Tiled++: An Enhanced Tiled Hi-Res Display Wall

• Published in: IEEE transactions on visualization and computer graphics Vol. 16; no. 1; pp. 120 - 132
• Main Authors: Ebert, A., Thelen, S., Olech, P.-S., Meyer, J., Hagen, H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States IEEE 01.01.2010
• Subjects: Animation; Bezel; Computer displays; Computer Graphics - instrumentation; computer projector; Costs; Data Display; Data visualization; Equipment Design; Equipment Failure Analysis; High definition video; high-resolution displays; Image Enhancement - instrumentation; Image Enhancement - methods; Large screen displays; LCD panel; Liquid crystal displays; Pixel; Rendering (computer graphics); Scalability; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted - instrumentation; Tiled displays; User-Computer Interface
• ISSN: 1077-2626; 1941-0506
• DOI: 10.1109/TVCG.2009.57

In recent years, high-resolution displays have become increasingly important to decision makers and scientists because large screens combined with a high pixel count facilitate content rich, simultaneous display of computer-generated imagery and high-definition video data from multiple sources. Tiled displays are attractive due to their extended screen real estate, scalability, and low cost. LCD panels are usually preferred over projectors because of their superior resolution. One of the drawbacks of LCD-based tiled displays is the fact that users sometimes get distracted by the screens' bezels, which cause discontinuities in rendered images, animations, or videos. Most conventional solutions either ignore the bezels and display all pixels, causing objects to become distorted, or eliminate the pixels that would normally fall under the bezels, causing pixels to be missing in the display of static images. In animations, the missing pixels will eventually reappear when the object moves, providing an experience that is similar to looking through a French window. In this paper, we present a new scalable approach that leads neither to discontinuities nor to significant loss of information. By projecting onto the bezels, we demonstrate that a combination of LCD-based tiled displays and projection significantly reduces the bezel problem. Our technique eliminates ambiguities that commonly occur on tiled displays in the fields of information visualization, visual data analysis, human-computer interaction, and scientific data display. It improves the usability of multimonitor systems by virtually eliminating the bezels. We describe a setup and provide results from an evaluation experiment conducted on a 3 times 3 and on a 10 times 5 tiled display wall.