Video playback on electronic paper displays

A system for displaying video on an electronic paper display, the system comprising:

• the electronic paper display;
• a video display driver adapted to receive a video stream of original pixel values;
• a display controller having inputs and outputs, the display controller adapted to receive signals from the video display driver and apply one or more control signals to the electronic paper display, the outputs of the display controller coupled to the electronic paper display;
• and
• an encoder adapted to receive the signals from the video display driver and output the one or more control signals, the encoder adapted to determine desired values for pixels of video data by shifting the original pixel values by a number of gray levels to a range where the desired values are modified faster and contrast is enhanced, wherein determining the desired values comprises computing how many pixels (Sh) are transitioning from a first gray level to a second gray level and an average amount of change (Dh), processing the Sh and the Dh to identify the gray level around which a largest number of motion intensive pixels cluster, and determining the number of gray levels to achieve a minimum dynamic range and shifting intense gray levels to mid-gray levels, determine future values for the pixels of video data and process the desired values and the future values for the pixels of video data including adjusting the desired values and the future values to generate the one or more control signals, the encoder coupled to the input of the video display driver.

A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer useable medium including a computer readable program, wherein the computer readable program when executed on a computer causes the computer to:

• receive a video stream of original pixel values;
• determine desired values for pixels of video data by shifting the original pixel values by a number of gray levels to a range where the desired values are modified faster and contrast is enhanced, wherein determining the desired values comprises:
• computing how many pixels (Sh) are transitioning from a first gray level to a second gray level and an average amount of change (Dh);
• processing the Sh and the Dh to identify the gray level around which a largest number of motion intensive pixels cluster;
• and
• determining the number of gray levels to achieve a minimum dynamic range and shifting intense gray levels to mid-gray levels;
• determine future values for the pixels of video data;
• process the video stream using the desired values and the future values including adjusting the desired values and the future values to generate one or more control signals for an electronic paper display;
• iteratively copy a current video frame from a memory buffer to a frame buffer;
• and
• apply the one or more control signals to the electronic paper display.