Method of autostereoscopic imaging and autostereoscopic illumination unit

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11086138-B2
Application number	US-201716320550-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 24, 2017
Priority date	Jul 25, 2016
Publication date	Aug 10, 2021
Grant date	Aug 10, 2021

Abstract

A method of autostereoscopic imaging including providing an autostereoscopic illumination unit including a lens field composed of a multiplicity of individual lenses or concave mirrors, and modulating an emission characteristic of the light source such that the individual lenses or the concave mirrors are illuminated only partly by the light source, wherein light from the light source impinges on the individual lenses or concave mirrors such that an emission characteristic of a three-dimensional object is imitated, the lens field extends over a spatial angle range of at least 2 sr relative to the light source or an external observer, the individual lenses or concave mirrors are distributed over the lens field and are at least partially sequentially irradiated, and the light source is formed by one or more lasers and the laser or each of the lasers irradiates/irradiate only one of the individual lenses at a specific point in time.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of autostereoscopic imaging comprising:
providing an autostereoscopic illumination unit comprising at least one light source and comprising a lens field composed of a multiplicity of individual lenses or a multiplicity of concave mirrors, and
modulating an emission characteristic of the light source such that the individual lenses or the concave mirrors are illuminated only partly by the light source,
wherein
light from the light source impinges on the individual lenses or concave mirrors such that by the individual lenses or concave mirrors an emission characteristic of a three-dimensional object to be displayed is imitated,
the lens field extends over a spatial angle range of at least 2 sr relative to the light source or an external observer,
the individual lenses or concave mirrors are distributed over the lens field,
the individual lenses or concave mirrors are at least partially sequentially irradiated,
the light source is formed by one or more lasers and the laser or each of the lasers irradiates/irradiate only one of the individual lenses at a specific point in time,
the illumination unit has a longitudinal axis oriented parallel to the lens field,
an average diameter of the individual lenses is 10 μm to 2 mm,
light entrance surfaces of the individual lenses are illuminated to at most 10% by the light source, and
the light source emits red, green and blue light and the three-dimensional object is represented in color.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the individual lenses constitute the lens field, and the lens field is continuously or in approximation curved in a convex manner from an exterior view and is concavely curved when viewed from the light source.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein a virtual image of the object is generated by the lens field, and the virtual image lies at least partially on the same side of the lens field as the light source.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the virtual image comprises a plurality of beam bundle nodes in which a plurality of beam bundles of the light generated by the light source and deflected by the individual lenses.

5. The method according to claim 2 , wherein a real image of the object is generated by the lens field, and the real image lies at least partially on a side of the lens field facing away from the light source.

6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the real image comprises a plurality of beam bundle nodes in which a plurality of beam bundles of the light generated by the light source and deflected by the individual lenses.

7. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the lens field is a hollow body is shaped and the individual lenses are uniformly distributed over a casing of the hollow body, and the lens field extends over a spatial angle range of at least 4 sr relative to the light source or the external observer.

8. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the lens field is shaped as a sphere over a solid angle range of at least 6 sr, the at least one light source is located within the sphere, and the individual lenses are uniformly distributed over a spherical surface of the sphere.

9. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the light source or at least one of the light sources is/are moved and/or rotated within the lens field so that the individual lenses are sequentially irradiated.

10. The method according to claim 9 , wherein a plurality of light sources are arranged in a common plane, the light sources rotating together.

11. The method according to claim 1 , wherein in spatial angle regions that originate from object points of the three-dimensional object to be represented and in which the object is located between the relevant object point and an observer, no light is emitted so that the object points appear hidden by the object.

12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein several of the light sources are arranged stacked one on top of the other along the longitudinal axis (L), and the light sources are structurally identical.

13. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the lens field is shaped as a hollow cylinder within which the at least one light source is located, and the individual lenses are uniformly distributed over a cylinder jacket of the hollow cylinder.

14. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the illumination unit additionally comprises at least one detector, the detector is integrated in the lens field and the at least one light source periodically illuminates the detector so that the light source can be calibrated with the detector.

15. An autostereoscopic illumination unit comprising:
at least one light source,
a lens field formed continuously from a multiplicity of individual lenses configured as converging lenses, and
control electronics,
wherein the light source is configured to only partially illuminate each one of the individual lenses,
the illumination unit has a longitudinal axis oriented parallel to the lens field,
an average diameter of the individual lenses is 10 μm to 2 mm,
the light source is configured to illuminate at most 10% of light entrance surfaces of the individual lenses, and
the light source is configured to emit red, green and blue light.

16. The illumination unit according to claim 15 , wherein a region between the light source and the lens field is free of apertures, the lens field, viewed from an exterior, is curved convexly and, viewed from the light source, is curved concavely, and a quotient of a number of individual lenses and a number of light sources is 10 to 10 7 .

17. A method of autostereoscopic imaging comprising:
providing an autostereoscopic illumination unit comprising at least one light source and comprising a lens field composed of a multiplicity of individual lenses or a multiplicity of concave mirrors and at least one detector, and
modulating an emission characteristic of the light source such that the individual lenses or the concave mirrors are illuminated only partly by the light source,
wherein
light from the light source impinges on the individual lenses or concave mirrors such that by the individual lenses or concave mirrors an emission characteristic of a three-dimensional object to be displayed is imitated,
the lens field extends over a spatial angle range of at least 2 sr relative to the light source or an external observer,
the individual lenses or concave mirrors are distributed over the lens field,
the individual lenses or concave mirrors are at least partially sequentially irradiated, and
the detector is integrated in the lens field and the at least one light source periodically illuminates the detector so that the light source can be calibrated with the detector.

Assignees

• Osram Opto Semiconductors Gmbh
• Osram Oled Gmbh

Inventors

• Stojetz Bernhard
• Lell Alfred
• Eichler Christoph
• Löffler Andreas
• König Harald
• Somers André
• Vierheilig Clemens

Classifications

• G02B30/27 Primary

  involving lenticular arrays · CPC title

• G02B30/24

  involving temporal multiplexing, e.g. using sequentially activated left and right shutters · CPC title

• H04N13/305 Primary

  using lenticular lenses, e.g. arrangements of cylindrical lenses · CPC title

• H04N13/307

  using fly-eye lenses, e.g. arrangements of circular lenses · CPC title

• H04N13/32

  using arrays of controllable light sources; using moving apertures or moving light sources · CPC title