Welcome to Alces Technology, Inc

Alces company introductionWelcome to the website of Alces Technology Inc. We are an innovative engineering company in Jackson, Wyoming dedicated to the research and development of new display technologies products. We have unique expertise in lasers, projectors, cameras, optical systems, 3D depth capture, MEMS, and measurement science. Our site is here to introduce Alces and to openly share our own unique perspective on these interesting topics. We're hoping to engage in new relationships and create a valuable community with a large knowledge base so don't hesitate to contact us with any inquiries and be sure to click the image for a brief introduction to Alces Technology.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Universal Gesture Mouse using Kinect for Windows

We just released the Universal Gesture Mouse today. It's a new way to control your Windows 7 PC with the Kinect for Windows sensor. 


We've been working over the past six years to develop our own unique 3D sensor and display technology and during this time we began exploring unique applications with the Kinect sensor. As part of this work we developed the Universal Gesture Mouse to explore natural user interfaces (NUI) and to investigate the advantages and limitations of the Kinect system.

We are proud to offer the Universal Gesture Mouse for those users, groups, or organizations that would like to explore their own gesture applications but don't have the resources or expertise to start from scratch. For unique commercial opportunities please contact us. Give it a try and let us know what you think!

Download a free evaluation version at http://www.alcestech.com/universal-gesture-mouse

Be sure to check out the video to see it in action!

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

InfoComm 2012 Pictures

Last week Alces attended InfoComm 2012 in Las Vegas, NV. InfoComm assembles a diverse industry cross-section including many of the Tier 1 display companies. Alces was there to check the pulse of the display industry and explore new interactive elements such as multi-touch displays and interface technologies like pen-based digital whiteboards.  Here’s a little snapshot of the event.

Christie showcasing projection-mapping with an Mayan-like pyramid.

Mersive provides the projection-blending/tiling technology for many of the projectors on the show floor.

Alces at InfoComm 2012 (1)Alces at InfoComm 2012 (5)

A cut-out projection of a woman garnered quite a bit of attention and candid photo opportunities at the Casio booth.

Casio’s booth was also getting quite a bit of attention for there lamp-free (laser/phosphor) projectors

Alces at InfoComm 2012 (6) Alces at InfoComm 2012 (7)

At the TI DLP booth they were showcasing some very slim Iphone-case pico-projectors.

A unique table-top arrangement for an ultra short-throw projector with stereoscopic 3D and interactive pen

Alces at InfoComm 2012 (12) Alces at InfoComm 2012 (14)

A 70” Sharp 4K LED LCD display with 4K slide-show. Nose-close was of-course the only way to take it in.

The 90” LED LCD from Sharp was the largest LCD in site (where was the 100”?). Larger tiled-displays were prevalent though.

Alces at InfoComm 2012 (15) Alces at InfoComm 2012 (17)

Infocus’ Mondopad was just one of many touchscreen LCDs.

Samsung had a very large tiled LCD video wall (6x4) which could have used a dose of interactivity to make it really pop

Alces at InfoComm 2012 (18) Alces at InfoComm 2012 (21)

A lot of the LCD touchscreens were taking the form of table-top interactive displays

The show floor was monumentally larger, spanning two large exhibition halls.

Alces at InfoComm 2012 (22) Alces at InfoComm 2012 (24)

Some projectors looked absolutely “pre-historic” relative to the latest and slickest “new-era” and pico projectors. While sporting better specs (brighter, more pixels), these projectors could double as space-heaters if needed.

Sony’s 4K professional projector was a bit more manageable in size but as you could tell from the demo content, there simply isn’t a lot of 4K content available yet to showcase the true potential here.

Alces at InfoComm 2012 (27) Alces at InfoComm 2012 (33)

Google glasses without the Google.

A cylindrical (and had to be about 6 feet tall) persistence-of-vision (POV) display. A 1D column of pixels spinning at high-speeds tricks your eyes to create a continuous-looking image.

Alces at InfoComm 2012 (29) Alces at InfoComm 2012 (34)

The only Kinect seen on the show floor was tied to a translucent LCD fridge and provided some interactivity to help sell products.

