Texas Instruments Corporation

Other

Kazuhiro Ohara

Vishal Markandey

Robert J Gove

Todd Alan Clatanoff

Terry Alan Bartlett

Adam J Kunzman

Akira Takeda

William B Werner

William J Sexton

Keith Harold Elliott

Gary L Sextro

Dennis J Tobin

An imaging systemincludes an image source providing an image having a resolution of X by Y pixels. The system also includes a digital mirror devicethat includes an array of mirror elements. Each mirror element includes an edge that is not parallel to an edge of a neighboring mirror element. The arrayincludes fewer than X*Y mirror elements.

Display system and signal processing using diamond-shaped DMDs

A display system ( ) in which light from source ( ) is focused onto a spinning color wheel ( ). The spinning color wheel ( ) spins at a constant rate and creates of beam of light that changes from one primary color to the next in rapid sequence. The primary colored beam of light impinges a spatial light modulator ( ), which is often a DMD or LCD. A controller ( ) receives an input video signal and determines the native frame rate of the image source. The controller ( ) sends image data to the spatial light modulator ( ) in synchronization with the color wheel ( )&mdash;image data representing the red portions of the image is sent during the period in which the red color filter is passing through the beam of light&mdash;at the native frame rate of the image source. The modulated light is focused onto an image plane ( ) by projection lens ( ) to form an image. The eye of the viewer integrates the sequential primary color images giving the perception of a single full-color image. The display system uses a single nominal color wheel speed to display input signals having various native frame rates. The nominal color wheel speed is selected to allow the same color wheel rate to be used for a variety of native frame rates. The color wheel speed is selected to provide a sub-frame rate that is an integer multiple the native frame rate of each potential input format.

Color wheel synchronization in multi-frame-rate display systems

A display system in which light from source ( ) is focused onto a spinning color wheel ( ). The spinning color wheel ( ) creates of beam of light that changes from one primary color to the next in rapid sequence. The primary colored beam of light impinges a spatial light modulator ( ), in this case a DMD. A controller ( ) receives an input video signal and sends image data to the spatial light modulator ( ) in synchronization with the color wheel ( )&mdash;image data representing the red portions of the image is sent during the period in which the red color filter is passing through the beam of light. The modulated red beam of light is focused onto an image plane ( ) by projection lens ( ) to form a red image. The process repeats as the green and blue filters pass through the path of the light beam. The eye of the viewer integrates the three primary color images giving the perception of a single full-color image. The display system uses a single nominal color wheel speed to display input signals having various frame rates. The nominal color wheel speed is selected to allow the same color wheel rate to be used for a variety of input frame rates. The color wheel speed is selected to provide a sub-frame rate that is an integer multiple the frame rate of each potential input format.

Common color wheel speed system

A method and apparatus for selectively scaling portions of image data based on the intensity levels of historical image data. The selective scaling, or level expansion, provides improved images by increasing or decreasing the intensity of a portion of image pixels. Black level expansion reduces the intensity of dark pixels and is appropriate when a relatively large number of the image pixels have a high intensity level. White level expansion increases the intensity of bright pixels and is appropriate when a relatively large number of image pixels have a low intensity level. Level expansion is implemented by using histogram comparators to compare the intensity of each pixel with a threshold, typically on a frame-by-frame basis. When an adequate number of pixels in each frame meet the threshold criteria, the level expansion is increased. Field accumulator is used to determine whether and by how much the image data is scaled. Field accumulator increments each time a frame meets the expansion criteria, as determined by the histogram comparators , and decrements each time a frame does not meet the expansion criteria. The value accumulated by the field accumulator is used by level expander to scale at least a portion of the input data.

Histogram-based intensity expansion

A method of measuring the motion in video image data for a pixel uses both field-difference and frame-difference motion values to generate a motion value having increased accuracy. Image data ( ) from the same pixel in a prior row of the same field ( ) is compared to image data ( ) from the same pixel in the prior row of the prior frame ( ), and the absolute value of the difference is compared to the absolute value of the difference in image data ( ) from the same pixel in a following row of the same field ( ) and image data ( ) from the same pixel in the following line of the prior frame ( ). The minimum of these two values is the minimum frame-difference motion value which is input into a logical mixer. Also input into the logical mixer is the minimum field-difference motion value which may be determined by comparing data ( ) from the same pixel of an adjacent line of the same field ( ) with image data ( ) from the same pixel of the same line of the prior field. The average of image data ( ) from the same pixel of the same line of the prior field and image data ( ) from the same pixel of two rows prior or two rows after of the prior field ( ) may be used instead of image data ( ) from the same pixel of the same line of the prior field alone, to increase the accuracy of the measurement.

Motion detection using field-difference measurements

A television system (,) with interlaced to progressive scan conversion. The system receives interlaced television signals then converts them to progressively scanned data using either field differencing, enhanced field differencing, frame differencing or other temporal processing depending upon which implementation is used. The implementations used depend upon which configuration of the system (,) was purchased, and can be changed with an upgrade to the more expensive implementations.

Low cost progressive scan television with special features

A digital color transient improvement (CTI) method and apparatus for enhancing the color sharpness of a chrominance signal by increasing the steepness of color edges without ringing. A median logic circuit (30) samples three signals A, B and C, and selects values from these three signals to provide an output signal that has steep color edges. One signal (A) is the non-processed input signal, a second signal (C) is a twice delayed input signal, and the third signal (B) is the derivative of the once delayed input signal. The present invention is ideally utilized by an SVP and requires a minimum number of instructions, but can also be implemented by a small number of gates on an ASIC or FPGA.

Digital color transient improvement

An improved processing system (10) for video signal processing. The system uses only one newer version scan-line video processor (12) at nearly maximum efficiency, with a digital input that is at a common rate. The processor performs motion detection, motion adaptive scan conversion, horizontal and vertical scaling and applies sharpness control within a limited amount of instruction space, and applies these functions to four different video formats.

Video processing system with scan-line video processor

An improved image scaling filter for a video display where a coefficient value for the closest input lines to a given output line that are less than two line lengths from the given output line are determined by cubic interpolation using the line distances. The input lines are multiplied by the coefficient for that line and the multiplied closest input line values are summed to determine the output line value.

Image scaling using cubic filters

A motion adaptive method for vertically scaling an image. The image data is analyzed to obtain a motion magnitude value for each pixel (31). The pixel data is then processed with two scaling processes (35, 36), performed in parallel. One scaling process is better suited for low motion images and the other is better suited for high motion images. The motion magnitude value is used to select between or combine (38) the pixel data outputs of the two scaling processes (35, 36).

Motion adaptive vertical scaling for interlaced digital image data

A method for processing video data to produce a progressively scanned signal from an input of conventional interlaced video. The data is received at a processor (1), used to determine a motion signal (26) over time between field of the data. The motion signal is filtered to reduce errors caused by noise-corrupted video sources and then further filtered to spread out the determined motion signal. Edge information (30) is located and combined with the motion signal to produce an integrated progressive-scan signal (36) for display on a video display device, producing images with sharper edges and motion signals which have a lower susceptibility to noise.

Motion adaptive scan-rate conversion using directional edge interpolation

A method of improving the sharpness of horizontal edges of an image that has been vertically scaled. The scaled signal, which represents a series of pixel values, is used to derive an aperture correction value (41-46), which is determined by the scaling ratio and an edge factor. This aperture correction value is added to the scaled signal (47), resulting in enhanced pixel values at edges.

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Plano, TX, United States of America

Kazuhiro Ohara