BARRIER PANEL, AND 3D IMAGE DISPLAY DEVICE AND METHOD USING THE SAME

• US 20130082921A1
• Filed: 09/14/2012
• Published: 04/04/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., Ltd. (Samsung Group)
• Original Assignee: Soon Seok Kang
• Inventors: KANG, Soon Seok
• Application Number:
  US13/619,864
• Publication Number:
  US 20130082921A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/156
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 30/27 involving lenticular arrays
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 30/31 involving active parallax barriers involving directional light or back-light sources G02B30/33
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/315 the parallax barriers being time-variant
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/366 using viewer tracking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/371 for tracking viewers with different interocular distances; for tracking rotational head movements around the vertical axis
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/383 for tracking with gaze detection, i.e. detecting the lines of sight of the viewer's eyes

Abstract

A barrier panel, and a 3D image display device and method are provided. The barrier panel is disposed corresponding to an image panel including a plurality of pixels and is configured such that M×N barrier regions of the barrier panel are formed at each pixel of the image panel. The brightness of each barrier region is adjusted to display a 3D image from the image panel.

Claims

1. A barrier panel, characterized in that the barrier panel is disposed corresponding to an image panel including a plurality of pixels and is configured so that M×

N barrier regions per pixel of the image panel are formed, wherein the brightness of each barrier region is respectively adjusted for a 3D image to be displayed from the image panel.

2. The barrier panel according to claim 1, wherein the brightness of each barrier region is controlled to have an on level, an off level, and at least one middle brightness level between the on level and the off level.

3. The barrier panel according to claim 1, wherein the number (M) of rows and the number (N) of columns in the M×

N barrier regions are respectively equal to or greater than 1.

4. The barrier panel according to claim 3, wherein the number (N) of the columns in the M×

N barrier regions is equal to or greater than 2.

5. A 3D image display device, which comprises:

an image panel configured to include a plurality of pixels and display an image for 3D image;

a barrier panel disposed in a front or rear side of the image panel and configured to include M×

N barrier regions per pixel of the image panel, wherein brightness is adjusted by each barrier region; and

a control unit configured to adjust the brightness of each barrier region so that the 3D image is displayed from the image panel.

6. The 3D image display device according to claim 5, wherein the barrier panel is controlled by the control unit to have an on level, an off level, and at least one middle level, such that the brightness of each barrier region is adjusted in at least three levels.

7. The 3D image display device according to claim 5, wherein the number (M) of rows and the number (N) of columns in the M×

N barrier regions are respectively equal to or greater than 1.

8. The 3D image display device according to claim 7, wherein the number (M) of the rows is equal to or greater than 1, and the number (N) of the columns is equal to or greater than 2.

9. The 3D image display device according to claim 5, which further comprises a tracking system configured to acquire an image of an observer region and extract observation position information of the observer,

wherein the control unit is configured to adjust the brightness of each barrier region of the barrier panel according to the observation position information so that the 3D image of the image panel is exposed to the observation position of the observer.

10. The 3D image display device according to claim 9, wherein:

the tracking system comprises;

a camera module configured to acquire the image of the observer region; and

a tracking unit configured to calculate a position(s) and distance(s) of the observer'"'"'s two eyes as the observation position information by using the acquired image, and

the control unit is configured to acquire a control value for controlling the brightness of each barrier region from the position and distance information of the observer'"'"'s two eyes and adjust the brightness of each barrier region according to the acquired control value.

11. A 3D image display method, characterized in that a 3D image is displayed from an image panel by adjusting brightness of M×

N barrier regions formed in a barrier panel, based on position information of an observer, wherein the barrier panel is disposed corresponding to the image panel including a plurality of pixels so that the M×

N barrier regions per pixel of the image panel are formed.

12. The 3D image display method according to claim 11, which comprises:

performing a position tracking step of acquiring an image of an observer region and extracting observation position information of the observer; and

performing a barrier controlling step of controlling that the 3D image of the image panel is displayed to the observer, by adjusting the brightness of each barrier region according to the observation position information, wherein the barrier panel is disposed corresponding to a front or rear side of the image panel.

13. The 3D image display method according to claim 12, wherein, in the barrier controlling step, the brightness of each barrier region is controlled to have an on level, an off level, and at least one middle level, such that the brightness of each barrier region is adjusted in at least three levels.

14. The 3D image display method according to claim 12, wherein:

the position tracking step comprises;

acquiring the image of the observer region; and

acquiring a position(s) and distance(s) of the observer'"'"'s two eyes as the observation position information by using the acquired image, and

the barrier controlling step comprises;

acquiring a control value for controlling the brightness of each barrier region from the position and distance information of the observer'"'"'s two eyes; and

adjusting the brightness of each barrier region according to the control value so that the 3D image of the image panel is exposed to the observer'"'"'s two eyes.

15. The 3D image display method according to claim 11, wherein the barrier panel is configured to form M×

N barrier regions per one pixel of the image panel, in which the number (M) of rows and the number (N) of columns in the M×

N barrier regions are respectively equal to or greater than 1.