GB2315969A - Monitor display adjustment method and apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

The method includes a) detecting an average control unit; b) determining whether an i-th monitor is a first monitor to be aligned by the system or not, wherein i is an integer; c) resetting the i-th monitor when the i-th monitor is the first monitor; d) developing an i-th monitor control signal with the average control unit in order to adjust display characteristics of the i-th monitor; and e) presetting an (i+1)-th monitor with the i-th monitor control signal, whereby the method can effectively adjust display characteristics of monitors into the service adjustments.

Description

MONITOR DISPLAY ADJUSTMENT METHOD AND APPARATUS THEREOF BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for adjusting display characteristics of monitors and an apparatus thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for adjusting the display characteristics of each of the monitors into a service adjustment state, and an apparatus which can effectively perform the method.

Description of the Prior Art Generally, as a last manufacturing step, before being on the market, the display characteristics of each of the monitors must be adjusted. These adjustments allow each of the monitors to have the same display characteristics. However, because most of the display characteristics require complex and interactive adjustments, it is difficult and time consuming to precisely align monitors by manually adjusting the display characteristics of each of the monitors.

Therefore, currently, various methods and apparatuses for adjusting the display characteristics of each of the monitors have been suggested.

One example of a monitor display adjustment system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,216,504. The monitor display adjustment system suggested in U.S. Pat. No.

5,216,504 can set into an adjustment state, each of the monitors which has a digital control circuit for precisely setting and maintain each of the monitor display characteristics. The system includes a single camera and X color analyzer to make all the measurements necessary to automatically align and calibrate a monitor. Also, a calibration computer coupled with a video coprocessor subsystem accomplishes all adjustments to the monitor automatically, without the need for human intervention. Therefore, the monitor display adjustment system suggested in U.S. Pat. No. 5,216,504 can automatically perform a series of adjustment/calibration operations to precisely adjust all of the display characteristics of the monitor in a fraction of the time required by a person to manually align the monitor.

However, though the monitor alignment system can automatically and precisely adjust all the display characteristics of the monitor, since a series of alignment/calibration operations should be repeatedly performed with respect to each of the monitors in the monitor alignment system, the time consumption required for aligning many monitors is as much as before.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of present invention to provide a method which can adjust display characteristics of monitors into the service adjustments in a shorter time than prior arts and an apparatus which can effectively perform the method.

In order to achieve the above objects, a method for adjusting display charateristics of a monitor according to one aspect of the present invention includes the steps of a) detecting an average control unit; b) determining whether a i-th monitor is a first monitor to be aligned by the system or not, wherein i is an integer; c) resetting the i-th monitor when the i-th monitor is the first monitor; d) developing a i-th monitor control signal with the average control unit in order to adjust display characteristics of the i-th monitor; and e) presetting an (i+l)-th monitor with the i-th monitor control signal.

In order to achieve the above objects, an apparatus for adjusting display characteristics of a monitor according to other aspect of the present invention includes a pattern generation means for generating a pattern video signal; a video pickup camera for generating a pickup image signal corresponding to an pattern image which is displayed in a monitor; an A/D converter means for translating the pickup image signal into a digital signal; and a control computer for generating an average control unit by providing a plurality of video control signals which are different from each other compared to the monitor, generating a monitor control signal based on an analyzation result which results from analyzing the pattern video signal, the digital signal and an average control unit, and providing the monitor control signal to the monitor in order to adjust display characteristics of the monitor, wherein the control computer resets an i-th monitor when the i-th monitor is a first monitor to be aligned, and presets an (i+l)-th monitor with a i-th monitor control signal which has been used for aligning the i-th monitor, wherein i is an integer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The foregoing and other objects, aspects and advantages will be better understood from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments of the invention with reference to the drawings, in which: FIG. 1 is a block diagram for showing one example of a monitor display adjustment apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention; and FIG. 2 is a flow chart for showing the overall procedure which is used by the monitor display adjustment apparatus depicted in FIG. 1.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be illustrated below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram for showing one example of a monitor display adjustment apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, a monitor display adjustment system 100 includes a video pickup camera 110, a pattern generator 130, a video signal processor 150, and a control computer 170.

