KR20040016053A - Mobile terminal's display quality control apparatus and method using camera sensor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: An apparatus and a method for controlling the quality of a portable terminal using a camera sensor are provided to maximize power of discrimination of a display unit by securing the equal quality corresponding to an external brightness change. CONSTITUTION: A camera sensor(200) converts an external image into electronic signals. A digital signal processor(300) controls the camera sensor, and receives the original video data to calculate an AE(Automatic Exposure) value and an AWB(Automatic White Balance) value. A mapping unit receives the AE value and the AWB value for corresponding the AE value and the AWB value to brightness of a picture and a color reproducibility value for outputting appropriate brightness of the picture and the color reproducibility value. A video/image processor(400) outputs a picture brightness control signal and a color reproducibility value control signal. A display controller/driver(500) controls the strength of a light source of a display and controls the color reproducibility of a displayed picture.

Description

Mobile device quality control device and method using camera sensor {MOBILE TERMINAL'S DISPLAY QUALITY CONTROL APPARATUS AND METHOD USING CAMERA SENSOR}

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a portable terminal, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for controlling a mobile terminal image quality using a camera sensor which is adapted to optimize in real time an image quality of a display screen using a camera sensor of a portable terminal including a camera function.

Currently, portable terminals have added various functions as communication speed is improved and internal memory and processing speed are increased. Among them, the enlargement of the display device and the improvement of the display level make it possible to view not only pictures but also videos.

Thanks to the rapid development and widespread use of such portable terminals, functions that were previously considered unnecessary are gradually taking place. For example, the camera function, which has not been utilized in the first appearance, is being widely used in the area of use of existing digital cameras as the resolution is improved.

According to the display function of the mobile terminal, the expansion of the internal processing capacity and the expansion of memory, the addition of the camera sensor-related module to the existing functions of the mobile terminal makes it possible to use the mobile phone as a digital camera. Or mobile phones with built-in cameras are already commercially available. In addition, the current address of the mobile terminal is that the real-time reception and playback of the video can be performed by a new communication method such as CDMA2000 or IMT200.

The portable terminal may store a picture and a video through an internal / external camera, and a brief description will be made of a screen display device using a camera to enable the portable terminal.

1 illustrates a structure of a display device using a general camera sensor, and as shown, a lens 10, a camera sensor 20, a digital signal processor (DSP) 30, a video / image processor 40, and a display controller. / Driver 50, and LCD display (60).

The camera sensor 20 is used to store a picture and a video, and means a CMOS sensor or a CCD sensor that converts an image into an electronic signal. The camera sensor 20 converts an external image into analog image data, determines a physical magnification through the lens 10 outside the sensor 20, and prevents contamination from the outside.

The original video data from the camera sensor 20 is delivered to the digital signal processor 30, which converts it into appropriate digital video data and sends it to the video / image controller 40. To pass. The digital signal processor 30 performs auto exposure (AE) and auto white balance (AWB) according to a change in the external environment to calculate an exposure value and a color reference value, and together with the digital video data, the video / processor To the image processor 40.

The video / image processor 40 receiving the above data converts the digital image data into corresponding data for the display controller and transfers the digital image data to the display controller / driver 50 together with the control signal.

The display controller / driver 50 is operated by the video / image processor 40 to display the corresponding image data on the connected LCD display 60.

The display unit of the portable terminal is composed of an LCD panel such as an STN, a TFT, an organic EL, and the like, and a backlight or side light located below the LCD panel. Direct current supply and proper data output control to these are performed by the display controller / driver 50.

However, in the case of a mobile terminal, there are many screen brightness adjustments using a backlight. In this manner, the backlight is often fixed because the backlight is adjusted to a predetermined brightness.

Therefore, when the mobile terminal stores the pictures and videos using the camera function, the mobile terminal stores the pictures and videos according to the appropriate screen brightness and color fidelity, and the values are maintained as they are. Therefore, when playing back or playing back pictures and videos created elsewhere, the screen brightness and color reproduction are maintained at the time of storage while being constantly adjusted according to a predetermined screen brightness and color reproduction value manually set by the user. And output. However, since the screen brightness of the mobile terminal is often fixed and used, the brightness depends on the user's setting regardless of the stored image, and color reproducibility and color adjustment are performed internally, and thus the user cannot adjust it.

