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Uniform illumination of interactive display panel

  • US 7,515,143 B2
  • Filed: 02/28/2006
  • Issued: 04/07/2009
  • Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2006
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. A method for providing substantially uniform illumination of a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel that is located at a viewing surface of an interactive display, whereby the LCD panel is uniformly illuminated such that graphical output of the LCD panel is homogenously illuminated and visible to a user, regardless of the user'"'"'s viewing angle with respect to the viewing surface and without the effects of parallax that may otherwise cause the user to perceive darkened areas in the LCD panel when viewing the interactive display from certain angles, and for detecting objects that are in contact with or in close proximity to a user interface layer of the viewing surface of the interactive display, comprising the steps of:

  • (a) illuminating the LCD panel of the interactive display with visible light that has been emitted and diffused by an illumination system, and such that illumination of the LCD panel and of the corresponding viewing surface of the interactive display is substantially uniform when the viewing surface of the interactive display is viewed from a plurality of substantially different viewing angles, wherein the illumination system used to illuminate the LCD panel with visible light in a substantially uniform manner comprises;

    a light guide assembly that includes a visible light illuminant and a light guiding layer, wherein the light guiding layer is a physical material directly coupled to the visible light illuminant and that is configured to conduct the light emitted from the visible light illuminant;

    a diffusing layer comprising one or more light diffusing layers or collimating lenses configured to condition visible light emitted from the light guide assembly and to transmit diffused light to the LCD panel in order to effectively illuminate the LCD panel; and

    a backplane layer;

    wherein at least the physical material of the light guiding layer is interposed between the diffusing layer and the backplane layer and wherein the light guide assembly is positioned in direct physical contact with both of the backplane layer and the diffusing layer;

    wherein the visible light for illumination of the LCD panel is generated by the following;

    the visible light illuminant illuminating the light guiding layer with generated visible light;

    the backplane layer substantially reflecting portions of the generated visible light away from the backplane layer and back into the light guiding layer towards the diffusing layer; and

    the one or more light diffusing layers or collimating lenses of the diffusing layer conditioning the generated visible light, such that when the generated visible light leaves the illumination system and illuminates the LCD panel, the LCD panel is substantially uniformly illuminated;

    (b) diffusing the visible light received at the viewing surface of the interactive display with a layer of diffusing material such that an object below the viewing surface of the interactive display is at least partially obscured from view by the user; and

    (c) illuminating the viewing surface of the interactive display with non-visible light for use in detecting objects disposed in contact with or adjacent to the user interface layer of the viewing surface, wherein the viewing surface of the interactive display is composed of materials that are substantially transparent to the non-visible light such that reflected non-visible light, which has passed through the viewing surface of the interactive display and has been reflected back into the interactive display from the objects in contact with or adjacent to the user interface layer of the viewing surface, is detected.

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