Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Corporation

Takashi Yoshii

Hiroyuki Furukawa

Masafumi Ueno

Kenichiroh Yamamoto

Yasuhiro Yoshida

Toshiyuki Fujine

Michiyuki Sugino

Seiji Kohashikawa

Yutaka Inoue

Takeshi Mori

Kohji Ohtsuka

Yuji Kikuchi

Toshihiko Osada

Makoto Shiomi

Masaki Shimizu

Ikuko Tsubaki

Toshiharu Hanaoka

Takuya Iwanami

Yasuhiro Ohki

Kazuyoshi Izumi

Masahiko Akutsu

Kazuya Idei

Manabu Ishikawa

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

Deterioration in image quality of a moving image obtained by special reproduction caused by frame rate conversion (FRC) processing of a motion compensation type is prevented. An image displaying device includes an FRC portionthat converts the number of frames of the input image signal by interpolating an image signal to which motion compensation processing has been performed between frames of an input image signal, a special reproduction determining portionthat determines whether or not the input image signal is an image signal relating to a predetermined genre, and a controlling portion. The FRC portionincludes a motion vector detecting portion lie that detects a motion vector between frames of the input image signal, an interpolation vector evaluating portionthat assigns an interpolation vector between frames based on the motion vector information, and an interpolation frame generating portionthat generates an interpolation frame from the interpolation vector. When the input image signal is an image signal obtained by special reproduction including 'fast forward reproduction' and 'rewind reproduction', the controlling portionmakes the motion compensation processing in the FRC portionineffective by making the motion vector detected by the motion vector detecting portionto zero-vector.

Image displaying device and method, and image processing device and method for preventing image deterioration

An image processing device and method, and an image display device and method which realizes a high-definition displayed video by reducing motion blur caused by a holding-type display system and reducing motion blurs of the displayed video caused by the time integration effect of an image sensor while suppressing deterioration of an image. The image display device includes a motion vector detection section () which detects a motion vector in each predetermined region between the frames of an inputted image signal, and an edge emphasis part () which emphasizes the high-frequency component of the inputted image signal and an interpolated image signal generated by an FRC part () according to the motion amount of the inputted image signal detected by the motion vector detection section (). This compensates the high-frequency component attenuated by the time integration effect of the image sensor to reduce the apparent motion blurs to improve the sharpness of the displayed image. By making the degree of edge emphasis of the interpolated image signal smaller than that of the inputted image signal, the sharpness of the displayed image is improved without making the image deterioration of the interpolated image signal distinct.

Image processing device and method, and image display device and method

A liquid crystal display device in which a frame of the image signal to be displayed is written into a liquid crystal display panel while a backlight is activated intermittently within one frame period so as to prevent blur injury arising when displaying motion pictures includes: sections and for variably controlling the illumination duration of the backlight based on the detected type of the image content to be displayed. This configuration makes it possible to appropriately control the image quality degradation caused by blur injury, stroboscopic effect and flickering, hence realize total image quality improvement.

Liquid crystal display device

It is an object to suppress a disturbance or distortion of an insertion image in the vicinity of an effective image edge portion such as an edge portion of a screen or the like caused by a moving compensation type frame rate conversion (FRC). An image processing device is provided with a moving vector detection circuit () for detecting a moving vector of an input image signal, an effective image edge portion judging circuit () for judging if a moving vector detecting position is adjacent to the effective image edge portion, and a vector switching circuit () for switching a vector in accordance with the judging result. The vector switching circuit () fixes the vector to 0 vector in the case where the moving vector detecting position is adjacent to the effective image edge portion. In the case where the position is in other region, the vector switching circuit () outputs the moving vector detected by the moving vector detection circuit () to an insertion vector allocation circuit ().

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

The quality of moving picture image with a large moving amount is prevented from deterioration due to moving compensation type frame rate conversion (FRC) processing. The image display device is comprised of an FRC unit () that interpolates an image signal subjected to moving compensation processing between frames so as to convert the number of frames of the input image signal, a moving amount judging unit () that judges whether a moving amount of the input image signal between the frames is larger than a predetermined value or not, and a control unit (). The FRC unit () is provided with a moving vector detecting unit () that detects a moving vector between the frames of the input image signal, an interpolation vector evaluating unit () that allocates an interpolation vector between the frames on the basis of the moving vector information and an interpolation frame generating unit () that generates an interpolation frame from the interpolation vector. In the case where the moving amount between the frames of the input image signal is larger than the predetermined value, the control unit () sets the moving vector detected by the moving vector detecting unit () to be zero-vector, and it invalidates the moving compensation processing of the FRC unit ().

