HK1161754B

HK1161754B - Display system and display method with a visual plane

Info

Publication number: HK1161754B
Application number: HK12102171.3A
Authority: HK
Inventors: 詹姆士‧D‧贝内特; 吉汉‧卡若古
Original assignee: 美国博通公司
Priority date: 2009-12-31
Filing date: 2012-03-02
Publication date: 2014-09-05

Description

Display system with one view plane and display method

Technical Field

The present invention relates to three-dimensional image display, and more particularly, to a display system having a viewing plane and a display method.

Background

The generated image may be displayed in various forms. For example, a Television (TV) is a widely used electronic communication medium that is used to transmit and display images in black and white (black and white) or color. Traditionally, images are provided in analog form and displayed in two-dimensional form by a display device. Later, images were provided in digital form for display in two-dimensional form on display devices with higher resolution (e.g., high definition or HD). Recently, images that can be displayed in a three-dimensional form are being generated.

Existing displays may use a number of techniques to achieve three-dimensional image viewing functionality. For example, various types of glasses have been developed to be worn by a user to view a three-dimensional image displayed by an existing display. Examples of such glasses may include glasses that utilize color filters or polarizing filters. In each of the above cases, the lenses of the glasses deliver two-dimensional images of different angles to the left and right eyes of the user. These images are combined at the visual center of the user's brain and perceived as a three-dimensional image. In another example, synchronized left and right eye LCD (liquid crystal display) shutter glasses may be used with existing two-dimensional displays to create a three-dimensional viewing effect. In another example, LCD display glasses may be used to display a three-dimensional image to a user. The lenses of the LCD display glasses include respective displays that can provide images at different angles to the eyes of the user, which in turn are perceived by the user as a three-dimensional effect.

These techniques for viewing three-dimensional images also present some problems. For example, people viewing three-dimensional images using these displays and systems may experience headaches, eye strain, and/or nausea when viewed for extended periods of time. In addition, some content, such as two-dimensional text, may be difficult to read and parse when displayed in three dimensions. To address these problems, some manufacturers have produced display devices that can switch between three-dimensional viewing and two-dimensional viewing. This type of display device may switch to a three-dimensional mode when viewing three-dimensional images and to a two-dimensional mode when viewing two-dimensional images (and/or provide a pause in the viewing of three-dimensional images).

A parallax barrier (parallax barrier) is another example of a device capable of displaying an image in a three-dimensional form. The parallax barrier comprises a layer of material having a series of precision apertures. The parallax barrier is arranged close to the display so that the eyes of the user can see different pixels respectively to create a sense of depth by parallax. One disadvantage of parallax barriers is that the viewer must be in a well-defined position in order to experience the three-dimensional effect. If the viewer's eyes are away from this "optimal viewpoint," this may result in a perception of image flipping and/or aggravation of eye strain, headaches, and nausea associated with sustained three-dimensional image viewing. Three-dimensional displays that traditionally utilize parallax barriers are also limited by the two-dimensional image pattern or three-dimensional image pattern that must be complete at any one time.

Disclosure of Invention

The present invention provides a method, system and apparatus for a display capable of simultaneously transmitting one or more two-dimensional views and/or one or more three-dimensional images to a plurality of viewers within a viewing space, substantially as shown in and/or described in connection with at least one of the figures, as set forth more completely in the claims.

According to one aspect, the present invention provides a display system having a viewing plane, the display system supporting a first media content of a first viewer and a second media content of a second viewer, at least one of the first media content and the second media content including three-dimensional image data, the display system comprising:

a plurality of display pixels to at least assist in simultaneously generating light corresponding to the first media content and the second media content;

a first light manipulator; and

a second light manipulator;

the first and second light operators are collectively configured to deliver the first media content to the first viewer but not to the second viewer through a first region of the one plane of view, while delivering the second media content to the second viewer but not to the first viewer through a second region of the one plane of view, with the first and second regions at least partially overlapping.

Preferably, the first light manipulator comprises a plurality of grating units arranged in a grating unit array, each grating unit in the grating unit array having a blocking state and a non-blocking state, the grating unit array having a plurality of grating unit strips of grating units selected to be in the non-blocking state to form a plurality of non-blocking strips.

Preferably, the second light manipulator comprises a plurality of second grating units arranged in a second grating unit array having a plurality of second grating unit strips of grating units selected to be in a non-blocking state to form a plurality of second non-blocking strips.

Preferably, the plurality of first non-blocking stripes of the first grating unit array comprise a plurality of sets of non-blocking stripes, the second parallax grating comprises a plurality of second non-blocking stripes, and the plurality of second non-blocking stripes comprise non-blocking stripes corresponding to each of the plurality of sets of non-blocking stripes.

Preferably, the second light manipulator is a convex lens adjacent to the array of grating elements, the convex lens comprising an array of sub-lenses.

Preferably, the first light manipulator is a first convex lens and the second light manipulator is a second convex lens.

Preferably, at least one of the first convex lens or the second convex lens is elastic.

Preferably, the first light manipulator is a convex lens and the second light manipulator comprises an array of grating elements.

Preferably, the first and second light operators are located between the plurality of display pixels and the viewing space.

Preferably, the plurality of display pixels are located between the first and second light operators.

Preferably, the plurality of display pixels are located between the first and second light operators and a viewing space.

Preferably, the display system further comprises:

a backlight panel, wherein the first light manipulator, second light manipulator, and the plurality of display pixels are located between the backlight panel and a viewing space.

According to one aspect, the present invention provides a method for supporting first media content of a first viewer and second media content of a second viewer within a viewing plane, at least one of the first media content and the second media content comprising three-dimensional image data, the method comprising:

generating light corresponding to the first media content and the second media content with at least the assistance of a plurality of display pixels;

simultaneously transmitting the first media content to the first viewer and the second media content to the second viewer, the first media content being delivered to the first viewer but not to the second viewer via a first region of the one plane of view, the second media content being delivered to the second viewer but not to the first viewer via a second region of the one plane of view, and the first region and the second region being at least partially coincident.

Preferably, the first optical operator comprises a plurality of grating units arranged in a grating unit array, each grating unit in the grating unit array having a blocking state and a non-blocking state, the grating unit array having a plurality of grating unit bands of grating units selected to be in the non-blocking state to form a plurality of non-blocking bands, wherein the simultaneously transmitting the first media content to the first viewer and the second media content to the second viewer comprises:

filtering the generated light with an array of grating elements.

Preferably, the second light manipulator comprises a plurality of second grating elements arranged in a second grating element array having a plurality of second grating element strips of grating elements selected to be in a non-blocking state to form a plurality of second non-blocking strips, wherein the simultaneously transmitting the first media content to the first viewer and the second media content to the second viewer further comprises:

filtering the filtered light with the second array of grating elements.

Preferably, the second optical operator is a convex lens proximate to the array of grating elements, the convex lens comprising an array of sub-lenses, wherein the simultaneously sending the first media content to the first viewer and the second media content to the second viewer further comprises:

filtering the filtered light with the array of sub-lenses.

Preferably, the first light operator is a first convex lens and the second light operator is a second convex lens, wherein the simultaneously transmitting the first media content to the first viewer and the second media content to the second viewer further comprises:

filtering the generated light with the first convex lens; and

filtering the filtered light with the second convex lens.

Preferably, at least one of the first convex lens or the second convex lens is elastic, the method further comprising:

adjusting a range of at least one of the elastic first convex lens or the second convex lens.

Preferably, the first optical operator is a convex lens and the second optical operator comprises an array of grating elements, wherein the simultaneously transmitting the first media content to the first viewer and the second media content to the second viewer further comprises:

filtering the generated light with the convex lens; and

filtering the filtered light with the array of grating elements.

Preferably, the first and second light operators are located between the plurality of display pixels and a viewing space, wherein the generating light corresponding to the first media content and the second media content with at least the assistance of the plurality of display pixels comprises:

generating the light corresponding to the first media content and the second media content with the plurality of display pixels.

Preferably, the generating light corresponding to the first media content and the second media content at least with the assistance of a plurality of display pixels comprises:

generating light with a backlight; and

filtering the generated light with the plurality of display pixels to produce the light corresponding to the first media content and the second media content.

a light operator for controlling the delivery of said generated light to cause said first media content to be delivered to said first viewer and not to said second viewer via a first region of said one plane of view while causing said second media content to be delivered to said second viewer and not to said first viewer via a second region of said one plane of view; and

the first region and the second region at least partially coincide.

Preferably, the light operator is configured to transmit the first media content to the first viewer as a first two-dimensional view and is configured to transmit the second media content to the second viewer as a second two-dimensional view.

Preferably, the light operator is configured to transmit the first media content as a two-dimensional view to the first viewer and is configured to transmit the second media content as a three-dimensional view to the second viewer.

Preferably, the light operator is configured to transmit the first media content to the first viewer as a first three-dimensional view and is configured to transmit the second media content to the second viewer as a second three-dimensional view.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein and form a part of the specification, illustrate the present invention and, together with the description, further serve to explain the principles of the invention and to enable a person skilled in the pertinent art to make and use the invention.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a display system according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIGS. 2A and 2B are block diagrams of examples of the display system shown in FIG. 1 according to embodiments of the invention;

fig. 3 is a schematic view of a surface of a parallax barrier according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 4 and 5 are schematic diagrams of grating elements of an array of grating elements selected to be transparent and opaque, respectively, according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of generating a three-dimensional image according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of an example of a display system according to one embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 8A and 8B are schematic diagrams of exemplary parallax barriers with non-blocking apertures according to embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a grating array controller according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary display system configured to generate three-dimensional images in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a schematic view of the display system of FIG. 7 providing a three-dimensional image to a user in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a schematic illustration of a process of forming a two-dimensional image according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 13 is a schematic illustration of a process of forming a plurality of two-dimensional images according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram of a display system providing two-dimensional images viewable by a first viewer and a second viewer, respectively, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 15 is a flow diagram for generating a plurality of three-dimensional images according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 16 is a cross-sectional view of an example of the display system shown in FIG. 2 according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 17 is a schematic view of a surface of a pixel array according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 18 is a flow diagram for generating a plurality of three-dimensional images using a plurality of light manipulator layers, according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 19 is a block diagram of a display system according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 20 is a block diagram of a display system of one example of the display system shown in FIG. 19, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 21 and 22 are cross-sectional views of a display system according to one embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 23 is a schematic diagram of a first parallax barrier of a pair of parallax barriers according to one embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 24 is a schematic diagram of a second parallax barrier of a pair of parallax barriers according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 25 is a block diagram of a display system of one example of the display system shown in FIG. 19, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 26A and 26B are schematic diagrams of a convex lens according to one embodiment of the invention;

27-31 are block diagrams of display systems of examples of the display system shown in FIG. 19, according to embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 32 is a block diagram of a display environment in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 33 is a block diagram of a remote control device in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 34 is a block diagram of a headset according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 35 is a block diagram of a display device according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 36 is a block diagram of an exemplary display controller according to one embodiment of the invention.

The present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, like reference numbers may indicate similar elements in form or function. Additionally, the left-most digit(s) of a reference number may indicate the figure in which the reference number first appears.

Detailed Description

I. Brief introduction to the drawings

This specification discloses at least one embodiment that incorporates features of the invention. The disclosed embodiments are merely illustrative of the invention. The scope of the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. The invention is defined by the claims set out above.

References in the specification to "one embodiment," "an example embodiment," etc., indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but every embodiment may not necessarily include the feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to effect such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitly described.

Further, it should be understood that the spatial descriptions used herein (e.g., "… … above," "… … below," "upper," "left," "right," "lower," "top," "bottom," "vertical," "horizontal," etc.) are for illustrative purposes only, and that actual embodiments of the structures described herein may be spatially arranged in any direction or manner.

Exemplary embodiments

Various embodiments of the present invention are directed to a display device for presenting media content to a plurality of viewers in a viewing space in a manner that allows each viewer to view the corresponding media content without interference from the views of the other viewers. The display device comprises one or more light operators, such as a parallax barrier and/or a convex lens, for presenting the media content to the eyes of a viewer in the form of an image or view. In various embodiments, the light operators may be dynamically adjusted to change the presentation of the views. For example, in these embodiments, the light manipulator is adapted to provide viewer-optimal viewpoint changes, switching between two-dimensional (2D), stereoscopic three-dimensional (3D), and multi-view three-dimensional views, and simultaneous display of two-dimensional, stereoscopic three-dimensional, and multi-view three-dimensional content. For parallax barriers, exemplary features that may be dynamically adjusted include at least one of: the number of slits in the parallax barrier, the diameter of each slit, the spacing between the slits, and the direction of the slits. The apertures of the parallax barrier associated with a certain area of the screen may also be switched on or off to provide a synchronized mixed two-dimensional, stereoscopic three-dimensional and multi-view three-dimensional display. Likewise, the convex lens may be dynamically adjusted, for example by adjusting the width of the convex lens, in order to adjust the rendered image.

The following subsections describe various exemplary embodiments of the present invention. For example, the next subsection describes an embodiment where views are presented using one light manipulator, and the following subsections describe embodiments where views are presented using multiple light manipulators. The following subsections describe exemplary display environments.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present invention should not be limited by any of the exemplary embodiments described herein.

A. Exemplary embodiment for presenting views Using one light operator

In embodiments, the display device may comprise an adaptive image filter or light manipulator, such as a parallax barrier or a lenticular lens, in order to enable various display functions. For example, FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a display system 100 according to one embodiment of the invention. As shown in fig. 1, system 100 includes a display device 112. The display device 112 is capable of displaying two-dimensional and three-dimensional images. As shown in fig. 1, the display device 112 includes an image generator 102 and a parallax barrier 104. Further, as shown in FIG. 1, the image generator 102 includes a pixel array 114 and optionally a backlight 116. The image generator 102 and the parallax barrier 104 are used to generate two-dimensional and/or three-dimensional images viewable by a user/viewer within the viewing space 106. Although the parallax barrier 104 is shown in fig. 1 as being located between the image generator 102 and the viewing space 106, as will be described further below, the parallax barrier 104 may alternatively be located between portions of the image generator 102 (e.g., between the pixel array 114 and the backlight 116). Further, for illustrative purposes, the display device 112 is described with the parallax barrier 104 as a light operator, and it is also noted that in alternative embodiments, a convex lens may be used in place of the parallax barrier 104.

In the presence of the backlight 116, light emitted by the backlight 116 is filtered by the parallax barrier 104 and the filtered light is received by the pixel array 114, and the pixel array 114 loads image information on the filtered light by performing further filtering. When the backlight 116 is not present, the pixel array 114 may be configured to emit light containing image information, and the emitted light is filtered by the parallax barrier 104. The parallax barrier 104 operates as an image filter or "light manipulator" to filter received light with a plurality of barrier elements (also referred to as "blocking regions"), which may be substantially transparent or opaque as selected, to generate a three-dimensional image from the image information provided by the pixel array 114. The image information may include one or more still images, moving (e.g., video) images, and the like. As shown in fig. 1, the image generator 102 and the parallax barrier 104 generate filtered light 110. For example, the filtered light 110 may include one or more two-dimensional images and/or three-dimensional images (e.g., formed by a pair of two-dimensional images in the filtered light 110). The filtered light is received in the viewing space 106 proximate to the display device 112. One or more users may be present in the viewing space 106 to view the images contained in the filtered light 110. The display device 112 has only one viewing plane or surface (e.g., the plane or surface of the pixel array 114, the plane or surface of the parallax barrier 104) that supports media content in the form of images or views to one or more viewers. The one plane of view of the display device 112 may support multiple views or images, where each view or image is based on corresponding media content.

The display device 112 may be implemented in various ways. For example, the display device 112 may be a television display (e.g., an LCD (liquid crystal display) television, a plasma television, etc.), a computer display, or any other type of display device. The image generator 102 may be any suitable type or combination of light and image generating device, including an LCD screen, a plasma screen, an LED (light emitting diode) screen (e.g., an OLED (organic light emitting diode) screen), and the like. The parallax barrier 104 may be any suitable optical filtering device, including an LCD filter, a mechanical filter (e.g., comprising independently controllable shutters), etc., and may be configured in any manner, including as a thin film device (e.g., formed from a stack of thin film layers), etc. The backlight 116 may be any suitable light emitting device, including an LED panel or other light emitting device.

