Low-cost Smear Reduction for Digital Displays

Motion blur or smear can limit the performance of liquid crystal displays (LCDs).  Its cause is attributable to two main factors the relatively slow LCD response time and the non-impulse (sample-and-hold) nature of LCD pixel addressing.  The first effect causes the image from one frame to persist into the subsequent frame, while the second effect ensures that the image generated in a particular frame is present up to the very end of that frame, regardless of the speed of response of the device.  The transient response time of the eye permits the afterimage of the previous frame to be perceived, leading to the appearance of blur.  Because a significant amount of money has been spent by the display industry to address smearing in large area and rear projection displays, we feel that the Air Force will get best value by focusing on reducing motion blur in head mounted displays.   SA Photonics proposes a number of low-cost, innovative methods in reducing smearing in microdisplays used in head mounted displays.  In addition, we will develop a unique smearing identification system that combines the speed of a digital evaluation system with a user-centered system for a quantitative evaluation of on blur reduction. BENEFIT: A low-cost smear reduction technique for microdisplays will benefit the Air Force for both its simulator and flight head mounted displays.  In simulators, pilots will not see blur, which can lead to negative training and for flight applications, the HMD will not limit the perceived resolution of the sensor system.  There is a very big market for reducing smearing in personal video display devices in the commercial market.