Pantone Huey: Bottom falling out of calibrator market? Not quite...
Pantone Huey: Bottom falling out of calibrator market? Not quite...
- Subject: Pantone Huey: Bottom falling out of calibrator market? Not quite...
- From: "tlianza" <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 20 Jan 2006 17:25:09 -0500
Hi to all,
We designed the Huey for a very different customer than the i1Display. It's
not that the bottom is falling out of the calibrator market, the fact is
that we are trying to bring calibration to a NEW user with a DIFFERENT set
of technical problems. That same customer was also in a "consumer" space so
price point was a major issue. Just lowering the price point of i1Display
wouldn't address the new environment that was targeted for the product. We
had to rethink manufacturing, software, technology and distribution. Take
it from someone involved with the team, Huey was not a trivial undertaking.
Some of the technology in Huey has been around since the early 1990's.
During that period, Sequel Imaging worked closely with Leaf Systems on the
AP picture desk. Many of the images coming back from the field were badly
adjusted because the photographers were scanning and adjusting images using
rather dim displays in high ambient light conditions. We addressed that
issue by building some pre-compensation into the display calibration. Huey
is more advanced in that it employs parts of the CIECAM02 appearance model
in it's technology. An abstracted form of the luminance part of the model
is built into the software. Hopefully, we'll find some time to write a white
paper on some of the technology driving this product, it's not trivial.
The software driving Huey is completely different than i1Match. It is not a
de-featured version. It does have specific features for the intended
markets. These may not address the needs of a high end user, but we
couldn't have consumers wading through pages of documentation (in more than
5 languages) to figure out the meaning of D65 and gamma. Huey is designed
with a less intensive technical interface.
The form factor of the Huey was designed to measure with some ambient
included. This decision was not without controversy. Measurement of the
ambient striking the back of the sensor, alone, doesn't provide the total
information required for estimating the appearance of the image on the
display in very high ambient conditions. We looked at a number of consumer
scenerios and the design and software model proceeded from there.
I started this note with the words NEW and DIFFERENT highlighted. That
describes part of our philosophy as a company moving forward. We have a
very strong traditional base of technology and customers which will be
certainly maintained, but we also have technologies that can be of value to
new and different consumers, OEM partners and distribution models. The
challenge is to find those opportunities and to understand the needs of the
end user. Huey is an example of that type of thinking. It certainly won't
be the last example.
Take care and take pictures...
Tom Lianza
Director of Display and Capture Technologies
GretagMacbeth LLC
3 Industrial Drive
Unit 7&8
Windham, NH 03087
603.681.0315 x232 Tel
603.681.0316 Fax
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