Microsoft Files to Patent a New Pixel Dimming Technology

[btarunr]

Microsoft, in a patent application, revealed that it is developing a new pixel dimming technology that allows software to control the brightness of specific regions of a compatible display, to greatly enhance realism. Put simply, this is a means for software to tell a display to increase the brightness of specific pixels of a display, while dimming others.

This is accomplished more easily on some display types, such as OLED, where each pixel is its own source of illumination. LCDs rely on backlit illumination from usually no more than a hundred LEDs, and so they're not capable of this technology, at least the way Microsoft describes it. Patent applications tend to have oversimplified language, and here, Microsoft describes how a component called an EM gate driver sends a PWM signal to pixels to adjust their brightness. All modern displays rely on the concept of PWM to adjust brightness, where the number of pulses of energy in a time period define how bright a display gets; and so Microsoft's language is rather vague. What's important, though, is that the company is claiming that it found a way to dim individual pixels. The patent application was originally filed in 2022, but published on March 21, 2024.



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[dir_d]

Delay DP2.1a more, we need to build another scaler.

 

[Minus Infinity]

miniled displays are up to 2300 leds, so a lot more than 100.

 

[Ferrum Master]

It seems M$ got hold of our w1z's personal photoshoot. I hope the robe always stays on.

 

[Essaudio]

“Found a way to dim individual pixels”? I might be missing something but every oled already does this. What’s the breakthrough here?

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Dead pixel alert it's MS now not your monitors fault

 

[chrcoluk]

“Found a way to dim individual pixels”? I might be missing something but every oled already does this. What’s the breakthrough here?

I assume Microsoft thinks software can do it better than a monitor doing it by itself, I guess like when comparing GPU based scaling to monitor based scaling.

The issue is the monitor industry is dominated by non oled panels.

 

[ScaLibBDP]

What is new here?

SetPixel Win32 API function is a part of Windows GDI subsystem for more than 30 years! It allows to change the color of a pixel at coordinates X and Y.
This is how SetPixel is declared in wingdi.h header file:

COLORREF SetPixel(
HDC hdc, // handle to DC
int X, // x-coordinate of pixel
int Y, // y-coordinate of pixel
COLORREF crColor ); // pixel color

A developer should use RGB macro to create the COLORREF value:

COLORREF RGB(
BYTE byRed, // red component of color
BYTE byGreen, // green component of color
BYTE byBlue ); // blue component of color

If the Developer calls
...
SetPixel( hdc, 512, 512, RGB( 255, 255, 255 ) );
...
and some time later
...
SetPixel( hdc, 512, 512, RGB( 128, 128, 128 ) );
...
it will decrease brightness of the pixel at position X=512 and Y=512 by 50 percent. Once again, What is new here?

 

[Essaudio]

Because I was curious I looked it up. The description in this “summary” (with no links) is pretty inaccurate IMO probably starting with the credited windows report piece which starts the misrepresentation of the patent from what I can see.
The patent appears to be a way to compensate for variable brightness when dimming tech (think either LD or BFI) is used with VRR. Usually this results in brightness variation or you disable VRR and live with potential flicker. this patent interleaves rows of dimmed pixels to average out the brightness over time leading to steady brightness while also allowing for a sort of row level brightness modifier (I think). I could be wrong link here : https://patents.justia.com/patent/20240096268