Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N13/00—Stereoscopic video systems; Multi-view video systems; Details thereof
  • H04N13/30—Image reproducers
  • H04N13/361—Reproducing mixed stereoscopic images; Reproducing mixed monoscopic and stereoscopic images, e.g. a stereoscopic image overlay window on a monoscopic image background
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N13/00—Stereoscopic video systems; Multi-view video systems; Details thereof
  • H04N13/30—Image reproducers
  • H04N13/302—Image reproducers for viewing without the aid of special glasses, i.e. using autostereoscopic displays
  • H04N13/305—Image reproducers for viewing without the aid of special glasses, i.e. using autostereoscopic displays using lenticular lenses, e.g. arrangements of cylindrical lenses
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N13/00—Stereoscopic video systems; Multi-view video systems; Details thereof
  • H04N13/30—Image reproducers
  • H04N13/356—Image reproducers having separate monoscopic and stereoscopic modes
  • H04N13/359—Switching between monoscopic and stereoscopic modes

Definitions

• the present invention relates to an autostereoscopic display apparatus comprising an image display device and lenticular means.
• Three dimensional imaging is a well-known technique today. However, traditionally it has been in the form of stereoscopic images where the user has had to have optical manipulating devices of a kind, especially glasses providing separated light transmission in order to obtain the three dimensional effect.
• Autostereoscopy is a technique that is based on directing light emanating from a two dimensional display array of pixels in different directions. The different directions of the light results in a slight angular disparity, which, by the slightly separated eyes of a human, makes the image being perceived as having three dimensions.
• An autostereoscopy technique is parallax barriers. A parallax barrier causes the light direction separation by means of alternating transmissive and opaque regions such as slits or light lines interspersed by dark regions.
• Another example of an autostereoscopy technique is the use of lenses in front of a display device. One example of such a device is described in International Patent Application WO 98/21620.
• International Patent Application WO98/21620 discloses an array of lenticular elements at the output side of a display device. Different groups of pixels, forming one or more stereoscopic pairs, are seen by respective eyes of a viewer through the lenticular elements.
• the lenticular elements include electrooptic material having a refractive index that is switchable in order to enable removal the refracting effect of the lenticular elements.
• the solution disclosed in WO 98/21620 has limited capabilities to produce several windows in 3D while the remainder of the display is in 2D mode. The passive matrix addressing used for this can only create a limited number of 3D windows due to the small addressing window of the lenses.
• an autostereoscopic display apparatus comprising a display device configured to display an image, said display device comprising a plurality of pixels.
• the pixels comprise at least a first group of pixels configured to emit light having a first state of polarization and at least a second group of pixels configured to emit light having a second state of polarization.
• the apparatus further comprises lenticular means comprising an array of birefringent lenticular elements configured to direct the light output of at least one of said groups of pixels such that the respective light output of said groups of pixels is emitted in mutually different directions so as to enable a stereoscopic perception of the displayed image.
• the groups of pixels of said display apparatus are thus configured to emit light of fixed first and second states of polarization respectively.
• the optical means such as a birefringent lenticular, then redirects the light of one state of polarization while leaving light of the other state of polarization unaltered.
• the light is linearly polarized and also preferably, the directions of polarization of the two states are orthogonal.
• the birefringent lenticular elements are switchable between a first state in which the light output directing action of the lenticular means is provided and a second state in which the light output directing action is removed. In this way the display can be used in two modes, a 2D-mode and a 3D-mode, with an arbitrary number of three dimensional windows and fully two dimensional with improved resolution.
• the lenticular means comprise electro-optic material with refractive index switchable by selective application of an electrical potential difference between a first difference value whereby the light output directing action of the lenticular means is provided and a second difference value whereby the light output directing action is removed.