FIG. 2A is a block diagram of a display system 200 of one example of the display system 100 shown in FIG. 1, according to an embodiment of the invention. As shown in fig. 2A, the system 200 includes a display device controller 202 and a display device 250 (which includes the image generator 102 and the parallax barrier 104). Display device 250 is one example of display device 112 shown in FIG. 1. As shown in fig. 2A, the image generator 102 includes a pixel array 208 (which is an example of the pixel array 114 shown in fig. 1), and a parallax barrier 104 having a barrier cell array 210. Further, as shown in FIG. 2A, display controller 202 includes a pixel array controller 204 and a raster array controller 206. These features of system 200 will be described below.

Pixel array 208 includes a two-dimensional array of pixels (e.g., arranged in a grid or other distribution). The pixel array 208 is a self-emissive or photo-generating pixel array, such that each pixel of the pixel array 208 emits light contained in light 252, the light 252 being emitted from the image generator 102. Each pixel may be an individually addressable light source (e.g., a plasma display, an LCD display, a LED display such as a pixel of an OLED display, or other type of display). Each pixel of the pixel array 208 may be individually controllable to vary color and density. In one embodiment, each pixel of pixel array 208 may include a plurality of sub-pixels corresponding to separate color channels, such as three sub-pixels of red, green, and blue contained in each pixel.

The parallax barrier 104 is close to the surface of the pixel array 208. The grating unit array 210 is a layer of the parallax grating 104, and includes a plurality of grating units or barrier regions arranged in an array. Each grating element in the array is configured to be selectively transparent or opaque. For example, fig. 3 shows a parallax barrier 300 according to one embodiment of the present invention. The parallax barrier 300 is an example of the parallax barrier 104 shown in fig. 2A. As shown in fig. 3, the parallax barrier 300 includes a barrier cell array 302. The grating unit array 302 includes a plurality of grating units 304 arranged in a two-dimensional array (e.g., arranged in a grid), but may also include grating units 304 arranged in other manners in other embodiments. Each raster unit 304 may be a pixel of an LCD, a movable mechanical unit (e.g., a hinged door that can pass light in a first direction and block light in a second direction), a magnetic drive unit, or other suitable raster unit. Each grating element 304 shown in fig. 3 is rectangular in shape (e.g., square), but may have other shapes in other embodiments.

For example, in one embodiment, each grating element 304 may have a "ribbon" shape, extending the vertical length of grating element array 302, such that grating element array 302 has only one horizontal row of grating elements 304. Each grating element 304 may include one or more such bands, and different portions of the grating element array 302 may include grating elements 304 having different numbers of such bands. One advantage of this configuration is that there need not be a pitch between grating elements 304 that extend beyond the vertical length of grating element array 302, as there is no need to drive signal routing in this pitch. For example, in a two-dimensional LCD array configuration, such as a TFT (thin film transistor) display, transistor and capacitor circuits are typically placed in the corners of one pixel in the array, and the control signals for the transistors are routed between the LCD pixels (e.g., row-column control). In the pixel configuration of the parallax barrier, local transistor control is not necessary, as the barrier unit 304 does not need to change as quickly as the display pixels (e.g., pixels of the pixel array 208). For a row of vertical strips of raster units 304, control signals may be routed to the top and/or bottom of raster units 304. Because in this configuration no control signal transfer between the rows is required, the vertical strips may be arranged next to each other with little to no spacing between them. Thus, if the vertical bands are thin and arranged edge-to-edge, one or more adjacent bands (e.g., 5 bands) may include grating elements 304 in the blocking state, the next one or more adjacent bands (e.g., two bands) include grating elements 304 in the non-blocking state (slits), and so on. In the example of five strips in the blocking state and two strips in the non-blocking state, the five strips may be combined to provide a black grid cell having a width of about 2.5 times that of a clear gap without a space.

The grating element array 302 may include any number of grating elements 304. For example, in fig. 3, grating unit array 302 includes 28 grating units 304 in the x-direction and includes 20 grating units 304 in the y-direction, for a total of 560 grating units 304. However, the size of the grating cell array 302 and the total number of grating cells 304 of the grating cell array 302 shown in fig. 3 are provided for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to be limiting. The grating element array 302 may include any number of grating elements 304 and may have any array size, including a number, tens, hundreds, or even larger number of grating elements 304 in the x-direction and the y-direction. The grating element array 302 shown in fig. 3 is merely to illustrate a larger grating array than the embodiment of the parallax grating 104. In an embodiment, the width of one raster cell in the array of raster cells may be a multiple or divisor of the corresponding display pixel width (e.g., the pixel width of pixel array 114). Likewise, the number of columns/rows in the array of raster cells may be a multiple or divisor of the corresponding number of columns/rows of pixels in the corresponding array of pixels.

Each grating element 304 of grating element array 302 may be selected to be substantially transparent or opaque. For example, FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a grating element 304x selected to be substantially transparent according to an embodiment of the invention, and FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a grating element 304x when selected to be substantially opaque according to an embodiment of the invention. When the raster unit 304x is selected to be transparent, light 252 from the pixel array 208 may pass through the raster unit 304x (e.g., to the viewing space 106). When the raster unit 304x is selected to be opaque, light 252 from the pixel array 208 is blocked as it passes through the raster unit 304 x. By selecting some of the grating cells 304 of the grating cell array 302 to be transparent and some of the grating cells 304 of the grating cell array 302 to be opaque, the light 252 received at the grating cell array 302 may be filtered to generate filtered light 110. Note that in some embodiments, the raster unit can be completely transparent or opaque, while in other embodiments, the raster unit cannot be completely transparent or opaque. For example, the grating elements may be 95% transparent when referred to as "transparent" and 5% transparent when referred to as "opaque". As used herein, "transparent" and "opaque" are intended to include grating elements that are substantially transparent (e.g., greater than 75% transparency, including complete transparency) and substantially opaque (e.g., less than 25% transparency, including complete opacity), respectively.

Display controller 202 is configured to generate control signals for display device 250 to display two-dimensional and three-dimensional images to user 218 within viewing space 106. For example, the pixel array controller 204 is configured to generate a control signal 214, the control signal 214 being received by the pixel array 208. The control signals 214 may include one or more control signals for causing the pixels of the pixel array 208 to emit light 252 having a particular desired color and/or density. The grating array controller 206 is configured to generate a control signal 216, the control signal 216 being received by the grating cell array 210. Control signals 216 may include one or more control signals for making each grating element 304 of grating element array 302 transparent or opaque. In this manner, the array of grating elements 210 filters the light 252 to generate filtered light 110, the filtered light 110 including one or more two-dimensional and/or three-dimensional images viewable by the user 218 within the viewing space 106.

For example, control signals 214 may control groups of pixels of pixel array 208 such that each group of pixels emits light representing a respective image to provide multiple images. The control signal 216 may control the raster units 304 of the raster unit array 210 to filter the light received from the pixel array 208 in accordance with the provided image such that the user 218 receives one or more images in two-dimensional form. For example, control signals 216 may select one or more groups of raster elements 304 of raster element array 302 to be transparent in order to send one or more corresponding two-dimensional images or views to user 218. Further, the control signals 216 may control the sub-portions of the grating cell array 210 to include opaque and transparent grating cells 304 in order to filter the light received from the pixel array 208 such that the one or more pairs of images or views provided by the pixel array 208 are received by the user 218 as respective three-dimensional images or views, respectively. For example, control signals 216 may select the parallel strips of raster cells 304 of raster cell array 302 to be transparent to form apertures that enable user 218 to receive a three-dimensional image.

In an embodiment, control signal 216 may be generated by grating array controller 206 to configure one or more features of grating element array 210. For example, control signals 216 may be generated to make any number of parallel strip grating elements 304 of grating element array 302 transparent, to adjust the number and/or spacing of transparent parallel strip grating elements 304 of grating element array 302, to select and/or adjust the width and/or length (in grating elements 304) of transparent or opaque strip or strip grating elements 304 of grating element array 302, to select and/or adjust the orientation of transparent strip or strip grating elements 304 of grating element array 302, to select one or more regions of grating element array 302 as all transparent or opaque grating elements 304, and so forth.

FIG. 2B is a block diagram of a display system 220 of another example of the display system 100 shown in FIG. 1, according to an embodiment of the invention. As shown in fig. 2B, the system 220 includes a display device controller 202 and a display device 260, the display device 260 including a pixel array 222, a parallax barrier 104, and a backlight 116. Display device 260 is one example of display device 112 shown in FIG. 1. As shown in fig. 2B, the parallax barrier 104 includes a barrier cell array 210 and a backlight 116 having a light emitting cell array 236. Further, the display controller 202 includes a pixel array controller 228, a grating array controller 206, and a light source controller 230. Although separated by the parallax barrier 104 in fig. 2B, the pixel array 222 and the backlight form one example of the image generator shown in fig. 1. These features of system 220 are described below.

The backlight 116 is a backlight panel for emitting light 238. The array of light-emitting cells 236 (or "backlight array") of the backlight 116 comprises a two-dimensional array of light sources. The light sources may be arranged in the form of, for example, a rectangular grid. Each light source in the array of light-emitting cells 236 is individually addressable and controllable to select an amount of emitted light. Depending on the implementation, one light source may comprise one or more light emitting units. In one embodiment, each light source in the light emitting cell array 236 may include a Light Emitting Diode (LED), but this example is not intended to be limiting.

The parallax barrier 104 is adjacent to a surface of the backlight 116 (e.g., a surface of a backlight plate). As described above, the grating unit array 210 is a layer of the parallax grating 104, which includes a plurality of grating units or barrier regions arranged in an array. Each grating element of the array is configured to be selectively opaque or transparent. As described above, fig. 3 shows a parallax barrier 300, which is an example of the parallax barrier 104 shown in fig. 2B. The array of grating units 210 filters light 238 received from the backlight 116 to generate filtered light 240. The filtered light 240 is configured to form a two-dimensional image or a three-dimensional image (e.g., formed by a pair of two-dimensional images in the filtered light 110) from the image subsequently loaded on the filtered light 240 by the pixel array 222.

Similar to the pixel array 208 shown in FIG. 2A, the pixel array 222 shown in FIG. 2B includes a two-dimensional array of pixels (arranged in a grid or other distribution). The pixel array 222 is not self-emissive, but is an optical filter for loading an image (e.g., in the form of color, grayscale, etc.) on the filtered light 240 from the parallax barrier 104 to generate filtered light 110 containing one or more images. Each pixel of pixel array 222 may be an individually addressable filter (e.g., a pixel of a plasma display, LCD display, or other type of display). Each pixel of the pixel array 208 may be independently controllable to change the color loading on the respective light passing therethrough and/or to change the density of light that has passed in the filtered light 110. In one embodiment, each pixel of pixel array 222 may include a plurality of sub-pixels, each sub-pixel corresponding to a separate color channel, such as three sub-pixels of red, green, and blue contained in each pixel.

The display controller 202 shown in fig. 2B is configured to generate control signals for the display device 260 to display two-dimensional and three-dimensional images to the user 218 within the viewing space 106. For example, light source controller 230 in display controller 202 controls the amount of light emitted by each light source in light unit array 236 by generating control signals 234 received by light unit array 236. The control signals 234 may include one or more control signals for controlling the amount of light emitted by each light source in the array of light units 236 to generate light 238. As described above, the grating array controller 206 is configured to generate the control signal 216 received by the grating cell array 210. Control signals 216 may include one or more control signals for making grating elements 304 of grating element array 302 transparent or opaque to filter light 238 to generate filtered light 240. The pixel array controller 228 is configured to generate control signals 232 that are received by the pixel array 222. The control signals 232 may include one or more control signals for causing the pixels of the pixel array 222 to load a desired image (e.g., color, grayscale, etc.) on the filtered light 240 as the filtered light 240 passes through the pixel array 222. In this manner, pixel array 222 may generate filtered light 110 comprising one or more two-dimensional and/or three-dimensional images viewable by users 218 within viewing space 106.

For example, the control signals 234 may control a group of light sources of the light unit array 236 to emit light 238. The control signal 216 may control the grating elements 304 of the grating element array 210 to filter the light 238 received from the light element array 236 to form filtered light 240 to enable a two-dimensional and/or three-dimensional display. The control signals 232 may control the pixel groups of the pixel array 222 to filter the filtered light 240 according to the respective images to provide a plurality of images. For example, control signals 216 may select one or more groups of raster elements 304 of raster element array 302 to be transparent in order to present one or more corresponding two-dimensional images to user 218. Further, the control signals 216 may control sub-portions of the array of grating elements 210 to include opaque and transparent grating elements 304 to filter light received from the array of light elements 236 such that one or more pairs of images provided by the array of pixels 222 are each received by the user 218 as a corresponding three-dimensional image. For example, control signals 216 may select the parallel strips of raster cells 304 of raster cell array 302 to be transparent to form apertures that enable user 218 to receive a three-dimensional image.

In embodiments, the two-dimensional and three-dimensional images may be generated by the system 100 shown in FIG. 1 in various ways. For example, FIG. 6 is a flow diagram 600 for generating an image for transmission to a user within a viewing space, according to one embodiment of the invention. Flowchart 600 may be performed by, for example, system 200 shown in FIG. 2A or system 220 shown in FIG. 2B. The flowchart 600 is described with reference to fig. 7, and fig. 7 is a cross-sectional view of the display system 700. Display system 700 is an exemplary embodiment of system 200 shown in fig. 2A and is for illustration only. As shown in fig. 7, system 700 includes a pixel array 702 and a grating element array 704. In another embodiment, the system 700 may further include a backlight in a configuration similar to the display system 220 shown in FIG. 2B. Further structural and functional embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the description of flowchart 600. Flowchart 600 will be described below.

Flowchart 600 begins with step 602. In step 602, an array of grating elements receives light. For example, as shown in fig. 2A, light 252 from the pixel array 208 of the image generator 102 is received at the parallax barrier 104. Each pixel of the pixel array 208 may generate light that is received by the parallax barrier 104. Depending on the particular display mode of the parallax barrier 104, the parallax barrier 104 may filter the light 252 from the pixel array 208 to generate a two-dimensional image or a three-dimensional image that may be viewed by the user 218 within the viewing space 106. As described with reference to fig. 2B, alternatively, the light 238 may be received by the parallax barrier 104 from the light emitting cell array 236.

At step 604, a first set of raster cells of the array of raster cells is configured in a blocking state and a second set of raster cells of the array of raster cells is configured in a non-blocking state to transmit the three-dimensional view to a viewer. Three-dimensional image content may be provided for viewing in viewing space 106. In this case, referring to fig. 2A or 2B, the grating array controller 206 may generate control signals 216 to configure the grating cell array 210 to include transparent grating cell strips to form a three-dimensional view. For example, as shown in FIG. 7, the grating cell array 704 includes a plurality of grating cells, where each grating cell is either transparent (in the non-blocking state) or opaque (in the blocking state). The grating units in the blocking state are represented by grating units 710a-710f and the grating units in the non-blocking state are represented by grating units 712a-712 e. More grating elements, not visible in fig. 7, may also be included in the array of grating elements 704. Each of grating elements 710a-710f and 712a-712e may include one or more grating elements. The grating units 710 and 712 are serially interleaved in the order of grating units 710a, 712a, 710b, 712b, 710c, 712c, 710d, 712d, 710e, 712e, and 710 f. In this manner, the blocking grating cells 710 and the non-blocking grating cells 712 are interleaved to form a plurality of parallel non-blocking or transparent slits in the grating cell array 704.

For example, fig. 8A is a schematic diagram of the parallax barrier 300 shown in fig. 3 having transparent slits according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 8A, the parallax barrier 300 includes a grating unit array 302, and the grating unit array 302 includes a plurality of grating units 304 arranged in a two-dimensional array. Further, as shown in FIG. 8A, the grating unit array 302 includes a plurality of parallel band grating units 304, the grating units 304 being selected in a non-blocking state to form a plurality of parallel non-blocking bands (or "slits") 802a-802 g. As shown in fig. 8A, parallel non-blocking strips 802a-802g (non-blocking slits) alternate with parallel blocking states or blocking strips 804a-804g, in which the grating unit 304 is selected to be a blocking state. In the example of FIG. 8A, the non-blocking strips 802a-802g and the blocking strips 804a-804g both have a width (in the x-direction) of two grating units 304 and have a length (20 grating units 304) that extends along the y-direction of the entire grating unit array 304, but in other embodiments, may have other dimensions. The non-blocking strips 802a-802g and the blocking strips 804a-804g form a parallax barrier configuration of the parallax barrier 300. The spacing (and number) of parallel non-blocking strips 802 in grating element array 704 can be selected by selecting any number and combination of specific strip grating elements 304 in grating element array 302 to be in a non-blocking state, alternating with blocking strips 804 as desired. For example, hundreds, thousands, or even greater numbers of non-blocking strips 802 and blocking strips 804 may be present in the parallax barrier 300.

