Patent ID: 8077261

Claim:
A digital gamma correction circuit configured such that a correction characteristic can be set, the circuit comprising: a correction characteristic storage portion for storing, as data for defining the correction characteristic, data for specifying a basic broken line and data for specifying a curve approximation range extending below and above a break point on the basic broken line; a range determination portion for determining whether input data lies within the curve approximation range based on the data stored in the correction characteristic storage portion; an auxiliary straight line coefficient calculation portion for calculating a coefficient for an auxiliary straight line for defining the correction characteristic based on the input data as well as the data stored in the correction characteristic storage portion; and a correction execution portion for correcting the input data based on the basic broken line when the range determination portion determines that the input data lies outside the range, while correcting the input data based on the auxiliary straight line when the range determination portion determines that the input data lies within the range, wherein the auxiliary straight line coefficient calculation portion obtains two division points at which two line segments of the basic broken line that are contained in the curve approximation range containing the input data are divided in proportion in which the curve approximation range is divided by the input data, and calculates a coefficient for an auxiliary straight line extending between the two division points.