CN113867674A

CN113867674A - Electronic ink display screen refreshing method and display system

Info

Publication number: CN113867674A
Application number: CN202111143043.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 龚元宏; 陈锐; 龚东
Original assignee: Beijing Dasung Tech Co ltd
Current assignee: Beijing Dasung Tech Co ltd
Priority date: 2021-09-28
Filing date: 2021-09-28
Publication date: 2021-12-31

Abstract

The embodiment of the disclosure provides a refreshing method and a display system of an electronic ink display screen, wherein the refreshing method of the electronic ink display screen comprises the following steps: sampling an input video stream to obtain a plurality of frames arranged in sequence; storing the plurality of frames in three frame buffers in sequence; respectively reading a current frame displayed by an electronic ink display screen and a next frame of the current frame from two frame buffers of the three frame buffers to compare the difference between the next frame of the current frame and the current frame; the electronic ink display screen is refreshed based on the difference, the interval between the refreshing cycles of the electronic ink display screen can be reduced based on the improvement of the overall structure and the working mode of the display system including the display memory structure, and the efficiency of the refreshing operation of the electronic ink display screen is improved. Moreover, the overall efficiency of the display system from receiving the video stream to displaying is improved due to the optimization of the overall structure of the display system.

Description

Electronic ink display screen refreshing method and display system

Technical Field

The embodiment of the disclosure relates to a refreshing method and a display system of an electronic ink display screen.

Background

Display technologies of a computer monitor (i.e., a desktop computer monitor or a notebook computer monitor) in the related art are mostly based on CRT (cathode ray tube technology), LCD (liquid crystal display technology), and LED (light emitting diode technology). In these displays, whether the electron gun shoots a fluorescent coating, or a built-in lamp tube, or a light emitting diode is self-emitting, the display based on the above technology is likely to damage the retina for a user gazing at the computer display for a long time. In addition, the generally low screen resolution of the computer monitor in the prior art also easily causes eye focus fatigue, thereby causing overall eye fatigue of the computer user, and even serious and ill-conditioned people.

Electronic ink Display (EPD) is a new technology that displays information by ambient light. The EPD display technology is to encapsulate black and white charged particles (ink droplets) in a microcapsule structure, and to control the lifting and lowering movement of the black and white particles with different charges by an external electric field to display the black-white monochromatic display effect. When the electrodes are exchanged, the two color particles exchange positions, so that the white particles go to the lower side and the black particles go to the upper side, and light is totally absorbed by the black particles, thereby resulting in black and white display. In addition, the upper surface can be in a mixed state, and two different particles are mixed in proportion, so that different colors with black and gray levels can be formed.

Because the EPD technology can present a black-and-white display effect with high reflectivity and high contrast, and simultaneously has a memory effect, when the external electric field is cancelled, the currently presented display is displayed in real time, like the content displayed by a piece of printed paper. Due to bistability, the image remains on the EPD display screen for months or years after the power supply field is removed. The technology can realize reflective display by means of ambient light, and is similar to the printing display effect of common paper. Therefore, compared with traditional self-luminous display screens such as CRT, LED, LCD, OLED and the like, the EPD display screen is not easy to fatigue eyes, and the retina cannot be damaged by long-time staring. In addition, the EPD display screen also has the advantages of low power consumption, energy conservation and power conservation. Currently, EPD technology is always applied to handheld electronic reader devices such as electronic books.

EPD displays have been widely used in small-sized electronic devices such as electronic books, shelf labels, and the like. Also, display systems currently exist such as computer displays based on EPD display screens that can play back continuous pictures. However, when attempting to play a video stream (e.g., streaming media acquired from the internet) using a related art EPD display screen-based display system, there is an interval between refresh cycles of the EPD display screen due to limitations in the manner of processing the video stream, the manner of transmitting and storing the processed data, the manner of refreshing the EPD display screen, and the like. In particular, the prior art display system architecture and operation make it difficult to achieve greater efficiency in the refresh operation of the EPD display screen.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the disclosure optimizes the structure and working mode of the display system, and reduces the time interval between two adjacent operations of refreshing the EPD display screen based on the frame buffer mode of three frame buffers, so that the EPD display screen can be refreshed more efficiently.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a method for refreshing an electronic ink display screen, including:

sampling an input video stream to obtain a plurality of frames arranged in sequence;

storing the plurality of frames in three frame buffers in sequence;

respectively reading a current frame displayed by an electronic ink display screen and a next frame of the current frame from two frame buffers of the three frame buffers to compare the difference between the next frame of the current frame and the current frame;

refreshing the electronic ink display screen based on the difference.

With reference to the first aspect, in a first implementation manner of the first aspect, the sequentially storing the plurality of frames in three frame buffers respectively includes:

and sequentially storing the 3n +1 th frame in the plurality of frames into a first frame buffer, storing the 3n +2 th frame in the plurality of frames into a second frame buffer, and storing the 3n +3 th frame in the plurality of frames into a third frame buffer, wherein n is a natural number.

With reference to the first implementation manner of the first aspect, the present disclosure, in a second implementation manner of the first aspect, the sampling an input video stream to obtain a plurality of frames arranged in sequence, includes:

in the process of refreshing the electronic ink display screen to display the current frame, sampling an input video stream to obtain a next frame of the current frame, so that the time difference between the starting time of refreshing the electronic ink display screen to display the next frame of the current frame and the ending time of refreshing the electronic ink display screen to display the current frame is less than the time length of completing sampling of one frame from the input video stream.

With reference to the second implementation manner of the first aspect, in a third implementation manner of the first aspect, a time difference between a starting time when the electronic ink display screen is refreshed to display a next frame of the current frame and an ending time when the electronic ink display screen is refreshed to display the current frame is 0.

