Display screen
AssigneeMicrosoft Technology Licensing, LLC
InventorsDavid Anthony Sweeney, Stephen Edward Hodges, Nicholas Yen-Cherng Chen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
There is provided a display screen configurable via optical signals to display an image. The display screen is formed of an optical waveguide having a display surface and supporting a plurality of pixels for displaying the image on the display surface of the optical waveguide. The optical waveguide is arranged to guide a multiplexed signal in optical form to a plurality of pixel controllers, each coupled to at least one of the pixels and configured to demultiplex the multiplexed signal and thereby extract a component signal associated with the at least one pixel for controlling it to render an element of the image.
Claims20
A display system comprising:
- an optical waveguide having a display surface;
- and
- a plurality of autonomous pixels configured to display an image on the display surface of the optical waveguide, the optical waveguide arranged to guide a multiplexed signal in optical form to a plurality of pixel controllers of the plurality of autonomous pixels, each autonomous pixel comprising:
- an assigned address that is hardcoded to the autonomous pixel;
- a display element;
- and
- a pixel controller arranged to:
- demultiplex the multiplexed signal,
- extract a component signal associated with the autonomous pixel based on demultiplexing the multiplexed signal,
- generate, entirely within the autonomous pixel, a control signal based on address bits of the component signal matching the assigned address of the autonomous pixel, and
- update a state of the display element based on the control signal to render
- an element of the image, and
- wherein:
- the plurality of autonomous pixels is randomly arranged such that the assigned address of an autonomous pixel is independent of a location of that autonomous pixel;
- the component signal further comprises one or more control bits configured to define an intended state of the autonomous pixel;
- the assigned address of the autonomous pixel comprises a same number of bits as the address bits of the component signal;
- and
- the pixel controller comprises a data-in circuitry with a same number of bits as the one or more control bits of the component signal.
A method of displaying an image on a display screen, the display screen formed of an optical waveguide having a display surface and supporting a plurality of autonomous pixels configured to display the image on the display surface of the optical waveguide, each autonomous pixel having an assigned address that is hardcoded to the autonomous pixel, the plurality of autonomous pixels being randomly arranged such that the assigned address of an autonomous pixel is independent of a location of that autonomous pixel, the method comprising:
- guiding a multiplexed signal in optical form to a plurality of pixel controllers of the plurality of autonomous pixels, via the optical waveguide;
- demultiplexing the multiplexed signal via a pixel controller of the plurality of pixel controllers;
- extracting a component signal associated with the autonomous pixel based on demultiplexing the multiplexed signal;
- generating, entirely within the autonomous pixel, a control signal based on address bits of the component signal matching the assigned address of the autonomous pixel;
- and
- updating a state of a display element of the autonomous pixel based on the control signal to render an element of the image wherein:
- the component signal further comprises one or more control bits configured to define an intended state of the autonomous pixel;
- and
- the assigned address of the autonomous pixel comprises a same number of bits as the address bits of the component signal and wherein the pixel controller comprises a data-in circuitry with a same number of bits as the one or more control bits of the component signal.
A display screen comprising:
- an optical waveguide having a display surface;
- and
- a plurality of autonomous pixels configured to display an image on the display surface of the optical waveguide,
- the optical waveguide being arranged to guide a multiplexed signal in optical form to a plurality of pixel controllers of the plurality of autonomous pixels,
- each autonomous pixel of the plurality of autonomous pixels comprising:
- an assigned address that is hardcoded to the autonomous pixel;
- a display element,
- a pixel controller arranged to:
- demultiplex the multiplexed signal,
- extract a component signal associated with the autonomous pixel based on demultiplexing the multiplexed signal,
- generate, entirely within the autonomous pixel, a control signal based on address bits of the component signal matching the assigned address of the autonomous pixel, and
- update a state of the display element based on the control signal to render an element of the image, and
- the plurality of autonomous pixels being randomly arranged such that the assigned address of an autonomous pixel is independent of a location of that autonomous pixel wherein:
- the component signal further comprises one or more control bits configured to define an intended state of the autonomous pixel;
- and
- the generating of the control signal further comprises pushing the one or more control bits to a digital-to-analogue converter (DAC) of the autonomous pixel.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.