Fig. 8B is a schematic diagram of the parallax barrier 310 according to the embodiment of the present invention, which is another example of the parallax element array 704 having parallel transparent slits. Similar to the parallax barrier 300 shown in fig. 8A, the parallax barrier 310 has a grating unit array 312, and the grating unit array 312 includes a plurality of grating units 314 arranged in a two-dimensional array (28 × 1 array). The grating unit 314 has the same width (in the x-direction) as the grating unit 304 shown in fig. 8A, but has a length extending along the entire vertical length (y-direction) of the grating unit array 314. As shown in FIG. 8B, the grating cell array 312 includes parallel non-blocking strips 802a-802g and parallel blocking strips 804a-804g interleaved with each other. In the example of FIG. 8B, parallel non-blocking strips 802a-802g and parallel blocking strips 804a-804g each have a width (in the x-direction) of two grating units 314 and each have a length along the entire y-direction (one grating unit 314) of grating unit array 312.

Returning to FIG. 6, at step 606, the light is filtered at the array of grating elements to form a three-dimensional view within the viewing space. The grating cell array 210 of the parallax grating 104 is configured to filter light 252 received from the pixel array 208 (fig. 2A) or light 238 received from the light emitting cell array 236 (fig. 2B) depending on whether the grating cell array 210 is transparent or non-blocking (e.g., in a two-dimensional mode) or includes parallel non-blocking bands (e.g., in a three-dimensional mode). If one or more portions of raster cell array 210 are transparent (e.g., fully transparent raster cell array 302 as shown in FIG. 3), those portions of raster cell array 210 act as an "all-pass" filter to pass substantially all of light 252 and to act as filtered light 110 in order to send one or more corresponding two-dimensional images generated by pixel array 208 to viewing space 106 for viewing as two-dimensional images in the same manner as conventional displays. If grating element array 210 includes one or more portions having parallel non-blocking strips (e.g., grating element array 302 as shown in fig. 8A and 8B), those portions of grating element array 210 pass a portion of light 252 as filtered light 110 to send one or more corresponding three-dimensional images to viewing space 106.

For example, as shown in FIG. 7, pixel array 702 includes a plurality of pixels 714a-714d and 716a-716 d. Pixel 714 is interleaved with pixel 716 such that pixels 714a-714d and 716a-716d are arranged in series in the order of pixels 714a, 716a, 714b, 716b, 714c, 716c, 714d, and 716 d. Further pixels not visible in fig. 7 may also be included in the pixel array 702, including further pixels along the width direction of the pixel array 702 (e.g., in the left-right direction) and pixels along the length direction of the pixel array 702 (not visible in fig. 7). Each of the pixels 714a-714d and 716a-716d generates light that is emitted from a display surface 724 of the pixel array 702 (e.g., generally upward in FIG. 7) to the array 704 of grating elements. Fig. 7 illustrates some examples of light emitted from pixels 714a-714d and 716a-716d (shown in dotted lines) including light 724a and 718a emitted from pixel 714a, light 724b, 718b, and 724c emitted from pixel 714b, and so on.

In addition, light emanating from pixel array 702 is filtered by grating element array 704 to form a plurality of images in viewing space 726, including first image 706a at first location 708a and second image 706b at second location 708 b. According to the filtering of the grating cell array 704, a portion of the light emitted from the pixel array 702 is blocked by the blocking grating cell 710 while another portion of the light from the pixel array 702 passes through the non-blocking grating cell 712. For example, light 724a from pixel 714a is blocked by blocking grating unit 710a, and light 724b and light 724c from pixel 714b are blocked by blocking grating units 710b and 710c, respectively. Conversely, light 718a from pixel 714a passes through the non-blocking grating unit 712a, and light 718b from pixel 714b passes through the non-blocking grating unit 712 b.

By forming parallel non-blocking slits in the array of grating elements, light from the array of pixels can be filtered to form multiple images or views within the viewing space. For example, the system 700 shown in FIG. 7 is configured to form first and second images 706a and 706b at locations 708a and 708b, respectively, that are a distance 728 from the pixel array 702 (further examples of first and second images 706a and 706b may be formed within the viewing space 726 in a repeating, interleaved manner, as shown in FIG. 7, in accordance with the system 700). As described above, pixel array 702 includes a first set of pixels 714a-714d and a second set of pixels 716a-716 d. Pixels 714a-714d correspond to the first image 706a and pixels 716a-716d correspond to the second image 706 b. Due to the spacing between pixels 714a-714d and 716a-716d in pixel array 702 and the geometry of the non-obstructing grating elements 712 in grating element array 704, first and second images 706a and 706b may be formed at locations 708a and 708b, respectively. As shown in FIG. 7, light 718a-718d from the first set of pixels 714a-714d is focused at location 708a to form the first image 706a at location 708 a. Light 720a-720d from second set of pixels 716a-716d is focused at location 708b to form second image 706b at location 708 b.

Figure 7 shows the slit spacing 722 (center-center) of the non-obstructing grating cells 712 in the grating cell array 704. The spacing 722 may be determined to select the locations at which parallel non-obstructing slits are formed in the grating cell array 704 for a particular image distance 728 at which a desired image (for viewing by a user) is formed. For example, in one embodiment, if the spacing of pixels 714a-714d corresponding to an image is known and the distance 728 over which the image needs to be displayed is known, the spacing 722 between adjacent parallel non-obstructing apertures in the array of grating elements 704 may be selected. As shown in fig. 9, in one embodiment, the grating array controller 206 (of fig. 2A or 2B) may have a gap interval calculator 902. The gap interval calculator 902 is configured to calculate the interval 722 for a particular pixel interval and distance required to form a respective image according to the respective parallax barrier configuration.

For example, FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary display system 1000 in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. The display system 1000 is substantially the same as the display system 700 shown in FIG. 7, and includes a pixel array 702 and a raster cell array 704. The pixel array 702 includes pixels 714a-714d and 716a-716d, and the grating cell array 704 includes barrier grating cells 710a-710f and non-barrier grating cells 712a-712 e. The desired image 1002 may be formed from pixels 714a-714d at an image distance 1004 from the pixel array 702. The array of grating elements 704 and the array of pixels 702 are separated by a distance 1012. Adjacent pixels of pixels 714a-714d (corresponding to the desired image) are separated by a pixel pitch 1006. The pitch 722 of adjacent non-blocking raster units 712a-712e (corresponding to the non-blocking slits) needs to be selected to form the image 1002 at a distance 1004 from the pixel array 702. For the configuration of the display system 1000 shown in fig. 10, the following equation (equation 1) holds:

distance 1006/distance 1004 (distance 722/(distance 1004-distance 1012)) equation 1 thus, the spacing 722 may be calculated (e.g., by the slot spacing calculator 902) according to equation 2 below, where the slot spacing 722 is less than the pixel spacing 1006:

distance 722 — distance 1006 (distance 1004-distance 1002)/distance 1004 equation 2 for example, in one exemplary embodiment, distance 1006 may be equal to 1.0mm, distance 1004 may be equal to 2.0m, and distance 1012 may be equal to 5.0 mm. In this example, interval 722 may be calculated according to equation 2 as follows:

interval 722-1.0 (2000-5)/2000-0.9975 mm

In the above example, the centers of adjacent non-obstructing grating units 712a-712e may be separated by a 0.9975mm spacing 722 to form an image 1002 at a location 2.0 meters from the pixel array 702. As shown in FIG. 10, light 1010a-1010d originating from pixels 714a-714d and filtered by the array of grating elements 704 forms an image 1002 at location 1008. The distance between the centers of adjacent non-blocking grating elements 712a-712e of 0.9975mm (or other determined distance) may be achieved in various ways depending on the particular configuration of the grating element array 704. For example, in this example, non-blocking slits of one grating element width may be formed every 0.9975mm in grating element array 704. Alternatively, non-blocking slits having a width greater than one grating element may be formed every 0.9975mm in the grating element array 704.

For example, if the spacing 722 corresponds to a wide band of two grating elements, in the grating element array 704, one non-blocking grating element 712 with a width of 0.9975/2-0.4988 mm may be interleaved with one blocking grating element 710 with a width of 0.4988 mm. Alternatively, if the spacing 722 corresponds to a broadband greater than two grating elements, one or more non-blocking grating elements may be interleaved with one or more blocking grating elements to form a non-blocking slit having a spacing of 0.9975 mm. In one example, one non-blocking grating unit 712 with a width of 0.9975/399 ═ 0.0025mm may be interleaved with 398 blocking grating units 710 each with a width of 0.0025mm in the grating unit array 704. In another example, 10 non-blocking grating units 712 each having a width of 0.0025mm may be interleaved with 389 blocking grating units 710 each having a width of 0.0025mm in the grating unit array 704.

Thus, referring to FIG. 7, display system 700 may form first and second images 706a and 706b at a distance 728 from pixel array 702 by calculating the value of gap spacing 722 in the manner described above. Equation 2 is provided as one exemplary technique for selecting the non-blocking slot spacing for illustrative purposes only. Alternatively, other techniques may also be used to calculate and/or determine the value of gap spacing 722. For example, in one embodiment, a lookup table containing pre-calculated values for the gap spacing 722 may be maintained by the grating array controller 206. A lookup table may be used to look up the value of the gap spacing 722 for the corresponding values of the image distance 1004 and the pixel spacing 1006. Additionally, the gap spacing 722 and/or other parameters of the display system 700 (e.g., of the display system 1000 shown in fig. 10) may be adjusted/selected to adjust the image position, as is known to those skilled in the art. Exemplary techniques for determining image viewing position/geometry based on various selected parameters of a display device are described, for example, in the following references herein, which are incorporated herein in their entirety.

Shan et al，“Principles and Evaluation of Autostereoscopic PhotogrammetricMeasurement，”Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing Vol.72，NO.4，April 2006，pp.356-372”

Note that in the examples shown in fig. 7 and 10, both the pixel array 702 and the grating element array 704 are shown to be planar. In other embodiments, the pixel array 702 and/or the grating element array 704 may be curved (e.g., concave or convex with respect to the viewing space 726). Accordingly, equations, look-up tables, etc. for calculating values of gap spacing 722 and/or other parameters of a display system may be configured to satisfy such curved surfaces, such methods being known to those skilled in the art.

The first and second images 706a and 706b are configured to be perceived by a user as three-dimensional images or views. For example, FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of the display system 700 of FIG. 7 in which a viewer receives a first image 706a at a first eye position 1102a and a second image 706b at a second eye position 1102b, according to one embodiment of the invention. The first and second images 706a and 706b may be generated from a first set of pixels 714a-714d and a second set of pixels 716a-716d with slight differences in the perspective of the images. Images 706a and 706b are blended in the brain-vision center of viewer 1104 to be perceived as a three-dimensional image or view.

In this embodiment, first and second images 706a and 706b may be formed by display system 700 such that their centers are spaced apart by the width of the user's pupil (e.g., eye distance 1106). For example, the first and second images 706a and 706b may be spaced approximately 65mm apart (or other suitable spacing) to approximately equal the inter-eye distance 1106. As described above, display system 700 may form multiple instances of first and second images 706a and 706b that are repeated within a viewing space. Thus, first and second images 706a and 706b corresponding to the left and right eyes of viewer 1104 as shown in FIG. 11 may be adjacent first and second images 706a and 706b spaced by a repeating illustration of inter-eye distance 1106. Alternatively, first and second images 706a and 706b corresponding to the left and right eyes of viewer 1104 as shown in FIG. 11 may be separated by at least one example of first and second images 706a and 706b of a repeating illustration, the repeating illustration first and second images 706a and 706b being separated by an eye spacing 1106. Likewise, display system 700 has only one viewing plane or surface (e.g., a plane or surface of pixel array 702, raster cell array 704, or display screen of display system 700) for supporting media content in the form of images or views for one or more viewers. In the embodiment illustrated in fig. 7, this single plane of view of display system 700 may provide a three-dimensional view based on three-dimensional media content.

Note that the viewer 1104 of fig. 11 may change position in the viewing space 106 (fig. 1), and thus the parallax barrier 104 may adapt itself to another parallax barrier configuration, resulting in a three-dimensional view moving from a first position of the viewer 1104 to a second position of the viewer 1104. In this case, referring to fig. 2A or 2B, grating array controller 206 may generate control signals 216 to configure grating cell array 210 to include transparent band grating cells configured to form a three-dimensional view at a second location. The following subsections describe exemplary embodiments of further configurations of the grating cell array 210 configured in the blocking and non-blocking states to provide a viewer with an adjusted three-dimensional view.

Additionally, although fig. 7 and 11 illustrate a display system 700 having a configuration similar to display system 200 shown in fig. 2A, alternatively, display system 700 may also be configured similar to display system 220 shown in fig. 2B to generate images 706a and 706B within viewing space 726. In this embodiment, the array of grating elements 704 may be located between the backlight panel (located at the pixel array 702 shown in fig. 7 and 10) and the pixel array 702, with the pixel array 702 configured as a light filter (not light emission). The light emitted by the backlight panel is filtered by the array of grating elements 704 and the pixel array 702 filters the filtered light so that the pixel array 702 loads the image on the filtered light to form images 706a and 706b as shown in fig. 7 and 10.

As described above, in one embodiment, display system 700 may be configured to generate a two-dimensional image viewed by a user within a viewing space. For example, according to one embodiment, flowchart 600 (FIG. 6) may optionally include step 1202 shown in FIG. 12 to send the two-dimensional view to the user. At step 1202, the array of raster units is configured into a third configuration for transmitting the two-dimensional view. For example, in a third configuration, grating array controller 206 may generate control signals 216 to configure each grating cell of grating cell array 210 to be in a non-blocking state (transparent). In this example, the grating cell array 210 may be configured similar to the grating cell array 302 shown in fig. 3, with all grating cells 304 selected to be non-blocking. If the array of grating elements 210 is non-blocking, the array of grating elements 210 may act as an "all-pass" filter to pass substantially all of the light 252 (FIG. 2A) or 238 (FIG. 2B) and to act as filtered light 110 to transmit the two-dimensional image generated by the array of pixels 208 to the viewing space 106 so that the two-dimensional image may be viewed as a two-dimensional image in a manner similar to conventional displays.

1. Embodiment for transmitting multiple views to multiple viewers using one optical operator

In an embodiment, the display system 700 may be configured to generate a plurality of two-dimensional images or views for viewing by a viewer of a viewing space. For example, according to one embodiment, flowchart 600 (FIG. 6) may optionally include step 1302 shown in FIG. 13. At step 1302, an array of raster units is configured to transmit a plurality of two-dimensional views. For example, FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram of a display system 1400 configured to transmit two-dimensional images, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. The display system 1400 is configured similar to the display system 700 shown in fig. 7. As shown in fig. 14, a display system 1400 may include a pixel array 702 and a raster cell array 704, generating first and second images 1402a and 1402 b. As shown in fig. 14, according to one exemplary embodiment, a first viewer 1104a receives a first image 1402a at a first location and a second viewer receives a second image 1402b at a second location. Similar to the description with reference to FIG. 11, the first and second images 1402a and 1402b may be generated by first and second sets of pixels 714a-714d and 716a-716d of the pixel array 702. However, unlike the first and second images 1402a and 1402b having different viewing angles described above, the first and second images 1402a and 1402b are two-dimensional images that can be independently viewed, respectively. For example, image 1402a and image 1402b may be generated by display system 700 from first media content and second media content, respectively, that are independent of each other. The image 1402a is received by both eyes of a first viewer 1104a and perceived by the first viewer 1104a as a first two-dimensional image, and the image 1402b is received by both eyes of a second viewer 1104b and perceived by the second viewer 1104b as a second two-dimensional image. Thus, the first and second images 1402a and 1402b may be generated with a spacing that may cause them to be viewed individually by the first and second users 1104a and 1104 b.

Likewise, display system 1400 has only one viewing plane or surface (e.g., a plane or surface of pixel array 702, raster cell array 704, and/or display screen of display system 700) that supports media content in the form of images or views for multiple viewers. In the embodiment illustrated in fig. 14, one viewing plane of the display system 1400 may provide a first two-dimensional view based on first two-dimensional media content to a first viewer 1104a and a second two-dimensional view based on second two-dimensional media content to a viewer 1104 b. The array 704 of raster elements causes the first media content to be presented to the first viewer 1104a and not to the second viewer 1104b through the first region of the one viewing plane, while causing the second media content to be presented to the second viewer 1104b and not to the first viewer 1104a through the second region of the one viewing plane. In addition, the first and second regions of the one viewing plane providing the first and second media content at least partially coincide in that the array 704 of raster units enables both two-dimensional views to be provided by the first set of pixels 714a-714d and the second set of pixels 716a-716d, which are interleaved with each other. In the embodiment shown in fig. 14, the first and second regions may be the same region, i.e., one region of the display screen or surface of the display system 1400.

