JP2001116653A - Method and device for evaluating screen display characteristic - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method and a device for detecting and evaluating non- emission of pixels of a display, non-emission of light dots, uneven emission within the light dots, uneven light on a screen, and the like at a low cost. SOLUTION: The screen of an image display is caught as an image with an image scanner, an electronic copying machine, or a machine having both an image scanner function and an electronic copying function, and the image data is diagnosed and evaluated with a computer (a personal computer) to evaluate image characteristics of the display.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for evaluating the screen display characteristics of a display device such as a liquid crystal display, an organic EL display or an inorganic EL display, and more particularly, to a method for capturing a screen of an image display device as image data. Also, the present invention relates to an evaluation method and an apparatus for evaluating the screen display characteristics of a display device (for example, non-emission of pixels, non-emission of light dots constituting pixels, and unevenness of light on a screen).

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As the information society has progressed, everyone in the world has been using displays as a means of expressing information. Combined with technological development,
It is presumed that this will be spurred. Therefore, it is expected that higher functionality, higher definition, and mass production of liquid crystal displays, field emission displays, organic EL displays, and the like will be increasingly advanced. 2. Description of the Related Art In a manufacturing process or a developing process of a so-called display device such as a liquid crystal display, a field emission display, an organic EL display, or an inorganic EL display, non-light emission of pixels constituting a frame (from a pixel in a backlight liquid crystal display or a reflection liquid crystal display). Here, the light emission is referred to as “light emission” for convenience, and the light emission that does not emit light due to the defect or dust of the pixel is referred to as “non-light emission” for convenience. For the sake of convenience, those that do not emit light are also referred to as “non-light-emitting”, and non-light-emitting (one dot for a monochromatic light display, three dots for RGB for a color display) non-light emission (dot defect or dust, etc.). Those that do not emit light are referred to here as "non-light-emitting" for convenience. There is a strong demand for a screen display characteristic evaluation device that reliably measures and evaluates (diagnoses). In addition, since it is extremely demanded to use it in mass production sites and the number of used devices increases, it is an absolute condition that the price of the evaluation device is low.

Conventionally, the evaluation (diagnosis) of the screen display characteristics of a display device for displaying characters, symbols, images, and the like has been made by a human (inspector) by visually observing the display screen or by a high resolution high pixel count. This is performed by photographing a screen with a CCD camera. The former evaluation work relies on human eyes, requires a person with high skill and high visual ability, and it is very difficult to secure a large number of such human resources. In addition, since the evaluation is performed by a human, it is difficult to maintain a constant evaluation level at all times, so that a quantitative evaluation cannot be given, and there are disadvantages such as poor reliability. On the other hand, C
The latter evaluation by a CD camera allows a mechanical (automatic) diagnosis, but has the drawback that the evaluation is not up to the level of the human eye and the price of the device is extremely high.

[0004]

Therefore, at present, the evaluation of the screen display characteristics of the display device relies on a relatively low-cost human visual diagnosis. However, in view of the production situation of display devices, which is expected to increase more and more in the future, there is a strong demand for the appearance of a device that automatically and quickly performs an evaluation. In order to produce high quality and uniform products, it is necessary to detect non-light emission of pixels, non-light emission of light dots, uneven light on the screen, etc. in liquid crystal displays, field emission displays, and EL displays. It is necessary to reliably and quickly measure and evaluate display characteristics.

[0005] As described above, the conventionally proposed evaluation apparatus does not reach the performance up to diagnosis by human eyes. Instead, since the price of the evaluation device is extremely high, it is difficult to introduce the evaluation device even in a production factory where mass production is required, and the actual situation is that it depends on human diagnosis. For this reason, there is a strong demand for an evaluation device that is inexpensive and that can reliably and quickly evaluate a mass production site.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an evaluation method and apparatus for reliably measuring and evaluating the screen display characteristics of a display device by a simple and inexpensive method. Is to do.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method for evaluating screen display characteristics, and an object of the present invention is to capture a screen of a display device for displaying characters, symbols, images, and the like as image data by an image scanner. This is achieved by measuring and evaluating the screen display characteristics of the display device by processing the measurement signal of the image scanner.

[0008] A screen of a display device for displaying characters, symbols, images, etc. may be captured as image data on a copy surface of an electronic copier, or may be captured on an input surface of a multifunction device having an image scanner function and an electronic copy function. This is achieved by measuring and evaluating the screen display characteristics of the display device by capturing as data and processing the measurement signal of the electronic copier or dual-purpose device. Further, a screen illumination lamp is provided in the vicinity of the screen portion of the display device, and when the screen of the display device is a luminous type, the screen illumination lamp is turned off and measured.
When the screen of the display device is a non-light emitting type, the screen illumination lamp may be turned on to perform measurement.

