An Embedded System for High Dynamic Range Enabled Television

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This 8 month project brings together internationally leading expertise in High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging from the University of Warwick with the innovation and in-depth market knowledge of the IBM Systems and Technology Group, Austin, USA. Together the partners will demonstrate the technical and commercial viability of an embedded HDR decoder-viewer which could be included in all future TVs and even retrofitted in existing TVs.HDR is a set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range of luminances between light and dark areas of a scene than normal digital imaging techniques or photographic prints do. This wider dynamic range allows HDR images to more accurately represent the wide range of light intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to faint starlight. Tone mapping techniques, which reduce overall contrast to facilitate display of HDR images on devices with lower dynamic range, can be applied to produce images with preserved or exaggerated local contrast for artistic effect. Although the process is complex, the end product seems very natural. This is because the eye and the visual cortex of the brain, unlike a camera, can deal with light variances of 10,000-fold within a single scene and adapt automatically without any conscious effort. Cameras capable of capturing dynamic HDR content are now appearing. The problem is: capturing the wide range of natural lighting results in a substantial increase in data. A highly efficient compression algorithm (of at least 100:1) for HDR video content has been developed at the University of Warwick as part of our research undertaken in EPSRC grant EP/D032148/2, for which a patent has been filed. Associated with this encoder is the need for a decoder and viewer which can deliver HDR content in real-time directly to HDR displays or tone mapped to existing Low Dynamic Range (LDR) displays, including computer monitors and televisions. A prototype down-loadable version of this decoder-viewer exists for PCs. A solution for televisions is not so straightforward. TV manufacturers need to embed the decoder-viewer into their display devices, so the decision to be HDR enabled would be made by the manufacturer, not the user. This embedded software may be adopted by TV manufacturers quite rapidly if it is well designed and easy to incorporate, as it adds another product distinguishing sales feature to their product. The television market is huge with about 170 million displays are sold annually in a market worth over $30 billion. Within this market, digital LCD to 1080 High Definition specification has become almost standard. The market has now stabilised, with further cost reduction being the major market driver, or they may move onto an even higher-specification standard. We believe that the latter is the more likely, and that HDR will be that standard. There is, however, one restraint on the rapid adoption of HDR television. Dolby tightly control all the IP related to HDR displays after their acquisition of BrightSide in February 2007 (for $29 million). It could thus take a few years while licensing agreements are resolved or other innovations for HDR displays start to appear. The embedded system we are developing in this project will enable existing television designs to be HDR enabled . The embedded decoder-viewer will allow HDR content to be tone mapped in real-time for display on these televisions. While a tone mapped image will never be as rich as a true HDR one, as we, and others have shown, modern tone mappers can give a significantly enhanced viewing experience on an LDR display which are perceptually close to the HDR experience. This proposal thus bridges the gap from the research results from a previous EPSRC grant to develop a robust demonstrator of an embedded HDR decoder-viewer and a commercial exploitation plan. On completion of the project, we will be in a strong position to secure commercial support from venture capital or seed funds.