In other words, in the reproduction of images and images using the mobile terminal, the screen brightness is manually set by the user, and color reproduction cannot be adjusted by the user, so the user setting for the screen is limited to the manual setting of the brightness.

In the playback of images and images of such a mobile terminal, a screen that is easily seen indoors is almost invisible under direct sunlight. In response to such a change in environment, the user may manually adjust the brightness or use a hand or other shield to display the surrounding light. Restricted and inconvenient response, such as blocking the.

As described above, when displaying an image and an image using a mobile terminal, the color of the screen is not adjusted and the brightness of the screen is fixed by the user's manual setting. There was a problem that occurs, the means for responding to environmental changes is limited to manual brightness control and temporary light blocking, there was a problem that the display environment is substantially limited.

In view of the above problems, the present invention provides an apparatus and method for controlling a mobile terminal image quality using a camera sensor that automatically uses a camera unit as an external environmental sensor to automatically optimize screen brightness and color reproducibility according to an environment change. There is a purpose.

1 is a schematic block diagram of a screen display device using a camera sensor.

2 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

*** Explanation of symbols for main parts of drawing ***

100: lens 200: sensor

300: digital signal processor 400: video / image processor

500: display controller / driver

The present invention for achieving the above object is an apparatus for controlling the image quality of a mobile terminal having a camera function, the camera sensor for converting an external image into an electronic signal; A digital signal processor controlling the camera sensor and receiving original video data therefrom to calculate an automatic exposure (AE) value and an automatic color adjustment (AWB) value; A mapping unit which receives the automatic exposure value and the automatic color adjustment value from the digital signal processor and maps the automatic exposure value and the automatic color adjustment value to the screen brightness and the color reproduction value in order to output the appropriate screen brightness and color reproduction value; ; A video / image processor for outputting a screen brightness control signal and a color reproducibility control signal through screen brightness and color reproducibility values obtained through the mapping unit; And a display controller / driver for receiving the screen brightness control signal and the color reproducibility control signal to adjust the intensity of the light source of the display and to control the color reproducibility of the displayed screen.

The mapping unit may be embedded in the digital signal processor or the video / image processor, and the video / image processor may reflect the reference screen brightness and the reference color reproducibility according to a user's setting.

As described above, the present invention is applied to a portable terminal having a built-in camera function, which significantly increases the quality of a displayed screen by properly using a camera function configuration already provided. This will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring again to the configuration of FIG. 1, the camera sensor 20, the digital signal processor 30, the video / image processor 40, and the display controller / driver 50 are provided, which includes a camera function. A component that already exists in a mobile terminal. Of course, the distinguished functional blocks may be integrated or separated.

By appropriately improving the functional blocks already provided as described above, the present invention can be performed without additional hardware, for which reference will be made to embodiments of the present invention.

2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention in which large functional blocks are similar to conventional camera functional building blocks.

First, the lens 100 for optical focusing; A camera sensor 200 for converting an external image through the lens 100 into an electronic signal; A digital signal processor controlling the camera sensor and receiving original video data therefrom to calculate an automatic exposure (AE) value and an automatic color adjustment (AWB) value; A video / output which receives an automatic exposure value and an automatic color adjustment value from the digital signal processor to obtain an appropriate screen brightness and color reproducibility value through an internal mapping unit, and thereby outputs a screen brightness control signal and a color reproducibility control signal. An image processor; And a display controller / driver for receiving the screen brightness control signal and the color reproducibility control signal to adjust the intensity of the light source of the display and to control the color reproducibility of the displayed screen.

It will be described in more detail the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention as described above.

The camera sensor 20 converts an external image into an electronic signal. In order to optimally convert the external image, the camera sensor 20 receives a signal for adjusting exposure and color from the digital signal processor 30 connected thereto. The automatic exposure (AE) value and the automatic color adjustment (AWB) value calculated from the digital signal processor 30 are not newly added in the present invention, but are values that have been used before, and are the quality of the image displayed through the camera. Are values for optimizing.