With reference to the first aspect and any one of the first to third implementation manners of the first aspect, in a fourth implementation manner of the first aspect, the sequentially storing the plurality of frames in three frame buffers respectively includes:

in the process of refreshing the electronic ink display screen to display the next frame of the current frame, starting to sample the input video stream to obtain the second frame after the current frame, and storing the second frame after the current frame into another frame buffer except two frame buffers in the three frame buffers.

With reference to the first aspect and any one of the first to third implementation manners of the first aspect, in a fifth implementation manner of the first aspect, the present disclosure further includes:

and in response to the completion of the refreshing of the electronic ink display screen, deleting the frame from a frame buffer where the frame displayed when the refreshing of the electronic ink display screen is completed is located.

With reference to the first aspect and any one of the first to third implementation manners of the first aspect, in a sixth implementation manner of the first aspect, the three frame buffers store data of one pixel in one frame as one unit.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a display system, including:

a video stream processing device, three frame buffers and an electronic ink display screen,

wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the video stream processing apparatus samples an input video stream to obtain a plurality of frames arranged in order, and stores the plurality of frames in three frame buffers, respectively, in order,

the video stream processing device respectively reads a current frame displayed by the electronic ink display screen and a next frame of the current frame from two frame buffers of the three frame buffers to compare the difference between the next frame of the current frame and the current frame, and refreshes the electronic ink display screen based on the difference.

With reference to the second aspect, in a first implementation manner of the second aspect, the three frame buffers are a first frame buffer, a second frame buffer and a third frame buffer,

the video stream processing device stores the 3n +1 th frame in the plurality of frames to a first frame buffer, stores the 3n +2 th frame in the plurality of frames to a second frame buffer, and stores the 3n +3 th frame in the plurality of frames to a third frame buffer in sequence, wherein n is a natural number.

With reference to the second aspect, in a second implementation manner of the second aspect, the video stream processing apparatus includes:

an image frame sampling module for sampling an input video stream to obtain a plurality of frames arranged in sequence and storing the plurality of frames in three frame buffers respectively in sequence;

an operation data module for reading a current frame displayed by an electronic ink display screen and a next frame of the current frame from two frame buffers of the three frame buffers respectively, comparing a difference between the next frame of the current frame and the current frame, and generating operation data based on the difference;

a gate/source driver for generating gate/source drive signals from the operational data to refresh the electronic ink display screen based on the difference.

The beneficial effects of the embodiment of the disclosure are:

according to the refreshing method of the electronic ink display screen, a plurality of frames which are sequentially arranged are obtained by sampling an input video stream; storing the plurality of frames in three frame buffers in sequence; respectively reading a current frame displayed by an electronic ink display screen and a next frame of the current frame from two frame buffers of the three frame buffers to compare the difference between the next frame of the current frame and the current frame; the electronic ink display screen is refreshed based on the difference, the interval between the refreshing cycles of the electronic ink display screen can be reduced based on the improvement of the overall structure and the working mode of the display system including the display memory structure, and the efficiency of the refreshing operation of the electronic ink display screen is improved. Moreover, the overall efficiency of the display system based on the electronic ink technology from receiving the video stream to displaying is improved due to the optimization of the overall structure of the display system.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, storing the plurality of frames in three frame buffers, respectively, in the order includes: and sequentially storing the 3n +1 th frame in the plurality of frames into a first frame buffer, storing the 3n +2 th frame in the plurality of frames into a second frame buffer, and storing the 3n +3 th frame in the plurality of frames into a third frame buffer, wherein n is a natural number, and the interval between the refresh cycles of the electronic ink display screen can be reduced based on the improvement of the overall structure and the working mode of a display system including a display memory structure, so that the efficiency of the refresh operation of the electronic ink display screen is improved. Moreover, the overall efficiency of the display system based on the electronic ink technology from receiving the video stream to displaying is improved due to the optimization of the overall structure of the display system.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, obtaining a plurality of frames arranged in sequence by sampling an input video stream includes: in the process of refreshing the electronic ink display screen to display the current frame, sampling is carried out on an input video stream to obtain the next frame of the current frame, so that the time difference between the starting time of refreshing the electronic ink display screen to display the next frame of the current frame and the ending time of refreshing the electronic ink display screen to display the current frame is smaller than the time length of completing sampling of one frame from the input video stream, the interval between the refreshing periods of the electronic ink display screen can be reduced based on the improvement of the overall structure and the working mode of a display system including a display memory structure, and the efficiency of the refreshing operation of the electronic ink display screen is improved.

According to the embodiment of the disclosure, the time difference between the starting time of the electronic ink display screen to display the next frame of the current frame and the ending time of the electronic ink display screen to display the current frame is 0, so that the interval between the refresh cycles of the electronic ink display screen can be reduced based on the improvement of the overall structure and the working mode of the display system including the memory structure, and the efficiency of the refresh operation of the electronic ink display screen can be improved.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, storing the plurality of frames in three frame buffers, respectively, in the order includes: in the process of refreshing the electronic ink display screen to display the next frame of the current frame, starting to sample an input video stream to obtain a second frame after the current frame, and storing the second frame after the current frame into another frame buffer except two frame buffers in the three frame buffers, the interval between the refreshing periods of the electronic ink display screen can be reduced based on the improvement of the overall structure and the working mode of a display system including a display memory structure, and the efficiency of the refreshing operation of the electronic ink display screen is improved. Moreover, the overall efficiency of the display system based on the electronic ink technology from receiving the video stream to displaying is improved due to the optimization of the overall structure of the display system.

