JP2002023704A - Controller and control method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make an image displayed on a liquid crystal panel in a state that users can easy to see. SOLUTION: When a user operates a remote controller 4, the voltage impressed to a common electrode of the TFT liquid crystal panel 3 is controlled in accordance with the operation. As a result, the inclination direction of the list of the liquid crystal molecules in the TFT liquid crystal panel 3 changes and the direction of the light transmitted through the TFT liquid crystal panel 3 changes in the tilt direction. Namely, the visual field angle of the tilt direction of the TFT liquid crystal panel 3 changes.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a control device and a control method, and more particularly, to a control device and a control method that enable a user to easily view an image displayed on a liquid crystal display device in a state that is easy for a user to see. About.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a DVD (Dig
Ital Versatile Disc) players and the like have been realized.

[0003]

By the way, for example, a user places a DVD player equipped with a liquid crystal panel on a table or a floor, separates from the DVD player, lies down, sits down, and plays an image reproduced by the DVD player. When viewing, the image may be difficult to see depending on the angle of the liquid crystal panel.

[0004] In this case, the user must go to the place where the DVD player is placed, and adjust the liquid crystal panel to an angle which is considered to be easy for the user to view.
It was troublesome.

[0005] The present invention has been made in view of such a situation, and aims to enable a user to easily and easily view an image.

[0006]

According to the present invention, there is provided a control unit for receiving a signal from outside, and a control unit for controlling a viewing angle of a liquid crystal display device in accordance with the signal received by the receiving unit. And characterized in that:

The control method according to the present invention includes a receiving step of receiving an external signal, and a control step of controlling a viewing angle of the liquid crystal display device in accordance with the signal received in the receiving step. And

In the control device and the control method of the present invention, a signal from the outside is received, and in response to the signal,
The viewing angle of the liquid crystal display is controlled.

[0009]

FIG. 1 shows a DVD to which the present invention is applied.
1 shows an example of an external configuration of a player according to an embodiment.

[0010] The DVD player is composed of a main body 1 and a display section 2, and the main body 1 performs reproduction of a DVD and the like. The display unit 2 has a liquid crystal panel 3 and a thin plate-shaped main body 1.
Can be rotated in a tilt direction about one side as a rotation center. In the embodiment of FIG.
The display unit 2 has been rotated to a position forming an angle θ with respect to the main body 1. The liquid crystal panel 3 is, for example, TN
(Twisted Nematic) type liquid crystal, TFT (Thin F
It is driven by the ilm Transistor method.

A remote commander (hereinafter, appropriately referred to as a remote controller) 4 is operated when giving various commands to the DVD player. That is, when the remote controller 4 is operated by the user, the remote controller 4 emits infrared rays corresponding to the operation, and the DVD player receives (receives) the infrared rays and performs a process corresponding to the operation of the remote controller 4. .

FIG. 2 schematically shows an example of the electrical configuration of the DVD player shown in FIG.

The user, for example, as shown in FIG.
When the DVD player is placed on the floor and the display unit 2 is rotated to a position forming a predetermined angle θ with respect to the main body 1, the display unit 2 is separated from the main unit 1 and laid down to view an image reproduced by the DVD player. When the image displayed on the liquid crystal panel 3 is difficult to see, the remote controller 4 is operated to change the viewing angle of the liquid crystal panel 3. That is, the remote controller 4 is provided with a plus button and a minus button (not shown) for changing the viewing angle, and the user operates one of the buttons.

When the user operates the remote controller 4, infrared light corresponding to the operation is emitted and received by the light receiving unit 10 of the DVD player. The light receiving unit 10 photoelectrically converts infrared light from the remote controller 4 and converts an electric signal obtained as a result into a microcomputer (hereinafter, appropriately referred to as a microcomputer) 1.
Feed to 1.