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

An image processing device, method, an image display device and method which can obtain a high-definition display image by properly controlling processing of reducing the blur of a displayed image caused by the time integration effect of an image sensor. The image display device comprises a motion detection part () which detects the moving amount of an input image signal, and an edge emphasis part () which subjects the input image signal to edge emphasis processing, and the image display device increases an edge emphasis degree of edge emphasis processing to an area where the moving amount of the input image signal is large. The image display device comprises a genre judgment part () which judges the genre classification which the input image signal is connected with according to genre information obtained from outside of the device, and a control part () which controls the edge emphasis part () to reduce the edge emphasis degree of the edge emphasis processing or to avoid the edge emphasis processing even in the area where the moving amount of the input signal is large when the input image signal is connected with a predetermined genre.

Edge enhancement method and apparatus

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

In an image displaying apparatus including a motion compensated rate converting (FRC) portion, deterioration of image quality is prevented in an image having a high-speed region and a low-speed region mixed. The FRC portion includes a motion vector detecting portionand an interpolation frame generating portion. The motion vector detecting portionincludes a first region detecting meansthat detects a first region (high-speed region) including a motion amount equal to or greater than a first predetermined amount from an input image signal, a second region detecting meansthat detects a second region (low-speed region) including a motion amount equal to or less than a second predetermined amount from the input image signal, and a third region detecting meansthat detects a still region from an inter-frame difference of the input image signal. The interpolation frame generating portionexecutes a motion compensated interpolation process using motion vectors for the still region in the first region (background) and executes a zero-vector interpolation process for the still region in the second region (foreground).

Image displaying apparatus and method, and image processing apparatus and method

A backlight unit includes a fluorescent lamp to illuminate a liquid crystal panel, a reflection unit for causing the light from the fluorescent lamp to exit toward a certain direction, and a diffusion unit for diffusing the light from the fluorescent lamp and reflection unit, and reflectance or transmittance in the horizontal and vertical directions is controlled by applying a dot pattern that gradually increases densities from the central portion toward the peripheral portion to the reflection unit or diffusion unit, or by applying a dot pattern that gradually increases densities from the central portion toward the both ends in the longitudinal direction on the surface of the fluorescent tube of the fluorescent lamp. By doing this, brightness gradient is formed in the horizontal and vertical directions so that the brightness in the central portion of the liquid crystal panel is relatively higher than the brightness of the peripheral portion thereof.

Backlight unit and liquid crystal display device using the backlight unit

An image display device controls a screen luminance to an appropriate value in response to switching of a display mode, thereby displaying each of television broadcast program images and graphic user interface images (including an electronic program guide, and a variety of setting menus) in an easy-to-see and power-saving manner. The image display device switches between a mode of displaying the television image and a mode of displaying the graphic user interface image. In response to the mode switching instruction, the device controls variably luminance intensity of a backlight source, thereby providing a screen luminance appropriate for each mode.

Image display device, image display method, and television receiver

When a video signal type detecting section detects an interlace signal, an I/P conversion section subjects the interlace signal to I/P conversion, and the signal is supplied to an enhancing conversion section. In the enhancing conversion section, the image data is subjected to enhancing conversion, so that optical characteristics of a liquid crystal display panel is corrected. On this occasion, the degradation of the quality of a reproduced image due to the enhancement of unwanted changes (false signal), by causing the degree of the enhancing conversion of the image data having been subjected to the I/P conversion to be lower than the degree of the enhanced conversion of the image data inputted as the progressive signal. As a result, the enhancing conversion of the input image data is performed in such a manner as to correct the optical response characteristics of the liquid crystal panel, so that it is possible to restrain the enhancement of unwanted changes occurring at the outline of the image on the occasion of subjecting the interlace image signal to the I/P conversion, and hence high-quality image reproduction is realized.

Liquid crystal display device, liquid crystal display control method, program thereof, and recording medium

When receiving an interlaced video signal, an I/P conversion section converts the interlaced video signal into a progressive video signal by any of two or more I/P conversion methods. Further, an emphasis conversion section subjects the progressive video signal to emphasis conversion. Here, a control CPU controls the degree of emphasis conversion performed by the emphasis conversion section so as to be changed in accordance with which kind of conversion method among the two or more conversion methods is used for the conversion. This makes it possible to subject video data supplied to a liquid crystal display panel to emphasis conversion with a degree corresponding to the conversion method. As a result of this, it is possible to implement a liquid crystal display device which can realize both improvement in response speed of a liquid crystal display device and improvement in quality of video image displayed on the liquid crystal display device.

Liquid crystal display device, signal processing unit for use in liquid crystal display device, program and storage medium thereof, and liquid crystal display control method

An emphasis convertercompares the image data of the current vertical period with the image data of the previous vertical period and controls the input image data to a liquid crystal display panelbased on the emphasis conversion parameters stored in tables of ROMstoso as to achieve accelerated drive. A microcomputeris able to realize stable control of selecting emphasis conversion parameters by adding hysteresis to the detected temperature from a thermistoreven when the detected temperature fluctuates up and down crossing the temperature threshold.

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Chiba, Japan

Takashi Yoshii