Wow, they've been selling this since 2001. And catch the part about using "the system to "underlay" a
private message on a
public display system.". So you could have private messages broadcast on TVs, airplane arrival monitors, or any publically-viewable display and
only people who had the special glasses would be able to see it. Everyone else would just see the regular stuff that was playing on the screen and they wouldn't even know it was there. I can see a million uses for that little effect right there.
[div id="content"] [h3]Privacy Enhanced Computer Display[/h3] [div id="proj-right"] [a href="http://www.merl.com/projects/images/privatedisplay.jpg[/img]
[/a] [/div] The privacy-enhanced computer display uses a ferroelectric shutter glasses and a special device driver to produce a computer display which can be read only by the desired recipient, and not by an onlooker. The display alternately displays the desired information in one field, then the inverse image of the desired information in the next field, at up to 120 Hz refresh. The ferroelectric shutter glasses allow only the desired information to be viewed, while the inverse image causes unauthorized viewers to perceive only a flickering gray image, caused by the persistence of vision in the human visual system (as illustrated here).
It is also possible to use the system to "underlay" a private message on a public display system.[/p]
Background & Objective: The Privacy Enhanced Computer Display is appropriate for situations where a computer display is to be located in a publicly accessible area, but the display itself may show information that should be kept private. Places such as banks (bank balances) hospitals (patient health information), pharmacies (drug information), airline ticketing and airport gate agent stations (passenger and security information) are all candidates for a privacy-enhanced computer display.[/p]
Technical Discussion: The system consists of two display sources (the public display image Pij and the secret display image Sij) a special device driver, a fast-refreshing CRT, and a set of synchronized ferroelectric shutter glasses. If there is no desired public display, the RGB value (255, 255, 255) can be used. The special device driver alternately displays images of (Pij - Sij ) and ( Sij ). The human eye's persistence of vision blurs the two images into (Pij - Sij + Sij ) / 2, which reduces to Pij / 2, which is the public image, without any secret image being visible. To someone wearing the synchronized glasses, only the Sij image is seen.[/p]
Collaboration: We are seeking collaboration for development in computer security systems.[/p]
Future Direction: The current system uses wired shutter glasses; we will consider upgrading to infrared at some time in the future. We will also explore using other display technologies such as LCD and DLV (digital light valve) systems.[/p]
Contact: [a href="http://www.merl.com/people/yerazunis/"]William Yerazunis[/a][/p]
Technology Areas: [a href="http://www.merl.com/projects/?proj_area=Audio%20Video%20Processing"]Audio Video Processing[/a]
[a href="http://www.merl.com/projects/?proj_area=Graphics"]Graphics[/a] [/p]
Modification Date: August 2, 2001[/p] [/div]
