Electronic device display with charge accumulation tracker

• US 9,922,608 B2
• Filed: 05/27/2015
• Issued: 03/20/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Wang, Chaohao, Tripathi, Brijesh, Tann, Christopher Philip Alan, Zalatimo, David S., Cote, Guy, Nan, Hao, Albrecht, Marc, Sacchetto, Paolo, Pintz, Sandro H.
• Primary Examiner(s): HARRIS, DOROTHY H
• Application Number:
  US14/722,620
• Publication Number:
  US 20160351138A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,028 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0204 Compensation of DC component across the pixels in flat panels
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0247 Flicker reduction other than flicker reduction circuits used for single beam cathode-ray tubes
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0257 Reduction of after-image effects
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/046 Dealing with screen burn-in prevention or compensation of the effects thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/048 using evaluation of the usage time
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/0435 Change or adaptation of the frame rate of the video stream
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/16 Calculation or use of calculated indices related to luminance levels in display data
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3614 Control of polarity reversal in general

Abstract

An electronic device may generate content that is to be displayed on a display. The display may have an array of liquid crystal display pixels for displaying image frames of the content. The image frames may be displayed with positive and negative polarities to help reduce charge accumulation effects. A charge accumulation tracker may analyze the image frames to determine when there is a risk of excess charge accumulation. The charge accumulation tracker may analyze information on gray levels, frame duration, and frame polarity. The charge accumulation tracker may compute a charge accumulation metric for entire image frames or may process subregions of each frame separately. When subregions are processed separately, each subregion may be individually monitored for a risk of excess charge accumulation.

Claims

1. An electronic device, comprising:

a display;

control circuitry that generates image frames that are displayed on the display; and

a charge accumulation tracker that evaluates the image frames to identify when a risk of excessive charge accumulation in the display is present, wherein the charge accumulation tracker computes a median gray level for all pixels in a given one of the image frames and computes a charge accumulation metric for the given one of the image frames based on inputs including the median gray level, and wherein the charge accumulation tracker applies a weighting function to the median gray level when computing the charge accumulation metric.

2. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the control circuitry is configured to take remedial action in response to detection by the charge accumulation tracker of a risk of excessive charge accumulation.

3. The electronic device defined in claim 2 wherein the image frames are displayed on the display with positive and negative polarities and wherein the remedial action comprises adjusting frame polarity for the image frames.

4. The electronic device defined in claim 2 wherein the image frames are displayed with a variable refresh rate and wherein the remedial action comprises adjusting the refresh rate.

5. The electronic device defined in claim 4 wherein adjusting the refresh rate comprises raising the refresh rate in response to detection of the risk of excess charge accumulation by the charge accumulation tracker.

6. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the charge accumulation tracker computes the median gray level for each of the image frames.

7. The electronic device defined in claim 6 wherein the charge accumulation tracker compares the charge accumulation metric to a threshold to determine whether there is a risk of excess charge accumulation.

8. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein each image frame includes multiple subregions and wherein the charge accumulation tracker determines whether there is a risk of excess charge accumulation for the display by determining whether there is a risk of excess charge accumulation in any of the subregions.

9. The electronic device defined in claim 8 wherein the charge accumulation tracker computes a respective charge accumulation metric for each of the subregions and compares the computed respective charge accumulation metric for each subregion to a threshold to determine whether there is a risk of excess charge accumulation in any of the subregions.

10. The electronic device defined in claim 9 wherein the charge accumulation tracker receives as inputs gray level values for pixels in each subregion, frame duration information for the image frame containing the subregions, and frame polarity information for the image frame containing the subregions and wherein the charge accumulation tracker computes the respective charge accumulation metric for each subregion based on each of the inputs.

11. The electronic device defined in claim 10 wherein the charge accumulation tracker applies the weighting function to the gray level values for pixels in each subregion when computing the respective charge accumulation metric for each subregion.

12. The electronic device defined in claim 11 wherein the weighting function is a first weighting function, and wherein the charge accumulation tracker applies a second weighting function to the frame duration information when computing the respective charge accumulation metric for each subregion.

13. A display that displays image frames, comprising:

an array of liquid crystal display pixels that displays the image frames, wherein the image frames include multiple subregions; and

display driver circuitry that implements a charge accumulation tracker, wherein the charge accumulation tracker receives as inputs gray level values for the liquid crystal display pixels in each subregion and frame duration information, wherein the charge accumulation tracker computes a charge accumulation metric for each subregion as a product of the gray level values for the liquid crystal display pixels in the subregion and the frame duration information, wherein the charge accumulation tracker analyzes the image frames to identify when there is a risk of excess charge accumulation in any of the subregions, and wherein the display driver circuitry is configured to adjust a refresh rate for the image frames in response to detection of a risk of excess charge accumulation in any of the subregions.

14. The display defined in claim 13 wherein the inputs include frame polarity information, and wherein the charge accumulation tracker computes the charge accumulation metric for each subregion based on the frame polarity information.

15. A display that displays image frames, comprising:

an array of liquid crystal display pixels that displays the image frames; and

display driver circuitry that implements a charge accumulation tracker, wherein the image frames each include multiple subregions and wherein the charge accumulation tracker separately analyzes each of the subregions of the image frames to identify when there is a risk of excess charge accumulation in the array, wherein the charge accumulation tracker receives as inputs gray level values for the liquid crystal display pixels in each subregion, and wherein the charge accumulation tracker computes an average gray level for each subregion.

16. The display defined in claim 15 wherein the charge accumulation tracker receives as inputs frame duration information and frame polarity information, wherein the charge accumulation tracker computes a charge accumulation metric for each subregion based on the average gray levels, frame duration information, and frame polarity information, wherein the charge accumulation tracker compares the computed charge accumulation metric for each subregion to a threshold to determine whether there is a risk of excess charge accumulation in any of the subregions and wherein the display driver circuitry is configured to take a remedial action in response to detection of a risk of excess charge accumulation in any of the subregions.