Ambient light context-aware display

• US 9,530,342 B2
• Filed: 09/10/2013
• Issued: 12/27/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Bell, Cynthia Sue, Woo, Kevin, Barnes, Philip L., Glenner, Steven C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Mummalaneni, Nalini
• Assistant Examiner(s): MICHAUD, ROBERT J
• Application Number:
  US14/023,326
• Publication Number:
  US 20150070337A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,204 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1423 controlling a plurality of local displays, e.g. CRT and flat panel display
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0242 Compensation of deficiencies in the appearance of colours
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0606 Manual adjustment
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0626 for control of overall brightness
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0653 Controlling or limiting the speed of brightness adjustment of the illumination source
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0666 for control of colour parameters, e.g. colour temperature
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0673 for control of gamma adjustment, e.g. selecting another gamma curve
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/06 Colour space transformation
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2354/00 Aspects of interface with display user
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/144 the light being ambient light
• 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 3/2003 Display of colours specific for liquid crystal displays G09G3/3607
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/2096 Details of the interface to the display terminal specific for a flat panel suitable for both CRT and flat panel G09G5/006; specific for a CRT G09G1/167

Abstract

Embodiments are disclosed that relate to modifying a display of a portable electronic device to account for ambient light. For example, one disclosed embodiment provides a method comprising determining an ambient light history including a plurality of ambient light color conditions sensed over a duration of device operation by an ambient light sensor, reading a display-ready image having a plurality of pixels from an image source, adjusting a manner in which the display-ready image is displayed by color-shifting at least a subset of the plurality of pixels based on the plurality of ambient light color conditions in the ambient light history to thereby generate a color-modified image, and displaying the color-modified image on the display of the portable electronic device.

Claims

1. A portable electronic device comprising:

a display;

a light sensor configured to sense an ambient light color condition;

a processor configured to;

determine an ambient light history including a plurality of ambient light color conditions, including a plurality of correlated color temperatures and luminance data, sensed over a duration of device operation by a light sensor;

read a display-ready image from an image source, the display-ready image having a plurality of pixels;

adjust a manner in which the display-ready image is displayed on the portable electronic device by color-shifting at least a subset of the plurality of pixels based on the plurality of ambient light color conditions in the ambient light history to thereby generate a color-modified image, wherein color-shifting the subset of the plurality of pixels includes adjusting white points of the subset of the plurality of pixels;

display the color-modified image on the display of the portable electronic device;

detect a threshold brightness decrease during a predetermined time period based on the luminance data in the ambient light history; and

apply a dimming pattern with a target brightness that varies with time to effect a graduated dimming of the brightness of the display over a predetermined time in response to the detection of the threshold brightness decrease.

2. The portable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the light sensor is an ambient light sensor configured to detect a luminance.

3. The portable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the light sensor is a camera.

4. The portable electronic device of claim 3,

wherein the camera is a front camera, the portable electronic device further comprising a rear camera configured to capture ambient light;

and

wherein the processor is configured to determine the ambient light history including the plurality of ambient light color conditions sensed over the duration of device operation by both the front and the rear camera to determine the ambient light history.

5. The portable electronic device of claim 1,

wherein the plurality of ambient color conditions includes a white point.

6. The portable electronic device of claim 1, the processor further configured to:

detect a threshold brightness increase during a predetermined time period based on the luminance data in the ambient light history; and

apply a brightening pattern with a target brightness that varies with time to effect a graduated brightening of the brightness of the display over a predetermined time in response to the detection of the threshold brightness increase;

wherein the brightening pattern increases the brightness at a faster rate than the dimming pattern decreases the brightness.

7. The portable electronic device of claim 1,

wherein the image source includes an associated display pipeline from which the display-ready image is read;

and

wherein color-shifting at least the subset of the plurality of pixels occurs after the display-ready image is read from the associated display pipeline of the image source.

8. The portable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to modify a gamma curve and/or background brightness level associated with the display to adjust the manner in which the display-ready image is displayed.

9. The portable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to modify color reproduction and/or peak luminance associated with the display-ready image to adjust the manner in which the display-ready image is displayed.

10. The portable electronic device of claim 1, where the processor is further configured to:

transmit user profile data including the ambient light history, mode settings, and/or contextual data to one or more other computing devices each having a display to enable images displayed on the one or more other computing devices to be color-modified based on the transmitted user profile data.

11. A portable electronic device, comprising:

a display;

a light sensor configured to sense an ambient light color condition;

a processor configured to execute an adaptive display module, the adaptive display module configured to;

determine an ambient light history including a plurality of ambient light color conditions, including a plurality of correlated color temperatures and luminance data, sensed over a duration of device operation by the light sensor;

read a display-ready image from an image source, the display-ready image having a plurality of pixels;

adjust a manner in which the display-ready image is displayed on the portable electronic device by color-shifting at least a subset of the plurality of pixels based on the plurality of ambient light color conditions in the ambient light history to thereby generate a color-modified image, wherein color-shifting the subset of the plurality of pixels includes adjusting white points of the subset of the plurality of pixels;

display the color-modified image on the display;

detect a threshold brightness decrease during a predetermined time period based on the luminance data in the ambient light history; and

apply a dimming pattern with a target brightness that varies with time to effect a graduated dimming of the brightness of the display over a predetermined time in response to the detection of the threshold brightness decrease.

12. The portable electronic device of claim 11, wherein the light sensor is an ambient light sensor configured to detect a luminance.

13. The portable electronic device of claim 11, wherein the light sensor is a camera.

14. The portable electronic device of claim 13,

wherein the camera is a front camera, the portable electronic device further comprising a rear camera configured to configured to capture ambient light;

and

wherein the ambient light history includes a plurality of ambient light color conditions sensed over a duration of device operation by both the front camera and the rear camera.

15. The portable electronic device of claim 11,

wherein the plurality of ambient light color conditions includes a white point.

16. The portable electronic device of claim 11,

wherein the adaptive display module is configured to determine a display brightness change responsive to the luminance data;

and

wherein the adaptive display module is configured to detect a threshold brightness increase during a predetermined time period based on the luminance data in the ambient light history, and apply a brightening pattern with a target brightness that varies with time to effect a graduated brightening of the brightness of the display over a predetermined time;

wherein the brightening pattern increases the brightness at a faster rate than the dimming pattern decreases the brightness.

17. The portable electronic device of claim 11, wherein the ambient light history has a temporal duration of at least ten minutes.

18. A method for adjusting a display to account for ambient light, the method comprising:

at a portable electronic device;

receiving ambient light data from an ambient light sensor, the ambient light data including ambient color data indicating an ambient light condition external to the portable electronic device and luminance data;

receiving contextual data from a contextual data source;

reading a display-ready image from an image source, the display-ready image having a plurality of pixels;

modifying one or more properties of at least a subset of the plurality of pixels based on at least the ambient light data and the contextual data;

displaying the modified display-ready image on the display;

detecting a threshold brightness decrease during a predetermined time period based on the luminance data; and

applying a dimming pattern with a target brightness that varies with time to effect a graduated dimming of the brightness of the display over a predetermined time in response to the detecting of the threshold brightness decrease.