Rear projection facetted dome
First Claim
Patent Images
1. An image projection system comprising:
- a translucent screen assembly having front and rear surfaces, said screen assembly being substantially concave on said front surface, said screen assembly including a plurality of interconnected flat screen panels arranged in a dome-like configuration; and
a plurality of image projecting systems disposed on the rear of said screen assembly, each image projecting system including an image projector and fold mirrors and each for producing an image on one of said screen panels which is generally orthogonal to the rear surface of said one screen panel,each screen panel being disposed such that lines projecting orthogonally from the center of the front surface of each panel will all intersect at approximately the same point.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A multi-facetted dome imaging system (10) utilizes rear projection imaging techniques to present a moving or still image to each screen facet (12). The trapezoidal facets (12) are arranged with a series of lower facets (16), upper facets (18), and a top facet (20) generally forming a dome (11). Each facet (12) has a projector (30) disposed at its rear to project the image. Visibility of facet joints is minimized by joining the facets (12) by a pair of transparent stiffeners (42, 44) which hold the mating portions of the screen facets (12). The stiffeners (42, 44) are suspended by springs (48), which are held by a support structure (50).
61 Citations
16 Claims
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1. An image projection system comprising:
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a translucent screen assembly having front and rear surfaces, said screen assembly being substantially concave on said front surface, said screen assembly including a plurality of interconnected flat screen panels arranged in a dome-like configuration; and a plurality of image projecting systems disposed on the rear of said screen assembly, each image projecting system including an image projector and fold mirrors and each for producing an image on one of said screen panels which is generally orthogonal to the rear surface of said one screen panel, each screen panel being disposed such that lines projecting orthogonally from the center of the front surface of each panel will all intersect at approximately the same point. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A dome for an image projection system, said dome comprising:
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a translucent screen assembly having front and rear surfaces, said screen assembly being concave on front surface; said screen assembly including a plurality of interconnected screen panels, each screen panel being generally flat and disposed such that lines projecting orthogonally from the center of the front surface of each panel will all intersect at approximately the same point, wherein the shape of said screen assembly approximates a portion of a sphere; said interconnected screen panels including overlapping flange portions which protrude outward from the rear surface of said screen assembly along mating portions of said screen panels; and means for joining said screen panels, including clamping means for holding together said overlapping flange portions of adjacent screen panels. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15)
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16. A dome image projection system comprising:
- a translucent screen assembly having front and rear surfaces, said screen assembly being substantially concave on said front surface;
said screen assembly including a plurality of interconnected screen panels, each screen panel being generally flat and disposed such that lines projecting orthogonally from the center of the front surface of each panel will all intersect at approximately the same point, wherein the shape of said screen assembly approximates a portion of a sphere; said interconnected screen panels including overlapping flange portions which protrude outward from the rear surface of said screen assembly along mating portions of said screen panels; means for joining said screen panels, including clamping means for holding together said overlapping flange portions of adjacent screen panels; a plurality of image signal sources for generating video image signals; a switch matrix means for transmitting said image signals to said projectors; and frame store means connected to each projector for storing individual frames of said video signal and also transmitting said individual frames of said signals to said projectors, whereby selected ones of said projectors will transmit a still image to said screen panels.
- a translucent screen assembly having front and rear surfaces, said screen assembly being substantially concave on said front surface;
Specification