Prysm’s laser phosphor display (LPD) was nice to see. Lasers and phosphors were a common thread among many new projection displays.

Alces at InfoComm 2012 (36) Alces at InfoComm 2012 (39)

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Kinect Accelerator Finalists : Inspiring Kinect Applications

Yesterday the finalists for the Kinect Accelerator program were announced via the Kinect for Windows Blog and the Microsoft Accelerator site.
“Beyond transforming the way you play games and experience entertainment, Kinect is being used in creative new ways from applications in healthcare, education, the arts and more. We will be combining the ingenuity of these eleven startups, the best of the Kinect technology, other Microsoft technologies such as Windows Azure and the mentor driven TechStars approach to foster a new generation of businesses. The Kinect Accelerator is a Microsoft Accelerator powered by TechStars, leveraging the successful TechStars model and bringing a talented team to run this accelerator for Microsoft.”
Each team gets a collection of perks including $20k, mentorship, hosting, etc (check out the FAQ for more details). There’s a lot of press out there summarizing the products/solutions/applications these companies are offering. They show some a nice cross-section of what the future may hold for the Kinect and the emerging field of 3D depth capture and new-user interfaces (NUI). Check out the links for more details on the companies and their unique Kinect programs.

Kinect hacking at a whole new level- Here are the finalists for the Kinect Accelerator - VentureBeatMicrosoft’s Kinect Accelerator- The Real Scoop on the Lucky Few - Xconomy

Ubi Interactive deserves a special call-out; their software combines the Kinect with a projector to create a touchscreen-like interface on any surface. Their demo video shows a nice example of how a projector and camera can be used to create a new user interface without traditional sensor-pen technologies or costly large-format touchscreen hardware.

Alces holds a complimentary vision wherein projection technology provides a platform for ubiquitous display and fills a greater role in the display ecosystem. New products, new markets, and big opportunities are on the horizon for projection display but it will require new paradigms and new technologies. By combining unique camera and computer-interface technology like the Kinect, and new projection technologies, such as high-power LEDs/lasers and new scalable microdisplays) emerging projectors will undoubtedly find many new users and applications.

Alces is actively developing software tools for the Kinect to showcase potential applications for new projector systems, provide the framework to describe our own 3D depth capture hardware concepts, and to expand the commercialization efforts of our own projection technology. For more information check out the other areas of our site or get in touch.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Alces Technology, Inc : Research in MEMS microdisplays and Laser projector systems

Recently Alces gave a brief seminar at Montana State University – Bozeman in conjunction with the Optical Technology Center (OpTeC). There was a great turn-out and we were able to share with the participants some of the unique developments taking place at Alces. The following are a sampling of the slides from the seminar along with some companion commentary. The slides discuss Alces’ unique laser projection technology along with details on the MEMS microdisplay and Alces’ patented “Edge-E” technology. Alces is currently working to commercialize and move this technology from the labs and into the market. For more details or further inquiries don’t hesitate to contact us.

Here is the abstract of the seminar:
Making Light Work – MEMS Based Laser Display technology
Tucked away in the mountains of Jackson Hole, WY is a research lab with a unique next-generation laser projection technology. At Alces Technology, Chris Arrasmith and Matthew Leone (both recent MSU alumni) work to develop innovative laser and MEMS (micro-electro mechanical system) microdisplay technologies. This talk will reveal some of Alces’ unique laser and MEMS microdisplay technologies and provide a unique look into the field of next-generation laser display.


Alces Technology, Inc.

Alces MEMS Laser Tech - OpTeC (1)Alces Technology is a unique research and development lab located in Jackson, WY. The images here highlight the unique work environment inside the Alces facilities; an open-office collaborative workspace, well-equipped lab facilities which include a number of engineering and demonstration systems such as a 4K-wide laser projector and near-eye color display, and a modest clean room space for managing the back-end process of the Alces MEMS microdisplay.





Alces’ Display Technology

Alces MEMS Laser Tech - OpTeC (2)Alces’ Laser Projection Display technology is a uniquely scalable and high performance display system. A illustration of the display, which may be described as a scanned linear array architecture, is shown alongside a block diagram of the key subsystems: RGB laser illumination, polarization based optical core, Alces’ MEMS microdisplay, and custom video electronics. Alces has assembled several benchtop display systems to demonstrate this architecture and its unique abilities.