The video pickup camera 110 captures an image displayed on a cathode ray tube(hereinafter, refered to as CRT) of a monitor 190 which will be adjusted by the monitor display adjustment system 100, and generates a captured video signal 1011 corresponding to the image displayed on the CRT 101. Also, the video pickup camera 110 provides the captured video signal 1011 to the video processor 150.

The pattern generator 130 generates a test pattern signal 1301 according to a control signal which is provided from the control computer 170. When the test pattern signal 1301 is applied to the monitor 190, the monitor 190 displays on the CRT thereof, a pattern image as a result that a control circuit(not shown in FIG. 1) which is mounted within the monitor 190 processes the test pattern signal 1301.

The video signal processor 150 translates the captured video signal 1011 from the pickup camera 110 into a digital video signal 1501, and provides the digital video signal 1501 to the control computer 170 via a conventional serial link.

Also, the control computer 170 preferably is a conventional IBM type computer. During the monitor alignment operation, the control computer 170 communicates with the video signal processor 150 and the monitor 190 via conventional serial links.

The control computer 170 controls the pattern generator 130 to generate the test pattern video signal 1301 which is needed for adjusting the monitor 190, and uses the digital video signal from the video signal processor 150 to analyze the pattern image which is displayed on the CRT of the monitor 190, so that the control computer 170 can adjust display charateristics of the monitor 190. This analyzation is detailedly disclosed in prior arts including U.S. Pat. No.

5,216,504.

The control computer 170 in turn adjusts the display characteristics of the monitor 190 according to an adjustment order in order to make it possible to effectively adjust the display characteristics. The adjustment order with respect to adjustment objects, such as pincushion, raster centering and trapezoid, which determine the geometrical display quality of monitors, preferably is set into an order that firstly raster centering, secondly bezel and lastly trapezoid are controlled. That is, when the control computer 170 adjusts the geometrical display characteristics of the monitor 190, the control computer 170 adjusts in the adjustment order, the adjustment objects concerned with the geometrical display characteristics of the monitor 190.

The control computer 170 analyzes the pattern video signal 1301 from the pattern generator 130 and the digital signal 1501 from the video processor 150 and generates a monitor control signal 1701 based on an analysis result. The control computer 170 provides the monitor control signal 1701 to the monitor 190, so that the control computer adjusts the display characteristics of the monitor 190. Also, the control computer 170 determines an average control unit F(Kn) by providing a plurality of monitor control signals to the monitor 190 and generates the monitor control signal 1701 according to the average control unit F(Kn).

Preferably, the control computer 170 determines the average control unit F(Kn) from an equation as follows:

where K is one among raster centering, raster height/width, the pincushion and trapezoid, Ki is a control value of the i-th monitor control signal, and N is a number of monitor control signals.

Further, the control computer 170 presets an i-th monitor 190 by resetting an i-th monitor 190 when the ith monitor is firstly controlled by the control computer 170(i=l), and then controls the i-th monitor 190 as mentioned above. The control computer 170 presets (i+l)-th monitor 190 with an i-th monitor control signal which is provided to the i-th monitor to align the i-th monitor 190.

Operations of the monitor display adjustment apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart for showing the procedure used by the monitor display adjustment apparatus depicted in FIG. 1.

First, when an monitor 190, which is aligned by the apparatus 100, is positioned in front of the video pickup camera 110 and is connected with the pattern generator 130, the monitor display adjustment system 100 starts the monitor display adjustment procedure.

Referring to FIG. 2, in steps 1 and 2, the control computer 170 determines whether a i-th monitor 190 is the first monitor to be aligned by the apparatus 100 or not(ST1, ST2). When the i-the monitor 190 is first(i=l), the control computer 170 resets the first monitor in step 3(ST3).

In step 4, the control computer 170 reads out the average control unit F(Kn) from the memory (not shown in FIG. 1). When the average control unit F(Kn) is not stored in the memory, the control computer 170 determines the average control unit F(Kn) with th equation(ST4).

In step 5, the control computer 170 generates the i-th monitor control signal according to the average control unit F(Kn) and the analyzation result which is developed by analyzing the digital signal provided from the video processor 150 and the pattern video signal 1901 provided to the i-th monitor 190. Also, the control computer 170 provides the i-th monitor control signal to the i-th monitor 190, so that display characteristics of the i-th monitor 190 are adjusted.

