Display devices have become more complex as technology has progressed. Not only has the resolution of displays vastly increased due to the number of pixels per inch, but the screens themselves have also evolved from simple flat panels. From unconventional shapes, such as curved lenses, to dynamic sizes, such as foldable displays, it has become more challenging to properly render clear images on display devices. To address this issue, artificial intelligence (AI) has been tapped to support the processing capabilities of display devices.
In this article we take a look at how AI has enhanced display technologies and our visual experiences.
Innovega’s AI powered AR/VR glasses
U.S. 11,990,129 entitled “Display Eyewear With Auditory Enhancement”, was filed on June 29, 2020, and granted on May 21, 2024 to Innovega. The patent describes a display eyewear with auditory enhancement. The device has a microphone which captures sound from the environment. The microphone is directional, focusing on the direction of the wearer’s gaze as determined by the gaze tracker. A controller processes the sound captured by the microphone to isolate and extract speech. Additionally, a camera may capture images of the mouth of the person or their hand movements when using sign language. These visual inputs provide additional data for speech extraction. The images are then analyzed by an AI to extract speech, and project the speech as text or as hand signs to the user of the eyewear.
Innovega develops AR/VR glasses with contact lenses attached to the interior of glass lenses. This allows for the display of high resolution images that a person can still properly perceive, despite the close distance of the screen. In 2022, Innovega licensed its glasses to a global electronics supplier to manufacture and distribute their eyewear to people such as the visually impaired or legally blind.
Samsung’s flexible displays
U.S. Patent No. 11,990,070, was filed on April 7, 2022, and granted on May 21, 2024, to Samsung. The patent describes an electronics display with an extendable flexible display. In its default configuration, only a portion of the screen is visible, with the rest of it folded underneath the housing. When an event is triggered, a motor controls the extension of the housing and the rest of the screen is rolled out into view. A processor that controls these functions comes with an AI model to monitor and identify the trigger event, such as app usage or specific user input.
Samsung recently revealed an OLED flexible screen with a feature called Flexible Magic Pixel technology. The technology provides privacy by changing the viewing angle of the screen so it is impossible to see unless looking at it directly. Artificial Intelligence is combined with this technology to be able to monitor the environment to determine when to activate this feature. Such as when using a banking application in a public place, as other people will not be able to see what is displayed on screen.
AI-downscaling and upscaling
U.S. Patent No. 11,989,852, describes an AI-downscaling and AI-upscaling apparatus, which allow artifacts to be removed during the process of restoring an AI-downscaled image by AI-upscaling the AI-downscaled image. This is done through predictive motion estimation and compensation between frames by the AI software
During the CES in January 2024, Samsung described the method of their upscaling through AI for their TV displays. AI allows for the various different causes of artifacts in upscaling a video, such as motion blur, texture loss, and color banding, to be processed in a single step, rather than each needing an individual solution.
