JP2010054537A - Device, method and program for error diffusion processing - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a device for error diffusion processing, capable of accurately performing error diffusion processing in view of nonlinear characteristic for converting an input value. <P>SOLUTION: The device for error diffusion processing includes: a conversion part which converts a first numerical value which expresses a spatial or temporal first position with a first resolution to a first conversion value based on a predetermined conversion characteristic including monotonic increasing or monotonic decreasing property and nonlinear characteristic; an error accumulation part which determines an accumulated error by adding errors diffused to the first position; an error addition part which determines a corrected conversion value by subtracting the accumulated error from the first conversion value; a resolution conversion part which determines a second conversion value by converting a second numerical value expressed with a second resolution lower than the first resolution based on the conversion characteristic; an error detection part which determines a generated error by subtracting the corrected conversion value from the second conversion value; and an error diffusion part which diffuses the generated error to the periphery of the first position. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an error diffusion processing device, an error diffusion processing method, and an error diffusion processing program, and more particularly to an error diffusion processing device, an error diffusion processing method, and an error diffusion processing program that perform error diffusion after nonlinear conversion of input values. .

In recent years, display devices that display images have been used in various electronic devices such as personal computers and mobile phones. An image is often expressed as a set of pixels. When displaying such an image, a “raster image display device” that displays each pixel as an independent point is used. The raster image display device includes a general liquid crystal display (LCD). Hereinafter, the raster image display device is simply referred to as “display device”.
The luminance of each pixel constituting the image and each pixel of the display device may be expressed by a discrete numerical value having a predetermined number of steps. This stage is called “gradation”, and the numerical value indicating the gradation level of the luminance of each pixel is called “gradation value”. The number of gradations of each pixel of an image or a display device may be limited to a predetermined number of steps, and the number of steps is called “resolution”. For example, an expression such as “This display device has a resolution of 256 gradations” is used. In the case of an image having a resolution of 256 gradations, the brightness value of each pixel is expressed using the gradation value, such that the gradation value of the darkest pixel that can be displayed is 0 and the gradation value of the brightest pixel is 255. Is done.

  The display device can display a pseudo image of a signal having a resolution larger than that of the display device or a continuous value signal. Such pseudo display with a resolution higher than that of the display device is referred to as “pseudo gradation display”, “pseudo halftone display”, or the like. Pseudo gradation display is to control the luminance of each pixel, including the “target pixel” that is the pixel to be processed and the “peripheral pixels” around it, and target luminance is the average luminance of those pixels. Is a display method for realizing the above.

  The “peripheral pixel” includes a spatial peripheral pixel and a temporal peripheral pixel. A “spatial peripheral pixel” is a “peripheral pixel” in a normal sense, and is a pixel that is positioned around the pixel of interest at the same time. On the other hand, the “temporal peripheral pixel” means a pixel that is in the same spatial position as the target pixel and that exists before and after the current target pixel.

  Methods for performing pseudo gradation display include an error diffusion method and a systematic dither method. Since the present invention deals with pseudo gradation display using the error diffusion method, only the error diffusion method will be described. There are two types of error diffusion methods with different error diffusion directions. One of the methods is spatial error diffusion in the spatial direction, and the other is temporal error diffusion in the time direction. FIGS. 17A and 17B show an outline of error diffusion processing in the spatial direction and error diffusion in the temporal direction.

  As shown in FIG. 17A, in pseudo gradation display using “error diffusion in the spatial direction”, errors are distributed to spatial peripheral pixels. Here, the error is, for example, an ideal that is caused by a difference in resolution when the ideal brightness of a pixel of interest having a certain resolution is reduced to a lower resolution. Difference between low brightness and low resolution. By distributing such an error to the spatial peripheral pixels, the average luminance of the target pixel and the spatial peripheral pixels becomes equal to the ideal luminance that is the initial target luminance. For this reason, it is possible to display in a gradation before the resolution is reduced in a pseudo manner.

  On the other hand, in the pseudo gradation display using the “error diffusion in the time direction”, the error is distributed to the temporal peripheral pixels as shown in FIG. Then, by controlling the luminance of the pixel of interest that is later in time for the current pixel of interest, display with the target luminance as a temporal average is realized. That is, in order to compensate for the luminance error of the current pixel of interest, temporal control of the luminance of the pixel of interest is performed such that the luminance is increased or decreased by the error at the next display timing. As described above, by temporally changing the luminance of the pixel of interest, the temporal average of the luminance becomes equal to the ideal luminance, so that it is possible to display in the gradation before the resolution is reduced in a pseudo manner. Note that error diffusion in the spatial direction and error diffusion in the time direction can be used in combination. Specific processing contents of the error diffusion method will be described later.

  Next, pseudo gradation display using error diffusion will be described. Compared with the resolution of each pixel of the image to be displayed, the resolution of the display device is not always equal or higher. This is because the lower the resolution of the display device, the more advantageous in terms of processing load, control circuit scale, and cost. Therefore, as a result of considering the application, the resolution may be kept low depending on the display device. When the resolution of the display device is lower than the resolution of the pixel, display can be performed while maintaining the pixel resolution by using pseudo gradation display. For example, display of 9 gradations (0, 1,..., 8) is performed using a display device having a resolution of 5 gradations in which gradation values of 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8 can be set. It can be carried out. At this time, in order to display the gradation value “3”, the average luminance of the display with the gradation value “2” and the display with the gradation value “4” may be used.

  As described above, in the pseudo gradation display, gradation is expressed by obtaining the average of the luminance of a plurality of pixels including the target pixel and the peripheral pixels. The operation for obtaining the average value of luminance is actually performed by the human eye. That is, to the human eye, the luminance of the target portion composed of a collection of a plurality of pixels appears to be the luminance obtained by averaging the luminance of the central pixel and the luminance of surrounding pixels. However, the size of the pixel needs to be so fine that the human eye cannot identify the individual pixel.

  The above discussion is applicable not only when the peripheral pixels are spatial peripheral pixels but also when they are temporal peripheral pixels. The size of the spatial peripheral pixel is the spatial size of the pixel, and the size of the temporal peripheral pixel means the length of time in which the pixel is displayed.

  By the way, the luminance displayed by the display device and the luminance actually perceived by humans are not generally proportional. Hereinafter, the luminance actually displayed on the display device is referred to as “display luminance”, the luminance perceived by the person watching the display luminance is referred to as “visual luminance”, and the relationship between visual luminance and display luminance is referred to as “visual response characteristic”. . The visual response characteristic is non-linear as described above. Note that the visual luminance is luminance based on human senses, and the unit is arbitrary.

As a visual response characteristic, it is expressed as various characteristics as a result of various studies. For example, in Patent Document 1, as a visual response characteristic, the relationship between display luminance Bd [Cd] and visual luminance Bv is as follows:
Bd = Bv ^2.2 (1)
What is expressed is described. The visual response characteristic of the formula (1) is shown in FIG. In the case of this characteristic, it means that the display luminance must be 2 ^2.2 = 4.6 times in order to double the visual luminance perceived by humans.

  Further, when setting a gradation value, which is the luminance of each pixel, to the display device, it is desirable that the gradation value and the visual luminance are proportional in terms of handling of the gradation value. Therefore, in order to compensate for the non-linear visual response characteristic, correction is generally made to the relationship between the gradation value and the display luminance so that the visual luminance is proportional to the gradation value. Such correction of the relationship between the gradation value and the display luminance to deal with the visual response characteristic is described in, for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2.

By performing the above correction, it is possible to make the display luminance of each pixel expressed by the gradation value proportional to the visual luminance of the pixel. That is, the relationship between the gradation value L and the display luminance Bd is
Bd = k · L ^2.2 (k is a positive constant) (2)
Thus, the relationship between the gradation value L and the visual luminance Bv can be corrected to the following relationship.

Bv = k ′ · L (k ′ is a positive constant) (3)
The correction of the relationship between the gradation value L and the display luminance Bd as described above may be referred to as “γ (gamma) correction”.

