Abstract: A scene change detecting circuit (1) detects a scene change of video. An average luminance level operating circuit (2) calculates an average luminance level (APL) of a video signal (VD). A luminance overdrive amount calculating circuit (3) calculates a luminance overdrive amount (OD) based on the average luminance level (APL). A time-linked attenuating circuit (7) outputs a power consumption limit correction amount (PA) by attenuating the luminance overdrive amount (OD) with an elapse of time from a point in time of detecting the scene change. An adder (8) adds the power consumption limit correction amount (PA) and a reference power consumption limit value (Lp) to output the addition result as a power consumption limit amount (PL). An ABL circuit (4) calculates a luminance limit amount (BL) based on luminance limit characteristics, the average luminance level (APL) and the power consumption limit amount (PL).

Abstract: A picture quality when reducing the brightness or the contrast of the picture on a plasma panel shall be improved. For this purpose there is provided a driving apparatus including brightness/contrast control means for receiving video input data for modifying the video levels of the video input data in accordance with external adjustment data and for outputting modified video data. First power measurement means measure a power level of the modified video data and supply a first power level. Second power measurement means measure a power level of the video input data and supply a second power level. Generator means generate a third power level comprised between the first power level and the second power level or equal to the larger one to data processing means. The data processing means calculate the maximum number of sustain pulses per frame applicable to the modified video data on the basis of the third power level and control the display of the modified video data on the plasma display panel.

Abstract: Average picture level (APL) of a display and, in examples, histogram information is used to dynamically adjust the display contrast, or “gamma”, using an exponential function. APL can also be used for DC transmission adjustment and black/white stretch.

Abstract: Disclosed is a video processing apparatus including: a brightness adjusting part which adjusts the brightness of a whole portion of a received video signal according to a brightness adjusting value; and a brightness stretching part which calculates gradient values to stretch a first brightness in a first portion including a smaller brightness value than a first reference value and a second brightness in a second portion including a larger brightness value than a second reference value in the received video signal, and outputs the received video signal having the brightness adjusted by the brightness adjusting part in a third portion including a smaller brightness value than a minimum brightness value and in a fourth portion including a larger brightness value than a maximum brightness value in the received video signal by applying the calculated gradient values to the third portion and the fourth portion, respectively, to display the brightness of the received video signal corresponding to the third portion a

Abstract: An image display apparatus includes a display which displays an image based on an image signal. An ambient light measuring unit measures the intensity of ambient light around the display. A brightness distribution measuring unit measures a brightness distribution in a scene when the image signal is obtained. A parameter calculator calculates a correction parameter for correcting a partial contrast of the image based on the ambient light intensity and brightness distribution in the scene. A contrast correction unit corrects a partial contrast of the image by correcting the image signal by using the calculated correction parameter.

Abstract: An image reproducing apparatus is operative in accordance with multiple display modes. The image reproducing apparatus includes a data reproducing unit that reproduces an image on a display based on high dynamic range image data acquired from an object and stored in memory, and a dynamic range control unit that controls the dynamic range of the image to be reproduced on the display using one of different types of dynamic range control schemes in accordance with one of the display modes.

Abstract: A display device and a contrast enhancement method thereof are disclosed. The display device includes a display panel on which data lines and gate lines are positioned, a data driving circuit for driving the data lines, a scan driving circuit for driving the gate lines, a timing controller for controlling the data driving circuit and the scan driving circuit, and a data modulation circuit including a local modulation circuit and a global modulation circuit. The local modulation circuit maps luminance components of input digital video data to a luminance transfer curve selected or generated for each pixel based on an average picture level (APL) of each pixel and perform a first modulation on the luminance components of the input digital video data so as to expand a gray level distribution of a specific portion of an input image.

Abstract: A method of enhancing a contrast ratio of a picture of a display device, comprising steps of providing the display device having a light source; continuously receiving plural display signals; and turning off the light source when the display device has a buffer time during which each of the continuously received plural display signals has a picture brightness equal to zero.

