KR20090071344A - Brightness measuring device and metod of display panel and display device - Google Patents

Abstract

An apparatus for measuring the luminance of a display panel in which a plurality of indicating devices is arranged as two dimensional lattice type and a method thereof and a display device are provided to obtain the luminance distribution data of the display panel. A photographing unit(3) outputs photographing signal according to the optical image of a display panel. An image data generating unit(5) produces image data according to the optical image by using image signal outputted from the imaging device. A cumulating unit(6) accumulates the number of the indicating device lighting among the indicating device comprising the display panel and the luminance value within the reading area determined according to the resolution of the imaging device.

Description

A luminance measuring device, a luminance measuring method, and a display device of a display panel {BRIGHTNESS MEASURING DEVICE AND METOD OF DISPLAY PANEL AND DISPLAY DEVICE}

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention provides a luminance measuring device for measuring the luminance of a display panel such as an organic electroluminescence (EL) display panel, a liquid crystal display panel, a surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), a luminance measuring method, and a display device having a display panel. It is about.

Conventionally, the display apparatus provided with the organic electroluminescence display panel, the liquid crystal display panel, and the display panel called SED is known. In this type of display device, since a display unevenness easily occurs due to luminance unevenness or the like on the display panel, a technique for detecting a non-uniformity related to the display device has been known.

For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-145228 (Patent Document 1) discloses a nonuniform defect detection method. In this method, the nonuniformity that is widened in the plane shape is detected by emphasizing the nonuniformity component using a filter that emphasizes the nonuniformity component on the basis of the luminance value of the luminance comparison pixel arranged around the target pixel.

As for the display elements which comprise display panels, such as an organic electroluminescent display panel, a brightness nonuniformity arises as a whole, for the reason that each luminous efficiency fluctuates.

However, it is difficult to manufacture a display panel by suppressing the luminance nonuniformity between display elements.

In this regard, by adjusting the level of the display signal in accordance with the luminance level of each display element, it is possible to realize uniform luminance in the display panel. For that purpose, data of the luminance distribution showing how the luminance of the display element is distributed on the display panel is required. Since the luminance distribution data cannot be obtained from the display element itself, it is necessary to emit light of each display element to investigate the light emission state of the display panel.

As one method, there is a method of photographing a display panel with a camera after emitting the display element. According to this method, luminance distribution data can be obtained by obtaining data of each pixel from an image photographed with a camera.

However, in this method, it is necessary to make clear which light emitting display element corresponds to the picked-up image of the camera. For this purpose, the position of each display element of the display panel and the position of each pixel of the camera must coincide. Therefore, alignment between each display element and each pixel of the camera must be performed with high accuracy. In order to efficiently produce a display panel, a technique for easily obtaining luminance distribution data without performing this alignment with high precision is required.

Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and a luminance measuring device, a luminance measuring method, and a display which allow the luminance distribution data of a display panel to be easily obtained without highly precisely aligning each display element and each pixel. It is an object to provide a display device provided with a panel.

MEANS TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM In order to solve the said subject, this invention is a brightness measuring apparatus which measures the brightness | luminance of the display panel in which the some display element was arrange | positioned in the two-dimensional grid | lattice form, Comprising: The imaging means which outputs the imaging signal according to the optical image of a display panel; The same timing between the image data generating means for generating the image data according to the optical image using the image pickup signal output from the image pickup means and the display elements constituting the display panel using the image data generated by the image data generating means. And a cumulative means for accumulating the luminance values in the measurement area determined for each measurement area in accordance with the number of display elements to be turned on and the resolution of the imaging means.

In addition, the present invention is a luminance measurement method for measuring the luminance of a display panel in which a plurality of display elements are arranged in a two-dimensional lattice form, wherein image data according to an optical image is generated using an image pickup signal corresponding to an optical image of the display panel. And accumulating luminance values in the measurement area for each measurement area, which are determined according to the number of display elements that light up at the same timing among the display elements constituting the display panel and the resolution of the image pickup means for outputting the image pickup signal using the image data. It provides a luminance measurement method comprising the step of.

In addition, the present invention provides a display panel in which a plurality of display elements are arranged in a two-dimensional lattice form, and some display elements of the plurality of display elements are arranged in a two-dimensional lattice form, and the number of display elements arranged is vertically and horizontally. Provides a display device comprising lighting control means for lighting only one display element having the same position in the lighting block among the plurality of display elements arranged in each lighting block, at the same timing, for all of the plurality of lighting blocks that are the same. do.

