TV Project Research Articles

A word from the editor

A word from the editor

Social TV: Designing for Distributed, Sociable Television Viewing

Media research has shown that people enjoy watching television as a part of socializing in groups. However, many constraints in daily life limit the opportunities for doing so. The Social TV project builds on the increasing integration of television and computer technology to support sociable, computer-mediated group viewing experiences. In this article, we describe the initial results from a series of studies illustrating how people interact in front of a television set. Based on these results, we propose guidelines as well as specific features to inform the design of future “social television” prototypes.

DERLAN’S DISCONTINUED PUMP EARNINGS DISAPPOINT

A novel laser TV projection display has been developed by PA Technology employing the Scophony system with acousto-optic modulators and pulsed lasers. This results in a projection system with greater optical simplicity, higher reliability and reduced power and cooling requirements over similar laser projectors. The technique has been successfully implemented in British Aerospace's Microdome missile training simulator. This paper describes the underlying principles of the design, its operational features and its implementation in the Microdome.

A Comparison of Domestic and International Joint Ventures in Television Program and Feature Film Production

International co-production /co-venture is increasingly the mode of production used for television programs and feature films. Evidence suggests the principal benefit of this mode is that, through financial pooling, it permits the accumulation of substantial budgets. However, there are concerns that cultural specificity, the Canadian nature of the resulting program or film, is often compromised. Domestic co-production /co-venture may be an alternative mode that offers the advantages of the international joint venture mode without compromising the Canadian nature of the final cultural product. In this paper we examine this issue by comparing participant experiences with domestic joint ventures to those for international joint ventures. We find that most benefit and drawback items are rated similarly. Nevertheless, there is considerable evidence that for TV projects the performance of domestic joint ventures is rated better than that of international joint ventures. However, respondents also indicate that the domestic joint venture mode is not a viable alternative to the international joint venture mode for large budget projects.

Fast-switching reflective HAN-mode light valves with high pixel density for colour TV projection

A colour TV projection system contains three fast-switching reflective liquid crystal light valves (LC-LV) exhibiting a large aperture which enhances brightness to 500 lux on a 1 m 2 screen, inserting a 250 W projection lamp. The 400 200 pel a-Si:H thin-film transistor addressed LC-LVs are designed as reflective quarterwave plates operating in the hybrid aligned nematic mode with a turn-on time of 0.3 ms and a turn-off time of 4 ms. The accuracy of the small cell gaps of between 2.4 and 3.4 μm depending on colour is achieved by plasma-etched SiO 2 spacers leading to optimum contrast ratio and brightness.

Pulsed Scophony laser projection system

A novel laser TV projection display has been developed by PA Technology employing the Scophony system with acousto-optic modulators and pulsed lasers. This results in a projection system with greater optical simplicity, higher reliability and reduced power and cooling requirements over similar laser projectors. The technique has been successfully implemented in British Aerospace's Microdome missile training simulator. This paper describes the underlying principles of the design, its operational features and its implementation in the Microdome.

Deformable Surface Spatial Light Modulator

A spatial light modulator (SLM) based on a deformable gel surface is presented. It has remarkable optical properties and its construction and operation are comparatively simple. It can be optically addressed through a photoconductor layer. The surface relief pattern is read out by total reflection and a schlieren optical system. The device provides good wavefront quality (X/10 over the whole aperture of 30 x 50 mm2) and has a spatial resolution of 10 line pairs/mm. Contrast ratios for modulation up to 40:1 were measured. The input sensitivity is typically 0.3 mW/cm2. The rise and decay times are both approximately 20 ms. Besides its primary application as a light valve in large screen TV projection, it can be used in optical information processing systems, e.g., as an incoherent-to-coherent transducer. Combined with a CRT, the SLM can be addressed electronically.

HICANS-Navigation for High Speed Ships

In response to the identified need for automated coastal navigation and piloting as well as collision avoidance for the NATO hydrofoil, Sperry Systems Management under Navy contract has developed the High Speed Ship Collision Avoidance and Navigation System (HICANS). This system is aboard the USS PEGASUS (PHM-1) and has undergone extensive at-sea testing. This paper describes the system capability for coastal navigation and piloting using both digital charts and TV projection of standard paper charts. It also examines the results to date of the accomplished at-sea system testing.