Still further, the configuration of the display system 1400 shown in FIG. 14 may be used to deliver separate three-dimensional content to the first and second viewers 1104a and 1104 b. Likewise, the display system 1400 is capable of transmitting multiple three-dimensional views to a viewer. For example, in one embodiment, the first and second viewers 1104a and 1104b may each wear a pair of three-dimensional glasses, and the first and second media content associated with the images 1402a and 1402b may be three-dimensional media content. In one embodiment, the glasses having a three-dimensional function may be color filter glasses. The filter lenses of the eyewear worn by the first viewer 1104a may convey two-dimensional images (contained in image 1402 a) of different viewing angles to the left and right eyes of the first viewer 1104a for perception by the viewer 1104a as a first three-dimensional image. Likewise, the filter lenses of the glasses worn by the second viewer 1104b may deliver two-dimensional images (contained in image 1402 b) of different viewing angles to the left and right eyes of the second viewer 1104b for perception by the viewer 1104b as a second three-dimensional image. In another embodiment, the glasses having the three-dimensional function may be shutter lens glasses. The shutter lenses of the glasses worn by the first viewer 1104a may be synchronized to deliver two-dimensional images (contained in image 1402 a) of different perspectives to the left and right eyes of the first viewer 1104a for perception by the viewer 1104a as a first three-dimensional image. Likewise, the shutter lenses of the glasses worn by the second viewer 1104b may be synchronized to deliver two-dimensional images (contained in image 1402 b) of different perspectives to the left and right eyes of the second viewer 1104b for perception by the viewer 1104b as a second three-dimensional image.

Likewise, the display system 1400 has a viewing plane or surface (e.g., a plane or surface of the pixel array 702 or the raster cell array 704) that supports media content in the form of three-dimensional images or views for multiple viewers. The one viewing plane of the display system 1400 may provide a first viewer 1104a with a first three-dimensional view based on first three-dimensional media content and provide a second three-dimensional view based on second three-dimensional media content to a viewer 1104 b. The raster element array 704 causes the first three-dimensional media content to be presented to the first viewer 1104a and not to the second viewer 1104b through the first region of the one viewing plane, while causing the second three-dimensional media content to be presented to the second viewer 1104b and not to the first viewer 1104a through the second region of the one viewing plane. In addition, the first and second regions of the one viewing plane providing the first and second media content at least partially coincide in that the array 704 of raster units enables both three-dimensional views to be provided by the first set of pixels 714a-714d and the second set of pixels 716a-716d, which are interleaved with each other. In the embodiment shown in fig. 14, the first and second regions may be the same region, i.e., one region of the display screen or surface of the display system 1400.

In this regard, the display system 1400 may be configured to transmit one three-dimensional view to a viewer (e.g., the display system 700 shown in fig. 11), a pair of two-dimensional views to a pair of viewers (e.g., as shown in fig. 14), or a pair of three-dimensional views to a pair of viewers (e.g., as described in the preceding paragraph). The display system 1400 may be configured to switch between sending views to one and two viewers by turning off or on, respectively, the display of media content by the pixel array 702 associated with one of the viewers (e.g., by turning off or on the pixels 716 associated with the second image 1402 b). Display system 1400 may be configured to switch between sending two-dimensional and three-dimensional views by providing a corresponding media content type at pixel array 702. Additionally, the display system 1400 may provide these functions when configured similarly to the display system 220 shown in FIG. 2B (e.g., including the backlight 116).

2. Exemplary multiple three-dimensional image display embodiments

In one embodiment, display system 700 may be configured to generate a plurality of three-dimensional images containing related image content (e.g., each three-dimensional image being a different viewpoint of a same scene) viewed by a user within a viewing space, or each three-dimensional image containing unrelated image content. Each three-dimensional image may correspond to a pair of images generated by pixels of the pixel array. The array of grating elements filters light from the array of pixels to form a pair of images of the viewing space to be perceived by a user as a three-dimensional image.

For example, FIG. 15 is a flow diagram for generating a plurality of three-dimensional images, according to one embodiment of the invention. Flowchart 1500 is described with reference to fig. 16, which fig. 16 shows a cross-sectional view of display system 1600. Display system 1600 is an exemplary embodiment of display system 200 shown in fig. 2. As shown in fig. 16, system 1600 includes a pixel array 1602 and a grating element array 1604. The system 1600 may also include the display controller 202 shown in FIG. 2, with the display controller 202 not shown in FIG. 16 for simplicity of illustration. Further structural and functional embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of flowchart 1500. Flowchart 1500 will be described below.

Flowchart 1500 begins with step 1502. In step 1502, light is received from a pixel array comprising a plurality of pairs of sets of pixels. For example, in the example shown in FIG. 16, pixel array 1602 includes a first set of pixels 1614a-1614d, a second set of pixels 1616a-1616d, a third set of pixels 1618a-1618d, and a fourth set of pixels 1620a-1620 d. Each of the pixels 1614a-1614d, 1616a-1616d, 1618a-1618d, 1620a-1620d may generate light that is emitted from the surface of the pixel array 1602 to the grating cell array 1604. Each set of pixels generates a corresponding image. The images generated by first set of pixels 1614a-1614d and third set of pixels 1618a-1618d are merged to form a first three-dimensional image. The images generated by second set of pixels 1616a-1616d and fourth set of pixels 1620a-1620d are combined to form a second three-dimensional image. The pixels of these four sets of pixels are interleaved in the order of pixel 1614a, pixel 1616a, pixel 1618a, pixel 1620a, pixel 1614b, pixel 1616b, etc. in pixel array 1602. In pixel array 1602, each pixel set may also include many more pixels not visible in fig. 16, including hundreds, thousands, or millions of pixels in each pixel set.

For example, FIG. 17 is a surface view of a pixel array 1602 according to one embodiment of the invention. As shown in FIG. 17, pixel array 1602 includes a plurality of pixels arranged in a two-dimensional array (e.g., arranged in a grid), including pixels 1614a-1614g, 1616a-1616g, 1618a-1618g, 1620a-1620g (in the bottom row of pixel array 1602 shown in FIG. 17). In alternative embodiments, the pixels of pixel array 1602 may be arranged in other ways. Each pixel shown in fig. 17 is rectangular (e.g., square), but may have other shapes in other embodiments. In addition, as described above, each pixel may include a plurality of sub-pixels. Pixel array 1602 may include any number of pixels. For example, in fig. 17, a pixel array 1602 includes 28 pixels in the x-direction and includes 20 pixels in the y-direction for a total of 560 pixels. However, the size of the pixel array 1602 and the total number of pixels of the pixel array 1602 shown in FIG. 17 are provided for purposes of illustration, and are not intended to be limiting. Pixel array 1602 may include any number of pixels and may have any array size, including hundreds, thousands, or even greater numbers of pixels in the x-direction and y-direction, respectively.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the pixel array 1602 is divided into a plurality of pairs of pixel sets. For example, in the example shown in fig. 16, the pixel array 1602 is divided into 4 pixel sets. A first set of pixels includes pixels 1614a-1614g and other pixels of the same column, a second set of pixels includes pixels 1616a-1616g and other pixels of the same column, a third set of pixels includes pixels 1618a-1618g and other pixels of the same column, and a fourth set of pixels includes pixels 1620a-1620g and other pixels of the same column.

At step 1504, a plurality of grating element strips of the grating element array are selected to be non-blocking to form a plurality of parallel non-blocking slits. As shown in fig. 16, the grating cell array 1604 includes grating cells that are either non-blocking or blocking. The barrier state raster units are shown as raster units 1610a-1610f and the non-barrier state raster units are shown as raster units 1612a-1612 e. More grating elements not visible in fig. 16, including hundreds, thousands, or millions of grating elements, etc., may also be included in the grating element array 1604. Each of raster units 1610a-1610f and 1612a-1612e may include one or more raster units. Raster cells 1610 are interleaved with raster cells 1612. In this manner, barrier-state grating cells 1610 are interleaved with non-barrier-state grating cells 1612, thereby forming a plurality of parallel non-barrier slits in grating cell array 1604 (e.g., similar to grating cell array 304 shown in fig. 8).

At step 1506, the light is filtered at the array of grating elements to form pairs of images in the viewing space corresponding to pairs of the sets of pixels, each of the pairs of images being perceived as a respective three-dimensional image of the plurality of three-dimensional images. As shown in fig. 16, light emitted from the pixel array 1602 is filtered by the grating cell array 1604 to form a plurality of images in a viewing space 1626. For example, four images, including the first to fourth images 1606a to 1606d, are formed in the viewing space 1626. Pixels 1614a-1614d correspond to first image 1606a, pixels 1616a-1616d correspond to second image 1616b, pixels 1618a-1618d correspond to third image 1606c, and pixels 1620a-1620d correspond to fourth image 1606 d. As shown in fig. 16, light 1622a-1622d from the first set of pixels 1614a-1614d forms a first image 1606a and light 1624a-1624d from the third set of pixels 1618a-1618d forms a third image 1606c due to filtering of non-blocking slits (corresponding to non-blocking grating cells 1612a-1612e) in the array of grating cells 1604. Although not shown in FIG. 16 (to simplify the illustration), in the same manner, light from second set of pixels 1616a-1616d forms second image 1606b, and light from fourth set of pixels 1620a-1620d forms fourth image 1606 d.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 16, any pair of images 1606a-1606d can be perceived by a user (similar to user 1204 shown in FIG. 12) within viewing space 1626 as a three-dimensional image. For example, first and third images 1606a and 1606c may be perceived by the user as a first three-dimensional image, such that first image 1606a is received at a first eye position of the user and third image 1606c is received at a second eye position of the user. Additionally, second and fourth images 1606b and 1606d may be perceived by the user as a second three-dimensional image, such that second image 1606b is received at a first eye position of the user and fourth image 1606d is received at a second eye position of the user.

In the example shown in fig. 16, system 1600 provides two three-dimensional images. In further embodiments, a greater number of three-dimensional images may be provided, including a third three-dimensional image, a fourth three-dimensional image, and so forth. In this case, each three-dimensional image is generated by filtering light (using the array of grating elements) corresponding to a pair of images generated by a corresponding pair of sets of pixels in the pixel array, similar to the method of the two three-dimensional images described with reference to fig. 16. For example, to provide three-dimensional images, pixel array 1602 may include fifth and sixth sets of pixels that generate fifth and sixth images, respectively, which may be perceived by a user as a third three-dimensional image. To provide the fourth three-dimensional image, pixel array 1602 may include seventh and eighth sets of pixels that generate seventh and eighth images, respectively, that may be perceived by a user as the fourth three-dimensional image.

In FIG. 16, the first and second three-dimensional images generated based on first and third images 1606a and 1606c and second and fourth images 1606b and 1606d, respectively, and any other three-dimensional images that may be generated, may include related image content or each include unrelated image content. For example, in one embodiment, the first and second three-dimensional images (and any further three-dimensional images) may be taken as different viewpoints of the same scene. Thus, a user viewing the first and second three-dimensional images (and any more) moving laterally within the viewing space 1626 to sequentially view the first and second three-dimensional images may perceive a partially or fully "behind view" object of the same scene.

Note that because the array of grating elements 1604 filters in a manner similar to that described above (for images 706a and 706b), multiple instances of each of the first-fourth images 1606a-1606d can be formed in a repeating manner (with decreasing density as one moves away from the center-most positioned image) in the viewing space 1626. For example, FIG. 16 shows a first instance of third image 1606c followed by a first instance of fourth image 1606d, while the first instance of fourth image 1606d is followed by a first instance of first image 1606a, followed by a first instance of second image 1606b, followed by a second instance of third image 1606c, followed by a second instance of fourth image 1606d, followed by a second instance of first image 1606a, followed by a second instance of second image 1606 b. Since, for each example, light from each set of pixels passes through a different non-blocking slit of grating element array 1604, each example of first-fourth images 1606a-1606d may be generated by light originating from first-fourth sets of pixels 1614a-1614d, 1616a-1616d, 1618a-1618d, and 1620a-1620d, respectively. Further examples of first-fourth images 1606a-1606d not shown in FIG. 16 may be repeated in the same manner in viewing space 1626 (not shown for simplicity of illustration). In the example shown in FIG. 16, additional instances of the first and third images 1606a and 1606c and the second and fourth images 1606b and 1606d may be perceived by a user within the viewing space 1626 as first and second three-dimensional images, respectively.

C. Exemplary embodiments for transmitting views Using multiple light operators

According to an embodiment, multiple three-dimensional images may be displayed in a viewing space using multiple light manipulator layers. In an embodiment, multiple light manipulator layers may achieve spatial separation of the images. For example, in one embodiment, a display device including multiple light manipulator layers may be configured to display a first three-dimensional image in a first region of a viewing space (e.g., a left region), a second three-dimensional image in a second region of the viewing space (e.g., a center region), a third three-dimensional image in a third region of the viewing space (e.g., a right region), and so on, for example. In embodiments, the display device may be configured to display any number of spatially separated three-dimensional images as desired for a particular application (e.g., based on the spacing and number of viewers in the viewing space, etc.).

For example, FIG. 18 is a flow chart 1800 for generating multiple three-dimensional images using multiple light manipulator layers according to one embodiment of the invention. Flow diagram 1800 is described with reference to FIG. 19, and FIG. 19 is a cross-sectional view of a display system 1900 including multiple light operator layers according to one embodiment of the invention. As shown in fig. 19, the system 1900 includes a display controller 1902 and a display device 1912. The display device 1912 includes the image generator 102, a first light operator 1914a, and a second light operator 1914 b. As shown in fig. 19, the image generator 102 includes the pixel array 208, the first light operator 1914a includes a first light operator unit 1916a, and the second light operator 1914b includes a second light operator unit 1916 b. In addition, as shown in fig. 19, the display controller 1902 includes a pixel array controller 1904 and a light operator controller 1906. Flowchart 1800 and system 1900 will be described below.

Flowchart 1800 begins with step 1802. At step 1802, light is received from a pixel array comprising a plurality of pairs of pixel sets. For example, as shown in fig. 19, the first light operator 1914a receives light 108 from the pixel array 208 of the image generator 102. Each pixel of the pixel array 208 may generate light that is received at the first light manipulator 1914 a. In one embodiment, pixel array controller 1904 may generate control signals 214 such that pixel array 208 emits light containing a plurality of images corresponding to a set of pixels.

At step 1804, light from the array of pixels is manipulated with a first light manipulator. For example, the first light manipulator 1914a may be configured to manipulate the light 108 received from the pixel array 208. As shown in fig. 19, the first light manipulator 1914a includes a light manipulator unit 1916a, the light manipulator unit 1916a configured to perform an operation (e.g., filtering, refracting, etc.) on the light 108 in order to generate the manipulated light 110. The optical operator unit 1916a may be selectively configured to adjust the operations performed by the first optical operator 1914 a. The first light manipulator 1914a may perform filtering in a similar manner as the parallax barrier 104 described above or otherwise. In another embodiment, the first light manipulator 1914a may include a convex lens that may refract the light 108 to perform a light manipulation and generate manipulated light 110. In one embodiment, the light operator controller 1906 may generate the control signal 216a such that the light operator unit 1916a operates the light 108 as desired.

At step 1806, the light operated on by the first light operator is operated on with the second light operator to form pairs of images within the viewing space, the pairs of images corresponding to the pairs of pixelets. For example, as shown in FIG. 19, a second light manipulator 1914b receives manipulated light 110 to generate manipulated light 1908, the manipulated light 1908 including a plurality of three-dimensional images 1910a-1910n formed in viewing space 106. As shown in fig. 19, the second light manipulator 1914b includes a light manipulator unit 1916b, the light manipulator unit 1916b configured to perform a manipulation of the manipulated light 110 to generate manipulated light 1908. The optical operator unit 1916b may be selectively configured to adjust the operations performed by the second optical operator 1914 b. In one embodiment, the light manipulator controller 1906 may generate the control signals 216b such that the light manipulator unit 1916b manipulates the manipulated light 110 to generate manipulated light 1908, the manipulated light 1908 including the desired three-dimensional image 1910a-1910 n.

