CN115685584A

CN115685584A - Display panel, display device and display method

Info

Publication number: CN115685584A
Application number: CN202110823854.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 洪涛
Original assignee: BOE Technology Group Co Ltd
Current assignee: BOE Technology Group Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-07-21
Filing date: 2021-07-21
Publication date: 2023-02-03

Abstract

The invention discloses a display panel, a display device and a display method, wherein the display panel comprises a display substrate, a polarization switching element and a micro-lens array, wherein: the display substrate is used for emitting image light according to an input display image signal and comprises a plurality of pixel islands which are arranged in an array mode, and each pixel island comprises at least two sub-pixel islands; the polarization switching element is used for switching the polarization state according to a switching signal input according to a preset time sequence cycle, converting the image light into image polarized light corresponding to the switching signal, and displaying the image signal to be synchronous with the switching signal; the micro-lens array comprises a plurality of micro-lens units which are in one-to-one correspondence with the sub-pixel islands, the focal length of each micro-lens unit is variable, the variable focal lengths of the micro-lens units corresponding to the sub-pixel islands of each pixel island are different, and the micro-lens units corresponding to the sub-pixel islands in each pixel island are used for imaging the image polarized light into three-dimensional display images based on different central imaging planes respectively so as to form multi-focal-plane light field display.

Description

Display panel, display device and display method

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of display technologies, and in particular, to a display panel, a display device, and a display method.

Background

At present, in common binocular parallax naked eye 3D display, a displayed 3D object is a stereoscopic vision formed by respectively displaying different images to the left and right eyes of a user, and as the 3D display based on the binocular stereoscopic vision has a convergence accommodation conflict problem, the user can feel fatigue and dizziness of eyes when wearing the display for a long time, which is a problem to be solved urgently in the stereoscopic display.

The light field display provides a feasible method for solving the eye fatigue and dizziness of the user, and natural 3D display is realized by simulating the light field of a natural 3D object, so that the eye fatigue and dizziness of people are reduced. In addition to holographic display, methods for implementing light field display mainly include integrated imaging display using a microlens array, for example, a layer of microlens array is stacked in front of a display element, a display image integrated with imaging is rendered on the display element, and natural 3D display is formed by controlling light rays in various directions by the microlens array. However, the light field display has a problem that the depth of field is limited.

Disclosure of Invention

In order to solve at least one of the above problems, a first aspect of the present invention provides a display panel including a display substrate, a polarization switching element disposed on a light exit side of the display substrate, and a microlens array disposed on a side of the polarization switching element away from the display substrate, wherein:

the display substrate is used for emitting image light according to an input display image signal, and comprises a plurality of pixel islands which are arranged in an array, each pixel island comprises at least two sub-pixel islands, each sub-pixel island comprises a and b pixels, wherein a is an integer which is greater than or equal to 2, and b is an integer which is greater than or equal to 2;

the polarization switching element is used for switching the polarization state according to a switching signal input according to a preset time sequence period and converting the image light into image polarized light corresponding to the switching signal, and the display image signal is synchronous with the switching signal;

the micro-lens array comprises a plurality of micro-lens units which are in one-to-one correspondence with the sub-pixel islands, the focal length of each micro-lens unit is variable, the variable focal lengths of the micro-lens units corresponding to the sub-pixel islands of each pixel island are different, and the micro-lens units corresponding to the sub-pixel islands in each pixel island are used for imaging the image polarized light into three-dimensional display images based on different central imaging planes.

For example, some embodiments of the present application provide a display panel, wherein the preset timing cycle includes a first time slot and a second time slot, the switching signal includes a first time slot switching signal corresponding to the first time slot and a second time slot switching signal corresponding to the second time slot,

the polarization switching element is used for switching to a first polarization state according to a first time slot switching signal and converting the image light into first image polarized light,

the polarization switching element is configured to switch to a second polarization state according to a second timeslot switching signal and convert the image light into second image polarized light, where the second image polarized light is orthogonal to the first image polarized light.

For example, in some embodiments of the present application, a display panel is provided,

the first image polarized light is s-linear polarized light, and the second image polarized light is p-linear polarized light;

or alternatively

The first image polarized light is left-handed circularly polarized light, and the second image polarized light is right-handed circularly polarized light.

For example, in some embodiments of the present disclosure, each microlens unit includes at least two microlenses, at least one of the at least two microlenses is a variable focal length microlens that forms different focal lengths from first and second image polarized lights of different polarization states, and the first and second image polarized lights are respectively imaged as a three-dimensional display image based on a central imaging plane of the corresponding focal length.

For example, in some embodiments of the present disclosure, the variable focal length microlens is one of a liquid crystal microlens, a birefringent microlens, a PB microlens, and a super-surface microlens.

For example, some embodiments of the present disclosure provide a display panel, wherein each pixel of the sub-pixel island is arranged in a polygon.

For example, some embodiments of the present disclosure provide a display panel, wherein each pixel of the sub-pixel island is arranged in a hexagon.

A second aspect of the present invention provides a display device comprising the display panel of the first aspect.

For example, some embodiments of the present application provide a display device further comprising a driving unit including a driving control unit and an image rendering unit, wherein

The driving control unit is used for outputting a switching signal to a polarization switching element of the display panel according to a preset time sequence period and outputting a synchronous control signal synchronous with the switching signal to the image rendering unit;

the image rendering unit is used for outputting a display image signal to a display substrate of the display panel according to the synchronous control signal;

the display substrate is used for emitting image light according to the display image signal;

the polarization switching element is used for switching the polarization state according to the switching signal and converting the image light into image polarized light corresponding to the switching signal;

and the micro lens units corresponding to the sub-pixel islands in the micro lens array are used for imaging the image polarized light into a three-dimensional display image of a central imaging plane based on the focal lengths of different micro lens units.