The microcomputer 11 decodes an electric signal from the light receiving section 10 and supplies a digital signal corresponding to the decoding result to a DAC (Digital Analog Converter) 12. That is, when the decoding result of the electric signal from the light receiving unit 10 indicates the operation of the plus button or the minus button, the microcomputer 11 supplies the DAC 12 with a digital signal having a large or small amplitude, respectively. The DAC 12 converts the digital signal from the microcomputer 11 into an analog signal by D / A conversion, and supplies the analog signal to the common amplifier control block 13. The common amplifier control block 13 supplies a voltage having a gain corresponding to an analog signal from the DAC to the TFT liquid crystal panel block 14.

The TFT liquid crystal panel block 14 includes the liquid crystal panel 3, a circuit for driving the liquid crystal panel 3, and the like.
Is applied to the common electrode of the liquid crystal panel 3.

As described above, the voltage applied to the common electrode of the liquid crystal panel 3 is changed, so that the liquid crystal panel 3
Of the liquid crystal molecules of the TN type liquid crystal constituting the liquid crystal panel changes, and the direction of light transmitted through the liquid crystal panel 3 changes in the tilt direction. As a result, the viewing angle of the liquid crystal panel 3 in the tilt direction also changes, and an image is provided to the user with an appropriate contrast or the like.

Accordingly, in this case, the user does not need to go to the place where the DVD player is placed and adjust the display unit 2 to an angle which seems to be easy for the user to view.
The convenience of the DVD player can be improved.

Next, FIG. 3 shows a more detailed electrical configuration example of the DVD player of FIG.

The optical pickup 22 irradiates a laser beam to the DVD 21 which is driven to rotate by a spindle motor (not shown). Further, the optical pickup 22 receives reflected light obtained by reflecting the irradiated laser light by 180 degrees on the DVD 21 and performs photoelectric conversion on the reflected light.
An RF (Radio Frequency) signal is output to the RF amplifier 23. The RF amplifier 23 receives the R signal from the optical pickup 22.
The F signal is amplified and output to the demodulation circuit 24.

The demodulation circuit 24 receives the signal from the RF amplifier 23
Demodulates the F signal and performs ECC (Error Checking and Correcti
on) Output to the circuit 26. Also, the demodulation circuit 24
The demodulation result of the signal is transmitted to the DSP (Digital Signal Pr
(or accessor 25). The DSP 25 for servo is
The optical pickup 22 is controlled based on the output of the demodulation circuit 24.

The ECC circuit 26 has a DRAM (Dynamic Rea
d Only Memory) 27 while storing necessary data
Performs error detection and error correction of the output of the demodulation circuit 24,
The data obtained as a result is supplied to an AV (Audio Visual) decoder 28. The AV decoder 28 includes a DRAM 29
The data from the ECC circuit 26 is stored in, for example, an MPEG (Moving Picture Experts
Group) decodes the image data obtained as a result of the decoding, such as a component signal, into NTSC / P
AL (National Television System Committee / Phase
Alternation by Line) to the encoder 30. NT
The SC / PAL encoder 30 converts the image data from the AV decoder 28 into NTSC or PAL as necessary.
It is output to the outside as image data of the system. Also, NT
The SC / PAL encoder 30 supplies the image data from the AV decoder 28 to the image processing circuit 31.

The image processing circuit 31 performs necessary image processing on the image data from the NTSC / PAL encoder 30 and supplies it to a driver 32. Further, the image processing circuit 31
Represents a voltage corresponding to the analog signal from the DAC 37,
The driver 32 is provided so as to be applied to the common electrode of the liquid crystal panel 3.
Control. The driver 32 applies an image processing circuit 31 to electrodes of the liquid crystal panel 3 (electrodes arranged in the X and Y directions).
By applying a voltage corresponding to the image data from, the liquid crystal panel 3 is driven to display the image. Further, the driver 32 operates according to the control of the image processing circuit 31.
A predetermined voltage is applied to the common electrode of the liquid crystal panel 3.

