Patent ID: 7679628

Claim:
An image display apparatus comprising: a plurality of display elements; a drive unit for generating a drive pulse signal to be supplied to each of the display elements on the basis of input image data, a pulse width of the drive pulse signal being represented by a plurality of sub pulse widths Pj (j=1˜m) corresponding to a plurality of (m) gradation blocks Bi (i=1˜m) obtained by dividing the range of possible gradation values of the input image data, wherein the pulse width of the drive pulse signal generated for any gradation value belonging to each gradation block Bi is given by the following formula: iΣPj (for Bi ) j= 1 where each of i and j is a positive integer equal to or less than m, and a waveform area of the drive pulse signal monotonically changes in accordance with the magnitude of the gradation value; a histogram creation unit for creating a histogram indicative of a degree of each gradation block by counting for each gradation block the number of image data having any gradation value belonging to an identical gradation block from at least one frame of image data; and a control unit operable to set the sub pulse width corresponding to each gradation block, in accordance with the magnitude of the degree of that gradation block in the histogram so that if a degree of a gradation block is larger than those of the other gradation blocks, a slope of an intensity/gradation characteristic of each of the display elements supplied with the drive pulse signal for that gradation block is increased and if the degree of the gradation block is smaller that those of the other gradation blocks, the slope of the intensity/gradation characteristics of each of the display elements supplied with the drive pulse signal for that gradation block is decreased.