Likewise, the display system 1900 has only one viewing plane or surface (e.g., the plane or surface of the pixel array 208, the first light operator 1914a, the second light operator 1914b, or the display screen of the display system 1900) that supports three-dimensional images or view-style media content for multiple viewers. This one viewing plane of display system 1900 may provide a first viewer with a first three-dimensional view based on first three-dimensional media content, a second viewer with a second three-dimensional view based on second three-dimensional media content, and optionally provide more viewers with more three-dimensional views based on more three-dimensional media content. The first and second light operators 1914a and 1914b cause each three-dimensional media content to be presented to a respective viewer through a respective region of the one viewing plane, each viewer being able to view only the respective media content and not media content directed to other viewers. In addition, the areas of the one viewing plane providing the respective three-dimensional views of the media content at least partially coincide with each other. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 19, these regions may be the same regions, i.e., regions of a display screen or surface of display system 1900. In this regard, a plurality of three-dimensional views, each viewable to a respective viewer, may be presented by one display viewing plane.

In an embodiment, display system 1900 may be configured in various ways to generate multiple three-dimensional images in accordance with flowchart 1800. Additionally, as described below, embodiments of display system 1900 may be configured to generate two-dimensional views and any combination of one or more three-dimensional views and one or more two-dimensional views that are synchronized. The following subsections will provide examples of these embodiments.

1. Exemplary embodiments utilizing multiple parallax gratings

In one embodiment, the transmission of a three-dimensional image may be performed in system 1900 using multiple parallax barriers. For example, fig. 20 is a block diagram of a display system 2000 according to an embodiment of the invention, the display system 2000 being an example of the display system 1900 shown in fig. 19. Display system 2000 may be configured to display a plurality of three-dimensional images within a viewing space in a spatially separated manner. As shown in fig. 20, the system 2000 includes a display controller 1902 and a display device 2012. The display device 2012 includes the image generator 102, the first parallax barrier 104a, and the second parallax barrier 104 b. The first parallax barrier 104a is an example of the first light manipulator 1904a, and the second parallax barrier 104b is an example of the second light manipulator 1904 b. As shown in fig. 20, the image generator 102 includes a pixel array 208, the first parallax barrier 104a includes a first barrier unit array 210a, and the second parallax barrier 104b includes a second barrier unit array 210 b. The first grating element array 210a is an example of the optical manipulator unit 1916a, and the second grating element array 210b is an example of the optical manipulator unit 1916 b. In addition, as shown in fig. 20, the display controller 1902 includes a pixel array controller 1904 and a light operator controller 1906. The light manipulator controller 1906 includes a first barrier array controller 206a connected to the first grating cell array 210a and a second barrier array controller 206b connected to the second grating cell array 210 b. These features of system 2000 are described below.

As described above, pixel array 208 comprises a two-dimensional array of pixels, wherein each pixel of pixel array 208 is configured to emit light contained in light 108. The first parallax barrier 104a is disposed near the surface of the pixel array 208. The second parallax barrier 104b is disposed near the surface of the first parallax barrier 104 a. The first grating unit array 210a is a layer of the first parallax grating 104a, and the second grating unit array 210b is a layer of the second parallax grating 104 b. The first and second grating unit arrays 210a and 210b respectively include a plurality of grating units arranged in the arrays. As described above with respect to the grating cell array 210 shown in fig. 2, the grating cells of the first and/or second grating cell arrays 210a and 210b may be configured to be selectively blocking or non-blocking.

The display controller 1902 is configured to generate control signals such that the display device 1912 displays the spatially separated three-dimensional images 1910a-1910n to a user within the viewing space 106. For example, similar to the pixel array controller 204 described above, the pixel array controller 1904 is configured to generate the control signals 214 received by the pixel array 208. The control signals 214 may include one or more control signals for causing the pixels of the pixel array 208 to emit light 108, the light 108 having a particular desired color and/or density. Similar to the barrier array controller 206 described above, the light operator controller 1906 is configured to generate control signals, including the first control signal 216a and the second control signal 216 b. The first grating cell array 210a receives a first control signal 216 a. The first control signals 216a may include one or more control signals for causing the grating cells of the first grating cell array 210a to become non-blocking or blocking. Likewise, the second grating unit array 210b receives a second control signal 216 b. The second control signals 216b may include one or more control signals for causing the grating cells of the second array of grating cells 210b to become non-blocking or blocking. In this manner, the first array of grating elements 210a filters the light 108 to generate filtered light 110, and the second array of grating elements 210b filters the filtered light 110 to generate filtered light 1908, the filtered light 1908 including one or more three-dimensional images 1910 that are viewable by a user within the viewing space 106. The three-dimensional image 1910 is spatially separated within the viewing space 106 as dictated by the configuration of the first and second arrays of grating elements 210a and 210b relative to the pixel array 208.

For example, FIG. 21 is a cross-sectional view of a display system 2100, according to one embodiment of the invention. Display system 2100 is an example of system 2000 shown in fig. 20. As shown in fig. 21, system 2100 includes a pixel array 2102, a first grating element array 2104, and a second grating element array 2106. The system 2100 may also include a display controller 1902 as shown in FIG. 20, with the display controller 1902 not shown in FIG. 21 for simplicity of illustration. The system 2100 is described as follows.

As shown in FIG. 21, pixel array 2102 includes a first set of pixels 2114a-2114c, a second set of pixels 2116a-2116c, a third set of pixels 2118a-2118c, and a fourth set of pixels 2120a-2120 c. The pixels of these four sets of pixels are interleaved in the order of pixel 2114a, pixel 2116a, pixel 2118a, pixel 2120a, pixel 2114b, pixel 2116b, and so on, in the pixel array 2102. Each set of pixels in pixel array 2102 may include many more pixels not visible in fig. 21, including hundreds, thousands, or millions of pixels in each set of pixels. Fig. 17 shows a pixel array 1602 (described above), and the pixel array 1602 is an example of the pixel array 2102.

Each of the pixels 2114a-2114c, 2116a-2116c, 2118a-2118c, and 2120a-2120c is configured to generate light that is emitted from the surface of the pixel array 2102 to the first grating cell array 2104. Each set of pixels is configured to generate a respective image. For example, fig. 22 shows a display system 2100 in which pixels of a pixel array 2102 emit light. Light from the second set of pixels 2116a-2116c and the first set of pixels 2114a-2114c are configured to generate third and fourth images 2206c and 2206d, respectively, which may be perceived together by the second viewer 1104b as a second three-dimensional image. Light from the fourth set of pixels 2120a-2120c and the third set of pixels 2118a-2118c is configured to generate first and second images 2206a and 2206b, respectively, which may be perceived together by the first viewer 1104a as a first three-dimensional image. Light emitted by the pixelets is filtered by the first and second arrays 2104 and 2106 of grating elements to generate first and second three-dimensional images in respective desired areas of the user space 2202 adjacent to the display system 2100.

For illustrative purposes, an exemplary operation of the display system 2100 will now be described with reference to the flowchart 1800 shown in FIG. 18. At step 1802, light is received from a pixel array comprising a plurality of pairs of pixel sets. For example, as shown in FIG. 22, pixels 2114a-2114c, 2116a-2116c, 2118a-2118c, 2120a-2120c respectively emit light that is received at the first grating cell array 2104.

At step 1804, light from the array of pixels is manipulated with a first light manipulator. For example, as shown in FIG. 21, the first grating cell array 2104 includes grating cells that are non-blocking or blocking, respectively. The grating units selected to be blocking are shown as grating units 2110a-2110g, and the grating units selected to be non-blocking (represented by dotted lines) are shown as grating units 2112a-2112f (the first array of grating units 2104 may include more grating units not shown in FIG. 21). The barrier grating units 2110 are interleaved with non-barrier grating units 2112 (similar to the grating unit array 304 shown in fig. 8) to form a plurality of parallel non-barrier slits in the first grating unit array 2104. As shown in fig. 22, light emanating from the pixel array 2102 is filtered by parallel non-blocking slits in the first array 2104 of grating elements. The non-blocking slits in the first grating element array 2104 may be configured to filter light from the pixel array 2102 in a manner similar to the grating element array 1604 shown in fig. 16, described above.

At step 1806, the light operated on by the first light operator is operated on with the second light operator to form pairs of images corresponding to pairs of pixelets within the viewing space. For example, as shown in fig. 22, the second barrier array 2106 filters light filtered by the first array of grating elements 2104 to form a plurality of images within the viewing space 2202. As shown in fig. 21, the second array of grating units 2106 includes grating units 2124 that are selected to be non-blocking to form non-blocking slits (separated by grating units 2122 that are selected to be blocking). In one embodiment, at step 1804, the non-blocking slits of the first array of grating elements 2104 filter light from the pixel array 2102 in the same manner as described above for the array of grating elements 1604 shown in FIG. 16, to generate a plurality of images (possibly repeated images), and at step 1806, the non-blocking slits of the second array of grating elements 2106 filter light filtered by the first array of grating elements 2104 to provide an illustration of each of the plurality of images in viewing space.

For example, in the example shown in FIG. 22, four images are formed in the viewing space 2202, including first-fourth images 2206a-2206 d. Pixels 2114a-2114c correspond to the fourth image 2206d, pixels 2116a-2116c correspond to the third image 2206c, pixels 2118a-2118c correspond to the second image 2206b, and pixels 2120a-2120c correspond to the first image 2206 a. As shown in FIG. 22, light from the first set of pixels 2114a-2114c forms a fourth image 2206d and light from the third set of pixels 2118a-2118c forms a second image 2206b due to filtering by the non-blocking slits in the first and second arrays 2104 and 2106 of grating elements. In the same manner, light from the second set of pixels 2116a-2116c forms the third image 2206c and light from the fourth set of pixels 2120a-2120c forms the first image 2206 a.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 22, the first and second images 2206a and 2206b may be configured to be perceived by the viewer 1104a as a first three-dimensional image such that the first image 2206a is received at a right eye location 2208a of the viewer 1104a and the second image 2206b is received at a left eye location 2208b of the viewer 1104a (separated by an eye distance). Additionally, the third and fourth images 2206c and 2206d may be configured to be perceived by the viewer 1104b as a second three-dimensional image such that the third image 2206c is received at a right eye position 2208c of the viewer 1104b and the fourth image 2206d is received at a second eye position 2208d of the viewer 1104 b.

Based on the configuration of the display system 2100, including the width and spacing of the unobstructed slits in the first array of grating elements 2104, the width and position of the unobstructed slits in the second array of grating elements 2106, the spacing between the pixel array 2102 and the first array of grating elements 2104, and the spacing between the first and second arrays of grating elements 2104 and 2106, first-fourth images 2206a-2206d may be formed in the viewing space 2202 at a distance from the pixel array 2102 and at a lateral position of the viewing space 2202.

Additionally, although FIG. 22 illustrates the simultaneous transmission of first and second three-dimensional views to the viewers 1104a and 1104b, the display system 2100 may also transmit a two-dimensional view to one of the viewers 1104a and 1104b and may simultaneously transmit a three-dimensional view to the other of the viewers 1104a and 1104 b. For example, pixels 2114a-2114c and pixels 2116a-2116c may transmit the same image (e.g., may display the same media content), such that the third and fourth images 2206c and 2206d are the same. Thus, since the second viewer 1104b receives the same view at the right and left eye locations 2208c and 2208d, respectively, the second viewer 1104b perceives the third and fourth images 2206c and 2206d as one two-dimensional view. In another embodiment, to provide a two-dimensional view to viewer 1104b, pixels 2114a-2114c may be turned off and the widths of slots 2112a, 2112c, and 2112e may be adjusted so that pixels 2116a-2116c transmit the same view to right and left eye locations 2208c and 2208d of viewer 1104b (via slots 2124a-2124 c). The first and second images 2206a and 2206b may be transmitted to the first viewer 1104a as different perspective images that may be perceived as three-dimensional views, or the first and second images 2206a and 2206b may be transmitted as the same image to transmit two-dimensional views to the first viewer 1104a, while transmitting the two-dimensional views to the second viewer 1104 b.

Further, at least one of the first array of grating elements 2104 and the second array of grating elements 2106 may be "turned off" if the display system 2100 only needs to transmit one two-dimensional or three-dimensional view (e.g., one of the viewers 1104a and 1104b is no longer engaged). For example, to transmit a two-dimensional view to the viewer 1104, the first and second arrays 2104, 2106 of grating elements, respectively, can transform all of their respective grating elements to a non-blocking state (being "closed"), and the pixel array 2102 can be configured to transmit a two-dimensional image. To transmit the three-dimensional view to the viewer 1104, one of the first array of grating elements 2104 and the second array of grating elements 2106 transforms all of its grating elements into a non-blocking state, while the other of the first array of grating elements 2104 and the second array of grating elements 2106 may be configured to transmit the three-dimensional view in a manner described elsewhere herein (e.g., as described above with reference to fig. 11).

Although fig. 22 shows the display system 2100 transmitting two three-dimensional views to two viewers, the display system 2100 may be configured to transmit additional three-dimensional views, as will be described below. The display system 2100 may be configured to simultaneously transmit any number of two-dimensional and/or three-dimensional views to a corresponding viewer.

The first and second grating element arrays 2104 and 2106 may have different configurations. For example, fig. 23 is a schematic diagram of a first parallax barrier 2300, the first parallax barrier 2300 comprising a first array of grating units 2302 having non-blocking apertures, according to one embodiment of the invention. The first grating element array 2302 is an example of the first grating element array 2104 shown in fig. 21. As shown in fig. 23, the first grating unit array 2302 includes a plurality of grating units 304 arranged in a two-dimensional array. In addition, as shown in FIG. 23, the first grating cell array 2302 includes a plurality of parallel strip grating cells 304, wherein the grating cells 304 are selected to be non-blocking so as to form a plurality of parallel non-blocking slits 2304a-2304 f. Slots 2304a-2304f correspond to grating cells 2112a-2112f that were selected to be non-blocking in figure 21. As shown in FIG. 23, parallel non-blocking slits 2304a-2304f are interleaved with parallel barrier strips 2306a-2306g of grating elements 304, and grating elements 304 in parallel barrier strips 2306a-2306g are selected to be blocking (corresponding to grating elements 2110a-2110g shown in FIG. 21). In the example shown in FIG. 23, non-blocking slits 2304a-2304f each have a width (in the x-direction) of two grating elements 304. Non-blocking slits 2304a-2304f include three sets of non-blocking slits (e.g., three pairs): non-blocking slits 2304a and 2304b, non-blocking slits 2304c and 2304d, and non-blocking slits 2304e and 2304 f. Each set of non-blocking slit groups is separated from the next set of adjacent slits by a barrier strip 2306, the barrier strip 2306 having a width of 4 grating units 304, and the non-blocking slits in each set are separated by a barrier strip 2306 having a width of two grating units 304. However, each of these non-barrier slit widths and barrier strip widths may be adjusted/selected as desired for a particular application, and are provided in fig. 23 for illustrative purposes only.

Fig. 24 is a schematic diagram of a second parallax barrier 2400 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The second parallax barrier 2400 includes a second grating unit array 2402 having non-blocking slits. The second grating unit array 2402 is an example of the second grating unit array 2106 shown in fig. 21. As shown in fig. 24, the second grating unit array 2402 includes a plurality of grating units 304 arranged in a two-dimensional array. In addition, as shown in FIG. 24, the second grating cell array 2402 includes a plurality of parallel strip grating cells 304, wherein the grating cells 304 are selected to be non-blocking so as to form a plurality of parallel non-blocking slits 2404a-2404 c. The slots 2404a-2404c correspond to the grating elements 2124a-2124c that were selected to be non-blocking in FIG. 21. As shown in fig. 24, the parallel non-blocking slits 2404a-2404c are interleaved with the parallel barrier strips 2406a-2406d of the grating unit 304, and the grating units 304 in the parallel barrier strips 2406a-2406d are selected to be blocking (corresponding to the grating units 2122a-2122d shown in fig. 21). In the example shown in FIG. 24, the non-blocking slits 2404a-2404c each have a width (in the x-direction) of two grating units 304 and are separated by a blocking strip 2406 having a width of 7 grating units 304. However, each of these non-barrier slit widths and barrier strip widths may be adjusted/selected as desired for a particular application, and are provided in fig. 24 for illustrative purposes only.