According to the embodiment of the disclosure, by responding to the completion of the refreshing of the electronic ink display screen and deleting the frame from the frame buffer where the frame displayed when the refreshing of the electronic ink display screen is completed is performed, the migration process of data required by the display of the electronic ink display screen in the display memory can be reduced based on the optimization of the display memory structure and the improvement of the working mode, and the display memory scheduling efficiency is greatly optimized.

According to the embodiment of the disclosure, the data of one pixel in one frame is stored in the three frame buffers as a unit, the difference between the current frame and the next frame of the current frame which are respectively stored in the two buffers can be compared by taking the pixel as a unit to obtain the difference of the frames, and then the electronic ink display screen is refreshed based on the pixel level difference of the frames, so that the state of the pixels in the electronic ink display screen is changed as few as possible, the refreshing efficiency can be improved, and the display effect can be optimized.

The display system according to the embodiment of the present disclosure comprises a video stream processing device, three frame buffers, and an electronic ink display screen, wherein the video stream processing apparatus samples an input video stream to obtain a plurality of frames arranged in sequence, and storing the plurality of frames in three frame buffers respectively in sequence, the video stream processing device respectively reads a current frame displayed by an electronic ink display screen and a next frame of the current frame from two of the three frame buffers to compare the difference between the next frame of the current frame and the current frame, and the electronic ink display screen is refreshed based on the difference, so that the interval between refreshing cycles of the electronic ink display screen can be reduced based on the improvement of the overall structure and the working mode of a display system including a memory structure, and the efficiency of refreshing operation of the electronic ink display screen is improved. Moreover, the overall efficiency of the display system based on the electronic ink technology from receiving the video stream to displaying is improved due to the optimization of the overall structure of the display system.

According to the embodiment of the disclosure, the three frame buffers are respectively a first frame buffer, a second frame buffer and a third frame buffer, wherein the video stream processing device sequentially stores the 3n +1 th frame of the plurality of frames into the first frame buffer, stores the 3n +2 th frame of the plurality of frames into the second frame buffer, and stores the 3n +3 th frame of the plurality of frames into the third frame buffer, wherein n is a natural number, and the interval between the refresh cycles of the electronic ink display screen can be reduced based on the improvement of the overall structure and the working mode of the display system including the display memory structure, so that the efficiency of the refresh operation of the electronic ink display screen can be improved. Moreover, the overall efficiency of the display system based on the electronic ink technology from receiving the video stream to displaying is improved due to the optimization of the overall structure of the display system.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, by the video stream processing apparatus, comprising: an image frame sampling module for sampling an input video stream to obtain a plurality of frames arranged in sequence and storing the plurality of frames in three frame buffers respectively in sequence; an operation data module for reading a current frame displayed by an electronic ink display screen and a next frame of the current frame from two frame buffers of the three frame buffers respectively, comparing a difference between the next frame of the current frame and the current frame, and generating operation data based on the difference; and the gating/source driver is used for generating gating/source driving signals according to the operation data so as to refresh the electronic ink display screen based on the difference, and can reduce the interval between the refresh cycles of the electronic ink display screen based on the improvement of the overall structure and the working mode of a display system including a display memory structure and improve the efficiency of the refresh operation of the electronic ink display screen. Moreover, the overall efficiency of the display system based on the electronic ink technology from receiving the video stream to displaying is improved due to the optimization of the overall structure of the display system.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of a schematic structure of a display system based on an electronic ink technology according to the related art.

Fig. 2 is a block diagram of a schematic structure of an electronic ink technology based display system according to a specific embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of an acquisition image frame and a refresh operation cycle of a display system based on an electronic ink technology according to the related art.

FIG. 4A is a schematic diagram of one example of a sampling and refresh operation cycle for an electronic ink technology based display system, according to a specific implementation of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4B is a schematic diagram of another example of a sampling and refresh operation cycle for an electronic ink technology based display system, according to a specific implementation of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart of a method for refreshing an electronic ink display according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a schematic structure of an electronic device according to a detailed implementation of an embodiment of the disclosure.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present disclosure more apparent, the embodiments of the present disclosure are described in further detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings in conjunction with the detailed description. It should be understood that the description is intended to be exemplary only, and is not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present disclosure. Moreover, in the following description, descriptions of well-known structures and techniques are omitted so as to not unnecessarily obscure the concepts of the embodiments of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 1, the related art electronic ink technology-based display system includes a micro control circuit 101, a timing controller 102, a display memory 103, and an electronic ink display screen 104. The micro control circuit 101 receives a picture signal and supplies the picture signal to the timing controller 102. Also, the micro control circuit 101 may provide a video screen refresh mode to the timing controller 102. In the related art, the picture signal received by the micro control circuit 101 is not a video stream signal but a picture signal subjected to video image conversion. For example, in the related art, the display system may further include a video image conversion device (not shown in fig. 1) that receives a video signal such as a video stream from the outside, converts the video signal into a picture signal having different gray scales suitable for display on the electronic ink display screen, and supplies the picture signal having the different gray scales to the micro control circuit 101. Of course, the module performing the video image conversion function may not be included in the display system based on the electronic ink technology, but be a part other than the display system. In the related art, the picture signal received by the micro control circuit 101 is a picture signal having different gray scales, not a video signal transmitted through, for example, a wired network or a wireless network.

As shown in fig. 1, the timing controller 102 may include a data transfer module 1021, an operation data module 1022, and a gate/source driver 1023. The data transmission module 1021 receives the picture signal transmitted by the micro control circuit 101 and transmits the received picture signal (image frame) to the video memory 103.