For example, in a display device provided in some embodiments of the present application, each pixel island of a display substrate of the display panel includes a first sub-pixel island and a second sub-pixel island, a microlens array of the display panel includes a first microlens unit corresponding to the first sub-pixel island and a second microlens unit corresponding to the second sub-pixel island, the first microlens unit includes a first fixed-focal-length microlens and a first variable-focal-length microlens, the second microlens unit includes a second fixed-focal-length microlens and a second variable-focal-length microlens, a variable focal length of the second variable-focal-length microlens is different from a variable focal length of the first variable-focal-length microlens, and a variable focal length of the second microlens unit is different from a variable focal length of the first microlens unit; the preset timing cycle includes a first time slot and a second time slot,

at the time of the first time slot:

the driving control unit is used for outputting a first time slot switching signal to a polarization switching element of the display panel and outputting a first synchronous control signal to the image rendering unit at the same time,

the image rendering unit outputs a first display image signal to a display substrate of the display panel according to a first synchronization control signal,

the display substrate is used for emitting first image light according to the first display image signal,

the polarization switching element is used for switching to a first polarization state according to the first time slot switching signal and converting the first image light into first image polarized light,

the first focal length variable micro lens is used for determining a first temporary focal length according to the first image polarized light, and the first micro lens unit is used for determining a first focal length according to the focal length of the first focal length fixed micro lens and the first temporary focal length and imaging the first image polarized light into a three-dimensional display image of a first central imaging plane based on the first focal length;

the second focal length variable micro-lens is used for determining a second temporary focal length according to the first image polarized light, and the second micro-lens unit is used for determining a second focal length according to the focal length of the second focal length fixed micro-lens and the second temporary focal length and imaging the first image polarized light into a three-dimensional display image of a second central imaging plane based on the second focal length;

at the time of the second time slot:

the driving control unit is used for outputting a second time slot switching signal to the polarization switching element of the display panel and outputting a second synchronous control signal to the image rendering unit at the same time,

the image rendering unit is used for outputting a second display image signal to a display substrate of the display panel according to a second synchronous control signal,

the display substrate is used for emitting second image light according to the second display image signal,

the polarization switching element is used for switching to a second polarization state according to the second time slot switching signal and converting the second image light into second image polarized light,

the first focal length variable micro lens is used for determining a third temporary focal length according to the second image polarized light, and the first micro lens unit is used for determining a third focal length according to the focal length of the first focal length fixed micro lens and the third temporary focal length and imaging the second image polarized light into a three-dimensional display image of a third central imaging plane based on the third focal length;

the second focal length variable micro-lens is used for determining a fourth temporary focal length according to the second image polarized light, and the second micro-lens unit is used for determining a fourth focal length according to the focal length of the second focal length fixed micro-lens and the fourth temporary focal length and imaging the second image polarized light into a three-dimensional display image of a fourth central imaging plane based on the fourth focal length;

the first focal length, the second focal length, the third focal length and the fourth focal length are different.

A third aspect of the present invention provides a display method using the display device of the second aspect, further comprising a driving unit including a drive control unit and an image rendering unit, comprising:

the driving control unit generates a switching signal and a synchronous control signal synchronous with the switching signal according to a preset time sequence period;

the driving control unit outputs the synchronous control signal to the image rendering unit to enable the image rendering unit to output a display image signal to a display substrate of the display panel in response to the synchronous control signal so that the display substrate emits image light in response to the display image signal;

the driving control unit outputs the switching signal to the polarization switching element to cause the polarization switching element to switch a polarization state in response to the switching signal and convert the image light into image polarized light corresponding to the switching signal, so that the microlens units corresponding to the sub-pixel islands in the microlens array image the image polarized light respectively as a three-dimensional display image of a central imaging plane based on focal lengths of different microlens units.

For example, in a display method provided by some embodiments of the present application, each pixel island of a display substrate of the display panel includes a first sub-pixel island and a second sub-pixel island, a microlens array of the display panel includes a first microlens unit corresponding to the first sub-pixel island and a second microlens unit corresponding to the second sub-pixel island, the first microlens unit includes a first fixed-focal-length microlens and a first variable-focal-length microlens, the second microlens unit includes a second fixed-focal-length microlens and a second variable-focal-length microlens, a variable focal length of the second variable-focal-length microlens is different from a variable focal length of the first variable-focal-length microlens, and a variable focal length of the second microlens unit is different from a variable focal length of the first microlens unit; the preset timing cycle includes a first time slot and a second time slot,

at the time of the first time slot:

the driving control unit generates a first time slot switching signal and a first synchronization control signal synchronized with the first time slot switching signal;

the driving control unit outputs the first synchronous control signal to the image rendering unit so that the image rendering unit outputs a first display image signal to a display substrate of the display panel in response to the first synchronous control signal, and the display substrate emits first image light in response to the first display image signal;

the driving control unit outputs the first time slot switching signal to the polarization switching element to cause the polarization switching element to switch to a first polarization state in response to the first time slot switching signal and to convert the first image light into first image polarized light, to cause the first variable focal length microlens to determine a first temporary focal length from the first image polarized light, the first microlens unit to determine a first focal length from a focal length of the first fixed focal length microlens and the first temporary focal length, and to image the first image polarized light into a three-dimensional display image of a first central imaging plane based on the first focal length, to cause the second variable focal length microlens to determine a second temporary focal length from the first image polarized light, the second microlens unit to determine a second focal length from a focal length of the second fixed focal length microlens and the second temporary focal length, and to image the first image polarized light into a three-dimensional display image of a second central imaging plane based on the second focal length;

at the time of the second time slot:

the drive control unit generates a second time slot switching signal and a second synchronization control signal synchronized with the second time slot switching signal;