JP 2001-337642 A (page 2-3, FIGS. 36 and 37) JP 2000-259118 A (page 6, FIG. 12)

  As described above, the averaging of the luminance of a plurality of pixels when performing pseudo gradation display is performed by the human eye having a non-linear visual response characteristic. Therefore, the visual luminance felt as a result of being averaged by the human eye does not match the visual luminance when the human sees the display luminance represented by the average value of the gradation value of each pixel.

  For example, the average display luminance of the display luminance corresponding to the gradation value “2” and the display luminance corresponding to the gradation value “4” is obtained when the display luminance corresponding to the gradation value “3” is actually viewed. Does not match the visual brightness. Next, the reason will be described.

In the display device, it is assumed that the relationship between the gradation value and the display luminance is corrected so as to satisfy the expression (3). At this time, the display luminance required to achieve visual luminance corresponding to the gradation values "2", "4", as a relative value, respectively ² 2.2 = 4.6 and ⁴ 2.2 = 21. 1. Accordingly, the display device displays the pixels having the gradation value “2” and the pixels having the gradation value “4” with the display luminances “4.6” and “21.1”, respectively.

At this time, the visual luminance recognized by human eyes as the average of the luminance of the two pixels is (4.6 + 21.1) /2=12.9 as the average value of the display luminance of the two pixels. The gradation value corresponding to the average display luminance is 12.9 ^{1 / 2.2} = 3.2, which is different from the gradation value “3” that should be originally expressed. As described above, the pseudo gradation display has a problem that the display luminance averaged by the eyes does not correspond to the averaged gradation value.

  Next, it will be generally described with reference to the drawing that the cause of the above problem is the nonlinearity of the visual response characteristic. FIG. 19 is a graph showing the correspondence between the gradation value L and the display brightness Bd. A curve 301 shows only the tendency of monotonic increase and nonlinearity corresponding to the gradation value L and the display luminance Bd, and has no strictness. Any integer from 0 to 8 can be set as the gradation value of the pixel. On the other hand, the resolution of the display device is 5 gradations, and it is assumed that only even gradation values (0, 2, 4, 6, 8) can be set as display luminance. The visual response characteristic is expressed by the following function when formula (1) is generalized.

Bd = f (Bv) (4)
At this time, the display brightness Bd is set to the gradation value L.
Bd = f (L) (5)
It can be seen that it should be corrected. However, the proportionality constant was omitted. The function f (x) is a monotonically increasing function because it corresponds to the visual response characteristic. When the correction is made so that the expression (5) is established, the gradation value and the visual luminance are proportional as in the expression (3).

  A pixel having an even gradation value L can be displayed by setting L to the display device as it is. However, a pixel having an odd gradation value L cannot be displayed on the display device as it is, and therefore pseudo gradation display is used.

When displaying a pixel P0 having an odd tone value L = 2n + 1 (n = 0, 1, 2, 3), 2 pixels having two even tone values 2n, 2 (n + 1) sandwiching 2n + 1. A pseudo display is performed using the pixels P1 and P2. That is, the gradation value 2n + 1 of P0 is reduced in resolution to two even gradation values 2n and 2 (n + 1) that can be displayed by the display device. The display brightness f (2n + 1) is realized by the average value of the display brightness f (2n) of P1 and the display brightness f (2 (n + 1)) of P2. At this time, the display luminances Br0, Br1, and Br2 of P0, P1, and P1 are respectively
Bd0 = f (2n + 1) (6)
Bd1 = f (2n) (7)
Bd2 = f (2 (n + 1)) (8)
It becomes. The average value of the display brightness of the pixels P1 and P2 is (7) and (8),
Bd ′ = (Bd1 + Bd2) / 2
= (F (2n) + f (2 (n + 1))) / 2 (9)
It becomes. Accordingly, it is felt to the human eye that the pixel is displayed with the display luminance Bd ′.

Considering from the viewpoint of the gradation value, the pixel displayed with the display brightness Bd ′ of the equation (9) has the gradation value L ′.
L ′ = f ⁻¹ (Bd ′) (10)
This is equivalent to displaying a certain pixel.

The difference Δl between the gradation value L originally intended to be displayed and the gradation value L ′ actually displayed is
Δl = L ′ − (2n + 1) (11)
It is. Then, next, it is examined whether L ′ matches L.

Since the display brightness Bd0 to be originally realized is as shown in the equation (6), the difference Δd between Bd0 and Bd ′ is obtained from (6) and (9).
Δd = Bd′−Bd0
= (F (2n) + f (2 (n + 1))) / 2-f (2n + 1) (11)
It is. It is clear from FIG. 19 that the condition for achieving Δl = 0 and the condition for achieving Δd = 0 are the same.

Therefore, if Δd = 0 in the equation (11),
(F (2n) + f (2 (n + 1))) / 2−f (2n + 1) = 0
(F (2n) + f (2 (n + 1)) = 2 · f (2n + 1)
f (2 (n + 1))-f (2n + 1) = f (2n + 1) -f (2n)
Thus, the increment of f (L) when n increases by 1 is constant.

Therefore, the condition of f (L) for Δd = 0 is the interval [2n, 2 (n + 1)],
f (L) = a · L + b (a and b are constants)
That is, the function f (L) is linear. However, as described above, since the visual acuity response characteristic is non-linear, f (L) is non-linear and Δd = 0 does not occur.

  Therefore, Δl = 0 does not occur, and the method using the average display luminance cannot accurately match the visual luminance with the initial gradation value. As described above, the method of performing the pseudo gradation display paying attention to the average value of the gradation values has a problem due to the non-linear visual response characteristics.

  In the error diffusion methods of Patent Documents 1 and 2, a target gradation value is converted into a gradation value with a low resolution, and an error generated at that time is compensated by error diffusion. This is equivalent to controlling so that the average value of the gradation values becomes the target gradation value. For this reason, as described above, the average display luminance when actually displayed does not exactly correspond to the visual luminance. In the above discussion, for the sake of simplicity, the description has been given using an example using two gradation values with reduced resolution. However, even if averaging is performed using a larger number of pixels, an error is diffused to a large number of surrounding pixels, or an error diffusion method in the time direction is used, it is essentially the same. As long as a plurality of gradation values are averaged to achieve the target gradation value, the above problem occurs.

  It should be noted that the above problem is not a problem of a method for realizing an average gradation value of a plurality of pixels such as an error diffusion method. That is, even in the methods of Patent Documents 1 and 2, the average value of the gradation values of a plurality of pixels can be made to exactly match the target gradation value by the error diffusion method. There is no problem in using the error diffusion method in terms of matching the average value with a certain value. The essence of the problem is that error diffusion is performed so that the average value of the gradation values becomes the target gradation value when the average value of a plurality of display luminances is taken. Since the average value of the gradation values is set as the target gradation value, and the non-linear visual response characteristic is not considered, the above-described problem occurs.

  Further, the above problem is not a problem of accuracy of correction (γ correction) of the relationship between the gradation value L and the display luminance Bd in the display device. In the display device, the display luminance Bd can be accurately corrected for the settable gradation value L. In this sense, there is no problem with correction in the display device. However, in the pseudo gradation display, gradation display higher than the resolution of the display device is performed. Therefore, in the pseudo gradation display, not only a gradation that can be set in the display device but also a gradation that cannot be set is displayed. The gradations that can be set are set as they are in the display device and displayed as usual. However, gradations that can be set on the display device cannot be displayed as they are. For this reason, gradations that cannot be set are displayed by using two settable gradation values and generating an intermediate gradation between them. For such gradation values that cannot be originally set in the display device, the display device cannot correct the nonlinear relationship between the gradation value and the display luminance to a linear relationship. For this reason, the above-described problem that the average of the gradation values does not correspond to the average of the display luminance occurs.

