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US 12,196,386 B2Granted
Display device
AssigneeOMRON Corporation
InventorsMasayuki Shinohara, Norikazu Kitamura
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A light guide plate guides light from a light source to form an image in a space, and includes a light introduction portion and a light emitting portion. Light from the light source is incident on the light introduction portion. The light emitting portion includes a curved emission surface that emits light from the light source incident from the light introduction portion, and is bent and connected to the light introduction portion.
Claims16
A light guide plate configured to guide light from a light source to form a three-dimensional image in space, the light guide plate comprising:
- a light introduction portion into which light from the light source is introduced, the light introduction portion including a first portion and a second portion bent from the first portion;
- and
- a light emitting portion extending in a first direction crossing the light introduction portion and being positioned to receive from the light introduction portion reflected light from the light source, the light emitting portion connected to the second portion of the light introduction portion and being configured to emit from an emission surface thereof the light from the light source that has been received from the light introduction portion toward a region in space in front of the emission surface, the light emitting portion being curved in an arc when viewed from the first direction and the light emitting portion being configured to cause the light emitted therefrom to converge at a plurality of fixed points in said region in space in front of the emission surface, whereby the three-dimensional image is formed in the region of space in front of the emission surface from converged light,
- wherein the light introduction portion has a curved shape in an arc along the light emitting portion when viewed from the first direction, the light introduction portion including an incident portion that receives the light from the light source and a reflecting portion that reflects the light from the light source incident from the incident portion, and
- the light emitting portion has optical structure that receives and directs some of the light reflected by the reflecting portion toward positions along the emission surface, such that the emission surface emits the light as a focused three-dimensional image within the space.
2 more elements
A curved light guide device that is configured to produce a three-dimensional image, comprising:
- an image-forming light-emitting portion;
- and
- a light-introduction portion by which light is introduced into the light-emitting portion;
- wherein the light-emitting portion is formed as a plate-shaped light guide that is curved out-of-plane in a thickness direction thereof, the light-emitting portion including a plurality of optical elements that are disposed to cause light that is travelling within the light-emitting portion to be reflected out of the light-emitting portion and to converge at a plurality of points in a region of space in front of the light-emitting portion, whereby the three-dimensional image is formed in said region of space in front of the light-emitting portion from converged light;
- the light-introduction portion is formed as a plate-shaped light guide that is oriented transversely relative to the light-emitting portion, the light-introduction portion having a light incidence surface by which light is introduced into the light-introduction portion and a reflection portion that is located across the light-introduction portion from the light incidence surface, the reflection portion being configured to reflect light travelling within the light-introduction portion out-of-plane relative to the light-introduction portion;
- and
- the light-introduction portion is positioned relative to the light-emitting portion, with the reflection portion of the light-introduction portion curving to match the out-of-plane curvature of the light-emitting portion, so that light introduced into the light-introduction portion via the light incidence surface is reflected out of the light-introduction portion and into the light-emitting portion, then out of the light-emitting portion to form the three-dimensional image in the region of space in front of the light-emitting portion.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.