April 29, 2005
Kinkajou Color Film Test
Use of the Kinkajou projector by IF&LS in India for daytime primary group education in rural areas is being explored. IF&LS offers a multimedia based projection system for group learning, but its cost and power requirements are limitations in many rural villages.
The difficult challenge for Kinkajou is that the curriculum content requirement includes text and color graphics, typically of photographic quality. Our current experience has been with content limited to monochrome text and simple graphics (black and white). The addition of color to images will increase the base density, adversely affecting light transmission, i.e. visible brightness.
We have conducted preliminary experiments using 35 mm Kodachrome images cut to 16mm format, to determine overall image brightness. Surprisingly, under "ideal" viewing conditions, ie darkened room, images were reasonably bright. We are sufficiently encouraged to proceed with production of sample color microfilm containing "typical" IF&LS content to demonstrate the systems potential.
Cutting a 35mm slide down to 16mm
Fitting the slide into the Kinkajou
Decent brightness under good conditions
We will also continue to pursue design solutions which will increase the available illumination, including improved transmission efficiency in the optics and higher power LEDs.
