Why Color Accuracy is Becoming More Important

Session Description:

As the color gamut of new display solutions expands driven by new technologies like lasers, LEDs and quantum dots, different aspects of the human visual systems are changing the way we perceive images.  Historically, broad band sources like white LEDs in LCD backlights and Mercury or Xenon lamps in projectors have created a certain perception of display brightness in users’ minds.  With the advent of more narrow light sources this perception may be changing.

But it is not just solid state light sources that are changing the perception of brightness and colorfullness.  Color accuracy, that is, displays have meet the requirements of certain color spaces like HDTV (Rec. 709), digital cinema (P3), UHDTV (2020) or Internet/printing (sRGB) are also impacting image perception.  While many new displays are capable of delivering wide color gamuts, not all displays have pre-set modes that actually meet the color space specifications.

For example, setting a projector or monitor to the RGB mode can often produce widely different images in terms of the white point and rendition of colors within this RGB color space.  Some are theorizing that end users can clearly see the difference between a a color accurate display next to one that is not color accurate – and that they prefer such color accurate displays.

In this session, we will review the results of a color accuracy test being conducted at Display Summit by BenQ.  This demo will feature 3 unmarked lamp-based projectors of the same resolution and approximate rated luminance showing identical images on identical matte white screens.  Participants will be asked to rate the images in a simple on-line survey, with results shared in the session.

Also in this session color scientist Abhay Sharma will give a talk on how we perceive color – and maybe shed some light on the survey results.