As shown in fig. 21 and 22, the second grating unit array 2106 has slits (non-blocking grating units 2124) corresponding to each set of non-blocking slits (non-blocking grating units 2112) of the first grating unit array 2104. For example, the second grating unit array 2106 has non-blocking grating units 2124a corresponding to the non-blocking grating units 2112a and 2112b, has non-blocking grating units 2124b corresponding to the non-blocking grating units 2112c and 2112d, and has non-blocking grating units 2124c corresponding to the non-blocking slits 2112e and 2112 f. As shown in fig. 22, each aperture formed by a non-blocking grating element 2124 in the second grating element array 2106 may filter light from the pixel array 2102 that passes through a corresponding set of non-blocking apertures formed by non-blocking grating elements 2112 in the first grating element array 2104 to form an example of each of the images 2206a-2206d in the viewing space 2202. The configuration of the second array of grating elements 2106 (e.g., the gap width, gap spacing, spacing from the first array of grating elements 2104) may be selected to focus light to form each of the images 2206a-2206d at a desired location (e.g., a desired distance from the pixel array 2102, a lateral position in the viewing space 2202, etc.).

For example, as shown in fig. 22, light from pixels 2114a and 2116a passes through the non-blocking grating unit 2112a of the first grating unit array 2104, passes through the non-blocking grating unit 2124a of the second grating unit array 2106 (crossing each other at the second grating unit array 2106) to be received at the focal points of the fourth and third images 2206c and 2206d, respectively. Likewise, light from pixels 2118a and 2120a passes through the non-blocking grating cells 2112b of the first grating cell array 2104, passes through the non-blocking grating cells 2124a of the second grating cell array 2106 (crossing each other at the second grating cell array 2106 and crossing light from pixels 2114a and 2116 a) to be received at the foci of the second and first images 2206b and 2206a, respectively. Light from pixels 2114b, 2114c, 2116b, 2116c, 2118b, 2118c, 2120b, and 2120c is filtered by the first and second arrays of grating elements 2104 and 2106 through their respective apertures in the same manner.

As shown in fig. 22, by deflecting light passing through the apertures of the set of non-blocking apertures of the first grating cell array 2104 from light passing through a corresponding one of the non-blocking apertures of the second grating cell array 2106, the light associated with each image 2206a-2206d may be spatially separated. For example, as shown in fig. 22, light associated with the first and second images 2206a and 2206b is generally directed by a slit on a right-left path to form the first and second images 2206a and 2206b to the left of the viewing space 2202. Additionally, light associated with the third and fourth images 2206c and 2206d is generally directed by the slits in a left-right path to form the third and fourth images 2206c and 2206d to the right of the viewing space 2202.

In the example shown in fig. 22, the system 2100 provides two three-dimensional images (formed by first and second images 2206a and 2206b and third and fourth images 2206c and 2206d, respectively). In further embodiments, a greater number of three-dimensional images may be provided, including a third three-dimensional image, a fourth three-dimensional image, and so forth. In this case, each three-dimensional image can be generated by filtering light (using a pair of grating cell arrays) corresponding to a pair of images generated by a corresponding pair of pixelets in the pixel array, in the same manner as described for the two three-dimensional images with reference to fig. 21. For example, to provide three-dimensional images, the pixel array 2102 may have fifth and sixth sets of pixels that generate fifth and sixth images, respectively, which may be perceived by a user as a third three-dimensional image. To provide the fourth three-dimensional image, the pixel array 2102 may have seventh and eighth sets of pixels that generate seventh and eighth images, respectively, which may be perceived by the user as the fourth three-dimensional image. In this case, additional non-blocking slits may be included in each set of non-blocking slits of the first grating cell array 2104 in order to form an additional three-dimensional image. For example, to form a third three-dimensional image in the viewing space 2202, third non-blocking slits may be formed in the first grating cell array 2104, e.g., in the group of slits containing the non-blocking grating cells 2112a and 2112b, in the group of slits containing the non-blocking grating cells 2112c and 2112d, and in the group of slits containing the non-blocking grating cells 2112e and 2112f, so as to form a group of slits containing three non-blocking slits (instead of the pair of non-blocking slits in the embodiment shown in fig. 21 and 22).

2. Embodiments of exemplary light operators including convex lenses

In one embodiment, the system 1900 shown in FIG. 19 may include one or more convex lenses as light operators for transmitting three-dimensional images and/or two-dimensional images. For example, FIG. 25 is a block diagram of a display system 2500 according to one embodiment of the invention, the display system 2500 being an example of the display system 1900 shown in FIG. 19. The display system 2500 is configured to display a plurality of three-dimensional images and/or two-dimensional images in a viewing space in a spatially separated manner. As shown in fig. 25, the system 2500 may include a display controller 1902 and a display device 2512. The display device 2512 includes an image generator 102, a parallax barrier 104, and a convex lens 2502. The parallax barrier 104 is an example of the first light manipulator 1904a, and the convex lens 2502 is an example of the second light manipulator 1904 b. As shown in fig. 25, the image generator 102 includes a pixel array 208, the parallax barrier 104 includes a grating unit array 210, and the convex lens 2502 includes a sub-lens array 2504. The grating element array 210 is an example of the optical manipulator unit 1916a, and the sub-lens array 2504 is an example of the optical manipulator unit 1916 b. In addition, as shown in fig. 25, the display controller 1902 includes a pixel array controller 1904 and a light operator controller 1906. The light manipulator controller 1906 includes a barrier array controller 206 connected to the grating cell array 210 and a convex lens controller 2506 connected to the sub-lens array 2504. These features of the system 2500 will be described below.

As described above, pixel array 208 comprises a two-dimensional array of pixels, wherein each pixel of pixel array 208 is configured to emit light contained in light 108. The parallax barrier 104 is close to the surface of the pixel array 208. The grating unit array 210 includes a plurality of grating units arranged in an array. As described above with respect to the grating cell array 210 shown in fig. 2, the grating cells of the grating cell array 210 may be configured to be selectively blocked or non-blocked (e.g., to form non-blocking slits, etc.) in order to transmit a three-dimensional view.

The convex lens 2502 is close to the surface of the parallax barrier 104. The sub-lens array 2504 of the convex lens 2502 includes a plurality of sub-lenses so as to transmit a three-dimensional view. For example, fig. 26A is a schematic perspective view of a convex lens 2600 according to one embodiment of the invention. The convex lens 2600 is an example of the convex lens 2502 shown in fig. 25. As shown in fig. 26A, the convex lens 2600 includes a sub-lens array 2602, and the sub-lens array 2602 is an example of the sub-lens array 2504 shown in fig. 25. The sub-lens array 2602 includes a plurality of sub-lenses 2604 arranged in a two-dimensional array (e.g., arranged side-by-side in a row). Each sub-lens 2604 shown in fig. 26A is cylindrical in shape and has a substantially semicircular cross-section, but may have other shapes in other embodiments. In fig. 26A, the sub-lens array 2602 is shown to include 8 sub-lenses, but this is for illustration only and is not intended to be limiting. For example, the sub-lens array 2602 may include any number (e.g., hundreds, thousands, etc.) of sub-lenses 2604. Fig. 26B shows a side view of convex lens 2600, convex lens 2600 can be positioned in system 2500 shown in fig. 25 to transmit a three-dimensional view as convex lens 2502. In fig. 26B, light may pass through the convex lens 2600 in the direction of dotted arrow 2502 so as to be refracted. Further description of the use of convex lenses to transmit three-dimensional views is provided in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/774,307 entitled "Display with Elastic Light Manipulator" (hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety).

In FIG. 25, the display controller 1902 is configured to generate control signals that cause the display device 2512 to display spatially separated three-dimensional images 1910a-1910n to a user within the viewing space 106. For example, similar to the pixel array controller 204 described above, the pixel array controller 1904 is configured to generate the control signals 214 received by the pixel array 208. The barrier array controller 206 is configured to generate a first control signal 216 received by the array of grating cells 210 such that grating cells of the array of grating cells 210 become non-barrier or barrier. When convex lens 2502 is configured to be adjustable or adaptive, a convex lens controller 2506 may be present. For example, in one embodiment, the convex lens 2502 may be made of an elastic material (e.g., an elastic polymer, etc.). A second control signal 2508 may be generated by convex lens controller 2506 and received by convex lens 2502 to adjust (e.g., stretch, compress, etc.) convex lens 2502 to adjust the light transmission properties of convex lens 2502. For example, the second control signal 2508 may control a motor (e.g., a stepper motor) configured to stretch/compress the convex lens 2502. Referring to fig. 26B, convex lens 2600 may be stretched and/or compressed to adjust, for example, length L1 of convex lens 2600.

Likewise, grating cell array 210 filters light 108 to generate filtered light 110, and lenslet array 2504 refracts filtered light 110 to generate filtered light 1908, filtered light 1908 including one or more three-dimensional images 1910 that are viewable by a user within viewing space 106. The system 2500 may generate a three-dimensional image 1910 in the same manner as described above, for example, with reference to fig. 21 and 22, such that the sub-lenses of the convex lens 2502 are used to transmit three-dimensional views instead of using the grating elements of the second array of grating elements. Depending on the configuration of the array of grating elements 210 and the array of sub-lenses 2504 relative to the array of pixels 208, the three-dimensional image 1910 is spatially separated within the viewing space 106.

In another embodiment, the system 1900 shown in FIG. 19 may include a pair of convex lenses for transmitting three-dimensional views. For example, fig. 27 is a block diagram of a display system 2700 according to an embodiment of the present invention, and the display system 2700 is an example of the display system 1900 shown in fig. 19. The display system 2700 is configured to display a plurality of three-dimensional images in a viewing space in a spatially separated manner. As shown in fig. 27, the system 2700 includes a display controller 1902 and a display device 2712. The display device 2712 includes the image generator 102, a first convex lens 2502a, and a second convex lens 2502 b. The first convex lens 2502a is an example of the first optical manipulator 1904a, and the second convex lens 2502b is an example of the second optical manipulator 1904 b. As shown in fig. 27, the image generator 102 includes a pixel array 208, a first convex lens 2502a includes a first sub-lens array 2504a, and a second convex lens 2502b includes a second sub-lens array 2504 b. The first sub-lens array 2504a is an example of a light manipulator unit 1916a, and the second sub-lens array 2504b is an example of a light manipulator unit 1916 b. In addition, as shown in fig. 27, the display controller 1902 includes a pixel array controller 1904 and a light operator controller 1906. Light manipulator controller 1906 includes a first convex lens controller 2506a connected to first sub-lens array 2504a and a second convex lens controller 2506b connected to second sub-lens array 2504 b. These features of system 2700 will be described below.

As described above, pixel array 208 includes a two-dimensional array of pixels, where each pixel of pixel array 208 is configured to emit light contained in light 108. The first convex lens 2502a is close to the surface of the pixel array 208. The first sub-lens array 2504a includes sub-lenses arranged in a two-dimensional array. In one embodiment, the first sub-lens array 2504a may be stretched to adjust the light transmission properties according to the control signal 2508 a. In another embodiment, the first sub-lens array 2504a may have fixed properties/sizes (e.g., not stretchable to adjust light transmission properties).

The second convex lens 2502b is close to the surface of the first convex lens 2502 a. The second sub-lens array 2504b of the second convex lens 2502b includes a plurality of sub-lenses so as to transmit a three-dimensional view. In one embodiment, the second sub-lens array 2504b may be stretched to adjust the light transmission properties according to the control signal 2508 b. In another embodiment, the second sub-lens array 2504b may have fixed properties/sizes (e.g., not stretchable to adjust light transmission properties).

The display controller 1902 is configured to generate control signals such that the display device 2712 displays spatially separated three-dimensional images 1910a-1910n to a user within the viewing space 106. For example, similar to the pixel array controller 204 described above, the pixel array controller 1904 is configured to generate the control signal 214 received by the pixel array 208, thereby causing the pixel array 208 to emit the light 108. First sub-lens array 2504a refracts light 108 to generate refracted light 110, and second sub-lens array 2504b refracts refracted light 110 to generate refracted light 1908, refracted light 1908 including one or more three-dimensional images 1910 that are viewable by a user within viewing space 106. The system 2700 may generate the three-dimensional image 1910 in the same manner as described above, e.g., with reference to fig. 21 and 22, such that the sub-lenses of the convex lenses 2502a and 2502b are used to perform the transmission of three-dimensional views, rather than using a raster unit. Depending on the configuration of the first and second sub-lens arrays 2504a and 2504b relative to the pixel array 208, the three-dimensional image 1910 is spatially separated within the viewing space 106.

Additionally, in another embodiment, the system 1900 shown in fig. 19 may include a lenticular lens and a parallax barrier that have swapped positions relative to them in fig. 25 to perform the transmission of the three-dimensional view. For example, fig. 28 is a block diagram of a display system 2800 according to one embodiment of the invention, and the display system 2800 is an example of the display system 1900 shown in fig. 19. The display system 2800 is configured to display a plurality of three-dimensional images within a viewing space in a spatially separated manner. As shown in fig. 28, the system 2800 includes a display controller 1902 and a display device 2812. The display device 2812 includes an image generator 102, a convex lens 2502, and a parallax barrier 104. The convex lens 2502 is an example of the first light manipulator 1904a, and the parallax barrier 104 is an example of the second light manipulator 1904 b. As shown in fig. 28, the image generator 102 includes a pixel array 208, the convex lens 2502 includes a sub-lens array 2504, and the parallax barrier 104 includes a grating unit array 210. The sub-lens array 2504 is an example of the optical manipulator unit 1916a, and the grating unit array 210 is an example of the optical manipulator unit 1916 b. In addition, as shown in fig. 28, the display controller 1902 includes a pixel array controller 1904 and a light operator controller 1906. The light manipulator controller 1906 includes a convex lens controller 2506 connected to the sub-lens array 2504 and a barrier array controller 206 connected to the grating cell array 210.

As described above, pixel array 208 includes a two-dimensional array of pixels, where each pixel of pixel array 208 is configured to emit light contained in light 108. Convex lens 2502 is near the surface of pixel array 208. The sub-lens array 2504 includes a plurality of sub-lenses arranged in a two-dimensional array. In one embodiment, the sub-lens array 2504 may be stretched to adjust the light transmission properties in accordance with the control signal 2508. In another embodiment, the first sub-lens array 2504 may have fixed properties/sizes (e.g., not stretchable to adjust light transmission properties).

The parallax barrier 104 is close to the surface of the convex lens 2502. The grating unit array 210 of the parallax grating 104 includes a plurality of grating units arranged in an array. As described above with respect to the grating cell array 210 shown in fig. 2, the grating cells of the grating cell array 210 may be configured to be selectively blocked or non-blocked (e.g., to form non-blocking slits, etc.) in order to transmit a three-dimensional view.

The display controller 1902 is configured to generate control signals that cause the display device 2812 to display spatially separated three-dimensional images 1910a-1910n to a user within the viewing space 106. For example, similar to the pixel array controller 204 described above, the pixel array controller 1904 is configured to generate the control signal 214 received by the pixel array 208, thereby causing the pixel array 208 to emit the light 108. Sub-lens array 2504 refracts light 108 to generate refracted light 110, and grating cell array 210 filters refracted light 110 to generate filtered light 1908, filtered light 1908 including one or more three-dimensional images 1910 that are viewable by a user within viewing space 106. The system 2800 may generate a three-dimensional image 1910 in the same manner as described above, for example, with reference to fig. 21 and 22, such that the sub-lenses of the convex lens 2502 are used to perform the transmission of three-dimensional views instead of the grating elements (of the first array of grating elements). Depending on the configuration of the sub-lens array 2504 and the array of grating elements 210 relative to the array of pixels 208, the three-dimensional image 1910 is spatially separated within the viewing space 106.

Additionally, in an embodiment, the array of blocking regions 210 may be turned off (the grating cells transition to the non-blocking state) so that the display devices 2512 and 2812 may utilize the sub-lens array 2504 to provide a three-dimensional view.

3. Embodiments of an exemplary light manipulator with fixed parallax barrier

In one embodiment, the system 1900 shown in FIG. 19 may include a fixed parallax barrier as a light manipulator and an adaptive parallax barrier to transmit three-dimensional images and/or two-dimensional images. For example, FIG. 29 is a block diagram of a display system 2900 according to one embodiment of the invention, and the display system 2900 is an example of the display system 1900 shown in FIG. 19. Display system 2900 is configured to display multiple three-dimensional images within a viewing space in a spatially separated manner. As shown in fig. 29, system 2900 includes a display controller 1902 and a display device 2912. The display device 2912 includes an image generator 102, a fixed parallax barrier 2902, and an adaptive parallax barrier 104. The fixed parallax barrier 2902 is an example of the first optical operator 1904a, and the adaptive parallax barrier 104 is an example of the second optical operator 1904 b. As shown in fig. 29, the image generator 102 includes a pixel array 208, the fixed parallax barrier 2902 includes fixed transparent slits 2904, and the adaptive parallax barrier 104 includes a grating unit array 210. The fixed transparent slit 2904 is an example of the optical manipulator unit 1916a, and the grating element array 210 is an example of the optical manipulator unit 1916 b. In addition, as shown in fig. 29, the display controller 1902 includes a pixel array controller 1904 and a light operator controller 1906. The optical operator controller 1906 includes the barrier array controller 206 connected to the array of grating elements 210. These features of system 2900 are described below.

