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Advanced Video & Display Technology
Our job is to see things not as they are, but as they might be. Which is why today’s high-definition, high-brightness, highly realistic video images – impressive as they are – will be eclipsed by the super-realistic displays of tomorrow.
In the near term, the Advanced Video & Display Technology Group is charged with pushing the edge of picture quality, power efficiency, and dollar value for Sharp LCD TV (AQUOS®) and mobile personal LCD devices (mobile phones) by developing advanced algorithms based on human visual system models, display models, color science, and video analysis and processing. Algorithms developed by the Advanced Video & Display Technology Group are being implemented in Sharp LCD TV and Mobile LCD display products, as well as in manufacturing lines for fast, accurate calibration and automated inspection.
A little farther on the horizon are new technologies for creating super-realistic and super-sized displays that promise to spawn whole new applications. We are intent on developing new ways of utilizing and enjoying such displays and their enabling technologies as well as new approaches for making such displays environment-friendly using power-saving algorithms and alternative energy sources such as solar light.
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Super Realism: the Sensation of Being There
These next plateaus of realistic displays require us to pioneer new depths of insight into human visual systems. The new human visual system models we create and incorporate into display system designs and algorithms will not only make possible super-realistic visual quality – they will do so at equivalent or reduced cost and with extreme power efficiency.
Our algorithm development aims to enable super-realistic displays with ultra-high definition spatial and temporal resolution (e.g., 4K at 120 Hz and higher), motion-blur-free video, natural and wide color gamut rendition, very high dynamic range and contrast, high-bit depth, and power efficient displays. One of our particular research interests is large size, i.e., wall-size super-realistic displays or tiled displays, new associated applications and enabling technologies. For example, we are developing new ways for the viewer to interact with the display and environment to heighten both the realism and the user’s ability to work with the information. Besides video, processing and rendering of audio is a natural component of this new realism.
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Quality of Source Video Matters
A super realistic display is fully enjoyed and appreciated only when the input source video is of a quality commensurate with the high quality of the display. Our current research includes resolution enhanced up-conversion of HD video to Ultra HD resolution, noise suppression, backward compatible compression of high dynamic range, high resolution, high bit-depth and wide-color video, and robust adaptive video streaming over wireless channels. In addition, we are developing compression/decompression algorithms to meet the challenging data bandwidth and memory efficiency requirements of upcoming high-spatial and temporal resolution display systems.
Reduced video noise, more natural color reproduction, higher-resolution displays, faster frame rates, power-saving display strategies, wall displays and their novel applications – even now, the technologies to make all these and many other advances possible are passing from Sharp Labs into Sharp products or into new market opportunities.
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Sharper Also Means Smarter
Sharp Labs’ expertise in image analysis, detection and recognition allows us to lead the development of algorithms for embedding intelligence into AV devices. We have, for example, made it possible for projection devices to automatically center on the screen, focus, and correct for keystoning. We created the unique HiMPACT Sports technology that automatically detects key events in sports broadcast videos to assemble sports event summaries and highlight reels in real time. Now we are applying our core expertise in this area to researching new user-display interaction paradigms for future wall-size displays and smart displays that do more than display information. In addition, we are developing super resolution inspection and automatic visual display quality assessment algorithms for Sharp’s world’s first 10th generation LCD plant.
Here as throughout Sharp Labs, collaboration is key: we not only work closely with research and product development groups throughout our parent company – we combine forces with colleagues throughout the industry to establish standards, share information, and bring bright ideas to light.
Which is why, as far as AV technology has come in the last few years and as big as it has grown in both size and significance, from where we stand, you haven’t seen the half of it.
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