Spatially uniform colors for projectors and tiled displays

Abstract— A major issue when setting up multi‐projector tiled displays is the spatial non‐uniformity of the color throughout the display's area. Indeed, the chromatic properties do not only vary between two different projectors, but also between different spatial locations inside the displaying area of one single projector. A new method for calibrating the colors of a tiled display is presented. An iterative algorithm to construct a correction table which makes the luminance uniform over the projected area of one single projector is presented first. This so‐called intra‐projector calibration uses a standard camera as a luminance measuring device and can be processed in parallel for all projectors. Once the color inside each projector is spatially uniform, the set of displayable colors — the color gamut — of each projector is measured. On the basis of these measurements, the goal of the inter‐projector calibration is to find an optimal gamut shared by all the projectors. Finding the optimal color gamut displayable by n projectors in time O(n) is shown, and the color conversion from one specific color gamut to the common global gamut is derived. The method of testing it on a tiled display consisting of 48 projectors with large chrominance shifts was experimentally validated.     

High‐efficiency optical system for ultra‐short‐throw‐distance projector based on multi‐laser light source

Abstract— A novel laser‐light‐source projector having the three outstanding features of high brightness, ultra‐short throw distance, and high color reproduction has been developed.These features have recently come to be required in the high‐end projector market. The technologies for the laser‐light‐source projectors fully utilize the advantages of lasers, such as high luminance, small étendue, and high color purity. By integrating a triple‐rod illumination system with a multi‐laser light source and an ultra‐wide‐angle projection system, the developed high‐efficiency optical system has achieved a brightness of 7000 lm and a throw ratio of 0.28 with an image size of 100–150 in. Another new technology, laser color processing (LCP), has offered vivid color reproduction which has a color gamut that is up to 180% wider than the BT.709 standard without appearing unnaturally colored. Furthermore, a speckle suppression effect produced by the multi‐laser light source has been demonstrated. In this paper, an overview of these newly developed technologies that are used in the novel laser‐light‐source projector is presented, and solutions to the issues of speckle noise and safety are presented.     

Analysis of color volume of multi‐chromatic displays using gamut rings

There are claims that multi‐chromatic displays can achieve a wider color gamut by the use of additional highly saturated secondary color channels. However, there are other claims that these displays lose lightness and/or color saturation at brighter levels. These apparently divergent views have led to some controversy in the display industry and at standard setting organizations. This study examines the color gamut volume for a variety of simulated and measured multi‐chromatic (sometimes incorrectly referred to as “multi‐primary”) displays using combinations of white and/or secondary color channels, such as cyan, magenta, and yellow. Furthermore, a two‐dimensional gamut representation, referred to as “gamut rings,” is introduced to illustrate that the addition of nonprimary optical color channels to a trichromatic (RGB) display can result in a significant decrease in the chroma at higher lightness levels. The additional saturated color channels can increase the gamut volume only around their hues at darker levels. The results also confirm the validity of comparing the color light output and white light output for revealing the design trade‐offs between the high‐peak white and the color‐image brightness for multi‐chromatic displays.     

Invited Paper: UHP‐lamp systems for projection applications

Abstract— Projection systems have found widespread use in conference rooms and other professional applications during the last decade and are now entering the home‐TV market with considerable pace. Projectors as small as about one liter are nowadays able to deliver a screen flux of several thousand lumens and are, with a system efficacy of more than 10 lm/W, the most‐efficient display system realized today. Because such highly efficient projectors employ microdisplays as light valves, short‐arc lamps are a key component in realizing these properties. The introduction of the UHP‐lamp system by Philips in 1995 can be identified as one of the key enablers for the commercial success of projection systems. The ultra‐high‐performance (UHP) lamp concept features outstanding arc luminance, a well‐suited spectrum, long life, and excellent flux maintenance. For the first time, it combines a very‐high‐pressure mercury‐discharge lamp having an extremely short and stable arc length with a regenerative chemical cycle that keeps the discharge walls free from blackening, leading to lifetimes of over 10,000 hours. In this review, the most important aspects of the UHP concept that enabled its success in the projection market are described, followed by a discussion of some recent additions to the UHP‐product portfolio.     

