DISPLAY APPARATUS DYNAMICALLY ADJUSTING DISPLAY RESOLUTION AND CONTROL METHOD THEREOF

A display apparatus is provided. The display apparatus includes a detector and a controller. The detector is arranged for detecting motion of the display apparatus to identify an activity of a user of the display apparatus, and accordingly generating an identification result. The controller is coupled to the detector, and is arranged for determining a display resolution of the display apparatus according to the identification result.

BACKGROUND

The disclosed embodiments of the present invention relate to display resolution control, and more particularly, to a display apparatus referring to human activity to dynamically adjust a display resolution and a related control method thereof.

In order to improve a user's viewing experience, manufacturers devote efforts to increasing a pixel density of a display (measured in pixels per inch (PPI)) of an electronic apparatus such as a battery-powered device (e.g. a mobile phone or a tablet computer). For example, a 5.5-inch mobile display with a 4K ultra-high definition (UHD) (3840λ2160) has a display density of up to 806 PPI. However, power consumption of an electronic apparatus increases due to an increase in display density, resulting in shortened battery life. The user has to charge the electronic apparatus frequently.

Thus, there is a need for a novel display mechanism to not only provide an enjoyable user's viewing experience but also maintain long battery life.

SUMMARY

In accordance with exemplary embodiments of the present invention, a display apparatus referring to human activity to dynamically adjust a display resolution, and a related control method thereof are proposed to solve the above-mentioned problems.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, an exemplary display apparatus is disclosed. The exemplary display apparatus comprises a detector and a controller. The detector is arranged for detecting motion of the display apparatus to identify an activity of a user of the display apparatus, and accordingly generating an identification result. The controller is coupled to the detector, and is arranged for determining a display resolution of the display apparatus according to the identification result.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, an exemplary control method of a display apparatus is disclosed. The exemplary control method comprises the following steps: detecting motion of the display apparatus to identify an activity of a user of the display apparatus, and accordingly generating an identification result; and determining a display resolution of the display apparatus according to the identification result.

By dynamically adjusting a display resolution according to different user activities or usage scenarios, the proposed display mechanism may not only reduce power consumption but also maintain good user's viewing experience.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The proposed display mechanism may dynamically adjust a display resolution according to different user activities or usage scenarios (e.g. resting, walking and running) while maintaining a good user's viewing experience, thereby reducing power consumption of a display apparatus. By way of example but not limitation, when a user is walking and watching a video played on a portable electronic apparatus (e.g. a display apparatus) held by the user, the eye's perception of display resolution is reduced as compared to when the user is sitting on a chair and watching the video. Hence, when the user is walking and watching the video played on the display apparatus held by the user, the proposed display apparatus may dynamically decrease a display resolution of the display apparatus in response to an activity of the user (i.e. walking) to thereby reduce power consumption, wherein the user may still have an enjoyable viewing experience. Additionally, the proposed display mechanism may detect motion of a display apparatus to identify an activity of a user of the display apparatus, and accordingly dynamically adjust a display resolution of the display apparatus to reduce power consumption. Further description is provided below.

Please refer toFIG. 1, which is a flow chart of an exemplary control method of a display apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The display apparatus may be any electronic apparatus capable of displaying images such as a battery-powered device (e.g. a mobile phone or a tablet computer). The exemplary control method shown inFIG. 1may be summarized below.

Step110: Detect motion of the display apparatus to identify an activity of a user of the display apparatus, and accordingly generate an identification result.

Step120: Determine a display resolution of the display apparatus according to the identification result.

In step110, the activity of the user may be identified according to the detected motion of the display apparatus, including position information, translation information and/or rotation information, wherein a type of the activity of the user may be, by way of example but not limitation, resting (e.g. a still or almost still state), walking, running, cycling or commuting (e.g. standing or sitting in a public transport vehicle).

In step120, the display resolution may meet the human eye's ability to perceive resolution under a condition where the user performs the activity. By way of example but not limitation, when the identification result indicates that the activity of the user is a first type user activity (e.g. a sedentary activity or a low-motion activity), the display resolution may be set to a first resolution; when the identification result indicates that the activity of the user is a second type user activity different from the first type user activity (e.g. an energetic activity or a high-motion activity), the display resolution may be set to a second resolution different from the first resolution.