Abstract: A contrast control apparatus includes a memory for storing input image signals within one frame and an image reducing unit for selecting at least one image signal of the input image signals. An accumulation value calculating unit calculates accumulation values for predetermined sampling gray values with respect to the selected image signal. An image characteristic decision unit determines at least one characteristic of the selected image based on the accumulation values. A contrast control function calculating unit calculates a contrast control function based on the characteristic of the selected image. A contrast controller controls contrast of the image signals stored in the memory according to the contrast control function.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes a non-linear smoother for smoothing input video data with an edge component thereof preserved, and outputting smoothed video data, a subtractor for subtracting the smoothed video data from the input video data and outputting high-frequency component video data not containing the edge component, an outline extractor for extracting the edge component from the smoothed video data and outputting edge component video data, a first amplifier for varying a signal level of the edge component video data, a second amplifier for varying a signal level of the high-frequency component video data not containing the edge component, and an adder for adding video data output from the first amplifier and video data output from the second amplifier to one of the smoothed video data and the input video data.

Abstract: An apparatus for controlling black stretch includes a black stretching unit, an offset adjusting unit and an output unit. The black stretching unit performs black stretch processing on a video signal less than or equal to the maximum value of a black stretch control range in response to a slope of black stretch. The slope of black stretch corresponds to a region between a minimum value and a maximum value of the black stretch control range. The offset adjusting unit adjusts an offset of the black-stretched video signal. The output unit outputs an output video signal corresponding to the offset-adjusted video signal when the offset-adjusted video signal has a positive value in a region less than or equal to the minimum value, and outputs the output video signal corresponding to 0 when the offset-adjusted video signal has a negative value in the region less than or equal to the minimum value.

Abstract: Provided is a display device including a current-brightness table calculation unit (112) that calculates a table representing a relationship between an average brightness and a gain of a video signal, a flash control calculation unit (114) that revises the table in order to reduce a change amount of a gain of each frame in the table, a video-average brightness conversion block (106) that calculates an average brightness of a video signal input for each frame, a current-brightness control table (110) that calculates a gain of a video signal from a table based on the average brightness calculated by the video-average brightness conversion block, a video gain block (104) that adjusts a video signal using the gain calculated by the current-brightness control table, and a display panel (300) that includes a plurality of pixels that emit light in response to a video signal and display a video based on a video signal adjusted by the video signal adjustment unit.

Abstract: A system and method enabling comparative and interactive preview of the effects of different operational settings to facilitate adjustment of a media-playing set includes providing a memory to store a test sample for each control item and a demonstrational tool to generate a plurality of preview items for simultaneous presentation on the display while the settings of the control item are being adjusted, such preview items being based on the test sample such that each preview item reflects the effect on the sample caused by selection of a respective setting for the control item. A system and method enabling expanded interactive preview of the effects of operational settings similar to the above except the test sample is provided for grouped pairs of the control items and each preview item reflects the effect caused by selection of different combinations of settings for the control items in this grouped pair.

Abstract: The appearance of image details can be preserved and/or enhanced by applying contrast adaptive gain to the high spatial frequency component of the luminance information. The image details in bright and/or dark regions can be further boosted by applying a local mean adaptive gain. The contrast transfer mapping curve for luminance contrast enhancement can be re-scaled to account for the applied gain. The re-scaling may be performed from frame to frame of displayed video. The re-scaling may be temporally controlled for subsequent frames to make the re-scaling change gradually to prevent flickering.

Abstract: This invention relates to an apparatus for processing an input image including M input pixels. Each of the M input pixels respectively has an input gray scale. The apparatus includes a gain generating module, a contrast enhancing module, and a Gamma adjusting module. The gain generating module generates a contrast gain and a minimum input gray scale in accordance with the input gray scales of the M input pixels. The contrast enhancing module adjusts the input gray scales in accordance with the contrast gain and the minimum input gray scale, to generate an intermediate image. The intermediate image includes M intermediate pixels, and each of the M intermediate pixels respectively has an intermediate gray scale. The Gamma adjusting module adjusts the intermediate gray scales lower than a first threshold in accordance with the contrast gain and outputs the adjusted intermediate image as an output image.