MEMS Microdisplay

Alces MEMS Laser Tech - OpTeC (3)At the core of display system is the Alces’ MEMS microdisplay containing thousands of reflective micro-ribbons. When paired with Alces’ optical core, this devices is transformed into a novel spatial light modulator capable of unmatched performance and scalability. Shown to the right are images of a packaged MEMS prototype. This is an 8mm array with over 2000 MEMS ribbons tied to approximately 256 drive channels. The images to the bottom show the MEMS micro-ribbons at three different magnifications and their length-scales.




MEMS Design and Fabrication

Alces MEMS Laser Tech - OpTeC (4)Through Alces research and development programs the MEMS design and CMOS-compatible fabrication sequence were optimized for low-voltage and high-speed operation. Shown to the left, the thin film stack and process flow were engineered to minimize the operating voltage at roughly 12V (however recently new discoveries have further reduced the maximum drive voltage to digital logic levels <5V) and rise and fall times to roughly 250ns. The plots show examples these key metrics (voltage and performance) and how they were adjusted to improve performance.  Devices are currently being fabricated at Stanford Nanofabrication Facility, released at the Alces facilities in Jackson, WY and  packaged through microelectronics vendors in the San Jose region.


MEMS Actuation

Alces MEMS Laser Tech - OpTeC (5)By applying a voltage across the gap between the upper ribbon surface and lower electrode an electrostatic field is generated and the MEMS ribbons are displaced. The image in this slide shows two regions of actuated ribbons as seen through Alces’ optical system. When all ribbons are undisplaced and positioned in the same vertical plane, the microdisplay is dark, however, when ribbons are actuated, a 1D array of pixels are formed at the very center of the MEMS ribbon. The “bright” regions(appearing as two grey rectangles) show two blocks of ribbons with alternating ribbons displaced slightly beyond the quarter wavelength of the illumination source, or in this case approximately (533nm/4 = 133nm). For a single pixel in the display only a single ribbon must be displaced but for metrology purposes the ribbons in this image have been hardwired together and actuated as a block of ribbons in order to characterize the uniformity across the array.

Alces has developed a unique method to generate pixels from this purely reflective MEMS light modulator; this method is referred to as “Edge-E”, and fundamentally, Edge-E is what enables Alces to convert the phase modulation of the reflected illumination into amplitude modulated pixels seen on the display. The following slides present the details of this Edge-E method.


Poynting Vector Walk-off

Alces MEMS Laser Tech - OpTeC (6)To create Edge-E pixels, Alces uses the unique property of birefringent crystals called Poynting Vector Walk-off. This phenomenon spatially offsets a light ray into two orthorgonally polarized rays. Shown here is a piece of calcite creating a “double image” of the letter ‘A’ via the phenomenon of Poynting Vector Walk-off. The images are perpendicularly polarized.


 

 



Polarization Displacement Device

Alces MEMS Laser Tech - OpTeC (7)To incorporate Poynting Vector Walk-off, Alces developed a unique component referred to as a “Polarization Displacement Device” or PDD, which is in the same family as a Savart plate or Wollaston Prism. Two thin pieces of quartz are sandwiched together with their optical axis rotated 90 degrees. The diagram in the slide shows that when a vertically polarized input light beam is passed through the PDD, two beams with orthogonal polarizations are produced with an offset equivalent to “p”, which in Alces’ system is equivalent to the pixel pitch/MEMS ribbon pitch of 4um. When these to beams are passed through an “Analyzing Polarizer” the output is two spatially displaced, horizontally polarized light beams that are 180 degrees out of phase. This novel optical device provides the “light valve” functionality of an Edge-E display and is often referred to as the “discriminator,” because it discriminates between the polarization states of the input light and either passes it or blocks it. Through the combination of this optical light valve and MEMS microdisplay an Edge-E display can be created; the follow slides describe how this two components work in conjuction to create Edge-E pixels.


