KR100232129B1 - Flywheel control of monitor screen brightness and contrast - Google Patents

Abstract

An apparatus and method for using the flywheel to adjust monitor screen brightness and contrast are disclosed. The method comprises the steps of: digitizing the brightness and contrast of the screen to have a range value between the minimum and the maximum, adjusting the brightness by turning the flywheel control in a predetermined direction to reach a half point value between minimum and maximum; Stopping the adjustment of the luminance and starting the contrast adjustment until the contrast reaches one of the extremes in a predetermined direction, and stopping the adjustment of the contrast and restarting the luminance adjustment when the luminance is considered unfavorable after the contrast adjustment. Steps.

Description

Flywheel control of monitor screen brightness and contrast

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention generally relates to apparatus and methods for using flywheel control to adjust the brightness and contrast of a monitor screen, and more particularly to a convenient method of controlling a color monitor screen.

As the software evolves, there is a need for high quality images displayed on the monitor screen. However, the cathode ray tube, the main component of the monitor, is still not improving significantly. Thus, errors in geometry, convergence, focus, purity, etc., which occur in cathode ray tubes are sometimes large. Such errors are generally corrected by providing compensation means to obtain a better quality of the screen image.

On the other hand, there is another factor to consider in obtaining the best image quality such as screen brightness and contrast. The desired degree of control of these two factors varies from person to person. The monitors available on the market today have separate knobs to adjust the brightness and contrast separately. A common way of adjusting brightness and contrast is to first adjust one of the two factors and then the other. In other words, the brightness and contrast are adjusted one by one using separate knobs. This is inconvenient and inefficient. Sometimes people who are not familiar with computers may not know how to perform such complex adjustments.

Also available on the market are products that use an on-screen display technique that provides a more familiar method for computer users in adjusting brightness and contrast. However, the user still has to adjust the brightness and contrast by adjusting one by one. In other words, inconvenience and inefficiency still exist.

Therefore, it is desirable to provide an apparatus and method for simultaneously adjusting brightness and contrast with a single control knob to overcome the drawbacks of conventional designs.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus using a flywheel control for simultaneously adjusting the brightness and contrast of a color monitor screen in order to simplify the adjustment operation of the brightness and contrast of the monitor screen.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of using a flywheel control for simultaneously adjusting the brightness and contrast of a color monitor screen in order to simplify the adjustment operation of the brightness and contrast of the monitor screen.

That is, the present invention provides an apparatus and method using the flywheel for controlling the monitor screen brightness and contrast.

1 is a block diagram showing a circuit according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention,

2 is a schematic diagram showing an embodiment of a range of digitized luminance and contrast of a monitor screen,

3 is a flowchart illustrating a process of increasing brightness and contrast,

4 is a flowchart illustrating a process of reducing brightness and contrast.

The method according to the invention comprises the steps of digitizing the brightness and contrast of the screen to have a range of values between the minimum and the maximum, and turning the flywheel control in a predetermined direction to reach the half point value between the minimum and the maximum to obtain the brightness. Adjusting the contrast, stopping the adjustment of the brightness and beginning to adjust the contrast until the contrast reaches one of the extremes in a predetermined direction, and adjusting the contrast when the brightness is considered unacceptable after adjustment of the contrast And stopping the brightness control again.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of an electrical circuit of a preferred embodiment according to the present invention, which will be described with reference to the video input 10, the central processing unit (CPU) 20, the user interface circuit 30, The memory 40, the video amplification circuit 50, the on-screen display integrated circuit (OSD IC) 60, the horizontal vertical deflection circuit 70 and the cathode ray tube (CRT) 80; It is configured to include.

In operation of the computer, a VGA card (not shown) installed inside the computer generates R, G and B color signals transmitted to the CRT 80, and also provides a CPU 20 via the video input 10. ) Generates a horizontal synchronizing signal H-SYNC and a vertical synchronizing signal V-SYNC. These signals are then detected by the CPU 20 and transmitted to the video amplification circuit 50.