FIG. 2is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary display apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, wherein the display apparatus200may employ the control method shown inFIG. 1to dynamically adjust a display resolution. In this embodiment, the display apparatus200may include, but is not limited to, a detector210, a controller220, an image processing circuit230and a display screen240. The detector210may be used for detecting motion of the display apparatus200to identify an activity of a user of the display apparatus200, and accordingly generating an identification result DR. The controller220is coupled to the detector210, and is arranged for determining a display resolution of the display apparatus200according to the identification result DR. The image processing circuit230is coupled to the controller220, and is arranged for generating an image output IMOUTaccording to the display resolution. For example, the controller220may generate a control signal CS to thereby enable the image processing circuit230to generate the image output IMOUTaccording to the display resolution.

The display screen240is coupled to the image processing circuit230, and is arranged for displaying the image output IMOUT. When the identification result DR indicates that the activity of the user is a first type user activity, the image processing circuit230may generate the image output IMOUTaccording to a first resolution, and the display screen240may display the image output IMOUTat the first resolution; when the identification result DR indicates that the activity of the user is a second type user activity different from the first type user activity, the image processing circuit230may generate the image output IMOUTaccording to a second resolution different from the first resolution, and the display screen240may display the image output IMOUTat the second resolution.

In one implementation, the detector210may utilize at least one acceleration sensor to detect the motion of the display apparatus200to identify the activity of the user. Please refer toFIG. 3together withFIG. 2.FIG. 3is an implementation of the detector210shown inFIG. 2. In the implementation shown inFIG. 3, the detector210may include an acceleration sensor312, an acceleration sensor314and an activity determiner316. The acceleration sensor312and the acceleration sensor314may detect the motion of the display apparatus200to generate a sensor result SR1and a sensor result SR2respectively. The activity determiner316, coupled to the acceleration sensors312and314, may identify the activity of the user according to the sensor results SR1and SR2.

By way of example but not limitation, the acceleration sensor312may be implemented by a linear acceleration sensor (e.g. an accelerometer (G-sensor)), and/or the acceleration sensor314may be implemented by an angular acceleration sensor (e.g. an orientation sensor (O-sensor) or a gyroscope sensor (gyro-sensor)). Hence, the detector210may detect linear motion information and/or angular motion information of the display apparatus200, and the activity determiner316may identify the activity of the user according to the detected linear motion information and/or angular motion information. As a person skilled in the art should understand the operation of the activity determiner316which identifies the activity of the user according to the sensor result(s) of the acceleration sensor(s), further description is omitted here for brevity.

It should be noted that the structure of the detector shown inFIG. 3(e.g. types of acceleration sensors, and the number of acceleration sensors) is for illustrative purposes only, and is not meant to be a limitation of the present invention. For example, the detector210may utilize at least one acceleration sensor (one or more acceleration sensors) to detect the motion of the display apparatus200, and the activity determiner316may identify the activity of the user according to sensor result(s) of the at least one acceleration sensor, wherein the at least one acceleration sensor may include at least one of a linear acceleration sensor and an angular acceleration sensor. Additionally, in a case where the detector210utilizes at least one linear acceleration sensor and at least one angular acceleration sensor, the detector210may use algorithms to calculate respective sensor results of the at least one linear acceleration sensor and the at least one angular acceleration sensor, and may be implemented as a combined sensor such as a gravity sensor (GV-sensor), a linear acceleration sensor (LA-sensor) and/or a rotation vector sensor (RV-sensor). In another example, the detector210may further include other types of sensors, such as a global positioning system (GPS) sensor, an ambient light sensor and/or a proximity sensor, used for detecting the motion of the display apparatus200and accordingly generating corresponding sensor result (s). The activity determiner316may identify the activity of the user according to one or more sensor results generated by the detector210.

Further, after the detector210identifies the activity of the user to generate the identification result DR, the controller220may refer to the identification result DR to control the image processing circuit230to adjust the display resolution. Please refer toFIG. 4, which is an implementation of the display apparatus200shown inFIG. 2. In this implementation, the display apparatus400may include, but is not limited to, the detector210, the controller220and the display screen240shown inFIG. 2, a configuration user interface (UI)402and an image processing circuit430, wherein the image processing circuit230shown inFIG. 2may be implemented by the image processing circuit430.

