Backlight assembly, method for driving backlight assembly, and liquid crystal display having the same

1. A backlight assembly that supplies light to a liquid crystal display panel, the backlight assembly comprising:

a light emitting diode assembly comprising at least one light emitting diode block region having a plurality of light emitting diodes;

a backlight unit driving unit comprising a color control unit configured to determine a representative color of the light emitting diode block region using at least one image signal supplied to the liquid crystal display panel, wherein color classes are determined for the at least one image signal, wherein the color classes are mapped into color regions in a color coordinate system, wherein the color regions are determined according to visibilities, wherein the color control unit defines a visibility associated with a color region in the color coordinate system into which the color classes of the at least one image signal are most frequently mapped as the representative color of the light emitting diode block region, and wherein at least one color class of the color classes of the at least one image signal corresponds to a plurality of color gradations; and

a dimming control unit configured to control color of the light emitting diode block region based on the representative color of the light emitting diode block region determined by the color control unit,

wherein the light emitting diode assembly comprises red light emitting diodes, green light emitting diodes, blue light emitting diodes, and white light emitting diodes, and

wherein brightness of the light emitting diode assembly is adjusted by adjusting brightness of the white light emitting diodes without adjusting brightness of the red light emitting diodes, the green light emitting diodes, or the blue light emitting diodes.

2. The backlight assembly of claim 1 , wherein the backlight unit driving unit further comprises:

a memory to store color coordinate system table information comprising a plurality of color regions in the color coordinate system.

3. The backlight assembly of claim 1 ,

wherein the liquid crystal display panel comprises a liquid crystal display panel block region corresponding to the light emitting diode block region, and

wherein the representative color of the liquid crystal display panel block region is determined as the representative color of the light emitting diode block region.

4. The backlight assembly of claim 1 , further comprising:

a brightness control unit that determines brightness of the light emitting diode block region and transmits brightness control signals to a dimming control unit.

5. The backlight assembly of claim 4 , wherein the brightness control unit determines an average brightness of brightness signals supplied to a plurality of liquid crystal display panel block regions as a representative brightness.

6. The backlight assembly of claim 1 ,

wherein the backlight unit driving unit further comprises color class table information, the color class table information including a plurality of red color classes formed according to red color gradations and according to human-eye red color distinguishing capability, a plurality of green color classes formed according to green color gradations and according to human-eye green color distinguishing capability, and a plurality of blue color classes formed according to blue color gradations and according to human-eye blue color distinguishing capability, and

wherein one or more of the color classes of the at least one image signal are among the plurality of red color classes, the plurality of green color classes, and the plurality of blue color classes.

7. A liquid crystal display comprising:

a liquid crystal display panel configured to display images, the liquid crystal display panel including a plurality of liquid crystal display panel block regions;

a liquid crystal display panel driving unit configured to drive the liquid crystal display panel;

a light emitting diode assembly that supplies light to the liquid crystal display panel and comprises a plurality of light emitting diode block regions including at least one light emitting diode block region and having a plurality of light emitting diodes; and

a backlight unit driving unit comprising a color control unit configured to determine a representative color set of the light emitting diode block region using at least one image signal supplied to the liquid crystal display panel, the backlight unit driving unit further comprising a dimming control unit configured to control colors of the light emitting diode block region based on the representative color set of the light emitting diode block region determined by the color control unit, wherein color classes are determined for the at least one image signal, wherein the color classes are mapped into color regions in a color coordinate system, wherein the color regions are determined according to visibilities, wherein the color control unit defines a color region in the color coordinate system into which the color classes of the at least one image signal are most frequently mapped as the representative color set of the light emitting diode block region, and wherein at least one color class of the color classes of the at least one image signal corresponds to a plurality of color gradations,

wherein the light emitting diode assembly comprises red light emitting diodes, green light emitting diodes, blue light emitting diodes, and white light emitting diodes, and

wherein brightness of the light emitting diode assembly is adjusted by adjusting brightness of the white light emitting diodes without adjusting brightness of the red light emitting diodes, the green light emitting diodes, or the blue light emitting diodes.

