Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Corporation

Seiji Kohashikawa

Toshiyuki Fujine

Takeshi Mori

Hiroyuki Furukawa

Masafumi Ueno

Takashi Yoshii

Kenichiroh Yamamoto

Yuhya Sekiguchi

Yuhichiro Yamaguchi

Takayuki Amagai

Setsuya Kobayashi

Takeshi Mutoh

Takahiro Daido

It is an object to prevent the image quality deterioration of a moving image likely to include a plurality of the same consecutive images such as a movie video and an animation video due to the motion-compensated frame rate conversion (FRC) processing. An image displaying device is provided with an FRC portion () for converting the number of frames in an input image signal by interpolating an image signal to which a motion compensation processing has been given between the frames in the input image signal, a genre determining portion () for determining whether the input image signal is a predetermined genre, and a controlling portion (). The FRC portion () includes a motion vector detecting portion () for detecting a motion vector between the frames of the input image signal, an interpolating vector evaluating portion () for allocating an interpolating vector between the frames based on the motion vector information, and an interpolating frame generating portion () for generating an interpolating frame from the interpolating vector. In the case that the input image signal is relating to a movie or animation, the control portion () set the motion vector detected by the motion vector detecting portion () to zero-vector to make the motion compensation processing of the FRC portion () ineffective.

Image displaying device and method and image processing device and method determining content genre for preventing image deterioration

A liquid crystal display apparatus enables image display with optimum quality corresponding to the genre of an image to be displayed. The liquid crystal display apparatus controls the emission luminance of a backlight according to the APL of an image signal measured at an APL measuring portion. Upon emission luminance control, the display apparatus sets the follow performance of a change of the backlight emission luminance in following a change in a characteristic quantity of the image signal according to a genre so that the display image can be viewed without an odd feeling. Specifically, the APL of the image signal measured at the APL measuring portionis put into a filter, and the rate of a change in the APL on the time axis is controlled through weighted averaging to control the follow performance of the emission luminance control on the backlight. At this time, the genre of image to be displayed is determined, and a constant used for weighted averaging on the filteris changed according to the determined genre to optimize display quality for each genre.

Liquid crystal display apparatus

Deterioration of the image quality of a moving image which is deteriorated due to a motion-compensated frame rate conversion (FRC) processing is prevented. An image display device comprises an FRC portion () for converting the number of frames of an input image signal by interpolating an image signal to which the motion compensation processing is performed between frames of the input image signal and a controlling portion () for controlling the operation of the FRC portion () after determining whether or not the degree of deterioration of the input image signal is equal to or higher than a predetermined value. The FRC portion () comprises a motion vector detecting portion () for detecting a motion vector between frames of the input image signal, an interpolating vector evaluating portion () for allocating an interpolating vector between the frames based on the motion vector information, and an interpolating frame generating portion () for generating an interpolating frame from the interpolating vector. If the degree of deterioration of the input image signal is equal to or higher than a predetermined value, the controlling portion () makes the motion compensation of the FRC portion () ineffective by setting the motion vector detected by the motion vector detecting portion () to a zero vector.

Image displaying device and method, and image processing device and method

The present invention provides a display device capable of realizing an appropriate screen display luminance in accordance with a video feature quantity and brightness around and sufficiently reducing power consumption. A liquid crystal display apparatus () includes: a liquid crystal panel () for displaying a video by an input video signal; a backlight unit () as a light source for irradiating the liquid crystal panel (); and a brightness sensor () for detecting the brightness around the liquid crystal display apparatus (). According to the brightness detected by the brightness sensor (), luminance conversion characteristic defining the light emission luminance of the backlight for the feature quantity (such as APL) of the input video signal is changed. Here, the luminance conversion characteristic is changed so that the light emission luminance is reduced as the brightness around the liquid crystal display apparatus becomes darker and the position of the characteristic modification point as the point where the slope of the luminance conversion characteristic is changed is shifted in the direction of the feature quantity change. According to the obtained luminance conversion characteristic, the light emission luminance of the backlight is controlled.

