For the uninitiated, color management is essentially a process that involves the conversion of color representations of different devices to obtain a standard match that suits these devices. What this does is offer a seamless viewing experience of, say, a video frame or an image, to appear the same across different screens — be it a smartphone, laptop, or an LCD. Such a system is usually implemented in the operating system, in an app, or even in some devices. Talking about Android, in particular, the color management on the operating system was broken until the Android Oreo was introduced. One of the main reason for which is the fact that the hardware offerings back in those days were not optimal to handle and process the wide color gamut since it required considerably more resources. Coming back to what Oppo is doing with the full-path color management system, the company claims its system offers support for DCI-P3 and 10-bit HEIF images, end-to-end. For which, it says it has improved the hardware and the underlying system that covers all the steps in the characterization — from image acquisition to computation, encoding, storage, decoding, and finally displaying the content — all with support for 10-bit depth color depth and P3 color gamut. Similarly, when it comes to recording, Oppo says the system incorporates algorithms, which work in tandem with the hardware, to record color while capturing. These algorithms aim to help with distortion correction and multi-frame noise reduction. Besides, the system also brings support for Digital Overlap (DOL) HDR mode to offer better dynamic range and color reproduction, even against a bright light source.
From the calibration standpoint, Oppo says its screen calibration process allows for a film-grade color accuracy that comes in at a JNCD score of 0.4, which seems promising. And for cases that involve the DCI-P3 color gamut, it says its algorithm will enable compatibility by adjusting the white point of the color space. Talking about support for 10-bit color depth and HEIF format, the full-path color management system promises to offer more accurate color reproduction with improved efficiency. For, the 10-bit color depth holds obvious added advantages over its 8-bit counterpart, which enable it to enhance the quality of content.
Another major change that the full-path color management system accompanies is the ability to personalize color settings, which opens the door for customization to the end-user. Oppo says its R&D team realized the color weakness issues on its smartphones back in 2018, which led it to introduce an upgrade to its color correction solution — the color correction solution 2.0. To add to that, the company says it is also working with Zhejiang University to find an optimal solution for color correction that will be highly user-centric and will enable users to personalize their smartphone’s display and calibrate it to their preference.
The full-path color management system will be first seen on Oppo’s next flagship smartphone series, the Find X3, in 2021.