the driving control unit outputs the second synchronous control signal to the image rendering unit to enable the image rendering unit to output a second display image signal to a display substrate of the display panel in response to the second synchronous control signal, so that the display substrate emits second image light in response to the second display image signal;

the driving control unit outputs the second time slot switching signal to the polarization switching element to cause the polarization switching element to switch to a second polarization state in response to the second time slot switching signal and to convert the second image light into second image polarized light, to cause the first variable focal length microlens to determine a third temporary focal length from the second image polarized light, the first microlens unit to determine a third focal length from the focal length of the first fixed focal length microlens and the third temporary focal length, and to image the second image polarized light into a three-dimensional display image of a third central imaging plane based on the third focal length, to cause the second variable focal length microlens to determine a fourth temporary focal length from the second image polarized light, the second microlens unit to determine a fourth focal length from the focal length of the second fixed microlens and the fourth temporary focal length, and to image the second image polarized light into a three-dimensional display image of a fourth central imaging plane based on the fourth focal length;

A fourth aspect of the invention provides a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by a processor, performs the method according to the third aspect.

A fifth aspect of the invention provides a computer device comprising a memory, a processor and a computer program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, the processor implementing the method according to the third aspect when executing the program.

The invention has the following beneficial effects:

aiming at the existing problems, the invention provides a display panel, a display device and a display method, wherein the display panel realizes time division multiplexing and space division by utilizing a polarization switching element and a micro-lens array which are arranged on a display substrate, and forms composite optical field display based on integrated imaging display and multi-focal-plane display of a micro-lens, so that the problems in the prior art are solved, the naked-eye 3D display effect is effectively improved, and the display panel has wide application prospect.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings needed to be used in the description of the embodiments will be briefly introduced below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art to obtain other drawings based on these drawings without creative efforts.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a prior art implementation of naked eye 3D using a microlens array;

FIG. 2 illustrates a prior art schematic of forming a central depth of view using an integrated imaging light field display;

FIG. 3 shows a schematic diagram of a prior art multi-focal-plane light field display using a 2D imaging plane;

FIG. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of a display panel according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 illustrates a schematic diagram of a multi-focal plane display of a 3D imaging plane of a display panel according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a lens unit according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a structure of a sub-pixel island of a display substrate according to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a structure of a sub-pixel island of a display substrate according to another embodiment of the invention;

fig. 9 is a schematic structural view of a display device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 shows a flow diagram of a display method according to an embodiment of the invention;

fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a computer device according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

In order to more clearly illustrate the invention, the invention is further described below with reference to preferred embodiments and the accompanying drawings. Similar components in the figures are denoted by the same reference numerals. It is to be understood by persons skilled in the art that the following detailed description is illustrative and not restrictive, and is not to be taken as limiting the scope of the invention.

In the prior art, natural naked-eye 3D display is realized by adopting integrated imaging display of a microlens array, as shown in fig. 1, a layer of microlens array 2 is superposed in front of a display element 1, a display image 3 of integrated imaging is rendered on the display element, and natural 3D display 4 is formed by controlling light rays in all directions through the microlens array 2.

In an integrated imaging light field display system, information carried by pixels on a display panel is imaged by microlenses in a microlens array into a three-dimensional display object within a display space. In the integrated imaging light field display system, a central depth of field is formed at a position satisfying the object-image relationship, and a depth of field range of the integrated imaging three-dimensional display system is formed in a certain range near the central depth of field, as shown in fig. 2, the image light emitted from the display panel 10 is imaged by the microlens array 20 into a three-dimensional display image 40 based on the central imaging plane 30, wherein the depth of field range 50 is the range marked by an ellipse in the figure.

The size of the depth of field range is an important display index of the integrated imaging three-dimensional display system, and shows how large spatial range the integrated imaging light field display system can display clear three-dimensional images. However, the depth of field range of the conventional integrated imaging light field display is limited, and the conventional integrated imaging light field display is far from satisfying the requirement of clearly displaying a three-dimensional image in a large space range. The field depth range of the integrated imaging light field display system is expanded, so that the three-dimensional display performance can be improved, the displayed three-dimensional image can be clearly imaged in a larger space range, a larger screen-out effect of the three-dimensional display image is obtained, and the three-dimensional display image is more shocked.

Another implementation of the light field display is realized by a multi-focal plane display, that is, the display is performed on a plurality of parallel planes separated by a certain distance in space, the display content on each plane is a 2D image, a 3D effect is generated by overlapping the 2D images of the plurality of planes, and the light field display formed in space is better to restore the light field information of the whole space, theoretically, the more 2D imaging planes are formed in space, as shown in fig. 3, the human eye 60 displays the 2D image on a plurality of parallel display screens 70 separated by a certain distance in space, such as the display screens 71, 72, 73, 74 and 75. Due to the limitation of the number of display screens and transmittance, such multi-focal-plane optical field display is generally implemented by a single screen in a time division multiplexing manner, so that the display content of the screen is rapidly refreshed, and the corresponding switching elements are rapidly switched to spatially form a plurality of imaging planes, which has a high requirement on the refreshing speed of the display elements and the switching elements. Generally, the maximum refresh rate requirement that human eyes cannot feel flicker of a screen is 30Hz, and if more than 16 imaging planes are required to restore light field information, a refresh frequency of at least 16 × 30hz =480Hz is required, and for light field display with a large data amount, the requirement for the refresh rate of a display element and a switching element is difficult to achieve. In addition, the multi-focal plane display restores the whole light field information by overlapping the images on the plurality of 2D imaging planes, and under the condition that the number of the 2D screens is limited, when the distance of the transverse movement of human eyes is large, the relative position relation of the images overlapped by the 2D imaging planes can be changed, so that the error of restoring the light field information is caused, and the visual angle of the multi-focal plane light field display is limited.

