Display device, display method thereof, near-to-eye display device, and display method thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2019339552-A1
Application number	US-201715752333-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Aug 3, 2017
Priority date	Oct 31, 2016
Publication date	Nov 7, 2019
Grant date	—

Abstract

A display device and a display method thereof are provided. The display device includes a display panel and at least one optical device arranged at a light-exiting side of the display panel. A light beam emitted from the display panel is a linearly-polarized, collimated light beam. The optical device includes a plurality of optical units independent of each other and corresponding to pixel units of the display panel in a one-to-one correspondence manner. Each optical unit is capable of refracting the light beam emitted from the display panel at an adjustable angle. Collimated light beams from the adjacent optical units have different emergent angles so that the light beams emitted from the display panel are converged at two viewing points, so as to display a virtual image with a spatial depth.

First claim

1 .- 2 . (canceled)

3 . A display device, comprising:
a display panel, configured to emit a light beam being linearly-polarized, collimated; and at least one optical device arranged at a light-exiting side of the display panel, wherein the optical device comprises a plurality of optical units independent of each other and corresponding to pixel units of the display panel in a one-to-one correspondence manner, each optical unit is capable of refracting the light beam emitted from the display panel at an adjustable angle, and collimated light beams from adjacent optical units have different emergent angles so that the light beams emitted from the display panel are converged at two viewing points, so as to display a virtual image with a spatial depth, wherein the optical device comprises a first electrode and a second electrode arranged opposite to each other; and a liquid crystal cell arranged between the first electrode and the second electrode, wherein the liquid crystal cell comprises a plurality of liquid crystal units independent of each other, the first electrode and the second electrode are arranged on different transparent substrates respectively, or on a same transparent substrate, the first electrode and the second electrode are powered to generate an electric field to drive liquid crystal molecules in each liquid crystal unit to be deflected, and each liquid crystal unit and the first electrode and second electrode that correspond to the liquid crystal unit form the optical unit, and the liquid crystal molecules in each optical unit are driven to be deflected by the electric field, the optical unit is equivalent to a right angle prism, wherein the display device further comprises a processing circuit and a driving circuit, wherein the processing circuit is configured to acquire the spatial depth of the virtual image to be displayed by the display device, and determine an inclination angle of the equivalent right angle prism corresponding to each optical unit based on the spatial depth of the virtual image, divide each optical unit into m portions, and determine a difference between a refractive index of each portion of the optical unit and a refractive index of a portion with a minimum refractive index based on the inclination angle of the equivalent right angle prism corresponding to the optical unit, where m is an integer greater than 1; and the driving circuit is configured to drive the liquid crystal molecules in each portion of the optical unit to be deflected based on the difference.

4 . The display device according to claim 3 , wherein the processing circuit comprises a first calculation module configured to determine the spatial depth of the virtual image to be displayed, determine a value of x using an equation

p
x

=

L
-
s

L

,

determine a deflection angle α of the collimated light beam passing through each optical unit using an equation tan α=(D−x)/2s, and determine an inclination angle θ1 of the equivalent right angle prism corresponding to each optical unit using equations α=θ 2 −θ 1 and n sin θ 1 =sin θ 2 , wherein L−s represents the spatial depth of the virtual image to be displayed, L represents a distance between the virtual image to be displayed and one of the viewing points, p represents a distance between two adjacent optical units, s represents a viewing distance between one of the viewing points and the display panel, x represents a distance between the two viewing points wherein the light beams passing through the optical device are converged, D represents a width of the optical device, θ1 represents the inclination angle of the equivalent right angle prism and it is equal to an incident angle of the collimated light beam relative to an oblique surface of the equivalent right angle prism, and θ2 represents a refraction angle of the collimated light beam passing through the equivalent right angle prism.

5 . The display device according to claim 4 , wherein the processing circuit comprises a second calculation module configured to: determine the difference between refractive index of each portion of each optical unit and the refractive index of the portion with the minimum refractive index using equations Δn 1 d=nh 1 −h 1 , Δn 2 d=nh 2 −h 2 , . . . , Δn m-1 d=nh m-1 −h m-1 , Δn m d=nh m −h m =0 and h 1 =p tan θ 1 ; divide each optical unit into m portions having a same length in a first direction from a center of the optical device to an edge of the optical device, the m portions sequentially comprising a first portion, a second portion, . . . , and an m th portion, Δnj being a difference between a refractive index of a j th portion and the refractive index of the portion with the minimum refractive index; and divide a cross section of the equivalent right angle prism corresponding to the optical unit into m portions along a right angle side adjacent to the inclination angle of the equivalent right angle prism, the m portions sequentially comprising a first portion, a second portion, . . . , and an m th portion in a direction from a right angle to the inclination angle of the equivalent right angle prism, each portion having a height of hj, where j is an integer not greater than m and not small than 1, n represents a refractive index of the equivalent right angle prism corresponding to the optical unit, d represents a liquid crystal cell thickness, and p represents a transverse width of an equivalent right angle prism, that is a transverse width of the optical unit.

6 . The display device according to claim 5 , wherein the driving circuit is further configured to drive the liquid crystal molecules in each portion of the optical unit to be deflected, to enable a difference between a refractive index of a j th portion and the refractive index of the portion with the minimum refractive index to be equal to Δnj.

7 . The display device according to claim 3 , wherein an angle between an initial alignment direction of the liquid crystal molecules in the optical device and a polarization direction of the collimated light beam is smaller than 90°.

8 . The display device according to claim 7 , wherein the initial alignment direction of the liquid crystal molecules in the optical device is the same as the polarization direction of the collimated light beam.

9 . The display device according to claim 3 , wherein two optical devices are laminated at the light-exiting side of the display panel, and initial alignment directions of the liquid crystal molecules in the two optical devices are perpendicular to each other.

10 . The display device according to claim 3 , wherein the display panel is a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) panel or an Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) panel.

11 . (canceled)

12 . A display method for use in the display device according to claim 3 , comprising:
adjusting an angle of a light beam emitted from a display panel refracted by each optical unit, to enable collimated light beams from the adjacent optical units to have different emergent angles, thereby to converge the light beams emitted from the display panel at two viewing points and display a virtual image with a spatial depth; acquiring the spatial depth of the virtual image to be displayed by the display device, determining an inclination angle of an equivalent right angle prism corresponding to each optical unit ba

Assignees

• Boe Technology Group Co Ltd

Inventors

• Gao Jian
• Chen Xiaochuan
• Yang Yafeng
• Wang Wei
• Tan Jifeng

Classifications

• G02F1/13471

  in which all the liquid crystal cells or layers remain transparent, e.g. FLC, ECB, DAP, HAN, TN, STN, SBE-LC cells (G02F1/13475 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G02F1/29

  for the control of the position or the direction of light beams, i.e. deflection · CPC title

• G02F1/1343

  Electrodes {(reflective electrodes G02F1/133553)} · CPC title

• G02F2201/16

  series; tandem · CPC title

• G02F2203/07

  Polarisation dependent · CPC title