Abstract: A video image display device is provided. The device includes an expansion factor deriving unit deriving and outputting an expansion factor for each frame of the video image data, for use in a luminance range expansion process for expanding a luminance range of the video image data on the basis of an image characterizing quantity related to the luminance of the video image data corresponding to the frame; a luminance range expansion processing unit performing the luminance range expansion process to the video image data on the basis of the expansion factor output from the expansion factor deriving unit; and a scene-change detecting unit detecting a change in a screen state of a present frame into a black screen state on the basis of the video image data and detecting a scene-change indicating that the scene of the video image has changed.

Abstract: A method for adjusting image is applied to an image output device. According to the method, the image output device firstly obtains a current image frame including plural pixels, and analyzes an intensity of an input image signal value of each pixel. The image output device defines each pixel having the input image signal value being smaller than a critical value as a dark pixel, and counts a number of the dark pixels to obtain a ratio of the dark pixels among all the pixels to serve as a dark pixel ratio. The image output device determines an image adjusting curve equation according to the dark pixel ratio, substitutes the input image signal values to the image adjusting curve equation, and obtains output image signal values of the pixels. Finally, the image output device combines all the output image signal values to obtain a final output image frame.

Abstract: Provided are an apparatus and method for automatically adjusting luminance, and more particularly, apparatus and method for automatically adjusting luminance per region in plurality of luminance regions of an image to be displayed according to its average luminance value. An average luminance of an image is detected, and then contrast and brightness of image is automatically adjusted according to detected average luminance. Amplification of contrast and brightness is increased to brighten an image in an image with low luminance and reduced to suppress image dazzle in an image with high luminance, thereby providing user with an image of appropriate brightness, irrespective of original brightness. It is possible to prevent diversion of image by dividing its luminance level into a plurality of regions and controlling contrast and luminance per region. Further, a buffer region between luminance regions prevents flickering of image on a screen due to diversion of an adjustable gain.

Abstract: Disclosed are a display apparatus and a video processing method of the display apparatus, the display apparatus including a user interface (UI) generator which generates and outputs UI information to a display unit; a user selection unit which allows a user to select a view zone; a signal processor which processes a received video signal displayable through the display unit; and a controller which controls the UI generator to display a selection menu including at least one view zone item on the display unit if a control signal for adjusting the view zone is selected from the user selection unit, and controls the signal processor to change at least one of an image quality adjusting value and a grayscale value of the received video signal if the view zone item is selected through the selection menu.

Abstract: An image contrast evaluation method is disclosed. First, focusing is performed based on the contrast value of an image rendered by a lens on optical sensors, wherein the calculation of the contrast value comprises: selecting an area of the image, calculating the absolute value of brightness difference between each neighboring pixel, and selecting a specific value there from as the contrast value of the image based on a distribution of the calculated absolute values of the brightness differences.

Abstract: A color management unit is architected to achieve higher-quality appearance used in various video formats and to enable improvements in picture contrast and colorfulness. The color management unit comprises an optional input color space converter to convert the input digital video to a desired color space, an adaptive contrast enhancer to apply contrast improvement algorithms in response to different scenes in either manual or automatic modes, intelligent color remapping for enhancing selected colors, sRGB compliance to produce a video display that is uniform over different monitors, global color and brightness controls to combine global processing and color conversion, gamut compression to maintain pixel validity in color space conversion, and gamma correction to compensate for nonlinear characteristics of an output display.

Abstract: A video processing circuit for specifying an applied voltage that is applied to a liquid crystal included in each pixel on the basis of a video signal, the video processing circuit includes a correction unit configured to, if the applied voltage specified by the video signal is a voltage of a level lower than a voltage level that is sufficient to an extent that can provide liquid crystal molecules with initial inclination angles, perform correction so that the applied voltage has a voltage level that is sufficient to an extent that can provide the liquid crystal molecules with initial inclination angles.

Abstract: The invention achieves a visual processing device that can execute precise contrast adjustment on image signals that have been input and that does not cause discrepancies in the output timing of the image signals that are output. The visual processing device is provided with a gain-type visual processing portion that outputs a first gain signal having predetermined gain characteristics with respect to the input image signal, and a correction portion that corrects the input image signal based on the first gain signal.

