Perceptual backlight scaling for low power liquid crystal displays based on visual saliency

In this paper, we propose perceptual backlight scaling for low power liquid crystal displays (LCDs) based on visual saliency. Visual saliency represents human attention, which locates the objects of interest in the human visual system (HVS). We perform perceptual backlight scaling for LCDs from a given PSNR based on visual saliency. In the proposed method, visual saliency is obtained by the log-spectrum. First, we get the clipped point of an input image from the given PSNR, and determine its backlight dimming factor. Then, we decompose an image into base and detail layers using bilateral filtering, and perform pixel compensation for the base layer. Finally, we enhance the contrast of the compensated image using the saliency map and detail layer. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method successfully reproduces a global tone in an image while effectively preserving fine details.