Computation and perception: building better displays

Computational displays have recently emerged as a fascinating new research area. By combining smart processing with novel optics and electronics, their ultimate goal is to provide a better viewing experience. This may be achieved by means of an extended dynamic range, a better color reproduction, or even glasses-free stereoscopic techniques. However, no matter what the improvements are, these will always be bounded by the limitations imposed by current technology. We argue that by adding perceptual models of human vision to the design of the displays, some of these hard limitations can be circumvented, providing an enhanced viewing experience beyond what should be physically and technically possible. In this paper we show examples of how such perceptually-based strategy is currently being applied in different prototype implementations.