METHOD FOR DRIVING DISPLAY WITH REDUCED AGING
A method of driving a display having a plurality of light-emitting elements that change with time or use, comprising the steps of: a) receiving and displaying a first image signal and storing an attribute of the first image signal; b) receiving and displaying a subsequent second image signal; c) comparing a corresponding image attribute of the subsequent second image signal to the stored first image attribute to form a subsequent second image difference signal; d) displaying a screen saver image signal when the subsequent second image difference signal does not exceed a first limit; e) receiving a plurality of subsequent third image signals while the screen saver image signal is being displayed; f) comparing corresponding image attributes of the subsequent third image signals to the stored first image attribute to form a corresponding plurality of subsequent third image difference signals; and g) displaying a third image signal only when more than one subsequent third image difference signals exceed a second limit.
1 . A method of driving a display having a plurality of light-emitting elements that change with time or use, comprising the steps of:
a) receiving and displaying a first image signal and storing an attribute of the first image signal;
b) receiving and displaying a subsequent second image signal;
c) comparing a corresponding image attribute of the subsequent second image signal to the stored first image attribute to form a subsequent second image difference signal;
d) displaying a screen saver image signal when the subsequent second image difference signal does not exceed a first limit;
e) receiving a plurality of subsequent third image signals while the screen saver image signal is being displayed;
f) comparing corresponding image attributes of the subsequent third image signals to the stored first image attribute to form a corresponding plurality of subsequent third image difference signals; and
g) displaying a third image signal only when more than one subsequent third image difference signals exceed a second limit.
2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of receiving a plurality of subsequent second image signals, comparing corresponding image attributes of the subsequent second image signals to the first image attribute to form a corresponding plurality of second image difference signals, and displaying a screensaver image signal only when more than one subsequent second image difference signals do not exceed the first limit.
3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the first and second limits are the same.
4 . The method of claim 2 , wherein a different number of subsequent third image difference signal are required to exceed the second limit to display a third image signal than the number of subsequent second image difference signals required not to exceed the first limit to display the screensaver image signal.
5 . The method of claim 2 , wherein a number of sequential and continuous in time subsequent second image difference signals are required not to exceed the first limit to display the screensaver image signal.
6 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the more than one subsequent second image difference signals not exceeding the first limit required to display the screensaver image signal may be separated in time by one or more subsequent second image difference signal that exceeds the first limit.
7 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the first limit is determined as a function of the luminance of the first or second image signal.
8 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the number of subsequent second image difference signals required not to exceed the first limit to display the screensaver image signal is determined as a function of the luminance of the first image signal.
9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a number of sequential and continuous in time subsequent third image difference signals are required to exceed the second limit to display a subsequent third image signal.
10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the more than one subsequent third image difference signals exceeding the second limit required to display a subsequent third image signal may be separated in time by one or more subsequent third image difference signal that does not exceed the second limit.
11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a user selectable number of subsequent third image difference signals are required to exceed the second limit to display a subsequent third image signal.
12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first limit is determined as a function of the luminance of the first image signal.
13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a plurality of image attributes of the subsequent second image signal are compared to a plurality of corresponding first image attributes to form the subsequent second image difference signal.
14 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a plurality of image attributes of the subsequent third image signals are compared to a plurality of corresponding first image attributes to form the subsequent third image difference signals.
15 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the image attributes comprise one or more values of the corresponding image signals themselves, and the comparisons are comparisons of the image signal values.
16 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the screensaver image is a dark image signal, a scene or graphic that changes over time, a darkened second image signal, or an image signal wherein every pixel changes over time.
17 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of accepting a user-interaction signal, receiving and displaying a first image, and storing an attribute of the first image signal.
18 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first, second and third image signals are high-definition television or standard definition television format signals.
19 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the display is an OLED display.
20 . A method of driving a display having a plurality of light-emitting elements that change with time or use, comprising the steps of:
a) receiving and displaying a first image signal and storing an attribute of the first image signal;
b) receiving and displaying a plurality of subsequent second image signals;
c) comparing corresponding image attributes of the subsequent second image signals to the stored first image attribute to form a corresponding plurality of subsequent second image difference signals; and
d) displaying a screen saver image signal only when more than one subsequent second image difference signals do not exceed a first limit, wherein the more than one subsequent second image difference signals not exceeding the first predetermined limit required to display the screensaver image signal may be separated in time by at least one subsequent second image difference signal that exceeds the first limit.