Seiko Epson Corporation

Eric Jeffrey

Barinder Singh Rai

Yun Shon Low

Phil Van Dyke

John Peter Van Baarsen

Brett Anthony Cheng

Jimmy Kwok Lap Lai

Jerzy Wieslaw Swic

George Lyons

Jiliang Song

In a linked waveform update mode, an impulse-driven, particle-based electrophoretic display may be updated using a first waveform and then automatically up-dated using a second drive scheme when the update using the first waveform finishes. The display may be automatically up-dated using a third drive scheme when the update using the second drive scheme finishes. The automatic updating using a subsequent drive scheme may be interrupted if the desired display states for the region changes after performing the first update. Waveforms may be selected using: (a) the desired display state of a pixel if the desired display state is a valid display state for the specified drive scheme, or (b) a mapped display state of the pixel if the desired display state is an invalid display state for the drive scheme.

Automatic waveform linking in an electrophoretic display controller

Data pixels defining first and second images are stored in first and second image buffers, respectively. A second image coordinate location within a display matrix of a display device having display pixels that have multiple stable states is stored in a memory. Data pixels of the first image are read from the first image buffer. If a data pixel read from the first image buffer is within the second image coordinate location, a data pixel from the second image buffer corresponding with the data pixel read from the first image buffer is read, and the data pixel read from the second image buffer is combined with the corresponding data pixel read from the first image buffer to generate a derived data pixel. Synthesized pixels corresponding with at least each of the data pixels of the second image are generated. The synthesized pixels respectively include the derived data pixels.

Electrophoretic display controller providing PIP and cursor support

A method includes fetching first synthesized pixels from an update buffer of a memory and fetching data pixels from an image buffer of the memory during the first drive frame period. Respective data pixels are fetched synchronously with the fetching of corresponding first synthesized pixels. Respective data pixels fetched from the image buffer are synthesized with corresponding first synthesized pixels to generate second synthesized pixels. The second synthesized pixels are stored in the update buffer during the first drive frame period. The storing of second synthesized pixels may be paused based on a prediction that the fetching of first synthesized pixels will not complete within the first drive frame period. The fetching of data pixels from the image buffer of the memory may also be paused based on the prediction that the fetching of first synthesized pixels will not complete within the first drive frame period.

Allocation and efficient use of display memory bandwidth

A method for updating a submatrix of a display matrix of a display device comprises sequentially selecting rows of the display matrix starting from an initial row of the display matrix. The method includes determining whether a selected row precedes a first row of the submatrix in a first drive frame of a waveform having two or more drive frames. If a condition that a selected row precedes the first row of the submatrix in the first drive frame of the waveform is false, the method includes addressing the selected row for a first line address period. If a condition that a selected row precedes the first row of the submatrix in the first drive frame of the waveform is true, the method includes addressing the selected row for a second line address period.

Line addressing methods and apparatus for partial display updates

A method for producing a scaled output image by manipulating image data from an input image is disclosed. The scaled output image can have non-uniformly scaled regions and a uniformly scaled region. The method includes an operation that defines pixel locations within the uniformly scaled region of the output image based on uniformly scaling a portion of the input image. There is also an operation that determines a non-uniform scale factor. The non-uniform scale factor is used to define a gap between pixel locations within the non-uniformly scaled regions. Another operation determines error correction values within the non-uniformly scaled regions. The method can also include an operation that defines pixel locations for the non-uniformly scaled region of the output image based on increments of the non-uniform scale factor and error correction values.

Non-uniform image resizer

A method for resizing image data from a first size image to a second size image is disclosed. In one operation of the method, a scale factor is determined based on a number of gaps between pixels in the first size image and a number of gaps between pixels in the second size image. In another operation, the scale factor is applied to the first size image to generate a representation of the second size image data. In yet another operation a remainder representing an offset from a last pixel of the first size image data and a last pixel from the representation of the second size image data is determined. With the offset determined, another operation offsets each end pixel of a line of the second size image data by a portion of the remainder.

Center based image resizer

The invention is directed, in one embodiment, to a method for generating memory addresses for accessing an image in which each pixel in a group of pixels has a luma component, but shares chroma components with other pixels of the group. A preferred method includes providing a memory, having a plurality of first portions and a plurality of second portions. First memory addresses may be generated, each of which corresponds to one of the first portions. Each first address defines a storage location for the luma components of one of the pixel groups. Second memory addresses may be generated, each of which corresponds to one of the second portions. Each second address defines a storage location for the chroma components of at least one of the pixel groups.