Since most color monitors currently in use are multi-sync color monitors, this preserves video display parameters in memory 40, including video mode, picture quality, and video display size, and these parameters. The microcontroller must be adjusted to easily modify the parameters so that the adjustment of these parameters to the CRT 80 is indicated by an icon provided by the OSD-IC 60.

The CPU 20 detects which mode the VGA card is in, compares the detected video mode with the video mode stored in the memory 40, and obtains a control signal from the flywheel control including a direction and speed of rotation of the flywheel control. Receive. The comparison result and the received control signal are used to make adjustments and to control the OSD IC 60 and the horizontal vertical deflection circuit 70 for the adjustments manipulated on the CRT 80.

2 is a schematic diagram showing an embodiment of a digitized scale of luminance and contrast, which will be explained with reference to the range of 0 (minimum, minimum luminance) to 100 (maximum, maximum luminance).

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the adjustment operation starts at the same time as changing the luminance. If the user adjusts the brightness by turning the flywheel control so that the scale becomes less than 50 during the brightness decreasing operation or the scale exceeds 49 during the brightness increasing operation, then the adjustment operation is switched to contrast.

Similarly, the contrast is also digitized on a scale from 0 to 100. Once the adjustment of contrast reaches minimum or maximum, the adjustment operation then returns to luminance. Thus, if the brightness is not matched to the user after the contrast adjustment is finished, the user can go back to adjust the brightness again by continuing to rotate the flywheel control, and start adjusting the brightness from the current brightness value.

With this design, both brightness and contrast adjustments can be made simultaneously by turning the flywheel control, thus simplifying the adjustment operation of the brightness and contrast.

On the other hand, according to the present invention, the brightness and contrast can also be adjusted separately. This is done by allowing the user to select a desired item via an icon displayed on the CRT 80 by the OSD IC 60, and then perform an adjustment operation. The adjustment result prepared in such a manner is stored in the memory 40 so that the next adjustment operation is made based on the stored value. In other words, start the adjustment from the stored value.

3 is a flowchart showing adjustment of increase in brightness and contrast. In the following description, turning the flywheel control to the right indicates an increase in brightness and contrast, while turning to the left indicates a decrease in the brightness and contrast so that when the user turns the flywheel control to the right, the brightness and contrast of the CRT 80 increases. Be sure to

The CPU 20 checks the current brightness and if the current brightness is determined to be half of the full scale, i.e., less than 50 in the illustrated embodiment, the brightness is increased and the increase is determined by the rotational speed of the flywheel control by the user. Is determined. The luminance scale bar is displayed on the monitor through the CRT 80 to indicate the adjustment status to the user. By doing so, the CPU 20 controls the video amplification circuit 50 to increase the brightness of the CRT 80 so that the user can see the increase in brightness by turning the flywheel control to the right.

The increase in luminance continues until it exceeds half of the full scale of luminance. Once the half value of the full scale of the luminance is reached, the CPU 20 checks whether the contrast is at the maximum state. If the contrast is maximum, it indicates that no further contrast increase adjustment can be made and that the adjustment operation further increases the brightness until the desired state is returned to the brightness again. If the contrast is not maximum, then the contrast is increased and the increased amount is determined by the flywheel control rotational speed by the user.

Contrast scale bars are displayed on the screen via the CRT 80 to show the adjustment to the user and the CPU 20 controls the video amplification circuit 50 to increase the contrast of the CRT 80. do. The user may see an increase in contrast as the flywheel control is turned to the right. Incremental adjustment continues until the contrast reaches maximum, and then the adjustment operation returns to bend again.

In summary, the procedure can be configured to include the flow of the following steps.

