Color‐tuning projection system for adaptive combination of high brightness and wide color gamut

Abstract— The demand for projectors with high brightness and wide color gamut has been increasing; however, UHP lamp projectors cannot deliver those two qualities efficiently and simultaneously because of its color‐separation system. The newly developed projection system — “Color‐Tuning Projection System” — realizes the adaptive combination of high brightness and wide color gamut with one projector. This projector features a fourth liquid‐crystal panel — “Color Tuner” — with a 3LCD optical engine, which controls yellow light separately from the RGB light of a UHP lamp. This color‐tuner‐based optical engine — “Color‐Tuning Optical Engine” — and a new color‐conversion signal‐processing algorithm — “Adaptive Color Conversion Algorithm” — controls the yellow‐light volume and corrects color‐shifted pixels according to the brightness and chromaticity analysis of the input image, key technologies of the Color‐Tuning Projection System. This additional panel system enables the projector to ach ieve up to 115% higher brightness and 120% wider color gamut according to the input image. This paper presents an innovative design concept, a novel technology regarding brightness and a color‐gamut conversion projection system, and the characteristics of the prototype.     

Single display gamut size metric

To measure the relative gamut sizes of wide‐gamut displays, it is herein proposed that the CIE 1931 xy chromaticity diagram be used rather than the nominally perceptually uniform CIE 1976 u′v′ chromaticity diagram. High correlations were found between the area‐coverage ratios in the xy diagram and the volume‐coverage ratios in the CIE 1976 L^*a^*b^* color space for major standard wide‐gamut color spaces. It is also demonstrated herein that performing planimetry in the uniform u′v′ diagram does not yield accurate relative display gamut sizes, even though the large sizes obtained using the u′v′ diagram are often reported regardless of the fact that its uniformity is valid only when the luminance factor is constant. The single display gamut size metric using the xy diagram will facilitate the unbiased development of wide‐gamut displays.     

多投影仪无缝拼接显示中的颜色校正技术比较研究

基于多投影仪的无缝拼接显示是对图形、图像、视频等进行大范围、高分辨率显示的一种有效实现方式。多投影仪无缝拼接显示的一个关键是解决颜色失调问题,而现有的颜色失调原因的分析结果可归纳为投影仪输出颜色的变化特性和投影屏幕与投影环境的影响两个方面。近年来,为解决该问题已提出了多种颜色校正技术,而根据解决颜色失调问题的原理和实现方法的不同,这些技术可分为基于边缘融合的校正技术、基于单一投影光源的校正技术和基于颜色/亮度输出匹配的校正技术3类,并对这3类技术在无缝拼接显示效果、可维护性和可扩展性等方面的优缺点进行了较详细分析,该领域下一步的研究将会朝着兼顾不同投影机类型、不同形状和反射特性的投影屏幕和考虑运动中观察者的实时颜色校正方向发展。     

Color nonuniformity in projection-based displays: analysis and solutions

Large-area displays made up of several projectors show significant variation in color. Here, we identify different projector parameters that cause the color variation and study their effects on the luminance and chrominance characteristics of the display. This work leads to the realization that luminance varies significantly within and across projectors, while chrominance variation is relatively small, especially across projectors of same model. To address this situation, we present a method to achieve luminance matching across all pixels of a multiprojector display that results in photometrically uniform displays. We use a camera as a measurement device for this purpose. Our method comprises a one-time calibration step that generates a per channel per projector luminance attenuation map (LAM), which is then used to correct any image projected on the display at interactive rates on commodity graphics hardware. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first effort to match luminance across all the pixels of a multiprojector display.     

Relationship between mode‐boundary from surface color to fluorescent appearance and preferred gamut on wide‐gamut displays

Abstract— Color‐gamut design is a major concern in wide‐gamut displays. To determine a preferred gamut for displaying object color in natural scenes on a wide‐gamut display, subjective evaluations were conducted to investigate the preferred color and acceptable limit. Then, simple synthesized images were used to determine the mode boundary between surface color and fluorescent color appearance. It was found that (1) observers perceived the colors with high saturation and high lightness as fluorescent colors and (2) the fluorescent appearance decreased preference. The color‐mode index (CMI) was defined as an evaluation index of the color‐appearance mode so that the boundary between surface color and fluorescent color appearance was defined as CMI 100. Additionally, it was found that the CMI 100 loci could be interpreted as an optimal color loci. Then, it was clarified that the mode boundary and the preferred gamut were closely related and that the acceptable limit for L* was 1.1 times L* for CMI 100.     

