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US 8,132,920 B2Granted
Thin microprojector with switched beam bender and method of operating the same
AssigneeMotorola Mobility LLC
InventorsZili Li, Xiaodong Xun
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A video projector includes a reduced size spatial light modulator (400) that spatially modulates light from a light source (502) according to only a portion (e.g., ½) of a video frame at a time. A beam steerer (508, 600, 1600) steers spatially modulated light from the spatial light modulator to a correspond region (e.g., upper half, lower half) of a projection screen/surface (512) and one or more lenses (506, 510, 702, 802, 1002, 1008, 1100, 1300, 1502) insure that the spatially light modulator (400) is imaged onto the projection screen/surface (512).
Claims15
A projector comprising:
- a light source:
- a spatial light modulator optically coupled to the light source whereby said spatial light modulator receives light from said light source and wherein said spatial light modulator is adapted to produce spatially modulated light;
- an imaging optical device optically coupled to said spatial light modulator, wherein said imaging optical device comprises an object plane and receives said spatially modulated light from said spatial light modulator, and wherein said imaging optical device is adapted to image said spatially modulated light;
- a beam steerer arranged to intercept said spatially modulated light, wherein said beam steerer is adapted to steer said spatially modulated light;
- a controller coupled to said spatial light modulator and said beam steerer, wherein said controller is adapted to drive said spatial light modulator according to a first portion of a video frame while driving said beam steerer to steer said spatially modulated light in a first direction, and to drive said spatial light modulator according to a second portion of said video frame while driving said beam steerer to steer said spatially modulated light in a second direction;
- and
- a relay lens disposed between said spatial light modulator and said imaging optical device;
- wherein, said relay lens has a object plane located at said spatial light modulator and an image plane that is coincident with said object plane of said imaging optical device.
5 more elements
A projector comprising:
- a light source:
- a spatial light modulator optically coupled to the light source whereby said spatial light modulator receives light from said light source and wherein said spatial light modulator is adapted to produce spatially modulated light;
- an imaging optical device optically coupled to said spatial light modulator, wherein said imaging optical device receives said spatially modulated light from said spatial light modulator and wherein said imaging optical device is adapted to image said spatially modulated light;
- a beam steerer comprising an electrowetting prism, the beam stearer arranged to intercept said spatially modulated light, wherein said beam steerer is adapted to steer said spatially modulated light;
- a controller coupled to said spatial light modulator and said beam steerer, wherein said controller is adapted to drive said spatial light modulator according to a first portion of a video frame while driving said beam steerer to steer said spatially modulated light in a first direction, and to drive said spatial light modulator according to a second portion of said video frame while driving said beam steerer to steer said spatially modulated light in a second direction.
2 more elements
A method of projecting an image comprising:
- during each of a sequence of sub-periods of a frame duration, spatially modulating light to form a spatially modulated light beam that includes a plurality of pixels but less than a complete frame of pixels;
- during each of the sequence of sub-periods steering the spatially modulated light beam so that it is projected to a sub-region of said complete frame of pixels that includes said plurality of pixels.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.