Patent Publication Number: US-2007115305-A1

Title: Display apparatus, display system, and control method thereof

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
      This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(a) from Korean Patent Application No. 2005-0113153, filed on Nov. 24, 2005, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.  
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      1. Field of the Invention  
      The present general inventive concept relates to a display .device, a display system, and a control method thereof, and more particularly, to a display device, a display system, and a control method thereof, which establishes an arbitrary area on which an image displayed.  
      2. Description of the Related Art  
      Recently, in a conventional display system including a computer and a display apparatus, a user may choose an arbitrary area on which images are displayed, by a pointing device and change a display environment, for example, a brightness, a contrast, a sharpness, and/or a color value of a selected area of a main screen of the display apparatus.  
      Generally in such a conventional display system, the computer transmits information on an area selected by the pointing device to the display apparatus, and the display apparatus changes display parameter values of the selected area and controls the display parameter values of the selected area differently from those of a display environment of a main screen of the display apparatus.  
      In the meantime, an output resolution of a video signal output from the computer may differ generally from a display resolution of the display apparatus. Here, the display apparatus displays the video signal output from the computer on a screen by upscaling, downscaling, and down-sampling the video signal according to the display resolution of the display apparatus.  
      On the one hand, in a case that the output resolution of the video signal output from the computer coincides with a reference resolution (hereinafter referred to as an intermediate resolution) which is referred to as a reference when the display apparatus performs scaling, an area which a user desires to set up can be normally set up at the time of setting a control area in the conventional display system. On the other hand, in a case that the intermediate resolution to which the display apparatus refers does not coincide with the output resolution of the computer, the area which a user desires to set up can be incorrectly set up.  
      For example, when the video signal having a resolution of 1600*1200 is output from the computer, if the display apparatus scales the video signal input from the computer to convert from the intermediate resolution of 1920*1200 to the display resolution, an establishment area which a user desires is incorrectly set up.  
      One of the reasons may be that the output resolution of the video signal output from the computer is incorrectly recognized by the display apparatus. In particular, this error that the display apparatus incorrectly recognizes the output resolution of the video signal output from the computer, may be attributed to various causes, which include cases that a resolution of a specific frequency signal among signals output from the computer is not in a normal state so that the display apparatus cannot recognize the resolution correctly, an identical frequency signal has two separate resolutions, and/or the like.  
      Another reason may be that the output resolution of the video signal output from the computer is not supported with the intermediate resolution when the display apparatus performs scaling. That is, an area which a user desires may be not normally set up although the display apparatus correctly recognizes the output resolution of the video signal output from the computer.  
       FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram illustrating a setup method of a display adjusting area of a conventional display system. As illustrated in  FIG. 1 , when a display apparatus  2  sets up an area of a video signal output from a computer  1  based on an intermediate resolution, if the intermediate resolution is different from an output resolution of the video signal output from the computer  1 , although a user desires to set up an area “A” (solid line), an area “B” (dotted line) may be incorrectly set up.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      The present general inventive concept provides a display device, a display system, and a control method thereof, to correctly set up a selected area which a user desires to establish.  
      Additional aspects and advantages of the present general inventive concept will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the general inventive concept.  
      The foregoing and/or other aspects of the present general inventive concept may be achieved by providing a display system comprising a signal source to provide a video signal and location information on a partial area of a display picture which is selected in order to control an image display state, a signal processor to process the input video signal to be converted to a signal having a predetermined display resolution from an intermediate resolution based on a resolution of the video signal input from the signal source, and a control unit which corrects the location information from the signal source in correspondence to the intermediate resolution and provides the corrected location information to the signal processor.  
      The signal source may include a computer to produce the video signal as the signal source, and a pointing device to select the partial area of the display picture by a user.  
      The intermediate resolution may be adaptively determined according to the resolution of the video signal input from the signal source, and the signal processor may include a scaler which is provided in a display apparatus, and scales the input video signal to be converted to the display resolution from the intermediate resolution.  
      The control unit may include a computer controller which is provided in the computer, requests intermediate resolution information to the display apparatus, corrects the location information so as to correspond to the intermediate resolution, and transmits the corrected location information to the display apparatus, and a display controller which is provided in the display apparatus and provides the intermediate resolution information to the computer controller according to the request of the computer controller.  
