SELECTIVE REDUCTION OF BLUE LIGHT IN A DISPLAY FRAME

• US 20180130446A1
• Filed: 07/28/2017
• Published: 05/10/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/07/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: GUEST, Daniel James, DAI, Min, OLIVER, Robyn Teresa
• Granted Patent: US 10,482,843 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/147 using display panels
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0613 The adjustment depending on the type of the information to be displayed
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/062 Adjustment of illumination source parameters
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0646 Modulation of illumination source brightness and image signal correlated to each other
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0666 for control of colour parameters, e.g. colour temperature
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0686 with two or more screen areas displaying information with different brightness or colours
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/08 Arrangements within a display terminal for setting, manually or automatically, display parameters of the display terminal
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/103 Detection of image changes, e.g. determination of an index representative of the image change
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2354/00 Aspects of interface with display user
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/16 Calculation or use of calculated indices related to luminance levels in display data
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/16 Use of wireless transmission of display information
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2380/08 Biomedical applications
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3413 Details of control of colour illumination sources
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/022 using memory planes
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/04 using circuits for interfacing with colour displays
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/10 Intensity circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/14 Display of multiple viewports

Abstract

In an embodiment, a user equipment (UE) coupled to a display screen enters into a reduced blue light (RBL) mode. The UE determines, while operating in accordance with the RBL mode, a degree of blue light reduction in at least a portion of a display frame to be output on the display screen using at least one RBL rule from a set of RBL rules that is based upon one or more of (i) application-specific information of an application that is contributing image data to the portion of the display frame, and (ii) content-specific information that characterizes the image data in the portion of the display frame. The UE selectively reduces the blue light in the at least a portion of the display frame based on the determining. The UE sends the display frame with the selectively reduced blue light portion to the display screen for output.

Claims

1. A method of operating a user equipment (UE) coupled to a display screen, comprising:

entering into a reduced blue light (RBL) mode;

determining, while operating in accordance with the RBL mode, a degree of blue light reduction in at least a portion of a display frame to be output on the display screen using at least one RBL rule from a set of RBL rules that is based upon one or more of (i) application-specific information of an application that is contributing image data to the portion of the display frame, and (ii) content-specific information that characterizes the image data in the portion of the display frame;

selectively reducing the blue light in the at least a portion of the display frame based on the determining; and

sending the display frame with the selectively reduced blue light portion to the display screen for output.

2. The method of claim 1,

wherein the at least a portion corresponds to an entirety of the display frame, or

wherein the at least a portion corresponds to less than all of the display frame.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one RBL rule includes a system-defined rule, a default RBL rule, a user-defined RBL rule or an RBL rule based on environmental data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one RBL rule is based upon the application-specific information.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the application-specific information includes an application type of the application.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the determining determines the degree of blue light reduction in the at least a portion of the display frame based on a combination of the application-specific information and the content-specific information.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one RBL rule is based upon the content-specific information.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the content-specific information includes one or more of a type, priority and prominence of content in the at least a portion of the display frame.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more of the type, priority and prominence of content in the at least a portion of the display frame is based upon pixel colors used in the image data.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

determining that the image data in the at least a portion of the display frame includes a picture content type, a video content type or a textual content type based on the pixel colors used in the image data,

wherein the at least one RBL rule permits a level of blue light in the at least a portion of the display frame based on the determined content type.

11. The method of claim 8,

wherein the content-specific information indicates that the image data in the at least a portion of the display frame has a priority that is above a priority threshold,

wherein the at least one RBL rule permits a level of blue light that is above a default blue light level defined by the RBL mode in the at least a portion of the display frame based on the priority determination.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the priority of the image data being above the threshold is based on the image data being contained within a region of interest to a user of the UE, a high relative prominence or size of the image data within the display frame, and/or presence of one or more memory colors within the image data based upon object identification.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more of the determining and the selectively reducing are based upon the at least one RBL rule in conjunction with one or more contextual weighting factors.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein at least one of the one or more contextual weighting factors is based on historical data.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the at least one contextual weighting factor is applied by determining, based on the historical data, that a user of the UE is expected to be sensitive to the determined degree of blue light reduction, and setting the blue light in the at least a portion of the display frame to an intermediate level instead of the determined degree of blue light reduction in response to the user sensitivity determination.

