JP2000276100A - Device and method for display - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain the device and method suitable for a plasma display panel, etc., which reduce false outlines generated in a moving picture area of an image when an image of one field is divided into multiple subfield images to make a gradational display. SOLUTION: The display device which makes a gradational display by using multiple subfields is equipped with a gradation limiting/error diffusing circuit 17 which converts the gradations of an input image to specific gradations where moving picture false outlines are hardly generated or their intermediate gradations and diffuses the error between the converted gradations and unconverted gradations to peripheral pixels and a dither circuit 19 which generates a video signal for displaying the gradations converted by the circuit 17 in alternate even and odd fields. The dither circuit 19 generates the video signal for alternating specific gradations by a dither quantity above and below a converged gradation when the converted gradation is a dither gradation.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a display device such as a plasma display panel (PDP) or a digital mirror device (DMD) for dividing a one-field image into a plurality of sub-field images and performing multi-tone display, and a display device therefor. Display method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An image display apparatus using a display panel which emits light in a binary manner, such as a plasma display panel (PDP), has a halftone by temporally overlapping a plurality of weighted binary images. A subfield method for displaying a moving image is used.

In this subfield method, one field is time-divided into a plurality of subfields, and each subfield is individually weighted. The subfield weight corresponds to the light emission amount when each subfield is turned on. In other words, each subfield has a predetermined number of times of light emission as a luminance weight, and the sum of the weights of the light emitting subfields corresponds to the luminance gradation to be displayed.

FIG. 6 shows a temporal relationship between subfields in one field. In the example shown in this figure, one field is divided into eight subfields from subfield 1 to subfield 8, and 1, 2 and
It has luminance weights of 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 and 128. Each subfield includes a setup period T1 for performing a preliminary discharge, a writing period T2 for writing data of lighting or non-lighting for each pixel of the plasma display panel screen, and a pixel for which lighting data is written in the writing period. Predetermined control is performed in the sustain period T3 for simultaneously emitting light. Light emission in the subfield occurs in the order of subfield 1 to subfield 8.

[0005] In the example shown in FIG.
Up to 5 levels of 256 gradations can be expressed. For example, gradation level 7 can be expressed by emitting light from subfield 1 to subfield 3, and gradation level 2
1 can be expressed by emitting light in subfield 1, subfield 3, and subfield 5.

As described above, in the subfield method, a subfield for obtaining a desired gradation is selected from a plurality of subfields obtained by time-dividing one field, and the selected subfield is caused to emit light. It is possible to express halftones.

[0007]

In a display device that performs multi-tone display using such a subfield method,
It is known that a pseudo contour appears during displaying a moving image. Next, a pseudo contour (moving image pseudo contour) appearing during the display of the moving image
Will be described.

Now, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64,
In the case where the image is divided into subfields weighted as 128, as shown in FIG. 7, the image pattern X moves horizontally on the screen 33 of the plasma display panel (PDP), corresponding to two pixels in one field. Consider the case. The image pattern X is composed of pixels P1 and P2 having a gradation level of 127 and pixels P3 and P4 having a gradation level of 128 adjacent thereto. FIG. 8 shows an image pattern X
Is a diagram developed into subfields. In this figure, the horizontal direction corresponds to the horizontal direction on the plasma display panel screen 33, and the vertical direction corresponds to the time direction. Also,
In the figure, hatching indicates a subfield that emits light.

In FIG. 8, when the image pattern X is stationary, human eyes see in the AA 'direction, so that the original gradation of the pixel can be seen. However, when the image pattern X moves in the horizontal direction as shown in FIG. 7, the line of sight of a person who looks at the image pattern X moves in the BB ′ or CC ′ direction in FIG. 8. When the line of sight moves in the direction of BB ′, the human eye recognizes the pixel P4
Of the pixel P3, the subfield 6 and the subfield 7 of the pixel P3, and the subfield 8 of the pixel P2. As a result, these subfields are time-integrated and the gray level I see 0. Further, when the line of sight moves in the CC ′ direction, the human eye recognizes that subfields 1 to 5 of the pixel P1, subfields 6 and 7 of the pixel P2, and subfield 8 of the pixel P3. , And as a result, the gradation level 255 is seen. In any case, these are the original gradation levels (12
7 or 128), which appear to the human eye as pseudo contours. When the above-mentioned weighted subfield is used, even when the luminance gradation of adjacent pixels is 63 or 64, or 191 or 192, this pseudo contour is remarkably observed. This is because when the pixels of these gradations are adjacent to each other, the change of the gradation is slight, but the change of the pattern of the light emitting subfield is large. Such contour lines appearing only in the case of moving images are represented by pseudo-contour noise ("pseudo-contour noise seen in pulse-width-modulated moving image display": Technical Report of the Institute of Television Engineers of Japan,
Vol.19, No.2, IDY95-21, pp.61-66), which causes deterioration in image quality.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a display device which divides an image of one field into a plurality of sub-field images and performs gradation display. It is an object of the present invention to provide a display device and a method suitable for a plasma display panel or the like for reducing a false contour line generated in a moving image region.

