U.S. patent application number 16/493234 was filed with the patent office on 2020-04-30 for video display device.
This patent application is currently assigned to Maxell, Ltd.. The applicant listed for this patent is MAXELL, LTD.. Invention is credited to Nobuhiro FUKUDA, Haruhiko HIGUCHI, Mitsuo NAKAJIMA, Kazuhiko TANAKA.
Application Number | 20200137370 16/493234 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 63523460 |
Filed Date | 2020-04-30 |
View All Diagrams
United States Patent
Application |
20200137370 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
TANAKA; Kazuhiko ; et
al. |
April 30, 2020 |
VIDEO DISPLAY DEVICE
Abstract
An object is to obtain a visibility-improved video while more
favorably maintaining a color rendering property in a video display
device. To achieve the object, a video input unit, a video
correcting unit that performs video correction on a video input by
the video input unit, and a video display unit that displays the
video corrected by the video correcting unit are included, and the
video correcting unit is configured to perform local luminance
correction on the video input by the video input unit, acquire a
correction intensity for each part of the local luminance
correction, and perform local saturation correction based on the
correction intensity.
Inventors: |
TANAKA; Kazuhiko; (Tokyo,
JP) ; NAKAJIMA; Mitsuo; (Tokyo, JP) ; FUKUDA;
Nobuhiro; (Tokyo, JP) ; HIGUCHI; Haruhiko;
(Tokyo, JP) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
MAXELL, LTD. |
Kyoto |
|
JP |
|
|
Assignee: |
Maxell, Ltd.
Kyoto
JP
|
Family ID: |
63523460 |
Appl. No.: |
16/493234 |
Filed: |
March 15, 2017 |
PCT Filed: |
March 15, 2017 |
PCT NO: |
PCT/JP2017/010539 |
371 Date: |
September 11, 2019 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04N 5/57 20130101; G09G
2320/0666 20130101; G09G 3/2003 20130101; G09G 3/20 20130101; G06T
5/00 20130101; H04N 9/77 20130101 |
International
Class: |
H04N 9/77 20060101
H04N009/77 |
Claims
1. A video display device comprising: a video input unit; a video
correcting unit that performs video correction on a video input by
the video input unit; and a video display unit that displays the
video corrected by the video correcting unit, wherein the video
correcting unit performs local luminance correction on the video
input by the video input unit, acquires a correction intensity for
each part of the local luminance correction, and performs local
saturation correction based on the correction intensity.
2. The video display device according to claim 1, wherein the local
luminance correction in the video correcting unit is correction
using Retinex correction, gain of the luminance correction is
acquired as the correction intensity by comparing videos before and
after the correction, and an intensity of the local saturation
correction is changed according to the gain.
3. The video display device according to claim 1, wherein a menu
that allows a user to set the local saturation correction is
set.
4. The video display device according to claim 1, wherein after
multiplying a magnification value corresponding to a first
adjustment parameter by a value obtained by subtracting 1 from the
correction intensity for each part of the local luminance
correction, clip processing by an upper limit corresponding to a
second adjustment parameter is performed, and the local saturation
correction is performed using a value obtained by adding 1 to a
result thereof as a saturation correction magnification.
5. The video display device according to claim 1, wherein the local
saturation correction is performed using a saturation correction
magnification calculated by performing multiplication processing
using a magnification value corresponding to a first adjustment
parameter and clip processing by an upper limit corresponding to a
second adjustment parameter on the correction intensity for each
part of the local luminance correction.
6. The video display device according to claim 4, wherein a user is
allowed to adjust the magnification value corresponding to the
first adjustment parameter and the upper limit corresponding to the
second adjustment parameter by a menu.
7. The video display device according to claim 4, wherein means for
adjusting the magnification value corresponding to the first
adjustment parameter and the upper limit corresponding to the
second adjustment parameter according to a type of the video input
to the video input unit or a viewing environment is installed.
8. The video display device according to claim 1, wherein the local
luminance correction is realized by video composition processing
for performing first Retinex processing on the video input from the
video input unit, performing second Retinex processing different in
scheme from the first Retinex processing on the video input from
the video input unit, and composing the video processed by the
first Retinex processing and the video processed by the second
Retinex processing according to a feature of the video input from
the video input unit.
9. The video display device according to claim 8, wherein a scale
in the first Retinex processing is different from a scale in the
second Retinex processing.
10. The video display device according to claim 9, wherein the
scale in the first Retinex processing is smaller than the scale in
the second Retinex processing, and the video composition processing
sets a composition ratio of the video subjected to the first
Retinex processing to be larger than a composition ratio of the
video subjected to the second Retinex processing when a luminance
of the video input from the video input unit is relatively high,
and sets the composition ratio of the video subjected to the first
Retinex processing to be smaller than the composition ratio of the
video subjected to the second Retinex processing when the luminance
of the video input from the video input unit is relatively low.
11. The video display device according to claim 8, wherein the
first Retinex processing is processing for separating an input
video into a plurality of reflected light components, adjusting
each of the plurality of separated reflected light components by a
weight to obtain a weighted average, and controlling a ratio of
reflected light in the video, and the second Retinex processing is
Retinex processing larger in scale than the first Retinex
processing.
Description
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0001] The present invention relates to a video processing
technique.
BACKGROUND ART
[0002] As a background technique of the present technical field,
Patent Document 1 is cited. In the publication, in a Multi Scale
Retinex (MSR) process, a composite blur image is created by
selecting any one of a plurality of blur images which are generated
from a plurality of peripheral functions different scales and which
are different in a degree of the blur for each pixel in accordance
with a pixel value level of an original image to be a processing
target. It is described that the composite blur image is subjected
to low pass filter, so that the Retinex process is performed while
occurrence of unnatural discontinuation in a boundary is
prevented.
PRIOR ART DOCUMENT
Patent Document
[0003] Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open
Publication No. 2005-004506
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Problems to be Solved by the Invention
[0004] As a parameter indicating a property of an object captured
in video signals, there are various parameters such as a luminance,
a color, and a frequency component, and these values are different
from each other when video scenes are different from each other. In
order to display the video with a good visibility, it is required
to correct the video by changing a property such as a contrast
correction of the video in accordance with a feature of the
video.
[0005] However, in such a technique of adjusting a plurality of
scales and achieving high performance of a dynamic range
compression in an MSR as disclosed in Patent Document 1,
contribution of the video to the plurality of scales is considered
while the feature of the object is not considered.
[0006] Therefore, the correction is uniformly performed regardless
of the feature of the object in the video. In addition, a
contribution of the video to difference in a reflection property is
not considered.
[0007] In view of the background art and the problems, an object of
the present invention is to provide a video display device more
preferably improving the definition of the video and the visibility
of the shadow portion.
Means for Solving the Problems
[0008] To cite an example, the present invention includes a video
input unit, a video correcting unit that performs video correction
on a video input by the video input unit, and a video display unit
that displays the video corrected by the video correcting unit, and
the video correcting unit is configured to perform local luminance
correction on the video input by the video input unit, acquire a
correction intensity for each part of the local luminance
correction, and perform local saturation correction based on the
correction intensity.
