Method and apparatus for calculating image correction data and projection system

1. A method of calculating image correction data comprising:

acquiring, based on image data captured by an image capture section, an input-output characteristic at each of a plurality of display elements on a display screen of an image display section that includes at least one image display unit;

setting a target input-output characteristic to be obtained at each of the plurality of display elements by calculating the target input-output characteristic based on data of the acquired input-output characteristic; and

calculating image correction data to correct an input-output characteristic for an input image signal in accordance with locations of display elements on the screen, based on the acquired input-output characteristic and the target input-output characteristic for each of the display elements.

2. The method of calculating image correction data, according to claim 1 , wherein calculating the target input-output characteristic comprises setting a maximum value and a minimum value of the target input-output characteristic to be obtained, and setting the target input-output characteristic between the minimum and maximum values to be an average value of the acquired input-output characteristics at positions over the screen.

3. The method of calculating image correction data, according to claim 2 , wherein the maximum value of the target input-output characteristic is set such that a luminance distribution corresponding thereto is equal to a luminance distribution that is obtained when image data obtained by capturing an image display corresponded to a predetermined input signal at respective positions on the screen is passed through a lowpass filter.

4. The method of calculating image correction data, according to claim 2 , wherein the minimum value of the target input-output characteristic is set such that a luminance distribution corresponding thereto is equal to a luminance distribution that is obtained when image data obtained by capturing an image display corresponded to a predetermined input signal at respective positions on the screen is passed through a lowpass filter.

5. A projection system comprising:

image output means for outputting image data to be displayed;

image correction means for correcting the image data output from the image output means in accordance with image correction data; and

image display means for displaying on a screen the image data corrected by the image correction means;

wherein the image correction means includes:

a plurality of lookup tables which store image correction data;

a lookup table number table for storing lookup table numbers in relation to corresponding positions on the screen;

a selection unit for selecting an effective lookup table from the plurality of lookup tables in accordance with a value output from the lookup table number table and for outputting corrected image data that has been corrected based on the image correction data stored in the selected effective lookup table; and

video signal output means for converting the corrected image data from the selection unit into a video signal adapted to the image display device;

wherein the plurality of lookup tables comprise a plurality of conversion tables that reflect a result of statistical processing on a plurality of image correction data over the screen of the image display means; and

wherein the lookup table number table stores information indicating one of the conversion tables that best approximates image correction data at a given position on the screen for each of said corresponding positions on the screen; and wherein the conversion table for the given position is determined by comparing the image correction data calculated at the given position with respective conversion tables stored in the lookup tables.