As shown in fig. 1, the video memory 103 includes an image buffer 1031, a previous image update buffer 1032, and a current image update buffer 1033. The image frames transferred to the video memory 103 by the data transfer module 1021 are first stored in the image buffer 1031. In the case where the timing controller 102 starts refreshing the electronic ink display screen 104, in step S1 in fig. 1, the timing controller 102 controls the video memory 103 to migrate the image frames in the image buffer 1031 to the current image update buffer 1033. Next, in step S2 in fig. 1, the operation data module 1022 of the timing controller 102 performs reading operations from the current image update buffer 1033 and the previous image update buffer 1032 at the same time, that is, reads an image frame to be currently displayed from the current image update buffer 1033 and reads an image frame previous to the image frame to be currently displayed from the previous image update buffer 1032. The operation data module 1022 compares the image frame to be displayed with the previous image frame of the image frame to be displayed, calculates the data required for driving the electronic ink display screen 104, and provides the data to the gate/source driver 1023 to drive the electronic ink display screen 104. After the electronic ink display screen 104 is refreshed, in step S3 of fig. 1, the timing controller 102 controls the video memory 103 to transfer the image frame to be currently displayed in the current image update buffer 1033 to the previous image update buffer 1032.

In the related art electronic ink technology-based display system, one image frame is migrated at least three times in the video memory, i.e., the aforementioned steps S1, S2, and S3. Due to the fact that the number of times of image frame migration is large, the efficiency of whole data transmission, data processing and refreshing display of a display system based on the electronic ink technology in the related technology is greatly limited. In particular, when the video data is a video stream, the related art electronic ink technology-based display system has difficulty in securing a display effect due to its architecture and operation. Moreover, because the data migration process is more, and because the physical characteristics of the video memory are limited, the probability of data errors during the migration process is increased, and therefore, the reliability of the display system based on the electronic ink technology in the related art is also affected.

In the related art electronic ink technology-based display system, the image buffer 1031, the previous image update buffer 1032, and the current image update buffer 1033 may be a plurality of storage portions in one video memory, or may be a plurality of separate memories. However, no matter how the image buffer 1031, the previous image update buffer 1032, and the current image update buffer 1033 are configured, the image frame migration process causes the aforementioned problems.

In the related art, if the contents (frames) stored in the previous image update buffer 1032 and the current image update buffer 1033 are the same, there is no difference (change) in the result of comparing the image frame to be currently displayed and the image frame previous to the image frame to be currently displayed. In this case, the electronic ink display still performs a refresh action, but such a refresh action may be considered as "empty refresh", i.e., without changing the displayed screen.

The acquisition of image frames and refresh operation cycles of a display system based on electronic ink technology is described below with reference to fig. 3.

In the display system described above with reference to fig. 1, steps S1, S2, and S3 are sequentially performed. For example, the image frame comparison and electronic ink display screen refresh operations of step S2 may be performed after the image frame migration of step S1 to the current image update buffer 1033 is completed. The operation of migrating the current image frame to the previous image update buffer 1032 at step S3 may be performed after step S2 is completed. Thereafter, the loop of steps S1, S2, and S3 is performed again. That is, the operation cycle of acquiring the image frame and the refresh operation in the display system shown in fig. 1 may be described as the case shown in fig. 3.

As can be seen from fig. 3, in the acquisition image frame period 301, the following operations may be performed: the image frames are acquired from the outside of the display system and stored in the image buffer 1031, the image frame to be currently displayed in the current image update buffer 1033 is migrated to the previous image update buffer 1032 (step S3), and the image frame in the image buffer 1031 is migrated to the current image update buffer 1033 (step S1). Thereafter, during the refresh period 302, the following operations may be performed: the reading operation is performed simultaneously from the current image update buffer 1033 and the previous image update buffer 1032, and the data required for driving the electronic ink display screen 104 is calculated and provided to the gate/source driver 1023 to drive the electronic ink display screen 104, and the refresh operation is performed on the electronic ink display screen 104. In this case, the acquisition image frame period 301 and the refresh period 302 constitute one complete image frame acquisition and refresh period 300. Next, similarly, an acquisition image frame period 311 and a refresh period 312 constitute a next image frame acquisition and refresh period 310, and an acquisition image frame period 321 and a refresh period 322 constitute a further image frame acquisition and refresh period 320. As is apparent from the above description, in one image frame acquisition and refresh period, if the completion of the refresh period is not performed, the next image frame acquisition period cannot be started. Thus, there will be one acquisition image frame period between two adjacent refresh periods due to the structure and overall operation of the display system including the memory structure.

Aiming at the problems of the related art, the embodiment of the disclosure provides a new architecture of a display system based on an electronic ink technology and a refreshing method of an electronic ink display screen.

The display system based on the electronic ink technology provided in the embodiment of the disclosure can directly process (sample) a video stream to acquire an image frame without performing video signal processing by an external device, optimizes a video memory architecture, and enables sampling (acquiring the image frame) operation to be performed in the process of executing refresh operation in the processes of data transmission, data processing and refresh display, thereby reducing the interval between refresh cycles of an electronic ink display screen and improving the efficiency of the refresh operation of the electronic ink display screen. The structure of a display system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is described below with reference to fig. 2.

In contrast to the display system shown in fig. 1, the display system shown in fig. 2 does not include a micro control circuit and a timing controller, but includes a video stream processing apparatus 201. However, the video stream processing apparatus 201 has all or part of the functions of the timing controller in fig. 1. The display system based on the electronic ink technology according to the embodiment of the present disclosure includes a video stream processing apparatus 201, a display memory 202, and an electronic ink display screen 203. It should be noted that the video memory 202 shown in fig. 2 includes three frame buffers 2021, 2022, 2023. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the three frame buffers may be partitioned storage portions of the video memory 202. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the frame buffers 2021, 2022, 2023 may be three separate memories, which are considered as video memories 202 as a whole. That is, the display system shown in fig. 2 may include a video stream processing apparatus 201, three frame buffers 2021, 2022, 2023, an electronic ink display screen 203.