In the above, the problem resulting from the nonlinearity of the visual response characteristic of the pseudo gradation display of the pixel in the display device has been described. Similar problems can be generalized. That is, the same problem occurs when the numerical value N expressed with a certain resolution is expressed in a pseudo manner by the average value of a plurality of numerical values M1, M2,... Expressed with a lower resolution. . For example, the same applies to the case where a numerical value N represented by a certain number of bits n is rounded to a numerical value M that is the upper m bits of the numerical value N and the numerical value N is expressed in a pseudo manner by an average value such as M and M + 1. The problem occurs.
(Object of invention)
The present invention has been made in view of the above technical problems, and an error diffusion processing apparatus and an error diffusion processing method capable of accurately performing error diffusion processing in consideration of nonlinear characteristics for converting an input value. And an error diffusion processing program.

  The error diffusion processing apparatus according to the present invention converts a first numerical value representing a state of a first spatial or temporal position with a first resolution into a predetermined conversion including monotonic increase or monotonic decrease and nonlinear characteristics. Based on the characteristics, a conversion unit for converting to the first conversion value, an error accumulation unit for adding the error diffused to the first position and obtaining an accumulated error, and subtracting the accumulated error from the first conversion value And an error adding unit for obtaining a corrected conversion value, and a resolution for obtaining a second conversion value that is a numerical value obtained by converting the second numerical value expressed by the second resolution smaller than the first resolution based on the conversion characteristics. A conversion unit; an error detection unit that subtracts the corrected conversion value from the second conversion value to obtain a generation error; and an error diffusion unit that diffuses the generation error to positions around the first position. To do.

  The error diffusion processing method of the present invention converts a first numerical value representing a state of a first position in space or time with a first resolution into a predetermined transformation including monotonic increase or monotonic decrease and nonlinear characteristics. Based on the characteristics, a step of converting to a first conversion value, a step of adding an error diffused to the first position to obtain a cumulative error, a subtraction of the cumulative error from the first conversion value, and correction A step of obtaining a conversion value, a step of obtaining a second conversion value that is a numerical value obtained by converting a second numerical value expressed with a second resolution lower than the first resolution based on the conversion characteristics, Subtracting the corrected conversion value from the conversion value to obtain a generation error; and diffusing the generation error to positions around the first position.

  An error diffusion processing program of the present invention is a monotonically increasing first numerical value stored in a storage unit, the first numerical value representing a spatial or temporal first state at a first resolution for a computer having a storage unit. A means for converting to a first conversion value based on predetermined conversion characteristics including a characteristic or monotonic decrease and a non-linear characteristic; a means for adding an error diffused to the first position to obtain a cumulative error; Means for subtracting the accumulated error from the first converted value to obtain a corrected converted value, and a numerical value obtained by converting the second numerical value expressed by the second resolution smaller than the first resolution based on the conversion characteristics. A means for obtaining a second conversion value; a means for subtracting a corrected conversion value from the second conversion value to obtain a generation error; and a means for diffusing the generation error to positions around the first position. It is characterized by.

  The error diffusion processing device, the error diffusion processing method, and the error diffusion processing program of the present invention obtain an error using a conversion value obtained by nonlinearly converting an input value, and perform error diffusion using the error. Accordingly, an error with respect to the conversion result of the nonlinear conversion is diffused to surrounding positions. Therefore, there is an effect that error diffusion processing can be performed with high accuracy even when conversion including nonlinear conversion is performed on an input value.

(First embodiment)
Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a display processing apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a graph for explaining the operation of the first embodiment. FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a basic error diffusion processing apparatus that does not support nonlinear transformation.

A first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1, 2, and 3. In the first embodiment, in order to display each pixel using a display device having a smaller number of gradations than a desired number of gradations, the number of gradations is reduced, and a pseudo gradation is obtained using an error diffusion method. This is a display processing device that performs display. In image display processing, reducing the resolution by reducing the gradation is generally referred to as “color reduction”.
First, general processing contents of error diffusion will be described. When color reduction is performed when displaying pixels, an error occurs in display luminance due to a reduction in resolution. Therefore, by using an error diffusion method, the error is distributed to the peripheral pixels in order to compensate the error generated in each pixel by the peripheral pixels in the spatial direction or the time direction. “Error diffusion” means that errors are distributed to surrounding pixels in this way.

For example, consider a case in which an image of 9 gradations having gradation values 0 to 8 is displayed using a display device having only a resolution of 5 gradations with only even gradation values. At this time, when it is desired to display a certain pixel with an odd gradation value “3”, the pixel is displayed with a gradation value “2”, for example. Then, the surrounding pixels are displayed with a gradation value “4” larger than the gradation value 3. By such adjustment of the gradation value, a person who sees the display device appears to display a pixel having a gradation value “3” that is an average value of the gradation values.
The above case corresponds to the diffusion of error +1 to the surrounding pixels. When the pixels are arranged in a grid pattern, the error +1 may be distributed and diffused to a plurality of surrounding peripheral pixels at a predetermined ratio so that the sum is +1. The diffusion direction may be a spatial direction or a time direction. In the case of diffusion in the time direction, the gradation value may be increased or decreased at the subsequent display luminance update timing.
In order to obtain the effect of pseudo gradation display, it is necessary that the pixel size is sufficiently small, that is, the “resolution” of the display device is sufficiently high. This is because in the pseudo gradation processing, a plurality of pixels are used for displaying a single pixel, which reduces the resolution of the actually displayed image.

  Next, basic processing contents of the error diffusion method will be described. In general, an image has a different luminance for each pixel, and the luminance is expressed by a gradation value. Therefore, the error diffusion process is performed on the gradation value of each pixel for each pixel. The current pixel to be processed is referred to as a “target pixel”, and pixels around the target pixel are referred to as “peripheral pixels”. At the target pixel, all errors diffused from the surrounding pixels are subtracted from the tone value of the target pixel itself. Then, the gradation value of the target pixel from which the error is subtracted is reduced in color, and the error generated by the reduction in color is diffused to surrounding pixels.

  The basic error diffusion process will be described with reference to FIG. 3 includes an error accumulation unit 101, an error addition unit 102, a low resolution conversion unit 103, an error detection unit 104, and an error diffusion unit 105.

  The meaning of each signal is as follows. The input tone value 201 is a tone value before error diffusion processing of the target pixel, and is expressed with a predetermined resolution. The diffusion error 202 is an error diffused from surrounding pixels. The accumulated error 203 is a total diffusion error. The ideal gradation value 204 is a value obtained by subtracting the accumulated error 203 from the input gradation value 201, and is an ideal gradation value to be displayed on the target pixel. The output gradation value 205 is a gradation value that is actually displayed by this pixel, and is a gradation value obtained by reducing the ideal gradation value 204 in accordance with the resolution of the display device. The generation error 206 is a value generated by subtracting the ideal gradation value 204 from the output gradation value 205, and is an error generated in the target pixel. The distribution error 207 is an error obtained by dividing the generation error 206 at a predetermined ratio and is diffused from the target pixel to the surrounding pixels.

  In the display processing apparatus of FIG. 3, first, the ideal gradation value 204 is calculated, then color reduction processing is performed according to the resolution of the display apparatus, and the output gradation value 205 is obtained. Then, the generation error 206 generated during the color reduction process is diffused to surrounding pixels. In the peripheral pixels, the same processing as described above is performed when the pixels are processed as the target pixel. That is, the diffusion error 202 that has been diffused is totaled and then subtracted from the input tone value 201 to obtain the ideal tone value 204. The same applies to the subsequent processing.

  Next, the operation of each block of the display processing apparatus of FIG. 3 will be described. The error accumulating unit 101 sums up the diffusion errors 202 and calculates a cumulative error 203. The error adding unit 102 subtracts the accumulated error 203 from the input gradation value 201 to obtain an ideal gradation value 204.

  The low resolution conversion unit 103 performs a color reduction process on the ideal gradation value 204. That is, the low resolution gradation value, which is the gradation value with a reduced resolution, is associated with the ideal gradation value 204. The color reduction process here is a process of “rounding the gradation value” to a gradation value with a small resolution. In the case of a display device in which only five even gradation values (0, 2, 4, 6, 8) can be set as in the above display device, the odd ideal gradation value “3” is output. The tone value is rounded to “2”. The output gradation value 205 is output to the display device as the gradation value of the target pixel. In the display device, the display luminance of the pixel is set according to the set gradation value.

