Display controller with content-adaptive modulation control signaling
AssigneeTexas Instruments Incorporated
InventorAravind LAKSHMINARAYANAN
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An example system includes a spatial light modulator including an array of pixel elements; and a controller that includes image analysis circuitry to analyze image frames to determine image attributes and further to analyze a motion metric quantifying movement between image frames; display control circuitry to generate control sequences based on pre-stored sequence segments; and control voltage selection circuitry to provide variable voltage levels to the spatial light modulator based on the control sequences. The controller is operable to adjust both bit depth of the spatial light modulator and illumination color cycles within a single image frame based on analysis of the determined image attributes.
Claims18
A system comprising:
- a spatial light modulator including an array of pixel elements;
- and
- a controller coupled to the spatial light modulator, wherein the controller includes:
- image analysis circuitry configurable to analyze image frames to determine image attributes including a dynamic range metric indicating a difference between brightest and darkest regions, a spatio-temporal gradient metric indicating changes in intensity over time and space, and a spatial distribution metric indicating content concentration patterns, the image analysis circuitry further configurable to analyze a motion metric quantifying movement between image frames;
- display control circuitry configurable to, responsive to the determined image attributes, generate control sequences based on pre-stored sequence segments;
- and
- control voltage selection circuitry configurable to provide variable voltage levels to the spatial light modulator based on the control sequences;
- wherein the controller is configurable to adjust both bit depth of the spatial light modulator and illumination color cycles within a single image frame based on analysis of the determined image attributes.
A method comprising:
- analyzing, by one or more hardware accelerators, image frames to extract content attributes including dynamic range, gradient characteristics, motion characteristics, and spatial distribution of content;
- accessing, from a memory, two or more pre-generated pulse width modulation (PWM) sequence segments, wherein each pre-generated PWM sequence segment stored in the memory includes, for each of multiple colors, a leading segment, a middle segment, and a trailing segment;
- stitching the two or more pre-generated PWM sequence segments together during runtime to generate a PWM control sequence based on the extracted content attributes;
- and
- providing modulation control signals to pixel elements of a spatial light modulator and illumination control signals to a light source based on the PWM control sequence.
A display controller comprising:
- a memory interface configurable to access at least one of stored control sequences and stored sequence segments;
- a memory configurable to store at least during runtime at least one of active control sequences and active sequence segments;
- processing circuitry configurable to implement multiple sequence management modes including (i) to access active sequence segments from the memory during runtime, and combine accessed active sequences to form control sequences;
- (ii) select active control sequences from the memory for use as control sequences;
- and (iii) pre-load stored control sequences via the memory interface to the memory for use as control sequences;
- and
- a hardware accelerator configurable to perform image attribute analysis of an image, and, based on the image attribute analysis, generate control sequences via one of the multiple sequence management modes, and provide modulation control signals based on the generated control sequences.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.