In the display system shown in fig. 2, the video stream processing apparatus 201 samples an input video stream to obtain a plurality of image frames arranged in order, and stores the plurality of image frames in three frame buffers 2021, 2022, 2023, respectively, in order. In embodiments of the present disclosure, the image frame may also be referred to as a picture frame, or simply a frame. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the video stream processing apparatus 201 is capable of receiving a video stream, for example, a video stream of streaming media that is propagated through a wired network or a wireless network. The video stream processing apparatus 201 samples an input video stream to obtain a plurality of frames arranged in order, and stores the plurality of frames in the three frame buffers 2021, 2022, 2023, respectively, in order. The video stream processing apparatus 201 reads a current frame displayed on the electronic ink display 203 and a next frame of the current frame from two frame buffers (e.g., the first frame buffer 2021 and the second frame buffer 2022 shown in fig. 2) of the three frame buffers 2021, 2022, 2023, respectively, to compare a difference between the next frame and the current frame of the current frame, and refreshes the electronic ink display 203 based on the difference. The current frame referred to in the embodiments of the present disclosure refers to a frame currently displayed on the electronic ink display screen 203. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, sampling the input video stream to obtain the sequentially arranged plurality of frames may refer to extracting the sequentially arranged image frames from the video stream.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the video stream processing apparatus 201 may include an image frame sampling module 2011, an operation data module 2012, and a gate/source driver 2013. The image frame sampling module 2011 samples the input video stream to obtain a plurality of frames arranged in sequence, and stores the plurality of frames in the three frame buffers 2021, 2022, 2023, respectively, in sequence. The operation data module 2012 reads the current frame and the next frame of the current frame displayed on the electronic ink display 203 from two frame buffers (e.g., the first frame buffer 2021 and the second frame buffer 2022 shown in fig. 2) of the three frame buffers 2021, 2022, 2023, respectively, to compare out the difference between the next frame of the current frame and the current frame, and generates operation data based on the difference. The gate/source driver 2013 generates a gate/source driving signal according to the operation data to refresh the electronic ink display screen 203 based on the difference.

It should be noted that although fig. 2 shows that the operation data module 2012 reads the current frame displayed on the electronic ink display screen 203 and the next frame of the current frame from the first frame buffer 2021 and the second frame buffer 2022, respectively, the disclosure is not limited thereto. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, in a case where the electronic ink display screen needs to be refreshed to display the image frame in the third frame buffer 2023, the operation data module 2012 may read the current frame and the next frame of the current frame displayed on the electronic ink display screen 203 from the second frame buffer 2022 and the third frame buffer 2023, respectively. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, in a case that the electronic ink display screen needs to be refreshed to display the image frame in the first frame buffer 2021, the operation data module 2012 may read the current frame and the next frame of the current frame displayed on the electronic ink display screen 203 from the third frame buffer 2023 and the first frame buffer 2021, respectively.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the image frame sampling module 2011 may be separate hardware, such as a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or a combination of software and hardware. The image frame sampling module 2011 may extract (sample) image frames from the video stream, for example, 20 frames, 24 frames, 25 frames, 30 frames, 48 frames, 60 frames, etc., per second of the video stream. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the frequency of extracting image frames of the video stream processing apparatus 201 may be determined according to various factors such as the data processing capability of the video stream processing apparatus 201, the data access speed of the three frame buffers 2021, 2022, 2023, the refresh speed of the electronic ink display screen 203, and the like. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the frequency of sampling the video stream coincides with the refresh frequency of the electronic ink display screen 203.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the image frame sampling module 2011 stores the plurality of frames in the three frame buffers in sequence may refer to: the image frame sampling module 2011 sequentially stores the 3n +1 th frame of the plurality of frames obtained by sampling into the first frame buffer 2021, stores the 3n +2 th frame of the plurality of frames obtained by sampling into the second frame buffer 2022, and stores the 3n +3 th frame of the plurality of frames obtained by sampling into the third frame buffer 2023, where n is a natural number. For example, the image frame sampling module 2011 stores the sampled 1 st, 4 th, 7 th, 10 th, and … th frames in the first frame buffer 2021, the sampled 2 nd, 5 th, 8 th, 11 th, and … th frames in the second frame buffer 2022, and the sampled 3 rd, 6 th, 9 th, 12 th, and … th frames in the third frame buffer 2023.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, in the process of refreshing the electronic ink display screen 203 to display the current frame, the input video stream is sampled to obtain a next frame of the current frame, so that a time difference between a starting time of refreshing the electronic ink display screen 203 to display the next frame of the current frame and an ending time of refreshing the electronic ink display screen 203 to display the current frame is less than a time length of completing one frame sampling from the input video stream. This embodiment may be further understood with reference to fig. 4A below.

FIG. 4A is a schematic diagram of one example of a sampling and refresh operation cycle for an electronic ink technology based display system, according to a specific implementation of an embodiment of the present disclosure. The sampling and refresh operation period shown in fig. 4A differs from the acquisition image frame and refresh operation period shown in fig. 3 in that the acquisition image frame period in fig. 3 refers to a period in which the display system in fig. 1 acquires image frames from the outside, and the sampling period in fig. 4A refers to a period in which the display system in fig. 2 samples image frames from a video stream. In embodiments of the present disclosure, the acquisition image frame period in fig. 3 may be understood to be similar to the sampling period in fig. 4A, both of which may be referred to as a period in which image frames are acquired (sampled) from outside the display system, and the conceptual differences between acquisition and sampling are not discussed below.