To solve the problems in the prior art, as shown in fig. 4, an embodiment of the present invention provides a display panel, which includes a display substrate 110, a polarization switching element 200 disposed on a light-emitting side of the display substrate 110, and a microlens array 300 disposed on a side of the polarization switching element 200 away from the display substrate 100, wherein:

the display substrate 100 is configured to emit image light according to an input display image signal, and includes a plurality of pixel islands 110 arranged in an array, each pixel island 110 includes at least two sub-pixel islands, each sub-pixel island includes a × b pixels, where a is an integer greater than or equal to 2, and b is an integer greater than or equal to 2;

the polarization switching element 200 is configured to switch a polarization state according to a switching signal input according to a preset timing cycle and convert the image light into image polarized light corresponding to the switching signal, where the display image signal is synchronized with the switching signal;

the microlens array 300 includes a plurality of microlens units corresponding to the sub-pixel islands one by one, the focal length of each microlens unit is variable, the variable focal lengths of the microlens units corresponding to the sub-pixel islands of each pixel island are different, and the microlens units corresponding to the sub-pixel islands in each pixel island are used for imaging the image polarized light into three-dimensional display images based on different central imaging planes.

In the embodiment, time division multiplexing and space division are realized by using the polarization switching element and the microlens array which are arranged on the display substrate, and composite optical field display based on integrated imaging display and multi-focal-plane display of the microlens is formed, so that the problems in the prior art are solved, the naked-eye 3D display effect is effectively improved, and the method has a wide application prospect.

Specifically, the display substrate is divided into a plurality of pixel islands, each pixel island comprises a plurality of sub-pixel islands, and the micro-lens array comprises micro-lens units which are in one-to-one correspondence with the sub-pixel islands; in response to a synchronously input and time-division-multiplexed display image signal and a switching signal during display of the display panel, the display substrate displays image light according to the display image signal, the polarization switching element switches a polarization state according to the switching signal and converts the display image light into image polarized light, and the image polarized light is imaged into a three-dimensional display image of a central imaging plane based on a focal length of the microlens unit by using the microlens unit to realize spatial division, thereby forming a composite light field display of a microlens-based integrated imaging display and a multi-focal plane display.

In a specific example, as shown in fig. 4, the preset timing cycle includes a first slot and a second slot, the switching signal includes a first slot switching signal corresponding to the first slot and a second slot switching signal corresponding to the second slot,

In the present embodiment, time division multiplexing is implemented by splitting a preset timing cycle into a first slot and a second slot. Specifically, in one timing cycle:

during a first time slot, controlling the polarization switching element to be switched to a first polarization state through a first time slot switching signal, and simultaneously controlling the display substrate to emit first image light through a synchronous display image signal at the time slot, so that the polarization switching element is controlled to convert the first image light into first image polarized light at the first time slot;

in a second time slot, the polarization switching element is controlled to be switched to a second polarization state through a second time slot switching signal, and meanwhile, the display substrate is controlled to emit second image light through a synchronous display image signal in the time slot, so that the polarization switching element is controlled to convert the second image light into second image polarized light in the second time slot;

in consideration of the influence of the interaction of the first image polarized light and the second image polarized light on the display effect of the display substrate, the present embodiment controls the polarization state of the polarization switching element so as to control the first image polarized light and the second image polarized light to be orthogonal to each other. Specifically, when the first image polarized light is s-linear polarized light, the second image polarized light is p-linear polarized light orthogonal to the s-linear polarized light, that is, the s-linear polarized light and the p-linear polarized light are not affected by each other. Or, when the first image polarized light is left-handed circularly polarized light, the second image polarized light is right-handed circularly polarized light orthogonal to the left-handed circularly polarized light, that is, the left-handed circularly polarized light and the right-handed circularly polarized light are not affected by each other.

In this embodiment, the input and synchronous display image signal and the switching signal are used to control the display substrate to display the image light in a time-sharing manner, and to control the polarization switching element to switch different polarization states in a time-sharing manner, so as to respectively convert the image light in different time slots into mutually orthogonal polarized light.

In an alternative embodiment, each microlens unit includes at least two microlenses, at least one of which is a variable focal length microlens that forms different focal lengths from first and second image polarized lights of different polarization states, and images the first and second image polarized lights, respectively, as a three-dimensional display image based on a central imaging plane of the corresponding focal length.

In the present embodiment, as shown in fig. 4, each pixel island 110 includes two

sub-pixel islands

111 and 112, the sub-pixel island 111 corresponds to a microlens unit 310, and the microlens unit 310 includes two

microlenses

311 and 312, where the microlens 311 is a variable focal length microlens and 312 is a fixed focal length lens; the sub-pixel island 112 corresponds to the microlens unit 320, and the microlens unit 320 includes two microlenses 321 and 322, wherein the microlens 321 is a variable focal length microlens, and 322 is a fixed focal length lens; the variable focal lengths of the variable focal length microlens 311 and the variable focal length microlens 312 are different, and the focal length of the microlens unit 310 is different from the focal length of the microlens unit 320.

In an alternative embodiment, the variable focal length microlens is one of a liquid crystal lens, a birefringent lens, a PB lens, and a super surface lens.

The liquid crystal lens is a novel micro lens which is manufactured by utilizing an electro-optic effect to change the space distribution of the refractive index of the lens and a microelectronic technology process, and the focal length of the liquid crystal lens is changed by changing the space distribution of the refractive index of the lens; the birefringent microlens can change the focal length of the compound lens by changing the polarization state of incident light through the compound lens formed by superposing a plurality of birefringent lenses and utilizing the equivalent refractive index change of the material of the birefringent microlens. The PB lens changes the focal length thereof by changing the loaded voltage or changes the focal length thereof by changing the polarization state of incident light, in practical application, a plurality of PB lenses are superposed to form a PB compound lens, each PB lens forms different focal lengths according to the loaded voltage or the polarization state of the incident light, and the plurality of PB lenses are cooperatively adjusted to realize the variable focal length of the compound PB lens; the super-surface lens changes the focal length of incident light by changing the polarization state of the incident light, in practical application, a plurality of super-surface lenses are superposed to form a composite super-surface lens, each super-surface lens forms different focal lengths according to the polarization state of the incident light, and the plurality of super-surface lenses are cooperatively adjusted to realize the variable focal length of the composite super-surface lens.

