Display image generation with differential illumination

• US 7,391,475 B2
• Filed: 03/14/2003
• Issued: 06/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Dixon, Brian S, Pate, Michael A, Allen, William J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Yenke; Brian P
• Application Number:
  US10/388,720
• Publication Number:
  US 20030231260A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,929 Days
• Field of Search: 348/602, 348/603, 348/687, 348/744, 348/777, 345/590
• US Class Current: 348/602
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 26/008 in the form of devices for effecting sequential colour changes, e.g. colour wheels
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/3114 by using a sequential colour filter producing one colour at a time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/3155 for controlling the light source light source control per se H05B35/00 – H05B47/00; control of an illumination source for displays in general G09G3/3406
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/3182 Colour adjustment, e.g. white balance, shading or gamut white balance per se H04N9/73; control of amplitude of colour signals H04N9/68; colour control circuits for displays in general G09G5/02, G09G3/2003, G09G3/3607
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/73 Colour balance circuits, e.g. white balance circuits or colour temperature control camera processing pipelines for colour balance H04N23/88

Abstract

A method of producing a display image comprises receiving image information representing an image to be displayed, producing an image formed of a plurality of images of different colors, and projecting the produced image along an optical path. The differently colored images have color intensities related to energy applied to a light source. A level of energy is applied to the light source during production of the image of one color that is different than the level of energy applied to the light source during production of the image of another color.

Claims

1. A display system comprising:

an image source having a light source, the image source being configured to produce, in response to received image information, a composite image formed of a plurality of component images, each component image being of a different color and, having a color intensity that corresponds to energy applied to the light source, the energy applied during production of a component image of one color being greater than the energy applied during production of a component image of another color; and

a display device configured to display the plurality of images produced by the image source;

wherein the image source is further configured to apply different levels of energy during production of the component image of the one color.

2. The display system of claim 1, wherein the image source is configured to produce the image of the one color for a given duration and with a pulse of applied energy having a duration less than the given duration and a level of energy different than the level of the energy applied during the remainder of the given duration.

3. The display system of claim 1, further comprising an identifier configured to identify a display condition associated with the display of an image, the image source configured to apply energy appropriate to produce the image based on the identified display condition.

4. The display system of claim 3, wherein the identifier includes at least one of a selectable-gamut selector and an image-content analyzer, configured to cooperate with the image source to produce a colored image based on a respective one of a selected gamut and an image content.

5. A display system comprising:

an image source having a light source, the image source being configured to produce, in response to received image information, an image formed of a plurality of images of different colors, each image having a color intensity that corresponds to energy applied to the light source, the image of the one color being produced for a given duration with a pulse of applied energy having a duration less than the given duration and a level of energy different than the level of the energy applied during the remainder of the given duration; and

a display device coupled to the image source and configured to project the differently colored images along an optical path to produce, when displayed, a color image formed of the differently colored images.

6. An image projector comprising:

an image source configured to produce, in response to received image information, which includes image content information, an image formed of a plurality of component images of different colors, each component image having a color intensity that corresponds to energy applied during production of a respective color, the energy applied during production of a component image of one color being greater than the energy applied during production of a component image of another color; and

a display device coupled to the image source and configured to project along an optical path, the image produced by the image source;

wherein the image source determines the amount of energy to apply to each component image based in part on the image content information and wherein the image source is further configured to apply different levels of energy during production of the component image of the one color.

7. The image projector of claim 6, wherein the image source is further configured to apply different levels of energy during production of the component image of the one color.

8. The image projector of claim 7, wherein the image source is configured to produce the image of the one color for a given duration and with a pulse of applied energy having a duration less than the given duration and a level of energy different than the level of the energy applied during the remainder of the given duration.

9. The image projector of claim 6, wherein the image content information includes an indication whether the image to be produced from the image information is video or a graphical image.

10. A color source for a display system and configured to produce light of different colors and to direct the light of different colors along an optical path, comprising:

at least one light source, energy applied to the at least one light source during production of at least one color being different than energy applied to the at least one light source during production of another color; and

an identifier configured to identify a display setting associated with the display of an image to be generated from image information,

wherein the color source is configured to shift the color to which the different energy level is applied based on the identifier display setting; and

wherein the light source is further configured to apply different levels of energy during production of the component image of the one color.

11. The color source of claim 10, wherein the color source is further configured to produce the one color with a first duration associated with an image, and during the first duration, to apply a first level of energy to the at least one light source for a second duration less than the first duration.

12. The color source of claim 11, wherein the color source is further configured to apply a second level of energy to the at least one light source during a third duration, also less than the first duration, with a first portion of the third duration occurring before the second duration and a second portion of the third duration occurring after the second duration.

13. The display system of claim 10, wherein the identified display setting is a gamut selection and the color source shifts the color to which the different energy level is applied based on the gamut selection.

14. A method of producing a displayed image comprising:

receiving image information representing an image to be displayed;

producing an image formed of a plurality of component images of different colors having color intensities related to energy applied to a light source, including applying a level of energy to the light source during production of a component image of one color that is different than the level of energy applied to the light source during production of a component image of another color and applying different and discrete levels of energy to the light source during production of the component image of the one color; and

displaying the produced image.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein producing includes producing the image of the one color for a given duration, and applying a pulse of energy having a duration less than the given duration and a level of energy different than the level of the energy applied during the remainder of the given duration.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising identifying a display condition associated with the display of an image, and applying energy to the light source based on the identified display condition.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein identifying comprises at least one of detecting a gamut setting, detecting an ambient-light characteristic, analyzing the image information to determine one or more image attributes, and analyzing the displayed image to identify one or more appearance attributes of the displayed image.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein analyzing the image information includes identifying at least one of a number of unique colors, a frequency of a unique color, an average pixel intensity, a frame-to-frame image content change, and an image source type.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein producing includes producing white light, and applying energy includes varying the amount of energy used to produce white light.

