Image display apparatus, moving body, and lens array

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11002887-B2
Application number	US-201514603757-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 23, 2015
Priority date	Feb 3, 2014
Publication date	May 11, 2021
Grant date	May 11, 2021

Abstract

An image display apparatus includes: a light source to emit light; a lens array including a plurality of lenses arranged therein; and an image forming device to form an image with the emitted light on the lens array. The light corresponding to the formed image is transmitted from the lens array to be reflected by a reflective surface to visualize the formed image into a virtual image. At least two of the plurality of lenses of the lens array have curvatures different from each other.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An image display apparatus comprising:
a light source configured to emit light;
a lens array including a plurality of lenses two-dimensionally arranged therein at a pitch equal to or larger than a beam diameter of the emitted light, at least two of the plurality of lenses having curvatures different from each other; and
an image forming device configured to form an image with the emitted light on the lens array, wherein the light corresponding to the formed image is transmitted from the lens array to be reflected by a reflective surface to visualize the formed image into a virtual image.

2. The image display apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of lenses is each distributed in such a manner that the lenses having shorter optical path lengths to the reflective surface have larger curvatures.

3. The image display apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of lenses are each distributed in such a manner that, where the lens array is equally divided into an area with longer optical path lengths to the reflective surface and an area with shorter optical path lengths to the reflective surface, the lenses in the area with the shorter optical path lengths are larger in mean curvature as compared to the lenses in the area with the longer optical path lengths.

4. The image display apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a reflective member positioned on an optical path of light between the lens array and the reflective surface and configured to reflect the light while enlarging to form an enlarged virtual image.

5. The image display apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the reflective surface is disposed in a moving body configured to be operated by an operator to see the virtual image, and the reflective surface is a window member that forms an exterior surface of the moving body.

6. A moving body mounting the image display apparatus of claim 5 , the moving body being configured to be operated by the operator.

7. The image display apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the virtual image is visualized at an observation location on an optical path of the light reflected by the reflection surface,
wherein at least one of curvatures of each of the plurality of lenses in a first direction and a second direction is set based on a length of the optical path of the light between the lens and the observation location, the first and second directions being orthogonal to each other.

8. The image display apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein the lengths of the optical paths of the light are different from each other between each of at least two lenses of the plurality of lenses and the observation location.

9. The image display apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the lens array is a microlens array including a plurality of microlens arrays.

10. The image display apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a concave mirror disposed between the lens array and the reflective surface.

11. The image display apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein a radius of curvature a border portion between adjacent lenses is smaller than wavelength A of the emitted light.

12. A lens array provided in an image display apparatus, comprising a plurality of lenses two-dimensionally arranged therein at a pitch equal to or larger than a beam diameter of emitted light received by the lens array,
wherein at least two of the plurality of lenses have curvatures different from each other.

13. The lens array according to claim 12 , wherein curvatures of the plurality of lenses are distributed in such a manner that the curvatures present an approximately monotonic reduction from an area occupied by larger curvatures toward an area occupied by smaller curvatures.

14. The lens array according to claim 12 , wherein a radius of curvature a border portion between adjacent lenses is smaller than wavelength A of the emitted light.

15. A lens array in an image display apparatus, the lens array comprising a plurality of lenses two-dimensionally arranged therein at a pitch equal to or larger than a beam diameter of light incident on the lens array, each of the plurality of lenses having a curvature,
wherein the curvatures of the plurality of lenses are at least one of increasing and decreasing within the lens array.

16. The lens array according to claim 15 , wherein curvatures of the plurality of lenses are distributed in such a manner that the curvatures present an approximately monotonic reduction from an area occupied by larger curvatures toward an area occupied by smaller curvatures.

Assignees

• Inamoto Makoto
• Ichii Daisuke
• Ricoh Co Ltd

Inventors

• Inamoto Makoto
• Ichii Daisuke

Classifications

• G02B3/0043 Primary

  Inhomogeneous or irregular arrays, e.g. varying shape, size, height · CPC title

• G02B2027/013

  comprising a combiner of particular shape, e.g. curvature · CPC title

• G02B27/0101

  characterised by optical features (G02B27/0172 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G02B27/48

  Laser speckle optics · CPC title

• G02B3/005 Primary

  arranged along a single direction only, e.g. lenticular sheets (G02B3/0043 takes precedence) · CPC title