[0011]

According to the display device of the present invention, one field of an image is composed of a plurality of weighted subfields, and the light emission / non-emission of each subfield is determined according to the gradation of each pixel of the image. This is a display device that performs multi-tone display by controlling light emission. The display device includes a gradation conversion unit and a first diffusion unit. The grayscale conversion means selects a grayscale of a pixel from among grayscales that can be expressed by combining a plurality of subfields, and a first grayscale or a first grayscale which is a predetermined grayscale used for display. Is converted to a second gray level which is an intermediate gray level among the gray levels. When the gradation obtained by the gradation conversion means is the first gradation, the first diffusion means is for displaying the converted gradation or obtained by the gradation conversion means. When the gray level is the second gray level, a video signal for displaying the first gray level obtained by diffusing an amount corresponding to the second gray level is generated. At this time, if the gray level obtained by the gray level conversion means is the second gray level, the first diffusing unit sets the second gray level to an amount corresponding to the gray level in the field. A video signal for displaying a first gray scale obtained by alternately adding or subtracting between them may be generated.

In the above display device, the first gradation is
In the subfield that is the heaviest among the subfields that emit light when displaying the gray scale and all the subfields that have a smaller weight, the gray scale may have no subfields that do not emit light. . Alternatively, the first gradation is the heaviest subfield among the subfields that emit light when displaying the gradation,
In all the subfields having smaller weights, the gradation may be such that there is no more than one subfield that does not emit light. Alternatively, in the first gradation, two subfields that do not emit light are included in the heaviest subfield among the subfields that emit light when displaying that gradation and all the subfields that have a smaller weight. The gradation may be less than three. At this time, a subfield having a predetermined small weight, for example, a subfield having the smallest weight to a subfield having the third smallest weight may not be included in the subfield that does not emit light.

In the above display device, the gradation conversion means may determine an error between the gradation of the pixel to be displayed and the converted gradation by a predetermined ratio with respect to the peripheral pixels of the pixel to be displayed. A second diffusing unit for diffusing may be provided.
At this time, the second diffusion means obtains the amount of diffusion to the pixels in the horizontal direction based on predetermined lower-order bits of the bits indicating the gradation of the pixel to be displayed, and diffuses the pixels to the pixels in the vertical direction. The amount may be determined based on a value obtained by removing a value of a predetermined lower-order bit from an error between a gradation of a pixel to be displayed and a converted gradation.

According to the display method of the present invention, one field of an image is composed of a plurality of weighted subfields,
Emission of each subfield according to the gradation of each pixel of the image
This is a display method for displaying multiple gradations by controlling non-light emission. The display method is such that the gradation of the pixel is selected from gradations that can be expressed by combining a plurality of subfields, and the first gradation or the first gradation that is a predetermined gradation used for display. Is converted to a second gray level which is an intermediate gray level, and when the converted gray level is the first gray level, the converted gray level is displayed. When the gray level is the gray level, a video signal for displaying the first gray level obtained by diffusing an amount corresponding to the second gray level is generated.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an embodiment of a display device according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following, one color will be described for simplicity of description, but the present invention is similarly applied to color display using R (red), G (green), and B (blue) colors. it can.

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a display device according to the present invention. The display device includes an A / D converter 11, an inverse gamma corrector 13, a motion detector 15, and a gradation limiting / error diffusion circuit 1.
7, a dither circuit 19, a delay circuit 21, and a selection circuit 2
3, a video signal-subfield associator 25, a subfield processor 27, a scan / maintain / erase drive circuit 29, a data drive circuit 31, and a plasma display panel (hereinafter referred to as "PDP") 33. , A timing pulse generator 35.

The PDP 33 is a display device in which electrodes are arranged in a matrix and emits light in a binary manner on or off. In the present embodiment, as described in the related art, P
In the DP 33, multi-gradation display is performed by a plurality of weighted subfields. The timing pulse generator 35 generates a timing signal (operating clock) based on the horizontal synchronizing signal (HD) and the vertical synchronizing signal (VD), and supplies it to each unit in the display device.

The A / D converter 11 receives the RGB signals and
/ D (analog-digital) conversion. The A / D-converted RGB signals are subjected to inverse gamma correction by the inverse gamma corrector 13. That is, since the RGB signals are transmitted with the gamma characteristics on the assumption that they are displayed on the CRT display device, inverse gamma correction is performed, and processing for restoring the characteristics is performed. The A / D-converted RGB signals are also input to the motion detector 15, and the motion detector 15 detects whether the video is a moving image. The result is output to the selection circuit 23.

