Back LightingBack lighting generates instant contrast as it creates dark silhouettes against a bright background (Figure 16). The most common uses are for detecting the presence/absence of holes and gaps, part placing or orientating, or measuring objects. Often it is useful to use a monochrome light, such as red, green, or blue, with light control polarization if precise (subpixel) edge detection becomes necessary.

Machine Vision Direct is an authorized distributor of Smart Vision Lights, a leading industrial machine vision lighting supplier. When you contact us, our engineers answer the phone and are more than happy to assist you in picking the vision system or accessories that best suit your system. You can even send us application images and details to have us assist in picking out an appropriate vision system.

Direct lit LED backlighting uses LED lighting across the back of the TV, directly behind the LCD panel, providing a fairly uniform amount of light across the screen. It also allows for a brighter picture, since it uses more LEDs, and is able to utilize more of the light coming from those LEDs.

You may not know much about the innovation of local dimming, but you've probably heard of the feature it enables: High dynamic range or HDR. It's one of the best features on today's TVs, and one we recommend paying attention to when shopping for a TV. (Check out our articles What is HDR TV, and why does it matter? and What Is Dolby Vision? to learn more.)

All of this information is very interesting (at least, to some of us TV nerds), but you're probably wondering what this actually means for you.

With local dimming zones allowing variable brightness to different sections of the display, new media includes additional metadata, beyond simple video and sound. This data describes the brightness and backlighting scheme for a given scene or frame of content. While that metadata may fall under different format names, like HDR10 or Dolby Vision, the essentials are the same — describing how those dimmable backlights should behave to produce a richer image.

Tom's Guide is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

Figure 22. Lighting Technique Application Fields: Surface Shape Versus Surface Reflectivity Detail (Although not shown, any light technique is generally effective in the Geometry Independent Area of the diagram.)

Today's TVs use a number of backlighting methods, which we'll discuss below, but the biggest change has been the introduction of discrete backlighting zones. Instead of illuminating the entire screen, the LED backlights of a TV can be addressed individually, meaning that they can be turned on or off, dimmed or brightened as needed to provide brighter or darker portions of the TV picture.

Application FieldsFigure 22 illustrates potential application fields for the different lighting techniques based on the two most prevalent gross surface characteristics: (1) surface flatness and texture and (2) surface reflectivity. This diagram plots surface reflectivity, divided into three categories—matte, mirror, and mixed—versus surface flatness and texture or topography. As you move right and downward on the diagram, more specialized lighting geometries and structured lighting types are necessary. As might be expected, the Geometry Independent Area implies that relatively flat and diffuse surfaces do not require specific lighting, but rather any light technique may be effective, provided it meets all the other criteria necessary, such as working distance, access, brightness, and projected pattern.

Local dimming zones have become fairly common on TVs across the price spectrum, and more premium TVs have differentiated themselves by offering a greater number of backlighting zones with smaller, more tightly controlled light, which can minimize light blooms and haloing to provide better HDR performance and contrast.

There's an unsung hero in your living room, a piece of technology that has been steadily advancing for years, providing better and better picture quality and more immersive entertainment, and it's one you may not even know exists. I'm talking, of course, about the backlight in your TV.

Samsung Q70T QLED TV (2020 model) Samsung uses dual LED backlight as a half-step between edge lighting and direct-lit LED backlight in it's better affordable QLED sets, and it shows. The alternating color temperatures do offer some improvement over basic edge lighting, but the result is still a less impressive picture, even with Samsung's impressive QLED display. Check out our full Samsung Q70T QLED TV (2020 model) review for more.

SummaryThis level of in-depth analysis can and often does result in seemingly contradictory directions, and a compromise is necessary. For example, detailed sample/light interaction analysis might point to the use of the dark field lighting technique, but the inspection environment analysis indicates that the light must be remote from the part. In this instance, a more intense linear bar light(s) oriented in dark field configuration may create the contrast you want, but perhaps require more image post-processing. No matter the level of analysis, and understanding, there is quite often no substitute for actually testing the two or three light types and techniques first on the bench, then in actual floor implementation whenever possible. And when designing the vision inspection and parts handling/presentation from scratch, it is best to get the lighting solution in place first, then build the remainder of the inspection around the lighting requirements. The objective of this detailed analysis and application of what might be termed a “tool box” of lighting types, techniques, tips, and tricks is to help you arrive at an optimal lighting solution that takes into account and balances issues of ergonomics, cost, efficiency, and consistent application. This helps you to better direct your time, effort, and resources—items better used in other critical aspects of vision system design, testing, and implementation.

