Method and apparatus for producing perception of high quality grayscale shading on digitally commanded displays

A system for controlling a digitally commanded multiple panel display unit having pixels arranged in rows and columns to produce the perception of an image having plural levels of brightness, comprising:

• row addressing means for designating the row number of a desired pixel;
• column addressing means for designating the column number of a desired pixel;
• image memory means for producing brightness data indicating a desired level of brightness to be produced at a pixel addressed by the row and column numbers of the row and column addressing means;
• waveform memory means, responsive to the brightness level produced by the image memory means, for storing a predetermined set of brightness-setting waveforms and selecting one of the stored waveforms in response to the brightness level value, the waveform memory means including bit position selecting means for selecting a first desired bit within the selected brightness setting waveform and outputting said selected first bit as a current display command bit and for selecting a look-ahead bit within the selected brightness setting waveform and outputting said look-ahead bit as a look-ahead display command bit;
• and
• phase-placement patterning means, responsive to the row and column numbers, for producing a bit position selecting value to be used by the waveform memory means, said bit position value being determined in accordance with a predetermined phase-placement pattern, the phase-placement patterning means including information corresponding to said predetermined phase-placement pattern, so that the waveform memory means provides a first output stream of current command bits and a second output stream of look-ahead command bits for use by the multiple panel display unit.