As described above, according to the present invention, there is provided a luminance measuring device, a luminance measuring method, and a display panel, which allow the luminance distribution data of a display panel to be easily obtained without aligning each display element with each pixel with high accuracy. One display device can be obtained.

EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION Hereinafter, embodiment of this invention is described. In addition, the description which overlaps using the same code | symbol is abbreviate | omitted for the same element.

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a luminance measuring system 100 including a luminance measuring device 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The luminance measurement system 100 has a luminance measurement device 1 and a display device 30, and has a configuration in which both are connected with a communication cable 10. The luminance measuring device 1 has a configuration of a video camera for shooting a moving image, and the display device 30 has a display panel 31 of organic EL.

In this luminance measuring system 100, as shown in FIG. 2, the luminance measuring apparatus 1 and the display apparatus 30 are arrange | positioned, and the imaging | photography including the display panel 31 by the luminance measuring apparatus 1 is carried out. The area R is taken. In addition, although the position of the brightness measuring device 1 is fixed, the display device 30 is loaded on a moving device 60 such as a belt conveyor and moves. The display device 30 moves along the direction S, and the moving device 60 stops at the point of time when the shooting reference point A is reached, and the luminance measuring device 1 captures the shooting area R at that time. do. After the shooting is finished, the mobile device 60 moves, and when the other display device 30 reaches the shooting reference point A, the mobile device 60 stops and shooting is performed.

The luminance measuring device 1 includes a lens 2, a CCD (Charge Coupled Devices) 3, an A / D converter 4, and a signal processing unit 5. In addition, the luminance measuring device 1 has a controller 6, a data storage unit 7, and a communication processing unit 8.

In the luminance measuring device 1, the lens 2 sets the optical image of the subject (mainly the display panel 31 in this embodiment) to the CCD 3 (in this embodiment, resolution 720x480), but other resolutions are used. It is good to get rid of. The CCD 3 outputs an analog image pickup signal corresponding to the optical image, and the A / D converter 4 converts the image pickup signal into a digital signal. In addition, the signal processing unit 5 performs image processing on the digital signal to generate moving image data. The generated moving picture data is stored in the data storage unit 7 under the instruction of the controller 6.

In the luminance measuring device 1, the controller 6 performs luminance value measurement processing to be described later, thereby generating luminance value data using the moving image data, and generating the generated luminance value data to the data storage unit 7. Remember In addition, the controller 6 instructs the communication processing unit 8 to transmit a lighting control signal, which will be described later, to the display device 30 via the communication cable 10.

Here, the controller 6 has a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a ROM (Read 0nly Memory), and a RAM (Random Access Memory), and the CPU writes and reads data to and from RAM according to a program stored in the ROM. It operates while controlling the whole brightness measuring apparatus 1, and performs the brightness value measuring process mentioned later, and produces | generates the brightness value data. The data storage unit 7 is composed of a HDD (Hard Disk Drive), a flash memory, or the like, and records moving image data and luminance value data. The communication processing unit 8 operates in accordance with the instruction of the controller 6 to perform data transmission and reception with the display device 30.

The display device 30 has a display panel 31, a controller 32, a data storage unit 33, and a communication processing unit 34. The display panel 31 has a plurality of display elements e arranged in a two-dimensional lattice form as shown in Fig. 3 using an organic EL. The display panel 31 shown in FIG. 3 has 1920 display elements e in the horizontal (horizontal) direction and 1080 display elements in the vertical (vertical) direction, and these display elements e have an image having a resolution of 1920 × 1080. Is displayed.

As shown in FIG. 3, the display element e is controlled to light up the display element e for each of the lighting blocks M by using 16 horizontal and 8 vertical lighting blocks M. FIG.

As shown in FIG. 3, since the display panel 31 has a resolution of 1920 × 1080, 120 lighting blocks M (M1 to M120) are arranged in the horizontal direction, and the vertical direction is arranged. 135 lighting blocks (1080/8 = 135) are arrange | positioned, and 16200 lighting blocks M are arrange | positioned in total. Moreover, W1, W2 ... shown in FIG. W120 represents the width and corresponds to 16 display elements. In addition, H1, H2... H135 has a vertical width and corresponds to eight display elements in all. In FIG. 3, the boundary of the lighting block M is shown by the part with thick line for convenience of illustration.

The display panel 31 lights up in accordance with the lighting control signal input from the luminance measuring device 1. The lighting control signal has coordinate data indicating the position in the display panel 31 of the display element e to be turned on. This coordinate data is generated in the form which designates one display element e with the same position in the lighting block M for every lighting block M for every lighting block M. FIG. And the coordinate data is produced | generated so that the display element e to make it light for all the lighting blocks M may be switched one by one according to a lighting pattern.

