Synchronizing screen

• US 20070085977A1
• Filed: 10/13/2005
• Published: 04/19/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/13/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: May, Gregory, Fricke, Peter, Emmerich, Timothy
• Granted Patent: US 7,609,442 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 353/79
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 21/56 Projection screens

Abstract

Embodiments of synchronizing modification of an optical characteristic of a screen are disclosed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

synchronizing modification of an optical characteristic of a screen using a timing of a color component of light incident on a sensor and a signal related to a timing of projected light.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the synchronizing comprises utilizing a phase-locked loop to achieve phase lock of a synchronizing signal to a signal provided by the sensor based on the signal.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating the signal using a clock of a projection system controller.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating the signal using a color wheel timing of a projector.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the optical characteristic is one of a reflectivity and an absorbance.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a peak of an intensity of a plurality of colors of the light incident on the sensor.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein, the light comprises projected light.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein, the modifying the optical characteristic comprises modifying the optical characteristic of all pixels of the screen.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising adjusting one of reflectivity, absorbance, or transmissiveness for time intervals corresponding to red, green, and blue segments of a color wheel of a projector according to the synchronizing.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising modifying one of reflectivity, absorbance, or transmissiveness of the screen over a portion of a color segment time interval of a projector to achieve a desired average of the optical characteristic over the segment interval.

11. An apparatus comprising:

a screen having an adjustable optical characteristic;

a sensor to provide a sensor signal indicating timing of a color component of light; and

a circuit to generate a synchronization signal using the sensor signal to synchronize adjustment of the optical characteristic with the timing of the color component.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the synchronizer comprises a phase-locked loop coupled to receive the sensor signal and a qualification signal.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising a controller to generate a qualification signal using a clock signal provided a the projection system controller.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising a projector to generate a qualification signal according to timing of segments of a color wheel.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the screen is a projection screen selected from a group comprising a rear projection screen and a front projection screen.

16. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the sensor comprises a plurality of sensors, wherein each of the plurality of sensors corresponds to a primary color.

17. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising a projector to project at least a portion of the light on the screen.

18. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising a projection system controller to adjust one of a reflectivity, absorbance, or transmissiveness of the screen to compensate for ambient light.

19. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising a control data decoder to extract control data from the sensor signal.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the control data is one or more of an offset or a sampling period.

21. A computer-readable medium comprising:

stored instructions to synchronize modification of an optical characteristic of a screen using a timing of a color component of light incident on a sensor and a signal related to a timing of projected light.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 21, further comprising stored instructions to modify the optical characteristic of all pixels of the screen.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 21, further comprising stored instructions to modify the optical characteristic of the screen in response to data provided by the sensor.

24. An apparatus comprising:

means for sensing an occurrence of a color component of light; and

means for synchronizing an optical characteristic modification of a screen based on a qualification signal and the occurrence of the color component of light.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, further comprising means for locking onto a signal provided by the sensor.

26. The apparatus of claim 24, further comprising means for modifying the optical characteristic of the screen in response to an ambient light contribution.