Still by way of example in the foregoing embodiment, as shown in figure 5,

at the time of the first time slot:

the polarization switching element is controlled to be switched to a first polarization state through a first time slot switching signal, and simultaneously the display substrate is controlled to emit first image light through a synchronous display image signal in the time slot, so that the polarization switching element is controlled to convert the first image light into first image polarized light in the first time slot;

further, the lens unit 310 corresponding to the sub-pixel island 111 generates a first focal length according to the first image polarized light, determines the first central imaging plane 410 with the image distance l1 according to the first focal length, and images the first image polarized light as a three-dimensional display image of the first central imaging plane 410 based on the first focal length; meanwhile, the lens unit 320 corresponding to the sub-pixel island 112 generates a third focal length from the first image polarized light, determines a third central imaging plane 430 with an image distance l3 according to the third focal length, and images the first image polarized light as a three-dimensional display image 431 of the third central imaging plane 430 based on the third focal length.

In a second time slot, the polarization switching element is controlled to be switched to a second polarization state through a second time slot switching signal, and simultaneously the display substrate is controlled to emit second image light through a synchronous display image signal in the time slot, so that the polarization switching element is controlled to convert the second image light into second image polarized light in the second time slot;

further, the lens unit 310 corresponding to the sub-pixel island 111 generates a second focal length according to the second image polarized light, determines a second central imaging plane 420 with an image distance of l2 according to the second focal length, and images the second image polarized light as a three-dimensional display image of the second central imaging plane 420 based on the second focal length; meanwhile, the lens unit 320 corresponding to the sub-pixel island 112 generates a fourth focal length according to the second image polarized light, determines a fourth central imaging plane 440 with an image distance l4 according to the fourth focal length, and images the second image polarized light as a three-dimensional display image of the fourth central imaging plane 440 based on the fourth focal length.

Specifically, at different time slots, as shown in fig. 5, the positions l1, l2, l3, and l4 of the first to fourth central imaging planes can be found by the lens imaging formula.

Where f is the focal length of the lens unit in a certain polarization state, and l' is the object distance, i.e. the distance between the display substrate and the principal point of the lens unit. The focal length EFL (f) of the lens unit is calculated from the image polarized light formed by the polarization switching element in a certain polarization state as follows:

as shown in fig. 6, where fa is the focal length of the fixed-focal-length lens, fb is the focal length of the variable-focal-length lens in a certain polarization state, and d is the distance between the two lenses.

The back intercept BFL of the lens unit (i.e. the distance B of the variable focal length lens from the focal point) is given by the following equation:

wherein P1 and P2 are the first and second principal plane positions of the lens unit, respectively, and if the distance between the display substrate and the lens of the lens unit close to the display substrate is D, the imaging object distance is:

l′＝f-B+D

the position of the imaging plane is then given by the following formula:

the lens units corresponding to the

sub-pixel islands

1 and 2 in each pixel island on the display substrate have different focal lengths in different polarization states, for example, a first central imaging plane generated by a first focal length in a first time slot and l1 from the display substrate, a third central imaging plane generated by a third focal length and l3 from the display substrate, a second central imaging plane generated by a second focal length in a second time slot and l2 from the display substrate, and a fourth central imaging plane generated by a fourth focal length and l4 from the display substrate. And the first focal length, the second focal length, the third focal length and the fourth focal length are different, and the first central imaging plane, the second central imaging plane, the third central imaging plane and the fourth central imaging plane are different, so that the field depth range of the optical field display system is expanded. Compared with the traditional light field display of a single central scene depth surface formed by a single micro-lens array, the field depth range formed by the method is expanded, meanwhile, due to the fact that the collimation of light rays in all directions can be achieved within a larger angle range after each pixel in the sub-pixel island passes through the lens unit, human eyes can correctly perceive the superposition of images on all imaging surfaces within a certain range, and compared with the traditional integrated imaging light field display of the single micro-lens array and the multi-focal-plane light field display of 2D image superposition, the light field display is improved in view angle range characteristics. Meanwhile, the plurality of central imaging planes are formed by time division multiplexing of different time slots and space division of the pixel islands, so that the requirement on the refresh rate of the display substrate is reduced while more central imaging planes are formed.

It should be noted that, in the present application, the focal length of the fixed focal length lens is not specifically limited, and the focal lengths of the fixed focal length lenses of the microlens units in one pixel island may be the same or different, so as to satisfy the design criterion that the focal lengths of the microlenses in the pixel island are different from the focal length of the microlens unit in the pixel island.

In an alternative embodiment, each pixel of the sub-pixel island is arranged in a polygon.

In the present embodiment, the pixels included in each sub-pixel island are arranged in a polygon, as shown in fig. 7, the display substrate 100 includes a plurality of pixel islands 110, each pixel island 110 includes a plurality of sub-pixel islands, each pixel island includes 4

sub-pixel islands

111, 112, 113, and 114, each sub-pixel island is rectangular and includes a × b pixels 1111, where a is greater than or equal to 2,b is greater than or equal to 2 to realize light field display.