Non‐metamerism of boundary colors in multi‐primary displays

Abstract— A control sequence gives the intensities of the primaries for a pixel of a display device. The display gamut, i.e., the set of all the colors that a display can produce, is a zonohedral subset of CIE XYZ space and contains both boundary and interior colors. Displays with four primaries or more exhibit metamerism, in which different control sequences produce colors that appear identical to an observer. This paper shows mathematically that, provided no three primaries are linearly dependent, metamerism can only occur for interior colors. When there are four or more primaries, metamers can always be found for interior colors. A color on the gamut boundary, by contrast, is only produced by a unique control sequence. The proof used for displays can be extended to object‐color solids, to show that optimal colors, which are on the boundary of an object‐color solid, have unique reflectance functions.     

多投影显示墙画面校正技术综述*

由投影仪阵列组成的多投影显示墙是目前实现高性能、低成本大型绘制平台的首选解决方案。为了保证多投影显示墙画面的完整性,需要通过一定的方法来预补偿由于投影仪特性差异造成的画面几何扭曲与色彩不均衡。结合实际研究工作,从多投影显示墙存在的问题、几何变换矩阵求取、颜色模型估计和全局颜色校正等几个方面对多投影显示墙画面校正的研究情况进行综述, 讨论了存在的问题和进一步的发展方向。     

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.     

Preferred balance between luminance and color gamut in mobile displays

Abstract— To improve the image quality of a mobile display, the balance between color‐gamut size and luminance was studied in two subjective experiments. The first experiment was performed during the Asian Society for Information Display (ASID) conference in Nanjing, February 2004. Nearly 600 participants ranked the quality of images displayed for fixed combinations of color‐gamut size and display luminance on small color supertwisted nematic (CSTN) and thin‐film transistor (TFT) twistednematic (TN) displays. In the second experiment, a broader range of color‐gamut sizes and luminance levels were simulated on a cathode‐ray tube (CRT) display, and 20 participants were asked to score perceived image quality. The results of these experiments were used to model image quality as a function of color‐gamut size and display luminance for images differing in the level of chromaticity of their content. This model can be used to estimate the increase in luminance required to compensate for a reduction in color‐gamut size.     

A method for selecting display primaries to match a target color gamut

Abstract— A method for selecting primaries of a wide‐gamut display is proposed, in which display color gamut is designed to match a target color gamut in CIELAB color space. A standard deviation of the relative maximum chroma of display and target color gamuts is defined. The selection method optimizes display primaries for the minimum standard deviation so that display and target color gamuts are similar in shape. It is shown that the color gamut of a laser display designed by this method is similar in shape to the theoretical maximum, or optimal, color gamut of objects. It is also shown that the color gamut of an LED display can be designed to include 99.7% of the gamut of Pointer's real‐world surface colors. LED primaries are selected to minimize the standard deviation of the relative maximum chroma of effective display color gamut and a target color gamut which is defined to include Pointer's real‐world surface colors. For both the laser and LED displays, it is necessary to constrain the red‐primary wavelength to avoid excessive optical power for the red primary.     