For illustrative purposes, the proposed display mechanism (or a dynamic resolution scaling mechanism) is described with reference to the image processing circuit430employing Android graphics architecture. However, this is not meant to be a limitation of the present invention. It is possible to utilize other graphics architecture to perform dynamic resolution scaling. In this embodiment, the image processing circuit430may include, but is not limited to, an application layer431, a dynamic resolution scaling (DRS) upper layer432, an OpenGL ES/EGL433, a buffer queue434, a surface flinger435, a DRS lower layer436, a hardware composer437and a frame buffer438. The application layer431may call an application programming interface (API) of the OpenGL ES/EGL433to use a graphic processing unit (GPU) (not shown inFIG. 4) to perform graphics processing, and a resulting processing result may be stored in a graphics buffer within the buffer queue434(not shown inFIG. 4). The surface flinger435may coordinate graphics buffers invisible layers (e.g. the graphic buffers within the buffer queue434), and ask the hardware composer437to composite all visible layers together to thereby generate graphics data to the frame buffer438.

In one embodiment, after determining the display resolution of the display apparatus200according to the identification result DR, the controller220may generate the control signal CS to control the DRS upper layer432to intercept function calls of the OpenGL ES/EGL433, ensuring that graphics rendering is performed with a proper display resolution. Additionally, before the hardware composer437composite all the visible layers together, the DRS lower layer436may intercept function calls passed to the hardware composer437, ensuring that the composition is done with a proper display resolution. For example, the DRS upper layer432may refer to the control signal CS to perform resolution downscaling, and the DRS lower layer436may refer to the control signal CS to perform resolution upscaling. As a person skilled in the art should understand the operation of each element within the image processing circuit430, further description is omitted here for brevity.

Based on the aforementioned resolution downscaling and resolution upscaling, the display apparatus400may dynamically adjust the display resolution of the display screen240. Please refer toFIG. 5, which is a diagram illustrating exemplary display resolutions of the display screen240corresponding to different activities of a user of the display apparatus400shown inFIG. 4according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the activities of the user may include walking, standing against a wall, and sitting on a seat in a public transport vehicle while commuting. It should be noted that, when the user of the display apparatus400is walking, the eye's perception of display resolution reduces accordingly. This means that the user may have a satisfied viewing experience even if the display apparatus400does not provide a relatively high display resolution. Hence, when the user is walking, the display resolution of the display screen240may be reduced as compared to when the user is sedentary (e.g. standing against a wall, or sitting on a seat in a public transport vehicle while commuting). Accordingly, power consumption may be reduced, and battery life of the display apparatus400may be extended.

In the embodiment shown inFIG. 5, when the identification result DR indicates that the user of the display apparatus400(e.g. a mobile phone) is walking, the display screen240may display the image output IMOUTat a display resolution of 720P (1280×720); when the identification result DR indicates that the user of the display apparatus400is standing against a wall (i.e. an activity level of the user is low), the display screen240may display the image output IMOUTat a display resolution of 1080P (1920×1080); when the identification result DR indicates that the user of the display apparatus400is sitting on a seat in a public transport vehicle while commuting (i.e. the user is in an almost still state), the display screen240may display the image output IMOUTat a display resolution of 2K (2560×1440).

Please note that the display resolution values shown inFIG. 5are for illustrative purposes only, and are not meant to be limitations of the present invention. Respective display resolution values corresponding to different user activities may be set according to different user requirements. In an alternative design, the user may set respective display resolution values corresponding to different types of user activities through the configuration UI402. Additionally, image processing architecture (or display resolution adjustment architecture) of the proposed display apparatus is not limited to the image processing circuit430shown inFIG. 4. As long as image processing architecture may dynamically adjust a display resolution in response to a user activity, all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives fall within the spirit and scope of the present invention.

In addition to dynamically adjusting a display resolution in response to a user activity (or a type of user activity), the proposed display mechanism may further selectively activate dynamical resolution scaling according to a usage scenario. In one embodiment, the proposed display mechanism may not activate the dynamical resolution scaling in a still image output mode. Please refer toFIG. 4again. In the embodiment shown inFIG. 4, the controller220may further determine whether the image output IMOUTis a dynamic image signal (e.g. a video) or a still image signal (e.g. a picture). When the image output IMOUTis the dynamic image signal, the controller220may refer to the identification result DR to determine the display resolution of the display screen240; when the image output IMOUTis the still image signal, the controller220may set the display resolution of the display screen240to a predefined value (i.e. the dynamical resolution scaling may not be activated). By way of example but not limitation, the controller220may refer to a frame update rate of the frame buffer438or check any update taken place over content of the frame buffer438to determine whether the image output IMOUTis the dynamic image signal or the still image signal, wherein when the frame update rate is greater than a predetermined rate, the controller220may determine that the image output IMOUTis the dynamic image signal.