The RGB signals after the inverse gamma correction are sent to the delay circuit 21 and also sent to the gradation limiting / error diffusion circuit 17. Gradation limit / error diffusion circuit 17 and dither circuit 1
9 performs a predetermined process for suppressing the occurrence of the moving image false contour. More specifically, the tone limiting / error diffusion circuit 17 and the dither circuit 19 convert the tone of the pixel indicated by the sent video signal into a tone that does not easily generate a moving image false contour. I do. Details of these circuits will be described later. The delay circuit 21 delays the RGB signal after the inverse gamma correction by a time equal to the processing time of the gradation limiting / error diffusion circuit 17 and the dither circuit 19, and outputs the delayed RGB signal.

A selection circuit 23 selects an output from the dither circuit 19 if the video is a moving image, and a delay circuit 21 if the video is a still image, based on the value detected by the motion detector 15. Select the output of This is because a moving image pseudo contour is observed only in the case of a moving image, so that processing for suppressing the occurrence of the pseudo contour is performed on the video signal only in the case of the moving image.

The video signal selected by the selection circuit 23 is sent to a video signal-subfield correlator 25. The video signal-subfield correlator 25 converts the video signal into field information composed of a plurality of bits corresponding to the subfield. That is, the field information is composed of bits indicating whether or not to emit (light) the subfield. The subfield processor 27 determines the number of sustain pulses to be output in the sustain period based on the field information from the video signal-subfield correlator 25. Scan / maintain / erase drive circuit 29 and data drive circuit 3
1 is P based on the output from the subfield processor 27.
By controlling the electrodes of DP33 and controlling the light emission amount of each pixel,
An image having a desired gradation is displayed on the PDP 33.

The gradation limiting / error diffusion circuit 17 and the dither circuit 19 perform predetermined processing on the input video signal in order to suppress the generation of a moving image false contour. This predetermined processing will be briefly described. In the present embodiment, one field is divided into nine subfields, and each subfield (subfield 1 to subfield 9) has 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 48, 64, and 80, respectively. The description will be made assuming that the luminance weight is provided. The weight of each subfield corresponds to the light emission amount (luminance) when the subfield emits light. By combining these subfields, a desired gradation can be expressed.

Generally, a moving image pseudo contour easily occurs between adjacent pixels in the following cases. That is, when the luminance of adjacent pixels is close, in the subfield having the largest weight in the subfields emitting light and the subfield having the smaller weight,
This is the case where the distribution in the weight direction is substantially divided between the subfields that emit light and the subfields that do not emit light, and the distribution is substantially reversed between adjacent pixels. For example, the above 1, 2,
When subfields 1 to 9 weighted to 4, 8, 16, 32, 48, 64, and 80 are used, the brightness of adjacent pixels is 63 (= 01 11111) and 64 (= 10 10000), or the brightness is This is the case such as 111 (= 011 11111) and 112 (= 101 10000). When such pixels are adjacent to each other, the distribution in the weight direction of the light-emitting / non-light-emitting sub-field changes greatly with the movement of the line of sight, even though the difference in the original gradation is slight. More likely to occur.

Therefore, in the display device of the present embodiment, a gray scale in which a pseudo contour is easily generated is not used for display.
Several gradations in which a pseudo contour is unlikely to occur are selected, and only those gradations are used for display. Hereinafter, the gray scale used for this display is referred to as “display gray scale”. For example, the following gray scales are selected as gray scales in which a pseudo contour hardly occurs. (A) A gradation in which a sub-field having the maximum weight and a sub-field having a smaller weight among the sub-fields emitted when displaying the gradation emit light.

In this case, there is no subfield that does not emit light from the subfield with the smallest weight to the subfield with the largest weight necessary for displaying the gradation, and all the subfields emit light. In such a gradation, since the number of subfields to emit light increases stepwise as the value of the gradation increases, the light emitting subfield and the non-light-emitting subfield do not emit light when adjacent pixels have adjacent gradations. A large change in the distribution of the subfields in the weight direction is eliminated, and the generation of a moving image false contour can be suppressed. Tables 1 to 5 show examples of gradations satisfying the above (a). In the table, “1” in the column of each subfield indicates that the subfield emits light. In the table, these gradations are indicated by “●” in the column of “gradation used for display”. That is, 1, 3, 7, 15,
The gradation levels of 31, 63, 111, 175, 255 correspond to this. In addition, 0 is also added to the gradation used for display. For example, looking at the gray level 31 in Table 1, the sub-field with the highest weight among the sub-fields that emit light when displaying this gray level is the sub-field 5, and all the sub-fields having the lower weights Are subfields 1 to 4, and all of them emit light.
It can be seen that 1 satisfies the condition (a).

