Dynamic color profile management for electronic devices

• US 9,508,318 B2
• Filed: 12/31/2012
• Issued: 11/29/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
• Original Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
• Inventors: Pieper, Sean Midthun, Wall, Kurt Roland, Motta, Ricardo J.
• Primary Examiner(s): LEE, NICHOLAS J
• Application Number:
  US13/732,246
• Publication Number:
  US 20140071102A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,429 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/06 Colour space transformation
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/144 the light being ambient light
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/02 characterised by the way in which colour is displayed details of colour display specific for CRTs G09G1/28; specific for flat matrix panels other than liquid crystal displays G09G3/2003; specific for liquid crystal displays G09G3/3607
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/026 Control of mixing and/or overlay of colours in general G09G5/022 and G09G5/024 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42202 environmental sensors, e.g. for detecting temperature, luminosity, pressure, earthquakes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4318 by altering the content in the rendering process, e.g. blanking, blurring or masking an image region image enhancement or restoration in general G06T5/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/58 in dependence upon ambient light
• 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

Dynamic white point management techniques include determining a white point of ambient light proximate to a display. A color profile adjustment is determined based upon the determined white point and intensity of the ambient light. The image color space is transformed to a display color space for rendering on the display based on the determined adjusted to the color profile.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

periodically determining a white point of ambient light proximate a display;

determining a color profile adjustment for the color space of the display based upon the determined current white point of the ambient light;

dampening a current color profile adjustment based upon one or more previous determined color profile adjustments; and

transforming an image color space to the display color space based on the dampened color profile adjustment of the display so that the white point of the display substantially matches the current white point of the ambient light proximate the display, wherein the color gamut of the display color space is greater than the color gamut of the image color space.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining the white point of the ambient light comprises estimating a set of tristimulus values or chromaticity coordinates of a color white of the ambient light.

3. The method according to claim 1, where determining the color profile adjustment comprises substantially determining a gamut subset of the display having a white point that substantially matches the determined white point of the ambient light.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein transforming the image color space to the display color space comprises transforming a white point of an encoded image to a rendered image substantially matching the white point of the ambient light.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining the white point of the ambient light, determining the color profile adjustment, dampening the current color profile adjustment and transforming the image color space to the display color space is iteratively performed on a periodic basis.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining the color profile adjustment, dampening the current color profile adjustment and transforming the image color space to the display color space is iteratively performed each time a change in the white point of the ambient light proximate to the display is determined.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

applying a correction to the determined color profile adjustment based upon one or more parameters selected from a group consisting of a bezel size of the display, a relative brightness of the display, an absolute brightness of the display and a limit on the display gamut; and

further transforming the image color space to the display color space based on the dampened corrected color profile adjustment.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising applying a predetermined image color space to display color space transform before the processes of determining the white point of the ambient light, determining the color profile adjustment, dampening the current color profile and transforming the image color space to the display color space is performed.

9. A computing device comprising:

a means for determining a current white point of ambient light proximate to a display;

a means for determining a color profile adjustment for the color space of the display based upon the determined white point of the ambient light; and

a means for transforming an image color space to a display color space based on the determined color profile adjustment so that the white point of the display substantially matched the current white point of the ambient light proximate the display, wherein the color gamut of the display color space is greater than the color gamut of the image color space.

10. The computing device of claim 9, further comprising a means for applying a correction to the color profile adjustment based upon one or more parameters selected from a group consisting of a bezel size of the display, a relative brightness of the display, an absolute brightness of the display and a limit on the display gamut.

11. The computing device of claim 9, further comprising a means for applying a predetermined image color space to display color space transform before determining the white point of the ambient light, determining the color space adjustment and transforming the image color space to the display color space is performed.

12. The computing device of claim 9, further comprising a means for iteratively determining the white point of the ambient light, determining the color space adjustment and transforming the image color space to the display color space on a periodic basis.

13. The computing device of claim 9, further comprising a means for iteratively determining the color space adjustment and transforming the image color space to the display color space each time a change in the white point of the ambient light is determined.

14. A computing device comprising:

a display;

a light sensor to sense ambient light; and

a processing unit to determine a white point of the ambient light sensed by the light sensor, to determine a color profile adjustment for the color space of the display based upon the determined white point of the ambient light, to transform an image color space to a display color space based on the determined color space adjusted and to present content in the display color space on the display so that the white point of the display substantially matched the white point of the ambient light, wherein the color gamut of the display color space is greater than the color gamut of the image color space.

15. The computing device of claim 14, wherein the light sensor comprises a camera.

16. The computing device of claim 14, wherein the light sensor comprises a plurality of photo diodes.

17. The computing device of claim 14, wherein the light sensor senses the ambient light behind the display.

18. The computing device of claim 14, wherein the light sensor sense the ambient light in front of the display.