In this embodiment, the pixel islands of the display substrate are divided into rectangles, each sub-pixel island corresponds to one lens unit, and the lens units corresponding to each sub-pixel island have different focal lengths in different polarization states. Because the lens unit corresponding to each sub-pixel island has two focal lengths in two orthogonal polarization states through time division multiplexing, and one pixel island corresponds to 4 compound lenses with 2 focal lengths, the light field display device using the pixel island of the display substrate as one unit can generate 2 × 4=8 central imaging surfaces, namely, a light field display space with 8 central imaging surfaces is formed.

In an alternative embodiment, the pixels of the sub-pixel island are arranged in a hexagonal pattern.

In the present embodiment, as shown in fig. 8, the pixel island 110 includes 3

sub-pixel islands

115, 116 and 117, each of which is hexagonal and includes a × b pixels 1151, where a is greater than or equal to 2,b is greater than or equal to 2 to implement light field display. When the sub-pixel islands are hexagonal, the distance between the pixel islands is smaller than that of other polygons, such as the rectangular arrangement mode, so that the naked-eye 3D imaging resolution is effectively improved.

It is to be noted that, assuming that each pixel island of the display substrate includes M sub-pixel islands, and the lens unit corresponding to each sub-pixel island can generate N focal lengths through time division multiplexing, the display panel can generate M × N central imaging planes, and it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the division and distribution of the pixel islands can be comprehensively considered by considering the refresh rate of the display substrate and the polarization switching element and the resolution of the display panel.

Based on the display panel, an embodiment of the application also provides a display device, which comprises the display panel, and the display device is a liquid crystal display device or an electroluminescent diode display device. The display device can be any product or component with a display function, such as a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a television, a display, a notebook computer, a digital photo frame or a navigator.

In an alternative embodiment, as shown in fig. 9, the display device further comprises a driving unit including a driving control unit and an image rendering unit, wherein

In the embodiment, the display panel is driven by the driving unit of the display device to realize time division multiplexing and space division, and a composite optical field display device integrating imaging display and multi-focal-plane display is formed by matching with the polarization switching element and through the micro-lens units with different variable focal lengths.

In a specific example, as shown in fig. 9, each pixel island 110 of the display substrate 100 of the display panel includes a first sub-pixel island 111 and a second sub-pixel island 112, the microlens array 300 of the display panel includes a first microlens unit 310 corresponding to the first sub-pixel island 111 and a second microlens unit 320 corresponding to the second sub-pixel island 112, the first microlens unit 310 includes a first fixed-focal-length microlens 312 and a first variable-focal-length microlens 311, the second microlens unit 320 includes a second fixed-focal-length microlens 322 and a second variable-focal-length microlens 321, a variable focal length of the second variable-focal-length microlens 321 is different from a variable focal length of the first variable-focal-length microlens 311, and a variable focal length of the second microlens unit 320 is different from a variable focal length of the first microlens unit 310; the preset timing cycle includes a first time slot and a second time slot,

at the time of the first time slot: the driving control unit outputs a first time slot switching signal to a polarization switching element of the display panel and simultaneously outputs a first synchronous control signal to the image rendering unit; the image rendering unit outputs a first display image signal to a display substrate of the display panel according to a first synchronous control signal; the display substrate emits first image light according to the first display image signal; the polarization switching element is switched to a first polarization state according to the first time slot switching signal and converts the first image light into first image polarized light, the first variable focal length microlens determines a first temporary focal length according to the first image polarized light, the first microlens unit determines a first focal length according to the focal length of the first fixed focal length microlens and the first temporary focal length and images the first image polarized light into a three-dimensional display image of a first central imaging plane based on the first focal length; the second focal length variable micro-lens determines a second temporary focal length according to the first image polarized light, and the second micro-lens unit determines a second focal length according to the focal length of the second focal length fixed micro-lens and the second temporary focal length and images the first image polarized light into a three-dimensional display image of a second central imaging plane based on the second focal length.

At the time of the second time slot: the driving control unit outputs a second time slot switching signal to a polarization switching element of the display panel and simultaneously outputs a second synchronous control signal to the image rendering unit; the image rendering unit outputs a second display image signal to a display substrate of the display panel according to a second synchronous control signal; the display substrate emits second image light according to the second display image signal, and the polarization switching element is switched to a second polarization state according to the second time slot switching signal and converts the second image light into second image polarized light; the first variable focal length microlens determines a third temporary focal length according to the second image polarized light, the first microlens unit determines a third focal length according to the focal length of the first fixed focal length microlens and the third temporary focal length, and images the second image polarized light as a three-dimensional display image of a third central imaging plane based on the third focal length; the second variable focal length microlens determines a fourth temporary focal length according to the second image polarized light, the second microlens unit determines a fourth focal length according to the focal length of the second fixed focal length microlens and the fourth temporary focal length, and images the second image polarized light as a three-dimensional display image of a fourth central imaging plane based on the fourth focal length; the first focal length, the second focal length, the third focal length and the fourth focal length are different.

In this embodiment, the display substrate includes a plurality of pixel islands, each pixel island includes two sub-pixel islands, each sub-pixel island includes a plurality of pixels, the display substrate outputs image light in response to a synchronous control signal output by the image rendering unit and input by the driving unit in different time slots, and forms mutually orthogonal polarized light in different time slots through the polarization switching element in cooperation with the polarization state of the polarization switching element in response to a switching signal of different time slots and output by the driving unit and synchronized with the synchronous control signal, and then forms four different central imaging planes in the two time slots by using the variable focal length of the lens unit, thereby expanding the depth of field range of the display device. For specific implementation, reference is made to the foregoing embodiments, which are not described herein again.

Corresponding to the display device provided in the foregoing embodiments, an embodiment of the present application further provides a display method using the display device, and since the display method provided in the embodiment of the present application corresponds to the display devices provided in the foregoing embodiments, the foregoing embodiments are also applicable to the display method provided in the present embodiment, and detailed description is omitted in this embodiment.

