Stereoscopic image display device

• US 20070008314A1
• Filed: 07/03/2006
• Published: 01/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/05/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NexusChips Co., Ltd., Samsung Display Company Limited (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Samsung Display Company Limited (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Inventors: Jang, Hyoung-Wook, Kim, Hyun-Sook, Lee, Jang-Doo, Song, Myoung-Seop, Kim, Hag-Keun, Lee, Duck-Myung, Lee, Woo-Jong, Choi, Han-Jun
• Granted Patent: US 9,083,964 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/419
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/161 Encoding, multiplexing or demultiplexing different image signal components for multi-view video sequence encoding H04N19/597
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/189 Recording image signals; Reproducing recorded image signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/296 Synchronisation thereof; Control thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/305 using lenticular lenses, e.g. arrangements of cylindrical lenses
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/31 using parallax barriers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/356 having separate monoscopic and stereoscopic modes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/398 Synchronisation thereof; Control thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/597 specially adapted for multi-view video sequence encoding

Abstract

A stereoscopic image display device includes: a display unit including a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix format, the pixels including left-eye and right-eye pixels alternately arranged in one direction; a memory including a left-eye image area for storing left-eye image data corresponding to the left-eye pixels and a right-eye image area for storing right-eye image data corresponding to the right-eye pixels; an address comparator for the respectively storing the left-eye and right-eye image data at corresponding addresses of the left-eye and right-eye image areas and making an arrangement of the left-eye and right-eye image areas in the memory in response to a first signal; a data synthesizer for synthesizing a stereoscopic image signal from the data stored in the memory; and a data driver for applying a data signal corresponding to a stereoscopic image signal to the display unit.

Claims

1. A stereoscopic image display device comprising:

a display unit including a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix format, the plurality of pixels including left-eye pixels and right-eye pixels alternately arranged in one direction;

a memory including a left-eye image area for storing left-eye image data corresponding to the left-eye pixels and a right-eye image area for storing right-eye image data corresponding to the right-eye pixels;

an address comparator for respectively storing the left-eye image data and the right-eye image data at corresponding addresses of the left-eye and right-eye image areas and making an arrangement of the left-eye and right-eye image areas in the memory in response to a first signal;

a data synthesizer for synthesizing a stereoscopic image signal from the data stored in the memory; and

a data driver for applying a data signal corresponding to the stereoscopic image signal to the display unit.

2. The stereoscopic image display device of claim 1, wherein the arrangement of the left-eye and right-eye image areas corresponds to an arrangement of the left-eye and right-eye pixels of the display unit.

3. The stereoscopic image display device of claim 1, wherein, in response to the first signal, the address comparator changes the arrangement of the left-eye and right-eye image areas of the memory in correspondence with an arrangement of the left-eye and right-eye pixels of the display unit.

4. The stereoscopic image display device of claim 1, wherein, in response to the first signal, the address comparator changes the arrangement of the left-eye and right-eye image areas of the memory from a first direction to a second direction.

5. The stereoscopic image display device of claim 4, wherein the first direction and the second direction are substantially orthogonal to each other.

6. The stereoscopic image display device of claim 5, wherein an arrangement of the left-eye pixels and the right-eye pixels of the display unit is perpendicularly changed when the arrangement of the left-eye and right-eye image areas of the memory is changed from the first direction to the second direction.

7. The stereoscopic image display device of claim 1, further comprising a pixel-address matching unit for matching the left-eye image data with the left-eye pixels and the right-eye image data with the right-eye pixels, and transmitting the matched data to the data synthesizer.

8. The stereoscopic image display device of claim 7, wherein the data synthesizer synthesizes the stereoscopic image data by arranging the left-eye image data and the right-eye image data matched by the matching unit in correspondence with an arrangement of the left-eye pixels and the right-eye pixels of the display unit.

9. The stereoscopic image display device of claim 1, wherein:

the left-eye pixels and the right-eye pixels each include a first subpixel, a second subpixel, and a third subpixel respectively corresponding to first, second, and third colors; and

data respectively corresponding to the first, second, and third subpixels are dividedly stored in the left-eye and right-eye image areas.

10. The stereoscopic image display device of claim 1, further comprising a barrier comprising transparent and opaque regions arranged to form a light projection path so that images output by the left-eye and right-eye pixels can respectively be projected in a left direction or a right direction through the light projection path.

11. The stereoscopic image display device of claim 10, wherein the transparent and opaque regions of the barrier are rearranged when the left-eye and right-eye pixels of the display unit are rearranged.

12. The stereoscopic image display device of claim 1, wherein the stereoscopic image display device is a display unit of a mobile communication terminal.

13. A 3D image-stereoscopic image converter for converting 3D image data to stereoscopic image data corresponding to an arrangement of left-eye and right-eye pixels of a display unit, comprising:

a geometric engine for converting the 3D image data to left-eye 3D image data or right-eye 3D image data in response to a stereoscopic image activation signal;

a memory including a left-eye image area for storing left-eye image data corresponding to the left-eye pixels and a right-eye image area for storing right-eye image data corresponding to the right-eye pixels;

a rendering engine for recording the left-eye image data and the right-eye image data at the memory using spatial information and color information of the left-eye 3D image data and the right-eye 3D image data;

an address comparator for respectively storing the left-eye image data and the right-eye image data input from the rendering engine at corresponding addresses of the left-eye and right-eye image areas and changing an arrangement of the left-eye and right-eye image areas in the memory in response to a first signal; and

a data synthesizer for synthesizing a stereoscopic image signal from the data stored in the memory.

14. The 3D image-stereoscopic image converter of claim 13, wherein the arrangement of the left-eye and right-eye image areas corresponds to the arrangement of the left-eye and right-eye pixels of the display unit.

15. The 3D image-stereoscopic image converter of claim 13, wherein in response to the first signal, the address comparator changes the arrangement of the left-eye and right-eye image areas of the memory in correspondence with the arrangement of the left-eye and right-eye pixels of the display unit.

16. The 3D image-stereoscopic image converter of claim 13, further comprising a pixel-address matching unit for matching the left-eye image data with the left-eye pixels and the right-eye image data with the right-eye pixels, and transmitting the matched data to the data synthesizer.

17. The 3D image-stereoscopic image converter of claim 16, wherein the data synthesizer synthesizes the stereoscopic image data by arranging the left-eye and right-eye image data matched by the matching unit in correspondence with the arrangement of the left-eye and right-eye pixels of the display unit.

18. A stereoscopic image display device comprising:

a display unit including a plurality of pixels, the pixels being adapted to be arranged into left-eye pixels and right-eye pixels that are alternately arranged in one direction in accordance with a spatial orientation of the display unit; and

a data converter adapted to receive image data and to convert the image data into stereoscopic image data including left-eye image data and right-eye image data, the data converter including a memory adapted to be arranged into a left-eye image area for storing the left-eye image data corresponding to the left-eye pixels and a right-eye image area for storing the right-eye image data corresponding to the right-eye pixels,

wherein the left-eye image area and the right-eye image area of the memory are arranged according to the spatial orientation of the display unit.

19. The stereoscopic image display device of claim 18, further comprising means for directing light from the left-eye pixels toward a left eye of a user and for directing light from the right-eye pixels toward a right eye of the user.

20. The stereoscopic image display device of claim 18, wherein the data converter converts the image data into the stereoscopic image data when it receives a stereoscopic image activation signal.