      The control unit may include a computer controller which is provided in the computer, and transmits the location information to the display apparatus together with output resolution information of the video signal, and a display controller which is provided in the display apparatus and corrects the location information so as to correspond to the intermediate resolution, based on the output resolution information received from the computer controller.  
      The corrected location information may be calculated according to an equation of Rc =Dr*Ro/Cr in which Rc denotes the corrected location information, Dr denotes the intermediate resolution, and Ro denotes the location information provided from the computer, and Cr denotes the output resolution of the video signal which is output from the computer.  
      The signal source may provide predetermined display setting information on the selected partial area, and the signal processor may control the image display state of the area according to the corrected location information based on the display setting information.  
      The foregoing and/or other aspects of the present general inventive concept may also be achieved by providing a display apparatus comprising a display unit to display a video signal input from an external signal source, a signal processor to process the input video signal to be converted to a predetermined display resolution from an intermediate resolution based on a resolution of the input video signal input from the external signal source, and a control unit which receives location information on a partial area of a display picture which is selected in order to adjust an image display state, from the external signal source, and corrects location information in correspondence to the intermediate resolution to provide the corrected location information to the signal processor.  
      The intermediate resolution may be adaptively determined according to the resolution of the video signal input from the signal source, and the signal processor may include a scaler to scale the input video signal to be converted to the display resolution from the intermediate resolution.  
      The signal processor may control the image display state of an establishment area according to the corrected location information based on predetermined display setting information provided from the external signal source.  
      The corrected location information may be calculated according to an equation of Rc =Dr*Ro/Cr in which Rc denotes the corrected location information, Dr denotes the intermediate resolution, Ro denotes the location information which are provided from the external signal source, and Cr denotes the output resolution of the video signal which is output from the external signal source.  
      The foregoing and/or other aspects of the present invention may also be achieved by providing a control method of controlling a display system including a signal source to provide a video signal, and a display apparatus which processes the input video signal to be converted to a predetermined display resolution from an intermediate resolution based on a resolution of the video signal input from the signal source to then be displayed on a screen, the control method including selecting a partial area of a display picture to control an image display state from a user, and correcting location information on the selected partial area to correspond to the intermediate resolution.  
      The correcting of the location information to correspond to the intermediate resolution may include controlling the signal source to request intermediate resolution information to the display apparatus, controlling the display apparatus to transmit the intermediate resolution information to the signal source according to the request, and controlling the signal source to correct the location information in correspondence to the intermediate resolution information to transmit the corrected result to the display apparatus.  
      The correcting of the location information to correspond to the intermediate resolution may include controlling the signal source to transmit the location information to the display apparatus together with the output resolution information of the video signal, and controlling the display apparatus to correct the location information according to the intermediate resolution based on the transmitted output resolution information.  
      The control method may further include receiving predetermined display setting information on the selected area from a user, and controlling the display apparatus to control an image display state of an area according to the corrected location information based on the display setting information.  
      The foregoing and/or other aspects of the present invention may also be achieved by providing a control method of a display apparatus including an interface unit to communicate with an external signal source, and a signal processor to process an input video signal to be converted to a predetermined display resolution from an intermediate resolution based on a resolution of the video signal input from the signal source, the control method including receiving resolution information of the video signal output from the external signal source through the interface unit and location information on a partial area of a display picture which is selected in order to control an image display state, and correcting the location information in correspondence to the intermediate resolution and providing the corrected result to the signal processor.  
      The control method may further include receiving predetermined display setting information from the external signal source, and controlling the signal processor to control the image display state of the area according to the corrected location information according to the display setting information.  
      The foregoing and/or other aspects of the present invention may also be achieved by providing a computer readable recoding medium containing computer readable codes to perform a control method of controlling a display system comprising a signal source to produce a video signal, and a display apparatus to convert the video signal to a signal having a predetermined display resolution to be displayed on a screen, the control method including selecting a partial area of a display picture to control an image display state of a video signal, and correcting location information of the image on the selected partial area to correspond to an intermediate resolution of a display apparatus to convert the video signal to a signal having a display resolution according to the corrected location information and an output resolution of the video signal.  
