Controller and driver features for bi-stable display

• US 20060066503A1
• Filed: 04/01/2005
• Published: 03/30/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Snaptrack Incorporated (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm MEMS Technologies Incorporated (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sampsell, Jeffrey B., Tyger, Karen, Mathew, Mithran
• Granted Patent: US 7,586,484 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/1.100
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2300/0473 Use of light emitting or modulating elements having two or more stable states when no power is applied
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2310/04 Partial updating of the display screen
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/0435 Change or adaptation of the frame rate of the video stream
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3466 based on interferometric effect
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/14 Display of multiple viewports

Abstract

The invention comprises systems and methods for partitioning displays, and in particular, displays of interferometric modulator displays. In one embodiment, a display system includes one driving circuit configured to provide signals based on video data intended for display, and a bi-stable display comprising an array having a plurality of bi-stable display elements. The array is configured to display video data using signals received from the driving circuit, and the driving circuit is configured to partition the array into two or more fields, each field including at least one bi-stable display element, and refresh each of the two or more fields in accordance with a refresh rate associated with each field. In another embodiment, a method of displaying data on a display of a client device includes partitioning a bi-stable display of the client device into two or more fields, displaying video data in the two or more fields, and refreshing each of the two or more fields in accordance with a refresh rate that is associated with each field.

Claims

1. A display system, comprising:

at least one driving circuit configured to provide signals for displaying video data; and

a display comprising an array having a plurality of bi-stable display elements, the array being configured to display video data using signals received from the driving circuit,

wherein the array is partitioned into one or more fields, each field including at least one bi-stable display element and wherein the driving circuit is configured to refresh each of the one or more fields in accordance with a refresh rate associated with each field.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the driving circuit is configured to partition the array.

3. The display system of claim 1, further comprising an input device configured to receive a user selection, wherein the driving circuit is configured to partition the array based on the user selection.

4. The display system of claim 1, further comprising:

a server in communication with the display system,

wherein the driving circuit is configured to partition the array based on instructions from the server.

5. The display of claim 1, wherein the plurality of bi-stable display elements comprise interferometric modulators, and wherein the one or more fields comprise a first field comprising a first set of interferometric modulators and a second field comprising a second set of interferometric modulators.

6. The display system of claim 1, wherein the driving circuit is configured to receive at least a portion of the video data from a server in communication with the display system.

7. The display system of claim 1, wherein the driving circuit is configured to receive at least a portion of the video data from a process running on the display system.

8. The display system of claim 1, wherein the first set of interferometric modulators is refreshed at a first refresh rate and the second set of interferometric modulators is refreshed at a second refresh rate.

9. The display system of claim 5, wherein at least one interferometric modulator of the first set of interferometric modulators is also an interferometric modulator of the second set of interferometric modulators.

10. The display system of claim 5, wherein the first set of interferometric modulators is arranged in the shape of a polygon.

11. The display system of claim 9, wherein the at least one interferometric modulator is refreshed with the first set of interferometric modulators during a first refresh cycle and the at least one interferometric modulator is refreshed with the second set of interferometric modulators during a second refresh cycle.

12. The display system of claim 8, wherein the second refresh rate is different than the first refresh rate.

13. The display system of claim 8, wherein the second refresh rate is the same as the first refresh rate, and refresh of the first field starts at a different time than the refresh of the second field.

14. The display system of claim 8, wherein the first refresh rate is determined based at least in part on a frame rate of the data that is displayed in the first field.

15. The display system of claim 8, wherein the first refresh rate is predetermined.

16. The display system of claim 8, wherein the first refresh rate changes over time.

17. A method of displaying data on a display of a device, the method comprising:

partitioning a bi-stable display of the device into one or more fields;

displaying video data in the one or more fields; and

refreshing each of the one or more fields in accordance with a refresh rate that is associated with each of the one or more fields.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the bi-stable display comprises an array of interferometric modulators.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising receiving at least a portion of the video data at the device from a server.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising updating one or more fields using one or more update schemes.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein refreshing at least one of the one or more fields comprises using a refresh rate that is based on a frame rate of the data that is displayed.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein at least one of the one or more update schemes is selected using a program associated with the received data.

23. The method of claim 17 further comprising receiving display information that indicates a characteristic of the display, and selecting an update scheme using the display information.

24. A communications system for server-based control of a display on a client device, comprising:

a communications network;

a client device comprising a bi-stable display having a plurality of bi-stable display elements, the client device being configured to transmit display information over the communications network; and

a server configured to define one or more fields of the bi-stable display, each field having an associated refresh rate, and the server further configured to transmit video data to the client device over the communications network based on the display information,

wherein the client device is further configured to receive video data from the server, to display the video data on the one or more fields of the display, and to update each field using the associated refresh information.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the display information indicates one or more characteristics of the display.

26. The system of claim 24, wherein the display information indicates a display mode.

27. The system of claim 24, wherein the display information comprises information indicating where the video data should be rendered on the bi-stable display.

28. The system of claim 24, wherein the server is further configured to identify the video data to be displayed in each of the two or more fields.

29. A data display system, comprising:

a content server configured to provide video data; and

a client device in data communication with the content server, the client device comprising a bi-stable display that is configurable to display data in one or more fields, each field being associated with at least one bi-stable display element,

wherein each field of the bi-stable display can be refreshed at its own refresh rate.

30. The data display system as in claim 29, wherein at least one of the fields is separately addressable by the content server.

31. The data display system as in claim 29, wherein the content server comprises a processor and a software module, the software module being associated with the received data.

32. The data display system as in claim 29, wherein the client device is configured to communicate characteristics of the display to the content server.

33. The data display system as in claim 29, wherein the one or more fields comprise a first field and a second field, and wherein the bi-stable display comprises a first set of interferometric modulators and a second set of interferometric modulators, the first set of interferometric modulators being associated with the first field and the second set of interferometric modulators being associated with the second field.

34. The data display system as in claim 33, wherein at least one interferometric modulator from the first set of interferometric modulators is assigned to the first set of interferometric modulators and to the second set of interferometric modulators.

35. The system of claim 29, wherein the server is further configured to source video data to be displayed in each of the one or more fields of the bi-stable display of the client device.