[Table 1]

[Table 2]

[Table 3]

[Table 4]

[Table 5]

Further, in addition to the above-mentioned case (a), in a sub-field having a weight smaller than the maximum weight necessary for displaying the gradation, a gradation having a predetermined number of non-light emitting sub-fields is defined as a pseudo contour. It is good also as a gradation which is hard to generate. That is, the following cases (b) and (c) can be considered. (B) A gray scale in which one or less sub-fields that do not emit light in the heaviest sub-fields and all sub-fields having a smaller weight among the sub-fields that emit light when displaying a certain gray scale. (C) A gray scale in which no more than two sub-fields do not emit light in the heaviest sub-fields and all the sub-fields having smaller weights among the sub-fields that emit light when displaying a certain gray scale.

Since the number of gradations satisfying the conditions (b) and (c) is larger than the number of gradations satisfying the condition (a), gradation can be expressed in more steps. In the gradations of (b) and (c), as in the case of the gradation of (a), there is no significant change in the distribution of the light emitting / non-light emitting subfields between adjacent pixels. Tables 6 to 10 show examples of the above (b). These gradations are indicated by “●” in the column of “gradation used for display” in the table. That is, in addition to the gradation of (a) shown in Tables 1 to 5, 2, 5, 6, 1
1, 13, 14 ... 251, 253, 254, etc., correspond to this. For example, looking at gray level 14 in Table 6, among the subfields that emit light when displaying this gray level, the subfield having the highest weight is subfield 4, and all the subfields having lower weights are displayed. Are subfields 1 to 3 and there is one subfield that does not emit light (subfield 1) among subfields 1 to 4; It can be seen that the above is satisfied. Further, for example, a gradation level 28 satisfies the condition (c). Of the subfields that emit light when displaying the gradation level 28, the subfield with the highest weight is subfield 5.
And all the subfields having a smaller weight are subfields 1 to 4, and two of the subfields 1 to 5 that do not emit light (subfield 1 and subfield 1). Since there is a subfield 2), the gradation level 28 satisfies the condition (c).

[Table 6]

[Table 7]

[Table 8]

[Table 9]

[Table 10]

By performing gradation display using only the gradation levels selected as described above, the light emission / non-light emission of the upper subfield and the lower subfield does not reverse between adjacent pixels. In addition, it is possible to suppress the generation of a moving image false contour.

In the above cases (a) to (c), a predetermined lower subfield may not be considered. This is because the lower subfield has a small weight, and is considered to have little effect on the moving image pseudo contour. For example, when obtaining the gradation under the condition (a), the gradation level at which all of the subfields excluding the lowest subfield (subfield 1) are emitted may be obtained as the gradation used for display. Good. Alternatively, the subfields from the lowest subfield 1 to the second subfield (subfield 2) or the third subfield (subfield 3) may be excluded.

In the present display device, an intermediate gray level between display gray levels is set as a "dither gray level". These gradations are indicated by “●” in the column of “gradation by dither” in Tables 1 to 10. For example, in Tables 1 to 5, the dither gradations are 2, 5, 11, 23, 47, 8
7, 143, and 215 are included. The distance between the dither gradation and the display gradation before and after the dither gradation is defined as the dither amount. For example, in Table 1, when the dither gradation is 11, the dither amount is 4, and when the dither gradation is 23, the dither amount is 8.
Although this dither gray scale is not used for direct display, the dither gray scale is expressed using the display gray scale by diffusing the dither gray scale into upper and lower gray scales by the dither amount.

The following description is based on the assumption that the display gradation and the dither gradation of the display device of this embodiment are set as shown in Tables 1 to 5. Therefore, the display device is 0,
1, 3, 7, 15, 31, 63, 111, 175, 25
Only the luminance of the 5th gradation level is displayed. The dither gradation and the display gradation are collectively referred to as “conversion gradation”.

The gradation limiting / error diffusion circuit 17 has conversion gradation information in a gradation table (to be described later), and uses this gradation table to determine a pixel based on an input inverse γ-corrected video signal. Is converted into a conversion gradation. Dither circuit 19
Generates a video signal of the display gradation when the conversion gradation from the gradation limit / error diffusion circuit 17 is equal to the display gradation, and generates the video signal of the display gradation when the conversion gradation is equal to the dither gradation. A predetermined diffusion process (described later) is performed based on the dither amount of the dither gradation, and a video signal for displaying the dither gradation using the display gradation is generated.

FIG. 2 shows the configuration of the gradation limiting / error diffusion circuit 17. The gradation limiting / error diffusion circuit 17 includes an adder 51
, A gradation table 53, a dither amount table 55, and an error diffusion processing circuit 60. The operation of the gradation limiting / error diffusion circuit 17 configured as described above is as follows.

When the video signal including the gradation information of the pixel is sent from the inverse gamma corrector 13 to the gradation limiting / error diffusion circuit 17, first, in the adder 51, the original gradation of the pixel based on the video signal is obtained. And the error e diffused from the pixel processed before the pixel are added, and the gradation table 53
And output to the error diffusion processing circuit 60.

The gradation table 53 is a table storing information on the conversion gradation, and converts the inputted gradation into a conversion gradation corresponding to the gradation. That is, the gradation table 5
3, a conversion gray level corresponding to the gray level obtained by adding the diffusion error e to the gray level of the original pixel in the adder 51 is selected. It is output to the processing circuit 60. Here, the gradation table 5
3, the contents of the gradations used for the display of Tables 1 to 5 and the gradations by dither are described.
As the output of No. 3, a gray scale used for display in a range not exceeding the input gray scale or the largest of dither-based gray scales is selected. For example, when the input gradation is 20, the gradation 15 used for display is selected. When the input gradation is 25, the gradation 23 used for display is output.

The error diffusion processing circuit 60 includes a gradation table 5
A process (hereinafter, referred to as “error diffusion process”) of diffusing the difference between the converted gradation converted by Step 3 and the gradation before conversion, that is, an error, to pixels around the pixel being processed is performed. By performing this error diffusion process on the entire screen, the gradation amount to be displayed on the entire screen is preserved, so that when the entire screen is viewed, the human eyes are as if the original pixel luminance is displayed. appear. As a result, a higher quality image without roughness of the image can be expressed.

The error diffusion processing circuit 60 comprises a subtracter 61, delayers 63, 65, 67, 69, multipliers 71, 73, 75, 77 and an adder 79, as shown in FIG.
In the diffusion processing circuit 60, a subtractor 61 subtracts a conversion gradation based on the gradation obtained by adding the diffusion error e to the gradation of the original pixel, and obtains a difference between them, that is, an error e ′. Can be The error e ′ is input to the delay unit 63 and the delay unit 69.

The delay unit 63 delays the input signal by (one line-one pixel) and outputs it. Each of the delay units 65, 67, and 69 delays the input signal by one pixel and outputs it. Accordingly, the delay unit 63 outputs the error e ′ obtained for the pixel immediately after the pixel one line before the pixel currently being processed.
The delay unit 65 outputs an error e ′ obtained for a pixel one line before the pixel currently being processed. The delay unit 67 outputs the error e ′ obtained for the pixel immediately before the pixel one line before the pixel currently being processed. The delay unit 69 outputs the error e ′ obtained for the pixel immediately before the pixel currently being processed.

The errors output from the delay units 69, 63, 65, 67 are multiplied by multipliers 71, 73, 75, 77 by predetermined coefficients k0, k1, k2, k3. At this time, the coefficients k0, k1, k2, and k3 are set to appropriate values that satisfy the relationship k0 + k1 + k2 + k3 = 1. Thereafter, the outputs from the multipliers 71, 73, 75, and 77 are summed by the adder 79, and the result is output as a diffusion error e for the pixel. That is, in the error diffusion processing circuit 60, as shown in FIG. 2C, an error e ′ between the gradation obtained by adding the diffusion error e to the original gradation of the pixel and the converted gradation is determined as shown in FIG. At a predetermined ratio k0 to k3. Further, as shown in FIG. 2B, the diffusion error e for a certain pixel is obtained by summing the errors diffused from pixels around the pixel.

The converted gradation obtained by the gradation table 53 is also output to the dither amount table 55. The dither amount table 55 has information for associating the dither gradation and the dither amount shown in Tables 1 to 5. That is, the dither amount table 55 indicates the conversion gradation converted by the gradation table 53,
When it is a dither gradation, a dither amount corresponding to the dither gradation is output, and when it is not a dither gradation, that is, when it is a display gradation, 0 is output as the dither amount. For example,
The dither amount table 55 outputs 8 as the dither amount when the input conversion gradation is 23 (see Table 1).

As described above, the gradation limiting / error diffusion circuit 1
When receiving the gradation of a certain pixel, the gradation selecting unit 7 selects a conversion gradation suitable for expressing the gradation from a gradation obtained by adding a diffusion error for the pixel to the gradation. Further, a dither amount for the converted gradation is output. The video signal including the converted gradation from the gradation limiting / error diffusion circuit 17 and the dither amount are output to the dither circuit 19.

Next, the dither circuit 19 will be described. When the conversion gradation obtained by the gradation limit / error diffusion circuit 17 is not a display gradation, that is, a dither gradation, the dither circuit 19 diffuses the dither gradation by a dither amount to obtain a display dither. Diffusion processing (hereinafter, referred to as “dither diffusion processing”) for expressing using gradation is performed. Specifically, when the gray level of the input video signal is a dither gray level, the dither circuit 19 sets the display gray level which is separated from the dither gray level by a dither amount before and after the dither gray level as an even field of one field and an odd field. A video signal to be displayed alternately with the field is generated. Thereby, the display gradation is averaged over time, and the dither gradation can be expressed on the screen. For example, when displaying the gradation level 23 (the dither amount is 8) which is the dither gradation, the gradation level 15 (23-8) is displayed on one of the even or odd fields, and the gradation level is displayed on the other. Level 31 (23 + 8) is displayed.