Effects of the Invention
[0009] According to the present invention, it is possible to
provide a video display device capable of obtaining a video having
more appropriately improved visibility.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0010] FIG. 1 is a diagram of a configuration example of a video
display device according to a first embodiment of the present
invention;
[0011] FIG. 2 is a diagram of a configuration example of a video
correcting unit;
[0012] FIG. 3 is a diagram of a configuration example of a video
composition unit;
[0013] FIG. 4A is an example of a property of a first Retinex
processing unit;
[0014] FIG. 4B is an example of a property of a second Retinex
processing unit;
[0015] FIG. 4C is an example of a property of a video composition
controlling signal;
[0016] FIG. 5A is an example of luminance histogram of a video;
FIG. 5B is an example of an input/output property of a video;
[0017] FIG. 5C is an example of luminance histogram of a video;
[0018] FIG. 5D is an example of an input/output property of a
video;
[0019] FIG. 5E is an example of luminance histogram of a video;
[0020] FIG. 5F is an example of an input/output property of a
video;
[0021] FIG. 6 is a diagram of an operational property of a feature
analyzing unit according to a second embodiment of the present
invention;
[0022] FIG. 7 is an example of a configuration of a Retinex
processing unit according to a third embodiment of the present
invention;
[0023] FIG. 8 is an example of a configuration of a reflected light
detecting unit;
[0024] FIG. 9A is an example of a configuration of a reflected
light controlling unit;
[0025] FIG. 9B is an example of a configuration of the reflected
light controlling unit;
[0026] FIG. 10 is a diagram for describing a property of the
reflected light according to a Phong reflection model;
[0027] FIG. 11A is a diagram for describing a Gaussian
distribution.
[0028] FIG. 11B is a diagram for describing a luminance
distribution based on a cosine;
[0029] FIG. 11C is a diagram for describing a luminance
distribution based on the power of cosine;
[0030] FIG. 12A is a diagram for describing a specular correction
gain based on a luminance value of a video;
[0031] FIG. 12B is a diagram for describing a diffusion correction
gain based on a luminance value of a video;
[0032] FIG. 13 is an example of a configuration of a video
correcting unit according to a fourth embodiment of the present
invention;
[0033] FIG. 14 is an example of a configuration of a saturation
magnification calculating unit;
[0034] FIG. 15 is a diagram of a configuration example of a video
display device according to a fifth embodiment of the present
invention; and
[0035] FIG. 16 is an example of a setting menu screen.
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
[0036] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be
described based on the accompanying drawings. However, the present
invention is not always limited to these embodiments. Note that the
same components are denoted by the same reference symbols
throughout each drawing for describing the embodiments, and the
repetitive description thereof will be omitted.
First Embodiment
[0037] In the present embodiment, a video display device which
corrects a video by video decomposition for each light reflection
property will be described by using a configuration of a projector.
Note that the following will be explanation in a case of a front
projector. However, a rear projection television may be applied as
another example. In addition, without performing a magnification
projection of a panel, a display device using a direct-vision flat
display such as a liquid crystal display, a plasma display, or an
organic EL display may be applied. This viewpoint is also the same
in any of the following embodiments.
[0038] FIG. 1 is an example of a configuration diagram of the video
display device of the present embodiment.
[0039] The present video display device has a configuration
including: an input signal processing unit 11 which receives a
video input signal 10 as an input and which converts the video
input signal into an internal video signal 12 by, for example, a
decoder, an IP conversion, a scalar, and others for a compressed
video signal; a video correcting unit 100 which receives the
internal video signal 12 as an input; a timing controlling unit 14
which receives a correction video signal 13 as an input and which
generates a display control signal 15 based on horizontal/vertical
synchronization signals of a display screen of the correction video
signal; and an optical-system device 200 which displays a
video.
[0040] The optical-system device 200 has a configuration including:
an optical source 203 which emits a light ray for projecting the
video to the screen; a panel 202 which receives the display control
signal 15 as an input, which adjusts gradation of the light ray
from the optical source 203 for each pixel, and which creates a
projection video; and a lens 201 which is used for the
magnification projection of the projection video onto the
screen.
[0041] When the video display device is a direct-vision flat
display such as a liquid crystal display, a plasma display, or an
organic EL display, note that the lens 201 of the optical-system
device 200 is not required. A user directly views the panel
202.
[0042] An example of a configuration of the video correcting unit
100 is illustrated in FIG. 2. A first Retinex processing unit 20
and a second Retinex processing unit 22 perform a video processing
on the internal video signal 12 based on a Retinex theory, and
output a first correction video signal 21 and a second correction
video signal 23.
[0043] Here, the Retinex theory is a theory on a visual property of
human eyes such as color constancy and brightness constancy. By the
theory, an illumination light component can be separated from the
video, and a reflected light component can be extracted.
[0044] Therefore, in a video correction process based on the
Retinex theory, a high visibility video can be obtained even for a
video in a dark room or under a bright backlight by removing an
influence of the illumination light component being a cause by
which an object such as a person in the video is difficult to be
viewed and by extracting the reflected light component.
Accordingly, a dynamic range which a human can naturally see and
feel can be appropriately compressed even in a digital
gradation.
[0045] The Retinex theory has a lot of models based on estimation
methods of the illumination light component or the reflected light
component. For example, in the following Reference Document 1, the
models of McCann 99, PSEUDO, Poisson, and QP are compared.
[0046] In addition, a Retinex for extracting the reflected light
component under estimation of a local illumination light component
so as to follow a Gaussian distribution is called as a
Center/Surround (hereinafter, referred to as C/S) Retinex. The
models represented by the Retinex include a Single Scale Retinex
model (hereinafter, SSR), a Multiscale Retinex model (hereinafter,
referred to as MSR), and others.
[0047] The SSR is a model in which a luminance component of the
reflected light with respect to one scale is extracted from the
video (for example, see the following Reference Document 2), and
the MSR is a model in which the SSR is expended and a luminance
component of the reflected light with respect to a plurality of
scales is extracted from the video (for example, see the Reference
Document 3).
[0048] [Reference Document 1] "Comparison of Retinex Models for
Hardware Implementation (Comparison Evaluation of Retinex theory in
achieving Hardware of Adaptive Gradation Correction)", Yoshihiro
NOZATO and others, Shin-gaku Technical Report, SIS2005-16,
(2005).
[0049] [Reference document 2] D. J. Jobson and G. A. Woodell,
Properties of a Center/Surround Retinex: Part 2. Surround Design,
NASA Technical Memorandum, 110188, 1995.
[0050] [Reference document 3] Zia-ur Rahman, Daniel J. Jobson, and
Glenn A. Woodell, "Multiscale Retinex For Color Image Enhancement",
ICIP '96
[0051] In the present embodiment, as an example, the first Retinex
processing unit 20 is assumed to use the McCann 99 model excellent
in illumination light estimation performance, and the second
Retinex processing unit 22 is assumed to use the MSR model
excellent in contrast correction performance. A feature analyzing
unit 24 analyzes a feature of the internal video signal 12, and
outputs a first video composing control signal 29 and a second
video composing control signal 25 to a video composing unit 26. The
video composing unit 26 composes the correction video signal 21 and
the correction video signal 23 based on the first video composing
control signal 29 and the second video composing control signal 25,
and outputs the correction video signal 13.
[0052] FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a configuration of the
video composing unit 26. The correction video signal 21 is
magnified by "a" in a gain controlling unit 27, the correction
video signal 23 is magnified by "(1-.alpha.)" in a gain controlling
unit 28, and the both signals are subjected to an addition process
in an adder 30, and then, are magnified by ".beta." in a gain
controlling unit 31, so that the correction video signal 13 is
obtained.
