What is claimed is:
1. A vehicle light apparatus comprising:
lighting means which illuminates forward a vehicle; and
lighting range control means which changes a lighting range of said lighting means in response to a steering angle of the vehicle, and turns the lighting range into an opposite direction to a current steering direction when steering is returned from a steering state into a straight running direction.
2. The vehicle light apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said lighting range control means controls at least one of a lighting direction and a lighting area of said lighting means, thereby controlling the lighting range.
3. The vehicle light apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said lighting range control means controls the lighting range based on a steering angular velocity.
4. The vehicle light apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said lighting range control means controls the lighting range based on a steering angular velocity.
5. The vehicle light apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the lighting range control means increases the lighting range for illuminating an opposite side following the return of the steering into the straight running direction when the steering angular velocity is greater than a predetermined value.
6. The vehicle light apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the lighting range control means increases the lighting range for illuminating an opposite side following the return of the steering into the straight running direction when the steering angular velocity is greater than a predetermined value.
7. The vehicle light apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of lighting means are provided and said lighting range control means controls a lighting range corresponding to the steering angle for a part of the lighting means and controls the other part of the lighting means to turn the lighting range into an opposite direction to a current steering direction when the steering is returned into the straight running direction.
8. The vehicle light apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said lighting range control means controls at least one of a lighting direction and a lighting area of said lighting means, thereby controlling the lighting range.
9. The vehicle light apparatus according to claim 1, wherein changing of the lighting range when the steering angle is increasing is controlled to be greater than that when the steering angle is decreasing.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A method in a device of controlling a display, comprising:
transmitting a heartbeat signal in a self-refresh state, wherein the heartbeat signal is configured to be used by a display to remain in sync with the device while the device is in the self-refresh state.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
detecting a static image; and
switching to the self-refresh state responsive to detecting the static image.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein, t le transmitting comprises:
transmitting the heartbeat signal to the display over a main link or an auxiliary link.
4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
activating a supplemental timing generator.
5. A method of operating a display, comprising:
switching to a self-refresh state; and
generating a timing signal based on a heartbeat signal received from a device, such that the display and device remain in sync while the device is in a self-refresh state.
6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:
controlling drivers of the display using the generated timing signal.
7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:
storing a frame received from the device; and
while the display is in the self-refresh state, controlling the drivers to display the frame.
8. The method of claim 5, wherein switching comprises:
switching to the self-refresh state in response to a command received from the device.
9. The method of claim 5, further comprising:
receiving the heartbeat signal over a main link or an auxiliary link.
10. A display controller, comprising:
a static image detection module; and
a timing module configured to generate a timing signal in a first state and a heartbeat signal in a second state, wherein the timing module is configured to switch between the first and second states responsive to a signal received from the static image detection module.
11. The display controller of claim 10, wherein the first state is a self-refresh state.
12. The display controller of claim 10, wherein the static image detection module is configured to output the signal at a first value when an image to be displayed has become static over a number of frames,
13. The display controller of claim 10, wherein the timing module comprises:
a timing generator configured to generate the timing signal.
14. The display controller of claim 13, wherein the timing module further comprises:
a supplemental timing generator configured to generate the heartbeat signal, wherein the timing generator is configured to activate the supplemental timing generator when the timing module switches to the first state.
15. The display controller of claim 10, further comprising:
an interface module coupled to the timing module and configured to communicate with a display over a plurality of lines, the lines comprising a main he and an auxiliary line.
16. The display controller of claim 15, wherein the interface module is configured to receive the heartbeat signal and to send the heartbeat signal to the display over the auxiliary link.
17. A display device, comprising:
a self-refresh controller configured to control the display device to operate in a first state or a second state, wherein the first state is a self-refresh state;
drivers configured to drive respective pixels of the display device; and
a controller configured to control the drivers when the display device operates in the first state based on a received heartbeat signal.
18. The display device of claim 17, wherein the timing controller comprises:
a timing generator configured to generate a timing signal based on the heartbeat signal.
19. The display device of claim 17, wherein the timing controller comprises:
a frame buffer configured to hold a frame to be displayed While the display device is in the first state.
20. The display device of claim 17, further comprising:
an interface configured to control the drivers with information received from a display controller when the display device operates in the second state, wherein the interface module is configured to receive the heartbeat signal and to transmit the heartbeat signal to the timing controller.
21. The display device of claim 20, Wherein the interface module is coupled to lines, the lines comprising a main line and an auxiliary line.
22. The display device of claim 21, wherein the interface module is configured to receive the heartbeat signal over the main line.
23. A method of operating a display, comprising:
transmitting a heartbeat signal to a device when the device is in a self-refresh state, wherein the heartbeat signal is configured to be used by the device upon exiting from the self-refresh state to synchronize with the display.
24. The method of claim 23, wherein the transmitting comprises:
transmitting the heartbeat signal to the device over an auxiliary link or a hot plug detect.
25. The method of claim 23, further comprising:
generating the heartbeat signal based on a timing signal.
26. The method of claim 25, further comprising:
controlling drivers of the display using the timing signal.
27. The method of claim 26, further comprising:
storing a frame received from the device; and
while the display is in the self-refresh state, controlling, the drivers to display the frame.
28. The method of claim 23, further comprising:
switching to the self-refresh state in response to a command received from the device.
29. A method of operating a device, comprising:
switching to a self-refresh state; and
generating a timing signal based on a heartbeat signal received from a display, such that the display and device are in sync when the device exits from a self-refresh state.
30. The method of claim 29, further comprising:
detecting a static image; wherein the switching comprises switching to the self-refresh state responsive to detecting the static image.
31. A display controller, comprising:
a static image detection module; and
a timing module configured to generate a timing s based on a received heartbeat signal after exiting from a self-refresh state.
32. The display controller of claim 31, wherein the static image detection module is configured to output the signal at a first value when an image to be displayed has become static over a number of frames.
33. The display controller of claim 31, wherein the timing module comprises:
a timing generator configured to generate the timing signal.
34. The display controller of claim 31, wherein the timing module comprises:
a supplemental timing generator configured to generate the timing signal.
35. The display controller of claim 31, further comprising:
an interface module coupled to the timing module and configured to communicate with a display over a plurality of lines, the lines comprising a main line and an auxiliary line.
36. A display device, comprising:
a self-refresh controller configured to control the display device to operate in a first state or a second state, wherein the first state is a self-refresh state;
drivers configured to drive respective pixels of the display device; and
a timing controller configured to control the drivers when the display device operates in the first state and to output a heartbeat signal when the display device operates in the first state, wherein the heartbeat signal is configured to be used by a display controller to synchronize the display controller with the display device.
37. The display device of claim 36, wherein the timing controller comprises:
a timing generator configured to generate a timing signal when the display device is in the first state.
38. The display device of claim 36, wherein the timing generator is configured to generate the heartbeat signal based on the timing signal.
39. The display device of claim 36, wherein the timing controller comprises:
a frame buffer configured to hold a frame to be displayed while the display device in the first state.
40. The display device of claim 36, further comprising:
an interface module that is configured to transmit the heartbeat signal to the display controller using either an auxiliary link or a hot plug detect.