As described above, pixel array 208 includes a two-dimensional array of pixels, where each pixel of pixel array 208 is configured to emit light contained in light 108. The fixed parallax barrier 2902 is close to the surface of the pixel array 208. The adaptive parallax barrier 104 is close to the surface of the fixed parallax barrier 2902. The fixed parallax barrier 2902 is not adaptive. The fixed parallax barrier 2902 includes fixed transparent slits 2904, the fixed transparent slits 2904 being fixedly arranged transparent slits in the material of the fixed parallax barrier 2902, the fixed parallax barrier 2902 having a number and spacing of transparent slits, the number and spacing being selected for a particular application of the display device 2912. The fixed transparent slits 2904 may include any number of slits, including hundreds or thousands of slits, which may be arranged in any manner, including having a length equal to or less than the length of the fixed parallax barrier 2902. The fixed transparent slits 2904 may have a uniform size and distribution, or different areas of the fixed transparent slits 2904 may have a different size and/or distribution than other areas of the fixed transparent slits 2904. The array of grating elements 210 is adaptable as described elsewhere herein. The grating unit array 210 includes a plurality of grating units arranged in an array. As described above with respect to the grating cell array 210 shown in fig. 2, the grating cells of the grating cell array 210 may be configured to be selectively blocking or non-blocking.

The display controller 1902 is configured to generate control signals such that the display device 2912 displays spatially separated three-dimensional images 1910a-1910n to a user within the viewing space 106. For example, similar to the pixel array controller 204 described above, the pixel array controller 1904 is configured to generate the control signals 214 received by the pixel array 208. The control signals 214 may include one or more control signals for causing the pixels of the pixel array 208 to emit light 108, the light 108 having a particular desired color and/or density. Similar to the barrier array controller 206 described above, the light operator controller 1906 is configured to generate control signals, including control signal 216. The array of grating elements 210 receives a control signal 216. The control signals 216 may include one or more control signals for causing the grating cells of the grating cell array 210 to become non-blocking or blocking. Since the fixed transparent slits 2904 of the fixed parallax barrier 2902 are fixed, the fixed parallax barrier 2902 does not receive a control signal related to the fixed transparent slits 2904. The display device 2912 generates spatially separated three-dimensional views in the same manner as the display device 2012 shown in fig. 20, except that the fixed parallax barrier 2902 is not adaptable. The fixed transparent slits 2904 filter the light 108 according to their fixed configuration to generate filtered light 110, and the array of grating elements 210 filter the filtered light 110 to generate filtered light 1908, the filtered light 1908 including one or more three-dimensional images 1910 that are viewable by a user within the viewing space 106. Depending on the configuration of the fixed transparent slits 2904 and the array of grating elements 210 relative to the array of pixels 208, the three-dimensional image 1910 is spatially separated within the viewing space 106.

In a similar configuration as in fig. 29, in another embodiment, the adaptive parallax barrier 104 may be a fixed parallax barrier with fixed transparent slits, and the fixed parallax barrier 2902 may be an adaptive parallax barrier with an array of adaptive grating elements, so as to transmit spatially separated three-dimensional views to a viewer.

4. Embodiments of an exemplary light manipulator with fixed parallax barrier

In one embodiment, the system 1900 shown in FIG. 19 can be configured similar to the display system 220 shown in FIG. 2B to transmit three-dimensional images and/or two-dimensional images. For example, in an embodiment, the system 1900 may include the backlight 116 and the pixel array 222 separated by at least one of the first and second light operators 1914a and 1914 b. Fig. 30 is a block diagram of a display system 3000 according to an embodiment of the invention, the display system 3000 being an example of the display system 1900 shown in fig. 19. Display system 3000 is configured to display a plurality of three-dimensional images within a viewing space in a spatially separated manner. As shown in fig. 30, the system 3000 includes a display controller 1902 and a display device 3012. The display device 3012 includes the backlight 116, a first light operator 1914a, a second light operator 1914b, and the pixel array 222. As shown in fig. 30, the backlight 116 optionally includes an array 236 of light emitting cells, the first light operator 1914a includes a first light operator cell 1916a, and the second light operator 1914b includes a second light operator cell 1916 b. In addition, as shown in fig. 30, the display controller 1902 includes a light source controller 230, a light operator controller 1906, and a pixel array controller 228. These features of system 3000 are described below.

As described above, the backlight 116 emits light 238. The first light manipulator 1914a is proximate to a surface of the backlight 116. The second optical manipulator 1914b is proximate to a surface of the first optical manipulator 1914 a. The first optical operator unit 1916a is a layer of the first optical operator 1914a, and the second optical operator unit 1916b is a layer of the second optical operator 1914 b. The first light operator unit 1916a operates the light 238 to generate operated light 3002. The second light operator unit 1916b operates the light 3002 to generate operated light 3004. The pixel array 208 is adjacent to a surface of the second light manipulator 1914 b. Pixel array 208 comprises a two-dimensional array of pixels configured to filter light 3004 to load an image on light 3004, producing filtered light 1908.

The display controller 1902 is configured to generate control signals that cause the display device 3012 to display spatially separated three-dimensional images 1910a-1910n to a user within the viewing space 106. As described above, the light source controller 230 generates the control signal 234 received by the light emitting cell array 236. The control signal 234 may include one or more control signals for controlling the amount of light emitted by each light source in the array of light emitting cells 236 to generate light 238. The light operator controller 1906 is configured to generate control signals including a first control signal 216a received by a first light operator unit 1916a and a second control signal 216b received by a second light operator unit 1916 b. The first control signals 216a may include one or more control signals for causing the first light operator unit 1916a to operate the light 238 in a desired manner to generate the operated light 3002. The second control signals 216b may include one or more control signals for causing the second light operator unit 1916b to operate the light 3002 in a desired manner to generate the operated light 3004. As described above, the pixel array controller 228 is configured to generate the control signals 232 received by the pixel array 222. The control signals 232 may include one or more control signals for causing the pixels of the pixel array 222 to load a desired image (e.g., color, grayscale, etc.) on the light 3004 as the light 3004 passes through the pixel array 222. In this manner, pixel array 222 generates filtered light 1908, filtered light 1908 including one or more two-dimensional and/or three-dimensional images 1910 that are viewable by a user within viewing space 106. Depending on the configuration of the first and second light operator elements 1916a and 1916b relative to the pixel array 222, the three-dimensional image 1910 is spatially separated within the viewing space 106.

Fig. 31 is a block diagram of a display system 3100 according to an embodiment of the invention, the display system 3100 being another example of the display system 1900 shown in fig. 19. Display system 3100 is configured to display a plurality of three-dimensional images in a spatially separated manner within a viewing space. As shown in fig. 31, the system 3100 includes a display controller 1902 and a display device 3112. The display device 3112 comprises a backlight 116, a first light operator 1914a, a pixel array 222 and a second light operator 1914 b. As shown in fig. 31, the backlight 116 optionally includes an array 236 of light emitting cells, the first light operator 1914a includes a first light operator unit 1916a, and the second light operator 1914b includes a second light operator unit 1916 b. In addition, as shown in fig. 31, the display controller 1902 includes a light source controller 230, a first light operator controller 1906a, a pixel array controller 228, and a second light operator controller 1906 b. These features of the system 3100 are described below.

As described above, the backlight 116 emits light 238. The first light manipulator 1914a is proximate to a surface of the backlight 116. The pixel array 222 is proximate to a surface of the first light manipulator 1914 a. The second light manipulator 1914b is proximate to a surface of the pixel array 222. The first optical operator unit 1916a is a layer of the first optical operator 1914a, and the second optical operator unit 1916b is a layer of the second optical operator 1914 b. The first light operator unit 1916a operates the light 238 to generate operated light 3102. Pixel array 222 includes a two-dimensional array of pixels configured to filter light 3102 to load an image on light 3102, producing filtered light 3104. The second light operator unit 1916b operates the light 3104 to generate light 1908.

The display controller 1902 is configured to generate control signals such that the display device 3112 displays spatially separated three-dimensional images 1910a-1910n to a user within the viewing space 106. As described above, the light source controller 230 generates the control signal 234 that is received by the light cell array 236. The control signal 234 may include one or more control signals for controlling the amount of light emitted by each light source in the array of light units 236 to generate light 238. The light operator controller 1906a is configured to generate the first control signal 216a received by the first light operator unit 1916 a. The first control signals 216a may include one or more control signals for causing the first light operator unit 1916a to operate the light 238 in a desired manner to generate the operated light 3102. As described above, the pixel array controller 228 is configured to generate the control signals 232 received by the pixel array 222. The control signals 232 may include one or more control signals for causing the pixels of the pixel array 222 to load a desired image (e.g., color, grayscale, etc.) on the light 3102 as the light 3102 passes through the pixel array 222. The light operator controller 1906b is configured to generate the second control signal 216b received by the second light operator unit 1916 b. The second control signals 216b may include one or more control signals for causing the second light operator unit 1916b to operate the light 3102 in a desired manner to generate the light 1908. In this manner, light 1908 is generated and light 1908 includes one or more two-dimensional and/or three-dimensional images 1910 that are viewable by a user within viewing space 106. Depending on the configuration of the first and second light operator elements 1916a and 1916b relative to the pixel array 222, the three-dimensional image 1910 is spatially separated within the viewing space 106.

D. Exemplary display Environment

As described above, the parallax barrier (e.g., the parallax barrier 104) and the light operators (e.g., the first and second light operators 1914a and 1914b) may be reconfigured to change the position of the transmitted view according to a change in the viewer's position. Thus, the position of the viewer can be determined/tracked in order to reconfigure the parallax barrier and/or the light manipulator to transmit a view that corresponds to the changed position of the viewer. For example, for a parallax barrier, the spacing, number, arrangement and/or other properties of the apertures may be adapted according to changes in the viewer position. For a convex lens, the size of the convex lens may be adapted (e.g., stretched, compressed) according to changes in the viewer position. In embodiments, the location of the viewer may be determined/tracked by directly determining the location of the viewer or by determining the location of a device associated with the viewer (e.g., a device worn by the viewer, carried by the viewer, held in the viewer's arms, in the viewer's pocket, beside the viewer, etc.).

For example, FIG. 32 is a block diagram of a display environment 3200 according to one embodiment of the invention. In the example shown in fig. 32, first and second viewers 3206a and 3206b are present in the display environment 3200, and a display device 3202 may communicate with the first and second viewers 3206a and 3206b to send two-dimensional and/or three-dimensional media content to them. Although only two viewers are shown in fig. 32, in other embodiments, other numbers of viewers 3206 may also be present in display environment 3200, with which display devices 3202 may communicate to send media content to them. As shown in fig. 32, the display environment 3200 includes a display device 3202, a first remote control 3204a, a second remote control 3204b, a first earpiece 3212a, a second earpiece 3212b, and viewers 3206a and 3206 b. Display device 3202 is an example of display system 112 shown in fig. 1, and may be configured the same as any of the display devices described herein, including display device 250 (fig. 2A), display device 260 (fig. 2B), display device 1900 (fig. 19), and so forth. Display device 3202 transmits view 3208a to audience 3206a and view 3208b to audience 3206 b. Views 3208a and 3208b may be two-dimensional views or three-dimensional views, respectively. Additionally, in an embodiment, view 3208a may be transmitted to audience 3206a but not be seen by audience 3206b, and view 3208b may be transmitted to audience 3206b but not be seen by audience 3206 a.

Remote control 3204a is a device used by spectator 3206a to communicate with display device 3202, while remote control 3204b is a device used by spectator 3206b to communicate with display device 3202. For example, as shown in fig. 32, spectator 3206a may communicate with the user interface of remote control 3204a to generate display control signals 3214a, and spectator 3206b may communicate with the user interface of remote control 3204b to generate display control signals 3214 b. The display control signals 3214a and 3214b may be communicated to the display device 3202 using a wireless or wired communication link. Display control signals 3214a and 3214b may be configured to select the particular content desired for viewing by viewers 3206a and 3206b, respectively. For example, the display control signals 3214a and 3214b may select particular media content (e.g., television channels, video games, DVD (digital video disc) content, videotape content, web content, etc.) for viewing. Display control signals 3214a and 3214b may select whether the media content needs to be viewed by viewers 3206a and 3206b, respectively, in two-dimensional form or three-dimensional form. Remote controllers 3204a and 3204b may be television remote control devices, game controllers, smart phones, or other remote control type devices.

Headphones 3212a and 3212b are worn by spectators 3206a and 3206b, respectively. Headphones 3212a and 3212b include one or two speakers (e.g., earpieces), respectively, so that viewers 3206a and 3206b can hear audio related to the media content of views 3208a and 3208 b. The headphones 3212a and 3212b allow the spectators 3206a and 3206b to hear the audio of their respective media content but not the audio related to the media content of the other of the spectators 3206a and 3206 b. The earpieces 3212a and 3212b each optionally include a microphone so that the spectators 3206a and 3206b may communicate with the display device 3202 using voice commands.

Display device 3202a, headphones 3212a, and/or remote control 3204a may be used to provide location information 3210a related to audience 3206a to display device 3202, and display device 3202b, headphones 3212b, and/or remote control 3204b may be used to provide location information 3210b related to audience 3206b to display device 3202. The display device 3202 may use the position information 3210a and 3210b to reconfigure one or more light operators (e.g., parallax barriers and/or convex lenses) of the display device 3202 to send views 3208a and 3208b to viewers 3206a and 3206b, respectively, in different locations. For example, display device 3202a, headphones 3212a, and/or remote control 3204a may use localization technology to track the location of audience 3206a, and display device 3202b, headphones 3212b, and/or remote control 3204b may use localization technology to track the location of audience 3206 b.

Remote controllers 3204a and 3204b may be configured in various ways to communicate with display device 3202 and to track the location of viewers 3206a and 3206b, respectively. For example, fig. 33 is a block diagram of a remote control 3204, according to one embodiment of the invention. At least one of the remote controllers 3204a and 3204b may be configured to be the same as the remote controller 3204 shown in fig. 33. As shown in fig. 33, the remote control 3204 may include a transmitter 3302, a positioning module 3304, a position calculator 3306, a user interface module 3308, one or more cameras 3310, and an image processing system 3312. According to particular embodiments, remote 3204 may include at least one of the elements shown in fig. 33. These units of the remote controller 3204 are described below.

A location module 3304 may be included in remote control 3204 to determine the location of remote control 3204 based on location techniques, such as triangulation or trilateration. For example, the positioning module 3304 may include one or more receivers for receiving satellite broadcast signals (e.g., a Global Positioning System (GPS) module for receiving signals from GPS satellites). The position calculator 3306 may calculate the position of the remote controller 3204 by precisely timing the received signal based on GPS technology. In another embodiment, the location module 3304 may include one or more receivers for receiving signals transmitted by the display device 3202, which may be used by the position calculator 3306 to calculate the position of the remote control 3204. In other embodiments, the positioning module 3304 and the position calculator 3306 may use other types of positioning techniques. By determining the location of remote control 3204, the location of relevant audience 3206 may be estimated.

User interface module 3308 may enable audience 3206 to communicate with remote control 3204. For example, user interface module 3308 may include any number and combination of user interface elements, such as a keyboard, thumb wheel, pointing device, roller ball, pointer, handle, thumb pad, display, touch display, any number of visual interface elements, voice recognition system, touch interface, and/or other user interface elements described or known elsewhere herein. The user interface 3308 may enable a respective audience 3206 to select media content to be transmitted by the display system 3202, including a selection of television channels, video games, DVD (digital video disc) content, videotape content, web content, and so forth. The user interface module 3308 may be further configured to enable the audience 3206 to manually enter their location information into the remote control 3204, including manually entering their coordinates within the viewing space 106, indicia of preset locations within the viewing space 106 into the remote control 3204 (e.g., "location a," "seat D," etc.), or provide the location information in any other manner.