[0053] Next, an example of an operation of the configuration
illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 3 will be described by using FIGS. 4A to
C and FIGS. 5A to F.
[0054] First, a control by the first video composing control signal
29 in the present embodiment will be described.
[0055] In FIGS. 4A and 4B, the horizontal axis represents a
luminance level, the vertical axis represents a gain, and each of
them shows an example of the gain property for the luminance levels
of the first Retinex processing unit 20 and the second Retinex
processing unit 22. In the present embodiment, the drawings
illustrate an example of a case of usage of the McCann 99 model for
the first Retinex processing unit 20 and usage of the MSR model for
the second Retinex processing unit 22. In the example of FIG. 4A,
the first Retinex processing unit 20 based on the McCann 99 model
has a gain peak "g1" between luminance levels LV1 and LV2. In the
example of FIG. 4B, the second Retinex processing unit 22 using the
MSR model has a gain peak "g2" between LV2 and LV3.
[0056] FIG. 4C is a diagram illustrating an example of a
composition control value "a" based on the first video composing
control signal 29 outputted from the feature analyzing unit 24
illustrated in FIG. 2 in a case that the properties of the first
Retinex processing unit 20 and the second Retinex processing unit
22 are as illustrated in the above-described FIGS. 4A and 4B. As
illustrated in FIG. 4C, a configuration control value is controlled
so that the composition control value a is decreased at a luminance
level at which the gain of the first Retinex processing unit 20 is
higher than the gain of the second Retinex processing unit 22, and,
on the contrary, the composition control value a is increased at a
luminance level at which the gain of the first Retinex processing
unit 20 is lower than the gain of the second Retinex processing
unit 22. In this manner, input/output properties of the composition
output video of the first Retinex processing unit 20 and the second
Retinex processing unit 22 which is outputted from the adder 30
have a linear property.
[0057] By the process described above, it is possible to obtain a
composition video having both advantages of the Retinex processing
based on the McCann 99 model excellent in the illumination light
estimation performance and the Retinex processing based on the MSR
model excellent in contrast correction performance.
[0058] Next, a control by using the second video composing control
signal 25 in the present embodiment will be described.
[0059] FIGS. 5A and 5B illustrate an example of a control of the
second video composing control signal 25 outputted from the feature
analyzing unit 24.
[0060] First, in FIG. 5A, the horizontal axis represents a
luminance level of a video, the vertical axis represents the number
of pixels in one screen, and distribution of each luminance level
is graphed as a histogram graph. In the example of FIG. 5A, a
histogram h1 shows that the distribution in a range from the
luminance level LV1 to the luminance level LV3 is larger than the
distribution of the luminance level from the luminance level LV1 or
lower and from the luminance level LV3 or higher. When the
distribution in the range from the luminance level LV1 to the
luminance level LV3 is flat, note that the distribution becomes a
histogram h0 illustrated by a chain line.
[0061] In FIG. 5B, the horizontal axis represents a luminance level
of an input video, the vertical axis represents a luminance level
of an output video, and an example of the second video composing
control signal 25 outputted from the feature analyzing unit 24 when
the above-described luminance distribution of FIG. 5A is as the
histogram h1. This drawing illustrates an input/output level
property controlled by a gain control value p. When the luminance
distribution of FIG. 5A is as the histogram h0, the input/output
level property becomes the property illustrated by a dotted line of
FIG. 5B. When the luminance distribution of FIG. 5A is as the
histogram h1, the input/output level property becomes the property
illustrated by a solid line of FIG. 5B. Here, an item .beta. takes
the linear property illustrated by a dotted line as a reference
value (.beta.=1). The property as illustrated by the solid line of
FIG. 5B is obtained by varying the gain control value .beta.0 in
accordance with an input level. In the example of FIG. 5B, the gain
control value .beta. is 1 at LV2, but becomes a value smaller than
1 at LV1, and becomes a value larger than 1 at LV3. As described
above, in the case of the histogram h1 of FIG. 5A, the input/output
property curve in the range from LV1 to LV3 having the large
luminance distribution is controlled by the gain control value
.beta. so as to be steep as compared with a slope in other range.
By obtaining the correction video signal 13 in such a property,
more output luminance levels are assigned to an area having a large
distribution in the video, and therefore, a video having a good
visibility can be obtained.
[0062] FIGS. 5C to 5F are diagrams for describing an example of the
control performed when the luminance distribution is different from
FIG. 5A.
[0063] First, FIG. 5C illustrates an example of a histogram
obtained when the luminance distribution at the luminance level LV2
or lower is larger than that at the luminance level LV2 or higher.
An example of the gain control value .beta. in this case is
illustrated in FIG. 5D. As illustrated in FIG. 5D, the slope of the
property curve at the LV2 or lower having the large luminance
distribution is controlled so as to be steep as compared to that at
the luminance level LV2 or higher, so that more output luminance
levels are assigned to a luminance band having the large video
distribution. In this manner, a video having a good visibility can
be obtained.
[0064] Next, FIG. 5E illustrates an example of a histogram obtained
when the luminance distribution at the luminance level LV2 or
higher is larger than that at the luminance level LV2 or lower. An
example of the gain control value .beta. in this case is
illustrated in FIG. 5F. As illustrated in FIG. 5F, the slope of the
property curve at the LV2 or more when the luminance distribution
is large is controlled to be steep as compared to the luminance
level LV2 or lower, so that more output luminance levels are
assigned to a luminance band having the large video distribution.
Therefore, it a video having a good visibility can be obtained.
[0065] By a series of control of the video composing unit 26
described above, it is possible to obtain a video having a good
visibility while taking both advantages of the Retinex processing
based on the McCann 99 model excellent in illumination light
estimation performance and the Retinex processing based on the MSR
model excellent in contrast correction performance.
[0066] In the above description, note that a combination of the
Retinex models is not limited to the above-described examples, but
may be a combination of Retinex models of different methods. In
addition, the combination is not limited to the combination of two
models, but may be a combination of three or more models. In this
case, the plurality of Retinex processing units illustrated in FIG.
2 may be configured to be arranged in parallel to compose the
corrected video of each Retinex processing unit by the composition
processing unit 26 so as to obtain the correction video signal
13.
Second Embodiment
[0067] A second embodiment is an example which is different from
the first embodiment in the operation of the video correcting unit
100 in the video display device of FIG. 1. The following is
explanation for the difference from the first embodiment.
Particularly, apart without the explanation is the same as that of
the first embodiment, and therefore, the explanation will be
omitted.
[0068] The video correcting unit 100 of the second embodiment will
be described by using FIG. 2. The first Retinex processing unit 20
and the second Retinex processing unit 22 perform the video
processing on the internal video signal 12 based on the Retinex
theories having different methods, and output the correction video
signal 21 and the correction video signal 23. In the present
embodiment, it is assumed that the second Retinex processing unit
22 performs a large scale of Retinex processing than that of the
first Retinex processing unit 20. Here, the scale of the Retinex
processing is a size of a pixel range which is referred to in the
Retinex processing.
[0069] The feature analyzing unit 24 analyzes a feature of the
internal video signal 12, and outputs the first video composing
control signal 29 and the second video composing control signal 25
to the video composing unit 26. The video composing unit 26
composes the correction video signal 21 and the correction video
signal 23 based on the video composing control signal 29 and the
video composing control signal 25, and outputs the correction video
signal 13.