Further, the present invention relates to an apparatus for evaluating screen display characteristics, and an object of the present invention is to provide an image scanner provided near a screen of a display device for displaying characters, symbols, images, and the like, and the image scanner. And a means for notifying the result of measurement evaluation to a monitor display or other means for displaying the measurement result of the screen characteristics processed by the computer (means for notifying the result to another computer or another room via a network or the like) ) Is achieved. Also, an electronic copier provided in proximity to a screen of a display device for displaying characters, symbols, images, etc., a computer for processing a measurement signal of the electronic copier, and a measurement result of a screen characteristic processed by the computer And a means for notifying the result of the measurement evaluation by providing a monitor display for displaying a character, a symbol, an image, and the like. This is achieved by providing a dual-purpose device, a computer that processes the measurement signal of the dual-purpose device, and a monitor display that displays the measurement results of the screen characteristics processed by the computer or other means that notifies the measurement evaluation result. .

[0010]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In the present invention, an image scanner for reading a document, a drawing, a photograph, and the like into a computer is provided.
Measurement and evaluation of screen display characteristics of a display device to be evaluated as a display device that displays characters, symbols, images, and the like. The screen of the display device is captured as image data by an image scanner, the image data is diagnosed and evaluated by a computer, and the diagnostic evaluation is monitored by the display device.
By providing software for evaluating the screen display characteristics and a personal computer, an evaluation system can be configured at a low price. Further, the screen of the display device may be captured as image data by an electronic copier, and a dual-purpose machine having an image scanner function and an electronic copy function may be used.

In the above-mentioned measurement and evaluation, when the screen of the display device is of a light-emitting type (for example, electrolytic emission, EL, backlight type), the screen illumination lamp of an image scanner, an electronic copier or a dual-purpose device is turned off. When the display screen is of a non-emission type (for example, a reflection type liquid crystal display), a screen illumination lamp is turned on to make the screen part bright and perform measurement. As a result, reliable screen evaluation can always be realized regardless of brightness. According to the present invention, the evaluation method is extremely simple and can be configured at low cost.

Hereinafter, an evaluation method and apparatus according to the present invention will be described.
This will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of an apparatus for evaluating screen display characteristics according to the present invention. An image scanner 2 is disposed adjacent to and parallel to the display screen of the image display device 1 for non-evaluation, and the entire screen of the image display device 1 is captured by the image scanner 2 as image data. Is taken into a computer (personal computer) 5 to perform image processing. In the vicinity of the screen of the image display device 1, an illumination lamp 3 is provided in an image scanner, an electronic copier, or a dual-purpose device.
To be turned on or off. That is,
When the image display device 1 is of a light emitting type, the illumination lamp 3 is turned off by a lamp switch 4. When the image display device 1 is of a non-light emitting type, the illumination lamp 3 is turned on by a lamp switch 4. The screen characteristics are surely supplemented by the image scanner 2. The computer 5 is equipped with software for performing a diagnostic evaluation process on the image data captured by the image scanner 2. The computer 5 performs a quantitative comparison process of the gradation of each light dot to make a diagnosis.
An evaluation result such as discrimination of which of the B dots is non-light-emitting, the address of the non-light-emitting pixel, the address range of light unevenness on the screen, and the like is output to the monitor display 6.

The illumination lamp 3 may be turned on / off manually by a lamp switch 4, or may be turned on / off automatically by a computer 5. Further, the illumination lamp 3 is integrated with a scanning mechanism for reading an image of the image scanner 2, and illuminates the screen of the image display device 1 in conjunction with the scanning of the image scanner 2.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the processing operation of the computer 5. First, an image of the display device screen is captured by the image scanner 2 (step S1), and the origin position of the panel is detected (step S2). Thereafter, until the diagnostic evaluation of all pixels is completed (step S3), the position of the diagnostic evaluation pixel is calculated from the origin position (step S4), and it is determined whether the pixel emits light (step S5), and the light is emitted. If so, the process returns to step S3. If no light is emitted, the operation of returning to step S3 after storing the position of the defective pixel in the memory (step S6) is repeated.
When the diagnostic evaluation of all the pixels is completed, the result is displayed on the monitor display 6 and the process ends (step S7).

FIG. 3 shows another embodiment of the present invention, in which the image scanner 2 in FIG. The scanning surface of the electronic copier 7 faces the screen of the image display device 1 and the electronic copier 7
The entire screen of the image display device 1 is captured as an image by copy scanning of the image data, and the captured image data is transmitted to the computer 5. The processing of the computer 5 is the same as in FIGS.