In the dither diffusion processing, the adjustment of the dither amount (diffusion amount) on the screen is changed for each pixel as shown in FIGS. 3 (b) and 3 (c). That is, in the even field or the odd field, the addition / subtraction of the dither amount is reversed between pixels vertically and horizontally adjacent. At the same pixel position in the even field and the odd field, the addition / subtraction of the dither amount is reversed. In the dither diffusion processing, the dither amount is alternately set for each line as shown in FIGS. 3D and 3E, or alternately for each field as shown in FIGS. 3F and 3G. The addition / subtraction may be reversed. 3 (b)-(c), (d)-(e), (f)-
In any case of (g), the dither amount is spread so that the sum becomes zero between the even field and the odd field.

The following effects can be expected by using the dither gradation in addition to the display gradation in the conversion gradation.
Now, consider a case where the gradation level continuously changes from 111 to 175 from left to right on the screen as shown in FIG. At the left end of the screen, only the gradation level 111 appears, and at the right end, the gradation level 175 appears. At the center of the screen, a gradation level 143 (dither gradation) is displayed. At this time, the gradation level 111 and the gradation level 175 alternately appear at exactly the same ratio. From the center of the screen to each end, the ratio at which the gradation levels 111 and 175 appear changes continuously. That is, when the dither gray scale (143 gray levels in this case) which is an intermediate gray scale between the display gray scales is displayed, the display gray scales appear exactly one half at a time. It is possible to more clearly express an intermediate gray scale among display gray scales as compared with a case where only error diffusion is used without using.

FIG. 3A shows the configuration of the dither circuit 19. The dither circuit 19 includes an adder 91, a subtractor 93, a selection circuit 95, and a switching pattern generation circuit 97.
The adder 91 adds the dither amount to the converted gradation. The subtracter 93 subtracts the dither amount from the converted gradation. The switching pattern generation circuit 97 corresponds to (b) or (c) in FIG.
As shown in (1), a control signal for switching the addition / subtraction of the dither amount for each pixel is output. The selection circuit 95 receives the adder 9 based on the control signal from the switching pattern generation circuit 97.
1 or the output from the subtractor 93 is selected and output.

When the conversion gradation output from the gradation limiting / error diffusion circuit 17 is a display gradation, 0 is output as the dither amount, so that even if the dither circuit 19 performs addition / subtraction. There is no effect on gradation.

As described above, the display device of the present embodiment is
The generation of the moving image pseudo contour is suppressed by converting the original gradation of the pixel into the display gradation in which the moving image pseudo contour is unlikely to occur, and performing the multi-gradation display using only the display gradation.

Incidentally, the gradation limiting / error diffusion circuit 17 shown in FIG. 2 sequentially inputs video signals for each pixel at every predetermined operation clock, and processes each pixel. Normally, this operation clock is set to a timing for processing one pixel.
For example, when one screen has 852 × 480 pixels, one operation clock is about 40.7 ns (= 1 second {60 frames}).
(852 × 480 pixels)). At this time, the input pixel needs to complete the processing before the next pixel is input. For example, the amount of error to be diffused to the next pixel needs to be determined within one operation clock. Therefore, the gradation limit / error diffusion circuit 17 needs to convert the gradation of the pixel into the converted gradation in the gradation table 53 within one operation clock cycle, and further perform the error diffusion in the error diffusion processing circuit 60. is there. However, the gradation table 53 and the subtractor 61 of the error diffusion processing circuit 60
Requires a very long processing time (for example, 34.5 μs) as compared with the operation clock described above. In particular, the arithmetic processing in the subtractor 61 requires processing time. For this reason,
In the circuit configuration shown in FIG. 2, in order to complete the processing within one operation clock, it is necessary to separately generate a high-speed clock and supply it to the error diffusion processing circuit 60, which requires a complicated circuit configuration. Is required, resulting in an increase in circuit scale and cost. Therefore, a preferred configuration of the gradation limiting / error diffusion circuit 17 for solving this problem will be described below.

FIG. 5 shows a preferred configuration of the gradation limiting / error diffusion circuit 17. In the figure, the same components as those shown in FIG. 2 are denoted by the same reference numerals. The tone limiting / error diffusion circuit 17 shown in FIG. 5 differs from that shown in FIG. 2 in the configuration of the error diffusion processing circuit 60 '. Since the error diffusion processing circuit 60 'requires a particularly short processing time for error diffusion in the next pixel, that is, in the horizontal direction, it is intended to speed up the calculation of the error diffusion amount in the horizontal direction. .