16. The method of claim 15,

wherein the user sensitivity determination determines that the user of the UE is expected to be sensitive to a low or high blue light environment, and

wherein the blue light in the at least a portion of the display frame to the intermediate level is set to be less than or more than specified by the determined degree of blue light reduction in response to the user sensitivity determination.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the selectively reducing, over a period of time and a number of display frames, transitions the blue light in the at least a portion from the intermediate level to the determined degree of blue light reduction.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the historical data includes user-specific historical data and/or display screen-specific historical data.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the user-specific historical data is based upon user feedback from previous entries of the UE into the RBL mode.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the display screen-specific historical data is based on light conditions preceding the entering.

21. The method of claim 14, wherein at least one of the one or more contextual weighting factors is based upon whether the determined degree of blue light reduction in the at least a portion of the display frame adds one or more negative contrast effects to the display frame based on.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the selectively reducing includes:

determining that the determined degree of blue light reduction in the at least a portion of the display frame adds the one or more negative contrast effects to the display frame, and

lowering the determined degree of blue light reduction to reduce or eliminate the one or more negative contrast effects.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining determines the determined degree of blue light reduction using multiple RBL rules that are factored in accordance with a rule hierarchy.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the selectively reducing further reduces non-blue light in the at least a portion of the display frame to supplement the selective reduction to the blue light so as to produce a warmer color temperature relative to a color temperature in display frames prior to the entering.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the non-blue light includes green light.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more other portions of the display frame separate from the at least a portion of the display frame are allocated a different degree of blue light reduction or no blue light reduction.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein the selectively reducing reduces the blue light with or without impacting an overall brightness output by the display screen.

28. A user equipment (UE) coupled to a display screen, comprising:

at least one processor configured to;

enter into a reduced blue light (RBL) mode;

determine, while operating in accordance with the RBL mode, a degree of blue light reduction in at least a portion of a display frame to be output on the display screen using at least one RBL rule from a set of RBL rules that is based upon one or more of (i) application-specific information of an application that is contributing image data to the portion of the display frame, and (ii) content-specific information that characterizes the image data in the portion of the display frame;

selectively reduce the blue light in the at least a portion of the display frame based on the determination; and

send the display frame with the selectively reduced blue light portion to the display screen for output.

29. A user equipment (UE) coupled to a display screen, comprising:

means for entering into a reduced blue light (RBL) mode;

means for determining, while operating in accordance with the RBL mode, a degree of blue light reduction in at least a portion of a display frame to be output on the display screen using at least one RBL rule from a set of RBL rules that is based upon one or more of (i) application-specific information of an application that is contributing image data to the portion of the display frame, and (ii) content-specific information that characterizes the image data in the portion of the display frame;

means for selectively reducing the blue light in the at least a portion of the display frame based on the determination; and

means for sending the display frame with the selectively reduced blue light portion to the display screen for output.

30. A non-transitory computer-readable medium containing instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a user equipment (UE) coupled to a display screen, cause the UE to perform operations, the instructions including:

at least one instruction to cause the UE to enter into a reduced blue light (RBL) mode;

at least one instruction to cause the UE to determine, while operating in accordance with the RBL mode, a degree of blue light reduction in at least a portion of a display frame to be output on the display screen using at least one RBL rule from a set of RBL rules that is based upon one or more of (i) application-specific information of an application that is contributing image data to the portion of the display frame, and (ii) content-specific information that characterizes the image data in the portion of the display frame;

at least one instruction to cause the UE to selectively reduce the blue light in the at least a portion of the display frame based on the determination; and

at least one instruction to cause the UE to send the display frame with the selectively reduced blue light portion to the display screen for output.