[0070] Here, the second video composing control signal 25 and the
gain control value .beta. of the second embodiment are the same as
those of the first embodiment, and thus the description thereof
will be omitted.
[0071] The gain control value .alpha. by the first video composing
control signal 29 of the second embodiment is different from that
of the first embodiment. The following is its explanation.
[0072] FIG. 6 illustrates an example of the output property of the
first video composing control signal in the feature analyzing unit
24 according to the second embodiment. In FIG. 6, the horizontal
axis represents a luminance level of a video, and the vertical axis
represents a value of the first video composing control signal 29.
As illustrated in FIG. 6, for example, .alpha. becomes small when
the luminance level is low, and .alpha. becomes large when the
luminance level is high. By controlling the a as described above, a
composition ratio can be changed in accordance with the luminance
level. When the luminance level is small in the correction video
signal 13 obtained by the video composing unit 26, a ratio of the
second Retinex processing unit 22 can be increased. In addition,
when the luminance level is large, a ratio of the first Retinex
processing unit 20 can be increased. That is, a component from the
first Retinex processing unit 20 having a small scale of the
Retinex processing includes a lot of reflected light components
having a relatively high frequency component. Therefore, by
increasing the composition ratio in a video area having a high
luminance, the definition of the video can be increased. In
addition, a component of the second Retinex processing unit 22
having a large scale of the Retinex processing includes a lot of
reflected light components having a relatively low frequency
component. Therefore, by increasing the composition ratio in a
video area having a low luminance, the visibility of a shadow
portion of the video can be increased. Note that the property
illustrated in FIG. 6 is an example, and the maximum value, the
minimum value, the slope, and others at each luminance level may be
determined in accordance with the property of the Retinex
processing.
[0073] In the embodiment described above, the example of generation
by the video composing control signal 29 in accordance with the
luminance level of the video has been described. However, the
control in accordance with a frequency component may be adopted. As
the case of the control in accordance with the frequency component,
in a case of the high frequency component for each area of the
video signal, the ratio of the video signal obtained from the
Retinex processing unit having a small scale size is increased in
the correction video signal 13. In a case of the low frequency
component for each area of the video signal, the ratio of the video
signal obtained from the Retinex processing unit having a large
scale size is increased in the correction video signal 13.
Furthermore, the composition control using both the luminance level
and the frequency component of the video may be performed. In this
case, for example, the control may be performed by the
above-described control value in accordance with the luminance
level and a normalization value obtained by additional or product
calculation of the control value in accordance with the frequency
component.
[0074] According to the second embodiment of the present invention
described above, both of the definition of the video and the
visibility of the shadow portion can be achieved by composing the
corrected videos of the plurality of different Retinex processing
in accordance with the scale of the Retinex processing.
Third Embodiment
[0075] Next, the description will be made about an embodiment when
a different Retinex model is used in the video correcting unit 100
in the video display device illustrated in FIG. 1. As the
configuration of the video correcting unit 100, the configuration
of FIG. 2 is used as an example. However, the configuration is not
limited thereto. FIG. 7 illustrates a configuration example of the
first Retinex processing unit 20 including: a reflected light
detection unit 150 which receives the internal video signal 12 as
an input signal and detects two reflected light components 101 and
102 through the video processing based on the Retinex theory; and a
reflected light control unit 180 which receives the detected two
reflected light components as inputs, which adjusts the reflected
light, and then which outputs the correction video signal 13
through the recomposition.
[0076] Next, the reflected light detection unit 150 and the
reflected light control unit 180 will be described.
[0077] In accordance with a nature of an object, the reflection of
light is classified into, for example, light (hereinafter, referred
to as a specular component) reflected as specular reflection on
such a smooth surface as a mirror, light (hereinafter, referred to
as a diffusing component) reflected as diffuse reflection by small
asperity on a rough surface, and ambient light (hereinafter,
referred to as an ambient component) scattered by being repeatedly
reflected on the peripheral environment.
[0078] For example, in a three-dimensional computer graphic field,
there is a Phong reflection model as a reflection model expressing
the shadow of the surface of the object by using such natures of
three types of light. According to the Phong reflection model, the
material can be expressed by a magnitude of the reflection of the
light.
[0079] For example, when a spot light is emitted to a plastic
spherical object, a small circular highlight having a high
luminance is formed. In addition, in a rubber spherical object, a
radius of the highlight is wider but the luminance is lower than
those of the plastic spherical object. The highlight portion is the
specular component. In addition, also in the diffusing component
and the ambient component, the luminance is different in accordance
with the material.
[0080] FIG. 10 is a diagram for describing an example of the Phong
reflection model. The drawing includes an optical source, light ray
extending from the optical source, a spherical object which the
light ray reaches, a floor on which the spherical object is placed,
and an observer who observes the scene. The observation is
performed at a position of the viewpoint, and may be performed by
actual observation through eyes, and may use an observation machine
such as a camera.
[0081] The specular component in FIG. 10 is light 501 obtained by
reflection of a light ray on the surface of the spherical object in
a line-of-sight direction. The component is formed by the
reflection of the light ray on the spherical object, and a circular
highlight 504 in the drawing is a region of the specular component.
For example, in the case of the plastic spherical object, a small
circular highlight having a high luminance is formed. In addition,
in the case of the rubber spherical object, the radius of the
highlight is wider and the luminance is lower than those of the
plastic one. In the Phong reflection model, it is assumed that the
specular component follows the power of cosine between the line of
sight and the reflected light.
[0082] The diffusing component in FIG. 10 is the diffused
reflection light of light 502 obtained by the hitting of the light
ray onto the spherical object. The luminance of the diffusing
component is determined by direction of the light ray and the
spherical object, that is, by cosine between the light ray and a
normal line, and therefore, a portion of the spherical object on
which the light directly hits becomes a region of the diffusing
component.
[0083] The ambient component in FIG. 10 is light 503 which goes
around the shadow portion. The component is the light which is the
scattered light reflected on the peripheral environment several
times, averaged by the peripheral environment, and left. Therefore,
even the shadow portion which the light does not directly reach has
a constant luminance. The brightness of the diffused reflection
light forming the shadow is determined by cosine between the light
ray and the direction of the surface of the spherical object, that
is, cosine between a vector of the light ray and a normal line.
[0084] From the above description, the Phong reflection model is
shown as the following Expression.
[ Mathematical Expression 1 ] ##EQU00001## I = k d i = 1 l ( N
.fwdarw. L .fwdarw. ) m d + k s i = 1 l ( R .fwdarw. V .fwdarw. ) n
I j + I a ##EQU00001.2##
[0085] Accordingly, the reflected light in the reflected light
detection unit according to the present embodiment is assumed to
include the ambient component, the diffusing component, and the
specular component, and it is assumed that the ambient component in
the video follows a Gaussian distribution having a wide scale, the
diffusing component follows a luminance distribution based on
cosine, and the specular component follows a luminance distribution
based on the power of cosine. When it is assumed that a filter of
the ambient component is set to Fa(x, y), a filter of the diffusing
component is set to Fd(x, y), and a filter of the specular
component is set to Fs(x, y), each filter is as the following
Expressions.
[ Mathematical Expression 2 ] ##EQU00002## F a ( x , y ) = 1 2 .pi.