      The foregoing and/or other aspects of the present invention may also be achieved by providing a computer readable recording medium containing computer readable codes to perform a control method of controlling a display system comprising a signal source to produce a video signal, and a display apparatus to convert the video signal to a signal having a predetermined display resolution to be displayed on a screen, the control method including receiving resolution information of the video signal output from the external signal source through the interface unit and location information on a partial area of a display picture which is selected in order to control an image display state of the video signal, and correcting location information in correspondence to the intermediate resolution and providing the corrected location information to the signal processor.  
      The foregoing and/or other aspects of the present invention may also be achieved by providing a display system including a control unit which receives location information on a selected area of a display picture of a video signal which is selected to control an image display state of the video signal, and corrects the location information according to an intermediate resolution of the display unit and an output resolution of the video signal of the signal source, and a signal processor to convert the video signal to a signal having a predetermined display resolution according to the corrected location information.  
      The foregoing and/or other aspects of the present invention may also be achieved by providing a method of a display system, the method including receiving location information on a selected area of a display picture of a video signal which is selected to control an image display state of the video signal, and correcting the location information according to an intermediate resolution of the display unit and an output resolution of the video signal of the signal source, and converting the video signal to a signal having a predetermined display resolution according to the corrected location information.  
      The foregoing and/or other aspects of the present invention may also be achieved by providing A computer readable recording medium containing computer readable codes to perform a control method of controlling a display system comprising a signal source to produce a video signal, and a display apparatus to convert the video signal to a signal having a predetermined display resolution to be displayed on a screen, the control method including receiving location information on a selected area of a display picture of a video signal which is selected to control an image display state of the video signal, and correcting the location information according to an intermediate resolution of the display unit and an output resolution of the video signal of the signal source, and converting the video signal to a signal having a predetermined display resolution according to the corrected location information. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
      These and/or other aspects and advantages of the present general inventive concept will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:  
       FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram illustrating a setup method of a display adjusting area of a conventional display system;  
       FIG. 2  is a block diagram illustrating a display system including a display apparatus according to an embodiment of the present general inventive concept;  
       FIG. 3  is a flowchart view illustrating a location information correction method according to an embodiment of the present general inventive concept; and  
       FIGS. 4 and 5  are flowcharts illustrating a control method of a display system according to embodiments of the present general inventive concept. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
      Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the present general inventive concept, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elements throughout. The embodiments are described below in order to explain the present general inventive concept by referring to the figures.  
       FIG. 2  is a block diagram illustrating a display system according to an embodiment of the present general inventive concept. Referring to  FIG. 2 , the display system includes a computer  10  as a signal source, a display apparatus  20 , and a pointing device  30 . The computer  10  includes a graphics card  11 , an interface unit  13 , and a computer controller  15 . The display apparatus  20  has an interface unit  21 , a signal processor  23 , a display unit  25 , and a display controller  27 .  
      A video signal generated through the graphics card  11  of the computer  10  is transmitted to the display apparatus  20  through the interface units  13  and  21 . The signal processor  23  of the display apparatus  20  converts the video signal input from the computer  10  into a format which can be displayed in the display unit  25 , for example, a Low Voltage Differential Signaling (LVDS) format, and outputs the format-converted video signal to the display unit  25 . The format-converted video signal may be output to the display unit  25  through an LVDS connector (not shown). Here, the interface units  13  and  21  for data transmission between the computer  10  and the display apparatus  20  may be implemented by one of D-Sub, Digital Visual/Video Interactive (DVI), or High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) connectors.  
      Here, the signal processor  23  can perform various functions in correspondence to the format of input video signals. For example, the signal processor  23  can perform an analog to digital converting function and a digital decoding function, to convert input analog video signals of various kinds of formats into a digital video signal of a certain format, and a scaling function and a LVDS format conversion function, which receives a digital image signal and adjusts a vertical frequency, a resolution, and an aspect ratio of the digital image signal to fit for an output standard of the display unit  25 . Moreover, the signal processor  23  includes a module to control a display environment, for example, a color value or/and a brightness, a contrast, and a sharpness of a screen of the display apparatus.  