Dynamic adaptation model and equal‐whiteness CCT curves for the choice of display reference white

Abstract— A dynamic adaptation model (DAM), based on the variations in the luminance levels under the same chromaticity viewing conditions and equal‐whiteness correlated‐color‐temperature (CCT) curves (EWCCs) derived by using the proposed DAM, is proposed. The proposed model was obtained by the transformation of the test colors for high luminance into the corresponding colors for low luminance. In the proposed model, the optimal coefficients are obtained from the corresponding color data from Breneman's experiments. From the experimental results, it was confirmed that the chromaticity errors between the predicted colors by the proposed model and the corresponding colors of Breneman's experiments are 0.004 in u′v′ chromaticity coordinates. The prediction performance of the proposed model is excellent because this error is the threshold value that distinguishes two adjacent color patches. Equal‐whiteness CCT curves (EWCs) are also proposed using the proposed DAM. By using the proposed EWCCs, an analysis of the difference between the selected video‐display‐unit reference‐white CCT values can be made. Additionally, the proposed EWCCs can be used as the theoretical standard which determines the reference white of the color video display units.     

Analysis of standard chromaticity gamut area metrics

It is herein proposed to measure display gamut sizes by employing the International Telecommunication Union—Radiocommunication Sector Recommendation BT.2020 (Rec. 2020) area‐coverage ratios in the xy chromaticity diagram rather than the standard gamut area metrics that use the horseshoe‐shaped spectrum chromaticity area as the target in the u′v′ chromaticity diagram. It is more reasonable to use the Rec. 2020 gamut than the spectrum gamut as the target because the Rec. 2020 area‐coverage ratios in the xy diagram are better correlated than the spectrum area‐coverage ratios with the volume‐coverage ratios of object color gamuts that are visually significant in displaying natural scenes.     

Effects of display properties on perceived color‐gamut volume and preference

Abstract— The effect of varying the color gamut of an extended‐gamut LCD on color appearance and preference was measured psychometrically in two experiments at each of two separate laboratories over a representative set of 10 images each. The first experiment measured the effect of color gamut on appearance, and the effect on the appearance attribute colorfulness was shown to be relatively strong compared with other attributes as the volume of display color gamut is varied. Overall, colorfulness monotonically increased at constant sensitivity as the gamut area in xy chromaticities increased while tending to become less and less sensitive to increasing the gamut volumes in CIELAB and CIECAM02. In the second experiment, the overall preference indicated an optimal color gamut for the display gamut volume even though the results were shown to be highly scene dependent.     

Color‐gamut expansion in CRTs

Abstract— This paper describes the architecture for a color picture tube (CPT), which enables a cost‐effective expansion of the color gamut. Besides a gamut expansion based on application of more‐saturated phosphors in the present three‐primary system, four‐ and five‐primary systems are described. Gun‐pitch modulation allows the application of a conventional electron gun for both a four‐ and five‐primary CRT. In these systems, the mask and matrix transmissions need to be reduced to maintain color purity. From this point of view, a five‐primary CRT is unrealistic. Two four‐primary CRTs are evaluated in more detail. But, here, the total anode current to generate white has to be increased substantially because of the reduced mask and matrix transmissions. Nonetheless, in this paper it is argued that with one of the four‐primary CRTs more‐saturated yellow colors can be displayed at 85% of the display luminance of a conventional system without loss of perceived sharpness.     

Inverse display characterization: A two‐step parametric model for digital displays

Abstract— A simple additivity model is often used as a basic model for digital‐display characterization. However, such a simple model cannot satisfy the needs of demanding color‐management applications all the time. On the other hand, systematic sampling of the color space and 3‐D interpolation is an expensive method in terms of measurement and computation time when precision is needed. This paper presents an enhanced method to characterize the XYZ‐to‐RGB transform of a digital display. This parametric method exploits the independence between the luminance variation of the electro‐optic response and the colorimetric responses for certain display types. The model is generally applicable to digital displays, including 3‐DMD projectors, single DMDs, CRTs, LCDs, etc., if the independence condition is satisfied. While the problem to solve is a 3‐D‐to‐3‐D transformation (from XYZ to RGB), the proposed parametric model is the composition of a 2‐D transform followed by a 1‐D transform. The 2‐D transform manages the chromatic aspects and, in succession, the 1‐D transform manages the luminance variations. This parametric digital model is applicable in the field of color management, with the objective of characterizing digital displays and applying a reference look such as a film look.     

