{"id":206123,"date":"2021-10-25T09:10:17","date_gmt":"2021-10-25T07:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/?p=109170"},"modified":"2021-10-25T09:10:17","modified_gmt":"2021-10-25T07:10:17","slug":"the-story-behind-the-development-of-the-ezcal-an-easy-to-use-picture-quality-calibrating-app-that-transforms-your-living-room-into-a-home-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/the-story-behind-the-development-of-the-ezcal-an-easy-to-use-picture-quality-calibrating-app-that-transforms-your-living-room-into-a-home-theatre\/","title":{"rendered":"The Story Behind the Development of the EZCal, an Easy-to-Use Picture Quality-Calibrating App That Transforms Your Living Room Into a Home Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Story Behind the Development of the EZCal, an Easy-to-Use Picture Quality-Calibrating App That Transforms Your Living Room Into a Home Theatre<\/p>\n

Ever since the beginning of the global pandemic, we have been choosing our living room sofa over our seat at the local movie theatre, our QLED TV over a mega screen, and the convenience of enjoying a film at home over the excitement of a screening in a movie theatre. At CES 2021, which was held in January of this year, Samsung premiered its EZCal app, which enables you to calibrate the picture quality of your TV to a quality comparable to that of a movie theatre for those who want to enjoy that true cinema experience at home. Samsung Newsroom sat down with the developers of the EZCal app to hear more about the story behind how this upcoming app, which helps customers quickly and easily enjoy optimal viewing qualities, came to be.<\/p>\n

EZCal: For Cinematic Viewing Quality in the Comfort of Your Home
In August 2019, Hollywood film directors including Christopher Nolan and James Cameron emphasised the need for a \u2018film maker\u2019 mode on user\u2019s personal TVs, a mode that would portray a film in the quality that the creator had in mind when they originally produced the content. Such a particular picture quality is favoured not only by Hollywood filmmakers but also by experts across a range of fields, including professional engineers of picture quality for TVs, experts from institutions concerning international picture quality standards, and developers of picture quality-calibrating solutions. This \u2018film maker\u2019 mode is also known in the industry as \u2018creator-intended picture quality\u2019 or \u2018picture quality in accordance with international broadcasting video standards.\u2019<\/p>\n

However, in practice, this \u2018film maker\u2019 mode has often not been able to provide all users with the flexibility they require when looking to enjoy cinematic viewing experiences in the comfort of their own homes. In order to find ways to make it easier for users to enjoy cinema-level picture quality at home, Samsung Electronics developed a way to connect TVs and smartphones using compatible apps that then easily calibrates picture quality using the colour data exchanged between the two devices: EZCal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that this app need be used only by those who want to use it helped ease the burden in terms of research costs,\u201d noted Engineer Ji Man Kim. \u201cWhat\u2019s more, the app is easy to operate, meaning that users can seamlessly enjoy the picture quality they desire.\u201d EZCal stands for \u2018Easy Calibration,\u2019 and upon its unveiling at CES 2021 this January, the upcoming app quickly garnered attention for its ability to showcase a creator\u2019s intended picture quality through the app format, and even won the Best of CES Award at the AVS Forum, a forum comprised of industry experts.<\/p>\n

High-End Picture Quality: From Measurement to Calibration
Prior to the development of the EZCal, calibrating the picture quality of a TV required a light-blocked room as dark as a darkroom along with a suite of high-end devices. The pattern generator and the optical instrument would first have to be connected to a PC equipped with a picture quality software solution, and the optical instrument would then be placed close to the TV screen so that it could recognise the pattern produced by the pattern generator. The picture quality would then be calibrated using the PC \u2013 all in all, this process was a cumbersome one and could take up to two hours if carried out manually. This process also required basic knowledge in picture quality, thereby preventing regular users from even attempting calibration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to grapple with how to move past the existing picture quality-calibrating framework and integrate it into the users\u2019 experience,\u201d said Engineer Jun Hee Woo of overcoming initial concerns that arose during the development process. \u201cThe solution was to simplify each step of the picture quality calibration process and to think of ways to replicate the functionality of high-end calibration devices.\u201d In order to replace the instruments that would measure the optical data of the TV screen, smartphone cameras were harnessed for the EZCal app. But even then, one problem still remained: the picture quality of TVs could not be calibrated under the RGB spectrum, i.e., a colour value acquired using smartphones. \u201cPicture quality for TVs should be based on the colours that people perceive with their eyes,\u201d noted Engineer Jason Park. \u201cThis is why we needed the XYZ coordination data prescribed by the International Commission on Illumination (CIE). Developing an algorithm that could transform RGB data to XYZ coordination data was key to picture quality calibration.\u201d<\/p>\n

