E-ink display

Abstract

Provided in the present disclosure is an E-ink display, comprising: an E-ink panel, a video processor, a frame data memory and a display controller. The E-ink display can apply a voltage at most once to microcapsules corresponding to one or more pixels of video data to be displayed for each frame in a video, which greatly reduces the refresh time of each image frame in the video, such that video display can be performed via the E-ink panel on the basis of a preset frame rate, that is, the refresh frequency of the E-ink panel is enabled to be consistent with the frame rate of the video input to the E-ink display, video display is even achieved at the inherent maximum refresh frequency of the E-ink panel, and the overall image quality of the video can be maintained at a high level while performing the video display via the E-ink panel on the basis of the preset frame rate, thereby obtaining good display effects.

Description

Electronic ink screen display

[0001] Cross-reference to related applications

[0002] The present disclosure claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202411320095.5, filed on September 20, 2024, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. TECHNICAL FIELD

[0003] The present invention relates to displays, and in particular to electronic ink screen displays. BACKGROUND

[0004] Electronic paper display (EPD) is a technology that displays by means of ambient light. For example, the EPD display technology can encapsulate black and white color particles in a microcapsule structure, and control the up-and-down movement of different charged black and white particles by an applied electric field to present a black-and-white monochrome display effect. Under the action of the electric field, the two different particles keep moving. When the white particles rise to the upper surface, all ambient light shining on the upper surface is completely reflected, thus forming a white state, i.e., a paper state. When the electrodes are exchanged, the two colors of particles will exchange positions, so that the white particles can go to the lower surface, and the black particles go to the upper surface. The light is completely absorbed by the black particles, resulting in black, i.e., a black-and-white display. In addition, there can also be a mixed state on the upper surface, in which the two different particles are mixed in proportion, thus forming different colors with black-and-white and gray levels. Similarly, for microcapsules with one or more color particles such as black, white, red, yellow, etc., various color particles can also be moved by applying an electric field, thus presenting different colors.

[0005] Due to the high reflectivity and high-contrast black-and-white display effect of the EPD technology, it also has a memory effect. When the applied electric field is removed, the current display is immediately displayed, just like the content displayed on a printed paper. Due to the bistability, the image is retained on the EPD display screen for several months or years after the power electric field is removed. This technology can achieve reflective display by means of ambient light, similar to the printing display effect of ordinary paper. Therefore, compared with traditional display screens such as CRT, LED, LCD, OLED, etc., which are self-luminous, the EPD display screen is less likely to cause eye fatigue, and long-term staring will not damage the retina. In addition, the EPD display screen also has the advantages of low power consumption and energy saving. Currently, the EPD technology is usually applied to handheld electronic reader devices such as electronic books.

[0006] However, various devices using the EPD display screen of the related art have poor display effect when playing video pictures. SUMMARY

[0007] The purpose of the present disclosure is to provide an electronic ink screen display based on which the refresh speed of each frame in a video can be greatly improved by applying at most one driving voltage to each microcapsule of the electronic ink screen when displaying a frame in the video, while maintaining the picture quality of the video as a whole at a high level, thereby overcoming the poor display effect of the electronic ink screen in the related art when playing a video picture.

[0008] According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, an electronic ink screen display is provided, comprising:

[0009] an electronic ink screen for displaying a video picture, and comprising microcapsules encapsulating color particles, electrodes above and below the microcapsules for applying a voltage to the microcapsules to drive the color particles;

[0010] a video processor for receiving video source data comprising a plurality of frames from a video source at a preset frame rate, and converting the video source data into video data suitable for display on the electronic ink screen, and providing the video data in units of pixels or groups of pixels;

[0011] a frame data storage for storing first video data of a current frame being displayed on the electronic ink screen and having completed display, and second video data of a previous frame having completed full display on the electronic ink screen and not yet replaced by the video data of the current frame, wherein the second video data comprises third video data corresponding to pixels identical to those corresponding to the to-be-displayed video data in the frame thereof;

[0012] a display controller for processing the video data received from the video processor in units of pixels or groups of pixels comprising a plurality of pixels to obtain the to-be-displayed video data, comparing the gray scale of the pixels corresponding to the to-be-displayed video data with the gray scale of the pixels corresponding to the third video data to obtain a comparison result, and generating driving data based on the comparison result and sending it to the electronic ink screen, so that the electronic ink screen drives the electrodes to apply at most one voltage to the microcapsules corresponding to one or more pixels corresponding to the to-be-displayed video data based on the driving data.

[0013] According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, if the comparison result is different, the driving data generated by the display controller instructs the electronic ink screen to drive the electrodes to apply a voltage to the microcapsules corresponding to one or more pixels of the video data to be displayed; if the comparison result is the same, the driving data generated by the display controller instructs the electronic ink screen to drive the electrodes to apply a voltage in the same way as the previous time.

[0014] According to a third aspect of the present disclosure, the display controller comprises:

[0015] a counter for each pixel point of the electronic ink screen, which is configured to count the number of times of applying the first voltage to the microcapsules of the pixel point to obtain a first count value, and count the number of times of applying the second voltage to the microcapsules of the pixel point to obtain a second count value, wherein the first voltage and the second voltage are in opposite directions;

[0016] a count detection device configured to detect whether the first count value and the second count value meet a preset condition,

[0017] wherein, based on the count detection device detecting that the first count value meets the preset condition, the driving data generated by the display controller instructs not to apply the first voltage to the microcapsules of the pixel point until after the driving data generated by the display controller instructs to apply the second voltage to the microcapsules of the pixel point,

[0018] wherein, based on the count detection device detecting that the second count value meets the preset condition, the driving data generated by the display controller instructs not to apply the second voltage to the microcapsules of the pixel point until after the driving data generated by the display controller instructs to apply the first voltage to the microcapsules of the pixel point.

[0019] According to a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, the first count value refers to the number of times of applying the first voltage to the microcapsules of the pixel point, and the second count value refers to the number of times of applying the second voltage to the microcapsules of the pixel point,

[0020] wherein, the count detection device detects whether the number of times of applying the first voltage reaches a first threshold, and during the process of the electronic ink screen continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsules of the pixel point, if it is detected that the number of times of applying the first voltage reaches the first threshold, the driving data generated by the display controller instructs not to apply the first voltage to the microcapsules of the pixel point until after the driving data generated by the display controller instructs to apply the second voltage to the microcapsules of the pixel point,

[0021] The count detection device detects whether the number of times of applying the second voltage reaches a second threshold value, and if the number of times of applying the second voltage is detected to reach the second threshold value in the process of continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point by the electronic ink screen, the display controller generates driving data indicating that the second voltage is not applied to the microcapsule of the pixel point until the display controller generates driving data indicating that the first voltage is applied to the microcapsule of the pixel point.

[0022] According to a fifth aspect of the present disclosure, in the case of continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point and then continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point in sequence, if the count detection device detects that the value obtained by subtracting the number of times of applying the second voltage from the number of times of applying the first voltage is greater than or equal to a third threshold value, the display controller reduces the first threshold value to a fourth threshold value smaller than the first threshold value,

[0023] In the case of continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point and then continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point in sequence, if the count detection device detects that the value obtained by subtracting the number of times of applying the first voltage from the number of times of applying the second voltage is greater than or equal to a fifth threshold value, the display controller reduces the second threshold value to a sixth threshold value smaller than the second threshold value.

[0024] According to a sixth aspect of the present disclosure, after the display controller reduces the first threshold value to a fourth threshold value smaller than the first threshold value, in the case of continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point for the second time, the display controller increases the fourth threshold value to the first threshold value,

[0025] In the case of continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point for the second time, after the display controller reduces the second threshold value to a sixth threshold value smaller than the second threshold value, the display controller increases the sixth threshold value to the second threshold value.

[0026] According to a seventh aspect of the present disclosure, the first count value refers to a first remaining number of times of applying the first voltage that is allowed to be continuously applied to the microcapsule of the pixel point, and the first remaining number of times of applying the first voltage is reduced by one each time the first voltage is applied in the process of continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point,

[0027] The second count value refers to a second remaining number of times of applying the second voltage that is allowed to be continuously applied to the microcapsule of the pixel point, and the second remaining number of times of applying the second voltage is reduced by one each time the second voltage is applied in the process of continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point,

[0028] The counting detection device detects whether the number of times of applying the first voltage reaches 0, and if the number of times of applying the first voltage is detected to reach 0 in the process of continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point by the electronic ink screen, the driving data generated by the display controller indicates that the first voltage is not applied to the microcapsule of the pixel point until the driving data generated by the display controller indicates that the second voltage is applied to the microcapsule of the pixel point.

[0029] The counting detection device detects whether the number of times of applying the second voltage reaches 0, and if the number of times of applying the second voltage is detected to reach 0 in the process of continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point by the electronic ink screen, the driving data generated by the display controller indicates that the second voltage is not applied to the microcapsule of the pixel point until the driving data generated by the display controller indicates that the first voltage is applied to the microcapsule of the pixel point.

[0030] According to an eighth aspect of the present disclosure, the counter of each pixel point of the electronic ink screen also stores a total number of times of remaining voltage application set as a fixed value, which is the sum of the first number of times of remaining voltage application and the second number of times of remaining voltage application, wherein the second number of times of remaining voltage application is increased by one when the first number of times of remaining voltage application is reduced by one, and the first number of times of remaining voltage application is increased by one when the second number of times of remaining voltage application is reduced by one.

[0031] According to a ninth aspect of the present disclosure, the display controller further comprises:

[0032] The display engine is configured to read the third video data from the second video data stored in the frame data storage based on the index of the pixel corresponding to the to-be-displayed video data in the frame to which the to-be-displayed video data belongs, compare the to-be-displayed video data with the read third video data, and output a comparison result;

[0033] The driving data output module is configured to generate the driving data based on the comparison result, whether the first count value detected by the counting detection device reaches the preset condition, and whether the second count value detected by the counting detection device reaches the preset condition, and send the driving data to the electronic ink screen;

[0034] The pixel data buffer is configured to buffer the video data received from the video processor in units of pixels or the pixel groups, arrange the received video data in sequence, and pack the received video data as a video data packet as the to-be-displayed video data, and provide the to-be-displayed video data to the display engine as soon as a video data packet is packed.

[0035] According to a tenth aspect of the present disclosure, the electronic ink screen drives the electrodes to apply a voltage for a duration not exceeding a duration of one frame of video corresponding to the frame rate.

[0036] The present disclosure has the following beneficial effects:

[0037] In an electronic ink screen display according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, by the electronic ink screen, which is used to display video pictures, and which includes microcapsules encapsulating color particles, electrodes above and below the microcapsules for applying a voltage to the microcapsules to drive the color particles; a video processor for receiving video source data including multiple frames from a video source at a preset frame rate, and converting the video source data into video data suitable for display on the electronic ink screen, and providing the video data in units of pixels or groups of pixels; a frame data storage for storing first video data of a current frame currently displayed on the electronic ink screen and not yet completed all display, and second video data of a previous frame currently displayed on the electronic ink screen and completed all display, which has not been replaced by the video data of the current frame, wherein the second video data includes third video data corresponding to pixels identical to the pixels corresponding to the to-be-displayed video data in the frame to which the to-be-displayed video data belongs; a display controller for processing the video data received from the video processor in units of pixels or groups of identical pixels including multiple pixels to obtain the to-be-displayed video data, comparing the gray scale of the pixels corresponding to the to-be-displayed video data with the gray scale of the pixels corresponding to the third video data to obtain a comparison result, and generating driving data based on the comparison result and sending the driving data to the electronic ink screen, so that the electronic ink screen drives the electrodes to apply a voltage at most once to the microcapsules corresponding to one or more pixels corresponding to the to-be-displayed video data based on the driving data, and the voltage at most once can be applied to the microcapsules corresponding to one or more pixels of the to-be-displayed video data for each frame in the video, which greatly reduces the refresh time of each frame of picture in the video, so that the video can be displayed by the electronic ink screen at the preset frame rate, that is, the refresh frequency of the electronic ink screen is consistent with the frame rate of the video input to the electronic ink screen display, and even the video can be displayed at the limit refresh frequency of the electronic ink screen itself, and the picture quality of the video as a whole can be maintained at a high level while the video is displayed by the electronic ink screen at the preset frame rate, thereby achieving good display effect.

[0038] In the electronic ink screen display according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the display controller generates driving data indicating the electronic ink screen to drive the electrodes to apply a first voltage to the microcapsules corresponding to one or more pixels corresponding to the video data to be displayed if the comparison result is different; and the display controller generates driving data indicating the electronic ink screen to drive the electrodes to apply the first voltage again in the same way as the previous time the first voltage is applied if the comparison result is the same. In this way, the microcapsules corresponding to one or more pixels corresponding to the video data to be displayed can be applied with the first voltage in different ways when the video data to be displayed is the same as or different from the third video data, thereby reducing the refresh time of each frame of the video while maintaining the picture quality of the video as a whole at a high level, thus achieving good display effect.

