Adaptive Calibration for Ambient Light Sensors

• US 20160370231A1
• Filed: 09/22/2015
• Published: 12/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Agahian, Farnaz, Wu, Jiaying, Jia, Zhang, Chen, Cheng
• Granted Patent: US 10,019,926 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 1/4204 with determination of ambient light solar light G01J2001/4266
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 2003/467 Colour computing
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/50 using electric radiation detectors
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/505 measuring the colour produced by lighting fixtures other than screens, monitors, displays or CRTs
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0233 Improving the luminance or brightness uniformity across the screen
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0242 Compensation of deficiencies in the appearance of colours
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0693 Calibration of display systems
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/06 Colour space transformation
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/144 the light being ambient light
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/2003 Display of colours specific for liquid crystal displays G09G3/3607

Abstract

An electronic device may be provided with a display mounted in a housing. A color sensing ambient light sensor may measure the color of ambient light. The color sensing ambient light sensor may produce sensor output signals in a device-dependent color space. Control circuitry in the electronic device may convert the sensor output signals from the device-dependent color space to a device-independent color space using a color converting matrix. The color converting matrix may be determined using stored training data. The training data may include color data for different training light sources. The training data may be weighted to selectively control the influence of the training data on the color converting matrix. The training data may be weighted based on a distance between the training color data and a target color in the detected ambient light.

Claims

1. An electronic device that is exposed to ambient light that has an ambient light color, comprising:

a color sensing ambient light sensor that detects the ambient light and that produces a corresponding sensor output signal; and

control circuitry that determines a color converting matrix based on the detected ambient light and that converts the sensor output signal from a device-dependent color space to a device-independent color space using the color converting matrix to obtain an ambient light color value indicative of the ambient light color.

2. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the color sensing ambient light sensor has at least six light detectors each having a respective spectral sensitivity profile.

3. The electronic device defined in claim 1 further comprising a display that displays images for a user, wherein the control circuitry adjusts the display at least partly based on the ambient light color value.

4. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the control circuitry determines a target color based on the sensor output signal and wherein the color converting matrix is determined based on the target color.

5. The electronic device defined in claim 4 wherein the control circuitry stores training data corresponding to a plurality of different training light sources and wherein the color converting matrix is determined based on the stored training data.

6. The electronic device defined in claim 5 wherein the control circuitry weights the training data based on the target color.

7. The electronic device defined in claim 5 wherein the control circuitry weights the training data by determining a weighting value for each training light source based on how close the training light source is to the target color, and wherein the color converting matrix is determined based on the weighting values.

8. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the color sensing ambient light sensor has a semiconductor substrate and has at least five light detectors in the semiconductor substrate each having a respective spectral sensitivity profile.

9. The electronic device defined in claim 8 further comprising an infrared light sensor in the semiconductor substrate.

10. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the light sensor includes a red channel, a green channel, a blue channel, and a clear channel.

11. A method for operating an electronic device having a color sensing ambient light sensor and control circuitry, comprising:

with the color sensing ambient light sensor, producing a sensor output signal in response to receiving ambient light; and

with the control circuitry, determining a target color based on the sensor output signal, computing a color converting matrix based on the target color, and converting the sensor output signal from a first color space to a second color space using the color converting matrix.

12. The method defined in claim 11 wherein converting the sensor output signal from the first color space to the second color space comprises converting the sensor output signal from a device-dependent color space to a device-independent color space.

13. The method defined in claim 11 wherein the control circuitry stores training data comprising a plurality of color values, each color value corresponding to an associated training light source, the method further comprising:

determining a difference between the target color and each of the color values.

14. The method defined in claim 13 further comprising:

determining a weighting value for each stored color value based on the difference between the target color and that stored color value.

15. The method defined in claim 14 wherein computing the color converting matrix comprises computing the color converting matrix based on the weighting values.

16. A method for calibrating a color sensing ambient light sensor in an electronic device, wherein the color sensing ambient light sensor comprises a plurality of photodetectors with different spectral responses, the method comprising:

gathering spectral response data from the color sensing ambient light sensor;

gathering spectral power distribution data for a plurality of light sources;

processing the gathered spectral response data and the gathered spectral power distribution data to produce a first set of data corresponding to sensor output values for each of the light sources in a first color space and a second set of data corresponding to color values for each of the light sources in a second color space; and

storing the first and second sets of data in the electronic device.

17. The method defined in claim 16 wherein processing the gathered spectral response data and the gathered spectral power distribution data comprises multiplying the spectral power distribution data by the spectral response data to obtain the first set of data.

18. The method defined in claim 17 wherein processing the gathered spectral response data and the gathered spectral power distribution data comprises multiplying the spectral power distribution data by a set of color matching functions to obtain the second set of data.

19. The method defined in claim 18 wherein the first color space is a device-dependent color space defined at least in part by red values, green values, and blue values.

20. The method defined in claim 19 wherein the second color space is a device-independent color space defined at least in part by chromaticity coordinates.