CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This U.S. non-provisional patent application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2020-0007940, filed on Jan. 21, 2020, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of Disclosure

The present disclosure relates to a method of preventing an afterimage due to deterioration and a display device with improved display characteristics.

2. Description of the Related Art

Display devices show images to a user using light sources such as light-emitting diodes. Display devices are present in televisions, smartphones, and computers. An organic light-emitting display (OLED) device is a type of display device. OLED devices have fast response, low power consumption, superior light emission efficiency, good brightness, and a wide viewing angle.

Transistors or light-emitting diodes of a pixel may deteriorate when an OLED device is used for a long period of time. Furthermore, a difference in degree of deterioration between a certain display area and another display area adjacent to the certain display area occurs when the same image is continuously displayed in the certain display area.

The difference in degree of deterioration leads to the deterioration of display quality such as afterimages, or burn-in, on the display device. Therefore, there is a need in the art to increase the reliability of OLED devices, and to reduce the likelihood of afterimages.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure provides a display device with improved display characteristics, and a method of preventing an afterimage due to deterioration.

Embodiments of the inventive concept provide a display device including a controller receiving an image data and converting the image data to output first converted image data and second converted image data and a display panel displaying an image corresponding to the first converted image data and the second converted image data. The controller includes a detector separating the image data into first image data corresponding to a first image recognized as a non-afterimage component and second image data corresponding to a second image recognized as an afterimage component using a pre-trained deep neural network, a compensator outputting a compensation signal to control a luminance value of the second image data, and a converter converting the first image data to the first converted image data and converting the second image data to the second converted image data based on the compensation signal.

The deep neural network performs a semantic segmentation on the image data (e.g., frame by frame) to separate the image data into the first image data and the second image data. The deep neural network includes a fully convolutional neural network. The display device further includes a memory in which the deep neural network is stored, and the memory receives data to update the deep neural network.

The compensation signal includes at least one of a first compensation signal that decreases a luminance value of high luminance data of the second image data, a second compensation signal that increases a luminance value of low luminance data of the second image data, and a third compensation signal that maintains a luminance value of the second image data.

The afterimage component is classified into a first afterimage component and a second afterimage component with a transmittance higher than a transmittance of the first afterimage component, and the compensator includes a first determiner that determines whether the second image is recognized as the first afterimage component or the second afterimage component.

The display device further includes an average luminance calculator that calculates a first average luminance value using a spatial average luminance value of the second image data when the second image is recognized as the first afterimage component and calculates a second average luminance value using the spatial average luminance value and a temporal average luminance value of the second image data when the second image is recognized as the second afterimage component.

When the second image is recognized as the first afterimage component, the first compensation signal decreases the luminance value of the second image to have a luminance value of the second image higher than the first average luminance value and the second compensation signal increases the luminance value of the second image to have a luminance value of the second image lower than the first average luminance value, and when the second image is recognized as the second afterimage component, the first compensation signal decreases the luminance value of the second image to have a luminance value of the second image higher than the second average luminance value.

Each of the first afterimage component and the second afterimage component is classified into a first group in which a display cumulative time ratio of the second image to a display time of the image data is equal to or greater than about 50% and equal to or smaller than about 100%, a second group in which the display cumulative time ratio exceeds about 20% and is smaller than about 50%, and a third group in which the display cumulative time ratio is equal to or greater than about 10% and is equal to or smaller than about 20%, and the compensator further includes a second determiner that determines whether the second image is recognized as the first, second, or third group afterimage component.

The compensation signal includes the first compensation signal and the second compensation signal when the first afterimage component is the first group. The compensation signal includes the first compensation signal when the first afterimage component is the second group. The compensation signal includes the third compensation signal when the first afterimage component is the third group. The compensation signal includes the first compensation signal when the second afterimage component is the first group. The compensation signal includes the third compensation signal when the second afterimage component is the second group or the third group.

Embodiments of the inventive concept provide a method of preventing an afterimage including separating image data into first image data corresponding to a first image recognized as a non-afterimage component and second image data corresponding to a second image recognized as an afterimage component using a pre-trained deep neural network, outputting a compensation signal to control a luminance value of the second image data, converting the first image data to first converted image data and converting the second image data to second converted image data based on the compensation signal.

The separating of the first image data from the second image data may include performing a semantic segmentation on the image data on a per frame basis. The afterimage component is classified into a first afterimage component and a second afterimage component with a transmittance higher than a transmittance of the first afterimage component, and the outputting of the compensation signal includes determining whether the second image is recognized as the first afterimage component or the second afterimage component.

Each of the first afterimage component and the second afterimage component is classified into a first group in which a display cumulative time ratio of the second image to a display time of the image data is equal to or greater than about 50% and equal to or smaller than about 100%, a second group in which the display cumulative time ratio exceeds about 20% and is smaller than about 50%, and a third group in which the display cumulative time ratio is equal to or greater than about 10% and is equal to or smaller than about 20%, and the outputting of the compensation signal further includes determining whether the second image is recognized as the first, second, or third group.

The compensation signal includes at least one of a first compensation signal that decreases a luminance value of high luminance data of the second image data, a second compensation signal that increases a luminance value of low luminance data of the second image data, and a third compensation signal that maintains a luminance value of the second image data, and the outputting of the compensation signal further includes selecting at least one of the first, second, and third compensation signals according to whether the first afterimage component is recognized as the first, second, or third group afterimage component.

The compensation signal includes at least one of a first compensation signal that decreases a luminance value of high luminance data of the second image data, a second compensation signal that increases a luminance value of low luminance data of the second image data, and a third compensation signal that maintains a luminance value of the second image data, and the outputting of the compensation signal further includes selecting at least one of the first, second, and third compensation signals according to whether the second afterimage component is recognized as the first, second, or third group afterimage component.

According to the above, the controller separates the image data into the first image data and the second image data using the deep neural network. The controller controls the luminance of the afterimage component by controlling the luminance value of the second image data. The image is prevented from being damaged in the area adjacent to the afterimage component. Accordingly, the method of preventing afterimage caused by deterioration and the display device DD with improved display characteristics may be provided.

