Reference pixel stressing for burn-in compensation systems and methods

A method comprising:

• maintaining a burn-in history map associated with burn-in related aging of display pixels of a display panel;
• stressing a first reference pixel to cause the burn-in related aging to the first reference pixel;
• measuring a property of the first reference pixel in response to a drive current;
• measuring the property of a second reference pixel in response to the drive current, wherein the second reference pixel comprises a non-stressed reference pixel separate from the first reference pixel;
• determining a panel-specific aging profile based on a comparison between the measured property of the first reference pixel and the measured property of the second reference pixel;
• combining the panel-specific aging profile with the burn-in history map to generate a local luminance map, wherein the local luminance map comprises respective pixel luminance deviations, due to the burn-in related aging, of respective pixels of the display pixels;
• generating one or more gain maps based at least in part on the local luminance map;
• and
• compensating image data for the burn-in related aging of the display pixels based at least in part on the one or more gain maps.

Image processing circuitry configured to:

• determine a panel-specific aging profile based at least in part on a voltage difference between a first measured voltage of a first reference pixel and a second measured voltage of a second reference pixel, wherein the first reference pixel has been intentionally stressed to exhibit burn-in related aging, wherein the second reference pixel comprises a non-stressed reference pixel separate from the first reference pixel, wherein the panel-specific aging profile corresponds to a measured efficiency drop of the first reference pixel due at least in part to the burn-in related aging;
• generate a local efficiency map based at least in part on the panel-specific aging profile and a burn-in history map corresponding to estimated burn-in related aging of a plurality of display pixels configured to display image content based at least in part on image data, wherein the local efficiency map comprises respective pixel efficiency drops, due to the burn-in related aging, of respective pixels of the display pixels;
• generate one or more gain maps based at least in part on the local efficiency map;
• and
• apply the one or more gain maps to the image data to compensate for the estimated burn-in related aging of the display pixels.