TCL 5-Series Roku TV (S535) When it comes to value in TVs, the TCL name should be one of the first things you look for. The TCL 5-Series Roku TV (S535) is a great example of this, offering a QLED screen with full-array  local dimming backlight that matches some of the best mid-range TVs, but at a lower price. The result is great picture quality and solid HDR performance.

Samsung AU8000 LED 4K Smart TV Samsung's cheapest models often feature edge lighting, and the Samsung AU8000 is a prime example of this. The TV's high contrast ratio offers pretty good clarity and sharpness, but the lack of local dimming means that HDR content won't look as good as it should, and you'll see some noticeable elevated black levels.

Behind the LCD panel is a backlight, and between the backlight and the LCD panel are usually a few layers of polarized filters, backlight diffusers, and other optical layers designed to turn this collection of tech components into a sharper viewable image.

Both of these methods suffer from the use of broad, diffuse dimming zones, which mute the HDR effect considerably, and will often illuminate unwanted portions of the display, an effect called haloing.

Local dimming has been further refined with the introduction of mini-LEDs. By shrinking the LED size down to about one-fifth the size – mini-LEDs measure 0.008-inch (200 microns) across – more LEDs can be packed into the backlight panel, and much smaller dimming zones to be used.

Models from Samsung, TCL, and LG all utilize mini LED backlighting for its superior performance, and the combination of mini-LED and QLED color enhancement offers some of the best TV picture quality that's ever been available.

Where a standard LED backlight offers dozens of backlighting zones, mini-LED offers hundreds, and individual mini-LEDs can number in the thousands for a larger TV. More LEDs translate into brighter backlight, for a brighter more vivid picture, as well as smaller lighting zones to reduce haloing.

But there's more than one way to approach full array with local dimming, because TVs will offer different numbers of dimming zones and local domain can be achieved with either standard LEDs or mini LEDs.

Effective application of dark field lighting relies on the fact that much of the light incident on a mirrored surface that would otherwise flood the scene as a hotspot glare, is reflected away from rather than toward the camera. The relatively small amount of light that is reflected back into the camera is what happened to catch an edge of a small feature on the surface, satisfying the “angle of reflection equals the angle of incidence” equation (see Figure 21 for another example).

Köhlerillumination

One common problem caused by this uniform backlight approach is that darker portions of the display are still illuminated, resulting in black portions of the screen appearing grey, a phenomenon called "elevated black levels." It's especially noticeable on letterboxed movies, which will have a distinct unwanted glow in the black bars above and below the picture.

You'll have an LCD panel to provide much of the image content, and a backlight behind it to provide the light that makes that LCD panel visible and the colors vivid. But that backlight has undergone a lot of changes over time — several just within recent years. And a lot of the improvements we've seen in modern TVs can be traced to the humble backlight.

Function of light switch inmicroscope

The details will vary from one manufacturer or mode to the next, but the fundamentals that that technology is based on remain the same.

What's a backlight? Well, it's the light source that is situated directly behind the LCD panel of the majority of TVs. It's what makes the screen glow, what gives bright colors their vibrancy, and increasingly, what gives dark shadows their depth.

The result is even more granular control of the backlight, with performance improvements in both overall contrast and HDR performance.

Need Assistance with specifying or customizing any of our products? Contact us to talk to one of our Automation Engineers!

A variation on edge lighting developed by Samsung and used in some Samsung QLED TVs is called dual LED. Instead of using a single color backlight for the TV, Samsung uses a combination of cool blue and warm yellow LED lights, and alternates between them based on the content of the scene to offer a modest improvement in picture quality.

Diffuse (Full Bright Field) LightingDiffuse, or full bright field lighting, is most commonly used on shiny specular or mixed reflectivity samples where even but multidirectional light is needed. Several implementations of diffuse lighting are generally available, but there are three primary types (Figures 17a–c), with hemispherical dome/cylinder or on-axis being the most common. Diffuse dome lights are effective at lighting curved, specular surfaces, commonly found in the automotive industry, for example. On-axis lights work in a similar fashion for flat samples and are particularly effective at enhancing differentially angled, textured, or topographic features on relatively flat objects. To be effective, diffuse lights, particularly dome varieties, require close proximity to the sample. A useful property of axial diffuse lighting is that in this case, rather than rejecting or avoiding specular glare, you may actually take advantage of the glare if it can be isolated specifically to uniquely define the feature(s) of interest required for a consistent and robust inspection.

Machine Vision Direct offers Smart Vision Lights generous 45 day trial period. Contact us if you are interested in trying a light.

But there's a catch. Not every form of backlight offers the same level of control. As a result, not every TV has the same level of capability, even if it supports the same HDR formats.