.sigma. e - x 2 + y 2 2 .sigma. 2 [ Mathematial Expression 3 ]
##EQU00002.2## F d ( x , y ) = cos ( .pi. x 2 + y 2 k ) / N [
Mathematial Expression 4 ] ##EQU00002.3## F s ( x , y ) = cos n (
.pi. x 2 + y 2 k ) / N n ##EQU00002.4##
[0086] In addition, FIGS. 11A, 11B, and 11C are diagrams for
describing the distributions of the ambient component, the
diffusing component, and the specular component each expressed with
the luminance level on a vertical axis and with a one-dimensional
positional coordinates on a horizontal axis. In this manner, it can
be seen that the levels of the distributions of the diffusing
component and the specular component are steeped more than that of
the Gaussian distribution of the ambient component.
[0087] Here, a video "Ia" by the filter of the ambient component is
entirely averaged, and therefore, the video contains almost only
the ambient component. In a video "Id" by the filter of the
diffusing component, the specular component is averaged by the
filter, and the video contains almost only the ambient component
and the diffusing component. A video "Is" by the filter of the
specular component is not almost averaged, and therefore, all of
the ambient component, the diffusing component, and the specular
component are left. This point is expressed by Expression 5.
Ambient=I.sub.a, Diffuse=I.sub.d-I.sub.1, Specular=I.sub.s-I.sub.d
[Mathmatical Expression 5]
[0088] In this point, when a reflection component by a logarithm
space is obtained as similar to the MSR, Expression 6 is
obtained.
R.sub.Phong,i (x, y)=W.sub.a R.sub.Diffuse,i (x, y)
R.sub.Specular,i (x, y)=log I.sub.s,i (x, y)-log .sub.d,i (x,
y)=log[F, (x, y)I (x, y)]-log[F.sub.d (x, y)I (x, y)]
R.sub.Diffuse,i (x, y)=log .sub.d,i (x, y)-log .sub.a,j (x,
y)=log[F.sub.d (x, y)I (x, y)]-log[F.sub.a (x, y)I (x, y)]
[Mathmatical Expression 6]
[0089] In addition, the specular component of a mirror, a metal
plate, and others is considered to be total reflection, and
therefore, the power of cosine is infinite. At this time, for the
reflection component based on the specular component, Expression 7
may be used.
R.sub.Specular,i (x, y)=log I (x, y)-log[F.sub.d (x, y)I (x,
y)]=log I.sub.i (x, y)-log .sub.d,i (x, y) [Mathmatical Expression
7]
[0090] In addition, the ambient component is the average light of
the entire environment, and therefore, a mean filter or an average
luminance may be used instead of the Gaussian filter. For example,
when the average luminance is used, Expression 8 can be
obtained.
R.sub.Diffuse,i (x, y)=log .sub.d,i (x, y)-log[.SIGMA.I (x,
y)/num]=log .sub.d,i (x, y)-log .sub.a,i (x, y) [Mathmatical
Expression 8]
[0091] In addition, the specular component is highly visible at the
highlight having a high luminance in many cases, and the diffusing
component may be a middle or lower luminance in many cases.
Accordingly, for example, a gain of a high luminance area as
illustrated in FIG. 12A may be added to the specular component
Rspecular of Expression 6, and a gain of a middle or lower
luminance area as illustrated in FIG. 12B may be added to the
diffusing component Rdiffuse. Here, in a case of assumption that
the input/output curve of FIG. 12A is set to "g(I)", the gain
becomes 0 when an input luminance "I" is a low luminance, the gain
is gradually increased from a middle luminance, and the gain
becomes 1 when the input luminance is a high luminance. When it is
assumed that he input/output curve of FIG. 12B is set to "1-g(I)",
the gain is 1 when the luminance is low, the gain is gradually
decreased from the middle luminance, and the gain becomes 0 when
the luminance is high.
[0092] In addition, as similar to the example of the MSR, when a
gain and an exponential function are added to Expression 6 after
the weighed average, a homomorphic filter can be obtained. For such
a homomorphic filter, a logarithm function and an exponential
function may be approximated by, for example, a function using a
power method and the inverse function thereof. In this case,
Expression 9 is obtained when the function is set to "f".
R.sub.Phong,i (x, y)=W.sub.d R.sub.Diffuse,i (x, y)+W.sub.x
R.sub.Specular,i (x, y)
R.sub.Specular,i (x, y)=f(F.sub.x (x, y)I (x, y))-f (F.sub.d (x,
y)I (x, y))=f ( .sub.s,i (x, y))-f ( .sub.d,j (x, y))
R.sub.Diffuse,i (x, y)=f (F.sub.d (x, y)I (x, y))-f (F.sub.d (x,
y)I (x, y))=f ( .sub.d,j (x, y))-f ( .sub.a,i (x, y)) [Mathmatical
Expression 8]
[0093] As described above, by using the Phong reflection model, the
correction is performed in consideration of the nature of
reflection.
[0094] Expression 9 will be described by using FIGS. 8 and 9.
[0095] FIG. 8 is a diagram for describing a process of the
reflected light detection unit according to the third embodiment.
The reflected light detection unit 150 includes a specular filter
unit 151, a diffusion filter unit 153, an ambient filter unit 155,
function converting units 157, 159, and 161, a specular detection
unit 163, and a diffusion detecting unit 164. Note that the
function converting unit may perform approximation using a
logarithm function or a function of a power.
[0096] FIG. 9A is a diagram for describing a process of the
reflected light control unit according to the first embodiment. The
reflected light control unit 180 may be configured with the
weighted average of weights W1 and W2, and may be configured with
the weighted average of the weights W1 and W2, a gain G, and an
inverse function converting unit 182. However, the inverse function
converting unit is configured with a function inverse to the
function used in the function converting unit. In addition, as
illustrated in FIG. 9B, a specular correction gain 183 which has a
high gain in the high luminance region of FIG. 12A and a diffusion
correction gain 184 which has a high gain in the middle or lower
luminance region of FIG. 12B may be added to the configuration of
FIG. 9A.
[0097] According to the above configuration, when the reflected
light component is extracted, the video is decomposed for each
nature of reflection of the light, that is, for each of the
specular component, the diffusing component, and the ambient
component, and a correction amount is changed in accordance with
each nature, so that the first correction video signal 21 having a
high texture in consideration of the material of the object in the
video can be obtained from the first Retinex processing unit
20.
[0098] Next, the second Retinex processing unit 22 is assumed to
perform a video correction using the MSR model. At this time, a
process having a larger scale size than that of the above-described
first Retinex processing unit 20 is performed.
[0099] With such a configuration described above, the first
correction video signal 21 becomes a video signal in consideration
of the nature of the object, and the second correction video signal
23 becomes a video signal subjected to the contrast correction in a
relatively large area of the video. These correction video signals
are subjected to composition as similar to the operation of the
video composing unit 26 described in the second embodiment. In this
manner, since a ratio of the second correction video signal is
large in a region of the low luminance level of the video, a
contrast improving effect is increased. Further, since a ratio of a
video correction signal in consideration of the nature of the
object is large in a region of the high luminance level of the
video, a video having a good visibility can be obtained over the
entire region of the luminance level of the video as the correction
video signal 13.
[0100] According to the third embodiment of the present invention
described above, an output video having a higher texture in
addition to the effect of the second embodiment described above can
be obtained.
