High-resolution field sequential autostereoscopic display

• US 7,646,537 B2
• Filed: 01/03/2007
• Issued: 01/12/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/03/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Shestak, Sergey
• Primary Examiner(s): FINEMAN, LEE A
• Application Number:
  US11/648,669
• Publication Number:
  US 20070153380A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,105 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 359/465
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 30/27 involving lenticular arrays
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/305 using lenticular lenses, e.g. arrangements of cylindrical lenses
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/312 the parallax barriers being placed behind the display panel, e.g. between backlight and spatial light modulator [SLM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/32 using arrays of controllable light sources; using moving apertures or moving light sources
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/354 for displaying sequentially
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/359 Switching between monoscopic and stereoscopic modes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/398 Synchronisation thereof; Control thereof

Abstract

Provided is a high-resolution field sequential autostereoscopic display. The display includes a display panel including display elements which display images, a lenticular array receiving a signal from the display panel and outputting a directional signal to be viewed with both eyes of a viewer, an anisotropic element arranged parallel to the lenticular array and outputting from the lenticular array a phase-alternated signal, a polarization switch switching the output phase of the anisotropic element according to an image refresh rate of the display panel, and a polarizer outputting a signal with a predetermined phase among phases of an output signal of the polarization switch. The autostereoscopic display provides full resolution stereoscopic images viewable without eyeglasses. Conventional low cost TN LCD panels can be applied to the autostereoscopic display without significant increase of flickering or crosstalk between the left and right images.

Claims

1. A high-resolution field sequential autostereoscopic display comprising:

a display panel comprising display elements which display images;

a lenticular array which receives a signal from the display panel and outputs a directional signal for both eyes of a viewer;

an anisotropic element which receives the directional signal and outputs a phase-alternated signal;

a polarization switch which switches phase of the phase-altered signal according to an image refresh rate of the display panel; and

a polarizer which receives an output signal of the polarization switch and outputs a signal with a set phase;

wherein the anisotropic element comprises a microretarder plate, and

the microretarder plate comprises stripe regions of an equal width and the microretarder plate has alternating half-wave retardance and zero retardance.

2. The display of claim 1, wherein the anisotropic element is arranged parallel to the lenticular array.

3. The display of claim 1, wherein the display panel is a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel having a fast response time, and the display panel further comprises:

a backlight unit; and

a first polarizer which passes a beam with a certain phase from among beams output from the display elements of the LCD panel,

wherein the polarizer corresponds to a second polarizer.

4. The display of claim 3, wherein the first and second polarizers are parallel or cross perpendicular to each other.

5. The display of claim 1, wherein the polarization switch inverts an output phase of the microretarder plate.

6. The display of claim 1, wherein the lenticular array is arranged parallel to lines of the display elements of the display panel and the lenticular array comprises lenticular lenses which cover two display elements in one line.

7. The display of claim 1, wherein the width of the stripe regions of the microretarder plate corresponds to half width of the lenticular lenses.

8. The display of claim 1, further comprising a display controller which provides an image signal to the display panel.

9. The display of claim 8, wherein a refresh rate of the display controller is at least twice as high as is necessary to avoid image flickering in the display panel.

10. The display of claim 9, further comprising a polarization switch controller which controls switching of the polarization switch.

11. The display of claim 10, wherein the polarization switch controller switches the polarization switch at half the refresh rate provided by the display controller.