Apparatus and method for preparing, storing, transmitting and displaying images

A display system for passive displays, wherein the display system is configured to receive an input signal including separately encoded display illumination control data and image data, the display system comprising:

• a control configured to process the separately encoded display illumination control data included in the input signal and to control the optical characteristics of incident light to a passive display based on the separately encoded display illumination control data.

An image processing system for preparing control data for use in displaying a sequence of images, such control data to be included with input image data to a passive display with an illuminating light source and used to control the illuminating light source, the image processing system comprising:

• a buffer memory to receive image data representative of the sequence of images,
• an analyzer configured to analyze image data of a plurality of images of the sequence of images, to create illumination control data for use in controlling optical characteristics of the incident light to a light modulating display, and to separately encode the illumination control data together with the input image data in a combined output signal of the image processing system to be used as input to a passive display with an illuminating light source.

A display system, comprising:

• a passive display,
• a source of illumination to illuminate the passive display and cooperative with the passive display to present images, and
• a storage medium providing an input signal including separately encoded illumination control data and image data, the illumination control data controlling optical characteristics of light from the source of illumination, and wherein the illumination control data is based on an evaluation of illumination of an input scene represented by an image for display, the evaluation occurring prior to storage of the illumination control data on the storage medium.

An image processing system for preparing a signal that includes image data and control data for a passive display with an illuminating light source, the image processing system comprising:

• an image obtaining device to provide image data representing input scenes,
• an image processing apparatus configured to evaluate image data of input scenes, and to provide separately encoded display control data to be included with the image data in the signal, the separately encoded display control data including illumination control data to control the optical characteristics of an illumination source for a passive display.

A method of editing and encoding images represented by image data captured by an image recording device, where the captured images are composed of an assemblage of pixels for display or projection using a passive display to which input light is incident to provide images, comprising:

• determining display control data to be used in the display to obtain a desired appearance of a displayed image including control data for a characteristic of the input light,
• including the determined display control data with the image data, the display control data corresponding to the adjusted light characteristic, and
• storing both the display control data and the image data for use subsequently to adjust the characteristic of input light to obtain a desired appearance of the image provided by a passive display with an illuminating light source.

A method of providing images to a passive display for display by the passive display, the method comprising:

• storing separately encoded (i) image data representative of respective images and (ii) display control data, the display control data comprising illumination control data for use in controlling optical characteristics of incident light to the passive display and image control data for controlling processing of the image data by the passive display to control characteristics of displayed images;
• and
• transmitting an input signal to the passive display, the input signal including the separately encoded image data and display control data.