Fourth Embodiment
[0101] The first to third embodiments describe a method of
performing two types of Retinex processing having different
properties on an input video and composing two Retinex processing
result videos in accordance with a feature of an input video to
generate an output video, thereby improving the definition of the
video and the visibility of the shadow portion. That is, a
description has been given of a method of separating a color video
into a luminance component and two types of color difference
components, applying Retinex processing to the luminance component,
and then recomposing the two types of color difference components
to restore the color video as a method of improving the definition
of the video and the visibility of the shadow portion by applying
Retinex processing to a color video.
[0102] However, when Retinex processing is performed on the color
video by this method, the definition of the video and the
visibility of the shadow portion are improved. At the same time, in
a part where the luminance component is emphasized by Retinex
processing, color tends to be lighter since only the luminance
component is emphasized without changing values of the color
difference components, and a possibility that a color rendering
property of the video may deteriorate is considered.
[0103] Therefore, the present embodiment describes that improvement
in the definition of the video and the visibility of the shadow
portion of the video corresponding to the effect of Retinex are
more suitably attempted without degrading the color rendering
property by emphasizing the color that becomes lighter through
Retinex processing using saturation emphasis to solve the
above-mentioned problem.
[0104] The present embodiment has a configuration in which the
video correcting unit 100 of the video display device in FIG. 1 of
the first embodiment is replaced with a video correcting unit
illustrated in FIG. 13. That is, FIG. 13 is an example of a
configuration of the video correcting unit in the present
embodiment.
[0105] In FIG. 13, the input internal video signal 12 is a color
video including three components of RGB and is converted into a
luminance signal 512 and two types of color difference signals 520
by an RGB.fwdarw.YCbCr converting unit 40. Here, it is presumed
that the color difference signals 520 include two types of
components of Cb and Cr. However, the present invention is not
limited thereto. Next, the luminance signal 512 is input to a
luminance correcting unit 500. The luminance correcting unit 500
has a similar function to that of the video correcting unit 100 of
FIG. 2 in the first embodiment, and thus a detailed description
thereof will be omitted. A luminance signal 513 output as a
correction result of the luminance correcting unit 500 and the two
types of color difference signals 520 are converted into an RGB
image 521 by a YCbCr.fwdarw.RGB converting unit 41. Here, the
RGB.fwdarw.YCbCr converting unit 40 and the YCbCr.fwdarw.RGB
converting unit 41 can be realized by 3.times.3 matrix operation.
Examples of calculation formulas of the RGB.fwdarw.YCbCr converting
unit 40 and the YCbCr.fwdarw.RGB converting unit 41 are shown in
Mathematical Expression 10 and Mathematical Expression 11. Even
though coefficients of the operation may change depending on the
video format, the present invention does not depend on values of
the coefficients.
Y=0.299.times.R+0.587.times.G+0.114.times.B
Cb=0.168736.times.R-0.331264.times.G+0.5.times.B
Cr=0.5.times.R-0.418688.times.G-0.081312.times.B [Mathmatical
Expression 10]
R=Y+1.402.times.Cr
G=Y-0.344136.times.Cb-0.714136.times.Cr
B=Y+1.772.times.Cb [Mathmatical Expression 11]
[0106] According to the configuration up to this point, the RGB
image 521 becomes an image in which only the luminance component is
corrected by the luminance correcting unit 500 without changing the
color difference component with respect to the input internal video
signal 12. Here, when correction processing by the luminance
correcting unit 500 is processing in a direction of emphasizing the
luminance, only the luminance value is emphasized without changing
the color difference component, and thus the color of the video is
lightened and the color rendering property may deteriorated.
[0107] For improvement therein, in the present embodiment, the
color rendering property is improved using a saturation emphasizing
circuit described below. Here, when saturation enhancement is
uniformly performed on the RGB image 521, regardless of a degree of
correction of the luminance correcting unit 500, the obtained image
is unnatural since the saturation is enhanced.
[0108] Therefore, in the present embodiment, the degree of
correction of the luminance correcting unit 500 is calculated by a
luminance correction magnification calculating unit 44. Various
methods can be considered as a method of calculating the degree of
correction. In the present embodiment, as shown in Mathematical
Expression 12, using luminance signals before and after the
luminance correcting unit 500, a value obtained by dividing a value
of the luminance signal 513 by the luminance signal 512 is used as
luminance correction magnification 525.
Luminance correction magnification 525=Luminance value 513 after
luminance correction/Luminance value 512 before luminance
correction [Mathmatical Expression 12]
[0109] Here, in a case where the luminance signal 512 corresponds
to 0, division may not be performed, and thus the luminance
correction magnification 525 is defined as 1.
[0110] Instead of comparing the luminance signals before and after
the luminance correcting unit 500, the luminance correction
magnification may be calculated in the luminance correcting unit
500 and directly obtained by the luminance correction magnification
calculating unit 44.
[0111] In addition, when the luminance correction magnification 525
is used as saturation correction magnification without change,
saturation may be excessively emphasized in a region in which the
luminance correction magnification 525 has a large value in a dark
part of the video, etc. Thus, in the present embodiment, saturation
correction magnification 526 is calculated by a saturation
magnification calculating unit 45 without using the luminance
correction magnification 525 without change. In addition, to allow
the user to change a property of the saturation correction
magnification 526, two types of adjustment parameters of a
saturation correction ratio 527 and a saturation correction
magnification upper limit 528 are prepared in a setting register
47.
[0112] Next, an example of an operation of the saturation
magnification calculating unit 45 will be described using FIG. 14
and Mathematical Expression 13.Note that this operation is merely
an example, and the present invention is not limited to this
operation.
[0113] FIG. 14 is a graph illustrating a relationship between the
luminance correction magnification 525 corresponding to an input of
the saturation magnification calculating unit 45 and the saturation
correction magnification 526 corresponding to an output. In the
graph, a property indicated by a solid line is an input/output
property of the saturation magnification calculating unit 45, and a
broken line is an auxiliary line for clarity of the solid line.
This input/output property is generated using Mathematical
Expression 13.
Intermediate value A=Luminance correction magnification 525-1.0
Intermediate value B=MAX(intermediate value A, 0.0)
Intermediate value C=Intermediate value B.times.Saturation
correction ratio 527
Intermediate value D=MIN(intermediate value C, saturation
correction magnification upper limit 528)
Saturation correction magnification 526=Intermediate value D+1.0
[Mathmatical Expression 13]
[0114] Hereinafter, a description will be given thereof.
[0115] Since the luminance correction magnification 525 is a real
number of 0 or more, 1 is subtracted from the luminance correction
magnification 525 to calculate an intermediate value A. The
intermediate value A is compared with 0 and a larger value is set
as an intermediate value B. Next, the intermediate value B is
multiplied by the saturation correction ratio 527 to calculate an
intermediate value C, and the obtained intermediate value C is
compared with the saturation correction magnification upper limit
528 to set a smaller value as an intermediate value D. The
saturation correction magnification 526 is calculated by adding 1
to the intermediate value D. This series of processing generates
the property of the graph of FIG. 14. Here, the saturation
correction ratio 527 is a value corresponding to a slope of an
oblique portion of the graph, and is a parameter indicating a ratio
of a degree at which the luminance correction magnification 525 is
reflected in saturation correction. A value obtained by adding 1 to
the saturation correction magnification upper limit 528 is an upper
limit of the saturation correction magnification 526. In this way,
it is possible to impose a limitation so that saturation is not
excessively emphasized in a region in which the luminance
correction magnification 525 corresponds to a large value. In
addition, in this property, the saturation correction magnification
526 corresponds to a value of 1 or more at all times, and
processing to weaken saturation is not performed. Note that the
present invention is not limited thereto, and it is possible to
perform processing to weaken the saturation.
