Methods and apparatuses for the automated display of visual effects

• US 7,355,606 B2
• Filed: 04/18/2007
• Issued: 04/08/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/2003
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Paquette, Michael James
• Primary Examiner(s): Sajous; Wesner
• Application Number:
  US11/788,316
• Publication Number:
  US 20070195109A1
• Time in Patent Office: 356 Days
• Field of Search: 345589-593, 345/597, 345/633, 345600-604, 345/619, 345/520, 345/522, 345/549, 345/204, 345690-691, 348673-678, 348577-582, 348514-519, 358515-520, 382/162, 382/167, 715/722, 715/726
• US Class Current: 345/589
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/001 Texturing; Colouring; Generation of texture or colour inpainting G06T5/77
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0276 for the purpose of adaptation to the characteristics of a display device, i.e. gamma correction
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/04 Maintaining the quality of display appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0666 for control of colour parameters, e.g. colour temperature
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0673 for control of gamma adjustment, e.g. selecting another gamma curve
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0693 Calibration of display systems
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/18 Use of a frame buffer in a display terminal, inclusive of the display panel
• 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 5/06 using colour palettes, e.g. look-up tables
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/202 Gamma control circuits for controlling camera response irrespective of the scene brightness H04N23/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/74 for obtaining special effects H04N9/65 - H04N9/73 take precedence

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses for the generation of visual effects according to the elapsed time for real time display. One embodiment of the present invention provides an automated mechanism for displaying visual effects (e.g., fade to or from a target color) through adjusting color correction parameters (e.g., the look up table for gamma correction) without disturbing display color calibration settings for the current display device. Time-based adjustments are made in small steps in the beginning and end and large steps in the middle of the transition to provide perceptually smooth transition effect. In one embodiment, a operating system resource is provided to manage, synchronously or asynchronously, the visual effect on behalf of requesting applications, simplifying the coding of the application programs and providing consistency across application programs. In one embodiment, the operating system resource uses a reservation system to prevent conflict and interference between application programs.

Claims

1. A method of producing a visual transition effect on a display of a data processing system comprising:

receiving requests for the visual transition effect from at least one application program executing on the data processing device;

generating a gamma correction data structure, wherein color correction parameters in the gamma correction data structure are varied over time to create a time-varying visual transition effect; and

loading the gamma data structure into a display controller to drive the display.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the gamma data structure is accomplished by blending a normal gamma data structure calibrated for the display with a target color according to a specified blending function.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the blending function is a function of elapsed time from the beginning of the transition effect.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the function of elapsed time is a sine function, such that the visual effect proceeds in small steps at the beginning and end of the transition and in larger steps in mid-transition, resulting in a perceptually smoother transition effect.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the elapsed time is measured by a real-time clock which measures time during the producing of the visual transition effect.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the visual transition effect is a fade effect.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one application program draws a display contents onto a frame buffer by performing the following:

generating a color data for various pixels; and

storing the color data in corresponding locations in the frame buffer for the pixels.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the display controller drives the display by combining the time-varying color correction parameters loaded into the display controller with the display contents in the frame buffer.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one application program is allowed to execute operations while the transition effect is in progress.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one application program is not allowed to execute operations until the visual transition effect is completed.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising restoring, after an expiration of a reservation time set by an application, the color correction parameters to values for normal display.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the color correction parameters are restored to values for normal display by loading the normal gamma data structure calibrated for the display back into the display controller.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the data structure is a lookup table.

15. The medium of claim 13, wherein generating the gamma data structure is accomplished by blending a normal gamma data structure calibrated for the display with a target color according to a specified blending function.

14. A machine-storage medium containing executable instructions which when executed by a data processing system cause the system to perform a method to produce a visual transition effect on a display of the data processing system, the method comprising:

receiving requests for the visual transition effect from at least one application program executing on the data processing device;

generating a gamma correction data structure by blending a normal gamma data structure calibrated for the display with a target color according to a specified blending function, wherein color correction parameters in the gamma correction data structure are varied over time to create a time-varying visual transition effect; and

loading the gamma data structure into a display controller to drive the display.

16. The medium of claim 14, wherein the blending function is a function of elapsed time from the beginning of the transition effect.

17. The medium of claim 14, wherein the function of elapsed time is a sine function, such that the visual effect proceeds in small steps at the beginning and end of the transition and in larger steps in mid-transition, resulting in a perceptually smoother transition effect.

19. The automated mechanism of claim 17, wherein the blending function is a function of elapsed time from the beginning of the transition effect.

18. An automated mechanism for producing a visual transition effect on a display of a data processing system comprising:

means for receiving requests for the visual transition effect from at least one application program executing on the data processing device;

means for generating a gamma correction data structure by blending a normal gamma data structure calibrated for the display with a target color according to a specified blending function, wherein color correction parameters are varied over time to create a time-varying visual transition effect; and

means for loading the gamma data structure into a display controller to drive the display.

20. The automated of claim 18, wherein the function of elapsed time is a sine function, such that the visual effect proceeds in small steps at the beginning and end of the transition and in larger steps in mid-transition, resulting in a perceptually smoother transition effect.

22. The data processing system of claim 20, wherein the gamma correction data structure is temporarily loaded into the display controller for adjusting color correction parameters.

24. The data processing system of claim 22, wherein the function of elapsed time is a sine function, such that the visual effect proceeds in small steps at the beginning and end of the transition and in larger steps in mid-transition, resulting in a perceptually smoother transition effect.

25. The data processing system of claim 20, wherein the effect manager allows the visual transition effect to proceed without intervention from the at least one requesting application.

26. The data processing system of claim 20, wherein each value in the gamma data structure is a weighted average of a corresponding value in the normal gamma data structure calibrated for the display and a corresponding value of the target color.

27. The data processing system of claim 20, wherein color correction parameters are adjusted by the operating system without disturbing display color calibration settings for the current display.

28. The data processing system of claim 20, wherein the frame buffer is a memory on the display controller that generates the signals to drive the display periodically at a display refreshing frequency.

21. A data processing system for producing a visual transition effect on a display of a data processing system comprising:

a display controller comprising;

a frame buffer to drive the display; and

a normal gamma correction look up table calibrated for the display;

at least one requesting application executing on the data processing device to generate input signals of a display content; and

an operating system executing on the data processing system to manage the visual transition effect on behalf of the at least one requesting application comprising an effect manager to generate a gamma correction data structure by blending a normal gamma data structure calibrated for the display with a target color according to a specified blending function, wherein color correction parameters in the gamma correction data structure are varied over time to create a time-varying visual transition effect.

23. The data processing system of claim 21, wherein the blending function is a function of elapsed time from the beginning of the transition effect.