In vision and color research, it is often desirable to precisely control the spectral content of light stimuli. Some demanding research applications require replicating or producing natural or novel complex spectral illumination. However, complex spectral distributions, common in the real world, often prove difficult to simulate in the lab. Past researchers have combined LCD technologies with broadband sources and wavelength dispersing elements, such as gratings, to produce approximations to natural distributions. These devices have been limited in contrast, temporal resolution, and precision by the nature of the LCD itself. We show here how a spectrally-dispersed broadband source modulated with Digital Light Processor (DLP) technology provides for rapid and precise spectral shaping of visual stimuli at intensity and precision levels previously unattainable using other light modulating technologies, and present a sample application consisting of data from color vision experiments designed to probe the visual system's differential response to narrow versus broad band color stimuli.

Date Published: 13 February 2009
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 7210, Emerging Digital Micromirror Device Based Systems and Applications, 721005 (13 February 2009); doi: 10.1117/12.810201

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7210:
Emerging Digital Micromirror Device Based Systems and Applications
Larry J. Hornbeck; Michael R. Douglass, Editor(s)