Color display system

• US 20090147154A1
• Filed: 12/05/2008
• Published: 06/11/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Olympus Corporation, Silicon Quest Kabushiki-Kaisha
• Original Assignee: Olympus Corporation, Silicon Quest Kabushiki-Kaisha
• Inventors: Endo, Taro, Arai, Kazuma, Ishii, Fusao
• Application Number:
  US12/315,756
• Publication Number:
  US 20090147154A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/750
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 26/0841 the reflecting element being moved or deformed by electrostatic means
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2310/0235 Field-sequential colour display
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/064 by time modulation of the brightness of the illumination source
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0646 Modulation of illumination source brightness and image signal correlated to each other
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/2011 by amplitude modulation
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3406 Control of illumination source illumination devices structurally associated with liquid crystal cells G02F1/1336
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/346 based on modulation of the reflection angle, e.g. micromirrors micromirrors devices per se G02B26/0833
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/3123 using pulse width modulation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/3155 for controlling the light source light source control per se H05B35/00 – H05B47/00; control of an illumination source for displays in general G09G3/3406

Abstract

An image display apparatus is disclosed in the present invention. The image display apparatus includes a light source emitting an illumination light of at least two colors comprising a first color and a second color, at least two spatial light modulators for receiving and applying an image signal for modulating the illumination light emitted from the light source; and a control circuit for controlling the light source and/or the spatial light modulators to emit the illumination lights of different colors for modulation by the SLM to generate different gray scale characteristics between lights of different colors.

Claims

1. An image display apparatus, comprising:

a light source emitting an illumination light of at least two colors comprising a first color and a second color;

at least two spatial light modulators for receiving and applying an image signal for modulating the illumination light emitted from the light source; and

a control circuit for controlling the light source and the spatial light modulators to emit the illumination lights of different colors for modulation by the SLM to generate different gray scale characteristics between lights of different colors.

2. The image display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

The control circuit controls the light source and the SLMs to control a display period for the first color different from a display period of the second color in one frame.

3. The image display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

The control circuit controls the light source and the SLMs to control a number of subfields corresponding to the first color in one frame differs from a number of subfields corresponding to a different color in the one frame.

4. The image display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

The control circuit controls the light source and the SLMs to control a timing of display by dividing one frame into a plurality of subfields for the first color, and a number of display gray scale gradations of the first color in at least one of the subfields differs from the number of display gray scale gradations in another subfield.

5. The image display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the control circuit controls the light source and the SLMs to control a timing of display by dividing one frame into a plurality of subfields for the first color, and a resolution of display gray scale gradations of the first color in at least one of the subfields differs from the resolution of display gray scale gradations in another subfield.

6. The image display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the control circuit controls the light source and the SLMs to control a timing of display by dividing one frame into a plurality of subfields for the first color, and a dynamic range of brightness of the first color in at least one of the subfields differs from the dynamic range of brightness in another subfield.

7. The image display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the control circuit controls a timing of display by dividing one display frame into a plurality of subfields for the first color, and changes an intensity of the illumination light of the first color emitted from the light source during at least one of the subfields.

8. The image display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the control circuit controls the light source for changing a light intensity of the illumination lights for at least the first color.

9. The image display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the light source is controllable to emit light pulses and the control circuit controls the light source to emit the light pluses of at least one of the different colors.

10. The image display apparatus according to claim 9, wherein:

the control circuit controls the light source to emit the light pulses and adjusting and changing at least one of a peak value, a pulse width, an emission frequency, and a number of the emission pulse.

11. The image display apparatus according to claim 9, wherein:

the control circuit controls the light source to emit the light pulses with a pulse width shorter than a minimum length of controllable modulation time of the one of the spatial light modulators to modulate the illumination lights.

12. The image display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the light source comprising a semiconductor light source.

13. The image display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the light source comprising a plurality of sub-light sources arranged as a sub-light array.

14. The image display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the control circuit further receives and applies the image signal to control the light source.

15. The image display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the spatial light modulator comprising a mirror device including a plurality of deflectable mirror elements arranged in an array for deflecting the illumination lights in a plurality of directions in accordance with the image signal.

16. The image display apparatus according to claim 15, further comprising:

a projection optical system for projecting a light beam modulated by the spatial light modulators, wherein the mirror device is controlled in accordance with the image signal to operate in an ON state for deflecting the illumination lights to the projection optical system, an OFF state for deflecting the illumination lights away from the projection optical system, or an oscillation state for oscillating between the ON state and the OFF state.

17. The image display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the control circuit further converts the image signal corresponding to pixels of the spatial light modulator into non-binary data, and applies the non-binary data to control the spatial light modulator and/or the light source.

18. An image display apparatus, comprising:

a light source emitting an illumination light of at least two colors comprising a first color and a second color;

at least two spatial light modulators for receiving and applying an image signal for modulating the illumination light emitted from the light source; and

a control circuit for controlling the light source or the spatial light modulators to emit the illumination lights of different colors for modulation by the SLM to generate different gray scale characteristics between lights of different colors.