The operation unit 34 is used to send a DVD to a DVD player.
It is operated when performing predetermined processing such as reproduction of 21
An operation signal corresponding to the operation is input to the input I / F (Interfac
e) Supply to 35. The input I / F 35 receives an operation signal from the operation unit 34 and supplies the operation signal to the system controller 36. Further, the input I / F 35 receives the infrared ray transmitted from the remote controller 4 and performs photoelectric conversion, and supplies an operation signal corresponding to the operation of the remote controller 4 as an electric signal obtained as a result to the system controller 36. . The system controller 36 controls the servo DSP 25 and the AV decoder 28 according to the operation signal supplied from the input I / F 35. Also, the system controller 36
Supplies a digital signal corresponding to the operation signal supplied from the input I / F 35 to the DAC 37.

The DAC 37 includes a system controller 36
Is D / A converted and supplied to the image processing circuit 31.
The power supply circuit 38 supplies necessary power to the liquid crystal panel 3 and the like.

In the DVD player configured as described above, for example, when the DVD 21 is reproduced, the optical pickup 22 irradiates the DVD 21 with laser light, receives the reflected light, and performs photoelectric conversion. . And
The optical pickup 22 is provided with the R obtained as a result of the photoelectric conversion.
The F signal is supplied to the demodulation circuit 24 via the RF amplifier 23. The demodulation circuit 24 demodulates the RF signal supplied via the RF amplifier 23 and outputs the demodulated signal to the ECC circuit 26.
The ECC circuit 26 performs error detection and error correction on the output of the demodulation circuit 24, and supplies the resulting data to the AV decoder 28. The AV decoder 28 MPEG-decodes the data from the ECC circuit 26 and supplies the image data obtained as a result of the decoding to the image processing circuit 31 via the NTSC / PAL encoder 30.

The image processing circuit 31 performs necessary image processing on image data supplied via the NTSC / PAL encoder 30 and supplies the processed data to the driver 32. Driver 3
2 drives the liquid crystal panel 3 and displays an image by applying a voltage corresponding to the image data from the image processing circuit 31 to the electrodes of the liquid crystal panel 3.

Next, the system controller 36 controls the viewing angle of the liquid crystal panel 3 as described with reference to FIG. The control process of the viewing angle of the liquid crystal panel 3 by the system controller 36 will now be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

The system controller 36 determines in step S
In 1, it is determined whether or not an operation signal (hereinafter, appropriately referred to as an adjustment signal) corresponding to the operation of the plus button or the minus button of the remote controller 4 has been received from the input I / F 35. If it is determined in step S1 that the adjustment signal has not been received, that is, the user
If neither the plus button nor the minus button is operated, the process returns to step S1.

If it is determined in step S1 that the adjustment signal has been received, that is, if the user operates either the plus button or the minus button of the remote controller 4, the process proceeds to step S2, and the system controller proceeds to step S2. 36 controls the voltage applied to the common electrode of the liquid crystal panel 3 according to the adjustment signal, and returns to step S1.

That is, the system controller 36 supplies the DAC 37 with a digital signal having an amplitude corresponding to the adjustment signal. In this case, the DAC 37
The digital signal from the system controller 36 is converted into an analog signal, and the image processing circuit 31 and the driver 3
2 to the common electrode of the liquid crystal panel 3. Thereby, the inclination direction of the arrangement of the liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal in the liquid crystal panel 3 changes, and the direction of the light transmitted through the liquid crystal panel 3 changes in the tilt direction. As a result, the viewing angle of the liquid crystal panel 3 in the tilt direction also changes.

Therefore, the viewing angle of the liquid crystal panel 3 changes in accordance with the operation of the remote controller 4, so that the user can easily and easily view the image.

Note that the above-described series of processing can be performed by dedicated hardware or software. When a series of processing is performed by software, a program constituting the software is installed in the system controller 36.

In this case, the program can be recorded in advance in a DVD player having a recording medium such as a hard disk or a ROM built in the DVD player.