For the first several decades of consumer TVs, there was no need for a backlight. Cathode ray tube (CRT) technology doesn't need one, because it is a light source unto itself. Plasma screen TVs used the same sort of phosphorescence that CRTs used, meaning that they were also capable of emitting their own light.

Samsung QN90A Neo QLED TV When it comes to the several TVs on the market that have mini-LED backlight, the Samsung Neo QLED takes the top spot, holding the top position among the best TVs we've reviewed. It's a great TV for many reasons, but the impeccable backlight and HDR performance of the Samsung QN90A Neo QLED TV makes it one of the best LCD TVs we've ever seen.

Illumination techniquesIllumination techniques comprise back lighting, diffuse (also known as full bright field) lighting, bright field (actually partial bright field or directional) lighting, and dark field lighting. The application of some techniques requires a specific light and geometry, or relative placement of the camera, sample, and light—others do not. For example, a standard bright field bar light may also be used in dark-field mode; whereas a diffuse light is used exclusively as such. Most manufacturers of vision lighting products also offer lights with various combinations of techniques available in the same light, and at least in the case of LED-based varieties, each of the techniques may be individually addressable. This circumstance allows for greater flexibility and also reduces potential costs when many different inspections can be accomplished in a single station rather than two. If the application conditions and limitations of each of these lighting techniques, as well as the intricacies of the inspection environment and sample/light interactions are well understood, it is possible to develop an effective lighting solution that meets the three acceptance criteria.

Sony Bravia XR A80J OLED TV Sony's excellent OLED TVs highlight how awesome OLED can really be, with category-leading picture quality and cutting edge technologies that make the most of the premium TV technology. The Editor's Choice Sony Bravia XR A80J OLED TV does this in spades, providing an excellent premium OLED experience.

There are different formats with varying degrees of granularity, but the end result is that modern media takes this additional brightness control into account, just as it would color and multi-channel sound.

What isilluminationinMicroscope

There's a little more to the glowing panel of an LCD TV than you might expect. The LCD panel offers the shape and color components of an image, but it doesn't actually produce any light of its own. And without light to produce the colors we see and project the image outward to the viewer, an LCD TV wouldn't be worth much. Enter the humble backlight.

However, an all-white back light alone has its limitations. Because the entire LCD panel is lit uniformly, there's little to no dynamic range offered by the display.

OLED displays have individual pixels that light up without the need for a separate illumination source, creating a self-emissive display panel that doesn't need any sort of backlight.

For most people, we recommend looking for a TV with mini-LED, like the Editor's Choice Samsung Neo QLED QN90A, or the more affordable TCL 6-Series Roku TV (R635). Mini LED backlighting hits the sweet spot for affordability and improved backlight performance. If you want better than average backlight control without spending the extra money for an old TV, a mini LED TV is the way to go.

Ultimately, the best backlight is no backlight at all. This can be achieved in one of two ways: With current OLED displays or micro-LED technology, the latter of which isn't yet available to regular consumers.

Because these edge-mounted LEDs can be individually dimmed or brightened, edge lit TVs can offer some measure of dynamic backlight control for high dynamic range content. This can be done in two ways.

The next refinement for LED backlight is full array backlight with local dimming. This breaks up the backlight array of direct LED lighting, and separates it into multiple  zones. These zones each illuminate a portion of the screen, and can be individually brightened or dimmed depending on the content in that section of the display.

SOURCES -- Practical Guide to Machine Vision Lighting.-- A Practical Guide to Machine Vision Lighting - National Instruments, 24 May 2019, www.ni.com/en-us/innovations/white-papers/12/a-practical-guide-to-machine-vision-lighting.html.

Tax Exemptions: Please create an account and submit Tax Exemption documentation to Support@MachineVisionDirect.com. After documents have been reviewed and accepted, account will be tagged as tax exempt from all future purchases. Review generally takes 1 hour or less.

You can get a more detailed explanation of mini-LED technology in our guide Micro-LED vs. Mini-LED: What's the difference? or read Micro-LED vs. OLED TV: Which TV tech will win? to see how the two leading self-emissive technologies compare.

Microscope illumination techniquespdf

Because illumination can be controlled at the level of individual pixels, OLED technology offers the highest level of contrast and HDR performance, with no light blooming, and true black reproduction as individual pixels go dark.

Criticalillumination

Samsung MicroLED TV Known for a long time as simply "The Wall" Samsung's first micro-LED TVs are coming this year, and are available for pre-order… in Korea. We've seen these displays in person, and they are astonishingly good, but between the wall-sized screens necessary for 4K resolution and the mortgage-sized price tag, it may be several years before this is a viable technology for the average TV shopper.