As shown in fig. 10, an embodiment of the present application further provides a display method using the above display device, where the display device further includes a driving unit including a driving control unit and an image rendering unit, including:

In an alternative embodiment, each pixel island of the display substrate of the display panel includes a first sub-pixel island and a second sub-pixel island, the microlens array of the display panel includes a first microlens unit corresponding to the first sub-pixel island and a second microlens unit corresponding to the second sub-pixel island, the first microlens unit includes a first fixed-focal-length microlens and a first variable-focal-length microlens, the second microlens unit includes a second fixed-focal-length microlens and a second variable-focal-length microlens, a variable focal length of the second variable-focal-length microlens is different from a variable focal length of the first variable-focal-length microlens, and a variable focal length of the second microlens unit is different from a variable focal length of the first microlens unit; the preset timing cycle includes a first time slot and a second time slot,

at the time of the first time slot: the driving control unit generates a first time slot switching signal and a first synchronization control signal synchronized with the first time slot switching signal; the driving control unit outputs the first synchronous control signal to the image rendering unit so that the image rendering unit outputs a first display image signal to a display substrate of the display panel in response to the first synchronous control signal, and the display substrate emits first image light in response to the first display image signal; the driving control unit outputs the first time slot switching signal to the polarization switching element to cause the polarization switching element to switch to a first polarization state in response to the first time slot switching signal and to convert the first image light into first image polarized light, to cause the first variable focal length microlens to determine a first temporary focal length from the first image polarized light, the first microlens unit to determine a first focal length from a focal length of the first fixed focal length microlens and the first temporary focal length, and to image the first image polarized light into a three-dimensional display image of a first central imaging plane based on the first focal length, to cause the second variable focal length microlens to determine a second temporary focal length from the first image polarized light, the second microlens unit to determine a second focal length from a focal length of the second fixed focal length microlens and the second temporary focal length, and to image the first image polarized light into a three-dimensional display image of a second central imaging plane based on the second focal length;

at the time of the second time slot: the drive control unit generates a second time slot switching signal and a second synchronization control signal synchronized with the second time slot switching signal; the driving control unit outputs the second synchronous control signal to the image rendering unit to enable the image rendering unit to output a second display image signal to a display substrate of the display panel in response to the second synchronous control signal, so that the display substrate emits second image light in response to the second display image signal; the driving control unit outputs the second time slot switching signal to the polarization switching element to cause the polarization switching element to switch to a second polarization state in response to the second time slot switching signal and convert the second image light into second image polarized light, to cause the first variable focal length microlens to determine a third temporary focal length from the second image polarized light, the first microlens unit to determine a third focal length from the focal length of the first fixed focal length microlens and the third temporary focal length, and to image the second image polarized light as a three-dimensional display image of a third central imaging plane based on the third focal length, to cause the second variable focal length microlens to determine a fourth temporary focal length from the second image polarized light, the second microlens unit to determine a fourth focal length from the focal length of the second fixed microlens and the fourth temporary focal length, and to image the second image polarized light as a three-dimensional display image of a fourth central imaging plane based on the fourth focal length; the first focal length, the second focal length, the third focal length and the fourth focal length are different.

Another embodiment of the present invention provides a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by a processor, implements: the display device further includes a driving unit including a driving control unit and an image rendering unit, including: the driving control unit generates a switching signal and a synchronous control signal synchronous with the switching signal according to a preset time sequence period; the driving control unit outputs the synchronous control signal to the image rendering unit to enable the image rendering unit to output a display image signal to a display substrate of the display panel in response to the synchronous control signal so that the display substrate emits image light in response to the display image signal; the driving control unit outputs the switching signal to the polarization switching element to cause the polarization switching element to switch a polarization state in response to the switching signal and convert the image light into image polarized light corresponding to the switching signal, so that the microlens units corresponding to the sub-pixel islands in the microlens array image the image polarized light respectively as a three-dimensional display image of a central imaging plane based on focal lengths of different microlens units.

In practice, the computer-readable storage medium may take any combination of one or more computer-readable media. The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any combination of the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer readable storage medium would include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a Random Access Memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. In the present embodiment, a computer readable storage medium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signal with computer readable program code embodied therein, for example, in baseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated data signal may take many forms, including, but not limited to, electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. A computer readable signal medium may also be any computer readable medium that is not a computer readable storage medium and that can communicate, propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

Program code embodied on a computer readable medium may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

Computer program code for carrying out operations for aspects of the present invention may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, smalltalk, C + + or the like and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the "C" programming language or similar programming languages. The program code may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the case of a remote computer, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through any type of network, including a Local Area Network (LAN) or a Wide Area Network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet service provider).

As shown in fig. 11, another embodiment of the present invention provides a schematic structural diagram of a computer device. The computer device 12 shown in fig. 11 is only an example and should not bring any limitation to the function and the scope of use of the embodiments of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 11, computer device 12 is embodied in the form of a general purpose computing device. The components of computer device 12 may include, but are not limited to: one or more processors or processing units 16, a system memory 28, and a bus 18 that couples various system components including the system memory 28 and the processing unit 16.

Bus 18 represents one or more of any of several types of bus structures, including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, an accelerated graphics port, and a processor or local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. By way of example, such architectures include, but are not limited to, industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, micro-channel architecture (MAC) bus, enhanced ISA bus, video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) local bus, and Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus.

Computer device 12 typically includes a variety of computer system readable media. Such media may be any available media that is accessible by computer device 12 and includes both volatile and nonvolatile media, removable and non-removable media.

