Image display system and method

• US 7,679,613 B2
• Filed: 12/13/2005
• Issued: 03/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/07/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Allen, William
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran; Henry N
• Application Number:
  US11/301,723
• Publication Number:
  US 20060092151A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,554 Days
• Field of Search: 345/8, 345/9, 345/32, 345/56, 345/87, 345/204, 345/698, 345/699, 348/511, 348/513, 348/746, 348/747, 348/755, 348/771, 359/224, 359/291, 359/317, 359/495, 382/210, 382/275, 382/299, 382/300
• US Class Current: 345/204
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2330/08 Fault-tolerant or redundant circuits, or circuits in which repair of defects is prepared
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2330/10 Dealing with defective pixels
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/0414 Vertical resolution change
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/0421 Horizontal resolution change
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/0435 Change or adaptation of the frame rate of the video stream
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/002 to project the image of a two-dimensional display, such as an array of light emitting or modulating elements or a CRT
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/007 Use of pixel shift techniques, e.g. by mechanical shift of the physical pixels or by optical shift of the perceived pixels
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/20 for presentation of an assembly of a number of characters, e.g. a page, by composing the assembly by combination of individual elements arranged in a matrix no fixed position being assigned to or needed to be assigned to the individual characters or partial characters

Abstract

A method of displaying an image with a display device including a plurality of display pixels includes receiving image data for the image, the image data including individual pixels of the image; buffering the image data and creating a frame of the image, the frame of the image including a plurality of columns and a plurality of rows of the pixels of the image; defining a first sub-frame and at least a second sub-frame for the frame of the image, image data of the second sub-frame being offset from image data of the first sub-frame by an offset distance of at least one pixel; and displaying the first sub-frame with a first plurality of the display pixels and displaying the second sub-frame with a second plurality of the display pixels offset from the first plurality of the display pixels by the offset distance.

Claims

1. A method of displaying an image with a display device, comprising:

receiving image data for the image and buffering the image data to create a frame of the image;

defining a first sub-frame and at least a second sub-frame for the frame of the image, image data of the second sub-frame being offset from image data of the first sub-frame by an offset distance; and

displaying the first sub-frame with a first plurality of pixels of the display device and displaying the second sub-frame with a second plurality of pixels of the display device offset from the first plurality of pixels by the offset distance,

wherein at least one of the pixels of the display device is identified as a defective pixel, and wherein displaying the first sub-frame and displaying the second sub-frame includes displaying a pixel of the first sub-frame and a pixel of the second sub-frame with the defective pixel and diffusing an affect of the defective pixel over at least a portion of the image.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the offset distance includes at least one pixel.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

compensating for the defective pixel, including adjusting image data of at least one of the first sub-frame and the second sub-frame corresponding to a location of the defective pixel in the image.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein adjusting the image data includes increasing an intensity of the image data of the at least one of the first sub-frame and the second sub-frame corresponding to the location of the defective pixel in the image.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein adjusting the image data includes decreasing an intensity of the image data of the at least one of the first sub-frame and the second sub-frame corresponding to the location of the defective pixel in the image.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein a presence of the defective pixel is communicated with an image processing unit coupled to the display device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the defective pixel is identified by user input.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the defective pixel is identified by self-diagnostic input.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the defective pixel is identified by sensing by the display device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the defective pixel is identified by an external data source.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the defective pixel is identified by information stored in the display device.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

scaling the image data so as to be of a size less than that of the display device to create scaled image data.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

shifting the scaled image data among display pixels of the display device.

14. A system for displaying an image, comprising:

a buffer adapted to receive image data for the image and buffer the image data to create a frame of the image;

an image processing unit adapted to define a first sub-frame and at least a second sub-frame for the frame of the image, image data of the second sub-frame being offset from the image data of the first sub-frame by an offset distance; and

a display device adapted to temporally display the first sub-frame with a first plurality of pixels and display the second sub-frame with a second plurality of pixels offset from the first plurality of pixels by the offset distance,

wherein at least one of the pixels of the display device is identified as a defective pixel, and wherein the display device is adapted to display a pixel of the first sub-frame and a pixel of the second sub-frame with the defective pixel and diffuse an affect of the defective pixel over at least a portion of the image.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the offset distance includes at least one pixel.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the image processing unit is adapted to adjust image data of at least one of the first sub-frame and the second sub-frame corresponding to a location of the defective pixel in the image to compensate for the defective pixel.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the image processing unit is adapted to increase an intensity of the image data of the at least one of the first sub-frame and the second sub-frame corresponding to the location of the defective pixel in the image.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the image processing unit is adapted to decrease an intensity of the image data of the at least one of the first sub-frame and the second sub-frame corresponding to the location of the defective pixel in the image.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein a presence of the defective pixel is communicated with the image processing unit.

20. The system of claim 14, wherein the defective pixel is identified by user input.

21. The system of claim 14, wherein the defective pixel is identified by self-diagnostic input.

22. The system of claim 14, wherein the defective pixel is identified by sensing by the display device.

23. The system of claim 14, wherein the defective pixel is identified by an external data source.

24. The system of claim 14, wherein the defective pixel is identified by information stored in the display device.

25. The system of claim 14, wherein the image processing unit is adapted to scale the image data so as to be of a size less than that of the display device to create scaled image data.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the image processing unit is adapted to shift the scaled image data among display pixels of the display device.

27. A method for displaying image data of an image with a display device having an array of pixels with at least one pixel identified as a defective pixel, the method comprising:

scaling the image data to a size less than an area of the array of pixels of the display device;

creating multiple frames each including a plurality of adjacent columns and a plurality of adjacent rows of pixels of the image from the image data;

positioning each of the multiple frames on the display device, including offsetting each of the multiple frames from one another by at least one pixel in at least one direction; and

displaying each of the multiple frames with the display device to produce complete frames of respective portions of the image and display the image, including aligning the multiple frames with each other to diffuse an affect of the defective pixel in the displayed image.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein pixels of the displayed image are produced by at least four independent pixels of the display device.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein each pixel of the displayed image has an intensity that includes an average intensity of at least four independent pixels of the display device.

30. The method of claim 27, wherein the positioning of each of the multiple frames includes shifting the multiple frames in a four position box pattern to produce the displayed image.

31. The method of claim 27, wherein the positioning of each of the multiple frames includes shifting the multiple frames in a bow-tie pattern to produce the displayed image.

32. The method of claim 27, wherein the positioning of each of the multiple frames includes shifting the multiple frames in a scramble pattern to produce the displayed image.

33. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

identifying a location of the defective pixel.

34. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

adjusting the image data to compensate for the defective pixel.