In step 6, the control computer 170 stores the i-th monitor control signal to the memory, and completes the adjustment for the display characteristics of the i-th monitor(ST6).

In steps 7 and 8, the control computer 170 determines whether or not an (i+l)-th monitor is connect to the pattern generator 130, and the video pickup camera 150 is positioned in front of the (i+l) monitor 190 in a manner such that the video pickup camera 150 can receive an image displayed in the (i+1)-th monitor(ST7, ST8).

In step 9, when the (i+l)-th monitor 190 is connected to the pattern generator 130 and the video pickup camera 150 is positioned in front of the (i+l)-th monitor 190, the control computer 170 reads out the ith monitor control signal 1701 from the memory, and provides the i-th monitor control signal 1701 to the (i+l)-th monitor 190, so that the (i+l)-th monitor 190 is preset with the i-th monitor control signal 1701(ST9). Thereafter, the control computer 170 adjusts display characteristics of the (i+l)-th monitor 190 by steps 4 and 5.

When the control computer 170 aligns the monitors in step 5, the control computer 170 controls adjustment objects of each of the monitors according to the adjustment order that firstly raster centering, secondly raster height/width, thirdly pincushion/bezel, and lastly trapezoid are adjusted.

Therefore, the monitor display adjustment apparatus 100 adjusts display characteristics of a monitor in the manner that the (i+1)-th monitor is preset with the i-th monitor control signal which is provided to the i-th monitor for adjusting the display characteristics of the i-th monitor, whereby the monitor display adjustment apparatus 100 effectively aligns monitors with a shorter time consumption than that required by the prior art.

While the invention has been described in terms of the preferred two embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention can be practiced with modification within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims (8)

1. A method for adjusting display characteristics of a monitor by a monitor display adjustment system which controls the display characteristics of the monitor by providing a monitor control signal to the monitor, the monitor display adjustment system analyzing an image displayed in the monitor in order to generate the monitor control signal according to an analyzation result, the method comprising the steps of; a) detecting an average control unit; b) determining whether an i-th monitor is a first monitor to be aligned by the system or not, wherein i is an integer; c) resetting the i-th monitor when the i-th monitor is the first monitor; d) developing an i-th monitor control signal with the average control unit in order to adjust display characteristics of the i-th monitor; and e) presetting an (i+l)-th monitor with the i-th monitor control signal.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said ith monitor is aligned with a sequence that firstly raster centering, secondly raster height/width, thirdly the pincushion, and lastly trapezoid are adjusted.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein said average control unit F(Kn) is determined from the equation:

where K is one among raster centering, raster height/width, the pincushion and trapezoid, Ki is a control value of the i-th monitor control signal, and N is a number of monitor control signals.

4. An apparatus for adjusting display characteristics of monitors, the apparatus comprising: a pattern generation means for generating a pattern video signal; a video pickup camera for generating a pickup image signal corresponding to a pattern image which is displayed in a monitor; an A/D converter means for translating the pickup image signal into a digital signal; and a control computer for generating an average control unit by providing a plurality of video control signals which are different from each other compared to the monitor, generating a monitor control signal based on an analyzation result which results from analyzing the pattern video signal, the digital signal and an average control unit, and providing the monitor control signal to the monitor in order to adjust display characteristics of the monitor, wherein the control computer resets an i-th monitor when the i-th monitor is a first monitor to be aligned, and presets a (i+l)-th monitor with an i-th monitor control signal which has been used for aligning the i-th monitor, wherein i is an integer.

5. An apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein said i-th monitor is aligned with a sequence that firstly raster centering, secondly raster height/width, thirdly the pincushion, and lastly trapezoid are adjusted.

6. An apparatus as claimed in claim 4 or 5, wherein said average control unit is determined from the equation:

where K is one among raster centering, raster height/width, the pincushion and trapezoid, Ki is a control value of the i-th monitor control signal, and N is a number of monitor control signals.

7. A method substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and illustrated by any of the accompanying drawings.

8. An apparatus substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and illustrated by any of the accompanying drawings.