Visual Displays

Outline
Image Quality Issues Pixels Color Video Formats Liquid Crystal Displays CRT Displays Projection Displays

Image Quality Issues

Screen resolution Size Color Blank space between the pixels

Brightness Contrast Refresh rate Sensitivity of display to viewing angle

For each, lets draw up: Range of commonly available components Importance Cost Which would you want most?
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Pixels

Pixel - The most basic addressable image element in a screen

CRT - Color triad (RGB phosphor dots) LCD - Single color element

Screen Resolution - measure of number of pixels on a screen (m by n)

m - Horizontal screen resolution n - Vertical screen resolution
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Other meanings of resolution

Pitch - Size of a pixel, distance from center to center of individual pixels. Cycles per degree How many lines you can see in a degree of FOV. The human eye can resolve 30 cycles per degree (20/20 Snellen acuity). So how many lines of resolution are needed for human vision for:

monitor at 1 m (17 -> 10, 22 -> 13) projector screen at 2 m (4), 4 m (8) REVE at 4m (18 high) How far should you make someone sit in front of a 42 (34 rotated vert) plasma running at 720p?

Color
There are no commercially available small pixel technologies that can individually change color. Color is encoded by placing differentcolored pixels adjacent to each other. Field sequential color uses red, blue and green liquid crystal shutters to change color in front of a monochrome screen.

Video Formats

TV Standards

NTSC - 720x480, 29.97f/s (60 fields per second), interlaced PAL - 720x576, 25f/s (50 fields/sec) interlaced

VGA - 640x480, 60f/s, no interlaced SVGA 800x600, 60f/s no interlaced XGA 1024x768+, 60+f/s no interlaced

RGB - 3 independent video signals and synchronization signal, vary in resolution and refresh rate Time-multiplexed color - R,G,B one after another on a single signal, vary in resolution and refresh rate

Interlacing

Liquid Crystal Displays

Liquid crystal displays use small flat chips which change their transparency properties when a voltage is applied. LCD elements are arranged in an n x m array call the LCD matrix. Level of voltage controls gray levels (amount of light allowed through). LCDs elements do not emit light, use backlights behind the LCD matrix

Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs)

LCDs have cells that either allow light to flow through, or block it. Electricity applied to a cell cause it to untwist and allow light

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LCDs

(cont.)

Color is obtained by placing filters in front of each LCD element Usually black space between pixels to separate the filters. Because of the physical nature of the LCD matrix, it is difficult to make the individual LCD pixels very small. Image quality dependent on viewing angle.
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LCDs

(cont.)

LCD resolution is often quoted as number of color elements not number of RGB triads.
R B R G G R B B G R R B G G R B B G R R B G G R

Example: 320 horizontal by 240 vertical elements = 76,800 elements Equivalent to 76,800/3 = 25,500 RGB pixels

"Pixel Resolution" is 185 by 139 (320/1.73, 240/1.73)

How many pixel transistors for a 1024x768 display?

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LCDs

(cont.)

Passive LCD screens

Cycle through each element of the LCD matrix applying the voltage required for that element. Once aligned with the electric field the molecules in the LCD will hold their alignment for a short time

Active LCD screens

Each element contains a small transistor that maintains the voltage until the next refresh cycle. Higher contrast and much faster response than passive LCD

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Advantages of LCDs
Flat Lightweight Low power consumption

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Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs)

Heating element on the yolk.

Phosphor coated screen

Electrons are boiled off the filament and drawn to the focusing system. The electrons are focused into a beam and shot down the cylinder. The deflection plates aim the electrons to a specific position on the screen.
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CRT Phosphor Screen

The screen is coated with phosphor, 3 colors for a color monitor, 1 for monochrome. For a color monitor, three guns light up red, green, or blue phosphors. Intensity is controlled by the amount of time at a specific phosphor location.

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Color CRT
Red, Green and Blue electron guns. Screen coated with phosphor triads.
G B G R R G B B R G G B

Each triad is composed of a red, blue and green phosphor dot.

Typically 2.3 to 2.5 triads per pixel.

FLUORESCENCE - Light emitted while the phosphor is being struck

by electrons.
removed.

PHOSPHORESCENCE - Light given off once the electron beam is PERSISTENCE - Is the time from the removal of excitation to the
moment when phosphorescence has decayed to 10% of the initial light output.
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Beam Movement

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Beam Movement
scan line - one row on the screen interlace vs. non-interlace - Each frame is either drawn entirely, or as two consecutively drawn fields that alternate horizontal scan lines. vertical sync (vertical retrace) - the motion of the beam moving from the bottom of the image to the top, after it has drawn a frame. refresh rate - how many frames are drawn per second. Eye can see 24 frames per second. TV is 30 Hz, monitors are at least 60 Hz.
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CRTs

(cont.)

Strong electrical fields and high voltage Very good resolution Heavy, not flat

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Projection Displays

Use bright CRT or LCD screens to generate an image which is sent through an optical system to focus on a (usually) large screen.

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Projector Technology

Two Basic Designs

Transmittive projectors - Shine light through the image-forming element (CRT tube, LCD panel) Reflective projectors - Bounce light off the imageforming element

In both types of projectors, a lens collects the image from the image-forming element, magnifies the image and focuses it onto a screen

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Basic Projector Designs

(Images from Phillips Research)

Reflective Projection System

Transmittive Projection System

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Transmittive Projectors
CRT Based

Old CRT-based projectors are usually heavy and large compared to other technologies

One color CRT tube (red, blue, green phosphors) displays an image with one projection lens. One black-and-white CRT with a rapidly rotating color filter wheel (red, green, blue filters) is placed between the CRT tube and the projection lens. Three CRT tubes (red, green, blue) with three lenses project the images. The lenses are aligned so that a single color image appears on the screen.

New ones are tiny

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Transmittive Projectors

LCD Based
Use a bright light to illuminate an LCD panel, and a lens projects the image formed by the LCD onto a screen.

Small, lightweight compared to CRT based displays

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Reflective Projectors

In reflective projectors, the image is formed on a small, reflective chip. When light shines on the chip, the image is reflected off it and through a projection lens to the screen. Recent innovations in reflective technology have been in the the following areas:
Micro electromechanical systems (MEMS)
Digital micro mirror device (DMD, DLP) Grating light valve (GLV)

Liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS)

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Advantages/Disadvantages of Projection Display

Very large screens can provide large FoV and can be seen by several people simultaneously. Image quality can be fuzzy and somewhat dimmer than conventional displays. (less so these days). Light is measured in lumens (1000, 2000 common) Sensitivity to ambient light. Delicate optical alignment.
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Recap Raster Displays

Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs), most tube monitors you see. Very common, but big and bulky. Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs), there are two types Transmittive (laptops, those snazzy new flat panel monitors) and reflective (wrist watches).

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Displays in Virtual Reality

Head-Mounted Displays (HMDs)

The display and a position tracker are attached to the users head Most use Active Matrix LCD (ala laptops)

Head-Tracked Displays (HTDs)

Display is stationary, tracker tracks the users head relative to the display. Example: CAVE, Workbench, Stereo monitor
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Visually Coupled Systems

A system that integrates the natural visual and motor skills of an operator into the system he is controlling.

Basic Components An immersive visual display (HMD, large screen projection (CAVE), dome projection) A means of tracking head and/or eye motion A source of visual information that is dependent on the user's head/eye motion.
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Differences HMD/HTD

HMD
Eyes are fixed distance and location from the display screen(s) Line-of-sight of the user is perpendicular to the display screen(s) or at a fixed, known angle to the display screen(s). Only virtual images in world

HTD
Distance to display screen(s) varies Line-of-sight to display screen(s) almost never is perpendicular Usually much wider FoV than HMD Combines virtual and real imagery

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