Theory of Operation

Alces MEMS Laser Tech - OpTeC (8)This slide presents a basic walkthrough of the Edge-E theory of operation; in essence it shows how to create a single pixel using the 1D array of MEMS ribbons via the creation of an edge or step in the phase of the reflected light.

In the top row, a 1D cross-section of the ribbons are shown with pitch of “p” and the leftmost ribbons displaced vertically by a quarter wavelength of illumination (λ/4). This displacement creates a phase-delay in the reflected light proportional to half the wavelength (λ/2), whereby the reflected electric field amplitude can be described as proportional to ejφ and in this case simplified to +1 and –1. In the next row, the impulse function of the optical system can be described as a pair of delta functions, spatially offset, and 180 degrees out of phase. This is the mathematical equivalent of output of the PDD shown in the previous slide.

When the reflected light off the MEMS ribbons is passed through the PDD and Analyzing Polarizer (this can be mathematically represented as the convolution of row b) and row c) or the convolution of the electric field of the reflected light and the impulse function of the optical core), the output light is spatially defined as a pulse with width “p”. This rectangular pulse is an ideal pixel in the display and centered on the edge created in the MEMS array; hence the name “Edge-E”.

The final line shows how this “ideal” rectangular pixel is transformed into a near-Gaussian shape after passing through the finite numerical aperture of the optical system, which is equivalent to a low-pass filtering operation.
To summarize, Edge-E is a method of converting the phase-delay of light (or shift in the polarization state), into the spatial amplitude modulation of a pixel via the creation of a edge in the MEMS ribbon array. More details are discussed in the final slide: Encoding Pixels using Edges.


Fourier Space Description

Alces MEMS Laser Tech - OpTeC (9)Edge-E can also be described in the dual of position-space; angle-space or k-space. In fact, for those familiar with Fourier Optics, the Edge-E method is particularly elegant due to the simplicity and succinctness of the mathematical description.

In order to describe Edge-E in angle-space several well-known Fourier transforms should be examined first. Shown on the right side are three Fourier pairs: the sinusoid, the step-function, and the sinc function. The top-most diagram shows the Fourier transform pair of a sinusoid, where in position space is represented as two offset delta functions, 180 degrees out of phase, and in angle space as the pure sinuosoid whose angular frequency is proportional to the spatial offset of the delta functions. The second row shows the Fourier transformof a step function in position space and its equivalent 1/k function in angle space. The third row shows the Fourier transform of a sinc function to a rectangular-pulse function whose pulse-width is proportional to the width of the of the sinc function.

The three Fourier transform pairs are incorporated into the main diagram showing the linear-system analysis of an Alces’ Edge-E method in angle-space. The impulse or transfer function of the optical system is described as H(k) and represented as the blue sinusoid. In other words this is the Fourier transform of the delta functions created by the PDD and Analyzing polarizer shown in the slide: Polarization Displacement Device. The input function is described as R(k) and represented by the red 1/k function, which is the Fourier transform of the step-function and created by imparting a phase delay on the reflected illumination through the displacement of MEMS ribbons. The output of the system in angle space is defined by the multiplication of the input function R(k) and transfer function H(k) and equivalent to sin(k)/k or sinc(k) and shown in the green plot. To convert from angle-space to position-space the inverse Fourier transform must be performed, which as previously mentioned, for the case of a sinc function, transforms to a rectangular pulse. This means the sinc function describes a single idea pixel in angle-space and this sinc function can be generated by creating an input function defined by a step and a transfer function defined by a sinusoid.


Encoding Pixels using Edges

Alces MEMS Laser Tech - OpTeC (10)Moving beyond just a single pixel, Alces developed a method to generalize the formation of Edge-E pixels across the MEMS array using concepts from digital communications. Non-return to zero inverted encoding or NRZi describes a method of creating a binary signal using transitions to define the logical value. In other words, a logical ‘0’ is defined as no-transition in the signal level and a logical ‘1’ is defined as a transition in the signal level, regardless of direction.

For an Alces Edge-E display system, NRZi can be applied spatially rather than temporally and in an analogue fashion rather than just binary. Pixels are thus centered over the gap between the MEMS ribbons and the displacement amplitude or edge height created between adjacent ribbons controls the amount of light or brightness of pixel.