As can be seen from the discussion above with reference to fig. 3, in one image frame acquisition and refresh cycle, if the completion of the refresh cycle is not performed, the next image frame acquisition cycle cannot be started. Thus, there will be one acquisition image frame period between two adjacent refresh periods due to the structure and overall operation of the display system including the memory structure. That is, the display system of FIG. 1 has only two frame buffers 1032 and 1033 and operates such that the respective image frame acquisition and refresh periods are sequentially arranged, i.e., there is no interleaving of two adjacent image frame acquisition and refresh periods.

Since the display system in fig. 2 has three frame buffers 2021, 2022, 2023, sampling can be performed with another frame buffer during refreshing with two frame buffers. Referring to fig. 4A, the first sampling and refresh operation period 400 includes a first sampling period 401 and a first refresh period 402, the second sampling and refresh operation period 410 includes a second sampling period 411 and a second refresh period 412, the third sampling and refresh operation period 420 includes a third sampling period 421 and a third refresh period 422, and the fourth sampling and refresh operation period 430 includes a fourth sampling period 431 and a fourth refresh period 432.

As shown in fig. 4A, there is an intersection of the first sampling and refresh operation period 400 with the second sampling and refresh operation period 410, i.e., in the first refresh period 402, the second sampling period 411 has already started. In this case, in the display system shown in fig. 2, the video stream processing apparatus 201 reads the 1 st frame and the 2 nd frame displayed on the electronic ink display screen 203 from the first frame buffer 2021 and the second frame buffer 2022, respectively, to compare out the difference between the 1 st frame and the 2 nd frame, and refreshes the electronic ink display screen based on the difference to display the 2 nd frame, and this series of operations (which may be collectively referred to as refresh operations in this disclosure) corresponds to the first refresh period 402. While the video stream processing apparatus 201 performs the refresh operation to display the 2 nd frame in the first refresh period 402, the video stream processing apparatus 201 may start sampling the input video stream to obtain the 3 rd frame, and store the 3 rd frame to the third frame buffer 2023. In this case, the time difference t1 between the start time (the start point of the second refresh period 412) when the electronic ink display screen 203 is refreshed to display the 3 rd frame and the end time (the end point of the first refresh period 402) when the electronic ink display screen is refreshed to display the 2 nd frame is less than the length of time (the second sampling period 411) when one frame of sampling is completed from the input video stream. In other words, the second sampling period 411 for the next frame of the current frame has already started while the first refresh period 402 for the current frame has not yet ended. Similarly, there is an intersection of the second sampling and refresh operation period 410 with the third sampling and refresh operation period 420, i.e., in the second refresh period 412, the third sampling period 421 has already started; there is an intersection of the third sampling and refresh operation period 420 and the fourth sampling and refresh operation period 430, i.e., in the third refresh period 422, the fourth sampling period 431 has already started. According to the embodiment of the disclosure, by sampling the input video stream to obtain the next frame of the current frame in the process of refreshing the electronic ink display screen to display the current frame, so that the time difference between the starting time of refreshing the electronic ink display screen to display the next frame of the current frame and the ending time of refreshing the electronic ink display screen to display the current frame is less than the time length of completing sampling of one frame from the input video stream, the interval between the refreshing periods of the electronic ink display screen can be reduced based on the improvement of the overall structure and the working mode of the display system including the display memory structure, and the efficiency of the refreshing operation of the electronic ink display screen can be improved. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the sampling period of the image frame is generally significantly shorter than the refresh period.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the time difference t1 is at least 0, i.e., the end point of the first refresh period 402 coincides with the end point of the second sampling period 411 and is immediately adjacent to the start point of the second refresh period 412. In other words, the electronic ink display 203 is continuously refreshed to reach the highest refresh rate, and the sampling period no longer affects the refresh period of the electronic ink display. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, a time difference between a start time when the electronic ink display screen 203 is refreshed to display a next frame of the current frame and an end time when the electronic ink display screen is refreshed to display the current frame is 0. The case where the time difference t1 is 0 at minimum is shown in fig. 4B. FIG. 4B is a schematic diagram of another example of a sampling and refresh operation cycle for an electronic ink technology based display system, according to a specific implementation of an embodiment of the present disclosure. The meaning of each part in fig. 4B is the same as that in fig. 4A, and the detailed description thereof is omitted.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, as can be seen from the above, in the process that the video stream processing apparatus 201 refreshes the electronic ink display screen 203 to display the next frame of the current frame, the input video stream is sampled to obtain the second frame after the current frame, and the video stream processing apparatus 201 stores the second frame after the current frame in another frame buffer (which is read during the refreshing process) of the three frame buffers.

According to the embodiment of the disclosure, by starting sampling the input video stream to obtain the second frame after the current frame and storing the second frame after the current frame in another frame buffer except two frame buffers in the three frame buffers during the process of refreshing the electronic ink display screen to display the next frame of the current frame by the video stream processing device 201, the interval between the refresh cycles of the electronic ink display screen can be reduced based on the improvement of the overall structure and the working mode of the display system including the display memory structure, and the efficiency of the refresh operation of the electronic ink display screen can be improved. Moreover, the overall efficiency of the display system based on the electronic ink technology from receiving the video stream to displaying is improved due to the optimization of the overall structure of the display system.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, in response to the completion of the refresh of the electronic ink display screen 203, the video stream processing apparatus 201 deletes the frame (which is not displayed any more after the refresh) from the frame buffer in which the frame displayed when the refresh of the electronic ink display screen 203 is completed. In this way, each frame buffer can be made to store the latest frame.

