Wide-field-of-view projection display
OwnerAdrian Robert Leigh Travis, Nathan Stuart Marstoninventors
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Abstract
A wide-field-of-view projection display comprises a circularly symmetric lens and an array of light emitters, positioned along the focal circumference of the circularly symmetric lens so that light from each of the light emitters is substantially collimated by the lens in a different direction. A ray-diverting means, such as a slab waveguide or a reflector, ejects the collimated light out of the plane of the lens to the viewer. The planar circularly symmetric lens has no aberration, allowing adjacent views to be seamlessly joined because they can all be diffused by the same angular amount.
Claims22
A flat-panel wide-field-of-view projection display comprising a disc-shaped, circularly symmetric lens collimating light from points in a focal circumference around the disc, and an array of light emitters positioned along the focal circumference of the circularly symmetric lens so that light rays from each of the light emitters are substantially collimated by the lens in the plane of the lens in a different direction from its neighboring light emitters and pass through the lens as a beam;
- a light modulator for modulating the rays;
- and a ray-diverting means upon which the collimated light impinges and which ejects said light out of the plane of the lens and towards a viewer.
A monocentric lens comprising a generally circular transparent disc defining two opposite faces joined by a cicumferential edge and whose thickness varies with radius in such a way that light can be injected into, the edge of the disc, at an angle slightly off the normal to the axis of the disc, and be totally internally reflected off the faces of the disc, emerging as a collimated beam from the set edge at location remote from the point of entry.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.