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

PrePrint: Tiled++: An Enhanced Tiled Hi-Res Display Wall via IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics on 7/30/09

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. 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. Most conventional solutions either ignore the bezels and display all pixels, causing objects to become distorted, or eliminate pixels that would normally fall under the bezels, causing pixels to be missing in the display. In this paper we present a new scalable approach that neither leads to discontinuities nor 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. It improves the usability of multi-monitor systems by virtually eliminating the bezels. We describe a setup and provide results from an evaluation experiment conducted on a 3x3 and on a 10x5 tiled display wall.