3D viewing with better performance in both lumen per watt and brightness

An autostereoscopic electronic display, comprising:

• a display layer upon which an image is projected, the image comprising a plurality of adjacent sets of right and left eye image areas;
• a parallax barrier situated between the display layer and a viewer, the parallax barrier comprising a plurality of separate parallax barrier areas each corresponding to one of the adjacent sets of right and left eye image areas;
• and
• a processing circuit configured to:
• determine a color difference between pixels of a right eye image area and corresponding pixels of a left eye image area of an individual set of the plurality of adjacent sets, wherein to determine the color difference, the processing circuit:
• compares a color scale value of each pixel in a plurality of pixels of the right eye image area to a color scale value of a corresponding pixel in a plurality of pixels of the left eye image area;
• and
• stores the color differences in a difference map;
• determine a second color difference between pixels of a second right eye image area and corresponding pixels of a second left eye image area, wherein the second right eye image area and the second left eye image area make up a
• second set of the plurality of sets, the second set corresponds to a second parallax barrier controlled independently of the parallax barrier, and is adjacent to the individual set;
• compare the color difference and the second color difference to a predefined difference threshold;
• control each parallax barrier area to block either its corresponding right or left eye image area from the viewer responsive to determining that the color difference between pixels of the right eye image area and corresponding pixels of the left eye image area is greater than or equal to a predefined difference threshold;
• control each parallax barrier area to display both of its corresponding right and left eye image areas to the viewer responsive to determining that the color difference and the second color difference are less than the predefined difference threshold;
• and
• conserve power resources responsive to determining that the color difference is less than the predefined difference threshold, wherein to conserve the power resources the processing circuit is configured to reduce a brightness of the right and left eye image areas.

Active shutter glasses that are synchronized with an electronic display to provide a three-dimensional view of the electronic display to a viewer, the active shutter glasses comprising:

• a right lens and a left lens through which an image projected from the electronic display may be viewed;
• a right lens parallax barrier and a left lens parallax barrier corresponding to the right lens and the left lens, respectively;
• and
• a processing circuit configured to:
• determine a color difference between pixels of a right eye image area of a plurality of right eye image areas and corresponding pixels of a left eye image area of a plurality of left eye image areas, wherein to determine the color difference the processing circuit:
• compares a color scale value of each pixel in a plurality of pixels of the right eye image area to a color scale value of a corresponding pixel in a plurality of pixels of the left eye image area, wherein different red, green, and blue values of each pixel are separately compared;
• and
• stores a largest difference between the respective red, green, and blue color values color differences in a difference map;
• determining a second color difference between pixels of a second right eye image area and corresponding pixels of a second left eye image area, wherein the second right eye image area and the second left eye image area make up a second set of the plurality of sets, the second set corresponds to a second parallax barrier controlled independently of the parallax barrier, and is adjacent to the first set;
• compare the largest color difference to a predefined difference threshold;
• control the parallax barriers to block viewing of either a right lens image area or a left lens image area responsive to determining that the color difference is greater than or equal to a predefined difference threshold;
• control the parallax barriers to permit viewing of the projected image through the right lens image area and the left lens image area simultaneously responsive to determining that the color difference is less than the predefined difference threshold;
• and
• conserve power resources responsive to determining that the largest color difference is less than the predefined difference threshold, wherein to conserve the power resources the processing circuit is configured to reduce a brightness of the right and left eye image areas.