The video pattern generator was then changed to incorporate a method of sharing video patterns directly from the TV, and the connection between the picture quality software solution and the PC was replaced by the connectivity of a smartphone to a TV linked via Wi-Fi. \u201cIt was through the process of verifying whether the hardware and software of the QLED TV and a Galaxy Smartphone were suitable for the development of EZCal that we became convinced that the complex picture quality-calibration process could be condensed within a single app,\u201d said Engineer Ji Man Kim.<\/p>\n

Three Modes for Easy Calibration \u2013 to Your Tastes
The greatest advantage offered by EZCal is that you can easily and quickly calibrate the picture quality of your TV to whatever degree you desire. Once you launch the EZCal app on your smartphone, the Tizen app built into your television will begin operating in the background. Then, depending on the detail of calibration you desire, you can select from the following three options: Quick Mode, Basic Mode, and Professional Mode. As its name indicates, Quick Mode is an option that enables easy calibration within a short period of time. Once you have selected this mode and brought your smartphone to your TV, the camera in your smartphone captures the on-screen video pattern and transforms the acquired RGB spectrum data into XYZ coordination data. \u201cIt only takes 15 to 30 seconds to calibrate the picture quality in Quick Mode,\u201d explained Engineer David Jung. \u201cOur focus when developing this mode was on enabling calibration in a quick yet effective manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Basic Mode, a functionality that is one step more advanced than Quick Mode, offers users a wider range of calibrations. While in Quick Mode you can calibrate a content\u2019s white balance within two points, in Basic Mode you can calibrate this aspect within 20 points, and also calibrate the Gamma \u2013 which governs the brightness of video signals \u2013 and the greyscale linearity \u2013 the aspect responsible for the consistency of colours by signal strength \u2013 resulting in a more optimised picture quality. Whereas Quick Mode is an option designed to make the movie-watching experience more pleasant for regular users, the Basic Mode has been optimised for movie fans that enjoy being particular about their film\u2019s picture quality,\u201d explained Engineer Jason Park.<\/p>\n

Thirdly, Professional Mode is an advanced setup mode tailored for those that enjoy curating sophisticated picture quality experiences. Although Professional Mode requires the longest time for calibration to complete \u2013 between 12 and 15 minutes \u2013 this longer calibration period allows for colour and brightness calibration to be undertaken in even greater detail. \u201cProfessional Mode can be used for a variety of situations, whether you are watching movies or playing games,\u201d noted Engineer David Jung. \u201cWe recommend that you turn your room\u2019s lights off and use tripods for even greater calibration measurement accuracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reflecting the TV\u2019s ability to provide the best picture quality possible, Samsung\u2019s QLED TV line-up has consistently received support and praise from its users. Over 20,000 units of the 2021 QLED TV have been sold in Korea in just under two months since its release, a figure that mirrors the efforts of the company to provide users with high-quality viewing experiences at home. Samsung\u2019s ongoing efforts to provide optimal picture quality experiences to users are what have led to the development of EZCal, which is set to bring about cinema-like picture quality to QLED users that would satisfy even the films\u2019 creators themselves. The team who worked on developing EZCal is proud of the range of calibration options offered by the app; \u201cIn the near future, we will see EZCal be used across even more diverse areas,\u201d shared Engineer David Jung. \u201cThere is no doubt that its emphasis on genuine media appreciation will expand to serve other purposes, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

* Please note that all product and service features, characteristics, uses, benefits, design, price, components, performance, availability, capacity, and other relevant information may be subject to change.<\/p>\n

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Source: MyPR.co.za<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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