Christie and the University of Waterloo Delivers New, Patented Technology in Christie Projector

Christie and the University of Waterloo’s Vision and Image Processing Lab developed and patented algorithm that drives the resolution enhancement of the new Christie M 4K25 RGB pure laser projector. This is the latest success between the institution and Christie’s third two-year research project.

Christie and Waterloo collaborated on papers, presentations, and patents over the three projects with help from 8 to 10 graduate students and an internship allowing students to dedicate two days a week to Christie’s research. 

“Years ago, we wrote out a set of problems we’d like help with,” says Mark Lamm, senior product developer, Advanced Research and Collaboration, Christie. “The group at the University of Waterloo works on vision and camera research, and more recently, machine learning. It was a match – we had problems and they had an interest.”

The research for the algorithm began several years ago, leading to published papers on image enhancement for static images. Research continued as the team realized the approach only worked for static images, not video.

“Could we figure out in real-time what is moving? How do you detect what a pixel is doing? Then we had to figure out how to filter it and recombine it appropriately,” says Paul Fieguth, Professor in Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo. “That was the crux of most of the image resolution work that students were doing. It took us a while to refine what we were looking for.”

As a result of the research project, the new, patented, precision pixel shift technology in the Christie M 4K25 RBG pure laser projector provides UHD 4K resolution at up to 120Hz. The collaboration between Waterloo and Christie is already headed to a possible fourth research project.

“We’re very pleased with the research collaboration with the University of Waterloo’s Vision and Image Processing Lab,” says Lamm.  “We look forward to welcoming the next group of researchers to Christie.”