Quattron is the brand name of an LCD color display technology produced by Sharp Electronics

Sharp Corporation

is a Japanese multinational corporation that designs and manufactures electronic products. Headquartered in Abeno-ku, Osaka, Japan, Sharp employs more than 55,580 people worldwide as of June 2011. The company was founded in September 1912 and takes its name from one of its founder's first...

. The technology utilizes a fourth color subpixel, yellow, in addition to the standard RGB

RGB color model

The RGB color model is an additive color model in which red, green, and blue light is added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colors...

 color subpixels, which Sharp claims increases the range of displayable colors, and which may mimic more closely the way the brain processes color information. The screen is a form of multi-primary color display

Multi-primary color display

Multi-primary color display is a display that contains an additional primary colors to the standard RGB colors - cyan, magenta, and yellow. This technology, in theory, could reproduce all color gamut which the human eye can see.-Quattron:...

, other forms of which have been developed in parallel to Sharp's version.

The technology is used in Sharp's Quattron Aquos

Sharp Aquos

The Sharp Aquos is a range of LCD televisions and component screens made by Sharp Corporation of Japan. It encompasses small, portable models up to large home-theater screens , as well as component screens for portable devices including mobile phones...

 LCD TV product line, particularly in models with screens 40 inches across and larger. The technology, distinct from the product line, has been advertised featuring George Takei

George Takei

George Hosato Takei Altman is an American actor, author, social activist and former civil politician. He is best known for his role in the television series Star Trek and its film spinoffs, in which he played Hikaru Sulu, helmsman of the...

 as the spokesperson in the debut commercial, in which he uses his catchphrase "Oh My".

Response

According to an analysis published in MaximumPC Magazine by Raymond Soneira, president of DisplayMate Technologies, a video calibration equipment producer, Sharp's Quattron technology does not have the ability to show more colors than a standard RGB set. He argues that, due to industry-standard color spaces used by content providers, there is no existing source material that contains the fourth color channel. He further states that any "extra" colors displayed must simply be created in the television itself through video processing, resulting in exaggerated, less accurate color.

See also

• Color depth
  Color depth
  In computer graphics, color depth or bit depth is the number of bits used to represent the color of a single pixel in a bitmapped image or video frame buffer. This concept is also known as bits per pixel , particularly when specified along with the number of bits used...
  
  
• Gamut
  Gamut
  In color reproduction, including computer graphics and photography, the gamut, or color gamut , is a certain complete subset of colors. The most common usage refers to the subset of colors which can be accurately represented in a given circumstance, such as within a given color space or by a...
  
  
• Trichromacy, scientific description of the RGB model for human vision
• Tetrachromacy, a different biological system than trichromacy, possibly found in some people
• Opponent process
  Opponent process
  The color opponent process is a color theory that states that the human visual system interprets information about color by processing signals from cones and rods in an antagonistic manner...
  
  , a color theory which considers yellow a primary color in addition to the classic RGB color model.

External links

• Aquos LCD TV (Sharp website)
• Aquos LCD TV (Sharp Bulgaria)
• Sharp LC46LE821E Review – Technical assessment of Quattron TV by David Mackenzie at HDTVtest