Shrinking mini-LEDs down even smaller, you get micro-LED. Measuring as small as 50μm — about 0.002 inches across — micro-LEDs are 1/100th the size of a conventional LED. That's small enough to cluster them together for individual pixels, creating another form of self-emissive display. The first micro-LED TVs are on sale now, but with prices in the tens of thousands of dollars, they're not really something the average consumer would even consider.

Instead, they were replaced by one of the biggest innovations in modern TV technology: LED backlighting. With this change, TV manufacturers started calling LCD TVs with LED backlight "LED TVs" to differentiate them from the older CCFL-lit models. But with the last CCFL TVs going off the market a decade ago, it's just as likely that TV makers have kept the LED nomenclature around to blur the distinction between LCD TVs and OLED panels, which use a very different (and largely superior) display technology.

It's a very cost effective way to light a TV, since it uses the least amount of LEDs. It also offers some level of dynamic backlight control for HDR support. On sets that are equipped to do so, portions of the edge lighting strips can be darkened or dimmed to provide deeper blacks, or brightened to accentuate brighter portions of the screen. However, since they don't directly light the LCD panel from behind, the effect is considerably muted when compared to other backlight technologies.

Focusing inmicroscope

Learn more about mini-LED technology in our article Year of the mini-LED TV: Samsung, LG and TCL getting this huge upgrade.

Toshiba C350 Fire TV (2021 model) The Toshiba C350 is one of the better Amazon Fire smart TVs we've reviewed, but the direct LED backlight is something of a double-edged sword. It's better and brighter than a basic edge-lit LED backlight, and picture is better as a result, but the lack of local dimming means that – despite the TV's support for Dolby Vision and HDR10 formats – HDR content just doesn't look very good.

But with the advent of LCD-based flat screen TVs, the need arose for illumination, and originally that meant cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFL), a technology that's similar to fluorescent and neon lighting. But because these lamps generate heat that can damage a display and aren't terrible energy-efficient, they've pretty much disappeared from today's TVs.

Microscopebase function

If you require an accessory that you cannot find on our site, please contact us and we will source the component for you.

Partial Bright Field or Directional LightingPartial bright field lighting is the most commonly used vision lighting technique, and is the most familiar lighting used every day, including sunlight. This type of lighting is distinguished from full bright field in that it is directional, typically from a point source and, because of its directional nature, it is a good choice for generating contrast and enhancing topographic detail. It is much less effective, however when used on-axis with specular surfaces, generating the familiar “hotspot” reflection.

First, the LEDs at the top and bottom of the display can be dimmed to alter the brightness in a vertical stripe, from the top to bottom of the display. This divides the display into 8-16 distinct dimming zones.

Since then, LED backlighting has been refined in a number of ways, and there are several options on the market in today's TVs.

And there's a direct relationship between backlight quality and TV price, so what is the best option when you don't want to pay an extra $1,000 for the category-leading quality of OLED – even the affordable Vizio OLED TV is $1,199 – or shell out tens of thousands for a giant micro-LED TV?

Magnification system ofmicroscope

Brian Westover is currently Lead Analyst, PCs and Hardware at PCMag. Until recently, however, he was Senior Editor at Tom's Guide, where he led the site's TV coverage for several years, reviewing scores of sets and writing about everything from 8K to HDR to HDMI 2.1. He also put his computing knowledge to good use by reviewing many PCs and Mac devices, and also led our router and home networking coverage. Prior to joining Tom's Guide, he wrote for TopTenReviews and PCMag.

TV backlights have undergone a surprising amount of change in the last few years, and knowing how this feature works, and what your options are will go a long way in helping you get a better than average TV for a lower than average price.

Edge-lit displays illuminate the LCD panel by setting a row of LEDs along the top and bottom edges of a screen, or ringing the perimeter of the TV frame with LED lights. This light is then distributed across the back of the LCD panel with a special diffuser light guide, a semi-transparent sheet of plastic that allows the light from the LED in the TV bezel to illuminate a larger portion of the display.

This dynamic backlighting allows a TV to deliver deeper shadows, brighter highlights, and more vivid color. If you'll forgive the pun, this is where HDR content really shines.

Dark Field LightingDark field lighting is perhaps the least well understood of all the techniques, although you do use these techniques in everyday life. For example, the use of automobile headlights relies on light incident at low angles on the road surface, reflecting back from the small surface imperfections, and also nearby objects. Dark field lighting can be subdivided into circular and linear, or directional types, the former requiring a specific light head geometry design. This type of lighting is characterized by low or medium angle of light incidence, typically requiring close proximity, particularly for the circular light head varieties (Figure 19).

The following figures illustrate the differences in implementation and result of circular directional (partial bright field) and circular dark field lights on a mirrored surface.

The rule of thumb here is simple: More backlighting zones are better, and many LED gives you the most backlighting zones.