Abstract: Dual and multi-modulator projector display systems and techniques are disclosed. In one embodiment, a projector display system comprises a light source; a controller, a first modulator, receiving light from the light source and rendering a halftone image of said the input image; a blurring optical system that blurs said halftone image with a Point Spread Function (PSF); and a second modulator receiving the blurred halftone image and rendering a pulse width modulated image which may be projected to form the desired screen image. Systems and techniques for forming a binary halftone image from input image, correcting for misalignment between the first and second modulators and calibrating the projector system—e.g. overtime—for continuous image improvement are also disclosed.

Abstract: Dual and multi-modulator projector display systems and techniques are disclosed. In one embodiment, a projector display system comprises a light source; a controller, a first modulator, receiving light from the light source and rendering a halftone image of said the input image; a blurring optical system that blurs said halftone image with a Point Spread Function (PSF); and a second modulator receiving the blurred halftone image and rendering a pulse width modulated image which may be projected to form the desired screen image. Systems and techniques for forming a binary halftone image from input image, correcting for misalignment between the first and second modulators and calibrating the projector system—e.g. over time—for continuous image improvement are also disclosed.

Abstract: Smaller halftone tiles are implemented on a first modulator of a dual modulation projection system. This techniques uses multiple halftones per frame in the pre-modulator synchronized with a modified bit sequence in the primary modulator to effectively increase the number of levels provided by a given tile size in the halftone modulator. It addresses the issue of reduced contrast ratio at low light levels for small tile sizes and allows the use of smaller PSFs which reduce halo artifacts in the projected image and may be utilized in 3D projecting and viewing.

Abstract: A dual-panel display system is provided that comprises control modules and algorithms to select codeword pairs (CWs) to drive a first image-generating panel and a second contrast-improving panel. The first codewords is selected by considering some characteristics of the input image data (e.g., peak luminance) and to improve some image rendering metric (e.g., reduced parallax, reduced contouring, improved level precision). The first codeword may be selected to be the minimum first codeword within a set of codeword pairs that preserves the peak luminance required by the input image data. Also, the first codeword may be selected to minimize the number of Just Noticeable Difference (JND) steps in the final image to be rendered. The second codeword may be selected to similarly improve image quality according to a given quality metric.

Abstract: Embodiments of the invention relate generally to computer-based image processing, and more particularly, to systems, computer-readable mediums, methods, and apparatuses to operate a rear modulator in a high dynamic range display to, among other things, characterize input images into pixel characteristics which may be data-reduced representations of a group of pixels corresponding to the input image, and to relate a modulation value intensity image to a weighted combination of the pixel characteristics. The modulation value intensity image may be used to derive a rear modulator drive signal, which, turn, may be configured to control one or more modulating elements to generate a low resolution image of the input image at the rear modulator.

Abstract: Smaller halftone tiles are implemented on a first modulator of a dual modulation projection system. This techniques uses multiple halftones per frame in the pre-modulator synchronized with a modified bit sequence in the primary modulator to effectively increase the number of levels provided by a given tile size in the halftone modulator. It addresses the issue of reduced contrast ratio at low light levels for small tile sizes and allows the use of smaller PSFs which reduce halo artifacts in the projected image and may be utilized in 3D projecting and viewing.

Abstract: For frames sequentially functioning as a reference frame in a video sequence frame set, a motion estimate set is accessed. One motion estimate characterizes motion associated with pixels of each region of the reference frame in relation to regions of one frame of the set of frames, which is temporally displaced in time with respect to other frames in the set of frames. An additional motion estimate characterizes motion associated with pixels of each reference frame region in relation to a second frame of the set, which is temporally displaced from the one frame and other frames of the frame set. A temporal image prediction set, corresponding to the first and additional motion estimate, is predicted, based on an alignment of the reference frame regions over the frame set. The temporal image predictions are blended and a temporal predictor is generated over the frame set based on the blending.

Abstract: For frames sequentially functioning as a reference frame in a video sequence frame set, a motion estimate set is accessed. One motion estimate characterizes motion associated with pixels of each region of the reference frame in relation to regions of one frame of the set of frames, which is temporally displaced in time with respect to other frames in the set of frames. An additional motion estimate characterizes motion associated with pixels of each reference frame region in relation to a second frame of the set, which is temporally displaced from the one frame and other frames of the frame set. A temporal image prediction set, corresponding to the first and additional motion estimate, is predicted, based on an alignment of the reference frame regions over the frame set. The temporal image predictions are blended and a temporal predictor is generated over the frame set based on the blending.

Abstract: Embodiments of the invention relate generally to computer-based image processing, and more particularly, to systems, computer-readable mediums, methods, and apparatuses to operate a rear modulator in a high dynamic range display to, among other things, characterize input images into pixel characteristics which may be data-reduced representations of a group of pixels corresponding to the input image, and to relate a modulation value intensity image to a weighted combination of the pixel characteristics. The modulation value intensity image may be used to derive a rear modulator drive signal, which, turn, may be configured to control one or more modulating elements to generate a low resolution image of the input image at the rear modulator.

Abstract: For a frame set of a moving image sequence, a motion estimate is accessed. The motion estimate describes a change to a region of a reference frame with respect to at least one other frame. The reference frame and the other frames are displaced from each other within the frame set from over a temporal window. The regions of the two frames contain at least a portion of an image feature. The motion estimate is smoothed over the temporal window. The smoothing may facilitate aligning, at least in part, the image feature within the set of frames.

Abstract: A filter system that filters a digital signal to produce a filtered digital signal where the digital signal has alternating first data values and second data values. The filter system includes a demultiplexer that produces a first signal that includes the first data values and a second signal that includes the second data values. A first filter is provided to filter the first signal and the second signal to produce a first filtered signal including filtered first data values. A second filter is provided to filter the first signal and the second signal to produce a second filtered signal including filtered second data values. A multiplexer alternately selects the filtered first data values and the filtered second data values to produce the filtered digital signal.