In another embodiment, the proposed display mechanism may not activate the dynamical resolution scaling in an external output mode. Please refer toFIG. 6, which is a diagram illustrating the display apparatus200shown inFIG. 2connecting an external display screen according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the controller220may further determine whether the image processing circuit230transmits the image output IMOUTto the display screen640externally connected to the display apparatus200. When the image processing circuit230does not transmit the image output IMOUTto the display screen640(as shown inFIG. 2), the controller220may refer to the identification result DR to determine the display resolution of the display screen240; when the image processing circuit230transmits the image output IMOUTto the display screen640(as shown inFIG. 6), the controller220may set the display resolution of the display screen240to a predefined value (i.e. the dynamical resolution scaling may not be activated).

In yet another embodiment, the proposed display mechanism may not activate the dynamical resolution scaling in a head mounted display mode. Please refer toFIG. 2again. By way of example but not limitation, the display apparatus200may be implemented by a head-mounted display, or the display apparatus200(e.g. a mobile phone) may be inserted into a display holder to implement a head-mounted display. In this embodiment, the controller220may further determine whether the display apparatus200operates in a head mounted display mode, wherein when the display apparatus200does not operate in the head mounted display mode, the controller220may refer to the identification result DR to determine the display resolution of the display screen240, and when the display apparatus200operates in the head mounted display mode, the controller220may set the display resolution of the display screen240to a predefined value (i.e. the dynamical resolution scaling may not be activated).

In still another embodiment, the user may input a selection signal through the configuration UI402to determine whether to activate the dynamical resolution scaling.

The display mechanism described above may be summarized inFIG. 7.FIG. 7is a flow chart of an exemplary control method of a display apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The control method shown inFIG. 7is based on the control method shown inFIG. 1, wherein the main different is that the control method shown inFIG. 7further include the step of determining whether to activate dynamical resolution scaling. For illustrative purposes, the control method shown inFIG. 7is described with reference to the display apparatus200shown inFIG. 2. A person skilled in the art should understand that this is not meant to be a limitation of the present invention. In addition, provided that the result is substantially the same, the steps are not required to be executed in the exact order shown inFIG. 7. For example, steps can be added and/or omitted. The control method shown inFIG. 7may be summarized below.

Step702: Determine whether to active dynamic resolution scaling. If yes, go to step110; otherwise, return to step110. For example, the controller220may determine whether the image output IMOUTof the display apparatus200is a dynamic image signal or a still image signal. In another example, the controller220may determine if the display apparatus200output the image output IMOUTto an external display screen (e.g. the display screen640shown inFIG. 6). In yet another example, the controller220may determine if the display apparatus200operates in a head mounted display mode.

Step110: Detect motion of the display apparatus to identify an activity of a user of the display apparatus, and accordingly generate an identification result.

Step720: Determine the activity of the user according to the identification result. If a type of the activity of the user is resting (e.g. the user is in a still state or resting in a chair), go to step722; if the type of the activity of the user is commuting (e.g. the user is sitting on a seat in a public transport vehicle), go to step724; if the type of the activity of the user is walking, go to step726; if the type of the activity of the user is running, go to step728.

Step722: Display content (i.e. the image output IMOUT) on the display screen240at a first resolution.

Step724: Display content on the display screen240at a second resolution.

Step726: Display content on the display screen240at a third resolution.

Step728: Display content on the display screen240at a fourth resolution.

In one embodiment, step120shown inFIG. 1may be implemented by steps720-728. In another embodiment, the first resolution may be higher than the second resolution, the second resolution may be higher than the third resolution, and the third resolution may be higher than the fourth resolution. However, this is not meant to be a limitation of the present invention. Additionally, types of user activities are not limited to the aforementioned types. As long as a display resolution may be dynamically adjusted in response to a user activity, all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives fall within the spirit and scope of the present invention. As a person skilled in the art should understand the operation of each step shown inFIG. 7after reading the above paragraphs directed toFIGS. 1-6, further description is omitted here for brevity.

To sum up, by dynamically adjusting a display resolution according to different user activities or usage scenarios, the proposed display mechanism may not only reduce power consumption but also maintain good user's viewing experience.