• the display apparatus may be configured so that a number of X rows for any N rows of the matrix is/are configured according to the previously stated first and second states of polarization respectively.
• the number X may be 0 or N resulting in a two dimensional or three dimensional image only. It is also feasible that the display apparatus is configured such that the groups of pixels form a checkered pattern.
• the lenticular lenses are oriented with a slant angle with respect to the direction of the columns of matrix pixels. This will remove any undesired Moire effects as perceived by a viewer.
• the invention makes use of a display where subsequent sub- pixels have a different polarization state.
• light that leaves sub-pixels from the even rows of the display may be linearly polarized in the vertical direction and light that leaves sub-pixels from the odd rows of the display may be linearly polarized in the horizontal direction.
• this arrangement enables light to be directed in two different directions and, hence, enabling the production of three dimensional images to be viewed by an observer. More specifically, only light from the sub-pixels in the odd rows will be refracted, leaving the light from the sub-pixels in the even rows unaltered when passing through the lenticular means.
• an advantage with this configuration is the capability to achieve a configuration such that the first set of sub-pixels, those in the odd rows, for instance, create a 3D image while the second set is used to create a 2D image.
• the nomenclature 2D and 3D will correspond to two dimensional and three dimensional respectively.
• the number of sub-pixels used for 2D and 3D mode respectively can be adjusted depending on the application. For instance, to get an equal resolution in the 2D part and each view of the 3D part a single row of 2D sub-pixels can be used for every number of N rows of 3D sub-pixels for an N view multi-view display.
• Figure 1 shows schematically a block diagram of an autostereoscopic display apparatus according to the present invention
• Figure 2 shows schematically a perspective view of one embodiment of the layers of a display device according to the invention
• Figure 3 shows schematically a cross section of a briefringent lenticular according to the invention
• Figures 4a and 4b show schematically a cross section of a switchable lens according to one embodiment of the invention
• Figure 5 shows schematically a pixel matrix according to one embodiment of the invention.
• FIG 1 illustrates schematically an autostereoscopic display apparatus 101 in which the present invention is implemented.
• the apparatus 101 is capable of processing signals for the production of images.
• the apparatus 101 comprises a processor 102, memory 103, a display device 104, a control unit 105 as well as an input/output unit 106 for receiving information signals from an external unit (not shown) such as a computer.
• an external unit not shown
• Figure 2 is a schematic view of a display device 200 according to the invention.
• the display device 200 may be similar to the display device 104 in the apparatus 101 in Figure 1.
• the display device 104 comprises a light source 201, a matrix LC display 202 and lenticular means 203.
• the lenticular means 203 comprise birefringent lenticular elements 204 for refracting light emanating from the LC display 202.
• the light source 201 illuminates the LC display 202 comprising pixels 205 arranged in a row and column matrix.
• the light from the light source 201 that illuminates the LC display 202 is modulated in the individual pixels 205 by control means connected to the LC display 202, as the skilled person will realize.
• the polarization orientation of the modulated light is in one of two linear polarization states. This may be achieved, e.g. as described in "Novel High Per- formance Transflective LCD with a Patterned Retarder", SJ.
• a patterned retarder allows the creation of two different polarizations in adjacent sub-pixels. Alternatively, one may also use a patterned polarizer. Here, the orientations are horizontal and vertical polarization.
• the light from each pixel 205 then enters the lenticular elements 204 where its direction is changed or remains unchanged according to the orientation of the birefringent material in the lenticular elements.
• FIG 3 illustrates schematically a cross section of a small area of a display device 301 such as the display devices 104 and 200 described above.
• the display device 301 comprises a light source 302, an LC display 303 having a plurality of pixels, of which a first 304 and a second pixel 305 are indicated.
• Lenticular means 306 are arranged in front of the display as viewed by a viewer 350, and comprises lenticular elements 307 and 317.
• the lenticular elements 307 and 317 are arranged between a first 308 and a second 309 glass plate.
• the lenticular elements 307 and 317 comprise an LC material 310 and the remainder of the space between the glass plates 308 and 309 is filled with a plastic material 311.
• the linearly polarized light in a first direction is refracted 314.