Cameras 3310 in remote 3204 may enable optical position detection of respective viewers 3206. For example, the cameras 3310 may be pointed by respective viewers 3206 at a display device 3202 for displaying the signal or code, and the cameras 3310 may take one or more images of the displayed signal or code. The image processing system 3312 may receive the captured image and determine the location of the remote control 3204 relative to the display device 3202 based on the captured image. For example, in one embodiment, the cameras 3310 may include a pair of cameras, and the image processing system 3312 may perform dual image processing to determine the location of the remote control 3204 relative to the display device 3202.

The transmitter 3302 is configured to transmit the location information 3210 and/or selected media content information received from the remote control 3204 to the display device 3202. The location information 3210 may include a determined location of the remote control 3204 (e.g., calculated by the location calculator 3306 or the image processing system 3312), and/or may include captured data (e.g., received signal data received by the positioning module 3304, images captured by the camera 3310, etc.) so that the display device 3202 may determine the location of the remote control 3204 from the captured data.

The headphones 3212a and 3212b may be configured in various ways to communicate with the display device 3202, receive corresponding audio, and track the location of the spectators 3206a and 3206b, respectively. For example, fig. 34 is a block diagram of a headset 3212 according to one embodiment of the invention. At least one of the earphones 3212a and 3212b may be configured the same as the earphone 3212 shown in fig. 34. As shown in fig. 34, the headset 3212 may include a receiver 3402, a transmitter 3404, one or more speakers 3406, and a microphone 3408. According to particular embodiments, the headphones 3212 may include at least one of the units shown in fig. 34. These elements of the headset 3212 are described below. Although not shown in fig. 34, the headphones 3212 can include a positioning module 3304, a position calculator 3306, one or more cameras 3310, and an image processing system 3312, which can be used to determine the position of the respective audience 3206, in the same manner as the remote control 3204 described above.

The receivers 3402 may be configured to receive audio information transmitted by the display systems 3202 that is related to the respective views 3208 to be played by the speakers 3406 to the respective viewers 3206. The speakers 3406 may include one or more speakers for playing audio to a respective audience 3206 wearing the headphones 3212. For example, speakers 3406 may include one speaker (for one ear of audience 3206) or a pair of speakers (for both ears of audience 3206).

The transmitter 3404, when present, may be configured to transmit the location information 3210 received from the headset 3212 (e.g., determined by the headset 3212 in the same manner as the remote control 3204 described above) to the display device 3202. Additionally, the transmitter 3404 may be configured to transmit media content selections from the headphones 3212 to the display device 3202, the selections being made with voice indications of the microphone. Still further, in one embodiment, the headset 3212 may provide a user with telephone (e.g., cell phone) functionality. In this embodiment, the microphone 3408 may receive a voice input for a phone call from the viewer 3212, the speaker 3406 may provide a voice output (from a remote speaker) related to the phone call to the viewer 3212, and the receiver 3402 and the transmitter 3404 may be configured to receive and transmit a phone call signal.

The display device 3202 may take any form, such as at least one of a display, a gaming device, a set-top box, a stereo receiver, a computer, any other display device mentioned or known elsewhere herein, or any combination of these devices. The display device 3202 may be configured in various ways to track the location of the audience 3206. For example, fig. 35 is a block diagram of a display device 3202 according to one embodiment of the invention. As shown in fig. 35, the display device 3202 may include a position determiner module 3514 for determining the position of one or more viewers. The position determiner module 3514 may include a receiver 3502, one or more transmitters 3504, a position calculator 3506, a microphone array 3508, one or more cameras 3510, and an image processing system 3312. According to particular embodiments, the position determiner module 3514 may include at least one of these units. As shown in fig. 35, the location determiner module 3514 generates location information 3516 from at least one of the receiver 3502, the transmitter 3504, the location calculator 3506, the microphone array 3508, the camera 3510, and the image processing system 3312. The position information 3516 may be received by the display controller 202 and used by the display controller 202 to adjust the display device 3202 (e.g., adjust at least one of the parallax barrier 104, the pixel array 114, and/or the backlight 116 shown in fig. 1, adjust at least one of the first and second light operators 1914a and 1914b and/or the image generator 102 shown in fig. 19, etc., according to respective control signals) to transmit views to the viewers 3206a and 3206b as the viewers 3206a and/or 3206b change position in the viewing space. These units of the display device 3202 are described below.

When present, the microphone array 3508 includes one or more microphones positioned at various microphone locations in and/or around the display device 3202 to capture sound (e.g., speech) from the audience 3206a and/or audience 3206 b. The microphone array 3508 produces signals representative of received sound, which may be received by the position calculator 3506. Location calculator 3506 may be configured to utilize the received signals to determine the location of audience 3206a and/or audience 3206 b. For example, location calculator 3506 may determine that sound is received from audience 3206a and/or audience 3206b using speech recognition techniques, and may perform audio localization techniques to determine the location of audience 3206a and/or audience 3206b from the speech.

A camera 3510 in display device 3202 may enable optical position detection of audience 3206a and/or audience 3206 b. For example, the camera 3510 may be directed from the display device 3202 toward the viewing space 106 to capture images of the audience 3206a and/or audience 3206b and/or associated remote controls 3204a and/or 3204b and/or headphones 3212a and/or 3212 b. Spectator 3206a and/or spectator 3206b, remote control 3204a and/or remote control 3204b, and headset 3212a and/or headset 3212b may selectively display the signals or codes, and the displayed signals or codes may be captured as an image. The image processing system 3512 may receive the captured images and determine the position of the audience 3206a and/or audience 3206b relative to the display device 3202 based on the captured images (e.g., using facial recognition, image processing of signals or codes, etc.). For example, in one embodiment, the camera 3510 may include a pair of cameras, and the image processing system 3512 may perform dual image processing to determine the position of the audience 3206a and/or audience 3206b, remote 3204a and/or remote 3204b, and/or headphones 3212a and/or headphones 3212b relative to the display device 3202.

When present, the transmitter may be configured to transmit signals received by the positioning module 3304 to determine the location of the remote control 3204a, the remote control 3204b, the headphones 3212a, and/or the headphones 3212b in the manner described above with reference to fig. 33 and 44.

Receiver 3502 may be configured to receive location information 3210 from remote control 3204a, remote control 3204b, headset 3212a, and/or headset 3212 b. As described above, the location information 3210 may include the determined locations of the remote control 3204a, the remote control 3204b, the headphones 3212a, and/or the headphones 3212b, and/or may include captured data (e.g., received signal data, images, etc.). The display device 3202 may determine the location of the remote control 3204a, the remote control 3204b, the headphones 3212a, and/or the headphones 3212b from the captured data. For example, the location calculator 3306 may determine the location of the remote control 3204a, remote control 3204b, headphones 3212a, and/or headphones 3212b from signal data received by the positioning module 3304 at the remote control 3204a, remote control 3204b, headphones 3212a, and/or headphones 3212 b. Alternatively, the image processing system 3312 may determine the location of the remote control 3204a, remote control 3204b, headset 3212a, and/or headset 3212b from images taken by the camera 3310 at the remote control 3204a, remote control 3204b, headset 3212a, and/or headset 3212 b.

Embodiments of an exemplary display controller

Display controller 202, pixel array controller 204, raster array controller 206, pixel array controller 228, light source controller 230, aperture spacing calculator 902, display controller 1902, pixel array controller 1904, light operator controller 1906, lenticular lens controller 2506, positioning module 3304, position calculator 3306, image processing system 3312, position determiner module 3514, position calculator 3506, and image processing system 3512 may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. For example, display controller 202, pixel array controller 204, raster array controller 206, pixel array controller 228, light source controller 230, aperture spacing calculator 902, display controller 1902, pixel array controller 1904, light operator controller 1906, lenticular lens controller 2506, positioning module 3304, position calculator 3306, image processing system 3312, position determiner module 3514, position calculator 3506, and/or image processing system 3512 may be implemented as computer program code executing in one or more processors. Alternatively, display controller 202, pixel array controller 204, raster array controller 206, pixel array controller 228, light source controller 230, aperture spacing calculator 902, display controller 1902, pixel array controller 1904, light operator controller 1906, lenticular lens controller 2506, positioning module 3304, position calculator 3306, image processing system 3312, position determiner module 3514, position calculator 3506, and/or image processing system 3512 may be implemented as hardware logic/electronic circuitry.

For example, FIG. 36 is a block diagram of an example implementation of a display controller 202 according to an embodiment of the invention. In an embodiment, the display controller 202 may include at least one unit as shown in fig. 36. As shown in the example of fig. 36, display controller 202 may include one or more processors (also referred to as central processing units or CPUs), such as processor 3604. The processor 3604 is connected to a communication infrastructure (communication infrastructure)3602, such as a communication bus. In some embodiments, processor 3604 may execute multiple compute threads concurrently.

The display controller 202 also includes a primary or main memory 3606, such as Random Access Memory (RAM). Main memory 3606 stores control logic 3628A (computer software) and data.

Display controller 202 also includes one or more second storage devices 3610. Second storage device 3610 includes, for example, a hard disk drive 3612 and/or a removable storage device or drive 3614, as well as other types of storage devices, such as memory cards and memory sticks. For example, the display controller 202 may include an industry standard interface, such as a Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface for communicating with devices such as memory sticks. Removable storage drive 3614 refers to a floppy disk drive, magnetic tape drive, optical disk storage device, tape backup, and the like.

Removable storage drive 3614 communicates with a removable storage unit 3616. Removable storage unit 3616 includes a computer usable or readable storage medium 3624 having stored therein computer software 3628B (control logic) and/or data. Removable storage unit 3616 refers to a floppy disk, magnetic tape, optical disk, Digital Video Disk (DVD), optical storage disk (optical storage disk), or any other computer data storage device. Removable storage drive 3614 reads from and/or writes to removable storage unit 3616 in a well known manner.

The display controller 202 further includes a communication or network interface 3618. Communication interface 3618 enables display controller 202 to communicate with remote devices. For example, communication interface 3618 enables display controller 202 to communicate via a communication Network or medium 3642 (which refers to a computer usable or readable medium), such as a Local Area Network (LAN), wide area Network (WideArea Network), the internet, etc. The network interface 3618 may communicate with remote sites or networks through wired or wireless communication.

Control logic 3628C may be sent to display controller 202 or received from display controller 202 over communication medium 3642.

Any device or apparatus comprising a computer usable or readable medium having control logic (software) stored thereon, referred to herein as a computer program product or program storage device, includes, but is not limited to, display controller 202, primary memory 3606, secondary storage device 3610, and removable storage unit 3616. Such computer program products, having control logic stored therein, when executed by one or more data processing devices, may cause the data processing devices to operate as described above, thereby providing embodiments of the present invention.

Devices that may implement embodiments of the present invention may include memory, such as storage drives, storage devices, and other types of computer-readable media. Examples of such computer readable storage media include hard disks, removable magnetic disks, removable optical disks, flash memory cards, DVDs, RAMs, Read Only Memories (ROMs), and the like. As used herein, the terms "computer program medium" and "computer-readable medium" generally refer to a hard disk associated with a hard disk drive, a removable magnetic disk, a removable optical disk (e.g., a Compact disk Read-only memory (CDROM), a DVD, etc.), a zip disk, a magnetic tape, a magnetic storage device, a micro-electromechanical system memory (MEMS), a nanotechnology-based storage device, etc., as well as other media such as flash memory cards, DVDs, RAM devices, ROM devices, etc. These computer-readable storage media may store program modules comprising computer program logic for display controller 202, pixel array controller 204, raster array controller 206, pixel array controller 228, light source controller 230, aperture interval calculator 902, display controller 1902, pixel array controller 1904, light operator controller 1906, lenticular lens controller 2506, positioning module 3304, position calculator 3306, image processing system 3312, position determiner module 3514, position calculator 3506, image processing system 3512, flowchart 600, step 1202, step 1302, flowchart 1500, flowchart 1800 (including any of flowcharts 600, 1500, and 1800), and/or other embodiments of the present invention described herein. Embodiments of the present invention are directed to computer program products comprising such logic (e.g., in the form of program code or software) stored on any computer usable medium. The program code, when executed in one or more processors, may cause the apparatus to operate as described herein.

As described herein, the display controller 202 may be implemented in connection with various types of display devices. These display devices may be implemented in or in conjunction with various types of media devices, such as stand-alone displays (e.g., television displays such as flat panel displays, etc.), computers, game consoles, set-top boxes, Digital Video Recorders (DVRs), and so on. According to embodiments described herein, media content transmitted in two or three dimensions may be stored locally or received remotely. For example, such media content may be stored locally for playback (replay TV, DVR), may be stored in mobile storage (e.g., DVDs, memory sticks, etc.), may be received over a network such as a home network, download streaming over the internet, over a cable network, satellite network, and/or fiber optic network, etc., over wireless and/or wired channels. For example, fig. 36 illustrates first media content 3630A stored in a hard disk drive 3612, second media content 3630B stored in a storage medium 3624 of a removable storage unit 3616, and third media content 3630C stored remotely and received by the communication interface 3618 over a communication medium 3622. Media content 3630 may be stored and/or received in these and/or other manners.

Conclusion IV

While various embodiments of the present invention have been described above, it should be understood that they have been presented by way of example only, and not limitation. It will be understood by those skilled in the relevant art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present invention should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments, but should be defined only in accordance with the following claims and their equivalents.

This application claims priority from U.S. provisional patent application No.61/291,818, filed 12/31, 2009 and U.S. provisional patent application No.61/303,119, filed 2/10, 2010, and is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Claims

1. A display system having a viewing plane, said display system supporting a first media content of a first viewer and a second media content of a second viewer, at least one of said first media content and said second media content comprising three-dimensional image data, said display system comprising:

a first light manipulator; and

a second light manipulator;

the first and second light operators collectively configured to deliver the first media content to the first viewer but not to the second viewer through a first region of the one plane of view while delivering the second media content to the second viewer but not to the first viewer through a second region of the one plane of view, with the first and second regions at least partially overlapping;

the first optical manipulator comprises a plurality of grating units arranged in a first grating unit array, each grating unit in the first grating unit array having a blocking state and a non-blocking state, the first grating unit array having a plurality of grating unit bands composed of grating units selected to be in the non-blocking state to form a plurality of first non-blocking bands;

wherein the first media content and the second media content are presented to the first viewer and the second viewer in the form of views, respectively; the first light operator is capable of dynamically adjusting at least one parameter of:

the number of slots in the grating, the diameter of each slot, the spacing between the slots, and the direction of the slots.

2. The display system of claim 1 wherein the second light manipulator comprises a plurality of second grating units arranged in a second grating unit array having a plurality of second grating unit strips of grating units selected to be in a non-blocking state to form a plurality of second non-blocking strips.

3. The display system of claim 2, wherein the plurality of first non-blocking strips of the first array of grating units comprises a plurality of sets of non-blocking strips, and the plurality of second non-blocking strips comprises a non-blocking strip corresponding to each of the plurality of sets of non-blocking strips.

4. The display system of claim 1 wherein the second light manipulator is a convex lens proximate to the first array of grating elements, the convex lens comprising an array of sub-lenses.

5. The display system of claim 1 wherein the second light manipulator is a convex lens.

6. The display system of claim 5, wherein the convex lens is elastic.

7. A method for supporting first media content of a first viewer and second media content of a second viewer within a viewing plane, at least one of the first media content and the second media content comprising three-dimensional image data, the method comprising:

simultaneously transmitting the first media content to the first viewer and the second media content to the second viewer with an optical operator, the first media content being transmitted to the first viewer but not to the second viewer through a first region of the one plane of view, the second media content being transmitted to the second viewer but not to the first viewer through a second region of the one plane of view, and the first region and the second region being at least partially coincident;

the optical manipulator comprises a plurality of grating units arranged in a grating unit array, each grating unit in the grating unit array having a blocking state and a non-blocking state, the grating unit array having a plurality of grating unit bands composed of grating units selected to be in the non-blocking state to form a plurality of non-blocking bands;

wherein the first media content and the second media content are presented to the first viewer and the second viewer in the form of views, respectively; the light manipulator is capable of dynamically adjusting at least one parameter of the following, thereby changing the presentation of the view:

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said concurrently transmitting said first media content to said first viewer and said second media content to said second viewer comprises:

filtering the generated light with an array of grating elements.

9. A display system having a viewing plane, said display system supporting a first media content of a first viewer and a second media content of a second viewer, at least one of said first media content and said second media content comprising three-dimensional image data, said display system comprising:

the first region and the second region at least partially coincide;