Different electronic display devices, like cathode ray tubes (CRTs), liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and plasma display panels (PDPs), show different performance levels with respect to motion blur and flicker visibility. Both motion blur and flicker visibility reduce the image fidelity and hence also the image quality. Developments in device design and industrial standardization require an evaluation system to characterize these properties for preferably all types of display devices. Starting from a photodiode, a measurement setup was built, which records the time varying luminance signal of these displays. Then a simulation tool was developed to predict the motion blur appearance and perceived seriousness of flicker, which tool was validated with perception experiments. A tradeoff between flicker visibility and motion blur was derived from this work. That is, the device with less motion blur shows more serious flicker, like a CRT, while in general a LCD with less flicker shows more motion blur. PDPs exhibit an intermediate performance. New technologies like scanning backlight LCD, and field emission displays (FEDs) meet the same problem. Explanations and analysis of such dilemma from the point of view of information and signal processing are presented. It shows that high frame rate is the best solution for the dilemma, where motion estimation and compensation is an effective alternative to increase the frame rate for the current video broadcasting system.

Date Published: 19 February 2008
PDF: 13 pages
Proc. SPIE 6625, International Symposium on Photoelectronic Detection and Imaging 2007: Related Technologies and Applications, 662503 (19 February 2008); doi: 10.1117/12.790748

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6625:
International Symposium on Photoelectronic Detection and Imaging 2007: Related Technologies and Applications
Liwei Zhou, Editor(s)