  The error detection unit 104 subtracts the ideal gradation value 204 from the output gradation value 205 to obtain a generation error 206. The generation error 206 is an error that occurs when the resolution of the ideal gradation value 204 is reduced to match the resolution of the display device because the gradation value of the ideal gradation value 204 cannot be displayed as it is on the display device. In the above example, since the ideal gradation value 204 is “3” and the output gradation value is “2”, the generation error 206 is −1. This means that the image is actually displayed with a gradation value smaller by −1 than the gradation value originally intended to be displayed. Since the generation error here is a difference between two gradation values, only an integer can be taken.

  The error diffusion unit 105 divides the generation error 206 into distribution errors 207 and diffuses them to surrounding pixels. The distribution error 207 is diffused in the spatial direction or the time direction. The meaning of error diffusion in the spatial direction and the time direction is as shown in FIG. As described above, the generation error 206 is divided by applying an appropriate coefficient, and distributed as a distribution error 207 to a plurality of peripheral pixels. The coefficients at this time are appropriately selected so that the sum of the distribution errors 207 is equal to the generation error 206. For example, when the generation error of −1 is distributed, the same errors, −0.5 and −0.5 may be distributed to the two peripheral errors. Alternatively, the three peripheral errors may be distributed with different distribution ratios, for example, -0.1, -0.6, -0.3, etc. may be distributed. Various distribution ratio patterns for diffusing errors to surrounding pixels in this way are generally known for both spatial direction error diffusion and temporal direction error diffusion (for example, Patent Documents). 2).

  In the peripheral pixels, the accumulated error 203 is obtained by summing up the diffusion errors 202 diffused from its own gradation value. Then, the accumulated error 203 is subtracted from the input gradation value to obtain an ideal gradation value 204. For this reason, a gradation value that is as small as the diffused error is generated as the ideal gradation value 204. Therefore, if the pixel of interest and the surrounding pixels are taken as a whole, it appears as if the value as the ideal output is displayed on average. For example, when the generation error is positive, it means that the target pixel is displayed with a gradation value larger than the ideal output. In this case, the gradation value is displayed smaller in the peripheral pixels as much as the gradation value becomes larger in the target pixel. Conversely, when the generation error is negative, it means that the target pixel is displayed with a gradation value smaller than the ideal output. In this case, gradation values are displayed smaller in the peripheral pixels by the generation error. In this way, pseudo gradation display using the error diffusion method can be realized.

  In the display processing apparatus of the present embodiment, the error diffusion process is not performed using the input gradation value as it is, but the error diffusion process is performed after the input gradation value is corrected based on a predetermined nonlinear characteristic. For this reason, error diffusion processing in which nonlinear characteristics are taken into consideration is possible.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a display processing apparatus according to this embodiment. The display processing apparatus of the present embodiment includes a non-linear conversion unit 106 and an inverse non-linear conversion unit 107 in addition to the display processing apparatus of FIG.

  The meaning of each signal is as follows. The input tone value 201 has the same meaning as the input tone value in the display processing apparatus of FIG. That is, the gradation value before error diffusion processing of the target pixel is expressed with a predetermined resolution.

  The conversion value 208 is a value obtained by performing non-linear conversion on the input tone value 201 based on visual response characteristics. The diffusion error 202 is an error diffused from surrounding pixels. The accumulated error 203 is the total of the diffusion error 202. The corrected conversion value 209 is a value obtained by subtracting the accumulated error 203 from the conversion value 208, and is an ideal display luminance to be displayed at the target pixel.

  The output display brightness 210 is the display brightness actually displayed by this pixel. The display brightness of the display device is controlled based on the gradation value. For this reason, the resolution, which is the number of gradation values that can be set, is equal to the number of stages when the display luminance changes in accordance with the gradation value. In that sense, the resolution of the display luminance is equal to the resolution of the display device. Therefore, the output display luminance 210 can be associated with the corrected conversion value 209 as the display luminance that can be output by the display device.

  The output gradation value 205 is a gradation value obtained as a result of performing inverse nonlinear transformation on the output display luminance 210 that has a relationship between nonlinear transformation and inverse transformation. That is, the inverse non-linear transformation here is a conversion in which the gradation value to be set in the display device is associated with the visual luminance so that the display luminance becomes the visual luminance. The output gradation value 205 is set in the display device. Then, the target pixel is displayed on the display device with the luminance indicated by the output gradation value 205.

  The generation error 206 is a value generated by subtracting the corrected conversion value 209 from the output display luminance 210, and is an error generated in the target pixel. The generation error 206 in the present embodiment is a difference between two display luminances, and is represented not by a gradation value scale but by a conversion value scale. Therefore, it does not always become an integer like the gradation value.

  The diffusion error 207 is an error obtained by dividing the generation error 206 by a predetermined ratio, and is an error diffused from the target pixel to the surrounding pixels.

  Each signal in FIG. 1 has the same name as that in FIG. Each signal has a numerical value expressed using one of two different scales. The two types of scales are a gradation value scale and a display brightness scale. The gradation value is an integer and increases or decreases in the same step. However, since the display luminance is obtained by nonlinearly converting the gradation value, the step when the display luminance changes varies depending on the gradation value. The input gradation value and the output gradation value are expressed by gradation value steps. Other signals, that is, converted values, accumulated errors, ideal display luminance, output display luminance, generation error, and diffusion error are expressed on a display luminance scale. In FIG. 1, a signal expressed by a gradation value is indicated by a broken line, and a signal expressed by a display luminance scale is indicated by a solid line.

  FIG. 2 is a graph for explaining the operation of the first embodiment. A curve 301 shows an example of a nonlinear characteristic based on the visual response characteristic. The curve 301 shows only the tendency of monotonic increase and non-linearity of the visual response characteristic, and has no strictness. The horizontal axis is the gradation value L, and the vertical axis is the display brightness Bd. The resolution of the input gradation value L is 9, and the value of L is an integer from 0 to 8. On the other hand, the resolution of the display device is 5 gradations. Therefore, in the display processing apparatus of this embodiment, the input gradation value L with resolution 9 is associated with the output gradation value L ′ with resolution 5. This association is “color reduction”. There are five levels of L ′: 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8. The display luminance of the target pixel represented by the input gradation value with the resolution 9 can be expressed in a pseudo manner using the target pixel and the peripheral pixels having the output gradation value with the resolution 5.

  The case where the nonlinear characteristic is expressed by a function f (L) and the input gradation value L is, for example, L = 2n + 1 (n = 0, 1, 2, 3) will be described as an example. The processing of this embodiment is the same when L = 2n. The input tone value L is converted to a conversion value f (L) by a non-linear conversion f. The accumulated error Δ1 (Δ1 <0 in the example of FIG. 2) is subtracted from f (L) to obtain a corrected conversion value f (L) −Δ1 = f (L) ′. The corrected conversion value f (L) ′ is an ideal display luminance that takes into account a correction amount for compensating for a generation error generated in the peripheral pixels. However, in order to reduce the resolution, the display luminance of resolution 5 is associated with the corrected conversion value f (L) ′.

  That is, f (L) ′ has f (2 (n + 1) closest to f (L) ′ among the converted values (f (2m), m = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4) with a resolution of 5. )) Is associated.

  By this association, a generation error Δ2 = f (2 (n + 1)) − f (L) ′ occurs. This generation error Δ2 is diffused to the peripheral pixels, and is used for calculation of the accumulated error in the error diffusion process of each peripheral pixel.

  As described above, in the display processing apparatus of the present embodiment, the error diffusion process is performed after the input gradation value L is converted into the converted value f (L). Therefore, the target display luminance to be realized in a pseudo manner using error diffusion is f (L). At this time, considering the gradation value scale, the target gradation value is L, and no error relating to the target gradation value occurs.