Abstract: A method for color conversion includes calculating distances between color coordinates in a conversion palette and a color coordinate for a pixel and assigning the pixel a color coordinate of the closest color coordinates in the conversion palette. The color coordinates in the conversion palette include a first point and a second point in an RGB color cube on a neutral axis of said RGB color cube and on opposite surfaces of a first sphere, a third point and a fourth point on the neutral axis and on opposite surfaces of a second sphere and on the neutral axis, and a plurality of other points distributed over a surface of the first sphere and around the neutral axis, where a volume of the second sphere is twice the volume of the first sphere, and a center of the first and second spheres is a center of the RGB color cube.

Abstract: An apparatus and method of controlling display luminosity in an operational mode in a navigation system is provided. The method includes determining a current operational mode from a plurality of operational modes of a navigation system, and automatically adjusting a display luminosity based on the determined current operational mode.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention comprise systems and methods for selecting a display source light illumination level based on distortion parameters.

Abstract: The invention achieves a visual processing device that can execute precise contrast adjustment on image signals that have been input and that does not cause discrepancies in the output timing of the image signals that are output. The visual processing device is provided with a gain-type visual processing portion that outputs a first gain signal having predetermined gain characteristics with respect to the input image signal, and a correction portion that corrects the input image signal based on the first gain signal.

Abstract: A color management unit is architected to achieve higher-quality appearance used in various video formats and to enable improvements in picture contrast and colorfulness. The color management unit comprises an optional input color space converter to convert the input digital video to a desired color space, an adaptive contrast enhancer to apply contrast improvement algorithms in response to different scenes in either manual or automatic modes, intelligent color remapping for enhancing selected colors, sRGB compliance to produce a video display that is uniform over different monitors, global color and brightness controls to combine global processing and color conversion, gamut compression to maintain pixel validity in color space conversion, and gamma correction to compensate for nonlinear characteristics of an output display.

Abstract: A gray scale bistable electro-optic display is driven by storing a look-up table containing data representing the impulses necessary for transitions, storing data representing at least an initial state of each pixel of the display, storing data representing temporal and gray level prior states of each pixel, receiving an input signal representing a desired final state of at least one pixel of the display; and generating an output signal representing the impulse necessary for a transition, as determined from the look-up table, dependent upon the temporal and gray level prior states. Other similar methods for driving such displays are also disclosed.

Abstract: To provide a liquid crystal display device and the like, which can improve the contrast ratio. The liquid crystal display device includes a liquid crystal display unit and an image processing unit which supplies video signals inputted from a video source section to the liquid crystal display unit. The liquid crystal display unit is formed by stacking a single first liquid crystal display element and a single or a plurality of second liquid crystal display element(s). For each pixel unit of the second liquid crystal display element, the image processing unit generates, by having each dot of the video signal as a reference point, a drive signal for displaying an image according to processing for extracting a maximum value of relative gradations or relative transmittances among a region of a pixel unit (dot) group including the reference pixel units and the pixel units (dots) neighboring to the reference pixel units.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method for the correction of the brightness of a raw image generated by a sensor matrix, in which an intensity matching is carried out at picture elements defined by a line coordinate and a column coordinate and at least one intensity value. The intensity matching comprises the application to the intensity values of the picture elements to be corrected of two intensity corrections independent of one another, in dependence on the line coordinate, on the one hand, and in dependence on the column coordinate, on the other hand. The invention furthermore relates to an optoelectronic sensor comprising a correction device. This correction device is matched to carry out the initially described intensity matching.

Abstract: In some embodiments, color and contrast enhancement video processing may be done in one shot instead of adjusting one of color and contrast enhancement, then the other, and then going back to the first one to readjust because of the second adjustment. In some embodiments, global lightness adjustment, local contrast enhancement, and saturation enhancement may be done at the same time and in parallel. Lightness adjustment improves visibility of details for generally dark or generally light images without changing intended lighting conditions in the original shot, and is used to enhance the range of color/saturation enhancement. Local contrast enhancement done in parallel improves visual definition of objects and textures and thus local contrast and perceived sharpness.