In the display system according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the total time for completely updating (i.e., completing the frame refresh from the received video stream to the electronic ink display screen) one frame of the image of the electronic ink display screen is denoted as T, where a sampling time, a screen refresh time and a waiting sampling time are respectively denoted as Ts, Tu and Tw. Sampling refers to extracting image frames from a video stream.

During the sampling time Ts, the receiving time of one frame in the video stream, the sampling time of one frame in the video stream, and the time for storing the sampled frame in the video memory are included. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the sampling time Ts may be controlled to coincide with the transmission time of one frame in the video stream. I.e. the beginning of a frame is transmitted to the display system and the previous frame is just finished sampling. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the frame rate of the video stream may not be consistent with the sampling frequency of the display system, that is, the frame rate of the video stream is higher than the sampling frequency of the display system, and at this time, two adjacent frames sampled by the display system may not be adjacent frames in the video stream.

In the refresh time Tu of the electronic ink display screen, the time for moving the ink droplets in the microcapsules of all the pixels once through line-by-line scanning is Tu, and N times of refreshing are required to reach a specified gray scale (for example, the gray scale of the pixel of the aforementioned target), that is, Tu × N, where N is a positive integer.

After the electronic ink display screen is refreshed within the refreshing time Tu, the next sampling can be performed after waiting for a period of time Tw. Since each sampling must be performed from the beginning of a frame of image of the video stream, the following relationship must be found among the sampling time Ts, the screen refresh time Tu, and the waiting sampling time Tw: tu + Tw ═ k × Ts, where k is a positive integer.

By adjusting and controlling the parameters of the display system, the waiting sampling time Tw can be made small enough to be ignored. The total time for completely updating the image of one frame of the electronic ink display screen is simplified into T + Tu + Ts + N.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, although the total time T for updating the images of one frame of the electronic ink display screen is not reduced, the total time 2T for updating the images of two adjacent frames of the electronic ink display screen may be reduced to T + Tu (there is an initial sampling period) or 2Tu (there is no initial sampling period), i.e., the sampling time Ts in the total time T for updating the following frame overlaps the screen refresh time Tu in the total time T for updating the preceding frame. By analogy, when the images of the N frames of the electronic ink display screen are updated, the total updating time is T + (N-1) Tu or NTu.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the operation data module 2012 may respectively read a current frame displayed on the electronic ink display screen and a next frame of the current frame from two frame buffers of the three frame buffers 2021, 2022, and 2023, so as to compare a difference between the next frame of the current frame and the current frame, and generate operation data based on the difference. The operation data module 2012, like the image frame sampling module 2011, may also be hardware or a combination of hardware and software.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the difference between the next frame of the current frame and the current frame may refer to a difference between the same positions (pixels) of the two image frames, for example, a difference between the first pixel in the upper left corner of the next frame of the current frame and the first pixel in the upper left corner of the current frame. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the difference between the next frame of the current frame and the current frame may be compared pixel by pixel to obtain the difference between the pixels, thereby obtaining the difference between the two image frames. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the operation data module 2012 provides the operation data based on the difference to the gate/source driver 2013, so that the gate/source driver 2013 generates the gate/source driving signal according to the operation data to refresh the electronic ink display screen based on the difference. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the difference refers to a specific change of which pixels of the current frame are changed with respect to the next frame of the current frame, and the gate/source driver 2013 drives only the pixels of the electronic ink display screen 203 which are changed according to the gate/source driving signal generated by the difference to display the next frame of the current frame.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, data by one pixel is stored as one unit in the three frame buffers 2021, 2022, 2023. Therefore, in the three frame buffers 2021, 2022, 2023, data of one pixel in one frame is stored as one unit. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the data of a pixel represents a gray level of the pixel, i.e., multi-level gray data. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the number of bits of one unit may be 1 bit, or 2 bits, or 4 bits, or 8 bits, and so on. Data of 1 bit corresponds to 2 gray scales (i.e., 2-step gray scales), data of 2 bit corresponds to 4 gray scales (i.e., 4-step gray scales), data of 4 bit corresponds to 16 gray scales (i.e., 16-step gray scales), and data of 8 bit corresponds to 256 gray scales (i.e., 256-step gray scales).

In one example, when the electronic ink display 203 is refreshed, if a 3n +2 th frame is ready to be displayed, the frame in the first frame buffer 2021 is taken as a "source" and the frame in the second frame buffer 2022 is taken as a "destination", and the refreshing is performed according to the difference between the "destination" and the "source". In one example, when the frame to be displayed is a 2 gray level, if the source is 0 (black) and the target is 1 (white), then a control signal is generated to push ink droplets in microcapsules corresponding to the target pixel of the source in the electronic ink display screen 203 toward white. The control signal format is different for electronic ink display screens of different interfaces. For example, the control signal is 01 for the electronic ink display screen of the TTL interface, and 011 for the electronic ink display screen of the Mini-LVDS interface. For example, when the frame to be displayed is a 2 gray scale, if the source is 1 (white) and the target is 0 (black), a control signal for pushing ink droplets in microcapsules corresponding to the target pixel of the source in the electronic ink display screen 203 to move to black is generated. For example, the control signal is 10 for the electronic ink display screen of the TTL interface, and 100 for the electronic ink display screen of the Mini-LVDS interface. When the gray level of the frame to be displayed is greater than 2, the preset lookup table is used for looking up the multi-step black or white motion data from the source to the target. The lookup table may be provided by the manufacturer of the electronic ink display screen, or may be set by the user of the electronic ink display screen according to the needs of the user and the actual situation of the electronic ink display screen.