Flat smectic liquid crystal display panel

First results of a direct-view flat-panel display for computer terminal applications are presented. This panel uses an effect which has already been reported by the authors for a TV projection display.

New Ancillary Services Using a Television Channel

A data-broadcasting system implemented in France by the CCETT is discussed. Employing an ordinary television channel, the system provides at least three new ancillary services, and more are under development. The first service accomplishes the automatic recording of preselected programs for any user with a keypad, memory unit and VTR; the second provides scrambling and unscrambling of a television signal as for pay TV and theater projection; and the third uses the ANTIOPE teletext system to transmit “magazines” in page form to the home viewer. If the teletext system uses time-division multiplexing with an ordinary program, subtitling in any of several languages is possible along with transmission on request of special news-flash pages. Otherwise, when magazine pages only are transmitted on the channel, a page rate of about 20,000 per minute (24 lines of 40 characters each) is possible.

TELEVISION AND VIDEOTAPE IN PSYCHIATRY—annotated bibliography and supplement, 1970 and 1971, 58 and 32 pages. Available from the TV Project, Department of Psychiatry, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi 39216

TELEVISION AND VIDEOTAPE IN PSYCHIATRY—annotated bibliography and supplement, 1970 and 1971, 58 and 32 pages. Available from the TV Project, Department of Psychiatry, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi 39216

Electrooptic Laser Scanner for TV Projection Display

An experimental laser TV projection system was constructed using electrooptic prisms of ammonium dihydrogen phosphate to furnish high speed horizontal scanning. Horizontal resolution comparable to 300 TV lines was achieved without a bothersome temperature rise in the electrooptic elements. The drive power required for the electrooptic scanner is about 65 W delivered through a transistorized electronic switch.

Principles of Simultaneous-Color Projection Television Using Fluid Deformation

The development of a television projection system using a charge pattern laid down on a deformable oil film by a scanning electron beam has led to a new electron-optical system, and a new light-optical system which permits simultaneous color TV projection compatible with NTSC standards. A demountable projector using coaxial light and electron optics permits electrostatic focus and deflection of the electron spot through 2,000 spot diameters without the requirement of dynamic corrections. Further improvements in the deformable fluid have resulted in a system suitable for use in education, commercial and military TV applications.

Equalization of Acoustooptic Deflection Cells in a Laser Color TV System

The optical dispersion of the deflection angle in a laser color TV system using acoustooptic deflection is overcome by using prisms to magnify the smaller deflection angles associated with the blue and green primary images. By using two prisms in cascade, the magnification can be made invariant with deflection angle, and convergence of the three primary images achieved across the entire TV raster. A full color TV projection system is described which uses acoustooptic intensity modulation and horizontal scanning.

5C5 - An internally scanned laser

A method for producing a scanned beam of light from a laser has been devised and tested in our laboratories, and appears to be applicable to a high deflection rate scanner. Scanning is accomplished through the use of a pulsed optical delay line located within a special, enlarged laser cavity. Narrow shear pulses, traveling through the delay line, convert some of the incident, plane polarized laser light to the orthogonal polarization by means of the photoelastic effect. The converted light is diffracted and is removed from the cavity by spatial filtering at a cavity focus. The light removed in this manner is imaged onto a screen. Since the delay line is inside the cavity, light passing around the shear pulse is recirculated and not wasted. Since quartz has a shear wave propagation velocity of 3840 m/s, a delay line resonant at 30 Mc/s can propagate pulses about 0.13 mm wide. A beam 100 mm in diameter would have 770 spot locations. The system has been operated with a delay line resonant at 10 Mc/s in a 1.5 cm collimated laser beam. A resolution of 15 spot positions was obtained with a beam power of 4 mW. For TV projection applications, scanning in the orthogonal direction and modulation would be accomplished with external devices.

Report on the analysis of measurements and observations, New York city UHF TV project

Summary form only. An abstract of the above-titled article, taken from the 1963 IEEE International Convention (held March 25-28, New York, NY, USA), is presented.

Report on mobile field strength measurements, New York city UHF TV project

Summary form only. An abstract of the above-titled article, taken from the 1963 IEEE International Convention (held March 25-28, New York, NY, USA), is presented.