Step A: The user turns to the right using the flywheel control of the user interface circuit 30;

Step B: The CPU 20 receives the control signal of the flywheel control through the user interface circuit 30 to increase the brightness;

Step C: The CPU 20 checks the value of brightness and if the brightness is less than half of the full scale, the process goes to step D, otherwise proceeds to step G;

Step D: The CPU 20 receives the rotational speed of the flywheel control through the user interface circuit 30 to determine the amount of increase in brightness;

Step E: The CPU 20 controls the OSD IC 60 to display the luminance scale bar on the CRT 80 through the video amplifying circuit 50;

Step F: The CPU 20 further controls the video amplifying circuit 50 to increase the brightness of the CRT 80;

Step G: The CPU 20 checks the value of the contrast and if the contrast is maximum, the process goes to step D, otherwise performs step H;

Step H: The CPU 20 receives the rotational speed of the flywheel control via the user interface circuit 30 to determine the amount of increase in the contrast;

Step I: The CPU 20 controls the OSD IC 60 to display a contrast scale bar on the CRT 80 through the video amplifying circuit 50;

Step J: The CPU 20 further controls the video amplifying circuit 50 to increase the contrast of the CRT 80.

4 is a flowchart illustrating adjustment of reduction in brightness and contrast, which will be described below with reference to the drawings.

When the user turns the flywheel control to the left, the brightness and contrast of the CRT 80 is reduced. If the CPU 20 checks the current brightness and determines that the current brightness exceeds half of the full scale, the brightness is reduced and the amount of reduction is determined by the rotational speed of the flywheel control according to the user. The luminance scale bar is displayed on the monitor through the CRT 80 to indicate the adjustment state to the user.

By doing so, the CPU 20 controls the video amplification circuit 50 to reduce the brightness of the CRT 80 so that the user can see the decrease in brightness as the flywheel control is turned to the left.

The decrease in luminance continues until the luminance is less than half of the full scale of the luminance. Once the luminance reaches half of the full scale of the luminance, the CPU 20 checks whether the contrast is at a minimum. If the contrast is minimum, this indicates that the adjustment operation returns to the brightness and further reduces the brightness until the brightness reaches the desired state without making further contrast reduction adjustment. If the contrast is not minimum, the contrast is reduced and the amount of reduction is determined by the rotational speed of the flywheel control according to the user. Contrast scale bars are displayed on the screen via the CRT 80 to show the adjustment to the user and the CPU 20 controls the video amplification circuit 50 to reduce the contrast of the CRT 80. The user can see a decrease in contrast as the flywheel control is turned to the left. The decrement adjustment continues until the contrast reaches the minimum and the adjustment operation returns to the luminance again.

In summary, the process may have a flow of the following steps.

Step K: The user turns the user interface circuit 30 to the left using the flywheel control;

Step L: The CPU 20 receives the control signal of the flywheel control through the user interface circuit 30 to decrease the brightness;

Step M: The CPU 20 checks the value of brightness so that if the brightness exceeds half of the full scale, the process goes to step N, otherwise to step Q;

Step N: The CPU 20 receives the rotational speed of the flywheel control through the user interface circuit 30 to determine the amount of decrease in brightness;

Step O: The CPU 20 controls the OSD IC 60 to display the luminance scale bar on the CRT 80 through the video amplifying circuit 50;

Step P: The CPU 20 further controls the video amplifying circuit 50 to reduce the brightness of the CRT 80;

Step Q: The CPU 20 checks the value of contrast and if the contrast is minimum, the process goes to step N, otherwise performs step R;

Step R: The CPU 20 receives the rotational speed of the flywheel control via the user interface circuit 30 to determine the amount of reduction in the contrast;

Step S: The CPU 20 controls the OSD IC 60 to display a contrast scale bar on the CRT 80 through the video amplifying circuit 50;

Step T: The CPU 20 further controls the video amplifying circuit 50 to reduce the contrast of the CRT 80.

As described above, using the apparatus and method for adjusting the brightness and contrast of the monitor screen provided by the present invention is effectively adjusted by combining the individual brightness and contrast adjustment knobs conventionally used and replacing them with a single flywheel control. Easy operation

Only by turning the flywheel left or right, the brightness and contrast can be adjusted simultaneously and the separate adjustment of brightness and contrast is not necessary. On the other hand, individual adjustment possibilities are also preserved so that adjustments can be made in the manner desired by the user.

