NIST Calibration Facility for Display Colorimeters

Published

April 12, 1999

Author(s)

Steven W. Brown, Yoshihiro Ohno

Abstract

A calibration facility has been developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to address the need for high accuracy color measurementsof displays. Calibration services tailored to display measuremets are planned for colimeters and spectroradiometers. A key component of the facility, a reference spectroradiometer, has been developed and its uncertainty for display measurements estimated using a series of computer simulations. The simulations predict that the reference spectroradiometer-corrected for wavelength error and variable handpass - can measure any color of a cathode ray (CRT) or liquid crystal (LCD) display with an uncertainty of approximately 0.001 in chromaticity (x,y) and 1% in luminance (Y). In addition, a new matrix correction technique (the Four-Color Method) has been developed as a means to transfer the calibration from the reference instrument to a test instrument. Using the Four-Color Method, the residual errors with the calibrated instrument for one type of display are reduced to within 0.001 in x₂y (or ~1 δE_ab) with respect to the reference instrument. To evaluate the overall performance of the system, commercial instruments - spectroradiometers and tristimulus colorimeters - were calibrated against the reference instrument, measuring both a CRT and an LCD display. The results show that the calibrated target instruments can measure various colors of a particular display with a relative combined standard uncertainty of approximately 0.002 in x,y and 2 % in Y (~2δE_ab).

Citation

IS & T/SPIE Symposium on Electronic Imaging Science and Technology

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

calibration, colorimeter, display, standards

Citation

Brown, S. and Ohno, Y. (1999), NIST Calibration Facility for Display Colorimeters, IS & T/SPIE Symposium on Electronic Imaging Science and Technology (Accessed December 26, 2024)