STEREOSCOPIC-IMAGE DISPLAY APPARATUS

• US 20090244682A1
• Filed: 03/17/2009
• Published: 10/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Taira, Kazuki, Saishu, Tatsuo, Kashiwagi, Masako, Takagi, Ayako
• Granted Patent: US 7,830,579 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 359/246
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/305 using lenticular lenses, e.g. arrangements of cylindrical lenses
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/307 using fly-eye lenses, e.g. arrangements of circular lenses

Abstract

Mediums that are arranged opposite to an elemental-image display unit, that form two lens arrays having different principal planes together with substrates, and that switches a polarization direction of incident light corresponding to applied voltage, thereby making lens effect of either one of the lens arrays effective are included. By controlling the polarization direction synchronizing with a display timing of images to be displayed on the elemental-image display unit, the lens array to be effective is switched at each display timing, and images having different near or far direction are alternately displayed on the elemental-image display unit.

Claims

1. A stereoscopic-image display apparatus comprising:

an elemental-image display unit that includes pixel plane on which pixels are arranged in matrix;

a polarization switching cell that is arranged opposite to the elemental-image display unit, and that switches polarization direction thereof corresponding to applied voltage;

a lens array lamination layer that includes refractive-index anisotropic mediums and substrates with two lens arrays whose principal planes are different from each other, the refractive-index anisotropic mediums making lens effect of either one of the lens arrays effective corresponding to the polarization direction switched by the polarization switching cell;

a synchronization drive unit that controls voltage to be applied to the polarization switching cell synchronizing with a display timing of images displayed on the elemental-image display unit, and that switches the lens array to be effective at each display timing; and

a display control unit that controls the elemental-image display unit to alternately display the images on near or far sides by time division multiplexing, synchronizing with the display timing, wherein

focal planes of the two lens arrays are positioned at different positions from each other near the pixel plane.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein out of the two lens arrays, the focal plane of one of the lens arrays is positioned near a front surface of the pixel plane, and the focal plane of the other lens arrays is positioned near a rear surface of the pixel plane.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the synchronization drive unit controls voltage to be applied to the polarization switching cell, synchronizing with each field that is obtained by dividing one frame of an image to be displayed on the elemental-image display unit into two, and

the display control unit alternately displays the images on the near or far sides by time division multiplexing, synchronizing with each field.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the lens array lamination layer includes

the mediums having refractive indexes different from each other with respect to two different polarization directions, and

the two substrates that sandwiches the mediums therebetween, and that are formed with lens arrays having refractive indexes substantially same as the two respective refractive indexes of the mediums.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the lens array lamination layer includes

the two mediums that respectively have refractive indexes different from each other with respect to two different polarization directions, wherein at least one of the refractive indexes is substantially same and refractive indexes to an identical polarization direction are different from each other, and

the substrates are sandwiched between the two mediums, and that have refractive index substantially same as one of refractive indexes common for the two mediums.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the lens array lamination layer includes two lens layers each of which is formed with mediums having refractive indexes different from each other with respect to two different polarization directions and the substrates in a form of a lens array serving as an interface with the medium, the lens layers being flat as a whole, and

in each of the lens layers, the respective mediums have different refractive indexes from each other with respect to an identical polarization direction, and the respective substrates have substantially same refractive indexes with refractive indexes of different polarization directions of the mediums corresponding to the lens layer thereof.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the lens array lamination layer includes

a first refractive-index-anisotropic gradient index (GRIN) lens that has refractive index distributions different from each other with respect to a polarization direction;

a second refractive-index-anisotropic GRIN lens that has refractive index distributions different from each other with respect to a polarization direction, and that the polarization direction with which the refractive index distribution is shown is different from that of the first refractive-index-anisotropic GRIN lens; and

an intermediate separation layer that is arranged between the first refractive-index-anisotropic GRIN lens and the second refractive-index-anisotropic GRIN lens.

8. A stereoscopic-image display apparatus comprising:

an elemental-image display unit that includes pixel plane on which pixels are arranged in matrix;

a first medium formed in two layers that is arranged opposite to the elemental-image display unit, the layers includes substrates with two lens arrays whose principal planes are different from each other, and the layers switches refractive index thereof corresponding to applied voltage;

a second medium having isotropy that is arranged between layers of the first medium;

a synchronization drive unit that controls voltage to be applied to the first medium synchronizing with a display timing of images displayed on the elemental-image display unit, and that switches the lens array to be effective at each display timing; and

a display control unit that controls the elemental-image display unit to alternately display the images on near or far sides by time division multiplexing, synchronizing with the display timing, wherein

focal planes of each layer of the first medium are positioned at different positions from each other near the pixel plane.