Abstract: An image processing method aims to optimally improve a brightness distribution with respect to brightness of a face being a main subject of a person image. Thus, the method consists of: a brightness component extraction step of extracting a brightness component from image data; a low-frequency brightness component extraction step of extracting a low-frequency component signal of the brightness component as a low-frequency brightness component; a color adjustment step of performing color adjustment to the image data by using the brightness component and the low-frequency brightness component; a first parameter determination step of determining a first parameter; and a second parameter determination step of determining a second parameter in accordance with a distribution of brightness component values in a second area in the image data, wherein the color adjustment step causes processing a degree of the color adjustment according to the first and second parameters.

Abstract: A display device comprises a data input unit configured to convert an image signal to a color signal. The display device also comprises a brightness control unit operationally coupled to the data input unit, configured to extract a brightness level associated with the color signal, to subdivide the brightness level associated with the color signal, and to apply different voltages according to brightness level subdivisions to control brightness of the color signal. The display device also comprises a display unit configured to display the color signal according to controlled brightness. The brightness level may comprise gray levels of a ? curve. The color signal may comprise one of YUV or RGB signals.

Abstract: A method for adjusting saturation of an area of an image is disclosed. The method includes calculating a deviation level of a pixel in the area of the image by a processor and calculating a modified saturation value of the pixel in the area of the image according to the deviation level of the pixel in the area of the image and an original saturation value of the pixel in the area of the image by the processor. The deviation level indicates brightness differences of the brightness values among the pixel and a pixel set in a vicinity of the pixel in the area of the image. The pixel set includes pixels in the vicinity of the pixel of the area of the image.

Abstract: In a method of picture signal enhancement, a picture signal is subjected (3, 7) to a histogram-based picture signal modification based on a luminance level distribution over a whole picture or a first part of the picture, and the histogram-based picture signal modification is locally adjusted (5) in dependence on locally measured picture signal properties other than contrast and brightness, the locally measured picture signal relating to second parts of the picture that are each substantially smaller than the whole picture or the first part of the picture, the second parts being within the whole picture or the first part of the picture. Preferably, the second parts are individual pixels.

Abstract: An information-processing apparatus is provided. For example, the information-processing apparatus has an information-processing device that processes information and a removable substrate that is detachably connected to the information-processing device. The information-processing device has a signal-processing unit that processes a received informational signal to set quality of output by the informational signal to prescribed quality, an adjusting unit that allows a user to adjust the prescribed quality in the signal-processing unit, and a setting unit that allows the user to set at least any one of a state of the received informational signal and a state of the output by the informational signal. The removable substrate has a storage unit that stores a set history of the setting unit and an adjustment history of the adjusting unit.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for adjusting the contrast of an input image is disclosed. Brightness level data of the input image is filtered to obtain at least a low frequency component and a high frequency component. The high frequency component is amplified. The input image and the amplified high frequency component are summed to produce brightness level data of the output image. The filtering is carried out by at least one recursive infinite impulse response filter having a single delay coefficient that is adaptive to areas of high contrast in the input image.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method for generating transfer curves for adaptive contrast enhancement. Transfer curves are generated so as to enhance the bright pixels in mostly dark images and the dark pixels in mostly bright images. For a dark image, a transfer curve is generated which increases luminance in high-luminance regions of the image without substantially changing the luminance in the mid- and low-luminance regions of the image. For a bright image, a transfer curve is generated which decreases the luminance in the dark areas of the image without substantially changing the luminance in the mid- and high-luminance regions of the image. For a medium-bright image, a transfer curve is generated with increases the luminance in the high-luminance range and decreases the luminance in the low-luminance range of the histogram without substantially changing the luminance in the medium-luminance range of the image.

Abstract: Specific image quality adjustment of an image is performed according to a setting made by a user, and contrast compensation is performed such that a brightness is kept unchanged at the center of a specific color region larger than a predetermined size, regardless of the setting of the image quality adjustment. The image quality adjustment is performed by selecting one of a plurality of filters with different frequency characteristics according to the setting of the image quality adjustment, and then performing filter processing on the image by using the selected filter. The contrast compensation is performed upon the image that has undergone the filter processing, by using a contrast compensation value related to the selected filter.

