P3D Polarizing Rear Projection Screens (was IMAX Polarizers and other questions)

[jacob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Gabriel Jacob)]

Rafael Ramirez asks:

>Incidentally, anybody knows of a good material for rear projection
>(polarized, of course:) in lighted enviroments?  I read a while back
>about somebody using a really dark rear screen and circular
>polarizers a couple of times with good results in a convention.

I dug up my notes on this, which might also yield some alternate leads
for Jeremy Hinton inquiry about polarizing preserving diffusers on T3D.

In a special issue of Widescreen Review, (Imaging Science Theatre 2000,
The Essential Resource Guide for Optimizing Picture Quality, Fall/Winter
98) there was an interview with Dr.Richard Burrows (Product Development
Manager for Da-Lite). What caught my interest among alot of other stuff
was the mention of a screen they were working on that preserves
polarization. Here is an excerpt.

-----------------------------------------------------------
MILLIKEN: What else are you currently working on?
BURROWS: Another project which is particularly interesting
is a rear projection domed screen which has to preserve
polarization.
MILLIKEN: Is this for some sort of 3-D application?
BURROWS: Very probably. Polarization is relatively easy
to preserve with front projectionscreen: you must make
sure the coating is metallized. To get a rear projection
screen to be non-depolarizing is extremely difficult. 
As we're finding out, however , it is not impossible.  
-----------------------------------------------------------

As most know, Da-Lite makes metallized front projection 
screens (among other screens) used in many 3-D projection
systems. The article doesn't mention any specifics on the
rear projection screen but at least it's nice to know they
are working on something that might be suitable. For more
info, they give Dr.Burrows email address, which is
  da-lit19@xxxxxxxxxxxx
or you can also check out there web site,
  http://www.da-lite.com
I don't know if they mention anything on the particular
screen material mentioned above.

Gabriel


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