[0039] In the electronic ink screen display according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the display controller comprises: a counter for each pixel point of the electronic ink screen, which is used to count the number of times the first voltage is continuously applied to the microcapsules of the pixel point to obtain a first count value, and count the number of times the second voltage is continuously applied to the microcapsules of the pixel point to obtain a second count value, wherein the first voltage and the second voltage are in opposite directions; a count detection device for detecting whether the first count value and the second count value reach a preset condition. Based on the count detection device detecting that the first count value reaches the preset condition, the display controller generates driving data indicating that the first voltage is not applied to the microcapsules of the pixel point until the display controller generates driving data indicating that the second voltage is applied to the microcapsules of the pixel point. Based on the count detection device detecting that the second count value reaches the preset condition, the display controller generates driving data indicating that the second voltage is not applied to the microcapsules of the pixel point until the display controller generates driving data indicating that the first voltage is applied to the microcapsules of the pixel point. In this way, the power consumption can be reduced as much as possible while displaying the video through the electronic ink screen at a preset frame rate, thereby preventing the corresponding components from aging due to long-time application of the same voltage and maintaining the service life of the corresponding components of the electronic ink screen.

[0040] In the electronic ink screen display according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the first count value refers to the number of times of continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel, and the second count value refers to the number of times of continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel, wherein the count detection device detects whether the number of times of applying the first voltage reaches a first threshold, and if it is detected that the number of times of applying the first voltage reaches the first threshold during the process of continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel by the electronic ink screen, the driving data generated by the display controller indicates that the first voltage is not applied to the microcapsule of the pixel until the driving data generated by the display controller indicates that the second voltage is applied to the microcapsule of the pixel, wherein the count detection device detects whether the number of times of applying the second voltage reaches a second threshold, and if it is detected that the number of times of applying the second voltage reaches the second threshold during the process of continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel by the electronic ink screen, the driving data generated by the display controller indicates that the second voltage is not applied to the microcapsule of the pixel until the driving data generated by the display controller indicates that the first voltage is applied to the microcapsule of the pixel, the number of times of continuously applying the first voltage or the number of times of continuously applying the reverse second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel can be counted, and in the case that the number of times of continuously applying the first voltage or the number of times of continuously applying the second voltage is too much, the continuous application of the first voltage or the second voltage is stopped until the first voltage or the second voltage can be applied again after the application of the reverse voltage, which can reduce the power consumption as much as possible while performing video display by the electronic ink screen according to the preset frame rate, and can prevent the corresponding components from being aged or even failed due to the long-time application of the same voltage, thereby maintaining the service life of the corresponding components of the electronic ink screen.

[0041] In the electronic ink screen display according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, by the display controller decreasing the first threshold to a fourth threshold smaller than the first threshold if the counting detection device detects that the value obtained by subtracting the second voltage application times from the first voltage application times is greater than or equal to a third threshold in the case of continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point and then continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point, and increasing the fourth threshold to the first threshold in the case of continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point again after the display controller decreases the first threshold to the fourth threshold, and by the display controller decreasing the second threshold to a sixth threshold smaller than the second threshold if the counting detection device detects that the value obtained by subtracting the first voltage application times from the second voltage application times is greater than or equal to a fifth threshold in the case of continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point and then continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point, and increasing the sixth threshold to the second threshold in the case of continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point again after the display controller decreases the second threshold to the sixth threshold, the threshold for continuously applying the same-direction voltage can be decreased when the same-direction voltage is continuously applied for too many times with a smaller number of reverse voltage application operations in between, and the threshold for continuously applying the same-direction voltage can be restored to the initial threshold when the same-direction voltage is continuously applied for too many times with a smaller number of reverse voltage application operations in between no longer occurs, so that the picture quality of the video as a whole can be maintained at a high level to obtain a good display effect while preventing the corresponding components from being aged or even malfunctioned due to the same-direction voltage being continuously applied for too many times after the interval of the reverse voltage application, and the service life of the corresponding components of the electronic ink screen is maintained.

[0042] In the electronic ink screen display according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, by the display controller increasing the fourth threshold to the first threshold in the case of continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point again after the display controller decreases the first threshold to the fourth threshold, and increasing the sixth threshold to the second threshold in the case of continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point again after the display controller decreases the second threshold to the sixth threshold, the threshold for continuously applying the same-direction voltage can be restored to the initial threshold when the same-direction voltage is continuously applied for too many times with a smaller number of reverse voltage application operations in between no longer occurs, so that the picture quality of the video as a whole can be maintained at a high level to obtain a good display effect while preventing the corresponding components from being aged or even malfunctioned due to the same-direction voltage being continuously applied for too many times after the interval of the reverse voltage application, and the service life of the corresponding components of the electronic ink screen is maintained.

[0043] In the electronic ink screen display according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the first count value refers to a first remaining voltage application number of times that a first voltage is allowed to be continuously applied to the microcapsule of the pixel, and the first remaining voltage application number of times is reduced by one each time the first voltage is applied in the process of continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel, the second count value refers to a second remaining voltage application number of times that a second voltage is allowed to be continuously applied to the microcapsule of the pixel, and the second remaining voltage application number of times is reduced by one each time the second voltage is applied in the process of continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel, the count detection device detects whether the first voltage application number of times reaches 0, and if it is detected that the first voltage application number of times reaches 0 in the process of continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel by the electronic ink screen, the driving data generated by the display controller indicates that the first voltage is not applied to the microcapsule of the pixel until the driving data generated by the display controller indicates that the second voltage is applied to the microcapsule of the pixel, the count detection device detects whether the second voltage application number of times reaches 0, and if it is detected that the second voltage application number of times reaches 0 in the process of continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel by the electronic ink screen, the driving data generated by the display controller indicates that the second voltage is not applied to the microcapsule of the pixel until the driving data generated by the display controller indicates that the first voltage is applied to the microcapsule of the pixel, the remaining number of times that the same-direction voltage is continuously applied to the microcapsule of the pixel can be counted, and the same-direction voltage is stopped from being continuously applied when the remaining number of times that the same-direction voltage is continuously applied is 0, and the same-direction voltage can be applied again only after the opposite-direction voltage is applied, so that the power consumption can be reduced as much as possible while video is displayed by the electronic ink screen at a preset frame rate, and the corresponding components can be prevented from being aged or even failed due to long-time application of the same voltage, and the service life of the corresponding components of the electronic ink screen can be maintained.

[0044] In the electronic ink screen display according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the total remaining voltage application number of times that is set as a fixed value is further stored in the counter for each pixel of the electronic ink screen, the total remaining voltage application number of times is the sum of the first remaining voltage application number of times and the second remaining voltage application number of times, the second remaining voltage application number of times is increased by one when the first remaining voltage application number of times is reduced by one, and the first remaining voltage application number of times is increased by one when the second remaining voltage application number of times is reduced by one, the display quality of the video frame can be ensured, residual image can be reduced, the power consumption can be reduced as much as possible while video is displayed by the electronic ink screen at a preset frame rate, the corresponding components can be prevented from being aged or even failed due to long-time application of the same voltage, and the service life of the corresponding components of the electronic ink screen can be maintained.

[0045] In the electronic ink screen display according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, a display engine is configured to read the third video data from the second video data stored in the frame data storage based on the index of the pixel in the frame to which the to-be-displayed video data belongs, compare the to-be-displayed video data with the read third video data, and output a comparison result; a driving data output module is configured to generate the driving data based on the comparison result, whether the first count value detected by the count detection device reaches the preset condition, and whether the second count value detected by the count detection device reaches the preset condition, and send the driving data to the electronic ink screen; and a pixel data buffer is configured to buffer the video data received from the video processor in units of pixels or pixel groups, arrange the received video data in sequence, and pack the video data as a video data packet as the to-be-displayed video data, and provide the to-be-displayed video data to the display engine as soon as a video data packet is packed. The display controller can be implemented in a proper structure, the video data processing speed of the electronic ink screen display is improved, and in the case that the to-be-displayed video data is the same as or different from the third video data, the electronic ink screen is driven in a proper manner to refresh, so that the refresh time of each frame of the video is reduced, the picture quality of the video as a whole is maintained at a high level, and a good display effect is obtained.

[0046] In the electronic ink screen display according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the duration of the voltage applied to the electrode by the electronic ink screen does not exceed the duration of one frame of video picture corresponding to the frame rate, so that the color particles in the microcapsules can be driven by a proper voltage while the video is displayed on the electronic ink screen at the preset frame rate, the picture quality of the video as a whole is maintained at a high level, and a good display effect is obtained. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0047] FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an electronic ink screen display according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0048] FIG. 2 shows an exemplary structure diagram of the video processor 130 in the electronic ink screen display 100 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0049] FIG. 3 shows an exemplary schematic diagram of one example of the video data stored in the frame data storage 140 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0050] FIG. 4A shows an exemplary conceptual schematic diagram of the movement of the color particles in the microcapsules when the electronic ink display screen in the related art displays a complete frame of image.

[0051] FIG. 4B schematically illustrates a conceptual diagram of color particle movement in a microcapsule when displaying two frames of images in succession, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0052] FIG. 5 shows an exemplary structural block diagram of one embodiment of the display controller 120 in the electronic ink screen display 100 shown in FIG. 1.

[0053] FIG. 6 shows an exemplary structural diagram of another embodiment of the display controller 120 in the electronic ink screen display 100 shown in FIG. 1. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0054] For the purposes of the present disclosure, technical solutions and advantages, the present disclosure is further described in detail below with reference to the specific embodiments and with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood that these descriptions are only exemplary and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. In addition, in the following description, the description of known structures and technologies is omitted to avoid unnecessary confusion of the concepts of the present disclosure.

[0055] In embodiments of the present disclosure, the microcapsule structure in the electronic ink screen can also be implemented as a microcup structure, which can be understood from related art, and the present disclosure omits the discussion of the electronic ink screen including the microcup structure.

[0056] When the electronic ink screen in the related art performs video display, due to the characteristics of the electronic ink screen itself, the color particles in the microcapsule cannot reach the target position (e.g., the top end, the bottom end, or other specific positions of the capsule) under the driving of the voltage at one time, so the display of the frame image cannot be completed by only one refresh. Specifically, the color particles cannot be driven to reach the target position in the microcapsule required for displaying the frame image by only one application of voltage through at most one movement. Therefore, the electronic ink screen driving scheme in the related art is that, after receiving video data from a video source, in order to display a frame image, the voltage needs to be applied multiple times to drive the color particles in the microcapsule to move multiple times to achieve clear and complete display of the frame image. For example, in the refresh mode of the related art, in order to display a frame image, the voltage needs to be applied 4 to 16 times to drive the color particles in the microcapsule to move 4 to 16 times, so that the color particles can reach the target position in the microcapsule.

[0057] Moreover, in the related art, in the manner of applying multiple voltages to drive the color particles to move multiple times, the refresh speed of the electronic ink screen is relatively low. In an example, the refresh manner of the electronic ink screen in the related art is to output a 40Hz video, but since each frame of picture update usually needs to apply voltages continuously 4 to 16 times to drive the color particles to move from the initial position to the target position to complete the refresh, in fact, the electronic ink screen usually only displays 7 to 10 frames per second. Obviously, when the user performs operations such as moving the mouse, scrolling the webpage, playing the video, etc. on the electronic ink screen, which have a higher requirement on the refresh speed, it will be found that the displayed content has a phenomenon of lag.

[0058] From one perspective, this situation is determined by the characteristics of the electronic ink screen itself.

[0059] From another perspective, the reason for this situation may be that there is a certain inherent cognition of the person skilled in the art. That is, in the field of electronic ink screens, when displaying a frame of image of a video (for example, a movie), as displaying a static image (for example, a page of an electronic book), multiple applications of voltages are needed to drive the color particles in the microcapsules multiple times to achieve clear and complete display of each frame, that is, the color particles in the microcapsules move to the target position.

[0060] Based on this cognition, even if the person skilled in the art displays a video using the electronic ink screen, it is also to refresh the same frame of image multiple times on the whole screen each time a frame of image is displayed, that is, after refreshing a frame of image once, the same frame of image is refreshed multiple times. This situation will lead the person skilled in the art to have a further cognition that, since the refresh time of the electronic ink screen to display a frame of image is relatively long, it is suitable for displaying static images, but not suitable for displaying videos. In the related art, the person skilled in the art has conceived various refresh manners of displaying videos using the electronic ink screen. However, in the related art, the refresh manner of the person skilled in the art for each frame of video and the refresh manner for static images are only different in aspects such as refresh speed and refresh gray scale, which are not substantial differences. In fact, they are both to apply voltages multiple times to drive the color particles in the microcapsules to reach the target position to completely display a frame of image. Moreover, even if the refresh manner in the related art to improve the refresh speed of the electronic ink screen is mentioned, it is to improve the refresh speed by compressing the refresh time of displaying a frame of image as a whole, that is, to reduce the duration of each application of voltage in the process of applying voltages multiple times, but not to improve the refresh speed by reducing the number of applications of voltages to at most once to drive the movement of the color particles in the microcapsules at most once. Moreover, in the case of improving the refresh speed by compressing the refresh time of displaying a frame of image as a whole, the overall picture quality of the video, such as definition, gray scale, ghosting, etc. will be worse.