The error diffusion processing circuit 60 'shown in FIG.
In addition to the configuration of the error diffusion processing circuit 60, a lower bit separation circuit 81 and a subtractor 62 are further provided. Lower bit separation circuit 81 receives an output from adder 51.
Delay device 69 receives output e ′ from lower bit separation circuit 81. The subtractor 62 is provided between the subtractor 61 and the delay unit 63, and receives an output from the subtractor 61 and an output e 'from the lower bit separation circuit 81.

The error diffusion processing circuit 6 configured as described above
For 0 ', a predetermined lower bit of the gradation data from the adder 51 is used as an error e' to be diffused to a pixel to be processed next (a pixel immediately after the pixel being processed). That is, the lower-order bit separation circuit 81 separates the lower-order 4 bits from the gradation data (normally, 8-bit data) from the adder 51, and sets this as an error e ′. At this time, the lower bit separation circuit 8
Separation of lower bits of data in 1 can be easily realized and can be processed in an extremely short time, so that it can be sufficiently processed in one operation clock.

Further, an error e ″ that is diffused in a pixel after one line, that is, in the vertical direction, is obtained by calculating the gradation obtained by adding the diffusion error e to the original gradation of the pixel in the subtractor 61 and the conversion level obtained by the gradation table 53. The difference from the key is calculated, and further, the difference is subtracted by the subtractor 62 from the already-spread horizontal diffusion amount e ′. As described above, even if the error e ″ to be diffused in the vertical direction is actually obtained by calculating (subtracting) the gradation, there is a time margin of approximately one line before the amount of diffusion is used. Does not matter.

As described above, the error diffusion processing circuit 60 '
The lower bits of the grayscale data (usually 8-bit data) are used as an error for horizontal diffusion, and the error for vertical diffusion is obtained by the original grayscale including the diffusion error e and the grayscale table 53. Error diffusion processing is performed using an amount obtained by further subtracting an error in the horizontal direction from the difference from the obtained gradation.
As a result, the error diffusion processing can be performed with a simple circuit configuration in a short processing time within one operation clock.

[0054]

According to the present invention, only predetermined gradations selected from gradations that can be expressed by subfields are used for display. In the predetermined gradation, for example, all the sub-fields having a weight smaller than the weight of the heaviest sub-field among the sub-fields to be illuminated when displaying the gradation are set as the gradation in which the moving image pseudo contour is unlikely to be generated. Among the subfields having a weight smaller than the weight of the heaviest subfield among the subfields that emit light when displaying the grayscale, there are one or more subfields that do not emit light. Selected. That is, in the present invention, since image display is performed using only the gradation in which the moving image pseudo contour is unlikely to occur, the occurrence of the moving image pseudo contour is suppressed. At this time, when converting the gradation of each pixel of the image to the gradation used for display, the display device converts the gradation to be used for display or a gradation intermediate between the gradations used for display. In this way, by providing an intermediate gradation when converting the gradation, smoother multi-gradation expression can be achieved.

According to the present invention, when an error occurs when converting the gradation of each pixel of an image into the gradation used for display, the error may be diffused to peripheral pixels. Thereby, when viewed on the entire screen, the gradation of the original pixel is expressed. Further, when performing the error diffusion, regarding the error diffusion in the horizontal direction, the diffusion amount may be obtained by using the lower bits of the data representing the gradation of the pixel as the error. As a result, the processing time for obtaining the diffusion amount is reduced, and a circuit for error diffusion can be realized with a simple circuit configuration.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a display device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a gradation limiting / error diffusion circuit of the display device.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a dither circuit.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a change in gradation of a pixel displayed on a screen by the display device according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of a more preferable gradation limiting / error diffusion circuit.

FIG. 6 is a view for explaining a plurality of subfields constituting one field.

FIG. 7 is a view for explaining generation of a pseudo contour of a moving image.

FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining a cause of generation of a moving image false contour.

[Explanation of symbols]

 17 gradation limit / error diffusion circuit 19 dither circuit 33 plasma display (PDP) 53 gradation table 55 dither amount table 60, 60 'error diffusion processing circuit

Claims (20)

