Time-multiplexed backlight, multiview display, and method
AssigneeLeia Inc.
InventorDavid A. Fattal
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A time-multiplexed backlight and display employ a broad-angle backlight to provide broad-angle emitted light corresponding to a 2D portion of a displayed image, a multiview backlight to provide directional emitted light corresponding to a multiview portion of the displayed image, and a mode controller configured to time-multiplex the 2D portion and the multiview portion by activating the broad-angle backlight and the multiview backlight in sequential manner as a composite image.
Claims20
A time-multiplexed backlight comprising:
- a broad-angle backlight configured to provide broad-angle emitted light from an emission surface during a two-dimensional (2D) mode;
- a multiview backlight comprising an array of multibeam elements, each multibeam element of the multibeam element array being configured to provide a plurality of directional light beams having directions corresponding to different view directions of a multiview image during a multiview mode;
- and
- a mode controller configured to time-multiplex the 2D and multiview modes by sequentially activating the broad-angle backlight during a first time interval and the multiview backlight during a second time interval,
- wherein the multiview backlight is disposed adjacent to the emission surface of the broad-angle backlight and is transparent to the broad-angle emitted light during the 2D mode.
A time-multiplexed multiview display comprising:
- a broad-angle backlight configured to provide broad-angle emitted light;
- a multiview backlight comprising an array of multibeam elements, each multibeam element being configured to provide directional light beams having directions corresponding to different view directions of a multiview image;
- an array of light valves configured to modulate the broad-angle emitted light to provide a 2D image and to modulate the directional light beams to provide the multiview image;
- and
- a mode controller configured to sequentially activate the broad-angle backlight and the multiview backlight, the 2D image and multiview image being superimposed on the time-multiplexed multiview display as a composite image.
A method of operating a time-multiplexed backlight, the method comprising:
- providing broad-angle emitted light during a 2D mode using a broad-angle backlight;
- providing directional emitted light during a multiview mode using a multiview backlight having an array of multibeam elements, the directional emitted light comprising a plurality of directional light beams provided by each multibeam element of the multibeam element array;
- and
- time multiplexing the 2D and multiview modes using a mode controller to sequentially activate the broad-angle backlight during a first sequential time interval corresponding to the 2D mode and the multiview backlight during a second sequential time interval corresponding to the multiview mode,
- wherein directions of the plurality of directional light beams correspond to different view directions of a multiview image.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.