Display device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9253475-B2
Application number	US-201213806285-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 23, 2012
Priority date	Apr 27, 2011
Publication date	Feb 2, 2016
Grant date	Feb 2, 2016

Abstract

A display device that displays an image, includes: a light source; an aperture stop array including a plurality of aperture stops; a lens array including a plurality of lenses which are disposed corresponding to the plurality of aperture stops respectively, and focus the light transmitted through the plurality of aperture stops respectively; a deflecting unit deflecting a travelling direction of the focused light respectively; a spatial light modulator that is illuminated by the deflected light, and modulates the illumination light; a detector that detects an observer; and a controller that calculates a position of a pupil of the observer based on a detection result by the detector, calculates a relative position of the display device and the pupil of the observer based on the calculation result, and controls an aperture amount of the plurality of aperture stops and a deflecting amount of the deflecting unit based on this calculation result.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A display device that displays an image, comprising:
a light source that emits light;
an aperture stop array that includes a plurality of aperture stops which respectively limit a transmission range of the light;
a lens array that includes a plurality of lenses which are disposed corresponding to the plurality of aperture stops respectively, and focus the light transmitted through the plurality of aperture stops respectively;
a deflecting unit that deflects a travelling direction of the light focused by the plurality of lenses respectively;
a spatial light modulator that is illuminated by the light deflected by the deflecting unit, and modulates the illumination light;
a detector that detects an observer who observes the spatial light modulator; and
a controller that calculates a position of a pupil of the observer based on a detection result by the detector, calculates a relative position of the display device and the pupil of the observer based on the calculated position of the pupil, and changes an aperture amount of the plurality of aperture stops and a deflecting amount of the deflecting unit based on the calculated position of the pupil and the calculated relative position.

2. The display device according to claim 1 , wherein the controller controls the deflecting amount of the deflecting unit based on the calculated relative position of the display device and the pupil of the observer to direct the light modulated by the spatial light modulator to the pupil of the observer.

3. A display device that displays an image, comprising:
a light source that emits light;
an aperture stop array that includes a plurality of aperture stops which respectively limit a transmission range of the light;
a lens array that includes a plurality of lenses which are disposed corresponding to the plurality stops respectively, and focus the light transmitted through the plurality of aperture stops respectively;
a deflecting unit that deflects a travelling direction of the light focused by the plurality of lenses respectively;
a spatial light modulator that is illuminated by the light deflected by the deflecting unit, and modulates the illumination light;
a detector that detects an observer who observes the spatial light modulator; and
a controller that calculates a position of a pupil of the observer based on a detection result by the detector, calculates a relative position of the display device and the pupil of the observer based on the calculated position of the pupil, and controls an aperture amount of the plurality of aperture stops and a deflecting amount of the deflecting unit based on the calculated position of the pupil and the calculated relative position, wherein:
the controller controls the deflecting amount of the deflecting unit based on the calculated relative position of the display device and the pupil of the observer to direct the light modulated by the spatial light modulator to the pupil of the observer,
the controller controls the spatial light modulator so that the light is alternately modulated based on an image signal for a left eye and an image signal for a right eye, and
the controller calculates positions of the pupils of the left eye and the right eye of the observer respectively based on the detection result by the detector, calculates relative positions of the display device and the pupils of the left eye and the right eye of the observer respectively based on the calculated positions of the pupils, and controls the deflecting amount of the deflecting unit based on the calculated positions of the pupils and the calculated relative positions to direct the light modulated by the spatial light modulator based on the image signal for the left eye to the pupil of the left eye of the observer, and to direct the light modulated by the spatial light modulator based on the image signal for the right eye to the pupil of the right eye of the observer.

4. A display device that displays an image, comprising:
a light source that emits light;
an aperture stop array that includes a plurality of aperture stops which respectively limit a transmission range of the light;
a lens array that includes a plurality of lenses which are disposed corresponding to the plurality of aperture stops respectively, and focus the light transmitted through the plurality of aperture stops respectively;
a deflecting unit that deflects a travelling direction of the light focused by the plurality of lenses respectively;
a spatial light modulator that is illuminated by the light deflected by the deflecting unit, and modulates the illumination light;
a detector that detects an observer who observes the spatial light modulator; and
a controller that calculates a position of a pupil of the observer based on a detection result by the detector, calculates a relative position of the display device and the pupil of the observer based on the calculated position of the pupil, and controls an aperture amount of the plurality of aperture stops and a deflecting amount of the deflecting unit based on the calculated position of the pupil and the calculated relative position,
wherein the controller controls the aperture amount of the plurality of aperture stops to make the aperture amount of an aperture stop facing a vicinity of an edge of the spatial light modulator smaller than the aperture amount of an aperture stop facing a vicinity of a center of the spatial light modulator.

5. A display device that displays an image, comprising:
a light source that emits light;
an aperture stop array that includes a plurality of aperture stops which respectively limit a transmission range of the light;
a lens array that includes a plurality of lenses which are disposed corresponding to the plurality stops respectively, and focus the light transmitted through the plurality of aperture stops respectively;
a deflecting unit that deflects a travelling direction of the light focused by the plurality of lenses respectively;
a spatial light modulator that is illuminated by the light deflected by the deflecting unit, and modulates the illumination light;
a detector that detects an observer who observes the spatial light modulator; and
a controller that calculates a position of a pupil of the observer based on a detection result by the detector, calculates a relative position of the display device and the pupil of the observer based on the calculated position of the pupil, and controls an aperture amount of the plurality of aperture stops and a deflecting amount of the deflecting unit based on the calculated position of the pupil and the calculated relative position, wherein:
the aperture amount of the aperture stop is defined as W 1 , a diameter of the pupil of the observer is defined as W 2 , a distance between the aperture stop and a lens corresponding to the aperture stop is defined as L 1 , and a distance between the lens and the pupil of the observer is defined as L 2 , and
the controller calculates the distance L 2 based on the relative position of the display device and the pupil of the observer, and controls the aperture amount W 1 of the aperture stop to satisfy W 1 ×L 2 =W 2 ×L 1 .

6. The display device according to claim 1 , wherein the controller calculates a distance between the spatial light modulator and the pupil of the observer based on the relative position of the display device and the pupil of the observer, and decreases a light quantity from the light source as the calculated distance increases.

7. The display device according to claim 1 , wherein
the spatial light modulator modulates light, deflected by the deflecting unit, by changing a transmittance of the spatial light modulator, and
the controller calculates a distance between the spatial light mo

Assignees

• Itoh Tatsuo
• Panasonic Ip Man Co Ltd

Inventors

• Itoh Tatsuo

Classifications

• H04N13/366

  using viewer tracking · CPC title

• G02B30/27

  involving lenticular arrays · CPC title

• G02B3/06

  with cylindrical or toric faces · CPC title

• G03B25/02

  with interposed lenticular or line screen · CPC title

• G03B21/2033

  LED or laser light sources · CPC title