The lighting pattern means how to light up the plurality of display elements e in each lighting block M. FIG. For example, first, the display element e on the upper left side of the uppermost line is turned on, then the display element e next to the one is turned on, and then the display element e on the right side is turned on. The contents are called lighting patterns. In addition to the lighting pattern, the same content should be applied to all lighting blocks M. FIG.

The generation of the coordinate data is performed by the controller 6 of the luminance measuring device 1, but may be performed by the controller 32 of the display device 30. By generating coordinate data and generating a lighting control signal for turning on the display element e using the coordinate data, the controller 6 and the controller 32 have a function as lighting control means.

Then, for example, at a certain lighting timing (first lighting timing), the display element e1-1 of the lighting block M1, the display element e2-1 of the lighting block M2,. The display elements e120-1 ... of the lighting block M120 light up at the same timing. Also for the other lighting blocks M, the display element e at the upper left of the uppermost line is lit. In addition, at the next lighting timing (second lighting timing), in the lighting block M1, the display element e on the right side called the display element e1-2 and the display element e2-2 of the lighting block M2. Lights up. The same applies to the other lighting blocks M. FIG. In FIG. 3, oblique lines are displayed on the display elements that light up at the first lighting timing.

The controller 32 has a CPU, a ROM, and a RAM, and operates while the CPU writes and reads data in accordance with a program stored in the ROM to control the entire display device 30. The data storage unit 33 is constituted by an HDD, a flash memory, or the like, and records data necessary for displaying an image. The communication processing unit 34 operates in accordance with the instruction of the controller 32 to transmit and receive data with the communication processing unit 8.

Next, the luminance value measurement processing in the luminance measurement system 100 having the above configuration will be described. The luminance value measuring process is controlled by the controller 6 according to the flowchart shown in FIG. 7.

When the controller 6 starts the luminance value measuring process, the operation proceeds to S1 to start shooting. Next, the controller 6 advances the operation to S2 and instructs the communication processing unit 8 to transmit the lighting control signal to the display device 30. In this case, the communication control unit 34 of the display device 30 receives this lighting control signal and outputs it to the controller 32. The controller 32 lights the display element corresponding to the coordinate data included in the lighting control signal in the manner described above.

The controller 6 then proceeds to S3 to generate moving picture data. In this case, the lens 2 acquires an optical image of the display panel 31 and forms an image on the CCD 3. The CCD 3 outputs an imaging signal according to the optical image, the A / D converter 4 converts the imaging signal into a digital signal, and the signal processing unit 5 performs image processing on the digital signal, thereby moving image data. Create

In the luminance measurement system 100, the luminance measurement device 1 causes the luminance measurement device 1 to match the cycle of generating the moving image data (the imaging cycle) and the lighting cycle of the display element e on the display panel 31. It is sufficient to generate moving picture data of one frame per lighting of (e). In order to increase the accuracy of the luminance value data, it is preferable that the luminance measuring device 1 generate the moving picture data of a plurality of frames per one lighting of the display element e.

Next, the controller 6 advances the operation to S4, determines whether the coordinate data corresponds to the final lit position of the display element e, and proceeds to S6 when the coordinate data corresponds to the final lit position. Otherwise, the process returns to S2 after executing S5. When the controller 6 advances the operation to S5, the coordinate data is updated in accordance with the lighting pattern to switch the lighting position of the display element e.

In S6, the controller 6 operates as the luminance value data generating means, generates the luminance value data in the order described below, and stores the generated luminance value data in the data storage unit 7 in subsequent S7. The operation then proceeds to S8 (after saving). When the controller 6 finishes photographing in S8, the luminance value measuring process ends.

Here, the procedure when the controller 6 generates the luminance value data will be described with reference to FIGS. 4, 5 and 6. FIG. FIG. 4 is a view showing an image of one frame of the moving picture I displayed using the captured moving picture data, FIG. 5 is a view showing the measurement area P1 in FIG. 4, and FIG. 6 is a measurement area P1. It is a figure which shows typically the luminance value on the line which passes through.

As described above, in the display device 30, since the display elements e at the same positions are lit for each of the lighting blocks M, the moving image I to be photographed is displayed in the display element e as shown in FIG. The circular image C which shows the lighting part of) turns into the image arrange | positioned at the two-dimensional lattice form at regular intervals.

The light emitted by the lighting of the display element e has an extent of the degree at which it reaches the luminance measuring device 1. However, as described above, only one display element e lights up for each lighting block M, and the display device e lights up in a discrete state. By determining this lighting block M to some extent, it is thought that the influence of the light of the lighted display element e being mixed with the light by the lighting of the next display element e can be eliminated. In that case, each circular image C is considered to be due to the lighting of one display element e. In addition, since the space | interval between display elements e to light up is set to a fixed value in both a horizontal direction and a vertical direction, it is possible to calculate which lighting block M each circular image C corresponds to. Do. Since the lighting pattern of the display element e is also set to the same content for all the lighting blocks M, when the corresponding lighting block M is calculated, the display element e which is lit can also be identified. .

Thus, the luminance measuring device 1 generates luminance value data in the following manner. First, in order to detect the circular image C included in the moving image I, the controller 6 performs an operation as a detection means, and detects a region (high luminance region) having a higher luminance value than the surrounding region. The detected high luminance region corresponds to the circular image C and is detected by the number of lit blocks M. FIG.

Next, the part with the highest luminance value is detected from each high luminance area. Let this be the highest luminance position C0. Then, the controller 6 performs an operation as the measurement area determination means, obtains an area of the next size centering on the highest luminance position C0, and determines the obtained area as the measurement area P1.

Here, the measurement area P1 is an area in which the luminance values for measuring the luminance value of the display element e are accumulated, and the number of the lighting blocks M (that is, the number of display elements to be lit at the same timing), It is obtained according to the resolution of the CCD 3.

As described above, the number of the lighting blocks M is 120 horizontally and 135 vertically, but the resolution of the CCD 3 is 720 x 480 vertically. Therefore, six CCDs 3 can be allocated to one lit block M in the horizontal direction (720/120 = 6), and one CCD is lit for one lit block M in the vertical direction. 3.5 (3) can be allocated (480/135 ≒ 3.5). In this case, it is considered that the CCD 3 detects the light emission of each display element e every 6 x 3.5 pieces in the width x length. Therefore, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, the horizontal width t1 of the measurement area P1 is set to 6 pixels, and the vertical width t2 is set to 3.5 pixels.

Next, the controller 6 performs an operation as an accumulation means, and accumulates all the luminance values of the pixels included in the measurement region P1 for each measurement region P1. When the luminance value L of the pixel on the line passing through the measurement region P1 is shown in FIG. 6, the luminance value L is set for all pixels included in the measurement region P1. Accumulate. The cumulative luminance value obtained by this accumulation corresponds to the luminance obtained by light emission of the individual display elements e. The controller 6 performs the above procedure for all the measurement regions P1 shown in the moving image I, obtains the cumulative luminance values for all the measurement regions P1, and uses the obtained luminance values to calculate the luminance. Create value data. In this case, the controller 6 performs an operation as the luminance value data generating means, and generates luminance value data by associating each accumulated luminance value with the position data of the corresponding display element e.

Then, the controller 6 can obtain the luminance value data indicating the luminance obtained by the light emission of all the display elements e when the generation procedure of the luminance value data is performed for each lighting timing.

Since there are 128 display elements e in each of the lit blocks M, the luminance of all display elements e is generated when 128 times of moving image data and luminance value data are generated. You can get the value data. In this case, when the imaging cycle of the luminance measuring device 1 is 30 f / s, the lighting is performed once per frame, which requires about 128/30 Hz for 4.3 seconds.

In the above embodiment, the lighting control signal is output from the luminance measuring device 1, and the coordinate control data indicating the position of the display element to be lit in the lighting control signal is included, but the lighting control signal does not include the coordinate data. You may send without. In this case, the lighting control signal is a signal having a meaning of notifying the display device 30 of the lighting timing of the display element e. The coordinate data may be updated by the controller 32.

In addition, the display device 30 lights each display element e under the control of the controller 32 without outputting a lighting control signal from the luminance measuring device 1, and then turns on the lighting timing of the display element e. The timing signal shown may be transmitted to the luminance measuring device 1.

In this case, the luminance measuring device 1 performs luminance value measurement processing in accordance with the flowchart shown in FIG. 9. In this flowchart, the controller 6 executes S9 instead of S2. At that S9, the controller 6 waits for processing until the controller 6 performs an operation as a timing signal input means and inputs a timing signal transmitted from the display device 30, and when the timing signal is input, the operation is performed at S3. Proceed. In S3, the controller 6 executes the process similarly to FIG. Thereafter, the controller 6 proceeds to operation S10 to determine whether the final timing signal has been received, and when receiving the final timing signal, executes S6, S7 and S8 as in the case of FIG. Return to S9. Even in this manner, the same luminance value data as described above can be obtained.

In addition, the controller 6 of the luminance measuring device 1 may generate the moving image data and the luminance value data at the timing of detecting the lighting of the display device 30. In addition, although the luminance measuring device 1 and the display device 30 are connected by the communication cable 10, both may communicate wirelessly.

Although the positional relationship between the luminance measuring device 1 and the display device 30 is not always clear and ambiguous in terms of the pixel of the CCD 3 and the display element e, the display element ( When the lighting state of e) is photographed by the luminance measuring device 1, and the luminance values in the measurement area P1 are accumulated using the moving image data obtained by the imaging, the display element e of each lighting block M is accumulated. Data representing the luminance of? Can be obtained. In addition, the obtained cumulative luminance value can be associated with the position data of the corresponding display element e. Therefore, in the luminance measuring system 100, luminance distribution data can be obtained simply, even if the luminance measuring apparatus 1 and the display apparatus 30 are not aligned with high precision.

In addition, brightness value data can be acquired also about the display panel with which the resolution differs from the display panel 31 using the same brightness measuring system 100. This embodiment is applicable also to display panels, such as a liquid crystal display panel and SED, other than an organic electroluminescence display panel.

The above description is about description of embodiment of this invention, and does not limit the apparatus and method of this invention, Various modifications can be implemented easily. Moreover, the apparatus or method comprised suitably combining the component, function, characteristic, or method step in each embodiment is also included in this invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The block diagram which shows the structure of the luminance measuring system provided with the luminance measuring apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention.

2 is a diagram schematically showing a positional relationship between a luminance measuring device and a display device;

3 is a diagram showing an arrangement of display elements constituting a display panel;

4 is a diagram showing one frame of a captured moving image.

FIG. 5 is a view showing a measurement area in FIG. 4. FIG.

6 shows luminance values on a line passing through the measurement region.

7 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of the luminance value measurement process;

8 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of another luminance value measurement process;

Claims (9)

A luminance measuring device for measuring the luminance of a display panel in which a plurality of display elements are arranged in a two-dimensional lattice shape, Imaging means for outputting an imaging signal according to the optical image of said display panel; Image data generating means for generating image data according to the optical image by using the image pickup signal output from the image pickup means; By using the image data generated by the image data generating means, the luminance value in the measurement area determined according to the number of display elements that light up at the same timing among the display elements constituting the display panel and the resolution of the image pickup means. Accumulating means for accumulating Luminance measuring apparatus comprising a. The luminance measuring device according to claim 1, further comprising luminance value data generating means for generating luminance value data indicating luminance of each of the plurality of display elements by using the accumulated luminance value accumulated by the accumulation means. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: detecting means for detecting a high luminance region having a higher luminance value than other regions by using the image data; Measurement region determination means for determining the measurement region centered on the highest luminance position in which the luminance value exhibits the highest luminance value within the high luminance region detected by the detection means; More, And the accumulating means accumulates the luminance values in the measuring region determined by the measuring region determining means. The display apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: timing signal input means for inputting a timing signal indicating a timing at which the display element is turned on; Photographing control means for operating said image data generating means, said accumulating means and said luminance value data generating means to generate said luminance value data when said timing signal input means inputs said timing signal; The luminance measuring device further comprising. The display panel according to claim 1, wherein some of the display elements of the plurality of display elements are arranged in a two-dimensional lattice shape, and in each of the lighting blocks for all of the plurality of lighting blocks having the same number of display elements arranged in each of the vertical and horizontal directions. And a lighting control means for outputting, to the display panel, a lighting control signal for lighting only one display element having the same position in the lighting block at the same timing among the plurality of display elements arranged. A luminance measuring method of measuring luminance of a display panel in which a plurality of display elements are arranged in a two-dimensional lattice shape, Generating image data according to the optical image by using an imaging signal according to the optical image of the display panel; By using the image data, the luminance value in the measurement area is determined according to the number of display elements that light up at the same timing among the display elements constituting the display panel and the resolution of the image pickup means for outputting the image pickup signal. Step to accumulate every Luminance measuring method comprising a. A display panel in which a plurality of display elements are arranged in a two-dimensional grid; Some of the plurality of display elements of the plurality of display elements are arranged in a two-dimensional lattice shape, and the plurality of displays arranged in the respective light blocks for all of the plurality of light blocks having the same number of display elements arranged in each of the vertical and horizontal directions. Lighting control means for lighting only one display element of the same position in the said lighting block among elements at the same timing. Display device comprising a. The display device according to claim 7, further comprising timing signal output means for externally outputting a timing signal indicating a timing at which the lighting control means lights up the display element. The display device according to claim 7, wherein the lighting control means sequentially switches the display elements to be lit for all of the plurality of lighting blocks.

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