Patent ID: 8059110

Claim:
A method for operating a display comprising a spatially-modulatable backlight having a plurality of individually-controllable light sources illuminating a spatial light modulator having a plurality of individually-controllable light modulating elements, the method comprising: controlling the spatially-modulatable backlight to display an approximation of an image; refreshing the spatial light modulator by sequentially refreshing a plurality of sections of the spatial light modulator, each section comprising at least one of the plurality of the individually-controllable light modulating elements; while refreshing one of the sections of the spatial light modulator, reducing an instantaneous brightness of the light emitted by a group of one or more of the individually-controllable light sources of the spatially-modulatable backlight, the group corresponding to the one section, to less than a brightness of the approximation of the image at an image area corresponding to the section; and, overdriving the group of individually-controllable light sources of the spatially-modulatable backlight at a time when the one section of the spatial light modulator is not being refreshed to increase the instantaneous brightness of the light emitted by the group of individually-controllable light sources to more than the brightness of the approximation of the image at the image area corresponding to the section.