Plasma display apparatus
View Patent ↗According to the present invention, a plasma display apparatus, which represents the luminance of one frame in accordance with a combination of plural sub-frames having luminance levels corresponding to a plurality of weighted values, additionally includes a sub-frame having a luminance level lower than the minimum gray scale level of luminance which can be represented by the number of bits in the input video data. Such plasma display apparatus turns on a desired combination of the sub-frames so as to increase the resolution of the luminance without increasing the conventional number of gray scale levels included in the input video data. In a preferred embodiment, especially when the added smaller luminance sub-frame is included in a combination of sub-frames for a low luminance area, the resolution of the gray scale of the low luminance area can be increased, and the representation of gray scale can be enhanced in a low luminance area to which the sight of a person is more sensitive.
1. A plasma display apparatus, which represents the luminance of one frame in accordance with a combination of sub-frames having respective predetermined luminance levels, comprising:
a data converter converting input video data into output data in which ON/OFF states of the sub-frames are specified, the data converter having a conversion characteristic in which a rate of increase of luminance of said output data, in a first gray scale area of said input video data, differs from a rate of increase of said luminance of said output data in a second gray scale area, whose luminance is higher than said first gray scale area,
wherein luminance of the one frame is displayed according to a combination of sub-frames including a sub-frame for minimum gray scale level in the first gray scale area, and the luminance of the one frame is displayed according to a combination of sub-frames excluding the sub-frame for minimum gray scale level in the second gray scale area.
2. A plasma display apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said data converter has a plurality of conversion characteristics, and a desired conversion characteristic is selected in accordance with a mode set signal for selecting a desired one of said plurality of conversion characteristics.
3. A plasma display apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said input video data are supplied in accordance with a plurality of primary colors, and said conversion characteristics of said data converter are selectively determined for each of said primary colors.
4. A data converter for a plasma display apparatus which represents the luminance of one frame in accordance with a combination of sub-frames having respective, predetermined luminance levels, wherein input video data are converted into output data in which ON/OFF states of the plurality of sub-frames are specified,
wherein the data converter has a conversion characteristic in which a rate of increase of the luminance of said output data, in a first gray scale area of said input video data, differs from a rate of increase of said luminance of said output data in a second gray scale area, whose luminance is higher than said first gray scale area, and
the data converter outputs said output data having a combination of sub-frames including a sub-frame for minimum gray scale level in the first gray scale area, and a combination of sub-frames excluding the sub-frame for minimum gray scale level in the second gray scale area.
5. A driving method for a plasma display apparatus which represents luminance of one frame in accordance with a combination of sub-frames having respective, predetermined luminance levels, comprising:
converting input video data into output data in which ON/OFF states of the plurality of sub-frames are specified, the data converting having a conversion characteristic in which a rate of increase of the luminance of said output data, in a first gray scale area of said input video data, differs from a rate of increase of said luminance of said output data in a second gray scale area, whose luminance is higher than said first gray scale area,
wherein a luminance of the one frame is displayed according to a combination of sub-frames including a sub-frame for minimum gray scale level in the first gray scale area, and the luminance of the one frame is displayed according to a combination of sub-frames excluding the sub-frame for minimum gray scale level in the second gray scale area.