<title>Rear projection screens for bright ambient applications</title>

Abstract

Displays typically are not able to deliver a viewable image in sunlight or environments with a high level of ambient light. The degradation of the image contrast is caused by reflection of ambient light from the display surface. Ambient light reflectivity from the display is an important measure of a display's ability to maintain image contrast. Projection displays are mostly used in low ambient light environments. Front projection screens have high reflectivity by design and are totally unsatisfactory for high ambient light applications. Commercially available rear projection screens use a variety of approaches to reduce ambient light reflections. Until now, their reduction was insufficient for daylight applications. An analysis of contrast deficiency in existing screen types is presented. Under DARPA sponsorship, the Max Levy Autograph and Sarnoff Corporations have combined to develop a rear projection screen technology with an improved suppression of ambient light reflections. Screen samples will be manufactured for use in daylight and high ambient environments. Other features of these screens include high resolution and the ability to match light distribution to the viewing requirements. The performance of this new technology is presented in this paper.© (1999) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.