Intra-frame pause and delayed emission timing for foveated displays

Inventors

Shehata, Shereef • Chou, Jim C • Cai, Shengchang

Assignees

Apple Inc

Abstract

Embodiments presented herein relate to reducing perceivable image artifacts on an electronic display caused by variances in emission timing of emission groups, and more specifically, to emission techniques that can be used with foveated content, such as dynamically foveated content. For example, an image frame may be divided into multiple foveation regions based on viewing characteristics, such as a viewer's gaze. To improve perceived image quality, a first foveation region may use a higher pixel resolution while a second foveation region may use a lower pixel resolution, which may result in differences in programming time. As such, one or more intra-frame pauses may be used when programming the second foveation region to delay emission timing of the second foveation region. In this way, programming time for the image frame may be more consistent and perceivable image artifacts from frame to frame may be reduced.

Core Innovation

The disclosure reduces perceivable image artifacts in foveated displays by addressing different emission/programming times between a relatively high resolution grouping region and a relatively low resolution grouping region. It identifies that a high-resolution portion programmed individually into each pixel row can have different timing than a low-resolution portion programmed concurrently into two or more pixel rows, which can cause flicker or artifacts between frames or with gaze shifts.

To improve programming timing consistency, the disclosure inserts one or more intra-frame pauses during programming of selected foveation regions. The pauses are inserted based on a comparison between a first programming profile associated with programming individually per pixel row and a second programming profile associated with programming concurrently across multiple pixel rows, so the programming profiles become more consistent across frames and gaze changes.

The disclosure also uses eye-tracked gaze position to determine central versus outer foveation regions and their associated high- and low-resolution portions. It further determines one or more positions to insert the one or more intra-frame pauses into the second programming profile, including constraints on possible pause locations, and provides example programming profiles and timing graphs with timing deviation reduction for an example case.

Claims Coverage

Independent claim set covers an electronic device, a computer-readable medium, and a method that generate eye-tracking-based foveated pixel data and mitigate timing-induced artifacts by determining intra-frame pause positions based on a comparison between programming profiles, including determining a duration and number of pauses. Across the independent claims, the core inventive features are eye tracking to drive foveation region grouping and intra-frame pauses inserted based on differences between individually programmed and concurrently programmed regions.

The independent claims collectively require generating eye-tracking-based foveated content with distinct high- and low-resolution foveation grouping regions programmed using different programming profiles, namely individual pixel-row programming versus concurrent multi-row programming. They further require determining and applying intra-frame pauses for the concurrently programmed region based on a comparison of programming profiles, including determining pause duration and number from programming-time differences, while instructing programming of at least one region without intra-frame pauses.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications