NIST starting DMATS program. (News Briefs).

NIST is conducting a program aimed at reducing the laboratory-to-laboratory variance in the performance specification and characterization of electronic displays. By advancing new measurement methods and supporting standardization in the colorimetry and photometry of displays, the project will enable higher accuracy color reproduction and thereby will enhance electronic commerce.

A key element of the project is the design and construction of a standard reference light source, the Display Measurement Assessment Transfer Standard (DMATS, pronounced dee-mats). The DMATS optical targets strategically sample the entire color gamut and luminance range encountered in electronic imaging. As importantly, however, the DMATS is designed so that the arrangement of the various measurement targets present to the metrologist the sorts of stray light contamination and alignment problems likely to contribute to display measurement error. Comparison of various measurements in relation to NIST measurements will indicate measurement difficulties. Suites of targets are included to evaluate linearity of measurement instruments. Other targets diagnose uncompensated polarization effects occurring in instrument optics, ambient illumination in the measurement environment, and instrument calibration errors.

Once assembled and characterized, the DMATS units will be circulated among participating display measurement laboratories in a star intercomparison. Analysis of the data collected in the initial intercomparison will provide the first large-scale baseline assessment of display measurement uncertainties. This assessment phase will provide both motivation for and diagnostic information to support industry standardation of display measurement protocols. In addition, it will enable improvements in uncertainty estimation for various types of display measurements and for various classes of light measuring instruments. The DMATS team will disseminate measurement methods and data via a web page, and consult with industry groups and individual laboratories to foster standardization of measurement practices. A second intercomparison will be conducted with laboratories using standard measurement procedures, many of which were developed at NIST, in order to evaluate measurement improvements and any consequent reduction o f uncertainties.

Thereafter, DMATS units, possibly commercially produced and calibrated by NIST, can be made available to laboratories for periodic self-certification 3f display measurement environments, instruments, and procedures.

The DMATS initiative was received enthusiastically by industry representatives at recent technical conferences sponsored by the Society for Imaging Science and Technology, the International Society for Optical Engineering, the International Commission for Illumination, the Council for Optical Radiation Measurements, and the Society for Information Display. CONTACTS: Kevin Brady, [phone]; kevin. [e-mail] and John Libert, [phone]; [e-mail].