System and method for calibration of display system with linear array modulator

A calibrated projection display system, comprising:

• a) a light source;
• b) a linear array of light modulating devices driven by a controller,
• c) a projection lens system that creates a line image of the linear array on a screen;
• d) a scanning mirror that sweeps the line image across the screen to form a two-dimensional scene;
• and
• e) a light sampling element that intercepts light from the linear array of light modulating devices and directs the intercepted light to an image sensor, wherein the image sensor captures image intensity data from the intercepted light, and transmits the image intensity data to the controller, wherein the controller converts the image intensity data into a one-dimensional array of correction factors for the linear array of light modulating devices.

A calibrated projection display system having simultaneous color output, comprising:

• a) at least two light sources with different color spectra;
• b) at least two linear arrays of light modulating devices driven by a controller,
• c) a projection lens system that creates line images of the at least two linear arrays on a screen;
• d) a scanning mirror that sweeps the line images across the screen to form a two-dimensional scene, and
• e) an image sensor containing an area array of light sensitive detectors that captures image intensity data from the two-dimensional scene and transmits the image intensity data to the controller, wherein the controller converts the image intensity data into one-dimensional arrays of correction factors for the at least two linear arrays of light modulating devices.

A method for calibrating a projection display having a linear array modulator, comprising the steps of:

• a) displaying a flat field scene upon a screen;
• b) capturing image intensity data from the flat field scene with an image sensor;
• c) converting the image intensity data into a one-dimensional array of correction factors for the linear array modulator;
• and
• d) repeating the above steps as necessary to obtain a calibrated flat field scene.

A method for calibrating a projection display having at least two linear array modulators, comprising the steps of:

• a) projecting an offset test pattern upon the screen;
• b) capturing image intensity data from the projected offset test pattern with an image sensor;
• c) generating offset factors from the image intensity data;
• and
• d) adjusting relative timing delays between the at least two linear array modulators according to the offset factors.

A method for calibrating a projection display having a linear array modulator, comprising the steps of:

• a) displaying a scene upon a screen from a data stream;
• b) calculating an expected average intensity by appropriately averaging the data stream along a scan direction corresponding to a scanning mirror;
• c) capturing image intensity data from the scene with an image sensor;
• d) averaging the captured image intensity data along the scan direction;
• e) generating a one-dimensional array of correction factors for the linear array modulator by comparing the average captured image intensity data to the expected average intensity;
• and
• f) repeating the above steps as necessary to obtain a calibrated display.