True Color Image Enhancement for Ambient Light Gray-Scale Remapping
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing automatic luminance control methods in automotive displays maintain visibility of peak-white gray shades but compromise the visibility of lower gray shades under varying ambient lighting conditions, leading to reduced display power efficiency and compromised image quality.
Innovation Solution
A true color image enhancement system using an ambient light sensor, circuit, and processor to dynamically remap gray shades in a look-up table based on ambient light levels, compressing certain regions and stretching others to maintain color coordinates and improve visibility across all lighting conditions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Illumination intensity
If automatic luminance control increases display luminance to maintain visibility under high ambient illumination, then visibility of peak-white gray shades is maintained, but visibility of lower gray shades is compromised and power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by differentiating the treatment of different gray shade regions. Instead of uniformly increasing luminance across all gray shades, the system selectively enhances only the lower gray shades that fall below the visibility threshold, while maintaining peak-white luminance. This is achieved through the visibility determination module that identifies specific gray shades requiring enhancement and the enhancement module that applies targeted luminance adjustment only to those regions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements partial action by applying luminance enhancement only to the extent necessary to achieve visibility thresholds for lower gray shades, rather than increasing overall display luminance. The enhancement module adjusts luminance selectively for identified problematic gray shades, avoiding excessive luminance increase that would waste power. The system performs just enough enhancement to meet visibility requirements without over-enhancing.
2Illumination intensity
If automatic luminance control increases display luminance to maintain visibility under high ambient illumination, then visibility of peak-white gray shades is maintained, but visibility of lower gray shades is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by differentiating the treatment of different gray shade regions. Instead of uniformly increasing luminance across all gray shades, the system selectively enhances only the lower gray shades that fall below the visibility threshold, while maintaining peak-white luminance. This is achieved through the visibility determination module that identifies specific gray shades requiring enhancement and the enhancement module that applies targeted luminance adjustment only to those regions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements feedback through the visibility determination module that continuously monitors whether lower gray shades meet visibility thresholds under current ambient lighting conditions. Based on this feedback, the enhancement module dynamically adjusts luminance for specific gray shades. The system also uses ambient light sensor feedback to adapt to changing lighting conditions, ensuring gray shade visibility is maintained across varying environments.
3Manufacturing precision
If true color enhancement is applied to maintain color accuracy across all luminance levels, then color coordinates are maintained, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-calculating and storing enhancement parameters in lookup tables before actual image processing. The system pre-determines the relationship between ambient light levels, gray shade visibility thresholds, and required luminance enhancements. During operation, the system simply queries these pre-computed tables rather than performing complex real-time calculations, significantly reducing processing complexity while maintaining color accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements parameter changes by transforming the color correction problem from a complex multi-dimensional optimization into a set of manageable parameter adjustments. The system changes parameters such as luminance ratios, gray shade thresholds, and enhancement factors based on ambient light level. By parameterizing the solution space and using lookup tables to store optimal parameter sets, the system maintains color accuracy without requiring complex real-time computation.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enhances visibility of lower gray shades while reducing power consumption by dynamically adjusting the display's gray shade mapping to correct for ambient lighting conditions, maintaining image quality and reducing power usage.
Implementation Method 1
An ambient light sensor is operational to measure an ambient light level
Data Source
AI summary
A true color image enhancement system includes an ambient light sensor, a circuit and a processor. The ambient light sensor measures an ambient light level. The circuit generates a histogram based on an input video signal; and generates an output video signal by converting gray shades in the input video signal based on input video luminance ratios and a look up table to determine new output gray shade values to maintain input video color coordinates. The processor develops the look up table based on the histogram and the ambient light level; dynamically remaps the gray shades in the look up table in response to the ambient light signal to compress one region and stretch another region; dynamically remaps the gray shades in the look up table to correct for ambient lighting conditions; and transfers the look up table to the circuit.