  Note that the physical dimension meaning “periphery” of “peripheral pixels” may be either length or time. The “target pixel” means a pixel that is currently processed. Therefore, the “periphery” can have two meanings, a spatial periphery or a temporal periphery. That is, the “peripheral position” means a pixel that exists in the vicinity of the pixel of interest at the same time, or a pixel at a time that is spatially the same position as that of the pixel of interest and that is before and after in time. However, since the error diffusion process is sequentially performed for each pixel, when the error is diffused, the error is diffused to the peripheral position later in time, and when the error is accumulated, the error from the previous peripheral position is accumulated.

  In error diffusion in the spatial direction, the visual luminance of the target pixel is realized in a pseudo manner by increasing or decreasing the display luminance of the peripheral pixels. In the error diffusion in the time direction, the visual luminance of the target pixel is realized in a pseudo manner by increasing or decreasing the display luminance of the subsequent target pixel. Both differ only in the dimension of the direction in which the error is diffused, such as position and time, and there is no essential difference in implementing this embodiment. Strictly speaking, error diffusion in the spatial direction is affected by the resolution (pixel fineness) of the display device, and error diffusion in the time direction is affected by the refresh rate. Set it to a value.

In addition, in the error diffusion in the spatial direction, control for changing the luminance of each pixel with time is not performed, but in the error diffusion in the time direction, the control is positively performed. It is considered that the human eye has a temporal response delay (visual luminance change delay) with respect to a change in display luminance. Therefore, the visual response characteristic suitable for error diffusion in the spatial direction and the visual response characteristic suitable for error diffusion in the time direction are not necessarily the same. Therefore, a visual response characteristic suitable for each may be obtained and used. Needless to say, spatial error diffusion and temporal error diffusion may be used in combination.
(Effects of the first embodiment)
As described above, the display processing apparatus according to the first embodiment performs error diffusion processing using the conversion value obtained by nonlinear conversion of the gradation value as the target value, so that the pseudo gradation expression of the display luminance as the conversion value is performed. Can be realized accurately. Therefore, it is possible to perform pseudo gradation display with higher accuracy than a display processing apparatus that performs error diffusion using a gradation value as a target value. Therefore, the display quality of the display device is improved.
(Second Embodiment)
The display device is not always placed in a dark place. The visibility (visibility) of the display content of the display device varies depending on the surrounding brightness (illuminance). FIG. 4 is a graph showing changes in display luminance when ambient illuminance changes. As shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B, a component due to reflection of ambient illumination or the like may be added to the display luminance. For this reason, even if the display brightness of the display device is the same, the visual brightness changes when the ambient illuminance changes.

  Some liquid crystal display devices control the luminance of pixels based on the luminance of ambient illuminance. Such a liquid crystal display device is described in, for example, JP-A-2004-272156. In this liquid crystal display device, the non-linear correction curve of display vision with respect to the gradation value is changed according to the surrounding illuminance and the luminance of the backlight. Specifically, when the ambient illuminance or the backlight luminance is high, the rate of change in display luminance with respect to the gradation value in the low luminance region is increased. Conversely, when the ambient illuminance or the brightness of the backlight is low, the change rate of the display brightness with respect to the gradation value of the low brightness area is lowered. This suppresses deterioration of image quality due to ambient illuminance.

In the second embodiment of the present invention, error diffusion processing is performed in consideration of the change in visibility due to the surrounding environment as described above.
FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a display processing apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a graph for explaining the operation of the second embodiment. In the display processing apparatus of FIG. 5, when performing nonlinear conversion and inverse nonlinear conversion based on visual response characteristics, the respective conversion characteristics are changed based on the detection result of the ambient illuminance detection unit 401 that detects ambient illuminance. In other words, the ambient illuminance detection unit 401 outputs the characteristic change signal 402 to the non-linear conversion unit 106 and the inverse non-linear conversion unit 107 to change the conversion characteristic. In this way, by changing the conversion characteristics in accordance with the surrounding environment, the conversion of the display luminance with respect to the gradation value is adapted to the surrounding environment.
As an example of a specific method of reflecting the ambient illuminance on the conversion characteristic, there is a method of changing the visual response characteristic curve based on the detection signal of the ambient illuminance as shown in FIG.

  In the second embodiment, the non-linear conversion characteristic when converting the gradation value into the conversion value and the inverse non-linear conversion characteristic when converting the output display luminance into the output gradation value are changed according to the ambient illuminance as described above. Is done. Since the display process itself is the same as that of the display processing apparatus of the first embodiment, the description of the operation is omitted.

In addition to the ambient illuminance, it goes without saying that the non-linear conversion characteristic and the inverse non-linear characteristic may be changed based on other environmental conditions that affect the visual response characteristic. In addition, the relationship between the gradation value and the visual luminance can be changed variously due to a phenomenon such as a deviation of the display luminance with respect to the gradation value due to manufacturing variations of the display device and a saturation of the display luminance in the high luminance region. In such a case, the non-linear conversion characteristics and the inverse non-linear conversion characteristics can be changed by using as a parameter the cause of the need to change the characteristics so that the pixels are displayed with the correct display brightness for the gradation value. That's fine.
(Effect of 2nd Embodiment)
As described above, the display processing apparatus according to the second embodiment changes the non-linear transformation and the inverse non-linear transformation characteristic based on the visual response characteristic according to the change in the surrounding environment. Therefore, it is possible to perform the pseudo gradation expression accurately according to the surrounding environment.
(Third embodiment)
In the third embodiment of the present invention, additional processing is performed in order to remove the unnaturalness of gradation display that occurs due to signal processing. FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a display processing apparatus according to the third embodiment of the present invention. In the display processing apparatus of the third embodiment, a change is made to obtain a natural gradation expression in consideration of the characteristics of the human eye in the spatial direction.

  In pseudo gradation display using error diffusion, a difference appears in the display state due to the difference between the gradation value of the target pixel and the gradation value that can be displayed by the display device. That is, when the gradation value of the target pixel is close to the gradation value that can be displayed by the display device, the diffused error is small, and the luminance of the peripheral pixels of the target pixel is likely to be the same value. . That is, there is a high possibility that an area with little change in luminance appears around the pixel of interest.

  On the other hand, when the difference between the gradation value of the pixel of interest and the gradation value that can be displayed on the display device is large, peripheral pixels with a large gradation value and small peripheral pixels are mixed around the pixel of interest. For example, when an attempt is made to display an intermediate luminance 2n + 1 between the displayable gradation value 2n (n is a natural number) and the next gradation value 2 (n + 1), There is a possibility that the same number of peripheral pixels with gradation value 2 (n + 1) are mixed. Therefore, when displaying an image with gradually changing gradation values, such as an image with gradation, areas where pixels with the same gradation value are continuous and areas where pixels with different gradation values are mixed alternately May be generated.

  Since the human eye reacts sensitively to changes in the spatial direction (such as contours), it is recognized that a line exists between an area with a large change in gradation value and an area with a small change in gradation value. The line is recognized as a boundary line that separates the regions. FIG. 9A shows an example of gradation display in which the boundary line is recognized in a pseudo manner. In the gradation display of FIG. 9A, there are an area A where the change in gradation value is large and an area B where the change in gradation value is small. The area B is recognized as one band-like area having uniform luminance. Therefore, it seems that a boundary line exists between the region A and the region B. The gradation display in FIG. 9A is an example of displaying an image in which gradation values change gradually, and no boundary line actually exists in the image.

  In the third embodiment, it is detected whether the gradation value before color reduction is close to the gradation value that can be displayed on the display device, and by adding more noise to the closer pixel, an area where the gradation change is small Reduce the occurrence of

  In the display processing apparatus of the third embodiment shown in FIG. 7, in order to detect the difference between the gradation value before color reduction and the gradation value that can be displayed on the display apparatus, the input gradation value 201 is nonlinearly converted and converted. A value 208 is obtained and the accumulated error 203 is subtracted. Here, the obtained corrected conversion value 209 is an ideal luminance as the display luminance before color reduction, and it is desirable to set the display device as it is when the resolution of the display device is sufficiently high.