[Claims] 1. A display in which one field of an image is composed of a plurality of weighted sub-fields, and light emission or non-light emission of each sub-field is controlled in accordance with the gradation of each pixel of the image to perform multi-tone display. An apparatus, wherein a gray level of the pixel is selected from gray levels that can be expressed by combining the plurality of subfields, and a first gray level that is a predetermined gray level used for display, or Tone conversion means for converting to a second tone that is an intermediate tone of the first tone, and if the tone obtained by the tone conversion means is the first tone, the conversion is performed. For displaying the set gradation, or when the gradation obtained by the gradation conversion means is the second gradation, it can be obtained by diffusing an amount corresponding to the second gradation. A first diffusion means for generating a video signal for displaying the first gradation; Display device according to claim that there were example. 2. The first gray scale includes a sub-field which emits light at the time of displaying the gray scale and a sub-field which does not emit light in all of the sub-fields having the heaviest sub-fields and sub-fields having lower weights. 2. The display device according to claim 1, wherein the field has no gray scale. 3. The first gray level is a sub-field which emits light at the time of displaying the gray level and a sub-field which does not emit light in all sub-fields having the heaviest sub-fields and sub-fields having lower weights. The display device according to claim 1, wherein the number of fields is one or less. 4. The first gray scale includes a sub-field which emits light at the time of displaying the gray scale and a sub-field which does not emit light in all sub-fields having the heaviest sub-fields and all sub-fields having lower weights. The display device according to claim 1, wherein the number of fields is two or less. 5. The display device according to claim 2, wherein the subfield having the minimum weight is not included in the subfield that does not emit light. 6. The display according to claim 2, wherein the subfield having the smallest weight and the subfield having the second smallest weight are not included in the subfield that does not emit light. apparatus. 7. The non-light emitting subfield according to claim 2, wherein a subfield having the lowest weight to a subfield having the third lowest weight is not included in the subfield that does not emit light. Display device. 8. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first diffusion unit is configured such that, when the gradation obtained by the gradation conversion unit is the second gradation,
A video signal for displaying a first gray scale obtained by alternately adding or subtracting an amount corresponding to the second gray scale between fields with respect to the second gray scale is generated. The display device according to claim 1. 9. A method according to claim 2, wherein said gradation converting means diffuses an error between the gradation of the pixel to be displayed and the converted gradation at a predetermined ratio to peripheral pixels of the pixel to be displayed. 2. The display device according to claim 1, further comprising: 10. The method according to claim 1, wherein said second diffusion means obtains an amount of diffusion to pixels in the horizontal direction based on predetermined lower-order bits of bits indicating gradation of a pixel to be displayed. 10. The display according to claim 9, wherein the amount diffused to the pixel is obtained based on a value obtained by removing the value of the predetermined lower-order bit from an error between the gradation of the pixel to be displayed and the converted gradation. apparatus. 11. A display in which one field of an image is composed of a plurality of weighted sub-fields, and light emission or non-light emission of each sub-field is controlled in accordance with the gradation of each pixel of the image to perform multi-tone display. A method wherein the gray level of the pixel is selected from gray levels that can be expressed by combining the plurality of subfields, and the first gray level is a predetermined gray level used for display, or For converting to a second gradation which is an intermediate gradation of the first gradation, and for displaying the converted gradation when the converted gradation is the first gradation, or The converted gradation is the second gradation.
A video signal for displaying a first gray scale obtained by diffusing an amount corresponding to the second gray scale when the gray scale is equal to the second gray scale. 12. The first gray scale is a sub-field which emits light at the time of displaying the gray scale, and a sub-field which does not emit light in all of the sub-fields having the heaviest sub-fields and all sub-fields having lower weights. 12. The display method according to claim 11, wherein the field has no gray scale. 13. The first gray level is a sub-field that does not emit light in the heaviest sub-field among sub-fields that emit light when displaying that gray level and in all the sub-fields that have a smaller weight. 12. The display method according to claim 11, wherein the number of fields is one or less. 14. The first gray scale includes sub-fields that do not emit light in the heaviest sub-fields and all sub-fields with lower weights among sub-fields that emit light when the gray scale is displayed. 12. The display method according to claim 11, wherein the number of fields is two or less. 15. The display method according to claim 12, wherein the subfield having the minimum weight is not included in the subfield that does not emit light. 16. The subfield having the smallest weight and the subfield having the second smallest weight are not included in the non-light emitting subfield.
2. The display method according to claim 13 or claim 14. 17. The subfield having the third smallest weight from the subfield having the smallest weight is not included in the non-light emitting subfield.
2. The display method according to claim 13 or claim 14. 18. When generating the video signal, if the converted gray level is the second gray level, an amount corresponding to the second gray level is inter-field. The display device according to claim 11, wherein a video signal for displaying a first gray scale obtained by alternately adding or subtracting is generated. 19. When converting the gradation of the pixel, an error between the gradation of the pixel to be displayed and the converted gradation is determined at a predetermined ratio with respect to the peripheral pixels of the pixel to be displayed. The display method according to claim 11, wherein the display is diffused. 20. When diffusing the error, an amount to be diffused to a pixel in a horizontal direction is obtained based on a predetermined lower-order bit of bits indicating a gradation of a pixel to be displayed, and 20. The display according to claim 19, wherein the amount diffused to the pixel is obtained based on a value obtained by removing a value of the predetermined lower-order bit from an error between the gradation of the pixel to be displayed and the converted gradation. Method.