Methods and apparatus for efficiently accessing reduced color-resolution image data

An apparatus may include a memory to store a first frame, a buffer to store at least one portion of a second frame previously stored in the memory, and first and second units to, respectfully, store and fetch data. The first unit may copy a datum of the second frame stored at a particular location in the memory to the buffer. The first unit may then store a datum of a first frame at the particular location. The second unit may fetch a datum of a second frame from a selected location. If a write-segment pointer and a read-segment pointer identify the same memory segment, and the read-data pointer is greater than the write-data pointer, the memory may be selected. If the write-segment pointer and the read-segment pointer identify the same memory segment, and the write-data pointer is greater than the read-data pointer, the buffer may be selected. In addition, if the write-segment pointer and the read-segment pointer identify different memory segments, either the memory or the buffer may be selected depending on additional criteria.

Compressing and decompressing image data without introducing artifacts

A method and graphics controller for processing an image is provided wherein color filter array (CFA) data representing the image is received from a digital image capture device into a buffer, a digital filter effect is applied to the CFA data to generate filtered CFA data representing a filtered image, and the filtered image is displayed in real time on a display.

Method and apparatus applying digital image filtering to color filter array data

A hardware implemented method for reducing noise in an image is provided. In this method, a difference between color values of corresponding pixels within the image is calculated, and the calculated difference is compared with a threshold value. The threshold value is defined as a rate of color value change between the corresponding pixels. If the calculated difference is greater than the threshold value, the color value of at least one of the corresponding pixels is replaced with an average color value. A graphics controller and image capture device interface for reducing noise in an image also are described.

Apparatus and method for image noise reduction

Histogram circuitry is provided to increment a tonal value tally corresponding to received pixel data without immediately writing the incremented tally back to a histogram table within a main memory. Instead, the tonal value and corresponding incremented tonal value tally are stored in a temporary memory of the histogram circuitry. Since received pixel data has a high likelihood of having the same tonal value as recently received pixel data, the tonal value of the received pixel data is first checked for a match with one of the recently received tonal values stored in the temporary memory. If the received tonal value is present in the temporary memory, there is no need to access the histogram table within the main memory to retrieve the corresponding tally. The tally corresponding to the received tonal value can simply be incremented in the temporary memory of the histogram circuitry.

Histogram generation apparatus and method for operating the same

A method for concurrently displaying an image and a video on a display having memory integrated therein comprises receiving position data defining a position of a top image region, receiving video data from a video source, and passing the video data directly to the display, i.e., without first storing the image within video RAM. In a first mode video data is passed directly to the display only when it corresponds to pixels outside of the top image region. In a second mode, video data is passed directly to the display such that entire successive images are wholly displayed within the top image region. The top image region is smaller than the entire display region.

Apparatus and method for displaying a video on a portion of a display without requiring a display buffer

A graphics controller for animating an overlay is described. The graphics controller includes a host interface for communicating with an external processor and a plurality of registers in communication with the host interface. Logic is configured to periodically change coordinates of an overlay image. The logic responds to values stored in the registers to cause display registers containing the coordinates to be updated every x number of frame refreshes, wherein x is a positive integer.

Hardware animation of a bouncing image

The invention is directed to a method and apparatus for serially receiving and dimensionally transforming an image in an ordered sequence of interleaved blocks. Each block comprises an ordered sequence of samples of the image, and the samples of a single block all corresponding to a single color component. The method includes steps of counting the samples in the order received to determine a sequence number for each sample, comparing the sequence number with a set of predetermined values; and dimensionally transforming the image by either discarding the sample or storing the sample in a memory depending on the result of the comparison.

Method and apparatus for dimensionally transforming an image without a line buffer

An interface for an integrated circuit chip is provided. The interface includes a first port configured to receive a command signal indicating whether command information or data is being transferred to the integrated circuit chip. The interface further includes a second port configured to receive the command information and the data. Coded data detection logic configured to detect a transition of the command signal indicating that the command information and the data are coded is provided. The transition of the command signal occurs subsequent to a first clock cycle indicating a type of access to the integrated circuit. A method for reducing overhead for a serial interface when receiving or transmitting data is also included.

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Richmond, CA, United States of America

Eric Jeffrey