McMaster University grad develops tech to improve LCD display quality

It’s hard to go anywhere these days where there isn’t a projected image enhancing our experience. That’s good news for Marc Bender’s Hamilton, Ont.-based business, Superposition Displays.

The name comes from a phenomenon in quantum physics – superposition – where two images “can play off each other so they can both be improved,” Bender says.

Bender, who holds a PhD in mathematics from McMaster University, has created what he calls “display calibration” software that instantly fixes malfunctioning LCD or LED video screens, saving the sign’s operator time and money.

“It’s like taking a bunch of different display units, whether they’re LCD TVs or projectors, LED video walls or billboards, and using a combination of cameras and sensors and different ways to try to make the image look as good as possible.”

Digital highway billboards and the video walls that litter tourist hubs such as Times Square are composed of multiple blocks, or units, of light-emitting diode (LED) screens that can break down. Bender says the problem can be fixed in minutes by holding a camera up to the screen to see which unit is wonky and then running his diagnostic software from a laptop to set it right again.

The technology saves someone having to physically scale the billboard to reset it.

Bender says air traffic control rooms and other places that need their screens to work perfectly could use his quick-fix solution.

“If you just have a camera set up there all the time, the fault would be healed immediately, so it would be a self-healing display.”

Bender, a father of two young kids, has also built indoor and outdoor video displays at McMaster’s Innovation Park.

The soon-to-be 34-year-old confesses he’s tormented by screens that showcase white LEDs with a slightly pinkish hue.

“You’ve got to have a perfect white – that’s a huge challenge,” he exclaims. “A lot of displays don’t do it very well, it’s just that most of the time you don’t see them in that mode.”

Some other common display problems include: uneven brightness, where the top corners will appear darker; lack of clarity and sharpness; and poor pixilation, where you get the effect of looking through a screen door.

“If you don’t do it right it looks like crap and everybody can tell. But when you nail it, it blows you away,” says Bender, who developed the technology while working for another company.

Bender’s system runs on Raspberry Pi, credit-card-sized single-board computers which retail for about $35. He says programming with the tiny machines is similar to the experience he enjoyed as a six-year-old on his Commodore 64.

“Before, you were programming a computer and I’ve kind of stuck to that as what I like to do,” insists Bender, adding he doesn’t like to code for Web or mobile platforms. “You’re programming a Web browser or the cloud or a mobile device and you’re not very close to the hardware, you’re sort of in this abstract realm.”