Invented by Boo; Hyun H., Miscuglio; Mario, Hu; Jenny, Guan; Ximeng, Qiao; Yi, Chappalli; Mahesh B., Ma; Zhizhen, Kornienko; Alexey, Jia; Tao

Electronic screens are everywhere. From phones to watches, tablets, and computers, displays are a daily part of our lives. But as these devices become slimmer and smarter, designers face a tough challenge: how to add more features, like hidden sensors, without hurting the way the screen looks. Today, we’ll break down a new patent application that takes on this challenge with a clever solution—using multiple pixel layouts on a single display panel. We’ll guide you through the background, the science and prior solutions, and finally, the details of the new invention.

Background and Market Context

Over the past decade, the look and feel of screens have changed dramatically. Early screens were simple—they just showed pictures and videos. But as technology grew, people wanted more from their devices. They wanted touch screens that could sense their fingers, screens that could adjust brightness by sensing the room, and even screens that could hide cameras or other sensors without ugly holes or notches.

Think about your smartphone. It’s not just showing you pretty pictures. It senses light with an ambient sensor to adjust brightness. It might have a camera hidden behind the glass. It needs to keep everything looking smooth and bright, with no strange dark spots or fuzzy areas. Every time a company tries to add a sensor under the screen, they risk making the screen look worse. Sometimes, the area over the sensor appears blurry or dim. That’s because sensors placed under the display can’t “see” as well through all the layers of screen, especially if there are too many pixels or electronic parts in the way.

Manufacturers have tried to solve this in different ways. Some have put sensors in notches or cut-outs, but these break up the screen’s surface. Others have tried making a whole row or block of pixels less dense so that more light can reach the sensor. But this creates a new problem—the display now has a patch that looks different from the rest. You might notice a blurry spot, a faint shadow, or a drop in brightness. For high-end devices like flagship smartphones or smartwatches, even small flaws like these are not acceptable.

So, the demand is clear: Make displays that can hide sensors underneath without making the screen look strange. Do it in a way that works for all kinds of devices, from big tablets to tiny watches. And make it so smooth that users never notice any difference. That’s the big challenge the new patent takes on, and it’s a challenge the whole market cares about. With more devices using under-display cameras, fingerprint readers, and ambient sensors, the need for this kind of technology is only growing.

Scientific Rationale and Prior Art

To understand the new patent, it helps to know a bit about how screens work. Each screen is made of many small lights, called pixels. Each pixel can be red, green, or blue. By mixing these lights, the screen can make any color. The more pixels you have in a small space, the sharper and clearer the picture. But more pixels also mean more wires and more tiny switches, called transistors, that turn the pixels on and off. These parts can block light. That’s a problem if you want a sensor behind the display to see through it.

Scientists and engineers have tried to fix this by making special areas of the display where there are fewer pixels. With fewer pixels and wires, more light can get through to the sensor underneath. But this creates another problem. When you look at the screen, your eye can spot the area with fewer pixels. It might look less bright or less sharp than the rest of the screen. Your eye is very good at noticing even small changes in brightness or sharpness, especially on a bright, colorful display.

Some solutions tried to make the low-pixel area blend in. They used software to brighten that area or blur the picture a bit so the change wasn’t so sharp. Others tried adding a border area, with medium pixel density, between the dense and less dense areas. Still, these fixes often left visible lines or shifts in color and brightness.

Other patents have described ways to drive pixels with different amounts of power, or use special pixel shapes, to hide the transition between regions. Some use complex algorithms to change the image before showing it on the screen, hoping to balance the look. But none of these solutions fully remove the visible effect, especially when the user looks closely or uses the device in bright sunlight.

The core problem is that the human eye is very sensitive to sudden changes. If one part of the screen is a little darker, or a little fuzzier, it stands out. A perfect solution would adjust every pixel so the transition is invisible, no matter what’s on the screen.

This is where the new patent comes in. It combines hardware and software in a smarter way. Instead of treating every part of the screen the same, it uses special processing for each region. It identifies areas with different pixel layouts (high density, low density, and even the borders between them) and adjusts the image data for each one. This way, the whole screen can appear smooth and seamless, even with sensors hiding underneath.

Invention Description and Key Innovations

Now let’s break down what this patent actually does. Imagine a phone or tablet screen divided into several areas. The main part has lots of pixels, giving a sharp, detailed picture. Another part, maybe a small spot at the top, has fewer pixels. This is where a light sensor or camera might hide underneath. There might also be a “boundary” area in between, where the pixel count is in the middle.

The heart of the invention is a smart image processing system. This system knows what kind of pixel layout is used in every region. It doesn’t just send the same image data to every pixel. Instead, it uses special “resamplers”—think of them like custom filters—for each area. Each resampler adjusts the brightness, color, and sharpness of the image for its specific pixel layout.

For the normal, high-pixel areas, the resampler makes sure the image is sharp and bright. For the low-pixel area, it boosts the brightness more, since fewer pixels means each one needs to shine brighter to look the same. For the boundary areas, the resampler does even more—it creates a smooth blend so the change from high to low pixel density isn’t visible. This is like how an artist might shade between two colors to make a smooth transition instead of a harsh line.

The system knows exactly where every pixel is on the screen. When it gets image data, it checks the position and sends it to the right resampler. Each resampler applies special math to the data—sometimes raising the brightness, sometimes blurring slightly, sometimes doing both. The goal is that when the image finally shows up, your eye can’t tell that any part of the screen is different.

Another clever part: the system can handle more than just two regions. If the screen has three or more areas, each with its own pixel layout, the image processing can adjust for each one. Even the “boundary” zones can get their own special treatment. This gives designers huge flexibility. They can hide sensors anywhere, of any size or shape, and the user won’t notice.

But how does it do this in practice? The patent describes using “gain maps,” which are like instructions for each pixel about how much to brighten the image. It also uses filters to remove sharp details in low-pixel areas, so the difference isn’t obvious. The image processing can even convert the data between different color systems (like from RGB to another format) to make the adjustments work better. All of this happens in real time, as the device displays each frame, so there’s no lag or delay.

The system is built to work in many devices: phones, tablets, watches, even car dashboards or virtual reality headsets. It’s flexible, so manufacturers can put sensors wherever they need, and the screen will still look perfect.

There are a few more details that make this invention stand out. For example, the system can handle “gamma” correction, which is a way of adjusting image data to match how our eyes see brightness. It can do edge detection, so sharp lines stay clean even across regions. And because it’s all handled by special image processing circuits, it doesn’t slow down the device or use too much power.

The real magic is that all this complexity is hidden from the user. Whether you’re watching a movie, playing a game, or video chatting, the image on the screen stays smooth and bright. You can’t tell where the sensor is hiding, or where the pixel layout changes. That’s a big win for both device makers and users.

Conclusion

This patent sets a new standard for hidden sensor technology in electronic displays. By using smart region-aware image processing, it solves the big problems of hiding sensors under the screen without hurting the picture quality. It allows different pixel layouts in one display, and smooths the transition between them so well that the user can’t see any flaws. As more devices pack in more features, this kind of technology will become even more important. For anyone interested in the future of screens—whether you’re an engineer, a designer, or just a fan of cool gadgets—this patent shows where things are headed: smarter, sleeker, and more seamless displays.

Click here https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/ and search 20250218330.