[0116] Next, a description will be given of a method of saturation
correction based on the saturation correction magnification 526
calculated as described above. In FIG. 13, first, the RGB image 521
after luminance correction is converted by an RGB.fwdarw.HSV
converting unit 42 into a hue H, a saturation S, and a value V. An
example of this conversion equation is shown in Mathematical
Expression 14.
MAX0=max(R0, G0, B0)
MIN0=min(R0, G0, B0)
H0=
60.times.(G0-R0)/(MAX0-MIN0)+60: when B0is smallest
60.times.(B0-G0)/(MAX0-MIN0)+180: when R0 is smallest
60.times.(R0-B0)/(MAX0-MIN0)+300: when G0 is smallest
Undefined: when R0=G0=B0
S0=
(MAX0-MIN0)/MAX0: when any one of R0, G0, and B0 is a value other
than 0
Undefined: when R0=G0=B0=0
V0=MAX0 [Mathmatical Expression 14]
[0117] This equation is general as an RGB.fwdarw.HSV conversion
equation. An outline is described below. First, with regard to the
respective components R0, G0, and B0 of the RGB image 521 after
luminance correction, a maximum is set to MAX0 and a minimum is set
to MIN0. Next, cases are classified according to a magnitude
relationship between R0, G0, and B0, and a value of the hue H0 is
obtained according to Mathematical Expression 14. As is clear from
the definition of the equation, HO has a value in a range of 0 to
360. When R0, G0 and B0 are all equal, MAX0-MIN0 becomes 0, and
thus H0 may not be defined, which corresponds to a case in which
the pixel is achromatic. For this reason, in this case, as
exception processing, saturation correction is not performed in a
subsequent stage. A saturation S0 and a value V0 are calculated by
Mathematical Expression 14. When MAX0 is 0, division may not be
performed for the saturation S0. However, MAX0 is 0 only when R0,
G0 and B0 are all 0. Thus, the above-mentioned exception processing
corresponding to a case in which R0, G0 and B0 are all is
applied.
[0118] Saturation correction processing is performed on the
saturation S0 (indicated by 523 in FIG. 13), and the hue H0 and the
value V0 (both indicated by 522 in FIG. 13) calculated as described
above. In saturation correction processing of this embodiment, the
hue H0 and the value V0 are not corrected and are input without
change to an HSV.fwdarw.RGB converter 43 as a hue 1 and a value V1.
With regard to the saturation S0, the saturation correction
magnification 526 is multiplied using a multiplication circuit 46,
a resultant saturation S1 (indicated by 524 in FIG. 13) is input to
the HSV.fwdarw.RGB converter 43. When an output of the
multiplication circuit 46 does not fall within a range of 0.0 to
1.0, clip processing is performed so that the output falls within
the range of 0.0 to 1.0, and a result thereof is the saturation S1.
The hue H1, the saturation S1 and the value V1 after saturation
correction calculated in this manner are converted into RGB by the
HSV.fwdarw.RGB converter 43 and sent to a timing controlling unit
14 as a correction video signal 13 after video correction. An
example of processing of the HSV.fwdarw.RGB converter 43 is shown
in Mathematical Expression 15.
MAX1=V1
MIN1=MAX1.times.(1-S1)
R1=MAX1, B1=MIN1, G1=H1/60.times.(MAX1-MIN1)+MIN1: when
0.ltoreq.H1<60
G1=MAX1, B1=MIN1, R1=(120-H1)/60.times.(MAX1-MIN1)+MIN1: when
60.ltoreq.H1<120
G1=MAX1, R1=MIN1, B1=(H1-120)/60.times.(MAX1-MIN1)+MIN1: when
120.ltoreq.H1<180
B1=MAX1, R1=MIN1, G1=(240-H1)/60.times.(MAX1-MIN1)+MIN1: when
180.ltoreq.H1<240
B1=MAX1, G1=MIN1, R1=(H1-240)/60.times.(MAX1-MIN1)+MIN1: when
240.ltoreq.H1<300
R1=MAX1, G1=MIN1, B1=(360-H1)/60.times.(MAX1-MIN1)+MIN1: when
300.ltoreq.H1<360
R1=R1, G1=G0, B1=B0: when R0=G0=B0 [Mathmatical Expression 15]
[0119] Since this equation is general as an HSV.fwdarw.RGB
conversion equation, only an outline will be described. First, the
value V1 is used without change as a maximum component MAX1. Next,
a minimum component MIN1 is calculated from the maximum component
MAX1 and the saturation S1 based on Mathematical Expression 15.
Thereafter, R1, G1 and B1 are obtained according to Mathematical
Expression 15 in accordance with a value of the hue H1. As
described above, in the case of R0=G0=B0, no valid values are set
for the hue H1, the saturation S1 and the value V1, and thus the
values of R0, G0 and B0 are used as values of R1, G1, and B1
without change as exception processing.
[0120] In the present embodiment, a description has been given of a
procedure in which saturation correction is performed after RGB is
completely converted into HSV, and then RGB is obtained from HSV to
facilitate understanding of the description. However,
implementation may not be performed in this manner. Since a final
hue value is not required in this processing, implementation may be
performed by omitting some calculation processing such as
calculation of the final hue value, etc.
[0121] As described above, the present embodiment includes the
video input unit, the video correcting unit that performs video
correction on a video input by the video input unit, and the video
display unit that displays the video corrected by the video
correcting unit. Further, the video correcting unit is configured
to perform local luminance correction on the video input by the
video input unit, acquire a correction intensity for each part of
the local luminance correction, and perform local saturation
correction based on the correction intensity.
[0122] In addition, local luminance correction in the video
correcting unit is correction using Retinex correction, the gain of
luminance correction is acquired as the correction intensity by
comparing videos before and after correction, and an intensity of
local saturation correction is changed according to the gain.
[0123] In this way, it is possible to more suitably attempt
improvement in the definition of the video and the visibility of
the shadow portion of the video corresponding to the effect of
Retinex without degrading the color rendering property.
Fifth Embodiment
[0124] In this embodiment, in the video display device of the
present invention, an example of a control method when a user sets
a correction property will be described.
[0125] FIG. 15 illustrates an example of a configuration of a video
display device in the present embodiment and is different from FIG.
1 in providing a user setting unit 400. The user setting unit 400
is configured so that the user can set whether to perform the
correction and set the amount of the correction in the video
processing in the video display device by receiving an operation
signal 401 from the user as an input through an operation of an
operation button of a remote controller or a device body and
outputting an operation command signal to the video correcting unit
100 in accordance with the operation signal. In this manner, the
user can perform such setting as switching the video displayed in a
display unit to a user's desired state.
[0126] FIG. 16 illustrates an example of setting items which can be
set by the user setting unit 400 in the present embodiment. FIG. 16
corresponds to a setting menu screen 1800 which the video display
device displays and illustrates an example of the setting menu
screen. The setting menu screen 1800 has a signal generated by a
menu screen signal generating unit (whose illustration is omitted)
in the video display device, and outputs the signal instead of the
correction video signal 13. Alternatively, the setting menu screen
1800 has a signal obtained by convolution with the correction video
signal 13, and outputs the signal.