It is an object to prevent the image quality deterioration of a moving image likely to include a plurality of the same consecutive images such as 2-3 or 2-2 pulldown video due to the motion-compensated frame rate conversion (FRC) processing. An image displaying device is provided with an FRC portion () for converting the number of frames in an input image signal by interpolating an image signal to which a motion compensation processing has been given between the frames in the input image signal, a pulldown detecting portion () for detecting whether the input image signal is an image signal to which pulldown conversion has been performed, and a controlling portion (). The FRC portion () includes a motion vector detecting portion () for detecting a motion vector between the frames of the input image signal, an interpolating vector evaluating portion () for allocating an interpolating vector between the frames based on the motion vector information, and an interpolating frame generating portion () for generating an interpolating frame from the interpolating vector. In the case that the input image signal is an image signal to which pulldown conversion has been performed, the controlling portion () set the motion vector detected by the motion vector detecting portion () to zero-vector to make the motion compensation processing of the FRC portion () ineffective.

Image displaying device and method and image processing device and method for preventing image deterioration due to motion-compensated rate conversion processing

A video with a display definition most suitable for the type of the video content to be displayed can be displayed. A liquid crystal display apparatus controls the luminance of the backlight light source according to the APL of the video signal measured by an APL measuring portion (). The range of the video signal the APL of which is measured can be determined by, e.g., the luminance level of the video signal or by the genre information included in the inputted video signal or the OSD display information used when the liquid crystal apparatus () performs OSD display. The drawing shows the state that the upper and lower non-video areas are removed and an effective video area is determined. With this, the additional information displayed when the video signal is of a specific genre and the OSD-displayed additional information can be excluded, and the luminance of the backlight light source can be controlled to realize a display definition most suitable for the video signal.

It is an object to prevent the image quality deterioration of a moving image likely to include a plurality of the same consecutive images such as a movie video image or a CG video image due to the motion-compensated frame rate conversion (FRC) processing. An image displaying device is provided with an FRC portion () for converting the number of frames in an input image signal by interpolating an image signal to which a motion compensation processing has been given between the frames in the input image signal, a controlling portion () for controlling each portion according to an image tone mode selected by a user. The FRC portion () includes a motion vector detecting portion () for detecting a motion vector between the frames of the input image signal, an interpolating vector evaluating portion () for allocating an interpolating vector between the frames based on the motion vector information, and an interpolating frame generating portion () for generating an interpolating frame from the interpolating vector. In the case that the image tone mode selected by the user is a predetermined image tone mode, the controlling portion () set the motion vector detected by the motion vector detecting portion () to zero-vector to make the motion compensation processing of the FRC portion () ineffective.

Image displaying device and method for preventing image quality deterioration

Provided is a liquid crystal display apparatus capable of stopping the brightness control of a back light source on the featuring quantity of an input video signal, in case a multi-plane display was performed. The liquid crystal display apparatus comprises a liquid crystal panel () for displaying a picture, a light source for irradiating the liquid crystal panel (), a backlight unit () for controlling the light source, a two-plane control unit (), and a brightness control unit (). In accordance with the featuring quantity of the input video signal, the brightness control unit () performs the control of the emitting brightness of the back light source, upon the backlight unit (). In case it is decided by a notice from the two-plane control unit () that the display mode for displaying a plurality of planes was selected, the brightness control unit () controls the backlight unit (), so that the emitting brightness of the back light source may be kept constant irrespective of the featuring quantity of the input video signal.

A light emission device capable of holding a uniform color in various environments is provided. A light source control device has a light detection device for detecting emission brightness of light sources that emit different colors and controlling emission brightness of at least one light source of the light sources based on the detection result of the light detection device. A through-hole is formed in a reflection member for reflecting light emitted from the light source, and the reflection is in a predetermined direction. The light detection device is provided across the reflection member from the light source, and the light propagation member is provided at the through-hole.

Light source control device, illuminaton device, and liquid crystal display device

An image-processing apparatus, as well as an image-processing method, is provided with a first inspection circuit which, with respect to density values of pixels within a specific area consisting of a target pixel and pixels in a vicinity thereof in image data for each color component, calculates an average density value, the sum of density differences, that is, the sum of absolute values of differences between the target pixel and the peripheral pixels, and the number the peripheral pixels having the same density value as the target pixel, so that a judgement is made as to whether the target pixel is a maximum value or a minimum value, and also calculates a run-length and the degree of busy from the pixel forming the maximum value or the minimum value. Moreover, based on the run-length and the degree of busy, the second inspection circuit extracts a pixel weight switching signal for each of the color components, and detects the periodicity of meshes of image data by counting pixels not less than the standard value or not more than the standard value based on the pixel weight switching signal within a predetermined counting area. With this arrangement, it becomes possible to carry out the discrimination between character areas and mesh areas as well as the discrimination between black character areas and white character ares with high precision.

Growing community of inventors

Suzuka, Japan

Seiji Kohashikawa