[0061] To address at least the above problems, embodiments of the present disclosure provide an electronic ink screen display that can greatly improve the refresh speed of each frame of a video by applying a driving voltage to each microcapsule of the electronic ink screen at most once when displaying a frame of the video, while maintaining the picture quality of the video at a high level, and overcomes the poor display effect of the electronic ink screen when playing a video in the related art.

[0062] FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an electronic ink screen display according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0063] As shown in FIG. 1, the electronic ink screen display 100 includes an electronic ink screen 110, a display controller 120, a video processor 130, and a frame data memory 140. The electronic ink screen 110 is configured to display a video, and includes microcapsules encapsulating color particles, electrodes above and below the microcapsules configured to apply a voltage to the microcapsules to drive the color particles.

[0064] The video processor 130 is configured to receive video source data including a plurality of frames from a video source at a preset frame rate, and convert the video source data into video data suitable for display on the electronic ink screen 110, and provide the video data in units of pixels or groups of pixels.

[0065] The frame data memory 140 is configured to store first video data of a current frame that is currently displayed on the electronic ink screen 110 and has completed display, and second video data of a previous frame that is currently displayed on the electronic ink screen 110 and has completed display, which has not been replaced by the video data of the current frame, wherein the second video data includes third video data corresponding to pixels that are the same as pixels corresponding to the video data to be displayed in a frame thereof.

[0066] In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the frame data memory 140 can be various volatile memories or non-volatile memories as long as the write speed requirement and the read speed requirement of the video data are met, and the present disclosure does not limit this. For example, the frame data memory 140 can be a DDR memory. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the frame data memory 140 can store an amount of data corresponding to one frame of an image. In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the frame data memory 140 can store an amount of data corresponding to more than one frame of an image.

[0067] The display controller 120 is configured to process the video data received from the video processor 130 in units of pixels or pixel groups including a plurality of pixels to obtain the to-be-displayed video data, compare the gray scale of the pixels corresponding to the to-be-displayed video data with the gray scale of the pixels corresponding to the third video data to obtain a comparison result, and generate driving data based on the comparison result and send the driving data to the electronic ink screen 110, so that the electronic ink screen 110 drives the electrodes to apply a voltage at most once to the microcapsules corresponding to one or more pixels corresponding to the to-be-displayed video data based on the driving data.

[0068] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the structure of the electronic ink screen 110 is an electronic ink screen known in the related art, and thus the microcapsules, the color particles in the microcapsules, and the electrodes above and below the microcapsules thereof can be known from the related art. In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the color particles can include charged particles and / or uncharged particles, which can be known from the related art. However, the color particles mentioned in the present disclosure that can be driven by a voltage are all charged particles. In addition, the electronic ink screen 110 in the embodiments of the present disclosure can also include modules for power supply control, timing control, and the like, which can all be obtained from the related art. Therefore, the specific structure of the electronic ink screen 110 is not described in detail in the present disclosure.

[0069] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the video source (not shown in the figure) can be located outside the electronic ink screen display and exist independently of the electronic ink screen display 100, or can be located inside the electronic ink screen display 100. The video source can provide video source data to the electronic ink screen display 100 through an MIPI (Mobile Industry Processor Interface), an HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface), a DP (DisplayPort), an Edp (Embedded DisplayPort), or the like. Moreover, the video source can be a wireless signal receiver, or a wired signal receiver, or an analog-to-digital conversion device, or a separate storage device, and the like, which are not limited in the present disclosure.

[0070] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the preset frame rate refers to the speed at which the video processor 130 receives the video source data from the video source, in units of frames per second. The conversion of the video source data into video data suitable for display on the electronic ink screen 110 by the video processor 130 refers to the fact that, due to the resolution, brightness, grayscale, and other attributes of the video source data obtained from the video source, the video source data is not necessarily suitable for the electronic ink screen 110, and thus needs to be converted. After attribute conversion, the video data obtained is suitable for display on the electronic ink screen 110. Moreover, the converted video data can be provided to the display controller 120 in units of pixels or groups of pixels. In this way, the video processor 130 does not need to process a large amount of data at one time, but can receive, process, and provide the video source data to the display controller 120 in real time at an appropriate speed.

[0071] In the electronic ink screen display according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, by the electronic ink screen, which is used for displaying video pictures and which comprises microcapsules encapsulating color particles, electrodes above and below the microcapsules for applying voltage to the microcapsules to drive the color particles; a video processor, which is used for receiving video source data comprising a plurality of frames from a video source at a preset frame rate and converting the video source data into video data suitable for display on the electronic ink screen and providing the video data in units of pixels or groups of pixels; a frame data storage, which is used for storing first video data of a current frame currently displayed on the electronic ink screen and not yet completed display, and second video data of a previous frame currently displayed on the electronic ink screen and completed display, wherein the second video data comprises third video data corresponding to pixels identical to pixels corresponding to to-be-displayed video data in a frame thereof; a display controller, which is used for processing video data received from the video processor in units of pixels or groups of identical pixels comprising a plurality of pixels to obtain the to-be-displayed video data, comparing gray scales of pixels corresponding to the to-be-displayed video data with gray scales of pixels corresponding to the third video data to obtain a comparison result, and generating driving data based on the comparison result and sending the driving data to the electronic ink screen, so that the electronic ink screen drives the electrodes to apply voltage to microcapsules corresponding to one or more pixels corresponding to the to-be-displayed video data at most once for each frame of video, which greatly reduces the refresh time of each frame of video, so that video display can be performed on the electronic ink screen at a preset frame rate, that is, the refresh frequency of the electronic ink screen is consistent with the frame rate of the video input to the electronic ink screen, even achieving video display at the limit refresh frequency of the electronic ink screen itself, and the picture quality of the video as a whole can be maintained at a high level while video display is performed on the electronic ink screen at a preset frame rate, thereby obtaining good display effect.

[0072] In the electronic ink screen display 100 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the video processor 130 receives video source data comprising a plurality of frames from a video source in units of pixels or groups of pixels in the form of a video stream at a preset frame rate, converts the video source data into video data having corresponding attributes suitable for display on the electronic ink screen 110 in units of pixels or groups of pixels in sequence, and provides the video data having corresponding attributes to the display controller 120 in units of pixels or groups of pixels in sequence, so that the display controller 120 controls the electronic ink screen 110 to display video pictures represented by the video data in real time.

[0073] Those skilled in the art can understand that the video stream is a common video transmission mode, which can also be referred to as streaming media. The video stream can realize playing while downloading, and the user can start watching without waiting for the complete video file to be downloaded, and meanwhile, the experience is smooth. In this way, the input video stream is convenient for being processed in real time and displayed in real time. Moreover, since the resolution, brightness, grayscale and other attributes of the video source data obtained from the video source can not be suitable for the electronic ink screen 110, the video source data needs to be converted, and the video data obtained after the attribute conversion is suitable for being displayed on the electronic ink screen 110. Moreover, the converted video data can be provided to the display controller 120 in units of pixels or pixel groups. In this way, the video processor 130 can receive, process and provide the video source data to the display controller 120 at an appropriate speed without processing a large amount of data at a time.

[0074] In the electronic ink screen display according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the video processor receives video source data including a plurality of frames from a video source in units of pixels or pixel groups in a video stream at a preset frame rate, converts the video source data into video data with corresponding attributes suitable for being displayed on the electronic ink screen in units of pixels or pixel groups in sequence, and provides the video data with corresponding attributes to the display controller in units of pixels or pixel groups, so that the display controller controls the electronic ink screen to display a video picture represented by the video source data in real time, that is, to display a video stream in real time, and meanwhile, since the video data has appropriate attributes, the picture quality of the whole video can be maintained at a high level, thereby obtaining a good display effect.

[0075] The exemplary structure of the video processor 130 in FIG. 1 is described below with reference to FIG. 2.

[0076] FIG. 2 shows an exemplary structure diagram of the video processor 130 in the electronic ink screen display 100 in FIG. 1 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0077] As shown in FIG. 2, in one embodiment of the present disclosure, the video processor 130 can include a video receiving module 210, a resolution adjusting module 220, a pixel brightness adjusting module 230, and a gray scale converting module 240. The video receiving module 210 is configured to receive video source data including a plurality of frames from a video source in a manner of a video stream at a preset frame rate. The resolution adjusting module 220 is configured to adjust the resolution of the received video source data to be consistent with the resolution of the e-ink screen 110. The pixel brightness adjusting module 230 is configured to adjust the pixel brightness of the video data after the resolution adjustment. The gray scale converting module 240 is configured to convert the video data after the pixel brightness adjustment to obtain video data with corresponding resolution, brightness, and gray scale suitable for display on the e-ink screen 110, and provide the video data with corresponding resolution, brightness, and gray scale to the display controller 120 in units of pixels or pixel groups.

[0078] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the video source data processing performed by the video processor 130 can be understood as pixel operation. After the video receiving module 210 receives the video source data, the resolution adjusting module 220 is first used to perform resolution adjustment. In one example in which the resolution of the video source data needs to be adjusted to be higher, the resolution adjusting module 220 can be referred to as a stretching module configured to stretch the original image in the video source data. For example, some mobile phone manufacturers only support 1080P (resolution 1920x1080) image output by default, but the resolution of the e-ink screen in the e-ink screen display of the embodiment of the present disclosure is 4200x1800. In this case, the resolution adjusting module 220 can adjust the 1080P image to a resolution of 4200x1800 through an algorithm. It should be understood that the resolution adjusting module 220 can adjust the resolution of the video source data to be higher or lower. For example, the resolution adjusting module 220 can adjust the video source data with a resolution of 3840x2160 to video data with a resolution of 1080P or video data with a resolution of 4200x1800. Those skilled in the art can understand that the specific details of the resolution adjustment operation performed by the resolution adjusting module 220 can be obtained from related technologies, and the present disclosure is not limited to the above examples, and no further description is made.

[0079] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the brightness adjustment of the pixel brightness adjustment module 230 on the resolution-adjusted video data can refer to brightness increase or brightness decrease on the video signal. For example, the pixel brightness adjustment module 230 increases the brightness of all pixels of the resolution-adjusted video data, so that the original color of all pixels is brighter. For another example, the pixel brightness adjustment module 230 decreases the brightness of all pixels of the resolution-adjusted video data, so that the original color of all pixels is darker. For yet another example, the pixel brightness adjustment module 230 decreases the brightness of some pixels of the resolution-adjusted video data and increases the brightness of some pixels. Through such operations, the display effect of the video when displayed on the electronic ink screen can be improved. Those skilled in the art can understand that the specific details of the brightness adjustment operation performed by the pixel brightness adjustment module 230 can be obtained from the related art, and the present disclosure is not limited to the above examples, and will not be described here.

[0080] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the gray scale conversion module 240 can perform gray scale conversion on the video data after the pixel brightness adjustment, i.e., the pixel data. For example, the gray scale conversion can include linear transformation and nonlinear transformation. In one example, the gray scale conversion module 240 can convert the 24-bit data of the standard RGB888 color format of the video source data into 8-bit gray scale values to adapt to the electronic ink screen. For example, the gray scale conversion module 240 can perform gray scale conversion through the following gray scale image conversion formula:

[0081] Gray = Coefficient 1 * R + Coefficient 2 * G + Coefficient 3 * B

[0082] wherein Gray represents the gray scale value obtained after conversion, R is 8-bit data representing red, G is 8-bit data representing green, and B is 8-bit data representing blue. Those skilled in the art can understand that the specific details of the gray scale conversion operation performed by the gray scale conversion module 240 and the specific gray scale image conversion formula (e.g., the respective coefficients) can be obtained from the related art, and the present disclosure is not limited to the above examples, and will not be described here.

[0083] In the electronic ink screen display according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the video processor comprises: a video receiving module configured to receive video source data comprising a plurality of frames from a video source in a manner of a video stream at a preset frame rate; a resolution adjusting module configured to adjust the resolution of the received video source data to be consistent with the resolution of the electronic ink screen; a pixel brightness adjusting module configured to adjust the pixel brightness of the video data after the resolution adjustment; and a grayscale conversion module configured to convert the grayscale of the video data after the pixel brightness adjustment to obtain video data with corresponding resolution, brightness and grayscale suitable for display on the electronic ink screen, and provide the video data with corresponding resolution, brightness and grayscale to the display controller in units of pixels or pixel groups, so that the electronic ink screen display can display the video stream in real time, the refresh frequency of the electronic ink screen is consistent with the frame rate of the video input to the electronic ink screen display, and even the video display can be realized at the limit refresh frequency of the electronic ink screen itself, and the picture quality of the video as a whole can be maintained at a high level due to the appropriate resolution, brightness and grayscale of the video data while the video stream is being displayed, thereby obtaining a good display effect.

[0084] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the preset frame rate is set to be consistent with the frame rate of the electronic ink screen display 100 displaying the video picture. For example, if the frame rate (also referred to as refresh rate) of the electronic ink screen display 100 displaying the video picture is 40 Hz (i.e., 40 frames per second), the preset frame rate of the video processor 130 receiving the video source data from the video source can be set to 40 Hz based on the refresh rate. Moreover, by this setting, on the one hand, the input video (or video stream) can be processed (or referred to as real-time processing) and displayed (or referred to as real-time display) in real time. On the other hand, since a large amount of video data needs to be received, processed or displayed at the same time, higher processing capability is required, which will increase the overall cost of the electronic ink screen display and may affect the reliability of the electronic ink screen display. Therefore, the electronic ink screen display according to the embodiment of the present disclosure processes and displays the video in units of single pixels or pixel groups, which can facilitate real-time processing and real-time display of the video, control the product manufacturing cost at a reasonable level, and ensure the reliability of the electronic ink screen display. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the video processor 130 knows the refresh rate of the electronic ink screen 110, and notifies the video source of the refresh rate, and the video source sets the frame rate of the video source data to be consistent with the refresh rate. It should be understood that the preset frame rate is set to 40 Hz only as an example, and as long as it does not exceed the limit of the refresh rate of the electronic ink screen 110 and meets the smoothness requirement of video display, the preset frame rate can be set to any value consistent with the refresh rate of the electronic ink screen display 100.

[0085] In the electronic ink screen display according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, by setting the preset frame rate to be consistent with the frame rate of the electronic ink screen display displaying the video picture, the preset frame rate can be set based on the performance of the electronic ink screen display itself, so that the refresh frequency of the electronic ink screen has good matching degree with the frame rate of the video input to the electronic ink screen display, thereby obtaining good display effect.

[0086] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, if the comparison result is different, the driving data generated by the display controller 120 instructs the electronic ink screen 110 to drive the electrodes to apply a voltage to the microcapsules corresponding to one or more pixels corresponding to the video data to be displayed; if the comparison result is the same, the driving data generated by the display controller 120 instructs the electronic ink screen 110 to drive the electrodes to apply a voltage in the same way as the previous voltage.

[0087] In the electronic ink screen display according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, by if the comparison result is different, the driving data generated by the display controller instructs the electronic ink screen to drive the electrodes to apply a voltage to the microcapsules corresponding to one or more pixels corresponding to the video data to be displayed; if the comparison result is the same, the driving data generated by the display controller instructs the electronic ink screen to drive the electrodes to apply a voltage in the same way as the previous voltage, the electronic ink screen can be refreshed in different ways to apply a voltage to the microcapsules corresponding to one or more pixels corresponding to the video data to be displayed when the video data to be displayed is the same as or different from the third video data, thereby reducing the refresh time of each frame of the video, while the picture quality of the video as a whole can be maintained at a high level, thereby obtaining good display effect.

[0088] The above discussion of various cases where the comparison result is different or the same with reference to FIG. 1 can also be combined with the following discussion with reference to FIG. 4B based on the display of the nth frame and the n+1th frame in the video, where the nth frame can correspond to the third video data, and the n+1th frame can correspond to the video data to be displayed. Therefore, please refer to the following discussion based on FIG. 4B for specific content.

[0089] The following describes an exemplary schematic diagram of an example of the video data stored in the frame data storage 140 with reference to FIG. 3.

[0090] FIG. 3 shows an exemplary schematic diagram of an example of the video data stored in the frame data storage 140 in one embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0091] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the video data 300 corresponding to one frame of image stored in the frame data storage 140 is stored in pixel units. In the example shown in FIG. 3, the video data 300 corresponding to one frame of image is of resolution of 64*32. FIG. 3 shows 64*32 small squares 301, one small square 301 corresponding to the video data of one pixel. As shown in FIG. 3, the video data 310 corresponding to the upper 64*10 pixels of the video data 300 of one frame of data refers to the first video data (represented by the small squares with diagonal lines) of the current frame which is currently being displayed on the e-ink screen 110 and has not yet completed the full display. As shown in FIG. 3, the video data 420 corresponding to the lower 64*22 pixels of the video data 300 of one frame of data refers to the second video data (represented by the blank small squares) of the previous frame which has completed the full display on the e-ink screen 110 and has not yet been replaced by the video data of the current frame. As shown in FIG. 3, the third video data 330 included in the second video data 420 is represented by the small squares in black, the pixels corresponding to the third video data 330 are the same position pixels as the pixels corresponding to the to-be-displayed video data in the frame thereof. In this embodiment, the third video data 330 is the video data corresponding to the 11th row of pixels in the video data 300. It can be understood that the data of one frame of video data stored in the frame data storage 140 can not be limited to the data corresponding to the resolution of 64*32, but can be any resolution data as long as it corresponds to the resolution of the e-ink screen.

[0092] Based on the video data stored in the frame data storage 140 shown in FIG. 3, it can be understood that the first video data 310 belongs to the current frame being displayed on the e-ink screen 110, and the second video data 420 belongs to the previous frame which has completed the full display on the e-ink screen 110. It should be noted that the "has completed the full display on the e-ink screen 110" mentioned here does not mean that the video data of the previous frame has been completely replaced (covered) by the current frame in the frame storage 410 and the e-ink screen 110, but only the part of the video data corresponding to the 64*10 pixels corresponding to the first video data 310 is replaced (covered) by the first video data 310 in the frame storage 410 and the e-ink screen 110. From the perspective of instant display (real-time display), the current frame refers to the frame being provided from the video source to the e-ink screen display, and the previous frame which has completed the full display on the e-ink screen refers to the frame which has been completely provided from the video source to the e-ink screen display.

[0093] Based on the above description of FIG. 3, it can be understood that, unlike the related art, the electronic ink screen display in the embodiments of the present disclosure can store and display the video in units of pixels, pixel groups, rows, video data packets, etc., rather than in a frame-by-frame manner. However, it can be understood by those skilled in the art that, with the provision of higher performance software and hardware, the electronic ink screen display based on the embodiments of the present disclosure can also store and display the video in a frame-by-frame manner, as long as the complete and clear display of the video can be achieved by applying the driving voltage to the microcapsule corresponding to each pixel of the electronic ink screen at most once when displaying a frame of video.

[0094] In the electronic ink screen display 400 of the embodiments of the present disclosure, the display controller 120 can read the third video data 330 from the frame data storage 140, and compare the to-be-displayed video data (e.g., video data packet) with the read third video data 330, and output the comparison result, and generate driving data based on the comparison result. The way of data comparison can be obtained from the related art, and the present disclosure does not repeat it. Generating driving data based on the comparison result means that different driving data can be generated based on whether the comparison result is the same or different, and the different driving data is for driving the electrode corresponding to the pixel corresponding to the video data that has not been replaced (covered) by the current frame video data at most once in the previous frame displayed by the electronic ink screen 110.

[0095] In the electronic ink screen display according to the embodiments of the present disclosure, the video processor 130 provides the display controller 120 with video data having appropriate resolution, brightness and gray scale. The display controller 120 processes the received video data in units of pixels or pixel groups including multiple pixels to obtain to-be-displayed video data, generates driving data based on the to-be-displayed video data and sends it to the electronic ink screen 110 to control the electronic ink screen 110 to drive the electrode to apply voltage to the microcapsule corresponding to one or more pixels corresponding to the to-be-displayed video data at most once. How the electronic ink screen drives the electrode to apply voltage to the microcapsule corresponding to the respective pixel corresponding to the to-be-displayed video data to drive the color particles in the microcapsule to move to refresh the image is described below in connection with FIGS. 4A and 4B.

[0096] The electronic ink screen of the related art how the electrode applies voltage to the microcapsule to drive the color particles to move multiple times to reach the target position to complete the display of the frame is described below with reference to FIG. 4A as an example.

[0097] FIG. 4A illustrates a conceptual diagram of color particle movement in a microcapsule when an electronic ink display screen in the related art displays a frame of an image. It should be understood that the number, shape, size and working manner of the microcapsule and color particles shown in the diagram are merely examples to facilitate the understanding of the related concepts by those skilled in the art, and the specific number, shape, size and working manner thereof are not limited thereto.

[0098] As shown in FIG. 4A, in this example, the electronic ink screen in the related art needs to apply a voltage through the upper electrode (upper plate) 411 and the lower electrode (lower plate) 412 of the capsule 420 multiple times to drive the color particles in the microcapsule 420 to the target position multiple times when displaying a frame of a video with a frame rate of 40 Hz. In the example of FIG. 4A, the black solid circle 421 in the microcapsule 420 represents the initial position of the color particles, and the black solid circle 422 represents the target position of the color particles. In the example shown in FIG. 4A, the electronic ink screen applies a voltage through its electrodes 411 and 412 for 7 times in succession to drive the color particles to move from the initial position 421 to the target position 422. The arrows in the diagram show the 7 times of schematic movement trajectories of the color particles when the electrodes 411 and 412 apply a voltage for 7 times, and along the 7 times of movement trajectories, the 6 hollow circles located between the initial position 421 and the target position 422 represent the positions reached by the color particles when they are driven by the voltage for the first 6 times, and the black solid circle 422 represents the target position reached by the color particles when they are driven by the voltage for the 7th time. Moreover, the direction of the voltage application can change each time during the 7 times of voltage application. It can be understood that the same direction of the voltage can be applied for several times when the voltage is applied multiple times. By applying a voltage multiple times to drive the color particles in the microcapsule 420 to the target position multiple times, the display of a frame of a video with a frame rate of 40 Hz can be completed, but the refresh rate of displaying the frame is much lower than 40 Hz. Since the color particles in each capsule of the electronic ink screen need to move 7 times when displaying a frame, the frame rate can only reach 7 to 10 frames per second. That is, for the input video with a frame rate of 40 Hz, the display refresh rate can only reach 7 to 10 Hz. Such a refresh rate is not sufficient to display the video smoothly, i.e., the display effect of the video is poor.

[0099] In addition, although only one color particle in one microcapsule 420 is shown in FIG. 4A, it should be understood that this is merely to illustrate how color particles in microcapsules move when an electronic ink screen displays a frame of image according to the related art. Moreover, the electrode applies 7 times of voltage to drive color particles to move 7 times is merely an example, and the number of times of applying voltage by the electrode can be more or less. Moreover, depending on the refresh mode of the adopted related art, it is possible that color particles in microcapsules move vertically upward multiple times, or move vertically downward multiple times, or move vertically upward and move vertically downward multiple times alternately when an electronic ink screen displays a frame of image. It should be understood that in the related art, multiple times of voltage need to be applied to drive color particles to reach the target position through multiple movements when an electronic ink screen displays a frame of image, usually 4 to 16 times of voltage need to be applied to drive color particles in microcapsules to move 4 to 16 times. Moreover, in the case of applying voltage for tens of milliseconds, an electronic ink screen according to the related art needs even hundreds of milliseconds to complete the display of a frame of image. It can be understood that an electronic ink display according to the related art needs to apply multiple times of voltage to drive color particles to move multiple times to display a frame of image, which is too long for video display and the display effect is poor.

[0100] The following will be described with reference to FIG. 4B to illustrate how an electronic ink screen display according to the embodiments of the present disclosure applies at most one time of voltage to microcapsules by electrodes to drive color particles to move at most one time to complete video display when displaying a frame of image.

[0101] FIG. 4B illustrates a conceptual diagram of movement of color particles in microcapsules when an electronic ink display according to the embodiments of the present disclosure displays two frames of image continuously. It should be understood that the number, shape, size and working mode of microcapsules and color particles shown in the figure are merely examples to facilitate the understanding of the related concept by those skilled in the art, and the specific number, shape, size and working mode are not limited thereto.

[0102] As shown in FIG. 4B, when displaying the nth frame of the video, the electronic ink screen according to the embodiment of the present disclosure needs to apply a voltage once through the upper electrode (upper plate) 431 and the lower electrode (lower plate) 432 of the microcapsule 440 to drive the color particles (represented by black solid circles) in the microcapsule 440 to move once, i.e., from the initial position 441 at the time of displaying the nth frame to the target position 442. In the embodiment of the present disclosure, when displaying the (n+1)th frame of the video, since the nth frame and the (n+1)th frame in the video are different, the electronic ink screen according to the embodiment of the present disclosure applies a voltage once through the upper electrode 431 and the lower electrode 432 of the microcapsule 440 to drive the color particles in the microcapsule 440 to move again, i.e., from the initial position 442 at the time of displaying the (n+1)th frame (the target position at the time of displaying the nth frame) to the target position 443. The color particle movement mode shown in FIG. 4B is only an example. In another embodiment of the present disclosure, it is possible that the color particles in the microcapsule move vertically upward once or vertically downward once when the electronic ink screen displays a frame of image.

[0103] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, since the nth frame and the (n+1)th frame in the video are completely the same or partially the same, when refreshing the (n+1)th frame, for the pixels of the same part, the electronic ink screen can drive the upper electrode 431 and the lower electrode 432 of the microcapsule 440 to apply a voltage once again in the same way as applying a voltage once at the corresponding pixel position in the nth frame. This is because, since applying a voltage once in the nth frame can not have caused the color particles in the microcapsule at the corresponding pixel position to move to the target position enough to make the nth frame be clearly displayed, in the (n+1)th frame, the color particles in the microcapsule still need to continue to move to the target position, so that the video frame picture at the corresponding pixel in the (n+1)th frame is more clearly displayed than in the nth frame.

[0104] That is, the driving of the electrodes 431, 432 to apply a voltage once at the corresponding pixel position to make the color particles move when displaying the (n+1)th frame shown in FIG. 4B represents two cases: for the pixels of the same position in the nth frame and the (n+1)th frame, the displayed video data can be different, or can be the same. In addition, those skilled in the art can understand that, if the voltage direction of applying a voltage once at the corresponding pixel position when displaying the (n+1)th frame is opposite to the voltage direction of applying a voltage once at the corresponding pixel position when displaying the nth frame, it is because the nth frame and the (n+1)th frame in the video are different. In this case, the opposite voltage directions make the movement directions of the electrodes driving the color particles opposite.

[0105] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, if the nth frame in the video is identical to the (n+1)th frame, or partially identical, and the driving data generated by the display controller 120 indicates that the electrodes 431 and 432 above and below the microcapsules 440 of the electronic ink screen 110 are driven to apply the voltage again in the same way as the previous time, and the number of continuous application of the voltage reaches a preset threshold, the driving data generated indicates that the electrodes are not driven by the electronic ink screen 110, i.e. no voltage is applied. The preset threshold can be determined according to the performance of the electronic ink screen itself. For example, the preset threshold can be 3 times, 4 times, 6 times, 10 times, etc., which is not limited by the present disclosure. For example, the preset threshold of 4 times can mean that the color particles in the microcapsules of the electronic ink screen 110 displaying the same pixel of the video data for a plurality of times are continuously driven by the same voltage for 4 times, i.e. the color particles can be moved to the target position. Moreover, in the case of displaying the same video data for the 5th time immediately after the color particles are driven for the 4th time, the display effect of the frame cannot be made better by continuing to drive the color particles. Therefore, in this embodiment, when displaying the (n+1)th frame of the video, the electronic ink screen according to the embodiment of the present disclosure can not apply voltage to the electrodes 431 and 432 above and below the microcapsules corresponding to one or more pixels. In this case, when displaying the (n+1)th frame, the color particles in the corresponding microcapsules remain in the initial position at the (n+1)th frame without movement. In addition, the driving data indicating that the electrodes are not driven by the electronic ink screen 110 can also save energy and prolong the service life of the corresponding components.

[0106] The following further discusses an embodiment of how to control the number of continuous application of the voltage in the case of "applying the voltage again in the same way as the previous time".

[0107] The following describes an exemplary block diagram of one embodiment of the display controller shown in FIG. 1 for performing the operation of controlling the number of continuous application of the voltage.

[0108] FIG. 5 shows an exemplary structural block diagram of one embodiment of the display controller 120 in the electronic ink screen display 100 shown in FIG. 1.

[0109] As shown in FIG. 5, the display controller 120 comprises a counter 510 and a count detection device 520 for each pixel of the electronic ink screen. The counter 510 for each pixel of the electronic ink screen is configured to count the number of times of continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsules of the pixel to obtain a first count value, and count the number of times of continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsules of the pixel to obtain a second count value, wherein the first voltage is opposite to the second voltage. The count detection device 520 is configured to detect whether the first count value and the second count value reach a preset condition. When the count detection device 520 detects that the first count value reaches the preset condition, the display controller 120 generates driving data indicating that the first voltage is not applied to the microcapsules of the pixel until the display controller 120 generates driving data indicating that the second voltage is applied to the microcapsules of the pixel. When the count detection device 520 detects that the second count value reaches the preset condition, the display controller 120 generates driving data indicating that the second voltage is not applied to the microcapsules of the pixel until the display controller 120 generates driving data indicating that the first voltage is applied to the microcapsules of the pixel.

[0110] In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the first voltage can refer to a voltage for driving the color particles of a specific color in the microcapsules to move upward, and the second voltage opposite to the first voltage can refer to a voltage for driving the color particles of the specific color in the microcapsules to move downward, or vice versa. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, continuously applying the first voltage (or the second voltage) to the microcapsules of the pixel can cause the color particles in the microcapsules of the pixel of the electronic ink screen 110 to be continuously driven by the first voltage (or the second voltage) for multiple times when the same video data is displayed for multiple times continuously. The counter 510 for each pixel of the electronic ink screen can be a counter in the related art, and the present disclosure does not limit the implementation of the counter. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the counting manner of the counter can be forward counting, i.e., the count value is increased by one each time the first voltage (or the second voltage) is applied. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the counting manner of the counter can be reverse counting, i.e., the count value is decreased by one each time the first voltage (or the second voltage) is applied, and the count value can be the number of times of remaining voltage application. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the counting manner of the counter can simultaneously perform forward counting and reverse counting, i.e., the count value for the first voltage is decreased by one and the count value for the second voltage is increased by one each time the first voltage is applied, or vice versa, and the count value can be the number of times of remaining voltage application.

[0111] In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the preset condition detected by the count detection device 520 is related to the counting manner performed by the counter 510 of each pixel point of the electronic ink screen, i.e., for the forward counting manner, the preset condition can be whether a specific threshold (e.g., a positive integer) is reached. For the reverse counting manner, the preset condition can be whether a specific threshold (e.g., 0) is reached. For example, the setting principle of the preset condition can refer to the content discussed above, i.e., the color particles in the microcapsules of the electronic ink screen 110 displaying the same video data for a plurality of times continuously are driven by the same voltage for a specific number of times, so that the color particles move to the target position, and after that, the display effect of the frame picture cannot be made better by continuing to drive the color particles. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the specific number of times can be set as the specific threshold in the forward counting manner, or can be set as the initial value of the counter in the reverse counting manner.

[0112] In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the reason for performing “based on the count detection device 520 detecting that the first count value reaches the preset condition, the driving data generated by the display controller 120 indicates that the first voltage is not applied to the microcapsule of the pixel point until the driving data generated by the display controller 120 indicates that the second voltage is applied to the microcapsule of the pixel point” and “based on the count detection device 520 detecting that the second count value reaches the preset condition, the driving data generated by the display controller 120 indicates that the second voltage is not applied to the microcapsule of the pixel point until the driving data generated by the display controller 120 indicates that the first voltage is applied to the microcapsule of the pixel point” is that, on the one hand, this can make the color particles in the microcapsule move to the target position, and after that, the display effect of the frame picture cannot be made better by continuing to drive the color particles, and on the other hand, it is also to prevent the corresponding components from being aged or even failed due to the same voltage applied for a long time, and to maintain the service life of the corresponding components of the electronic ink screen.

[0113] In the electronic ink screen display according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the display controller comprises: a counter for each pixel point of the electronic ink screen, which is used to count the case of continuously applying a first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point to obtain a first count value, and count the case of continuously applying a second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point to obtain a second count value, wherein the first voltage and the second voltage are in opposite directions; a count detection device for detecting whether the first count value and the second count value reach a preset condition, wherein, based on the count detection device detecting that the first count value reaches the preset condition, the driving data generated by the display controller indicates that the first voltage is not applied to the microcapsule of the pixel point until the driving data generated by the display controller indicates that the second voltage is applied to the microcapsule of the pixel point, and, based on the count detection device detecting that the second count value reaches the preset condition, the driving data generated by the display controller indicates that the second voltage is not applied to the microcapsule of the pixel point until the driving data generated by the display controller indicates that the first voltage is applied to the microcapsule of the pixel point, so that the power consumption can be reduced as much as possible while video display is performed on the electronic ink screen at a preset frame rate, thereby preventing the corresponding components from being aged due to long-time application of the same voltage and maintaining the service life of the corresponding components of the electronic ink screen.

[0114] The embodiments of the present disclosure are further described below from the aspects of forward counting and reverse counting.

[0115] The embodiments of the counter counting forward are discussed below.

[0116] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the first count value refers to the number of times of applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel, and the second count value refers to the number of times of applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel. The counting detection device 520 detects whether the number of times of applying the first voltage reaches a first threshold, and if the number of times of applying the first voltage is detected to reach the first threshold during the process of continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel by the electronic ink screen, the driving data generated by the display controller 120 indicates that the first voltage is not applied to the microcapsule of the pixel until after the driving data generated by the display controller 120 indicates that the second voltage is applied to the microcapsule of the pixel. The counting detection device 520 detects whether the number of times of applying the second voltage reaches a second threshold, and if the number of times of applying the second voltage is detected to reach the second threshold during the process of continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel by the electronic ink screen, the driving data generated by the display controller 120 indicates that the second voltage is not applied to the microcapsule of the pixel until after the driving data generated by the display controller 120 indicates that the first voltage is applied to the microcapsule of the pixel.

[0117] For example, the counter 510 of a pixel counts that the number of times of applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel reaches 10, and the counting detection device 520 detects that 10 has reached the first threshold 10. Moreover, it is still in the process of continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel, i.e., the number of times of continuously applying the first voltage will exceed 10. In this case, the driving data generated by the display controller 120 indicates that after the 10th application of the first voltage is completed, the first voltage is not applied to the microcapsule of the pixel until after the driving data generated by the display controller 120 indicates that the second voltage is applied to the microcapsule of the pixel. That is, at least until the process of continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel is completed, and after at least one second voltage is applied, the first voltage can be applied again. The above is described by taking the application of the first voltage as an example, but it should be understood that the continuous application of the second voltage is similar, which is not described here. It should be understood that 10 is taken as the first threshold here only as an example, and the first threshold can be determined based on the following factors. On the one hand, the color particles in the microcapsule of the pixel of the electronic ink screen 110 are continuously driven by the same voltage for a certain number of times when displaying the same video data, i.e., the color particles can be moved to the target position, and after that, the display effect of the frame cannot be made better by continuing to drive the color particles. On the other hand, to prevent the corresponding components from aging or even failing due to long-time application of the same voltage, and to maintain the service life of the corresponding components of the electronic ink screen.

[0118] In the electronic ink screen display according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the first count value refers to the number of times of continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel, and the second count value refers to the number of times of continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel, wherein the count detection device detects whether the number of times of applying the first voltage reaches a first threshold, and if it is detected that the number of times of applying the first voltage reaches the first threshold during the process of continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel by the electronic ink screen, the driving data generated by the display controller indicates that the first voltage is not applied to the microcapsule of the pixel until the driving data generated by the display controller indicates that the second voltage is applied to the microcapsule of the pixel, wherein the count detection device detects whether the number of times of applying the second voltage reaches a second threshold, and if it is detected that the number of times of applying the second voltage reaches the second threshold during the process of continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel by the electronic ink screen, the driving data generated by the display controller indicates that the second voltage is not applied to the microcapsule of the pixel until the driving data generated by the display controller indicates that the first voltage is applied to the microcapsule of the pixel, the number of times of continuously applying the first voltage or continuously applying the reverse second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel can be counted, and in the case that the number of times of continuously applying the first voltage or continuously applying the second voltage is too much, the continuous application of the first voltage or the second voltage is stopped until the first voltage or the second voltage can be applied again after the application of the reverse voltage, which can reduce the power consumption as much as possible while displaying the video on the electronic ink screen according to the preset frame rate, and can also prevent the corresponding components from being aged or even malfunctioning due to the long-time application of the same voltage, thereby maintaining the service life of the corresponding components of the electronic ink screen.

[0119] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, in the case of continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel and then continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel, if the count detection device 520 detects that the value obtained by subtracting the number of times of applying the second voltage from the number of times of applying the first voltage is greater than or equal to a third threshold, the display controller 120 reduces the first threshold to a fourth threshold smaller than the first threshold. In the case of continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel and then continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel, if the count detection device 520 detects that the value obtained by subtracting the number of times of applying the first voltage from the number of times of applying the second voltage is greater than or equal to a fifth threshold, the display controller 120 reduces the second threshold to a sixth threshold smaller than the second threshold.

[0120] The following examples explain this embodiment. For example, in a two-round voltage application process for the same pixel in which the microcapsules are successively applied with the first voltage eight times and the second voltage two times (the direction of the voltage applied in the two-round voltage application process must be opposite, otherwise it will be a one-round voltage application process), the first threshold value 10 is not reached. Next, the second voltage is successively applied two times and the second threshold value 10 is not reached. At this time, the counting detection device 520 detects that the value obtained by subtracting the number of times the second voltage is applied 2 from the number of times the first voltage is applied 8 is 6, which is greater than or equal to the third threshold value 5. In this case, the display controller 120 reduces the first threshold value 10 to a fourth threshold value 6, which is less than the first threshold value 10. Similarly, if the second voltage is successively applied nine times and the second threshold value 10 is not reached in the first round, and the first voltage is successively applied three times and the second threshold value 10 is not reached in the second round. At this time, the counting detection device 520 detects that the value obtained by subtracting the number of times the first voltage is applied 3 from the number of times the second voltage is applied 9 is 6, which is greater than or equal to the fifth threshold value 5. In this case, the display controller 120 reduces the second threshold value 10 to a sixth threshold value 6, which is less than the second threshold value 10.

[0121] In this embodiment, the first threshold value or the second threshold value is reduced to prevent the following situation from occurring in a three-round (or more) voltage application process: the first voltage is successively applied eight times in the first round, the second voltage is successively applied two times in the second round, and the first voltage is successively applied nine times in the third round. That is, a process in which the first voltage is successively applied two rounds with a number close to the threshold value is interrupted by a round in which the second voltage is applied a small number of times. At this time, although the two-round process in which the voltage is successively applied in the same direction does not reach the threshold value 10 times, the number of times the first voltage is applied reaches 17 times in a short period of time. This situation can cause the corresponding components to age or even malfunction, thereby affecting the service life of the corresponding components of the electronic ink screen. In the three-round voltage application example, in the case where the scheme of this embodiment is applied, after the second voltage is successively applied two times in the second round, the first threshold value is reduced from 10 to the fourth threshold value 6. At this time, in the voltage application process of the third round, the first voltage cannot be successively applied nine times, but can only be applied six times, and the following three first voltage application operations are not performed. After the second voltage is applied one or more times in the voltage application process of the fourth round, the fourth threshold value is increased to the first threshold value only in the case where the first voltage is applied one or more times in the voltage application process of the fifth round (the second process in which the first voltage is successively applied after the first threshold value is reduced to the fourth threshold value). This is because, in this case, the number of times the first voltage is successively applied is limited in the voltage application process of the third round, and thus the possibility that the corresponding components will age or even malfunction due to the long-time application of the voltage in the same direction is reduced.

[0122] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, after the display controller 120 reduces the first threshold value to a fourth threshold value smaller than the first threshold value, in the case of continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point for the second time, the display controller 120 increases the fourth threshold value to the first threshold value. Wherein, after the display controller 120 reduces the second threshold value to a sixth threshold value smaller than the second threshold value, in the case of continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point for the second time, the display controller 120 increases the sixth threshold value to the second threshold value.

[0123] In the electronic ink screen display according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, by continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point and then continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point, if the count detection device detects that the value obtained by subtracting the number of times of applying the second voltage from the number of times of applying the first voltage is greater than or equal to a third threshold value, the display controller reduces the first threshold value to a fourth threshold value smaller than the first threshold value. Wherein, by continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point and then continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point, if the count detection device detects that the value obtained by subtracting the number of times of applying the first voltage from the number of times of applying the second voltage is greater than or equal to a fifth threshold value, the display controller reduces the second threshold value to a sixth threshold value smaller than the second threshold value. In this way, in the case of continuously applying the same direction voltage for too many times and with the operation of applying the reverse voltage for a small number of times in between as the interval, the threshold value for the next continuous application of the same direction voltage can be reduced, thereby preventing the corresponding components from aging or even failing due to the continuous application of the same direction voltage for too many times after the interval of applying the reverse voltage, and maintaining the service life of the corresponding components of the electronic ink screen.

[0124] In the electronic ink screen display according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the display controller increases the fourth threshold to the first threshold after decreasing the first threshold to the fourth threshold smaller than the first threshold, and in the case of continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point for the second time, the display controller increases the sixth threshold to the second threshold after decreasing the second threshold to the sixth threshold smaller than the second threshold, and in the case of continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point for the second time, so that the threshold for the next continuous application of the same direction voltage is restored to the initial threshold when the continuous excessive application of the same direction voltage and the interval of the less reverse voltage application operation therebetween no longer occurs, the video is refreshed enough to maintain the picture quality of the whole video at a high level to obtain a good display effect under the premise of preventing the continuous excessive application of the same direction voltage after the interval of the reverse voltage application from causing the corresponding components to age or even fail, and maintaining the service life of the corresponding components of the electronic ink screen.

[0125] It should be understood that the above discussion of the first threshold, the second threshold, the third threshold, the fourth threshold, the fifth threshold, and the sixth threshold is only an example, and those skilled in the art can set them to other values according to the above teachings of the present disclosure as long as the above discussed embodiments can be implemented.

[0126] The following discusses the embodiment of the counter counting in reverse.

[0127] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the first count value refers to a first remaining voltage application number of times that the first voltage is allowed to be continuously applied to the microcapsule of the pixel point, and the first remaining voltage application number of times is reduced by one each time the first voltage is applied in the process of continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point. The second count value refers to a second remaining voltage application number of times that the second voltage is allowed to be continuously applied to the microcapsule of the pixel point, and the second remaining voltage application number of times is reduced by one each time the second voltage is applied in the process of continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point. The count detection device 520 detects whether the first voltage application number of times reaches 0, and if it is detected that the first voltage application number of times reaches 0 in the process of continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point by the electronic ink screen, the driving data generated by the display controller 120 indicates that the first voltage is not applied to the microcapsule of the pixel point until after the driving data generated by the display controller 120 indicates that the second voltage is applied to the microcapsule of the pixel point. The count detection device 520 detects whether the second voltage application number of times reaches 0, and if it is detected that the second voltage application number of times reaches 0 in the process of continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point by the electronic ink screen, the driving data generated by the display controller 120 indicates that the second voltage is not applied to the microcapsule of the pixel point until after the driving data generated by the display controller 120 indicates that the first voltage is applied to the microcapsule of the pixel point.

[0128] This embodiment is described below with reference to Table 1.

[0129] Table 1

[0130] As can be seen from Table 1, the initial values of the first remaining voltage application number of times and the second remaining voltage application number of times are both 10, and the first remaining voltage application number of times (the second remaining voltage application number of times) is reduced by one each time the first voltage (the second voltage) is applied in the process of continuously applying the first voltage (the second voltage) to the microcapsule of the pixel point. For example, the first voltage is applied in the first voltage application, at which time the first remaining voltage application number of times is 9; the first voltage is applied in the second voltage application, at which time the first remaining voltage application number of times is 8, and so on. Similarly, the second voltage is applied in the fourth voltage application, at which time the second remaining voltage application number of times is 9; the second voltage is applied in the fifth voltage application, at which time the second remaining voltage application number of times is 9, and so on. After the process of continuously applying the second voltage ends, the first voltage is applied in the eighth voltage application, at which time the first remaining voltage application number of times is again 9.

[0131] It can be understood that once the first remaining voltage application times is 0, it means that the number of times of continuously applying the first voltage to a pixel reaches the limit, and the driving data generated by the display controller 120 indicates that the first voltage is no longer continuously applied until the driving data generated by the display controller 120 indicates that the second voltage is applied to the microcapsule of the pixel. For the case of continuously applying the second voltage, reference can be made to the case of continuously applying the first voltage, and the specific process will not be repeated here.

[0132] In the electronic ink screen display according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the first remaining voltage application times refers to the number of times of continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel, and the first remaining voltage application times is reduced by one each time the first voltage is applied in the process of continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel, the second remaining voltage application times refers to the number of times of continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel, and the second remaining voltage application times is reduced by one each time the second voltage is applied in the process of continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel, the count detection device detects whether the first voltage application times reaches 0, and if it is detected that the first voltage application times reaches 0 in the process of continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel by the electronic ink screen, the driving data generated by the display controller indicates that the first voltage is not applied to the microcapsule of the pixel until the driving data generated by the display controller indicates that the second voltage is applied to the microcapsule of the pixel, the count detection device detects whether the second voltage application times reaches 0, and if it is detected that the second voltage application times reaches 0 in the process of continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel by the electronic ink screen, the driving data generated by the display controller indicates that the second voltage is not applied to the microcapsule of the pixel until the driving data generated by the display controller indicates that the first voltage is applied to the microcapsule of the pixel, the remaining times of continuously applying the same voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel can be counted, and in the case that the remaining times of continuously applying the same voltage is 0, the continuous application of the same voltage is stopped until the same voltage can be applied again after the application of the opposite voltage, so that the video display by the electronic ink screen at the preset frame rate can be realized while the power consumption is reduced as much as possible, and the aging or even failure of the corresponding components caused by the long-time application of the same voltage can be prevented, and the service life of the corresponding components of the electronic ink screen can be maintained.

[0133] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the counter 510 for each pixel of the electronic ink screen also stores a total remaining voltage application number set as a fixed value, which is the sum of the first remaining voltage application number and the second remaining voltage application number, wherein the first remaining voltage application number is reduced by one and the second remaining voltage application number is increased by one when the first remaining voltage application number is one less than the second remaining voltage application number, and the second remaining voltage application number is reduced by one and the first remaining voltage application number is increased by one when the second remaining voltage application number is one less than the first remaining voltage application number.

[0134] This embodiment is described below with reference to Table 2.

[0135] Table 2

[0136] As can be seen from Table 2, the sum of the first remaining voltage application number and the second remaining voltage application number (total remaining voltage application number) is 10. During the process of continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsules of the pixel, the first remaining voltage application number is reduced by one and the second remaining voltage application number is increased by one each time the first voltage is applied. Moreover, during the process of continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsules of the pixel, the second remaining voltage application number is reduced by one and the first remaining voltage application number is increased by one each time the second voltage is applied.

[0137] For example, the first voltage is applied at the first time of applying voltage, at which time the first remaining voltage application number is 9 and the second remaining voltage application number is 1; the first voltage is applied at the second time of applying voltage, at which time the first remaining voltage application number is 8 and the second remaining voltage application number is 2; and so on. Similarly, the second voltage is applied at the fourth time of applying voltage, at which time the second remaining voltage application number is 2 and the first remaining voltage application number is 8; the second voltage is applied at the fifth time of applying voltage, at which time the second remaining voltage application number is 1 and the first remaining voltage application number is 9; the second voltage is applied at the sixth time of applying voltage, at which time the second remaining voltage application number is 0 and the first remaining voltage application number is 10; the second voltage is applied at the seventh time of applying voltage, at which time the second remaining voltage application number is 0 and the first remaining voltage application number is 10; and so on. Since the second remaining voltage application number has been reduced to 0 at the sixth time of applying voltage, the driving data generated by the display controller 120 indicates that the second voltage is not applied to the microcapsules of the pixel at the seventh time of applying voltage. Until the first voltage is applied at the eighth time of applying voltage, the first remaining voltage application number is 9 and the second remaining voltage application number is 1, i.e., the display controller 120 can generate driving data indicating that the second voltage is applied to the microcapsules of the pixel only if the second voltage is applied from the ninth time of applying voltage.

[0138] The inventor of the present disclosure finds that, in the case that the total remaining voltage application times set as a fixed value is stored in the counter for each pixel point of the electronic ink screen, the first voltage or the second voltage can be applied as much as possible, and the application process of the first voltage and the second voltage is repeatedly switched, so that the display quality of the video frame can be ensured, and the residual image can be reduced.

[0139] In the electronic ink screen display according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, by storing the total remaining voltage application times set as a fixed value in the counter for each pixel point of the electronic ink screen, the total remaining voltage application times is the sum of the first remaining voltage application times and the second remaining voltage application times, wherein the second remaining voltage application times is one more than the first remaining voltage application times when the first remaining voltage application times is one less, and the first remaining voltage application times is one more than the second remaining voltage application times when the second remaining voltage application times is one less, the display quality of the video frame can be ensured, the residual image can be reduced, the power consumption can be reduced as much as possible while the video is displayed on the electronic ink screen according to the preset frame rate, and the corresponding components can be prevented from aging or even failure caused by the same voltage applied for a long time, and the service life of the corresponding components of the electronic ink screen can be maintained.

[0140] The way of video display in the electronic ink screen display according to the embodiments of the present disclosure is further illustrated by examples as follows.

[0141] For example, in the case that the refresh mode of the electronic ink screen display according to the embodiments of the present disclosure is to output a video of 40Hz (i.e., 40 frames per second), the electronic ink screen according to the embodiments of the present disclosure can display 40 frames per second, i.e., the refresh rate is also 40Hz. That is, in the case that the driving electrode applies a voltage to the microcapsule corresponding to one or more pixels corresponding to the video data to be displayed in a frame for 25ms (milliseconds), the display of a frame of image is completed only in 25ms. In contrast, in the case that the refresh mode of the electronic ink screen of the related art is to output a video of 40Hz, the electronic ink screen of the related art usually displays only 7 to 10 frames per second because the screen is usually refreshed 4 to 16 times (i.e., the color particles are driven to move from the initial position to the target position by applying a voltage 4 to 16 times in succession) when each frame is updated. Therefore, compared with the display scheme of the electronic ink screen of the related art, in the embodiments of the present disclosure, after the electronic ink screen display receives the video source data from the external video source, the video data can be refreshed on the electronic ink screen immediately, i.e., the electronic ink screen is refreshed synchronously while the video source data is received, and the effect of real-time video display can be achieved.

[0142] For example, in the case where the refresh mode of the electronic ink screen display in the embodiments of the present disclosure is to output a 33 Hz (i.e., 33 frames per second) video, the driving electrode applies a voltage to the microcapsule corresponding to one or more pixels in a frame corresponding to the video data to be displayed once, and the display of a frame of image is completed only in 30 ms, i.e., the electronic ink screen in the embodiments of the present disclosure can display 33 frames per second. In this refresh mode, the electronic ink screen can be refreshed synchronously while receiving the video source data, and the effect of real-time (or instant) display of the video can be achieved. It should be understood that the "real-time display" or "instant display" mentioned in the present disclosure does not mean that the time of receiving the video from the outside is completely consistent with the time of displaying on the electronic ink screen, but the time difference between the two is very small, so that the user cannot perceive the time difference when watching the video. For example, it can be considered that the streaming media is played in real time.

[0143] The refresh rate of the electronic ink screen display in the above examples exceeds the video playing speed of about 12 frames per second without a sense of lag, and also reaches or exceeds the frame rate requirement of 25 to 30 frames per second when playing movies, TV programs, computer games, etc. It should be understood that the refresh rate, frame rate, and corresponding time of applying voltage to the microcapsule and time of displaying a frame mentioned in the embodiments of the present disclosure are only examples, and various refresh rates, frame rates, etc. can be set according to the situation as long as the actual needs of real-time video playing can be met.

[0144] According to the above content of the present disclosure, those skilled in the art can understand that only one driving voltage is applied to the microcapsule corresponding to each pixel of the electronic ink screen to drive the color particles to move at most once when displaying a frame of picture in the video, which can significantly improve the refresh speed of a frame of picture, thereby playing the video smoothly. How to maintain the picture quality of the video as a whole at a high level while applying at most one driving voltage will be described in detail below.

[0145] First of all, it needs to be pointed out that in the related art, there is no implementation mode in which the electronic ink screen can make the color particles move to the target position in the microcapsule by applying a voltage once to refresh a frame of image in the video. Moreover, in the related art, the feature that the color particles can reach the target position in the microcapsule by applying multiple voltages to drive the color particles to move multiple times is the embodiment of the physical characteristics of the electronic ink screen, and is also the way determined by the researchers of the electronic ink screen through repeated experiments to drive the color particles to reach the target position in the microcapsule to display a frame of image completely and obtain the desired display effect.

[0146] Secondly, in the embodiments of the present disclosure, although the electronic ink screen driving electrode applies at most one voltage increase to the microcapsule corresponding to one or more pixels corresponding to the video data to be displayed, the way of driving the color particles to move once to complete the refresh of the current to-be-displayed data cannot guarantee that the first several frames of images in the video can be displayed completely and clearly. Especially for the first frame in the video, it is almost impossible to display the image of the frame completely and clearly by driving the color particles in the microcapsules corresponding to all the pixels corresponding to the video data in the frame to move only once.

[0147] According to the experimental results of the inventors of the present disclosure, from the second frame or the third frame in the video, the image of the second frame or the third frame can be displayed completely and relatively clearly by driving the color particles in the microcapsules corresponding to all the pixels corresponding to the video data in the frame to move only once, that is, the picture quality on the whole video can be acceptable. From the fourth frame in the video, the color particles in the microcapsules corresponding to all the pixels corresponding to the video data in the frame are driven to move only once, which can make the picture quality of the frame image reach almost the same picture quality as that of displaying a static image with the same resolution, color, and gray scale by using the electronic ink display screen of the related art, that is, the picture quality remains at a good level.

[0148] Those skilled in the art can understand that in the first second of video display, the first frame, or the first two frames, or the first five frames, or even the first eight frames of the electronic ink screen display according to the embodiments of the present disclosure, the picture quality may not be good enough because the color particles driven by the electrode do not move to the appropriate position in the microcapsule. However, the inventors of the present disclosure found through experiments that the color particles in the microcapsules corresponding to the frames after these frames with poor picture quality (including other frames from the second second of the video) are driven only once, which can make the picture quality of the frame reach almost the same picture quality as that of displaying a static image with the same resolution, color, and gray scale by using the electronic ink display screen of the related art.

[0149] As can be appreciated by one skilled in the art, the difference between two adjacent frames of video data in a video is usually small, and even most of the pixels do not change. That is, compared to the nth frame, the color particles in the microcapsules corresponding to the pixels of the nth+1 frame of video data usually need to be driven to move a small distance to reach the target position that can make the frame be displayed with good picture quality, and even most of the color particles in the microcapsules corresponding to the pixels of the nth+1 frame of video data do not need to be driven to move because most of the color particles in the microcapsules corresponding to the pixels of the nth frame of video data have already reached the target position in the microcapsules (i.e., the target position that makes the nth frame reach good picture quality). Moreover, compared to the driving mode of the related art (the color particles in the microcapsules of each pixel are synchronously driven multiple times), the driving of the color particles in the microcapsules of the pixels that do not change is reduced in the embodiments of the present disclosure, thereby optimizing the picture display. That is, the embodiments of the present disclosure achieve driving for the pixels that change and reducing driving or even not driving for the pixels that do not change. Therefore, the color particles in the microcapsules corresponding to the pixels of the frames after the aforementioned frames with poor picture quality are driven at most once, and the picture quality of the frames can reach almost the same picture quality as a static image displayed with the same resolution, color, and gray scale by the electronic ink display screen using the related art.

[0150] It should be noted that the picture quality of the 1st frame, the 2nd frame, the 3rd frame, and the 4th frame mentioned here are all the effects obtained by applying a voltage to the microcapsules of the corresponding pixels once. That is, the frame rate of the video including these frames is 33 frames per second, and the corresponding time of applying a voltage once is determined based on the frame rate, i.e., 30 ms. If the frame rate of the video is higher, the corresponding time of applying a voltage once will be shorter, and the picture quality of the frame image can reach a good level from the 5th frame, the 6th frame, or a later frame in the video. In addition, the electronic ink screen produced by different manufacturers and the electronic ink screen made of different materials can affect the frame image from which the picture quality can reach a good level, and therefore the above content is only an example based on a certain specific electronic ink screen.

[0151] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the duration of the voltage applied by the electrodes of the electronic ink screen 110 is no more than the duration of one frame of video corresponding to the frame rate. This is because, in one case, the grayscale of the same pixel in the nth frame and the nth+1 frame of a video can be completely different, so if the duration of the voltage applied is more than the duration of one frame of video corresponding to the frame rate, the nth+1 frame cannot be correctly displayed, or even lost. In another case, because the difference between adjacent two frames of video data in a video can be small, compared with the nth frame, the color particles in the microcapsules corresponding to the pixels corresponding to the nth+1 frame of video data are usually driven to move a small distance by the voltage, so at this time, the duration of the voltage applied by the electrodes can be shorter than the duration of one frame of video corresponding to the frame rate.

[0152] In the electronic ink screen display according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the duration of the voltage applied by the electrodes of the electronic ink screen is no more than the duration of one frame of video corresponding to the frame rate, so that the color particles in the microcapsules can be driven by appropriate voltage while video display is performed by the electronic ink screen at a preset frame rate, thereby maintaining the picture quality on the whole video at a high level, and thus obtaining a good display effect.

[0153] It should be understood that the video frame rate should not be higher than the maximum refresh rate of the e-ink display screen, because a too high video frame rate does not bring about an improvement in smoothness and picture quality when displayed by the e-ink screen. In addition, if the frame rate of the video becomes lower, the time for applying a voltage to the microcapsule corresponding to one or more pixels of the video data to be displayed is longer, and the picture quality of the image of the 3rd frame from the video can reach an excellent level. Moreover, as mentioned above, there is no implementation in the related art in which the e-ink screen alone can move the color particles to the target position in the microcapsule by applying a voltage once to refresh a frame of the video. Therefore, even if the time for applying a voltage to the microcapsule corresponding to one or more pixels of the video data to be displayed is extended as much as possible, it is difficult to make the picture quality of the 1st frame reach an excellent level. Those skilled in the art can understand that even if it is difficult to make the picture quality reach an excellent level from the 1st frame of the video, making the picture quality reach an excellent level from the 4th frame is sufficient for the user of the video content. For example, when a user watches a video with a frame rate of 33 frames per second, the video picture is only slightly blurred for about 100 ms at the beginning, and reaches the same excellent picture quality as the e-ink display screen of the related art displays a static image in a very short time, with good smoothness. The inventors of the present disclosure have made a comparison by playing the same video content using a liquid crystal display and an e-ink screen according to the embodiments of the present disclosure (which can be an e-ink screen to which a color polarizing sheet is applied), and the refresh rates and picture qualities of the two are almost the same, and the user cannot distinguish the display effects of the two with the naked eye.

[0154] It should be noted that although the picture quality of each frame image is mentioned here, in the embodiments of the present disclosure, the picture refreshing mode of displaying one frame in its entirety and then displaying the next frame in its entirety, i.e., the mode of refreshing all the pixels in one frame at the same time, is not adopted. Specifically, the display controller of the electronic ink screen display according to the embodiments of the present disclosure processes the received video data in units of pixels or pixel groups including multiple pixels to obtain the video data to be displayed. The display controller generates driving data based on the video data to be displayed and sends the driving data to the electronic ink screen to control the electronic ink screen to apply a voltage at most once to the microcapsules corresponding to one or more pixels corresponding to the video data to be displayed by driving the electrodes. That is, the electronic ink screen display according to the embodiments of the present disclosure processes the video data in units of single pixels or pixel groups including multiple pixels, and displays the video picture in units of single pixels or pixel groups including multiple pixels (for example, 4 pixels per group, or 8 pixels per group, or 10 pixels per group, or 16 pixels per group, or one row of pixels of the electronic ink screen per group, or multiple rows of pixels per group, etc.). In this way, the efficiency of processing the video data and the refreshing efficiency of the electronic ink screen display when displaying the video can be improved, and the smoothness of displaying the video can be better. In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the video is processed and displayed in units of single pixels or pixel groups including multiple pixels, which on the one hand makes the input video (or video stream) easy to be processed and displayed in real time. On the other hand, since a large amount of video data needs to be received, processed, or displayed at the same time, higher processing capability and higher hardware configuration level are required, which increases the overall cost of the electronic ink screen display and may affect the reliability of the electronic ink screen display. Therefore, the electronic ink screen display according to the embodiments of the present disclosure processes and displays the video in units of single pixels or pixel groups including multiple pixels, which can facilitate the real-time processing and display of the video, control the product manufacturing cost at a reasonable level, and ensure the reliability of the electronic ink screen display.

[0155] In the electronic ink screen display 100 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the display controller 120 can arrange the received video data in sequence in units of pixels or pixel groups, and pack the video data as a video data packet as the video data to be displayed, and generate driving data based on the video data packet and send the driving data to the electronic ink screen 110 as soon as a video data packet is packed, so that the electronic ink screen 110 drives the electrodes to apply a voltage at most once to the microcapsules corresponding to one or more pixels corresponding to the video data packet based on the driving data, thereby completing the display of the one or more pixels corresponding to the video data to be displayed.

[0156] In this embodiment, the display controller 120 receives video data from the video processor 130 in units of pixels or groups of pixels, and arranges the video data in correct front-to-back order. That is, the display controller 120 arranges video data corresponding to a plurality of pixels or video data corresponding to a plurality of groups of pixels in correct front-to-back order upon receiving the video data. Next, the display controller 120 packs the arranged data into a video data packet. The display controller 120 generates driving data based on the video data packet to provide to the electronic ink screen 110. The electronic ink screen 110 drives the electrode pair to apply a voltage to the microcapsule corresponding to the corresponding pixel based on the driving data, thereby completing display of the video data packet. Embodiments of the present disclosure do not limit the size of the video data packet, as long as the size of the video data of one frame of video is not exceeded.

[0157] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the size of the video data packet should be suitable for the display controller 120 to perform processing, and the driving data generated based thereon should be suitable for the electronic ink screen to drive the electrode for a proper number of pixels. That is, a video data packet that is too small and the driving data generated based thereon can make the display controller 120 and the electronic ink screen 110 inefficient, and a video data packet that is too large and the driving data generated based thereon can make the display controller 120 and the electronic ink screen 110 difficult to process, and the processing capacity must be improved, thereby requiring a hardware structure with high cost.

[0158] In an electronic ink screen display according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the display controller arranges received video data in order in units of pixels or groups of pixels, packs the video data into a video data packet as to-be-displayed video data, and generates driving data based on the video data packet and sends the driving data to the electronic ink screen as soon as a video data packet is packed, so that the electronic ink screen drives the electrode to apply a voltage to the microcapsule corresponding to one or more pixels corresponding to the video data packet based on the driving data, thereby completing display of the one or more pixels corresponding to the to-be-displayed video data, which can make the driving data provided by the display controller better match the inherent performance of the electronic ink screen, thereby further reducing the refresh time of each frame of video, and further improving the overall video picture quality while displaying video on the electronic ink screen at a preset frame rate, thereby achieving good display effect.

[0159] An exemplary block diagram of the display controller 120 in one embodiment of the present disclosure is described below with reference to FIG. 6, and one example of how to-be-displayed video data is compared with third video data and driving data is generated is described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 6.

[0160] FIG. 6 shows an exemplary structural diagram of another embodiment of the display controller 120 in the electronic ink screen display 100 shown in FIG. 1.

[0161] As shown in FIG. 6, the display controller 120 comprises a display engine 610, a driving data output module 620, a pixel data buffer 630, a counter 510 for each pixel point, and a count detection device 520. The counter 510 for each pixel point and the count detection device 520 can refer to the description based on FIG. 5, which will not be repeated here.

[0162] The display engine 610 reads the third video data 330 from the second video data 320 stored in the frame data storage 140 based on the index of the pixel corresponding to the to-be-displayed video data in its frame, compares the to-be-displayed video data with the read third video data 330, and outputs the comparison result. In this embodiment, the third video data 330 is the video data corresponding to the 11th row of pixels in the video data 300. It can be understood that the to-be-displayed video data is the video data corresponding to the 11th row of pixels of the current frame in which the first video data 310 is located. The above to-be-displayed data (video data packet provided by the pixel data buffer 630) is the video data corresponding to the entire row of pixels, which is only an example. In fact, the to-be-displayed data (video data packet provided by the pixel data buffer 630) can be video data of various sizes in units of pixels or pixel groups. In this embodiment, the index can be determined by the row number and column number of the pixel in a frame image, or each pixel in a frame image can be assigned a number, and those skilled in the art can generate an index for the pixel according to the related art, and the present disclosure does not limit this. In an embodiment, the difference video data can be the grayscale difference of the same pixel corresponding to the to-be-displayed video data and the third video data 330. For example, the grayscale difference can be a positive value or a negative value.

[0163] The driving data output module 620 generates the driving data based on the comparison result, whether the first count value detected by the count detection device 520 reaches the preset condition, and whether the second count value detected by the count detection device 520 reaches the preset condition, and sends the driving data to the electronic ink screen 110. The way of generating the driving data can refer to the foregoing discussion based on FIG. 4 and FIG. 5, which will not be repeated here.

[0164] Although the counter 510 for each pixel is connected to the driving data output module 620 in FIG. 6 to obtain the case of continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel, in an embodiment of the present disclosure, the counter 510 for each pixel can be connected to the display engine 610 to obtain the case of continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel according to the comparison result. That is, as indicated in the foregoing discussed embodiment, the difference or sameness of the comparison result makes the display controller 120 generate the driving data indicating whether and how the electronic ink screen 110 applies the voltage, so that the case of continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel can be obtained.

[0165] The pixel data buffer 630 buffers the video data received from the video processor 130 (see FIG. 4) in units of pixels or pixel groups, arranges the received video data in sequence, and packs the video data as a video data packet as the to-be-displayed video data, and provides the video data packet to the display engine 610 immediately after the video data packet is packed. The related description of the arrangement and packing operations performed by the pixel data buffer 630 can refer to the foregoing description of the corresponding operations performed by the display controller 120, which will not be repeated here.

[0166] In the electronic ink screen display according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, by the display engine, the third video data is read from the second video data stored in the frame data storage based on the index of the pixel of the to-be-displayed video data in the frame to which the to-be-displayed video data belongs, the to-be-displayed video data is compared with the read third video data, and the comparison result is output; by the driving data output module, the driving data is generated based on the comparison result, whether the first count value detected by the count detection device reaches the preset condition, and whether the second count value detected by the count detection device reaches the preset condition, and the driving data is sent to the electronic ink screen; and by the pixel data buffer, the video data received from the video processor is buffered in units of pixels or pixel groups, the received video data is arranged in sequence, and the video data is packed as a video data packet as the to-be-displayed video data, and the video data packet is provided to the display engine immediately after the video data packet is packed. The display controller can be implemented in a proper structure, the video data processing speed of the electronic ink screen display is improved, and in the case that the to-be-displayed video data is the same as or different from the third video data, the electronic ink screen is driven in a proper manner to refresh, so that the refresh time of each frame of the video is reduced, the picture quality of the whole video can be maintained at a high level, and a good display effect is obtained.

[0167] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the display engine 610 writes the to-be-displayed video data into the frame data memory 140 to replace the third video data 330 in the second video data 310 as part of the first video data 310.

[0168] As shown in FIG. 3, the display engine 610 writes the to-be-displayed video data into the frame data memory 140 to replace (overwrite) the third video data 330 through a write operation. In this case, the frame data memory 140 stores video data corresponding to the first 11 rows of pixels in the video data as video data of the current frame, and stores video data corresponding to the last 21 rows of pixels in the video data as video data of the previous frame. It can be understood that the display engine 610 can include a separate write operation module for performing video data writing to the frame data memory 140. In one example, the write operation module can be located outside the display engine 610 as part of the display controller 120. Similarly, the display engine 610 can include a separate read operation module for performing video data reading from the frame data memory 140 to complete the aforementioned comparison of the to-be-displayed video data and the second video data (third video data). In one example, the read operation module can be located outside the display engine 610 as part of the display controller 120.

[0169] In the electronic ink screen display according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, by writing the to-be-displayed video data into the frame data memory to replace the third video data in the second video data as part of the first video data through the display engine, the video data stored in the frame data memory can be updated in time, so that the display engine can accurately compare the third video data with the to-be-displayed video data, ensuring the reliability of the driving data provided by the display controller and the display effect of the electronic ink screen display.

[0170] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the display engine 610 writes the to-be-displayed video data and the third video data 330 that are different for the same pixel into the frame data memory 140 according to the comparison result, and retains the third video data 330 that are the same for the same pixel, thereby completing the replacement of the third video data 330 and serving as part of the first video data 310.

[0171] In the electronic ink screen display according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, by the display engine writing only the video data to be displayed and the video data in the third video data which are different from each other for the same pixel into the frame data memory according to the comparison result, the video data in the third video data which are the same for the same pixel are reserved, thus completing the replacement of the third video data, and the writing times to the frame data memory can be reduced, the writing efficiency is improved, the power consumption of the frame data memory is reduced, the service life of the frame data memory is prolonged, and thus the power consumption of the electronic ink screen display is reduced and the service life of the electronic ink screen display is prolonged.

[0172] Those skilled in the art will further appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented by electronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans can implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present embodiments.

[0173] The various illustrative logical blocks, or steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented or performed by a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general purpose processor can be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the general purpose processor can be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor can also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a digital signal processor and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a digital signal processor core, or any other such configuration.

[0174] The steps of a method or algorithm described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein can be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. A software module can reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is tangible. A storage medium can be coupled to the processor such that the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium can be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium can reside in an ASIC. The ASIC can reside in a user terminal. In the alternative, the processor and the storage medium can reside as discrete components in a user terminal. Additionally, in some embodiments, the processor and the storage medium can reside as discrete components in a user terminal.

[0175] The specific implementation described above is illustrative for carrying out the present application and implementing the purposes and advantages of the application. It is to be understood that any modification, equivalent replacement or improvement made without departing from the spirit and principles of the present application shall fall within the scope of the present application.

Claims

1. An electronic ink display, characterized by The display controller comprises: an electronic ink screen for displaying a video picture, and comprising microcapsules encapsulating color particles, electrodes above and below the microcapsules for applying a voltage to the microcapsules to drive the color particles; a video processor for receiving video source data comprising a plurality of frames from a video source at a preset frame rate, and converting the video source data into video data suitable for display on the electronic ink screen, and providing the video data in units of pixels or groups of pixels; a frame data storage for storing first video data of a current frame currently being displayed on the electronic ink screen and not yet completed with full display, and second video data of a previous frame currently being displayed on the electronic ink screen and completed with full display and not yet replaced by video data of the current frame, wherein the second video data comprises third video data corresponding to pixels identical to pixels corresponding to to-be-displayed video data in a frame thereof; a display controller for processing video data received from the video processor in units of pixels or groups of pixels comprising a plurality of pixels to obtain the to-be-displayed video data, comparing gray scales of pixels corresponding to the to-be-displayed video data with gray scales of pixels corresponding to the third video data to obtain a comparison result, and generating driving data based on the comparison result and sending the driving data to the electronic ink screen, so that the electronic ink screen drives the electrodes to apply a voltage at most once to microcapsules corresponding to one or more pixels corresponding to the to-be-displayed video data based on the driving data.

2. An electronic ink display according to claim 1, wherein, If the comparison result is different, the driving data generated by the display controller instructs the electronic ink screen to drive the electrodes to apply a voltage once to microcapsules corresponding to one or more pixels corresponding to the to-be-displayed video data; If the comparison result is the same, the driving data generated by the display controller instructs the electronic ink screen to drive the electrodes to apply a voltage again in the same way as applying a voltage once.

3. An electronic ink display according to claim 2, wherein, The display controller comprises: a counter for each pixel point of the electronic ink screen for counting a first count value related to continuous application of a first voltage to microcapsules of the pixel point, and a second count value related to continuous application of a second voltage to the microcapsules of the pixel point, wherein the first voltage and the second voltage are in opposite directions; a count detection device for detecting whether the first count value and the second count value reach a preset condition, wherein, based on the count detection device detecting that the first count value reaches the preset condition, the driving data generated by the display controller instructs not to apply the first voltage to the microcapsules of the pixel point until after the driving data generated by the display controller instructs to apply the second voltage to the microcapsules of the pixel point, The display controller generates driving data indicating that the microcapsule of the pixel point is not applied with the second voltage until the display controller generates driving data indicating that the microcapsule of the pixel point is applied with the first voltage, based on the counting detection device detecting that the second count value reaches the preset condition.

4. An electronic ink display according to claim 3, wherein, The first count value refers to the number of times of applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point continuously, and the second count value refers to the number of times of applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point continuously, The counting detection device detects whether the number of times of applying the first voltage reaches a first threshold, and if the counting detection device detects that the number of times of applying the first voltage reaches the first threshold in the process of the electronic ink screen continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point, the display controller generates driving data indicating that the microcapsule of the pixel point is not applied with the first voltage until the display controller generates driving data indicating that the microcapsule of the pixel point is applied with the second voltage, The counting detection device detects whether the number of times of applying the second voltage reaches a second threshold, and if the counting detection device detects that the number of times of applying the second voltage reaches the second threshold in the process of the electronic ink screen continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point, the display controller generates driving data indicating that the microcapsule of the pixel point is not applied with the second voltage until the display controller generates driving data indicating that the microcapsule of the pixel point is applied with the first voltage.

5. An electronic ink display according to claim 4, wherein, If the counting detection device detects that the value obtained by subtracting the number of times of applying the second voltage from the number of times of applying the first voltage is greater than or equal to a third threshold in the case of continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point and then continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point successively, the display controller reduces the first threshold to a fourth threshold smaller than the first threshold, If the counting detection device detects that the value obtained by subtracting the number of times of applying the first voltage from the number of times of applying the second voltage is greater than or equal to a fifth threshold in the case of continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point and then continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point successively, the display controller reduces the second threshold to a sixth threshold smaller than the second threshold.

6. An electronic ink display as claimed in claim 5, characterized in that After the display controller reduces the first threshold to the fourth threshold smaller than the first threshold, in the case of applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point for the second time, the display controller increases the fourth threshold to the first threshold, After the display controller reduces the second threshold to the sixth threshold smaller than the second threshold, in the case of applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point for the second time, the display controller increases the sixth threshold to the second threshold.

7. The electronic ink display of claim 3, wherein, The first count value refers to a first remaining voltage application number of times that the first voltage is allowed to be continuously applied to the microcapsule of the pixel point, and in the process of continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point, the first remaining voltage application number of times is reduced by one each time the first voltage is applied, The second count value refers to a second remaining voltage application number of times that the second voltage is allowed to be continuously applied to the microcapsule of the pixel point, and in the process of continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point, the second remaining voltage application number of times is reduced by one each time the second voltage is applied, The count detection device detects whether the first voltage application number of times reaches 0, and in the process of continuously applying the first voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point by the electronic ink screen, if it is detected that the first voltage application number of times reaches 0, the driving data generated by the display controller indicates that the first voltage is not applied to the microcapsule of the pixel point until after the driving data generated by the display controller indicates that the second voltage is applied to the microcapsule of the pixel point, The count detection device detects whether the second voltage application number of times reaches 0, and in the process of continuously applying the second voltage to the microcapsule of the pixel point by the electronic ink screen, if it is detected that the second voltage application number of times reaches 0, the driving data generated by the display controller indicates that the second voltage is not applied to the microcapsule of the pixel point until after the driving data generated by the display controller indicates that the first voltage is applied to the microcapsule of the pixel point.

8. An electronic ink display according to claim 7, wherein, The counter of each pixel point of the electronic ink screen also stores a total remaining voltage application number of times set as a fixed value, which is the sum of the first remaining voltage application number of times and the second remaining voltage application number of times, wherein the second remaining voltage application number of times is increased by one when the first remaining voltage application number of times is reduced by one, and the first remaining voltage application number of times is increased by one when the second remaining voltage application number of times is reduced by one.

9. An electronic ink display according to claim 3, wherein, The display controller further comprises: a display engine for reading the third video data from the second video data stored in the frame data storage based on the index of the pixel corresponding to the to-be-displayed video data in the frame to which the to-be-displayed video data belongs, comparing the to-be-displayed video data with the read third video data, and outputting a comparison result; a driving data output module for generating the driving data based on the comparison result, whether the first count value detected by the count detection device reaches the preset condition, and whether the second count value detected by the count detection device reaches the preset condition, and sending the driving data to the electronic ink screen; a pixel data buffer for buffering the video data received from the video processor in units of pixels or the pixel groups, arranging the received video data in sequence, and packing as a video data packet as to-be-displayed video data, and providing the to-be-displayed video data to the display engine as soon as a video data packet is packed.

10. An electronic ink display according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein, The electronic ink screen drives the electrode to apply a duration of a voltage not more than a duration of a frame of video picture corresponding to the frame rate. The electronic ink screen drives the electrode to apply a duration of a voltage not more than a duration of a frame of video picture corresponding to the frame rate.

Images