Abstract: Embodiments of a system that includes one or more integrated circuits are described. During operation, the system may determine an intensity setting of the light source based on at least a portion of a video image, such as the portion of the transformed video image that includes spatially varying visual information in the video image. Moreover, the system may modify the video image so that a product of the intensity setting and a transmittance associated with the modified video image approximately equals a product of a previous intensity setting and a transmittance associated with the video image. For example, the modification may include scaling brightness values in the transformed video image. Next, the system may identify a region in the video image in which the scaling of the brightness values results in a visual artifact associated with reduced contrast. For example, the region may include a bright region surrounded by a darker region.

Abstract: There is provided a data reproduction apparatus reproducing an image and sound as based on data recorded in a storage medium. In the apparatus if an input device has received predetermined information and data selected to be reproduced is data excluding image data an image reproduction device is controlled to have a lower level of brightness for reproducing an image than when data including image data is reproduced.

Abstract: An image-quality adjusting apparatus includes a display control unit configured to display on a display unit a plurality of image data that are each associated with a predetermined item for image-quality control and each have a different evaluation value as to an adjustment item, and an image-quality adjusting unit configured to adjust image quality of the plurality of image data displayed on the display unit in accordance with a user's operation.

Abstract: A video signal-processing device that can improve the apparent contrast of the luminance signal at a television receiving set includes a quantity of black expansion computing section for computationally determining the quantity of black expansion when the luminance component of the input video signal is not higher than a first luminance level, a gain controller for regulating the quantity of black expansion as computationally determined by the quantity of black expansion computing section, a quantity of black expansion adding section for generating an output video signal by adding the quantity of black expansion regulated by the gain controller to the luminance component of the input video signal, and a vertical span adding block for integrating the luminance component of the output video signal not higher than a second luminance level for a field.

Abstract: An apparatus may include a processor configured to determine a first value for a center of brightness and a second value for a window width for contrast. The processor may further be configured to process a first image to generate a second image having a reduced bit-depth based at least in part upon the determined first and second values. The processor may additionally be configured to provide the second image to a remote device to facilitate viewing and manipulation of the second image in a general purpose viewing agent. Corresponding methods, computer program products, and systems are also provided.

Abstract: The method, system and apparatus embodiments of the present invention provide for rendering original images having high dynamic range into display images having lower dynamic range while retaining a visual quality of rendered images comparable to the original or reference images. Tone-mapping parameters are applied to the display images and are iteratively adjusted in order to reduce the differences between the conditioned original image and the conditioned display image.

Abstract: A method for enhancing video or other multimedia in order to achieve a closer-to-movie theater viewing experience. The enhancement method can be applied to YUV or other video formats which are used for TV or digital media. The method provides a curve with at least one inflection point such that at least one region has a concave upward arc and another region has a concave downward arc. The improved curve provides relatively less contrast in relatively dark regions and relatively more contrast in relatively bright regions. By taking into account the visual sensitivity to various luminance levels, a neutral point is selected to be located at a relatively dark point. To the darker side of the neutral point, luminance is suppressed. To the brighter side of the neutral point, luminance is enhanced. This luminance-mapping curve is applied to the luminance (Y) signal so as to enhance both brightness and contrast.

Abstract: An image processing device for processing input image data includes a contrast correcting section. The contrast correcting section corrects the input image data using image data of a gradient image, which has a luminance gradient in which a luminance level gradually changes, to make a luminance level of the input image data similar to the luminance level of the gradient image.

Abstract: Embodiments of a system that includes one or more integrated circuits are described. During operation, the system compensates for gamma correction in a video image to produce a linear relationship between brightness values and an associated brightness of the video image when displayed, where the compensation includes an offset at minimum brightness that is associated with light leakage in a display that is configured to display video images. Then, the system calculates an intensity setting of a light source based on at least a portion of the compensated video image, the light source configured to illuminate the display. Next, the system adjusts the compensated video image so that a product of the intensity setting and a transmittance associated with the adjusted video image approximately equals a product of a previous intensity setting and a transmittance associated with the video image.

Abstract: Embodiments of a system that includes one or more integrated circuits are described. During operation, the system reduces power consumption by changing an intensity setting of a light source, which illuminates a display that is configured to display a video image, and scales brightness values for the video image based on a brightness metric associated with the video image. Then, the system calculates the error metric for the video image based on the scaled brightness values and the video image.