Higher‐output more‐compact UHP lamp systems

Abstract— Projection systems have reached convincing performance with several thousand screen lumens created by systems of only a few liters in volume. With more than 10 lm/W they are the most efficient display systems realized today. The tremendous progress achieved up to now relies on the outstanding properties of the UHP lamp. The combination of high brightness with lifetimes extending up to more than 10,000 hours is ideal for projection applications. This paper will summarize some recent technological achievements: the volume of the lamp and driver system has been reduced by a factor of 10, exploiting a reduced ignition voltage as well as new optical concepts for the reflector. The optical performance of short‐arc projection lamps can be improved dramatically: a dichroic coating on one half of the UHP burner is applied to focus all light into one hemisphere. This allows for extremely compact reflector systems and an improvement by 20–30% in light collection.     

Color and brightness appearance issues in tiled displays

Large-format displays created by tiling multiple, projected images have been used for decades in flight simulators and entertainment and are commercially available in a variety of forms. More recently, various research organizations have built custom display walls out of commodity projectors to support research in visualization, large-format display, and interaction. In these settings, making the display appear as a single, seamless surface has proven challenging. Where tiles overlap, they create bright seams. The tiles vary in color and brightness, not only from tile to tile, but within each tile. Each projector has a slightly different color gamut, caused by variations in the bulb, color filters, and digital processing (contrast, brightness, and gamma) for the projector. The spatial variation in brightness has two causes. First, the light from a projection system doesn't uniformly illuminate the screen. Second, the light doesn't scatter uniformly out of the front of the screen, making the perceived brightness depend on the viewing angle. In some projectors, the projected light's color also varies across the tile's face, resulting in unwanted tints in the images. I describe what causes these variations and what can be done about them     

Étendue‐density homogenization lamps with light concentration function

Abstract— In order to increase the screen brightness of Digital Micromirror Device? projectors (DMD? projectors), we designed a new compact lamp. In our previous work, we discussed a lamp that has an aspherical lamp reflector and an aspherical front glass, which we called EHLa. Although EHLas improve the light convergence at the entrance of rod integrators, they require external lenses for light condensation. We, therefore, discuss a new EHLa that can converge light without the need for external lenses. The new lamp corresponds to conventional elliptic reflector‐type lamps, which are widely used for mobile‐type DMD? projectors. Our simulations demonstrated that the ratio of increased brightness is 17.1% for the new lamp design versus conventional lamps in a 0.7‐in.‐diagonal DDR DMD? panel.     

A dual‐gap RGBW transflective TFT‐LCD with adjustable color gamut

Abstract— An adjustable‐color‐gamut dual‐gap RGBW transflective liquid‐crystal display that uses a four‐color manufacturing process and a color‐processing algorithm to achieve the appropriate color performance in both the transmissive and reflective modes is presented. Based on superior‐color‐transformation units, the total brightness and color gamut can be modified under different ambience. The highest NTSC color gamut in the reflective mode (reflectance, 4.4%) that has been fabricated successfully for a RGBW 1.5‐in. dual‐gap panel is 23% with a 7%, 17%, and 40% NTSC color gamut in the transmissive mode by using different algorithms. Compared to a typical RGB panel, it not only provides flexibility for any environment but also satisfies a variety of personal requirements. Based on personal preference, users have more choices to adjust the LCD settings such as color saturation, brightness, etc. The smart RGBW TRLCD will definitely become the developing trend towards sunlight‐readable LCDs in the near future.     

High‐pixel‐rate grating‐light‐valve laser projector

Abstract— A high‐pixel‐rate, high‐contrast (30,000:1) wide‐color‐gamut grating‐light‐valve laser projector is reported. A new optical engine enabling high‐frame‐rate (240 Hz) scan projection is employed. Panoramic wide‐angle‐scan projection with a 64:9 aspect ratio was also developed. Speckle noise is eliminated using a simple but highly efficient technique. The optical throughput efficiency of the grating‐light‐valve laser projector is reviewed.     

Eye‐safety analysis of phase‐only holographic projection systems

Abstract— Recently, laser‐safety analyses have been presented for scanned‐beam and LCOS imaging projectors. A third class of projection technology, based on the properties of phase‐only diffraction, is differentiated from scanned‐beam and LCOS counterparts in its ability to provide a significantly higher effective luminous flux for video style images. In this paper, this desirable property is recognized by the definition of the “video lumen” and a detailed design fora hypothetical holographic projector and corresponding laser safety analysis is presented. As in the case of conventional amplitude‐modulating LCOS projectors, a holographic projector is capable of delivering several hundred white lumens in Class 2; an appropriately specified holographic projector can also provide several tens of video lumens while maintaining a Class 1 classification.     

