Image quality in an image display device

• US 20060279680A1
• Filed: 09/09/2004
• Published: 12/14/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Schoellmann, Volker, Karman, Gerardus P.
• Granted Patent: US 7,808,591 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 349/116
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 30/25 using polarisation techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/31 using parallax barriers

Abstract

A display device (50) for displaying a three dimensional image such that different views are displayed according to the viewing angle (D), the display device including a display panel (52) having a plurality of separately addressable pixels (54) for displaying said image, the pixels being grouped such that different pixels in a group correspond to different views; a retarder (56) in optical association with the display panel, the retarder comprising retarder pixels (58), at least one retarder pixel being associated with each corresponding pixel in the display panel, wherein optical parameters of the retarder pixels (58) are varied as function of the viewing angle associated with the corresponding pixel (54) in the display panel.

Claims

1. A display device (50) for displaying an image such that different views are displayed according to the viewing angle(φ

), the display device including;

a display panel (52) having a plurality of separately addressable pixels (54) for displaying said image, the pixels being grouped such that different pixels in a group correspond to different views;

a retarder (56) in optical association with the display panel, the retarder comprising retarder pixels (58), at least one retarder pixel being associated with each corresponding pixel in the display panel, wherein

optical parameters of the retarder pixels (58) are varied as function of the viewing angle associated with the corresponding pixel (54) in the display panel.

2. A display device (50) according to claim 1 in which one retarder pixel (58) is associated with one pixel (54) in the display panel.

3. A display device (50) according to claim 1 wherein one retarder pixel (58) is associated with a plurality of corresponding pixels (54) in the display panel.

4. A display device (50) according to claim 1 wherein the plurality of retarder pixels (58) are associated with a single corresponding pixel (54) in the display panel.

5. A display device 950) according to claim 1 wherein the retarder (56) is positioned in front of the display panel.

6. A display device (50) according to claim 1 wherein the retarder (56) is positioned behind the display panel.

7. A display device (50) according to claim 1 wherein the thickness of the retarder (58) is varied as a function of the viewing angle (φ

) associated with the corresponding pixel (54) in the display panel.

8. A display device (50) according to claim 1 wherein the orientation of director molecules that constitute the retarder pixels (58) is varied as a function of the viewing angle (φ

) associated with the corresponding pixel (54) in the display panel.

9. A display device (50) according to claim 8 wherein the tilt angle (40) of the retarder pixels (58) is varied as a function of the viewing angle (4) associated with the corresponding pixel (54) in the display panel.

10. A display device (50) according to claim 8 wherein the azimuthal angle of the retarder pixels (58) is varied as a function of the viewing angle (φ

) associated with the corresponding pixel (54) in the display panel.

11. A display device according to claim 8 wherein the splay and bend profile of the retarder pixels (58) is varied as a function of the viewing angle (φ

) associated with the corresponding pixel (54) in the display panel.

12. A display device (50) according to claim 1 wherein the refractive indices of the retarder pixels (58) are varied as a function of the viewing angle (φ

) associated with the corresponding pixel (54) in the display panel.

13. A display panel (50) according to claim 12 wherein the birefringence of the retarder pixels (58) is varied as a function of the viewing angle (φ

) associated with the corresponding pixel (54) in the display panel.

14. A display device (50) according to claim 1 wherein more than one optical parameter is varied in one or more of the retarder pixels (58).

15. A display device (50) according to claim 1 wherein different optical parameters are varied in each retarder pixel (58).

16. A display device (50) according to claim 1 wherein the same optical parameter is varied in each retarder pixel (58).

17. A display device (50) according to claim 1 wherein the retarder pixels (58) comprise all of the pixels in the retarder.

18. A display device (50) according to claim 1 wherein the retarder pixels (58) comprise some, but not all of the pixels in the retarder.

19. A method for displaying an image on a display device (50) comprising the steps of:

forming an image from a plurality of separately addressable pixels (54) in a display panel (52), the pixels being grouped such that different pixels in a group correspond to different views of the image;

altering the image generated by each of at least some of the pixels as a function of the viewing angle (φ

) associated with each pixel.

20. A method according to claim 19 wherein the display device (50) further comprises:

a retarder (56) in optical association with the display panel (52), the retarder comprising retarder pixels (58), at least one retarder pixel being associated with each corresponding pixel (54) in the display panel;

and the step of altering the image generated by each of at least some of the pixels (54) in the display panel comprises varying the optical parameters of the retarder pixels as a function of the viewing angle associated with the corresponding pixel in the display panel.