresh of the display device, when it is determined that the entirety of the next image frame to be displayed has not been rendered to the memory; and

transmitting the next image frame to the display device for display thereof, when it is determined that the entirety of the next image frame to be displayed has been rendered to the memory.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the state of the display device in which the entirety of the image frame is displayed by the display device is identified in response to completion of a last scan line of the display device being painted.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the memory includes a buffer.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the buffer is one of two buffers to which image frames are capable of being rendered.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein image frames in a sequence of image frames are alternately rendered to the two buffers.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein in response to the identification of the state, the next image frame is transmitted to the display device for display thereof as fast as possible upon the determination that the entirety of the next image frame to be displayed has been rendered to the memory.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein when it is determined that the entirety of the next image frame to be displayed has not been rendered to the memory, the refresh of the display device is delayed until the refresh of the display device is delayed for a threshold amount of time or it is determined that the entirety of the next image frame to be displayed has been rendered to the memory, whichever occurs first.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising repeating the display of the image frame displayed by the display device when the refresh of the display device being delayed for the threshold amount of time occurs before the determination that the entirety of the next image frame to be displayed has been rendered to the memory.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the repeating of the display of the image frame is performed by a graphics processing unit re-transmitting the image frame to the display device.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the repeating of the display of the image frame is performed by the display device displaying the image frame from a buffer internal to the display device.

11. The method of claim 7, and further comprising transmitting the next image frame to the display device for display thereof, when the determination that the entirety of the next image frame to be displayed has been rendered to the memory occurs before the refresh of the display device being delayed for the threshold amount of time.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein the threshold amount of time is specific to a model of the display device.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising, when the entirety of the next image frame to be displayed has been rendered to the memory before an entirety of the repeated image frame is displayed by the display device, waiting for the entirety of the repeated image frame to be displayed by the display device and transmitting the next image frame to the display device for display thereof in response to identifying a state of the display device in which the entirety of the repeated image frame is displayed by the display device.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising, when the entirety of the next image frame to be displayed has been rendered to the memory before an entirety of the repeated image frame is displayed by the display device, transmitting the next image frame to the display device for display thereof without identifying a state of the display device in which the entirety of the repeated image frame is displayed by the display device.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein upon receipt of the next image frame by the display device, the display device interrupts painting of the repeated image frame on a display screen of the display device and begins painting of the next image frame on the display screen of the display device at a point of the interruption, resulting in simultaneous display by the display device of a portion of the repeated image frame and a portion of the next image frame.

16. The method of claim 8, wherein upon receipt of the next image frame by the display device, the display device interrupts painting of the repeated image frame on a display screen of the display device and begins painting of the next image frame on the display screen of the display device at a first scan line of the display screen of the display device, allowing for an entirety of the next image frame being displayed by the display device.

17. The method of claim 7, wherein the refresh of the display device is delayed by one of:

waiting up to a predetermined period of time before transmitting any further image frames to the display device;

or

instructing the display device to ignore an unwanted image frame transmitted to the display device when hardware of a graphics processing unit will not wait up to the predetermined period of time before transmitting any further image frames to the display device.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein smoothness of motion for moving objects is provided via a constant delay between completion of rendering of an image frame and painting of the image frame to the display device.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein an amount of system power used is reduced when the refresh of the display device is delayed.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is performed by a graphics processing unit (GPU).

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the display device is a stereo display device displaying image frames having both left content intended for viewing by a left eye of a viewer and right content intended for viewing by a right eye of the viewer.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the delaying of the refresh of the display device is performed by a graphics processing unit, and wherein during the delay the display device automatically repeats display of the image frame at a preconfigured frequency until the next image frame is transmitted to the display device.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein when the entirety of the previously rendered image frame has been displayed by the display device, the next image frame is transmitted to the display device as soon the entirety of the next image frame to be displayed has been rendered to the memory, such that for a display device that includes a touch screen latency is reduced.

24. A computer program product embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium, comprising:

computer code for identifying a state of a display device in which an entirety of an image frame is currently displayed by the display device;

computer code for, in response to the identification of the state, determining whether an entirety of a next image frame to be displayed has been rendered to memory;

computer code for delaying a refresh of the display device, when it is determined that the entirety of the next image frame to be displayed has not been rendered to the memory; and

computer code for transmitting the next image frame to the display device for display thereof, when it is determined that the entirety of the next image frame to be displayed has been rendered to the memory.

25. An apparatus, comprising:

at least one processor for;

identifying a state of a display device in which an entirety of an image frame is currently displayed by the display device;

in response to the identification of the state, determining whether an entirety of a next image frame to be displayed has been rendered to memory;

delaying a refresh of the display device, when it is determined that the entirety of the next image frame to be displayed has not been rendered to the memory; and

transmitting the next image frame to the display device for display thereof, when it is determined that the entirety of the next image frame to be displayed has been rendered to the memory.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the processor remains in communication with the memory and the display device via a bus.