[0127] First, the item "Retinex Method Selection" 1810 in an
example of the setting menu screen 1800 will be described. With the
item "Retinex Method Selection" 1810, it can be selected whether to
use the Retinex processing of both of the first Retinex processing
unit 20 and the second Retinex processing unit 22 described in each
embodiment. The selection process is performed by moving a cursor
1811 through the operation of the operation button of the remote
controller or the device body. The selected item and the process in
this case will be described. For example, when an item "Retinex 1
only" is selected, only the process of the first Retinex processing
unit 20 is applied to the process of the video correcting unit, and
the process of the second Retinex processing unit 22 is not applied
to the process of the video correcting unit. Specifically, the
composition control value a may be set to 1, or the operation of
the second Retinex processing unit 22 may be turned off. Next, on
the contrary, when the item "Retinex 2 only" is selected, only the
process of the second Retinex processing unit 22 is applied to the
process of the video correcting unit, and the process of the first
Retinex processing unit 20 is not applied to the video correcting
unit. Specifically, the composition control value a may be set to
0, and the operation of the first Retinex processing unit 20 may be
turned off. When the selection item "Combining Retinex 1 and 2" is
selected, the processes of the first Retinex processing unit 20 and
the process of the second
[0128] Retinex processing unit 22 are composed and outputted as
described above in the embodiment. When the selection item "Retinex
OFF" is selected, both of the process of the first Retinex
processing unit 20 and the process of the second Retinex processing
unit 22 are not applied to the process of the video correcting
unit. The operation of both processes may be turned off, and the
video inputted to the video correcting unit may be outputted while
bypassing the video correcting unit.
[0129] In the item "Retinex Method Selection" 1810 described above,
it is not always required to show the above-described four
selection items to the user. For example, only two selection items
"Combining Retinex 1 and 2" and "Retinex OFF" may be shown. In
addition, three selection items "Combining Retinex 1 and 2",
"Retinex 1 only", and "Retinex OFF" may be shown. That is, at least
two items among the exemplified items may be shown.
[0130] Next, the item "Retinex Intensity Setting" 1820 of the
example of the setting menu screen 1800 will be descried. In the
item "Retinex Intensity Setting" 1820, an intensity of each Retinex
processing can be set. Specifically, the intensity of each Retinex
processing is set by moving slide bars 1821 and 1822 through the
operation of the operation button of the remote controller or the
device body. The process in this case can be achieved by, for
example, adding an offset to the gain of each Retinex processing
illustrated in FIGS. 4A and 4B in accordance with the intensity.
For example, a positive offset is added to the gain of FIGS. 4A and
4B when the intensity is high, and a negative offset is added when
the intensity is low. Such a process of adding the offset can be
achieved by inserting the process of adding the offset into the
first Retinex processing unit 20 and the second Retinex processing
unit 22, or inserting it to the correction video signal 21 and the
correction video signal 23.
[0131] Note that the item "Retinex Intensity Setting" 1820 may be
configured to switch an active state and an inactive state in
accordance with the selection status of the item "Retinex Method
Selection" 1810. That is, the slide bar for a process turned off in
the item "Retinex Method Selection" 1810 may be the inactive
state.
[0132] Next, the item "Retinex saturation Setting" 1830 of the
example of the setting menu screen 1800 will be described. As
described with reference to FIG. 13, the saturation magnification
calculating unit 45 determines a scheme of reflecting the value of
the luminance correction magnification 525 in the saturation
correction magnification 526 using the values of the saturation
correction ratio 527 and the saturation correction magnification
upper limit 528 corresponding to the two types of parameters stored
in the setting register 47. Here, by allowing the saturation
correction ratio 527 to correspond to a slide bar 1831 and the
saturation correction magnification upper limit 528 to correspond
to a slide bar 1832, the user can adjust these values in accordance
with a user's preference. In addition, in this embodiment, it is
presumed that the value of the saturation correction ratio 527 is
set to 0 by putting the slide bar 1831 at a leftmost position.
However, it is possible to add a menu item for explicitly selecting
ON/OFF.
[0133] As described above, the present embodiment sets a menu that
allows the user to set local saturation correction. In this manner,
the user can adjust the video correction process in each embodiment
of the present invention in accordance with a user's preference, a
usage purpose or a usage environment of the video display device,
and a more convenient video display device can be provided.
[0134] In addition, these parameters can be changed according to a
type of the input video or a state of a viewing environment
acquired by an optical sensor, etc. other than a user menu. For
example, a register value may be automatically changed according to
the type of input video by classifying types of videos into a
movie, sports, a news program, and a presentation material,
determining classification to which the manually or automatically
input video belongs to, and referring to a correspondence table of
video classification and register setting values prepared in
advance. As video classification, it is possible to consider
methods such as utilization of metadata such as EPG information
attached to the video and video type determination by machine
learning. In addition, since brightness of a video viewing location
and a color temperature of illumination can be acquired using a
camera or an optical sensor, it is possible to automatically change
a register set value according to the viewing environment using a
similar table.
[0135] The present invention is not limited to the embodiments
described above, and includes various modifications. For example,
the above-described embodiments are described in detail to explain
the present invention in an easy-to-understand manner, and may not
include all the configurations described. In addition, a part of a
configuration of a certain embodiment may be replaced with a
configuration of another embodiment, and a configuration of a
certain embodiment may be added to a configuration of another
embodiment. In addition, with respect to a part of a configuration
of each embodiment, it is possible to add, delete, and replace
other configurations.
REFERENCE SIGNS LIST
[0136] 10: video input signal, 12: internal video signal, 13:
correction video signal, 15: display control signal, 20: first
Retinex processing unit, 21: first correction video signal, 22:
second Retinex processing unit, 23: second correction video signal,
24: feature analyzing unit, 25: video composing control signal, 26:
video composing unit, 27, 28, 31: gain control unit, 29: video
composing control signal, 30: adder, 32: illuminance level signal,
33: correction video signal of adaptive control, 40:
RGB.fwdarw.YCbCr converting unit, 41: YCbCr.fwdarw.RGB converting
unit, 42: RGB.fwdarw.HSV converting unit, 43: HSV.fwdarw.RGB
converting unit, 44: luminance correction magnification calculating
unit, 45: saturation magnification calculating unit, 46:
multiplication circuit (with clip function), 47: setting register,
100: video correcting unit, 101: reflected light component based on
scale 1, 102: reflected light component based on scale 2, 120:
reflected light detecting unit based on MSR, 122: result of
convolution product based on scale 1 filter, 124: result of
convolution product based on scale 2 filter, 126: result value of
SSR based on scale 1, 128: result value of SSR based on scale 2,
130: reflected light control unit based on MSR, 131: result value
of weighted averaging of result of each SSR (including gain), 152:
result of convolution product based on specular filter, 154: result
of convolution product based on diffusing filter, 156: result of
convolution product based on ambient filter, 158: result of
function conversion of specular filter, 160: result of function
conversion of diffusing filter, 162: result of function conversion
of ambient filter, 181: result value of weighted averaging of
specular component and diffusing component (including gain), 302:
edge signal, 500: luminance correcting unit, 525: luminance
correction magnification, 526: saturation correction magnification,
527: saturation correction ratio, 528: saturation correction
magnification upper limit, 1800: setting menu screen
* * * * *