Systems and methods for improving the brightness of a building-window transparent display using supplemental light sources that include ambient light collected by an array of diffraction gratings

A non-transitory computer-readable medium for improving the brightness of a transparent display and storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to control injection, into a transparent edge-lit liquid crystal waveguide display deployed in at least a portion of a window of a building, primary-source light and filtered ambient light, wherein:

• the primary-source light is generated using a light-emitting-diode (LED) light source that outputs, in a predetermined alternating manner, red, green, and blue light;
• ambient light is collected using an array of diffraction gratings disposed on an external surface of the building;
• the ambient light is filtered to produce the filtered ambient light, the filtered ambient light including red, green, and blue color components;
• the red, green, and blue color components of the filtered ambient light are time-synchronized with the red, green, and blue light, respectively, of the primary-source light;
• and
• the filtered ambient light improves the brightness of the transparent edge-lit liquid crystal waveguide display.

A method, comprising:

• collecting ambient light using an array of diffraction gratings disposed on an external surface of a building;
• filtering the ambient light to produce filtered ambient light, the filtered ambient light including red, green, and blue color components;
• generating primary-source light using a light-emitting-diode (LED) light source that outputs, in a predetermined alternating manner, red, green, and blue light;
• and
• injecting, into a transparent edge-lit liquid crystal waveguide display deployed in at least a portion of a window of the building, the primary-source light and the filtered ambient light, wherein the red, green, and blue color components of the filtered ambient light are time-synchronized with the red, green, and blue light, respectively, of the primary-source light and the filtered ambient light improves the brightness of the transparent edge-lit liquid crystal waveguide display.