      Here, the signal processor  23  can include a scaler (not shown). The scaler scales the video signal input from the computer  10  to convert from an intermediate resolution to a display resolution. Here, as described above, the intermediate resolution indicates a reference resolution which is used as a reference when scaling. That is, the intermediate resolution is adaptively determined according to a resolution of the video signal input from the computer  10 . For example, in a case that the video signal having a resolution A is input from the computer  10 , the scaler scales the input video signal to a display resolution C based on an intermediate resolution A′. Here, the resolutions A and A′ may be different. However, it is possible that the resolutions A and A′ may be same.  
      In the meantime, the display unit  25  according to the present embodiment is applicable to a variety of types of display modules such as a Digital Light Processing (DLP), a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), and a Plasma Display Penal (PDP).  
      The pointing device  30  makes a user selectively input an arbitrary area on which an image is displayed. Therefore, a mouse, etc., can be used as the pointing device  30 . Alternatively, it is possible that an On Screen Display (OSD) button and an OSD IC provided in a keyboard or the display apparatus  20  can be used as the pointing device  30 .  
      Here, the pointing device  30  can be connected to the computer  10  via a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port, etc. The computer  10  transmits location information of the selected area input from the pointing device  30  to the display apparatus  20  through the interface unit  13 . The detailed description thereof will be described later.  
      The display system according to the present embodiment includes a control unit  40 . The control unit  40  corrects the location information of the selected area selected through the pointing device  30 , so as to correspond to the intermediate resolution to which the display apparatus  20  refers as the reference. The control unit  40  may include a software algorithm regarding the correction of the location information. The control unit  40  determines whether or not the resolution of the video signal output from the computer  10  coincides with the intermediate resolution which the display apparatus  20  refers to as the reference, when scaling. In a case that the resolution does not coincide with the intermediate resolution, the control unit  40  corrects the location information of the area selected through the pointing device  30  in order to fit for the intermediate resolution.  
      An equation concerning the above correction method of the control unit  40  according to the present embodiment is expressed as follows.
 
 Rc=Dr * Ro / Cr   . . . (1)
 
      Here, Rc denotes corrected location information, Dr denotes an intermediate resolution of the display apparatus  20 , Ro denotes location information which is selected by the pointing device  30 , and Cr denotes an output resolution of the computer  10 .  
      That is, the control unit  40  corrects the location information selected by the pointing device  30  based on the output resolution of the computer  10  and the intermediate resolution of the display apparatus  20 .  
       FIG. 3  is a flowchart view illustrating a location information correction method according to an embodiment of the present general inventive concept.  
      Referring to  FIGS. 2 and 3 , the control unit  40  determines whether or not the output resolution of the computer  10  coincides with the intermediate resolution of the display apparatus  20  (S 100 ).  
      When the output resolution does not coincide with the intermediate resolution, the control unit  40  calculates a corrected horizontal beginning coordinate (H START) value by multiplying an intermediate horizontal (H) resolution of the display apparatus  20  by an input horizontal beginning coordinate (H START) value input by the pointing device  30  and by dividing the multiplied value with a horizontal (H) resolution of the computer  10 .  
      A corrected horizontal termination coordinate (H END) value, a corrected vertical beginning coordinate (V START) value, and a corrected vertical termination coordinate (V END) value can be calculated through the equation illustrated in  FIG. 3 (S 101 ). That is, the corrected horizontal termination coordinate (H END) value is calculated by multiplying an intermediate horizontal (H) resolution of the display apparatus  20  by an input horizontal ending coordinate (H END) value input by the pointing device  30  and by dividing the multiplied value with a horizontal (H) resolution of the computer  10  mul, the corrected vertical beginning coordinate (V START) value can be calculated by multiplying an intermediate vertical (V) resolution of the display apparatus  20  by an input vertical beginning coordinate (V START) value input by the pointing device  30  and by dividing the multiplied value with a vertical (V) resolution of the computer  10 , and the corrected vertical termination coordinate (V END) value can be calculated by multiplying an intermediate vertical (V) resolution of the display apparatus  20  by an input vertical ending coordinate (V END) value input by the pointing device  30  and by dividing the multiplied value with a vertical (V) resolution of the computer  10 .  
      If the output resolution coincides with the intermediate resolution, the control unit  40  uses the location information input by the pointing device  30  and sets up the area (S 102 ).  