Advances towards high‐resolution pack‐and‐go displays: A survey

Abstract— Tiled displays provide high resolution and large scale simultaneously. Projectors can project on any available surface. Thus, it is possible to create a large high‐resolution display by simply tiling multiple projectors on any available regular surface. The tremendous advancement in projection technology has made projectors portable and affordable. One can envision displays made of multiple such projectors that can be packed in one's car trunk, carried from one location to another, deployed at each location easily to create a seamless high‐resolution display, and, finally, dismantled in minutes to be taken to the next location — essentially a pack‐and‐go display. Several challenges must be overcome in order to realize such pack‐and‐go displays. These include allowing for imperfect uncalibrated devices, uneven non‐diffused display surfaces, and a layman user via complete automation in deployment that requires no user invention. We described the advances we have made in addressing these challenges for the most common case of planar display surfaces. First, we present a technique to allow imperfect projectors. Next, we present a technique to allow a photometrically uncalibrated camera. Finally, we present a novel distributed architecture that renders critical display capabilities such as self‐calibration, scalability, and reconfigurability without any user intervention. These advances are important milestones towards the development of easy‐to‐use multi‐projector displays that can be deployed anywhere and by anyone.     

New display concept for realistic reproduction of high-luminance colors

A new display concept for reproduction of high-luminance colors based on a liquid crystal display has been developed using a brighter backlight unit and color mapping algorithms. The new concept is able to display brighter colors close to a peak luminance of a display white than conventional displays so that realistic scene of brighter colors is better reproduced. It may also be one of the future display solutions needed to extend the color gamut in the direction of brighter colors, which is a principal limitation in conventional displays even in high-dynamic range display systems. With the new concept, an xvYCC- (extended-video YCbCr) compatible display can be easily realized.     

A YC‐separation‐type projector: High dynamic range with double modulation

Abstract— An experimental projector that features double modulation to obtain high‐resolution (4096 × 2160 pixels) and high‐dynamic‐range images has been developed. Although a conventional projector contains three modulators for red, green, and blue and outputs light after combining the modulated light from these three sources, our projector has an additional modulator for luminance that modulates the combined RGB modulated light. It can display high‐resolution color images by combining three low‐resolution panels for chrominance modulation and one high‐resolution panel for luminance modulation. In addition, the dynamic range is dramatically improved because the double‐modulation scheme minimizes black levels in projected images. The projector demonstrates an extremely high dynamic range of 1.1 million to 1 and 10‐bit tone reproduction.     

Inorganic EL devices with high‐performance blue phosphor and application to 34‐in. flat‐panel televisions

Abstract— A high‐performance inorganic electroluminescence (EL) device has been successfully developed by using an EL structure with a thick dielectric layer (TDEL) and sputtered BaAl₂S₄:Eu blue phosphor. The luminance and efficacy were higher than 2300 cd/m² and 2.5 lm/W at L⁶⁰, 120 Hz, respectively. Furthermore, the luminance at L⁶⁰, 1.2 kHz was more than 23,000 cd/m². The phosphor layer has a single‐phase and a highly oriented crystalline structure. The phosphor also shows high stability in air. A 34‐in. high‐definition television (HDTV) has been developed by combining a TDEL structure and color‐conversion materials. The panels with an optimized color filter demonstrated a peak luminance of 350 cd/m², a color gamut of more than 100% NTSC, and a wide viewing angle similar to that of plasma‐display panels. The high reproducibility of the 34‐in. panels using our pilot line has been confirmed.     

Color‐conversion method for a multi‐primary display to reduce power consumption and conversion time

Abstract— A color‐conversion method for a light‐emitting multi‐primary‐color display is proposed. While amulti‐primary‐color display uses four or more primary colors to reproduce a wide color gamut, multiple sets of primary‐color signals are needed to reproduce one color. Therefore, linear programming, which results in low power consumption, was adopted to uniquely determine the set of primary‐color signals. Although a highly accurate color conversion was achieved by using linear programming with low power consumption, it requires a very long time to convert colors of high‐resolution images. Therefore, by categorizing the color conversion of linear programming as a classification problem, colors are converted by using the decision‐tree method, which is a classification method. As a result, color conversion with high accuracy, low power consumption, and short conversion time was achieved.