The diagram in the bottom of the slide shows an example of how this type of NRZi-like encoding can be applied to the MEMS ribbon array to generate a 1D pattern of pixels. A cross-sectional view of the ribbon position is plotted along the top in blue. The “intensity” plot shows the amplitude of the spatially-varying pixels generated from the Edge-E method. The bottom “greyscale intensity” shows how this might look displayed as a 1D column of pixels.

Thus, a 1D column of greyscale pixels can be created by positioning the MEMS ribbons in such a way as to create step-height variations between adjacent MEMS ribbons matched to an input signal. For instance, to create a 100% white pixel then the step height between adjacent ribbons should be equivalent to the quarter wavelength of light, and to create a black pixel then the step height between ribbons should be zero. Using custom algorithms, Alces has devised a control system that can take in input video signal (a signal column of pixels) and transform those values into voltages which are applied to the MEMS ribbons and create the appropriate step height variations.


Final remarks

Hopefully this was an enlightening description of Alces novel Edge-E technology. For more details on Edge-E, be sure to read Alces’ patent 7,940,448 Display System. Further descriptions will follow as one post cannot fully encapsulate all the details, qualities and features of this system.
While this description provides the basics of the Alces Edge-E technology, it does not provide the full scope of Alces’ development efforts. Alces has gone beyond just the mathematical modeling and theory shown here and built physical display systems incorporating these concepts. These systems can be seen at Alces’ and are capable of generating full monochromatic and color images. And so Edge-E not only represents a unique example of a new kind of MEMS display technology but also exemplifies Alces’ ability to innovate, develop, and advance new display technologies.

For more details or to discuss Edge-E please get contact us.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Kinect for Windows Developer Resources

With Microsoft’s release of the official Kinect for Windows SDK last month there is certainly no better time than now to start making Kinect applications. However, if you’ve purchased the official Kinect for Windows hardware one of the first things you’ll notice is that the box is devoid of any kind of software. Perhaps a bit surprising, the Kinect for WIndows sensor is a developer’s tool and not the consumer toy that was the Kinect for XBOX. Although identical in hardware, they Kinect for Windows opens up the doors for commecial projects based on the Kinect platform which were previously relegated to research and non-commercial endeavors. Maybe once Kinect Apps start to reach the market (I’m still waiting for an Apple-like Kinect App store to emerge…) the Kinect will reach the same level of desktop ubiquity as of the webcam or wireless mouse but until then developers are left to carve their own paths and explore the unique possibilities of the Kinect. So without further ado, here is a collection of Kinect programming resources compiled from a research-filled February. Clicking any of the images will redirect to the source.

Microsoft’s Kinect for Windows (main site)

  • This is the official resource for developing Kinect for Windows applications, and the place you'll go to download the Kinect for Windows SDK. You’ll also want to peruse the site to understand the wide range of resources provided by Microsoft (some of which are included in the following list).
Microsoft Kinect for Windows - Develop for the Kinect - Kinect for Windows

Kinect for Windows Programming Guide

  • This is the place for a wide variety of technical details on the Kinect and the Kinect for Windows SDK tools and APIs. This is the good quick reference for engineers and developers.
Kinect for Windows Programming Guide

Channel 9 Coding4Fun Kinect Series

  • This is the place to go (and Microsoft will lead you here) to get started with coding. There are lots of downloads, and up-to-date posts on the latest Kinect apps and projects. The Kinect for Windows Quickstart Series, which includes videos, setup guides, and examples, is a great place to take the plunge into Kinect programming.
Kinect for Windows Quickstart Series - Channel 9Coding4Fun Kinect Projects - Channel 9

Codeplex – Open Source Kinect projects

  • Microsoft’s Codeplex is the place to look for open source projects. While there are only a handful of Kinect for Windows SDK projects at the moment, they provide a good jumping off point for your own applications and are worth checking out. You’ll see a lot of cross-over with the Channel9 posts here.
Project Directory

Open Kinect Wiki

  • The Open Kinect Wiki is not afilliated with the Kinect for Windows platform but rather stemmed from the original Kinect for XBOX platform. The primary focus is on the development of an open source set of software tools called “libfreenect” which is not compatible with the Kinect for Windows platform, so Caveat Emptor, but the number of resources available here warrants its inclusion in this list. Within this same category is the OpenNI program which provides a variety of NUI software tools compatible with the Kinect for XBOX (but not the Kinect for Windows) platform. The OpenNI group stems from PrimeSense, which provides the core 3D camera system in the Kinect and who has also released similar products with Asus (Xtion).
Main Page - OpenKinect

Chipworks’ Teardown of the Microsoft Kinect

  • This teardowon provides a good examination of the hardware inside the Kinect sensor. There are quite a few teardowns out there but this one gets up close and personal with the components and their technical specifications. EE times quotes the bill of materials in the Kinect at around $56 with the PrimeSense 3D sensor component at only $17, which is a major factor in the success of the Kinect.

    Teardown of the Microsoft Kinect - Focused on Motion Capture » Recent Teardowns » Chipworks

Why the Kinect for Window Sensor Costs $249.99

  • Following up on the teardown and BOM, I thought this blog post (which is not affiliated with Microsoft) provided a good analysis of where the $249 price tag comes from given the low BOM. There’s also a nice collection of posts on the working with Kinect.
Why the Kinect for Windows Sensor Costs $249.99

Kinect Depth vs Actual Distance post

  • This is an old post (2/3/2011) but at some point you’ll probably find yourself considering the limitations of the Kinect, and this is a good place to start. The post discusses how the values coming from the Kinect stack up against physical measurements and provides a good starting place for making your own measurements.
Kinect Depth vs. Actual Distance - mathnathan(1)

Kinect White Papers

The Kinect Sensor PlatformAccuracy Analysis of Kinect Depth Data
Reverse Engineering the Kinect Stereo AlgorithmSuper Resolution for Active Light Sensor Enhancement
If there are any other resources out there which weren’t included or this post sparks any questions don’t hesitate to get in touch. Cheers.

Friday, March 2, 2012

Alces’ Hybrid 3D scanner : Time-of-Flight & Structured Light

In 2010, Alces completed a patent application for a new type of Structured Light 3D depth capture system. The novelty of the system comes from a unique hybridization of traditional structured light triangulation techniques and emerging “smart pixel” or “phase sensitive” camera technologies in time-of-flight systems. Click on the following image to read details from the USPTO patent application.

Alces' Structured light system

We’ll briefly describe the structured light and time-of-flight principles and then describe the unique characteristics of this system when combining both methodologies. This is then followed with early experimental results confirming it’s operation. (For more background, Wikipedia provides a good primer on some of the fundamental principles of this class of non-contact optical 3D scanning: 3D scanners.
The following image encompasses the principle of operation of Alces’ hybrid structured light system. The structured light system is based on “phase-shift” methodologies which uses 1D sinusoidal patterns to uniquely encode each projected column with a specific “phase” value. In the example shown in the image four sinusoidal patterns are supplied to the projector and continuously projected in a 4-pattern loop.
Phase Shifting Structured Light

Let’s walk through this figure step-by-step to understand how this measurement takes place:

Phase-shifting Structured Light Fundamentals:
  1. Four input patterns are supplied to the projector. Each pattern is shifted, spatially, by 90 degrees, thus after four patterns, the sinusoidal intensity variation is shifted by 360 degrees and the pattern cycle is repeated.
  2. A structured light system uses triangulation computations to determine the XYZ position of a point out in space. Therefore, the projector and camera are spatially separated along one axis and the intersection of the ray associated with each camera pixel and plane associated with each column of the projector can be used to create a unique correspondence between the angles associated with the pixels on the camera and projector.
  3. From the cameras point-of-view each pixel sees a unique time-varying signal. This is perhaps the most important principle to understand because the spatially varying pattern from the projector has become a time-varying pattern at the camera pixel. The time-varying signal at each pixel has a unique phase. The phase value contains the angle associated with that column of the projected pattern, which is the fundamental piece of information needed to perform the triangulation calculation and determine the XYZ position of a point out in space.
  4. The phase of time-varying signal is calculated with some basic trigonometry. Each column from the projector can thus be determined by calculating the phase value seen by the camera pixels.
This basic description is applicable to any “phase shifting” structured light system. However, it is uniquely similar to how a Time-of-Flight (TOF) camera calculates XYZ position of an object.
A Time-of-flight camera does not use a spatially-varying sequence of patterns but instead relies solely on the modulation of a point-source, such as an LED or laser, to create a time-varying signal. The time-of-flight camera contains a unique image sensor with pixels capable of “phase sensitive detection." These pixels operate at very high rates, typically >20MHz, which allows them to essentially interpolate the phase delay of the light as it’s sent out and reflected off an object out in space. The following figure illustrates this concept. The phase delay between the source signal (blue) and the received signal (red) is used along with known speed of light to determine the Z-position of the object out in space.