In the present invention, not only when the external image is obtained through the camera, but also when the internal image is reproduced and the screen is displayed without using the camera, there is a core of using the existing camera function blocks. An automatic exposure (AE) / automatic color adjustment (AWB) mapping unit is further configured in the video / image processor 400. The AE / AWB mapping unit calculates in advance the AE / AWB values obtained from the digital signal processor 300 and the optimal screen brightness and color reproducibility corresponding to the AE / AWB values. Thus, when AE / AWB values are obtained from the digital signal processor 300, the video / image processor 400 maps the obtained AE / AWB values to the correspondence table using the correspondence table, thereby corresponding screen brightness. The color reproducibility control signal and the color reproducibility control signal are output through this. The mapping unit formed of the corresponding table exists in the video / image processor 400 in the present embodiment, but may exist in the digital signal processor 300 in other embodiments. In addition, the mapping unit may be configured as a program.

The screen brightness control signal and the color reproducibility control signal are input to the display controller / driver 500 that is responsible for driving the display unit (LCD panel) to optimize the brightness and the screen color of the display unit.

The display unit controller / driver 500 includes a control unit for controlling a light source (backlight, side light, etc.) of the display unit, a display unit controller, or a driver, each of the screen brightness control signal and the color reproduction control signal. Controlled by

In addition, since the change of the external environment is not changed at high speed, the brightness and the color reproducibility of the screen can be controlled in real time by the structure, and the image quality can be maintained at an optimal state at all times.

The video / image processor 400 receives a reference display brightness and a reference color reproducibility value by a user, and adjusts the screen brightness and color reproducibility values obtained through the mapping unit based on the reference display. Controllability is also acceptable.

As described above, by using a camera function that already exists, a function of optimizing the screen display quality in real time according to the surrounding environment is added, so that the user can use the optimized screen regardless of the external brightness, thereby increasing the screen identification. This reduces the need for manual screen adjustment.

As described above, the present invention utilizes the structure of the camera function that is already configured, and maps the auto exposure (AE) and auto color adjustment (AWB) values to the appropriate display brightness and color reproduction, thereby responding to the external brightness change in real time. The uniform image quality can be guaranteed to maximize the discriminating power of the display unit, and the user can always enjoy the video and the image with the optimum image quality.

Claims (5)

In the device for controlling the image quality of a mobile terminal having a camera function, A camera sensor for converting an external image into an electronic signal; A digital signal processor controlling the camera sensor and receiving original video data therefrom to calculate an automatic exposure (AE) value and an automatic color adjustment (AWB) value; A mapping unit which receives the auto exposure value and the auto color adjustment value from the digital signal processor and maps the auto exposure value and the auto color adjustment values to the screen brightness and the color reproducibility values so as to output appropriate screen brightness and color reproducibility values. Wow; A video / image processor for outputting a screen brightness control signal and a color reproducibility control signal through screen brightness and color reproducibility values obtained through the mapping unit; Receiving the screen brightness control signal and the color reproducibility control signal to adjust the intensity of the light source of the display unit and the display unit controller / driver for controlling the color reproduction of the displayed screen, characterized in that the portable terminal using a camera sensor controller. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the mapping unit is embedded in the digital signal processor or the video / image processor. The portable terminal using a camera sensor of claim 1, wherein the video / image processor reflects the reference screen brightness and the reference color reproducibility set by a user to the screen brightness control signal and the color reproducibility control signal. Image quality control device. In the method for controlling the image quality of a mobile terminal having a camera function, Receiving original video data from a camera sensor; Calculating an automatic exposure (AE) value and an automatic color adjustment (AWB) value from the received original video data; Mapping the calculated automatic exposure (AE) value and automatic color adjustment (AWB) value to appropriate screen brightness and color reproducibility values through a preset correspondence table; And generating a screen brightness control signal for controlling light source brightness of the display unit and a color reproducibility control signal for controlling a controller or a driver of the display unit from the mapped screen brightness and color reproducibility values. Image quality control method using a mobile terminal. The method of claim 4, wherein the image quality control is continuous in real time.