Projection displays: New technologies,challenges, and applications

The achievable color gamut and light output of projection displays based on light‐emitting diodes (LEDs), phosphor conversion, and lasers are discussed. The color appearance phenomena, colorfulness, and the Helmholtz–Kohlrausch effect are discussed in the context of LED and laser illumination of projection displays, as well as some pitfalls concerning the interpretation of the Helmholtz–Kohlrausch effect. Also the laser speckle phenomenon and the characterization of it are addressed. The importance of both the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) contrast and the sequential contrast of projectors, as well as the discrepancy between measured and perceived contrasts, are explained. Visibility criteria for contouring artifacts are explained and compared with new emerging electro‐optical transfer functions that are more adapted to this issue. Stereoscopic solutions and early prototypes of autostereoscopic multi‐view, super multi‐view projection displays, and electro‐holographic displays are discussed as well as the limiting factors of these systems in the context of display resolution, and LED and laser light sources.     

Processes,characterizations, and system applications of color‐filter liquid‐crystal‐on‐silicon microdisplays

Abstract— A color‐filter liquid‐crystal‐on‐silicon (CF‐LCOS) microdisplay that integrates color filters on silicon for color will be presented. The color‐filter process on silicon was optimized to achieve fine resolution and precise alignment of the color filters on the pixel array, good adhesion to the silicon suface, and a flat surface for the liquid‐crystal cell assembly. Important optical and electrical parameters of the color filters were extracted to establish an electro‐optical model of the CF‐LCOS microdisplays for device simulation. Thermal, chemical, and light‐stability characterizations were performed to ensure the stabilty of the color filters and CF‐LCOS microdisplays. With color CF‐LCOS microdisplays already available, the projection or viewing optics is greatly simplified. This CF‐LCOS microdisplay is ideal for near‐to‐eye displays because of its low‐power consumption and compactness. The CF‐LCOS microdisplay could also withstand medium light illumination for medium‐sized projectors. A single‐panel projector based on one CF‐LCOS microdisplay of 1280 × 768 × RGB resolution was demonstrated.     

Colorimetric characterization of LCD and DLP projection displays

Abstract— Successful color‐management of projection systems depends on knowledge of their characteristics. In this study, two typical portable projectors were characterized. The projectors are based on different technologies, liquid‐crystal display (LCD) and digital light‐processing (DLP). Measurements were made with a spectroradiometer. The properties measured were spectral characteristics and the intensity of the primary and white colors, basic colorimetric characteristics, inter‐channel dependency, tone characteristics, color‐tracking characteristics, spatial non‐uniformity, dependency on background, and temporal stability. Based on the characterization results, the possibility of color‐management of the tested projectors is discussed.     

LED‐backlight feedback control system with integrated amorphous‐silicon color sensor on an LCD panel

Abstract— Thin‐film‐transistor liquid‐crystal displays (TFT‐LCDs) have the largest market share of all digital flat‐panel displays. An LCD backlighting system employing a three‐color red‐green‐blue light‐emitting diode (RGB‐LED) array is very attractive, considering its wide color gamut, tunable white point, high dimming ratio, long lifetime, and environmental compatibility. But the high‐intensity LED has problems with thermal stability and degradation of brightness over time. Color and white luminance levels are not stable over a wide range of temperature due to inherent long‐term aging characteristics. In order to minimize color point and brightness differences over time, optical feedback control is the key technology for any LED‐backlight system. In this paper, the feasibility of an optical color‐sensing feedback system for an LED backlight by integrating the amorphous‐silicon (a‐Si) color sensor onto the LCD panel will be presented. To minimize the photoconductivity degradation of a‐Si, a new laser exposure treatment has been applied. The integrated color‐sensor optical‐feedback‐controlled LED‐backlight system minimized the color variation to less than 0.008 Δu'v' (CIE1976) compared to 0.025 for an open‐loop system over the temperature range of 42–76°C.     

Non‐planar projection performance evaluation and projector pose optimization

In projector applications, the actual display effect is primarily dependent on two aspects: projector performance parameters (intrinsic properties), and projector placement (extrinsic properties). Many studies have been conducted on the impact of the original resolution, illumination, and contrast ratio on projection performance. However, few studies have focused on the influence of extrinsic properties, including the position and orientation of the projector on the projection effect. In this paper, three projection performance evaluation criteria—projection resolution, resolution difference, and projection distance difference—are proposed in terms of extrinsic properties. Based on these evaluation criteria, a projection performance evaluation function was constructed. Through this function, as well as optimization employing the multi‐start and Monte Carlo methods, projector pose parameters corresponding to optimal projection effects can be obtained. Evaluations demonstrated that the proposed projection performance evaluation criteria could correctly describe the impacts of projector placement on projection effects. Projection systems arranged according to the projector pose optimization methods achieved good performance on screens in difference shapes with different numbers of projectors, where the resolution and display improved with no change of projector hardware parameters. The optimal projector poses calculated using these optimization methods can provide theoretical guidance for practical projector placement.     