  However, the above-described problem occurs when the pseudo-gradation display is performed using a low-resolution display device instead of setting the corrected conversion value 209 as it is in the display device. That is, when the correction conversion value 209 is close to the gradation value that can be set in the display device, since the error that is diffused is small, a plurality of pixels are displayed as regions having substantially the same luminance. Therefore, a pseudo boundary line appears between the surrounding area and a region having a large diffusion error.

  Therefore, a difference between the correction conversion value 209 and the gradation value that can be set in the display device is obtained, and noise is added to the correction conversion value 209 according to the difference.

  In order to obtain the difference between the correction conversion value 209 and the gradation value that can be set in the display device, the resolution conversion unit 501 lowers the resolution of the correction conversion value 209. Low resolution means that a low resolution gradation value 506 that can be set in the display device is associated.

  Then, by using the adder 502, the low resolution gradation value 506 is subtracted from the correction conversion value 209 before the resolution reduction, and a difference 507 is obtained. A difference 507 is a difference between the correction conversion value 204 and a gradation value that can be set in the display device. Note that the difference 507 is represented by a gradation value scale, but since the accumulated error 203 is subtracted, the difference 507 is not always an integer value.

  The difference 507 corresponds to the generation error in the first and second embodiments. However, in the third embodiment, the difference 507 is not regarded as a generation error. As will be described later, in the third embodiment, the noise based on the difference 507 is added to the corrected conversion value 209, and then the resolution is reduced to obtain the generation error. Since the low resolution conversion unit 501 and the low resolution conversion unit 103 perform the same processing, hardware and software routines may be shared.

  Then, the gain control unit 503 generates a gain control signal 508 according to the magnitude of the difference 507. The relationship between the difference 507 and the gain control signal 508 is as shown in the graph 509 shown in FIG. That is, when the difference 507 is 0, the gain is maximized. When the difference is maximum, that is, when the difference is +0.5 or −0.5, the gain is minimized.

  The random number generator 504 generates a random number 510. The random number 510 generates one random value for each error diffusion process, that is, for each target pixel, in order to add one noise to the target pixel. The average value when the random number 510 is averaged over time needs to be zero.

  The random number 510 is amplified by the amplifying unit 505 in accordance with the gain control signal 508 and becomes a noise signal 511. The noise signal 511 is added to the correction conversion value 209 by the adding unit 512 to become a correction conversion value 513. The subsequent processing is the same as in the first embodiment.

  FIG. 8 is a graph for explaining the operation of the third embodiment. Since the basic operation is the same as that of the display processing apparatus of the first embodiment, only the different operation will be described. Also in the display processing apparatus of the third embodiment, after the input gradation value L is converted into the converted value f (L) by the non-linear conversion f, the accumulated error Δ1 is subtracted, and the corrected converted value f (L) −Δ1 = f. (L) ′ is obtained. Then, a difference d from the converted value f (2 (n + 1)) with a resolution of 5, which is associated when f (L) 'is reduced in resolution, is obtained. It is assumed that d is obtained by a gradation value scale. d takes a positive or negative value, the minimum absolute value is 0, and the maximum value is 0.5.

  Next, the meaning of the difference d in the display process will be described. When the difference d is large, since the generation error to be diffused is large, the diffusion error distributed to the peripheral pixels also becomes large. Therefore, there is a high possibility that the display luminance of the target pixel and the peripheral pixels are different. On the other hand, when the difference d is small, since the generation error to be diffused is small, the diffusion error distributed to the peripheral pixels is also small. Therefore, there is a high possibility that the display luminance of the target pixel and the peripheral pixels are almost equal. In the extreme case, if the difference d is 0, the generation error to be diffused is 0 and the diffusion error is also 0. For this reason, the display luminances of the target pixel and the peripheral pixels are equal. Therefore, when the difference d is small, as described with reference to FIG. 9A, there is a high possibility that a pseudo boundary line appears between the region where the difference d is large. Thus, the magnitude of the possibility that a pseudo boundary line appears can be determined based on the magnitude of the difference d.

  Therefore, in the display processing apparatus according to the third embodiment, the noise Bn whose magnitude is controlled based on the difference d is added to the corrected conversion value f (L) ′. Then, error diffusion processing is performed with f (L) ′ + Bn as an ideal display luminance. The subsequent operation performed on the corrected conversion value f (L) ′ + Bn after adding the noise is the same as the processing performed on the corrected conversion value f (L) ′ in the first embodiment.

  As described above, in the display processing apparatus according to the present embodiment, the input gradation value L is converted into the converted value f (L), and then the accumulated error is subtracted to obtain the corrected converted value. Then, noise based on the correction conversion value and the difference when the resolution is reduced is added to the correction conversion value. This process substantially corresponds to moving the position of the pseudo boundary line appearing when the resolution is lowered at random for each pixel. Therefore, the boundary line is divided, and as a result, the boundary line can be prevented from being recognized by human eyes.

FIG. 9B shows an example of an image when noise is added to the display gradation value and displayed on the display device as described above to the image of FIG. 9A in which a pseudo boundary line appears. Shown in As described above, since a larger noise is added to the vicinity of the region where the boundary line appears, a clear boundary line can be prevented from appearing.
(Effect of the third embodiment)
In the display processing device of the third embodiment, noise generated based on the difference between the ideal display luminance and the luminance that can actually be displayed on the display device is added to the ideal display luminance. Therefore, an appropriate gradation change can be generated in a region where a gradation change is small when displayed and a pseudo boundary line appears. Therefore, it is possible to obtain an effect of making it difficult for the human eye to recognize the pseudo boundary line.

  Each of the above embodiments can be combined with other embodiments. For example, the second embodiment and the third embodiment may be combined to perform both correction based on external illuminance and addition of noise during error diffusion processing.

  The display processing of the first to third embodiments is performed only for the luminance of the pixel. In that sense, the processing of these embodiments is a shading process in a monochrome image such as a black and white image. However, the embodiment can also be applied to color image display processing. That is, when displaying a color image, for example, display processing as in the first to third embodiments may be performed for each luminance of the three primary colors RGB. At this time, the nonlinear characteristics used for each of R, G, and B may be set separately according to the visual luminance characteristics for each color.

By the way, in the description of each embodiment, the nonlinear characteristic of the visual response characteristic has been described as an example. However, the non-linear characteristic is not limited only to the visual non-linear response characteristic. The visual response is a response to human light (brightness). In addition, the present invention can also be applied to a physical quantity that expresses a phenomenon and a response (feeling) of the human body to the phenomenon that does not have a linear characteristic. Examples of such phenomena include the magnitude of sound and the magnitude of vibration felt by the human body. For example, by using a vibrator that can be controlled in three stages of large, medium, and small vibrations, it is possible to artificially realize vibration control that can be felt infinitely by humans. is there.
(Fourth embodiment)
In the first to third embodiments, the example of the display processing device that solves the problem caused by the non-linearity of the visual response characteristic is shown. However, the error diffusion method of the present invention does not use the human response itself to a certain stimulus or add any operation to the human response. Therefore, the error diffusion method of the present invention is generally applicable also when performing conversion based on nonlinear characteristics. That is, the error diffusion method of the present invention is an application in which an input signal is converted according to predetermined characteristics including a part of nonlinear characteristics, and has the same effect as a high resolution output signal. The present invention can be applied to a purpose obtained by using a combination of output signals.

  FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an error diffusion processing apparatus that is generalized from the present invention and includes only elements essential to the present invention.

  The input value 201 is a value indicating the state of a certain target position, and is expressed with a resolution N (N is a natural number). That is, the input value 201 is a numerical value indicating which stage of the state of the target position is in the N stages when the value representing the state is N stages at the maximum.

  The non-linear conversion unit 106 converts the input value 201 based on a predetermined non-linear characteristic and outputs a conversion value 208. Here, the nonlinear conversion characteristic is assumed to be monotonically increasing with respect to the input value 201 within the processing target range. Therefore, since the conversion value 208 is associated with the input value 201 on a one-to-one basis, the conversion value 208 also has a maximum of N levels. In this sense, the resolution of the converted value 208 is also N. However, the step size (the amount of change in the converted value 208 when the input value 201 changes by 1) differs depending on the value of the converted value 208. In the case of the non-linear conversion characteristic of FIG. 11, the step size increases as the conversion value 208 increases.

  The error accumulating unit 101 accumulates the diffusion error 202 from the peripheral position of the target position to obtain a cumulative error 203 that is a total. At this time, for the purpose of simplifying the processing or the like, the addition may be omitted for the diffusion error 202 which has a small value and has no substantial influence even if ignored. The range of the value of the diffusion error 202 that omits addition may be determined in advance. The error adding unit 102 subtracts the accumulated error 203 from the converted value 208 and outputs a corrected converted value 209.

  The low resolution conversion unit 103 associates the corrected conversion value 209 with the low resolution conversion value 210 having the resolution M (M is a natural number of M <N). The low resolution conversion value 210 with the resolution M is a conversion value obtained by converting the input value with the resolution M according to the non-linear characteristic. As described above, in the nonlinear conversion of this embodiment, the input value and the output value correspond one-to-one, so the resolution does not change before and after the conversion.

  The error detection unit 104 subtracts the corrected conversion value 209 from the low resolution conversion value 210 to obtain a generation error 206. Since the generation error 206 in this embodiment is a difference between two conversion values, the generation error 206 is expressed not by a gradation value scale but by a conversion value scale.

  The error diffusion unit 105 diffuses the generation error 206 to a plurality of peripheral positions. Diffusion means that the generation error 206 is divided at a predetermined ratio and distributed to the peripheral positions as the division error 207. When the peripheral position becomes the position to be processed, that is, the target position, the division error 207 diffused from other peripheral positions is received as the diffusion error 202. Then, the diffusion errors 202 are totaled to obtain an accumulated error 203, and error diffusion processing is performed.

  FIG. 11 is a graph for explaining the operation of the fourth embodiment. The basic processing content is the same as in the first embodiment. A curve 301 shows nonlinear characteristics. The horizontal axis is an input value to be converted, and the vertical axis is a converted value that is a value after conversion of the input value. The resolution of the input value X is 9, and the value of X is an integer from 0 to 8. Note that the curve 301 shows only the monotonic increasing property and non-linearity tendency of the visual response characteristics, and has no strictness.

  When the nonlinear characteristic is expressed by a function f (X), the input value X is converted into a converted value f (X) by the nonlinear conversion f. A cumulative error Δ1 (Δ1> 0 in the example of FIG. 11) is subtracted from f (X) to obtain a corrected conversion value f (X) −Δ1 = f (X) ′. The correction conversion value f (X) ′ is an ideal conversion value in which a correction amount for compensating for a generation error occurring at the surrounding position is added. However, in order to reduce the resolution, the corrected conversion value f (X) ′ is associated with the conversion value of resolution 5. That is, f (X) ′ has f (2n) closest to f (X) ′ among the converted values (f (2m), m = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4) with a resolution of 5. It is associated.

  Due to this association, a generation error Δ2 = f (2n) −f (X) ′ occurs. This generation error Δ2 is diffused to the peripheral positions, and is used for calculation of the accumulated error in the error diffusion processing of each peripheral position.

  As described above, in the error diffusion processing device of this embodiment, the input value X is nonlinearly converted into the converted value f (X), and then error diffusion processing is performed. Therefore, the target conversion value to be realized in a pseudo manner using error diffusion is f (X). As described above, since the effect of nonlinear conversion is added to the error diffusion processing, accurate processing is possible. When the pseudo gradation expression is performed, considering the gradation value scale, the target gradation value is substantially X ′, and an error relating to the target gradation value does not occur.

  The physical dimension possessed by the concept of “position” in “attention position” and the concept of “periphery” in “peripheral pixels” may be either length or time. The attention position means a “spatial position” or a “temporal position” that is a current processing target. Therefore, the “periphery” can also have two meanings, a spatial periphery or a temporal periphery. That is, the “peripheral position” means a point in the vicinity of the target position at the same time, or a position that is spatially the same position as the target position and that is before and after in time. However, since the error diffusion process is sequentially performed for each position, when the error is diffused, the error is diffused to the peripheral position later in time, and when the error is accumulated, the error from the previous peripheral position is accumulated.

  An inverse non-linear conversion unit that performs non-linear conversion inverse conversion (inverse non-linear conversion) on the conversion value may be added to the configuration of the present embodiment in FIG. By adding an inverse non-linear conversion unit, a low-resolution conversion value Y with a resolution of 5 can be associated with an input value X with a resolution of 9. The value of Y has five levels of 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8. At this time, the state of the target position indicated by the input value of resolution 9 can be expressed in a pseudo manner using the target position and peripheral pixels having an output value of resolution 5.

  In the first to fourth embodiments, the description has been given using the nonlinear characteristic that is convex downward, but the present invention is also applicable to the nonlinear characteristic that is convex upward (FIG. 12A). Further, it is considered that human response characteristics to physical stimuli such as light and sound basically have a monotonous increase tendency, but the present invention can also be applied to non-linear characteristics having a monotone decrease tendency (FIG. 12). (B), (c)). Further, it is not necessary that the response is zero when the input is zero, such as a human response characteristic, that is, a non-linear characteristic that passes through the origin, and may be a characteristic having a predetermined offset (FIG. 13). ).

If the non-linear characteristic includes a monotonically increasing section and a monotonically decreasing section, the present invention may be applied individually to each. FIG. 14 shows an example of non-linear characteristics including all of a monotonically increasing section and a monotonically decreasing section, and a downward convex section and an upward convex section. The non-linear characteristics are as follows: 1) a monotonically increasing section A, 2) a monotonically decreasing upward convex section B, 3) a monotonically decreasing downward convex section C, 4) monotonically increasing downward convex section Section D has four types of sections. Each section may include a linear section in part. When the non-linear characteristic is a non-linear characteristic as shown in FIG. 14, the three sections of section A, section B and section C, and section D depend on the value of the corrected conversion value 209 that is a conversion value to which the cumulative error 203 is added. The error diffusion method of the present invention may be applied to each of them. At that time, the section is divided and processed by the value of the corrected conversion value 209, which is the conversion value to which the accumulated error 203 is added. The reason why it is necessary to perform processing for each monotonous section is that, in order to perform pseudo gradation expression, both gradation values larger and smaller than the gradation value to be expressed are required. .
(Effect of the fourth embodiment)
As described above, in the fourth embodiment, an error is obtained by using a converted value after nonlinear conversion of an input value, and error diffusion is performed. For this reason, errors due to nonlinearity of the conversion characteristics are reduced, and there is an effect that accurate pseudo diffusion processing can be performed.
(Fifth embodiment)
In the error diffusion of the fourth embodiment, all processing may be performed using hardware, but can also be performed by program processing using an arithmetic device. FIG. 15 is a block diagram of an error diffusion processing apparatus according to the fifth embodiment.

  This error diffusion processing device includes a processing unit 601 realized by a central processing unit or the like, a non-linear characteristic information table, a processing program, and a storage unit 602 that stores various types of information necessary for treatment. The nonlinear characteristic information table is an information table in which values to be converted are associated with values after nonlinear conversion.

  FIG. 16 is a flowchart of a processing program processed by the error diffusion processing apparatus of FIG. First, a generation error, a cumulative error, and a processing position number for identifying a processing position are initialized (step S1). Next, the input value X is nonlinearly converted f to obtain a converted value f (X) (step S2). Further, all the diffusion errors generated and diffused at other positions are added to obtain a cumulative error Δ1 (step S3). Then, the accumulated error Δ1 is subtracted from the converted value f (X) to obtain a corrected converted value f (X) ′ (step S4). Note that the processing of S2 and S3 may be processing in the reverse order or parallel processing.

  Next, the resolution of the corrected conversion value f (X) 'is reduced (step S5). That is, the correction conversion value f (X) ′ is associated with the conversion value f (n) closest to f (X) ′ among the low-resolution conversion values.

  Then, f (X) ′ is subtracted from f (n) to obtain a generation error Δ2 (step S6). Further, the generation error Δ2 is divided into distribution errors and diffused to the peripheral positions (step S7). As a specific example of the diffusion process, there is a method in which a storage area for a diffusion error is provided for each processing position in the storage unit 502, and an error to be diffused is stored in that area. Alternatively, the error to be diffused may be added to the value at that time in the storage area and written back. In this case, the cumulative error calculation step S3 is unnecessary, and the storage area can be reduced.

Finally, the processing position number is confirmed, and it is confirmed whether or not the processing has been completed for all positions (step S8). If completed, the error diffusion processing is terminated. When the processing for all positions is not completed, the processing from steps S2 to S7 is repeated.
(Effect of 5th Embodiment)
As described above, the error diffusion processing of the present invention can be performed by the program processing using the arithmetic device. For this reason, the arithmetic device can be shared with other processes, so that hardware can be reduced. In addition, it is possible to flexibly cope with design changes such as correction of an error diffusion algorithm.

  Each embodiment of the present invention can be combined as necessary.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the display processing apparatus of the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a graph for demonstrating operation | movement of the display processing apparatus of the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram of the basic composition of an error diffusion processing device. It is a graph which shows the relationship between a gradation value and display brightness when ambient illuminance changes. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the display processing apparatus of the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a graph for demonstrating operation | movement of the display processing apparatus of the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the display processing apparatus of the 3rd Embodiment of this invention. It is a graph for demonstrating operation | movement of the display processing apparatus of the 3rd Embodiment of this invention. It is an example of the display of an image when noise is not added and when noise is added. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the display processing apparatus of the 4th Embodiment of this invention. It is a graph for demonstrating operation | movement of the display processing apparatus of the 4th Embodiment of this invention. It is a graph which shows an example of a nonlinear characteristic. It is a graph which shows an example of a nonlinear characteristic. It is a graph which shows an example of a nonlinear characteristic. It is a block diagram which shows the 5th Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement of the 5th Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the concept of the error diffusion of a space direction, and the error diffusion of a time direction. It is a graph which shows an example of a visual response characteristic. It is a graph explaining the problem of the related error diffusion processing method.

Explanation of symbols

102, 104 Adder 201 Input gradation value 202 Diffusion error 203 Cumulative error 204 Ideal gradation value 205 Output gradation value 206 Generation error 207 Distribution error 208 Conversion value 209 Correction conversion value 210 Output display brightness 301 Curve 402 Characteristic change signal 502 512 Adder 505 Amplifier 506 Low-resolution gradation value 507 Difference 508 Gain control signal 509 Graph 510 Random number 511 Noise signal 513 Correction conversion value

Claims (16)

The first numerical value expressing the state of the first position in space or time with the first resolution is converted into the first conversion based on a predetermined conversion characteristic including monotonic increase or monotonic decrease and nonlinear characteristic. A conversion unit for converting to a value;
An error accumulating unit that adds the error diffused to the first position and obtains an accumulated error;
An error adding unit that subtracts the accumulated error from the first converted value to obtain a corrected converted value;
A resolution conversion unit that obtains a second conversion value that is a numerical value obtained by converting a second numerical value expressed by a second resolution smaller than the first resolution based on the conversion characteristics;
An error detector that subtracts the corrected conversion value from the second conversion value to obtain a generation error;
An error diffusion processing apparatus comprising: an error diffusion unit that diffuses the generation error to positions around the first position. The error diffusion processing device according to claim 1, further comprising: an inverse conversion unit configured to convert the second conversion value based on an inverse conversion characteristic having a relationship of inverse conversion with the conversion. 3. The error diffusion according to claim 1, wherein the resolution conversion unit associates a conversion value closest to the first conversion value among the second conversion values with the first conversion value. 4. Processing equipment. The error diffusion processing device according to claim 1, further comprising a characteristic changing unit that outputs a characteristic change signal for changing the conversion characteristic based on predetermined information. A noise generator that generates noise based on the first numerical value;
The error diffusion processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a noise addition unit that adds the noise to the correction conversion value. 6. The error diffusion according to claim 5, wherein the noise generation unit generates the noise based on a resolution reduction error that occurs when the second conversion value is obtained based on the correction conversion value. Processing equipment. 7. The error according to claim 6, wherein the noise generation unit generates the maximum noise when the resolution reduction error is minimum, and generates the minimum noise when the resolution reduction error is maximum. Diffusion processing device. 8. The error diffusion processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the peripheral position is a spatial peripheral position that is within a predetermined distance from the place other than the place indicated by the first position. The error diffusion processing device according to claim 1, wherein the peripheral position is a temporal peripheral position that is within a predetermined time from the time indicated by the first position. The peripheral position is a spatial peripheral position within a predetermined distance from the place other than the place indicated by the first position, and within a predetermined time from the time after the time indicated by the first position. Including the temporal surrounding location in
The error diffusion processing device according to claim 1, wherein the error diffusion unit diffuses the generation error to the spatial peripheral position and the temporal peripheral position. The first position is a position of a target pixel which is a pixel to be processed,
The state is a luminance when the target pixel is displayed by a display device,
The first numerical value is a gradation value indicating the luminance of the target pixel,
The conversion characteristic is a characteristic set based on a visual response characteristic indicating a relationship between a display luminance of the display device and a visual luminance when a human perceives the display luminance. 10. The error diffusion processing device according to 10. An error diffusion processing device according to claim 2,
The pseudo gradation expression apparatus characterized by using the output value of the inverse conversion unit to artificially express the state of the first position expressed with the first resolution with the second resolution. An error diffusion processing device according to claim 2,
The first position is a position of a target pixel;
The state is the luminance when the pixel is displayed by the display device,
The first numerical value is a gradation value indicating the luminance of the target pixel,
The conversion characteristic is a characteristic set based on a visual response characteristic indicating a relationship between an output luminance of the display device and a visual luminance when a human perceives the output luminance,
A pseudo gradation display device, wherein the luminance of the pixel of interest expressed with the first resolution is displayed in a pseudo manner with the second resolution using the output value of the inverse transform unit. The first numerical value expressing the state of the first position in space or time with the first resolution is converted into the first conversion based on a predetermined conversion characteristic including monotonic increase or monotonic decrease and nonlinear characteristic. Converting to a value;
Adding an error diffused to the first position to obtain a cumulative error;
Subtracting the cumulative error from the first converted value to obtain a corrected converted value;
Obtaining a second conversion value, which is a numerical value obtained by converting a second numerical value expressed with a second resolution lower than the first resolution based on the conversion characteristics;
Subtracting the corrected conversion value from the second conversion value to obtain a generation error;
An error diffusion processing method comprising a step of diffusing the generation error to the peripheral positions of the first position. A computer having a storage unit,
Predetermined conversion characteristics including a monotonically increasing property or a monotonically decreasing property and a non-linear property stored in the storage unit, the first numerical value expressing the state of the first position in space or time with a first resolution. Means for converting to a first converted value based on:
Means for adding an error diffused to the first position to obtain a cumulative error;
Means for subtracting the cumulative error from the first converted value to obtain a corrected converted value;
Means for obtaining a second conversion value which is a numerical value obtained by converting a second numerical value expressed with a second resolution lower than the first resolution based on the conversion characteristics;
Means for subtracting the corrected conversion value from the second conversion value to obtain a generation error;
An error diffusion processing program for causing the generation error to function as means for diffusing the generation error to the peripheral positions of the first position.   A computer-readable storage medium storing the error diffusion processing program according to claim 15.

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