The structure of the display system shown in fig. 2 is merely an example, and the structure of the video stream processing apparatus 201 in fig. 2 is not limited to that shown in fig. 2, and the included components or modules are merely listed exemplarily for convenience of explaining the functions of the video stream processing apparatus 201, and may include more or less components or modules, or may include different components or modules from those shown in fig. 2, as long as the functions of the video stream processing apparatus 201 are completed. For example, the video stream processing apparatus 201 in fig. 2 may incorporate a video memory 202 (i.e., three frame buffers 2021, 2022, 2023). For another example, the video memory 202 may include an image buffer in addition to the three frame buffers 2021, 2022, and 2023, and the video stream processing apparatus sequentially stores the image frames in the image buffer after sampling the image frames, and then stores the image frames in the three frame buffers 2021, 2022, and 2023 from the image buffer, which may be stored in the same manner as described above. The present disclosure does not limit the structure of the video stream processing apparatus 201.

A refresh method of an electronic ink display screen according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is described below with reference to fig. 5.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart of a method for refreshing an electronic ink display according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The refresh method of the electronic ink display screen shown in fig. 5 includes steps S301, S302, S303, and S304.

In step S501, an input video stream is sampled to obtain a plurality of frames arranged in order.

In step S502, the plurality of frames are stored in the three frame buffers in order, respectively.

In step S503, a current frame displayed on the electronic ink display screen and a next frame of the current frame are respectively read from two of the three frame buffers, so as to compare a difference between the next frame of the current frame and the current frame.

In step S504, the electronic ink display screen is refreshed based on the difference.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, step S502 includes: and sequentially storing the 3n +1 th frame in the plurality of frames into a first frame buffer, storing the 3n +2 th frame in the plurality of frames into a second frame buffer, and storing the 3n +3 th frame in the plurality of frames into a third frame buffer, wherein n is a natural number.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, step S501 includes: in the process of refreshing the electronic ink display screen to display the current frame, sampling an input video stream to obtain a next frame of the current frame, so that the time difference between the starting time of refreshing the electronic ink display screen to display the next frame of the current frame and the ending time of refreshing the electronic ink display screen to display the current frame is less than the time length of completing sampling of one frame from the input video stream.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, a time difference between a start time when the electronic ink display screen is refreshed to display a next frame of the current frame and an end time when the electronic ink display screen is refreshed to display the current frame is 0.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, step S502 includes: in the process of refreshing the electronic ink display screen to display the next frame of the current frame, starting to sample the input video stream to obtain the second frame after the current frame, and storing the second frame after the current frame into another frame buffer except two frame buffers in the three frame buffers.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the method illustrated in fig. 5 further comprises: and in response to the completion of the refreshing of the electronic ink display screen, deleting the frame from a frame buffer where the frame displayed when the refreshing of the electronic ink display screen is completed is located.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, data of one pixel in one frame is stored as one unit in the three frame buffers.

In one possible design, the structure of the aforementioned display system may be implemented as an electronic device, and as shown in fig. 6, the electronic device 600 may include a processor 601 and a memory 602.

The memory 602 is used for storing a program for supporting a processor to execute the refresh method of the electronic ink display screen in any of the above embodiments, and the processor 601 is configured to execute the program stored in the memory 602. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the memory 602 is used only for storing programs and not for frame storage.

The memory 602 is used to store one or more computer instructions that are executed by the processor 601 to implement all or a portion of the aforementioned method steps.

The exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure also provide a computer storage medium for storing computer software instructions used by the embodiments of the present disclosure, which includes a program for executing the method in any of the embodiments, thereby providing technical effects brought by the method.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the foregoing scheme may be applied to a color electronic ink display screen. In the color electronic ink display screen, the surface of each pixel is coated with a color filter, and the pixel implementation adopts a black-white electronic ink technology. By the black-and-white degree (gray scale) of each pixel, a color value of the corresponding color can be realized. The specific implementation manner of the method can be obtained through related technologies, and details are not repeated in the present disclosure.

Those of skill would further appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks, units, and steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, various illustrative components, elements, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design requirements of the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the embodiments of the present disclosure.

The various illustrative logical blocks, or elements, described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented or operated by a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a digital signal processor and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a digital signal processor core, or any other similar configuration.

The steps of a method or algorithm described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. A software module may be stored in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. For example, a storage medium may be coupled to the processor such the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC, which may be located in a user terminal. In the alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside in different components in a user terminal.

The above-mentioned embodiments, objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present disclosure are further described in detail, it should be understood that the above-mentioned embodiments are only specific embodiments of the present disclosure, and are not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present disclosure, and any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements and the like made within the spirit and principle of the embodiments of the present disclosure should be included in the scope of the embodiments of the present disclosure.

Claims

1. A method for refreshing an electronic ink display screen, comprising:

storing the plurality of frames in three frame buffers in sequence;

refreshing the electronic ink display screen based on the difference.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said sequentially storing said plurality of frames in three frame buffers, respectively, comprises:

3. The method of claim 2, wherein sampling the input video stream to obtain a plurality of frames arranged in a sequence comprises:

4. The method of claim 3, wherein a time difference between a start time when the electronic ink display screen is refreshed to display a next frame of the current frame and an end time when the electronic ink display screen is refreshed to display the current frame is 0.

5. The method of any of claims 1 to 4, wherein said sequentially storing said plurality of frames in three frame buffers, respectively, comprises:

6. The method of any of claims 1 to 4, further comprising:

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein data of one pixel in one frame is stored as one unit in the three frame buffers.

8. A display system, comprising:

wherein the content of the first and second substances,

9. The display system according to claim 8, wherein the three frame buffers are a first frame buffer, a second frame buffer, and a third frame buffer,

10. The display system according to claim 8, wherein the video stream processing means comprises: