Character Display Outlining for Low Contrast Visibility

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing display technologies face challenges in clearly displaying characters against backgrounds with similar colors, as changing background or font colors can disrupt the overall interface effect and lead to messy visual representations.

Innovation Solution

A method and apparatus that outline characters when their color difference with the background is below a threshold, using a formula to calculate differences in RGB values between character and background points, ensuring only characters that are excessively similar to the background are outlined, thus maintaining a clear display.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If the background color is changed to distinguish characters, then character visibility is improved, but the overall interface effect is changed and side effects are obvious

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecharacter visibilityVSAvoidinterface effect consistency
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies local quality by adding outline effects only to specific characters that have low contrast with their background, rather than changing the background color globally. The system calculates the color difference between each character and its background, and selectively applies outlining only where needed, thus maintaining overall interface consistency while improving local character visibility.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

2Reliability

If the font color is changed to distinguish characters from background, then character visibility is improved, but the visual effect becomes messy when different colored fonts appear in the same area

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecharacter visibilityVSAvoidvisual effect consistency
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSStability of the object's composition

Solution Approach 1:

Instead of changing font colors globally or uniformly, the patent applies outlining locally only to characters with low contrast ratios. This selective approach maintains visual consistency within the same text area while ensuring problematic characters remain visible, avoiding the messy appearance that would result from applying different colors throughout the entire text.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces an intermediary element (the outline) between the character and background when direct color differentiation is insufficient. This outline acts as a mediator that enhances visibility without requiring fundamental changes to the character or background colors, thus maintaining visual harmony while solving the visibility problem.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Reliability

If characters are outlined to improve visibility, then character distinction from background is improved, but the processing complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecharacter visibilityVSAvoidprocessing complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent changes the parameter of character presentation by adding an outline attribute selectively, rather than fundamentally altering the rendering process for all characters. The system modifies specific parameters (outline presence, outline color, outline width) only for characters that meet the low-contrast criterion, thus improving visibility while minimizing processing complexity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

Data Source

PatentEP2573670B1Character display method and device
Publication Date: 2017.12.20 HUAWEI DEVICE CO LTD
  • EP2573670B1 patent drawingFigure 1~2
  • EP2573670B1 patent drawingFigure 3
  • EP2573670B1 patent drawingFigure 4~5

AI summary

The present invention discloses a character display method and apparatus. The method includes: obtaining a display color value of the character; obtaining a background color value of the character according to a position of the character, and obtaining a difference between the display color value and the background color value; obtaining an outline of the character when the difference is smaller than a preset threshold; and displaying the character that has the outline. By adopting the present invention, the character may be clearly displayed in a background without changing a color of the character and a color of the background.