Image display device and image display method

• US 8,654,157 B2
• Filed: 08/11/2010
• Issued: 02/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Yamato, Asahi, Takahashi, Kohzoh
• Primary Examiner(s): Cheng, Joe H
• Application Number:
  US13/393,797
• Publication Number:
  US 20120162229A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,287 Days
• Field of Search: 345/77, 345/89, 345/204, 345/214, 345/428, 345/690
• US Class Current: 345/690
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0252 Improving the response speed
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0261 in the context of movement of objects on the screen or movement of the observer relative to the screen
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/041 Temperature compensation
• 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 2340/0435 Change or adaptation of the frame rate of the video stream
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/16 Determination of a pixel data signal depending on the signal applied in the previous frame
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/2011 by amplitude modulation
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/2025 the sub-frames having all the same time duration
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3611 Control of matrices with row and column drivers

Abstract

Disclosed is an image display device including an image signal input section (2), an overshoot operation section (3) that, when an image signal is inputted from outside one frame at a time, corrects the gradation level of the inputted image signal for a frame, a frame memory (4) that stores the corrected image signal of the frame, and a sub-frame division processing section (5) that time-divides the corrected and stored image signal of the frame into a plurality of sub-frame periods. The overshoot operation section (3) corrects the gradation level of an image signal of a frame according to a relation between the corrected gradation level of the image signal of a frame immediately preceding the frame, which is stored of the frame memory (4), and the gradation level of the image signal of the frame. Thus, the costs can be reduced, the device can be made compact, and the power consumption can be suppressed.

Claims

1. An image display device that time-divides one frame period of an image signal into a plurality of sub-frame periods to display images, comprising:

an inputting unit into which said image signal is inputted from outside one frame at a time;

a correction unit that corrects a gradation level of the inputted image signal for a frame;

a storage unit that stores the corrected gradation level of the image signal of said frame; and

a frame division unit that time-divides the corrected and stored image signal of said frame into the plurality of sub-frame periods,

wherein said storage unit already is storing the corrected gradation level of the image signal of a frame immediately preceding said frame when said correction unit corrects the gradation level of the image signal of said frame, and

wherein said correction unit corrects the gradation level of the image signal of said frame in accordance with a relation between the corrected gradation level of the image signal of the frame immediately preceding said frame and the gradation level of the image signal of said frame.

2. The image display device according to claim 1, wherein said correction unit performs the correction using a table that relates the gradation level of the image signal of said frame and the corrected gradation level of the image signal of the frame immediately preceding said frame to the corrected gradation level of the image signal of said frame.

3. The image display device according to claim 2, wherein said table is populated with values that emphasize a gradation level change if the gradation level of the image signal of said frame is higher than the corrected gradation level of the image signal of the frame immediately preceding said frame, and with values that provide the same gradation level as the gradation level of the image signal of said frame if the gradation level of the image signal of said frame is lower than the corrected gradation level of the image signal of the frame immediately preceding said frame.

4. The image display device according to claim 3, further comprising a display unit that displays an image based on the corrected image signal of said frame that has been time-divided, wherein said display unit displays the image on a normally-black type liquid crystal display.

5. The image display device according to claim 2, wherein said table is populated with values that emphasize a gradation level change if the gradation level of the image signal of said frame is lower than the corrected gradation level of the image signal of the frame immediately preceding said frame, and values that provide the same gradation level as the image signal of said frame if the gradation level of the image signal of a said frame is higher than the corrected gradation level of the image signal of the frame immediately preceding said frame.

6. The image display device according to claim 5, further comprising a display unit that displays an image based on the corrected image signal of said frame that has been time-divided, wherein said display unit displays the image on a normally-white type liquid crystal display.

7. The image display device according to claim 2, wherein said table is populated with values that provide the same gradation value as the image signal of said frame if a difference between the gradation level of the image signal of said frame and the corrected gradation level of the image signal of the frame immediately preceding said frame is within 0 to 12% of a total gradation.

8. The image display device according to claim 1, further comprising a judgment unit that determines a magnitude relation between the gradation level of the image signal of said frame and the gradation level of the image signal of the frame immediately preceding said frame,

wherein said correction unit corrects the gradation level of the image signal of said frame to emphasize a gradation level change if the gradation level of the image signal of said frame is determined higher than the corrected gradation level of the image signal of the frame immediately preceding said frame, and maintains the gradation level of the image signal of said frame to the same gradation level if the gradation level of the image signal of said frame is determined to be not higher than the corrected gradation level of the image signal of the frame immediately preceding said frame.

9. The image display device according to claim 1, further comprising a judgment unit that determines a magnitude relation between the gradation level of the image signal of said frame and the corrected gradation level of the image signal of the frame immediately preceding said frame,

wherein said correction unit corrects the gradation level of the image signal of said frame to emphasize a gradation level change if the gradation level of the image signal of said frame is determined lower than the corrected gradation level of the image signal of the frame immediately preceding said frame, and maintains the gradation level of the image signal of said frame to the same gradation level if the gradation level of the image signal of said frame is determined to be not lower than the corrected gradation level of the image signal of the frame immediately preceding said frame.

10. The image display device according to claim 1, further comprising a judgment unit that determines a difference between the gradation level of the image signal of said frame and the corrected gradation level of the image signal of the frame immediately preceding said frame,

wherein said correction unit corrects the image signal of said frame to the same gradation level if the difference between the gradation level of the image signal of said frame and the gradation level of the image signal of the frame immediately preceding said frame is determined to be within 0 to 12% of the total gradation.

11. The image display device according to claim 1, further comprising a display unit that displays an image based on the corrected image signal of said frame that has been time-divided, wherein said display unit displays the image on a liquid crystal display.

12. The image display device according to claim 1, further comprising a writing unit that instructs said storage unit to store an image signal of zero gradation level before the image signal of a first frame is inputted to said inputting unit,

wherein when the image signal of the first frame is inputted to said inputting unit, said correction unit corrects the gradation level of the image signal of the first frame according to the relation between the gradation level of the image signal written by said writing unit and the gradation level of the image signal of the first frame.

13. The image display device according to claim 1, further comprising a temperature detection unit that detects ambient environmental temperature, wherein said correction unit corrects the gradation level of the image signal of said frame according to a detected environmental temperature.

14. A method for displaying images, wherein one frame period of an image signal is time-divided into a plurality of sub-frame periods to display images, the method comprising:

inputting the image signal from outside one frame at a time;

correcting a gradation level of the inputted image signal of a frame;

storing the corrected image signal of said frame to a memory; and

time-dividing the corrected and stored image signal of said frame into the plurality of sub-frame periods,

wherein, when correcting the gradation level of the image signal of said frame in the correction step, the memory is already storing the corrected image signal of the frame immediately preceding said frame, and

wherein in said correction step, correction is conducted in accordance with the relation between the corrected gradation level of the image signal of the frame immediately preceding said frame, which is stored in the memory, and the gradation level of the image signal of said frame.