The system memory 28 may include computer system readable media in the form of volatile memory, such as Random Access Memory (RAM) 30 and/or cache memory 32. Computer device 12 may further include other removable/non-removable, volatile/nonvolatile computer system storage media. By way of example only, storage system 34 may be used to read from and write to non-removable, nonvolatile magnetic media (not shown in FIG. 11, and commonly referred to as a "hard drive"). Although not shown in FIG. 11, a magnetic disk drive for reading from and writing to a removable, nonvolatile magnetic disk (e.g., a "floppy disk") and an optical disk drive for reading from or writing to a removable, nonvolatile optical disk (e.g., a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, or other optical media) may be provided. In these cases, each drive may be connected to bus 18 by one or more data media interfaces. Memory 28 may include at least one program product having a set (e.g., at least one) of program modules that are configured to carry out the functions of embodiments of the invention.

A program/utility 40 having a set (at least one) of program modules 42 may be stored, for example, in memory 28, such program modules 42 including, but not limited to, an operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data, each of which examples or some combination thereof may comprise an implementation of a network environment. Program modules 42 generally carry out the functions and/or methodologies of the described embodiments of the invention.

Computer device 12 may also communicate with one or more external devices 14 (e.g., keyboard, pointing device, display 24, etc.), with one or more devices that enable a user to interact with computer device 12, and/or with any devices (e.g., network card, modem, etc.) that enable computer device 12 to communicate with one or more other computing devices. Such communication may be through an input/output (I/O) interface 22. Also, computer device 12 may communicate with one or more networks (e.g., a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), and/or a public network such as the Internet) through network adapter 20. As shown in FIG. 11, the network adapter 20 communicates with the other modules of the computer device 12 via the bus 18. It should be appreciated that although not shown in FIG. 11, other hardware and/or software modules may be used in conjunction with computer device 12, including but not limited to: microcode, device drivers, redundant processing units, external disk drive arrays, RAID systems, tape drives, and data backup storage systems, to name a few.

The processor unit 16 executes various functional applications and data processing, such as implementing a display method provided by an embodiment of the present invention, by executing programs stored in the system memory 28.

Aiming at the existing problems, the invention provides a display panel, a display device and a display method, wherein the display panel realizes time division multiplexing and space division by utilizing a polarization switching element and a micro-lens array which are arranged on a display substrate, and forms composite optical field display of integrated imaging display and multi-focal plane display based on a micro-lens, so that the problems in the prior art are solved, the naked eye 3D display effect is effectively improved, and the display device and the display method have wide application prospects.

It should be understood that the above-mentioned embodiments of the present invention are only examples for clearly illustrating the present invention, and are not intended to limit the embodiments of the present invention, and it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that other variations or modifications may be made on the basis of the above description, and all embodiments may not be exhaustive, and all obvious variations or modifications may be included within the scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A display panel, comprising a display substrate, a polarization switching element disposed on a light exit side of the display substrate, and a micro-lens array disposed on a side of the polarization switching element away from the display substrate, wherein:

2. The display panel according to claim 1, wherein the preset timing cycle includes a first slot and a second slot, the switching signal includes a first slot switching signal corresponding to the first slot and a second slot switching signal corresponding to the second slot,

3. The display panel according to claim 2,

or

4. The display panel according to claim 2, wherein each microlens unit includes at least two microlenses, at least one of the at least two microlenses is a variable focal length microlens that forms different focal lengths from first and second image polarized lights of different polarization states, and images the first and second image polarized lights as a three-dimensional display image based on a central imaging plane of the corresponding focal length, respectively.

5. The display panel according to claim 4, wherein the variable focal length microlens is one of a liquid crystal lens, a birefringent lens, a PB lens, and a super surface lens.

6. The display panel according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein each pixel of the sub-pixel island is arranged in a polygon.

7. The display panel of claim 6, wherein the pixels of the sub-pixel island are arranged in a hexagon.

8. A display device characterized by comprising the display panel according to any one of claims 1 to 7.

9. The display device according to claim 8, further comprising a driving unit including a driving control unit and an image rendering unit, wherein

10. The display device according to claim 9, wherein each pixel island of a display substrate of the display panel includes a first sub-pixel island and a second sub-pixel island, the microlens array of the display panel includes a first microlens unit corresponding to the first sub-pixel island and a second microlens unit corresponding to the second sub-pixel island, the first microlens unit includes a first fixed-focal-length microlens and a first variable-focal-length microlens, the second microlens unit includes a second fixed-focal-length microlens and a second variable-focal-length microlens, a variable focal length of the second variable-focal-length microlens is different from a variable focal length of the first variable-focal-length microlens, and a variable focal length of the second microlens unit is different from a variable focal length of the first microlens unit; the preset timing cycle includes a first slot and a second slot,

at the time of the first time slot:

at the time of the second time slot:

11. A display method using the display device according to claim 8, wherein the display device further includes a driving unit including a driving control unit and an image rendering unit, comprising:

12. The display method according to claim 11, wherein each pixel island of a display substrate of the display panel includes a first sub-pixel island and a second sub-pixel island, the microlens array of the display panel includes a first microlens unit corresponding to the first sub-pixel island and a second microlens unit corresponding to the second sub-pixel island, the first microlens unit includes a first fixed-focal-length microlens and a first variable-focal-length microlens, the second microlens unit includes a second fixed-focal-length microlens and a second variable-focal-length microlens, a variable focal length of the second variable-focal-length microlens is different from a variable focal length of the first variable-focal-length microlens, and a variable focal length of the second microlens unit is different from a variable focal length of the first microlens unit; the preset timing cycle includes a first time slot and a second time slot,

at the time of the first time slot:

the driving control unit generates a first slot switching signal and a first synchronization control signal synchronized with the first slot switching signal;

at the time of the second time slot:

13. A computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored which, when being executed by a processor, carries out the method according to claim 11 or 12.

14. A computer device comprising a memory, a processor and a computer program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, characterized in that the processor implements the method according to claim 11 or 12 when executing the program.