      When the output resolution of the computer  10  does not coincide with the intermediate resolution of the display apparatus  20 , the difference between the output resolution of the computer  10  and the intermediate resolution of the display apparatus  20  is corrected to make a user correctly set up an area which the user desires.  
      The computer  10  according to the present embodiment further includes a user manipulator (not shown) to input display setting information to control an image display state of an area selected from a user.  
      The computer  10  provides the display setting information to the display apparatus  20 . The signal processor  23  controls the image display state of the area set up according to the location information corrected by the above-described method.  
      The control unit  40  may include a computer controller  15  provided in the computer  10 , and a display controller  27  provided in the display apparatus  20 . The computer controller  15  and the display controller  27  can perform data communications via the interface units  13  and  21 .  
      The computer controller  15  receives the location information on the area which is selected by the pointing device  30 , corrects the received location information according to the intermediate resolution of the display apparatus  20 , and transmits the corrected result to the display apparatus  20 . Then, the display controller  27  sets up an area through the corrected location information.  
      Here, the computer controller  15  and the display controller  27  may be implemented by a software algorithm or/and a Central Processing Unit (CPU) or a microcomputer (MICOM).  
       FIG. 4  is a flowchart illustrating a control method of a display system according to an embodiment of the present general inventive concept.  
      Referring to  FIGS. 2-4 , the computer controller  15  requests the intermediate resolution information to the display apparatus  20  (S 200 ). The display controller  27  transmits the intermediate resolution information to the computer  10  in response to the corresponding request from the computer controller  15 . The computer  10  receives and stores the corresponding information (S 201 ).  
      If the location information on the arbitrary area is input through the pointing device  30  (S 202 ), the computer controller  15  corrects the location information on the area information selected through the pointing device  30 , based on the output resolution of the computer  10  and the intermediate resolution of the display apparatus  20  (S 203 ). Since determination of whether or not the concrete correction is performed and a correction method thereof are identical with the description of  FIG. 3 , the detailed description thereof will be omitted.  
      The computer controller  15  transmits the corrected location information through the interface unit  13  to the display apparatus  20  (S 204 ). According to the corrected location information transmitted from the computer  10 , the display apparatus  20  sets up an area (S 205 ). In the meantime, as described above, the signal processor  23  controls a display environment of the area which has been set up according to the display setting information transmitted from the computer  10 .  
      Through this, a desired area is accurately set up and a display environment or/and a color value of a corresponding area can be controlled.  
       FIG. 5  is a flowchart illustrating a control method of a display system according to embodiments of the present general inventive concept.  
      Referring to  FIGS. 2-5 , if an arbitrary area is selected through the pointing device  30  (S 300 ), the computer controller  15  transmits location information on the selected area and the output resolution information of the computer  10  to the display apparatus  20  (S 301 ).  
      The display controller  27  corrects the location information based on the intermediate resolution of the display apparatus  20  and the received output resolution information of the computer  10  (S 302 ). Since determination of whether or not the concrete correction is performed and a correction method thereof are identical with the description of  FIG. 3 , the detailed description thereof will be omitted.  
      The display controller  27  sets up an area according to the corrected area value (S 303 ). Moreover, as described above, the signal processor  23  may control the image display state of the area which has been set up according to the display setting information transmitted from the computer controller  15 .  
      The present general inventive concept can also be embodied as computer-readable codes on a computer-readable recording medium to perform the above control method. The computer-readable recording medium is any data storage device that can store data which can be thereafter read by a computer system. Examples of the computer-readable recording media include read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), CD-ROMs, magnetic tapes, floppy disks, optical data storage devices, and carrier waves (such as data transmission through the Internet). The computer-readable recording medium can also be distributed over network-coupled computer systems so that the computer-readable code is stored and executed in a distributed fashion. Also, functional programs, codes, and code segments to accomplish the present general inventive concept can be easily construed by programmers skilled in the art to which the present general inventive concept pertains.  
      As described above, the present general inventive concept provides a display system to correctly set an area of a screen of a display unit in which a desired image is displayed.  
      Although a few embodiments of the present general inventive concept have been shown and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the general inventive concept, the scope of which is defined in the appended claims and their equivalents.