20. A method of producing a displayed image comprising:

receiving image information representing an image to be displayed;

producing, in response to received image information, an image formed of a plurality of images of different colors, the images each having a color intensity that corresponds to energy applied to a light source, including producing an image of one color for a given duration and with a pulse of applied energy having a duration less than the given duration and a level of energy different than the level of the energy applied during the remainder of the given duration; and

projecting the differently colored images along an optical path to produce, when displayed, a color image formed of the differently colored images.

21. A method of projecting an image comprising:

receiving image information representing an image to be displayed, the image information including image content information;

producing an image formed of a plurality of component images each component image being of a different color and having a color intensity related to energy applied to a light source during production of the corresponding component image, including applying a level of energy to the light source during production of a component image of one color that is different than the level of energy applied to the light source during production of a component image of another color, the different levels of energy applied being based in part on the image content information;

projecting the produced image along an optical path; and

wherein the light source is further configured to apply different levels of energy during production of the component image of the one color.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein producing further comprises applying different levels of energy during production of the image of the one color.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein producing further comprises producing the image of the one color for a given duration and with a pulse of applied energy having a duration less than the given duration and a level of energy different than the level of the energy applied during the remainder of the given duration.

24. The image projector of claim 21, wherein the image content information includes whether the image to be produced from the image information is a video or graphical information.

25. A method of producing an image for display comprising:

detecting a gamut setting;

producing light of a first color in a display system comprising at least one light source, including applying a first level of energy to the at least one light source during production of the light of the first color; and

determining a second energy level to apply to a second color based on the detected gamut setting, the second level being different than the first level;

producing light of the second color, including applying the second level of energy to the at least one light source, the second level being different than the first level;

directing the light of the first color and the light of the second color along an optical path;

modulating the light in a manner producing images to be displayed; and

wherein the light source is further configured to apply different levels of energy during production of the component image of the one color.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein producing the light of the one color includes producing the light of the one color with a first duration associated with an image, and during the first duration, applying the first level of energy to the at least one light source for a second duration less than the first duration.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein producing the light of the one color further includes applying a third level of energy to the at least one light source during a third duration also less than the first duration.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein a first portion of the third duration occurs before the second duration and a second portion of the third duration occurs after the second duration.

29. Apparatus for producing a displayed image comprising:

means for receiving image information representing an image to be displayed;

means for producing an image formed of a plurality of component images of different colors having color intensities related to energy applied to a light source during production of each component image, wherein a level of energy applied to the light source during production of a component image of one color that is different than the level of energy applied to the light source during production of a component image of another color, and wherein differing levels of energy are applied to the light source during production of the component image of the one color; and

means for displaying the produced image.

30. The apparatus of claim 29, wherein the image of the one color is produced for a given duration, a pulse of energy is applied during the given duration having a duration less than the given duration and a level of energy different than the level of the energy applied during the remainder of the given duration.

31. The apparatus of claim 29, further comprising means for identifying a display condition associated with the display of an image, and wherein energy is applied to the light source based on the identified display condition.

32. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the means for identifying a display condition includes means comprises at least one of means for detecting a gamut setting, means for detecting an ambient-light characteristic, means for analyzing the image information to determine one or more image attributes, and means for analyzing the displayed image to identify one or more appearance attributes of the displayed image.

33. The apparatus of claim 32, wherein the means for identifying a display condition includes means comprises means for analyzing the image information, and the means for analyzing the image information is further for identifying at least one of a number of unique colors, a frequency of a unique color, an average pixel intensity, a frame-to-frame image content change, and an image source type.

34. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the means for producing an image is further for producing white light, and wherein the amount of energy used to produce white light is variable.

35. An apparatus for producing a displayed image comprising:

means for receiving image information representing an image to be displayed;

means for producing, in response to received image information, an image formed of a plurality of images of different colors, the images each having a color intensity that corresponds to energy applied to a light source, including producing an image of one color for a given duration and with a pulse of applied energy having a duration less than the given duration and a level of energy different than the level of the energy applied during the remainder of the given duration; and

means for displaying the produced image.

36. An apparatus for projecting an image comprising:

means for producing, in response to received image information, an image formed of a plurality of component images, the images each being of a different color and having a color intensity that corresponds to energy applied during production of a corresponding color, the energy applied during production of a component image of one color being greater than the energy applied during production of a component image of another color; and

means for projecting the produced image along an optical path,

wherein the means for producing is further for applying different levels of energy during production of the component image of the one color.

37. The apparatus of claim 36, wherein the means for producing is further for producing the image of the one color for a given duration and with a pulse of applied energy having a duration less than the given duration and a level of energy different than the level of the energy applied during the remainder of the given duration.

38. An apparatus for producing an image for display comprising:

means for receiving image information representing an image to be displayed, the image information including image content information;

means for producing light of different colors including at least one light source, the producing means applying a first level of energy to the at least one light source during production of one color, and, based in part on the image content information, applying a second level of energy to the at least one light source during production of another color, the second level being different than the first level;

means for directing the light of the one color along an associated optical path and the light of the other color along the associated optical path;

means for modulating the light in a manner producing images to be displayed; and

wherein the light source is further configured to apply different levels of energy during production of the component image of the one color.

39. The image projector of claim 38, wherein the image content information includes whether the image to be produced from the image information is a video or graphical information.