Although the preferred embodiments of the device and method are described to illustrate the invention, the disclosed embodiments may be changed and modified without departing from the scope of the invention, which is only limited by the appended claims. It is clear that there is.

Claims (5)

A computer comprising a video input, a central processing unit (CPU), a user interface circuit, a memory, a video amplification circuit, an on-screen display integrated circuit, a horizontal vertical deflection circuit and a cathode ray tube (CRT) In operation, the VGA card installed inside the computer generates R, G, B signals, horizontal sync signals, vertical sync signals transmitted to the CPU via the video input, and the signals are detected by the CPU. Sent to the video amplification circuit to indicate display parameters to an icon on the CRT provided by the on-screen display integrated circuit, the CPU adjusting the display mode of the VGA card and the rotation direction and speed of the flywheel control. The on-line table to adjust the display parameters by detecting and comparing the display mode stored in the memory with the display mode of the VGA card. A device using a flywheel control to adjust the brightness and contrast of a computer screen that provides a comparison result to the visual integrated circuit and the vertical horizontal parallel circuit. Digitizing the brightness and contrast of the screen to have an area of minimum and maximum values; Adjusting the brightness by turning the flywheel control in a predetermined direction to reach a half point value between a minimum and a maximum; Stopping adjustment of the brightness and starting to adjust the contrast until the contrast reaches one of the extremes in a predetermined direction; Stopping the contrast adjustment and restarting the brightness adjustment when the brightness is deemed unfavorable after contrast adjustment, wherein the flywheel control is used to adjust the brightness and contrast of the screen. 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the predetermined predetermined direction is a direction of increasing brightness and contrast, the method comprising: a) turning the flywheel control at any rotational speed in a predetermined direction through a user interface circuit; b) transmitting a control signal of the flywheel control to the central processing unit through the user interface circuit to perform the operation of increasing the brightness; c) checking the value of luminance and if the luminance is less than that half point value, the process goes to step d, otherwise to step g; d) transmitting the rotational speed of the flywheel control to the central processing unit via the user interface circuitry to determine the amount of increase in brightness; e) controlling the on-screen display integrated circuit using a central processing unit to display a luminance scale bar on the screen; f) further using a central processing unit to control the video amplification circuitry to increase the brightness of the screen; g) checking the contrast value, if the contrast is maximum, the process goes to step d, otherwise performing step h; h) transmitting, via the user interface circuit, the rotational speed of the flywheel control to the central processor to determine the amount of contrast increase; i) displaying a contrast scale bar on the screen using a central processing unit to control the on-screen display integrated circuit; j) further using a central processing unit to control the video amplification circuitry to increase the contrast of the screen. 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the predetermined predetermined direction is a direction of decreasing brightness and contrast, and k) turning the flywheel control at any rotational speed in a predetermined direction through a user interface circuit; l) transmitting a control signal of a flywheel control to the central processing unit via a user interface circuit to perform a brightness reduction operation; m) checking the value of the luminance so that if the luminance exceeds its half point value, the process goes to step n, otherwise to step q; n) transmitting the user interface circuitry to the central processing unit for the rotational speed of the flywheel control to determine the amount of reduction in brightness; o) displaying a luminance scale bar on the screen using a central processing unit to control the on-screen display integrated circuit; p) further using a central processing unit to control the video amplification circuitry to reduce the brightness of the screen; q) checking the contrast value so that if the contrast is minimum the process goes to step n, otherwise performing step r; r) transmitting the rotational speed of the flywheel control to the central processing unit via the user interface circuit to determine the amount of contrast reduction; s) displaying a contrast scale bar on the screen using a central processing unit to control the on-screen display integrated circuit; and t) using a central processing unit to control the video amplification circuit. And reducing the loss. 3. The method of claim 2, further comprising: providing a contrast and brightness icon item on a screen via an on-screen display integrated circuit so that a user can select one of contrast and brightness; Performing adjustment of the selected item by rotating the flywheel control at any rotational speed in any direction to reach a selected value of the selected item; And storing the value in memory for use as a starting value in the next adjustment of the item.

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