Alternatively, the program may be a floppy (registered trademark) disk, a CD-ROM (Compact Disc Read Onl
y Memory), MO (Magneto optical) disc, DVD (Digita
l It can be temporarily or permanently stored (recorded) in a removable recording medium such as a Versatile Disc, a magnetic disk, or a semiconductor memory. Such a removable recording medium can be provided as so-called package software.

The program can be installed in a DVD player from the above-described removable recording medium, transferred from a download site to a DVD player via an artificial satellite for digital satellite broadcasting, or transmitted to a LAN (Local). It can be transferred to a DVD player via a wire such as an area network or the Internet and installed.

Here, in this specification, processing steps for writing a program for performing various processes are as follows:
It is not always necessary to perform the processing in chronological order according to the order described in the flowchart, and the processing includes processing executed in parallel or individually (for example, parallel processing or processing by an object).

In the present embodiment, the liquid crystal panel 3 having a TN type liquid crystal driven by the TFT method is used. However, the present invention is not limited to the liquid crystal panel driven by a method other than the TFT method. And TN type liquid crystal panels.

In this embodiment, the voltage applied to the common electrode of the liquid crystal panel 3 is controlled to change the viewing angle. However, for example, the tilt of the display unit 2 (FIG. 1) may be changed. By changing the angle of the direction with a motor or the like in accordance with the operation of the remote controller 4, the viewing angle can be changed.

Further, in the present embodiment, the case where the present invention is applied to a DVD player having a liquid crystal panel 3 has been described. However, the present invention is widely applicable to other display devices having a liquid crystal panel.

In this embodiment, the viewing angle of the liquid crystal panel is changed in accordance with the operation of the remote controller 4 by the user. In addition, for example, the gaze direction of the user is detected, and based on the detection result, It is also possible to automatically change the viewing angle of the liquid crystal panel so that the user can easily see it.

Further, the viewing angle of the liquid crystal panel is pan (pa).
n) It is also possible to change the direction.

[0043]

As described above, according to the control device and the control method of the present invention, a signal from the outside is received, and the viewing angle of the liquid crystal display device is controlled in accordance with the signal. Therefore, it is possible for the user to easily see the image in an easily viewable state.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an external configuration example of an embodiment of a DVD player to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram schematically showing an example of an electrical configuration of a DVD player.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a more detailed electrical configuration example of a DVD player.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating processing of a system controller 36;

[Explanation of symbols]

Reference Signs List 1 main unit, 2 display unit, 3 liquid crystal panel, 4 remote control, 10 light receiving unit, 11 microcomputer, 12
DAC, 13 common amplifier control block,
14 LCD panel block, 21 DVD, 22
Optical pickup, 23 RF amplifier, 24 demodulation circuit, 25 DSP for servo, 26 ECC circuit,
27 DRAM, 28 AV decoder, 29 DR
AM, 30 NTSC / PAL encoder, 31 image processing circuit, 32 driver, 34 operation unit, 3
5 input I / F, 36 system controller, 37
DAC, 38 Power supply circuit

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F-term (reference) 2H093 NC48 NC51 ND02 ND60 5C006 AA01 AB05 AF00 AF51 AF52 BB16 FA55 5C056 AA05 BA10 CA06 DA06 DA11 EA11 5C058 AA09 BA01 BA31 BA35 BB05 BB13 5C080 AA10 BB05 EE02 JJ05

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A control device for controlling a liquid crystal display device, comprising: receiving means for receiving an external signal; and controlling a viewing angle of the liquid crystal display device in response to a signal received by the receiving means. A control device, comprising: 2. The control device according to claim 1, wherein said control means controls a viewing angle by changing a voltage of a common electrode applied to liquid crystal of said liquid crystal display device. 3. The control device further comprising the liquid crystal display device. 4. A control method for controlling a liquid crystal display device, comprising: a receiving step of receiving an external signal;
A control step of controlling a viewing angle of the liquid crystal display device.