Display grid: Ad‐hoc clusters of autonomous projectors

Abstract— Projectors, like computers, are becoming commoditized. Self‐contained computers are now being networked to create computing grids, allowing transparent access to a large computing resource or massive data storage. Image presentation devices can be similarly modified to support the concept of a “display grid” to create large seamless displays. Limiting ourselves to projector‐based display grids, we present techniques for creating multi‐projector displays via self‐configuring clusters of autonomous projectors. The ad‐hoc clustering approach avoids large monolithic installations. We show a low‐cost system that supports dynamic inclusion of new projectors, automatic geometric configuration, and seamless blending of overlapping projectors.     

Seamless ultrathin rear projection display

A new architecture for a thin (2‐cm depth) rear projection display is described. In order to achieve this small depth, a very high density of rear projectors is used. Three prototype displays using rear projectors on both 5‐ and 2‐cm pitch arrays are described. The displays can achieve an effective screen pixel pitch of as small as 0.5 mm, which makes this technology competitive in terms of resolution with fine pitch LED displays; however, orders of magnitude fewer LEDs are required: Each rear projector requires only one white LED and a color liquid crystal light modulator. In the three prototypes, the projector light modulators utilize 101‐cm (40 in.), 80‐cm (31.5 in.), and 60‐cm (24 in.) diagonal liquid crystal display glass. To minimize cost, no lenses are utilized for the rear projectors. An RGB LED array may augment the projector array, which provides a low resolution component of the image onto which the high resolution component is superimposed by the projector array. Edge gaps between active areas on adjacent LCD glass units are completely eliminated by the rear projection approach enabling low profile wall‐size seamless displays. Display contrast depends on rear projection screen design.     

15‐in. RGBW panel using two‐stacked white OLED and color filters for large‐sized display applications

Abstract— A 15‐in. HD panel employing two‐stacked WOLEDs and color filters for which the color gamut can be as high as 101.2% (CIE1976) and the power consumption is 5.22 W. The WOLEDs exhibit a current efficiency of 61.3 cd/A and a power efficiency of 30 lm/W at 1000 nits and their CIE coordinate is (0.340, 0.334). A 15‐in. RGBW panel was investigated to verify the electrical and optical performance compared to that of a 15‐in. RGB TV made by using FMM technology. The characteristics of the 15‐in. RGBW panel are comparable to those of the 15‐in. RGB panel. Color filters combined with WOLEDs is a possible patterning technology for large‐sized OLED TV, which surpasses the limits of fine‐metal‐mask technology.     

A novel driving method and device to reduce color breakup in color‐sequential displays

Abstract— Color‐sequential displays offer a better luminous efficiency, a higher spatial resolution, and a lower cost than conventional displays. However, a common problem is that visual effects cause color edge‐blurring of a moving picture, a phenomenon called color breakup or rainbow effects. Most driving methods, such as increasing the frame rate and inserting a black/white frame or another color sub‐frame to reduce the color breakup in color sequential displays has been presented in many papers, but every method has some limitations and problems. An innovative driving method and device to reduce the color‐breakup phenomenon will be demonstrated in this paper, designed without increasing the driving frequency. Instead, the brightness is increased by one third at the very least. Our method divides the driving frequency into four sub‐frames (WRGB), which is operated at 180 Hz compared to 240 Hz for conventional driving. Our result shows that the image quality is improved. The color‐breakup simulation based on “eye trace integration” and compensated white light will also be presented in this paper.     

基于HDR的投影机亮度曲线标定

多台投影机的无缝拼接校正过程主要是投影机的几何校正和颜色校正。多台投影机的颜色校正要求是求出每台投影机的颜色曲线,并对其颜色的相同输出做对应的输入使之达到全局的颜色统一。采用基于相机HDR的方法,先求出相机的亮度响应曲线,再以相机的亮度响应曲线为基础,使相机的输入为投影机的输出,间接求得投影机的亮度响应曲线。实验结果表明,基于HDR的亮度曲线测量,与直接使用照度计比较,结果相差在10%以内。