Testing the Performance of Color Difference Formula for a Mixed Display Technology Setup

Abstract

Automotive cockpits are becoming more and more digital day by day and this is evident by the increase in the number of displays inside the cockpit. With the advent of OLED displays, automotive cockpits not only have LCD but have started having mixed display technologies. A recent example of such a cockpit display is the MBUX Hyperscreen in Mercedes EQS. A general situation is most mid ranged cars from Renault includes several displays inside the cockpit. These displays are placed at different locations inside the cockpit and go through various changes in external environmental condition during day and night. A vehicle cockpit experiences a wide range of illumination change during the day, from 35 kLux in bright sunlight to a few Lux during the night. The displays are generally used in high luminance range during the day and very low luminance during the night. Traditional color difference formulae like the CIEDE76 or CIEDE2000, the latter being the current industry standard, are defined for a specific set of evaluation conditions. For the myriad of different conditions that the displays undergo inside the cockpit, there isn’t a recommended color difference formula which can be used to quantify the color difference between any two chosen displays inside the cockpit. An attempt has been made to include various real time parameters involving color difference evaluation between two displays, one of which is an LCD and other OLED. The motive of this study is to find out which color difference formula is the most representative of the perceived color difference between two mixed technology displays for a group of observers. The metric used for this the study is the CIE recommended STRESS index. The outcome of this research is to serve as a reference regarding the choice of color difference metric by display manufactures and OEM suppliers.