Spectrally Adaptive Acousto-Optic Tunable Filter for Fast Imaging Colorimetry

To meet NIST requirements for fast and accurate measurement of color coordinates at many points on a display or object, Physical Optics Corporation (POC), R&D Division, proposes to develop an electronically tunable, spectrally-adaptive imaging filter with a transmission curve that can be changed within a few microseconds so that three color coordinates can be quickly determined. This filter will be based on a noncollinear acousto-optical filter (AOTF). Using a complex driving signal composed of a weighted set of high frequency components, the proposed filter will transmit light over a wide spectral range simultaneously. The shape of its spectral transmission curve will be adjusted so that it fits the overall spectral sensitivity of the system to one of the three standard CIE response curves. The objectives of the proposed Phase I project are the experimental demonstration of the filter and the evaluation of the accuracy of its color coordinate measurement.