FIG. 4 shows still another embodiment of the present invention, in which the image scanner 2 in FIG. 1 is replaced with a dual-purpose machine 8 having both an image scanner function and an electronic copy function. . The scanning surface of the dual-purpose device 8 is opposed to the screen of the image display device 1, and the entire screen of the image display device 1 is captured as an image by the image collecting operation of the dual-purpose device 8, and the captured image data is transferred to the computer 5.
Is transmitted to. The processing of the computer 5 is shown in FIGS.
Is the same as

FIG. 5 shows an example of a monitor screen obtained by measuring and evaluating the screen characteristics of the backlight type liquid crystal display device of the present invention having the structure shown in FIG. 1. From this screen example, dots and pixels are decomposed. It can be seen that a non-light emitting dot (black point) is present at the center (point of the arrow at the lower left corner), and that the evaluation of the screen display characteristics can be realized. That is, of the images obtained by scanning-type screen detection of a 13-inch liquid crystal display having 1024 × 768 pixels using the apparatus of the present invention, some non-light-emitting points were detected. A representative example is shown below. I have. The black point at the lower left of FIG. 5 is a non-emission pixel, and it can be seen that the non-emission pixel exists according to the present invention and that the position is detected. Fig. 6
It can be seen that the green light dot does not emit light. FIG. 7 shows the result of RGB color separation of the gradation intensity near the point. In FIG. 7, the solid line indicates the characteristic of G, the dotted line indicates the characteristic of B, and the dashed line indicates the characteristic of R. From this result, it can be seen that the green gradation intensity is very weak, and that the green dots do not emit light. Further, from FIG. 7, it is possible to detect a part of the light emission unevenness in the dot area based on the magnitude of the gradation intensity. Note that the main scanning number (horizontal axis) in FIG. 7 is the scanning number of the scanner, and the position of the pixel or dot can be determined by this.

As described above, the screen of the display device can be easily detected by scanning image detection to easily prevent non-emission of pixels, non-emission of light dots, non-emission of light partially in the light dot area, and uneven light emission in the light dot area. Can be evaluated. Furthermore, if these are evaluated for the entire screen, light unevenness on the screen can be detected and evaluated.

[0020]

As described above, according to the present invention, regardless of the difference in the principle of the display device, a backlight type or a reflection type liquid crystal display device, a field emission type display device, an inorganic EL or an organic EL.
Screen characteristics of a display device or the like, for example, non-light-emitting pixels, non-light-emitting dots, uneven light emission in dots, uneven light on a screen, and the like can be detected and evaluated with high resolution. In addition, there is the greatest advantage that the configuration of the device is easy and the operation is easy, and the evaluation device can be provided at a low price. Therefore, by introducing and evaluating this device at mass production sites, it is extremely important to contribute to the improvement of the quality and cost of the display device, as well as to the improvement of the quality of the display device, which will become increasingly finer in the future. Yes, the industrial effect is enormous.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram illustrating an apparatus for evaluating screen display characteristics using an image scanner according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a diagnostic operation performed by a computer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram showing an apparatus for evaluating screen display characteristics using an electronic copier as another embodiment according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram showing a screen display characteristic evaluation apparatus using a dual-purpose device having an image scanner function and an electronic copy function according to still another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a screen diagram showing an example of a detected image by the evaluation device of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a partially enlarged view of a detection image.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a gradation intensity of color separation per non-light emitting address of a detected image.

[Explanation of symbols]

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 image display device to be evaluated 2 image scanner 3 illumination lamp 4 lamp switch 5 computer (personal computer) 6 monitor display 7 electronic copy machine 8 dual use machine with image scanner function and electronic copy function

Claims (7)

[Claims] An image scanner captures a screen of a display device that displays characters, symbols, images, and the like as image data.
A method for evaluating screen display characteristics, comprising measuring and evaluating screen display characteristics of the display device by processing a measurement signal of the image scanner. 2. A screen of a display device for displaying characters, symbols, images and the like is captured as image data on a copy surface of an electronic copier, and a measurement signal of the electronic copier is processed to display the screen of the display device. A method for evaluating screen display characteristics, comprising measuring and evaluating characteristics. 3. A screen of a display device for displaying characters, symbols, images, and the like is captured as image data on an input surface of a multifunction device having an image scanner function and an electronic copy function, and a measurement signal of the multifunction device is processed. And measuring and evaluating the screen display characteristics of the display device. 4. A screen illumination lamp is provided in the vicinity of a screen of the display device, and when the screen of the display device emits light, the measurement is performed with the screen illumination lamp turned off, and the screen of the display device emits light. 4. The method for evaluating screen display characteristics according to claim 1, wherein when there is no screen display lamp, the screen illumination lamp is turned on for measurement. 5. An image scanner provided near a screen of a display device for displaying characters, symbols, images, etc., a computer for processing a measurement signal of the image scanner, and a measurement of a screen characteristic processed by the computer. An apparatus for evaluating a screen display characteristic, comprising: a monitor display for displaying a result; or a unit for notifying a measurement evaluation result. 6. An electronic copying machine provided in the vicinity of a screen of a display device for displaying characters, symbols, images, etc., a computer for processing a measurement signal of the electronic copying machine, and a screen characteristic processed by the computer. A monitor display for displaying the measurement result of the above or another means for notifying the result of the measurement evaluation. 7. A multi-purpose device having an image scanner function and an electronic copy function provided in the vicinity of a screen of a display device for displaying characters, symbols, images, etc., and a computer for processing a measurement signal of the multi-function device A monitor display for displaying the measurement results of the screen characteristics processed by the computer, or other means for notifying the measurement evaluation results.