Time of flight
Alces’ patent application describe a hybrid approach combining elements of the Structured Light and Time-of-flight systems. By combining the high-modulation rates of the Time-of-flight approach with the resolution of the Structured Light approach, an improved system can be designed with new features and broader application base. Such as system is theoretically capable of very high frame rates, ambient light rejections, and very precise depth resolution.

Alces is still in the early stages of the development of this type of sensor system but with the explosion of the Microsoft Kinect and a burgeoning marker around gesture and New-user interfaces (NUI) this type of technology has great potential. We will be discussing additional details in the future but are always open to further inquiries in the meantime.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Diamond Pixels and Quantifying Image Quality

Karl Guttag recently posted some valuable details on TI’s DLP Diamond Pixel microdisplay structure seen in a wide variety of emerging “new era” and “pico” projectors.

image
While not yet detailed officially from TI, this article provides some valuable information in regards to how this design change affects the resulting projected image.
The field of display technology is an interesting one because the technology incorporates many different elements and disciplines (light sources, light modulators, computer graphics system, optics, etc) which are combined into very sophisticated systems directed at the human vision system (which of course is another very sophisticated system). The challenge for display developers comes from the fact that the display system should match/exceed the capabilities of the human vision system in order to create a “high quality” image and avoid perceived artifacts; things like pixel structure, motion blur, grayscale contouring.
A viewer can identify image quality, for example looking at two images, side-by-side, a viewer can select which one is “higher quality”, however it can be very difficult for viewers to identify which display characteristics have the most influence on their perceived quality of an image. The “resolution” of the display, which is directly linked with the pixel count (but not solely based on this number), is the key display characteristic that can be quantified with metrology tools and methods and one in which viewers are usually keenly aware of. So resolution/pixel count is a good metric for analysis, one in which Karl has provided, however resolution is not the only display metric and in fact there are many factors which influence the perceived quality of a display including both static and dynamic properties.
Here are a couple of references which describe how image quality is measured and how scientists and engineers have created measurement methods which can create quantifiable results for the comparing and analyzing displays. Click on an image and you’ll be able to get a full copy.

Image Quality Measurements: Necessity, Numbers and '...nesses'. Measuring Images: differences, quality and appearance Comparative study of the MTFA, ICS and SQRI image quality metrics for visual display systems
2009 2003 1991
Image Quality Measurements: Necessity, Numbers and '...nesses'. Measuring images: differences, quality and appearance Comparative study of the MTFA, ICS and SQRI image quality metrics for visual display systems

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Speckle reducer products

There aren’t many speckle-specific products out there. Yet here are two companies with speckle reducing products that are aimed and enabling broader laser applications, like laser display. Of course laser speckle is such a multi-faceted issue no one solution can completely eliminate speckle (“speckle-free” is a bit of a misnomer), however these two seem to have found a niche which is hopefully enabling new lasers applications and adding momentum to the inclusion of lasers in projectors and displays.


Optotune
Dyoptika
Optotune
Dyoptika

They also have some technical documentation, describing the fundamental principles and some measurement setups to quantify the results. Some Alces speckle expertise (and Alces' Speckle Camera) might compliment these nicely.

Optotune App Note
Dyoptika White Paper
Optotune App note
Dyoptika white paper

Optotune also has a nice little demo video.