• the linearly polarized light in a second direction is unaltered 315.
• FIG 4 is a more detailed view of a display device 401 comprising display means 420 and lenticular means 416, such as the display devices discussed above in connection with figures 1 to 3.
• Figure 4a is a cross section of the display device 401 in a refractive state
• figure 4b is a cross section of the display device 401 depicting a non- refractive state. That is, first and second cross section illustrates the switchability of the lenticular means 416.
• the display device 401 comprises a first 403 and a second 404 glass plate on which a respective first 405 and a second 406 conductive layer is arranged.
• the conducting layers are e.g. made of Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) and situated on each of the opposing sides of the glass plates 403 and 404.
• a first alignment layer 407 such as poly- mide, is arranged on top of the first conduction layer 405. The rubbing direction of this first alignment layer 407 preferably correspond to the polarization direction of light 419 emanating from sub-pixels of a display device 420 that act as 3D sub-pixels.
• a negative lens 408 of plastic or any other suitable material is further situated between the glass plates 403 and 404.
• a second alignment layer 409 also of a material such as poly-mide, is situated on the side of the lens 408 facing the first glass plate 403 and the space resulting between the lens 408 and the first glass plate 403 is filled with a liquid crystal (LC) material 410.
• LC liquid crystal
• the first 405 and second 406 conductive layers act as electrodes, where in Figure 4a no voltage 411 is applied between the electrodes and thereby a birefringent lens effect occurs, refracting the light 419 polarized in a first direction as indicated by refracted beams 412.
• the display device 401 can be used in a combined two and three dimensional mode by using an appropriate configuration of first and second groups of sub-pixels with respective first and second states of polarizations as will be described with reference to Figure 5.
• the LC material 410 which causes the birefringency effect. Together with the curvature of the plastic lens 408, a lens effect for one state of polarization is obtained when no voltage is applied.
• the lens arrangement is made of PEN foil that is stretched in one direction, or any other suitable material known to the person skilled in the art.
• FIG. 5 will now be used to illustrate a subset of a pixel matrix 500 in an LC display according to an embodiment where the number of sub-pixels used for the 2D and 3D mode has been adjusted to one specific application.
• the display matrix 500 is divided into rows 501-509 and columns of which one column is indicated by 510.
• such a display matrix 500 may be used to obtain an autostereoscopic display apparatus.
• one row of 2D sub-pixels for every N rows of 3D sub-pixels can be used to create an N view multi-view display.
• a pixel layout for a 3 view system is shown where groups of three subsequent rows 501 502, 503 and 506-508 of sub-pixels are used for the creation of 3D information together with single rows 504 and 509 which are used for presentation of 2D information.
• the lenses are arranged at a slant angle with respect to the sub-pixels.
• an autostereoscopic display apparatus comprising a display device is configured to display an image.
• the display device comprises a plurality of pixels.
• the pixels comprise at least a first group of pixels configured to emit light having a first state of polarization and at least a second group of pixels configured to emit light having a second state of polarization.
• the apparatus further comprises lenticular means comprising an array of birefringent lenticular elements configured to direct the light output of at least one of said groups of pixels such that the respecttive light output of said groups of pixels is emitted in mutually different directions so as to enable a stereoscopic perception of the displayed image.

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Multimedia (AREA)
• Signal Processing (AREA)
• Testing, Inspecting, Measuring Of Stereoscopic Televisions And Televisions (AREA)
• Stereoscopic And Panoramic Photography (AREA)

Priority Applications (4)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (2)

Family

ID=37600798

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (6)

Cited By (6)

Families Citing this family (20)

Family Cites Families (23)

• 2006
  • 2006-07-11 TW TW095125339A patent/TW200718173A/zh unknown
  • 2006-07-12 EP EP06780056A patent/EP1905247A2/en not_active Withdrawn
  • 2006-07-12 US US11/995,574 patent/US20080204872A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2006-07-12 JP JP2008521019A patent/JP5449770B2/ja not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2006-07-12 CN CN2006800251978A patent/CN101218833B/zh not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2006-07-12 WO PCT/IB2006/052369 patent/WO2007007285A2/en not_active Ceased

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