8. The liquid crystal display of claim 7 ,

wherein the light emitting diode block regions are disposed in positions corresponding to the liquid crystal display panel block regions,

wherein the backlight unit driving unit further comprising color class table information, the color class table information including a plurality of red color classes formed according to red color gradations and according to human-eye red color distinguishing capability, a plurality of green color classes formed according to green color gradations and according to human-eye green color distinguishing capability, and a plurality of blue color classes formed according to blue color gradations and according to human-eye blue color distinguishing capability, and

wherein one or more of the color classes of the at least one image signal are among the plurality of red color classes, the plurality of green color classes, and the plurality of blue color classes.

9. The liquid crystal display of claim 7 , wherein

the liquid crystal display panel driving unit comprises a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), and

image signals are distributed to the liquid crystal display panel block regions and the backlight unit driving unit by a signal distributor.

10. The liquid crystal display of claim 9 , wherein the backlight unit driving unit further comprises a brightness control unit that determines an average brightness of the light emitting diode block regions further using red, green, and blue image signals.

11. The liquid crystal display of claim 9 , wherein the field-programmable gate array comprises the color control unit and the dimming control unit.

12. The liquid crystal display of claim 9 , wherein the field-programmable gate array further comprises the brightness control unit.

13. The liquid crystal display of claim 7 , wherein the light emitting diodes comprises red, green, and blue light emitting diodes.

14. The liquid crystal display of claim 13 , wherein the light emitting diodes further comprises:

a white light emitting diode for brightness control, in addition to the red, green, and blue light emitting diodes for color control.

15. A method for driving backlight assembly, the method comprising:

classifying color classes of liquid crystal display panel block regions using color class table information;

determining a representative color using color classes of at least one image signal corresponding to a liquid crystal display panel block region among the liquid crystal display panel block regions, wherein the determining the representative color comprises: mapping the color classes of the at least one image signal into color regions in a color coordinate system, wherein the color regions are determined according to visibilities, and determining a visibility associated with a color region into which the color classes of the at least one image signal are most frequently mapped in the color coordinate system as the representative color corresponding to the liquid crystal display panel block region, wherein at least one color class of the color classes of the at least one image signal corresponds to a plurality of color gradations;

adjusting at least a color of a light emitting diode block region corresponding to the liquid crystal display panel block region according to the representative color; and

adjusting brightness of a light emitting diode assembly that comprises the light emitting diode block region by adjusting brightness of white light emitting diodes of the light emitting diode assembly without adjusting brightness of red light emitting diodes, green light emitting diodes, or blue light emitting diodes of the light emitting diode assembly.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the classifying the color classes of the liquid crystal display panel block regions comprises:

storing the color class table information into a memory;

extracting image signals of pixels in the liquid crystal display panel block regions; and

classifying the color classes of the liquid crystal display panel block regions by comparing the image signals with the color class table information.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the storing the color class table information into the memory comprises:

dividing red, green, and blue into color gradations;

grouping adjacent red color gradations of the color gradations into the plurality of red color classes;

grouping adjacent green color gradations of the color gradations into the plurality of green color classes;

grouping adjacent blue color gradations of the color gradation into the plurality of blue color classes; and

storing the color class table information into the memory after arranging the red color classes, the green color classes, and the blue color classes in a table.

18. The method of claim 15 , wherein the color class table information includes a plurality of red color classes formed according to red color gradations and according to human-eye red color distinguishing capability, a plurality of green color classes formed according to green color gradations and according to human-eye green color distinguishing capability, and a plurality of blue color classes formed according to blue color gradations and according to human-eye blue color distinguishing capability.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the mapping the color classes into the color regions in the color coordinate system comprises:

mapping the color classes of the liquid crystal display panel block regions into corresponding color regions that are associated with corresponding visibilities.

20. The backlight assembly of claim 1 , wherein the number of color classes for the red color classes, green color classes and blue color classes are different from each other.